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Adelanto
Community Correctional Facility, Adelanto City, California
November 26, 2011 The Daily Press
The state has canceled its contract with the privately operated Desert
View Modified Community Correctional Facility, putting about 150 workers
out of a job. Desert View's contract termination officially takes effect
Wednesday, though prison employees told the Daily Press that The Geo Group
Inc. has been preparing to deactivate the prison at Rancho and Aster roads
since May. The 643-bed medium-security prison is shuttering its doors as
part of California’s realignment plan, which responds to federal orders to
reduce state prison overcrowding by shifting responsibility for tens of
thousands of low-level offenders to county governments. To help deal with
the new influx of inmates under local supervision, the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is encouraging counties to
enter into their own contracts with more than a dozen former CCFs. The CCFs
had generally housed inmates with sentences shorter than 18 months, parole
violators and offenders with scheduled release dates — the same types of
nonviolent, non-sexual or non-serious offenders now serving out sentences
in county jails instead of state prisons. “We hope that counties contract
with these facilities to save jobs and ease inmate housing concerns that
many counties may have,” CDCR spokeswoman Dana Toyama said. But San
Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department officials say they’re not planning
to privatize jail beds. The math just doesn’t pencil out, according to
Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Cindy Bachman. “The issue with taking
advantage of private prisons or private jail facilities has come up over
and over again throughout the years; however, it’s not something that the
county is considering,” Bachman said. “It’s too costly and there’s just not
the funding really even to consider something like that.” The California
State Association of Counties has created a document outlining potential
beds at the former CCFs, but counties statewide have been hesitant to
exercise that option. The Geo Group had operated six of the nine privately
run CCFs that lost their state contracts, according to CSAC. Five other
CCFs were run by local governments. The facilities ranged from around 100
employees to more than 600, according to Toyama.
October 11, 2011 Daily Press
State water quality control officials unnerved city leaders in January by
calling for a ban on new sewer connections in Adelanto in the name of
protecting public health. State officials had accused the city of violating
orders to bring its treatment plant into compliance, making unauthorized
wastewater discharges and exceeding its storage pond capacity. In March and
again in May, city officials managed to dodge the proposed ban — a move
they say would've halted new development, including a new housing tract by
D.R. Horton, a planned new prison facility by The Geo Group and an
expansion to the county jail. To keep the ban at bay, city officials on
Wednesday will try to convince the Lahontan Region's state water board
they've made significant progress in cleaning up their wastewater act at a
meeting in Victorville. They must prove the Adelanto Public Utilities
Authority has sufficient disposal capacity to handle current and increased
wastewater flows.
July 17, 2010 Daily Press
Some 100 city prison employees will be out of a job for at least the next
several months, since the private operator that bought the city-owned
prison for $28 million has yet to land a government contract. The employees
of the Adelanto Community Correctional Facility were officially laid off
June 4, but city officials agreed to pay them through Aug. 4, in hopes that
private prison operator GEO Group, Inc. would land a state or federal
contract and quickly rehire them. In mid-May the inmates at the 650-bed
correctional facility were transferred out, with GEO Group planning to
close it and complete renovations over the summer. Now it’s estimated the
renovations will take four to six months, Adelanto City Manager Jim Hart
said. It’s also unclear when the Florida-based operator will secure a
contract for the prison, on Rancho Road west of Highway 395. “My entire
intentions and efforts were to have it set up so that the employees would
be able to transition from city employment to GEO employment,” Hart said.
“Our hope that there wouldn’t be a gap between when they’re paid and when
they get picked up, I think, is now dwindling because it doesn’t appear
that GEO will have the renovations done in time to get opened.”
Allen
Correctional Center, Kinder, Louisiana
February
9, 2011 The Advocate
The Jindal administration is asking companies to detail how much they would
charge the state to care for inmates in Allen and Winn parishes if two
state prisons are sold to ease budget problems. Responses to the Request
For Information, or RFI, are due Friday as part of a possible move toward
selling the correctional centers. Private companies oversee Winn
Correctional Center in Atlanta, La., and Allen Correctional Center in
Kinder. Winn is managed by Corrections Corporation of America while Global
Expertise in Outsourcing, Inc. operates Allen. Selling the prisons is still
just a possibility at this point. However, a sale would force the state to
pay the new owners for the care of inmates at the medium security centers.
Some elected officials are nervous about how much the state would end up
paying. Michael DiResto, spokesman for the Division of Administration, said
Wednesday that the RFI is “for planning and information gathering
purposes.”
February 3, 2009 The Town Talk
The three men who escaped from the Allen Correctional Center in Kinder
Jan. 26 have been charged with aggravated escape and are back in the
custody of the Department of Corrections. Cecil Stratton, the last of the
three men to be apprehended, went before a judge Tuesday morning for a
brief court appearance before he was released back to the custody of
Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. The other two
escapees – Troy Hargrave and Daniel Reeder – were both charged Friday with
aggravated escape and turned over to state custody.
January 29, 2009 The Town Talk
Fatigue, cold and hunger led one of three Allen Parish prison escapees
to turn himself in Wednesday, authorities said. Law enforcement officers
have two of the three men, who escaped Monday from the Allen Correctional
Center in Kinder, in custody. Federal, state and local law enforcement
agencies say they are turning up the heat on the third escaped convict, who
remains on the loose. "We are working around the clock to locate Cecil
Stratton," Deputy U.S. Marshal Corey Britt said. "And anyone who
assists Cecil will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
Stratton -- who was serving a 25-year sentence for convictions of simple
escape, simple burglary, first-degree robbery, marijuana possession, felony
theft and flight from an officer out of St. Mary Parish -- is the only
escapee who has not been captured. Escapees Daniel Reeder and Troy Hargrave
-- both serving sentences for manslaughter convictions -- are back in
police custody.
January 27, 2009 The Advertiser
A prison guard has been booked with helping three dangerous inmates escape
from the privately run state prison in Kinder, the Allen Parish Sheriff’s
Office said Tuesday. Detective Peggy Kennedy said Jesse Jordan, 19, of
Glenmora was held without bond after being booked Monday night on three
counts of assisting escape and one of malfeasance in office. He had worked
there as a guard since May, Chief Deputy Grant Willis said. “It appears the
motivation on his part was for monetary value,” Willis said. He said Jordan
was cooperating with investigators. Jordan was employed by GEO — Global
Expertise in Outsourcing Inc., the private company that runs the prison,
Kennedy said. A call to the prison was not immediately returned. Daniel
Reeder, 24, of Shreveport, Troy Hargrave, 32, of Crowley, and Cecil
Stratton, 29, of Berwick were missing at the 6 a.m. head count, prison
officials said. They described all three as dangerous and said Reeder and
Hargrave were serving time for manslaughter. Three rows of razor wire on
the ground in front of the fence had been cut through, but neither the
fence nor the razor wire on top of it had been cut, Willis said. “We can’t
say for certain that’s the way they got out, or whether it was a decoy,” he
said.
January 27, 2009 The Town Talk
Three inmates -- two of whom were serving time for manslaughter -- escaped
from a correctional center in Kinder sometime before 6 a.m. Monday, prison
officials reported. Authorities from the Allen Correctional Center in
Kinder said the three men should be considered dangerous. Officials are
asking anyone with information or anyone who sees the escapees to contact
their local authorities or call 911. The three men were discovered missing
when the facility conducted its 6 a.m. count. The escapees were identified
as: Daniel Reeder, a 24-year-old white man, 5 feet, 6 inches tall and 140
pounds with brown hair. He was serving a 30-year sentence for a
manslaughter conviction in Caddo Parish. Troy Hargrave, a 32-year-old white
man, 5 feet, 9 inches tall and 203 pounds with blond hair. He was serving a
40-year sentence for a manslaughter conviction in Calcasieu Parish. Cecil
Stratton, a 29-year-old white man, 6 feet, 1 inch tall and 185 pounds with
balding brown hair. He was serving a 25-year sentence for convictions of
simple escape, simple burglary, first-degree robbery, marijuana possession,
felony theft and flight from an officer out of St. Mary Parish. In addition
to the three offenders, the facility is listing Sidonia Marie Stratton of
Morgan City as a person of interest in the incident. She is the sister of
Cecil Stratton and is thought to be driving a beige 1998 Mercury Sable with
license plate OZK138. The dress code for offenders at Allen Correctional
Center is navy blue scrubs with a white undershirt or blue jeans, a
blue-jean button-up shirt or gray sweatshirt, but it is not confirmed what
the men were wearing when they escaped. Security and K-9 teams from the
correctional center are working with local law enforcement in Allen Parish
and surrounding parishes to track down the three escaped inmates. The local
community has been notified of the escape, as is standard in these
situations, officials said. Allen Parish Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy
Grant Willis said the Sheriff's Office is assisting in the search efforts.
According to a release from the facility, Hargrave may have family in the
Jennings, Kinder and Lake Arthur areas. Jennifer Allemand, programs manager
for the GEO Group facility, said the three men were state Department of
Corrections inmates who were housed in the medium-custody private prison.
March 15, 2007 KPLC TV
It was between two and three in the afternoon Wednesday when Brian Scott
escaped from the Allen Correctional Center by scaling the fence. Scott is
convicted of felony theft and as a fugitive was considered dangerous. The
prison is a medium security state facility but is operated by a private
company, the Geo Group. Warden Terry Terrell says, with the help of
numerous law enforcement agencies, procedures were put in effect to
identify the missing inmate and get a manhunt underway to capture him.
"I don't know that you could get out of a situation any better than
what we did. The inmate was apprehended. Neither he nor anyone in law
enforcement was injured so we are very thankful for that. " In such
cases they notify those who live near the prison, that is if they've signed
up to be notified when there's an escape. "About once a year and
sometimes more frequently we put out flyers to all the local residents that
we're aware of and ask them if they do wish to be contacted in a similar
circumstance to simply fill out the form and name a number so we can put
them on the calling list," says Terrell. But people who live near the
prison such as in this area called Hickory Flat say they need to do a
better job of alerting the public when an inmate escapes. Explains Virgil
Richard, "We're taxpayers. Why can't they burn a little gas and let us
know something. They were supposed to have had a horn, an alarm system and
we don't have that." Neighbor Lloyd Miles agrees. "We've got some
elderly people here and some handicapped people here by themselves and I'm
mostly concerned about them. And we got kids."
October 23, 2002
Few concerned citizens ventured out to Alexandria
City Hall Tuesday evening to speak out on the escape and fatal shooting of
an HIV-positive state inmate. But those who attended were vocal in their questions
and suggestions for the Department of Corrections and the Allen
Correctional Center in Kinder. The committee did not make any
recommendations concerning the escape or policies of the Department of
Corrections or Wackenhut Corp., which owns Allen Correctional Center in
Kinder. Cotton, 43, of Houma, escaped Aug. 21 from his room at the
hospital. Thirty-eight hours later, he was shot while hiding underneath a
home. Cotton snatched a .357-caliber handgun from the lone female guard
assigned to him when she bent down to unshackle him so he could use the
restroom, police said. (Daily Town Talk)
Alutiiq Security
and Technology, Alaska
December 10, 2004 News
& Observer
We
commend your excellent Nov. 30 editorial and the fine investigative report
on Nov. 28 on the award of no-bid deals to Alaska Native Corporations such
as Alutiiq Security and Technology. We endorse your call for urgent
scrutiny of this system and the back-door access it affords major defense
contractors like Wackenhut Corp. to gain lucrative federal work by teaming
with Alutiiq as a subcontractor. Your reporters quoted an Army spokesman
who said that Alutiiq, with little experience in security, would have been
unlikely to win the contract on its own. But it gets even worse: Wackenhut
was a failed bidder in the second phase of contracts which were
competitively awarded. Only in this perverse "system within a
system" can two losers become a winner. If companies like Wackenhut
can skirt competitive bidding processes, taxpayers can have little confidence
that we are getting value for money -- in this case up to half a billion
dollars Bill Ragen Deputy Director, Building Services Division, Service
Employees International Union Washington.
Arizona
Department of Corrections
March 25, 2013 azcapitoltimes.com
A trial is set for next month in
a sexual harassment lawsuit pitting the state against one of its private
prison contractors in a battle that promises to shine a harsh light on
private prisons and the Arizona Department of Corrections. The Attorney
General’s Civil Rights Division alleges that male workers with GEO Group,
which operates three prisons for the state, sexually harassed female
co-workers for several years while supervisors and managers for the company
looked the other way. Although the state is the plaintiff in the case, the
lawsuit has uncovered information that a civil rights attorney, a lawmaker
and critics of the Department of Corrections say is damning to the
Department of Corrections. The allegations in the lawsuit took place before
Charles Ryan became director of DOC, but the critics say problems have
continued under his leadership. “It’s not just private prisons,” said House
Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, a steadfast opponent of private
prisons. “There’s blatant mismanagement in our public prisons, too.”
Campbell said he is working with community groups to call for Ryan’s firing
as high-profile problems mount. In recent weeks, Ryan disclosed that
employees are arrested at a rate of 11 per month, mostly for drunken driving
and domestic violence. A federal judge gave class status to 33,000
prisoners and all future prisoners in a lawsuit alleging substandard health
care. And a local television station aired video of inmate Tony Lester’s
suicide in which correctional officers stood around the bleeding man
without providing emergency care.
After Ryan took over in 2009,
the agency was rocked when a July 30, 2010, escape from a Kingman private
prison led to the deaths of an Oklahoma couple. The company that won the
$349 million contract to provide health care for prisoners parted ways with
the state after just 6 months. Gov. Jan Brewer’s spokesman, Matt Benson,
said she still stands behind Ryan. “He performs a very difficult job under
difficult circumstances,” Benson said. Prisoner advocate Donna Hamm, of
Middle Ground Prison Reform, also defended Ryan, saying Arizona’s prison
system has been dysfunctional for the 30 years she has been an advocate and
Ryan is more responsive to problems than the other five directors over that
time. “He does not ignore or make excuses,” Hamm said. Bill Lamoreaux, a
department spokesman, said Ryan was out of town and unavailable for
comment. Lamoreaux also said the department has been advised by lawyers not
to discuss pending litigation. History of mistreatment: Court documents in
the GEO suit paint a picture of female correctional officers having to deal
with raunchy statements directed at them and fondling by their male
co-workers. Attorney Stephen Montoya, whose client, Alice Hancock, is a
former GEO correctional officer and an intervener in the case, said the
sexual harassment at GEO is an extension of the DOC culture. In February
2012, DOC agreed to pay a former female officer $182,000 to settle a sexual
harassment complaint brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. Montoya has
won jury awards of $200,000 and $600,000 for women who used to work for
DOC, and he said many of the correctional officers with GEO worked
previously for the department. The $600,000 award was reduced to $300,000
due to limitations on compensatory damages. In one of the cases, U.S.
District Court Judge Frederick Martone said DOC was reckless in its
management by “allowing bestial people to run unsupervised throughout the
process and employing ineffective and incompetent supervisory staff that
knew about things and failed to do anything about it in a timely way.”
Lamoreaux pointed out, however, that the allegations in the GEO suit and
the actions against DOC occurred before Ryan took over as an appointee of
Brewer in January 2009. Dora Schriro, appointed by Democratic Gov. Janet
Napolitano, was in charge. Part of the DOJ settlement required DOC to
improve its sexual harassment policies, and Ryan has said in written
statements that the bad behavior wouldn’t be tolerated under his watch.
Hamm said the recent problems plaguing DOC have existed under every
administration she has seen in 30 years, but they are just getting more
exposure today. “Those problems are not unique to Charles Ryan’s
administration,” Hamm said. However, Montoya said Ryan tolerates women
being “treated like trash,” and he points to the promotion of Carson
McWilliams as proof. McWilliams was the warden of the prison where
Montoya’s client, Michelle Barfield, was sexually harassed. Ryan promoted
McWilliams in April 2011 to be the department’s Northern Regional
operations director a little more than a year after the $600,000 verdict.
“In the government workplace, if there is pervasive illegality, it’s
because it is tolerated from the top to the bottom,” Montoya said. A
pattern of problems: The lawsuit is a compilation of suits filed by the
Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division, the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission and Montoya, and when the witnesses begin taking the stand on
April 9, their testimony is sure to become fodder for opponents of private
prisons. Probably the harshest critic of private prisons is the American
Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that generally advocates
for the rights of prisoners. Caroline Isaacs, Friends’ executive director
in Arizona, said the lawsuit is one more damning piece of information that
confirms there is a consistent pattern of problems with private prisons.
Isaacs has spent thousands of hours documenting misconduct in private
prisons. “These problems are found in all for-profit prisons, and you
simply can’t dismiss them as ‘bad apples,’” Isaacs said. The lawsuit
alleges that male workers regularly grabbed their female co-workers’
genitals and breasts and made obscene gestures toward them. The suit says
that in some instances, males exposed themselves to the women. Montoya said
the prisoners showed more respect to the women than the male officers did.
GEO is trying to keep out of the trial evidence that one of the most
prolific alleged perpetrators was fired twice by other private prisons,
once while he was being investigated for sexual harassment before GEO hired
him in 2007. Sherri Haahr, a GEO human resources official, testified in
deposition that the company didn’t know about Robert Kroen’s background because
the contract with DOC doesn’t require employment reference checks. Haahr
testified that DOC does criminal background checks itself and approves
anyone who is hired by GEO. GEO lawyers argue that Kroen’s employment
history isn’t relevant because the decision to hire him was DOC’s. Pablo
Paez, a GEO spokesman, declined comment. “We cannot comment on litigation
related matters. We can however confirm that our company vigorously
disagrees with these allegations and intends to defend its position,” Paez
said. And while DOC has onsite monitors at its private prisons, their job
is to make sure the company maintains appropriate staffing levels of
“qualified personnel” required by contract, Lamoreaux said. He said the
contractors are responsible for their own human resource systems. Campbell,
the state representative who regularly introduces legislation to regulate
private prisons more, said he isn’t surprised there are no routine
reference checks in hiring. “At the end of the day, the buck stops at DOC,”
Campbell said.
May 2, 2004
Groups of Arizona prisoners transferred to a
Texas private prison staged fights and hunger strikes to either improve
conditions or earn transfers back to Arizona. The incident report
from Wackenhut Corp.'s Pecos, Texas, prison officials recommends eight
inmates be sent back to Arizona because they are security problems.
The report details a fight between two groups of prisoners, with at least
14 taking part in the late-night April 10 fight. The subsequent
investigation showed that some inmates from each group were conspiring to
get back to Arizona. The decision last year by the Arizona
Legislature to ship about 2,000 inmates to out-of-state prisons angered
some inmate family members, mainly because contact with inmates will be limited
by the financial ability to travel to either Texas or another prison in
Oklahoma. (Arizona Daily Star)
Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, Arthur Gorrie,
Queensland
March 11, 2010 ABC
Queensland's Indigenous community will march on State Parliament today,
enraged over the circumstances surrounding a recent death in custody. An
18-year-old prisoner died late last month and there are claims Brisbane
jail staff denied him adequate medical treatment even though he was too
sick to walk. Today's march coincides with the reopened inquest into the
controversial Palm Island death in custody. Prison chaplain Reverend Alex
Gator says inmates at the Arthur Gorrie correctional centre called her with
news of the latest tragedy last month. "This young youth, only 18 years
of age, he had spent five weeks on remand and then the five weeks he was at
Arthur Gorrie he became ill, so he was ill for six days," she said.
"The first time he'd gone to the medical centre he was given Panadol,
other times he'd gone he was told that there was nothing wrong with him. So
he was repeatedly denied medical assistance. "Towards the end the boys
had to carry him, the Murri boys in his unit had to carry him, because he
could hardly walk. "They nearly caused a riot, the Murri boys. They
yelled out to the officer, 'get him to the hospital' because something was
wrong with him. "And one officer made the comment, 'Well if he can go
to the toilet, there's nothing wrong with him'." Reverend Gator says
the teenager was ultimately rushed to hospital and put on life support. But
he died a few days later on February 20. "I conducted a memorial
service. The boys said they only saw him a couple of weeks ago talking,
laughing, joking and next thing they hear this young man is dead," she
said. Reverend Gator says the teenager should never have been put in jail
because he had a serious pre-existing medical condition. "That is the
question we're asking - why? Why was he in prison, not in hospital? I mean
he wasn't a terrorist, a paedophile, rapist or a murderer," she said.
"He was in there for a misdemeanour. And as far as I'm concerned, it's
just racial discrimination towards Aboriginal people. This is about racial
hatred attitudes towards Aboriginal people. "They're deliberately
turned away and told there's nothing wrong with them. And Corrective
Services have failed in their duty of care to provide a service to this
young man." 'Could have been avoided' -- Brisbane Indigenous community
leader Sam Watson says news of the death in custody has spread like wildfire.
"We are very concerned about this because this appears to be yet
another Aboriginal death in custody that could have been avoided, that
should have been avoided," he said. Queensland Corrective Services has
issued a written statement saying "there are no suspicious
causes" in the teenager's death. The statement adds that all deaths in
custody are referred to the coroner and to the chief inspector of prisons
for investigation. But Mr Watson says the Indigenous community is calling
on the Queensland Government to instigate a full coronial inquest.
"There have to be a lot of questions answered. We want to get to the
bottom of this and we want to do it very, very quickly," he said.
June 1, 2008 Courier Mail
A CAREER criminal on remand for assault was accidentally released from a
privately run Brisbane jail last week. Three prison staff have been
suspended over the security bungle at the Arthur Gorrie correctional centre
at Wacol in Brisbane's west. Prison sources said the breach occurred when
staff were processing the inmate for release into police custody. Police
had been granted a court order to remove the inmate on Tuesday in relation
to a break-and-enter investigation. However, prison staff discharged the
inmate for release and gave him his property. Police arrived to collect him
from a high-security area at the rear of the jail, which is used for
transferring inmates, but they were directed to the reception area.
Queensland Corrective Services denied the man was wrongfully discharged,
saying the jail's operator, the GEO Group Australia, had reported there had
been a "breach of internal security procedures". She said at no
time was the inmate, who has since been returned to the jail, not in prison
or police custody. She confirmed jail management suspended three staff as a
result of an internal report on the incident and an investigation was under
way. State Opposition prisons spokesman Vaughan Johnson demanded a full
investigation into the incident, saying the jail had mismanaged the
custodial process.
January 19, 2008 ABC
Prison guards who walked off the job at Queensland's biggest remand
centre yesterday are now back at work. Brisbane's Arthur Gorrie
Correctional Centre had been locked down since Friday afternoon, with only
a skeleton management team running the centre and police patrolling the
perimetre. The guards began their strike after being ordered to stop
handcuffing prisonners with their hands behind their backs. The remand
facility operators, Geo, had requested a hearing before the Industrial
Relations Commission this morning, but Geo spokesman Pierre Langford says
Geo and the Miscellaneous Workers Union representing the guards will
instead continue their talks on Monday. "I suppose I would like to say
on behalf of Geo Group Australia that we appreciate the assistance that the
commission has provided us with today," he said. "At this point
in time the parties have agreed to get back together early next week, to
have further discussions and our employees have returned to work today, so
we're pleased with that."
October 25, 2006 Townsville Bulletin
A TENDER for the state's two privately-run prisons is not a criticism of
the current operators, the Queensland Government said today. Corrective
Services Minister Judy Spence said new tenders to run Borallon and Arthur
Gorrie correctional centres, valued at a total of $200 million, would
ensure taxpayers got value for money. "It is not about the performance
of the current operators,'' Ms Spence said. The Arthur Gorrie jail has been
under fire in recent years over a number of deaths in custody, security
failures and assaults on prisoners by staff. Borallon made headlines four
years ago when a report showed it had the highest rate of illicit drug use
in the state, with almost one in three prisoners using drugs. Four companies
will be invited to tender: GEO Group Australia Pty Ltd, GSL Australia Pty
Ltd, Management and Training Corporation Pty Ltd and Serco Australia Pty
Ltd. GEO currently operates Arthur Gorrie, and Management and Training
Corporation operates Borallon. Ms Spence said the contracts would be for
five years, with an option for Queensland Corrective Services to extend
them for a further five years. The tenders will be evaluated in the first
half of next year with new contracts to start on January 1, 2008. An
independent probity auditor has been contracted to oversee the entire
project.
November 30, 2005 Australian
THE bonus and penalty system on which private prisons in Australia are run
has been accused of encouraging operators to cover up riots and drug abuse
by prisoners. Queensland Prison Officers Association secretary Brian Newman
yesterday accused private prison operators of covering up incidents in
their facilities that could threaten performance bonuses worth up to
$500,000 a year. "Nine years ago I worked at Arthur Gorrie
(Correctional Centre at Wacol, west of Brisbane) and I would make drug
finds but the drugs would be flushed down the toilet in front of me by
senior officials," Mr Newman said. "You were powerless to do
anything about it. "Anecdotal evidence given to me is that it still
goes on today. There is no incentive for privately run prisons to report
incidents." The management contract of Arthur Gorrie operator, the GEO
Group, formerly known as Australasian Correctional Management, with the Queensland
Government provides a $500,000 performance bonus to prevent crime, drug
abuse and riots. The Arthur Gorrie contract, a copy of which has been
obtained by The Australian, says the $500,000 bonus will be reduced by
$100,000 for each escape, "loss of control (riot)" or death in
custody. Penalties of $25,000 are also imposed for a string of problems
such as discharging a prisoner in error, assaults by prisoners resulting in
injury or a case of self-harm or attempted suicide. Other incidents that
incur the $25,000 penalty include serious industrial injuries, deliberately
lit fires, major security breaches such as attempted escapes or
hostage-taking and loss of high-risk restricted articles. If random urine
tests disclose that drug use in the prison is higher than 9 per cent and
does not reduce towards the target of 4per cent, the penalty applicable is
also $25,000. The bonuses and penalty provisions are the same for the
contracts the GEO Group, the Australian subsidiary of the Miami-based
Wackenhut, has with the Victorian and NSW governments to run the Melbourne
Custody Centre and the Fulham and Junee prisons. Mr Newman said his
association had asked the Queensland Government to conduct an inquiry into
allegations by staff at Arthur Gorrie that "incidents" had been
covered up "to avoid financial penalty to breach of contract".
GEO Group is paid almost $800 a week for each of the 710 prisoners housed
at Arthur Gorrie. A spokesman for Queensland Corrective Services Minister
Judy Spence yesterday confirmed that contracts for privately run prisons
did provide for performance bonuses. "However, we are not able to
confirm amounts or any details on payments or deductions regarding the
bonuses as these matters are commercial in confidence," he said. Col Kelaher,
GEO Group executive manager of operations, said he could not comment on the
contract with the Government.
January 26, 2005 South-West News
WORKERS at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre at Wacol staged a strike
from noon Friday to 5pm on Saturday over a wages and conditions dispute.
The Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union accused correctional centre
owners GEO Group of not meeting its obligations under the Queensland
Industrial Relations Act. Union prisons organiser David Pullen said the
centre's 700 prisoners were locked down in cells during the strike. GEO
group managing director Pieter Bezuidenhout said the action ended after an
IRC officer recommended a return to work.
December 24, 2004 Courier Mail
QUEENSLAND'S prisons are overcrowded and urgently require more funding
to stop the growing number of inmate deaths, a report by a state coroner
has found. The findings came at
the end of an inquiry into the suicide of prisoner William Mark Bailey in
November 2002 at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre. Deputy state
coroner Christine Clements found no one else was responsible for Bailey's
death and recommended no further action. Arthur Gorrie, a
remand and reception centre that temporarily holds prisoners awaiting court
hearings, can hold up to 800 people. It is managed by GEO Group Australia
but owned by the Queensland Corrective Services department. "Evidence
was given that there are 250 cells at Arthur Gorrie but at the time of the
inquest there were 750 prisoners being held at the facility," Ms
Clements said.
Auckland Central Remand Prison
September
28, 2009 NZCity
Further doubt is being cast on the claimed efficiency of privately run
prisons. The Green Party's pointing to evidence presented during Selected
Committee hearings on private prisons legislation about the historical cost
of the Auckland Remand Prison when it was in private hands. The Greens say
it shows the cost per prisoner was over $57 thousand a year compared to
around $50 thousand in the public system. The party says it proves there
can be no justification for claims private prisons are cheaper than public
ones. Meanwhile, special monitors are being proposed as part of the
oversight for privately run prisons. Parliament's Law and Order Select
Committee has reported back on the private prisons bill and is recommending
additional checks and balances be put in place. It advises special monitors
employed by the Department of Corrections be given free and unfettered
access to the facilities to ensure proper standards are met. The Committee
also recommends all private prison operators be required to comply with
instructions from the Chief Executive of the Corrections Department.
July 31, 2009 Radio New Zealand
ACT MP David Garrett says he does not believe he intimidated two
submitters to Parliament's law and order select committee, as alleged by
the Labour Party. Labour Party MP Clayton Cosgrove believes Mr Garrett
breached parliamentary privilege when he told two prison guards their
submission would stop them from getting a job in a privately run prison. He
says Mr Garrett's behaviour was shameful, and brought the select committee
process into disrepute. Mr Cosgrove says the guards had experience working
under private prison management and were providing expert opinions.
Corrections Minister Judith Collins has also weighed in, saying the
comments were totally inappropriate. But Mr Garrett says it was never his
intention to intimidate, and he is looking forward to responding to
Labour's complaint. Speaker of the House Lockwood Smith will decide whether
to refer the matter to Parliament's privileges committee.
July 29, 2009 3 News
An MP from government confidence and supply party ACT today told prison
officers who spoke out against private prisons that they had hurt their
future job prospects. David Garrett's remark came hot on the heals of
accusations yesterday that the Government attempted to intimidate and
silence people. Those claims were sparked by Social Development Minister
Paula Bennett releasing benefit details of two women who criticised a
government decision to cut a training allowance. Today a group of prison
officers, representing 30 officers who had previously worked for a
privately run prison, made a submission to Parliament's law and order
select committee which is considering legislation to enable private
operators to run prisons. After Bart Birch, Uaea Leavasa and Satish Prasad
criticised how Auckland Central Remand Prison was run under private
contractor GEO Ltd between 2000 and 2005, Mr Garrett weighed in. "You
say that you don't want to go back to working in this environment - to the
private (sector). You'd be aware that given your submission here, you
wouldn't get offered a job anyway, would you?" Other MPs on the
committee were visibly disturbed by the remark and National's Shane Ardern
was quick to reassure the men they should feel free to speak their minds
before a committee of Parliament. "Can I say from my own party you can
sit here without fear or favour," he said. Acting chairman on the
committee Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove added his support for Mr Ardern's
remark. Corrections Association of New Zealand president Beven Hanlon told
NZPA he thought the remark out of line. The union already had concerns
about Mr Garrett's involvement in the Sensible Sentencing Trust which
advocates for tougher and longer sentencing. "All the things that
private prisons advocate for," he said. "For him to then threaten
staff over (their) future employment is a great concern." Mr Cosgrove
described the comment as "Bennett mark two". "(People)
should be able to come to a select committee without fear or favour to give
their view." Mr Garrett's tone had been badgering and he carried that
style on when other submitters made presentations, Mr Cosgrove said. "I
think he needs to learn that we live in a democracy and in a democracy ...
you're allowed to have a view and we should (give) people the respect of
actually listening. "But he's behaving like a bully and I guess it is
Paula Bennett mark two." Mr Garrett stood by his comment when
questioned by media. "They were quite clearly extremely negative about
the private prison managing company. It would seem to be most unlikely they
would get a job with that company." He agreed the select committee
process should be open and MPs should not stymie free exchange but did not
think he had affected that. "They have the right to say whatever they
like ... I didn't see I was stymying free debate at all." Asked why he
felt compelled to talk about the officers' job prospects rather than ask
questions about the bill, Mr Garrett said their motives were relevant and
he had no regrets. "It was certainly no attempt to stifle the
debate." Mr Garrett walked away when NZPA asked him to comment on the
union view it was a threatening remark. In their submission, the officers
said they had worked both for GEO and the Corrections Department. Under
private management the focus was on protecting the company's reputation.
They said under GEO staff were told to resign rather than have negligence
revealed, an incident where a woman allegedly helped a relative escape was
not investigated, and systems were not robust in areas like drug control
and suicide. Another complaint was that GEO paid less for local workers and
used contractors from Australia to fill gaps who were on salaries as much
as $30,000 higher. Those contractors appeared unaware of cultural issues
for Maori and Pacific inmates. Other casual workers were used and had lower
levels of training and experience than full time staff who were not
familiar with the prison, which raised risk levels.
July 1, 2009 The National Business Review
The State should be responsible for prisoners not private companies, the
Human Rights Commission said today. Chief Human Rights Commissioner Rosslyn
Noonan appeared before Parliament's law and order select committee which is
considering the Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons Amendment)
Bill. Senior managers from private prison company GEO Group were present
and heard groups condemn their business. The firm ran Auckland Central
Remand Prison (ACRP) for five years until Labour won the 1999 election and
refused to renew its contract. Ms Noonan said protecting the rights of
detainees was a key function of government and should not be contracted
out. "The management of prisons involves the exercise of some of the
state's most coercive powers against individuals," the commission's
submission said. "There should be direct accountability for the
exercise of such powers. A government department directly accountable to a
minister provides the clearest accountability." If the bill was to go
ahead the commission wanted its monitoring measures beefed up.
Recommendations included protecting staff from being sacked if they gave
information to monitors and permitting prisoners to complain directly to
monitors. Also prisons should be required to comply with international
conventions around torture. Ms Noonan said early intervention would make
the biggest difference. She called for willingness across parties not to make
political capital out of the issue. Catholic organisation Caritas was
concerned problems in the United States' private prisons -- such as
beatings, rapes, suicides and other deaths in custody -- would be repeated
here. It noted that in the US the same people running private prisons were
also involved in lobbying government for longer sentences. GEO Group
Australia managing director Pieter Bezuidenhout said his company had
managed prisons in Australia for 17 years, operating in Queensland,
Victoria and New South Wales.
July 19, 2006 NewstalkZB
The Government has no plans to privatise prisons. United Future leader
Peter Dunne has asked about the Government's plans for prisons following a
Treasury report revealing each inmate costs $77,000 a year to be cared for.
The report recommends competition for prison services be introduced.
Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor is ruling out privatisation. He says
it is $10,000 a year cheaper to keep inmates in public prisons than the
private Auckland Central Remand Prison.
July
19, 2005 Stuff
An inmate in Auckland's former private prison who
stowed away in a shipping container to depart New Zealand should be sent
back here to face rape charges, says a Fiji court. The Suva
Magistrate's Court recommended that Shumendra Nilesh Chandra, 30, a
computer operator, of Auckland be sent back to New Zealand.
Australasian Correctional Management, which managed Auckland Central Remand
Prison until its contract expired recently, had to pay the Government
$50,000 for the escape, under the terms of its contract. The company
said at the time that its investigation into how Chandra allegedly slipped
his handcuffs and fled guards was unable to find out how he did it.
July
13, 2005 Scoop
The return today of New Zealand's only privately run prison to public
sector management is an opportunity for the Corrections Department to prove
it can deliver a first-class service, Green Party Justice Spokesperson
Nandor Tanczos says. The Department took over management of Auckland
Central Remand Prison from the GEO Group at midnight last night. "The
Green Party welcomes the handover today of the management of the Auckland
Central Remand Prison to the public sector," Nandor says. "I call
on new Corrections Department CEO Barry Matthews to use this as an
opportunity to deliver best prison practice. There is no reason why the
public sector can't provide a better service than the private and now is
the time for Mr Matthews to demonstrate this. "International
experience shows widespread abuse and poor conditions in many privately run
prisons. ACRP was clearly a loss leader designed to be a foot in the door
for the private prison conglomerates. It is extremely unlikely that any
further private prisons here would all be run as well as ACRP was by Mr
Karauria and his team. "But the principle issue is that prisons must
be run by the public sector. As one of the most tangible manifestations of
state power, they must be fully accountable to the people of New Zealand. A
profit-driven service is ultimately only accountable to its overseas
shareholders. "There have been some
clear cases of this lack of accountability in Australia. For example ACM,
the predecessor to Geo, placed a contractual obligation upon some of their
staff to not provide information to the judiciary, which would have the
effect of inhibiting the investigation of abuse and mismanagement. "It
must also be remembered that private prisons can have a corrupting
influence on the political system, in that they create a profit motive to
the lobby for longer custodial sentences. "The Green Party have taken
a number of steps to increase accountability in the public sector through
changes to the Corrections Act and a written commitment to the establishment
of an independent prison inspectorate from the Labour-led Government,"
Nandor says.
July
13, 2005 Scoop
The Public Service Association (PSA) is welcoming the return of the
Auckland Central Remand Prison to the public prisons service. The Public
Service Association (PSA) is New Zealand’s largest state sector union, and
has a growing membership at the Department of Corrections. The contract
between the Department and Australasian Correctional Management Limited to
run the remand prison expired overnight. It will now be run by the
Department of Corrections. PSA National Secretary Brenda Pilott said
workers employed by the private prison operator had, in effect, made the
operation profitable since they were employed on poorer terms and
conditions than the rest of the nation’s prison staff. “Imprisoning people
for the crimes they have committed is a core role of the state and it
should never be hived off to a private operator for profit. “The ACRP
experiment proved that the exercise was a simple cost-cutting exercise of
the type imposed across the public sector during the 1990s. “It employed
fewer officers per inmate and paid them less than staff employed by
Corrections at all the other prisons across the country. “At a time when
Corrections is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain
quality staff it beggars belief that National would advocate greater use of
private prison contracts. More private prisons would inevitably drag down
pay and conditions for all prison staff and make recruitment even harder. “National’s
advocacy of tougher, longer sentences for a wider range of offences means
it must be planning to employ many more prison staff. We have to ask who
they think is going to staff them?,” Brenda Pilott said.
July
13, 2005 New Zealand Herald
Prisons run by private companies are not an option, Corrections Minister
Paul Swain says. Opposition parties
have said that ending private participation in the prison system is a
triumph of ideology over commonsense, but Mr Swain said the simple issue
was that private companies should not make profits out of prisoners.
However, Auckland Central Remand Prison (ACRP) was well managed before it
was handed back to the state today. "In the end, we have a public
prison service, a public police force, a public courts system," he
said on National Radio. "This is a role the Government or the public
should be involved in, not the private sector."
July 12, 2005 Scoop
The GEO Group, holders of
the private management contract for the Auckland Central Remand Prison, said
today that although they were extremely disappointed that the contract had
come to a close they would like to thank all of those people who have
supported them during their time in New Zealand. The contract ends at
midnight on July 12.
Ault Correctional Facility, Ault, Colorado
May 9, 2007 Greeley Tribune
Plans for a private prison in Ault came to a halt recently when Colorado
Department of Corrections rescinded its offer to GEO Group. Ault Mayor Brad
Bayne said board members haven't discussed the prison for months.
"Until there was some sort of guarantee, we'd just rather not talk
about it," he said. "There is probably some disappointment from
me and a few board members who believe we still could have made it work for
the town." Talk of the 1,500-bed medium-security prison proposed last
spring has bought some uproar in the town of fewer than 1,500 residents.
Some said a prison coming to town would boost the town's economy, but
others said it would be too dangerous because of its proximity to the town.
The plan was to build on 40 acres in the southeast part of town. Last
spring, the GEO Group entered into a tentative agreement with the town --
which approved the prison in concept only -- so it could secure state
approval to build there. Months later, the town board passed an ordinance
requiring resident approval before any prison could be built. Town
officials haven't heard from a GEO Group representative since September,
when GEO hosted a public forum answering questions from residents, he said.
But DOC Executive Director Ari Zavaras put a stop to all discussions with
the private prison contractor. He sent a letter April 24 to representatives
of GEO Group, stating they would no longer discuss the plans for the Ault
prison or GEO's request for a guaranteed bed count. "We had continued
to have a very open and productive conversations with GEO," said
Allison Morgan, spokesperson for the DOC. "But we did not agree with a
bed guarantee." GEO requested a guarantee on the number of beds that
would be filled by prisoners at any given time, since the state pays
private prison contractors a daily rate per inmate. Phillip Tidwell, a
member of the Citizens Against Ault Prison, said the decision to rescind
the DOC offer to GEO Group made him happy. "We're definitely feeling
this is a responsible act from both parties," Tidwell said. "The
contract should have never been fulfilled by the state because of GEO
making the specifications with the state for a guaranteed bed count."
In the letter to rescind, Zavaras stated that in June 2006, the DOC offered
a contract with GEO Group with the exception to GEO's request for a bed
guarantee. On July 7, the DOC asked for GEO group to sign and complete the
proposed implementation agreement. After a few meetings, GEO Group still
requested a bed guarantee, which the DOC could not grant. The two entities
have gone back and forth on the bed guarantee issue since August. According
to the letter, Zavaras gave GEO a new deadline of April 2 to sign the
Implementation Agreement or provide a reason for not signing in writing to
the DOC no later than that date. "It was apparent the Department and
GEO could not come to an agreement," Morgan said.
April 18, 2007 Colorado For Ethics
The Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) responded to a March 5, 2007,
open records request by Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government (CCEG)
that sought documents relating to a private prison contract awarded by CDOC
to The GEO Group, Inc. The documents obtained by CCEG confirm that former
Director of Prisons Nolin Renfrow began working for The GEO Group while
still on state payroll, a blatant conflict of interest. In an email to
Brian Burnett, the deputy executive director of CDOC, Dave Schouweiler, DOC
Manager of Purchasing, stated that Renfrow was on state payroll until
January 31, 2006 and acknowledged the “impropriety of Mr. Renfrow’s
involvement with the originating procurement.” The CORA request and
responsive documents are available on CCEG’s website at
www.coloradoforethics.org. CCEG is posting these records as part of its
commitment to holding the government responsible for its actions.
March 6, 2007 Greeley Tribune
Saying GEO Group Inc. can't be trusted, a Pueblo lawmaker asked state
officials Monday to rescind a contract with the company to build a private
prison in Ault. Plans for the prison, which would house 1,500 inmates and
would be built east of the railroad tracks along U.S. 85, has stalled on
two fronts. Ault leaders decided they would not approve the facility until
the public voted on it, and GEO wants to change its contract to ensure
payment for its beds. Rep. Liane "Buffie" McFadyen, D-Pueblo
West, a vocal critic of private prisons, said Monday that the proposed
change and other issues regarding GEO's integrity should negate the Ault
contract. “Anybody living in Ault should be concerned that a company that
would bid this way on a contract might have a business in their town,"
she said. Philip Tidwell, spokesman for the town group Coalition Against
Ault Prison, said residents hope no one else bids on the Ault prison if
GEO's contract is rescinded. "We just do not want any private prison,
whether it be GEO or Cornell or anyone else," he said. A spokesman for
GEO did not return calls seeking comment. McFadyen said the company is
attempting to do the same things in Ault that derailed plans for a GEO
facility in Pueblo. In 2003, GEO won a contract for a 1,100-bed, pre-parole
and parole revocation facility in Pueblo, and after almost four years of
delays, the state pulled the contract last fall. The company never broke
ground on the facility. "The state of Colorado was held hostage for
four years waiting for those beds," McFadyen said. The delays included
zoning issues in Pueblo and GEO's attempt to obtain guaranteed payments on
90 percent of its beds, regardless of whether the beds were occupied. That
is something state leaders have opposed and which may even be impossible
because of state laws, McFadyen said. Now, GEO is trying for guaranteed bed
payments in Ault, she said. "You have to question the integrity of the
2006 bid," she said. "If past performance is an indicator, I
suspect we will be in the same place we were in 2003 in Pueblo."
McFadyen said Ari Zavaras, the new director of the Department of
Corrections, told her he is opposed to bed guarantees. Corrections
spokeswoman Alison Morgan told the Associated Press that Zavaras will
review McFadyen's request and decide how to respond. The story of Ault's
possible prison goes back to late 2005, when Nolin Renfrow, former director
of prisons for the Department of Corrections, started working with GEO on a
bid for a private prison. Renfrow is under investigation for using state
sick leave to obtain the Ault contract on behalf of GEO. On Monday,
Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government, a watchdog group, filed an open
records request about the Ault bid. "We do not feel that the public's
interest was put forth in the procurement of this contract," said
Chantelle Taylor, spokeswoman for the watchdog group. A state audit found
Renfrow's business activities "arguably present a conflict of interest
and result in a breach of ... the public trust." That breach, coupled
with GEO's attempt to change its Pueblo contract by adding the bed-payment
guarantee, should have prevented the company from getting the Ault bid in
the first place, McFadyen said. Tidwell agreed. "One thing the state
should recognize is (GEO) did not operate fairly," he said. "They
hired an insider knowing he worked for the state. In my mind, GEO has shown
itself to be not a company that operates fairly in the state of Colorado.
March 5, 2007 Rocky Mountain News
Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, and two reform groups today
formally requested the director of the Department of Corrections and the
governor rescind Geo Group’s bid to build a private prison in Ault. The
reasons cited included the company’s performance on a 2003 bid to build a
private prison in Pueblo. McFadyen said GEO Group lost its contract to
build the Pueblo facility because it delayed the start of construction,
then tried to renegotiate its contract to get a guarantee that it would be
paid for 90 percent occupancy, even if beds were not filled.
"Basically, the state of Colorado was held hostage for four years.
They didn’t even break ground," McFadyen said. In her letter to Ari
Zavaras, executive director of DOC, she said, "It would appear that
the state’s best interests were not served by allowing GEO group to bid any
contract with the state because of its lack of performance on tis 2003
award." Officials with Geo Group could not be reached for comment
Monday afternoon. Alison Morgan, spokeswoman for the DOC, said Zavaras was
aware of the letter being sent by McFadyen, but had not seen it Monday.
"Since he was not with the department during the RFP (request for
proposals) process, it is an issue that he is still studying and is being
briefed on," said Morgan. "Once he has all the information,
including McFadyen’s letter, he would welcome an opportunity to sit down
and talk to her."
December 26, 2006 Greeley Tribune
After the state Department of Corrections pulled its contract with the GEO
Group to build a prison in Pueblo, Ault residents wonder about GEO's
proposed prison plans in their backyard. While some speculate that the
department's decision to pull the contract will halt the company's plans
for Ault, others say it has changed nothing. For Phillip Tidwell, a member
of the Citizens Against Ault Prison, the Department of Correction's
decision in Pueblo was good news for his own fight. "We are elated ...
finally someone will investigate them," he said. "The board is
not calling off anything, but to me, like the DOC, why hasn't Ault pulled
out on our contract with them? They're not truthful, not honest from the
beginning ... Now, we don't feel alone. We will continue our own fight, it just
feels like we're being assisted by the DOC." The contract was canceled
for the Pueblo prison after concern about Geo's lack of progress on the
project. The corrections department said that after four years, the company
failed to respond to inquiries from them and failed to break ground on the
Pueblo facility. In Ault, the state awarded the GEO Group the right to
build a 1,500-bed medium security men's prison on 40 acres in the southeast
part of town. Despite the initial discussions, there still are no final
decisions on the Ault proposal. Ault Mayor Brad Bayne said the department's
decision about the Pueblo facility won't change what's happening in Ault.
"The town hasn't changed its views on this," he said. He said for
the prison to be built in the town, there has to be a guarantee from the
state, a negotiation between the town and the GEO Group that makes sense
and a vote of residents to approve the plans. Town officials haven't heard
from a GEO Group representative since September when GEO hosted a public
forum answering questions from residents, he said. "... We're in a
holding pattern until the state guarantees the matter," he added. The
plan first came to light at the end of May when the GEO Group gave a
proposal to the Ault Town Board. According to meeting minutes,
representatives from GEO said the project would be funded through a local
government bond, where the state pays the local government, which then pays
GEO. They said the facility would house 1,500 beds, but the request for
proposal on the project would allow up to 2,250 beds. To fight the project,
Citizens Against Ault Prison demanded an injunction on the town's code
which will require a vote of residents to decide the fate of the prison.
The injunction, which was signed by 297 voters, was approved by board
members in November.
December 16, 2006 The Gazette
State prison officials have canceled a contract for a new private
prison in Pueblo, a move that casts doubt on how much Colorado will be able
to rely on private prisons while it copes with a crowding crisis. The GEO
Group, which was awarded a contract in 2003 to build the Pueblo pre-release
prison, has also been contracted to build and operate a prison in Ault, in
northeastern Colorado. But the same issue that doomed the Pueblo project — the
company’s insistence it be guaranteed nearly full occupancy — could derail
the latter prison, because GEO is making a similar demand. “If GEO’s going
to demand a bed guarantee, they need to leave the state,” said state Rep.
Buffie McFadyen, a Pueblo Democrat and leading critic of private prisons.
“It is not the job of the Colorado taxpayers to ensure profits for this
corporation.” The Pueblo prison was delayed repeatedly: by zoning issues,
by a legal challenge from a prison-reform group and by several revisions to
the plan by GEO. But the final impasse began this summer, when the company
asked for a 90 percent minimum occupancy guarantee for the prison, which
wasn’t a condition of the original proposal and was opposed by Department
of Corrections officials. Private prisons are paid a daily rate per inmate
by the state, currently $52. Last month, the DOC denied a
contract-extension request, and on Thursday informed the company that it
was canceling the contract. “Ground has not broken, and GEO has given no indication
when, or even if, it plans to commence construction,” DOC executive
director Joe Ortiz wrote. “Our patience cannot be infinite.” The department
is facing an acute crowding problem. Years of canceled prison-construction
projects and steady growth in court caseloads have created a shortage of
prison beds. The DOC this week began shipping 720 inmates out of state, a
temporary solution until new beds become available. With only one state
prison under construction, Colorado State Penitentiary II in Cañon City,
the DOC this year awarded contracts to three companies to build prisons for
3,776 inmates. The GEO Group’s proposed 1,500-bed prison in Ault is a major
part of the plan. Alison Morgan, head of private-prison monitoring for the
DOC, said the department still expects GEO to follow through on its
proposal in Ault. “We are treating the Pueblo facility and the Ault
facility separately. We have from Day 1, and we will continue to do so,”
Morgan said Friday. However, GEO is making the same demand for guaranteed
occupancy for the Ault prison. Asked whether the DOC is still opposed to a
guarantee, she said, “It is a policy decision to be addressed by the new
administration (of Gov.-elect Bill Ritter) and the General Assembly.” The
local community isn’t even sure it wants a prison. Ault’s town board last
month passed an ordinance requiring voter approval for the prison. No
election date has been set. McFadyen said she doesn’t believe GEO ever
intended to complete the Pueblo prison, and she doubts the company’s
ability and will to follow through in Ault. “We’ve been set back three
years in our planning,” McFadyen said. “I think that kind of delay is
unacceptable, and we’ll learn from this experience and not allow another
contract to drag on for three years.” A call to a spokesman in the
company’s Boca Raton, Fla., headquarters was not returned Friday afternoon.
An audit requested by Mc-Fadyen regarding the bidding process for the Ault
prison was released this week. It showed that a top DOC official set up a
consulting business to help GEO win the bid while he was employed by the
state. Because the DOC is based in Colorado Springs, the office of 4th
Judicial District Attorney John Newsome will receive the results of the
investigation and determine whether any law was broken. Morgan said the DOC
will issue a new request for proposals for a pre-release prison.
December 14, 2006 Pueblo Chieftain
A three-year effort to build a private prison facility at the Pueblo
Memorial Airport Industrial Park appears to be dead after the Colorado
Department of Corrections and the prison company reached an impasse over
guaranteed occupancies. On Tuesday, reports said that the DOC was working
with the attorney general's office to draft a letter to the GEO Group that
essentially kills the company's plans to build a 1,000-bed pre-parole and
parole revocation facility on 36 acres east of the city. GEO officials said
Wednesday they had not received any letter from the DOC, but also didn't
express much confidence a deal could be struck for the facility. "We
have been in negotiations with the Department of Corrections, but we don't
have any contract signed and at this time it does not appear there will be
one," said Pablo Paez, director of communications for the
Florida-based company. Paez confirmed reports from November that the
company was asking for a minimum occupancy guarantee for the facility and
also confirmed that the company was planning to go to the city of Pueblo
for help to build the prison. ± PLEASE SEE PRISON, 2APRISON / continued
from page 1A ± "We needed the guarantee to secure the lowest capital
cost through tax-exempt bonds," Paez said Thursday. "We would get
those through the local municipality." State Rep. Liane
"Buffie" McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, who has been a vocal critic of
the private prison industry, and state Rep. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, wrote a
letter to the city in May warning against using public funds to build the
facility. "I think it's very positive that the city of Pueblo is not
going to risk its credit rating on this project," McFadyen said
Wednesday. Officials from the DOC were not available Wednesday to comment
on whether the letter had to do with the occupancy guarantees, or the
result of an audit suggesting former Director of Prisons Nolin Renfrow may
have broken the law by helping GEO secure DOC approval to build a 1,500-bed
facility in Weld County, prior to his retirement in January. Paez said GEO
had no contact with Renfrow before March. Last month, DOC spokeswoman Kathy
Church told The Pueblo Chieftain that talks between the company and the DOC
over Pueblo's facility had stalled over the minimum occupancy guarantees
and had reached a critical point. "They need to either understand our
position and accept it or back out completely," Church said last month.
Church told The Chieftain that the DOC couldn't make any guarantees without
knowing how much money it had to spend. That money depends on what the
joint budget committee decides. McFadyen wondered Wednesday why those
guarantees weren't part of the original agreement when DOC solicited bids
for the Pueblo project. "If the DOC negotiated additional terms with
GEO, they would be the only private prison company to receive such
treatment and that's wrong," McFadyen said Wednesday. "I think
this goes to the point of how committed they were to coming to Pueblo in
the first place." The plans to build the facility started in 2003 when
GEO, then Wakenhut Corrections Company, proposed building the prison on the
West Side. Those plans eventually shifted to the airport and the city
approved a controversial agreement with GEO to build a 500- to 1,000-bed
facility. A year ago, GEO bought the property at the airport from the city
for $296,800. GEO's original plan was to build a 750-bed facility at the
airport, but got Planning and Zoning Approval in May to expand the facility
to 1,000 beds.
December 14, 2006 Denver Post
Results of an investigation into former Colorado prisons director Nolin
Renfrow's conduct in office will be turned over to a district attorney
early next year, the Department of Corrections' inspector general said
Wednesday. Michael Rulo, who has been the agency's inspector general for
seven years, said his office has been cooperating with state auditors on
the probe. On Tuesday, the auditors announced that a "former senior-
level official" of the Department of Corrections launched a
prison-consulting business in August 2005, five months before he retired
from the department Jan. 31, and helped a private company land a state
prison contract. State Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, who requested
the audit, identified the official as Renfrow. The auditors found that
while still employed by DOC, Renfrow began working to assist prospective
bidders in developing proposals to his department for a private prison.
With his assistance, a company identified as the GEO Group was awarded the
contract for a 1,500-bed private prison at Ault. Auditors noted that state
employees are barred by law from outside employment that creates a conflict
of interest, and from helping people to win a contract with their agency
for a fee. Renfrow couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday. Rulo said the
results of his office's investigation will be turned over to El Paso County
District Attorney John Newsome, probably in January. The Department of
Corrections is based in that county. Rulo said a decision on whether to
file charges will be a "collaborative process" with prosecutors.
Kristen Holtzman, spokeswoman for Colorado Attorney General John Suthers,
said that Renfrow never contacted the attorney general's office to ask
whether his consulting business while still a DOC employee constituted a
conflict of interest.
November 15, 2006 Greeley Tribune
The Ault Town Board eased many residents' minds Tuesday night and gave
them a stronger voice in the prison debate. Town residents have voiced
strong opinions against the proposed GEO correctional facility in Ault
after initial discussions last spring. Tuesday night, the town board voted
5-1 to accept an ordinance that requires a town election about the location
of any prison or similar incarceration facility. An election date has not
been set, but one will be necessary when the GEO Group Inc. returns to the
town to begin negotiating a contract. GEO has proposed building a 1,500-bed
medium security prison on about 40 acres in southeast Ault. The prison
population would double the town's population. Most recently, the GEO group
sought assurances from the state Department of Corrections for a guaranteed
number of prisoners to house at the prison, but DOC representatives said
the state typically didn't provide such guarantees. Residents recently
signed a petition requesting an election about a site before the town
approved permits for such a building. Petitioners needed a minimum of 40
valid signatures to take the request to the board. They submitted 297. Mary
Schlack, 37, of Ault said she was part of the petition effort after she
went door-to-door and learned more people were opposed to the prison. She
said she expected more than 40 signatures because of her previous questions
to residents.
September 29, 2006 Greeley Tribune
Al Nickel was one of a few passionate people who attended a
question-and-answer session Thursday about a proposed private prison in his
town. He was more concerned about the possible safety risks of having a
prison nearby than the potential for increased revenue. "What are they
going to do for the town?" asked Nickel, a 21-year resident of the
town 11 miles north of Greeley on U.S. 85. "It's not like they can go
downtown and buy 100 gallons of milk or toilet paper. Their business has to
go elsewhere." Representatives from The GEO Group, Place Properties
and Patriot Business Solutions met with about 20 residents Thursday
afternoon at the Ault VFW post to discuss the plans of bringing a prison to
town. The group held a separate meeting Thursday night, drawing about 40
people. Many people were curious about what the prison would look like and
had concerns about Ault being considered a prison town. Ken Fortier, a
spokesman for GEO Group, said he hoped to ease some concerns at the
sessions. "There's a lot of emotions when it comes to a project like
this and the perception of a correctional facility," he said.
"We're not here to debate, but to answer questions."
September 10, 2006 Greeley Tribune
Two months ago, the state awarded the Geo Group the right to build a
1,500-bed medium security men's prison in Ault, but so far, progress has
been slight. A town meeting in July lured about 300 in protest. Opponents
worry about prison breaks, the caliber of employees and the potential for a
prison to attract criminals. Proponents of the prison say their dying town
needs development, and a prison is a clean industry that would bring
commerce and jobs. The prison would be located on roughly 40 acres in the
southeast part of town, east of the railroad tracks parallel to U.S. 85.
Since the initial discussions, however, there are still no decisions. The
Geo Group has not presented the town with a potential contract, and the
town board has yet to decide if a contract with the private prison would
have to be approved by the board or the residents. Those involved, however,
insist there is progress but won't elaborate.
July 22, 2006 Greeley Tribune
It may be a month or more before residents know if the town of Ault
will be home to a 1,500-bed private prison. Ault Mayor James Fladung said
the town board has not decided if it will sign a binding contract with Geo
Group Inc. or if it will allow Ault residents to vote on the proposed
medium-security prison for men. Colorado's Department of Corrections
recently granted Geo the rights to build a prison in Ault in the next two
years. But Geo cannot actually build the facility until it gets approval
from the town. The board is negotiating with Geo over prices and fees on
issues such as water and sewer. A final contract for the prison still needs
to be written. "There is quite a bit of distance to cover yet,"
said Sharon Sullivan, Ault town clerk and treasurer. "It will continue
to be ongoing, but there is a long way to go." Fladung said it could
possibly be a month before any decision is made. The town board has the
authority to approve a contract without a vote from Ault residents because
the land where the prison would be located is zoned industrial, Fladung
said. But the mayor said that because of public sentiment the board will
consider conducting a poll or even allow a public vote on the issue. Nearly
300 people attended a public hearing last Tuesday. The majority of those
people opposed the prison. Fladung said he thought it would be good to hold
more public hearings before any contract is signed. "We must listen to
the people. They were the ones who elected us," Fladung said. In late
June the town board unanimously passed a resolution approving the concept
of a private prison in Ault. Sullivan said that resolution confused many
people and led them to believe that the town board already signed a
contract with Geo. The logistics and time frame of a contract still aren't
clear, but Fladung said he can guarantee that the contract will not raise
any taxes or utility fees for Ault residents. "I'm standing pretty
solid about the people in Ault not paying them a penny more for them to
come in," Fladung said.
July 19, 2006 Greeley Tribune
Debate over whether to allow a men's medium security prison to be built in
Ault has divided the normally quiet community. Almost 300 Ault residents
overwhelmed Tuesday night's town board meeting to discuss the pros and cons
of allowing the Florida-based company Geo Group Inc. to build a 1,500 bed
private prison in Ault. So many people showed up that the meeting had to be
delayed half an hour to move the meeting to the larger VFW building. The
issue pitted neighbor against neighbor with strong opinions and statements
made by nearly 50 people on both sides of the issue. "Geo is like
Wal-Mart. They could care less about this town," said John Jablonski
of Ault. "They want to use us to make money." The majority of the
crowd was strongly against the prison but faced opposition from a vocal minority
of Ault's business owners. They believe the prison will be the economic
boost Ault's dwindling economy needs to survive. Sheila Kelsey, owner of
the House of Bargains, has lived in Ault for 34 years and said that during
all that time little economic growth has occurred. "The prison would
be in my front yard, but we desperately need the business," Kelsey
said. "If we do not get this business, this town will die. It will be
a ghost town." Many of those against the prison did not like its close
proximity to town and called it a safety hazard, a drain on resources such
as water and an overall detriment to the well-being of Ault. Amber
Kauffman, who has lived in the town for five years, said she is all for
growth but not at the expense of having to live near a prison. "We
came here to live in a small town and a small community," Kauffman
said. "A prison would change the dynamics of this town." Her
husband, Ty Kauffman, said that if the prison does go in, the company wants
to run water and sewer lines across his fields which would hurt his annual
hay crop. Ty Kauffman said that if the prison does come to Ault, he will be
out of town in two weeks. "You do so much to your home to loose it
all," he said. "It's a nightmare." Ken Fortier, a
representative from Geo, said the prison would bring jobs and purchasing
power to Ault. He said that Geo is the largest private corrections facility
company in the world and operates high and medium security prisons on many
continents including the world's largest private prison in South Africa and
a facility that is part of the Guantanamo Bay complex in Cuba. "Step
away from the emotions to the notion of what economically 300 jobs mean to
the town of Ault," Fortier said. There was still a lot of questions
left in the air on Tuesday. Board members did not tell the crowd when, or
if, they would sign a contract with the company.
July 18, 2006 Greeley Tribune
Controversy is brewing in Ault about the proposed men's prison expected
to be built southeast of town by the Florida-based Geo Group Inc. The Coalition
Against the Ault Prison, comprised of 10 residents, will attend tonight's
Ault town board meeting to oppose the 1,500-bed prison. The residents have
passed out fliers and petitions against Colorado's Department of
Corrections late June decision to grant Geo the rights to construct the
prison there in the next two years. If the town board signs a contract with
the Geo Group, the number of prisoners would more than double this town of
roughly 1,400 people. Tasha Greene, 35, an environmental health and safety
officer in Ault began the opposition group about a week ago and said the
members extensively researched the economic and social impacts a prison
might have on a small town. Greene said she collected 117 signatures of
registered Ault voters who are opposed to the prison. "There are a few
people we talked to that want this prison 100 percent, but the fast
majority are dead set against it," Greene said. Though Ault residents
have an hour to present comments at tonight's meeting, Greene said she is
unsure if the board will take her group's concerns to heart. "We get a
sense that they will do what they want to do," Greene said. "Who
cares about public opinion?" The board in May passed a resolution
agreeing with the prison in concept. The resolution states that prior to
the board executing a contract or any financing agreements with the Geo
Group, "the final forms of such documents and/or agreement shall be
submitted for approval to the town, and if satisfactory to the town, their
execution shall be authorized by resolution or ordinance ..." If the
board ignores their concerns, Greene said she plans to pursue formal legal
action against the prison's construction. Larry Hosier, another member of
the coalition, said he thinks the town board is completely out of touch
with the people of Ault and not smart enough to properly negotiate with
Geo's high-powered executives. "They don't even know the right
questions to ask," Hosier said. The group is concerned the prison will
make the town unsafe, overtax the already low water supply in the area,
create light and air pollution, lower property values, create a higher
unemployment rate, bankrupt small businesses and ruin the character and
aesthetics of Ault. "Ault will no longer be 'A Unique Little
Town," one of the coalition's flyer's proclaims. "Once a prison
town always a prison town." Some residents are so concerned about the
negative effects they claim they will actually move out of Ault. "I
had one guy sign the petition. The next day his home went up for
sale," Hosier said, adding that and his wife may consider doing the
same after living in town for more than 30 years. Greene is equally
convinced that Ault isn't big enough for both her and the prison, and said
she would find a new home for her nine horses. She said she is most
concerned about safety and the possibility that escaped convicts could put
the community in danger. "I'd feel I'll need to put up really tall
fences and buy really big dogs and make myself a private arsenal,"
Greene said.
Australian
Federal Government
October
11, 2011 Canberra Times
The Commonwealth Government is suing its former immigration detention
operators for failing to protect it against lawsuits lodged by people kept
in detention facilities. The case will be heard in the South Australian Supreme
Court on November 21. It is part of a long-running case launched by former
asylum-seeker Abdul Amir Hamidi, who won a confidential settlement against
the Federal Government after almost five years in detention. As The
Canberra Times revealed on Saturday, Mr Hamidi's lawyers predict that the
confidential settlement will spark dozens more claims for damages. In a
case to be heard on November 21, the Commonwealth will claim its former
detention centre operators - GSL and Australasian Correctional Services -
breached their contracts by exposing the Government to the legal action.
The Commonwealth will argue both companies agreed to indemnify it against
damages based on their running of Australian detention centres.
Australasian Correctional Services operated Australia's mainland
immigration detention facilities until early 2004. Group 4 Falck Global
Solutions Pty Ltd (which later changed its name to Global Solutions
Limited, or GSL) commenced management of the centres in late 2003. Both
companies will fight the claim, with ACS arguing it had insufficient time
to respond to the allegations and the terms of its agreement included
dispute resolution measures. GSL says it is not responsible for
indemnifying the Commonwealth for any ''negligent, wilful, reckless or
unlawful acts or omissions of the Commonwealth, its employees, officers or
agents''. Between 2000 and March 2010, detainees in Australian immigration
detention centres were paid more than $12.3million in compensation for
personal injury or unlawful detention.
July 9, 2004 Australian
A damning report by the Auditor-General, released
two weeks ago, showed initial detention arrangements with private prison
operators Australian Centre Management to be a farce. Appalling hygiene and
frequent escapes perpetuated by ACM's lackadaisical attitude to detainees
was highlighted as a failure of the immigration department. With a
second report by the Auditor-General expected to detail arrangements with
ACM's replacement Global Systems Management later this year, the department
maintains it.
June 19, 2004 Courier Mail
Australasian Correctional Management ran 12 immigration detention centres
on behalf of the Howard Government from early 1998 until early this
year. According to the Australian National Audit Office report, the
Department of Immigration, Indigenous and Multicultural Affairs had no
strategy for detaining asylum seekers, let alone a contract management plan
with ACM. The damning report found: No risk management strategy in
the contract. No contract management training or guidance. No
performance targets and an ad hoc approach to changing numbers. No
contract monitoring or assessment. No financial risk strategy or
asset management plan. "This meant that DIMIA was not able to assess
whether its strategies were actually working in practice," the report
said. During the contract the number of detainees varied from just a
handful in 1998 to 3000 in the year 2000. And the auditors could find
no assurance that the financial aspects of the $500 million contract
"operated as intended". The report also found a gap in the
audit trail. "Invoicing procedures where the audit trail between the
services provided and payments made did not provide senior managers with
assurance that full value for money was being achieved," it
said. "A systematic approach to risk management, including the
establishment of an appropriate and documented risk management strategy,
should have been an integral part of contract management," the
auditors said. According to the report a manual for departmental
centre managers was not issued until four years after the contract began
and had not been kept up to date. In its response to the report the
department agreed with the six recommendations made by the auditors.
It defended itself by saying the audit did not "fully reflect and take
account of the complexity of the environment and the nature of the previous
detention contract". "Many aspects of the contract were
intended to be flexibly addressed through negotiation and discussion,"
it said. Opposition immigration spokesman Stephen Smith demanded the
return of immigration detention centres to government management.
"The report is a comprehensive condemnation of the Government's policy
of the privatisation of the management of immigration detention centres and
a comprehensive indictment of DIMIA's administration of it," Mr Smith
said. The auditors found that 38 of the 100 immigration detention
standards issued by the department had no performance measures and another
37 were only partially covered. Immigration Minister Amanda
Vanstone's spokesman did not respond to the report.
Aurora
INS Detention Facility, Aurora,
Colorado
February
16, 2009 The Aurora Sentinel
About 50 people from various advocacy groups gathered near an Aurora
detention facility Monday, Feb. 16, to rally for changes to the nation’s
immigration policies and an end to raids on suspected illegal immigrants.
The vigil, which was organized by local clergy, was one of more than 100
actions across the country aimed at “demonstrating the faith communities’
commitment to inject humanity and compassion into the public dialogue on
immigration,” organizers said in a statement. Jennifer Piper, of the Quaker
organization American Friends Service Committee, said ending raids was one
of the main goals of the vigil. “These raids really tear families and
workers out of our community,” Piper said. The vigil brought out a diverse
crowd with participants ranging from toddlers to senior citizens. The group
clutched candles, said prayers and spoke about their concerns. “All faith
traditions share a common mandate to welcome and care for all members of
our community and love our neighbors as ourselves,” Jeremy Shaver,
executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, said in a
statement. “As people of faith, we must keep that in the forefront of our
minds as we approach the complex issue of immigration.” Organizers said
recent immigration raids have been destructive for immigrants’ families and
they hope the vigils lead to change in Washington. “We call on President
Obama and members of Congress to demonstrate the courage to pass
immigration policies that uphold and protect the dignity and human rights
of all,” Shaver said. The vigil was held just a few blocks from a privately
owned and operated detention facility that houses suspected illegal
immigrants. Florida-based GEO Group, which owns the facility, has plans to
expand it — a proposal that has come under fire from immigrant groups.
January 8, 2008 Colorado Confidential
A former corrections employee is suing prison contractor The GEO Group,
operator of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention
facility in Aurora. In a suit filed in Denver District Court, former GEO
employee Celia Ramirez alleges the company failed to follow its own
anti-discrimination policies. According to the suit, filed in December,
Ramirez was employed by GEO as a detention officer at the Aurora ICE lockup
for just over two years before being fired for failing to return lockup
keys to their designated area. However, in the suit Ramirez contends that
another GEO worker, Jennifer Beauman, took the keys and placed them on the
facility's roof to retaliate against the plaintiff for reporting the
employee for inappropriate conduct. According to the suit, Beauman is
reported to have engaged in erratic behavior, such as angrily slamming
doors and flicking lights on and off in the presence of inmates. Attempts
to reach Beauman were unsuccessful. The suit alleges Beauman
"joked" about taking the keys to get back at Ramirez, before the
keys went missing. A maintenance worker is reported to have later found the
keys on the facility's rooftop. The crux of the lawsuit contends that
Ramirez was discriminated against for her gender and Latino ethnicity, and
that GEO failed to enforce written policies of barring gender or race
discrimination as stipulated in the company's employee handbook. Pablo
Paez, a spokesman for the GEO Group, said that it is the company's
corporate policy not to discuss pending litigation. Lisa Sahli, the
attorney who filed the suit, said that Ramirez had obtained another
attorney and that she could not speak further on the case because she is no
longer Ramirez's legal counsel. Attempts to contact Ramirez were also
unsuccessful. The suit comes as GEO is set to expand its Aurora ICE
facility by more than 1000 beds, tripling the current threshold of 400
beds. Ramirez is seeking to bring the case to a jury, according to court
documents.
December 19, 2007 Denver Post
A private company operating the Colorado immigration detention center in
Aurora plans to sink $72 million into an expansion that will more than
triple the size of the facility based on Senate proposals to expand border
enforcement and bed space for illegal-immigrant detainees. The expansion
would turn the 400-bed facility into a 1,500-bed center, making it second
in size only to the 2,000-bed Raymondville, Texas, site, according to U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Aurora site is in a warehouse area
near East 30th Avenue and Peoria Street. The plan by Florida-based GEO
Group, which owns and operates the facility, has raised concerns among
national and local immigrant- and civil-rights groups and the neighborhood
associations in the area. The expansion is expected to be complete in late
2009. A company spokesman did not return numerous calls, but GEO chairman
and chief executive George Zoley detailed the plan recently in a call with
analysts. GEO estimates the 1,100 new beds will raise an additional $30
million in annual revenue, Zoley said during the call. Opponents of the
plan say their concerns are based partly on the lack of access to internal
audits of the facility and recent government reviews showing inadequacies.
"One of the major issues is that GEO has a really spotty record in
running these sorts of facilities," said Chandra Russo, a community
organizer for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. "Our concern
with a private corporation running a prison is that its profits depend on
more prisoners. What is the benefit for the community?" Neighbors are
also worried about real estate values and environmental impact. ICE denies
any connection with the expansion the private company is planning with its
own money, said ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok. Currently, the ICE contract for
the Aurora facility is for 400 beds, but the deal is up for review each
year for the next four years. "If they expand the facility, unless
they modify the contract, there is nothing to say those additional beds
would be used or contracted by ICE," Rusnok said. Still, national and
local immigrant groups are concerned about the expansion at the facility,
where they say reports and audits have been slow or not publicly released.
Several years ago, the National Immigration Law Center asked the courts to
demand that ICE release internal reviews of contract facilities and won.
But ICE has been lax in providing the most recent two years' worth of
reviews, said Karen Tumlin, attorney with NILC. "Until ICE is willing
to release all of the reviews, we don't want to see these levels of
expansion," she said. In July, the Government Accountability Office
found problems at several of the detention centers from May 2006 to May
2007. The GAO did not find extreme cases but noted issues at 16 of 17 ICE
centers with phone calls to pro bono legal help. In Aurora, the report also
found that hold rooms exceeded capacity and log books were not maintained
to show how long people were in rooms or when they had their last meal. In
October 2006, reviews found the Aurora site in violation for lack of
cleanliness in food service. The report also said the center had portable
beds in aisles because of overcrowding. Rusnok said many of the problems
identified by the GAO have since been rectified and that ICE has no plans
based on the Senate proposal. Zoley, during the call, cited a proposed
bill, which provides for additional funding to increase border-patrol
agents and increase detention bed space by more than 5,000 beds. "We
believe that this increase in bed funding will result in additional opportunities
for the private sector," he said. The Department of Homeland Security
expects the undocumented population, estimated to be around 12 million, to
grow by 400,000 annually. The total number of illegal immigrants in
administrative proceedings who spend some time in detention annually
increased from 95,702 in 2001 to 283,115 in 2006. Detention bed space
increased from 19,702 in 2001 to 27,500 last year. After the first of the
year, NILC plans to ask for a moratorium on expansions of these types of
facilities until ICE can ensure minimum compliance with its standards,
Tumlin said.
July 11, 2007 Government Executive
Magazine
In a recent review of federal facilities used to detain suspected illegal
immigrants, the Government Accountability Office found a lack of telephone
access to be a pervasive problem, potentially preventing detainees from
contacting legal counsel, their countries' consulates or complaint
hotlines. The GAO review included visits to 23 detention centers housing
immigrants awaiting adjudication or deportation. The watchdog agency
observed the centers -- run by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agency within the Homeland Security Department -- for compliance with
nonbinding national detention standards. Of the 23 facilities GAO reviewed,
17 had telephone systems allowing detainees to make free phone calls
seeking assistance. In 16 of these 17 facilities, however, GAO found
systemic problems hindering phone access. Issues ranged from inaccurate or
outdated numbers posted by the phones to technical problems preventing
completion of calls, the report (GAO-07-875) stated. The review found
instances where the centers fell short of standards in other areas, such as
medical care, use of force and food services, but said these instances did
not necessarily indicate a larger pattern of noncompliance. "While it
is true that the only pervasive problem we identified related to the
telephone system -- a problem later confirmed by ICE's testing -- we cannot
state that the other deficiencies we identified in our visits were
isolated," said Richard Stana, director of homeland security and
justice issues at GAO, in the report. GAO recommended that ICE regularly
update the posted numbers for legal services, consulates and reporting
violations of detainee treatment standards and test phone systems to ensure
that they are in working order. In a response to a draft of the report,
Steven Pecinovsky, director of the Homeland Security Department's
GAO/Office of the Inspector General Liaison Office, said ICE concurred with
its recommendations and had taken immediate steps to implement them. In
particular, ICE has started random testing to ensure the phones can access
the necessary numbers. While GAO did not find evidence of widespread
disregard for national detention standards, there have been recent calls
for more oversight of immigrant detention facilities and codification of
standards. According to the American Bar Association's Commission on
Immigration, the fact that the standards are not codified means "their
violation does not confer a cause of action in court." On Monday, the
American Civil Liberties Union called on Congress to codify the standards,
expressing concern over the causes of death for the 62 immigrants who have
died in ICE custody since 2004. GAO's report cited several instances of
noncompliance in the standards for medical care, but almost all were a
failure to complete the routine physical exams required for all detainees.
The only other issue cited was the failure of one detention center to have
a first aid kit available. The ACLU argued there are far more serious
medical failures occurring in immigrant detention centers. "Inadequate
medical care has led to unnecessary suffering and death," the ACLU
said in a statement. "In addition, there is no mechanism in place for
reporting deaths in immigration detention to any oversight body, including
the [Office of the Inspector General] and, therefore, there are no routine
investigations into deaths in ICE custody."
September 27, 2002
Security guards at the Wackenhut INS detention
facility in Aurora quelled a disturbance Thursday. The disruption was
caused by several detainees during the lunch hour, said Nina Pruneda-
Muniz, Denver District spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization
Service. "It got handled in a very timely manner," Pruneda-Muniz
said. "We were able to defuse any situation from going any
further." Agents were determining how many prisoners were involved and
why the confrontation erupted, she said. (Rocky Mountain News)
Australian
Immigration Department
Companies
Use Immigration Crackdown to Turn a Profit: Expose on
immigration by Nina Bernstein at the New York Times, September 28,
2011
July 19, 2005 The Age
The Immigration Department is under fire again for failing to protect a
woman who was sexually abused in front of her daughter in a detention
centre. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has found
that the department failed in its duty of care and breached her human
rights. The woman, an Iranian refugee from a minority religious
group, complained of two violent attacks by other detainees at the Curtin
detention centre in Western Australia. In one incident a man had tried to
rape her, and in another a man punched her in the chest and face, tore her
clothes off and broke her finger. Her young daughter, who came to her aid,
was also punched. In preliminary findings seen by The Age, Human
Rights Commission president John von Doussa slammed the department and the
manager of the Curtin centre, Australasian Correctional Management.
News of his finding follows the damning indictment of the department over
the illegal detention of Cornelia Rau and the mistaken deportation of
Vivian Alvarez Solon. In his report last week, former Federal Police
commissioner Mick Palmer identified "a serious cultural problem"
and called for urgent reform.
Baker
Community Correctional Facility, San Bernardino,
California
November
26, 2011 The Daily Press
The state has canceled its contract with the privately operated Desert
View Modified Community Correctional Facility, putting about 150 workers
out of a job. Desert View's contract termination officially takes effect
Wednesday, though prison employees told the Daily Press that The Geo Group
Inc. has been preparing to deactivate the prison at Rancho and Aster roads
since May. The 643-bed medium-security prison is shuttering its doors as
part of California’s realignment plan, which responds to federal orders to
reduce state prison overcrowding by shifting responsibility for tens of
thousands of low-level offenders to county governments. To help deal with
the new influx of inmates under local supervision, the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is encouraging counties to
enter into their own contracts with more than a dozen former CCFs. The CCFs
had generally housed inmates with sentences shorter than 18 months, parole
violators and offenders with scheduled release dates — the same types of nonviolent,
non-sexual or non-serious offenders now serving out sentences in county
jails instead of state prisons. “We hope that counties contract with these
facilities to save jobs and ease inmate housing concerns that many counties
may have,” CDCR spokeswoman Dana Toyama said. But San Bernardino County
Sheriff’s Department officials say they’re not planning to privatize jail
beds. The math just doesn’t pencil out, according to Sheriff’s Department
spokeswoman Cindy Bachman. “The issue with taking advantage of private
prisons or private jail facilities has come up over and over again
throughout the years; however, it’s not something that the county is
considering,” Bachman said. “It’s too costly and there’s just not the
funding really even to consider something like that.” The California State
Association of Counties has created a document outlining potential beds at
the former CCFs, but counties statewide have been hesitant to exercise that
option. The Geo Group had operated six of the nine privately run CCFs that
lost their state contracts, according to CSAC. Five other CCFs were run by
local governments. The facilities ranged from around 100 employees to more
than 600, according to Toyama.
Baxter
Immigration Detention Centre, Australia
September 13, 2008 Sidney Morning Herald
About 10 o'clock one evening in January 2003, Mary Rohde got out of her
four-wheel-drive to lock the gate to the visitor carpark at the Baxter
immigration detention facility near Port Augusta, where she was a detention
officer. She felt a presence but saw no one, and returned to the car to
radio the control room. Suddenly an arm was round her neck, a blade at her
throat. Terror and incomprehension overwhelmed her. Eventually the arm
loosened and she looked round; in the back seat was her boss. It had been a
security drill. "That'll teach her to lock the car door," a
supervisor later remarked. Rhode was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress
disorder and, five years later, has not recovered, despite psychiatric
treatment. Her symptoms are typical. She suffers from nightmares and
insomnia. She cannot manage social situations, cannot sit in a doctor's
waiting room; even visits from her adult children are too much to cope
with. Half an hour after they arrive she finds herself weeping in her bedroom.
"I'm now the shell of the person I was. I drink and take drugs; for me
to cope, that's what I have to do," she says. Rohde is one of many
former officers who developed post-traumatic stress disorder and other
stress-related disorders while working in detention centres around
Australia. Statistics from WorkCover South Australia record 62 claims for
post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental disorders made by guards at
Woomera and Baxter. Many are unlikely to work again. We have been told a
lot about the impact of detention on asylum seekers, but not about the
impact on those who worked there. By 1999 leaky vessels were making their
way to Australia carrying mostly asylum seekers from Iraq, Iran and
Afghanistan. Arrival numbers overwhelmed detention centres at Curtin and
Port Hedland, both in northern Western Australia. The overflow shifted to a
makeshift camp near Woomera, South Australia, where they languished in
desert heat until given visas or sent home. Five hundred kilometres from
Adelaide, with access to the detention centre barred to almost all, it was
impossible for outsiders to know what happened within. Woomera's carrying
capacity was 400. By April 2000 it held more than 1400 detainees, and
officers were needed to keep order. Detention services were privatised by
the Howard government in 1997. The successful tenderer was Australasian
Correctional Management, or ACM, a subsidiary of the US giant Wackenhut
corporation, which ran private jails in Australia and overseas. Many ACM
detention centre officers had been jail staff but the company also
advertised for them. With free accommodation and the minimum requirement of
five 12-hour shifts a week, the conditions seemed excellent - about $1200 a
week. For Rohde, recently separated from her husband and experiencing
financial difficulties, the job seemed a godsend. Many officers believed
they were on important duty. In 2000 Australians got the message they were
under siege; that the boatloads surely included terrorists. Still others
thought this was a chance to show kindness. Within weeks, the new recruits
would find themselves kitted up in riot gear and wielding batons,
extinguishing fires, or cutting down would-be suicides. Trevor Robertson
signed up to Woomera in June 2000. He had recently completed training as a
prison officer in Brisbane. His partner, Kendall Jones, expecting their
first child, urged him to apply. As with Rohde, the move would be the
mistake of their lives. An imposing figure, Robertson was respected by
colleagues and soon became a supervisor. When Woomera closed and the
operation transferred to the Baxter centre near Port Augusta, Robertson
went too. One former colleague remembers him as even-tempered, fair and
good in a crisis - "the best operator at Woomera". Robertson has
been unable to work, his marriage teeters in the balance, and he rarely
leaves the loungeroom of his modest Port Augusta home. He does not
socialise, and spends his time bent over the computer, poring over state
and federal law, or on the phone to any bureaucrat or politician who will
talk to him about immigration detention. It is an obsession. He has
reflected long and hard about why it all went so wrong in immigration
detention centres. All the officers interviewed for this story said
training was inadequate. In an intensive four- to six-week course, new
recruits practised restraint and riot drills, became familiar with the
Migration Act, and were encouraged to treat detainees with respect.
Robertson does not think any training could have prepared officers for the
dire daily situations. He told ABC TV's Four Corners program that three
days after training he was at Woomera when 500 detainees attempted to
escape. The job was close to impossible. Detention centres became violent;
chaos reigned. These desert prisons held people who were distressed and
traumatised for months or years on end, waiting for news on their visa
applications. Many eventually became deranged. Riots, hunger strikes,
self-harm and suicide attempts were common. Officers became the focus of
detainee anger and resentment, and threats were made against them and their
families. It angers Robertson that he and colleagues were denied help.
"We were the police; we were the mental health-care workers; we were
the social workers," he recalls bitterly. Detention centres had rules,
and most detainees obeyed them. A core group, however, was troublesome and
the only consequence of their behaviour was incarceration in the
"management unit", a form of solitary confinement where detainees
frequently became so unmanageable it was easier to return them to their
compounds. Troublemakers lit fires, smashed windows, stood over and bullied
others and assaulted officers with relative impunity. Experts argue that
incarceration in detention centres induces mental illness. According to ACM
statistics for October 2001, three psychologists saw 764 residents at
Woomera. A psychiatrist visited every few weeks, but daily care of people
with mental illness was left to untrained officers. Rod Gigney, a kindly
officer, would bribe Anna with fruit, trying to curb her behaviour. The
young woman wandered around naked at Baxter and defecated on the floor. To
officers less sympathetic, Anna was just a heroin-addicted, damned
nuisance. She turned out to be the schizophrenic German-born Australian
Cornelia Rau. Gigney made many reports about Anna to management, without
effect. Carol Wiltshire was deeply concerned about a woman who had not left
her room for 10 months. She was catatonic, covered in bedsores and unable
to tend to her small child. Wiltshire's supervisor suggested she "poke
her with a stick and see if she's still alive". It was another month
before she was transferred to Adelaide's Glenside mental health facility.
Understaffing was significant and chronic. Often an officer as young as 20
would be left alone in a compound where three officers were required,
leaving them vulnerable and insecure. Sean Ferris was alone at Baxter when
a riot broke out. He locked himself in the office, which was pounded with
stones and set alight. Simon Forsyth, then 21, faced a fire on his first
shift at Baxter. He did not know how to use the extinguisher. An October
2005 report recounts the incident that ended Robertson's career. By then,
Baxter detainees were predominantly visa overstayers and criminals awaiting
deportation. There was a fight, Robertson was assaulted and "suddenly
I lost control". "I was really trying to hurt people; I had my
hands around their throats." And that was that. The once solid and
reliable officer, mentor to fellow workers, finally cracked. Battered,
bruised and hysterical, he was driven home. When he said he was fit to
return to work three weeks later, he broke down, was subsequently diagnosed
with an adjustment disorder and has not worked since. Clive Skinn, a Port
Augusta local who worked at Woomera and Baxter, loathes all detainees.
Sitting uncomfortably on the couch in Robertson's lounge room, he is tense
with anger. "My body is full of hatred," Skinn says. He had not
given refugees a thought before he went to Woomera; he knew nothing about
Muslims. On his second day on the job, a detainee head-butted him. Another
spat at him soon after. Wiltshire says Skinn was never the same after
having to cut down a man who attempted to hang himself. Life became
unmanageable. Skinn was quick to anger, could not get on with his children,
could not sleep. He awoke suddenly one morning convinced that there were
Muslims in his house. He seized a chair and trashed the place, smashed
windows and the TV, broke holes in the walls. He was diagnosed with anxiety
and depression and spent 18 months on workers' compensation. While still
profoundly affected, he holds down a job in an underground mine at Roxby
Downs, but the past catches up with him. "I'd like to kill them
all," Skinn says of detainees. "And I feel the same way about the
children. They were as bad as the parents." Gigney's breakdown was a
consequence of concern for detainees. He listened to their despair,
smuggled extra milk rations for children, and watched helplessly as they
suffered physically and mentally. A boy, 12, was among the three would-be
suicides he cut down. Officers who displayed compassion were held in
contempt by many co-workers, and became known as "care bears".
The diminutive and softly spoken Annie Brown (not her real name), 55,
thought working at Baxter would be an opportunity to help the unfortunate.
Each day she would say to herself, "I've got 12 hours to make these
people's lives better." For this she was taunted and ridiculed by
fellow officers; for Annie, the worst part of work at Baxter was the
attitude of many co-workers. Annie's husband is also a former Baxter
officer. "We were people who had normal lives," Annie says
through tears. "We don't have them any more." After being ignored
by superiors, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder,
anxiety, depression and agoraphobia, and for a year could not leave her
house. Many people with post-traumatic stress disorder have to confront the
fact that what was normality is not likely to return. This is Rohde's
reality. "I want my life back," she says. "But the
psychiatrist has said that I will never be the person I was before. I have
to try to learn to live with the person I am now." Three years since
his diagnosis, Robertson shows no sign of improvement. For Kendall, life
with Trevor is close to unbearable. She says he is distant, obnoxious and
arrogant. He gets angry with the children, impatient, distracted. He does
not go to bed until 3am, and rises late. As Jones and Robertson do
seemingly fruitless battle with bureaucrats, they are frustrated that
former detainees can pursue compensation for psychological damage but
former officers cannot. Gigney continues to try to find work. In his home
town of Whyalla the mining boom is in full swing, but being sound of body
is not enough for him to take advantage of it. He has just made his second
attempt to get a truck driver's licence. He would pulled over to answer his
phone when a water truck went past, triggering a flashback to the water
cannon used during riots at Woomera, and an incident involving children. He
sat in the cabin and wept. In the suburban Adelaide pub where she works as
a kitchenhand, Wiltshire shares a drink with another former officer,
Barbara Zillner. The camaraderie among former officers is akin to that
between Vietnam War veterans - no one else comprehends what they went
through. In 2000 Wiltshire, a single mother doing it tough, saw Woomera as
a chance to escape the poverty trap. Like others, she broke down, diagnosed
with an adjustment disorder. Her road to recovery has been hard, but she
now holds down a job and a relationship. Having recovered a measure of
equilibrium in her life, she looks back and wonders at what she went
through. "I was proud to be a detention centre officer, protecting
Australia's borders. Then I changed. I became a monster, a cowboy, like all
the other officers. They were all driven crazy. When I look back, I just
think - what the hell did I do that for? To end up hating people for no
reason."
March 3, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
A DAY of turmoil in the nation's immigration system ended with the
Federal Government backing down on several fronts yesterday. It agreed to
pay damages to a boy traumatised in detention and allowed a deported
Melbourne man to return to Australia on humanitarian grounds. A damning
report released by an independent auditor yesterday also raised questions
about a successful 2003 bid by the immigration detention contractor GSL,
whose contract the Government refused to renew on Wednesday. In Sydney, an
11-year-old Iranian, Shayan Badraie, was offered damages for trauma he
suffered in Woomera and Villawood detention centres. The move comes after a
63-day Supreme Court hearing. While in detention between March 2000 and
August 2001, the boy became severely traumatised after witnessing riots, a
stabbing and a string of other disturbing incidents. He subsequently spent
94 days in hospital, and still requires treatment. Commonwealth lawyers
approached lawyers representing Shayan this week to offer a settlement for
damages. The exact sum will be fixed at a hearing this morning but is
expected to be more than $1 million. Meanwhile, the immigration detention
contractor GSL was found to have been hired even though it was more
expensive and provided inferior services to competitors, the National Audit
Office announced yesterday. GSL's bid was $32.6 million higher than that of
the incumbent detention centre operator, ACM, when the latter's bid
expired. The audit office found the basis on which ACM was paid $5.7
million after it missed out on the contract was "doubtful", since
the department was only required to compensate for matters pertaining to
detention. Immigration could not provide evidence of the criteria under
which the sum was paid. The audit also found the head of the steering
committee, which was heavily involved in the evaluation of the bids, gave a
reference for ACM's bid. An independent probity adviser told the steering
committee seven months later that this should not happen again.
July 29, 2004
Two murals border a grassy patch in the fenced-in
adult education compound of the Baxter immigration detention centre.
Goldfish feature in one. The other, still being painted by detainees
yesterday, is an abstract composition of nine blue eyes and brown faces.
For the first time since the fires in 2002, journalists were allowed in the
centre. An Iranian detainee, who said he had been in detention for about
four years, waited until the Immigration Department official was out of
earshot before he started whispering to the Herald. The mural of the
eyes represented confusion, he explained. "People don't know
what they're doing, they've lost their personality, they don't know what
happens to them," he said. And the fish? "If you scream
underwater, nobody hears your voice, if you're crying, nobody
hears." One area the media had never seen before was the grim
"Management Unit", where detainees with behavioural issues are
put into solitary confinement - sometimes for more than a month at a
time. The Red compound, burnt during the fires in 2002, is for
"problem" detainees who have come out of the "Management
Unit" and are being "re-integrated" into the general
detention centre population. There were no detainees in the Red
compound yesterday either - just empty non-carpeted rooms with metal
furniture bolted to the floor and a peephole for guards to look through
when doing their head counts each night. (Sidney Morning Mail)
November 20, 2003
A High Court judge has cleared the way for a challenge to Australia's
detention laws that could ultimately result in all children being released
from immigration detention centres. High Court Justice Kenneth Hayne
ruled in Melbourne yesterday that the challenge, launched by refugee
advocate Eric Vadarlis, could proceed to a February hearing before the
court's full bench. The legal action aims to free four child detainees from
South Australia's Baxter Detention Centre on the grounds that the detention
of children for administrative purposes is unconstitutional. (The
Age)
July 30, 2003
An Iranian man at the Baxter detention centre has refused to eat for
the past 18 days after his seven-year-old daughter was sent back to
Iran, the Australian Democrats said today. Kate Reynolds,
Democrats' social justice spokeswoman in South Australia's upper house,
called for authorities to provide medical care and grief counseling to
Amin Mastipour (Amin Mastipour), who was on a hunger strike in a Baxter
isolation unit. "I cannot believe that this man's child - who
has been with him for the past five years - has been torn away from him
like this," Ms Reynolds said. (Sidney Morning News)
July 27, 2003
Alamdar Bakhtiyari, who has spent three of his mere 15 years living in
detention, says he never wants to come out. He says he feels safer behind
Baxter detention centre's razor wire. As he sits with The Age,
his angry father at his side, Alamdar is edgy, fearful. His face switches
like a flashing light, now scowling, now smiling. When he does speak,
his words tumble out filled with accusations and disbelief. "It is not
fair you come and talk to us, and then you go home to your family and a
nice house and we stay here. We are not free to leave. You have lovely
homes and families, but all we have is nothing, not even our freedom.
"I am not allowed to enjoy freedom like other boys. It makes me crazy,
I hate it here. I hate Australia. I am not a criminal, I have done nothing
wrong." Then the switch is thrown again. "You know what ACM
stands for?" he says flashing a smile. "Always Changing their
Minds." Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) is the private
company that runs Baxter and decides what Alamdar can and cannot do.
After almost three years of detention, Alamdar, with his younger brother
Montazar (Monty), bears all the signs of someone completely institutionalised.
His fear of the outside world outweighs his fear of incarceration. He says
his life has been torn apart by the competing forces in Australia's
immigration debate: the refugee activists, the lawyers, the media and
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock. Alamdar carries the scars of
detention, some of which are still visible. At the height of the Woomera
turmoil, when riots and hunger strikes were commonplace and teenage
detainees were threatening to kill themselves and drinking shampoo, Alamdar
stitched his lips together. Out of frustration he slashed himself
repeatedly with razor blades, and in a moment of deep despair he gouged the
word "freedom" into his forearm. (The Age)
April 21, 2003
South Australian police have apologized to protestors after a heavily
tactical response squad drove into their camp near the Baxter detention
centre searching for a rifle that had allegedly been aimed at a police
helicopter. The search of the site turned up a camera tripod. A
total of 33 people were arrested during the three-day Easter protest
against mandatory detention of asylum seekers. More than 350 police
were on hand for the protests. But as protesters left, riot police
charged at selected groups to clear them from the area. (The Age)
April 18, 2003
Police clashed with protesters outside the Baxter detention centre today
after demonstrators climbed barricades and tried to march on the
centre. Ignoring police appeals to remain beyond a roadblock erected
to seal access to the centre, hundreds of protesters confronted police in a
tense stand-off this afternoon. Some protesters climbed the
barricades and attempted to make their way on foot to the centre's main
gates, before a second line of police blocked their path and began
confiscating camping equipment. Hundreds of protesters from around
Australia have converged on Port Augusta to rally against the government's
treatment of asylum seekers. Some 300 police officers were redeployed
to Port Augusta this weekend, after last year's Easter rally at the Woomera
detention centre, during which detainees staged several mass escapes with
the help of demonstrators. Refugee Action Collective protest
organiser Fleur Taylor, from Melbourne, said centre manager Australasian
Correctional Management (ACM), authorized by the Department of Immigration
(DIMIA), had increased punishment of Baxter detainees. (The Age)
March 10, 2003
Two men who escaped from the Baxter immigration detention centre last night
spent just hours on the run before being recaptured by South Australian
police early today. Police said the men fled into bushland north of
the Port Augusta facility at 11.18pm (CDT). A search involving local
police and Australian Federal Police was organised, including the use of a
police aircraft. (The Age)
January 3, 2003
It was meant to be the
new, friendlier face of Australia's asylum seeker policy.
Although an electrified fence runs around the outside, and
security cameras are everywhere except in private areas, the
rooms are modern. There is more grass and play area for children
than in other centres. But today part of Baxter
lies in ruins, and along with it any hope of an easy resolution to the
fate of Australia's asylum seekers.
Just after midnight on
Friday last week a fire broke out in an empty room in Red 1, a
men's compound at Baxter. Although detainees cannot possess
matches or lighters, arsonists may have made a lighter from
electric wiring or a toaster. They had mattresses and newspapers - plenty
of fuel. Two nights later, a bigger fire was lit in Red 1. Staff tried
to put it out but did not have enough water. Fire
crews arrived, people were banging on doors to wake those still asleep.
Many detainees were collapsing from smoke inhalation.
At about 3pm that day more
fires were lit. Desperate to get out but told not to,
detainees broke down the gate and tried to break out of the
compound. Guards in riot gear confronted them. When some
detainees were asked why they had started the fire they replied:
"We were trying to get away. The centre is
making us crazy." By Sunday night the fires were spreading, first to
Port Hedland detention centre, later to Woomera, Christmas
Island and Villawood. The "ferocity" of the actions took guards by
surprise, an ACM employee said.
On December 17, newspapers
in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne published the same
article. Carrying headlines such as "Five Star Asylums"
and "It's not all mriots at our Club Fed", it reported
that detainees enjoyed luxuries such as gyms, Foxtel, DVDs and yoga classes.
The article, and a similar
one in a Port Hedland newspaper, made some people in the Port
Hedland detention centre "very angry," says the
town's Uniting Church minister, Bev Fabb. She says most of
the article's information was wrong for Port Hedland. The article
also troubled Harry Minas of the Federal
Government's Independent Detention Advisory Group.
Neither Professor Minas
nor Ms Fabb suggest a direct link between the article and the
arson but many asylum seeker advocates feel the article helped
to exacerbate what one advocate describes as a "huge
deterioration" in the mood of detainees in the past month.
A shift is under way in
the centres. Numbers are dwindling. No boat has reached
Australia for 14 months. Baxter, Woomera and Port Hedland are
way below capacity. On New Year's Eve the Immigration Department
handed a letter to 488 detainees in Baxter, Port Hedland
and Woomera. The letter said most of them had been rejected as refugees
and had "no right to remain in this country . . . You can
choose to bring your detention to an end at any time by leaving
Australia". According to what an Iranian detainee told asylum
seeker advocate Ian Knowles, a group of men, infuriated
by the letter, marched to the immigration office and demanded to be
deported straight away. Guards in riot gear pushed them back to a
compound. ACM confirmed that tear gas was used.
Mr Minas adds:
"People are saying, 'It's their (the detainees') own bloody fault',
and in a way it is. "But people have to ask what makes this group
prefer be in a detention centre environment rather than
to go go home. "They are not choosing a soft life in
Australia." (The Age)
January 3, 2003
Thirteen pairs of scissors, two chisels, home-made weapons, broken glass
panels and lighter fluid have been found after searches in Australia's
seven immigration detention centres. But strip searches of the 132
men detained at Baxter and Woomera in South Australia, conducted this week,
apparently uncovered little. An Immigration Department statement refers
only to two mobile phones and one screwdriver being found. The
five-day spree of violence in five of the seven immigration detention
centres has left a damages bill of $8.4 million. The bill climbed
$400,000 yesterday after the Immigration Department revealed the cost of
fires at Christmas Island four days ago. (The Age)
December 29, 2002
Asylum seekers who caused
more than $2 million in damage by using bedding and furniture to fuel six
separate fires at the three-month-old Baxter Detention Centre in South
Australia face jail terms before being deported. One of the centre's nine compounds was
destroyed after five fires began simultaneously early yesterday, and 13
people, including two guards, were taken to hospital.
Forty-seven detainees were
evacuated to another compound within the centre, where another big fire
broke out shortly after 3.30pm.
Eighty-one rooms were destroyed, including 17 in the second
compound. Two en suite units were destroyed and a mess hall was damaged. According to the Department of Immigration
website, riots in detention centres have caused more than $5 million in
damage over the past 18 months. More than three-quarters of this has
occurred at Woomera Detention Centre, where six buildings were destroyed in
riots in August 2000 and a further three burnt during riots in November
last year. (Sidney Morning Hearld)
December 27, 2002
Inmates at South Australia's Baxter detention centre used mattresses and
newspapers to light three fires that gutted a complex of four rooms,
Australasian Correctional Management said yesterday. The fires, which
caused an estimated $60,000 damage, have been referred by the Department of
Immigration to Australian Federal Police for investigation. A
spokesman for Australasian Correctional Management, which is contracted to
run the Baxter immigration detention centre, said the fires had been lit in
the single men's complex, which included two bedrooms and two toilet
areas. (The Age)
November 6, 2002
Up to 30 detainees at South Australia's Baxter detention centre were hit by
nearly 50 guards in full riot gear last week and then refused medical
treatment, according to an asylum seeker. Afghan Fahim Shah said
about eight detainees were hurt last Thursday's attack in the mess where
about 30 people were eating dinner. "They threw my plate and
beat me with the stick and pushed me three times with the shield to go
outside from the mess," he said. He said there had been two
other incidents of brutality by Australasian Correctional Management guards
at the centre since it opened about six weeks ago. (The Age)
Ben
Reid Community CF, Houston, Texas (AKA Southeast
Texas Transitional Center)
Oct
8, 2012 HoustonPress.com
The rapist of a 16-year-old girl is the latest sexual predator to slip
through the sieve that is the privately run Southeast Texas Transitional
Center. Thomas Lee Elkins, convicted of aggravated kidnapping and sexual
assault in 1991, absconded from the facility, 10950 Old Beaumont Highway,
October 5, according to reports. He's the sixth offender to float away from
Southeast in 24 months. Formerly known as the Ben A. Reid Community
Correctional Facility, Southeast is run by the Florida-based GEO Group,
which, despite its appalling track record in Texas and elsewhere, keeps
getting sweet state contracts. But hey, what's the big deal about losing a
child rapist or two, right? Elkins is 6-3, about 200 lbs., and has a
"Fu Manchu" mustache, which we're totally sure he hasn't shaved.
We're also sure GEO Group won't have to pay any sort of penalty for this escape.
They certainly weren't held accountable when another resident, Anthony Ray
Ferrell, took a stroll in October 2010 and wound up gunning down a Good
Samaritan who tried to stop Ferrell from stealing a woman's purse at a gas
station. Look, clearly the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has more
important things to do -- like monitor employees' Facebook use -- than make
sure its contractors, like, keep the public safe and stuff. Anyone want to
take bets on how long it'll be before another degenerate escapes?
April
6, 2012 Houston Press Blogs
A high-risk child rapist who hopped over his halfway house's barbed wire
fence Thursday night is the fifth sex offender to abscond from the
privately run Southeast Texas Transitional Center in 18 months. According
to the Houston Chronicle story linked above, authorities say Michael Elbert
Young, who might be "mentally unstable if not taking medication,"
removed his electronic tracking monitor. He was "released from prison
after serving eight years for two aggravated assault convictions. Both were
sex related. He also served a 20-year term for sexual assault of a child
and attempted aggravated sexual assault." Oh, and he has a history of
using knives. Owned and operated by Florida-based GEO Group, the facility
at 10950 Old Beaumont Highway was formerly known as the Ben A. Reid
Community Correctional Facility. Apparently, since GEO can't keep track of
its convicted sexual predators, it just figured changing the name would
solve the problem. After all, it's much cheaper than hiring a competent
staff and improving security. In October 2010, Anthony Ray Ferrell walked
out of Southeast Texas/Ben A. Reid, and was later charged with gunning down
a Good Samaritan who intervened when Ferrell allegedly tried to snatch a
woman's purse inside a gas station convenience store. A week before Ferrell
strolled off the grounds, Bruce McCain, convicted of two sexual assaults in
1986, fled the facility. In December 2010, Arthur William Brown, who had
served 31 years for aggravated sexual assault of two women and a
16-year-old, did the same. A month after that, sex offender Timothy Rosales
Jr. absconded. Although some of these folks were caught, the problem is, as
we wrote earlier, the place is like a freaking sieve, and GEO has a sweet
contract with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice: There's apparently
no repercussion for escapes, and once a resident absconds, it's no longer
GEO's problem. All GEO personnel have to do is pick up a phone and notify
real-life law enforcement officers. Thanks, GEO. We certainly feel safer
with y'all at the wheel. And thanks, TDCJ, for continuing to do business
with them.
January 25, 2011 KTRK
High risk, armed and dangerous are the words being used to describe a sex
offender who absconded from a Houston halfway house on Monday night. It's
been nearly 24 hours since Timothy Rosales, Jr. disappeared from the
halfway house and he is no where to be found. The Texas Department of
Public Safety has since added him to it's Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives
list. Related Content More: Got a story idea? Let us know! Rosales was
doing maintenance work in the lobby of the Reid Center on Beaumont Highway
around 6:15pm Monday when he bolted through the front door, cut off his
electronic monitoring device around his ankle and fled. Rosales then did
not report back to his parole officer and a warrant was issued for his
arrest. Across the street at Melba's Country Kitchen, the owner and her
staff had no idea he'd absconded until today. Melba Barfield says she has
no reservations being this close to a halfway house where offenders can
leave, so long as they have an approved schedule. "I've been here nine
years and I've had absolutely no problems from the guys at the halfway
house. I know that several have walked away but they haven't stopped here
to get my dollar," said Barfield.
January 25, 2011 Houston Press Blogs
Timothy Rosales Jr. is the first rapist of 2011 to escape from the
privately run Ben Reid halfway house, and the second to escape in a little
over a month. The 39-year-old sex offender fled from the Beaumont Highway
facility around 6:15 Monday night, according to the Department of Public
Safety. He's considered armed and dangerous. And, like Arthur William
Brown, the rapist who escaped in late December, he was able to remove his electronic
monitoring ankle bracelet. We wrote about the unsecured Reid facility, and
its parent company, the Florida-based GEO Group, in December. Two months
before the story ran, Anthony Ray Ferrell escaped from Reid and allegedly
shot and killed a 24-year-old good Samaritan who intervened in a gas
station purse-snatching. Another rapist split the Reid facility a few weeks
before Ferrell slipped out. Although the place is like a freaking sieve,
there is nothing in GEO's contract with the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice about a maximum number of vicious sexual predators that can be let
loose on the public in a given amount of time. And once these monsters step
off the Reid premises, they're no longer GEO's problem: It is up to actual
real-life law enforcement officers to apprehend the escapees. All GEO
personnel need to do is pick up the phone and make a few calls once they
realize an offender hasn't returned on time. Needless to say, we're a
little concerned about the kind of people who are standing between the
public and some armed asshole who likes to rape 16-year-old kids. You know
who doesn't need to worry? GEO's top executives. Their salaries and
benefits are secure. They will continue to make money off the Reid
facility. And besides, their families don't live anywhere near the
facility. So what in the world would they have to worry about?
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.
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.
Bill
Clayton Detention Center, Littlefield, Texas
Texas
prison boom going bust: by Mitch Mitchell, September 3, 2011, Star-Telegram.
Expose on troubles facing many communities that bought into the private
prison bonding scam.
Wanted:
Inmates and Investors Texas Lockups Go on the Block: July 19,
2011, Bond Buyer: Private prison bonding not panacea.
September 16, 2011 KCBD
After auctioning off the Bill Clayton Detention Center back in July,
the City of Littlefield thought they were free from the financial strains.
However, the private bidder has backed out of their $6 million offer. The
private buyer made the offer via telephone during the July auction. Thirty
days after the bid, the contract on the property was supposed to close.
However, the City received word that the deal had fallen through. "It
didn't happen and the reason it didn't happen was because the person who
put in the highest bid basically backed out on their bid and kind of put us
in a tailspin," City Manager Danny Davis said. After years of
mismanagement and broken contracts, the $11 million dollar detention center
sat vacant. The city was left to foot the bill, still owing more than $9
million on the property. The city was certain the bid of $6 million would
help close the gap on their debt. The news of the bidder's change of heart
is frustrating for Davis. "With the detention center, nothing has
happened easy. It's been a struggle for us all along, so, in some ways, we
were not that surprised that we've got a continued struggle," Davis
said. It was a struggle that listing agent Jef Conn says he wasn't entirely
surprised by. "We always hope for the best and plan for the worst.
It's never the best when a contract falls out," Conn said. Conn says
he is working with the City of Littlefield to come up with a plan to get
the detention center sold. "There are some interested parties and we
will be working with them and the city of Littlefield to find the best
possible option and have them come in and buy the prison," Conn said.
For Davis, he is hopeful the detention center can be sold quickly to
alleviate concerns all across the board. "I'm retiring in two weeks,
and I was very hopeful that this would be one problem my successor wouldn't
have to deal with," Davis said.
July 28, 2011 Dallas Morning News
A debt-ridden West Texas town auctioned off the empty prison at the source
of its money problems for $6 million Thursday morning. A private prison
company bought the Bill Clayton Detention Center from the city of
Littlefield, whose approximately 5,700 residents had barely been scraping
by to pay the $9 million they still owed on the facility. The company
placed their offer as a confidential bidder and is requesting to remain
that way until the 30-day period for settling the sale is complete,
according to Jef Conn, a real estate specialist for Coldwell Banker
Commercial Rick Canup Realtors. The five-pod facility was built in 2000 by
hopeful city officials wanting to rake in revenue for the small cotton-growing
town. Instead, Littlefield was saddled with more than $9 million in debt
once prisoners were pulled out and the private company operating the center
left. After the sale, Littlefield will only owe between $3 million and $4
million on the facility, officials said.
July 27, 2011 American Independent
City officials in Littlefield have big hopes for tomorrow morning’s
auction, where a minimum bid of $5 million could be enough to buy your own
little slice of Panhandle heaven: the 383-bed Bill Clayton Detention
Center. It’s being billed as a “turn-key medium security detention center,”
a 383-bed bargain with slick promotions courtesy the Williams and Williams
Worldwide Real Estate Auction house. The 11-year-old prison was refurbished
in 2005, and looks great in the slideshows and teaser trailers produced for
the auction. (Here’s a longer video tour, but scroll down for a look at the
best one, a “Battlestar Galactica” inspired tour, all quick cuts and
drums.) For the City of Littlefield, though, the prison’s last couple years
haven’t been such a thrill ride. The town paid for the prison with a $10
million bond issue, planning for a bright future with the Texas Youth
Commission. But after TYC pulled pulled its charges from the facility in
2003, Littlefield’s credit rating suffered as the South Florida-based
private prison giant GEO Group shopped around the country for inmates to
fill its beds — first with Wyoming’s, then with Idaho’s Department of
Corrections. Idaho pulled its prisoners in 2008, GEO Group after them, and
the town’s been stuck with the empty prison it hasn’t finished paying for.
Now it’s raising taxes and fees on its 6,500 residents to make room for
bond payments. The empty prison is the driving force behind cuts to the
city budget this year, according to a City Manager’s message in the budget:
The budget for 2010-2011 has presented new challenges for us since the debt
payments for the Bill Clayton Detention Center (BCDC) have been pushed
front and center by the lack of a source of prisoners to provide a revenue
stream for those bond payments. Earlier this week, The Bond Buyer looked at
the Bill Clayton facility and a handful of others now sitting empty around
Texas. While many towns found ways to avoid leaving taxpayers on the hook
if operators left, that didn’t happen here: Like many of the speculative
detention centers built in sparsely populated counties, the Clayton
facility was meant to be an economic stimulus instead of an economic drain.
But Littlefield took the somewhat unusual step of pledging its full faith
and credit to the bonds. City officials were either on vacation or didn’t
reply to interview requests from the Independent. The advocacy group
Grassroots Leadership has made a case study of Bill Clayton, warning of the
hidden dangers private prisons can create for a town, and folks with the
group say Texas’ shrinking prison population doesn’t tell the half of the
Littlefield story. “This was like a soap opera,” said Grassroots Leadership
executive director Donna Red Wing, recalling a 2004 prison break police
said was aided by a pair of guards, and a 2008 suicide that sparked a suit
against GEO Group from the family of the inmate, alleging he’d been left in
solitary for more than a year. “You couldn’t make this stuff up, the
stories are horrible,” Red Wing said. “If you wrote that screenplay, they
wouldn’t take it.” When the Idaho DOC left the Clayton facility in 2008,
state Correction Director Brent Reinke said it was pulling out because of
“an ongoing staffing issue,” the Associated Press reported at the time,
referring to an Idaho audit that found guards had been falsifying reports
of their inmate checks. “Littlefield is a difficult place to have a
facility. It’s a long way from an employment base,” said Grassroots
Leadership’s Bob Libal, who edits the blog Texas Prison Bid’ness. Libal
said the Clayton facility was part of a much greater prison-building rush
around Texas that ended around 2007, followed by national searches for
inmates to fill them. The only growth lately, Libal said, has been in
facilities for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A $35 million prison in
Jones County was built by New Jersey-based Community Education Centers last
summer, and now sits empty, as local TV station KTXS reported, “ready to
bring nearly 200 jobs to the area.” In that case, the county formed a
Public Facility Corporation to help minimize the taxpayers’ liability — but
Libal said it could still mean trouble for the county because its credit
rating is still tied to the prison debt. In January, Littlefield officials
hoped the Texas Department of Criminal Justice would sign off on an
application from Avalon Correctional Services to operate the prison, but
nothing came of it. Now the city just wants it off the books, even at half
of what they paid. NPR featured both the Clayton facility and Jones
County’s new prison back in March, before Littlefield had announced its
auction: “Too many times we’ve seen jails that have got into it and tried
to make it a profitable business to make money off of it and they end up
fallin’ on their face,” says Shannon Herklotz, assistant director of the
[Texas Commission on Jail Standards]. The packages look sweet. A town gets
a new detention center without costing the taxpayers anything. The private
operator finances, constructs and operates an oversized facility. The
contract inmates pay off the debt and generate extra revenue. The economic
model works fine until they can’t find inmates.
July 14, 2011 Willams Auction
This is a unique opportunity to acquire a turn-key medium security
detention center in Littlefield, TX. New owners will benefit from support
from the town that built the facility, the area's low cost of living as
well as a ready local workforce. Conveying with the buildings on auction
day are furniture, linens, computers, kitchen supplies and other equipment
used in the operation of the facility. Located approximately 45 minutes
northwest of Lubbock, it is easily accessible from Highway 84, the
Littlefield Municipal Airport, as well as Preston Smith International
Airport. The Bill Clayton Detention Center was built in 2000 and updated in
2005. Standing on 30+/- acres, the center has 94,437+/- sq ft of space. It
consists of five one-story air-conditioned buildings constructed of
concrete block with a brick veneer and pitch seamed metal roofs. It has a
capacity of 383 inmates in 5 housing pods, complete with dayrooms and other
amenities. The buildings are contained behind a strengthened perimeter of
double fences with an electronic shaker detection system and eight video
surveillance cameras. Approximately 10 acres are contained within the
fence. The facility also has a freestanding gymnasium, maintenance shed,
armory and parking lot. At the opening bid of $5 million, the cost per bed
is approximately $13,055!
May 19, 2011 Bradenton Herald
Fitch Ratings has taken the following action on Littlefield, Texas'
combination tax and revenue certificates of obligation (COs) during the
course of routine surveillance: --$1 million combination tax and revenue
COs, series 1997 affirmed at 'BB+'. -- The Rating Outlook is Negative. --
RATING RATIONALE: --The 'BB+' rating and Negative Outlook reflect the
ongoing financial pressures resulting from Littlefield's challenges in servicing
outstanding debt issued for a now vacant detention center. The city tapped
reserve funds to help make the August 2010 debt service payments on the
series 2000 and 2001 COs (not rated by Fitch); $268,825 was used from the
combined reserves - that money has since been repaid and the reserves are
fully funded. No reserve funds were used to make February 2011 payments.
--Despite ongoing efforts to find a new tenant/operator, the city's
detention center remains empty. The city council recently entered into a
contract with an auction company to auction off the facility within 120
days. --Financial resources to make debt service payments have been aided
by the adoption in fall 2010 of a debt service property tax and transfers
from the city's two economic development corporations' sales tax revenues;
transfers from the city's water and wastewater utility fund, which are
secondary pledged revenues for the Series 1997 COs, remain the main source
of debt service support. --General fund finances remain weak, with limited
reserves. -- WHAT COULD TRIGGER A DOWNGRADE A failed auction would maintain
financial pressure on the city, forcing it to continue with the current
practice of cobbling together debt service payment amounts from various
sources; utility system cash levels could decline and additional reserve
fund draws could occur. -- SECURITY: The series 1997 COs are payable from
and secured by a limited ad valorem tax pledge against all taxable property
in the city, plus surplus revenues of the city's waterworks and sanitary
sewer system. -- CREDIT SUMMARY: The city has been unable to locate a new
tenant and/or permanent operator of its detention facility since the State
of Idaho removed its prisoners in January 2009 and the GEO Group terminated
its operating agreement at the same time. With no facility revenues to
service the debt associated with the facility, the city in subsequent
months patched together payments from various city sources, primarily
available revenues of the water and wastewater utility system. The city was
current on its payments until August 2010, when legal questions surrounding
the city's ability to use sales tax revenues from its 4A economic
development corporation delayed use of those funds. The city used nearly
$269,000 from the debt service reserves associated with the series 2000 and
2001 COs issued for the detention center to make the August 2010 payment on
these COs. Since then, the legal question regarding use of economic
development corporation sales tax revenues has been resolved favorably for
the city and the debt service reserves were fully replenished. Also, last
fall the city council established a debt service property tax for the first
time, which is expected to generate roughly $115,000 annually to help meet
debt service requirements. Finally, Littlefield voters last fall approved
the creation of a second 4B economic development corporation (also with
sales tax collection authority), and that corporation's sales tax receipts
will supplement the revenue stream. The combination of sales tax revenues
and property tax revenues, a utility system transfer and a loan of other
city funds enabled the city to make the February 2011 principal and
interest payment on the detention center COs without tapping the reserve
funds. Acknowledging the difficulty in securing new prisoners for the
facility, the city recently executed a contract with a national auction
house which will put into motion the process of auctioning off the
detention facility within 120 days. Management reports that a $5 million
reserve (minimum bid) will be included in the bid specifications. While a
sale at this price will not retire the $9.5 million outstanding in related
CO debt, it would enable the city to call a significant portion of the COs,
reduce the annual debt requirement correspondingly, and relieve the current
financial pressure measurably. Conversely, a failed auction will mean the
city continues with its current practice of piecing together city revenues
from various sources to meet debt payments - a challenging prospect that
will keep pressure very high. Financial flexibility remains limited. The
general fund balance is modest, with the city recording a $17,000 fund
balance at fiscal 2010 year-end, or less than 1% of expenditures and
transfers out. While the water and sewer fund maintains healthy liquidity
and has historically provided significant general fund and detention center
fund support, available surplus funds are expected to decline going forward
as excess revenues are used to continue support of the general fund. The
new debt service property tax and additional sales tax revenues help, but
do not eliminate the need for utility system support. Utility debt service
support was budgeted at more than $390,000 for fiscal 2011, or 50% of the
$781,000 annual CO debt requirement. If the auction fails, reliance on
utility system transfers until the COs are retired does not appear
feasible; an alternative permanent solution would need to be devised.
Littlefield, with a population of nearly 6,400, is located approximately 35
miles northwest of Lubbock and serves as the county seat for Lamb County.
The area is primarily rural in nature, with agriculture services,
government, manufacturing, and trade as key components of the county's
economy. County unemployment rates have risen, with a 7.6% posted for
February 2011; however, the rate remains below the statewide average of
8.2%. While there is moderate taxpayer concentration among the top 10
taxpayers, there is generally a good mix of industries within the list.
March 28, 2011 NPR
Private Prison Promises Leave Texas Towns In Trouble by John Burnett The
country with the highest incarceration rate in the world — the United
States — is supporting a $3 billion private prison industry. In Texas,
where free enterprise meets law and order, there are more for-profit
prisons than any other state. But because of a growing inmate shortage,
some private jails cannot fill empty cells, leaving some towns wishing
they'd never gotten in the prison business. It seemed like a good idea at the
time when the west Texas farming town of Littlefield borrowed $10 million
and built the Bill Clayton Detention Center in a cotton field south of town
in 2000. The charmless steel-and-cement-block buildings ringed with razor
wire would provide jobs to keep young people from moving to Lubbock or
Dallas. For eight years, the prison was a good employer. Idaho and Wyoming
paid for prisoners to serve time there. But two years ago, Idaho pulled out
all of its contract inmates because of a budget crunch at home. There was
also a scandal surrounding the suicide of an inmate. Shortly afterward, the
for-profit operator, GEO Group, gave notice that it was leaving, too. One
hundred prison jobs disappeared. The facility has been empty ever since. A
Hard Sell "Maybe ... he'll help us to find somebody," says
Littlefield City Manager Danny Davis good-naturedly when a reporter shows
up for a tour. For sale or contract: a 372-bed, medium-security prison with
double security fences, state-of-the-art control room, gymnasium, law
library, classrooms and five living pods. Davis opens the gray steel door
to a barren cell with bunk beds and stainless-steel furniture. "You
can see the facility here. [It's] pretty austere, but from what I
understand from a prison standpoint, it's better than most," he says,
still trying to close the sale. For the past two years, Littlefield has had
to come up with $65,000 a month to pay the note on the prison. That's $10
per resident of this little city. A Resident Burden Is the empty prison a
big white elephant for the city of Littlefield? "Is it something we
have that we'd rather not have? Well, today that would probably be the
case," Davis says. To avoid defaulting on the loan, Littlefield has
raised property taxes, increased water and sewer fees, laid off city
employees and held off buying a new police car. Still, the city's bond
rating has tanked. The village elders drinking coffee at the White Kitchen
cafe are not happy about the way things have turned out. "It was never
voted on by the citizens of Littlefield; [it] is stuck in their craw,"
says Carl Enloe, retired from Atmos Energy. "They have to pay for it.
And the people who's got it going are all up and gone and they left us...
" "...Holdin' the bag!" says Tommy Kelton, another Atmos
retiree, completing the sentence. The Declining Prison Population The same
thing has happened to communities across Texas. Once upon a time, it seems
every small town wanted to be a prison town. But the 20-year private prison
building boom is over. Some prisons are struggling outside Texas, too.
Hardin, Mont., defaulted on its bond payments after trying, so far
unsuccessfully, to fill its 464-bed minimum security prison. And a prison
in Huerfano County, Colo., closed after Arizona pulled out its 700 inmates.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the total correctional
population in the United States is declining for the first time in three
decades. Among the reasons: The crime rate is falling, sentencing
alternatives mean fewer felons doing hard time and states everywhere are
slashing budgets. The Texas legislature, looking for budget cuts, is
contemplating shedding 2,000 contract prison beds. Statewide, more than
half of all privately operated county jail beds are empty, according to
figures from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. "Too many times
we've seen jails that have got into it and tried to make it a profitable
business to make money off of it and they end up fallin' on their
face," says Shannon Herklotz, assistant director of the commission.
The packages look sweet. A town gets a new detention center without costing
the taxpayers anything. The private operator finances, constructs and
operates an oversized facility. The contract inmates pay off the debt and
generate extra revenue. The economic model works fine until they can't find
inmates. In Waco, McLennan County borrowed $49 million to build an 816-bed
jail and charge day rates for bunk space. But today because of the convict
shortage, the fortress east of town remains more than half empty. The sheriff
and county judge, once champions of the new jail, now decline to comment on
it. Former McLennan County Deputy Rick White, who opposed the jail, had
this to say about the prison developers who put the deal together:
"They get the corporations formed, they get the bonds sold, they get
the facility built, their money is front-loaded, they take their money out.
And then there's no reason for them to support the success of the
facility." Two of Texas' busiest private prison consultants — James
Parkey and Herb Bristow — declined repeated requests for interviews. The
Inmate Market Private prison companies insist their future is sunny. A
spokesman for the GEO Group declined to speak about the Littlefield prison,
but he sent along a slew of press releases highlighting the company's new
inmate contracts and prison expansions across the country. Corrections
Corporation of America, the nation's largest private prison operator, says
the demand for its facilities remains strong, particularly for federal
immigration detainees. New Jersey-based Community Education Centers, which
has been pulling out of unprofitable jails across Texas, issued a statement
that "the current (jail) population fluctuation" is cyclical. One
of the places where CEC is cancelling its contract is Falls County, in
central Texas, where a for-profit jail addition is losing money. Now it's
up to Falls County Judge Steve Sharp to hustle up jailbirds: "If
somebody is out there charging $30 a day for an inmate, we need to charge
$28. We really don't have a choice of not filling those beds," he
said. Another place where they're desperate for inmates is Anson, the
little town north of Abilene, Texas, once famous for its no-dancing law.
Today, Jones County owns a brand-new $34 million prison and an $8 million
county jail, both of which sit empty. The prison developers made their
money and left. Then the Texas Department of Criminal Justice reneged on a
contract to fill the new prison with parole violators. The county's Public
Facility Corporation that borrowed the money to build the lockups owes
$314,000 a month — with no paying inmates. They've got a year's worth of
bond service payments set aside before county officials start to sweat.
"The market has changed nationwide in the last 18 months or two years.
It's certainly a different picture than when we started this project. And
so we're continuing to work the problem," Jones County Judge Dale
Spurgin says. Grayson County, north of Dallas, said no to privatizing its
jail. Two years ago, the county was all set to build a $30 million, 750-bed
behemoth twice as big as was needed. But the public got queasy and county
officials ultimately scuttled the deal. "When you put the profit
motive into a private jail, by design, in order to increase your dollars,
your revenues, your profits, you need more folks in there and they need to
stay longer," says Bill Magers, mayor of the county seat of Sherman, a
leading opponent. When the supply of prison beds exceeds the demand for
prison beds, there are beneficiaries. The overcrowded Harris County Jail in
Houston, the nation's third largest, farms out about 1,000 prisoners to
private jails. Littlefield and most other under-occupied facilities in
Texas have all been in touch with Houston. "It really is a buyer's
market right now, especially a county our size," says Capt. Robin
Kinetsky, who is in charge of inmate processing for the Harris County
Sheriffs Department. "They're really wanting to get our business. So,
we're getting good deals." Nearby, disheveled and unsmiling men are brought
from a holding cell to stand before a booking officer for their intake
interviews. The detainees are wholly unaware that they may soon become the
newest commodities of the volatile inmate market. Aarti Shahani contributed
to this NPR News investigation and report.
February 3, 2011 KCBD
While the Lubbock County Detention Center is filling up with inmates, other
counties are struggling to find an inmate. Taxpayers of those counties are
now being held prisoners by their own prisons as they're forced to pay the
price of empty facilities. About an hour from Lubbock, the Bill Clayton
Detention Center in Littlefield hasn't had a single inmate in the last two
years. "This was not built to house local inmates; it was built to
house inmates from other parts of the state or other parts of U.S. It was
built to bring economic development to the city of Littlefield," said
Danny Davis, Littlefield city manager. For a while it did bring money into
Littlefield, until the State of Idaho decided to remove its inmates from
the center when the economy tanked back in 2009. "Everybody was
cutting back it seemed, and it was very difficult to find other inmates
from out of state to come in and fill the facility," said Davis.
Nearly 100 people lost their job in the area, and with $9 million left to
pay for the now empty building, residents are stuck paying the price
through increased taxes and fees." Jokingly I've told people when I
took this job I weighed a lot more and had a lot more hair, so that's how I
guess you can say how the frustration level is. It has been a frustrating
situation for the whole community," said Davis. About two hours away
Dickens County faces a similar fate. Their contractor CEC didn't renew
their contract with the Dickens County Correctional Center. In mid-December
the remaining inmates were moved to Lubbock County's new facility, and
nearly 120 jobs were lost - huge hit to the small communities of Dickens
County. "It cost money to put people in jail. The state of the
economy, the governments don't have as much money. Our own state is cutting
the budget, and there's one way to save money…that's not to incarcerate
them, and so that's why I believe our inmate population is down," said
Lesa Arnold, Dickens County Judge. So far Dickens County hasn't had to increase
taxes to foot the prison's one million dollar bill each year, but that
option might soon surface. "We need to get this thing going within a
year, and hopefully a whole lot sooner than that before that issue comes up
as to who's going to make those bond payments," said Arnold. So how
can Lubbock County fill its newly built facility while these two and others
around the U.S. are failing? It comes down to why these facilities were
built in the first place. Littlefield and Dickens County didn't have an inmate
population for the large prisons they built; instead they were built to
make a profit for the towns by contracting out the prison cells to other
parts of the state and U.S. Lubbock on the other hand, needed the bigger
facility. All 1,063 inmates currently in the Lubbock County Detention
Center are from Lubbock County, which means their cells will constantly be
filled with a local inmate population. The other facilities are staying
hopeful a new inmate population will come their way. "I can't worry
about why we have it because that's in the past. I can only worry about
what can we do with it now that we have it, and that's what we work on
every day," said Davis.
January 3, 2011 Avalanche-Journal
The city of Littlefield comes into 2011 hoping it will have a new tenant
renting the Bill Clayton Detention Center in a few months. The prison,
which closed in January 2009 after the Idaho Department of Corrections
canceled a contract with private operator GEO Group and moved its prisoners
from Littlefield to Oklahoma. Since then, the city has stretched itself
financially to keep making payments on revenue bonds it issues to build the
facility, which opened in 2000 as a juvenile detention center. The present
ray of hope comes with Avalon Correctional Services, which has applied to
TDCJ to operate an Intermediate Sanction Facility, which is a short-term
facility that houses offenders who violate terms of their community
supervision or paroles. The state issued a request for proposals in June,
but no decisions have been made yet. “It’s been on (TDCJ’s) agenda a couple
of times, but reading between the lines, it’s probably waiting until the
state gets a better handle on its budget,” said Danny Davis, Littlefield’s
city manager.
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.
June 17, 2010 Courthouse News
A man claims a corrupt private prison company, The GEO Group, bribed the
government to get contracts and then abused inmates, including his father,
who died at the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas, from
"grossly inhumane treatment, abuse, neglect, illegal and malicious
conditions of confinement." Daniel McCullough sued Texas-based GEO
Group and its top executives, all of Florida, and the warden of the jail
where his father, Randall, died on Aug. 18, 2008. In his complaint in Comal
County Court, Daniel McCullough says his father "was found dead after
supposedly being monitored by GEO and its personnel." The complaint states:
"McCullough's death was caused by specific breaches of duty by the
Defendants ... who engaged in grossly inhumane treatment, abuse, neglect,
illegal conditions of confinement, and subsequent coverup of
wrongdoings." McCullough claims that "GEO and its personnel were
found to have fabricated evidence, including practicing 'pencil whipping,'
a policy and practice of GEO to destroy and fabricate log books and other
relevant evidence." He claims that GEO and its officers
"personally engage in efforts to illegally influence public officials
in Austin, Texas and in the Texas counties where the GEO prisons are
located, including Laredo, Webb County, Texas. Their goal is to conceal,
deflect, hide or exculpate themselves and their company from all forms of
personal civil or criminal liability, censure, detriment, or punishment in
order to procure and continue their lucrative contracts at the expense of
the inmates' and their families' suffering. They and their company, GEO,
engage in a pattern and practice of abuse, neglect, public corruption, and
cover up." McCullough claims that GEO and its officers "have a
history of illegally neglecting, manipulating, and abusing inmates, and
then covering up their wrongful and illegal conduct." He claims these
abuses include "making illegal payments to governmental entities in
exchange for contracts and permits; ... destruction of evidence and lying
to state investigators; and misrepresentations to state and governmental
entities regarding conditions inside their facilities." He seeks damages
of $595 million - GEO's net worth - for gross negligence, breach of duty,
wrongful death, and pain and suffering. He is represented by Ronald
Rodriguez of Laredo.
April 14, 2010 Business Wire
Fitch Ratings takes the following rating action on Littlefield, Texas'
(the city) as part of its continuous surveillance effort; --Approximately
$1.2 million in outstanding combination tax and revenue certificates of
obligation (COs), series 1997 rated 'BB.' The Rating Outlook remains
Negative. RATING RATIONALE: --The majority of the city's outstanding debt
is for a detention center (not rated by Fitch), which had been
self-supporting from detention center operations. However, both detention
center prisoners and the private operator left the facility in 2009, and
despite the city's active efforts to locate prisoners or sell the facility,
the detention center remains vacant. --The lack of a debt service tax levy
has resulted in considerable operating pressure. --A fully funded debt
service reserve remains in place, with the February 2010 principal and
interest payment made from available funds, primarily excess water and
sewer system revenues. Officials plan to make the next interest payment in
August 2010 from available funds as well, although there is a possibility
debt service reserve funds may be needed. --General fund reserves are
minimal; however, the water and sewer fund maintained about $800,000 in
unrestricted net assets for the close of fiscal 2009. The city is
considering making future detention center debt service payments from a
combination of budget reductions, available city funds, and the imposition
of an interest and sinking fund tax beginning in fiscal 2011. --The city's
tax base has shown moderate annual growth, and county unemployment rates,
although higher than a year ago, remain below the state and nation.
Proximity to the Lubbock metropolitan area offers additional employment
opportunities for residents.
August 24, 2009 Ad Hoc News
Fitch Ratings has downgraded to 'BB' from 'BBB-' the rating on Littlefield,
TX's (the city) outstanding $1.3 million combination tax and revenue
certificates of obligation (COs), series 1997, and removed the ratings from
Rating Watch Negative. The CO's constitute a general obligation of the
city, payable from ad valorem taxes limited to $2.50 per $100 taxable
assessed valuation (TAV). Additionally, the COs are secured by a pledge of
surplus water and sewer revenues. The Rating Outlook is Negative. The
downgrade reflects events related to the operation of the city's detention
center facility, which accounts for the majority of outstanding debt (which
was not rated by Fitch but is on parity with the series 1997 bonds). To the
surprise of city officials, Idaho announced their plans to leave the
Littlefield facility in January 2009, citing the need to consolidate all of
its out-of-state prisoners into a larger facility in Oklahoma. In addition,
the detention center's private operator, the Geo Group, unexpectedly
announced termination of their agreement to manage the facility effective
January 2009. The move to leave Littlefield by the Geo Group is
significant, given that the established private operator had made sizable
equity investments in the detention center reportedly totaling
approximately $2 million. In the past, the ability of the Geo Group to
quickly replace prisoners with little disruption in operations, as well as
their investment in the Littlefield detention center were cited as credit
strengths. On Dec. 9, 2008, Fitch placed the series 1997 bonds on Rating
Watch Negative, reflecting the city's active pursuit of various
alternatives to remedy the situation and possibly resolve it within the
next several months. Funds to repay debt service on detention center COs
through August 2010 had been identified through available city funds as
well as a debt service reserve fund. The city indicated to Fitch in May
2009 that it was in negotiations with another established jail operator
(the operator) to assume management of the Littlefield facility and that
the operator was attempting to secure an agreement with a federal agency to
house prisoners. Resolution or near resolution of this agreement was
expected by August 2009. However, the operator has yet to secure a prisoner
agreement and the timing for resolution remains uncertain. The downgrade to
'BB' reflects the uncertainty as to when and if the city can secure an
operator for the detention center as well as the city's limited financial
resources to repay the detention center debt. While the city continues to
pursue an agreement with the operator (and other private companies in the
event negotiations with the operator break down), the Negative Outlook
reflects the potential financial hardship placed on the city if a long-term
viable solution is not found. Although the detention center COs are also
secured by an ad valorem tax pledge, the city levies a property tax for
operations only. Officials report that the 2010 proposed budget does not
include any property tax levy for debt service, but the city is
investigating funding alternatives for future detention center debt
service. In order to fully support the detention center COs, the ad valorem
tax rate would have to double, which is not politically feasible.
December 13, 2008 Lubbock On-line
GEO Group Inc. says it has canceled its contract with the city of
Littlefield and plans to terminate 74 employees at the Bill Clayton
Detention Center effective Jan. 5 The Boca Raton-based Fla. company gave
official notice last month, filing a mass layoff Worker Adjustment and
Retraining Act letter with the city in accordance with federal law. The
letter was obtained by The Avalanche-Journal. Under the law, an
organization terminating 50 or more employees must give at least 60 days
notice. GEO's decision was made shortly after it learned its own contract
had been canceled with the Idaho Department of Corrections, which according
to the Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho, cited prisoner safety concerns.
IDOC had contracted with the for-profit corporation to house 300 of its
inmates in the one-time youth detention facility owned by the city. Some of
those inmates, according to the Times-News, will be transferred to the
North Fork Corrections Facility in Sayer, Okla., which is operated by
Corrections Corp. of America. "We understand the gravity of the
situation and the citizens' concerns, but we are working hard toward a
solution," said Danny Davis, Littlefield city manager, who was
informed about GEO's decision on Nov. 7. He said the city has since hired
Woodlands-based Carlisle & Associates, a municipal consultant, which
has been brought on board to sell the 372-bed prison. Littlefield, which
issued revenue bonds to construct the facility as part of an economic
development strategy, still owes $10 million. However, Davis said, the city
had already set aside a year's worth of bond payments as a precautionary
measure when it made the decision to build. "We have enough to make at
least the next three payments," adding the city should not have to tap
those reserve funds until August. Danny Soliz, director of business
services for WorkForce Solutions South Plains - the area's largest job
placement/training organization - said he met with Littlefield prison
guards during 12 hours of informational sessions Wednesday. "We'll be
doing everything we can to help them," he said. Soliz said many of the
workers told him they have no intention of leaving Littlefield, while
others showed interest in applying for jobs at the new Lubbock County Jail
and the Montford Psychiatric Unit operated by the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice. Soliz said WorkForce brought in an expert from Fort Worth to
assist workers in filing for unemployment benefits. Davis said the city is
working on a number of scenarios involving filling the facility with
inmates from other areas on a temporary basis. "We've also talked with
a number of people who are interested in buying it. There are a lot of
entities out there looking for beds, but it takes time for these solutions
to transpire," he said.
December 9, 2008 Yahoo
Fitch Ratings has placed the 'BBB-' rating on Littlefield, TX's (the
city) outstanding $1.4 million combination tax and revenue certificates of
obligation (COs), series 1997 on Rating Watch Negative. The CO's constitute
a general obligation of the city, payable from ad valorem taxes limited to
$2.50 per $100 taxable assessed valuation (TAV). Additionally, the COs are
secured by a pledge of surplus water and sewer revenues. The Negative Watch
reflects recent events related to the operation of the city's detention
center facility, which accounts for the majority of outstanding debt.
Officials are pursuing various alternatives to remedy the situation, with
possible resolution within the next several months. Funds to repay debt
service on detention center COs (which were not rated by Fitch) over the
next one to two years have been identified through available city funds as
well as a debt service reserve fund. However, failure to develop a viable
long-term solution within the near term will have a negative impact on the
rating. Detention center operations support approximately $1.4 million in
outstanding 2000 COs and $9.0 million in outstanding 2001 COs issued for
the construction of the facility. The detention center has a history of
difficulties, beginning with construction delays and the subsequent loss of
Texas Youth Commission (TYC) prisoners in 2003 and State of Wyoming
prisoners in 2006. Detention center operations began to stabilize with the
near immediate replacement of the State of Idaho prisoners in the facility.
The city's contract with Idaho was scheduled to expire in July 2009, with
negotiations for contract renewal planned for January 2009. However, to the
surprise of city officials, Idaho recently announced their plans to leave
the Littlefield facility in January 2009, citing the need to consolidate
all of its out-of-state prisoners into a larger facility in Oklahoma. In
addition, the detention center's private operator, the Geo Group
unexpectedly announced termination of their agreement to manage the
facility effective January 2009. The move to leave Littlefield by the Geo
Group is significant, given that the established private operator had made
sizable equity investments in the detention center reportedly totaling
approximately $2 million. In the past, the ability of the Geo Group to
quickly replace prisoners with little disruption in operations as well as
their investment in the Littlefield detention center were cited as credit
strengths. In response to the sudden loss of both prisoners and operators,
city officials are investigating various options. According to the city, a
number of other jail operators have expressed interest in managing the
Littlefield facility. In addition, officials are considering selling the
facility and retiring the outstanding debt. Officials have expressed the
need to resolve this issue quickly and hope to have additional information
within the next several months. In the interim, officials report that
sufficient funds are on hand to make the Feb. 1 debt service payment, with
the subsequent payments made from other resources, including the water and
sewer fund as well as the debt service reserve fund. Prior to fiscal 2006,
the detention center fund required transfers primarily from the water and
sewer fund to meet operating and debt service needs. Since that time,
detention center net revenues have been sufficient to cover its debt,
providing 1.1 times (x) coverage in fiscal 2007. The water and sewer fund,
which supports the remainder of the city's general obligation debt,
continues to record positive results and for fiscal 2007, net revenues were
$1.4 million, providing more than 3x coverage on water and sewer related CO
debt service. In addition, the series 2000 and 2001 CO sales included
provisions for a fully funded debt service reserve fund. Although the city
utilized the reserve fund to meet debt service requirements in 2001 due to
the delay in opening as well as the moratorium on TYC transfers to the
detention center, officials report that the reserve is currently fully
funded and has not been utilized since 2001 to meet debt service needs. For
fiscal 2007, the restricted reserve stood at $1.1 million compared to
fiscal 2007 debt service of approximately $780,000. Although the detention
COs are also secured by an ad valorem tax pledge, the city levies a
property tax for operations only. Officials report that they are
considering levying a property tax to partially support the detention
center COs. However, in order to fully support the detention center COs,
the tax rate would have to double, which is not feasible given political
realities. Littlefield, with a population of 6,500, is located
approximately 35 miles northwest of Lubbock and serves as the county seat
for Lamb County. The area is primarily rural in nature, with agriculture
services, government, manufacturing, and trade as key components of the
county's economy. The city's population and TAV had been flat until
recently; for fiscal 2008 the city's tax base increased nearly 5% due to
the construction of several commercial projects as well as residential
development. While there is moderate taxpayer concentration among the top
10 taxpayers, there is generally a good mix of industries within the list.
General fund finances have stabilized over the past several years,
benefitting from the recent imposition of a 0.25% increase in the sales tax
rate as well as tax base growth. Debt ratios are very low given the level
of non-property tax support for outstanding COs although payout is slow.
Fitch issued an exposure draft on July 31, 2008 proposing a recalibration
of tax-supported and water/sewer revenue bond ratings which, if adopted,
may result in an upward revision of this rating (see Fitch research
'Exposure Draft: Reassessment of the Municipal Ratings Framework'.) At this
time, Fitch is deferring its final determination on municipal
recalibration. Fitch will continue to monitor market and credit conditions,
and plans to revisit the recalibration in first quarter-2009.
November 14, 2008 Magic Valley Times-News
Families of two Idaho inmates who apparently killed themselves in
lockups run by private prison company GEO Group Inc., pleaded Thursday with
Texas state senators to bar out-of-state prisoners from the Lone Star
State. The Idaho Department of Correction has housed more than 300
prisoners at GEO-run Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas,
but recently announced plans to move them to the private North Fork
Correctional Facility in Sayre, Okla. The move follows allegations that GEO
falsified reports and short-staffed the Texas facility where Idaho inmate
Randall McCullough, 37, died. Families of Idaho inmates spoke Thursday at a
Texas state Senate hearing in Austin, Texas. The hearing, which dealt with
general oversight of the Texas prison system and did not result in specific
action, was webcast live over the Internet. Among those testifying was
lawyer Ronald Rodriguez, who represents McCullough's family as well as that
of Idaho inmate Scott Noble Payne, 43, who killed himself last year at
another GEO-run prison in Dickens, Texas. "Idaho prisoners need to be
in Idaho where they have access to their court - Where they have access to
their families," Rodriguez on Thursday told the Texas Senate Committee
on Criminal Justice. Payne's mother, Shirley Noble, spoke to Texas
lawmakers last year and again on Thursday. "It seems that no lessons
were learned," Noble said. "If changes had been placed - Randall
would not have been so desperate to take his own life, as my son did."
Texas Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate Committee on Criminal
Justice, questioned why the "little" state of Idaho recently
decided to pull its prisoners from Geo-run Bill Clayton. "Should we be
following their lead?" he asked. But a Texas Department of Criminal
Justice official told Whitmire that Texas inmates aren't held at Bill
Clayton, and warned against painting private prisons in Texas with a broad
brush. Inmate McCullough's sister, Laurie Williams, told Texas senators
that they should do a review of all private prisons in their state -
including GEO competitor Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Idaho
prisoners are to be taken to CCA-run North Fork in Oklahoma, where another
Idaho inmate, David Drashner, was allegedly murdered in June. IDOC's
decision to move prisoners from one privately run lockup to another
out-of-state facility concerns Williams, as well as Drashner's wife, Pam
Drashner, who have said they want Idaho to stop shipping away its inmates.
Idaho doesn't have enough room for all its prisoners, and sending them
out-of-state has been widely unpopular. Williams also wants to talk to
Idaho lawmakers, she said. "We should be addressing the Idaho
Senate," said Williams, after Thursday's hearing in Texas. "This
is Idaho sending its inmates out of state whether it's Texas that takes
them or Oklahoma and that's what we have to have stopped." GEO made
$4.9 million in annual operating revenues off its contract with Idaho to
manage prisoners at Bill Clayton. GEO officials said shareholders won't
lose out from Idaho's withdrawal because of an expanding contract with the
state of Indiana.
November 9, 2008 Magic Valley Times-News
Private prison company GEO Group Inc. isn't lamenting the loss of a
multimillion dollar contract with Idaho to manage more than 300 inmates at
a Texas lock-up owned by the city of Littlefield. Idaho was only 1 percent
of Baca Raton-based GEO's business, according to a 2007 annual report from
the company. "The discontinuation of GEO's contract with the Idaho DOC
will have no material impact on GEO's previously issued pro forma earnings
guidance for the fourth quarter of 2008," according to a GEO press
release Friday. GEO made $4.9 million in annual operating revenues off its
contract with Idaho to manage state inmates in Texas, and the company
announced Friday that revenue won't be lost because it's expanding a
contract with the state of Indiana. "GEO expects the discontinuation
of its contract with the Idaho DOC to be more than offset by the 420-bed
contract expansion with the Indiana DOC," according to the press release.
Idaho Department of Correction officials told the Associated Press Thursday
it was pulling out of the contract with GEO and cited inmate safety risks
at the Bill Clayton Detention Center, which is owned by the city of
Littlefield. GEO, however, claims Idaho pulled out of the contract for a
different reason than inmate safety or staffing levels. GEO officials said
Friday that Idaho ended the contract because the state wants to consolidate
all its out-of-state prisoners into one private facility. "We
understand the decision by the state of Idaho to consolidate its
out-of-state inmate population into one large-scale facility," said
GEO Chief Executive Officer George Zoley in the press release. "The
consolidation effort has led to the discontinuation of our out-of-state
inmate contract with the Idaho Department of Correction at the Bill Clayton
Detention Center." IDOC officials told the Times-News Friday that
staffing at Bill Clayton and consolidation efforts were both factors in its
decision to cancel the contract with GEO. IDOC didn't reply to the
Times-News when asked which factor may have weighed more heavily. The
pull-out announced Thursday by IDOC came after a two-month-old audit showed
GEO guards weren't checking on inmates enough. GEO is also terminating its
contract with the city of Littlefield to run Bill Clayton, which it has
operated since 2005, the company announced Friday. GEO decided not to
manage Bill Clayton anymore in Littlefield, a town populated by about 6,500
people, "due to financial underperformance and lack of economies of
scale," according to the Friday press release. The first formal IDOC
audit of Bill Clayton dated Sept. 3 followed an apparent suicide of Idaho
inmate Randall McCullough, 37, of Twin Falls in August. IDOC had been
monitoring the facility at least two weeks out of every month since last
fall, an IDOC official said. IDOC's original two-year contract with GEO
signed in 2006 could have ended on July 20, 2008. IDOC extended it a year
until July 20, 2009, but now says all inmates will be out of Texas by
January and moved to the Northfork Correctional Facility in Sayre, Okla. -
run by GEO competitor, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which
holds hundreds of other out-of-state Idaho inmates.
November 7, 2008 The Olympian
Idaho Department of Correction officials still don't know the cause of
death for an inmate who apparently committed suicide in a private Texas
prison in August. But what they do know is disturbing: The prison was so
understaffed that the warden himself was working the midnight shift at the
Bill Clayton Detention Center on Aug. 17, the night Randall McCullough
died. A state investigation found that regularly scheduled checks on
inmates either weren't done or were done incorrectly, and there was no
effective check done on McCullough from the time he turned in his dinner
tray at 5:45 p.m. to the time his body - already cold and stiff - was found
just after midnight. Log books from that night are inaccurate, according to
the investigation, and the videotape from the prison's security system
shows neither the correct date nor the arrival of emergency workers,
prompting Idaho investigators to speculate that it might not be the tape
from that night at all. "You can see where the train wreck is coming,
can't you?" state Department of Correction Chief Investigator Jim
Loucks told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday. Department
officials this week announced they're terminating the state's multimillion
dollar contract with The GEO Group, the for-profit private prison company
that runs the Bill Clayton Detention Center. Within 60 days, the roughly
300 Idaho prisoners there will be transferred to the Correction Corp. of
America-run North Fork Correctional Institution in Sayre, Okla. The inmates
have been housed out of state because of overcrowding in Idaho prisons. As
of Oct. 1, Idaho had nearly 7,300 total inmates. The staff at the Bill
Clayton center - from then-warden Arthur Anderson down to the correctional
officers - didn't follow prison policy or respond properly to McCullough's
death, according to documents obtained by The AP from the Idaho Department
of Correction through public records requests. Pablo Paez, spokesman for
The GEO Group, has not returned repeated phone calls from The AP. The GEO
Group Vice President Amber Martin said she couldn't comment on the
documents or Idaho's decision to end the contract. McCullough was found
dead in his cell by Anderson at about 12:15 a.m., according to the state's
investigation. Two letters were found in his cell as well - one to his
sister, Laurie Williams, and another addressed to Anderson and the Idaho
Department of Correction. "To hom it may concern," the
misspelled, handwritten letter read. "I'v been puting this off for
long anuff. I can't set here and slowly die. Sorry for the
inconvenience." The apparent suicide surprised those who knew
McCullough, according to the investigation. The inmate, who was serving
time on a robbery charge, was within a few months of an expected parole
hearing and apparently believed he would be sent back to Idaho sometime
around the end of the year, pending a cell opening in the state's
overcrowded system. McCullough had been in segregation for several months
at the Texas facility after he was accused of assaulting a staff member.
The prison, located in the tiny town of Littlefield, Texas, competes for
employees with nearby oil fields, which often pay more than residents can
make working as a correctional officer, Loucks said. That contributed to
the chronic understaffing. Around the time McCullough died, prison
employees were working as much as 20 hours of overtime every week, and
often resorted to calling in sick just to get some time off, Loucks said.
On the night of Aug. 17, 2008, five people didn't make it in to work -
leaving the prison with just 10 correctional officers for the 6 p.m. to 6
a.m. shift, below the state-mandated minimum of 12, and well below the 15
officers generally scheduled, according to the report. To deal with the
shortage, the shift supervisor persuaded two dayshift employees to stay
until 10 p.m., and got two employees scheduled for the next day to come in
four hours early, at 2 a.m. But that still left the prison short two
officers from 10 p.m. on Aug. 17 to 2 a.m. on Aug. 18, Loucks said. That's
when Warden Anderson and Chief of Security Dennis Blevins agreed to come in
to work those middle-of-the night hours. The short-staffing led to a few
bad habits at the prison, according to the report. Officers often committed
a practice known as "pencil-whipping," filling out the log books
to show they had made security checks on the inmates every 20 minutes, even
if the checks hadn't been done. It also meant that the prison was often
without a utility officer, an employee charged with fueling the vehicles,
emptying the trash and doing other non-guard duties. Because the
segregation unit had fewer inmates than other areas, the correctional
officer guarding the unit was generally pulled away from his duties to take
care of the utility officer chores, Loucks said. That happened the night of
Aug. 17, he said, and as a result no one noticed that McCullough was
unmoving and unresponsive until 12:18 a.m., when Warden Anderson walked by
the cell. Anderson radioed for help when he noticed McCullough wasn't
responding to knocking on the cell door. Medical personnel came within four
minutes, but didn't bring the necessary equipment to treat an unresponsive
patient and so had to go back to another part of the prison to get it,
according to the report. Staffers began CPR, but didn't move McCullough's body
from the bed to the floor, where they would have had a firmer surface and
more effective chest compressions, investigators found. Prison officials
didn't call 911 for 15 minutes, according to the report, but Anderson
reportedly told investigators that was because he was trying to notify
enough other employees so they could safely unlock McCullough's door and go
into the cell. McCullough was dead and apparently had been for some time -
his body was cold to the touch, according to the report. Prison officials
immediately suspected that McCullough might have overdosed on medication,
and his body was sent for toxicology tests and an autopsy. Those tests have
been completed, but the Texas coroner's report has not yet been finished,
so Idaho Department of Correction officials still don't know just how or
why McCullough died. But one thing is clear: Idaho prisoners will be
removed from Bill Clayton. State Correction Department chief Brent Reinke
notes the state prison system is expanding, with roughly 600 more beds to
be added next year. Reinke hopes that will provide enough room to bring all
the out-of-state prisoners home. "It's a real unfortunate situation -
it always is," Reinke said. "But there's no question that Idaho
inmates are much better to manage in Idaho."
November 6, 2008 AP
The Idaho Department of Correction has terminated its contract with
private prison company The GEO Group and will move the roughly 305 Idaho
inmates currently housed at a GEO-run facility in Texas to a private prison
in Oklahoma. Correction Director Brent Reinke notified GEO officials
Thursday in a letter. Reinke said the company's chronic understaffing at
the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas, put Idaho
offenders' safety at risk. An Idaho Department of Correction audit found
that guards routinely falsified reports to show they were checking on
offenders regularly — even though they were sometimes away from their posts
for hours at a time. "I hope you understand how seriously we're taking
not only the report but the safety of our inmates," Reinke told The
Associated Press on Thursday. "They have an ongoing staffing issue
that doesn't appear to be able to be solved." The contract will end
Jan. 5. Reinke said the department wanted to pull the inmates out
immediately, but state attorneys found there wasn't enough cause to allow
the state to break free of the contract without a 60-day warning period. In
the meantime, Reinke said, Idaho correction officials have been sent to the
Texas prison to help with staffing for the next two months. GEO will be
responsible for transferring the inmates to the North Fork Correctional
Facility in Sayer, Okla., which is run by Corrections Corp. of America. GEO
will cover the cost of the move, Reinke said, but Idaho will have to pay
$58 per day per inmate in Oklahoma, compared to $51 per day at Bill
Clayton. Amber Martin, vice president for The GEO Group, of Florida, said
she couldn't comment on the audit or on Idaho's decision to end the
contract. She referred calls to the company spokesman, Pablo Paez, who
could not immediately be reached by the AP. As of Oct. 1, Idaho had nearly
7,300 total inmates. The Bill Clayton audit describes the latest in a
series of problems that Idaho has had with shipping inmates out of state.
Overcrowding at home forced the state to move hundreds of inmates to a
prison in Minnesota in 2005, but space constraints soon uprooted them
again, this time to a GEO-run facility in Newton, Texas. There, guard abuse
and prisoner unrest forced another move to two new GEO facilities: 125
Idaho inmates went to the Dickens County Correctional Center in Spur,
Texas, while 304 went to Bill Clayton in Littlefield. Conditions at Dickens
were left largely unmonitored by Idaho, at least until inmate Scott Noble
Payne committed suicide after complaining of the filthy conditions there.
Idaho investigators looking into Payne's death detailed the poor conditions
and a lack of inmate treatment programs, and the inmates were moved again.
That's when the Idaho Department of Correction created the Virtual Prisons
Program, designed to improve oversight of Idaho inmates housed in contract
beds both in and out of state. The extent of the Bill Clayton facility
understaffing was discovered after Idaho launched an investigation into the
apparent suicide of inmate Randall McCullough in August. During that
investigation, guards at the prison said they were often pulled away from
their regular posts to handle other duties — including taking out the
garbage, refueling vehicles or checking the perimeter fence — and that it
was common practice to fill out the logs as if the required checks of
inmates were being completed as scheduled, said Jim Loucks, chief
investigator for the Idaho Department of Correction. For instance, Loucks
said, correction officers were supposed to check on inmates in the
administrative segregation unit every 30 minutes. But sometimes they were
away from the unit for hours at a time, he said. The investigation into
McCullough's death is not yet complete, department officials said. The
audit also found several other problems at Bill Clayton. The auditor found
that "the facility entrance is a very relaxed checkpoint,"
prompting concerns that cell phones, marijuana and other contraband could
be smuggled past security. In addition, the prison averages a 30 percent
vacancy rate in security staff jobs, according to the audit. Though it was
still able to meet the one-staffer-for-every-48-prisoners ratio set out by
Texas law, employees were regularly expected to work long hours of overtime
and non-security staffers sometimes were used to provide security
supervision, according to the audit. "Based on a review of payroll
reports, there are significant concerns with security staff working
excessive amounts of overtime for long periods of time," the auditors
wrote. "This can lead to compromised facility security practices and
increased safety issues." When the audit was done, there were 29
security staff vacancies, according to the report. That meant each security
staff person who was eligible for overtime worked an average of 21 hours of
overtime a week. That extra expense was borne by GEO, not by Idaho
taxpayers, said Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray. The
state's contract with GEO also required that at least half of the eligible inmates
be given jobs with at least 50 hours of work a month. According to the
facility's inmate payroll report, only 35 out of 371 offenders were without
jobs. But closer inspection showed that the prison often had several
inmates assigned to the same job. In one instance, nine inmates were
assigned to clean showers in one unit of the prison — which only had nine
shower stalls. So although each was responsible for cleaning just one
shower stall, the nine inmates were all claiming 7- and 8-hour work days, five
days a week. GEO is responsible for covering the cost of those wages, Ray
said. "While the contract percentage requirement is met, the facility
cannot demonstrate the actual hours claimed by offenders are spent in a
meaningful, skill-learning job activity," the auditors wrote. Auditors
also found that too few inmates were enrolled in high school diploma
equivalency and work force readiness classes.
October 1, 2008 AP
For a decade, Idaho has been shipping some of its prisoners to
out-of-state prisons, dealing with its ever-burgeoning inmate population by
renting beds in faraway facilities. But now some groups of prisoners are
being brought back home. Idaho Department of Correction officials are
crediting declining crime rates, improved oversight during probation,
better community programs and increased communication between correction
officials and the state's parole board. The number of Idaho inmates has
more than doubled since 1996, reaching a high of 7,467 in May. But in the
months since then, the population has declined to 7,293 -- opening up
enough space that 80 inmates housed in the North Fork Correctional Facility
in Sayre, Okla., and at Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield,
Texas, could be bused back to the Idaho State Correctional Institution near
Boise. The inmates arrived Monday night. Idaho Department of Correction
Director Brent Reinke hailed their arrival as one of the benefits the
system was reaping after years of work. "It's more about having the
right inmates at the right place at the right time," Reinke said.
"People are communicating better and we're working together better
than we were in the past."
September 21, 2008 Times-News
Pam Drashner visited her husband every weekend in prison, until she was
turned away one day because he wasn't there. He had been quietly
transferred from Boise to a private prison in Sayre, Okla. She never saw
him again. In July, she went to the Post Office to pick up his ashes,
mailed home in a box. He died of a traumatic brain injury in Oklahoma,
allegedly assaulted by another inmate. David Drashner was one of hundreds
of male inmates Idaho authorities have sent to private prisons in other
states. About 10 percent of Idaho's inmates are now out-of-state. The
Department of Correction say they want to bring them all home, they simply
have no place to put them. Drashner, who was convicted of repeat drunken
driving, is one of three Idaho inmates who have died in the custody of
private lockups in other states since March 2007, and was the first this
year. On Aug. 18, Twin Falls native Randall McCullough, 37, apparently
killed himself at the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas.
McCullough, serving time for robbery, was found dead in his cell. IDOC
officials say he left a note, though autopsy results are pending. His
family says he shouldn't have been in Texas at all. "Idaho should step
up to the plate and bring their prisoners home," said his sister,
Laurie Williams. Out of Idaho -- Idaho has so many prisoners scattered
around the country that the IDOC last year developed the Virtual Prison
Program, assigning 12 officers to monitor the distant prisons. In 2007
Idaho sent 429 inmates to Texas and Oklahoma. This year; more than 700 -
and by one estimate it could soon hit 1,000. But officials say they don't
know exactly how many inmates may hit the road in coming months. The number
may actually fall due to an unexpected drop in total prisoner head-count, a
turnabout attributed to a drop in sentencings, increased paroles and better
success rates for probationers. The state will also have about 1,300 more
beds in Idaho, thanks to additions at existing prisons. State officials say
bringing inmates back is a priority. "If there was any way to not have
inmates out-of-state it would be far, far better," said IDOC Director
Brent Reinke, a former Twin Falls County commissioner, noting higher costs
to the state and inconvenience to inmate families. Still, there's no end in
sight for virtual prisons, which have few fans in state government. "I
do think sending inmates out-of-state is counter-productive," said
Rep. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, a member of the House Judiciary, Rules and
Administration Committee. LeFavour favors treatment facilities over
prisons. "We try to make it (sending inmates out-of-state) a last
resort, but I don't think we're doing enough." Even lawmakers who
favor buying more cells would like to avoid virtual lockups. "It's
more productive to be in-state," said Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo,
chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee, who said he would
support a new Idaho prison modeled after the state-owned but privately run
Idaho Correctional Center (ICC). "We don't want to stay out-of-state
unless we have to ��- It's
undesirable." A decade of movement -- Idaho has shipped inmates elsewhere
for more than a decade, though in some years they were all brought home
when beds became available at four of Idaho's state prisons. The 1,500-bed
ICC - a state-owned lockup built and run by CCA (Corrections Corporation of
America) - also opened in 2000. But that wasn't enough: "It will be
years before a substantial increase in prison capacity will allow IDOC to
bring inmates back," the agency said in April. In 2005, former IDOC
director Tom Beauclair warned lawmakers that "if we delay building the
next prison, we'll have to remain out-of-state longer with more
inmates," according to an IDOC press release. That year inmates were
taken to a Minnesota prison operated by CCA, where Idaho paid $5 per
inmate, per day more than it costs to keep inmates in its own prisons.
"This move creates burdens for our state fiscally, and can harden our
prison system, but it's what we must do," IDOC said at the time.
"Our ability to stretch the system is over." Attempts to add to
that system have largely failed. Earlier this year Gov. C.L.
"Butch" Otter asked lawmakers for $191 million in bond authority
to buy a new 1,500-bed lockup. The Legislature rejected his request, but
did approve those 1,300 new beds at existing facilities. Reinke said IDOC
won't ask for a new prison when the next Legislative session convenes in
January. With a slow economy and a drop in inmate numbers, it's not the
time to push for a new prison, he said. Still, recent projections for IDOC
show that without more prison beds here, 43 percent of all Idaho inmates
could be sent out-of-state in 2017. "It's a lot of money to go
out-of-state," Darrington said. Different cultures -- One of eight
prisons in Idaho is run by a private company, as are those housing Idaho
inmates in Texas and Oklahoma. The Bill Clayton Detention Center in Texas
is operated by the Geo Group Inc., which is managing or developing 64
lockups in the U.S., Australia and South Africa. The North-Fork
Correctional Facility in Oklahoma is owned and operated by CCA, which also
has the contract to run the Idaho Correction Center. CCA houses almost
75,000 inmates and detainees in 66 facilities under various state and
federal contracts. Critics of private prisons say the operators boost
profits by skimping on programs, staff, and services. Idaho authorities
acknowledge the prisons make money, but consider them well-run.
"Private prisons are just that - business run," Idaho Virtual
Prison Program Warden Randy Blades told the Times-News. "It doesn't
mean out-of-sight, or out-of-mind." Yet even Reinke added that "I
think there's a difference. Do we want there to be? No." The
Association of Private Correctional and Treatment Organizations (APCTO)
says on its Web site that its members "deliver reduced costs, high
quality, and enhanced accountability." Falling short? Thomas Aragon, a
convicted thief from Nampa, was shipped to three different Texas prisons in
two years. He said prisons there did little to rehabilitate him, though
he's up for parole next year. "I'm a five-time felon, all grand theft
and possession of stolen property," said Aragon, by telephone from the
ICC. "Apparently I have a problem and need to find out why I steal.
The judge said I needed counseling and that I'd get it, and I have yet to
get any." State officials said virtual prisons have a different
culture, but are adapting to Idaho standards. "We're taking the
footprint of Idaho and putting it into facilities out-of-state,"
Blades said. Aragon, 39, says more programs are available in Idaho compared
to the Texas facilities where he was. Like Aragon, almost 70 percent of
Idaho inmates sent to prison in 2006 and 2007 were recidivists - repeat
IDOC offenders - according agency annual reports. GEO and CCA referred
questions about recidivism to APCTO, which says only that its members reduce
the rate of growth of public spending. Aragon said there weren't enough
case-workers, teachers, programs, recreational activities and jobs in
Texas. Comparisons between public and private prisons are made difficult
because private companies didn't readily offer numbers for profits,
recidivism, salaries and inmate-officer ratios. During recent visits to the
Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas - where about 371 Idaho
inmates are now held - state inspectors found there wasn't a legal aid staffer
to give inmates access to courts, as required by the state contract.
Virtual Prison monitors also agreed with Aragon's assessment: "No
programs are offered at the facility," a state official wrote in a
recently redacted Idaho Virtual Prison report obtained by the Times-News.
"Most jobs have to do with keeping the facility clean and appear to be
less meaningful. This creates a shortage of productive time with the
inmates. "Overall, recreational activities are very sparse within the
facility ��- Informal
attempts have been made to encourage the facility to increase offender
activities that would in the long run ease some of the boredom that IDOC
inmates are experiencing," according to a Virtual Prison report. The
prison has since made improvements, the state said. Only one inmate case
manager worked at Bill Clayton during a recent state visit, but the
facility did increase recreation time and implemented in-cell hobby craft
programs, Virtual Prison reports show. Other inmate complaints have grown
from the way they have been sent to the prisons. Inmates describe a
horrific bus ride from Idaho to Oklahoma in April in complaints collected
by the American Civil Liberties Union in Boise. The inmates say they
endured painful and injurious wrist and ankle shackling, dangerous driving,
infrequent access to an unsanitary restroom and dehydration during the
almost 30-hour trip. "We're still receiving a lot of complaints, some
of them are based on retaliatory transfers," said ACLU lawyer Lea
Cooper. IDOC officials acknowledge that they have also received complaints
about access to restrooms during the long bus rides, but they maintain that
most of the inmates want to go out-of-state. Many are sex offenders who
prefer the anonymity associated with being out-of-state, they said.
Unanswered questions -- Three deaths of Idaho interstate inmates in 18
months have left families concerned that even more prisoners will come home
in ashes. "We're very disturbed about...the rate of Idaho prisoner
deaths for out-of-state inmates," Cooper said. It was the razor-blade
suicide of sex-offender Scott Noble Payne, 43, in March 2007 at a Geo
lockup in Dickens, Texas that caught the attention of state officials.
Noble's death prompted Idaho to pull all its inmates from the Geo prison.
State officials found the facility was in terrible condition, but they
continue to work with Geo, which houses 371 Idaho inmates in Littlefield,
Texas, where McCullough apparently killed himself. Noble allegedly escaped
before he was caught and killed himself. Inmate Aragon said he as there,
and that Noble was hog-tied and groaned in pain while guards warned other
inmates they would face the same if they tried to escape. Private prison
operators don't have to tell governments everything about the deaths at facilities
they run. The state isn't allowed access to Geo's mortality and morbidity
reports under terms of a contract. Idaho sent additional inmates to the
Corrections Corporation of America-run Oklahoma prison after Drashner's
husband died in June. IDOC officials said an Idaho official was inspecting
the facility when he was found. IDOC has offered few details about the
death. "The murder happened in Oklahoma," said IDOC spokesman
Jeff Ray, adding it will be up to Oklahoma authorities to charge. Drashner
said her husband had a pending civil case in Idaho and shouldn't have been
shipped out-of-state. She says Idaho and Oklahoma authorities told her
David was assaulted by another inmate after he verbally defended an officer
at the Oklahoma prison. Officers realized something was wrong when he
didn't stand up for a count, Drashner said. "He was healthy. He
wouldn't have been killed over here," she said.
August 28, 2008 Times-News
An Idaho prison inmate held at a private facility in Texas through the
state's Virtual Prison Program was in solitary confinement for more than a
year when he apparently killed himself, authorities have confirmed. Idaho
Department of Correction is still investigating the cause and manner of
death for the inmate, Randall McCullough, 37, who was found unresponsive
Aug. 18 in his cell, which measured 7.5 feet, by 12 feet, by 8 feet, said
Idaho Department of Correction Spokesman Jeff Ray. McCullough had been
segregated from other inmates since Dec. 13, 2007, after he allegedly
assaulted a staff member at the Bill Clayton Detention Center run by Geo
Group Inc., said Ray. He apparently wasn't criminally charged for that
alleged assault in Texas. "It's our understanding that the prosecutor
in Texas had not made a decision on whether or not to file charges,"
said Ray. "The staff assault occurred in Texas and would be considered
a Texas crime. IDOC would not have a direct connection to it."
Authorities at Geo Group's Bill Clayton Detention Center directed all
questions from the Times-News on Wednesday back to the Idaho Department of
Corrections. McCullough was in prison for a 2001 Twin Falls County robbery
conviction. He had a criminal record involving charges of escape, forgery,
controlled substance possession, grand theft, burglary, resisting arrest,
and driving violations, according to court records. Imposing inmate
segregation for one to two years as a result of an assault on a guard would
not be uncommon, and wardens at out-of-state facilities holding Idaho
inmates can decide if an inmate is put in segregation, said Ray. Inmates in
segregation eat meals in their cells and can shower once every 72 hours.
Toilets are in cells and McCullough had a television, said Ray. Lights at
the Texas facility are on 24 hours a day, Ray said, adding that some facilities
in Idaho dim lights at sleeping times.
August 21, 2008 The Times News
The state's Virtual Prison Program is only a year old and the Monday
death of inmate Randall McCullough, 37, could be the second suicide
involving the initiative outside of Idaho. Idaho prison officials said
Wednesday they're still investigating if McCullough committed suicide at a
private contracted facility in Texas - Bill Clayton Detention Center run by
the GEO Group Inc. - which is holding 371 inmates each at $51 per day under
a contract that expires in July 2009. The Virtual Prison Program started in
July 2007, but the state started putting inmates in non-state owned
facilities in October 2005, said Idaho Department of Correction Spokesman
Jeff Ray. Six state inmates have committed suicide since July 2006, not
including McCullough, Ray said.
December 11, 2007 AP
Inmates from Idaho housed at a private West Texas detention facility could
face new charges following an attack on a female guard. The woman was
attacked about 7:30 p.m. Monday after she apparently tried to take tobacco
away from at least two of the inmates at the Bill Clayton Detention Center,
Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray said. The woman suffered
non-life threatening injuries, he said. Afterward, as many as 15 inmates
refused to return to their cells and additional officers were called in to
help, Ray said. The inmates then agreed to return to their cells, he said.
Officials with the Littlefield police department, which is investigating
the incident, did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday. A deputy
warden with the Idaho agency is on his way to Littlefield to investigate, a
release from that department said. Those involved in the attack could face
charges, and inmates who refused to return to their cells will likely face
disciplinary sanctions, the release said. The prison is operated by The GEO
Group Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla.-based company that owns or operates 68
facilities worldwide. "We will be working cooperatively with the Idaho
Department of Correction as they conduct their investigation," said
Pablo Paez, a GEO spokesman. A lack of space in Idaho prisons brought
hundreds of inmates to Texas in early 2006. They were first housed here at
a GEO facility in Newton in East Texas. They were moved to Littlefield in
August 2006 after allegations of abuse by guards prompted an investigation.
Three employees at Newton's facility were disciplined as a result of the
investigation.
July 31, 2007 Idaho Statesman
Idaho's Department of Correction has created a new position to manage
Idaho's roughly 2,400 inmates in private, out-of-state prisons and county
jail beds. Randy Blades, who has been the warden at the Idaho State
Correctional Institution south of Boise, will monitor the 500-plus inmates,
now in three Texas prisons managed by the Geo Group Inc. of Boca Raton,
Fla. He will also monitor the 240 inmates soon to be transferred from Idaho
to a private prison in Oklahoma, and the inmates in county jail beds across
the state. Correction Director Brent Reinke created the position after
disclosing that conditions at one of those prisons were so bad that inmates
will be moved elsewhere. Inmates at the Dickens County Correctional Center
are being moved to the Bill Clayton Detention Center after an inmate suicide
at Dickens revealed filthy living conditions and poorly trained and
unprofessional staff. “Times have changed and we simply need to get in
front on this issue,” Reinke said in a statement. “We must be proactive. We
need to make sure inmates are being treated adequately and taxpayers are
getting what they are paying for.”
October 24, 2006 Yahoo.com
Fitch downgrades the rating on Littlefield, TX's (the city) outstanding
$1.6 million combination tax and revenue certificates of obligation (COs),
series 1997 to 'BB+' from 'BBB+.' The Rating Outlook is Stable. The
downgrade primarily reflects the city's significantly weakened financial
position. The general fund balance has been at minimal levels for the past
several years, while the detention center fund, which supports the bulk of
the city's general obligation debt, is in a deficit unrestricted net asset
position, created by the pull-out of Texas Youth Commission (TYC) prisoners
in 2003. Some signs of financial improvement are evident, and projected
fiscal 2006 results are expected to show a moderate increase in general
fund reserve levels as well as a small operating surplus in the detention
center fund. Further, the detention center is now fully occupied.
Nevertheless, financial stabilization has not been achieved, and the city
remains highly dependent on housing outside prisoners to meet operational
and debt service requirements of the detention center. Detention center
operations, which experienced problems at the onset primarily due to
construction delays, were again negatively impacted by the loss of all TYC
prisoners in 2003. While TYC offenders were subsequently replaced with
state of Wyoming prisoners, the impact on finances was severe and continued
through fiscal 2005, evidenced by a $351,000 unrestricted net asset deficit
recorded in the detention center fund. In addition, the detention center
fund had to rely on support from other funds, most notably a sizable
transfer from the water and sewer fund in fiscal 2004, to meet operational
and debt service needs. The contract to house Wyoming prisoners was
terminated in 2006, and subsequently a new contract with the state of Idaho
was implemented. For 2006, officials report that no outside financial
support was required and that a $30,000 operating surplus is expected.
However, the large deficit will likely remain for sometime and the
historical movement of prisoners in and out of the Littlefield facility
demonstrates the difficulty of maintaining long-term prisoner contracts. If
the city had to levy an interest and sinking fund tax to meet detention
center related debt obligations, officials estimate that the overall tax
rate would have to double over the current operations and maintenance tax
rate, which Fitch believes would be extremely difficult to impose.
Blackwater River
Correctional Facility, Milton, Florida
FBI issues
subpoenas apparently linked to Florida Geo Group investigation,
June 16, 2011. As previously reported by DBA Press (“Legacy of Corruption,”
February, 2011), the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been quietly
investigating the circumstances which led to the appropriation and
construction of Florida’s largest private prison, Blackwater River
Correctional Facility (Blackwater CF), operated by Florida-based private
prison operator, Geo Group. By Beau Hodai DBA Press
New private prison in Milton shows Florida
cost-savings challenge, April 25, 2011, Steve Bousquet, Times/Herald
Tallahassee Bureau. Excellent piece exposing the cherry-picking going on in
this GEO for-profit prison.
DBA
Press Investigative Report: Legacy of Corruption January
22, 2011 U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s unsettling history of extremely close
ties to private prison operator Geo Group and the possible federal
investigation into Florida’s private prison giveaway of more than $120
million. By Beau Hodai
December 1, 2011 The Daily News
Santa Rosa County Commissioner Bob Cole said Thursday that FBI agents had
asked him Wednesday about a private land sale in 2009 and the county’s sale
of land to build the Blackwater River Correctional Facility in Milton. “It
was all the same things over again,” Cole said during a brief telephone
conversation about the search of his home and business. “They threw so much
out there I didn’t know what they were focused on.” FBI and IRS agents
searched Cole’s home in East Milton and his Pensacola business, Bob Cole’s
Automotive. No arrests were made and the agents declined to say what they
were seeking. Cole, who has been a commissioner since 2002, has maintained
his innocence of any wrongdoing. Although his County Commission offices
were not searched Wednesday, Cole focused his comments on his actions as an
elected official. “No vote was bought and I did not better myself because
of a vote,” he said Wednesday. “I am comfortable in my votes of the past on
issues and no one twisted my arm. Everything I have done is on the record
and I feel good to go.” Cole confirmed Thursday that agents asked
specifically about his sale of land to a business known as Beannacht
Properties LLC. On April 17, 2009, Cole sold 9 percent of a five-acre
parcel on Welcome Church Road to Beannacht Properties for about $50,000.
Beannacht Properties is managed by Nina Roche Cobb and her husband, Donald
Cobb. Nina Roche Cobb is the daughter of John and Deborah Roche, Gulf
Breeze residents who own Lifeguard Ambulance Service, which holds a
contract with Santa Rosa County to provide emergency services. A federal
warrant was issued in August for documents pertaining to several Santa Rosa
County land transactions and material related to discussions regarding the
county’s Lifeguard Ambulance contract. It is not clear whether the records
request in August and Wednesday’s search of Cole’s home and business are
related. Calls to Beannacht Properties have not been returned. Cole also
acknowledged Thursday that the FBI has also asked him about the county’s
$2.65 million sale of land to a south Florida company known as the GEO
Group. The GEO Group bought the property so that it could build a $120
million private prison in Milton.
September 25, 2011 Pensacola News Journal
Two Santa Rosa County officials are due at Pensacola's federal courthouse
on Tuesday — with volumes of records — to answer four federal subpoenas
served in August. Cindy Anderson, executive director of the TEAM Santa Rosa
Economic Development Council, and Santa Rosa County Attorney Angela Jones
will present thousands of pages of documents as well as numerous digital files
to the federal grand jury. TEAM and the county each received two subpoenas
in August demanding records involving contracts, developments, land
purchases, travel and other interactions among TEAM, the county and
numerous private parties. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office won't say
why they want the information. The subpoenas sought information about a
wide range of topics: » Santa Rosa County's purchase of an industrial park
from Navarre developer Bill Pullum in 2009. » Any County Commission or TEAM
staff member's travel to Pullum's private island in Honduras. » Any County
Commission or TEAM staff member's travel to Washington, D.C. » Any county
business with Pullum, developer Garrett Walton, architect and former state
Sen. Charlie Clary, and Okaloosa County businessman William McElvy. » The
sale of any property between the county and James "Jim" Young
and/or KWY Investments, the company that sold the property where the
private Blackwater River Correctional Institute came to be built in East
Milton. » The county's ambulance service contract. Subpoenas issued to
other offices center around how Blackwater River Correctional Institute
came to be built by the Boca Raton-based GEO Group and the nature of former
state Rep. Ray Sansom's relationship to the project.
September 1, 2011 Gulf Breeze News
A Grand Jury will meet in Pensacola on Sept. 27 to start reviewing
numerous boxes of documents from Santa Rosa County’s economic development
deals dating back to 2002. Subpoenas from the Federal Bureau of Investigation
were served on the County Commissioners and on the county’s economic
development arm, TEAM Santa Rosa, last Tuesday, Aug. 23. Commission
chairman Lane Lynchard and TEAM Santa Rosa Director Cindy Anderson each
said they are looking at this as an opportunity to clear the record – and
the air – on these projects once and for all. “Anytime you receive a
federal subpoena of any kind, it puts the county in a negative light. There
is no doubt about that,” said Lynchard, an attorney from Gulf Breeze. “But
it is my understanding this is the first federal subpoena of any kind that
has been received by Santa Rosa County, and I really look at this as an
opportunity to set the record straight on any questions concerning our
economic development dealings. “The records they wanted go back as far as
2002 from the County Commission. I know there were a lot of questions
surrounding the purchase of the property in 2009 for the industrial park
off Interstate 10 and U.S. Highway 90. Maybe this can out those questions
to rest once and for all.” Anderson said most of the records subpoenaed
already have been looked at and found to have no problems by the State
Attorney’s Office as well as the Ethics Committee. “This really all started
back when the ID Group of Gulf Breeze got funding from some grants back in
2004,” Anderson said. “There has been a group of individuals who have had
questions on several projects since then, and I really hope this latest
review of all those records can put all the questions to rest. “The
investigation in March when records were subpoenaed was concerning only the
private GEO prison project. Now this latest request has to do with any and
all of our records going all the way back to at least 2004. That is boxes
and boxes of records.” The owner of the ID Group was a former member of the
TEAM Santa Rosa Board, and when TEAM received a $170,000 Defense grant, the
TEAM board hired the ID Group to do the work required by the grant. Former
State Rep. Ray Sansom was tied to the GEO group from Boca Raton that built
the private Blackwater River Correctional Institute in East Milton last
year. Questions have centered on Sansom’s involvement with the GEO group in
Boca Raton since 2008, when the group purchased the property for the Milton
prison. Subpoenas in March requested any and all records concerning that
prison project.
August 24, 2011 Pensacola News-Journal
A federal grand jury in Pensacola is investigating the building and funding
of a privately owned correctional facility that opened last year in East
Milton, including the role of former state Rep. Ray Sansom. On Tuesday, the
FBI seized a computer used by Santa Rosa County Commissioner Jim Melvin and
his predecessor, Gordon Goodin. Melvin, who took office last year, said FBI
agents told him the investigation was not focused on him but did not
disclose what they were interested in. Goodin, who served for eight years,
said he was confident the investigation didn't involve him. During the past
five months, the grand jury, working with the FBI, has issued three other
subpoenas. The first subpoena on March 29 requested that TEAM Santa Rosa,
the county's economic development agency, deliver all records pertaining to
Project Justice, the code name for the ultimately successful effort to
bring a private prison operated by the Boca Raton-based Geo Group to the
county. The Blackwater River Correctional Institute, owned by Geo under a
contract with the state, opened last year. It is designed for 2,200
high-security prisoners. The March subpoena ordered Team Santa Rosa to produce
all records related to "the projection, planning, design, funding,
appropriation, construction and/or operation of any privately owned
correctional facility located in Santa Rosa County." The second
subpoena to Florida's Office of Legislative Services, dated May 27,
requested travel vouchers since January 2004 for Sansom and several of his
aides. The third subpoena, with the same date, was addressed to former
Sansom aide Samantha Sullivan of Mary Esther. It ordered records
"pertaining to any function performed as a legislative aide to state
Rep. Ray Sansom" since Jan. 1, 2002. On March 27, 2008, Sansom
traveled to Boca Raton on what he described in a travel voucher as
"personal business after Session 2008." On April 4, Sansom
inserted a provision into the 2008-09 general appropriation bill for $110
million for an addition to the Graceville Correctional Institute, owned by
Geo, in Jackson County. That appropriation was removed. Then, on April 8,
Sansom substituted an appropriation of $110 million into the 2008-09 state
budget for a private prison to be built anywhere in the state, with no
reference to Graceville. That money went to the East Milton facility, which
ended up costing $140 million. In February 2010, Sansom, while serving as
speaker of the House, resigned amid criminal allegations that he inserted a
$6 million appropriation into the state budget for construction of an
aircraft hangar in Destin for a prominent Florida Republican Party
contributor, Jay Odom. The state dropped its case against Sansom in March
after a Tallahassee judge blocked key prosecution testimony. Santa Rosa
officials reached Tuesday said they didn't know the reason for the seizure
of the commission computer. Commissioner Lane Lynchard said he learned of
the seizure from Santa Rosa County Attorney Angela Jones but didn't know
what the FBI's interest was. He said the county was served with two federal
grand jury subpoenas, but he didn't know what the other one involved. Jones
was not in her office Tuesday afternoon, and county spokeswoman Joy
Tsubooka said copies of the subpoenas would not be available until today.
Melvin said the federal agents appeared in his office with two subpoenas at
about 10 a.m. "They explained that they had no problems with me, but
that they needed records from the computer in my office," Melvin said.
"They wanted to know whether I would demand a court order. I told them
I was not the custodian of those records. They met with the county
attorney, and then came and removed the computer from my office."
Melvin said he did not know the nature of the records sought. Goodin, who
was recently cleared of an ethics complaint involving a 2005 trip he and
his wife took to Central America, said he had "no idea" what
interest the FBI would have in the computer. "I'm not worried about
any more investigations," he said. "They can investigate whatever
they want." A message left at the FBI office in Pensacola was not
returned Tuesday.
June 17, 2011 WEAR TV
"This is the $120 million Blackwater River Correctional Facility. It's
been a pretty quiet addition to East Santa Rosa County, bringing hundreds
of new jobs here. But... the Federal Government is continuing wide-scale
investigation into what led to the construction of this prison." The
project has been under fire ever since it became public knowledge. The GEO
Group... The company that now runs the prison... Has documented ties to
several state lawmakers who help approve the 120 million dollar project.
Jerry Couey is one of many people around the state that's been closely following
the development of this prison for years. "Any citizen or private
business owner would love to have the same deal. I don't understand how
they got the deal and I've become very curious about how that
occurred." Jerry is not alone. The FBI obtained this subpoena in
federal court back at the end of march. In it... The US District Court for
the Northern District of Florida demands team Santa Rosa turn over all it's
paperwork related to the GEO group and the state lawmakers who backed the
privatized prison project in the legislature. , "I wish them well in
their search. I think they're on to something that certainly needs to be
looked at, in a time in the state of Florida where dollars are so precious,
how did this happen." "It would make sense for them to come to
us, because they know we have to keep track of all of this and it would be
packaged all together all in one place." "The FBI is very good at
what they do, and I don't know what's going to come of it. My gut gives me
concern about how it occurred."
August 16, 2010 Sunshine State News
Former Rep. Loranne Ausley, the Democratic nominee to be the next state
CFO, attacked a program backed by her Republican rival, Senate President
Jeff Atwater of North Palm Beach, that slashed 71 prison work squads, which
she insisted saved Florida taxpayers more than $35 million, and created a
new private prison. Labeling the Blackwater River Correctional Institution
the “prison to nowhere,” Ausley noted that the project had already cost the
state more than $110 million and that Atwater was ignoring recommendations
made by the Florida Department of Corrections. She also compared the
project to a new courthouse in Tallahassee which she labeled the “Tallahassee
Taj Mahal.” “Senate President Jeff Atwater’s ‘prison to nowhere’ is yet
another product of the broken system in Tallahassee, and once again Florida
taxpayers are stuck with the bill,” said Ausley. “Floridians are fed up
with politicians who play by their own rules with our money. Whether it’s
the ‘Tallahassee Taj Mahal,’ the ‘Prison to Nowhere’ or an airport hanger
for a political contributor, politicians in Tallahassee need to be held
accountable.”
August 10, 2010 WCTV
Prison work squads are as old prisons themselves. But the state has slashed
the number of work squads since the new budget took effect in July.
Motorist Toby Edwards doesn’t think that’s good for roadways or the
prisoners. “They eat good and the state takes care of them but that’s coming
from the taxpayers,” Edwards said. “So they should be the ones out there
picking up the trash.” Another motorist, Steve Bedosky thinks the work
should be contracted to private companies. “I’ve never really been in favor
of taking those jobs away from the private sector and putting prisoners out
there at a lower price,” Bedosky said. But local governments don’t have the
resources, which means the work will often go undone. 71 crews like this
one are being cut. That’s going to mean taller grass, more trash on the
road, and costs being shifted. The Department of Corrections was forced by
lawmakers to spend 24 million dollars opening a private prison orchestrated
by disgraced former speaker Ray Sansom. The private prison took money from
the work squads, even though new projections show the 2200 private prison
beds weren’t needed. The union representing correctional officers
understands the need to keep staffing up inside prison fences, but it
objects to the work squad cuts on moral grounds. “It’s just sad that the
public has to pay for the legislature’s irresponsibility,” Al Shopp with
the Police Benevolent Association said. But unless funding improves,
prisoners will be spending more time behind bars and less time cleaning up
roadsides. The state is cutting 71 of 180 work squads across the state.
June 8, 2010 St Petersburg Times
On the heels of its endorsement of Alex Sink for governor, the Police
Benevolent Association has now announced it will support Loranne Ausley in
her bid to be chief financial officer. Sink's endorsement was news because
the PBA hadn't endorsed a Democrat for governor since Lawton Chiles' first
run in 1990. Now, with its endorsement of an underfunded Ausley over Senate
President Jeff Atwater, the group seems to have gotten religion on Democrats.
Unsure about why the group is making the shift, but it could have something
to do with the opening of a new private prison in North Florida and
lingering unease over potential cuts to prison workers' pensions. Matt
Puckett, the deputy executive director for the PBA, says the group likes
people "that wanted to take care of law enforcement officers and
public employees." He also noted that "it didn't help
matters" that the new private prison opened up on Atwater's watch.
May 28, 2010 St Petersburg Times
Gov. Charlie Crist often laments "this culture of corruption in South
Florida," but increasingly it's Tallahassee that looks like a central
focus of multiple criminal investigations swirling about Florida. In recent
weeks, prominent legislators have hired criminal defense lawyers, while
high-ranking and low-ranking GOP staffers have been summoned to grand
juries meeting across the state. Among them: Crist's former top
money-raiser, Meredith O'Rourke; former state GOP executive director Jim
Rimes; and indicted ex-House Speaker Ray Sansom's former fundraising aide,
Melanie Phister, who at age 25 charged nearly $1.3 million on her state
party credit card. Veteran observers of the state's political process can't
remember a time when so many officials have been caught up in criminal
investigations. "I don't think we've ever had it at this level,'' said
longtime lobbyist Ron Book. Amid the most tumultuous and unpredictable
election year Florida has seen in decades, the names of at least a dozen
political figures have popped up in five major federal investigations
probing the pay-to-play culture of corruption in Florida: • Alan
Mendelsohn, 52, a Fort Lauderdale eye doctor and GOP campaign fundraiser,
is indicted on federal fraud and influence peddling charges. • Scott
Rothstein, 47, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer and campaign donor at the center of
a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme, pled guilty in January to multiple federal
charges of racketeering, money laundering, fraud. • Sansom, 47, charged
with grand theft in state court for secretly putting $6 million in the
budget, is being looked at by federal officials in North Florida for his
use of a GOP credit card and his role in creating a $113 million private
prison.
May 4, 2010 Tallahassee Democrat
An influential state senator who is running for governor called for an
explanation Tuesday of how the Blackwater River prison privatization
project was handled in the state budget. Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland,
wrote to the Department of Corrections and Department of Management Services
regarding the Santa Rosa County prison. She said the Legislature
appropriated $87 million for it as a 2,000-bed privately operated prison in
2008, intending that it house medium- to close-security inmates. In the
closing days of the session that adjourned last week, the budget adopted by
the House and Senate added 224 prisoners to the institution's capacity --
potentially worth $2 million a year, or more, for GEO Group, the company
negotiating with DMS to run the prison. The appropriation was also changed
to specify that the prison will "primarily house special-needs
inmates," such as those with mental or physical health problems, and
that it would be in Santa Rosa County, she said. Dockery, who chairs the
Senate criminal justice committee, asked DOC and DMS if either department
had requested the appropriation. She also asked for a summary of responses
from companies competing for the state's business, what other locations
were considered for the institution and why it was designated for
"inmates who require chronic medical and mental health
treatment." "She's asking all the right questions," said Ken
Kopczynski, a lobbyist for the Police Benevolent Association, which
represents security officers in state-run prisons. The PBA opposes prison
privatization, which has been a highly controversial endeavor at six
corporate-run prisons in Florida. Spokeswomen for DMS and DOC said the
agencies are gathering information to respond to Dockery later this week or
next week.
May 4, 2010 St Petersburg Times
Sen. Paula Dockery, a Lakeland Republican running for governor, has
written DOC Secretary Walt McNeil and DMS Secretary Linda South to find out
more about the private prison Blackwater deal (more here on the
background). The letter is here: Dear Secretary McNeil and Secretary South:
As chair of the Florida Senate’s Committee on Criminal Justice, I am
interested in the background of the Blackwater River Correctional Facility
(Blackwater) in Santa Rosa County. I am aware that an appropriation of
approximately $87,000,000 was made in 2008 to contract for a 2,000 bed
private correctional facility to house medium and close custody inmates.
The appropriation did not specify a location for the facility or that the
facility would primarily house special needs inmates. I request clarification
about the history of the facility, including, but not limited to, the
following issues: • Whether the appropriation was requested by either the
Department of Corrections or the Department of Management Services and, if
so, the basis for the request. • A summary of the responses to ITN #DMS
08/09-026 (including vendor, proposed location, proposed cost, and any
distinguishing features of the proposal). • The origin of consideration of
Santa Rosa County as a location for the facility and identification of
other sites that were considered. • The origin of the decision that the
majority of the inmates in the facility would be special needs inmates who
require chronic medical and mental health treatment, and whether that
decision affected the costs of construction. I would appreciate a timely
response to this request. It is not intended to be burdensome and you
should contact me or my staff if there are difficulties with responding in
a timely fashion. Warm regards, Sen. Paula Dockery
April 25, 2010 Tampa Tribune
House and Senate budget chiefs agreed Saturday to open a private prison and
pour $61 million into the University of South Florida's Lakeland campus,
but remained at odds over a variety of cuts and competing proposals. The
Legislature, in its 2008 budget, approved the construction of the private
Blackwater River Correctional Institution, responding to predictions that
the state's prison population would jump more sharply than it has. The
state-of-the-art facility now stands empty. Saturday, the House agreed to
Senate budget chief JD Alexander's plan to cut state prison beds and
eliminate more than 300 positions, mostly vacant, in the state Department
of Corrections to fill 2,224 Blackwater prison beds. That's 224 more beds
than the facility was designed to hold, raising concerns about crowding.
Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said the state can avoid that problem by
"double-bunking" dormitory space. Ken Kopczynski, political
affairs assistant for the Florida Police Benevolent Association, questioned
whether it is ethical to turn incarceration of prisoners into a
profit-making industry. With 4,000 beds or more available in the state's
public prisons, Kopczynski said, there's no reason to open a private one.
Alexander disagreed. "I just couldn't, in all conscience, sit there
with a brand-new, $120 million facility and not find a way to use it; it
just doesn't make sense to me. I think this is a reasonable
compromise."
April 24, 2010 Tampa Tribune
House and Senate budget chiefs agreed Friday on money for Florida Forever
and a range of other issues, but will spend the weekend haggling over items
ranging from crisis pregnancy counseling to trading state-run prison beds
for private ones. The popular-but-pricey Florida Forever program won $15
million Friday after losing in budget negotiations last year. When the
House refused in 2009 to provide new money for the land conservation
program, its line item, to the alarm of environmentalists, vanished from
the budget. This year, the House initially left the program out of its
budget plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Janet Bowman of the
Nature Conservancy said environmentalists are grateful for the $15 million
"bridge" funding. The proposed cash infusion, she said, will pay
for land appraisals and allow the state to negotiate with land owners.
Other issues on which Senate and House budget chiefs agreed during the past
several days: •Spending $10 million on Everglades restoration. •Repealing a
shoreline fishing fee lawmakers passed in 2009. •Cutting state payment
rates to nursing homes by 7 percent. •Spending $200,000 on a new Innocence
Commission to study why innocent people have wound up in prison and prevent
future cases. •Spending $11.7 million on aid to libraries, less than the
full $21 million funding the Senate proposed earlier. All decisions on the
budget remain unofficial until the end of conferencing. The nursing home
rate reduction is among a handful of recent agreements considered
tentative, given concerns in both chambers about potential harm to nursing
home residents. House and Senate budget chiefs will likely wrap up their
negotiations on Sunday, at which point they forward any remaining sticking
points to House Speaker Larry Cretul and Senate President Jeff Atwater for
final decisions. Public versus private -- Among the issues still at play
this weekend: How to handle the opening of Blackwater River Corrections
Institution, a private prison in Santa Rosa County. The Legislature
authorized construction of the low-cost, highly efficient prison in response
to predictions that the prison population would jump more sharply than it
has. The Senate is proposing to shutter less efficient state facilities and
eliminate more than 300 vacant positions in the Department of Corrections
to open 2,224 beds at Blackwater. That is 224 more beds than facility was
designed to hold. Carter Goble Lee, the Atlanta-based firm contracted as
Blackwater's project manager, warned the state Department of Management
Services in an April 2 letter that the extra beds would place the state at
risk of litigation by violating an industry standard of "25 square
feet of unencumbered space per inmate." Senate budget chief JD
Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said Friday the state can avoid overcrowding by
"double-bunking" dormitory space for lower-risk inmates.
"It's typical of the kind of structure that we have in our publicly
operated prisons, so we felt like that was a good, efficient move to
contain costs." The Senate proposes more than $24 million in cuts to
the state corrections budget to offset the cost of opening Blackwater.
Meanwhile, the state has 4,000 to 5,000 vacant beds available in the
existing state system, said Ken Kopczynski, political affairs assistant for
the Florida Police Benevolent Association. "There's no need for this prison,"
Kopczynski said. "They should let it sit until they need it."
Alexander said that's not acceptable. "I believe it will save us
money," he said. "It's unconscionable to me to have a $120
million facility sitting empty - the newest, most state-of-the-art facility.
I don't know how I would tell the taxpayers that that's OK." The House
has agreed to the corresponding reduction in prison staff vacancies, but
not the extra 224 beds.
April 23, 2010 WEAR TV
It cost taxpayers over 120 million bucks and one state agency says it's not
needed. Now the deal to build a new prison in Milton is attracting the
attention of federal investigators. Dan Thomas/dthomas@weartv.com:
"Take a look we're out here at the site of the new state prison in
Milton and construction is full speed ahead out here today. It's 120
million taxpayer dollars being spent to build it out here. It could mean up
to 400 jobs here to the local economy. One major problem with the project
though? The State Department of Corrections says they don't need any of
this. It's a situation that one report out of Tallahassee says has piqued
the interest of the FBI." An unnamed source close to the
investigation, says the FBI is curious about the prison deal. One of many
dealings of former house speaker Ray Sansom currently under scrutiny. We
know the FBI has spoken to at least one person locally about the matter.
County Commissioner Don Salter says Federal agents have not talked to him
but he expects the whole thing to blow over soon. Don Salter/Santa Rosa
Commissioner: "Hopefully everything is going to workout, I suspect
after august after the primary election and in November it'll probably calm
down and everything will go forward." The state senate wants the
Blackwater prison open with prisoners shipped in from existing facilities.
Meanwhile the house didn't allocate any money to run it. Salter says the
state may have no choice but to open the prison. Don Salter/Santa Rosa
Commissioner: "It's my understanding that GEO bonded this project. The
state guaranteed those bonds. So one way or the other the taxpayers of
Florida will pay for this facility." Dan Thomas/dthomas@weartv.com:
"And just what the legislature decides to do with this facility and
those 400 jobs is expected to be decided next week." No matter what
the legislature decides, construction is expected to be complete in July.
If the facility is opened. They could start taking prisoners by November.
April 23, 2010 Florida News Network
The FBI is asking question about former House Speaker Ray Sansom’s
involvement with a legislative deal to build a private prison. The news
comes as the feds investigate Sansom, Marco Rubio, and former GOP Chairman
Jim Greer for spending millions on Republican Party of Florida credit
cards. As Whitney Ray tells us, the trouble for the GOP keeps growing. A
legislative plan to close as many as five state prisons and ship inmates to
a private prison run by GEO Group was scaled back last month by public out
cry. Former House Speaker Ray Sansom originated the deal with an amendment
in the 2008 state budget. On March 30th, a concerned citizen filed a
complaint with the US Attorney’s Office calling for an investigation. A
source familiar with the complaint says the FBI has been asking questions.
A GEO Group Lobbyist says the feds haven’t questioned him. “I never heard
anything like that at all,” said Smith. According to our source the feds
may be searching to see if Sansom received any kickbacks from the company.
GEO Group, formally known as Wackenhut, gave Sansom’s campaign 500 hundred
dollars for his 2007 campaign. The company gave 145-thousand dollars to the
Republican Party of Florida in 2008, and another 130-thousand in 2009.
Neither Sansom’s lawyer nor the FBI returned our requests for interviews.
Plans to house 22-hundred inmates in the private prison are moving forward
in this year’s budget negotiations. The Police Benevolent Association says
lawmakers should halt the prison plan. “The legislature would be smart to
the taxpayers if they stopped this deal and took another look at it,” said
Puckett. Earlier this week news broke of an FBI investigation into spending
by Sansom, and several other high ranking Republicans on party issued
credit cards. Questions about the prison deal may have spawned from their
current investigation.
April 2, 2010 WEAR TV
A prison nurse in Santa Rosa County wants a federal and state investigation
into the deal to bring the private Blackwater prison to Milton. Elva McCaig
has compiled a lengthy and detailed account of the legislative moves former
state representative Ray Sansom made in the 2008 budget to make the deal
happen. She points out that the state bought the property for the prison
from the Geo Group for $1.6 million. The state also awarded Geo the
contract to build the facility for $110 million. She goes on to allege a
number of other "back-room" transactions. McCaig is a nurse at
the state-run jail next door to the site of the new facility, and she
strongly opposes privatization of prisons.
March 31, 2010 Tampa Tribune
GOP leaders in the Florida Senate appeared Tuesday night to back off on a
controversial budget proposal that would force the closure of two state
prisons in order to open a cheaper private one. Senate Minority Leader Al
Lawson, D-Tallahassee, said Senate budget chief JD Alexander and Senate President
Jeff Atwater have agreed not to require the state to shutter two as-yet
unnamed prisons and privatize one to fill the private Blackwater River
Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa County. That privatization plan, from
Senate Ways and Means Chairman Alexander, appears in the proposed 2010-11
budget that the full Senate will begin considering today. Lawson, who filed
an amendment late Monday that would strip the Blackwater plan from the
budget entirely, said Tuesday night that he will file another that will
leave it up to the state Department of Corrections how best to fill the
private facility. Alexander and Senate President Jeff Atwater indicated
Tuesday evening that they would accept such an amendment, said Lawson,
R-Tallahassee. Lawson's district includes at least one small town fearing
the loss of a local prison rumored to be a target of closure under
Alexander's plan. "This will remove the panic," Lawson said.
Blackwater still would open this year, he said, but without an estimated
cut to prison budgets of $20 million. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said Tuesday
that he still needs to see the language of Lawson's amendment but that they
mostly have agreed on a different approach. The Legislature authorized
construction of the low-cost highly efficient Blackwater facility in 2008,
responding to predictions that the prison population would jump more
sharply than it has. There is no version of the privatization proposal in
the House. The two chambers will have to negotiate a final budget before
the end of the session.
March 30, 2010 WJHG
More than 400 people showed up at a rally in Sneads this afternoon to
protest a Senate budget-cutting proposal. The plan would supposedly save
$68 million dollars by closing two state prisons and privatize a third. But
some of the money would go to pay a private company to operate the new 2200
bed Blackwater Correctional Institute in Santa Rosa County. Folks in
Jackson County are worried Apalachee Correctional Institute will become a
victim of what they're now calling the 'Blackwater Bailout.' More than 400
people showed up at a rally in Sneads this afternoon to protest a Senate
budget-cutting proposal. The plan would supposedly save $68 million dollars
by closing two state prisons and privatize a third. But some of the money would
go to pay a private company to operate the new 2200 bed Blackwater
Correctional Institute in Santa Rosa County. Folks in Jackson County are
worried Apalachee Correctional Institute will become a victim of what
they're now calling the 'Blackwater Bailout.' Jackson County Commission
Chairman Jeremy Branch didn't sugar-coat his feelings about Blackwater
Correctional Institution. "Let me tell you what I hope it does: I hope
it stays there and I hope it turns into a tombstone for privatization, I
hope it's a monument to help symbolize the death of privatization in the
state of Florida." The new prison in Santa Rosa County is 90%
complete. The state owns it, but is planning to let a private company
operate it. Branch and others, including the top State Corrections
official, hope Blackwater never opens its doors. DOC Secretary Walter
McNeil says, "I will not stand idly by. We're gonna fight until our
little fingers are down to the bone to make sure that this does not come to
fruition." Former State Representative Loranne Ausley asks, "when
our communities are experiencing the worst employment, foreclosure rate,
our budget is the worst it has been, how is it you can find 160-million
dollars to build a prison that you don't need?!" If the state taps ACI
as one of the two prisons that will close, community leaders say it will
mean 640 workers will lose their jobs and the Sneads economy will be
devastated. James Baiardi of the Police Benevolent Association, says
"this is wrong, it's nothing more than a corporate bailout, that's all
it is. They made the mistake and they want you to pay, your community to
pay and they want the Correctional officers to pay for their mistake."
74-year-old Reverend Willis Raines Sr. has lived in Sneads his whole life.
He raised 17 kids and knows firsthand ACI's impact on the local economy.
"It creates communities where people get their jobs and support their
families in our communities which is very, very important." Others are
concerned the state could close as many as 5 prisons and will begin the
early-release of inmates to compensate for the lack of prison beds. But
former State Representative Curtis Richardson says, "we're here to say
not 'NO' but 'HELL NO!' We will not take it anymore. They can keep this
deal in Tallahassee. We're not gonna have it." Richardson went on to
blame former House Speaker Ray Sansom for the situation. Sansom filed the
2008 budget amendment that issued state bonds to build Blackwater and hire
a private company to operate it. Richardson said there's no question this
can be tied to the kind of back room, smoke filled room, dirty deals Ray
Sansom has become associated with.
March 30, 2010 Palm Beach Post
Once again, a Tallahassee lawmaker is playing hide and don't seek with
Florida's budget. This time, the perpetrator is Senate budget chief J.D.
Alexander. Last week, the Lake Wales Republican bypassed standard
procedures to amend the proposed spending bill to close at least two
state-run prisons, open a new private prison and privatize others. Sen.
Alexander claims moving prisoners from state-run facilities to private ones
will save $42 million a year. Why, then, didn't he bother to notify the
Department of Corrections? Surely, the DOC should know about such a drastic
change. Sen. Alexander's last-minute move would benefit Boca Raton-based
GEO Group, the company likely to run one of the facilities. Sen.
Alexander's amendment continues budget sleight-of-hand begun by former
House Speaker Ray Sansom. That Santa Rosa County Republican slipped into
the 2008 budget a $110 million appropriation the state used to pay GEO
Group to build the private prison in his home county. That's the prison
that Sen. Alexander now hopes to open. Mr. Sansom resigned last year as
speaker and this year left the House after indictment on charges related to
another deal he tucked into that budget — $6 million to build an airplane
hangar for a major contributor to himself and the Republican Party. The GEO
Group, which runs the South Bay Correctional Institution, has had a number
of inmate deaths and riots at its prisons. Last year, a Texas appeals court
upheld a 2006 $40 million wrongful death judgment concerning an inmate
fatally beaten in 2001. Unless other prisons close, there aren't enough
inmates to fill the 2,224-bed prison near the Blackwater River in Santa
Rosa County. Also, the company, which contributed $158,000 to Florida
Republicans and $17,000 to Democrats during the 2008 election cycle, saw
its stock price drop as much as 8 percent earlier this month when the
Federal Bureau of Prisons canceled plans to house illegal aliens convicted
of crimes. GEO Group expected those inmates to fill a facility it operates
in Michigan. An analyst pointed out at the time that all was not bad for
GEO Group because the company's earnings from the Blackwater facility had
not been included in its 2010 forecast. Sen. Alexander, whose amendment
would help Blackwater's profits, also did not include the impact it would
have on prison overcrowding when he forecast the savings privatization
would bring to the state. Secretary of Corrections Walt McNeil estimates
the amendment would shutter five prisons and force the department to
release about 2,500 inmates early. "Everybody," Mr. McNeil said,
"should be concerned about it." Everybody also should be
concerned when legislators conduct state business under the cover of
darkness. Obviously lawmakers should discuss prison projections and clear
up serious disagreements about the numbers before acting. Last year, the
grand jury that indicted former Rep. Sansom condemned the Legislature's
clandestine budgeting process that lets a select few lawmakers make
decisions behind closed doors. Sen. Alexander should read that grand jury
report and take notes.
March 27, 2010 Palm Beach Post
After repeatedly emphasizing his commitment to "open and
transparent" government during a committee meeting Thursday evening,
Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander attached a last-minute
prison-privatization amendment to the state's spending bill without any
warning to anyone it would affect, including the Department of Corrections.
Alexander's proposal to open a privately run prison near the Blackwater
River in the Panhandle would shutter at least two state-run prisons and put
639 prison guards out of work, the Lakeland Republican told the committee.
His plan also would privatize an unidentified existing 1,350-bed prison,
bringing the number of guards who would get pink slips up to 1,400,
according to the amendment. Alexander says that shutting down prisons to
fill a 2,224-bed facility to be run by Boca Raton-based Geo Group would
save the state about $20 million a year. And it would put into use the
state-of-the-art, energy-efficient Blackwater prison the state paid Geo
$110 million to build near Milton in a deal slipped into the 2008 budget by
state Rep. Ray Sansom before he became House speaker. Sansom later stepped
down from that position in disgrace. But corrections officials object to
the plan and say Alexander overestimates the state's potential savings by
going private. Geo is now negotiating with the Department of Management
Services to run Blackwater, but with a major hitch: The state doesn't have
enough inmates to fill it without closing other prisons. That's because the
state overestimated how many inmates would be incarcerated and the prison
population is declining despite historically high unemployment. Alexander
based his estimate on a $65-a-day rate for inmates in state-run prisons and
$41 a day that Geo says it can charge for Blackwater, a savings of $24 a
day for each of the 2,224 inmates who would be housed at the facility. But
corrections officials say the savings would be about $9 million — less than
half Alexander's $20 million estimate — because their average daily rate is
$52 while the private prison's costs would depend on what kind of inmates
were locked up at Blackwater. "We don't believe this is the right way
to open Blackwater," said DOC spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger. Blackwater
was originally supposed to house mentally ill and seriously sick inmates
who cost more to care for, but documents show that the state is now
negotiating with Geo to care for inmates who are the cheapest and easiest
to supervise. "As discussed earlier today, we wanted to provide you
with a revised pricing for the Blackwater Facility if it were to house 2,224
M-1/M-2/S-1 inmates," an unidentified Geo official wrote on March 19
to Michael Weber, chief of private prison monitoring at the Department of
Management Services. M-1, M-2 and S-1 inmates are relatively healthy and
have no mental health issues. The $41-a-day price goes up to $45 if the
2,224-bed facility does not run at full capacity, according to the e-mail.
But DMS spokeswoman Linda McDonald declined to say who would run Blackwater
because negotiations aren't finished. And she would not say what type of inmates
would be housed there. "That is not a decision that DMS makes.
Ultimately it could be the legislature, but DOC is certainly involved,
too," McDonald said. Plessinger said it is unlikely that all the
inmates from one prison could be transferred to Blackwater because most
prisons have a mix of classes of prisoners. She also said corrections
officials have no idea which prisons will be shut down. Deal 'sneaky,' some
say -- Alexander's late-filed amendment is the latest twist in a deal
worked out in secrecy for at least two years since Sansom set it into
motion. Sansom resigned his speakership in 2009 after being indicted on
charges including grand theft related to a deal he tucked into the 2008
budget. He is facing trial on charges of steering tax money to build a jet
hangar for developer Jay Odom, who donated nearly $1 million to Sansom and
the state Republican Party, at a Panhandle college that hired him the day
he became speaker. In the same budget, the Santa Rosa County Republican
also slipped in a $110 million appropriation to build a private prison in
his home county. Alexander's privatization plan was never discussed during
the Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee meetings
where prison spending is usually decided. The committee chairman, Victor
Crist, voted against the amendment Thursday. He said the potential savings
by privatizing the prisons could not only put people out of work but also
devastate the rural communities in which the prisons are based. "They
generally are the primary if not the only employer there. If you shut it
down, you could be shutting down a town. All of a sudden, everyone there
could be out of work," said Crist, R-Tampa. "How do they sell
their homes? How do they relocate even if they got a job with a private
prison 300 miles away?" And, Crist said, the laid-off prison guards —
whose annual salaries average between $30,000 and $35,000 — could wind up
costing the state more if they sign up for state services for the
unemployed. "Sometimes a dollar saved upfront could cost you two
dollars behind," he said. Alexander said he introduced the amendment
because Crist refused to do so and as Senate budget chairman he wants to
save money on prisons to help close a $3.2 billion spending gap. "Many
states have reduced their incarceration costs by using privatization,"
said Alexander, R-Lake Wales. He estimated Florida could save up to $700
million a year by privatizing each of its 62 prisons. But Police Benevolent
Association President Jim Baiardi said Alexander kept his plan quiet to
avoid public debate on the controversial issue. "It's been sneaky.
Very sneaky. It's almost like it's been done in the dead of the night. So
much for open government," Baiardi said, calling it a giveaway for
Geo. "I don't understand how they can say that," Alexander said.
"The reality is we've got a brand-new prison that the state directed
and used taxpayers' monies to build. I think putting that prison online,
saving the money, saving the maintenance costs, is something that only
makes good financial sense for the people of Florida."
September 10, 2009 Northwest Florida Daily News
The Santa Rosa County Sheriff's office arrested eight undocumented
workers and charged six of them with fraud on Tuesday. Deputies conducted a
traffic stop near the area of a construction site on Jeff Ates Road in
Milton. Crews there are working to build a new private prison and the
Sheriff's Office had received word that some of the crew members weren't in
the United States legally. During the traffic stop on Sept. 8, a Special
Operations investigator determined the four people in the vehicle did not
have proper paperwork and documentation. The men said they were employed at
the construction site as masons. Lawmen contacted the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement Agency and reported the arrest of two of the men in the
car. Abelino Oviedo-Salinas, 25, was arrested for traffic violation and
Sergio Mata-Oviedo, 18, was arrested for resisting an officer. The job
foreman at the construction site was cooperative and reported the men were
hired by a subcontractor at the site. The subcontractor said the men were
sent to him through Robles Masonry in Alabama. After investigating the
claims, six more men were arrested for providing false identification
information to fill out their tax forms. Margaro Elias, 48, Jaime Condeles,
37, Mariano Sanchez-Ramiez, 21, Amado Landaverde-Vizcaya, 27, Jaime
Flores-Aguilar, 32, and Bernardo Mata, 25, were charged with fraud. ICE was
notified of the six arrests and bond was withheld for all the men arrested,
pending their first appearance. There were no local addresses, local ties
or valid information they could provide. Authorities report showed two of
the men had fingerprints that matched prior arrests under different names
in other parts of the country. Several of the other men, including the
driver from the traffic stop, have prior arrests for illegal entry into the
United States.
July 24, 2009 Santa Rosa Press-Gazette
It doesn’t appear that some tensions have died down since Monday’s
meeting of the Santa Rosa County Commissioners where Chairman Don Salter
entered into the minutes he “as chairman feared for the safety of certain
individuals involved with economic development” based on the comments he
quoted of Alan Isaacson. Since then, the feelings are still there. “I have
a right to petition my government and asked them to take action based on
the contract I drafted with them,” said Isaacson. “Then to have someone who
accuses you of potential murder. “I was hurt, but I was also concerned about
the fact that in the past two months I found 11 instances of items being
withheld by TEAM. And that violates the agreement with the county according
to paragraph 14.” Paragraph 14 section b in the Funding Program Agreement
between TEAM and the Santa Rosa County Commission states, “TEAM shall,
subject to and comply with the provisions of Chapter 119, Florida Statutes,
and other relevant laws, permit public access to all documents or other
materials prepared, developed or received by it in connection with the
performance of its obligations or the exercise of its rights under this
Agreement, unless exempted or confidential by law. This Agreement may be
terminated by (the) County pursuant to paragraph 17 if TEAM fails to allow
such public access.” Isaacson, who is now a witness into the State
Attorney’s investigation into matters involving TEAM and government
entities, is wondering why the contract is not being followed. “In 2007 the
state attorney’s office told us TEAM was crystal clear on the regulations,
but in Oct. of 2008 they form a committee to study what they need to do to
be in compliance with the Sunshine Law,” said Isaacson. “Then in Jan. of
2009 they are still studying it and are basically forced to follow the
law.” Most of the recent contention to arise this past week focused on an
e-mail that came to light when John Myslak, who is a TEAM Board Member,
addressed charges against him to members of the Santa Rosa County
Commission as Myslak was awarded a contract involving the GEO Prison
Project in East Milton. Other names were noted in the e-mail included TEAM
members John Griffing, Pete Gandy, and Dick Hohorst may have or are all
being paid by taxpayer funds even through the meetings leading up to these
payouts which were held outside of the sunshine. He also questioned the
$70,000 grant/contract Jeff Helms, with PBS&J, just finished with the
Whiting Aviation Park. Since the e-mail was sent it has been learned Helms
was awarded the contract prior to joining the board of TEAM Santa Rosa.
Helms pointed out the contract he was awarded was based on a request for
proposals and we went through a process and was fortunate enough to get
part of the work. But questions involving the board and recent action still
remain. Ken Kopczynski, with the Florida Police Benevolent Association, has
been going through a battle to get documents involving an open records
request since Sept. 2008 as they were looking into the matter with GEO
Prisons. “We have had a long dialogue between the PBA and the County,” said
Kopczynski. “One of our guys heard about this private prison on the agenda
one Monday and they vote on the letter of support the following Thursday.
“Our member raised questions on how this prison came about.” When the
association sent their letter, TEAM replied their records were exempt. “We
also asked for correspondence between Management Training Corporation and
John Vanyur,” said Kopczynski. “They told us there was no documents
regarding MTC. “Yet we learn about an e-mail dated in April 2008 from
Vanyur to TEAM Santa Rosa.” Since this time the Florida PBA, one of the
state’s largest unions, contacted Roy Andrews who on July 14 stated he was
not the custodian of the public records for TEAM, but that he has “given
the staff my opinion that all their records are public with the exception
of those exemptions specifically set forth in Florida Statute 288.075 for
the applicable time periods.” This is causing a great deal of concern to
those like Isaacson, who have been championing open records and meetings
for a long time. “If one of the largest unions in the state can’t get the
information, what makes you think an individual like me can,” said
Isaacson. When asked about if he has ever taken the time to talk to
Isaacson about these questions and concerns Salter stated they had talked
some six months ago. “I talked to Alan about six months ago for three hours
to explain my position on economic development and base protection and we
agreed to disagree,” said Salter. “My big point is for two years they have
been saying their allegations on local radio and everywhere they can that
we are guilty and the allegations they have. “If you have a problem and
feel something is wrong then file the proper complaint and let the legal
system work through it; don’t convict in the media.” “I want to say just as
a reminder when you do stuff like this personalities do arise,” said
Isaacson. “But I do not apologize for what I am doing because these items
need to be done out in the open. “I have a fiduciary responsibility to
check on what is questionable and in my opinion in Oct. of last year your
own attorney agreed.”
Bridgeport
Correctional Center, Bridgeport, Texas
June
27, 2010 Wise County Messenger
A new management company will take over the Bridgeport Correctional
Center beginning Aug. 31. The 520-bed facility has been managed by GEO
Group Inc., since the center opened in August 1989. GEO was reawarded a
three-year contract from Sept. 1, 2005, and also had two, one-year
renewals. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice conducted a competitive bid
process, and Management & Training Corp. won the seven-year bid.
"There's a technical review of the bid and a financial review of the
bid," said Jason Clark, public information officer for the TDCJ. Clark
said that the reviews are done separately by different committees.
"They score those reviews and compile the scores and a recommendation
is made to the TDCJ."
June 7, 2005 Wise County Messenger
The Rev. Gil Pansza and an official with The Catholic Diocese of Fort
Worth met with officials of the Bridgeport Correctional Center Wednesday to
discuss Pansza’s dismissal as a volunteer from the men’s division of the
center, but Pansza said he remains barred from the facility. “They didn’t
invite me back,” said Pansza, pastor of St. John’s Catholic Church in Bridgeport
and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Decatur. Pansza and Ralph
McCloud, division director of the Social Justice Ministry of the diocese,
said they met with senior warden Priscella Miles, assistant warden Bobby
Thompson and chaplain Phillip Yoder at the center. Pansza said Yoder told
him a couple of weeks ago that his services were no longer necessary at the
center, which Pansza had been visiting since February. Miles said in a
previous story that Pansza was barred because of his demeanor and because
the prison feared a security issue could occur with Catholic prisoners. On
Wednesday, Pansza said the entire group met for almost an hour, and then
Miles and McCloud met privately for a half-hour. “Warden Miles was
interested in better understanding what our concerns were, and I think she
was pretty patient in listening to what I had to say,” Pansza said. “She
gave an opportunity for the chaplain to say what his views were and then to
warden Thompson as to what his views were. Her concern is that there’s an
allegation of discrimination. I pointed out that that allegation was not by
the church. And she mentioned that the allegation really came from the
community. On prison officials’ concerns about security issues, Pansza said
Thompson mentioned that he was concerned about “offender manipulation.”
Pansza said officials were concerned that he would tell the offenders that
the institution was not giving him access to prisoners, and that “the
offenders would be quite upset about that and maybe that would become a
security issue.” “I guess I can understand that,” Pansza said. “That’s
certainly not something I would want to do. But I can understand his
concern.” Yet Pansza said Thursday that he’s confused about Thompson’s
justification on the matter of security concerns. On the day Thompson told
Pansza that he supported Yoder’s decision to bar Pansza from the prison,
the subject of security concerns was never broached, Pansza said. Pansza
said he thinks that issue emerged after the fact. Pansza said one offender
in segregation asked to see his priest but was denied access. Pansza said
Yoder told him that the warden said the prison was ready to transfer him to
another unit.
June 28, 2005 Wise County
Messenger
The Office of the Inspector General will investigate the death of an inmate
who was housed at the Corrections Corporation of America in
Bridgeport. Julia Martinez, 29,
collapsed Wednesday afternoon and was pronounced dead a short time later at
Wise Regional Health System. Warden
Gwen Bowers said Martinez reportedly collapsed in the facility’s outdoor
exercise area. Paramedics were called and transported Martinez to WRHS.
June 2, 2005 Wise County Messenger
A Wise County priest says he has been barred from performing church
services or visiting with offenders at the men’s division of the Bridgeport
Correctional Center. The Rev. Gil Pansza, pastor of St. John’s Catholic
Church in Bridgeport and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Decatur,
said he doesn’t know why he has been prevented from celebrating Mass or
talking with prisoners. Priscella Miles, senior warden at the prison, said
Tuesday that Pansza has been barred from the prison, but that she is open
to talking with him. She said she talked with him last week and hopes to
hear from him again this week. Pansza said problems emerged three weeks
ago, after he saw another church service advertised on flyers on two
bulletin boards at the facility. He asked Chaplain Phillip Yoder whether
Catholic Masses could be advertised on flyers on 12 bulletin boards at the
prison. He said he also asked whether Thursday Mass could be placed on the
monthly religious service calendar. The Mass was later advertised on a
corrected calendar, Pansza said. Pansza said he and Yoder discussed church
postings on bulletin boards. Yoder agreed to allow the posting of the
Catholic service flyers. About a week later, before Pansza’s next Mass,
Pansza said he visited with Yoder, who was upset about their previous
meeting and said he thought Pansza had questioned his integrity. After some
discussion on the bulletin boards and prisoner visitation – Pansza said he
apologized to Yoder if he offended him and that he was just trying to
ensure Catholic Masses receive the same treatment as others – Yoder told
Pansza that he was a guest in the facility and that he was under his
supervision. Pansza said understood prison rules but told him that he would
not “tolerate disparate treatment” from Yoder’s office or anyone else,
meaning that he didn’t accept what he thought was Yoder’s office promoting one
church service over another. “I guess he didn’t like that,” Pansza said.
Pansza said Yoder then told him that his services were no longer necessary
at the prison, Pansza said. Miles said The GEO Group Inc. – which contracts with the state
to manage the Bridgeport unit – and the Bridgeport Correctional Center
support all religions.
Broward
Transition Center, Pompano Beach, Florida
April 29, 2013 palmbeachpost.com
Miami-based Americans for Immigrant
Justice has issued a report strongly criticizing the treatment of
non-criminal immigrants at the Broward Transitional Center (BTC), which is
operated by and GEO Group of Boca Raton, under the direction of the the
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. “The BTC report features
the cases of numerous detainees with no criminal or minimal criminal
history needlessly subjected to abuse,” says the immigration advocacy
group. According to the report, one female detainee told a BTC deportation
officer she was scared to return to her homeland. “She should have been
given an interview to determine whether she could apply for asylum,” says
the report. “Instead, she was quickly deported.” A male detainee was
diagnosed with a painful hernia but ICE “declined to pay for the surgery,
yet detained him for six months while he suffered much pain,” according to
the authors of the report. The report also documents three cases of alleged
sexual assault. “As Congress works to reform an outdated immigration system,
members would be wise to reform abusive detention facilities, including the
Broward Transitional Center,” said Susana Barciela, spokesperson for AIJ.
“Further, it makes no sense to detain immigrants who pose no danger.
Alternatives to detention are effective and far cheaper.” Under the Obama
administration, immigration authorities have said they are focused on
deporting dangerous criminal aliens, not those with only immigration
offenses, but immigration advocates have said many non-criminal immigrants
are still being detained and deported. “If ICE truly focused on detaining
and deporting dangerous criminals, it would save more than a billion
dollars annually,” Barciela said. “These savings would help relieve the
nation’s fiscal concerns.”
January 5, 2013 By Megan O'Matz, Sun Sentinel
DEERFIELD BEACH Hundreds of men and women who have committed minor
offenses, such as driving without a license, or no apparent crime at all,
are locked up for weeks and months in a little-known central Broward County
facility run by a private company. They are immigrants, accused of entering
the country without legal authorization or staying longer than permitted.
Their treatment — at the hands of the federal government and the Boca
Raton-based firm hired to keep them at the 700-bed Broward Transitional
Center — has become a growing controversy since July, when a detainee went
on hunger strike and activists staged protests demanding a halt to the
confinement and deportation of foreigners with no serious criminal
histories. In a daring move, two young adults, both illegal immigrants
brought by their families to the United States as children, turned
themselves in to gain access to the center and expose what they claimed
were human rights abuses and policy violations by federal authorities. Once
inside, they said they found people unjustly arrested and subjected to
lengthy and unnecessary confinement, and reported incidents of substandard
or callous medical care, including a woman taken for ovarian surgery and
returned the same day, still bleeding, to her cell, and a man who urinated
blood for days but wasn't taken to see a doctor. ICE denies any
mistreatment. In a recent interview with the Sun Sentinel, the agency's
Miami Field Office Director Marc J. Moore said conditions at the facility
are excellent and that the "staff here treats people with
respect." But the young activists' claims captured the attention of 26
members of Congress, who wrote to the nation's chief immigration official
demanding a review of all detainees locked up at the Broward facility and
an investigation into the quality of medical care there. "Some of the
reports coming out of the center are horrifying," lawmakers, including
South Florida Democrats Ted Deutch, Frederica Wilson and Alcee Hastings, wrote
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton. ICE has yet
to reply to the letter, written in September. Last week, Deutch sent a
second letter, chastising ICE for its "excessive delay" and
demanding it respond immediately to lawmakers' concerns. "It's
certainly time for us to hear back, and it's well past time that these
serious issues be addressed," Deutch, of Boca Raton, told the Sun
Sentinel on Friday. If legislators continue to encounter silence from ICE,
Deutch said they will investigate what actions can be taken to ensure that
a review of the center is made and "these human rights abuses are
stopped."
August 25, 2012 Palm Beach Post
For Nicaraguan immigrant Serafin Solorzano, being jailed for overstaying
his visa was bad enough. Even worse: Solorzano said he was denied access to
his asthma inhaler for part of a two-week stay at an immigration detention
center in Deerfield Beach. Without access to his medicine, he felt as
though he was suffocating. Solorzano, now 54, recovered from the asthma attack.
But the experience two years ago led him to join the growing list of
critics of GEO Group, the Boca Raton-based prison operator that owns the
700-bed Broward Transition Center where Solorzano was held. “This is
something that has violated my human rights,” Solorzano told reporters in
May as he and other critics protested outside the GEO Group’s annual
meeting at The Breakers in Palm Beach. Solorzano’s gripes have been echoed
by inmates, by civil libertarians and by state and federal regulators who have
scrutinized GEO Group’s operations. They argue that GEO Group pads its
profits by cutting worker wages, skimping on inmate health care and
ignoring safety and sanitation. Despite the complaints, GEO Group (NYSE:
GEO) continues to grow, thanks to rising prison populations and the federal
government’s move to privatize detention of immigrants. GEO Group is on
track to book $1.7 billion in revenues in 2012, its biggest year on record
and a hundredfold increase from 1994, the prison operator’s first year as a
publicly traded company. GEO Group launched as Wackenhut Corrections and
was based in Coral Gables. After a move to Palm Beach Gardens in the 1990s,
GEO Group landed in Boca Raton. Governments pay GEO Group to run nearly
80,000 beds in prisons and hospitals worldwide. Among the institutions
operated by GEO Group are South Bay Correctional Facility, a 1,862-bed
state prison in western Palm Beach County; the 700-bed Broward Transition
Center, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility; and the Treasure
Coast Forensic Treatment Center, a 223-bed state hospital in Stuart. GEO
Group’s revenue — which has risen every year for nearly 20 years — and
steady profits make it a financial success story. It’s the second-largest
operator of private prisons, trailing only Corrections Corp. of America
(NYSE: CXW) of Nashville. But investors clearly prefer CCA. While GEO
Group’s revenue is similar to CCA’s, CCA is twice as profitable, and CCA’s
market capitalization is twice GEO Group’s. A $10,000 investment five years
ago in GEO Group would have dwindled to $8,667, while the same amount
invested in CCA would have grown to $13,237. Meanwhile, GEO Group has been
dogged for years by reports of sloppy — and sometimes gruesome — practices.
One recent black eye: In June, the federal Occupational Safety and Health
Administration proposed fines totaling $104,100 for violations at a GEO
Group prison in Meridian, Miss. Federal inspectors visited the prison in
December and found too few guards on duty and broken cell locks. OSHA said
GEO Group guards were stabbed, bitten, punched and kicked by inmates, and
that the company did little to protect them. In one of the prison’s housing
units, only three guards were on duty. GEO Group’s staffing plan called for
eight officers to be on guard. Understaffing meant guards were more likely
to be attacked by prisoners, OSHA said. What’s more, inmates tampered with
cell doors so that they could be opened by prisoners from the inside but
not by guards from the outside. “This employer knowingly put workers at
risk of injury or death by failing to implement well recognized measures
that would protect employees from physical assaults by inmates,” Clyde
Payne, OSHA’s director in Jackson, Miss., said in a statement. GEO Group
has contested OSHA’s findings. GEO Group has been on the receiving end of a
laundry list of regulatory actions and lawsuits. Among them: •In 2011, an
Oklahoma jury ordered GEO to pay $6.5 million to the family of Ronald
Sites, an inmate who was strangled to death by his cellmate in 2005. •In
2011, Florida Department of Corrections investigators visited GEO Group’s
prison in South Bay for a drug sweep and couldn’t get in. No one was
stationed at the front gate, and no one responded when state employees
pushed the alert button and shined flashlights at the prison surveillance
cameras. •Also last year, the Florida Department of Children and Families
said GEO Group’s neglect contributed to the death of a South Florida State
Hospital patient. The man was being escorted by GEO Group employees to an
appointment at Jackson Memorial Hospital when he hurled himself from the
eighth story of a parking garage, the Miami Herald reported. A GEO Group
employee should have stayed with the man at the first-story hospital
entrance while the driver retrieved the van, DCF said. •In 2010, the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued GEO Group for allowing sexual
harassment of female employees at two prisons in Florence, Ariz. In one
incident, a male GEO Group manager “grabbed and pinched the breasts and
crotch of a female correctional officer,” the EEOC said. In another
instance, a “female employee was forced onto a desk, where a male GEO
employee shoved apart her legs and kissed her,” the agency claimed. •In
2009, a Texas appeals court upheld a $42.5 million verdict after a prisoner
at a GEO Group facility was beaten to death four days before his release. •
In 2007, Texas canceled an $8 million contract with GEO and closed the Coke
County Juvenile Justice Center. Inspectors found feces on floors and walls,
padlocked emergency exits and overuse of pepper spray on young inmates. A
GEO Group spokesman didn’t comment on the regulatory findings and jury
verdicts, but its defenders chalk up the litany of gripes to the nature of
its business. GEO Group operates in what might be the messiest niche in
American capitalism, an industry where shankings, riots and suicide
attempts are routine. “We’re not talking about members of Congress or Boy
Scouts here,” Robert Wasserman, an analyst at Dawson James in Boca Raton,
said of the stream of complaints. “I think their goal is to operate these
facilities as cleanly as they can.” Critics take a less charitable view of
the company. Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership in
Austin, Texas, said he’s astounded that state and federal officials still
do business with GEO Group. “In Texas, GEO Group had an absolute string of
horror stories that resulted in having multiple contracts canceled,” Libal
said. “They’re a very troubled corporation that exemplifies many of the
problems with the for-profit prison industry. It’s mindboggling that
companies like GEO continue to win contracts.” Proponents of private
prisons say for-profit institutions operate more efficiently than public
prisons. “Private prisons are providing quality services—while remaining
cost-efficient and providing significant cost savings,” wrote Geoffrey
Segal, a former adviser to then-Gov. Jeb Bush’s Center for Efficient
Government, in a 2005 report. But some who have studied private prison finances
say the savings are elusive. Florida law says that private prison contracts
must yield savings of 7 percent compared to what the state would have paid
to operate the facility. In a 2008 report, the Florida Office of Program
Policy Analysis & Government Accountability looked at the state’s
private prisons and concluded that operators save money by taking on fewer
“special needs” prisoners with medical problems and mental health issues
that make them expensive to house. “As special needs inmates are more expensive
to serve than other inmates, the difference in the populations of public
and private prisons results in the state shouldering a greater proportion
of the cost of housing these inmates,” the report said. “As a result, the
requirement that the private prisons operate a 7 percent lower cost than
state facilities is undermined.”
March 17, 2009 Sun-Sentinel
A doctor says they need medicine to stop the palpitations, shortness of
breath and the cries of drowning shipmates they hear in their nightmares.
But in a federal lawsuit that echoes the complaints of immigrants detained
across the country, two Brazilian migrants held at the Broward Transitional
Center say they're not getting their prescribed medication. "We meet
with detainees across Florida in jails and detention centers and the
number-one complaint is the lack of medical care," said Cheryl Little,
executive director of the Florida Immigration Advocacy Center. Across the
country, 90 detainees have died in custody in the past four years. One was
the Rev. Joseph Danticat, who died at the Krome Detention Center near Miami
in 2004 when officials took away prescribed medication for high blood
pressure. In a congressional hearing last week, the special adviser to the
Secretary of Homeland Security said the medical care provided to many of
those who died didn't appear to meet Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement standards.
March 5, 2009 AP
Two Brazilian migrants have sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying
they've been denied mental health care for post-traumatic stress disorder
in a South Florida detention facility since their boat ran aground last
fall. Jaime Miranda and Daniel Padilha were diagnosed with the disorder by
a private physician in December but have not been given prescribed
medications or treatments while being held at the Broward Transition Center
in Pompano Beach, according to lawsuits filed Wednesday in Miami federal
court. Their confinement without medical care has aggravated their mental
health problems, violates their Fifth Amendment rights and mirrors
persecution in Brazil that they sought to escape, the lawsuits state.
"It would be inappropriate for ICE to comment on matters pending
litigation," spokeswoman Nicole Navas said Thursday. Miranda and
Padilha were both aboard a rusty 40-foot boat that ran aground Oct. 31 near
Virginia Key, a small island east of downtown Miami. The boat had departed
days before from the Dominican Republic, where Miranda and Padilha say
traffickers held them for two months against their will, ordered them to
work for the boat driver and forced them aboard a vessel that wasn't
seaworthy. Both men had arrived in the Dominican Republic after fleeing
mistreatment in Brazil; Padilha is gay, and Miranda's father was murdered.
At least six people died after the boat hit a sandbar. Miranda and Padilha
were among five Brazilians and 22 Dominicans detained by ICE. About 10
others were reported missing, but it was unclear if they drowned or made it
ashore and fled. The man who allegedly piloted the boat faces up to 10
years in prison if convicted of federal human smuggling charges. Miranda,
27, and Padilha, 24, persistently relive the accident and have nightmares
in which the dead passengers ask them for food and water, according to the
lawsuits. A doctor hired by their families diagnosed them and prescribed
several medications to treat each man's insomnia, depression, anxiety and
psychotic episodes. However, an officer at the center told Miranda and
Padilha's attorney that the men had not been given the drugs and would need
to be moved to another facility to receive treatment, the lawsuits state.
Miranda and Padilha are seeking release or transfer to a facility that can
provide mental health treatment, in addition to damages for pain and
suffering. Each also seeks asylum to escape torture and persecution in
Brazil, where they say they would not have access to psychological services
if deported. Both men say they are eligible for a special visa granted to
victims of certain crimes who cooperate with investigators because they
provided U.S. law enforcement with names and details about the trafficking
operation that brought them from the Dominican Republic to Florida.
"The government has further victimized Miranda and Padilha by keeping
them in custody without medical treatment despite repeated requests that
they be released to obtain proper medical care and treatment," their
Boston-based attorney, Jeff Ross, said Thursday in an e-mail. "The
decision to keep Miranda and Padilha detained has been a discretionary
decision and they should have been released by the government since they
were cooperating witnesses in a federal case in Miami." The lawsuit
also names the center's warden and the company that manages its operations,
The GEO Group, as defendants. The GEO Group, which provides detention
management services at the Broward Transition Center under contract with
ICE, does not comment on litigation matters, company spokesman Pablo Paez
said Thursday in an e-mail.
Broward Work Release Center, Broward County, Florida
April 18, 2001
A Broward Sheriff's detention deputy at the
county's work-release center was suspended and a Wackenhut employee from
the same facility was arrested after detectives said she went shopping with
someone else's debit card. The deputy gave the card to Gail Forrest, a
job-verification specialist at the work-release center in Pompano Beach,
because she didn't want to get in trouble. Forrest, 34, then drove to
Linens and things in Lighthouse Point where she bought a comforter for
$190.79. She signed the receipt, and left the store. She also tried buying
$211 worth of merchandise at a Boca Raton Wal-Mart. When the card was
denied; she left the store. Forrest, who a Wackenhut spokesperson said had
worked at the center since February 2000, was charged with the fraudulent
use of a credit card, possession of a lost or stolen credit card and
uttering a forged instrument. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Calipatria, California
December
30, 2005 Imperial Valley Press
The prospect of placing a privately owned and operated prison here has
stirred some local unions and created controversy in the community. Though
no official steps have been taken, a Calipatria City Council public hearing
on the subject sparked vivid discussion Tuesday night. The Geo Group, Inc.
- a private company based in Boca Raton, Fla., that operates more than 50
private correctional facilities nationally - may propose a new prison in
Calipatria, pending a request for proposals from the state Department of Corrections.
The request is expected to come because of a need for more prisons in
California. "State prisons are overcrowded," said Ken Fortier, a
representative from Geo. In an information packet presented to the City
Council, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association cites
several instances where the Geo Group had problems with operation of its
facilities. "What they do is lower the standards of the corrections
profession," said CCPOA representative Ryan Sherman. "They are responsible
to their corporations while state facilities are responsible to the
public." Sherman said employees of private prisons do not receive
proper training to deal with serious felons. Another issue raised is how
the availability of more jobs will affect the community. With an already
high unemployment rate in the county and the need for increased revenue and
property taxes, the private prison could prove a valuable financial
resource. Sherman said Calipatria State Prison has a shortage of people to
fill its positions and a new prison would cut into the pool of much-needed
employees. "We have a couple hundred vacancies, and triple the
pay," he said. "I don't see where Geo is going to get the people
they need." On the flip side, training to become a guard at the
private facility would involve less time than at the state prison, which
would be of benefit to those seeking more immediate position. Yet some
think less training creates a more dangerous situation of unprepared
employees.
Campsfield
Immigration Removal Centre, Oxford, England
October 5, 2011 Oxford Mail
EFFORTS to improve conditions for detainees at Campsfield House
immigration removal centre have stalled, according to inspectors. Chief
Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick said not enough had been done to deal
with problems – particularly in healthcare and education – raised by his
predecessor Dame Anne Owers after an inspection of the UK Borders Agency
centre in Kidlington two years ago. His officials made an unannounced
three-day inspection in May, shortly before operation of the centre – which
houses about 200 people – passed from Geo Group to Mitie on May 30. The
inspectors praised the way newly-arrived detainees were supported, said
detainees felt safe and there was little bullying or use of force, noted
relationships between staff and detainees were satisfactory, work placement
arrangements had improved and access to phones and email was good. But they
said there were “significant weaknesses in healthcare services”, education
provision had not improved, decisions to place detainees in the separation
unit were not always properly authorised and better interpreting services
were needed, along with more notices in foreign languages.
August 5, 2011 The Guardian
Separate investigations into three deaths in immigration removal centres
(IRC) in the past month have been launched by the police, amid growing
concern about the treatment of detainees. The spate of deaths has caused
alarm among critics of the government's detention policy, who warn that the
system is at "breaking point" with poor healthcare putting
people's lives at risk. Two men died from suspected heart attacks at
Colnbrook near Heathrow airport and the third killed himself at the
Campsfield House detention centre in Oxfordshire on Tuesday. John McDonnell,
Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, who has two detention centres including
Colnbrook in his constituency, said he feared there would be more deaths as
the system struggled to cope with the number of people being detained.
"The government is now detaining people on such a scale that the
existing services are swamped," he said. "It is inevitable if we
put the services under such relentless strain that there will be more
deaths as a result … we are dealing with people who are extremely stressed
and extremely vulnerable and the services are not able to cope and not able
to guarantee their safety." The first man who died was Muhammad
Shukat, 47, a Pakistani immigration detainee who collapsed at around 6am on
2 July. His roommate Abdul Khan says that in the hours before he died
Shukat was groaning in agony, had very bad chest pains and was sweating
profusely. Khan, 19, from Afghanistan, said he began raising the alarm
around 6am and pressed the emergency button in the room 10 times in a
frantic effort to get help. Khan claimed that on three occasions members of
the centre's nursing team entered the room and found Shukat on the floor
where he had collapsed. Khan said they put him back into bed, took his
temperature and some medicine was administered, but did not call emergency
assistance immediately. According to Khan, the nurses initially said that
Shukat could go to see the centre's doctor at 8am. According to the London
Ambulance Service, Colnbrook staff called an ambulance just before 7.20am.
Attempts were made to resuscitate Shukat, but he was pronounced dead on
arrival at Hillingdon Hospital. A postmortem found the provisional cause of
death to be coronary heart disease. Shukat's body has been returned to
Pakistan and his family are understood to have no concerns about the
medical treatment he received. The second man to die at Colnbrook has not
yet been named. According to the Metropolitan police he was 35 and was
found dead in his cell at 10.30am last Sunday. London Ambulance Service
officials pronounced him dead at the scene. "A postmortem held on 1
August found the cause of death to be a ruptured aorta. The death is being
treated as unexplained," said a police spokesman. Colnbrook IRC is
managed by Serco. In a statement to detainees about Shukat's death, deputy
director at Colnbrook, Jenni Halliday, described her "deep
regret" and extended her condolences. In a statement to detainees
about the second Colnbrook death, Serco's contract manager, Michael Guy,
informed detainees that a resident in the short-term holding facility had
died and that the death was thought to be from natural causes. On Tuesday,
a 35-year-old man hanged himself in the toilet block at Campsfield House
detention centre in Oxfordshire. A fellow detainee, who refused to give his
name, said the man had been hours away from being deported and had become
very anxious. "He was normally a very quiet person … but the pressure
is too much for people in here." It is understood the man had only
been at the centre for a few days before he died. The Home Office refused
to give any more details saying his extended family had yet to be informed.
Emma Ginn, from the campaign group Medical Justice, said the deaths had
heightened concern about the poor healthcare on offer to those being kept
in UK detention centres. "Based on medical evidence from many hundreds
of detainees, Medical Justice has documented the disturbingly inadequate
healthcare provision that often vulnerable immigration detainees are
subjected to in Colnbrook and other immigration removal centres... [this]
combined with the perilous and frightening conditions of detention, is a
lethal cocktail, a disaster waiting to happen." The UK Border Agency
declined to comment on the specific circumstances of each case. It said the
police and the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman always investigated deaths
in immigration detention centres and it would be inappropriate to comment
until these were complete. David Wood, director of criminality and
detention at the UK Border Agency, said all detainees at immigration
removal centres have access to health services seven days a week. "All
detainees are seen by a nurse within two hours of arrival and are given an
opportunity to see a GP within 24 hours," he added. "The health
of all detainees is monitored closely, and the healthcare professionals are
required to report cases where it is considered that a person's health is
being affected by continued detention. "The UK takes its
responsibilities seriously, which is why we consider every case on its
individual merits and will continue to offer protection to those who need
it. However, detention is an essential part of our controls on immigration
in the UK." A groundbreaking ruling -- A man with severe mental
illness was unlawfully locked up in a UK detention centre for five months
and subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment, according to a high court
ruling. The man, a 34-year-old Indian national, was detained in
Harmondsworth immigration removal centre between April and September last
year. On Friday a judge ruled that his treatment amounted to a breach of
article 3 of the European convention human rights. The man's lawyer said
the ruling – thought to be the first of its kind – raised wider questions
about how the government treats people with mental illnesses in the immigration
and detention system. "The court's decision that my client suffered
inhuman or degrading treatment at a UK detention facility sends a very loud
and clear message to the authorities," said. "We would urge the
minister to conduct a fundamental review into how people suffering from
mental illness are treated in the immigration detention estate." The
man, referred to as "S" in the ruling, had a history of serious
ill treatment and abuse before arriving in the UK. He served time in prison
for wounding and assault before being transferred to a secure psychiatric
hospital until his discharge in April 2010. Following his release the UK
Border Agency said there was "no evidence" he was mentally ill
and he was detained in Harmondsworth where his health deteriorated and he
began to have psychotic episodes and self harm. The high court intervened
and he was released on bail. His lawyers said he had been living with his
family since then and had fully complied with the conditions of bail set by
the court. In the ruling judge David Elvin said: "S's pre-existing
mental condition was both triggered and exacerbated by detention and that
involved both a debasement and humiliation of S since it showed a serious
lack of respect for his human dignity. It created a state in S's mind of
real anguish and fear, through his hallucinations, which led him to
self-harm frequently and to behave in a manner which was humiliating…"
A UK Border Agency spokesperson said: "We regularly review our
detention policies and will look at the findings in this case to ensure
lessons are learned. Detention is an essential part of our immigration
control but we recognise the importance of ensuring it remains appropriate
on a case by case basis."
August 3, 2011 BBC
A man has died whilst being held at the Campsfield House Immigration
Removal Centre in Oxfordshire. The BBC received a call from a fellow
detainee claiming an Asian man had hanged himself in the showers on 2
August. A spokesperson from the UK Border Agency confirmed a man had died
at the privately run centre and was in the process of contacting his
family. The Police and Prisons and Probation Ombudsman are investigating
the death.
August 3, 2010 Daily Mail Reporter
More than 100 men being held at an immigration centre are on hunger strike today.
The detainees last night refused their evening meal at the Campsfield House
immigration removal centre in Kidlington, Oxfordshire. Officials at the UK
Border Agency confirmed they were 'monitoring' the situation. Jonathan
Sedgwick, UKBA deputy chief executive, said: 'We can confirm 108 detainees
have refused prepared meals from staff yesterday evening. 'However they
still have access to food from the on-site shop and vending machines.
'Staff are monitoring the situation closely and listening to the detainees'
concerns. 'All detainees have access to legal representation and 24-hour
medical care.' Earlier this year a report by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
Anne Owers found that the average lengths of stay for detainees at
Campsfield appeared to be increasing. It also found that some detainees
were effectively being held indefinitely because there was little prospect
of removal, while education provision was poor, particularly for the
significant numbers of long-stay detainees and those with little English.
Campsfield is 'a long-term centre where detainees are accommodated, pending
their case resolutions and subsequent removal from the United Kingdom.' The
site has 216 beds for male detainees and is run by contractor The GEO Group
Ltd.
March 10, 2010 BBC
Some detainees held at Campsfield House immigration centre in
Oxfordshire are being detained for "excessive periods", according
to an inspector's report. Dame Anne Owers, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
(HMCIP), said the centre near Kidlington was making progress. But the
inspector expressed concern that average lengths of stay appeared to be
increasing and a lack of data obscured the scale of the problem. The UK
Borders Agency (UKBA) said it reviewed detention frequently. Campsfield
House, run by GEO Group Ltd, has had an unsettled recent history, with a
number of high-profile incidents and escapes.
May 18, 2009 Oxford Mail
DISTURBANCES at Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre could be
reduced if detainees were given more to do, an independent body has claimed.
Campsfield’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) has just published its 2008
annual report on the controversial Kidlington centre, which has a history
of escape attempts and violent incidents. IMB chairman Lieutenant Colonel
Freddie Cantrell said: “We believe that activities and education should be
increased to fully occupy the detainees. “There is nothing worse than
boredom with a detainee who really doesn’t know what his future is going to
be. “This can cause stress, and stress can lead to trouble and
disturbances.” Lt Col Cantrell — one of 10 IMB volunteers who check on
treatment of inmates at the centre — said detainees currently had 30 hours
of formal education a week, including lessons in English, art and
computing, which was insufficient.] He recommended the UK Border Agency
review its contract for education provision at the centre, which holds up
to 216 detainees. The 61-page report also shed new light on two major
incidents which occured within days of each other in June last year. On
June 16, friends of a Jamaican man who was due to be deported started fires
in an education block, detainees’ rooms and in a fitness suite. The
education block was destroyed and a shop was looted. Three days later,
seven detainees escaped through a ground-floor window. Three of those who
went on the run are still at large. Referring to the escape, Lt Col
Cantrell said: “Of course it shouldn’t happen. “It means there is a
weakness in the security. Of course that has been rectified.” But he added:
I don’t think any establishment in the world is completely secure.” Other
findings included a plan to put televisions in each detainee’s room within
months, and the fact that paid work for inmates had doubled since the 2007
report was published. The report said force was used by staff 34 times in
2008, up from 31 in 2007, but the occupancy was higher and as such there
was a reduction in the proportion of incidents where force was used.
Handcuffs were used 11 times in 2008, the lowest level at the centre since
2005. The IMB also recommended ensuring detainees’ property travelled with
them when they were transferred from police custody to the centre, and
reviewing the way racial complaints were investigated. A UK Border Agency
spokesman said detainees had access to a range of activities, and added the
agency awaited recommendations from a review of education provision. No-one
at GEO Group UK Ltd, which runs the centre, was available for comment.
December 3, 2008 Oxford Mail
Failed asylum seekers at Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre
used the Internet to access “inappropriate content” on the web, it has
emerged. A report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) revealed
the centre’s 200 plus detainees were accessing the worldwide web for up to
an hour a day, but “despite controls, arrangements to block access to
inappropriate content were not always effective”. Last night, a spokesman
for HMIP could not detail the nature of the inappropriate content, and
chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers was unavailable for interview.
However, Ms Owers released a statement which read: “Email and Internet
access is an important, and cheap, way for detainees to keep in contact
with the outside world and relatives overseas. It is, however, important to
ensure that access is controlled. “The point of the comment in the report
is that there was a system of visual and spot checks at Campsfield, but the
most effective way of ensuring that access is consistently controlled,
which we have observed in other centres, is either to have a filtering
system, or for staff to have a monitoring screen on which they can see
exactly what all detainees are accessing.” Detainees first began surfing
the web in December last year and there were plans to create an Internet
cafe, HMIP revealed. Inspectors compiled the report after an unannounced
four-day inspection of Campsfield House, near Kidlington, in May this year.
The centre had “returned to normal” following a series of “major
disturbances” in 2007, which included two riots and a breakout by 26 detainees,
the report said. However, the inspection took place a month before another
outbreak of violence and the escape of seven more detainees, and those
incidents were not mentioned. Inspectors also found detainees were given
pay-as-you go mobile phones on arrival at the centre, which the Home Office
said were returned whenever a detainee was removed. The report found there
was little evidence of bullying. The report also showed that the average
length of detention had more than tripled, from 14 days in December 2006 to
46 days. Bill McKeith, of the Campaign to Close Campsfield, said: “The
overall flavour of the report is quite critical. The Government claim it is
a removal centre. A removal centre is a place where people are placed
briefly before they are removed — and 46 days is not a brief stay.” A
spokesman for the UK Border Agency would not be drawn on Mr McKeith’s
claims, and did not issue a reaction to the report. Nobody was available
for comment at GEO Group UK Ltd, which runs the centre. The inspectors also
recommended an investigation as to why there had been a 37 per cent
turnover of custody officers in 12 months. The report also gave a detailed
breakdown of the nationalities and ages of the 202 detainees.
August 14, 2008 BBC
Thirteen Iraqi Kurds began fasting on Saturday in protest against
deportation and reports an Iraqi man killed himself after being deported
from the UK. The Home Office said the situation was "under
control" and no-one had collapsed from lack of food. The BBC has learned
about 46 people refused their evening meal on Wednesday. Some of the
hunger-strikers are also protesting against conditions at the centre.
Earlier, Algerian detainee and Aston University student, Redouane
Messaoudi, 32, told BBC News he would starve for as long as it took. He
said he came to the UK nearly 10 years ago and is married to a British
woman, and lives with her and two young children in Birmingham. "I am
at university, I've paid so much money, I have been working so hard to
manage my life between the family and studies," he said. Dashty Jamal,
general secretary of the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, said
the detainees were "victims of war and violence" in Iraq.
"They are not a criminal, they are civilians," he said. "They
arrived in this country because they didn't have any other choice."
Campsfield House, which holds some 200 asylum seekers and foreign
prisoners, has been the subject of a campaign to close it. The Campaign to
Close Campsfield group said other detainees joined the strike in protest
over conditions at the centre, where they said they were being
"treated like animals". The GEO Group, which runs the site for
the government, declined to comment.
June 19, 2008 Telegraph
Four detainees are on the run after escaping from a controversial
immigration centre that has been the scene of much unrest. Seven people
initially broke out of the facility although three were recaptured by
police shortly after the alarm was raised at 4 am. The break-out happened
just five days after a fire at the Campsfield immigration detention centre
in Oxfordshire. The blaze was in a communal room at the centre on Saturday
afternoon and around 20 detainees staged a rooftop protest. At the time,
detainees said tensions began simmering among Jamaican inmates at the 215-man
detention centre when staff brought dogs into their accommodation. In
August last year 26 detainees escaped from the centre in a mass break-out.
A Thames Valley police spokesman said that officers remained on the scene
supporting the Home Office in their efforts to bring the situation under
control. Superintendent Howard Stone said police were also working with the
GEO Group UK Ltd, which controls the privately run centre on behalf of the
Immigration and Nationality Directorate. "We are working with GEO as
well as the UK Border Agency to ensure everything is done to locate the
missing detainees as quickly as possible," he said. "However, I
would ask that if members of the public see anyone acting suspiciously and
believes they may have been involved in this incident to contact the police
immediately." GEO signed a three year contract with the Home Office to
run the centre in March 2006 with an option to extend it until 2011. A GEO
spokesman said: "Yes, it is correct there has been another outbreak at
the detention centre. We know who the escaped detainees are and the police
are now working to recapture them."
June 14, 2008 Daily Mail
A special prison service riot unit known as the Tornado Team was sent into
a controversial detention centre yesterday to quell a violent stand-off
between staff and illegal immigrants awaiting deportation. The 50 elite
officers – dressed in Robocop-style black boiler suits and helmets and
carrying batons and shields – marched into the Campsfield centre near
Kidlington, Oxfordshire, after an initial disturbance when several fires
were started. Crews from 15 fire engines tackled the blazes which caused
thick black smoke to billow from one of the detention buildings. The
Tornado Team was supported by about 50 police officers – some, equipped
with riot gear and dogs, entered the camp while others secured the
perimeter as a police helicopter hovered overhead. All the 200 inmates were
herded into the camp’s exercise yard while fire crews took two hours to put
out the blazes and make the area safe. But the detainees, all men, then
refused to return to their buildings – creating another stand-off. At one
point the illegal immigrants could be heard violently hammering on the 25ft
high steel fence that surrounds the yard. A senior prison officer said
outside: ‘No one in there is going anywhere.’ The Home Office said last
night: ‘The UK Border Agency asked police for assistance and officers have
secured the perimeter, which has not been breached. 'Specially trained
prison officers known as a Tornado Team have been sent to the site in riot
gear.’ Last August, 26 detainees escaped from Campsfield after a fire was
started. But last night all the men were believed to have been accounted
for. Tornado Team members are picked from serving prison officers and
undergo four months of specialist training. Their boiler suits are
fire-resistant, as are their padded gloves and steel-capped Army-style
boots. Extra protection comes from plastic protectors on their forearms and
shins. Every officer carries an American-style PR-24 sidearms baton. It can
be used for defence, held along the forearm, or to attack by using a
protruding metal attachment which can be spun round in confined spaces such
as cells or corridors to keep assailants at bay. As an additional
precaution, squad members wear face protectors to stop flames spreading
under their protective suit. They use personal radios to contact their head
at the scene, who is known as Silver Commander. He in turn takes orders
from a Gold Commander, in charge of the overall operation and based at the
Prison Service headquarters in London. Campsfield has been dogged with
controversy since it was converted from a youth detention centre to handle
illegal immigrants in 1993. Last year alone, there were two other disturbances
not including the breakout. It is run by the UK subsidiary of American
company the GEO Group, which signed a five-year contract in March, 2006.
The Home Office said all the detainees were being escorted back to their
accommodation blocks by 7.30pm. A spokesman added: ‘The situation has
calmed down. There has been no resistance from the detainees to going back
to their rooms. The operation is being wound down at the site.’ A GEO
spokesman was unavailable for comment last night.
June 14, 2008 The Times
Inmate disturbances and fires broke out this afternoon at a troubled
immigrant detention centre that has previously suffered riots, blazes and
escapes. Two plumes of smoke rose from the centre in Kidlington,
Oxfordshire. The problems at Campsfield House detention centre, which holds
more than 200 foreign criminals and illegal immigrants, have prompted calls
for its closure. Thames Valley police were called in this afternoon to help
the security teams at the privately-run centre. A police helicopter hovered
above the centre, and the riot squad was put on standby. More than a dozen
fire engines have been attending the fire, and one detainee is said to have
been hospitalised with smoke inhalation. There have been no other injuries
reported at this stage. Campsfield House is managed by the Reading-based
GEO Group UK Ltd, on behalf of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.
It has been beset with problems since it opened, and detainees rioted twice
last year. In March, fires were started and CCTV cameras smashed, after a
detainee was removed for deportation. Seven staff and two inmates were
injured. A fire in August allowed 26 inmates to escape - eight of them were
still at large at last report. All the escapees were foreign criminals,
awaiting deportation. In December, staff were forced to evacuate a block,
again after a detainee was removed. Other inmates wrongly believed that the
man, Davis Osagie from Benin in West Africa, had been murdered by prison
officers. Authorities moved 128 inmates to other detention centres after
December’s riot. David Pitman, who lives down the street from Campsfield,
said he saw smoke coming from the detention centre and heard the inmates
shouting. “This seems to happen more and more often,” he said. “Last time
there was trouble and the police hadn’t arrived on the scene so I had to
chase one of the escapees with a torch. “I have a young daughter and I
worry for her safety with these criminals running around free. Something
needs to be done about the security in there.” The centre’s independent
monitoring board criticised GEO for failing to prevent the rioting, despite
being warned after the first clash that the rioting could happen again. An
audit report this year, commissioned by the Border and Immigration Agency,
disclosed racism and tension in some of the country’s 10 immigration
detention centres. It found that officers at several centres had taunted
detainees - describing them as “black bastards” in one case - and found
“turbulent” atmosphere in some units. At Campsfield, it said, there was a
“tense” environment atmosphere where staff were afraid of detainees. One
member of staff said: “If this was white British people in here we would be
a lot stricter, it is because they are black people that we are afraid.”
November 26, 2007 Oxford Mail
Detainees at an immigration detention centre near Oxford have warned
the atmosphere is on a knife-edge as campaigners marked its 14th
anniversary. While protesters rallied outside Campsfield House, detainees
spoke of a tense atmosphere and warned of a new riot. Speaking to the
Oxford Mail from inside the centre in Kidlington, detainee Michael Sinclair
said: "People are not getting any justice in here. They have been
talking about a riot. "People have been plotting. I am frightened
because you never know what will happen - it is very dangerous."
Father-of-five Mr Sinclair, whose mother lives in Blackbird Leys, came to
Oxford from Jamaica in 1999. He met his wife, who lives in East Oxford with
three of his children, in 2003 but was unsuccessful in securing a spouse's
visa and returned to Jamaica to re-apply. His visa was refused again, and
desperate to see his wife and children, he returned to Britain on a false
passport but was caught and jailed in March. The 41-year-old has been
detained in Campsfield House since October and is currently facing
deportation. Fellow detainee Rohan Walker, 27, said: "People are not
getting any justice." When asked if he thought another riot was
likely, he said: "People have been talking about that. You never know when
it could happen." Around 50 demonstrators from the Campaign to Close
Campsfield staged a two hour protest outside the centre on Saturday
afternoon. The group chanted and listened to speeches. Member Bob Hughes,
60, said the centre was on the verge of serious unrest. The university
lecturer, from St Clements, Oxford, said: "It is continuously on the
boil. As far as we know the conditions are dreadful." Mr Hughes said
the anniversary of the centre, which opened on November 23, 1993, made the current
situation particularly troubling. Neither The GEO Group UK, which runs the
centre, or the Home Office, were available for comment.
August 7, 2007 The Times
Ministers were warned less than two weeks ago that an immigration centre
from which 14 men are on the run was unsuitable for holding them. They were
also told that the policy of putting foreign prisoners in immigration
centres “bursting at the seams” presented a high risk that could trigger
disorder. Fourteen foreign prisoners are on the run after fleeing from
Campsfield House immigration removal centre during the second outbreak of
rioting on the premises in five months. The convicted prisoners, who were
among 26 who escaped from the centre run by GEO Group UK, had served
sentences in jails but were being held in the centre near Oxford while
awaiting deportation. It emerged yesterday that officials from the Home
Office had met detainees at the centre last Wednesday and Friday to discuss
their grievances, including overcrowded and squalid conditions, a high rejection
rate for bail applications and delays in repatriating migrants who wish to
go home. But at 10.30pm on Saturday a fire broke out in a portable building
at the centre where food is prepared. The detainees took advantage of the
disorder to break out of the centre but 12 were recaptured soon afterwards,
including a Bangladeshi who approached the home of a prison officer and
asked to be hidden. Explaining that the search for the missing men has been
scaled down, a Thames Valley Police spokesman said: “We have not got large
numbers of officers on the ground searching for them any more. [But] we are
still looking for them and their identities have been circulated to all
forces.” A report into the earlier disturbance at the centre highlighted
the risk that the Home Office was running by placing prisoners in
immigration centres, which have much lower security than prisons. “The
impact of foreign national prisoners is the biggest external issue
affecting Campsfield House. It is putting the centre under great strain,”
the report by Bob Whalley, a former Home Office senior civil servant, said.
At the end of May more than 50 per cent of the 198 detainees in the centre
were foreign prisoners. The inquiry report cautioned: “The fabric is not
suitable for foreign national prisoners. It has none of the strength of a
prison, nor does it offer any flexibility for dealing with difficult
incidents or detainees.” Staff had complained of the large influx of
foreign prisoners, “many with serious criminal backgrounds and ‘streetwise’
in their experience of prison”, the report said. It added that little was
known about many foreign prisoners who arrived at immigration centres.
After serving time in jail many of the prisoners found the more relaxed
regime at Campsfield House disorientating. The report said that some became
manipulative or bullying. It cautioned: “Some will find the dual pressure
of further time in custody and uncertain date of release frustrating, to
the extent that, ‘with nothing to lose’, the temptation to join in
gratuitous disorder may prove too much. A concentration of discontented
detainees may prove so volatile that an otherwise innocuous event may prove
a trigger point for concerted disturbance.” The report said: “There are
several groups of foreign national prisoners presenting high risk in terms
of potential for disorder. There is little to inhibit them if an
opportunity to engage in wanton disorder presents itself. The greater their
frustration at the position, the greater the risk of disorder.” Damian Green,
the Tory immigration spokesman, attacked the Government for putting foreign
prisoners who were awaiting deportation into immigration removal centres.
“We need immigration detention centres as part of the process of removing
people who have no right to be here, but what we shouldn’t be doing is
mixing up immigration offenders with other criminals, and that’s where the
big failure lies.” Lin Homer, chief executive of the Border and Immigration
Agency, said: “We have recently looked at the regime in Campsfield and we
are putting in place a number of improvements with the centre operator.”
Troublespot -- 1993 Campsfield centre opens
1997 50
detainees take part in disturbance
2001 90 go on
hunger strike
2002 David
Blunkett, then Home Secretary, announces its closure
2003 Decision
reversed after riot at another detention centre
2004 Local
council rejects plans to expand Campsfield to hold 300
2006 GEO Group
wins five-year contract to run Campsfield
March 2007
Disturbance as staff try to remove Algerian for deportation. Sixty
detainees transferred out because of the damage
August 2007
Disturbances and 26 detainees flee. Twelve recaptured and 14 still on the
run Source: Times database
August 3, 2007 BBC
Detainees at an Oxfordshire detention centre are suspending their ongoing
hunger strike while they wait for a response from the Home Office. More
than 150 detainees at Campsfield House Immigration Centre near Kidlington
in Oxford have been refusing to eat since Tuesday night. They have
complained to officials about the overcrowded conditions and claimed they
are being held illegally. The Home Office said it would respond to concerns
by Friday afternoon. Campsfield was rife with scabies, but only staff were issued
with gloves. Campaign to Close Campsfield -- In a statement, the Campaign
to Close Campsfield also said the centre "is a health hazard with 70%
of people infected with flu". "Paracetamol is the only medicine
made available and two weeks ago even this ran out. "Campsfield was
rife with scabies, but only staff were issued with gloves. "Although
detainees are held as civil detainees, not convicted prisoners or prisoners
on remand, food, toilets and showers are a lot worse than in prisons."
It said some detainees were being held even though they had won appeals
against deportation or had agreed to go back to their countries of origin.
Troubled history -- On Wednesday, the Home Office promised it would respond
to the concerns within 48 hours. Formerly a Young Offenders Institute,
Campsfield was converted into an immigration detention centre in 1993 amid
a storm of protest from local residents. Run by the American company GEO,
which specialises in operating detention facilities, Campsfield holds up to
200 male asylum seekers at a time. Within six months of opening the centre
experienced a major problem when six asylum seekers escaped following a
rooftop protest. A number of low-level disturbances inside the centre and
regular public protests outside its gates has since occurred at Campsfield.
March 16, 2007 Oxford Mail
Staff are counting up the costs at Campsfield House immigration
detention centre after detainees ran riot and started a fire. About 60
detainees were moved to other detention centres, including Yarl's Wood in
Bedfordshire, on Wednesday night. Anti-Campsfield campaigners claim the
revolt at the centre, in Kidlington, was sparked when an Algerian detainee
was removed from his room for deportation. Police are investigating the
fire as suspected arson. A former member of staff, in his 20s, who asked
not to be named, praised former colleagues who he said tried to tackle the
fire at the centre at 6.30am on Wednesday, before firefighters arrived. He
said: "They kicked windows out and tried to tackle the fire
themselves. "I spoke to one of the seven members of staff who needed
hospital treatment and he told me that there has been serious damage to
blue block and yellow block and the library has been destroyed. "Only
about 30 detainees kicked off, but it will cost hundreds of thousands of
pounds to put the damage right. "The ironic thing is that the GEO
group that runs the site has been getting detainees to paint internal areas
and blue block has only just been painted." The former worker claimed
that more than 190 detainees were housed in an area which mean for 130 and
that it was not 'fit for purpose'. Oxford West and Abingdon MP Evan Harris
said: "There will need to be an investigation of why there has been
yet another serious disturbance at Campsfield House, which has been a
subject of a number of critical reports by successive chief inspectors of
prisons." Dr Harris, a member of the House of Commons select committee
on human rights, added: "My select committee is already conducting an
inquiry into detention of failed asylum seekers, following concerns about
physical abuse during removals. "The Home Secretary himself a few
years ago declared that Campsfield House was not appropriate for the 21st
century, but then of course the Government decided to keep it open anyway.
They will need to look at that question again."
March 14, 2007 BBC
Seven staff and two inmates have been injured in a fire after a riot
broke out at an immigration removal centre. Emergency services were called
to deal with the incident at Campsfield removal centre near Kidlington, in
Oxfordshire, early on Wednesday. A BBC reporter saw a dozen riot officers
carrying shields enter the centre to join about 35 police officers who were
dealing with the incident. The nine injured people are thought to be
suffering from smoke inhalation. The seven immigration staff at the centre
and two detainees have been taken to hospital. A Home Office spokesman said
the riot teams were working to get the centre completely under control as
soon as possible. "The perimeter of Campsfield has not been breached
and all detainees have been accounted for," he added. They used force
to drag the person from the bed and after that everything kicked off.
Campsfield detainee: In a statement Thames Valley Police said: "The
detainees were evacuated and nine people have been taken to hospital
suffering from smoke inhalation. No serious injuries have been reported.
"The fire has now been extinguished. Five fire engines and 30
firefighters attended the incident. The fire was relatively small and
mainly generated a lot of smoke." 'Fighting stopped': A detainee, who
did not want to be named, told BBC News 24: "This place is falling
apart - computers are getting smashed. "They've stopped fighting now
but they're destroying every bit of equipment they can find - computers
getting smashed, shops are getting broken into, they're stealing
everything." "They used force to drag the person from the bed and
after that everything kicked off," he said. Sarah Cutler from Bail for
Immigration Detainees, which provides workshops at Campsfield offering
legal advice to detainees, said she was not surprised by the disturbance.
"There are big problems at the moment," she said, adding that
many people were being held for months. Riot gear: Those included "people
who want to go back to their country of origin, have told the Home Office
they want to go back, but are still detained because they can't get it
together to remove them". A Home Office spokeswoman said the
continuing incident began at 0630 GMT. BBC reporter Rajesh Mirchandani,
speaking outside the centre, said he had seen members of a prison service
fast response team enter the site. "They're riot trained and they went
in carrying riot gear." He said he could see a helicopter hovering overhead
and police dog units and mounted police were now patrolling the perimeter
of the centre. The Home Office spokeswoman said: "Police, fire and
ambulance teams are on the scene and a number of Tornado units from the
Prison Service have been deployed to the centre." Campsfield can hold
196 adult male detainees, but it is not known how many are currently being
held there.
July 22, 2006 The Independent
A Kurdish teenager killed himself after spending more than four months
in an immigration detention centre, an inquest has heard. Ramazan Kumluca,
18, is the youngest asylum-seeker to have committed suicide while facing
deportation from Britain. Campaign groups yesterday called for the closure
of all detention centres, comparing them to Victorian workhouses. Mr
Kumluca is one of more than 30 asylum-seekers who have killed themselves in
the past five years after being told their applications had failed. He had
travelled from his home in Turkey to Italy and then on to Britain where he
claimed asylum last year, saying that his life was in danger over a £20,000
debt owed by his father. He also claimed that if he was sent back to Italy
(under rules that asylum must be claimed in the first safe country reached)
he was at risk of exploitation. Mr Kumluca was refused asylum and denied
bail because there were fears he would not report back for deportation. He
was sent to Campsfield House in Oxfordshire, an immigration removal centre
that holds around 100 men at any time. The average stay for detainees at
the centre is 14 days, but because the teenager was fighting his
deportation order he was held for four and a half months. An inquest at
Oxford Old Assizes heard he had been plunged into despair during his
incarceration and had complained of insomnia, headaches and anxiety. A
fellow inmate, Abdulwase Kamali, told the court Mr Kumluca had appeared
"sad" the day before he killed himself. He said: "Ramazan
said he had been told by immigration he would be sent back to Italy, and he
said if he was sent back to Italy he would be used in sex films. He said he
would slash himself or hang himself." On 27 June last year, Mr Kamali
and other Muslim detainees alerted warders after calling Mr Kumluca for
morning prayers and finding his door would not open. He was found hanging
from the door closing mechanism. After investigating his death, a Prison
and Probation ombudsman cleared staff of any wrongdoing. The jury returned
a verdict of suicide. Outside the court, Bob Hughes, of the pressure group
Campaign to Close Campsfield, said: "Here we have an institution full
of people being driven deliberately to despair by government policy."
"He added: "We believe these people should be allowed to get on
with their own lives. Centres like Campsfield are a huge national scandal
and shame. Campsfield House has been a removal centre since 1993 and is
privately run by the company Global Solutions Limited. In 2002, the then
Home Secretary David Blunkett pledged that the centre would be closed, but
a year later it was decided to keep it open and expand the number of places.
Since 2000, at least 25 asylum-seekers have killed themselves while living
in the community after being told they would be deported. Mr Kumluca was
the seventh to have committed suicide in a detention centre. More than
2,600 adults and children are being held in detention centres prior to
deportation. In January this year another asylum-seeker Bereket Yohannes,
from Eritrea, was found hanging at Harmondsworth Removal Centre. An inquest
will be held into his death.
June 17, 2006 Indy Media
On Monday 12th of this week a Somalian man went onto a roof at
Campsfield; he had been detained for four months (probably illegally, since
the government cannot deport people to Somalia) and took a rope and a
plastic bag with him. GEO, the new management at Campsfield, asked the
police to leave and said they would deal with the matter themselves; we do
not know whether they used violence against the Somalian detainee; he has
been removed from Campsfield, no doubt to somewhere even worse as is usual
in these cases. There have been 12 suicides in immigration detention, and
several hundred attempted suicides and cases of self harm requiring medical
treatment. GSL lost the contract to run Campsfield to GEO (Global Expertise
on Outsourcing), presumably on cost grounds. GEO took over at the beginning
of the month. They have changed their name from Wackenhut, and have a
discreditable history of running penal institutions in the USA and
Australia. GSL's manager, Andy Clark, who had been more willing than his
predecessors to allow volunteers and education classes in Campsfield,
decided he could not work with GEO; at least two of the people who ran
education classes and workshops have been sacked or left, and GEO
apparently intends to provide much reduced hours of education (as required
under the contract), run by its own officers. But of course the most
serious problem is not the conditions inside the centre, but the fact that
people are detained there who have committed no crime, been charged or
suspected of no crime, with no judicial process and no time limit, often
with no access to lawyers, and always with great uncertainty about what is
happening to them or about to happen to them.
Central
Arizona Correctional Facility, Florence, Arizona
Apr 29, 2013
ktar.com
PHOENIX -- Federal authorities
said a prison management group has agreed to pay $140,000 to settle a
sexual harassment lawsuit in Arizona. The Arizona Civil Rights Division and
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the settlement
Monday involving the GEO Group Inc. The EEOC and ACRD claimed that male
managers at a GEO-managed private prison facility in Florence sexually
harassed numerous female employees and fostered an atmosphere of sexual
intimidation and harassment. They claimed that one prison supervisor at
Florence West routinely made crude, obscene and suggestive sexual remarks
to female employees, often in front of other management officials who
didn't stop the harassment. Florida-based GEO runs more than 100 private
prison facilities across the country. A call to GEO officials for comment
on the settlement wasn't immediately returned Monday afternoon.
October 4, 2010 Arizona Republic
A federal agency filed a lawsuit last week alleging a private company that
operates prisons in Florence sexually harassed and retaliated against
female employees. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's
lawsuit against GEO Group Inc. alleged the company and some male managers
supervising correctional officers fostered a "sexual and sex-based hostile
work environment" at two Florence prisons that allowed harassment and
retaliation against female employees. GEO Group, which operates Arizona
State Prison-Florence and Central Arizona Correctional Facility in
Florence, declined to comment on the EEOC lawsuit. The EEOC alleges GEO
Group was aware but failed to take measures to prevent the harassment. The
EEOC case stems from a harassment complaint that a female employee filed in
June 2009 with the Arizona Civil Rights Division and the EEOC. The lawsuit
alleged the prison operator retaliated against her after she filed her
complaint. The EEOC said the male employees engaged in verbal and physical
harassment of female employees. A male manager grabbed and pinched a female
employee, and a female employee was forced on a desk and kissed and touched
by a male employee, the lawsuit says. The federal agency reportedly
attempted to reach a voluntary settlement with the GEO Group before filing
the lawsuit. The Arizona Attorney General's Office previously filed suit and
investigated complaints against the prison operator. The EEOC is authorized
under federal law to collect compensatory and punitive damages, which are
not available under Arizona law. It was the fourth discrimination lawsuit
announced last week by the EEOC against Arizona employers. The federal
agency also filed lawsuits against a Peoria car dealership, a Bullhead City
Mexican eatery and a Phoenix restaurant. Mary Jo O'Neill, regional attorney
for the EEOC's Phoenix office, said the agency filed a batch of lawsuits
last week due to work-flow issues. Agency attorneys focused on new cases
after they finished other duties such as trials and filing motions in
existing cases.
Central
Texas Detention Facility, San Antonio, TX
June 11, 2012 San Antonio Express-News
Relatives of an inmate who hanged himself at the privately run Central
Texas Detention Facility have sued Florida-based The GEO Group and its
warden, alleging the federal prisoner was able to kill himself because he
was wrongly taken off suicide watch in December 2011. The lawsuit claims
warden James Coapland was negligent in watching over Darrell Clayton
Delany, 31, and that The GEO Group is liable for the acts of its employees.
The operators of the jail, located in downtown San Antonio, deny the
allegations of the suit, which seeks unspecified damages. Delany was sent
to the jail by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons because he had been unable to
meet the conditions required of him to serve his sentence on drug smuggling
charges at a halfway house, said a court affidavit from Brett Bement, who
preceded Coapland as warden at the jail. Bement's affidavit said that, on
the morning of Dec. 29, 2011 — the day Delany was to be released from the
lockup — he was found hanging in his cell by bed linens and was later pronounced
dead at a San Antonio hospital. He had been on suicide watch before the
incident but had signed a “no-self-harm” agreement and was removed from
suicide watch two days before his suicide, Bement's affidavit said. The
affidavit, filed by lawyers for Coapland, tries to deflect blame from
Coapland, who was the jail's assistant warden at the time. The affidavit
said Coapland did not have the authority to remove inmates from suicide
watch, but does not specify who authorized Delany's removal from suicide watch.
Inmates have frequently complained to federal judges about conditions at
the lockup. And the suit comes as police in Atascosa County arrested Jack
Shane McNeal, a former guard at that lockup, on Thursday on theft charges
unrelated to the Delany incident. McNeal was out on bond, facing federal
charges that he helped members of the Texas Mexican Mafia smuggle cell
phones and heroin and marijuana into the jail.
February 10, 2012 San Antonio Express-News
Two members of the Texas Mexican Mafia pleaded guilty Thursday to
charges that they got cellphones and drugs smuggled into a federal jail
with help from a guard. Paul “Polo” Hernandez and Jesse C. “Chuy” Guerra
also pleaded guilty to an extortion and drug-possession charge for their
roles in the gang's enforcement of a 10-percent “street tax” on other drug
dealers in San Antonio. Guerra's cousin Fernando “Klan” Delgado also
pleaded guilty Thursday to a heroin-possession charge. The three were among
12 snared in November 2010 by the San Antonio Police Department and the
U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Three of the 12
pleaded guilty last year and were sentenced to prison. Hernandez's plea
deal said he made several phone calls while awaiting trial on drug-related
charges at the Central Texas Detention Facility, a federal jail in San
Antonio run by Florida-based The GEO Group. In the calls, Hernandez
directed his wife to find heroin and a gun he had hidden on his property
that police missed when they raided the couple's home, the plea deal said.
Hernandez also asked his wife to contact another Texas Mexican Mafia member
to let him know that Hernandez had identified three “snitches” who
cooperated with police, the plea deal said. One of the three was later
found murdered, the deal said. Hernandez and Guerra also admitted that they
had four cell phones — three were found on Guerra and one on Hernandez —
and small amounts of marijuana and heroin in the lockup, according to
deputy U.S. Marshal Eric De Los Santos. Three people were charged in the smuggling
and await trial, including former GEO employee Jack Shane McNeal, inmate
Antonio Molina-Ortega and Marisol Reyna Mermella, records show.
March 21, 2011 San Antonio Express-News
The parents of an inmate who died last year from a heroin overdose at a
privately run federal jail in downtown San Antonio have sued the operator,
alleging guards may have smuggled the drugs in and provided them to the
prisoner. The suit filed by Albert and Sandra Gomez, which was moved from
state court to federal court last week, states that their son, Albert Gomez
Jr., died May 19 from a heroin overdose while he was held at one of the
more secure parts of the Central Texas Detention Facility. The 685-bed facility
is owned by Bexar County, but has been managed for years by the Boca Raton,
Fla.-based GEO Group Inc., which has a contract with the county and the
U.S. Marshals Service to house federal pretrial inmates there. The suit
names GEO and a female guard, listed as “Jane Doe 1,” as defendants. The
suit alleges guards are improperly trained to handle people with drug
addictions and can freely participate in “black market sale of drugs to
prisoners.” One of the Gomez couple's lawyers, Matt Wymer, said he has been
informed that a criminal investigation has been launched, but the Marshals
Service declined comment because the matter is in litigation. The GEO Group
did not respond to a request for comment, but denied the allegations in a
court-filed response.
May 21, 2010 KENS 5
A federal inmate has died while in custody. Guards found the 25-year-old
dead in his cell early Wednesday morning. His family wants to know what
went wrong. Federal authorities arrested Albert Martin Gomez Jr. On January
20. He was accused of making and passing fake $100 bills. He and a
co-defendant were charged in a counterfeit-money ring. Gomez was released,
but was back at a federal holding facility in March, awaiting sentencing.
Around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday guards found Gomez unresponsive. Sources say
Gomez died from an apparent drug overdose, but nobody is talking.
Meanwhile, toxicology reports are pending. Bexar County records show Gomez
was also arrested in 2005 on an assault charge. The autopsy was completed,
but details aren't being released. The central Texas detention facility
where Gomez was being held is operated by the GEO Group, Inc. A
spokesperson had no comment on the death, only to say it is under
investigation.
November 23, 2007 American-Statesman
Sam Kambo can now hold his 4-year-old son, Seth, something he couldn't do
for a year while he was in a San Antonio prison waiting for the legal
system to sort out whether he should be deported. 'The worst thing you can
do to a useful person is to make him useless,' Kambo said On Thursday, the
Austin resident celebrated the first Thanksgiving since being released a
month ago from a federal prison in San Antonio. There he had waited for the
legal system to sort out whether he should be deported on government
charges that he was involved in mass murder in Sierra Leone, the West
African country in which he grew up and helped lead a bloodless coup in
1992 against the ruling party. After Kambo spent nearly a year awaiting his
day in court — while federal officials ignored two orders to release him on
bail — an immigration judge rejected the government's allegation that Kambo
had participated in mass murder. The judge ordered his release, but
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents did not comply for five months,
until another federal judge ordered him set free. Kambo's wife, Hanaan,
cared for their four children during that year, coordinated with the lawyer
handling her husband's case and survived on the charity of family and
friends. "We appreciate every day now. I appreciate every time I have
a day," Sam Kambo said Thursday, slicing a long slender eggplant for a
salad in the kitchen of his North Austin home. "I really cherish this
moment." Later, his brother, David, and mother, Susan, stopped by,
both of them having been granted status as legal residents after they
followed Sam to Austin. They did not talk about his fight with the federal
government. Six children played in a side room and occasionally ran through
the kitchen, where the adults moved about and chatted lightly, spooning plates
of food from the table in an informal pot luck style. The first course was
skewered beef cooked in peanut sauce and onions. Later came a
jambalaya-like dish of rice mixed with bits of beef, shrimp, carrots and
peas, accompanied by a salad, talapia fish and sweet blue African potatoes.
Hanaan Kambo did most of the cooking, but her husband rarely left the
kitchen. Sometimes, she says, when he is out of sight, she feels a wave of
anxiety come over her. "Maybe I'll be in the kitchen, and I just have
a moment, as if I'm reliving the time he was taken from us," she said.
Kambo was arrested in October 2006 at a hearing that he thought would
determine whether he became a permanent resident of the United States.
Instead, he was arrested and locked up in the GEO Group private detention
facility in San Antonio, where he shared a cell the size of his kitchen
with five other men and drank tap water from a basin attached to the cell's
group toilet.
September 2, 2005 San Antonio
Express-News
Eight local residents, including two former jail guards, pleaded guilty
Thursday to participating in a bank-fraud conspiracy that netted between
$90,000 and $160,000. The scheme stretched from July 2003 to October 2004
and involved opening 52 accounts at Bank of America branches and depositing
checks from a closed account or empty envelopes and quickly withdrawing
cash before bank officials caught on, court records noted. The case
ensnared 12 defendants and is among the first brought to federal court by a
U.S. Secret Service-led task force formed in October 2004 to target
identity-theft rings and other organized financial crime rackets. Court
documents allege Santos Lopez III, 27, his girlfriend, Estella Ramirez, and
Bruno Alejandro Jr., 40, devised the scheme and managed the operation.
Court records said the recruits were given startup money by the organizers
to open the accounts. The recruits would then hand over personal
identification numbers and ATM cards to Lopez or Ramirez. Checks from a
closed bank account would then be deposited through automated tellers, and
cash withdrawals would be made almost immediately, according to the court
documents. The court record showed recruits would be given part of the
proceeds, and Lopez and others spent much of the proceeds on cocaine. Also
pleading guilty Thursday were: Alejandro Regino, Manuel Riojas, Jessica
Guevara, Belinda Contreras, Angelica Guerra and Lopez's ex-girlfriend,
Sophia Martinez, whom Lopez started a relationship with while she was a
guard and he was incarcerated in San Antonio. Officials said both Martinez
and Guerra worked at the jail, operated by the Florida-based GEO Group
Inc., during the conspiracy. Both were terminated.
February 16, 2005 Express-News
A former guard who admitted trying to smuggle methamphetamine into a private
downtown jail that holds federal inmates was sentenced Tuesday to 2 1/2
years in prison. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez allowed Lou Cindy
Ford, 39, to turn herself in to federal prison officials by June 3. Ford,
who worked at the old Central Texas Parole Violators Facility across the
street from the main police station, pleaded guilty last year to intending
to distribute 50 grams to 500 grams of the drug. Ford 's plea agreement said she was caught
trying to deliver four ounces to an inmate in exchange for $800 during an
undercover sting July 27, 2003. Ford was arrested later that day after she
drove back to the jail, which is run by Florida-based GEO Group Inc.
February 2, 2005 KSAT
A 19-year-old guard at the GEO Central Texas Detention Facility in San
Antonio has been placed on unpaid leave following his arrest on drug and
alcohol charges. According to a San Antonio Police Department report,
Manuel Castillo was arrested early Tuesday after he allegedly smuggled
drugs and alcohol into the federal facility. During Castillo's midnight break, he left
in his vehicle and later returned to the facility at 218 South Laredo
carrying a clear bottle filled with vodka, the report said. Police also
found some cocaine concealed in a sock and some tobacco tucked inside his
belt line. Castillo, who was hired in July 2004, is the fourth detention
officer arrested for allegedly bringing contraband into the facility in the
past 2 ½ years.
December 20, 2004 Express-News
Two San Antonio women have admitted they helped deliver a car and money for
a jailbreak attempt by several inmates, including alleged members of the
Texas Mexican Mafia. Estella Soto, 27,
and Paula Soto, 23, have struck plea deals in which they've agreed to plead
guilty to conspiracy in an escape attempt from a privately run jail
downtown. Inside the lockup, which is run by The Geo Group Inc. of Florida,
Soto was to escape through a window along with alleged Mexican Mafia
general Jimmy Zavala, 35, reputed Mexican Mafia member Gerardo Sanchez, 31,
and David A. Straughn, 31.
November 5, 2004 Express-News
A guard at a privately run jail that holds federal prisoners was released
on bond Thursday after pleading not guilty to planning to smuggle heroin
into the lockup. A federal grand jury
indicted Juan Roberto Ortiz, 40, on Wednesday. Ortiz had worked at the jail
since November 2003 and has been placed on unpaid leave, said Pablo Paez,
spokesman for Florida-based GEO Group Inc., which runs the jail.
November 1, 2004 Express-News
A guard at a privately run jail for federal inmates made his first court
appearance today on charges that he tried to smuggle heroin and cocaine
into the lockup. During an initial hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge John
Primomo ordered Juan Roberto Ortiz held pending a bail hearing on Thursday.
Before his arrest
this weekend, Ortiz, 40, had worked at the Central Texas Parole Violators
Facility since November 2003, according to Pablo Paez, spokesman for The
Geo Group, the Florida-based company that runs the jail.
Ortiz's arrest was the latest for guards who worked at the jail. In the
past year, Jessica Lee Piña, 24, and David C. Higginbotham, 42, have gone
to prison for trying to smuggle drugs into the lockup. Lou Cindy Ford, 39,
pleaded guilty in March to intending to distribute 4 ounces of
methamphetamine at the jail. She awaits sentencing.
January 5, 2004
A former guard at the privately run Wackenhut jail downtown was sentenced
to more than eight years in prison Thursday for trying to smuggle heroin
into the lockup. The 97 months U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia
gave David Higginbotham was the lower end of the sentence recommendation,
which ranged up to 121 months. A federal jury convicted Higginbotham
Aug. 7 of attempting to possess with intent to distribute heroin. The
charge stemmed from an undercover sting in which an inmate arranged to have
Higginbotham smuggle contraband to him. The contraband was to be given to
Higginbotham by an undercover San Antonio police officer. At trial,
Higginbotham claimed the officer forced him to accept the package, which
had 150 grams, or a little more than 5 ounces, of brown sugar.
According to testimony, Higginbotham refused to accept the package when he
was told it was heroin. But the officer also gave Higginbotham $500, and he
took the delivery. (My Sanatonio)
March
16, 2004
A former jail guard
accused of trying to smuggle methamphetamine into the Wackenhut detention
facility downtown has struck a plea deal. Lou Cindy Ford, 39, is scheduled
to finalize the agreement by pleading guilty today in federal court to
intending to distribute between 50 grams to 500 grams of meth. She faces
five to 40 years in prison. (San Antonio Express-News)
August 7, 2002
A jail guard who crashed a van carrying six prisoners into a
downtown lamppost earlier this week does not have a driver's license, state
officials said Tuesday. The van, operated by the private security firm
Wackenhut Corp., had just exited the feral courthouse parking lot shortly
before 5 p.m. Monday when the vehicle swerved toward the curb. Three
inmates were treated for "bruises and soreness" and sent back to
their cells at the privately operated Laredo Street lockup. (San Antonio
Express-News)
April 3, 2002
A jailer was arrested last week on charges that he accepted money and what
he believed to be heroin from an undercover agent, promising to take the
illegal drug inside the privately-owned federal correction facility where
he worked. David Higginbotham was arrested March 26 outside the Central
Texas Parole Violator Facility, a Wackenhut detention center located
downtown. (San Antonio Express-News)
Sept. 5, 1996
A week after a double murderer from Oklahoma escaped through a 6-inch
window, officials at Wackenhut Corrections Center say they are stepping up
security at the private jail. The escape of John Ray Davis, 21, prompted
prison management to decide to spend $20,000 on new doors and security
locks and to implement new procedures in the coming weeks, officials said.
(Houston Chronicle)
Central Valley
Modified Community Correctional Facility, McFarland,
California
November 26, 2011 The Daily Press
The state has canceled its contract with the privately operated Desert
View Modified Community Correctional Facility, putting about 150 workers
out of a job. Desert View's contract termination officially takes effect
Wednesday, though prison employees told the Daily Press that The Geo Group
Inc. has been preparing to deactivate the prison at Rancho and Aster roads
since May. The 643-bed medium-security prison is shuttering its doors as part
of California’s realignment plan, which responds to federal orders to
reduce state prison overcrowding by shifting responsibility for tens of
thousands of low-level offenders to county governments. To help deal with
the new influx of inmates under local supervision, the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is encouraging counties to
enter into their own contracts with more than a dozen former CCFs. The CCFs
had generally housed inmates with sentences shorter than 18 months, parole
violators and offenders with scheduled release dates — the same types of
nonviolent, non-sexual or non-serious offenders now serving out sentences
in county jails instead of state prisons. “We hope that counties contract
with these facilities to save jobs and ease inmate housing concerns that
many counties may have,” CDCR spokeswoman Dana Toyama said. But San
Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department officials say they’re not planning
to privatize jail beds. The math just doesn’t pencil out, according to
Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Cindy Bachman. “The issue with taking
advantage of private prisons or private jail facilities has come up over
and over again throughout the years; however, it’s not something that the
county is considering,” Bachman said. “It’s too costly and there’s just not
the funding really even to consider something like that.” The California
State Association of Counties has created a document outlining potential
beds at the former CCFs, but counties statewide have been hesitant to
exercise that option. The Geo Group had operated six of the nine privately
run CCFs that lost their state contracts, according to CSAC. Five other
CCFs were run by local governments. The facilities ranged from around 100
employees to more than 600, according to Toyama.
July 11, 2011 Business Wire
The GEO Group ("GEO") announced today that the State of
California has decided to implement its Criminal Justice Realignment Plan
(the "Realignment Plan"), which is expected to delegate tens of
thousands of low level state offenders to local county jurisdictions in
California effective October 1, 2011. As a result of the implementation of
the Realignment Plan, the State of California has decided to discontinue
contracts with Community Correctional Facilities which currently house low
level state offenders across the state. This decision will impact three GEO
facilities: the company-leased 305-bed Leo Chesney Community Correctional
Facility, the company-owned 643-bed Desert View Modified Community
Correctional Facility, and the company-owned 625-bed Central Valley
Modified Community Correctional Facility. GEO has received written notice
from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation regarding
the cancellation of GEO's agreements for the housing of low level state
offenders at these three facilities effective as of September 30, 2011,
November 30, 2011 and November 30, 2011, respectively. GEO is in the
process of actively marketing these facilities to local county agencies in
California. Given that most local county jurisdictions in California are
presently operating at or above their correctional capacity, GEO is hopeful
that it will be able to market these facilities to local county agencies
for the housing of low level offenders who will be the responsibility of
local county jurisdictions. If GEO is unable to secure alternative
customers for these three facilities, GEO estimates that the combined
annualized negative earnings per share impact of the cancellations would be
approximately $0.10-0.13, including carrying costs while the facilities are
idle. The combined annualized revenues for these three facilities were
approximately $33-$35 million.
October 26, 2004 Business Wire
Fitch Ratings lowers
the rating on McFarland, CA's $1.4 million certificates of participation
(COPS), 2001 sewer system financing project, to 'B' from 'BBB-'. Fitch also
places the 2001 COPs on Rating Watch Negative. Of additional concern is the
December 2003 closing of one of three prisons operated by the GEO Group
Inc. In 2001, the prisons accounted for over 40% of sewer system revenues.
Subsequently, in August 2004, the city approved a change in the remaining
prison's conditional use permit allowing an additional 150 inmates at each
facility as requested by the California Department of Corrections. Because
wastewater fees are assessed on a per inmate basis, the nine month period
of reduced inmate capacity represents a significant revenue loss.
September 7, 2004 Californian
A three-year overtime wage and benefit court battle pitting employees
against a private prison company is finally nearing an end. A settlement
agreement is set to be finalized Sept. 27 between about 2,700 current and
former employees and Wackenhut Corrections Corp., now The GEO Group Inc.
The workers, both guards and support personnel, claimed the company did not
pay overtime and made them work off the clock without pay. They also
claimed they were not given proper rest and meal breaks. The employees worked at six private prisons in
California, four of which are in Kern County. The Kern prisons include the
McFarland Community Correctional Facility, Central Valley Modified
Community Correctional Facility, and Golden State Modified Community
Correctional Facility, all in McFarland, and the Taft Correctional
Institution. The total amount of the settlement is about $10 million in
cash and non-cash benefits.
Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, Bronte, Texas
October
12, 2007 KRIS TV
The delayed discovery of squalid conditions at a privately run Texas Youth
Commission jail was "a human failure" and stronger oversight is
needed to prevent similar incidents, a key state senator said Friday.
"It was very simple that the monitors were not doing their job and
there was a human failure," said Sen. John Whitmire, head of the
Senate Criminal Justice Committee. "Who's monitoring the
monitors?" Whitmire, a Houston Democrat, called a committee hearing
about a week after a Coke County juvenile lockup in Bronte operated by The
GEO Group, Inc., was closed because of filthy conditions. A Texas Youth
Commission ombudsman discovered the conditions, even though the facility
had passed previous inspections by TYC monitors. The TYC system was rocked
earlier this year by allegations of rampant sexual and other physical abuse
against juvenile inmates in the system. The star witness at Friday's
hearing on adult and juvenile prison monitoring was Shirley Noble, who told
how her son, 43-year-old Idaho inmate Scot Noble Payne, endured months of
horrific conditions then slit his own throat at a private Texas prison run
by GEO Group. "It seemed there was no end to the degradation he and
other prisoners were to endure with substandard facilities," Noble
said. Her son died March 4 in a private prison in Spur. Noble questioned
why Idaho sent its inmates to Texas and why the Florida-based GEO Group was
allowed to keep prisoners in what she described as "degrading and
subhuman conditions." "Please, please hold them accountable for
all the injuries and misery they have caused," Noble said. A spokesman
for GEO Group did not immediately return a telephone call from The
Associated Press to respond to comments made at the hearing. TYC Acting
Executive Director Dimitria Pope, who took over the youth agency earlier
this year, testified that she's putting more monitoring safeguards in
place. That includes sending executive staff members out to view the
lockups, something she said hadn't been done regularly in the past.
"Because of my concerns of what I saw in Coke County, I have
implemented a blitz of every facility, either the ones that we operate,
that contract, district offices, anything that has TYC affiliated with
it," she said, adding that each site will be visited by the end of
October. Adan Munoz Jr., executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail
Standards, said he has four inspectors do annual inspections of the 267
facilities under his oversight. He defended his agency's practice of giving
two- to three-week notices about inspection visits but said recently there
have been more surprise inspections. Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa,
D-McAllen, said privatizing prisons is an "easy way out." He said
he worries about the state continuing to contract with companies that have
a history of abuse. "It's a myth that the private sector does a better
job than government" in running prisons, Hinojosa said. "They're
there to make a profit and they'll cut corners, and they'll cut back on
services and they'll many times look the other way when abuse is taking
place." Because of Texas' size and high rate of locking up convicts,
the state is in the national spotlight for its dealings with private prison
firms, said Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston. "It puts a special burden on
us," he said. "If it needs to be improved, improve it, because
everybody looks to us." Noble was the panel's final witness. The room
hushed as she told the senators her family's emotional tale. Her son, a
convicted sex offender, was kept in solitary confinement for months with a
wet floor, bloodstained sheets and smelly towels. She said he wrote long,
detailed letters to family members in which he said the only way to escape
the prison's harsh conditions was to join his late grandfather in the
spirit world. Noble said she begged for psychological help for her son. She
said he wasn't supposed to have been given a razor, and she still wonders
how he got the one he used to end his life. "After he tried to
unsuccessfully slash his wrists and ankles, he knelt in the shower and cut
his own throat," she said. "Surely only a person in utter
disillusionment and horrifying conditions would bring themselves to this
end."
October 12, 2007 Dallas Morning News
Three monitors fired by the Texas Youth Commission last week for
failing to report filthy and dangerous conditions at a privately run
juvenile prison in West Texas had previously worked for the company they
oversaw. Two of the quality assurance monitors were hired directly from
caseworker positions with The GEO Group Inc. at the Coke County Juvenile
Justice Center, according to their job applications. The monitoring unit's
supervisor also briefly worked for GEO at the youth prison near Bronte four
years before being hired by TYC, records show. A clerk who was fired had
previous GEO employment as well. TYC spokesman Jim Hurley said agency
executives were unaware of the terminated workers' ties to GEO before The
Dallas Morning News filed an open-records request this week. Officials said
last week that they were concerned about entanglements between TYC
employees and the company they monitored. TYC's inspector general has
launched a criminal investigation of operations at the Coke County prison,
including the possibility of financial transactions between GEO and TYC
employees. GEO's relationship with the fired TYC monitors is a likely topic
at a hearing today of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee in Austin. It
is intended to examine GEO's operation of youth and adult prisons in Texas.
State Sen. John Whitmire, the panel's chairman, was angered to learn from a
reporter Thursday that TYC monitors had previously been employed by GEO. "I
think it's outrageous," the Houston Democrat said. "It just
confirms what many of us suspected – that there was too close a
relationship between the TYC employees and GEO employees." He said the
committee also would seek answers from the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice and county jail and juvenile probation officials about their own
monitoring of private corrections companies. "Anyone that confines
individuals in the state of Texas needs to make certain they know who their
monitors are – and that they go behind their monitors and literally monitor
their monitors," Mr. Whitmire said. Mr. Hurley said the prior
employment with GEO raised questions about whether the monitors had been
objective in their evaluations of the facility. "How do you monitor
the monitors?" he said. "We need a very good answer to
that." For years, quality assurance reports on the Coke County prison
had been overwhelmingly positive. Twice, TYC named it contract facility of
the year. "You have to worry about conflicts of interest," Mr. Hurley
said Thursday. "I'm not saying there is a conflict of interest. But
there is a perception." TYC Executive Director Dimitria Pope fired
four monitors at the Coke County prison and a clerk last week after she and
others toured the facility. It was in such deplorable condition, Ms. Pope
said, that she ordered the removal of all 197 inmates. She also fired
another employee at the Coke County facility who had not worked for GEO,
and two contract care supervisors at TYC's district office in Fort Worth.
The head of contract care at TYC's headquarters in Austin resigned. Ms.
Pope canceled TYC's $8 million contract with Florida-based GEO, which had
operated the Coke County facility since it opened in 1994. GEO initially
tried to reinstate the contract but, after criticism, said it accepted the
decision. The Coke County facility was the state's largest private youth
prison. It was the only Texas juvenile facility operated by GEO, one of the
nation's biggest private prison contractors. As a result of the problems discovered
at Coke County, Ms. Pope ordered a wholesale review of the agency's
contract care system. "Who the monitors are and where they come from
will be one of the issues that we're going to look at," Mr. Hurley
said. TYC employs more than 40 quality assurance specialists and
supervisors, according to personnel records provided to The News. Some are
stationed at the facilities they monitor, several of which are in remote
rural areas. Mr. Hurley shied away from discussing what actions the agency
might undertake if it learns that other monitors had previous employment
with contractors they inspect. "What we need to do is make sure that
first of all, every one of these contracts is being monitored and that it's
being monitored correctly," he said. "If the remoteness is a
problem, I think that monitoring these contracts accurately will show us
that," he said. "We need to have a sort of evidence-based
determination." The Coke County prison is in a one-stoplight town
about 30 miles north of San Angelo. It was the town's second-largest
employer after the school district. One-third of the school district's $6
million budget is tied to programs at the prison. Two of the fired TYC
employees lived in Bronte. Valerie Jones, former supervisor of the
monitoring unit, has two children in the Bronte schools. Patti Frazee, her
clerk, is married to a member of the Bronte school board. Ms. Jones, who
worked for GEO as a chemical-dependency counselor from October 1995 to July
1996, declined to comment Thursday. She was hired by TYC as a quality
assurance monitor in spring 2000, records show. Ms. Frazee, reached at her
home, said officials of the youth agency never raised any questions about
her previous employment with GEO. "There were not very many jobs out
here," she said. "Any time you could take a state job, it was a
better job for everybody because it paid more money. That's the only
reason. It was like a step up from GEO. That's the way everybody viewed
it." Ms. Frazee was paid $17,950 per year working as bookkeeper for
GEO. As a clerk for TYC, she earned $25,035. The two monitors hired
directly from GEO, Brian Lutz and David Roberson, earned $26,800 and
$24,500 per year, respectively. With TYC, Mr. Lutz was paid $33,945,while
Mr. Roberson received $37,393, agency records show. Several attempts to
locate Mr. Lutz for comment were unsuccessful. Mr. Roberson, reached at his
home in San Angelo, declined to be interviewed. Lisa Williamson worked as a
TYC quality assurance monitor at the Coke County facility from 1998 until
2004. She said she knew Mr. Roberson and Ms. Jones well. She described them
as honest, hard-working people devoted to their jobs. "There is not
anybody there who I wouldn't trust with my own children," said Ms.
Williamson, who now works as a juvenile probation officer in Young County.
Ms. Williamson said she had not worked for GEO. But she said she never saw
any of her colleagues who had worked for the company ignore any problems.
While she and the GEO warden, Brett Bement, frequently tried to tell each
other how to do their jobs, Ms. Williamson said, she didn't feel pressured
and didn't obey him. "He knew I wasn't a pushover, and he couldn't get
by with it. He couldn't have done that with any of us," she said. GEO
Group gave money to several state officials' campaigns -- State Rep. Jerry
Madden held his annual "How Sweet It Is" dessert party in Plano
on Thursday night to raise money for a future campaign. One of the sponsors
at the $2,500 "cherries jubilee" level was to be The GEO Group
Inc., a Florida-based corrections company. Until last week, GEO operated
the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center near Bronte under contract with the
Texas Youth Commission. In recent years, the company has donated to the
campaigns of some legislators who oversee the youth agency. Two of them,
Mr. Madden and Sen. John Whitmire, are co-chairmen of the special
legislative committee established this year to oversee reforms of TYC in
the wake of a sexual abuse scandal at the West Texas State School in Pyote.
Mr. Madden, R-Plano, received a total of $2,500 from GEO's political action
committee in 2005 and 2006, according to campaign finance records. Mr.
Whitmire, a Houston Democrat, received $2,000 from the political action
committee of Wackenhut Corrections Corp., as GEO was previously known, in
2003 and 2004. Other recipients of GEO or Wackenhut contributions are Lt.
Gov. David Dewhurst, who received $2,500 in 2006, and House Speaker Tom
Craddick, R-Midland, who received $1,000 in 2005, state records show. In
addition to Mr. Madden, the chairman of the House Corrections Committee,
two other panel members received donations from GEO or Wackenhut. Rep.
Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, received $250 in 2006. And Pat Haggerty, R-El
Paso, received $500 from the Wackenhut Corrections PAC in 2004. Sylvester
Turner, D-Houston, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Criminal Justice and another member of the Joint Committee on the Operation
and Management of the Texas Youth Commission, received $250 in 2006. Mr.
Madden's predecessor as head of the corrections committee, Ray Allen,
received $3,500 in 2003 and 2004 from Wackenhut. He since has left public
office and is a lobbyist for GEO. Mr. Madden acknowledged that lobbyists
for GEO might attend his fundraiser at the Southfork Hotel on Thursday night.
But he said he had told the lobbyists that he did not want a check.
"Just right now, I think it would be a bad idea to specifically look
for contributions from GEO," he said.
October 11, 2007 The Olympian
The mother of an Idaho inmate who killed himself in a Texas prison this
year has become a corrections activist. Shirley Noble travels to Austin,
Texas Friday to urge lawmakers there to stop accepting out-of-state
prisoners at their for-profit lockups. Texas is holding hearings over The
GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison company that lost its contract to
oversee a juvenile prison because of dirty bed sheets, feces-smeared cells
and insects in the food. GEO also ran the prison where Shirley Noble's son,
Scot Noble Payne, slashed his throat March 4. The convicted sex offender
had been shipped to Texas with a group of 450 Idaho inmates because of
overcrowding at prisons at home. Shirley Noble contends sending prisoners
out-of-state leaves them without family contact - and caused Idaho prison
officials to neglect them.
October 6, 2007 Dallas Morning News
The Texas Youth Commission is investigating whether its employees had
improper ties to GEO Group Inc., the company that ran a West Texas juvenile
prison where inmates lived in dangerous and squalid conditions. Acting TYC
Executive Director Dimitria Pope said Friday that agency investigators will
be checking into the backgrounds of employees to "see if they are
connected to GEO in any way." Among the areas of inquiry, she said, is
whether anyone in TYC was working as a consultant for GEO. Investigators
also will look for any other financial arrangements between TYC workers and
GEO, which operated the now-closed Coke County Juvenile Justice Center in
Bronte. Any TYC employee found to have ties to GEO will be fired, Ms. Pope
said. "I'm saying let's go back to the time this facility just opened.
Let's see if there are any interesting financial transactions," she
said. "I think if you go back and look, there will be some interesting
things to look at." On Friday afternoon, Ms. Pope toured the TYC
prison in Mart, which took in the 197 inmates removed from the GEO facility
on Tuesday. TYC canceled its $8 million contract with the company on
Monday, citing "deplorable conditions." Ms. Pope, who visited the
Coke County prison late last month after a surprise agency inspection, said
she saw indications that the relationship between TYC's on-site monitors
and GEO was not as separate as it should have been. For example, she said,
GEO workers had keys to TYC's office in Bronte. When she entered the
office, she said, no agency employee was there, but confidential inmate
records remained in plain sight. "Kids' files were laying out on the
table," she said. "There was stuff on the fax machine." Ms.
Pope said she does not know if any TYC monitors formerly worked for GEO,
but she is concerned about that as well. 'A disgrace' -- TYC has already
fired seven employees whose jobs were to monitor the Coke County unit and
GEO's contract compliance. TYC's on-site inspectors routinely filed glowing
reports on the prison. "They were there," she said of the
inspectors. "They [their reports] say absolutely nothing." At a
news conference in Austin earlier in the day, Ms. Pope blasted GEO, with
whom Texas has done business since 1994. She said it operated a fire trap
and that inmates' medical needs were ignored, schooling was "almost
nonexistent" and a pattern of "physical and psychological
harm" was routinely tolerated. "GEO should be ashamed," she
said. "The Coke County Juvenile Justice Center is a disgrace." A
TYC audit of the facility described a breakdown on many levels, including
safety, hygiene, medical treatment, education and maintenance. Asked if TYC
auditors found anyone at the Coke unit who had been doing the job properly,
Ms. Pope responded: "I'm saying, 'Hell, no, they weren't.' "
"The kids had a stench because they weren't allowed to bathe,"
she said. "And their teeth? Horrible." During her visit to TYC's
prison in Mart, near Waco, Ms. Pope spoke with about 25 inmates from the
GEO-run unit. "I notice you have toothpaste in there," she said
to one, as the inmates stood at parade rest outside their cells. "I
got you here so you can be treated like a human being," Ms. Pope told
one 15-year-old inmate. A TYC audit of the GEO facility, released Friday,
said inmates did not have access to toothpaste or toothbrushes for days at
a time. Filth and disrepair were common throughout the prison, the report
said. Only one washer and one dryer were available to serve nearly 200
youth. TYC auditors who visited the prison got so much fecal matter on
their shoes they had to wipe their feet on the grass outside, Ms. Pope
said. Many pieces of fire safety equipment were either inoperable or
missing, the report said. Some emergency exits were closed with locks and
chains. "I personally was locked in one of the dorms because the doors
didn't work properly," Ms. Pope said. The prison's warden said he was
aware of many of the problems pointed out by auditors. "He indicated
that corporate did not respond to many of his purchasing needs ...,"
the audit report said. Dispatching audit teams -- TYC paid GEO $632,000 a
month to operate the prison, the report said. Last year, TYC spent nearly
$17 million of its $249 million budget on private contractors, according to
a Dallas Morning News investigation in July, which revealed problems with
the agency's contract facilities. The agency said it was sending audit
teams, composed of former members of the state's jail standards commission,
to visit every TYC prison and halfway house. "No stone is going to go
unturned," Ms. Pope said. "I don't want any more surprises."
State Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice
Committee, said Friday that he would hold legislative hearings on GEO's
contracts to run other correctional facilities throughout Texas.
"We're preparing ourselves for a thorough review of GEO, and it could
easily take us into other private contractors," he said. "But GEO
is our focus now as a result of Coke County and their response." He
criticized not only the conditions that GEO allowed to exist but also the
company's response to the problem. "They tried to cover it. They tried
to spin it. They had their lobbyists try to pressure legislators not to
listen to TYC," Sen. Whitmire said. "So if that's their attitude,
then I question their ability to carry out their contractual requirements
in other state facilities." Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, chairman of
the House Corrections Committee, said he had no information to suggest
financial corruption in the GEO contract but added, "I think that we
should let the [inspector general's] investigation go forward and see what
they find." Criminal inquiry -- TYC Inspector General Bruce Toney said
Wednesday that he had begun a criminal investigation of the GEO-run youth
prison. He requested assistance from the state auditor's office and also
advised the Texas Rangers and Texas attorney general's office of his
investigation. TYC is "an agency that has had deep internal problems,
and they just don't go away overnight," Mr. Madden said. "There
should have been a lot of people who had the responsibility of finding out
that those things had happened." Ms. Pope expressed anger at critics
of TYC's cancellation of the GEO contract. "I will no longer sit here
and take the unfair jabs of individuals who are attempting to advance their
personal agenda over the welfare of youth," she said. She would not
specify about whom she was talking. "I think it speaks for
itself," she said. Some local officials in Coke County have said the
prison does not deserve to be closed and have said TYC's actions will have
a devastating economic impact on Bronte. "Anyone who's rallying behind
GEO," Ms. Pope said, "should ... hold their heads in shame."
October 5, 2007 San Antonio Express-News
The Texas Youth Commission's chief blasted critics Friday who questioned
her handling of problems at a juvenile center shuttered this week, but also
admitted a "significant breakdown" in her own agency's oversight.
"I will no longer sit back and take the unfair jabs from individuals
who are attempting to advance their own particular agenda over the welfare
of the youth," said Dimitria Pope, TYC's acting executive director.
"Neither money nor power can come over my No. 1 priority, which is our
youth." Pope, who made the comments at a news conference she called at
TYC's Austin headquarters, refused to name the individual critics she
called unfair or inaccurate. Her comments appeared directed, however, at
two sources of criticism. One is the elected leadership of the small town
of Bronte in West Texas, angered by the loss of 100 jobs when TYC shuttered
the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center this week and transferred about 195
young inmates elsewhere. The other is state Rep. Jerry Madden,
R-Richardson, chairman of the House Corrections Committee, who said he
wonders why TYC only now is learning about alleged squalor and unfit
conditions at the youth lockup run by Geo Group Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla.
Citing those conditions, Pope fired seven agency "quality assurance"
staffers and canceled the agency's $8 million contract with Geo, which
specializes in private prisons. The action threw TYC in the spotlight again
after a sex abuse scandal at the agency led to investigations and intense
legislative scrutiny last spring. "I am very concerned as to how did
this condition arise, how long did it take and why are we just now finding
out about it?" Madden said Friday, applauding a criminal investigation
under way by TYC's inspector general. "We asked the question at our
last hearing, were the kids safer? The answer we got was yes. It appears to
me some of them were not," Madden added. Pope complained during her
news conference that she was "damned if I did and damned if I
didn't" and asserted that the agency should get the respect it needs
as it attempts to carry out the mission of keeping confined youths safe.
"There was a significant breakdown. That will be totally
restructured," she said of the lack of checks and balances for the
agency's oversight team. TYC's acting director of quality assurance,
Elizabeth Lee, resigned this week but the agency's spokesman Jim Hurley
said he didn't know if it was connected to the problems at the Geo-run
youth facility. "Geo should be ashamed and anyone who's rallying
behind Geo should also hold their head in shame," Pope said. Geo
officials, who had said they provided quality services, said Friday they'd
make no further comments. Coke County Judge Roy Blair said that he'd been
to the Geo-run youth facility several times, and the Commissioners Court
had inspected it every quarter. "I have never noted any, what I would
call severe, problems as far as mistreatment or health issues or any
significant problems," he said. "The thing has always been
relatively clean." Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John
Whitmire, D-Houston, opened an investigation of adult private prison
contracts with Geo.
October 5, 2007 Houston Chronicle
A Houston lawmaker is launching a broad investigation into a private prison
contractor after the state closed one of its youth facilities this week,
citing filth, poor safety and health violations. Democratic Sen. John
Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, cited the
"terrible job" Geo Group Inc. did running the West Texas youth
lockup and said Thursday he plans to review adult corrections contracts the
state has with the company. Boca Raton, Fla.-based Geo Group, which runs
eight adult lockups in Texas, was sued by the Texas Civil Rights Project in
2006 in connection with an alleged rape and suicide of a woman at the Val
Verde County Jail. The suit alleged jail guards working for the company
have allowed male and female inmates to have sex with each other. The suit
was settled earlier this year with a nondisclosure agreement. Geo spokesman
Pablo Paez did not return phone calls seeking comment, but earlier stated
the company had provided quality services at the TYC facility. On Monday
the Texas Youth Commission shuttered the doors of its Coke County Juvenile
Justice Center, run by Geo, and moved nearly 200 young offenders to other
TYC facilities. "When we saw what a terrible job they were doing at
Coke County, TYC had the ability to shut it down and move their
youth," Whitmire said. As for the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice, he wondered, "When we find a failure to properly run a
facility, what do they do?" Geo operates four prisons, two shorter
term lockups and a halfway house for the adult prison system. Prison
spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said the agency hasn't had any "significant
ongoing operational issues." Whitmire said he found evidence that a
90-day lockup in Houston run by Geo was out of compliance in 139 of 395
areas in a recent inspection. Lyons said Whitmire is referring to a 2006
audit, and all problems cited have now been cleared up. Geo also supervises
state prisoners in leased space in the Jefferson and Newton county jails.
TYC spokesman Jim Hurley said the agency's inspector general has opened a
criminal investigation into the conditions at the Coke County juvenile
facility. Seven TYC employees have been fired, including several who were
responsible for on-site monitoring of the Coke facility. This was the only
contract Geo had with the Youth Commission. But the agency has contracts
with several other providers for various programs throughout the state,
including foster homes and a program to teach parenting skills to
delinquents who are pregnant.
October 3, 2007 Dallas Morning News
Seven Texas Youth Commission employees were fired Wednesday as a state
investigation widened at a privately run West Texas juvenile prison where
inmates were found living in filth. TYC Inspector General Bruce Toney said
Wednesday he has begun a criminal investigation of operations at the Coke
County Juvenile Justice Center near Bronte. Mr. Toney said his inquiry
could focus on TYC employees and those of GEO Group Inc., which operates
the prison. "We are going to follow all leads wherever they take us
and as high as they may go both in TYC and the operation of that
facility," Mr. Toney said. Citing "deplorable conditions,"
TYC this week canceled its contract with GEO to operate the state's largest
private juvenile prison. All 197 male inmates were removed on Tuesday. Mr.
Toney said he has requested assistance from the state auditor's office and
met with the head of the Travis County district attorney's public integrity
unit on Wednesday. He said he also advised the Texas Rangers and Texas
attorney general's office of his investigation. He sent one of his
investigators to the Coke County facility last week. "Our initial
response was to go out there and basically take a preliminary look and see
what we had out there. We will just look at everything and see what
transpires," Mr. Toney said. State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston,
threatened to hold a public hearing on GEO's operation of the TYC prison.
"Certainly that's an option if this goes any further," said Mr.
Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. "If GEO
thinks they've been treated unfairly, let's have a public hearing and look
at all the photographs and videos [of the Coke County prison] and let the
public decide." Mr. Whitmire said he was upset at efforts this week by
GEO lobbyists to convince legislators that TYC had treated the company too
harshly. "Now enters GEO with their paid lobbyists attempting to put a
good face on this," Mr. Whitmire said. "I'm saying the
corporation should back off. They've run a very poor facility that probably
violates the youths' civil rights. ... Kids were stepping in their own
feces. The sheets were such that a cat or dog wouldn't sleep on them."
GEO spokesman Pablo Paez said he would not comment on any attempts by the
company's lobbyists to sway legislators. Mr. Paez said his company was
disappointed in TYC's decision to cancel the contract. "We believe we
have provided quality services for the Texas Youth Commission for many
years," he said. TYC officials have been unable to explain how the
agency's own quality assurance monitors, stationed just outside the prison,
not only failed to report substandard conditions but praised the operation.
In the monitors' most recent review, in February, the prison was awarded an
overall compliance score of 97.7 percent. In that review, monitors also
thanked GEO staff for their positive work with TYC youth. "Those who
were supposed to be our quality-assurance people out at Bronte will no
longer be working for the Texas Youth Commission," agency spokesman
Jim Hurley said. He cited an "abysmal failure on their part to not
report the deterioration of that facility." Four of the TYC employees
who were fired on Wednesday worked as quality assurance monitors at the
Coke County facility. A fifth, who worked in TYC's district office in Fort
Worth, was an author of the February report. The two other employees also
were in contract care management, but Mr. Hurley said he would not disclose
their specific job titles or where they worked. TYC identified none of the
employees by name. Late last month, several TYC officials – including
acting executive director Dimitria Pope – visited the prison and found poor
conditions. A report by TYC ombudsman Will Harrell detailed numerous
deficiencies. He found inmates who had been placed in solitary confinement
for five weeks. They were allowed to leave their cells once a day, in
shackles, to take a shower. Mr. Harrell also noted that some bedsheets were
dirty and that inmates "complain regularly of discovering insects' in
their food. "Children seemed almost desperate to lodge their
complaints," Mr. Harrell wrote in his report. Many of his findings
were confirmed in a report by Susan Moynahan, the TYC liaison for the
Harris County Juvenile Probation Department. Among her discoveries at the
Coke unit: Inmates in one dorm did not have a restroom, so they were forced
to defecate in plastic bags. Mr. Paez, the GEO spokesman, said he has read
the ombudsman's findings. "I have seen the report," he said.
"I really can't comment on it." State Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano,
said he will meet today with GEO representatives to discuss the Coke County
prison. "I want to hear their side of it." TYC paid GEO $8
million a year to run the Coke County prison. GEO said it had pre-tax
earnings of about $800,000 a year on the contract. Last year, TYC spent
nearly $17 million of its $249 million budget doing business with private
contractors, including GEO. TYC is putting together a plan to review each
contract care program, Mr. Hurley said. "We are working right now on
plans to have a physical presence at every contract care program that we
are operating to review what is going on and to ensure the monitoring
reports that we get are accurate," he said. In July, The Dallas
Morning News found numerous problems with TYC's contractor-run facilities.
The stories revealed that private contractors housing juvenile inmates in
Texas repeatedly have lost contracts or closed operations in other states
after investigators uncovered mismanagement, neglect and abuse. Two states
closed GEO-operated units because of abuse allegations and inadequate care
of inmates. TYC was placed in a state conservatorship this year after a sex
abuse scandal and subsequent cover-up were exposed by The News and the Web
site of The Texas Observer. Mr. Madden of Plano was one of the authors of
legislation this year intended to reform TYC. He noted Wednesday that he
had asked TYC officials at a hearing last month if inmates are safer now
than they were before the reforms. Officials assured him they are. Now, Mr.
Madden said, problems such as those in Coke County have caused him to
question TYC's response. "I'm not sure the answer, 'They are safer,'
is actually true," he said.
October 3, 2007 Dallas Morning-News
The Texas Youth Commission is investigating why juvenile inmates endured
squalor and deprivation at a privately run West Texas prison that was
repeatedly praised by TYC's own quality-assurance monitors. The agency
began busing the 197 male inmates from the Coke County Juvenile Justice
Center before dawn Tuesday. Officials also canceled an $8-million annual
contract with operators of the state's largest private juvenile prison,
citing "deplorable conditions." The problems found at the prison
in Bronte, operated by the GEO Group Inc. of Florida, were described in a
report by TYC Ombudsman Will Harrell. "There is a greater sense of
fear and intimidation in this facility than perhaps any other I have been
to," Mr. Harrell wrote. He also noted that: •Some young inmates were
kept in "malodorous and dark" security cells for five weeks. They
were allowed to leave, in shackles, only once a day for a shower. •There
was an "over-reliance" on the use of pepper spray. •Inmates
"complain regularly of discovering insects in their food." TYC
announced Tuesday that its inspector general's office, as well as
Department of Public Safety troopers, were investigating. TYC spokesman Jim
Hurley said other agencies, including the state auditor's office and the
attorney general's office, could join the investigation. Asked if TYC
suspected financial wrongdoing, Mr. Hurley would say only, "We're
concerned about every aspect of the way this facility was run and the
contract was administered." The agency "cannot tolerate this kind
of situation," he added. "Not only do there need to be financial
sanctions, but there need to be other actions taken against people who
operate this way." This is only the latest problem to beset TYC, which
was placed in state conservatorship this year after a sex abuse scandal and
subsequent cover-up were exposed by The Dallas Morning News and the Web
site of The Texas Observer. In July, an investigation by The News detailed
numerous problems with TYC's contract-run facilities, including GEO's Coke
County prison. The investigation revealed that at least two other states
had closed GEO-run facilities because of inadequate care of inmates and
abuse allegations. GEO spokesman Pablo Paez said the company was
disappointed by TYC's decision, which he said was unexpected. "We had
not received any notices or any indication of any significant deficiencies
at the facility prior to agency's decision to discontinue the contract,"
Mr. Paez said. Contractor of the year -- Among other matters at the Bronte
facility near San Angelo, state investigators will explore whether inmates
were prevented from filing grievances with TYC. "I don't think the
phones worked all the time if they wanted to complain," Mr. Hurley
said, and "kids weren't let out of their cells" to file
complaints. TYC employs four full-time quality-assurance monitors at the
Coke County prison. They work in a portable building just outside the
facility's secure perimeter. Their jobs were to ensure that GEO was meeting
the terms of its contract, the first priority being inmates' health and
safety, Mr. Hurley said. "What were they doing? That's what we're
asking," Mr. Hurley said of the monitors. "I do imagine that we
will be seeing personnel actions taken as a result of this." According
to TYC records, the agency's quality-assurance monitors awarded the Coke
County facility mostly high scores on planned and unplanned inspections
there over the last seven years. In 1999 and again in 2005, TYC named Coke
County its "contract facility of the year." Mr. Hurley said
monitors conducted their most recent comprehensive review of the facility
in late February 2007. Records show few problems were recorded. Coke
"achieved an overall compliance score of 97.7 percent with
twenty-eight of twenty-nine critical measures passed," the report
stated. "Thank you to the Coke County staff and administration for the
positive work they do with TYC youth." Monitors did note that one dorm
"had an offensive odor" due to a sewer backup. "A number of
youth complained that their clothing was not getting clean and that it was
returned to them still damp," the report stated. In addition, TYC
monitors wrote that the schedule for inmates' showers had been interrupted because
of emergencies requiring guards to maintain safety in the dorms.
"Administrative staff was made aware of the issue and the need to
correct," according to the report. The comprehensive review occurred
five months after 19-year-old Robert Schulze, an inmate who had complained
that he felt unsafe, hanged himself in his solitary cell. A TYC
investigation found a number of missteps that contributed to the young
man's suicide, and TYC put the facility on a corrective action plan as a
result. 'Prevalence of fear' -- Mr. Harrell, the new TYC ombudsman, said he
visited the Coke County facility on Sept. 21 as part of his tour of the
agency's West Texas facilities. He found dirty mattresses lying on cell
floors and a large infestation of spiders, beetles and crickets crawling
around the facility, he said. Inmates told him their sheets and clothes had
not been laundered in weeks or months. "Most of what I had seen had to
be pre-existing for months if not years," he said in an interview.
There was also a "real prevalence of fear" among the inmates, he
said. "If I was to be placed in a TYC facility that would be my last
pick for sure," he added. Of the schooling available to inmates in
security cells, Mr. Harrell wrote in a report on his visit: "
'Education' consists of someone dropping a single sheet of paper through
the door slot each day which usually contains a cross work [sic] puzzle, a
word game or math problems." Three days after Mr. Harrell's visit,
acting TYC Executive Director Dimitria Pope dispatched her new director of
juvenile corrections to the Coke County facility. Billy Humphrey, a former
adult prison warden, told his boss that the facility was "filthy"
and that TYC needed to "take a much deeper look" because he had a
"very uncomfortable feeling," Mr. Hurley said. On Sept. 26, a
team of TYC officials made an unannounced visit to Coke. Ms. Pope arrived
at the facility last weekend and returned on Monday to Austin, where she
met with Alfonso Royal, the governor's liaison to TYC, and Brian Newby, the
governor's chief of staff. She then ordered the GEO contract canceled and
the youths moved to another TYC prison in Mart, near Waco. "She told
us that this needs to happen," said Robert Black, the governor's
spokesman. "And we told her if this needed to happen, she needed to do
it." Inmates were moved to TYC's McLennan County facility on buses
escorted by DPS troopers. TYC made room for the Coke County youth by moving
dozens of Mart inmates to other agency facilities, said Scott Medlock, an
attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project. At least two TYC inmates he
represents in legal action against the agency were transferred to the
Crockett State School in East Texas, he said. TYC transferred the youth
without notifying parents, he said. "I've had panicked parents calling
me all day, saying, 'I can't find my kid,' " said Mr. Medlock.
Problems persist -- State Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said Tuesday he
has been concerned about GEO's performance for years, a point he raised at
a legislative hearing in August. "I'm not surprised at what they [TYC
officials] found," said Sen. Hinojosa, an author of the 2007 law aimed
at reforming TYC. "There are still a lot of problems at TYC that we're
trying to clean up." A GEO news release issued Tuesday noted that its
TYC contract generated quarterly revenue of about $2 million and pre-tax
quarterly earnings of about $200,000. Now, the company plans to market the
facility to state and federal detention agencies around the country. In the
meantime, it expects to lay off most of the 140 employees. City and school
district officials in Bronte said Tuesday they had no advance notice of
TYC's decision to close the Coke County facility. The mayor and school
superintendent blamed the decision on politics. "It is straight from
Gov. Perry's office. He wants this facility closed," Mayor Gerald
Sandusky said. "He's looking for public image." "This
facility does an outstanding job," Mr. Sandusky added. "It
couldn't be better."
October 2, 2007 Dallas Morning News
Texas Youth Commission officials will pull the 197 TYC inmates out of a
West Texas juvenile justice center today and cancel their contract with the
company that runs it, citing deplorable conditions at the state's largest
privately operated juvenile prison. "The decisive action ... is a
clear indication of the positive changes under way at the Texas Youth
Commission," Gov. Rick Perry said Monday. "I am deeply
disappointed that conditions at the facility have deteriorated to this
point, but am confident that today's actions will remedy the
situation." The Coke County Juvenile Justice Center in Bronte,
operated by the Florida-based GEO Group Inc. since 2003, has a history of
abuse and neglect, including a 2006 suicide, allegations of sexual assault
that were settled out of court, and the 2004 death of a youth whose medical
conditions were ignored. As recently as this spring, the prison realized it
had hired a registered sex offender as a guard. An investigation by The
Dallas Morning News in July detailed problems at the facility. The coverage
also documented problems at GEO facilities in other states. A
representative from GEO could not be reached for comment on Monday. In the
July article, spokesman Pablo Paez told The News that the company strives
to provide high-quality service and always reviews serious incidents to
determine "what corrective actions, if any, can be taken." After
reports last month of unsanitary conditions at Coke County, acting TYC
Executive Director Dimitria Pope visited the facility last weekend for a
surprise audit. On Monday, she ordered that all youth be transferred to
other TYC units immediately. "TYC's No. 1 priority is the safety and
well being of those youths under our care," Ms. Pope said in a
statement. "The unsafe conditions I witnessed at Coke County this weekend
are unacceptable. We have zero tolerance for any form of abuse within the
system, and those responsible parties will be held accountable."
Despite the high-profile cases reported at the Coke County facility – and
the fact that at least two other states have closed their GEO facilities
over reports of abuse and neglect – GEO and the company's previous owner
were allowed to renew their contract in Texas at least seven times. GEO has
the highest rate of alleged abuse among all TYC contractors. This is hardly
the first time GEO has run into trouble in state juvenile justice systems.
The U.S. Justice Department sued the company in 2000, when it was known by
a different name, alleging that youth inmates in a Louisiana facility
suffered abuse and neglect. All youth were removed from the facility under
a settlement. Five years later, Michigan closed its state prison run by GEO
after budget problems and a lawsuit over poor inmate care. Until recently,
TYC has continued to give GEO high marks, awarding the Coke County outpost
its "contract facility of the year" award in 1999 and again in
2005. This despite a history of abuse and neglect at the facility,
including: • A 1999 lawsuit filed by former female inmates alleging sexual
abuse at the hands of Coke employees. The lawsuits, which involved girls
being forced into performing sexual act and dancing naked, were settled out
of court. • The death in 2004 of John Rodriguez, whose rashes, open sores
and spiking fever were overlooked for months by medical staff. • The hiring
– and eventual termination – of a registered sex offender to work as a
prison guard. The TYC acknowledged the GEO facility does its own hiring,
and wasn't held to the same standards as other non- contract prisons. • The
2006 suicide of Robert Shulze, a 19-year-old inmate who repeatedly
threatened to harm himself and lost 23 pounds in two months. Nurses never
put Mr. Shulze on suicide watch, and he hanged himself in his cell. Scott
Browne, a Beaumont attorney representing Mr. Schulze's family, commended the
TYC on Monday for its action. "I would hope that changes like this by
TYC would help ensure that no one else would suffer the way Robert Schulze
did," Mr. Brown said. "... Hopefully a move like this by TYC will
get the attention of anyone who wants to be in the private corrections
business."
July 29, 2007 The Dallas Morning News
Robert Schulze was scared. He threatened to harm himself unless he was
moved to another youth prison location. He lost 23 pounds in two months.
Ten days later, he hanged himself from the top bunk of his solitary cell.
Texas Youth Commission investigators presented a grim report on the
prison's failings to Gov. Rick Perry and other state officials in February.
They could have discovered even more disturbing details had they looked
beyond Texas' borders. A three-month Dallas Morning News investigation
found that private contractors housing juvenile inmates in Texas repeatedly
have lost contracts or shuttered operations in other states after
investigators uncovered mismanagement, neglect and physical and sexual
abuse. In Colorado, a suicide finally prompted state officials to close a
private youth prison that investigators said was plagued by violence and
sexual abuse. In Arkansas, former employees of a private juvenile facility
said inmates were shackled and left naked on the ground in sleeping bags.
And in Michigan, a private contractor was sued for allegedly allowing
mentally ill inmates to languish in solitary confinement. Last year, TYC
spent nearly $17 million of its $249 million budget to do business with
these and other private contractors. The agency houses about 450 young
inmates with 13 private operators. Legislative reforms passed in the wake
of the TYC sex abuse scandal largely overlooked private contractors and
focused instead on agency-run prisons. "They are a much under-examined
problem in the TYC system," said Scott Medlock, a prisoners' rights
attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project, which has filed a class-action
lawsuit against TYC alleging widespread inmate abuse. The News focused its
investigation on three private contractors with the largest number of TYC
inmates and high numbers of complaints – GEO Group, Cornerstone Programs
Corp. and Associated Marine Institutes. Those contractors have been dogged
by problems in Texas strikingly similar to what led officials in other
states to take action. Such problems include difficulties in attracting
qualified employees, high turnover rates and inadequate care for inmates –
sometimes with tragic consequences. States that hire contractors with poor
performance records "obviously have a very low regard for our
children," said Isabelle Zehnder, director of the Coalition Against
Institutionalized Child Abuse, a child advocacy organization in Washington
state. "They're letting money or circumstances stand above
children." But Michele Deitch, an expert on prison privatization at
the University of Texas at Austin, said research showed that privatization
did not save money and that "private facilities tend to have many more
problems in performance, such as higher levels of assaults, escapes,
idleness." TYC officials said they were reviewing the agency's
policies on contractors but could not comment about changes under
consideration. However, just days after detailed questioning by The News,
TYC canceled bid requests for new contract facilities. Bidders included
contractors currently operating facilities in Texas that had a history of
problems in other states. The vetting process -- TYC first turned to
contractors in 1974 to relieve overcrowding. Contract care facilities vary
from group homes to large prisons, and over the years contractors have come
to provide specialized services not available at TYC prisons, such as care
for pregnant inmates. TYC's executive director makes the final decision to
hire a private contractor after a five-phase review process that includes
checks on the contractor's ability to provide adequate medical care and
educational and behavioral treatment. Companies with contracts terminated
in the last year "for deficiencies in performance" anywhere in
the country are ineligible to bid. And, under a new policy enacted in March
as the TYC sex abuse scandal unfolded, the agency reserved the right to
declare ineligible bidders with canceled contracts in the last three years.
"We ask for contracts [canceled] within 36 months, because this
provides us with additional information that might be important – [such as]
funding, or lack of funding," said Mark Higdon, TYC's business manager
for contract programs. "It might not be performance. It might be
something else, and we can look at that also." While a contract
cancellation would clearly be a red flag for TYC, there are many loopholes
through which worrisome contractors can pass. Arkansas officials, for
example, let an agreement with Associated Marine Institutes expire after an
audit found the contractor had mismanaged its billing and failed to provide
proper services to young inmates. Elsewhere, companies have negotiated
deals allowing them to withdraw from their contracts, or simply shut down
after states have removed youth from their facilities. Neither of these
would constitute a terminated contract as defined by Texas. Critics say
that TYC requires private contractors to provide less background
information when bidding than it should. For example, TYC does not request
major incident reports or disclosure of lawsuits against contractors, nor
does it do any independent research. In Florida, by contrast, companies
must list and explain any "correctional facility disturbances" –
major incidents, such as escapes or deaths – in any of the company's
prisons. Such disturbances may be the result of inadequate staffing, poor
training or other factors and raise warnings about a company's practices.
TYC should require contractors to provide all incident reports, said Ms.
Deitch, a lawyer with 20 years' experience in criminal justice policy
issues. "It is absolutely important that the contracting agency has
this kind of background info," she said. "If problems occur, there
can be liability concerns for the state agency, and the costs of dealing
with the problems can far exceed any savings from going with a low-cost
contractor." Elizabeth Lee, the new acting coordinator for TYC
contract care, acknowledged the agency has no "established process for
collecting information" on how its contractors performed in other
states. The important thing to consider, she said, is what they're doing in
Texas "and what we're doing to monitor the care of our kids."
Correcting contractors -- TYC regularly reviews contract facilities. It
checks program areas, such as staffing and security, at least once a year.
It also uses statistical information, such as rates of confirmed
mistreatment and the number of escapes, to evaluate operators. TYC quality
assurance monitors also make at least two unannounced visits per year. If a
facility has significant problems, it is put on a corrective action plan,
which outlines improvements and deadlines for them. The Coke County youth
prison, for example, was placed on a corrective action plan in February
after Robert Schulze's suicide. The plan required Coke to improve staffing
and procedures in solitary confinement. Records show that Coke was also
placed on a corrective action plan in July 2006 for deficiencies in case
management, which includes inmate monitoring and record keeping. Earlier
this month, TYC monitors visited WINGS for Life in Marion, just outside San
Antonio, which houses female inmates and their babies, to follow up on a
corrective action plan necessitated by deficiencies in staff training and
documentation. "If a facility fails any critical measure, we have to
come back and check it," said Jim Humphrey, the TYC quality assurance
supervisor for WINGS. TYC has the authority to fine contractors for problems,
but it has never done so in 33 years of outsourcing, officials said.
"If it comes to that, we would just stop the contract," said
Paula Morelock, who recently retired after 17 years as TYC's contract care
coordinator. But it rarely does that. The News could find only a few
instances of TYC not renewing contracts because of poor performance. TYC is
required to retain contractor records for only a few years, so a full
review of the program was not possible. In 2001, TYC terminated its
contract with FIRST Program of Texas in Longview after repeated problems.
One young woman said that when she was at FIRST, it had chronic staff
shortages. "A lot of stuff took place that shouldn't have," said
Michelle, a 22-year-old who asked that only her first name be used.
"There were lots of problems ... like staff having sex with the youth
there and improper restraints and lack of supervision." In 2004, TYC
removed its youth from the Hemphill County Juvenile Facility, then run by
Correctional Services Corp., a former state contractor, because of
"grave concerns for the safety of youth." The move followed a
December 2003 complaint signed by about 30 inmates. Still, an agency review
conducted shortly after the letter was sent gave the facility "above
average" scores on all performance measures. The facility was later
placed on a corrective action plan. A February 2004 update from TYC staff
to Ms. Morelock said: "Although they have not completed all items, the
team does believe that youth are safe and that the program is stable."
But staffing shortages followed, and in June 2004, TYC removed its youth
from the facility. "We feel like we do a lot of good monitoring and do
our very best to ensure that the youth receive quality services," Ms.
Morelock said. When contracts expire, TYC determines whether the facility
met the terms of its agreement. The contractor completes a renewal packet,
and then youth commission officials visit the facility to determine whether
to extend the contract for another two years. More often than not, Ms.
Morelock said, contracts are renewed. Critics say that TYC needs to change
its policy and open the process to outside bidders each time a contract
comes up for renewal. A question of oversight -- TYC already has come under
fire for lax employment guidelines that allowed contractors to hire
convicted felons or even sex offenders. A Texas state auditor report in
March urged TYC to ban contractors from hiring employees with convictions
and to require background checks of applicants. Even with background
checks, some workers with criminal records have slipped through. A
registered sex offender employed by the GEO-run Coke County Juvenile
Justice Center was fired in March. Ms. Morelock said the facility told TYC
that it ran a background check on the worker, but his criminal records did
not turn up. GEO said the correctional officer's prior record was not
uncovered because juvenile records in Texas are sealed. [See dallasnews.com
for further GEO comment.] The Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, which
licenses county facilities, found the Garza County Regional Juvenile Center
in Post out of compliance last year because it failed to do criminal
background checks on employees before they were hired. In a unique
arrangement, TYC contracts with the county, which in turn hired a private
operator, Colorado-based Cornerstone Programs, to run the Garza facility.
TYC relied on the county to vet the contractor's background, Ms. Morelock
said. A Garza County official said he did not know what, if any,
backgrounding of Cornerstone had been done. It's impossible to know whether
other employees of private contract facilities have criminal records
because, unlike workers at state-run facilities, their names are not public
information. "The fact that [these] facilities are private simply adds
one more layer of opaqueness to the process," said Ms. Deitch, the UT
adjunct professor. A few of the TYC legislative reforms will carry over to
private operators. Their guards' training hours must match that of TYC
employees, their younger inmates must be separated from older ones, and
contractors must now conduct fingerprint background checks on all employees
and volunteers in contact with youth. "Some of the contractors were
already doing that [fingerprinting], but just as a safeguard we're putting
it in the contract that they all have to do it now," said the TYC's
Ms. Lee. TYC officials say the most valuable part of the agency's
monitoring is staff visits to facilities. "They're looking at
grievances, they're talking to kids, they're talking to staff and they're
reviewing incident reports," Ms. Lee said. In general, though, TYC
relies heavily on its contractors to police themselves. Contractors are
required to forward inmate abuse allegations, although agency monitors have
raised concerns that not all make it to TYC. Contractors also must report
serious incidents to local law enforcement, but TYC reviews found
facilities that failed to do so. Critics of privatized juvenile care think
more state oversight is necessary. "Child welfare and juvenile justice
systems have both a legal and moral obligation to protect kids from harm,
which means they have a responsibility to exercise due diligence when it
comes to placing youths in certain types of facilities," said Dr.
Ronald Davidson, a university psychologist frequently hired by the Illinois
Department of Children and Family Services to review juvenile care.
"Whether we look at this situation in terms of public policy or simple
morality, the question we have to ask is whether our society ought to be in
the business of funding gulags for children."
July 29, 2007 The Dallas Morning News
The Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, run by the GEO Group Inc., is
Texas' largest private juvenile prison and has had the highest rate of
alleged abuse among TYC's contractors over the last seven years. The
Florida-based GEO has renewed, extended or renegotiated its contract with
the Texas Youth Commission at least seven times since it first won the
contract to run the Coke facility in June 1994. During that time, at least
two other states have closed their GEO-run juvenile facilities because of
inadequate care of inmates and abuse allegations. The U.S. Justice
Department sued the company in 2000, when it was known as Wackenhut
Corrections Corp., alleging that juveniles at the company's Louisiana
facility were subjected to excessive abuse and neglect. Wackenhut agreed to
a settlement that provided for sweeping changes to Louisiana's juvenile
justice system and required the company to move all juveniles from its
facility. The former security chief pleaded guilty in 2001 to beating a
17-year-old handcuffed inmate with a mop handle. In October 2005, Michigan
closed the state's private youth prison run by GEO after an advocacy group
sued the prison over inadequate inmate care. Budget shortfalls also played
into the prison's closure. Tom Masseau, director of government and media
relations for Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service Inc., said his
watchdog group found juvenile inmates who needed special education but were
not receiving it and inmates who were not receiving appropriate mental
health care. The prison also managed problem juveniles by putting them in
solitary confinement, he said. Mr. Masseau said his group tried to work
with GEO and the state before filing a lawsuit, but the problems remained
unsolved and inmates faced reprisals. "The youth would report back
that they were retaliated against for meeting with us," Mr. Masseau
said. "We said enough is enough." The group's lawsuit against the
state is pending, but GEO was dropped as a defendant because it closed the
facility and left the state. GEO sued the state for alleged wrongful
termination of the lease agreement, which is also pending. TYC accolades --
In 1999, TYC named GEO's Coke County operation its "contract facility
of the year." The same year, former female inmates filed several
federal civil rights lawsuits alleging they were sexually abused by Coke
employees. (TYC had moved all girls from the facility a year earlier.) The
lawsuits – which eventually resulted in confidential settlements – were
filed four years after TYC confirmed allegations that some staff members
coerced girls into performing sexual acts or dancing naked, according to a
court document and a report by Michele Deitch, a prison privatization
expert at the University of Texas, and others. "Given GEO's track
record generally and the general record of these for-profit private prison
companies, I have serious concerns about them running any correctional
institutions ... especially when such egregious wrongdoing was going
on," Scott Medlock, an attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project,
said. The Coke County facility routinely hired unqualified workers, said
Isela Gutierrez, juvenile justice initiative director at the Texas Criminal
Justice Coalition. Former Coke County guard John Christman, who now lives
in New York, said he witnessed that problem firsthand. He worked there for
nearly a year and said he initially loved it. But he eventually grew
frustrated with the company's poor hiring standards and staff shortages.
The company met its guard-to-inmate ratios by making employees work extra
shifts, he said. "I was working five, six days a week, 12-hour days,
overtime," Mr. Christman said. "It's hard to get people to go
into that line of work." He quit his post but returned about 18 months
later, in 2001, after he heard that working conditions had improved.
Unfortunately, he said, not much had changed and he left shortly
thereafter. TYC again named Coke County contract facility of the year in
2005. And, during the past seven years, TYC quality-assurance monitors have
awarded it mostly good scores on planned and unplanned inspections there.
But some recent problems were reported: During an unscheduled visit in
April, a TYC monitor discovered that a staff member had falsified an
accusation against an inmate. The young man was put in solitary confinement
on April 16. Two days later – on the morning of the unannounced visit – his
paperwork already noted that he'd committed an infraction that would extend
his stay in solitary confinement. "This was alarming because it was
only 9:30 a.m. and the incident had not occurred yet," the monitor
reported. The TYC monitor notified the warden, who released the inmate from
solitary and told the security director "that writing incident reports
prior to the incident was not allowed," the report said. Suicide
inquiry -- TYC's investigation into Robert Schulze's suicide offers a bleak
picture of the facility. "Robert's cries for help – to be assigned to
a dorm where he felt safe or to be transferred to Gainesville State School
– were never adequately addressed," a February 2007 report noted. A
guard promptly turned in Robert's note in which he threatened to harm
himself unless his dorm assignment was changed. Robert then asked to go to solitary
confinement because he felt unsafe, but he was not put on suicide watch. He
stayed in solitary confinement for nine days, refusing to return to his
dorm because of safety concerns. His case manager made only one documented
visit with him during that period. He was not given prescribed medication
during his time at Coke and lost 23 pounds in two months. No one checked
his food intake. None of that was brought to the doctor's attention, and a
medical review was never conducted, the TYC investigation revealed. The
nursing staff also "failed to discover three original prescriptions
for antidepressants and a mood stabilizer that had been prescribed by a
consulting psychiatrist ... on July 28," TYC later reported. Eight
days before Robert hanged himself on Sept. 28, 2006, "he filed a TYC
complaint form stating that he makes self-referrals to ... [solitary
confinement] to get away from harm and people who threaten him," TYC
said in its report. It's not clear anyone saw the complaint before his death.
"The form got lost in a stack of mail on the TYC staff member's
desk," the investigative report said. TYC's investigation found that
Coke County's solitary cell unit had only one staffer on the floor – in
violation of the required two guards – at the time of the hanging. The one
guard on duty failed to make contact with each inmate every 10 minutes, as
required. For more than an hour, no one checked on the despondent inmate.
After Robert's dinner tray arrived, it sat for 28 minutes before the guard
took it to his cell and discovered him unresponsive. The guard was
disciplined with training and five days of unpaid suspension. TYC put the
facility on a corrective action plan, which required it to improve the
deficiencies that contributed to Robert's death. GEO spokesman Pablo Paez
said the company strives to provide high-quality service and conducts
thorough reviews after any serious incident to determine "what
corrective actions, if any, can be taken." An attorney for the family
of the 19-year-old said they had no comment.
March 12, 2007 The Monitor
Two detainees of a Texas Youth Commission contract prison in West Texas
are missing. The boys, ages 17 and 18, were both non-violent offenders. One
is serving time in the high-security facility for burglary of a vehicle; the
other for violating conditions of parole, said Jim Hurley, TYC spokesman.
They are missing from the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center in Bronte,
which is run by GEO Inc. At about 3 a.m. Monday a vent fell from a ceiling
dorm, prompting guards to conduct a bed count, Hurley said. They discovered
four youth were missing, but two were later found, he said. Hurley said TYC
would not release the names or description of the missing youth because
they were not considered to be a danger to the public. It is possible the
youth are still inside the facility because there is so far no indication
the razor-wire fence that surrounds the Coke County center was breached,
Hurley said. Monday’s discovery at the 200-bed facility is another in a
long line of problems at the TYC. The agency that runs the Evins Regional
Juvenile Center in Edinburg was placed governor-appointed management in
February among a sex scandal and wide reports of youth abuse.
March 10, 2007 KRIS TV
A convicted sex offender who was fired this week from his job at a West
Texas youth prison said he told his employer of his background when he
applied for the job. David Andrew Lewis, 23, was fired from the Texas Youth
Commission's Coke County Juvenile Justice Center when state investigators
discovered he was a convicted sex offender. State leaders dispatched law
enforcement officials to all 22 commission facilities and its headquarters
this week to investigate claims of sexual abuse of inmates by employees.
Lewis was fired by the GEO Group, a Florida-based private company that runs
the all-male facility in Bronte, about 30 miles northeast of San Angelo.
Lewis said Thursday that he showed a sex offender registration card to his
prospective employers when he was being interviewed for a job as a
correctional officer in August 2006. "They said to wait for the
background check to go through," Lewis said, adding that he also
presented other paperwork related to his offense. Lewis was 15 when he was
convicted in 1999 of indecency by exposure with a 5-year-old girl,
according to a Texas Department of Public Safety Web site listing sex
offenders. He is required to register annually as a sex offender. Pablo
Paez, director of corporate relations for the GEO Group, said the company
conducts background checks on new hires and re-runs the checks annually.
The Texas Department of Public Safety checks off on the company's
employees, he said. "In this particular case, we conducted a
background check through DPS and received clearance from DPS," Paez
said. The Texas Department of Public Safety, which does not make public the
records of juvenile offenders, referred a call for comment to Gov. Rick
Perry's office. Perry spokesman Ted Royer said the case highlights why the
special master and new executive director "are going to completely
rewrite the playbook" for how the agency operates. "Having sex
offenders guard prisoners is totally unacceptable, and if an agency
contract prohibits the hiring of registered sex offenders then that needs
to be enforced," Royer told The Associated Press on Friday.
"There needs to be a clear delineation of consequences if a contractor
goes against those rules." State officials have said Lewis' case
demonstrated that private prison operators don't always check their
employees' juvenile records. Texas Youth Commission spokesman Tim Savoy
said the agency's contracts with the private operators prohibit hiring
registered sex offenders, but the agency doesn't "have any control
over who they hire."
March 7, 2007 San Antonio Express-News
Law enforcement officers who earlier this week moved into the Texas Youth
Commission facilities to protect inmates from sex predators on Wednesday
discovered a registered sex offender working as a correctional officer in a
halfway house for juveniles. The sex offender had been allowed to stay on
the job despite an alert that had been sent months ago to TYC
administrators in Austin. David Andrew Lewis, 23, was discovered by
investigators sent to TYC's 22 facilities after reports of sex abuse
stunned lawmakers. Lewis was employed at the Coke County Juvenile Justice
Center, a juvenile halfway house 30 miles from San Angelo run by the Geo
Group, a private prison company. TYC's acting executive director, Ed Owens,
said a facility staff member had months ago warned agency officials in
Austin of Lewis' sex offender status, but was rebuffed. The tipster “was
told he was a company employee and that the company needed to deal with
their employee,” Owens said, adding that the incident was yet another
illustration of the systemic failures plaguing TYC. Owens said once he
learned of Lewis' background Wednesday, he called the Geo Group and they
suspended him. It was not clear if the Geo Group had learned months earlier
of Lewis' sex offender status. No one in its Florida headquarters could
immediately be reached for comment Wednesday evening. Owens said that there
was no evidence Lewis acted inappropriately with any juveniles. Lewis was
15 when he was forced to register for 13 sexual indecency acts against a
5-year-old girl. His case is posted on the Texas Department of Public
Safety web site of registered sex offenders. With that history, it remained
a mystery how Lewis could have been hired to work with juveniles in the
first place. Criminal background checks are required for all TYC employees
and those hired by private contractors to work with TYC juveniles.
July 27, 2001
Inmate awards were upheld by an appeals court in
a case where young inmates said they were sexually abused by Wackenhut Corrections
Corporation employees. But the inmates' attorney was sanctioned for
disclosing the terms of the confidential agreement. (Corrections
Professional)
May 17, 2001
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a district court's
decision to levy a $15,000 fine and imposed a number of sanctions on
attorneys representing nine girls held at the juvenile detention facility
in this West Texas city. During mediation in 1999, the former detainees'
attorneys reached a $1.5 million settlement agreement with Wackenhut
Corrections Corp. The girls had alleged they were sexually, physically, and
mentally abused by employees. (AP)
Colorado
Department of Corrections
March 6, 2007 Greeley Tribune
Saying GEO Group Inc. can't be trusted, a Pueblo lawmaker asked state officials
Monday to rescind a contract with the company to build a private prison in
Ault. Plans for the prison, which would house 1,500 inmates and would be
built east of the railroad tracks along U.S. 85, has stalled on two fronts.
Ault leaders decided they would not approve the facility until the public
voted on it, and GEO wants to change its contract to ensure payment for its
beds. Rep. Liane "Buffie" McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, a vocal critic
of private prisons, said Monday that the proposed change and other issues
regarding GEO's integrity should negate the Ault contract. “Anybody living
in Ault should be concerned that a company that would bid this way on a
contract might have a business in their town," she said. Philip
Tidwell, spokesman for the town group Coalition Against Ault Prison, said
residents hope no one else bids on the Ault prison if GEO's contract is
rescinded. "We just do not want any private prison, whether it be GEO
or Cornell or anyone else," he said. A spokesman for GEO did not
return calls seeking comment. McFadyen said the company is attempting to do
the same things in Ault that derailed plans for a GEO facility in Pueblo.
In 2003, GEO won a contract for a 1,100-bed, pre-parole and parole
revocation facility in Pueblo, and after almost four years of delays, the
state pulled the contract last fall. The company never broke ground on the
facility. "The state of Colorado was held hostage for four years
waiting for those beds," McFadyen said. The delays included zoning
issues in Pueblo and GEO's attempt to obtain guaranteed payments on 90
percent of its beds, regardless of whether the beds were occupied. That is
something state leaders have opposed and which may even be impossible
because of state laws, McFadyen said. Now, GEO is trying for guaranteed bed
payments in Ault, she said. "You have to question the integrity of the
2006 bid," she said. "If past performance is an indicator, I
suspect we will be in the same place we were in 2003 in Pueblo."
McFadyen said Ari Zavaras, the new director of the Department of
Corrections, told her he is opposed to bed guarantees. Corrections
spokeswoman Alison Morgan told the Associated Press that Zavaras will
review McFadyen's request and decide how to respond. The story of Ault's
possible prison goes back to late 2005, when Nolin Renfrow, former director
of prisons for the Department of Corrections, started working with GEO on a
bid for a private prison. Renfrow is under investigation for using state
sick leave to obtain the Ault contract on behalf of GEO. On Monday,
Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government, a watchdog group, filed an open
records request about the Ault bid. "We do not feel that the public's
interest was put forth in the procurement of this contract," said
Chantelle Taylor, spokeswoman for the watchdog group. A state audit found
Renfrow's business activities "arguably present a conflict of interest
and result in a breach of ... the public trust." That breach, coupled
with GEO's attempt to change its Pueblo contract by adding the bed-payment
guarantee, should have prevented the company from getting the Ault bid in
the first place, McFadyen said. Tidwell agreed. "One thing the state
should recognize is (GEO) did not operate fairly," he said. "They
hired an insider knowing he worked for the state. In my mind, GEO has shown
itself to be not a company that operates fairly in the state of Colorado.
March 5, 2007 Rocky Mountain News
Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, and two reform groups today
formally requested the director of the Department of Corrections and the
governor rescind Geo Group’s bid to build a private prison in Ault. The
reasons cited included the company’s performance on a 2003 bid to build a
private prison in Pueblo. McFadyen said GEO Group lost its contract to
build the Pueblo facility because it delayed the start of construction,
then tried to renegotiate its contract to get a guarantee that it would be
paid for 90 percent occupancy, even if beds were not filled.
"Basically, the state of Colorado was held hostage for four years. They
didn’t even break ground," McFadyen said. In her letter to Ari
Zavaras, executive director of DOC, she said, "It would appear that
the state’s best interests were not served by allowing GEO group to bid any
contract with the state because of its lack of performance on tis 2003
award." Officials with Geo Group could not be reached for comment
Monday afternoon. Alison Morgan, spokeswoman for the DOC, said Zavaras was
aware of the letter being sent by McFadyen, but had not seen it Monday.
"Since he was not with the department during the RFP (request for
proposals) process, it is an issue that he is still studying and is being
briefed on," said Morgan. "Once he has all the information,
including McFadyen’s letter, he would welcome an opportunity to sit down
and talk to her."
January 31, 2007 Rocky Mountain News
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is taking over the probe of a retired
state prison official who stands to be paid $1 million for helping a
private prison company win a state bid. Nolin Renfrow, former state prisons
director, openly became a consultant to the Geo Group and helped it win a
$14 million- per-year deal to house 1,500 inmates in a private prison
proposed in Ault. A state audit said Renfrow began the work for Geo while
still on the state payroll. It also said that he is to collect a $1 million
fee if the prison is built. State employees are prohibited from providing
paid assistance to anyone to win state contracts or economic benefits.
State law also prohibits activities that constitute a conflict of interest.
Ari Zavaras, who became prisons chief with the new administration several
weeks ago, said he asked the CBI to take over the investigation to
"overcome the perception that it won't be a thorough
investigation." Renfrow said Tuesday, "I understand why he would
do that, and I just hope it comes to quick resolution." The Department
of Corrections had been investigating. Its report was to have been given to
prosecutors if warranted. Zavaras said he is letting the CBI decide whether
the probe will become a criminal investigation.
December 16, 2006 The Gazette
State prison officials have canceled a contract for a new private
prison in Pueblo, a move that casts doubt on how much Colorado will be able
to rely on private prisons while it copes with a crowding crisis. The GEO
Group, which was awarded a contract in 2003 to build the Pueblo pre-release
prison, has also been contracted to build and operate a prison in Ault, in
northeastern Colorado. But the same issue that doomed the Pueblo project —
the company’s insistence it be guaranteed nearly full occupancy — could
derail the latter prison, because GEO is making a similar demand. “If GEO’s
going to demand a bed guarantee, they need to leave the state,” said state
Rep. Buffie McFadyen, a Pueblo Democrat and leading critic of private
prisons. “It is not the job of the Colorado taxpayers to ensure profits for
this corporation.” The Pueblo prison was delayed repeatedly: by zoning
issues, by a legal challenge from a prison-reform group and by several revisions
to the plan by GEO. But the final impasse began this summer, when the
company asked for a 90 percent minimum occupancy guarantee for the prison,
which wasn’t a condition of the original proposal and was opposed by
Department of Corrections officials. Private prisons are paid a daily rate
per inmate by the state, currently $52. Last month, the DOC denied a
contract-extension request, and on Thursday informed the company that it
was canceling the contract. “Ground has not broken, and GEO has given no
indication when, or even if, it plans to commence construction,” DOC
executive director Joe Ortiz wrote. “Our patience cannot be infinite.” The
department is facing an acute crowding problem. Years of canceled
prison-construction projects and steady growth in court caseloads have
created a shortage of prison beds. The DOC this week began shipping 720
inmates out of state, a temporary solution until new beds become available.
With only one state prison under construction, Colorado State Penitentiary
II in Cañon City, the DOC this year awarded contracts to three companies to
build prisons for 3,776 inmates. The GEO Group’s proposed 1,500-bed prison
in Ault is a major part of the plan. Alison Morgan, head of private-prison
monitoring for the DOC, said the department still expects GEO to follow
through on its proposal in Ault. “We are treating the Pueblo facility and
the Ault facility separately. We have from Day 1, and we will continue to
do so,” Morgan said Friday. However, GEO is making the same demand for guaranteed
occupancy for the Ault prison. Asked whether the DOC is still opposed to a
guarantee, she said, “It is a policy decision to be addressed by the new
administration (of Gov.-elect Bill Ritter) and the General Assembly.” The
local community isn’t even sure it wants a prison. Ault’s town board last
month passed an ordinance requiring voter approval for the prison. No
election date has been set. McFadyen said she doesn’t believe GEO ever
intended to complete the Pueblo prison, and she doubts the company’s
ability and will to follow through in Ault. “We’ve been set back three
years in our planning,” McFadyen said. “I think that kind of delay is
unacceptable, and we’ll learn from this experience and not allow another
contract to drag on for three years.” A call to a spokesman in the
company’s Boca Raton, Fla., headquarters was not returned Friday afternoon.
An audit requested by Mc-Fadyen regarding the bidding process for the Ault
prison was released this week. It showed that a top DOC official set up a consulting
business to help GEO win the bid while he was employed by the state.
Because the DOC is based in Colorado Springs, the office of 4th Judicial
District Attorney John Newsome will receive the results of the
investigation and determine whether any law was broken. Morgan said the DOC
will issue a new request for proposals for a pre-release prison.
December 16, 2006 ABC 7 News
The state has cut off negotiations and rescinded a contract with
developers planning to build a private prison in Pueblo. Colorado
Department of Corrections executive director Joe Ortiz sent a letter Friday
to the GEO Group, ending six months of negotiations. The letter cites
numerous delays and unresolved issues and says the department has run out
of patience with the developers. The Florida-based GEO Group had been
working for about four years to build the 1,000-bed prison near the Pueblo
Memorial Airport industrial park. Construction never got under way. The
prison would have been for pre-parole prisoners and prisoners who had seen
their parole status revoked. GEO bought about 36 acres for the facility
last year, but negotiations with the state broke down over the company's
demand that the DOC guarantee 90 percent occupancy and grant a 30-year
contract. GEO operates private detention centers in 15 states and one
Canadian province as well as in South Africa, Australia and the United
Kingdom. The Pueblo facility is one of two the company was planning in
Colorado. The company's Web site also indicates GEO in 2003 was awarded a
contract to develop a 1,000-bed immigration detention facility in the
Denver suburb of Aurora. A DOC spokeswoman says the department will put the
Pueblo proposal back up for bid, with no promise the facility will still be
built in Pueblo.
December 14, 2006 Pueblo Chieftain
A three-year effort to build a private prison facility at the Pueblo
Memorial Airport Industrial Park appears to be dead after the Colorado
Department of Corrections and the prison company reached an impasse over
guaranteed occupancies. On Tuesday, reports said that the DOC was working
with the attorney general's office to draft a letter to the GEO Group that
essentially kills the company's plans to build a 1,000-bed pre-parole and
parole revocation facility on 36 acres east of the city. GEO officials said
Wednesday they had not received any letter from the DOC, but also didn't
express much confidence a deal could be struck for the facility. "We
have been in negotiations with the Department of Corrections, but we don't
have any contract signed and at this time it does not appear there will be
one," said Pablo Paez, director of communications for the
Florida-based company. Paez confirmed reports from November that the
company was asking for a minimum occupancy guarantee for the facility and also
confirmed that the company was planning to go to the city of Pueblo for
help to build the prison. ± PLEASE SEE PRISON, 2APRISON / continued from
page 1A ± "We needed the guarantee to secure the lowest capital cost
through tax-exempt bonds," Paez said Thursday. "We would get
those through the local municipality." State Rep. Liane
"Buffie" McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, who has been a vocal critic of
the private prison industry, and state Rep. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, wrote a
letter to the city in May warning against using public funds to build the
facility. "I think it's very positive that the city of Pueblo is not
going to risk its credit rating on this project," McFadyen said
Wednesday. Officials from the DOC were not available Wednesday to comment
on whether the letter had to do with the occupancy guarantees, or the
result of an audit suggesting former Director of Prisons Nolin Renfrow may
have broken the law by helping GEO secure DOC approval to build a 1,500-bed
facility in Weld County, prior to his retirement in January. Paez said GEO
had no contact with Renfrow before March. Last month, DOC spokeswoman Kathy
Church told The Pueblo Chieftain that talks between the company and the DOC
over Pueblo's facility had stalled over the minimum occupancy guarantees
and had reached a critical point. "They need to either understand our
position and accept it or back out completely," Church said last
month. Church told The Chieftain that the DOC couldn't make any guarantees
without knowing how much money it had to spend. That money depends on what
the joint budget committee decides. McFadyen wondered Wednesday why those
guarantees weren't part of the original agreement when DOC solicited bids
for the Pueblo project. "If the DOC negotiated additional terms with
GEO, they would be the only private prison company to receive such
treatment and that's wrong," McFadyen said Wednesday. "I think
this goes to the point of how committed they were to coming to Pueblo in
the first place." The plans to build the facility started in 2003 when
GEO, then Wakenhut Corrections Company, proposed building the prison on the
West Side. Those plans eventually shifted to the airport and the city
approved a controversial agreement with GEO to build a 500- to 1,000-bed
facility. A year ago, GEO bought the property at the airport from the city
for $296,800. GEO's original plan was to build a 750-bed facility at the
airport, but got Planning and Zoning Approval in May to expand the facility
to 1,000 beds.
December 14, 2006 Denver Post
Results of an investigation into former Colorado prisons director Nolin
Renfrow's conduct in office will be turned over to a district attorney
early next year, the Department of Corrections' inspector general said
Wednesday. Michael Rulo, who has been the agency's inspector general for
seven years, said his office has been cooperating with state auditors on
the probe. On Tuesday, the auditors announced that a "former senior-
level official" of the Department of Corrections launched a
prison-consulting business in August 2005, five months before he retired
from the department Jan. 31, and helped a private company land a state
prison contract. State Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, who requested
the audit, identified the official as Renfrow. The auditors found that
while still employed by DOC, Renfrow began working to assist prospective
bidders in developing proposals to his department for a private prison.
With his assistance, a company identified as the GEO Group was awarded the
contract for a 1,500-bed private prison at Ault. Auditors noted that state
employees are barred by law from outside employment that creates a conflict
of interest, and from helping people to win a contract with their agency
for a fee. Renfrow couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday. Rulo said the
results of his office's investigation will be turned over to El Paso County
District Attorney John Newsome, probably in January. The Department of
Corrections is based in that county. Rulo said a decision on whether to
file charges will be a "collaborative process" with prosecutors.
Kristen Holtzman, spokeswoman for Colorado Attorney General John Suthers,
said that Renfrow never contacted the attorney general's office to ask
whether his consulting business while still a DOC employee constituted a
conflict of interest.
December 12, 2006 Rocky Mountain News
The state Department of Corrections is seeking $500 million to build
new prisons for more than 5,000 more inmates over the next five years. The
request for new spending is being driven by a huge increase in prisoners
and rising financial demands from private prisons. One, the Geo Group, is
demanding a $1 billion revenue guarantee before going ahead with two
prisons that it is under contract to build for Colorado in Pueblo and Ault.
Prisons chief Gary Golder said he is waiting for the incoming
administration of Gov.-elect Bill Ritter to decide whether the state should
provide any such guarantee. Meanwhile, a former state prison official,
Nolin Renfrow, is being investigated for working on behalf of Geo to win
the second of those private prison contracts while still a state employee.
Golder said the results of the administrative investigation may be referred
to prosecutors for possible criminal charges. He wasn't sure what could be
charged. He said it might be considered malfeasance. Renfrew stands to be
paid $1 million by Geo for his work if its second prison in Ault is built.
But meanwhile, the state is moving to yank Geo's first prison contract, for
Pueblo, because Geo has still not broken ground.
December 13, 2006 Pueblo Chieftain
A former top official for the Colorado Department of Corrections may
have broken the law when he helped a private prison company win a state
contract earlier this year, an audit revealed Tuesday. Though the report
conducted by the state auditor doesn't name him, the audit centered on
Nolin Renfrow, former director of prisons for DOC. It even calls on the
department's inspector general to further investigate the matter and, if
warranted, refer it for possible prosecution. The audit, which was requested
by Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, showed that before Renfrow retired
in January, he had been working with a Florida-based private prison
company, GEO Group, to land a DOC contract to build a 1,500-bed prison in
Weld County. That project is expected to cost an estimated $100 million,
for which Renfrow was to get a 1 percent fee - or $1 million - for helping
Weld County get the contract, the audit said. In 2003, GEO, which is based
in Baca Raton, Fla., was awarded a contract to build a 500-bed, prerelease
prison near Pueblo Memorial Airport, which still hasn't been built.
Renfrow's replacement, Gary Golder, says the department currently is
working with the Attorney General's Office on a letter to GEO that
effectively would revoke the 2003 bid and end the Pueblo project. Though
the audit did not find any evidence that Renfrow disclosed confidential
information to GEO to help it win the Weld County bid, he may have violated
state laws, personnel rules and department regulations regarding outside employment,
the audit said. Neither Renfrow nor GEO officials were available for
comment. The audit found that prior to Renfrow's retirement on Jan. 31, he
filed articles of incorporation for a private prison consulting firm,
Patriot Business Solutions, in August 2005. "Public records and
interviews indicate that the former employee began actively working on
behalf of his prison consulting business as of November 2005," the
audit said. "Neither the department nor the former employee provided
documentation showing that the employee requested or the department
approved the former employee's outside employment." The contract was
awarded to GEO in June, along with a separate contract to Corrections
Corporation of America to expand two of its existing private prisons - in
Bent and Kit Carson counties - by 720 beds. DOC time sheets also showed
that Renfrow "used a combination of annual, sick and holiday
leave" to remain on extended paid leave from November 2005 until his
retirement date, the audit said. "Neither the department nor the
former employee provided evidence that (Renfrow) received the express
consent of his attending physician or appointing authority to engage in
outside work activities," the audit said. "As a result, we
question the former employee's use of about 240 hours of paid sick leave
benefits valued at about $14,000." McFadyen began to question
Renfrow's involvement immediately after GEO won the contract. The Pueblo
West lawmaker, a longtime critic of private prisons, questioned why such a
company would be awarded a new bid before it had made any progress on the
Pueblo prison. McFadyen also questioned why the department was even
considering a GEO request, which was made after winning the bid, to give it
a written guarantee that the new beds would be filled, something the state
has never provided to any of the five other existing private prisons in the
state. "I am still questioning the Colorado Department of Corrections
as to why GEO was allowed to bid another (project) when they have not performed
on the original 2003 project," McFadyen said. "GEO Corporation is
demanding that the state issue a mandatory guarantee of filling beds. It is
not the responsibility of Colorado taxpayers to ensure the profits of this
corporation. "There's no question that we're being held hostage by GEO
Group when other (private prison) vendors probably would like to come in
and bid those contracts," she added.
December 13, 2006 Rocky Mountain News
A retired state prison official stands to be paid $1 million - and
possibly face criminal charges - for helping a private prison company win a
state bid while he was still working for the state. A state audit released
Tuesday cited a possible conflict of interest. The audit does not name the
official, but the audit was aimed at Nolin Renfrow, former state prisons
director. And the document describes work he openly undertook for the Geo
Group. Renfrow helped Geo win a $14 million-per-year deal to house 1,500
inmates in a private prison it proposed building in Ault. Renfrow helped Geo
write its bid and spoke with Ault officials on Geo's behalf, said officials
and Renfrow last spring. On Tuesday, Renfrow did not return a call for
comment. The audit said the official may have violated two state laws. One
prohibits state employees from providing paid assistance to anyone to win
state contracts or economic benefits. The other prohibits activities that
constitute a conflict of interest with their duties as state employees. The
audit cleared the official of using insider knowledge to help Geo win the
bid. But it said that if the prison is built, Geo will pay the official a
$1 million fee. The official started working as a consultant on the deal
before he retired this year, the audit said. During his final three months
on the job, the official used six weeks of sick leave, valued at $14,000,
without any proof that he was sick. The Department of Corrections has
launched an investigation as a result of the audit. If warranted, the
department will refer its findings to local prosecutors, said Gary Golder,
Renfrow's replacement as state director of prisons. Golder said the laws
cited by the auditor do not carry specific penalties. He speculated that if
charges are filed, they might be for malfeasance or official misconduct.
When the audit began in June, Renfrow told a reporter he had run operations
for existing prisons and that he had no role in writing the state's bid
request that he later helped Geo win. He also said then that the state
attorney general's office had ruled that his work on the deal was not a
conflict of interest. However, the audit found no evidence that he
requested or received the required state approval for his outside work.
August 23, 2006 Pueblo Chieftain
Two political groups are fighting over Rep. Buffie McFadyen, but it isn't for
love nor money. In one corner is a political organization created by GOP
Gov. Bill Owens and financed by several well-heeled Republicans called The
Trailhead Group. In the other is a similarly well-financed Democratic group
called Clear Peak Colorado, which was created for the sole purpose of
countering anything the GOP group says. While Trailhead is accusing the
two-term Democrat from Pueblo West of using her office to enrich herself,
something it has been saying in a slew of recent radio ads in Canon City
and Pueblo, the Democratic group says it is the other way around. That
Trailhead wants to unseat McFadyen so its contributors can continue to
receive lucrative private prison contracts. McFadyen, who has been highly
outspoken in her opposition of private prisons, is running for her third
term in office this fall against GOP challenger Jeff Shaw, a Pueblo
attorney. "It's very clear that these prison building and management
companies are using the Trailhead Group as a vehicle to attack Representative
McFadyen for her opposition to private prison building initiatives,"
said Clear Peak director Tim Knaus. "These prison industry corporate
donors to the Trailhead Group have millions of dollars riding on a GOP
victory and they'll stop at nothing to protect their bottom line."
Both groups are known as 527 organizations, so called because of the IRS
tax code governing similar political advocacy groups.
July 31, 2006 The Gazette
Colorado prison officials, faced with unparalleled crowding, are poised
to embark on the state’s largest private-prison expansion in years. By the
time three companies build medium-security prisons for 3,776 inmates by the
middle of 2008, one in three Colorado inmates will be housed in for profit
facilities. Despite the state’s growing reliance on private prisons,
Department of Corrections officials still have deep concerns about the
projects, and numerous issues remain that could derail them — including two
companies’ insistence their cells be filled before those in state-run
prisons. “I don’t believe they’re cheaper in general,” said state Rep.
Buffie McFadyen, a Pueblo Democrat and opponent of private prisons. “As
long as you have stockholders wanting more bodies and cells, there’s no
incentive for that company to reduce the number of people in prison.” “They
(private-prison firms) kind of know they’ve got us over the barrel,” said
Dave Schouweiler, purchasing manager for the DOC. “If we don’t use them,
we’ve got to ship people out of state.” Corrections Corporation of America
was awarded contracts for 720-bed expansions at its prisons in Las Animas
and Burlington. At the Kit Carson Correctional Facility, the company’s
original proposal called for employing just 59 guards, later revised to 64,
for an expanded inmate population of 1,562, a ratio of 1 to 24. Similarly,
at the Bent County Correctional Facility, the company proposed to have 61
guards — later increased to 66 — for an expanded population of 1,457, a
ratio of 1 to 22. The officer-to-inmate ratio in the state prison system is
1 to 4.6, according to the DOC. It isn’t the first time staffing at a CCA
prison in Colorado has been a concern. In 2004, a riot broke out at the
company’s Crowley County Correctional Facility, and an audit put much of
the blame on low staffing levels. CCA signed new contracts with the DOC,
allowing officials to issue fines for staffing deficiencies. CCA was
recently fined $103,743 for leaving 701 mandatory shifts vacant from Nov. 1
to Jan. 10 at the Kit Carson prison, Morgan said. The company was fined
$23,000 for 157 unfilled shifts at the Crowley County prison and $2,651 for
18 vacancies at the Bent County prison. Private prisons pay less than state
prisons, and critics say most have high turnover. Another point of
contention: CCA and GEO demand to have first claim to every person
sentenced to state prison. It’s a condition Schouweiler said DOC officials
are not comfortable granting. But the fact the companies made it a
condition of their proposals — at least so far — shows how the climate has
changed since the 1990s. “To a large extent, we can’t dictate to them like
we did in the ’90s,” he said. “They would like to see us in crisis when
they open their doors.”
June 28, 2006 Denver Post
A Democratic state lawmaker raised safety and competitive concerns
about two companies selected by the state Tuesday to build additional
prison space to house more than 2,200 male prisoners. Rep. Buffie McFadyen
of Pueblo West said The GEO Group Inc. has not built the 500-bed Pueblo
facility it promised three years ago. She also questioned whether GEO had
an unfair bidding advantage on the new 1,504-bed facility it was selected
to build in Ault. The company hired Nolin Renfrow, the former state
director of prisons, to help it bid on the project after Renfrow left the
department, she said. Renfrow worked for corrections when the request for
bids was made public. Neither Renfrow nor a representative of GEO could be
reached Tuesday evening for comment. Katherine Sanguinetti, a spokeswoman
for the department, said she didn't know the factors that went into
selecting GEO. And, she said, "I personally know that the DOC staff
that were rating those bids have had no contact with (Renfrow) to keep it
objective." Earlier this month, McFadyen asked lawmakers to audit the
bidding process. She also questioned why the Corrections Corporation of
America was selected to expand the Bent County Correctional Facility near
Las Animas by 720 beds. CCA owns and operates the Crowley County
Correctional Facility where a riot broke out in 2004. McFadyen said she was
concerned that the company has still not replaced the porcelain fixtures in
its facilities after broken porcelain was used as a weapon during the riot.
June 28, 2006 Journal-Advocate
All bets are off for a private prison in Sterling that would have
brought 400 to 500 jobs and a $23 million payroll. Late Tuesday the
Colorado Department of Corrections purchasing office awarded a bid for
proposals to provide private prison correctional services and
accommodations for up to 2,250 additional male inmates to both the GEO
Group, Inc. and the Corrections Corporation of America. Both awards are
conditional and subject to contract negotiations. The GEO Group, Inc.,
which included a 2,250-bed facility-security adult male private prison in
Sterling in its proposal to the state, will build a new 1,504 bed facility
in Ault, a town about 12 miles from Greeley, according to the Colorado
Department of Corrections purchasing office's Web site. CCA will expand the
existing facilities of the Kit Carson Correctional Center near Burlington
and the Bent County Correctional Facility near Las Animas by 720 beds each.
The GEO Group, Inc. - the second-largest private prison facility company in
the world, with prisons across the globe - was considering the Sterling
area as the possible site for a medium-security adult male private prison
with 2,250 beds, according to Logan County Economic Development Executive
Director Brett Challenger. The company would have offered 400 to 500 jobs
and a $23 million payroll. There would be no out-of-pocket expense to the
city where the prison is constructed. The city would provide water and
sewer, Challenger said. But Frank Smith, a member of the nonprofit
anti-private-prison group Private Corrections Institute, said while many
towns have looked to private prisons as economic development strategies,
they do not have the same effect as state-run prisons. "There is an
order of magnitude difference between public and dangerous and economically
draining private prisons. I've found the latter paying as little as $6.45
an hour," Smith said. The Journal-Advocate attempted to contact the
GEO Group for information by phone on June 2, June 15, June 22, twice on
June 23 and June 27 but was unsuccessful. Attempts to contact GEO by e-mail
June 21, June 22 and June 24 were also unsuccessful. Smith, a retired
volunteer, worked in criminal justice for decades, including with
ex-offender populations and program management within public prisons. He's
visited a number of for-profit prison in various states and is considered
to be the Midwest's leading authority on private prisons and perhaps one of
the dozen top experts in the world. He said he's suspicious of the GEO
Group's claim to offer $14.42 an hour or $30,000 annually. "The
proposed prison payroll, I'd guess, is wildly inflated. That's one way the
operators sell these boondoggles. The for-profits hire bottom-of-the-barrel
staff, usually pay terrible wages. A New Mexico guard working for GEO was
making $7.95 an hour," Smith said. "They pay as little as they
can. These guys will do whatever they can to get in business. But what they
say and what they do are very different. It's not a contract. Once they
open the doors they can do anything they want," Smith said. Tom Nipp,
mayor of New Castle, Ind., said the GEO-owned prison outside the New Castle
area has been beneficial to his town. "The truth of the matter is at
this point there are more jobs, I believe, than we had before. There are
more inmates, which means there is more work for local people. We have not
had any negative results," Nipp said. Nipp said city leaders were
initially told the company pay scale and benefits would not be as high so
the guards would not be as motivated and the city would not be as secure.
But he said that's not been the case. "At this point we have seen
nothing like this," Nipp said. Nipp said he's noticed only two
differences between now and before GEO moved in: There are more employees
in New Castle, more local jobs and the GEO has provided a partnership with
the community. "To the city of New Castle at this point and time it
has been a positive experience," Nipp said. According to the Colorado
Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, the number of state prisoners in
Colorado has increased more than 500 percent since 1980. The group claims
the state of Colorado has turned to private, for-profit prisons in an
attempt to save money, hoping that privatization will provide money-saving
efficiencies in prison construction and operation. The group claims data
from Colorado and nationwide show the performance of private prisons has
been troubled with poor inmate programs, security problems and fiscal woes.
According to Cheryl Ahumada of the DOC's Office of Public Affairs, the
bidder awarded the project may conduct public meetings in conjunction with
municipal and county officials. "It is up to the company and
jurisdiction. It is not a DOC function," Ahumada said in an e-mail.
Jennifer Klein can be reached at 522-1990, Ext. 237 or by e-mail at
jklein@journal-advocate.com John Mangalonzo can be reached at 522-1990,
Ext. 235 or by e-mail at: jmangalonzo@journal-advocate.com
June 28, 2006 Journal-Advocate
All bets are off for a private prison in Sterling that would have
brought 400 to 500 jobs and a $23 million payroll. Late Tuesday the
Colorado Department of Corrections purchasing office awarded a bid for
proposals to provide private prison correctional services and
accommodations for up to 2,250 additional male inmates to both the GEO
Group, Inc. and the Corrections Corporation of America. Both awards are conditional
and subject to contract negotiations. The GEO Group, Inc., which included a
2,250-bed facility-security adult male private prison in Sterling in its
proposal to the state, will build a new 1,504 bed facility in Ault, a town
about 12 miles from Greeley, according to the Colorado Department of
Corrections purchasing office's Web site. CCA will expand the existing
facilities of the Kit Carson Correctional Center near Burlington and the
Bent County Correctional Facility near Las Animas by 720 beds each. The GEO
Group, Inc. - the second-largest private prison facility company in the
world, with prisons across the globe - was considering the Sterling area as
the possible site for a medium-security adult male private prison with
2,250 beds, according to Logan County Economic Development Executive
Director Brett Challenger. The company would have offered 400 to 500 jobs
and a $23 million payroll. There would be no out-of-pocket expense to the
city where the prison is constructed. The city would provide water and
sewer, Challenger said. But Frank Smith, a member of the nonprofit
anti-private-prison group Private Corrections Institute, said while many
towns have looked to private prisons as economic development strategies,
they do not have the same effect as state-run prisons. "There is an
order of magnitude difference between public and dangerous and economically
draining private prisons. I've found the latter paying as little as $6.45
an hour," Smith said. The Journal-Advocate attempted to contact the
GEO Group for information by phone on June 2, June 15, June 22, twice on
June 23 and June 27 but was unsuccessful. Attempts to contact GEO by e-mail
June 21, June 22 and June 24 were also unsuccessful. Smith, a retired
volunteer, worked in criminal justice for decades, including with
ex-offender populations and program management within public prisons. He's
visited a number of for-profit prison in various states and is considered
to be the Midwest's leading authority on private prisons and perhaps one of
the dozen top experts in the world. He said he's suspicious of the GEO
Group's claim to offer $14.42 an hour or $30,000 annually. "The
proposed prison payroll, I'd guess, is wildly inflated. That's one way the
operators sell these boondoggles. The for-profits hire bottom-of-the-barrel
staff, usually pay terrible wages. A New Mexico guard working for GEO was
making $7.95 an hour," Smith said. "They pay as little as they
can. These guys will do whatever they can to get in business. But what they
say and what they do are very different. It's not a contract. Once they
open the doors they can do anything they want," Smith said. Tom Nipp,
mayor of New Castle, Ind., said the GEO-owned prison outside the New Castle
area has been beneficial to his town. "The truth of the matter is at
this point there are more jobs, I believe, than we had before. There are
more inmates, which means there is more work for local people. We have not
had any negative results," Nipp said. Nipp said city leaders were
initially told the company pay scale and benefits would not be as high so
the guards would not be as motivated and the city would not be as secure.
But he said that's not been the case. "At this point we have seen
nothing like this," Nipp said. Nipp said he's noticed only two
differences between now and before GEO moved in: There are more employees
in New Castle, more local jobs and the GEO has provided a partnership with
the community. "To the city of New Castle at this point and time it
has been a positive experience," Nipp said. According to the Colorado
Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, the number of state prisoners in
Colorado has increased more than 500 percent since 1980. The group claims
the state of Colorado has turned to private, for-profit prisons in an
attempt to save money, hoping that privatization will provide money-saving
efficiencies in prison construction and operation. The group claims data
from Colorado and nationwide show the performance of private prisons has
been troubled with poor inmate programs, security problems and fiscal woes.
According to Cheryl Ahumada of the DOC's Office of Public Affairs, the
bidder awarded the project may conduct public meetings in conjunction with
municipal and county officials. "It is up to the company and
jurisdiction. It is not a DOC function," Ahumada said in an e-mail.
Jennifer Klein can be reached at 522-1990, Ext. 237 or by e-mail at
jklein@journal-advocate.com John Mangalonzo can be reached at 522-1990,
Ext. 235 or by e-mail at: jmangalonzo@journal-advocate.com
June 28, 2006 Greeley Tribune
The state Department of Corrections on Tuesday made a decision that
could alter the face of the small Weld County town of Ault. By granting
Florida-based Geo Group Inc. the right to build a 1,500-bed medium security
men's prison southeast of town in the next two years, the state paved the
way for prisoners to outnumber residents. Negotiations between the town and
Geo will begin next week on infrastructure costs and impact fees. If
residents of Ault need development and economic vitality, the last place
they should look at is a prison, warns a long-time private prison opponent.
Frank Smith, 67, co-founder of the Private Corrections Institute, a
nonprofit organization dedicated to monitoring private prisons, cites study
after study and incident after incident pointing to the ills of private
prisons. Several studies have been conducted to test markets where private
prisons locate, and most conclude that prisons do not stimulate an economy
any more than the regular cycles of growth that would come without the
parade of orange jumpsuits. "They don't pay for themselves, they chase
away safer and better industry," said Smith, who began fighting the
private prison movement in Alaska in 2000 and now fights them nationwide
from his home in Bluff City, Kan. "You foreclose your possibility of
getting a really remunerative industry that would actually compensate
people so they can make a living." While pointing out the numerous
riots that have occurred in private prisons for years -- the problems that
come with corporate, for-profit prison building -- Smith cites one
insidious problem that has a domino effect on economic activity: Pay. Geo
Group noted in discussions with Ault officials that prison employees would
start at $25,000, about $3,000 less than Ault police officers. The pay is
no accident, Smith said. "The biggest problems are that they cut
corners and pay people so poorly they can't get trainable staff, and they
wind up with a bunch of fast-food workers," Smith said. "They
move to where they can pay the least." The private prison movement has
sprawled across rural America in the past decade, according to Terry Besser
and Margaret Hanson in a 2003 study entitled, "The Development of Last
Resort: The Impact of New State Prisons on Small Town Economies." The
pair studied 10 years of prisons in rural America, a time when 69 percent
of the 274 new state prisons were opened in towns of 10,000 or less in
population in 1990. In that time, they found the unemployment rate differed
very little in small towns with prisons, versus their non-prison
counterparts, but poverty levels in prison towns did decrease. "In all
other economic indicators, however, the new prison towns fared worse than
the non-prison towns," the study found. "The rate of increase in the
number of new businesses, non-agricultural employment, average household
wages, retail sales, median value of owner occupied housing and total
number of housing units is substantially less in new prison vs. non-prison
towns." The study showed that turnover rate in private prisons was
three times higher than public prisons due to low wages and a lower level
of employee training, creating employee safety concerns. The study also
found that rural towns, lured by the potential development opportunities,
will frequently give tax abatements and breaks, which are not commensurate
with the supposed vitality a prison would bring to a community. In Ault,
for example, a state contract for the men's prison could be a $28 million
annual contract for Geo, which has promised just $250,000 a year to the
town as an impact fee. Ault Police Chief Tracey McCoy, who sought the
prison, said that's a number that will have to increase. Ault resident Ed
Lesh worries about the reputation being a prison town could mean in the
long run. "I don't think we've gleaned the good and bad about the
facility," Lesh said. "There are some points I think should be
considered. ... I don't think having the handle of being a prison town is a
plus. If I were going to start a business, I don't know that I would go to
Cañon City." Ault resident John Dudley believes growth will come as a
result of a prison, but said the town would not see fit to make sure growth
pays its own way, his chief concern when it comes to any growth that might
increase town coffers in the short term. "It would be nice and
wonderful if everyone could assure me it's going to be controlled
growth," said Dudley, a local school board member who was on the town
board when a prison in the area was proposed, then shot down in the mid
1980s. "It's not just going to soak the city, it will soak everyone in
Colorado," Dudley continued. "It's going to end up where you're
going to have impacts on highways and we'll have to find more money to pay
for highways, and all the sudden, it will impact state patrol, and we'll
have to find more people (to hire)." "I feel pity for our board
because they have this tough decision to make," he said. "Do we
give away things to get this, or do we just kiss more opportunity goodbye?
It's a tough choice."
Cornell-Abraxas
Howe,
Howe Township, Pennsylvania
August
22, 2011 Erie Times-News
State police are searching for two boys who escaped this morning from a
Forest County juvenile detention facility. The boys, a 14-year-old and a
15-year-old, were last seen running into the woods near the Cornell Abraxas
Foundation in Howe Township around 4:30 a.m. They were described as black,
wearing black shirts, light-colored pants and tennis shoes.
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.
Curtin
Detention Centre, Australia
June
2, 2005 The Australian
HE was locked up alongside convicted criminals in a maximum-security prison,
but Iranian asylum-seeker Zal Shahbazi was happy to be there. "It was
really much better than detention," he said. "I had a terrible
time in prison, but in detention they put pressure on you mentally because
you don't know when you will be free. As the Howard Government shows signs
of softening on its hardline policy of mandatory detention for women and
children, Mr Shahbazi recalls his blackest days in the now-defunct Curtin
detention centre. In April 2002, he was locked in the mess hall with about 40
other detainees, including women and children. "Forty guards came and
opened one of the doors, and they started beating us," Mr Shahbazi
said. "Everyone -- even the women with kids. Everyone was yelling, we
were terrified. They beat me with a baton, they beat my leg and my
back." After complaining, Mr Shahbazi was arrested and sent to Broome
Regional Prison, where he shared a cell and one toilet with up to eight
maximum-security prisoners. His charge was damaging commonwealth property
during the clash with Australasian Correctional Management guards. He was
told he would be on remand for three weeks.
Dallas County Judicial Treatment Center, Milmer, Texas
January
7, 2011 Dallas Observer
Cornell Companies, the private operator of correctional facilities 'cross
the country, has a motto: "People Changing People." A lawsuit
filed this week in Dallas County District Court proposes an alteration:
"People Filming People." At least, so suggest 36 former inmates
of the Dallas County Judicial Treatment Center in Wilmer, a 300-bed
facility to which men and women convicted of drug- and alcohol-related
crimes in Dallas County are sent to get clean and sober rather than spend
time behind bars. Says the suit, in January 2008 Cornell Companies
employees began filming the inmates without their consent. Caught on film
were their often intense drug treatment sessions, scenes from their daily
routines and a talent show called, but of course, Cornell Idol. The suit
says the inmates, who were already uncomfortable about the filming, were
told the footage would be transferred to DVD and shown only to the Drug
Court judges who send prisoners to the treatment center. But the complaint
alleges it was "turned into a publicity and promotional film" --
shown to, among others, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and
Attitudes & Attire -- and used as a fund-raising vehicle and "to
obtain future contracts for supervision and operation of other treatment
facilities in Texas and locations in other states." Other patients in
the facility also saw the film, says the suit, and as a result: "The
sharing of the film with the patient population caused considerable
embarrassment for the women residents from taunts and teasing of the male
patients." The suit is alleging that Cornell Companies violated both
state and federal privacy statutes, including those related to keeping
confidential records related to those undergoing drug and alcohol
treatment. It also directs the court's intention to a 2002 doc prepared by
the U.S. Department of Justice -- Practical Guide for Applying Federal
Confidentiality Laws to Drug Court Operations -- which says that "the
intent of Congress in creating these statutes was to encourage the
rehabilitation of substance abusers who might otherwise be deterred from entering
treatment by concern that their substance abuse would become public
knowledge." The suit is asking for $50,000 per plaintiff. The attorney
-- Charles Paternosto, who's up in Denison -- wants $100,000 for providing
"exemplary work for his clients"; more, if it goes into appeal.
Desert View Modified
Community Correctional Facility, Adelanto, California
November
26, 2011 The Daily Press
The state has canceled its contract with the privately operated Desert
View Modified Community Correctional Facility, putting about 150 workers
out of a job. Desert View's contract termination officially takes effect
Wednesday, though prison employees told the Daily Press that The Geo Group
Inc. has been preparing to deactivate the prison at Rancho and Aster roads
since May. The 643-bed medium-security prison is shuttering its doors as
part of California’s realignment plan, which responds to federal orders to
reduce state prison overcrowding by shifting responsibility for tens of
thousands of low-level offenders to county governments. To help deal with
the new influx of inmates under local supervision, the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is encouraging counties to
enter into their own contracts with more than a dozen former CCFs. The CCFs
had generally housed inmates with sentences shorter than 18 months, parole
violators and offenders with scheduled release dates — the same types of
nonviolent, non-sexual or non-serious offenders now serving out sentences
in county jails instead of state prisons. “We hope that counties contract
with these facilities to save jobs and ease inmate housing concerns that
many counties may have,” CDCR spokeswoman Dana Toyama said. But San
Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department officials say they’re not planning
to privatize jail beds. The math just doesn’t pencil out, according to
Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Cindy Bachman. “The issue with taking
advantage of private prisons or private jail facilities has come up over
and over again throughout the years; however, it’s not something that the
county is considering,” Bachman said. “It’s too costly and there’s just not
the funding really even to consider something like that.” The California
State Association of Counties has created a document outlining potential
beds at the former CCFs, but counties statewide have been hesitant to
exercise that option. The Geo Group had operated six of the nine privately
run CCFs that lost their state contracts, according to CSAC. Five other
CCFs were run by local governments. The facilities ranged from around 100
employees to more than 600, according to Toyama.
July 11, 2011 Business Wire
The GEO Group ("GEO") announced today that the State of
California has decided to implement its Criminal Justice Realignment Plan
(the "Realignment Plan"), which is expected to delegate tens of
thousands of low level state offenders to local county jurisdictions in
California effective October 1, 2011. As a result of the implementation of
the Realignment Plan, the State of California has decided to discontinue contracts
with Community Correctional Facilities which currently house low level
state offenders across the state. This decision will impact three GEO
facilities: the company-leased 305-bed Leo Chesney Community Correctional
Facility, the company-owned 643-bed Desert View Modified Community
Correctional Facility, and the company-owned 625-bed Central Valley
Modified Community Correctional Facility. GEO has received written notice
from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation regarding
the cancellation of GEO's agreements for the housing of low level state
offenders at these three facilities effective as of September 30, 2011,
November 30, 2011 and November 30, 2011, respectively. GEO is in the
process of actively marketing these facilities to local county agencies in
California. Given that most local county jurisdictions in California are
presently operating at or above their correctional capacity, GEO is hopeful
that it will be able to market these facilities to local county agencies
for the housing of low level offenders who will be the responsibility of
local county jurisdictions. If GEO is unable to secure alternative
customers for these three facilities, GEO estimates that the combined
annualized negative earnings per share impact of the cancellations would be
approximately $0.10-0.13, including carrying costs while the facilities are
idle. The combined annualized revenues for these three facilities were
approximately $33-$35 million.
January 19, 2009 Daily Press
A private prison is on a “modified program” after it was placed on lockdown
over the weekend following a riot that involved about 100 inmates,
officials said on Tuesday. The riot took place around 9:30 p.m. Saturday at
the Desert View Community Correctional Facility in the 10400 block of
Rancho Road in Adelanto, prompting officials to place the medium-security
facility on lockdown, according to Paul Verke, spokesman for the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “The facility is currently on
modified program,” Verke said Tuesday. “It’s not fully back to normal
operations, but it’s not on lockdown any more.” During the riot, some
inmates were injured, according to authorities, although the number of
those hurt was not released. Verke did confirm that none of the injuries
were life-threatening. No staff members were hurt or required medical
attention, he said. Officials are investigating the disturbance. In
February, 22 of the facility’s inmates were sent to local hospitals during
a riot.
February 24, 2008 Daily Press
A riot at the Desert Valley Corrections facility on Saturday in
Adelanto sent 21 inmates to local hospitals and one critically injured
inmate had to be airlifted to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, according
to officials on Sunday. At about 4 p.m. on Saturday, a call went out to
American Medical Response who in turn contacted the San Bernardino County
Fire Department who responded to the call with assistance from the
Victorville Fire Department, according to Otto Schramm spokesperson for the
county fire department. “We had a multi-casualty response with three engine
companies, about 10 ambulances, a battalion chief and the helicopter,” said
Schramm who added that the approximate 20 fire personnel remained on the
scene until about 10 p.m. when correctional officers secured the prison.
AMR units then returned to the prison at approximately 11:40 p.m. to
transport four more inmates with minor injuries to area hospitals,
according to Craig Ledesma, AMR supervisor. “After evaluations by prison
staff, it was determined four more inmates needed to be transported and
required medical attention,” said Ledesma. No prison employees were injured
in the incident, according to reports. The nature of the injuries and the
identities of the inmates were not released. When rescue personnel arrived
at the medium-security federal prison, the riot was still in progress, said
Schramm. Personnel treated the injured parties in a safe and secure
location within the prison, said Ledesma. “We all worked together as a team
to make sure all of the patients were transported where they needed to go,”
said Ledesma. It is still unclear what started the trouble. Officials from
the privately-run prison had no comment on the situation.
February 24, 2008 LA Times
Nineteen people were injured Saturday in a riot at the Desert View Modified
Community Correctional Facility in Adelanto, authorities said. San
Bernadino County Fire Department officials said one victim suffered serious
injuries and needed to be airlifted to a hospital. The others suffered
minor injuries and also were taken to area hospitals, said Tim Franke, a
fire dispatch supervisor. Franke, who could not specify whether the injured
were all inmates, said units arrived at the prison at 4 p.m. in response to
a riot in progress. He said firefighters stayed at the facility for six
hours as correctional officers secured the prison and identified the
injured. Desert View officials could not be reached for comment. A 2006
annual report by Boca Raton, Fla.-based The GEO Group, which owned the
facility at the time, described Desert View as a medium-security prison
with 643 inmates.
November 7, 2005 CDCR Daily Report
The following event was reported as occurring 10/28/05, according to a CDCR
"daily report" dated Friday, 10/29/05. Yesterday at 1218 hours,
inmates in the A3 dorm at Desert View Modified Community Correctional
Facility (a private contracted CCF operated by the Geo Group, Inc.) got in
a fight. Hispanic inmates rushed the black inmates believing they were the
ones that informed the assistant facility director of the presence of
weapons. The initial assessment was that 33 Hispanics and 15 Blacks were
involved. The CDCR lieutenant used pepper spray to quell this incident. All
inmates were removed from A3 dorm and isolated pending housing decisions.
The dorm was placed on lock-down status. One inmate suffered a head injury
caused by a blow from a lock in a sock. He was taken by ambulance to St.
Mary's Hospital from treatment. He received three staples and his prognosis
is good. The inmate was returned to custody this morning and taken to CSP
Los Angeles County. One other black inmate sustained a laceration above his
eye which required a butterfly suture. Other inmates sustained minor
injuries consistent with fighting. No staff was injured. Preliminary
information indicates that once the assistant facility director entered the
A3 dorm, he went directly to a Hispanic inmate's locker, pulled out a
weapon and left the dorm. Subsequently, seven more inmate weapons were
found. Arrangements for transportation of the identified participants were
made. The Transportation Unit confirmed that 13 blacks were transferred to
California State Prison-Los Angeles County and 29 Hispanic inmates were
transported early this morning to Chuckawalla Valley State Prison.
Additional off-duty contract and uniformed custody CDCR staff have been
called in. This staffing level will remain through the weekend. Inmates
will not be allowed back into A3 dorm until it has been thoroughly searched.
Tensions are still high at the facility and it will remain on lockdown
until further notice.
November 14, 2004 Daily Press
A privately run, medium-security prison will get up to 200 additional
inmates after the City Council voted to overturn a decision by the Planning
Commission. There are 550
inmates in eight separate dorms holding up to 71 prisoners each at the
Desert View Modified Community Correctional Facility on Rancho Road. After
listening to their request, the City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously
to overturn an Oct. 5 planning commission decision to keep the jail from
expanding. The increase would force the prison to convert many of its
beds to bunk beds, Rauschl said, adding 18 of the double beds to each of
the bays. The Planning Commission cited safety as its main concern when it
denied the prison's request to expand. In October the planning commission
heard the prison's request, but did not approve of the increase. "The
Planning Commission expressed concerns that the facility was not physically
suited for such an increase," according to the City Council agenda.
"Adding inmates would increase the security risk to the community and
to the surrounding residential areas. Other concerns were overcrowding,
number of guards to inmate ratio, internal operations, and impacts to
dining, recreation and bathroom facilities."
Deyton
Detention Facility, Clayton County, Georgia
May 22, 2007 Business Wire
The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO : 53.08, +2.03, +4.0% ) ("GEO")
announced today that it has signed an initial 20-year agreement, with two
five-year renewal options by mutual agreement, with Clayton County, Georgia
(the "County") for the leasing and utilization of the existing
County-owned 576-bed Robert A. Deyton Detention Facility (the
"Facility") with the ability to expand the Facility by an
additional 192 beds, which GEO is currently considering. The Facility is
expected to be used by Federal detention agencies with a targeted date of
occupancy of year-end 2007 after the completion of an estimated $3.0
million renovation. GEO believes that the Facility could generate
approximately $14.0 million in annual operating revenues at full occupancy
of 576 beds.
Dickens
County Correctional Facility, Spur, Texas
Del Rio, Texas
GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut Corrections)
July 15, 2010 News Express
The GEO Group, a Florida firm that contracts with local governments to
run jails, has agreed to pay $2.9 million to settle a class-action lawsuit
alleging indiscriminate strip searches of inmates at six facilities, including
three in Texas. The Frio County Detention Center in Pearsall, the Dickens
County Detention Center in Dickens and the Newton County Correctional
Center in Newton and jails in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Illinois were
named in the suit, which was litigated in federal court in Pennsylvania.
The suit alleged GEO employed a uniform practice or policy of
strip-searching all pre-trial detainees who entered certain GEO-operated
jails, regardless of the crime or violation for which they were detained, and
without making the legally required determination of whether reasonable
suspicion existed to justify a strip search. Inmates incarcerated at the
six jails between Jan. 30, 2006 and Jan. 30, 2008 qualify for a share in
the settlement, but they must call 1-877-234-4512, or visit
http://www.multistatestripsearchsettlement.com/index.html.
May 15, 2009 The Olympian
The Idaho Department of Correction and the mother of an inmate who
killed himself in a private prison are suing each other after a settlement
agreement over the son's death fell apart. Scot Noble Payne, who had been
sent to a private Texas prison with hundreds of other inmates to alleviate
overcrowding in Idaho prisons, slashed his own throat in 2007. Idaho
officials who investigated the Dickens County Correctional Facility said
the conditions were deplorable and that the physical environment of Noble's
solitary cell could have contributed to his suicide. Payne's mother,
Shirley Noble, and his father, Alberto Payne, filed a tort claim against
the Idaho Department of Correction contending that the department was
responsible for the wrongful death of their son. Correction Department
officials and the parents went into mediation to see if they could reach a
settlement, and in February both sides agreed that the parents should be
awarded $100,000 and that the Idaho Department of Correction would not
admit fault in Scot Noble Payne's death. But the next month, when the
official document that would release the Idaho Department of Correction
from liability in the case was delivered to the parents, they refused to
sign. The problem, according to Noble's attorney, is that the Idaho
Department of Correction added additional terms into the release document
that hadn't been arbitrated in mediation. The mediation agreement lists
Shirley Noble, Alberto Payne, the state of Idaho and the Idaho Department
of Correction as parties in the agreement. But the release also lists the
estate of Scot Noble Payne and all of the representatives and employees of
the Idaho Department of Corrections and the state as parties. That could
throw into jeopardy another lawsuit brought by the parents - in their role
as representatives of Scot Noble Payne's estate - against several employees
of the Idaho Department of Correction. After the parents refused to sign,
the Idaho Department of Correction filed a lawsuit against them in Ada
County's 4th District Court, asking a judge to force the parents to sign
the release. The parents countersued, contending the state was breaching
the contract they reached under the settlement agreement by trying to later
add new terms. Idaho Department of Correction officials said they could not
comment on pending litigation. The parents' attorney, Wm. Breck Seiniger,
Jr., said the department made a mistake when it was negotiating and didn't
realize it until it was too late - and now is trying to place the blame,
and the loss, on the parents. "I think the lawsuit is just an attempt
to intimidate the parents, frankly," Seiniger said. "If they
thought the agreement meant something different, that is not our
problem." The parents have also filed a lawsuit against Geo Group
Inc., the private company that ran the Texas prison, in U.S. District Court
in Texas. That lawsuit is still in the discovery stages, Seiniger said.
November 14, 2008 Magic Valley Times-News
Families of two Idaho inmates who apparently killed themselves in
lockups run by private prison company GEO Group Inc., pleaded Thursday with
Texas state senators to bar out-of-state prisoners from the Lone Star State.
The Idaho Department of Correction has housed more than 300 prisoners at
GEO-run Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas, but recently
announced plans to move them to the private North Fork Correctional
Facility in Sayre, Okla. The move follows allegations that GEO falsified
reports and short-staffed the Texas facility where Idaho inmate Randall
McCullough, 37, died. Families of Idaho inmates spoke Thursday at a Texas
state Senate hearing in Austin, Texas. The hearing, which dealt with general
oversight of the Texas prison system and did not result in specific action,
was webcast live over the Internet. Among those testifying was lawyer
Ronald Rodriguez, who represents McCullough's family as well as that of
Idaho inmate Scott Noble Payne, 43, who killed himself last year at another
GEO-run prison in Dickens, Texas. "Idaho prisoners need to be in Idaho
where they have access to their court - Where they have access to their
families," Rodriguez on Thursday told the Texas Senate Committee on
Criminal Justice. Payne's mother, Shirley Noble, spoke to Texas lawmakers
last year and again on Thursday. "It seems that no lessons were
learned," Noble said. "If changes had been placed - Randall would
not have been so desperate to take his own life, as my son did." Texas
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate Committee on Criminal
Justice, questioned why the "little" state of Idaho recently
decided to pull its prisoners from Geo-run Bill Clayton. "Should we be
following their lead?" he asked. But a Texas Department of Criminal
Justice official told Whitmire that Texas inmates aren't held at Bill
Clayton, and warned against painting private prisons in Texas with a broad
brush. Inmate McCullough's sister, Laurie Williams, told Texas senators that
they should do a review of all private prisons in their state - including
GEO competitor Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Idaho prisoners
are to be taken to CCA-run North Fork in Oklahoma, where another Idaho
inmate, David Drashner, was allegedly murdered in June. IDOC's decision to
move prisoners from one privately run lockup to another out-of-state
facility concerns Williams, as well as Drashner's wife, Pam Drashner, who
have said they want Idaho to stop shipping away its inmates. Idaho doesn't
have enough room for all its prisoners, and sending them out-of-state has
been widely unpopular. Williams also wants to talk to Idaho lawmakers, she
said. "We should be addressing the Idaho Senate," said Williams,
after Thursday's hearing in Texas. "This is Idaho sending its inmates
out of state whether it's Texas that takes them or Oklahoma and that's what
we have to have stopped." GEO made $4.9 million in annual operating
revenues off its contract with Idaho to manage prisoners at Bill Clayton.
GEO officials said shareholders won't lose out from Idaho's withdrawal
because of an expanding contract with the state of Indiana.
November 6, 2008 AP
The Idaho Department of Correction has terminated its contract with
private prison company The GEO Group and will move the roughly 305 Idaho
inmates currently housed at a GEO-run facility in Texas to a private prison
in Oklahoma. Correction Director Brent Reinke notified GEO officials
Thursday in a letter. Reinke said the company's chronic understaffing at
the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas, put Idaho
offenders' safety at risk. An Idaho Department of Correction audit found
that guards routinely falsified reports to show they were checking on
offenders regularly — even though they were sometimes away from their posts
for hours at a time. "I hope you understand how seriously we're taking
not only the report but the safety of our inmates," Reinke told The
Associated Press on Thursday. "They have an ongoing staffing issue
that doesn't appear to be able to be solved." The contract will end
Jan. 5. Reinke said the department wanted to pull the inmates out
immediately, but state attorneys found there wasn't enough cause to allow
the state to break free of the contract without a 60-day warning period. In
the meantime, Reinke said, Idaho correction officials have been sent to the
Texas prison to help with staffing for the next two months. GEO will be
responsible for transferring the inmates to the North Fork Correctional
Facility in Sayer, Okla., which is run by Corrections Corp. of America. GEO
will cover the cost of the move, Reinke said, but Idaho will have to pay
$58 per day per inmate in Oklahoma, compared to $51 per day at Bill
Clayton. Amber Martin, vice president for The GEO Group, of Florida, said
she couldn't comment on the audit or on Idaho's decision to end the
contract. She referred calls to the company spokesman, Pablo Paez, who
could not immediately be reached by the AP. As of Oct. 1, Idaho had nearly
7,300 total inmates. The Bill Clayton audit describes the latest in a
series of problems that Idaho has had with shipping inmates out of state.
Overcrowding at home forced the state to move hundreds of inmates to a
prison in Minnesota in 2005, but space constraints soon uprooted them
again, this time to a GEO-run facility in Newton, Texas. There, guard abuse
and prisoner unrest forced another move to two new GEO facilities: 125
Idaho inmates went to the Dickens County Correctional Center in Spur,
Texas, while 304 went to Bill Clayton in Littlefield. Conditions at Dickens
were left largely unmonitored by Idaho, at least until inmate Scott Noble
Payne committed suicide after complaining of the filthy conditions there.
Idaho investigators looking into Payne's death detailed the poor conditions
and a lack of inmate treatment programs, and the inmates were moved again.
That's when the Idaho Department of Correction created the Virtual Prisons
Program, designed to improve oversight of Idaho inmates housed in contract
beds both in and out of state. The extent of the Bill Clayton facility
understaffing was discovered after Idaho launched an investigation into the
apparent suicide of inmate Randall McCullough in August. During that
investigation, guards at the prison said they were often pulled away from
their regular posts to handle other duties — including taking out the
garbage, refueling vehicles or checking the perimeter fence — and that it
was common practice to fill out the logs as if the required checks of
inmates were being completed as scheduled, said Jim Loucks, chief
investigator for the Idaho Department of Correction. For instance, Loucks
said, correction officers were supposed to check on inmates in the
administrative segregation unit every 30 minutes. But sometimes they were
away from the unit for hours at a time, he said. The investigation into
McCullough's death is not yet complete, department officials said. The
audit also found several other problems at Bill Clayton. The auditor found
that "the facility entrance is a very relaxed checkpoint,"
prompting concerns that cell phones, marijuana and other contraband could
be smuggled past security. In addition, the prison averages a 30 percent
vacancy rate in security staff jobs, according to the audit. Though it was
still able to meet the one-staffer-for-every-48-prisoners ratio set out by
Texas law, employees were regularly expected to work long hours of overtime
and non-security staffers sometimes were used to provide security
supervision, according to the audit. "Based on a review of payroll
reports, there are significant concerns with security staff working
excessive amounts of overtime for long periods of time," the auditors
wrote. "This can lead to compromised facility security practices and
increased safety issues." When the audit was done, there were 29
security staff vacancies, according to the report. That meant each security
staff person who was eligible for overtime worked an average of 21 hours of
overtime a week. That extra expense was borne by GEO, not by Idaho
taxpayers, said Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray. The
state's contract with GEO also required that at least half of the eligible
inmates be given jobs with at least 50 hours of work a month. According to
the facility's inmate payroll report, only 35 out of 371 offenders were
without jobs. But closer inspection showed that the prison often had
several inmates assigned to the same job. In one instance, nine inmates
were assigned to clean showers in one unit of the prison — which only had
nine shower stalls. So although each was responsible for cleaning just one
shower stall, the nine inmates were all claiming 7- and 8-hour work days,
five days a week. GEO is responsible for covering the cost of those wages,
Ray said. "While the contract percentage requirement is met, the facility
cannot demonstrate the actual hours claimed by offenders are spent in a
meaningful, skill-learning job activity," the auditors wrote. Auditors
also found that too few inmates were enrolled in high school diploma
equivalency and work force readiness classes.
September 21, 2008 Times-News
Pam Drashner visited her husband every weekend in prison, until she was
turned away one day because he wasn't there. He had been quietly
transferred from Boise to a private prison in Sayre, Okla. She never saw
him again. In July, she went to the Post Office to pick up his ashes,
mailed home in a box. He died of a traumatic brain injury in Oklahoma,
allegedly assaulted by another inmate. David Drashner was one of hundreds
of male inmates Idaho authorities have sent to private prisons in other
states. About 10 percent of Idaho's inmates are now out-of-state. The
Department of Correction say they want to bring them all home, they simply
have no place to put them. Drashner, who was convicted of repeat drunken
driving, is one of three Idaho inmates who have died in the custody of
private lockups in other states since March 2007, and was the first this
year. On Aug. 18, Twin Falls native Randall McCullough, 37, apparently
killed himself at the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas.
McCullough, serving time for robbery, was found dead in his cell. IDOC
officials say he left a note, though autopsy results are pending. His
family says he shouldn't have been in Texas at all. "Idaho should step
up to the plate and bring their prisoners home," said his sister,
Laurie Williams. Out of Idaho -- Idaho has so many prisoners scattered
around the country that the IDOC last year developed the Virtual Prison
Program, assigning 12 officers to monitor the distant prisons. In 2007 Idaho
sent 429 inmates to Texas and Oklahoma. This year; more than 700 - and by
one estimate it could soon hit 1,000. But officials say they don't know
exactly how many inmates may hit the road in coming months. The number may
actually fall due to an unexpected drop in total prisoner head-count, a
turnabout attributed to a drop in sentencings, increased paroles and better
success rates for probationers. The state will also have about 1,300 more
beds in Idaho, thanks to additions at existing prisons. State officials say
bringing inmates back is a priority. "If there was any way to not have
inmates out-of-state it would be far, far better," said IDOC Director
Brent Reinke, a former Twin Falls County commissioner, noting higher costs
to the state and inconvenience to inmate families. Still, there's no end in
sight for virtual prisons, which have few fans in state government. "I
do think sending inmates out-of-state is counter-productive," said
Rep. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, a member of the House Judiciary, Rules and
Administration Committee. LeFavour favors treatment facilities over
prisons. "We try to make it (sending inmates out-of-state) a last
resort, but I don't think we're doing enough." Even lawmakers who
favor buying more cells would like to avoid virtual lockups. "It's
more productive to be in-state," said Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo,
chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee, who said he would
support a new Idaho prison modeled after the state-owned but privately run
Idaho Correctional Center (ICC). "We don't want to stay out-of-state
unless we have to ��- It's
undesirable." A decade of movement -- Idaho has shipped inmates
elsewhere for more than a decade, though in some years they were all
brought home when beds became available at four of Idaho's state prisons.
The 1,500-bed ICC - a state-owned lockup built and run by CCA (Corrections
Corporation of America) - also opened in 2000. But that wasn't enough:
"It will be years before a substantial increase in prison capacity
will allow IDOC to bring inmates back," the agency said in April. In
2005, former IDOC director Tom Beauclair warned lawmakers that "if we
delay building the next prison, we'll have to remain out-of-state longer
with more inmates," according to an IDOC press release. That year
inmates were taken to a Minnesota prison operated by CCA, where Idaho paid
$5 per inmate, per day more than it costs to keep inmates in its own
prisons. "This move creates burdens for our state fiscally, and can
harden our prison system, but it's what we must do," IDOC said at the
time. "Our ability to stretch the system is over." Attempts to
add to that system have largely failed. Earlier this year Gov. C.L.
"Butch" Otter asked lawmakers for $191 million in bond authority
to buy a new 1,500-bed lockup. The Legislature rejected his request, but
did approve those 1,300 new beds at existing facilities. Reinke said IDOC
won't ask for a new prison when the next Legislative session convenes in
January. With a slow economy and a drop in inmate numbers, it's not the
time to push for a new prison, he said. Still, recent projections for IDOC
show that without more prison beds here, 43 percent of all Idaho inmates
could be sent out-of-state in 2017. "It's a lot of money to go
out-of-state," Darrington said. Different cultures -- One of eight
prisons in Idaho is run by a private company, as are those housing Idaho
inmates in Texas and Oklahoma. The Bill Clayton Detention Center in Texas
is operated by the Geo Group Inc., which is managing or developing 64
lockups in the U.S., Australia and South Africa. The North-Fork
Correctional Facility in Oklahoma is owned and operated by CCA, which also
has the contract to run the Idaho Correction Center. CCA houses almost
75,000 inmates and detainees in 66 facilities under various state and
federal contracts. Critics of private prisons say the operators boost
profits by skimping on programs, staff, and services. Idaho authorities
acknowledge the prisons make money, but consider them well-run.
"Private prisons are just that - business run," Idaho Virtual
Prison Program Warden Randy Blades told the Times-News. "It doesn't
mean out-of-sight, or out-of-mind." Yet even Reinke added that "I
think there's a difference. Do we want there to be? No." The
Association of Private Correctional and Treatment Organizations (APCTO)
says on its Web site that its members "deliver reduced costs, high
quality, and enhanced accountability." Falling short? Thomas Aragon, a
convicted thief from Nampa, was shipped to three different Texas prisons in
two years. He said prisons there did little to rehabilitate him, though
he's up for parole next year. "I'm a five-time felon, all grand theft
and possession of stolen property," said Aragon, by telephone from the
ICC. "Apparently I have a problem and need to find out why I steal.
The judge said I needed counseling and that I'd get it, and I have yet to
get any." State officials said virtual prisons have a different
culture, but are adapting to Idaho standards. "We're taking the
footprint of Idaho and putting it into facilities out-of-state,"
Blades said. Aragon, 39, says more programs are available in Idaho compared
to the Texas facilities where he was. Like Aragon, almost 70 percent of
Idaho inmates sent to prison in 2006 and 2007 were recidivists - repeat IDOC
offenders - according agency annual reports. GEO and CCA referred questions
about recidivism to APCTO, which says only that its members reduce the rate
of growth of public spending. Aragon said there weren't enough
case-workers, teachers, programs, recreational activities and jobs in
Texas. Comparisons between public and private prisons are made difficult
because private companies didn't readily offer numbers for profits,
recidivism, salaries and inmate-officer ratios. During recent visits to the
Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas - where about 371 Idaho
inmates are now held - state inspectors found there wasn't a legal aid
staffer to give inmates access to courts, as required by the state
contract. Virtual Prison monitors also agreed with Aragon's assessment:
"No programs are offered at the facility," a state official wrote
in a recently redacted Idaho Virtual Prison report obtained by the
Times-News. "Most jobs have to do with keeping the facility clean and
appear to be less meaningful. This creates a shortage of productive time
with the inmates. "Overall, recreational activities are very sparse
within the facility ��- Informal
attempts have been made to encourage the facility to increase offender
activities that would in the long run ease some of the boredom that IDOC
inmates are experiencing," according to a Virtual Prison report. The
prison has since made improvements, the state said. Only one inmate case
manager worked at Bill Clayton during a recent state visit, but the
facility did increase recreation time and implemented in-cell hobby craft
programs, Virtual Prison reports show. Other inmate complaints have grown
from the way they have been sent to the prisons. Inmates describe a
horrific bus ride from Idaho to Oklahoma in April in complaints collected
by the American Civil Liberties Union in Boise. The inmates say they
endured painful and injurious wrist and ankle shackling, dangerous driving,
infrequent access to an unsanitary restroom and dehydration during the
almost 30-hour trip. "We're still receiving a lot of complaints, some
of them are based on retaliatory transfers," said ACLU lawyer Lea
Cooper. IDOC officials acknowledge that they have also received complaints
about access to restrooms during the long bus rides, but they maintain that
most of the inmates want to go out-of-state. Many are sex offenders who
prefer the anonymity associated with being out-of-state, they said.
Unanswered questions -- Three deaths of Idaho interstate inmates in 18
months have left families concerned that even more prisoners will come home
in ashes. "We're very disturbed about...the rate of Idaho prisoner
deaths for out-of-state inmates," Cooper said. It was the razor-blade
suicide of sex-offender Scott Noble Payne, 43, in March 2007 at a Geo lockup
in Dickens, Texas that caught the attention of state officials. Noble's
death prompted Idaho to pull all its inmates from the Geo prison. State
officials found the facility was in terrible condition, but they continue
to work with Geo, which houses 371 Idaho inmates in Littlefield, Texas,
where McCullough apparently killed himself. Noble allegedly escaped before
he was caught and killed himself. Inmate Aragon said he as there, and that
Noble was hog-tied and groaned in pain while guards warned other inmates
they would face the same if they tried to escape. Private prison operators
don't have to tell governments everything about the deaths at facilities
they run. The state isn't allowed access to Geo's mortality and morbidity
reports under terms of a contract. Idaho sent additional inmates to the
Corrections Corporation of America-run Oklahoma prison after Drashner's
husband died in June. IDOC officials said an Idaho official was inspecting
the facility when he was found. IDOC has offered few details about the death.
"The murder happened in Oklahoma," said IDOC spokesman Jeff Ray,
adding it will be up to Oklahoma authorities to charge. Drashner said her
husband had a pending civil case in Idaho and shouldn't have been shipped
out-of-state. She says Idaho and Oklahoma authorities told her David was
assaulted by another inmate after he verbally defended an officer at the
Oklahoma prison. Officers realized something was wrong when he didn't stand
up for a count, Drashner said. "He was healthy. He wouldn't have been
killed over here," she said.
December 28, 2007 AP
Fifty-five Idaho inmates who were moved out of a troubled Texas prison on
Thursday have been forced by a contract delay to make a temporary stop
before going to their final destination, a lockup near the Mexican border.
More than 500 Idaho prisoners are in Texas and Oklahoma due to overcrowding
at home. The prisoners being moved are bound for the Val Verde Correctional
Facility in Del Rio, Texas, after more than a year at the Dickens County
Correctional Center in Spur, Texas, where one Idaho inmate killed himself
in March. Because a Texas county official has yet to approve the contract
to house Idaho prisoners at Val Verde, they have first been sent 100 miles
away to the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas. There,
they will sleep in groups of up to 10 men on makeshift cots in day rooms
until resolution of the contract allows them to complete the final 250-mile
leg of their journey to Val Verde sometime in early January. The inmates
"were a bit dubious and questionable about that," said Randy
Blades, the warden in Boise who oversees Idaho's out-of-state prisoners.
That's one reason why his agency has sent two officers to make sure the
move runs smoothly, Blades said. Both the Dickens and Val Verde prisons are
run by private operator GEO Group Inc., based in Boca Raton, Florida. Pablo
Paez, a spokesman for GEO, didn't immediately respond to requests for
comment. GEO no longer has the contract to manage the Dickens facility
after Tuesday. Because Idaho recently rejected an offer from the new
company that will run Dickens, GEO on Thursday had to move the Idaho
inmates to temporary quarters in Littlefield. Though Idaho officials
thought details of the move to Val Verde had been resolved, Department of
Correction Director Brent Reinke said he learned only last week that a
Texas county judge wanted a lawyer to look at the contract one last time.
"It was something we did not anticipate," Reinke said. "GEO
is paying the transport costs." This is just the latest uprooting of
Idaho inmates since they were first shipped out of state in 2005. Since
then, they have bounced from prison to prison in Minnesota and Texas amid
allegations of abusive treatment. There also has been the criminal
conviction of at least one Texas guard for passing contraband to inmates;
at least two escapes; and the death of Scot Noble Payne, a convicted sex
offender who slashed his throat last March in a solitary cell at Dickens
County. Idaho officials who investigated concluded the GEO-run prison was
filthy and the worst they had seen. As a result, about 70 Idaho inmates
were moved from Dickens to Littlefield, where about 300 Idaho inmates were
already housed, while the state continued talks with GEO over sending the
remaining 55 to a new 659-bed addition at Val Verde. Despite the stopover,
GEO has a hefty incentive to make sure the move to Val Verde goes smoothly,
Reinke said. The company hopes to win contracts with Idaho to build a large
new prison here to help accommodate the state's 7,400 inmates.
"They're really monitoring this closely, and doing a good job at this
point," Reinke said. "It's not a lot different than triple
bunking."
December 6, 2007 Dallas Morning News
Seven former and current inmates have filed a lawsuit against a private
prison company, alleging abuse by a registered sex offender who worked as a
night-shift guard at a troubled West Texas lockup that is now closed. The
young men allege they were mentally, physically and sexually abused in 2006
and early 2007 by a guard who was fired in March, after state officials
learned he was on the public sex offender registry. He had worked for seven
months at the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, operated by
Florida-based GEO Group Inc. The facility housed Texas Youth Commission inmates
until the teens were removed in October because of squalor and
mismanagement. One of the plaintiffs, who filed a federal civil rights
lawsuit Friday, alleges that guard David Andrew Lewis let several inmates
into his cell. They sexually assaulted him with a broom handle while Mr.
Lewis watched, according to Dallas lawyer Bob Crill. GEO spokesman Pablo
Paez said the company had no comment about the lawsuit. Mr. Lewis, who
isn't named as a defendant, couldn't be reached. TYC also declined to
comment. Several plaintiffs remain in TYC custody, their lawyers said. Deon
Olthoff, 18, of Granbury, said Wednesday that his abuse began in November
2006 when he moved to a new Coke County dorm with individual cells. Mr.
Olthoff spent 14 months in the facility after his parole for burglary was
revoked because of truancy. Mr. Lewis first leered and stood too close as
he and other boys showered, Mr. Olthoff said. Later, the guard would barge
into his cell at night as Mr. Olthoff slept or wrote letters. "He just
came in and started choking me, and getting on top of me, and grabbing my
hands and pulling them behind my back and stuff like that, and grabbing me
in private areas," Mr. Olthoff said. Until his release in February,
Mr. Olthoff said, he coped with Mr. Lewis' behavior by trying "not to
think about it." Mr. Olthoff said he and two other inmates filed a
joint grievance in late 2006 alleging that Mr. Lewis touched them
inappropriately. GEO sent Mr. Olthoff's father a letter in February
notifying him of the allegations of mistreatment. The letter said the
Olthoffs would receive written notice about the outcome of an
investigation. But no follow-up letter arrived, Deon and his attorneys
said. Mr. Crill and Dallas lawyer Bady Sassin, who worked with a Corpus
Christi law firm to file the suit in San Antonio, said they were
investigating whether Mr. Olthoff's complaint led to Mr. Lewis' firing. A
Texas Department of Public Safety sex offender Web site shows that Mr.
Lewis, 24, was convicted in 1999 of indecency by exposure with a 5-year-old
girl. After his firing, Mr. Lewis said he had shown his prospective
employer his sex offender card when he applied but they told him to see if
his background check went through, according to an Associated Press report.
Mr. Paez previously has said that the company didn't know about Mr. Lewis'
record because juvenile cases don't show up on background checks.
"Even if you excuse the inexcusable – which is not knowing from the
beginning that this guy was a registered sex offender – there were complaints
that were filed that should have put them on notice long, long before he
was terminated," Mr. Crill said. TYC grievance records obtained by The
News show the agency recorded four mistreatment allegations against Mr.
Lewis by inmates whose identities were withheld. He was cleared on three
allegations, including an accusation of sexual abuse. In February, an
allegation of unprofessional conduct was sustained against Mr. Lewis.
November 29, 2007 AP
The mother of an Idaho inmate who killed himself in a Texas prison earlier
this year has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the
private-prison company that runs the lockup where he died. In her claim in
U.S. District Court in western Texas, Shirley Noble says prison operator
The GEO Group abused and neglected Scot Noble Payne before he slashed his
throat on March 4th. Scot Noble Payne, a convicted sex offender from Idaho,
had been moved to Texas along with more than 400 Idaho inmates to relieve
overcrowding at prisons in their home state. Idaho officials who
investigated at the Dickens County Correctional Facility in Spur, Texas,
said the physical environment of his solitary cell could have contributed
to his suicide.
November 27, 2007 Idaho State Journal
A company that's due to take over a troubled privately run Texas prison in
2008 made a sales pitch Monday to Idaho Department of Correction officials,
saying it hopes the management shake-up and $1.2 million in proposed
renovations will overshadow past problems and persuade Idaho to ship more
inmates to the lockup. Civigenics, a unit of New Jersey-based Community
Education Centers, Inc., with prisons or treatment programs in 23 states,
will manage Dickens County Correctional Center in Spur, Texas, starting
Jan. 1 after winning a competitive bid. Until now, The GEO Group Inc.,
based in Florida, ran the facility. In March, Idaho prison officials called
Dickens under GEO's oversight ''the worst'' prison they'd seen, citing what
they called an abusive warden, the lack of treatment programs and squalid conditions
they said may have contributed to the suicide of inmate Scot Noble Payne,
who was held for months in a solitary cell. Idaho is nearly ready to move
54 prisoners who remain at Dickens to a new GEO-run facility near the
Mexican border, after shifting 69 inmates elsewhere this summer. Dickens
County and Civigenics officials came to Boise to offer assurances they'll
remedy concerns over their 15-year-old prison as they aim to stay in the
running to house some of the hundreds of prisoners that Idaho plans to ship
elsewhere in coming months to ease overcrowding. Some 550 of Idaho's 7,400
inmates have been sent out of state since 2005. GEO ''thought they were too
good,'' Sheldon Parsons, a Dickens County commissioner, told Idaho
officials. ''They're used to running bigger facilities. That just kind of
didn't fit into our program. Civigenics will definitely fit.'' Idaho plans
to send 120 additional prisoners to a private prison in Oklahoma in
January. It's also looking for space in other states for groups of inmates
in increments of about 100 starting in mid-2008. Bob Prince, a Civigenics
salesman, said his company could house as many as 150 Idaho inmates at a
revamped Dickens. The $1.2 million from Dickens County, which owns the
prison, would cover new fencing, exterior lighting, security improvements,
kitchen renovations and more rooms for education and treatment programs.
Still, Idaho officials including Department of Correction Director Brent
Reinke indicated the plan may not be enough to address complaints that have
prompted him to vacate Dickens. Idaho, which earlier this year conceded it
lost track of how its inmates in Texas were being treated before Payne's
suicide, has outlined its concerns in several reports over the last nine
months. Lingering shortcomings include a lack of cell windows and a drab,
dingy atmosphere in an aging facility built as county jail, not for
long-term prisoners. ''The cells inside that facility are pretty dark and
dank,'' said Randy Blades, the Idaho warden who oversees out-of-state
prisoners. ''What are you looking at to change the cells themselves?''
Texas officials conceded that wasn't considered. ''We haven't looked into
any of that,'' Parsons said, before adding, ''We'll try and do anything we
can to make people happy that are coming in. Nobody has ever brought that
up before.'' Despite past problems with GEO, Blades said Idaho aims to soon
finalize a contract with that company to move inmates still at Dickens to a
new 659-bed addition at the Val Verde Correctional Facility, near the
Mexican border. That contract also calls for roughly 40 inmates currently
in Idaho to be sent to Val Verde. Val Verde has seen its own share of
problems under GEO leadership. GEO settled a wrongful death case after a
female Texas prisoner killed herself following allegations she was sexually
humiliated by a guard and raped by an inmate. Earlier this year, the local
government was forced to hire a monitor for the facility. Even so, Blades
said a visit to the new cellblock slated for Idaho inmates earlier this
year convinced him and other officials that the prison is appropriate and
safe. ''It's a very good facility, very secure,'' Blades said of Val Verde.
''There's a good dayroom. The cells are well lighted.''
October 12, 2007 KRIS TV
The delayed discovery of squalid conditions at a privately run Texas Youth
Commission jail was "a human failure" and stronger oversight is
needed to prevent similar incidents, a key state senator said Friday.
"It was very simple that the monitors were not doing their job and
there was a human failure," said Sen. John Whitmire, head of the
Senate Criminal Justice Committee. "Who's monitoring the
monitors?" Whitmire, a Houston Democrat, called a committee hearing
about a week after a Coke County juvenile lockup in Bronte operated by The
GEO Group, Inc., was closed because of filthy conditions. A Texas Youth
Commission ombudsman discovered the conditions, even though the facility
had passed previous inspections by TYC monitors. The TYC system was rocked
earlier this year by allegations of rampant sexual and other physical abuse
against juvenile inmates in the system. The star witness at Friday's
hearing on adult and juvenile prison monitoring was Shirley Noble, who told
how her son, 43-year-old Idaho inmate Scot Noble Payne, endured months of
horrific conditions then slit his own throat at a private Texas prison run
by GEO Group. "It seemed there was no end to the degradation he and
other prisoners were to endure with substandard facilities," Noble
said. Her son died March 4 in a private prison in Spur. Noble questioned
why Idaho sent its inmates to Texas and why the Florida-based GEO Group was
allowed to keep prisoners in what she described as "degrading and
subhuman conditions." "Please, please hold them accountable for
all the injuries and misery they have caused," Noble said. A spokesman
for GEO Group did not immediately return a telephone call from The
Associated Press to respond to comments made at the hearing. TYC Acting
Executive Director Dimitria Pope, who took over the youth agency earlier
this year, testified that she's putting more monitoring safeguards in
place. That includes sending executive staff members out to view the
lockups, something she said hadn't been done regularly in the past.
"Because of my concerns of what I saw in Coke County, I have
implemented a blitz of every facility, either the ones that we operate,
that contract, district offices, anything that has TYC affiliated with
it," she said, adding that each site will be visited by the end of October.
Adan Munoz Jr., executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail
Standards, said he has four inspectors do annual inspections of the 267
facilities under his oversight. He defended his agency's practice of giving
two- to three-week notices about inspection visits but said recently there
have been more surprise inspections. Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa,
D-McAllen, said privatizing prisons is an "easy way out." He said
he worries about the state continuing to contract with companies that have
a history of abuse. "It's a myth that the private sector does a better
job than government" in running prisons, Hinojosa said. "They're
there to make a profit and they'll cut corners, and they'll cut back on
services and they'll many times look the other way when abuse is taking
place." Because of Texas' size and high rate of locking up convicts,
the state is in the national spotlight for its dealings with private prison
firms, said Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston. "It puts a special burden on
us," he said. "If it needs to be improved, improve it, because
everybody looks to us." Noble was the panel's final witness. The room
hushed as she told the senators her family's emotional tale. Her son, a
convicted sex offender, was kept in solitary confinement for months with a
wet floor, bloodstained sheets and smelly towels. She said he wrote long,
detailed letters to family members in which he said the only way to escape
the prison's harsh conditions was to join his late grandfather in the
spirit world. Noble said she begged for psychological help for her son. She
said he wasn't supposed to have been given a razor, and she still wonders
how he got the one he used to end his life. "After he tried to
unsuccessfully slash his wrists and ankles, he knelt in the shower and cut
his own throat," she said. "Surely only a person in utter
disillusionment and horrifying conditions would bring themselves to this
end."
October 11, 2007 The Olympian
The mother of an Idaho inmate who killed himself in a Texas prison this
year has become a corrections activist. Shirley Noble travels to Austin,
Texas Friday to urge lawmakers there to stop accepting out-of-state
prisoners at their for-profit lockups. Texas is holding hearings over The
GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison company that lost its contract to
oversee a juvenile prison because of dirty bed sheets, feces-smeared cells
and insects in the food. GEO also ran the prison where Shirley Noble's son,
Scot Noble Payne, slashed his throat March 4. The convicted sex offender
had been shipped to Texas with a group of 450 Idaho inmates because of
overcrowding at prisons at home. Shirley Noble contends sending prisoners
out-of-state leaves them without family contact - and caused Idaho prison
officials to neglect them.
August 8, 2007 AP
The mother of an Idaho inmate who killed himself in a dilapidated private
Texas prison earlier this year has filed a $500,000 claim against Idaho,
contending the state's Department of Correction is responsible for
"inhumane treatment and illegal and unconstitutional conditions of
confinement" that contributed to his death. Scot Noble Payne, 43, was
in prison for aggravated battery and lewd and lascivious conduct when he
slashed his throat March 4. He had been sent to the Dickens County
Correctional Center in Spur, Texas, with other inmates last year to relieve
overcrowding in Idaho prisons, which have more than 7,000 prisoners but too
few beds to house them all. Following Payne's death, Idaho prison health
care director Donald Stockman investigated Dickens and concluded "the
physical condition of the cell where the suicide occurred does not, in my
opinion, comply with any standards related to inmate housing for either
segregated housing or housing for inmates on suicide watch. The physical
environment of the cell would have only enhanced the inmate's depression
that could have been a major contributing factor in his suicide."
"Just being in the filth and degradation of that cell was sufficient
to drive somebody into suicide," Payne's mother, Shirley Noble, told
The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday from her home near
Los Angeles. The tort claim against Idaho was filed last week. Under state
law, the maximum Noble could recover is $500,000. The state now has 90 days
to respond to the claim; if it doesn't, Noble could file a civil rights
lawsuit in federal court. Kit Coffin, the state's risk management program
manager with the Department of Administration, said tort claims like this
are reviewed and assigned to state adjudicators for consideration. She was
uncertain if Noble's claim, originally filed with the secretary of state,
had been sent to her office yet. In suicide notes he penned for relatives,
Payne described a constantly wet floor, bloodstained sheets and smelly
towels in the isolation cell at the prison where he was confined for three
months following his escape and recapture in December 2006. He slit his
throat in his cell just after midnight March 4. "Due to the inhumane
conditions, Scot Noble Payne became depressed and suicidal. ... Unattended,
(he) committed suicide as a result of being subjected to inhumane treatment
and illegal and unconstitutional conditions of confinement," according
to Noble's tort claim. Since Payne's death, 69 Idaho inmates have been
moved from Dickens, which is run by Florida-based private prison operator
The GEO Group, to another prison. By September, the remaining 56 Idaho
inmates still at Dickens are set to be moved to another Texas prison
because Idaho officials aren't satisfied with improvements at Dickens.
Noble's lawyer in Boise, Breck Seiniger, said Idaho had the responsibility
to ensure conditions at Dickens were adequate, regardless of whether
prisoners were located in Idaho or 1,500 miles away. Brent Reinke, director
of the Idaho Department of Correction since January, has conceded his
agency didn't do enough to monitor conditions at Dickens between August
2006, when Idaho prisoners were sent there, and Payne's suicide in March.
During that period, Idaho sent prison staff to Texas just once. They have a
responsibility to provide reasonable conditions of confinement," said
Seiniger. "They can't escape that responsibility simply by passing
these prisoners off to somebody else." Reinke's office said it would
review the claim, but declined to immediately comment. Payne's family has
also discussed a federal lawsuit against The GEO Group, though no lawsuit
has yet been filed. Phone calls to GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez in Boca
Raton, Fla., weren't immediately returned.
July 26, 2007 The Olympian
Department of Correction Director Brent Reinke next Thursday will visit a
private Texas prison where he intends to shift 56 inmates in September,
after problems including abuse by guards, deplorable conditions and a
suicide emerged at previous facilities in that state. Reinke, who concedes
lax oversight by Idaho contributed to problems, and three other Idaho
officials will review the Val Verde Correctional Facility and Jail in Del
Rio, Texas, run by Florida-based private prison firm The GEO Group. The
prison area where Idaho inmates are due to be housed at Val Verde is part
of a new 659-bed addition, Reinke said. Still, he wants to make sure the
facility located near the Mexican border meets Idaho standards so the
recurring problems at the two previous GEO-run prisons aren't repeated. "On
contracts in general, we're going to be stepping that up," Reinke told
The Associated Press this week. "We want to take a firsthand
look." About 450 Idaho inmates were first moved beyond state borders
in 2005 to relieve overcrowding at prisons here, where there are more than
7,000 inmates - but not enough room to house them all. They were
incarcerated at the Newton County Correctional Center in Newton, Texas,
until August 2006, when they were moved following allegations of abuse by
guards to the Dickens County Correctional Center in Spur, Texas. But
Reinke, who took over in January, acknowledges his agency didn't do enough
to scrutinize conditions at Dickens before Idaho inmates were shipped
there. And from August 2006 to March 2007, Idaho prison officials only
visited the Dickens County facility one time. The March 4 suicide by Scot
Noble Payne, a convicted sex offender, and a subsequent investigation
illuminated conditions that one Idaho prison official described as
"beyond repair." One concern: There have been problems at Val
Verde, too. Inmate LeTisha Tapia killed herself there in 2004 after
alleging she was raped by another inmate and sexually humiliated by a
guard. And a black guard accused his captain of keeping a hangman's noose
in his office and a photo of himself in a Ku Klux Klan hood in his desk.
Val Verde County has been forced to hire a full-time prison monitor to keep
a watch on prison operations as part of a settlement with Tapia's family.
Some family members of Idaho inmates now at Dickens told the AP they're
pleased Reinke is scrutinizing Val Verde personally. Still, they said
they're frustrated their relatives are being moved again - especially since
many problems at Dickens have been remedied since Payne's suicide in March.
"Things are OK now," said the wife of a sex offender who asked
not to be identified by name. "They don't want to move." Reinke
has pledged to improve oversight of conditions at Texas prisons through
what he's calling a "virtual prison" that his agency adopted
earlier this week. It's modeled after a similar system in Washington state,
he said.
July 11, 2007 AP
As overcrowding in Idaho prisons intensifies, so have lobbying efforts
and campaign donations by private prison companies aiming to win new
contracts - both to house more inmates beyond state borders and to build a
proposed 2,200-bed for-profit lockup. The GEO Group, a Florida-based prison
operator in 15 states, entered Idaho politics in 2005, when it hired its
first lobbyist, according to a review of lobbying and campaign finance
records by The Associated Press. A year later, it divvied up $8,000 among
three campaigns: Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter got $5,000, Lt. Gov. Jim
Risch got $2,500, and former state Rep. Debbie Field, who lost her House
race last November, received $500. Field also served as Otter's campaign
manager and was later appointed by the new governor as Idaho's drug czar.
Since 2006, GEO has won contracts worth $8 million annually to house more
than 400 Idaho inmates in Texas, including at two prisons where problems
became so severe that Idaho demanded inmates be relocated. Corrections
Corp. of America, a Tennessee company whose 95,000-inmate private prison
system includes 1,500 prisoners at a prison south of Boise, gave nearly
$32,000 for the 2006 election to 29 Republican candidates, including
$10,000 to Otter, and $5,000 to the state Republican Party. CCA and GEO
each hired two lobbyists for the 2007 Idaho Legislature. Just one Democrat,
Rep. Margaret Henbest, D-Boise, received money from CCA - $300. The GOP dominates
Idaho politics, with 51 of 70 seats in the House and 28 of 35 seats in the
Senate. Steve Owen, a CCA spokesman, said his company makes political
contributions to candidates that support "public-private
partnerships." "That's what we're in the business of, and that's
reflective of our participation in the political process," Owen said,
adding his company has run private prisons for nearly 25 years, including
in Idaho, in a professional manner where standards can exceed a state's
own. "It has been a positive working relationship between the Idaho
Department of Correction and CCA." GEO spokesman Pablo Paez didn't
return phone calls seeking comment. Overcrowding in U.S. prisons, plus a
federal push to incarcerate more terrorists and illegal aliens, has benefited
private prisons that now oversee 140,000 inmates. Companies like GEO and
CCA spent $3.3 million between 2000 and 2004 on election campaigns in 44
states to ensure they profit from this private prison boom, according to a
2006 study by the National Institute for Money in State Politics, in
Helena, Mont. Private prisons have become a hot topic here, because of the
problems at GEO's Texas prisons where Idaho inmates are locked up to ease
overcrowding at home. Abuse by guards at the Newton County Correctional
Center in eastern Texas prompted Idaho officials to demand inmates be
relocated in 2006 to the Dickens County Correctional Center. Now, Idaho
officials have called Dickens "filthy" and "beyond
repair," prompting a move to another GEO Texas prison. "The way
the contractor makes the most money is by providing the least amount of
service," said Robert Perkinson, a University of Hawaii professor who
is writing a book on Texas prisons, including privately run facilities.
"It's an inherently problematic area of government to privatize."
Still, Idaho, with about 7,000 inmates, now has 256 more inmates in-state
than it has capacity for - even with about 430 already in Texas. Efforts to
develop sentencing alternatives to ease an expected 7 percent annual increase
in inmate numbers through 2010 will take time, so Department of Correction
Director Brent Reinke said alternatives are limited to moving inmates
elsewhere. Robin Sandy, Idaho Board of Correction chairwoman, said she met
with CCA officials in Idaho in June. They discussed a new contract with the
state to house 240 Idaho inmates in company prisons in Oklahoma - a
contract worth about $5 million annually - as well as prospects of the
company winning a share of the new 2,200-bed prison proposal that Reinke
plans to introduce in September to lawmakers. "It was a courtesy
visit," Sandy said. Otter said he's also been in discussions with
private prison companies eager to do more business with the state. Otter is
a former J.R. Simplot executive who has said he wants to run Idaho more
like the private sector. "There's been a lot of that activity,"
Otter told the AP. "During the legislative session, there were several
organizations that came in."
July 10, 2007 The Olympian
More Idaho inmates are slated to move to a private Texas lockup in the
latest effort by state prison officials to relieve overcrowding at
facilities here. In the move approved by state officials including Gov.
C.L. "Butch" Otter on Tuesday, 40 inmates now in Idaho will go to
the Val Verde Correctional Facility and Jail in Del Rio, Texas, at a cost
of $51 per inmate per day. In addition, 125 inmates now at the Dickens
County Correctional Center in Spur, Texas, will also be shifted, with 56
going to Val Verde, located near the Mexican border, and the remaining 69
going to another prison in Littlefield, Texas, where there are already 304
Idaho inmates. The shift to Val Verde and Littlefield comes after problems
emerged at Dickens, including a March 4 suicide, reports of
"filthy" and "dire living conditions" and a guard
convicted of providing contraband to inmates. Still, both Dickens and Val
Verde prisons are run by the same private company - Florida-based prison
operator The GEO Group - and prison advocates say Val Verde also has a
reputation as a "scandal-ridden prison." One Texas inmate killed
herself at Val Verde in 2004 after alleged sexual humiliation by a guard,
while a guard supervisor was accused of keeping a photo of himself in a Ku
Klux Klan hood, resulting in accusations of racism. "We'll do a site
visit in the immediate future" to Val Verde, said Idaho Department of
Correction Director Brent Reinke, who has pledged to improve monitoring of
Idaho inmates by instituting a new program that includes more-frequent
visits to out-of-state facilities. GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez said his
company is working with Idaho to meet its prison needs. In 2005, a black
guard alleged his captain at Val Verde kept a hangman's noose in his office
and a Polaroid photo of himself in a Ku Klux Klan hood in his desk. That
case was settled in 2006. The settlement with GEO isn't public, but details
of the guard's complaint were confirmed by a federal Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission probe reviewed by the AP. The guard's attorney said
Tuesday that the atmosphere at Val Verde was "hostile and
racist." "I would have serious concerns about the way inmates
will be treated," the lawyer, Mark Anthony Sanchez, said from San
Antonio. "If a jail treats its employees that way, how is it going to
treat inmates?" And in 2006, a female inmate's family sued The GEO
Group in the wake of her suicide at Val Verde. Before her death, LeTisha
Tapia said she was raped by another inmate and sexually humiliated by a GEO
guard after reporting to the warden that guards let inmates have sex. The
lawsuit was settled this year. Details of that settlement also aren't
public, according to U.S. District Court records in western Texas. But Val
Verde County, where the prison is located, has been forced to hire a
full-time prison monitor to keep a watch on operations at the prison, as
part of its own settlement with Tapia's family. "The county feels that
the jail monitor is necessary," said Ann Markowski Smith, the county
attorney, in an interview with the AP. She added that concerns remain about
the GEO-run prison, including whether inmates are properly receiving
medication meant to treat mental health conditions. Bob Libal, of Grass
Roots Leadership, a group that campaigns against for-profit prisons like
GEO, is more critical. "Val Verde is the GEO-group prison we always
point to as a scandal-ridden private prison," said Libal. "We
hear very bad things from there, whether it be in the lawsuits, or
grumblings about the facility being poorly operated." GEO's Paez
declined to comment on the settlement with Tapia's family, or the guard who
sued the company over racism allegations at Val Verde. Idaho's contract
with GEO is worth some $8 million annually. Idaho, which began sending
inmates beyond its borders in 2005, predicts inmate numbers will grow between
6 percent and 7 percent annually through 2010, with the population reaching
more than 8,800 inmates by then. The state says it must ship inmates out of
state to relieve overcrowding. While Reinke said he'll soon introduce a
plan to build a new 2,200-bed private prison in Idaho, that won't be done
until 2010, at the earliest. As a result, Idaho likely will continue to
send more inmates out of state until then. For instance, it aims to send an
additional 240 prisoners by November to prisons in Oklahoma operated by
another company, Corrections Corp. of America. While Otter acknowledged
he's reluctant to work with GEO due to problems at its facilities, he
added, "I have a great deal of confidence in Mr. Reinke's ability to
clean up the situation."
July 8, 2007 Magic Valley Times-News
The state's top prison official aims to soon send more inmates to a
Texas lockup run by a private company, even though Idaho prisoners at two
of that outfit's other facilities have had to be moved twice because of
abuse by guards, a suicide, filthy conditions and lack of treatment. Brent
Reinke, Idaho Department of Correction director, on Tuesday will ask the
state Board of Examiners, including Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, to
let him move more prisoners now in Idaho to an undisclosed Texas facility
run by The GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison company. Reinke's
request also includes relocating prisoners from GEO's Dickens County
Correctional Center in Spur, Texas. Conditions at Dickens, left largely
unmonitored by Idaho between last August and March, had deteriorated so
badly that when Idaho's prison health director finally investigated earlier
this spring, he said it was "the worst correctional facilities I have
ever visited." Reinke concedes his agency failed to properly monitor
conditions at Dickens, but said moving inmates to another GEO prison won't
necessarily mean problems will recur because not all the its facilities are
run so poorly. For instance, another GEO-run facility where 304 Idaho
inmates are housed, the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield,
Texas, is an excellent prison that shows problems aren't endemic, he said.
"We just need to make sure we hold them to the contract," Reinke
told the AP Friday. "We've got to do a better job monitoring the
facilities." It wasn't immediately clear how many inmates currently in
Idaho would be affected by Tuesday's request. Otter couldn't be reached for
comment Sunday. Rising numbers of inmates in Idaho, whose prisons now house
more than 7,000, make this latest out-of-state shipment unavoidable, Reinke
said. Idaho predicts prison growth between 6 percent and 7 percent through
2010, with the population reaching more than 8,800 inmates by then. Idaho
now pays GEO $51 a day to house about 430 inmates, or more than $7 million
annually. At the time of Idaho's initial out-of-state shipments in 2005,
inmates went first to Minnesota. But space constraints soon uprooted them
again in 2006, this time to a GEO-run facility in Newton, Texas. There,
guard abuse and prisoner unrest forced another move to two new GEO
facilities: 125 Idaho inmates went to Dickens, while 304 went to Bill
Clayton in Littlefield. Problems continued at Dickens, including an inmate
suicide in March. A guard was fired, then convicted in state court, for
passing contraband to inmates. And the Dickens warden was ousted after a
probe in which Idaho prison health director Don Stockman called the
facility "beyond repair or correction," according to a March 15
report obtained by the AP. GEO, based in Boca Raton, Fla., has said it's
aiming for improvements. "GEO strives to provide quality correctional
and detention management services in a safe and secure environment
consistent with contractual requirements and applicable standards,"
said spokesman Pablo Paez, in a recent e-mail. Still, some prison experts
criticize shipping inmates out-of-state because they move prisoners far
from families and raise questions about conditions at for-profit
operations. "The receiving facility is agreeing to this arrangement as
a way to make money, and so there is always a risk that conditions and
safety will be compromised as a way to cut corners and save money,"
said Michele Deitch, a University of Texas professor. Reinke said Idaho
prisons are full, so he has little choice. A prison consultant concluded
recently that Idaho will need room for 5,560 more inmates over the next
decade. The cost: $1 billion dollars. Earlier this year, Idaho made a call
for 1,100 more out-of-state prison beds; Correction Corporation of America,
another private prison company, offered just 240 beds. Idaho is now
negotiating a contract with CCA, to shift 120 inmates in July, and the
remaining 120 in November. The state is also planning construction: It's
set to build a $15 million, 300-bed addition at a prison south of Boise by
December 2008. A separate, 400-bed drug treatment prison near Boise is in
the works. And in September, Reinke said he'll unveil a proposal to Idaho
lawmakers for a new 2,200-bed private prison _ larger than the 1,500-bed
facility he'd previously considered. "We're at 100 percent right now,
as far as capacity," said Reinke. "We're kind of between a rock
and a hard place."
July 6, 2007 AP
After months alone in his cell, Scot Noble Payne finished 20 pages of
letters, describing to loved ones the decrepit conditions of the prison
where he was serving time for molesting a child. Then Payne used a razor
blade to slice two 3-inch gashes in his throat. Guards found his body in
the cell's shower, with the water still running. "Try to comfort my
mum too and try to get her to see that I am truly happy again," he
wrote his uncle. "I tell you, it sure beats having water on the floor
24/7, a smelly pillow case, sheets with blood stains on them and a stinky
towel that hasn't been changed since they caught me." Payne's suicide
on March 4 came seven months after he was sent to the squalid privately run
Texas prison by Idaho authorities trying to ease inmate overcrowding in
their own state. His death exposed what had been Idaho's standard practice
for dealing with inmates sent to out-of-state prisons: Out of sight, out of
mind. It also raised questions about a company hired to operate prisons in
15 states, despite reports of abusive guards and terrible sanitation.
Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The Associated Press through an
open-records request show Idaho did little monitoring of out-of-state
inmates, despite repeated complaints from prisoners, their families and a
prison inspector. More than 140,000 U.S. prison beds are in private hands,
and inmates' rights groups allege many such penitentiaries tolerate
deplorable conditions and skimp on services to increase profits. "They
cut corners because the bottom line is making money," said Caylor
Rolling, prison program director at Partnership for Safety and Justice in
Portland, Ore., a group that promotes prison alternatives. Payne, 43, was
placed in solitary confinement because he escaped from the prison in
December by scaling a fence and eluding capture for a week. He was among
Idaho inmates sent to the prison in Spur, Texas, run by a Florida-based
company called the GEO Group. The business operates more than 50 prisons
across the United States as well as in Australia and South Africa. Soon
after Payne's suicide, the Idaho Department of Correction's health care director
inspected the prison and declared it the worst facility he had ever seen.
Don Stockman called Payne's cell unacceptable and the rest of the Dickens
County Correctional Center "beyond repair." "The physical
environment ... would have only enhanced the inmate's depression that could
have been a major contributing factor in his suicide," he wrote in a
report on Payne's death. Stockman said the warden at Dickens ruled
"based on verbal and physical intimidation" and that guards
showed no concern for the living conditions. After Idaho's complaints, GEO
reassigned warden Ron Alford, who told the AP he was later fired. He
insisted GEO did not provide enough money to make necessary improvements.
"They denied me everything. To buy a pencil with GEO, it took three
signatures. They're cheap," Alford said in an interview. He disputes
Stockman's findings on his treatment of Idaho inmates. GEO spokesman Pablo
Paez declined to comment on Alford's performance and would say only that
the company had been working to address Idaho officials' concerns. But on
Thursday, the state announced plans to move 125 inmates from Dickens to
other facilities, citing the poor living conditions. The private prison
business has been booming as the federal government seeks space to house
more criminals and illegal immigrants. "Sometimes it may be a better
situation for the inmates, and sometimes it's not," said prison
consultant Douglas Lansing, a former warden at the Federal Correctional
Institution in Fort Dix, N.J. "Monitoring is a vital component. You
can't just move them out of town and forget them." That appears to be
largely what happened with Idaho's inmates. The prisoners were sent to
Dickens in August from another GEO-run Texas prison after complaints about
abuse by guards. But in the following seven months, Idaho sent an inspector
to Texas only once. That inspection found major problems, including
virtually no substance-abuse treatment, and a complete lack of
Idaho-sanctioned anger-management classes and pre-release programs. There's
no evidence the inspector's recommendations were followed. And no one from
Idaho visited the prison again until after Payne's suicide. Most of the
time, the Idaho prison employee responsible for monitoring the GEO contract
used only the telephone and e-mail to handle grievances, which also
included complaints about inadequate church services, poor food and limited
recreation time. Each time, Alford insisted everything was under control,
according to correspondence reviewed by the AP. The new director of the
Idaho prison system concedes his department did not adequately review the
inmates' treatment when he took office in January. "If I had to do it
over again, I would have," Director Brent Reinke said. Former Director
Vaughn Killeen said he couldn't afford more aggressive monitoring during
his term that ended in December. "We weren't happy about the things
that were going on down there," Killeen said. "We didn't have
that level of budget to accommodate full-time monitors." Some other
states are more vigilant. Washington state, for instance, has 1,000 inmates
in Arizona and Minnesota and places full-time inspectors at the prisons. A
superintendent visits every six weeks. Problems with GEO prisons are not
limited to Dickens. Elsewhere in Texas, a female inmate's family sued GEO
in 2006 after she committed suicide at the Val Verde County Jail near the
Mexican border. LeTisha Tapia alleged she was raped by another inmate and
sexually humiliated by a GEO guard after reporting to the warden that
guards allowed male and female inmates to have sex. In March, an
investigation into sex abuse allegations at another GEO-run Texas prison
led to the firing of a guard who was a convicted sex offender. And at GEO
prisons in Illinois and Indiana, hundreds of inmates rioted this past
spring. The complaints have not hurt the company's balance sheet. It
reported profits of $30 million in 2006, four times the amount reported in
2005. Inmates at Dickens say conditions have improved since Payne's
suicide. Hot and cold water problems have been fixed, and cleanliness was
judged "adequate," according to a May 31 report by a new Idaho
contract monitor. But prisoners still complain about sewage from adjacent
cells, poor medical and dental care, and a lack of educational programs.
Inmates like Robert Coulter, who was convicted of robbery, say authorities
should have acted sooner. "They basically put us down here and just
dumped us," he said.
July 5, 2007 AP
State prison officials say 125 Idaho inmates in a private Texas prison are
due to make their fourth move since 2005, following a suicide in March,
problems with a guard passing contraband to inmates and the former warden's
ouster. The inmates, who were moved out of state two years ago due to
overcrowding in Idaho lockups, are now at the Dickens County Correctional
Center in Spur, Texas, where they've been since Aug. 7, 2006. Concerns over
conditions at Dickens, an aging county jail run as a prison by
Florida-based The GEO Group, prompted this latest move, Idaho Department of
Correction Director Brent Reinke said Thursday. "The problems we've
had in Texas reflect the challenge of managing out of state. We believe
Idaho inmates are best managed at home in Idaho," Reinke said. He
plans in September to introduce a proposal to build a new 1,500-bed private
prison in Idaho to create more space for the state's 7,000 inmates. Reinke
hopes to move 69 of the Dickens prisoners soon to another GEO-run prison,
the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas, where similar
problems haven't occurred. About 304 Idaho inmates are already there, but
that facility is making space for more. The remaining 56 at Dickens could
go to another GEO facility elsewhere. Reinke didn't specify where that
prison is located. He said the date of the move will be withheld until it's
complete. The inmates in Texas were originally moved from Idaho in 2005,
going first to Minnesota. Space limitations there forced them to be
relocated in 2006 to a GEO-run prison in Newton, Texas, where problems
emerged immediately, including beatings by guards. That prompted Idaho to
request the move to Dickens and Bill Clayton last August. But problems
continued at Dickens, Idaho Correction Department officials said. Sex
offender Scot Noble Payne escaped in December, remaining on the run for a
week before he was recaptured. Payne then killed himself March 4. Idaho
sent prison inspectors to Texas after Payne's death, and concerns that
emerged over conditions at Dickens prompted complaints about warden Ron
Alford, who was relieved of his post and sent to another GEO facility. And
more recently, a Dickens prison guard was convicted in May in a Texas state
court of providing contraband to an Idaho prisoner. That guard was fired
last December. GEO installed new management at the facility after Idaho's
complaints in March, but Reinke said moving the inmates is still a
priority. "IDOC remains concerned about Dickens' operation and has
been working hard over the past four months to find alternatives," the
state agency said in a statement. In an e-mail statement to The Associated
Press, GEO said it's working to rectify problems at Dickens. "GEO
strives to provide quality correctional and detention management services
in a safe and secure environment consistent with contractual requirements
and applicable standards," spokesman Pablo Paez said.
June 6, 2007 AP
Under terms of his contraband sentence, a Texas prison guard who provided
illegal materials to Idaho inmates will only go to prison if he violates
conditions of his release. Those conditions include staying out of “honky
tonks” and “beer joints,” according to court documents. John Ratliffe, a
former guard at the Dickens County Correctional Center where hundreds of
Idaho inmates are housed, is also implicated in providing assistance to an
inmate’s escape. But Ratliffe has denied knowing Payne planned to escape.
Footprints matched to Payne, who later committed suicide, were found near
Ratliffe’s home. Dickens County prosecutors couldn’t be reached for comment
on whether Ratliffe faces additional charges related to the escape.
Attempts to reach Ratliffe were unsuccessful. His telephone number in
Paducah isn’t listed. The 43-year-old Payne was among inmates shipped to
Dickens and another nearby facility in Littlefield, Texas, in August 2006
due to problems they experienced at another Texas facility, the Newton
County Correctional Center. Those included incidents in which the inmates
were punched and doused with pepper spray by guards. Both prisons are
operated by The GEO Group of Florida. GEO officials said they took quick
action upon learning in December about Ratliffe’s contraband operation. It
included setting up a post office box where at least some prisoners’
families sent items or money to be transferred to inmates, according to
documents. “When we have incidents of this kind, we conduct a full
investigation, and if disciplinary action is required, we take that action
properly, and that’s what we did in this case,” said Pablo Paez, a GEO
spokesman. Ratliffe was placed on unpaid leave, then fired, Paez said.
Records show a chaotic scene in Paducah before Payne was finally cornered
by search dogs in a nearby riverbed. Ratliffe allegedly threatened to
commit suicide shortly after searchers found Payne’s footprints near his
backyard fence, prompting Texas Rangers to transfer Ratliffe to the local
courthouse “where a mental health warrant was signed by the judge,”
according to the GEO report. Idaho officials said they learned of
Ratliffe’s activities after Payne’s capture. “We found out about it on Dec.
11 in a conversation between Warden Ron Alford and our contract compliance
person Sharon Lamm,” said Jeff Ray, a spokesman for Idaho prisons. Alford
was transferred in March to another GEO prison, after complaints from Idaho
about conditions at Dickens.
June 6, 2007 AP
A private prison guard in Texas who company officials say helped an Idaho
inmate escape by providing an envelope stuffed with money has been
convicted in a separate case of providing contraband to another Idaho
prisoner. John Ratliffe, a former guard at the Dickens County Correctional
Center where hundreds of Idaho inmates are housed due to overcrowding at
home, was sentenced last month to five years probation, 120 hours of
community service and a $1,000 fine for giving cigarettes to Idaho inmate Patterson
Franklin, according to court records obtained Tuesday by The Associated
Press. Ratliffe pleaded guilty. The problems surfaced starting Dec. 3 when
sex offender Scot Noble Payne escaped through a prison kitchen door and
scaled a fence. Afterward, Ratliffe acknowledged to his bosses at the
prison run by Florida-based The GEO Group that he used Franklin as an
intermediary to provide illegal items, including tobacco, underwear, sex
tapes, music — and at least $200 Payne had with him when he was caught Dec.
10, according to an eight-page report compiled by GEO officials following
the escape. Payne committed suicide March 4 after weeks in an isolation
cell. He had been isolated as punishment for his escape. Officials say
guard can avoid prison sentence.
May 1, 2007 Spokesman Review
The warden of a private Texas prison housing Idaho inmates has been
"relieved of his duties" after complaints from Idaho. The Dickens
County Correctional Center, which houses 125 Idaho inmates, made the change
after an Idaho corrections team visited the large, older county jail near
Lubbock, Texas, in March and reported "deficiencies." Idaho
Corrections Director Brent Reinke said problems included an absence of
required educational and treatment programs, inadequate out-of-cell time,
inappropriate lighting, and problems with food, clothing and cleanliness.
Also, an inmate from Ada County who escaped in December and recaptured
committed suicide at the facility in early March. "The feedback I got
from the team was that what they were concerned with was the Texas style of
justice," Reinke said. "Texas justice is different than Idaho
justice. It just is. And we want our inmates handled according to Idaho
justice. "Ninety-eight percent of those folks are coming back to our
communities. … Our mission is to keep Idaho safe. … We don't want to make
the matter worse, so that they come back more violent or more angry."
The state Board of Correction voted unanimously Monday to explore private
prison options in Idaho as an alternative to sending inmates out of state
in the future. Dickens is one of two Texas lockups operated by GEO Group,
formerly Wackenhut Corp., to which Idaho inmates were moved after problems
at another GEO facility in Newton County, Texas, last year. The Newton
County lockup saw two escapes, a demonstration in which 85 Idaho inmates
refused to return to their cells for hours in protest over conditions, and
the discipline of three prison employees after jailers roughed up and
pepper-sprayed six Idaho inmates. Idaho has 431 inmates housed out of state
due to overcrowding in its prison system – 125 at Dickens, 304 at Bill
Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas, and two elsewhere. Reinke
said GEO Group has been responsive to the complaints, and the new acting
warden has made improvements. Complaints have dropped off since that change
was made last month. But members of the state Board of Correction were
concerned on Monday. "They're not meeting the terms of the
contract," said board Chairwoman Robin Sandy. "Maybe I'm just used
to enforcing a contract a little more aggressively." Sharon Lamm,
deputy administrator of management services for Idaho Corrections, told the
board conditions were much improved at a follow-up visit in April. Idaho
pays $51 per inmate per day in Texas. The average cost in Idaho is $48 per
day. Idaho is seeking proposals for additional out-of-state prison beds for
overflow inmates. The deadline for proposals is today. Reinke said the most
recent estimates show Idaho will need 5,200 more beds in the next 10 years.
But Sandy said placing inmates out of state could become prohibitively
expensive because California is poised to send 8,000 of its inmates out of
state. "We all know what that's going to do to the price of
beds," she said. She proposed that Idaho look into contracting for
private prison space in state, which would require a change in state law.
Idaho has one privately operated prison, but the facility is owned by the
state. "It's something we need to discuss," Sandy told the board.
"I've spoken to the governor's office about it. They seem to like the
idea." Board member Jay Nielsen said, "I don't think we're going
to get $60 million out of the Legislature to build one, so our back's to
the wall – if we're going to have a new prison, it's going to have to be a
private one." The board voted unanimously to seek more information on
that option. Jack Van Valkenburgh, executive director of the American Civil
Liberties Union of Idaho, said, "I'm less concerned with whether it's
a public or private entity than with whether conditions are adequate and
constitutional, and whether there are adequate programs to return inmates
to society in a productive manner." The Idaho inmate who committed
suicide at the Texas lockup, Scot Noble Payne, 43, was found in a shower at
1 a.m. with fatal razor wounds. He was serving seven to 20 years for lewd
and lascivious conduct. Matt EchoHawk, staff attorney for the Idaho ACLU,
said his group received complaints from about one in five Idaho inmates at
the Dickens facility after Payne's escape in December. Many said they were
stuck in their cells without opportunities for rehabilitation. "The
prison officials would say it was due to weather or security, something
like that, but it wasn't happening, they wouldn't be out of their cells,"
EchoHawk said.
March 5, 2007 Idaho Statesman
An Idaho inmate housed in a Texas prison was found dead from apparently
self-inflicted wounds early Sunday morning, an Idaho Department of
Correction spokeswoman said. Guards in the Dickens County Correctional
Center found Scot Noble Payne, 43, slumped in a shower, bleeding and
unresponsive about midnight Mountain Time, Teresa Jones said. The fatal
wounds were inflicted with a razor, she said. He was pronounced dead at
1:17 a.m. after unsuccessful attempts to revive him. Payne was serving time
on an Ada County charge of lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor under
16, Jones said. He was isolated from other inmates at the time of his death
because of a December escape, she said. Payne apparently scaled a fence
Dec. 3. He was captured on Dec. 10 after eluding the Texas Rangers,
helicopters from the Texas Department of Public Safety, local law
enforcement agents and private prison workers. Payne was one of about 100
Idaho inmates housed at the correctional center near Spur, Texas. Idaho
inmates have been in the facility since July 2005. Payne transferred there
in August. He was sentenced to 20 years, with seven mandatory, in December
2002.
December 11, 2006 AP
An Idaho inmate who escaped a private West Texas prison was captured
after a week on the run when authorities caught up to him at a ranch.
Authorities arrested Scot Noble Payne, 43, on Sunday at a ranch near the
small town of Paducah, said Daniel Hawthorne, a spokesman for the Texas
Department of Public Safety in Childress. Payne escaped Dec. 3 from the
Dickens County Correctional Center. The facility, which is run by
Florida-based Geo Group Inc., is located in Spur, about 60 miles east of
Lubbock. Prison officials said Payne, who was serving time for aggravated
battery and lewd and lascivious conduct, scaled the facility's fence. He
fled when temperatures were in the mid-20s, apparently without any extra
clothing. For a week, the fugitive eluded searches by the Texas Rangers,
helicopters from the Department of Public Safety, local law enforcement
agents and private prison workers. Hawthorne said several reports of
sightings focused searchers on the Paducah area, which is 50 miles
northeast of the detention center. Authorities closed down sections of highways
and continued scanning the area by helicopter, he said. Dogs eventually
tracked Payne to the ranch. Payne is one of more than 460 Idaho inmates who
have been shipped to Texas or other states since last year due to
overcrowding in Idaho prisons. Idaho inmates at private prisons in Texas
have been the subject of controversy, with a previous breakout in June and
allegations of abuse that preceded the firing of some Geo Group staff and
the transfer of inmates to other prisons — including Dickens County.
December 5, 2006 AP
Texas authorities continue to search for an Idaho inmate who escaped from a
privately-run prison in subfreezing temperatures. Scot Noble Payne escaped
from the Dickens County Correctional Center at about 7:30 p.m. last night.
Idaho authorities say Payne left a shirt in the fence he's believed to have
scaled. Teresa Jones, a spokeswoman for the Idaho Department of Correction,
says "Payne had no extra clothing when he escaped and temperatures are
near freezing." The search for Payne included helicopters, dogs and
road blocks.
December 4, 2006 AP
West Texas authorities were searching in subfreezing temperatures late
Sunday for an Idaho man who escaped from a privately operated prison in Spur.
Scott Noble Payne, 43, escaped from the Dickens County Correctional Center
at about 7:30 p.m. CST, said Janie Walker, a dispatcher with the Dickens
County Sheriff's Office. State and local authorities from surrounding
counties joined the two-man Dickens County Sheriff's Office in the search
for Payne, Walker said. The search involved helicopters, dogs and road
blocks. Jail staff members believe Payne scaled the facility's fence, the
Idaho Department of Corrections said in a news release. Authorities believe
he did not have extra clothing. Temperatures in the region had dropped to
the mid-20s degrees by 11:30 p.m., according to the National Weather
Service. Payne was serving time for Idaho charges of aggravated battery and
lewd and lascivious conduct, according to the Idaho Corrections Department.
He was one of about 100 Idaho inmates being held at the Spur facility,
which is located about 60 miles east of Lubbock. The prison, which is
operated by Florida-based The Geo Group, Inc., is designed for minimum- to
maximum-security levels, according to the Geo Group's Web site. It has a
capacity of 489 adult males.
D.
Ray James
Prison, Folkston, Georgia
October
19, 2011 Florida Independent
John Edmonson, a businessman from Jacksonville, tells The Florida Independent
that his HIV-positive partner has not received adequate medical treatment
after being arrested in early April. Edmonson says his partner — whom he
asked us to keep anonymous — was diagnosed with AIDS in 1998, and since
then has had an average body weight of 185 pounds. ”During his first 30 to
45 days in lockup he lost six to eight pounds,” Edmonson says, and because
of his HIV status, “we brought this to the court’s attention.” “The
[facility] doctor testified that some body weight loss was normal because
of the stress for someone who has never been incarcerated before,” he says.
Since the man’s arrest on April 1, he has lost 61 pounds and the loss of
body weight “still has not been explained,” Edmonson says, adding that
staff doctors at the detention centers have promised to do something, but
nothing positive has happened. According to Edmonson, his partner was
arrested in Jacksonville, Fla., and indicted on eight counts of receipt,
possession, advertising and distribution of child pornography. His partner
has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Edmonson’s partner was first
held at the D. Ray James Correctional Facility in Folkston, Ga., owned and
operated by The GEO Group, “a world leader in the delivery of private
correctional and detention management,” with facilities in the U.S.,
Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Edmondson says that, since
late September, his partner has been detained at the Irwin County Detention
Facility, owned and operated by Croft Michael Enterprises. Both are located
in Ocilla, Ga.
July 11, 2011 The Province
Canada’s “Prince of Pot” has contracted a serious bacterial infection while
serving a five-year prison sentence in the U.S. for selling marijuana
seeds. Vancouver marijuana activist Marc Emery was diagnosed with MRSA, or
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureu — a painful infection that often
appears on the skin — after he was transferred from a private prison in
Georgia to Mississippi in late spring. According to Emery’s wife Jodie, the
trouble first began when Emery was bitten by a brown recluse spider while
serving time in Georgia and the bite took several months to heal. He was
given antibiotics for the bite, but then developed a painful boil on his
backside while transferring by bus to a Mississippi prison. Doctors tested
the boil and discovered the skin infection, Jodie said. “I was worried sick
to hear it,” she said, adding that he was forced to fight the
antibiotic-resistant infection without medication. Jodie said the infection
has since stabilized but the bug remains in his system. “I’m still very
concerned. He has to be extra vigilant with any cuts or scrapes.” Emery,
the founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party, was sentenced to five years in
prison in September 2010 after being extradited from Canada.
Eagle Mountain
Community Correctional Facility, Eagle Mountain, California
November
26, 2011 The Daily Press
The state has canceled its contract with the privately operated Desert
View Modified Community Correctional Facility, putting about 150 workers
out of a job. Desert View's contract termination officially takes effect
Wednesday, though prison employees told the Daily Press that The Geo Group
Inc. has been preparing to deactivate the prison at Rancho and Aster roads
since May. The 643-bed medium-security prison is shuttering its doors as
part of California’s realignment plan, which responds to federal orders to
reduce state prison overcrowding by shifting responsibility for tens of
thousands of low-level offenders to county governments. To help deal with
the new influx of inmates under local supervision, the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is encouraging counties to
enter into their own contracts with more than a dozen former CCFs. The CCFs
had generally housed inmates with sentences shorter than 18 months, parole
violators and offenders with scheduled release dates — the same types of
nonviolent, non-sexual or non-serious offenders now serving out sentences
in county jails instead of state prisons. “We hope that counties contract with
these facilities to save jobs and ease inmate housing concerns that many
counties may have,” CDCR spokeswoman Dana Toyama said. But San Bernardino
County Sheriff’s Department officials say they’re not planning to privatize
jail beds. The math just doesn’t pencil out, according to Sheriff’s
Department spokeswoman Cindy Bachman. “The issue with taking advantage of
private prisons or private jail facilities has come up over and over again
throughout the years; however, it’s not something that the county is
considering,” Bachman said. “It’s too costly and there’s just not the
funding really even to consider something like that.” The California State
Association of Counties has created a document outlining potential beds at
the former CCFs, but counties statewide have been hesitant to exercise that
option. The Geo Group had operated six of the nine privately run CCFs that
lost their state contracts, according to CSAC. Five other CCFs were run by
local governments. The facilities ranged from around 100 employees to more
than 600, according to Toyama.
East Mississippi Correctional Facility, Lauderdale County, Mississippi
October 22, 2012 San francisco Chronicle
MERIDIAN, Miss. (AP) — Three guards at the privately run East Mississippi Correctional
Facility are charged with embezzlement after authorities say the men lied
about their work hours. Lauderdale County sheriff's deputies arrested
22-year-old Markiezth Tillman, 27-year-old William David Smith and
24-year-old Derrick Brown on Thursday. Chief Deputy Ward Calhoun says
Monday that the men found a way to manipulate an electronic time-keeping
system to show they were working when they weren't. He says Management
& Training Corp., the Utah company that recently took over management
of the prison, discovered the violations and called law enforcement.
Calhoun says the violations had been happening for less than a month. Issa
Arnita, a spokesman for MTC, says the men are on leave while the
investigation continues. The prison is in Lost Gap, west of Meridian.
June 12, 2012 WTOK
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration says it has cited The GEO
Group Inc. with six safety and health violations, totaling $104,000 in
fines, at East Mississippi Correctional Facility. A report released by OSHA
Tuesday says the GEO Group exposed prison employees to workplace violence
and failed to take measures to reduce the risk. It says while prisons are
obviously dangerous workplaces, the employer is still required to take
every reasonable precaution to protect corrections officers and other staff
against safety hazards. OSHA's findings were based on a December 2011
inspection stemming from a complaint about the facility. The report goes on
to say the GEO Group also failed to provide adequate staffing, to fix
malfunctioning cell door locks, or to provide proper safety training. OSHA
says these were all willful violations, meaning there was intentional
knowing or voluntary disregard for the law's requirements. The GEO Group
has 15 business days to respond to these charges. Newscenter 11 has reached
out to GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez for a comment, but we have yet to
receive a response.
June 7, 2012 WTOK
MTC will officially take over operation at East Mississippi Correctional
Facility on July 9th. The company got its start working with young people
outside the corrections system. The Vice President of Corrections at MTC
explained the company's history via a video news release. "We started
30 years ago by providing training for young adults to succeed in life,"
says Odie Washington, "we've taken that and applied it to our
corrections division. "All you are going to see is a change in the
name over the door," that's the opinion of Frank Smith, a private
prison watchdog, "it's not going to be a change in operations."
Smith works as a consultant for Private Corrections Working Group.
"The problem is there is such turnover that there is no mentoring
process so everybody is just kind of new on the job, and they don't know
what to do when the problems arise." MTC officials say they plan on
providing EMCF with all the resources it needs to operate effectively.
"We'll provide each facility the resources necessary for them to
operate safely and effectively," says Washington, and we look forward
to applying these high standards to our new Mississippi facilities as
well." Only time will tell whether MTC will have a successful run in
the Magnolia State.
June 7, 2012 AP
A Utah-based private prison operator will take over management of three
Mississippi correctional institutions beginning in July. Management &
Training Corporation of Centreville, Utah, has signed 10-year operating
contracts for the East Mississippi Correctional Facility near the Lost Gap
community beginning July 2; Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Walnut
Grove on July 9; and the Marshall County Correctional Facility in Holly
Springs on Aug. 13. Financial details of the contracts were not made
public. The announcement came Thursday by the company and the Mississippi
Department of Corrections. The Corrections Department and the GEO Group of
Boca Raton, Fla., in April agreed to end GEO's management contract at the
three prisons. At the time Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps told the AP
that the department felt it might get a better price if all three prisons
were presented as a package to other corrections management companies.
"The Mississippi Department of Corrections is looking forward to a
great partnership with MTC," Epps said in a statement Thursday.
"There is a need for different types of prisons, including state and
regional as well as private facilities in Mississippi. MTC will be held to
the same high standards as set by MDOC and I feel extremely confident that
MTC will do a great job." "We look forward to the opportunity to
work in Mississippi," said MTC senior vice president of corrections
Odie Washington in the statement. "We have partnered with state and
federal governments in operating correctional facilities for the past 25
years, and have a strong record of providing safe, secure and well-run
facilities."
May 20, 2012 WLBT
A celebration in Smith Park commemorated changes at Walnut Grove Youth
Correctional Facility. The Friends and Family Members of Youth Incarcerated
at Walnut Grove held a rally Sunday morning. Parents of children at the facility
thanked department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps for ending the
private prison contract with the GEO Group. They said their children were
mistreated under the company's management from being denied medical
treatment to education. "I would like to urge the commissioner to
continue to do the right thing by our children and to not allow another
private, for profit company to take over Walnut Grove," said Walnut
Grove parent Kimberly Carson. "The GEO Group is making money off of
these young men. They don't seem willing to spend any of that money to make
sure they have been properly rehabilitated," said Walnut Grove parent
Marietta Larry. GEO managed Walnut Grove and the East Mississippi and
Marshall County Correctional facilities until last month.
April 20, 2012 AP
The Mississippi Department of Corrections says GEO Group Inc., one of
the country's largest private prison operators, will no longer manage three
facilities in Mississippi. On Thursday, the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company
said it was backing out of a contract to manage the East Mississippi
Correctional Facility near the Lost Gap community by July 19. Company
officials told The Associated Press on Friday that it had nothing else to
say. Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps told the AP on Friday that
the department felt it might get a better price if all three prisons were
presented as a package to other corrections management companies. Epps said
he would expect GEO Group to end its ties to the Walnut Grove Youth
Correctional Facility in Walnut Grove and Marshall County Correctional
Facility in Holly Springs by July 20. "We feel this may be a golden
opportunity to provide a better price for the taxpayers of the state and at
the same time maybe do a better job in the operation of the facilities,"
Epps said. "That's what I would like to see." Epps said there was
some concern at MDOC about incidents at all three prisons. The Walnut Grove
facility is presently under a federal court order to remove juvenile
inmates amid allegations of physical and sexual abuse. That court order
came in a settlement of a lawsuit filed against Walnut Grove in 2010. GEO
Group has repeatedly declined to comment on the lawsuit. Epps has said his
plan is to send the 17-and-younger inmates to Central Mississippi Correctional
Facility in Rankin County by Oct. 1. He said there are about 1,000 vacant
beds at that prison now, so there is no need for a new building. Walnut
Grove also houses adults. They would remain there under a settlement that
ended a 2010 lawsuit. Epps said Friday that local authority boards deal
with management contracts at EMCF and Walnut Grove with MDOC help. He said
MDOC works directly with vendors at Marshall County. "There are a lot
of these management companies out there. We're reaching out to those
private operators to see what the best proposal is we might get," he
said. In its announcement, GEO chairman/CEO George C. Zoley said EMCF was
"financially underperforming." GEO Group vice president Pablo E.
Paez said Friday the company would have no other comment.
March 28, 2012 Vicksburg Post
When Vicksburg native Stuart Brooks was killed Feb. 21 in his prison cell
at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility, a family member's old fear
was proved prophetic. "Stuart is very much in need of psychological
help," Brooks' aunt wrote in 1995, before he was sentenced for the
sexual battery of her 9-year-old son. "I know that with his mentality,
he would not survive in a prison, someone would probably kill him. I don't
think he'll ever be able to function in a normal society." Brooks was
18 when he was convicted in Warren County Circuit Court of assaulting his
young cousin. Writing to then-Judge Frank Vollor as part of Vollor's
pre-sentencing investigation, Brooks' aunt was torn — angry about what
happened to her son but concerned for her nephew. "He's going to need
help for the rest of his life and should be locked up that long," she
wrote. Instead, Brooks was released after serving 15 years of a 30-year
sentence, was re-arrested and sent back to prison for failing to register
as a sex offender. About halfway through that three-year sentence, he was
strangled, an autopsy showed, at the Lost Gap facility. His cellmate has
been charged in his death. With Brooks' death, all those close to the 1995
case are gone.
November 2, 2011 WTOK
The company that owns a local prison says it will not talk about any of the
problems going on there right now. An inmate at the East Mississippi
Correctional Facility died there over the weekend, apparently by suicide. A
guard was recently stabbed by an inmate. It's the latest in a string of
violent acts at the prison. After two days of attempts to contact the GEO
Group for a comment on the problems, we got a response Wednesday. Geo Group
officials say as a matter of policy, they will not speak to the media.
October 31, 2011 WTOK
An inmate at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility took his own
life, according to authorities. The Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department,
which investigates incidents there, said 27-year-old Bobby Wilkerson hung
himself in his cell using bed sheets. They say he left a note in a Bible
beside his bed. The death is the latest in a string of incidents at the
prison. A guard was recently stabbed with a shank. And local officials are
looking for some changes. Since 1999, Sheriff Billy Sollie says his
department has responded to as many as 60 calls for help at EMCF, located
on Highway 80 at Lost Gap. Sollie says the inmate population has doubled
since the facility opened. "You know, with the Mississippi Department
of Corrections shutting down some of their violent units that were
traditionally held in the northern part of the state, many of those inmates
are transferred here to the Lauderdale County area," said Sollie.
Sollie attributes that to the the increased level of violence reported at
EMCF. But Sollie says he has no control over the situation. "It's not
our responsibility to run that facility. It's our responsibility to
investigate crimes that are reported to us," Sollie said. But having
to investigate so many incidents at EMCF is hindering efforts to conduct
its regular duties, according to the sheriff. "We would certainly like
to talk with the state of Mississippi about them employing a full-time
investigator that would investigate the major crimes, your felony crimes
that occur on that facility," said Sollie. "And free up my
investigators to work for the citizens of Lauderdale County." Over the
last couple of days, Newscenter 11 has received numerous phone calls from
relatives of inmates at EMCF, who claim that inmates aren't being treated
properly. We contacted both the warden and deputy warden for this story.
Neither opted to comment. East Mississippi Correctional Facility is owned
by the Geo Group. It's one of 116 facilities the company operates world-wide.
It opened back in 1999, and has about 1500 beds.
June 27, 2011 Clarion Ledger
The family of a man found hanging in a cell on Feb. 19 at East Mississippi
Correctional Facility in Lauderdale County plans to sue the state over his
death, based on the results of a second autopsy. The Mississippi Medical
Examiner's office said Sammy Robinson's death was consistent with suicide.
But a second autopsy performed at the family's request by Dr. Matthias
Okoye of the Nebraska Institute of Forensic Science said Robinson had blunt
force trauma to the upper and lower extremities as well as sharp force
trauma to the right upper and lower extremities, according to Warren Martin
Jr., an attorney for family members. An intent-to-sue letter has been
issued to the state Department of Corrections and the GEO Group of Boca
Raton, Fla., which operates the prison. In the notice, Martin said Okoye
noted several abrasions and contusions all over Robinson's body. MDOC
Commissioner Chris Epps said Monday he can't discuss Robinson's case
because of the pending legal action.
April 1, 2006 Meridian Star
A former guard at East Mississippi Correctional Facility at Lost Gap
received a three-year suspended sentence this week in Lauderdale County
Circuit Court for helping two prisoners escape last year. Tomeka Lashae
Brown, 26, of Porterville pleaded guilty Monday to aiding the escape of a
felon. Prisoners Gregory Malone, 26, and Christopher Roy, 24, escaped Oct.
17 after apparently using a saw blade to cut their way out of the facility.
They were captured about 24 hours later at a hotel in Northport, Ala., near
Tuscaloosa. Malone was serving a life sentence for a capital murder in
Hinds County. Roy was serving a life sentence for a murder in Jackson
County. In her petition to plead guilty, Brown admitted driving the two men
to Tuscaloosa and paying for their motel room. Brown was indicted by a
Lauderdale County grand jury in November; Lost Gap prison officials
announced she had been fired in December. Circuit Judge Lester Williamson
Jr. handed down the sentence, which could have been as severe as 10 years
in prison and a $10,000 fine. Roy and Malone were each indicted on a charge
of escape, which could add five years to their life sentences. A third
inmate, 24-year-old Kenneth Johnson, was indicted on a charge of aiding the
escape of a felon; he is serving a 71/2-year sentence for a burglary in
Lawrence County. None of these cases has been resolved. The Geo Group Inc.,
a Florida-based company, operates East Mississippi Correctional Facility,
which can house as many as 1,000 inmates, under a contract with the
Mississippi Department of Corrections. The prison specializes in housing
prisoners with psychiatric problems.
March 31, 2006 WREG
A former Texas prison official has taken over as warden of the
privately run East Mississippi Correctional Facility in Lauderdale County.
Yesterday was the first day on the job for 51-year-old Dale Caskey, who
recently retired after 30 years with the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice. Caskey replaced interim warden Darryl Anderson. Caskey's last
assignment in Texas was as warden of the Hughes Unit, a maximum-security
facility in Gatesville, Texas. The East Mississippi Correctional Facility,
located in the Lost Gap community, houses inmates with mental disorders. It's
owned by The Geo Group, formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corporation.
December 16, 2005 Clarion Ledger
Two guards have been terminated and a supervisor resigned in the wake of
the October escape of two inmates serving life sentences for murder at the
East Mississippi Correctional Facility in Meridian. "The message is
that if you don't follow policy and procedures, you will be
terminated," Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said.
Epps said guard Tomeka Brown was fired for providing transportation from
the Mississippi/Alabama line to Tuscaloosa for escaped inmates Gregory
Malone and Christopher Roy. Epps said Brown apparently had a personal
relationship with Malone. Brown, who was indicted last month, is charged
with accessory before the fact to escape for aiding an abetting the
inmates. She is out on a $100,000 bond. Epps said guard Lakeisha Gowdy was
fired after an investigation determined she had not physically counted
inmates to ensure they were actually in the cells. Sgt. Cheryl Thornton resigned
before being terminated, Epps said. In Thornton's case, daily physical
counts of inmates weren't being performed as required, Epps said. The two
inmates used a saw blade to cut their way out of the facility.
November 25, 2005 WREG
Lauderdale County authorities say there appears to be no foul play in death
of an East Mississippi Correctional Facility inmate. The body of
32-year-old Reginald Williams, of Meridian, was found hanging in his cell
yesterday. The sheriff's department is investigating the death and waiting
for autopsy results from the Mississippi Mortuary in Pearl.
November 19, 2005 Meridian Star
It's the mid-1990s. The number of inmates in Mississippi's penal system is
increasing, and state officials need to build more prisons - or contract with
private companies to build more prisons. Meanwhile, Lauderdale County and
Meridian officials are looking for ways to improve the local economy and
create jobs. It seemed like a good match. The state needed a place to build
a prison and Lauderdale had a readily available workforce and land that
needed no rezoning. When city and county officials began putting together a
proposal, they hoped the new prison would provide an influx of jobs that
would only increase over time. They also hoped it would help Naval Air
Station Meridian. New U.S. Navy regulations prohibited student pilots from
performing maintenance tasks at the base. It was hoped that non-violent
prisoners could do some of the work - saving the base $300,000 to $500,000.
The Wackenhut Corp., now The Geo Group Inc., won the contract to build and
operate East Mississippi Correctional Facility in southwest Lauderdale
County's Lost Gap community. The facility accepted its first prisoners in
April 1999. Measuring outcomes: District 2 Supervisor Jimmie Smith said the
initial estimate was that the facility would create up to 350 jobs. It
currently employs 220 people in positions ranging from security officers to
medical staff to administrators. The partnership between the Navy base and
the prison never happened, according to Susan Junkins, public affairs
officer at NAS Meridian. "To the best of my knowledge I have seen no
impact that it has made to my business," said David Hamilton, owner of
the Best Western in Meridian. Ray Joyner, manager of the Howard Johnson
motel in Meridian, concurred: "I can't tell any difference in
business. It certainly doesn't seem any different, but I wouldn't call it a
major tourist attraction or industry, either." Wayne Gasson, chief of
labor market information with the Mississippi Department of Employment
Security, said given the relatively small number of jobs available, it is
hard to gauge the prison's economic impact. "If a facility like this
one opened or closed, it would be significant to the people that worked
there - but as far as it impacting an entire area, it probably isn't going
to have much of an impact," Gasson said. The East Mississippi
Correctional Facility at Lost Gap employs 220 people. Interim Warden Darryl
Anderson reports that the annual turnover rate at the facility is 65
percent. Here's a look at positions available and their hourly pay range.
Security posts $7-$10.95 Clerical staff $7-$10 Food service $7-$15.35
Program staff $11.06-$18.45 Maintenance staff $9-$17 Medical staff
$7.35-$20.95
October 29, 2005 Meridian Star
Residents of the Lost Gap community were uneasy in April 1999, when the
first prisoners began arriving at East Mississippi Correctional Facility, a
private prison that brought inmates with mental disorders to their quiet
area of southeast Lauderdale County. Since then, there have been bumps in
the road - violence inside the prison, deaths, indictments of inmates and,
most recently, escapes. When two convicted murderers escaped from the EMCF
this month, it sparked a wide mix of emotions among residents of Lost Gap.
In addition to the escapes, EMCF has been the site of at least five
incidents of inmate-on-inmate violence since 2002. Three of these incidents
led to inmates' deaths. Also, in February 2002, inmates created a two-hour
disturbance when they refused to return to their cells. Correctional
officers were forced to use chemical agents to subdue them, and 29 inmates
were transferred to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman as a
result. Current District 2 Supervisor Jimmie Smith, who was also on the
board at the time of the contract's approval, estimated the facility would
create 350 jobs. Lost Gap resident Robert Maxey doesn't share Florey's
optimistic view. "Sure, it provides a few jobs, but you can find jobs
in lots of other places. I really don't see the benefit in having it
here," Maxey said. Community residents tried to derail the project,
but to no avail. When Maxey's wife, Barbara, was given a tour of the
facility in 1998, she was told that escapes would be impossible. Her skepticism
at that remark was confirmed on Monday, Oct. 17, however, when convicted
killers Gregory Malone, 26, and Christopher Roy, 24, with the apparent
assistance of a prison guard and a fellow inmate, escaped through sawed
window bars. "My granddaughter was scared to death," Mrs. Maxey
said. "If they hadn't captured the two men, she likely would have
never gone outside again.
October 30, 2005 AP
With two murderers escaping in the past month, residents here have begun
carrying weapons and apprehensions have grown about the East Mississippi
Correctional Facility. The private prison, opened in April 1999, houses
prisoners with mental disorders in southeast Lauderdale County. On Oct. 17,
convicted killers Gregory Malone, 26, and Christopher Roy, 24, escaped from
the facility, allegedly with the assistance of a prison guard and a fellow
inmate. The men escaped through sawed window bars. They were caught about
24 hours later. That was the second escape this year - Earl Blue escaped
from the facility on April 8. He was caught hours later, but residents are
not satisfied with the level of safety. The prison has had patterns of
violence within its walls leading to both deaths and indictments of
inmates. The facility has had five incidents of inmate violence since 2002 -
three of which resulted in inmate deaths. Many residents have opposed the
presence of the EMCF since it was proposed in the mid-1990s. "It's
made a lot of people more apprehensive," said John Griffin, 67, a
retired Marine and former Lost Gap fire chief. "My mother-in-law lived
here when they first brought the prison here, and she was scared to death.
And now you've got more people walking around carrying a gun because of the
place. I don't go out of this house without carrying a gun."
October 23, 2005 Clarion Ledger
A second prison employee is being eyed in an investigation of two convicted
murderers' escape from the East Mississippi Correctional Facility last
week. A prison guard has been charged, but Chris Epps, commissioner of the
Mississippi Department of Corrections, said Saturday "there's been
some conversation about another employee." "We won't know until
the investigation is concluded. I would hope within a couple weeks we
should have everything wrapped up," he said. On Friday, inmate Kenneth
Nelson Johnson Jr., 23, who is serving a 7 1/2-year sentence for a burglary
conviction in Lawrence County, was charged with two counts of accessory
before the fact. He is the fourth person charged in relation to the escape.
Gregory Malone, 26, and Christopher Roy, 24, both serving life sentences
for murder, fled Monday from the prison on Old U.S. 80 West at the Lost Gap
community. They were captured about 24 hours later at a hotel in Northport,
Ala., near Tuscaloosa. Prison guard Tomeka Brown, 25, of Porterville, was
arrested and charged with two counts of accessory before the fact. She
posted $100,000 bond from the Lauderdale County jail Thursday. Epps has
said Malone and Roy did not share a cell. He said he believes someone
helped the escaped convicts by sawing window bars, allowing them to get to
the prison's roof and escape after cutting a set of camera wires. Neither
he nor Calhoun knows how wide a net the investigators will have to cast,
Epps said. Despite the conversations about a possible second employee, no employees
other than Brown have been arrested or disciplined, Epps said. Lauderdale
County and Epps' office are coordinating the investigation.
October 22, 2005 Meridian Star
An East Mississippi Correctional Facility inmate was charged Friday with
helping two fellow prisoners escape earlier this week. Kenneth Nelson
Johnson Jr., 23, who is serving a 71/2-year sentence for a burglary
conviction in Lawrence County, was charged with two counts of accessory
before the fact. He is the fourth person to be charged in connection with
the Monday escape. Lauderdale County Chief Deputy Ward Calhoun said he
expects others to be charged as the investigation continues. Porterville
resident Tomeka Brown, 25, a correctional officer at the private prison for
inmates with mental problems, was arrested at the same hotel later Tuesday
and charged with two counts of accessory before the fact. She posted
$100,000 bond and was released from the Lauderdale County jail Thursday.
Officials with the Department of Corrections, which contracts with EMCF
parent company The GEO Group Inc. to house state prisoners, could not be
reached for comment Friday. State Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps
told reporters earlier this week that Malone and Roy did not share a cell.
Epps said he believes someone helped the escapees by sawing window bars,
allowing them to get to the prison's roof and escape after cutting a set of
camera wires.
October 19, 2005 Meridian Star
Two inmates who were captured after escaping from the East Mississippi
Correctional Facility on Monday have been transferred to the Mississippi
State Penitentiary at Parchman. Gregory Malone, 26, and Christopher Roy,
24, who were serving life sentences at the Lost Gap prison, were captured
by deputy U.S. marshals early Tuesday morning at an Econo Lodge in
Northport, Ala., near Tuscaloosa. The two were discovered missing shortly
after 12:50 a.m. Monday at the privately operated prison for inmates with
mental health problems. Prison employee Tomeka Brown, who investigators
believe played a key role in the inmates' escape, is currently in custody
at the Lauderdale County Detention Facility. Brown, 25, of Porterville and
a correctional officer at EMCF, has been charged with two counts of
accessory before the fact. She was behind held on $100,000 bond Wednesday.
Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps has said that other
employees of the East Mississippi Correctional Facility, including interim
Warden Darryl Anderson, could face disciplinary action. However, MDOC
officials wouldn't be more specific Wednesday.
October 19, 2005 Clarion Ledger
Two convicted murderers and a Mississippi corrections officer accused of
assisting in their escape from a Meridian prison were arrested in Alabama,
Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie said Tuesday. Investigators believe
Tomeka Lashae Brown helped Gregory Malone and Christopher Roy rent a room
at the Econo Lodge Hotel at 1930 McFarland Blvd., in Northport, Ala.,
Sollie said. The inmates were discovered missing from the East Mississippi
Correctional Facility early Monday morning. Brown, 25, of DeKalb is charged
with two counts of accessory before the fact. All three are being held
without bond at the Tuscaloosa County Jail. Malone, 26, and Roy, 24, will
face charges of felony escape, Mississippi officials said. Sollie would not
give any other details on Brown's alleged role in the inmates' escape from
the prison, which houses inmates with mental health problems. Mississippi
Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Tuesday some employees
- including interim Warden Darryl Anderson - may be fired upon completion
of an investigation. Epps said he had "grave" concerns about
hourly inmate counts, and window and bar checks. He said he believes
someone helped Malone and Roy, who were not housed together, by sawing
window bars, allowing them to get to the prison's roof and escape after
cutting a set of camera wires. "You have to check those bars every 24
hours with a rubber hammer. The way they were able to saw out of that
prison, it didn't happen overnight," he said. Epps said security
cameras show the inmates leaving around 1 a.m.
August 12, 2005 Sun Herald
Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie says three men have been charged
with murder in the stabbing death of an inmate at East Mississippi
Correctional Facility are charged in the murder of fellow inmate Stanley
Johnson. Sollie said Friday that John Pickens, 35; John Sparkman, 30; and
Kelvin Cage, 36, each face a charge of murder in the stabbing death of
Johnson on Sunday. Sollie said all three are inmates at the privately run
prison. Sollie said the killing apparently dates back to a disagreement
between Pickens and Johnson, when the two were incarcerated in the
Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. "All indications are this
was a planned assault on the victim," the sheriff said.
August 10, 2005 Clarion Ledger
Lauderdale County authorities said Tuesday they hope to make an arrest
today in the stabbing death of 43-year-old Stanley Johnson inside the East
Mississippi Correctional Facility. "We are anticipating an arrest in
the next 24 to 48 hours," Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie said.
Johnson was serving a life sentence for a 1985 rape conviction in Sunflower
County. Warden Larry Greer said Johnson was attacked about 1:30 p.m. Sunday
at the privately run prison and died several hours later in a local
hospital. Sollie and Greer said several prisoners have been questioned in
the stabbing. No weapon has been found, and officials won't go into
specifics about their investigation. This is the second time in three years
an inmate has been killed in the prison. In 2002, 58-year-old Lonnie
Grisham was found bludgeoned to death in his cell. Information on whether
Grisham's killer was prosecuted wasn't available Tuesday. The prison is run
by the GEO Group Inc., a Florida-based company formerly known as Wackenhut.
The GEO Group runs private prisons in 14 states, as well as in South Africa
and Australia. In Mississippi, the company also runs the Marshall County
Correctional Facility in Holly Springs, which was the site of the beating
death of an inmate by another prisoner in 2001.
August 9, 2005 WAPT
An investigation continues into the stabbing death of an inmate at the privately
run East Mississippi Correctional Facility in Lauderdale County. The
inmate, 42-year-old Stanley Johnson, was serving a life sentence for a rape
conviction in Sunflower County. Lauderdale County Coroner Clayton Cobler
reported that Johnson died Sunday at a Meridian hospital from stab wounds
in the chest and both thighs. An autopsy has been ordered. East Mississippi
Correctional Facility is located off U.S. Highway 80 in the Lost Gap
community. It's privately owned by GEO Group, formerly Wackenhut Corrections
Corp.
August 8, 2005 Sun Herald
An inmate at the privately run East Mississippi Correctional Facility in
Lauderdale County has died of stab wounds, says county Coroner Clayton
Cobler. Wackenhut operates the facility, a 750-bed prison that opened in
April 1999 off U.S. 80 near the Lost Gap community. Cobler said 42-year-old
inmate Stanley Johnson was stabbed three times in an incident Sunday. He
said Johnson died at a Meridian hospital. Cobler said an investigation is
underway. Prison officials have declined to comment.
April 11, 2005 Greenwood Commonwealth
A state inmate serving a 40-year sentence for armed robbery in Leflore
County was apprehended without incident Sunday afternoon by the Forest
Police Department, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
Earl Blue, 27, who escaped from East Mississippi Correctional Facility in
Meridian on Friday, will be taken to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at
Parchman. East Mississippi Correctional Facility is a privately run
correctional facility operated by Wackenhut Corrections Corporation of Palm
Beach, Fla.
February
26, 2003
Prison emergency personnel used chemical agents to get 29 prisoners to
return to their cells at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility Tuesday
evening, officials said. Nobody was seriously injured in the disturbance,
which lasted for two hours. (AP)
August
21, 2002
Authorities believe an
inmate who died at the East Mississippi correctional Facility at Lost Gap was
attacked by another prisoner. Lauderdale county chief deputy Mike Mitchell
on Tuesday identified the dead inmate at Lonnie Grisham, 58, of Tippah
County. (AP)
El
Monte Center, El Monte, California
February
1, 2012 San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Despite backlash from residents, the City Council tonight gave a halfway
house operator the green light to allow 15 more federal pre-release inmates
to move into the Ramona Boulevard facility, under pre-negotiated
conditions. The decision followed a public hearing that was held over the
course of two meetings, in which community members argued that the addition
would negatively affect the city's image. The expansion request was denied
by both the Planning Commission and City Council in 2010. The City
Council's denial spurred former operator Cornell Companies, which has since
been acquired by GEO Group, to launch a lawsuit against the city. If
councilmembers didn't approve the request, GEO Group planned to proceed
with litigation.
January 5, 2012 Whittier Daily News
Operators of a halfway house will come before the City Council again to ask
it reconsider a proposal that would allow 15 more pre-release inmates to
move into its facility at 11750 Ramona Blvd. Last year, council members
backed the Planning Commission's 3-2 decision to reject the request, which
would have increased the number of residents at the facility from 61 to 76.
The move prompted the operator, Cornell Companies, to file a lawsuit. If
council members don't reconsider their position after a public hearing
Tuesday, the litigation will proceed, according to Isabel Birrueta, an
attorney representing El Monte. "It will go up to the Superior Court
again, and the Superior Court will decide whether to request that the city
review it again or it will decide that Cornell's writ of mandate has no
merit," she said. Those who oppose the expansion have voiced concerns
that the addition of more pre- release inmates from federal correctional
facilities could hurt property values and negatively affect El Monte's image.
Councilman B. Bart Patel originally voted against the proposal while he
served on the city's Planning Commission. "I think the community is
concerned because whether it was one bed, two beds or 15 beds, the
community feels where does it stop?" he said. The home helps both male
and female inmates transition from prison life back into society. If
approved, the proposal wouldn't increase the square- footage of the
building, but it would allow 15 more residents. Representatives from the
company, which has since been acquired by the GEO Group, have said they
needed to take in more residents in order to respond to requests by the
Federal Bureau of Prisons. According to the Megan's Law website, there are
no sex offenders residing at the home.
Elizabeth
Detention Center, Elizabeth, New Jersey
November
13, 2007 AP
A federal jury on Tuesday awarded a political asylum $100,001 after finding
that her rights were violated while in custody at a detention center
operated for U.S. immigration authorities by a private contractor, the
immigrant's lawyer said. The jury said the operator, then known as Esmor
Corp., and some former executives, should pay $100,000 to Somali immigrant
Hawa Jama for negligent hiring and training, and $1 for violating the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act. "Clearly, she would have been
happier if she got more money, but she feels vindicated," said the
lawyer, Penny M. Venetis. The jury found no violation of international
human rights standards. The verdict came on the second day of deliberations,
but a decade after Jama and eight other immigrants sued the company that
ran the detention center in Elizabeth and what was then known as the
Immigration and Naturalization Service. Venetis said the eight others had
already settled for undisclosed sums, and the only remaining defendants
were the corporate successor to Esmor and former Esmor employees. Esmor is
now part of the Geo Group Inc. Messages seeking comment from its lawyer and
a company spokesman were not immediately returned. At trial, Jama testified
that she endured beatings, insults, rotting food and unsanitary conditions
during her 11-month detention at the privately run jail in Elizabeth in
1994-95. The INS closed the center following a riot in June 1995, when
about 100 immigrants broke windows, destroyed furniture and overpowered
guards, claiming they were being held under inhumane conditions. The INS
fired Esmor, then of Melville, N.Y., after finding that poorly trained
guards abused the detainees physically and mentally, gave them spoiled food
and deprived them of sleep. The detention center reopened in January 1997
after renovations were completed by its new operator, Corrections Corp. of
America, of Nashville, Tenn. Jama, now in her late 30s, got married several
years ago and now lives with her husband and three children in Columbus,
Ohio, Venetis said. Jama had fled tribal warfare in Somalia that claimed
her father and brother, and became a U.S. citizen last year, said Venetis,
a law professor at Rutgers School of Law-Newark and co-director of its constitutional
litigation clinic. "She really is still very haunted by what happened
at Esmor," Venetis said. "She has flashbacks." Venetis
claimed "corporate greed" created miserable conditions at the
Esmor detention center. Guards routinely beat and cursed detainees, with
Jama being called "an African monkey," Venetis said. "She
was denied sanitary napkins, so she just bled all over herself once a
month," Venetis said. Charges were dismissed three years ago against
the INS and its officials, with U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise
saying the government cannot be sued. He also dismissed some charges
against the company's guards, finding that individual actions did not rise
to the level of international human rights abuses. But he refused to
dismiss all charges against Esmor and its officials. Some 1,600 former
Esmor detainees got a $2.5 million settlement from Esmor in 2005, with most
getting less than $1,000 each after legal fees. That group did not include
Jama and the other eight who sued. Geo, a publicly traded company based in
Boca Raton, Fla., reported 2006 profit of $30 million, or $1.68 per share,
compared with $7 million, or 47 cents per share a year earlier. It had
revenue of $860.9 million in 2006, compared with $612.9 million in 2005.
Evergreens Nursing Home, High Point, North Carolina
March
21, 2012 Jamestown News
GEO Care, which planned to put a forensic mental hospital in the site of
the former Evergreens Nursing Home at Five Points in High Point, has been
denied a license by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services
(DHHS). The company proposed to accept patients from the Dorothea Dix State
Hospital in Raleigh and Central Regional and Psychiatric Hospital in
Butner, both state-run facilities, which are being closed. City of High Point
officials were informed of the ruling on March 14. In a statement, Pablo E.
Paez, GEO group vice president, said that the company will not be opening a
hospital in High Point after all. “We can confirm that our proposed project
in High Point will not be moving forward,” Paez's statement read. “We are
disappointed Š and are very appreciative of the support we received from a
number of community organizations and leaders.” Sources report that DHHS
needed more information from GEO Care before awarding the license. Since it
was a county-run facility, the former Evergreens did not pay taxes. The
hospital would have brought the city an estimated $200,000 in annual
property taxes for the 22-acre, $3.1 million property. The company planned
to bring 185 jobs to the hospital after a renovation of approximately $20
million, which would include local labor for the work. The hospital could
have been the impetus for economic redevelopment for the area. The total
annual economic impact would have been $40 million, according to a company
spokesman. Although “For Sale” signs for the site, still owned by Guilford
County, remained up during the state application period, the sale was
contingent on the DHHS decision. The High Point Planning and Zoning
Commission originally approved a rezoning attempt that would have blocked
the hospital from coming to the area. Those sentiments were echoed by both
Mayor Becky Smothers and the High Point City Council. But after Planning
and Zoning overturned their original decision on Dec. 13, 2011 and the
Guilford County Board of Commissioners filed a protest petition on Dec. 14
opposing the rezoning, City Council had to re-think their options.
Reversing their earlier inclination and following the lead of the P&Z,
the council denied the zoning change at a Dec. 16 public hearing, opening
the door for the Florida-based GEO Care to locate in High Point. Although
the vote was split 4-4, with Smothers breaking the tie favoring rezoning,
two-thirds of the council members, or seven votes, were needed to approve
the rezoning request for it to pass. Recent reports in the media indicated
several lawsuits had been filed against the company relating to conditions
in its hospitals/prisons in other states.
March 19, 2012 The
Business Journal
Florida-based GEO Care confirmed Monday that it is not moving forward with
a proposal to develop a behavioral health facility in High Point. "We
appreciate the support we received from several community leaders and
organizations in High Point and are disappointed that the project will not
be moving forward," Pablo Paez, vice president of corporate relations
for GEO Group said in a statement. Last week, officials from the N.C.
Department of Health and Human Services said they were still in
conversations with GEO Care about converting the former Evergreens site at
Greensboro Road near U.S. 311/Interstate 74 into a 90-bed mental health
hospital, despite canceling its "request for proposals"
evaluation process. GEO Care was the only company to submit a proposal to
the state and the facility would have housed patients currently kept at
Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh, which is scheduled to close. GEO Care's
proposal had faced opposition from some members of the High Point City
Council, who were concerned that a mental health facility was not the best
use for the property. A move in December to rezone the property to prevent
its use as a mental health facility was unsuccessful.
Fillyaw
Correctional Facility, Newton County, Texas
December
21, 2007 KFDM
KFDM News has learned a man cut his throat on razor wire while trying to
escape Friday from the Fillyaw Correctional Center in Newton County.
Sheriff Joe Walker tells KFDM News 40 year old Larry Waylon Metcalf is
being treated inside the correctional center for his injuries. Walker says guards
called the Newton County Sheriff's Office and asked for help with an
escape. Metcalf climbed over serpentine wire, got over the fence and was
able to get outside the compound, but Walker says within minutes his
officers and guards caught Metcalf. He says Metcalf was "cut
everywhere," including his throat, and is receiving medical treatment
in the private prison.
Florence
West Correctional Facility, Florence, Arizona
October 4, 2010 Arizona Republic
A federal agency filed a lawsuit last week alleging a private company that
operates prisons in Florence sexually harassed and retaliated against
female employees. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's
lawsuit against GEO Group Inc. alleged the company and some male managers
supervising correctional officers fostered a "sexual and sex-based
hostile work environment" at two Florence prisons that allowed
harassment and retaliation against female employees. GEO Group, which
operates Arizona State Prison-Florence and Central Arizona Correctional Facility
in Florence, declined to comment on the EEOC lawsuit. The EEOC alleges GEO
Group was aware but failed to take measures to prevent the harassment. The
EEOC case stems from a harassment complaint that a female employee filed in
June 2009 with the Arizona Civil Rights Division and the EEOC. The lawsuit
alleged the prison operator retaliated against her after she filed her
complaint. The EEOC said the male employees engaged in verbal and physical
harassment of female employees. A male manager grabbed and pinched a female
employee, and a female employee was forced on a desk and kissed and touched
by a male employee, the lawsuit says. The federal agency reportedly
attempted to reach a voluntary settlement with the GEO Group before filing
the lawsuit. The Arizona Attorney General's Office previously filed suit
and investigated complaints against the prison operator. The EEOC is
authorized under federal law to collect compensatory and punitive damages,
which are not available under Arizona law. It was the fourth discrimination
lawsuit announced last week by the EEOC against Arizona employers. The
federal agency also filed lawsuits against a Peoria car dealership, a
Bullhead City Mexican eatery and a Phoenix restaurant. Mary Jo O'Neill,
regional attorney for the EEOC's Phoenix office, said the agency filed a
batch of lawsuits last week due to work-flow issues. Agency attorneys
focused on new cases after they finished other duties such as trials and
filing motions in existing cases.
December 10, 2008 Casa Grande Valley News
A man who escaped from a Florence prison in 2006 has been sentenced to
four additional years in prison. Christopher Richard Breiland, 39, was
sentenced Nov. 3 by Pinal County Superior Court Judge Pro Tem Bradley Soos
to the minimum term with credit for 605 days served. Restitution is to be
determined. The term is to be served concurrently with four sentences in
Maricopa County, according to a plea agreement that noted Breiland would
get a total of at least 15 years in prison. Breiland, 36, was discovered
missing from the privately operated Florence West prison on May 4, 2006
after prison-issued orange pants and blood were found on the perimeter
fence. Blankets and clothing was used in his bunk to make it look like he
was sleeping while he climbed a recreational gate and squeezed through a
barbed wire fence as other inmates watched through a window to see if he
made it. Authorities found Breiland after he slammed the car he was driving
into three other vehicles May 13, 2006 during a pursuit in Phoenix,
injuring himself and four others. No serious injuries were reported.
Breiland was serving sentences for theft, misconduct involving a weapon and
forgery, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections. He was due to
be released Dec. 30, 2006. Florence West is a private prison owned by GEO
Group Inc. and by operated Correctional Services Corporation. As provided
by state law, all costs associated with Breiland's apprehension will be
charged to GEO Group.
May 18, 2006 AP
Authorities found an escaped convict after he slammed his car into three
other vehicles late Saturday afternoon in Phoenix. Christopher Breiland's
capture was a joint effort by the Arizona Department of Corrections and the
Phoenix and Scottsdale Police Departments. Breiland, 36, was discovered
missing from the privately-operated Florence West prison on May 4 after
prison-issued orange pants and blood were found on the perimeter fence. On
Saturday, Breiland fled police as they tried to pull him over. Police
stopped the chase after Breiland began driving recklessly. But Breiland
still ran into three vehicles, injuring himself and four others. All were
examined at a hospital and were expected to be OK. Breiland was serving
sentences for theft, misconduct involving a weapon and forgery, according
to the Arizona Department of Corrections. He was due to be released Dec.
30, but now faces new charges. Florence West is a private prison owned by
the GEO Group Inc. and by operated Correctional Services Corporation. As
provided by state law, all costs associated with Breiland's apprehension
will be charged to GEO Group.
May 14, 2006 KPHO
Authorities have found an inmate who escaped from a private prison in
Florence May 4th. Thirty-six-year-old Christopher Breiland went missing
from Florence West after prison-issued orange pants and blood were found on
the perimeter fence. Breiland has been in prison since 1997, when he was
sentenced to six and a half years for theft, misconduct involving a weapon
and forgery. He was due to be released next December 30th. Breiland was
apprehended by Phoenix Police Department at 5:05 p-m today. His capture was
a joint effort between the Arizona Department of Corrections and the
Phoenix and Scottsdale Police Departments.
May 5, 2006 Arizona Daily Star
A state prisoner escaped Thursday from a private prison in Florence,
officials said. Christopher Breiland, 36, escaped from the Florence West
facility sometime before 8 a.m., when the staff noticed prison-issued
orange pants and blood on a fence, authorities said. The prison was locked
down and a count was taken, confirming that someone escaped. Search teams
and tracking dogs were deployed, and Arizona Department of Corrections
investigators were at the Florence facility, but Breiland had not been
found by 7 p.m. Thursday. Breiland was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison
in 1997 after convictions on three felony counts: theft, weapons misconduct
and forgery. He was due for release on Dec. 30. He was also convicted of a
separate theft count, which netted him a nine-year sentence that was to
begin in 1998, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections Web site.
This was not the first time Breiland had escaped, according to the DOC Web
site. He also fled last Dec. 24. He is white, 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighs
160 pounds, and has brown eyes and brown hair. He has a cross tattooed on
his left shoulder.
May 4, 2006 The Arizona Republic
Schools were locked down for hours Thursday as law enforcement and
prison officials searched south of town for an inmate who escaped from a
private prison. As of late Thursday afternoon, he had still not been found.
Christopher Breiland, 36, was discovered missing from Florence West, owned
by Boca Raton, Fla.-based Geo Group Inc., at about 8 a.m., according to the
Arizona Department of Corrections. Orange prison pants and blood were found
on a perimeter fence. Florence Police, Pinal County sheriff's deputies,
corrections officers, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and K-9
units are looking for Breiland. He's described as 5-foot-9, 160 pounds, with
brown eyes and hair. He has a cross tattooed on his left shoulder. Breiland
had been considered a low-security inmate because he was in for a
non-violent offense and was set to be released in December, said Pablo
Paez, a Geo Group spokesman. Breiland was sentenced to six-and-a-half years
in 1997 for felony convictions for theft, misconduct involving a weapon and
forgery, according to the Corrections Department. "(But) when someone
escapes from prison, you have to proceed with caution," Paez said.
Florence High School was locked down from 9:14 a.m. until 1:15 p.m., said
Lt. Walt Hunter, with the Florence Police Department. Florence Elementary
School and the town's Head Start program were also locked down.
Florida
Civil Commitment Center, Arcadia, Florida
May
3, 2011 Herald Tribune
The state has moved to revoke the license of a mental health counselor
at an Arcadia facility for sexually violent predators, almost a year after
she was accused of having sex 17 times with an inmate. Leanne Paynter, 42,
resigned from her job as a group therapy leader at the Florida Civil
Commitment Center in May 2010 after her employer learned of her
relationship with a resident in his 40s who had been convicted of sexual
battery. In April, the Department of Health petitioned the board that
oversees mental health counselors to discipline Paynter. According to the
petition, Paynter admitted she began making personal phone calls to the
inmate in September 2009, gave him a silver necklace and asked him to be
tested for HIV; then met with him in her office for sex 17 times. Security
cameras recorded the pair on four of these occasions. Paynter's former
employer, the GEO Group Inc., has managed the 720-bed facility since July
2006. It replaced another contractor when the center's high turnover rate
was attributed to female employees leaving their jobs after engaging in sex
with the offenders.
May 26, 2010 Highlands Today
A Sebring woman tendered her resignation at a DeSoto County treatment
facility for sexually violent predators after being arrested last week on a
charge of sexual misconduct with a resident. Leanne Paynter, 42, of 4426
Mercado Drive, Sebring, is accused of engaging in sexual activity with a
resident at the Florida Civil Commitment Center (FCCC), according to the
arrest report. The FCCC is a 660-bed secure treatment facility for sexual
predators and treats individuals who have been detained or civilly
committed under the Sexually Violent Predator Act, according to information
from The GEO Group Web site. It contracts with the Florida Department of
Children and Families. Investigators reportedly watched a May 7 security
video where the resident is allegedly seen going into a cubicle directly
across from Paynter's and then disappearing on the floor behind a divider
wall. Both Paynter and the man remained on the floor for several hours, the
report stated. The tape showed her leave the office at approximately 9:17
p.m. There were allegedly three previous dates where security video showed
Paynter and the man engaging in the same type of behavior. The warrant for
Paynter's arrest was obtained on May 19, the same day she went to the FCCC
to tender her resignation, according to the report. She declined to make
any statements about the allegations.
February 12, 2008 Sun-Herald
Deputies arrested Florida Civil Commitment Center resident George
Wilson Williams, 44, on charges related to aiding and abetting the recent
of escape of 59-year-old fellow center resident Bruce Young. Williams is
charged with escape while in lawful custody, principle in the first degree.
No bond is set. The center houses and treats some of Florida's worst sexual
predators -- who are involuntarily civilly committed by the state for an
indeterminate length of time in the remote, high-security facility. DeSoto
County Sheriff's Office reports say Young told interrogators it was
Williams who taught him about the construction of the center's fence and
how to bypass its alarm systems. The center has more than a dozen buildings
spread out on its campus, which lies near the DeSoto Correctional
Institution on State Road 70. A level-four security fence surrounds the
center with double razor-wire fences. Reports reveal Williams took part in
maintenance work at the facility and was familiar with how the center's
outer fences were installed. Williams reportedly knew the fence's
electronic surveillance beam stopped near a "sally-port" at the
south side at the facility, which is where Young breached the fence. Later,
Young said he chose that weak point based on Williams' information.
Williams denied giving any information to Young, and reports say he accused
Young of lying. Deputies told Williams he had nothing to gain by lying, to
which Williams said, "do what you have to do, and try and arrest me if
you want. The GEO Group, a private company specializing in sex offender
treatment, is contracted to administer the center for the Florida
Department of Children and Families. GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez said an
internal investigation into Young's escape is still under way. "Given
the security nature of the investigation, we may not be able to publicly
disclose findings," Paez said. "We will be taking the necessary
corrective actions in tandem with (the department). We are confident the
facility has taken the necessary steps, and will continue to take steps as
necessary, to insure to safety and security of the facility."
February 10, 2008 WINK
Escaped sexual predator Bruce Young has been captured by the Arcadia
Police Department. It is a story you saw first on WINK. The DeSoto County
Sheriff's Office tells WINK News, Young was captured just two blocks away
from their Sheriff's Headquarters. Arcadia Police tell WINK News Young was
spot running across a street. A patrolman questioned Young and asked for
his name. Young gave a fake name to the patrolman. The patrolman was able
to realize that it was in fact Young. Young was then taken into custody
without any incident. After being take into custody, Young requested a
drink of water. Young escaped from the Arcadia-based Florida Civil Commitment
Center. The center is run by private firm, GEO Group Incorporated.
Residents at the Florida Civil Commitment Center have served their time in
state prisons for the their crimes, but are considered to be too dangerous
to be released into the public.
February 9, 2008 St Petersburg Times
A man convicted of raping sedated patients at a Citrus County hospital
escaped from a detention center early Friday. Bruce Alan Young, 59,
disappeared about 1:30 a.m. from the Florida Civil Commitment Center in
Arcadia, southeast of Sarasota. Law enforcement from the DeSoto County
Sheriff's Office and the Department of Corrections used dogs to search for
Young all day but had not found him late Friday. He is considered
dangerous. Pablo Paez, a spokesman for the company that has run the center
since 2006, would not specify how Young escaped, saying the cause was under
investigation. This was the first escape since the company took over the
operation of the facility, which has 680 beds and houses 635 residents,
Paez said. DeSoto County Sheriff Vernon Keen told the Charlotte Sun that a
breach was found in the security fence, but deputies couldn't find a track
leading away from it. The center, which has held notorious criminals such
as "Hyde Park Rapist" Bobby Joe Helms, confines and treats sexual
offenders who have served their sentences but are considered too dangerous
to go free. The facility opened after the Legislature passed the Jimmy Ryce
Act, named for a 9-year-old Miami-Dade County boy who was killed by a child
molester, in 1998. It is the only facility of its kind in the state. When
the facility was run by a different contractor, Liberty Behavioral Health
Corp., state investigators reported a chaotic environment in which inmates
brewed alcohol, fought and bought drugs from corrupt staff members. In
2004, eight inmates sued the state, saying they did not receive the mental
health treatment that would help them get released. But the new contractor,
GEO Group Inc., has been doing a good job, Department of Children and
Families spokeswoman Erin Geraghty said.
April 14, 2007 Sun Herald
One state agency's requirement that a contractor running Florida's
treatment center for sexually violent predators must employ at least 30
certified prison guards has been blocked by another state agency. The
Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which certifies law enforcement
officers, has refused to certify any employees to work at the Florida Civil
Commitment Center in DeSoto County, even though the employees have
completed the courses and passed a test required for certification, state
officials confirmed this week. That creates a problem for GEO Care, the
contractor that runs the center for the state Department of Children and
Families. Under the terms of its DCF contract, GEO is required to employ
state- certified correctional officers to provide security within the
center's compound, located in a former state prison 10 miles east of
Arcadia. But the FDLE refused to certify GEO's correctional officer
trainees because their jobs at the civil center were not "sworn
positions," said Kristen Peruzluha, spokeswoman for the FDLE. The
state only certifies officers who are to be employed in law enforcement
positions -- and deactivates the certification for those who, for any
reason, fail to maintain such employment, Peruzluha said. "The issue
is simply that certified officers must be employed or must volunteer in
some capacity in a position that is designated as a law enforcement
position," said Al Zimmerman, spokesman for the DCF. "GEO is
exploring options to meet the requirement." For a number of FCCC
residents, however, the contract problem illustrates a conflict over
whether the center functions as a treatment center or prison, according to
Tom Panno, a resident of the FCCC. The center was established by the
Florida Legislature's 1998 Jimmy Ryce Act. The act calls for sexually
violent predators to be detained after they complete their prison sentences
in a secured institution for treatment and control. "The fundamental
issue here is the same," Panno said. "What are we? Are we a
mental health facility? Are we correctional?" The Supreme Court, in a
1995 Kansas decision, ruled that sexual offenders could be committed to an
institution after serving their prison terms, provided the purpose of the
commitment was for treatment, not punishment. Panno argues the FCCC exceeds
that legal boundary because treatment is limited and security is maximal.
Only about 150 of the center's 545 residents participate in treatment.
"This is more secure than any prison I've been in my life," added
Panno, who served in prison from 1986 to 2005 on convictions for kidnapping
and committing a lewd act upon a child. Panno said he spent time in the
facility before it was converted from a state prison into the treatment
center. The center is equipped with more fences and barbed wire, and the
movement of residents is more restricted now, he said. "Our movement
is restricted to almost nothing without escort," he said. "Now we
are treated like terrorists at Guantanamo." The DCF required GEO to
employ certified correctional officers when the company was hired to take
over the operation of the FCCC in July 2006. "A certified correctional
officer has been through the correctional officer academy and has extensive
training that is beneficial for security posts at FCCC," said Al
Zimmerman, spokesman for the DCF. Certified correctional officers have also
been employed at the center in the past. The center's former operator,
Liberty Health Care, hired a private security firm to provide 124 correctional
officers from February 2005 to June 2006. The officers were hired after the
state Department of Corrections intervened to quell a sit-in protest and
other disruptive activities within the facility. In June 2006, GEO hired
the DOC under a contract to provide security officers. That lasted until
last month, when the company planned to have its own employees certified
for the security role. Attempts to contact GEO officials at both the FCCC
and GEO headquarters in Boca Raton for comment were unsuccessful Thursday.
GEO Care is a subsidiary of GEO Group, which provides 48,000 beds in 58
institutions, including prisons, immigration detention facilities and
mental institutions in the U.S., Australia, South Africa and Canada. GEO
Care is paid about $20 million per year to operate the FCCC and build a $60
million, 660-bed facility, to be constructed near Arcadia in 2008. The
company also operates the South Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center in
Miami and the Treasure Coast Forensic Treatment Center in Martin County.
March 5, 2007 Herald Tribune
Inside a privately run treatment center here for pedophiles and rapists
who have completed their prison sentences, where they are supposed to
reflect on their crimes and learn to control their sexual urges, bikini
posters were pinned to walls. Two men took their shirts off, rubbed each
other’s backs and held hands, while others disappeared together into
dormitory rooms. Some of the sex offenders appeared to be drunk from
homemade “buck” liquor secretly brewed and sold here. And some of the
center’s employees, who openly ignored the breaking of rules (“As long as
they are happy, we let them go,” one explained), reported that a high
turnover rate among staff members was mostly because of female employees
leaving their jobs after having had sex with the offenders. These and other
observations were included in a memorandum composed in 2004 by six
employees on loan here from Pennsylvania. They had been dispatched by the
Liberty Behavioral Health Corporation, which ran the facility, the Florida
Civil Commitment Center, and a facility in Pennsylvania. Nineteen states
have laws that allow them to confine or restrict sex criminals beyond
prison in a trend that is expanding around the country, with legislators in
New York last week announcing agreement on a new civil commitment law
there. The courts have upheld the constitutionality of such laws in part
because they are meant to furnish treatment where possible. Most of the
states run their own centers to hold and treat such predators, generally
with meager results, but at a time when private solutions are popular for
prisons, toll roads and other state functions, a few have teamed with
private industry. Yet as the story of the center here in Arcadia reveals,
even a $19 million partnership between the state and a company that
describes itself as “a national leader in the field of specialized sex
offender treatment and management” failed to meet a central purpose:
treating sex offenders so they would be well enough to return to society.
“It was like walking into a war zone,” Jared Lamantia, one of the visiting
workers who signed the memorandum, recalled in an interview. “The residents
in that place ran the whole facility.” The memorandum is among thousands of
pages of public and private documents about the Florida center reviewed by
The New York Times, providing a rare window into the lives of civilly
committed sexual predators and the people who guard and treat them. While
programs like Florida’s are popular because they keep sex offenders locked
away past their prison terms, they cost far more than prison — in the case
of Florida, on average twice as much — with no measurable benefit beyond
confinement. For more than seven years, Liberty was in charge of almost
every facet of the Florida center, where more than 500 men are held beyond
their criminal sentences in a crowded former prison surrounded by cow
pastures. That ended last June in a cloud of claims and counterclaims,
investigations and legislative hearings. By the end, after the state did
not renew Liberty’s contract, the Florida Department of Children and
Families was virtually at war with the company, with each side pinning
blame on the other — the state accused of failing to properly finance the
center, the company accused of failing to manage it. “The place is a
cesspool of despair and depression and drug abuse — of people being lost,”
said Don Sweeney, a mental health counselor in St. Petersburg who treats
some former residents of the center, reflecting on Liberty’s tenure there.
Many outside experts, even some of the center’s critics, said the state’s
insufficient financing of the center made Florida as much to blame as
Liberty for the many failings, many of which are common in other states.
Florida spends less than $42,000 a year per resident, one of the lowest
rates in the country. “There was no money to support that facility and to
do what had to be done,” Dr. Robert Bellino, a psychiatrist who worked at
the center here, said of the company. “It’s a political football. They were
always turning the screws on Liberty — ‘Cut this, cut that, don’t spend
this, don’t spend that.’ ” Ambitious Private Contractors: As legislators
across the nation have answered public outrage about heinous sex crimes
with civil commitment laws, a bevy of companies and well-paid specialists
have cropped up like constellations around the expanding demand. Liberty
Behavioral Health and Liberty Healthcare Corporation, affiliates with
common ownership, have emerged as the most ambitious private contractors in
the commitment center arena. As recently as last year, the affiliates had
accumulated contracts worth up to $26 million a year in California,
Illinois, Pennsylvania and Florida, which was the biggest both in terms of
compensation and responsibility. Growing out of a company that provided
emergency room employees to hospitals starting in the mid 1970s, Liberty
Healthcare Corporation was founded in 1986 as a provider of mental health,
developmental disability and primary care services. In its earliest days, it
had no experience treating sex offenders and, its officials said, there was
never a particular moment when company officials said to one another,
“Let’s go into the sex offender business.” Yet as Shan Jumper, Liberty’s
clinical director in Illinois, tells it, after “analyzing market trends and
seeing what areas they could jump into,” Liberty executives apparently
recognized the potential. By 1998, the company, which is privately held and
based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., won its first contract to provide services
inside a civil commitment center, in Illinois. Rick Robinson, executive
vice president and chief operating officer of Liberty Healthcare, described
the move as a natural outgrowth of its work, which included creating an
adolescent sex offender unit in an Arkansas hospital in 1995. The states
that have hired private companies reason that outside experts have more
background in the complex realm of detaining and treating sex offenders
than most public workers, and in several states where Liberty holds contracts,
officials say they have been impressed with the company’s expertise. But at
the Florida center, even beyond a string of embarrassing failures — an
escape, the death of an offender after a fight with another over a bag of
chips, a sit-in that the state ultimately quashed with hundreds of law
enforcement officers — the treatment record was poor. In Liberty’s tenure,
only one of the hundreds of men here progressed far enough in therapy to
earn a recommendation from company clinicians that he be released. At
various points, many residents were not attending the group therapy
specifically addressing sex offending; in May 2005, 35 percent of the
center’s 484 residents fell into that category. In written responses to
questions from The New York Times, as well as court depositions,
legislative testimony, e-mail messages, letters and memorandums, Liberty
defended its treatment record, blamed Florida as insufficiently financing
its commitment program and, for years, failing to define exactly what it
expected of Liberty. Early Praise and Promise: Liberty’s early tenure in
Florida won praise from independent evaluators who said the treatment
program showed promise. Over the first four years the state asked for few
changes, and on matters such as the treatment of mentally ill residents,
had a “just do the best you can” attitude, as Susan Keenan Nayda, vice
president of operations for behavioral health programs at Liberty, said in
a court deposition. But problems began to surface publicly in June 2000 in
dramatic fashion when a resident escaped in a helicopter that an accomplice
had landed inside the center’s perimeter. The helicopter crashed after
departing with the escapee, who was caught 26 hours later in a canal with
the pilot, 2 handguns and 28 rounds of ammunition. The pilot, a longtime
friend, had visited the escapee 10 times in the five months before the
escape. The bizarre incident raised worrisome questions and the first hints
of a conflict over the center’s combined goals of security and treatment.
Too few Liberty staff members were in the yard when the escape occurred, a
report by state officials found, and the center’s director had ordered
razor wire removed from a security fence because, he said, the wire was
damaging volleyballs from a nearby court the residents used. The report
also complained about the state’s role, questioning why corrections
officers, who were in charge of security on the perimeter, were unarmed.
Commitment centers across the country have wavered between following the
legal mandate to run a therapeutic program, as laid out by the courts, and
the politically acceptable alternative of a more prisonlike one. In
Florida, the conflict emerged again and again. The state’s emphasis swung,
at various points, toward and away from a “correctional” approach, company
officials suggested. At one point, Ms. Nayda told a Florida State Senate
committee that even she was not entirely sure what the center was trying to
be. “There’s a little bit of confusion,” Ms. Nayda said. “What is this
place? Is it a prison? Is it a mental health center? A residential
treatment facility where people are clients? What is it? We ask that
question sometimes too. We really don’t have a lot of guidance around what
it is the state wants the facility to be, and we would encourage the state
to look at that.” By the end of 2000, the state moved its civil commitment
center from Martin County on the state’s East Coast to its current home
here in Arcadia, a 14-acre compound with eight dormitories and other
buildings. From there, the population rose swiftly, even as staff levels
mostly stayed put. Liberty repeatedly sought more money from the state for
the center’s operations, for special treatment of its large severely
mentally ill population and for creation of a supervised release program.
Asked to respond to Liberty’s complaints about financing, Rod Hall,
director of the mental health program office for the state Department of
Children and Families, said, “The funding provided to operate the facility
was the amount negotiated and agreed upon by Liberty prior to its signing
of the contracts.” Liberty’s monthly reports began suggesting that the
company was feeling the crunch. The reports noted frequent troubling
incidents: residents having sex, assaulting staff members and each another,
hiding knives in their rooms. Liberty also said it faced an unusual
challenge in Florida, where hundreds of the center’s residents are not
formally committed, but awaiting trials for commitment. These “detainees,”
the company said, often reject treatment to focus on their legal battles.
Some critics, meanwhile, began questioning the treatment. Ted Shaw, a
forensic psychologist who evaluates civilly committed sex offenders,
complained that Liberty held men back in treatment as punishment for minor
infractions. Liberty officials deny the allegations, but Michael Canty, a
child molester who was detained at the center but was never formally
committed, concurred with Dr. Shaw, saying Liberty staff members would
“harass, taunt — try to get you in trouble so you would get kicked out of
treatment.” Rising Tensions, and Violence: By the time the six workers from
Liberty’s facility in Pennsylvania arrived here in 2004, tensions inside
the center and with the state authorities were reaching a peak. In April of
that year, a mentally ill man jumped off the center’s roof and was injured
after staff members rushed at him to get him down. In June, a resident
stabbed another 12 times and the staff had residents mop up the blood,
destroying evidence before outside law enforcement officials arrived, an
internal report showed. “It was basically a free-for-all prison, out of
control,” said Josh Stiles, another of the visiting workers from
Pennsylvania. Liberty officials said they investigated and immediately took
“appropriate actions” regarding all that their Pennsylvania employees
reported. But they also said the atmosphere in the center at the time was
“probably very conducive for allegations that were either unfounded or
exaggerated,” and noted that a second group from the Pennsylvania facility,
including its director, returned to Florida several weeks later and
reported no similar problems. Nonetheless, Lynda Sommers, a consultant
hired by the state to monitor the facility over a number of years, also
found it in disarray in the period after the second Pennsylvania group. Ms.
Sommers reported suspected sexual relationships between staff members and
offenders, staff members who slept on the job, crumbling facilities, and
vague policies on punishing troublemakers and treating the mentally ill.
Liberty’s own internal investigator, Kenneth Dudding, was also deeply
critical of hiring decisions for low-level staff members, whose salaries
started at a base rate of $12.89 an hour. “You could have worked at
Wal-Mart last week, they put you in front of a computer to read policy for
a few hours, then they send you to a dorm and let you go,” said Mr.
Dudding, who left after clashing with Liberty’s management. As for female
security workers, Mr. Dudding said they were easily manipulated by the sex
offenders. “It’s like putting candy in front of a baby,” he said. Mr.
Dudding said he ultimately called a state whistle-blower’s hot line. The
inspector general of the Department of Children and Families investigated
and issued stinging reports, saying that the facility’s safety director had
tried to cover up wrongdoing by tampering with evidence, that an employee
was suspected of selling marijuana, and that alcohol was being made and
sold there. Liberty officials said the safety director was fired for “failure
to properly function in her role” before they received the inspector
general’s critique, and they said they fired the worker suspected of drug
sales — on whom no contraband was found — for an unrelated reason. Then a
group of residents, angry when the fire marshal demanded that they not have
so many personal items, moved into a yard. For months, the staff could not
persuade them to go back to their rooms, creating a scene one law
enforcement officer called “Woodstock gone amok.” Liberty said it first
asked for help from the Department of Corrections and was turned down, only
to ultimately get a response the company called “excessive.” In February
2005, several hundred corrections and law enforcement officers in riot gear
arrived and restored order. That spring, Liberty’s requests to the state
grew more insistent. The company asked for $31.1 million for the next
fiscal year; it received $18.7 million, the same as the year before. By
April, having described an “alarming” set of “chronic and serious” issues
at the facility, the state was preparing to end its relationship with
Liberty. New Company Takes Over: In the end, the struggle between security
and treatment may help explain Liberty’s doomed tenure at the Florida
center. “I had imagined that we would be trying to do research or publish
or be innovative or at least use state-of-the-art equipment,” said Dean
Cauley, a former therapist at the center. “When I arrived, the equipment
wasn’t being used, tests were outdated and treatment was very much secondary
to maintaining security.” Liberty officials said that treating patients had
always been their company’s reason for being. Most of the company leaders,
including Dr. Herbert T. Caskey, the founder, were originally clinicians,
not business people. If states wanted simply to lock up, not treat, the
worst sexual predators, Kenneth Carabello, Liberty’s director of regional
operations for California and the western United States, said, “We’d let
somebody else do this.” Despite the center’s history, Don Ryce, the father
of Jimmy Ryce, the 9-year-old boy whose 1995 rape and murder spurred the
Florida Legislature to adopt a civil commitment law in his name three years
later, said the law’s “overall intention” had been accomplished. “There are
a lot of people who are confined who otherwise I guarantee you would be out
there reoffending,” Mr. Ryce said, though he added, “I’m not going to
pretend there aren’t serious problems that need to be addressed.” As
Liberty departed, Florida picked another private company, the GEO Group
Inc., to run the center here. The GEO Group, once known as Wackenhut
Corrections Corporation, has more than 23 years of experience running
prisons. Of 63 centers GEO operates worldwide, 58 are correctional and
detention facilities. Last fall, under GEO’s watch, a new glimpse of
turmoil began emerging. Early one morning, a resident said he was attacked
by another in his bunk. His screaming, kicking and banging on his door went
unanswered for almost 15 minutes before staff members responded, other residents
said. GEO officials said workers from the company and the Department of
Corrections “responded promptly” to what GEO described as a “resident upon
resident” fight, an assessment echoed in a DeSoto County sheriff’s report.
But some 100 residents signed a letter calling for an end to the practice
of housing two residents in a single room. The center “is supposed to be a
mental health facility, not a prison,” the residents wrote. “We are to be
treated as patients, not state convicts.”
November 2, 2006 Sun-Herald
At about 3 a.m. Saturday, many of the 190 residents incarcerated two to
a cell in "D-Dorm" at the Florida Civil Commitment Center awoke
to the sounds of "screaming and banging," as one man began
assaulting another in his bunk, according to written and verbal reports
from residents. The assault raged on for almost 15 minutes, prompting
complaints from the residents that the FCCC is overcrowded and
understaffed. More than 100 of the D-Dorm residents signed a letter Monday
expressing their concerns. The letter was sent to Dr. Teion L. Wells
Harrison, director of the sexually violent predator program for the Florida
Department of Children and Families. The letter calls for an end to
"double-celling," the practice of placing two residents in a
single cell. The residents also request that GEO Group, the contractor
hired by the DCF to operate the facility, provide more security staffers so
they can be "on the floor at all times roving from quad to quad."
"Disturbingly, the victim cried out for emergency assistance for
almost 15 minutes; screaming, kicking and banging his cell door, without
staff response," stated the letter. The DCF is responsible for
carrying out the provisions of the state's 1998 Jimmy Ryce Act, which calls
for sexual offenders with mental disorders to be committed to an
institution for control and treatment after they serve their prison terms.
The DCF in July replaced the former contractor, Liberty, with GEO Group.
The Oct. 28 assault was the third in two days at the center, according to
the letter. The other assaults included two back-to-back fights between
residents in Quad 2 of F-Dorm on Oct. 26. That section of the dorm houses
those with severe mental illnesses or "special needs," according
to the letter. In the most recent assault, a DeSoto County Sheriff's deputy
was dispatched the day after the incident to respond to a report of simple
battery.
July 13, 2006 Sun-Herald
The Florida Civil Commitment Center near Arcadia underwent a changing of
the guard this week -- without changing many of the guards. A new
contractor, the GEO Group of Boca Raton, has taken over the operation of
the facility from the former contractor, Liberty of Philadelphia. But GEO
has hired 182 of Liberty's former employees, under a 90-day probation
agreement in which the employees have to prove themselves, said Timothy
Budz, GEO facility administrator. "We did that in three days,"
Budz said Wednesday. "The transition has progressed very well."
Established by the Legislature's 1998 Jimmy Ryce Act, the center houses
some 545 violence sex offenders. It is located 10 miles east of Arcadia in
a former state prison.
June 8, 2006 Sun-Herald
The troubled Florida Civil Commitment Center will soon be under new management.
The Florida Department of Children and Families Tuesday issued a notice of
its intent to award a contract to the GEO Group Inc. and its subsidiary,
GEO Care, to run the 545-bed institution for sexually violent predators,
located 10 miles east of Arcadia. GEO would replace Liberty Behavioral
Health, which has operated the facility for the past six years. Liberty's
contract expires June 30. The proposed deal calls for GEO to take over the
facility in January. "We are looking forward to working with the state
and the community in bringing high-quality management services to this
community," said Pablo Paez, GEO spokesman.
June 2, 2006 Sun-Herald
When its contract expires June 30, the contractor operating a state treatment
center for sexually violent predators near Arcadia will be shown the door.
The Florida Department of Children and Families, which manages the Florida
Civil Commitment Center, will not retain Liberty Behavioral Health to run
the facility until a new contractor can be hired, said Tim Bottcher,
spokesman for the Florida Department of Children and Families. The process
to award a new contract and build a new facility could take six months or
more. To run the facility in the interim, the state will assign perhaps
dozens of Department of Corrections officers from prisons in surrounding
counties to provide security. And a temporary employee service will provide
other workers, Bottcher indicated. Technically, Liberty is still in the
running for the new contract. But the DCF's inspector general in a past
investigation cited numerous incidents of violent assaults, drug abuse,
alcohol bootlegging and inappropriate behavior involving both residents and
staffers. "I don't think it's any secret we haven't been happy with
Liberty's performance as far as the current contract is concerned,"
Bottcher said. The change in center management has Liberty's local
employees worried about both their jobs and the treatment of the residents,
said John Brosnihan, a security supervisor for Liberty. Liberty was the
only bidder at the time the center was started. A competing firm had
declined to bid because of the facility proposed for the center -- in a
defunct state prison, an officer of the firm, Geo Group, said in a past
interview. In 2005, the Legislature passed a bill that authorized the DCF
to hire a contractor to both build and operate a new 600-bed center. The
DCF's bidding process was derailed, however, after Liberty challenged the
bid specifications for alleged bid-rigging. That litigation was recently
resolved and now the bidding selection process will get under way, Bottcher
said. Liberty and the Geo Group have submitted bids. Bottcher said a site
for the new facility has not been identified, but it will likely be located
within the Arcadia area. Prison Health Services will be hired to provide
health care and clinical treatment until the contract is awarded. The DCF
is still "in talks" with a temporary employment service to fill
other roles in the interim, Bottcher said.
Florida Correctional Privatization Commission,
Tallahassee, Florida
June 26, 2007 Tallahassee Democrat
Investigators said Monday there was no criminal wrongdoing in $12.7
million worth of ''questionable or excessive costs'' paid to two companies
that run privatized prisons. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement report
said members of the old Correctional Privatization Commission, along with
top staff aides, may have had some meal tabs picked up by officials of The
GEO Group Inc. and Corrections Corporation of America. But it said the
inspector general of the Department of Management Services did not allege
that the now-defunct commission went easy on the two companies in exchange
for any favors. Ken Kopczynski, a lobbyist for the Police Benevolent Association,
said the FDLE report ''is not surprising.'' He said the PBA, an avid critic
of privatization, thinks contract administration has been lax but not
criminal. Gov. Charlie Crist ordered the FDLE investigation Jan. 31, four
weeks after he took office. When DMS took over contract administration for
five privatized prisons in 2004, when the Correctional Privatization
Commission was abolished, Inspector General Steve Rumph did an
investigation that indicated the commission had failed to enforce some
contract provisions. His report in mid-2005 said the state paid $4.4
million for vacant staff positions and waived staffing patterns that
resulted in $290,000 in added costs to the state. It also said GEO was paid
$3.4 million in excessive ''competitive area differential'' payments for
staff in high-cost regions and that CCA was overpaid for maintenance and
repair at Gadsden Correctional Facility. Amounts and justification for
several items were disputed by the companies. DMS did not claim that all of
the $12.7 million was overpaid, but that the figure represented costs which
''could have been avoided'' with proper contract supervision by the defunct
commission. DMS last year demanded repayment of $357,520 from GEO and
settled for $290,952, but the state is still negotiating a $3.6 million
overpayment dispute with CCA.
May 3, 2007 St Petersburg Times
Three months after Gov. Charlie Crist ordered an investigation of some
$4.5-million in overpayments to two companies that operate private prisons
for the state, those same companies will be the only ones permitted to bid
on expanding and building another facility. The state's budget calls for
384 new beds to be housed in a medium security private prison, estimated to
cost between $15-million and $20-million, and has limited the bidding for
those beds to the two companies that currently contract with the state.
Those companies are GEO Group of Boca Raton and Corrections Corp. of
America of Nashville. Two state audits have indicated the state had paid
GEO Group and CCA more than $4.5-million for vacant jobs and other
questionable expenses. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now
investigating. Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, a member of the Senate committee
that funds jails and prisons, and who first called for the investigation
into GEO and CCA, said that a tight budget year meant that the state had to
change the way it thought about providing more beds. "It would be nice
to have options for new vendors that may not be in the process, because
that provides for better competition, " Crist said. "But toward
the end of the budgeting process, when money was very tight, we decided to
go ahead and just award new beds to existing sites because it's
cheaper." Sen. Crist said he's confident that Gov. Charlie Crist and
Corrections Secretary Jim McDonough will keep a close eye on the projects.
"We have a new governor and he has an interest in this subject area,
" Crist said. The budget is an up or down vote on the entire
$72-billion document. Gov. Charlie Crist does have the ability to veto
certain line items, but to veto the language limiting the bids would mean
vetoing an $84-million pot of money for all private prison operations. Both
Gov. Crist and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink have criticized the
handling of contracts with GEO and CCA. The Department of Management
Services, which inherited the contracts from the now defunct Correctional
Privatization Commission, recently reached a $402, 501 settlement with GEO
but is still negotiating with CCA. Heather Smith, a spokeswoman for the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said the investigation is ongoing.
"They've got issues with these vendors and concerns with some of the
things done in the past, and yet they're giving them more beds, " said
Ken Kopczynski, lobbyist for the Florida Police Benevolent Association,
which represents public corrections officers. CCA marketing director Steve
Owen said that the investigation concentrates on events before 2005 and
that CCA has since shown the state an ability to meet its needs. "We
do think we have a good record for bringing beds online quickly, "
Owen said. The budget also says that private prison contractors, including
those under investigation, can compete to build three additional "work
camp" prisons, each with 432 beds - a total of 1, 296 beds. These
facilities would each cost about $9-million to build, according to
Department of Corrections estimates. The work camps are a new idea that
Secretary McDonough recently pitched to help reduce recidivism. The work
camps are for those sentenced to fewer than 12 months in prison who would
spend much of their time digging ditches and doing other types of manual
labor. Some would also get drug treatment. While the work camps will be
competitively bid, several in the prison industry acknowledged that
existing private prisons will have a competitive advantage in winning such
contracts. That's because they can offer to put them next to existing jails
or prisons facilities, which, again, is cheaper than building them from the
ground up. McDonough, who was at the state Capitol on Wednesday, said he is
concerned about the GEO and CCA contracts, but he plans to keep an eye on
these prisons and the money to build them, no matter who is running them.
"I'm always keeping an eye on the inmates, because I see them as my
inmates, by law, " McDonough said.
January 31, 2007 AP
Gov. Charlie Crist ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on
Wednesday to conduct a preliminary investigation into more than $4.5
million in alleged overpayments to two companies that operate private
prisons for the state. The contracts with GEO Group of Boca Raton and
Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America were signed by
the now-defunct Correctional Privatization Commission. Crist sent a letter
to FDLE Commissioner Gerald M. Bailey directing him to "conduct a
preliminary investigation to determine whether any criminal violations have
occurred." The Department of Management Services, which inherited the
contracts, recently reached a $402,501 settlement with GEO but is still
negotiating with CCA. Management Services Secretary Linda South, in a
statement Friday, blamed the excessive payments on concessions the
commission had included in the contracts. The commission was abolished by
the Legislature in 2004. Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said
Wednesday that she asked her staff what went wrong and received the same
answer. "The contract was so poorly written and so poorly conceived
that we were only able to verify $400,000 in overpayments even though we
know there were huge abuses through the auditing procedures," Sink
said. "We had virtually no legal standing to go back and get back from
the taxpayers the dollars that we deserved." Audits concluded the
state paid for vacant jobs and other questionable expenses. Telephone
messages left at the offices of the two companies after hours Wednesday
were not immediately returned. GEO runs the Moore Haven and Southbay
correctional facilities and has a contract to run a new one at Graceville.
CCA operates correctional facilities in Lake City, Panama City and Quincy.
State Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, who is not related to the governor, last
week urged FDLE to investigate the relationship between the commission and
contractors.
January 27, 2007 Tallahassee Democrat
The first definition of "oversight" involves supervision, as
in the oversight of a contract by a state agency; the second involves a
careless mistake or omission, as in, "Sorry for my oversight. I'll
straighten it out right away." The problem with a settlement between
the state and a private prison contractor that was one of two firms that
were overpaid $4.5 million is that it's not at all clear which kind of
oversight was in play. But if it's the first, the Department of Management
Services' agreement with a Boca Raton company called GEO Group was highly
questionable and very possibly a lousy deal for Florida taxpayers. DMS'
agreement with the company calls for the collection by the state of
$402,501 to settle previous claims. That comes to about 10 cents on your
dollar that the state decided was a sensible arrangement - although the
state is still negotiating with a second contractor, Corrections
Corporation of America, which also received overpayments. It's no wonder
that Sen. Victor Crist, R-Temple Terrace, was taken aback this week, saying
the settlement "almost seems criminal." He asked the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement to investigate. That's a reasonable request.
If there's more here than meets the eye, taxpayers would love to know. If
the rest of the story smells just as fishy, taxpayers should know that,
too. There's little question that politics and past mismanagement are
helping to cloud the picture. The original contract was handled by the
now-defunct Correctional Privatization Commission, an agency created to
oversee prisons in the state that are run by private companies. That board
was legislated out of existence in 2004 and the commission's oversight
responsibilities transferred to DMS. Given the performance of the
Correctional Privatization Commission, that was a smart move. But the news
about the DMS agreement with GEO now raises real questions about that
agency's ability to effectively manage contracts with private prison
companies. "It was not an honest mistake," Ken Kopczynski, a
lobbyist for the Police Benevolent Association who's been tracking private
prison contracts for more than 10 years, said of GEO. "I don't think
it takes a rocket scientist to know that if a bank teller gives you $100
more than you are legally liable to receive, you need to give the money
back." The politically influential PBA, which represents state
corrections officers, has been the most consistent opponent of prison
privatization. It maintained for years that the defunct commission had
inappropriately cozy ties to the industry it was supposed to regulate - a
charge that Mr. Crist, the Senate justice appropriations chairman, echoed
last week. Mr. Kopczynski said he asked FDLE to investigate last year, but
without success. But an investitgation is still appropriate - before any
more bad deals are cut on taxpayers' behalf.
January 26, 2007 St Petersburg Times
Alarmed by millions of dollars in overpayments the state made to a
private prison contractor, a state senator called for a criminal
investigation Thursday. The payments have been known since 2005, but a
settlement was reported this week in which the contractor will pay a
fraction of what it received. Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, said he read a
story about the settlement, and "it just didn't rest well with me."
Crist asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to look at the
contract between GEO Group of Boca Raton and the state Correctional
Privatization Commission, which was disbanded in 2004 amid allegations of
mismanagement and cronyism. A spokeswoman for the FDLE declined to say
whether the agency would investigate. A 2005 state audit revealed that over
an eight-year period GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America,
another private contractor, were overpaid $4.5-million. The Correctional
Privatization Commission also gave GEO $5-million in cost-of-living salary
adjustments that, auditors said, were not fully passed on to employees. At
the Quincy facility, Corrections Corp., of Nashville, got $2.9-million more
for facility maintenance than it spent. This month, GEO agreed to pay
$402,501 under a deal reached with the Department of Management Services,
which took over oversight of the contracts. Crist called the payback
"unacceptable," but said his main focus was on what seems a too
cozy relationship between the former Correctional Privatization Commission
and the contractors. A GEO spokesman did not return a call Thursday.
Corrections Corp. has not reached a deal with the state.
January 25, 2007 Tallahassee Democrat
The head of a Senate budget committee today called for a criminal
investigation of overpayments to two companies running private prisons for
the state. Sen. Victor Crist, R-Temple Terrace, said he is not satisfied
with a $402,501 settlement negotiated by the Department of Management
Services this month with GEO Group, a Boca Raton-based company that runs
prisons for the state in South Bay and Moore Haven. The state is still
negotiating reimbursement of overpayments with Corrections Corp. of
America, the Nashville company that runs prisons at Quincy, Lake City and
Panama City. "This almost seems criminal," Crist told his Senate
Justice Appropriations Committee. He said the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement should investigate how the overpayments occurred. After DMS
assumed oversight from the old Correctional Privatization Commission, the
department's inspector general did an audit that questioned some $13
million in payments to the two private prison operators. The audit said the
companies were overpaid $4.5 million for unfilled positions. Crist said he
was not blaming DMS because the overpayments occurred under the defunct
commission, but that "we'd like an extra set of eyes to take a closer
look at" the settlement with GEO and past payments to both companies.
"If it was an honest mistake and $4.5 million was overpaid, they ought
to write a check and clear it up," he said after the meeting of his
committee. "They (CCA and GEO) took more than $4 million for positions
that didn't exist and it just sticks in my craw that we would be getting
$400,000 for it." The settlement includes $111,000 for partial
reimbursement of legal fees incurred by the state in court challenges to
the property-tax exemption of the state-owned, privately operated prisons.
Those fees were unrelated to the overpayment. Roz Ingram, director of
specialized services for DMS, said almost $5 million in overpayments
occurred under "competitive area differential" provisions carried
forward from the old contracts between the CPC and the companies. She said
the differentials were killed by DMS when renegotiating contracts. "We
used this a as a tool to go in and try to revamp the system and we've put a
lot of different things in place," Ingram said of the audit. Ken
Kopczynski, a lobbyist for the Police Benevolent Association, cheered Crist's
action. The PBA, which represents correctional officers in state prisons,
has been a vocal critic of privatization. "God bless 'em. It's about
time," said Kopczynski.
January 24, 2007 Tallahassee Democrat
The state has reached a $402,000 agreement with one of the two companies
that run private prisons in Florida. Department of Management Services
Secretary Linda South said Tuesday night she was satisfied with the
settlement with The GEO Group Inc., which operates prisons in South Bay and
Moore Haven. GEO also has a contract for the Graceville prison opening in
September. South said DMS is negotiating terms with Corrections Corporation
of America, the company that runs three other privatized prisons. She
declined to discuss those talks. After the Correctional Privatization
Commission was abolished and oversight of the five private prisons was
shifted to DMS in 2004, the DMS inspector general did an audit that cited
numerous discrepancies. The GEO Group settlement involved $357,520.94 in
overpayments. Under the agreement, signed by previous DMS Secretary Tom
Lewis, GEO agreed to pay $290,952.43. The company separately agreed to pay
$111,549.27 of the state's legal fees in a court fight over disputed
property-tax bills for the prison facilities. The agreement said DMS has
paid $446,197.08 defending the sovereign immunity of the state-owned
prisons. Ken Kopczynski, a lobbyist for the Florida Police Benevolent
Association, said the state "let them off easy." The PBA, which
represents correctional officers in state-run institutions, has been highly
critical of privatization. South said "this is good news for DMS"
and that the audits ended "some really critical lack of internal
controls" under the defunct Correctional Privatization Commission. She
added, "The $400,000 is a lot higher than zero."
January 24, 2007 St Petersburg Times
A private prison contractor that was one of two companies the state
overpaid by nearly $13-million has agreed to pay back a small amount. The
GEO Group of Boca Raton will pay $402,501 under a deal settled this month
by the state Department of Management Services. The company also will cover
half of the legal fees to defend local governments' challenges to its
tax-exempt status. A state audit in 2005 found that over an eight-year
period, Florida overpaid GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America,
based in Nashville, $4.5-million for unfilled jobs. The now-defunct
Correctional Privatization Commission, which was supposed to oversee the
private prisons, also authorized $5-million in cost-of-living salary
adjustments at GEO's South Bay Correctional facility. At a facility in
Quincy, Corrections Corporation got $2.9-million more for facility
maintenance than it spent. The state is still working on a settlement with
Corrections Corporation. A GEO spokesman was not working Tuesday and a
woman who answered the phone said no one else was available. DMS Secretary
Linda H. South, asked about the large disparity in what GEO Group was
overpaid and what it will pay back, said if the agency had not done its
"due diligence there would be no money to recover."
May 1, 2006 AP
Two private companies are being sued for several million dollars for
overbilling and filing false bills at some of the state's prisons they
operate under provisions of the Florida False Claims Act. Attorney Gregg
Goldfarb of Miami is seeking $5 million in recovery in addition to triple
damages and civil penalties from the Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections
Corporation of America and the publicly traded Boca Raton-based GEO Group
on behalf of plaintiff Ken Kopczynski. GEO representative Pablo Paez said
he had yet read the lawsuit and could not comment on it. Telephone messages
left with representatives of the Corrections Corporation of America were
not immediately returned. The plaintiffs could receive up to 30 percent of
any award under provisions of the state's false claims provisions. The
suit, originally filed in August, was unsealed Friday by Leon County
Circuit Court Judge Thomas E. Bateman III. The state earlier declined to
intervene in the suit by Kopczynski, a private citizen, who filed it
pursuant to the statute that allows citizens who believe the state has been
falsely billed to help recover the money. "It's common that when we do
decline, we do monitor the case and leave it open for the possibility of
intervening in the future," said Bob Sparks, spokesman in the attorney
general's office, said Monday. "We're presented with several
opportunities with cases like this, but we can't physically intervene in
all of them." An audit last year by the Department of Management
Services said the defunct Correctional Privatization Commission allowed the
two for-profit companies to overbill the state by nearly $13 million for
what the audit described as "questionable and excessive" costs. The
Legislature voted two years ago to abolish the commission and let DMS
oversee the private contracts.
April 21, 2006 Tallahassee Democrat
With a prosecutor calling him a bigger crook than some inmates in the
privatized prisons he used to oversee, Alan Duffee got nearly three years
in federal prison Thursday and was ordered to repay more than $224,000 he
admitted siphoning out of state funds. Duffee, who became a lobbyist after
the Correctional Privatization Commission was abolished last year,
apologized and offered U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle no excuses for
repeatedly dipping into a prison maintenance and repair fund. Hinkle
imposed the maximum prison term provided by federal sentencing guidelines -
33 months - but agreed to recommend that Duffee be sent to a Pensacola-area
prison when he reports to custody on June 20. "The only thing I can do
is apologize to this court, to the state of Florida, my family and friends.
I own up 100 percent for my actions," said Duffee, who grew up in the
Marianna area. "My Sunday school teacher used to say, 'When you're
wrong, just say you're wrong.' That's what I want to do and I'm ready to
accept any punishment that this court decides to impose on me." Duffee
struck a plea deal in February, admitting to three of the six counts in a
federal indictment that charged him with making himself sole signatory on a
secret bank account in Tallahassee and moving $224,972.92 in checks and
wire transfers from a Jacksonville account of the CPC. The commission was
abolished by the Legislature and supervision of the state's five
corporate-run prisons was moved to the Department of Management Services
last year. Florida Department of Law Enforcement Inspector Alexandra
Gaskins, who analyzed bank statements and other records in the case, said
Duffee spent some $22,805.48 on house and car expenses; $5,477.28 on
furnishings; $11,789.63 on clothes and personal effects and $16,105.29 on
recreation and other personal expenses. The government said assets worth
$42,672.38 have either been recovered or are in the process of forfeiture
and transfer to the state. In addition to three years of probation after
prison, Hinkle ordered Duffee to make full restitution but did not impose
any criminal fines. The court assessed $300 in fees - $100 for each count
of mail fraud, wire fraud and engaging in illegal financial transactions.
"This is the guy in charge of privatized prisons and he's stealing
more money than I'd expect 90 percent of the people in those privatized
prisons stole. It boggles the imagination," said federal prosecutor
Tom Kirwin. "One thing the court should take into account is the
deterrent effect of a sentence. Here we have a public official, hired to do
a job, and he turns around and steals the public's money." Tallahassee
attorney Ben Phipps told the judge "restitution and probation is more
appropriate," adding that "I'd be specially concerned about
putting a professional prison administrator in the prison system."
Hinkle sentencing guidelines called for 27 to 33 months for an offender like
Duffee. He said he went to the top end because Duffee used his official
position and "this offense was committed over a significant period of
time with a number of actions. It was not done on the spur of the
moment" or under great stress. Defense attorney Stephen Dobson
futilely pleaded for probation. "At some point, he has to turn over a
new leaf," he said. "I think Alan Duffee has turned over a new
leaf." Sue Herring, a former finance director of the commission,
praised Hinkle after the hour-long sentencing hearing. "I was fired in
January of 2003 and the embezzlement started in May," she said.
"I'm glad he went with the high end of the guidelines. I think this
was well deserved."
February 14, 2006 St Petersburg Times
A former Florida prison official has pleaded guilty to stealing nearly
$225,000 in state money nearly three years after he used the cash to help
buy houses for him and his girlfriend. Alan Brown Duffee, the former
executive director of a defunct board that oversaw Florida's private prison
contracts, admitted Thursday in Tallahassee to one count each of mail
fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. Duffee, 40, faces up to 20 years in
prison and a $250,000 fine. He is to be sentenced in April. Neither Duffee
nor his attorney, Stephen Dobson, could be reached Monday. A plea agreement
filed in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee shows Duffee admitted that he
moved money in 2003 from a bank account for the Florida Correctional
Privatization Commission to another bank account to which only he had access.
About $124,000 from the first two transfers - $50,000 on May 6 and $100,000
on May 29 - helped with the closing costs on homes for him and for his
girlfriend, court documents show. It's unclear what became of another
$74,972 he transferred in September and October of 2003. The money came
from the commission's building maintenance reimbursement fund. At the time
of Duffee's indictment in September, federal officials seized his home, car
and bank accounts. Duffee strove as recently as a year ago to play among
Tallahassee's top lobbyist ranks. Shortly after leaving the commission in
2004, he purchased a multicity lobbying firm, the Windsor Group, and had a
contract to buy Clyde's and Costello's, a bar one block from the state
Capitol that has long been a favorite of political insiders. Duffee
eventually defaulted on both deals. Duffee served three years as executive
director of the privatization commission. The governor-appointed panel
oversaw the state's five privately run prisons until May 2004, when the
Legislature voted to abolish the commission amid complaints from vendors
about favoritism and a St. Petersburg Times report that Duffee had hired a
former state prison official as a consultant in violation of state law.
--Joni James can be reached at 850 224-7263 or jjames@sptimes.com
February 11, 2006 Tallahassee Democrat
The former director of Florida's defunct prison-privatization board has
pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges, his attorney said Friday. Alan B.
Duffee, who became a lobbyist after the Legislature abolished the
Correctional Privatization Commission, negotiated a plea to have half of
the six counts against him dismissed. He faces sentencing April 20 on the
other three - mail fraud, wire fraud and engaging in illegal financial
transactions. "Mr. Duffee accepts responsibility for what he did and
regrets if he harmed anyone in the process," attorney Stephen Dobson
said. "He has begun to make restitution, and the government has
recovered more than $25,000." Duffee was indicted last September after
an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and federal
authorities. The case involved a major-maintenance fund the state required
GEO Group and Corrections Corp. of America to maintain for repair or
replacement of equipment costing more than $5,000 at the prisons. The
indictment said Duffee set up a bank account at People's First Bank of
Tallahassee in the Correctional Privatization Commission's name, without
knowledge of the commissioners, and made himself sole signatory on it. Investigators
alleged that Duffee moved $224,972.92 in checks and wire transfers from a
Jacksonville bank, where the maintenance-and-repair fund was held, to the
Tallahassee account he controlled. The plea agreement said Duffee could
face a maximum of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines on each of the
fraud counts and 10 years on the illegal-transactions charge, but Dobson
said federal sentencing guidelines call for a far less-severe penalty. The
government agreed not to recommend a sentence to Chief Judge Robert Hinkle
in April. Duffee left the privatization commission in 2004 after the
Legislature voted to abolish the panel and turn administration of Florida's
privately run prisons over to the Department of Management Services. He
declined comment on his plea Friday.
December 8, 2005 News Herald
A police union wants to know whether state officials and a private company
gave themselves financial wiggle room in their plan to build and operate a
prison in Graceville. The Florida Police Benevolent Association, which
represents cops and corrections officers statewide, is challenging a state
estimate that GEO Group Inc. - accused earlier this week of Sunshine Law
violations - will save taxpayers $10 million on the 1,500-bed facility. Ken
Kopczynski, a PBA lobbyist, has asked for financial plans and information
about the "cost savings summary," a one-page worksheet prepared
by state officials that shows GEO Group's total estimate at about $74
million. The summary indicates that GEO Group would pay $45.32 per day, per
inmate over the three-year contract for a total of $74,438,100. In
contrast, the state would pay a $51.41 per diem at a total cost of
$84,440,925. The difference is about 12 percent. According to state law,
private facilities must operate at 7 percent less than what the state would
pay. PBA's beef, Kopczynski said, is that the long-term cost of the
facility is hidden in construction bonds. The question, he said, boils down
to this: How much less could the state build and operate the prison for?
Kopczynski said the state does not usually build prisons with bond
financing, and that if legislators paid cash for the project it would
likely save "tons of money." "(GEO Group) hasn't gotten the
financing so we don't know what the interest rate is going to be,"
Kopczynski said Wednesday. "So how can you make a comparison? They
give you this simplistic little one-sheet flier with the figures on it, but
that doesn't make sense. How can you determine what the true cost is going
to be without looking at the financial plan." GEO Group beat out
another private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America, and was
awarded the contract in September. The Florida Department of Management
Services, which this year began overseeing the state's private prisons, on
Wednesday defended the contract and GEO Group, saying that the bonds will
be tax exempt because the underlying financial obligation belongs to the
state. DMS spokeswoman Colleen Englert also said that GEO Group is assuming
all construction risks related to the project, which quickly will provide
much-needed bed space that saves the state money. The prison will employ
287 workers, Englert said, providing a boost to the Jackson County economy
when it opens in mid-2007. "They bid a price for the construction and
operation," Englert said, "and they are contractually obligated
to meet that price." GEO Group and CCA operate facilities around the
country, and each was named in a report earlier this year that said the
now-defunct government agency that oversaw the private prisons routinely
put the vendor's interest ahead of the taxpayer. The state evaluation said
the Correctional Privatization Commission, which was disbanded when DMS
began overseeing private prisons, allowed the companies to overbill the
state by about $13 million. The report also said that the commission
allowed the companies to bill for vacant positions, avoid minimal
requirements for nurses and teachers, and used inmate welfare funds to be
used for chaplain and library services. The report indicated that Florida
was the only state where privately operated prisons are not administered by
the department of corrections. When asked if DMS took the audit into
account when it awarded GEO Group the Graceville contract, Englert said the
evaluation was a management review - not a review of the companies.
"Based on the documentation reviewed," Englert later wrote in an
e-mail, "we did not find an indication of any improper conduct by
GEO." Said Kopczynski: "They're in a race to the bottom. They
say, 'We're going to do this on the cheap,' but you get what you pay for.
Privates can't do it better and they definitely are not going to do it
cheaper. They've created a race to the bottom." Last week, a watchdog
group sued GEO Group in a Palm Beach County court, alleging that the
company violated the Sunshine Law and had refused to turn over records. On
Wednesday, a GEO Group spokesman said the company was going to work with
Prison Legal News, the organization that requested public documents related
to contracts, lawsuits and settlements. "We were in the process of
responding to their request and we were surprised by the lawsuit,"
said GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez. "Our general counsel's office has
received the lawsuit and will be working with the plaintiffs to satisfy their
request."
September 8, 2005 Tallahassee Democrat
The former manager of the defunct agency that oversaw Florida's five
private prisons has been indicted on fraud and money-laundering charges
involving nearly $225,000 in state funds. Prominent lobbyist Alan Duffee
declined comment on the six-count indictment announced Wednesday by U.S.
Attorney Gregory Miller and Florida Department of Law Enforcement
Commissioner Guy Tunnell. Duffee said he could not discuss the situation
before meeting with his attorney, Stephen Dobson. Dobson said Wednesday
night he would have to study the six-count indictment before commenting.
Duffee, president of The Windsor Group lobbying firm, was executive
director of the Correctional Privatization Commission from May of 2002 until
June of last year, when the Legislature voted to abolish the five-member
panel and put the Department of Management Services in charge of
administering its contracts. In a blistering audit unrelated to Duffee, the
DMS inspector general last month issued a report saying the state had
overpaid two prison-management companies, GEO Group and Corrections Corp.
of America, by nearly $13 million - including salaries of guards that
didn't exist. The indictment alleged that Duffee set up a bank account at
People's First Bank of Tallahassee in the Correctional Privatization
Commission's name - without knowledge of the five commissioners - and made
himself the sole signatory on the account. It said he directed the Wachovia
Bank in Jacksonville to move $224,972.92 in checks and wire transfers from
the repair-and-maintenance fund to the People's First account.
September 8, 2005 St Petersburg Times
A federal grand jury has charged the former chief of Florida's private
prison oversight board with stealing nearly $225,000 from state coffers for
personal use. The indictment, unsealed Wednesday, charges Alan Brown
Duffee, 39, with three counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and
two counts of money laundering. If convicted, the former state employee
could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Now the head of
a Tallahassee lobbying firm, Duffee could not be reached for comment. He
had not been arrested as of Wednesday evening. The eight-page federal
indictment alleges that three times in 2003, Duffee redirected money from
the Florida Correctional Privatization Commission's building maintenance
reimbursement fund to a new commission account at a separate bank. Only
Duffee had access to the new account, according to the indictment, which
states that he had no authority to open it. There was a $100,000 transfer
in May 2003; $20,000 in September 2003; and nearly $55,000 in October 2003.
Duffee "then converted the . . . funds to his personal use . . .
wholly unrelated to the business of the CPC," the indictment alleges.
As part of the indictment, the grand jury authorized seizure of Duffee's
home in northeast Tallahassee, which Leon County records show he purchased
for $113,500 in 2003; a 2003 Ford Focus and up to $224,972.92 in cash - the
amount Duffee is accused of stealing. In July, an audit by the Department
of Management Services, which now oversees the prison contracts, found the
commission had overpaid $13-million over eight years.
July 28, 2005 St. Petersburg Times
I would be right curious to know how many crooks are doing time in
Florida's prisons for cases that involve almost $13-million of somebody
else's money Such statistics are not
kept. But I am bettin' there aren't too many $13-million cases sitting in
the joint. Dope heads, stickup artists, burglars, a dime a dozen, sure.
Guys who jacked a convenience store. On the other hand, the two private
companies that run five of Florida's prisons were wrongfully paid an extra
$13-million of taxpayer money to which they were not entitled, according to
a new audit. Compared to your
typical convenience-store job, this is a much bigger haul: The state paid
$4.5-million in salaries for vacant positions. The state paid for $2.85-million worth of
maintenance that wasn't done. The
state paid salary adjustments that didn't get to employees. No, wait, that
one gets better. The state also paid $1.57-million in extra overhead to
cover the "burden" of accepting such payments! Now, I keep using the words "the
state," which is true, since this was done in your and my name by the
Legislature. But the specific outfit
was a five-member state board called the Correctional Privatization
Commission. This board was created in 1993. It comes across in the audit
looking like a bunch of clowns.
Gooood audit. It is strong, clear, specific. Nice print job, too.
Much credit goes to the Inspector General's Office in the state Department
of Management Services, which works for the governor. I am glad to know Jeb
has those folks. On the other hand,
it is easy to fire the cannon now, because after all, we are dancing on a
dead man's grave. The Legislature has since abolished the privatization
board, and reassigned its duties.
None of the old guys stuck around to take the blame. The new state
folks handling private prisons are smart enough not to kick this skunk.
They began their reply to each of the audit's 15 recommendations with the
same words: "We
concur." Although it would be
nice if Corrections Corp. of America and the GEO Group gave back part or
all of these overpayments, it is not their job to be the state's
accountants. Contract enforcement is a give-and-take art, not a science; it
takes two to do the dance. So
assuming a lack of fraudulent intent on the companies' part (for I am a
sweet and generous fellow), let us also cheerfully assume they turned in
the bills and cashed the checks to which they believed in good faith they
were entitled. If they didn't, well then, cue Attorney General Charlie
Crist and a grand jury. Otherwise
the principal fault is the state's. The audit describes a culture within
the privatization commission that was skewed toward the interest of the
companies, not the taxpayers. The audit says the commission
"consistently made questionable contract concessions to the
vendors." Let's go even
further. The fault, once again, lies with the state's philosophy. Our
Legislature time and again over the past decade chose to rush public
business into private hands, and declined to attach enough strings to the
money. The Legislature's attitude
toward even the most basic cash controls has been, in essence: "If it
is a Republican idea involving privatization, then we don't need no
stinking auditors." But in the private prison game, where a few big
vendors ply politicians with campaign cash and lobbyists, the need was all
the greater. Finally, this year, the
Legislature voted for belated protections concerning all kinds of
privatization - only to have them vetoed by the governor. Bush has led the
charge for privatization, although he happens not to like private
prisons. I grew up under Democratic
governments with Democratic scandals that often involved some bogus program
that benefited their buddies. The one thing I expect from my Republican
friends is for them to do better with my money, not just to take their turn
at bat. A footnote: Privatization
rolls on. This past spring, the Legislature voted to add new beds at three
of the five privately run prisons, requiring a two-year contract extension.
Meanwhile, the state is in negotiations to build a sixth.
July 27, 2005 Tallahassee Democrat
On Florida's fiscal radar, the $12.7 million that a state audit found was
overpaid to two private prison companies is barely a blip. Against
Florida's $64.7 billion budget, 0.02 percent seems like chump change. But if you take that approach, you're the
chump. Those 12,700,000 dollars could have helped pay for such services as
community health care, universal prekindergarten or environmental
protection. Instead, a Department of
Management Services internal review says the money went for guards who
didn't exist, and enabled Corrections Corp. of America and GEO Group to
misuse funds that are obligated to the welfare of inmates (chaplain and
library services, for example), and to avoid minimal training requirements
for several groups of prison employees. They even helped pay expenses of
the agency policing their contracts.
To paraphrase an old television commercial, it's not nice to fool
Florida's taxpayers. Who's to
blame? While it is important to note
that neither company has had a chance to formally respond to the audit, it
is just as important to insist that they be held accountable. That should
include full repayment of any overbillings, plus penalties. State Attorney Willie Meggs should
certainly file charges, if it is determined that any crimes were
committed. It would be shortsighted,
however, to hold those companies solely responsible. State government is
also to blame for this scandal. In
the 1990s - before Jeb Bush won his first term as governor - lawmakers and
Gov. Lawton Chiles' administration agreed that privately run companies
could operate correctional facilities cheaper than the state. Five Florida
prisons are privately run, and a sixth is planned. Private prisons were already up and
running when Mr. Bush took office in 1999, but his enthusiastic support for
privatization was like an injection of adrenaline directly into the heart
of government. Still, privatization
per se is not the problem. In certain cases, it makes sense. Rather, the problems are, one, the
assumption that a privatized service almost always will be cheaper and
better; and, two, the failure to adequately monitor the public's money in
the hands of private vendors. Let
the buyer beware To be sure, the
example revealed by the DMS review may be a worst-case scenario. The
companies in question are politically well-connected, fueling suspicions
that whom you know is more important than what you know and how you
perform. Moreover, even some who
aren't philosophically opposed to privatization have qualms about
privatized prisons. Those skeptics - count us among them - view the
incarceration of criminals as a fundamentally public operation in which the
bottom line should be the public interest, not shareholders' profits. In fairness, Mr. Bush and lawmakers last
year finally figured out that there was a real problem. The 2004
Legislature abolished the commission created to oversee private prisons,
which itself had a long record of problems.
But while the DMS audit is specific to the prison contracts, it also
shines a light on the broader challenges. Private firms exist primarily to
make money, and state government shouldn't simply outsource services
without making sure that taxpayers are getting what they're paying
for. Mr. Bush this year vetoed
legislative attempts to exert more oversight, saying he would keep working
on the problem. If the DMS audit serves up additional ammunition for
tighter oversight, it will have provided an even greater service than it
intended.
July 27, 2005 St. Petersburg Times
A harsh new state audit discloses that Florida
overpaid nearly $13-million to two private prison vendors in the past eight
years. Among the findings were that
the state paid for unfilled jobs and a vendor received money for facility
maintenance that was never spent.
Nonetheless, the two companies that run the state's five private
prisons remain on the job. The
disclosures come a year after state lawmakers disbanded a controversial
citizen board that had overseen the state's private prisons. The audit paints a mutually beneficial
relationship between the defunct Correctional Privatization Commission and
the two vendors that have run the private prisons for a decade: Corrections
Corp. of American of Nashville and The GEO Group of Boca Raton. "The CPC failed to adequately
safeguard the state's interest. . . . The CPC consistently made
questionable contract concessions to vendors," according to the audit,
released Tuesday by the inspector general of the Department of Management
Services. Among the audit's
findings, based on records dating from 1997: The state paid vendors $4.5-million for
jobs that were vacant, in part because it failed to require vendors to
report the vacancies. The commission
authorized $5-million in cost-of-living salary adjustments at GEO's South
Bay Correctional facility. Auditors say the money wasn't fully passed on to
employees as required. At Gadsden
Correctional facility in Quincy, Corrections Corp. received $2.9-million
more for facility maintenance than it spent. The commission, without clear legislative
authority, staved off any impact from $263,489 in budget cuts in November
2001 by requiring vendors to return the same amount of money from a recent
hike in their compensation. DMS
Secretary Tom Lewis said his general counsel is investigating whether the
state can recoup any of the overpaid money. "I was surprised we would
have a commission that would be that lax in their oversight role,"
said Lewis. His predecessor, Bill Simon, ordered the audit last fall after
assuming responsibility for the prison contracts. "To the
Legislature's credit, they realized that and did away with them,"
Lewis said. Attempts to reach former
members of the commission, disbanded by the Legislature last year, were
unsuccessful Tuesday. Spokesmen for
both companies declined to comment specifically on the audit, saying staff
were still reviewing it. "There
may be details and fine print in the audit that we take issue with, but the
intent of the audit, we certainly embrace," said Steve Owen, spokesman
for Corrections Corp., paid about $43-million annually by the state to run
three north Florida prisons. GEO
Group spokesman Pablo Paez said, "We will work with our client and
respond to any questions it may raise." GEO collects about $36-million
annually to operate two south Florida facilities. Democrats and private prison critics
seized on the findings as evidence of privatization gone awry. "We
would hope this would prompt some kind of action," said Ken
Kopczynski, lobbyist for the Florida Police Benevolent Association, the
union that represents public prison guards. "We should be talking
criminal charges." But dramatic
ramifications to the findings appeared unlikely. Lawmakers have been
reluctant to tamper with the system despite recurring questions about
whether the state's private prisons meet the 7 percent cost savings
required in law. This spring,
lawmakers voted to build additional beds at three of the facilities with
the current vendors, requiring a two-year extension on those contracts.
Expanding private prisons is cheaper in the short term than building public
ones because vendors shoulder the financing, supporters say. DMS also renewed the contracts on the two
other prison facilities for a year. Lewis said there wasn't time, after he
became secretary in March, to launch a full rebidding process for those two
contracts. He said he is committed to rebidding those contracts before they
expire in June 2006. Corrections
Corp. and GEO have been successful since at least 2002 in thwarting efforts
to rebid their contracts. That year, the Correctional Privatization
Commission, whose members were appointed by the governor, launched a plan
to rebid the contracts. But its
efforts became mired in controversy after the commission's director
illegally hired a former Department of Corrections secretary as a
consultant. Lawmakers voted to disband the group and give oversight to DMS.
Gov. Jeb Bush concurred. DMS is in
negotiations to build a sixth private prison at Graceville with 220 beds.
It appears either GEO and Corrections Corp. will win that contract, as
well. GEO announced two weeks ago it planned to buy a third possible
competitor in the bid process.
July 27, 2005 St. Petersburg Times
For more than a decade, the Florida Legislature has fronted for the private
prison industry with a credulous faith that it was saving money. For seven
years, Gov. Jeb Bush had played along despite his well-founded belief that
corrections is too serious a responsibility to be farmed out. Just this
spring, the Legislature passed and he signed a budget providing for more
than 1,000 new privatized beds. But
Florida now knows where too much of the money went, thanks to a devastating
audit of Florida's defunct oversight agency, the Correctional Privatization
Commission. The audit, conducted by the inspector general for the
Department of Management Services, found that the commission approved or
tolerated nearly $13-million in excess payments to two private prison
companies. Worse, the commission was so indifferent to its primary duty
that the state still cannot answer "the basic question of whether
private prisons are operating at less cost than public prisons, as required
by law." More than 10 years
after the Legislature decided that private prisons should and would cost
some 7 percent less than state-run facilities, no one can say whether it's
true. The commission was worse than
a toothless watchdog. It was a lapdog for the private companies. "Our
review," remarked Inspector General Steve Rumph, "showed numerous
instances where vendors' interests were considered over the state's
interests." Among other things, the commission obligingly paid for
vacant staff positions and grossly mishandled regional wage differentials.
It also inflated payments to cover money the companies kicked back to the commission
for its own operating costs, which for complicated reasons could have hurt
the state employees who now administer the contracts. Common sense dictates that the Department
of Corrections, which houses most of the state's prisoners, should oversee
those contracts until they either prove their worth or are terminated - in
either case, as soon as possible. But some well-lobbied legislators still
hold a grudge against the prison system for resisting privatization at the
outset, which is why Management Services got a job it didn't want. That was
analogous to telling the Education Department to build roads, but at least
someone is finally asking the right questions. A sixth contract, approved a year ago,
remains to be awarded. It's down to two bidders, the same two companies
tarred by Rumph's audit, because one of them just bought the only other
competitor. The governor needs to put a stop to this.
April 25, 2004
It was a straightforward business
proposition. Two companies had been paid hundreds of millions of
dollars to run state prisons for six years, and it was time to find out
whether taxpayers could get a better deal, a state board decided in
2002. But the decision would prove to be the undoing of the
Correctional Privatization Commission, an obscure body created by the
Legislature to safeguard tax dollars spent on privately run
prisons. Two years later, the commission's executive director
stands accused of bad management, poor judgment and impropriety. The
two private companies that run five state prisons still have their
contracts, worth a total of $90-million annually, even though audits have
found the contracts aren't as efficient as state law requires. And
the Legislature is poised to eliminate the commission. (St.
Petersburg Times)
Florida Department of Management Services, Tallahassee, Florida
After
South Bay incident, Florida corrections department takes watch over private
prisons: August 3, 2011, by Dara Kam, Palm Beach Post.
Kam's continuing exposure of mismanagement at South Bay.
May 3, 2007 St Petersburg Times
Three months after Gov. Charlie Crist ordered an investigation of some
$4.5-million in overpayments to two companies that operate private prisons
for the state, those same companies will be the only ones permitted to bid
on expanding and building another facility. The state's budget calls for
384 new beds to be housed in a medium security private prison, estimated to
cost between $15-million and $20-million, and has limited the bidding for
those beds to the two companies that currently contract with the state.
Those companies are GEO Group of Boca Raton and Corrections Corp. of
America of Nashville. Two state audits have indicated the state had paid
GEO Group and CCA more than $4.5-million for vacant jobs and other
questionable expenses. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now
investigating. Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, a member of the Senate committee
that funds jails and prisons, and who first called for the investigation
into GEO and CCA, said that a tight budget year meant that the state had to
change the way it thought about providing more beds. "It would be nice
to have options for new vendors that may not be in the process, because
that provides for better competition, " Crist said. "But toward
the end of the budgeting process, when money was very tight, we decided to
go ahead and just award new beds to existing sites because it's
cheaper." Sen. Crist said he's confident that Gov. Charlie Crist and
Corrections Secretary Jim McDonough will keep a close eye on the projects.
"We have a new governor and he has an interest in this subject area,
" Crist said. The budget is an up or down vote on the entire
$72-billion document. Gov. Charlie Crist does have the ability to veto
certain line items, but to veto the language limiting the bids would mean
vetoing an $84-million pot of money for all private prison operations. Both
Gov. Crist and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink have criticized the
handling of contracts with GEO and CCA. The Department of Management
Services, which inherited the contracts from the now defunct Correctional
Privatization Commission, recently reached a $402, 501 settlement with GEO
but is still negotiating with CCA. Heather Smith, a spokeswoman for the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said the investigation is ongoing.
"They've got issues with these vendors and concerns with some of the
things done in the past, and yet they're giving them more beds, " said
Ken Kopczynski, lobbyist for the Florida Police Benevolent Association,
which represents public corrections officers. CCA marketing director Steve
Owen said that the investigation concentrates on events before 2005 and
that CCA has since shown the state an ability to meet its needs. "We
do think we have a good record for bringing beds online quickly, "
Owen said. The budget also says that private prison contractors, including
those under investigation, can compete to build three additional "work
camp" prisons, each with 432 beds - a total of 1, 296 beds. These
facilities would each cost about $9-million to build, according to
Department of Corrections estimates. The work camps are a new idea that
Secretary McDonough recently pitched to help reduce recidivism. The work
camps are for those sentenced to fewer than 12 months in prison who would
spend much of their time digging ditches and doing other types of manual
labor. Some would also get drug treatment. While the work camps will be
competitively bid, several in the prison industry acknowledged that
existing private prisons will have a competitive advantage in winning such
contracts. That's because they can offer to put them next to existing jails
or prisons facilities, which, again, is cheaper than building them from the
ground up. McDonough, who was at the state Capitol on Wednesday, said he is
concerned about the GEO and CCA contracts, but he plans to keep an eye on
these prisons and the money to build them, no matter who is running them.
"I'm always keeping an eye on the inmates, because I see them as my
inmates, by law, " McDonough said.
January 31, 2007 AP
Gov. Charlie Crist ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on
Wednesday to conduct a preliminary investigation into more than $4.5
million in alleged overpayments to two companies that operate private
prisons for the state. The contracts with GEO Group of Boca Raton and
Nashville,Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America were signed by the
now-defunct Correctional Privatization Commission. Crist sent a letter to
FDLE Commissioner Gerald M. Bailey directing him to "conduct a
preliminary investigation to determine whether any criminal violations have
occurred." The Department of Management Services, which inherited the
contracts, recently reached a $402,501 settlement with GEO but is still
negotiating with CCA. Management Services Secretary Linda South, in a
statement Friday, blamed the excessive payments on concessions the
commission had included in the contracts. The commission was abolished by
the Legislature in 2004. Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said
Wednesday that she asked her staff what went wrong and received the same
answer. "The contract was so poorly written and so poorly conceived
that we were only able to verify $400,000 in overpayments even though we know
there were huge abuses through the auditing procedures," Sink said.
"We had virtually no legal standing to go back and get back from the
taxpayers the dollars that we deserved." Audits concluded the state
paid for vacant jobs and other questionable expenses. Telephone messages
left at the offices of the two companies after hours Wednesday were not
immediately returned. GEO runs the Moore Haven and Southbay correctional
facilities and has a contract to run a new one at Graceville. CCA operates
correctional facilities in Lake City, Panama City and Quincy. State Sen.
Victor Crist, R-Tampa, who is not related to the governor, last week urged
FDLE to investigate the relationship between the commission and
contractors.
January 27, 2007 Tallahassee Democrat
The first definition of "oversight" involves supervision, as
in the oversight of a contract by a state agency; the second involves a
careless mistake or omission, as in, "Sorry for my oversight. I'll
straighten it out right away." The problem with a settlement between
the state and a private prison contractor that was one of two firms that
were overpaid $4.5 million is that it's not at all clear which kind of
oversight was in play. But if it's the first, the Department of Management
Services' agreement with a Boca Raton company called GEO Group was highly
questionable and very possibly a lousy deal for Florida taxpayers. DMS'
agreement with the company calls for the collection by the state of
$402,501 to settle previous claims. That comes to about 10 cents on your
dollar that the state decided was a sensible arrangement - although the
state is still negotiating with a second contractor, Corrections
Corporation of America, which also received overpayments. It's no wonder
that Sen. Victor Crist, R-Temple Terrace, was taken aback this week, saying
the settlement "almost seems criminal." He asked the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement to investigate. That's a reasonable request.
If there's more here than meets the eye, taxpayers would love to know. If the
rest of the story smells just as fishy, taxpayers should know that, too.
There's little question that politics and past mismanagement are helping to
cloud the picture. The original contract was handled by the now-defunct
Correctional Privatization Commission, an agency created to oversee prisons
in the state that are run by private companies. That board was legislated
out of existence in 2004 and the commission's oversight responsibilities
transferred to DMS. Given the performance of the Correctional Privatization
Commission, that was a smart move. But the news about the DMS agreement
with GEO now raises real questions about that agency's ability to
effectively manage contracts with private prison companies. "It was
not an honest mistake," Ken Kopczynski, a lobbyist for the Police
Benevolent Association who's been tracking private prison contracts for
more than 10 years, said of GEO. "I don't think it takes a rocket
scientist to know that if a bank teller gives you $100 more than you are
legally liable to receive, you need to give the money back." The
politically influential PBA, which represents state corrections officers,
has been the most consistent opponent of prison privatization. It
maintained for years that the defunct commission had inappropriately cozy ties
to the industry it was supposed to regulate - a charge that Mr. Crist, the
Senate justice appropriations chairman, echoed last week. Mr. Kopczynski
said he asked FDLE to investigate last year, but without success. But an
investitgation is still appropriate - before any more bad deals are cut on
taxpayers' behalf.
January 24, 2007 Tallahassee Democrat
The state has reached a $402,000 agreement with one of the two companies
that run private prisons in Florida. Department of Management Services
Secretary Linda South said Tuesday night she was satisfied with the
settlement with The GEO Group Inc., which operates prisons in South Bay and
Moore Haven. GEO also has a contract for the Graceville prison opening in
September. South said DMS is negotiating terms with Corrections Corporation
of America, the company that runs three other privatized prisons. She
declined to discuss those talks. After the Correctional Privatization
Commission was abolished and oversight of the five private prisons was
shifted to DMS in 2004, the DMS inspector general did an audit that cited
numerous discrepancies. The GEO Group settlement involved $357,520.94 in
overpayments. Under the agreement, signed by previous DMS Secretary Tom
Lewis, GEO agreed to pay $290,952.43. The company separately agreed to pay
$111,549.27 of the state's legal fees in a court fight over disputed
property-tax bills for the prison facilities. The agreement said DMS has
paid $446,197.08 defending the sovereign immunity of the state-owned
prisons. Ken Kopczynski, a lobbyist for the Florida Police Benevolent
Association, said the state "let them off easy." The PBA, which
represents correctional officers in state-run institutions, has been highly
critical of privatization. South said "this is good news for DMS"
and that the audits ended "some really critical lack of internal
controls" under the defunct Correctional Privatization Commission. She
added, "The $400,000 is a lot higher than zero."
January 24, 2007 St Petersburg Times
A private prison contractor that was one of two companies the state
overpaid by nearly $13-million has agreed to pay back a small amount. The
GEO Group of Boca Raton will pay $402,501 under a deal settled this month
by the state Department of Management Services. The company also will cover
half of the legal fees to defend local governments' challenges to its
tax-exempt status. A state audit in 2005 found that over an eight-year
period, Florida overpaid GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America,
based in Nashville, $4.5-million for unfilled jobs. The now-defunct
Correctional Privatization Commission, which was supposed to oversee the
private prisons, also authorized $5-million in cost-of-living salary
adjustments at GEO's South Bay Correctional facility. At a facility in
Quincy, Corrections Corporation got $2.9-million more for facility
maintenance than it spent. The state is still working on a settlement with
Corrections Corporation. A GEO spokesman was not working Tuesday and a
woman who answered the phone said no one else was available. DMS Secretary
Linda H. South, asked about the large disparity in what GEO Group was
overpaid and what it will pay back, said if the agency had not done its
"due diligence there would be no money to recover."
October 1, 2005 Tallahassee Democrat
The head of the agency overseeing private prisons said Friday a new
institution near Graceville will save taxpayers at least $10 million,
despite a challenge by the union representing state correctional officers.
Ken Kopczynski, a lobbyist for the Florida Police Benevolent Association,
called the projected cost savings "lies, damned lies and
statistics." But the Department of Management Services said it was the
PBA, not state planners, performing a bit of sleight-of-hand with numbers
on the $74 million privatization project. DMS this week announced its
intention to award the contract to GEO Group, which beat out Corrections
Corp. of America for the Graceville institution. The prison, employing 287
workers, is expected to open by mid-2007. Kopczynski said the long-term cost
of the prison will be much higher because of interest rates on construction
bonds. He said Gov. Jeb Bush, a political ally of the PBA, does not favor
bond financing and that if the Legislature paid cash for the prison, the
Department of Corrections could get it up and running for much less.
Kopczynski wrote to Terry Rocco, chief of the Correctional Privatization
Bureau in DMS, asking how the $10 million savings was calculated. He also
asked for GEO's financing plan. "That's how you determine what the
true cost is going to be," Kopczynski told the Tallahassee Democrat.
"This is where you get into lies, damned lies and statistics."
Kopczynski said even if there is a savings on construction and start-up
costs, the private prisons historically have cut corners on education,
health services and security staffing levels. He said "they'll pay
$3,000 less and not offer benefits" comparable to what state
correctional officers receive in the Department of Corrections.
Administration of private-prison contracting was moved to DMS last year
when the Legislature abolished the old Correctional Privatization
Commission. The department did not want the job, but, under intense
lobbying by industry representatives, lawmakers decided not to give the
authority to the Department of Corrections, which runs the state's 54
prisons. DMS Inspector General Steve Rumph issued a scathing report on
private-prison operations in July, saying GEO and Corrections Corp. of
America overbilled the state nearly $13 million under the Correctional Privatization
Commission. The report said the defunct commission put profits for the
companies ahead of the public interests - paying the companies for guards
who didn't exist and letting the companies cut corners on nursing,
education and training services. The report said Florida is the only state
with private prisons that does not regulate them through its Department of
Corrections. It recommended transferring the authority to that department.
PBA has contended for many years that the corporate prisons dodge the
7-percent economy requirement by "cost shifting" of major
expenses to the state. Legislators this year called for an independent
study to verify the comparative level of savings, or cost, of prison
privatization.
Florida
Legislature, Tallahassee, Florida
Prison
privatization under fire Plan faces challenges from all sides:
Bill Cotterell Oct. 2, 2011 Tallahassee Democrat. Cotterell ties
Donna Arduin to privatization plan
August 12, 2012 Orlando Sentinel
Thanks in part to gambling interests, the state's two largest utilities and
its most iconic theme park, Florida Republicans bested Democrats in the
dash for cash by more than 4-to-1 heading into Tuesday's high-stakes and
big-dollar primaries. But the GOP also spent more than it raised –
including pumping millions into divisive GOP legislative primaries and $1
million to help prop up the image of Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who won't
appear on a ballot again until 2014. The latest reports filed Friday
evening showed the Republican Party of Florida raised $9 million from April
through Aug. 9 from a plethora of wealthy donors and corporations
interested in getting regulations weakened or tax breaks passed – or to
maintain their favorable treatment in Tallahassee. The party spent $11
million on ads, polling, consultants, and staff salaries. Meanwhile, the
Florida Democratic Party collected just $2.17 million and spent $1.4
million. Both sides collected from corporate givers like Walt Disney Co.,
Progress Energy, Florida Power & Light, and AT&T – though the
Democrats' checks were far smaller. The GOP's biggest checks came from
Progress ($560,000), Las Vegas Sands casino chairman Sheldon Adelson
($250,000), the Seminole Tribe of Florida ($250,000), and the Florida
Chamber and Disney ($225,000 each). Orlando Magic owner Richard DeVos
chipped in $100,000. Progress Energy, Florida's second-largest utility,
recently merged with North Carolina-based Duke Energy in a deal that is
being scrutinized by regulators, and annually pursues a range of regulatory
aims in the state Capitol. The company also gave $55,000 to Democrats. All
told, the company has given $1.5 million to the parties, candidates and
committees for this year's elections. The state largest utility, Florida
Power & Light, has given $1.6 million so far, including $250,000 to the
governor's Let's Get to Work ad-buying fund. The new reports bump Disney's
total giving this election season to $1.9 million, including hundreds of
thousands of dollars in free rooms and convention space afforded to both
parties. Blue Cross and Blue Shield – looking to capture Medicaid dollars
under a legislative plan to put the programs 3 million participants into
HMOs -- remains the biggest single corporate giver, with $3.4 million doled
out to the parties, candidates and other political funds. Boca Raton-based
private prison company GEO Group, which pushed unsuccessfully to privatize
all the prisons in South Florida last spring, has given $804,000 so far,
virtually all of it to Republicans and Scott's ad-buying committee.
July 17, 2012 Orlando Sentinel
With heated legislative primaries going full-steam in Tampa, Orlando and
Jacksonville, we thought we’d go back and take a minute to highlight who
some of the biggest financiers of these campaigns turned out to be. For the
last quarter, the biggest contributors to the Electioneering Communication
Organizations that pay for the direct-mail, radio and coming television ads
are … drum roll … A lot of Republicans, major corporations, and groups
pushing ideological issues like charter schools. The Senate Republican
leadership team of Don Gaetz and Andy Gardiner (financed through the RPOF,
which doesn’t have to disclose donors until next month) tops the list,
followed by U.S. Sugar Corp., Florida Power & Light, Walt Disney, Las
Vegas Sands Chief Executive Sheldon Adelson, whose company wants to build
“destination” casinos in South Florida, former Miami Dolphins owner Wayne
Huizenga, and another company affiliated with Boston Bruins owner Jeremy
Jacobs, and Academica Management, the state’s most profitable
charter-school operator. Here’s the list of companies/groups/rich people
who gave $100,000 or more last quarter: FLORIDA CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY $
1,620,300.00 UNITED STATES SUGAR CORPORATION $ 380,000.00 WALT DISNEY PARKS
AND RESORTS, U.S. $ 270,000.00 H. WAYNE HUIZENGA $ 250,500.00 SHELDON G.
ADELSON $ 250,000.00 FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY $ 250,000.00
INVESTING IN FLORIDA’S FUTURE $ 245,000.00 SOLAR SPORTSYSTEMS, INC. $
127,634.28 BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF FLORIDA $ 120,000.00 PROGRESS ENERGY $
100,000.00 THE GEO GROUP INC $ 100,000.00 ALLAN IRA JACOB $ 100,000.00
FLORIDA LEADERSHIP $ 100,000.00 FLORIDA OPTOMETRIC CCE $ 100,000.00
ACADEMICA MANAGEMENT LLC $ 100,000.00 COMMITTEE FOR FLORIDA JUSTICE REFORM
$ 100,000.00 17TH STREET SARASOTA, LLC $ 100,000.00
June 4, 2012 Republic Report
Lobbyists, hoping to persuade lawmakers and their staffs on any number of
important issues, breeze in and out of the halls of the Capitol every day.
But a growing trend that has alarmed ethics experts is the extent to which
influence peddlers have burrowed into government to take jobs that place
them in positions of power. A stunning example of this phenomenon is
Senator Marco Rubio’s right-hand man. Rubio is often touted by the press as
a young, fresh face for the Republican Party. But as soon as he took the
oath of office in January of 2011, he hired an experienced Washington
corporate operative as his chief of staff, Cesar Conda. Conda, a former
aide to Dick Cheney in the first term of the Bush administration and a
former analyst for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, helped found Navigators
Global, a lobbying firm with offices in D.C. and Sacramento, in 2003.
There, he helped a multitude of corporate clients, ranging from Oracle
Corporation to PG&E to CitiGroup, with advancing their interests before
the federal government, including Congress. Conda left Navigators Global in
January of 2011 only days before being tapped as Rubio’s chief of staff,
the most influential non-elected position in a congressional office. But
the relationship with Navigators Global, which continues to lobby Congress
for at least 16 different clients — including private prison powerhouse GEO
Group, New York Life Insurance, and UPS — didn’t end. Republic Report
reviewed Conda’s latest personal finance disclosure, filed last month with
the Senate clerk’s office, which reveals that he received between $50,000
to $100,000 in payments from Navigators Global after becoming a public
servant under Rubio. The disclosure shows that Conda continues to own a
stake in his old lobbying firm, and that he continues to share in the
firm’s financial success.
May 14, 2012 Tampa Bay Times
As Gov. Rick Scott’s chief of staff, Steve MacNamara, the Tallahassee insider,
pushed changes that helped friends. STEVE Macnamara was right to submit his
resignation Saturday as chief of staff for Florida Gov. Rick Scott. His
heavy-handed management style and propensity for insider dealing had become
a major distraction for a governor who campaigned as a government outsider.
MacNamara helped the new governor increase transparency and improve his
relationships in the Legislature. But his manipulations were finally too
great to ignore. MacNamara resigned just hours after Mary Ellen Klas of the
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau reported that MacNamara had used his state
email account in October to inquire about a job opening for president at a
Montana Catholic college. Email records show the following week MacNamara
asked his staff to update his resume. The records prompted Trent Barrett of
Clearwater to file a complaint Thursday with the Commission on Ethics.
MacNamara claimed his staff's assistance was strictly to update state
personnel files. But it was the latest in a long line of situations where
MacNamara's explanation didn't ease the perception that he was using his
position to advance himself or his friends. In the past week, the
Times/Herald has reported that MacNamara intervened to give a $5.5 million
no-bid contract to the business partner of a friend and overruled an agency
head to approve travel for the state film commissioner — who he had
apparently helped get the job after easing out the prior film commissioner.
Since MacNamara joined the governor's office in July, five agency heads
Scott brought to Tallahassee have left, none more spectacularly than the
well-regarded former prison chief from Indiana. Ed Buss clashed with
MacNamara over a plan to privatize 30 state prisons, an issue Scott had not
made one of his priorities but embraced after MacNamara joined his office.
Among MacNamara's close friends: The lobbyist for Geo Group, one of the
state's private prison operators.
May 9, 2012 Miami-Herald
When the Florida Senate was looking for someone to put its budget data
online, it set aside $5.5 million and turned to the business partner of a
close friend of the Senate’s chief of staff at the time, Steve MacNamara.
The developer of the program, Anna Jo Mattson, owns a software company with
Tallahassee lawyer and lobbyist Jim Eaton, MacNamara’s long-time friend.
She also owns Spider Data Services, the company that developed the software
program licensed by the Senate. She said Tuesday the companies are not
related. MacNamara did not respond to requests for comment. MacNamara negotiated
the contract with Mattson in February when he worked for Senate President
Mike Haridopolos. He left the Senate to become Gov. Rick Scott’s chief of
staff in July. To date, Mattson has been paid $5 million for development of
the no-bid project. Another $2.5 million has been set aside in the
governor’s 2012-13 budget to pay for access to her patented program next
year. “What we’ve got is state of the art in terms of budget transparency
programs,’’ said Craig Meyer, who succeeded MacNamara as Senate chief of
staff. He said making the state’s budget process more openly accessible was
Haridopolos’ priority after a grand jury accused former House Speaker Ray
Sansom of misusing the process. He said the no-bid contract was needed
because only Mattson had the patent to her unique program. “It didn’t come
together as quick as we hoped so we could roll it out” during Haridopolos’
term, he said. When launched, the program will provide the public and
budget analysts the ability to drill down into detailed levels of the
budget and pull out employees, contracts and vendors associated with each
line item, Meyer said. The money came from the Senate’s $9.2 million
Information Technology discretionary budget in 2010-11. That same pot of
money allowed MacNamara to hire Abraham Uccello as a consultant for the
Senate’s web-based technologies. The two computer projects are not related,
Meyer said. Neither of the projects, however, were put out for bid and both
were given to people closely associated with MacNamara. MacNamara served on
the board of Uccello’s family-owned company, Sarasota-based Sign Media
Systems, a brand-marketing company. Uccello has been paid $360,000 for
helping the Senate shift its computers away from mainframe technology.
Meyer said that project has saved the Senate $12 million. Unlike state
agencies, the Legislature is not bound by a state law that requires
single-source contracts topping $195,000 to undergo a vigorous multi-phase
review by state procurement officers. Mattson, a former House budget analyst
who has been developing her budget access program for several years, formed
Ali Data Link with Eaton on Nov. 30, 2010. Two months later, in January
2011, Mattson formed Spider Data Services and, a month later, signed the
contract with MacNamara to give the Senate access to her patented budget
analysis program. Mattson is barred by the contract from discussing the
software program without Senate permission, but she said that the company
she formed with Eaton “involves a separate software application related to
local government systems.” She said she and Eaton are working “to market
that application to local governments in Florida and elsewhere.” Meyer, the
current Senate chief of staff, also has a link to Eaton, who is also a
lobbyist for The Geo Group, the private prison company that lobbied
aggressively for a Senate plan to privatize dozens of Florida prisons.
Eaton and Meyer’s daughter, Michelle Brittle, own a Tallahassee condominium
together. Another daughter, Melissa Akeson, is also a lobbyist for The Geo
Group.
May 6, 2012 Miami-Herald
As MacNamara exerts control, critics say he's become state's 'shadow
governor' Steve MacNamara has officially become Tallahassee’s Wizard of Oz.
The lawyer-lobbyist turned university professor is the brass knuckles
gatekeeper and omnipotent advisor to Gov. Rick Scott. Since becoming the
governor’s chief of staff last July, MacNamara has controlled access to the
governor and his schedule, assumed authority over appointments and dictated
press releases and policy memos. He has directed the governor’s message and
reached into the bowels of agencies to remove people he doesn’t like and
install favorites. “No one gets in to see the Wizard. Not no one, no how,”
reads the sign on the way into MacNamara’s office, an excerpt from the
famous movie. Now, nine months later, the governor’s relations with
lawmakers have improved. Florida’s unemployment rate is down. Scott had a
successful legislative session with a modest agenda and, while his approval
ratings remain low, they are on the rise. “I think he’s doing a great
job,’’ Scott said. “I don’t think there’s any question he’s made a
difference for this governor,’’ said Thrasher, now a St. Augustine state
senator. Scott’s closest supporters and some Tea Party followers, however,
say that the union between the newcomer governor and the wily insider is
for them a Faustian bargain. Though they refuse to be quoted by name,
several advisors to the governor — both inside and out of government — fear
Scott is squandering his conservative credentials and his outsider brand by
engaging in deal-making with special interests who have connections to
MacNamara. His critics call him Florida’s "shadow governor," noting
that agency contracts have been redirected, gambling allowed to expand, and
a policy to privatize state prisons, which Scott didn’t focus on during his
campaign, has become an administration priority. “I voted for the outsider
and he has hired the consummate insider and he is acting like an insider
now,’’ said Henry Kelley of the Fort Walton Beach Tea Party. “It’s very
disappointing.” Story here. He complained that issues Scott campaigned on,
like illegal immigration, have been shelved while prison privatization has
emerged. “Was that the governor’s decision or was that MacNamara’s
decision?” What’s more, they worry MacNamara is running the government with
an eye toward retaining influence and returning to lobbying when he leaves,
as scheduled, later this year. MacNamara, 59, has heard the rumors and
denies planting the seeds for a return to lobbying. He had originally
planned this fall to move to Montana, where he has a home in the mountains
along a glacier fed river. But his wife, an anesthesiologist, has a job in
Vermont and he plans to move there. “I haven’t done that in the past and
it’s not my M.O.,’’ he said, dismissing the thought that he would need to
cash in on his Scott administration connections. But as a tenured
professor, he said, he’s exempt from the two-year lobbying ban. “I could
lobby anybody in state government.” THE EXODUS Since MacNamara joined the
office, five agency heads Scott brought to Tallahassee have left. Scott’s
general counsel and director of external affairs resigned. One of Scott’s
longest-serving staffers, deputy communications director Amy Graham, is
leaving to join the Mitt Romney campaign, and at least two others have told
the Herald/Times they are on their way out. “If I only had to work for the
governor, it would be great,’’ said Jack Miles, former secretary of the
Department of Management Services who resigned in March and blames clashes
with MacNamara for his decision. After a career in the private sector, most
recently as a former senior director at CIGNA, the healthcare company, Miles
agreed to accept Scott’s offer to manage the agency that handles the nuts
and bolts of government — from multimillion dollar contracts, leases on
state buildings to health insurance for state workers. “The governor, on
many occasions made it very clear: I hired you to run your agency. I won’t
interfere,’’ Miles said. “That worked for a period of time, then changes
started to happen in the governor’s office and that was no longer the
case.” In interviews with several current and former top advisors and
agency heads, one pattern emerges: while each offered a plausible reason
for leaving, most say working conditions under MacNamara contributed to
their departure. Others agency heads who have left their $140,000-a-year
posts include Secretary of State Kurt Browning, who stepped down in January
to run for Pasco County superintendent of schools, and Doug Darling,
executive director of the newly created Department of Economic Opportunity.
PROMOTING FAVORITES Darling resigned in January, four days after sending
MacNamara a critical note complaining of excessive travel expenses from
film commissioner Shari Kerrigan, whom MacNamara had recruited. He cited
personal reasons for his resignation. Frank Farmer resigned in March as
surgeon general after leading an overhaul of the health department but
clashing with lawmakers over a push to turn over public health duties to
counties. He cited his wife’s year-long treatment for breast cancer but
later told The Daytona Beach News-Journal that a mammogram performed in
December was negative. Scott called his resignation “an unfortunate
surprise.” Two others, Miles’ chief of staff, Brett Rayman, and Milt
Champion, former director of the Division of Parimutuel Wagering, told the
Herald/Times that they were asked to leave so that MacNamara could replace
them. Rayman, who served as a budget and policy official for three previous
governors after a 23-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps, said he
considers Scott “probably the best governor I’ve ever worked with.” During
Scott’s first few months in office, the staff had “complete interaction”
with the governor, Rayman said, and “understood what their mission was.”
Under MacNamara, however, “things have been completely disorganized.’’ “He
has political favorites he’s trying to move around and I’m not sure the
governor knows what MacNamara’s doing,’’ said Rayman, who now works for the
Department of Financial Services, which is not under the governor. Among
Rayman’s frustrations: orders from MacNamara’s deputy, Marc Slager, to
“hold off” on signing a contract with a company to use federal money to map
broadband access in Florida. Another company that had lost the contract,
Connected Nation, began pushing for legislation to move management of the
contract from the DMS to the Department of Economic Opportunity. The move
would have allowed for the bids to be reopened and for the company, and
others, to get a second shot at the contract. DMS objected, warning the
switch could cost the state federal grant funds. The company’s lobbyists
included Lanny Wiles, the husband of Scott’s former campaign manager, and
Al Cardenas, the former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. Slager
said “they had already expressed their opinions and the facts” and didn’t
want them advocating a position. Champion said he, too, also was asked to
resign. In an email to MacNamara in August, Marc Dunbar, a lawyer and
part-owner of a horse track in Gadsden County, complained about the
division’s staff and hoped MacNamara could get them into shape. MacNamara
had worked together at Dunbar’s law firm and listed the firm as a source of
income on his financial disclosure forms as recently as 2010. In September,
Dunbar and his partners asked the division for permission to run
rodeo-style barrel racing as a parimutuel sport, instead of the quarter
horse racing they had intended when they obtained the permit. Shortly
afterwards, Champion said he was called into Department of Business and
Professional Secretary Ken Lawson’s office. “He told me Marc Dunbar is
close with the governor’s chief of staff and they want me to resign, so I
resigned,’’ Champion said. Champion now says that while “the law may not be
clearly defined,’’ had he remained at the agency he “would have strongly
suggested we not approve it.” MacNamara said Champion was asked to resign
because his wife worked at the Seminole Hard Rock as head of surveillance.
While the state does not regulate the tribe, it does regulate their
competitors. But Champion said he had disclosed his wife’s job when he was
hired to head the division five years ago and again when he was reappointed
to the post when Scott came to office. With Champion gone, the division
then approved the barrel racing switch, a move which Dunbar and his
partners hope will allow the track to get slot machines. TOP SALARY
MacNamara, whose $189,000 is the highest in Scott’s administration,
believes it’s important for the governor to have people in positions of
power who can be trusted. “They’re not free agents,’’ he said. The policy
positions “have to be in conformance with what the governor wants to do.”
When MacNamara moved to the governor’s office, he brought with him Chris
Finkbeiner, Slager, and administrative assistant, Amy Bescaglia, from the
Senate. MacNamara made Finkbeiner and Slager his deputy chiefs of staff,
giving them the same role as two women deputy chiefs of staff already in
the governor’s office, Jenn Ungru and Carrie O’Rourke but paying them
considerably more. Finkbeiner and Slager make $135,000. Ungru and O’Rourke
make $100,000. MacNamara’s first orchestrated ouster came with the removal
of Department of Corrections Chief Ed Buss. The prisons chief had been
lured to Florida from Indiana but, once here, became a vocal critics of a
Senate-led effort to privatize 30 South Florida prisons. The idea was an
important one to MacNamara whose close friend, Jim Eaton, is the lead
lobbyist for the Geo Group, one of the nation’s largest private prison
companies which stands to make billions in state business if they win the
privatization contracts. When a circuit court judge ruled in September that
the budget maneuver used to pass the prison plan in 2011 was
unconstitutional, it invalidated the prison plan. MacNamara demanded Ungru
“give me some options” so that if they win on appeal they could “move
forward with all due speed and diligence” in pushing to privatize the
prisons. The hearing on the appeal is set for June. MacNamara dismisses the
forced departures as routine and not out of the ordinary for a governor
running the nation’s fourth-largest state. "People lose jobs; people
lose contracts,’’ he said. "It’s calibrating people more than anything
else. It’s not controlling people."
April 30, 2012 Tampa Bay Times
The $8,000 fine the FEC slapped Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign with was not
the first violation. In January, the campaign paid a $1,360 fine for
failing to disclose a number of campaign contributions that fell under a 48
hour reporting rule. The FEC had said Rubio failed to disclose 36
contributions totaling $92,440 and proposed a $9,904 fine. But the campaign
contested that, and the FEC agreed only six contributions were not
disclosed as required. (Those contributions are in the jump.) Before the 48
hour window, Rubio's campaign got a flood of money from contributors and
corporate PACs, including $5,000 each from Exxon Mobil, Geo Group and Las
Vegas Sands Corp. PAC.
April 4, 2012 WCTV
A political committee that played an important role in Gov. Rick Scott's
2010 election raised $910,000 in contributions during the first three
months of this year, according to state records. The Let's Get to Work
Committee also has started quickly in April, reporting on its website that
it has already brought in about $438,000 --- with large contributions
coming from private prison operator The Geo Group Inc., and a Florida Optometric
Association political committee. With a possible Scott reelection campaign
still two years away, the committee has stockpiled cash. The committee
spent only about $25,500 between January 1 and March 31, with most of that
going to consulting, catering and accounting costs. A handful of large
donors have shelled out most of the contributions, including some people
and businesses with stakes in state-government issues. Developer Gary Morse
and other people and a company associated with The Villages community in
Central Florida gave a total of $180,000 in March, according to the
records. Morse has long been a major Republican donor, and The Villages has
become a frequent campaign stop for GOP candidates, including Scott.
Miami-Dade health-care executive Miguel Fernandez, meanwhile, contributed
$125,000 in January. Fernandez heads Simply Healthcare Plans Inc., an HMO
that was established in 2010 and is part of the Medicaid and Florida
Healthy Kids programs. Other large contributors during the first quarter
included Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida and United Group
Underwriters Inc., which each sent $100,000 to the committee. Blue Cross,
which this week began being known as "Florida Blue," is typically
one of the state's largest political contributors. It is involved in
numerous health-care issues in Tallahassee and announced last year that it
planned to move into the Medicaid program. United Group Underwriters is
affiliated with United Automobile Insurance Co. With auto insurers
complaining about fraud and increased costs, Scott and legislative leaders
in March pushed through changes in the personal-injury protection insurance
system. This month, The Geo Group and the Florida Optometric committee each
contributed $100,000, according to a list on the Let's Get To Work website.
Geo has been a key player during the past year in a legislative debate
about prison privatization, while optometrists want the Legislature to give
them broader power to prescribe medications.
February 15, 2012 Sun-Sentinel
They are waging multi-year campaigns to build billion-dollar casinos, get
their tax bills reduced, break into the renewable energy business, and
fight over the right of injured parties to sue. They are the more than
2,500 utilities, telecommunications giants, trade groups, unions,
developers, casinos and professional associations that spend big money to
lobby Florida lawmakers. And according to new state data due this week,
they spent $127 million to lobby the Florida Legislature in 2011. That
total tops the $116 million spent in 2010 to influence state legislators --
a figure that represents the mean of all individual contracts, most of
which are reported to the state in $10,000 ranges. The 2011 total is
roughly $30 million more annually than when lawmakers first started
requiring contract lobbyists to disclose their pay ranges in 2006. Tops on
the list is AT&T, which has pushed telecommunications de-regulatory
legislation for years in Tallahassee, and spent $1.68 million on
legislative lobbyists last year. U.S. Sugar Corp spent $907,000, and rival
sugar-grower Florida Crystals wasn't far behind at $570,000. Boca
Raton-based GEO Group, which lobbied lawmakers to put prison privatization
into last year's budget and again in support of this year's now-doomed
privatization push, spent $645,000 on legislative lobbyists.
February 3, 2012 Tampa Bay Times
An end-of-the-week appointment by Gov. Rick Scott to the Florida Prepaid
College Board ordinarily would not draw much notice. But in the frenzied
atmosphere surrounding prison privatization in Tallahassee, this one will
generate a lot of talk in the Capitol. Scott on Friday chose John O'Rourke,
61, of West Palm Beach, who served for nearly two decades as senior vice
president and chief financial officer of The GEO Group, the huge private
prison operator that's seeking to operate more than two dozen prisons and
work camps in South Florida. The governor's office released a photograph of
Scott and O'Rourke. O'Rourke retired from GEO in 2009 and formed his own
company, J.G. O'Rourke & Associates. A former U.S. Air Force officer,
O'Rourke will succeed Anthony Krayer for a term that ends in June 2014.
February 1, 2012 Tallahassee Democrat
A fast-track plan to revive the privatization of prisons in 18 South
Florida counties was derailed in the Senate as conservative Republicans
sharply challenged the GOP leadership Tuesday over projected cost savings
and job losses for state employees. The overnight delay of the bill was at
least a temporary victory for organized labor forces that rallied in front
of the Senate chamber an hour before debate began. With several
law-and-order Republicans sharply questioning whether the promised 7
percent savings in operation costs — anywhere from $16.5 million to twice
that much — would ever materialize, a leading opponent put up an amendment
to spike the proposal for a year while a financial examination is done. The
Senate first extended debate for an hour, then President Mike Haridopolos,
R-Merritt Island, recessed the chamber overnight with amendments pending.
"They don't have the votes," said Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland,
said of the leadership, "so they're pulling members off the floor and
twisting arms." Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said his one-year
study amendment — effectively killing the bill — would have passed, so
Haridopolos called a hold in the two-hour debate. The bill (SB 2038) was
produced by the Senate Rules Committee last month and quickly approved by
that panel and the Senate Budget Committee. Lawmakers last year passed budget
language directing the Department of Corrections to seek bids on operation
of nearly 30 facilities in the 18 counties of its Region IV, but Circuit
Judge Jackie Fulford ruled that such a major policy decision could not be
ordered in a one-year budget. This year's bill, along with a companion that
makes legislatively directed privatization easier, were a result of that
ruling, which is being appealed by the state. It appeared that 11 of the 12
Democrats in the Senate and up to 10 Republicans were opposed to the
privatization move, which would affect about 4,000 prison employees.
Significantly, two former sheriffs — Republicans Charlie Dean of Inverness
and Steve Oelrich of Cross Creek — stated their opposition, along with
Dockery and Fasano, whose budget subcommittee on criminal and civil justice
was bypassed in moving the bill to the Senate floor. Haridopolos said that
was done because the issue was heard last year in about 16 different
committee stops of the House and Senate, and did not need to be examined
further in committee. Fasano said the leadership was pushing privatization
to benefit GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, two giant
companies that make major campaign contributions to both parties and many
legislators. The companies already operate six of Florida's seven private
prisons. Fasano's accusation that political contributions were behind the
privatization move visibly angered Haridopolos. "What people are tired
of in politics is the demagoguery," he said after the Senate recessed
for the night. "This is about saving money." Haridopolos added,
"I do take offense when people say 'a mere' $16.5 million. That's 300
teachers." Senate Budget Committee Chairman JD Alexander, R-Lake
Wales, said the $16.5-million estimate was "a minimum" estimate
of savings, as corporate prison companies are legally required to operate 7
percent more cheaply than state-run prisons. With the state facing a
$1.4-billion revenue shortage, he said, every dollar is badly needed to
lessen the impact of cuts in education, health care and other budget areas.
Fasano and other opponents said the move would not really improve service
or save money because the private companies would "cherry pick"
the most healthy and responsive inmates, leaving the state prisons to hold
the most dangerous and hard to rehabilitate offenders. "The only group
that will make a profit on this are the GEOs of this world and the CCAs of
this world," said Fasano at a news conference with some prison
employees and AFL-CIO members outside the Senate chamber. "You're
privatizing public safety — who'd have ever thought that — putting public
safety at risk, putting correctional officers at risk, just so that two
major companies that have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars will
benefit, will make an additional profit," he said. Sen. Maria Sachs,
D-Delray, said making privatization easier would lead to
"outsourcing" of jobs in many other areas of state government.
Sachs said that could put all state employees in jeopardy. "This is
something that strikes at the very essence of our state government,"
she said. "We want to make sure that our state employees are not on an
auction block, but know that they have good jobs." Penny Reeder, a
12-year correctional officer at Florida State Prison, said public safety
will be compromised if prisons are privatized. She said corporations put
profit ahead of rehabilitation and other duties of the prisons. "If
you turn us over to the for-profit privatization corporations, our
communities will definitely not be safe," said Reeder. Sheriff's
Deputy Lori Goodwin of Santa Rosa County said private companies are only
liable for an escapee's recapture for 48 hours. She said city and county
police, canine units and other resources will be called upon when an inmate
breaks out of a privately operated prison. "It's never good public
policy to put profit margins ahead of public safety," she said.
"When inmates from these private prisons escape, it will be our job to
assist in the capture — which means less time and money spent on your
neighborhoods and your safety." Gov. Rick Scott said he supports the
concept of privatization if it saves money. He said the public wants safety
and rehabilitation of prisoners at the best possible cost, and is not
concerned whether public or private employees do the job. "People
expect us to spend their money well," Scott told reporters. "If
we do prison privatization, it's going to save the state money and we'll do
it the right way." After the session, Haridopolos said the overnight
delay was not a surrender — or even retreat. Rather than "twisting
arms," he said he, Alexander and Senate Rules Chairman John Thrasher,
R-St. Augustine, were explaining to members that the privatization would
not occur if the 7 percent savings was not built into the prison contracts
with DOC. "I think we could still win this vote," said
Haridopolos. "I think we will win this vote. We'll see."
September 30, 2011 Business Week
Geo Group Inc., the Florida-based private prison operator, fell as much
as 5 percent after a judge blocked the state’s plan to pursue privatization
at as many as 29 prisons in 18 counties. The legislature’s move to bury key
details on privatization in the state budget is unconstitutional, Leon
County Circuit Court Judge Jackie Fulford in Tallahassee ruled. The 2012
budget provision changes the legal process for privatizing facilities and
directs the Department of Corrections to replace state employees with
private ones at certain prisons. “This court concludes that if it is the
will of the legislature to itself initiate privatization of Florida
prisons, as opposed to DOC, the legislature must do so by general law,
rather than using the hidden recesses of the General Appropriations Act,”
Fulford said in the ruling. The ruling is a setback for prison operators
such as Boca Raton-based Geo Group, which said last month that it would
invest as much as $3 million to compete for a contract to privatize more
than 16,000 beds in South Florida. Abraham Cohen, a Geo spokesman, didn’t
immediately return a voice-mail message seeking comment on the ruling.
After falling as low as $18.32 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading
on the New York Stock Exchange, Geo shares fell 68 cents or 3.5 percent to
$18.56. Florida’s Department of Corrections today suspended its request for
bids from private operators until further notice. The state was expected to
open bids on Oct. 4, department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said in a
phone interview. The department is reviewing Fulford’s decision, Plessinger
said.
September 25, 2011 Pensacola News Journal
Two Santa Rosa County officials are due at Pensacola's federal courthouse
on Tuesday — with volumes of records — to answer four federal subpoenas
served in August. Cindy Anderson, executive director of the TEAM Santa Rosa
Economic Development Council, and Santa Rosa County Attorney Angela Jones
will present thousands of pages of documents as well as numerous digital
files to the federal grand jury. TEAM and the county each received two
subpoenas in August demanding records involving contracts, developments,
land purchases, travel and other interactions among TEAM, the county and
numerous private parties. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office won't say
why they want the information. The subpoenas sought information about a
wide range of topics: » Santa Rosa County's purchase of an industrial park
from Navarre developer Bill Pullum in 2009. » Any County Commission or TEAM
staff member's travel to Pullum's private island in Honduras. » Any County
Commission or TEAM staff member's travel to Washington, D.C. » Any county
business with Pullum, developer Garrett Walton, architect and former state
Sen. Charlie Clary, and Okaloosa County businessman William McElvy. » The
sale of any property between the county and James "Jim" Young and/or
KWY Investments, the company that sold the property where the private
Blackwater River Correctional Institute came to be built in East Milton. »
The county's ambulance service contract. Subpoenas issued to other offices
center around how Blackwater River Correctional Institute came to be built
by the Boca Raton-based GEO Group and the nature of former state Rep. Ray
Sansom's relationship to the project.
August 24, 2011 Pensacola News-Journal
A federal grand jury in Pensacola is investigating the building and funding
of a privately owned correctional facility that opened last year in East
Milton, including the role of former state Rep. Ray Sansom. On Tuesday, the
FBI seized a computer used by Santa Rosa County Commissioner Jim Melvin and
his predecessor, Gordon Goodin. Melvin, who took office last year, said FBI
agents told him the investigation was not focused on him but did not
disclose what they were interested in. Goodin, who served for eight years,
said he was confident the investigation didn't involve him. During the past
five months, the grand jury, working with the FBI, has issued three other
subpoenas. The first subpoena on March 29 requested that TEAM Santa Rosa,
the county's economic development agency, deliver all records pertaining to
Project Justice, the code name for the ultimately successful effort to
bring a private prison operated by the Boca Raton-based Geo Group to the
county. The Blackwater River Correctional Institute, owned by Geo under a
contract with the state, opened last year. It is designed for 2,200
high-security prisoners. The March subpoena ordered Team Santa Rosa to
produce all records related to "the projection, planning, design,
funding, appropriation, construction and/or operation of any privately
owned correctional facility located in Santa Rosa County." The second
subpoena to Florida's Office of Legislative Services, dated May 27,
requested travel vouchers since January 2004 for Sansom and several of his
aides. The third subpoena, with the same date, was addressed to former Sansom
aide Samantha Sullivan of Mary Esther. It ordered records "pertaining
to any function performed as a legislative aide to state Rep. Ray
Sansom" since Jan. 1, 2002. On March 27, 2008, Sansom traveled to Boca
Raton on what he described in a travel voucher as "personal business
after Session 2008." On April 4, Sansom inserted a provision into the
2008-09 general appropriation bill for $110 million for an addition to the
Graceville Correctional Institute, owned by Geo, in Jackson County. That
appropriation was removed. Then, on April 8, Sansom substituted an
appropriation of $110 million into the 2008-09 state budget for a private
prison to be built anywhere in the state, with no reference to Graceville.
That money went to the East Milton facility, which ended up costing $140
million. In February 2010, Sansom, while serving as speaker of the House,
resigned amid criminal allegations that he inserted a $6 million
appropriation into the state budget for construction of an aircraft hangar
in Destin for a prominent Florida Republican Party contributor, Jay Odom.
The state dropped its case against Sansom in March after a Tallahassee
judge blocked key prosecution testimony. Santa Rosa officials reached
Tuesday said they didn't know the reason for the seizure of the commission
computer. Commissioner Lane Lynchard said he learned of the seizure from
Santa Rosa County Attorney Angela Jones but didn't know what the FBI's
interest was. He said the county was served with two federal grand jury
subpoenas, but he didn't know what the other one involved. Jones was not in
her office Tuesday afternoon, and county spokeswoman Joy Tsubooka said
copies of the subpoenas would not be available until today. Melvin said the
federal agents appeared in his office with two subpoenas at about 10 a.m.
"They explained that they had no problems with me, but that they
needed records from the computer in my office," Melvin said.
"They wanted to know whether I would demand a court order. I told them
I was not the custodian of those records. They met with the county
attorney, and then came and removed the computer from my office."
Melvin said he did not know the nature of the records sought. Goodin, who
was recently cleared of an ethics complaint involving a 2005 trip he and
his wife took to Central America, said he had "no idea" what
interest the FBI would have in the computer. "I'm not worried about
any more investigations," he said. "They can investigate whatever
they want." A message left at the FBI office in Pensacola was not
returned Tuesday.
August 17, 2011 St Petersburg Times
The state of Florida will soon privatize 30 prisons to save money, but
before that, taxpayers will be on the hook for a payout of up to $25
million. That's how much the Department of Corrections says it will cost to
pay more than 4,000 displaced state corrections workers for their
accumulated vacation time, sick leave and special compensatory time for
working on holidays. The hidden expense was never discussed in public this
spring when the Legislature pushed ahead with the most ambitious
privatization venture in the history of state government. Now, the prison
system — already coping with a series of budget cuts — is forced to find
the money. "It's a liability," said Dan Ronay, the agency's No. 2
official. "I don't think anyone can keep running a business if you
don't know what you're on the hook for." A top adviser to Gov. Rick
Scott voiced similar concerns. Bonnie Rogers, who oversees criminal justice
spending in Scott's budget office, told Ronay in an e-mail May 13: "We
too have concerns with how this will be managed." Ronay had told
Rogers in a previous e-mail, "This amount was NOT taken into
consideration by the Legislature, even though they were made aware … This
payout may just cripple the agency for next FY (fiscal year)." The
e-mail was first obtained by the Florida Police Benevolent Association, the
union for correctional officers. The union has filed a lawsuit seeking to
block the privatization. The prison operations in an 18-county region from
Bradenton to Key West will be turned over to a private vendor Jan. 1. The
vendor will be required to run prisons for 7 percent less than the state.
Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who chairs a budget panel overseeing
prison spending and who has opposed the privatization from the start, said
he plans to hold hearings this fall on the issue. Fasano accused top
lawmakers of bowing to the political influence of a major private prison
operator, the GEO Group, which is expected to bid on the regional
privatization venture. "This is all about the almighty dollars for the
GEOs of the world," he said. "It's all about political
contributions that were made, and the taxpayers are going to pay the
consequences." Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, who championed the
project, did not return phone and text messages seeking comment. He has
said in the past that over the long run, privately run prisons will save
taxpayers money.
July 12, 2011 Orlando Sentinel
Buoyed by complete control of state government, Florida Republicans are
killing Democrats in the dash for campaign cash this year, and the GOP is
putting that money to use to improve the governor's public image. The
Republican Party of Florida raised nearly $3.5 million for the period from
April through June and spent $2.2 million of it. The GOP fundraising total
easily bests the $1.1 million the Florida Democratic Party raised, although
the Democrats arguably got a better bang for the buck by winning the
Jacksonville mayoral race. In fact, the Democrats' biggest giver turns out
to be a prominent GOP donor and former Disney executive who backed Democrat
Alvin Brown in the Jacksonville contest. Geo Group Incorporated Gov. Rick
Scott, meanwhile, has been waging a public-relations reboot since April,
beaming his ever-affable voice into households across the state to tout his
jobs agenda and brag about vetoing "special interest waste." The
first-year governor has had sagging poll numbers in a string of surveys
over the past three months. And the political pollsters, consultants, and
direct-mail gurus that entered Scott's campaign orbit last year are reaping
the biggest payouts from RPOF coffers this year: upwards of $500,000 in the
past three months. Direct-mail shop Public Concepts ($145,941.24), Scott
pollster Tony Fabrizio ($119,250), and Scott's campaign phone-bank firm,
Advantage Inc. ($79,503.67) led the charge. Another robo-call shop called
Election Connections.com was paid $69,948.12 for its phone calls to voters,
and Harris Media — Scott's Texas-based PR firm, which since his election
has opened a Tallahassee office and hired his daughter — was paid
$23,927.16 for Web ads for Scott and another $11,638 for website work.
Donna Arduin, the resident economic adviser who wrote Scott's "777″
jobs plan last summer, was paid $46,000 for the three months. RPOF
Executive Director Andy Palmer said the governor has "a great story to
tell the voters" about five straight months of declining unemployment,
$205 million in property tax cuts, and his push to crack down on "pill
mills." "The calls and web ads are a very efficient way to
directly keep voters informed about what the governor and Republican
leadership is doing to get our state back to work," Palmer said. The
biggest givers to the RPOF for the quarter were: NextEra Energy, the parent
company of Florida Power & Light ($250,000); U.S. Sugar Corp.
($225,000); Tenet Healthcare Corp. ($160,000); TECO Energy ($145,000);
Miguel Fernandez ($115,000); and private prison operator Geo Group
($100,000). All of those contributors have vested interests in issues dealt
with by the Florida Legislature, from immigration reform to utility rate
hikes and the state's plans to privatize the $22 billion Medicaid program
and South Florida prisons.
July 12, 2011 Miami Herald
It's no a secret that in this high-voltage political finance season of
Super-PACs, no limit CCEs, and the death of campaign finance limits that if
you want the attention of the state's political elites, you write a check.
So, in the interest of the full-disclosure, we try here to connect the dots
on the second quarter campaign finance reports and the potential
pay-to-play agendas at work. The Republican Party of Florida raised $3.4
million and spent $2.2 million. The Florida Democratic Party raised $1.1
million, $426,000 of it was for a Republican-run political action committee
formed to elect Alvin Brown, the Democratic mayor of Jacksonville. The
Democrats spent $1.1 million. * NextEra Energy, the parent company of
Florida Power & Light, weighs in with the largest donation of the
quarter: $250,000 on June 13. FPL also gave $30,000 in June. Their likely
top political priorities: passage of legislation proposed last year that
would have allowed them to have control of the alternative energy market in
Florida and receive full cost recovery for solar power. They also hope for
a settlement agreement with the Public Service Commission and the
consumer's public counsel that allows them the nearly $1 billion rate
increase they are expected to seek in January. Shortly before the
contribution, Gov. Rick Scott announced he had hired Mary Bane, the former
PSC executive director under whose direction former Gov. Charlie Crist
criticized the PSC for being too close to the utilities they regulate. Two
weeks after their NextEra donation, Senate President Mike Haridopolos held
a conference call with energy industry interests and announced that
pursuing alternative energy, as well as other energy sources, will be a
priority next session. He subsequently clarified that will not include oil
drilling. * The next largest contributor was U.S. Sugar, with a $225,000
take. The company was an aggressive back-room player in stopping the
conservative Republican push to pass e-verify for migrant workers. The
governor, and Senate President Mike Haridopolos (who was also a recipient
of U.S. Sugar's cash) backed down and, with the strong opposition of ag-man
Sen. JD Alexander, the measure died in the Senate. * Mining interests
associated with Anderson Columbia, the phosphate and mining giant, gave the
party a total of $190,000. Joe Anderson, retired exec of Anderson Mining
Corp., gave $90,000 and his company's Georgia affiliant, Junction City
Mining, gave $100,000. The industry worked hard to exempt phosphate mines
from the growth management laws called developments of regional impact. *
Tenet Healthcare, owners of 10 Florida hospitals, weighed in with $160,000.
Was it a thank you gift for the medicaid reform that could help the company
expand its HMO reach in the state as well? * Miguel B. Fernandez, a Coral
Gables-based healthcare investor who last year launched a $20 million fund
to invest in startup health care companies in Florida, gave $115,000.
Fernandez, who founded and later sold Physician Healthcare Plans and Care
Plus Health, leads the private equity firm, according to news reports. In 2010,
he wrote a $250,000 check to Gov. Rick Scott's political committee, Let's
Get to Work. In 2007, Fernandez also gave $2.5 million to Miami's Belen
Jesuit Preparatory School and, in 2004, faced a $133,500 fine from the FEC
for funneling corporate money to Alex Penelas' U.S. Senate campaign in
2004. * HCA health care affiliates across the state gave $110,000. *
Preferred Care Partners of Miami, which operates Medicare Advantage health
plans for senior citizens in the central and south Florida contributed
$109,000. * League of American Voters, which earlier this year ran radio
ads in support of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, gave $100,000. Source Watch
describes the group "as a Washington, D.C.-based organization that
runs ad campaigns that reinforce key policy objectives of corporations and
the right-wing politicians they back in the U.S." and has
"proclaimed that it is "Leading the Fight to Stop the Obama
Agenda." * Private prison giant, the Geo Group, gave the party
$100,000. The legislature passed a budget that will privatize 9 Florida
prisons.
May 24, 2011 Follow the Money
Florida lawmakers finalized the state’s $69.7 billion budget on May 7 after
intense negotiations. Effects of this 2011–2012 budget will be felt across
the state, as it will reduce government spending by $4 billion. Part of
these proposed savings will come from privatizing at least 16 prisons in
the southern third of the state, quadrupling the number of Florida prisons
run by private firms. Put mildly, Florida’s new budget will result in a
drastic reorganization of the nation’s third-largest penal system. The
private prison industry was politically active during last fall’s election,
giving nearly $1 million in campaign contributions—the most the industry
has given over the last decade, as illustrated by the Institute’s Industry
Influence tool. The majority of the money was supplied by four
companies–GeoGroup, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), Global Tel*
Link, and Armor Correctional Health Services. Major Private Prison
Contributors to Florida’s 2010 State Elections -- Company Total -- Geo
Group & Geo Care $822,415 Corrections Corporation of America $138,994
Global Tel* Link $15,000 Armor Correctional Health Services $9,500 Total
$985,909 Geo Group, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, operates 20
federal prisons and 24 state prisons in 10 states, with four in Florida.
Geo Group gave $705,000, and Geo Care, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Geo
Group, gave an additional 117,415. Corrections Corporation of America
(CCA), based in Nashville, Tennessee, operates 66 prisons in 19 states and
the District of Columbia, including five in Florida, according to their
most recently disclosed 10-K report. Global Tel* Link is a
telecommunications and software company that exclusively works in prisons.
The company provides software and services related to prison management and
communications systems. Armor Correctional Health Services, based in Miami,
Florida, is a health care company that exclusively operates in prisons,
providing inmates with medical, dental, and mental health treatment. It was
founded in 2004. Since the state’s contribution limits cap corporate
donations at $500 per candidate per election, these private prison firms
gave most of their money to the state Democratic and Republican parties,
which can receive unlimited amounts from corporations. The companies
demonstrated a signal preference for the Florida Republican Party, giving
$783,494 compared to $143,000 to the Florida Democratic Party. Implementing
the budget—and the prison privatization plan—is now the responsibility of
the Legislative Budget Commission, a joint House-Senate committee. Of the
14 current committee members, five received donations from private prison
interests in 2010, totaling $7,000. In descending order, they are: Senator
Don Gaetz, $3,000; Senator Joe Negron, $2,000; Senator Nan Rich, $1,000;
Representative Darryl Ervin Rouson, $500; and Representative Mike Horner,
$500.
May 19, 2011 Orlando Weekly
This time next year, the largest experiment in prison privatization in
the nation's history is expected to be well underway in the state of
Florida. If everything goes according to the legislature’s plans, 12
prisons, six work-release centers and a handful of corrections annexes and
work camps – nearly all of the Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities
in 18 South Florida counties – as well as the state’s entire prison health
care system will be removed from state control and placed in the hands of
private corporations specializing in prison management. During the final
throes of the 2011 state budget negotiations, the legislature voted to take
bids on prison-management contracts potentially worth hundreds of millions
of dollars. Proponents of the plan – mostly Republicans – say that the
cash-strapped state stands to save $27 million by contracting out these
services. Though the legislation still awaits Gov. Rick Scott’s approval,
press secretary Lane Wright indicates that Scott is supportive of the
initiative. But detractors point out that the two corporate giants expected
to bid contracts – the GEO Group, based in Boca Raton, and Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA) of Nashville, Tenn. – both have spotty
histories when it comes to prison safety and hiring practices. There’s also
some doubt that the private operators, which are accustomed to working out
of their own modern facilities with easy-to-manage inmate populations, will
be able to actually save the state money if they have to work with
inefficient, older facilities that house more difficult inmates. In addition,
there’s the persistent moral question as to whether the government should
outsource punishment to companies whose profits increase as the number of
incarcerated individuals grows. (Private prison operators in Florida earn
anywhere between $45-$65 per inmate, per day.) Opponents also fear that the
political influence wielded by the private prison operators – especially
the GEO Group, which has donated heavily to Florida politicians – has
caused legislators to make questionable decisions about prison regulation.
For instance, the legislature voted this year to abolish the Correctional
Medical Authority, the state agency that monitors the quality of health
care in state prisons, by the end of the fiscal year in June. As of now,
there are seven private prisons operating in Florida, and they house
roughly 10 percent of the state’s 102,191 inmates. CCA operates four of
them, GEO operates two and a smaller company, Management & Training
Corporation, operates a women’s facility in Gadsden. When the legislature’s
new privatization plan goes into effect on January 1, 2012, most of the
prison facilities operating in the southern part of the state will be
turned over to private companies; it will be the first time in Florida that
private prison operators would take over existing DOC facilities, rather
than designing their own. According to Tom Jones, a Tallahassee attorney
who monitored prisons in the 1990s for the state’s now-defunct Correctional
Privatization Commission, says he doubts that handing over South Florida’s
facilities to private vendors will result in significant cost savings. The
state’s oldest private prison, Gadsden, opened in 1995, while the oldest
public facility to be bid out for privatization, Homestead, opened in 1976.
There are a lot of “nooks and crannies” in older facilities, Jones says,
which means they require more staff – and therefore more money – to monitor
properly. “I think legislators should be careful in thinking that the
private companies running these newer, efficient facilities can go into an
inefficiently designed state facility and save boatloads of money,” he
says. “To me, that’s a bit of a leap.” Corrections Corporation of America
spokesman Steven Owen is confident that his company can still supervise
inmates more cheaply without the luxury of a custom-designed building. “We
would welcome the opportunity to bring new efficiencies to existing state
facilities,” Owen writes in an email to the Orlando Weekly. One place the
private operators can cut costs is in staff benefits. State correctional
officers receive handsome defined-benefit packages from the Florida
Retirement System, which includes additional compensation for taking on the
“special risk” of working in the prison environment; private operators only
offer standard 401(k) plans to their employees. These slimmer benefit
packages, privatization opponents say, mean that the companies are more
likely to hire from the bottom of the barrel, which can have a direct
impact on prison safety. For instance, Gadsden – a prison managed by CCA
until last year – saw four employees fired between November 2008 and July
2009 for having inappropriate relationships with inmates. (One was also
charged with sexual battery.) On the other hand, Hernando Correctional
Institution, which the DOC regards as the most comparable public prison to
Gadsden, has only seen one employee fired since 2006 for the same reason.
The state’s former Department of Corrections secretary, Jim McDonough, who
was hastily installed into the troubled department in 2006, recalls that
private companies’ hiring standards stood as a bulwark against his goal of
weeding out corrupt employees. “A lot of those that I let go reappeared in
the ranks of the privates,” McDonough says. “At one point, I asked the
privates to stop hiring the people I was firing.” The GEO Group has also
had issues with staff in its Florida facilities: Roughly a month and a half
after its Graceville prison opened in September 2007, an employee was
arrested when crack cocaine was found in his car. A little more than two
months later, the prison’s warden resigned, citing “the stress and demands
of the job,” according to the Jackson County Floridian. In March of last
year, an inmate at Graceville died in a fight with another inmate. The
state handed the facility over to CCA the following month, which meant that
employees had to reapply for their jobs. The GEO Group declined the
Weekly’s request for comment, but in a recent conference call, it was clear
that the company was excited about the prospects for growth in its home
state. “I think the Florida opportunity is several hundreds of millions,”
said Brian Evans, GEO Group’s chief financial officer, adding that it will
be among “the largest opportunities we’ve ever seen in the history of our
industry.” GEO has powerful friends in the Florida legislature to thank for
that. At the beginning of this year’s session, the House had proposed that
only prisons in Miami-Dade and Broward counties be privatized, while the
Senate pushed for the wholesale privatization of Department of Corrections
facilities in 18 counties. In the end, there was no compromise – the
Senate’s bill won. In addition, according to State Sen. Mike Fasano (R-New
Port Richey), the Senate’s Budget Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil
Justice Appropriations had hoped to cut payments to private prison
operators by 5 percent; the corresponding House committee had aimed to
slash payments by 12 percent. In the end, Fasano says, “not one dime” was
cut. And despite having a budget of $29.7 billion dollars under its purview,
the House’s Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee found the $717,680
budget of the Correctional Medical Authority – the only independent state
agency monitoring health care in the state’s prisons – to be an unnecessary
expense. The program was eliminated at the same time that the entirety of
the state’s prison health care system was offered to private vendors. (GEO
Care, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the GEO Group, is considered
well-positioned to take many of those contracts.) “I don’t think it’s any coincidence,”
says Rep. Mark Pafford (D-West Palm Beach) of the timing. “It’s a
corporate-led legislature. And this year, probably in every single aspect
of the budget, was a giveaway to corporations.” The GEO Group funneled
$680,500 into the coffers of the Florida Republican party – which dominates
the legislature – during the 2010 election cycle. The GEO Group also spent
somewhere between $800,000 and $1.37 million on Florida lobbyists last
year; among them is Ron Book, who is well-connected in Tallahassee to an
almost legendary degree. Though Book won’t comment on the nature of his
meetings with legislators, he offers a hopeful view of the experiment to
come: “I think the state of Florida is in a position to save a lot of money
in the corrections arena, and for the first time in history, do an
apples-to-apples comparison of the public sector versus the private sector
and see who does it better.”
May 18, 2011 Herald Tribune
Florida businesses are still pinching pennies on many fronts as they
lurch out of the recession, but records show they spared no expense to
influence state lawmakers this spring. After a dip in 2010, compensation
totals for the 447 firms registered to lobby the Florida Legislature hit an
all-time high of roughly $33.2 million for the first three months of 2011,
according to a Herald-Tribune analysis. The increased spending paid off in
many cases, with major industry-backed legislation passing on issues
including property insurance, telephone deregulation, Medicaid reform and
prison privatization. The property and health insurance industries each
spent nearly $800,000 on dozens of lobbyists who helped successfully push
one bill allowing home insurance rates to increase by 15 percent annually,
and another that moves more than 3 million Medicaid recipients into
private, managed care health insurance. AT&T led the spending among
individual companies, allocating $1 million to hire 37 lobbyists who won
passage of a bill to deregulate the home phone industry, a move that could
lead to rate increases. Other big spenders include prison contractor The
GEO Group, which paid $145,000 to lobbyists who advocated for the largest
prison privatization plan in state history, and Automated Healthcare
Solutions, which dropped $156,000 fighting a crackdown on doctors who use
the company's software to prescribe painkillers. Florida's uptick in
lobbyist spending is partly explained by the unusual number of sweeping
policy issues that were addressed in Tallahassee this year, bringing more
interest groups to the Capitol. But businesses also fattened their lobbying
budgets to take advantage of improved prospects for favorable legislation
under a business-friendly new Legislature and governor. "New governor,
more conservative Legislature, an unprecedented number of policy
game-changers — makes sense," said Ron Book, one of four Florida
lobbyists who collected more than $1 million in the first quarter.
April 30, 2011 St Petersburg Times
Boy, did we miss this. House Speaker Dean Cannon's new political
committee, Florida Freedom Council, pulled in $364,500 in just one week
before the start of session. The Capitol Press Corps can't complain because
some of the money was used to purchase Press Skit tickets, clearly a
political maneuver that ensured freedom in Florida for the "council."
The contributors are a who's who of who wants what during the legislative
session: $ 25,000.00 BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF FLORIDA - $ 25,000.00 THE
GEO GROUP, INC
April 12, 2011 Florida Independent
The quarterly campaign finance reports for Florida political parties were
released late yesterday, and the Republican Party of Florida out-raised the
Florida Democratic Party by more than four-to-one: $5.2 million to $1.2
million, between January and March. Here are five things I’ve noticed while
combing through the spreadsheets: # 1.The entity with the most reported
contributions to the GOP appears to have been Florida Power and Light Co.,
which gave $255,000. That narrowly edged out Blue Cross and Blue Shield of
Florida, which gave $250,000. 2.Other big-time GOP donors include political
committees — one for Florida Realtors gave $190,000, and an outfit called
Florida Jobs PAC gave $200,000. Florida Jobs has taken in $650,000 so far
this year: $250,000 from FPL and the rest from Publix Supermarkets. 3.Both
parties reported six-figure contributions from Blue Cross within days of
each other in late March: $100,000 to the Dems on March 28 and $100,000 to
the GOP on March 31. That one contribution nearly made Blue Cross the
Democrats’ largest contributor so far this year. 4.But that honor goes to
Jacksonville-based STM Consulting, which gave a total of $120,000. 5.The
GOP reported a $50,000 contribution from the GEO Group on March 24, just
days before a plan surfaced to privatize prisons in South Florida. GEO would
have been a top contender for the contract.
April 1, 2011 St Petersburg Times
The Legislature's push to privatize many more prisons, its most
far-reaching cost-cutting plan in years, opens a lucrative door to
politically connected vendors who stand to profit. Se |
