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Donald W. Wyatt
Detention Center
Central Falls, Rhode Island
Formerly run by
Cornell
October 25, 2011 AP
The management company that formerly ran a Rhode Island prison is suing the
facility's governing body, saying it is owed more than $671,000, according to a
complaint filed in federal court. In a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District
Court in Providence, Cornell Corrections of Rhode Island, Inc. says the
corporation running the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls
still owes money it agreed to pay the firm in 2008. The prison is run by the
Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation, a quasi-public agency. Cornell
Corrections operated Wyatt from its opening in 1993 to July 31, 2007, when the
corporation took over, according to a 2009 report on the facility. Cornell
Corrections says it reached a deal in 2008 with the corporation over the amount
of money it was owed under an earlier agreement. The lawsuit says Wyatt's
governing board still hasn't paid. The suit seeks $671,808, plus interest, costs
and attorneys' fees. The corporation stopped making full payments to Cornell
Corrections in 2006, according to a report released last month by former R.I.
Auditor General Ernest A. Almonte. As of August 2007, the corporation owed
Cornell Corrections more than $3.9 million, Almonte's report found. The 776-bed
facility houses medium- and maximum-security federal detainees awaiting trial or
transfer to federal Bureau of Prisons facilities. It lost a contract to house
federal immigration detainees after one died in its custody in 2008. The jail
has been beset by financial problems in recent years, having lost $6.2 million
and taken on $3.5 million in additional debt from 2007 to 2009, Almonte's report
said. The city of Central Falls once banked on revenue from the prison, but
hasn't been paid in three years. The city filed for bankruptcy earlier this
year. Attorneys for Cornell Corrections and the corporation did not immediately
return messages on Tuesday.
September 1, 2010 Smart Money
Owners of municipal bonds issued to pay for jails might not get to pass Go--and
could have trouble collecting interest payments as well. These tax free bonds
don't have a monopoly on defaults, but they're well represented among failures
and troubled issues among the more speculative classes of municipal bonds. Data
from Municipal Market Advisors reveals a slew of tax-free bonds issued to fund
construction of privately run prisons and detention facilities in states from
Texas to Rhode Island to Montana. The most recent example is Littlefield, a West
Texas town of about 6,500 people. Located between the New Mexico border and
Buddy Holly's hometown of Lubbock, Littlefield had to dip into reserves to cover
payments for about $1.2 in bonds and other debt used to finance the Bill Clayton
Detention Center. The bonds were issued in 2000, but the expected revenue stream
evaporated when, after a prisoner suicide in 2008, the 310-bed private prison
lost its contract to house out-of-state inmates. In 2009, the Geo Group (GEO),
formerly known as Wackenhut Security, ended its operating agreement with the
detention center, leaving it unoccupied. In April, Fitch Ratings, which in 2009
lowered the bonds to BB from BBB, affirmed a negative rating outlook.
Littlefield city manager Danny Davis says the city is scrambling to avoid
default on the $780,000 worth of annual payments and plans to cut police and
fire service while dramatically raising property taxes when the new fiscal year
begins Oct. 1. The property could be sold or could be taken over by the state,
though neither option is certain. "It's going to be difficult," he says. "In the
meantime, we're just trying to keep our heads above water until we get to a
solution." Bob Libal is the Texas campaign coordinator for Grassroots
Leadership, a lobbying group which opposes for-profit prisons, and the editor of
the blog Texas Prison Bid'ness. He says many small towns agree to build
"speculative prisons" to be run by private contractors using municipal bond
financing but that many of these projects in a post-Sept. 11 boom have had
trouble. Libal criticizes the development groups that get paid up front for
building detention centers thus saddling the bond-issuers (usually special
public facilities corporations created solely for those projects) with risky
debt. "They go after a lot of towns without a lot of sophistication and
resources to do the due diligence," Libal says. "If they let the bonds go under,
it's very difficult for them to issue any more debt." Matt Fabian, director of
research at Municipal Market Advisors, cites similar bond woes in Central Falls,
R.I.; Hardin, Mont.; and Baker County, Fla., where about $105 million in total
debt has run into trouble because the prison projects haven't worked out as
expected. "The incarceration rates drives speculation," he says. "There's an
idea that you can profit from this prison trend." Investors in these
increasingly-insecure jail bonds have certainly had to assume more risk, even
though they get higher yields. The $99 million Central Falls Detention Facility
bond issue of 2005 entered technical default in 2009 when it drew on its
reserves to make payments. The bonds, issued at par with a yield of 7.25%, last
traded at the end of 2009 at 85.3 cents to the dollar, with a yield of 8.69%.
Municipal revenue bonds issued in 2002 that funded the West Alabama Youth
Services detention facility defaulted in 2005. The bonds last traded in February
at 9 cents to the dollar with a yield of 73.6%. Fabian says some of the biggest
private prison busts are unlikely to have simple resolutions. A shopping center
is easy to repurpose; a detention center is not. "It's hard to restructure," he
says. "Even the land underneath a prison isn't worth as much as it was." Even
with a resurgent effort by the private prison industry to use their facilities
to detain illegal immigrants and an attempt by the U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agency to overhaul detention procedures, problems persist. The Baker
Correctional Development Corporation, created to finance a correctional facility
and immigration detention center west of Jacksonville, Fla., dipped into
reserves for its August payment to holders of bonds issued in 2008. With those
bonds trading last at 71.25 cents to the dollar with a yield of 20.73%,
investors looking to lock up their money should probably seek less risky types
of municipal bonds.
March 3, 2010 New York Times
When the Obama administration vowed to overhaul immigration detention last
year, its promise of more humane treatment and accountability was spurred in
part by the harrowing treatment of two detainees who died in the Bush years. In
one case, captured by security cameras in 2008, a Chinese computer engineer was
dragged from a Rhode Island immigration jail and mocked by guards as he screamed
in pain from undiagnosed cancer and a broken spine. In the other, a Salvadoran
detainee held for two years in a California detention center was denied a biopsy
for a painful penile lesion, though government doctors suspected the cancer that
eventually required amputation of his penis. But on Wednesday, the
administration argued in federal court that the government had no liability for
neglect or abuse by private contractors running the Donald W. Wyatt Detention
Facility in Central Falls, R.I., where the computer engineer was held. And in
oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday, federal
lawyers maintained that government doctors responsible for the Salvadoran’s care
in detention were immune from being personally sued for medical negligence. In
both cases, the arguments were made against lawsuits brought by the families of
the men who died, Hiu Lui Ng, 34, and Francisco Castaneda, 36. In the Ng case,
the government sought to be dropped as a defendant, and in the other, it tried
to sharply limit potential monetary damages. But critics of the sprawling
immigration detention system, which relies mainly on privately run jails to hold
noncitizens facing deportation, said those arguments had broader and more
disturbing implications. “The government’s positions both in Castaneda and in
the Ng case fly in the face of the stated commitment to overhauling the
immigration detention system and bringing to it more transparency and
accountability,” said Vanita Gupta, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties
Union, which filed an amicus brief in the Castaneda case and through its Rhode
Island affiliate supported the lawsuit brought by Mr. Ng’s widow, Lin Li Qu, and
two children, all United States citizens who live in New York. “Real reform
wouldn’t be about pointing the finger elsewhere,” Ms. Gupta said. “It would be
about promulgating legally binding standards and making individualized
determinations about whether someone like Ng needs to be detained in the first
place.” Brian P. Hale, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
reiterated the agency’s commitment to an overhaul. “This administration takes
any allegation of inadequate medical care or ill treatment seriously and will
not accept or tolerate any willful misconduct,” he wrote. “We have taken
important initial steps to change this system and are committed to finishing the
job.” Oral arguments in the Ng case, in Federal District Court in Providence,
centered on the federal agency’s role in ordering that the gravely ill man be
taken in shackles to a federal office in Hartford and returned the same day to
the Wyatt detention center. For that trip, Mr. Ng was dragged from his cell. The
government’s lawyer, Helene Kazanjian, argued that it was “completely unfair” to
expect an agency “that has no contact with the detainee on a regular basis,” to
know that Mr. Ng was in dire condition. But Fidelma L. Fitzpatrick, arguing the
other side, pointed out that the agency had been repeatedly notified that Mr. Ng
was in terrible pain and unable to walk, and that he had been denied a
wheelchair and outside medical care by the detention center, run for profit by a
municipal corporation in Central Falls. “The U.S. government cannot just hire
someone and then close the file,” Ms. Fitzpatrick said. “The government must
take responsibility for the actions of ICE.” Judge William E. Smith said he
would rule later, but his questions took up the plaintiffs’ theme. “If you know
about the severity of the detainee’s condition, isn’t there an obligation to
give him special treatment, to put him on an ambulance?” he asked. Ms. Kazanjian
contended that when the agency learned how sick Mr. Ng was, it sent him to the
hospital where he died six days later. But the judge corrected her. “I ordered
him hospitalized,” he said, referring to his unusual intervention at a habeas
corpus hearing the day after the Hartford trip. “I don’t think ICE can take
credit for that.” In the Castaneda case, the government has admitted to medical
negligence, and a federal judge has said “the word ‘cruel’ is an understatement”
for the treatment described in the lawsuit. But on Tuesday, the Supreme Court
seemed receptive to the government’s argument that Public Health Service doctors
were immune from suit under a 1970 federal law. A government lawyer argued that
that immunity reflected “a balance of evils,” adding, “Congress has decided that
it would rather protect the P.H.S., make sure that causes of action and
liability aren’t hanging over the heads of P.H,S. officers, even if that means
some individuals don’t get recovery against certain specific P.H.S. personnel.”
Lawyers representing Mr. Castaneda’s teenage daughter have said a ruling for the
government would preclude a jury trial in the case and cap any damages at
$250,000, which they called insufficient deterrence to the negligence that has
been widely documented.
November 11, 2009 AP
The widow of a Chinese immigrant wants the federal government to remain a
defendant in her lawsuit over the death her husband, who was detained at a Rhode
Island jail. Hiu Lui Ng died of liver cancer in August 2008 while he was being
held for overstaying a visa. Investigators say he was abused and denied medical
care at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls . The private jail
contracted with the federal government to house immigration detainees. The
government has asked to be dismissed from the case, saying Wyatt staff were
private contactors and not government employees. But lawyers for Ng's widow say
federal immigration authorities failed to act even after it became clear that Ng
was being seriously mistreated.
July 30, 2009 The Providence Journal
A former employee at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility has agreed to
plead guilty to a charge that he lied to federal investigators about having
sexual contact with an immigrant detainee in the jail’s infirmary. Glenn
Rivera-Barnes, a medical technician, allegedly tried to falsely convince the
investigators that the detainee sexually assaulted him when there was no
evidence that it ever happened. Instead, officers from the Justice Department’s
Office of Inspector General and U.S. Marshals Service had DNA samples proving
that Rivera-Barnes initiated the sexual conduct with the detainee on May 11 and
May 24, 2008. In exchange for the guilty plea, filed in U.S. District Court on
Tuesday, federal prosecutors have recommended that Rivera-Barnes serve a
one-year sentence in home confinement with an electronic bracelet attached to
his ankle. Rivera-Barnes and the victim are both men. “Clearly, Mr.
Rivera-Barnes’ conduct was deplorable,” said Bill Fischer, the jail’s spokesman.
“His conduct is not becoming of the type of employee that we want at Wyatt.” He
credited the jail’s Professional Standards Unit and the Rhode Island State
Police for their work on tracking the DNA evidence. The state police took
custody of the DNA samples and delivered them to the state Department of Health
lab in Providence. The jail’s Professional Standards Unit launched its
investigation in the spring of 2008 after the detainee, identified only as M.P.A.,
claimed that Rivera-Barnes had unwanted sexual contact with him in the jail. On
July 15, 2008, he was placed on unpaid administrative leave and the internal
investigative team referred the case to the federal authorities. Bill Fischer,
Wyatt’s spokesman, said that Rivera-Barnes was fired on Jan. 21. It’s a crime to
lie to a federal investigator and punishable by up to five years in prison and a
$250,000 fine. No such penalty exists for lying to a local or state police
officer. In March, The Journal first reported about the investigation and the
jail’s warden, Wayne T. Salisbury Jr., issued a news release that said the jail
first learned of “a serious allegation” in the spring of 2008 involving a staff
member and “two detainees.” He pointed out that the staff member, now identified
as Rivera-Barnes, was hired on June 28, 2007, by Cornell Corrections, the
Texas-based firm that ran the prison until Aug. 1, 2007. One of the detainees,
Allen Seymour, of Oxford, Mass., contacted The Journal, claiming that
Rivera-Barnes had victimized him. He said he went to the prison infirmary in
April 2008 and was inappropriately touched and groped. Upon his return to the
cellblock area, Seymour said, he told the immigrant detainee identified in the
plea agreement as M.P.A. about his experience. He said the detainee told him
that he had a similar experience with the same medical technician. Seymour’s
allegation is not mentioned in the criminal complaint or plea agreement. No date
has been set for Rivera-Barnes to enter his guilty plea in federal court. He
lived in Woonsocket when he worked at Wyatt and now lives outside of Boston.
March 26, 2009 Providence Journal
The current executive director of the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility was
paid nearly $1 million to oversee the $48-million expansion of the jail while he
was also collecting an annual fee for other consulting work at the detention
center for federal immigrant detainees and prisoners awaiting trial or
sentencing. Anthony Ventetuolo Jr. confirmed this week that he and his firm,
Avcorr Management LLC, of Warwick, was paid $961,671 for the second job over a
three-year period that ended in October 2007. The payment represented 2 percent
of the project’s cost, a fee structure that Ventetuolo said is customary for
large capital construction projects. Ventetuolo had no competition for the job,
which more than doubled the number of beds at the jail. Albert M. Romanowicz,
then chairman of the Central Falls Detention Facility Corp., the municipal
agency that owns Wyatt, approved on Feb. 23, 2004, an amendment to the Avcorr
contract to provide correctional consulting services that also designated Avcorr
and Ventetuolo to serve as “project representative” for the three year addition
project at the same time. In a phone interview this week, Romanowicz said that
Ventetuolo’s experience in corrections and his knowledge of the Wyatt jail made
him the perfect choice for the job. Romanowicz, who resigned as board chairman
last month, remains aggravated that city officials have in the last few weeks
questioned Ventetuolo, his salary and the way he has run the jail since he
became executive director in August 2007. “He’s got a helluva lot more integrity
than the people going after him,” he said. During the time Ventetuolo and his
firm served as project representative or construction manager, Avcorr also
collected between $133,863 and $157,000 annually for correctional consulting
services there, monitoring Cornell Corrections, the large Texas corrections
company that was the management services contractor hired to run Wyatt until
mid-2007.
March 5, 2009 Providence Journal
Federal investigators are looking into allegations that a former medical
technician at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility, in Central Falls, sexually
assaulted two prisoners in the jail’s infirmary last year. The technician has
since been fired and agents from the U.S. Marshals and the Justice Department’s
Office of Inspector General in Boston have questioned him, the alleged victims
and other prisoners, officials confirmed. The medical technician and the two
prisoners are men. The investigation is the latest development in a series of
problems that have plagued the Wyatt jail since an immigrant federal detainee,
Hiu Lui “Jason” Ng, died in custody last August. Separate inquiries, by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which had detained Ng; the state police and
the jail’s Professional Standards Unit, all condemned several corrections
officers and the nursing staff for failing to provide proper treatment to Ng. A
corrections captain and the director of nursing have been fired. Ng, who
suffered from excruciating back pain, had liver cancer and a fractured back that
went undiagnosed until the final days of his life. Last month, Ng’s widow, Lin
Li Qu, and her two young boys, filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against
ICE, Wyatt and a host of other defendants, saying that Ng’s medical needs were
“ignored and ridiculed,” and that jail staff subjected him “to physical abuse
that resulted in serious physical harm.” Ng’s death and inadequate medical care
for jailed detainees across the nation has gained more attention in recent
months. On Tuesday, the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House
Appropriations Committee held a hearing on health services for immigration
detainees in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Mr. Ng’s case
of medical abuse should have sounded an alarm that our health services for
immigration detention are badly broken,” said Steven Brown, executive director
of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Ng was just one of over 80 deaths in a system that
undermines American values of fairness and dignity. Reforming immigration
detention is truly a matter of life and death.” Brown urged Congress to ask
officials of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “what steps they can take
to prevent another incident such as Mr. Ng’s case from occurring in the future.”
IN RESPONSE to a Journal inquiry about the latest issue, Wyatt’s warden, Wayne
T. Salisbury Jr., issued a news release that said the jail first learned of “a
serious allegation” last April involving a staff member and “two detainees.” He
said the jail’s Professional Standards Unit launched an investigation and turned
its findings over to the federal Inspector General’s Office. Salisbury pointed
out that the staff member had been hired by Cornell Corrections, the Texas-based
firm that ran the prison until Aug. 1, 2007. Avcorr Management of Warwick, and
its president, Anthony Ventetuolo Jr., now run the jail under contract with the
Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation, a municipal agency. “Since this
matter is still under investigation, we will have no further comment at this
time,” the statement reads. Salisbury did not name the staff member or the
detainees. The Journal is not identifying the medical technician because he has
not been charged with any crimes.
February 26, 2009 Providence Journal
The current executive director of the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility was
paid nearly $1 million to oversee the $48-million expansion of the jail while he
was also collecting an annual fee for other consulting work at the detention
center for federal immigrant detainees and prisoners awaiting trial or
sentencing. Anthony Ventetuolo Jr. confirmed this week that he and his firm,
Avcorr Management LLC, of Warwick, was paid $961,671 for the second job over a
three-year period that ended in October 2007. The payment represented 2-percent
of the project’s cost, a fee structure that Ventetuolo said is customary for
large capital construction projects. Ventetuolo had no competition for the job,
which more than doubled the number of beds at the jail. Albert M. Romanowicz,
then chairman of the Central Falls Detention Facility Corp., the municipal
agency that owns Wyatt, approved on Feb. 23, 2004, an amendment to the Avcorr
contract to provide correctional consulting services that also designated Avcorr
and Ventetuolo to serve as “project representative” for the three year addition
project at the same time. In a phone interview this week, Romanowicz said that
Ventetuolo’s experience in corrections and his knowledge of the Wyatt jail made
him the perfect choice for the job. Romanowicz, who resigned as board chairman
last month, remains aggravated that city officials have in the last few weeks
questioned Ventetuolo, his salary and the way he has run the jail since he
became executive director in August 2007. “He’s got a helluva lot more integrity
than the people going after him,” he said. During the time Ventetuolo and his
firm served as project representative or construction manager, Avcorr also
collected between $133,863 and $157,000 annually for correctional consulting
services there, monitoring Cornell Corrections, the large Texas corrections
company that was the management services contractor hired to run Wyatt until
mid-2007.
February 19, 2009 Providence Journal
The Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union yesterday
questioned the wisdom of selling the troubled Donald W. Wyatt Detention
Facility, now owned by the City of Central Falls, to a private corporation that
owns and manages more than 65 correctional, detention and juvenile institutions
nationwide. Steven Brown, executive director of the affiliate, faxed a letter to
Mayor Charles D. Moreau that highlighted a host of problems — including inmate
deaths — in jails run by Corrections Corporation of America, the Nashville,
Tenn.-based prison firm. “Selling the facility to a corporation like CCA is,
from our perspective, like jumping from the frying pan into the fire,” Brown
wrote. “… Please consider the consequences that flow from such public-private
partnerships that seek to make money, often by cutting corners, with little
oversight and with little regard for anything other than the bottom line.” On
Feb. 5, two CCA representatives spent several hours touring the jail with
Moreau, prison administrators and two newly appointed members of the Central
Falls Detention Facility Corporation, the board that is appointed by the mayor
and oversees the jail. Moreau has repeatedly said that “everything is on the
table right now,” and that the city would consider selling the jail to CCA or
anyone else who would pay top dollar and provide the best deal for taxpayers in
this financially troubled, one-square-mile city. The jail and land have been
appraised at a total of $45.1 million, according to www.appraisalresource.com.
Yesterday, Moreau said that there have been no further discussions with CCA and
the city has no intention of jumping into a purchase-and-sales agreement. Still,
he said that anyone in the corrections business has had problems including
deaths within its jails. “There are deaths that happen in prison facilities
across the country every day,” he said. “If we were to sell the facility, it
would be to a reputable company. I’m not going to do anything that’s not going
to bolster this city.” The operation of the city-owned jail has come under fire
following the death of Hiu Lui Ng, a Chinese national, last summer while in
Wyatt custody. Ng’s death led to three separate investigations, and U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement withdrew all 153 of its immigrant detainees
from the jail in December. The Ng family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit
against Wyatt, the corporation board and Avcorr Management, the Warwick firm
that oversees the management of the jail. Last month, ICE announced that it was
terminating its contract to send detainees to Central Falls. The move has sent
jail and city officials scrambling to replace the prisoners, a deal that was
bringing the detention facility $100,000 a week and the city about $50,000 a
month. Brown, in his letter, said that problems at CCA jails have trailed them
for years. He cited a 1998 Justice Department report that was highly critical of
a CCA jail in Washington, D.C., where two inmates were stabbed to death, there
had been deaths attributed to poor medical care, and there had been several
escapes. CCA agreed to pay damages of $1.65 million, Brown wrote. Brown also
pointed out overcrowding, violence and accusations of excessive force at CCA-run
jails in San Diego; Olney Springs, Colo., and Hutto, Texas. In the Texas jail,
Brown wrote, children “as young as two years of age were held in the former
medium-security facility in prison garb; received inadequate education, medical
care and recreation.” He said that guards also threatened to permanently
separate them from their families. A call left with CCA seeking comment was not
returned yesterday.
January 31, 2009 Pawtucket Times
The consultant charged with overseeing the operations of the Donald W. Wyatt
Detention Facility may become a target of a legal complaint from a second
detainee alleging mistreatment at the facility, just months after the death of a
Chinese national there. Both the Wyatt and the federal Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) agency have in recent weeks released the results of internal
investigations into the death of Hiu Lui “Jason” Ng. A Hong Kong native, Ng died
in ICE custody waiting to face immigration-related charges. He succumbed last
summer to advanced stage cancer that had apparently gone undiagnosed during his
brief stay at the Wyatt. Now a former Wyatt detainee who once shared a cell with
Ng has filed a legal complaint regarding his own treatment there. In that
complaint, Marino De Los Santos is looking to have Wyatt executive director
Anthony Ventetuolo and his consulting firm, Avcorr, named as defendants. On
Friday, attorney Angel Taveras confirmed that he had submitted a request in
federal court to have Ventetuolo and his company recognized as defendants, as an
amendment to a complaint originally filed by his client, de Los Santos, who is
from Bridgeport, Conn. According to Taveras, De Los Santos made several
complaints to Wyatt staff in writing, alleging that he received inadequate
medical treatment or no medical treatment on several occasions during his
incarceration. He claims that he fell and suffered injuries on two occasions.
According to a New York Times report, Ng had indicated that he might have been
singled out as a possible “troublemaker” by Wyatt staff after he had been
observed speaking with De Los Santos. A complaint filed by Taveras states that
De Los Santos was being held on drug-related charges at the Wyatt on two
occasions: the first from April 2006 to May 2007, the second from November 2007
until August 2008. According to the complaint, De Los Santos continues to endure
physical pain and difficulty walking due to injuries suffered as a Wyatt
detainee and subsequent lack of proper treatment. The complaint named several
defendants, including Cornell Corrections Inc. (which formerly ran the
facility), the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation, Wyatt Warden Wayne
Salisbury, an associate warden, and several correctional and medical staffers.
In the complaint, De Los Santos claims that he suffered injuries after falling
near the showers on two occasions. The first fall allegedly occurred on Aug. 30,
2006. “Due to an excessive and unsafe accumulation of water in the shower area,
there was water leaking out from the showers and running into the hallway,” the
complaint read. “Despite the unsafe conditions of the floor, there were no signs
posted indicating that the floor was wet or slippery. As Mr. De Los Santos was
walking toward the showers, he slipped on the slippery floor and fell.” De Los
Santos allegedly “suffered severe pain and injuries to his neck, back and right
foot” as a result of the fall. A guard then allegedly ordered employees to mop
the floor and, following “several minutes of Mr. De Los Santos unsuccessfully
attempting to pick himself off the floor,” requested medical attention for him.
According to the complaint, De Los Santos was seen by a doctor, who sent him
back to his cell after giving him “two Tylenol.” He allegedly “remained
bedridden for approximately two weeks,” requiring the assistance of other
inmates in daily activities. The complaint alleges that De Los Santos made
several unsuccessful attempts to get further medical attention. On Nov. 5, 2006,
he reportedly suffered a similar fall, causing him to “defecate and temporarily
lose consciousness,” and further injuring his back and neck. De Los Santos was
then taken to a hospital, the complaint states, where he was diagnosed with a
chest wall contusion, a soft tissue contusion and a neck sprain. He was
prescribed a neck brace, but a Wyatt doctor allegedly removed and confiscated it
upon his return. In May 2007, De Los Santos was transferred to the New Haven
(Conn.) Correctional Center in response to his written request to the U.S.
Marshals Service. In November of that year, however, he was transferred back to
the Wyatt. Continuing to experience pain, De Los Santos allegedly submitted
several requests for medical care and a wheelchair. A nurse is said to have
indicated that he did not “meet the criteria” for a wheelchair, and that her
department would not communicate with him further regarding his medical issues.
The complaint added that in April 2008, a corrections officer placed his hands
around De Los Santos’ chest without consent, in an effort to “straighten” him
out. A grievance form he submitted regarding this incident allegedly “received
no response.” Wyatt spokesman Dante Bellini had no comment on the matter. He had
previously indicated that Ng had received ample medical attention, and that the
facility’s staff was held to high standards. Several staffers were reportedly
disciplined or fired following the ICE investigation into Ng’s death. The ICE
abruptly removed all 153 of its detainees from the Wyatt in December after the
Ng investigation. As part of an effort to get ICE detainees back — and the
funding that comes with them —Mayor Charles Moreau has replaced four of the five
board members that oversee Wyatt operations via the Central Falls Detention
Facility Corp.
January 15, 2009 ICE PR
Today, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has notified the Central
Falls Detention Facility Corporation of the agency's intention to terminate the
agreement to house detainees at the Donald Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode
Island. ICE will terminate the agreement effective 60 days from Friday, January
16, 2009. Due to an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death
of Mr. Hiu Lui Ng at Wyatt, ICE took precautions and promptly ceased sending
additional detainees to the Wyatt contract facility and quickly relocated the
remaining 153 ICE detainees from the facility in December 2008. The
investigation, which was completed on January 12, 2009, revealed a consistent
lack of communication regarding Mr. Ng's healthcare needs between medical and
security personnel at Wyatt. The investigation also revealed that there were
instances of non-compliance by Wyatt contract personnel with the ICE National
Detention Standards and multiple failures to adhere to the facility's rules and
policy. As part of the investigation, ICE reviewed the policies and procedures
used by Wyatt to evaluate the health care needs of Mr. Ng and to provide him
with access to health care. ICE further reviewed the procedures used to
distribute medication to detainees and the use of wheelchairs to assist in the
transportation of detainees, including Mr. Ng. ICE's Office of Professional
Responsibility (OPR) found that contract personnel at Wyatt failed to provide
Mr. Ng a wheelchair on a number of occasions, resulting in Mr. Ng effectively
being denied access to his counsel as well as to a medical appointment. ICE OPR
also found that the facility guards and medical staff failed to adhere to the
facility's use of force policy. ICE strives to maintain safe, secure and humane
detention conditions and quality health care. We make every effort to enforce
all existing standards and whenever possible, to improve upon them. ICE requires
that all facilities housing detainees meet our National Detention Standards,
which meet or exceed industry standards. When we find that our standards are not
being met by contract facilities, we take immediate action to ensure the safety
and well being of all ICE detainees.
August 20, 2008 New York Times
A lawsuit filed in federal court a year ago by a Dominican detainee makes
complaints about health care at a detention center in Rhode Island that are
similar to accounts of how the center treated a Chinese New Yorker who died Aug.
6 in immigration custody. That inmate was suffering from a fractured spine and
extensive cancer that had gone undiagnosed until five days before his death. The
lawsuit, filed in Providence, asserts that employees at the Donald W. Wyatt
Detention Center, in Central Falls, R.I., denied a wheelchair to Marino De Los
Santos, who said that he suffered serious injuries to his neck, back, chest and
spine in two falls at the center in 2006. According to the suit, employees
accused Mr. De Los Santos of faking his injuries and refused to take him to
scheduled examinations by a spine specialist. Cornell Corrections of Rhode
Island, one of the defendants, which ran the center at the time covered by the
suit, denied any wrongdoing in its answer. In the case of Hiu Lui Ng, who was
the subject of an article last week in The New York Times, lawyers and relatives
said that when he was racked with pain and too weak to walk, detention officials
refused him a wheelchair, failed to take him to scheduled appointments for an
M.R.I. exam or a CT scan, and instead took him in shackles to Hartford — where
he was pressured to withdraw his appeals and accept deportation. The lawsuit by
Mr. De Los Santos and details of earlier medical evaluations that fell short of
diagnosing Mr. Ng’s terminal illness and debilitating injury, emerged this week
as members of Congress demanded a full accounting by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland Security. In a telephone
interview on Tuesday, Mr. De Los Santos, 37, said that Mr. Ng was briefly his
cellmate early last month and that his extreme back pain and weakness were
apparent. “He was crying all night,” Mr. De Los Santos said from his home in
Bridgeport, Conn., where he returned after he was released on bond on Friday. He
faces deportation as a convicted drug dealer. “I got bottom bunk, he got the
upper bunk, and when he’s going to bed, it’s terrible. And I got problems, too,
in my back, but him, when I see him, I can’t sleep.” Mr. Ng was eventually
assigned to a lower bunk in another cell, but by late last month he could barely
walk, Mr. De Los Santos said. “When you line up to take medicine, he would grab
a chair, because he couldn’t stand. And they would tell him he had to let the
chair go, he had to stand, but he couldn’t.” He said that when Mr. Ng was
bedridden, he saw a nurse go to check him in his cell. “She came out laughing
and saying he was faking,” Mr. De Los Santos said. Mr. Ng, a computer engineer
with no criminal record, overstayed a visa years ago and had been applying for a
green card through his wife, a United States citizen, when he was swept into the
detention system in July 2007. Kelly A. Nantel, a spokeswoman for Immigration
and Customs Enforcement, said in an e-mail message that the agency “continues to
investigate allegations that Mr. Ng was mistreated in any way while in
detention.” But she added: “Based on a review of the medical records, it appears
that Mr. Ng was examined by medical staff at the facility where he was detained
and at the local hospital in Rhode Island both as a normal course of admission
to the facility and for individual complaints he had. Tragically, but not unlike
similar situations involving citizens of this country, Mr. Ng was diagnosed with
advanced-stage cancer and sadly succumbed to the illness within days of the
diagnosis.” Officials at Wyatt would not answer questions last week, but
asserted in a written statement that Mr. Ng had received proper care. In a
letter to Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, on
Monday, Representatives John C. Conyers Jr., chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee, and Zoe Lofgren, chairwoman of its subcommittee on immigration, said
that based on the article, “ the treatment provided to Mr. Ng is simply
unforgivable.” It is “particularly distressing,” the letter added, “considering
that much of it took place when ICE was facing intense scrutiny over the quality
of its medical care system and when agency personnel had assured Congress that
problems had been addressed.” According to Mr. Ng’s relatives and lawyers, he
began complaining of severe back pain and an itchy rash in April, when he was
being held at the Greenfield County Sheriff’s lockup in St. Albans, Vt., where
little or no health care was available. When he was transferred to Wyatt on July
3, a health screening form listed a rash, but no back pain. Later, he was seen
by detention center doctors for back pain, and after his relatives urged further
tests, given an X-ray of his back and hip on July 20, medical records show. The
radiologist’s report came back with a diagnosis of mild scoliosis, without
complications. Since Mr. Ng’s spine fracture was diagnosed 12 days later, when
an M.R.I. also found terminal cancer in his bones, lungs and liver, it is
unclear whether the radiologist missed evidence of his broken back or if that
injury occurred sometime between the X-ray and his Aug. 2 admission to Rhode
Island Hospital, in Providence. A doctor at the detention center noted in the
record that a CT scan should be performed if Mr. Ng’s pain did not respond to
painkillers and muscle relaxants. Instead, on the evening of July 26, a
Saturday, Mr. Ng was taken to the emergency room at a hospital in Pawtucket,
R.I., which does not perform CT scans on weekends. Doctors there scheduled a CT
scan for the following Monday, but according to affidavits from Mr. Ng’s
lawyers, the detention center’s staff made no effort to take him back there.
Another scan was scheduled for Tuesday, the affidavits said, but Mr. Ng missed
that one, too, because, his lawyers assert, he was unable to walk to the car and
detention center officials refused to give him a wheelchair, then reported that
he had refused to go. According to affidavits, concern over Mr. De Los Santos’s
lawsuit may have played a role in Mr. Ng’s treatment. Mr. Ng’s lawyers said that
he told them that a detention captain had ordered him to stop talking to a
detainee who had filed a civil suit over a back injury suffered at Wyatt. After
his painful trip to Hartford on July 30, Mr. Ng expressed fears that he, too,
had been labeled “a troublemaker” by detention officials, and that they had
determined to get rid of him or to prove that he was faking illness.
August 1, 2007 Providence Journal
The Central Falls Detention Facility Corp. today takes over the management of
the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility from Texas-based Cornell Corrections.
That means the detention board — made up of five people appointed by the mayor
of Central Falls — will take over the day-to-day operations of the expanded
prison, which houses about 575 inmates and has been run by Cornell for the past
13 years. The detention board decided to take over after contract negotiations
broke down in May when the sides failed to agree on what Cornell would be paid
to run the facility. The board had expected to celebrate the completion of a
$47-million expansion, which doubled the size of the prison and its number of
inmates, by the time it took over management of Wyatt but construction delays
will postpone its completion for another month, says Dante Bellini Jr. of RDW
Group, the spokesman for the Central Falls Detention Facility Corp. The
detention board rehired former warden Wayne Salisbury to serve as Wyatt’s
warden. Cornell removed Salisbury in May during contract negotiations with
correctional officers. Salisbury, who was hired by Avcorr Consulting, which
provides professional oversight to Wyatt, served on a transition team that
included Central Falls Police Chief Joseph Moran, Avcorr president Tony
Ventetuolo Jr., Tammy Nova, a Wyatt accountant who will now serve as its chief
financial officer, and Eugene Racquier, a member of the detention facility
board, as well as Ray Meador, Don Hunt, Paula Lisa and Keith Martin. “We did a
lot in a very short time, said Bellini. “There was a punch list of over 150
specific items that needed to be resolved. Everything from payroll issues,
financial, benefit issues, everything you could imagine when taking over this
kind of facility,” he said.
June 22, 2007 Providence Journal-Bulletin
The Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation gave notice to Cornell
Corrections, which has run the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility for the past
13 years, that come Aug. 1, it will take over the prison. The corporation is set
to operate the facility at about the same time it expects to celebrate the
completion of a $47-million expansion that has doubled the size of the prison
and the number of inmates. Contract negotiations broke down last month when both
sides could not agree on what the detention board would pay Cornell to run the
prison, said Anthony Ventetuolo Jr., president of Avcorr Consulting, which
provides operational oversight to Wyatt. Under enabling legislation passed in
1991, the detention board has the authority to operate the facility with its own
forces or contract out. The board has told Wyatt employees that they can stay.
Of the 190 employees, 150 of those agreed to stay, according to Ventetuolo.
Cornell is one of eight private prison operators in the United States and the
third largest in the country. The Texas-based company posted its revenue
earnings at $9.2 million (excluding direct reimbursements) in 2006 under the
contract with Wyatt. Ventetuolo said that Wyatt’s rising debt service due to its
expansion and the increasingly high cost of paying Cornell factored in the
board’s decision to run its own detention facility. “We went from a debt service
of $2.7 million a year to $8.4 million which is a big jump but we’ve got
additional [detainees] that will help offset that over the next two years of
transition,” Ventetuolo said. He said that prior to expansion construction, the
corporation paid Cornell $12 million a year to run the prison. Cornell wanted
“too much money for the next year and a half for what was reasonable,”
Ventetuolo said. “We think we can save between 10 and 15 percent which is
critical to us right now.” The detention board has negotiated a $96-per-day rate
for each prisoner, up from $89.90, with its primary users, the U.S. Marshal’s
Office and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ventetuolo said. Wyatt
added 120,000 square feet of space which include two additional floors and an
additional building for training. The number of detainees the prison can hold
went from 342 to 642. There are now 600 detainees at Wyatt. The detention board
directed Ventetuolo to form a transition team to determine what needs to be done
to transfer the operation by Cornell to the corporation. Former warden Wayne
Salisbury, who ran Wyatt until last month when Cornell abruptly removed him, is
a member of the transition team and is also working for Avcorr. Ventetuolo said
he hired Salisbury for his expertise with the prison. He said that once the
corporation takes over it will hire a new warden and Salisbury would be in
contention for the post.
May 31, 2007 Prime News Wire
Cornell Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CRN) announced today that the Central Falls
Detention Facility Corporation has notified the company of its intent to
transition the management contract for the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center to
another provider following the conclusion of the current management agreement at
the end of July, 2007. Revenues (excluding direct reimbursements) earned in 2006
under this contract were approximately $9.2 million. Management intends to
discuss any changes to 2007 guidance as a result of this contract transition at
the same time guidance is updated to reflect the company's recently-announced
contract award from the Arizona Department of Corrections.
May 31, 2007 Providence Journal-Bulletin
Cornell Corrections, the private company that runs the Donald W. Wyatt Detention
Facility, has removed warden Wayne Salisbury from his job. No one is giving the
reason for Salisbury’s removal. Cornell made its decision May 25 to replace
Salisbury, according to Dante Bellini Jr. of RDW Group, the spokesman for the
Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation, which owns the prison. Cornell
Corrections replaced Salisbury with acting warden William Massingill, who has
already started work at the detention center, according to Bellini. Massingill
once served as chief of security for the prison. Salisbury’s removal comes at a
time when Cornell Corrections is in the midst of contract negotiations with the
Rhode Island Private Correctional Officers Union. They are scheduled to
reconvene for negotiations June 4, according to Christine Parker, spokeswoman
for Cornell Corrections. A federal mediator has been brought in to work with the
two sides. Cornell, one of eight private prison operators in the United States
and the third largest in the country, is also in negotiations with Wyatt to
continue to run the prison. Cornell’s contract with Wyatt ran out in January.
The prison has been trying to get an increase in the $89.90 per day it receives
from federal agencies. Parker would not discuss the reason for Salisbury’s
removal, saying that the company does not comment on personnel matters. “We
continue to operate the facility. We have a seasoned team of qualified and
experienced personnel that we are utilizing to continue operations of the
facility,” Parker said. Salisbury became acting warden in 2003 and later became
the warden. Wyatt houses federal detainees mostly from the U.S. Marshals and the
Bureau of Immigration Customs Enforcement.
May 7, 2007 Pawtucket Times
After four days of silence, talks between the Rhode Island Private Correctional
Officers Union and the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility resumed Monday,
although a strike is "still a very strong option," according to union President
Heath Letourneau. On May 1, the day before their three-year contract was
scheduled to expire, Wyatt's 107 correctional officers voted to authorize a
strike. Despite the fact that the two parties have agreed to return to the
bargaining table next Tuesday and Wednesday, Letourneau said Tuesday's meeting,
which was refereed by a federal mediator, bore no fruit. The main sticking
point, he said, was the prison's insistence on cutting an hour of previously
guaranteed overtime. "Since their last offer, they haven't moved at all," said
Letourneau. "In that offer, all they did was move the money from our guaranteed
hour [per week] of overtime and factor it into our hourly wage..." According to
a Wyatt press release, the most recent offer provides for a 16.5 percent pay
increase over five years, with a 4.5 percent hike in the first year. Not
surprisingly, prison workers' right to strike is limited by the federal
government's interest in public safety, a fact duly noted by prison officials in
a statement to The Times. "The National Labor Relations Act requires that unions
provide adequate notice before a strike," a prison spokesperson wrote. "While
there is no specified definition of 'adequate notice,' existing court decisions
suggest that six weeks' notice is adequate for guard services such as those
provided by RIPCO at the Wyatt Detention Center."
May 3, 2007 Pawtucket Times
The 107 correctional officers employed by the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility
voted to authorize a strike Tuesday, according to a written statement from the
Rhode Island Private Correctional Officers Union. The employees' three-year
contract expired today, although the statement did not say when or under what
circumstances a strike would occur. "The major issues which the parties have yet
to resolve include wages, proper security measures, training and minimum
staffing," wrote Union President Heath Letourneau. "We are seeking your support
and assistance in our quest to be treated fairly during this period of
negotiations." Attempts to contact Letourneau with the telephone number provided
in the statement were unsuccessful. For their part, prison officials said they
hadn't heard anything about a strike and warned that a sneak attack would be
unwise. "The National Labor Relations Act requires that unions provide adequate
notice before a strike," a prison spokesperson told The Times in a written
statement. "While there is no specified definition of 'adequate notice,'
existing court decisions suggest that six weeks' notice is adequate for guard
services such as those provided by RIPCO at the Wyatt Detention Center." The
prison recently contacted a federal mediator to facilitate ongoing contract
negotiations between the prison and the union. The discussion between the two
parties has not progressed since the prison's most recent - but not final -
proposal, which provides for a 16.5 percent pay increase over five years, with a
4.5 percent hike in the first year. No mediation meeting has been scheduled.
"Our primary concern at this point is for the safety and security of our
detainees," said Warden Wayne Salisbury, Jr. "We cannot allow for these
necessities to be compromised by labor negotiations. As such, we have begun
making contingency plans in the event that RIPCO members do strike. Meanwhile,
we hope that the strike can be avoided altogether. Our negotiator remains
available during normal business hours to meet with both the federal mediator
and union representatives."
January 30, 2007 Connecticut Post
A federal judge, frustrated by the medical attention given to two inmates,
ordered one released on $1 million bond so he could seek private care, while the
other must be taken by prison officials to an orthopedic surgeon. U.S. District
Judge Janet C. Hall issued the orders after hearing lawyers in two separate
hearings just hours apart complain that their clients did not receive adequate
treatment. "It is my view that the United States of America, through its Bureau
of Prisons, should take care of the medical conditions of its prisoners in
custody," Hall said Monday. The inmates are Bruce Forest, 50, the reputed Porta-Potty
bomber from Weston, and Gary John, the 58-year-old retired FBI agent from
Stratford recently convicted of assaulting a federal marshal. Both are in the
custody of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons at the private Donald C. Wyatt detention
center in Central Falls, R.I. "Lawyers have an incredible sense of frustration
with the medical care at Wyatt," said Robert Mann, John's lawyer. "Our clients
are just not getting the medical attention needed at Wyatt." Wyatt officials did
not return telephone calls Monday. However, Felicia Ponce, a spokeswoman for the
prisons bureau, said her agency takes "any medical concerns of our inmates very
seriously & we make it our utmost priority." Ponce could not comment directly on
the two cases.
March 19, 2005 Pawtucket Times
This weekend, the federal inmates at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center can
pretend they’re at the beach. After a 3,000-gallon water heater burst Thursday
afternoon, the prison’s showers became as brisk as a public-use cabana,
according to prison officials. The Times received a concerned phone call Friday
from a relative of an inmate who said prisoners had been without heat and hot
water for two days and had been denied blankets by prison guards. On Friday
afternoon, prison consultant Tony Ventetuolo said the public can rest easy: the
problem is temporary and not at all serious.
April 29, 2004
After 13 months without making contributions to the city
budget, the Central Falls Detention Facility Corp. announced that it will resume
making monthly payments to the municipal coffers. The
corporation’s board of directors, which oversees the Wyatt Detention Facility,
will immediately resume paying the city $25,704 per month. The board is
not legally obligated to pay a specific dollar amount to the city, but does pay
an "impact fee" from money still left over after paying the prison’s
debts and operating costs. Al Romanowicz, chairman of the jail board, said
the number of prisoners held at Wyatt had dropped, reducing the prison’s
revenue."The census at the facility dropped, and the city is last in line for its
fees," Romanowicz said. "Bondholders come first. Operational expenses
come second, and the city is last in line to get any of the
proceeds." (Paw Tucket Times)
April 13, 2004
A strike at the Wyatt Detention Facility that had been
called for this morning was averted when union and management reached a
three-year agreement late last week. The R.I.
Private Correctional Officers, which represents 72 COs at the private,
for-profit High Street jail, initially set a strike deadline of midnight on
April 1 when its prior three-year contract expired. Although Cornell pays
no taxes on the operation, it is one of Central Falls’ top revenue producers,
consistently making payments to the city of about $500,000 a year. (Zwire.com)
April 1, 2004
With a contract expiring at midnight tonight, and no new contract in place, the
Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center is facing the possibility of a strike by its 73
correctional officers. The correctional officers' union authorized its
leadership to call for a strike in a unanimous vote last Friday, Geoff Weston,
president of the Rhode Island Private Correctional Officers' Union, said
yesterday evening. The union leadership had not yet called for a strike, but
could do so today. This would be the first workers' strike in the
facility's 11-year history. The Wyatt Center is prepared to activate its
contingency plan, said Terrence J. Higgins, the facility's human-resources
manager. "We will be adequately staffed in the event of a work
stoppage," Higgins said. "We will not compromise public safety or the
safety of the people in our care." When negotiations broke off late
yesterday morning, the two sides were "close to impasse," and the
company called for a cooling-off period because of union members' "profane
and unacceptable behavior at the bargaining table," lawyer D. Jay Sumner,
the company's chief negotiator, wrote in a letter to union lawyer Thomas Landry.
But a union news release placed the blame on the company, Texas-based Cornell
Corrections, which operates the pretrial detention facility for the owner, the
Central Falls Detention Facility Corp. The company "actually wants to
take money out of our pockets," Weston said in the release. "We're
already far enough behind the state correctional officers" at the Adult
Correctional Institutions, he said. (Journal)
March 24, 2003
Dunn M. Beckett, the former prison guard convicted last year of possessing a
sawed-off shotgun, has begun serving a 33-month federal prison sentence.
Beckett had worked as a guard at the Donald W. Wyatt Federal Detention Center in
Central Falls for eight years, and had served as president of the Rhode Island
Private Correctional Officers' Union. He was placed on administrative leave from
that job after his August 2001 arrest. His lawyer told the court last July that
Beckett was working as a carpenter. (The Providence Journal-Bulletin)
July 11, 2002
A former corrections
guard, whom a federal
prosecutor
described as a "wolf in sheep's clothing," walked out of
U.S. District Court
yesterday free on bail.
Dunn
M. Beckett was sentenced to 33 months in prison, but
allowed to remain out
on bail while he appeals his conviction for possession of
a sawed-off shotgun.
U.S.
District Judge Ronald R. Lagueux ruled that Beckett,
a former Marine and
guard at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central
Falls, would receive the
minimum
sentence on the gun charge. A
stocky man with a freshly shorn buzz-cut, Beckett worked
at the Wyatt
Detention Center for eight years, serving as head of the
Rhode Island Private
Correctional
Officers' Union. Beckett
was convicted in April in state Superior Court
with possession of anabolic
steroids, which the police found along with the sawed-off
shotgun. (Projo.com)
March 30, 2002
A corrections
officer was found guilty yesterday in U.S.
District
Court of possessing a sawed-off shotgun.
A
federal jury convicted Dunn M. Beckett, 33, on one count of possessing
an
unregistered shotgun shorter than the legal length.
Federal
agents found a shortened shotgun barrel and a shotgun stock in
Beckett's garage while searching his home, at 58 Edgewood Drive,
Cumberland,
Aug. 16 in connection with a murder investigation.
Beckett,
employed as a guard at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility,
in
Central Falls, has been on administrative leave since his arrest in August,
the
detention center's human-resources manager, Terrence Higgins, said
yesterday.
At
Beckett's arraignment on Aug. 31, U.S. Magistrate Judge David L.
Martin
set bail at $15,000. Beckett posted bail and remains free pending
sentencing,
which is scheduled for June 20.
The
gun that the agents recovered, after reassembly, was 25 inches long,
with
a 1414-inch barrel, Thomas Connell, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's
office
in
Providence, said yesterday.
Federal
law prohibits shotguns shorter than 26 inches overall or with
barrels
shorter than 18 inches.
Connell
said the federal agents determined the gun was a modified
Remington
12-gauge pump-action shotgun reported stolen in Berkley, Mass., in 1994.
The
maximum penalty for possessing a sawed-off shotgun is 10 years in
federal
prison and a $250,000 fine.
Assistant
U.S. Attorney Gerard B. Sullivan identified Beckett as a
suspect
in
two unspecified murder investigations during a court appearance in
September.
The
warrant for the search of Beckett's home, issued in August, has been
sealed pending the results of the investigation, so the reason for the
search
was not available yesterday.
Beckett
also faces a state charge of felony possession of anabolic
steroids.
The
steroids were allegedly found at his home during an August search. He
is
scheduled to stand trial on that charge in Superior Court April 8.
At
the Aug. 31 arraignment, Martin ordered Beckett to disclose where he
had
stored other firearms at his home, so the FBI could confiscate them.
Connell
said yesterday that about a half-dozen guns had been recovered, all of them
legally registered.
At
the time of his arrest in August, Beckett was president of the
57-member
Rhode Island Private Correctional Officers' Union. Higgins said Beckett was
unseated in a January election. (The Providence Journal-Bulletin)
September 1, 2001
Dunn M. Beckett, a corrections officer at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center,
in Central Falls, was identified by a federal prosecutor as a "suspect or
target of two murder investigations" during his appearance yesterday in
U.S. District Court on federal firearms charges. Beckett the president of
the 57-member Rhode Island Private Correctional Officer's Union has been charged
with possession of a shotgun shorter than the legal length and possession of a
stolen firearm. (The Providence Journal-Bulletin)
August 31, 2001
Dunn Beckett, president of the guards' union at the federal Donald W. Wyatt
Detention Center, in Central Falls, was arrested there yesterday by Cumberland
and Central Falls police and charged with felony possession of anabolic
steroids, a Cumberland police spokesperson said. (The Providence
Journal-Bulletin)
August 8, 2001
A carbon monoxide leak at a privately run prison Wednesday afternoon sent a
dozen inmates and employees to the hospital. The leak affected inmates and
employees in the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility laundry and kitchen
area. All other inmates who were not injured were left in their
cells. Wyatt is a private, for-profit jail owned by Texas-based Cornell
Companies Inc. Most of the inmates are federal prisoners awaiting trial or
sentencing. (AP)
April 4, 2001
Guards at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility reached an agreement with the
jail's parent company right before midnight Tuesday, and called off a planned
strike. The prison's parent company, Texas-based Cornell Companies Inc.,
and the union representing the guards negotiated for several hours before
agreeing on a 5 percent pay raise this year, and a 4.5 pay raise for each of the
following two years. Health care costs, which had also been an issue, will
not change. (Privateer News and AP)
April 1, 2001
Correctional Officers at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility continued to
negotiate yesterday with the Texas-based company that runs the jail, while a
possible strike loomed at midnight. The 57 officers represented by the
Rhode Island Private Correctional Officers' Union had authorized the union's
bargaining unit to call a strike if a contract was reached before midnight last
night. If there's a strike, Cornell Corrections, which runs Wyatt and
detention facilities throughout the country, would bring correctional officers
from its other units to guard the inmates in Central Falls, chief deputy U.S.
Marshal Bill Fallon said. The officers' two-year contract was set to
expire at midnight last night and negotiations have been under way for the past
three weeks. At issue are wage increases, health insurance costs and
seniority, said Thomas R. Landry, the Union's lawyer. Last week, union
president Dunn Beckett called the company's proposal
"insulting." That proposal called for a 2-percent annual
increase in wages over the next three years while requiring officers to pay
higher insurance premiums, Landry said. The five-member board, that owns
and operates the jail, is appointed by the Central Falls mayor, but runs
independently without oversight from the city or state, according to Patricia
Salisbury, chairperson of the Central Falls Detention Facility
Corporation. When the facility opened, the Marshals Service did not agree
to fill up the jail with federal detainees, prompting the Wyatt to house 200
prisoners from North Carolina in order to pay off the $30 million in bonds used
to finance the prison. The Central Falls City Council sued the corporation
in 1994 to force the removal of the North Carolina prisoners. The last of
the North Carolina prisoners left in 1995. (The Providence
Journal-Bulletin)
April 1, 2001
Guards at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility voted Saturday night to go on
strike Wednesday, as a union-imposed deadline passed with no new contract for
correctional officers at the private, for-profit jail. Union members voted
to begin the strike Wednesday at 7 a.m. After a day of picketing and
demonstrations, the guards except to return to work Thursday morning.
Union president Dunn Beckett called an earlier offer from the company
insulting. That proposal called for 2 percent raises in each of the next
three years, and required union members to pay higher premiums for their health
insurance. Nonunion employees will be used during the planned one-day
strike, and if needed, the prison's parent company, Texas-based Cornell
Companies Inc., can also draw resources from its other facilities around the
country, Chief Deputy William Fallon of the U.S. Marshal's office in Providence
said. (AP)
March 30, 2001
Correctional officers at the Donald D. Wyatt Detention Center, a privately run
federal prison, have threatened to strike if management fails to meet their
demands by midnight Saturday. The 57 members of the Rhode Island Private
Correctional Officers Union voted unanimously Thursday to walk out if a contract
agreement is not reached before their current three-year contract expires.
Talks between union negotiators and the for-profit prison owners, Cornell
Companies Inc., began three weeks ago and were scheduled to continue
Friday. (AP)
Rhode Island Legislature
The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday decried Governor Almond's veto
of an immigrant bill, calling the governor's action a "cruel and totally
gratuitous attack on the state's immigrant population." Among the
recent additions: Almond vetoed a bill that would have added this language
to Department of Corrections enabling legislation: "The state commits
itself to the supervision of offenders by public employees unless specialized
services for offenders are required." (Projo.com)
RISD
Sodexho
December 8, 2003
Four weeks after firing its food service provider Sodexho, RISD is on its way to
providing creative meals through its self−run dining service.
"Our long−term vision for the dining is to have a better match for
RISD's identity and culture," said Elizabeth O'Neil, RISD's director of
Design Marketing Collaborative. RISD pushed for a greater variety of food
and less formulaic dishes, but Sodexho was resistant to change. The school
terminated its contract with Sodexho Nov. 15, O'Neil said. A leading
provider of cafeteria services, Sodexho has been criticized at college campuses
across the country for unethical and illegal labor practices and for operating
for−profit prisons. With its parent company, Marriott, Sodexho owns the
U.S. Corrections Corporation of America. (Brown Daily Herald)
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