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Donald W. Wyatt
Detention Center
Central Falls, Rhode Island
Cornell
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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