|
Alternative Youth Adventures
Montrose County, Colorado
Community Educational Centers
May 11, 2007 Denver Post
State health authorities have shut down a wilderness youth camp in Montrose
County after a 15-year-old Utah boy died there last week of an untreated staph
infection. The Colorado Department of Health and Human Services suspended the
license of Alternative Youth Adventures on Wednesday. The 26 at-risk youths in
the program were moved from the remote camp in Montrose County to corrections or
human service agencies in Grand Junction and Denver on Wednesday and Thursday.
"We believe we have reasonable grounds to believe the camp presents a
substantial danger to public health, safety and welfare," said Liz McDonough, a
spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services. McDonough said she
did not know how Caleb Jensen contracted a methicillin- resistant staphylococcus
aureus infection. She said he reported symptoms to the adult camp leaders. "We
are at a loss to see how this was preventable. ... It was something the staff
just could not tell was there," said Bill Palatucci, a spokesman for Community
Education Centers Inc., the Roseland, N.J., company that operates the wilderness
camp and five other rehabilitation-type programs in Colorado as well as programs
in six other states. "From what we know, the staff acted appropriately, in line
with their track record." The type of bacterial staph infection Jen- sen died
from most commonly occurs in hospitals and usually affects the elderly and very
ill or others with compromised immune systems. It most commonly develops in an
open wound. In minor cases, the infection causes pimples or boils. In serious
cases, the infection can lead to fever, pneumonia, toxic shock syndrome and
death. Jensen died the afternoon of May 2 in a camp in a remote part of Montrose
County just over the Mesa County line. Counselors reportedly tried to revive the
boy, who had been at the camp for a month. He was placed in the program for two
months by the Utah Division of Juvenile Services. A website for Community
Education Centers describes the camp as incorporating "education, conservation
practices, work projects in national forests, rigorous physical activity,
substance abuse treatment and detailed aftercare planning." Dan Robinson,
director of the Grand Mesa Youth Services program in Grand Junction, said his
facility has used the camp for years and has not had problems with it. McDonough
said her department had previous issues with youths who suffered frostbite at
the camp. Last year, six youths walked away from Alternative Youth Adventure
camps in Montrose and San Miguel counties. All were eventually located.
May 3, 2007 Rocky Mountain News
A 15-year-old Utah boy died during a backcountry outing with a youth program on
the Uncompahgre Plateau of natural causes, authorities said today. The teenager,
whose name was not immediately released, was part of Alternative Youth
Adventures, a Montrose care facility that treats at- risk juveniles through
education, counseling and work projects in national forests. Dr. Rob Kurtzman,
chief deputy coroner in Mesa County, said he'll conduct further tests to
determine the precise cause of death. "It's sudden and tragic," said Bill
Palatucci, senior vice president of Community Education Centers, the parent
company of Alternative Youth Adventures. "It may have been a previously
undetected underlying medical condition." Palatucci said the boy had been
referred to the AYA program by the Utah Division of Juvenile Justice Services.
He declined to release the boy's name, citing federal privacy regulations. The
boy died Wednesday afternoon. Authorities received a 911 call about 3 p.m.
saying he was not breathing, but the boy was dead by the time rescue personnel
reached the remote site southwest of Grand Junction near the Mesa-Montrose
county line.
Cornell Community Corrections
Center
Salt Lake City, Utah
Cornell
September 20, 2007 Salt Lake City Tribune
The inmates at a halfway house in Salt Lake County knew that a sexual favor
or a few dollars slipped to monitor Larry Lee Jensen could allow them to break
the rules or keep them out of trouble if they had been drinking or using drugs.
For $50, four inmates of Cornell Community Corrections Center were allowed to
leave the facility one night to have sex, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
stated. The Denver-based court also said another inmate got notice from Jensen
of urinalysis test dates in exchange for naked pictures of her boyfriend. And
those actions, along with numerous other incidents, supported an enhanced prison
term of 27 months, the 10th Circuit said Tuesday in upholding Jensen's sentence
for altering a record in a federal investigation. The punishment was imposed in
April by U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene, who determined that Jensen had
enabled numerous residents at the halfway house to violate the institution's
rules. Greene wrote that Jensen's willingness to give advance notice of
urinalysis dates or provide them with his own urine samples "became known to
every inmate in the place." Jensen, 38, had argued that his offense of
falsifying a record and his other conduct did not call for the enhancement under
federal sentencing guidelines. However, the 10th Circuit said Greene's "uncontroverted"
finding of "extreme and repetitive conduct" showed that Jensen's crime was far
from an isolated occurrence and upheld the enhancement. Cornell Community
Corrections is a private company that contracts with the government to house
inmates after their release from federal prisons. In 2006, the FBI began
investigating allegations of illegal activities by employees in Salt Lake
County. According to the 10th Circuit, Jensen admitted taking $40 on April 19,
2006, to urinate into a specimen cup and falsely writing in official paperwork
that the inmate had provided the sample in his presence. The appeals court
decision said Jensen also admitted in an interview with FBI agents to: *
Allowing a male resident, in exchange for a sexual favor, to visit a female
resident in violation of center rules. * Providing two residents with advance
notice of pending urine submission dates in exchange for the pair agreeing to be
photographed in the nude. * Failing to record positive breath tests for certain
residents. * Allowing two male residents and two female residents, for $50, to
leave the facility during the night so they could have sex. Under a plea deal,
Jensen pleaded guilty to one count of falsification of a record in a federal
investigation. Another monitor, William Lynn Appawora, admitted to damaging the
seal on a urinalysis sample in exchange for $40 so it would not be tested. He
was sentenced to 21 months behind bars and did not appeal.
April 6, 2007 Salt Lake City Tribune
A former worker at Cornell Community Corrections Center, a halfway house in
Utah for federal inmates, has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for
tampering with a urine-test record. Larry Lee Jensen, 38, admitted that he
urinated into a specimen cup for a center resident and filled out paperwork
saying he had witnessed the inmate providing the sample. The sentence was
imposed March 28 by U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene.
September 11, 2006 Deseret News
Two employees of a contract federal halfway house have been indicted in the
destruction and falsification of urine records of federal inmates. According to
federal prosecutors, Lynn Appawora, 37, and Larry Lee Jensen, 38, face up to 20
years in federal prison for destruction, alteration or falsification of a record
in a federal investigation. Specifically, federal prosecutors say while the two
worked as monitors for the Cornell Community Corrections Center in Salt Lake
City they altered drug urine records for federal inmates. The center contracts
with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
September 6, 2006 Salt Lake Tribune
An investigation into possible corruption at a Salt Lake City corrections
center for federal inmates has resulted in an indictment against two employees
there. William Lynn Appawora, 37, and Larry Lee Jensen, both of Salt Lake City,
were indicted Friday on one count each of destruction, alteration or
falsification of a record in a federal investigation. The two, who are accused
of tampering with records of urine tests, face up to 20 years in prison and a
$250,000 fine, if convicted. The probe targeted Cornell Community Corrections
Center, a private corporation that contracts to house inmates after they are
released from federal prisons outside of Utah. The center also provides services
for prisoners who are on federal probation or who have been released from
custody pending trial on federal charges. The investigation, which began several
months ago, is ongoing, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Grantsville
Grantsville, Utah
Cornell
August 1, 2002 The prison population in Utah declined 5.2 percent last year.
That was second only to New Jersey, where the population dropped 5.5 percent.
This is good news any way you look at it, but it also ought to make Utahns heave
a big sigh of relief. Think what would have happened if the state had gone ahead
with plans to contract with a private company to build and operate a
full-fledged state prison. That was the plan, up until two years ago this month.
It had progressed so far that the city of Grantsville extended a waterline to
the proposed prison site and a private contractor incurred some costs. Thus was
the state, and its taxpayers, saved from what could have been a disaster. What
might have happened? Take a look at what is happening in Mississippi. Last year,
the Wall Street Journal reported on how the Mississippi Legislature had agreed
to pay a private prison company for housing approximately 900 inmates regardless
of whether those inmates actually existed. Lawmakers had, in effect, agreed to
pay full price for empty cells. It was either that or go round up a bunch of
innocent people on trumped up charges. To put it bluntly, when a state decides
to privatize prisons, it creates a new set of special interests. Crime is down
and prisons are going empty. That's a good thing. It should never become a
burden for taxpayers. (Desert News.com)
June 21, 2001
Legislators have endorsed a $1.5 million settlement to avoid being sued by a
private corrections company over the state's abandonment of plans for a private
prison in Tooele County. "We warned lawmakers, "said Steve Erickson,
co-founder of Utah Citizens Education Project. "Heading down the private
prison path was buying a pig in a poke. Turns out it was all pig and no
pokey." The $1.5 million figure is roughly $2 million less than Cornell and
its subcontractors, VCBO Architects and Hogan Construction, said they were owed.
For its money, Utah will receive architectural plans that are three-quarters
complete, but in all probability worthless, Erickson said. (AP)
June 20, 2001
Legislators are scheduled to vote today on a $1.5 million settlement with the
Cornell Corrections Corp. The deal stems from the Utah Department of
Corrections' decision to cancel a privatized prison project with Cornell last
year to run a 500-bed private prison near Grantsville. If the settlement
is approved, the state would pay Cornell roughly $875,000 more, having already
paid about $675,000. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
March 31, 2001
Utah's aborted courtship of the private corrections industry could cost the
state roughly $1 million, according to preliminary figures released this week by
state risk managers. The Department of Administration Services was near a
settlement Tuesday on claims from Hogan Construction and Houston-based Cornell
Corrections, which was selected in 1999 to build a 500-bed medium-security
prison in Grantsville before the Legislature withdrew financial support for the
proposal. More troubling is the $872,000 Utah is prepared to pay Cornell
and its contractors for plans that never reached fruition. While Cornell
complained last year that the company should be compensated for preparation
costs, it is not clear the company did anything more than negotiate for the
prison contract ( as did three other companies vying for the prison) and acquire
an option to buy property. ( The Salt Lake Tribune)
Maximum
Life Skills Academy
Cedar, Utah
March 11, 2004
A counselor at a home for troubled teens died
tonight, hours after two of those teens apparently beat him with a baseball bat.
Sam Penrod, this sounds like a horrible attack.
The 31- year old victim was airlifted here to LDS
Hospital in extremely critical condition. He
died tonight, after what police call a vicious attack. Cedar City police were
called to this group home around midnight. They
found Anson Arnette of Cedar City with severe head injuries. The
Maximum Life Skills Academy in Cedar City houses six boys-- it's a private
program that's suppose to help troubled teens turn their lives around.
Police say two 17- year old
boys, Jesse Simmons and Sean Graham snuck up on the counselor and hit him at
least twice with a baseball bat. (tv.ksl.com)
Management
and Training Corporation
Ogden, UtahJanuary
31, 2007 KSL TV
A Utah-based company has been forced to pay back wages to hundreds of current
and former employees in Texas following an investigation. Management and
Training Corporation --- which is headquartered in Centerville, Utah -- has paid
nearly $486,000 in back wages to just over 260 current and former security
guards. That's according to a U- S Labor Department new release. An
investigation by the labor department found employees had NOT been properly paid
over a two-year period between October 2003 and September 2005. Federal
officials say the company failed to pay proper overtime --- meal breaks when
employees worked beyond their schedules and the correct fringe benefits. The
company has agreed to comply with future contracts.
December 17, 2005 Deseret News
The U.S. Department of Labor announced Friday that Management & Training
Corp., headquartered in Centerville, has paid $169,105 in back wages to 393
employees at five locations in Utah, Indiana, Ohio and New Mexico. The back
wages were paid following an investigation by the department's Wage and Hour
Division for compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Labor Department
said in a statement. Supervised by the department, MTC conducted a companywide
self-audit and found that some employees, including security personnel, were not
paid for all hours worked. MTC employs more than 2,000 workers at 24 Job Corps
Centers and six correctional facilities throughout the country.
April 4, 2002
Wayne Scott, who headed the state's prison system before retiring last year, has
resigned from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Scott has accepted a
job with Management & Training Corp. a Utah-based private prison management
company, The Dallas Morning News reported today. (AP)
Sept. 18, 1999
Three children of Scott Marquardt, president of Management & Training Corp.
(MTC), contributed $1,000 apiece to the Bush juggernaut earlier this summer.
The youngsters are 8, 10, and 13 years of age. It was shortly after a Bush
fund-raiser in July at, Republican activist and finance chairman of the Bush
campaign in Utah, John Price's mansion in the Federal Heights neighborhood of
Salt Lake City that the Marquardt family donated $7,000 to the campaign.
Marquardt, 41, has contributed thousands of dollars in personal cash to
Republicans and Democrats in the past. His Management & Training Corp.
(MTC) also has donated to state elections, including $3,500 this year to Gov.
Mike Leavitt's spring gala fund raiser. Corporate donations are prohibited
in the federal elections, but are legal and unlimited in state races. (The
Salt Lake Tribune)
February 13, 1998
Taxpayers doled out $36,000 in short-term "consulting contracts" to
members of Gov. Mike Leavitt's Cabinet who resigned, retired, or whose terms
expired last year. At the time, administration officials said the
one-month "contracts" had elements of severance pay but were mostly
were to help departments "transition" under new directors.
However, The Tribune found that several of the contracts had 24-hour on-call
provisions, but no minimum work requirement. In the case of former
Corrections Director O. Lane McCotter, the new director and top administrative
staff had not even been informed that McCotter was required by his consulting
contract to be at the department's disposal. McCotter received the maximum
$8,046 allowed in his one-month contract. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
August 03, 1997
Besieged O. Lane McCotter stepped down as director of the Utah Corrections
Department last month and took a job in the private sector. But he still
works for the state. McCotter continues drawing weekly pay of 1,609.20 as
part of a five-week consulting contract with the Corrections Department.
Tell that to Corrections Director-designate Pete Haun. Nobody made it
clear to him that taxpayers were footing the bill to give the Corrections
Department unlimited access to McCotter. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
July 13, 1997
Former Department of Corrections chief O. Lane McCotter has joined his mentor
and longtime confidante Gary Deland as a private corrections consultant. But
don't look for McCotter to be doing much work in Utah, where the directors of
the state's only privatized prison already have turned him down. Bob
Marquardt, chief executive officer of Ogden-based Management and Training Corp.,
which contracts with the state to operate the 400-bed Promontory pre-release
facility at the Utah State Prison in Draper, said McCotter was turned down for a
full-time job in marketing. "I interviewed Lane personally"
after McCotter called looking for work, Marquardt said. "We decided
hiring him might be too sensitive." Ron Russell, MTC's senior vice
president of correctional and building management, said he would be concerned
about McCotter's strained relationship with the Legislature, which is
considering additional privatized prisons. "We as a corporation have to be
very careful," Russell said. "We have to remain competitive."
Deland and Associates is a nationally recognized corrections firm which has
contracted with MTC in the past. And there would be no reason McCotter could not
do consulting for the company in other states, Russell said. (The Salt
Lake Tribune)
Promontory
Community Correctional Center
Draper, Utah
Management and Training Corporation
February 20, 2006 The Spectrum
Utah has one of the country's lowest incarceration rates, according to federal
data, but is climbing from a booming population growth spurt that has increased
the incarcerated population by 200 to 300 inmates each year. The Utah prison
system is overwhelmed with more than 6,350 inmates statewide - including a large
percentage housed at Purgatory Correctional Facility in Washington County -
making more bed space desperately needed. Two facilities are being built, one in
Gunnison and the other facility in Beaver County, where the state intends to
rent 200 beds to house its inmates. Also, corrections is requesting another
192-bed facility to be built in Gunnison. Senate Bill 175, sponsored by Sen.
Howard A. Stephenson, R-Draper, calls for the Department of Corrections to issue
and evaluate a request for proposals from private prison contractors, county
jails and other interested agencies for a 300-bed or larger minimum-security
correctional facility to accommodate prison-sentenced criminals beyond that. We
commend Stephenson and the corrections department for their foresight in dealing
with the rising housing needs of criminals. However, taxpayers should urge
lawmakers to do some analysis as they embark on mingling public and private
enterprise, based on the state's history in that corrections partnership. Utah's
first privately run prison, Promontory Correctional Facility - a 400-bed,
low-security facility located on the northwest side of the Draper prison site,
which was closed because of budget cuts - was administered by Ogden's Management
and Training Corporation. Three weeks after it opened in August, 1995, two
inmates escaped in broad daylight by crawling through a fence. Every year until
it closed on July 1, 2002, there were one to two escapes. A pre-release program
through that facility resulted in 102 parolees enrolled in it simply walking
away within a 10-month period. One in particular was by 35-year-old Stan Lee
Foster, a man convicted for a string of thefts and burglaries in Southern Utah.
He was enrolled in the "cutting edge" halfway-back program in May 1999, but two
months later hopped onto a bus in Sandy to go to work never to return. Six days
after he walked away, he was fatally shot by an FBI agent investigating a rash
of bank robberies. Aside from budget cuts that were cited for the closure of the
prison, heavily-rumored high staff turnover rates and drug use by inmates were
disclosed by media outlets. The mixture of the public and private sector of
corrections through Promontory lasted a mere seven years. As SB-175 mandates the
acceptance of bids for a new facility, and is considering recommendations from
corrections to highly consider privatization for housing and treatment, we ask
lawmakers to scrutinize the whole package privatization has to offer with a
fine-tooth comb. While it is admirable to be looking toward the future to
accommodate the increasing incarcerated population, it is just as important to
learn from mistakes where failures occurred so as not to repeat them.
Oct. 3, 1999
Stan Lee Foster, 35 and going nowhere, was given a chance by a crop of penal
reformers assembled by corrections chief Pete Haun to jump-start his
rehabilitation. Foster was paroled on May 11 to pre-release center at the
Utah State Prison 13 after years of drug abuse and a string of thefts and
burglaries in southern Utah. Then, on July 9, he hoped a bus to Sandy,
ostensibly to go to work, and never returned. Six days after he walked
away, he was dead, shot by an FBI agent investigating a string of bank
robberies. Foster's is not the only failure of the pre-release center; his
is just the worst example. A year after it opened to high expectations,
the center is at a crossroads, and its program designed to ease paroles back
into their communities is under fire. Not only are some parolees not
returning to prison , they are disappearing at an alarming rate. Until
this week, the parolees -- as many as 80 at a time -- caught Utah Transit
Authority (UTA) buses from the Draper prison to a bus stop at the South Towne
Center in Sandy. But a spike in crimes linked to halfway-back parolees led
to a meeting between Haun and three south county legislators who convinced the
corrections chief to scrap the bus route. Since January, 102 parolees
enrolled in the program have walked away. By contrast, only 41 parolees
have walked away from halfway houses operated by the Department of Corrections
outside of prison. Just Tuesday, one halfway-back parolee thought to be
working was arrested by Sandy police who caught him cooking methamphetamine in a
hotel room with his girlfriend. Of the 102 parolees who have fled the
program, 28 are still at large, according to statistics provided by the
department to The Salt Lake Tribune. Prison administrators unveiled the
cutting-edge halfway-back program last October inside the medium-security
Promontory building, a facility managed under a private contract with Ogden's
Management & Training Corporation. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
April 6, 1999
Three prisoners who escaped from Utah's minimum-security prison at Draper on
Sunday were arrested 12 hours later by police who were tipped they could find
the fugitives at a Salt Lake City boarding house. One of the three --
Jason William Kirk, 21, of Arizona -- was already on parole but staying at
Promontory, a pre-release center akin to a halfway house, until he secured
outside employment. Promontory is owned by the state but managed by
Management & Training Corporations (MTC). After working in the
commissary at Promontory and helping prepare Easter breakfast around 8 a.m., the
trio slipped to a grassy recreation area outside the facility. They were
discovered missing after a routine 11:30 a.m. head count. Investigators
believe the trio, who used a file to cut through a section of chain-link fence,
fled across the Bangerter Highway, walked to the auto mall and then stole a car
by breaking into a locked key box. Two other soon-to-be-paroled inmates
have escaped from the facility since September. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
April 6, 1999
Three inmates used a file to cut through a section of the chain link fence and
escaped from the private prison. They walked to a nearby auto mall, broke into a
lock box and stole a car. (Salt Lake Tribune, April 6, 1999)
April 5, 1999
Promontory Correctional Facility officials wonder why three men close to parole
crawled under a fence to freedom Sunday. Department of Corrections
spokesperson Jack Ford said he's surprised once or twice every year by attempted
escapes at the low-security facility, but this is the first time three people
have escaped at the same time. After breakfast Sunday morning, which the
escaped trio helped prepare, guards performed their daily 11:30 a.m. head count.
They were missing three prisoners. The three men apparently pulled loose a
wire used to secure the bottom of the fence surrounding the facility, lifted the
fence up and crawled under, Ford said. In September, Ronald Allen Liptrap
climbed through a hole in the perimeter fence though he was due for parole three
months later. Police officers found him several hours later at an Ogden
hotel. In December, Nicolas Angel-Rivera scaled the fence just two months
before his parole date. Bloodhounds found him two hours later at a nearby
trailer park. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
June 16, 1998
About 140 inmates at the Promontory pre-release facility at the Utah State
Prison refused to go into their dorms Monday afternoon, prompting officials to
use a gas grenade to disperse them. Prison spokesperson Jack Ford said the
inmates were in a common room and outside at the 400-bed privately operated
Promontory facility when they refused to return to their rooms for a 4p.m. head
count. Fred VanDerVeur, the Department of Corrections director of
institutional operations, said correctional officers used "some sort of gas
grenade' to scatter the inmates, all of whom are minimum-security and within
weeks of release. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
July 12, 1996
Freddy Lee Wolfe was to be paroled from Utah State Prison on Aug. 27, but
Thursday he decided his date with freedom was not soon enough. Prison
officials say Wolfe, who is serving 5-year terms for forgery and theft by
receiving, escaped at 12:30 p.m. while working at the Draper prison's
meat-processing plant. He was discovered missing an hour later following a
routine prisoner count. Because of his upcoming parole, Wolfe, 33, was a
minimum-security inmate residing at the prison's dormitory-style Promontory
pre-release center. He probably escaped by scaling an 8-foot fence
surrounding a work area at the southwest end of the Draper complex, said prison
spokesperson Jess Gallegos. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
Sept. 5, 1995
It may not be an alarming threat to public safety, but neither is it a good
sign. Utah's first privately run prison has been open less than three
weeks, and two inmates already have escaped--in broad daylight, by crawling
through a prison fence. The two escapees, Anthony Scott Bailey and Eric
Neil Fischbeck, are not particularly dangerous characters. Fischbeck was
serving time for burglary and drug possession, Bailey for burglary. They
were assigned to the Promontory Correctional Facility, run by Management &
Training Corp. of Ogden, because they were preparing for parole. (The Salt
Lake Tribune)
Sept. 4, 1995
A search for two escaped Utah inmates widened to four states Sunday after Nevada
authorities found a truck belonging to one escapee's father-in-law broken down
and abandoned just across the state border in Wendover. Bailey, 27, and
Fischbeck, 21, apparently pulled apart a piece of chain-link fence at a
minimum-security center on Utah State Prison grounds in Draper between 9:30 and
10 am Saturday and climbed underneath to freedom. Less than an hour before
the two escaped, Bailey's wife, Michelle Lynn Baird, had paid him a visit. The
two were seen arguing and then she drove off in the pickup truck. ( The
Salt Lake Tribune)
Skyline Journey
Millard, Utah
October 26, 2003
An administrative law judge revoked the license of a Utah wilderness therapy
program over an Austin boy's death from heat exhaustion last year. Skyline
Journey has until Friday to shut down and send 10 campers packing under the
order. Owner Lee Wardle declined to say if Skyline Journey would appeal the
decision to a state court. The ruling affirms "his death means
something," said Judith Pinson, of Drumright, Okla., the birth mother of
Ian August, 14, who was placed in the program by his adoptive mother.
According to Friday's ruling from Judge Sheleigh Harding, Skyline Journey failed
to describe the harsh environment of Utah's west desert and physical demands on
teens when it asked a Texas doctor to sign off on enrollment for August, who
weighed 198 pounds with a 5-foot, 3-inch frame. Skyline Journey failed to
comply with "one of the most critical rules governing wilderness
programs," wrote Harding, a Utah Department of Human Services
administrative judge. Harding determined that "Ian's doctor never had the
opportunity to determine whether Ian's physical condition would make him an
appropriate candidate for the types of activities Skyline Journey would require
him to do." The boy had set out with five other teens and three
counselors on a three-mile trek across the Sawtooth Mountain region in western
Millard County on July 13, 2002, when a heat wave rolled across Utah. They had
covered little more than a mile over three hours when August refused to hike
farther. He was left in the sun for an hour before he collapsed and stopped
breathing, according to court records. (Austin American-Statesman)
August 19, 2003
About 13 months after Ian August died while hiking in the mountains of Utah's
west desert, owners of the wilderness therapy program that took him there are
defending themselves again, this time hoping to keep the state from shutting
them down. A two-day administrative hearing over Skyline Journey's
practices started Monday as the state set out to prove that the program should
lose its operating license. It cited four violations of state statute that
relate to August's death. Skyline presented the testimony of a former
employee and an owner in an attempt to knock down several of those allegations.
Mark Wardle, the program manager and part-owner of the company, testified that
August, a 5-foot-3-inch teen who weighed 198 pounds, was appropriate for the
program even though a doctor said August was obese and his mother indicated the
boy had low tolerance for heat. "We're built the exact same,"
said Wardle, who also spent five days hiking with August's group. "I
consider him overweight. I didn't consider him obese." August, 14,
from Austin, Texas, had been in the program for less than two weeks when he
crested a ridge of the Sawtooth Mountain in Millard County and refused to hike
any longer. About two hours later, the boy's heart stopped.
An autopsy determined August died from hyperthermia -- or heat
exhaustion -- on one of the state's hottest days of the year. With that
autopsy and a timeline that alleged August was kept in the sun for up to an hour
after he stopped hiking, the state's Office of Licensing moved to revoke the
Skyline's operating license in October. The licensing case was put on hold while
a criminal charge of child abuse homicide against Wardle was dealt with. Earlier
this year, a judge dismissed the case, ruling that Wardle was not responsible
for the teen's death. The Office of Licensing alleges the staff failed to
recognize the symptoms of hyperthermia and treat them, the hike went beyond the
ability of the weakest member of the group, administrators failed to have the
appropriate professional medical person screen August for the program, and a
description of the program wasn't given to a Texas doctor who cleared the teen
to enroll. (The Slat Lake Tribune)
July 14, 2003
As Ian August and a band of teens hiked over the steep hills that make up the
Sawtooth Mountain area one year ago, Millard County prosecutor Brent Berkley was
inside his air-conditioned Delta home. Suffering through a searing heat
wave that gripped Utah that weekend, Berkley didn't want to go outside.
Arriving at his office the following Monday, Berkley was surprised to learn a
program promising to turn around so-called troubled youths had the teens
trekking across the high-desert mountains to the west. He was even more shocked
when the Millard County Sheriff's Office said an obese, 14-year-old boy from
Austin, Texas, had mustered the strength to reach the top of one of those hills,
stopped, sat down and baked to death as rescuers tried in vain to reach the site
in time. "My first thought was 'What were they doing out there in the
first place?' " Berkley says. He was not the only one wondering why.
"The area out there -- it's an arid, desolate place," said Millard
County sheriff's Sgt. James Masner. "It's extremely hot, both day and
night. We didn't even know the program was functioning out there." As
Berkley was being briefed on the case in Fillmore, one owner of the wilderness
therapy program in which Ian died -- Skyline Journey -- sat down at a conference
room table in St. George to give his version of events. Surrounded by
state regulators and owners of Utah's eight other wilderness programs, Mark
Wardle blamed the tragedy on the response of the sheriff's rescue team. The
crews, he said, wasted time by not following his directions, turning what Wardle
said was a 40-minute drive from Delta into a two-hour trip. "We're
not a bunch of bumbling idiots out here, abusing kids," Wardle said.
"When we say, 'This is where we're at,' this is where we are at."
The comment made Millard County Sheriff Ed Phillips livid. Phillips said the
ambulance dispatched from Delta traveled 70 miles to reach the scene, nearly
half of those miles on gravel and graded dirt roads. The crew had to backtrack
because of Wardle's confusion about the best way to reach Ian. Rescuers
split into two groups, one following Wardle's directions to a road that proved
impassable and the other hiking to Ian with a handheld GPS unit. The hikers
reached him first and, on their arrival, pronounced him dead. A medical
helicopter never reached the scene -- something Phillips blames on a
malfunctioning GPS unit in an ambulance giving directions. The helicopter also
ran low on fuel and the pilot was forced to make a gas run to Richfield.
The investigation: Although shocked, Berkley still thought the death might have
been accidental. His opinion would change as the Sheriff's Office investigation
proceeded. Each passing day, Sheriff Phillips became more convinced that
Ian's death was preventable. Ian stopped hiking at 11:30 a.m., but Wardle did
not contact the Sheriff's Office until 1:30 p.m. -- over an hour after his staff
radioed him that Ian wouldn't hike. Berkley has been a prosecutor for four
years. Once, while in private practice, he defended a youth rehabilitation
program. He says Skyline Journey's employees were undertrained, its
health-screening process was inadequate and its water supply insufficient. He
doubts that Ian, accustomed to Austin's 540-foot elevation, had time to adjust
to the 7,000-foot altitude of the Sawtooth area. But Ian came to Utah straight
from Santa Fe, N.M., which has a similar elevation. Basically we just
thought the program was poorly run," Berkley says. In his opinion, Berkley
characterizes the program as "designed to take money, throw these kids out
on public lands where they don't have to pay anything for them, feed them tuna
fish sandwiches for three months and change their lives. They caused the death
of this kid [who] shouldn't have been in the program in the first place."
The state: The criminal charges made Ken Stettler, the director of the state's
Office of Licensing, take a harder look at the case. "When the county
filed charges we said, 'Crud, there's got to be something,' " Stettler
says. Stettler wondered whether his investigators had been too focused on
the temperature at the scene. Once charges were filed, Stettler redirected them
to refocus on other potential violations of state rules. A detailed
timeline put together by Stettler and his supervisor points to four alleged
violations by Skyline Journey: * Counselors failed to recognize Ian's
symptoms and get him treatment quickly. "When they were sitting, they were
sitting in the sun," Stettler says. "So, they weren't really cooling
down." * The program exceeded the limits of the weakest members -- Ian
and another teen, who had motor skill problems, were lagging far behind the
group. * A Texas doctor who cleared Ian to participate in Skyline Journey
did not receive a full description of its program. * Ian's enrollment
application was not screened by a licensed medical professional. If that
review had been done, Stettler says, Skyline's staff would have known Ian had
"low heat tolerance and was taking medications that could have been a
factor in exposure-related illness." With those allegations in hand,
Stettler moved to revoke Skyline Journey's license in November. That process was
put on hold pending the outcome of the criminal case against Wardle. The program
continues to operate, but is no longer monitored by Husbands -- in part because
Stettler learned Husbands and Wardle were members of the same LDS Church ward in
Nephi. Wardle has since moved. The prosecution: Knowing that the charges
against Wardle would be difficult to prove, Berkley decided to bolster his case
by offering a plea deal. In exchange for her testimony against her former
employer, Berkley would divert prosecution of Hale and dismiss the charge
against her in six months. At a Jan. 6 preliminary hearing, Hale and five
other witnesses took the stand before 4th District Judge Donald Eyre. Next
on the stand, field counselor Matthew R. Gause gave a history of his involvement
with Skyline Journey, explaining he had no formal training as a counselor or as
an outdoor guide beyond what he had learned in Boy Scouts. Once hired by
Skyline, he had gone through two days of book training, three days of field
training and a CPR class. One month after the hearing ended, Eyre issued
an eight-page ruling in which he refused to order a trial, saying Berkley had
failed to show the program had acted recklessly. Although Berkley
mentioned during the hearing that the state was trying to revoke the program's
license based on three other alleged violations, the judge wrote:
"Perhaps nothing in the state's allegations is more glaringly absent than
the lack of evidence that [Wardle] had failed to comply with the state Office of
Licensing regulations governing youth wilderness programs. Indeed, the evidence
presented to the court only serves to establish that Skyline Journey took many
more precautions than those provided in similar youth programs." In a
recent interview with The Salt Lake Tribune, Eyre said he did not think Skyline
had "done things that would put a heavy burden on these youths to the point
you would say it was reckless." The aftermath: Berkley said he was
surprised at the judge's decision to kill the case before it could get to trial,
but he says there is not much he would have changed about his prosecution.
Ian's death on that hot July afternoon continues to trouble Berkley.
"It worries me that [Skyline is] still out operating," Berkley says.
"I think they are still doing the same thing." The day-to-day
operations of Skyline remain the same since Ian's death. "We haven't
changed anything because we were safe at the time," Wardle says. But
Skyline, like the state's other wilderness programs, must meet new requirements
put in place after Ian's death. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
Utah Correctional Industries
January 8, 2003
When a 14-year-old
from Dripping Springs dropped to the ground during a hike through a Utah desert
last summer, two of his wilderness therapy counselors thought he was faking, a
camp staff member testified during a preliminary hearing Monday.
An autopsy later determined that August had died of hyperthermia --
excessive body heat. Judge Donald
Eyre of the 4th District Court in Utah is considering whether Mark Wardle,
Skyline Journey's field director, should stand trial in connection with August's
death, The Salt Lake Tribune reported in Tuesday's online edition.
Prosecutors charged Wardle, 47, a former employee of a similar wilderness
program in Central Texas, with a second-degree felony last year, arguing that he
acted with criminal recklessness in failing to get help for August quickly
enough to save him. According to
Texas records, Wardle is a former program manager at On Track, a Mason County
wilderness program at which 17-year-old Charles Chase Moody of Richardson died
while being physically restrained in October.
Wardle left On Track in 2000 for another wilderness camp In Oregon and
later joined Skyline. At the outset
of Monday's hearing in the August case, Millard County prosecutor Brent Berkley
dismissed a similar criminal charge against Leigh Hale, a head field instructor
for Skyline. Hale had agreed to
testify against Wardle and her former employer in exchange for the dismissal.
The Office of Licensing, an arm of Utah's Department of Human Services,
shut down the Skyline Journey program last year, but it continues to operate
while the company appeals. (Statesman.com)
November 6, 2002
Housing out-of-state prisoners in Utah won't be the financial boon to the
Beehive State's sagging budget that officials had hoped. Putting out-of-state
prisoners in Utah's empty prison beds would bring in only $1 million to $1.5
million annually, according to a recently completed report from the Utah
Department of Corrections. The report, which laid out three possible scenarios
for housing out-of-state inmates, concluded, "The opportunity for
significant revenue to the state of Utah through the contracting of empty prison
beds is not supported by this report."
October
6, 2002
A prison watchdog group is bemoaning the possibility of housing out-of-state
inmates in Utah's prison system to boost the state's sagging budget. The
Citizens Education Project called the proposed plan to fill some 700 empty
prison beds in the Department of Corrections a "tawdry enterprise."
"There are many reasons why Utahns should reject any prisoner purchase plan
legislators might propose to pad the corrections budget," Citizens
Education Project organizer William R. Jensen said. "We passed a bill in
1999 outlawing the import of other states' inmates to a private prison in
Grantsville. The private prison was rightly dumped. The objections to importing
inmates for profit apply to public prisons as well." The department's bed
surplus came after corrections officials implemented a plan to treat offenders
in the community to reduce the prison's bursting inmate population. "Utah's
DOC has made commendable progress in the past few years in diverting offenders
from prison into treatment programs, reentry programs and cutting overall
costs," Jensen said. "Improvements in the system are still needed, but
again attempting to venture into commerce in souls is a tawdry enterprise that
would only undermine recent progress." (Desert News.com)
May 29, 2001
Hundreds of working prisoners are facing pay cuts as state officials try to free
up cash to hire other inmates. The reduced wages are part of the
Department of Corrections' plan to revolutionize inmate privileges, allotting
fewer perks to unemployed prisoners. The downside is that nearly 700
inmates who work for Utah Correctional Industries (UCI) -- the Utah State
Prison's highest-paid and most skilled workers -- could have their earnings
slashed by about 9 percent. UCI inmates make between 60 cents and $7 an
hour, the eighth-highest prisoner pay scale in the nation, according to
statistics complied by the Correctional Industries Association in Baltimore.
UCI inmates would actually "take home" 20 percent or less of their
salaries. UCI director Dick Clasby and other officials note that Utah's
inmates are relatively fortunate; prisoner laborers in at least three states --
Texas, Georgia and Arkansas -- receive no pay at all. Companies typically
find inmate labor attractive because paying the lower wages and not having to
offer benefits keeps costs down. Telemarketing jobs at the prison were
eliminated last year after inmates obtained personal information about callers,
and at least one inmate used the data to send sexually suggestive letters to a
15-year-old girl. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
Utah
Legislature
September 20, 2007 Salt Lake City Tribune
Halfway through a professor's presentation of a study on prison
privatization, Sen. Bill Hickman was losing patience. "I am interested in the
cost of a study that did everything but reach a conclusion," Hickman, R-St.
George, told University of Utah professor Brad Lundahl during a legislative
subcommittee hearing Wednesday. Hickman was clearly perturbed that the study
concluded that there were no clear, proven advantages or disadvantages to hiring
companies to run prisons. He looked similarly off-put at Department of
Corrections Director Tom Patterson's response when asked what the study told
him. "It tells me I shouldn't be running to privatization," Patterson said. The
reaction from Hickman and members of the Law Enforcement And Criminal Justice
Interim Committee was understandable, said Russ Van Vleet, who heads the U.'s
criminal justice department. The study, which Van Vleet said cost the state no
extra money, was essentially a review of all the reliable, unbiased studies on
privatization available, he said. So it wasn't the university's fault that the
studies found no clear winner, he said. If anything, Van Vleet said, the dozen
studies of privatization leaned toward public-run prisons, he said. The issue
may be moot for the moment, as the bill that prompted the study and called for
prison privatization failed last session. The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Greg
Hughes, R-Draper, did not show up for Wednesday's hearing, a fact pointed out by
co-chair Sen. Jon Greiner, R-Ogden. Patterson said he would continue to explore
new ways to improve prison efficiency. He recently signed a multi-million dollar
contract to create a 300-bed facility to house parole violators. The facility,
set to open next spring, will be completely privatized from construction to
management, Patterson said. "This could be a testing ground to see if
privatization could work."
February 10, 2007 Salt Lake City Tribune
Paul Rolly: One bill introduced at the Utah Legislature raises constitutional
separation-of-powers questions with the appearance that lawmakers want to take
over the bidding process for choosing state contractors. It also appears that
some legislators are setting themselves up to be best-deciders of how state
services should be provided, rather than the executive branch departments that
actually administer those services. House Bill 391 directs the Department of
Human Services to issue a request for proposals from private vendors to operate
and manage the Utah State Hospital. It says the Legislature's Executive
Appropriations Committee will review the bids and determine whether the state
should go ahead and privatize the hospital. State officials say the intrusion by
the Legislature in government procurements is unprecedented and that the
state-run hospital in Provo is operating just fine. The bill's sponsor, Rep.
Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, is one of five legislators who were invited by lobbyist
Rob Jolley to visit a privately run state hospital in Pembroke Pines, Fla., in
December. The others were House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy; House Majority
Leader David Clark, R-Santa Clara; Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper; and Senate
Majority Leader Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, who is to be the Senate sponsor of the
bill. They were the guests of Geo Care, a private operator of state mental
services hospitals. Geo Care is an affiliate company of the Geo Group, which
operates privately run prisons throughout the United States and several other
countries. Jolley is a registered lobbyist for Geo Care and the trip, at a total
cost of about $10,000, was paid for by David Meehan, another Geo Care lobbyist.
Reports about the privatization of prisons and mental hospitals are not, by the
way, all sunshine and roses. A Florida legislative audit concluded that
"privatizing South Florida State Hospital has not resulted in cost savings or
improved client outcomes." And a 2004 story in the Gainesville Sun reported that
the privately-run facilities cost significantly more than government-run
institutions. The St. Petersburg Times reported last month that the Geo Group
was one of two companies the state of Florida had overpaid by nearly $13 million
and Geo had agreed to repay $402,000. Utah Human Services Director Lisa-Michele
Church suggested in a letter to the co-chairs of the Legislature's Health and
Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee that the issue be sent to an interim
committee to be studied for a year before the bidding process is initiated. But
the lawmakers favoring the bill apparently can't wait. Lockhart, responding to a
series of my questions in an e-mail exchange, says the request-for-proposals
process, which under the bill will take nearly a year, is the study and, "at the
end of the year, if we have received responses, we will explore with the (Human
Services) Department if privatization is in the best interests of the state, but
more importantly the best interest of patients served by the State Hospital."
She said the Executive Appropriations Committee, of which she is assistant
co-chair, will not select the bidder. "It will only review the bids to determine
if it makes any sense for the state. If it does, then the Department of Human
Services will select the provider, not the Legislature." She said she is aware
of other companies that run similar operations, "but it would be the Department
that selects a private provider if privatization is determined viable." State
Purchasing Director Doug Richins says that for a project the size of the State
Hospital, vendors would have to go to great expense to put together a bid. This
bill would require them to do that without knowing if a bid even is going to be
offered. But, as we are constantly being told these days, the Legislature knows
best.
March 9, 2006 Salt Lake Weekly
On the philosophical level, it had to be a bad year for Sen. Howard
Stephenson, R-Draper. He just couldn’t get lawmakers to agree with him on his
Principles of Government. No. 1: U.S. senators ought to listen up when state
elected officials speak; No. 2: Legislators ought to be able to override damned
near anything that the governor vetoes; No. 3: Government ought to be run like a
business, get out of the business of competing with business and even give up
some of its business to business. In other words, privatize. Privatization was a
consistent undercurrent of this year’s legislative session. The idea is tied to
a conservative reverence for competitive forces and a libertarian view of
limited government. In Utah, that means a long-term goal of privatizing schools,
prisons and highways, to name a few. “We’re not saying that government shouldn’t
provide any services,” says Mike Jerman of the Utah Taxpayers Association. “Just
not at a loss. The bottom line is can the private sector provide an adequate
level of service at an adequate price, and how much will it cost taxpayers?”
“There are some things that can be effectively privatized, and we’re not going
to spurn those ideas,” says Steve Erickson of the Citizens Education Project.
“But they’re even privatizing war these days.” Erickson came up against
Stephenson over the private-prisons legislation—another bill that Stephenson had
to put in the “loss” column. “It was commerce in souls,” says Erickson.
“Philosophically, the greatest power of government is to deprive an individual
of his life or liberty and with that comes a grave responsibility of
government.” While Utah’s Management & Training Corp. was pushing the
legislation, Erickson and the Utah Department of Corrections were researching
the downside. New Mexico, for instance, where 45 percent of inmates are in
private prisons, has been reeling from reports of abuses and mismanagement.
February 24, 2006 Salt Lake Tribune
All SB175 does is leave the door unlocked. But, as any prison guard can tell
you, sometimes one carelessly unlocked door is all it takes to separate an
orderly prison from mayhem. The bill, which has passed the Utah Senate and a
House committee, would do no more than require the Department of Corrections to
take bids from those who would build and operate the state's next prison
expansion as a private business. It would not require the state to accept any of
those bids if, after their own analysis, our corrections managers determine that
they can do the job as well or better themselves. Sponsored by Sen. Howard
Stephenson, SB175 is a highly questionable flirtation with an industry that is
in widespread disrepute throughout the English-speaking world as the least
logical place for the privatization of a public service. The private prison
industry has been excoriated in independent examinations in the United States,
Great Britain and Australia. Because private prison operations exist to make
profit first and provide service second, the temptations to cut corners, hide
problems, shift blame, cook books and buy the services of experts and officials
are just too strong. The lives of prisoners and guards, and the safety of the
public, are at risk. But the greatest danger created by private prisons may be
less within the walls than on the Hill. Once prisons become another public
concession, the lobbying, wining, dining and campaign contributions from the
industry will just add further taint to a government that already has far too
much of it. The prison providers' checkbooks will be marshaled not only to
promote the interests of one contractor over another, but also in opposition to
any reforms that might reduce the need for prison beds and, thus, for the
services of an industry that more than most (even more than newspapers) profits
from the misery of others. The money that starts to flow when prisons become
profit centers has seriously tainted the reputation of public officials in
Tennessee and Florida. And destroyed the career of one pro-privatization
University of Florida researcher who, it turned out, was on the industry's
payroll. This bill is pointless at best, and we trust that the Legislature's
traffic cops, as they approach a busy end to their session, will choose it as
one that can be cast aside in favor of more important things.
February 20, 2006 The Spectrum
Utah has one of the country's lowest incarceration rates, according to federal
data, but is climbing from a booming population growth spurt that has increased
the incarcerated population by 200 to 300 inmates each year. The Utah prison
system is overwhelmed with more than 6,350 inmates statewide - including a large
percentage housed at Purgatory Correctional Facility in Washington County -
making more bed space desperately needed. Two facilities are being built, one in
Gunnison and the other facility in Beaver County, where the state intends to
rent 200 beds to house its inmates. Also, corrections is requesting another
192-bed facility to be built in Gunnison. Senate Bill 175, sponsored by Sen.
Howard A. Stephenson, R-Draper, calls for the Department of Corrections to issue
and evaluate a request for proposals from private prison contractors, county
jails and other interested agencies for a 300-bed or larger minimum-security
correctional facility to accommodate prison-sentenced criminals beyond that. We
commend Stephenson and the corrections department for their foresight in dealing
with the rising housing needs of criminals. However, taxpayers should urge
lawmakers to do some analysis as they embark on mingling public and private
enterprise, based on the state's history in that corrections partnership. Utah's
first privately run prison, Promontory Correctional Facility - a 400-bed,
low-security facility located on the northwest side of the Draper prison site,
which was closed because of budget cuts - was administered by Ogden's Management
and Training Corporation. Three weeks after it opened in August, 1995, two
inmates escaped in broad daylight by crawling through a fence. Every year until
it closed on July 1, 2002, there were one to two escapes. A pre-release program
through that facility resulted in 102 parolees enrolled in it simply walking
away within a 10-month period. One in particular was by 35-year-old Stan Lee
Foster, a man convicted for a string of thefts and burglaries in Southern Utah.
He was enrolled in the "cutting edge" halfway-back program in May 1999, but two
months later hopped onto a bus in Sandy to go to work never to return. Six days
after he walked away, he was fatally shot by an FBI agent investigating a rash
of bank robberies. Aside from budget cuts that were cited for the closure of the
prison, heavily-rumored high staff turnover rates and drug use by inmates were
disclosed by media outlets. The mixture of the public and private sector of
corrections through Promontory lasted a mere seven years. As SB-175 mandates the
acceptance of bids for a new facility, and is considering recommendations from
corrections to highly consider privatization for housing and treatment, we ask
lawmakers to scrutinize the whole package privatization has to offer with a
fine-tooth comb. While it is admirable to be looking toward the future to
accommodate the increasing incarcerated population, it is just as important to
learn from mistakes where failures occurred so as not to repeat them.
February 16, 2006 Deseret Morning News
Government should seek out efficiencies whenever possible. But it is not
sufficient for some functions of government to simply be cost-efficient. The
state prison system, for instance, must be operated in a manner that ensures
accountability and public control. Any move to delegate that responsibility to a
private provider deserves careful study and deliberation. Some states have had
success in privatizing certain aspects of their prison systems. But overall, the
states' experiences have been a mixed bag. That should be a red flag to state
lawmakers as they consider SB175, which would require the Department of
Corrections to seek bids for the construction and operation of any new adult
correctional facilities for medium security inmates and lesser offenders.
Legislators need to consider this proposal with eyes wide open. Utah's
experience with private prisons has been less than stellar. In the mid-1990s,
several Utah inmates escaped from a private prison in Texas where they were
temporarily housed. Incredibly, Texas officials weren't sure how to pursue the
inmates since the state then had no specific law against escaping from a private
prison. As the Utah Legislature has considered a number of bills this
legislative session that deal with open meetings and open records issues, it is
appropriate to also raise a concern about the issue of transparency in dealing
with the state prison system. Private providers must be subject to the same open
records requirements as the state prison system. Beyond the laws themselves,
there must be training so there is no misunderstanding about the requirement of
the Government Records Access and Management Act and other open government
requirements. Clearly, lawmakers need to be conscientious about the best use of
tax money. But in this instance, they should not be swayed simply by the low bid
for a prison and its operations. Far much more is at stake, including the
state's liabilities and all of the public's interests.
February 4, 2006 Salt Lake City Tribune
A Senate committee Friday took the initial step toward authorizing Utah's first
privately operated prison. The Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee approved
SB175, which would require the Department of Corrections to issue a request for
a proposal for a 500-bed facility by July 1, 2007. The department could still
build the facility on its own if it rejects all of the private proposals. The
Legislature could also change the date for the requests next year if the need
for a new facility dwindles. Sponsoring Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper,
believes private contracting will save the state money and provide healthy
competition with the Corrections department. Utah is the only state in the
Mountain West that does not have some portion of its inmate population in a
private prison. Corrections Executive Director Scott Carver said the department
has concerns about a contractor operating in the public safety field. “We are
dealing with the liberty of people and the very lives of people,” Carver said.
“There have been instances where people have been killed because of poor
management.” Stephenson is not just a senator, he is also a lobbyist working on
behalf of the Utah Taxpayers Association. The taxpayers association, funded by
big business, generally supports privatization of government. Stephenson is also
sponsoring SB74, which would create a legislative task force to seek out areas
of government that the private sector could take over.
November 18, 2005 The Salt Lake Tribune
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said he would let cold, hard facts guide his decision
about moving the Utah State Prison from Draper. And the facts are in: A group of
consultants found the cost of moving the prison far surpasses - by an estimated
$372 million - the money the state could make selling the land. The governor
says that's all he needs to know. "We will not be moving the prison. We ran
the numbers, did the analysis and the numbers simply aren't there,"
Huntsman said in an interview this week. "We would not recoup the cost from
the sale of the land." Prison managers are relieved to have the study.
Residents of nearby foothill neighborhoods in Draper have prodded local and
state leaders to consider moving the complex for years. And in May, Corrections
Director Scott Carver said private prison developers started
"swarming" after the state listed privatization as an option in a May
10 request for proposals from consultants. Now, Deputy Corrections Director
Chris Mitchell hopes those pressures will ease.
October 20, 2005 Deseret Morning News
At least one lawmaker wants private prisons in Utah's incarceration plan but the
top administrator of state corrections claims they could hinder more than help
and that allowing them would be a partial abdication of one of the state's chief
responsibilities. Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, told members of the Law
Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee on Wednesday he's planning to
propose a bill that will bring private prisons back to Utah. Scott Carver,
executive director of the Utah Department of Corrections, responded that jailing
someone is a serious step that is best left alone. He cited failed attempts to
house prison inmates privately, including 1995, when 100 Utah inmates were sent
to a private Texas jail run by Dove Development to await the construction of new
facilities in Utah. During one year, there were eight escapes; six were
captured, he said. In February 1996, Missouri inmates being held at the same
jail set part of their housing unit on fire during a riot, which raised Utah
officials' concerns about the security there. "We will do what you direct
us to do," Carver said. But he cautioned lawmakers to keep in mind that if
they allow a private company to manage, the state is still ultimately
responsible for what happens there.
Utah
State Prison
Correctional Medical Services
July 16, 2003
A consultant selected to study whether the state can save money by privatizing
medical services at the Utah State Prison has ties to privatization companies,
including the one seeking a Utah contract. Jacqueline Moore said Tuesday
that her Chicago-based consulting firm, Jacqueline Moore and Associates, was
selected this week through a competitive bid process to evaluate the prison's
health care system. The amount she will be paid was not revealed because a
contract has not yet been signed, said Kevin Walthers, legislative fiscal
analyst. The contract is expected to be signed early next week, Walthers said.
He told lawmakers in May that such a study could cost up to $60,000.
Moore, however, acknowledged ties to St. Louis, Mo.-based Correctional Medical
Services, saying she previously has been paid by CMS for conducting periodic
reviews of Maine's prison health care. Mont Evans, a CMS lobbyist,
Riverton mayor and former Utah Department of Corrections employee, told
lawmakers in February the company could save the state millions by taking over
inmate health care. In the "customer feedback" section of
Moore's Web site (www.corrections.com/
moore), a comment is posted from Gary McWilliams, CMS' vice president of sales
and marketing. "Jackie is noted in the industry for her research abilities,
her keen understanding of the nuances of correctional medical care and
professional presentation skills related to health care management,"
McWilliams says. Also, Moore said, depending on which company held the
Maine contract from year to year, she also has been paid by Prison Health
Services for the periodic evaluations. Moore co-founded PHS in 1989, and
her ex-husband still works for the company, according to published reports. She
said Tuesday she has not been associated with the Brentwood, Tenn.-based company
for more than a decade. Even the American Civil Liberties Union and the
Disability Law Center -- which both were parties in the inmate lawsuits and
among BCS' biggest critics at one time -- have said the bureau has shown
improvement and they would oppose any effort to privatize medical services.
(The Salt Lake Tribune)
May 22, 2003
More in-depth research is needed to determine whether privatizing inmate medical
services at the Utah State Prison would save the state money, a legislative
fiscal analyst said Tuesday. Results of a preliminary study show the
savings might not be as significant as initially thought, given cost-cutting and
streamlining measures already in place within the state Department of
Corrections' Bureau of Clinical Services (BCS). Former lawmaker Mont
Evans, now a lobbyist for St. Louis, Mo.-based Correctional Medical Services
Inc., told the committee that the company could save the state more than $2
million. Medical care at the prison has a troubled past, including
lawsuits from inmates that forced increases in staff and training. In 1999,
under the leadership of Richard Garden, a physician and current BCS director,
the prison opened its $2.9 million, 144-bed Olympus Mental Health Facility.
Garden has said the bureau also increased preventative care and hepatitis C
treatment and improved mental health screenings. Even the American Civil
Liberties Union and the Disability Law Center -- once two of the BCS' biggest
critics and parties in the lawsuits -- have said the bureau has improved and
that they would oppose any privatization. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
May 22, 2003
More in-depth research is needed to determine whether privatizing inmate medical
services at the Utah State Prison would save the state money, a legislative
fiscal analyst said Tuesday. Results of a preliminary study show the
savings might not be as significant as initially thought, given cost-cutting and
streamlining measures already in place within the state Department of
Corrections' Bureau of Clinical Services (BCS). Former lawmaker Mont
Evans, now a lobbyist for St. Louis, Mo-based Correctional Medical Services
Inc., told the committee that the company could save the state more than $2
million. Medical care at the prison has a troubled past, including
lawsuits from inmates that forced increases in staff and training. Even
the American Civil Liberties Union and the Disability Law Center -- once two of
the BCS' biggest critics and parties in the lawsuits -- have said the bureau has
improved and that they would oppose any privatization. (The Salt Lake
Tribune)
February 11,
2003
Utah Corrections officials are willing to help examine whether hiring an outside
company to provide medical care to the state's inmates would save money – but
maintain their award-winning program does not need fixing. On Monday, lawmakers
agreed to study privatizing Utah 's prison health care and to seek up $15,000 in
funding from the Executive Appropriations Committee. The study, to be completed
by July 1, will be supervised by the legislative fiscal analyst. The move
follows a presentation last week by Mont Evans, a former lawmaker and
Corrections employee who now is a lobbyist for St. Louis, Mo.-based Correctional
Medical Services Inc. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
|
