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Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility
South Burlington
Prison Health Services
September 2, 2010 Burlington Free Press
A prison rights group's efforts to force disclosure of information from a government contractor is a critical effort to keep public records open as state government increasingly looks to privatize services to save money. Prison Legal News -- a magazine and organization promoting prisoners rights -- is arguing that a company formerly known as Prison Health Services that provides health care services in Vermont prisons is subject to the state's public records law. Prison Legal News editor Paul Wright got it right when he told The Associated Press that the state "cannot contract out the public's fundamental right to know how their tax dollars are being spent and the quality of services the pubic is getting for its money." If there is any ambiguity about the reach of open government laws when government functions are contracted out to private firms, then the Legislature must make erasing that ambiguity a priority in the next session. Vermont's open government laws are so full of exemptions and so lacking in consequences for the offender as to render them largely meaningless. The least the Legislature can do is to make sure the public's already limited ability to keep government accountable isn't shut down by privatization. Around the country, private contractors are being hired by state and local governments in search of savings. There is no reason the reach of open government laws should stop simply because government functions paid for with tax dollars are in the hands of private companies. If private companies want to profit by performing government functions, then they should expect to held accountable by taxpayers who will be paying the bills. The principle must be that any government meeting or information that would be open to the public must remain so even if the function has been transferred outside of government. Otherwise, government officials could erect a wall of secrecy simply by outsourcing anything they might be hard pressed to explain to the public. People have a right to know what their government is up to, and access is the first step in keeping government accountable. The responsibility to deliver information to the public rests with the elected officials and civil servants. That responsibility is undiminished even if government functions are privatized. Advocating for open government will require a shift in culture for a Legislature more prone to seeking exclusions and exceptions to the open government laws to every interest that comes along. This is a change that must happen at the polls in November by extracting a pledge of open access and accountability from every candidate.

August 26, 2010 Serious News
Here's a fascinating lawsuit that will test the legal boundaries of Vermont's public-records statute. Prison Legal News (PLN), a Brattleboro-based nonprofit that publishes the nation's largest jailhouse newspaper, filed suit today against PHS Correctional Healthcare — formerly known as Prison Health Services — seeking documents related to the August 2009 death of a female inmate at Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans. Until last year, PHS, a Brentwood, Tenn.-based private corporation, was contracted by the state to provide medical services to inmates in all of Vermont prisons. On August 16, 2009, Ashley Ellis, a 23-year-old Rutland woman who suffered from anorexia and was serving a 30-day sentence, was found unresponsive in her cell and later pronounced dead. The state's chief medical examiner determined that a contributing factor in her death was the "denial of access to medication" by the prison's medical staff. Ellis' family eventually settled its lawsuit with PHS for an undisclosed sum. Late last year, the Vermont Department of Corrections decided not to renew the company's five-year contract when it expired in January. According to a PLN press release issued today, the Brattleboro nonprofit submitted a formal document request to PHS Correctional Healthcare under Vermont's open-records law, seeking "copies of the company’s contracts with government agencies in Vermont; records related to settlements and judgments that PHS had paid as a result of lawsuits and civil claims; and documents concerning costs incurred by PHS to defend against claims or suits." PHS Correctional Services subsequently denied that request, claiming that, as a private company, it wasn't subject to Vermont's public-records law. However, in a complaint filed in Vermont Superior Court, PLN contends that the prison health provider served as the "functional equivalent" of a state agency, as it provided a service that would otherwise be delivered by the state. According to PLN Editor Paul Wright, this "functional equivalency" standard has been successfully applied to private corporations providing similar services in other states. “The state can outsource public functions and services such as health care for prisoners,” Wright said, in a statement, “but it cannot contract out the public’s fundamental right to know how their tax dollars are being spent and the quality of services the public is getting for its money.” Wright also questioned “why PHS refuses to release records that state agencies would have to produce if the state were providing prison medical care.”

May 28, 2010 Rutland Herald
A watchdog group charged with safeguarding the rights of the disabled released a report Thursday that cites a number of systematic failures that led to the death of a Vermont inmate last year. Disability Rights Vermont's 23-page report about the death of Ashley Ellis found that miscommunications between the Department of Corrections and Prison Health Services — the private company contracted to provide health care in the state's prisons at the time of Ellis' death — along with other breakdowns in the system of care led to the 23-year-old's death from a combination of hypokalemic-induced cardiac arrhythmia due to anorexia/bulimia nervosa and denial of medications to boost her potassium levels. The report also includes a number of recommendations to prevent similar deaths, including improving the identification of inmates in need of medical treatment for substance withdrawal, assuring that important medical information is received and verified promptly by prison health staff and assuring that qualified nursing staff are available at all shifts, including weekends.

December 29, 2007 Rutland Herald
The proposed settlement in a wrongful death suit against the state has been sealed. Earlier this month, attorneys for the estate of the late Robert Nichols of Brandon filed a motion to seal an order for the distribution of settlement proceeds and related documents. The papers will remain sealed at least until Rutland Superior Court holds a hearing on the motion, according to a court clerk. Robert "Bones" Nichols, a meat cutter who worked at his family's slaughterhouse, died in 2005 at age 44 while at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington. He was undergoing a severe case of heroin withdrawal and a later report by a statewide advocacy group said his death could have been prevented. His widow, Eva Nichols, filed a lawsuit in 2006 against the state and against Prison Health Services, Inc., a company contracted to provide medical services in the Vermont prison system shortly before Nichols died. Eva Nichols was acting as administrator of her husband's estate. The lawsuit sought unspecified damages. The documents were sealed because of a confidentiality agreement between the plaintiff and Prison Health Services that is part of the proposed settlement. Attorney Devin McLaughlin, who represents the plaintiff, could not be reached for comment Friday. Samuel Hoar, the attorney for Prison Health Services, said that the motion was necessary because wrongful death suits require a court order on the distribution of settlement money and the parties cannot just mutually dismiss the case like in other types of lawsuits.

September 13, 2007 Rutland Herald
A settlement has been reached in a civil lawsuit against the state filed by the family of a Brandon man who died in a South Burlington jail while suffering from severe heroin withdrawal, according to court records. Paperwork indicating that the lawsuit brought on behalf of the estate of the late Robert Nichols has been resolved was filed last week in Rutland Superior Court. The documents do not state a dollar amount of the settlement, only that a resolution of the case was reached following a mediation session involving the parties. Attorneys in the case said since formal paperwork regarding the settlement hasn't yet been filed in court as of Wednesday, they could not disclose details of the resolution. "Unfortunately I can't really comment at this point in time because it hasn't been finalized," Assistant State Attorney David Groff, said. "When that happens there will be a stipulation of the parties and I'll be able to comment at that time." Peter Langrock, a Middlebury attorney representing the Nichols' family, said he could not yet talk about the settlement amount either. "I can tell you that we settled and at this point it's for an undisclosed sum," Langrock said. The lawsuit was filed in October 2006 on the behalf of Nichols' estate, which is administered by his wife, Eva Nichols. Nichols died in February 2005 while in the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington. The lawsuit named the state of Vermont as a defendant as well as Prison Health Services, a company that had been contracted to provide medical services in Vermont's prisons shortly before Nichols' death. The lawsuit sought unspecified damages. According to court records, Nichols, 44, was arrested Feb. 3, 2005, on federal firearms charges and the next morning he was taken to the South Burlington jail before being taken to federal court. However, he was deemed too ill to go before a judge and later that night, he saw a nurse from Prison Health Services, the lawsuit said. "This was approximately 16 hours after first arriving at the facility with obvious withdrawal symptoms. Mr. Nichols was not seen by a doctor or referred to an outside facility," according to the lawsuit. "Rather, he was returned to his cell after apparent administration of some medication. He was not sent to a medical bed or facility." Nichols told the nurse that he had vomited three times and had a fever and tremors. Fifteen-minute checks were ordered. In the response to the lawsuit, the state acknowledged that not all the checks were done properly. "The state admits that Mr. Nichols was placed on 15-minute checks, but was not observed on a continuous, uninterrupted basis," the response stated. "The state further admits that some checks did not comply with the standards and practices demanded by the state." Nichols was found dead just before 6 a.m. the next morning. In June 2005, Vermont Protection & Advocacy issued a report stating that Nichols' death at the jail could have been prevented if the staff had provided better medical care. The advocacy group stated corrections officials knew Nichols was sick when he arrived at the jail, but did not properly monitor his condition. "Had they taken a more active role in assuring he was receiving adequate medical care and follow up, this tragedy may have been avoided," the advocacy group's report stated.

October 9, 2006 Rutland Herald
The family of a Brandon man, who died in a jail more than a year ago, is suing the state, claiming that while he was suffering from severe heroin withdrawal, he failed to get necessary medical care while behind bars. The lawsuit was filed last week in Rutland Superior Court on behalf of the late Robert Nichols' estate, which is administered by his wife, Eva Nichols. Robert Nichols died Feb. 5, 2005, while in the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington. The lawsuit names as defendants not only the state of Vermont, but Prison Health Services, a company that had been contracted to provide medical services in the Vermont's prisons shortly before Nichols' death. The lawsuit alleges proper procedures were not followed for Nichols, an inmate experiencing withdrawal symptoms from the use of heroin at the time of his incarceration. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. According to the lawsuit, Nichols was arrested on Feb. 3, 2005, on federal firearms charges, and on Feb. 4 at about 3:30 a.m., agents from the federal Department of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms brought Nichols to the South Burlington jail, where he was lodged as a federal detainee. "Mr. Nichols reported that he was suffering from heroin withdrawal, and that he had ingested eighty (80) bags of heroin within three days of being incarcerated," the lawsuit stated. "He was not given immediate medical attention." At about 9 a.m. on Feb. 4, Nichols was transported to federal court in Burlington, but because of the severity of his withdrawal symptoms, he could not appear before the judge and was taken back to the South Burlington jail around 1:30 p.m., according to the lawsuit. "Again, Mr. Nichols received no immediate medical treatment," the lawsuit stated. "The U.S. Marshals reported the severity of Mr. Nichols' symptoms to (the South Burlington jail)." The first medical treatment Nichols received at the jail was more than five hours later, at about 7:15 p.m. of Feb. 4, when he was seen by a nurse from Prison Health Services, the lawsuit stated. "This was approximately 16 hours after first arriving at the facility with obvious withdrawal symptoms. Mr. Nichols was not seen by a doctor or referred to an outside facility," according to the lawsuit. "Rather, he was returned to his cell after apparent administration of some medication. He was not sent to a medical bed or facility." Nichols had reported to the nurse that he had vomited three times that evening and had a fever and tremors, the lawsuit stated. Fifteen-minute checks were ordered on Nichols, who had been returned to a cell. "However, these checks were either not conducted in whole or in part or were so cursory a fashion as to not constitute meaningful observation," and Nichols continued to vomit in his cell, the lawsuit stated. The next morning, at 5:54 a.m., when a correctional officer opened the cell door to bring in breakfast, Nichols was found dead, and he appeared to have been deceased for about an hour. The lawsuit stated that state Department of Corrections employees, as well as employees of Prison Health Services, violated Nichols' rights "by their deliberate indifference to Mr. Nichols' serious medical needs, as they knew of and disregarded excessive risk to Mr. Nichols though gross incompetence and grossly inadequate treatment and supervision." In June 2005, a statewide advocacy group issued a report looking into Nichols' death. The report stated that Nichols' death could have been avoided if he had received better medical care. Vermont Protection & Advocacy reported that the state Department of Corrections knew Nichols had been sick when he came into the jail, but did not properly monitor him.

August 11, 2006 Burlington Free Press
The parents of an inmate who committed suicide in his cell in 2004 have sued the state Corrections Department, alleging that prison workers knew their son was thinking of killing himself but did not act to prevent his death. Ryan Rodriguez, 24, was found hanging in his cell Oct. 19, 2004 at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington. He died at Fletcher Allen Health Care four days later after his parents had him removed from life support. Court documents show he had been in jail for 15 months awaiting trial on charges he mistreated a toddler he was caring for at a Burlington motel. Rodriguez, from New Mexico, was visiting friends in Burlington at the time of his arrest. Rodriguez's death occurred six months after an independent study examined seven inmate deaths in an 18-month stretch, including two by suicide. The study found evidence the Corrections Department had mishandled inmates with mental health issues. "We had no idea Ryan was being treated so badly," Ryan Rodriguez's mother, Carol, said during a telephone interview last week from Tucson, Ariz., where she and her husband, Joe Rodriguez, live. "When Joe got there after Ryan's suicide, one of the guards told him to seek legal help. He said, 'This has happened previously here.'" The Rodriguezes allege in their lawsuit that four times during their son's 15 months in jail awaiting trial, he told Corrections officers he was thinking of hurting or killing himself but was never referred to mental health workers for help. The case, filed in federal court in Burlington, lists as defendants the Corrections Department, three of its employees and Correctional Medical Services, the department's medical care contractor at the time.

June 23, 2005 Rutland Herald
An advocacy group claims the death of a prison inmate suffering from heroin withdrawal could have been prevented if staff had provided better medical care. Vermont Protection & Advocacy said Friday that the Corrections Department knew Robert Nichols was sick when he arrived at jail but failed to adequately monitor his condition. "Had they taken a more active role in assuring he was receiving adequate medical care and follow- up this tragedy may have been avoided," Vermont Protection & Advocacy said in its report released Friday.  The advocacy group claims procedures were not followed for inmates experiencing drug withdrawal symptoms or undergoing detoxification.     The records show Nichols was seen by a nurse 14 hours after he lodged at the prison when Corrections policy require that inmates who are suffering from drug withdrawal be reported to medical staff for evaluation, the report said.  The report also questioned whether prison guards checked on Nichols throughout the night. The report also raises concerns about Prison Health Services, who was contracted to provide medical services in the state's prisons a week before Nichols' death.  Among the recommendations, the report advises the state to monitor the care provided by Prison Health Services and makes sure staff follow policies and are trained to recognize behaviors that are potentially life threatening. The group also recommends that the Corrections Department provide an apology and financial settlement to Nichols' family.  Nichols death follows a spate of seven inmate deaths, including two suicides, over an 18-month period that ended in late 2003. An outside investigation concluded that state actions and policies were partly to blame for the deaths of some of the seven people who have died in state custody.

Lee Adjustment Center
Beattyville, Kentucky
CCA
November 15, 2005 WCAX
Vermont's prisons are already full and now there's word they're about to be swamped. Corrections officials project Vermont's prison population will skyrocket at least 20% within five years, and that's sparking a debate over where to put all these convicts. But state lawmakers have rejected building new prisons in Vermont, so the Corrections Commissioner says the primary solution to overcrowding will be to send more inmates to do time in prisons located in Kentucky and Tennessee. State leaders will be looking at a number of options to out-of-state placement during the legislative session next year. However, the out-of-state placements have one additional factor that is very appealing to many: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA )-- a private, for-profit prison company -- charges Vermont $20,000 per inmate, per year to jail them in Kentucky and Tennessee. Meanwhile, the cost of jailing convicts in Vermont is $40,000 per year per inmate, 100% more. The difference is that CCA provides no counseling educational, or rehabilitation programs. The cost-per-inmate in Vermont includes many services and counseling, plus probation, parole, furlough, and other early release programs.

November 30, 2004 Lexington Herald Leader
Shortly after a riot erupted at a Lee County private prison in September, the state's top corrections official praised Corrections Corporation of America for its quick response to restoring order at the facility. Now, though, Corrections Commissioner John D. Rees, a former CCA vice president, has recommended that the state fine his old employer $10,000 for failing to have a sufficient number of trained officers to respond to the disturbance. On the night the riot broke out, just seven such officers were available instead of the 20 that were needed. That was just one of numerous problems at the Lee Adjustment Center described in a state report released last week. These included the failure of containment fences, restricted recreation time, restricted access to the inmate canteen, the suspension of such programs as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, lack of educational programs, mass punishments for minor offenses, the state's failure to monitor the prison and the seemingly ever-present lack of communication (in this instance attributed to the "strict management style" of former Warden Randy Eckman). All things considered, a $10,000 fine seems a bit small, which may be why a CCA spokeswoman quickly said that the company would pay it. But what puzzles us even more than the amount of the recommended fine is that the riot itself and the report on the problems that caused it apparently have not dampened one bit the zeal within Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration for privatizing the operation of a $91 million prison the state just finished building. The contracting process for that 961-bed Elliott County facility is moving right along as if the Sept. 14 riot that cost a warden his job and resulted in indictments against 23 inmates had never occurred and the problems that led to the violence and destruction at the private prison never existed. Go figure.

November 24, 2004 Courier-Journal
The company that owns the Beattyville prison where inmates rioted Sept. 14 should be fined $10,000 for failing to have enough properly trained officers to respond to the uprising, state officials said in a letter released yesterday. A state report also released yesterday said the riot grew larger than most inmates had intended and "was created by a lack of communication up and down the chain of command and too many changes within a short period of time." It's the first time the state has sought to fine a private prison operator, including the Corrections Corporation of America, which owns and runs the 800-inmate Lee Adjustment Center. In a Nov. 22 letter, state Corrections Commissioner John D. Rees asked Finance Secretary Robbie Rudolph to fine CCA for failing to adequately organize, equip, train and maintain 20 response team members. Only seven were available that evening, the report said. The department did not release CCA's response to the Oct. 4 report. Chickering refused to provide it yesterday, saying CCA believes the response should come from Kentucky officials. She also said the company would not immediately comment on the state's findings. The report found 16 problems at the prison, including: CCA built fences to control prisoner movement after an influx of Vermont prisoners. But inmates could "peel up" the bottom of the fences and sneak under them. There were mass punishments, including removal of pool tables after inmates allegedly gambled at them. Some Vermont inmates should have been in maximum custody prisons. Staff members were not prepared for the many others who are sex offenders, have a history of behavior problems and are on psychotropic drugs. Several programs were suspended, including Parenting, Anger Management, Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous. The report confirms many of the concerns previously cited by inmates, prisoner advocates and Kentucky and Vermont prison officials.

November 23, 2004 Courier-Journal
The first visible sign of a recent riot at the Lee Adjustment Center was when inmates targeted the wooden guard tower, using large concrete ashtrays to break its legs. With a guard still inside, inmates began pulling the tower apart, using the wood to batter the maintenance building, where ladders, wire cutters and axes were stored, according to inmate interviews and an official account of the Sept. 14 riot. The six-page Sept. 27 report, obtained by The Courier-Journal under the state's open-records law, does not conclude what caused the riot or make recommendations, but it confirms much of what inmates said about the riot in interviews with the newspaper. The Corrections Corporation of America, which owns and runs the prison, and Kentucky and Vermont prison officials are investigating the riot. A Kentucky official said the findings are expected to be released this week. According to the report, prepared by a Lee shift supervisor, CCA guards quelled the 7:25 p.m. uprising in a little more than two hours. By then, inmates had burned the administration building, ripped out electrical wiring, raided the commissary and caused other damage to the 800-inmate prison. "The inmates literally had control of this place, the inner compound," Adam Corliss, an inmate imprisoned for murder, said in an interview. He said he ran to the window of his housing unit when he heard the commotion. "There was no staff visible anywhere, and that's what surprised me the most, and I'd say a lot of other residents here," said Corliss, 30, of Springfield, Vt. "CCA is in a business to maximize profit," said inmate Tim Wells, 25, of Louisville, who is serving time for robbery. "Inmates are learning about this, and they're furious." Meanwhile, inside the maintenance building, prisoners Matthew Bennett and James Davis said their goal was protecting their civilian supervisor, Kris Goldey. Bennett and Davis decided to protect Goldey and the prison's equipment stockpile by closing the door to the equipment room and arming themselves with lead pipes, they said. The report confirmed that Goldey was in the room. Twenty riot squad members were supposed to have been on call under state policy, Rees has said. But that night, Lee spokesman Ron King said, only nine were available immediately, with three on duty and six others showing up at various times.

November 20, 2004 Courier-Journal
Twenty-three inmates, including seven from Kentucky, were indicted by a grand jury yesterday on charges of taking part in a riot that extensively damaged a privately operated prison in Lee County. The inmates at the Lee Adjustment Center were charged with first-degree riot and being a persistent felony offender. Sixteen of the inmates who were indicted are from Vermont. During the Sept. 14 riot, inmates burned the administration building and severely damaged a housing unit by ripping out electrical wires and plumbing, officials said. The company has not said how much the damage cost to repair. The riot occurred after an influx of Vermont inmates at the Lee prison. Vermont Corrections Commissioner Steve Gold has said that Vermont inmates had complained about limited recreational time, smaller portions and less variety of food, and a disciplinary crackdown that wasn't adequately explained to staff or inmates. But the Kentucky and Vermont departments didn't have on-site monitors at the prison to listen to inmate grievances and to observe prison conditions. After the riot, CCA replaced the warden, Randy Eckman, and the company later fired him.

November 2, 2004 Times Argus
A Vermont inmate being housed in Kentucky received minor injuries when a fight broke out early Friday morning among 10 prisoners, including four from Vermont.  The prisoner, whose name was not released by Vermont officials or the company that runs the prison, was taken to an area hospital and had stitches put in his face and was returned to prison. An inmate from Kentucky was struck in the head with a fire extinguisher and had stitches put in his head at an area hospital and was released.

October 28, 2004 Times Argus
For the first time since last month's prison riot, Vermont inmates being housed in a private facility in Kentucky on Wednesday gave their home state lawmakers first-hand accounts of conditions that led to the uprising. "I find it very difficult to live in the dorm situation. Bathrooms are set up inhumanely with no privacy. I can't sleep, the floor shakes,'' said Dennis Chandler, one of four prisoners who addressed the Corrections Oversight Committee by telephone from the Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville, Ky. "Different corrections officers have different rules. Officers make up the rules as they please,'' said Scott Amidon, another inmate. Corrections Commissioner Steven Gold and Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, the committee chairman, said they will continue to work to improve conditions at the prison, including making sure that prison officials are more responsive and inmates have better education opportunities. The riot began around 7:15 p.m. on Sept. 14 when some of the inmates in the recreation yard tore down the guard tower and used the wood to break into the commissary. At Wednesday's hearing in Montpelier, inmate David Rivers said officials at the Kentucky prison frequently bring up false charges against inmates as a way of punishing prisoners they think are troublesome. The charges often result in the inmates being placed in solitary confinement for extended periods. "This was one of the many straws that broke the camel's back before the riot. Improvements are slow in coming,'' he said. He added that "… the education offered is poor and classes are sometimes turned over to the smartest inmate and the teachers do not teach.''

October 27, 2004 WKYT
A Lee County grand jury is expected to consider criminal charges today against 26 inmates accused of starting a riot at a private prison last month. The grand jury is to hear evidence on charges of arson, criminal mischief, inciting to riot, and assault. Of the 26 inmates facing charges, 15 are from Vermont and eleven are from Kentucky.

October 12, 2004 WCAX
A Kentucky grand jury will consider criminal charges against 15 Vermont inmates believed to have helped start a prison riot last month. Police say some of the charges will be misdemeanors and some will be felonies. The September 14th riot involved more than 100 inmates and resulted in extensive damage to the Lee Adjustment Center run by Corrections Corporation of America in Beattyville, Kentucky.

October 1, 2004 Times Argus
As many as 15 Vermont inmates could be indicted by a Kentucky grand jury later this month for crimes relating to their involvement in instigating a riot at their prison. Corrections Commissioner Steven Gold said employees of his department who are in Kentucky have worked to ensure that there is no retaliation against the Vermont inmates by CCA employees. Gold has said any Vermont prisoners convicted of instigating the riot would be moved to a more secure CCA facility in Arizona.

September 29, 2004 Courier Journal
Kentucky and Vermont did not have inspectors on site at the Lee Adjustment Center in the months before inmates rioted at the privately run prison. While it is not required by law, Kentucky Corrections Commissioner John D. Rees said the state wants an inspector to work at the prison to make sure the Corrections Corporation of America runs it properly. "For a month it wasn't addressed. Should it have been? Probably yes," said Rees, adding that an inspector has since been reassigned there. House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, who is fighting a state plan to privatize a new Elliott County prison, said the Corrections Department didn't follow the law by not immediately replacing Glenn Hance. "That is a very, very serious oversight by the Corrections Department," Adkins said. Steve Gold, Vermont's corrections commissioner, said his state was sending inspectors to Lee every month. "We clearly have to pay closer attention on an ongoing basis and have someone there who is monitoring the contract and serving as an ombudsman, if you will, or caseworker, for the inmates," Gold said. "There just is no substitute for having a monitor on staff every day, walking around with a clipboard, noticing what's happening and what's not happening, listening to the staff, listening to the prisoners," said Judy Greene, who runs Justice Strategies, a New York-based nonprofit criminal justice research group. "With private contracts, the key is oversight and monitoring. You have to hold their feet to the fire," said Doug Sapp, the former Kentucky corrections commissioner who signed the original contract with CCA in 1999 and retired a year later.

September 25, 2004 Times Argus
At least one state employee will be assigned to the prison in Kentucky to ensure that Vermont's prisoners there are treated properly and to avoid a repeat of conditions that prompted last week's riot, Corrections Commissioner Steven Gold told lawmakers on Friday. "The people in Kentucky were not always responsive to the complaints raised by our inmates before the riot." He told lawmakers that prisoner complaints centered on smaller and lower-quality food portions, lack of access to recreational activities and inadequate visiting hours. Committee members also received a copy of a letter in which Vermont inmate Scott Bressette described conditions that drove the inmates to violence. "They ain't feeding us hardly anything. I'm starving so bad that my stomach's starting to eat away at my backbone," Bressette wrote to his fiancée Katherine Jenkins two days after the riot. He described the riot as "one of the most insane things I've ever witnessed in my entire life! Inmates chasing guards with 2X4s breaking everything in sight…It was so hostile that the S.W.A.T. team of guards came in, launching tear gas, armed with shotguns." Gold added that prison conditions before the riot were largely the result of policies implemented by the former warden of the facility, Randy Eckman, who was removed from the position last Saturday and had not yet been reassigned. Gold said Eckman often punished inmates excessively for minor infractions and did not communicate effectively with inmates and prison employees. Sen. James Leddy, D-Chittenden, said the riot shows what can happen when there is a "rogue warden whose actions are only known about after the riot."

September 25, 2004 WCAX
Vermont Corrections Department officials are continuing to work on a plan to build a second prison work camp to help ease prison overcrowding. Corrections Commissioner Steve Gold says Governor James Douglas is interested in hearing the options for adding a work camp. And Gold says his department is planning to conduct a full investigation into a September 14th riot at a private Kentucky prison that houses about 400 Vermonters. Gold says he wants to have an employee stationed at the Kentucky jail and that the jail's operator, Corrections Corporation of America, is willing to pay most of the cost.

September 23, 2004 Snitch
As a lawyer for the Alliance for Prison Justice in Vermont, Barry Kade is quite interested in last week's fracas at the Lee Adjustment Center, a privately run prison in Beattyville, Ky. About nine inmates could face criminal charges for instigating the Sept. 14 "disturbance," according to a statement from the Corrections Corp. of America, which runs Lee. Kade has a different opinion of what transpired. "Let's call it an uprising," he said, "not a disturbance." Kade is assisting another Vermont lawyer, Thomas Costello, in a lawsuit against the Marion Adjustment Center, a minimum-security facility in St. Mary, Ky. The suit alleges that a security guard sexually assaulted inmates during a strip search. And while he hasn't decided whether he'll sue CCA, Kade indicated that the thought has crossed his mind, based on complaints he's received from Vermont prisoners about poor treatment. CCA has come under fire from prisoner rights groups in past years for unfair treatment of inmates, inadequate training of its guards and for mixing inmates who require different levels of supervision. When asked to describe CCA's response to inmate concerns, Kade said, "I haven't seen any response other than stonewalling."

September 24, 2004 WCAX
Vermont Corrections Commissioner Steve Gold says he recommended that the warden at a private Kentucky prison be removed from his job. Former warden Randy Eckman, who has not been blamed for the incident, has been transferred to another job. He says inmates were angry over policies instituted by the prison warden.

September 21, 2004 Rutland Herald
The warden of a private Kentucky prison that was the scene of a riot last week was replaced Monday, the latest fallout from an uprising in which nearly two dozen Vermont inmates took part. According to Vermont Corrections Commissioner Steven Gold, the number of inmates involved in last Tuesday's riot could be 23, about six times more than originally thought. He said that "a much larger group has been identified" by the jail's operator, Corrections Corp. of America, which last week said only four Vermont inmates were involved in the riot. Randy Stovall, who until last week was warden at one of the company's other prisons, took over for Randy Eckman, who had been warden at Lee for about a year, according to CCA spokeswoman Louise Chickering. Eckman's management style apparently contributed to unrest among some of the 400 Vermont inmates who are housed in the rural prison in eastern Kentucky, according to Matthew Valerio, the Vermont defender general. "The apparent cause of the riot was a somewhat arbitrary and restrictive change in the rules and privileges at the facility," Valerio said Monday. "These included changes in and reductions in use of the commissary, changes in food quality and increased punishment for minor infractions. That really ratcheted up the tension at the facility." "As of right now, these people have been in a lockdown state for almost a week, haven't had a hot meal in about a week, and, if that doesn't get resolved very quickly, we will ask that changes be made."

September  21, 2004 WCAX
The prison in Kentucky where a riot involving Vermont inmates took place has a new warden. Corrections Corporation of America says it has replaced the warden who was in charge during the uprising. Randy Stovall will take over as top official at the prison immediately. Prison officials say the riot followed a dramatic increase in inmates and cutbacks in privileges such as free time outdoors.

September 17, 2004 AP
A doubling of the population with prisoners from 1,000 miles away, cuts in privileges and reduced time to visit with friends and family are some of the reasons observers cite for a riot at the privately run Lee Adjustment Center this week. Barry Kade, a Vermont lawyer and a member of the Alliance for Prison Justice, an advocacy group that works to improve conditions for Vermont inmates, said he has received an increasing number of complaints from Vermont inmates sent to Kentucky this year to relieve prison crowding in Vermont. Of the nine inmates who officials said started the fires, five were from Kentucky and four from Vermont. "Usually when there's a prison riot it occurs after months or years of intolerable conditions," Kade said. Ray Flum, director of inmate classification for the Vermont Department of Corrections, said the state has been sending prisoners to publicly run prisons out of state for a number of years. But its contract with Corrections Corporation is its first with a private corporation. "Are we surprised that something like this happened and we're involved in it? Yes we are," Flum said. "In the six or seven years we've been doing business like this out of state it's the first time this has happened."  Corrections Corporation also experienced riots in July at prisons it runs in Colorado and Mississippi - both of which house out-of-state inmates. Chickering said the company doesn't believe adding prisoners from another state was the cause of the uprisings. "I think this latest uprising fits into this general pattern of unhappiness by prisoners who have been transported out of state," said Paul Wright, editor of Prison Legal News, a Vermont-based magazine about the prison industry. Vermont inmates at Beattyville complained to Kade that visits from friends and family - who must drive about 1,000 miles to Kentucky - were cut to two hours a week. Free time on the yard was cut and some inmates alleged they were mistreated through physical abuse or by being put into isolation without having committed any violation, he said.

September 16, 2004 Herald Leader
The riot Tuesday that scorched a private prison in Lee County didn't burn the state Corrections Department's desire to privatize its new prison in Elliott County, officials said yesterday. Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration still expects to solicit bids from companies interested in managing the 961-bed Little Sandy Correctional Complex, set to open in January, said corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lamb. And Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, which owns and operates the damaged Lee County prison, still expects to submit a bid. Rather than hurting CCA's chances during the bidding, the riot actually could be a plus, Lamb said. The Corrections Department -- led by John Rees, a former CCA vice president -- is impressed by the company's swift reaction to the violence, she said. "To say they're pleased with how CCA responded is a little odd when most of the responders were local and state police, who quickly took control of the situation," said House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook. Adkins and other lawmakers have urged the Republican administration to open the $92 million prison under state control. Nationally, critics of CCA and other prison companies say the firms suffer from higher employee turnover rates than public prisons because of chronic understaffing and lower wages. That results in an inexperienced work force, they maintain. Also, to maximize profits, prison companies often skimp on food, health care and educational programs, which can lead to inmate unrest, critics say.

September 17, 2004 Times Argus
Four Vermont inmates helped to instigate an uprising and set a fire that toppled a guard tower and caused extensive damage to a private prison in Kentucky, officials said Wednesday. Some of the 25 to 150 inmates in the recreation yard tore down the guard tower and used the wood to break into the commissary. Officials said they then threw food and tobacco to other prisoners and set fires that damaged one of the housing units and the building where the kitchen is located. Earlier this year, at the request of Vermont officials, CCA moved 195 Vermont prisoners from the Marion Adjustment Center in Kentucky to the Lee facility because inmates complained about inadequate about inadequate library, dining and recreational facilities. The Marion prison had also come under scrutiny when two Vermont inmates were returned to the state after accusing a guard there of sexually assaulting them. The guard has since been fired and no Vermont inmates remain in that facility.

September 16, 2004 AP
A privately operated prison in eastern Kentucky was under a security clamp and inmates were doubled up in cells, a day after prisoners torched three buildings during an uprising. The medium-security Lee Adjustment Center at Beattyville was on "lockdown" Wednesday following a disturbance that erupted as inmates milled around a recreation yard Tuesday night. Ken Kopczynski of Private Corrections Institute Inc., a group opposed to private prisons, said such prisons are understaffed and have high turnover, leading to inexperienced guards. "What that does is it leads to more abuse and more safety-related issues because they don't know what's going on," Kopczynski said. He said locking up people hundreds of miles from families - such as the Vermont inmates - "doesn't help the situation." Vermont inmates have been housed at the Kentucky prison since this year to help ease overcrowding in Vermont facilities.

September 16, 2004 Herald-Leader
It started when nine prisoners tried to tear down a wooden guard tower in the outside recreation yard of the Lee Adjustment Center, officials said yesterday. What followed Tuesday night was a three-hour riot in which inmates set fires and threw rocks before being subdued by special prison response teams armed with nightsticks, plastic handcuffs and pepper spray. By the time the smoke cleared and the sun rose yesterday, the medium-security private prison was left with a heavily damaged administration building and a housing unit where no one will be able to live for a while at least. But Barry Kade of the Vermont Alliance for Prison Justice said he had been receiving e-mails and phone calls for several weeks from prisoners complaining of mistreatment. Kade said he has been getting complaints about unprofessional conduct by guards, bullying, and inmates being put in isolation without being charged with an infraction. Steve Gold, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections, said a team from his state will interview inmates about security and conditions at the prison. Gold, the Vermont corrections official, said his agency had concerns, including lack of space, when prisoners were held at CCA's Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary's. He said there was also an incident there in which a prison officer was fired after alleged improper sexual contact with two Vermont inmates.

September 15, 2004 Herald-Leader
Inmates took partial control of a prison in Beattyville last night, starting fires and claiming that they had taken at least one hostage before state police regained control. "There was a period of time that a small group of guards was separated from other folks inside. Ultimately, it turned out it was not a hostage situation," Miller said. The Lee Adjustment Center is owned by Corrections Corporation of America. It is a minimum security prison with 800 inmates. About half from Kentucky and half from Vermont. Beattyville police Chief Steve Mays was at the prison while inmates still had partial control. "This was quite a sight when we got here," Mays said about midnight. "Smoke was rolling, people were yelling, prisoners were throwing big rocks over the fence. But it has quieted down now." Fires set to two housing units had been extinguished by 10:50 p.m., but the administration building was still smoldering, Lamb said. Mays said that the guard shack and the administration building were heavily damaged by the fire, and that the cafeteria was also damaged.

September 14, 2004 WKYT
Order is back after hundreds of inmates created a disturbance at an Eastern Kentucky prison. Officials say the prisoners started a number of fires that took hours to get under control.  About 8:00PM Tuesday, inmates got out of control and set the administration building on fire. Police responded by the dozens on ground and in the air to keep prisoners from escaping. After nearly four hours, the fire was put out and the inmates were contained in the facility's recreation yard.

A Vermont inmate sent out of state to serve his sentence was hospitalized with pneumonia three weeks ago without anyone from the state or the prison telling the inmate's family that he was sick, officials acknowledge. 
Francis Joseph, an inmate at the Lee Adjustment Center in Kentucky, was admitted to the hospital several weeks ago suffering from pneumonia.   Lillian Joseph, the inmate's ex-wife, said the hospital called her three weeks ago to tell her about Joseph's condition. The news was a shock because her family wasn't aware that he was sick.  Corrections Corp. Of America, a private company, runs the Lee Adjustment Center. According to a policy between the Vermont Corrections Department and CCA, the Josephs should have been notified by the prison about the illness.  (The Champlain Channel, August 4, 2004)

Marion Adjustment Center
St. Mary, Kentucky
CCA
November 15, 2005 WCAX
Vermont's prisons are already full and now there's word they're about to be swamped. Corrections officials project Vermont's prison population will skyrocket at least 20% within five years, and that's sparking a debate over where to put all these convicts. But state lawmakers have rejected building new prisons in Vermont, so the Corrections Commissioner says the primary solution to overcrowding will be to send more inmates to do time in prisons located in Kentucky and Tennessee. State leaders will be looking at a number of options to out-of-state placement during the legislative session next year. However, the out-of-state placements have one additional factor that is very appealing to many: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA )-- a private, for-profit prison company -- charges Vermont $20,000 per inmate, per year to jail them in Kentucky and Tennessee. Meanwhile, the cost of jailing convicts in Vermont is $40,000 per year per inmate, 100% more. The difference is that CCA provides no counseling educational, or rehabilitation programs. The cost-per-inmate in Vermont includes many services and counseling, plus probation, parole, furlough, and other early release programs.

February 17, 2005 Lebanon Enterprise
A settlement has been made between Corrections Corporation of America and a Vermont man who claims a former Marion Adjustment Center guard sexually assaulted him during incarceration there. A separate lawsuit against Corrections Corporation of America was filed recently by another Vermont inmate that was being housed at MAC. A third inmate from Vermont who spent time at MAC is expected to file a similar suit against CCA. The man who struck the recent CCA settlement was transferred to Marion Adjustment Center because of overcrowding in Vermont prisons. He received a confidential sum of money as part of the out-of-court settlement, his attorney Thomas Costello, of Brattleboro, Vt. said. The guard, Joe Becks, was arrested on charges of sexual abuse and official misconduct recently. He was fired from the prison in May 2004. In a complaint Costello submitted to the U.S. District Court prior to the settlement, the attorney named CCA and two of its supervisory employees - Marion Adjustment Center Warden Caroline Mudd and Unit Manager Ralph Clifton - as defendants. Costello argued that CCA was culpable because it knew that Becks was "a sexual predator" before Becks allegedly abused a 20-year-old inmate on April 12. According to Costello's complaint, Mudd and Clifton's response to official inmate complaints made before April 12 were insufficient. Another inmate complained in late March that Becks was targeting him for sex, court documents state. On May, 4, 2004, a report filed by independent Quality Assurance Manager Mitchell Brandenburg, who was brought in to investigate Becks, raised more questions about CCA's management. Brandenburg stated that in an interview, Mudd told him that she suspected Becks was involved in passing underwear to an inmate and said that in March, Becks failed to report an incident of two inmates having sex. The second lawsuit on behalf of a Vermont inmate transferred to Kentucky was filed against CCA last month in Addison County Superior Court by Attorney Devin McLaughlin of Middlebury. McLaughlin said his case alleges that CCA enabled Becks to assault his client. Costello said he is finalizing a complaint for a separate case against CCA on behalf of a third Vermont inmate who was allegedly assaulted by Becks April 12 and 29.

February 10, 2005 Reformer
A settlement has been made between a Kentucky prison manager and a Vermont man who claims a guard sexually assaulted him during incarceration there. A separate lawsuit against prison manager, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), was filed recently by another Vermont inmate from the same prison, Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary's, Ky. A third inmate from Vermont who spent time at Marion is expected to file similar suit against CCA. The man who struck the recent CCA settlement was transferred to Kentucky because of overcrowding in Vermont prisons. He received a confidential sum of money as part of the out-of-court settlement, his attorney Thomas Costello, of Brattleboro, said. The guard, Joe Becks was arrested on charges of sexual abuse and official misconduct last week, according to the Nelson County Sheriff's Department. In a complaint Costello submitted to the U.S. District Court prior to the settlement, the attorney named CCA and two of its supervisory employees -- Marion Adjustment Center Warden Caroline Mudd, and Unit Manager Ralph Clifton -- as defendants. Costello argued that CCA was culpable because it knew that Becks was "a sexual predator" before Becks allegedly abused a 20-year-old inmate on April 12, 2004. According to Costello's complaint, Mudd and Clifton's response to official inmate complaints made before April 12 were insufficient. One inmate grievance form, dated March 30, 2004, states, "I'm fearing for my life and for my safety here knowing that (Officer Becks) can open my cell, handcuff me and rape me." The statement goes on to allege that Becks had been groping inmates and making them walk around in the nude. Another inmate complained in late March that Becks was targeting him for sex, court documents state. The second lawsuit on behalf of a Vermont inmate transferred to Kentucky was filed against CCA last month in Addison County Superior Court by Attorney Devin McLaughlin of Middlebury. McLaughlin said his case alleges that CCA enabled Becks to assault his client. Costello said he is finalizing a complaint for a separate case against CCA on behalf of a third Vermont inmate who was allegedly assaulted by Becks on April 12 and 29. According to a sworn deposition that Costello took from a Kentucky state trooper, Becks admitted to police that he had sexual contact with Costello's second client on two occasions.

February 10, 2005 AP
A murder convict who escaped from a Kentucky prison and had eluded police since 1990 was caught in Texas. Ralph Robert Annis was arrested Wednesday in Corpus Christi weeks after the Lexington Herald-Leader began questioning state officials about their failure to close the case, the paper reported. Annis was convicted in 1979 of strangling his girlfriend's 10-month-old baby, Melanie Kaye Gifford, in Cynthiana. Two months before a scheduled parole hearing, he fled while on a furlough from the Marion Adjustment Center.

February 8, 2005 AP
A former guard at a private prison in Kentucky has been arrested on charges that he sexually abused two inmates transferred from Vermont. Joel Becks, who was formerly an officer at the Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary's, Ky., was arrested on charges of sexual abuse and official misconduct on Jan. 26, according to the Nelson County Sheriff's Department. A civil lawsuit against the prison manager, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), was filed by one of the alleged victims in June 2004. Because of overcrowding in Vermont prisons, the Department of Corrections has a contract with the CCA to send approximately 700 prisoners to Kentucky and Arizona. Brattleboro-based Attorney Thomas Costello, who represents the plaintiff, alleges his client was assaulted by Becks on April 12 and April 29. The fact that Becks was arrested on criminal charges bodes well for the pending civil case, Costello said. "I wouldn't say it's a state thing," Costello said. "These kids weren't abused because they're (from) out of state. It comes down to improper supervision for ... Becks."

October 28, 2004 Lebanon Enterprise
Corrections Corporation of America denies claims that it discriminated against former Marion Adjustment Center employee Desmond O. Spalding who filed a lawsuit against the corporation in September. Spalding, an African-American male, claims that during his employment as a recreational coordinator at MAC, he was subjected to derogatory comments regarding his race from supervisory employees and fellow personnel. According to the lawsuit, Spalding has suffered a loss of earnings, emotional distress and continues to incur expenses for the cost of the lawsuit and attorney fees. He is demanding compensatory damages, punitive damages, incidental and consequential damages, attorney fees and a trial by jury.

September 22, 2004 Lebanon Enterprise
A former Marion Adjustment Center employee has filed a lawsuit against the prison's owner and operator, Corrections Corporation of America, claiming that he was discriminated against because of his race. Desmond O. Spalding, an African-American male, claims that, during his employment as a recreational coordinator at MAC, he was subjected to derogatory comments regarding his race from supervisory employees and fellow personnel. The lawsuit, which was filed in the Marion Circuit Clerk's office Thursday, states that he was employed from Nov. 15, 2002 to Sept. 16, 2003. According to the lawsuit, on or about Sept. 16, 2003, the car that Spalding borrowed to drive to work was the subject of a random search. During the search, a fifth of Heaven Hill whiskey, a knife and approximately 25 rounds of ammunition were found in the trunk and the glove compartment. As a result of the discovery of the items, Spalding was forced to resign from his position or be fired, the lawsuit states. Following his resignation, CCA "maliciously" swore out a warrant against him accusing him of knowingly introducing contraband into MAC, according to the lawsuit. Although CCA has a policy that prohibits the possession of those items, Spalding is claiming that CCA selectively enforced this policy in a racially discriminatory manner. He claims that several white employees had violated the same policy in the past and were not asked to resign and were not fired. According to the lawsuit, CCA's alleged reason for discharging him was "merely a pretext to cover the actual discrimination against him." As a result of CCA obtaining a warrant for his arrest, Spalding was indicted. According to the lawsuit, the indictment was dismissed in court and Spalding claims that CCA should have known that there was lack of probable cause for the proceeding. Because of the proceeding, he has suffered damage to his reputation and his ability to get a job, the lawsuit states.

Corrections Commissioner Steve Gold said Tuesday he's satisfied with an investigation into allegations of sexual assault by two Vermont inmates at a private Kentucky prison, and said the state will continue to house prisoners there.  Since the investigation, Corrections Corporation of America has added a guard to the segregation unit where the alleged assault took place so that more than one guard is on duty at a time, the report by the company said.  The investigation was launched after one Vermont inmate reported that he had been sexually assaulted by prison guard Joel Becks, who was fired May 3 by Corrections Corporation of America.  The initial investigation turned up another Vermont inmate who said he was sexually assaulted by the same guard, Gold said.  An investigation showed that the guard entered the first inmate's cell on April 29. About four hours later, the inmate told prison officials that he had been sexually assaulted, the report said.  (AP, May 26, 2004)

Two Vermont inmates who said they were sexually assaulted by a guard at a Kentucky prison are being returned home. One of the prisoners reported that he had been sexually assaulted by the guard on April 29th. An investigation into that incident revealed that another inmate from Vermont said he'd been assaulted by the same guard. (WRGB, May 13, 2004)

Additional sexual assault claims have surfaced against a guard in the private Kentucky prison that is holding 233 Vermont inmates, officials said.  Kentucky authorities are now investigating allegations that a guard suspected of sexually assaulting one Vermont inmate was involved in sexual acts with inmates earlier this year.  "We have received allegations that additional things happened that preceded the incident that occurred last Thursday," Vermont Corrections Commissioner Steven Gold said Wednesday. "This information has been turned over to authorities down there."  Gold said that Ray Flum, an aide he dispatched to the Marion Adjustment Facility in St. Mary, Ky., over the weekend, interviewed two alleged victims of sexual assault, one of whom was involved in both last week's incident and the earlier one.  The guard was fired Monday by the prison's operator, Corrections Corporation of America .  Corrections Corporation of America spokesman Steve Owen would not comment on the new allegation pending the outcome of his company's investigation into the guard's conduct.  "Our investigation is ongoing," Owen said. "We're not in a position to elaborate on what our findings and conclusions might be. We need to wait for that process to complete itself."  The Kentucky State Police are conducting a criminal investigation of the incidents.  Gold said he chose not to disclose his knowledge of the earlier alleged assaults earlier because, unlike last week's incident, the assault went unreported for several weeks and therefore did not seem as credible.  (Boston Globe, May 6, 2004)

A guard involved in the alleged sexual assault of a Vermont inmate in his cell at a Kentucky prison has been fired, said an official for the privately operated prison.  (AP, May 5, 2004)

A guard involved in the alleged sexual assault of a Vermont inmate in his cell at a Kentucky prison has been fired, said an official for the privately operated prison.  "The employee was terminated for a policy violation," Steve Owen of Corrections Corporation of America said Monday.  Owen said a second guard placed on administrative leave after the incident Thursday night was allowed to return to work Monday after it was determined he had not violated any prison rules.  Vermont Corrections Commissioner Stephen Gold said Monday that the inmate was inside a segregated detention unit at the Marion, Ky., facility when a video surveillance camera recorded a guard entering the man's cell and leaving 10 minutes later.  Gold also acknowledged his department has been discussing conditions at the Marion jail with the Corrections Corporation of America. Inmates and advocates have complained the 233 Vermont prisoners at Marion are bunched in too small a space, with meals served in hallways and little room for exercise.  (Boston.com, May 4, 2004)

A Vermont inmate reported that he was sexually assaulted by an officer at a Kentucky prison this week, the Corrections Department said yesterday.  The man is at the Marion Facility, Commissioner Steve Gold said. Ray Flum, a director at the Vermont Corrections Department, was to travel to Kentucky this weekend to meet with the inmate and with police and corrections officials in that state. If the situation calls for it, the inmate will be returned to Vermont, Gold said.  The company that runs the prison, Corrections Corporation of America, investigated the complaint and then put two officers on leave, Gold said. Kentucky State Police were also investigating, he said.  Vermont has more than 350 inmates housed in prisons in other states because its prisons are full. Almost all of them are in Kentucky; 233 of them are at the Marion facility, Gold said.  (AP, May 1, 2004)

Perry County Correctional and Rehabilitation Center, Uniontown, Alabama
Louisiana Correctional Services
June 9, 2009 Bennington Banner
Vermont officials said Monday they made the right decision in March when the state removed about 80 Vermont inmates from a private, for-profit prison in Alabama where two inmates recently escaped. Needed improvement -- Vermont Department of Corrections Commissioner Andrew Pallito said Vermont pulled the inmates out of the Perry County Correctional Center in Uniontown, Ala., prison, which is run by LCS Corrections Services in March. The first Vermont inmate was transferred to the facility in late December he said. The prison, which has more than 700 beds, had security equipment that did not work and an inadequately trained staff "for what we were asking them to do," Pallito said. "It wasn't what we were after. It wasn't what I would have expected," he said. Pallito said the Department of Corrections leveled several demands on LCS to improve, but did not see action fast enough, and pulled inmates out about two weeks later. State Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Sears, D-Bennington, said he had doubts about the facility before the Vermont inmates were transferred. Once the inmates were moved, Sears said the facility failed to "keep up with things that were in the contract." And there were issues with the "treatment of offenders." "We sent some people down there and there were continued problems. I was very skeptical myself," Sears said. "Turned out there were a lot of problems and they moved them all out." "It was a real loose outfit," Sears added. "There have been some real problems there." The Associated Press reported Monday that two men who escaped from the Perry County Correctional Center on May 25 were recaptured Saturday following a shoot-out with police. According to the Associated Press, Alabama Prison Commissioner Richard Allen said all 250 of Alabama's inmates will be removed from the facility. Allen cited cost, however, not security concerns, as the reason for removing inmates. Pallito said Vermont has an ongoing contract with LCS Corrections Services, but it allows for a "zero minimum," meaning the state can have no inmates at the facility and pay nothing. The contract term is for two years, he said. Inmates housed briefly at the Alabama facility have been moved to facilities in Kentucky or Tennessee run by Corrections Corporation of America. Vermont had a contract with CCA when it looked to diversify as a cost-savings measure. Pallito said CCA agreed to take back the inmates at the $50 per day rate the Alabama facility was charging. It costs the state about $140 per day to house inmates in-state. Vermont currently has about 2,200 inmates and only 1,500 instate beds. The contract with CCA will expire next year, according to Pallito, so the state will need to renegotiate a contract. Pallito said LCS officials have recently tried to persuade the state to send inmates back to the Alabama facility, but that is not likely to happen. "Not at this time, particularly given the recent development of events," he said. "We're interested in talking with other facilities, but I don't think we'll be back with them."

May 28, 2009 Tuscaloosa News
Authorities believe that two men who escaped from a private prison in Perry County early Monday morning had outside help. Joshua Southwick, 26, and Ashton Mink, 22, escaped the Perry County Detention Center in Uniontown after someone helped them cut through three fences. Southwick is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty in a 2003 murder-for-hire case in Limestone County. Mink, 22, was serving time for an attempted murder conviction in Madison County in 2005. The U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Task Force, which includes members of several law enforcement agencies and five members of the Department of Corrections, are still looking for the men. Prison Warden Tommy Buford did not answer phone calls from a Tuscaloosa News reporter Tuesday or Wednesday. A prison employee referred calls to Dick Harbison, the vice-president of Lafayette, La.-based LCS Corrections Services, which owns and operates the prison. Harbison did not return a call placed to his cell phone Wednesday afternoon. The 734-bed facility houses prisoners from Alabama and other states in addition to federal prisoners. The state’s Department of Corrections does not have oversight of the company’s management or security practices at the prison because it is a private corporation. The Department of Corrections pays the company $32 a day to house 249 state inmates, less than the $41.71 it costs to house them in a state facility, spokesman Brian Corbett said. He said that the department has not had problems with the Uniontown facility or the company, which housed Alabama inmates in Louisiana because of prison overcrowding between 2003 and 2006. Until last month, the prison also housed around 80 prisoners from Vermont, but the Vermont Department of Corrections removed those inmates after an investigation into prisoner complaints that they had been injured in fights with other inmates, said Seth Lipshutz, the supervising attorney in Vermont’s Prisoners’ Rights Office. The prisoners complained to the Prisoners’ Rights Office, a branch of the state’s Office of the Defender General. Lipshutz said that an investigator with his office conducted an investigation followed by an independent investigation from the state’s Department of Corrections. “They were letting the inmates run the asylum,” he said. The staff and management did not pay adequate attention to security, he said, which resulted in inmate-on-inmate violence and the smuggling of items such as drugs and cell phones into the facility. “Drugs get into a lot of prisons, but cell phones don’t get into many,” Lipshutz said. “It doesn’t take long to figure out why this would be a problem.” He said that inmates complained that an assistant warden boasted that he was drunk while driving the bus from Vermont to Uniontown and behaved unprofessionally when he threatened to shoot them if they tried to escape during a dinner stop at a fast-food restaurant. Lipshutz said that Vermont, one of the country’s smallest and least-populated states, sends around 700 of its 2,200 prisoners to out-of-state facilities because it costs roughly $140 per day to house them in in-state prisons. Prices in Vermont are high for several reasons, he said, including union wages, small prisons and snowy weather that makes transportation between facilities difficult. Many of the state’s prisoners are housed in detention centers owned by Corrections Corp. of America, the first company to open private prisons more than 25 years ago. “I’m not too keen on the privatization of prisons. This is an example of how things go wrong,” Lipshutz said. Ken Kopczynski is the executive director of Private Corrections Institute, a private prison watchdog group based in Tallahassee, Fla. The organization’s mission is to provide information and assistance to citizens, policy makers and journalists about what they consider the dangers of privatizing correctional institutions and service. Kopczynski said no records are kept on the number of escapes from private prisons. The last records kept, he said, were in 2002 and indicated that escape rates are higher at private institutions. The institute compiles media reports of incidents at private facilities on its Web site. According to their information, an inmate who had been on suicide watch died at a LCS facility in Texas in January. At least 15 escapes were reported at some of the company’s prisons in Texas and Louisiana since 2002, according to the institute. The Texas Prison Board conducted a review of the Eastern Hidalgo Detention Center in 2006 after six inmates escaped. The review found that the prison employed too few guards, added an unauthorized number of bunks and kept unlicensed guards and guards without adequate training on payroll, according to a news story from The Monitor, a newspaper in the area. The company president said at the time that those problems were later corrected. The six inmates escaped, company officials said, after someone tampered with a control box for the electrical fence surrounding the prison. Perry County prison guards noticed that Southwick and Mink were not in bed during a 5:20 a.m. bed check. After inspecting the perimeter, they noticed that the fences had been cut.

May 27, 2009 Seven Days
The Vermont Department of Corrections [1] has pulled all of its inmates out of a privately run prison in Alabama after a state investigation confirmed that some of the men had been injured by their fellow inmates. The investigation was launched after the Vermont Prisoners’ Rights Office [2] began receiving reports from clients who claimed inadequate security at Perry County Detention Center led to the inmate-on-inmate violence. The April withdrawal of some 80 Vermont offenders from the 734-bed facility in Uniontown, Alabama, occurred just five months after the state signed its first-ever contract with a new private prison vendor: LCS Corrections Services. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, the for-profit prison company houses some 6000 inmates in eight facilities throughout the South. Deputy Commissioner of Corrections Lisa Menard said last week that the state had been looking for an alternative prison vendor in an effort to “expand our options” and “ultimately save the taxpayers money.” Vermont was paying LCS $49.50 per day per inmate. Its other out-of-state vendor, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), charges $67 per day to house Vermont inmates. In-state prisoners cost $140 per day. Vermont currently has about 680 inmates in out-of-state prisons, mostly in two facilities in Kentucky and Tennessee. Both are owned by CCA, the nation’s largest for-profit prison vendor. According to Menard, all the Vermont inmates from the Alabama detention center have since been moved to CCA prisons or returned to Vermont. Asked why the Vermont inmates were withdrawn, Menard initially said, “Vermont has high standards as far as conditions of confinement. Basically, this facility didn’t feel like the best fit for us, without getting into a great deal of detail.” Probed further about the alleged reports of abuse, Menard later confirmed the stories were true. “We did get reports from offenders that there was some assaultive behavior happening,” she confirmed. “When we checked into that, we found that it … was accurate. Unfortunately, this was Vermont inmates committing assaults on other Vermont inmates.” Menard downplayed the severity of the injuries, noting that none was life-threatening and they were “basically bruises, that type of thing.” But that’s not how a lawyer in the prisoners’ rights office in Montpelier characterized the situation in Alabama. Managing Attorney Seth Lipschutz called it “a total disaster.” According to Lipschutz, his office received reports of alleged lax security, contraband being smuggled into the facility, and inadequate bureaucratic procedures being followed for addressing inmates’ grievances. There was even one allegation of a corrections officer being intoxicated while transporting Vermont inmates to the prison. “They were letting the inmates run the asylum,” Lipschutz added. “It was a system where the strong were taking advantage of the weak.” Concerned about their clients’ safety, the prisoners’ rights office notified the Vermont Department of Corrections, which, according to Lipschutz, “acted on it right away and got the inmates out of there as soon as possible.” Lipschutz also characterized the inmates’ injuries as more serious than DOC let on. “There were some people who got beat up,” he claimed. “There were more than cuts and bruises. I think some people had to go to the hospital.” He put the number of inmates involved in such incidents at “maybe two dozen.” But Deputy Commissioner Menard denied that the problems in Perry were the result of poor security. Instead, she blamed the problem on the physical design of the prison itself, which featured a “more open floor plan … that didn’t work well.” Richard Harbison, executive vice president of LCS Corrections Services, echoed that sentiment. “The physical plant in Perry, frankly, was not very conducive to the type of inmates they sent us,” he said. “That prison was designed for low-custody levels and the inmates [Vermont] sent us were of a higher-custody level.” Harbison said he wasn’t aware of any Vermont inmates being hospitalized. “It’s the prison business and these guys are going to get into fights,” he admitted. “But as far as someone being seriously injured, I’m sorry, not to my knowledge.” Whether the injuries at the Alabama prison were due to lax security or a “more open floor plan,” the choice of this particular prison appeared problematic from the get-go. Back in November, when the DOC signed its contract with LCS, then-Corrections Commissioner Robert Hofmann pointed out that the new facility would only be taking Vermont offenders who were “unacceptable to be placed with a majority of other prisoners.” In other words, the more dangerous inmates with behavioral problems. According to Lipschutz, the Perry County Detention Center is used mostly as a holding facility for people arrested on federal immigration violations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Many of those detainees don’t even have a criminal record. Members of the Vermont House of Representatives’ Committee of Corrections were notified of the move only after the inmates had been withdrawn from Alabama, but weren’t told the reason why. “I felt, from our discussions with the commissioner, that it was not a comfortable situation,” said Rep. Linda Myers, vice chair of that committee. Asked if she knew that Vermonters had been beaten up and injured in Alabama, she said she’d heard word of it, “but I can’t say I heard it from the Department of Corrections.” Though Lipschutz credits corrections officials for their prompt response, he sees this episode as symptomatic of the larger systemic problems associated with the for-profit prison industry, which he described as “always a race to the bottom. LCS “came in with a low, low price to take these Vermont inmates,” he added, “which is very attractive to state governments in these tough economic times.”

Swanton Jail (Northwestern Correctional Facility)
Swanton, Vermont
Prison Health Services
Dying in Cell 40 Part 2
April 13, 2010 Rutland Herald
The family of a Rutland woman who died in part from lack of medications while she was an inmate in Vermont has settled with the private company that provided health care to the state's prisons at the time. Rutland attorney Shannon Bertrand, who is representing the family of 23-year-old Ashley Ellis, said Monday that an out-of-court settlement was reached recently with Prison Health Services — the Tennessee-based company that was providing medical services in August 2009 when Ellis died while serving a 30-day sentence at the state women's lockup in Swanton. A medical examiner's report found that Ellis died from a combination of hypokalemic induced cardiac arrhythmia due to anorexia/bulimia nervosa and denial of medications to boost her potassium levels. A state police investigation conducted after her death found that despite attempts by Ellis' family and physician to ensure her medications would be on hand when she arrived at the facility, a series of miscommunications and mistakes on the part of doctors and nurses at the jail led to the prescription never being filled. Two days after she arrived at the jail, Ellis collapsed in her cell and was later pronounced dead at Northwestern Medical Center. The terms of the settlement agreed to last month, including the amount of any payment to the family, was kept confidential under the terms of the agreement, Bertrand said. "It was settled to the satisfaction of all parties and individuals," Bertrand said, adding that the agreement covered any claims against individual employees who were working for PHS at the time. The company did not renegotiate its contract last year and has since left the state.

March 7, 2010 Rutland Herald
A medical corporation stonewalled the police detective investigating the death of an inmate last year at the Swanton prison. A state police report on the investigation into the death of Ashley Ellis includes revelations that lawyers for the private company that provided medical care in Vermont prisons instructed its employees not to talk to police, that Ellis might have gotten medication she needed were it not for a missed phone call, and that Ellis was smuggling contraband into the prison at the time of her death. Ellis died Aug. 16, two days into a 30-day sentence for a traffic offense that seriously injured a man. A medical examiner's report found that she died in part because prison medical officials did not supply her with potassium pills used to treat complications from anorexia. The 10-page report, released after a public records request, lists Vermont State Police Detective Edward Meslin's findings before lawyers for Prison Health Service, which had a contract to provide health care in Vermont prisons, put an end to its employees' cooperation. The Vermont Department of Corrections did not renew the contract when it expired in January. A spokesman for Tennessee-based Prison Health Services declined to comment Friday. In the past, the company has denied responsibility for the death of Ellis, who was from Rutland. "Based on the information available at this time, PHS is confident that during the less than 48 hours that Ashley Ellis was in state custody, she received care that met applicable standards. … We can state emphatically that PHS did not deny her access to medications," the company said in a Sept. 30 statement. But while the company and its employees have faced neither criminal charges nor civil litigation as a result of Ellis' death, there is plenty of blame directed at it and its employees. "PHS broke down, that's where the breakdown was," said Vermont Defender General Matthew Valerio. His office oversees the Prisoner Rights Office, which handles legal affairs on behalf of Vermont inmates. "The bottom line is, they had an obligation to get her medications. How they did so is almost an irrelevance." "I'd have to say in my view, there is sufficient evidence to bring a criminal charge against the company itself," Valerio added. "I almost guarantee if this were an elderly person who checked into a nursing home and someone failed to provide for them, it would be looked at in a whole different way." Franklin County State's Attorney Jim Hughes said in October he would not pursue charges in Ellis' death because he could find no one person whose negligence rose to a criminal level. A.J. Ruben, an attorney for Disability Rights Vermont (formerly Vermont Protection and Advocacy), said his organization, which safeguards the rights of individuals with physical or mental disabilities, agreed with Hughes' conclusion that no crime had been committed. "There's no individual or corporation here who should be held responsible," Ruben said. "There were individuals who made poor choices when taken all together." 'Poor choices' -- The state police report, completed Oct. 9, describes several "poor choices" and failures in the system that should have provided for Ellis' health. Ellis, 23, was convicted last year of misdemeanor negligence in a 2007 crash that left a motorcyclist partly paralyzed and in a wheelchair. Her sentence also included community service and indefinite loss of her driver's license. Ellis had been diagnosed with depression and an eating disorder since the crash and was on medications, including potassium chloride. On Aug. 12, a Wednesday, two days before Ellis was to report to Northwest State Correctional Facility, her doctor faxed her medical records to Dr. Delores Burroughs-Burron in the Department of Corrections' health services office, who in turn faxed them to a nurse working at the prison. The nurse, Renee Trombley, reviewed the records the next day and e-mailed a Dr. Cody in California, identified in the report as Prison Health Services' regional director. Cody authorized Trombley to order Ellis' medications, the report said, but they were not ordered then because it was the end of the day. Arriving between 7 and 7:30 a.m. the next morning, Trombley found one of the two other nurses scheduled that day had not come in. Trombley wound up skipping her own duties to cover the missing nurse's. Trombley told police she tried to have a meeting in Waterbury postponed but was instructed by a superior to go, and left the jail in mid-afternoon. She never ordered Ellis' medication. Ellis reported to prison that same day — Aug. 14, a Friday — at 1 p.m. As she sat in booking, Ellis wrote a two-page letter, later found under her bed. Detective Meslin said she described going from a healthy, 120-pound 21-year-old to a depressed, 86-pound 23-year-old. The letter said she had been sitting in booking for six hours, that she had spoken to "a lady from mental health" three hours ago and that she needed her medication. She described being served a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chips and a peach before writing "well that didn't take long for all that to come up." At 9 p.m. Ellis was screened by another nurse, Wayne Hogaboom. She listed low potassium as a chronic medical problem. At about 11 p.m., she was taken to her cell. Missed opportunity -- On Saturday, Aug. 15, nurse Connie Hall arrived at 6 a.m. for a 12-hour shift. Ellis' chart was one of five or six waiting on her desk. Hall verified Ellis' medications, then called a PHS doctor to issue her new prescriptions, including one for potassium chloride. The prison did not have the potassium in stock, so Hall called in the prescription to the Rite Aid pharmacy in St. Albans and left a message for a nurse on the night shift, asking her to pick it up. The night nurse, Karen Hough, didn't listen to the message until the following day. She told police she didn't usually check her messages until then. Hall said that while nurses would often pick up prescriptions on their way to work, it was "strictly a courtesy thing." Hough arrived at work at 5:40 p.m. without the medication. Hall told police the Rite Aid closed at 6 p.m., so there was not time to get the medication, and that "someone probably would have gotten the medication on Sunday." Hough later told police she left the company because of the incident. She could not be reached for comment for this story. Corrections officer Mike Wall brought Ellis breakfast in her cell a few minutes after 6 a.m. that Sunday. Wall said they exchanged pleasantries. Another inmate said Ellis appeared groggy. Wall returned about half an hour later and found Ellis face-down on her bunk, unresponsive. Medical personnel cleared food from her mouth and performed the Heimlich maneuver before taking her to the Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans. She was pronounced dead at 7:33 a.m. Detective Meslin arrived at 8:45 a.m. He interviewed prison officials and found the letter under Ellis' bunk, along with a casework request form under her bed. Filled out in pencil, the form said, "On Tuesday I'd like to meet my case worker to discuss my meds and get everything straightened out." She also had a sick call request, dated Aug. 15, that did not appear to have been handed in to prison officials. An autopsy found the cause of death to be complications from low potassium, blaming anorexia and lack of access to medication. It also found a package in Ellis' vagina containing 17 hand-rolled cigarettes and five and a half pills of Suboxone, a painkiller prescribed to her before entering prison. Gag order -- Meslin wrote that an interview with Trombley in October was interrupted by a knock on the door, after which she left the room for a moment. When she returned, according to the report, she said an attorney for Prison Health Services had instructed her not to speak with him. Five days later, on Oct. 6, an attorney for the company contacted Meslin, saying he represented not just PHS but all its employees, who asked him not to speak with any of the company's employees regarding the incident. Both Valerio and Ruben said that denying investigators access to employees was normal practice for a business trying to limit its legal liability. But both lawyers said they saw lots of room for improvement in the system. Ruben said his group is completing an investigation of Ellis' death that will include not only the nonprofit group's conclusions about what went wrong but also pages of suggestions that will be turned over to the Department of Corrections. At least some action has already been undertaken by the state, which replaced Prison Health Services with another private contractor, Correct Care Solutions. It has been providing health and mental health services at Vermont's prisons since the start of February.

February 27, 2010 Burlington Free-Press
A Corrections guard attacked by a mentally ill inmate in 2005 is suing the company that provided health care services to prisons statewide at the time, alleging the firm denied the inmate prescription medications meant to control his penchant for violent outbursts. The guard, Christopher Barrett of Newport, sustained a traumatic brain injury as a result of the attack by Daniel Heart, 46, of Whiting, and he has been unable to return to his job at the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport, where the attack occurred. Heart was convicted of aggravated assault following the incident. According to medical records made public as part of Barrett’s lawsuit in federal court in Burlington, Heart had complained several times before the attack to Prison Health Services staff about not receiving the drugs he needed to control his violent tendencies. Heart’s medical records show he had told prison medical personnel in the past he “wanted to hurt others” and had “homicidal thoughts toward security guards.” Heart was serving a sentence at the time for killing a roommate in Whiting in 1996. Barrett also is suing Dr. Paul Cotton, a provider of mental-health services to Vermont prisons at the time, in state court. PHS, through its attorney Samuel Hoar of Burlington, has alleged there was no way to link its failure to give Heart his medication to Heart’s attack on Barrett. “It is not reasonable to conclude that PHS could have or should have foreseen where, when or against whom his next assault would occur,” Hoar wrote in a Jan. 10 document filed at U.S. District Court in Burlington. Feb. 19, however, the federal magistrate presiding over the pretrial phase of the lawsuit disagreed and threw out PHS’ request to dismiss the case. “Given the overwhelming number of red flags in Heart’s medical file, along with PHS’s obligations, it was reasonably foreseeable that a failure to properly manage Heart’s mental health care and psychiatric medications would cause an attack on a corrections officer,” Magistrate John Conroy ruled. Conroy’s decision could have bearing on the outcome of another dispute involving claims PHS failed to provide critical medications to an inmate who had asked for them repeatedly. That inmate, Ashley Ellis, 23, of Castleton, was anorexic and died Aug. 16 while incarcerated at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town. The state’s chief medical examiner has said the denial of a potassium medication Ellis needed to address her eating disorder led to her death. PHS announced it was ending its affiliation with the state shortly after the details of the Ellis case became public. Correct Care Solutions of Nashville, Tenn., took over inmate health care in Vermont on Feb. 1.

December 8, 2009 In These Times
Ashley Ellis’s misdemeanor arrest turned into a death sentence. Her crime: “careless and negligent operation of a motor vehicle.” Less than two days after entering a Vermont prison on a 30-day sentence, she died from the careless and negligent operation of a privatized for-profit prison healthcare system. Her death shows what can, and does, happen across the country when states outsource prisoner medical services: states cut corners on monitoring, and contractors skimp on care. Ellis’ death “is a pretty blatant and obvious and extreme case of gross negligence,” says Seth Lipschutz, supervising attorney at the Vermont Defenders office. “We figured out in a day that they killed her.” Accidents happen -- There are cracks in everyone’s path that can widen into disaster. Ellis seemed to trip into more than her share. The car accident for which she was jailed was just that — an accident. She was not speeding or impaired when she hit a man on a motorcycle. He suffered terrible injuries, was put on a ventilator, and is in a wheelchair. Her injuries emerged over time. “Ashley was horrified by what she had done,” said Sandra Gipe, her grandmother. In the two years between the accident and her incarceration, Ellis became a licensed nursing aide, and “took care of people on ventilators,” said her public defender Mary Kay Lanthier. “That was all she knew to do, since she couldn’t help the man she hit.” She also dropped almost 40 pounds, and her eating disorder became so severe she had been hospitalized. When she entered prison, she required regular potassium supplements to keep her heart from shutting down. Prison Health Services (PHS) never gave her the prescribed medication that could have saved her life. An autopsy put the cause of death as heart failure caused by “denial of access to medication.” Ellis stood 5 foot 6 inches and weighed 87 pounds on Friday, August 14, when Gipe drove her to the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton, Vt. A few days earlier, a news report on her sentencing described the 23-year-old as “gaunt and haggard.” Her public defender asked for no jail time because traffic accidents aren’t crimes, and Ellis was too sick. Judge Thomas Zonay, either ignoring or ignorant of the bare-bones medical staffing on weekends, ordered Ellis to report at the start of the weekend to the 160-bed red brick prison. Zonay declined comment. From the moment Ellis entered the bleak intake room with its two barred cells, her life was in the hands of PHS, the fourth for-profit prison healthcare contractor since 1996 to serve Vermont inmates. The Tennessee-based company’s cross-country rap sheet is spattered with deaths, lawsuits, millions of dollars in fines and settlements, and numerous investigations. A 2005 three-part New York Times investigation found PHS care “flawed and sometimes lethal.” ‘Potassium girl’ -- PHS and Vermont’s Department of Corrections (DOC) have lawyered up, but we know that days in advance of her incarceration, Ellis’s doctor faxed prison authorities health records documenting her serious anorexia/bulimia nervosa, her need for frequent meals, and most importantly, potassium. On Friday afternoon, a licensed practical nurse (LPN) conducted the prison’s medical intake. On Saturday morning, Dr. John Leppman, the only PHS physician on-call that weekend for Vermont’s eight facilities, gave LPN Connie Hall an order for folic acid, potassium and Tums. No potassium was in stock, so a nurse left a cell phone message for a colleague to stop for some at the local drug store before reporting for her 6 p.m. shift. That nurse did not check her messages and arrived at the prison just before the Rite Aid closed for the night. We also know that by contract, nursing on weekends at Northwest is skeletal and assigned to LPNs who may not have the training to know the importance of potassium, and are barred by state nursing regulations from assessing patients. By Saturday afternoon, Ellis, who knew the physical danger signs, was begging so often and fervently for potassium that her jailers nicknamed her “Potassium Girl.” Taking pity on the emaciated woman, one corrections officer (CO) violated rules to make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, according to Darla Lawton, an investigator with the defender general’s office. Another CO was outraged that someone copped a 30-day sentence for a misdemeanor. Ellis was “a skeleton,” he says, “I have never seen anyone in that condition.” By 9 p.m., an hour before lockdown, Ellis complained that she felt unwell and went to bed. “Ashley was someone who needed help so much, and no one helped her,” Gipe says. On Sunday at 6:15 a.m., Ellis seemed OK when a CO brought breakfast to her cell, but when he came to collect the tray, Ellis lay crumpled on her bunk. Her eyes were fixed open, her mouth contained unswallowed food. Up and down Delta Block, locked-in inmates pressed against the small windows in their steel doors, riveted by the unfolding tragedy. Ellis was pronounced dead at the local hospital. PHS’s public relations firm issued a statement that Ellis “received care that met applicable standards…[and that] PHS did not deny her access to medications.” The company refuses to say more, Vermont has refused to file charges, and the DOC has stonewalled some records requests. Ellis’ family is considering a civil suit. For PHS, paying off lawsuits is part of the cost of doing business. “It’s in their interest to provide inadequate care and take lumps when sued,” Lipschutz says. And when things get really dicey, PHS simply quits, “thus preserving its marketable claim that it has never been let go for cause,” the New York Times wrote four years ago. Conveniently for PHS and Vermont, the contract expires in January, and the relationship is ending with a volley of I-quit, don’t-bother-to-reapply exchanges. Vermont’s serial contracts with for-profit prison healthcare corporations follow a nationwide pattern: Prisoners get inadequate care, contractors absorb lawsuits, states switch providers, and the conflict between profit-making and good care remains. As Lipschutz sees it, Ellis’ death is “just another example of the maxim: ‘We don’t care. We don’t have to.’ ” “We” usually includes the public. “People admitted in newspaper comments,” says Vermont’s Defender General Matthew Valerio, “that if it had been a sex offender [who died] they ‘wouldn’t give a damn.’” But Ellis, a pretty young woman, incarcerated for an accident, drew press, public sympathy, and a search for those responsible. At first “I pointed the finger directly at [Connie Hall], the nurse on duty,” says Valerio, “but realized she was just the last one in line. Now I think PHS is to blame. … Profit-driven organizations are prone to cut costs. The system failed.” “My analogy is guards at Abu Ghraib,” Lanthier says. “Sure the LPNs bear responsibly, but there is a systemic problem.” Vermont first entered that system in the 1990s with EMSA (Emergency Medical Services Associates, later bought by PHS). Next came CHS, and then Correctional Medical Services (CMS), which the state dumped in 2004 after seven in-prison deaths in one year. An investigation found “inadequate staff [that] would lead to significant medical problems and errors in medication administration,” and called for “drastic measures to insure contract compliance.” PHS arrived in 2005. Understaffed to death -- “Low staffing levels put Ellis in a position of not getting what she needed,” Valerio says. “It frequently happens, but usually no one dies.” PHS’s $16.4 million per year contract allows it to staff Northwest and other facilities on weekends (and many weekday shifts) with no one above the level of LPN. One PHS doctor is on call, by phone, to cover the 1,600 beds and the 7,000-8,000 people who annually transit the state’s eight jails. Leppman says he fields 20 to 30 calls a weekend. Nurses can work 12-hour shifts, and one says she was ordered to work 36 hours straight because no one else was available. PHS’s contract allows all but one prison to substitute an LPN “without penalty if an RN is not available.” The substitution is not trivial. Paid less, LPNs are also less trained (typically one year), and it is not clear, says Valerio, “that an LPN would know that it would have been life threatening” to delay potassium. Lorene Gendron, who worked for PHS for two years as an inmate advocate, says that poor support, salaries and working conditions mean high turnover. “They will hire any friggin’ warm body because they go through staff so much,” she says. “PHS’s reputation is so bad that good people don’t want to work with them, or stay,” says Martha Israel, an RN who says she quit the women’s prison after “PHS hired an LPN to be nurse manager, a position requiring making patient assessments regularly, but I thought that was incredibly unsafe — and illegal.” When PHS’s contract was up for renewal, she tried to warn the DOC. Timely treatment was a perennial problem. Dr. Charles Gluck, now retired, said that when he worked for PHS, he was frustrated by common delays in getting meds and X-rays. One RN risked her career to fill the gap. In 2006 her patient was in pain, but the prescribed Tylenol 3 would not arrive for days. She violated the rules by taking Tylenol 3 a released prisoner had left behind, and giving it to the suffering woman. “I did the wrong thing legally,” she said, “but I was trying to do what was right for my patient.” PHS fired her. “When I heard about Ashley’s death, and the failure to provide meds,” she said, “I thought: ‘Here we go again.’ They don’t have enough staff, so they push people to the ultimate. I’ll bet a dollar to a dime that’s what happened to the LPN on the weekend Ellis died.” When Vermont first hired PHS in 2005, the contract mandated an inmate advocate to visit the prisons and field grievances. “I would say, ‘Why can’t you just give the patient the med they need?’” Gendron asked. “And PHS would say, ‘It’s too expensive, or not on our formulary.’ It was hard to see something so simple to do for someone and not be able to get it done. There was so much pressure not to prescribe.” “The fewer services they provide, the more money they make,” Lipschutz says. People vs. profits -- “I’m still reeling,” Andrew Pallito, DOC commissioner, says of Ellis’s death. “Up until that point, they [PHS] were doing satisfactory work.” In fact, from January 2008 to May 2009 (three month before Ellis died), PHS reported 169 sick call and pharmacy violations, and DOC imposed $19,200 in penalties. Despite deaths, the blistering New York Times exposé, and warnings by nurses and others, Vermont renewed PHS’s contract for 2007. It let PHS cut twenty nursing shifts a week at Northwest, alter its contract to use LPNs rather than RNs as clinical coordinators and cut the inmate advocate position. Asked if money was the reason, Gendron, who earned $14 an hour, says, “I’ll never be sure.” Much of PHS’s performance is self-reported, and state monitoring relies on limited resources as well as good intentions. Almost five years ago, Pallito was DOC management executive when an auditor’s report on CMS found that Vermont had no real way to evaluate the quality of care. “We didn’t belly up to the bar to monitor them,” he says. “I think we have made some improvements.” Now DOC head, Pallito called Ellis’s death “an isolated incident. …[PHS has] been in Vermont for four years. On balance, it was not bad.” Bad or not, PHS is exiting the revolving door and Correct Care Solutions (CCS) is entering. They have much in common. Both, are for-profit providers, and both have shared the same CEO, Gerald (Jerry) Boyle. Before founding CCS in 2003, Boyle headed PHS from 1998 to 2003, a period covered by the Times investigation that found PHS medical care “around the nation has provoked criticism from judges and sheriffs, lawsuits from inmates’ families and whistle-blowers, and condemnations by federal, state and local authorities.” Boyle’s Vermont connection goes back further. He was also a vice-president with EMSA when it was the state’s first prison healthcare contractor. Negotiations between Vermont and CCS are in the final stage, and it is likely that the new contractor will retain many of the same staff and, unless Vermont writes a very different contract, a tradition of medical lapses and lax oversight. Gipe is hoping that inquiries into her granddaughter’s death will spur reform. But if the investigation is confined to finger-pointing and narrow facts, the answers may obscure rather than reveal the extent and causes of a systemic breakdown that was remarkable for its tragic outcome rather than its particular errors. Vermont, along with many other states, will still have to resolve the contradiction between the healthcare needs of an often despised population, and the demands of a private contractor for profit. In the latter, at least, PHS was successful: Healthcare revenues from continuing contracts for the third quarter of 2009 — the quarter when Ellis died from lack of a $4 bottle of pills — increased almost 28 percent over that quarter in 2008, to $160 million.

October 30, 2009 Rutland Herald
Franklin County State's Attorney Jim Hughes said his office won't seek criminal charges in the death of 23-year-old Ashley Ellis, who died after she was denied medication in the Swanton jail. "My charge was to review the case thoroughly," Hughes said Thursday. "My decision was to seek no charges against any individuals in the case." State Police have been investigating the Rutland woman's death since she collapsed and died at the women's correctional facility on the morning of Aug. 16 — just two days into a 30-day prison sentence for a misdemeanor charge of negligent operation of a motor vehicle. Ellis' grandparents, Clarendon residents Sandra and James Gipe, said they were unhappy with the decision, but not surprised. "We're really disappointed about what happened today," Sandra Gipe said. "But, on the other hand, it sounded like they couldn't figure out which person to blame. There are a lot of people involved in this." Last month, Ellis' family hired a lawyer to review potential civil charges in the case. On Thursday, the Gipes said their lawyer would be in contact with Hughes about his decision. "Right now, it's a he-said-she-said issue," James Gipe said. "No one wants to take responsibility for what happened." After reviewing 50 pages of medical records, charts and correspondence between Ellis' personal physician and employees of Prison Health Services, the contractor that provides health care services to all of Vermont's prisons, Hughes said he found no grounds for criminal charges despite a medical examiner's report that found that Ellis died, in part, because she was denied potassium pills for an anorexic condition. PHS has denied any wrongdoing in Ellis' death. Corrections officials and PHS employees were notified of Ellis' medical condition and her need for medication a week before she arrived at the prison. But after reviewing the case, Hughes said, there was no single person whose actions were either criminally or grossly negligent in the case. "There's not cause for me to file any criminal charges against any individual for the death of Ashley Ellis," he said. Asked if his office had reviewed potential criminal charges against PHS as a corporation, Hughes declined comment. The prosecutor also said he couldn't talk about details of the case or how events unfolded. He said he couldn't release the name of any PHS employees involved in Ellis' care or whether they were still working at the jail.

October 3, 2009 Rutland Herald
The family of Ashley L. Ellis, who died in jail while in state custody, has retained a legal team to review the 23-year-old's death. Ellis' family has had little to say this week after a medical examiner's report was released that found the Rutland woman died from a combination of hypokalemic induced cardiac arrhythmia due to anorexia/bulimia nervosa and — as her grandmother predicted — "denial of access to medication." A layman's definition of the technical cause of death, provided by police, is a fatal misfiring of the heart caused by low potassium levels. Ellis, who was serving a 30-day sentence at a state jail in Swanton, died two days after she arrived on Aug. 16. She was denied access to potassium pills she took for an eating disorder once she arrived at the jail, state officials said this week. A state police investigation into Ellis' death will be sent to the Franklin County prosecutor's office when it's complete. In the wake of the medical examiner's report, Ellis' family announced Friday that they have hired a Rutland law firm — Kenlan Schwiebert Facey & Goss. In a statement released through the firm, the family wrote "Our attorneys are reviewing what is clearly a very tragic situation, a situation that we think could have been prevented. We are trying not to come to any conclusions or make any decisions until we know all the facts and the facts are still being gathered." But Sandra Gipe, Ellis' grandmother, said Friday evening that she wants her granddaughter's death to have widespread consequences. "I don't want it to be for nothing," she said. "I want to see some of the changes they've been talking about. I don't want other people going to jail sick and not getting what they need. I hope something can be done in her name." Jack Facey, a member of the legal firm hired by the family, said the family's lawyers would focus for now on gathering facts. "We'll be looking at everything that happened between her getting dropped off at the facility and the time of her death and everything in-between," he said. "The family does believe what happened was preventable and they don't want it to happen again to someone else." State officials are in the process of hiring a new health care company for the prison system. For four years, Prison Health Services of Tennessee has had a contract with the state. That contract ends in January and Corrections Commissioner Andrew Pallito has said renewal would be doubtful, given the death of Ellis. But switching health care providers hasn't solved problems with the delivery of medical services in the jails in the past, according to the Defender General's Office and an organization that safeguards the rights of people with disabilities. "The state has a track record of hiring firms and providing millions of dollars to provide services but the result has always been the same old problem," A.J. Ruben, supervising attorney for Vermont Protection & Advocacy said. "I would question whether anything different is being done in this round of bids." The "same old problem," according to Ruben and state Defender General Matt Valerio, has been a history of spotty medical care, including postponements in providing medications — cited as part of Ellis' cause of death — delays or denials of requests for medical care. "The bottom line here is this is not an uncommon scenario. It's just that 99.9 percent of the time no one dies," Valerio said. "This whole thing really upsets me. Something good is going to come out of this. We need to make sure people are getting the health care they need." State Department of Corrections Commissioner Andrew Pallito agreed.

October 1, 2009 Rutland Herald
The private contractor that provides medical services to Vermont's prisons is pulling out of the state and the Vermont Department of Corrections commissioner said he's looking forward to their departure. Prison Health Services, the Tennessee-based company that has provided medical and mental health services to corrections for the last four years, announced earlier this month that it would not seek to renew its contract when it expires at the end of the year. To Corrections Commissioner Andrew Pallito, the company's decision appeared more than coincidental since PHS announced its intentions soon after Vermont inmate Ashley Ellis died from cardiac problems that the Vermont Medical Examiner concluded Wednesday were complicated by the "denial of access to medication" while Ellis was in the state jail in Swanton. "I suspect they now know that in all likelihood they would not win the bid again," Pallito said. PHS hasn't been implicated of any wrongdoing in an ongoing police investigation. However, an independent investigation by the state Defender General's Office found that a nurse ordered to give Ellis potassium for an eating disorder failed to do so. Pallito also said the DOC staff was never involved in dispensing medications. The company defended itself in an e-mail that said, "PHS is confident that, during the less than 48 hours that Ashley Ellis was in state custody, she received care that met applicable standards … We can state emphatically that PHS did not deny her access to medications." Asked why the company wasn't seeking to renew its contract, a spokesman for PHS replied, "It is a business decision." Pallito said the state had no problems with the health care provider during the previous four years. However, earlier this year, Mitchell Miller, a former regional medical director for Prison Health Services, had his license suspended after 55 counts of unprofessional conduct were brought against him for allegedly providing large amounts of narcotic prescription drugs to his private practice patients between 2000 and 2009. Pallito said he has reminded the company of its obligations to provide services through the remainder of its contract — and he said he's received assurances from PHS that those obligations will be met. That said, Pallito said he hopes to quickly select a new health care provider from a field of six bidders and have the new provider in place before the end of the PHS contract. The commissioner said his interest in quickly replacing PHS reflects a lack of faith in the continued quality of care at Vermont's corrections facilities. "I'm concerned with any business that says we're not going to continue doing business with you, but we want to complete our contract," he said. "I'm concerned that there is no more incentive for them to really impress us." Pallito wasn't the only state official not sorry to see PHS go. Sen. Richard Sears, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the state needed to take steps to make sure no other inmates suffer Ellis' fate. One of those steps, he said, involved switching health care providers. "If it means changing the way the state does business with its contractor, so be it. Part of the problem is that the lowest bidder doesn't always give you the best value," Sears said, adding that PHS was the low bidder the last time the state shopped for a provider. "We need to look at communications in the system again too. This young lady was sentenced to 30 days, not life."

September 30, 2009 WCAX
Police say Ashley Ellis, 23, of Castleton, died in the state prison in St. Albans six weeks ago, about a day after she started serving a sentence for a probation violation. She reportedly weighed only 87 pounds because she suffered from the eating disorder anorexia. The state police investigation is not yet complete but Tuesday the state medical examiner ruled the cause of death as hypokalemic induced cardiac arrhythmia due to anorexia/bulimia nervosa and denial of access to medication. She reportedly was supposed to be taking prescribed Potassium to treat her anorexia. "Under no circumstance does a corrections employee, DOC employee, dispense medication or care to an offender," Vt. Corrections Commissioner Andy Pallito said. Pallito says a private contracted health company Prison Health Services Incorporated from Tennessee is responsible for providing 100 percent of all health services including medications to Vermont inmates. Pallito says he has seen no evidence so far that DOC employees were involved in any way in treating Ellis or providing her medications. Reporter Brian Joyce: Are you confident the department was in no way responsible for what happened to this young woman regarding her death? Pallito: You know the investigation will yield things, I'm sure, that I don't know about. But standing here today I'm pretty confident that the Department of Corrections followed through on the information and passed that information along that we were supposed to. Vt. Law School Professor and legal expert Cheryl Hanna said, "After reading the medical report on the cause of death, it suggests that there could be financial liability either on behalf of the company that was contracted to provide medical services at the prison. Or the state itself, depending on how the facts unravel in this case. The state itself could be liable for her death." Hanna says criminal charges are also possible-- depending on the outcome of the police investigation. State police say they expect to complete their investigation by the end of the week and turn over their findings to the Franklin County prosecutor. He will determine whether any criminal charges are warranted in this case. The corrections department says under its contract with Prison Health Services, the state is indemnified against any lawsuits. But Hanna says despite any contractual arrangement, it's possible a court could find that the state shares in the financial liability.

September 20, 2009 Times-Argus
When Ashley Ellis arrived at the state women's correctional facility in Swanton last month, she expected her medications to be there. After all, the 23-year-old's family had made calls and forwarded doctor's notes and prescription information to the Department of Corrections weeks in advance of Ellis' Aug. 14 arrival at the jail. But Ellis' grandmother has said corrections officials she spoke to just before her granddaughter went to jail didn't know about the prescriptions ,and told her Ellis could face sanctions if she showed up the jail with her prescription drugs in hand. The cause of Ellis' death two days after she arrived at the jail still is unknown, pending the results of a toxicology test. However, her grandmother and many of Ellis' friends and family believe Ellis was denied medicine for her eating disorder, and they are convinced the lack of medications was a factor in her death. It remains to be seen whether they're right about Ellis' cause of death. However, there is a consensus among watchdog groups and key members of a legislative committee set up to oversee the state's corrections system that there are problems with the delivery of medicines and medical treatment in state prisons. "It's been a problem for a number of years," state Defender General Matthew Valerio said. "There should be a way for people to get their meds. Unfortunately, this is a problem that goes back decades. It's not unique to this current administration." Valerio's office includes the Prisoners' Rights Office. But DOC officials said corrections staff and medical staff from the private company that contracts with the state to provide health care services at Vermont's prisons are doing the best they can meeting the needs for a challenging group of patients. "Some offenders don't answer questions truthfully or fully," said Dr. Deloris Burroughs-Biron, health services director for DOC. "It leaves the intake person in the dark." "Intake" is a process every Vermont inmate undergoes whether they're new arrivals off the street, post-conviction offenders arriving to serve their sentence, people on furlough or probation returning to jail or prisoners transferred from one jail to another. The process involves searches for contraband, evaluations for potential suicidal behavior and a question and answer session about medical needs and prescribed medications. DOC policy requires all incoming inmates to be interviewed by a nurse who collects information and then tries to verify prescriptions by calling the pharmacy that filled them, Burroughs-Biron said. For people incarcerated off the street, that process is the only way to determine an inmate's medical needs. For offenders who know they're going to jail days or weeks in advance, Burroughs-Biron said verifications can be made in advance and medicines can be ordered before they arrive. Asked about the complaints made by Ellis' family, Burroughs-Biron said she couldn't comment on an ongoing investigation. However, she said many problems could be cured through better communication. During her two years as director, Burroughs-Biron said she has tried to get the word out that her office needs to know about people with "complicated medical conditions" on their way to jail. Generally speaking, she said her attempts to foster dialogue have failed. "I've attempted to speak to public defenders, police and anyone else bringing us patients," she said. "It's important for us to know when someone has a complicated history. … Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of feedback." But Valerio said the state's public defenders have been contacting Burroughs-Biron's office about client medical issues — most notably in Ellis' case. "(Public defender) Mary Kay Lanthier contacted Burroughs-Biron herself (one week) in advance," Valerio said. According to Valerio and members of Vermont Protection & Advocacy, a group that defends the rights of people with disabilities and mental health issues, the policies that Burroughs-Biron described aren't always adhered to. Valerio said he has seen a number of former inmates who have "deteriorated" inside the state's prison system because their medical needs weren't met or they were denied medicines for lengthy periods of time. "The issue goes deeper than verification," he said referring to the DOC emphasis on making sure the drugs inmates say they are taking are what they're actually prescribed. "Issues of cost cutting and institutional inertia exist." As an example of cost-cutting, Valerio said inmates have less access to doctors on weekends than on weekdays. But Burroughs-Biron said Valerio's example shows a "lack of familiarity" with the delivery of health care services in prison settings.

Vermont Department of Corrections
ACA, CCA, Correctional Medical Services, MHM Correctional Services, Prison Health Services
August 26, 2010 Serious News
Here's a fascinating lawsuit that will test the legal boundaries of Vermont's public-records statute. Prison Legal News (PLN), a Brattleboro-based nonprofit that publishes the nation's largest jailhouse newspaper, filed suit today against PHS Correctional Healthcare — formerly known as Prison Health Services — seeking documents related to the August 2009 death of a female inmate at Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans. Until last year, PHS, a Brentwood, Tenn.-based private corporation, was contracted by the state to provide medical services to inmates in all of Vermont prisons. On August 16, 2009, Ashley Ellis, a 23-year-old Rutland woman who suffered from anorexia and was serving a 30-day sentence, was found unresponsive in her cell and later pronounced dead. The state's chief medical examiner determined that a contributing factor in her death was the "denial of access to medication" by the prison's medical staff. Ellis' family eventually settled its lawsuit with PHS for an undisclosed sum. Late last year, the Vermont Department of Corrections decided not to renew the company's five-year contract when it expired in January. According to a PLN press release issued today, the Brattleboro nonprofit submitted a formal document request to PHS Correctional Healthcare under Vermont's open-records law, seeking "copies of the company’s contracts with government agencies in Vermont; records related to settlements and judgments that PHS had paid as a result of lawsuits and civil claims; and documents concerning costs incurred by PHS to defend against claims or suits." PHS Correctional Services subsequently denied that request, claiming that, as a private company, it wasn't subject to Vermont's public-records law. However, in a complaint filed in Vermont Superior Court, PLN contends that the prison health provider served as the "functional equivalent" of a state agency, as it provided a service that would otherwise be delivered by the state. According to PLN Editor Paul Wright, this "functional equivalency" standard has been successfully applied to private corporations providing similar services in other states. “The state can outsource public functions and services such as health care for prisoners,” Wright said, in a statement, “but it cannot contract out the public’s fundamental right to know how their tax dollars are being spent and the quality of services the public is getting for its money.” Wright also questioned “why PHS refuses to release records that state agencies would have to produce if the state were providing prison medical care.”

August 13, 2010 AP
About 100 Vermont prison inmates serving sentences at private prisons in Kentucky and Tennessee are going to be getting a lot closer to home. The Department of Corrections has signed a contract to move those inmates to the 350-bed Franklin County Jail and House of Corrections in Greenfield, Mass., about 20 miles south of Brattleboro. Vermont currently houses about 600 inmates at private prisons in Kentucky and Tennessee because the state doesn't have enough prison space. Corrections Commissioner Andy Pallito tells the Burlington Free Press moving the inmates to Massachusetts will save about $1 million over two years, make it easier for families to visit and make it easier to prepare the inmates for release.

May 28, 2010 Rutland Herald
A watchdog group charged with safeguarding the rights of the disabled released a report Thursday that cites a number of systematic failures that led to the death of a Vermont inmate last year. Disability Rights Vermont's 23-page report about the death of Ashley Ellis found that miscommunications between the Department of Corrections and Prison Health Services — the private company contracted to provide health care in the state's prisons at the time of Ellis' death — along with other breakdowns in the system of care led to the 23-year-old's death from a combination of hypokalemic-induced cardiac arrhythmia due to anorexia/bulimia nervosa and denial of medications to boost her potassium levels. The report also includes a number of recommendations to prevent similar deaths, including improving the identification of inmates in need of medical treatment for substance withdrawal, assuring that important medical information is received and verified promptly by prison health staff and assuring that qualified nursing staff are available at all shifts, including weekends.

May 7, 2010 Bennington Banner
Timothy Dufresne said he has always been "race-oriented." But the Bennington-native's views trended more and more radical with each day served in various out-of-state prisons. In Dufresne's eyes, whites are an oppressed majority soon to become a minority. Immigrants are taking jobs that rightly belong to Aryans. And once a white man is behind bars, African Americans are a distinct threat to life and limb. It is precisely those beliefs that led Dufresne to help create Hitler's Henchmen, a white supremacist gang with ambitions to spread throughout Vermont. Its members number somewhere between a handful and several hundred, depending upon who is asked. But regardless of the gang's size, Dufresne's commitment to his cause is evident. A swastika spreads across his back. Another adorns his fist. The lightning symbol of the elite Nazi SSunit responsible for annihilating European Jews is inked in several places, including his head. And the image of a black man hanging from a noose climbs his right arm. "I live by guidelines. There's rules, as far as I'm concerned. I don't believe in blacks and whites being together. I just don't think it should be. I believe in keeping my race pure and keeping my race going," said Dufresne, who agreed to a recent interview at his Bennington apartment after initially declining a request. Dufresne's experience is not atypical among offenders in Vermont, according to officials. Vermont has a long, proud history of embracing progressive social views. It was the first state to prohibit slavery in its constitution, the first state to allow civil unions, and, in 2009, became the first state to pass legislation to legalize same-sex marriage. So, it seems ironic that state policy could be one of the driving forces behind the radicalization of racial, ethnic and religious beliefs of some -- not all -- Vermont convicts. The transformation of Vermont inmates into white supremacists seems to materialize from their contact with inmates in out-of-state prisons. Vermont currently holds contracts with Corrections Corporation of America to house many of its long-term inmates in Kentucky and Tennessee, although previous contracts have sent inmates to facilities in Alabama, Virginia, Texas and other states. "There are certainly pros and cons to sending offenders out-of-state," Vermont Agency of Human Services Secretary Robert Hofmann said. "In the con category would be the opportunity to meet offenders out-of-state who would have a negative influence on them." Hofmann, whose agency oversees the Vermont Department of Corrections, said inmates housed in out-of-state facilities require time at the back end of their sentences to be "reintegrated" into Vermont because of the disparate cultures. Despite those negative consequences, however, there are positive financial impacts that Vermont officials simply cannot ignore, Hofmann said. Namely, it costs the state about $54,000 to house an inmate in Vermont and about $24,000 to send the same inmate to a CCA facility. "I readily acknowledge the pros and cons in any public discussion," Hofmann said. "I think 49 other states would trade their problems with Vermont in a heartbeat." Bennington County State Sen. Dick Sears, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said sending inmates to out-of-state prisons is "a recipe" for bringing back white supremacist views. The problem seems to have eased a bit, however, since inmates are no longer sent to Virginia and Alabama, he said. Sears said he and other lawmakers would prefer inmates to remain in Vermont, but the state has no place to put them. There are about 2,200 inmates and only 1,500 beds. "I haven't found a community yet that's willing to build a 700-bed facility," he said. Meanwhile, Steve Owen, a spokesman for CCA, which operates 65 prisons in 20 states, said the company exerts considerable effort at its facilities to stifle gang activity. CCA prisons are not incubators for radical views, he said, adding, "I don't think that's been our experience, to be honest with you." Rather, the racially charged views some Vermont inmates have embraced often arrive with them, he said. "Inmates bring those with them, and can take them back, obviously. I don't think we've seen the trend really one way or the other," Owen said.

April 13, 2010 Rutland Herald
The family of a Rutland woman who died in part from lack of medications while she was an inmate in Vermont has settled with the private company that provided health care to the state's prisons at the time. Rutland attorney Shannon Bertrand, who is representing the family of 23-year-old Ashley Ellis, said Monday that an out-of-court settlement was reached recently with Prison Health Services — the Tennessee-based company that was providing medical services in August 2009 when Ellis died while serving a 30-day sentence at the state women's lockup in Swanton. A medical examiner's report found that Ellis died from a combination of hypokalemic induced cardiac arrhythmia due to anorexia/bulimia nervosa and denial of medications to boost her potassium levels. A state police investigation conducted after her death found that despite attempts by Ellis' family and physician to ensure her medications would be on hand when she arrived at the facility, a series of miscommunications and mistakes on the part of doctors and nurses at the jail led to the prescription never being filled. Two days after she arrived at the jail, Ellis collapsed in her cell and was later pronounced dead at Northwestern Medical Center. The terms of the settlement agreed to last month, including the amount of any payment to the family, was kept confidential under the terms of the agreement, Bertrand said. "It was settled to the satisfaction of all parties and individuals," Bertrand said, adding that the agreement covered any claims against individual employees who were working for PHS at the time. The company did not renegotiate its contract last year and has since left the state.

February 27, 2010 Burlington Free-Press
A Corrections guard attacked by a mentally ill inmate in 2005 is suing the company that provided health care services to prisons statewide at the time, alleging the firm denied the inmate prescription medications meant to control his penchant for violent outbursts. The guard, Christopher Barrett of Newport, sustained a traumatic brain injury as a result of the attack by Daniel Heart, 46, of Whiting, and he has been unable to return to his job at the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport, where the attack occurred. Heart was convicted of aggravated assault following the incident. According to medical records made public as part of Barrett’s lawsuit in federal court in Burlington, Heart had complained several times before the attack to Prison Health Services staff about not receiving the drugs he needed to control his violent tendencies. Heart’s medical records show he had told prison medical personnel in the past he “wanted to hurt others” and had “homicidal thoughts toward security guards.” Heart was serving a sentence at the time for killing a roommate in Whiting in 1996. Barrett also is suing Dr. Paul Cotton, a provider of mental-health services to Vermont prisons at the time, in state court. PHS, through its attorney Samuel Hoar of Burlington, has alleged there was no way to link its failure to give Heart his medication to Heart’s attack on Barrett. “It is not reasonable to conclude that PHS could have or should have foreseen where, when or against whom his next assault would occur,” Hoar wrote in a Jan. 10 document filed at U.S. District Court in Burlington. Feb. 19, however, the federal magistrate presiding over the pretrial phase of the lawsuit disagreed and threw out PHS’ request to dismiss the case. “Given the overwhelming number of red flags in Heart’s medical file, along with PHS’s obligations, it was reasonably foreseeable that a failure to properly manage Heart’s mental health care and psychiatric medications would cause an attack on a corrections officer,” Magistrate John Conroy ruled. Conroy’s decision could have bearing on the outcome of another dispute involving claims PHS failed to provide critical medications to an inmate who had asked for them repeatedly. That inmate, Ashley Ellis, 23, of Castleton, was anorexic and died Aug. 16 while incarcerated at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town. The state’s chief medical examiner has said the denial of a potassium medication Ellis needed to address her eating disorder led to her death. PHS announced it was ending its affiliation with the state shortly after the details of the Ellis case became public. Correct Care Solutions of Nashville, Tenn., took over inmate health care in Vermont on Feb. 1.

October 30, 2009 Rutland Herald
Franklin County State's Attorney Jim Hughes said his office won't seek criminal charges in the death of 23-year-old Ashley Ellis, who died after she was denied medication in the Swanton jail. "My charge was to review the case thoroughly," Hughes said Thursday. "My decision was to seek no charges against any individuals in the case." State Police have been investigating the Rutland woman's death since she collapsed and died at the women's correctional facility on the morning of Aug. 16 — just two days into a 30-day prison sentence for a misdemeanor charge of negligent operation of a motor vehicle. Ellis' grandparents, Clarendon residents Sandra and James Gipe, said they were unhappy with the decision, but not surprised. "We're really disappointed about what happened today," Sandra Gipe said. "But, on the other hand, it sounded like they couldn't figure out which person to blame. There are a lot of people involved in this." Last month, Ellis' family hired a lawyer to review potential civil charges in the case. On Thursday, the Gipes said their lawyer would be in contact with Hughes about his decision. "Right now, it's a he-said-she-said issue," James Gipe said. "No one wants to take responsibility for what happened." After reviewing 50 pages of medical records, charts and correspondence between Ellis' personal physician and employees of Prison Health Services, the contractor that provides health care services to all of Vermont's prisons, Hughes said he found no grounds for criminal charges despite a medical examiner's report that found that Ellis died, in part, because she was denied potassium pills for an anorexic condition. PHS has denied any wrongdoing in Ellis' death. Corrections officials and PHS employees were notified of Ellis' medical condition and her need for medication a week before she arrived at the prison. But after reviewing the case, Hughes said, there was no single person whose actions were either criminally or grossly negligent in the case. "There's not cause for me to file any criminal charges against any individual for the death of Ashley Ellis," he said. Asked if his office had reviewed potential criminal charges against PHS as a corporation, Hughes declined comment. The prosecutor also said he couldn't talk about details of the case or how events unfolded. He said he couldn't release the name of any PHS employees involved in Ellis' care or whether they were still working at the jail.

October 3, 2009 Rutland Herald
The family of Ashley L. Ellis, who died in jail while in state custody, has retained a legal team to review the 23-year-old's death. Ellis' family has had little to say this week after a medical examiner's report was released that found the Rutland woman died from a combination of hypokalemic induced cardiac arrhythmia due to anorexia/bulimia nervosa and — as her grandmother predicted — "denial of access to medication." A layman's definition of the technical cause of death, provided by police, is a fatal misfiring of the heart caused by low potassium levels. Ellis, who was serving a 30-day sentence at a state jail in Swanton, died two days after she arrived on Aug. 16. She was denied access to potassium pills she took for an eating disorder once she arrived at the jail, state officials said this week. A state police investigation into Ellis' death will be sent to the Franklin County prosecutor's office when it's complete. In the wake of the medical examiner's report, Ellis' family announced Friday that they have hired a Rutland law firm — Kenlan Schwiebert Facey & Goss. In a statement released through the firm, the family wrote "Our attorneys are reviewing what is clearly a very tragic situation, a situation that we think could have been prevented. We are trying not to come to any conclusions or make any decisions until we know all the facts and the facts are still being gathered." But Sandra Gipe, Ellis' grandmother, said Friday evening that she wants her granddaughter's death to have widespread consequences. "I don't want it to be for nothing," she said. "I want to see some of the changes they've been talking about. I don't want other people going to jail sick and not getting what they need. I hope something can be done in her name." Jack Facey, a member of the legal firm hired by the family, said the family's lawyers would focus for now on gathering facts. "We'll be looking at everything that happened between her getting dropped off at the facility and the time of her death and everything in-between," he said. "The family does believe what happened was preventable and they don't want it to happen again to someone else." State officials are in the process of hiring a new health care company for the prison system. For four years, Prison Health Services of Tennessee has had a contract with the state. That contract ends in January and Corrections Commissioner Andrew Pallito has said renewal would be doubtful, given the death of Ellis. But switching health care providers hasn't solved problems with the delivery of medical services in the jails in the past, according to the Defender General's Office and an organization that safeguards the rights of people with disabilities. "The state has a track record of hiring firms and providing millions of dollars to provide services but the result has always been the same old problem," A.J. Ruben, supervising attorney for Vermont Protection & Advocacy said. "I would question whether anything different is being done in this round of bids." The "same old problem," according to Ruben and state Defender General Matt Valerio, has been a history of spotty medical care, including postponements in providing medications — cited as part of Ellis' cause of death — delays or denials of requests for medical care. "The bottom line here is this is not an uncommon scenario. It's just that 99.9 percent of the time no one dies," Valerio said. "This whole thing really upsets me. Something good is going to come out of this. We need to make sure people are getting the health care they need." State Department of Corrections Commissioner Andrew Pallito agreed.

October 1, 2009 Rutland Herald
The private contractor that provides medical services to Vermont's prisons is pulling out of the state and the Vermont Department of Corrections commissioner said he's looking forward to their departure. Prison Health Services, the Tennessee-based company that has provided medical and mental health services to corrections for the last four years, announced earlier this month that it would not seek to renew its contract when it expires at the end of the year. To Corrections Commissioner Andrew Pallito, the company's decision appeared more than coincidental since PHS announced its intentions soon after Vermont inmate Ashley Ellis died from cardiac problems that the Vermont Medical Examiner concluded Wednesday were complicated by the "denial of access to medication" while Ellis was in the state jail in Swanton. "I suspect they now know that in all likelihood they would not win the bid again," Pallito said. PHS hasn't been implicated of any wrongdoing in an ongoing police investigation. However, an independent investigation by the state Defender General's Office found that a nurse ordered to give Ellis potassium for an eating disorder failed to do so. Pallito also said the DOC staff was never involved in dispensing medications. The company defended itself in an e-mail that said, "PHS is confident that, during the less than 48 hours that Ashley Ellis was in state custody, she received care that met applicable standards … We can state emphatically that PHS did not deny her access to medications." Asked why the company wasn't seeking to renew its contract, a spokesman for PHS replied, "It is a business decision." Pallito said the state had no problems with the health care provider during the previous four years. However, earlier this year, Mitchell Miller, a former regional medical director for Prison Health Services, had his license suspended after 55 counts of unprofessional conduct were brought against him for allegedly providing large amounts of narcotic prescription drugs to his private practice patients between 2000 and 2009. Pallito said he has reminded the company of its obligations to provide services through the remainder of its contract — and he said he's received assurances from PHS that those obligations will be met. That said, Pallito said he hopes to quickly select a new health care provider from a field of six bidders and have the new provider in place before the end of the PHS contract. The commissioner said his interest in quickly replacing PHS reflects a lack of faith in the continued quality of care at Vermont's corrections facilities. "I'm concerned with any business that says we're not going to continue doing business with you, but we want to complete our contract," he said. "I'm concerned that there is no more incentive for them to really impress us." Pallito wasn't the only state official not sorry to see PHS go. Sen. Richard Sears, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the state needed to take steps to make sure no other inmates suffer Ellis' fate. One of those steps, he said, involved switching health care providers. "If it means changing the way the state does business with its contractor, so be it. Part of the problem is that the lowest bidder doesn't always give you the best value," Sears said, adding that PHS was the low bidder the last time the state shopped for a provider. "We need to look at communications in the system again too. This young lady was sentenced to 30 days, not life."

September 30, 2009 WCAX
Police say Ashley Ellis, 23, of Castleton, died in the state prison in St. Albans six weeks ago, about a day after she started serving a sentence for a probation violation. She reportedly weighed only 87 pounds because she suffered from the eating disorder anorexia. The state police investigation is not yet complete but Tuesday the state medical examiner ruled the cause of death as hypokalemic induced cardiac arrhythmia due to anorexia/bulimia nervosa and denial of access to medication. She reportedly was supposed to be taking prescribed Potassium to treat her anorexia. "Under no circumstance does a corrections employee, DOC employee, dispense medication or care to an offender," Vt. Corrections Commissioner Andy Pallito said. Pallito says a private contracted health company Prison Health Services Incorporated from Tennessee is responsible for providing 100 percent of all health services including medications to Vermont inmates. Pallito says he has seen no evidence so far that DOC employees were involved in any way in treating Ellis or providing her medications. Reporter Brian Joyce: Are you confident the department was in no way responsible for what happened to this young woman regarding her death? Pallito: You know the investigation will yield things, I'm sure, that I don't know about. But standing here today I'm pretty confident that the Department of Corrections followed through on the information and passed that information along that we were supposed to. Vt. Law School Professor and legal expert Cheryl Hanna said, "After reading the medical report on the cause of death, it suggests that there could be financial liability either on behalf of the company that was contracted to provide medical services at the prison. Or the state itself, depending on how the facts unravel in this case. The state itself could be liable for her death." Hanna says criminal charges are also possible-- depending on the outcome of the police investigation. State police say they expect to complete their investigation by the end of the week and turn over their findings to the Franklin County prosecutor. He will determine whether any criminal charges are warranted in this case. The corrections department says under its contract with Prison Health Services, the state is indemnified against any lawsuits. But Hanna says despite any contractual arrangement, it's possible a court could find that the state shares in the financial liability.

September 20, 2009 Times-Argus
When Ashley Ellis arrived at the state women's correctional facility in Swanton last month, she expected her medications to be there. After all, the 23-year-old's family had made calls and forwarded doctor's notes and prescription information to the Department of Corrections weeks in advance of Ellis' Aug. 14 arrival at the jail. But Ellis' grandmother has said corrections officials she spoke to just before her granddaughter went to jail didn't know about the prescriptions ,and told her Ellis could face sanctions if she showed up the jail with her prescription drugs in hand. The cause of Ellis' death two days after she arrived at the jail still is unknown, pending the results of a toxicology test. However, her grandmother and many of Ellis' friends and family believe Ellis was denied medicine for her eating disorder, and they are convinced the lack of medications was a factor in her death. It remains to be seen whether they're right about Ellis' cause of death. However, there is a consensus among watchdog groups and key members of a legislative committee set up to oversee the state's corrections system that there are problems with the delivery of medicines and medical treatment in state prisons. "It's been a problem for a number of years," state Defender General Matthew Valerio said. "There should be a way for people to get their meds. Unfortunately, this is a problem that goes back decades. It's not unique to this current administration." Valerio's office includes the Prisoners' Rights Office. But DOC officials said corrections staff and medical staff from the private company that contracts with the state to provide health care services at Vermont's prisons are doing the best they can meeting the needs for a challenging group of patients. "Some offenders don't answer questions truthfully or fully," said Dr. Deloris Burroughs-Biron, health services director for DOC. "It leaves the intake person in the dark." "Intake" is a process every Vermont inmate undergoes whether they're new arrivals off the street, post-conviction offenders arriving to serve their sentence, people on furlough or probation returning to jail or prisoners transferred from one jail to another. The process involves searches for contraband, evaluations for potential suicidal behavior and a question and answer session about medical needs and prescribed medications. DOC policy requires all incoming inmates to be interviewed by a nurse who collects information and then tries to verify prescriptions by calling the pharmacy that filled them, Burroughs-Biron said. For people incarcerated off the street, that process is the only way to determine an inmate's medical needs. For offenders who know they're going to jail days or weeks in advance, Burroughs-Biron said verifications can be made in advance and medicines can be ordered before they arrive. Asked about the complaints made by Ellis' family, Burroughs-Biron said she couldn't comment on an ongoing investigation. However, she said many problems could be cured through better communication. During her two years as director, Burroughs-Biron said she has tried to get the word out that her office needs to know about people with "complicated medical conditions" on their way to jail. Generally speaking, she said her attempts to foster dialogue have failed. "I've attempted to speak to public defenders, police and anyone else bringing us patients," she said. "It's important for us to know when someone has a complicated history. … Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of feedback." But Valerio said the state's public defenders have been contacting Burroughs-Biron's office about client medical issues — most notably in Ellis' case. "(Public defender) Mary Kay Lanthier contacted Burroughs-Biron herself (one week) in advance," Valerio said. According to Valerio and members of Vermont Protection & Advocacy, a group that defends the rights of people with disabilities and mental health issues, the policies that Burroughs-Biron described aren't always adhered to. Valerio said he has seen a number of former inmates who have "deteriorated" inside the state's prison system because their medical needs weren't met or they were denied medicines for lengthy periods of time. "The issue goes deeper than verification," he said referring to the DOC emphasis on making sure the drugs inmates say they are taking are what they're actually prescribed. "Issues of cost cutting and institutional inertia exist." As an example of cost-cutting, Valerio said inmates have less access to doctors on weekends than on weekdays. But Burroughs-Biron said Valerio's example shows a "lack of familiarity" with the delivery of health care services in prison settings.

July 17, 2007 AP
An advocacy group says an inmate who died while incarcerated did not get the medical attention he needed. Michael Estabrook, 37, was an inmate at the state prison in Springfield for drunken driving when he died March 7, 2006 of heart failure at Fletcher Allen Health Care. Vermont Protection & Advocacy, a federally funded nonprofit agency that helps people with disabilities, released a report Friday saying that the state ignored Estabrook's requests for a medical furlough, didn't respond properly to his condition, ran out of his medications and placed a do-not-resuscitate order in his file. Corrections Commissioner Rob Hofmann disagrees with the findings. "Mr. Estabrook was a young man with many health issues, including severe heart disease which ended his life," Hofmann wrote in response to the group's report. Despite his poor health, Estabrook drank heavily, smoked marijuana, abused prescription drugs and missed doctor's appointments before and in between his prison terms, Hofmann said. Access to medical care in prison may have extended rather than shortened his life, Hofmann said. Estabrook was serving a three- to seven-year sentenced for drunken driving and driving without a license when he suffered acute renal failure in 2004 and was released on a medical furlough. Estabrook was arrested and imprisoned in April 2005 for missing a hearing. He sought a medical furlough but was denied. "We think there was good reason for him to get a medical furlough," said Ed Paquin, executive director of Vermont Protection & Advocacy. "I don't know what interest is served for a person like this to be incarcerated," he said of Estabrook, who had trouble walking, reported swollen ankles and shortness of breath. Hofmann said in 2005 Estabrook's condition was no longer deemed terminal and he believed Estabrook was a possible danger if released because he had been convicted six times of drunken driving. "My philosophy is that I will not furlough someone like that who even has the remotest chance of getting behind the wheel of a car," Hofmann said. "This guy was given a chance in 2004 that I wouldn't have given him and he blew it." Medications should be available in prison and the medical contractor was fined $36,000 for one contract year for failing to meet that mandate, Hofmann said. But records show Estabrook often refused his medications, more times than when the drugs were not available, Hofmann said.

January 11, 2007 Burlington Free Press
Inmates at Vermont's nine prisons will continue to receive health care from a Tennessee medical services provider -- but at a cost to the state that's projected to be $3.6 million more per year than the firm was paid in the past. Corrections Commissioner Rob Hofmann said Wednesday his department reluctantly had reached tentative agreement on a new contract with Prison Health Services Inc., pending the outcome of deliberations on final contract language. Prison Health Services beat out two competitors for the contract. The state hastily had to put the contract out to bid in November after Prison Health Services abruptly opted out of a $26 million, three-year contract it had with the department, complaining it was losing too much money to justify continuing its work in the state. "I'm very frustrated that this has taken the course it did," Hofmann said Wednesday, "but I think we got the best arrangement we could for the state of Vermont." Hofmann said the new contract will cover the next two years. Unlike the one it replaces, the deal contains a "cost-plus" provision that means the state will cover additional prisoner health care costs if they are unavoidable. "We have to provide health care for offenders," Hofmann said. "If the costs go up, I don't see any other option." Hofmann said the contract will include incentives to encourage Prison Health Services to keep down costs. He also said he is considering having prisoners share in the cost of health care by making minimal co-payments for services, as most health care users do. "The vast majority of corrections systems in the country have some kind of co-pay," Hofmann said. "It cuts down on the casual use of medical services and conditions people in the system to have some participation in health care decisions." Hoffmann said he was irritated that Prison Health Services had forced the state to re-bid the contract, but suspected the company had underestimated the costs of providing health care to prisoners in a small, rural state like Vermont.

November 14, 2006 Burlington Free Press
Vermont prisons are looking for a new medical services provider for the second time in three years following a decision by Prison Health Services Inc. to opt out of its contract with the state. Robert Hofmann, state Corrections Department commissioner, said Monday the Tennessee-based Prison Health Services notified him Oct. 30 that it would stop providing care to the state's 1,700 in-state inmates at the end of January. "Obviously, we're disappointed and a little bit surprised," Hofmann said of the company's decision. "There were some bumps in the road at the start of their contract but, really, over the past 12 months, they had been doing a very good job." The company's top three officials in Vermont resigned their posts just 10 months after it began operations in Vermont and the firm, along with the state, was sued last month by the family of an inmate who died from heroin withdrawal symptoms in 2005. Prison Health Services won the three-year, $26 million contract to provide health care to inmates at the state's nine prisons in early 2005. The previous contractor, Correctional Medical Services Inc., had come under fire for $700,000 in billing mistakes, including $144,547 for services that company employees never provided. Susan Morgenstern, a spokeswoman for Prison Health Services, said Monday that the company decided to opt out of the contract at the end of the second year because it was losing too much money. "The cost of providing health care to inmates has risen beyond the contract's ability to cover that cost," Morgenstern said in a statement released by the company. "Prison Health Services will never compromise the quality of our patient care because of financial reasons." According to a company Web site, Prison Health Services lost $1 million on its Vermont contract in the third quarter of 2006 alone, a figure that Hofmann disputed. Morgenstern said the staffing costs were an issue for the company in Vermont.

November 10, 2006 Vermont Guardian
Recent news that one of the nation’s largest prison health care providers, Prison Health Services (PHS), is backing out of its three-year contract with Vermont should be a wake-up call to the Douglas administration. Under pressure two years ago to improve the care it delivered to inmates, because the provider’s poor care at the time was linked to several deaths, Douglas et al took the lowest bidder. Now, that lowest bidder finds that it can’t make money off the contract and lost $1 million in the past three months, and it’s facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties for not properly staffing many of the prisons. A similar scenario occurred in Florida this year, too. Less than a year ago, PHS was the low bidder on a 10-year, $645 million contract. But, it was losing money — about $1.3 million in the past financial quarter — and facing fines of more than $700,000. So, what did it do? It backed out of the contract and then bid on the new contract. And, it won, adding more than $60 million to the original price tag. And, they got the award without having to pay the penalties from the last contract, and even though they were not the lowest bidder (they were second lowest). Vermont officials should be wary of any gamesmanship from PHS to simply try and win the contract by making too low a bid, and then trying to extort money from us later on. If nothing else, this should also send a clear signal that the old adage, “You get what you pay for,” holds true for prison contracts.

November 3, 2006 Vermont Guardian
After losing more than $1 million in three months, the out-of-state company in charge of providing medical services to Vermont’s nearly 1,700 inmates has told corrections officials it wants out of its three-year contract. The state and Prison Health Services have been at the bargaining table for the past four months, but hit an impasse Monday, company officials said, and gave the state three months notice that it would not finish the last year of its contract. “As state corrections departments and county officials in charge of jails around the country know, the cost of providing healthcare – particularly nursing services — continues to rise,” said Susan Morganstern, a PHS spokeswoman. “We have chosen to give notice of termination to the Vermont Department of Corrections because the cost of providing healthcare to inmates has risen beyond the contract’s ability to cover that cost. Prison Health Services will never compromise the quality of our patient care because of financial reasons.” Morganstern said the contract talks between the state and PHS were collegial, but the two sides could not come to an agreement. In a report filed Oct. 31 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, PHS’ parent company — America Service Group, Inc. of Brentwood, TN — characterized the talks this way: “Throughout the last four months, the Company engaged in comprehensive, good faith discussions with this client in order to reach a mutually beneficial solution to this contract's financial underperformance.” America Service Group is one of the larger providers of prison health care in the U.S. Despite the $1 million loss in Vermont, the company reported nearly $500 million in revenues this year as of Sept. 30, but a loss of roughly $551,000. Corrections Commissioner Rob Hofmann said PHS approached the state about four months ago in an attempt to negotiate down some of the penalties it was being levied by the state, and receive higher reimbursement for services mainly due to high labor costs. At the time, Hofmann said he informed lawmakers, including the legislative Corrections Oversight Committee, and other state officials about the negotiations. “I think they were losing money because their bid was possibly too aggressive, but most importantly they were running into Vermont’s tight labor market, especially in terms of finding medical staff,” Hofmann said. This meant the company had to pay higher wages to attract staff, coupled with the already difficult problem of getting people to work inside a prison. Also, at the time of the negotiations, Hofmann said the state had levied substantial penalties against PHS because they had not met all contract requirements. For example, in some cases the contract called for the company to have a registered nurse on a shift, but instead used a licensed practical nurse. Hofmann said the penalties were in the “high hundreds of thousands of dollars.” Some of those the state was willing to negotiate down, but others it wasn’t. The department's previous contractor — Correctional Medical Services — was criticized by legislators, inmate advocates and family members for not providing adequate medical treatment to inmates. In some cases, independent investigations found that a lack of medical and mental health care resulted in inmate deaths.

August 11, 2006 Burlington Free Press
The parents of an inmate who committed suicide in his cell in 2004 have sued the state Corrections Department, alleging that prison workers knew their son was thinking of killing himself but did not act to prevent his death. Ryan Rodriguez, 24, was found hanging in his cell Oct. 19, 2004 at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington. He died at Fletcher Allen Health Care four days later after his parents had him removed from life support. Court documents show he had been in jail for 15 months awaiting trial on charges he mistreated a toddler he was caring for at a Burlington motel. Rodriguez, from New Mexico, was visiting friends in Burlington at the time of his arrest. Rodriguez's death occurred six months after an independent study examined seven inmate deaths in an 18-month stretch, including two by suicide. The study found evidence the Corrections Department had mishandled inmates with mental health issues. "We had no idea Ryan was being treated so badly," Ryan Rodriguez's mother, Carol, said during a telephone interview last week from Tucson, Ariz., where she and her husband, Joe Rodriguez, live. "When Joe got there after Ryan's suicide, one of the guards told him to seek legal help. He said, 'This has happened previously here.'" The Rodriguezes allege in their lawsuit that four times during their son's 15 months in jail awaiting trial, he told Corrections officers he was thinking of hurting or killing himself but was never referred to mental health workers for help. The case, filed in federal court in Burlington, lists as defendants the Corrections Department, three of its employees and Correctional Medical Services, the department's medical care contractor at the time.

December 5, 2005 WCAX
Three top officials have resigned from the private company that provides health care services in Vermont's prisons. Neither state Corrections Department officials or the company, Prison Health Services, Inc., would say what led the officials to resign. "There is not going to be a disruption of care," said Prison Health spokeswoman Susan Morgenstern. The resignations were submitted by regional administrator Nancy Lawrence, senior program manager Nancy Elmer and nursing director Kelly McGeachin. Morgenstern wouldn't say if the women were forced to resign. "We can't discuss confidential personnel matters," Morgenstern said. Meanwhile, the Vermont Corrections Department is suing the company that used to provide mental health care in the state's prisons. The state claims Matrix Health Systems overcharged the Corrections Department by more than $500,000 between 2000 and 2003.

November 15, 2005 WCAX
Vermont's prisons are already full and now there's word they're about to be swamped. Corrections officials project Vermont's prison population will skyrocket at least 20% within five years, and that's sparking a debate over where to put all these convicts. But state lawmakers have rejected building new prisons in Vermont, so the Corrections Commissioner says the primary solution to overcrowding will be to send more inmates to do time in prisons located in Kentucky and Tennessee. State leaders will be looking at a number of options to out-of-state placement during the legislative session next year. However, the out-of-state placements have one additional factor that is very appealing to many: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA )-- a private, for-profit prison company -- charges Vermont $20,000 per inmate, per year to jail them in Kentucky and Tennessee. Meanwhile, the cost of jailing convicts in Vermont is $40,000 per year per inmate, 100% more. The difference is that CCA provides no counseling educational, or rehabilitation programs. The cost-per-inmate in Vermont includes many services and counseling, plus probation, parole, furlough, and other early release programs.

October 19, 2005 Rutland Herald
The Indiana resident starts work Nov. 7 as the Springfield prison's new superintendent. Ashburn started working at the sheriff's office in his Maryland hometown while still in high school. He became department sheriff and helped to open a county jail and a state prison. He later worked as an instructor at the Maryland Police and Corrections Training Academy. Robert Kupec, facilities executive for the Vermont Department of Corrections, said he was particularly impressed with Ashburn's experience setting standards and accreditation with the American Correctional Association. Ashburn also worked for Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest private prison management company, for seven years. He was CCA's warden at Marion County Jail, a 1,000-bed prison in Indianapolis, Ind., two years ago and has served as senior director of customer relations and business development at CCA's corporate office. Ashburn's connection with the private company raised flags for Kurt Staudter, chairman of the town's Community Liaison Committee. "I don't have any respect for CCA as a company," he said. CCA came under criticism after a riot last September at its 800-inmate Lee Adjustment Center in Kentucky. Half of those inmates were Vermont prisoners, some of whom were involved in the riot. The riot incident, which occurred after Ashburn worked for CCA, put a spotlight on Vermont's policy of sending large numbers of prisoners out of state. The Corrections Department sent a staffer to the Lee Adjustment Center to monitor the treatment of Vermont inmates there. CCA agreed to pay a $10,000 fine for failing to adequately organize, equip, train the staffers whose job was to respond to the riot. When the Springfield prison was built two years ago, Howard Dean promised the committee that as long as he was governor, the state's prison system would not be privatized. Staudter said privatization has become a constant concern.

October 13, 2005 Rutland Herald
The state will likely hire a Virginia company to provide mental health care to inmates of the state's prisons. For several years, Dr. Paul Cotton has been doing that job, although his company has come under criticism in a state auditor's report by prisoners' rights advocates and the state employee's union. The Department of Corrections is negotiating with winning bidder MHM Correctional Services Inc. of Vienna, Va. If the state and the company can reach a final agreement, MHM is tentatively scheduled to take over in February. The contract will likely be for two years or more. After a 2004 audit by then-state auditor Elizabeth Ready - which found that Cotton's company had billed for services that were not provided - the company returned $143,000 in a settlement with the state.

March 21, 2005 Corrections.com
Providing quality healthcare and lowering costs are challenges that drive many corrections agencies towards private companies.  But once the contract is signed and the deal is done, departments can't turn a blind eye to what's going on in their facilities; they need to manage those contracts with private service providers to ensure that they are getting what they bargained for. Vermont learned this lesson the hard way when seven inmate deaths in a year's time prompted the DOC and the State Auditor's Office to take a closer look at healthcare, among other things, at the state's correctional facilities.  Both the Auditor's Report and the report ordered by the Vermont Agency of Human Services found that the DOC needed to step up its contract oversight. Chief among those contracts that required better monitoring was the department's arrangement with Correctional Medical Services (CMS), the state's inmate healthcare provider.  According to the Auditor's Report, the state suffered financially from ineffective monitoring of the CMS contract and had no real way to evaluate the quality of the services the company was providing to inmates. Since the reports were released last year, the Vermont DOC has committed to improving the way it does business with private contractors.  The agency believes it took a step in the right direction in early 2005 when it entered into a contractual agreement with a new healthcare provider, Prison Health Services (PHS).

December 9, 2004 Rutland Herald
A Burlington-based mental health company will return $143,000 to the state for contracted services to prison inmates the state claims it did not provide.  Corrections Commissioner Steven Gold told a panel of lawmakers Wednesday that the state reached a settlement under which Paul Cotton would return the money.  Cotton's firm last spring was the subject of a scathing report by State Auditor Elizabeth Ready, who charged that the Corrections Department paid the contractor a lump sum in advance and then the company never delivered the services.  "We had an auditor go in and audit the timekeeping," Gold told the Mental Health Oversight Committee.  Ready issued her report in the wake of six inmate deaths within an 18-month period. Assistant Attorney General Bill Griffin said the financial settlement did not address any claims of harm to inmates. Prisoners or their families must address any such issues through the court system, he said. Cotton's firm continues to provide mental health services to Vermont's 1,600 inmates and has a contract with a maximum value of $5.1 million.

November 11, 2004 Times Argus
The company recently awarded a $26 million contract to provide health care to Vermont inmates has been the subject of more than 1,000 prisoner lawsuits and complaints from officials of states where it has done business.  The details of Vermont's contract with Prison Health Services are still being worked out, according to Deputy Corrections Commissioner Sister Janice Ryan, who said they will "address the concerns raised by Vermont inmates and advocates,'' but declined to elaborate. Prison Health Services, which beat out four other companies for the three-year contract to provide health care to Vermont inmates that is scheduled to take effect on Feb. 1, is a Tennessee-based firm that provides services to about 235,000 prisoners nationwide. Medical treatment in Vermont prisons has been problematic. In May, state auditor Elizabeth Ready criticized the Department of Corrections for not adequately monitoring the delivery of health care by Correctional Medical Services (CMS), which is under contract to provide health care through January. Ready also criticized CMS for billing Vermont for services that were never provided. At least one other state that has used Prison Health Services was disappointed with its performance. Maine declined to renew its contract with the company because of "performance problems'' said Maine Corrections Department spokeswoman Denise Lord. An outside audit of the company's work there found numerous problems, including insufficient review of patient charts, inadequate provisions for patient privacy and insufficient peer review of physician performance.

August 23, 2004
The company providing mental health care services at Vermont prisons is still engaging in improper billing practices, a top Corrections Department official said.  Tom Powell, clinical services director for the Corrections Department, said in a July 1 letter to the Burlington-based Paul Cotton corporation, that the company was miscategorizing which employees worked what hours.  (Rutland Herald)

July 29, 2004
Laura Ziegler, advocate on mental health and inmate rights, made the suggestion at the start of a public hearing Wednesday sponsored by the Department of Corrections. The department is about to solicit bidders to provide medical care at the state's prison facilities and asked for comments on the guidelines it plans to send out to potential contractors.  Barry Kade of Alliance for Prison Justice told corrections officials that inmates certainly have opinions about the medical care they receive now. He's been making monthly visits to Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport for seven years. "The most consistent complaint I've heard is about medical care."  Although the department planned to close the public comment period by Monday, Tom Powell, clinical program director, agreed with Ziegler's suggestion. He promised to provide copies of the guidelines to inmates, invite their comments and allow extra time for their responses.  The state would like to begin advertising for a new medical care provider by the end of August, with bids due Oct. 1. The winning bidder would take over medical care in the prisons by Feb. 1.  Correctional Medical Services of St. Louis provides health services and could submit a bid to continue. The state, however, has drawn up new requirements for the services _ such as providing an ombudsman to settle disputes between care providers and inmates.  Theresa McAvinney, a registered nurse who recently left the clinic at the prison in Newport, said at Wednesday's hearing that she saw a gap between the kind of care required on paper and the kind of care delivered. "I had to intervene in many cases of men who were neglected," she said.  Other nurses who work at prisons raised labor issues that they said ought to be addressed in a contract with the next medical provider.  Deb Moore, a registered nurse practitioner at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, urged officials to require in-depth orientation about security issues for all new health workers. "Nobody trained me," said Moore, who has worked at the South Burlington jail for two years.  Job training and orientation would help retain nurses, Moore said. Turnover is a significant problem at the Chittenden jail.  (Channel 3 News)

July 29, 2004
The Department of Corrections has scheduled hearings for the public to comment about the health services that should be offered to inmates at the state's prisons.  Corrections Commissioner Steve Gold says this is the first time the department has held public hearings before seeking bids for a health care contract. One hearing was to take place Wednesday at the Sheraton Hotel in South Burlington. A second is scheduled for Thursday at the Holiday Inn Express in Springfield.  The state contracts with Correctional Medical Services to provide health services at state prisons. The contract runs out this year but has been extended to February.  Health services in the prisons cost the state $7 million a year. Gold expects the cost to increase by 10 percent or more under the next contract.  A rash of inmate deaths has put the health care system at the state's prisons under scrutiny over the past year. In one case investigators concluded that prison officials failed to respond promptly and adequately to an inmate's repeated pleas for medical care. His condition became so serious he couldn't recover.  (Wcax.com)

May 26, 2004
The state has paid more than $800,000 for prison medical services it did not receive and was routinely overbilled by several contractors, according to a report released Tuesday by state auditor Elizabeth Ready. She blamed the problems on inadequate management practices.  The report alleges that Correctional Medical Services, the St. Louis firm that has a $23.9 million contract to provide medical and dental services to Vermont inmates, billed the state for full health care coverage even when it provided insufficient staffing. The report also charges that the firm double billed the department for drug costs that were reimbursed.  Since Ready began the audit, CMS has already credited Vermont for $100,000 for missed staff hours and the contractor for mental health services has credited the state for $60,000.  Ready began her audit in February, in the wake of complaints by inmates, lawmakers, prisoner rights advocates and the Vermont State Employees Association after the deaths of six inmates and one person on furlough during an 18-month period. The audit issued Tuesday also concluded that the Department of Corrections did not adequately monitor the costs of mental health drugs prescribed by psychiatrists and provided by CMS, nor did department officials require CMS to provide financial reports on a timely basis as required in the contract.  Ready's report reiterated her previous complaints to Gold about crowded conditions and inadequate eating facilities at CCA's Marion Adjustment Center in St, Mary, Ky.  CCA has made changes to address those concerns and Gold said he is 
satisfied with the company's response.  The report also said that the Department of Corrections failed to receive penalties for services not delivered under the $7 million worth of contracts for treatment services signed since 2000.  (Rutland Herald)

February 22, 2004
State Auditor Elizabeth Ready is looking into how the state awards and monitors contracts for prisoner care in response to six inmate deaths and concerns about prisoners' mental and physical health.  "We have gotten a lot of complaints from prisoner advocates and letters from prisoners," she said Friday. "Some people have told us that conditions have been allowed to fester until they became chronic. We want to see what is causing some of the problems and if the state is getting its money's worth."  The audit will focus on about $50 million in Correction Department contracts for out-of-state prisoner housing, and medical, mental health and substance abuse services at the state's prisons for medical care, mental health and substance abuse and sex offender and Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans, chairman of the Senate Institutions Committee, requested an audit in December. He said the deaths "suggest a breakdown in services, policies, or both."  Corrections Commissioner Steve Gold said Friday that he welcomes the audit and predicted it would find the department's practices to be sound. However, he added that budget cuts imposed by the Legislature in the past several years had forced his agency to reduce the number of staff assigned to monitor quality assurance.  Six deaths occurred over an 18-month period, including two suicides. The most recent suicide was in October, when inmate James Quigley hanged himself at the St. Albans prison.  Quigley, who was serving a life sentence for murder, had been in solitary confinement for 118 days after being transferred to St. Albans from the Newport jail.  An independent examination by a disabilities rights group found that systematic failures at two prisons led to the suicide of Lawrence Bessette Jr. in May 2003.  Montpelier lawyer Michael Marks and former New Hampshire Attorney General Philip McLaughlin, who are conducting the investigation of conditions in the state prison system at the request of Gov. James Douglas, have said they are paying considerable attention to physical and mental health treatment and the way prisoners' complaints are handled.  They said they expect to complete their investigation by March 15.  Illuzzi has introduced legislation to cancel a $5 million contract with a private firm for providing prisoner mental health services.  Illuzzi also said he may reintroduce legislation to have state employees monitor the contract at all prison sites. That measure has passed the Senate in previous years but was killed in a House-Senate conference committee.  (Boston.com)

August 14, 2003
Vermont inmates being held at a Virginia prison are likely to be moved to another state this fall.  Private companies in Kentucky, Texas and Louisiana have offered to charge less to house the prisoners, Vermont Corrections Department officials said.   Defender General Matthew Valerio said his office has advocated for keeping Vermont prisoners in Vermont prisons.  He said the move to a private prison could be problematic.  Private prisons are run for profit and he worries that prisoners' services might suffer so the companies can make a profit.  (AP)

July 1, 2002
The Department of Corrections is taking bids from other states on housing its out-of-state prisoners, which means the inmates now in Virginia could be sent elsewhere.  The opens up the contract to either private or public jails.  "If we can't get  a better price, that's always in our best interest, as long as we don't sacrifice the quality of our programs for it," said Andrew Pallito, management executive for the department.  The possible use of private jails puts the state in a new arena.  Private jails tend to be less expensive than public ones, Pallito said.  The Corrections Department never looked to private jails in the past because the department did not have the legal ability to house prisoners in private facilities, Perry said.  The Legislature changed the rule to broaden the search when it ordered the department to put the contract out to bid.  Defender General Matthew Valerio said it's too soon to tell whether the bidding process will make life worse or better for the out-of-state prisoners.  He also has reservations about private prisons, which are for for profit.  "If it's a matter of making money, a private entity is going to cut cost," Valerio said.  "A public entity is going to figure out some way to provide the appropriate services after they cut costs to whatever reasonable extent they can."  (The Associated Press State and Local Wire)

Vermont Legislature
CCA
March 16, 2007 Vermont Guardian
Gov. Jim Douglas’ third inaugural celebration raised $47,000 from some of the state’s top contractors, and corporations. The money raised will benefit the Vermont Military Family Emergency Assistance Fund, and the collected several hundred pounds of food for the Vermont Foodbank. The events top two sponsors, who donated $5,000 apiece, were Electronic Data Systems, which handles Medicaid payments for the state, and Pike Industries, Inc., a paving contractor. “Choosing a charity to receive the proceeds of the ball is always a challenge. There are many capable organizations and worthy causes in Vermont,” Douglas said. “Dorothy and I decided the proceeds should again go to military families in Vermont who are struggling to make ends meet. These families are making extraordinary sacrifices on our behalf and this is another way for us to show them that Vermont will always stand by them.” Douglas’ first inaugural ball raised thousands of dollars for alcohol and drug rehabilitation and prevention programs of the United Ways of Vermont and collected non-perishable food for the Vermont Foodbank. The second inaugural celebration, in January of 2005, raised $27,000 for the family assistance fund and, like this year, collected more than 700 pounds of food for the Vermont Foodbank. The Vermont Military Family Emergency Assistance Fund, Inc. non-profit group created solely to provide emergency financial assistance to service members and their families. It is for the benefit of any Vermont service member and their families that live in Vermont as well as service members who live outside the state but belong to a Vermont unit. Sponsors at the $2,500 level were: AT&T; Barr Laboratories; Blue Cross Blue Shield; Casella Waste Systems; CIGNA; Corrections Corporation of America; Goodrich Corporation; Green Mountain Power; and, Kimbell, Sherman, Ellis.

August 25, 2006 AP
Gov. Jim Douglas has nearly three times as big a war chest as challenger Scudder Parker as they head into the fall campaign, campaign finance reports filed Friday show. Douglas' donors included a range of business people -- some who do business with the state -- and longtime Republican stalwarts. They include former GOP U.S. Senate candidate Jack McMullen, who gave $200; and Corrections Corporation of America, owner of a private Kentucky prison where Vermont inmates rioted two years ago. The company gave $2,000.

February 1, 2006 Burlington Free Press
Let's say, for discussion's sake, that Judge Edward Cashman deserves the outrage that greeted his initial sentence of a man who sexually abused a little girl. He's not alone. How about bad journalism, and we won't even get into the awful nationwide cable coverage, less because catching Bill O'Reilly in error is insufficiently challenging for a grownup than because most cable news doesn't do journalism; it does anger enhancement. We'll stick to local ineptitude. This hullabaloo began Jan. 4 when Brian Joyce of WCAX-TV (Channel 3) began his report by saying, "a Vermont judge handed out a 60-day jail sentence to a man who raped a little girl ... The judge said he no longer believes in punishment ... ." But it was a 60-day-to- 10-years-with-lifetime-supervision sentence. And Cashman never said he "no longer believes in punishment." He said punishment "is not enough." That's not an inconsequential difference. Then there are all those legislators insisting on 25-year minimum sentences for child sex abusers while ignoring the $40,000 a year it costs to keep someone in prison, possibly requiring a tax increase they would be loath to support. They deserve some outrage. So do reporters who don't challenge them. And why has no one examined the possibility that vested interests are exploiting this uproar? Whether putting more people in prison for longer terms is good for society is debatable. That it is good for Corrections Corporation of America is not. CCA is earning some $9 million from the state this year to house 450 of our convicts in its private pokeys in Kentucky and Tennessee. The more people we sentence for longer terms, the better for CCA, which employs eight registered lobbyists in Montpelier. If those lobbyists are not exploiting this story to drum up more business for their client, they aren't doing their job. If reporters are not inquiring into the connection, they're not doing theirs. According to public documents, this Tennessee-based company contributes to Vermont candidates for Legislature and governor. Its motives probably transcend civic virtue. The company gives a bit to Democrats, but more to Republicans, including Douglas. Not according to public document -- though shouldn't it be? And isn't this something about which to get outraged? CCA also coughed up money for the Douglas inauguration bashes in 2003 and 2005.

October 19, 2005 Rutland Herald
The Indiana resident starts work Nov. 7 as the Springfield prison's new superintendent. Ashburn started working at the sheriff's office in his Maryland hometown while still in high school. He became department sheriff and helped to open a county jail and a state prison. He later worked as an instructor at the Maryland Police and Corrections Training Academy. Robert Kupec, facilities executive for the Vermont Department of Corrections, said he was particularly impressed with Ashburn's experience setting standards and accreditation with the American Correctional Association. Ashburn also worked for Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest private prison management company, for seven years. He was CCA's warden at Marion County Jail, a 1,000-bed prison in Indianapolis, Ind., two years ago and has served as senior director of customer relations and business development at CCA's corporate office. Ashburn's connection with the private company raised flags for Kurt Staudter, chairman of the town's Community Liaison Committee. "I don't have any respect for CCA as a company," he said. CCA came under criticism after a riot last September at its 800-inmate Lee Adjustment Center in Kentucky. Half of those inmates were Vermont prisoners, some of whom were involved in the riot. The riot incident, which occurred after Ashburn worked for CCA, put a spotlight on Vermont's policy of sending large numbers of prisoners out of state. The Corrections Department sent a staffer to the Lee Adjustment Center to monitor the treatment of Vermont inmates there. CCA agreed to pay a $10,000 fine for failing to adequately organize, equip, train the staffers whose job was to respond to the riot. When the Springfield prison was built two years ago, Howard Dean promised the committee that as long as he was governor, the state's prison system would not be privatized. Staudter said privatization has become a constant concern.

January 14, 2005 Reformer
Vermont Gov. James Douglas held his inaugural ball last Saturday at Norwich University's Plumley Armory. Corporations also pitched in to cover the cost of the event, such as Anheuser-Busch, Casella Waste Systems, Stowe Mountain Resort, Central Vermont Public Service, Green Mountain Power, Corrections Corporation of America, National Life of Vermont and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont. A certain amount of influence-buying is to be expected at a political event.

West Tennessee Detention Facility
Mason, Tennessee
CCA
June 19, 2010 The Rutland Herald
Vermont prisoners being held at a private prison in Tennessee had ongoing complaints about the facility before a lockdown in May when the inmates had to be subdued with chemical grenades, officials said. About 35 Vermont inmates were put on lockdown on May 12 after they refused to return to their cells and started destroying sinks and toilets in their housing unit at the West Tennessee Detention Facility in Mason, about 35 miles northeast of Memphis. Prison officials said no one was injured. Vermont contracts with Nashville-based prison operator Corrections Corporation of America to house inmates in Kentucky, Tennessee and Arizona to alleviate overcrowding. Vermont Defender General Matthew Valerio, who oversees the prisoners’ rights office, said his office regularly gets complaints about the lack of education, work or recreation programs and concerns about racial tensions between inmates at the Tennessee prison. The Vermont inmates, who are mostly white and some who are serving time for misdemeanor crimes, are housed in the facility along with federal prisoners in the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s Service. “The Vermont inmates perceive they are being threatened and denied equal treatment and privileges,” Valerio said. Valerio said the prisoners have also said that the prison staff aren’t addressing their problems. “The Tennessee staff apparently believe the Vermont inmates are whiny and needy,” he said. “The Vermont inmates believe the Tennessee staff dislike and ignore them.” Steven Owen, a CCA spokesman, said the Vermont inmates are provided vocational, educational and recreational programs and activities and the facility is accredited by the American Correctional Association. The facility has housed Vermont inmates since 2005. In 2008, they were transferred to other CCA facilities and then returned to Tennessee in March 2009, Owen said. Ray Flum, supplemental housing contract manager for Vermont Department of Corrections, said the state moved the inmates out of that facility because they were looking for a place where their inmates could get more opportunities for work and education. Flum said he was not aware of concerns about racial issues between inmates. “The facility is a very tight facility,” he said. “It’s not meant for long-term sentence offenders... They move in and out so there’s not much there for long term offenders.” Flum said shortly after the inmates returned to the Tennessee prison in 2009, there was a similar incident when they refused to get into their cells and made some demands. Flum said there was no use of force by guards and the warden talked to them and resolved the problem. “To my knowledge there is no connection between the two incidents,” he said. However, Valerio said the repeated incidents of inmates refusing to follow orders to get in their cells indicates there’s been little done to resolve the underlying problems. “I think that they have perfunctory meetings that don’t result in any significant change,” he said of CCA’s response.

May 30, 2010 Times Argus
The Department of Corrections will have more staff on site to address the grievances of out-of-state inmates after an uprising of Vermont inmates at a Tennessee prison earlier this month. The 34 male inmates of "L Block" at West Tennessee Detention Facility in Macon, Tenn., remain on "modified lockdown" after they refused to return to their cells and vandalized their housing unit May 12, said prison spokeswoman Melissa Nuce. The lockdown segregates inmates from the general prison population, which primarily is made up of federal felons, but the inmates now are allowed to use the telephone, Nuce said. "We will remain on lockdown for as long as it takes to ensure the safety of the inmates and the staff," Nuce said. She declined to speculate on how long that would take. Department of Corrections officials had staff in Tennessee two days after the incident, in which corrections officers deployed nonlethal chemical grenades similar to tear gas to gain control of the housing unit and force inmates to return to their cells for nightly lockdown. No one was injured. Preliminary reports indicate the incident was driven by recent changes to the inmates' privileges. "What they have reported is that inmates were upset about changes in rules regulating electronics use, such as video games," said corrections Commissioner Andrew Pallito. While Pallito said reports indicate the electronics policy appears to be the primary motivation for the uprising, inmates also complained that prison staff refused to address grievances. These complaints came as no surprise to Defender General Matthew Valerio, who oversees Vermont's Prisoners' Rights Office, which hears formal grievances filed by inmates. While Valerio said he hadn't heard specific complaints about "merely some disobedience," his office has received many complaints about the Tennessee prison. "The Tennessee location is far from ideal," Valerio said. "The complaints we hear (are) that there is no programming, no counseling, no industry and no education. Also, the population is about 80 percent black, and the inmates coming from Vermont obviously are not, for the most part, so it is an intimidating and sometimes violent place for Vermonters." The inmates involved in the incident are among 101 Vermonters in the Tennessee prison, and among the roughly 600 Vermont inmates doing time outside the state. While most of them are housed in the Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville, Ky., some do not qualify for that facility and end up in Tennessee. Kentucky law prohibits offenders with misdemeanor convictions to do time with felons. Tennessee, however, has no such provision, which leaves Vermonters with misdemeanor convictions doing time with federal felons. Sending the offenders out of state is seen as a cost-saving move, meaning it's cheaper than building a prison in Vermont. But Valerio said the policy might end up costing the state more in the long run. "I can understand the need to save money, but these offenders are going to come back to Vermont and they're going to bring these problems back with them," he said. Pallito said his office would like to find another locale to house the offenders other than Tennessee, but said the private prison business — of which the Tennessee facility is a part — is competitive. "We're putting out bids looking for beds for 100 inmates, but we're competing with larger states like California who are looking for space for thousands of offenders. … Vermont just isn't that attractive a customer for the prison business," he said. In the meantime, the Department of Corrections will have people on site at both the Tennessee and Kentucky facilities to address inmate grievances more directly. Pallito said the incident is in the hands of Tennessee authorities, who are likely to convene a grand jury in July, he said, adding that his office is pushing for prosecution.

May 14, 2010 Times Argus
Vermont inmates remain in lockdown after a riot in a privately run prison in Tennessee on Wednesday night. Around 10:35 p.m., 35 male inmates housed in West Tennessee Detention Facility in Macon, Tenn., refused to return to their cells, according to Corrections Corp. of America, which operates the facility 40 miles east of Memphis. The inmates ignored orders to return to their cells for the night and began damaging property inside the housing unit, said prison public information officer Melissa Nuce, who described the damage as minimal. Corrections officers deployed nonlethal chemical grenades — similar to tear gas — in the housing unit and subdued the inmates. The incident resulted in no injuries to either inmates or prison staff. After undergoing chemical decontamination, the inmates were returned to their cells, where they remain on lockdown, Nuce said. An investigation into the cause of the riot will include staff in Tennessee and members of the Vermont Department of Corrections, said DOC Deputy Commissioner Lisa Menard. "They are conducting an investigation there and we will send some of our staff down there in the immediate future," Menard said. Nuce and Menard said it was too early in the investigation to discuss why the riot happened. Menard also said it was too early to determine which inmates from Vermont were involved in the riot. The prison houses 105 inmates from Vermont in three separate housing units, which are segregated from the general population of the 600-bed facility. Nuce said CCA is in the middle of its second contract with Vermont to house the state's overflowing prison population. Menard said the state has about 2,200 inmates, but room for only about 1,600. Many inmates are sent to the Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville, Ky., but for a variety of reasons, some inmates do not qualify for prison in Kentucky and must go to Tennessee. Menard said the Kentucky prison will not take any inmate classified as needing maximum security. Kentucky also prohibits inmates convicted of a misdemeanor to cohabitate with those convicted of a felony. Also, some inmates who were co-defendants or who testified against each other must be housed separately, resulting in the need for a second out-of-state prison. Nuce said it was too early to know how long the lockdown would last.

May 13, 2010 AP
Correctional officials say 35 inmates from Vermont being held in a West Tennessee prison are on lockdown after refusing to get into their cells and damaging property. Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the West Tennessee Detention Facility in Mason, about 35 miles northeast of Memphis, said in a news release that around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday the male inmates refused to return to their cells for the night and began damaging property inside their housing unit. Melissa Nuce, a spokeswoman for the facility, said guards used a non-lethal, approved chemical grenade to subdue the inmates. The inmates were then returned to their cells. She said no staff or inmates were injured in the incident. Nuce said Thursday that the cause of the incident is still under investigation, but she was not aware of any previous problems with the Vermont inmates. CCA has a contract with the Vermont Department of Correction and she said that department would also be included in an internal investigation into the incident. For more than a decade Vermont has sent a number of its inmates to out-of-state prisons to ease prison crowding in the state's prisons. The Vermont Department of Corrections said Thursday there were currently 666 inmates serving out of state, including 105 in Tennessee. The Vermont inmates remain on lockdown and are not allowed to use telephones, she said. The facility has about 600 beds, according to the CCA website.