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A. B. S. R. A. Kid's
Boot Camp
Maricopa, Arizona
America's Buffalo Soldiers Re-Enactors Association
October 11, 2007 Arizona Republic
A Phoenix man and other parents whose children died at boot camps for
troubled youths gave wrenching testimony before Congress on Wednesday, urging
other families to avoid enrolling teens in such programs until there is more
oversight of them. Bob Bacon of Phoenix recounted how his 16-year-old son,
Aaron, died at a wilderness camp in Utah in the 1990s. "We were conned by their
(the camp's) fraudulent claims and will go to our graves regretting our
gullibility," Bacon told members of a House committee. The Government
Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, also announced it has
identified thousands of allegations of abuse, some involving death, at boot
camps since the early 1990s. It cataloged 1,619 incidents of abuse in 33 states
in 2005. "Buyer, beware," said Greg Kutz, who led the GAO investigation. "You
really don't know what you're getting." Kutz said the GAO closely examined 10
closed cases where juveniles died at residential treatment camps. In half of
those cases, the teens died of dehydration or heat exhaustion. Other factors
were untrained staff, inadequate food or reckless operations, the GAO said. Five
of the 10 camps are still operating, some in different locations or under new
names. "Ineffective program management played a key role in most of these
deaths," Kutz testified before the House Education and Labor Committee. Rep.
George Miller, D-Calif., who chairs the committee and requested the
investigation, has sponsored a bill designed to encourage states to enact
regulations. "This nightmare has remained an open secret for years," Miller said
in a statement. "Congress must act, and it must act swiftly." The death of
Bacon's son was one of the 10 cases studied by the GAO, but not the only one
with an Arizona connection. The sample cases did not include names, but some
were identifiable through news reports. One was the death of Anthony Haynes, 14,
at the American Buffalo Soldiers boot camp in Arizona in 2001. One of the
state's most high-profile camp deaths was that of Nicholas Contreraz, a
16-year-old Sacramento youth who died in 1998 while being subjected to
discipline at the Arizona Boys Ranch near Queen Creek. Bob Bacon's account was
among those Wednesday that outraged House committee members. Bacon said Aaron
was sent to the camp because of minor drug use and poor grades. The father said
he was fooled by the owners of the Utah facility into believing his son would be
well cared for. Instead, Aaron was forced to hike eight to 10 miles a day with
inadequate nutrition and was not given protective gear to withstand freezing
temperatures, Bacon said. When Aaron complained of severe stomach pains and
asked for a doctor, his pleas were ignored even though he had dramatically lost
weight and suffered from other serious symptoms, Bacon testified. According to
court documents, the boy's condition was ignored for 20 days, until he
collapsed. The autopsy showed he died of an acute infection related to a
perforated ulcer. Five camp employees pleaded guilty to negligent homicide, and
another was convicted of child abuse. All were sentenced to probation and
community service. Kutz testified that camp employees studied by the GAO were
often poorly trained. He said kids weren't properly fed and were exposed to
dangerous conditions, their cries for medical assistance ignored. He said that
in only one of the 10 sample cases was anyone found criminally liable and
sentenced to prison. The residential programs, designed to instill discipline
and character, can be privately run or state-sponsored programs and sometimes
include an educational or school-like component. They are loosely regulated by
states. There are no federal laws that define and regulate them. The programs
are marketed to parents who are at a loss as to how to help emotionally troubled
teens, Kutz said. Jan Moss, executive director of the National Association of
Therapeutic Schools and Programs, a trade group, said many kids have been helped
by the treatment programs. She said the industry is taking steps to improve, but
she added, "Clearly we still have a very long way to go." Kutz said there is no
comprehensive nationwide data on deaths and injuries in residential treatment
programs. Auditors found thousands of allegations in lawsuits, Web sites and
state records. "Examples of abuse include youth being forced to eat their own
vomit, denied adequate food, being forced to lie in urine or feces, being
kicked, beaten and thrown to the ground," Kutz said, adding that one teen was
reportedly "forced to use a toothbrush to clean a toilet, then forced to use
that toothbrush on their own teeth." At the boot camp where Anthony Haynes died,
children were fed an apple for breakfast, a carrot for lunch and a bowl of beans
for dinner, the GAO said. Haynes became dehydrated in 113-degree heat and
vomited dirt, according to witnesses. The program closed, and the director,
Charles Long, was sentenced in 2005 to six years in prison for manslaughter. The
autopsy on Nicholas Contreraz showed that after Boys Ranch staffers punished and
humiliated the teen for days, he suffered from a severe infection in the lining
of his lungs. Five employees were charged criminally, but all counts were
dropped. The ranch now operates under the name Canyon State Academy. Julie Vega,
Contreraz's mother, recently told The Arizona Republic, "I feel like he was
sacrificed, and some good things changed for the better because of him. But
nobody really paid a price for his death."
May 24, 2005 AP
The director of a boot camp where a teenage boy died
in 2001 was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison. Charles Long, director of
the America's Buffalo Soldiers Re-enactors Association boot camp, could have
been sentenced to up to 27 years in prison, but Maricopa County Superior Court
Judge Ronald Reinstein sentenced him to six years. During the hearing Tuesday,
Long apologized to the family members of Anthony Haynes, the youth who died at
the "tough love" camp in July 2001. Prosecutors accused Long of
abusing his power.
January 4, 2005 Arizona Republic
Charles Long, who operated a tough-love boot camp in
the desert near Buckeye, was convicted Monday of reckless manslaughter in the
2001 death of a 14-year-old camper. Long also was found guilty of aggravated
assault for threatening another youth with a knife. The jury deadlocked on eight
counts of child abuse related to other campers who were reportedly forced to sit
in the sun without adequate water as discipline. Melanie Hudson, the mother of
Anthony Haynes, who died while in Long's care at the camp, broke down in tears
when the verdicts were read. Afterward, Hudson said she was pleased with the
jury's verdict. "It's a difficult thing to do," she said. "It
won't bring Tony back." Long wore the military-style uniform of the
organization he founded, America's Buffalo Soldiers Re-Enactors Association, as
he anxiously awaited the verdict in the hallway of Maricopa County Superior
Court. "There was never any doubt as to the guilt on count one," said
Myrna Lee, the only juror who would comment. "It was the level of
guilt." The jury believed testimony that Long held a knife to the chest of
a camper named Nicholas Conner and threatened to "gut him like a
fish."
November 5, 2004 Arizona Republic
A distraught mother told a Maricopa County Superior Court
jury Thursday how her son's emotional problems drove her to seek help from a
tough-love boot camp where he later died. Melanie
Hudson testified in the trial of Charles Long, who is charged with second-degree
murder in the 2001 death of Hudson's 14-year-old son, Anthony Haynes. "With
the medicines he was taking, he needed water," Hudson said, "lots of
water."
October 20, 2004 Arizona Republic
An adult who attended the tough-love boot camp where a
teen died in 2001, painted a grim picture of the boy's death for the jury in the
murder trial of Charles Long. Long, 59, is charged with second-degree murder in
the death of Anthony Haynes, 14, a camper attending Long's America's Buffalo
Soldiers Re-Enactor's Association "summer endurance camp" near Buckeye
in June and July 2001. Troy
Hutty pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in Haynes' death, and was promised a
sentence of probation if he testified in Long's trial.
On
July 1, 2001, Hutty said, Haynes began acting erratic while sitting in the sun
in a "drop on request" or DOR line, because he wanted to leave the
camp. Hutty claimed that Haynes ate dirt and refused to drink or wash out his
mouth with water. "He had dirt in his mouth and dirt in his teeth,"
Hutty said. "I tried to give him water to rinse it out." Then Haynes
ran around the campsite "screaming and making a bunch of crazy sounds"
and doing what Hutty called "Three Stooges antics," striking others,
hitting himself in the face and smearing dirt on himself. When
Haynes later appeared to go into convulsions, Hutty claimed he went to put a pen
in the child's mouth to keep him from swallowing his tongue. According to
Hutty, Long then told Hutty to take Haynes and four other boys to a nearby hotel
to shower. They carried Haynes to a pickup truck and placed him in the bed, then
carried him up to the room. He was now unresponsive and started vomiting dirt
and stones in the room. Hutty and the boys undressed him and placed him in the
shower. When Hutty checked on him, the shower drain had clogged with the vomit,
though he claimed that Haynes' face was above water. Then he said he used his
foot to put pressure on the boy's stomach to force out more dirt and stones. Hutty
said that he didn't call police because, as a Black man from Philadelphia, he
didn't trust them. Instead he called Long, who told
him to bring the boy back to camp. When
he got there, Haynes' pupils were dilated, and Hutty and Long began performing
CPR, but Haynes died.
October 9, 2004 Arizona Republic
For breakfast, campers got an apple. For lunch, a
carrot, and for dinner, a bowl of beans. In between, they were put through
"physical training" in the desert scrub southwest of Buckeye. On the
fifth day, some - those who wanted to leave - were forced to sit in the sun,
maybe for hours. Did I mention it was July? Did I mention that they were wearing
black sweat suits?
Did I mention that these campers were kids and that one of them died?
What went on at the summer endurance camp run by Chuck Long during the summer of
2001 was an outrage. It's shocking that Long had those kids out there in the
desert in July - and that parents allowed it. It's a full-out tragedy that a
14-year-old boy died. But was it really murder? Anthony
Haynes had troubles, as kids sometimes do. His
mother was looking for help. Unfortunately,
she found Chuck Long. The ex-Marine ran boot camps. On July 1, nine kids, kids
who wanted out, were forced to sit in the sun. Anthony was one of them. No one
really knows how long they endured it. There were reports that Anthony was
denied water. Eventually, he collapsed and was
taken to a motel to cool off, at Long's direction. The staffer who drove him,
caring soul that he was, dumped the boy in the tub and proceeded to watch TV. By
the time he checked on Anthony, the boy was drowning. The staffer, Troy Hutty,
called Long to complain that Anthony was faking and Long ordered them to return.
By the time they arrived, Anthony Haynes was dead. Now, Long is on trial,
charged with second-degree murder and child abuse. And who wouldn't want to see
this guy punished? Maybe even dressed in black sweats and dumped out there in
the desert. But I've got to ask: Was it really murder? Negligence, sure.
Manslaughter, maybe. But murder? Hutty - the man who put the boy in a tub and
left him - was allowed to plead guilty to negligent homicide in exchange for
testifying against Long. As a reward, he'll get probation.
October 8, 2004 Arizona Republic
Charles Long went on trial Thursday in the 2001 death
of a 14-year-old boy at the tough-love boot camp he ran in the desert west of
Buckeye. Long, who said he has been to court 47 times over the case to date,
said during a break in the trial that "my bottom line right now is I'm
ready for the truth to be told." Long, 59, was
charged with second-degree murder in the death of Anthony Haynes. He also faces
eight counts of child abuse and one count of aggravated assault stemming from
the weeklong, military-style boot camp run by Long's America's Buffalo Soldiers
Re-enactors Association. Deputy County Attorney Mark Barry detailed the events
of July 1, 2001. Haynes was among several kids who stood on a "Drop on
Request" line in 112-degree heat to get permission to leave the program.
Barry could not say how long they were in the line - 30 minutes or several
hours. According to Barry, Long had said, "Kids who slash their mothers'
tires don't deserve any water," a reference to some of the trouble the
youth had gotten into before being placed in Long's care. Haynes, who weighed
205 pounds, reportedly started acting erratically, eating dirt, refusing to
drink water and eventually collapsing in convulsions. According to Barry's
account, Long ordered that the boy be taken to a nearby hotel, where he had
rented a room so that the campers could bathe. Troy Hutty, the father of two
campers who also was acting as a camp staff member, took Haynes and other youths
to the hotel. They carried Haynes to the second floor, allowing his head to
strike the steps, undressed him, placed him in the bathtub, turned on the shower
and left him there unsupervised, Barry said. Some
time later, they discovered the boy facedown in the water; the tub drain was
plugged with dirt or other debris. They then took the lifeless boy back to camp
and called 911.
March 27, 2002
Lawmakers are moving
closer to a crackdown on unregulated
boot camps
that dish out "tough-love" discipline to wayward teens.
The
House Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a bill
Tuesday that
would force boot camp owners to get state certification.
Calls
for regulation
started last summer after 14-year-old Tony Haynes died
while participating
in an unregulated boot camp run by the America's Buffalo
Soldiers
Re-enactors Association.
Rep.
Deb Gullett, who sponsored House Bill 2610, said
boot camps and
wilderness programs have become a multibillion-dollar
industry around
the nation, with quality and price varying wildly.
"Some
of these programs are wonderful," said Gullett,
R-Phoenix. "But
many are outright frauds. We want to make sure our state
doesn't become
a haven for unscrupulous operators who are preying on
desperate
parents."
Gullett
said one camp that has been kicked out of Ohio
and California has
relocated to Arizona and charges $25,000 to treat a
troubled teen. (The Arizona Republic)
February 23, 2002
An innocent plea was
entered Friday in Maricopa
County
Superior Court for the director of a tough-love boot camp
who is charged
with second-degree murder in the death of a 14-year-old
boy.
Charles
Long, who was arrested last week and also is
accused of child
abuse and aggravated assault, said he couldn't afford a
lawyer and
requested a public defender. The request was granted.
Tony
Haynes died July 1 at a Buffalo Soldiers summer camp
after being
forced to stand for hours in 111-degree heat in the
desert camp near
Buckeye and nearly drowning in a motel bathtub 10 miles
away, according
to Maricopa County sheriff's detectives.
Two
other supervisors at the same camp were arrested and
accused of
abusing children. One has pleaded guilty. (azcentral)
February 21, 2002
A former corporal at
a tough-love boot camp
pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge of
negligent homicide in the death of a
14-year-old Phoenix boy last summer.
Troy
A. Hutty, 29, also agreed to cooperate
with authorities in the prosecution of other
camp leaders, including Charles Long II, the
director of the Buffalo Soldiers Re-Enactors
Association.
Long
was arrested last week on
second-degree murder and other charges relating to his
administration of
the boot-camp program. (azcentral)
July 15, 2001
The boot camp near Buckeye where 14-year-old Anthony Haynes died July 1 is
Arizona's fourth such program to be shut down in three years, the second
following the death of a child. Across the country, at least 18 children
in such programs have died. Five of those deaths occurred in
Arizona. Boot camps in at least eight other states have been closed or
overhauled after allegations of abuse. Oregon lawmakers have ordered
regulations for youth programs, following the death last year of Eddie Lee, 15,
at a privately run boot camp. The boot camp where Anthony Haynes ate dirt
and stood in the sun for hours was not licensed by the state. The Arizona
Department of Economic Security, which regulates some rehabilitation programs
for children, does not license boot camps or any program that uses corporal
punishment. Anthony was in a program run by Charles Long of the America's
Buffalo Soldiers Re-Enactors Association. Its handout calls the boot camp
"A NO NON-SENSE - IN YOUR FACE - TOUGH LOVE operation." The
California Department of Corrections closed its boot camp in 1997. Georgia
overhauled its boot camp after a 1998 investigation found it overcrowded and
dangerous. In December 1999, Maryland closed two boot camps after reports
of staff members punching teens. Also in 1999, Alabama briefly closed a
boot camp after reports of abuse. In Arizona, the boot camp where Haynes
died has been closed, through perhaps only temporarily. The Arizona Boys
Ranch in Oracle was closed in 1998 after Nicholaus Contreraz, 16, died of a lung
infection there after being forced to exercise. Another boy drowned while
trying to escape in 1994. "If you don't monitor them closely, it is
easy for an abusive situation to occur," said Steve Meissner, spokesperson
for the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections. In 1998, after two
years, his agency shut its boot camp at the Black Canyon Detention Center north
of Phoenix. (The Arizona Republic)
Aire
Filter Products, Arizona
Aramark
September 1, 2004
Federal agents arrested nine Mexican nationals Tuesday and accused them of
working illegally at a Mesa plant that manufactures military helicopters.
The workers, whose names were not released, were contract employees of Aramark
and Aire Filter Products, subcontractors at the Boeing plant. (The Arizona
Republic)
Arizona
Department of Corrections
March 7, 2010 Pueblo Chieftain
With the closure of the town's second-largest employer approaching, town
officials are preparing to deal with the loss of almost 200 jobs in an already
struggling economy. Corrections Corporation of America, which owns and operates
the Huerfano County Correctional Center, announced in January that it will close
the prison in April. Officials at the private prison company said this week that
the prison officially will close April 2. The upcoming closure has cast a pall
over the town. Citizens in this community of more than 4,000 already are feeling
the pain. The impending prison closure and a prior budget shortfall have forced
the town to lay off 10 people with another four layoffs possibly to come. "The
prison closing and the (loss of) revenue derived from it has added to the burden
of an already stressed budget," said Mayor Bruce Quintana. "All departments have
been affected. I believe that this (town) council is acting to right the ship.
It's a difficult job, laying off people in a small community, because many of
these people are our friends," Quintana said. City Administrator Alan Hein said
the town could lose between $250,000 and $300,000 from lost utility sales to the
prison, concessions and sales taxes. Hein said the budget already was short
$300,000 before the closure was announced. "We have to restructure our
operations to try and accommodate this loss. It's pretty serious when you drop
that much on your revenue side in a budget the size that we have," Hein said.
Hein said he hopes the layoffs will help take care of the original shortfall. "I
am just not sure. There are a lot of variables here. "The worst-case scenario is
that we would have to lay off four more people," Hein said. Hein said there will
be minimal cuts to the police department. "We are actually restructuring the
whole department and trying to make it more efficient. We are reevaluating the
way the department does business and trying to save money," Hein said. The town
had been in discussions to merge the police department with the Huerfano County
Sheriff's Department, but the issue was tabled by the town council last month,
Hein said. "The council has decided not to discard the proposal, but to put it
on the back burner and see if we can do some adjustments within our
organization," Hein said. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and other state officials are
phasing out all out-of-state beds, including the use of the Huerfano County
prison, where 700 Arizona inmates are housed. The contract with CCA is set to
expire Tuesday. Allan Cramer, a spokesman for the Huerfano County prison, said
inmates will begin leaving Colorado next week by bus and plane. "The last ones
will be gone by March 22," Cramer said. Cramer said CCA is continuing to
actively seek a new client for the prison, but that as of Thursday, none had
come forward. The Walsenburg prison employs 188. Approximately 75 of the
employees commute from Pueblo. Of the remaining workers, about 90 reside in
Walsenburg and Huerfano County, with others commuting from Trinidad and Colorado
City. Cramer said several employees are transferring to CCA’s other prisons in
Colorado, and some are obtaining employment in other areas. "The mood here is
pretty upbeat and optimistic. Everyone wants to give it their usual 100-percent
effort until the last inmates are gone," Cramer said. The sluggish economy also
is having an impact on Main Street here. The historic Fox Theater, 715 Main St.,
will take a direct hit from the prison closure. Huerfano County Administrator
John Galusha said the county has been paying for utilities for the theater out
of what is called the Prison Authority Fund. "The county contracted with the
correctional center when it opened to form this fund. In that agreement, the
county receives 50 cents per prisoner per day which goes directly into the
Prison Authority Fund," Galusha said. Galusha said the revenue generated from
the fund is about $130,000 a year. "Without that revenue coming in, some of the
things from the prison authority will take a hit next year," Galusha said. The
prison fund also helps pay for new sheriff's department vehicles and youth
programs. Galusha said the Fox was receiving about $400 a month to pay for
utilities. "The county will use the reserves from the prison to fund the Fox
Theater through the end of the year. If CCA doesn't have a new contract, then we
are going to have to evaluate if we can help the theater through other funds or
if we are going to have to ask them to become self-sufficient," Galusha said.
The county has budgeted $7,500 this year for the theater.
March 4, 2010 Enid News and Eagle
Diamondback Correction Facility in Watonga is closing within the next 60 days,
due to Arizona ending its private prison contract. Corrections Corporation of
America, owner of Diamondback, issued 60-day termination notices to all
employees at Diamondback this week in anticipation of closing the facility,
which is timed with the departure of the Arizona inmates housed there.
Diamondback has more than 300 employees. The payroll of the facility is around
$11 million annually. The facility has a capacity of 2,160. The contract is set
to expire April 30. Diamondback has been operating in Watonga since November
1998.
November 7, 2009 AP
Arizona’s plan to turn over its prisons to private companies in exchange for
a $100 million upfront payment is having trouble getting off the drawing board,
with the plan behind schedule and private prison operators showing little, if
any, interest. The privatization effort is required under a law enacted last
summer as lawmakers struggled to close a huge budget shortfall. It directs the
state to award a contract to one or more private companies to run an unspecified
number of prisons for $100 million. It emerged as Republican lawmakers cast
about for alternatives to Republican Gov. Jan Brewer’s proposal to increase the
sales tax to avoid deep cuts to state program. An official who worked on the law
told The Associated Press that the $100 million figure was based on hope, not
certainty. The prison concession provision doesn’t specify which or how many of
the state’s 10 prison complexes would be included, what would happen to current
state employees or the length of a contract. An early version specified a term
of 50 years and identified three prisons with approximately 11,000 beds. The
Yuma prison complex was excluded from the law at the insistence of a Yuma
legislator. State officials were supposed to provide an initial batch of
information to potential bidders on Oct. 1, but missed the deadline. But even
without that, there appears to be little interest among private-prison
companies. Corrections Corp. of America, the nation’s largest private prison
company, “is not focused on that,” said Louise Grant, a CCA vice president.
Grant said CCA is interested in pursuing traditional private-prison deals with
states and would review any Arizona request. However, “it’s very questionable
whether or not we would participate,” she said. Another operator, Boca Raton,
Fla.-based GEO Group, declined to comment, citing corporate policy. A third,
Management & Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah, issued a noncommittal
response. Arizona is among many states that contract with private companies to
house state inmates, but officials and industry observers say the large upfront
payment request may be unprecedented. “That is such a new idea. The model hasn’t
been done,” said Leonard Gilroy, a Reason Foundation official who champions
privatization of government services. Gilroy questioned whether Arizona’s plan
would be attractive enough for potential bidders in the industry. “It’s sort of
like ’we want you to do an operational contract and loan us $100 million,”’
Gilroy said. “I don’t know if there’s enough there to sweeten the pot for the
private sector.” Democratic legislators have questioned whether the state should
turn control of violent maximum-security offenders, including murderers on death
row, to private operators. Little is known about how the plan would be
implemented, including whether it would include the Eyman prison complex in
Florence that includes death row. Citing procurement confidentiality, state
officials declined to release a draft of the document they plan to send to
bidders. Corrections Director Chuck Ryan declined multiple requests for an
interview in recent weeks. But he told legislators during a May hearing that it
was “very concerning” to consider privatizing a major prison complex that houses
nearly all death row inmates and 1,000 other dangerous inmates. Privatizing
death row involves taking a chance, Ryan said. “It won’t stand the headline test
in my opinion.” A leader of a union representing prison guards criticized the
plan and suggested that public safety could be at risk. “They’re trying to
replace us with lower-paid guards, to handle sex offenders, murders, rapists,
inmates with very volatile gang connections,” said J. “J-Rod” Rodriguez, vice
president of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association. Senate
Appropriations Chairman Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said during the May hearing that
the prisons concession had been proposed by House Republicans during budget
negotiations and was based on “very good numbers” from an investment firm.
However, a top House Republican aide said lawmakers and legislative aides came
up with the idea as a way “to monetize state assets,” such as Indiana and
Chicago have done with toll highways. “Well, Arizona doesn’t have toll roads and
there aren’t a lot of assets that can be monetized. That was sort of the genesis
of the idea,” said Grant Nulle, House director of fiscal policy. There was no
research by an investment firm or anybody else, Nulle said. And the $100 million
payment appears unlikely. “Based on preliminary feedback, we may find it
difficult to generate an upfront payment of this magnitude,” legislative budget
director Richard Stavneak wrote in an Oct. 22 memo. Even if the state does
receive good bids, it will take most of the fiscal year to try to implement the
idea, so lawmakers shouldn’t count on getting the money in time to help close
the current budget’s shortfall, Stavneak said in a recent interview.
October 23, 2009 New York Times
One of the newest residents on Arizona’s death row, a convicted serial killer
named Dale Hausner, poked his head up from his television to look at several
visitors strolling by, each of whom wore face masks and vests to protect against
the sharp homemade objects that often are propelled from the cells of the
condemned. It is a dangerous place to patrol, and Arizona spends $4.7 million
each year to house inmates like Mr. Hausner in a super-maximum-security prison.
But in a first in the criminal justice world, the state’s death row inmates
could become the responsibility of a private company. State officials will soon
seek bids from private companies for 9 of the state’s 10 prison complexes that
house roughly 40,000 inmates, including the 127 here on death row. It is the
first effort by a state to put its entire prison system under private control.
The privatization effort, both in its breadth and its financial goals,
demonstrates what states around the country — broke, desperate and often
overburdened with prisoners and their associated costs — are willing to do to
balance the books. Arizona officials hope the effort will put a $100 million
dent in the state’s roughly $2 billion budget shortfall. “Let’s not kid
ourselves,” said State Representative Andy Biggs, a Republican who supports
private prisons. “If we were not in this economic environment, I don’t think
we’d be talking about this with the same sense of urgency.” Private prison
companies generally build facilities for a state, then charge them per prisoner
to run them. But under the Arizona legislation, a vendor would pay $100 million
up front to operate one or more prison complexes. Assuming the company could
operate the prisons more cheaply or efficiently than the state, any savings
would be equally divided between the state and the private firm. The
privatization move has raised questions — including among some people who work
for private prison companies — about the private sector’s ability to handle the
state’s most hardened criminals. While executions would still be performed by
the state, officials said, the Department of Corrections would relinquish all
other day-to-day operations to the private operator and pay a per-diem fee for
each prisoner. “I would not want to be the warden of death row,” said Todd
Thomas, the warden of a prison in Eloy, Ariz., run by the Corrections
Corporation of America. The company, the country’s largest private prison
operator, has six prisons in Arizona with inmates from other states. “That’s not
to say we couldn’t,” Mr. Thomas said. “But the liability is too great. I don’t
think any private entity would ever want to do that.” James Austin, a co-author
of a Department of Justice study in 2001 on prison privatization and president
of the JFA Institute, a corrections consulting firm, said private companies
tended to oversee minimum- and medium-security inmates and had little experience
with the most dangerous prisoners. “As for death row,” Mr. Austin said, “it is a
very visible entity, and if something bad happens there, you will have a pretty
big news story for the Legislature and governor to explain.” Arizona is no
stranger to private prisons or, for that matter, aggressive privatization
efforts (recently, the state put up for sale several government buildings
housing executive branch offices in Phoenix). Nearly 30 percent of the state’s
prisoners are being held in prisons operated by private companies outside the
state’s 10 complexes. In addition, other states, including Alaska and Hawaii,
have contracts with private companies like Corrections Corporation of America to
house their prisoners in Arizona. For advocates of prison privatization, the
push here breathes a bit of life into a movement that has been on the decline
across the country as cost savings from prison privatizations have often failed
to materialize, corrections officers unions have resisted the efforts and
high-profile problems in privately run facilities have drawn unwanted publicity.
“We have private prisons in Arizona already, and we are very happy with the
performance and the savings we get from them,” said Representative John Kavanagh,
a Republican who is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and an
architect of the new legislation authorizing the privatization. “I think that
they are the future of corrections in Arizona.” Under the legislation, any
bidder would have to take an entire complex — many of them mazes of multiple
levels of security risks and complexity — and would not be permitted to pick off
the cheapest or easiest buildings and inmates. The state also wants to privatize
prisoners’ medical care. Louise Grant, a spokeswoman for Corrections Corporation
of America, said the high-security prisoners would be well within the company’s
management capabilities. “We expect we will be there to make a proposal to the
state” for at least some of its complexes up for bid, Ms. Grant said. In pure
financial terms, it is not clear how well the state would make out with the
privatization. The 2001 study for the Department of Justice found that private
prisons saved most states little money (there has been no equivalent study
since). Indeed, many states, struggling to keep up with the cost of corrections,
have closed prisons when possible, and sought changes in sentencing to reduce
crowding in the last two years. As tough sentencing laws and the ensuing
increase in prisoners began to press on state resources in the 1980s, private
prison companies attracted some states with promises of lower costs. The private
prison boom lasted into the 1990s. Throughout the years, there have been
high-profile riots, escapes and other violent incidents. The companies also do
not generally provide the same wages and benefits as states, which has resulted
in resistance from unions and concerns that the private prisons attract
less-qualified workers. Then the federal government stepped in, with a surge of
new immigrant prisoners, and began to contract with the private companies. The
number of federal prisoners in private prisons in the United States has more
than doubled, to 32,712 in 2008 from 15,524 in 2000. The number of state
prisoners in privately run prisons has increased to 93,500 from 75,000 in that
time. With bad economic times again driving many decisions about state
resources, other states are sure to watch Arizona’s experiment closely. “There
simply isn’t the money to keep these people incarcerated, and the alternative is
to free many of them or lower cost,” said Ron Utt, a senior research fellow for
the Heritage Foundation, a conservative group whose work for privatization was
cited by one Arizona lawmaker.
August 21, 2007 Indianapolis Star
One-third of the Arizona inmates transferred to serve their sentences in an
Indiana prison are violent criminals, including 25 who were convicted of murder,
according to new data from state prison officials. Prison officials said inmates
were chosen based on their behavior in prison, not their criminal records. But
an advocate for prisoners' rights was surprised by the news, saying officials
had left the impression with the public that violent offenders would not be
included among those moved to the New Castle Correctional Facility, which is
managed by Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO Group. "That's not what they said they
were going to send," said Celia Sweet, former president of the Indiana chapter
of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants. "You know, live up to your
word. Don't go trying to hoodwink the public just to make some money off the
backs of these prisoners. That's not right. It's immoral." The state never
misled anyone, said Department of Correction Commissioner J. David Donahue.
Indiana's deal with Arizona allows medium-security prisoners and bans only sex
offenders, prisoners with discipline problems and recognized gang members, he
said. Medium security, Donahue said, does not preclude those convicted of
violent crimes. The majority of inmates in Indiana prisons are housed in
medium-security areas, he said. In all, 203 of the 611 Arizona inmates are
serving terms for violent crimes, including men convicted of assault, kidnapping
and attempted homicide.
March 16, 2007 Business Week
Efforts to relieve Arizona's shortage of prison space were dealt a setback
when procurement officials canceled a competition between the state Department
of Corrections and three private prison companies to provide up to 3,000 new
beds. None of the proposals met a requirement to open 1,000 of the beds by
April, 2008, the State Procurement Office said in a formal notice canceling the
state's request for proposals. The notice was obtained by The Associated Press
on Friday. The three companies submitting proposals were GEO Group Inc., based
in Boca Raton, Fla.; Management & Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah, and
Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America. It's now up to the
Legislature to decide what to do about the 2006 law that directed the Department
of Administration to seek proposals and set the deadline for opening 1,000 beds,
department spokesman Alan Ecker said. Corrections Department spokeswoman Katie
Decker said the prison agency was beginning to consider its options. "We're
regrouping," she said. Decker also said the Corrections Department was prepared
to meet the required timeline. "I don't know if there was confusion ... but our
understanding was that we would have been able to do that."
July 15, 2005 Tucson Citizen
Arizona legislators have made their philosophical point. And it is costing you
$11,000 a day. It was in 2003, when Arizona prisons were badly crowded,
that the Legislature decided to act. Called into a special session to
appropriate money for building cells for 4,200 inmates, the Legislature said it
would do so only if at least 1,000 of the new beds were in private
prisons. Gov. Janet Napolitano and Corrections Director Dora Schriro
objected, saying there was no proof it would be cheaper to send inmates to
private facilities. But state Sen. Bob Burns, R-Peoria and chairman of the
Senate Appropriations Committee, couldn't resist the private prison siren song:
"To pass up the opportunity of the private upfront money for construction
to me is not responsible fiscal management," he said back in 2003.
Well, now it's 2005 and that siren song has gone flat. Under legislative
mandate, the Department of Corrections contracted with Correctional Services
Corp. to build a 1,000-bed prison in Florence for sex offenders. But
here's the kicker: CSC will charge the state $61 a day to house each inmate. The
state could do it for $50 a day in a state facility. The CSC bill works out to
an extra $11,000 a day for Arizona taxpayers - and an extra $4.1 million a year.
So where is the "responsible fiscal management" of which legislators
boasted? CSC explains its higher cost by saying it will have an "innovative
rehabilitation program." We'll see. Because the vast majority of
inmates eventually are released back into society, rehabilitation is an
important part of operating a prison. Paying more for effective rehabilitation
may be worth it in the long run. But sex offenders are among the most
challenging inmates to rehabilitate. So CSC faces a substantial challenge.
Protecting the public from harm is one of the major responsibilities of
government. But have legislators done that when they turn over the
responsibility of incarcerating dangerous inmates to a private, profit-driven
company? Private prisons make money by hiring fewer correctional officers
and paying lower wages. Private prisons also can fail to adequately meet
inmates' needs, setting the stage for escapes or disturbances inside prisons,
while leaving the state with little authority to correct mismanagement. At a CSC
facility in Texas, inmates rioted in January 2003 because, they said, they were
underfed. Arizona has a responsibility not only to its law-abiding
citizens, but also to its inmates to ensure they are properly, safely and
humanely cared for. And it has a responsibility to do so at the most reasonable
price. Instead of dictating the use of private prisons, legislators should
leave those decisions to the corrections professionals.
July 8, 2005 The Arizona Republic
The state Department of Corrections will contract with Correctional Services
Corp. to build a 1,000-bed private prison facility for sex offenders in
Florence. But instead of saving taxpayers money, officials say, the new
facility actually will cost about $11,000 per day more to operate. In
CSC's winning bid, the company said it could operate the new prison for $61 a
day per inmate, said Bart Graves, spokesman for the Corrections Department. The
average cost to house an Arizona sex offender in a state-run prison is about $50
a day. Even though Corrections Director Dora Schriro repeatedly warned the
Legislature that the per diem rates of both bidders were "excessively
high," her hands were tied by legislation, passed during a special session
in 2003, that required the state to contract out 1,000 new prison beds to ease
overcrowding, Graves said. Bids could be considered from only the three private
prison companies already operating in Arizona, and the Legislature waived a
state law requiring corrections officials to pick the lowest bidder.
Private prisons have been hotly contested in Arizona, with supporters saying
they save money and detractors arguing that state-run prisons are more reliable
and cost-effective. Many private prison firms have faced allegations about
problems in their facilities, including abuses of inmates and improper care. In
January 2003, inmates at CSC's Newton facility rioted because they said they
were underfed. Nearly 4,400 Arizona inmates are housed in seven private
prisons in Arizona and out-of-state, according to the Department of Corrections.
When the new facility is opened in late 2006, CSC will be able to house 2,800
Arizona inmates. The contract with CSC is for 20 years, which includes an
initial base period of 10 years, with two five-year renewal options. CSC
officials estimate the contract will generate about $22 million in revenues
during its first year of operation. The new prison will provide
specialized programs for medium-risk male sex offenders, including treatment,
behavioral modification, education and institutional work programs.
October 27, 2004 KTOK
The
company which runs a private prison in Watonga is slapped with more than a dozen
lawsuits stemming from a riot at the prison earlier this year.
May 26, 2004
Despite several large fights and riots at two out-of-state private prisons in
the last several weeks, state officials say they have no plans to reverse course
and bring home any of the 2,000 inmates in Texas and Oklahoma. On Saturday, more
than 40 inmates in a Pecos, Texas, prison owned by the Geo Group created a
disturbance, damaging the prison. Earlier this month, about 70 inmates were
injured in a fracas at Corrections Corporation of America's Watonga, Okla.,
prison. The two recent events are in addition to a hunger strike and large
fight in the Pecos prison and problems in 2002 at another private Texas
prison, which included several inmate escapes while a state review found an
unacceptable quality of service from the company. About 240 inmates
participated in a fight in the Watonga prison yard, with at least 70 suffering
injuries. (AP)
May 2, 2004
Groups of Arizona prisoners transferred to a Texas private prison staged fights
and hunger strikes to either improve conditions or earn transfers back to
Arizona. The incident report from Wackenhut Corp.'s Pecos, Texas, prison
officials recommends eight inmates be sent back to Arizona because they are
security problems. The report details a fight between two groups of
prisoners, with at least 14 taking part in the late-night April 10 fight. The
subsequent investigation showed that some inmates from each group were
conspiring to get back to Arizona. The decision last year by the Arizona
Legislature to ship about 2,000 inmates to out-of-state prisons angered some
inmate family members, mainly because contact with inmates will be limited by
the financial ability to travel to either Texas or another prison in
Oklahoma. (Arizona Daily Star)
April 29, 2004
A Corrections employee lost his job last week, more than a month after he sent
8,000 e-mails to prison officials around the country eliciting support for
Terry Stewart's bid to lead a private, national correctional organization.
Stewart, who led the state prison system from 1995 to 2002, is running for
president-elect of the American Correctional Association. (Arizona Daily
Star)
December 8, 2003
Key elements of the new prison proposal include: --
Providing $12.8 million of federal and state dollars for 2,100 new temporary
beds, probably at private prisons outside Arizona, for the rest of the current
fiscal year. Arizona already houses approximately 600 inmates in a Texas private
prison and about 1,700 inmates in three private prisons in Arizona. --
Having the administration try to negotiate a new deal with a private prison
company previously picked to build and operate a 1,400-bed facility near Kingman
in Mohave County. That project stalled because of financing problems and,
according to legislators, stalling by the administration. --
Providing $5 million to maintain recruitment and retention bonuses for
correction officers at prisons in Perryville and Florence. --
Requiring that an existing legislative oversight committee review both the
state's request for proposals for new or expanded prisons - public or private -
and the competing proposals that come back. However, a decision on which
proposal to accept would still be made by the executive branch, though by the
Department of Administration instead of the Corrections Department. (Zwire)
November 26, 2003
NEWTON, Texas - Cleveland Palmer, 54, formerly of Casa
Grande, who died Nov. 19 in a private prison, had entered a plea with his wife
in the killing of a child they were adopting. No
cause of death has been released pending an investigation, said Jim Robideau, a
spokesman for the Arizona Department of Corrections. Palmer had been sent to the
private prison under contract with DOC to "adjust the prison population in
Arizona." DOC has been short of prison space. (Casa Grande Dispatch)
November 20, 2003
A private Mainland prison company that houses hundreds of Hawai'i inmates has
proposed to build and operate a new prison for Hawai'i in Arizona, Gov. Linda
Lingle's staff confirmed yesterday. The facility would be constructed in Eloy, a
community of about 10,000 residents in Pinal County where Corrections
Corporation of America runs a 1,500-bed prison that houses federal prisoners and
immigration detainees. Such a deal could also guarantee CCA a steady
income stream and alleviate the risk that Hawai'i will build space for all its
inmates and stop sending them to the Mainland. But Hawai'i prisoner advocates
have opposed using Mainland facilities because inmates are cut off from their
families and exposed to the Mainland prison gang culture. (Advertiser)
October 21, 2003
Kingman's state legislator predicted Friday that a private
prison 17 miles southwest of the city will not be finished. Republican
Rep. Joe Hart said he bases his belief upon what he and other legislators were
told by Dora Schriro, the new director of the state Department of Corrections,
during a recent meeting at the Capitol. "The new director flat said
there will be no new contracts awarded" for prisons, Hart said. Jim
Hunter, executive vice president of Dominion Venture Group L.L.C. of Oklahoma,
which owns the land upon which the prison is being built, recently told the
Miner that four of 10 planned buildings at the company's 200-acre site are
nearly complete. The original plan was for the prison to house 450 DUI
prisoners after the first phase of is complete. Dominion would then have another
eight months in which to build an additional six buildings to serve an
additional 950 inmates, for a total inmate population of 1,400. The prison
would then be managed by a Utah company under contract with the Department of
Corrections. "I don't think this prison is going to fly," Hart
said. "I think there's going to be lawsuits. The state will just say, 'Sue
us.' They don’t care. "If they (Dominion) want to build on
speculation, that's their business," said Hart, who added that he's no fan
of privatizing the state's prisons. "The governor wants to do away
with private prisons unless the contract has already been signed," he said.
Hart said he's "sort of read between the lines" and believes
Napolitano is "bowing to labor unions." (Kingman Daily Miner)
October 8, 2003
Gov. Janet Napolitano's call for a special session of the Arizona Legislature
Oct. 20 to address the state's prison crisis will have significant implications
for the Marana area, where the Arizona Department of Corrections was considering
placing the nation's largest privatized women's prison. Proponents of
building the 3,200-bed prison pointed to the more than 500 jobs the project
could potentially bring to the Marana area and the millions of dollars that
would be pumped into the local economy. Opponents called the scheme
dangerous, profit-driven and beneficial only to whichever of the three private
prison contractors prevailed in the bidding for the prison, which was expected
to cost more than $150 million to build and operate. Napolitano's
opposition to further privatization of the state's prison system as a remedy to
overcrowding has left the future of the project uncertain and may also cause
complications for Marana's only existing prison. The special session is
expected to consider sentencing reforms proposed by a group of 10 legislators
which could affect the existing private prison in Marana, which houses only DUI
and low-level drug offenders. Members of the governor's staff and
corrections officials say the privately operated women's prison is a dead issue,
but some legislators and representatives of the companies looking to build the
facility say plans for the prison may still prevail in the political give and
take expected during the session. "The private women's prison is
pretty much dead," said Pati Urias, a spokeswoman for the governor.
"It's a situation where the governor would be the one to move the project
forward in terms of funding and direction" for issuing the bid for the
prison. The governor is instead proposing to expand existing facilities and
programs. In calling for the special session during a speech Oct. 1,
Napolitano proposed spending $700 million, primarily funded by public bond
sales, to add 9,134 beds to seven existing state prisons. The governor's
plan would expand the existing women's prison in Perryville by 1,500 beds rather
than create a new private prison for the state's female offenders.
Corrections officials say they have a shortage of 4,150 beds statewide. The
overcrowding is expected to mushroom and the prison system could be as much as
11,661 beds short by 2007 if nothing is done. Jim Robideau, a spokesman
for the Arizona Department of Corrections, also said the prison which was to be
placed in either two locations north of Marana or at a site south of Phoenix,
more than likely will not be built. "In light of the governor's
statements, yes, it seems to be a dead issue," Robideau said. The
Department of Corrections was expected to announce last month which of the three
companies had won the bid to construct the prison. Contacted by the
Northwest EXPLORER last month, Robideau said the department had asked for
changes in the bids by the three companies hoping to operate the private prison
- Utah-based Management & Training Corporation, Correctional Services
Corporation, which is headquartered in Sarasota, Fla., and Cornell Companies of
Houston. Robideau declined to detail the changes in the bid, but a
spokesman for Cornell said last week the private sector prison contractors had
been asked to guarantee their prices for the project until late November when
the special session is expected to wrap up. "They asked us to confirm
the costs submitted on the bid until Thanksgiving, so there may still be some
hope that things get worked out in the Legislature. The Legislature has been
very supportive of the 3,200-bed prison and we and our competitors have already
spent a significant amount of money and time on the proposal," said Paul
Doucette, communications director for Cornell. Carl Stuart, a spokesman
for Management & Training which operates the 450-bed Marana Community
Correctional Treatment Facility, 12610 W. Silverbell Road, said his company was
also pinning its hopes on the special session. "We already operate a
prison in Marana and we're very proud of our reputation there, so we hope that
there is some way that we can continue to serve the state. But after the
governor's statements, we're kind of in a reassessment of our position,"
Stuart said. "We hope it may still move forward in the legislative
process." Representatives from Correctional Services Corporation did
not return calls seeking comment. Rep. Jennifer Burns, a Republican whose
District 25 includes Marana, said she was unsure if the women's prison would
survive the special session. She also expressed concern that Napolitano, who
said during the regular session that all options would be considered to try and
balance the state's budget, now seemed reluctant to look at privatization as a
viable approach to controlling the state's spending. "It's
interesting that when the governor discussed the budget she said everything was
on the table, but now that we're dealing with prisons, prisons are off the
table. I think we need to look at all options and not just throw more money at
the problem. There may be some potential that a private prison could save
money," Burns said. Rep. Ted Downing, a Democrat from Tucson and one
of the most vocal critics of the women's prison, said he believed the
privatization issue will be raised during the special session, but doubted it
would get far. "By the governor not having it as a priority, it
certainly makes it a great deal more difficult to pass it in the Legislature. My
hope is that it's finished. My feeling is that it wasn't bringing the kind of
high paying jobs to Marana and Tucson as was being represented," said
Downing, who is advocating sentencing reform as a way to reduce the prison
population. During a public hearing held in Marana in July, Management and
Training estimated the prison would generate 500 to 600 corrections jobs that
would on average pay a starting wage of more than $24,000 a year plus
benefits. Some legislators and lobbyists said they expected the
privatization issue to become a political dog fight during the special session,
but asked for anonymity out of fear of angering the governor or the house
leadership. "The Legislature may still try and compel the governor to
do a private prison," said one Phoenix insider familiar with the debate
over privatization. "They could refuse to fund any other beds in any other
manner. While they can't force her to do it, they can put her in a position that
makes it hard for her not to do it. But then the question becomes - who loses
the most politically if they try that kind of strong arm tactic?" House
Majority Leader Eddie Farnsworth of Gilbert, a proponent of privatization who
will more than likely lead the Republicans who favor the 3,200 bed prison, did
not return calls seeking comment. A sentencing reform proposal being
pushed by 10 members of the House could also reverberate in Marana, where the
private minimum security prison is required by agreements with the state to
house only DUIs and low risk drug offenders. Rep. Bill Konopnicki, a
Republican from Safford who chairs the sentencing reform group, said changes
such as replacing jail time with higher fines for DUI convictions, changing
felony classifications for some crimes deemed to be victimless and revising the
state's mandatory sentencing would help reduce the prison population.
"What's driving the proposal is the alarmingly increasing rate of
incarceration in Arizona. We're incarcerating 513 people per 100,000 of our
population, the highest rate in the western United States. We have to look at
what's causing the problem, we have to look at sentencing. "I know
that, economically, it's a significant thing to Marana, and I wish I could say
absolutely that it would affect the population of the prison, but the fact of
the matter is, we haven't been able to put even a dent in the number of DUIs or
drug offenses so far. We're just trying to find a way to slow them down,"
Konopnicki said. Gil Lewis, warden of the Marana facility, said only a
small percent of the inmates in Marana are serving time for DUIs, and it's
unclear how the proposed sentencing reform would affect the other minimum
security inmates in his prison or the future of his company's contract with the
state. "We've been here a long time and are proud of our role in
Marana. I believe any change in classifications or sentence structure would hurt
the Marana community," Lewis said. Napolitano, who served as the
state's attorney general before becoming governor, may also oppose some of the
sentencing reform being proposed by Konopnicki's group. "I just don't
believe you balance the budget by changing your criminal code. Should sentencing
be examined from time to time? Absolutely, but it should be in the context of
what's the right thing to do, not balancing your budget," Napolitano said
in an interview with the Associated Press on Oct. 1. Marana Town Manager
Mike Reuwsaat said the town is taking a "wait and see attitude" and
did not plan to lobby the Legislature - either for or against the women's
prison. "Our position throughout has been to just sit back and see
what shakes out, and that's the same thing we'll do during the special
session," Reuwsaat said. Caroline Isaacs, a spokeswoman for the
Tucson Chapter of the American Friends Service Committee which has been at the
forefront of grassroots opposition to the women's prison, said she doubts the
private facility will make much headway in the special session. "I
think the prison is dead," Isaacs said. "Nothing is a done deal, but I
think the governor's statements certainly indicated that she was not in favor of
privatization and that the state can do it better. There's going to be some
support for the prison in the Legislature among the die-hards, but the very
vocal public opposition makes it such a political hot potato that I can't really
seeing anyone taking it too far." (Northwest Explorer)
August 14, 2003
Petite and soft-spoken, Dora Schriro brings a thoughtful approach to the crisis
in Arizona prisons. Now, she faces an even bigger challenge: dealing with the
prisons in Arizona, where the shortage of beds grows every month, where costs
rise by the millions each year, and where hundreds of inmates have been shipped
off to Texas to avoid even more overcrowding. Arizona has 4,130 more
prisoners than it has prison beds. In a move of last resort, Arizona sent
624 inmates to a private county jail in Texas. That initially backfired
after underfed inmates rioted in January, flooding dormitories, tearing up
mattresses and breaking windows. Corrections officials gave the jail a
clean bill of health in June. But just last week, two prisoners briefly
escaped from the jail. The overcrowding has thrown Schriro another
curveball. She will have to decide whether to build the largest private
women's prison in the nation. The 3,200-bed facility, which would probably
be built in Pima County, has stirred protests because the three bidders have
less-than-stellar track records, critics say. (AZ Central)
July 25, 2003
An Oklahoma company is going ahead with construction of a 1,400-bed prison in
Arizona even though that state's Department of Corrections has not given its
official approval. Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman Mike Arra
said the lack of a formal "notice to proceed" is because Dora Schriro
has only recently been appointed to head the department. Schriro has been
traveling across Arizona to see the prisons she is to manage, he said.
"She just has not gotten around to signing the notice to proceed yet,"
Arra said. "At this point it does not mean that anything (being built) was
stopped." Although the notice may be a paperwork issue, it is
preventing companies involved in the project from issuing about $60 million in
bonds to pay for construction, said Jim Hunter, a vice president with The
Dominion. Dominion Correctional Services LLC is building the jail. Its
parent company is The Dominion, of Edmond. Despite the financial
complication, Hunter said construction is going forward and the prison should be
ready to accept the first group of inmates in November. The prison is
being built on 196 acres near Interstate 40. Once finished, it will be
managed by Management and Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah. It will
eventually house about 1,400 male inmates convicted of felony driving under the
influence. (AP)
June 5, 2003
Missouri is considering but has no immediate plans to accept prisoners from
Arizona to relieve prison crowding there, a Missouri Corrections Department
official said. Last week, an adviser for Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano
suggested that Missouri is one of the states being considered for a potential
prisoner transfer. Arizona has 30,700 prisoners - about 4,000 more than the
prison system's capacity. Dennis Burke, a senior adviser to Napolitano who
mentioned Missouri as possible destination for Arizona prisoners, agreed that
the plans were preliminary. "Our governor would rather have inmates
in a public facility as opposed to a private prison," Burke said. "We
said Missouri looks like an option. That's how preliminary it is."
(AP)
May 31, 2003
Arizona may try to house more prisoners in other states, using both
public and private facilities, to cope with the burgeoning inmate population, a
state official said. At least two other states, Missouri and Michigan,
reportedly have 1,000 or more beds available in their prisons that Arizona might
be able to use, said Dennis Burke, Gov. Janet Napolitano's chief of staff for
policy. While some legislators have been pushing to increase the state's
use of private prisons, Napolitano has said she would prefer to house prisoners
in public facilities. Arizona will get 1,400 new beds in the next year as
a private facility for male DUI offenders in Mohave County south of Kingman. The
state also is seeking proposals for a 3,200-bed private prison in Pinal County
for female inmates. (AP)
May 29, 2003
The operator of a county jail in Texas housing 600 Arizona inmates said
Wednesday that his privately run company eventually will save the state nearly
$800,000. But Arizona prison officials disputed that figure and called the
strategy of sending inmates to Texas a "troubled experiment."
Jim Slattery, president of the Florida-based Correctional Services Corp.,
conceded that putting Arizona inmates in a Texas jail has been challenging. But
he said CSC has made "extraordinary efforts" to help ease prison
overcrowding in Arizona by housing those prisoners. On Tuesday, George
Weisz, a special assistant for corrections to Gov. Janet Napolitano, had called
the Texas experiment "a financial disaster." State Department of
Corrections documents pointed to a number of problems at the Texas facility,
including a prison disturbance in January. DOC officials said the Newton
County Jail has improved only after constant prodding. And they maintain that
the experiment has ended up costing the state money because of soaring costs for
monitoring. "There is a list of about 20 things that they are still
fixing," Weisz said. "It's not what we expected. It took constant
prodding from our monitors to get things done. Why did we have to complain about
all this to get it done?" (The Arizona Republic)
May 29, 2003
A move to ease prison overcrowding in Arizona by sending hundreds of inmates to
a private county jail in Texas has backfired, angering Department of Corrections
officials and adding to the state's budget crisis. The state had counted
on saving $400,000 by shipping inmates to the Newton County Jail in eastern
Texas. But the potential savings evaporated when costs soared. Meanwhile,
underfed inmates rioted in January, flooding dormitories, tearing up mattresses
and breaking windows, according to documents from the DOC. "This
proved to be a financial disaster," said George Weisz, a special assistant
for corrections to Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano. The Texas facility
houses about 600 Arizona prisoners. In a letter to Arizona prison officials,
administrators at the Newton County Jail said they have fixed problems at the
facility. The letter lists 17 areas of concern that have been addressed,
including repairs to a broken fence and disciplinary actions for negligent staff
members. The state had thought it would save money by going with a private
contractor, which promised to house and feed inmates at a lower cost than a
public facility. But corrections officials said that additional monitoring costs
and other inefficiencies ended up costing more money. (Tucson Citizen)
May 9, 2003
A cost-overrun in sending prisoners out of
state has Arizona leaders wondering whether contracting with private operations
will save the state money and solve prison overcrowding. A jail uprising
by Arizona prisoners at Texas' Newton County Corrections Center earlier this
year delayed busing of additional inmates and cost taxpayers $415,939, according
to an analysis of state records by The East Valley Tribune. It has also
raised red flags among state leaders, who question whether the push toward
privatization will solve the worst prison-bed shortage in state history, said
George Weisz, Gov. Janet Napolitano's special assistant for corrections.
"That (contract in Newton County) has been a financial disaster. It's
tough, and the governor has definite concerns about privatization," Weisz
told the paper for Thursday's editions. Arizona prisons now exceed their
capacity by 4,200 inmates and some lawmakers say hiring private companies will
solve the problem. "We have some alternatives with private prisons.
They are successful," said Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa and chairman of the
House Appropriations Committee. Members of the Arizona Department of
Corrections investigated the Jan. 2 jail uprising which happened less than a
month after the first 96 prisoners arrived in Texas. Investigators said
that the jail and its staff were ill-prepared to accept the new arrivals and
gave the company a month to correct problems. The deadline resulted in a
terse response from its leaders, in correspondence obtained by the
Tribune. "We have gone over and above compliance for this short-term,
seven-month contract," wrote Thomas Rapone, the company's executive vice
president and chief operating officer. Attempts to reach company officials
on Wednesday were unsuccessful. Although busing resumed in February,
Arizona prisoners continued to rebel. Incidents included escapes, peaceful
protests, group demonstrations and hunger strikes. A state monitor wrote
to his supervisor that the inmates wanted to return to Arizona so their families
could visit them. More than 600 Arizona prisoners are now at the Texas
jail. On June 30, the state will determine whether to renew its contract with
Correctional Services Corp. Officials said the deficiencies found by
monitors are a concern, but with prison space likely to run out this fall, the
state may be forced to renew it. "The problem is our back is against
the wall," Weisz said. "Whether it's private or public, we just have
to find places to put these inmates." (AP)
April 11, 2003
The state spends too much money to send Hispanics to prison and not enough to
help them get a college diploma, according to a study released Wednesday by an
education advocacy group. "Borrowing Against the Future: The Impact
of Prison Expansion on Arizona Families, Schools and Communities" argues
against two proposed state prisons the group says could cost the state up to
$100 million a year. Funding for prisons has continued to increase in the
past two decades, while the percentage of the state budget spent on higher
education is going down. "Arizona now spends more money to
incarcerate its Latino population than it does to educate them," Foster
said. The state has put out a request for proposals for two private
prisons, one that would house 1,400 males and another for 3,200 females, said
Department of Corrections spokesman Jim Robideau. (Tribune)
January 5, 2003
The Arizona Department of corrections has suspended transfers of inmates to a
Texas private prison after 82 prisoners already transferred were involved in a
disturbance last week. Prison staff fired pepper gas into the dormitories
to quell the disturbance Thursday night at the Newton County Correctional
Facility, but no inmates were injured, the department said. The inmates
flooded dormitories, tore up mattresses, destroyed television sets and broken
windows and light textures, with damage estimated at $10,000 to $15,000, the
department said. Transfers will be halted until the completion of an
investigation by the department and Correctional Services Corp., the Sarasota,
Fla.-based company which runs the facility, into the cause of the disturbance,
the department said. The department had transferred 346 inmates since
November under a contract to house 636 inmates at the Newton County
Facility. (AP)
December 19, 2002
A legislative oversight committee on Thursday gave the Department of Corrections
the go-ahead to add more space by seeking a private prison to house nearly all
of the state's female inmates. Under the plan endorsed by the Joint
Legislative Budget Committee, the state is seeking proposals for a new prison
that would be privately built and operated. (AP)
September 25, 2002
If the Arizona Department of Corrections awards a contract to Dominion
Correctional Facilities, Inc., Mohave County could have a prison near Kingman by
next year. According to Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) Public
Information Officer Jim Robideau, requests for proposals are currently open for
four new private prisons in the state with a filing deadline of Sept. 30.
To have their ducks in a row, should they get a nod from ADC, Dominion sought
and received support from the Mohave County's Industrial Department Authority
(IDA) Tuesday in the way of a "preliminary resolution" for $60 million
in bonds to finance the project. "Mohave County holds no liability
for this project whether it goes or not," said IDA Chairman Dan
Hargrove. "This gives them (Dominion) the opportunity to go
forward." With IDA approval, the Oklahoma-based developer can now
have their tax-free municipal bonds rated and prepared for sale. Hargrove
said. If ADC accepts their proposal, the next step will be a "final
resolution" from IDA which must then be approved by the Mohave County Board
of Supervisors. "They will have people standing by ready to buy the
bonds," he said. The prison will be managed by Management and
Training Corporation (MTC) and offer 230 jobs, Hunter said, ranging from
entry-level correctional facility officers, for which training would be provided
by MTC, and teaching and counseling positions requiring college degrees.
The financial impact on local law enforcement, in the event they are called out
to the facility to assist prison staff with hostile inmates or an escape, Hunter
said, should be minimal as they would be "fully reimbursed by the
state" for their services. Dominion had sought a contract for a
federal facility, he said, but that project was later canceled. "If
we don't get this one, we'll keep trying," Hunter said. (Tri-State
Online)
Arizona
Legislature
February 26, 2010 AP
Cornell Cos. Inc.'s sales and profit will decline if
the state of Arizona removes inmates from the company's Oklahoma prison, an
analyst said as he downgraded the prison operator's shares. First Analysis
Securities analyst Todd Van Fleet downgraded the Houston company to "equal
weight" from "overweight." The January budget proposals from Arizona's governor
and legislature would phase out the use of private out-of-state beds. Arizona is
struggling to close budget shortfalls. Van Fleet said there was less than a 25
percent chance that Cornell would be able to persuade legislators to keep
Arizona inmates in the company's Oklahoma prison. The loss of the Arizona
prisoners which could cut into Cornell's annual earnings by 35 cents to 45 cents
per share. Van Fleet cut his estimate for 2010 profit to $1.09 per share from
$1.69 per share, and his 2010 sales estimate to $398 million from $440.6
million. On Wednesday, when it released fourth-quarter earnings, Cornell
predicted it would make $1.31 to $1.41 per share in 2010. The guidance assumed
that Cornell would continue to keep all its Arizona inmates for the rest of the
year. The contract for the Arizona prisoners ends in mid-September, Van Fleet
said. Cornell shares slipped 13 cents to $18.61 in midday trading. They have
dropped about 25 percent since Arizona proposed its budget in mid-January.
January 22, 2010 Pueblo Chieftain
State lawmakers had mixed reactions to Thursday's announcement that Arizona is
pulling its inmates out of a private prison in Walsenburg, dragging almost 200
jobs out with them. Last year, Colorado inmates were relocated from the Huerfano
County Correctional Facility, owned by Corrections Corporation of America, to
make room for 800 Arizona inmates. "I'm not surprised that Arizona would be
pulling back its inmates," Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West. "That state is
in a terrible budget crunch. Its whole prison system is up for sale."
Conversely, Joint Budget Committee member Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, said
Thursday afternoon, "This is the first I've heard of it. I work with CCA as part
of the budget process." In 2008, CCA sought a 5-percent increase in the fee paid
to it by the state of Colorado per inmate, per day from $52.69 to $55.32. At the
time, McFadyen characterized CCA's demands as the Legislature being "held
hostage" by threats that CCA would end acceptance of Colorado's inmates if the
pay hike wasn't approved. "We took their threat seriously," McFadyen said
Thursday. "It's relevant to this discussion. We got our inmates out of there
because CCA was going to throw them out." She said CCA officials shouldn't have
been surprised by the potential problems it faced from shrinking government
budgets and prison populations. "CCA came in as speculative investors, banking
on the booming prison populations of a decade ago," McFadyen said. "Economic
development through growing the prison industry is not good public policy." Rep.
Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, was reluctant to blame the situation on CCA's absence of
foresight. "They simply need to find some new customers," McKinley said. "The
reason we have prisons is the market's out there. If we didn't need them, we
wouldn't have them.
January 21, 2010 Corrections Corporation of America
CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) (NYSE: CXW), the nation's largest
partnership corrections provider to government agencies, announced today that
the proposed budgets by the Arizona Governor and Legislature, released on
January 15, 2010, would phase out the utilization of private out-of-state beds.
CCA currently has management contracts with Arizona at its 752-bed Huerfano
County Correctional Center in Walsenburg, Colorado and at its 2,160-bed
Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, Oklahoma. The proposed phase-out
of utilizing out-of-state beds is based on Arizona's budget crisis and its
desire to utilize additional in-state capacity that will come on-line in 2010.
As a result of the budget proposals, there is a significant risk that CCA will
lose the opportunity to house offenders from Arizona at its Huerfano and
Diamondback facilities during 2010. Our contract with Arizona at Huerfano
expires on March 8, 2010, and our contract at Diamondback expires on May 1,
2010. In the event that Arizona should not renew one or both of these contracts,
CCA will work with Arizona officials related to the timing of any phase-out of
Arizona inmate populations. We would anticipate that such populations would be
transferred out within 30 to 60 days following expiration of each management
contract. If Arizona removes its offender populations housed at these
facilities, CCA will likely close both facilities. During 2009, CCA generated
approximately $56.5 million in revenues from both of these contracts.
December 10, 2009 Truthout
Caroline Isaacs -- You know you’re in trouble when "The Daily Show" sends a
“fake correspondent” to your state capitol. Perhaps it was inevitable - who
could resist the irony of a state literally selling its capitol to the highest
bidder? The comedy in the footage of the aforementioned correspondent standing
on Rep. Kyrsten Sinema’s desk to test the quality of the drop ceiling in her
office was eclipsed only by the tragedy of Rep. Linda Lopez's complete inability
to answer the question that should have been first on the mind of every elected
official in Arizona: "After you sell these buildings and have to pay rent on
them, how will you balance the budget next year?" But the "Daily Show" segment
was only the beginning. What’s got the cable “fake news” programs and
incredulous audiences worldwide rolling in the aisles now is even more
far-fetched: Arizona’s gonna privatize death row. State leaders want to give out
lucrative, long-term contracts to private, for-profit corporations to run entire
state prison complexes, essentially putting rent-a-cops in charge of women
inmates, sex offenders and supermax lockdown units. Brilliant! How come nobody
ever thought of this before? Because it’s a terrible idea. In 30-plus years of
America’s experiment with prison privatization, never has a private company run
entire state prison complexes with multiple security levels. Only one,
Corrections Corporation of America, manages high-security prisoners, and only in
very small numbers. Even Tennessee, home of CCA, wisely passed on the company’s
offer to run the whole state system. Private prison companies prefer to
cherry-pick the prisoners that are already cheapest to house - low-security with
no medical, disciplinary or mental health problems. That way, they can skimp on
paying or training their staff and make a nice tidy profit. So why would any of
these corporations even think of putting up $100 million to get some crumbling
old prison buildings and contracts to manage prisoners from minimum to death
row? Because their campaign contributions and armies of lobbyists have convinced
Arizona lawmakers to sweeten the deal. The bill actually requires the state to
split the savings generated through privatization 50/50 with the private
operator. That’s right - we have to give them half the money back. But wait!
There’s more! The deal allows the prison companies to raise their per-diem rate
(the amount the state pays them per prisoner, per day) every year for the length
of the contract. With no upper limit. And what’s a measly $100 million compared
to the combined guaranteed income of 20-year lease payments and those sweet per
diems over the length of the contracts? Now, a story like that is a comedy gold
mine! The New York Times, first nationally to report on the story, attempted to
hide its smirk behind reassuring quotes from Rep. John Kavanagh, a backer of the
proposal who just happens to be chair of Arizona's Joint Legislative Budget
Committee, which happens to oversee the Department of Administration, which will
be managing the contracts. But there was no restraining Stephen Colbert, who
took the Twainian opportunity to take this ridiculous idea to its most extreme
conclusion: Let’s just privatize the entire criminal justice system and pay cops
a commission for every arrest. Surely the profit motive will result in more
efficient "justice." How could there be anything wrong with the idea of
profiting from depriving other human beings of their freedom? Ha! Ha! And now
the joke is going global. On November 23, the Guardian UK featured a story whose
incredulous author referred to the Arizona proposals as "bizarre" and "kooky."
Resisting the urge to outright mock us, Mr. Abramsky did, however, soberly note
that the joke is really on the people of Arizona. Citing the dismal track
records of abuse, escapes and riots that have plagued the private prison
industry for its entire existence, he warned that this "wacky" scheme could have
dire consequences. So, laugh it up, everybody. Arizona taxpayers appear only too
happy to foot the bill for your amusement. And be sure to tune in for the next
installment, chronicling a state in even deeper debt, on the hook for 20-year
contract obligations it can’t afford, fending off lawsuits over shoddy prison
medical care and prisoner abuse scandals and frantically searching for the next
brilliant short-term scheme to get us out of this mess.
November 7, 2009 AP
Arizona’s plan to turn over its prisons to private companies in exchange for
a $100 million upfront payment is having trouble getting off the drawing board,
with the plan behind schedule and private prison operators showing little, if
any, interest. The privatization effort is required under a law enacted last
summer as lawmakers struggled to close a huge budget shortfall. It directs the
state to award a contract to one or more private companies to run an unspecified
number of prisons for $100 million. It emerged as Republican lawmakers cast
about for alternatives to Republican Gov. Jan Brewer’s proposal to increase the
sales tax to avoid deep cuts to state program. An official who worked on the law
told The Associated Press that the $100 million figure was based on hope, not
certainty. The prison concession provision doesn’t specify which or how many of
the state’s 10 prison complexes would be included, what would happen to current
state employees or the length of a contract. An early version specified a term
of 50 years and identified three prisons with approximately 11,000 beds. The
Yuma prison complex was excluded from the law at the insistence of a Yuma
legislator. State officials were supposed to provide an initial batch of
information to potential bidders on Oct. 1, but missed the deadline. But even
without that, there appears to be little interest among private-prison
companies. Corrections Corp. of America, the nation’s largest private prison
company, “is not focused on that,” said Louise Grant, a CCA vice president.
Grant said CCA is interested in pursuing traditional private-prison deals with
states and would review any Arizona request. However, “it’s very questionable
whether or not we would participate,” she said. Another operator, Boca Raton,
Fla.-based GEO Group, declined to comment, citing corporate policy. A third,
Management & Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah, issued a noncommittal
response. Arizona is among many states that contract with private companies to
house state inmates, but officials and industry observers say the large upfront
payment request may be unprecedented. “That is such a new idea. The model hasn’t
been done,” said Leonard Gilroy, a Reason Foundation official who champions
privatization of government services. Gilroy questioned whether Arizona’s plan
would be attractive enough for potential bidders in the industry. “It’s sort of
like ’we want you to do an operational contract and loan us $100 million,”’
Gilroy said. “I don’t know if there’s enough there to sweeten the pot for the
private sector.” Democratic legislators have questioned whether the state should
turn control of violent maximum-security offenders, including murderers on death
row, to private operators. Little is known about how the plan would be
implemented, including whether it would include the Eyman prison complex in
Florence that includes death row. Citing procurement confidentiality, state
officials declined to release a draft of the document they plan to send to
bidders. Corrections Director Chuck Ryan declined multiple requests for an
interview in recent weeks. But he told legislators during a May hearing that it
was “very concerning” to consider privatizing a major prison complex that houses
nearly all death row inmates and 1,000 other dangerous inmates. Privatizing
death row involves taking a chance, Ryan said. “It won’t stand the headline test
in my opinion.” A leader of a union representing prison guards criticized the
plan and suggested that public safety could be at risk. “They’re trying to
replace us with lower-paid guards, to handle sex offenders, murders, rapists,
inmates with very volatile gang connections,” said J. “J-Rod” Rodriguez, vice
president of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association. Senate
Appropriations Chairman Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said during the May hearing that
the prisons concession had been proposed by House Republicans during budget
negotiations and was based on “very good numbers” from an investment firm.
However, a top House Republican aide said lawmakers and legislative aides came
up with the idea as a way “to monetize state assets,” such as Indiana and
Chicago have done with toll highways. “Well, Arizona doesn’t have toll roads and
there aren’t a lot of assets that can be monetized. That was sort of the genesis
of the idea,” said Grant Nulle, House director of fiscal policy. There was no
research by an investment firm or anybody else, Nulle said. And the $100 million
payment appears unlikely. “Based on preliminary feedback, we may find it
difficult to generate an upfront payment of this magnitude,” legislative budget
director Richard Stavneak wrote in an Oct. 22 memo. Even if the state does
receive good bids, it will take most of the fiscal year to try to implement the
idea, so lawmakers shouldn’t count on getting the money in time to help close
the current budget’s shortfall, Stavneak said in a recent interview.
October 23, 2009 New York Times
One of the newest residents on Arizona’s death row, a convicted serial killer
named Dale Hausner, poked his head up from his television to look at several
visitors strolling by, each of whom wore face masks and vests to protect against
the sharp homemade objects that often are propelled from the cells of the
condemned. It is a dangerous place to patrol, and Arizona spends $4.7 million
each year to house inmates like Mr. Hausner in a super-maximum-security prison.
But in a first in the criminal justice world, the state’s death row inmates
could become the responsibility of a private company. State officials will soon
seek bids from private companies for 9 of the state’s 10 prison complexes that
house roughly 40,000 inmates, including the 127 here on death row. It is the
first effort by a state to put its entire prison system under private control.
The privatization effort, both in its breadth and its financial goals,
demonstrates what states around the country — broke, desperate and often
overburdened with prisoners and their associated costs — are willing to do to
balance the books. Arizona officials hope the effort will put a $100 million
dent in the state’s roughly $2 billion budget shortfall. “Let’s not kid
ourselves,” said State Representative Andy Biggs, a Republican who supports
private prisons. “If we were not in this economic environment, I don’t think
we’d be talking about this with the same sense of urgency.” Private prison
companies generally build facilities for a state, then charge them per prisoner
to run them. But under the Arizona legislation, a vendor would pay $100 million
up front to operate one or more prison complexes. Assuming the company could
operate the prisons more cheaply or efficiently than the state, any savings
would be equally divided between the state and the private firm. The
privatization move has raised questions — including among some people who work
for private prison companies — about the private sector’s ability to handle the
state’s most hardened criminals. While executions would still be performed by
the state, officials said, the Department of Corrections would relinquish all
other day-to-day operations to the private operator and pay a per-diem fee for
each prisoner. “I would not want to be the warden of death row,” said Todd
Thomas, the warden of a prison in Eloy, Ariz., run by the Corrections
Corporation of America. The company, the country’s largest private prison
operator, has six prisons in Arizona with inmates from other states. “That’s not
to say we couldn’t,” Mr. Thomas said. “But the liability is too great. I don’t
think any private entity would ever want to do that.” James Austin, a co-author
of a Department of Justice study in 2001 on prison privatization and president
of the JFA Institute, a corrections consulting firm, said private companies
tended to oversee minimum- and medium-security inmates and had little experience
with the most dangerous prisoners. “As for death row,” Mr. Austin said, “it is a
very visible entity, and if something bad happens there, you will have a pretty
big news story for the Legislature and governor to explain.” Arizona is no
stranger to private prisons or, for that matter, aggressive privatization
efforts (recently, the state put up for sale several government buildings
housing executive branch offices in Phoenix). Nearly 30 percent of the state’s
prisoners are being held in prisons operated by private companies outside the
state’s 10 complexes. In addition, other states, including Alaska and Hawaii,
have contracts with private companies like Corrections Corporation of America to
house their prisoners in Arizona. For advocates of prison privatization, the
push here breathes a bit of life into a movement that has been on the decline
across the country as cost savings from prison privatizations have often failed
to materialize, corrections officers unions have resisted the efforts and
high-profile problems in privately run facilities have drawn unwanted publicity.
“We have private prisons in Arizona already, and we are very happy with the
performance and the savings we get from them,” said Representative John Kavanagh,
a Republican who is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and an
architect of the new legislation authorizing the privatization. “I think that
they are the future of corrections in Arizona.” Under the legislation, any
bidder would have to take an entire complex — many of them mazes of multiple
levels of security risks and complexity — and would not be permitted to pick off
the cheapest or easiest buildings and inmates. The state also wants to privatize
prisoners’ medical care. Louise Grant, a spokeswoman for Corrections Corporation
of America, said the high-security prisoners would be well within the company’s
management capabilities. “We expect we will be there to make a proposal to the
state” for at least some of its complexes up for bid, Ms. Grant said. In pure
financial terms, it is not clear how well the state would make out with the
privatization. The 2001 study for the Department of Justice found that private
prisons saved most states little money (there has been no equivalent study
since). Indeed, many states, struggling to keep up with the cost of corrections,
have closed prisons when possible, and sought changes in sentencing to reduce
crowding in the last two years. As tough sentencing laws and the ensuing
increase in prisoners began to press on state resources in the 1980s, private
prison companies attracted some states with promises of lower costs. The private
prison boom lasted into the 1990s. Throughout the years, there have been
high-profile riots, escapes and other violent incidents. The companies also do
not generally provide the same wages and benefits as states, which has resulted
in resistance from unions and concerns that the private prisons attract
less-qualified workers. Then the federal government stepped in, with a surge of
new immigrant prisoners, and began to contract with the private companies. The
number of federal prisoners in private prisons in the United States has more
than doubled, to 32,712 in 2008 from 15,524 in 2000. The number of state
prisoners in privately run prisons has increased to 93,500 from 75,000 in that
time. With bad economic times again driving many decisions about state
resources, other states are sure to watch Arizona’s experiment closely. “There
simply isn’t the money to keep these people incarcerated, and the alternative is
to free many of them or lower cost,” said Ron Utt, a senior research fellow for
the Heritage Foundation, a conservative group whose work for privatization was
cited by one Arizona lawmaker.
June 14, 2009 Arizona Republic
The prospect of Arizona selling off its state prisons for a cash influx might
bode well for the budget, but it comes with "grave concerns" from the director
of the Department of Corrections, according to a letter Charles Ryan sent to
Gov. Jan Brewer earlier this month. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Russell
Pearce, R-Mesa, was part of the budget plan approved last week. Lawmakers have
yet to send the bills to Brewer. Senate Bill 1028 would allow private vendors to
operate one or more of the Arizona State Prison complexes, with a 50-year
contract to run the prisons and an upfront payment of $100 million. Ryan asks
Brewer to veto the legislation - if and when it gets to her desk. Brewer's
budget plan also includes sale-leaseback deals on prisons. In the letter, Ryan
cites concerns with the plan, including the ability of for-profit prison
companies to properly control some of the volatile inmates in the state's
maximum-security units. He also raises concerns about the proposal's impact on
plans to expand prisons, contracts the prisons have with vendors and on prison
employees. "Undoubtedly, a private company would pay its employees significantly
lower wages and provide them lesser training to realize cost savings. This would
lead to higher staff turnover, low morale and place public safety at risk," the
letter states. In a presentation Ryan gave to the Brewer last week , he also
expressed some logistical concerns about the ability to privatize bits and
pieces of the state's large prison complexes, which are designed to handle a
variety of inmates with a centralized control-and-operations center.
"Privatizing maximum-security beds would be unprecedented in the United States,"
according to Ryan's presentation. "Who would be responsible for execution of
inmates?" There are six privately run prisons in Arizona that house more than
7,000 minimum- and medium-security inmates, about 20 percent of the state's
prison population. Another 5,000 inmates are housed in private facilities
outside of Arizona, leaving more than 19,000 in state custody. In an e-mail sent
to corrections' employees on Friday, Ryan reiterated that the legislation was
still up for debate. "Continue to be professional and perform your public safety
duty," Ryan told the employees.
February 1, 2008 Arizona Republic
Brandishing a fake gun and using ladders stolen from a maintenance building, two
convicted killers climbed onto the roof and over the walls of a private prison
in Florence in September. They navigated through several lines of razor wire and
outmaneuvered security patrols, escaping to freedom, an investigative report on
the incident says. One was caught within hours. It was nearly a month before the
other was caught, hundreds of miles away in his home state of Washington. Now,
in response, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano wants to tighten up rules for the
state's growing private-prison industry, which is virtually unregulated by the
state. A legislative proposal drafted by the Governor's Office and introduced by
Republican Sen. Robert Blendu of Litchfield Park would bar private prisons from
importing murderers, rapists and some other dangerous or seriously ill felons to
Arizona. It would also require the companies to share security and inmate
information with state officials. "It is a matter of public safety," said Dennis
Burke, Napolitano's chief of staff. "(Other states) are exporting their worst
criminals to Arizona, and we can't even know what they are doing and what steps
they are taking to protect Arizonans." But private-prison officials and other
industry supporters say the bill could threaten the industry, which is the
largest employer in Pinal County. "We were welcomed to the state 15 years ago.
We answered the call to help with economic development in Pinal County," said
Tony Grande, a senior vice president for Corrections Corp. of America, the
largest private-prison firm in the nation. The firm runs five Arizona prisons,
including the one in Florence where the escape took place in September. He said
the company has a good track record and doesn't do business in states with tight
restrictions. "If you change the rules of the game midstream, we are going to
resist it because we invested based on the current rules," he said. No current
restrictions -- The private-prison industry has grown rapidly in Arizona since
the first such prison opened here in 1994, bringing jobs and thousands of
out-of-state inmates to Pinal County. Now, more than 9,000 felons from Alaska,
Hawaii, Washington and other states and the federal government are housed in six
of 11 privately run prisons in Arizona. Most of the out-of-state inmates are in
CCA facilities in Pinal County, according to information collected by the
Arizona Department of Corrections. But unlike other states, Arizona has no
restrictions on the kind of out-of-state inmates that can be brought here. And
private-prison companies in Arizona are not required to share detailed
information on inmates, staffing and security measures or have their facility
designs approved by state officials. Such requirements are in place in other
states with significant private prisons. Some states ban private prisons
altogether or, like California, don't allow them to house prisoners from out of
state. Of the 15 states that expressly authorize private prisons, Arizona is one
of the least restrictive, said Dora Schriro, director of the state prison
system. Arizona laws require companies to carry insurance to cover
law-enforcement costs in cases of escape, notify state officials when they bring
new prisoners into the state and return prisoners to their home states to be
released. But, Schriro notes, there are no penalties if the companies don't
comply and no way to check on releases. That's a concern shared by Attorney
General Terry Goddard. Goddard said he was surprised after talking to attorneys
general in other states that Arizona's laws lagged so far behind. "I really
think it is about time we had some record keeping ... and Arizona takes a stand
on what kind of prisoners from other states we are willing to accept," Goddard
said. Sending felons home -- Blendu's bill would bring together several
restrictions found in other states and give the state the ability to assess
fines if the private companies don't comply. To Blendu, who has been a
private-prison supporter, a key piece of the bill is strengthening requirements
to send the felons back home. He said he supports private prisons, but he also
worries that Arizona's laws have not kept up. "We cannot become the
private-prison attraction for the child molesters of our country," he said. His
proposal is not the first time the state has attempted to pass more restrictions
on private prisons. Escapes and other major incidents have been rare, supporters
say. But the escape of three murderers and three other inmates from a private
prison in 1996 and another escape of a murderer and a sex offender in 1997 led
lawmakers to pass the current law requiring the reimbursement of law-enforcement
costs.
April 26, 2007 KTAR
Tuesday's riot by Arizona inmates at an Indiana private prison prompts a
caution from Democrat Ed Ableser. "We need to be very careful about a private
industry that actually makes money off of the amount of criminals we produce in
this society," he said. But, Republican Russell Pearce said the riot wasn't
caused by private prisons, but by a non-cooperative department of corrections
which won't spend available money. "They refuse to build or provide access to
3,000 beds in this state," said Pearce. The philosophical dispute has left the
state thousands of prison beds short.
March 19, 2006 Arizona Star
The Arizona Legislature, which has never been shy about enacting laws that
enlarge the prison population, should provide adequate funding this year to
ensure the safety of the officers and inmates in those institutions. The inmate
population, which stands at 33,887, declined slightly last spring but has risen
steadily since the summer. As the prison population increased, the number of
correctional officers decreased. More prisoners and fewer officers equals
danger. Arizona Department of Corrections Director Dora Schriro notes that on
some overnight shifts, there is only one officer for 150 inmates. That should be
a matter of concern for everyone. Two legislators crucial to solving the
corrections problems are Sen. Robert "Bob" Burns, R-Peoria, and Rep. Russell
Pearce, R-Mesa, chairmen, respectively, of the Senate and House Appropriations
Committees. Both lawmakers believe the state can save money by moving more
inmates into private prisons, a belief disproved by a report issued last month
by MAXIMUS Inc., a national consulting firm. The consultants compared costs of
operating low- and medium-security private prisons with the same level of state
prisons and found that the state's costs were 8.5 percent to 13.5 percent less
than those of the private prisons. Lawmakers should not allow pre-conceived
ideas about privatization to cloud their judgment when examining these numbers.
More importantly, they should not turn the debate over privatization into an
excuse to ignore the serious pay problems within the Corrections Department.
March 1, 2006 Arizona Daily Sun
Gov. Janet Napolitano wants Congress to fund a federal regional prison where
Arizona and other Western states can send inmates who are in this country
illegally. The governor said Wednesday she has asked for funding in the budget
for Federal Bureau of Prisons to build and operate a facility to house people
convicted of state crimes but who also are illegal immigrants. Construction of a
federal facility also would help blunt calls by some Republican legislators to
construct a private prison in Mexico to house state inmates who are not legal
residents of this country.
February 23, 2006 Arizona Daily Star
State senators voted Wednesday to ask voters to approve a referendum that would
prevent their cities and counties from accepting Mexican consular identification
cards. And the House Appropriations Committee voted 9-4 to construct a private
prison in Mexico to house criminals convicted of violating Arizona laws who are
not citizens of this country. Backers of HB 2761 argue that it is cheaper to
house foreign nationals outside the country and that many would prefer to be
closer to relatives.
November 28, 2005 Arizona Capitol Times
The labor union that represents the state's corrections officers is meeting
individually with lawmakers to push its legislative plan for next session, which
includes higher wages, higher retirement contributions from the state and
scrutinizing private prisons. The one-on-one meetings are being conducted to
educate legislators about what exactly corrections officers do for a living and
the role they play in keeping Arizona citizens safe. So far, says the future
head of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association, results have been
positive. Several lawmakers who have historically been opposed to increased
spending on corrections have responded favorably to the meetings. "A lot of
times, the reason they say 'no' to things is because they have no
knowledge," said Tixoc Munoz, executive-president-elect of the Arizona
Correctional Peace Officers Association. Chuck Foy, a representative of the
Arizona Conference of Police and Sheriffs (AZCOPS), a sort of "mother
union" that oversees dozens of public safety organizations and represents
more than 6,300 officers statewide, said getting lawmakers as much information
as possible is key. The unions are also setting their sights on the private
prison industry. Arizona law allows the state to contract with private
penitentiaries - both in- and out-of state - to house the state's criminals. The
unions have long opposed the notion of private prisons, saying they are not as
cost-effective as the state-run corrections system. Mr. Foy said seeing just how
cost-ineffective the prisons are, though, is extremely difficult because the
companies have no obligation under the state's public records law to divulge any
information beyond what is included on the company's yearly financial report.
The groups will push for legislation that would open the financial records of
these for-profit prisons. "Let's level the playing field and see where the
chips fall," he said. "If the corporates don't want to open the books,
what are they hiding?" Opening the books, he says, will allow a clear
comparison of the private industry with its state-run brethren. "We believe
that once everybody has all of the information, the best decision will be made
for the taxpayers," Mr. Foy said.
February 11, 2004
If legislative leaders are looking for a
scapegoat in the wake of the nation's longest prison hostage siege, any mirror
would be a logical starting point. But some
lawmakers seem determined to score political points by blaming the hostage
crisis on the state prisons director, who has been on the job barely six months.
Blaming her would be unfair and wrong. Arizona
is notorious for falling short when it comes to meeting all kinds of state needs
- and prisons are no exception. Although
few details have been released about last month's 15-day hostage incident at the
Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis near Buckeye, it appears that inexperienced
staff was a contributing factor, if not a key element. The
breakdown in security that allowed two inmates to get into the prison watchtower
will be a key focus of an investigation into the incident. The
fact that the hostages and inmates were released alive is a testament to the
skills of negotiators and prison officials who kept the tension under control.
Corrections officers were inexperienced One
potential problem already is apparent: Each of the two corrections officers who
were taken hostage by two inmates had been on the job less than six months.
Sgt. Joe Masella, president of the Arizona Correctional
Peace Officers Association, estimates that 70 percent of state correctional
officers have been on the job 18 months or less. He
cites low pay as the cause of high turnover that leaves the state with
inexperienced staff. Since the Legislature sets the Department of Corrections
budget, lawmakers should own up to their own role in setting the stage for the
hostage siege. Instead, some seem more
intent on finding a scapegoat. Legislative leaders plan to delay Senate
confirmation of state prison Director Dora Schriro until a probe is completed
into her handling of the incident. Schriro
was hired in June. It is likely some of the problems that led to the hostage
crisis predated her. Legislators also would
be wise to scrutinize the motives of ex-state prison chief Terry Stewart, who,
according to the Arizona Republic, called Senate leaders to "express
concerns" about Schriro's handling of the crisis. Stewart
has a conflict of interest. He runs a private prison firm at a time when
legislators have been pushing to privatize more of Arizona's prisons. Lawmakers
must ask whether undermining Schriro is one of Stewart's business strategies.
More focus on rehab needed here Schriro
devised a successful rehabilitation program in Missouri that earned her a
reputation as one of the top corrections directors in the nation. It's
no surprise her progressive ideas are eyed with suspicion here. Nor would it be
surprising if conservative Republican lawmakers were to use the hostage crisis
as an excuse to oust the Democratic governor's nominee. If that's how the
hostage drama plays out politically, it would be a loss for the entire state.
Arizona's prison population is growing at an alarming
rate. A key strategy to reducing it is rehabilitation. Schriro has the skills to
do that in a system that now does little more than warehouse criminals.
A complete and thorough investigation of the hostage
crisis must be conducted to determine what went wrong and how it can be
prevented in the future. But it would be patently unfair to make Schriro a
scapegoat in a political struggle. (Tuscon Citizen)
December 4, 2003
Paul Senseman, who has served on the House majority staff under three speakers,
announced he will resign at the end of the current special session to become
principle lobbyist for Policy Development Group, a government/public relations
firm. Most recently, he has been chief of staff for House Speaker Jake
Flake and has also served as director of communications, press secretary and
special assistant to the majority. I have seen that one of Policy Development
Group’s clients is Corrections Corp. of America, a private prison company. We
seem to have an on-going debate on the value of private prisons versus public or
state-run prisons. It appears that you’re going to be thrust into that. It’s
possible. Right now, I’ve taken myself out of it. Two or three weeks ago, I
put a letter to the speaker and Norm Moore, the chief clerk, removing myself
from that issue. When I became aware of the fact that with my future employer I
would be involved in that, I took myself completely out of the corrections issue
so there would be no questions about it. (Arizona Capitol Times)
December 3,
2003
A bipartisan Senate agreement could pave the way for a major step forward
in the lengthy legislative special session. Republican and Democratic
leaders promoted a compromise agreement Monday that would send 2,100 Arizona
inmates to temporary cells out of state while allowing the Department of
Corrections to bid against private companies to build new prisons. The
bill also would raise drunken driving fines by $500 for a first offense, $1,250
for a second offense and $1,500 for a subsequent conviction. Minor driving
scofflaws, for instance those driving on a suspended license, would face a $250
additional fine. The money would be used to relieve crowding in the
state's prison system. The fines could produce about $15 million a year.
The state would send about 140 inmates to county jails at a cost of $2.1
million. "It looks promising," said Sen. Gabrielle Giffords,
D-Tucson. Dealing with prison crowding and reforming Child Protective
Services are the two primary subjects of the special session. However, during
the first six weeks there has been little agreement on either issue. Gov.
Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, is expected to decide today whether to give her
blessing to the prisons agreement. One of the hang-ups is the creation of
an independent committee to design and assess requests for new prisons. The
final decision would remain with the executive branch. The committee, with
appointees from the Senate president, the House speaker and the governor, would
create the requests so that the Department of Corrections, a potential bidder
against private companies, would not have an unfair advantage. (Arizona
Daily Star)
November 25,
2003
The debate over whether the use of private
prisons is the answer to the state’s overcrowding problem will spill
over into the regular session, a senator predicts. Proposed legislation
may bring a temporary solution, but Sen. Bob Burns, R-Dist. 9, chairman of the
Senate Appropriations Committee and a proponent of private prisons, says he
thinks the debate “will go on for a while.” Mr. Burns says Governor
Napolitano’s office is trying to kill privatization and may tarnish the state’s
reputation so badly that private companies will not want to do business with the
state. At the end of a Nov. 18 committee meeting, Mr. Burns challenged the
governor to meet with committee members to show why private prisons are not a
solution. A day earlier, Ms. Napolitano said during her weekly press
briefing that legislators pushing private prisons do not have the facts.
“I know that down at the Legislature every private prison company in America
seems to have a lobbyist or two working the halls,” she said. “They are
providing information that is contrary to the facts.” The major
inaccuracy, she said, was that private prisons “are cheaper over time. I see
no data that suggests that.” (Arizona Capitol Times)
November 25, 2003
Some Arizona legislators are concerned that a Florida prison company
hoping to land millions of dollars in state contracts paid a $300,000 fine this
year for failing to report numerous gifts to New York lawmakers.
Correctional Services Corp. wants to expand two prisons in Arizona in exchange
for long-term contracts. However, even some backers of private prisons question
the company's gift-giving. "That concerns me," said House
Appropriations Chairman Russell Pearce, R-Mesa. "If these allegations are
true, then I would have a problem." In February, the company agreed
to pay $300,000 to the New York Temporary State Commission on Lobbying to settle
an investigation into the company's activities. The commission's executive
director, David Grandeau, said the company failed to properly account for gifts
given to lawmakers. "This was a pattern of conduct that existed for a
long time," Grandeau said in a phone interview. "They found it
politically helpful to them." One New York lawmaker pleaded guilty
earlier this year to taking bribes in an unrelated matter but also admitted to
accepting free rides from New York City to the state capital in Albany from the
company. The commission's investigation went back only to 2000, but former
Assemblywoman Gloria Davis, a Bronx Democrat, admitted accepting company rides
beginning in 1998. New York law forbids lawmakers from accepting gifts
worth more than $75. The trips, as well as at least four or five gift baskets,
meals and an airplane ticket given to various lawmakers, exceeded the limit,
Grandeau said. The company signed a settlement agreement in February. It
notes that the company's filing with the commission contained errors and
omissions. Grandeau said the practice began under a company vice president
who was fired for unrelated activities. Grandeau said his successor, Jack Brown,
admitted continuing the gift-giving practice. Under Arizona law, lobbyists
are allowed to buy meals and offer gifts worth less $10. Expenditure reports for
Arizona's current special legislative session are due to the secretary of state
in January. Previous expenditure reports on meals and gifts show little or no
activity from the Correctional Services Corp. lobbyist. Company Vice
President Russell Rau denied any wrongdoing, saying the troubles were just
filing errors. "It was incorrectly filling out forms," Rau said.
"Campaign reporting laws are very complex. Ask any elected official. A fee
was paid because the mistake was made." Rau said he has not given any gifts
to Arizona lawmakers. Department of Corrections Director Dora Schriro said
she is keeping tabs on the company's New York troubles but is not going to pull
any contracts now. In addition to two Arizona facilities, the firm houses more
than 600 inmates in a Texas facility. "This kind of issue underscores
some of the concerns I have expressed recently about privatizing a core
government function," Schriro said. "We will continue to monitor
closely the criminal investigation and anything that ensues from it."
While the original House bill on prisons featured a passage that would have
virtually guaranteed that the company receive more state business, questions
arose both about the constitutionality of the bill and the firm's overall
performance. In the Senate, Sen. Bill Brotherton, D-Phoenix, wants to ban
any contractor that has been found to have offered a bribe from receiving a
private prison contract. "If we are going to be dealing with private
companies doing a law enforcement job, they should be as clean as
possible," Brotherton said. (Arizona Daily Star)
November 19,
2003
Lobbyists descended on the Capitol this month to convince legislators that
private prisons are the best option for a cash-strapped state facing an inmate
overcrowding crisis and are the cheapest deal for taxpayers. "Just
like sharks that smell blood in the water, the lobbyists sense that there's
support in the Legislature for private prisons," said Sen. Pete Rios,
D-Hayden. "That's why they are coming out in full force." A bill
muscling its way through the Legislature calls for 3,000 private beds: 1,600
permanent beds at private facilities and 1,400 temporary beds at an out-of-state
private prison. The bill passed the House overwhelmingly Monday and is expected
to go to a vote of the full Senate today. "Private companies have
demonstrated we can save money on building and operating these facilities,"
said Russell Rau, vice president of Correctional Services Corporation, which
houses 1,825 Arizona inmates, including 625 in Texas. "Privatization has
been a good partner for Arizona." Opponents, led by Gov. Janet
Napolitano, say they are not convinced the cost savings exist. Napolitano's
proposal called for expanding some state prisons. (The Arizona Republic)
November 18, 2003
The House on Monday overwhelmingly approved a Republican bill to provide
3,000 new private prison beds, in Arizona and elsewhere, to help relieve
crowding in the corrections system. The GOP-led House's 37-17 vote by
party lines sent the bill (HB2019) to the Senate where similar legislation
already has been endorsed by one committee and awaits action by another.
However, Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano has said she has "grave
concerns" about the bill, which would rely more on private prisons than she
wants and provide a smaller midyear spending increase to the Department of
Corrections. The bill approved by the House would add 1,600 additional
permanent beds at private prisons and send 1,400 inmates at least temporarily to
private prisons outside Arizona. It also would impose a mandatory new $1,000
"assessment" on DUI offenders to help pay for prison expansion.
The state now has approximately 2,315 inmates in private prisons in Arizona and
Texas, or about 7 percent of the total 31,146 prisoners in the state system. The
state currently has a shortfall of approximately 4,000 permanent beds, forcing
the Department of Corrections to take such steps as putting inmates' beds in
converted dayrooms. Napolitano proposed adding 1,600 temporary beds, mostly at
private prisons, and 1,200 permanent beds by expanding state-run prisons in
Florence, Perryville and Yuma. Republicans favor more use of private
prisons, contending private facilities can provide beds at a competitive cost
and be available quickly to help solve the bed shortage. Napolitano
administration officials dismiss the Republicans' plan as providing too few beds
and not enough money, committing the state to expanding private prisons with
inadequate sites and tying the Department of Corrections' hands in dealings with
private-prison operators. Napolitano has been cool toward private prisons,
contending prisons are a core government function. However, she included
additional temporary private beds in her plan for lack of alternatives.
Napolitano's bill would appropriate $26.4 million for the department. The
Republican bill would provide $8.9 million. It also reduces by $3.1 million the
amount the department must pay for employees' health insurance. No
Republicans defended the bill as House Democrats rose to denounce it. Rep.
Tom Prezelski, D-Tucson, said it's a mistake for the state to rely on money from
the new assessments to pay for prison projects. "I don't know if the
money's going to exist to actually fund this scheme," he said. The
bill has too many unanswered questions, said Rep. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix.
"This bill is begging to be vetoed." (Privateer News)
November 13,
2003
A Republican plan to require the state to contract for more private
prison space is unconstitutional and likely to be vetoed, two top aides to Gov.
Janet Napolitano said Wednesday. Tim Nelson, the governor's legal counsel,
said lawmakers cannot mandate that the state give money to Correctional Services
Corp. to expand its existing private prisons in Phoenix and Florence. He said
the state Constitution specifically prohibits the Legislature from directing
that taxpayer dollars go to a particular company.
(Arizona Daily Sun)
October 21,
2003
Lawmakers are looking at reviving the idea of sending Mexican nationals
locked up in Arizona prisons south of the border to serve the remainder of their
sentences. And it could come into play as the Legislature goes into a
special session today on prison spending and crowding. Caroline Isaacs,
with the Tucson branch of the prison reform group American Friends Service
Committee, a Quaker organization, said the idea is fraught with problems,
including who is accountable for the prisoners. Former prison chief Terry
Stewart had been shopping an idea for a private prison in Mexico to house
nationals. Stewart could not be reached for comment. Dora Schrirro, head
of the Arizona Department of Corrections, said she will take a look at the
proposal. "It's an interesting idea," Schrirro said.
"Everything ought to be given some consideration. The question is whether
there is authority." Her boss isn't exactly thrilled with the idea,
however. "It's not something the governor is in favor of
pursuing," said Napolitano's spokesman, Paul Allvin. "These will be
wards of the state in Mexico. If they escape or hurt themselves or commit
crimes, there is a huge liability issue for Arizona." (Arizona Daily
Star)
May 5, 2003
Poor planning has fueled an overcrowding crisis in Arizons's prison system and
state leaders are scrambling to find a solution. "We're trying
everything we can," said George Weisz, Gov. Janet Napolitano's special
assistant for corrections. Meanwhile, the department is coping by building
tents at its prison complexes in Goodyear, Tucson, Douglas and Yuma, and having
inmates double-bunk in some units. Three years ago, the state had a
solution, when a $196 million prison was planned in Tucson that would have added
4,400 beds. Since plans for the Tucson complex were canceled, lawmakers
have focused on privatization to handle growth. Last November, the
department contracted with Correctional Services Corp. to place up to 645 male
inmates in the Newton County Correctional Center in Texas. (AP)
April 10, 2003
Legislators are being urged to consider a broad array of state properties for
sales or other transactions beyond the handful of sites proposed by Gov. Janet
Napolitano to help balance the budget. Gov. Janet Napolitano has suggested
that the State Compensation Fund buy either the state mental hospital, the
Department of Safety headquarters or the Perryville prison in exchange for $50
million needed to help balance the current fiscal year's budget. (Tucson
Citizen)
March 8, 2003
State lawmakers on Friday turned down a proposal to build a prison in Mexico for
more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants behind bars in Arizona. On a 7-6
vote, members of the Senate Appropriations Committee denied allowing the state
to seek a private contractor to build and operate a prison in Sonora, the
Mexican state that borders Arizona. "It would be a good business for
Arizona and Mexico," argued Terry Stewart, former Arizona corrections
director, who now has a consulting firm, Advanced Correctional Management.
"It would solve language and cultural issues." But some senators
questioned the legality of repatriating undocumented inmates to Mexico without
their consent and the state's responsibility of overseeing a prison in another
country. Further, there is no guarantee that the Mexican government would
agree to such a proposal, said Sen. Pete Rios. (The Arizona Republic)
February 2, 2003
As state leaders search for creative ways to fix a $1.3 billion deficit, they
are turning to the sale of state buildings and equipment and money-making
enterprises to fill the gap. And while the state has buildings with a
replacement value of at least $2.3 billion to offer on the open market, critics
are beginning to question the long-term positive impacts of such moves.
"It's borrowing off the future. You have an asset that is almost
paid for and now it's sold and in someone else's hand," said Bruce Wheeler,
a former Tucson City Councilman who opposed some similar ideas in the past.
"I don't think it's a responsible way for making up for deficits."
"
Sale
of assets is not a strategy that has been widely used," said Tim Blake, an
analyst with the credit rating firm Moody's. "What we look for them to do
is to get back through recurring measures, not just through one-time fixes.
Either of the sale of assets and borrowing are one-time fixes. They just set
themselves up for looking for other one-time fixes."
That could hurt the state's limping credit rating. Blake said Moody's
outlook for
Arizona
is negative, and more debt would not help the situation.
A low credit rating makes borrowing more expensive as investors seek
higher return in exchange for taking on possibly higher-risk sellers.
Republicans propose an outright sale of buildings and equipment, seeking
to raise about $350 million. The state may rent the buildings back or, in the
case of prisons, contract with private operators that would run them.
Dormitories could also be sold and privatized.
Here are the replacement values for state owned buildings that
legislators will consider selling: Department of Corrections: $774.8 million.
Juvenile Corrections Department: $63.8 million. (Arizona Daily
Star)
January 28, 2003
Republican legislators are proposing to sell state fair grounds, Arizona
Highways magazine and other state property to help balance the budget while
eying a possible private prison in Mexico to house inmates from that country for
future savings. Other assets were no specified in the package of bills
introduced by Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Burns. Burns and other
lawmakers also introduced a bill to have the state seek proposals from private
prison operators to build and operate a prison in the neighboring Mexican state
of Sonora. The prison would house some or all of the approximately 3,000
Mexican nationals that now compromise approximately 10 percent of the state's
prison inmates. The state still would have to have a presence at the
prison in Mexico to monitor conditions and guarantee a standard of care, Burns
said. "Arizona would be in control because there would be our
prisoners, our responsibility," he said. (AP)
January 26, 2003
A small coalition of University of Arizona faculty and students yesterday called
for Gov. Janet Napolitano an the Legislature to use money earmarked for private
prisons to fund higher education. The group, Education Not Incarceration
Campaign, number four or five faculty members and about 10 students, said
Caroline Issacs, a member of the group. The state must authorize
construction of two private prisons that would handle a total of 5,400
nonviolent offenders, the group claimed. It said one prison is for
convicted drunken drives and the other for female inmates. In the past 20
years, Arizona's spending on education dropped 11 percent while spending on
prisons increased 140 percent, the coalition said. (Tuscon Citizen)
January 22, 2003
A
small coalition of University of Arizona faculty and students called today for
Gov. Janet Napolitano and the Legislature to use money set aside for private
prisons to fund higher education.
The group, Education not Incarceration Campaign, numbers four or five
faculty members and about 10 students, according to member Caroline Isaacs. The
state must authorize construction of two private prisons that would handle a
total of 5,400 nonviolent offenders, the group claimed. One prison it said is
for convicted drunken drivers, the other for female inmates.
Coalition members told an audience of about 25 people that if the state
put those prisoners in treatment and counseling programs instead of prison,
Arizonan could save the $33.4 million it will pay in operating costs.
In the last 20 years, Arizona's spending on education dropped 11 percent
while spending on prisons increased 140 percent, the coalition said.
(Tucson)
January 16, 2003
Arizona's $1.3 billion budget deficit would vanish in a cloud of property
sell-offs accounting maneuvers and relatively small cuts in services under a
plan unveiled Wednesday by Gov. Janet Napolitano. She hopes to succeed
where governors elsewhere have failed: to offset a huge state deficit without
raising taxes or slashing money for schools, children's services and
prisons. Napolitano's top budget aide, George Cunningham, said the team
benefited from consulting with other states. That's where aides learned
that New York and New Jersey had programs where they sold state assets and
leased them back from the private owners. Napolitano's plan includes the
sale and leaseback of $250 million in assets, including several prison
facilities. (The Arizona Republic)
January 13, 2003
The battle begins Monday to solve a budget crisis so ingrained in Arizona
government that firing all state workers wouldn't solve it an closing all 67
state agencies would fix only half of it. The prisons budget, nearly $600
million a year and growing, is not technically protected from cuts and could be
a source pf trims. One possible solution would be to sell prisons to
private companies that would hire their own workers to operate the
facilities. A second would be to release some prisoners early. (The
Arizona Republic)
November 16, 2002
Some of Yuma's
prison inmates may end up crossing state
lines, but with the
government's permission, of course.
In
an effort to ease crowding in Arizona prisons, the
state Legislature is allowing 645
inmates statewide to be transferred to a private prison
in Newton, Texas, said Jim
Robideau, a spokesman with the Arizona Department of
Corrections.
The
Newton County Correctional Center, also called the
Fillyaw Correctional Facility, is a
private prison run by Correctional Services Corp. It is
near the Louisiana state line. (Yuma sun.com0
April 10, 2002
Before the House took a vote Monday to rein in tough-love boot camps for wayward
teens, Melanie Hudson was confident that her son did not die in vain. She
was nearly wrong. Hudson, whose 14-year-old son, Tony Haynes, died after
strenuous exercise at a boot camp last summer, sent a message to lawmakers who
assumed the bill would pass. After a close call on Monday, the House gave
new life Tuesday to a bill that would close the loophole allowing boot camps in
Arizona without a license or trained staff. Behind the strength of several
members who were absent Monday, it passed 33-15. It now moves on to the
Senate, which passed a similar measure last month. (azcentral.com)
Arizona
State Prison Complex-Lewis
Lewis, Arizona
Canteen Correctional Services
November 6, 2009 Arizona Republic
Legal repercussions from Arizona’s longest prison-hostage saga continue
dragging through court five years later, but with a curious twist: One of two
women sexually assaulted during the drama is blaming the other rape victim for
allowing the violence to get started. The Maricopa County Superior Court suit
was filed three years ago by Lois Fraley, a correctional officer at Lewis Prison
who was held in a guard tower for 15 days during 2004 by two inmates, Ricky
Wassenaar and Steven Coy. Defendants include Canteen Correctional Services
Corporation, which prepared inmate meals in a kitchen where the incident began,
as well as a company employee who was raped by Coy. That employee previously
sued the Department of Corrections and received an undisclosed financial
settlement after alleging that prison officials negligently allowed violent
felons to work with civilians in the kitchen. She blamed lax prison security,
inadequate training and incompetence. In the ongoing case, attorney Joel
Robbins, who represents Fraley, alleges that the female kitchen employee failed
to close and lock an office door as required by prison rules. As a result, the
suit says, Wassenaar and Coy were able to enter the office and overpower the
Canteen employee and a DOC guard in the room. While Coy raped the kitchen
worker, Wassenaar went to a nearby guard tower where Fraley and detention
officer Jason Auch were on duty. According Department of Correction records,
Auch failed to verify who was at the door before pressing an electronic buzz-in
device. Wassenaar entered the tower, subdued both guards and gained control of
an arsenal. Coy then joined him. Auch was released midway through the ordeal,
while Fraley was held hostage and terrorized for two weeks. A peaceful surrender
was arranged with both inmates promised out-of-state transfers to complete their
prison terms. Fraley’s lawsuit says Coy was able to fashion a homemade shank in
the kitchen using metal bands removed from milk cases that had been banned
because of previous incidents. Although Auch’s decision to open the tower door
was crucial later on, the suit argues, the rampage could have been averted if
kitchen employee upheld their security responsibilities: “Ms. Fraley would never
have had to endure the two weeks in hell but for Canteen’s conduct.” Canteen
Corp. contends in legal filings that the company was responsible for preparing
food, not overseeing inmates or maintaining security. The trial has been
tentatively scheduled for late 2011. As a state employee, Fraley was barred from
suing the Department of Corrections under terms of Arizona’s workers
compensation law. According to court papers, she sued Canteen on behalf of the
state, which owned the rights to her complaint. However, the state reassigned
those rights back to Fraley, subject to a lien. Arizona previously sued its
insurance company for refusing to honor liability coverage in the prison saga.
The outcome of that case could not be determined.
March 3, 2004
The prison where two corrections officers were held hostage is plagued by
unprofessionalism and complacency among officers, a panel reviewing the hostage
standoff said Tuesday. Procedures in the kitchen where the Jan. 18
incident began should also be reviewed. The two inmates, Ricky Wassenaar and
Steven Coy, were armed with shanks and were able to overcome the only officer on
duty there. In the future, the kitchen office should be locked and two officers
should be on duty, panelists concluded. The panel said the department
should also assess whether to continue to employ civilian contract workers in
the kitchen. One such worker was raped during the incident. Another failed to
show up for work that day, and is being investigated for a possible
involvement. That investigation should continue, the panel recommended.
The kitchen worker, who did not show up Jan. 18 and has since been fired by food
service company Canteen, has refused to cooperate with investigators. The
Arizona Republic is not identifying the man because he has not been named as
a suspect or charged with a crime. Attempts to locate him for comment have been
unsuccessful. Representatives with Canteen did not return calls seeking
comment. (The Arizona Republic)
March 2, 2004
Investigators are looking into whether a civilian food-service worker is linked
to a botched escape attempt that led to a 15-day hostage siege at the state
prison in Buckeye. The unidentified man reportedly was one of two
food-service workers assigned to the Morey Unit kitchen area at the Arizona
State Prison Complex-Lewis on Jan. 18, when inmates Ricky Wassenaar and Steven
Coy overpowered the other worker and two corrections guard. "There
were only the two employees scheduled for duty morning and when he didn't show
up, inmate Ricky Wassenaar began asking in particular where he was," former
Arizona Att General Grant Woods, co-chairman of an investigative panel reviewing
the hostage situation, said Monday. "There is cert suspicious circumstances
surrounding this employee." Authorities said the employee in question
left the food service company assigned to the prison shortly after the standoff
began and thus far has refused to cooperate in the subsequent
investigation. (KVOA.com)
Benson, Arizona
Corplan
March 9, 2010 San Pedro Valley News-Sun
While members of the Benson City Council have been given private sessions to
hear the sales pitch that might bring a detention center to town, residents
Monday night had to hear the news second hand. Mayor Mark Fenn led the
discussion, reciting a sales pitch he was given by Corplan Corrections, a Texas
company that wants to build a 104,000-square-foot facility to house mostly women
and children who are in the country illegally. Representatives of the project,
Richard Reyes of Innovative Government Strategies, and James Parkey and Toby
Michael of Corplan Corrections, did not attend the first public meeting
regarding the proposal. Following the company pitch, Fenn said it would not be a
detention center like the one proposed about six years ago when residents
vehemently opposed a 500-bed facility off State Route 80. Instead, the facility,
that could be built near the Benson Municipal Airport off Ocotillo Road, is
being called a "Family Residential Center of the Southwest," a 25-acre project
that would only house families and children. Fenn said it would be the first
facility of its kind. Fenn said the center would be federally funded, but that
is not really the case. The center would be paid for with revenue bonds the city
would issue. The revenue from the federal per diem for residents would pay off
the bonds, as long as the center wins a contract from the federal government.
That is not guaranteed. The city would be responsible for retiring the revenue
bonds, whether or not they win the bid. This would not be the first center of
its kind. Parkey was involved in a similar project in Hardin, Montana. That city
signed off on $27 million in bonds to fund the construction of a 200-bed center
that was supposed to house women and children awaiting asylum, deportation or
court. The prison was built in 2007, but remains empty to this day, and Hardin
is now responsible for the bonds that are now in default. According to published
reports, Parkey promised Hardin that Corplan Corrections would take care of
everything; there would be no liability and the town would benefit economically
because it would bring 150 high-paying jobs. In Hardin, $27 million in bonds
were secured. Benson will have to create a corporation that would secure $21
million in revenue bonds to pay for the prison construction. Corplan Corrections
has promised the bonds will be paid for by per diem fees that federal agencies
will pay the private corporation over the next 21 years, at which time Benson
would assume full ownership of the facility. Corplan Corrections has also looked
at other cities searching for a council willing to build the family centers. In
Las Cruces, N. M., city officials are still considering the exact same facility
after questions were raised in February. However, approval may be harder to get
now that a state senator has joined the debate. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, who
represents Las Cruces, questioned whether or not the promise of federal funding
is legitimate. The senator told reporters he was unaware of any federal
initiatives to fund such a project, and if there were, the Department of
Homeland Security would first put such a project out to bid, instead of taking a
"build it and the money will come approach." Corplan Corrections pitched the
same project in Las Cruces it is now trying to sell in Benson, stressing that it
would not be a detention center. In a February public meeting in Las Cruces,
Toby Michael of Corplan said, "This is not a detention center. It is an
extended-stay center. We're not going to be housing criminals, but for the fact
that they are undocumented immigrants ... there will be no bars, no cells, no
razor wire on the fences. Residents will be housed in a safe and secure
environment." While Corplan Corrections contends they are not proposing a
detention center, residents of the facility will be held against their will.
Fenn and other council members said they would proceed cautiously, noting they
do have some concerns about the company's reputation and how the financing would
work. But, Fenn told some weary residents in the audience that Benson could
benefit from such a facility. "I have a feeling if someone was presenting a
similar facility as a university with dorms, we would say great and would all
embrace it," he said. "I realize that the nature of the center is very
controversial. Do we as a city put our foot down and say as Americans we don't
support this? At some time there could be up to 150 well-paying jobs. You have
to balance all that. How much of our political opinion do we interject into city
business? I will go on record saying I don't completely endorse this facility.
The company may have a checkered history and background and a lot of questions
to answer on finances." Fenn said if the facility isn't built in Benson, it will
be built somewhere else where another city could reap the economic benefits. The
council also defended their actions during the 25-minute discussions. In a short
speech to defend the elected board, Councilman David Lambert said they have not
gone behind the public's back in considering the measure, but have attended
several personal meetings with Corplan Corrections. Lambert said no laws were
broken in the meetings because only three council members were present at a
time, therefore a quorum was never formed. Lambert did not say how many meetings
council members have had with the developers. Councilwoman Lori McGoffin excused
herself from the discussions entirely, citing a possible conflict of interest.
The second-term councilwoman said Corplan Corrections has contacted her
employer, the Medicine Shoppe, about providing pharmaceutical supplies to the
facility once it opens. After discussions, the council directed city staff to
continue researching the proposal. According to the Corplan Corrections Web
site, the for-profit Texas company specializes in building detention centers for
illegal immigrants, correctional facilities and prisons.
Canyon
State Academy
Quenn Creek, Arizona
February 24, 2003
Phoenix police are investigating allegations that a female employee at the
Canyon State Academy had an affair with a 16-year-old resident of the boot camp
for delinquent boys. Formerly known as Arizona Boys Ranch, the non-profit
academy in Queen Creek has struggled in the past with allegations of misconduct
by employees toward students, mostly involving alleged physical and emotional
abuse. According to Phoenix police, the youth's mother lodged a complaint
Feb. 16, saying an adult instructor had a sexual relationship with her
son. (AzCentral.com)
Central
Arizona Detention Center
Florence, Arizona
CCA
January 13, 2009 Press Release
A report released today by the Southwest Institute for Research on Women and
the Bacon Immigration Law and Policy Program describes harsh conditions of
confinement for the roughly three hundred women housed in immigration detention
facilities in Arizona. The report, Unseen Prisoners: A Report on Women in
Immigration Detention Facilities in Arizona, is based on over a year of
research, including over 40 interviews with detainees, their family members,
attorneys, and service providers. “Few people realize that we are locking up
huge numbers of immigrants every day and holding them for months and in some
cases years at a time. They are not being punished for a crime, and yet they are
held in facilities that are identical to, and often double as, prisons or
jails,” said Nina Rabin, the lead researcher and author of the report. “Women
immigration detainees in particular are an invisible population. We hope this
report will raise awareness about women locked up just an hour away from here in
conditions that would shock most Americans. We also hope to raise awareness
about the U.S. citizen children separated from their mothers right now because
of immigration detention.” The report provides detailed information about
day-to-day life in the three facilities that house women immigration detainees
in Arizona: Central Arizona Detention Center, Pinal County Jail, and Eloy
Detention Center. Rabin and several University of Arizona law students conducted
interviews and extensive background research for the report over a twelve month
period between August 2007 and August 2008. Rabin described the study’s
participants: “In our small sample size of detainees who agreed to participate
in this research study, we encountered pregnant and nursing mothers, domestic
violence victims, low-wage workers swept up in worksite raids, and
asylum-seekers fleeing persecution and sexual violence.” The federal agency in
charge of the detention and removal of immigrants, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), contracts for two of the facilities to be run by the private
prison company the Corrections Corporation of America. In the case of Pinal
County Jail, ICE contracts with the county. ICE permitted the researchers access
to two of the three facilities, but declined requests to interview ICE
representatives or facility personnel for the report. Rabin met with ICE
representatives in December to discuss the report’s findings and
recommendations. Key findings of the report include: • Family separation: The
majority of women interviewed were separated from at least one U.S. citizen
child under the age of 10 and were transferred to Arizona from out of state. As
a result, they were hundreds or at times thousands of miles away from their
families and communities during their time in detention. • Severe penal
conditions for women who are not serving criminal sentences: Women described
conditions of confinement that are in many cases more restrictive than in county
jails or prisons, including limited access to recreation, a complete absence of
programming or activities, frugal provision of food and other supplies, and the
routine use of strip searches and shackling during transport. • Aggressive
government prosecution and detention of women who pose no security threat or
flight risk: Attorneys reported that ICE routinely appeals decisions to release
pregnant women on bond; rejects or does not respond to applications for
humanitarian parole of victims of domestic violence, refugees, or women with
serious health conditions; and refuses to reduce bonds for families unable to
pay. • Inadequate medical care: Women reported inadequate gynecological and
obstetrical care, long waits for medical attention, and dismissive responses to
medical requests. The report contains detailed recommendations for Congress, the
Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and the individual facilities researched.
Recommendations range from broad policy changes, including the need for
increased consideration of the impact of immigration detention on families, to
specific facility-level concerns, such as the lack of outdoor recreation in
Pinal County Jail. The report will be available beginning on January 13, 2009,
at http://www.law.arizona.edu/depts/clinics/ilc//UnseenPrisoners.pdf. For more
information, please contact Nina Rabin at (520) 621-9206 or rabin@email.arizona.edu.
December 19, 2008 West Central Tribune
Andrew Gordon Lemcke, 34, formerly of Appleton, appeared Friday afternoon
before District Judge David Mennis in Benson to face a Swift County grand jury’s
indictments on first-degree, premeditated murder and second-degree, intentional
murder in the Sept. 12, 2004, shooting death of his wife, Nichole Riley-Lemcke,
26. Lemcke’s family was able to post $10,000 bail for him by late afternoon and
allow for his conditional release, according to his attorney, Brian Wojtalewicz
of Appleton. Minnesota Assistant Attorney General William Klump asked the court
to set bail at $1 million, but Judge Mennis offered Lemcke two options. He could
post a $100,000 bond or $10,000 cash and be released on conditions that require
he not leave the state without the court’s approval. Or, he could post $1
million bond or $100,000 cash bail and be released without conditions. In asking
for $1 million bail, Klump argued that Lemcke represented a flight risk due to
his connections in Arizona and the possibility of fleeing into Mexico, as well
as the seriousness of the charges against him. A first-degree murder conviction
carries the possibility of life in prison, while a second-degree murder
conviction could result in a 40-year sentence. Wojtalewicz called the $1 million
bail request “absurd.’’ He said Lemcke desperately wanted to be reunited with
his 5-year-old daughter and poses no risk. He told the court that Lemcke was
returning from Scout camp with his daughter and was only one hour from the
Mexican border when Wojtalewicz called him on Nov. 16 to tell him that a grand
jury had indicted him on murder. Within two hours of the phone call, Lemcke had
arranged for his daughter’s care and turned himself in to the sheriff in Pinal
County, Ariz., according to Wojtalewicz. He also pointed out for the court that
a Swift County grand jury had heard testimony in the case in April 2005 and had
returned no bill of indictment. Lemcke has been working for the past two years
as a corrections officer with Corrections Corporation of America in Florence,
Ariz., owns a home there, and has not represented a threat to others or a flight
risk, Wojtalewicz said.
November 19, 2008 West Central Tribune
A Swift County grand jury has issued indictments for first- and
second-degree murder against Andrew Gordon Lemcke, 34, in the shooting of his
wife Nichole Riley-Lemcke in their Appleton home on Sept. 12, 2004. The
indictments against Lemcke were issued Monday and are now filed with the
Minnesota courts, according to the trial court public access system. The court
file lists charges of first-degree murder – premeditated and second-degree
murder – with intent not premeditated for an offense alleged to have been
committed. The grand jury had been convened last week and is believed to have
heard testimony Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before issuing the indictment on
Monday. The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office declined comment on Tuesday.
Spokesman Ben Wogsland said there was “nothing of a public nature’’ that he
could address. Swift County Attorney Robin Finke was in court and could not be
reached Tuesday afternoon. Previously, the county attorney said that grand jury
proceedings are secret and that his office could not comment in any respect
unless or until a defendant is presented with charges in district court. The
Pinal County Sheriff’s Office in Florence, Ariz., took Lemcke into custody under
a governor’s warrant on Nov. 16, according to its Web site. Lemcke has been
living in Florence, Ariz., where he has been employed as a correctional officer
with the Corrections Corporation of America facility, according to information
obtained during an earlier civil lawsuit filed against him by his late wife’s
family. Nichole Riley-Lemcke, 26, a mother of three, was shot in the Appleton
home she shared with Andrew Lemcke during the early morning hours of Sept. 12,
2004. Lemcke described the shooting as accidental in a letter to the editor
published after the incident.
November 7, 2008 Lawfuel
Juan Nunez, 39, of Coolidge, Ariz., was arrested by the FBI yesterday and
charged today with Attempted Provision of a Prohibited Object to an Inmate and
Possession of Cocaine With Intent to Distribute. Nunez is employed as a
corrections officer by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and currently
works at CCA’s Central Arizona Detention Center located in Florence, Ariz. The
CCA facility houses federal inmates per a contract with the federal government.
The criminal complaint alleges that since October 30, 2008, Nunez has been
negotiating with an inmate to bring cocaine into the facility from an outside
source on the inmate’s behalf. On November 6, 2008, Nunez met with an undercover
FBI agent acting as the outside source. During the meeting, Nunez accepted a ½
ounce of cocaine for the inmate and a $1,600 payment for agreeing to smuggle the
cocaine into the facility. Nunez was arrested immediately after he took
possession of the cocaine and money. At his initial appearance today in federal
court in Phoenix, Nunez was held over for a detention hearing set for Monday,
November 10th at 3:45 p.m. A conviction for Attempted Provision of a Prohibited
Object to an Inmate in this case carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in
federal prison, a $250,000 fine or both; and a conviction for Possession of
Cocaine With Intent to Distribute in this case carries a maximum penalty of 20
years in federal prison, a $1,000,000 fine or both. In determining an actual
sentence, the judge ultimately assigned to this case will consult the U.S.
Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges. The judge,
however, is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence. A criminal
complaint is simply the method by which a person is charged with criminal
activity and raises no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent
until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a
reasonable doubt.
February 23, 2007 The Arizona Republic
The parent company of the Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence has
agreed to pay more than $400,000 to settle findings of hiring discrimination.
U.S. Department of Labor investigators said the privately run prison's selection
process disproportionately rejected non-Hispanic job applicants who applied to
be correctional officers during a two-year period that ended in March 2005. The
prison has agreed to pay 464 former applicants an equal share of $438,626, or
$945.32 each, which includes back pay and interest. The prison will also hire 16
previously rejected applicants. The Corrections Corporation of America, which
manages the prison, said the settlement doesn't mean it violated federal
affirmative action law. "Although we continue to disagree with the position
taken by (the Labor Department), we have agreed to take certain steps to resolve
this matter," a company statement said. The investigation was the result of
routine audits that the Labor Department conducts with companies contracting
with the federal government. "We'll go in and we'll look at the job applicant
pool for more than one position, and we look at who applied for the jobs and who
was hired," spokeswoman Deanne Amaden said. "In this case, what we found was a
high disproportionate number of Hispanics were being hired. The result was that
the non-Hispanics were not getting that job opportunity." Corrections
Corporation of America has also agreed to immediately stop discriminatory
practices and undergo self-monitoring measures to ensure legal hiring practices,
according to the Labor Department.
November 11, 2006 Arizona Daily Star
A lockdown at the Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence has suspended
visitation as authorities conduct a routine search for contraband, said Gilbert
Carmona, assistant warden. "This is a yearly shakedown," he said Friday, but
declined to say if anything has been found. The detention center has about 3,000
inmates, Carmona said. The lockdown is expected to last about a week, he said.
Visitation will be resumed when the lockdown is lifted, he added. The
privately-run facility is owned by Corrections Corporation of America.
September 29, 2005 Casa Grande Valley News
Several employees at Central Arizona Detention Center used their mid- day break
last Thursday to have a piece of cake and congratulate a colleague on his
birthday. Harry J. Larson celebrated his 80th birthday while on the job as a
correctional officer. CADC Warden Bruno Stolc presented a plaque to Larson, who
has been with the private prison in Florence since June 2001. The warden
recalled in front of about 25 people assembled, how Larson recently helped pull
an aggressive inmate off another officer. "So Mr. Larson is not just
filling a spot. Mr. Larson is a correctional officer, and we're dang proud to
have him," Stolc said. Warden Stolc said while Larson is the oldest CADC
employee, he is not the oldest employee in CCA. Frank Deloria, an officer at the
company's Eden, Texas, prison is 83. The company also has a part- time
registered nurse who is 87, Stolc said.
December 7, 2004 Metropolitan News-Enterprise
A federal magistrate judge in Arizona should have
appointed a lawyer to represent an incarcerated immigrant suing a private jailer
over his treatment, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. It
was an abuse of discretion not to name counsel under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1915(e)(1)
for Emmanuel Senyo Agyeman in his civil rights suit, Senior Judge John T. Noonan
said. He was held at a variety of correctional facilities, included one
operated by a private contractor, Corrections Corporation of America. In his
lawsuit, he contended he was shackled, bound and beaten by CCA employees while
being transported for medical treatment in 1998. After a trial at which he
represented himself, a jury rejected his claims. The Ninth Circuit appointed a
lawyer to represented him in his appeal and yesterday vacated the judgment
resulting from the trial. Agyeman, Noonan explained, was under the misconception
that he could proceed against the individual CCA corrections officers under 42
U.S.C. Sec. 1983 as if they were state employees, while in fact their liability
could only be predicated on Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403
U.S. 388 (1971). The corporation itself, however, could not be subjected to
liability under Bivens, as Agyeman sought to do, Noonan said; instead, Agyeman
should have sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act and sought
to join CCA as a defendant. The plaintiff never succeeded in gaining access to
the federal regulations which, on appeal, CCA argued governed his treatment at
the time of the alleged incident, Noonan added. Without gaining access to the
federal prison regulations, Agyeman could not establish that the treatment he
alleged that he received was or was not contrary to what was required by the
United States as to noncriminal detainees. Without a lawyer, Agyeman not only
did not think of obtaining this information but did not advance any coherent
theory for subjecting Corrections Corporation to liability.”
In
addition to ascertaining a viable basis for liablility, a lawyer might have been
able to exploit the “anomaly of incarcerating a person on noncriminal charges
and confining him for seven years,” Noonan suggested. He elaborated: “Such
incarceration may be a cruel necessity of our immigration policy; but if it must
be done, the greatest care must be observed in not treating the innocent like a
dangerous criminal. Is there any warrant for shackling the feet and binding the
chest of an innocent detainee? It requires legal skill to frame this issue and
distinguish Agyeman’s case from that of the ordinary transferee—.”
Dolan Springs, Arizona
CCA
February 19, 2008 The Daily News
A proposed private prison near Dolan Springs was denied Tuesday by the Mohave
County supervisors. The supervisors denied a change to the county's general plan
and the Dolan Springs Area Plan for the prison. They also denied rezoning the
property from agricultural residential to general manufacturing. In December,
the planning and zoning commission also denied changing the general plan and the
area plan for the private prison as well as denying the rezoning the property.
Like at prior supervisor and planning and zoning commission meetings, dozens of
speakers, mostly Dolan Springs residents, opposed the prison. They cited the
amount of water a prison would use as the main issue. John Ford, who is running
for District 1 supervisor, said the will of most of the people in the community,
located about 45 miles north of Kingman, said no to the prison. The prison could
use up to 300,000 gallons a day, he said. Others spoke of how putting a prison
near a residential area would not be compatible with the surrounding properties.
Others questioned the prison builder's, Corrections Corporation of America,
record including the number of escapes, assaults and riots at CCA's other
prisons located in other states. Others did not want out-of-state prisoners
transferred to Mohave County. Bob Holsinger of Golden Valley said that inmates
are often dropped off and released nearby with a ticket back to their
jurisdiction. He also said the owners of a prison near Yucca promised the prison
would house low-risk inmates but it now houses higher-risk inmates. Kathy
Tackett- Hicks, who represents CCA, said the prison would have developed its own
water system. However, the firm would not guarantee a $250,000 contract with Mt.
Tipton Water Company.
Eloy Detention
Center
Eloy, Arizona
CCA
Officials Hid Truth of Immigrant Deaths in Jail by Nina Bernstein January 9,
2010 New York Times
August 21, 2009 New York Times
In the fall of 2006, a man’s death brought a team of government investigators to
the large privately run immigration jail in Eloy, Ariz., in the desert between
Phoenix and Tucson. Medical care was so poor, the team later warned federal
immigration officials, that “detainee welfare is in jeopardy.” Another death
there soon spurred another inquiry, and another scathing report was issued about
the care provided by the private company, the Corrections Corporation of
America. But the government scrutiny did not add up to much for Felix Franklin
Rodriguez-Torres, 36, an Ecuadorean construction worker who wound up in Eloy
that fall as an unauthorized immigrant after being jailed for petit larceny in
New York City. By mid-December, a fellow detainee told the man’s relatives, Mr.
Rodriguez lay pleading for medical help on the floor of his cell, unable to
move. He died weeks later of testicular cancer, a typically fast-growing but
treatable disease, which had gone undiagnosed and untreated during his two
months at Eloy, which holds more than 1,500 detainees. And despite a high-level
discussion of his case among federal immigration officials while he was dying —
captured in e-mail messages between Washington and Arizona — his death on Jan.
18, 2007, was not even listed on the roster of detention fatalities that the
agency produced under pressure last year and updated in April. His death, and
the damning reports that preceded it, are coming to light now only through a
Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. On
Monday, after inquiries about Mr. Rodriguez’s death by The New York Times, the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency added his name and nine others to the
public roster — including another unrecorded detainee death at Eloy in 2005. The
Rodriguez case echoes many others that have spurred demands for an overhaul of
the troubled and expanding realm of immigration detention. But in its details,
it underscores the daunting challenge facing the Obama administration as it
tries to improve detention conditions, starting with greater oversight of places
like Eloy. “The rampant problems of medical and mental health care aren’t just
going to go away if there’s more oversight,” said David Shapiro, a lawyer with
the A.C.L.U.’s National Prison Project, which has called for legally binding
rules on conditions in immigration detention. “There have to be consequences.”
The Corrections Corporation of America referred questions about Mr. Rodriguez’s
case to the immigration enforcement agency, which is part of the Department of
Homeland Security. Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the department, said the
administration had taken its first steps “to improve medical care, custodial
conditions, fiscal prudence and ICE’s critical oversight of the immigration
detention system, and we will find out why this death wasn’t reported properly.”
The administration’s long-term goal, announced this month as a
three-to-five-year plan, is a vastly different detention system, no smaller in
size, but less penal in character than the current sprawling mix of jail and
prison cells. At the same time, however, Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland
Security, is expanding immigration enforcement. And for now, officials said they
would continue to rely on the same prison companies and county jails to house
people facing possible deportation for immigration violations. In some ways, Mr.
Rodriguez’s case fits one of Ms. Napolitano’s priorities: detaining people
accused of immigration violations who are already in jail for a crime. Records
show that Mr. Rodriguez, who had entered the United States on a visitor’s visa
in 1998 to represent Ecuador in a karate tournament, was transferred to
immigration authorities on Nov. 8, 2006, after serving five months at Rikers
Island. He had been accused of joining several other men in robbing an
acquaintance after a Saturday of soccer and beer in Corona, Queens. Though he
pleaded guilty to petit larceny, he maintained his innocence even on his
deathbed, said his father, Felix Rodriguez, a legal resident who has been a
deliveryman for a Manhattan jewelry company for 15 years. “I understand a
prisoner shouldn’t be on a golden bed, but a prisoner is a human being,” the
father said in Spanish. “He at least deserves respect when he is so sick he
can’t even eat.” By the time the ailing detainee was taken to the emergency room
at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, on Dec. 27, 2006, he had a mass in his
neck that had “tripled in size” and obstructed his breathing, according to a
government accounting form summarizing his care. Too far gone for chemotherapy,
he was soon placed on life support, and he died when it was disconnected. But
even while he was dying, a draft synopsis of his case was already circulating in
Washington among high-level officials at the immigration agency. It stated that
the detainee had been seen by the Eloy medical staff “on numerous occasions,”
and first complained of a sore neck on Dec. 25. In their exchanges about the
case, officials did not question why the medical staff had failed to recognize
symptoms of cancer. Just weeks earlier, the agency’s own investigations had
linked two Eloy deaths to inadequate medical staffing by the Corrections
Corporation, which was then reaping record profits from stepped-up immigration
enforcement. “Medical care in this facility does not meet ICE standards,” the
first investigating team wrote to John P. Torres, director of detention and
removal operations, after looking into the suicide of a 32-year-old Guatemalan
detainee there on Sept. 29, 2006. They noted that a sick call request from the
Guatemalan, Jose Lopez-Gregario, had been ignored for a week, even though he was
on suicide watch and known to be despondent. The medical staff — “overwhelmed
due to a sudden loss of veteran staff” — apparently assumed he had already been
deported. Cut off from care in an isolation cell and racked with guilt that he
had left his family without enough food, he hanged himself. A second team
assessed Eloy again after a 27-year-old Colombian was found unconscious in an
isolation cell at Eloy on Dec. 6, 2006; an “unwitnessed seizure” left him
brain-dead. The investigators not only found fault with the way his individual
case had been handled, but also documented systemic problems with the
administration of medical care — in contrast to routine audits, in which Eloy,
like most detention centers, was typically rated “acceptable” on a checklist.
“The facility has failed on multiple levels to perform basic supervision and
provide for the safety and welfare of ICE detainees,” the investigators wrote.
The Colombian, Mario Chavez-Torres, had shown symptoms of bleeding on the brain,
and should have been sent for outside evaluation, the report said; a week after
his written request for medical attention for “headaches, dizziness and
vomiting,” he collapsed in the shower. A call for medical help by a guard was
answered an hour later by a vocational nurse who told the guard: “I’m not
qualified. To be honest, I’m just a pill-pusher.” That lone nurse on the night
shift was responsible for distributing medication to 300 chronically ill
detainees in a population of 1,500, the report said. The first report had warned
that most of the seasoned medical staff left Eloy that fall, months before a
planned takeover of its medical unit by ICE’s Division of Immigration Health in
2007. But immigration authorities had continued to send detainees to Eloy, and
Mr. Rodriguez was among them. To his sister Janneth Montesdeoca, who lives in
Ozone Park, Queens, Mr. Rodriguez, an athlete, seemed healthy until just before
his transfer to immigration authorities. On her last visit to Rikers, she
noticed that his head seemed swollen. Considering his dire condition two months
later, the swelling was most likely a sign that cancer was blocking his lymph
system, said physicians consulted for this article, adding that it should have
been caught in a full medical exam. Both reports had noted that though all
immigration detainees are supposed to get a medical exam within 14 days of
admission, timely exams were not being performed at Eloy that fall. Most
testicular cancer is fast-growing, said Dr. David Weiner, a urologist at
Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan, but even after spreading, “it’s a very
treatable cancer in the vast majority of cases.” In a phone call to his mother
from Eloy on Dec. 18, 2006, Mr. Rodriguez said he had seen the doctor there many
times, complaining of coughing and fever. He promised to telephone again at
Christmas. When he did not, his worried family repeatedly contacted his
deportation officer, who kept assuring them that Mr. Rodriguez was fine, said
his brother-in-law, Leonardo Montesdeoca, a United States citizen who is a
software supervisor for the Metropolitan Transit Authority. As the family tells
it, they learned the truth about a week after Mr. Rodriguez had been taken to
the hospital, in a call from a fellow detainee. “He said Franklin was very, very
sick,” Mr. Montesdeoca said. “They would call the attention of the guards and
they would just ignore, they would look the other way. He got to the point where
he didn’t move anymore.” Records show that on Jan. 12, 2007, the hospital told
the detention company that he had as little as a week to live. But his sister
says the deportation officer would not tell them where Mr. Rodriguez had been
hospitalized. Instead, relatives said, he offered to release the detainee to
their care if they paid for a plane ticket to New York — a plan derailed,
apparently, because the patient was too sick to travel. It was a phone call from
Mr. Rodriguez that brought the family to his deathbed. Against the rules, a
nurse had lent him her cellphone. “If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have known
if my son was dead or alive,” said his mother, Maria Torres, who lives in
Queens. “I give thanks to that nurse, even now.” His face lit up when he saw his
parents arrive the next day, Mr. Montesdeoca said. They were able to speak for a
few hours before the two detention guards at his bedside cut off the visit. But
when the family returned the next morning, he was in a coma. A few days later,
they agreed to discontinue life support. E-mail messages about his impending
death had already ricocheted between Washington and Arizona. “Thanks for the
advance notice,” one official wrote from a BlackBerry after receiving the draft
synopsis on Jan. 17, and sending a copy on to John Torres, the director of
detention and removal for the agency, and Gary E. Mead, the deputy. Dr. Gene A.
Migliaccio, director of the agency’s Immigration Health Services, was asked “to
reach out to Phoenix” and “to ensure that proper protocols are followed.” One of
his employees followed up by asking if anyone had the Eloy medical records:
“When this detainee is taken off life support, may I get a copy for my death
chart?” But there is no evidence that the medical records were ever collected.
The death was automatically referred to the immigration agency’s Office of
Professional Responsibility in Washington, which simply sent it back to the
Phoenix field office for an internal management review. In March 2007, the
matter was closed after the local office filed its conclusions in three
sentences: the detainee had died of aggressive cancer, the matter had been
handled appropriately, and there was no evidence of negligence. The same month,
a report by Homeland Security’s inspector general on the death of the Columbian
detainee found no evidence of foul play or inadequate response. But at least two
more detainees died at Eloy in 2008 — a 41-year-old Iraqi and a 52-year-old man
from Ghana. Mr. Rodriguez’s ashes were mailed to his mother, and when she
visited relatives in Ecuador, she carried them back for burial. “I never want
another immigrant to feel this pain,” she said. “Not knowing what to do, his
suffering and no way of getting him help.”
August 18, 2009 Phoenix Arizona News
More immigrants have died in custody at the detention center in Eloy than at
any other facility in the country. Records from the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement Agency show that nine immigrants have died while in custody at Eloy
since 2003, two more than reported at any other facility where immigrants have
died. The nine deaths represent about 9 percent of the total 104 immigrants who
have died while in government custody since 2003, according to an analysis by
The Arizona Republic. Neither ICE nor prison officials could speak immediately
Tuesday to the the number of deaths at the Eloy facility, which is run by
Corrections Corporation of America under contract with the federal government.
"While I'm not going to comment on specific facilities, I will say generally
that the detention reforms recently announced by ICE...will improve medical
care, custodial conditions, fiscal prudence and critical federal oversight of
the immigration detention system," said ICE Public Affairs Officer Gillian
Brigham in Washington D.C. Two of the deaths at Eloy -- Elias Lopez, a Mexican
national who died Jan. 4, 2005, and Felix Rodriguez-Torres, a Ecuadorian
national who died Jan. 18, 2007 -- were among 10 people whose in-custody deaths
were previously unreported. ICE officials said Monday that the discovery of the
10 deaths was prompting "an agency-wide review of all documents and databases to
ensure the integrity of ICE’s records on detainee deaths." Records show that
eight of the 10 died of natural causes, one committed suicide and one was
unknown. Records relating to circumstances involving the deaths of immigrants
detained at Eloy are so far unavailable. But records do show that one of the men
died at the Maricopa County Medical Center and another at St. Mary's Hospital in
Tucson. The facility at Eloy houses 1,500 immigrants, all of whom are facing
civil immigration cases and deportation. According to The Republic's analysis,
seven immigrants died while in custody at the Columbia Care Center in Columbia,
SC, where ICE runs a mental health facility. There were four deaths each at
facilities in San Pedro, Calif., and Springfield, Mo. "It is definitely
concerning that there have been nine deaths at Eloy," said Victoria Lopez,
immigration rights advocate for the American Civil Liberties union in Phoenix.
"It is especially concerning when some of those deaths have gone unreported."
The release of the death list was sparked by an ACLU lawsuit under the Freedom
of Information Act asking for a comprehensive list of deaths in 2007. In April,
the Department of Homeland Security released a list of 90 individuals who died
while in custody. The ACLU maintains that deficient medical care is "believed to
be a leading cause of death in immigration detention, and is the number one
complaint the ACLU has received from ICE detainees."
August 17, 2009 New York Times
More than one in 10 deaths in immigration detention in the last six years have
been overlooked and were omitted from an official list of detainee fatalities
issued to Congress in March, the Obama administration said Monday. The
administration added 10 previously unreported deaths to the official roster and
disclosed an 11th, which occurred Friday: that of Huluf Guangule Negusse, a
24-year-old Ethiopian. Mr. Negusse died from the effects of an Aug. 3 suicide
attempt in the Wakulla County correctional facility near Tallahassee, Fla. What
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials call “the death roster” stands at
104 since October 2003, up from the 90 that were on the list the agency gave to
Congress this spring. The latest search for records began late last month,
officials said, when Freedom of Information litigation by the American Civil
Liberties Union uncovered one of the 10 deaths that had gone unreported — that
of Felix Franklin Rodriguez-Torres, 36, an Ecuadorean who settled in New York
and died of testicular cancer on Jan. 18, 2007, after being detained two months
at an immigration jail run for profit by the Corrections Corporation of America
in Eloy, Ariz. On Saturday, after inquiries about that case by The New York
Times, the new chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, John Morton, issued
a directive for field offices to make sure that other deaths had not been
overlooked, a spokesman said. David Shapiro, staff lawyer with the A.C.L.U.
National Prison Project, said: “Today’s announcement is a tragic confirmation of
our worst fears. Our nation’s immigration detention system has been plagued by a
total lack of transparency and accountability, and even with today’s
announcement there is no way we can be fully confident that there are not still
more deaths that somehow have gone unaccounted for.”
January 13, 2009 Press Release
A report released today by the Southwest Institute for Research on Women and
the Bacon Immigration Law and Policy Program describes harsh conditions of
confinement for the roughly three hundred women housed in immigration detention
facilities in Arizona. The report, Unseen Prisoners: A Report on Women in
Immigration Detention Facilities in Arizona, is based on over a year of
research, including over 40 interviews with detainees, their family members,
attorneys, and service providers. “Few people realize that we are locking up
huge numbers of immigrants every day and holding them for months and in some
cases years at a time. They are not being punished for a crime, and yet they are
held in facilities that are identical to, and often double as, prisons or
jails,” said Nina Rabin, the lead researcher and author of the report. “Women
immigration detainees in particular are an invisible population. We hope this
report will raise awareness about women locked up just an hour away from here in
conditions that would shock most Americans. We also hope to raise awareness
about the U.S. citizen children separated from their mothers right now because
of immigration detention.” The report provides detailed information about
day-to-day life in the three facilities that house women immigration detainees
in Arizona: Central Arizona Detention Center, Pinal County Jail, and Eloy
Detention Center. Rabin and several University of Arizona law students conducted
interviews and extensive background research for the report over a twelve month
period between August 2007 and August 2008. Rabin described the study’s
participants: “In our small sample size of detainees who agreed to participate
in this research study, we encountered pregnant and nursing mothers, domestic
violence victims, low-wage workers swept up in worksite raids, and
asylum-seekers fleeing persecution and sexual violence.” The federal agency in
charge of the detention and removal of immigrants, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), contracts for two of the facilities to be run by the private
prison company the Corrections Corporation of America. In the case of Pinal
County Jail, ICE contracts with the county. ICE permitted the researchers access
to two of the three facilities, but declined requests to interview ICE
representatives or facility personnel for the report. Rabin met with ICE
representatives in December to discuss the report’s findings and
recommendations. Key findings of the report include: • Family separation: The
majority of women interviewed were separated from at least one U.S. citizen
child under the age of 10 and were transferred to Arizona from out of state. As
a result, they were hundreds or at times thousands of miles away from their
families and communities during their time in detention. • Severe penal
conditions for women who are not serving criminal sentences: Women described
conditions of confinement that are in many cases more restrictive than in county
jails or prisons, including limited access to recreation, a complete absence of
programming or activities, frugal provision of food and other supplies, and the
routine use of strip searches and shackling during transport. • Aggressive
government prosecution and detention of women who pose no security threat or
flight risk: Attorneys reported that ICE routinely appeals decisions to release
pregnant women on bond; rejects or does not respond to applications for
humanitarian parole of victims of domestic violence, refugees, or women with
serious health conditions; and refuses to reduce bonds for families unable to
pay. • Inadequate medical care: Women reported inadequate gynecological and
obstetrical care, long waits for medical attention, and dismissive responses to
medical requests. The report contains detailed recommendations for Congress, the
Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and the individual facilities researched.
Recommendations range from broad policy changes, including the need for
increased consideration of the impact of immigration detention on families, to
specific facility-level concerns, such as the lack of outdoor recreation in
Pinal County Jail. The report will be available beginning on January 13, 2009,
at http://www.law.arizona.edu/depts/clinics/ilc//UnseenPrisoners.pdf. For more
information, please contact Nina Rabin at (520) 621-9206 or rabin@email.arizona.edu.
May 11, 2008 Washington Post
Neil Sampson, who ran the DIHS as interim director most of last year, left that
job with serious questions about the government's commitment. Sampson said in an
interview that ICE treated detainee health care "as an afterthought," reflecting
what he called a failure of leadership and management at the Homeland Security
Department. "They do not have a clear idea or philosophy of their approach to
health care [for detainees]," he said. "It's a system failure, not a failure of
individuals." A new director for health services arrived six months ago,
following a stretch when the agency was run first by Sampson and then by a
second interim director. The new boss is LaMont W. Flanagan, who brought with
him the credential of having been fired in 2003 by the state of Maryland for bad
management and spending practices supervising detention and pretrial services.
An audit found that Flanagan had signed off on payments of $145,000 for employee
entertainment and other ill-advised expenditures. His reputation was such that
the District of Columbia would not hire him for a juvenile-justice position.
"Another death that needs to be added to the roster," Diane Aker, the DIHS chief
health administrator, tapped out in an e-mail to a records clerk at headquarters
on Aug. 14, 2007. Juan Guevara-Lorano, 21, was dead. Guevara, an unemployed
legal U.S. resident with a young son, was arrested in El Paso for driving
illegal border-crossers farther into the city. He was paid $50. An entry-level
emergency medical technician, with barely any training, had done Guevara's
intake screening and physical assessment at the Otero County immigration
compound in New Mexico. Under DIHS rules, those tasks are supposed to be done by
a nurse. After two difficult months in detention, Guevara had decided not to
appeal his case. He would go back to Mexico with his family. But on Aug. 4, he
came down with a splitting headache, what he called a nine on a pain scale of
10, his medical records show. The rookie medical technician prescribed Tylenol
and referred Guevara to the compound's physician "due to severity of headache
... and dizziness," according to medical records. But Guevara never saw a
doctor. Eight days after the first incident, he vomited in his cell. The same
junior technician came to help but was unable to insert a nasal airway tube.
Guevara was taken to a hospital, where doctors determined an aneurism in his
brain had burst. His wife, pregnant at the time with their second child,
recalled that she rushed to the hospital but ICE guards would not let her
inside, until the Mexican Consulate interceded. Guevara's mother waited five
hours before they let her in. By then he was brain-dead. "My son is not coming
back," sobbed Ana Celia Lozano months later, sitting in Guevara's small mobile
home as her grandson played on the floor. "I want to know how he lived and died,
nothing more." What appears to be the most incriminating document in Guevara's
case has been partially blacked out. Still, what is left shows that he did not
receive adequate care. "The detainee was not seen or evaluated by an RN,
midlevel or physician. . . . At the time of the incident on 8/12/2007, the
detainee was seen and examined by EMTs." Each immigration facility is allotted a
different number of positions, and a shortage of doctors and nurses is not
unusual at centers across the country. Records from February show that about 30
percent of all DIHS positions in the field were unfilled. ICE officials said
last week that the current vacancy rate is 21 percent. Concern about the
vacancies is voiced repeatedly at clinical directors' meetings. "How do we state
our concerns so that we can be heard? . . . this is a CRITICAL condition. . . .
We have bitten off more than we can chew," a physician wrote in the minutes of
one meeting last summer. In some prisons, the staffing shortages are acute. The
Willacy County detention center in South Texas -- the largest compound, with
2,018 detainees -- has no clinical director, no pharmacist and only a part-time
psychiatrist. Nearly 50 percent of the nursing positions were unfilled at the
1,500-detainee Eloy, Ariz., prison in February. At the newly opened 744-bed
Jena., La., compound, nurses run the place. It has no clinical director, no
staff physician, no psychiatrist and no professional dental staff. Last August,
Sampson, who was then DIHS interim director, warned his superiors at ICE that
critical personnel shortages were making it impossible to staff the Jena
facility adequately. In a vociferous e-mail to Gary Mead, the ICE deputy
director in charge of detention centers, he wrote: "With the Jena request we
have been re-examining our capabilities to meet health care needs at a new site
when we are facing critical staffing shortages at most every other DIHS site.
While we developed, executed and achieved major successes in our recruitment
efforts we have been unable to meet the demand." The slow ICE security-clearance
process forced many job applicants to go elsewhere, Sampson wrote. Of the 312
people who applied for new positions over the past year, 200 withdrew, he wrote,
because they found other jobs during the 250 days it took ICE, on average, to
conduct the required background investigations. Last week, ICE officials said
the average wait had decreased recently to 37 days. These shortages have
burdened the remaining staff. In July 2007, a year after Osman's death in Otay
Mesa, medical director Hui strongly complained to headquarters about workload
stress. "The level of burnout . . . is high and rising," she wrote in an e-mail.
"I know that I have been averaging approximately 2-6 hrs of overtime daily for
the past 2 months. I will no longer be able to sustain this pace and will be
decreasing the number of hours that I work overtime. This being said, more will
be left undone because we simply do NOT have the staff." The overcrowding has
created a petri dish for the spread of diseases. One mission of the Public
Health Service is to detect infectious diseases and contain them before they
spread, but last summer, the gigantic Willacy center was hit by a chicken pox
outbreak. The illness spread because the facility did not have enough available
isolation rooms and its large pods share recycled air, but also because security
officers "lack education about the disease and keep moving around detainees from
different units without taking into consideration if the unit has been isolated
due to heavy exposure," noted the DIHS's top specialist on infectious diseases,
Carlos Duchesne. The staff was forced to vaccinate the entire population in
mid-July. In one 2007 death, memos and confidential notes show how medical staff
missed an infectious disease, meningitis, in their midst. Victor Alfonso
Arellano, 23, a transgender Mexican detainee with AIDS, died in custody at the
San Pedro center. The first three pages of Duchesne's internal review of the
death leave the impression that Arellano's care was proper. But the last page,
under the heading "Off the record observations and recommendations," takes a
decidedly critical tone: "The clinical staff at all levels fails to recognize
early signs and symptoms of meningitis. . . . Pt was evaluated multiple times
and an effort to rule out those infections was not even mentioned." Arellano was
given a "completely useless" antibiotic, Duchesne wrote. Lab work that should
have been performed immediately took 22 days because San Pedro's clinical
director had ordered staff members to withhold lab work for new detainees until
they had been in detention there "for more than 30 days," a violation of agency
rules. "I am sure that there must be a reason why this was mandated but that
practice is particularly dangerous with chronic care cases and specially is
particularly dangerous with . . . HIV/AIDS patients," Duchesne wrote. "Labs for
AIDS patients . . . must be performed ASAP to know their immune status and where
you are standing in reference to disease control and meds." Given the frequency
with which ICE moves people within the detention network, keeping track of
detainees is critical to stopping the spread of infectious illnesses. The
purchase of an electronic records system named CaseTrakker in 2004 was supposed
to help. But according to internal documents and interviews, CaseTrakker is so
riddled with problems that facilities often revert to handwritten records. A
study at one site found that it took one-third more time to use CaseTrakker than
to use paper. Thousands of patient files are missing. Recorded data often cannot
be retrieved. Day-long outages are common. When detainees are transferred from
one facility to another, their records, if they follow them, are often
misleading. Some show medications with no medical diagnoses, or "lots of
diagnoses but no meds," according to Elizabeth Fleming, a former clinical
director at one compound in Arizona. After Yusif Osman's death and the discovery
of the problem with his computerized records, the DIHS ordered a review of all
charts at the Otay Mesa center. During the review, auditors also found that 260
physical exams were never completed as required. The nurse responsible for the
error in Osman's case was reprimanded, but the computer problem was not fixed.
The CaseTrakker system "has failed and must be replaced," Sampson, the DIHS
interim director, wrote to his ICE supervisors in August. In January 2008,
medical director Shack told colleagues that CaseTrakker "is more of a liability
than the use of paper medical record system," according to the minutes of a
meeting. It "puts patients at risk." ICE officials said last week that they are
not satisfied with CaseTrakker and are working to replace it. Along with being
at the mercy of computer glitches, detainees suffer from human errors that deny
or delay their care. And with few advocates on the outside, they are left alone
to plead their cases in the most desperate ways, in hand-scribbled notes to
doctors they rarely see. "I need medicine for pain. All my bones hurt. Thank
you," wrote Mexico native Roberto Ledesma Guerrero, 72, three weeks before he
died inside the Otay Mesa compound. Delays persist throughout the system. In
January, the detention center in Pearsall, Tex., an hour from San Antonio, had a
backlog of 2,097 appointments. Luis Dubegel-Paez, a 60-year-old Cuban, had
filled out many sick call requests before he died on March 14. Detained at the
Rolling Plains Detention Facility in the West Texas town of Haskell, he wrote on
New Year's Day: "need to see doctor for Heart medication; and having chest pains
for the past three days. Can't stand pain." Ten days later he went to the clinic
and became upset when he wasn't seen. He slugged the window, yelled, pointed at
his wristwatch. He was escorted back to his cell. Another of his sick call
requests said: "Need to see a doctor. I have a lot of symptoms of sickness ...
as soon as possible!" The next was more urgent: "I have a emergency to see the
doctor about my heart problems ... for the last couple days and I been getting
dizzy a lot." The next day, Dubegel-Paez collapsed and died. His medical records
do not show that he ever saw a doctor for his chest pains.
May 5, 2008 New York Times
The four sons of Maya Nand, 56, are still haunted by the last collect call he
made to them from an immigration detention center in Eloy, Ariz. “This was the
first time we ever heard our dad cry,” said one, Jay Ashis Nand, 25. “He said,
‘Son, if you don’t get me out of here today, I’m going to die.’ ” Mr. Nand, a
legal immigrant from Fiji who was diabetic, had been calling his family with
mounting desperation over a 10-day period, the sons said. Already ailing when he
was abruptly taken into custody at the family’s home in Sacramento early in the
morning of Jan. 13, 2005, he had deteriorated after a week at the Arizona
detention center, which is run for the federal government by Corrections
Corporation of America, a publicly traded prison company. “He felt a lot of pain
in his heart,” Jay Ashis said. “He would stand up all night because he couldn’t
breathe.” The sons, all naturalized American citizens, said their father told
them that the medical staff at Eloy did not take his condition seriously, and
that when he could barely walk, guards would tell him to stop faking. The sons
kept calling the center to plead for medical attention, they said, but could get
through only to an answering machine. They said they hired a lawyer to reach the
warden, but nothing changed. And in their father’s last call, it seemed his life
was hanging in the balance. That he was being detained at all was hard for the
family to understand. Mr. Nand, whose forefathers were brought to Fiji from
India as slaves by the British, had waited 10 years so he could move the family
legally to the United States, in November 1998. A former civil servant, he
struggled to find work as an architectural draftsman, and eventually applied for
United States citizenship. It was the rejection of his citizenship application,
because of a 2002 misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence, that apparently
prompted his arrest. The misdemeanor was the lone blot on his record, his sons
said, and had been resolved to the court’s satisfaction with a year of anger
management classes. But immigration authorities considered it grounds for
deportation. And instead of summoning him by letter to immigration court, where
he could have fought to stay in the United States, immigration agents arrested
him without warning and shipped him to detention in another state. On Jan. 25,
2005, the day after Mr. Nand’s last call from Eloy, about midway between Phoenix
and Tucson, he was found slumped in the lobby of the detention center’s clinic
suffering cardiac arrest, said his second son, Jay Pranawnip Nand, 27. Then he
was taken by ambulance to an emergency room in Casa Grande, Ariz., where,
according to a letter to the family from an immigration official, doctors
diagnosed congestive heart failure and later a heart attack. He was airlifted to
a hospital in Tucson, on life support. After driving 12 hours to get to the
hospital, the sons and their mother, Malti, said they watched helplessly as Mr.
Nand’s damaged heart failed. He died Feb. 2, shackled to the bed. Asked about
Mr. Nand’s treatment, Corrections Corporation officials said in a written
statement that he had been medically screened when he arrived at the Eloy
center, seen and treated “multiple times” by its medical staff, and taken to a
hospital. According to a government list of deaths in immigration custody, Mr.
Nand was one of five detainees to die at Eloy within a 26-month period; none of
the deaths have previously been brought to public attention. “After the funeral,
I was like, ‘I want to sue the hell out of them,’ ” Jay Pranawnip said. “I don’t
want money. I just want them to realize what they have done and change the
policy, because there are people dying.” But he said an inexperienced lawyer who
took the case dropped it a year later without having filed anything. After
hunting fruitlessly for a replacement, the family gave up. “Just talking about
it now, I’ve got goose bumps,” he added. “I’ve got rage and anger and sorrow at
the same time.”
May 5, 2008 New York Times
Word spread quickly inside the windowless walls of the Elizabeth Detention
Center, an immigration jail in New Jersey: A detainee had fallen, injured his
head and become incoherent. Guards had put him in solitary confinement, and late
that night, an ambulance had taken him away more dead than alive. But outside,
for five days, no official notified the family of the detainee, Boubacar Bah, a
52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had overstayed a tourist visa. When frantic
relatives located him at University Hospital in Newark on Feb. 5, 2007, he was
in a coma after emergency surgery for a skull fracture and multiple brain
hemorrhages. He died there four months later without ever waking up, leaving
family members on two continents trying to find out why. Mr. Bah’s name is one
of 66 on a government list of deaths that occurred in immigration custody from
January 2004 to November 2007, when nearly a million people passed through. The
list, compiled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Congress demanded
the information, and obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of
Information Act, is the fullest accounting to date of deaths in immigration
detention, a patchwork of federal centers, county jails and privately run
prisons that has become the nation’s fastest-growing form of incarceration. The
list has few details, and they are often unreliable, but it serves as a rough
road map to previously unreported cases like Mr. Bah’s. And it reflects a
reality that haunts grieving families like his: the difficulty of getting
information about the fate of people taken into immigration custody, even when
they die. Mr. Bah’s relatives never saw the internal records labeled
“proprietary information — not for distribution” by the Corrections Corporation
of America, which runs the New Jersey detention center for the federal
government. The documents detail how he was treated by guards and government
employees: shackled and pinned to the floor of the medical unit as he moaned and
vomited, then left in a disciplinary cell for more than 13 hours, despite
repeated notations that he was unresponsive and intermittently foaming at the
mouth. Mr. Bah had lived in New York for a decade, surrounded by a large circle
of friends and relatives. The extravagant gowns he sewed to support his wife and
children in West Africa were on display in a Manhattan boutique. But he died in
a sequestered system where questions about what had happened to him, or even his
whereabouts, were met with silence. As the country debates stricter enforcement
of immigration laws, thousands of people who are not American citizens are being
locked up for days, months or years while the government decides whether to
deport them. Some have no valid visa; some are legal residents, but have past
criminal convictions; others are seeking asylum from persecution. Death is a
reality in any jail, and the medical neglect of inmates is a perennial issue.
But far more than in the criminal justice system, immigration detainees and
their families lack basic ways to get answers when things go wrong. No
government body is required to keep track of deaths and publicly report them. No
independent inquiry is mandated. And often relatives who try to investigate the
treatment of those who died say they are stymied by fear of immigration
authorities, lack of access to lawyers, or sheer distance. Federal officials say
deaths are reviewed internally by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which
reports them to its inspector general and decides which ones warrant
investigation. Officials say they notify the detainee’s next of kin or
consulate, and report the deaths to local medical authorities, who may conduct
autopsies. In Mr. Bah’s case, a review before his death found no evidence of
foul play, an immigration spokesman said, though after later inquiries from The
Times, he said a full review of the death was under way. But critics, including
many in Congress, say this piecemeal process leaves too much to the agency’s
discretion, allowing some deaths to be swept under the rug while potential
witnesses are transferred or deported. They say it also obscures underlying
complaints about medical care, abusive conditions or inadequate suicide
prevention. In January, the House passed a bill that would require states that
receive certain federal money to report deaths in custody to their attorneys
general. But the bill is stalled in the Senate, and it does not cover federal
facilities. The only tangible result of Congressional concern has been the list
of 66 deaths, which names Mr. Bah and many other detainees for the first time,
but raises as many questions as it answers. For Mr. Bah’s survivors, the mystery
of his death is hard to bear. In Guinea, his first wife, Dalanda, wept as she
spoke about the contradictory accounts that had reached her and her two teenage
sons through other detainees, including some who speculated that Mr. Bah had
been beaten. In New York, a cousin who is an American citizen, Khadidiatou Bah,
38, said she was unable to bring a lawsuit, in part because other relatives were
afraid of antagonizing the authorities. “They don’t want to push the case, or
maybe they will be sent home,” she said. “This guy was killed, and we don’t know
what happened.” Lingering Questions -- The list of deaths where Mr. Bah’s name
surfaced is often cryptic. Along with 13 deaths cited as suicides and 14 as the
result of cardiac ailments, it offers such causes as “undetermined” and
“unwitnessed arrest, epilepsy.” No one’s nationality is given, some places of
detention are omitted, and some names and birth dates seem garbled. As a result,
many families could not be tracked down for this article. But when they could
be, they posed more disturbing questions. In California, relatives of Walter
Rodriguez-Castro, 28, said they were rebuffed when they tried to find out why
his calls had stopped coming from the Kern County Jail in Bakersfield in April
2006. Then in June, his wife went to his scheduled hearing in San Francisco’s
immigration court and learned that he had been dead for many weeks, his body
unclaimed in the county morgue. The coroner found that Mr. Rodriguez-Castro, a
mover from El Salvador in the country illegally, had died of undiagnosed
meningitis and H.I.V., after days complaining of fever, stiff neck and vomiting.
The cause of death on the government’s list: “unresponsive.” Immigration
authorities said on Friday that the case was now under review, but would not
answer questions about it or other deaths on the list. Sgt. Ed Komin, a
spokesman for the jail, said the death had been promptly reported to immigration
officials, who were responsible for notifying families. Four sons in another
family, in Sacramento, described trying for days to get medical care for their
father, Maya Nand, a 56-year-old legal immigrant from Fiji, at a detention
center run by the Corrections Corporation in Eloy, Ariz. Mr. Nand, an
architectural draftsman, had been ailing when he was taken into custody on Jan.
13, 2005, apparently because his application for citizenship had been rejected,
based on an earlier conviction for misdemeanor domestic violence. In collect
calls, the sons said, he told them that despite his chest pains and breathing
problems, doctors at the detention center did not take his condition seriously.
The Corrections Corporation said he had been seen and treated “multiple times.”
But a letter to the family from an immigration official said his treatment was
for a respiratory infection. The letter said that Mr. Nand was taken to an
emergency room on Jan. 25, where congestive heart failure was diagnosed, and
that he “suffered an apparent heart attack while at the hospital.” He died on
Feb. 2, 2005, shackled to a hospital bed in Tucson. Boubacar Bah had more going
for him than many detainees. He had a lawyer and many friends and relatives in
the United States, and his detention center in New Jersey was one of the few
frequented by immigrant advocates. But three days after he suffered a head
injury in detention last year, no one in his New York circle knew that he was
lying comatose in a Newark hospital, where he had already been identified as a
possible organ donor. “Thank you for the referral,” an organ-sharing network
wrote on Feb. 3, 2007, according to hospital records. “This patient is a
potential candidate for organ donation once brain death criteria is met.” Four
days after the fall, tipped off by a detainee who called Mr. Bah’s roommate in
Brooklyn, relatives rushed to the detention center to ask Corrections
Corporation employees where he was. “They wouldn’t give us any information,”
said Lamine Dieng, an American citizen who teaches physics at Bronx Community
College and is married to Mr. Bah’s cousin Khadidiatou. On the fifth day, they
said, a detention official called them with the name of the hospital. There they
found Mr. Bah on life support, still in custody, with a detention guard around
the clock. “There was one guard who knew Boubacar,” Ms. Bah said. “He told me on
the down-low: ‘This guy, you have to fight for him. This guy was neglected.’ ”
Within the week, word of the case reached a reporter at The Times, through an
immigration lawyer who had received separate calls from two detainees; they were
upset about a badly injured man — named “something like Aboubakar” — left in an
isolation cell and later found near death. But advocacy groups said they were
unaware of the case. And Michael Gilhooly, the spokesman for Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, said that without the man’s full name and eight-digit alien
registration number, he could not check the information. For those who knew Mr.
Bah, it was hard to understand how such a man could lie dying without
explanations. “Everybody liked Boubacar,” said Sadio Diallo, 48, who has a
tailor shop in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he and Mr. Bah had shared an apartment
with fellow immigrants since arriving in 1998. “He’s a very, very, very good
man.” For six years, Mr. Bah had worked for L’Impasse, a clothing store in the
West Village, sewing dresses that sold for up to $2,000 with what a former
manager, Abdul Sall, called his “magic hands.” Mr. Bah often spent Sundays at
the Bronx townhouse his cousins had inherited from the family’s first American
citizen, a seaman who arrived in 1943. In Africa, Mr. Bah’s earnings not only
supported his first wife, sons and ailing mother, but in Guinean tradition,
allowed him to wed a second wife, long distance. It was his longing to see them
all again after eight years that landed him in detention. When he returned from
a three-month visit to Guinea in May 2006, immigration authorities at Kennedy
Airport told him that his green card application had been denied while he was
away, automatically revoking his permission to re-enter the United States. An
immigration lawyer hired by his friends was unable to reopen the application
while Mr. Bah waited for nine months in detention, records showed. Mr. Bah died
on May 30, 2007, after four months in a coma. His lawyer, Theodore Vialet,
requested detention reports and hospital records under the Freedom of
Information Act. But by the time the records arrived last autumn, the idea of a
lawsuit had been dropped. So Mr. Vialet just filed the records away — until a
reporter’s call about a name on the list of dead detainees prompted him to dig
them out. After the Fall -- There are 57 pages of documents, some neatly typed
by medics, some scrawled by guards. Some quote detainees who said Mr. Bah was
ailing for two days before his fall on Feb. 1, and asked in vain to see a
doctor. The records leave unclear exactly when or how Mr. Bah was injured in
detention. But they leave no doubt that guards, supervisors, government medical
employees and federal immigration officers played a role in leaving him
untreated, hour after hour, as he lapsed into a stupor. It began about 8 a.m.,
according to the earliest report. Guards called a medical emergency after a
detainee saw Mr. Bah collapse near a toilet, hitting the back of his head on the
floor. When he regained consciousness, Mr. Bah was taken to the medical unit,
which is run by the federal Public Health Service. He became incoherent and
agitated, reports said, pulling away from the doctor and grabbing at the unit
staff. Physicians consulted later by The Times called this a textbook symptom of
intracranial bleeding, but apparently no one recognized that at the time. He was
handcuffed and placed in leg restraints on the floor with medical approval, “to
prevent injury,” a guard reported. “While on the floor the detainee began to
yell in a foreign language and turn from side to side,” the guard wrote, and the
medical staff deemed that “the screaming and resisting is behavior problems.”
Mr. Bah was ordered to calm down. Instead, he kept crying out, then “began to
regurgitate on the floor of medical,” the report said. So Mr. Bah was written up
for disobeying orders. And with the approval of a physician assistant, Michael
Chuley, who wrote that Mr. Bah’s fall was unwitnessed and “questionable,” the
tailor was taken in shackles to a solitary confinement cell with instructions
that he be monitored. Under detention protocols, an officer videotaped Mr. Bah
as he lay vomiting in the medical unit, but the camera’s battery failed, guards
wrote, when they tried to tape his trip to cell No. 7. Inside the cell, a
supervisor removed Mr. Bah’s restraints. He was unresponsive to questions asked
by the Public Health Service officer on duty, a report said, adding: “The
detainee set up in his bed and moan and he fell to his left side and hit his
head on the bed rail.” About 9 a.m., with the approval of the health officer and
a federal immigration agent, the cell was locked. The watching began. As guards
checked hourly, Mr. Bah appeared to be asleep on the concrete floor, snoring.
But he could not be roused to eat lunch or dinner, and at 7:10 p.m., “he began
to breathe heavily and started foaming slightly at the mouth,” a guard wrote. “I
notified medical at this time.” However, the nurse on duty rejected the guard’s
request to come check, according to reports. And at 8 p.m., when the warden went
to the medical unit to describe Mr. Bah’s condition, the nurse, Raymund Dela
Pena, was not alarmed. “Detainee is likely exhibiting the same behavior as
earlier in the day,” he wrote, adding that Mr. Bah would get a mental health
exam in the morning. About 10:30 p.m., more than 14 hours after Mr. Bah’s fall,
the same nurse, on rounds, recognized the gravity of his condition:
“unresponsive on the floor incontinent with foamy brown vomitus noted around
mouth.” Smelling salts were tried. Mr. Bah was carried back to the medical unit
on a stretcher. Just before 11, someone at the jail called 911. When an
ambulance left Mr. Bah at the hospital, brain scans showed he had a fractured
skull and hemorrhages at all sides of his swelling brain. He was rushed to
surgery, and the detention center was informed of the findings. But in a report
to their supervisors the next day, immigration officials at the center described
Mr. Bah’s ailment as “brain aneurysms” — a diagnosis they corrected a week later
to “hemorrhages,” without mentioning the skull fracture. After Mr. Bah’s death,
they wrote that his hospitalization was “subsequent to a fall in the shower.”
The nurse, Mr. Dela Pena, and the physician assistant, Mr. Chuley, said that
only their superiors could discuss the case. The Public Health Service did not
respond to questions, and the Corrections Corporation said medical decisions
were the responsibility of the Public Health Service. Mr. Bah’s cousins demanded
an autopsy, but the Union County medical examiner’s confidential report was not
completed until Dec. 6. It was sent to the county prosecutor’s office only as a
matter of routine, because the matter had been classified as an “unattended
accident resulting in death.” Prosecutors said they did not investigate.
“According to the report, Bah suffered a fall in the shower,” Eileen Walsh, a
spokeswoman for the prosecutors, said in an e-mail message. “We are not privy to
any other bits of information.” In the home movies Mr. Bah made of his last
journey home, he is only a fleeting presence: a slim man with a shy smile. But
without his support, relatives in Africa say they have little money for food and
none for his sons’ schooling. His body went back to Guinea in a sealed coffin.
“I stayed here seven years, waiting for him,” his second wife, Mariama, said in
French, recalling their long separation and the brief reunion that led to the
birth of their son, now a toddler, while Mr. Bah was in detention. “I wanted
them to open the casket,” she added, “to know if it was him inside. Until today,
I cry for him.”
April 29, 2008 Casa Grande Valley News
Specimens tested at the Arizona State Public Health Laboratory on April 24
have confirmed norovirus as the cause of an outbreak currently occurring at the
Eloy Detention Center. Over 300 detainees have become ill so far with symptoms
of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Pinal County Public Health and Environmental
Health officials are working with officials at the Eloy Detention Center to
manage spread of the infection in the facility. At this point no cases have had
serious illness or needed to be hospitalized. Norovirus, which causes what is
commonly referred to as "stomach flu" or "winter vomiting disease" typically
causes symptoms such as low grade fever, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Symptoms usually resolve in 1-3 days. Norovirus is spread through the fecal-oral
route from person to person, often involving contaminated environmental surfaces
such as door or sink handles. Health officials are still investigating the
source of the norovirus outbreak. While norovirus is more common during the
colder months, it is found year round in Arizona and is a common cause of
outbreaks associated with institutional settings, schools, daycares, cruise
ships, and other environments where people are in close proximity to one
another.
April 25, 2008 East Valley Tribune
Specimens tested at the Arizona State Public Health Laboratory Thursday have
confirmed norovirus, known as the “winter vomiting disease,” as the cause of an
outbreak at a private Eloy Detention Center owned by Corrections Corporation of
America. Pinal County is reporting that more than 300 detainees have become ill
with symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Pinal County Public Health and
Environmental Health officials are working with detention center staff to manage
spread of the infection. County officials said no one has been hospitalized. The
virus is spread through fecal-oral contact and is usually cleared up in one to
three days. It can also be spread through contact with contaminated surfaces
such as door and sink handles. The best way to protect yourself from infection
is to practice good hygiene including washing hands multiple times a day, health
officials said.
November 22, 2006 Eloy Enterprise
Police dispatched to the CCA Federal Detention Center in reference to found
narcotics. Officers retrieved a golf ball sized bag of green-leafy substance.
The substance later tested positive for marijuana.
November 2, 2006 CBS5
Welcome to the Eloy Detention Center, smack in the
middle of the Arizona desert, overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
or "I.C.E." -- but run almost in secret by a private, for-profit company, the
Corrections Corporation of America, or “C.C.A.” And for Apollinar
Estrada-Campos, a permanent resident of the U.S. and a green card holder, Eloy
is now home. Estrada-Campos has lived here for 30 years, mostly in California
picking wine grapes. “At harvest time I picked 3 tons a day myself,” he told us.
But earlier this year, he was arrested for picking up some copper wire along a
railroad track. Charged with a misdemeanor, he served 3 months in jail for minor
theft. But under their rules, immigration calls that misdemeanor an "aggravated
felony" and says it's enough for him to be held at Eloy until it's determined
whether he'll be deported. “I spent already 4 months, I don't want to stay here
no more, no.” he says. Roughly 1,400 people are in Eloy, some 70% of them are
from California. Some are permanent residents of the U.S. like Estrada-Campos
who have committed crimes and long since paid their penalty. Many committed no
crimes at all, but they're stuck here with no right to a public defender and no
time limit on how long they can be held. “They are detained for incredibly long
periods of time, typically without counsel, without the opportunity to present
their cases, and throughout they are treated as if they are hardened criminals,”
says Lucas Guttentag, who teaches immigration issues at Berkeley and Stanford.
“I’ve been to Eloy, I know what it's like. It's a prison in every sense of the
word.” Or worse, according to a man who we'll call Allen. “Basically, we do not
have any rights,” he told us. Allen spent more than a year at Eloy before it was
determined that he could stay in the U.S. He asked not to be identified for fear
of retribution. “They do not give you anything,” he told us. “What kinds of
medication did detainees need and not get?” we asked. “Heart medication, blood
pressure medication, cholesterol medication.” And if a detainee complains too
much he says, there's the "shu", or Segregated Housing Unit. There are two of
those units at Eloy, where even outside in the heat, they're hidden behind black
cloth. “There are people in the shu that actually got beaten up,” Allen told us.
And he says filing a grievance does little good. “You do not have no evidence.
It's their word against yours. If you grieve it they're going to tell you
officer said that you are lying. And actually there is no proof.” “There are
always two sides to the story, there's the detainee's side that I wasn't getting
this service and then there is the contractor's side,” says John “Kip” Crowther,
who oversees the Eloy facility for I.C.E. “So the detainee would file their
grievance and that grievance goes where?” we asked. “It goes to the contractor,”
Crowther told us. That's C.C.A., the same private contractor that's running Eloy
for a profit. “Of course it's a problem if the private company is supposed to be
monitoring itself,” says Guttentag. Especially because unlike regular prisons,
immigration detention centers are largely unregulated. There's no requirement
for outside review. “Do you think there should be an independent reviewer in the
grievance process?” we asked Crowther. His response: no. And why not? “Because I
think the system is showing that we are handling the grievances appropriately,”
he told us. “If you weren't, how would anybody know?” we asked. His response:
“You're asking me to prove a negative and I can't do that.” “There's no way to
know, and there's no one who does know, other than the very person who’s
administering it who has no incentive to allow anyone to see what’s going on,”
says Guttentag, and I.C.E. would only let us speak with one detainee. “If there
is nothing to hide, make the information available. And that is something that
both the government and the detention companies have refused to do
consistently.” With guards standing over him, Estrada-Campos hesitated to give
us any details on the conditions at Eloy. All he would say was…“terrible.”
February 24, 2006 KOLD
Eloy, Arizona, a city that few Arizonans get to know, depends on a service that
most try to avoid: prisons. "It's a good source of income for the people who
work here,” said Eloy resident Rosa Winemiller. So when the Bureau of Prisons
did not renew its contract to use Corrections Corporation of America's Eloy
Detention Center, 425 jobs—about a quarter of them in Eloy—were in jeopardy.
Even during Eloy's mayoral election, both mayor Byron Jackson and challenger
Manuel Salas agree that the city needs the prison. "I encourage the powers at be
to do what they can to keep them. We need it,” Salas said. "People had to pass
background checks and credit checks, and now under this contract they won't have
to go through that,” Jackson said. One employee who will lose their job said
that the possibility of a transfer to Florence or Central Arizona, which existed
last month, is no longer available. The employee said that about 600 jobs
nationwide have been cut, and 75 of those were at those two facilities.
February 16, 2006 Eloy Enterprise
Pay cut for many still a possibility .The Eloy City Council didn't let time drag
on when it came to stopping job loss at the prison. At Monday's council meeting
an agreement was approved that will smooth the way between the Eloy Detention
Center owners, Corrections Corporation of America and the federal Department of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.The contract approved Monday, also known as
an intergovernmental agreement, now awaits approval from ICE. As of deadline the
city had not received word. The city council also approved the accompanying
contract with CCA, which has already signed on the dotted line. Warden Tom Long
and former Eloy warden John Gluch, now CCA managing director, western division,
were both at the meeting. A handful of CCA employees and family were in the
audience. They sat and listened but did not speak publicly. A current
correction's officer, "Mr. Ray" said he did not want to give his name as the
atmosphere at the detention center was still unsettling. He said the contract
was helpful, but may still not help many current employees. He said because the
contract had moved away from being a direct federal contract, there was a risk
of a pay cut in the $4 to $5 range. Mayor Byron Jackson, himself a corrections
officer for about a year in 2002, addressed another rumor he had heard often,
relating to the role of the city in hiring CCA employees. He said the city
assumes no extra duties or responsibilities with the agreement. "The city from
this point on has no employer bearing on employment or pay scale or things of
that nature," Jackson said. "The contract merely gives the vehicle for us to
provide you (CCA) the service. ...Legal, operations and service responsibilities
are 100 percent with CCA." Mr. Ray said 126 people have already been laid off,
including 89 correction's officers. Because the new contract is an IGA rather
than a federal Service Contract Act, which sets salary at a higher average, the
pay cut is "a very real possibility." "There's a strong uncertainty of not
knowing what our future is," Mr. Ray said. "I've been there 12 years and they're
doing cuts by seniority. But if there are pay cuts your senior officers are
going to be looking for work elsewhere. .. A lot of people are leaving now."
February 2, 2006 Z-Wire
The attempt to stem job loss at the Eloy Detention Center has already started.
Tuesday afternoon CCA officials, the city and its legal representatives went
into a closed-door executive session to discuss a proposed agreement between the
federal government and the city of Eloy. After the public announcement last
month that the facility had lost its federal Bureau of Prisons contract due to
budget tightening in Washington D.C., employees were left not knowing what to
do. Though various options are clearly available in Arizona and beyond, few are
solid and remain only options for the 425 employees. Corrections Corporation of
America, which owns the facility, has said they would help employees find new
jobs before the Feb. 28 deadline. The next step for employees is still unknown.
Other prisons nearby are being contacted to see if they need more help. The CCA
Red Rock facility to house state prisoners is set to open within months just
next door to the Eloy Detention Center. But there is no guarantee in place. CCA
employees in Eloy have now been asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement,
designed to limit their conversation with reporters and others.
January 19, 2006 KVOA
Corrections Corporation of American says it's been told by the feds that its
contract to operate a private prison near Eloy won't be renewed. That means 400
jobs could be lost. The contract ends February 28th. In a memo to employees,
C-C-A says the fed's decision is outside their control making it necessary to
reduce the work force at Eloy. A C-C-A spokesman in Nashville says the company
felt it the right thing to do give employees advanced notice so they could begin
making preparations.
January 12, 2006 Yahoo.com
Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest provider of
corrections management services to government agencies, announced today that it
received notification from the Federal Bureau of Prisons ("BOP") of its intent
not to exercise its renewal option at the Company's 1,500-bed Eloy Detention
Center, located in Eloy, Arizona. At December 31, 2005, the Eloy facility housed
approximately 500 inmates from the BOP and approximately 800 detainees from the
Bureau of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement ("ICE"), pursuant to a
subcontract between the BOP and ICE. The Company anticipates that the BOP will
complete the transfer of the approximately 500 BOP inmates from the Eloy
facility to other BOP facilities by February 28, 2006.
Florence
Correctional Center
Florence, Arizona
CCA
October 24, 2009 Casa Grande Dispatch
An inmate at a Corrections Corporation of America prison has been sentenced to a
long prison term for aggravated assault on a corrections officer with two prior
felony convictions. Elijah Stroman, 26, was sentenced Oct. 6 by Pinal County
Superior Court Commissioner Craig Raymond to the presumptive term of five years
in prison, with credit for 87 days served, after pleading guilty. The term is to
be served concurrently with a sentence from Washington state. The offense
occurred May 19, 2008. Restitution is to be determined.
February 6, 2009 Yuma Sun
An illegal immigrant injured in an automobile accident after his arrest by
the Border Patrol has received a $200,000 settlement. Jose Sandoval reached the
settlement with Corrections Corporation of America, which had subcontracted with
the Wackenhut security firm to transport previously detained aliens for the
Department of Homeland Security, according to Yuma attorney Candy Camarena, who
along with attorney Virginia Zazueta represented Sandoval. Sandoval, who had
been arrested in the Yuma area in March, was being transported in a van with
five other people to Florence, Ariz., when a flat tire caused the driver to lose
control, according to Camarena and Miguel Escobar, Mexican consul in Yuma. The
van rolled over along Interstate 8 in Pinal County. Sandoval was hospitalized
with injuries to the arm and spinal column. "He was deported to Mexico through
Nogales, in precarious health condition," Escobar said. "He was walking with a
cane, and he contacted the Mexican Consulate to get help. The consulate took
care of him and took him to San Luis Rio Colorado for medical care and we
contacted the attorney." Sandoval, a resident of Baja California, got the
additional medical attention but "the arm was broken in seven places," he said.
"I have metal pins here and there," Sandoval said Friday at a news conference in
San Luis Rio Colorado. "The spinal column splintered in two parts, I suffer a
lot of pain. All the time there is that pain in the back." A carpenter by
training, he had gone to the United States to work in construction, he said
Friday at a news conference, but will no longer be able to do that kind of work.
"I've tried to lift heavy things, but it hurts. I can't do it." The legal case
was nearly seven months in preparation, Camarena said. "The biggest problems
that we had in this lawsuit was that federal court demands that the plaintiff in
a suit be present. Mr. Sandoval can't enter the United States, but we reached an
agreement to resolve the case." Sandoval received $80,000, with the rest of
settlement going for his medical and legal bills.
October 7, 2008 The Zonie Report
A former prison guard for one of the largest private prisons in the
Southwest is suing his employer for wrongful termination following a fight with
an inmate. Robert McDonald joins other recent plaintiffs who have filed
workplace discrimination complaints against Corrections Corporation of America,
a Maryland-based company that operates prison facilities in Eloy, Florence and
elsewhere under contracts with local and federal agencies. In his complaint,
McDonald states that the company hired him in July 2006. At the time, he
notified company officials that he had a disability. The complaint does not
disclose any details about his condition. In November 2006, McDonald claims his
supervisor told him that he was a “security threat” because of his disability,
the complaint says. In June 2007, McDonald claims he filed a formal grievance
with the company over discriminatory treatment he allegedly received due to
absences. On July 2, 2007, McDonald was assaulted by an inmate while he was
on-duty, the complaint states. Two days later, the company terminated him
without notice based on a policy violation that arose during the scuffle,
according to the complaint. But the real reason, McDonald claims, was because he
was disabled. Other employees who faced similar circumstances and were not
disabled were not fired, he claims. As a result, McDonald filed charges against
the company with the Arizona Civil Rights Division in September 2007. The office
investigated the matter and found that he had the right to sue. McDonald claims
the company violated his Civil Rights and defamed him by giving two prospective
employers, the Gila River Indian Community and the state Department of
Corrections, negative information about him during the application process.
Tempe lawyer Tamra Facciola is representing McDonald in Pinal County Superior
Court.
October 7, 2008 Casa Grande Dispatch
One of two convicted murderers who escaped from a private prison here about
a year ago has been sentenced to 10 years, but his time wasn't his own anyway.
Kollin Lorik Folsom, 25, of Washington state was sentenced Sept. 16 by Pinal
County Superior Court Judge Janna Vanderpool after pleading no contest to
kidnapping, for restraining a detention officer at Florence Correctional Center
during the escape. Folsom was given credit for 85 days served. Restitution is to
be determined. The term is to be served concurrently with one for his 1999
murder conviction in Clark County (Wash.) Superior Court. A charge of escape was
dismissed in a plea agreement. Since Folsom has more than 40 years left on this
sentence, prosecutors from the Pinal County Attorney's Office felt he would be
in prison for most of the rest of his life and offered the plea agreement.
Kidnapping is a more serious offense than escape. Folsom and Roy Townsend
escaped about 1 a.m. on Sept. 17, 2007 after overpowering a detention officer
using what looked like a gun and tied him down as they worked on an evening
cleaning crew. The inmates forced the detention officer to open some cabinets,
then made him drop to his knees and hog-tied him. They took his keys and radio
and used ladders to climb onto the prison roof, then used them to scale razor
wire-topped fencing. They split up after escaping. The detention officer later
worked tape off his mouth and called for help. Television footage of the prison
at the time showed at least one of the ladders leaning against a fence. Both
inmates were due to be transferred to a prison in Oklahoma the next week.
Investigators discovered that Townsend had watched television shows such as
"Prison Break" and "Mastermind" before the escape, and he had talked about
escaping to Mexico. Folsom was captured about six hours later by a Pinal County
Sheriff's Office deputy on patrol about five miles from the prison, after a foot
chase. Folsom was taken to Casa Grande Regional Medical Center for treatment of
a big cut on the back of his leg from the razor wire. Folsom was convicted of
first-degree murder for stabbing his girlfriend's father in November 1999 in
Washougal, Wash. He had been at the Florence prison since 2005. Townsend was
captured about a month later in Washington state. He had been convicted of
arson, theft and murder in Mason County, Wash., and has almost 50 years
remaining on his sentence. The two were among about 500 Washington state
prisoners serving their time at the Corrections Corporation of America prison.
The Washington Department of Corrections Web site lists Folsom as being in an
undisclosed private prison.
September 30, 2008 AP
More than 100 inmates are being transferred back to Washington,
after serving time at private prisons in Arizona. The Corrections
Department says the return of 110 inmates from Arizona is the largest
single-day transfer of out-of-state inmates this year. They were sent to
Arizona because of crowding in Washington prisons. But an expansion in
the state prison system has freed up some space. Seventy-six of the
inmates will be sent to the Washington Corrections Center in Mason
County, and 34 will be sent to the Monroe Correctional Complex in
Snohomish County. The number of inmates housed outside the state is now
978. Earlier this year, nearly 1,200 Washington inmates were in other
states.
February 1, 2008 Arizona Republic
Brandishing a fake gun and using ladders stolen from a maintenance
building, two convicted killers climbed onto the roof and over the walls
of a private prison in Florence in September. They navigated through
several lines of razor wire and outmaneuvered security patrols, escaping
to freedom, an investigative report on the incident says. One was caught
within hours. It was nearly a month before the other was caught,
hundreds of miles away in his home state of Washington. Now, in
response, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano wants to tighten up rules for
the state's growing private-prison industry, which is virtually
unregulated by the state. A legislative proposal drafted by the
Governor's Office and introduced by Republican Sen. Robert Blendu of
Litchfield Park would bar private prisons from importing murderers,
rapists and some other dangerous or seriously ill felons to Arizona. It
would also require the companies to share security and inmate
information with state officials. "It is a matter of public safety,"
said Dennis Burke, Napolitano's chief of staff. "(Other states) are
exporting their worst criminals to Arizona, and we can't even know what
they are doing and what steps they are taking to protect Arizonans." But
private-prison officials and other industry supporters say the bill
could threaten the industry, which is the largest employer in Pinal
County. "We were welcomed to the state 15 years ago. We answered the
call to help with economic development in Pinal County," said Tony
Grande, a senior vice president for Corrections Corp. of America, the
largest private-prison firm in the nation. The firm runs five Arizona
prisons, including the one in Florence where the escape took place in
September. He said the company has a good track record and doesn't do
business in states with tight restrictions. "If you change the rules of
the game midstream, we are going to resist it because we invested based
on the current rules," he said. No current restrictions -- The
private-prison industry has grown rapidly in Arizona since the first
such prison opened here in 1994, bringing jobs and thousands of
out-of-state inmates to Pinal County. Now, more than 9,000 felons from
Alaska, Hawaii, Washington and other states and the federal government
are housed in six of 11 privately run prisons in Arizona. Most of the
out-of-state inmates are in CCA facilities in Pinal County, according to
information collected by the Arizona Department of Corrections. But
unlike other states, Arizona has no restrictions on the kind of
out-of-state inmates that can be brought here. And private-prison
companies in Arizona are not required to share detailed information on
inmates, staffing and security measures or have their facility designs
approved by state officials. Such requirements are in place in other
states with significant private prisons. Some states ban private prisons
altogether or, like California, don't allow them to house prisoners from
out of state. Of the 15 states that expressly authorize private prisons,
Arizona is one of the least restrictive, said Dora Schriro, director of
the state prison system. Arizona laws require companies to carry
insurance to cover law-enforcement costs in cases of escape, notify
state officials when they bring new prisoners into the state and return
prisoners to their home states to be released. But, Schriro notes, there
are no penalties if the companies don't comply and no way to check on
releases. That's a concern shared by Attorney General Terry Goddard.
Goddard said he was surprised after talking to attorneys general in
other states that Arizona's laws lagged so far behind. "I really think
it is about time we had some record keeping ... and Arizona takes a
stand on what kind of prisoners from other states we are willing to
accept," Goddard said. Sending felons home -- Blendu's bill would bring
together several restrictions found in other states and give the state
the ability to assess fines if the private companies don't comply. To
Blendu, who has been a private-prison supporter, a key piece of the bill
is strengthening requirements to send the felons back home. He said he
supports private prisons, but he also worries that Arizona's laws have
not kept up. "We cannot become the private-prison attraction for the
child molesters of our country," he said. His proposal is not the first
time the state has attempted to pass more restrictions on private
prisons. Escapes and other major incidents have been rare, supporters
say. But the escape of three murderers and three other inmates from a
private prison in 1996 and another escape of a murderer and a sex
offender in 1997 led lawmakers to pass the current law requiring the
reimbursement of law-enforcement costs.
December 22, 2007 East Valley Tribune
Arizona for the first time is using a state law that allows police agencies to
recover costs in capturing people who escape from private prisons. The tab is
$25,000 for the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s part in the capture of two
murderers who escaped from the Florence Correctional Center in September,
according to Phil Case, DPS budget officer. Case said he has asked other
agencies, including the Florence and Casa Grande police departments, Pinal
County Sheriff’s Office and the Arizona Department of Corrections, to figure out
what their costs were. “We’re fully aware of the statutory requirements,” said
Steve Owen, spokesman for Correctional Corporation of America, a company based
in Nashville, Tenn., that runs the Florence prison. “We certainly very much
appreciated the assistance.” The company has five prisons in Pinal County
housing about 9,200 men, and another is planned. Owen said there have only been
two other escapes from Correctional Corporation of America prisons in Pinal
County since 1997, and each was captured within minutes. A Pinal County
Sheriff’s Office deputy caught Kollin Folsom, 24, within hours after he and Roy
Townsend, 37, overpowered a correctional officer as they worked on a cleaning
crew at the prison. They then used a ladder to get over the razor wire fence.
Deputy U.S. Marshals found Townsend near Spokane, Wash., about a month later.
Both men were from Washington, where state prisons are overcrowded. States often
send inmates to private prisons in other states when their prisons are over
capacity. There are more than 1,700 prisoners from California, Washington, the
U.S. Marshal’s Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement housed at the
Florence Center. When Folsom and Townsend got out, dozens of officers set up
roadblocks and went door-to-door. Dogs tried to sniff out the escapees, and
helicopters searched from the air. When the initial manhunt ended, detectives
continued to search for Townsend. State law requires private prisons to pay
either $10,000 per escaped prisoner or the “actual capture costs per escapee,
whichever is more.”
October 17, 2007 Arizona Republic
A convicted murderer who escaped a Florence prison last month has been
reportedly caught in his home state of Washington. Detective Walt Hunter of the
Florence Police Department said in an e-mail Wednesday morning that Roy
Townsend, 37, who escaped with Kollin Folsom, 24, from Florence Correctional
Center on Sept. 17, had been apprehended in Spokane. In the e-mail, Hunter said
he has few details other than Townsend was captured. Townsend and Folsom escaped
Sept. 17 after overpowering a correctional officer as they worked on an evening
cleaning crew at the Florence Correctional Center, then used ladders to scale
razor wire-topped fencing. Folsom, also a convicted murderer, was apprehended
several hours after the two men escaped. Townsend was convicted of arson, theft
and murder in Mason County, Washington, and had nearly 50 years still to serve.
He was among 506 Washington inmates at Florence.
October 10, 2007 KOMO TV
A family here wants an explanation from the state as to why their son's killer
sent to a private, out of state prison in Arizona? Eleven years ago, Gerald
Harkins was shot twice, killed and left in the woods. He was just 18. A few
miles from Shelton in the family's living room, there are old newspaper
clippings, including one that says: "Killer Gets 66 Years in Prison." But three
weeks ago, Roy Townsend and another killer puts ladders against a prison fence
in Arizona. One was recaptured, but Townsend, convicted of killing Gerald
Harkins is still at large. "To me, it's like being right back where we were 10
years ago," said Gerald's father, Larry. "Waiting and hunting." Audrey and Larry
Harkins had just begun to heal. Some of the pictures and poems still bring
tears. Two years ago, Audrey started putting together a photo album as a memory
book. She never expected a prison break and fear. "He needs to be behind bars to
protect every young adult," she said. "You don't know what would make him turn."
To them, their son's killer is more than a wanted poster. He's a nightmare
returned. And they can't understand why the State of Washington moved a murderer
into a medium security private prison. "I don't understand it," Larry Harkins
said. "To me, when he was convicted in the state, a judge gave him a penalty and
the state of Washington was supposed to carry that penalty out. He was put in
their care, and, you know what, they blew it." The Harkins say they have a
meeting Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen to talk about their son and a prison
break. The Harkins may worry, but police in Shelton and Mason County say a
fugitive would have to be crazy to come back. After all, they say everybody
knows everybody and everything that's going on. In the meantime, Larry and
Audrey say they want two things: Townsend's arrest and changes in the state's
prison practices.
September 21, 2007 AP
A convicted murderer who escaped from a private prison in Florence earlier this
week is still on the loose. Pinal County sheriff's spokesman Mike Minter says a
nationwide law enforcement alert is out for 37-year-old Roy Townsend, but so far
he's eluded capture. Townsend escaped Monday from the Florence Correctional
Center with another inmate, who was captured hours later. Townsend was convicted
of arson, theft and murder in Mason County, Washington and had nearly 50 years
still to serve. He was among 506 Washington inmates at Florence. Minter says
sheriff's investigators plan to meet with U.S. Marshals officials to try to come
up with ideas on how to track down Townsend.
September 18, 2007 Arizona Republic
Authorities issued a statewide alert but scaled back their search Tuesday
for a convicted murderer who escaped from a privately run prison in Florence.
Florence Police Detective Walt Hunter said there have been reported sightings of
37-year-old Roy Townsend. Townsend and 24-year-old Kollin Folsom escaped from
the Florence Correctional Center by overpowering a correctional officer as they
worked on an evening cleaning crew. They escaped about early Monday by climbing
ladders over razor wire-topped fencing about 14 feet high. Folsom was caught
several hours later. Hunter said the search for Townsend has been cut back to
agencies in the immediate area but a statewide "attempt to locate" alert has
gone to law enforcement agencies. "We're working with several other agencies,
even out of state agencies," Hunter said Tuesday, "and we're following up on a
bunch of leads and tips today." Authorities searched across the town and nearby
desert areas Monday. "Police officers are going door to door. We have roving
patrols. We have air surveillance. We have dog units," Hunter said Monday.
"There's just so many locations he could have gone, you can't really pinpoint
one direction. We're just doing an exhaustive search of the whole area," Hunter
said. "Wherever (Townsend) is at, hopefully we're going to catch him." Townsend
and Folsom were working as part of an evening cleaning crew when they attacked a
guard and tied him down, according to a release from the Corrections Corporation
of America, which operates the prison.
September 18, 2007 Arizona Republic
Two convicted murderers serving time at a private prison in Florence
overcame a guard and then used ladders to slip over prison fences early Monday,
authorities said. One of them, Kollin Folsom, 24, was caught by Pinal County
authorities at 7:23 a.m. Monday morning. The other, Roy Townsend, 37, is still
on the loose. About 1 a.m., Folsom and Townsend escaped from the Florence
Correctional Center. Detective Walt Hunter of the Florence Police Department
said the inmates took ladders, climbed on the prison roof and scaled two fences.
Television footage of the prison showed at least one of the ladders leaning
against a fence. Folsom was captured in a two-story building about three miles
south of the prison, Hunter said. Hunter said both inmates were serving homicide
sentences and were from Washington state. Both inmates were on night cleaning
duty when they escaped. They overtook and tied down a male correctional officer
before they gained access to the ladders from the maintenance room, officials
said. The prison is on lock down, officials said. A “full-scale” search by the
Pinal County Sheriff's Department and Florence Police Department, including K-9
tracking dogs, is still underway. The U.S. Marshals Service and other law
enforcement agencies are also assisting in the search, Hunter said. “We're just
doing an exhaustive search of the whole area,” he said. “Wherever (Townsend) is
at, hopefully we're going to catch him.” Towsend is described as a White male,
with black hair and brown eyes, 5 feet 11 inches, and weighing about 160 pounds.
He is said to be wearing dark blue pants and a white t-shirt or dark blue top,
officials said. Authorities warn anyone who might see Towsend not to approach
him, but to call 911. Folsom was convicted of first-degree murder for the
stabbing of Clinton Williams, his girlfriend's father, in November 1999 in
Washougal, Wash. Townsend, 37, was convicted of arson, theft and murder in the
shooting of Gerald Harkins in Mason County, Wash. Townsend's release date is
Sept. 5, 2054.
September 17, 2007 East Valley Tribune
Two convicted murderers working on the night cleaning crew overtook and tied
up a correctional officer, and escaped from Florence Correctional Center early
Monday. Kollin Folsom, 24, and Roy Townsend, 37, are prisoners from Washington
who have been serving time in the private prison for two and three years,
respectively. The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and Florence Police Department
are looking for the men, who escaped about 1 a.m. Folsom is white, 5 feet, 9
inches, 160 pounds, brown hair and brown eyes with no identifiable physical
marks. Townsend is white, 5 feet, 11 inches, 160 pounds, black hair, brown eyes,
with no identifiable physical marks, according to a press release.
July 11, 2006 Honolulu Advertiser
Hawai'i inmates who worked in the kitchen of an Arizona prison have been
disciplined for allegedly smuggling methamphetamine and marijuana into the
facility. Shari Kimoto, administrator of the Mainland branch of the Hawai'i
Department of Public Safety, said prison operator Corrections Corp. of America
began investigating the alleged drug ring at the Florence Correctional Center
after a number of inmates tested positive for drug use. The kitchen supervisor
and several truck drivers with a food service company that makes deliveries to
the prison in Florence, Ariz., were fired in connection with the case, and one
or two corrections officers also may have been involved, Kimoto said. She said
she expects to learn more when CCA officials file additional reports about the
investigation.
February 10, 2005 Anchorage Daily News
The governor is asking lawmakers for $116 million to cover this year's rising
costs of public services, including medical care for the poor and elderly, fuel
for state ferries and buildings, and fighting last summer's wildfires. An
increase in the contract rate for housing state inmates at a private prison in
Arizona means the Department of Corrections needs $2.3 million to cover its
higher costs this year, Frasca said. The daily rate went up 8 percent, from
$52.93 to $57.15 per inmate, said Richard Schmitz, spokesman for the department.
Alaska pays to house about 750 inmates at the prison, he said.
April 17, 2003
The family of a Hawaii inmate who died in an Arizona prison alleges in a lawsuit
that he died after packets of drugs he was smuggling for a prison gang burst in
his stomach. According to the suit filed yesterday in Circuit Court, Iulai
Amani, then 24, died of a heart attack on April 15, 2001, at the Florence
Correctional Center in Florence, Ariz. The lawsuit attributes the heart
attack to "a drug overdose, the mechanism of which was inconsistent with
recreational use but consistent with drug smuggling under the direction" of
a Hawaii gang that controlled the prison. As a result of overcrowding in
its prisons, the state contracted with private mainland prisons to take
inmates. Hawaii contracted with the Florence facility, which is managed by
Corrections Corp. of America, a publicly traded prison company based in
Nashville, Tenn. The Florence prison is a medium-security facility with
about 1,600 beds which houses both men and women. As a private prison, it is not
subject to regulations governing other Arizona prisons. It also takes some of
the toughest and most violent Hawaii prisoners. Last week, another inmate,
Victoriano Ortiz, sued the state and CCA alleging failure to protect him from
being beaten up by USO members in a prison yard fight involving 23
inmates. (Star Bulletin)
April 15, 2003
Victoriano Ortiz was 24 years old when he beat his wife to death in the
abandoned bus the two shared as a home. He broke her jaw and several ribs
before he wrapped her body in a blanket, loaded it into a shopping cart and
dumped it into the stream next to River Street in downtown Honolulu. Last
week, Ortiz sued the state of Hawaii and the owners of the Arizona prison where
he was held, alleging failure to protect him from being beaten up by a gang of
Hawaii inmates that controlled the prison to the point that guards smuggled
drugs to gang members in return for protection. Ortiz's federal lawsuit
and other documents obtained by the Star-Bulletin give a glimpse into a rough
era in the recent history of the Florence Correctional Center, a privately run
prison in Florence, Ariz., managed by Corrections Corp. of America, a publicly
traded company based in Nashville, Tenn. Ortiz's suit, filed in U.S.
District Court in Arizona, names members of USO, the state of Hawaii, CCA and
others as defendants. He alleges reckless or gross negligence and "a
callous disregard" for his safety. Ortiz alleges in his complaint
that Pablo Sedillo, then warden of the Florence prison, "told the USOs that
they could do whatever they wanted as long as they don't hurt the guards."
Ortiz alleges that "in doing so Sedillo made the USOs ... managers of the
facility, jeopardizing the safety of all non-USO-affiliated
residents." (Star Bulletin)
April 14, 2003
The state of Hawaii is among the defendants in
a lawsuit filed by an inmate at Florence Correctional Center who claims he was
badly beaten by a prison gang that was given unprecedented privileges by the
warden and guards. In a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court,
Victoriano Ortiz said correctional officers smuggled drugs to members of the
so-called United Samoan Organization and allowed them to assault nonmembers
without interference. Ortiz, who was convicted of second-degree murder 15
years ago, claims he was attacked by members of the gang in April 2001. The
Honolulu native alleges that the prison warden told members of the gang
"they could do whatever they wanted as long as they don't hurt the
guards." A spokesman for the Florence Correctional Center couldn't be
reached for comment. Ortiz's lawsuit names Corrections Corporation of
America, which operates the private facility, along with two alleged gang
leaders and the state of Hawaii, which has a contract to send inmates to the
prison. Ortiz requests damages for cruelty, negligence, failure to protect
and other civil rights violations. (AP)
March 21, 2003
A 74-year-old Gold Canyon man was killed yesterday in a one-vehicle accident on
Interstate 10. Layton Mowrey was driving a van for Correctional Services
Corp., eastbound on I-10 about two miles west of the Trico-Marana Road exit when
he lost control at 11:30 a.m., said officer David Kleinman of the Arizona
Department of Public Safety. CSC runs a prison for the state in Florence.
(Tucson Citizen)
September 4, 2001
For years, Hawaii's prisons have been free of the violent gangs that plague many
Mainland facilities, but inmates returning from prisons on the Mainland are
showing more signs of gang involvement, according to the head of the state
prison system. Among the convicts returned to Hawaii to finish their
sentences, prison officials are seeing more gang tattoos, gang "code
words" and inmates who acknowledge other prisoners with gang affiliation as
leaders, said Ted Sakai, director of the state Department of Public
Safety. Prison officials earlier this year demanded that the Mainland
operators of the Florence Correctional Center in Arizona stage a crackdown on a
Hawaii prison gang. One Hawaii investigator said the gang is
"Hawaii's first bona fide prison gang." About 1,200 Hawaii
convicts are now held in prisons in Arizona and Oklahoma because there is no
room for them in facilities here. (The Honolulu
Advertiser)
September 3, 2001
In the business of privately operated prisons, some states are exporters, and
some are importers. That is, some states send their convicted criminals out of
state, while others bring them in. And some states, especially those on the
receiving end, are getting squeamish about the transfers. One after
another, states have imposed restrictions on the kinds of out-of-state inmates
that private prison operators can import. And states that don't limit the types
of inmates that can be imported worry that they will become "dumping
grounds" for the worst convicts from other states. The tighter laws
can be an easy sell politically because even some corrections experts question
the wisdom of importing particularly vicious convicts or sex offenders from
other states. As Terry L. Stewart, director of the ARIZONA Dept. of Corrections
put it, "We have our own maximum custody inmates. They are dangerous
inmates. Why in the world would we want maximum custody inmates from anywhere
else?" (State Net Capitol Journal)
August 7, 2001
About an hour's drive from Tucson sits a ticking time bomb waiting to go off - a
private prison in such chaos it has effectively been taken over by the
criminals. Gang members mixed booze-laced beverages in a five-gallon pail
in the prison kitchen at the Florence Correctional Facility. Inmates
wandered the corridors with little supervision and had sex with female
immigration detainees. One guard said he even resorted to bringing
marijuana to work to give to certain prisoners so that they would protect him
from other prisoners. Yet Arizona's state prison regulators can do nothing
about such problems. Unlike many other states, Arizona's Legislature has
given free reign to corporate operators of private prisons like the one in
Florence, allowing them to set up shop here with almost no rules in place to
monitor their operations. "Right now you can build a prison anywhere
in Arizona, and the only thing you have to meet is the local building
code," said Terry Stewart, director of the Arizona Department of
Corrections. It doesn't take a degree in corrections to know this is
absurd public policy. The Florence facility is run by Corrections
Corporation of America, or CCA, the largest private prison firm in the
nation. It's what is known in the industry as a "speculative"
prison - one built outside the purview of the normal regulatory system, with no
guarantee that there will be prisoners available to fill it. (Arizona
Daily Star)
August 5, 2001
The state's prison director wants lawmakers to give him more control over
private prisons following reports that a Hawaii gang had effectively taken over
a Florence prison. Hawaii auditors determined in late April that a gang
called United Samoan Organization was essentially running the Florence
Correctional Facility, which houses 550 of that state's inmates -- 300 of whom
are sex offenders. The prison, operated by the Nashville-based Corrections
Corporation of America -- or CCA -- is about an hour outside both Tucson and
Phoenix. After the deaths of two inmates, six inmate assaults and a riot
that left one officer with six stitches - all of which happened in April --
Hawaii dispatched four auditors to inspect the prison, which opened in
2000. Two female auditors were not allowed to tour the facility because of
fears for their safety. Auditors determined that gang members were having sex
with female Immigration and Naturalization Service inmates. Gang members were
using drugs and making an alcoholic drink called "swipe," which the
monitoring team found in a five-gallon bucket in the kitchen. Staff, who
reportedly had been calling the Hawaiians "beach niggas," were taking
cultural training. If Arizona cracks down, Hawaii officials have few
options. Their inmates were moved out of Texas because of tighter restrictions
there. Oklahoma does not accept sex offenders. California and many other states
don't allow any out-of-state prisoners. Red flags started waving for Sen.
Pete Rios, a Hayden Democrat, on primary election night last September. While he
was awaiting election returns in the Pinal County seat, police vehicles suddenly
blocked the major highways out of Florence. Someone at CCA's prison had called
911, saying there was a hostage situation, but, when law enforcement responded,
CCA refused to provide information. In the end, three guards were injured
after inmates smashed windows, computers, televisions and food carts during a
90-minute riot that started in a dispute over how rice was cooked. (The
Arizona Daily Star)
July 29, 2001
Hawaii may be forced to build a new prison because other states are imposing
restrictions on the kinds of out-of-state inmates they will accept, according to
state Public Safety director Ted Sakai. Officials in Arizona are
considering limiting the types of out-of-state inmates Arizona will
accept. They were prompted by escalating violence and gang activity by
Hawaii inmates serving time in one Arizona prison. Hawaii officials who
inspected the Florence prison reported that they found a "facility in
turmoil," with a gang of Hawaii inmates involved in drug smuggling and
assaults against prisoners and corrections officers. Terry L. Stewart,
director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, said he will ask the Arizona
Legislature for new authority over companies such as Corrections Corporation of
America. (AP)
July 21, 2001
Medical officials in Arizona say a prison inmate from Hawaii died in April from
an accidental overdose of methamphetamine and that another Hawaii inmate died a
few days later of natural causes. (AP)
July 1, 2001
A team sent to check on conditions at an Arizona prison that holds more than 560
Hawaii inmates conducted only a limited inspection because of the "hostile
environment," including the potential for violence, according to state
reports obtained by The Advertiser. The desert prison, where two Hawaii
inmates have died in recent months, was described in the April 30 report as
"a facility in turmoil," and officials described lax security
conditions, reports of widespread drug use and domination by members of a prison
gang. The reports by the monitoring team highlight problems with an
inexperienced prison staff and refer to "widespread" drug smuggling
into the facility by prison staff. One prison official admitted to the
Hawaii inspectors that he smuggled marijuana into the prison because he was
afraid of gang members incarcerated there, according to the reports. Sgt.
Patrick Kawai, a Hawaii gang intelligence officer who was sent to inspect the
Florence facility, reported in April that "I never once while at FCC
observed an officer frisk search or strip search an inmate. I never once
observed an officer go through any inmate's property, or search anything an
inmate was carrying." That lack of "simple security
measures" allows inmates to move weapons and other contraband, Kawai said
in his report. The Advertiser has been seeking reports about the Florence
inspections for some time but state officials have been reluctant to provide
them. When the April report was first released, most of it was blacked out
by officials citing security concerns. After further requests from the
newspaper and intervention by the governor's office, the reports were
released. The monitoring reports also reveal that a year after the Hawaii
prisoners were sent to Florence, the prison still does not offer educational and
rehabilitation programs to inmates that are required by CCA's contract with
state. When asked if CCA is now providing the programs required by the
contract, Sakai replied: "I don't think so, but again we understand it's
going to take some time. ...For example, they've committed to starting the
substance abuse treatment program. They're going to have to get the staff
together. I don't know if they have it yet, and then it takes time to
build these programs up." Inmates have complained about the lack of
educational, sex offender and drug treatment programs at Florence, in part
because parole often depends on whether inmates complete required
programs. Sakai acknowledged virtually no inmate programs were available
for the 100 inmates who were shipped to Florence about a year ago. The
June report also quotes a Florence prison official as admitting the prison
medical unit is "grossly understand." (The Honolulu Advertiser)
May 25, 2001
More than three dozen Hawaii inmates have been transferred from an Arizona
prison to one in New Mexico. State Public Safety Director Ted Sakai said
at least some of the inmates who were transferred were part of a prison
gang. Last month the state sent an inspection team to review the
operations of Florence, and state officials expressed concerns about problems
there. CCA replaced the warden at Florence earlier this month, and asked
Hawaii officials if they could temporarily move about 40 disruptive inmates to a
New Mexico prison "to get Florence settled down," Sakai said.
(AP)
May 11, 2001
The Florence Correctional Center in Arizona, where two Hawaii inmates died last
month and three others were severely beaten, has named a new warden. Frank
Luna, 38, moves over from Corrections Corporation of America's Huerfano County
Correctional Center in Colorado where he had been warden of the medium-security
prison since August 1999. Louise Green, vice president of marketing and
communications for CCA, said the previous warden at Florence, Pablo Sedillo, is
on administrative leave. (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
May 9, 2001
Complaints from Hawaii corrections officials have led to the replacement of the
warden at a privately run Arizona prison. The Hawaii officials said that
management problems at the facility were jeopardizing the safety of Hawaii
inmates serving time there. State Public Safety director Ted Sakai said
the warden of Florence Correctional Center was replaced late last week or early
this week. Incidents at Florence include inmate gangs, serious beatings of
several inmates, a riot last September and the death of a Hawaii inmate on April
16th from what prison officials suspect was a drug-induced heart attack.
CCA now holds about 1,100 male inmates from Hawaii, including about 550 at
Florence. The state will pay the company about $17 million this year to
house the 1,100 prisoners and provide educational and other programs.
(AP)
May 3, 2001
Two deaths in a private prison in Florence led to a lockdown and search for
contraband. In one instance, Steve Owen spokesperson for Corrections
Corporation of America said, Iulai Amani, 23, died April 16 while being taken to
a hospital after he began coughing up blood in his cell at the Florence
Correctional Center. Cause of death had yet to be determined Wednesday,
but officials said he may have overdosed on cocaine or methamphetamine.
Amani's knuckles reportedly were bloody at the time of his death, suggesting he
may have been in a fight. And on April 25, John Kia, an inmate with a
history of health problems died from a bacterial infection, Owen said.
(AP)
April 27, 2001
State corrections officials have sent a team to investigate the recent deaths of
two Hawaii inmates held at a private prison in Florence, Arizona.
"There's no evidence at all that there was any physical altercation that
led to the deaths, so that's been ruled out," Public Safety Director Ted
Sakai said Thursday. Sakai has been told John Kia, 41, died of a heart
attack Wednesday at the Florence Correctional Center, while Iulai Amani, 23,
died of either a heart attack or asphyxiation April 15. "We know that
two inmates died, and we also know that we had several (Hawaii) inmates who were
assaulted by other inmates at the same facility," Sakai said. "I
understand that there were a couple of inmates who were beaten up pretty bad,
bad enough that they had to be rushed to the emergency room." (AP)
Florence West Correctional Facility
Florence, Arizona
GEO Group
December 10, 2008 Casa Grande Valley News
A man who escaped from a Florence prison in 2006 has been sentenced to four
additional years in prison. Christopher Richard Breiland, 39, was sentenced Nov.
3 by Pinal County Superior Court Judge Pro Tem Bradley Soos to the minimum term
with credit for 605 days served. Restitution is to be determined. The term is to
be served concurrently with four sentences in Maricopa County, according to a
plea agreement that noted Breiland would get a total of at least 15 years in
prison. Breiland, 36, was discovered missing from the privately operated
Florence West prison on May 4, 2006 after prison-issued orange pants and blood
were found on the perimeter fence. Blankets and clothing was used in his bunk to
make it look like he was sleeping while he climbed a recreational gate and
squeezed through a barbed wire fence as other inmates watched through a window
to see if he made it. Authorities found Breiland after he slammed the car he was
driving into three other vehicles May 13, 2006 during a pursuit in Phoenix,
injuring himself and four others. No serious injuries were reported. Breiland
was serving sentences for theft, misconduct involving a weapon and forgery,
according to the Arizona Department of Corrections. He was due to be released
Dec. 30, 2006. Florence West is a private prison owned by GEO Group Inc. and by
operated Correctional Services Corporation. As provided by state law, all costs
associated with Breiland's apprehension will be charged to GEO Group.
May 18, 2006 AP
Authorities found an escaped convict after he slammed his car into three other
vehicles late Saturday afternoon in Phoenix. Christopher Breiland's capture was
a joint effort by the Arizona Department of Corrections and the Phoenix and
Scottsdale Police Departments. Breiland, 36, was discovered missing from the
privately-operated Florence West prison on May 4 after prison-issued orange
pants and blood were found on the perimeter fence. On Saturday, Breiland fled
police as they tried to pull him over. Police stopped the chase after Breiland
began driving recklessly. But Breiland still ran into three vehicles, injuring
himself and four others. All were examined at a hospital and were expected to be
OK. Breiland was serving sentences for theft, misconduct involving a weapon and
forgery, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections. He was due to be
released Dec. 30, but now faces new charges. Florence West is a private prison
owned by the GEO Group Inc. and by operated Correctional Services Corporation.
As provided by state law, all costs associated with Breiland's apprehension will
be charged to GEO Group.
May 14, 2006 KPHO
Authorities have found an inmate who escaped from a private prison in
Florence May 4th. Thirty-six-year-old Christopher Breiland went missing from
Florence West after prison-issued orange pants and blood were found on the
perimeter fence. Breiland has been in prison since 1997, when he was sentenced
to six and a half years for theft, misconduct involving a weapon and forgery. He
was due to be released next December 30th. Breiland was apprehended by Phoenix
Police Department at 5:05 p-m today. His capture was a joint effort between the
Arizona Department of Corrections and the Phoenix and Scottsdale Police
Departments.
May 5, 2006 Arizona Daily
Star
A state prisoner escaped Thursday from a private
prison in Florence, officials said. Christopher Breiland, 36, escaped from the
Florence West facility sometime before 8 a.m., when the staff noticed
prison-issued orange pants and blood on a fence, authorities said. The prison
was locked down and a count was taken, confirming that someone escaped. Search
teams and tracking dogs were deployed, and Arizona Department of Corrections
investigators were at the Florence facility, but Breiland had not been found by
7 p.m. Thursday. Breiland was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison in 1997 after
convictions on three felony counts: theft, weapons misconduct and forgery. He
was due for release on Dec. 30. He was also convicted of a separate theft count,
which netted him a nine-year sentence that was to begin in 1998, according to
the Arizona Department of Corrections Web site. This was not the first time
Breiland had escaped, according to the DOC Web site. He also fled last Dec. 24.
He is white, 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighs 160 pounds, and has brown eyes and
brown hair. He has a cross tattooed on his left shoulder.
May 4, 2006 The Arizona Republic
Schools were locked down for hours Thursday as law
enforcement and prison officials searched south of town for an inmate who
escaped from a private prison. As of late Thursday afternoon, he had still not
been found. Christopher Breiland, 36, was discovered missing from Florence West,
owned by Boca Raton, Fla.-based Geo Group Inc., at about 8 a.m., according to
the Arizona Department of Corrections. Orange prison pants and blood were found
on a perimeter fence. Florence Police, Pinal County sheriff's deputies,
corrections officers, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and K-9 units are
looking for Breiland. He's described as 5-foot-9, 160 pounds, with brown eyes
and hair. He has a cross tattooed on his left shoulder. Breiland had been
considered a low-security inmate because he was in for a non-violent offense and
was set to be released in December, said Pablo Paez, a Geo Group spokesman.
Breiland was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in 1997 for felony convictions
for theft, misconduct involving a weapon and forgery, according to the
Corrections Department. "(But) when someone escapes from prison, you have to
proceed with caution," Paez said. Florence High School was locked down from 9:14
a.m. until 1:15 p.m., said Lt. Walt Hunter, with the Florence Police Department.
Florence Elementary School and the town's Head Start program were also locked
down.
Greater
Benson Economic Development Corporation
Benson, Arizona
Management and Training Corporation
August 4, 2004
Led by local veterinarian Paula Tyler, many San Pedro Valley residents spoke out
against proposed construction of a $25 million Benson Rehabilitation/Detention
Center Thursday night. Nearly 150 residents attended the standing-room
only meeting at the Benson Public Library. Some were forced to stand outside and
listen to the information presented by members of the newly created Committee
for Responsible Economic Growth, with Tyler as the president. Patricia
Cooper, a former attorney for the Arizona Corporation Commission, said companies
that manage private prisons are "undercapitalized, understaffed and will
eventually fail." "They look for rural communities that are
desperate to grow," she said. "It is the responsibility of our city
leaders to get the information and make an informed decision."
Besides the City Council moving swiftly to create the new corporation set to
fund the detention center, Cooper said residents should be concerned over the
legality. "As a lawyer, I found 17 major problems with this
resolution," Cooper said. "For one thing, the resolution was drafted
by the developer's attorney. This resolution doesn't limit what they can build,
expand, the money they can spend or the money they can borrow. "It
doesn't limit what kind of prisoners (the detention center) can take. These are
all common limits set with other private agencies. In this resolution, the
developer has no liability bonds, no training standards and no way to end the
operator's contract. "It gives the city officers all the authority to
make this happen with no limits. No wonder the city attorney (Ann Roberts)
wouldn't sign it." Roberts refused to sign the resolution after the
City Council approved it in a 6-1 vote on July 5. Councilman Toney King voted
against the measure, citing a lack of information. The resolution
established Mark Kartchner, David DiPeso, Councilman Ted Amox, Beverly Stepp and
Mike Montroy as members of the new corporation. None of the corporation members
attended Thursday's community meeting. Cooper said she is concerned about
the members the council charged with funding the new economic venture because
several of them have admitted to a conflict of interest. Cooper said Amox
has admitted to doing land surveying at the State Route 80 location and DiPeso
admitted he may receive a referral fee for helping the developers find the
land. Cooper also took on the City Council's continued claims the new
detention center will bring more business to Benson. "We have heard
so much about how it's going to bring business here," Cooper said.
"Florence has five prisons, two of them private and that city has lost so
many people because of it. Florence doesn't even have a supermarket anymore.
What are we going to become?" (Benson News-Sun)
August 4, 2004
Admitting to handling the process badly, the City Council Monday night halted
plans to build the Benson Rehabilitation/Detention Center on State Route 80,
voting to dissolve the Greater Benson Economic Development Corporation and start
over. Tensions ran high during the two-hour meeting, with citizens taking
advantage of the lengthy call to the public portion, which lasted nearly 90
minutes. Most speakers expressed opposition to the proposed detention center and
the City Council's handling of the situation. Local attorney LaNita
Plummer said the Greater Benson Economic Development Corporation, created on
July 7 to borrow funding for the $25 million facility, is "null and void on
its face." Blaming actions taken by City Manager Boyd Kraemer,
Plummer said the manager proceeded to file paperwork with the Arizona
Corporation Commission on June 25, and signed as the incorporator on July 7,
without official consent from the City Council. Following Plummer's advice,
Councilman Toney King, who brought the matter before the council, immediately
moved to rescind the resolution approving the organization of the nonprofit
corporation known as the Greater Benson Economic Development Corporation.
Councilwoman Kathy Suagee seconded the motion. "I am embarrassed and
ashamed of not doing this in a more open way," Suagee said. "This was
the council's decision. Don't blame the city manager, he is just learning the
laws of the land." (Benson News-Sun)
July 28, 2004
Moving forward on funding a $25 million detention center, the Greater Benson
Economic Development Corporation has elected its officers and created
bylaws. The group drew a lot of controversy when it was created by the
City Council on July 7. Leading the new corporation is David DiPeso, unanimously
selected as president. Councilman Ted Amox, is five president; Beverly
Stepp, is secretary; Mike Montroy is the treasurer. Serving as second vice
president will be Dr. Mark Kartchner. "They want to build this thing
as soon as possible so that's the reason for this hurry," Amox said.
"I think Cochise County is the most likely candidate in the United States
for a facility like this." City Manager Boyd Kraemer said the city of
Benson can't borrow the money to fund the facility without voter approval, which
is where the corporation comes in. The plan is for the group to borrow $25
million through revenue bonds, which will supposedly be paid for over the next
22 years, through profits from detainees being held at the facility anywhere
from three to nine months. Once the debt is paid, the City will own the
facility. The benefit of this plan, Kraemer said, is that the city is in
no way liable and taxes won't increase to pay for the facility. Kevin
Pranis, a criminal justice policy analyst for Justice Strategies in New York
City, said he's been studying privately owned detention centers for the last two
years and to say there is going to be no risk to the city is
"laughable." "If bonds go into default the investor is
never the one to get hurt," Pranis said. "This may be successful, but
if it's not, someone is going to have to pay and the city will be right in the
middle of it. The investors have the money to file the lawsuits and fight it.
The city doesn't, and will probably end up paying for it. The city isn't an
expert in bond laws or with the detention-center market. There are no
guarantees." Neither the city nor Matador has contacted the U.S.
Marshals office about using the Benson facility. Brian Nernex, assistant
chief deputy of the U.S. Marshals office in Tucson, said he found out about the
proposed facility through the San Pedro Valley News-Sun article on July 14 and
the office has not committed to using it. Pranis said its common for
privately owned facilities to not only leave the public out of the process, but
also the law-enforcement agencies that are said to be behind the project.
Besides the Marshals office not being contracted, Cochise County Sheriff Larry
Dever has also been left out of the loop. "I have not been talked to
directly," Dever said. "With something as big as this it does surprise
me that they haven't even talked to the Marshals office." (News-Sun)
Great Plains Correctional
Facility
Hinton, Oklahoma
Cornell
February 26, 2010 AP
Cornell Cos. Inc.'s sales and profit will decline if
the state of Arizona removes inmates from the company's Oklahoma prison, an
analyst said as he downgraded the prison operator's shares. First Analysis
Securities analyst Todd Van Fleet downgraded the Houston company to "equal
weight" from "overweight." The January budget proposals from Arizona's governor
and legislature would phase out the use of private out-of-state beds. Arizona is
struggling to close budget shortfalls. Van Fleet said there was less than a 25
percent chance that Cornell would be able to persuade legislators to keep
Arizona inmates in the company's Oklahoma prison. The loss of the Arizona
prisoners which could cut into Cornell's annual earnings by 35 cents to 45 cents
per share. Van Fleet cut his estimate for 2010 profit to $1.09 per share from
$1.69 per share, and his 2010 sales estimate to $398 million from $440.6
million. On Wednesday, when it released fourth-quarter earnings, Cornell
predicted it would make $1.31 to $1.41 per share in 2010. The guidance assumed
that Cornell would continue to keep all its Arizona inmates for the rest of the
year. The contract for the Arizona prisoners ends in mid-September, Van Fleet
said. Cornell shares slipped 13 cents to $18.61 in midday trading. They have
dropped about 25 percent since Arizona proposed its budget in mid-January.
May 4, 2007 KOLD TV
A private prison in Oklahoma will reopen later this summer after getting a
contract to keep two-thousand inmates from Arizona. Houston-based Cornell
Companies owns the Great Plains Correctional Facility and has agreed to a
one-year deal with the Arizona Department of Corrections with four one-year
options to follow. The prison in Hinton, Oklahoma was shut down and nearly 200
workers laid off earlier this year after the Oklahoma Department of Corrections
pulled out the last of its more than 800 inmates. The prison is currently
equipped with 812 beds and the contract calls for it to open with 916 beds. The
prison is to expand to hold the two- thousand inmates by the fourth quarter of
next year. The first inmates are expected in August or September.
La Palma Correctional Center
Eloy, Arizona
CCA
August 12, 2009 Casa Grande Dispatch
A supposed anonymous letter sent to the La Palma Correctional Center in Eloy
late June prompted an investigation and subsequent arrest of the assistant
warden at the facility for drug possession. Corrections Corporations of America
(CCA) had drugs tested privately, that were reportedly found taped under the
dash in the suspect's car while it was parked in the parking lot. According to
test results provided to the Eloy PD, spokeswoman Amanda Villescaz said, the
substance tested positive for amphetamines. Eloy Lt. Frank Nolasco, told the
Tucson News last week that the suspect denied knowledge or having anything to do
with the substance found. Though the CCA official was arrested June 25, he was
released that day after questioning, pending the results of the drug testing. He
was not charged, Villescaz said, due to a few unsure facts. CCA, on the other
hand, terminated the official from their employment that day. The Eloy PD is not
taking CCA's word for it, though, and is having the substance in question tested
in state crime labs. Eloy detectives have also requested evidence testing of
fingerprints and DNA to positively link the illegal contraband to the former CCA
prison official. Because no charges have been filed, the official's name is not
being released at this time. "It's still a very iffy case," Villescaz said. Lab
testing has slowed due to staffing and economical issues, and could be a couple
of months before the department receives the results and can move forward with
the case.
Marana, Arizona
US Extradition Services
August 20, 2007 Arizona Star
Authorities Sunday night caught the second of two convicted sex offenders who
escaped in the afternoon from a private interstate prisoner transport van near
I-10 and Cortaro Road, a Marana Police Department spokesman said. The escape
happened when the driver stopped at a Circle K, 5600 N. Cortaro Road, about 3
p.m. so a female prisoner could use the toilet, according to Sgt. Tim Brunenkant,
of the Marana Police Department. Brunenkant said the driver told investigators
that when he and the woman prisoner returned to the van, he found that the two
male prisoners were gone. The two male prisoners were wearing handcuffs and leg
irons shackled by chains to a belt, "but were able to get out of them," he said.
The restraints were found in the van, Brunenkant said. Jose Montenegro Ramirez
avoided apprehension until about 10:30 p.m. Police said a resident called 911
after Ramirez showed up at his home near West Massingale Road and I-10 looking
for help. The resident recognized Ramirez from earlier news reports of the
escape. He ran from the home, but police already in the area searching for
Ramirez tracked him down soon after the 911 call. A canine unit helped apprehend
Ramirez, police said. The 26-year-old was being returned on a California warrant
for parole violation, with a sex offense as the original charge. The second
inmate who escaped, Luis Angel Torres, 25, was found on the I-10 frontage road
between the Cortaro and Ina road exits about 5:30 p.m.. Torres was being held on
a warrant for failure to register as a convicted sex offender, Brunenkant said.
Torres was taken to a hospital after capture. Torres had a pre-existing
abdominal condition that required attention, Brunenkant said. No information was
available on which hospital he was taken to. The three prisoners, being
transported by U.S. Extradition Service of Austin, Texas, were being taken to
California, said Gordon Brooks, director of operations for the service. Brooks
said the company's rule of having one driver-guard watch over three prisoners is
well within federal guidelines, which he said call for one employee per six
prisoners. He said other employees of the company were on the way to Arizona as
of Sunday evening. The prisoners are unlikely to be turned back over to the
company, and other arrangements would be made for their transport, Brunenkant
said. Escape charges are likely to be sought against Torres.
Marana
Community Correctional Treatment Facility
Tucson, Arizona
Management and Training Corporation
February 11, 2010 AP
A private prison in Arizona is on lockdown after a brawl broke out that involved
as many as 150 minimum-security inmates and left a staff member and 12 prisoners
with minor injuries. The Arizona Department of Corrections said the fight broke
out before 10 p.m. Wednesday but was contained within an hour. A 20-member
tactical unit from Arizona State Prison Complex-Tucson responded to help put
down the disturbance. The Marana Community Correctional Treatment Facility near
Tucson houses 500 inmates and is owned and operated by Management and Training
Corp., based in Centerville, Utah. The cause of the fight is under
investigation.
June 21, 2004
The chief of security for the Marana Community Correctional Treatment Facility
was fired June 1 and a sergeant resigned May 26 over allegations the sergeant
had prisoners do pushups in lieu of written discipline. Company
spokesman Carl Stuart would not comment on why Capt. Ken Anderson was fired or
why Sgt. Ben Rumbo resigned, saying the company does not comment on personnel
matters. The Utah-based Management and Training Corporation operates the Marana
prison and a prison in Kingman for the Arizona Department of Corrections and
nine other private prisons in five states. Anderson, who was the company's
Correctional Officer of the Year in 1999, said he was shocked and outraged over
his firing. In a four-page written appeal he filed with the company June 7,
Anderson called the termination notice he received, "nothing more than a
fabrication of half-truths and outright falsehoods, sprinkled with occasional
facts." He said he believed he handled the allegation of prisoners
being made to do pushups properly based on the information he had at the
time. Since his forced leave and termination, Anderson said he has learned
of allegations about other prison guards making prisoners do pushups, possibly
since January, yet no other guards have been fired or suspended, or
apparently even interviewed by state investigators. Stuart said the
company doesn't know how long or how often prisoners have been made to do
disciplinary pushups at the prison. (Explorer News)
January 5, 2004
Next time you file your income tax forms, you may want to remember the case of U.S.
vs. Daniel Johnson.
Johnson obtained $378,000 in federal income tax refunds while living in a Tucson
jail, according to a federal indictment released Thursday in Phoenix.
Indicted on five counts of fraud, Johnson is accused of filing tax returns that
claimed he earned more than $3.8 million during the two years he was
incarcerated at the Marana Community Correctional Treatment Facility. (The
Arizona Republic)
Maricopa
County Jail
Phoenix, Arizona
Correctional Health Services
January 7, 2010 Arizona Republic
Maricopa County jail workers don't have the tools to collect and manage
health-care data for inmates, according to a report from a consulting group the
Sheriff's Office brought in last summer. The report from the National Institute
of Corrections found the same systemic problems that have plagued the jail
health-care system for more than a decade: Detention officers and health-care
workers have a difficult time communicating with each other, and their reliance
on handwritten medical records and a patchwork of computer systems can lead to
medical problems for inmates. The report, which the county released to The
Arizona Republic in response to a public-records request, also noted the system
struggles because there are no contracts or working agreements between sheriff's
personnel and employees of Correctional Health Services, the agency that
provides health care in the jails. The Sheriff's Office requested the report to
ensure employees were gathering the health-care data they needed from the
130,000 inmates who move through the system each year, Deputy Chief MaryEllen
Sheppard said. The consultant's recommendations likely will fall by the wayside,
just as other expert advice has, until Sheriff's Office officials and
health-care workers resolve their legal battles over control of the jail
health-care system. Sheppard said the consultants, from a governmental group
that assists correctional agencies, did not charge for the review and were
brought in after Correctional Health Services lost accreditation last year. "To
have accreditation be pulled, that was a blow. We didn't want to be in that
position again," Sheppard said. The lack of accreditation is at the heart of a
lawsuit Sheriff Joe Arpaio filed in the fall, requesting that a judge take
responsibility for inmate health care from Correctional Health Services and give
it to the Sheriff's Office.
July 2, 2009 The Arizona Republic
She had notes from a judge and her doctor, but Delyla Pierson-Winburn says that
didn't guarantee her the correct medical treatment she needed when she entered
Maricopa County's Lower Buckeye Jail last summer to serve time for a DUI
conviction. For that, Pierson-Winburn filed a personal-injury lawsuit against
the county in Superior Court last month, seeking costs incurred with the suit
and other relief that the court deems proper. The suit names Maricopa County,
the Sheriff's Office and Correctional Health Services, the county-funded agency
that provides health care in the jails, as defendants. The Sheriff's Office
still intends to file some legal action to gain control of health care in the
jails, said MaryEllen Sheppard, a deputy chief. "Ultimately (Sheriff Joe Arpaio)
is held accountable and responsible for the health care provided the inmates in
his jails," Sheppard said. "But he has no authority over the operations of CHS
or the provision of the health care." The note, from Judge Deborah Griffith,
indicated that Pierson-Winburn should be able to bring her medicine and use it
during her three-day stay in jail; the note from her doctor noted that Pierson-Winburn
had a "significant temperature intolerance," according to the suit. Pierson-Winburn
still ended up in Tent City in the summer heat, with no access to her
anti-anxiety medication. Three days later, she was being carted out of jail and
into an ambulance after she lost consciousness. "My last memory is being in a
holding cell, and I woke up in an ambulance," she said. Pierson-Winburn said she
knew Tent City wasn't designed to be accommodating and called ahead of time to
find out what she would need to keep the medicine with her. The nurse who
screened Pierson-Winburn when she reported to Lower Buckeye Jail on June 23,
2008, agreed with the physician and judge, Pierson-Winburn said, but that
information wasn't adequately communicated to jail detention officers. "The note
was on my person and with my medication, and it was on every form," she said.
"It was between the intake and getting to the jail that all of that information
was lost or ignored." That communication breakdown happens too frequently in
Maricopa County's jails, according to experts who've reviewed the system and
dozens of lawsuits filed in the past 10 years that have cost taxpayers millions
of dollars. County officials repeatedly have been told that Correctional Health
Services operations are inadequate and pose a danger to inmates. Over the past
10 years, faced with hundreds of lawsuits, a federal court order and the loss of
accreditation, the Board of Supervisors has paid more than $250,000 to
consultants to find solutions. CHS lost its accreditation in January for failing
to meet national health-care standards.
January 12, 2009 Arizona Republic
Maricopa County has lost accreditation of its jails after a months-long
attempt by county administrators to remain accredited. County officials were
notified Monday that the National Commission on Correctional Health Care is
pulling its accreditation. Accreditation is state mandated and helps the county
defend itself against lawsuits brought against the system by inmates.
Accreditation provides criteria that employees of Correctional Health Services,
which provides health care to the county's 10,000 inmates, can use to guarantee
they are providing quality care. In late September, the commission sent a letter
to the county to inform administrators that jail accreditation was being denied,
but the letter offered few details and appeared to rely on testimony from an
ongoing lawsuit between a former inmate and Sheriff Joe Arpaio as justification
for the denial. The letter alleged that Correctional Health Services employees
provided false or misleading information that allowed the agency to give the
county's jails full accreditation. The county appealed the denial, and the jails
had remained accredited through that process.
October 23, 2008 Arizona Republic
A federal judge has sided with inmates' claims that conditions in Maricopa
County jails continue to violate their constitutional rights. U.S. District
Court Judge Neil V. Wake on Wednesday modified a 1995 judgment that laid
guidelines for a wide range of issues in Maricopa County jails, including
medical and mental-health care, population control and record keeping. Maricopa
County sheriff's officials said they plan to comply with the judge's orders.
Wake effectively pared down the original 115-point decision to 16 paragraphs
that outline what the Sheriff's Office must do to at least maintain
constitutional standards for pretrial inmates. The judgment also requires the
Sheriff's Office to submit quarterly reports to inmates' attorneys in order to
show compliance. "Sheriff Arpaio's horrendous treatment of detainees, especially
those with severe medical and mental-health problems, has caused terrible
suffering for years," said attorney Margaret Winter, associate director of the
American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project. A number of the
violations included Correctional Health Services, which is required to provide
medical care for inmates. Wake said CHS violated inmate rights by not giving
timely and adequate assessment of health needs and not identifying and
appropriately treating many detainees with serious mental illness. A national
organization began an effort to pull accreditation from the county's jails last
month after learning of potentially damaging testimony that emerged during the
trial, but the jails remain accredited while county officials appeal the
decision. Sheriff's officials have long made the distinction between their role
and that of Correctional Health Services, though Arpaio's critics have contended
that the office's indifference in getting inmates to CHS medics violates the
constitution. Wake made no such finding.
August 15, 2005 Arizona Republic
Maricopa County is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow it to withhold a
medical report from the parents of a mentally retarded drug user who died after
being restrained as he was being booked into jail. Four years after the death of
Charles Agster III, and three years after his parents filed a lawsuit, the case
has yet to go to trial. The county argues that all reports and evidence that are
public records, including a videotape of the encounter, have been provided to
the plaintiffs, but a follow-up "peer review" by medical personnel on
whether the incident was handled properly should be kept confidential. In their
lawsuit, parents Carol Ann and Charles Agster Jr. accuse jail and health care
officials of falsely claiming that they summoned paramedics three minutes after
their struggling son, buckled into a restraint chair, stopped breathing.
Most
states, including Arizona, exempt medical peer reviews from disclosure,
reasoning that health care personnel won't be frank if they know their reports
could be used against the people and institutions they're evaluating. But
federal law has no such exemption, the District Court in Phoenix ruled. A
three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed in April,
noting that it was at the county's request that the lawsuit was moved from state
to federal court. In a petition filed July 28 for Supreme Court review, Phoenix
attorney Michael Wolver argued on behalf of the county and its Correctional
Health Service that courts had been inconsistent on the issue and the high court
should sort it out.
December 5, 2004 Arizona Republic
A Phoenix murder defendant whose father is a political
rival to Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he's being housed in isolation as a psychiatric
patient at a Maricopa County jail even though he's not mentally ill. In letters
and phone interviews from Madison Street Jail, Patrick Bearup said sheriff's
officials singled him out for political retribution, even ordering the light in
his cell to remain on 24 hours a day. Medical records obtained by The Arizona
Republic seem to confirm that allegation. In August, Dr. Pamela Drapeau of
Correctional Health Services made this notation in Bearup's chart: "He
remains on 6-3 (psychiatric ward) per order of MCSO because his father was
running as an opponent to Sheriff Arpaio. . . . He has no psychiatric
problems."
Correctional Health Services is not under
Arpaio's authority, although it is housed inside Madison Street Jail and
detention officers provide security. Notations
in Bearup's medical chart indicate he is sequestered "as a courtesy hold
for MCSO" because he is a "high-profile case." Correctional
Health Services records indicate that Bearup repeatedly filed grievances seeking
placement in the regular inmate population but was refused.
Mexico
May 2, 2005 AP
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed a proposal Monday
for the state to contract to have a private prison built in Mexico to house
illegal immigrants now jailed in Arizona. Supporters say the proposal would
reduced the state's heavy costs for imprisoning the 3,600 to 4,000 illegal
immigrants in Arizona prisons who have been convicted of crimes. Opponents
questioned whether this approach would have saved money, whether the state had
the legal authority to move the foreign prisoners to Mexico and whether Mexico
would have welcomed the prison. "It will not reduce the number of criminal
aliens Arizona must incarcerate, nor will it automatically reduce the per capita
cost of incarcerating them," Napolitano wrote in her veto letter. The
Mexico prison idea was proposed in the 1990s but shelved, partly due to legal
concerns. It was revived in 2003 to help cover budget shortfalls but was
rejected by a key legislative committee.
December 10,
2002
Former Arizona Corrections director Terry Stewart wants the state to build a
private prison in Mexico for Arizona's Mexican-national prisoners - an idea that
could benefit him personally. Stewart pitched the idea to a group of
Mexican congressmen who toured private prisons in Arizona on Oct.31, eight days
before he left office. Now Stewart is pursuing the proposal for his
consulting business, Advanced Correctional Management, which is trying to form a
private-prison company. "At this point, I have no connection to any
deal that's going on," Stewart said. But, he said, "I will try
to develop one." Gov.-elect Janet Napolitano said her office looked
into the legality of the idea when she was a attorney general. "To
house somebody outside the territory of the US was found to be very
problematic. If we can't do it legally, why waste time on it?"
Napolitano said. Whether or not such a prison is legal, it should be
rejected on principle, said Caroline Isaacs, the criminal justice program
coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee's Arizona branch in
Tucson. Isaacs said segregating inmates on a basis of nationality is
wrong, and a prison in Mexico would compound problems with private
prisons. Isaacs also criticized what she views as Stewart's use of his
public office for private gain. "This is business decision for
Stewart. He's sensing there is a market out there to profit off of,"
Isaacs said. (Arizona Daily Star)
June
18, 2002
With the prison population growing at a rate of 162 inmates a month while
resources dwindle, the Arizona Corrections Department faces a major challenge in
finding ways to house convicts, says Charles Ryan, deputy director for prison
operations. In the fiscal 2003 budget approved in May by legislators, DOC
has $2.6 million to contract with out-of-state private prisons for 650
inmates. (Arizona Capitol Times)
May
16, 2002
Some Arizona inmates will be shipped out of state and local community
colleges will get more power under the terms of the budget deal worked out
Wednesday among legislative leaders and Gov. Jane Hull. The last-minute
changes agreed to by [Ruth Solomon] and Rep. Laura Knaperek, R-Tempe, her House
counterpart, delete all provisions that would have allowed state Corrections
Director Terry Stewart to place inmates into a "house arrest" program
to deal with prison crowding. Hull had threatened to veto the entire
budget over that issue. Instead, lawmakers have agreed to come up with
some additional cast to contract with private prisons in other states to house
some inmates for about $30 a day. That is more expensive than the $13 a
day per inmate that a home-arrest program costs but less than the $50 a day it
costs in state-run facilities, not counting the cost of building prisons.
(The Arizona Daily Star)
Mohave County Prison
Mohave County,
Arizona
Dominion,
Management & Training Corporation
March 29, 2007 The Daily News
Mohave County supervisors will decide on whether to end a contract with an
Oklahoma firm that built the county's only prison. Mohave County Manager Ron
Walker is asking supervisors to terminate a September 1999 contract between
Mohave Correctional Services LLC and the county to build and operate the state
prison, which opened in August 2004 and is located about 15 miles southwest of
Kingman. The contract states that MCS would pay Mohave County $3,000 a month in
administration costs and provide housing for about 50 county inmates. The county
has tried to make arrangements to house overflow county inmates but MCS has not
complied. Walker also said MCS has not paid the county any of the administration
costs in the contract, calling it a breach of contract. “We don't want to
partner with anyone who hasn't lived up to the first piece of this contract,”
Walker said. “Who are we dealing with here anyway?” Walker said if the
supervisors approve, in 30 days if the money is not paid. the county will look
at a contractual lawsuit for monetary default. The contract also provides for a
60-day notice to correct any non-monetary defaults, for example, transferring
the contract to the prison's current operator without permission from the
county. Utah-based Management & Training Corp. currently operates the prison,
which houses about 1,500 inmates. The prison houses male inmates sentenced
throughout Arizona on charges of drug possession and driving under the
influence. Walker said the contract issue was brought up after MTC officials
recently spoke to the board about partnering with the county to build a federal
prison in the county. Jim Hunter, former vice president of MCS, said from
Oklahoma that the contract was never validated when MCS sold the land to Mohave
Prison LLC in April 2004. The Tucson firm holds the title and leases the land
and the prison to the state for 10 years at which time the state will own the
facility. Hunter also said MCS, which built the prison, does not exist anymore.
He does not recall if MCS transferred the contract to another firm. The 1999
contract states that the contract is binding to the respective parties meaning
the county and MCS' successors. Mike Murphy, vice president of corrections
marketing for MTC, said at the previous supervisor meeting that MTC does not
have a contract to provide housing for overflow county inmates or to pay the
county any administration costs. The first 500 inmates arrived at the prison on
Aug. 9, 2004, and were housed in two units. The second phase opened in April
2005 with permanent support buildings units and housing for an additional 1,000
inmates.
January 24, 2003
Delays,
inaction and possible postponement by Arizona’s new
governor cast a cloud of uncertainty over a private prison project possibly
destined for Mohave County. The
Department of Corrections fielded just two bids for the 1,400-bed prison last
year. Dominion Correctional Services and Management and Training Corp. submitted
a bid to build and operate the prison 13 miles south of Kingman near the
Griffith Energy plant. Correctional Services Corp. submitted a competing bid for
another site in Holbrook. State
officials made a confidential decision regarding contract award and location in
November and prepared a contract to be reviewed by the Attorney General’s
Office. The bidders had hoped for an announcement before Christmas because the
agreement required completion of 400 beds to be ready for use in March.
Jim Hunter, an executive with Dominion, said too much time has elapsed
and that there’s no way his company could, if issued the contract, complete
the initial beds on time as required. Officials
for the Department of Corrections and Attorney General’s Office have not been
able to explain the delay involving contract review Whether a contract will be
awarded is uncertain because the project is postponed under Gov. Janet
Napolitano’s proposed budget. “It shows a one- to two-year delay in the
1,400-bed prison project,” Hunter said. (Today's New Herald)
November
4, 2002
Residents who attended a public meeting about a proposed private prison here
were largely divided in their support or opposition by how close they live to
the site. "People in Golden Valley are opposed. Water is a main
concern. Even the native cactus are dying from the current drought,"
said Golden Valley resident Robert Holsinger at a meeting Friday. Dominion
Correctional Services wants to build the 1,400-bed prison near Kingman to house
men convicted on driving under the influence charges. The prison would be
run by Management and Training Cooperation of Centerville Utah, but would follow
guidelines set by the state Department of Corrections. A site near
Holbrook is also being considered for the private prison. (AP)
New
Castle Correctional Facility
New Castle, Indiana
GEO Group
April 10, 2008 The Star Press
Arizona inmates held in the New Castle Correctional Facility will be moved
out of Indiana beginning this month. George Zoley, chairman and chief executive
officer for The GEO Group, the private company that manages the New Castle
prison, said inmates will be moved out of New Castle, 100 at a time, until all
are moved elsewhere. Zoley made the comment during the company’s quarterly
earnings report last month, not earlier this week as reported earlier today on
The Star Press Web site, www.thestarpress.com. A transcript of the report was
published this week. According to the transcript, Zoley said, “We expect to
transfer approximately 100 Arizona inmates out of the New Castle facility every
two weeks beginning in the first week of April, while simultaneously filling
these vacant beds with additional Indiana inmates reaching an initial total of
over 2,000 Indiana inmates.” As of Wednesday, the Arizona Department of
Corrections listed its Indiana inmate population at 629 offenders. None of the
inmates have been moved as of yet, said Trina Randall, spokeswoman for the New
Castle prison. The Indiana Department of Correction and ADOC reached a deal in
March 2007 to house Arizona offenders at the underused prison in New Castle. A
month later Arizona inmates led a riot inside the facility, and ultimately 28
inmates, all but one of them from Arizona, were charged as a result of the riot.
The two states ultimately called off their deal, and Indiana said it would use
the space inside the 2,416 bed prison for its own inmates.
October 26, 2007 AP
Indiana prison officials have returned to Arizona four inmates who were charged
in the April riot at the New Castle Correctional Facility. The inmates, who
pleaded guilty to misdemeanor rioting and battery charges, were sent back
because they are "no longer suitable for dormitory-style" medium-security
prisons like New Castle, said Karen Cantou Grubbs, a spokeswoman for the Indiana
Department of Correction. A contract between the states calls for Indiana to
house inmates from Arizona, where prisons are overcrowded. The agreement also
allows the rotation of some inmates every month. Cantou Grubbs declined to say
how the prisoners are moved between states. Indiana returned 60 inmates to
Arizona earlier this week and received 79 medium-security prisoners in return.
The four inmates involved in the April 24 riot have been replaced with new
inmates, said Al Parke, southern regional director for the Department of
Correction. The prisoner rotations, which have happened three times, keep
Indiana's inmate population from Arizona at about 630. The contract, which the
states announced in March, originally called for Indiana to house 1,260 inmates,
with Arizona paying $64 a day per inmate. But prison space has since been
filling up in Indiana, too. "Indiana is telling us they've got a shortage of
beds, so we're capped," said Nolberto Machiche, a spokesman for Arizona's
corrections department. Eight inmates and two New Castle staff members were
injured during the April 24 riot. A total of 27 Arizona inmates were charged
with a mix of felonies and misdemeanors afterward. "I'm very confident that
those inmates that have been transferred back to Arizona will not adversely
affect our ability to prosecute the remaining inmates," Henry County Prosecutor
Kit Crane said. The states rotate inmates for several reasons. Some prisoners
return to Arizona because bad behavior makes them unsuitable for a
medium-security prison. Others are sent back because they have an upcoming court
or release date, Parke said. Some also return as a reward for good behavior.
Having a rotation gives inmates "a light at the end of the tunnel," telling them
that if they behave well they will return, Machiche said. Indiana was housing
some Arizona inmates at New Castle and Wabash Valley, a maximum security prison
in Western Indiana. The Wabash inmates were moved several weeks ago. All Arizona
prisoners are now at New Castle, which is managed by a private company, GEO
Group Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla. "No one will go to any other (Indiana)
institution unless there were emergency conditions," Parke said.
September 10, 2007 The Star Press
A former New Castle Correctional Facility inmate who said he was beaten by
two other prisoners has sued the state of Indiana and the Department of
Correction, among other parties, for not protecting him after he reported
illegal activity to prison security last year. Gabriel Leach, who according to
computerized DOC records was incarcerated on theft charges from Jefferson County
until May, filed suit last month. He listed the state, DOC, The GEO Group (the
private company that manages the prison), two prison guards and inmates Harrison
Baker and "Cowboy" Harrison as defendants. According to Leach's claim, at 9:30
p.m. on Dec. 28, 2006, the 30-year-old man was called to the security office
from his bunk in Unit C over the public address system. During that conversation
with officers, Leach reported illegal activity that was happening inside the
prison and said he was in "danger of death or serious bodily harm." He was
returned to Unit C and on Dec. 29 two of his fellow inmates, Baker and Harrison,
allegedly beat Leach for about 15 minutes. According to court documents, he
suffered fractured ribs, a fractured jaw, broken nose and chipped teeth. Leach
also claims he was taken to solitary confinement before he was provided medical
treatment. In the state's response, filed Tuesday, Indianapolis attorney Paul O.
Mullin wrote that Leach "was careless and negligent with regard to his own
safety and well being," which contributed to the inmate's injuries.
August 25, 2007 AP
The New Castle Correctional Facility likely has seen the last transfer of
inmates from Arizona, according to Gov. Mitch Daniels and a state prison
spokesman. A rising inmate population, the closing of one prison and unexpected
renovations at another leave Indiana officials focused on using available beds
for their inmates, state Department of Correction spokesman Randy Koester said.
"We don't plan on opening up any additional housing units for Arizona," he said.
The April 24 riot at New Castle that involved Arizona inmates did not have a
"direct" impact on the decision, Koester said. Daniels was asked about the
prison transfers during a news conference yesterday. He said he did not expect
to see "any more prisoners accepted anytime soon" at the medium-security prison.
August 21, 2007 Indianapolis Star
One-third of the Arizona inmates transferred to serve their sentences in an
Indiana prison are violent criminals, including 25 who were convicted of murder,
according to new data from state prison officials. Prison officials said inmates
were chosen based on their behavior in prison, not their criminal records. But
an advocate for prisoners' rights was surprised by the news, saying officials
had left the impression with the public that violent offenders would not be
included among those moved to the New Castle Correctional Facility, which is
managed by Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO Group. "That's not what they said they
were going to send," said Celia Sweet, former president of the Indiana chapter
of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants. "You know, live up to your
word. Don't go trying to hoodwink the public just to make some money off the
backs of these prisoners. That's not right. It's immoral." The state never
misled anyone, said Department of Correction Commissioner J. David Donahue.
Indiana's deal with Arizona allows medium-security prisoners and bans only sex
offenders, prisoners with discipline problems and recognized gang members, he
said. Medium security, Donahue said, does not preclude those convicted of
violent crimes. The majority of inmates in Indiana prisons are housed in
medium-security areas, he said. In all, 203 of the 611 Arizona inmates are
serving terms for violent crimes, including men convicted of assault, kidnapping
and attempted homicide.
August 14, 2007 AP
More than two dozen inmates face charges stemming from an April riot that
broke out after hundreds of out-of-state prisoners were transferred to a
privately run prison. A total of 28 inmates _ all but one of them from Arizona _
appeared Tuesday in a temporary court set up at the New Castle Correctional
Facility. The charges included rioting, criminal confinement, intimidation and
battery by bodily waste. About 500 prisoners from Arizona and Indiana burned
mattresses and broke windows during the disturbance at the medium-security
prison April 24. Eight prisoners, a guard and a counselor were injured, none
seriously. The riot happened six weeks after the first of some 600 Arizona
inmates began joining 1,050 Indiana prisoners. The New Castle prison, about 45
miles east of Indianapolis, is managed by Boca Raton, Fla.- based GEO Group. A
state report issued in May acknowledged the Department of Correction transferred
the out-of-state inmates too quickly, had used inexperienced guards and failed
to have equal meal and recreation schedules for the two groups of inmates.
May 15, 2007 Journal-Gazette
For-profit prisons not good for state: I want to thank The Journal Gazette
for raising important questions regarding the recent riot by Arizona inmates at
GEO’s New Castle correctional facility in the editorial, “Prisons and
Privatization,” (April 28). What Hoosiers are coming to realize is that
prisons-for-profit are just that: They’re profits makers for shareholders and
corporate execs. While all the editorial’s questions are on point, I predict
nothing will be done because this issue is pure politics (let’s see, your
Department of Correction chief is a former executive for U.S. Corrections
Corp.). GEO and the other for-profit private prison companies depend on low
wages, no benefits, high turnover and political contributions so that corporate
executives can bring in the big bucks (GEO’s George Zoley lives in an $8 million
mansion with a 150-foot dock for his yacht). All of this corporate profit should
have been reinvested into the criminal justice system to maybe have a positive
influence on the system. But hey, they’re just smart businessmen – they know
that nothing will be done to cancel the contract. The fix is in, folks; you
bought the con (no pun intended). KEN KOPCZYNSKI, Executive Director, Private
Corrections Institute, Tallahassee, Fla.
May 9, 2007 AP
Two weeks after about 500 rioting prisoners burned mattresses and broke windows
at a privately run state prison, state officials are expected to complete their
investigation by Friday into what sparked the melee. The findings will be
reviewed by state prisons chief J. David Donahue, who could make them public by
next week, said Evan Hawkins, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of
Correction. “It’s a very large net that’s been cast, where pretty much
everything that could have happened is going to be investigated,” Hawkins said
Wednesday. “We’re trying to move as fast as possible. And we’re hoping the
report will be out next week.” Whether or not Donahue will suggest any changes
to prison policy depends on what the “post-event analysis report” of the riot at
the New Castle Correctional Facility shows, Hawkins said. After the April 24
riot, prison officials said it apparently began when about 40 inmates who
recently transferred from Arizona refused to return to their living area after
having lunch. The conflict spread to Indiana inmates and led prisoners to set
mattresses and paper on fire in the courtyard, break out windows and damage
sinks and toilets. By the time the prison was secured, nine people — including
two staff members — suffered minor injuries.
May 5, 2007 WISH TV
New e-mails show how concerned prison officials in Arizona were before and
after last week's prison riot in New Castle. While the Indiana Department of
Correction continues to investigate what went wrong, I-Team 8 is conducting its
own investigation. On April 24th, Chopper 8 showed you inmates setting fires and
breaking windows within the New Castle Correctional Facility, Indiana's only
privatized prison, run by the Geo Group. The apparent clash between Indiana and
Arizona prisoners left 2 guards and a handful of inmates hurt. Late Friday
afternoon, I-Team 8 obtained the following emails from high-ranking prison
officials in Arizona. One came from the director of Arizona's Department of
Correction to Indiana DOC Commissioner David Donahue. It was dated the day
before the riot. It stated, "Basic security practices are lacking, like counts
and inmate discipline. Simple modifications that were proposed last week haven't
been implemented. " There was another email, this time from the man sent here
from Arizona to investigate after the riot. Ivan Bartos wrote, "I'm sick of
being okey doked about some things and have had to breathe and bite my tongue to
avoid being very confrontational about things. They still don't have
accountability for their radios, we believe that at least one cell phone is in
control of our inmates and they are not counting inmates correctly. My visit
with Geo heavy hitters yesterday made me realize that regardless of what is
being said, efforts to assign blame are underway." And in an update by Mr.
Bartos, he expresses concern about fires, because the alarm system and virtually
all fire extinguishers were destroyed in the riot. He reports keys still
missing, and no clear picture of what tools might be gone. Late Friday night,
I-Team 8 received a response from the Indiana Department of Correction. It said
that even before Arizona inmates arrived in New Castle, there was concern that
the prison there would not be ready to accommodate so many prisoners so quickly.
The State Department of Correction says to expect a complete report on the riot
next week.
April 29, 2007 The Tribune-Star
Like license plates, shivs and pruno, there’s money to be made in prison.
Just ask investors in GEO Group (GEO), who’ve seen their stakes in the private
jailer more than triple in value in the past year. — SmartMoney.com, Feb. 26.
Among the seven specific “risks and uncertainties that could materially affect”
future earnings estimates, The GEO Group Inc. does not mention “prison riots” in
its online 2007 Financial Guidance Update. Apparently, incidents such as
Tuesday’s uprising by hundreds of inmates in the GEO-operated New Castle
Correctional Facility fall under risk-and-uncertainty No. 8 — “other factors.”
Those are outlined in the Florida company’s annual Securities and Exchange
Commission filings. This relegation to the small print of GEO’s big
international world sums up what is — and is not — of importance to GEO and Wall
Street. Indeed, within two days of what New Castle’s mayor proclaimed “a
full-scale riot,” GEO Group’s stock had regained most of the 2.2-percent loss
caused by the destructive protests. By week’s end, GEO had more than rebounded,
closing at $51.20 — a healthy $1.30 over its pre-riot price. The United States
may account for less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but we have more
than 25 percent of the globe’s prisoners. You’d think that fact would give pause
to those who boast incessantly of this nation’s Christian values, but that seems
not to be the case. Incarceration in America is a major growth industry. About
2.2 million men and women are locked up in U.S. correctional institutions —
compared to 500,000 in 1980 — with another 4.8 million on parole or probation.
Industry projections call for a 13-percent increase in our prison population
within the next four years. Only 6 to 7 percent of U.S. prisons are operated by
private-sector companies like the GEO Group, but it isn’t because public
officials are hesitant to hand over the reins. Demand simply outstrips supply.
Competition among states for contracts is fierce, which spells a rosy future for
corporations. In other words, it will take more than a few burned mattresses and
seven minor injuries in one short-lived rebellion to derail the privatized
prison express. Especially in Indiana. In 2005, Gov. Mitch Daniels awarded a
four-year, $53-million contract for New Castle prison to the GEO Group, the
nation’s second-largest prison management company. Listed on the NYSE since
1996, GEO operates 58 prisons in the United States, Australia and South Africa
and is building some of its own. The company also runs a few mental-health
facilities, including the Florida Civil Commitment Center, where sex offenders
who have served out their prison sentences are kept locked up, ostensibly to
receive rehabilitative treatment mandated by Florida law. Last year, Daniels
began to try to snag some of the millions of bucks floating around the prison
industry and get them back into Indiana’s coffers. A deal to house California
inmates, where correctional institutions are bursting at the seams, went south
in December, but the governor then struck a one-year agreement with Arizona:
$6.1 million to house about 1,200 of its inmates at New Castle. As we now know,
thanks to the uprising, about a week before the free-for-all, Dora Schriro,
Arizona’s prisons chief, came to Indiana to see how things were progressing for
the first 630 transferees. The number of New Castle guards and the inexperience
of some inspired her to delay moving any more Arizona inmates here. Katie
Decker, a spokeswoman for Schriro, explained to the Associated Press: “They were
pulling staff from other areas around the state to put them into these
[security] positions, and we needed to be sure there was a permanent
professional crew on site. It wasn’t just a quantity issue, it also was quality
and the level of experience.” Tuesday’s violent protest, primarily by the
medium-security Arizona inmates who’d had no say-so in their hasty 1,500-mile
move to Indiana, confirmed Schriro’s worries. In the aftermath, when some folks
criticized Gov. Daniels for busing in hundreds of seething Arizona prisoners
before New Castle had an adequately trained staff to handle them, he said his
intentions were for the welfare of Indiana workers. “We were looking for a way
to get some Hoosiers hired at New Castle,” he told the Indianapolis Star. Also,
it was a chance to “have them well-trained on somebody else’s nickel.” Of the
uprising, Daniels assumed his characteristic corporate executive stance and
reminded everyone that “corrections is a high-risk business managing high-risk
offenders.” True, and the return is also very high. SmartMoney.com’s bullish
story on the GEO Group noted that expected increases in the prison population
mean “construction of new prison beds will cost as much as $12.5 billion. That
kind of burden will likely force states and the federal government to outsource
even more.” Patrick Swindle, a Tennessee investment analyst, told SmartMoney
that states build prison beds for $75,000 to $80,000 per bed and the federal
government “at north of $100,000 per bed.” Meanwhile, the private sector does it
for about $60,000 per bed. That sort of economizing comes at a cost — to
someone. Indy Star staff writer Erika D. Smith interviewed Ken Kopczynski,
executive director of the Private Corrections Institute, a non-profit
organization that researches and reports on the problems of privatized prisons.
According to Kopczynski, the employee turnover rate in privately run prisons is
about 50 percent. In public correctional institutions it’s in the 15-percent
range. “They answer to the shareholders so they make cuts whenever possible,” he
said. The off-set, of course, is the dependability of the consumer base for
prison services; the “customers” just keep on coming. Plus, they’re
recession-proof. As Jamie Cuellar, a manager of the Brazos Micro Cap fund,
explained to SmartMoney.com: “When times are bad, more people tend to go to
jail. It’s awful but true.” And if those people don’t like the accommodations,
what are they going to do? They can take their business elsewhere, but the only
way to do that is to bust up the joint, shove some security guards around, set
some mattresses on fire and get thrown into a place that’s even worse.
April 29, 2007 The Star-Press
WIDE DISPARITY EXISTS between the assessment of Indiana's top corrections
official and that of eyewitness accounts regarding staffing and security
conditions at New Castle Correctional Facility. Because of this contradiction,
state officials should not lock themselves into a position that Indiana must
push ahead on accepting more Arizona inmates. That position of optimism was
articulated on Wednesday, only hours after the prison riot at New Castle, by J.
David Donahue, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Correction. Donahue
told The Indianapolis Star that he had not changed his mind about housing
prisoners from outside Indiana and saw no reason to pull back from accepting
more Arizona inmates once 132 new correctional workers completed their training
at the prison. "We have a facility that we need to use and a community that
needs jobs, and Arizona has a critical shortage of prison space," he said in an
interview with The Star. ALL OF THOSE POINTS ARE TRUE, BUT the statement ignores
many aspects of what happened on Tuesday at New Castle, what led up to the
disturbance and the possible risk of continuing the "Arizona experiment" without
significant changes and upgrades in the security plan. While adding more workers
at New Castle is logical, that might not cure certain disturbing elements of the
situation. Witnesses and others who commented to Star Press reporters about
Tuesday's disturbance seem to paint a different picture than the one Donahue is
seeing or assumes is there. For instance, Aamir Shabazz of Muncie, who works as
a volunteer chaplain for Muslim inmates and has been at the prison three times a
week, suggests that New Castle was unprepared for the Arizona inmates, who
brought a more "hard-core" prison culture with them. "They don't have enough
guards to make them (Arizona prisoners) change," Shabazz said. This prompts the
question: Will there be enough "muscle" and experience in the added workforce,
as seen by Donahue, to make the Arizona plan work? Jamin Vaughn, who worked at
New Castle through last June, described the workforce at the privately operated
prison as under-trained, underpaid and under-manned. He said the GEO Group,
which operates the facility, cut costs by supervisory staff when it took over.
The strongest denunciation of New Castle security came from Muncie's Kara Scott,
who last month began training to work there. Although she declined to return
after only one day of training, it is apparent that Scott's powers of
observation were keen. In a Star Press interview, Scott noted she badly needed a
job but quickly saw that New Castle was not a safe place to work. She said she
spotted several danger signs: inmates unsupervised, some in prison areas marked
for staff only; guards lacking proper security apparatus (including sprays and
other devices to help maintain order); guards advised that, in case they were
attacked, not to go to a co-worker's rescue but instead stay put and ask for
additional security; guards being advised there would be times, perhaps during a
shift change, that they might be working alone; and trainees advised to take
self-defense and Spanish classes on their own, in anticipation of the influx of
Arizona inmates. ASSUMING THAT SCOTT'S OBSERVATIONS and recall are accurate, it
indicates that GEO supervisors and Indiana officials must be willing to make
huge changes before even thinking about allowing more Arizona inmates to come to
New Castle. What happened at the prison on Tuesday is eerily reminiscent of this
country's incursion into Iraq four years ago. There was the same stubbornness of
purpose (despite the warning flags of dealing with a different kind of
population), the same over-reliance on faulty information, the same lack of
effective and long-range plan for handling the aftermath of a situation, and the
same imprecision on how to permanently resolve an unstable and risk-filled
situation that erupted after troops/prisoners were on the ground. Officials in
charge at New Castle must make a complete, fact-filled and unbiased
investigation and assessment. Until then, they should avoid such overly
optimistic advice that merely adding more bodies to the staff will resolve all
problems in an alien and volatile prison population.
April 27, 2007 WISH TV
Three days after the riot at New Castle Correctional Facility, questions
still remain. Insiders claim the Department of Correction and Geo Group are not
telling the truth about what really happened. A New Castle correctional officer,
who did not want to be identified because he didn't want to lose his job,
emailed: "These (Arizona) offenders are apparently violent and have been since
day one. GEO Group and the Arizona Department of Corrections are telling the
media that these individuals are not murderers or sex offenders. This is not a
true statement." An inmate's mother, who says her son told her on Sunday the
Arizona inmates were going to riot, said: "What upsets me is they knew this was
going to happen. They could have avoided this." A spokesman for the Department
of Correction told I-Team 8 they had no advance information or knowledge of the
riot. When asked if Geo Group knew about the riot beforehand, a spokeswoman
based at the facility told I-Team 8, "Absolutely not." And this from a former
inmate: "The control room should have locked everything down completely! It
sounds to me that they lost control before the riot even started." DOC confirms
the facility was locked when the riot started, but told I-Team 8 offenders were
able to override the system and manually unlock housing unit doors. How did that
happen? This from a member of one of the prison emergency response teams: "It is
apparent that the facility is understaffed and is not as safe of an environment
as it potentially could be. Is this safe for staff and the surrounding
community? I think not." The DOC continues to say that staffing is adequate and
that public safety is number one. And, finally, a mother whose son was one of
the first responders, emailed I-Team 8: "They had taken a few officers for
hostage purposes. If the facility had been at full capacity, we would have been
a community in mourning instead of giving a sigh of relief." The DOC spokesman
maintains that there were no hostages at any time. Since Tuesday, I-Team 8 has
been asking Indiana, Arizona and Geo Group that manages New Castle for a list of
the Arizona inmates to find their crimes and sentences. Already I-Team has found
a man serving time for murder. Repeated requests for information and interviews
have been denied. While Indiana still has not released the list, late Friday
afternoon Arizona did. I-Team 8 team is looking at every name to see what 630
inmates were shipped here and if the list abides by the agreement that there
would be no violent criminals such as killers or sex offenders.
April 26, 2007 KTAR
Tuesday's riot by Arizona inmates at an Indiana private prison prompts a
caution from Democrat Ed Ableser. "We need to be very careful about a private
industry that actually makes money off of the amount of criminals we produce in
this society," he said. But, Republican Russell Pearce said the riot wasn't
caused by private prisons, but by a non-cooperative department of corrections
which won't spend available money. "They refuse to build or provide access to
3,000 beds in this state," said Pearce. The philosophical dispute has left the
state thousands of prison beds short.
April 25, 2007 AP
Indiana's contract with a Florida-based company that runs prisons across the
nation requires it to reimburse the state for the costs police incurred subduing
Tuesday's riot at an eastern Indiana prison it manages. State prisons chief J.
David Donahue said Wednesday that staff at the New Castle Correctional Facility
are assessing the emergency response costs and damage to the prison following
the riot, which slightly injured two staff members and seven prisoners. Donahue,
the commissioner of the Indiana Department of Correction, said "it would be
total speculation" to estimate the riot's costs at this time. Trina Randall, a
spokeswoman for GEO Group Inc., said it could take a few days to assess the
expense of sending emergency squads, county police and Indiana State Police to
the prison to end the fracas, which involved about 500 inmates from Arizona and
Indiana. "They're going from housing unit to housing unit today doing that
estimate. We're responsible for the costs of the riot, and I'm assuming that
includes overtime," she said. During Tuesday's riot, prisoners from Arizona and
some from Indiana set mattresses and paper afire in a prison courtyard,
destroyed furniture and broke windows, officials said. Boca Raton, Fla.-based
GEO Group assumed management of the medium- security prison about 45 miles east
of Indianapolis in January 2006 under the terms of an earlier contract. Last
month, the Indiana DOC and GEO Group signed a contract specifying how the
company would handle inmates Indiana had agreed to accept from Arizona. As of
Wednesday, about 630 Arizona inmates had been moved to the prison. The remaining
transfers to the prison, which already houses 1,050 Indiana prisoners, have been
temporarily halted. Under that deal, Indiana agreed to pay GEO Group at least
$314,212 per week for housing up to 1,200 inmates from the Western state. Last
month, Indiana signed a contract with the Arizona Department of Corrections
under which Arizona agreed to send up to 1,260 inmates to Indiana. Arizona
officials agreed to pay their Indiana counterparts at least $536,256 per week
for housing up to about 1,200 Arizona inmates. Indiana House Speaker Patrick
Bauer, D-South Bend, said Wednesday that the state should cancel that contract.
He said Arizona officials knew the arrangement was problematic before the riot
and were aware that Indiana bans smoking in prisons, while Arizona permits it.
Randall has said many prisoners were upset by the policy, which might have
contributed to the disturbance. "They're not our prisoners; they're Arizona's
prisoners. They ought to be sent back," Bauer said. Earl Goode, the chief of
staff for Gov. Mitch Daniels, released a statement urging Bauer to stay focused
on working to complete a new state budget before the current legislative session
ends Sunday. "It would be best for all Hoosiers if the Speaker stayed on task
and let Commissioner Donahue continue to run the Department of Correction,"
Goode said in his statement. Indiana's contract with GEO Group states that it
has the right to terminate that agreement "whenever, for any reason, the agency
determines that such termination is in the best interest of the State of
Indiana." The contract between Indiana and Arizona's corrections agencies covers
one year but can be renewed for up to three one-year terms if the parties agree.
Arizona can end the contract any time after that one-year period ends, while
Indiana can end it at any point if Arizona "fails to make timely payments"
specified under the agreement.
April 25, 2007 The Star Press
Capt. Ron Deaton, a 22-year corrections veteran, was one of two guards injured
Tuesday in a riot inside the New Castle Correctional Facility. A second prison
employee was treated and released from Henry County Hospital on Tuesday. His
name wasn't released. Deaton's wife, Twilla, said her 53-year-old husband was
beaten by inmates and "has a lot of abrasions and bruises" on his face, arms and
legs. Twilla gathered with other members of her family in a waiting room at
Henry County Hospital while doctors took her husband for X-rays. For years,
Twilla said she didn't question or worry uncontrollably about her husband's
safety at work. But she also knows that guards inside the prison have become
increasingly nervous about conditions recently. "I'll be honest. They all have
concerns. (Ron's) always worried about his officers," she said. "They have been
understaffed." In the past six weeks, the prison has added 630 inmates to its
population, thanks to an agreement with the Arizona Department of Corrections.
As soon as that agreement was signed, the prison began an aggressive campaign to
increase its staff. Twilla said she knows things aren't always rosy behind bars,
but she said for the most part, her husband doesn't talk about work at home. And
even despite Tuesday's riot and his minor injuries, she doesn't expect that to
change. She didn't expect to get a full riot report once the two were reunited.
Ron Deaton has worked at the prison in New Castle since it opened in 2002.
Before that, he worked at the Pendleton Correctional Facility, his wife said.
April 25, 2007 The Indianapolis Star
Visibly shaken after barricading himself from rioting prisoners at the New
Castle Correctional Facility, officer Larry Savage said he felt outnumbered
Tuesday and feared for his life. We're just understaffed right now. . . .We're
lucky to get out of there," he said as he left the prison. Savage isn't the only
one concerned about staffing. Arizona officials -- who last month began sending
the first of more than 1,200 prisoners slated for the facility -- raised
concerns about that issue after officials visited New Castle last week. Dora
Schriro, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, told the operators
of the New Castle prison that she was going to halt the transfer of inmates
until staffing issues were resolved, said Katie Decker, a spokeswoman for the
department. "There were serious security concerns," Decker said. Decker said
only 37 correctional officers were assigned to the 630 Arizona inmates at New
Castle on Thursday. Decker could not say what that number should have been but
said 131 officers would have been required if all 1,260 Arizona inmates had been
transferred. She declined to comment on whether those staffing levels could have
contributed to the riot but said officials are re-evaluating their agreement
with Indiana. "Is the facility going to be capable of housing the inmates we
have there? Are the things that caused this going to be addressed? There's a
variety of things we're going to be looking into and saying, 'Where do we go
from here?' " J. David Donahue, commissioner of the Indiana Department of
Correction, said Tuesday the state facility, which is operated by a private
contractor, GEO Group of Florida, is not understaffed. He declined to elaborate.
About 270 corrections officers oversee about 1,668 inmates, including those from
Arizona. Donahue acknowledged hearing of Arizona's concerns about staffing. But
he said it was a mutual decision not to take additional prisoners from Arizona
while both sides evaluate the arrangement. Nevertheless, Donahue said he saw no
reason to end the relationship. Gov. Mitch Daniels said Tuesday the
troublemakers should be sent back to Arizona. While pledging to review the
out-of-state arrangement, he also warned against a rush to judgment. Savage,
meanwhile, described a chaotic scene inside the prison, where for a time guards
and other prison workers had to barricade themselves in a staff room to keep
inmates from entering. "They beat up one of our captains and took his keys,"
said Savage, who has worked at the prison about eight weeks. Savage said the
riot began because some Arizona inmates took off their shirts and were not
dressed properly in the food line. He said the Arizona inmates had been
threatening some sort of action for several weeks, but he's not sure what set
them off Tuesday. "They did not really have any demands," he said. "They were
just trying to get a point across that they could take the facility over, and
that's what they did."
April 25, 2007 The Star Press
More than $37 billion is spent on incarcerating inmates in the country's jails
and prisons each year, and critics of the private prison industry said Tuesday
that riots like the one at the New Castle Correctional Facility are often
sparked by cost-cutting measures. "You get what you pay for," said Kent
Kopczynski, director of the Private Corrections Institute, a group critical of
the private prison industry and the privatization of prisons. Peter Wagner of
the Prison Policy Initiative agreed. "As a general matter, private prisons cut
corners," Wagner said. "Private prisons cost as much as public prisons, so the
only way they can make a profit is to cut corners." Inmates at the New Castle
facility rioted Tuesday, causing injuries to two guards and damage to the
facility. The prison is run by the GEO Group. Under the name Wackenhut, the
company considered locating a facility in Delaware County in the late 1990s.
When guards call in sick, services or recreation programs can be cut, Wagner
noted, causing unrest among inmates. Officials on Tuesday cited the role of
inmates from Arizona in the riot. More than 600 Arizona inmates -- housed at New
Castle after an arrangement among the two states and GEO Group, which operates
the privatized state facility -- were housed at the facility this week. As many
as 1,260 Arizona inmates were to have been housed in the prison, which has a
capacity of 2,400 beds. The prison also housed 1,050 Indiana inmates as of
Tuesday. Kopczynski said importing inmates from another state -- such as the
Arizona inmates at the New Castle prison -- can also increase the possibility of
disturbances. "It's run like a hotel," he said. "They've got to fill the beds.
If they can't fill the beds with Indiana natives, they've got to bring them in
from elsewhere. You bring in inmates from out of state, and you have a blow-up
between inmates." The prison industry in the United States is a big one.
CNNMoney reported in March that $37 billion is spent on corrections each year in
an effort to keep more than 2 million inmates incarcerated. Kopczynski said the
problem of "understaffed and underpaid employees" was common in private prisons.
"In a public facility, the staff is reasonably paid, you have health insurance,
retirement," he said. "The privateers don't have that. At one GEO facility when
the company was still Wackenhut, less than 10 percent of employees participated
in the retirement plan because the company paid so much less than they did."
April 24, 2007 Indianapolis Star
State officials will temporarily halt the transfer of Arizona prisoners to
the New Castle Correctional Facility after a riot Tuesday that prompted calls
for an end to housing another state's inmates in Indiana. Department of
Correction officials said nine people -- two prison employees and seven inmates
-- suffered minor injuries in separate disturbances involving Arizona and
Indiana prisoners during a two-hour period Tuesday afternoon at the facility 50
miles east of Indianapolis. Commissioner J. David Donahue said the Arizona
prisoners may have been upset because Indiana prisons have different rules,
including a ban on smoking and limits on personal items inmates can have in
their cells. The Arizona prisoners are kept separate from Indiana inmates.
Tuesday's disturbance is the latest example of riots led by prisoners shipped to
other states for incarceration. At least two other uprisings since 2003 involved
Arizona inmates held in out-of-state prisons. The riot also prompted a key
legislative leader to call for the state to cancel the Arizona deal. "The idea
of bringing in people from another state who bring along their gangs,
allegiances and different alliances immediately was a mixture that was bound to
bring trouble," said House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend. Gov. Mitch
Daniels said Tuesday night the inmates specifically involved in the incident
"need to go home" and that he will review the entire out-of-state arrangement
today with Donahue. But even before Tuesday's riot, Arizona officials had
decided to stop sending inmates to the New Castle prison because a recent visit
raised "serious security concerns." Dora Schriro, director of the Arizona
Department of Corrections, visited the New Castle Correctional Facility on
Thursday and found insufficient staffing for her state's 630 inmates, said Katie
Decker, a spokeswoman with the department. Schriro also was concerned about
where officers were stationed. "She advised the operators of that prison that
she was going to halt the transfer of inmates until these issues were resolved,"
Decker said. "There were serious security concerns." Decker said only 37
correctional officers were assigned to the Arizona inmates Thursday. She could
not say what that number should have been but said 131 officers would have been
required if all 1,260 Arizona inmates had already been transferred. She declined
to comment on whether those staffing levels could have contributed to the riot.
Arizona is paying Indiana $6.1 million to house its inmates. Daniels and others
supported the deal in part because the prison was only about half full. The New
Castle prison is state-owned, but Indiana contracts with GEO Group of Florida to
operate it. The first 104 prisoners arrived March 12. Decker, the Arizona
corrections spokeswoman, said Arizona would prefer to keep its prisoners
in-state but can't accommodate the growing inmate population. Arizona also sends
some inmates to a prison in Oklahoma. It had sent about 1,500 to private prisons
in Texas, but those contracts were canceled late last year. Decker said the
future of the contract with Indiana is in question. "Is the facility going to be
capable of housing the inmates we have there? Are the things that caused this
going to be addressed? " While the riot raised concerns about the deal with
Arizona, it also prompted questions about the state's contract with a private
firm to manage the facility. The state signed a contract with GEO Group in
September 2005 to run the prison for four years with an option for three
two-year extensions. Officials with the company declined comment Tuesday.
Daniels said the fact that the prison is privately managed did not have anything
to do with the riot, and his office released a history of disturbances at
Indiana correctional facilities to help support his point. "In fact, the
management there responded beautifully, as did the public authorities," said
Daniels, who has sought to privatize parts of state government. But Indiana
Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker disagreed and said privatization of the
prison likely contributed. "What happened today is a tragedy. I think it all
ties back to the fact that (the governor) has privatized essential government
services," Parker said. House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis,
cautioned people not to rush to judgment. "It's too early to make any rash
judgments about what happened in New Castle," he said. "I think we need to find
out exactly what happened, who is responsible and how prison officials reacted.
This is not the first prison riot in national history, nor is it the last."
Tuesday's trouble began about 2 p.m. as a group of Arizona inmates became
defiant as they were being moved from a dining hall to their cellblocks, said
Donahue, the DOC commissioner. Donahue said many of the inmates began removing
their shirts, apparently in a show of solidarity for the "noncompliance," and
one guard was either knocked or pushed to the ground. A group of Indiana inmates
-- who do not mingle with the Arizona prisoners and are kept separate by fences
-- became aware of the disturbance, and about 500 of the prison's 1,668 inmates
became involved, he said. Rioters broke scores of windows and set several fires
in outdoor recreation areas before guards used a chemical agent to quell the
disturbance after about two hours. Guards first isolated the areas of
disruption, giving inmates time to decide who was going to participate and who
was going to be bystanders rather than rushing in, Donahue said. "We don't rush
to judgment," he said. "We don't want to put additional folks at risk. We didn't
have anyone in harm's way." It's not unusual for tensions to flare up at a
prison that's privately run and has prisoners from different states, said Ken
Kopczynski, executive director of the watchdog Private Corrections Institute.
For one, prisoners often end up far away from their relatives and friends,
making visits difficult. "How do you expect the family to stay in touch," he
said, "when they're in Arizona and they have to fly all the way to Indiana?" In
addition, companies such as GEO Group subject prisoners to different rules,
based on the contracts they have with different states. For example, prisoners
from one state can have food more times per day or access to reading materials
or better medical care than prisoners from another state. Guards did keep the
prison populations apart, as all management companies are required to do, but
that rarely stops the flow of information, Kopczynski said. Once one group finds
out the guards are treating another group better, prisoners can become
resentful, angry and violent. That kind of unequal treatment doesn't usually
happen in public prisons, because the prisoners are from the same state. But
transferring prisoners from state to state is becoming more and more common as
states run out of beds and decide it's cheaper to ship prisoners to other
states, rather than build a prison of their own. Prisoners' rights' advocates
said that the arrangement is a recipe for disaster from the start. Donna Leone
Hamm, director of Middle Ground Prison Reform, an Arizona-based nonprofit inmate
advocacy group, said she is not surprised that violence broke out at the prison.
She said her organization has been contacted by inmates and their family members
who said prisoners were shipped off to Indiana against their will and with
little notice, including some who said they were roused from their beds in the
middle of the night and told to pack. Because Arizona transports prisoners
deemed least likely to cause trouble, well-behaved inmates felt they were being
punished for playing by the rules, Hamm said. In addition, some couldn't bring
along personal property, including televisions, she said.
April 24, 2007 WISH TV
Indiana State Police have confirmed a disturbance at the New Castle Correctional
Facility. Troopers have been dispatched to the scene. New Castle Mayor Tom Nipp
calls the disturbance a "full scale riot." According to Indiana State Police
there was some sort of argument between the inmates from Indiana and the
prisoners from Arizona that the facility has been housing since early March. The
facility has confirmed two staff members have been injured and one of those
staff members is in the emergency room at Henry County Memorial Hospital. So far
reports are cell houses D, I, or J were involved in the incident. The riot
erupted around 2:00 Tuesday afternoon. Local law enforcement arrived by 2:15
p.m. Chopper 8 flew over the scene and witnessed at least three burning fires
set around the facility. "Prisoners were trying to tear down some fence," said
Nipp. "The exterior fence is electrical wire. The police department has been
fully mobilized." A perimeter has been established around the facility to ensure
that if anyone did manage to get over the fence, measures are being taken to
ensure the public's safety. Facility staff and personnel say they are managing
the situation professionally and applying procedures including tear gas to
return the facility to stable conditions. "New Castle is quite secure. All due
precautions are in place to maintain that security," said Nipp. GEO Group
manages and operates New Castle Correctional Facility. In a phone interview with
GEO Group Spokesman Pablo Paez, he said they are working to bring the situation
under control. Paez said there are over 1,000 inmates from Indiana currently at
the facility and they are in the process of taking in inmates from Arizona.
There are currently 630 inmates from Arizona at the facility. That process
stared at the beginning of March. Katie Decker of the Arizona Department of
Correction confirmed that 630 inmates from Arizona have been transferred to the
facility so far. Transfer of additional prisoners is on hold for right now.
Pima
County Jail
Pima, Arizona
Correctional Medical Service (formerly run by First Correctional Medical)
July 3, 2009 Arizona Daily Star
The mother of a 28-year-old man who hanged himself in the Pima County jail has
filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Correctional Medical Services, the
company that provides medical care at the facility. Keith Kehl, 28, was found
dead in his cell a little after 4 a.m. Aug. 1, 2007. He was hanging from a
bedsheet tied to the upper bunk. According to a lawsuit filed in Pima County
Superior Court, Kehl was not placed on suicide watch despite the medical staff
knowing he was having visual and auditory hallucinations telling him to harm
himself. On June 30, 2007, Kehl's depression was rated at 10 on a scale of 1 to
10, the lawsuit states. He was also known to be having suicidal thoughts. The
Pima County Board of Supervisors voted in April to settle a claim filed by the
family, agreeing unanimously to pay $125,000 to Rose Martin, Kehl's mother.
May 2, 2009 Arizona Daily Star
A Pima County jury acquitted a registered nurse Friday on 10 charges alleging
that he sexually abused three female inmates while working at the Pima County
Adult Detention Center. Christopher Erin Johnston, 36, was accused of touching
each of the women's breasts inappropriately, rubbing his genitals on a woman's
back and forcing the same woman to touch his genitals. Lauren Murata, one of the
eight jurors on the case, said the jury was initially split 6-2 in favor of not
guilty but after some discussion reached its ultimate decision. The jury
deliberated four hours. "We believe the state didn't sufficiently prove its
case," Murata said. "There were several possible witnesses and items we would
like to have seen that would've helped support the state's case."
November 18, 2008 Zonie Report
The mother of a Tucson teenager claims officials at the Pima County Jail
ignored several warning signs about her son’s suicidal tendencies, leading to
his death just days after he was incarcerated. Daryl Marie Kramer is suing the
county, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik and Correctional Medical Services, a St.
Louis-based government contractor that administers medical care in the jail, on
behalf of her deceased son, Brian Kramer. In November 2007, Daryl Kramer grew
concerned about her son’s mental health while he was on probation, the complaint
states. It does not mention the details behind his probationary status. She
called her son’s probation officer and told him to return Brian to the jail as
an act of “tough love.” She claims she told the officer that Brian had attempted
suicide three times recently, including once in the previous week. She claims
she asked the officer to put him on suicide watch. When Brian Kramer was
admitted, jail officials noted that he had a small wound on his wrist that he
had purposely re-opened, according to the complaint. This and other jail reports
revealed several “red flags” that should have alerted the jail to Brian Kramer’s
problems. He was placed on suicide watch initially, the complaint claims, then
removed and put into the general prison population a few days later. The
complaint also claims that he was not receiving Zoloft or other medical
treatment for his mental health. Two days later, Brian Kramer tried to hang
himself in his cell. He was taken to the hospital and pronounced brain dead upon
arrival, after which he was taken off of life support and his organs were
donated for transplants. Daryl Kramer is suing for negligence and wrongful
death. She is represented by Tucson lawyers Michael and Jack Redhair. The case
is before Judge Michael Miller.
July 15, 2008 The Arizona Daily Star
Conmed Healthcare Management Inc. on Monday signed a $220,000 transitional
contract with Pima County to provide medical services for inmates at the county
jail. The contract will allow Conmed to develop a plan for the jail to switch
from its existing provider of medical, dental and behavioral health services by
Aug. 1, the company said. The Board of Supervisors approved a two-year, $18.5
million contract with the current provider, Correctional Medical Services, in
2006. Citing poor quality and lack of contract compliance -- such as meeting
staffing levels and providing timely care -- the county decided to drop the
provider. Conmed, based in Hanover, Md., said it currently serves jails and
prisons in 31 counties in six states, including Arizona.
July 2, 2008 Arizona Daily Star
Citing poor quality of care and lack of contract compliance, Pima County
will drop Correctional Medical Services as its medical-care provider at the Pima
County jail. Correctional Medical Services is the largest provider of detention
medical services in the country. The Board of Supervisors approved a two-year,
$18.5 million contract with the St. Louis-based company in 2006. The contract
represented an 18.6 percent increase over the previous contract with
Tucson-based First Correctional Medical, which had served the jail since 2002.
At the time, Supervisor Richard Elías said he was concerned about cost-cutting
measures in the contract and complaints made against the company in other
states, but County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said he was satisfied with
the company's answers. However, two years later, Pima County officials say the
company has failed to meet basic expectations laid out in its contract,
including meeting staffing levels and providing care in a timely manner. "Our
feeling is they have not met our requirements for quality care at the jail,"
said Dr. Fred Miller, Pima County's chief medical officer. In a memo to the
supervisors, Huckelberry said CMS had five administrators and four corporate
liaisons in the 26 months of the contract, leading to inconsistent leadership.
The company failed to collect $1.3 million from the contract because it didn't
meet staffing requirements. And court officials recently expressed concern about
the quality of psychiatric care provided in the jail, including psychological
evaluations done by a nurse practitioner. The qualifications of those doing
evaluations at the jail came up during a recent hearing involving a murder
suspect. In a bench conference in Pima County Superior Court, Judge Nanette
Warner said she had big problems with the company. "I have huge issues with the
quality of the staff, the quality of the care. It has been a frustration for the
court," she said. "Their whole goal is how not to do any work," she said at a
later point in the conference. In a ruling issued Thursday, Warner said the
court had been told that CMS had hired a psychologist and two psychiatrists to
start doing evaluations. She declined to comment further. But by the time the
company acted, negotiations apparently had already broken down. In the memo,
Huckelberry said Pima County sent CMS a final contract offer on June 13, and the
company changed aspects of the contract without discussing the issue with the
county. He said the company was not prepared to meet Pima County's requirements.
The supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the CMS contract for one
month, until the end of July, to allow an orderly transition. They also voted to
give a one-year, $9 million contract to ConMed Healthcare Management, a
Maryland-based provider of detention medical services. Dennis Douglas, deputy
county administrator for health services, said ConMed approached the county some
time ago and periodically provided information about its services. He said
that's why the county decided to go with ConMed in the short term. He said the
county may develop a competitive process to look at other providers along with
ConMed by the time the contract is up. Elías said he hopes the county avoids
similar problems with the new provider. Douglas said he did not think the
problems with CMS could have been avoided through a more careful contracting
process because the company looked good on paper. "It was a good contract, a
reasonable contract, but they didn't live up to it," he said. Ken Fields, a
spokesman for CMS, said the company negotiated in good faith with Pima County,
as evidenced by the fact that it continued to hire people and provided good
services. "Correctional Medical Services has well-established policies and
procedures that are based on years of experience working in hundreds of
facilities," he said. "That experience is brought to every community we serve,
including Pima County."
October 16, 2007 Arizona Daily Star
An employee working at the Pima County jail has been accused of sexually
abusing female inmates while on the job, according to court documents.
Christopher Erin Johnston was charged with five counts of sexual abuse and five
counts of unlawful sexual conduct, according to an indictment in Pima County
Superior Court. The indictment says Johnston, 34, had sexual contact with three
female inmates without their consent between July 30 and Aug. 5. On three
occasions, Johnston touched the women's breasts and in one of the incidents he
rubbed his genitals on a woman's back and forced her to touch them, according to
the indictment. When the incidents occurred, Johnston was working for
Correctional Medical Services, a company hired by the Pima County Sheriff's
Department to provide health care to inmates, said Sgt. James Ogden, a spokesman
for the Sheriff's Department. Ogden said he did not know what kind of work
Johnston performed at the jail, 1270 W. Silverlake Road. He said Johnston did
not work directly for the county and that he is no longer employed at the jail.
April 5, 2006 Arizona Star
Health care at the Pima County jail soon will be the responsibility of one of
the nation's largest private providers of medical care in jails and prisons. The
Pima County Board of Supervisors approved an $18.5 million, two-year contract
Tuesday with St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services. The company will
replace First Correctional Medical, the Tucson-based company that has provided
medical care at the jail since 2002, at the end of April. The contract
represents an average 18.5 percent increase in the yearly cost of providing care
at the jail. County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said the increased cost was
driven by several factors, including medical costs rising 7.5 percent a year,
the jail population increasing 7 percent to 9 percent a year and the addition of
seven full-time employees over the previous contract. Supervisor Richard Elias
voted no after raising concerns about aspects of the contract. For example, the
contract calls for medications to be distributed two times a day instead of
three, a change that will save the county $300,000. Elias wondered what would
happen to inmates with chronic conditions if they needed medication three or
four times a day. "I just want to make sure we're not creating more liability by
creating a situation where people aren't getting their meds," Elias said. Elias
said later he also was worried about accountability and records transfers when
dealing with an out-of-state company. "I have a lot of concerns about
Correctional Medical Services," Elias said. "In the end, I would have been a lot
more comfortable with a local provider." Correctional Medical Services runs 320
facilities with 250,000 inmates in 25 states. Former inmates and family members
have accused the company of providing inadequate care and cutting corners to
save money. Karen Russo, president of the Wrongful Death Institute, has served
as a clearinghouse for those accusations. She said the company has a "facade" of
providing health care. A 2000 audit by the South Carolina Legislature found
problems with distribution of medicine, lack of planning for discharge of
mentally ill patients and workers who did not have the right qualifications. Ken
Fields, a spokesman for Correctional Medical, said many of the allegations were
years old and false.
April 29, 2005 Tucson Citizen
The woman who hanged herself Sunday at the Pima County
Jail was showing psychotic symptoms, a jail official said, and told a jail nurse
that she had been taking prescription drugs for chronic pain and depression.
Vickie Logan never saw a doctor in the jail who could have prescribed the
medications for her, even though that is standard jail procedure, a jail
official said. She also never saw a psychiatrist in the jail, even though
inmates sent to the jail's mental health unit - as Logan was - routinely see a
psychiatrist for a follow-up screening, the official said. Instead Logan, 42,
was put in isolation - in a cell where she had contact only with jail staff and
where her meals were delivered. She also was not put on suicide watch, even
though she was "hearing voices and talking to people who were not
there," said jail supervisor Capt. Judy Hendrickson. After 61 hours of
isolation, Logan hanged herself Sunday and died Monday. The county jail's
medical and mental health services are provided by First Correctional Medical
Inc., a local private contractor. The nurse ordered Logan into isolation because
she was "hearing voices and talking to people who were not there,"
Hendrickson said. The nurse who interviewed her didn't think she needed close
supervision and so did not put her on suicide watch, which would have required
jail personnel to check on her every five minutes, instead of every 15 minutes.
Hendrickson said.
March
26, 2004
A woman whose son died when she went into premature labor and gave birth
at the Pima County jail has begun the process of filing a million-dollar lawsuit
against the county and the company that provides medical care at the jail.
An attorney for Valerie Lopez, 23, began sending notices of claim, legally
required before a lawsuit can be filed, Wednesday to Pima County Sheriff
Clarence Dupnik, whose department runs the jail; the county, including the Board
of Supervisors; First Correctional Medical and the various nurses and
corrections officers involved in the September 2003 incident. The $1.75
million claim says Lopez's rights were violated by inadequate medical care and
that she suffered serious injuries and emotional trauma when officials ignored
her complaints of pain for 10 hours. They finally took her to the medical unit,
where she pulled down her pants and gave birth on a table with only two Tylenol
to ease her pain. (Arizona Daily Star)
October
19, 2003
Valerie Lopez says she had problems convincing authorities at the jail
that she was in labor. Changes are being made. Valerie Lopez lay on her
bunk at the Pima County jail. Nearly six months pregnant and just arrested for
fighting with her brother, the 23-year-old didn't want to be in labor. She
called for help, the third time that night. But instead of being taken to a
hospital, Lopez says she was moved to another cell because she was disturbing
her cellmate, told to calm down and stay off her feet, and given only an aspirin
for the pain. Fifteen minutes later, she felt her son coming into the
world. She cried out again and says corrections officers and nurses
finally believed her. They took her to the medical unit, where she says she
pulled down her pants and gave birth after 10 hours of labor. And, there, Juan
Carlitos Long, a boy with perfect fingernails and a tiny, beautiful heartbeat,
died. Jail officials say the Sept. 29-30 incident should have been handled
better; that mix-ups helped cause it and they've made changes. They'll even ask
the County Attorney's Office if criminal charges are merited. But most of
the decisions were made by nurses with the private company that cares for
inmates under a contract with the county, a company with no major problems since
taking over jail care in March 2002, amid allegations of improper care by
previous workers. Officials at First Correctional Medical defend their
standards of care and point to a recent new accreditation the local operation
received to show it provides a high level of care here. Still, Lopez wants to
know why she wasn't taken to a hospital and why instead of the birthday parties
she'd envisioned for her son, she had to plan a funeral. (Yahoo News)
Prescott Valley, Arizona
Management & Training Corporation
October 18, 2007 The Daily Courier
The town council will not support plans by a Utah-based company to consider the
outskirts of town for a private prison. Overwhelming vocal opposition to a
2,000-bed, minimum-security prison for nonviolent male inmates apparently
persuaded the council Thursday against proceeding with endorsing the prison.
Opponents expressed concerns to the council about Prescott Valley having the
label of "prison town," and facing declining property values and other negative
effects. The council met Oct. 4 with representatives of Management and Training
Corp., a Centerville, Utah-based company that proposed a 100-acre site a mile
north of Highway 69 and parallel to Old Fain Road. The council did not take any
formal action during the work/study meeting Thursday, but Town Manager Larry
Tarkowski indicated he would not put a letter of support on the agenda for next
Thursday. The sole support for the prison on the council came from Mary Baker,
who cited the benefit of 500 jobs. Opponents in excess of 10 people dominated a
packed council chamber. Council members also indicated that prison opponents
bombarded them with e-mails and phone calls. "We had so many people who said
'no,' and I have to go with that," Mayor Harvey Skoog said after five people
spoke out against the prison. Two people spoke in favor of the prison. "I am not
worried about the prisoners that are escaping, but I am worried about the factor
of the money you would lose on your house," opponent Frank Shank, a retired
diesel mechanic and Teamster union representative from Detroit, said after the
meeting. He said that he lost $50,000 on a house in Jackson, Mich., a number of
years ago because of the presence of a prison. Prison supporter Linda Shimmin, a
retired restaurant owner, faulted the review process for killing the prison
plans. "I think the (council) decision is fine," she said after the meeting.
"It's the process that concerned me. Management and Training was not here
tonight. I think the visceral reactions might have been mitigated had Management
and Training been allowed to make a presentation." Shimmin drew some applause -
and a number of boos - when she pleaded her case for the prison during the
council meeting. Audience members also applauded opponents who spoke at the
podium and when the council members indicated that they would go with the will
of the public. The council had scheduled the meeting in the first place to
review the costs for water and other infrastructure for the prison.
Prisoner Transport
Security Transport Services
January 6, 2009 Nogales International
The driver of a prisoner transport van that rolled over on State Route 82 that
injured him and seven passengers was cited for “failure to control a vehicle to
avoid a collision,” according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS).
The van was from an independent company “Security Transport Services” of Topeka,
Kansas. Shortly before 6:30 a.m. on Dec. 27 detention officers were en route to
the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office Adult Detention Center in Nogales to
retrieve an inmate with an outstanding order of arrest from North Carolina when
the van rolled at milepost 6.2, near the Little Red Schoolhouse. DPS Sgt. Kevin
McNichols said the van rolled on its side as it went around a downhill curve
that approaches the north side of the Santa Cruz River Bridge. “The driver told
us that he had swerved in order to miss a deer. All the evidence we had at the
scene indicated otherwise. We could tell the vehicle drifted from the roadway
and then came back,” said DPS Officer Albert Terrazas, who said that the driver
was also cited for fatigue. Two of the more severely injured passengers were
flown to University Medical Center in Tucson for advanced medical treatment but
were later released. Lt. Raoul Rodriguez of the Sheriff’s Office said injuries
ranged from broken bones to minor cuts and scrapes.
Red Rock Correctional Facility
Eloy, Arizona
CCA
September 27, 2009 Alaska Dispatch
After 15 years of managing Alaska prisoners housed out-of-state, Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA) has lost its contract to Cornell Corrections.
Cornell's will charge the state about $19,446,000 a year to house 900 prisoners,
while CCA's plan would have cost $18,724,000 -- $722,000 less a year. Either way
the state will realize savings over the $20,669,000 it now pays through a
contract with CCA. The 770 inmates serving time at CCA's Red Rock Correctional
Center in Arizona will be moved late this year to Cornell's Hudson Correctional
Facility in Colorado, a 1,250-bed center now under construction. The move -- via
special U.S. Marshals Service planes -- is expected to cost Alaska more than
$200,000, Alaska Department of Corrections spokesman Richard Schmitz said. The
Department of Corrections denied a protest of the award filed by CCA attorneys,
who said they won't launch further appeal. In the protest, CCA attorneys Charles
Cole -- a former Alaska Attorney General -- and Stephen Williams argued that
Cornell Corrections of Alaska lacks the basic experience the state requires, and
that a preference system for Alaska-based bidders was misused. Cornell's bid was
more costly than CCA's for the three-year term, but a proposal evaluation panel
awarded Cornell's plan more points because of the company's status as an Alaska
entity. Points matter as a committee rates the proposals in several categories.
According to CCA's protest, the company gained more points than Cornell in five
other evaluation categories. In denying the protest, the state said Cornell
Alaska qualifies for two perks as an in-state company -- a bidder's preference
and an offeror's preference -- and that Cornell meets experience standards.
CCA's attorneys argue that Cornell's Alaska enterprise manages halfway house
centers and lacks experience housing federal prisoners. In its bid, Cornell
turned to its parent company, based in Houston, as the qualified service
provider. CCA's attorneys took issue with the state awarding Alaska preferences
to a business that would turn the contract over to its Texas parent company to
manage. Alaska has contracted with CCA since 1994 to house sentenced prisoners
out of state. Currently, 770 Alaska inmates are serving time away. Most have at
least year-long sentences. Meantime, the $240 million, 1,536-bed Goose Creek
Correctional Center is scheduled to open in 2012 at Point MacKenzie. The
medium-security men's facility, which is expected to alleviate Alaska's prison
space shortage, is being funded through bonds issued by the Matanuska-Susitna
Borough. The state will pay off the bonds by leasing the facility from the
borough, and will take ownership once the bill is settled. Cornell has tried for
years to solidify support for a private prison in Alaska, and became wrapped up
in a far-reaching probe into political corruption. The company's lobbyist, Bill
Bobrick, pleaded guilty on charges he tried to bribe Rep. Tom Anderson--who is
now serving time in federal prison himself-- to advocate for a private prison.
Cornell was not implicated.
August 7, 2009 Earth Times
Corrections Corporation of America (NYSE: CXW) (CCA), the nation's largest
provider of corrections management services to government agencies, announced
today that it has been notified by the Alaska Department of Corrections that it
was not selected in Alaska's competitive solicitation to house up to 1,000
inmates from the state of Alaska. CCA currently houses approximately 765 Alaskan
inmates at its 1,596-bed Red Rock Correctional Center in Arizona. CCA currently
expects that Alaska will begin transferring their inmate population out of the
Red Rock facility beginning in December of 2009. The loss of these inmates does
not affect CCA's recently announced 2009 earnings per share guidance. CCA will
begin marketing the available beds at the Red Rock facility to other state and
federal customers. CCA also currently houses 650 inmates from the states of
California, Washington and Hawaii at the Red Rock facility. "We are very
disappointed to have not been selected by the Alaska Department of Corrections,
a long standing customer of ours. We will work closely with the Alaska
Department of Corrections to ensure a smooth transition out of the Red Rock
facility," said Damon Hininger, President and Chief Operating Officer. "Although
at the present moment, we do not have another customer lined up to fill the
vacant beds, these beds are located in a market that is very attractive to a
variety of state and federal customers. CCA currently owns 12,180 beds in the
state of Arizona, which are fully occupied, including the 765 beds currently
utilized by the state of Alaska."
May 3, 2009 Anchorage Daily News
To some shoppers, the recession means cheap cars, undervalued homes and discount
vacations. But bargain prisons? The Alaska Department of Corrections thinks so.
The department currently sends 868, or 20 percent, of its inmates to a private
prison in Arizona because it doesn't have enough prison beds here. The contract
with that rented prison is almost up, so Corrections is shopping around for a
better deal. "This is driven by our own want, our own need, to be responsible
with public money," said Corrections Commissioner Joe Schmidt. He said he's
looking for "what the market might offer us right now." The opportunity to grab
the $20 million-a-year deal from the current contractor, Corrections Corp. of
America, is attracting both private and state-run prisons. Alaska officials have
already visited potential sites in Colorado and Minnesota and expect to visit
more as the bids come in, Schmidt said. States like Nevada, in fiscal trouble
and considering releasing some of their own prisoners, are taking an interest.
Administrators of a new 464-bed prison in Hardin, Mont., say they plan to bid
for some of Alaska's business. Hardin made the national news recently when it
offered to house detainees from Guantanamo Bay. Greg Smith, head of an economic
development agency in Hardin, thinks the Alaska contract could create jobs in
his small town. He said he's been calling Alaska prison officials "as often as I
can without bugging them." "We would love to be able to take care of your
inmates," Smith said. Schmidt, whose department so far hasn't had to make
painful recession cuts, said the contract will go to whoever offers the best
deal for good security and treatment programs. "You see, we want to do more, but
we don't want to pay more," the commissioner said. Schmidt has been pushing the
department in a new direction since he was appointed by Gov. Sarah Palin in
2006, advocating for more inmate education, treatment programs and vocational
training. His goal, he says, is to reduce the state's high recidivism rate --
three out of five prisoners are re-arrested for a new offense after leaving
prison. The number of inmates in the United States boomed in the 1980s and
1990s, in part because of high crime rates and stiffened sentencing laws,
particularly for drug offenders, according to the Pew Center on the States.
Alaska's prison population also swelled during that time. In the mid-1990s,
Alaska started sending prisoners out of state to one of the many private prisons
that cropped up in response to the growth industry. The Red Rock prison in Eloy,
Ariz., currently holds medium-security inmates from Alaska sentenced to at least
two years, said corrections spokesman Richard Schmitz. The state pays
Corrections Corp. of America $61.63 per day, per prisoner. Additional costs,
such as travel and medical expenses make the real price higher, he said. It's
still cheaper than what the state pays for the maximum-security Spring Creek
Correctional Center in Seward. That works out to about $140 per day, per
prisoner, Schmitz said. The state doesn't like housing its prisoners Outside.
Families can't afford to visit, so prisoners don't get the support and
rehabilitative benefits of family connection, according to rehab experts. Guards
tend to be low-paid, and the state can't keep a good eye on how inmates are
treated day to day. Plus, the prisons are subject to the policies and laws of
the other state. Frank Smith, a vocal opponent of private prisons, thinks
there's more to Alaska's decision to switch contracts. The Arizona prison "is a
mess. It's always been a mess. Alaska has never been good at monitoring it,"
said Smith, a former Alaskan who works for Private Corrections Institute, an
anti-private prison group based in Florida. The people in the prison-for-profit
business "don't provide anything they don't have to absolutely provide," he
said. Commissioner Schmidt denies that, as do the people who run Red Rock.
They've had a good relationship with Alaska since 1995, they say. The company
expects to rebid for the contract.
January 27, 2009 KTVA
Alaska has a long history with tuberculosis. Over the years state and federal
governments have declared an all out war against the disease. Health experts say
they have it under control, but one rural family disagrees. The eye-team
investigates how an Alaskan inmate could have died from the disease while behind
bars. Tuberculosis, or TB, used to be a huge problem in our state, but health
experts say now, it is pretty well under control. So why, if TB is under control
did the disease kill an Alaskan inmate behind bars in Arizona? It is a question
his family is desperately trying to find an answer to. TB attacks the lungs and
nervous system. It is spread through the air when people who have the disease
cough, sneeze, or spit. "Occasionally villages will have an outbreak where quite
a few people get exposed and go on the INH treatment, but it is pretty rare in
the United States for someone to die from it," says Department of Corrections
Clinical Director Dr. Rebecca Bingham. But one family disagrees. They know the
disease can kill, because it killed 26-year-old Joseph Alexie while he was
behind bars within the Alaska Department of Corrections. "That Friday, he went
in for a checkup, and that evening those doctors called me and told me that they
cleaned him out and he was sleeping, and he did have TB," says Joseph's mother
Lizzy Alexie, "That whole week, he didn't wake up. They called me everyday and
told me how he was doing and that one day, they told me they were giving him 48
hours to live, and that's when I started crying." Alexie died December 9, 2008,
on is daughter's 5th birthday, while incarcerated at Red Rock correctional
center in Arizona. Red Rock is the facility the Alaska Department of Corrections
has a contract with to house Alaskan inmates. He was sent to jail for burglary
and attempted sexual assault. His family says no matter what his crimes, he
should not have died behind bars from a controllable and treatable disease. "He
always had a smile on his face," says his aunt Evelyn Colley, "His last words to
me were that he loved me very much. He said I love you just lots." Even though
he was exposed to TB as a little boy, Joseph's family says he never should have
died from it. "He kept going and trying to get checked up, but they kept sending
him away telling him it was bronchitis, or this or that, and they were just
giving him a wrong diagnosis every time, without really giving him any medical
attention." Says Myra Colley, Joseph Alexie's cousin. Though they are bound by
federal laws not to talk about the health of specific inmates, the clinical
director for DOC told us, if they would have known an inmate was that sick, they
would have treated him. "He was found too late," says Dr. Bingham, "When he
finally came to medical and said he was coughing and did not feel well, he had
already, apparently, been sick for a while without probably realizing that."
But, in the weeks leading up to his death Joseph Alexie's family says he called
them and said he was not feeling well. They say he even asked that they send him
his medical records that document his history with t-b. "Joseph made attempts to
get help long before his condition worsened," says his aunt. His cousin agrees.
"He had a feeling it was TB. He kept going and trying to get checked up, but
they kept sending him away telling him it was bronchitis, or this or that, and
they were just giving him a wrong diagnosis every time," says Colley. The family
says they are not the only ones who think Joseph's medical condition was not
handled properly. After Joseph died his mother got a call from a fellow inmate
in Arizona, saying the Arizona medical staff did not do enough to treat him. "He
told me, you know, it's not right, it wasn't right," says his mother. Though
they are bound by law not to talk about the details of the case, officials with
the DOC say Joseph didn't tell anyone he was feeling bad in time "He was found
too late," says Dr. Bingham, "When he finally came to medical and said he was
coughing and didn't feel well, he had already, apparently, been sick for a while
without probably realizing it. He was put in the hospital and treated as
aggressively as possible, but apparently, we are not quite sure why he died. It
is an unusual thing to happen." At least five new positive TB skin tests have
come up, but the state says there is no outbreak. When someone has a positive TB
skin test it does not necessarily mean they have the disease, only that they
have been exposed to it, and have the antibodies. "We tested everybody that was
around him. They had five conversations, and they are all on medication and they
are fine without symptoms," says Dr. Bingham, "We tested everybody that was
transferred up here from down there, and we have not had anybody that is
positive up here." So far, no one else has gotten sick. As for Joseph Alexie's
family, they say they wont get over his loss. "We are the same age. He is only
26," says Myra Colley, "He has a daughter just like I do. "With him leaving when
he did not even have to. Tuberculosis is so treatable. There is no reason
anybody should die of tuberculosis. It's just so unfair." Even though Joseph
Alexie was in Arizona when he died, he was governed by Alaska Department of
Corrections health standards. The DOC medical officials say any inmate with a
positive skin test will receive treatment to suppress the disease. It can take
six weeks to two to three months for a TB case to turn positive, and we are told
that the inmates that have been exposed to TB will be tested again in three
months. Joseph Alexie was set to get out of jail this June.
January 14, 2009 Eloy Enterprise
Two Alaskan inmates at the Red Rock Correctional Facility owned by private
prison company Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) in Eloy, were air-vac'd
to the Casa Grande Regional Center last Thursday evening with serious injuries
after the two were involved in an inmate-on-inmate assault. According to CCA
officials, inmate Darrin Jones attacked fellow inmate Larry Mikell with an
unknown weapon as Mikell entered the Fox Bravo Housing Pod Unit at the prison at
approx. 5:50 p.m. The assault initiated a free-for-all among another half a
dozen prisoners retaliating against Mikell's assailant. The incident was
contained to the one housing unit by responding staff and quelled within
approximately eight minutes. Currently, the Alaskan population at the facility
remains on lockdown status while CCA continues to investigate the cause of the
incident. As of press time, the wounded Alaskan inmates were still under
hospital care.
January 10, 2009 Anchorage Daily News
A prison shanking followed by an attack with a weighted sock at an Arizona
prison Thursday evening spurred a brawl among Alaska prisoners that ended with
two convicted murderers hospitalized with serious injuries, according to the
Alaska Department of Corrections and local police. Prison officials say Darin
Jones, 41, attacked Larry Mikell, 27, at about 5:50 p.m., prompting a group of
other prisoners to join the fracas in a unit housing Alaska prisoners at Red
Rock Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz. The disturbance was caught on video,
which police in Eloy, Ariz., were examining in their investigation, said Capt.
Shane Blakeman. "It was pretty clear that the guy named Jones actually stabbed
Mikell," Blakeman said. "Once that happened, there was another inmate that had a
sock with something inside the sock, and he challenged Jones and he actually hit
Jones in the head with that sock." That's when Mikell's friends jumped in to
protect him, he said. Both men were taken to Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix
to be treated for serious injuries, said Alan Bailey, special assistant to the
state Department of Corrections commissioner. They were in stable condition
Friday, he said. The motive behind the initial stabbing was not immediately
clear. "It looked like it was unprovoked, like the guy just came up to him and
stabbed him," Blakeman said. Prison officials say no other inmates were injured
in the subsequent uprising that appeared "protective" in nature. The inmate
wielding the sock was not named. The dispute took place in a unit that holds
about 60 of Alaska's 878 prisoners who are housed in Red Rock, Bailey said.
Following the fight, which was quickly quelled, all Alaska inmates were
restricted to their units until the investigation was complete, he said. Those
involved would be placed in administrative segregation, Bailey said. "We're
going to take all precautions necessary to ensure the safety of any
participants," Bailey said. "We cannot allow that kind of behavior to go on."
Blakeman said no charges have yet been filed. An Alaska corrections official is
also heading south to conduct an independent investigation, Bailey said.
Officials at Red Rock did not return calls seeking comment Friday.
January 9, 2009 Anchorage Daily News
A brawl broke out among Alaska prisoners in an Arizona prison Thursday
evening, leaving two of the antagonists, both convicted murderers, hospitalized
with serious injuries, according to the Alaska Department of Corrections. Prison
officials say Darrin Jones attacked Larry Mikell at about 5:50 p.m., prompting
about a half-dozen other prisoners to jump in the fracas in a unit housing only
Alaska prisoners at Red Rock Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., a private
prison under contract to house Alaska inmates.
January 7, 2009 Eloy Enterprise
At approximately 11:30 a.m. local time, a disturbance occurred in the South
Special Housing unit at the Eloy Detention Center. Some unit staff members in
the housing unit were assaulted by furniture that was thrown at them during the
incident. The assailants then began to cause property damage in the housing area
with the active participation of other detainees. The disturbance was
immediately contained to the one housing unit by responding staff and quelled
within the hour. Approved chemical agents were utilized by staff to enforce
lawful orders for active participants to cease their actions and return to their
cells. At the time of the incident, there were approximately 34 ICE detainees
assigned to the Special Housing unit. An investigation is underway to identify
the assailants and all active participants, as well as to determine the cause
for the incident. Further details are pending the outcome of those efforts.
Following standard procedures, the entire facility has been placed on lockdown
status, meaning that detainees are restricted to their housing cells until
further notice. "We would commend CCA for their professionalism in getting a
handle on the situation very quickly, and preventing something more serious from
happening," ICE Public Affairs Officer Vincent Picard commented early last week.
Surrounding CCA facilities were called to assist during the incident and the
Eloy Police Department and EMS were notified. According to Eloy paramedics who
arrived on scene with two ambulances, only one officer was reportedly injured,
and was treated in-house at CCA's Saguaro facility for a bump on the head, and
sent to the Casa Grande Regional Hospital as a precautionary measure.
February 22, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
Hawai'i inmates at the Red Rock Correctional Center in Arizona have been locked
down for 10 days during a top-to-bottom shakedown of the prison prompted by two
recent drug overdoses of Alaska inmates, according to the Hawai'i Department of
Public Safety. About 65 Hawai'i inmates are housed at the private prison, but
are kept separate from the Alaska prisoners, said Public Safety Deputy Director
Tommy Johnson. Teams provided by prison owner Corrections Corporation of America
used drug dogs as part of the search of all staff, program, recreational,
medical, kitchen and living areas. Investigators discovered three grams of black
tar heroin and a list detailing prices within the prison for cigarettes,
marijuana and other drugs, Johnson said. The drugs were found in a part of the
prison occupied by Alaska prisoners, and no Hawaii inmates were involved in any
illegal drug activity, he said. Three Alaska inmates were placed in disciplinary
segregation for introducing contraband. Johnson said CCA investigators suspect
the drugs were being smuggled into the 1,596-bed prison via the mail, and have
tightened up on mail room procedures. The prison is expected to return to normal
operations Monday.
September 23, 2007 Daily News-Miner
The Eloy Police Department has ruled out natural causes as the cause of death of
an Alaskan inmate found unresponsive in his cell at the Red Rock Correctional
Center 25 miles south of Phoenix, said Capt. Shane Blakeman. Results from
toxicology tests on 36-year-old Rusty Hightower of Fairbanks are weeks away,
said Blakeman, whose agency is leading the death investigation. Hightower was
serving a life sentence for murder for shooting and killing cab driver Dale
Baurick, 23, during a robbery April 1, 1988, near McGrath Road, according to the
Alaska Department of Corrections and News-Miner stories from the late 1980s.
Hightower’s cell mate found him dead in their room after coming back from dinner
Monday night, according to Eloy police. Hightower’s body showed no signs of
trauma, Blakeman said. An autopsy last week confirmed that Hightower suffered no
physical trauma, Blakeman said in an e-mail. James West, who was in regular
telephone contact with Hightower, his brother, said he knew of nothing unusual
going on with the inmate. “That kid was healthier than crap,” said West, who saw
his brother last year. The Corrections Corp. of America, owner of the
newly-built Red Rock facility, is keeping quiet on the matter until Hightower’s
cause of death is determined. “Pending some resolution as to the cause of death,
we feel it would be premature and inappropriate to comment on these matters at
this time,” company spokesman Steven Owen wrote in an e-mail. The Alaska
Department of Corrections has sent an official to Arizona to monitor the probe
and to make sure the Corrections Corp. of America is adhering to its contract
with the state, said Richard Schmitz, corrections department spokesman.
September 19, 2007 AP
A Fairbanks man in prison for killing a cabdriver 19 years ago was found
dead in his cell at the Red Rock Correctional Center in Arizona. It is not yet
known how Rusty Hightower, 36, died, said Capt. Shane Blakeman of the Eloy
Police Department, the agency investigating the death. According to authorities,
Hightower’s cell mate found the body Monday evening after returning to the cell
from dinner. Efforts to revive him failed, police spokeswoman Amanda Villescaz
said Wednesday. “There was no sign of a struggle or anything,” Blakeman said.
“We’re waiting for the autopsy report to tell us what exactly he died from.”
Villescaz said an autopsy was expected to be completed by Thursday.
July 22, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
The private prison company that holds Hawai'i convicts on the Mainland
acknowledged that multiple cell doors accidentally opened on four occasions at
one of the company's new Arizona prisons, including one incident where alleged
prison gang members used the opportunity to attack a Hawai'i inmate. The state's
highest prison official said he's troubled that Corrections Corporation of
America did not immediately notify the state about the incidents. The statement
released by CCA announced that "appropriate disciplinary action was taken on
officers in regard to four separate inadvertent cell door openings" at the Red
Rock Correctional Center. The statement did not offer any specifics, and a
company spokeswoman said in an e-mail that CCA would not provide additional
details. Hawai'i Department of Public Safety interim director Clayton Frank said
CCA did not tell Hawai'i prison authorities about some of the incidents until
Wednesday night, after The Advertiser published complaints from inmates about
repeated cases where doors opened unexpectedly and improperly, leaving
protective custody prisoners vulnerable to attacks by prison gangs. Frank said
he is "troubled" that CCA did not tell Hawai'i about some of the incidents. The
company explained it did not immediately report some cases where doors opened
because those incidents did not involve attacks on Hawai'i inmates, Frank said.
"Right now, I have some serious concerns and doubt of whether they are providing
us with everything," he said. "If it involves our inmates, I want to make sure
that what they're giving us is true and accurate. "I want something to go
directly to corporate office up there that says you guys have got to be candid
when we ask questions." The state pays about $50 million a year to house 2,100
convicts in Mainland CCA prisons because there is no room for them in Hawai'i
facilities. INMATE STABBED In the most serious of the incidents at Red Rock,
Hawai'i inmate John Kupa was stabbed with a homemade knife on June 26 after more
than half of the cell doors abruptly opened in his housing unit. That incident
is being blamed on an error by a corrections officer. Protective custody inmates
are housed in that prison pod along with general population inmates. That mix
requires that prisoners there be separated constantly, and the doors there are
never supposed to open simultaneously, prison officials said. Hawai'i Public
Safety officials say that when the doors opened, Kupa and a 44-year-old inmate
allegedly attacked Hawai'i convict Sidney Tafokitau. During the struggle, prison
officials say Tafokitau allegedly stabbed Kupa. Tafokitau, a protective custody
inmate, has said he acted in self-defense, and said he got the knife by taking
it away from one of his attackers. Kupa, 36, was stabbed in the lower left back,
and was treated and released from an Arizona hospital. The Red Rock stabbing
marks the second time in two years a Hawai'i inmate has been injured when cell
doors unexpectedly opened in a CCA prison living unit where inmates were
supposed to be locked down. In the earlier case, 20 cell doors in a disciplinary
unit of the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi suddenly
opened at 2:48 a.m. on July 17, 2005, releasing about three dozen Hawai'i
convicts from their cells. Inmates then attacked Hawai'i inmate Ronnie Lonoaea,
who was beaten so badly he suffered brain damage, and is now confined to a
wheelchair. Hawai'i prison officials this week revealed the doors opened in
Mississippi in that 2005 disturbance because a corrections officer had been
"compromised" by a prison gang. Lawyer Myles Breiner, who is suing the state and
CCA on behalf of Lonoaea and his family, said Lonoaea will need extensive
medical care for the rest of his life, care that is expected to "easily" cost
$10 million to $11 million. Breiner said he is also gathering information about
attacks triggered by doors that improperly opened at Red Rock, and is
considering filing suit on behalf of inmates that were attacked or injured in
those cases. DELIBERATE ERROR? "Their doors are opening, and the only people
responsible for the management and security is CCA," Breiner said. He said some
of the lapses at Red Rock seem to be caused by human error or problems with the
equipment, while the inmates suspect some of the other incidents have been
deliberate. "Whether it's corruption or construction, CCA is still responsible,"
Breiner said. The statement from CCA said the company has taken corrective
measures. "We stand by our reputation as a provider of quality corrections
management services, and will continue to assess our operational activities to
further refine and improve our safety processes," the company said.
July 18, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
For the second time in two years, improper actions by a corrections worker
caused cell doors to unexpectedly open in a Mainland prison where Hawai'i
inmates were supposed to be kept separated, triggering violence that injured a
Hawai'i convict, prison officials said. In the first incident at a Mississippi
prison in 2005, Hawai'i convict Ronnie Lonoaea, 34, was beaten so severely that
he suffered brain damage and is now confined to a wheelchair. Lonoaea's family
sued the Hawai'i prison system and Corrections Corp. of America last week in
connection with the case. In a second incident last month at Red Rock
Correctional Center in Arizona, an error by a prison staffer caused cell doors
to abruptly open, prison officials said. Hawai'i inmate John Kupa, 36, was
stabbed in the left lower back, according to a police report. The two incidents
raise concerns about the treatment of Hawai'i inmates in Mainland prisons run by
a private company, said an expert on prisons and a state legislator. In the
Arizona case, cell doors abruptly opened on June 26 in a prison pod where
protective custody inmates are housed in some cells and general population
inmates including gang members are held in other cells. Kupa was stabbed with a
homemade knife after the doors opened at about 6 p.m., according to a report
from the Eloy, Ariz., police department. The injured inmate was treated and
released at a local hospital, according to a prison spokeswoman. In the
Mississippi prison incident, 20 cell doors suddenly opened at 2:48 a.m. on July
17, 2005. About three dozen Hawai'i inmates were released from their cells when
the doors opened, touching off a melee that lasted for 90 minutes in a
disciplinary pod in the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility. Corrections
officers finally used tear gas grenades to regain control of the pod. Hawai'i
Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy said an internal
investigation of the Mississippi case found the doors opened because a
corrections sergeant had been "compromised" by prison gang members. Corrections
Corp. of America, which owns both the Mississippi and the Arizona prison,
terminated the sergeant, McCoy said in a written response to questions. Steve
Owen, director of marketing for CCA, declined to discuss the specifics of the
June 26 incident and also declined comment on the lawsuit over the Tallahatchie
incident. PRIVATE VS. PUBLIC Byron E. Price, assistant professor of public
policy and administration at Rutgers University and author of a book on the
private prison industry, said Hawai'i has reason to be concerned about the
incidents at Tallahatchie and Red Rock. Private prison operators make money by
holding down costs, which is often accomplished by reducing labor costs, said
Price. The companies tend to rely heavily on technology as a way to keep the
officer-to-inmate ratios down, Price said. Private prison staff members are
typically inexperienced, he added. "By cutting labor costs, you get a less
qualified individual, and there's high turnover rate in the private prisons, and
they conduct less training for their corrections officers" compared with
publicly run prisons, said Price, who is author of "Merchandizing Prisoners: Who
Really Pays for Prison Privatization?" Corrections Yearbook statistics show the
staff turnover at private prisons averages 52 percent a year, while the turnover
at public prisons is about 16 percent, he said. Hawai'i spends more than $50
million a year to house inmates in CCA prisons on the Mainland, and Senate
Public Safety Committee Chairman Will Espero said he is concerned about reports
of security problems "that appear to be similar, and that haven't been
resolved." "Considering the millions of dollars that we are spending on the
Mainland, we would expect to get excellent service, excellent facilities, and
... I would expect that with their experience, they should be able to minimize
any problems," he said of CCA. LIFETIME CARE NEEDED When the cell doors opened
in Mississippi, prisoners attacked Lonoaea. His attackers tore or cut off his
lips and broke bones in his face, said Honolulu lawyer Michael Green, who is
suing CCA and the Hawai'i prison system on behalf of Lonoaea's family. Green
said Lonoaea, who is approaching the end of his prison sentence, will need
intensive healthcare for the rest of his life that will likely cost $10 million
to $11 million. The lawsuit alleges Hawai'i prison officials were negligent for
failing to properly oversee the prison, and alleges CCA failed to properly train
or supervise TCCF staff. Inmates at Red Rock who were interviewed by The
Advertiser complain that multiple cell doors there have repeatedly opened
without warning at times when prisoners are supposed to be locked down, leaving
protective custody inmates open to danger. Officials at the privately owned Red
Rock facility have disarmed the fuses in the electrical systems that operate the
doors to some cells in the facility since the June 26 incident, and corrections
officers at Red Rock have been manually opening the doors with keys, said McCoy
of the Hawai'i Department of Public Safety. In a written response to questions,
McCoy confirmed inmate accounts of the attack in Echo-Delta pod, a housing unit
where inmates are supposed to remain separated from each other at all times.
After the doors opened, Kupa and a 44-year-old inmate allegedly attacked Sidney
Tafokitau, 28. During the fight that followed, Tafokitau allegedly stabbed Kupa
with a homemade knife. Tafokitau said in a telephone interview this is the
second time his cell door at Red Rock has opened without warning. Tafokitau said
he acted in self-defense on June 26 and said he obtained the homemade knife by
seizing it from one of his attackers during the fight. Tafokitau also alleged
that corrections officers initially fled from the fight instead of intervening
to break it up and only returned later with pepper spray after Tafokitau's
attackers had thrown him to the ground and were beating him. "I telling you,
this ... place is sloppy, cuz," said Tafokitau, who is serving a life sentence
for robbery. "They make so much mistakes ... it's just a matter of time before
another mistake. I telling you right now, somebody gonna get killed, brah."
Tafokitau said he was in the pod because he was involuntarily placed in
protective custody after he clashed with a prison gang. EARLIER INCIDENTS
Hawai'i inmates at Red Rock claim multiple cell doors have opened simultaneously
and unexpectedly before. Inmate Chris Wilmer, 29, recounted an incident on Feb.
2 when all of the doors in Echo-Delta unit again opened, releasing general
population inmates into a dayroom occupied by protective custody inmates.
Wilmer, who also said he was involuntarily placed in protective custody because
of conflicts with gang members, said he immediately became involved in a fight
with two alleged members of a prison gang who were released into the dayroom.
Wilmer said a Hawai'i prison official was notified of that incident and spoke to
Wilmer about it. Wilmer said he also witnessed a similar incident where the
doors opened in Echo-Bravo pod at about 6:30 p.m. on April 7, and Wilmer and
another inmate both alleged there was another example of doors opening
unexpectedly between June 21 and June 23 in the Echo-Bravo pod. The growing
sense of insecurity in the pods encourages inmates to try to obtain weapons, and
Hawai'i needs to pressure CCA to fix the problem, said Wilmer, who is serving
prison terms for robbery, attempted murder and other offenses. "For here and
now, something needs to be said and done," he said. "They don't have room for
that kind of mistakes." The officer who erred in the June 26 incident meant to
open doors in another pod used by Alaska inmates and instead opened the doors to
Hawai'i inmates' cells, McCoy said. She said the officer has been disciplined. A
female corrections officer who made a similar mistake by opening multiple doors
in a living unit elsewhere in the prison earlier this year also was disciplined,
McCoy said. McCoy could not immediately confirm the other inmate reports of
other cases where multiple cell doors opened unexpectedly in February, April and
June. RE-EVALUATING UNIT Part of the problem on June 26 was that the pod
involved was not designed to operate with "serious violent offenders" who are
locked in their cells for 23 hours each day, but those kinds of offenders ended
up there because they couldn't be held in Oklahoma or Mississippi, McCoy said.
Those inmates are now awaiting transfer to the newly opened Saguaro Correctional
Center in Arizona, which has a segregation unit designed to house them, she
said. CCA responded to the June 26 incident by re-evaluating the staffing
patterns for the unit that included the pod, and adding more experienced
officers, McCoy said. The prison operator also had the door system manufacturer
update the control panel software to add an extra safeguard to the system and is
providing more intensive training for all staff assigned to the units, McCoy
said. Hawai'i was holding more than 600 inmates last month at Red Rock, which
opened last year. In all, the state houses more than 2,100 men and women
convicts in CCA prisons on the Mainland because there is no room for them in
prisons in Hawai'i.
June 29, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
A Hawai'i inmate at the Red Rock Correctional Center
in Eloy, Ariz. was stabbed in an altercation Tuesday, according to a corrections
spokeswoman. Three Hawai'i inmates were involved in the incident, which is still
under investigation, said Louise Kim McCoy, spokeswoman for the state Department
of Public Safety. McCoy said the inmates were separated after the incident, and
the injured inmate was treated and released at a local hospital. McCoy would not
say what sort of weapon was involved, how the inmates came into contact with
each other, or where in the prison the assault occurred.
April 5, 2007 Eloy Enterprise
Justin Michael Borden, 28, was arrested for possession of 1.8 grams of
marijuana and promoting prison contraband as an employee at the Corrections
Corporations of America (CCA) Red Rock Facility located at 1750 E. Arica Road.
There was still an outstanding valid warrant for Borden out of Tucson for
failure to appear for arraignment.
Saguaro Correctional Center
Eloy, Arizona
CCA
February 25, 2010 Honolulu Advertiser
Arizona police say they are close to making an arrest in the killing of a
26-year-old Hawai'i inmate at Saguaro Correctional Center, a private prison in
Arizona where nearly 1,900 Hawai'i inmates are housed. The prison remains in
lockdown following the death Feb. 18. Arizona police said Bronson Nunuha, who
was incarcerated for three counts of second-degree burglary, died from multiple
stab wounds. He was assaulted in his cell sometime before 9:30 a.m. Feb. 18,
when prison staff found him. He was pronounced dead about 9:57 a.m. Local police
in Eloy, Ariz., where the prison is located, said yesterday they expect to make
an arrest soon in connection with the killing, but did not release further
details, citing the ongoing investigation. A Hawai'i team from the Department of
Public Safety is also investigating the death. Clayton Frank, Public Safety
Department director, said the team arrived Saturday and will likely remain in
Arizona through the week. "There's still a lot of things that need to be
untangled," Frank said. He declined to say what the team had found so far. The
team could make security recommendations for the 1,897-bed prison, which is
owned by Corrections Corporation of America. Some 1,871 male Hawai'i inmates are
at Saguaro, and about 50 more are at a separate CCA prison in Arizona. The state
spends about $61 million a year to house inmates on the Mainland because there's
not enough space for them in Hawai'i facilities. Nunuha had been behind bars for
about four years. He was scheduled to return to the Islands in a few months to
prepare for his release Oct. 31. Nunuha is the first Hawai'i inmate killed in a
private prison on the Mainland since the state began shipping its inmates out of
state 15 years ago. Officials have said his killing may have been gang-related.
February 19, 2010 Honolulu Advertiser
Authorities have started an investigation into the killing yesterday of a
Hawaii inmate at Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona, where about 1,900
Hawaii inmates are currently housed. Clayton Frank, state Department of Public
Safety director, identified the inmate who was killed as Bronson Nunuha, 26. He
was incarcerated on three counts of burglary in the second degree, and was going
to be maxing out on his sentence on Oct. 31, 2010, Frank said. Frank said Nunuha
had been at the facility for about four years. He said a DPS team will leave for
Arizona tomorrow to investigate the death. He also said Corrections Corporation
of America, which owns the private prison, has taken steps to increase safety
following the death. Frank declined to comment further on the killing, citing
the ongoing investigation.
September 3, 2009 Arizona Daily Sun
A lawsuit filed Wednesday accuses the Corrections Corporation of America and an
Arizona prison of denying inmates some books. Prison Legal News, a nonprofit
criminal-justice publication, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court against
the Nashville, Tenn., company and various officials at the Saguaro Correctional
Center in Eloy, Ariz., halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. The Seattle-based
publication also publishes, sells and distributes books to about 7,000 prisoners
around the world. The nonprofit accuses prison officials of prohibiting at least
six Saguaro prisoners from receiving books in the last two years. Calls to
Saguaro warden Todd Thomas and Corrections Corporation of America were not
returned Wednesday. When refusing Prison Legal books to inmates, prison
officials gave them notices saying that the company was not an approved vendor
and that their books would "create a serious danger to the security of the
facility," according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit says that the prison only
allowed inmates to get their books from Barnes & Noble, and when that company
didn't have a certain publication, they could use amazon.com. Prison Legal gives
inmates books for free if they can't afford them. The lawsuit says Corrections
Corporation of America and prison officials are violating Prison Legal's First
and 14th Amendment rights. The publisher wants the prison to be ordered to pay
unspecified damages and allow inmates to get Prison Legal books.
July 22, 2009 Arizona Daily Star
A 27-year-old man who died during an apparent home invasion last Friday was a
corrections officer, his employer confirmed Tuesday. Danny Torres had worked at
the Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy for about two years, said Louise Grant,
a spokeswoman for Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the private
medium-security facility. Torres was found wounded outside a home in the 4400
block of East Benson Highway by Pima County Sheriff’s deputies, who were
responding to a 911 call from a neighbor who said armed gunmen had entered a
nearby house, spokeswoman Deputy Dawn Barkman said. Torres, who was pronounced
dead after being taken to University Medical Center, was shot by the neighbor’s
son after the gunmen fired at the neighbor, Barkman said. Torres was one of
three men involved in the attack, Barkman said. He and two other men arrived in
a dark-colored van, entered the house and pistol-whipped a man who lived there
while his wife and child were in the home, Barkman said. “He was involved. He
was a suspect. I don’t care if he was a corrections officer,” Barkman said. Two
others — 19-year-old Manuel Nathan Moreno and 18-year-old Alejandro Salazar
Romero — were stopped near South Country Club and East Irvington roads and were
later booked into the Pima County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder.
Arizona law allows those involved in the commission of certain felonies that
results in the death of another person, including other felons, to be held
responsible for the death.
April 3, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
State lawmakers have tentatively approved a bill to audit a privately run
Arizona prison that holds more than 1,800 Hawai'i convicts. House Finance
Chairman Marcus Oshiro said state Auditor Marion Higa likely would need to
contract with a Mainland auditing firm to conduct the performance audit of
Saguaro Correctional Center, a new 1,896-bed prison in Eloy, Ariz., that houses
only male prisoners from Hawai'i. The audit is expected to cost $150,000 or
more, but Oshiro said it will be "money well spent" to scrutinize the Saguaro
operation and the state contract with Corrections Corporation of America.
Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50 million a year to house more than 2,000 male and
female convicts from Hawai'i in private prisons in Arizona and Kentucky. Hawai'i
first began sending prisoners to the Mainland in 1995 as a temporary measure to
relieve in-state prison overcrowding. About half of the state's prison
population is now held in out-of-state facilities. According to Senate Bill
2342, "there has never been an audit of the private Mainland prisons that
Hawai'i has contracted with to house the state's inmates, despite the fact that
deaths and serious injuries have occurred at several of the contract prisons on
the Mainland." Oshiro said, "I think it's prudent to spend some monies for the
audit and review to make sure that we're getting the best services for our
money." The bill goes to the full House for a floor vote, and if approved will
be sent to a House-Senate conference committee to iron out differences between
the House and Senate versions of the bill. The Senate proposed auditing both
Saguaro and the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Kentucky, where about 175
Hawai'i inmates are being held. However, Oshiro said supporters of the bill told
him the Saguaro audit was more important because more inmates are there, so the
audit of Otter Creek was dropped from the House draft of the bill. Clayton
Frank, director of the state Department of Public Safety, has opposed the bill
because state prison officials already conduct quarterly audits of the Mainland
prisons that check up on programs, food service, medical service and security,
among other areas. "The department already has the expertise in place and is
currently providing a thorough and ongoing auditing process to ensure contract
compliance is being met," the department said in a written statement Monday. For
situations that require immediate attention, "we have dispatched appropriate
senior staff and Internal Affairs investigators to the facilities," the
statement said. The bill for an audit is advancing after recent Mainland media
reports cited a former CCA manager who said he was required to produce
misleading reports about incidents in CCA prisons. Time magazine interviewed
former CCA senior quality assurance manager Ronald T. Jones, who said CCA
General Counsel Gus Puryear IV ordered staff to classify sometimes violent
incidents such as inmate disturbances or escapes as if they were less serious
events to make the company performance appear to be better than it was. Jones
alleged more detailed reports about the prison incidents were prepared for
internal CCA use, and were not released to clients. CCA denied the allegations,
which Time published as Puryear is being considered for a post as a federal
judge. Oshiro said he is aware of those reports. "There's questions being raised
right now, given what you read about nationally about the CCA organization maybe
having two sets of books, and I think it causes some concerns, especially since
we don't get to observe and watch or communicate with our inmates being that
they are way out there in the Mainland," Oshiro said. The statement Monday from
Department of Public Safety noted that the department "does not solely rely on
CCA reports or internal audits. As the customer, we feel it's not only our
right, but also our responsibility to Hawai'i offenders housed in CCA
facilities, to send our own staff to the Arizona and Kentucky facilities."
March 31, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
State lawmakers today will consider ordering an audit of two Corrections
Corporation of America facilities in the wake of national media accounts
alleging that the huge private prison company misrepresented statistical data to
make it appear that CCA facilities had fewer violent acts and other problems
than was actually the case. Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50 million a year to
house more than 2,000 men and women convicts in CCA prisons in Arizona and
Kentucky. Senate Bill 2342 calls for the State Auditor to conduct performance
audits of two of the three Mainland prisons that house Hawai'i inmates,
including reviews of the food, medical, drug treatment, vocational and other
services provided to Hawai'i inmates. The audit also would scrutinize the way
the state Department of Public Safety oversees the private prisons and enforces
the terms of the state's contracts with CCA. According to the bill, "there has
never been an audit of the private Mainland prisons that Hawai'i has contracted
with to house the state's inmates, despite the fact that deaths and serious
injuries have occurred at several of the contract prisons on the Mainland."
Clayton Frank, director of the state Department of Public Safety, testified
against the proposed audits in Senate hearings last month, calling the audits
"unnecessary and repetitive" because his department already conducts quarterly
audits to make sure CCA is complying with its contracts with the state. Frank
also suggested his department was being singled out, arguing that if lawmakers
want performance audits to provide more accountability and transparency to the
public, "then it should apply to all state contracts and not be limited to just
the Department of Public Safety." Critics of the Mainland prison contracts
contend the audits are needed because the private prisons are for-profit
ventures designed to keep costs as low as possible. During the decade that
Hawai'i has housed inmates on the Mainland, the state itself has criticized
private prison operators when the companies failed to provide Hawai'i inmates
with programs that were required under the contract. Now, supporters of the
audit bill say an independent review is necessary to scrutinize what is one of
the state's largest ongoing contracts of any kind with a private vendor. "Are we
getting what we pay for? We'd like to know," testified Jeanne Y. Ohta, executive
director of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i. The audit would cover the
1,896-bed Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., which houses only male
prisoners from Hawai'i, and the 656-bed Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright, Ky., which holds about 175 Hawai'i women inmates. The House Finance
Committee hearing on the bill today comes in the wake of Mainland media reports
citing a former CCA manager who said he was required to produce misleading
reports about incidents in CCA prisons. The company operates about 65 prisons
with about 75,000 inmates. Time magazine interviewed former CCA senior quality
assurance manager Ronald T. Jones, who said CCA General Counsel Gus Puryear IV
ordered staff to classify sometimes violent incidents such as inmate
disturbances, escapes and sexual assaults as if they were less serious events to
make the company performance appear to be better than it was. Jones said more
detailed reports about the prison incidents were prepared for internal CCA use,
and were not released to clients. CCA denied the allegations, which Time
published as Puryear is being considered for a post as a federal judge. The
Private Corrections Institute Inc., an organization opposed to private prisons,
wrote to Hawai'i prison officials urging them to investigate CCA's reporting
procedures in the wake of the Time report. Alex Friedmann, vice president of the
institute, said most state monitors who are overseeing CCA prisons "largely rely
on information and data provided by CCA; further, the accuracy of incident
reports is entirely dependent on whether those incidents are documented by the
company's employees." Hawai'i Public Safety officials did not respond to
requests for comment on the allegations in the Time article.
December 27, 2007 Casa Grande Valley News
As of the last City Council meeting on Dec. 17, it looked like the city of
Eloy and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) were finally settling on the
construction tax dispute for the Saguaro Prison after a year's worth of
negotiations. In 2005, the city of Eloy had increased its construction tax rate
from three percent to 4.5 percent, which would affect all agreements made after
Oct. 1. The additional 1.5 percent anticipated from construction in the area
officials had 'earmarked' to go to roads and other public works projects. At the
time, CCA had been in the midst of constructing Red Rock, its 1896-bed prison
facility on Arica Road. While building Red Rock, plans were coming down the pipe
for their third correctional facility in Eloy, Saguaro, which just opened this
past June. Just before the Oct. 1 deadline for the new tax rate, CCA had
requested a change order to the Red Rock agreement with their contractor out of
Florida, Moss & Associates, on Sept. 29. The change order basically booked
Moss's services for the next facility as well. The changes were made in
Tennessee at a CCA charity golf tournament. Though almost a mirror image of Red
Rock, Saguaro was going to be more expensive to construct. Red Rock cost $90
million, while Saguaro cost $95 million when all was said and done. CCA paid the
expected formerly agreed upon tax rate for Saguaro of three percent to the city
of Eloy while city officials maintained that they were owed the remaining 1.5
percent - totaling $764,416.34. City officials and CCA had been butting heads
for a year since then over whether the October change order was a valid addition
to the Red Rock agreement originally drawn up in February of that year, or a
separate contract altogether, and therefore subject to the new tax rate. "The
argument we had with CCA and vice versa was they said it was a valid change
order to the Red Rock contract, and we said it's a separate stand-alone contract
for a new stand-alone correctional facility, and that they did this as a change
order to avoid paying the increase in the construction sales tax," City Attorney
Stephen Cooper says. According to city officials, the money that went unpaid
from the agreement had severely impacted public works projects such as roads and
parks. The city had already factored that anticipated revenue into the year's
budget. When it went unpaid, some of those projects had to be set aside. Several
lawyer-to-lawyer mediations between the two entities still could not bring about
a resolution. City officials were considering the need to take CCA to court over
the matter. "If they're right, they're right," Cooper said regarding the case
between the city and CCA, had they had to resort to the court's legal system.
"But if they're wrong, then we couldn't let them walk away without paying what
the residents were owed." "This bartering has gone on for better than a year now
and I believe it's publicly embarrassing for both entities," Mayor Byron Jackson
told the Enterprise last week. "For us to threaten lawsuit to go after monies
that's rightfully ours is absurd. But to have mediated for anything less would
have done a disservice to the public taxpayers who depend on those allocated
revenues for infrastructure improvements." Recently, the use of lawyers was
suspended and the city and CCA representatives sat down for what Cooper terms a
'heart-to-heart' on the issue. Since going into detail about how their detaining
these funds have affected the city's ability to provide services to taxpayers,
negotiations seemed to have taken a smoother turn. Attorney Cooper equates the
situation to a "lover's quarrel" between the two entities. "And now we've kissed
and made up. They've got a lot invested in Eloy, and we've got a lot invested in
them." At the last Council meeting, Jackson and council members approved a
resolution agreement that CCA will pay the remaining taxes owed, about $675,000,
by Dec. 31. But another kink has since delayed the payment, and some last minute
number crunching and revising of the language in the agreement is required. The
item will again go before Council, once and for all, for approval on Jan. 8.
"Obviously we value our relationship with the city," CCA spokesman Steve Own
commented on the ongoing discussions, "and we're all working in good faith to
finalize that settlement." Cooper estimates the final resolution of the yearlong
conflict to be wrapped up by Jan. 15, at the latest.
August 12, 2007 Star Bulletin
The heads of the education and addiction-treatment programs at a private Arizona
prison holding Hawaii inmates abruptly quit their jobs complaining of poor
management, inadequate facilities and lack of staffing. Their resignations came
just days before an Aug. 3 incident in which the staff at Saguaro Correctional
Facility inadvertently opened security doors, releasing Hawaii inmates from
their cells. Seven inmates left their cells when the doors opened, one was
injured in a fight with another inmate and a third inmate had to be subdued for
refusing to return to his cell, Hawaii Department of Public Safety officials
said. Rich Stokes was the principal at Saguaro Correctional Facility in Eloy.
Michael VanSlyke was the facility's addiction treatment manager. "They
essentially walked out," said Steve Owen, spokesman for the Tennessee-based
Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the Saguaro facility. "Their
leaving was not expected." Stokes and VanSlyke did not explain their departures
to CCA officials but instead sent e-mails to Shari Kimoto, state Department of
Public Safety mainland branch administrator. In the e-mails, Stokes said upper
management at the facility spies on staff, controls all communication with the
outside, and devalues and degrades inmates and programs for them. He said water
runs into cells when inmates take showers because the drains are higher than the
surrounding floors, the air-conditioning system experiences frequent failure and
staff are often locked in or out of their units because doors cannot be opened.
Gates and doors are opened when they should be closed and closed when they
should be open because there are not enough correctional officers, Stokes said,
adding that the officers who are there are overworked and undertrained.
VanSlyke's e-mail said Saguaro does not have adequate facilities to treat
inmates and will never qualify for inpatient licensing as required by CCA's
contract with Hawaii. He also said the qualifications required of counselors
made it impossible for him to hire an adequately sized staff in time to start an
addiction treatment program. Owen said Saguaro already has over half the staff
it needs to run the education and addiction treatment programs and expects to
have them running by Oct. 1. Owen said Stokes and VanSlyke filed no formal
complaints about conditions before resigning. CCA hires people with no prior
experience working in corrections, like Stokes and VanSlyke, for their
subject-area expertise, Owen said. "Its just one of those things where it didn't
work out," he said. Hawaii's Department of Public Safety is sending an
inspection team to Saguaro following the Aug. 3 incident. An audit team was
already scheduled to be in Arizona last week, said Louise Kim McCoy, state
Public Safety spokeswoman. Deputy Director for Corrections Tommy Johnson is also
in Arizona for the audit team's visit, she said. McCoy said Johnson will be
checking the programs at Saguaro, employee training records, staffing and
security features of the facility.
January 25, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
Eloy Mayor Byron Jackson's employment at CCA as a prison guard has sparked
the interest of the Hawaiian Attorney General's Office. The office is looking
into whether Jackson's signature on some of the contracts between the city of
Eloy and the state of Hawaii might damage their validity. Their
government-to-government contracts allow no-bid contracts, in this case with the
private prison operator, Corrections Corporation of America. "It doesn't
certainly, present well," Hawaii Deputy Attorney General Diane Taira said to the
Honolulu Advertiser in a Jan. 21 article. "At worst - and I'm not saying it is
at the worst because our inquiry is ongoing - at the worst, perhaps it is a
voidable contract, but it does not necessarily make the contract automatically
void." Because Hawaii procurement law does not seem to cover this circumstance,
the issue may come down to whether Jackson violated Arizona ethics law, Taira
told the Advertiser. In a Jan. 11 Eloy Enterprise article about possible
conflicts of interest Jackson said the conflict had been discussed and
discounted by the city attorney as having any bearing. Jackson said then that he
does not receive any financial interest, and the city's attorney looked into the
matter. However, the mayor stepped back from recent closed-door discussions on
an issue the city has with CCA not paying construction sales tax city officials
think the city is due.
January 21, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
An Arizona mayor who signed off on part of a multi-million dollar government
contract to house Hawai'i inmates in prisons on the Mainland also is an employee
of Corrections Corp. of America, the company that holds Hawai'i inmates at the
privately owned Arizona prisons. The contract was not let out for bid because it
was a government-to-government transaction between the state of Hawai'i and Eloy,
Ariz., that is exempt from competitive bidding. Hawai'i officials say the
"highly unusual" situation involving Eloy Mayor Byron K. Jackson isn't covered
by the Hawai'i state procurement law, but does raise questions about the
contract. "I think on the surface, the appearance is poor," said Hawai'i Chief
Procurement Officer Aaron Fujioka. Jackson works as a corrections officer at the
Red Rock Correctional Center, where the Hawai'i inmates are housed. He said he
discussed his employment with the Eloy city attorney, who concluded Jackson has
no conflict of interest because Jackson does not gain anything personally
through the government-to-government contract.
January 11, 2007 Eloy Enterprise
With the city getting more deeply embroiled in an issue that could cost it
millions, where the mayor is employed could become an important factor. The city
claims Corrections Corporation of America did some sleight of hand maneuvering
in its building contracts to avoid paying about $1.5 million in construction
sales tax. CCA is now building Saguaro Correctional Center, which is scheduled
to house inmates from Hawaii's prison system. Last year it completed the Red
Rock Correctional Center, which sits right next door. Eloy Mayor Byron Jackson,
since May 31, 2006, has worked at Red Rock as a corrections officer in the
transportation division. As CCA continues to not want to pay what the city
thinks it is owed, he said he has no doubt where his loyalties rest in such a
dispute. "(At CCA) I'm not in a critical, decision-making role. I draw my
paycheck, do my eight hours a day and go home," Jackson said. "At the end of the
day it's the city that matters to me. I need a job like anybody." He said he's
unhappy with CCA's financial offers so far, but declined to say what they were.
Jackson said CCA is "a fantastic company to work for" but that the dispute with
the city is one element where, as mayor, he disagrees with their stance. "(City
manager) Jim McFellin has been in contact with CCA on this," Jackson said. "I
don't think it's in CCA's interest to approach me one way or the other as their
employee on this. ..... I'm a man of ethics and I would expect CCA to be the
same. I'd be disappointed if they approached me in any kind of way in any other
aspect than to do my job." "I don't think my position as a corrections officer
has any bearing on the (city's) decision unless I'm out there advocating for
them to accept a much lower amount." Jackson said there have not been many
actions from the city in regard to CCA. The two items the council has acted on
are an intergovernmental agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement so
it could start bringing in prisoners and detainees to the Eloy Detention Center.
They were needed by CCA to replace federal Bureau of Prisons inmates who were
pulled out when the Bureau of Prisons ended its contract at the end of February
2006 for financial reasons. In the contract, the city essentially acts as a
go-between so the federal agency can say its working with another government
entity to hold prisoners. The move meant about 300 people kept their jobs,
though at different pay scales. The city benefits in receives a small amount per
inmate, as is typical. The prisoners, too, count in the city's population
figures which gain Eloy more state shared revenues. Jackson said that had a
positive impact all around, and he saw no conflict, so he signed it. Since
Jackson has been employed at CCA, the other contract signed was the one to build
Saguaro. CCA requires each new facility to have its own contract. The
multimillion-dollar dispute that has arisen from that is whether the exact
language of previous contracts carries over or whether the new contract must
comply with a 1.5 percent increase in the city's construction sales tax. CCA
signed the contract days before the new sales tax went into effect, but after
the council had passed it. The city argues they told CCA management of the
increase, and it applied to the Saguaro contract. Jackson said this contract for
Saguaro had vice mayor Frank Acuna's signature on it, by deliberate choice,
because it was an action. If the contract had been in dispute at the time, "I
would probably have abstained from then on." As it was, the disagreement arose
later, when CCA's sales tax payments started to come in. In regard to the city's
dealings with CCA, Jackson makes a personal distinction between following what's
happening and actions the council and the city may take. In 2002, before he was
the city's mayor, Jackson worked at the Florence Correctional Center, while a
member of the Eloy City Council.
December 21, 2006 Casa Grande Dispatch
City officials are unhappy with the amount of money they are getting for the
prisons being built. Corrections Corporation of America is about halfway done
with the 1,896-bed Saguaro Correctional Center, the third of its prisons inside
a square mile, and the second to be built within the last two years in Eloy. The
point of contention is construction sales tax. CCA, just before it started
Saguaro, agreed to the city's 3 percent sales tax on construction. City Manager
Jim McFellin said the company also agreed to any future rate changes the city
put forward. That change occurred in October 2005 when the rate went up from 3
to 4.5 percent. The city thinks CCA was trying to be too clever at the last
possible moment in order to avoid the extra tax levied. "CCA instigated a
'change order' to facilitate construction of a new prison (Saguaro) on Sept. 29,
2005," McFellin wrote in an e-mail. "We feel that a change order from an
existing contract does not ensure the benefit of the 3 percent. The contract to
build a new prison is not a change order or an existing contract. The contractor
owes us the 4.5 percent." The general contractor for both Red Rock and Saguaro
is Moss & Associates of Florida. The architect of record for Saguaro is DLR
Group of Nebraska. McFellin, speaking at a recent City Council meeting, said the
city should be prepared for a lawsuit if it comes to that. At least $4.5 million
is expected in sales tax for an expected $100 million construction cost.
Therefore the difference in percentage from 4.5 down to 3 percent represents
about a $1.5 million loss for the city. However, going to court is not the first
option, McFellin said, and the matter is still being discussed. Company
spokesman Steve Owen confirmed a problem but said Nashville-based CCA prefers to
work through issues like this outside media scrutiny. "It's productive to
discuss it directly with the party involved," Owen said. "In this case, city
officials." He said the company is treating the matter seriously and is looking
at the timeline of what happened. Red Rock Correctional Center opened in
mid-July after a rapid construction schedule that saw a few delays. Construction
for RRCC began in February 2005 and was completed in June this year. Saguaro is
expected to be finished about July of 2007. The city, knowing Red Rock and
Saguaro were going to be built, anticipated a steady income from construction
sales tax. Red Rock cost $83 million to build, to house 1,596 inmates, which
yielded about $3.7 million in tax revenue for the city over the completion time.
In October, city Finance Director Brian Wright said construction tax from
Saguaro and Robson Ranch homes totaled about $150,000 a month. At the same
council meeting the discussion of a possible fourth prison was revealed, with
Mayor Byron Jackson saying the likelihood of one seemed more remote. Since soon
after it opened, Jackson has been employed at Red Rock as a corrections officer
by CCA. Owen would not confirm that CCA was looking at a fourth prison in Eloy.
He said to refer to previous company news releases. "CCA is a publicly traded
company (CXW) so there are issues of how and when things are announced," Owen
said.
September 29, 2006 Honolulu Advertiser
Hawai'i prison inmates have been moved into a new prison in Eloy, Ariz., as
part of an effort to consolidate nearly 2,000 Hawai'i convicts now held in four
Mainland states. The state plans to eventually place almost all of the Hawai'i
inmates housed on the Mainland in three privately run Arizona prisons. On Sept.
16, corrections officials moved the first 157 Hawai'i prisoners from the
Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Miss., and the
Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, Okla., to the newly opened Red
Rock Correctional Center in Eloy. Another 30 Hawai'i inmates were transferred to
Red Rock from the Florence Correctional Center in Florence, Ariz. The state has
agreed to rent 450 beds in Red Rock from prison operator Corrections Corporation
of America, and Hawai'i Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy
said more Hawai'i inmates will be moved into those Red Rock beds over the next
year. The $82.5 million Red Rock prison opened in June, and can hold up to 1,596
inmates. Alaska officials have a contract to house about 1,000 convicts there.
CCA began construction in May on the 1,896-bed Saguaro Correctional Center in
Eloy, which will house both men and women inmates from Hawai'i when Saguaro
opens next year. When those transfers are complete, almost all of the Hawai'i
inmates housed on the Mainland will be held at Red Rock, Saguaro and Florence.
The state now pays about $40 million a year to hold about 1,950 convicted
Hawai'i felons in CCA prisons in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arizona and Kentucky
because there is no room to hold the inmates in prisons here. State lawmakers
this year set aside an additional $12 million to transfer 676 more inmates to
the Mainland. When those transfers are complete, the state will have more
inmates serving their sentences on the Mainland than in Hawai'i prisons.
San Luis Federal Detention Facility
San Luis, Arizona
Emerald (formerly run by
CiviGenics)
August 14, 2009 Yuma Sun
San Luis has found a new company to run its federal prison amid concerns
that the prior contractor was not following through with the planned expansion
of the facility. Emerald Companies, a Louisiana-based firm, has taken the reins
from Civigenics in administering the city-owned prison that houses inmates under
contract with federal law enforcement agencies. "We are very happy to come
here," said Emerald CEO Clay Lee during a recent visit to San Luis. "We were
very well received. This is going to be a very good change. I don't want to say
that things were bad before, but change is inevitable." The possibility that
city would not renew Civigenics' contract surfaced months ago out of concern
that the prison's planned expansion had lagged. "There was a year of
negotiations so that they would present us plans for expansion, but nothing
concrete ever materialized," said Mayor Juan Carlos Escamilla. "The building was
designed from the beginning for 1,000 beds," he added. "It's not going to be
bigger than that. We don't want to be known as a city of prisons. We want to
control (that perception) and that's the way it will be." Civigenics was
contracted two years ago to build the prison, at a cost of $25 million funded by
municipal bonds, then take over operation. Civigenics declined to comment. The
process of transfer began last week and will conclude Saturday, Emerald's first
official day as subcontractor. Emerald is not a public company directed by a
large board of directors, Lee said. "There are three of us who make the
decisions. Therefore we're able to do it immediately." Lee said the building's
good condition and design will make it easy to add beds and expand as desired by
the city. "We only need to plan exactly how that addition will be made," he
said. "Time will tell, but the worst-case scenario is that we'll have 300 new
beds, even though I believe we'll be able to double that." The goal is to reach
the 1,000-prison bed mark contemplated in the original design. The additional
beds will bring more money into the city in the form of prisoner detention
payments from the federal government, Escamilla said. A portion of the revenue
from the prisoner payments goes to retire the bonds.
December 2, 2006 Yuma Sun
A new $27-million federal detention center east of San Luis, Ariz., is months
away from opening — and months away from providing jobs, revenue and other
benefits for this border city, officials said. The 87,324 square-foot facility,
which is being constructed on 55 acres of land near Avenue D and County 23rd
Street, will have 450 beds that will likely hold short-term detainees from
countries other than Mexico by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agency, said City Attorney Glen Gimbut. Virginia Kice, a regional spokeswoman
for I.C.E, said that the agency is assessing its future detention needs and
determining whether the facility will be expedient and efficient enough to house
detainees. While Kice could not say definitively whether a contract was in the
works, she added that there is a need in the region. "Arizona is one of the
biggest users of prison space because of the high volume of illegal border
traffic," Kice said. "Arizona as a whole is one of the biggest corridors where
we need robust detention capability." It took a lot of public meetings to
persuade the community to allow another prison within the city, and the fact
that the facility would mainly house Hispanic illegal immigrant detainees rubbed
people the wrong way because of the city's largely Hispanic and pro-immigration
culture, Gimbut said. "But the opinion came down at the end of the day that we
need jobs in the community," Gimbut said. "It's a wonderful opportunity to have
a good job, with good pay and benefits, for the young folks of our community,"
Gimbut said. Gimbut said the first detainees may pass through the barbed-wire
fences and concrete walls as early as Feb. 1. Peter Argeropulos, chief
operations officer for Civigenics Inc., the private company that will manage the
prison, said there are negotiations with state and federal authorities for
contracts to house inmates. The list of interested parties include the Arizona
Department of Corrections, U.S. Marshals and the U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agency. Currently, there are no housing agreements with the federal
government, and a team will inspect the facility to see if it meets certain
needs, Argeropulos said. "We're very confident that it does," Argeropulos said.
"The facility was designed to support expansion upon demand." A warden has been
hired, and there was a job fair in San Luis Nov. 4 to talk to prospective
applicants for security, administrative and other positions. The company is in
the process of conducting interviews for those positions, and Argeropulos said
the plan is to have an "activation team" begin training in 30 days. Because
immigration patterns are continuously fluctuating, so too do the agency's
detention needs. Agency-wide, across the nation, the average daily detention
population is about 26,000, Kice said, but the population at various detention
centers will vary on a daily basis. So one of the things I.C.E looks for is
flexibility, Kice said. "We deport people every day and we take more in custody
every day," Kice said. "Our office tries to ensure we build in flexibility to
accommodate that fluctuation. We can see sudden surges and we could see periods
where we see decreases in detentions. We don't want to paint ourselves in a
corner where we're wasting tax payer money." Gimbut said that beginning in 2001
the federal government was looking to build seven detention facilities in the
country, and San Luis was second on that list. The issue went before several
planning boards and commissions, and then the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11
tabled funding for the deal. Work got started again in 2005 with a new angle.
The consulting group Innovative Government Strategies approached the city saying
the federal government was looking for a short-term facility to house what the
immigrations officials call "Other Than Mexican" detainees. San Luis was looked
upon as an ideal location for several reasons, including proximity to the border
and a major airport that would be able to fly detainees to airports in Phoenix
for deportation, Gimbut said. If the contract with I.C.E. goes through, the
average housing time a detainee would spend in the prison would be less than 10
days. The project is being paid for by a revenue-based bond issues previously
passed in the city, and Gimbut said the way the bonds are written, the city
faces almost no liability. Part of the deal allowed for the construction of a
potable water system and waste water treatment plant to connect to the prison.
City Administrator Lee Maness said that stage of the project, known as the East
Mesa project, is scheduled for Jan. 22. Besides well-paying jobs for San Luis
residents, several other benefits for the city of San Luis were negotiated into
the agreement, Gimbut said. With the East Mesa project, for example, the prison
complex will be a paying customer for water and wastewater services. "The
revenue from this facility alone pays for the complete debt service for the
wastewater plant," Gimbut said. Besides that, the city will receive $3 dollars a
day, per bed if the facility is at full capacity, and the city will receive
money even if it is below capacity. Also, the facility will purchase food and
other supplies from regional vendors, and the population of the prison will
count toward the city's overall population for tax purposes, which will add
another $700,000 to the general fund, Gimbut said. Argeropulos said all these
incentives were intended to make the project attractive to the community as a
benefit, not a detriment. "It's a very good project for the community," he said.
Students
Against Sweatshops
University of Arizona
February 6, 2003
The group that tackled the connection between Nike, sweatshops and
University
of
Arizona
clothing a few years ago has launched a campaign to publicize UA's relationship
with the private prison industry. Students
Against Sweatshops sent a letter to UA President Peter Likins on Jan. 28 urging
him to cut ties with Lehman Brothers, a bond-underwriting company that the group
says has financed many of UA's building projects, unless the company stops
financing private prison companies. "Attacking
bond underwriters isn't sexy, but Lehman Brothers has a track record that rivals
Nike in its willingness to put profits above human rights concerns," said
Mark Rivera, a member of Students Against Sweatshops. "No one knew Nike was
so bad when we first started our apparel campaigns, but now it's common
knowledge. Our job is to bring that attention to Lehman Brothers."
(Tucson Citizen)
Willcox,
Arizona
Cornell
February 15, 2002
Willcox remains a
prime site for building a federal
prison
that would house 1,500 inmates.
Cornell
Companies, Inc. the private operator for a
proposed Federal Bureau of Prisons facility,
extended an
option to buy on 17 acres of land adjacent to the
facility.
City Manager Larry Rains said the City of Willcox is currently working
with
legislators to keep a bill introduced into the
State House
of Representatives from "slipping through."
House
Bill 2473 is designed to require cities and
counties
to receive state approval prior to contracting or
constructing a security correctional facility in
their city or
county, Rains said. (Arizona Range News)
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