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Forbes Juvenile Attention
Facility
Topeka, Kansas
Clarence Kelley Juvenile Justice Resources
October 18, 2009 Topeka Capital-Journal
Insufficient staff numbers and inadequate room checks by a Topeka juvenile
residential center opened the door for a 12-year-old boy to be repeatedly
raped by his roommate over three days in January 2008, a civil lawsuit
claims. "The rape, sodomy, sexual assault and sexual battery could not
have happened if the boys or men were properly supervised," reads the
suit. The suit, filed last year in Shawnee County District Court against the
owners of Forbes Juvenile Attention Facility, isn't the only place to find
concerns about the welfare of residents of the facility. Other issues related
to the treatment of residents have been raised in inspection reports,
internal memos and the words of former FJAC workers. Allegations of racial
discrimination and questions about how FJAC administrators notify authorities
of alleged abuse also have been raised. The problems, former staffers say,
allowed sexual misconduct to go unnoticed. "The last couple months
before I left, it was chaos," said Clarence Tyson, a shift supervisor
who resigned in late 2008 after seven years at FJAC. The allegations are just
that -- allegations, the FJAC administration said. Terry Campbell, executive
vice president for Clarence M. Kelley Juvenile Justice Resources, which owns
FJAC, said a handful of unhappy workers have already made similar claims to
other governmental agencies. "I'm sure SRS has received them, KDHE has
received them, JJA has received them, the governor has probably received
them," Campbell said. "It's because we've got disgruntled staff,
former employees. They're not the majority of the professional staff that we
have." Campbell said there have been only six reports of sexual misconduct
at FJAC since 2007, and only two were sexual assaults. FJAC, located at
Forbes Field at 6700 S.W. Topeka Blvd., is a privately run youth residential
center, a nonsecure group home for male juvenile
offenders that houses up to 56 youths ages 12 to 17. The offenders sent to
FJAC aren't the most dangerous in the juvenile system, thus one reason why it
isn't a locked facility. Since a new administration took over at FJAC in late
2007, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has investigated 20
complaints there. That is more than any of the 29 similar facilities
contracting with the state except for one -- Camelot Lakeside in Goddard,
which has had 26 such complaints. Many of the complaints against FJAC allege
insufficient staffing led to the incidents. And at least six workers -- five
former and one current -- have filed state or federal discrimination suits in
2009. In addition to alleging black workers were treated differently, some of
the suits say employees feared retaliation for reporting alleged abuse to
authorities as required by regulations and law. Campbell points out most
allegations by the former employees and allegations investigated by KDHE
couldn't be substantiated. Ward Loyd, chairman of
the Kansas Advisory Group on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,
said he hadn't heard of the allegations but said "where's there's smoke,
there's usually fire." "It's certainly unfortunate to hear that
we've got these types of allegations with any Kansas facility," he said.
"The whole issue with having them placed in these kinds of facilities is
to provide for their needs, not to complicate them." Civil suit -The
12-year-old plaintiff in the current civil suit against FJAC was referred to
the facility in late 2007 or early 2008 by case manager Kenyetta
Byrd. Soon after, an FJAC worker contacted Byrd concerned about the boy's
small size. According to a February 2008 report by the Juvenile Justice
Authority's inspector general on the incident, the caller told Byrd the boy
would be "eaten alive." "They didn't even have clothes small
enough to fit him," said Toni Wash, a drug and alcohol counselor who
worked at FJAC from late 2007 to late 2008. "Everyone was asking why he
was there." Campbell said he wouldn't comment on any incident under
litigation. In addition to the civil case against Kelley Juvenile Detention
Services, the roommate suspected of raping the 12-year-old is facing criminal
sodomy charges in juvenile court. Immediately after Byrd got the alarming
call from the FJAC worker, another case coordinator called and told her to
disregard the previous caller. The boy was then placed at FJAC. The alleged
rape and sodomy occurred from Jan. 22 to Jan. 24, 2008, and as soon as FJAC
learned about it, officials there contacted authorities. The lawsuit claims
FJAC workers didn't conduct room checks every 15 minutes as their policy
mandated. The inspector general's report says room-check logs contained
blanket statements about the whole floor without specific mention of
individual room checks. In an e-mail to Campbell on Feb. 14, 2008, Kelley
administrator Scott Henricks conceded some fault.
"The cause of the alleged incident can partially be attributed to staff
error," he wrote. In its court response, however, FJAC flatly denied the
allegations of improper staff work. JJA commissioner Russ Jennings said:, "Is there a concern that staff aren't checking
rooms regularly? Yes, there certainly is." Mona Brown, a floor staffer
for more than a year until she was fired in January, said she wasn't
surprised something happened. "The staff ratio just wasn't there,"
she said. "That is the thing that sets it up for things to happen."
Hutchinson Correctional
Facility
Hutchinson, Kansas
Corizon
Oct 21, 2017 thestar.com
Private Kansas prison did nothing as fungus destroyed inmate’s brain, lawsuit
alleges
KANSAS CITY, MO.—A Kansas prison inmate died in April after a brain
fungus gave him a form of meningitis that left him weak and so disoriented
that he drank his own urine while prison health care staff ignored his pleas
for help, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of his mother and daughter.
Marques Davis complained for months about symptoms at the Hutchinson
Correctional Facility, his attorney, Leland Dempsey, said in the lawsuit
filed this week in federal court, The Kansas City Star reported. “It feels
like something is eating my brain,” Davis told Corizon
Health employees who staffed the prison infirmary in December 2016, according
to the lawsuit. It names as defendants Corizon, a
private prison health care company contracted to provide health care at the
state’s prisons, as well as 14 Corizon employees,
three doctors and 11 nurses. “No amount of money in the world could ever
replace my child, but somebody needs to be held accountable and this (needs
to not) happen to anybody else,” said Davis’ mother, Shermaine
Walker, of Wichita. Corizon spokesperson Martha
Harbin said privacy laws prohibit the company from discussing details of
Davis’ care but “we expect any legal proceedings to reveal Mr. Davis’ care
was appropriate.” At the time of his death, Davis had spent eight years in
prison for several crimes, including attempted murder, his mother said. The
lawsuit alleges that Corizon didn’t help Davis
until April 12, when he was taken to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center after
he suffered a heart attack. He was declared brain dead and taken off life
support the next day. An autopsy found the cause of death was advanced granulomatous meningoencephalitis, a form of meningitis that Dempsey said was caused by the
Candida Albicans fungus. Walker said she visited
her son regularly at prison and tried unsuccessfully several times to get Corizon to help him. “This was an everyday thing for me,
calling over there telling them about things he’s complaining to me about but
also the things I’m seeing,” Walker said. “He’s losing weight tremendously,
he’s sweating, his skin colour
is changing.” The lawsuit alleges that Corizon
staff reported several times they thought Davis was
faking his illness. A Kansas Department of Corrections website lists more
than 40 disciplinary infractions for Davis while he was in prison, most of
them before he got sick. An infirmary report from the week before Davis’
death faults him for refusing food and failing to get out of bed to use the
toilet. Instead, he urinated in his water pitcher, which he then drank out of
“time and again.”
December
9, 2006 Hutchinson News
A former Aramark Services employee who worked
inside the Hutchinson Correctional Facility was sentenced to one year, three
months in prison Friday for trying to bring methamphetamine inside the
prison. Joseph L. Delancy of South Hutchinson
pleaded guilty to trafficking in contraband in a correctional facility,
possession of methamphetamine with intent to sell and unlawfully arranging a
drug sale by a commercial device. He faced up to four years, 11 months in
prison. Delancy's attorney, Kerry Granger, asked
for a lesser sentence and cited his client's drug use starting as "a
misguided attempt to deal with the death of his son."
June 24, 2006 Hutchinson
News
Drug detectives arrested a South Hutchinson man employed in the
Hutchinson Correctional Facility dining hall for allegedly purchasing drugs
he planned to sell to prison inmates. Joseph Lamont Delancy,
33, worked for Aramark Services, which provides
food service for part of the prison. According to police reports, Delancy made phone contact with a drug enforcement
detective about buying an ounce of "Ice" methamphetamine. The
detective set up the drop, and Delancy allegedly
arrived and accepted the drugs from the detective. The report indicates Delancy said he planned to sell the drugs in the
correctional institute and attempted to set up another buy with the
detective. Delancy is being held on $25,000 bond on
suspicion for possession of meth with the intent to sell, a drug tax stamp
violation and unlawfully arranging a sale by a commercial service.
Johnson
County Jail
Johnson County, Kansas
CCA
June 6, 2007 KC Community News
Legal hurdles and Johnson County Sheriff Frank Denning's opposition surfaced
in a Johnson County Commission discussion May 31 of private jails. Denning
said he opposed private jails on principle. “I am opposed to any private
organization imprisoning people,” Denning said. “I believe the best
institutions are ones with government oversight and government transparency.”
Denning also said a state statute prohibits him from using private jails for
state inmates. The statute would have to be amended to allow him to house
inmates in a private jail, he said. Commissioner John Segale
disputed the sheriff's opinion. County Chief Counsel Don Jarrett said the
county could contract with a private jail. “The county has the authority to
contract or use jail space in public and private facilities,” Jarrett said.
“The sheriff does not have to agree to the contract. The sheriff is in charge
of designating where prisoners go. So you can buy space, but if the sheriff
doesn't choose to put people in that space, you're going to have empty
spaces.” The discussion followed a pitch by Corrections Corp. of America,
Nashville, Tenn., one of the country's biggest private jailers, for county
business. The county paid about $6 million in 2006 to farm out more than 300
inmates daily to county jails as far away as Ottawa. The Gardner jail's
416-bed expansion is expected to be full upon opening in late 2009.
Commissioner Ed Peterson said he invited CCA so commissioners could learn
what a private jail offered. Ray Hodge, CCA senior director of business
development, told commissioners of plans to expand the company's maximum
security 802-bed Leavenworth Detention Center by another 320 beds. CCA
anticipates more beds would be required in the next few years and plans to
build another jail in Leavenworth County, Hodge said. If CCA secured
sufficient contracts from customers, including Johnson County, the company
would expedite construction of the jail. Federal, state and county
governments have contracts with CCA's 64 accredited jails, Hodge said. The
company has a 52 percent share of the national private jail market, he said.
Contract renewal rates are 95 percent. Hodge listed benefits for the county
from using CCA: capital meant for jail construction could be freed up for
other needs; first rights to beds; inmate consolidation in one nearby jail,
making access easier for families; transportation cost savings; and
insulation from lawsuits. Hodge said costs would depend on services. The U.S.
Marshals Service, which uses the Leavenworth jail, pays CCA $81 per day per
inmate. That fee includes services the county would not require, Hodge said,
bringing costs closer to $50 per inmate per day. Denning said he expects
research on his business plan, which he intends to submit to commissioners in
six months, will show that he can run a jail cheaper than private jail
companies. Frank Smith, of nonprofit research company Private Corrections
Institute, said private jails keep costs down by paying employees low wages
and benefits and providing little training. Smith, who drove more than 200
miles to speak to commissioners, said problems plague the private jail industry,
including low professionalism, high employee turnover and the practice of
mixing inmates from different states, leading to tension and riots in several
jails. Smith said his information came from publicly available reports,
visits to private jails and “a vast network” of whistleblowers. Most
commissioners favored studying private jails as an alternative to building
more jails. “An individual may have different feelings about the question of
public or private (jail) facilities … but all of us need to keep in mind the
bottom line, which is the taxpayer's pocket,” Commissioner Ed Eilert said. “Our objective should be to provide the most
efficient, appropriate incarceration services at the most effective price. If
that involves … changing an attitude, we need to do that,” Eilert said. “If this is in fact an economical way of
providing equal services and coverage for our inmates, we owe it to our
taxpayers to take a hard look,” Peterson said. “I think they make a
persuasive case as to how a private entity can operate a prison for less than
government can and be just as accountable,” Segale
said. Chairwoman Annabeth Surbaugh
said the county should wait for the sheriff's plan before considering private
jails.
May 30, 2007 Kansas City
Star
Searching for a way to ease jail crowding and save money, Johnson County
commissioners are considering striking a deal with a private, for-profit
corrections facility in Leavenworth. Officials with Corrections Corp. of
America, one of the nation’s largest private penal firms, will meet with
commissioners today to consider how the two could work together to meet the
county’s growing need for jail space. Sheriff Frank Denning says the problem
has been ignored for nearly a decade, but opposes the idea of private jails.
In 2005, a consultant’s report showed that a proposed 416-bed jail expansion
would be full immediately if it opened in 2009 and an additional 752 beds
were recommended to be opened a year later, said Joe Waters, the county’s
director of facilities. “Somewhere this is going to overtake us where we’re
doing nothing more than running jails,” Commissioner Doug Wood of Olathe
said. “We’ve got to get a handle on this.” Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections
Corp. wants to expand its operation on the western bluff of the Missouri
River to build more beds for federal prisoners. That would open space at the
802-bed Leavenworth Detention Center, a maximum-security facility that the
firm wants to expand to 1,122 beds for offenders from across the region and
beyond. For Johnson County, that could forestall the costly construction and
operating expenses of new county jails. Supporters say it also could free up
county money for such other needs as a juvenile detention center, courthouse
or even the research triangle proposed by area universities. Supporters of
for-profit jails say the private sector can do the job more efficiently and
save taxpayers up to half the cost of inmate boarding. Critics contend
bottom-line law enforcement is a risk to public safety that is not worth
taking. It is an idea that has been kicked around for decades in Johnson
County with four sheriffs and has gone nowhere. “We’re not here to grow the
sheriff’s office, but I’m trying to blow this myth that somebody else can do
this a whole lot cheaper than we can,” Denning recently told commissioners.
Denning said the county’s two detention centers were safe, secure and
cost-effective. The last escape was 24 years ago, and the last inmate killed
in custody was 29 years ago. Most county commissioners, however, were unconvinced
that the sheriff had explored all his options to building more jails or
backed up his plan with hard numbers. “I don’t think the public is willing to
pay the price,” Commissioner Ed Peterson said. “We’ve got to find some other
options.” Private jails are not the answer, Denning said. “There aren’t very
many success stories out there,” he told commissioners. “And there should not
be any profit in people.” Denning said that some private jails have staffing
ratios of one jailer for every 35 inmates. In Johnson County, the ratio is
closer to one deputy for every six inmates. “We know what we’re doing,”
Denning said. Ken Kopczynski of Private Corrections Institute Inc., a
nonprofit group that opposes private prisons, said for-profit firms are
notoriously understaffed and have turnover rates as high as 50 percent.
Deputies in Johnson County have a 6 percent turnover rate. “You get what you
pay for,” Kopczynski said. Sheriff’s spokesman Tom Erickson was more blunt. For-profit jailers are salesmen, he said.
“They’re going to tell you whatever … you want to hear to get you to purchase
their product, which is bed space. “They can promise you everything in the
world … but we have enough documentation to prove that they are a really bad
idea.” Not so fast, said Ray Hodge, Corrections Corp.’s senior director of
business development. “What we’re offering is a chance for the county to
consolidate its farmed-out prisoners in an accredited facility … at a fairly
reasonable price, certainly far cheaper than the county can do it,” Hodge
said.
Kansas
Department of Corrections
January 21, 2018 kansascity.com
What is $2 billion buying Kansas and Missouri in prison health care? Few
people know
Shermaine Walker’s son died of a rare fungal
brain infection last year in a Kansas prison, and since then she’s been
trying to find out whether the prison’s private health care contractor could
have stopped it. That same contractor, Corizon
Health, oversees inmate care in Missouri prisons. A state legislator there
contends Corizon staff misdiagnosed his uncle’s
cancer. He’s also asking how that happened. Corizon’s
contracts with the corrections departments of Kansas and Missouri are worth
almost $2 billion combined over 10 years — yet there’s little transparency
about how that money is being spent. “In my time I’ve not experienced a
specific report in terms of Corizon or their
performance in their contracts,” said Kansas Rep. Russ Jennings, a Republican
from Lakin who is chairman of the House Committee
on Corrections and Juvenile Justice. Jennings said that’s not unusual for
state contractors, but Corizon is not a
run-of-the-mill vendor. As the largest for-profit prison health care provider
in the country, Corizon is a lightning-rod for
criticism from prisoners, their family members, the American Civil Liberties
Union and others who say it takes public money and provides little care. All
in an effort, they say, to maximize its profits. Hundreds of inmates in
Missouri and Kansas have filed suits against the company alleging substandard
care. Susan Lawrence, a physician from California and expert witness in
correctional medical malpractice cases, said Corizon,
like most prison health care companies, has a bad reputation. “I have never
heard of one that people say, ‘You know, they do a really, really good job,’
” Lawrence said. “They’re private, their goal is to make money, so they put
policies in place that aren’t necessarily (intended) to benefit the patient,”
she said. The company says they’re providing high-level care in difficult
environments, and for every lawsuit there are more inmates satisfied with
their care. “Reporting about correctional health care often focuses on a
single patient and that patient’s allegation of poor care,” Corizon spokeswoman Martha Harbin said via email. “I
would be happy to provide you with a file containing the many, many cards and
notes we have received from patients.” But only a few people outside of the
prisons know what’s going on inside the infirmaries. The Kansas Department of
Corrections, or KDOC, has a small clinical team from the University of Kansas
Medical Center reviewing Corizon’s work. And the
department collects some data on services provided and medical outcomes. The
Missouri Department of Corrections does not. Neither state produced any data
in response to requests from The Star. Both state contracts have minimum
staffing requirements for Corizon set in the
contracts and the Kansas contract has financial penalties if Corizon does not meet certain performance benchmarks. But
KDOC did not respond when asked what, if any, penalties it had handed down.
An open records request for that information is pending. Missouri’s contract
has no performance penalties or bonuses. Karen Pojmann,
the communications director for the Missouri Department of Corrections, said Corizon gives no annual report to the department and
there’s no way for the department to provide data on inmate health outcomes.
“Part of the challenge is that our database system is antiquated and it’s
very hard to generate those types of reports,” Pojmann
said. Karen Russo, a consultant for families of inmates, has for decades
studied both Corizon and its previous iteration as
Correctional Medical Services. The company changed its name after merging
with another prison health care provider in 2011. Russo, the founder of the
Wrongful Death and Injury Institute in Kansas City, said the company has a
checkered past that state leaders ignore because contracting out provides
them some insulation from lawsuits. “(Legislators) don’t do anything and this
has been going on since 1975,” Russo said. “I could take an article from
1975, I could square it up with 2017, change the date and the numbers and the
names and that’s it. ... There’s no accountability.” But Corizon
is now coming under more scrutiny in both Kansas and Missouri. In response to
Shermaine Walker’s story about her son’s brain
infection death, Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley from Topeka
said the state should consider not renewing the company’s contract when it
comes up in July 2019. Missourinet, an online news
consortium of radio stations, reported in February that some Democrats in the
Missouri Legislature are also having second thoughts about Corizon. They include Missouri Rep. Bruce Franks Jr., who
said Corizon staff misdiagnosed his uncle’s
prostate cancer as ulcers and his uncle died shortly after leaving prison.
Franks didn’t respond to an interview request. Absent public data, it’s hard
to know how Corizon is doing beyond anecdotes —
positive ones provided by the company and negative ones from people like
Walker, Franks and the inmates themselves. In Kansas and Missouri, 283
medical malpractice lawsuits have been filed against Corizon
since 2011, including one brought by Walker that’s still pending. Walker,
from Wichita, says her son broke down physically and mentally, eventually
drinking his own urine, while the infection ate away at him over months in
the Hutchinson Correctional Facility. “It was something to see this happening
and know nobody was helping him,” Walker said. “It was unbelievable.” Corizon has said it sympathizes with Walker, but can’t
release more details about her son’s case because of patient privacy laws.
Harbin, the Corizon spokeswoman, said the number of
suits filed against the company is not high, given that the company’s
employees had millions of patient visits over that time period. “Lawsuits are
a fact of life among doctors in the United States and even more so when you
consider the highly litigious nature of corrections,” Harbin said via email.
“The presence of a lawsuit is not necessarily indicative of any wrongdoing or
the merits of the case, and the statistics bear this out.” Harbin said less
than 10 percent of the concluded suits resulted in any kind of settlement.
The remaining 90 percent resulted in a verdict in Corizon’s
favor, were dismissed, or were administratively closed. Harbin also provided
copies of a dozen praise-filled notes, including one from a Lansing
Correctional Facility inmate who said the Corizon
staff compassionately removed a lump from his shoulder under local anesthesia
and then sent it to a lab for testing and cleaned the wound for 12 days
after. But Russo said the lawsuits represent a small sample of inmate
complaints, because prisoners can’t file suit until they’ve gone through the
corrections department’s grievance process. She said the suits are easy for Corizon to swat down because it’s hard for prisoners to
keep up with paperwork deadlines and court fees unless they get
court-appointed legal counsel. Russo also said even most attorneys don’t
understand the challenge of taking on a health care provider that has control
of all of a patients’ health records and can prevent
the patient from seeking a second opinion. “These cases are not straight-line
medical malpractice cases,” Russo said. “They are much more complex.” The
federal suits against the company brought by inmates in Kansas and Missouri
contain a range of complaints, from the common to the bizarre. Multiple suits
claim that Corizon employees classified medical
conditions as “cosmetic” in order to avoid providing care, including one by
Philip Vitello who said staff at the Missouri state
prison in St. Joseph denied him surgery to remove a tumor on his shoulder. Vitello was not appointed counsel, but a magistrate judge
ruled last month that Michael Toney, a prisoner at the Kansas state prison in
El Dorado, should be. He’s now being represented by a Wichita law firm.
Toney’s suit alleges that he suffered from bloody, painful bowel movements
for months while Corizon staff members did nothing
but prescribe him an ineffective hemorrhoid cream. When they finally referred
him to a doctor outside the prison system, that doctor diagnosed him with
“rectal fissures” that would require surgery. By that point Toney said his
condition had gotten so painful that he requested a liquid diet because “to
plaintiff, losing 40 pounds is better than passing a solid stool.” But Corizon still didn’t get him the surgery. Lawrence, the
physician and expert witness, said Toney’s claims sound frighteningly
plausible to her. Lawrence spent three years working for another for-profit
prison health care provider in federal immigration detention centers. She
said at one facility an inmate came to her saying he had been complaining to
the nursing staff about his rectal bleeding for more than a year. “So I did a
physical exam and he had a rock-hard liver due to metastasization,”
Lawrence said. “He had cancer. He had rectal cancer. ... When he pulled up
his shirt you could see the outline of his liver. I had never seen anything
like it.” Lawrence said the nursing staff had not only ignored the man’s
complaints, they had also recorded him exercising in the prison yard, to try
and build a case against him needing care. “They had videotaped him working
out and said ‘How can he possibly have terminal cancer?’ Well, people can,”
Lawrence said. “(But) it was the attitude of a lot of providers that they
were just malingering.” The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners must
be provided health care, and Kansas and Missouri, along with many other
states, privatized that responsibility decades ago.
But some states take a different approach. A study published in 2013 by the
Pew Charitable Trusts and the MacArthur Foundation found that when New Jersey
and Connecticut contracted directly with their state university medical
centers to provide prison health care it resulted in improvements in several
areas, as well as cost savings that went back to the states. Harbin said
those results haven’t been duplicated elsewhere. “There is enough evidence of
challenges in state and university-run prison health services (Texas,
California) to demonstrate that these are not superior systems of care,”
Harbin said via email. The same Pew study quoted Viola Riggin,
KDOC’s director of health care services, as saying that Kansas’ system of
privatized care backed up by oversight from the University of Kansas
Department of Family Medicine provides the best of both worlds. “The key is
oversight, and our data collection system allows me to track which inmate did
not receive a physical exam, and if not, why not,” Riggin
told Pew and MacArthur. KDOC did not make Riggin
available for an interview for this story. A KU Medical Center spokeswoman
said the center’s role is to review Corizon’s
staffing levels and staff credentials, check inmate health care grievances
that reach the corrections secretary level and look into all inmate deaths.
Missouri used to have an oversight contract with Jo Riggs, a nursing
professor at the University of Central Missouri. Riggs said her work was
initially funded through a state grant but about three years ago the state
dropped the grant and renegotiated its contract so Corizon
would pay her instead. “I have found that they met or exceeded the performance
expectations on most of the indicators I was measuring,” Riggs said. Riggs
said she’s taking time off from the project in 2018. Harbin said Corizon is looking for a replacement and in the meantime
is still vetted by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, an
accreditation group. Jennings, the chairman of the Kansas House’s corrections
committee, said there’s another step his state could consider to add more
oversight of Corizon. The former head of the
state’s juvenile justice administration, Jennings served on a “corrections
ombudsman’s board” in the 1980s that had the authority to investigate inmate
and prison staff complaints. He said the board was disbanded long ago, but
the legislature could consider bringing it back. “It might be something to
revisit and have a conversation about,” Jennings said.
Feb 8, 2018 cjonline.com
Kansas Senate GOP, Democrats embrace bill limiting privatization at state
prisons
A rare exhibition of Senate bipartisanship Wednesday led to a committee’s
prompt approval of a bill to prohibit outsourcing of personnel management
operations at state prison facilities. Motivation for the change reflected
apprehension about approval of a $362 million contract with CoreCivic, a Tennessee company that builds and operates
private prisons, to construct and maintain for 20 years a new Lansing
Correctional Facility. Under the contract, the Kansas Department of
Corrections would retain supervision of corrections officers, wardens and
other personnel. Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning and Senate Minority
Leader Anthony Hensley co-sponsored Senate Bill 328 to prohibit the private
company from subsequently being granted power to take over personnel
operations at Kansas adult and juvenile facilities. The limitation wouldn’t
apply to contracting for food, medical or consulting services. “The
legislative intent is not to prohibit normal operating services to be
contracted out to the private sector,” said Denning, a Republican from
Overland Park. “Rather, it narrowly prohibits Lansing prison security,
including the supervision of inmates by corrections officers and the warden,
from being privatized.” Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, said the legislation
endorsed by the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee was based on
concern about the record of private prison companies being hit with lawsuits
and complaints. Issues included chronic under-staffing, hiring of unqualified
officers, high turnover and inadequate medical and education programs, he
said. “While we have contracted out the construction of that facility,”
Hensley said, “we need to ensure that the department remains in the business
of managing and operating our own prisons. We should not turn over the
day-to-day operations to a private entity.” No one testified against the Senate
bill, which was approved on a voice vote without the standard 24-hour delay
after a hearing. In January, then-Gov. Sam Brownback and a coalition of top
House and Senate Republicans, including Denning, approved a 20-year, $362
million contract for construction of the new prison at Lansing. Hensley and
another Democrat on the State Finance Council voted against the lease-to-own
contract developed by KDOC and CoreCivic. Lobbyists
with close personal relationships with Brownback were hired by CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of
America, to secure the State Finance Council’s approval. The prison at
Lansing would have 1,900 maximum- and minimum-security beds and 500
minimum-security beds. Introduction of a modern prison is expected to reduce the
number of corrections officers at Lansing from 680 to fewer than 400. Robert Choromanski, executive director of the Kansas
Organization of State Employees, said the union supported the Senate bill
because it would clearly prohibit outsourcing or privatization of management
operations at state corrections facilities. He said KOSE had many officers,
counselors, maintenance specialists and administrative assistants who “do a
fine job of making the state prison facilities run in a professional manner
under trying circumstances working long hours for little pay.” Cook told MTN News Thursday that he
believes the entire $30 million, or more, could ultimately be used to offset
human-service budget cuts that the administration is preparing to make, to
balance the budget. Bullock, however, said Tuesday he doesn’t see how a new
contract would yield any more than $15 million to $17 million, under the law
passed by Republicans – and that it’s just bad business to be pressured into
extending a contract that may not be needed. “I want to make sure when we go
forward, as we look at Shelby, that it is a good deal for Montanans,” he told
MTN News. Bullock said his administration is taking steps to appraise the
value of the prison and assess how it fits into the state prison system, in
the coming years. “Without any sort of an assessment of our needs going
forward, without an appraisal to say what this (prison) is worth – I think
it’s premature to say, `Here’s what we should do with it.’” CoreCivic didn’t respond to a request for comment, or
questions about whether it’s been negotiating with the governor. Cook said he
sees no scenario where the Shelby prison won’t be needed for years into the
future – and that if the governor doesn’t act, the money will stay with CoreCivic.
Jan 5, 2018
ljworld.com
State Finance Council delays decision on Lansing prison project; questions
over private contractor persist
TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback and top legislative leaders agreed Thursday
to delay for two weeks a decision on whether to approve a 20-year, $300
million contract to build a new prison facility at Lansing. In a meeting of
the State Finance Council, which is made up of the governor
and top leaders from both chambers, Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning,
R-Overland Park, made a motion to table the decision until Jan. 18, citing
concerns that key details of the proposed contract still have not been
finalized. “I don’t want to have to ask forgiveness for this,” Denning
said, noting other major contracts that the Legislature has had to fix,
including the once-proposed demolition of the Docking State Office Building.
“If I make a bad decision, then I want to own it. But I don’t want to make a
decision today until both sides have agreed to the lease buy-back agreement,
and I’ve had a chance to look at it.” Denning was referring to a provision in
the contract detailing the terms under which the private prison company
selected for the project, CoreCivic, would transfer
ownership of the facility back to the state of Kansas at the end of the lease.
The Department of Corrections is proposing to contract with a private prison
company, CoreCivic, to build the prison and lease
it back to the state after 20 years. The state would still be responsible for
staffing and operating the prison, but CoreCivic
would be responsible for all maintenance and repairs during the term of the
lease. The plan calls for demolishing the medium security unit at the prison,
which was built in the 1980s, and building a new facility that would house
both medium and maximum security prisoners, who are now housed in the
original prison building that dates back to the Civil War era. Other members
of the committee expressed concerns about the Department of Corrections’
plans to reduce staffing, including mental health counselors, once the new,
more modern facility is built. Department of Corrections Secretary Joe
Norwood said the project would save the state about $23 million over the term
of the lease, most of which would come from personnel costs. He said it
currently takes 682 full-time equivalent employees to staff the prison. He
said that could be cut to 371 with a new facility. That’s because the
original 1860s-era building, which houses the maximum security unit, was
designed inefficiently by modern standards and thus requires more
correctional officers because they don’t have clear lines of sight to monitor
an entire cell block, Corrections officials have said. Norwood said with a
new, combined facility, his agency could consolidate things like food service
and medical care into a single unit instead of having separate units at each
of the two main buildings. But Sen. Carolyn McGinn,
R-Wichita, who chairs the Senate budget committee, said she was concerned
about cutbacks in other areas, including mental health staff, which would be
reduced from 53 to 35 positions. Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Jim Ward,
D-Wichita, said he was concerned that CoreCivic has
been the target of numerous lawsuits in the past, some having to do with
inadequate staffing at the private prisons the company runs, as well as a
Department of Justice probe into the company’s staffing system. Norwood said
that under the proposed contract, staffing would still be in the hands of the
agency, and the Legislature, which approves the agency’s budget. He added that
the staffing plan is based on National Institute of Corrections standards and
that it had been reviewed by independent corrections experts from Indiana.
“But it’s a similar model, that is that we’re going to be using technology
rather than people, and there were concerns expressed by the Department of
Justice about that model,” Ward said. In the budget bill that lawmakers
passed last year, a provision was inserted giving the Department of
Corrections authority to enter into a lease-purchase contract for a new
facility at Lansing, as long as it was reviewed by the Joint Committee on
State Building Construction and approved by the State Finance Council. But
the plan has been controversial since its inception. A Legislative Post Audit
review last year concluded that the facility could be built at a lower cost
by issuing bonds instead of a lease-purchase agreement. The Department of
Corrections, however, rejected that idea, saying CoreCivic
was able to secure private financing at interest rates competitive with the
going rate for state bonds. In an earlier meeting of the joint building
committee, some members suggested the agency should consider other
communities for the prison, and open up the site selection process to
competitive proposals from different communities, a process the agency has
used in the past when building new prisons. Also at that meeting in November,
the committee voted to recommend that the agency start over by soliciting new
proposals with a wider array of financing options. Norwood, however, said the
agency chose not to follow that recommendation because the joint committee is
only set up as an advisory panel. Brownback said at the end of the meeting
that the Finance Council will meet once more in about a week to receive
answers to questions that lawmakers still have. Then it will meet again Jan.
18 for an up or down vote on the project.
Aug 1, 2017
cjonline.com
State audit contradicts Dept. of Corrections on cost of Lansing
lease-purchase plan
A legislative audit released Monday claims that the Kansas Department of
Corrections missed “key variables” and relied on “inconsistent assumptions”
that tended to favor a more expensive method of replacing the state’s largest
and oldest prison. According to the audit, the Department of Corrections underestimated
the cost of rebuilding Lansing Correctional Facility through a lease-purchase
agreement, a contract that allows a private company to build the prison and
then lease it back to the state until the state purchases it. That option
would likely be scrapped because of the results of the audit, said J.R. Claeys, a Salina Republican and chair of the
transportation and public safety budget committee. The audit says a
preliminary estimate from KDOC placed the project cost at $140 million over
20 years. The total cost predicted by KDOC was $155 million, but the audit
report contends that it would cost $206 million. Auditors found that the best
option would be for the state to issue bonds to build the prison and contract
with a company for its maintenance. “These results differ from KDOC’s
preliminary estimates, which were missing key variables and used inconsistent
assumptions that tended to favor a lease-purchase option,” the audit says.
KDOC is now in the process of receiving bids to build the prison in response
to a request for proposals that it issued in April, according to the audit.
Bids are due Friday. KDOC Secretary Joe Norwood said in a letter in response
to the audit that the department would accept auditors’ help picking a bidder
to contract with. The audit says the department failed to include in its cost
estimates the final price it would pay to buy back the prison at the end of
the lease, did not adjust prices over time, presented
different construction costs based on the ownership arrangement and left out
what auditors found to be the least expensive option. It said the least
expensive option — building the prison with bond money and contracting its
maintenance — would cost $178 million over 20 years. KDOC did not dispute any
of the findings of the audit, according to a summary of the report. Rep. John
Barker, an Abilene Republican and chair of the Legislative Post Audit
committee, said he thought the Department of Corrections was receptive to the
findings and that auditors found costs KDOC overlooked. Rep. Dan Hawkins,
R-Wichita, said he thought the department or administration had been leaning
toward a lease-purchase option. In an email, KDOC spokesman Todd Fertig said the agency was “open to whichever funding
option is best for the state.” He said the real cost of the project would not
be known until the state gets bids from builders. According to the audit, KDOC has claimed the
project would not have a significant impact on the state’s budget. The audit
says the state could find savings by combining maximum and medium security
prisoners into one building and reducing staff. Savings could also be
realized with a more energy-efficient building than the ones now at Lansing,
including one built in the 1860s. Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a
Topeka Democrat, said he was concerned reduced staffing would lead to more
disciplinary problems, like recent outbreaks at El Dorado Correctional
Facility. “That concerns me because we’ve seen what’s happened in El Dorado,
where they’re understaffed, they’ve had to work double shifts and we’ve had
some real security problems down there among the inmates,” Hensley said. Claeys, however, said Lansing already requires a higher
level of staffing because of its age. A modern building, he said, would
require staffing similar to that at El Dorado, which is currently
understaffed. Rebuilding Lansing, Claeys said,
would help prevent uprisings at overcrowded prisons like El Dorado
Correctional Facility, which has seen several incidents in recent weeks. He
said the prison’s population has been rising without any new space given to
inmates, and it faces severe staffing shortages. “I think having Lansing
rebuilt certainly alleviates some of the pressure on El Dorado,” Claeys said. Claeys said he had
a proposal for the coming legislative session to raise wages for correctional
officers to help fill staffing shortages. “We’re going to do something, and
it should be a priority,” Barker said. Claeys said
the Legislature would go with a plan “that’s the least expensive for taxpayers
and gets us the result of a modern, efficient prison facility at Lansing.” He
said a provision included in the budget lawmakers passed in June would ensure
that a plan for the prison gets approval from the Legislature.
Jan 8, 2015 Aly Van Dyke
Dirty kitchen conditions and
violations repeated for several months are among some of the more consistent
findings in food safety inspections for Kansas prisons. Although the
corrections department adheres to Kansas Department of Agriculture food
safety guidelines, like restaurants, it doesn’t rely on KDA staff to do the
inspections. Instead, both monthly and sporadic audits are conducted by
Kansas Department of Corrections employees, some of whom work in the
facilities they inspect. “I hear what you’re saying in terms of looking like
it’s all under one DOC umbrella,” said Jeremy
Barclay, spokesman for the KDOC. “But we interact with so many different
state agencies and branches of government and different divisions within the
agency, that it’s pretty secure.” The inspections cover the 19 months between
January 2013 and July 2014. They include seven of the state’s 10 prisons and
total 19 facilities, such as satellite units. The KDOC filled the request
free of charge, because another entity already had requested the inspections.
Inspections weren’t provided for the Topeka, Lansing and Larned
juvenile correctional facilities because they weren’t in the original
request. The nearly 340 inspections show noncompliance and deficiencies month
after month at several facilities. The Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex
in Topeka, for example, repeated several mistakes for at least 10 months,
including not taking proper temperature logs; not enforcing handwashing and glove use; not having employees and staff
restrain hair properly; not keeping accurate chemical logs; and not having
inmate staff up to date on food safety training. “Three persons seen licking
fingers and continuing to work,” reads a May 2013 inspection of the KJCC.
“Gloves worn to handle bread and meat patties used to touch face and pick
item up off floor and touch door handles,” according to an April 2014
inspection of the facility. Handwashing issues were
noted in 11 of the facility’s 19 inspections. But the KJCC isn’t alone in its
repetitive errors. In the Ellsworth Correctional Facility, inspectors
reported issues with bugs in the lights for 11 months. At the Winfield
Correctional Facility, a knife was used to keep a dishwasher’s fill switch in
position the full 19 months. At the El Dorado Correctional Facility, waste
containers went without covers for eight months, a soap dispenser remained
out of service for 11 months, fans went without
cleaning for seven months and water leaked from fountain fixtures on the west
wall for four months. The term “filthy” shows up in 11 inspections, “dirty”
in 54 and “bugs” in 46 — though the vast majority of those instances refer to
insects filling light fixtures. The data include 338 inspections. “Hygiene
issues are always something we have to work with,” Barclay said. “We’re
housing a host of individuals that cleaning hasn’t always been a priority in
their life. We’re re-teaching from the ground up.” The departme
nt can take administrative action — like fines and
reconsidering the contract — if the food service provider isn’t meeting the
terms of the contract, he said. However, he added Aramark,
the food service contractor for most of the prisons, has demonstrated it will
take whatever administrative steps required to ensure
that isn’t necessary. The KDOC serves about 10,000 inmates three times each
day, yet have relatively few violations when it comes to proper temperatures
or insects — violations that often plague restaurants that don’t serve nearly
that amount of meals in a day. Barclay said he thinks that has to do with the
nature of the prison food system. It, unlike restaurants, is a 24/7 process.
Just when one crew is wrapping up lunch, the next one comes in to start
dinner. “You always have somebody on site,” he said. “It’s a continual
go-go-go process.” Also, he said, prisons for the most part deal with
processed foods, so the chances of undercooking something
rarely comes up. “The food is so processed, there's not really a food
safety risk,” he said. Unlike the KDA, the prison system doesn’t distinguish
between critical and noncritical food safety violations, and its record
keeping is radically different. Each prison appears to have its own
inspection format, making comparisons difficult. Also, it wasn’t always clear
when something was a deficiency or merely a suggested improvement. As most of
the inspections were entered manually into The Topeka Capital-Journal’s
online database, some numbers of violations might be different than
anticipated. The inspection schedule differs, as well. While restaurants are
inspected annually, unless follow-up visits are required, each correctional
facility has a monthly inspection conducted by the safety officer employed at
the facility. Every so often, a food service contract manager from central
administration will perform an audit — usually announced beforehand — on the
prison kitchens. The visits, Barclay said, are to make sure the contract is
“followed to a T.” Although both inspectors are employees of the KDOC, he
said, the food service contract manager falls on an entirely different line
item in its budget — creating some degree of separation. Also, Barclay said,
the employees are inspecting the work done by a contractor, not other KDOC
employees. Finally, he said, the KDOC has to make annual reports to the
Kansas Legislature, and the department of administration actually awards the
food service contracts, creating further checks and balances on the prison
food system. Violations oftentimes differed from the monthly on-site
inspections and the audits from the central office. The 22 audits included in
the request averaged between eight and nine violations, while the 316 monthly
inspections, conducted by each facility’s safety compliance officer, averaged
between three and four. The Larned Correctional
Mental Health Facility, for example, showed everything was satisfactory on
its monthly reports, but had up to 13 deficiencies on its three audits. Lack
of training for inmate workers was documented on all three audits, which were
conducted in June and December 2013 and in June 2014. Aramark
holds the food service contracts in all the prisons, save the KJCC, which
switched last October to Trinity Services Group after the service went out
for bid. It was awarded a nearly $400,000 contract to work from October 2013
through June 2014. In each prison, Aramark pays for
a manager, an assistant manager and food service supervisors. Under them, are
the inmates, Barclay said. Inmate workers are supposed to be trained and
supervised, but 20 inspections show those areas lacking for several months —
half of which came from the KJCC. Aly Van Dyke can
be reached at (785) 295-1270 or aly.vandyke@cjonline.com.
November 27, 2001
Citing a temporary shortage of prison beds, the Kansas Department of
Corrections said Tuesday that it will send 100 inmates to a privately run
institution in Colorado where they will remain until spring. The
agreement with Corrections Corp. of America marks the first time that Kansas
has sought facilities in other states to house some of its prisoners.
Federal money can be used to pay 90 percent of the contract costs with the
private firm. That money cannot be used to pay for space in public
facilities such as county jails. (The Kansas City Star)
Kansas
Legislature
September 12, 2006 Kansas City Star
If Phill Kline had legitimate credentials, he
wouldn’t need to pad his résumé. He alleges he “worked to get ‘Jessica’s Law’
passed this year, increasing sentences for four types of sex crimes against
children” (9/7, Local, “Kline cites record on water rights, sex predators”).
Jessica’s Law was a terrible bill, but one that only our bravest state
senators had the guts to oppose. Whether Kline was for, against or
indifferent to it would not have made one whit of difference. Legislators
were stampeded into voting for it, as they would be for mom, apple pie and
the American flag. The bill will raise our state prison population by 1,000
prisoners, which will cost well over the average of $22,000 for each in
today’s correctional dollars. That’s 22 million bucks a year, for typical
prisoners, not high-cost, geriatric sex offenders, plus another $50 million
for bed space to house them. The bill was bundled by Sen. Derek Schmidt,
champion of the for-profit prison GEO Group, in his effort to actually import
rapists, pedophiles and murderers to Kansas. Not much to take credit for, is
it, even if it were deserved? Frank Smith, Bluff City, Kan.
May 8, 2006 AP
Legislation imposing tougher penalties on child molesters and other sex
offenders went Monday night to the governor's desk. Passage of the bill,
dubbed "Jessica's Law," was part of a deal worked out by House and
Senate negotiators last week, after the House rejected a compromise bill
bundling the popular sex offender measure with legislation the Senate wanted
to allow private prisons in Kansas. The Senate voted 36-2 for the sex
offender bill with no debate, and the House followed with a vote of 122-0,
after which members applauded. Sending Jessica's Law to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius
hinged on a deal negotiators worked out Friday. It called for a House vote on
prisons, followed by the Senate passing Jessica's Law. The House voted 74-48
against the bill allowing the Department of Corrections to license and regulate such facilities in counties where voters approve
the idea. It also included $20.5 million in bonding authority to expand state
prisons. "I feel like this is a positive victory in that we got
Jessica's Law separate from an unpopular bill," said Rep. Jan Pauls, D-Hutchinson. Pauls
later thanked colleagues who "hung in there" until Jessica's Law
was separated from private prisons. "A lot of people were terrified that
we might not get this bill passed," she said, referring to Jessica's
Law. Some House members didn't like the idea of obligating the state to
paying off bonds. "We could pay cash for this and save ourselves a
substantial amount of interest," said Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro. "I
don't support additional debt for our state." Kansas law prohibits housing
state prisoners in private facilities in the state, but they can be housed in
private facilities in other states. Senators had argued for bundling the
bills, because increased penalties for sex offenders would generate the need
for an additional 1,000 prison beds by 2016. House Speaker Doug Mays,
R-Topeka, said the message was clear. "A lot of people feel strongly
that the management and ownership of prisons is a government function,"
he said.
May 5, 2006 AP
Efforts to force a single vote on tougher penalties for child molesters
and other sex offenders and allowing private prisons failed, and lawmakers
now will vote each issue separately, under an agreement worked out Friday
night by House and Senate negotiators. "It's agreed to," said House
Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka. "I'm happy the Senate decided to do it that
way." Mays said both bills will come up for a vote Monday, when
lawmakers return with an eye toward wrapping up the session. On Wednesday,
the House strongly rejected a compromise bill bundling the popular sex offender
measure dubbed "Jessica's Law" with legislation the Senate wanted
to allow private prisons in Kansas.
May 3, 2006 AP
Opposition to private prisons in the House today doomed a compromise
version of a politically popular bill to strengthen penalties for sex
offenders, especially those who prey on children. The tougher penalties,
known as "Jessica's Law,” were tied by House and Senate negotiators to a
proposal to permit private prisons in Kansas to hold the state's inmates.
Senators previously approved a separate private prisons bill and insisted the
two issues be bundled, while the House hadn't debated the subject. The House
voted 74-49 to reject the bundle, forcing both chambers to resume
negotiations if lawmakers are to send tougher penalties for sex offenders
this year to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. The Senate had approved it Tuesday,
33-7. Rep. Kenny Wilk, who led the effort to send
the bill back to negotiators, said senators were trying to overcome
opposition to private prisons by linking their fate to perhaps the session's
most popular proposal. "They're trying to force-feed us,” said Wilk, R-Lansing. "The House wants a clean vote on
Jessica's Law.” The tougher sanctions are patterned after a Florida law, also
named "Jessica's Law,” for a 9-year-old girl in that state killed last
year by a convicted sex offender. Arkansas, Oregon and Virginia enacted their
own versions this year. The bill calls for a minimum 25-year sentence for
adults convicted of any of seven violent sex crimes against anyone under 14, including
rape, aggravated sodomy and sexual exploitation. Trial judges could impose a
lesser penalty in cases with "substantial and compelling” reasons.
May 2, 2006 AP
Getting tough on child molesters and other sex offenders has been a priority
for legislators since the start of the session, and now they're in position
to send a bill to the governor to do just that. But there could be a problem
- another bill hitched to the sex offender legislation. A House-Senate
conference committee bundled the crime bill with another allowing private
prisons in the state to hold Kansas inmates. The Senate voted 33-7 Tuesday to
send the bill to the House, which last year refused to debate private
prisons. Because it's a House-Senate conference committee proposal, House members
must either accept or reject both ideas. "We'll run it. There's no way
to tell whether it will pass," said Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka. Some
see it as a power play by senators. "It doesn't play well with me. It's
not a game," said Rep. Shari Weber, R-Herington. "Children abused
and exploited shouldn't be held hostage by the personal views of the
leadership of the Senate chamber. The Senate debate focused on opposition to
private prisons. "There are two policies in this bill. The right way is
to separate them," said Sen. Jay Scott Emler,
R-Lindsborg.
May 1, 2006 Lawrence
Journal-World
For-profit prisons aren’t likely to pop up across the Kansas plains
overnight if, as expected, the Legislature approves a law this week allowing
the prisons to be built here. In fact, the law wouldn’t necessarily mean that
private prisons would ever be used to house existing Kansas prisoners. But it
would allow for the industry to set up shop and begin housing out-of-state
prisoners in any Kansas county where voters approve the idea. In Frank
Smith’s view, it’s a slippery slope. Smith, a critic of private prisons who
lives in Bluff City, believes that Kansas is “buying a lemon” by opening the
door to a business he claims is fundamentally flawed. “I don’t believe you
can have an efficacious private prison because the profit motive rules
everything,” he said. “I don’t think there are any legitimate protections in
this bill. They can build anywhere they can convince the locals — the rubes
and hicks — that it’s not such a bad thing.” Smith, a retired social worker,
argues that private prisons are chronically understaffed and don’t pay enough
to keep good employees. He said there’s no hard evidence that there are more
disturbances inside private prisons, but that the mingling of out-of-state
inmate populations — who often have unequal treatment because of differences
in their states’ respective contracts — is an inherent problem. On July 20,
2004, inmates at the privately run Crowley County Correctional Facility near
Pueblo, Colo., demanded to speak to a warden about grievances. One problem
was that a group of recently imported inmates from Washington state were
earning $60 a month for work assignments, compared with $18.60 for Colorado
inmates. The inmates were denied an audience, and they grew hostile. The
staff was inexperienced and had not had enough training for an emergency,
according to a report by the Colorado Department of Corrections. So the staff
evacuated. Inmates started fires, broke into the management offices, and
broke water pipes, sinks and toilets, causing cells to flood with
contaminated water. A pending lawsuit filed by inmates alleges that when a
special-operations team came in with backup to reclaim the prison, guards
brutalized inmates — forcing them to lie face-down in contaminated water and
dragging people from their cells by their ankles. As the night went on,
inmates were forced to urinate and defecate in their pants because they
weren’t allowed to go to the restroom, the suit alleges.
April
29, 2006 Hutchinson News
Thanks to distortion of our legislative procedures, a bill clearly
against the interests of public safety and protection of Kansas taxpayers may
soon win passage. Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, has
inserted special interest, for-profit prison language into a veto-proof
sexual offender bill. For three years, Schmidt's bills were unable to win
passage on their own merits. Were it not for the valiant efforts of Rep. Jan Pauls, D-Hutchinson, and the misgivings about the process
held by Rep. Mike O'Neal, R-Hutchinson, this bill would likely have made it
to the governor's desk. At a time when the attention of the public has been
focused on deal-making in Washington , D.C., by exposure of scandals such as
the crimes of Jack Abramoff and ex-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, as
well as the budget earmarks that led to the $230 million "Bridge to
Nowhere," this legislative bundling tactic is particularly brazen. The
bill's existing provisions don't truly protect Kansas. Instead it encourages
wholesale importation and private transport of out-of-state robbers, rapists,
and murderers. Annual surveys show for-profits have 30 to 45 times more
escapes than public facilities. Closed facilities, frequently shuttered
following rapes and grotesque maltreatment by staff, litter the national
landscape. Imported convicts regularly riot in a half dozen states. Poorly
paid workers often flee, leaving state employees to suppress disturbances.
For-profit staff turnover averages more than three times that of public
prisons. Although the Kansas measure has a provision allowing a state
takeover of failed private pens, the bill does not adequately address
"real world" problems. It is difficult to imagine how a private
operator would provide adequate insurance for its operations. Examples of
potential exposure include situations like the murder of a Montana prisoner
by Hawaiian convicts at the BRG prison in Texas. Hawaiians twice torched that
facility. The Kansas Department of Corrections already has difficulty filling
employee vacancies. The notion that it could immediately provide hundreds of
trained officers and support staff to operate a remote for-profit where
workers had resigned en masse or went on strike is simply ludicrous. The
department lacks the authority to incarcerate other states' prisoners, but a
private pen in Kansas would house many hundreds of such convicts. For-profit
salesmen testifying before legislative committees claimed staff from other
states could fill in, but they often are already unable to meet contractual
staffing level requirements in those distant locations. After summer 2004
riots by out-of-state prisoners at the Corrections Corporation of America
facilities at Crowley, Colo., and Beattyville, Ky., scores of employees
immediately quit their jobs. Hutchinson already has experienced some perils
of privatization, witness the jailing of former Reno
County Sheriff Larry Leslie for accepting $284,000 in payments from a private
firm that used to operate a jail annex. Kansas would be wise to heed the call
for a moratorium on construction of these "Rent-a-pens" by
denominations ranging from Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian and
the United Church of Christ. Frank Smith, Bluff City
April 23, 2006 Topeka
Capital-Journal
A bill clearly against the interests of public safety and protection of
Kansas taxpayers may soon win passage. Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt
has inserted special interest, for-profit prison language into a veto-proof
sexual offender bill, HB2576. For years, Schmidt's similar bills were unable
to win passage on their own merits. The bill is presently in conference
committee to be considered when legislators return from adjournment. This
legislative "bundling" tactic is particularly brazen. Through
dozens of substantial contributions from the for-profit GEO Group and its
lobbyists, Schmidt and his colleagues have been amply rewarded for ignoring
the public interest. The bill encourages wholesale importation and private
transport of out-of-state robbers, rapists, and murderers. Annual surveys
show for-profits have 30-45 times more escapes than public facilities.
Imported convicts regularly riot in a half dozen states. Poorly paid workers
often flee, leaving distant state employees to suppress disturbances. The
Kansas's Department of Corrections already has substantial difficulty
recruiting employees. At year's end, 121 uniformed positions were vacant. It
couldn't immediately provide hundreds of trained officers and support staff
at a remote for-profit where workers struck or resigned en masse. For-profit
salesmen testified that staff from faraway states could fill in, but they
often are already unable to meet their own contractual staffing requirements.
After 2004 riots by out-of-state prisoners at facilities in Colorado and Kentucky,
scores of low-paid employees immediately quit their jobs. Kansas would be
wise to heed the call for a moratorium on construction or outright abolition
of these "Rent-a-pens" by denominations including Catholic,
Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian and the United Church of Christ. FRANK
SMITH, Private Corrections Institute, Bluff City
April 19, 2006 Chanute
Tribune
Op-Ed By: Frank Smith Private Corrections Institute. Thanks to distortion
of our legislative procedures a bill clearly against the interests of public
safety and protection of Kansas taxpayers may soon win passage. Senate
Majority Leader Derek Schmidt from Independence has inserted special
interest, for-profit prison language into a veto-proof sexual offender bill,
HB2576. For three years, Schmidt's similar bills were unable to win passage
on their own merits. The bill is presently in conference committee and will
be considered when the Legislature returns from adjournment. At a time when
the attention of the public has been focused on deal-making in Washington by
the exposure of scandals such as the crimes of Jack Abramoff and
ex-Representative "Duke" Cunningham, as well as the budget
"earmarks" that led to passage of the $230 million Alaska
"Bridge to Nowhere," this legislative "bundling" tactic
is particularly brazen. Through dozens of substantial contributions from the
for-profit GEO Group and its lobbyists, Schmidt's colleagues and leadership
committees have been amply rewarded for ignoring the public interest. Woodson
County and Yates Center were led to believe a private prison would provide an
economic boon. Quite the opposite is the case. Peer reviewed national studies
from six universities, in Washington, Ohio, Iowa, North Carolina and Kentucky
and research from a D.C. think tank indicate that even public prisons, where
staff are often paid twice as much as in the privates, don't help the
economy. Communities within a 50-mile radius of Yates Center lack the
available workforce to staff such a facility. Guards would require clean
criminal and domestic violence records, a GED or high school diploma, and
need to be young enough to physically handle the extremely stressful and
dangerous shift-work environment. The for-profits endure a 52 percent annual
staff turnover, more than thrice that of better-paying public facilities.
Guard make $8 hourly, or less commonly, work two jobs depriving them of the
alertness necessary to protect themselves and other staff, inmates and the
public alike. For-profits regularly contest assessments and overcharge taxpayers
for millions of dollars. 79 percent of Corrections Corporation of American
and 69 percent of GEO's facilities have received tax
abatement and infrastructure incentives leaving municipalities with little to
show for their investments. If GEO somehow actually decided to build in
Woodson, it expects free land with utilities already in place. The bill's
existing provisions don't truly protect Kansas. Instead it encourages
wholesale importation and private transport of out-of-state robbers, rapists,
and murderers. Annual surveys show for-profits have 30-45 times more escapes
than public facilities. Closed facilities, frequently shuttered following
rapes and grotesque maltreatment by poorly screened staff, litter the
national landscape. Imported convicts regularly riot in a half dozen states.
Poorly paid workers often flee, leaving distant state employees to suppress
disturbances. Although the measure has a provision allowing a Kansas state
takeover of failed private pens, the bill does not adequately address
"real world" problems. For instance, it's difficult to imagine how
a GEO could provide adequate insurance for its operations. Examples of
potential exposure include situations like the murder of a Montana prisoner
by Hawaiian convicts at BRG's Texas prison. Hawaiians twice torched that
facility. The Kansas Department of Corrections already has substantial
difficulty filling employee vacancies. The notion that it could immediately
provide hundreds of trained officers and support staff to operate a remote for-profit
where workers had resigned en masse or went on strike is simply ludicrous.
The Department lacks the authority to incarcerate other states' prisoners,
but a private pen in Kansas would house many hundreds of such convicts.
For-profit salesmen testifying before legislative committees claimed staff
from other states could fill in, but they often are already unable to meet
contractual staffing level requirements in those distant locations. After
summer 2004 riots by out-of-state prisoners at the Corrections Corporation of
America facilities at Crowley, Colorado and Beattyville, Kentucky, scores of
low-paid employees immediately quit their jobs. Kansas has already
experienced some perils of privatization; witness the imprisonment of Reno
County Sheriff Larry Leslie for accepting and laundering $284,000 in bribes
for privatizing his jail. Kansas would be wise to heed the call for a
moratorium on construction or outright abolition of these
"Rent-a-pens" by denominations ranging from Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist,
Presbyterian and the United Church of Christ. *** Frank Smith has been a
researcher and provider in criminal justice and corrections for 35 years and
is considered to be a leading expert on for-profit prisons. He resides in
Bluff City.
April 19, 2006 Trading
Markets
In Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ budget amendments, offered Tuesday, she is
seeking authorization for $20.5 million in bonds to build prison space to
incarcerate the anticipated increase in inmates from legislation that
increases punishments of sex offenders. On prisons, the proposal for bonding
authority to expand El Dorado prison could clash with a move to build a
private prison. Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz
opposes private prisons, but declined to say whether the bonding proposal would
knock out private prison legislation. “We’re putting forward the options that
we prefer, to at least handle the initial expansion,” Werholtz
said.
April 16, 2006 AP
When legislation runs into a roadblock, lawmakers often get around the
obstacle with the time-tested tactic of bundling bills. A bill on death’s
doorstep gets attached to a popular bill — and if there’s motherhood, apple
pie and a touch of divinity in the mix, so much the better. Last year,
senators passed a bill allowing private prisons in Kansas and waited for the
House to act. But the idea is about as popular with many House members as
coddling sex offenders. This year, lawmakers have the mother of motherhood
bills — getting tough on sex offenders, particularly those victimizing
children. It’s just the kind of thing House members can go home and crow
about while seeking re-election. The two chambers passed differing versions
of what’s been dubbed “Jessica’s Law,” and House and
Senate negotiators worked out the differences. But they also bundled it with
the private prison bill so lawmakers must consider both ideas together when
they return April 26 to wrap up their session.
April 10, 2006 Lawrence
Journal-World
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said she’s willing to accept private prisons to
get a bill that increases penalties for sex offenders. “There are a lot of
protections in place,” Sebelius said of the measure that would authorize the
state to enter into a contract for a private prison. The prison proposal is
contained in a bill that would increase prison sentences for sex offenders.
While there is nearly unanimous support in the Legislature for the sex
offender portion of the bill, there is less support for changing policy to
allow private prisons. The provision would give the corrections secretary
authority over the construction, licensing and oversight of a private prison.
In addition, under the measure, no private prison could be operated in a
county without approval of the county commissioners and a vote of county
residents. But Frank Smith of Bluff City, an outspoken critic of private
prisons, said the private prison industry has been plagued with problems such
as prison riots, low wages for employees and substandard conditions for
inmates. “Other states have had terrible experiences with legislation such as
this, which when passed seemed to provide certain guarantees,” Smith said.
March 24, 2006 Wichita
Eagle
With an appalling display of lobbyist strength, special interest
legislation meant to solely enrich the out-of-state for-profit prison industry
was recently forced through a Kansas House committee. Then Wednesday, a bill
authorizing privately owned and operated prisons cleared the full Senate. The
ostensible rationale for bringing nonliving wages to Kansas corrections is
alleged taxpayer savings. But repeated legitimate research fails to
demonstrate any such thrift. And there's no guarantee the proposed private
prisons would ever hold a single Kansas inmate. For-profit operator GEO Group
enlisted economically depressed Woodson County in eastern Kansas to
strengthen its ploy to enable proliferation of its "Rent-a-Pens."
Studies conducted by professors from five universities and an independent
think tank, however, conclusively demonstrate that even public prisons, where
wages are sometimes twice as high, do not improve
faltering rural economies. Prisons dissuade safer and better-paying
industries from locating in host counties. No economic feasibility assessment
has ever been done in Woodson County, which simply couldn't recruit
sufficient low-paid employees. A survey comparing similar-sized populations
of a public prison system with national for-profits indicated the privates
had 30 times as many escapes. Liability damage language has rarely protected
any hosting state. And might for-profits bring corruption? Prosecutors
accused former Reno County Sheriff Larry Leslie of taking $284,000 to
privatize his jail. To test the efficacy of the services provided, look no
further than the GEO Group's Jena, La., prison and the Cornell Companies' New
Morgan Academy in Morgantown, Pa. Both have been closed for years after
horrendous abuse of scores of juveniles. Management and Training Corp. closed
its prison in Eagle Mountain, Calif., after rioting and murders. I've visited
Corrections Corporation of America prisons in Kentucky, Colorado and Arizona
following such riots. It took law enforcement from four states to quell the
previous riot at the Crowley County, Colo., prison. After extensive study,
numerous denominations -- including Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian,
Episcopal and the Church of Christ -- condemned this industry. Kansas would
do well to heed their call. Frank Smith lives in Bluff City.
Labette
Correctional Conservation Camp
Labette County, Kansas
GRW
February 27, 2007 Parsons Sun
Some employees of the Labette Correctional Conservation Camp women's
facility lost vacation time when the facility was transferred to county
management on Feb. 1, but county commissioners say it isn't their fault. On
Monday, commissioners met with LCCC administrators to discuss the situation.
County Commissioner Jerry Carson said the situations at the men's and women's
camps are different because the county has never operated the women's camp
directly. Labette County created the boot-camp style facility in the early '90s
and has held responsibility for operating it. The camp has always been
operated by a private management firm until now, however. The women's camp
was created by the Kansas Department of Corrections a few years later. KDOC
hired the same company to operate the facility and the two have operated in
concert. However, Carson said the differences translate into employees at the
women's camp losing leave time. Carson pointed the finger at GRW Corp., the
Tennessee-based management firm that ran the facilities. Carson said he
thought there was a "gentleman's agreement" with GRW to honor the
vacation time. Carson said he would be willing to meet with camp employees
and explain the situation to them. Commissioner Lonie
Addis agreed with that assessment of the situation but said he didn't like
it. "The simple fact is it's still not fair," Addis said.
Commissioners also discussed setting up times to meet with camp employees to
discuss the county's personnel policy. The county has revised the policy in
order to include camp employees.
Lansing Correctional Facility
Lansing, Kansas
Mar 8, 2018 cjonline.com
Kansas Senate GOP, Democrats embrace bill limiting privatization at state
prisons
A rare exhibition of Senate bipartisanship Wednesday led to a committee’s
prompt approval of a bill to prohibit outsourcing of personnel management
operations at state prison facilities. Motivation
for the change reflected apprehension about approval of a $362 million
contract with CoreCivic, a Tennessee company that
builds and operates private prisons, to construct and maintain for 20 years a
new Lansing Correctional Facility. Under the contract, the Kansas Department
of Corrections would retain supervision of corrections officers, wardens and
other personnel. Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning and Senate Minority
Leader Anthony Hensley co-sponsored Senate Bill 328 to prohibit the private
company from subsequently being granted power to take over personnel
operations at Kansas adult and juvenile facilities. The limitation wouldn’t
apply to contracting for food, medical or consulting services. “The
legislative intent is not to prohibit normal operating services to be
contracted out to the private sector,” said Denning, a Republican from
Overland Park. “Rather, it narrowly prohibits Lansing prison security,
including the supervision of inmates by corrections officers and the warden,
from being privatized.” Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, said the legislation
endorsed by the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee was based on
concern about the record of private prison companies being hit with lawsuits
and complaints. Issues included chronic under-staffing, hiring of unqualified
officers, high turnover and inadequate medical and education programs, he
said. “While we have contracted out the construction of that facility,”
Hensley said, “we need to ensure that the department remains in the business
of managing and operating our own prisons. We should not turn over the
day-to-day operations to a private entity.” No one testified against the Senate
bill, which was approved on a voice vote without the standard 24-hour delay
after a hearing. In January, then-Gov. Sam Brownback and a coalition of top
House and Senate Republicans, including Denning, approved a 20-year, $362
million contract for construction of the new prison at Lansing. Hensley and
another Democrat on the State Finance Council voted against the lease-to-own
contract developed by KDOC and CoreCivic. Lobbyists
with close personal relationships with Brownback were hired by CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of
America, to secure the State Finance Council’s approval. The prison at
Lansing would have 1,900 maximum- and minimum-security beds and 500
minimum-security beds. Introduction of a modern prison is expected to reduce
the number of corrections officers at Lansing from 680 to fewer than 400.
Robert Choromanski, executive director of the
Kansas Organization of State Employees, said the union supported the Senate
bill because it would clearly prohibit outsourcing or privatization of
management operations at state corrections facilities. He said KOSE had many
officers, counselors, maintenance specialists and administrative assistants
who “do a fine job of making the state prison facilities run in a
professional manner under trying circumstances working long hours for little
pay.”
January 21, 2018 kansascity.com
What is $2 billion buying Kansas and Missouri in prison health care? Few
people know
Shermaine Walker’s son died of a rare fungal
brain infection last year in a Kansas prison, and since then she’s been
trying to find out whether the prison’s private health care contractor could
have stopped it. That same contractor, Corizon
Health, oversees inmate care in Missouri prisons. A state legislator there
contends Corizon staff misdiagnosed his uncle’s
cancer. He’s also asking how that happened. Corizon’s
contracts with the corrections departments of Kansas and Missouri are worth
almost $2 billion combined over 10 years — yet there’s little transparency
about how that money is being spent. “In my time I’ve not experienced a
specific report in terms of Corizon or their
performance in their contracts,” said Kansas Rep. Russ Jennings, a Republican
from Lakin who is chairman of the House Committee
on Corrections and Juvenile Justice. Jennings said that’s not unusual for
state contractors, but Corizon is not a
run-of-the-mill vendor. As the largest for-profit prison health care provider
in the country, Corizon is a lightning-rod for
criticism from prisoners, their family members, the American Civil Liberties
Union and others who say it takes public money and provides little care. All
in an effort, they say, to maximize its profits. Hundreds of inmates in
Missouri and Kansas have filed suits against the company alleging substandard
care. Susan Lawrence, a physician from California and expert witness in
correctional medical malpractice cases, said Corizon,
like most prison health care companies, has a bad reputation. “I have never
heard of one that people say, ‘You know, they do a really, really good job,’
” Lawrence said. “They’re private, their goal is to make money, so they put
policies in place that aren’t necessarily (intended) to benefit the patient,”
she said. The company says they’re providing high-level care in difficult
environments, and for every lawsuit there are more inmates satisfied with
their care. “Reporting about correctional health care often focuses on a
single patient and that patient’s allegation of poor care,” Corizon spokeswoman Martha Harbin said via email. “I
would be happy to provide you with a file containing the many, many cards and
notes we have received from patients.” But only a few people outside of the
prisons know what’s going on inside the infirmaries. The Kansas Department of
Corrections, or KDOC, has a small clinical team from the University of Kansas
Medical Center reviewing Corizon’s work. And the
department collects some data on services provided and medical outcomes. The
Missouri Department of Corrections does not. Neither state produced any data
in response to requests from The Star. Both state contracts have minimum
staffing requirements for Corizon set in the
contracts and the Kansas contract has financial penalties if Corizon does not meet certain performance benchmarks. But
KDOC did not respond when asked what, if any, penalties it had handed down.
An open records request for that information is pending. Missouri’s contract
has no performance penalties or bonuses. Karen Pojmann,
the communications director for the Missouri Department of Corrections, said Corizon gives no annual report to the department and
there’s no way for the department to provide data on inmate health outcomes.
“Part of the challenge is that our database system is antiquated and it’s
very hard to generate those types of reports,” Pojmann
said. Karen Russo, a consultant for families of inmates, has for decades
studied both Corizon and its previous iteration as
Correctional Medical Services. The company changed its name after merging
with another prison health care provider in 2011. Russo, the founder of the
Wrongful Death and Injury Institute in Kansas City, said the company has a
checkered past that state leaders ignore because contracting out provides
them some insulation from lawsuits. “(Legislators) don’t do anything and this
has been going on since 1975,” Russo said. “I could take an article from
1975, I could square it up with 2017, change the date and the numbers and the
names and that’s it. ... There’s no accountability.” But Corizon
is now coming under more scrutiny in both Kansas and Missouri. In response to
Shermaine Walker’s story about her son’s brain
infection death, Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley from Topeka
said the state should consider not renewing the company’s contract when it
comes up in July 2019. Missourinet, an online news
consortium of radio stations, reported in February that some Democrats in the
Missouri Legislature are also having second thoughts about Corizon. They include Missouri Rep. Bruce Franks Jr., who
said Corizon staff misdiagnosed his uncle’s
prostate cancer as ulcers and his uncle died shortly after leaving prison.
Franks didn’t respond to an interview request. Absent public data, it’s hard
to know how Corizon is doing beyond anecdotes —
positive ones provided by the company and negative ones from people like
Walker, Franks and the inmates themselves. In Kansas and Missouri, 283
medical malpractice lawsuits have been filed against Corizon
since 2011, including one brought by Walker that’s still pending. Walker,
from Wichita, says her son broke down physically and mentally, eventually
drinking his own urine, while the infection ate away at him over months in
the Hutchinson Correctional Facility. “It was something to see this happening
and know nobody was helping him,” Walker said. “It was unbelievable.” Corizon has said it sympathizes with Walker, but can’t
release more details about her son’s case because of patient privacy laws.
Harbin, the Corizon spokeswoman, said the number of
suits filed against the company is not high, given that the company’s
employees had millions of patient visits over that time period. “Lawsuits are
a fact of life among doctors in the United States and even more so when you
consider the highly litigious nature of corrections,” Harbin said via email.
“The presence of a lawsuit is not necessarily indicative of any wrongdoing or
the merits of the case, and the statistics bear this out.” Harbin said less
than 10 percent of the concluded suits resulted in any kind of settlement.
The remaining 90 percent resulted in a verdict in Corizon’s
favor, were dismissed, or were administratively closed. Harbin also provided
copies of a dozen praise-filled notes, including one from a Lansing
Correctional Facility inmate who said the Corizon
staff compassionately removed a lump from his shoulder under local anesthesia
and then sent it to a lab for testing and cleaned the wound for 12 days
after. But Russo said the lawsuits represent a small sample of inmate
complaints, because prisoners can’t file suit until they’ve gone through the
corrections department’s grievance process. She said the suits are easy for Corizon to swat down because it’s hard for prisoners to
keep up with paperwork deadlines and court fees unless they get
court-appointed legal counsel. Russo also said even most attorneys don’t
understand the challenge of taking on a health care provider that has control
of all of a patients’ health records and can prevent
the patient from seeking a second opinion. “These cases are not straight-line
medical malpractice cases,” Russo said. “They are much more complex.” The
federal suits against the company brought by inmates in Kansas and Missouri
contain a range of complaints, from the common to the bizarre. Multiple suits
claim that Corizon employees classified medical
conditions as “cosmetic” in order to avoid providing care, including one by
Philip Vitello who said staff at the Missouri state
prison in St. Joseph denied him surgery to remove a tumor on his shoulder. Vitello was not appointed counsel, but a magistrate judge
ruled last month that Michael Toney, a prisoner at the Kansas state prison in
El Dorado, should be. He’s now being represented by a Wichita law firm.
Toney’s suit alleges that he suffered from bloody, painful bowel movements
for months while Corizon staff members did nothing
but prescribe him an ineffective hemorrhoid cream. When they finally referred
him to a doctor outside the prison system, that doctor diagnosed him with
“rectal fissures” that would require surgery. By that point Toney said his
condition had gotten so painful that he requested a liquid diet because “to
plaintiff, losing 40 pounds is better than passing a solid stool.” But Corizon still didn’t get him the surgery. Lawrence, the
physician and expert witness, said Toney’s claims sound frighteningly
plausible to her. Lawrence spent three years working for another for-profit
prison health care provider in federal immigration detention centers. She
said at one facility an inmate came to her saying he had been complaining to
the nursing staff about his rectal bleeding for more than a year. “So I did a
physical exam and he had a rock-hard liver due to metastasization,”
Lawrence said. “He had cancer. He had rectal cancer. ... When he pulled up
his shirt you could see the outline of his liver. I had never seen anything
like it.” Lawrence said the nursing staff had not only ignored the man’s
complaints, they had also recorded him exercising in the prison yard, to try
and build a case against him needing care. “They had videotaped him working
out and said ‘How can he possibly have terminal cancer?’ Well, people can,”
Lawrence said. “(But) it was the attitude of a lot of providers that they
were just malingering.” The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners must
be provided health care, and Kansas and Missouri, along with many other
states, privatized that responsibility decades ago.
But some states take a different approach. A study published in 2013 by the
Pew Charitable Trusts and the MacArthur Foundation found that when New Jersey
and Connecticut contracted directly with their state university medical
centers to provide prison health care it resulted in improvements in several
areas, as well as cost savings that went back to the states. Harbin said
those results haven’t been duplicated elsewhere. “There is enough evidence of
challenges in state and university-run prison health services (Texas,
California) to demonstrate that these are not superior systems of care,”
Harbin said via email. The same Pew study quoted Viola Riggin,
KDOC’s director of health care services, as saying that Kansas’ system of
privatized care backed up by oversight from the University of Kansas
Department of Family Medicine provides the best of both worlds. “The key is
oversight, and our data collection system allows me to track which inmate did
not receive a physical exam, and if not, why not,” Riggin
told Pew and MacArthur. KDOC did not make Riggin
available for an interview for this story. A KU Medical Center spokeswoman
said the center’s role is to review Corizon’s
staffing levels and staff credentials, check inmate health care grievances
that reach the corrections secretary level and look into all inmate deaths.
Missouri used to have an oversight contract with Jo Riggs, a nursing
professor at the University of Central Missouri. Riggs said her work was
initially funded through a state grant but about three years ago the state
dropped the grant and renegotiated its contract so Corizon
would pay her instead. “I have found that they met or exceeded the performance
expectations on most of the indicators I was measuring,” Riggs said. Riggs
said she’s taking time off from the project in 2018. Harbin said Corizon is looking for a replacement and in the meantime
is still vetted by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, an
accreditation group. Jennings, the chairman of the Kansas House’s corrections
committee, said there’s another step his state could consider to add more
oversight of Corizon. The former head of the
state’s juvenile justice administration, Jennings served on a “corrections
ombudsman’s board” in the 1980s that had the authority to investigate inmate
and prison staff complaints. He said the board was disbanded long ago, but
the legislature could consider bringing it back. “It might be something to
revisit and have a conversation about,” Jennings said.
Feb 8, 2018 cjonline.com
Kansas Senate GOP, Democrats embrace bill limiting privatization at state
prisons
A rare exhibition of Senate bipartisanship Wednesday led to a committee’s
prompt approval of a bill to prohibit outsourcing of personnel management
operations at state prison facilities. Motivation for the change reflected
apprehension about approval of a $362 million contract with CoreCivic, a Tennessee company that builds and operates
private prisons, to construct and maintain for 20 years a new Lansing
Correctional Facility. Under the contract, the Kansas Department of
Corrections would retain supervision of corrections officers, wardens and
other personnel. Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning and Senate Minority
Leader Anthony Hensley co-sponsored Senate Bill 328 to prohibit the private
company from subsequently being granted power to take over personnel
operations at Kansas adult and juvenile facilities. The limitation wouldn’t
apply to contracting for food, medical or consulting services. “The
legislative intent is not to prohibit normal operating services to be
contracted out to the private sector,” said Denning, a Republican from
Overland Park. “Rather, it narrowly prohibits Lansing prison security,
including the supervision of inmates by corrections officers and the warden,
from being privatized.” Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, said the legislation
endorsed by the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee was based on
concern about the record of private prison companies being hit with lawsuits
and complaints. Issues included chronic under-staffing, hiring of unqualified
officers, high turnover and inadequate medical and education programs, he
said. “While we have contracted out the construction of that facility,”
Hensley said, “we need to ensure that the department remains in the business
of managing and operating our own prisons. We should not turn over the
day-to-day operations to a private entity.” No one testified against the Senate
bill, which was approved on a voice vote without the standard 24-hour delay
after a hearing. In January, then-Gov. Sam Brownback and a coalition of top
House and Senate Republicans, including Denning, approved a 20-year, $362
million contract for construction of the new prison at Lansing. Hensley and
another Democrat on the State Finance Council voted against the lease-to-own
contract developed by KDOC and CoreCivic. Lobbyists
with close personal relationships with Brownback were hired by CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of
America, to secure the State Finance Council’s approval. The prison at
Lansing would have 1,900 maximum- and minimum-security beds and 500
minimum-security beds. Introduction of a modern prison is expected to reduce the
number of corrections officers at Lansing from 680 to fewer than 400. Robert Choromanski, executive director of the Kansas
Organization of State Employees, said the union supported the Senate bill
because it would clearly prohibit outsourcing or privatization of management
operations at state corrections facilities. He said KOSE had many officers,
counselors, maintenance specialists and administrative assistants who “do a
fine job of making the state prison facilities run in a professional manner
under trying circumstances working long hours for little pay.” Cook told MTN
News Thursday that he believes the entire $30 million, or more, could
ultimately be used to offset human-service budget cuts that the
administration is preparing to make, to balance the budget. Bullock, however,
said Tuesday he doesn’t see how a new contract would yield any more than $15
million to $17 million, under the law passed by Republicans – and that it’s
just bad business to be pressured into extending a contract that may not be needed.
“I want to make sure when we go forward, as we look at Shelby, that it is a
good deal for Montanans,” he told MTN News. Bullock said his administration
is taking steps to appraise the value of the prison and assess how it fits
into the state prison system, in the coming years. “Without any sort of an
assessment of our needs going forward, without an appraisal to say what this
(prison) is worth – I think it’s premature to say, `Here’s what we should do
with it.’” CoreCivic didn’t respond to a request
for comment, or questions about whether it’s been negotiating with the
governor. Cook said he sees no scenario where the Shelby prison won’t be
needed for years into the future – and that if the governor doesn’t act, the
money will stay with CoreCivic.
Jan 5, 2018 ljworld.com
State Finance Council delays decision on Lansing prison project; questions
over private contractor persist
TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback and top legislative leaders agreed Thursday
to delay for two weeks a decision on whether to approve a 20-year, $300
million contract to build a new prison facility at Lansing. In a meeting of
the State Finance Council, which is made up of the governor
and top leaders from both chambers, Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning,
R-Overland Park, made a motion to table the decision until Jan. 18, citing
concerns that key details of the proposed contract still have not been
finalized. “I don’t want to have to ask forgiveness for this,” Denning
said, noting other major contracts that the Legislature has had to fix,
including the once-proposed demolition of the Docking State Office Building.
“If I make a bad decision, then I want to own it. But I don’t want to make a
decision today until both sides have agreed to the lease buy-back agreement,
and I’ve had a chance to look at it.” Denning was referring to a provision in
the contract detailing the terms under which the private prison company
selected for the project, CoreCivic, would transfer
ownership of the facility back to the state of Kansas at the end of the lease.
The Department of Corrections is proposing to contract with a private prison
company, CoreCivic, to build the prison and lease
it back to the state after 20 years. The state would still be responsible for
staffing and operating the prison, but CoreCivic
would be responsible for all maintenance and repairs during the term of the
lease. The plan calls for demolishing the medium security unit at the prison,
which was built in the 1980s, and building a new facility that would house
both medium and maximum security prisoners, who are now housed in the
original prison building that dates back to the Civil War era. Other members
of the committee expressed concerns about the Department of Corrections’
plans to reduce staffing, including mental health counselors, once the new,
more modern facility is built. Department of Corrections Secretary Joe
Norwood said the project would save the state about $23 million over the term
of the lease, most of which would come from personnel costs. He said it
currently takes 682 full-time equivalent employees to staff the prison. He
said that could be cut to 371 with a new facility. That’s because the
original 1860s-era building, which houses the maximum security unit, was
designed inefficiently by modern standards and thus requires more
correctional officers because they don’t have clear lines of sight to monitor
an entire cell block, Corrections officials have said. Norwood said with a
new, combined facility, his agency could consolidate things like food service
and medical care into a single unit instead of having separate units at each
of the two main buildings. But Sen. Carolyn McGinn,
R-Wichita, who chairs the Senate budget committee, said she was concerned
about cutbacks in other areas, including mental health staff, which would be
reduced from 53 to 35 positions. Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Jim Ward,
D-Wichita, said he was concerned that CoreCivic has
been the target of numerous lawsuits in the past, some having to do with
inadequate staffing at the private prisons the company runs, as well as a
Department of Justice probe into the company’s staffing system. Norwood said
that under the proposed contract, staffing would still be in the hands of the
agency, and the Legislature, which approves the agency’s budget. He added that
the staffing plan is based on National Institute of Corrections standards and
that it had been reviewed by independent corrections experts from Indiana.
“But it’s a similar model, that is that we’re going to be using technology
rather than people, and there were concerns expressed by the Department of
Justice about that model,” Ward said. In the budget bill that lawmakers
passed last year, a provision was inserted giving the Department of
Corrections authority to enter into a lease-purchase contract for a new
facility at Lansing, as long as it was reviewed by the Joint Committee on
State Building Construction and approved by the State Finance Council. But
the plan has been controversial since its inception. A Legislative Post Audit
review last year concluded that the facility could be built at a lower cost
by issuing bonds instead of a lease-purchase agreement. The Department of
Corrections, however, rejected that idea, saying CoreCivic
was able to secure private financing at interest rates competitive with the
going rate for state bonds. In an earlier meeting of the joint building
committee, some members suggested the agency should consider other
communities for the prison, and open up the site selection process to
competitive proposals from different communities, a process the agency has
used in the past when building new prisons. Also at that meeting in November,
the committee voted to recommend that the agency start over by soliciting new
proposals with a wider array of financing options. Norwood, however, said the
agency chose not to follow that recommendation because the joint committee is
only set up as an advisory panel. Brownback said at the end of the meeting
that the Finance Council will meet once more in about a week to receive
answers to questions that lawmakers still have. Then it will meet again Jan.
18 for an up or down vote on the project.
Aug 1, 2017 cjonline.com
State audit contradicts Dept. of Corrections on cost of Lansing
lease-purchase plan
A legislative audit released Monday claims that the Kansas Department of
Corrections missed “key variables” and relied on “inconsistent assumptions”
that tended to favor a more expensive method of replacing the state’s largest
and oldest prison. According to the audit, the Department of Corrections underestimated
the cost of rebuilding Lansing Correctional Facility through a lease-purchase
agreement, a contract that allows a private company to build the prison and
then lease it back to the state until the state purchases it. That option
would likely be scrapped because of the results of the audit, said J.R. Claeys, a Salina Republican and chair of the
transportation and public safety budget committee. The audit says a
preliminary estimate from KDOC placed the project cost at $140 million over
20 years. The total cost predicted by KDOC was $155 million, but the audit
report contends that it would cost $206 million. Auditors found that the best
option would be for the state to issue bonds to build the prison and contract
with a company for its maintenance. “These results differ from KDOC’s
preliminary estimates, which were missing key variables and used inconsistent
assumptions that tended to favor a lease-purchase option,” the audit says.
KDOC is now in the process of receiving bids to build the prison in response
to a request for proposals that it issued in April, according to the audit.
Bids are due Friday. KDOC Secretary Joe Norwood said in a letter in response
to the audit that the department would accept auditors’ help picking a bidder
to contract with. The audit says the department failed to include in its cost
estimates the final price it would pay to buy back the prison at the end of
the lease, did not adjust prices over time, presented
different construction costs based on the ownership arrangement and left out
what auditors found to be the least expensive option. It said the least
expensive option — building the prison with bond money and contracting its
maintenance — would cost $178 million over 20 years. KDOC did not dispute any
of the findings of the audit, according to a summary of the report. Rep. John
Barker, an Abilene Republican and chair of the Legislative Post Audit
committee, said he thought the Department of Corrections was receptive to the
findings and that auditors found costs KDOC overlooked. Rep. Dan Hawkins,
R-Wichita, said he thought the department or administration had been leaning
toward a lease-purchase option. In an email, KDOC spokesman Todd Fertig said the agency was “open to whichever funding
option is best for the state.” He said the real cost of the project would not
be known until the state gets bids from builders. According to the
audit, KDOC has claimed the project would not have a significant impact on
the state’s budget. The audit says the state could find savings by combining
maximum and medium security prisoners into one building and reducing staff.
Savings could also be realized with a more energy-efficient building than the
ones now at Lansing, including one built in the 1860s. Senate Minority Leader
Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, said he was concerned reduced staffing
would lead to more disciplinary problems, like recent outbreaks at El Dorado
Correctional Facility. “That concerns me because we’ve seen what’s happened
in El Dorado, where they’re understaffed, they’ve had to work double shifts
and we’ve had some real security problems down there among the inmates,”
Hensley said. Claeys, however, said Lansing already
requires a higher level of staffing because of its age. A modern building, he
said, would require staffing similar to that at El Dorado, which is currently
understaffed. Rebuilding Lansing, Claeys said,
would help prevent uprisings at overcrowded prisons like El Dorado
Correctional Facility, which has seen several incidents in recent weeks. He
said the prison’s population has been rising without any new space given to
inmates, and it faces severe staffing shortages. “I think having Lansing
rebuilt certainly alleviates some of the pressure on El Dorado,” Claeys said. Claeys said he had
a proposal for the coming legislative session to raise wages for correctional
officers to help fill staffing shortages. “We’re going to do something, and
it should be a priority,” Barker said. Claeys said
the Legislature would go with a plan “that’s the least expensive for taxpayers
and gets us the result of a modern, efficient prison facility at Lansing.” He
said a provision included in the budget lawmakers passed in June would ensure
that a plan for the prison gets approval from the Legislature.
Leavenworth Prison
Leavenworth, Kansas
CCA
Sep 13, 2018 huffingtonpost.com
Muslim Inmate Claims Kansas Prison Officers Harassed Her Over Headscarf
A Muslim inmate said she has been tormented for months by guards at a
Kansas prison over her decision to wear a religious headscarf, a Muslim civil
rights group stated Wednesday. Valeriece Ealom, a 49-year-old Muslim woman, said correctional
officers at the Leavenworth Detention Center (LDC) called her headscarf a
“rag” and ordered her to remove it if she wanted to leave her cell. When she
filed complaints with prison management about her treatment, officials failed
to take any significant corrective action, according to the national legal
advocacy group Muslim Advocates. “The actions that have taken place in the
Leavenworth Detention Center are in clear violation of federal law,” Nimra Azmi, a staff attorney
for Muslim Advocates, said in a statement. The LDC is a U.S. Marshals Service
facility that is run by CoreCivic, one of America’s
largest private prison operators. Muslim Advocates has sent a letter about Ealom’s alleged mistreatment to the Department of
Justice, the U.S. Marshals Service and CoreCivic
officials. The LDC, a maximum security facility, has come under increased
scrutiny after a Justice Department audit last year found evidence of
understaffing, security problems and deceptive practices there. The LDC has
also been accused of recording phone calls between prisoners and their
lawyers. Ealom has been at the LDC since November
2017, when prosecutors revoked her parole in a drug case, The Kansas City
Star reported. She informed the facility of her desire to wear a headscarf,
and an LDC chaplain provided her with two headscarves to wear. After she
started covering her hair, she claimed, three corrections officers started to
harass her ― insisting that she remove the “rag” or face discipline.
According to Muslim Advocates, the harassment escalated after Ealom notified prison management about the officers’
actions. One day in
January, two officers reportedly refused to let her leave her cell to receive
her daily medications while wearing her headscarf. One officer threatened to
put her in solitary confinement and said that “any grievance she filed would
be shredded,” the Muslim Advocates letter stated. In subsequent
incidents, the group claimed, a third officer confiscated Ealom’s
headscarf on the pretext that it was “contraband” and “belligerently”
interrupted her during prayers. She also claimed that at one point she was
locked in her cell and told that “because [she is] Muslim, [she] had to stay
in her cell and pray.” Muslim Advocates said Ealom
repeatedly informed LDC management about the officers’ actions. In February
she tried to file a federal civil lawsuit about the matter, without a lawyer.
The judge, finding that she didn’t provide enough information, dismissed her
suit in June, The Kansas City Star reported. The LDC’s
management has refused to properly address the situation, Muslim Advocates
claimed. The group alleged that CoreCivic’s
employees have violated federal law by infringing on Ealom’s
right to practice her faith. The group also faulted the U.S. Marshals Service
for failing to ensure that CoreCivic is meeting
federal detention standards. “Despite being aware of the officers’ bigoted and
discriminatory conduct, LDC’s management has not taken any meaningful steps
to address the situation,” Muslim Advocates wrote in its letter. “In fact, by
refusing to take any corrective action, LDC’s management has only blessed
further wrongdoing.”
CoreCivic responded to the letter by stating,
“We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind, and cultural and ethnic
sensitivity education is part of every employee’s training.” “CoreCivic cares deeply about every person in our care,
and we work hard to ensure those in our facility are treated respectfully and
humanely,” Amanda Gilchrist, the company’s public affairs director, told HuffPost in an email. She declined
to comment about any of the specific assertions Ealom
made about the officers’ conduct or to say whether the employees involved
were disciplined in any way. Gilchrist said the facility has a “robust grievance
process” for inmates to raise concerns. “Ms. Ealom has availed
herself of those mechanisms on several occasions, and the facility has
responded and continues to respond appropriately,” Gilchrist wrote. “Both the
facility Chaplain and Warden have provided assistance to Ms. Ealom with regard to her religious head gear, and will
continue to address any concerns she raises promptly.” A
representative for the U.S. Marshals Service did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. A spokesman for the
agency told The Associated Press that it is looking into the allegations. Muslim
Advocates is insisting that the LDC take steps to train, supervise and
discipline the corrections officers involved in Ealom’s
alleged mistreatment.
“We ask that CoreCivic and USMS take immediate
measures to address the pattern of religious discrimination at LDC and ensure
that Ms. Ealom and other Muslim women housed in CoreCivic and U.S. Marshal facilities around the country
can practice their faith without fear of harassment or retaliation,” the
group stated.
Jul 27, 2018
kansascity.com
Lawsuit: Former Leavenworth prison guard filed complaints, threatened
with dead rat
A former corrections officer at a privately run prison in Leavenworth has
filed suit saying that he was the victim of threats and intimidation after
being labeled a snitch and a rat by his co-workers. The suit, filed Wednesday
in federal court, alleges that Michael G. Baldwin was also retaliated
against by officials at the CoreCivic facility
after reporting wage and compensation concerns to the Department of Labor.
Baldwin went on leave and was ultimately discharged from his job. CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of
America, contracts with the U.S. Marshals Service to house pretrial federal
detainees. Baldwin started working as a corrections officer in 2009. In 2013,
he filed an internal grievance about wage and benefits issues. As a result,
the suit contends he was moved to a less desirable position. In 2014, he took
those wage concerns to the Department of Labor. He was subsequently denied
promotion. In 2015, the Department of Labor fined CoreCivic
“several hundred thousand dollars” after investigating Baldwin’s complaint.
The same day the ruling came down, the warden “berated” Baldwin in front of
other employees and told them the facility might close if there were more
complaints, the suit alleges. His co-workers began calling Baldwin a rat, and
new employees were told not to trust him, according to the suit. In 2016, he
reported that another employee was stealing equipment. And when other
employees learned what he had done, the threats increased. Baldwin was
allegedly warned not to go to a company holiday party because “snitches end
up in ditches.” At one point, a dead rat was left on the roof of his vehicle,
and he learned that his co-workers had offered $100 to any prisoner who “shanked” Baldwin, the suit maintains. Baldwin feared for
his life and went on leave for anxiety, according to the lawsuit. A few
months later, in March 2017, he was “constructively discharged” from his job.
The suit seeks an unspecified amount in damages. CoreCivic
is also facing several other cases. The company is the focus of ongoing legal
action over the taping of phone calls between prisoners and their lawyers and
allegations that they were shared with prosecutors. That case arose out of
another case involving contraband being smuggled into the facility that
resulted in criminal charges being filed against several people. Baldwin’s
suit is the second filed this week against CoreCivic
by a former employee. Leslie West, a unit manager, alleges in her federal
lawsuit that her complaints about understaffing that risked the safety of
employees and inmates led to her being fired. She was also forced to take a
polygraph test during the contraband smuggling investigation, which, the suit
contends, was a violation of federal labor law. Officials with CoreCivic said Thursday they do not comment on pending
litigation.
Jun 11, 2018 kansascity.com
Why were private attorney-client calls recorded? Now, Kansas inmates could
go free
One of the nation’s largest private prison operators has some serious
explaining to do. What was it doing recording private conversation between
attorneys and their incarcerated clients at the Leavenworth Detention Center?
After all, attorney-client privilege is supposed to be one of the bedrock
principles of America’s legal system. Clients should be able to talk to their
lawyers — confidentially — about their cases. That way, the attorney can
provide the best possible legal representation. And here’s a question for the
U.S. attorney’s office of Kansas: Why did some of its attorneys listen to
those supposedly private conversations? Certainly the lawyers knew that such
conversations were off-limits and that they had no business eavesdropping on
them. But how often did it happen? Those questions are among many that need
answering following what amounts to a shocking breach of constitutional
norms. Between 2011 and 2013, the detention center’s operator, CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of
America, recorded at least 1,338 phone calls — and possibly thousands more —
that detainees placed to their public defender attorneys, according to KCUR.
And we know now that prosecutors listened to some of those recordings. What’s
at stake? A whole lot. Lawsuits have been filed. The possibility now exists
that dozens of criminal cases impacted by the breach of confidentiality could
be tossed out. Inmates at some of CoreCivic’s 129
other facilities around the country may wonder if prison officials have taped
their conversations. After all, Barry Pollack, president of the National
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, has told The Star that the recording
of attorney-client conversations is a widespread problem at private prisons,
which are not bound by Federal Bureau of Prisons prohibitions against it.
Then there’s the lingering damage that this case leaves behind. How can
defense attorneys gain the trust of their often destitute clients at a
facility like the one in Leavenworth when those clients suspect that their
conversations are being recorded? If all this raises questions about the
efficacy of private prisons, it should. But that’s an issue for another day.
This entire episode stems from a contraband investigation at the Leavenworth
facility. What’s especially disconcerting is that even after numerous news
stories about this issue and the appointment of a special master in October
2016 to look into this matter, a resolution has proven elusive. At one point,
the U.S. attorney’s office sent a letter to special master David Cohen
refusing any further cooperation with his investigation. Then last month, an
assistant U.S. attorney declined when asked 85 times to say whether federal
prosecutors improperly listened in on attorney-client phone calls. In May,
the new U.S. attorney for Kansas, Stephen McAllister, indicated his office is
prepared to work out an agreement with the public defender’s office. That’s
good news. Ironically, his announcement came midway through a hearing in which
the the public defender’s office asked the judge to
find McAllister’s office in contempt after it ceased cooperating with the
special master. CoreCivic declined comment. So did
McAllister’s office. But this situation desperately needs resolution, and tensions
between the federal public defender’s office and the U.S. attorney must be
tempered. CoreCivic, which court records show has
cooperated with this investigation, needs to ensure everyone that its
operations safeguard those critical conversations between attorneys and their
clients. The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution demands no less.
Jun 28, 2017 kansascity.com
Federal prosecutor leaves after revealing she listened to Leavenworth
prison phone calls
A federal prosecutor at the center of an investigation at Leavenworth
Detention Center has left the U.S. attorney’s office, days after she revealed
that she had listened to attorney-client phone calls at the prison, contrary
to her previous statements in court. Erin Tomasic
had been a special assistant prosecutor in Kansas City, Kan., and came under
increasing scrutiny in recent months as a federal judge ordered an
investigation into whether law enforcement officials used prison recordings
of inmates talking with their attorneys — conversations that are protected by
law. Federal prosecutors notified a judge on May 16 that Tomasic
no longer works for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas.
That came six days after Tomasic told her
supervisor she had listened to the recorded phone conversations of two
Leavenworth Detention Center inmates and their attorneys, according to court
documents filed June 19 by the U.S. attorney’s office. Those court filings,
signed by U.S. Attorney Tom Beall and two assistant
U.S. attorneys, say they are meant to correct statements by Tomasic that “may be deemed misleading.” The prosecutors
describe in the documents how Tomasic told a
federal judge in September — and for months allowed fellow prosecutors to
believe — that law enforcement had not listened to recorded inmate-attorney
phone calls obtained by prosecutors investigating contraband at the prison.
In fact, as Tomasic later revealed, she had
listened to some of the recordings two months earlier. “Tomasic
expressed remorse for having listened to the defendant’s calls,” the federal
prosecutors wrote. “And for not revealing this action sooner.” Days after Tomasic left her job, U.S.
District Judge Julie Robinson ordered a wider investigation into the U.S.
attorney’s office in Kansas City, Kan., citing an ongoing problem with
prosecutors’ “inconsistent, inaccurate or misleading statements.” Robinson
found that government officials had destroyed “critical evidence” at an
earlier stage of the investigation. Last year, Robinson had complained that Tomasic entered the judge’s chambers after hours, without
authority, after having delivered evidence in the investigation to Robinson’s
office earlier in the day. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office
confirmed that Tomasic no longer worked for the
office but declined to answer questions. Tomasic
could not be reached for comment. The prison recordings probe stemmed from an
earlier criminal investigation of contraband in the privately-run prison,
which is operated under contract for the U.S. Marshals Service by CoreCivic Inc. — formerly known as Corrections Corp. of
America. Many of the people held at the prison are defendants awaiting trial
and have not yet been convicted. Prosecutors pursuing the contraband case
collected hundreds of recordings of inmates speaking with their attorneys,
both on video and on the phone. Defense attorneys protested that those
conversations are protected by the Sixth Amendment and attorney-client
privilege, and that the prison had offered repeated assurances that they
would be private. Two Kansas City-area attorneys, Adam Crane and David
Johnson, have sued CoreCivic and the prison’s
telephone provider, Securus Technologies, accusing
the firms of violating state wiretap laws by recording their conversations
with clients. Barry Pollack, president of the National Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the recording of attorney-client conversations
is a widespread problem at private prisons, which are not bound by Federal
Bureau of Prisons prohibitions against it. Examples of a federal prosecutor
actually listening to or using the recordings, he said, are more rare. “That is, to me, far more troubling,” Pollack
said. “It goes to the very reason those conversations are protected.” A
court-appointed special master investigating the recordings reported that 188
attorney-client phone calls had been obtained from the prison by law
enforcement, including 54 marked “private” that should not have been
available. For months, Tomasic and other
prosecutors maintained that they took measures to avoid listening to those
calls. But in the court documents filed last week, federal prosecutors say Tomasic in July listened to multiple recordings of phone
calls between Juan Herrera-Zamora, a man held at Leavenworth while facing
drug charges, and his attorney. Two months later, she listened to a recording
of another inmate, Ashley Huff, speaking with her attorney. When
Herrera-Zamora’s attorney asked prosecutors if they had listened to his
calls, the prosecutors said they had not. Beall and
the other prosecutors wrote that they believed it was true, and Tomasic did not correct them. Herrera-Zamora’s attorneys
filed motions challenging his conviction, alleging that prosecutors had used
the recordings against him. For Tomasic to listen
to the calls would run contrary to the U.S. attorney’s office’s stated
practice of having officials unrelated to the case screen the calls to “avoid
any appearance of impropriety.” When a judge in September asked Tomasic if inmates had been notified of the recordings,
she did not mention listening to the calls of Herrera-Zamora or Huff. Tomasic said attorney-client calls had only been accessed
in a few accidental instances, and that agents had stopped listening within
10 or 15 seconds. Then, on May 10, Tomasic informed
a supervisor that she had listened to the two inmates’ calls. In a May 16
court hearing, the supervisor replaced Tomasic in
court and told the judge that Tomasic no longer
worked for the U.S. attorney’s office. Federal Public Defender Melody Brannon
has pushed for the court to investigate further Tomasic’s
after-hours entry into the judge’s chambers. In a motion seeking more
investigation, Brannon wrote that a May 23 letter Tomasic
sent to the court “raises serious factual disputes” with earlier accounts of
the incident and carries implications for “the veracity of key players in
this litigation.” That request is still pending with the court, and the
investigation by the special master continues.
Apr 26, 2017 washingtonexaminer.com
DOJ inspector general: Privately run federal prison poses safety risks for
inmates, prisoners
A new report by the Department of Justice's Inspector General says a
privately-run federal prison in Kansas put the safety of its inmates in
jeopardy because of understaffing, overcrowding and poor training. The facility in question — The Leavenworth
Detention Center — is a 1,200 bed maximum-security facility is run by CoreCivic, under a contract reached with the U.S.
Marshals Service. "[I]n our judgment, the [U.S. Marshal Service's] lack
of effective continuous monitoring at the [Leavenworth prison] presents risks
that may extend throughout all its other contract detention facilities,"
the audit said. The audit made 24 recommendations for the facility after the
review, which took place between 2010 and 2015. One of the biggest issues was
the lack of correctional officer vacancies. At times, 23 percent of guard
positions remained vacant. "These correctional officer vacancies led to
several problems in 2015, including the LDC's long-term use of mandatory overtime,
which LDC personnel said led to lower morale, security concerns, and fewer
correctional officers available to escort medical staff and detainees to and
from the health services unit," the audit said. Another discovery was
the U.S. Marshal's decision to not punish CoreCivic
for failing to uphold terms of the deal on run the facility. In 2007, the
U.S. Marshals agreed to a 5-year contract with CoreCivic
that included three 5-year option periods at a cost of $697 million.
According to the audit, the federal government failed to explain why it
entered into a sole-source contract with CoreCivic,
and how it reached those numbers. CoreCivic
responded to the recommendations by saying it agreed with all of them. But it
also said it has made safety a priority. "CoreCivic
provides a diverse range of government solutions and has worked in close
partnership with the [Marhsals at Leavenworth] for
over 26 years, supporting the [Marshals'] needs to securely and safely house
individuals criminally charged with violating federal laws," reads a
portion of the CoreCivic response. "In doing
so, the safety and security of our facility, staff and those entrusted to our
care has consistently been our top priority." In February, CoreCivic announced its 2016 revenue was $1.85 billion, a
growth of $6 million from 2015. CoreCivic, which is
the fifth largest corrections company in the nation and one of the major
private prison companies, has been boosted by the election of President
Trump. Former President Barack Obama announced his Justice Department would
phase out its contracts with private prisons, a move that was reversed in
February by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Feb 15, 2017 cjonline.com
Federal prison in Kansas recorded hundreds of attorney-inmate meetings,
court investigator finds
A privately run federal prison in Kansas recorded video of hundreds of
meetings between inmates and their attorneys, a court-led investigation has
found after defense lawyers first raised concerns months ago about possible
violations of client privilege. The detention center in Leavenworth, operated
by Corrections Corporation of America, possessed video recordings of all
attorney-inmate meetings reviewed by the court investigator, who examined 30
randomly chosen visits that took place in spring 2016 and concluded hundreds
were recorded. The extent of the recordings hasn’t been previously disclosed.
Leavenworth CCA and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas have been at the
heart of a monthslong drama in the region’s legal
community over recordings of attorney-inmate meetings at the prison, as well
as recordings of attorney-inmate phone calls. The ability of lawyers to meet
with clients privately is a bedrock principle of the American legal system,
and this fall, a federal judge named a special master to investigate. Defense
attorneys first raised concerns last summer over video recording of meetings
with their clients. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting a handful of
inmates, accusing them of engaging in an elaborate smuggling ring within the
prison. The inmates’ attorneys put forward evidence that meetings had been
recorded and have since provided evidence that inmate phone calls with
attorneys also were recorded, even when attorneys had requested their numbers
be blocked from recordings. The special master, David Cohen, told Judge Julie
Robinson last month that while reviewing all of the video from all rooms
where attorney meetings took place would prove prohibitive, he reviewed a
smaller sample of meetings to determine that every meeting that took place in
a room with a camera was recorded. The attorney visitor logs for the 12-week
period last year where recordings occurred showed more than 700 attorney
visits to rooms equipped with cameras, Cohen wrote in a filing. “It appears
all of these attorney-inmate meetings were recorded,” Cohen said. “Of course,
this analysis does not address whether any person ever viewed these
recordings.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office obtained the video and, while
acknowledging missteps, has denied suggestions of impropriety. The U.S.
Attorney’s Office has said “no employee of the United States Attorney’s
Office or law enforcement officer” has viewed any recording provided by CCA.
“I made a very serious mistake … but I want the court to know I did not
intend to gain that footage,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Tomasic said in September. Parallel to the video
recordings, Cohen also has been investigating the extent of attorney-inmate
phone recordings at the Leavenworth facility. In December, Cohen reported he
had analyzed 48,333 telephone audio files from the facility and that a little
more than 200 of those calls were made to a known attorney number. In a
follow-up report, Cohen said the more than 48,000 recorded phone calls came
from about 1,400 numbers involving 58 inmates. CCA uses the prison technology
company Securus to operate its phone system. Securus has said Leavenworth CCA was responsible for
designating attorney numbers as private, nonrecorded
numbers. The company acknowledged allegations have been made in other places
in the past regarding recording but said it rechecks its system each time and
has always found it works properly. Melody Brannon, the federal public
defender for Kansas, said Cohen’s findings exposed unanswered questions. She
urges Robinson to expand the special master’s authority. “Specifically, the
defense asks the special master to determine the policy and practice of the
Kansas (U.S. Attorney’s Office) in obtaining, reviewing and disseminating
attorney-client communications, regardless of whether the USAO classified the
communication as privileged or not,” Brannon said in a January court filing.
She added the special master should also identify cases where the material
was used and “mark the possible constitutional, statutory and ethical implications.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is fighting the public defender’s request for
additional power for the special master. Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra
Barnett argues Brannon hasn’t offered any evidence warranting an expanded
investigation. Barnett has said prosecutors didn’t anticipate receiving
recorded attorney-client calls from the facility during their investigations.
Prosecutors had “no intent or desire” to obtain attorney-client calls, she
has said, adding they weren’t used by prosecutors. “When discoveries of these
calls occurred, appropriate steps were taken by the United States,” Barnett
said in a January filing. “Despite everything that has occurred in this case,
the United States has not sought to hide the discovery of these calls, and
would not do so.” Prosecutors also argue the phone recordings aren’t
privileged because the facility warned inmates their calls may be recorded.
By continuing their calls and not taking steps to have calls with attorneys
exempt from surveillance, the inmates waived their right to keep the
conversations from being monitored, they argue. Depending on how far Robinson
allows Cohen to go, the outcome of his investigation holds potentially
significant consequences in ongoing cases. Only a handful of people have been
charged in the Leavenworth smuggling investigation, but prosecutors indicate
they believe upwards of 90 inmates may be involved, as well as a number of
workers. The current controversy is also drawing attention to Securus, which has faced scrutiny in other places over
attorney-client recordings. A Kansas and Missouri attorney filed a federal
lawsuit against CCA and Securus in January. They
argue Securus and CCA record confidential
attorney-client communications, despite no legitimate reason to record.
Attorneys have sued Securus before. The company
settled a 2014 lawsuit in Texas, agreeing to provide additional safeguards.
The settlement required implementation of a system to allow attorneys to
register their phone numbers on a “do not record” list for calls with
clients.
Jan 6, 2017 kmuw.org
Controversy Over Attorney-Client Recordings At Leavenworth Continues
The Kansas Federal Public Defender says federal prosecutors have failed to
turn over all attorney-client phone calls that were recorded at the pretrial
detention center in Leavenworth to a special master looking into their
legality. In a court filing Wednesday, the public defender identified
recorded calls to at least two attorneys that were not disclosed by
prosecutors. “The Special Master should be given authority to determine why
these telephone calls were not included in the material provided by the
government, and whether there are still recorded calls in the USAO (U.S.
Attorney’s office) possession or knowledge that should have been disclosed,”
the filing states. In October, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson appointed
David Cohen, a Cleveland attorney, as special master to investigate whether,
and to what extent, the pretrial detention facility had turned over
privileged video and audio recordings of attorney-client meetings to the U.S.
Attorney’s office in Kansas. The issue arose as part of a wide-ranging
criminal case in which inmates and corrections officers at the facility have
been charged with distributing drugs and other contraband within its walls.
Initially, six defendants, including two inmates, were charged. In its filing
Wednesday, the public defender says the government has since identified 95
additional detainees who may be subject to indictment. The underlying
criminal case, however, has largely been overshadowed by the revelations last
summer that the private operator of the facility, Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA), had been recording attorney-client phone calls and meetings
and, in some cases, turning the recordings over to prosecutors in the U.S.
Attorney’s office in Kansas City, Kansas. In a report last month, Cohen
identified 229 recorded calls made to known attorney phone numbers. The
public defender now says that some recorded calls were not identified by
Cohen because prosecutors had failed to turn them over to him. A spokesman
for the U.S. Attorney’s office did not return a call seeking comment. Lawyers
with the Federal Public Defender could not be reached for comment. Cohen,
reached at his Cleveland office, said he did not know why the government
might not have produced some recordings. “I don’t think one of those reasons
is that it’s in the court’s vault and I didn’t come across it. I don’t think
it’s because I didn’t see something that’s there,” he said. “What that reason
is could be any number of things. I just don’t know.” The public defender and
U.S. Attorney’s office have been at odds since the initial revelations of the
tapings. That mutual antagonism has spilled over into a dispute over the
scope of Cohen’s investigation. The public defender wants him to examine
whether CCA routinely recorded attorney-client meetings and turned them over
to the government. The U.S. Attorney wants Cohen’s investigation limited to
editing out and retaining privileged attorney-client matters. The public
defender’s suspicions have been heightened by what it says are other
discrepancies in the government’s production of information to Cohen. For
example, it says, the government told the court in August that it was unaware
CCA had recorded, and not simply monitored, attorney-client meetings. Yet two
weeks later, it says, the government told the court that it had obtained 18
terabytes of surveillance footage from CCA, including recordings of
attorney-client meeting rooms.
Sep 8, 2016 kansascity.com
Recorded prison videos are ‘horrendous situation,’ judge says
federal judge in Kansas City, Kan., said Wednesday she will give wide
latitude to an investigation into recordings of phone calls and video of
meetings between attorneys and inmates at Leavenworth Detention Center.
Defense attorneys representing inmates at the privately-run federal prison
objected when they learned last month that their meetings with clients had
been recorded. Such conversations are privileged by law, and the prison had
offered repeated assurances that they would be private. On Wednesday, U.S.
District Judge Julie Robinson questioned federal prosecutors about recordings
they had obtained from the prison during a contraband investigation. Robinson
said a special investigation into the case would seek any violations of
prisoners’ Sixth Amendment rights and could end in sanctions against the
Kansas U.S. attorney’s office or dismissal of the contraband case. The judge
scolded prosecutors for rushing forward with the case, which she called a
“horrendous situation.” “You all need to get your act together,” Robinson
said. Prosecutors said they obtained the recordings inadvertently while
gathering evidence of a contraband ring at the prison that could involve as many
as 95 inmates and 60 others. Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Tomasic
said she was overwhelmed with the amount of material and made mistakes. A
grand jury subpoena for all surveillance video at the prison produced some
footage of meetings between attorneys and clients. Dozens of phone calls
between attorneys and their clients were mistakenly provided to other lawyers
in the case. “It was messy,” Tomasic said. “I know
I’ve learned a lot from this and I think everyone in our office has.” A
spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said prosecutors did not believe any
criminal defendants would be harmed by the recordings. But the judge said it
appeared some inmates’ rights had been violated. The federal Bureau of
Prisons forbids recording in attorney-client meeting rooms. But the company
that runs the Leavenworth prison, Corrections Corporation of America, insists
that silent video recordings of inmate-attorney meetings “are a standard
practice” throughout the country and are used for prison security. Last month,
Robinson ordered the recordings stopped. Inmate phone calls are recorded in
the prison, which offers attorneys a system to request that recording be
disabled for them. But one defense attorney wrote to the court Tuesday that
calls between himself and a client in Leavenworth
had been recorded despite multiple requests that the recording be stopped and
assurances from prison officials that it had been. The case is symptomatic of
a failure to respect attorney-client privilege in prisons and jails across
the country, said Barry Pollack, president of the National Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers. Several Kansas and Missouri jails have acknowledged
recording attorney-client meetings. Like privately-run facilities, they are
not bound by Bureau of Prisons rules. “What I think is particularly troubling
about it,” Pollack said of the Leavenworth case, “is you have a failure on
the part of the institution that is recording something that it shouldn’t be.
Here, they turned it over to the prosecutors.” “Anyone facing prison time
needs legal counsel,” he continued. “And essentially, they aren’t getting
it.” After setting the course of the
investigation, Robinson said she had recently been “troubled” to learn that
her staff had discovered the prosecutor Tomasic in
her chambers after hours, soon after a large package of evidence had been
stored in the judge’s office. Prosecutors said Tomasic
was only dropping off another piece of evidence, and had been let in by a
U.S. marshal. The U.S. attorney and the marshal apologized. But Robinson said
she was not fully convinced by the explanation. “It just doesn’t make sense
to me. It boggles my mind,” she said. The judge said all evidence will be
locked in a vault. Robinson said she planned to order the U.S. Department of
Justice to pay for the investigation, which is expected to cost hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
Aug 17, 2016 salinapost.com
Judge to appoint special master to probe Kan. jailhouse recordings
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge in Kansas has agreed to appoint
a special master to determine whether a private prison violated
attorney-client privilege by video recording meetings between inmates and
their attorneys. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson on Tuesday asked
attorneys to provide her with their thoughts on the special master’s scope.
The master would investigate defense attorneys’ claims that Corrections
Corporation of America made video and audio recordings of confidential
conversations and passed some on to prosecutors. Robinson said she
didn’t expect to appoint the master until next month. The practice at CCA — a
private, for-profit company that manages dozens of U.S. facilities — surfaced
in a case over distribution of contraband at the Leavenworth Detention Center
in which audio-less video recordings were subpoenaed by a grand jury.
Jun 9, 2016 ljworld.com
Former prison guard files lawsuit alleging civil rights and ADA
violations
A former correctional officer for the Leavenworth Detention Center has
filed a lawsuit against the center's owner for alleged violations of the
Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act that occurred while
she was pregnant. In the lawsuit filed in Kansas City, Kan., federal court
this week, Demonae Serial-Starks said she was
working as a guard for the Corrections Corporation of America, which operates
the detention center for the federal government, when she learned that she
was pregnant. Because of her condition, the lawsuit claims, CCA employees
intentionally discriminated against her. Her supervisors and co-workers “made
Serial's working conditions intolerable,” her attorney, Ryan L. McClelland,
claimed in the lawsuit. Officials from CCA did not respond to questions
submitted via email this week from the Lawrence-Journal World. Serial is now
29 and is living in Arkansas, the lawsuit said. In 2013, after informing her
supervisors that her doctor said she should only perform light-duty
assignments because of a high-risk pregnancy and should stay away from Mace
(a brand of pepper spray), Serial claims she was forced to work more
difficult jobs. In addition, she was not provided reasonable accommodations,
including frequent bathroom breaks, the lawsuit said. One time, according to
the lawsuit, she was forced to stay in the control unit for three hours after
she told her supervisor she needed to use the restroom. She was allegedly
told that no other officers were available to relieve her. After she was
released from the “bubble,” as the control unit is called, she urinated on
herself as she was trying to get to the restroom, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that Serial was finally told to take family leave early
because she was pregnant and could not work in the main prison area among the
inmates; however, less than one week after the baby was born, the human
resources manager allegedly called her and said her family leave had expired
and that she had to return immediately to work. CCA, the lawsuit, said,
refused to extend the family leave. She resigned, explaining to the manager
that she could not return to work in a hostile environment, the lawsuit said.
After quitting, she filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission. In March, the EEOC issued Serial two Notices of Right To Sue for
civil rights and discrimination based on disability violations.
cjonline.com Apr 11, 2016
Affidavit: Elaborate smuggling ring at CCA Leavenworth left inmates like
'zombies'
On Monday, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom announced charges for seven people
for their roles in what prosecutors allege was an elaborate drug-smuggling
ring that moved methamphetamine, synthetic marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes
into a maximum-security prison in Leavenworth. Seven people were charged this
week in federal court for their roles in what prosecutors allege was an elaborate
drug-smuggling ring that moved methamphetamine, synthetic marijuana, alcohol
and cigarettes into a maximum-security prison in Leavenworth. Beginning in
September 2015, Jeff Stokes, a special agent with the Kansas Bureau of
Investigation, began investigating the drug trade within CCA Detention
Center, a private prison. Listening to phone calls from prisoners to friends
and family members, Stokes heard inmate Stephen Rowlette
describe how the inmates in his cell block were “blistered” and “high.” The
inmates walk around like “zombies,” Rowlette said,
and some inmates were “making a mint” off the drug trade, according to an
affidavit released Monday. To buy contraband, inmates convinced family
members and friends to send money through wire transfers to Karl Carter. a fellow inmate, and several people outside the prison,
according to an affidavit. As Rowlette allegedly
told his wife, inmates in his cell pod were strung out on “real deal drugs.”
One inmate, Mark, spent $2,000 each week on illegal contraband, he said. A
pack of cigarettes cost as much as $150 and a half pint of vodka cost $40,
according to the affidavit. A pouch of tobacco sold for $100 and a gram of
methamphetamine cost $300. In addition to wire transfers, the inmates would
exchange hundreds of dollars in person. “The inmates instructed their family
and friends to fill out a large manila envelope with a law firm identified on
the return address,” the affidavit alleges. “Affixed to the front of the
manila envelope is a letter-sized white envelope inside which the individuals
put money wrapped in white paper so the CCA guards could not see it.” Once
inmates had enough money for the drug of their choice, they would contact
Carter. Carter or another inmate would put the contraband in a sock, put the sock
down their pants and meet the buyer in one of three places inside CCA
Leavenworth: the church, the law library or a drug abuse counseling program.
There, they would exchange drugs or alcohol for money. Though inmates often
had to pass through a metal detector before returning to their cell, one
inmate told Stokes that corrections officers ignored beeps from the metal
detector “90 percent of the time.” Still, the inmates needed a way to get the
drugs inside the prison and into their hands. That, prosecutors allege, is
where Antonio Aiono came in. Aiono,
28, was a guard at the prison. According to the affidavit, he would bring
contraband into the prison and leave it behind in a mop bucket to be picked
up by an inmate working with Carter. Aiono brought
the drugs in a potato chip bag or his underwear. Alcohol would come in a
Sprite bottle, Stokes discovered. The drug trade proved profitable for
Carter, according to the affidavit. A review of his account at the prison
found $15,890 had been deposited between October 2015 and March 2016. On
Monday, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom announced charges against Carter, Aiono and five others involved in the alleged conspiracy.
Aiono, of Platte City, Mo., was charged with
conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, providing methamphetamine to
inmates, providing synthetic marijuana to inmates and providing tobacco
products to inmates. The first two charges carry maximum sentence of 20 years
in prison each and fines of more than $1 million. Rowlette,
35, and Carter, 41, were charged with conspiracy to distribute
methamphetamine, possessing methamphetamine, possessing synthetic marijuana
and possessing tobacco products. The first two charges carry maximum sentence
of 20 years in prison each and fines of more than $1 million. David Bishop
and Catherine Rowlette, of Sedalia, Mo., were
charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, providing
methamphetamine to inmates, providing synthetic marijuana to inmates and
providing tobacco products to inmates. If convicted, they also face more than
40 years in prison and fines of more than $1 million. Lorenzo Black was
charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, providing
methamphetamine to inmates, providing synthetic marijuana to inmates and
providing tobacco products to inmates. He also faces more than 40 years in
prison and fines of more than $1 million if convicted. Alicia Tackett, 29, of
Independence, Mo., was charged with providing synthetic marijuana to inmates
and providing tobacco products to inmates. If convicted, she faces one year
in prison and a fine of up to $200,000. The charges announced Monday were the
result of a seven-month investigation by the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S.
Secret Service, Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service and
Social Security Administration, Grissom said. Grissom’s news conference is
likely his last as U.S. attorney. The 62-year-old announced Monday he is
resigning his position, effective Friday. Monday’s news conference marks the
second time in as many years that a guard at a Leavenworth prison stands
accused of smuggling. In August 2015, Michael Harston
was accused of taking bribes in exchange for carrying contraband tobacoo into the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth. That
institution, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, is a medium-security
prison. Harston, a resident of Kansas City, Mo.,
was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and four counts of
accepting bribes. Harston also received payments
from the relatives of inmates through wire transfers, Grissom’s office
alleged, and was caught on video surveillance distributing tobacco to
inmates.
Aug 5, 2015 kmbc.com
Correctional
employees arrested after Edwardsville car burglaries
Victimized
want charges filed. I figure if somebody's going to break into it, they're
going to, but i can't afford to replace the window
so i don't ever lock it. Peggy: loretta
moore's unlocked car is one of four burglarized
early sunday morning. The burglars didn't get
anything, but loretta says they sure tried. They
went through the console. I think they were probably looking for loose
change. And they pulled the ashtray out. They just more or less trashed it.
Peggy: most of edwardsville court was asleep at the
time, but not della vinson.
From her third floor window, she was watching what the security cameras were
capturing -- a man who'd gotten out of a white pickup truck, rummaging
through residents' vehicles. So i just kept looking
out the window and then he went from one car to the other and i called 911. Peggy: della was
still on the phone with 911 when the suspects were leaving this parking lot.
She saw them heading out her to 4th street, and police weren't far behind.
They soon discovered the suspects were prison officers at cca,
corrections corporation of america. It's a private
federal holding facility in leavenworth. Tonight cca says the officers are on paid administrative leave
and further action could be taken later. No charges yet, but residents here
say they hope there will be soon for violating the public's trust and trying
to steal from older people in a housing project. We don't have very much.
We'd like to keep what little we got.
February 11, 2011 AP
The attorney for a therapist accused of stalking a soldier says her treatment
while jailed at a Leavenworth facility may constitute "cruel and
unusual" punishment. Rachelle Santiago is charged with stalking and
attempting to elude police at Fort Riley. Attorney Ronald Wurtz
claimed in a court filing Thursday that Santiago's anti-anxiety medication
has been reduced against the court's order. He says the combination of a cold
room, cold food and lack of medication is unreasonable, especially for
someone with a post-psychotic mental condition. His asks that the 43-year-old
Manhattan woman be placed at a mental facility immediately or at a halfway
house until a bed is available at one.
January 7, 2011 Kansas
City Star
A Kirkwood, Mo., man charged in Kansas City with sex trafficking tried to
hire a hit man to kill his purported victim and a federal prosecutor,
authorities have alleged. Bradley Cook, 32, allegedly hatched the scheme
while he was incarcerated at a private jail for federal inmates in
Leavenworth, according to a statement prosecutors filed Thursday evening with
a federal appeals court in St. Louis. In a written statement, U.S. Attorney
Beth Phillips said her office took immediate steps to protect the victim and
the prosecutor upon learning of the alleged threat. “We consider it a serious
matter whenever there are allegations of anyone making threats against crime
victims or attorneys in our office,” Phillips said. Cook’s lawyer, Carter
Collins Law, responded in a court filing Friday afternoon, calling the new
allegations “dramatic,” “incendiary” and “extraordinarily inflammatory.” Law
criticized prosecutors for presenting them, without evidence, in an unsealed
public filing. “The government has never produced any evidentiary support for
this allegation in any court,” Law wrote. Cook and four others were charged
in September in Kansas City with sexually abusing and torturing a young woman
in Lebanon, Mo., then broadcasting the abuse online. Cook and the others have
pleaded not guilty. Defense lawyers in the case have said they plan to
investigate whether the alleged victim consented to the treatment as part of a
bondage and sadomasochistic lifestyle. The allegations of attempted
murder-for-hire came in response to an appeal that Cook had filed with the
8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, asking that he be released on bond pending
trial. Prosecutors, who contended that Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Cordes was a target of the scheme, filed the allegations
to explain why Cook had been moved from the detention facility in Leavenworth
to a jail in Bates County, Mo. Prosecutors alleged that Cook had attempted to
give details about his alleged victim’s location and information about Cordes’ family, home, work hours and personal history to
a “professional killer.” Cook also made plans to create an offshore account
into which $20,000 would be wired to pay for the murders, the filing said.
October 7, 2009 Leavenworth
Times
An inmate at a Leavenworth detention facility has been sentenced to more than
three years in prison for the attempted battery of a correctional officer. Maurice
Dickens was sentenced Tuesday in Leavenworth County District Court to 39
months in prison. This will run consecutive to a life sentence he is serving
for the state of Maryland. Dickens, who is in custody at the Corrections
Corporation of America Leavenworth Detention Center, pleaded no contest in
August to one count of attempted aggravated battery. The charge stemmed from
an Oct. 22, 2008, incident at the CCA facility.
September 23, 2009 Leavenworth
Times
An inmate has been acquitted of aggravated battery charges related to an
October incident at a Leavenworth detention facility, a prosecutor said. The
not-guilty verdict came Tuesday in the trial of Joseph Bellamy. He had been
accused of stabbing two correctional officers Oct. 22 at the Corrections Corporation
of America Leavenworth Detention Center. The victims, Kennith
Lajiness and Cory O’Neill, survived the incident
and testified during the trial. Bellamy won’t be released from custody as a
result of the acquittal. County Attorney Todd Thompson said Bellamy already
is serving a life sentence plus 48 years he received in Maryland.
September 21, 2009 Leavenworth
Times
A judge has denied a request for a change of venue in the scheduled trial of an
inmate accused of stabbing two officers at a Leavenworth detention facility.
The trial of Joseph Bellamy is scheduled to begin Monday in Leavenworth
County District Court. He is accused of stabbing two correctional officers
during an Oct. 22 incident at the Corrections Corporation of America
Leavenworth Detention Center. He faces two counts of aggravated battery.
Bellamy’s attorney, Kevin Reardon, argued Friday for the trial to be held
outside of Leavenworth County. The attorney said the county has four major
correctional facilities and everyone in the jury pool will have some
connection to prisons.
September 1, 2009 Leavenworth
Times
An inmate has been sentenced to six months in jail for battering an
officer at a Leavenworth detention facility. Michael Matthews was sentenced
Monday in Leavenworth County District Court after pleading no contest to a
misdemeanor charge of battery. He won’t serve any additional jail time
because the sentence will run concurrent to a life sentence he’s already
received in Maryland. Matthews battered Michael Sullivan Oct. 22 at the
Corrections Corporation of America Leavenworth Detention Center.
June 30, 2009 Leavenworth
Times
Two inmates accused of attacking officers at a Leavenworth detention
facility appeared Monday in county district court. Maurice Dickens appeared
in court for a pretrial conference. Dickens faces a charge of aggravated
battery for allegedly assisting in the stabbing of a correctional officer,
Cory O’Neill, Oct. 22 at the Corrections Corporation of America Leavenworth
Detention Center, according to County Attorney Todd Thompson. Joseph Bellamy
appeared Monday in Leavenworth County District Court for an arraignment on
charges of two counts of aggravated battery. Bellamy is accused of stabbing
O’Neill and correctional officer Kennith Lajiness. The crimes are alleged to have occurred during
the same Oct. 22 incident, according to Thompson.
June 19, 2009 Leavenworth
Times
Three inmates accused of battering correctional officers at a Leavenworth
detention facility were in court earlier this week. Trials have been
scheduled for two of the men charged for an Oct. 22 incident at the
Corrections Corporation of America Leavenworth Detention Center. The third
inmate will be back in court later this month for his arraignment, according
to County Attorney Todd Thompson.
October 27, 2008 Leavenworth
Times
The Corrections Corporation of America Leavenworth Detention Center
remained under a lockdown Friday following attacks on two guards earlier in
the week, according to a spokeswoman for the facility. Spokeswoman Connie
Parish said the two correctional officers who were stabbed during Wednesday
night’s attacks remained in the hospital Friday but there was a chance one of
the men may be released later that day. Parish said the investigation into
the simultaneous attacks continued Friday. Weapons used by the attackers
still hadn’t been found at the private detention facility. “They continue to
look,” Parish said. The Leavenworth Detention Center houses inmates awaiting
federal trial under a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service. The attacks
reportedly occurred at about 10:15 p.m. Wednesday in the day room of a pod
considered a high security area for male inmates. Three inmates were placed
in segregation following the attacks. Two were suspected of being involved.
The third was their cellmate, according to Parish. The Leavenworth County
Sheriff’s Office was contacted to help with the investigation with plans of
sending a case to the Leavenworth County Attorney’s Office for a determination
about criminal charges.
October 23, 2008 Kansas
City Star
Two officers from the Corrections Corp. of America’s Leavenworth
Detention Facility are recovering today after at least two inmates assaulted
them Wednesday night. Connie Parish, a spokeswoman for the privately run
corrections facility, said the officers were doing well in a Kansas City area
hospital and their injuries do not appear to be life-threatening. One, Parish
said, had a small puncture wound to the lung, the apparent victim of a stabbing.
Neither will require surgery. Parish described the attacks as two separate
assaults that occurred about 10:15 p.m. in a high-security area at the
facility, 100 Highway Terrace in Leavenworth. The officers were making
rounds, checking on inmates in a day room, when they were assaulted. Parish
said that three inmates from the same cell were placed in segregation after
the assault, and that at least two were involved. No inmates were injured,
she said. Authorities are investigating the assaults and are looking for a
weapon or weapons that were used. The Leavenworth County Sheriff Department
returned to the facility this morning to investigate the assaults and
interview inmates. The facility has been placed on lockdown, Parish said, and
because of that, there has been no visitation.
April 27, 2007 Leavenworth
Times
A man has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison after he
orchestrated drug deals while an inmate at a Leavenworth detention facility,
according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office. Francisco Ortiz,
22, Kansas City, Kan., was sentenced Wednesday for using his 16-year-old
sister and other family members to deal drugs for him while he was awaiting
sentencing in a federal drug trafficking case. Ortiz allegedly orchestrated
deals by telephone while an inmate at the Corrections Corporation of America
Leavenworth Detention Center. In March 2005, Ortiz had entered into a plea
agreement to one count of possession with intent to distribute more than five
grams of methamphetamine. The agreement required him to cooperate with
investigators from the Drug Enforcement Administration. “What the defendant
did not tell the DEA was that he was trafficking in drugs while he was
incarcerated at the Corrections Corporation of America by using his 16-year-old
sister,” Eric Melgren, U.S. attorney for Kansas,
said in the release. “Nor did he tell DEA agents that he was orchestrating
drug deals, obtaining profits and directing customers to meet with family
members to make drug payments — all while incarcerated on the original
charges.” Investigators retrieved the records of Ortiz’s telephone calls from
CCA for April 2006 through July 2006. The records showed he had been engaging
in multiple drug transactions through associates and family members who were
not incarcerated, including his sister and his mother.
August 24, 2006 AP
A southern Iowa man has been convicted by a federal jury on charges he
threatened the life of a federal judge. Christopher O. Myers, 41, of Ottumwa
faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Sentencing was scheduled for
Sept. 5. Myers was initially charged in a three-count federal indictment,
which alleged that he mailed threatening letters to Judge Linda Reade and a
federal public defender in August 2005 from his prison cell at a federal
prison in Leavenworth, Kan. Reade, a judge in the U.S. District Court in
Cedar Rapids, testified Monday that she took the threats seriously. "I
think the general tenor of the letter suggested that Mr. Myers was
threatening to kill me," she said. Court documents said Myers was in the
Corrections Corporation of America Leavenworth Detention Center, a privately
run prison, which contracts with the federal government located in
Leavenworth, Kan., when a white business-sized envelope was mailed to U.S. District
Court in Des Moines addressed to Linda Reede, a
misspelling of the judge's name.
August 21, 2006 AP
Federal Judge Linda Reade testified today that a southern Iowa man sent her a
threatening letter shortly after she sentenced him to federal prison for
threatening other judges and President Bush. "I think the general tenor
of the letter suggested that Mr. Myers was threatening to kill me,"
Reade said on the witness stand in the trial of Christopher O. Myers. Myers,
41, of Ottumwa is charged in a three-count federal indictment, which alleges
that Myers mailed threatening letters in August 2005 from his prison cell at
the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan. Court documents said Myers was in the
Corrections Corporation of America Leavenworth Detention Center, a privately
run prison, which contracts with the federal government located in
Leavenworth, Kan., when a white business-sized envelope was mailed to U.S.
District Court in Des Moines addressed to Linda Reede,
a misspelling of the judge's name. Court documents say the return address
included the name Chris Myers, a federal inmate number — 11921-030 — and the
address of the CCA detention center in Leavenworth, Kan. The envelope
contained eight pages that appeared to be two threatening letters and cover letter.
November 25, 2005 Leavenworth
Times
A former Leavenworth man has been sentenced to life in federal prison for the
murder of three Leavenworth people. A federal jury spared Demetrius R.
Hargrove, 31, of the death penalty on Tuesday in Kansas City, Kan., according
to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office. Hargrove, who already is
serving a 35-year federal prison sentence for kidnapping and a weapons
violation, was found guilty Nov. 10 of three capital murder counts and one
charge of conspiracy to kill a federal witness. The conviction came after a
six-week trial. Two of the murder counts stem from the shooting deaths of
Elmer Berg Jr. and Misty Castor, Leavenworth siblings. The third murder count
stemmed from the July 25, 1998, death of Tyrone Richards. According to the
news release from the U.S. attorney's office, Hargrove attempted to murder Kimbrel on Jan. 3, 1999. And on Dec. 31, 1998 and Jan. 1,
1999, Hargrove made telephone calls to other conspirators from the
Corrections Corporation of America detention facility in Leavenworth to
arrange the murder of Kimbrel.
April 12, 2005 Kansas
City Star
Attorneys for federal kidnapping defendant Lisa Montgomery asked a judge
Monday not to give prosecutors copies of four documents seized recently from
her Leavenworth jail cell. Jailers searched her cell and took five documents
last month. Officials at the Corrections Corporation of America jail then
passed the material to the U.S. Marshals Service, which gave it to Chief
Magistrate Judge John Maughmer. In a court filing,
defense attorney Susan Hunt argued for withholding the records from
prosecutors. “(Montgomery) asserts the documents must be returned to her, all
copies destroyed and not provided to the government,” Hunt wrote. Hunt's
motion contends that prosecutors have agreed that the letter to “Anita”
should not be disclosed to federal authorities because it is addressed to
Anita Burns, an assistant federal public defender, and thus covered by the
attorney-client privilege. Montgomery's attorneys also contend that the Feb.
20 document should be covered by the attorney-client privilege. “This
document was prepared by (Montgomery) pursuant to a request of Ron Ninemire, one of the (defense) investigators on this
case,” Hunt wrote. “Mr. Ninemire, in one of his
visits, requested (Montgomery) write down certain information for use by him
and the attorneys in preparing this case.” The documents apparently turned up
in a March 4 search.
September 27, 2002
Keith Gabriel was intially incarcerated at the
federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., where he was diagnosed as being
HIV-positive. The Federal Bureau of Prisons began immediately to
provide Gabriel with medical treatment. In 1988, he was transferred to
another federal penitentiary. His medical jacket was transferred with
him and he continued to receive appropriate treatment for his HIV
condition. In 1990, he was transferred to a penitentiary run by the
District of Columbia in Lorton. That facility was operated by CCA under
contract with that district. When Gabriel was transferred to Lorton,
his medical jacket was not transferred with him. The medical history
that was sent did not explicitly state that he was HIV-positive. After
he was moved to Lorton, Gabriel said he did not receive any further medical
treatment until his HIV status was "rediscovered" in 1998. He
alleged that as a result of his failure to receive treatment, he suffered a
decline in his T-cell count. He also experienced the onset of premature
dementia and depression. He also contended that when CCA and the
District were alerted to his HIV status, both failed to search for and obtain
his medical jacket. He also said CCA provided him with an improperly
low dosage of one of the drugs he needed. Gabriel filed suit against
the Bureau of Prisons and CCA for negligence and medical malpractice.
The U.S. District Court, District of Columbia agreed with the bureau that BOP
was not a state official acting under color of state law. The CCA then
asked for dismissal, saying it was not a proper defendant because it wasn't a
public entity. The company said it could not be held accountable
in the same manner as a governmental organization. The CCA also said
Gabriel had not filed his claim within the required two years.
August 14, 2000
A guard pleaded guilty to drug charges after he was caught delivering a half
once of crack cocaine to an undercover officer. The guard admitted to
smuggling contraband into the prison for inmates. (AP, August 14, 2000)
Prison
Health Services
Shawnee County, Kansas
Prison Health Sservices
September 20, 2002 Shawnee County corrections director Betsy Gillespie said
Thursday she was confident that jail medical and correctional staff members
didn't make any errors causing the death of an inmate earlier this month. Roy
Hardy III died Sept. 2 in the jail's custody. His family claims Hardy, who
had a congenital heart defect, died because medical staff failed to provide
him with his medication. Hardy-Smith declined to say whether the family plans
a wrongful death suit against the jail, but any lawsuit likely would include
Prison Health Services Inc., a Tennessee-based company specializing in
correctional health care. The county entered a contract with the company in
November 2001. The contract states PHS will cover court costs if inmates sue
the county and the jail on health care issues. An almost complete turnover of
medical staff ensued March 1, when PHS took over medical services. Only one
nurse who previously worked for the county health agency remained. Daily dose
Topekan Allen Stann was
jailed for two days earlier this month for a traffic violation. Stann knew he had to do his time, but said he was upset
because he didn't receive his medication, Celebrex, twice a day for
arthritis. "It was like cruel and unusual punishment," he said. Stann did get Ibuprofen his first full morning at the
jail and until his release. He said he went to the jail the week before
serving his sentence to learn if he had to do anything to ensure he received
his medication. "I even went in early the morning I checked in to make
sure about it," he said. After his release, Stann
said, he called the jail because he was concerned about other inmates.
"I told them while I was in a lot of pain, it didn't kill me. But I said
to them 'what if I had a serious illness and didn't get my medication. I
could have died.' I said that to them and then found out about Mr.
Hardy," he said. (Topeka Capitol Journal)
Reno
County Jail Annex
Reno, Kansas
MgtGp Inc.
January 8, 2004
Former Reno County Sheriff Larry Leslie and Hutchinson attorney Gerald Hertach won't pay $750,000 in restitution sought by the
state, a senior judge ruled Tuesday morning. Instead, the case will be
closed when the two have served their one-year jail sentences that end in
January - Leslie on Saturday from the Saline County Jail and Hertach on Jan. 31 from the Rice County Jail.
(Hutch News)
September 17, 2003
With prospects for a negotiated settlement dimming, a senior judge set a
trial date for Reno County's civil lawsuit against the former private
operators of its jail annex. Judge Michael Barbara set Oct. 29 as the
start date in Reno County District Court for the county's bid to recover
almost $750,000 in annex operations profits from MgtGp
Inc., which operated the center for four years. Former Reno County
Sheriff Larry Leslie and Hutchinson attorney Gerald Hertach
were partners in MgtGp. That alliance landed
the two men in jail for a year on two counts of misdemeanor conflict of
interest, for failing to disclose the contract. Both men apparently are
going to serve their one-year terms without offering a court-ordered plan to
repay the county, a condition of parole. In August, attorneys for the
two men and Reno County said they were close to a negotiated settlement in
the case. Barbara gave the two sides 10 days to reach an agreement, a
time frame that more than passed before the judge took action late last
week. Stan Hill, Reno County's counsel for the civil suit, offered no
comment on the trial date Monday. Efforts Monday to contact Leslie's
attorney, Mike Gillespie, and Hertach's attorney,
Steve Joseph, were unsuccessful. Gillespie is handling the case from
his new job with a Manhattan law firm, Seaton, Bell and Seaton. Leslie
and Hertach formed the partnership in 1997 to
operate MgtGp and the annex. The two men
established dummy corporations in Nevada to route the annex profits back to
their personal corporations in Kansas. Leslie and Hertach
were convicted in October 2002 of two counts of misdemeanor conflict of
interest, the result of a plea bargain from 21 original counts of
bribery. Leslie's sentence expires Jan. 3, 2004; Hertach's
28 days later. (The Hutchinson News)
January 10, 2003
Former Reno County Sheriff Larry Leslie
spent his first day as an inmate Friday, beginning his jail
sentence for misdemeanor conflict of interest in the county jail
annex scandal. Leslie and his business
partner, Hutchinson attorney Gerald Hertach, were
convicted in October of misdemeanor conflict of interest. The two men formed MgtGp
Inc., a private company that ran the jail annex until late last year. Leslie,
as an elected official, was required by Kansas law to divulge his
"substantial interest" in MgtGp to Reno
County commissioners. (The Hutchinson News)
December 20, 2002
It came down to that old line from the film "Jerry Maguire."
"Show me the money." So when Larry Leslie and Gerald Hertach wouldn't - or couldn't - the result was a year in
jail for their illegal partnership as MgtGp Inc.,
running Reno County's jail annex. The people wanting to see where Hertach and Leslie's share off about 570,000 in annex
profits went were numerous. And the two who mattered the most - Senior
Judge Michael Barbara and prosecutor John Bork - didn't get any answers
Wednesday in Reno County District Court. "I wouldn't said it played the main role in my decision, but it played
a role, of course," said Barbara, who sentenced the two men to jail
terms for conflict of interest in the annex case. "The 285,000
your client received from the annex profits - what happened to that?"
Barbara asked Steve Joseph, representing Hertach.
"I don't know, your honor," Joseph replied. Both times the
men and their attorneys offered no direct explanation, instead raising
general claims of financial ruin. "Jerry doesn't have $750,000 or
significant funds at all," his attorney said. Gillespie had little
to say Wednesday about Leslie's future, only noting that the former sheriff
is close to bankruptcy. Leslie isn't paying three creditors he owes a
total of $46,000, the attorney said, and had $300 in monthly disposable
income after he pays the rest. Leslie will voluntarily surrender his
law enforcement certification, Gillespie said. And a case against Hertach's law license will be revived by the state's
legal review board in Topeka, Joseph said, now that sentencing has been
completed. (The Hutchinson News)
December 19, 2002
In a prepared statement, Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall on Wednesday
defended her decision to accept a plea bargain in the Larry Leslie-Gerald Hertach bribery case. In the statement, issued by
prosecutor John Bork, one of Stovall's assistants, the AG said the state's
decision to accept two misdemeanor conflict-of-interest convictions
"serves the interest of justice by ensuring a conviction and establishing
restitution for the unlawful acts perpetrated by the defendants....
Stovall said the presumptive sentences in the original bribery cases filed
against Leslie and Hertach would have been
probation. However, Senior Judge Michael Barbara, angered by the lack
of a clear plan to repay $750,000 in annex profits to Reno County, sentenced
the two men Wednesday to a year in jail on each of the conflict-of-interest
counts. The plea bargain came under local criticism as a slap on the
two men's wrists. District Attorney Keith Schroeder, whose office
played a role in uncovering the allegations, said he will refuse to refer
cases to Stovall's office as a result of the light deal. (The
Hutchinson News)
December 19, 2002
Larry Leslie and Gerald Hetach will begin the new
year in jail, a senior judge ruled in Reno County District Court Wednesday
afternoon. How long they have to stay depends on whether they can come
up with their share of an estimated $750,000 in restitution to Reno county,
money "cheated" from local taxpayers in the private and illegal
operation of the county's jail annex, Judge Michael Barbara ruled.
Leslie, 59, the former Reno County sheriff, and Hertach,
56, a Hutchinson attorney, were sentenced to a year in jail Wednesday - six
months consecutively on each of two misdemeanor conflict-of-interest
counts. Both men were moved out of Reno County for security concerns,
Barbara said. The charges grew out of the two men's partnership in MgtGp Inc., a private firm that in 1997 obtained a
contract to manage the jail annex - without divulging to the Reno county
Commission that Leslie, then sheriff, was involved. A clearly angry
Barbara rejected pleas from the defense for probation in both cases, instead
taking issue with the two men's refusal to provide plans to repay almost
$750,000 in profits from the annex operation. A year owed to the people
of Reno County, Barbara said as he handed down the sentence.
"Counsel wondered today what good it would do to send these men to
jail," the judge said. "Well, a viable objective in the
sentencing process is viable deterrents. "Counsel has agreed that
deceit was involved in this case - political not criminal. But pure,
deliberate greed was involved." (The Hutchinson News)
November 27, 2002
By signing off at the last
minute on a plea bargain agreement in the Reno County Jail Annex case,
Attorney General Carla Stovall agreed Oct. 7 to toss out 21 felony bribery
charges against three criminal defendants accused of bilking taxpayers out of
$570,000. Instead of putting the facts before a jury, the lame duck attorney
general accepted guilty pleas to two misdemeanors apiece and endorsed
potentially meaningless promises of restitution from former Sheriff Larry
Leslie, Hutchinson attorney Gerald Hertach and MgtGp Inc. The outrageous decision not only deepened this
newspaper's disappointment with Stovall's job performance as attorney
general, it also set three dreary precedents that could have undesirable
long-term consequences on public policy in the Sunflower State. Different
laws The Stovall-approved plea agreement shows that county sheriffs in
Kansas, particularly those who have friends in high places, have the latitude
to operate under a different set of laws than other public officials. KBI
Director Larry Welch received documents tying Leslie to the illegal payment
scheme in the summer of 1999. Yet Welch disgraced his position by failing to
initiate an investigation of Leslie, a long-time friend, until prompted a
second time - 18 months, 19 payments and $140,250 later – by outgoing Reno
County District Attorney Tim Chambers. The U.S. Attorney's Office of Kansas
took a similar hands-off attitude toward an FBI investigation.
Coincidentally, Welch's son, Lanny, worked there
during that time as the office's top criminal prosecutor. Chilling effect.
Most of all, Stovall's decision to cut a deal with defendants Leslie-Hertach-MgtGp Inc. will have a
chilling effect on government whistleblowers in Kansas. Consider that
employees at the Reno County Sheriff's Department expressed the greatest
frustration with the plea bargain. Several employees uncovered the scheme and
tried to prompt an outside investigation. "I don't think he got near
what he deserved," said Sherri Owston, the
sheriff's office manager. Former Sheriff Leslie directed Owston
to help him prepare invoices to bill Hertach for
supposed jail consulting services. (Hutchinson News)
October 18, 2002
Four years of memories came flooding back this week in the Reno County
Sheriff's Department. Secretaries to deputies were stopped cold with
disbelief when former Sheriff Larry Leslie pleaded guilty Monday to two
counts of misdemeanor conflict of interest for collecting $285,000 from a
partnership operating the county's jail annex. Leslie had been charged
with 21 counts of bribery. Leslie and Hutchinson attorney Gerald Hertach, partners in MgtGp
Inc., each face up to a year plus restitution and fines up to $820,000 for
their role in the partnership. "It's kind of made everyone relive
the whole thing," Sheriff Randy Henderson said. "Kind of back
to the old thing that we can do something wrong and get by with it because of
who we are. The frustration with plea bargain, which likely will bring
little or no jail time, was expressed by a couple of players in the Leslie
story. "I don't think he got near what he deserved," said
Sherri Owston, the sheriff's office manager. Owston was directed by Leslie to help him prepare
invoices that were used to bill Hertach for almost
$285,000 over the three years of their annex partnership. "I was
not at all happy about their decision to plead it down to a
misdemeanor," said Howard Shipley, a detective who made the first
late-night foray into Leslie's office to copy documents about the
partnership. "I think the original charge of bribery could have
been proven. We should have gone to court and let the jury make a
decision on that." "I am somewhat discouraged that the case
did not go to trial in order for the whole truth to come out," said
Capt. Dennis Radke, who heads the detective
bureau. There's also a consensus that Leslie let his officers and
employees down by taking part in the partnership.
(The Hutchinson News)
October 18, 2002
The business partners in a controversial deal to operate Reno County's jail
annex entered guilty pleas Monday to misdemeanor conflict of interest
charges. The pleas by former Reno County Sheriff Larry Leslie,
Hutchinson attorney Gerald Hertach and the
attorney's MgtGp Inc. short-circuited Monday's
anticipated start of their trials on 21 bribery counts. The plea deal
also includes a "joint or separate" agreement to pay Reno County
$750,000 in restitution. The conviction falls under Kansas statue 75-4304 (b), which prohibits entering into any
contract "where any local government officer or employee, acting in that
capacity, is a signatory to or a participant in the making of the contract
and is employed by or has a substantial interest in the person or
business." (Hutch News.com)
July 2, 2002
The bribery trial for former Sheriff Larry Leslie and his alleged business
partners will remain in Reno County District Court, a judge ruled
Tuesday. Leslie, Hertach and MgtGp each face 21 counts of bribery. The charges
allege that Hertach paid Leslie almost $285,000
over three years in exchange for Leslie's recommendation that MgtGp run the county's jail annex. (The Hutchinson
News)
June 03, 2001
Reno County commissioners filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Sheriff Larry
Leslie and the private firm hired to run the county jail annex, seeking
repayment of more than $500,000 in profits they claim the two have split
since 1998. Commissioners also asked a judge to terminate the county's
four-year, $2 million contract with MgtGp Inc.,
signed in January 2000. Leslie is charged with accepting more than
$280,000 in bribes from MgtGp Inc. secretary Gerald
Hertach in exchange for persuading commissioners to
hire the company. Hertach is also named in
the lawsuit. Leslie had an obligation to disclose any business
relationship between himself and MtgGp
Inc. when he recommended the contract, County Counselor Joe O'Sullivan said
Wednesday. "The defendant's silence when they had the duty to
speak constituted a fraud upon the plaintiffs," the suit alleges.
Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall contends that Leslie accepted payments
ranging from $4,000 to $15,625 between June 1998 and January 2001. The
county's suit claims the alleged payments were routed through a series of
Kansas and Nevada corporations, each of which is either owned or operated by Hertach or Leslie. The lawsuit alleges that Leslie
and Hertach "negotiated and agreed to a
proposal whereby Hertach would present, and Leslie
would recommend, a management agreement to the plaintiff for the minimum
security facility." (The Wichita Eagle)
May 19, 2001
Fellow law officers and a county commissioner said Tuesday they are shocked
that Reno County Sheriff Larry Leslie has been implicated in a bribery scheme
that authorities say involves more than $280,000. Leslie, who was
elected sheriff in 1992, was arrested Monday and charged with 34 counts of
bribery. He's accused of accepting $284,875 from a Hutchinson lawyer
and, in return, influencing county commissioners to hire MgtGp
Inc., the private company that handles the daily operations of the annex,
authorities said. Commissioner Francis "Shep"
Schoepf said Leslie advised the commission in 1998
that entering into an agreement with MgtGp Inc.
would save money. The alternative was to hire more county employees to
run the new annex, he said. The county in January awarded MgtGp Inc. a new four-year contract worth $612,000 this
year alone, according to the county. Schoepf
said he "completely trusted" Leslie's judgement.
"It seemed like he was giving us good advice," Schoepf
said. "When I heard about the charges, I was absolutely floored.
I have had so much faith in that guy." According to court records,
Leslie is accused of accepting $284,875 in 34 payments from June 1998 to last
January. The largest payment -- $15,625 -- was allegedly made on July
15, 1999, court records show. (The Wichita Eagle)
May 17, 2001
The private company at the center of the bribery case against Reno County
Sheriff Larry Leslie was incorporated just 13 days before the county awarded
it a contract worth more than $1.5 million to run a jail annex in 1997, according
to state records. But county officials said Wednesday they weren't
concerned with the newness of the company because Leslie vouched for one of
its owners, who had experience running a dormitory for nonviolent
offenders. Leslie, 57, pleaded innocent to 34 counts of bribery at his
first appearance before a district judge Wednesday. Hutchinson lawyer
Gerald Hertach, treasurer and co-founder of MgtGp Inc., which operates the annex, also pleaded
innocent to charges that he bribed the sheriff. The company also is
named as a defendant. Leslie is accused of accepting more than $280,000
from Hertach from June 1998 to last January.
Leslie, who is still on the job, earns $59,672 a year as sheriff. It's
also a unique relationship, said Darrell Wilson, executive director of the
Kansas Association of Sheriffs. He knows of no other county in the
state that contracts with a private company to run part of its jail. MgtGp Inc. is still operating the annex, County
Administrator Ed Williams said.
Wyandotte
County Jail
Wyandotte, Kansas
Aramark
August 28, 2004
The Wyandotte County sheriff closed the county jail's kitchen for 24 hours
after an inspection revealed sanitary and storage problems. Joe Connor,
county health director, said the problems were discovered Thursday in an
annual inspection of the juvenile detention center. Part of that inspection
was the food service area, which also serves adult inmates. Brad
Ratliff, a spokesman for the sheriff, said the health violations included the
buildup of grease and the improper storage of items in the kitchen, which
serves about 450 inmates. The department has a three-year contract with
Aramark Inc. to operate the kitchen. The company,
which is paid about $669,000 annually, is responsible for the cleaning.
(Kansas City)
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