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American
Legislative Exchange Council
Lobbyists, Guns and Money: March 25, 2012, NYTimes columnist Paul Krugman takes
them on.
Private prison company’s growth went hand-in-hand
with political influence: Jon Collins
September 26, 2011 Minnesota Independent
"Publicopoly:
ALEC and the bid to make private all that is public." An exhaustive DBA Press analysis of thousands of pages of
documents obtained through public records requests over the past several
months has revealed the source of many suddenly-wildly-popular bills aimed at
weakening public employee unions to be ‘model legislation’ disseminated
primarily through one entity, the American Legislative Exchange Council
(ALEC). July 11, 2011
NPR expose on
the for-profits role in the AZ immigration law
November 28, 2011 Arizona Republic
Arizona's state lawmakers are especially receptive to corporate money and
influence, according to a new report from two liberal-leaning advocacy
groups. The 100-page report strives to show how the American Legislative
Exchange Council uses "its resources to shepherd legislation from the
corporate boardroom to the governor's desk," said Marge Baker, executive
vice president at the Washington D.C,-based People for the American Way
Foundation. ALEC describes itself as a nonpartisan national association of
state legislators. Critics, however, say it is a conservative-based partisan
organization that brings together about 300 large corporations and 2,000
predominately Republican legislators on task forces to produce model bills.
Lawmakers then take those bills back to their state legislatures in hopes of
passing them into law. The groups released the report, "ALEC in Arizona:
The Voice of Corporate Special Interests in the Halls of Arizona's
Legislature," as ALEC prepares to hold its "States and Nation
Policy Summit" in Scottsdale, beginning Wednesday. More than 50 Arizona
lawmakers are members of the group. Arizona corporations that provide
financial support to ALEC include the Salt River Project, Taser
International, and Pinnacle West Capital Corp., the parent company of Arizona
Public Services Co., the state's largest utility company. "There's no
way ordinary citizens can match the level of access and influence that ALEC
provides to these corporations," Baker said. "So Arizonans are
subjected to laws that serve the interests of the rich and powerful."
But Kaitlyn Buss, an ALEC spokeswoman, said the organization is merely a
"resource" for lawmakers. "Our main goal and focus is to
promote free market, limited government and federalism (ideals)," Buss
said. "We do have model legislation. It's a main part of what we do, but
that doesn't give it priority over anything else that might be introduced at
the Legislature." The report includes side-by-side comparisons of dozens
of "model bills" generated at ALEC conferences, and those
introduced at the Arizona Legislature. In Arizona, lawmakers passed 19 of the
36 model bills introduced in 2010, ALEC officials said. Typically, ALEC model
legislation -- including those highlighted in the report -- focus on
anti-immigration, anti-union, and anti-federal health-care reform
initiatives.
September 16, 2010 Think
Progress
In December 2009, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) — a powerful
front group that helps corporate representatives craft template legislation
for state lawmakers, funded partially by the private prison industry — hosted
Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce (R) and began debate on legislation that
would provide broad powers to local police to arrest anyone who might look
like an immigrant. ALEC then distributed the template legislation to its
members. The January/February 2010 edition of ALEC’s magazine highlights the
draft version of SB1070 — the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe
Neighborhoods Act” — as model legislation. In April of this year, Pearce then
introduced ALEC’s template as the infamous SB1070 law. Notably, the ALEC task
force which helped Pearce devise his racial profiling law included Laurie Shanblum, a lobbyist from the mega-private prison
corporation Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) which previously played
a role in privatizing many of Texas’ prisons. An investigation from Arizona’s
KPHO-TV found more ties between SB1070 and the private prison industry: Paul Senseman, Gov. Janet Brewer’s (R-AZ) deputy chief of
staff was a former lobbyist for CCA (his wife is still a lobbyist for CCA)
and Chuck Coughlin, Brewer’s campaign chairman, runs the lobbying firm in
Arizona that represents CCA. In These Times reporter Beau Hodai,
who also reported much of SB1070’s connections to the private prison
industry, has a chart to explain the relationship. CCA is set to receive well
over $74 million in tax dollars in FY2010 for running immigration detention
centers. In a presentation given earlier this year, Pershing Square Capital,
a hedge fund with a large financial stake in CCA, suggested that CCA’s
profitability depends on increasing numbers of immigrants sent to prison.
Many of the legislators helping to earn CCA more profits with radical
anti-immigrant bills mirroring SB1070 have been recipients of private prison
industry cash or have worked closely with the CCA-funded ALEC organization: –
TENNESSEE: Earlier this year, legislators in Tennessee passed an immigration
bill with provisions “similar to, but less harsh than, those of SB 1070,
including requiring city and county jails in the state to report any person
who may be in violation of immigration laws to U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.” But that wasn’t enough: right-wing local lawmakers also passed
a resolution honoring Arizona’s SB1070, and a delegation of state lawmakers
promised to introduce an anti-immigrant bill even “broader” than SB1070 in
2011. Many of the leading local lawmakers who voted for the anti-immigrant
bill and resolution received thousands of dollars from CCA’s political action
committee in the past two years, including State Reps. Gerald McCormick
($250), Barrett Rich ($500), Eric Watson ($250) and State Sens. Bill Ketron ($1,000), Jim Tracy ($500), Dolores Gresham
($1,000), Bo Watson ($500), and Jack Johnson ($500). Tracy, who sponsored the
resolution honoring Arizona’s SB1070, also received $2,000 directly from CCA
founder Tom Beasley, reports the Nashville City Paper. CCA retains five
lobbyists in the state and spent at least $50,000 this year to lobby on
immigration and other issues. – OKLAHOMA: Rep. Mary Fallin
(R-OK), who won her party’s nomination to run for governor this year,
received the maximum donation permitted by law from CCA. State Rep. Randy
Terrill (R-OK), who announced that he was planning an “Arizona-Plus”
immigration bill that would be harsher than SB1070, is a proud member of the
CCA-funded American Legislative Exchange Council. – COLORADO: A group of
Republican lawmakers in Colorado, after a research trip to Arizona this
summer, have stated that they plan on passing a SB1070 law in Colorado next
year. CCA’s lobbyists in Colorado have raised funds for many of the lawmakers
in the group. CCA lobbyist Margy Christiansen
raised $400 State Rep. Randy Baumgardner, one of the leaders of Colorado’s
Arizona expedition, and CCA lobbyist Jason Dunn raised $150 for State Sen.
Mike Kopp, the Republican minority leader who is promising to promote an
SB1070 bill next session. – FLORIDA: During the gubernatorial primary
campaign between disgraced businessman Rick Scott and Attorney General Bill
McCollum (R-FL), the prospect of importing Arizona’s SB1070 became a
prominent issue in the race, with both candidates promising to bring a
version of the law to the state. While many Florida Republicans recoiled at
the idea, which stands to alienate many Hispanic voters, a cadre of state
lawmakers and candidates for the state legislature, most funded by the prison
industry, announced their support for an SB1070-type law. State Rep. Bill
Snyder, who has received $500 from CCA, pledged to introduce a bill more
draconian than SB1070. State House candidate Ben Albritton, another outspoken
supporter of SB1070, took $500 from CCA, and State Rep. Joe Negron, who has
been working with Snyder to sponsor the bill, received $1,000 from the Geo
Group, another major private prison contractor which operates immigrant
detention centers. Overall, the Republican Party of Florida has been the
biggest recipient of prison industry cash in the past two years: $37,000 from
CCA and $145,000 from the Geo Group. – PENNSYLVANIA: In the Key State, State
Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-PA) introduced the ALEC-drafted “Support Our Law
Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,” one month before State Sen. Russell
Pearce (R-AZ) introduced his version of the bill in Arizona. Metcalfe is a
highly active member of ALEC. He was paid $1,500 by ALEC just to attend its
meetings with CCA lobbyists on how to draft the law. In Tennessee, the average
daily number of immigration detainees sank to 40 in FY2009, down from 95 in
FY2008. This may change with CCA’s aggressive lobbying for more laws
encouraging aggressive arrests of immigrants or people who look like
immigrants. Charles Maldonado, who has reported on CCA’s corrupting influence
at the Nashville City Paper, notes that CCA may see new business at its West
Tennessee Detention Facility with the passage of more SB1070-related laws.
ALEC, with funds from several private prison companies, helped sponsor
“truth-in-sentencing” and “three-strikes-you’re-out” laws all over the
country for the past two decades. These laws have greatly increased
incarceration rates, and have contributed to America’s distinction of having
the largest prison population in the world.
October
29, 2007 Governing
In recent years, the American Legislative Exchange Council has been one of
the most formidable actors on the state policy stage, crafting and helping to
enact new laws by the hundreds. But massive staff turnover and managerial
complaints have led to questions about whether the effectiveness of ALEC, as
the group is commonly known, may diminish. Twenty-two members of the staff,
plus one part-timer and two consultants, have left since the beginning of
last year, when ALEC hired Lori Roman as its new executive director. That's a
considerable percentage of ALEC's total staff, which at press time numbered
29, with three vacancies. Some of the ALEC activists out in the country are
beginning to raise questions about all this. "What the hell's going
on?" asks Mississippi state Rep. Bill Denny, an ALEC state chair.
"We just lost all of those people, and they couldn't all have been
bad." Numerous former staff members describe a work environment that
grew hostile and "toxic" over the past 18 months. ALEC recently
settled a lawsuit brought by one former staffer and faces two pending
complaints lodged with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Roman says the departures were neither surprising nor alarming, noting that a
change in management, particularly when the new leader comes in with a
different style, is often unsettling. Some people in such a situation are
bound to leave, she suggests. Roman, who previously ran faith-based programs
in the federal Department of Education, declined to speak to many of the
complaints on the record. She handed Governing a statement that says,
"ALEC's new management team carries out the mission of ALEC with a focus
on ethics, accountability and high performance. Some people may not like that
style of management, but the facts show that it has made ALEC stronger. In
2006, we went from a $6 million organization to a $7 million organization,
with no increase in turnover." Published staff reports appear to
contradict the turnover claim. They show that the organization lost only five
staff members in 2005 and just three in 2004, compared with the more than 20
who have left since the start of 2006. ALEC's staff serves as the conduit
between legislators and representatives from private-sector companies, who
meet together on eight task forces that draft model legislation and policy
statements. ALEC's conservative policies have been widely translated into
actual legislation. In recent years, the group has averaged 1,500 bill
introductions per year, with about 200 of those bills becoming law. ALEC's
influence has been felt across a wide range of issues, from environmental and
prison policy to gun owners' rights and digital-rights management. Turmoil on
the inside is bound to limit this kind of influence, and in a few of ALEC's
strongest states, affect the dynamics of the legislative process. Perhaps for
this reason, not all the top ALEC officials are willing to acknowledge that
serious turmoil exists. "I can assure you the supermajority of the board
is very excited about where ALEC is going," says Kansas state Sen. Susan
Wagle, the organization's immediate past chair. Georgia state Rep. Earl
Ehrhart, who chaired ALEC's board when it hired Roman, calls the complaints
"lying, crying garbage without any facts to back up what they say."
But based on a series of interviews conducted by Governing, these defenders
appear to be in the minority. "I have deep concerns about it," says
Iowa state Rep. Dolores Mertz, ALEC's national chair. "Right now, it's
going through a trying timse." Other
legislators, some speaking on a not-for-attribution basis, have made
complaints about arbitrariness, sloppy mistakes and a lack of responsiveness.
Some private-sector members, who are the group's financial mainstay, also
have expressed concern, with members from the oil and pharmaceutical
industries, for example, saying they are reconsidering their contributions.
Even if some of the most serious allegations prove false, the loss of so much
institutional knowledge is bound to have an effect on ALEC, if only in the
near term. "It's always jarring if there's new staff, because they have
to start from scratch," says Iowa state Sen. Jeff Angelo, a member of
ALEC's criminal-justice task force. "Most of the model legislation
you're working on, it takes time."
December
9, 2006 Arizona Republic
Hundreds of state lawmakers from around the country will work with industry
lobbyists in the Valley today to craft model legislation on tort reform,
corporate tax policy and industry regulations. The task force meetings cap
the three-day States & Nation Policy Summit at the JW Marriott Desert
Ridge Resort of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, a
group that wields significant influence on state legislation but is virtually
unknown to average citizens. Dozens of Arizona legislators belong to ALEC, at
a rate that the state chairman says is higher than in most states. And its
influence in Arizona has been seen in recent years on legislation ranging
from private prisons and school choice to tax policy and environmental
regulations. Model legislation and policy positions adopted at the local
summit could lead to new laws proposed in Arizona and statehouses across the
country. Nationwide ALEC boasts membership from about one-third of all state
legislators in the nation and bills itself as a non-partisan but conservative
group that promotes Jeffersonian principles of individual liberty, free
markets and limited government. But it is the group's connections to
corporate America and its strategy of developing industry-approved model
legislation for its members around the country that distinguish it from other
legislative groups. That also has generated a lot of criticism, especially
from environmental organizations. Sen. Bob Burns, R-Peoria, Arizona's state
chairman for ALEC, says the criticism of corporations' role in the
organization is unfounded. "Are we supposed to lock the private sector
out of the legislative process?" he asked. But critics believe many in
the public would be concerned if they knew the role that corporate interests
play in developing ALEC's model legislation and policy positions. Last year,
ALEC says, more than 1,000 ALEC bills were introduced in state legislatures,
including Arizona's. About 20 percent of the total went into law. "If
you are all for corporate America controlling the agenda in America's
statehouses, there is nothing wrong with it," says Adam Schafer,
executive director of the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators.
"But if you think elected officials should be the ones writing the laws,
you may find problems with the way they do their model legislation."
Corporations and industry groups almost completely finance the group's
activities through membership dues and donations, and pay for sometimes
extravagant trips for many legislators and their families to conference
destinations at resorts around the country. Companies spend thousands of
additional dollars to buy seats at the table during task force meetings where
the group's model legislation is crafted. ALEC officials say industry
representatives pay the task force dues starting at around $2,500 annually to
gain a seat on each task force in their areas of interest. The dues for some
task forces are higher, but ALEC officials wouldn't say how high the dues for
industry members can go. The task forces are structured with two chambers:
one consisting of legislators, the other of industry representatives, ALEC
officials say. In task force meetings, which are not open to the media,
industry lobbyists can push their own pet legislation or block bills they
oppose. To become model legislation, both the public sector and private
sector sides must approve the bill. Lori Roman, ALEC's executive director,
points out that task force legislation must be approved by legislative board
members before it becomes model legislation. And Michael Bowman, director of
policy and strategic initiatives, says it would be "almost
criminal" not to consult industry representatives and notes that
companies sometimes have competing interests anyway. "We have so many
special-interest groups or so many business interests or corporations here
that they don't even agree," he said. "You can't pass something
that favors your own company because another company is going to say, 'We're
not going to vote for that.' " Russell Smoldon,
a lobbyist for SRP and ALEC's private-sector chairman in Arizona, says
corporate influence on public policy shouldn't be viewed any differently than
union influence or the influence of environmental groups. But critics say
that the industry lobbyists may have huge economic incentives to push
legislation they favor that may not be in the public good. A representative
for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is the co-chair of the tax and fiscal policy
task force, for example, and the group has pushed model legislation and
policy papers critical of tobacco taxes. Robert Dewey, a vice president for
Defenders of Wildlife, which has issued a scathing report on the group, calls
ALEC a "Trojan horse" that allows "corporate America to exercise
significant influence over state legislation in almost every statehouse
around the country." Others, like Tim Delaney of the Phoenix-based
Center for Leadership, Ethics & Public Service, question how close they
adhere to Jeffersonian principles. "I'm not sure Thomas Jefferson wanted
to have Big Tobacco or Big Pharmacy companies in the backroom writing
legislation," he said.
August
14, 2006 In These Times
While New Mexico’s landscape may make the state the Land of Enchantment,
its rapidly growing rates of incarceration have been utterly disenchanting.
What’s worse, New Mexico is at the top of the nation’s list for privatizing
prisons; nearly one-half of the state’s prisons and jails are run by
corporations. Supposedly, states turn to private companies to cope better
with chronic overcrowding and for low-cost management. However, a closer look
suggests a different rationale. A recent report from the Montana-based
Institute on Money in State Politics reveals that during the 2002 and 2004
election cycles, private prison companies, directors, executives and
lobbyists gave $3.3 million to candidates and state political parties across
44 states. According to Edwin Bender, executive director of the Institute on
Money in State Politics, private prison companies strongly favor giving to
states with the toughest sentencing laws—in essence, the ones that are more
likely to come up with the bodies to fill prison beds. Those states, adds
Bender, are also the ones most likely to have passed “three-strikes” laws.
Those laws, first passed by Washington state voters in 1993 and then
California voters in 1994, quickly swept the nation. They were largely based
on “cookie-cutter legislation” pushed by the American Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC), some of whose members come from the ranks of private prison
companies. Florida leads the pack in terms of private prison dollars, with
its candidates and political parties receiving almost 20 percent of their
total contributions from private prison companies and their affiliates. Florida
already has five privately owned and operated prisons, with a sixth on the
way. It’s also privatized the bulk of its juvenile detention system. Texas
and New Jersey are close behind. But in Florida, some of the influence
peddling finally seems to be backfiring. Florida State Corrections Secretary
James McDonough alarmed private prison companies with a comment during an
Aug. 2 morning call-in radio show. “I actually think the state is better at
running the prisons,” McDonough told an interviewer. His comments followed an
internal audit last year by the state’s Department of Management Services,
which demonstrated that Florida overpaid private prison operators by $1.3
million. Things may no longer be quite as sunny as they once were in Florida
for the likes of Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America
(CCA) and the former Wackenhut, now known as the GEO Group of Boca Raton,
Fla. But with a little bit of spiel-tinkering—and a shift of attention to
other states—the prison privatizers are likely to keep going. The key shift,
Bender explains, is that “the prison industry has gone from a
we-can-save-you-money pitch to an economic-development model pitch.” In other
words, says Bender, “you need [their] prisons for jobs.” If political
donations are any measure, economically challenged and poverty-stricken
states like New Mexico are a great target. In this campaign cycle, Democratic
Gov. Bill Richardson has already received more contributions from a private
prison company than any other politician campaigning for state office in the
United States. The Institute of Money in State Politics, which traced the
donations, reported that GEO has contributed $42,750 to Richardson since
2005—and another $8,000 to his running mate, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish. Another $30,000 went from GEO to the
Richardson-headed Democratic Governors Association this past March.
Richardson’s PAC, Moving America Forward, was another prominent recipient of
GEO donations. Now, its former head, prominent state capitol lobbyist Joe Velasquez,
is a registered lobbyist for GEO Care Inc., a healthcare subsidiary that runs
a hospital in New Mexico. But don’t get the idea that GEO has any particular
love for Democrats: $95,000 from the corporation went to the Republican
Governors Association last year alone. What companies like GEO do love are
the millions of dollars rolling in from lucrative New Mexico contracts to run
the Lea County Correctional Facility (operating budget: $25 million/year),
and the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility ($13 million/year), among
others. CCA also owns and operates the state’s only women’s facility in
Grants ($11 million per year). To make sure that those dollars keep flowing,
GEO and CCA have perfected the art of the “very tight revolving door,” says
Bender, which involves snapping up former corrections administrators, PAC
lobbyists and state officials to serve as consultants to private prison
companies. In fact, the current New Mexico Corrections Department Secretary
Joe Williams was once on GEO’s payroll as their warden of the Lea County
Correctional Facility. Earlier this year, Williams was placed on unpaid
administrative leave after accusations surfaced that he spent state travel
and phone funds to pursue a very close relationship with Ann Casey. Casey is a
registered lobbyist in New Mexico for Wexford Health Sources, which provides
health care for prisoners at Grants, and Aramark, which provides most of the
state’s inmate meals. In her non-lobbying hours, it turns out that Casey is
also an assistant warden at a state prison in Centralia, Ill. It appears that
even for a prison industry enchanted by public-private partnership, Williams
and Casey may have gone too far.
May 2,
2006 Progressive State Network
The Institute on Money in State Politics, a tireless group of people who
compile campaign finance data for all fifty states and regularly report
national trends, have a new report "Policy Lock-Down: Prison Interests
Court Political Players" looking at the $3.3 million private prison
companies have donated to state-level actors in the last two election cycles.
The report specifically notes: Analysis of campaign contributions made to
state-level candidates and political parties also reveals that private-prison
interests: Concentrated their giving on legislative candidates who, if
elected, act on state budgets and sentencing laws. These candidates received
almost half of the money given to candidates — slightly more than $1 million.
So the priority is budgets and people who determine sentencing? This will
come as no shock to anyone who has studied the origin of strict sentencing
laws in America. As Nathan Newman noted in "Governing the Nation From
the Statehouses: ": For two decades, ALEC has been a driving force in
lobbying for legislation to hand over prisons to corporate management, with
95,000 inmates in at least 31 states or 6.5% of all prisoners in private
prisons, two-thirds of them in prisons run by Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA), one of ALEC's leading corporate sponsors. Seven states place
more than one-fifth of their prison population in corporate-run prisons. A
2000 report by the Western States Center, "The Prison Payoff: The Role
of Politics and Private Prisons in the Incarceration Boom," traced the
rise of private prisons to "tough on crime" legislation sponsored
by ALEC and its allies that extended sentences and pushed prison populations
beyond the capacities of existing state facilities. And conservatives who
pushed budget-busting sentencing laws then turned around and blamed guard
salaries for the resulting funding crisis. With tight fiscal budgets,
privatization was sold as the solution. State prison guards, who had often
supported many of the tougher sentencing laws, have found their jobs
disappearing to privatization through this two-step process. In Wisconsin,
for example, more than 3000 inmates are sent out of state to CCA facilities,
leaving the remaining state guards in overcrowded prisons subject to riots
and other threats. CCA isn't just one of ALEC's leading sponsors. For a time,
they chaired the task force that authors model legislation on sentencing
issues for ALEC. Humorously, when Wyoming's Casper Star-Tribune reported on
this fact, they drew a quick response from CCA, claiming that CCA does not
believe that mandatory sentencing laws help their business. No word yet on
how private prison companies are responding to the new Institute report.
Bureau of Prisons
Aug 31, 2018 govexec.com
Federal Official Boosted Use of Private Prisons; Now He Has a Top Job at
One
A former federal official who earlier this year instructed the Bureau of
Prisons to identify inmates to be transferred to private detention centers
has left his government job for a position with one of the largest
contractors housing federal prisoners. In January, Government Executive
reported that Frank Lara, then the bureau’s assistant director for
correctional programs, sent a memorandum with the subject line “increasing
population levels in private contract facilities” to agency leaders. In it,
Lara tasked facility leaders with identifying inmates for transfer to private
facilities, saying it would “alleviate the overcrowding at Bureau of Prisons’
institutions and maximize the effectiveness of private contracts.” A few
months later, Lara announced his retirement. Earlier this month, he began
working at the GEO Group as its director of operations. The company is one of
the largest contractors housing federal inmates. In fiscal 2018, for example,
GEO Group has received $147 million in awards from the bureau, according to
federal spending data. While Lara’s memo went out to all bureau leaders, it
mentioned only one facility by name: Rivers Correctional Institution in
Winton, N.C., which is owned and operated by the GEO Group. The GEO Group did
not respond to several emails, and when asked about the hiring over the
phone, a company official hung up. Government Executive was unable to reach
Lara directly. Eric Young, president of the union local that represents
bureau correctional officers, called Lara’s move, “The biggest damn conflict
of interest that I’ve ever seen.” Just prior to the memo’s release, dozens of
bureau officials, including Lara, attended a conference hosted by the
American Correctional Association. The conference was sponsored by the GEO
Group, among others. The bureau said it spent $153,000 on travel costs
associated with the conference. The Washington Post reported last year that
GEO held its own annual conference at a Trump resort in Florida, and that it
donated $225,000 to a pro-Trump super-PAC in the run up to the 2016 election
and an additional $250,000 to his inauguration. GEO Group has been one of the
largest clients of the lobbying firm Ballard Partners since Trump took
office, registering as a client in February of 2017 and since spending
$850,000 with the group, according to lobbying disclosures. Politico deemed
Ballard “the most powerful lobbyist in Trump’s Washington.” According to the
Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets database, Ballard has held 355
meetings with White House officials and 56 with representatives of the
Justice Department, the Bureau of Prisons’ parent agency. The revolving door
at the Bureau of Prisons is not new. CoreCivic, for
example, GEO Group’s main competitor in the contract prison space, has
frequently hired ex-federal officials for leadership positions. Harley Lappin
served as the bureau’s director before transitioning to becoming CoreCivic’s executive vice president and chief
corrections officer. William Dalius worked at the
bureau for 30 years, most recently as the administrative division assistant
director and chief financial officer. He is now the vice president for
operations at CoreCivic. Kim White was a regional
director at the bureau and later the assistant director for human resources.
She is now CoreCivic’s assistant director of human
resources. John Baxter spent 24 years at the bureau before joining CoreCivic and is now its vice president for mental health
services. Charles Cox spent 23 years at the bureau, during which, according
to his résumé, he played an “instrumental” role in developing the agency’s
“private secure and community corrections procurement strategies.” After his
retirement, Cox went to work for Corrections Corporation of America, CoreCivic’s predecessor. After a stint back in public
service at the county level in North Carolina, Cox finished his career as a
vice president at GEO Group. Rodney King, a spokesman for CoreCivic,
said experts in corrections overwhelmingly come from the public sector and
therefore the company must recruit from former public officials. “Our goal is
to recruit and retain the best people from the biggest pool of talent,
whether that means developing and promoting from within our organization or
recruiting experienced professionals from outside CoreCivic,”
King said. “We of course recruit from the public sector for a wide range of
roles at our company. Not doing so would severely limit the pool of qualified
candidates for jobs with our company. That applies not just to positions in
our leadership ranks, but also our teachers, treatment specialists and
corrections officers.” Nick Schwellenbach, the
director of investigations at the Project on Government Oversight, said the
revolving door creates ethical issues. “It raises some severe questions about
who these senior executive branch officials are working for,” he said. On
Lara specifically, he added the transition “definitely flunks” the smell
test. Lara's memo followed guidance from Attorney General Jeff Sessions last
year that reversed an Obama administration policy to phase out the use of
private prisons. In 2016, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates issued a
memo instructing the bureau to either end private facility contracts when
their terms expired or “substantially reduce [their] scope” to correspond
with declining inmate populations. Sessions said Feb. 23, 2017, that Yates'
decision “changed long-standing policy” of the bureau and impaired its
“ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system.” Many
lawmakers expressed outrage at the time, accusing Trump of rewarding his
campaign donors. “This is how our corrupt political and campaign finance
system works,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said after Sessions' announcement
last year. “Private prison companies invested hundreds of thousands of
dollars in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and today they got their
reward.” The bureau began contracting with private prisons in 1997 to address
overcrowding. Contract facilities currently house about 18,000 federal
inmates, or 11 percent of the total population. A 2016 inspector general
report found the contract prisons “incurred more safety and security
incidents per capita than comparable BOP institutions and that the BOP needs
to improve how it monitors contract prisons in several areas.” The private
facilities confiscated eight times as many contraband cell phones, had higher
rates of assaults (both inmate-on-inmate and inmate-on-officer) and were
placing inmates’ rights and needs at risk. Lara’s memo came just days after
the bureau held a conference call with facility administrators, instructing
them to prepare for a 12 percent to 14 percent reduction in their authorized
staffing levels. Such cuts would result in shedding 5,000-6,000 jobs, at
least some of which are currently vacant. Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget proposed
a cut of about 6,000 bureau positions, more than 1,800 of which were
correctional officers. The bureau has faced increasing pressure from Capitol
Hill as it has continued efforts to eliminate the positions, with lawmakers
ramping up pressure on the agency to add to its workforce. The federal
prisons overseers have so far not backed down from the scheduled elimination
of around 6,000 vacant positions, as well as additional vacancies that have
arisen during an extended hiring freeze at the agency. The bureau has
increasingly depended on a process known as “augmentation,” in which
non-correction officers are reassigned to guard duties. The fiscal 2018
omnibus spending measure President Trump signed into law in March provided a
$106 million increase to the Bureau of Prisons budget. A Senate report on the
omnibus directed the bureau to “curtail its over-reliance on augmentation and
instead hire additional full-time correctional staff before continuing to
augment existing staff.” A bipartisan group of lawmakers, however, have
raised concerns that the bureau had no plans to implement the changes
mandated by Congress, and multiple sources told Government Executive earlier
this year that the agency had not backtracked from its planned staffing cuts.
Bureau Director Mark Inch resigned abruptly in May, just nine months after
taking office. The New York Times subsequently reported that Inch had become
frustrated by the administration flouting “departmental norms” and Sessions
leaving him out of meetings on “major staffing, budget and policy decisions.”
Congress and the
White House
Briefing Remarks by Alex Friedmann on HR 2450 January 25, 2010
Briefing Remarks by Judy Greene on HR 2450 January 25, 2010
Freedom Forum CEO Tied to For-Profit Prisons An advocate
for--and against--freedom of information
ACA: Link to Sen Warren report
Aug 11, 2021 abajournal.com
Private prisons are a failed experiment
with 'perverse and immoral incentives,' ABA House says in calling for their
The ABA House of Delegates passed a
resolution Tuesday opposing private prisons and juvenile detention centers.
Co-sponsored by the Criminal Justice Section, National Bar Association, and
the Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice, Resolution 507 opposes the
use of private jails, prison and juvenile detention
centers to detain people before they stand trial and after they are
convicted. It passed in a 273-33 vote. Stephen A. Saltzburg
of the Criminal Justice Section introduced the resolution Tuesday morning at
the ABA Hybrid Annual Meeting. He noted that the ABA had adopted Resolution
115B in 1990 warning governments to proceed with caution before entering into contracts with private prison companies.
"We've had 31 years to take a look at private
prisons and jails and juvenile detention centers, and what have we learned?
We've learned that they do more harm than good," Saltzburg
said. "They have a tendency to cut staff, they have a tendency to cut
programs, and that probably shouldn't surprise anybody because that's how you
make a profit." GEO Group, CoreCivic, and
Management and Training Corp. are among the companies that run prisons in the
United States. In response to a request for an interview, GEO Group referred
the ABA Journal to Day 1 Alliance, a trade association representing the three
companies. Ahead of the resolution's passage on Tuesday, Day 1 Alliance
spokeswoman Alexandra Wilkes called the resolution "politically
motivated" and "ill-informed." "If the sponsors of this
proposed resolution had any idea what they were talking about, they'd know
that private sector contractors have been part of the solution to some of the
toughest challenges facing America's criminal justice system-including
helping alleviate unsafe overcrowding and unconstitutional conditions in
government-run prisons while providing greater access to recidivism-reducing
programs that help returning citizens rejoin their communities," Wilkes
wrote in an emailed statement. The private prison industry gained a foothold
in the 1980s, ostensibly as a way to ease surging prison populations, the
Marshall Project reports.Operators
of private prisons say they help ease the burden on taxpayers by reducing
public spending on government-run facilities. But Resolution 507's report
says private prisons have fueled incarceration. The industry lobbies to
impose stricter laws and penalties and opposes sentencing reforms, the report
says. "Today, private prison corporations are driven by perverse and
immoral incentives whereby an increase in crime and an increase in the number
of human beings placed into America's prisons is good business news for that
industry," the report states. A March report by The Sentencing Project
found that as of 2019, private prisons incarcerated 115,428 people and that
the private prison population had increased 32% since 2000. "However,
the private prison population has declined 16% since reaching its peak in
2012 with 137,220 people. Declines in private prisons' use make these latest
overall population numbers the lowest since 2006, when the population was
113,791," the report states. President Joe Biden addressed the use of
for-profit facilities for federal detainees in a Jan. 26 executive order. The
order bars the Justice Department from renewing contracts with private
criminal detention facilities. In 2016, the Justice Department's Office of
Inspector General found that for-profit detention facilities "do not
maintain the same levels of safety and security for people in the federal
criminal justice system or for correctional staff. We have a duty to provide
these individuals with safe working and living conditions," the order
states.
Jul 10, 2021 azcentral.com
Biden administration to end arrest and
detention of most pregnant migrant women
Rubia Mabel Morales-Alfaro, an asylum
seeker from El Salvador, miscarried In January 2018 after being placed behind
bars in a privately run immigration detention center in California while in
custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Morales-Alfaro was one
of several dozen women who miscarried after being placed in immigration
detention centers under a Trump-era policy that critics said was aimed at
deterring undocumented pregnant women from coming to the U.S. But under a new
Biden administration policy, ICE will for the most part no longer arrest and
detain pregnant women, postpartum women and women who are nursing. The policy
also calls for pregnant women currently being held in immigration detention
to be released while they await the outcome of asylum or immigration cases.
The change, which is the latest reversal of several of the Trump
administration's restrictive immigration and border policies, was quickly
applauded by immigrant advocates. "This policy change will have a direct
impact on saving lives" because federal immigration detention centers
are not equipped to provide care to pregnant women, said Joy Bertrand, a
Phoenix lawyer. She filed a lawsuit in April on behalf of Morales-Alfaro
against the United States and CoreCivic, the
Nashville-based private prison contractor that runs the Otay
Mesa, California, facility where Morales-Alfaro was detained. U.S. Rep. Raúl
Grijalva, D-Ariz., also praised the Biden administration's new policy, which
states that pregnant women should only be held in detention under
extraordinary circumstances and requires they be housed in facilities where
they can receive the specific care they need. “Pregnant and nursing women do
not belong in detention, and I’m pleased the Biden Administration has taken
this first step to prevent their unnecessary detention and reverse a terrible
Trump-era policy,” Grijalva said in a written statement. “This is an
extremely vulnerable population, and we must do everything possible to avoid
the stressors and negligent treatment associated with incarceration. The
accounts we received of the treatment of pregnant women in custody were
horrific, and we must ensure the changes made with this directive are
permanent and not easily undone by future administrations.” In 2016, under
the Obama administration ICE issued a policy advising against the detention
of pregnant women, "with the rationale that incarceration creates
serious health risks for expectant mothers, and detention facilities are not
equipped to serve those unique needs," according to the lawsuit. But in
December 2017, ICE acting director Thomas Homan ended the policy advising
against detaining pregnant women to comply with Trump’s executive order
calling for stricter immigration enforcement. The number of times federal
immigration authorities detained pregnant women jumped 80% the year after the
Trump administration ended the Obama-era ICE policy against detaining
pregnant migrants, a 2020 report by the Government Accountability Office
found. The GAO inquiry was requested by Grijalva and other Democratic members
of Congress after a
24-year-old Honduran woman in ICE custody went into premature
labor and delivered a stillborn baby in February 2019 at the Port Isabel
immigration detention center in Texas. In fiscal year 2017, there were at
least 28 miscarriages by pregnant women in ICE custody, according to the
lawsuit citing data from a Human Rights First 2019 report. Bertrand said the
actual number is likely higher because ICE does not report statistics of
miscarriages or stillbirths involving women in custody that happen at
hospitals. Morales-Alfaro learned she was pregnant while traveling from El
Salvador to the United States. After entering the U.S. near San Diego, she
was apprehended by the Border Patrol and placed in a Customs and Border
Protection facility, according to the lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, an
unidentified CBP officer kicked Morales-Alfaro in the belly and back. When
she told the officer she was pregnant, the officer replied, "That's not
my problem." After two or three days at the CBP facility, where the
temperature was kept very cold, Morales-Alfaro was transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Center in December 2017, according to
the lawsuit. She miscarried around Jan. 15, 2015. The lawsuit cited
inadequate conditions at the Otay Mesa Detention
Center, including inadequate medical care, nutritionless
and inedible food and cold temperatures, which made sleep impossible. ICE officials did not immediately respond
to a request to comment on the policy change or the lawsuit. Amanda
Gilchrist, a CoreCivic spokesperson, disputed the
lawsuit's claims. "While CoreCivic did not
provide healthcare at the time Morales-Alfaro was at Otay
Mesa Detention Center (OMDC), the company vehemently denies the allegations
in this complaint and denies that anything that occurred when she was housed
at the facility had anything to do with issues relating to her health,"
Gilchrist said in a statement. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages in an
amount to be determined by a jury, Bertrand said. She called the Biden
administration's policy change advising against detaining pregnant women a
good step, "but it does not undo the damage that has already been
done."
Apr 30, 2021 newsweek.com
Joe Biden Says 'Give Me Five Days' to
Hecklers Calling for Closure of Detention Centers
President Joe Biden responded to
protesters who demanded that he shut down detention centers by asking for
"another five days" and vowing to close all private prisons during
a speech in Georgia. The president traveled to the Peach State on Thursday
and visited with former President Jimmy Carter before attending a drive-in
rally to mark his first 100 days in office and promote the $4 trillion
spending proposals that he outlined one day earlier during an address to
Congress. Minutes after Biden's speech began, a small group of protesters
interrupted it by shouting demands that he "end detention now" and
"abolish" Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "I agree
with you. I'm working on it, man," Biden said. "Give me another five
days." The president said that he believed the group was referring to
"private prisons" moments later, while promising that he was
working on the issue. "Folks, you all know what they're talking
about," said Biden. "There should be no private prisons, period...
none, period. That's what they're talking about, private detention centers.
They should not exist and we are working to close
all of them... I promise you." Not long after Biden took office, he
signed an executive order aimed at closing all privately-run federal prisons.
Most private prisons in the U.S. were unaffected by the order because they
are run at the state level. The order also did not apply to immigration
detention centers, many of which continue to be run privately. Biden's 2020
campaign platform insisted that the future president would "make clear
that the federal government should not use private facilities for any
detention, including detention of undocumented immigrants." Newsweek
reached out to the White House for comment. Biden's immigration policies have
received considerable criticism in the months since he took office. A number of Republicans blamed a surge of migrants
arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly unaccompanied minors, on
Biden rolling back the policies of former President Donald Trump. Although
temporary holding facilities at the Southern border have been packed, ICE is
currently detaining far fewer undocumented immigrants overall than during the
Trump administration—an average of less than 15,000 per day, down from a peak
of more than 56,000 in 2019. Regardless, some progressives have expressed
outrage that any detentions continue and called for an end to both ICE and
the detention centers.
Feb 12, 2021 kyma.com
Rep. Raúl Grijalva wants end to
privately owned prisons, immigrant detention centers
The Latino Democrat said private
companies "have benefited from lucrative government contracts and
taxpayer dollars to profit off the pain and suffering of others" A Latino
Democratic lawmaker from Arizona has drafted legislation that would end
federal contracts with private companies and remove federal prisoners and
immigrant detainees from the facilities within two years. Rep. Raúl Grijalva
of Arizona plans to reintroduce the Justice is Not For
Sale Act on Thursday. It would bar the Justice Department from contracting
with private entities to provide or operate prisons and immigration detention
facilities, as well as move its prisoners and detainees out of those
facilities. "For too long, private prisons and detention centers have
benefited from lucrative government contracts and taxpayer dollars to profit
off the pain and suffering of others," Grijalva said in a statement to
NBC News. Grijalva's legislation would go further than President Joe Biden's
Jan. 26 executive order, which phases out private prison contracts and
instructs the Justice Department to decline to renew private prison
contracts. Biden's order does not address privately operated immigration
detention centers as Grijalva's bill does. While only about 8 percent of
imprisoned people were held in private prisons, 81 percent of people in
immigration custody were held in privately run or -operated detention
centers, according to a report last year by the American Civil Liberties
Union. The bill also seeks to end contracts with private companies for other
criminal justice entities, such as halfway houses, re-entry programs and
community treatment centers, among others. Grijalva's office said private
companies have extended into those areas as the movement against the private
prison industry has grown. 'Perverse profit incentives' Immigration and civil
rights advocates have pressed Biden to eliminate private contracts for
immigration detention. Grijalva called Biden's executive order "an
important step to address the mass incarceration crisis that
disproportionately impacts immigrants and communities of color." But he
said the federal government must stop using state and local prisons and
immigration detention centers that contract with private companies and
"account for a large slice of the U.S. prison population." "My
bill ends family detention and reinstates case management programs while
removing the perverse profit incentives that allow private prison companies
to flourish," he said. He said the private prison companies have lobbied
through the American Legislative Exchange Council for harsher laws that have
helped increase the prison population they are paid to house. The bill would
also increase oversight of how much inmates and families are charged for
services like banking and phone calls, and it increase inspection and
oversight of immigration detention centers. A 2016 Justice Department report
found that private prisons had a 28 percent higher rate of inmate-on-inmate
assaults and more than twice as many inmate-on-staff assaults compared to
federal prisons, Grijalva said in the letter. Grijalva has sponsored
legislation since 2015 to address the private prison industry, having begun
the work as co-chair of the Progressive Caucus.
Jan 27, 2021 motherjones.com
Biden Will End the Justice Department’s
Use of Private Prisons
For four years, the Trump
administration embraced private prisons, signing contracts with corporations
to incarcerate detainees, immigrants, and people serving federal sentences.
Now, that era is coming to a close as President Joe
Biden signs an executive order Tuesday afternoon instructing the Department
of Justice to allow its contracts with for-profit prison companies to expire.
The executive order “will ultimately end the Justice Department’s use of
private prisons, an industry that houses pretrial detainees and federal
prisoners,” Biden said Tuesday in a speech on his racial equity policy
agenda. The decision means the gradual end for a dozen private prisons
that currently incarcerate about 14,000 people—about 9 percent of the federal
prison population. Most of those are men without US citizenship serving short
federal sentences under low security. It could also affect for-profit jails
run by private prison companies under contract with US Marshals Service, a
DOJ division that holds pretrial detainees. “Private prisons profiteer off of
federal prisoners and are proven to be—or are found to be by the Department
of Justice Inspector General— to be less safe for correctional officers and
for prisoners,” domestic policy advisor Susan Rice said at a White House
briefing today. “President Biden is committed to reducing mass incarceration
while making our communities safer. That starts with ending federal
government’s reliance on private prisons.” The order will restore a policy
first implemented under President Barack Obama, when then-Deputy Attorney
General Sally Yates released a memo announcing that the Justice Department
would phase out its contracts with private prison companies to lock up people
convicted of federal crimes—responding both to a declining federal prison
population and to a damning Office of the Inspector General report showing
that federal prisons run by for-profit companies were more violent and less
secure than publicly operated ones. But before the change could have much
effect, Trump won the presidency and Attorney General Jeff Sessions swiftly
reversed the policy, kicking off a new era of growth for private prison
companies fueled largely by federal contacts.
Biden’s executive order will have major implications for the private
prison industry’s top players, including the GEO Group, Management and
Training Corporation, and CoreCivic, formerly known
as the Corrections Corporation of America. In 2019, Bureau of Prisons and
Marshals Service contracts accounted for about 23 percent of the GEO Group’s
revenue, and 22 percent of CoreCivic’s revenue.
Stocks for CoreCivic and GEO fell 18 percent and 12
percent respectively following the news of the executive order on Tuesday.
While Biden’s move fulfills a campaign promise to end the federal use of
private prisons, it stops short of a second pledge to end for-profit
immigration detention centers. It remains unclear how quickly private immigration
detention centers—which make up the majority of the
ICE detention system and account for about a third of GEO’s and CoreCivic’s revenue—could be closed and what would
replace them. Yet today’s order is a
sign of the Democratic Party’s decisive shift against private prisons over
the last several years. Public outcry against private prisons intensified
during the Trump administration, as outrage over hardline immigration
policies, including family separation, drew attention to ICE’s detention
apparatus and the corporations that profited from it. In 2019, under pressure
from activists, major US banks announced they would no longer finance the
private prison industry. Meanwhile, states have been weighing and passing
their own private prison bans. Silky Shah, the executive director of the
Detention Watch Network, welcomed the new policy while calling for a renewed
focus on ending private immigration detention. “We are encouraged that the
Biden administration’s Department of Justice is prioritizing phasing out the
use of private prisons—a decision that was made too late in the Obama
administration and was immediately reversed by Trump,” she said in a
statement. “The Biden administration must now address the private prison
industry’s toxic relationship with the Department of Homeland Security.”
Jan 26, 2021 marketwatch.com
Biden’s policies will hurt prison stocks, analysts say
‘We have begun the countdown to a
“whole of government” shift in policy that will have a materially adverse
impact on private prison companies’ President Joe Biden’s pledge during the
2020 campaign to “end the federal government’s use of private prisons” has
analysts predicting trouble for publicly traded companies that run those
facilities. “With President Biden’s team falling into place at agencies
across the federal government and his most senior nominees undergoing Senate
confirmation, we have begun the countdown to a ‘whole of government’ shift in
policy that will have a materially adverse impact on private prison
companies, particularly CoreCivic (CXW) and GEO
Group (GEO),” said Beacon Policy Advisors analysts in a note last week. CoreCivic’s stock CXW, -1.77% has lost 59% over the past
12 months, while GEO shares GEO, -3.83% have shed 50%. The broad S&P 500
index SPX, +0.36% has gained 17% over the same period. Recent months have
delivered a big change in fortunes for the companies from the situation four
years ago, when a Canaccord Genuity analyst said former President Donald
Trump’s inauguration was highlighting the most compelling opportunity in
years to buy prison stocks. Beacon’s analysts also said that with the House
and Senate both now under Democratic control, there is less opportunity for
Congress to interfere with a change on private prisons. “Skeptics of the
ability of the Biden administration to fulfill this campaign promise
typically point to the protests that will be likely from the USMS and ICE
career staff, who have come to rely on these companies,” Beacon’s team added,
referring to the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs
Enforcement. “To get around these complaints with ICE, we expect that the
Biden administration will likely release a substantial number of detainees
and dramatically scale back the number of undocumented immigrants that are
detained and deported in the future. … For the USMS, the decision is
trickier, but we expect that the first step will be to redouble efforts to
house federal detainees in state and local prisons.” Mizuho analysts have
sounded downbeat on prison stocks as well, saying in a November note that
they expect “REITs involved in prisons/detention centers to be negatively
impacted.”
Jan 12, 2021 marketplace.org
Biden’s immigration policy could affect
the private prison industry
The campaign of President-elect Joe
Biden promised to end for-profit detention centers.
President Donald Trump is scheduled to
visit the Texas-Mexico border Tuesday to highlight the partial construction
of a wall that was a big promise throughout his presidency. Something else
that happened under his watch: the expansion of private prison companies’
involvement in housing detained immigrants at the border. A study from the
Marshall Project found that the portion of prison company CoreCivic’s
revenue from immigration detention more than doubled between 2014 and 2019.
Denise Gilman studies immigration law at the University of Texas at Austin.
Under Trump, she said, “the private prison industry just changed its focus to
the federal government and specifically to immigration detention and began
engaging in much heavier lobbying and campaign contributions.” The campaign
of President-elect Joe Biden promised to end for-profit detention centers.
And David Fathi, director of the American Civil
Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, said things could change quickly
once Biden takes office. “The administration could make various policy
changes that would simply reduce the number of detained immigrants, thereby
reducing demand,” he said. The stock prices of two of the country’s largest
prison companies, Geo Group and CoreCivic, fell
dramatically when it became clear that Biden had won the presidency.
Dec 15, 2020 motherjones.com
Exclusive: Read Elizabeth Warren’s Scathing Report on “Corrupt” Prison
Audits
“The result has been the rubber-stamping of
dangerous facilities and the waste of millions of taxpayer dollars.”
Let our journalists help you make sense
of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap
of news that matters. The organization responsible for accrediting US
prisons, jails, and detention centers runs a “corrupt” process that puts a
“rubber stamp” on dangerous facilities while taking in millions from the
private prison industry, according to a scathing report from Sen. Elizabeth
Warren (D-Mass.), shared exclusively with Mother Jones. The report, the
result of a nearly 19-month investigation by the senator’s office, examined
the American Correctional Association (ACA), a nongovernmental organization
that acts simultaneously as a professional association and an oversight body
for prison and detention systems. Federal, state, and local governments pay
the ACA to audit the facilities where they keep people incarcerated and issue
its stamp of approval on their operations. Qualifying facilities must meet
the standards ACA spells out in its published manuals, covering everything
from fire code compliance to officer gun training. Private prisons and
detention centers, meanwhile, are often required to get accredited by the ACA
to access lucrative government contracts, according to Warren’s report—and
when scrutinized, they point to their accreditation status as a defense.
After all, the ACA’s website says, accreditation is awarded to the “best of
the best.” The problem, Warren’s report found, is that the “best of the best”
includes virtually every facility that pays its accreditation fees. The ACA
currently counts over 1,200 accredited facilities; since 2007, only four have
been denied accreditation. The groups provides three
months’ notice and preparation tools for audits, “essentially providing the
answers to the test in advance,” as the report puts it. And the ACA’s seal of
approval lasts three years, with facilities conducting “self-reporting” in
the interim. “A review of available evidence suggests that that accreditation
has little to no correlation with detention facility conditions and
practices, and therefore little to no value whatsoever,” the report states.
“The result has been the rubber-stamping of dangerous facilities and the
waste of millions of taxpayer dollars.” Warren recommends that the Department
of Justice and Department of Homeland Security stop paying the ACA for
accreditation and instead establish a “rigorous, independent, and
transparent” oversight process. In a letter responding to initial questions
from Warren’s office, ACA executive director James Gondles
wrote that there was “nothing nefarious” in helping facilities prepare for
audits—though the group is “currently in the process of considering”
unannounced audits. The group did not respond to a request for comment on the
findings of her investigation. Warren’s report points to examples of private
prisons and detention centers that maintained their ACA accreditation despite
“critical failures” like riots, staffing problems, poor living conditions. It
also cites the Adelanto Detention Center, operated by the for-profit GEO
Group. Adelanto was accredited by the ACA in 2014 and again in 2017 with a
score of 99.6 percent. But when a government watchdog agency conducted a
surprise inspection in May 2018, inspectors found that detained immigrants
were inappropriately forced into shackles and punished with solitary
confinement before they were found to have broken any rules. Some detainees
had to wait weeks or months for medical care, even when they were acutely
ill, and there was a months-long waitlist for dental work. (The dentist, who
invariably chose to pull teeth over filling cavities, “suggested detainees
could use string from their socks to floss if they were dedicated to dental
hygiene,” according to the inspectors’ report.) And despite a history of
suicide attempts in the facility, immigrants were allowed to freely hang
knotted bedsheets referred to “nooses” in their cells. “The ACA’s private
prison accreditation system is riddled with conflicts of interest, lacks transparency,
and is subject to zero accountability even though millions in taxpayer
dollars…flow to the ACA and private prison companies,” Warren’s report
states. “These problems put the health and wellbeing of incarcerated and
detained individuals, the staff and employees who work in those facilities,
and our communities at risk.” (In his letter, Gondles
wrote that criticizing the ACA for problems at accredited facilities
“misunderstands” the purpose of its accreditation program: “ACA accreditation
does not mean that there will never be an incident of violence, or that there
will never be noncompliance with a health-related, safety, or other ACA
standard,” he said.) The report’s description of a lax ACA auditing process
lines up with what my colleague Shane Bauer observed in 2015 while working
undercover as a guard in a prison run by CoreCivic,
then known as the Corrections Corporation of America: Two well-dressed white
men enter Ash unit and do a slow lap around the floor. The only questions
they ask Bacle and me are what our names are and
how we’re doing. They do not examine our logbook, nor do they check our
entries against the camera footage. If they did, they would find that some of
the cameras don’t work. They do not check the doors. If they did, they would
see they need to be yanked open by hand because most of the switches don’t
work. They don’t check the fire alarm, which automatically closes smoke doors
over the tiers, some of which must be jimmied back open by two guards. They
do not ask to go on a tier. They do not interview any inmates. They do a
single loop and they leave. These issues have been
made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, which turned prisons, jails, and
detention centers into some of the country’s largest coronavirus hot spots,
infecting nearly a quarter million prisoners. In response to the pandemic,
the ACA has reduced its auditing and refused to adopt new health and safety
standards, the Warren investigation found—missing an opportunity to protect
the health of incarcerated people, who are significantly more likely than the
general population both to be infected by COVID-19 and to die from it. But
why is the system so broken? Warren’s report suggests that it all comes down
to money. In addition to being “the closest thing we have to a national
regulatory body for prisons,” as Bauer put it, it’s also a professional
association that lobbies Congress on criminal justice issues and serves as a
“voice for corrections.” That dual role presents an “irreconcilable conflict
of interest” when the time comes to evaluate conditions inside prisons and
detention centers, Warren’s report argues. For one thing, the ACA gets nearly
half its revenue from accreditation fees paid by the very entities it audits,
including top private prison companies, her investigation found. Over a
five-year period from 2014 to 2018, the GEO Group spent $1,429,599 on ACA
accreditations, while CoreCivic spent $867,580,
according to the report. The Management and Training Corporation, a smaller
competitor, paid $501,850. The companies pay the ACA tens of thousands more
in conference costs, certification fees, training, and for other services.
Meanwhile, current or former private prison
employees sit on each of the ACA’s governing boards and committees. (“The
fact that one representative of a private correctional company sits on ACA’s
Executive committee and two such representatives sit on the ACA’s Board of
Governors and Delegate Assembly could not even begin to suggest that ACA is
somehow beholden to those private interests or that the decisions of ACA’s
governing bodies are driven by persons with conflicts of interest,” Gondles wrote in his letter to Warren, adding that the
organization was governed by volunteers.) “Incarcerating and detaining
millions of people for profit perverts our criminal and immigration systems
and disproportionately harms Black and Brown people,” Warren said in a
statement to Mother Jones. “This investigation shows that the American
Correctional Association, the nation’s largest accreditor of federal prisons
and detention facilities, is rife with corruption and that the federal
government should end its reliance on ACA’s deeply-flawed accreditation
process and ban private prisons.” Warren is no friend to private prisons;
during her presidential campaign, she issued a plan to end their use on both
the federal and state levels. She and other Congressional Democrats have been
investigating private prison and detention center oversight since at least
2018, following a series of alarming reports on ICE detention centers from
the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General, a
watchdog agency, including the report on Adelanto. Inspections at other
private detention centers found delays in medical care, problems with mold
and food handling, or a lack of basic hygiene supplies like toothpaste and
toilet paper. ICE was ostensibly keeping tabs on these facilities using an
oversight system involving yet another private auditor, the Nakamoto Group,
but that system led to neither “sustained compliance” nor “systemic
improvements,” according to yet another OIG report. When Warren and other
Senate Democrats sent letters to GEO and CoreCivic
expressing “deep concern” over the findings, both companies defended
themselves in part by saying they were regularly audited. GEO’s response
touted the ACA accreditation scores of its Adelanto facility—kicking off the
senator’s investigation.
Sep 25, 2020 wapt.com
Immigrants in US custody died after
'inadequate' medical care, congressional investigation reports
Immigrants in U.S. custody faced
widespread failures in medical care, including some issues that resulted in
death, according to a new congressional investigation released Thursday. At
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities operated by for-profit
contractors, detainees "often do not receive critical treatment or face
delays," the inquiry found. Additionally, the review found that many of
the for-profit facilities lack sufficient medical staff and failed to provide
necessary care for chronic medical conditions. In some cases, there were
delays in emergency care, staffing shortages and poor sanitation, according
to the investigation led by House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman
Carolyn Maloney of New York and subcommitee
chairman Jamie Raskin of Maryland. Last summer, the
House Oversight committee announced it was investigating the Trump
administration's "rapidly increasing" use of for-profit contractors
to detain immigrants after reports of health and safety violations. For its
investigation, the committee requested documents from ICE and two for-profit
contractors, CoreCivic and GEO Group. The two
companies operate facilities with more than 80% of all people in ICE
detention. Committee staff also inspected 22 Department of Homeland Security
facilities in six states, including ICE detention centers, as well as Customs
and Border Protection facilities. Issues of inadequate care at ICE facilities
have been an ongoing issue. Last year, the Department of Homeland Security
inspector general found expired food and dilapidated bathrooms during
unannounced visits to four immigrant detention facilities in 2018. The
findings of the new investigation comes a week after
a whistleblower who previously worked at an ICE facility in Georgia detailed
a high rate of hysterectomies and alleged medical neglect in a complaint
filed to the DHS inspector general. Ken Cuccinelli, the DHS senior official
performing the duties of the deputy secretary, called the allegations
"shocking" on Thursday, saying he had dispatched a team from
outside of ICE to investigate. During the course of
the congressional investigation, detainees reported that when facility
personnel did not deem medical issues to be emergencies, they did not take
them seriously. "Individuals suffering from migraine headaches, hernias,
and high blood pressure reported that their conditions went untreated,"
the report reads. For example, a detainee in Texas reportedly remained in
medical quarantine for nine days with facial swelling before he was diagnosed
with mumps. He permanently lost hearing in one ear. ICE Director of Public
Affairs Stacey Daniels told CNN in a statement that the agency is "fully
committed to the health and safety of those in our care and will review the
committee's report." "However, it is clear this one-sided review of
our facilities was done to tarnish our agency's reputation, as opposed to
actually reviewing the care detainees receive while in our custody.
Improvements to civil detention are based on concrete recommendations from
the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) and an aggressive inspections
program, which includes formal facility inspections, independent third-party
compliance reviews, daily on-site compliance reviews and targeted site
visits," Daniels added. The committee detailed the deaths of several
detainees in custody. In 2018, Huy Chi Tran, 47,
died of a sudden cardiac arrest after eight days in detention. He was placed
in solitary confinement at CoreCivic's Eloy
Detention Center in Arizona. According to the report, a guard failed to
monitor him and then falsified logs. CoreCivic does
not provide medical or mental health services at Eloy Detention Center,
according to Amanda Gilchrist, the company's director of public affairs. ICE
is "solely responsible for contracting, staffing and oversight of any
medical and mental health services provided at Eloy," she said. "CoreCivic is committed to the safety and health of every
individual in our care. We don't provide the health care in the majority of our immigration facilities. In most cases,
comprehensive medical, mental health and dental care is provided for by the
ICE Health Services Corps," said CoreCivic
Director of Public Affairs Amanda Gilchrist in a statement. "Where we do
provide care, our clinics are staffed with licensed, credentialed doctors,
nurses and mental health professionals who contractually meet the highest
standards of care," she added in part. GEO Group spokesperson
Christopher V. Ferreira said in a statement, "We strongly reject these
baseless allegations, which are part of another politically driven report
that ignores more than three decades of providing high-quality services to
those in our care." Ferreira said the GEO Group's Adelanto ICE
Processing Center — one of the facilities in the report — "provides safe
and humane residential care and high quality 24/7 medical services." In
May 2017 after being detained for nine days at the California facility,
Vicente Caceres-Maradiaga, 46, died of an enlarged heart and liver. At least
five other immigrants have died at Adelanto since 2012, according to the
investigation. "Internal documents obtained by the Committee show that
the issues that led to Mr. Caceres-Maradiaga's death were systemic at
Adelanto," the report reads. According to GEO Group, there are approximately
79 health services professionals at the center. In 2019, the health services
team provided more than 54,000 medical encounters, Ferreira said. "For
more than thirty years, we have provided high-quality services to the federal
government under both Democrat and Republican administrations and we have
always complied with the Performance-Based National Detention Standards,
which were first established under President Barack Obama's administration.
Furthermore, the Center is highly rated by independent accreditation
entities, including the American Correctional Association and the National
Commission on Correctional Health Care," he added. The ongoing
coronavirus pandemic has "compounded" the problems in the
facilities, according to the report, which found that detainees face
deficient sanitation practices and poor handling of infectious diseases. At
least four detainees have died after contracting the coronavirus in ICE
custody and more than 6,000 detainees and ICE staff have contracted the virus
as of Sept. 23.
Oct 13, 2019 wbur.org
Sen. Warren Asks DOJ Inspector General To Investigate Private Prison Transport Companies
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is asking the
Department of Justice's inspector general to investigate private prisoner
transport companies, and examine whether the DOJ is
doing its job to oversee an industry frequently under fire over abuse
allegations. Companies like Prisoner Transportation Services of America, or
PTS, have been the subject of harrowing stories of alleged prisoner abuse,
neglect and sexual assault. That includes the alleged sexual assault of a
Massachusetts woman. As WBUR reported in May, the woman, Smith, said she was
raped by a PTS guard during a two-week trip in a van from California to
Massachusetts. (WBUR only identified Smith by her surname as the station
doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault without their consent.) Warren and
other lawmakers brought their requests to the DOJ's Office of the Inspector
General after an attempt to get information from the companies directly earlier
this year. The Massachusetts Democrat and 2020 presidential candidate
initially sent a letter to PTS in February asking how the company keeps
detainees safe, as federally required. The letter was also signed by fellow
2020 hopeful New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, as well as Florida U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch. The Democrats also asked how many detainees in
PTS custody have died, or been injured or sexually
abused. Get news from the Capitol and the campaign trail sent to your inbox
each week by WBUR’s Kimberly Atkins. Sign up now. PTS was able to say how
many people died in its custody (five), and how many people reported a sexual
assault (six). But the company said it couldn't report how many people
suffered a medical emergency or needed medical attention. PTS president Joel
Brasfield called it "impractical" to gather that data going back
more than 10 years, as the lawmakers requested. PTS also didn't identify any
audits or evaluations conducted by the DOJ, the
agency responsible for making sure minimum standards protecting people being
transported as well as the public are followed. The lawmakers called it an
"alarming omission." "The information we have obtained from
our request to PTS suggests that, despite numerous reports of problems that
endanger prisoners and the public, DOJ may be failing to provide critical
oversight of private prisoner transportation companies," the lawmakers
wrote in their letter sent Friday to the inspector general. In that notice,
Warren and her colleagues asked the IG's office to examine the DOJ's
oversight of the private prison transport industry dating back to 2003,
spanning three presidential administrations. PTS did not immediately respond
to a message seeking comment. Neither did the DOJ. The Massachusetts
Probation Service has tapped PTS to move more than 460 adults since 2015. PTS
and its subsidiaries collected more than $1.3 million in the last 10 years
from Massachusetts, mostly from the probation and parole departments. In
Smith's case, she was put into PTS custody in January 2016 after she was
picked up on a probation violation while attending a drug rehabilitation
program in California. A guard, Jermaine Taylor, was charged with three
counts of sexual assault for allegedly putting his hands under her pants
while she was handcuffed and shackled during a stop in New Jersey. Taylor
pleaded guilty in August — not to sexual assault, but third-degree aggravated
assault causing significant bodily injury. He admitted only to securing the
woman's handcuffs too tightly, causing "impairment of functions."
Smith told WBUR she was angry with the plea, and wasn't informed by Atlantic
County, New Jersey prosecutors about the specifics to which Taylor was
pleading. Taylor is scheduled to be sentenced next month. As part of the plea
deal, he is expected to receive no jail time beyond the nearly five months
he's already served.
Sep 26, 2019 newsweek.com
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS DOUBLED PRIVATE PRISON SPENDING WITH MOST MONEY
SPENT ON DETAINING IMMIGRANTS: 'THEY ARE NOT A THREAT TO PUBLIC SAFETY,'
ADVOCATES SAY
Under the Donald Trump administration,
the U.S. has more than doubled its spending on services from one of the
biggest private prison companies in the world, with the
majority of that spending going towards the detention of immigrants across
the country. In the first 11 months of fiscal year 2019 alone, the U.S. has
seen more than $595 million in obligated spending dedicated to The GEO Group,
a Florida-based for-profit correctional institutions company operating
prisons around the world, according to the U.S. government's federal spending
website. The total is more than double the nearly $260 million that the U.S.
government obligated to The GEO Group under the Barack Obama administration
in 2014, five years ago, with the amount dedicated to the private prison
company seeing a sharp spike in President Donald Trump's first year in
office, 2017, and steadily increasing over the following two years. The surge
in funding for The GEO Group, which has faced international scrutiny over its
treatment of inmates—and in particular, of immigrant
detainees—comes as the incarceration rate in the U.S. continues to fall. In
April, reports released by the Department of Justice revealed that the
imprisonment rate in relation to the U.S. population had fallen to its lowest
point since 1997, sinking to just 440 inmates per 100,000 residents in 2017.
That decrease has come "despite [the Trump administration's] best
efforts," however, Kara Gotsch, the director
of strategic initiatives at The Sentencing Project, an organization
advocating for prison reform, told Newsweek. "At the end of the Obama
administration, the Department of Justice had announced a phasing out of
private prisons," she noted. "But, with the Trump administration,
he appointed Jeff Sessions as attorney general and they quickly reversed that
phase-out." While Sessions has long since been ousted at the White
House, his efforts to undo the Obama-era order to roll back federal reliance
on private prisons have persevered. A January 2018 memo leaked last year
showed the Justice Department had even gone so far as to seek to identify
inmates to transfer out of government facilities and into privately run
prisons. Still, Gotsch said, the number of inmates
held in federal prisons across the U.S. has been on the decline. Where is the
money going? So, why the boost in spending on a for-profit prison company
like The GEO Group? Immigrant detention appears to be the answer. Of the $595
million the U.S. has obligated to The GEO Group in fiscal year 2019, in excess
of $323 million, or more than 53 percent, was money obligated from the budget
of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which oversees the
detention of immigrants held under federal custody. "Most of that money
is going to ICE detention, which isn't surprising," Gotsch
said. While rates of federal imprisonment are going down overall, under the
Trump administration, communities across the country have seen widespread
"targeted enforcement operations," with some raids leading to the
arrests of hundreds of people at a time. "When the Trump campaign came
into office on a wave of nativism and xenophobia and a war on immigration,
the [private prison] market was revived," Judy Greene, a criminal
justice policy analyst and the founder of Justice Strategies, a nonprofit
research organization focused on cost-effective approaches to criminal
justice and immigration reform, told Newsweek. However, Greene warned,
companies like The GEO Group could suffer in the long-run due to their role
in helping the Trump administration enforce its hardline immigration
policies. "Their participation with this extraordinarily harsh
immigration enforcement regime has tarnished their image with the public to a
[significant] extent," Greene said. This past year, Greene noted, a
number of major banks have sought to distance themselves from the private
prison industry, including firms like The GEO Group, with banks including
Wells Fargo and SunTrust refusing to provide future financing to private
prison giants. "They are now pulling back from financing these companies
and so it's a very troubling picture for [firms like The GEO Group],"
she said. "I should think they are quite worried." And with a
number of 2020 Democratic candidates, including Massachusetts Senator
Elizabeth Warren, throwing their support behind calls to end private prisons
and "exploitation for profit." In a June Medium post, Warren said
that, if elected, she would bring the practice of "private profiteering
off cruelty" to an end. "The government has a basic responsibility
to keep the people in its care safe—not to use their punishment as an
opportunity for profit," Warren wrote. "If we have, you might call
it a regime change," Greene said, adding that companies like The GEO
Group could be "looking at the end of the federal market." For Gotsch's part, however, even if a newly elected leader
were to bring about an end to the use of private prisons, that would not
solve the U.S.'s "mass incarceration problem." "I feel like
people are missing the boat if they think that...if you get rid of the
private prisons, you won't have a mass incarceration problem," she said.
"I'm opposed to the use of private prisons because I don't think anybody
should be profiting off of incarceration," she said. But, even if the
government's reliance on them were to come to an end, "we would still
have racial disparity... we would still have unfair systems from policing to
the courts...All that is still in place...All of that still has to be
reckoned with."
Jul 12, 2019 cbsnews.com
House Oversight Committee seeks
documents from for-profit immigrant detention companies
The House Oversight Committee is
demanding documents related to government contracts with companies that
detain or house thousands of immigrants. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the
chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights
and Civil Liberties, sent letters to two for-profit contractors operating
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers, as well as
another company that runs the nation's largest holding facility for
unaccompanied migrant children. The congressmen also sent letters seeking
similar information from ICE and the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, which oversees care for unaccompanied migrant children. The move
comes amid a groundswell of public outrage following reports of abuse and a
rash of migrant deaths in government custody. "The Committee is
investigating the Trump Administration's rapidly increasing use of for-profit
contractors to detain tens of thousands of immigrants, including a troubling
series of reports of health and safety violations and the dramatically
escalating and seemingly unchecked costs to U.S. taxpayers for these
contracts," Cummings and Raskin wrote in their
letters. The lawmakers cited claims of abuse and inadequate living conditions
in their letters to the chief executives of CoreCivic,
Geo Group, Inc., and DC Capital Partners, LLC. CoreCivic
and Geo Group are each paid hundreds of millions of dollars to operate
detention centers for ICE. DC Capital Partners is an investment firm that
owns Caliburn International, the parent corporation
of the company that operates a massive unaccompanied children shelter in
Homestead, Florida. The letters to DC Capital President Thomas Campbell and
HHS Secretary Alexander Azar note that the company running the Homestead
location has received government contracts totaling more than $545 million.
The letters point to a series of sexual abuse complaints at the facility and
cite a CBS News report documenting the rapid hiring of employees who were
granted a government waiver allowing them to bypass Florida's child abuse and
neglect background check system.
Another CBS News report, revealing that former White House Chief of
Staff John Kelly joined Caliburn's Board of
Directors, is also cited. Before joining the White House, Kelly was also on
DC Capital's board. The investment firm bought the company operating the
Homestead facility in 2018 while Kelly worked at the White House, and its
unaccompanied children operation tripled in size before he left. The House
Judiciary Committee authorized a subpoena for Kelly Thursday, related to his
both his work for Caliburn and his role in
determining federal immigration policy. A spokesperson for Caliburn said in a statement to CBS News that the company
welcomes the investigation "as a chance to tell our story and dispel
misapprehensions about the critical work we do taking care of the teenagers
at the Homestead temporary emergency care shelter until they can be placed in
a safe home during this unprecedented surge of unaccompanied minors entering
the U.S." The letters to CoreCivic, Geo Group
and ICE note that the companies are being paid substantial sums to run
facilities that have been repeatedly criticized by the Department of Homeland
Security's Inspector General for dangerous conditions. The letters point to
at least 25 deaths in ICE facilities since 2017. Both companies said in
statements emailed to CBS News that they are reviewing the letters. Geo Group
noted in its statement that "for more than 30 years, GEO's processing
centers have been subject to independent oversight, including full-time,
on-site government monitors." "We are committed to transparency, and providing the safest and most humane
care possible for those in our 14 ICE processing centers is our top
priority," the company said. "It's critical to understand that CoreCivic has a 35-year track record of working with both
Democrat and Republican administrations to help solve the very types of
crises we are now seeing on our southern border," said CoreCivic spokesperson Amanda Gilchrist. The statement
included a bullet-pointed set of "key facts about our company" that
included a claim that it has never housed unaccompanied migrant children. CoreCivic was previously known as Corrections Corporation
of America until changing its name in 2016. In the 1980s, Corrections
Corporation of America operated an immigration detention center in Texas that
was included in a landmark court case about unaccompanied migrant children.
The case included allegations by a 16-year-old girl of strip and vaginal
searches by guards at the facility. That case led to the Flores Agreement,
which set the nation's laws governing how unaccompanied children must be
treated by the government. The company said in statements to CBS News that it
has never contracted to house unaccompanied migrant children. "It's
unlikely that (federal immigration officials were) able to properly ascertain
her age" at the time, the company said. The Flores case "was about
INS practices at the time" and not specifically about the Texas
detention center, the company said. "CoreCivic
does not operate facilities for the purpose of housing unaccompanied
minors," Gilchrist said. Editor's note: This story has been updated to
clarify that the complaints against Corrections Corporation of America in a
1985 lawsuit were allegations and not proven in court.
Jun 21, 2019 medium.com
National: Elizabeth Warren wants to ban
private prisons
Last month Caliburn
International — a for-profit company whose subsidiary operates Homestead, the
largest detention center for unaccompanied migrant children — hired John
Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff. Caliburn has
profited directly off of the Trump administration’s
inhumane immigration policies — while children at Homestead are reportedly
kept in unsanitary, prison-like conditions, often for months. Now John Kelly
is cashing in, too. Rep. Pramila Jayapal and I have demanded answers. But
this is just the latest example of private prison companies wringing billions
out of federal taxpayers. I’ve been after these companies to come clean about
their practices and human rights abuses. Every answer just raises more
questions. We didn’t get here by chance. Washington works hand-in-hand with
private prison companies, who spend millions on lobbyists, campaign
contributions, and revolving-door hires — all to turn our criminal and
immigration policies into ones that prioritize making them rich instead of
keeping us safe. From 2000 to 2016, the private prison population grew five
times as quickly as the overall prison population. And the profiteers
multiplied, too: today, nearly 4,000 corporations make money off mass
incarceration. President Obama took steps to lower the incarceration rate and
wind down private prisons, but these companies got their biggest break yet
when Donald Trump landed in the White House. With Trump, private prison
companies saw their chance to run the same playbook for our immigration system.
They poured money into lobbying for “alternatives” to ICE detention centers.
And boy, did it pay off. Private detention centers have made millions
implementing Trump’s cruel immigration policies, as the number of detained
children quintupled in just a single year. Today 73% of detained immigrants
are held in private detention facilities. The companies running prisons and
detention centers regularly sacrifice safety to boost their bottom line.
Private facilities have higher rates of assaults than federal prisons. They
violate federal rules by putting incarcerated people into solitary confinement to fit more bodies in
the building. They impose forced labor on immigrants just to make a buck.
Multiple detainees have committed suicide. And now, under Trump, babies are
getting sick and dying from their detention centers. The government has also
stood silently by while private contractors providing services in both public
and private centers come up with extortive schemes to make millions off of the backs of incarcerated people. Prison phone
companies charge as much as $25 for a 15-minute call, forcing families into
debt just to stay connected to loved ones. Commissary contractors mark up
prices, and companies coerce detainees to work for as little as a dollar a day
just to afford basic necessities like toothpaste.
While contractors getting paid taxpayer dollars cut corners to maximize
margins, the government has turned a blind eye. Food companies make millions
but serve bug-infested food to save cash. An investigation into a prison
transport company that allowed at least five deaths and a sexual assault to
occur under their watch has gone nowhere. And today, the exploitation doesn’t
end when individuals emerge from prison or detention. Current law pushes
money into the hands of for-profit supervision companies, many of which are
run by the same private prison corporations. These companies get rich by
making people just getting out of prison — often with huge debts — pay
outrageous fees for monitoring and supervision services like ankle monitors.
Some have gone so far as to threaten individuals with reincarceration. This
is exploitation, plain and simple. Our criminal and immigration systems are
tearing apart communities of color and devastating the poor, including children.
Women — especially women of color — are particularly saddled with the
financial burden. We need significant reform in both criminal justice and in
immigration, to end mass incarceration and all of
the unnecessary, cruel, and punitive forms of immigration detention that have
taken root in the Trump Administration. The first step is to end this private
profiteering off cruelty. The government has a basic responsibility to keep
the people in its care safe — not to use their punishment as an opportunity
for profit. That’s why today, I’m proposing my plan to root out once and for
all the profit incentives perverting our criminal and immigration systems.
Here’s what I’ll do: Ban private prisons and detention facilities. There
should be no place in America for profiting off putting more people behind
bars or in detention. That’s why I will shut down the use of federal private
detention facilities by ending all contracts that the Bureau of Prisons, ICE,
and the U.S. Marshals Service have with private detention providers. And I
will extend these bans to states and localities by conditioning their receipt
of federal public safety funding on their use of public facilities. Stop
contractors from charging service fees for essential services. Companies
shouldn’t be able to treat incarcerated individuals as captive profit
centers. We should prohibit contractors from charging incarcerated and
detained people for basic services they need, like phone calls, bank
transfers, and healthcare. I’ll also keep contractors from imposing
exploitative price markups on other services they provide, like commissary or
package services. And I’ll prohibit companies from charging for re-entry,
supervision, and probation services, too — because no one should have to pay
for their own incarceration, whether it’s inside a facility or outside of
one. Hold contractors accountable by expanding oversight, transparency and
enforcement. It’s time to shine sunlight on the black box of private services
that receive taxpayer dollars. I’ll close the ridiculous FOIA loophole that
lets private prison subcontractors operate in the shadows. I will put in
place an independent Prison Conditions Monitor within the Department of
Justice’s Office of the Inspector General. The Monitor will keep contractors
from cutting corners to make a quick buck by setting enforceable quality
standards, regularly auditing and investigating contractors, and terminating
their contracts if they fall short. I’ll direct the Department of Justice to
prosecute companies that blatantly violate the law. And I’ll make sure
companies are held accountable no matter who’s in the White House by allowing
people to bring a lawsuit against abusive contractors who violate their
rights. Washington hands billions over to corporations profiting off of inhumane detention and incarceration policies while
ignoring the families that are destroyed in the process. We need to call that
out for what it is: corruption. Incarcerating and detaining millions for
profit doesn’t keep us safe. It’s time to do better.
Mar 13,
2019 observer.com
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Grills Wells
Fargo CEO Over Financing ‘Caging of Children’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) grilled Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan
on Tuesday over the bank’s financing of private prisons. “I’m interested in
the human rights abuses and environmental disasters that some say are
financed by your bank, Wells Fargo,” said the freshman lawmaker during
Tuesday’s House Financial Services Committee hearing, pointing to Wells
Fargo’s financial involvement with private prison companies GEO Group and CoreCivic. “We made a decision two years ago to exit two
relationships we had with two private prison firms. One has been exited and
when the credit agreement with the other matures, we will no longer have a
relationship,” responded Sloan, adding that he could not recall which of the
two companies Wells Fargo had ended its business dealings with. After
highlighting three reports documenting CoreCivic
and GEO Group’s construction of family detention centers, Ocasio-Cortez asked
the Wells Fargo CEO why his bank was “involved in the caging of children.” “I
don’t know how to answer that question because we weren’t,” answered Sloan.
“For a period of time, we were involved in financing
one of the firms. We aren’t anymore. I’m not familiar with the specific
assertions that you’re making, but we weren’t directly involved in that.”
Following the Trump administration’s crackdown of the controversial ‘zero
tolerance’ policy, banks involved in the financing of family detention centers
came under heavy criticism by immigration activist groups. Last week,
JPMorgan Chase announced it would “no longer bank the private prison
industry.” “This is a deliberate lie driven by an agenda aimed at abolishing
ICE, knowing that we have nothing to do with passing, setting, or advocating
for or against immigration laws or policies. Our company has never managed
facilities that house unaccompanied minors, and we have played no role with
policies related to the separation of families,” a spokesperson for GEO Group
told Observer in response to Ocasio-Cortez’s questioning. “The contractual
services we provide for ICE today are no different than the services we
provided for eight years under the Obama Administration.”
Mar 14, 2019 truthout.org
As Bankers Back Away, For-Profit
Prison Companies Step Up Political Spending
The U.S. for-profit prison industry, already facing organized opposition
from human rights and justice reform advocates, got some bad news recently
from its bankers. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. bank measured by
assets, last week announced its intention to stop financing private operators
of prisons and immigrant detention centers after an evaluation of costs and
benefits. The move follows banking giant Wells Fargo’s recent decision to
scale back its involvement with the private prison industry as part of its
risk management efforts. The decisions are a blow to an industry with a
business model that relies on debt financing in the form of credit, loans,
and bonds for day-to-day operations as well as for buying smaller companies.
The banks’ announcements come amid a years-long campaign by advocacy groups
that targeted the industry’s bankers. For example, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo
were among the six Wall Street firms identified in a 2016 report by
California-based privatization watchdog In the Public interest (ITPI) as
financing the debt of the two biggest U.S. for-profit prison companies:
Nashville, Tennessee-based CoreCivic (formerly
Corrections Corporation of America), which at the time had total debt of
about $1.5 billion, and The GEO Group of Boca Raton, Florida, with debt of
about $1.9 billion. In 2017, after release of the ITPI report, the national
progressive advocacy group Center for Popular Democracy launched the
“Corporate Backers of Hate” campaign to target “some of the companies which
most egregiously prioritize profits over people,” including JPMorgan and
Wells Fargo. Activists kicked off the campaign with civil disobedience at
JPMorgan’s Manhattan headquarters, followed by rallies outside of shareholder
meetings in Texas and Delaware. Last July, activists working with the
campaign held a protest outside the New York City home of JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon that led to eight arrests. Meanwhile, more than 80
organizations from immigrant rights groups to social investing firms came
together last year as part of the Families Belong Together campaign to create
a corporate accountability committee targeting big banks through strategies
aimed at both industry insiders and consumers. At the same time, activists
intensified scrutiny of the industry’s other financing. For example, a
national initiative called Real Money Moves is calling on athletes, actors,
artists, and activists to keep their money out of private prison companies,
and a growing number of public pension funds are divesting from the industry,
whose stock prices have soared under the Trump administration and its
punitive immigration policies. Then last month, U.S. Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez of New York called for hearings on banks’ funding of private
prisons that hold undocumented immigrants. “We’re going to hold oversight
hearings to make these banks accountable for investing in and making money
off of the detention of immigrants,” she said at an event hosted by an immigrants’
rights advocacy group in New York City. “Because it’s wrong.” While just over
8 percent of all U.S. prisoners are held in private facilities, over 60
percent of those in U.S. immigrant detention are, with CoreCivic
and The GEO Group together holding about 15,000 people in immigrant detention
each day. Under mounting pressure from critics, private-prison firms are
stepping up their already-considerable political influence operations. The
industry spent over $3.8 million on lobbying at the federal level in 2018
alone, and over $1.9 million on campaign contributions during the 2018
campaign cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org. That’s a significant increase
over the industry’s spending of $2.1 million on lobbying and $522,000 on
campaign contributions in the 2014 cycle. CoreCivic,
the second-largest U.S. private-prison company after The GEO Group, last
month retained the lobbying services of The Vogel Group, an influential
bipartisan lobbying firm headquartered in Washington, D.C, as ITPI reported
in its latest weekly privatization report. The issue code on the lobbying
registration paperwork? Banking. The move expands CoreCivic’s
already-considerable lobbying operation. In 2018 alone, the company spent
over $1.2 million lobbying at the federal level, with that money split
between six prominent firms: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, the largest
U.S. lobbying firm by revenue; Gephardt Group, the Atlanta-based labor
consultancy of former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri; Greenberg Traurig,
another of the largest U.S. lobbying firms; Hobart Hallaway
& Quayle Ventures, whose partners include the son of former U.S. Vice
President Dan Quayle; Miller Strategies, whose CEO previously worked for
former Texas governor and current U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry; and Simmons
& Russell Group, whose principals have served as chiefs of staff for
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor
of Arkansas. The Vogel Group lobbyists who’ll be working with CoreCivic are CEO Alex Vogel, who previously lobbied for
the company from 2010 to 2014, and principal Brian M. Johnson. The two men
bring a wealth of conservative political connections and experience. Vogel
served as chief counsel for U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, a Republican who
represented Tennessee from 1995 to 2007. He also served as general counsel
for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and deputy counsel for the
Republican National Committee, according to LittleSis,
a database that tracks power networks. Vogel is married to Virginia state senator
and former Republican lieutenant governor candidate Jill Holtzman Vogel and
is a partnerin her law firm, Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky, which is currently embroiled in an
ongoing lawsuit over its role in wrongly accusing Democratic voters of felony
voter fraud in the 2016 North Carolina gubernatorial election. Johnson
previously headed federal relations for the American Petroleum Institute, a
leading oil and gas lobby, and for Americans for Tax Reform, an anti-tax
advocacy group founded and led by Grover Norquist, a prominent Republican
political operative who has said his goal is to bring America back to what it
was “up until Teddy Roosevelt, when the socialists took over. The income tax,
the death tax, regulation, all that.” Johnson also used to direct the
Alliance for Worker Freedom, now called the Center for Worker Freedom (CWF),
a project of Norquist’s group that opposes labor unions. In 2014, for
example, CWF led a public relations effort against the United Auto Workers
(UAW) effort to organize a Volkswagen manufacturing plant in Chattanooga,
Tennessee, using tactics that included billboards claiming the UAW is a cover
for the “United Obama Workers.” The union lost that vote, but the following
year a group of skilled trades workers at the plant voted to form a
micro-union, though the company has refused to bargain with it. A union foe
like Johnson would likely feel at home working on behalf of the private
prison industry, where few workers belong to unions and typically make much
less than workers in public prisons. The statement CoreCivic
released in response to JPMorgan’s announcement offers a hint of what the
industry’s messaging strategy might look like as the political fight over
private prisons continues. The company said that it is “disappointed” with
the bank’s decision, as Bloomberg reported, which it claimed had played “an
important role in creating better conditions for inmates entrusted in our
care.”
Mar 8, 2019 motherjones.com
The Private Prison Industry Just Suffered a Major Blow. And It Could Just
Be the Beginning.
An expert breaks down JP Morgan’s
latest move.
Last month on Valentine’s Day, dozens of
protesters gathered outside the Upper East Side apartment of Jamie Dimon with a mariachi band and signs urging the JP Morgan
Chase CEO to “break up with” private prisons. This week, he did. The largest
US bank confirmed to Reuters and Bloomberg on Tuesday that it would no longer
underwrite loans and bonds for private prison companies. JP Morgan Chase has
long been one of several major financiers of the industry, whose two leaders—CoreCivic and GEO Group—brought in a combined $4.16
billion in revenue last year. (Mother Jones has reported extensively on both
companies in the past.) The bank’s decision follows nearly a decade of
activism pushing for divestment from the US prison industry and marks the
first divestment by a major US bank at a time when some competitors,
including Wells Fargo, are also signaling their discomfort with private
prisons. It also comes a little more than a week after Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Financial Services Committee,
called for oversight hearings for major US banks over their ongoing
investments in the private prison industry.
In addition to their longtime complaints about human rights in
for-profit lockups, protesters and activist shareholders had been pressuring
JP Morgan executives for months over CoreCivic and
GEO’s association with the Trump administration’s policy of separating
migrant families at the southwest border. (In statements to Reuters, both
companies complained that the role of their company in family separations had
been mischaracterized; CoreCivic and GEO’s
immigration detention centers did not hold children separated from their
families but did lock up separated parents, as well as immigrant families
detained together.) Steve Owen, spokesman for CoreCivic,
called the bank’s decision “disappointing,” but what does the news actually mean for private prison companies now and for the
future of the industry? To find out, I called up Lauren-Brooke Eisen, author
of Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration
and a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. Here are the key
takeaways: It’s a big deal: JP Morgan and other big banks are vital to the
industry’s expansion. Back in 2013, CoreCivic and GEO restructured to become Real Estate
Investment Trusts, meaning the Internal Revenue Service considers them real
estate companies rather than traditional corporations. The arrangement comes
with huge tax breaks, but also certain rules—including that they must pass 90
percent of their real estate income to shareholders. “They can’t keep a lot
of cash on hand,” Eisen explains. “That has pushed them into relying on the
big banks.” Without a “war chest” of amassed income, prison companies have to
go to banks like JP Morgan any time they want money to grow their business—to
build a new prison, for instance, or to acquire smaller companies, like drug
treatment centers and electronic monitoring businesses, as the companies
attempt to diversify. As of 2016, Eisen says, CoreCivic
had borrowed $63 million from JP Morgan on a more than $132 million line of
revolving credit. But on its own, JP Morgan’s decision won’t cripple the
industry. The next time CoreCivic and GEO need a
loan, they will likely still have a lot of friends on Wall Street, including
major lenders US Bankcorp, SunTrust, BNP Paribus,
and Bank of America, according to Eisen. Wells Fargo is another, though the
bank has been rolling back its involvement with the industry as well,
reportedly because of an “environmental and social risk management” process.
Staying involved with the prison industry carries some business risk for
these banks, who may alienate investors with moral objections to private
prisons (like the celebrities associated with Real Money Moves) or those who
feel like the politically entangled industry is too risky an investment. But
at this point, “other banks may just say, ‘Well, we’ll increase our line of
credit,'” Eisen notes. “That’s what happens with divestment: One company divests and another company invests.” It could start a
domino effect. Past campaigns to get companies, local governments, and
university boards to take their money out of private prisons have set off a
chain reaction. Prison divestment activism traces back to at least 2011, when
Enlace, a racial and economic justice group, successfully pressured the
Pershing Square Capital Management hedge fund to offload an estimated $196
million worth of shares in CoreCivic, which was
then known as the Corrections Corporation of America. Companies like General
Electric followed, along with government pension funds and colleges like
Columbia University, whose 2015 divestment decision preceded the University
of California system’s. Eisen argues that if history is any indication, the
announcement from JP Morgan could have repercussions at other banks. “Jamie Dimon has a lot of influence with other CEOs and the
business community,” she says. “It is likely that other investors will follow
suit.” If enough do, that could lead to serious financial consequences for
prison companies. In the meantime, it’s a potent symbol of changing
attitudes. “[Divestment] isn’t just something that university students and
graduate students are clamoring for,” Eisen says. “We’re seeing this not only
on university campuses, but in city councils. We’re seeing this with small
money management firms, big money management firms. Now we’re starting to see
this with the big Wall Street banks who have not, so far, staked this
ground.”
Mar 6, 2019 newschannel5.com
U.S. Senators question Brentwood-based prison transportation company
United States Senators Cory Booker (D) New Jersey and Elizabeth Warren
(D) Massachusetts sent a scathing letter to the head of Prisoner
Transportation Services of America which is located in Brentwood. The letter
requested specific information from the company and raised questions about
the company's safety record. Congressman Ted Deutch
(D) Florida joined the Senators in signing the letter which was sent last
week. The lawmakers noted the for-profit company has a moral obligation to
avoid harming individuals in custody. According to the letter, "At least
5 individuals have died while in PTS custody since 2012, one man was
allegedly beaten to death by other prisoners as PTSA guards looked on."
But their concerns go well beyond the deaths. "Public reports have
documented inhumane and unsafe conditions in your transportation vehicles,
including unsanitary practices, gross negligence, physical and sexual
abuse...." adding that one PTSA employee was indicted last June
"for sexually assaulting a female prisoner in his custody." The
letter went on to state "The desire to slash costs in order to increase
profit margins may create perverse incentives for your company to jeopardize
the health and safety of your employees and the prisoners in your
care." The lawmakers asked the
company to provide information on all deaths that have occurred involving
inmates in their custody as well as all allegations of sexual assault against
its employees. In addition they asked for copies of
all contracts the company has to transport prisoners for both public and
private jails and prisons. NewsChannel 5 Investigates called the company for
comment, but the company has not responded.
Mar 1, 2019 themarshallproject.org
Members of Congress Seek Answers From Prisoner Transport Company
Three members of Congress are demanding
information about abuse and deaths aboard the private vans that transport
prisoners around the country. The written request was sent Wednesday from
senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker and Rep. Ted Deutch,
all Democrats, to Joel Brasfield, the president of the nation’s largest
private prisoner transportation firm, Prisoner Transportation Services LLC.
PTS is paid on a per-prisoner-per-mile basis, and its drivers travel in vans
packed with passengers, some of whom are on board for days or even weeks.
Some have medical issues. At least five people have died aboard PTS vehicles
since 2012, according to reporting by The Marshall Project in a follow-up to
an earlier investigation of problems in the industry. Every year, tens of
thousands of people are driven to face criminal charges in faraway
jurisdictions by for-profit prison transportation companies, which are
supposed to be regulated by the U.S. Department of Justice. The agency has
penalized one prisoner transport company—not PTS—after an inmate fled an
unlocked van and was found in a cornfield in 2011. The Congressional letter
cites reports of “inhumane and unsafe conditions” aboard PTS's vans,
“including unsanitary practices, gross negligence, physical and sexual abuse,
and a disturbing inattentiveness to the basic and urgent medical needs of
incarcerated persons in your custody.”
PTS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The letter
also requested PTS demonstrate compliance with federal regulations, provide
contracts with the governments it does business with, as well as furnish
documents and details regarding medical emergencies, deaths and reports of
sexual abuse. It requests a response by March 13. The letter to PTS
represents the latest call by lawmakers for increased scrutiny of the
industry. The initial Marshall Project story prompted then-U.S. Attorney
General Loretta Lynch to promise an investigation, but the status of that
inquiry is not clear. Both Deutch, D-Fla., and
Booker, D-N.J., have previously called on Justice to probe whether the
companies have violated the law.
Feb 5, 2019 uk.reuters.com
National: JPMorgan pulls out of private
prison financing
NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase
& Co has decided to stop financing private operators of prisons and
detention centres, which have become targets of
protests over Trump administration immigration policies. “We will no longer
bank the private prison industry,” a company spokesman told Reuters. The
decision is a result of the bank’s ongoing evaluations of the costs and
benefits of serving different industries, he said. JPMorgan is one of several
banks that have underwritten bonds or syndicated loans for CoreCivic Inc and GEO Group Inc, the two major private
prison operators in the United States. In 2018, banks, including Bank of
America Corp and Wells Fargo & Co, raised roughly $1.8 billion in debt
over three deals for CoreCivic and GEO Group,
according to Refinitiv data. Wells Fargo said in January it was reducing its
relationship with the prison industry as part of its “environmental and
social risk management” process. “Our credit exposure to private prison
companies has significantly decreased and is expected to continue to decline,
and we are not actively marketing to that sector,” Wells Fargo said in its
“Business Standards Report” for 2018. Prison finance is a small business for
JPMorgan, the biggest bank in the United States by assets. JPMorgan was a
leader in 1,153 loan deals worth $354 billion across all industries, according
to Refinitiv data. Prison companies account for about 10 percent of federal
and state prison beds, according to Moody’s Investors Service. But about
two-thirds of people held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are in
private detention centres, S&P Global Ratings
estimated last year. Moody's and S&P Global have speculative grade, or
junk, credit ratings on CoreCivic and GEO Group
partly because their revenues are at risk to changes in government policy and
public scrutiny of companies profiting from detention. (reut.rs/2H4JOf5)
After the Obama administration in August 2016 directed the Bureau of Prisons
to phase out federal use of private prisons, shares of both companies plunged
more than 40 percent. One month after Donald Trump became president, the
order was rescinded and the stocks rebounded.
Activism against the financing of private prisons heated up after revelations
that undocumented minors were being separated from their adult parents. The
Trump administration reversed its separation policy after a public outcry. CoreCivic spokesman Steven Owen called JPMorgan’s
decision “disappointing.” He said in an email that “decisions like this are
being based on false information spread by politically motivated special
interests, who completely mischaracterize our company.” None of CoreCivic’s immigration facilities house children who are
not under the supervision of a parent, Owen said. A GEO Group spokesman said
in an email that the company “has never managed facilities that house
unaccompanied minors.” He added, “We welcome the opportunity to have an open
dialogue with all financial institutions to address the common mischaracterisations of our company’s role and record as
a government services provider.” CoreCivic changed
its name from Corrections Corporation of America in October 2016. It said the
rebranding was to highlight its strategy to transform its business “from
largely corrections and detentions centres to a
wider range of government services.” In 2018 prisons and detention centres still accounted for 87 percent of CoreCivic’s net operating income, according to a recent
presentation from the company to investors. It had 72,833 beds in prisons and
detention centres. JPMorgan’s move away from the
industry comes after activists have challenged Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon at the bank’s last two annual meetings over its
financing of prison companies. Protest groups have also appeared regularly
outside of Dimon’s Manhattan apartment. On
Valentine’s Day, a group appeared with a mariachi band and signs that begged
the executive to “break up with prisons.” At the May 2017 annual meeting, Dimon promised to look in to prison finance. In June, Dimon and the Business Roundtable, a group of CEOs that
he chairs, issued public statements calling for immigration reform and an end
to the Trump administration policy of separating minors from their parents.
JPMorgan’s move could prove mostly symbolic if other lenders or investors in
prison companies do not take similar steps. Activists learned that lesson last
year after they pressured financiers of gunmakers in the wake of a shooting
at a Florida high school. Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc and BlackRock
Inc, the world’s largest asset manager, last year said they were limiting
business with gunmakers in various ways. But others, including Wells Fargo,
declined to follow suit and filings show firearms companies retain access to
a wide range of financing options. (reut.rs/2Evd3nn)
Nov 18, 2018 warren.senate.gov
National: Sen Warren and others go after private prisons
Washington, DC - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along
with Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Kirsten
Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.),
Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii),
Tom Udall (D-N.M.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), today sent letters to GEO
Group and CoreCivic, the two largest private
immigration detention contractors in the United States, to request
information about the companies’ compliance with federal immigration
detention standards following a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office
of the Inspector General (OIG) report about unsafe conditions and
mistreatment of immigrants at a number of privately-run immigration detention
centers. The senators also wrote
separately to Nakamoto Group, a private company responsible for auditing
immigration detention facilities, about the company’s questionable record of
reviewing conditions at those facilities. U.S. Immigration and Customers
Enforcement (ICE) currently detains around 40,000 immigrants in 211 detention
facilities across the United States.
GEO Group and CoreCivic together house the
vast majority of immigrants held in privately-operated detention facilities—and
their role continues to grow under the Trump Administration, which reversed
an Obama-era policy to phase out the federal government’s reliance on private
prisons. In their letters to GEO Group and CoreCivic,
the senators outlined how the companies’ aggressive lobbying efforts to
promote immigration policies that boost their profits have largely paid off,
noting that the Trump Administration’s immigration agenda has filled private
facilities with migrant adults and children. The senators also pointed out
that GEO Group has received $560 million in federal contracts in the last two
fiscal years, while CoreCivic has received
contracts worth $225 million to manage ICE immigration detention facilities
since 2017. “The President’s harmful and destructive immigration agenda has
done immeasurable damage to immigrants, their communities, and America’s
standing in the world as a safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers, but it
has been lucrative for private prison corporations that operate immigration
detention facilities,” the senators wrote. The senators also expressed deep
concern with the findings of a DHS OIG investigation into ICE’s oversight of
immigration detention facilities, which revealed that the private prison
facilities it visited “undermine[d] the protection of detainees’ rights,
their humane treatment, and the provision of a safe and healthy
environment.” The OIG report also
found that inspections conducted by Nakamoto Group are potentially
misrepresenting conditions in these facilities or underreporting violations.
“These reports and the results of the OIG investigations indicate that the
perverse profit incentive at the core of the private prison business model
has resulted in GEO Group and CoreCivic boosting
profits by cutting costs on expenditures including food, health care, and
sufficient pay and training for guards and prison staff,” the senators
continued. In a series of questions, the senators requested information about
each immigration detention facility operated by GEO Group and CoreCivic, their inspection records and results of
audits, information about deficiencies cited in the reviews, as well as
evidence that they have been or are being addressed. The senators’ letter to Nakamoto Group
asked several questions about the company’s compliance with its government
contract and the effectiveness of its inspections. The senators requested the
information be provided no later than November 30, 2018.
Jan 31, 2018 newsweek.com
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION GIVING BOOST TO PRIVATE PRISON CAMPAIGN DONORS,
LEAKED MEMO SHOWS
The Trump administration has ordered the transfer of more inmates from
government-run facilities to private lockups, a leaked memo from the Bureau
of Prisons has shown. The move marks the latest boost given to the private
prison industry, which donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the
president's election campaign and his inauguration. The memo, published by
Government Executive on Thursday, orders federal prisons to submit “eligible
inmates” to move to private contract facilities. Eligibility is determined as
those prisoners who are low-security male non-United States citizens with 90
months or less remaining on their sentences. The transfers are intended to ”alleviate overcrowding” and “maximize the
effectiveness of the private contracts,” the memo states. Currently, there
are 11 private prisons in contract with the Bureau of Prisons, with most
housing immigrants who have been convicted of crimes. Of those, nine are
operated by CoreCivic and GEO Group, who gave
$250,000 and $475,000 to President Donald Trump's campaign and inauguration,
respectively. In February 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued
guidance in scrapping an Obama administration policy to phase out private
prisons. The lockups have been shown to be more dangerous than
government-operated facilities. A 2016 inspector general report found that
private prisons had higher rates of assaults, confiscated eight times as many
contraband cell phones and endangered inmates’ security and rights. The same
year, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates ordered the Bureau to either end
its contracts with private operators once they expired or reduce their use to
match the declining inmate population. But Sessions reversed that move just
weeks after Trump took office, charging that Yates had changed course on a
long-standing Bureau policy and declaring that private prisons are needed in
the federal correctional system to meet “future needs.” The American prison
population has been on the decline, falling for the third year in a row in
2016, a Bureau report showed. But Sessions and Trump have vowed to be
"tough on crime," a policy that typically lands more people behind
bars as they are locked up for low-level crimes. Under their contracts with
the government, private prisons receive the same amount of money no matter
how many inmates are housed in the facilities, in part to ensure that more
people aren’t being locked up to increase profits. The Department of Homeland
Security relies on the prisons to detain undocumented immigrants facing
deportation. Also on Thursday, the Bureau instructed facility administrators
in a conference call to prepare to cut 12 to 14 percent of their staff or
5,000-6,000 jobs, some of which are currently vacant. In the past, the
federal lockup unit has only staffed as many people as it needs to operate
its prisons safely. Low staff levels have been shown to leave both inmates
and guards more vulnerable to assaults.
Dec 19, 2017
grijalva.house.gov
Representatives sent a letter over sexual assault in
immigration detention.
Today, 73
Congressional representatives sent a letter to DHS and DOJ demanding
accountability over sexual assault in immigration detention. Please see CIVIC’s joint press release with
Congresswoman Chu and Congressman Grijalva below. Warm regards, Christina M. Fialho Co-Founder/Executive Director Community
Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC)
Oct 17, 2017
.thestranger.com
Reps. Adam Smith and Pramila Jayapal Are Back in Seattle to Talk About
Ending Private Immigration Prisons
The House of Representatives isn't in session this week, so Reps. Adam
Smith and Pramila Jayapal are back in Seattle today to talk about a major piece
of legislation introduced at the top of the month. The "Dignity for
Detained Immigrants Act" would phase out the use of private prisons for
immigrant detainees. The bill, introduced by Congressman Adam Smith on
October 3, does much more than that, too. It promises an overhaul of the
nation's immigration detention system. For example, the bill ends the policy
of mandatory detention, whereby immigrants are automatically taken into
custody if they have a criminal conviction—as are asylum seekers if they arrive
without the proper paperwork. The American Civil Liberties Union has
repeatedly challenged the practice of mandatory detention, which they say has
greatly expanded immigrant detention and often sweeps up legal residents who
have successfully been living in the US for decades after already serving
sentences for offenses like drug possession. While immigrants today are
subject to long periods of detention while awaiting bond hearings as a matter
of policy (see the case of formerly detained DACA Dreamer Daniel Ramirez
Medina in Seattle earlier this year), Smith's bill would institute a practice
of immediate custody determinations in court, based on probable cause. The
bill also sets up inspections for private facilities that contract with
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), like private prison company GEO
Group's Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. The Northwest Detention Center
has long been the focus of hunger strikes from immigrant detainees and their
supporters aiming to improve access to medical care and adequate nutrition.
Reps. Smith and Jayapal will be speaking about the Dignity for Detained
Immigrants Act at 1 p.m., and we'll have more details this afternoon. Watch
this space for more.
Mar 4, 2017 charlotteobserver.com
Did companies’ donations buy a Trump change in private prison policy?
What does hundreds of thousands of dollars buy in Washington these days?
Potentially a lot of private detention centers by the Trump administration.
That’s the accusation two members of Congress have laid at the doorstep of
President Donald Trump and two of the nation’s biggest private prison
companies after newly confirmed Attorney General Jeff Sessions dismissed
extensive research into the problems of the private prison industry and –
with the swipe of a pen – overturned an Obama administration decision to
phase out its use. “That connection seems suspiciously evil,” said Rep.
Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo. The swift action by Sessions after his confirmation
and the rapid blowback from Cleaver and Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, D-Ill.,
highlight the sensitive concerns about the influence of money in Washington
and help explain why government contractors are not allowed to contribute to
presidential campaigns. The White House blasted the Democrats for implying
any kind of “pay-to-play” scheme. “This is just more partisan politics by
Democrats who have made clear they intend to ignore the priorities of the
American people and launch meritless attacks against this administration at
every turn,” said White House spokesman Michael Short. Steve Owen, a
spokesman for one of the companies, now known as CoreCivic
Co., said the company did not contribute to any presidential candidate or
campaign. He acknowledged that his company had contributed to this year’s
inaugural events but said it was consistent with past practice. He pointed
out that the company doesn’t lobby or take positions on proposals or policies
that would affect the duration of an individual’s detention. Pablo Paez, vice president of corporate relations for the other
company, GEO Group, which is based in Boca Raton, Florida, defended his
company’s $225,000 donation to a pro-Trump political action committee, saying
it was legal because it had been made by a subsidiary, GEO Corrections
Holdings Inc., that has no contracts with any governmental agency. “Our
contribution was fully compliant with all applicable federal election laws,” Paez said. "THAT CONNECTION SEEMS SUSPICIOUSLY
EVIL." -- Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo. Private prisons became an
important part of America’s corrections system starting in the 1980s, as
tough sentencing guidelines were adopted to address the drug wars. The
population has since dropped, and private facilities are largely used to
detain immigrants. Forty-six of the roughly 180 facilities in which Immigration
and Customs Enforcement holds detainees are privately run, according to ICE.
About 60 percent of its 400,000 annual detainees are held in privately
operated facilities. They’re being held for alleged crimes, while awaiting
deportation or while fighting asylum cases to remain in the country. The
Justice Department announced last August that it was phasing out its use of
corporate-run prisons because of cost and safety concerns for inmates.
According to a report by the department’s Office of Inspector General,
inmates in several private facilities received bad food and poor medical
care. Staffing levels were inadequate. The conditions contributed to security
problems. The private prisons saw 28 percent more inmate-on-inmate assaults.
Eighty-six percent of the private facilities had lock-downs, in which inmates
had to be confined to their cells, compared with 43 percent of government-run
prisons, the report found. CoreCivic, then known as
Corrections Corp. of America, and GEO Group saw their stock shares plummet
when the inspector general’s report was published. Advocates hailed the
Obama’s administration’s decision to move away from private prisons as a
positive step toward ending mass incarceration. But that was six months ago,
an eternity in a political landscape that changed dramatically with Trump’s
election. Trump made campaign statements supporting private prisons, and the
companies’ stock shot back up after he was elected. Trump then signed an
executive order authorizing the construction of a wall along the border with
Mexico, the hiring of 15,000 more immigration agents and the detention of
everyone who could not be immediately deported. Then, soon after Sessions was
confirmed, the attorney general signed a new memorandum ending the Obama
administration’s initiative to phase out the use of private prisons. Trump
had received little support from major corporations when he was running for
the White House, but the GEO Group was a rare publicly traded corporation
that made contributions to a pro-Trump super political action committee,
according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission reports by Ciara
Torres-Spelliscy, a law professor at Florida’s
Stetson University who’s a fellow at the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice
at New York University Law School. Spelliscy noted
that 45 percent of GEO’s revenue came from operating 26 prison centers for
the federal government. “From the outside, what you see is what looks like
some pay-to-play behavior, where you have spending by someone who is a
federal contractor who is interested in a particular policy outcome, spending
money in an election and then after the election their winning candidate does
the policy that they wanted all along all,” Spelliscy
said. “It certainly looks suspicious.” Damon Hininger,
president and CEO of CoreCivic, noted in an
earnings call that Trump’s order immediately allocated resources to the
construction, operation and control of additional detention facilities. “When
coupled with the above-average rate crossings along the Southwest border,
these executive orders appear likely to significantly increase the need for
safe, humane and appropriate detention bed capacity that we have available in
our existing real estate portfolio, as well as an increased demand for our
detention facility design, development and facility maintenance expertise,” Hininger said. GEO Group, which operates 64 correctional
facilities in the United States, was named in a complaint to the FEC as
violating a prohibition on campaign contributions from government contractors
over its $225,000 contribution to the pro-Trump super PAC Rebuilding America.
Cleaver said he didn’t have a problem with CoreCivic
and Geo making money. But he said it was unseemly how the government appeared
to be partnering with the companies so they could profit by building more
detention centers. Cleaver and Gutiérrez accused the companies of advocating
policies that “deprive people of their liberty” to increase profits. “With
the massive increase in deportations and criminalizing people planned by
Trump, prisons are looking at a fat windfall from the sorrow of others,”
Gutiérrez said. “We just wanted to put these companies on notice that the
American people are watching and that profiting from incarceration has moral
consequences.” Paez said the company welcomed the
opportunity to meet with Cleaver and Gutiérrez “to dispel the myths” about
it. He said his company’s focus was on helping reduce “recidivism and helping
individuals successfully re-enter society.” While the Justice Department conducted
an extensive investigation last year before announcing the changes, Sessions
didn’t give much information about why he was reversing course. In four
sentences, he said the Obama policy had changed long-standing policy and
practice and had impaired the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ ability to meet
future needs. That led groups like Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit
campaign-finance watchdog group, to ask questions and ultimately file the FEC
complaint against GEO. “There is no indication that the reversal of the prior
policy was similarly based in any sort of research,” said Brendan Fischer,
associate counsel for the Campaign Legal Center. “A reasonable person might
then start to look at what other factors might have influenced this decision.
And $225,000 to a super PAC and additional contributions to the inaugural
committee certainly could be factors in that decision.”
Aug 24, 2016 tampabay.com
Behind Marco Rubio, a powerful ally: Private prison operator Geo Group
The federal government’s decision to stop using private prisons puts a
spotlight on one of Geo Group’s favorite politicians: Marco Rubio. Few
candidates in the country have gotten more help from the Boca Raton based
company, including $80,400 in the last month alone. Geo Group employees and political
action committee contributed $30,400 to Rubio’s Senate campaign while the PAC
gave $50,000 to the super PAC supporting Rubio, records show. That’s on top
of nearly $190,000 in support Rubio has received dating to his time as
speaker of the Florda House, when Geo Group landed
a major contract with the state, to his presidential run. Rubio said Monday
that he hadn’t read the Justice Department report citing cost and safety
concerns at private prisons. Geo Group stock plunged but was on the rise
Monday as company officials downplayed any significant harm to their bottom
line. “I’ll look at the report and what they found and if the findings are
such that justify their decision, then it will be justified,” Rubio told the
Tampa Bay Times on Monday while campaigning in Tallahassee. “At the end of
the day, contractors are supposed to save us money, not cost us money.” The
campaign declined to answer a follow-up question about why Rubio has gotten
so much attention from the country’s second-largest private prison operator.
Geo Group runs a federal immigration detention center in Broward County that
has been the subject of protests and six Florida state prisons. As the
Times/Herald recently reported, it is poised to benefit from expansions of
state contracts relating to inmate mental health treatment, juvenile
detention and electronic monitoring. The company and other private prison
operators have long been major political players, using contributions and
lobbying heft to expand its footprint. Since 2004, Geo Group has given about
$1.7 million to federal candidates, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics. It has spent $4.7 million on lobbying in the same time, including
hiring Navigators Global, which employs founding partner Cesar Conda, Rubio one-time chief of staff. Conda
has said he did not lobby on Geo Group matters. Florida candidates are among
the most frequent recipients of Geo Group money. Rubio’s Democratic rival in
the Senate race, Patrick Murphy, got $1,000 in 2014. Democratic Sen. Bill
Nelson has taken money. Geo Group gave $100,000 to Right to Rise USA, the
super PAC that supported Jeb Bush’s presidential bid. It has invested heavily
in the political careers of Florida Republicans Rebecca and Joe Negron, some
$288,000 in all. But Rubio stands out, and Geo Group has been quick to
support his 2016 Senate run, with employees giving $30,400. It also gave
$50,000 to Florida First Project, the super PAC backing Rubio. When Rubio was
running for president, Geo Group gave $100,000 to Conservative Solutions
super PAC. Geo Group also supported Rubio in his House days, pouring $50,000
into Floridians for Property Tax Reform, the committee Rubio used to push his
proposals and travel the state, gaining key exposure that helped him in the
2010 Senate run. While Rubio was House speaker, Geo Group gave more than
$100,000 to the Republican Party of Florida. His connections to Geo Group
have come up in recent years. Last year in Iowa, a writer for the watchdog
blog, Governing Under the Influence, asked Rubio about the largess. “I don’t
invest in other people’s agenda,” Rubio replied, “they invest in my agenda.”
Aug 9, 2016
cnsnews.com
Clinton: 'I Have Proposed an Office of Immigrant Affairs for the White
House'
(CNSNews.com) -
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton says she would create a new
office of Immigrant Affairs in the White House to help her achieve her goal
of comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship. Speaking
to a joint gathering of black and hispanic
journalists on Friday, Clinton said she would start working on immigration
reform "immediately" if she wins in November. "I will defend
DACA and DAPA while I work vigorously for immigration reform," Clinton
said. "I have proposed an Office of Immigrant Affairs for the White House
so that we are able to answer questions and provide information and help
people. "I will take a very hard look at the deportation priorities. My
priorities are violent criminals, people suspected of any kind of connection
to terrorism, not hard-working mothers and fathers and people who go to work,
help support this economy, pay $12 billion a year into Social Security, so we
will take a hard look at that. "We will close private detention centers,
just like I want to end private prisons. We're going to close private
detention centers. So, I have a very active agenda and we're going to be
moving on it and I believe -- and you know, obviously it depends upon the
outcome of this election - which is why it's so important to register more
voters." Clinton described the upcoming election as a referendum on
immigration: "I am hoping that the outcome of the election, which I am
working hard to ensure a victory, will send a clear message to our Republican
friends that it's time for them to quit standing in the way of immigration
reform," she said. "If you remember, after the 2012 election, the
Republican National Committee did what they called an autopsy of their loss
and concluded that they could not continue to deny the importance of
immigration reform, and they urged Republicans running for office to get on
board. Now, that hasn't turned out the way that they seemed to have hoped. We
have, instead, a Republican nominee who has been virulently anti-immigrant.
"But there's nothing like winning to change minds." Clinton said if
the U.S. Senate returns to Democratic control and Democrats pick up seats in
the House, she views the "political landscape as increasingly
favorable" to passing immigration legislation that will make it legal
for millions of foreigners to stay in the country. "So, I have a very
active agenda and we're going to be moving on it and I believe - and you
know, obviously it depends upon the outcome of this election - which is why
it's so important to register more voters. "My campaign is trying to
register 3 million more voters, convince people to turn out, because we're
going to start early and we're going to be tenacious and absolutely committed
to getting a positive result. I think the chances, once we win, will improve
dramatically."
Aug 4, 2016 politico.com
CCA: Could this be the beginning of the end?
Immigration authorities are looking at possible changes to family
detention practices following a federal appeals court ruling clarifying the
government's options, according to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
Last month, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a key part of the Obama
administration's interpretation of a long-standing settlement regarding
immigration detention for minors. The Justice Department argued that the
nearly-two-decade-old deal requiring quick release of children in most
circumstances only applied to children traveling across the border alone and
had no impact on those crossing illegally with relatives, usually their
mothers. However, the appeals court found the 1997 settlement in Flores v.
Reno does apply to accompanied minors, forcing immigration officials to find
a way to get such children out of immigration detention quickly. "On an
operational level....we're looking now at what impact that has," Johnson
told reporters Wednesday at a breakfast discussion organized by the Christian
Science Monitor. "We are looking at whether to change the practice in
any way in light of the 9th Circuit ruling." Johnson defended his
agency's creation of "family residential centers" for family border
crossers, saying the facilities are necessary to handle increased numbers of
families illegally crossing the U.S. border from Mexico since 2014. "The
practice has reformed considerably since 2 years ago when we first opened
these things up, but I think that we need to continue the practice, so we’re
not just engaging in catch-and-release on the border," Johnson said.
While the appeals court said most minors have to be released quickly, the
judges clarified that the 1997 agreement does not apply to the detention of
parents or other adult family members. So, in theory, the Department of
Homeland Security could seek to release kids to relatives other than the one
they crossed into the U.S. with. However, one immigrant rights advocate said
he doesn't expect much change because so many of the families crossing the
border illegally are passing the government's initial test for claiming
asylum and being promptly released at that point. "There's now about an
80-percent approval rate on the credible fear determination," said Peter
Schey, who's leading the effort to enforce the
Flores settlement. "Detention has gone from an average of 60-plus days
to an average of about 10 days." Schey said
the high release rate and short stays for most families left him puzzled by
Johnson's claim that the family detention centers were needed to prevent a
"catch-and-release" policy. "The notion that this is a
deterrent is a complete joke," the advocate said. "They've modified
the program to the point I think it's a magnet......What's the point?" Schey said he and other lawyers are still pursuing some
complaints under the settlement, including claims that conditions in Border
Patrol stations where kids and families stay up to three days are inadequate
and require some children to sleep on concrete floors. He also said that
detention is too long for children not found to have a "credible
fear" of persecution in their homeland, with authorities making little
effort to get those children released. Beyond Johnson's comments, there are
other indications federal authorities are rethinking family detention
efforts, while not giving up on the concept. In March, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement sought new proposals for "family residential servcies." And on Wednesday, the same day Johnson
discussed the issue with reporters, the for-profit prison company running the
ICE family facility in Dilley, Texas warned investors that it could make less
money on that contract or lose it altogether. "ICE engaged us to
consider modifying the scale and cost of services currently performed at the
South Texas Family Residential Center for the purpose of achieving a more
cost-effective solution in light of various policy changes that have occurred
since the commencement of the contract,"' Corrections Corporation of
America said in a quarterly earnings release. "We have submitted a
proposal to ICE for our South Texas Family Residential Center in response to
its request with respect to family unit detention reflecting a lower cost to
ICE. Further, we continue to engage ICE in discussions regarding our scale
and cost of services, but can provide no assurance that we will be awarded a
new contract for family unit detention, will successfully renegotiate our
existing contract with ICE, or will be able to maintain the margins we
currently generate under the contract," the company said.
Jul 19, 2016
truth-out.org
Senate Bill Would End Tax Breaks for Private Prison Companies
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) introduced legislation last week that would
make it tougher for private prison companies to take advantage of federal
rules that provide massive tax breaks for special real estate firms, a move
that racial justice and prison divestment activists say is an important step
toward confronting the corporations that control around 8 percent of the
nation's prisons and immigrant jails. As Truthout has reported, the nation's
two largest prison firms, GEO Group and Corrections Corporations of America
(CCA), avoided a combined $113 million in federal taxes in 2015 alone. Large
portions of the companies are allowed to file with the IRS as Real Estate
Investment Trusts, or REITs, which enjoy a special tax status designed to
encourage real estate investment. The bulk of CCA and GEO Group's
multibillion-dollar revenue stream comes from taxpayers, but both companies
have seen their corporate tax rate plummet by 30 percent or more since they
secured REIT status in 2012, according to annual financial reports. CCA,
which owns 66 jails and prisons nationwide and runs an additional 11 facilities
on behalf of the government, reported a net income tax benefit of nearly $138
million in 2013 alone. Federal law requires the bulk of these tax benefits to
be paid out to shareholders in the form of dividends, so the extra cash is
not reinvested into programs and resources for prisoners and jailed
immigrants, or to pad the salaries of private
prison guards, who can earn wages as low as $15 per hour. Activists also say
these dividends encourage wealthy investors to profit from mass incarceration
and lobby for the racist policies that drive it. "Private prisons are
one part of a larger system of mass criminalization that has to be fought on
many fronts," said Amanda Aguilar Shank, an organizer with the racial
and economic justice group, Enlace. "Part of dismantling this system is
recognizing the huge economic investment we are making in criminalizing and
locking up enormous sectors of our community, and finding ways to divest and
reinvest those resources into life-giving services like housing, education
and health care." Established as a special tax status more than 50 years
ago, REITs were originally intended to be passive investment vehicles,
allowing groups of investors to put money into real estate properties without
actually buying and servicing them, much like mutual funds. REITs are
required to distribute 90 percent of their taxable income back to
shareholders annually in the form of cash or stock dividends, which in
turn are tax-deductible for the REIT. REITs are supposed to stick to the real
estate business, but CCA and Geo Group provide dozens of
(non-real-estate-related) services and products to jails, prisons, immigrant
jails and the people held captive in them. Both companies also run entire
facilities. The IRS has allowed companies to break themselves up in order to
meet REIT requirements and enjoy the tax breaks, so CCA and GEO Group spun
off sections of their companies that provided services, such as education and
health care, or incorporated them as "subsidiaries" of the REIT.
These spin-offs are supposed to pay federal taxes, but both companies have
convinced the IRS that the bulk of their business is essentially renting
space out to the federal and state governments to house prisoners, so the
majority of their income is now tax-exempt. Wyden's legislation would close
this loophole by preventing "active business activities" from
filing as REIT subsidiaries. "This legislation would significantly
weaken the for-profit prison industry," Shank said, "and it would
divest resources from tax subsidies for private prisons, freeing up millions
of dollars that could be reinvested in services that actually keep our
communities safe." Wyden blamed a "broken-down tax code" for
allowing private prison firms to take advantage of REIT status, but he made it
clear that the bill is not just about taxes. With the nation roiling over
racist police violence, Wyden noted that the bill is part of a broader effort
to reform a criminal legal system that has disproportionately negative
impacts on immigrants and people of color. "As part of rethinking our
criminal justice system, particularly as it results in the mass incarceration
of low-income and minority individuals, the tax rules for REITs must be
changed so that we are not encouraging companies to unjustly profit from
prison detention services," Wyden said in a statement. Meanwhile, prison
corporations are not happy about the bill. CCA spokesman Steve Owen told
Truthout that the "rationale for this bill is deeply misguided" and
Congress has better things to do "than legislating winners and losers in
an independent, IRS-driven REIT qualification process that is already
time-tested, rigorous and fair." "The fact is, we provide
problem-solving alternatives that help our government partners address some
of their biggest corrections challenges, such as dangerous overcrowding and
skyrocketing costs," Owen said. "Our company has made significant
public commitments to help inmates successfully re-enter society, including
helping thousands of people earn a GED." Critics of the industry,
however, say prisons run by private companies are more violent than public
prisons and have higher rates of recidivism among prisoners. Plus, private
companies that provide telecommunications and other services to prisoners
make business decisions that increase the likelihood that incarcerated people
will become returning customers, such as banning in-person visits with family
members despite research showing that maintaining family ties reduces
recidivism. "Because private prison profits come from people spending
time behind bars, it's no surprise the companies make business decisions
resulting in higher recidivism," said Donald Cohen, executive director
of In the Public Interest, a watchdog group that recently published a brief
on the subject. It's unclear at this point whether Wyden's bill will make it
out of committee, but Shank said that grassroots pressure to reform the
criminal legal system and abolish private prison is only building, so
lawmakers should decide whether they want to be on the right side of history,
or not. "We are living in an era of mass incarceration, immigration
detention and police brutality," Shank said. "Grassroots movements
like Black Lives Matter and Not1More deportation have exposed this violence and
provided a unified direction for a growing number of people of all races that
are committed to fighting criminalization in all of its forms." The push
to end the REIT tax breaks is just one part of the National Prison Divestment
Campaign, an effort spearheaded by Enlace, community groups, and unions
seeking to divest public resources from prisons and reinvest them into
services that prevent poverty and violence, such as housing, health care,
education and community-based safety strategies.
Jul 16, 2016 yubanet.com
Details of Private Prison Corporation Immigration Contracts Not Exempt
from Freedom of Information Act, Judge Rules
NEW YORK, NY, July 15, 2016 - Last night, in a case seeking documents
under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regarding the detention bed quota
in immigration detention facilities, a federal judge ruled that the details
of government contracts with private prison corporations are not exempt from
public release under FOIA. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had argued that the contracts were
“confidential commercial information” and releasing them would harm the
competitive advantage of the private prison companies, claims roundly
rejected by the court. At a time when medical neglect and deaths in
immigration detention are receiving increasing attention, the Court also
rejected the government’s attempts to keep secret the staffing levels of
medical and social service personnel. “ICE has increasingly utilized private
prisons over the years, making the system less transparent to the public and
unaccountable to immigrants whose lives are impacted by detention,” said
Silky Shah, Co-Director of Detention Watch Network, which brought the
lawsuit. “However, with this ruling it is clear that ICE’s tactics to keep
the detention system secret and hidden have failed. Rather than wasting
advocates’ time and energy on lengthy FOIA litigation, ICE should immediately
make all information pertaining to detention contracts publicly accessible
and transparent.” “Today’s ruling is important both for the freedom of
information and for efforts to curb the undue influence of private prison
corporations on immigration detention practices,” said Center for
Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Ghita Schwarz. “The Court has
made clear that ICE and private prison contractors may not keep their
contractual arrangements secret. The Freedom of Information Act obligates the
government to inform the public of the details of its immigration detention
system, and ICE can’t hide behind private prison corporations to evade its
public reporting obligations.” Attorneys praised the Court for holding ICE
accountable to the public. Professor Jenny-Brooke Condon, Director of the
Seton Hall Law School Equal Justice Clinic and co-counsel in the litigation
said, “The ruling is a resounding victory for democratic transparency and
accountability: it preserves the public’s essential role in checking
government abuse, waste and dysfunction in an era of increasing
privatization.” Detention Watch Network and CCR filed the FOIA litigation to
obtain information about the workings of the detention bed quota, which
requires the funding of 34,000 immigration beds at any given time. The
information ICE sought to keep secret is crucial for illuminating the
financial incentives behind prison contracting as well as the social and
medical resources available to immigrants detained within the system. In
June, Detention Watch Network (DWN) and the Center for Constitutional Rights
(CCR) released a report, Banking on Detention 2016 Update, showing the extent
to which ICE grants financial benefits to private and public entities that
detain immigrants through government contracts requiring ICE to pay for
guaranteed minimums at detention facilities. The report argued that this has
rendered immigrants, including children and families, a source of profit for
contractors. The case is Detention Watch Network et al. v. ICE et al. Read
today’s ruling here. The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to
advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States
Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966
by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a
non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use
of law as a positive force for social change.Industry:
Court rules in favor of transparency
Jul 12, 2016 themarshallproject.org
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch Will Probe Private Prisoner Transport
Industry
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told lawmakers Tuesday her office
would investigate apparent lapses in federal oversight of private prisoner
transportation companies, the subject of a recent Marshall Project
investigation that revealed a pattern of deaths and abuses in the industry.
Under questioning by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.),
Lynch told the House Judiciary Committee that she was unfamiliar with the
industry, which the Justice Department is tasked with monitoring under a 2000
law that has been enforced only once. At a key moment in the questioning,
Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) interrupted to insist that Lynch “look into
this in depth, and report back to the committee.”“We
would very much require that,” he added. Also on Tuesday, Sen. Cory Booker
(D-N.J.) urged Lynch in a letter to probe possible abuses on for-profit
transportation vans, which carry tens of thousands of people every year
across millions of miles. “It is critical that the Justice Department uncover
whether abuse of prisoners and conditions of confinement violations by
private prison transport companies and their officials violated laws and
regulations within the Department’s jurisdiction,” Booker wrote. The Marshall
Project story, published July 6 with The New York Times, was the result of a
seven-month investigation into private transport companies used by 26 states
and countless localities to extradite suspects and fugitives.A
review of thousands of court documents, federal records and local news
articles and interviews with guards and executives revealed a pattern of
deaths, neglect, escapes and accidents in the industry. Four people have died
since 2012 on vans run by the largest company in the business, Prisoner
Transportation Services. Among them was Steven Galack,
whose story Deutch recounted during the committee
hearing. Galack was living in Florida when he was
arrested for failing to pay child support and placed on a private van for
extradition to Ohio. He grew agitated on the trip, and two prisoners said a
guard on the van directed the other prisoners to beat him. Mr. Galack was found dead in Tennessee. His cause of death
was undetermined. Deutch asked why a 2000 law
intended to regulate the industry has been enforced by the Justice Department
only once in 16 years.“General Lynch,” he said,
“I’d just ask what else can be done for us to focus on an issue that we were
so concerned about here in Congress 16 years ago that we passed legislation,
but that legislation seemingly goes unnoticed or certainly unenforced.”Lynch responded that all prisoners should be
treated humanely and fairly and offered to review the issue, which she said
was new to her. At that point, Goodlatte interrupted. Reached later by phone,
Deutch called the chairman’s intervention pivotal.
“The chairman going on record to ask that the Attorney General provide a
report to us — that elevates this issue into a priority for the House
Judiciary Committee,” Deutch said. The committee
hearing focused primarily on the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Deutch’s office plans to send follow-up questions
to Lynch’s office, including examining the four deaths. Steven Galack’s brother Robert said he was struck by news of the
hearing.“Who would ever
imagine something positive would come of this?” he said. “For a guy who died
penniless on a prisoner transport van to be mentioned before Congress, that
is almost vindication.”
Feb 10, 2016
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Marco Rubio and Hillary Clinton Accepted Almost the Same Amount of Prison
Lobbyist Donations
One little-known fact this year is that Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio
have benefited from prison lobbyist money. In fact, they've taken almost the
same amount of contributions from major prison lobbyists. Clinton's campaign
has received $133,246 while Rubio's campaign accepted $133,450 from the
prison lobby. According to a Vice News piece titled How Private Prisons Are
Profiting From Locking Up US Immigrants, Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio have
taken virtually the same amount of donations from the two most influential
prison lobbyists in the U.S.: VICE reviewed federal campaign disclosures and
found that lobbying firms linked to GEO and CCA have already contributed more
than $288,300 to three of the leading candidates. Clinton's Ready for Hillary
PAC received $133,246 from lobbying firms linked to GEO and CCA. Rubio's PACs
and campaign have taken a total of $133,450 from private prison companies or
groups that lobby on their behalf. Bush's campaign and his Right to Rise
Super PAC have received $21,700 from lobbying groups affiliated with GEO and
CCA. "These companies are investing their money for a reason," said
Bob Libal, the executive director of Grassroots
Leadership, a group that fights to end for-profit incarceration. "That
reason is to maintain policies that benefit them." Rubio's home state of
Florida has recently faced a crisis with its corrections system and has the
11th highest incarceration rate in the nation. While Hillary Clinton expects
to receive the majority of the African American vote among Democrats, mass
incarceration has targeted African Americans at a higher rate than any other
demographic. Thus, Clinton's willingness to accept money from the prison
lobby runs contrary to the interests of a core constituency. According to the
NAACP, national statistics show black citizens targeted at alarming rates by
the prison system: African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the
total 2.3 million incarcerated population African Americans are incarcerated
at nearly six times the rate of whites Together, African American and Hispanics
comprised 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and
Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population According to
Unlocking America, if African American and Hispanics were incarcerated at the
same rates of whites, today's prison and jail populations would decline by
approximately 50%. One in six black men had been incarcerated as of 2001.
If current trends continue, one in three black males born today can expect to
spend time in prison during his lifetime 1 in 100 African American women are
in prison. Nationwide, African-Americans represent 26% of juvenile
arrests, 44% of youth who are detained, 46% of the youth who are judicially
waived to criminal court, and 58% of the youth admitted to state prisons
(Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice). 5 times as many Whites are using
drugs as African Americans, yet African Americans are sent to prison for drug
offenses at 10 times the rate of Whites African Americans represent 12% of
the total population of drug users, but 38% of those arrested for drug
offenses, and 59% of those in state prison for a drug offense. What's most
startling is that African Americans on average vote around 90% Democrat in
presidential elections, yet Hillary Clinton accepted money from major prison
lobbyists, even as "African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six
times the rate of whites." As for the reaction from Latino and African
American civil rights organizations, these groups pressured Clinton to stop
taking the prison lobby's money, as illustrated in a Huffington Post article
titled Hillary Clinton Says She'll End Private Prisons, Stop Accepting Their
Money: Lobbying firms that work for two major private prison giants, GEO
Group and Corrections Corporation of America, gave $133,246 to the Ready for
Hillary PAC,according to Vice. Those companies
operate a number of criminal and immigrant detention facilities, some of
which have been plagued by allegations of abuse and poor treatment of
detainees. Immigrant and civil rights groups have urged Clinton to stop
accepting contributions from donors with ties to GEO and CCA. Earlier
Thursday, in announcing its co-founder Cesar Vargas was moving to the
campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the advocacy group Dream Action
Coalition singled out Clinton for accepting those contributions. Sanders
recently introduced a bill to ban government contracts for private prisons,
including immigrant detention centers. It's unknown if Clinton would have
still accepted prison lobbyist contributions had these groups not pressured
the former Secretary of State. What's also surprising is that Jeb Bush
actually received less money ($21,700) than Clinton, from the same interests
that target a key voter base among Democrats. In contrast to Clinton, Rubio,
and Bush, Senator Bernie Sanders has been outspoken in his desire to ban
private prisons, as stated in a USA Today piece titled Bernie Sanders seeks
to ban private prisons: Sen. Bernie Sanders said he hopes to end the
"private, for-profit prison racket" with the introduction Thursday
of bills to ban private prisons, reinstate the federal parole system and
eliminate quotas for the number of immigrants held in detention. The Vermont
independent, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination,
introduced the "Justice is not for Sale Act" with Democratic Reps.
Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Bobby Rush of
Illinois. It would bar the federal government from contracting with private
incarceration companies starting two years after passage. "The profit
motivation of private companies running prisons works at cross purposes with
the goals of criminal justice," Sanders said. "Criminal justice and
public safety are without a doubt the responsibility of the citizens of our
country, not private corporations. They should be carried out by those who
answer to voters, not those who answer to investors." In 2016, Bernie
Sanders has been the leading voice among presidential candidates on the issue
of banning private prisons. With the Democratic race heating up and both
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton close in the polls, the issue of prison
lobbyist donations will factor into the Democratic primaries. Bernie Sanders
has never taken money from the prison lobby, while The Intercept wrote last
year that Private Prison Lobbyists Are Raising Cash for Hillary Clinton. In
addition, Bill Clinton's recent apology for his role in making mass
incarceration "worse" will also be a key issue in the 2016
Democratic Primary. The Los Angeles Times writes that "The federal and
state prison populations rose more under former President Bill Clinton than
under any other president." This year, Hillary Clinton could be linked
not only to her acceptance of prison lobbyist money, but also Bill Clinton's
role in mass incarceration.
October 23, 2015 correctionsone.com
Hillary Clinton stops accepting
donations from private prisons
Says she wants to "end the era of
mass incarceration"
WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton, currently
running for the democratic presidential nomination, announced Thursday that
she would no longer be accepting campaign contributions from private prison
companies in an effort to back up her pledge to end the practice. The
Huffington Post reports that Clinton said all previous donations would be
given to charity. Xochitl Hinojosa, a spokesperson for Clinton, said that
Clinton promised to end private prisons and private immigrant detention
centers when she is president. “She believes we should not contract out this
core responsibility of the federal government, and when we’re dealing with a
mass incarceration crisis, we don’t need private industry incentives that may
contribute – or have the appearance of contributing – to over-incarceration,”
Hinojosa said in a statement Thursday. GEO Group and Corrections Corporation
of America donated $133,246 to Hillary PAC. Both operate a number of criminal
and immigrant detention facilities, some of which have been plagued by
allegations of abuse and poor treatment of detainees.
Jun 25, 2015 politicalnews.me
Federal: Powerful Sen Chairman calls for investigation in overbilling
WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Chuck Grassley is calling on the Bureau of Prisons to explain how
approximately $2 million in questionable spending was allowed in one of its
largest prison management contracts. A recent Justice Department Inspector
General audit of a Bureau contract for management of the Reeves County
Detention Center uncovered that the Bureau improperly paid $1.95 million in
fringe benefits at the contractor’s request. The inspector general was
reviewing the Bureau’s contract with Reeves County, Texas, and its
subcontractors for compliance with terms relating to billing and staffing
requirements as well as oversight and monitoring. Both the Bureau’s and the
contractor’s failure to understand the applicable law led to the improper use
of funds, according to the inspector general’s audit. The audit further
determined that the Bureau should reduce the monthly payout to the contractor
by $41,088 to prevent additional waste of $945,024 throughout the remainder
of the contract. The improper spending was compounded by findings that the
prison consistently failed to meet minimum contractual standards and received
too many notices of concern. Further, one of the subcontractors, the GEO Group,
did not adequately respond to the inspector general’s inquiries. In a letter
to the Bureau, Grassley is asking for a detailed explanation of its oversight
practices as well as whether the Bureau has taken steps to remedy the
concerns raised by the inspector general’s audit. A signed copy of Grassley’s
letter can be found here. Full text of the letter is below.
June 12, 2015
The Honorable Charles E. Samuels, Jr.
Director
Federal Bureau of Prisons
320 First Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20534
Dear Director Samuels:
The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has
contracted with counties and private contractors to manage 14 prisons that
house criminal aliens. One of those contracts was awarded to Reeves County,
Texas to operate the Reeves County Detention Center (RCDC). This contract has
an estimated value of $493 million and is BOP’s second largest contract.
Reeves County subcontracted with the GEO Group (GEO), a corporation that is
also a primary contractor in four federal correctional facilities. Reeves
County also subcontracted to Correct Care Solutions, LLC (CCS), to provide
comprehensive health care services. In April of 2015, the Department of
Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audited BOP’s contract with
Reeves County for compliance with contract terms and conditions relating to
billings, staffing requirements, and contract oversight and monitoring. OIG
found substantial waste and abuse. Specifically, OIG found that “Reeves
County improperly requested and the BOP improperly paid $1.95 million in
fringe benefits it was not entitled to receive, including $175,436 in payroll
taxes and workers’ compensation insurance[.]” In addition, CCS improperly
requested $74,765 in fringe benefits that were unsupported by payroll
documentation. OIG further noted that the unallowable reimbursements have “a
compounding effect over time” and therefore in addition to the aforementioned
unallowable reimbursements, BOP “should reduce the contract’s monthly price
by $41,088 to ensure the contractor will not improperly charge BOP an
additional $945,024” through the life of the contract. OIG concluded that the
unallowable reimbursements were able to occur because both the BOP and the
contractors failed to understand the requirements of the Service Contract
Act. In addition, between February 2007 and December 2014, the RCDC was rated
“deficient” or “unsatisfactory” in 6 of 12 award fee evaluation periods.
According to OIG, RCDC struggled immensely to adequately perform under the
contract, including: “[RCDC] consistently struggled to meet or exceed
baseline contractual standards, received an unacceptable number of
deficiencies and notices of concern; was unresponsive to BOP inquiries;
struggled with staffing issues in health services and correctional services;
and frequently submitted inaccurate routine paperwork, including erroneous
disciplinary hearing records and monthly invoices. In addition, the BOP
reports repeatedly described RCDC I/II’s quality control program as minimally
or marginally effective.” This is concerning. As the oversight authority, BOP
ought to have more control over entities that it contracts with so as to
ensure adequate performance. According to the OIG, it appears that RCDC was
often totally unresponsive to BOP inquiries all while BOP was paying for
unallowable reimbursements valued in the millions of dollars. According to
the OIG, $2,028,847 in BOP expenditures under the contract were “Questioned
Costs” which are defined as “expenditures that do not comply with legal,
regulatory, or contractual requirements, or are not supported by adequate
documentation at the time of the audit, or are unnecessary or unreasonable.”
If BOP does not reduce the contract’s price to recoup the unallowable costs,
$945,024 will be spent unnecessarily bringing the total amount of unnecessary
expenditures to just under $3 million dollars. BOP’s apparent lack of
command, control and oversight over the legal requirements of contracts
awarded to private entities to manage prisons is cause for serious concern.
One must wonder what degree of mismanagement is occurring, or has already
occurred, at other prisons.To ensure that
taxpayer dollars are used efficiently, please answer the following:
1. OIG noted, “[t]hroughout
the course of this audit, the OIG has on several occasions requested the GEO
Group provide documentation on its interpretation so we could review and
consider its position, but GEO Group officials did not provide us with
documentation.” What role does BOP play in ensuring that parties to a BOP
contract are sufficiently cooperating with an OIG audit? Was that role
fulfilled with the current audit? Please explain.
2. BOP’s Privatization Management
Branch (PMB) is responsible for managing and overseeing the operation of
secure contract facilities. The PMB maintains at a minimum two full time
staff at each private facility including the Senior Secure Institution
Manager (SSIM) and Secure Oversight Manager (SOM). Do you believe the SSIM
and SOM at RCDC performed up to the standards expected of them by the
taxpayer? Please explain.
3. Please describe the oversight and
accountability mechanisms in place that BOP uses to ensure that SSIM’s and
SOM’s within the PMB are properly managed to reduce contract waste and abuse
at privately contracted prisons.
4. Has BOP remedied the $1,954,082 in
net unallowable costs that Reeves County incorrectly claimed for Health &
Welfare benefit-related price adjustments and the $175,436 in incorrectly
claimed price adjustments for payroll taxes and workers’ compensation? If so,
has BOP provided OIG with that documentation? If it has not been remedied,
why not?
5. Has BOP remedied the $74,765 in
unsupported costs for CCS since they were unable to provide records
supporting the cost of providing benefits to employees from 2007-2009? If so,
has BOP provided OIG with that documentation? If it has not been remedied,
why not?
6. GEO is a subcontractor for RCDC and
is a contractor for Criminal Alien Requirement Privately-Managed Contract
Facilities as of February 19, 2015. The OIG report indicates that GEO, in conjunction
with BOP, did not properly comply with the Federal Acquisition Regulation and
Service Contract Act. In light of these troublesome claims, has BOP taken
steps to ensure that similar improprieties are not occurring at other
privately managed facilities, including those managed by GEO? If so, please
explain the steps taken. If not, why not?
7. Has BOP removed the $41,088 in
unallowable and unsupported costs from the Monthly Operating Plan to remedy
the $954,024 for Funds Put to Better Use?
8. Has BOP performed a review to
identify unallowable questioned costs related to price adjustments that
Reeves County was not entitled to receive for RCDC III (Contract No.
DJB1PC003)?
9. Has BOP created and implemented
policies and procedures that strengthen responsible officials’ understanding
of Service Contract Act rules and regulations? If so, please explain. If not,
why not?
10. Has Reeves County updated its
quality control policies and procedures requiring the retention of all
records related to the contract? If so, please explain. If not, why not?
11. What, if anything, has BOP done to
remedy the problem RCDC had with frequently submitting inaccurate routine
paperwork, including erroneous disciplinary hearing records and monthly
invoices? If nothing has been done, why not?
Mar 19, 2015 nashvillescene.com
Earlier this month, 55 organizations
focused on criminal justice and civil rights submitted a letter asking U.S.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee to reintroduce the Private Prison Information Act.
The Texas Democrat introduced the bill last year, but only at the end of the
year when legislators were fighting over how to keep the government running
and go home for the holidays. The legislation — the PPIA — would extend the
requirements of the Freedom of Information Act to private prison
corporations, like Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, who
hold federal prisoners in their facilities. Currently, companies like CCA or
GEO Group are not covered by the FOIA. In 2013, private prisons held 19
percent of the entire federal prison population, according to a report by
Mother Jones. That same report noted that CCA, the nation's largest
for-profit prison operator, collected more than $584 million from the federal
government. The private prison industry has lobbied heavily against versions
of the PPIA in the past. The letter, signed by organizations like The
Sentencing Project and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia
(of which the Scene is a member), makes the case that private prisons which
can only exist through public funding should be subject to the same standards
of transparency as government agencies. If private prison companies like CCA
and GEO would like to continue to enjoy taxpayer-funded federal contracts,
then they must be required to adhere to the same disclosure laws applicable
to their public counterparts, including FOIA. Why should private prison
firms, which are funded exclusively with taxpayer dollars, be any less
accountable to the public than federal corrections agencies such as the
Bureau of Prisons or ICE? We contend that because the for-profit private
prison industry relies almost entirely on taxpayer support,
and performs the inherently governmental function of
incarceration—depriving people of their liberty—the public has a right to
access information related to private prison operations. In short, the
government should not be allowed to contract away the public’s right to know
with respect to housing federal prisoners and detainees in privately-operated
facilities. You can read the whole letter, along with an accompanying press
release from the Human Rights Defense Center, here. Pith asked Nashville
Congressman Jim Cooper if he would support the legislation were it to be
reintroduced. He sent along this statement: “We need transparency in our
prisons to be sure they’re running properly. Better oversight will take time
and cooperation from all levels of government, but it’s an achievable goal.
If this bill is reintroduced, I will review whether it’s part of the
solution.”
Dec 17, 2014 themarshallproject.org
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know
About Private Prisons......is none of your damn business. Last
week, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, tried yet again to
shine some light on the opaque system of private prisons that house over
31,500 federal inmates. For the sixth time, she introduced the Private Prison
Information Act to make private correctional facilities subject to the same
federal public records laws as government-run prisons. It will not have an
easy run, given the fierce resistance of private prison companies. The
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest for-profit prison
company, has spent at least $7 million lobbying against the bill since 2005,
according to a tally by disclosure advocates. Others who oppose the proposal
say it would set a “dangerous precedent” of applying public record law to
private companies, and raise the cost of private contractors by increasing
legal fees and record-keeping staff. In an email, CCA spokesperson Steve Owen
said the bill was unnecessary. “The Department of Justice, the Bureau of
Prisons and the Department of Homeland Security already have in place
explicit procedures for making applicable information available to the
public,” he wrote. “The result could be a breakdown in the now collaborative
process between private sector contractors and the federal government to
determine what information is appropriate for release.”There
has been a bit more transparency on the state level, where several state
courts have ruled that private prisons accepting public money should comply
with disclosure requests. In September, a district court judge in Texas found
that CCA prisons counted as a “government body” and would have to comply with
the state Public Information Act. Judges in Vermont, Tennessee and Florida
have issued similar decisions. But the federally funded private prisons,
holding mostly immigrants awaiting deportation, remain a black box. Lawyers,
advocates and investigators have tried to piece together a picture of how they
run, but large swaths of the industry remain a mystery. Here are a few of the
big questions about private federal prisons, that might be answered if Rep.
Jackson Lee’s bill ever got out of limbo:Do they
actually save money?The main argument in favor of
private prisons housing federal inmates is that they can save taxpayer
dollars. But without detailed data on exactly how private facilities spend
public money, it is impossible to know whether they are in fact cheaper or
more efficient. A 2007 report from the Government Accountability Office found
that “without comparable data, [the Bureau Of Prisons] is not able to
evaluate and justify whether confining inmates in private facilities is more
cost-effective than other confinement alternatives such as building new BOP
facilities.” The BOP rejected their recommendation to collect more detailed data.How safe are they?We cannot say how many people detained in private
facilities file complaints or grievances and how many of them are sustained.
That data is hard to procure and incomplete for public prisons. But for
private prisons, it is nonexistent. Incident reports that detail fights
between detainees or attacks on officers are also secret. What research has
been done on this subject has been inconclusive. A 2012 study in Mississippi
found privately-run prisons in the state had assault rates three to five
times higher than the public facilities. But a 2005 study from the Bureau of
Prisons found “being an inmate at the private prison seemed to reduce the
probability of violent misconduct.” Without legal action, it is also hard to
track how inmates are treated inside specific facilities. A recent string of
lawsuits against private state prisons uncovered conditions that a federal
judge described as “a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts.”How do they use solitary confinement?Private
facilities do not have to report how many inmates they hold in isolation or
provide to the public policies dictating who gets put there. The use of
isolation was largely a mystery until the ACLU interviewed hundreds of
immigrants detained in private prisons for a 2014 report. “We found people
were being put in solitary confinement on intake and kept there for days or
weeks because there were beds available in the solitary confinement units but
not in general population,” said staff attorney Carl Takei of the ACLU’s
National Prison Project. “It required going in and interviewing scores of
prisoners that were able to speak about their experiences. [The Bureau of
Prisons] didn’t produce any documents in response to our FOIA request.” The
interviews also found inmates were sent to solitary for reasons ranging from
filing a complaint to asking for new shoes. “The combination of inadequate
BOP oversight and the lack of transparency created by this FOIL loophole make
it essentially impossible for the public to know what’s going on,” Takei
said. This post has been updated to include a comment from CCA.
Dec. 16, 2014 motherjones.com
Will Private Prisons Finally Be Subject
to the Freedom of Information Act? Anyone
can use the federal Freedom of Information Act to request records about
prisons owned and operated by the government. Information about prisoner
demographics, violent incidents, and prison budgets are all obtainable. But
privately run facilities—even those that hold federal prisoners—are exempt
from the law. Last week, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) introduced
legislation to change that. On December 10, she introduced a new bill, the
Private Prison Information Act. If passed, it would force any nonfederal
prison holding federal prisoners to comply with the Freedom of Information
Act. In 2013, 41,200 federal convicts—19 percent of the entire federal prison
population—were housed in private facilities. That year, Corrections Corporation
of America, the largest prison contractor in the United States, collected
more than $584 million from the federal government. Passing Lee's bill will
be difficult, if not impossible. From 2005 to 2012, Democrats (including Lee)
introduced five separate bills that aimed to apply FOIA to private prisons.
All of them failed. With the GOP—which has been generally friendly to the
prison industry—controlling both houses of Congress beginning next year, the
new bill will likely meet a similar end. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of
prisoners are locked up in facilities that are legally immune to open-records
requests. From 2000 to 2009, the number of people locked up in private
facilities at every level of the justice system increased 37 percent, to
129,336, according to the Department of Justice. By the end of 2013, 133,000
inmates—about 8 percent of the entire US prison population—were housed in
private prisons. The figure is on par with the entire California prison
population at that time.
July 29, 2013 abcnews.go.com
On a recent day at a migrant shelter in
the Mexican border town of Nogales, Luis* was waiting for a call from his
guide informing him they would be crossing the desert into the United States.
The 34-year-old had been in the city, just an hour's drive south of Tucson,
Arizona, for nearly two weeks and said he missed his family, especially his
two young daughters. Luis had worked at a farm in Arizona and was the primary
provider in his household. He was determined to go back and care for his
children. "I don't want to undo the life that they have," he said.
See Also: Immigrants Get Assembly-Line Justice in Federal Court. This was
Luis' third deportation. The first time was four years ago when he was caught
by Border Patrol and imprisoned for a month and a half through a program
known as Operation Streamline. The program sends as many as 70 migrants
before a judge at one time, and has an almost mechanical conviction rate of
99 percent, according to a study by the Warren Institute. Defendants are
given up to six months in a federal prison, often privately run. The threat
of jail time lay heavy on his mind, but Luis said he was prepared to risk
incarceration to return to his children. "If I cross back over they can
give me time," he said. "But, no matter what, I will return."
Luis isn't the only one. Many other deportees are struggling to reunite with
their families, according a University of Arizona report. The drive for
family reunification not only means people like Luis end up in prison, it
means that the companies that run those prisons will profit. If an
immigration reform bill passes in Congress this year, it could increase those
profits even more. For example, a comprehensive bill that passed in the
Senate in late June would authorize funding to triple the number of
Streamline prosecutions in the Tucson district, the southern border's busiest
Border Patrol sector. When you combine the powerful draw of family
reunification with a criminal justice program like Streamline, you get a
renewable source of income for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a
private prison company with facilities in Florence, Arizona. Under current
laws, Streamline defendants charged with a felony for reentry receive a
maximum of six months in a federal prison. But in an additional boon for
private prisons, the new bill would double that maximum sentence from six
months to one year. Subsequent reentry prosecutions would constitute two to
three years in prison. All that could translate into more profits for prison
companies like the CCA and GEO Group. Both companies run prisons in Arizona
where many migrants like Luis are held. In addition, CCA owns around 60
facilities in the U.S. and earned $1.7 billion 2012, according to The Nation.
Nearly a quarter of the company's profits are from Immigration and Customs
Enforcement contracts. A spokesperson for CCA responded in an email stating,
the CCA "does not take positions on, lobby for or in any way promote
policies that determine the basis for an individual's detention."
Meanwhile GEO Group owns 56 facilities and brought in $1.4 billion in
revenue. Both companies have grown significantly with the increase in
incarceration of migrants. GEO Group did not respond to a request for
comment. Some of the senators who drafted the immigration bill -- John McCain
(R-Ariz.) Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) -- have received
donations from some of the largest private prison companies in the U.S.
McCain is among the top recipients, having received over $127,000 in
contributions from private prisons since he was elected, according to The
Nation. A request for comment from McCain's office was not returned at the
time of publication. CCA and GEO Group combined have spent more than $45
million to influence state and federal government, The Nation found. Not
everyone in the criminal justice system supports Operation Streamline,
however. Isabel García was a former federal public defender and is currently
a Pima County legal defender in Tucson. She has long been an outspoken
opponent of the program, and now its expansion. García said Operation
Streamline erodes the faith people had in U.S. courts. "I oppose not
only the expansion," she said in a recent phone interview, "but the
existence of Operation Streamline as a total mockery of our criminal justice
system." Within the program, "there is a lack of any real humanity,
and any meaningful process," García said. "Most federal public
defenders see that this is really an outrageous expenditure of money."
*We only used Luis' first name due to the sensitivity of his U.S. legal
status.
July 5, 2013, online.wsj.com
Congressional
efforts to rewrite the nation's immigration laws represent a potential payday
for an industry already getting a boost from the current crackdown on illegal
immigration: privately operated prisons. The two biggest companies,
Corrections Corp. of America and the GEO Group Inc., GEO +0.67%owe a big
chunk of their recent growth to a drive by the federal government to lock up
people who are in the U.S illegally. Legislation approved by the Senate would
increase the federal prison population further, by 14,000 inmates annually,
according to the Congressional Budget Office. The price tag would be $1.6
billion over the next decade. "The private sector would stand to benefit
the most because the feds have turned to them to meet their immigration
needs," said Kevin Campbell, a senior research analyst at investment
firm Avondale Partners, who is recommending CCA and GEO Group. He thinks
private contractors could snag 80% of the additional inmates. This boon
represents just one example of how business and the economy could be changed
by the first major rewrite of the country's immigration laws since the 1980s.
Technology companies stand to get more visas for high-skilled foreign
workers. Farmers would have more access to immigrant labor through an
expanded visa program and new protections for farm workers already in the
country illegally. Congress is a long way from passing an immigration
overhaul, and the prospects for a bill are dimmer in the House than the
Senate. If the House succeeds, however, most observers expect its legislation
to focus even more than the Senate's on clamping down on illegal immigration.
"Any compromise bill will need to throw additional spending at border
security, " said Stephen Myrow, managing
director of ACG Analytics, Inc., an investment research firm that advised
clients that immigration reform will boost revenue at privately operated
prisons. This would more than overcome a challenge to the prison business
embedded in the legislation. By granting temporary legal status to millions
of undocumented immigrants currently in the country, the legislation would
decriminalize a population that represents a growing share of the federal
prison system. Company executives have been cautious about the impact of an
eventual bill. In February, GEO Group Chief Executive George Zoley told Wall Street analysts he didn't expect any
measure to change the number of beds filled each day by the U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement agency. Congress currently requires ICE to keep
34,000 beds filled at all times. CCA Chief Executive Damon Hininger said the same month that ICE officials believe
"there's always going to be demand for beds." The two companies
have spent millions lobbying Congress and the administration on
prison-related issues, according to the Senate disclosure database. In the
2012 election season, CCA and its executives contributed more than $950,000
in campaign donations to governors, candidates for federal office and the two
main political parties, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The
GEO Group and its executives contributed $418,500. Spokesmen for CCA and the GEO
Group said the companies don't lobby Congress to influence immigration
policy; rather, they promote their services. "One of the most important
benefits we provide our government partners is the flexibility to manage
their changing needs," said CCA spokesman Steve Owen. For years, critics
argued that privately operated prisons don't save money and often house
prisoners in substandard facilities. Many of these opponents are pushing
lawmakers to limit detentions to illegal immigrants who also commit serious
crimes. Immigration cases accounted for the largest share of federal criminal
convictions in each of the past four years, making up 32% of all convictions
last year, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. In 2000, roughly
13,000 people served more than a year in federal prison for
immigration-related offenses, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
By 2011, that number had jumped to 22,100. ICE contracts have caused a jump
in revenue for both companies since 2005 after the US started bringing
criminal charges against far more illegal immigrants. GEO Group generated
roughly a quarter of its revenue from federal contracts in 2005, with just 5%
coming from ICE, according to its annual report. Last year, that number rose
to 40% of $1.4 billion in revenue from federal contracts, with 14% from ICE.
At CCA, ICE contracts provided $206 million of its $1.7 billion in total
revenue last year, according to its 2012 annual report. Both companies are
opening new facilities and offering additional services. GEO Group in 2011
acquired a company with an exclusive ICE contract to monitor immigrants who
face deportation but not criminal charges. The company successfully lobbied
to include that alternative detention program in the Senate bill.
June 4, 2013 thenation.com
Detainees inside a holding cell at the
Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Wash. The facility is operated by The
GEO Group Inc. under contract from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement,
and houses people whose immigration status is in question or who are waiting
for deportation or deportation hearings. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Earlier
this year, one of the largest private prison corporations in the country sent
out a statement to reporters claiming that it would not lobby in any way over
the immigration reform debate. A new disclosure shows that the company, the
Boca Raton–based Geo Group, has in fact paid an “elite team of federal
lobbyists” to influence the comprehensive immigration reform legislation
making its way through Congress. The Geo Group currently manages several
immigrant detention facilities for the federal government, and has faced
questions about its role in shaping policies that may lead to more
incarceration. In February and March, Pablo Paez,
the Geo Group’s vice president of corporate relations, told media outlets,
including the Financial Times and The Nation, that his firm would steer clear
of immigration reform politics. See statement below (emphasis added): “The
GEO Group has never directly or indirectly lobbied to influence immigration
policy. We have not discussed any immigration reform related matters with any
members of Congress, and we will not participate in the current immigration
reform debate.” Geo Group’s quarterly lobbying disclosure tells a different
story. A disclosure filed in April shows that the company turned to
Navigators Global to lobby both houses of Congress on “issues related to
comprehensive immigration reform.” Navigators Global, a corporate government
affairs firm founded by several Republican aides, has been retained by the
Geo Group since 2011, though previous lobbying disclosures show the firm
primarily worked on federal appropriations. The latest disclosure, however,
shows that their scope of work on Capitol Hill shifted in the first three
months of this year to include the immigration bill, which passed the Senate
Judiciary Committee in May. See screenshot of the disclosure below: The
private prison industry has developed close ties to leading members of
Congress, including those in the so-called Gang of Eight leading the
immigration reform discussions. Senator Marco Rubio, who is perhaps the most
visible Republican on the issue, has received generous campaign donations
from the industry, including from Geo Group. The new disclosure suggests an even
greater bind to the company because Cesar Conda,
Rubio’s chief of staff, was the founding partner of Navigators Global. As we
reported, he has continued to receive payments from the firm through a stock
buy-out agreement reached after Conda entered work
for Rubio. Demands for an “enforcement-first” approach to immigration reform
could dramatically benefit private prison operators. Conservative lawmakers
have called for new criminal penalties for immigrants, mandates to local law
enforcement to check the status of those suspected of being undocumented, and
an expansion of current guidelines classifying undocumented immigrants as
“criminal aliens”—all policies that could lead to more people being detained
in private prisons, thus more profit for the industry. It’s no wonder Geo
Group is now directly lobbying on the bill.
Feb 8, 2013 forbes.com
It can be difficult to obtain
information about how prisons operate. Prison administrators often have
legitimate security reasons for withholding, say, a map of a prison’s inner
sanctum, or the home addresses of correctional officers working in solitary
confinement units, or information about a murder behind bars that hasn’t yet
been solved. But since prisons operate in service of the justice system — and
thus in service of U.S. citizens — there are also legitimate reasons why
someone might like to know, say, the number of abuses reported against
prisoners over a certain period of time at a certain prison, or the context
of civil rights lawsuits filed against certain staff members or, as in this
Idaho case, the number of hours COs work in a row without a break. To
accommodate these legitimate reasons for withholding and/or disclosing
information, each state and the U.S. federal government have systems in place
to evaluate whether a requested piece of information should be viewable to
the public or not. As it turns out, the federal disclosure system — the
federal Freedom of Information Act — doesn’t apply to private prisons. So if
a private prison company doesn’t explicitly reveal information, FOIA won’t
force them to. In other words, if serious questions arise about the 27,970 or
so prisoners in privately managed federal lockups or the approximately 16,500
federal immigration detainees held in privately-operated facilities under
contracts with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, there’s no legal
remedy in place forcing those questions to be answered. There is a movement
of prisoner rights advocates and nonprofits, however, who would like to
change that. They have rallied around Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee
(D.-Houston.) to reintroduce the Private Prison Information Act, a bill that died in Congress two years ago. Put simply, this
bill would, ensure that “[e]ach applicable entity shall be subject to … the
Freedom of Information Act … in the same manner as a Federal agency operating
a Federal prison or other Federal correctional facility would be subject to
[FOIA].” Those advocates — most actively, Alex Friedmann of Prison Legal
News, and Christopher Petrella, a doctoral student in U.C. Berkeley — hope
that Rep. Jackson Lee will reintroduce the bill again this year. They outline
their reasons in this open letter, released late last year: We are deeply
troubled by the secrecy with which the private corrections industry presently
operates. Whereas the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and state departments
of corrections are subject to disclosure statutes under the Freedom of
Information Act and state-level public records laws, private prison firms
that contract with public agencies generally are not,” the joint letter
submitted to Rep. Jackson Lee noted. “This lack of public transparency is
indefensible in light of the nearly $8 billion in federal contracts that
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group (GEO) – the
nation’s two largest private prisons firms – have been awarded since 2007.”
Read an interview with Friedmann and Petrella here. Rep. Jackson Lee has yet
to announce if she’ll reintroduce the bill. UPDATE: The Blog of Legal Times
has some information about CCA’s lobbying efforts. From the post: CCA spent
$970,000 on federal lobbying in 2012, according to congressional records. For
its advocacy efforts, the company used its own staffers, as well as lobbyists
at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, McBee
Strategic Consulting and Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti.
The company operates 67 facilities, 47 of which it owns, according to its
website. The facilities, which have more than 90,000 beds, are located in
D.C. and 20 states. For the first nine months of 2012, CCA received $570.2
million from the U.S. government, the company’s most recent quarterly
financial report shows.
January 9, 2012 Salon
The Obama campaign is keeping mum on the role senior advisor Broderick
Johnson played in lobbying for the 2008 Wall Street bailout when he worked as
a hired gun for the country’s largest financial services companies. Johnson’s
past work as a lobbyist was noted in the press when he was appointed a top
Obama surrogate in late October, but not the details of his extensive and
lucrative work for the financial services industry. Johnson’s hiring despite
his recent work for Wall Street strikes a dissonant note in view of the Obama
camp’s reported strategy of “channeling anti-Wall Street anger” as a way to take on the Republicans. Records show that in
2008, as an employee at Washington law firm Bryan Cave, Johnson lobbied for
the $700 billion TARP bailout on behalf of the Financial Services Forum,
which is composed of the CEOs of the 20 biggest financial institutions doing
business in the United States. Forum members include big names like Goldman
Sachs, UBS, AIG, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank. From 2007 through the
first quarter of 2011, Johnson and a handful of other Bryan Cave lobbyists
were paid $450,000 by the Financial Services Forum, records show. Johnson and
a small number of colleagues brought in a total of $1.3 million to Bryan Cave
from the financial services industry over the past five years. That includes
work he did for Fannie Mae, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, the
Electronic Payments Coalition and the investment firm J.C. Flowers. Asked for
details about Johnson’s work on the bailout, an Obama campaign spokesperson
responded only that “Broderick is no longer a lobbyist — he deregistered in
April — and he will not discuss any matters related to his clients with the
campaign or administration.” Because of the campaign’s reticence, we don’t
know many of the details of Johnson’s work for the Financial Services Forum
beyond the fact that at the height of the fall 2008 crisis, he lobbied on the
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which created the $700 billion TARP
program. After the House narrowly defeated the first version of the bill in
late September 2008, Financial Services Forum executive Rob Nichols sounded
the alarm. “Just as the cardiovascular system is the essential,
life-sustaining system of the body, the financial system is the essential
basis upon which the growth and vitality of all other sectors of the economy
depend,” Nichols said. “We believe this legislation is critically important
and should be enacted into law at the earliest possible time in order restore
market stability and increase credit availability for Americans.” Resentment
over the bailouts lingers across the political spectrum, from the Tea Party
to the Occupy movement. Supporters of the program point to the fact that much
of the money has been paid back with interest; critics argue that it failed
Main Street and that, in the words of Elizabeth Warren, the money given to
banks had “no strings attached, no accountability, no transparency.” The
Obama campaign declined to comment when asked whether the hiring of a former
bailout lobbyist undercuts Obama’s critical message on Wall Street. Johnson
is known as an extremely well-connected Democratic operative. The husband of
NPR’s Michele Norris, he has been through the revolving door a few times,
working variously as a Capitol Hill staffer, lobbyist and Clinton
administration official. Mary Beth Cahill, campaign manager for John Kerry’s
2004 presidential bid, told the Hill in 2008 that in his work for that
campaign Johnson possessed a “smooth and adept way of managing crises” and
“knew everybody.” In February 2009, just as the new administration was
getting underway and with Johnson fresh off his stint as an informal advisor
to the Obama campaign, he touted his connections with the White House in an
interview with Roll Call. “We are seeing growth across the board,” he said.
“Health care, energy and financial services are key issues in 2009 where we
have both expertise and strong relationships on the Hill and in the new
administration.” Johnson has lobbied for a lengthy roster of large corporate
clients. His work for TransCanada, the company that wants to build the
controversial Keystone XL pipeline, has already been explored in the media.
In the past five years, he has also worked for Shell; Verizon; Anheuser
Busch; Microsoft; Comcast; the Biotechnology Industry Organization; the trade
group for the cable TV industry; private prison giant the GEO Group; and the Talx Corp., which specializes in helping employers fight
unemployment claims and which has been criticized for shoddy and unfair
practices.
October 25, 2011 Open
Secrets
OBAMA CAMPAIGN'S REVOLVING DOOR ADDITION: K Street and Capitol Hill veteran
Broderick Johnson is joining the re-election campaign of President Barack
Obama as a senior adviser. Johnson clocked more than a decade of experience
in the U.S. House of Representatives, as an attorney, during the 1980s and
1990s. Between 1998 and 2000, he served in senior roles in the Clinton White
House, including acting as the president's principal liaison to the House.
And after working for President Bill Clinton, Johnson became a top lobbyist
for BellSouth Corp. and AT&T. During his time in the private sector in
Washington, Johnson has also worked for Wiley, Rein & Fielding, the
Oliver Group, Bryan Cave Strategies, Bryan Cave LLP and the Collins-Johnson
Group, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics. In
addition to AT&T, Johnson's clients over the years have included numerous
political heavy weights, federal lobbying records show, such as
Anheuser-Busch, Bank of America, the Biotechnology Industry Organization,
Comcast, Fannie Mae, FedEx, Ford, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Shell Oil, Time
Warner and Verizon. Federal records indicate that he has also lobbied on
behalf of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the GEO Group (the private prison
industry giant) and TransCanada Corp. -- although TransCanada spokesman Terry
Cunha told Politico Monday that the company's "government relations
operation did not look to and receive lobbying support from Broderick
Johnson," despite what lobbying records show, as the energy company has
sought Obama administration approval for its controversial Keystone XL
pipeline project.
September 1, 2010 AP
Prison operator Corrections Corp. of America spent $240,000 lobbying federal
officials in the second quarter. That's down slightly from the $250,000 it
spent on lobbying in the first quarter of 2010 and the $260,000 it spent
lobbying in the second quarter of last year. The company said it lobbied on
issues related to the private prison industry and on all provisions of the
Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009 and the Private Prison Information
Act of 2009, among other topics. Aside from Congress, Corrections Corp. also
lobbied the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshals Service and
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement in the April-to-June quarter,
according to a report filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives on
July 20.
March 27, 2010 Texas
Observer
Henry Arroliga lives in South Texas' Port Isabel
Detention Center, one of the nation's largest immigration detention facilities.
After 17 years of living illegally in the United States, he's bracing himself
to return to his native Nicaragua. Although Arroliga
could very well be deported within the next month, the 2010 U.S. Census will
count him as a resident of Los Fresnos, in Cameron
County. His short stint at Port Isabel will pay dividends to the city,
county, and state for the next decade. Arroliga is
one of more than 30,000 immigrant detainees who will be counted in this
year's census. Four hundred billion dollars in federal funding over the next
10 years will be distributed based on the count, making detainees worth
thousands of dollars to cities, counties, and states where they are briefly
detained. The government will allocate more than $100 million in additional funds
to places where immigrants are detained. More than funding is at stake: The
composition of legislative districts, county board districts, and city
council districts could be skewed by soon-to-be-deported prisoners. Census
data are used on the state and national levels to determine the sizes and
shapes of these districts. The inclusion of detainees in the count means
fewer eligible voters per elected official in places like Cameron County. It
also violates the principle of "proportional representation." For
decades, the government has included prisoners in the census, regardless of
their immigration status. In the past, the impact of immigrant detainees has
been slight. This is the first decennial census since the re-organization of immigrantion agencies and the subsequent boom in
immigration detention. Immigration prisons have expanded from 7,500 beds in
1995 to more than 30,000 in 2010. About one-third of the nation's immigrant
detainees are held in Texas. That doesn't count undocumented immigrants in the
custody of the U.S. Marshals Service awaiting deportation
proceedings--thousands in Texas alone. Carl Caulk, the U.S. Marshals
assistant director for prisoner operations, says that recent Border Patrol
crackdowns like Operation Streamline have sent the number of immigrants in
Marshals' custody through the roof. Operation Streamline mandated that
charges be filed against virtually every person caught crossing the border
illegally. Like ICE detainees, these immigrants will be counted in the 2010
census. The Census Bureau's inclusion of immigrant detainees has received
little notice. It comes at a tense time in the immigration debate, with
reform advocates facing a challenging political climate. This year's
population count points to an often ignored irony: The country's detention
facilities are concentrated in districts represented by some of Congress'
most outspoken advocates of reform--including several South Texas congressmen
who will benefit from counting immigrant detainees. U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz,
a Corpus Christi Democrat, introduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill
in the House this spring. Yet with about 5,000 beds for immigrant detainees,
his South Texas district stands to see millions of additional tax dollars
allocated on the basis of the census. In response to questions from the
Observer, Ortiz issued a statement reading: "The U.S. Census Bureau is
mandated by the United States Constitution to count every resident regardless
of citizenship status. I can assure you that it is in everybody's best
interest to get as many people as possible counted." Until this census,
the count had never identified exactly where "group quarters" like
prisons are and how many people occupy them. For the first time, this census
will let states decide whether to count detainees in local populations. By
excluding prisoners, states would get a more accurate population count and
would ensure that funds are not distributed according to locations of large
detention centers. The amount of federal funding directed to the state would
not change. Counting prisoners--residents or immigrants--is against Texas
state law. "A person who is an inmate in a penal institution or who is
an involuntary inmate in a hospital or eleemosynary institution does not,
while an inmate, acquire residence at the place where the institution is
located," reads Texas Election Code Section 1.015. Nevertheless, the
census counts them as residents. "There's a clear discrepancy between
state law and the Census Bureau's methodology," said Peter Wagner of the
Prison Policy Initiative, a Massachusetts-based research group. Congressman
Ortiz had no comment on how detainees could affect federal funding and
redistricting. Some of his former supporters see his willingness to profit
from his district's immigrant detainees as evidence of hypocrisy. "I
can't think of anything more two-faced," said the Rev. Miguel Rivera,
president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders,
and an advocate for immigration reform. To the Census Bureau's dismay, Rivera
has urged undocumented immigrants not to fill out the census forms.
"It's our greatest bargaining chip," he said. "The states and
counties want the funding, and we want the legalization." Rivera's
campaign has received considerable attention, and while many Latino leaders
disagree with his approach, he is convinced that threatening to withhold the
instruments of federal funding is the way to attract politicians to the
table. Within facilities like Port Isabel, detainees likely won't be able to
opt out of the census. According to Census Bureau officials, for the last
month detention center employees have been completing census forms on behalf
of inmates like Henry Arroliga. "They're using
them to secure federal funding and political power, and then they're shipping
them out of the country," Rivera said. "It's an insult." The
issue has made Rivera and U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican,
unlikely bedfellows. Vitter, along with several other conservatives in
Congress, supported an unsuccessful effort last fall to exclude noncitizens
from apportionment and redistricting counts. "I don't believe
noncitizens should be counted in congressional reapportionment," Vitter
told Congress last fall. "I don't think states which have particularly
large noncitizen populations should have more say and more clout in Congress,
and that states like Louisiana that don't should be penalized." Or, if
you follow the logic, that states like Texas should be rewarded. In
Raymondville, a rural city 100 miles south of Corpus Christi, the census
count is buzzing along. The Census Bureau has a booth outside City Hall.
Local TV stations are advertising the importance of filling out the forms.
People have been hired to distribute forms, part of a 1.2 million temporary
work force nationwide that will make up the largest civilian mobilization of
Americans in history. In Raymondville, the conversation isn't about the scale
of the government's undertaking. It's about the Willacy Detention Center, the
country's largest detention facility, holding up to 3,000 prisoners. When the
census came up at the last City Council meeting, a councilman asked city
secretary Eleazar Garcia: "What about the detainees? Do we get to count
them?" If its population exceeds 10,000 in the census, Raymondville
would be in the running for a panoply of state grants. The only way that
could happen is if the city's immigrant detainees are included in the count.
"Overall, we would benefit if we could hit that mark," Garcia said.
So would La Villa, just north of McAllen. The 2000 census found its
population to be 1,305. Just a year later, the Louisiana-based private prison
company LCS Corrections Services Inc. opened the East Hidalgo Detention
Center, which houses up to 990 immigrant detainees. According to its warden,
the facility is almost always full. After the 2010 Census is tallied, the
detention center will nearly double La Villa's population on paper,
potentially doubling its federal funding allocation distributed by the state
according to population. (The facility, run by the U.S. Marshals, is already
a boon to the local government, which receives $2 per prisoner per day.) The
distribution of funds based on immigrant detainee populations "points to
a flaw in the way the population counts are used," said Audrey Singer, a
demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.
"The fact that ICE detainees are geographically concentrated will have
an effect on the count." In Washington, there appears to be confusion
about the inclusion of immigrant detainees in the census. Congressman Henry
Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat, represents a district that includes the 1,900-bed
South Texas Detention Center and the 450-bed Laredo Contract Detention
Facility. He defended the inclusion of immigrant detainees: "Vitally
important funding that supports these facilities relies, in part, on census
data." Experts say Cuellar is wrong. "Immigration prisons are
funded by the Department of Homeland Security, not formula grants" based
on census data, said Wagner of the Prison Policy Initiative. Like Rep. Ortiz,
Cuellar is a longstanding advocate of immigration reform. His attitude about
immigrant detainees in the census has disturbed immigration-reform advocates
in his district. One reason Texas' congressmen and state representatives
might be looking the other way is that 375,000 Texans were not counted in
2000, according to a Census Bureau study. That cost the state a huge amount
of federal dollars. The main culprit, experts agree, was the difficulty of
getting undocumented immigrants--including an estimated 150,000 in the Rio
Grande Valley alone--to participate. This year, the Census Bureau has spent
millions on a campaign to convince minorities, including undocumented
immigrants, to get themselves counted. Still, community organizers and
activists along the border say the effort faces considerable challenges.
"The census worker shows up and expects people to be compliant,"
said Michael Seifert of the Equal Voice for America's Families Network.
"Much laughter is heard in the cantina around that idea." During
the 2000 census, Seifert said some immigrants distrusted and feared the
government--a fear then inspired by President Bill Clinton's 1996 immigration
enforcement bills. "I find it so sweetly ironic that those who have been
caught up in the biggest dragnet of a civilian population in American
history--the detainees--will be included in the census count, and therefore
serve as a 'corrective' to all of those people who will ignore the census
request," Seifert said. The issue could be resolved if Texas decides to
remove immigrant detainees from the count before distributing state funds and
addressing redistricting. The Census Bureau has agreed to release data on
inmate populations earlier than usual to let states and localities consider
it in apportioning districts for 2011 and 2012 races. It's an issue that
could be broached in the 2011 legislative session. Bills to make such
adjustments are already pending in New York, Maryland, Illinois, Florida and
Wisconsin. So far, including immigrant detainees in Texas' census count has
been a non-issue. "It's hard to believe that the victims of our inhumane
immigration detention system are being used like this," Rivera said,
"like pawns in a game of state and national politics." Kevin Sieff lives in Washington, D.C. and is a contributing
writer for The Texas Observer, where this originally appeared.
January 29, 2010 TPMMuckraker
The four conservative activists arrested for tampering with the phones of
Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu earlier this week have been linked to the
Pelican Institute, a conservative New Orleans think tank. Pelican is a
relatively new organization, but it appears to have strong ties to members of
the state's Republican elite, most notably Representative Charles Boustany.
Though only one of the tamperers is from Louisiana,
Pelican appears to have been the group's home base there. The apparent
ringleader, James O'Keefe -- also the activist behind last September's ACORN
videotape -- spoke at a Pelican Institute luncheon last week. Another one of
the four, Robert Flanagan, is a paid blogger for Pelican (Flanagan is the son
of the acting US attorney in Shreveport, Bill Flanagan). Pelican's founder,
Kevin Kane, blogs at BigGovernment, the site where
O'Keefe first posted the ACORN video. TPMMuckraker
has found that Pelican "enjoys a prominent voice in Louisiana political
circles." A close look at its board of directors helps explain why this
is the case. Pelican listed three board members on its 2008 990 (available
from Guidestar): founder Kevin Kane, lawyer Stephen
Gele, and one "J LeBlanc." A LinkedIn
page reveals that the listing refers to Jennifer LeBlanc, a Republican
fundraiser who chaired the Louisiana finance committee of presidential
hopeful Rudy Giuliani in 2008. LeBlanc is extremely tightly linked to
Representative Charles Boustany, who was a close friend of her late husband,
Patrick LeBlanc, before he died in a 2008 plane crash. LeBlanc was a top
Boustany donor, as well, and he and Jennifer hosted a high-profile fundraiser
for his Congressional campaign in 2005. Vice president Dick Cheney was the
featured guest. The LeBlancs, Boustany, and Senator
David Vitter all endorsed Rudy Giuliani's campaign for president in 2007.
Boustany and Cheney. Boustany also endorsed LeBlanc during his unsuccessful
run for state representative that year. That bid was undone by ongoing
scandals related to LeBlanc's prison operation and construction business, LCS
Corrections. The company operates private prisons throughout the southeast and
Texas, and has been investigated by the FBI for "contracting
irregularities" related to possible bribery schemes. Boustany's
brother-in-law, Christopher Edwards, was LeBlanc's attorney during his
campaign, and threatened to sue LeBlanc's opponent over a negative ad.
Edwards is the nephew of disgraced Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards. When
Patrick LeBlanc died, Boustany released the following statement: "Pat
was my dear friend, a loving family man and a leader in the Lafayette
community. It is a terrible loss, and my thoughts and prayers are with
Jennifer and his children. Bridget and I will miss him greatly."
Boustany and Pelican were both out in front of the ACORN scandal in August
and September. Boustany was one of the first members of Congress to react to
news of the ACORN videotape last September. The day after the news broke, on
September 11, 2009, he called for a House Oversight investigation of the
group's tax prep activities. TPM has reported that Pelican published an
investigative report on ACORN in August 2009, one month before the O'Keefe
videotape was released. The report alleged that ACORN had evaded federal
taxes on a number of occasions. Was there coordination between Boustany, BigGovernment, Pelican, and O'Keefe? What role does
Jennifer LeBlanc play at the Pelican Institute? Who funds the organization?
There's still a lot more to learn here, but this is shaping up to be a very
interesting scandal.Leia and WileECoyote
have done awesome work updating information on the various networks behind
O'Keefe and Pelican. Pelican appears to have strong ties to the Reason
Foundation, and Pelican founder Kevin Kane and Breitbart's relationship
deserves closer examination, among other things. Let me know if you want to
get deep into the Louisiana muck.
January 26, 2010 Reporters
Committee for Freedom of the Press
Proposed legislation that would apply existing public records laws to all
prisons housing federal inmates was discussed during a congressional briefing
on Monday. The bill, H.R. 2450, was crafted to extend the Freedom of
Information Act to private prisons that contract with government agencies. If
the bill is passed, publicly financed private prisons, which house more than
100,000 federal inmates, would be subject to the same reporting standards as
the Bureau of Prisons. The companies that run private prisons say they are
not required to disclose basic information about the facilities or the
inmates -- except for reports issued upon an inmate's death -- under existing
FOIA law because while they receive taxpayer money, they are not public
agencies. A panel of specialists at the briefing spoke about the need for
more transparency. "If they do answer the requests, all the documents
are redacted and they cite 'trade secrets' as the reason they can't disclose,"
said Tom Barry, senior analyst at the Center for International Policy, of his
experiences getting information about inmates in private facilities from the
Bureau of Prisons. David Shapiro, an attorney for the National Prison Project
at the American Civil Liberties Union, put the scope of the issue in
perspective, noting "over 70 percent of the prisoners we represent are
in for-profit prisons."
December 11, 2009 TPM
Muckraker
A party planning side business run by three current and former
congressional staffers raked in over $20,000 last year from lobbyists holding
events to honor Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) -- whose own communications
director is co-founder of the firm. The apparent arrangement between Thompson
and the business, Chic Productions, at once allows private interests to get
closer to the congressman's office and gives the staffers a way to dip a
straw into the river of outside money flowing through Capitol Hill. Chic
Productions offers "high style events with simple elegance" and advertises
its previous work executing "congressional events and fundraising
parties." One of Chic's principals was quoted in 2007 saying
congressional events make up roughly 90 percent of the firm's business. The
three women who run Chic are: Dena Graziano, Thompson's communications
director since 2006; Michone Johnson, chief counsel
for the House Judiciary Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee; and
Michelle Persaud, formerly of the House Judiciary Committee, now corporate
counsel at T-Mobile. Graziano's bio on Chic's Web site says she has
"straddled the fine line between politics and entertainment as an event
and communications strategist to some of the nation's most well known personalities." Johnson's boasts that,
"As a lawyer, Michone has honed her planning skills
by executing everything from intense negotiations and member briefings to
happy hours birthday parties, and staff retirement parties." A Chic
floral display with the congressional seal at '07 Thompson eventThe extent of the business Chic has done for
Thompson remains unclear because lobbyist disclosure statements that reveal
the arrangement have only recently been required, and comprehensive data is
available only for 2008. But besides the lobbyist receptions, Chic has put on
at least six other Thompson-linked events. Lobbyists spend millions of
dollars each year wining and dining lawmakers at receptions held in their
honor. The events serve many purposes, among them gaining valuable access to
members of Congress and staffers, and building good will in a relaxed social
format. But actually paying staffers to organize events to honor their bosses
is a new twist on the old practice. As chair of the Committee on Homeland
Security, Thompson is among the most powerful Democrats in the House. He has
been under an ethical cloud since last week when the Washington Post reported
on allegations by Homeland Security Committee staffers that he held a hearing
on credit cards to squeeze donations out of industry lobbyists. One committee
staffer said she was fired for raising objections to "inappropriate
lobbyist requests." Thompson denies the allegations, which are under
investigation by the House ethics panel. Thompson at Chic "Chairman
Reception" in 2007In a six-week period in late 2008, four companies paid
Chic $22,500 to plan events to honor Thompson, according to lobbying
disclosures reviewed by TPMmuckraker. The companies
were private prison contractor Corrections Corporation of America ($10,000),
lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs ($5,000), Pepsico
($5,000), and software giant Oracle ($2,500).
March 30, 2009 Nashville
Post
Nashville attorney Gregg Ramos has been interviewed by members of
President Barack Obama's administration for vacancies on the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the 6th Circuit and U.S. District Court, Middle District of
Tennessee, according to NashvillePost.com sources. The vacancies on the
courts were created when 6th Circuit Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey
took senior judge status on Jan. 1 and when Memphis based Judge Robert L.
Echols took senior judge status in 2007. Echols' slot had been the focus of
much controversy when then-President George W. Bush nominated Nashvillian Gus
Puryear to fill the seat in June of 2007. Puryear, general counsel for
Corrections Corp. of America, was the subject of an intense lobbying effort
that eventually doomed his nomination.
November 14, 2008 Nashville
City Paper
Tennessee Democrats had a losing record this election season in the
state, but they are likely about to see a pack of federal appointments in the
legal system roll their way. With the changing of the guard from President
George W. Bush’s administration President-elect Barack Obama’s in 2009,
appointments for a federal judgeship in the U.S. District Court for Middle
Tennessee and the positions of U.S. Attorney and U.S. Marshall for the same
region are on the table. Currently filling those posts are U.S. Attorney Ed
Yarbrough and U.S. Marshall Denny King. The spot that is open on the U.S.
District Court has been publicized not because who was once in the seat, but who
was nominated for it — Gus Puryear. Puryear, who is the executive vice
president and general counsel for Nashville based Corrections Corporation of
America, was nominated for the bench by President George W. Bush in June of
2007. Although Puryear did get a nomination hearing, the U.S. Senate, which
has final say on these lifetime appointments, never voted on his appointment.
Puryear’s nomination suffered from negative press reports about his ties to
Belle Meade Country Club as well as the alleged practices of CCA in its
prisons. Puryear was also targeted by an organization opposed to prison
privatization. The Florida group had ties to organized labor that represents
state corrections officers. Traditionally, when openings for a federal
judgeship occur, the U.S. Senators from that state tell the president whom
they want and he nominates them. When the Senators are from an opposing
party, as is the case of Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, that courtesy falls
to Democratic members of the U.S. Congress, in this case primarily
Congressmen Jim Cooper and Bart Gordon. Because Cooper was such an early and
strident supporter of Obama’s, he likely will have the upper hand. Protocol
would dictate that Alexander and Corker would be given advance notice of the
nomination and as a courtesy they would say if they had any major objections
to the nomination.
September 24, 2008 Nashville
Scene
Yesterday, Lamar Alexander, the lead water-carrier for judicial nominee Gus
Puryear, read the campaign its last rites. Alexander's statements are the
last nail in the coffin for Puryear, lead counsel for private prison giant
Corrections Corporation of America. They're also an unofficial acknowledgment
of the power of the one-man campaign. No matter where your loyalties lie,
it's tough to argue that anyone deserves more of the credit (or blame) for
Puryear's failed nomination than Alex Friedmann. Getting the locals to care
about who swings a gavel in Middle Tennessee is one thing. Getting pub from
national outlets is another. Now with the campaign over, Friedmann is a stick
without a spoke. He says he'll continue working on the humdrum elements of vigilanteism and may even aim his scope at larger
targets. "There's always Palin," he jokes. We here at Pith,
however, think Friedmann's bandwagon should be steered elsewhere. Trudging
through the muck of rancorous politics during this election season has left
us exhausted. It's time all of Nashville had a cause worth championing.
Something fun and family-friendly that makes us forget about the world while
alternately making us worry about the cleanliness of our undergarments.
September 24, 2008 Tennessean
Nominations of two Tennesseans — Gus Puryear of Nashville to be a federal
judge and Susan Williams of Knoxville to be a TVA board member — have been
derailed by political squabbles. Several prison rights and civil rights
groups have objected to the nomination of Puryear, general counsel for
Corrections Corporation of America, the private prison giant based in
Nashville. CCA had been hammered by allegations of underplaying serious
incidents in its jails and misrepresenting the circumstances of in-custody
deaths. Sen. Lamar Alexander, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate,
said Tuesday that neither nomination would be approved before the end of the
year. That means the nomination process for both slots will begin again after
a new president takes office in January. "That's another example of the
Democratic Congress not approving a qualified nominee," Alexander said
of Puryear's choice by President Bush to be a judge in the Middle District of
Tennessee. Democrats opposed both -- Puryear was caught in an election-year
political fight. Republicans have tried to gain approval for as many of
Bush's nominees as possible before the end of his term. Reasons cited by
opponents as to why Puryear should not be confirmed include: a lack of trial
and judicial experience, his role as chief lawyer for the country's largest
private prison company, and the company's handling of the 2004 death of
Estelle Richardson while she was in the Metro Detention Facility in
Nashville. Democrats, who control the Senate, say they have treated the
president's nominees as well as Republicans did near the end of Bill
Clinton's presidency. But they have slowed the process, hoping they will be
able to fill the vacancies if their nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, wins the
presidency. Williams' nomination to the TVA board was a casualty of a battle
between Alexander and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Reid held up
her nomination and that of Bishop William Graves of Memphis because he wants
a Democratic representative on the TVA board. In June, Reid let Graves'
nomination go through after Alexander and Sen. Bob Corker blocked a
nomination Reid wanted. In response to Alexander's comments, Puryear released
a written statement through CCA. "I was honored to be nominated and
understand fully how election-year politics works in Washington. I am very
happy in my current job and look forward to continuing to work with my
friends in Nashville to make our city and state a better place." Alex
Friedmann, vice president of Private Corrections Institute, coordinated much
of the opposition to the Puryear nomination, which Bush made in June 2007.
"Mr. Puryear was an unqualified, inexperienced, conflicted and
controversial nominee for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. The
citizens of Middle Tennessee deserve better and hopefully will receive a more
qualified candidate during the next administration," Friedmann said in a
statement.
September 23, 2008 Tennessean
The nominations of Gus Puryear of Nashville to be a federal judge and Susan
Williams of Knoxville to the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority are dead
for this year, Sen. Lamar Alexander said this morning. "That's not going
to happen," Alexander said at a briefing with Tennessee reporters,
referring to the nomination of Puryear for a federal judgeship in the Middle
District of Tennessee. "That's another example of the Democratic
Congress not approving a qualified nominee." The nomination by President
Bush of Puryear, general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America, had
been criticized by prison rights and civil rights organizations because of
his role in representing the largest private prison company in the country.
Williams' nomination has been stalled because Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid, D-Nevada, wants a Democratic representative on the TVA board. Puryear
issued a statement through CCA. "I was honored to be nominated and
understand fully how election-year politics works in Washington. I am very
happy in my current job and look forward to continuing to work with my
friends in Nashville to make our city and state a better place."
August 31, 2008 Murfreesboro
Post
Four years ago, Estelle Richardson, 34, was murdered in a Nashville jail
run by Corrections Corporation of America. That's a tangential issue in the
legal career of Gustavus A. Puryear IV, just one of the things that has
caught the attention of Alex Friedmann, an ex-con gone good and now an editor
of Prison Legal News, an organization devoted to digging out mistreatment and
maltreatment of prisoners. Charges were filed against four guards who were
accused of beating Richardson to death. But their conviction foundered on a
technical matter involving time of death. It is one of the things that
troubles Friedmann (once a convict himself) about Puryear's nomination for a
lifetime appointment to the federal district court in Middle Tennessee.
Puryear is chief lawyer of Corrections Corporation of America that is
headquartered in Nashville. "CCA is the defendant in scores and scores
of lawsuits each year. It is difficult to see how Puryear could ever serve as
presiding judge in a trial involving his old bosses." The
nomination---presented before the Senate Judiciary Committee by Republican
Senators Corker and Alexander---came about the way most do: Puryear has been
a worker in the vineyards for Tennessee and national Republicans. He gave
important money to Corker and Alexander and coached up Dick Cheney for the
'00 vice presidential debates. He worked for Fred Thompson. He's been named a
"Republican heavyweight" by a Nashville newspaper. Unhappily, his
qualifications for a federal judgeship are wanting. Friedmann says Puryear
has been personally involved in only five federal cases and two trials over
his entire legal career, and lost one of those. "He has not served as a
practicing attorney for years," Friedmann says. Republicans answer that
Puryear has been rated as "qualified" by the American Bar
Association. "Well," Friedmann says, deconstructing the
classification methodology. "ABA rates lawyers Qualified, Unqualified,
or Well Qualified. Seventy-five percent of all lawyers get the Well Qualified
classification. Puryear, therefore, is in the bottom 25 percent." But Friedmann's
great objection to Puryear's appointment remains his conflicted position.
He's a CCA man and has been their chief lawyer for years. He says he'll
recuse himself from their cases for five years. "Well, CCA's in the
courts all the time. And what about after five years? He doesn't say what
he'll do after that." In typical Republican fashion of the past seven
years, Puryear's record was great from a political standpoint but wanting for
professional creds. Today, the nomination is being held up in the Senate Judiciary
Committee, which indicates it failed to get pro forma approval, a bad
indicator for the state's Republican senators and party. There is a chance
that Puryear won't be approved in the Senate committee. This would, in
effect, kill the nomination.
August 15, 2008 AP
Private prison company Corrections Corp. of America spent $240,000 lobbying
the federal government on legislation dealing with prison spending and
policy, according to a recent disclosure form. The Nashville, Tenn.-based
company lobbied on legislation dealing with private prisons and public
safety, as well as on issues involving immigration, labor and more. Besides
Congress, Corrections lobbied the Department of Homeland Security, Justice
Department, Office of Management and Budget, and the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, according to a report filed July 18 with the House clerk's office.
August 14, 2008 AP
Had this been like most nominations for federal judgeships, the chief
lawyer with Corrections Corporation of America might have been packing up his
office and heading for the courthouse by now. But a determined opponent — a
former prisoner at a Corrections Corporation of America facility in Clifton,
Tenn. — has worked tirelessly to see that would not happen. And he may have
succeeded. More than a year after President Bush nominated Gustavus A.
Puryear IV to become a U.S. district judge in Nashville, the 40-year-old's
appointment appears to be in serious trouble, thanks in no small part to Alex
Friedmann, a convicted armed robber turned inmate advocate. Friedmann, 39,
contends Puryear is unqualified because he lacks experience in federal courts
— he's been involved in only two federal trials — and might have a potential
conflict of interest in hearing cases that involve CCA. On his Web site,
http://www.againstpuryear.org, Friedmann also has detailed Puryear's ties to
powerful Republicans like Dick Cheney, whom he helped prep for a 2000 debate,
and portrayed Puryear as someone who got the nomination because of his
connections rather than his qualifications. The Senate Judiciary Committee
held a hearing on Puryear's nomination in February but has yet to vote on
whether to send his name to the full Senate. Erica Chabot, the press
secretary for committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, said Puryear is one of only three
people who have been nominated for district judgeships since January 2007 and
have had hearings before the committee but have not had their nominations
voted on. Leahy, D-Vt., has said the panel will not consider any more
nominees this session without the consent of leaders from both parties.
"I understand they have put Puryear in the 'controversial'
category," said Brian Fitzpatrick, who once worked for Republican Sen.
John Cornyn of Texas defending Bush's Supreme Court nominees and is now an
assistant law professor at Vanderbilt University. "It's very rare for a
district court nominee to become controversial. Usually they just fly
through." The Senate typically defers heavily to the senators from the
nominee's home state, and Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of
Tennessee solidly support Puryear. But the opposition has been unusually
committed. Multiple organizations, including the left-leaning Alliance for
Justice and the National Lawyer's Guild, have
challenged Puryear's nomination, all of them using research that originated
with Friedmann, occasionally quoting it verbatim. Friedmann says he learned
of the nomination because he keeps track of Nashville-based CCA, which
manages 66 facilities around the country. He looked through dockets and court
cases, contacted former co-workers and made Freedom of Information Act
requests. To get the word out, he relied on the nonprofit Private Corrections
Institute, for which he serves as vice president, and a group he formed
called Tennesseans Against Puryear. Puryear did not return calls from The
Associated Press for this story. White House spokesman Blair Jones said the
White House suggests that nominees not speak to the media, prior to
confirmation, out of respect for the deliberative process of the Senate.
"Groups can attack a nominee, but you'll never see (the nominee) respond
to anything except at hearings," said Puryear's friend Ed Haden, an
attorney in Birmingham, Ala. Haden said the obstacles to Puryear's nomination
are political, and don't mean he is not qualified for the job. "As far
as his qualifications go, he was at the top of his class in law school, he
clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals, he has legislative experience in the
U.S. Senate, he manages litigation for a big Fortune 500 company, and the ABA
(American Bar Association) rated him as qualified," Haden said.
"Gus realizes this is a lame duck year in politics," he added.
"It's true for all nominees — whether you're in the deal or not is
beyond your control." Puryear's nomination remains active until Congress
adjourns, and he could still be confirmed. The most likely scenario for that
would be a deal struck between senators. "At the end of the session,
it's, 'Who wants a bridge in Vermont?'" said Haden, who has worked with
two U.S. senators on judicial nominations. Meanwhile, Friedmann is continuing
his opposition campaign in the hopes of making a last-minute deal less
likely. "I'm glad the Judiciary Committee is taking a closer look at Mr.
Puryear as a candidate because the issues we raised are legitimate
issues," he said. "But," he added, "I'm definitely not
claiming victory."
July 21, 2008
First Amendment Center
A bill before Congress would extend the Freedom of Information Act to
require private prisons contracted by the federal government to release
records under the same standards as federal prisons. The Private Prison
Information Act of 2007 (H.R. 1889), introduced by Rep. Tim Holden, D-Pa.,
would require private prisons and other correctional facilities under
contract with federal agencies to house federal prisoners to make their
records accessible under the same FOIA requirements that govern federal
prisons. An identical bill was introduced in the Senate (S. 2010) by Sen.
Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. Prison privatization has increased rapidly in the
face of growing concerns over overcrowding, safety and poor health care in
public institutions. Desire to control costs has also led to an increase in
privatization. However, privately owned and operated facilities are not
subject to the same FOIA scrutiny as public agencies. Although the press and
public can retrieve information about privately run prisons from the
Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement and other government agencies, private prisons remain largely
outside the scope of FOI laws. Of the almost 1.6 million prisoners in the
United States in June 2007, 7.4% of them were held in privately operated
correctional facilities, according to the June 2008 Bureau of Justice
Statistics bulletin. At last count, in 2000, the BJS reported 264 private
facilities under state and federal contracts used to house prisoners. And
there were 5.4% more prisoners in private facilities in June 2007 than in
June 2006, according to BJS. Private detention centers are also used to house
immigrant detainees. Two lawsuits filed in the last two months aim to force
private prisons to release records, including one filed by the American Civil
Liberties Union investigating the deaths of immigrant detainees in federal
custody. In May 2008, The Washington Post ran a four-day series investigating
medical conditions in immigrant prisons. "Careless Detention"
explored the deaths of 83 prisoners and detainees in custody between March
2003 and May 2008. "Our correctional system is broken. It is overcrowded
and unsafe," said Mike Flynn, director of government affairs for the
Reason Foundation. "Contracting with private prisons gives us an ability
to better manage outcomes. I think contracts should require certain benchmarks,
like treatment programs, continuing education and job training." The
Reason Foundation is a nonprofit think tank that promotes "libertarian
principles, including individual liberty, free markets, and the rule of
law," according to its Web site. The largest private
corrections-management service in the U.S. is Corrections Corporation of
America, which is headquartered in Nashville. CCA posted $35 million in
profits during the first quarter of 2008, according to a company press
release. CCA and other private corrections companies have seen rapid growth
from contracts with states and the federal government. The Los Angeles Times
reported in August 2007 that California state officials had signed a contract
with CCA to hold about 4,000 prisoners for $63 per prisoner, per day. It
would cost the state an average of $123 per prisoner, per day in a state
prison. As private corrections companies grow, so do questions about their
methods, success and profitability. The recent lawsuits seek answers to some
of those questions. The ACLU filed an FOI lawsuit against the Department of
Homeland Security last month in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia after DHS failed to turn over documents related to the deaths of
immigrants held in public and private detention centers. The lawsuit also
named Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Office of the Inspector
General for DHS. "DHS must not be allowed to keep information about
in-custody deaths secret," said Elizabeth Alexander, director of the ACLU
National Prison Project, in a press release. "It is imperative that ICE
be held publicly accountable." Prison Legal News, a monthly magazine
that covers prison issues, filed a lawsuit against CCA in a Tennessee court
on May 19 after CCA did not respond to a public-records request. The lawsuit,
Friedmann v. CCA, argues that CCA performs a public function, and its records
should be public. In 2002, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that a private
company performing a public function must make its records available to the
public under the Tennessee Public Records Act. In Memphis Publishing Company
v. Cherokee Children & Family Services, the court ruled that a nonprofit
social service agency under state contract had to turn its records over to
the Memphis Commercial Appeal because it was the "functional
equivalent" of a government agency. "Public agencies cannot
contract away the public's ability to review records that otherwise would be
publicly accessibly under the state's open records law," said Paul
Wright, editor of Prison Legal News, in a press release. "The public's
right to know is not delegable to private corporations." One FOI expert
applauded the congressional bills that would make private-prison companies
accountable to the federal FOIA. "I think that is a long-overdue
fix," Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of
Information coalition, said of the Private Prison Information Act of 2007.
"This is a problem on the state level. This would fix it at the federal
level in a way that would bring a whole lot of otherwise private operations
into public scrutiny. We've seen lots of anecdotal evidence over the past
decade for the need for public oversight and scrutiny." Some aspects of
private-prison contracts are already accessible under FOIA, however. Flynn of
the Reason Foundation argued that those provisions provide enough
information. "The federal agencies that manage the contract with the
private company are subject to the FOIA process. The agencies engage in
regular and ongoing oversight of the contract, usually having [their] own
employees in the facility full-time. All reports and studies from these
monitors are subject to the FOIA process. Terms of the contract with the
private company are subject to FOIA. Their progress in meeting any benchmarks
detailed in the contract are subject to FOIA," said Flynn. "If
there is relevant information that isn't available, it can be [added to]
terms of the contract and then be subject to FOIA. There is no limit to what
can be required to be disclosed to the agency, which would then be subject to
FOIA." Davis agreed that FOIA's coverage of contracts between the
government and private-prison companies was important, but said it didn't go
far enough. "The contract piece is important and FOIA does do a good job
with that," he said. "The contract data is just a sliver of the
overall picture of what people should rightly have access to … . The vast majority of the information isn't
covered." Davis mentioned "inspection reports, incident reports
involving inmate violence, and just about any narrative report documenting
inmate treatment." If the ACLU's or Prison Legal News' lawsuit succeeds
in extracting records from private-prison corporations or if Congress passes
the Private Prison Information Act, an increase in information from these
prisons could bring light to a host of new issues. Some of these may well
involve the First Amendment. U.S. courts frequently address issues related to
access to publications, religious material, special diets and other claims of
First Amendment violations from prisoners. "I think you could get better
protections," said Flynn when asked about the First Amendment rights of
prisoners in private facilities, "because they can be detailed in a
contract with the private company. These protections can be mandated into the
contract rather than litigated later." "The best part about having
this information is that we would be able to act on it. Private companies can
be fired. Public facilities cannot," Flynn said. Said Davis, "When
you start getting the human narrative of incident reports, what's going on in
these prisons on a day to day basis, they could be rife with corruption or
running like a Swiss cruise ship."
July 15, 2008 The
Daily Cougar
As Sen. Barack Obama wages his presidential campaign across the United
States with political gusto, he's attracted names such as Vice President Al
Gore and Sen. John Edwards. University of Houston Associate Professor of Law
Tony Chase has also temporarily shifted his duties as a professor to become a
member of the National Finance Committee of Obama's campaign. "I've
known (Obama) for quite some time, and I was one of the people he asked
whether if he should run," Chase said. "Because of that, this is
very personal, and I genuinely believe he is best for this country."
Aside from teaching, Chase is chairman and CEO of ChaseCom
L.P. and Chase Radio Partners. He is also chairman and co-founder, together
with SBC Communications Inc., of The Telecom Opportunity Institute, an
organization that provides technical literacy training at no cost to at-risk
communities. He serves as a director of Leap Wireless International Inc. and
Cornell Companies Inc., and is chairman of the Houston Zoo Development Board.
He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves as a director
of the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast and Houston Parks. Chase began
teaching communications law and contracts at the UH Law Center in 1990 and
received the Edith Baker Faculty Award in 1994. On July 8, he stepped down as
the director of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank to dedicate more time to the
campaign. "I can't pick out a certain experience, but teaching graduate
law and undergraduate classes has been particularly helpful in preparing me,
because students are the future and full of ideas that in turn help me think
about today's issues," Chase said. "My experience at the University
helps me by being part of the excitement and interest among young and
potential voters." As for his motives, he believes that the nation, in its
current state, needs Obama as president. "I've known Barack and Michelle
for a long time, and based on that, I believe he is a transcendent political
figure," Chase said. "I know him well and his integrity and how he
responds to pressure, but also how he will be an excellent leader." As
the member of the National Finance Committee for the campaign, he helps make
decisions on how the campaign will utilize its funds and how the fundraising
will be run. He also performs special projects such as arranging meetings with
constituents and senior advisors. "The experience I gain from the
campaign will only help the way I try to bring practical experience to the
classroom, and this is actually quite relevant to what I teach at the
University," Chase said. Chase will return to teach in the fall and
resume his usual duties for his organizations. "I will still do what I
can to accommodate my teaching responsibilities and campaign duties and
continue to voice my support for Barack Obama," Chase said.
June 13, 2008
Tennessean
A year ago today, Gustavus "Gus" Puryear IV was nominated for a
federal judgeship in Nashville and appeared headed to an easy confirmation.
Now Puryear's confirmation seems unlikely. In addition to questions raised
about his qualifications and actions as general counsel for Corrections
Corporation of America, Puryear's fate is now caught in intense election-year
battles between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate over lifetime
judicial appointments. Senate Democrats are looking to approve as few of
Republican President Bush's appointments as they can before his term expires,
hoping Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois wins the presidency.
Republicans did the same during the final months of the Democratic Clinton
administration. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., a longtime member of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, which vets nominees, said at a committee hearing
Thursday that this practice is simply the "fact of the matter."
"It is legitimate," Biden said. "These are lifetime
appointments." Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., said at
the end of the hearing, which included approval of three judicial nominees,
that no more judges would be confirmed unless there is agreement among him
and ranking committee Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and the
Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate. Even Tennessee's two
Republican senators, who signed off on Puryear's nomination, acknowledge his
confirmation is in trouble. "Gus Puryear is a qualified nominee who
deserves an up-or-down vote in the Senate, and we're continuing to pursue
every option to that end," Sen. Bob Corker said in a written statement.
"The current atmosphere in the Senate makes his confirmation more
difficult — not impossible, just increasingly more difficult as we approach
the fall elections." Sen. Lamar Alexander said he was still hopeful.
"But the Democrats have slowed confirmation of President Bush's nominees
to a ridiculous extent," Alexander said in a recent interview. CCA
spokesman Steve Owen, responding to a request for Puryear to comment, said
the company has "no way of knowing what the outcome of the confirmation
process will be. We continue to believe that Mr. Puryear would make an
excellent federal judge. He has served the company admirably and with great
integrity as general counsel." The Judiciary Committee held a hearing on
Puryear's nomination in February but has not scheduled a vote on whether to
send his name to the full Senate for a vote. Reasons cited by opponents as to
why Puryear should not be confirmed include: a lack of trial and judicial
experience, his role as chief lawyer for the country's largest private prison
company, and the company's handling of the 2004 death of Estelle Richardson
while she was in the Metro Detention Facility in Nashville. Among those
opposing Puryear's confirmation are: The Alliance for Justice, an umbrella
group of national civil rights and other organizations, Private Corrections
Institute Inc., which opposes prison privatization and the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
May 7, 2008 Nashville
Post
A series of articles by the New York Times have Washington, D.C. insiders
saying that Gus Puryear should keep his day job. Puryear, executive vice
president and general counsel for Nashville based Corrections Corporation of
America, was nominated by President George W. Bush last year to serve on the
U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee. Since the nomination, Puryear has
been attacked here and in Washington for everything from his handling of CCA
legal matters, his membership in the Belle Meade Country Club, to his lack of
experience outside of corporate law. While the nomination of Puryear has not
moved due to objections of U.S. Senators Ted Kennedy and Diane Feinstein, he
still has had hope of being confirmed to the bench. Now, a number of
NashvillePost.com sources are saying that hope is even in more jeopardy.
Democratic insiders in Washington contacted by NashvillePost.com say that
what hope Puryear had was effectively killed by a series of articles
published this week by the New York Times. Republican insiders acknowledge
that the articles have made Puryear's bid "more complicated" and
there is no momentum to push him forward at this time. While the articles
don't mention Puryear by name, CCA is sharply criticized for their handling
of the death of Boubacar Bah and the labeling of his inmate file as
"proprietary information - not for distribution." Bah was
52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had overstayed a tourist visa. While
incarcerated, Bah had fallen and hit his head and became incoherent.
According to the NYT, "documents detail how he was treated by guards and
government employees: shackled and pinned to the floor of the medical unit as
he moaned and vomited, then left in a disciplinary cell for more than 13 hours,
despite repeated notations that he was unresponsive and intermittently
foaming at the mouth." He was eventually transported to a hospital, but
his family was not notified of his whereabouts for five days. He died four
months later. The Times also ran an editorial on this matter yesterday.
April 25, 2008 Nashville
Scene
State Rep. Mike Turner has fired off a missive to Tennessee Department of
Correction Commissioner George Little about the spate of questionable
practices and incidents that have landed Corrections Corporation of America
in the news. CCA, as you'll recall, contracts with Tennessee (along with many
other state and federal authorities) to run their prisons and jails. In his
April 16 letter, which Pith obtained this morning, Turner mentions the Time
magazine story that alleges CCA counsel Gus Puryear allegedly whitewashed
incident reports on escapes and unnatural deaths, so as not to alarm the
company's clients. He also cites The Tennessean piece on an inmate at a
Metro-controlled, CCA-run correctional facility who went nine months without
a shower, as well as the recent Nashville Scene article that reported how
guards at that same facility falsely claimed a jail-cell surveillance camera
wasn't working—just one day after an inmate was found in her cell with a
broken skull, according to the detective who wanted to review the footage. In
other words, it's just another day in the life of CCA and Gus Puryear—who, we
should add, is called out in the upcoming issue of the National Law Journal
for being one of Bush's most controversial judicial appointees.
March 26, 2008 Tennessean
Add women’s rights groups to the list opposing the federal judicial
nomination of Gus Puryear IV, the embattled general counsel for the
Corrections Corporation of America. Puryear’s membership to Nashville’s Belle
Meade County Club is under fire by the women’s rights organization who say
women are unable to vote or hold office at the private golf club. National
Organization of Women, the National Council for Women’s Organizations and the
Women’s Equal rights Legal Defense and Education Fund have sent a letter to
the Senate Judiciary Committee. Puryear’s nomination ignited a debate whether
the general counsel of CCA, the for-profit prison giant, is suited for the
bench in light of allegations that he encouraged misleading incident reports.
Private Corrections Institute, an advocacy group that opposes prison
privatization, has been an outspoken critic of Puryear's nomination. The
Alliance for Justice and the National Lawyers Guild are among the opposition.
There’s also a website, www.againstpuryear.org, is part of the opposition
campaign. The hearings were held last month and the committee has not voted
on his nomination. President Bush nominated Puryear last June to serve as a
federal judge for the Middle District of Tennessee.
March 21, 2008 Nashville
Scene
Yesterday I talked with Rob McGuire, the local prosecutor who brought
charges against four CCA guards in the death of inmate Estelle Richardson,
who in 2004 was found in her solitary cell with a broken skull and four
cracked ribs. McGuire ultimately dropped the case, after doctors for both CCA
and Richardson's family determined that her head injuries might have been
sustained before she was placed in solitary confinement. Now, though, the
Richardson case has taken center stage in the nomination hearings of Gus
Puryear, the CCA general counsel who was nominated by President George W.
Bush to a federal judgeship in Tennessee's Middle District. The Senate
Judiciary Committee has grilled Puryear about his statements about the
case—he falsely claimed the guards were “exonerated”—and how his company
handled the investigation. On that count, McGuire has a rather interesting
story to share. And now we're going to have to jump. McGuire says that when a
Metro homicide detective began to investigate Richardson's death, he asked to
see videotape of the extractions—i.e., those times when an inmate is ushered
in and out of her cell. Instead, guards told him the camera had mysteriously
malfunctioned. Wouldn't you know it, the detective was told, there's no
footage available—which is not much different than when the suspect tells
Lennie Briscoe he doesn't remember what he was doing the night of the murder.
At that point, the detective examined the camera and could find nothing wrong
with it. “He turns it on and it appears to be working just fine,” McGuire
says. “That was a significant problem for us; it did not help their cause.”
Of course, McGuire ultimately had to drop the case when it appeared that any number
of different people—from inmates to guards—could have caused Richardson's
head injuries. And because she was heavily medicated at the time, it was
certainly possible that the inmate could have endured a serious injury
without realizing until it was too late. But none of this lets CCA off the
hook. First, there's the issue that, no matter how you look at it, Richardson
was almost certainly killed in a CCA facility, which Puryear glosses over in
his correspondence with members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. In
fact, Puryear makes her death out to be a veritable mystery, even though it's
ludicrous to imagine how someone could break their skull and crack their ribs
by simply slipping on the floor. So if—and we're using the word “if” lightly
here—she was killed in jail, that doesn't reflect well on CCA. Then, of
course, there's McGuire's fresh anecdote about the supposedly malfunctioning
camera, which makes you wonder if CCA took an awkward stab at a cover-up. CCA
and Puryear are already under fire for last week's Time.com report, in which
a former prison manager accused the company of lying to its government
clients about the safety of its prisons. Is there a pattern here? It's next
to impossible to gleam objective data from CCA, even though it manages public
facilities across the country. But with Puryear likely to face additional additional questions from the members of the judiciary
committee about the Richardson case and other CCA matters, a little more
transparency might be in order. Developing....
March 14, 2008 Nashville
Scene
Once thought to be a sure thing, Gus Puryear's nomination to the federal
bench is now in serious trouble. A devastating story published on Time
magazine's website yesterday alleged that the young attorney whitewashed company
reports in his role as corporate counsel for Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA). The story revolves around Ronald T. Jones, a former CCA prison
manager described as a loyal Republican like the judicial nominee himself.
Jones claims Puryear oversaw a reporting system in which the company
basically lied to its public-sector clients, minimizing outbreaks of prison
disturbances in the jails it operates. In theory at least, CCA is supposed to
provide thorough and objective reports to the government agencies who have
outsourced the management of its jails to the private company. But Jones says
his ex-boss Puryear masked or omitted details that could result in
litigation, fines or bad press. That aside, he behaved admirably. “When
Puryear felt there was highly sensitive or potentially damaging information
to CCA, I would then be directed to remove that information from an audit
report,” Jones told Time.com. Today, The Tennessean published a well-reported
front-page story that included additional details, including how in 2005 a
CCA official once had the temerity to issue a memo with potentially damaging
information about a prison incident. That led to a change in company
policy—in which any reports to be made public had to be cleared by the office
of the general counsel. The Private Corrections Institute, which has led the
charge against Puryear, issued a press release calling on the Senate
Judiciary Committee to summon the nominee back to Washington for yet another
hearing. The group may well get its wish. It's been a dismal week for
Puryear—right as he tries to explain his membership in the historically
discriminatory Belle Meade Country Club, he now will likely have to defend
himself against serious charges of turning CCA’s cold, hard facts into
creative fiction. It's still possible for Puryear to survive this latest
onslaught of bad press and go on to become a good judge. But considering how
much trouble he's had so far convincing people he's up for the job, couldn't
the Bush administration have just plucked someone else? There are plenty of
intelligent Republican attorneys in Nashville. How many of them have
Puryear's baggage?
March 14, 2008 Tennessean
A former Corrections Corporation of America manager is accusing the
company's general counsel and federal judicial nominee Gus Puryear IV of
overseeing a practice that produced misleading reports about safety incidents
at its prisons. Ronald T. Jones, who until last year worked as a senior
manager in quality assurance at the Nashville-based prison operator, said
that Puryear directed him and other staff to classify incidents such as
escapes, unnatural deaths and disturbances as less serious to make its
performance look better in reports to government agency clients. Reports
prepared for internal use, meanwhile, included more details about the
specific incidents, Jones said. Private Corrections Institute, an advocacy
group that opposes prison privatization and has been an outspoken critic of
Puryear's nomination, Thursday urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold
another round of hearings at which Jones could testify and Puryear be asked
more questions about his actions. "Alternatively, we support the
position of not bringing Mr. Puryear's judicial nomination forward for a
committee vote," said Alex Friedmann, a former inmate at a CCA prison
and the group's vice president. At a Feb. 12 hearing before the Judiciary
Committee, Puryear faced tough questions on the 2004 death of a woman at the
Metro Detention Facility, possible conflict of interest with cases involving
CCA and its executives that are often filed in Middle Tennessee District,
where he would serve, and his membership in the exclusive Belle Meade Country
Club. In response, Puryear said that he would recuse himself for at least
five years from all cases involving CCA and its executives: said there were
disagreements among medical experts about what happened in the death of
Estelle Richardson at the detention facility; and promised to resign from
Belle Meade if he found its membership policies violated the code of judicial
ethics. Committee staff said any action on Puryear's nomination is unlikely
until April at the earliest. The committee has no more business meetings this
week and Congress is on Easter break for the next two weeks. The Judiciary
Committee usually does not hold additional hearings with the nominee and
other witnesses. Instead, the senators rely on written responses to questions
and the transcript of the original hearing when discussing and voting on a
nominee. Puryear couldn't be reached last night for comment. CCA denies
allegations -- Louise Grant, a CCA spokeswoman, called Jones' allegations
inaccurate and added that it paints a false picture of CCA's quality
assurance process and of Puryear's role. "We question the motives of this
former employee, who was not in a leadership position in quality assurance
and resigned in lieu of termination," Grant added. "If our interest
was in under-reporting or not finding quality issues, we simply would not
have created this (quality assurance) department or its programs in the first
place." Jones denies that he faced termination at CCA. He now lives in
Detroit and said he left CCA to pursue a legal career. He said in his job he
was responsible for tracking information on events such as unusual deaths,
disturbances and audit findings and that the misleading practices began in
early 2005, when the quality assurance department was put under Puryear as
general counsel. A CCA staff member in 2005 provided a report containing
potentially damaging information about an incident at a prison to a
government client without corporate approval, Jones said. That incident,
according to Jones, led to a new policy in which any reports that could be
made public needed to be cleared by the office of the general counsel.
"Mr. Puryear then directed me, and other quality assurance department
staff who process audit report finding, to create two reports for
distribution of audit findings," Jones wrote in a statement sent to the
Senate Judiciary Committee. "I would prepare one report with all of the
audit findings and auditor comments in it for "internal purposes
only" and a separate more generic report that contained only general
information about audit results as a whole." In a separate interview
with The Tennessean, Jones added that the more information that could
potentially damage the company if it was released publicly, the more that its
operations and financial status could be affected. In the corrections
industry, the number of incidents such as prison escapes, riots, and sexual
assaults are among variables often used to determine bonuses for employees
from wardens to chief executives, industry observers said. If a prison
contract provides for a bonus, such incidents also would be taken into
account by a client government agency in determining the award. CCA is
required to file reports with the state on incidents such as inmate-on-inmate
assaults or inmate-on-staff assaults, disturbances and a daily census of
inmates at its prisons that house state inmates, said Dorinda Carter, a
spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Corrections. The department has
onsite contract monitors and other designated employees at the prisons that
report daily on incidents and another division that conducts annual audits of
the CCA prisons, she said. "We feel pretty sure that we're finding out
about incidents as they happen," Carter said. She added that CCA is
required to follow the same policies as the 13 prisons run by the state and
that officials are confident in their monitoring of the company.
March 13, 2008 Mother
Jones
Most ambitious lawyers know that if they want to become a federal judge,
they have to fulfill several key requirements. First, they must schmooze the
right people, sit on the right bar committees, and make the requisite political
contributions. Then, above all, they must 1) pay nanny taxes, and 2) wait
until after securing a lifetime appointment to join an exclusive,
discriminatory country club. Gustavus Adolphus Puryear IV, Bush's choice for
a trial court seat in the middle district of Tennessee, had ticked off most
of the items on the list by the time he was nominated last summer. He'd given
money, befriended Dick Cheney's son-in-law, and even prepped Cheney for the
vice-presidential debates in 2000 and 2004. But he forgot about rule number
2, an oversight that might be his undoing. As a prison company lawyer with
virtually no litigation experience, Puryear's resume offers any number of
reasons why he shouldn't be confirmed. But inexperience has never stopped the
politically connected from ascending to the bench. Country club memberships,
however, are a different matter. And Puryear happens to be a member of the
exclusive Belle Meade Country Club in Nashville, a club whose racist history
is so well known that even former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had the
good sense to quit the club before running for office. After Puryear's
surprisingly contentious confirmation hearing last month, several senators
asked him to provide additional written answers to their questions. According
to the Nashville Scene, Puryear's responses aren't likely to win him any
friends with the Democrats on the committee, particularly Ted Kennedy, who
sent Puryear four sets of questions regarding the club, including one about
its racial diversity. Puryear replied in legalese, writing, “I am advised
that the club does not track its members based on race, nor does it respond
to such requests. I am personally aware that there are minority members, but
I do not myself know the number,” he wrote. The number of black members of
the Belle Meade Country Club is an open secret in Nashville, largely because
the number is exactly one. Belle Meade didn't allow black members until 1994,
when they admitted one guy, a lawyer from Atlanta. Today, that same guy remains
the only black member of the club. So either Puryear is being incredibly
disingenuous, or he is a lot dumber than his supporters claim. (The Nashville
Scene had no trouble figuring out how many black members the club had, after
all, so it's hard to believe Puryear, who's actually a member, couldn't do
the same.) It's rare for the Senate to see confirmation fights over trial
court judges, but Puryear could be the exception. His country club membership
has caught the attention of women's groups, who are mounting some opposition.
Feminist lawyer Gloria Allred has written a letter to the Judiciary Committee
raising questions about Puryear's nomination. She, too, doesn't buy his claim
of ignorance about the club's discriminatory practices, noting that the club's
"entire voting membership is male, "Lady members" are not
allowed to vote, and no women have been proposed for Resident Member status
that would afford voting privileges." As a trial court judge, Puryear
would preside over a fair number of sexual and racial discrimination trials,
which is another reason women's groups are worried about his nomination. If
Puryear can't see the blatant, longstanding discrimination going on in his
own country club, can you imagine what he'd be like in the courtroom? Egads!
March 13, 2008 TIME
As the top lawyer for America's biggest private prison company, Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA), Gus Puryear IV, is known to sport well-pressed
preppy pink shirts, and his brownish mop of hair stands out among most of
President Bush's graying nominees to the federal bench. A favorite of G.O.P.
hardliners, Puryear, 39, prepped Dick Cheney for the vice presidential
debates — both in 2000 and 2004 — and served as a senior aide to two former
senators and onetime presidential hopefuls, Bill Frist and Fred Thompson.
Political connections, though, may not be enough to get Puryear a lifetime
post as a federal district judge in Tennessee. Puryear recently confronted
tough questions about his conduct, experience and potential conflicts of interest
from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which must approve him
before a full Senate vote. Now, a former CCA manager tells TIME that Puryear
oversaw a reporting system in which accounts of major, sometimes violent
prison disturbances and other significant events were often masked or
minimized in accounts provided to government agencies with oversight over
prison contracts. Ronald T. Jones, the former CCA manager, alleges that the
company even began keeping two sets of books — one for internal use that
described prison deficiencies in telling detail, and a second set that Jones
describes as "doctored" for public consumption, to limit bad
publicity, litigation or fines that could derail CCA's multimillion dollar
contracts with federal, state or local agencies. CCA owns or operates 65
prisons, housing some 70,000 inmates across the U.S. According to the
company's website, it has a greater than 50% share of the booming private
prison market. CCA is also a major contributor to Republican candidates and
causes, and spends millions of dollars each year lobbying for government
contracts. (Puryear enjoys a friendship with Cheney's son-in-law, Philip
Perry, who lobbied for CCA in Washington before serving as general counsel
for the Department of Homeland Security, which has millions of dollars in
contracts with CCA, from 2005 to 2007.) The company has likewise given
financial support to tax-exempt policy groups that support tough sentencing
laws that help put more people behind bars. Like other prison companies, CCA
has faced numerous lawsuits that stem from allegedly inadequate staff levels
that can be a cause of high levels of violence in the prisons. Though
hundreds of such lawsuits are often pending at any given time, many brought
by inmates in its own facilities, CCA under Puryear has mounted an especially
vigorous defense against them, refusing to settle all but the most damaging.
Jones knows CCA intimately. Until last summer, the longtime Republican was in charge of "quality assurance" records for
CCA prisons across the U.S. He says that in 2005, after CCA found itself
embarrassed on several occasions by the public release of internal records to
government agencies, Puryear mandated that detailed, raw reports on prison
shortcomings carry a blanket assertion of "attorney client
privilege," thus forbidding their release without his written consent.
From then on, Jones says, the audits delivered to agencies were filled with
increasingly vague performance measures. "If the wrong party found out
that a facility's operations scored low in an audit, then CCA could be
subject to litigation, fines or worse," explains Jones. "When Mr.
Puryear felt there was highly sensitive or potentially damaging information
to CCA, I would then be directed to remove that information from an audit
report." Puryear would not comment on the allegations. Jones resigned
from CCA last summer to pursue a legal career. According to Jones, Puryear
was most concerned about what CCA described as "zero tolerance"
events, or ZT's — including unnatural deaths, major disturbances, escapes and
sexual assaults. According to Jones, bonuses and job security at the company
were tied to reporting low ZT numbers. Low numbers also pleased CCA's
government clients, as well as the company's board, which received a regular
tally, and Wall Street analysts concerned about potentially costly lawsuits
that CCA might face. In 2006, for example, Jones says CCA had to lock down a
prison in Texas to control rioting by as many as 60 inmates. Despite clear
internal guidelines defining the incident as a ZT, Jones says he was ordered
not to label it that way. Instead it was logged as, "Altered facility
schedule due to inmate action". And this was not unusual, says Jones:
"Information was misrepresented in a very disturbing way concerning the
company's most important performance indicators, which included escapes,
suicides, violent outbreaks and sexual assaults." Companies often try to
show their best face to customers, and safeguard internal records with "attorney-client
privilege." But according to Stephen Gillers,
a leading expert on legal ethics at New York University, CCA's use of that
privilege seems like "a wholesale, possibly overreaching claim," similiar to the blanket assertions of major tobacco
companies that tried to keep damaging internal documents from public view.
Those assertions of privilege have been rejected by federal judges as an
attempt to improperly conceal their internal data on the dangers of smoking
from customers, the courts and legal adversaries. CCA could also be in legal
trouble if it minimized the tally of serious prison incidents and, by
implication, its possible financial liability. As chief legal counsel,
Puryear would have also had an obligation to ensure his board had all the
information it needed, good or bad, to make decisions. If Puryear's reporting
system had the effect of withholding information relevant to official prison
oversight, that could bear on his suitability as a federal judge by
suggesting his "disdain for the proper operation of an important
function of government," notes Gillers.
Contacted by TIME, CCA says that Puryear, "has served the company well
and honorably as general counsel and will be an outstanding judge." The
company denies allegations that it keeps two sets of books, saying: "A
final audit report is made available to our customers. Appropriate
information gathered in the audits is separately provided to our legal
department." The company adds that "CCA has produced all relevant,
non-privileged documents in litigation," that its board is regularly
apprised of the most serious prison incidents, and that "all
appropriate" information is given to the financial community. President
Bush recently called Puryear and his 27 other judicial nominees facing Senate
confirmation "highly qualified." Whether or not the Senate agrees
on Puryear, Bush is likely to leave the White House with fewer judges
approved than Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan, both two-term chief executives.
March 5, 2008 Tennessean
The accuracy of testimony by Gustavus "Gus'' Puryear IV at his
confirmation hearing to be a federal judge is being questioned by four
Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Puryear is general
counsel of Nashville-based private prison giant Corrections Corporation of
America and was nominated by Republican President Bush. After the February
hearing, he provided written answers to additional questions about the
company's handling of the death of an inmate at a company-run facility in
Nashville, potential conflicts of interest he would face as a judge and his
membership in the Belle Meade Country Club. The sometimes-pointed questions
and Puryear's responses again raise the stakes in his confirmation. Once
thought to be routine, Puryear's nomination is being fought by a coalition of
civil rights, labor and other groups spearheaded by the Private Corrections
Institute, which opposes prison privatization. Puryear's responses were
released Thursday. Inmate death testimony -- Judiciary Committee Chairman
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, along with Sens. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts,
Dianne Feinstein of California and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin questioned the
testimony Puryear gave last month about the 2004 death of Estelle Richardson.
Richardson died at the Metro Detention Facility after she was forcibly
removed from her solitary confinement cell by four guards. She had a
fractured skull, broken ribs and liver damage. The state's medical examiner
ruled the death a homicide and the four guards were charged, but the
indictments eventually were dropped. Later, a civil suit brought by
Richardson's family was settled out of court when experts representing the
family and the CCA concluded the skull fracture occurred before she was
extracted from her cell. At his Feb. 12 hearing, Puryear testified it was not
clear how Richardson received her head injuries and that they could have been
self-inflicted. He said CPR done in an attempt to revive Richardson could
have caused her broken ribs and liver damage. All four senators questioned
that testimony, citing a letter sent to the committee from Dr. Bruce Levy,
Tennessee's chief medical examiner, who conducted the autopsy on Richardson.
He reiterated that the death was a homicide caused by blunt force trauma that
was not self-inflicted. Levy called "misleading at best'' Puryear's
comment about CPR causing injuries. Puryear responded by citing a letter to
the committee from David Smith, attorney for the Richardson family, who wrote
that the "the circumstances and causes of Ms. Richardson's tragic death
were complex and debated ... our own experts attributed the death to a
seizure.'' "There were also issues on whether CPR may have caused the
liver and rib injuries,'' Smith wrote. Puryear said the company's expert, Dr.
William McCormick, former deputy chief medical examiner for Tennessee, wrote
that the rib and liver injuries were "almost certainly'' caused by CPR
and cited medical research to back his claim. Promises made -- Puryear
expanded on a promise made during testimony that he would recuse himself for
at least five years from CCA cases and would also not take on personal cases
involving company executives. He said at the hearing he also would sell all
of his CCA stock. Puryear also wrote that he would resign from the Belle
Meade Country Club if he discovered that the club's membership practices
violated the judicial code of conduct. Kennedy wrote that the club did not
allow blacks to join until 1994 and does not give women the right to vote on
club business. Puryear said there are no women who are "resident
members,'' the class allowed to vote, but that he knows of no policy that
restricts women from being recommended for that category. "I am not
aware ... that any woman has been proposed or has sought to be proposed as a
'resident member,' " he said. Judiciary Committee spokesman Erica Chabot
said the committee would likely not deal with the nomination until April at
the earliest because members may want to ask follow-up questions and Congress
is out of session the last two weeks of March. The full Senate must confirm
the nomination once it is out of committee.
February 25, 2008 Tennessean
Gustavus "Gus" Puryear IV is the top attorney for Corrections
Corporation of America, the Nashville-based private prison giant. He
graduated with honors from law school, is a deacon in his church and serves
on the boards of numerous community organizations. Now President Bush has
nominated him to be a federal judge for the Middle District of Tennessee. But
Puryear has never been a judge, has little trial experience, and works for
and holds stock in a company enmeshed with the federal government through
campaign donations, lobbying and huge contracts. And the company he
represents gets sued a lot, many times in federal court in Nashville. Civil
rights and prison rights advocates and others say those and other concerns
make Puryear a poor choice to be a judge in the very court where his company
is often a defendant. And his answers at his confirmation hearing earlier
this month are raising questions among some senators and the state's top
medical examiner. What appeared to be a routine confirmation process has
suddenly become complicated. "During that hearing, a lot of red flags
were raised," said Erica Chabot, spokeswoman for Sen. Patrick Leahy,
D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "You can bet there
are some follow-ups." Senators on the committee were given two weeks to
submit additional questions that will be sent to Puryear for written
responses. Puryear, 39, declined to comment on questions about his fitness
for the bench while the confirmation process is ongoing, said Steve Owen,
spokesman for CCA. Trial experience lacking -- Letters opposing Puryear were
sent to the committee by Private Corrections Institute Inc., which opposes
prison privatization; the Alliance for Justice, an umbrella group of dozens
of national civil rights and other organizations; and the American Federation
of State, County and Municipal Employees. Among their arguments: Puryear
doesn't have the proper legal qualifications. Puryear spent less than three
years in private practice in Nashville before signing on as counsel for the
Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, headed by then-Sen. Fred Thompson.
Next, he served as legislative director for former Sen. Bill Frist for about three
years before becoming general counsel and vice president at CCA in January
2001. Puryear's lack of trial experience is a greater concern than his role
as a corporate lawyer and his lack of judicial service, said Douglas Laycock,
a professor of the University of Michigan Law School. "District court
judges have to run a trial and run it efficiently. It's just a different
skill set," Laycock said. An analysis of a database of the nearly 1,200
sitting and senior federal judges shows slightly more than one-third served
as judges prior to their appointment. Only 18 served as general counsels or
assistant or associate general counsels for private companies. Puryear's lack
of trial experience is probably why he received a "qualified"
rating by the American Bar Association, instead of the higher "well
qualified," Laycock said. Of the 67 judges nominated by President Bush
since January 2007, 14 received a unanimous or majority "qualified"
rating. The rest had unanimous or majority "well-qualified"
ratings. Alex Friedman, vice president of Private Corrections Institute, said
conflict of interest is a major reason not to confirm Puryear because
lawsuits against the company and its executives are often filed in the court
on which he would serve. Friedman served six years in a CCA-run facility in
Tennessee. Puryear told the committee he would sell off all his CCA stock and
recuse himself from cases involving the company. Laycock said "that CCA
gets sued a lot is not a problem" because the number of cases would be
relatively small and could be picked up by other judges. CCA and Puryear have
strong connections to the federal government. Puryear gave $3,000 to
Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker's campaign in 2005-06 and $1,000 to Tennessee Sen.
Lamar Alexander in 2005. CCA executives and its political action committee
have given $48,950 to Alexander since 1989, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics. Corker has received $27,250 from CCA and its executives.
Puryear is a registered lobbyist for CCA and the company spent more than $3
million in 2007 lobbying the federal government, according to lobbying
reports. It has received nearly $1.2 billion in federal contracts since 2004,
according to a database of federal contracts compiled by the Office of
Management and Budget. Nashville death cited -- Another complaint is the
company's handling of the 2004 death of Estelle Richardson in the Metro
Detention Facility in Nashville. Puryear testified at his confirmation
hearing that her broken ribs and liver injuries could have been caused by CPR
attempts to revive her. Tennessee's Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Bruce Levy,
who conducted the autopsy on Richardson, said in an e-mail that Puryear's
"statement that the rib fractures and liver damage could have been
caused by CPR is in error and is not based on sound forensic medicine."
Levy has contacted the judiciary committee. But Dr. William McCormick, the
state's former deputy chief medical examiner, concluded in a report prepared
for attorneys defending the company in a civil lawsuit that the injuries were
"almost certainly" caused by the CPR, said Joe Welborn, one of the
attorneys. Four CCA guards were charged, but the charges were dropped and
Richardson's family ultimately settled a lawsuit against the company. Both
Tennessee Republican senators, Alexander and Corker, released written
statements last week repeating their support for Puryear. "The American
Bar Association investigated all allegations raised by liberal interest
groups, but still concluded that Mr. Puryear was qualified to serve on the
federal bench," Alexander said. The Senate Judiciary Committee is not
likely to hold a second hearing on the nomination, said Chabot, spokeswoman
for chairman Leahy. The committee will rely on the record of the first
hearing and answers to written questions to vote. It is not clear when that
vote will take place.
February 22, 2008 National
Lawyers Guild PR
On June 13, 2007, President Bush nominated Gustavus Adolphus Puryear IV for a
position on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Mr.
Puryear currently serves as vice president and general counsel for
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest for-profit
private prison company. If appointed he would serve as a federal judge in the
same jurisdiction where CCA is headquartered. Since 2000, at least 260
federal lawsuits naming CCA, company subsidiaries or CCA employees have been
filed in the Middle District of Tennessee. Such cases would constitute a
conflict of interest for Mr. Puryear, and assigning them to other judges
would not be an effective use of judicial resources. Of greater concern is
that Mr. Puryear lacks familiarity with the federal courts and has little
trial or litigation experience. By his own admission he has tried only two
cases to verdict; he has been personally involved in only five federal cases,
most recently a decade ago. He is not admitted to practice before the Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals, which is over the Middle District of Tennessee, and
received only a "qualified" rating from the American Bar
Association rather than a "highly qualified" rating. Both Tennessee
Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker strongly support Mr. Puryear's
nomination. Neither Senator has acknowledged the substantial financial
contributions received from Mr. Puryear and his employer, CCA – which include
over $80,000 to Senator Alexander and $27,000 to Senator Corker since 2004.
Further, Mr. Puryear mentioned in disclosure statements that he is a member
of the Nashville-based Belle Meade Country Club. The fact that Mr. Puryear
maintains membership in an exclusive, predominately white club that did not
admit its first minority member until 1994, and reportedly does not afford
voting privileges to female members but only to male members, is a matter of
significant concern for a federal judicial nominee. In an Associated Press
national wire article concerning Mr. Puryear's nomination, Vanderbilt
Professor Stefanie Lindquist was quoted as saying his judicial appointment
"might slide through as a compromise." The National Lawyers Guild
does not believe the people of Tennessee should have to compromise or settle
for a less-than-qualified federal judge to represent their interests in U.S.
District Court. The National Lawyers Guild calls on the Senate Committee on
the Judiciary to vote down this unqualified, conflicted and controversial
judicial candidate.
February 21, 2008 AP
A private prison company executive nominated to become a federal judge has
run into a determined opponent — a former inmate. President Bush in June
nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV, chief lawyer with Corrections Corporation
of America, to become a U.S. district judge in Nashville. That led Alex
Friedmann, who spent six years at the company's prison in Clifton, Tenn., to
investigate Puryear's qualifications. He looked up every case where Puryear
was listed on the docket as counsel. The prisoner-turned-inmate advocate
found only five instances where Puryear was the attorney of record. By his
count and Puryear's, the judicial nominee has been involved in only two
federal court trials during his career. That's just one more case than
Friedmann himself has handled in federal court. Convinced that the
well-connected Puryear was unqualified to be a federal judge and might face a
conflict of interest overseeing litigation involving his former employer,
Friedmann began a public relations campaign against the nomination that led
all the way to the Senate. He formed the group Tennesseans Against Puryear
and enlisted the help of the liberal Washington-based Alliance for Justice
and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, both of
which sent letters opposing the appointment. Puryear, a 1993 graduate of the
University of North Carolina law school, didn't respond to several phone and
e-mail requests left at his home and office for an interview with The
Associated Press. At a Feb. 12 hearing of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Diane
Feinstein, D-Calif., questioned Puryear about several issues originally
raised by Friedmann and the nonprofit Private Corrections Institute, a group
opposing private prisons that Friedmann helps run. Puryear told the Senate
committee he already was selling off his stock in the company, according to
reports in The Tennessean newspaper. He owned CCA shares valued at just under
$1.3 million as of Feb. 1, according to Lionshares.com, an online database of
stock ownership. He also pledged to recuse himself from cases involving CCA
even after he no longer holds a financial interest. The committee also
questioned Puryear about whether the volume of lawsuits against
Nashville-based CCA — the nation's largest for-profit private prison company
— would burden other judges who would have to hear the cases when Puryear
recused himself. Puryear said it would not be a significant burden.
Friedmann's campaign against Puryear continues. He plans to send a letter to
the Committee on the Judiciary pointing out what he contends are inaccuracies
in Puryear's answers. The two men have never met. Although Friedmann learned
of the nomination because he keeps tabs on CCA, he insists his crusade is
based on Puryear's lack of qualification and not because he's a CCA
executive. Friedmann sued CCA and several employees in 1996 while
incarcerated for six years for armed robbery. Serving as his own lawyer,
Friedmann eventually won a $6,000 judgment against a former prison unit
manager for a civil rights violation. Puryear's legal resume includes
significant political work — serving as counsel to former Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist and junior counsel during the U.S. Senate Governmental
Affairs Committee investigation of campaign finance abuse led by former Sen.
Fred Thompson. He also was a debate adviser for Dick Cheney in 2000. Stefanie
Lindquist, an associate professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt
University, said courtroom experience is good but not essential for federal
judge nominees. She sees more significance in the American Bar Association
rating of Puryear as "qualified," instead of "well
qualified" to be a judge. "A 'qualified' rating is relatively weak.
That's going to hurt him," Lindquist said. Lindquist said Friedmann's
efforts are unusual for even temporarily disrupting what should be a routine
confirmation. There are about 180 Bush nominations pending as the administration
and Democratic-controlled Senate tangle over some sharply contested nominees.
Of the Puryear nomination, Lindquist said: "If there are other, more
controversial nominees, this might slide through as a compromise."
February 20, 2008 Mother
Jones
In October 2000, Dick Cheney faced off for a debate with Connecticut Sen.
Joseph Lieberman. The 60-year-old Cheney appeared comfortable discussing the
ins and outs of policy and made good-natured jokes about Lieberman's singing
abilities, or lack thereof. Cheney's smooth performance reflected his many
years in public service. But the aspiring vice president also had a strong
debate-preparation team made up of longtime friends and GOP loyalists. Among
them was Gustavus Adolphus Puryear IV, a legislative director for Tennessee
senator Bill Frist, who was on contract with the Bush/Cheney campaign.
Puryear apparently did such a good job prepping Cheney that he was called in
again in 2004 to help him gear up for his debate with Democratic
vice-presidential candidate John Edwards. Puryear's efforts on behalf of the
Bush administration paid off last June when the president nominated him to be
a federal trial court judge for the Middle District of Tennessee. Puryear
certainly isn't the first judicial nominee selected primarily for his
political service, but still, his resume is remarkably thin on the practice
of law, a basic prerequisite even for the best-connected political hacks.
Puryear got his start in politics in the mid-1990s working as counsel to the
Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, then chaired by Fred Thompson, as
it investigated the Clinton fundraising scandals. From there he went to work
for Frist. Beyond a brief stint in private practice for a corporate law firm
when he was fresh out of law school, Puryear has spent more time inside an
executive suite than a courtroom. And it's that corporate work that makes him
an especially questionable candidate for the federal bench. Puryear was in
Washington last week for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary
Committee, where Senators Arlen Specter (D.-Pa,) and Dianne Feinstein
(D.-Ca.) both put his resume under a microscope, noting his conspicuous lack
of trial experience. At one point Specter asked him point blank, "How
many cases have you actually tried?" To which Puryear answered: Two.
Indeed, according to his written questionnaire for the committee, of the two
cases he has tried in the entirety of his legal career, he was lead counsel
on one of them. The last time he litigated a case in federal court was more
than a decade ago. Puryear has spent the bulk of his legal career at the
Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest
private prison company. As its general counsel since 2001, Puryear has made
millions of dollars working for a company that profits from the country's
incarceration boom, particularly through his recent sale of more than $3
million worth of the company's stock. (His financial disclosure form shows a
net worth of more than $13 million.) His employer creates enormous conflicts
for Puryear as a potential federal judge, as the CCA gets sued all the time,
often in the very district where he hopes to preside as judge. Since 2000,
roughly 260 cases have been filed in that court against the CCA, its
officers, and subsidiaries. In addition, Puryear's current job involves
overseeing the CCA's defense against inmate litigation, a prison staple that
he has publicly dismissed as a nuisance, even though such litigation has led
to significant verdicts and settlements against the company. For instance, in
2000, a South Carolina jury hit the CCA with a $3 million verdict for abusing
juveniles. Other successful suits have alleged that the company's employees
abused inmates and provided negligent medical care. Yet in a quote he no doubt
now regrets, in 2004 Puryear said that, "Litigation is an outlet for
inmates. It's something they can do in their spare time." Inmate
lawsuits typically account for more than 10 percent of the docket in
Tennessee's Middle District, meaning that Puryear will see his share of them
if he gets confirmed. During his confirmation hearing last week, Puryear told
the committee that he would recuse himself from any cases involving the
CCA—at least, he said, for some time after he's divested all of his stock in
the company. He dismissed concerns about his conflict of interest by noting
that the CCA cases make up a small part of the court's workload and that his
recusals would not create problems for the other judges. But his promises to
recuse still don't get to the heart of a fundamental conflict: To the CCA,
inmates are a revenue stream warehoused at the cheapest price. This not
exactly the view of the criminal justice system you want from a judge if you
are a defendant. A trial court judge in Tennessee's Middle District can
expect to handle more than 60 criminal cases a year. Every person Puryear
sends to prison is a potential money-maker for his former employer, which
contracts with the federal government to manage 15 detention facilities, and
also holds federal prisoners in other CCA institutions that house state and
local prisoners when the need arises, according to Steve Owen, the company's
director of marketing and communications. The number of inmates coming from
Tennessee may be relatively small, but still, it seems fair to ask whether
Puryear's conflict of interest runs so deep that he might have to recuse
himself from criminal cases entirely. Thus far, Puryear has largely escaped
media scrutiny, as the activist groups that monitor the federal courts tend to
focus mostly on appellate courts and the occasional Supreme Court battle
rather than on trial court nominees. Puryear's CV also doesn't signal fights
on many of the hot-button social issues that usually set off a confirmation
battle. He doesn't sound—or look—like Robert Bork. He's young, patrician, a
model member of the exclusive Belle Meade Country Club, and director of the
Antiques & Garden Show of Nashville. But for his deep voice he could be
Niles on "Frasier." Nonetheless, Puryear might be in for an unexpected
fight, due in part to his decision to publicly dis jailhouse lawyers. Alex
Friedmann was one of those jailhouse lawyers. He spent six years inside one
of the CCA's prisons in Tennessee for attempted murder and armed robbery.
Friedmann actually sued the CCA while incarcerated for retaliating against
him for his comments to a reporter for The Nation. Representing himself, he
took another case all the way to a jury trial, where he mostly lost, though
he won a default judgment against a former unit manager. He also appealed a
different case against the state, over censorship, that went all the way to
the Sixth Circuit court of appeals where he won. "In that regard, I'm
more qualified than [Puryear] is," he observes, noting that Puryear isn't
even admitted to practice in the Sixth Circuit. Now out of prison nine years,
Friedmann is an editor for Prison Legal News, which is how he first learned
about Puryear's nomination. After doing a little checking on him, Friedmann
ran across Puryear's quote about inmate litigation, which didn't sit too well
with him, and he set out to torpedo Puryear's nomination. As a former CCA
inmate and a board member of a Florida nonprofit group that opposes prison
privatization, Friedmann readily admits that he's not a disinterested party
in the nomination battle. Nonetheless, his political instincts are sound. He
is cobbling together a coalition to oppose Puryear's nomination, including
the American Federal State and Municipal Employees Union, which opposes
private prisons for their anti-labor positions. Friedmann's currently at work
trying to enlist the real powerhouse of liberal judicial activists to join
the coalition: women's groups. Friedmann has compiled stats from the federal
court docket on the CCA's lawsuit history in order to highlight the potential
conflicts of interest Puryear might face, and he picked apart Puryear's
resume and his responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee's questions last
week. For instance, when pressed on his view of criminal defendants and prison
inmates, Puryear pointed to his service as a commissioner on the National
Prison Rape Elimination Commission. Skeptical, Friedmann checked out
Puryear's attendance record with the commission. He says the commission held
eight public hearings between 2005 and 2007—and Puryear missed at least four
of them. "If the gentleman does have a genuine concern about inmates,
why did he miss half the meetings?" he asks. Friedmann is also raising
significant questions about Puryear's response to questions about the death
of a female inmate at the CCA's facility in Nashville. The medical examiner
ruled that 34-year-old Estelle Richardson was beaten to death while in the
company's custody. She suffered a skull fracture, broken ribs, and liver
damage. Prosecutors indicted four CCA guards in 2005, but later dropped the
charges after being unable to determine the time of death. So far, no one has
been held responsible for Richardson's death, although the CCA settled a
private lawsuit filed by her family. When Sen. Feinstein asked Puryear about
the case, Puryear disputed the medical examiner's findings and claimed that
Richardson's death might not have been a homicide at all. He suggested that
the broken ribs and liver injury may have been caused by CPR. It's
"common" for people to suffer such injuries from CPR, Puryear said,
to which a dumbfounded Feinstein exclaimed, "Common?" Apparently
not satisfied with Puryear's answers, Feinstein asked him to provide the
committee with further written information about the case. Meanwhile, after
the hearing, Friedmann called the Tennessee medical examiner who worked the
case, who he says reaffirmed the original finding that Robinson's death was a
homicide and that there was nothing to suggest her injuries were caused by
resuscitation efforts. Friedmann also spoke with the lawyers who represented
Richardson's family and he says that they told him that the CCA never raised
CPR injuries as a defense in the litigation. Puryear's comments to the
committee, says Freidmann, are "not supported
by the medical record," which makes him skeptical about Puryear's
judgment as a lawyer—and his credibility. Friedmann seems to recognize that
prison inmates are not the stuff of judicial confirmation fights, so he has
also homed in on another issue that might provide more traction, not to
mention the interest of powerful women's groups: Puryear's country club. The
tony Belle Meade Country Club in Nashville is so exclusive that you have to
be a member just to access its website. It didn’t admit a single black member
until 1994, a racist history so potent that even Puryear's mentor, former
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, quit the club in 1993 when he first ran
for office. While Belle Meade admits women, Friedmann has heard that it still
won't give "lady members" voting rights. (Troy Cunningham, the
controller of the club for the past 17 years, wouldn’t respond to questions
about women's voting rights, saying that "all questions flow through the
members," meaning that someone will have to put the question to Puryear
himself.) But if Friedmann can stir up controversy over Puryear's country
club membership, he might actually have a shot at scuttling his nomination.
February 20, 2008 AP
Corrections Corp. of America spent almost $2.5 million in 2007 to lobby on
legislation and regulations related to the private prison industry. The
prison management company spent more than $1.1 million in the second half of
2007 to lobby the federal government, according to a disclosure form posted
online Thursday by the Senate's public records office. The company lobbied on
the privatization of Bureau of Indian Affairs prisons and on the Public
Safety Act, which would outlaw private prisons, as well as the Private Prison
Information Act, which would force private prisons to make public the same
information government jails must provide. Corrections Corp. spent more than
$1.3 million in the first six months of 2007 to lobby on similar issues. In
addition to lobbying Congress, the company also lobbied the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department
of Labor and Office of Management and Budget. Corrections Corp. lobbyists
included Bart VerHulst, previously chief of staff
for former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.; Mike Quinlan, former
director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons; and Gus Puryear, previously
counsel to Frist and an adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. Lobbyists are
required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive
and legislative branches, under a federal law enacted in 1995.
December 12, 2007 All
American Patriots
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today co-sponsored the Private Prison
Information Act of 2007, legislation introduced by Senator Joe Lieberman to
increase transparency and accountability at private prisons. The Private
Prison Information Act of 2007 will help to prevent abuse and neglect at
private prisons by requiring public disclosure of information about their
operations. “As the federal government continues to contract out the
incarceration of federal prisoners, it is essential that there be public
disclosure about the operation of these private prisons,” Senator Clinton
said. “Right now, the public does not have the same right of access to
information about private prisons as it has for federal prisons. There is a
lack of accountability into how tax dollars are being spent, which can place
the safety of correctional officers, surrounding communities, and prisoners
at risk. This legislation will help to ensure that citizens and elected
officials can properly assess the performance of private prisons and, if
necessary, hold them accountable for misconduct.” Currently, federal law does
not require private prisons that house federal prisoners to disclose
information to the public about the daily operation of their facilities, and
many private prisons do not submit reports to the federal government. This
legislation will require private prisons that house federal prisoners to
provide the same information available to the public that federal prisons are
required to provide under the Freedom of Information Act. Approximately
27,000 federal criminal prisoners are serving time in private prison
facilities. Additionally, more than 40,000 of the immigrants and asylum
seekers that Immigration and Customs Enforcement detains each year are held
in private detention centers. Studies have shown that correctional officers
at privately run prisons are paid less, receive less training, and experience
higher turnover rates than those at prisons run by government agencies. These
differences can lead to greater rates of assaults on staff, inmate on inmate
assaults, and escape attempts. The bill is supported by a broad coalition of
associations representing correctional officers and law enforcement officers
and public interest and advocacy groups, including Corrections USA; the
Sheriff Officers Association of Nassau County, NY.; the Suffolk County
Correctional Officers Association, N.Y.; the Westchester County Correctional
Superior Officers Association, N.Y.; the American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); the American Federation of Government
Employees (AFGE); Amnesty International USA, and the Center for
Constitutional Rights.
November 12, 2007 AP
Private prison operator Corrections Corp. of America paid Sisco
Consulting Inc. $140,000 in the first half of 2007 to lobby the federal
government, according to a disclosure form. The form, which was posted online
Nov. 7 by the Senate's public records office, did not indicate any specific
initiatives the lobbying firm worked on. The Nashville, Tenn.-based company,
which designs, builds and manages prisons, jails and detention facilities,
previously indicated it spent $1.3 million lobbying so far this year on
issues related to prison privatization. The company owns 40 facilities, but
also operates in another 25 facilities across the nation. Lobbyists are
required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive
and legislative branches, under a federal law enacted in 1995. They must
register with Congress within 45 days of being hired or engaging in lobbying.
November 11, 2007 The
Morning Call
For seven years before coming to Congress, Rep. Tim Holden was a
Schuylkill County sheriff. Here, he may be more of a warden. Holden last week
testified on behalf of one of four prison-related measures that he has
introduced since the start of the year. The Private Prison Information Act
would require private prisons that are awarded federal contracts to disclose
the same information as public prisons. ''Private prisons right now have no
reporting obligations,'' Holden, D-17th District, said in an interview.
''There is an awful lot of information that we cannot find out.'' Holden
argues that without information about how private prisons are staffed, how
much training guards receive and how many incidents occur, there's no way to
hold them accountable. Private prisons counter that they provide all necessary
information to the agencies that contract with them. Holden's district --
which includes parts of Schuylkill and Berks counties -- is home to two state
prisons and one federal prison. They employ several hundred prison guards.
But so far there is only one private prison with a federal contract in
Pennsylvania: Moshannon Valley Correctional Center in Centre County. And
Holden, who opposes private prisons, wants to keep it that way. Without
having to disclose the same information as public facilities, Holden argues,
private prisons aren't playing by the same rules when they compete for
federal contracts. ''It is a concern that they'd expand [private prisons]
anywhere in the country,'' Holden said. ''It is only going to put the public
safety at risk.'' Corrections officers have a keen interest in keeping the
industry public: Salaries and benefits are considered to be better at state
and federal-run prisons than at private prisons. But privately run prisons
have become increasingly common in recent years as the federal government
tries to meet the demands placed on it by a growing prison population. The
largest private prison provider, Corrections Corporation of America, now has
65 facilities throughout the country. It opposes Holden's measure, arguing
that it already provides information necessary to the agencies administering
the contracts, if not the public. ''We have very comprehensive and detailed
standards which we meet with our public partners in terms of information that
is provided to them,'' said Louise Grant, Corrections Corporation's
spokeswoman. ''Transparency and accountability already exist with the
public-private partnership.''
November 9, 2007 Harrisburg
Patriot News
Private prisons and other facilities hold about 25,000 federal prisoners.
They don’t have to tell the public how many guards they have per inmate or
whether serious crimes such as assaults or rape occur. U.S. Rep. Tim Holden,
a former Schuylkill County sheriff and probation officer, would shut them
down if he could. But there’s no support in Congress for that step. Instead,
Holden, D-Schuylkill, sponsored the Private Prison Information Act, which
would require the 12 private prisons operated nationwide that hold federal
prisoners to comply with the federal Freedom of Information Act. The Moshannon
Valley Correctional Center at Philipsburg, a 1,300-bed low-security facility
that houses mostly criminal aliens and offenders from the Washington, D.C.
area, is one of 12 facilities nationwide. There are five in Texas, two in
California, and one each in North Carolina, New Mexico, Georgia and Ohio.
Houston, Texas-based Cornell Companies, which operates the center in
Philipsburg, operates other state facilities for juvenile offenders in the
state. Holden’s legislation would only apply to facilities with federal
contracts. “As the federal government increases its use of private,
for-profit facilities for incarceration of federal prisoners, it is
imperative that we ensure that information about the operation of these
prisons is readily available,” Holden testified Thursday before a House
Judiciary subcommittee. “The veil of secrecy surrounding private facilities
needs to be lifted.” Holden has two federal prisons and one state prison in
his district. He told the panel, whose members voiced no criticism of the
proposal, about the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, Ohio.
Members of a state panel found 44 inmate-on-inmate assaults there during a
one-year period, compared with 305 combined assaults recorded by Ohio’s 32
correctional facilities. The facility did not respond to state officials’ and
media requests for additional details, he said. “Most daunting of all,
private prisons are not required to provide incident reports detailing health
care oversight, rape or assault, weapons attacks, death, or escape at the
facility,” Holden said. Corrections Corp. of America, a company that manages
about 70,000 prisoners, opposes the measure, said Louise Grant, vice
president of communications and marketing. “We believe the current system
works very well” and provides an elaborate system for making information
available, said Grant. Rep. Robert Scott, a Virginia Democrat and chairman of
the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, called Holden’s
proposal a “good government bill,” but no other members commented. The full
House Judiciary Committee is expected to take up the bill later this month or
in December.
October 11, 2007 Arizona
Republic
A Phoenix man and other parents whose children died at boot camps for
troubled youths gave wrenching testimony before Congress on Wednesday, urging
other families to avoid enrolling teens in such programs until there is more
oversight of them. Bob Bacon of Phoenix recounted how his 16-year-old son,
Aaron, died at a wilderness camp in Utah in the 1990s. "We were conned
by their (the camp's) fraudulent claims and will go to our graves regretting
our gullibility," Bacon told members of a House committee. The
Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, also
announced it has identified thousands of allegations of abuse, some involving
death, at boot camps since the early 1990s. It cataloged 1,619 incidents of
abuse in 33 states in 2005. "Buyer, beware," said Greg Kutz, who led the GAO investigation. "You really
don't know what you're getting." Kutz said the
GAO closely examined 10 closed cases where juveniles died at residential
treatment camps. In half of those cases, the teens died of dehydration or
heat exhaustion. Other factors were untrained staff, inadequate food or
reckless operations, the GAO said. Five of the 10 camps are still operating,
some in different locations or under new names. "Ineffective program
management played a key role in most of these deaths," Kutz testified before the House Education and Labor
Committee. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who chairs the committee and
requested the investigation, has sponsored a bill designed to encourage
states to enact regulations. "This nightmare has remained an open secret
for years," Miller said in a statement. "Congress must act, and it
must act swiftly." The death of Bacon's son was one of the 10 cases
studied by the GAO, but not the only one with an Arizona connection. The
sample cases did not include names, but some were identifiable through news
reports. One was the death of Anthony Haynes, 14, at the American Buffalo
Soldiers boot camp in Arizona in 2001. One of the state's most high-profile
camp deaths was that of Nicholas Contreraz, a
16-year-old Sacramento youth who died in 1998 while being subjected to
discipline at the Arizona Boys Ranch near Queen Creek. Bob Bacon's account
was among those Wednesday that outraged House committee members. Bacon said
Aaron was sent to the camp because of minor drug use and poor grades. The
father said he was fooled by the owners of the Utah facility into believing
his son would be well cared for. Instead, Aaron was forced to hike eight to
10 miles a day with inadequate nutrition and was not given protective gear to
withstand freezing temperatures, Bacon said. When Aaron complained of severe
stomach pains and asked for a doctor, his pleas were ignored even though he
had dramatically lost weight and suffered from other serious symptoms, Bacon
testified. According to court documents, the boy's condition was ignored for
20 days, until he collapsed. The autopsy showed he died of an acute infection
related to a perforated ulcer. Five camp employees pleaded guilty to
negligent homicide, and another was convicted of child abuse. All were
sentenced to probation and community service. Kutz
testified that camp employees studied by the GAO were often poorly trained.
He said kids weren't properly fed and were exposed to dangerous conditions,
their cries for medical assistance ignored. He said that in only one of the
10 sample cases was anyone found criminally liable and sentenced to prison.
The residential programs, designed to instill discipline and character, can
be privately run or state-sponsored programs and sometimes include an
educational or school-like component. They are loosely regulated by states.
There are no federal laws that define and regulate them. The programs are
marketed to parents who are at a loss as to how to help emotionally troubled
teens, Kutz said. Jan Moss, executive director of
the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs, a trade group,
said many kids have been helped by the treatment programs. She said the
industry is taking steps to improve, but she added, "Clearly we still
have a very long way to go." Kutz said there
is no comprehensive nationwide data on deaths and injuries in residential
treatment programs. Auditors found thousands of allegations in lawsuits, Web
sites and state records. "Examples of abuse include youth being forced
to eat their own vomit, denied adequate food, being forced to lie in urine or
feces, being kicked, beaten and thrown to the ground," Kutz said, adding that one teen was reportedly
"forced to use a toothbrush to clean a toilet, then forced to use that
toothbrush on their own teeth." At the boot camp where Anthony Haynes
died, children were fed an apple for breakfast, a carrot for lunch and a bowl
of beans for dinner, the GAO said. Haynes became dehydrated in 113-degree
heat and vomited dirt, according to witnesses. The program closed, and the
director, Charles Long, was sentenced in 2005 to six years in prison for
manslaughter. The autopsy on Nicholas Contreraz
showed that after Boys Ranch staffers punished and humiliated the teen for
days, he suffered from a severe infection in the lining of his lungs. Five
employees were charged criminally, but all counts were dropped. The ranch now
operates under the name Canyon State Academy. Julie Vega, Contreraz's
mother, recently told The Arizona Republic, "I feel like he was
sacrificed, and some good things changed for the better because of him. But
nobody really paid a price for his death."
Correctional
Treatment Facility
Washington, DC
CCA
January 18, 2017
curenational.org
A coalition of criminal justice reform organizations and D.C. corrections
stakeholders announced today that they will hold an event to celebrate the
return of D.C.'s city jail, the Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF), to
public control. The event will be held on Wednesday, February 1st, 2017, from
4 PM - 6 PM ET at the Harrington Hotel, Ave. E and 11th St. NW. For the past
20 years, CTF has been operated by CoreCivic,
formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest
private prison company in the U.S. In March, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced
that the city would resume operation of CTF when CoreCivic's
contract expired at the end of January 2017. Since forming nearly three years
ago, the ReThink Justice-DC coalition has advocated
to end D.C.'s contract with CoreCivic, and to stop
the city from signing contracts with other for-profit corrections
corporations. "Profit is the worst possible motive to run a jail,"
said Charlie Sullivan of CURE, and one of the coalition's leaders. "I
feel like D.C. is finally being released from a 20 year sentence."
Besides rejecting "celling for profit", another leader, John
Rosser, also said that "a prisoner will now be treated as a citizen and
not as a commodity." Finally, the coalition stressed CTF's place in the
growth of private prisons nationally. "Private prison companies claim
they'll incarcerate people for cheaper and in better conditions, but across
the country the evidence shows just the opposite," said coalition member
Jeremy Mohler of In the Public Interest. "CoreCivic's
track record is littered with deadly riots, escapes, terrible conditions, and
inadequate healthcare, which has cost the public more in the long run."
The coalition stresses that, while research and advocacy certainly helped
create a climate for reform, in the end, only the Mayor and the City Council
could bring about this historic day. "Hats off to the Mayor and Council
for removing the private profit from CTF. It was the right thing to do,"
said coalition leader Ann Keep. The coalition especially invites these
progressive public officials to the celebration and plan to publicly express
their gratitude.
Mar 25, 2016
washingtontimes.com
DC: Mayor’s budget includes taking over CCA jail
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser presented to city lawmakers her $13.4 billion
spending plan for fiscal 2017 that includes nearly $29 million for Emergency
Medical Services, $2.5 million to add 60 police officers to the force, and a
promise to take over the D.C. Jail. About 10 percent of the budget — $1.3 billion
— is directed toward public safety. It would provide $2.5 million to train
and hire 30 additional 911 call takers, and $12 million for a third-party
ambulance initiative that would put more emergency units on the streets
during peak times and allow EMTs to train without disrupting service. “It’s a
good time in D.C., but you can’t sit on your laurels and go back to bad
habits,” Ms. Bowser said of writing the budget while the city holds a General
Fund balance of about $2.17 billion that has grown by $300 million under her
watch. The budget must be approved by the D.C. Council, and Thursday was the
first time lawmakers had a chance to examine details of the mayor’s spending
plan. "At first blush, it looks very sound,” said council
Chairman Phil Mendelson, at-large Democrat. The money for Emergency Medical
Services comes on the heels of the former director of emergency medical
services, Dr. Jullette Saussy,
blasting the fire department for its unwillingness to let her access data she
needed to assess medics’ performance. On the police side, the fiscal 2017
budget would provide $8 million for the District’s DNA crime lab and $3.5
million for additional crime fighting technology. The budget includes Ms.
Bowser’s initiative to take over the D.C. Jail’s Correctional Treatment
Facility. Currently, that part of the jail is run by the private contractor
Corrections Corporation of America. The annex of the main jail holds about
500 inmates, but has a capacity of 1,300. The space would be used to house inmates in the federal
correctional system who are at the end of their sentences as
a way to make sure they have a smooth re-entry into society. About 130
people every month return to the District from the federal prison system. Ms.
Bowser said the federal Bureau of Prisons re-entry services have been widely
criticized, so spending the last few months in the D.C. Jail as opposed to a
federal jail somewhere else in the country will help inmates reconnect with
family and services in the city before they get out of prison. In total, the
budget proposal comes in as a 3.5 percent increase over the fiscal 2016
budget, which is relatively low compared to previous years. Over the last
four fiscal years, the budget grew each year by more than 5 percent, peaking
in 2012 at 6.86 percent. And though it’s a smaller increase than past
budgets, Ms. Bowser said the budget still funds the programs that will help
residents including $386.6 million for Metro, $4.8 million for the Marion
Barry Summer Youth Employment Program and $100 million for the Housing
Production Trust Fund. “This budget will reflect the needs of a growing
city,” Ms. Bowser said. “In a city as prosperous as ours, every resident
deserves a fair shot — no matter who you are, or what ward you live in.”
Sep 12, 2015 nbcwashington.com
Deaf Man Jailed Without Sign Language
Translator Wins Case Against D.C. Jail
A deaf man who was jailed for 51 days
without a sign language translator -- left unable to communicate with prison
doctors, his counselor, his teachers and other inmates -- has won a
discrimination case against the District of Columbia. William Pierce is
profoundly deaf and communicates with sign language. After he pleaded guilty
to a simple assault charge stemming from a domestic dispute, he was sentenced
to the D.C. Correctional Treatment Facility, which is operated by Corrections
Corporation of America. The jail assumed that "lip-reading and
exchanging written notes would suffice," and did not provide a
translator, the court found. "They figuratively shrugged and effectively
sat on their hands," the court's decision read. Pierce felt isolated and
confused by what was happening in jail, he said in court filings. The court
found that the District and CCA had violated the Americans with Disabilities
Act, as well as the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. “I am very pleased with Judge
Jackson’s decision to find that the District of Columbia violated my rights
as a deaf man and a human being,” Pierce said, through an interpreter, in an
American Civil Liberties Union press release. “Video phones and interpreters
are critical for the deaf and hard of hearing inmates to have access to the
same opportunities as other inmates," Pierce said. "Unfortunately,
even with this decision, the denial of service and adequate access
continues.” A jury will decide Pierce's compensation.
Aug 26, 2015 solitarywatch.com
A recent report recommends replacing DC’s jail with a new facility.
Much has been written of late about the
emergence of a bipartisan consensus on the need for criminal justice reform,
encompassing both the White House and Congress. If this is true, the
President and members of Congress would do well to start their reform efforts
close to home, at the District of Columbia jail. The DC jail sits less than
two miles east of Capitol Hill, out of sight of the Mall and its sparkling
monuments. This complex of buildings warehouses mostly poor people of color,
many of whom are awaiting trial and have not been convicted of a crime. A
scathing report on the jail system was produced recently by the Washington
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs in conjunction with the
firm of Covington and Burling: D.C. Prisoners: Conditions of Confinement in
the District of Columbia. The report found a crumbling infrastructure, poor
mental health services, a high suicide rate, shamefully inadequate youth
facilities, and an excessive use of solitary confinement. Washington’s jail
system is a complex comprised of two main sections: the Central
Detention Facility (CDF), a deteriorating building dating to the 1970s
where most adults are held, and a smaller facility called the Correctional
Treatment Facility (CTF) that houses men, women, and children in individual
cells, effectively in solitary confinement. The CDF and the CTF house
pretrial detainees who cannot make bail, those awaiting transfer, and those
convicted of misdemeanors. People convicted of a felony are transferred to a
Federal Bureau of Prisons facility, where the District no longer has
jurisdiction over them. While the DC jail is operated by the D.C. Department
of Corrections (DCDOC), the CTF is run on a long-term contract by the
Corrections Corporation of America, the country’s largest private prison
operation which in has come under increasing attack for its poorly run
facilities. The report describes in some detail just how bad the overall
system is. DC inspectors found holes in the jail’s walls, water leaking in
through cracks in the roofs, mold, and cracked concrete. The report also
states that children were largely mistreated and kept in solitary
confinement, allegedly for their own safety, for extended periods of time.
Additionally, between November 2012 and August 2013, four people at the D.C.
jail committed suicide, bring the DCDOC suicide rate to three times the
national average. The report attributes the high rate to the failure of
guards and jail staff to follow existing mental health policies. The authors
of the report also make clear that there is little in the way of oversight
within the jail, either by the DC City Council or any other city agency. In
fact, the authors were initially denied a copy of the contract between the
DCDOC and CCA and obtained one only after lengthy efforts. In addition, when
seeking one report from the city’s Department of Health, the authors were
initially told that no such report existed, and had to prove that it did by
obtaining the report through other means. The CCA operation poses additional
problems. The CTF originally belonged to the District, but in 1997 the
cash-strapped city sold part of its jail system to CCA for $52 million and
then leased it back for $2.8 million a year to the company in a contract that
ends in 2017. Through this deal, CCA made a 31 percent profit on its
management fee alone. While CCA may be a leader in profits margins, they are
clearly unfit to run a criminal rehabilitation program. The report highlights
a case of a deaf man with HIV who filed a suit in federal district court
against the District claiming CCA jailers wouldn’t give him the medical care
he required. The man had been sentenced to 60 days in jail for a domestic
dispute and when he inquired about medical care during his incarceration,
jailers place him in solitary confinement. When not in solitary confinement,
the man was kept in handcuffs and denied the ability to speak to lawyers, his
family, or his partner in sign language. A spokesperson for the CCA told the
Washington Post that the company took the case of the deaf man “very
seriously” and were working “diligently to accommodate any special needs” of
people held at their facilities. The report also found the youth facilities
severely wanting, with an almost complete lack of any programming for
juveniles held in the jail, and an excessive use of solitary confinement. A
Solitary Watch investigation in 2013 also found that children charged as
adults and held in the DC jails often spent months on end locked down 23
hours a day in barren cells, most often for “their own protection.” Children
are further isolated from their families by often being forced to visit via
video stream, rather than in person. In order to address these inadequacies,
the authors propose a series of recommendations. The most dramatic of these
is to demolish both the CDF and the CTF, which are physically beyond repair
and no longer meet what the report calls “the District’s true correctional
needs.” A new facility could be designed to address the prisoner population
the District expects to have, and provide for the different prisoner
populations, including men and women, those awaiting trial, those post-conviction
awaiting transfer to the BOP, parole violators, juveniles of both sexes,
individuals within each population who have special physical or mental health
needs (including suicide monitoring), and individuals of all ages and gender
who could benefit from substance abuse programming such as the SRTP [Secure
Residential Treatment Program]. People involved in the project say the
immediate aim is to get the DC City Council to order a study, and then use
that study to figure out who actually is in the jail system, what they did to
get there and for how long. They then hope to see new rules written that
would increase the number of people who get released on their own
recognizance, reducing the number who are held in jail for not being able to
raise relatively small amounts of bail. The information from the study might
also help advocates argue for sentencing reform, and reduce the length of
time people stay in jail. The first step toward these goals has now been
taken, as the D.C. City Council recently voted to spend $150,000 studying the
future of the jail system. There have been several prior studies, however,
none of them bearing results nearly as dramatic as the Washington Lawyers’
Committee recommends. Another report recommendation is that the District
allow its contract with CCA, which expires in 2017, to lapse, and kick the
company out of the D.C. prison business. The company is a tough, adroit
political infighter that spends millions a year lobbying at the federal,
state, and local levels, and has made contributions to District mayoral and
City Council races. If CCA goes, it likely will not go quietly.
Nov 13, 2014 fbi.gov
Former Corrections Officer Pleads
Guilty to Bribery, Admits Taking Cash to Smuggle Contraband into Facility
WASHINGTON—Lenard Fleming, 34, a former
corrections officer who worked for the Corrections Corporation of America
(CCA), pled guilty today to a bribery charge for accepting money to smuggle
contraband into the District of Columbia’s Correctional Treatment Facility.
The guilty plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr.; Andrew
G. McCabe, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office;
and Thomas N. Faust, Director of the District of Columbia Department of
Corrections. Fleming, of District Heights, Md., pled guilty in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia to one count of bribery. The
Honorable Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson scheduled sentencing for Feb. 12, 2015.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Fleming faces a likely range of 24 to 37
months of incarceration, as well as a fine of up to $60,000. Fleming is
subject to forfeiture money judgment for money taken in the bribery scheme.
According to the government’s evidence, Fleming had worked for the
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) as a corrections officer at the
Correctional Treatment Facility. CCA, a private company, has a contract to
provide services to the D.C. Jail. During the investigation, the FBI
recovered contraband from an inmate at the Correctional Treatment Facility in
January 2014. Fleming admitted that he smuggled items for the same inmate
through that inmate’s contacts outside of the Correctional Treatment
Facility. Fleming received cash payments in exchange for smuggling cigarettes
and, on one occasion, an iPhone, into the Correctional Treatment Facility for
delivery to the inmate. Fleming was terminated by CCA in February 2014
following a complaint that he was smuggling contraband into the facility for
another inmate. CCA was presented with allegations that Fleming met several
times with the wife of another inmate. On each occasion, the inmate’s wife
provided Fleming cash in exchange for Fleming smuggling cigarettes and
synthetic marijuana into the facility and delivering it to the inmate.
Fleming was arrested April 30, 2014. In a related investigation, another
former corrections officer at the Correctional Treatment Facility, Darren Malry, 52, pled guilty on Oct. 17, 2014, to a bribery
charge. According to the government’s evidence, on March 11, 2014, Malry smuggled contraband into the facility for an
inmate. Malry was arrested that day. Malry is to be sentenced Feb. 6, 2015. In announcing
today’s plea, U.S. Attorney Machen and Assistant Director in Charge McCabe,
and Director Faust commended the work of those who jointly worked the case,
including agents from the FBI’s Washington Field Office, investigators from
the District of Columbia Department of Corrections Office of Investigative
Services, and investigators from the Corrections Corporation of America. They
also commended the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S.
Attorney’s Office, including Paralegal Specialists Donna Galindo, Corinne
Kleinman, and Angela Lawrence; Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melinda Williams,
Todd Gee, and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Dillon, who assisted in
the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Catherine K. Connelly, Allessandra Stewart, and Arvind Lal, who assisted with
forfeiture issues. Finally, they expressed appreciation for the work of
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard DiZinno, who
prosecuted the case.
Apr 22, 2014 washingtonpost.com
A D.C. corrections officer was charged
in federal court this week with accepting bribes to smuggle cigarettes, a
cellphone and other contraband to an inmate. Darren Malry,
51, was arrested Monday after he allegedly took cash from an undercover FBI
agent in exchange for delivering contraband to an inmate at the D.C.
Correctional Treatment Facility. Malry, a Laurel
resident employed by the private firm Corrections Corporation of America,
pleaded not guilty during an appearance in U.S. District Court on Tuesday.
According to charging documents, Malry met twice
with an undercover agent in a Greenbelt shopping center. At their first
meeting, court papers say the agent handed Malry a
cellphone, cigarettes and rolling papers, in addition to $750 in cash. The
FBI recovered the items from the inmate soon after Malry
delivered them to the jail cell, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. At
their next meeting, Malry was arrested after the
agent handed him cash, cigarettes and packages with a substance that
resembled marijuana. Malry’s attorney was not
immediately available to comment.
Feb. 4, 2013 Washington City Paper
As if being imprisoned wasn't bad
enough, a new lawsuit from a former Washington inmate alleges there's another
threat lurking in Washington's correctional facilities: the showers. Robert
Morris was imprisoned at the Correctional Treatment Facility, a building located next to the D.C. Jail that's run by
the private Corrections Corporation of America, on Sept. 20, 2012. When he
got in the shower, he alleged got a surprise: According to his lawsuit, the
temperature spiked. "There was a sudden, very rapid, and quite extreme
temperature change and it burned him in the genital area," says Geoffrey
D. Allen, Morris's attorney. The lawsuit alleges that Corrections Corporation
of America employees already knew about the showers' tendency to shoot out
scalding water, which Allen likens to the changes in temperature when multiple
showers in one house are turned on, but much worse. In a lawsuit filed in
Superior Court in January, Morris sued the Corrections Corporation of America
for $1 million for the injuries he suffered in the shower. The company
declined to comment on the case, saying in a statement that inmate safety at
the CTF is a top priority. Allen, who wasn't sure what his client was
imprisoned for, says Morris didn't suffer permanent damage from the shower's
alleged burst on his most sensitive areas. "It was certainly uncomfortable,
as you can imagine," Allen says.
September 20, 2012 The
Washington Times
Corrections officers working at a D.C. jail facility worry about their
safety on a daily basis due to a lack of adequate staffing after recent
layoffs, employees testified Thursday at a D.C. Council hearing on the
facility’s management. Corrections Corporation of America has run the
District’s Correctional Treatment Facility since it took over operations from
the District in 1997, but workers said problems that include faulty radios,
inadequate staffing and high levels of contraband found inside the jail have
been exacerbated since 77 employees — approximately one-third of the
workforce — were laid off in April. “They are putting us in danger as well as
the inmates,” said Dana Bushrod, a corrections officer of 10 years and leader
with the union that represents employees at the facility. Ms. Bushrod went on
to describe how units at the medium security facility, which is run
separately from the higher security D.C. Jail that is still overseen by the
District, are now commonly staffed with one corrections officer when they
should be overseen by two or three officers. “We have a mental health unit
that should have three staff members but have had one,” Ms. Bushrod said. “We
have had an incident where an officer was attacked because she was by herself
and a mental health patient attacked her and another mental health inmate had
to help her.” Faulty radios and telephones also often leave officers without
a way to communicate with staff in other units, she said. “It’s pretty
shocking, and the public should be very worried about some of these
instances,” said John Rosser, chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police
Corrections Labor Committee that represents officers at the jail. No
representative from CCA attended the hearing before the council’s Committee
on the Judiciary on Thursday morning or could be reached for comment. D.C.
Council chairman Phil Mendelson, who oversaw the hearing, said that despite
CCA’s absence from the hearing he believes officials are listening to their
concern. “The value of this hearing is it gives employes
a way on the record to voice their concerns,” said Mr. Mendelson, at-large
Democrat, adding that a number of the concerns mentioned had been raised
before. “Now the whole world is watching, so the views are out on the table.”
Several who attended the hearing spoke out against a continuation of CCA’s
contract with the District to oversee operations at the facility. The
contract is in force until 2017, according to information provided by
Department of Corrections officials. “The FOP union strongly opposed
privatizing in the 1990s and nothing has happened in the intervening years to
convince us we were wrong,” Mr. Rosser said. “Profit has no place being in
the equation. Making money on the incarceration of citizens is ugly
business.” Others also raised concern about current conditions inside the
jail. A representative from the American Civil Liberties Union of the
Nation’s Capital spoke about two deaf inmates who were not provided sign
language interpreters. Advocates said some inmates were subject to inhumane
treatment, as they were not let outside for months or their pleas for medical
attention were ignored. Corrections officers also expressed frustration that
management provides written warning of contraband searches before they are
conducted, giving inmates time to dispose of or hide weapons or other illegal
items before the sweeps.
July 23, 2010 WTOP
Former correctional officer Quincy Hayes was sentenced Friday to 12 months
and one day in prison for accepting bribes. At his guilty plea on March 18,
2010, Hayes, 32, of Alexandria admitted that he accepted a $300 cash payment
from an undercover FBI agent in exchange for agreeing to smuggle an iPod into
the Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF) for an inmate. Hayes also admitted
to having smuggled cigarettes into the CTF, located in the District, for
another inmate in exchange for a $100 bribe. Hayes will also undergo a
two-year period of supervised release following the prison sentence, where he
will perform 100 hours of community service. The CTF is operated by the
Corrections Corporation of America under contract with the District of
Columbia Department of Corrections.
May 27, 2010 Washington
Post
Jail is supposed to be no frills, a place where the only the basic amenities
of food, clothing and shelter exist. But according to prosecutors, one D.C.
jail officer helped an inmate get some creature comforts -- a cell phone, an
iPod, and even a charger for the devices. Thomas Ford, 35, of the District,
was sentenced Thursday to 12 months and one day in prison on a charge of
bribery of a public official, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District
announced. Ford admitted in February that he accepted cash payments in
exchange for agreeing to smuggle cell phones, an iPod and a charger to a
cooperating inmate in the Correctional Treatment Facility, which is operated
by the Corrections Corporation of America under contract with the D. C.
Department of Corrections. The FBI launched an undercover sting in 2008,
after getting a tip that corrections officers were smuggling contraband to
inmates. U.S. Attorney Ron Machen said in a statement that as a law
enforcement officer, Ford abused the public trust, and he pledged,
"“whenever anyone violates the public trust and breaks the law, we will
prosecute them vigorously.”
March 11, 2010 AP
D.C. police are searching for an inmate who escaped while being transported
to United Medical Center for treatment. The Corrections Corporation of
America says 28-year-old Terrence Moore fled when he arrived at the southeast
D.C. hospital around 9 a.m. Thursday. The company says after officers opened
the vehicle doors, Moore escaped and jumped into a burgundy colored Cadillac
and got away with an unknown driver. Officials are investigating how Moore
was able to remove his restraints. The CCA runs the Correctional Treatment
Facility where Moore, who is from Washington, was a pretrial inmate facing
charges of assault with intent to kill. The facility is under lockdown.
February 23, 2010 Courthouse
News
Two former inmates of a Corrections Corporation of America prison say CCA
employees preyed on them sexually and banished them to solitary lockdown when
they complained. One woman claims a CCA guard paid her "sugar
daddy" on the outside, then demanded, and received, sex in prison.
Jessica Rubio and Serbennia Chase filed separate,
$20 million federal lawsuits against the private prison contractor, alleging
civil rights violations at the company's Correctional Treatment Facility
(CTF) at the District of Columbia Jail. Rubio, who was arrested and sentenced
in 2008 for sexual solicitation, says CTF employee "Sgt. Powell"
paid her for sex four times when he should have been helping her "turn
her life around." Rubio says that in an effort to go straight rather then spending "the rest of her life going in and out
of prison," she signed up for a private counseling session with Powell,
who ran a group session called "Life Without a Crutch." Rubio says
she thought Powell was "uniquely qualified to assist her in dealing with
her problems and counsel her on how to become a law abiding and productive
member of society." During a private session, she says she told Powell
she was a prostitute and drug addict. She said she worked as a prostitute
because of a "love of money," and because there was no other job at
which she could make "$1,200 to $1,800 a day." After the session,
Rubio says, Powell paid $50 to her "sugar daddy" to have sex with
her. Rubio says that despite the "receipt" for her services, she
did not think Powell would "use her to satisfy his sexual urges because
she went to him to turn her life around, not to facilitate the life she had
on the streets." She says Powell took her to the prison's
"satellite kitchen" four times and had sex with her, each time
paying her "sugar daddy" beforehand. Afterward, Rubio says,
"She felt cheap, used and abused." "It reminded her of the
life she had on the street, that she wanted to put behind her, but it had apparently
followed her to CTF," the lawsuit states. After she told investigators
about Powell's actions and agreed to testify to a grand jury, Rubio says she
was denied phone calls and other privileges, and eventually was moved to
another prison, where her attorney had trouble visiting her. She was kept in
solitary and kept on near-constant lockdown, she says. In the other
complaint, Chase, who was arrested in 2008 for aggravated assault, says she
was sexually harassed at least three times by a "Lt. Harris" while
incarcerated at CTF. On a number of occasions Harris escorted her to meetings
with her attorney. Two times he grabbed her buttocks or her vagina and said,
"I'll see you later," according to the complaint. Another time he
cornered her in a stairway, grabbed her vagina and said, "When are you
going to let me put this dick in you?" Chase says. Chase adds that the
5th District Police Precinct violated her privacy when it videotaped her
undressing in an interrogation room. She says the police then circulated a
video of her without underwear "exposing her vagina and buttocks."
She says she found out about the video when detectives sent a copy to her
lawyer. She says she was "shocked, embarrassed and felt shame that her
attorneys and other people saw her naked body." After she reported the
harassment, Chase says she was transferred to a jail more than 2 hours away
and kept in a solitary cell on 24-hour lockdown. Both women sued the District
of Columbia, the Office of the Attorney General, and Corrections Corporation
of America for civil rights violations. Chase also sued for invasion of
privacy. They both seek a jury trial, $10 million in compensatory damages and
$10 million in punitive damages. Both are represented by Wendell Robinson.
Officials at the Correctional Treatment Facility did not return a phone call
requesting comment.
December 2, 2009 Washington
Post
Two D.C. corrections officers and a Maryland woman were arrested Tuesday
on federal bribery charges on suspicion of accepting cash to smuggle
cellphones and iPods to inmates in the District's jail complex. The officers,
Thomas Ford, 35, and Quincy Hayes, 32, have been placed on administrative
leave and were released on personal recognizance after a brief hearing in the
District's federal court. They are officers at the District's Correction
Treatment Facility (CTF), which is run by the Corrections Corporation of
America. Renee Braxton, 44, a security guard at a museum, was also released
on personal recognizance, court records show. Authorities said that an inmate
approached the FBI in October 2008 to report that guards were smuggling
contraband into the facility. An undercover FBI employee, pretending to be
the brother of an inmate, met with Braxton and Ford in 2008 and early this
year and gave them several hundred dollars to smuggle a phone, an iPod and a
charger to inmates at the CTF. Ford passed the items to the inmates, the FBI
said. Hayes is accused of accepting a $300 bribe payment in June 2009 to
smuggle in an iPod to a CTF inmate, the FBI said in court papers.
September 28, 2009 Washington
Examiner
A D.C. Jail sergeant has been suspended while corrections officials probe
allegations that he had sex with an inmate after paying for it through her
pimp, according to officials and court documents. The investigation has also
led to the forced leave of two other corrections officers, one of whom was
later fired over an unrelated issue, officials said. The three were removed
from the D.C. Jail property, "after allegations of inappropriate
behavior arose with an inmate," according to Walter Fulton, facility
program manager at the Correctional Treatment Center. Authorities said they
would not further discuss the allegations because of an ongoing law
enforcement investigation, but some details were outlined in a lawsuit filed
in D.C. federal court this month. Jessica Rubio, 32, who described herself in
court documents as a prostitute with a drug problem, was an inmate at the
Correctional Treatment Facility, which is an annex of the D.C. Jail. She was
in custody on a prostitution charge. She charged in her lawsuit that she had
sex with correctional counselor Sgt. Aundra Powell
after he paid $50 to her "Sugar Daddy" for her to satisfy his
sexual urges. She claims Powell paid for her sexual services on four
occasions. The sexual encounters began last year when Rubio received a
receipt for the promised sex from her pimp and showed it to Powell after a
group counseling session, she charged in the suit. "I see you received
it," Powell replied, according to the lawsuit. Rubio's attorney, Wendell
Robinson, said he did not know what form the receipt was in and would not
comment further than what was in the lawsuit. In order to have sex with
Rubio, the lawsuit alleges, Powell removed Rubio from her jail cell during
the 2 p.m. "quiet time" and had her follow him to a satellite
kitchen. Powell walked her to a window and told her to look outside while he
put on a condom and had sex with her, according to the lawsuit. Rubio was
released after serving her time, but was rearrested in April and convicted for
prostitution in June 2009. It was then, she said, that Department of
Corrections detectives questioned her about what happened between her and
Powell. Rubio has since been transferred to the Rappahannock Regional Jail in
Stafford, Va. Walter Fulton, facility program manager at the Correctional
Treatment Center, said Powell and two lieutenants were placed on paid leave
as soon as the allegations surfaced. Jail detectives are investigating, he
said. Powell and a substance abuse counselor remain on administrative leave.
Lt. Ricardo Rich, an assistant shift supervisor, was fired in June for
unrelated reasons, Fulton said. The Correctional Treatment Facility, at 19th
and E streets Southeast, is managed by the Corrections Corp. of America and
is staffed by employees of the District.
December 3, 2008 Washington
Post
The mother of a quadriplegic inmate who died in 2004 after suffering
breathing problems at the D.C. jail has reached financial settlements with
the District government and his care providers, her attorneys disclosed
yesterday. The settlements were reached in the controversial death of
Jonathan Magbie, a 27-year-old Maryland man who was
paralyzed from the neck down and used a mouth-operated wheelchair. Magbie died four days into a 10-day jail sentence for
possessing marijuana, which he said he used to ease the discomfort caused by
his disability. The jail infirmary, where he was housed for several days,
wasn't equipped with the ventilator he needed to breathe at night. His death
sparked several government investigations, which exposed major lapses in Magbie's care at the D.C. jail and Greater Southeast
Hospital. Attorneys for his mother, Mary R. Scott, declined to provide
details of the financial settlement, which she reached with the city, private
contractors and the insurance company that covered doctors at the hospital.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Scott, called the
settlement "substantial" in a news release. As part of the
settlement, the District government changed the way officials screen and
handle inmates with medical problems and disabilities, Scott's attorneys
said. "The family's concern was to make certain that, to the extent
anyone can prevent it, that this terrible type of event never happens
again," said Elizabeth Alexander, an ACLU lawyer who represented Scott.
"A series of people dealt with this young man, and every single place
where something could go wrong, it did go wrong." Scott declined to
comment through her attorneys. She filed a federal lawsuit in 2005 that accused
the District government, Greater Southeast, three contractors and more than a
dozen corrections officers, doctors and nurses of negligence in Magbie's death. A spokeswoman from the D.C. government
said she could not comment until looking into the matter. Greater Southeast
is under new ownership and has been renamed United Medical Center. A
spokeswoman for Corrections Corporation of America, which runs a portion of
the D.C. jail where Magbie was held, declined to
comment. Representatives of two other contractors did not return phone
messages seeking comment. Magbie's ordeal began
Sept. 20, 2004, when D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith E. Retchin
sentenced him to jail after he pleaded guilty to possessing marijuana. D.C.
police found a gun and marijuana in Magbie's
pockets in April 2003 after stopping a vehicle driven by a cousin of his. Magbie admitted buying the marijuana, records show. Magbie's mother was furious that the judge did not give
her son probation, the typical punishment for first-time offenders. Magbie, paralyzed since being hit by a drunk driver at
age 4, had no criminal record. Retchin told a
judicial commission that she sentenced Magbie to
jail because he said he would continue to smoke marijuana to alleviate his
pain. She also told the commission that she was unaware that he needed a
ventilator to breathe at night. The commission cleared Retchin
of wrongdoing. Because of his condition, Magbie was
supposed to be housed in the jail's infirmary, according to an investigation
by the D.C. inspector general. Magbie was taken to
a hospital for "respiratory distress" and returned to the jail
infirmary, which didn't have a ventilator, the report said. Jail doctors did
not perform a follow-up examination and did not always conduct daily rounds
to check on patients, including Magbie, the report
said. Magbie ate and drank very little during the
next few days, the report stated. On Sept. 24, 2004, he was having
respiratory problems, and paramedics were called, the report said. They found
him to be "unresponsive and very sweaty," and his undergarment was
"saturated with urine," the report said. Paramedics told
investigators that the trip to the hospital was delayed by about 30 minutes
because the jail staff would not allow them to leave without the proper paperwork
and without a blood sugar test, the report said. At the hospital, Magbie was "acutely ill," according to the
report. He died that night.
March 18, 2008 The
Huffington Report
At a moment when Democratic Party officials are urging voters to trust
unelected superdelegates to act in the country's best interests, HuffPost's OffTheBus investigation into the background of DNC
superdelegates reveals at least one appointed superdelegate who is as likely
to use his political connections for personal profit as for the greater good.
Take the case of Joseph F. Johnson, a member-at-large of the Democratic
National Committee from Chantilliy, Virginia -a
suburb of Washington D.C. -- and a superdelegate currently tilting toward
Hillary Clinton. Using his web of connections, Johnson successfully lobbied
for the construction of a private prison linked to a company on whose board
he sat; he managed to have that prison contract with other companies he was
linked to; and though the prison became a notorious and dangerous failure,
Johnson benefited personally, pulling in millions of dollars in stock options
and fees. Johnson first rose through the ranks of the Democratic machine in
the early 1990s, as executive director of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH
Coalition. He brought with him strong ties to D.C. government that he'd built
after his first job in the nation's capital, as chief of staff for the city
of Washington DC's city council head. He also managed Douglas Wilder's
successful campaign to become Virginia's first African-American governor in
1991. And Johnson advised Mark Warner on his successful 2001 gubernatorial
bid in Virginia. Johnson's reputation as a mover and shaker in D.C.
Democratic politics helped pave the way for his appointment to the board of
Corrections Corporation of America, the largest operator of private prisons
in the country. While serving in that position from 1996 to 1999, Johnson was
instrumental in convincing the local government in Washington, DC to pay CCA
to run a prison in Youngstown, Ohio for DC inmates, according to SEC filings
for the company. Meanwhile, two of Johnson's own companies, National
Corrections and Rehabilitation (NCRC) and MedCorr,
were contracted to provide employment rehabilitation and health services in
the same prison he helped establish. The private Ohio prison which Johnson
helped establish was, according to Youngstown's then-mayor, "a
nightmare." By 1998, there had been two fatal stabbings, 44 assaults,
and six escapes at the prison. A Department of Justice report found that
under CCA, the prison had "failed to accomplish the basic mission of
correctional safety;" and prisoners eventually collected $1.65 million
in damages and legal costs for their treatment under CCA. News reports traced
the problems at the prison to both CCA's management and D.C. Corrections'
practice of sending high-security inmates to the medium-security facility.
The problems, Johnson told the Washington Post at the time, weren't "anyone's
fault, it was just one of those things." Mr. Johnson nonetheless
profited from the deal, receiving $2.6 million in stock options for his work
linking CCA with officials in Washington, D.C. Calling his work
"instrumental" to their receipt of the contract, CCA said that Mr.
Johnson had "exceeded his duties and obligations" to the company
and also paid him $382,000 for his "consulting services" in helping
to arrange the deal, and $991,000 for NCRC's services in another CCA prison
in Texas. Johnson had also helped arrange for Washington, D.C. to sell one of
its local prisons to CCA in 1996. Local activists complained that procurement
rules had been skipped over to hand the bid to CCA, but the deal ultimately
went through, and CCA then managed the facility and used NCRC to provide
services to inmates. When the Washington Post asked Johnson if he considered
his dual roles as a conflict of interest, he replied, "Not in my
mind." Two years later, the Washington Post reported that CCA faced $1.3
million in fines for failing to provide services to inmates, including
$536,000 in fines for failing to properly administer medications and another
$77,400 for failing to provide vision services. The city's Department of
Corrections, despite being $8.8 million in the red, suspended most of the
fines, according to Post reports from the time. Johnson has over time
expanded his list of companies; NCRC is technically a subsidiary of his firm,
the Johnson Companies [www.jcmps.com]. Under that umbrella, Mr. Johnson also
houses the Houston-based Satellite Tracking of People, LLC (STOP), which
deals in GPS tracking devices for inmates and parolees; the Nashville-based ConnectGov, Inc, which coordinates distance learning; and
the National Preparedness Training Center, which trains first responders to
disasters.
February 15, 2008 Washington
City Paper
With so many millions of dollars walking out the door in Jimmy Choos, etc., courtesy of the tax scandal, you’d figure
D.C. Gov would be totally into recovering millions of other dollars it’s
rightfully owed by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). You’d figure
that. But you’d be wrong. In a classic case of buck-passing between the
Office of Property Management (OPM) and the Department of Corrections (DOC),
the utility bill for steam used to heat the Correctional Treatment
Facility—located right next to the D.C. Jail and privately operated by the
Nashville-based CCA—has gone unpaid for years. What’s owed is up for
negotiation. Last March, former OPM director Lars Etzkorn
(who has since lost his job over that unfortunate police department
relocation fiasco) testified before the Council that OPM was “collecting
monies owed.” To wit: “For example, last month OPM presented to the
Department of Corrections the analysis for it to recover $5.7 million from
the Corrections Corporation of America…” OPM didn’t take over collecting the
money, mind you, it presented an analysis of how to collect the money. And
this was after At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson figured out in the 2006
budget process that DOC was actually being billed for the steam rather than
being paid for it. A year after OPM was informed of that, a year after Etzkorn’s testimony throwing around “$5.7 million,” none
of the money has been collected. And $5.7 million could be way underselling
it. To be fair to the CCA, the folks in Nashville didn’t know how much steam
they were using in D.C. until OPM installed a meter last March; a bill didn’t
even go out until a few months later, in June. According to the bill, the
meter shows that in six months—from June to December of 2007—the Correctional
Treatment Facility used more than $450,000 in steam. When you do the math,
and take into account that the CCA, according to its lease, has been
responsible for paying utilities on the facility since 1997…. well that’s
somewhere around $10 million to $11 million in danger of—poof!—evaporating.
The DOC, by nature of its relationship with the the
jail, the next-door Correctional Treatment Facility, and the CCA, has been
the agency ostensibly in charge of the lease with the CCA. But—and you’ll
have to try and follow this alphabet soup—the DOC thinks it’s the OPM’s job
to get the CCA on board. Beverly Young, spokesperson for DOC, e-mailed that
succinct response to me this week: “The Department of Corrections is not
responsible for the collections. The matter is ultimately an issue between
OPM and CCA.” Mendelson agrees. The DOC, he says, never should have been in
charge of the lease in the first place. “The only agency that should
administer a lease is OPM,” he says, and further: “They (OPM) screwed around
last year with invoicing and not getting payment….They’re very slow to act
and we're talking about millions of public dollars.” At a hearing last
Friday, OPM’s interim director Robin-Eve Jasper (after being jousted by
Vincent Gray) faced Mendelson on this front: Mendo:
“We should get answers without having to think of every angle to ask the
question. So I get the bills, but it turns out we’re not getting the
payment…” Jasper: “I’m going to have to get back to you. We are billing
currently, but the first bill didn’t go out that long ago…and I don’t believe
it was as high as $11 million….I will get back to you with a detailed
response.” Mendo: “What I was last told at our last
hearing on this was that the Office of Property Management was talking to the
Department of Corrections. I’m not sure why that makes sense. Why doesn’t the
OPM talk to CCA or to the CFO’s office?” Jasper: “I can’t answer that
question…I can’t answer why we were in discussion with the DOC rather than
sending out a demand note and just proceeding on that basis.” Mendo: “When you get back to me, can you also go into
what was going on prior to June 2007?” Jasper: “Yes, I believe we’re trying
to establish a baseline of a full year at this point and…establish prior
payments.” Mendo: “I’ve yet to receive any evidence
that anyone has talked to CCA, so this would all be a surprise to them when
we send them a bill. That would kind of help, I think, to talk to them.” Hey,
it’s a start. OPM’s spokesman, Bill Rice, did not return three phone calls.
Stay tuned!
December 14, 2006 Washington
Post
Two former female inmates at the D.C. Correctional Treatment Facility
sued the District and jail officials last week, claiming that male guards
took them to isolated parts of the jail and raped them. The women are suing
under the anonymous names Jane Doe and Jane Roe. They say the District and
Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), the private contractor the city hired to
run the jail, are responsible for the alleged rapes because of their failure
to supervise and train guards and properly investigate allegations of sexual
misconduct. The suit is also filed against the two jail guards whom the women
allege raped them: Elry McKnight and John Gant. The
two women are alleging violations of their civil rights, emotional distress
and battery, and are seeking compensatory and punitive damages. Doe, a
Maryland woman in her late 30s, alleges that McKnight raped her twice in
April 2002 in a staff bathroom -- first while escorting her alone to her cell
as she returned from a court hearing, and next when he pretended that he
needed to take her to obtain a new identification badge. She was serving time
for selling heroin. Roe, a D.C. resident, alleges that Gant forced her to
perform oral sex on him in a jail broom closet in December 2003. Roe said
Gant was able to easily separate her from others by asking a female
corrections officer to let him speak with Roe privately in the hallway. Roe,
who was serving time on drug possession charges, was released in January
2004. Doe, who has seven children and three grandchildren whom she hasn't
told about the incident, said in an interview that she struggled over whether
to sue the city. She said she worried about having to come forward and
revisit an episode that has caused her panic attacks ever since, but decided
to do so because her initial complaint was ignored. In the lawsuit, she
alleges that she called 911 twice to get a police officer to come to the
jail, but no one came. "It's like they want to hide everything that
happened," Doe said. "If you hide something, it will happen to a
lot of people." Beverly Young, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of
Corrections, said the city agency and its personnel cannot comment on pending
litigation. A spokesman for CCA said the company was not aware of the suit
and could not comment. The suit claims that the corrections department and
CCA treated the two women poorly in investigating their claims. Doe was taken
to see CTF Warden Fred Figueroa, and McKnight was eventually suspended with
pay during an investigation, according to the suit. Doe was given no
information about the investigation for three months, until she complained in
June 2002 to her sentencing judge that she had been raped in the detention
facility, the suit alleges. The suit also alleges that McKnight eventually
was fired for smuggling contraband to inmates. "I couldn't believe they
[paid] no mind to me. They thought I was going to be deported," said
Doe, who grew up in the Dominican Republic but is a U.S. citizen. "They
just didn't care. They thought I was a criminal. " Doe said she has
stayed away from drugs since her release and is trying to get a job as a
construction apprentice. She said she knows she was guilty of her crime and
had to pay by doing time. "I'm not mad that I was put in jail. But I was
so shocked. I didn't know you had to give them sex, too," she said. Roe
was not available to be interviewed, but her part of the suit claims that
Gant told her she had to do what he said or he could use his power in the
records office to lengthen her stay in jail. CTF officers offered to put Roe
in a kind of solitary confinement when she asked for protection from Gant,
the suit says, but he ultimately resigned from CCA rather than give a
statement regarding the alleged rape. Deborah M. Golden, a lawyer with
Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, who is a lead attorney on the
suit, said the District and CCA had a duty to set up procedures to reduce the
risk that inmates at the CTF would be sexually harassed or raped and to take
substantive action when inmates made rape allegations. Golden, who is working
on the case with pro bono counsel Thomas C. Hill, a partner at the Pillsbury
Winthrop Shaw Pittman law firm, said the women's claims weren't treated with
the seriousness they deserved. "You can't train someone not to be a
rapist," Golden said. "But you can set up procedures whereby lone
women can't be taken out of their cells by a lone
officer. You can stop officers from taking advantage of people who are
incarcerated. You can train people to be alert to signs of trauma in the
population." The legal team said it hopes to get top-level officials to
take action to address sexual exploitation, a problem that has long plagued
jails and prisons around the country. "Neither woman disputes their
crime," Golden said. "But that doesn't mean rape was part of their
sentence."
June 9, 2006 Washington
Blade
Two transgender women said they plan to file a discrimination complaint
against the District’s Department of Corrections after officials at the D.C.
Jail refused to allow them to visit inmates because of their personal
appearance. Gigi Thomas, a client advocate for the local group HIPS, which
provides services to local sex workers, and Tiffany Everlasting, a HIPS
volunteer, said jail officials told them they could not enter the jail
because they wore women’s clothes but lacked identification classifying them
as biological females. The two women said they appeared separately and at
different times on May 30 at the visitor’s reception desk of the Correctional
Treatment Facility at 19th and D streets, S.E. The facility, known as the
CTF, is operated privately under a Department of Corrections contract with
the Corrections Corporation of America, a firm that operates prisons
throughout the country. An official with the D.C. Office of Human Rights said
the action by the jail appears to violate the city’s Human Rights Act, which
bans discrimination against transgender people. The act covers city government
agencies as well as the private sector, including private employers. Walter
Fulton, program manager at the command center for the Correctional Treatment
Facility, said the facility has a dress code policy that prevented
“cross-dressers” from being admitted as visitors. He said the policy, which
was under review, was based on concerns about how jail employees could
conduct a “pat down” search of a transgender person as part of routine
searches of all jail visitors. He said the searches were aimed at preventing
visitors from bringing contraband, including illegal drugs, into city
correctional facilities. “It’s likely that accommodations will be made to
allow cross dressers to visit,” he said. Guard convicted of sexual assault.
The refusal by CTF officials to allow Thomas and Everlasting visitation
rights came less than three months after a D.C. Superior Court jury convicted
a guard at the same facility of sexually assaulting a transgender inmate.
Court records show that Robert Ali White, 37, was convicted of a single count
of first-degree sexual abuse of a ward for allegedly forcing a transgender
inmate to perform oral sex on him in December 2004. He was scheduled for
sentencing on July 21. D.C. police arrested White on Dec. 29, 2004, at the
CTF facility after an inmate reported that the corrections officer allegedly
forced the inmate to engage in a sexual act with him, according to court
records.
August 14, 2003
The union for D.C. corrections officers yesterday again publicly
criticized the private company that runs an annex to the D.C. jail, alleging
a host of problems from forced overtime to inadequate pay and calling for the
city to cancel its contract with the firm. But this time, the
corrections officers were joined by two D.C. Council members, who bring a new
level of influence to the long-standing complaints. At-Large Democrats
Harold Brazil and Phil Mendelson stood outside the District's Correctional
Treatment Facility at 1901 E St. SE along with union members, who called for
the end of the contract the city has with Corrections Corp. of America.
The company runs a low- to medium-security annex of the D.C. jail intended to
house D.C. inmates with substance-abuse problems and other medical
needs. Brazil and Mendelson issued ultimatums, saying that if the
Nashville company does not address numerous concerns outlined in an 18-page
report by the council's subcommittee on public interest, they will ask the
mayor to end the 20-year contract signed with the company in 1997. In
November, the dispute between union members and the company escalated after
the union said poor working conditions may have contributed to the death of
an inmate in August 2002. They said staffing shortages, faulty radios
and trouble with the institution's telephone system apparently hampered
efforts to help the inmate. (Washington Post)
December 18, 2002
One inmate was killed and a second was wounded in separate stabbings over the
weekend at the D.C. jail, just days after another detainee was slain in a
similar attack, corrections officials and prisoner advocates said
yesterday. The inmate-on-inmate attacks took place over a 70-hour
period in different cellblocks. Officials with the D.C. Department of
Corrections said they put the jail on an indefinite lockdown after the latest
incident Saturday, restricting movements and activities of inmates, while
D.C. police and the agency's internal affairs unit investigate. The
violence raised new concerns among jail watchdogs about whether the detention
center can operate safely above a court-ordered population cap of 1,674 that
was lifted in June after 17 years. Yesterday's inmate count was
2,369. (Washington Post-Staff Writer)
December 16, 2002
Givon Pedelton was behind
bars awaiting trial on a drug charge, but he never made it to D.C. Superior
Court. Someone stabbed him to death at the D.C. jail last Wednesday
evening. Mr. Pedleton is the latest inmate to
be slain while int he city's custody. An inmate was also murdered last
August in the Correctional Treatment Facility, located near the jail.
And life behind locked gates isn't exactly safe and secure for members of the
corrections staff either: Between April and august of this year, they
suffered about 15 assaults. The victims' injuries included a broken hand,
temporary sight loss in one eye, a broken nose and 36 stitches to one
officer's face. (Washington Post.com)
November 17, 2002
A long-simmering dispute between union
members and the company that runs an annex to the
D.C. jail escalated yesterday after the union alleged that poor working
conditions may have contributed to the death of an inmate in August. Union members at the District's Correctional
Treatment Facility at 1901 E St. SE said that
staffing shortages, faulty radios and trouble with the institution's
phone system apparently hampered efforts to help inmate Benjamin
Brown, who died Aug. 20. They made the allegation and detailed other
work-related complaints during a news conference outside the facility,
run by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of
America. The public quarrel about such a
sensitive case underscored how relations have deteriorated
between the company and union leaders. Against this backdrop,
other problems have surfaced: Four corrections officers were indicted
this month on charges that they smuggled drugs,
pagers and cash to inmates in exchange for bribes.
Littlejohn alleged that the company has
been trying to break up the union for about a year and that managers routinely harass
officers and threaten to fire them. He cited the firing in June
of corrections officer Jimmie D. Allen, a church
deacon, for organizing a prayer meeting just outside the annex.
November 9, 2002
AND YOU THOUGHT that once someone was
convicted and sent to jail it meant saying goodbye to drugs,
pagers and means of doing business with the outside world.
This week, prosecutors indicted four
guards at the privately run Correctional Treatment Facility, a
D.C. jail annex, on charges of smuggling drugs, pagers and cash
to prisoners in exchange for bribes offered by undercover FBI
agents. Three of them were working at the facility when they
allegedly took the bribes. The fourth, a former
employee, allegedly served as a go-between. The Corrections Department
brass would have you believe that the smuggling has nothing to do
with them because the Correctional Treatment Facility is run by
the Corrections Corp. of America, a private concern that
operates about 60 prisons elsewhere in the nation. Don't buy it. The city pays the Nashville-based CCA
about $20 million a year for handling the Corrections Treatment
Facility, which, as far as we can tell, is not being
run any better than when the city was operating prisons. None of this is the least bit amusing. It is a disgrace.
Last year, 10 corrections officers, including nine from CCA,
were indicted on bribery charges stemming from a similar
investigation. All 10 were convicted. But the corruption, nonetheless,
goes on. What does that say about the competence and efficiency
of the private firm that is pocketing millions of taxpayer
dollars -- or about the agency that is supposed to be overseeing
that operation? What does it say about a city government that
apparently tolerates such a scandal?
November 8, 2002
Four corrections officers at a privately run annex to the D.C. jail have
been indicted on charges that they smuggled drugs, pagers and cash to
inmates in exchange for bribes offered by undercover FBI
agents, prosecutors said yesterday. Three of the four were employees of the Corrections
Corp. of America, which runs the Correctional Treatment Facility
in Southeast Washington under a contract with the
city, when they allegedly took the bribes. The fourth, whom prosecutors
described as a former CCA employee at the facility, allegedly served
as a go-between for one of the others in his dealings with an
FBI agent posing as an inmate's girlfriend. All were arrested by the FBI yesterday morning,
prosecutors said. They were indicted on charges of bribery and
introducing contraband into a penal institution. All pleaded
not guilty in U.S. District Court and were released on personal recognizance.
In a similar investigation at the
Correctional Treatment Facility last year, 10 corrections
officers were indicted on bribery charges, including nine from
CCA. All 10 were convicted of various charges, prosecutors
said. (The Washington Post)
June 29, 2001
Six former D.C. corrections officers pleaded guilty this week to federal
bribery charges after an FBI sting operation in which they accepted money in
return for smuggling cash and pagers to inmates, prosecutors announced
yesterday. The six men were indicted in U.S. District Court last month
on charges that they brought cash and pagers to inmates at the District's
Correctional Treatment Facility after accepting hundreds of dollars from a
man who said he was acting on behalf of inmates. The man turned out to
be an undercover FBI agent, prosecutors said. All have either resigned
or been fired from the Corrections Corp. of America, the private contractor
that operates the jail facility in Southeast Washington. (The
Washington Post)
June 1, 2001
Ten D.C. corrections officers have been indicted on federal bribery charges
after an undercover FBI investigation in which they allegedly accepted money
in return for smuggling cash and two-way pagers to inmates, prosecutors said
yesterday. D.C. inmates are not supposed to have money or
communications devices, prosecutors said. But the corrections officers
brought both into the District's Correctional Treatment Facility after
accepting hundreds of dollars from a man who said he was acting on behalf of
the inmates, they said. The man turned out to be an undercover FBI
agent. The indictments followed a two-year investigation and were returned
under seal on Wednesday. Nine of those indicted worked for the
Corrections Corp. of America, a private contractor that operates the
Correctional Treatment Facility in Southeast Washington. (The
Washington Post)
July 29, 1999 Washington Post
Two maximum-security DC inmates who were serving time for murder
escaped from two guards who were driving them back to a Virginia prison. The
guards left the door to the van unlocked and the inmates were somehow able to
remove their leg irons and flee.
March 14, 1999
A convicted killer, confined to a wheelchair cut through the bars on the
window of his eighth-floor cell, tied bedsheets into a rope and climbed out
of the prison undetected. The sheets unraveled and he plunged to the pavement
below. An unidentified woman picked him up and took him to a nearby hospital
where he was pronounced dead an hour later. (The Washington Post, March 16,
1999)
Department of Corrections
May 12, 2016 washingtonpost.com
U.S. jury orders D.C. Corrections to pay $70,000 to deaf inmate in ADA
claim
A deaf former inmate whose rights were violated by the D.C. Department of
Corrections was awarded $70,000 in damages by a federal jury Wednesday under
the Americans with Disabilities Act. U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown
Jackson castigated D.C. jail officials in a blistering, 60-page opinion in
September that found the department liable for failing to assess what
accommodations were needed by William Pierce, 47, of the District and
mismanaging his care during his incarceration in 2012. Jackson wrote that
despite written policies in place, officials at the D.C. Correctional
Treatment Facility “effectively sat on their hands.” “The District’s willful
blindness . . . and its half-hearted attempt to provide Pierce
with a random assortment of auxiliary aids — and only after he specifically
requested them — fell far short of what the law requires,” Jackson wrote. An
eight-person D.C. federal jury deliberated less than day after a six-day
damages trial for Pierce. Arthur B. Spitzer, legal director for the American
Civil Liberties Union of the Nation’s Capital, said the organization and
Pierce were pleased by the verdict and hoped it would lead prison and jail
operators across the country to provide qualified sign-language interpreters
to deaf inmates and to accommodate other disabled inmates. Spitzer said
evidence indicated jailers balked at a quoted $155-per-hour rate for an
interpreter, which he said “certainly doesn’t come to $70,000. I hope that’s
a lesson CCA and others have learned.”
Jun
12, 2015 dcist.com
As it approaches its 40th anniversary, the D.C. Jail is showing its age.
Crumbling infrastructure, active vermin infestations, a leaking roof, moldy
walls, and broken plumbing are among the problems plaguing the city's prison
population, according to a new report. Put out by the Washington Lawyers'
Committee and Covington & Burling, “D.C. Prisoners: Conditions of
Confinement in the District of Columbia” details a litany of issues with the
facility. Conditions are so bad, they say, that many of them "cannot
realistically be fixed" in the current facility. Their first
recommendation is to close the D.C. Jail and the Correctional Treatment
Facility and "construct a new, safer, more effective facility." The
Department of Correction's response, which was included with the report,
noted that many of the issues that were highlighted have already been fixed.
"In the most recent March 2015 DOH inspection, 87 percent of the
identified items have already been abated to date," they wrote. "The
remaining items are either currently being corrected or, due to the age and
deterioration of the physical structure, are outside of DOC’s control."
The report also details issues with suicide prevention efforts and how youth
are treated at the facilities. There was a rash of suicides in 2012 and 2013
that prompted the DOC to commission a study by an outside consultant, make
changes, and create a suicide prevention task force. While the report noted
improvements, the authors said that "much work should still be done"
and recommended an outside evaluation to see if the recommended changes had
been fully addressed. Issues confronting youth that are housed at the CTF
include inadequate space and a lack of dedicated programming, the authors of
the report say. They also found that youth are excessively subjected to
solitary confinement and generally are only allowed video visitation rather
than in-person visits. The report also recommends that the city stop
contracting management of the CTF out to the for-profit Corrections Corporation
of America when their contract expires in 2017. Among the downsides, they
cite both safety and quality issues, as well as the fact that CCA isn't
subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) laws.
Apr 18, 2015
washingtontimes.com
The D.C. Council narrowly voted down a $66 million contract that would have
placed for-profit company Corizon Health in charge of providing healthcare at
the city jail. The 6-5 vote pitted those who had concerns about the company’s
history of providing medical care at other facilities against members who
grimaced at getting involved in contracting matters already vetted by the
city’s procurement experts. “We shouldn’t be in this business. If we are
going to be in the business, then we ought to respect the process,” said D.C.
Council member Jack Evans, Ward 2 Democrat, who voted for approval of the
contract. But others questioned the thoroughness of a procurement process
that awarded the contract to Corizon without making mention of numerous
lawsuits filed against the company in other states as well as those that have
dropped contracts with the company over recent years. Council Member Mary Cheh, Ward 3 Democrat, said the council’s job in this
circumstance was to “serve as a backstop” for contracting decisions. “We’re
supposed to be here to catch what I would call manifest mistakes. This is
such a case,” Ms. Cheh said before voting against
the contract award. The contract would have put Corizon in charge of
providing medical, mental health, pharmacy and dental services for at least
three years to the roughly 2,200 inmates in the District’s Department of
Corrections. The District’s Office of Contracting and Procurement recommended
awarding the contract to Corizon at a cost of 7 percent, or $4.4 million,
more than the bid received from Unity Health Care, which has overseen health
care at the jail since 2006. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said payouts
from lawsuits filed against the District in regard to healthcare issues at
the jail have seen “a breathtaking drop” during the time Unity has had the
contract with the city. From 2006 through the present, he said there have
been $59,000 in judgments against the District on account of lawsuits
regarding healthcare at the jail compared to $1.2 million in judgments from
2002 through 2006 under a different provider, he said. Along with Ms. Cheh and Mr. Mendelson, council members Charles Allen,
David Grosso, Brianne Nadeau, and Elissa Silverman voted against the contract
award. The rejection of the Corizon contract ends an 18-month procurement and
review process that will now likely have to be restarted so that the city can
select a new healthcare provider. In the interim, Unity will continue to
provide healthcare at the jail under an extended contract. But a spokesman
for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who supported the Corizon award, said the city
will be overpaying in the short term on that contract because it is based on
a fixed number of inmates that is higher than the jail’s current population.
“The Council’s action will extend overpayment for care, which does not fully
meet the health needs of a vulnerable population, until a new contract can be
awarded,” spokesman Mike Czin said. Corizon
officials were disappointed with the decision. “It’s unfortunate that the
D.C. Council did not approve their peers’ recommendations,” said Woodrow A.
Myers, Jr., chief executive officer of Corizon. “The company wishes the D.C.
Department of Corrections and its residents well.”
Mar 19, 2015
washingtoncitypaper.com
Can Muriel Bowser succeed where Vince Gray failed? In the last days of his
lame duck mayoral term, Gray tried to earn D.C. Council approval for a new
D.C. Jail health contract, only to drop the $66 million contract award when
it foundered at the Council. Now Bowser, who submitted the contract to the Council
yesterday, is trying again. Bowser's problem is that Corizon Health Inc., the
Tennessee-based company that won the contract, doesn't exactly have a
sterling reputation with prison advocates. Corizon's care in other prisons
has inspired a long line of lawsuits, raising the threat of more lawsuits
against the District, according to critics. In December, the ACLU's District
chapter urged councilmembers to oppose the contract. “Their reputation in the
field of people who care about prisoner’s health and prisoner’s well-being is
pretty abysmal," says Alex Friedmann, the managing editor of Prison
Legal News. That reputation didn't stop the District from awarding the
contract to Corizon over the jail's current provider, Unity Health Care.
"The simple fact is that Corizon submitted the highest value package
with a higher level of care," Bowser spokesman Michael Czin writes in an email. It's not clear whether Bowser
has built more support for the contractor than her predecessor. The last time
the contract came up, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson worried that Corizon
"has a reputation for attracting a lot of lawsuits." In the run-up
to Bowser's new push, At-Large Councilmember David Grosso and Corizon CEO
Woodrow Augustus Myers Jr. battled it out over the contract in dueling
letters. In Grosso's letter, he listed a number of lawsuits against Corizon.
Myers' letter to Grosso disputed his claims and pointed out that Grosso
usually isn't so eager to interfere in contract approvals.
Dec 20, 2014 washingtontimes.com
D.C. Jail health care
contract pulled to give Corizon time to ‘get the facts out’ D.C. Mayor Vincent C.
Gray withdrew from the council’s Wednesday legislative agenda a controversial
measure that would place a for-profit corporation in charge of health care at
the D.C. Jail. A spokeswoman for his office said the $66 million, three-year
contract to Corizon Health Inc. was delayed and not dead, and that the
administration hoped to see it come up for a vote next year after the company
had more time to address the concerns of activists. “We agreed to withdraw it
to give Corizon more time to get the facts out,” said Mr. Gray’s spokeswoman Doxie McCoy. “They were getting unfairly smeared. It will
likely be resubmitted next year.” The District’s Office of Contracting and
Procurement recommended awarding the contract to provide medical, mental
health, pharmacy and dental services to inmates at the Department of
Corrections to Corizon Health Inc. instead of renewing a current contract
with nonprofit Unity Health Care Inc, which has overseen health care at the
jail since 2006. The ACLU of the Nation’s Capital and inmate advocates
protested the award, pointing to a long list of lawsuits filed against
Corizon as well as some of their own personal experiences representing inmates
at other facilities who received poor treatment from Corizon. The D.C.
Council would have to vote in favor of the contract by January 22 in order
for it to be approved. Without a vote, the contract would be considered
denied. Wednesday was the D.C. Council’s last legislative meeting of the
year, and the final one that would occur under the administration of Mr.
Gray. Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser will be sworn in on Jan. 2, but on Wednesday
she offered little indication how she might side on the matter. “This is an
important issue in the District. We will give it the attention it deserves
and review the contract and process in a timely manner,” Ms. Bowser’s
spokesman Joaquin McPeek said. The Gray
administration maintains that the old contract with Unity was not a good
choice for the city. “We believe the current Unity contact is too expensive
to continue due to the reduction in the corrections population,” Ms. McCoy
said. However, a copy of the council contract summary submitted to the D.C.
Council states that Corizon’s bid to provide services for three years, with
the ability to renew for two additional years, would cost 7 percent or $4.4
million more than the bid received by Unity Health Care, Inc. “The prices
proposed are within market reasonable for the direct labor staffing proposed,
and the total proposed amount is within available budget for the Department
of Corrections,” the summary reads. “The innovations proposed in their
proposal plus the confidence in their ability to perform at the proposed price
warrant award at the additional 7%.” Jail spokeswoman Sylvia Lane declined to
comment on the matter, referring questions to the city’s Office of
Contracting and Procurement. Corizon officials said the contract was being
offered after a fair assessment process. “We are confident that the
significant misinformation being circulated regarding Corizon Health’s
performance history and experience will not stand against the facts that
support our competence and effectiveness in providing quality healthcare to inmates
across the country,” a company statement issued Wednesday said. “We look
forward to a vote that affirms the independent selection of Corizon Health to
deliver quality correctional healthcare in the District.”
Department of Homeland Security (ICE) US Marshals Service
Washington, DC
CCA, Emerald, GEO Group, MTC, Wackenhut (AKA Group 4)
Immigrants
prove big business for prison companies: August
2, 2012 By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ and GARANCE BURKE Associated Press. Must read on
immigration $$$.
ICE paints bleak picture of detention system Abuses continue
despite agency's documentation: Susan Carroll, October 10, 2011, Houston
Chronicle. ICE continues to use troubled detention facilities despite
flagrant violations of their own detention standards, including poor medical
care and mistreatment of detainees, new internal records show.
Private prison company’s growth went hand-in-hand with
political influence: Jon Collins September 26, 2011 Minnesota
Independent
The Shadow Prison Industry and Its Government Enablers by Tom
Barry January 29, 2010 Center for International Policy
Officials Hid Truth of Immigrant Deaths in Jail by Nina
Bernstein January 9, 2010 New York Times
Jul 17, 2020 thehill.com
GOP lawmaker raises concern over
lobbyist gaining unauthorized access to online hearing platform
A former House Democratic aide who was
fired in 2017 after two criminal convictions gained unauthorized access to a
virtual Homeland Security subcommittee hearing this week, according to a top
GOP lawmaker. Isaac Lanier Avant, former chief of staff to Homeland Security
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) who is now a lobbyist, was on
the WebEx platform designated for lawmakers and witnesses for an hour during
Monday’s hearing, Homeland Security ranking member Rep. Mike Rogers (Ala.)
wrote in a letter to House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).
Rogers said the incident raises questions about the security of remote House
hearings, which are opposed by many Republicans who argue lawmakers should be
conducting the proceedings in person during the pandemic. “[Avant’s] presence
on the platform for Members was noted for over an hour and he was only
removed once the Minority informed the Majority,” Rogers wrote in his letter
to McGovern. “His presence on the Members’ platform raises serious concerns
about security issues related to remote Proceedings.” Rogers asked McGovern
to explain how he would “prevent future lapses in security during remote
hearings.” According to Rogers, Avant was not on the list of authorized users
that was distributed to lawmakers before the meeting. House rules on virtual
hearings stipulate that access to the WebEx platform be limited to lawmakers,
witnesses, and staff who are on the pre-distributed list. Congressional
filings show Avant is a registered lobbyist for private prison company GEO
Group, whose chairman and CEO George Zoley was
testifying at Monday’s hearing, hosted by the Subcommittee on Immigration and
Border Security, to discuss how Immigration and Customs Enforcement
contractors are responding to COVID-19. A Homeland Security Committee
spokesperson told The Hill on Thursday that, as the witness’s designee, Avant
received an automatically generated email with the WebEx login information
that was “intended for the witness only.” A spokesperson for GEO Group denied
providing access to Avant, writing in an email that the company did not
provide access to anyone beyond Zoley. When reached
by phone, Avant said he did not have “any knowledge of the matter,” and declined
to comment further. The WebEx software allows users to speak and be seen in
the hearing, while members of the public are limited to viewing the
proceedings through an online streaming platform or C-SPAN. McGovern was
largely dismissive of the concerns raised by Rogers. “While your letter
equates this as raising ‘serious concerns about security issues,’ this
episode would be more akin to an audience member sitting in the wrong area
during a public hearing,” McGovern wrote to Rogers on Thursday. “When the
attendance of this individual on the remote platform was discovered, they
were removed and at no time during this public and unclassified hearing was
the security of the platform threatened.” Avant pleaded guilty in 2016 to
failing to file income tax returns for five years and was sentenced to four
months in prison. The next year, he pleaded guilty to falsifying a standard
House security clearance form by stating he had filed income taxes in the
years he had failed to. Thompson fired Avant after the second conviction, in
2017, after 15 years as his chief of staff and a decade as Democratic staff
director for the Homeland Security Committee, according to the
Clarion-Ledger. Avant set up a lobbying firm last year and GEO Group hired
him in May 2019, congressional filings show. Avant also lobbied last year for
another group that has business with Thompson’s committee, the Seafarers
International Union’s political wing. The House authorized remote voting and
committee work by videoconference by a party-line vote in May. Republicans
have criticized the temporary measures, arguing they undermine their ability
to represent constituents. They have also pointed to technical difficulties
that have marred some hearings.
July 14, 2020 motherjones
Prison CEOs Say They Had No Clue Guards
Pepper-Sprayed Hundreds of Immigration Detainees
There have been more than a dozen
pepper-spraying incidents since the start of the pandemic. Private prison
executives claimed at a congressional hearing Monday to be unaware of any
recent instances of guards pepper-spraying
immigration detainees at the facilities they run. It was a shocking claim:
Detainees have been pepper-sprayed on more than a dozen occasions since late
March, and Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s own press office has
confirmed many of the incidents the CEOs say they know nothing about.
Monday’s hearing focused on the often abysmal
conditions in for-profit immigration detention centers during the coronavirus
pandemic. One question from Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.) to four executives
testifying virtually was hard to misinterpret. “So
no one is aware of any time that rubber bullets, or pepper spray, or tear gas
has been used by officers at your facilities against detainees since the
COVID-19 pandemic?” he asked. “Are you all categorically denying it?” In
response, CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger,
Management and Training Corporation CEO Scott Marquardt, and LaSalle
Corrections executive director Rodney Cooper said they were aware of no such
incidents. GEO Group CEO George Zoley said he was
aware of one incident in California. In reality, people
at CoreCivic facilities have been pepper-sprayed on
at least four occasions. At LaSalle, it’s happened on at least five
occasions. And at GEO Group detention centers, the total is also at least
five. Hundreds of immigrants and asylum seekers have been exposed to pepper
spray during those uses of force. There have been no recent documented cases
of pepper spray at Management and Training Corporation centers. (All of these
companies have contracts with ICE, which pays them to house immigration
detainees at their facilities.) I’ve broken the news of several uses of
pepper spray at for-profit ICE detention centers in recent months. In one
case, guards at a GEO Group detention center in Louisiana left nearly 80
women trapped in a pepper spray-filled dorm after a COVID-19 briefing. Later
in the hearing, Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.), the chair of a border security
subcommittee, asked Hininger of CoreCivic
to address the fact that one of his own spokespeople confirmed that pepper
spray was used against detainees at a CoreCivic
detention center in New Mexico. Hininger said he
misunderstood Payne’s question and confirmed that pepper spray was used at
the Torrance detention center. He didn’t mention other incidents in Arizona
and Georgia.
May 1, 2020 courthousenews.com
Report Details Abuse and Medical
Neglect at Immigrant Detention Centers
(CN) – A report released Thursday by
immigration watchdogs shines an unflattering light on the Trump
administration’s treatment of asylum seekers and detainees, finding a lack of
adequate medical care and oversight at detention centers as the number of
facilities and detainees grows. Researchers from the American Civil Liberties
Union, Human Rights Watch and National Immigrant Justice Center compiled
interviews with 150 detainees, notes from visits to five new detention sites
and public records for their report titled, “Justice-Free Zones: U.S.
Immigration Detention Under the Trump Administration.” The total
number of detention facilities in the U.S. has climbed to 220 as Immigration
and Customs Enforcement opened more than 40 new sites since President Donald
Trump took office in January 2017, most of which are hours-long drives from
nearby cities. Asylum seekers’ access to legal counsel has suffered as a
result, according to the civil rights groups. “When comparing immigration
detention facilities operating before 2017 to those opened after 2017, there
are four times as many immigration attorneys available within a 100-mile
radius of pre-existing facilities versus new ones,” the report states. Though
detainees may apply for release on parole, few have been able to convince
judges that they have a credible fear of persecution in their home countries.
ICE’s New Orleans field office, which has control over 70% of people held in
the new detention centers, denied 99.1% of asylum seekers’ applications for
release on parole between March and December 2019, according to the report.
The Southern facilities were not outliers. The researchers note that
immigration courts across the nation deny asylum in 76% of detainees’ cases –
at half of the 20 largest new facilities, that number jumps to over 90%.
Interviewees told the researchers that facility officers lied to them about
the availability of parole, for instance by saying it was only granted to
detainees who were dying or that receiving parole
was simply not a possibility. Four-fifths of detainees in the U.S. are held
in privately owned or operated facilities as of January, the report notes,
with CoreCivic and the GEO Group together holding
more than half of ICE’s detention contracts. These private contractors
allegedly often require detainees to clean and maintain facilities for no
pay, or for as low as $1 per day, though the report cites multiple interviews
with detainees who say they have worked for weeks or months without receiving
any promised pay. GEO has previously donated nearly a quarter of a million
dollars to pro-Trump super PACs. With more than 50,000 people detained in
U.S. immigration facilities on any given day, the centers have implemented
cost-cutting measures that undermine the health and safety of detainees,
according to the report. Interviewees accused the facilities of acting slowly
on necessary treatments, such as taking as long as a week to set broken bones
or failing to offer inhalers for asthma and other life-saving medicine. At
one Louisiana facility, detainees said there was no soap in the showers or
cleaning supplies for detainees’ cells. Medical staff at another center in
Louisiana took several minutes to locate their defibrillator, which was in a
hallway instead of the emergency room, which “held only a stretcher,”
according to the report. The report notes that 39 adults have died in ICE
custody or soon after release since 2017, highlighting that 12 of these were
suicides in detention. There were no mental health professionals on site at
two of the five detention sites, the report states, and immigrants reported
guards yelling at physically handicapped detainees instead of helping them.
Researchers also detailed accusations of abuse from immigration officers, who
would withhold food from detainees, slam immigrants against the wall and call
them “rats.” Interviewers heard multiple reports of detainees being locked in
solitary confinement for as long as nearly three months. The Covid-19
pandemic has shut out watchdogs’ access to information from immigration
officials, according to Eunice Cho, a senior ACLU staff attorney. “ICE is not
known for its transparency during ‘normal’ circumstances, but the limited
access we had for this report — to detention facilities, to detained people —
no longer exists,” Cho said in a statement. Grace Meng, a senior researcher
at Human Rights Watch, urged lawmakers to push back against the
administration’s treatment of immigrants. “The Trump administration and its
callous indifference to immigrants’ rights and their humanity have allowed
already bad conditions in the detention system to deteriorate even further,”
Meng said in a statement. “But the administration is not the only one
responsible for this abusive system — Congress should push back on the
administration’s demands and reduce funding for immigration detention and
enforcement.” The report recommends a number of
solutions for Congress, executive offices and departments, and state and
local governments. The groups call for an end to mandatory immigrant
detention, banning solitary confinement, allowing Freedom of Information Act
requests for records held by private detention facility operators, and
permitting the release of asylum seekers to community sponsors. “We need
Congress to take notice and stop spending our tax dollars to fund these human
rights abuses,” said Tara Cullen, communications director of the National
Immigrant Justice Center.
Aug 20, 2019 wlrn.org
ICE And Its Contractor Geo Group Failed
To Treat Immigrants Humanely, Lawsuit Claims
A lawsuit filed Monday alleges that
immigration detention authorities have failed to ensure that tens of thousands
of immigrants are held in safe and humane conditions as required by federal
law and the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 55,000
detainees and future detainees in 160 ICE detention centers across the
country. Many of the larger detention centers are under contract with Geo
Group, based in Boca Raton, or CoreCivic, another
private contractor based in Nashville. The suit was filed in U.S. District
Court in Los Angeles against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency
and the Department of Homeland Security by three organizations: the Southern
Poverty Law Center, a non-profit group in Montgomery, Ala., that works on
behalf of immigrant justice; the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement
Center in Denver, Colo.; and Disability Rights Advocates in California and
New York.
Jul 17, 2019 thedailybeast.com
Private Prison Bosses Beg Taxpayers to
Pay Human-Trafficking Lawsuit Bills
In a series of emails, prison execs
pleaded with ICE to pick up their multimillion-dollar tab. At the same time,
they argued to shareholders that the suits were no big deal. Early last year,
a senior executive in the nation’s second-largest private prison company went
to Immigration and Customs Enforcement with a desperate plea: to pick up
their multimillion-dollar legal bills. Over the last five years, a series of
people formerly held in GEO Group’s private immigration detention centers
have sued the company over a work program. They allege that the company
forces detainees to do manual labor for $1 a day (sometimes less) and has
punished detainees who refuse with solitary confinement. Half a dozen suits
are challenging the work programs and seeking damages for detainees from GEO
and CoreCivic, another private prison company. They
allege that the programs break a landmark law against human trafficking. So GEO’s legal bills have piled up. And while the company
has publicly downplayed the challenge the lawsuits pose, private
correspondence between its top executives and senior officials at ICE
indicates GEO views the litigation as cause for major concern. The
communications—which Northwestern University Political Science Professor
Jacqueline Stevens obtained by FOIA and shared with The Daily Beast—paint a
picture of deep distress within the company regarding its legal bills. GEO’s
senior vice president of business development sent the first letter on Feb.
14, 2018. The exec’s name is redacted, but an archived page from the
company’s website shows Dave Venturella held the
post at the time (and still does). Before joining the private prison giant, Venturella was director of the arm of ICE responsible for
arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants. Venturella’s
letter sounded urgent. “GEO cannot bear the costs of this defense on its
own,” he wrote, discussing the lawsuits. He then detailed litigation in
Colorado, California, and Washington against the company. The Colorado
litigation alone was proving to be massively costly,
he wrote. “The legal discovery costs could total several millions of dollars
and potential damages could be in the tens of millions,” he wrote. At that
point, just in the Colorado suit, GEO had racked up $1.6 million in legal
bills. In Washington, their legal bills had topped $440,000. Venturella then all but blamed ICE for getting them sued.
“To the extent that plaintiffs allege that disciplinary segregation [solitary
confinement] is an unlawful threat for refusal to work, this sanction comes
directly from ICE policies, which ICE should assist in defending,” he wrote.
“GEO’s contracts with ICE require that GEO administer the VWP [Voluntary Work
Program] at the Aurora and Tacoma facilities, and set the reimbursable rate
for that participation at $1 per detainee per day, an amount that cannot be
increased without ICE’s authorization,” he added. Venturella
asked for an “equitable adjustment”—government contractor-speak for extra
money to offset unexpected costs of fulfilling a contract. In other words,
GEO Group hoped taxpayer dollars would cover the legal bills they racked up
for allegedly violating human trafficking laws. Several months later, GEO’s
CEO, George Zoley, echoed Venturella’s
plea. In a letter to ICE’s acting deputy director on May 30, he begged for
money. “We are deeply alarmed at the rapidly increasing costs in defending
these lawsuits without reimbursement from ICE, or assistance in their defense
by the Department of Justice,” he wrote. Continued defense against the
litigation would be “likely to cost $15-$20 million,” with tens of millions
more if they lost and a court awarded damages to the plaintiffs. “We urgently
implore DOJ to take over the defense of these lawsuits and reimburse GEO for
its costs,” he concluded. But ICE rejected them—and it appears the Justice
Department has, too. On July 9, 2018, ICE sent Zoley
a short letter informing him that its contracting officers had decided
against picking up the company’s legal bills. Meanwhile, the office of the
U.S. Solicitor General—the top appellate lawyer in the Justice
Department—filed an amicus brief in federal court on April 1 of this year
saying the dispute should be over the facts of the detainees’ treatment
rather than whether the law against human trafficking applies to the
companies. GEO had argued the human trafficking law didn’t apply to its
treatments of detainees. But the S.G. didn’t bite, and DOJ refused to take a
side in the litigation—a setback for the private prison firm. “The private
prisons act as though decades of labor law violations entitle them to exploit
people in perpetuity,” said Stevens, the professor who obtained the letters
through FOIA. “It’s about time they start following the rule of law and it’s
ridiculous that they expect taxpayer reimbursements for unlawful profits.”
GEO’s letters to the feds took a markedly different tone from how they later
described the litigation to shareholders. Their 2018 shareholder letter,
dated Feb. 25, 2019, sounded sanguine about the topic and said defeat in
court did not seem “probable nor reasonably estimable.” “The Company
does not expect the outcome of any pending claims or legal proceedings to
have a material adverse effect on its financial condition, results of
operations or cash flows,” it concluded. Pablo Paez,
a spokesperson for GEO Group, told The Daily Beast that the letters to ICE
and the shareholder statement are consistent. “Seeking reimbursement for
legal expenses that are out of the ordinary is not inconsistent with the
disclosure that the litigation in question is not expected to have a material
adverse effect,” he said in a statement. “Contrary to the baseless allegations
made in these lawsuits, this is a strictly voluntary program, and the
implementation of the program is stipulated in standards set by the federal
government.” “In accordance with ICE’s National Detention Standards,
detainees shall be able to volunteer for work assignments but otherwise shall
not be required to work, except to do personal housekeeping. ICE is
authorized to pay an allowance to detainees who participate in its voluntary
work program, and ICE ensures detainees who chose to participate in the
voluntary work program receive the pay owed to them,” an ICE spokesperson
told The Daily Beast. Plaintiffs fiercely contest that the program is
voluntary. They allege that prison officials used fear of solitary
confinement to coerce them into doing janitorial and maintenance work at the
detention centers for just $1 a day–saving the prison company millions it
would have had to spent if it paid them the minimum wage. In separate
litigation, detainees have alleged that CoreCivic
would only provide them toilet paper if they worked at the meager wages to
earn money to pay for it. But private prison companies have friends in high
places. Last year, a group of Congressional Republicans sent a letter to
then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions making a curious defense of the labor
programs: forcing detainees to work for little or no money, they argued, was
good for morale.
Feb 5, 2019 thedenverchannel.com
Report: Few consequences for sexual assault and safety violations at ICE
detention centers
DENVER — A new report says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement isn’t
holding contractors accountable for detainee safety and instead is giving
them waivers when they are not meeting standards. The Homeland Security
Office of Inspector General report found in 14,000 cases of deficiency, ICE
only fined the contractor twice, even in cases of sexual assault, employee
misconduct and use of tear gas on detainees. The report found contractors
consistently were not fined by the agency and were given waivers instead.
“Another waiver allows a facility to commingle high-custody detainees, who
have histories of serious criminal offenses, with low-custody detainees, who
have minor, nonviolent criminal histories or only immigration violations,
which is a practice the standards prohibit in order to protect detainees who
may be at risk of victimization or assault,” the report detailed. The Denver
Ice Detention Facility operated by Geo Group Inc in Aurora is just one of
those facilities spread across the country. Activist say Geo Group does not
provide adequate health care there. “There have been two deaths at this
facility and the problem is there is not adequate health care,” said Gabriela
Flora with American Friends Service Committee. Flora says there is just one
doctor for 1,300 people in the facility. Jeanette Vizguerra
was detained at the Aurora facility twice. She describes the experience as
slavery. “They require all of us inside to clean everything and take care of
the place and many of us they don’t pay us and many of us who volunteer to do
it they pay us a dollar a day,” Vizguerra said. “If
we refuse to do the work we get put into solitary confinement. This is a
violation of our human rights.”
Feb 2, 2019 publicintegrity.org
ICE FAILED TO PENALIZE CONTRACT IMMIGRANT JAILS WITH THOUSANDS OF SAFETY
AND RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, failed to take action
against detention facilities the agency contracted with after discovering
thousands of violations that jeopardized the safety and rights of detainees,
according to a federal Inspector General report. “Between October 1, 2015,
and June 30, 2018, ICE imposed financial penalties on only two occasions,
despite documenting thousands of instances of the facilities’ failures to
comply with detention standards,” inspectors found, based on a review of
contracts governing 106 facilities holding an average of 25,000 detainees in
2017. “Instead of holding facilities accountable through financial
penalties,” inspectors reported, “ICE issued waivers to facilities with
deficient conditions, seeking to exempt them from complying with certain
standards.” The more than 14,000 “deficiencies” identified included
facilities failing to notify ICE about sexual assaults and failing to forward
allegations of staff misconduct to ICE investigators, according to
inspectors. The immigrant lockups consist of a mix of privately-run detention
centers owned by ICE or private companies, as well as local and county jails
and facilities provided through contracts held by the U.S. Marshals Service
or other government agencies. Waivers issued by ICE allowed the facilities to
use a gas—if guards felt they needed to subdue detainees—that’s 10 times more
toxic than pepper spray. Waivers also
allowed guards to “commingle” detainees with serious criminal histories with
detainees with only minor criminal records or who were accused only of
immigration violations. Further, the
Department of Homeland Security Inspector General report dated Jan. 29 also
asserts that inspectors found that ICE had no formal policy to govern waivers
and that organizational problems “impede” monitoring of contracts. Only 28
out of 106 contracts inspectors reviewed required use of a quality-assurance
tool that’s useful for holding facilities accountable for deficiencies. The
two penalties ICE did impose totaled less than half of 1 percent of the $3
billion in contracts these 106 facilities received from ICE since the
beginning of fiscal 2016, inspectors said. One of the two penalties imposed,
inspectors found, was the deduction of funds from one facility with repeat
violations of health care and mental-health care standards. The report didn’t
identify facilities where violations were found. Data supplied to the Center
for Public Integrity shows that in 2018 ICE was holding more than 41,800
detainees on average every day. The Inspector General report found that more
than 35,400 immigrant detainees were held on average every day inside 211
contract facilities in 2017. The Center for Public Integrity reported last
year on allegations of abuses alleged at privately-run immigrant lockups. GEO
Group and CoreCivic are the two largest U.S.
private-prison companies. The two companies’ stock value rose after President
Donald J. Trump won the 2016 election, promising more aggressive immigration
enforcement. The companies, both of which have received contracts recently,
contributed $250,000 each to support Trump’s inauguration festivities.
Affiliates of both companies have donated to Republican political groups and
candidates, the Center reported. The Center’s investigation reported that a
federal review of the 2012 death of a detainee from cardiac arrest found that
a nurse at a GEO Group facility wasn’t trained on the use of an EKG. She also
waited an hour to call 911, the review found, because “she needed to get the
paperwork” completed concerning the detainee’s condition before making the
call. CoreCivic, too, is facing scrutiny after a
1-year-old girl became ill inside a Texas family detention center last year
and later died after being released with her mother. Another Center story
last year reported that a DHS Inspector General report issued in October
found shocking medical neglect at a GEO Group facility in Adelanto,
California. Inspectors concluded: “ICE’s detainee death reviews for three
Adelanto center detainees who have died since fiscal year 2015 also cited
medical care deficiencies related to providing necessary and adequate care in
a timely manner. ICE must take these continuing violations seriously and
address them immediately.” Correction, Feb. 1, 2019: An earlier version of
this story misstated the period of violations as 20 months. It was a 32-month
period between October 1, 2015, and June 30, 2018.
Jan 10, 2019 buzzfeednews.com
ICE Might Be Violating Federal Law By Keeping Immigrants Detained During
The Shutdown
A lengthy government shutdown over border wall funding has potentially
put Immigration and Customs Enforcement at risk of violating a more than
100-year-old law that could not only require the release of “non-dangerous”
individuals in the agency’s custody but also stop it from continuing to
arrest and detain certain people, according to former senior ICE officials
and experts. The potential violation could complicate ICE’s operations at a
time when President Donald Trump has argued that the shutdown is necessary to
force Democrats to implement tougher immigration policies, such as building a
wall on the US–Mexico border. ICE contracts with nonfederal detention facilities,
like county jails and private detention contractors, across the country to
hold individuals detained by immigration agents. The agency pays for the bed
space in various ways, including monthly payments or, in some cases, in
advance. As of Jan. 1, the agency was detaining more than 48,000 individuals,
which is 8,000 more than the levels that had been provided for by the
now-expired congressional funding. But nearly three weeks after its funding
lapsed because of the shutdown, ICE has likely run out of money to pay
contractors for the detention space it uses. And while ICE has some
non-appropriated funds it can lean on, those are not enough to pay for the
overall detention space for more than a few weeks, said Kevin Landy, who was
appointed during the Obama administration to run ICE’s Office of Detention
Policy and Planning, a position he held for more than six years, up until
2017. “It's just a matter of time before ICE runs out of money to pay for
detention beds, if it hasn't already,” Landy said. Already, some county
governments, like in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have told BuzzFeed News that ICE has
notified them that its monthly payment for the individuals in their custody
will not be made on time. Private detention companies, like CoreCivic, have also been notified by ICE that payment
will be delayed until the government reopens. Both CoreCivic
and some county governments, like in Tulsa; Glades, Florida; and York,
Pennsylvania, have maintained that they can continue to hold ICE detainees
without payment because they know the government will eventually pay. But
continuing to keep certain individuals in their custody may be a violation of
a law first enacted in the 1980s known as the Antideficiency
Act. The law makes it illegal for a contractor to provide the government free
services in anticipation of future payments, unless the services are
necessary to protect human life or property, according to Landy. “ICE cannot
legally ask detention facilities to hold nondangerous
individuals it has arrested if ICE has no funds to pay the facilities for
doing so,” he said. Tracey Valerio, the former head of budget at ICE until
April 2018 and current senior counsel at Frontier Solutions, said it’s
unclear whether the agency can house people without paying. “It’s not clear that
ICE can continue to incur new obligations with third parties if it runs out
of funding,” she said. CoreCivic has been told by
the federal immigration agency that its work is considered “essential” during
the shutdown, a spokesperson for the company said. For its part, an ICE
official who declined to be named maintained that the agency’s law
enforcement activities are necessary for the safety of human life or
protection of property, therefore qualifying for an exception during
appropriation lapses. “This includes detention center operations,” the
official told BuzzFeed News. ICE, however, does not operate its own detention
facilities but instead rents beds, a number that fluctuates based on its
needs, according to Landy. In the early days of the Trump administration,
officials eliminated Obama-era priorities for arrests during ICE operations,
in effect making nearly every undocumented immigrant a priority for removal.
“Many thousands of those arrested and currently detained by ICE have no
criminal record, and would not even have been arrested during the Obama
administration,” Landy said. “Releasing them would not cause a risk to public
safety.” Whether ICE could be forced to release individuals is another
matter, according to Landy. The Antideficiency Act includes
criminal and administrative penalties but given that the decision to continue
ICE’s operations was made at the highest levels, it’s unlikely the
administration will invoke it. There are, however, other parties that can get
involved. “Congress could investigate the legal violation, or ask the US
Government Accountability Office to conduct an audit,” he said. “And the
appropriations committees could then impose more severe restrictions on the
agency's use of its detention funds in future legislation.” Charles Tiefer, a University of Baltimore Law School professor
and expert on the Antideficiency Act, said that he
believed ICE would be in violation of the law for housing nondangerous
individuals. “It’s in the gray zone,” he said. “On the one hand, ICE would
say it is not formally obligating itself to pay anything. It is not writing a
letter promising ‘we will pay the bills.’ On the other hand, ICE is fostering
an understanding by the contractor that it will be paid.” But Tiefer said he believed it was a violation of the act
because “the government will be pressured, and rightly so, to pay the bills
later, and the government is ... fostering the understanding that it will pay
the bills. As the old saying goes, a wink is as good as a nod.” Even without
the potential violations of the law, should the shutdown continue, the agency
could run into issues with jurisdictions not receiving payments for months on
end. In Tulsa County, Casey Roebuck, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office,
said that while the department had some “wiggle room” to maintain detentions
for ICE should funds not be received in the near future, that could become an
issue as time goes on. “You’re looking at anywhere from $300,000 to $150,000
a month that we bill,” she said. “That’s a lot money for the county to absorb
and to carry until we start getting payments again. We are hoping it gets
worked out before it becomes a problem.”
Jan 14, 2018 houstonchronicle.com
Immigration detention deaths reach the highest total since 2009
A Mexican immigrant's death near Houston after he was evacuated from the
path of Hurricane Irma in September marked the end of the deadliest year for
immigrants held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in nearly
a decade. Felipe Almazan-Ruiz, 51, was taken to a
hospital days after being booked into an immigration contract detention
facility in Livingston, according to ICE. Almazan-Ruiz
had initially been arrested by ICE in Miami in July, but ended up in Texas
after hurricanes struck both states. He died Sept. 17 from cardiac arrest.
Around the country, 12 immigrants died in detention in the 2017 fiscal year,
according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the most since fiscal year
2009. Ten immigration detainees perished in government custody the year
before. Nationwide, more than 30,000 immigrants are held at any one time in
ICE detention facilities. The number of deaths in 2017 has alarmed
immigration activists, who have long accused immigration officials and
detention center operators of providing delayed or substandard medical care
and ignoring complaints of illness. "Simply put, detention and
deportation are a deadly business," said Bob Libal,
executive director of Grassroots Leadership. Libal,
whose group monitors civil rights conditions, said the "high-profile
failings of the detention system in Texas" make him worried about plans
to further increase the number of detainees held at privately owned
facilities here. A 1000-bed for-profit detention center is planned to open in
2018 in Conroe, already home to another detention facility. ICE defends its
record of overseeing immigration detention centers that are run by private
and government entities. "ICE has made substantial progress on
implementing reforms across its detention system, and that important work is
ongoing," said spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa
said in an email. Zamarripa said among other
changes, the agency has simplified the process for detainees to get outside
medical care and designated coordinators to monitor detainees with
complicated cases. Older statistics and ICE records show that deaths have
declined from the levels reported during first three years after ICE was
founded. In fiscal year 2004, a total of 28 deaths were reported. Many of the
2017 deaths remain under investigation by ICE, so limited information is
available. Reports on detention fatalities often are released years after
they occur in response to Freedom of Information Act lawsuits. May 2017 was a
particularly deadly month. Two people died a day apart in Georgia detention
centers, and on May 31, Vicente Caceres-Maradiaga, a 44-year-old Honduran
immigrant, collapsed while playing soccer at the privately owned Adelanto
Detention Facility in southern California and died in an ambulance on the way
to a hospital. He was the third immigrant to die at Adelanto in 2017 and the
sixth death at the privately owned GEO Group facility since 2011. Since ICE
was created in 2003, 85 detention centers nationwide have reported a total of
176 deaths. Seventeen facilities have had three or more deaths, including
eight at the CoreCivic detention center in Houston
and 15 at the CoreCivic-owned Eloy Correctional
Center in Arizona. For more than a decade, various civil rights groups have
released reports on detention deaths, repeatedly identifying persistent
problems with medical care and suicide prevention. Last year, the human
rights group Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement
(CIVIC) and Human Rights Watch filed a formal complaint and published a
report documenting failures in medical care in 12 detainee deaths from late
2012 to mid-2015, citing ICE's own death investigations as well as
independent medical experts who reviewed those reports. Other immigrants'
rights groups previously identified another eight deaths as potentially
preventable. Five of the deaths flagged in those reports occurred at the Eloy
facility in Arizona. Adelanto in California and the Houston Detention Center
each had two deaths identified by advocates as preventable or related to
neglectful medical care. In December, the Office of the Inspector General of
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a report in response to
concerns raised by immigration rights groups and complaints to a hotline
about ICE detainee treatment and care. Inspectors made unannounced visits to
six facilities, including the Laredo processing center in Texas. Their report
found inadequate complaint procedures, situations in which detainees held
only on immigration violations were improperly mixed with detainees with
violent criminal histories and other potentially unsafe conditions.
"Overall, the problems we identified undermine the protection of
detainees' rights, their humane treatment, and the provision of a safe and
healthy environment," inspectors said in their report. Among other
criticisms, the OIG report said that some facilities it visited appeared to
have delayed medical care and misused solitary confinement – factors that
non-profit immigration groups have described as a contributing factor in
recent immigrant deaths attributed to natural causes such as cancer, heart
attacks and high blood pressure as well as suicides. In the agency's 14-year
history, approximately 27 detainees have died by suicide, apparent suicide or
self-inflicted injuries, most often caused by choking or hanging. In one
case, Clemente Mponda appears to have hoarded and
taken a fatal dosage of medications while detained in Houston in 2013,
according to the ICE review of his death. Mponda,
who had a history of mental illness, was held in solitary confinement eight
months during his detention before he killed himself in an isolation cell
with his own medicine. Deaths last year at the Adelanto facility in
California also have led to increased public scrutiny of the treatment of
medical and psychological conditions. In March, Osmar
Epifanio Gonzalez-Gadba was found hanging in his
cell in Adelanto – one of three deaths reported there in FY 2017. Another six
attempted suicides occurred at that facility in a year-long period ending in
August 2017, according to 911 call logs obtained from the San Bernardino
County Sheriff's Department. Pablo Paez, vice
president for corporate relations for the GEO Group, which owns the Adelanto
detention center as well as detention centers in Texas, said in an emailed
statement that the company meets detention standards set by ICE and
corrections industry groups and that medical care is often provided by the
government. "GEO has a long-standing record providing high-quality,
culturally responsive services in safe, secure, and humane environments that
meet the needs of the individuals in the care and custody of federal
immigration authorities," Paez wrote. A
spokesman for CoreCivic, the owners of the Houston
Detention Center and Eloy, also has defended its large detention centers that
had multiple deaths, saying medical care is provided by other contractors and
deaths are few compared to the number of detainees processed. Another man
died in ICE detention last month - the first death of the 2018 fiscal year. Kamyar Samimi, a 64-year-old
Iranian immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a student in 1976, "fell
ill" at a GEO Group-owned detention facility in Aurora, Colorado,
according to ICE. Samimi, who had legal permanent
residency status, died after being taken to the hospital. The preliminary
cause of death was cardiac arrest, ICE said.
Dec 19, 2017 grijalva.house.gov
Today, 73
Congressional representatives sent a letter to DHS and DOJ demanding
accountability over sexual assault in immigration detention. Please see CIVIC’s joint press release with
Congresswoman Chu and Congressman Grijalva below. Warm regards, Christina M. Fialho Co-Founder/Executive Director Community
Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC)
Dec 15, 2017
npr.org
'Significant Issues' At Immigrant Detention Centers
Immigrants detained at four large centers used by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement are subject to inhumane treatment, given insufficient hygiene
supplies and medical care, and provided potentially unsafe food, according to
a federal report. The "concerns" about the treatment of detained
immigrants in facilities in California, Georgia, New Jersey and New Mexico is
summarized in a report issued by the Inspector General's Office of the
Department of Homeland Security. "The findings are similar
to those of outside groups that have alleged 'extensive' human rights
abuses at ICE detention centers. "The inspector general's report comes
as the Trump administration is asking Congress for funding to expand the
immigration detention system. "ICE says some of its existing facilities
are short-staffed. And the acting director has agreed to the report's
recommendations." The report was based on inspections of five detention
facilities, four of which failed to meet certain federal standards, although
"not every problem was present in all of them." The report
summarized the results of the inspections: "Upon entering some
facilities, detainees were housed incorrectly based on their criminal
history. Further, in violation of standards, all detainees entering one
facility were strip searched. Available language services were not always
used to facilitate communication with detainees. Some facility staff
reportedly deterred detainees from filing grievances and did not thoroughly
document resolution of grievances. Staff did not always treat detainees
respectfully and professionally, and some facilities may have misused
segregation. Finally, we observed potentially unsafe and unhealthy detention
conditions. Detainees ... reported long waits for provision of medical care,
poor conditions in bathrooms and insufficient hygiene supplies. OIG
inspectors also observed expired, moldy, and spoiled foods in the kitchen in
four facilities." The report also recommends that ICE improve its
oversight of detention facility management and operations. In an official
response, ICE concurred with the findings and promised to strengthen
oversight and improve overall conditions. Critics of President Trump's
immigration policies say the findings are not new as they predate the current
administration. A 2015 report by the National Immigrant Justice Center
questioned ICE's ability to oversee the detention centers it uses. In a
statement on the 2017 report, the Center's Executive Director Mary Meg
McCarthy said: "ICE's inability to provide for the safety and health of
the tens of thousands of immigrants in its custody has been documented for
years. Today, we are calling on Congress to demand accountability and
drastically reduce ICE's detention budget. "While the Inspector General's
report provides documentation of extensive abuses, its remedy is incredibly
insufficient: it directs ICE field office directors to review the areas of
concern. We know from earlier directives that ICE's internal review processes
fail to generate meaningful change." The Women's Refugee Commission said
the report is consistent with what the organization and its partners have
"documented for years" from visits to ICE detention facilities as
well as with research it has conducted over 20 years. Katharina Obser, senior program officer at WRC said in a statement:
"This week's OIG report spells out what WRC and our partners have
documented for years, making clear the critical need for greater oversight
and reform. Instead, the Trump
administration is intent on lowering or eliminating standards for immigration
detention – putting detainees' lives at risk – all while promising to ramp up
detention on a grand scale. As Congress continues to debate DHS FY 18
appropriations, the OIG's findings show that now is not the time to expand a
detention system that ICE is not capable of effectively and safely running.
Detention must be reduced and, where needed, humane alternatives to
detention, implemented in its place." Three years ago, the Department of
Homeland Security Inspector General's office reported on a series of
unannounced visits to detention centers for unaccompanied children. The
inquiry found evidence of inadequate food, temperature control problems and
inconsistent employee-to-detainee ratios.
May 26, 2017
nydailynews.com
Civil rights group sues in U.S. court over immigration detention
(Reuters) - The
American Civil Liberties Union sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
in federal court on Thursday, seeking records the civil rights group contends
provide accounts of hunger strikes at immigration detention facilities. The
ACLU said in its filing that in recent weeks there have been a new series of
hunger strikes at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention
centers in Georgia, Oregon and Washington, adding hunger strikes have
previously hit detention centers in Arizona, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
The suit comes as U.S. Republican President Donald Trump has promised a
crackdown on illegal immigration and the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress
this month agreed to fund an additional 5,300 detention beds for those
suspected of illegally entering the country. "The Trump administration's
plans to expand detention and strip away existing structures for oversight of
detention are likely to produce more protests both inside and outside the
walls of detention facilities," the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District
Court for the District of Columbia said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea said in an email:
"ICE is unable to comment on pending litigation." The lawsuit said
detention center inmates have launched the hunger strikes over the past few
years as a non-violent way to bring attention to what they see as a lack of
access to bond hearings and inhumane conditions of confinement. The suit also
said that some inmates who have previously launched hunger strikes were met
with extraordinarily punitive responses. From April 1-22, an average of
36,235 immigrants were in detention per day, according to the most recent
statistics provided by ICE. The White House in March requested bringing the
total number of beds up to 45,700, saying the additional capacity was
necessary to achieve the president's goal of "enhancing interior
enforcement efforts and ending 'catch and release' for those apprehended at
the border." The agreement reached in Congress would increase the number
of immigration detention beds to 39,324 from 34,000 currently, according to a
summary provided by the House Appropriations Committee. In April, hundreds of detainees at an immigration
detention center in Washington state began refusing meals in a hunger strike
to protest conditions at the facility and delayed immigration hearings,
activists said. The Geo Group Inc, the company that operates the Washington
state facility and other detention centers around the United States, declined
to comment on the lawsuit.
Sep 4, 2016 thenation.com
The Obama Administration Continues Pulling Away From Private Prison
Companies
The private prison industry is having a very bad month. On Monday, the
Department of Homeland Security said it will reexamine its use of private
contractor to hold immigration detainees. The plan to conduct a review of
private immigration-detention centers comes on the heels of a separate
Department of Justice order on August 18 that will force the Bureau of
Prisons to fully end its reliance on private prisons, which have been used
solely to house noncitizen inmates. “The Department of Justice announced that
the Bureau of Prisons will reduce and ultimately end its use of private
prisons,” Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson said in a statement. “I
directed our Homeland Security Advisory Council…to evaluate whether the
immigration detention operations conducted by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement should move in the same direction.” Correction Corporation of
America and Geo Group, the two publicly traded private prison companies that
operate ICE detention centers, saw their stocks slide after the announcement
Monday. The declines punctuate a disastrous month for the contractors.
Immediately following the DOJ’s August 18 announcement, CCA and Geo stock
both plummeted by about 40 percent. The Department of Justice’s move away
from private prisons two weeks ago comes after an investigation by The Nation
and the Investigative Fund that uncovered widespread and longstanding medical
neglect in the BOP’s subsystem of private prisons, including dozens of deaths
involving substandard medical care. Tens of thousands of pages of previously
unreleased federal records, buttressed by interviews with federal officials
and prison workers, also revealed BOP officials repeatedly renewed contracts
with the private prison companies despite consistent indications from its own
internal monitors that the facilities were in crisis. The facilities currently
hold more than 22,000 prisoners, almost all immigrants convicted of federal
crimes. The prisons will begin closing later this year. The DHS review
announced on Monday pertains to a wholly separate system, composed of civil
immigration-detention centers that house 25,000 noncitizens facing
deportation. Advocates and watchdogs have for years documented conditions in
these immigration detention facilities similar to those we uncovered in our
probe of BOP facilities. And in the wake of the Justice Department’s
announcement about the BOP prisons, immigrant-rights advocates stepped up
pressure on the Department of Homeland Security to follow the DOJ’s lead.
“The priority for these companies is profit and not care, which has led to a
number of deaths of immigrants in detention, some of which have been proven
to be due to inadequate medical care,” said Silky Shah, executive director of
Detention Watch Network. The organization, along with the ACLU, Human Rights
Watch, and other advocacy groups have released a series of reports in recent
years documenting deadly neglect. Some advocates called on the Obama
administration to act immediately to close private detention facilities.
“There is nothing to review,” Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day
Laborer’s Organizing Network, said in a statement. “No one should ever profit
from other people’s pain, and the use of private contractors is a practice
that frankly should have been ended by the Obama Administration 7 years ago.”
A move to close private detention centers would amount to a dramatic shift in
ICE policy. Eliminating private beds would force ICE, which detainees 400,000
men, woman, and children each year, to build new government-run facilities—or
to significantly shrink the number of immigrants held in detention at any
given time. In a statement, Geo Group’s CEO said the company is “confident
that this independent review will show that GEO has provided needed, cost
effective services that have resulted in significantly improved safety
outcomes for the men and women in ICE’s care and custody.” But an evaluation
by the Justice Department’s inspector general released two weeks ago found
that, at least for the Bureau of Prisons sites that Geo Group and CCA run,
the private facilities do not save meaningfully on costs and degrade the
quality of prison operation. The facilities, said Deputy Attorney General
Sally Yates, in her memo ordering the closure of federal private prisons,
“simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and
resources” and “do not save substantially on costs.”
Aug 29, 2016
reuters.com
U.S. immigration agency to review private prison deals; shares slide
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced on Monday
that he directed his advisory council to evaluate whether the agency should
continue to contract with private prisons, news that hit shares of private
prison operators. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of
DHS, currently uses private prison groups like Corrections Corp of America
(CXW.N) and The GEO Group (GEO.N) to run some detention facilities for
migrants. Corrections Corp of America's stock slid 9.4 percent and The GEO
Group's stock fell 6 percent immediately after news of the review broke. The
announcement followed the U.S. Justice Department's decision to phase out the
Bureau of Prison's contracts with private prisons on Aug. 18. Johnson said he
directed DHS's Homeland Security Advisory Council on Friday "to evaluate
whether the immigration detention operations conducted by Immigration and
Customs Enforcement should move in the same direction" as the Bureau of
Prisons. Corrections Corp of America gained $689 million from ICE contracts
since, 23 percent of its total revenue from federal contracts, according to
the website SmartProcure that tracks government
contracts. The company currently manages a facility for Central American
women and children in Dilley, Texas. The GEO Group has earned $1.18 billion
from contracts with ICE since 2008, about 60 percent of its total revenue
from federal contracts, according SmartProcure
data. Both companies also contract with state and local prison systems. The
GEO Group said in a statement that it welcomed the review by DHS. "GEO's
facilities under contract with ICE are highly rated and provide high-quality,
cost-effective services in safe, secure, and humane residential environments
pursuant to strict contractual requirements and the federal government's
national standards," the statement said. Corrections Corp of America
could not immediately be reached for comment.
Aug 22, 2015 reuters.com
Judge rules U.S. government must
swiftly release immigrant children in detention
A U.S. federal judge on Friday ordered
the government to swiftly release immigrant children held at detention centers,
affirming a July ruling that said some minors who crossed the border
illegally were being detained in violation of a long-standing settlement. The
ruling by U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles gave the
administration of President Barack Obama until Oct. 23 to comply with her
order to release hundreds of unauthorized immigrant children, and in some
cases their mothers, "without unnecessary delay." Gee's ruling
comes amid debate by U.S. presidential candidates over illegal immigration and
follows an influx of immigrants from Central America across the U.S.-Mexico
border.
Aug 8, 2015 triblive.com
Feds ask judge to rethink freeing immigrant children
SAN ANTONIO — The government has asked
a federal judge to reconsider her ruling calling for the immediate release of
children and their mothers caught entering the United States illegally from
Mexico, saying recent changes mean federal authorities are no longer
violating a ban on holding immigrant children in secure facilities. In late
July, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ordered the release of all children from
immigrant family detention centers “without unnecessary delay,” along with
any mothers not deemed a flight or national security risk. Justice Department
lawyers late Thursday filed documents at the California Central District
Court urging Gee not to implement her decision, saying the Department of
Homeland Security intends to turn the centers into short-term processing
facilities that her ruling “addressed practices and policies that no longer
exist.” The government says detention time has been reduced to only a few
weeks for most families, and that reducing it further would hinder processing
asylum claims and could force the separation of mothers from their children
in the event of another wave of migration. Moreover, further limits on
detention “would heighten the risk of another surge in illegal migration,”
the filing said, “by incentivizing adults to bring children with them on
their dangerous journey as a means to avoid detention and gain access to the
interior of the United States.” The government asked for another chance to
argue its case before the judge, citing the “potentially far-reaching scope
of the remedies proposed,” and the short time — 90 days — it would have to
put them in place. Laura Lichter, a Denver
immigration lawyer working with detained families, said the government had
“doubled down” on family detention and is “enamored of it as a tool, even
though a judge has called it both illegal and ineffective.” Homeland Security
spokeswoman Marsha Catron said the agency has asked the judge to reconsider,
“taking into account the current legal landscape and considerable changes we
have already made to address the situation.” The government poured millions
of dollars into two large detention centers in Texas for women and children
after tens of thousands of immigrant families, mostly from Central America,
crossed the Rio Grande into the United States last summer. Many have
petitioned for asylum after fleeing gang and domestic violence back home. The
centers in Karnes City and Dilley, both south of San Antonio, hold some 1,400
women and children combined, down from more than 2,000 in June. A third,
smaller facility is located in Berks County, Pa. All three are overseen by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement but managed by private prison operators.
In her ruling, Gee found that detaining children violated parts of a 1997
settlement in another case barring immigrant children from being held in
secure facilities. She said the settlement covered all children in the
custody of immigration officials, even those who entered the country
illegally with a parent, and that the facilities were not properly licensed
to care for children.
February 15, 2013
grassrootsleadership.org
Today's USA Today
carried a disturbing article highlighting Immigration and Customs
Enforcement's effort to increase the number of deportations through
aggressive enforcement mechanisms. Internal emails at the agency showed that
ICE agents "were trolling state driver's license records for information
about foreign-born applicants, dispatching U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) agents to traffic safety checkpoints conducted by police
departments, and processing more illegal immigrants who had been booked into
jails for low-level offenses." The former official whose emails
are heavily quoted in the article is David Venturella,
former assistant director at ICE. Guess where Mr. Venturella
ended up after his term at ICE? Mr. Venturella
is now the Executive Vice President for Corporate Development at GEO Group,
according to his LinkedIn profile. GEO Group is a private prison
corporation that heavily depends on federal immigration contracts to ensure a
steady profit stream and employees a stream of heavily connected lobbyists in
DC. GEO knows that immigration reform that moves away from mass
detention and crimanalization of migrants would be
really bad for business. Business Insider reported on February 2nd that
in 2011, GEO Group CEO George Zoley told investors:
"At the federal level, initiatives related to border enforcement and
immigration detention with an emphasis on criminal alien populations as well
as the consolidation of existing detainee populations have continued to
create demand for larger-scale, cost efficient facilities." Undoubtedly,
Mr. Venturella's history at ICE is proving valuable
for his new company.
September 1, 2012 AP
A senior Obama administration political appointee and longtime aide to Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano resigned Saturday amid allegations of
inappropriate sexual behavior lodged by at least three Immigration and
Customs Enforcement employees. Suzanne Barr, chief of staff to ICE Director
John Morton, said in her resignation letter that the allegations against her
are "unfounded." But she said she was stepping down anyway to end
distractions within the agency. ICE, a division of the Homeland Security
Department, confirmed Barr had resigned. The Associated Press obtained a copy
of Barr's letter. Barr is accused of sexually inappropriate behavior toward
employees. The complaints are related to a sexual discrimination and
retaliation lawsuit filed by a senior ICE agent in May. In her letter to
Morton, Barr said she has been the subject of "unfounded allegations
designed to destroy my reputation" and is resigning "with great
regret." "Of greater concern however, is the threat these
allegations represent to the reputation of this agency and the men and women
who proudly serve their country by advancing ICE's mission," Barr wrote.
"As such, I feel it is incumbent upon me to take every step necessary to
prevent further harm to the agency and to prevent this from further
distracting from our critical work." Barr went on leave last month after
the New York Post reported on the lawsuit filed by James T. Hayes Jr., ICE's
special agent in charge in New York. Additional employees came forward with
their allegations around the same time. House Homeland Security Committee
Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., said in a statement Saturday that Barr's
resignation "raises the most serious questions about management
practices and personnel policies at the Department of Homeland
Security." He said his committee will continue to review the case and personnel
practices at DHS. In one complaint, Barr is accused of telling a male
subordinate he was "sexy" and asking a personal question about his
anatomy during an office party. In a separate complaint, she is accused of
offering to perform a sex act with a male subordinate during a business trip
in Bogota, Colombia. She's also accused of calling a male subordinate from
her hotel room and offering to perform a sex act. The names of two of Barr's
accusers were censored in affidavits reviewed by AP. Homeland Security's
office of professional responsibility and inspector general have been
investigating the allegations. Prior to the lawsuit, there were no complaints
about Barr, according to a homeland security official who spoke to the AP on
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about
the matter. In the lawsuit, Hayes described a "frat house"
atmosphere at ICE designed to humiliate male employees under Barr's
leadership. Hayes, who was transferred to New York from ICE headquarters in
Washington, is asking for more than $4 million that, among other things,
would cover compensation he believes he is owed for relocation expenses and
financial losses associated with his transfer. Hayes' lawyer, Morris Fischer
of Silver Spring, Md., has declined to comment. The Justice Department is
seeking to dismiss Hayes' lawsuit on the basis that he did not state a claim
for retaliation. Barr, a 1995 graduate of the University of Arizona, was
among Napolitano's first appointments after she became secretary in 2009.
Barr started working for Napolitano in 2004, while Napolitano was governor of
Arizona. Prior to that, Barr worked for Arizona Republican Sens. Jon Kyl and
John McCain.
May 17, 2012 Huffington Post
Immigrant detainees will no longer be treated differently under the law
than prison inmates for purposes of rape prevention, the Obama administration
announced on Thursday. The White House plans to release a presidential
memorandum later in the day that extends the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which
now only applies to the Department of Justice, to all other federal agencies
within the next 240 days. "These regulations will build upon the
substantial improvements we have made to agency policy and procedures to
prevent, detect, and respond to sexual abuse in immigration detention,"
Department of Homeland Security Spokesperson Peter Boogaard said in a
statement. "DHS will move swiftly to promulgate these regulations and
will work with the Attorney General and others to ensure that the regulations
satisfy the requirements of the statute.” DHS has its own rules to protect
inmates against rape, but lawmakers and advocates have called for
congressionally mandated standards to be imposed government-wide to prevent
abuse within detention facilities. The Prison Rape Elimination Act was passed
unanimously in 2003, and the Justice Department released its final rule on
Thursday. The rule will expand trainings of prison personnel to detect sexual
abuse, increase screenings of inmates and guards and broaden opportunities
for those in custody to report rape. Trainings and screening protocols will
also cover the unique vulnerabilities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
intersex and gender-nonconforming inmates. That rule applies only to the
Justice Department because, officials said last year, other detention
agencies are under the purview of other government agencies. Those agencies
include the DHS, which houses immigrants slated for deportation, and Health
and Human Services, which runs facilities that hold unaccompanied
undocumented children. Now, under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, other
agencies will be required to draft their own rules within 120 days, followed
by a public comment period and then enact them within 240 days, officials
said. "As the administration, our job is to make sure that each of these
agencies fully applies the law, and so that's why we're moving it forward in
this way," the White House official said. Advocates who argued for the
inclusion of those agencies under the Prison Rape Elimination Act said
undocumented immigrants are especially susceptible to rape because they fear
reporting abusers who could control their deportation. Advocates also say
immigrants can be hurt by a lack of information on reporting crime and
possible language barriers. Some undocumented men and women have claimed they
were sexually assaulted on the way to airports as they were being deported,
which gave them little to no chance to report the crime before being put on a
plane. A guard at the private detention center T. Don Hutto Facility in
Taylor, Texas, was charged in 2010 for sexual assault after reports that he
raped several women while driving them to the airport to be deported. A
senior White House official told reporters on a press call that the
Department of Homeland Security's rule will be applied to all detention
facilities, including private ones such as the T. Don Hutto Facility, which
is run by detention center giant Corrections Corporation for America. More
than 180 cases of sexual abuse in immigrant detention centers were reported
between 2007 and mid-2011, according to government documents obtained by the
American Civil Liberties Union last year.
March 29, 2012 Miami Herald
The news was shocking and unexpected. It was also wrong. A series of
telephone calls to Pembroke Pines city officials and residents from the
office of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz on Wednesday quickly spread the
word that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement no longer intended to
build a new detention center in neighboring Southwest Ranches. But the calls
were soon followed by a retraction — much to the chagrin of those who are
opposed to the detention center being built on an island of Southwest Ranches
surrounded by thousands of homes and several schools in Pembroke Pines. “I
was crying,’’ said Ryann Greenberg, a Pembroke Pines resident opposed to the
facility. Jonathan Beeton, communications director
for Rep. Wasserman Schultz, said the error was due to conflicting information
received from ICE. “We were notified Wednesday by ICE’s Office of
Congressional Relations that ICE had decided not to move forward with the
detention facility and we asked whether we could convey this information to
individuals and organizations who had previously contacted our office on this
issue,” Beeton said. “ICE said that it was fine for
us to convey this information and we spoke with local leaders informing them
of ICE’s decision,’’ he said. “Within hours of this ICE once again contacted
our office, this time to state that no final decision had been made regarding
their proposed detention facility in Southwest Ranches. We share our
community’s frustration over the conflicting information from ICE.”
January 12, 2012 Wall Street Journal
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that an inmate injured in a privately run
federal prison may not sue its employees in federal court, holding that state
court was the proper venue for his claim. Under high-court precedents,
inmates in federal institutions can file federal lawsuits against prison
employees for mistreatment that violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition of
"cruel and unusual punishments." By an 8-1 vote, however, the court
refused to extend that right to inmates held in private prisons operated
under contract to the U.S. government. In an opinion by Justice Stephen
Breyer, the court observed that in contrast to federal employees, whom
prisoners generally can't sue in state court, employees of the private
company enjoy no such immunity. "State law remedies provide roughly
similar incentives [for prison employees] to comply with the Eighth Amendment
while also providing roughly similar compensation to victims of
violations," Justice Breyer wrote. So, there was no need for the court
to expand liability to federal court, he said.
January 9, 2012 Westword
Colorado Congressman Jared Polis has called for a government
investigation into alleged abuse suffered by gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender immigrants detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement
(ICE). "Here we have people who are at their most vulnerable -- many
without access to any legal assistance -- who are being preyed upon and
assaulted," Polis said in a statement. "LGBT immigrants appear to
be special targets for abuse." That abuse, according to a complaint
filed last year by the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance National Immigration
Justice Center, includes allegations of sexual assault, long-term solitary
confinement and denial of medical care.
November 1, 2011 Messenger Post
The U.S. Marshals Service has declined to investigate allegations by activists
that immigrants at a private New York City detention center have been abused.
A spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service says the Queens Detention Facility
passed its September inspection. Spokesman Jeff Carter says the center
adheres to federal regulations. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and immigrant
rights groups called for an investigation of the center last month saying
they had received reports of mistreatment of detainees and lack of medical
care. The center is operated by the Florida-based GEO Group Inc., under
contract with the U.S. Marshals Service to hold about 200 people accused of
crimes. The company’s spokesman, Pablo Paez, says
the firm cannot respond to accusations from “third parties,” referring to the
immigrant rights groups.
October 20, 2011 Chicago Homeland Security Examiner
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) posed difficult questions and concerns to the
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Janet Napolitano, at
this week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Of particular concern for
Durbin, was the state of immigration detention facilities, especially the
Willacy Detention facility in Texas. According to documents obtained by the
ACLU more than 180 sexual abuse complaints have been reported in immigration
detention centers since 2007, nearly a third of which came from Texas.
According to the Huffington Post, “other states had far lower reports of
detainee sexual abuse, with the next highest reports coming from California
(17), Arizona (16) and Florida (12). (10/21/2011). Senator Durbin sought
further information and assurances from Secretary Napolitano regarding this
issue. Senator Durbin, the second highest ranking member in the Senate
Democratic leadership, remarked that detainee centers have become a huge
industry in which DHS spends more than $1.7 billion dollars yearly. Yet, the
issue of sexual abuse at the immigration centers has barely reached public
attention. Much of Senator Durbin’s framing of the issue stemmed from a
recent “Frontline” television expose. Durbin noted at the Senate Judiciary
hearing, that “there was an aspect of this program that was particularly
troubling. Maria Hinojosa in part of that program described a woman who was a
victim at this Willacy facility. She had been raped and her identity was
hidden from the camera. She told her story about how it was virtually
impossible for her to even seek justice in this circumstance because she was
totally at the mercy of the guards in this privatized facility.” (Transcript
of Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, October 20, 2011) According to the
Huffington Post, the ACLU obtained information under the Freedom of
Information Act documenting that “detention officers broke a rule that
detainees must not be transported without a same-sex officer present. Detention
officers are also instructed to call supervisors with their departure and
arrival times when transporting detainees, according to a 2007Immigration and
Customs Enforcement document.” Senator Durbin underscored his concern by
noting that some 85 to 90 percent of those who were detained under civil
charges, not criminal charges, but people with civil charges do not have
benefits of counsel. Durbin further noted, “That the due process requirements
are very limited on their behalf, and that many times they’re in facilities
that are privatized… As a group immigration detainees are especially
vulnerable to sexual abuse, and its effect on the detainees due to social,
cultural, language isolation, poor understanding of U.S. culture and the
subculture of U.S. prisons and the often traumatic experiences they’re
endured in their culture of origin. The commission (i.e., The National Rape
Elimination Commission) issued proposed standards. The Department of Justice
is now finalizing its national standards to prevent, detect, and respond to
prison rape. In April of this year I wrote a letter to Attorney General
Holder emphasizing the importance of strong standards.” In addition Senator
Durbin mentioned the bipartisan support he received from Senator Sessions
(R-Alabama) and others in passion the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003
which aimed at eliminating sexual abuse while in custody in the U.S. We want
zero tolerance on this.” (Transcript of Senate Judiciary Committee,
10/20/2011) At this point in the hearing Senator Durbin asked DHS Secretary
Napolitano “What is the Department of Homeland Security doing to ensure that
immigration detainees are safe from sexual abuse, whether they’re ICE
facilities or contract facilities? Secretary Napolitano’s response was not reassuring
for immigrants or Senator Durbin. She replied, “When I took over as
Secretary, we found that there were little or no standards being applied
uniformly across all the many detention facilities that we use in –in the ICE
context…Others are privatized, companies like Correction Corporations of
America. We have to have beds, and in particular given our priorities and how
we are managing the system, we need beds that are near the southern border…As
part of the process I brought in someone to actually look at the standards
and we redid our contracts with some of the private providers.” (Transcript,
Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, 10/20/2011) Secretary Napolitano tried to
explain the process she instituted since coming to DHS. She said, “We do have
a process by which we are regularly auditing and overseeing what is happening
there. But that is not to say there aren’t cases that are particularly
horrific.” She further mentioned that she was not familiar with the
“Frontline” documentary focusing on sexual abuses at immigrant detention
centers but would review it and get back to the Senator Durbin. Earlier this
year the ACLU sued the Department of Homeland Security regarding sexual
abuses at immigration detention centers. The ACLU of Texas has filed a suit in
behalf of three women who say they were assaulted by detention guards and
officers. The victims say they were abused on the way to the airport after
posting bond to be released from detention facilities. According to theHuffington Post, “The three women were held for a time
in the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor ,Texas.
The 512 bed facility, is privately run on a government contract by private
prison giant Corrections Corporations of America.”
October 19, 2011 American Independent
Amid a national push to expose incidents of sexual abuse at immigrant
detention facilities across the country, the American Civil Liberties Union
of Texas filed a federal suit Wednesday on behalf of three women who say they
were sexually abused at a Central Texas facility with a history of abuse. The
suit names Donald Dunn, a former employee at the T. Don Hutto Residential
Center in Taylor, just east of Austin, who pled guilty last fall to charges
he abused women he was driving to the airport and Greyhound stations. Allegations
by one victim prompted his arrest and a nationwide search for more victims,
the Taylor Daily Press reported last year. “Eight female victims were
discovered, and during the investigation, Dunn admitted to abusing them
during transports,” the Press said. Along with Dunn, though, the suit also
names U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement and the Corrections
Corporation of America — the country’s largest private prison operator, which
runs the Hutto facility, for ignoring regulations that should have kept Dunn
from driving the women on his own. “The lawsuit alleges that ICE, Williamson
County and CCA were deliberately indifferent and willfully blind to the fact
that Dunn and other employees regularly violated the rule that detainees not
be transported without another escort officer of the same gender present,”
the ACLU said in a statement. According to the suit, each of the three
anonymous women — asylum seekers from Brazil, Guatemala and Eritrea — were
being released from the facility after passing “credible fear” interviews, to
await a hearing on their cases, when they were assaulted. The women say Dunn
pulled over on the way to drop them off at the airport or bus station, groped
them, told them to undress and exposed himself to them. Between October 2009
and May 2010, the suit claims, Dunn assaulted six other women too. A CCA
spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the complaint. “The
long history of rampant sexual abuse at ICE detention centers, coupled with
the availability of the same opportunity Dunn exploited in the form of at
least 22 documented failures of other male officers to comply with the same
policy, supports a reasonable inference that other male escort officers at
Hutto engaged in similar abuse,” the suit claims. The Hutto Detention Center,
once a residential center for holding whole families of immigrants, has been
plagued by complaints about poor conditions and family separation, and has
been an ACLU target in the past. Separate allegations of sexual abuse at the
facility even prompted an ICE investigation in 2007. Bob Libal
with Grassroots Leadership — a group that promotes accountability for private
prison operators and runs a visitation program to the Hutto facility — said
the fact that CCA continues to operate the facility shows what light
consequences the country’s largest private prison operators face. “This is
the second time that there’s been an inappropriate sexual event at Hutto, and
ICE didn’t cut the contract,” Libal said. “There’s
no impact for the company that allowed this to happen.” After years of
campaigning by the ACLU, Grassroots Leadership and other groups, the Hutto
facility was converted from a family detention center to a 500-bed facility
for women who’ve come to the U.S. seeking asylum. The suit filed Wednesday in
Austin is part of a nationwide effort by the ACLU to uncover records of
sexual abuse and call for accountability. The group found more than 200
allegations of sexual abuse in immigrant detention centers across the country
from 2007 to 2010 returned from a public records request. “It is clear there
is an urgent need for the government to recognize just how pervasive a
problem the sexual abuse of immigration detainees is and take immediate steps
to fix the problem and ensure that everyone in the government’s care is
protected,” said David Shapiro, staff attorney with the ACLU National Prison
Project. “The detainees in immigration detention are a particularly
vulnerable population. Even one incident of sexual abuse is one too many.”
The group found 56 allegations of sexual abuse in Texas, far more than the
next-highest total, 17 complaints in California. “It’s pretty disturbing, and
pretty telling, that such a high percentage of the sexual assaults happen
here in Texas,” Libal said.
October 11, 2011 Broward Palm Beach New Times
Here in Florida, we have a broad array of sunshine laws designed to promote
open government. Local governments routinely have to disclose information
simply because citizens ask for it. But apparently there's one thing that can
clamp the mouths of local officials for good: a private prison contractor
asking nicely. Bill Di Scipio is a Southwest Ranches resident who has vocally
opposed the planned construction of a new 1,800-bed immigrant detention
facility that would be run by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a
private prison contractor. At a town council meeting on September 22, he
asked why town council members had told him they weren't allowed to discuss
the facility. (Read about another council member's unusual response to his
request.) After the public comment period, Vice-Mayor Freddy Fisikelli asked the town's longtime lawyer, Keith Poliakoff, for an explanation. Fisikelli:
Keith... explain to him why we're doing the cone of silence? Poliakoff: To answer your question, the request for the
council to not get into anything until something is, uh, known was requested
by a combination of CCA and Homeland Security. At this point, there's nothing
new, there's no contract proposal, there's no formal award, there's no IGA
(intergovernmental agreement), there's nothing. There's nothing new on that,
one iota. Fisikelli: So it's not the town that the
cone of silence, it's the people we're dealing with. Poliakoff:
We've been asked by Homeland Security and CCA. Fiskielli:
That's what I think we need to let the people know. Poliakoff:
But there's nothing new. Well, we wouldn't be able to confirm that, since the
request of a notoriously secretive government agency and a publicly traded
corporation is enough to make a town's lawyer to advise council members not
to speak. That was the end of CCA discussion for the evening. We have a call
out to Poliakoff for more information on the nature
and legal weight of this "request," and will update if he responds.
September 29, 2011 Los Angles Times
Arrests of federal prison guards soared nearly 90% over the last decade,
possibly because of poor hiring practices during a 25% increase in prison
growth, the Justice Department's inspector general reported. Misconduct
investigations doubled, and more than half of the offenses were committed
during the officers' first two years on the job. The inspector general
recommended that the Federal Bureau of Prisons improve its background
investigation of job applicants and find better ways to assess rookie officers.
But other factors have contributed to the problem, including private prisons
and increasing numbers of female prisoners and young offenders in federal
facilities, the inspector general found. The report did not specify how many
misconduct cases came out of private federal prisons, which have increased
their populations by 120% in the last decade, according to the Justice Policy
Institute, a Washington prison issues think tank. "Private prisons
aren't always held to the same standards as public ones," said Joe
Baumann, a corrections officer at the state California Rehabilitation Center
in Norco. "That's where so much of the stuff I come across is from, the
private contractors."
May 24, 2011
PORTLAND, OR - A federal judge today strongly rejected the U.S. government's
ongoing attempts to shroud its network of privatized immigrant prisons in a
far-reaching veil of secrecy. The ruling arises out of a lawsuit filed two
years ago, seeking information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The plaintiff, Stephen Raher, sought documents
concerning a series of contracts between the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
and several private prison companies. The government has repeatedly claimed
that it does not have to release information showing how many prison beds it
has contracted for, and how much it pays under the contracts. In addition,
the government fought against releasing the proposals that bidders submitted
when seeking the contracts. In November 2010, The GEO Group, the largest
private prison operator in the world, intervened in the suit (with the
government's acquiescence), claiming that it wanted to protect its
proprietary commercial information. The BOP and GEO vigorously objected to
the release of any information that would provide a meaningful picture of how
the network of privately-run "criminal alien" prisons are run.
"Our government is paying substantial amounts of money in exchange for
services of questionable value," said Raher.
"The fact that the government does not want to allow public scrutiny of
these transactions is an affront to the spirit of public disclosure embodied
in FOIA." The ruling by Magistrate Judge Janice Stewart rejects most of
the Bureau of Prison's arguments, noting that the government had failed to
provide evidence to support many of its claims. The court called the
government's justification for withholding portions of the contractors' bid
proposals "hopelessly vague" and characterized its description of
some of the withheld information as "baffling." The court also
criticized GEO for advancing "meritless" arguments and relying on
legal theories that are "nothing more than an unsupported
conclusion." The court did reserve judgment on the question of whether
contract prices must be released, saying that a trial is necessary on that
issue. "There is still more work to be done in this case, and that work
is extremely important," said Raher. "I
am confident that the government's argument would not hold up at trial, and
that the primary motivation of BOP and GEO is to avoid revealing the inflated
prices paid under these contracts." As the court noted in its opinion, Raher has articulated a plausible theory that prison
operators use the lucrative federal contracts to cross-subsidize money-losing
contracts with state and local governments, thus allowing the companies to
boast of inflated cost "savings" when lobbying state legislatures.
The case is Raher v. Federal Bureau of Prisons,
U.S. District Court, District of Oregon, Case Number CV-09-526-ST. The
court's opinion is available at
http://www.tidx.org/pdf/BOP_FOIA/SJ-Opinion-May2011.pdf
May 11, 2011 Detention Watch Network
As the largest for-profit prison company in the country, Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA), prepares for its annual shareholders meeting,
new data released today by the Detention Watch Network (DWN) sheds light on
the growing influence of the private prison industry on the immigration
detention system. Drawn from a variety of sources, including the Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Reading Room,
and the Federal Lobbying Disclosure Act Database, the data reveals the
companies most heavily invested in the business of immigration detention –
CCA, The GEO Group Inc., and the Management and Training Corporation – and suggests
increased lobbying activity over the last decade, both in terms of dollars
spent and government entities targeted. “For years, private prison firms have
played a critical role in shaping public policy around immigration detention,
pursuing the bottom line at the expense of basic civil rights and tax payer
dollars,” said Emily Tucker, Director of Policy and Advocacy at DWN. “This
data highlights deep corporate investment in the detention business, raising
concerns about how the corporate profit-motive is fueling the expansion of
the detention system as a whole.” According to research by DWN, corporations
have increasingly devoted resources over the last decade to lobbying for
policies and programs that will increase their opportunities to do business with
the government. Of the five corporations with ICE contracts for which
official federal lobbying records are currently available, the total
expenditure on lobbying for 1999-2009 was $20,432,000, with CCA ($18,002,000)
and GEO ($2,065,000) as the top two spenders. Lobbying efforts targeted a
wide range of government entities, indicating a comprehensive strategy for
influencing policy and legislation. Both CCA and GEO have come under
increasing scrutiny in recent years, as a lack of transparency and accountability
has led to multiple cases of abuse and mismanagement in their facilities,
resulting in the termination of contracts in a few recent cases. “ICE has
called for sweeping changes in the immigration detention system,” said
Tucker. “Yet they continue to partner with private prison firms that are part
of the problem. We hope this research inspires further exploration into the
relationship between prison corporations and the government at all levels. We
need to reduce our dependence on detention and begin putting human rights
over profits.” For the full collection of data, visit:
http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/privateprisons
December 23, 2010 Washington Post
The Senate has confirmed President Obama's pick for U.S. marshal despite
opposition from criminal justice and watchdog groups upset about the
nominee's ties to the private prison industry. Retiring U.S. Marshal John F.
Clark said he welcomed Justice Department veteran Stacia M. Hylton's appointment late Wednesday and called her a
"dedicated public servant with 29 years of law enforcement in the
Department of Justice." "In addition to serving as our nation's
federal detention trustee, she was a deputy U.S. marshal for 24 years and
served in a variety of assignments, which gave her profound insight into the
service's operations," he said in a statement after the confirmation by
unanimous consent. But Ms. Hylton ran into sharp
opposition from watchdog groups who said her consulting work this year for
the GEO Group, one of the nation's largest private prison companies, posed a
conflict of interest. The GEO Group has held tens of millions of dollars in
contracts with the Marshals Service. "The opposition coalition is
disappointed, of course, that the Obama administration nominated Hylton despite her obvious conflicts of interest
involving the private prison industry, which she will be overseeing as
director of the U.S. Marshals and in contradiction to the president's own
ethics guidelines," said Alex Friedmann, associate editor of Prison
Legal News, one of the groups opposing the nomination. "We continue to
hope for change, but see only the same revolving door and conflicts of
interest between public officials and private industry that benefits from
federal contracts under the Obama administration," he said. Others
critical of the Hylton nomination included the
1.6-million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees; the Alliance for Justice; the National Lawyers Guild; the
Detention Watch Network; Grassroots Leadership; the Human Rights Defense
Center; International CURE; the Justice Policy Institute; Public Citizen; and
the Private Corrections Working Group. Ms. Hylton
was backed by the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association and the
National Sheriffs' Association. During her confirmation hearing, Ms. Hylton said she had recused herself from conversations
about the private prison industry and that federal ethics officials had
cleared her recent consulting work for the GEO Group. "I did follow all
ethics requirements and regulations and worked closely with the ethics
office," she said.
December 8, 2010 ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas and El Paso co-counsel
Mike Torres and Leon Schydlower today announced the
filing of a lawsuit against the federal government and administrators of a
West Texas for-profit prison on behalf of the survivors of Jesus Manuel
Galindo. Mr. Galindo, 32, died on December 12, 2008, after suffering a
seizure in solitary confinement where he had been placed for complaining
about the facility’s failure to provide him medication to control his
epileptic seizures. For a copy of Galindo, et al. v. Reeves County, et al.
(W.D. Tex. Dec. 7, 2010), go to http://www.aclutx.org/galindo The suit names
as defendants individual employees of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, The GEO
Group (which operates the for-profit prison), Reeves County and the
facility’s contracted medical provider, Physicians Network Association (PNA).
“The Galindo family has suffered a terrible loss, a loss that could have been
prevented if Reeves County Detention Center officials had responded to Jesus
Manuel Galindo’s repeated pleas for care as well as requests on Galindo’s
behalf from fellow inmates and his mother, Graciela Galindo,” said Mike
Torres. “A prison sentence should not be a death sentence because officials
are unwilling to provide basic medical care,” added Schydlower.
Mr. Galindo’s death came after repeated attempts by Galindo, his family and
others to persuade prison and medical staff to move him out of isolation and
provide effective medication to control his seizures. “U.S. taxpayer dollars
were used to pay a for-profit medical provider with a documented record of
providing constitutionally inadequate care, and federal officials looked the
other way while inmates like Mr. Galindo were denied access to the most basic
medical necessities,” said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director for the ACLU of
Texas. “A prisoner’s citizenship status does not matter when it comes to
medical care – federal inmates are entitled to equal protection of the law,
and no inmate held in a United States prison should be subject to the
deliberate denial of life-saving medication, then left in solitary to die.”
In recent years, the federal government has increasingly relied on private
firms like The GEO Group, which operates the Reeves County Detention Center
(RCDC) in Pecos, to manage prisons where immigrant prisoners serve criminal
sentences, mostly for non-violent crimes like illegal entry. Gouri Bhat, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Texas,
said, “Prisoners at RCDC face an impossible situation. Private prison
officials cut costs and provide deficient care, and the Bureau of Prisons
won’t hear grievances about private prisons. That is a Catch-22 with deadly
consequences.”
December 1, 2010 Washington Times
Critics of President Obama's nominee for director of the U.S. Marshals
Service vowed to take their fight to the full Senate after a key committee
Wednesday backed Justice Department veteran Stacia M. Hylton
for the job despite concerns from watchdog groups about her ties to the
private prison industry. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to move Ms. Hylton's nomination to the full Senate amid increasing
opposition from criminal-justice and union groups that say her recent
consulting work for a private prison company poses a conflict of interest.
The committee approved the nomination by voice vote. Ms. Hylton
earned at least $110,000 as a private consultant earlier this year for the
Florida-based GEO Group, which has held tens of millions of dollars in prison
contracts with the Marshals Service. Ms. Hylton
previously worked for the government as federal detention trustee and has
held several Justice Department posts. "We're disappointed the Judiciary
Committee didn't seem to take these concerns to heart," said Alex
Friedmann, associate editor of Prison Legal News, one of the groups opposing
the nomination along with the 1.6-million-member American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). On Monday, AFSCME's director
of legislation, Charles M. Loveless, told the Judiciary Committee in a letter
that Ms. Hylton's acceptance of consulting fees
from the GEO Group "is a clear conflict of interest." "This is
a revolving door that needs to be shut," he wrote.
November 18, 2010 Washington Times
The nation's largest federal employees union is railing against President
Obama's choice to lead the U.S. Marshals Service, saying Justice Department
veteran Stacia Hylton's recent six-figure
consulting deal with a private prison company makes her "ill-suited"
for the job. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which
backed Mr. Obama throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, told the Senate
Judiciary Committee in a letter this week that Ms. Hylton's
ties to the GEO Group "pose a serious conflict of interest that should
preclude her nomination." The letter was signed by John Gage, president
of the 600,000-member national union, which represents government employees
at nearly every federal agency, including the Marshals Service. A copy of the
letter was obtained Thursday by The Washington Times, which first reported in
October on Ms. Hylton's work with the GEO Group.
The union, like at least nine other criminal justice and watchdog groups now
opposing the nomination, is upset that Ms. Hylton
accepted $112,500 in consulting fees from the GEO Group shortly after
resigning as the federal detention trustee at Justice in February and before
her recent nomination as the U.S. Marshal. The Office of Federal Detention
manages and regulates the federal detention programs and the Justice Prisoner
and Alien Transportation System. "While the public record does not
disclose the extent to which the $112,500 consulting job with the GEO Group
was discussed prior to Ms. Hylton's retirement, we
believe this creates a clear conflict of interest," Mr. Gage wrote.
November 17, 2010 Main Justice
Stacia A. Hylton, the nominee to lead the U.S.
Marshals Service, rejected allegations at a Senate hearing Wednesday that her
previous consulting job would create a conflict of interest if she is
confirmed to the agency’s top post. Earlier this month, prison and human
rights watchdog organizations blasted Hylton,
claiming her work as a consultant in the prison industry would present a
conflict of interest. After retiring from her post as Federal Detention
Trustee in March, Hylton received $112,500 in
consulting fees from The GEO Group Inc., which contracted with her
Virginia-based firm Hylton Kirk & Associates.
The GEO Group, one of the largest prison private businesses, receives
millions of dollars from U.S Marshal contracts. In response to a question
from Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Hylton dismissed
the charges and affirmed that she followed the legal procedure. “I’d like to
assure the entire members of the committee that I did follow all ethics
requirements and that I worked closely with the ethics office before
retirement and subsequently after,” she said. Hylton
previously worked for the U.S. Marshals Services from 1980 until 2004, where
she held several high-ranking positions. She was nominated by President
Barack Obama on Sept. 20 to become the new director of the U.S. Marshals.
November 10, 2010 Washington Times
Eight prominent human rights and prison industry watchdog groups Tuesday
announced their opposition to U.S. Marshal nominee Stacia Hylton,
a longtime Justice Department veteran who recently worked as a consultant to
one of the nation's largest private prison companies. The organizations
raised conflict of interest charges concerning Ms. Hylton's
consulting work earlier this year for the Florida-based GEO Group, which has
held of millions of dollars in contracts with the Marshals Service. "It
is extremely worrisome that Ms. Hylton is nominated
for a position where she would be directly involved in overseeing contracts with
private prison companies to house federal detainees, given her cozy
relationship with the private prison industry and her acceptance of funding
from the GEO Group through her consulting work," said Ken Kopczynski, director of the Private Corrections Working
Group, a nonprofit watchdog group. Citing a report last month by The
Washington Times, the groups pointed out Ms. Hylton's
acceptance of $112,500 in consulting fees from the GEO Group after leaving
her post earlier this year as federal detention trustee. "This is a
prime example of the revolving door between the public and for-profit private
sectors turning full circle," said Alex Friedmann, associate editor of
Prison Legal News, a project of the Human Rights Defense Center that reports
on criminal justice issues. "After cashing in on her experience in
public law enforcement by taking a consulting job with GEO Group, Ms. Hylton has now been nominated for a high-level federal
position where she will oversee detention services for the U.S. marshals,
including services provided by private prison firms such as GEO," he
said. The organizations plan to discuss their concerns with the White House
and the Senate Judiciary Committee. They said neither the White House nor the
GEO Group responded to their questions about Ms. Hylton's
relationship with the company. Among the organizations opposing the
nomination are the Alliance for Justice, the National Lawyers Guild,
International Cure, the Detention Watch Network, Grassroots Leadership and
the Justice Policy Institute. Last month, a White House official said Ms. Hylton would not require a waiver from Mr. Obama's ethics
rules, which bar appointees for two years from working on matters involving
recent clients. So far, more than two dozen high-level appointees have been
given full or partial waivers. "After review, it was determined ... she
could easily be recused from participating in particular matters in which
that client was a party," said the official. "This recusal, along
with the Obama administration's ethics pledge and other ethics restrictions,
will ensure that she can serve ably and effectively as director of the U.S.
Marshals Service." Ms. Hylton wasn't working
as an employee of the company, but provided services to GEO Group through her
consulting company, Virginia-based Hylton Kirk
& Associates. GEO Group was the only client on her financial disclosure
form, for whom she said she did "consulting services for detention
matters, federal relations and acquisitions and mergers" from March
through July of this year. Marshals Service contracts generate an important
source of revenue for the GEO Group. Ms. Hylton has
supporters, including the National Sheriff's Association, which told the
Judiciary Committee of her "extraordinary qualifications, experience and
expertise." Ms. Hylton said if she is
confirmed, her consulting firm would remain dormant except to comply with any
legal and tax requirements while it's inactive. She also said $105,000 in
annual retirement pay would end upon her appointment.
October 25, 2010 The Washington Times
Between leaving her post as federal detention trustee and her recent
nomination as the next U.S. marshal, Justice Department veteran Stacia Hylton got a consulting contract with one of the largest
private correctional companies in the country, records show. The arrangement
with the Florida-based GEO Group Inc., which has carried out tens of millions
of dollars in contracts for the U.S. Marshals Service, was disclosed in a
recent financial report obtained by The Washington Times through the U.S.
Office of Government Ethics. One prominent prison industry observer said the
ties raise concerns about conflicts of interest. "The massive conflicts
of interest with Ms. Hylton having been employed by
GEO Group typify the revolving door of corporate lobbyists and government
employees that President Obama promised to end if elected," said Paul
Wright, editor and co-founder of Prison Legal News, which covers the prison
industry. Mr. Wright said he was concerned that Ms. Hylton
would "be in a position to further reward the GEO Group with taxpayer
money and little accountability or oversight." "The real and
apparent conflict of interest is as massive as it is obvious," he said.
While Ms. Hylton is not a registered lobbyist, the
publicly traded GEO Group, which did not respond to messages seeking comment,
has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying Congress and the Justice
Department on prison and budget issues in recent years. Under Mr. Obama's
ethics rules, appointees are prohibited for two years from working on
specific matters involving recent clients unless they obtain special waivers.
So far, more than two dozen high-level appointees have been given full or
partial waivers from the ethics rules. Ms. Hylton
could not be reached for comment, and the U.S. Marshals Service and the
Justice Department did not respond to messages about her nomination. A White
House official reached on the matter Monday said Ms. Hylton
would not require a waiver. "After review, it was determined that Ms. Hylton did not need a waiver for her consulting client,
the GEO Group, as she could easily be recused from participating in
particular matters in which that client was a party," said the official.
"This recusal, along with the Obama administration's ethics pledge and
other ethics restrictions, will ensure that she can serve ably and
effectively as director of the U.S. Marshals Service." Ms. Hylton wasn't working as an employee of the company, but
provided services to GEO Group through her consulting company, Virginia-based
Hylton Kirk & Associates. The GEO Group is
listed as the only client on Ms. Hylton's financial
disclosure form, though government ethics rules require nominees to report
only clients who pay at least $5,000. She listed $112,500 in income from her
company through "consulting services for detention matters, federal
relations and acquisitions and mergers" from March through July of this
year. But Ms. Hylton also noted that pursuant to a
contract, she will receive funds from the GEO Group for services sometime
prior to joining the government. Contracts with the Marshals Service generate
an important source of revenue for the GEO Group. During an earnings
conference call earlier this year, GEO Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
George Zoley noted that among federal contracts,
"the primary driver for growth continues to be the incarceration of
criminal aliens" with the U.S. marshals and federal Bureau of Prisons
housing aliens facing criminal charges or those serving time as a result of a
conviction. In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), the company noted that about 13 percent of its consolidated
revenues for the fiscal year that ended Jan. 3 came from U.S. marshals. The
company reported consolidated revenues for the year of $1.1 billion. While
not referring to the GEO Group by name, Ms. Hylton
told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a questionnaire that any potential
conflicts of interest will be resolved under the terms of an ethics agreement
with the government. "In connection with the nomination process, I have
consulted with the Office of Government Ethics and the Department of
Justice's designated agency ethics official to identify any potential
conflicts of interest," she wrote. In addition, Ms. Hylton
said upon her confirmation, her consulting company would remain dormant
except to comply with any legal and tax requirements while it's inactive. She
also said her $105,000 annual federal retirement pay would cease upon her
appointment. Ms. Hylton has held numerous high-ranking
positions at the Justice Department over the years, including acting deputy
director and assistant director at the U.S. Marshals Service. She worked as
chief of judicial security during the first World Trade Center bombing
trials. From 1990 to 1993, she was a witness security inspector. More
recently, as federal detention trustee from 2004 to earlier this year, she
oversaw a $1.5 billion budget.
September 29, 2010 Houston Chronicle
Immigration officials plan to require detention centers holding the majority
of the nation's immigration detainees to provide access to 24-hour, emergency
medical and mental health care and expand access to legal resources and
visitation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's long-awaited, revised
national detention standards aim to address vexing, long-term problems within
the hodgepodge of detention centers, prisons and jails that house about
400,000 immigration detainees annually. A draft copy of the nearly 350-page
standards obtained by the Houston Chronicle shows ICE officials have taken
steps to address some of the most critical problems identified in the
agency's internal reports and detention facility inspections, from access to
quality medical care to outdoor recreation time. But immigrant advocates, who
had high hopes for the revised standards since ICE announced plans to
overhaul its detention system last year, said the changes fell far short of
their expectations. "I really do feel it's a far cry from what we'd
hoped for," said Lory D. Rosenberg, policy director for Refugee and
Migrant Rights at Amnesty International USA. "This doesn't read like
guidelines for a civil facility... or any kind of institutional setting. This
reads to me like a prison manual." And ICE union officials plan to
challenge several of the proposed changes at the bargaining table, saying
they pose serious safety concerns for officers, contractors and detainees.
Chris Crane, president of the national ICE Council, said officers were
particularly concerned about changes to search procedures and plans to mix
non-violent, aggravated felons, including drug dealers, in with the general
detainee population. "This thing just stinks of politics," Crane
said. "It's about satisfying, publicly, the special interest groups but
not really addressing the real issues, the real problems we have in the
facilities." ICE spokesman Brian Hale said the standards, last updated
in 2008, are under review by non-governmental agencies and the ICE union.
Hale said that once ICE management finishes negotiations with union leaders,
the revised standards will be implemented at 22 facilities nationwide that
house about 17,000 detainees on a daily basis, roughly 55 percent of the
agency's daily detained population. The list of 22 facilities includes the
Houston Contract Detention facility on the city's north side and several
detention centers scattered across Texas. Hale said he did not have a
timeline for the union negotiations, and could not predict when ICE would
expand the standards to cover the rest of ICE's detained population. Last
August, top Obama administration officials announced plans for a major
overhaul of the nation's immigration detention system, which includes more
than 250 government-run detention centers, private prisons and local jails
operated largely by private contractors or county sheriffs. Under pressure to
address reports of substandard medical care and lax oversight, ICE pledged to
design a ``new civil detention system" specifically to meet the needs of
immigration detainees, who largely are detained for administrative, not
criminal, violations. In an Aug. 18 draft letter explaining the revisions to
detention standards, ICE Secretary John Morton wrote that the standards were
crafted to increase recreation time, visitation, access to legal services,
libraries and religious opportunities. Other changes include: All facilities
would be required to provide "comprehensive, routine and preventative
health care." -- All detainees would receive medical and mental health
screenings to determine if they are victims of sexual assault or domestic
violence. -- Detainees will have no less than 15 hours per week access to law
libraries. -- Searches and pat-downs will be conducted by guards of the same
gender, if someone of that gender is at the facility at the time. -- Transgendered
detainees will have access to continued hormone therapy, mental health care
and necessary medication. Linton Joaquin, who has investigated detention
centers' compliance with ICE's standards as general counsel with the National
Immigration Law Center, said ICE should get credit for making major
improvements to its standards. "But at the same time, it's not really
addressing the fundamental defect they identified last year, that the whole
detention system is modeled after the criminal justice system rather than
taking into account that this is civil detention." Rosenberg also said
immigrant and human rights advocates had hoped for more substantive changes,
such as those agreed upon by ICE officials and representatives from
Corrections Corporation of America in May. The CCA had planned to
"soften" detention conditions for detainees at nine ICE centers,
including eliminating lockdowns and minimizing searches. Hale said changes
have been on hold pending ICE union negotiations. Human rights advocates and
union officials raised concerns about ICE's plans to change the way it rates
facilities' compliance with the standards. With the revised standards, ICE
created a new system that allows contractors to achieve a "range of
compliance" - from "minimal" to "optimal." Rosenberg
said that change allows contractors to do the bare minimum and still continue
to house ICE detainees.
September 1, 2010 AP
Prison operator Corrections Corp. of America spent $240,000 lobbying federal
officials in the second quarter. That's down slightly from the $250,000 it
spent on lobbying in the first quarter of 2010 and the $260,000 it spent
lobbying in the second quarter of last year. The company said it lobbied on
issues related to the private prison industry and on all provisions of the
Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009 and the Private Prison Information
Act of 2009, among other topics. Aside from Congress, Corrections Corp. also
lobbied the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshals Service and
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement in the April-to-June quarter,
according to a report filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives on
July 20.
August 25, 2010 Washington Independent
Days after the ACLU called for additional protections against sexual abuse of
immigrant detainees, Human Rights Watch issued a report today demanding
Congressional action to improve detention center conditions. The calls come
after the Aug. 19 arrest of a former guard at the T. Don Hutto Residential
Center in Texas, who was accused in May of groping three women on their way
to deportation. Sexual abuse allegations at Hutto were particularly
disturbing because the facility was lauded as a symbol of ICE’s year-long
detention reform effort, as The Texas Independent pointed out last week. But
Human Rights Watch argued they were not an isolated incident, claiming the
problem is more widespread than officials realize because detainees are often
deported or otherwise unable to report abuse. ICE already made some steps
toward preventing sexual abuse in detention centers after Hutto abuse
allegations surfaced in May. Officials plan to publish revised standards for
dealing with sexual assault. ICE will also prohibit guards from searching or
transporting detainees of the opposite gender. Official policy already bans
male staffers from being alone with female immigration detainees — a rule
contract guards at Hutto, a Corrections Corporation of America facility, were
allegedly breaking. In May, ICE ordered the prison contractor to stop
allowing male guards to be alone with female immigrant detainees.
June 25, 2010 Tennessean
Eight Corrections Corporation of America detention centers that house
asylum seekers and immigrants awaiting deportation may be line for makeovers
to create a less prison-like feel. The move by Nashville-based CCA to spruce
up eight facilities – half of them in California and Texas – drew sharp
reactions from both sides of the debate over U.S. immigration policies.
“We’re coddling lawbreakers,” said Theresa Harmon, co-founder of the advocacy
group Tennesseans for Responsible Immigration Policies. “We have no teeth in
our enforcement and that’s the reason this whole problem continues.” Plants,
flower baskets, fresh colors of paint on prison walls, and more framed
pictures were proposed by private prison operator CCA to soften the look of
several detention centers as part of reform initiatives within the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE is evaluating the changes, said
agency spokeswoman Gillian Brigham. Changes suggested by CCA wouldn’t apply
to any detainees with criminal backgrounds or those considered a threat.
Low-risk detainees would be allowed extended visiting hours up to 12 hours a
day, movie and bingo nights, exercise classes, self-serve continental
breakfast on holidays and weekends, better access to legal resources, free
Internet-based phone service and the right to wear their own clothes.
Advocates of better treatment think the proposed changes are cosmetic and
superficial, avoiding the real problems within federal immigration centers.
Judy Greene, criminal justice policy analyst for the New York-based policy
research group Justice Strategies, remains skeptical. “Bingo nights is one
thing, but still having personnel that can’t figure out how to comport
themselves around women detainees or women in state custody shows that (CCA)
doesn’t learn from its mistakes,” Greene said. The federal immigration agency
is CCA’s fourth-largest customer after the federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S.
Marshals Service and the state of California prison system. On a typical day,
there are 30,000 people in immigration confinement at 256 detention centers
run by the federal government, private firms such as CCA and local jailers.
Today, CCA houses roughly 6,400 detainees for ICE. Nearly a year ago, ICE
announced plans to implement revised policies and standards to make the
immigration detention system less penal and more humane.
June 8, 2010 Houston Chronicle
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are preparing to roll out a
series of changes at several privately owned immigration detention centers,
including relaxing some security measures for low-risk detainees and offering
art classes, bingo and continental breakfast on the weekends. The changes,
detailed in an internal ICE e-mail obtained by the Houston Chronicle, were
welcomed by immigrant advocates who have been waiting for the Obama
administration to deliver on a promise made in August to overhaul the
nation's immigration detention system. The 28 changes identified in the
e-mail range from the superficial to the substantive. In addition to
“softening the look of the facility” with hanging plants and offering fresh
carrot sticks, ICE will allow for the “free movement” of low-risk detainees,
expand visiting hours and provide unmonitored phone lines. ICE officials said
the changes are part of broader efforts to make the immigration detention
system less penal and more humane. But the plans are prompting protests by
ICE's union leaders, who say they will jeopardize the safety of agents,
guards and detainees and increase the bottom line for taxpayers. Tre Rebstock, president for Local 3332, the ICE union in
Houston, likened the changes to creating “an all-inclusive resort” for
immigration detainees. “Our biggest concern is that someone is going to get
hurt,” he said, taking particular issue with plans to relax restrictions on
the movement of low-risk detainees and efforts to reduce and eliminate
pat-down searches. The changes outlined in the ICE e-mail are planned for
nine detention centers owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of
America, including the 900-bed Houston Contract Detention Facility on the
city's north side. Some of the changes will be implemented within 30 days;
others may take up to six months, said Beth Gibson, ICE's senior counselor to
Assistant Secretary John Morton and a leader of the detention reform effort.
Other major changes include: • Eliminating lockdowns and lights-out for
low-risk detainees. • Allowing visitors to stay as long as they like in a
12-hour period. • Providing a unit manger so detainees have someone to report
problems to other than the guard. • Allowing low-risk detainees to wear their
own clothing or other non-penal attire. • Providing e-mail access and
Internet-based free phone service. Not about punishment Gibson said the
improvements are part of ICE's efforts to detain immigrants in the least
restrictive manner possible while ensuring they leave the country if ordered
to do so. “When people come to our custody, we're detaining them to effect
their removal,” Gibson said. “It's about deportation. It's not about
punishing people for a crime they committed.” ICE officials have faced
pressure from immigrant advocates and some members of Congress to improve the
detention conditions for the roughly 400,000 immigrants it houses annually.
The agency has relied on a hodgepodge of more than 250 government-run
detention centers, private prisons and local jails to accommodate its growing
population — with roughly one in four detainees held in Texas. At the CCA facilities
that have agreed to ICE's changes, detainees will see more variety in their
dining hall menus and have self-serve beverage and fresh vegetable bars. CCA
also plans to offer movie nights, bingo, arts and crafts, dance and cooking
classes, tutoring and computer training, the e-mail states. Detainees also
will be allowed four hours or more of recreation “in a natural setting,
allowing for robust aerobic exercise.” CCA also committed to improving the
look of the facilities, such as requiring plants, fresh paint and new bedding
in lower-risk units. Advocates pleased Some of the improvements offered at
the CCA facilities counted as hard-fought victories for immigrant advocates,
including plans to improve visitor and attorney access. “A lot of these
measures are what we've been advocating for,” said Lory Rosenberg, policy and
advocacy director for Refugee and Migrants' Rights for Amnesty International.
“Many of these points are very important to changing the system from a penal
system, which is inappropriate in an immigration context, to a civil
detention system.” Union members said they have concerns about the plans,
primarily focusing on safety. Rebstock said some
detainees may be classified as low-risk because they have no serious criminal
history but still may be gang members that “haven't been caught doing
anything wrong yet.” He also said eliminating lockdowns will make it more
difficult to protect detainees from one another. He said reducing or
eliminating pat-down searches could allow contraband into the facilities,
including weapons. Gibson, with ICE, said the agency is developing a
sophisticated classification system and will make sure “that our detainees
are still safe and sound.” “As a general matter, it will be the non-criminals
who don't present a danger to anyone else who are benefitting from the lowest
level of custody,” Gibson said. ‘On the taxpayers' dime' Rebstock
also questioned the cost to taxpayers for the changes. “My grandparents would
have loved to have bingo night and a dance class at the retirement home they
were in when they passed away, but that was something we would have had to
pay for,” he said. “And yet these guys are getting it on the taxpayers'
dime.” Gibson said CCA is making the improvements at no additional cost to
ICE. The agency's contract with CCA for the Houston detention center requires
that ICE pay $99 per bed daily for each detainee, slightly lower than the
$102 average daily rate ICE pays nationally .
May 26, 2010 Government Executive
The Homeland Security Department this week announced that it will replace the
head of the Federal Protective Service after several critical investigative
reports found major gaps in the security of government facilities. Gary
Schenkel, who has served as director of FPS since March 2007, told his staff
on Tuesday that in early June he will move to a DHS policy office where he
will serve as acting deputy assistant secretary for state and local law
enforcement. "It is with great sadness that I announce my departure from
the Federal Protective Service," Schenkel wrote in an e-mail to FPS
employees. "For the past three-plus years I have been privileged and
honored to lead this outstanding organization through many challenges and
triumphs." A retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, Schenkel previously
served as assistant federal security director for the Transportation Security
Administration at Chicago Midway Airport. In his new role, Schenkel will
support "a key initiative of the secretary's to bolster relationships
with our critical partners in law enforcement," said Homeland Security
spokeswoman Amy Kudwa. FPS Deputy Director Paul Durette will serve as the agency's acting director until
a permanent leader is hired. An open executive search to fill the position
began immediately, Kudwa said. Sen. Joe Lieberman,
I-Conn., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Committee, urged the department to move swiftly to find a new director.
"FPS needs assertive leadership to overcome its well-documented
shortcomings and to ensure that federal buildings are secure, and the senator
will soon introduce legislation to strengthen the agency's
capabilities," Lieberman's office said in a statement. The federal labor
union that represents FPS employees said it was anxious to begin a new chapter
at the agency. "There is much work that lies ahead and strong, positive
and effective leadership is essential at this critical time for FPS,"
said David Wright, president of the American Federation of Government
Employees Local 918. The union urged DHS to "select a well-qualified law
enforcement professional who can balance the equally important law
enforcement and protection missions of FPS." Lawmakers stressed that
Schenkel's departure does not solve several unresolved issues at FPS. House
Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thomson, D-Miss., said he wants
more information on the estimated completion date for the new Risk Assessment
and Management Program to monitor the performance, training and certification
of contract guards; the lack of a strategic plan at FPS and the cost of
relying on a private sector guard force. "Until these issues are
resolved our federal buildings and the federal employees who work in them
remain vulnerable," Thompson said. "As the department looks for a
new FPS director, it must continue to move forward with renewal and reform at
this beleaguered agency." Schenkel's management of FPS has come under
intense scrutiny in recent months after a series of Government Accountability
Office reports questioned whether the agency's contract guard force was
capable of securing federal buildings. In April, GAO reported that undercover
agents were able to slip fake guns, knives and bombs past guards in federal
facilities. A July 2009 GAO report found similar failures with FPS contract
guards. In response, FPS increased its number of unannounced inspections,
required additional magnetometer training and conducted more thorough reviews
of contract guard qualifications. FPS currently is conducting an internal
staffing analysis to determine the feasibility of insourcing some or all of
the contract guard workforce. The agency has an annual budget of roughly $1
billion, and employs 1,225 full-time workers and 15,000 contract security
guards at more than 2,300 federal facilities nationwide.
March 3, 2010 New York Times
When the Obama administration vowed to overhaul immigration detention
last year, its promise of more humane treatment and accountability was
spurred in part by the harrowing treatment of two detainees who died in the
Bush years. In one case, captured by security cameras in 2008, a Chinese
computer engineer was dragged from a Rhode Island immigration jail and mocked
by guards as he screamed in pain from undiagnosed cancer and a broken spine.
In the other, a Salvadoran detainee held for two years in a California
detention center was denied a biopsy for a painful penile lesion, though
government doctors suspected the cancer that eventually required amputation
of his penis. But on Wednesday, the administration argued in federal court
that the government had no liability for neglect or abuse by private
contractors running the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls,
R.I., where the computer engineer was held. And in oral arguments before the
United States Supreme Court on Tuesday, federal lawyers maintained that
government doctors responsible for the Salvadoran’s care in detention were
immune from being personally sued for medical negligence. In both cases, the
arguments were made against lawsuits brought by the families of the men who
died, Hiu Lui Ng, 34, and Francisco Castaneda, 36.
In the Ng case, the government sought to be dropped as a defendant, and in
the other, it tried to sharply limit potential monetary damages. But critics
of the sprawling immigration detention system, which relies mainly on
privately run jails to hold noncitizens facing deportation, said those
arguments had broader and more disturbing implications. “The government’s
positions both in Castaneda and in the Ng case fly in the face of the stated
commitment to overhauling the immigration detention system and bringing to it
more transparency and accountability,” said Vanita
Gupta, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed an
amicus brief in the Castaneda case and through its Rhode Island affiliate
supported the lawsuit brought by Mr. Ng’s widow, Lin Li Qu, and two children,
all United States citizens who live in New York. “Real reform wouldn’t be
about pointing the finger elsewhere,” Ms. Gupta said. “It would be about
promulgating legally binding standards and making individualized
determinations about whether someone like Ng needs to be detained in the
first place.” Brian P. Hale, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, reiterated the agency’s commitment to an overhaul. “This administration
takes any allegation of inadequate medical care or ill treatment seriously
and will not accept or tolerate any willful misconduct,” he wrote. “We have
taken important initial steps to change this system and are committed to
finishing the job.” Oral arguments in the Ng case, in Federal District Court
in Providence, centered on the federal agency’s role in ordering that the
gravely ill man be taken in shackles to a federal office in Hartford and
returned the same day to the Wyatt detention center. For that trip, Mr. Ng
was dragged from his cell. The government’s lawyer, Helene Kazanjian, argued
that it was “completely unfair” to expect an agency “that has no contact with
the detainee on a regular basis,” to know that Mr. Ng was in dire condition. But
Fidelma L. Fitzpatrick, arguing the other side,
pointed out that the agency had been repeatedly notified that Mr. Ng was in
terrible pain and unable to walk, and that he had been denied a wheelchair
and outside medical care by the detention center, run for profit by a
municipal corporation in Central Falls. “The U.S. government cannot just hire
someone and then close the file,” Ms. Fitzpatrick said. “The government must
take responsibility for the actions of ICE.” Judge William E. Smith said he
would rule later, but his questions took up the plaintiffs’ theme. “If you
know about the severity of the detainee’s condition, isn’t there an
obligation to give him special treatment, to put him on an ambulance?” he
asked. Ms. Kazanjian contended that when the agency learned how sick Mr. Ng
was, it sent him to the hospital where he died six days later. But the judge
corrected her. “I ordered him hospitalized,” he said, referring to his
unusual intervention at a habeas corpus hearing the day after the Hartford
trip. “I don’t think ICE can take credit for that.” In the Castaneda case,
the government has admitted to medical negligence, and a federal judge has
said “the word ‘cruel’ is an understatement” for the treatment described in
the lawsuit. But on Tuesday, the Supreme Court seemed receptive to the
government’s argument that Public Health Service doctors were immune from
suit under a 1970 federal law. A government lawyer argued that that immunity
reflected “a balance of evils,” adding, “Congress has decided that it would
rather protect the P.H.S., make sure that causes of action and liability
aren’t hanging over the heads of P.H,S. officers, even if that means some
individuals don’t get recovery against certain specific P.H.S. personnel.”
Lawyers representing Mr. Castaneda’s teenage daughter have said a ruling for
the government would preclude a jury trial in the case and cap any damages at
$250,000, which they called insufficient deterrence to the negligence that
has been widely documented.
February 24, 2010 Government Executive
Leaders of a Senate government oversight committee on Wednesday said they
were "astounded" to learn that contractors outnumber civilian
employees at the Homeland Security Department, and expressed concern that
contractors could be performing inherently governmental work. Sens. Joseph
Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chairman and ranking
member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, thanked
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano for responding to requests that the department
quantify its reliance on contractors. But they said they were disturbed to
learn DHS employs more than 200,000 contractors, compared with just 188,000
federal employees, excluding uniformed members of the Coast Guard. "The
sheer number of DHS contractors currently on board again raises the question
of whether DHS itself is in charge of its programs and policies, or whether
it inappropriately has ceded core decisions to contractors," Lieberman
and Collins said in a letter to Napolitano. The senators asked for a
unit-by-unit breakdown of contractors within the department, but warned that
regardless of that breakdown, the challenge of overseeing so many contractors
is likely to strain the ongoing transformation of DHS into an agency with
strong, central management. "We believe that the current balance between
federal employees and contractors at DHS is unacceptable, untenable and
unsustainable," they wrote. DHS officials are aware of the problem and
are taking steps to properly balance the department's workforce, the senators
noted. Homeland Security's fiscal 2011 budget reflects cost savings from the
conversion of contractor positions to federal jobs. Lieberman and Collins
said that while cost should not be the only factor in determining who should
perform work, savings are beneficial. "The fundamental question in
deciding whether a federal employee should perform a task, or whether the
task may appropriately be assigned to a contractor, should not simply be
which option is cheapest, but rather whether or not the government's
interests are best served by having the work performed by federal
employees," the senators said. "Nonetheless it is notable that the
shift to a more appropriate employee-to-contractor ratio may well also save
the department and the taxpayers money."
February 9, 2010 National Law Review
John Morton makes no apology for locking up 380,000 people a year. They
haven't been charged with crimes. Rather, they're immigrants, confined to a
sprawling network of more than 270 jails and prisons for weeks or months
while proceedings to determine whether they'll be allowed to remain in the
country are pending. "This isn't a question of whether or not we will
detain people. We will detain people, and we will detain them on a grand
scale," said Morton, who is head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
within the Department of Homeland Security. "It's a necessary
power." The key question for Morton, whose 19,000-employee agency has
faced stinging criticism over conditions in the detention facilities
including substandard medical care and limited access to counsel, is
"how we detain people -- and in my view, the system is run
haphazardly." A career federal lawyer with experience in the U.S.
Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and the Department of
Justice, Morton, 43, came to the job nine months ago vowing to give the
detention system "a very, very hard look, essentially an overhaul."
His goal, he said in a lengthy interview in his spacious 11th floor office at
ICE's headquarters in Southwest Washington, D.C., is to create a detention
program managed directly by agency employees, not contracted out to public
and private jails. "My whole vision for the system is to reduce the
number of facilities that we have, to have those facilities be designed and
run solely from the immigration enforcement perspective, and to have strong,
direct federal oversight," he said. Immigration advocates are encouraged
by Morton's proposals, but say the plans don't go far enough. "He's
building a better mousetrap," said Andrea Black, network coordinator of
Washington-based advocacy coalition Detention Watch Network. "We welcome
the initial steps. However, they've got a lot of work to do, and we're very
concerned they're not going to be able to enact fundamental reforms needed to
truly transform the system." FEW LAWYERS -- Recent watchdog and media
reports detail many of the ongoing problems inside the facilities. Last week,
the American Bar Association released a comprehensive report urging major
changes to the entire immigration legal system. The ABA described the current
detention system as "costly, extremely difficult to manage, and
overburdened." One of the most acute problems is medical care. According
to the American Civil Liberties Union, there have been 104 in-custody deaths
since 2003. The group says that deficient medical care is believed to be the
leading cause of death and is the No. 1 complaint it receives from detainees.
Newspapers including The New York Times have reported shocking accounts of individual
detainees denied treatment, such a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea. He died in
2007 after suffering a skull fracture in the Elizabeth Detention Center in
New Jersey and being locked in an isolation cell for more than 13 hours. The
reports have apparently hit home. When Morton was asked to describe his
vision for a model detention facility, his immediate response was,
"First-rate, uniform medical care." This year, ICE will solicit
bids to build at least two new centers designed specifically for housing
detainees -- one in Texas, the other in the Northeast. Morton envisions a
combination of dormitories and cells, an outdoor exercise area, good food and
easy access for families and lawyers. He thinks it can even be done in a
budget-neutral manner. "The present system is incredibly
expensive," he said. "We can actually save some money with these
new facilities over the long run ... and provide a better standard of
care." In the meantime, the existing system is under strain. Since 1996,
the number of noncitizens held each day by ICE has increased threefold. On
any given day, an average of 32,000 people are in
ICE custody. Some of those held are legal residents who have previously been
convicted of a crime -- in some cases, even a misdemeanor. Others are felons
who go straight to ICE custody after serving prison sentences. Still others
are undocumented aliens or asylum seekers or people who overstayed their
visas. Regardless, all are detained by ICE for a civil, not a criminal,
offense. The only reason people are kept in custody, said Morton, is because
"They'll either run away and wouldn't show up for their detention
hearing, or because they're a danger to the community." That is an
assertion that advocates dispute. "There will always be people who need
to be detained, but that number is a lot smaller than the number of people
they hold," said Denyse Sabagh, a
Washington-based partner at Duane Morris who heads the firm's immigration
practice. "They really should look at who they're putting in detention.
Some are lawful permanent residents who have been in the country for many
years, with roots and family. Why do those people need to be in jail?"
Mary Meg McCarthy, executive director of the Heartland Alliance National
Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago, applauded December 2009 ICE guidelines
that allow more asylum seekers to be released on parole but said "the
crux of reform is how things will improve on the local level." One of
the top concerns for her group and others is detainee access to counsel.
According to last week's ABA report, 84 percent of detainees have no lawyer
to guide them through the complex removal process. "The need is so huge.
They beg you, 'Please help me get me a lawyer,'" said Karina Wilkinson,
co-founder of the Middlesex County Coalition for Immigrant Rights, who is not
a lawyer but works with immigrants in detention centers in New Jersey.
February 5, 2010 Houston Chronicle
Luis Dubegel-Paez, a 60-year-old Cuban
immigrant, lay on the floor of Rolling Plains Detention Center with no pulse,
his face flushed, his pupils dilated. For months before he collapsed at the
detention center near Abilene, he had been complaining to nurses about chest
pain and heart problems, asking to see a doctor. “Can't stand the pain,” Dubegel-Paez wrote on a sick call slip on Jan. 1, 2008.
In response, he was treated by a nurse at the center's medical clinic and
given cold medicine. As the weeks passed, he filed more urgent requests to
see a doctor — only to be given more cough medicine and Tylenol by nurses,
according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement records. While Dubegel-Paez waited to see a doctor, inspectors working
for ICE toured the facility Feb. 26, 2008, to check that it complied with
ICE's own detention standards. The inspectors rated the center “acceptable,”
noting no deficiencies in its medical care. It was only after Dubegel-Paez collapsed and died in March 2008 that ICE's
inspectors noted in a report that medical care for about 500 detainees at the
facility was being provided only by eight vocational nurses with minimal
nursing or physician supervision. The case highlights what critics have
called pervasive problems with ICE's enforcement of detention standards. A
review of more than 800 pages of inspection reports obtained by the Houston
Chronicle through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that inspectors
have, in some instances, given positive reviews to facilities with serious
problems — ranging from inadequate medical care to poor grievance procedures.
In many cases, ICE has required facilities with deficiencies to make
improvements, though inspectors often failed to note in subsequent reports
whether changes were made. After Dubegel-Paez's
death, inspectors noted that the Rolling Plains facility failed to meet a
number of ICE's detention standards, including care for chronic illness and
responding to sick call requests. But ICE officials still did not downgrade
the center's rating because of staffing problems in the medical unit, records
show, and continue to place a growing number of detainees there. ICE
officials said they are in the process of overhauling the nation's
immigration detention system, including its monitoring procedures, and plan
to improve oversight of medical care. “The problems that occurred in 2007 and
2008 are terrible problems, and as an institution and an agency we have to
address them and take them extraordinarily seriously,” said Brian Hale, ICE's
public affairs director in Washington, D.C. “But I also do have to point out
that was something that occurred in the past, and this new administration ...
is committed to ensuring that doesn't happen again. We take it very
seriously.” Are changes enough? ICE officials said they plan to announce
changes this spring to strengthen their detention standards, which are
designed to ensure that detainees have basic protections while in custody.
The agency has relied on 300-plus detention centers, private prisons and
local jails to house about 400,000 immigrants annually — with roughly one in
four detained in Texas. Hale said ICE is reducing the number of facilities to
improve oversight. The agency also plans to station government monitors at
the centers and jails that house the largest numbers of ICE detainees, he
added. Linton Joaquin, who has investigated detention centers' compliance
with ICE's standards as general counsel with the National Immigration Law
Center, said ICE's planned measures are positive, but “they are so inadequate
in comparison to the scope of the problem.” ICE officials have reported that
the majority of inspected facilities complied with the agency's detention
standards, though a 2008 Inspector General audit found reviewers had not been
effective in identifying certain serious problems at facilities. Locally, the
Houston Contract Detention Facility has received high marks in reviews.
Inspection reports obtained by the Chronicle, which date from early 2007
through February 2009, show ICE has placed detainees in facilities that have
failed to meet some minimum requirements outlined under its own standards for
detainee care, with violations ranging from failure to accommodate religious
diets to lack of formal disciplinary procedures. Access to adequate medical
care continues to be one of the most difficult and controversial issues for
ICE, which has recorded 107 detainee deaths since 2003, including more than a
dozen in Texas. ICE's records documented a wide range of medical care
problems at facilities rated as acceptable, including a complete lack of
on-site medical care at one Dallas-area jail approved for housing short-term
detainees, and chronic staffing problems at larger facilities. An inspection
report for the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall documented a severe
staffing shortage in 2007 in the medical unit, with 19 vacancies out of 46
positions. The reviewer wrote that the facility, which at the time held about
1,250 detainees, was meeting ICE's standard for medical access at an
“acceptable” level, though he noted that employees were staying after hours
to complete basic duties. When inspectors returned a year later, in April
2008, ICE had increased the number of detainees held at the facility to 1,547
— despite continuing problems with the medical unit. Hiring a key issue --
The inspector noted the facility, which is owned and operated by the GEO Group,
was having trouble meeting a standard ICE requirement that all detainees have
a medical exam within 14 days of admission. The medical unit had 10 vacancies
at the time of inspection. “These positions are critical to the delivery of
health care and compliance with all ICE standards,” the inspector wrote,
giving the facility a “good” rating. The center continues to suffer from
staffing shortages, with 24 vacancies out of 69 authorized positions in its
medical unit, though ICE officials noted that the government is actively
recruiting and hiring for those spots. GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez declined comment. On March 14, the day that Dubegel-Paez died, he filled out a final sick call slip
and complained to his cell mate about chest pains before being seen by a
nurse. He was being held while ICE officials tried to arrange his deportation
to Cuba. “I have an emergency to see the doctor about my heart problems that
I been having for the last couple days, and I have been getting dizzy a lot,”
he wrote on the sick call slip. According to ICE's report, the nurse gave him
two Tylenol pills and scheduled him for a sick call appointment the following
Monday. An autopsy ruled his cause of death was heart disease. Still, weeks
after Dubegel-Paez's death, the acting chief of
ICE's Detention Standards Compliance unit affirmed the center's “acceptable”
rating without any requirement to improve medical treatment. Arthur Anderson,
the warden of Rolling Plains center, operated by Emerald Companies, did not
return phone calls seeking comment. The facility now has an on-site physician
only six to 10 hours a week and eight full-time nurses, ICE reported. ICE has
continued to increase the number of detainees housed there, averaging 537 a
day last year.
October 7, 2009 San Antonio Express-News
In a move that could affect the revenues of private prison firms and county
jails, the Obama administration said Tuesday it will review, renegotiate and
possibly terminate some of its more than 300 contracts for detaining
unauthorized immigrants. The announcement by Department of Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano is part of an overhaul aimed at ending the
reliance on penal institutions for detainees with noncriminal immigration
violations or valid asylum claims. The overhaul, first announced in August,
followed scathing reports and lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union
and other groups alleging inhumane conditions, denial of medical care, and
isolation in remote areas with limited access to pro-bono legal aid.
Napolitano, in a news conference with Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Assistant Secretary John Morton, said she inherited a scattered “nonsystem” of government and privately run facilities
that needed to be monitored. “It's a huge range of detainees,” she said,
“from those who have criminal records who need to be in a very prisonlike
setting to those who have no record at all and indeed have come seeking
asylum.” The system has ballooned from 5,000 beds in 1994 to more than 32,000
beds in 2008, used by about 380,000 detainees that year. Napolitano said the
capacity to detain people would remain, but the standards of “health and
safety, law, and indeed human decency” needed to be enforced. Plans include
centralizing operations, doubling the personnel involved in detention center
oversight, building new facilities in urban locations near immigration
service providers, and housing detainees in converted hotels, nursing homes,
or other residential facilities. Detainees would be classified by risk, with
nonviolent, noncriminal populations such as recently arrived asylum seekers
sent to less prisonlike environments. Detainees with criminal convictions
would remain in jails. There are also plans for an online system to locate
detainees, something family members and even attorneys are not always able to
do. The practice of detaining families at the T. Don Hutto Family Residence
Center in Taylor, which drew criticism because of its cells and barbed wire,
has already ended. The facility is now being used to house female detainees.
It was unclear what effect the changes will have on private firms or
communities that draw revenue from jailing detainees, but Willacy County
Sheriff Larry Spence said the reduced population at the Willacy Detention
Center in Raymondville — at 3,000 beds the nation's largest — has been
apparent and may cause problems for a county that counts on jobs, taxes, and
revenue from it. “I know the numbers are down from what they used to be,” he
said. “It means the county hasn't had the same amount of money coming in.”
The county subcontracts with Utah-based Management & Training Corp., a
private prison management firm. Kathleen Walker, past president of the
American Immigration Lawyers Association, said she expected quite a few
disappointed contractors. “I would imagine that in the state of Texas, where
we have so many different county facilities and independent facilities run by
contractors, that they are not going to like seeing a potential dip in
revenues to retirement centers or abandoned hotels,” she said. “But to put
people in on civil violations with people that have felony exposure is really
just not acceptable.”
October 6, 2009 New York Times
The Obama administration is looking to convert hotels and nursing homes into
immigration detention centers and to build two model detention centers from
scratch as it tries to transform the way the government holds people it is
seeking to deport. These and other initiatives, described in an interview on
Monday by Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, are part of
the administration’s effort to revamp the much-criticized detention system,
even as it expands the enforcement programs that send most people accused of
immigration violations to jails and private prisons. The cost, she said,
would be covered by greater efficiencies in the detention and removal system,
which costs $2.4 billion annually to operate and holds about 380,000 people a
year. “The paradigm was wrong,” Ms. Napolitano said of the nation’s patchwork
of rented jail space, which has more than tripled in size since 1995, largely
through Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts for cells more
restrictive, and expensive, than required for a population that is largely
not dangerous. Among those in detention on Sept. 1, 51 percent were
considered felons, and of those, 11 percent had committed violent crimes.
“Serious felons deserve to be in the prison model,” Ms. Napolitano said, “but
there are others. There are women. There are children.” These and other
nonviolent people should be sorted and detained or supervised in ways
appropriate to their level of danger or flight risk, she said. Her goal, she
said, is “to make immigration detention more cohesive, accountable and
relevant to the entire spectrum of detainees we are dealing with.”
September 11, 2009 New America Media
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may not be collecting enough
data about its own operations to meet legal and humanitarian standards for
detention. This was the principle finding of a report released Thursday by
the Migration Policy Institute (MPI). The study, "Immigrant Detention:
Can ICE Meet Its Legal Imperatives and Case Management
Responsibilities?" analyzes data for all 32,000 detainees held in ICE
custody during a single night in January 2009. Without the ability to track
its detainees adequately, the report warns, the agency will be unable to
adhere to legal mandates, administer review processes or abide by its
national detention standards. “The report underscores what advocates have
seen for years: that we don’t know who’s detained or why, that they don’t
have a release process, that they don’t track family ties or make legal
immigrants available for alternatives to detention,” said Andrea Black,
network coordinator for Detention Watch Network. The results were released on
the heels of ICE’s announcement that it plans to revamp its detention system.
ICE intends to address concerns related to health conditions of its
detainees, centralize its detention system, and depend less on local jails
and private prisons. "This report provides a roadmap for meeting the
data needs essential for the new ICE detention initiative to succeed as it
attempts to move from a criminal incarceration model to a civil detention
system," said MPI Vice President for Programs Donald Kerwin,
co-author of the report. Researchers found that the diversity of the
imprisoned population may make it harder to gather data and track cases. The
286 facilities hold a population of men (90 percent), women, families,
unaccompanied children, unauthorized immigrants, asylum seekers, torture
survivors, lawful permanent residents and persons claiming to be U.S.
citizens. The detainees come from 177 countries. Thirty-eight percent come
from Mexico, followed by 13 percent from countries in Central America. They
are most commonly held in facilities in southern and U.S.-Mexico border
states, with 68 percent of the total in California, Arizona, New Mexico,
Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. The report also
revealed key information about how long detainees remain at ICE facilities.
“The data confirms that people are detained for much longer than ICE
reports,” Black said. The average length of detention was 81 days, but some
have been detained for much longer. Thirteen percent of detainees were held
for three to six months, 10 percent for six months to one year, and three
percent for more than one year. “To me, it’s still startling to see how fast
the detainee population has grown,” said Kerwin.
Sixty percent of the detention centers in use today, he said, were created
since 2004. ICE’s ability to manage detainees is also compromised by the
presence of private contractors who run the country’s large-scale facilities.
Half of the detained population is held in 17 centers, which each houses more
than 500 detainees. Three-quarters of these are operated by private
contractors. “As a result, ICE has limited control over facilities and
detainees,” Black argued. The report also found that more than half of ICE
detainees (58 percent) do not have criminal records, even though mandatory
detention laws primarily apply to criminals. This is one of the consequences
of untargeted detentions, according to Black, and has led to an overcrowded
detention system. In order to reform the detention system, the Department of
Homeland Security has focused on population management, learning who is in
the system, analyzing conditions of detention centers and alternatives to
detention. Dora Schriro, special advisor to DHS on
ICE, Detention and Removal and, since last month, director of the Office of
Detention Policy and Planning, said the agency is launching various programs
to address access to health care, courts, recreation, family visits and
tailor the system to the special needs population. “Accountability is the
chore of government responsibility, not just oversight and data gathering,” Schriro said. “We are committed to continue the
improvements.” But immigrant rights advocates expressed skepticism over the
lack of transparency. “We are pleased to see the changes in process, but we
are skeptical and concerned,” said Black. “Data has been extremely difficult
to access. ICE denied basic information, even to know how many detention
centers they work with.” Schriro noted that the
administration is attempting to address some of these concerns. DHS is
engaged in conversations to create systems that will track detainees, report
medical requirements, and discern eligibility for alternatives to detention.
It is also conducting a study to learn the costs of these processes. The
administration, however, is struggling with the same problems advocates and
organizations have been dealing with for years, Schriro
said. In their efforts, she said, they have to look back, to analyze what
didn’t work, and ahead, to implement the necessary changes. Regarding
alternatives to detention, for example, she said, they aren’t optimistic.
“The more we scrub, the more we see it is not usable,” Schriro
stated.
August 17, 2009 New York Times
More than one in 10 deaths in immigration detention in the last six years have
been overlooked and were omitted from an official list of detainee fatalities
issued to Congress in March, the Obama administration said Monday. The
administration added 10 previously unreported deaths to the official roster
and disclosed an 11th, which occurred Friday: that of Huluf
Guangule Negusse, a
24-year-old Ethiopian. Mr. Negusse died from the
effects of an Aug. 3 suicide attempt in the Wakulla County correctional
facility near Tallahassee, Fla. What Immigration and Customs Enforcement
officials call “the death roster” stands at 104 since October 2003, up from
the 90 that were on the list the agency gave to Congress this spring. The
latest search for records began late last month, officials said, when Freedom
of Information litigation by the American Civil Liberties Union uncovered one
of the 10 deaths that had gone unreported — that of Felix Franklin
Rodriguez-Torres, 36, an Ecuadorean who settled in New York and died of
testicular cancer on Jan. 18, 2007, after being detained two months at an immigration
jail run for profit by the Corrections Corporation of America in Eloy, Ariz.
On Saturday, after inquiries about that case by The New York Times, the new
chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, John Morton, issued a directive
for field offices to make sure that other deaths had not been overlooked, a
spokesman said. David Shapiro, staff lawyer with the A.C.L.U. National Prison
Project, said: “Today’s announcement is a tragic confirmation of our worst
fears. Our nation’s immigration detention system has been plagued by a total
lack of transparency and accountability, and even with today’s announcement
there is no way we can be fully confident that there are not still more
deaths that somehow have gone unaccounted for.”
August 7, 2009 LA Times
Pledging more oversight and accountability, the Obama administration
announced plans Thursday to transform the nation's immigration detention
system from one reliant on a scattered network of local jails and private
prisons to a centralized one designed specifically for civil detainees. The
reforms are aimed at establishing greater control over a system that houses
about 33,000 detainees a day and that has been sharply criticized as having
unsafe and inhumane conditions and as lacking the medical care that may have
prevented many of the 90 deaths that have occurred since 2003. "With
these reforms, ICE will move away from our present, decentralized
jail-oriented approach to a system that is wholly designed for and based on
our civil detention needs," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Assistant Secretary John Morton told reporters. "The population that we
detain is different than the traditional population that is detained in a
prison or a jail setting." The federal immigration agency plans to
review the use of 350 local jails, state prisons and private facilities,
including more than a dozen in California. Within five years, officials said,
detainees without criminal records probably would be held in fewer,
less-restrictive locations with more federal oversight. Morton also announced
that the agency would stop sending families to the controversial T. Don Hutto
Family Residential Facility in Texas and instead hold them in the agency's
only other family facility, which is in Pennsylvania. The Texas facility,
which will continue to house women, opened in 2006 and faced lawsuits over
substandard living conditions. A settlement resulted in changes to how
children were treated. Immigrant rights advocates welcomed the changes but
said there was still no clear policy on how detention facilities would be
penalized if problems were found. "We are encouraged that the
administration is taking a hard look at what has traditionally been a dark
spot in our immigration system," said Karen Tumlin,
a staff attorney at the Los Angeles-based National Immigration Law Center.
"However, only time will tell if the reforms announced today amount to
lasting change or simply creative repackaging of prior policies." Tumlin and others said the detention standards needed to
be made legally binding to guarantee immigrants access to counseling, family
visits, legal materials and recreation time. Legislation has been introduced
aimed at accomplishing this. Advocates also said that the government should
use less punitive and less costly alternatives to detention, such as ankle
bracelets or intensive supervision, for certain immigrants. "We are very
disappointed by the failure to discuss alternatives to detention in the
proposal," said Ahilan Arulanantham,
an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
"The system now detains thousands of people who are not a danger and not
a flight risk." To increase oversight, the immigration agency would
place federal monitors in 23 large facilities, which house more than 40% of
the detainees. The agency also plans to hire experts in healthcare
administration and detention management, and someone to review medical
complaints.
July 31, 2009 Gainesville Times
Attorney David Kennedy says clients of his who have been held in
immigration detention centers in South Georgia and eastern Alabama routinely
are denied fundamental rights. "I have had clients who have had no
access to phones for extended periods of time. I have had clients being
questioned and induced into signing things they did not understand,"
said Kennedy, a Gainesville immigration lawyer. "I have had clients
complain they were stuck in their cells for 23 hours a day. There’s
definitely a problem with immigration detention in this country." On the
eve of a new immigration detention center opening in Gainesville, a report
issued this week by National Immigration Law Center appears to validate
Kennedy’s complaints. The report, based on confidential Immigration and
Customs Enforcement documents obtained in litigation, alleges there are
pervasive problems throughout the country’s immigration detention facilities,
many of which are operated by private contractors. Detainees are routinely
denied visitation with family members, access to legal materials and regular
recreation, according to the report. Many never get an explanation of their
rights while being detained, the report claims. "The conditions are much
more harsh than they ought to be," said the
report’s co-author, Ranjana Natarajan. "This is a civil detention, and
these folks are being treated like hardened criminals." The Corrections
Corporation of America could begin boarding immigration detainees at its new
North Georgia Detention Center on Main Street as soon as next week. The site
of the old county jail adjoining the Hall County Sheriff’s office underwent
$4 million in renovations and is being leased from Hall County for $2 million
a year. CCA operates the detention center through an agreement with ICE and
the county. This week, ICE officials did not deny the allegations contained
in the report, vowing to continue to improve conditions. But Department of
Homeland Security officials recently decided against creating uniform
detention center standards that the National Immigration Law Center wants.
ICE is supposed to conduct yearly evaluations of every detention center, but
has no enforceable, binding legal rules on how inmates are treated, according
to the report. "It creates a lot of gray area," Natarajan said.
"Because (detention centers) are not expected to follow the rules,
they’re all over the map." ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said agency
officials "feel the NILC put together a very thoughtful report, and we
will carefully review and take seriously this report, as we would any report.
We are committed to continuously improving our immigration detention
system." Gonzalez noted that within 10 days of taking office, Secretary
of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano ordered all immigration enforcement
policies to undergo a review, "including detention." In February,
Napolitano appointed former Arizona Department of Corrections director Dora Schriro as a special advisor for detention and removal.
"Her position was created to focus exclusively on the significant growth
in detention and detainment in the last few years," Gonzalez said. On
any given day, ICE holds about 33,000 immigration detainees in facilities
across the country, and supervises another 17,000 people facing deportation
through electronic monitoring and other means. The National Immigration Law
Center estimates that in 2008 about 220,000 people were held in detention
centers prior to deportation. The typical stay is 30 to 90 days. The
Gainesville facility operated by CCA is expected to hold about 500 low- and
medium-security immigration detainees, many of them from North Carolina. CCA
spokeswoman Louise Grant referred questions on this week’s report to ICE
officials, but noted that "CCA does adhere in every one of our ICE
detention facilities to the detention standards set by our customer."
The company also has ICE officials on site for detainee access, Grant said.
This week’s report prompted two U.S. senators to call for a change to the
system. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., on
Thursday introduced the "Strong Standards Act," a proposed bill
that would set minimum detention standards and require the Department of
Homeland Security to ensure that laws concerning the treatment of detainees
are enforced. "These legislative initiatives will help reinforce what
our great country has always stood for: liberty, the rule of law and basic
human rights," Menendez said in a statement. To Kennedy, anything would
be an improvement. "If we’re comparing these (detention centers) to
their Turkish counterparts, they’re pretty good," Kennedy said.
"But by U.S. standards, they’re pretty poor."
July 29, 2009 AP
Immigrant advocates say the federal government has failed to meet its own
standards for detaining immigrants, making it unduly difficult for immigrants
to defend themselves in court and fight to remain in the country. A report
released Tuesday says detainees face limited access to phones, mail and law
libraries in violation of federal standards. The authors based their findings
on more than 18,000 pages of documents that showed facilities across the
country limited detainees' access to legal materials and transferred them
without proper notice. "Our concern is we have this deep belief in the
American justice system that the truth will eventually come out and those
individuals who have meritorious cases will be granted relief," said
Karen Tumlin, a staff attorney at the National
Immigration Law Center who co-authored the report. "We can't have any
faith that that proposition will actually hold true in this monstrous
immigration system." The study was based on inspection reports of dozens
of facilities by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the American Bar
Association and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees between 2001 and
2005. It comes after criticism over medical care in facilities and
long-standing complaints by immigration attorneys that their clients are
transferred too often, making it hard to represent them. The authors
recommended that detention standards should be legally binding. They urged
the government to make reviews public and make it easier for relatives and
attorneys to track detainees' whereabouts. They also encouraged the
government to promote alternatives to detention, such as the use of
electronic ankle bracelets. ICE created new performance-based detention
standards in 2008. It also hired outside companies to carry out inspections. Tumlin said detainees continue to report the same
problems today as those outlined in the inspection reports.
July 8, 2009 Government Executive
The Federal Protective Service is failing to properly oversee its
13,000-strong contract guard force, causing grave security gaps at federal
buildings nationwide, Government Accountability Office officials told
senators on Wednesday. As part of a recent review, investigators from the
watchdog agency successfully entered 10 high-security federal buildings
carrying components for a bomb through doors being monitored by contract
guards. Once inside, the investigators assembled an improvised explosive
device and walked freely around the buildings and into various legislative
and executive branch offices with the IED in a briefcase, GAO said in
testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Committee. Lawmakers called GAO's findings disturbing, shocking and
outrageous, and asked urgently and repeatedly what they could do to help FPS
gain control of the situation. "In this post-9/11 world that we're now
living in, I cannot fathom how security breaches of this magnitude were
allowed to occur," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ranking member of
the committee. Chairman Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., said that in all his
years of reading GAO reports, this one represented "about the broadest
indictment of an agency in the federal government I've heard." Mark
Goldstein, GAO's director of physical infrastructure issues and author of the
report, told lawmakers the review revealed significant shortcomings in FPS'
ability to monitor and verify contract guard training and firearms
certifications. In reviewing 663 randomly selected guards, GAO found that 62
percent had at least one expired certification. Goldstein said a lack of
funding has hindered the agency's ability to reach appropriate staffing
levels and provide the technological tools necessary to protect federal
buildings. But a number of the problems with the contract guard program are
unrelated to budgetary constraints, he said. "Not having national
standards and guidance for inspecting the guards, [and] better standards for
knowing when certifications have expired -- things like that, are not
resource-based," Goldstein said. "I think there has been a lack of
attention to this part of the protective requirements for federal
buildings." Lieberman said he and Collins are aware of management
problems at FPS and that is one reason why they have not pressed to increase
the agency's budget. "We didn't want to just throw more money at the
problem until we fix the agency," he said. FPS Director Gary Schenkel
did not dispute GAO's findings and said he takes full responsibility for the
failures as head of the agency. He assured the committee that FPS officials
have been making progress in addressing deficiencies and are working even
faster now that they are aware of GAO's findings.
April 3, 2009 New York Times
The document that follows, “List of Detainee Deaths since October 2003,” is
the government’s latest account of deaths in immigration detention, through
Feb. 7, 2009. Compiled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and obtained by
The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, it lists the names
of 90 people who died, their dates of birth and death, their nationality,
where they died or were last held, whether an autopsy report or death
certificate was secured, and the cause of death. The chart updates the first
government list of 66 names, also attached, which covered a period between
Jan. 1, 2004, and November 2007. The new chart adds deaths that occurred
before and since, and corrects some omissions. Notably, it adds the Sept. 9,
2005, death of Tanveer Ahmad, also known as Ahmad Tanveer, 43, of Pakistan.
Officials had maintained for months that no records of his death could be
found, despite complaints that he had died after his severe and obvious
symptoms of a heart attack went untreated for hours at the Monmouth County
Correctional Institute, in Freehold, N.J. New errors appear on the latest
list, and it omits at least one known death from 2008: that of Ana Romero
Rivera, 44, of El Salvador, found hanged in a cell at the Franklin County
Jail in Frankfort, Ky., on Aug. 21. Ms. Romero, a cleaning woman, had been
placed in isolation for not eating, according to local newspaper reports.
Though she was being held for deportation, federal officials now disagree
whether she was legally in immigration custody when she died. The list no
longer distinguishes between where the detainee was last held and where the
death occurred. Sometimes it cites the hospital where a dying detainee was
taken, but not the jail involved, and sometimes the reverse. Some information
has been changed without explanation. For example, the cause of death for
Boubacar Bah, 52, who was held at the Corrections Corporation of America
detention center in Elizabeth, N.J., previously was listed as “brain hemorrhage,
fractured skull” and now reads “undetermined.” The government has reported
one more death since the list was issued, bringing the known total to 92:
that of Roberto Martinez Medina, 39, of Mexico, who had been held at the
Correction Corporation’s Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga. He died
March 11 at St. Francis Hospital in Columbus, Ga., apparently of a heart
attack. There are more than 500 detention centers around the country, but one
private operator, the Correction Corporation, had at least 18 deaths,
including eight at its Eloy, Ariz., center alone, three of those since July
2008. The 18 Correction Corporation deaths include one in 2004 that the new
list mistakenly places at the “Jefferson County jail.” After correcting for
such errors, The Times counted 32 of the 92 deaths at jails run by private
companies; 37 of them at county or regional jails, and 20 at federally run
detention centers. The remaining 3 deaths fall into other categories. That
breakdown differs from one provided at a March 3 House subcommittee hearing
that cited only six deaths in private facilities. That low figure was based
on a classification supplied by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which
reflected who owned the jail building and the type of government contract in
effect, not the operator. Both lists sometimes obscure who was operating
detention centers where people died, or even in which state a death occurred.
A 2007 death first listed at the Otero County jail, in New Mexico, is now
incorrectly placed at “El Paso SPC,” referring to a service processing center
in Texas. The Otero County jail, where there was another death in 2008, is
operated by Management and Training Corporation, a private company. Of the 92
people who died in detention, 21 were from Cuba, 19 from Mexico, 6 each from
Guatemala and Honduras, 5 from El Salvador, three each from Colombia, Haiti
and Jamaica; two each from Ghana, Guinea, India, Korea and one each from 18
other countries, including Germany, Brazil, Afghanistan and the Philippines.
Readers with information about the men and women listed on the document, or
with knowledge of other deaths in immigration detention, can contact The
Times by using this link.
March 26, 2009 Houston Chronicle
If you were to stop on a street corner anywhere in America and knowingly
hire an illegal immigrant to do your laundry or clean your basement, you
would be breaking the law. But for years, the federal government has been
paying immigration detainees $1 a day to perform menial work in the nation’s
public and private detention centers. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
officials insist there is no double standard, saying the Voluntary Work
Program offers detainees a break from the monotony of incarceration and a
chance to earn money while they are locked up. Rutgers University criminal
justice professor Michael Welch called the program a “paradox.” “It’s ironic
that these undocumented immigrants are barred from working legally in the
community, but while behind bars, they are not only allowed but encouraged to
work for a dollar a day,” Welch said. ICE officials have found an eager work
force in their growing network of detention centers, which house an estimated
400,000 immigrants annually. The agency does not track participation in the
work program on a national level, said ICE spokesman Gregory Palmore, though
more than 11,000 detainees participated last fiscal year at one Houston
detention center alone. Immigrant advocates offered general support for the
program, saying it at least gives detainees an opportunity to pass the time
by doing something other than sitting in a cell. But the irony of the program
is not lost on some. “Why can the U.S. government hire undocumented
immigrants? And not only hire them, but get a day’s work for a dollar?” said
Brittney Nystrom, senior legal advisor at the National Immigration Forum, an
immigrant advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. “It really is an
absurdity.” ICE says program legal -- ICE officials say the program is
perfectly legal. There is no specific statute, regulation or executive order
authorizing the program, ICE said in a statement. The program “does not
constitute employment and is done by detainees on a voluntary basis for a
small stipend,” according to ICE. Nystrom had a hard time buying that legal
explanation, citing ICE’s own detention standards, which describe the program
as providing “monetary compensation for work completed.” “That sounds like
employment to me,” Nystrom said. Variety of jobs performed -- At Houston’s
Contract Detention Facility on the city’s north side, about 200 immigration
detainees are currently participating in the work program, performing jobs
including cleaning and washing dishes, laundry, and maintenance of the
facility, according to ICE. Others jobs include working as a barber and
helping in the medical clinic, law library or commissary. ICE officials said
no detainees from the Houston facility performed work outside of the
detention center grounds. The Houston detention center is owned and operated
by Corrections Corporation of America, one of the nation’s largest private
prison companies. CCA’s warden in Houston, Robert Lacy, referred questions
about the program to ICE. Work programs are commonplace in state and federal
prisons. The lowest-paying jobs in the Federal Bureau of Prison system, such
as cleaning and grounds keeping, pay 12 to 40 cents per hour. In its
statement, ICE officials said the program gives detainees “an opportunity to
be gainfully occupied on a voluntary basis.” The agency added that perhaps
the most important benefit from the program is “reducing inactivity and
disciplinary problems.”
January 13, 2009 Press Release
A report released today by the Southwest Institute for Research on Women
and the Bacon Immigration Law and Policy Program describes harsh conditions
of confinement for the roughly three hundred women housed in immigration
detention facilities in Arizona. The report, Unseen Prisoners: A Report on
Women in Immigration Detention Facilities in Arizona, is based on over a year
of research, including over 40 interviews with detainees, their family
members, attorneys, and service providers. “Few people realize that we are
locking up huge numbers of immigrants every day and holding them for months
and in some cases years at a time. They are not being punished for a crime,
and yet they are held in facilities that are identical to, and often double
as, prisons or jails,” said Nina Rabin, the lead researcher and author of the
report. “Women immigration detainees in particular are an invisible
population. We hope this report will raise awareness about women locked up
just an hour away from here in conditions that would shock most Americans. We
also hope to raise awareness about the U.S. citizen children separated from
their mothers right now because of immigration detention.” The report
provides detailed information about day-to-day life in the three facilities
that house women immigration detainees in Arizona: Central Arizona Detention
Center, Pinal County Jail, and Eloy Detention Center. Rabin and several University
of Arizona law students conducted interviews and extensive background
research for the report over a twelve month period between August 2007 and
August 2008. Rabin described the study’s participants: “In our small sample
size of detainees who agreed to participate in this research study, we
encountered pregnant and nursing mothers, domestic violence victims, low-wage
workers swept up in worksite raids, and asylum-seekers fleeing persecution
and sexual violence.” The federal agency in charge of the detention and
removal of immigrants, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), contracts
for two of the facilities to be run by the private prison company the
Corrections Corporation of America. In the case of Pinal County Jail, ICE
contracts with the county. ICE permitted the researchers access to two of the
three facilities, but declined requests to interview ICE representatives or
facility personnel for the report. Rabin met with ICE representatives in
December to discuss the report’s findings and recommendations. Key findings
of the report include: • Family separation: The majority of women interviewed
were separated from at least one U.S. citizen child under the age of 10 and
were transferred to Arizona from out of state. As a result, they were
hundreds or at times thousands of miles away from their families and
communities during their time in detention. • Severe penal conditions for
women who are not serving criminal sentences: Women described conditions of
confinement that are in many cases more restrictive than in county jails or
prisons, including limited access to recreation, a complete absence of
programming or activities, frugal provision of food and other supplies, and
the routine use of strip searches and shackling during transport. •
Aggressive government prosecution and detention of women who pose no security
threat or flight risk: Attorneys reported that ICE routinely appeals
decisions to release pregnant women on bond; rejects or does not respond to
applications for humanitarian parole of victims of domestic violence,
refugees, or women with serious health conditions; and refuses to reduce
bonds for families unable to pay. • Inadequate medical care: Women reported
inadequate gynecological and obstetrical care, long waits for medical
attention, and dismissive responses to medical requests. The report contains
detailed recommendations for Congress, the Department of Homeland Security,
ICE, and the individual facilities researched. Recommendations range from
broad policy changes, including the need for increased consideration of the
impact of immigration detention on families, to specific facility-level
concerns, such as the lack of outdoor recreation in Pinal County Jail. The
report will be available beginning on January 13, 2009, at http://www.law.arizona.edu/depts/clinics/ilc//UnseenPrisoners.pdf.
For more information, please contact Nina Rabin at (520) 621-9206 or
rabin@email.arizona.edu.
July 21, 2008 First Amendment Center
A bill before Congress would extend the Freedom of Information Act to
require private prisons contracted by the federal government to release
records under the same standards as federal prisons. The Private Prison
Information Act of 2007 (H.R. 1889), introduced by Rep. Tim Holden, D-Pa.,
would require private prisons and other correctional facilities under
contract with federal agencies to house federal prisoners to make their
records accessible under the same FOIA requirements that govern federal
prisons. An identical bill was introduced in the Senate (S. 2010) by Sen.
Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. Prison privatization has increased rapidly in the
face of growing concerns over overcrowding, safety and poor health care in
public institutions. Desire to control costs has also led to an increase in
privatization. However, privately owned and operated facilities are not
subject to the same FOIA scrutiny as public agencies. Although the press and
public can retrieve information about privately run prisons from the
Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
and other government agencies, private prisons remain largely outside the
scope of FOI laws. Of the almost 1.6 million prisoners in the United States
in June 2007, 7.4% of them were held in privately operated correctional
facilities, according to the June 2008 Bureau of Justice Statistics bulletin.
At last count, in 2000, the BJS reported 264 private facilities under state
and federal contracts used to house prisoners. And there were 5.4% more
prisoners in private facilities in June 2007 than in June 2006, according to
BJS. Private detention centers are also used to house immigrant detainees.
Two lawsuits filed in the last two months aim to force private prisons to
release records, including one filed by the American Civil Liberties Union
investigating the deaths of immigrant detainees in federal custody. In May
2008, The Washington Post ran a four-day series investigating medical
conditions in immigrant prisons. "Careless Detention" explored the
deaths of 83 prisoners and detainees in custody between March 2003 and May
2008. "Our correctional system is broken. It is overcrowded and
unsafe," said Mike Flynn, director of government affairs for the Reason
Foundation. "Contracting with private prisons gives us an ability to
better manage outcomes. I think contracts should require certain benchmarks,
like treatment programs, continuing education and job training." The
Reason Foundation is a nonprofit think tank that promotes "libertarian
principles, including individual liberty, free markets, and the rule of
law," according to its Web site. The largest private
corrections-management service in the U.S. is Corrections Corporation of
America, which is headquartered in Nashville. CCA posted $35 million in
profits during the first quarter of 2008, according to a company press
release. CCA and other private corrections companies have seen rapid growth
from contracts with states and the federal government. The Los Angeles Times
reported in August 2007 that California state officials had signed a contract
with CCA to hold about 4,000 prisoners for $63 per prisoner, per day. It
would cost the state an average of $123 per prisoner, per day in a state
prison. As private corrections companies grow, so do questions about their
methods, success and profitability. The recent lawsuits seek answers to some
of those questions. The ACLU filed an FOI lawsuit against the Department of
Homeland Security last month in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia after DHS failed to turn over documents related to the deaths of
immigrants held in public and private detention centers. The lawsuit also
named Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Office of the Inspector
General for DHS. "DHS must not be allowed to keep information about
in-custody deaths secret," said Elizabeth Alexander, director of the
ACLU National Prison Project, in a press release. "It is imperative that
ICE be held publicly accountable." Prison Legal News, a monthly magazine
that covers prison issues, filed a lawsuit against CCA in a Tennessee court on
May 19 after CCA did not respond to a public-records request. The lawsuit,
Friedmann v. CCA, argues that CCA performs a public function, and its records
should be public. In 2002, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that a private
company performing a public function must make its records available to the
public under the Tennessee Public Records Act. In Memphis Publishing Company
v. Cherokee Children & Family Services, the court ruled that a nonprofit
social service agency under state contract had to turn its records over to
the Memphis Commercial Appeal because it was the "functional
equivalent" of a government agency. "Public agencies cannot
contract away the public's ability to review records that otherwise would be
publicly accessibly under the state's open records law," said Paul
Wright, editor of Prison Legal News, in a press release. "The public's
right to know is not delegable to private corporations." One FOI expert
applauded the congressional bills that would make private-prison companies
accountable to the federal FOIA. "I think that is a long-overdue
fix," Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of
Information coalition, said of the Private Prison Information Act of 2007.
"This is a problem on the state level. This would fix it at the federal
level in a way that would bring a whole lot of otherwise private operations
into public scrutiny. We've seen lots of anecdotal evidence over the past
decade for the need for public oversight and scrutiny." Some aspects of
private-prison contracts are already accessible under FOIA, however. Flynn of
the Reason Foundation argued that those provisions provide enough
information. "The federal agencies that manage the contract with the
private company are subject to the FOIA process. The agencies engage in
regular and ongoing oversight of the contract, usually having [their] own
employees in the facility full-time. All reports and studies from these
monitors are subject to the FOIA process. Terms of the contract with the
private company are subject to FOIA. Their progress in meeting any benchmarks
detailed in the contract are subject to FOIA," said Flynn. "If
there is relevant information that isn't available, it can be [added to]
terms of the contract and then be subject to FOIA. There is no limit to what
can be required to be disclosed to the agency, which would then be subject to
FOIA." Davis agreed that FOIA's coverage of contracts between the
government and private-prison companies was important, but said it didn't go
far enough. "The contract piece is important and FOIA does do a good job
with that," he said. "The contract data is just a sliver of the
overall picture of what people should rightly have access to … . The vast majority of the information isn't
covered." Davis mentioned "inspection reports, incident reports
involving inmate violence, and just about any narrative report documenting
inmate treatment." If the ACLU's or Prison Legal News' lawsuit succeeds
in extracting records from private-prison corporations or if Congress passes the
Private Prison Information Act, an increase in information from these prisons
could bring light to a host of new issues. Some of these may well involve the
First Amendment. U.S. courts frequently address issues related to access to
publications, religious material, special diets and other claims of First
Amendment violations from prisoners. "I think you could get better
protections," said Flynn when asked about the First Amendment rights of
prisoners in private facilities, "because they can be detailed in a contract
with the private company. These protections can be mandated into the contract
rather than litigated later." "The best part about having this
information is that we would be able to act on it. Private companies can be
fired. Public facilities cannot," Flynn said. Said Davis, "When you
start getting the human narrative of incident reports, what's going on in
these prisons on a day to day basis, they could be rife with corruption or
running like a Swiss cruise ship."
July 3, 2008 New York Times
The federal immigration agency should report all deaths in detention
promptly, not only to the inspector general for the Department of Homeland
Security, but also to state authorities where required by law, the inspector
general has recommended after a “special review” of the deaths of two
immigrant detainees. The detainees — a 60-year-old South Korean woman in
Albuquerque and a 30-year-old Ecuadorean woman in St. Paul — were among
dozens whose deaths in the custody of the agency, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, have drawn scrutiny in the past year. Congress, advocates for
immigrants and the news media have highlighted the lack of systematic
accountability in such cases, and documented problems with the medical care
provided in the detention system, a patchwork of county jails, privately run
prisons and federal facilities. Both detainees died because of serious
medical conditions that existed before they were detained. But the review
found that the cases pointed to larger problems with oversight and medical care,
including the failure to recognize or act on serious health care deficiencies
in both detention centers that had been documented by routine inspections.
The 55-page report, released Tuesday, did not name the two detainees, but one
was Young Sook Kim, a cook who died of metastasized pancreatic cancer on
Sept. 11, 2006, a day after she was taken to a hospital from the Regional
Correctional Center in Albuquerque, a county prison operated by the Cornell
Companies. A complaint to the inspector general’s hot line, testimony by a
former employee, and an affidavit from a fellow detainee all contended that
Ms. Kim had pleaded in vain for medical attention. The review found that it
was already too late to save her life, and that Cornell clinical records
showed the staff had responded to her written medical requests — albeit only
by giving her antacid tablets when she complained of stomach pain. But the
review confirmed complaints that Cornell was slow to deal with sick calls
because of a nursing shortage: a government inspection in September 2006
found ailing detainees had to wait for as long as 30 days to see the medical
staff. That inspection, by the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee, also
found that only 11 of 20 detainees with chronic conditions were regularly
scheduled for chronic care clinics, and that its policies did not fulfill
requirements to notify the Homeland Security Department — the system’s parent
agency — or the Justice Department of deaths. Ms. Kim’s death was not
reported, as required, to state medical investigators. The immigration agency
initially maintained that the county should have reported the death, but on
Wednesday, a spokeswoman, Kelly Nantel, said that
“as a result of the report,” the agency has directed that all deaths be
reported to the appropriate state and federal authorities. The report also
urged the immigration agency to pool information with the detention trustee.
In September 2006, it noted, trustee inspectors gave the Albuquerque prison
the lowest overall rating, “at risk” — two levels below acceptable. But
because the two agencies do not routinely share information, the report said,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed some 3,500 more detainees at the
facility. Last August, the immigration agency removed all detainees after its
inspectors found a host of other problems, including an inadequate suicide
watch. The Minnesota case involved Maria Inamagua Merchan, a department store worker who was detained in
the Ramsey County jail and died in April 2006. For more than a month, her
persistent headaches had been treated only with Tylenol; when she fell from a
bunk bed, several hours passed before she was taken to the hospital, where
physicians diagnosed neurocysticercosis, an infection of the brain by larvae
of the pork tapeworm. “We cannot determine with certainty whether this death
could have been avoided had the detainee received immediate medical attention
for head trauma,” the report said, after praising the authorities for
promptly reporting the incident and for notifying the Consulate of Ecuador
and the detainee’s spouse. But it recommended better medical screening and
education about the parasite, which is endemic in parts of Latin America.
June 25, 2008 Press Release
The American Civil Liberties Union today sued the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the DHS Office
of the Inspector General (OIG) for refusing to turn over thousands of public
documents in their possession detailing the deaths of immigration detainees
held in U.S. custody. The federal lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court
for the District of Columbia, comes after repeated rejections by DHS
officials of requests by the ACLU for critical information about the deaths
of dozens of people in immigration detention. The lawsuit seeks a court order
requiring DHS to expedite the processing of the document request and conduct
a reasonable search of the records in its possession in an effort to fully
comply with the ACLU’s requests. “We know that the medical care provided in
many immigration detention centers is grossly inadequate and has resulted in
unnecessary suffering and death,” said Elizabeth Alexander, Director of the
ACLU National Prison Project. “DHS must not be allowed to keep information
about in-custody deaths secret. It is imperative that ICE be held publicly
accountable when it fails to provide the health care mandated by the U.S.
Constitution.” Deficient medical care is believed to be a leading cause of
death in immigration detention, and is the number one complaint the ACLU has
received from ICE detainees. The ACLU filed a lawsuit last year against the
San Diego Correctional Facility (SDCF), an ICE facility run by Corrections
Corporations of America, Inc. (CCA), the country’s largest for-profit correctional
services provider. In its lawsuit, the ACLU challenges flawed medical care
policies and the denial of needed treatment by ICE and the Division of
Immigration Health Services which has led to excruciating suffering and even
death of numerous detainees at SDCF. In its Freedom of Information Act
request submitted to DHS last year, the ACLU requested information about
whether ICE – or any independent monitoring agency – adequately tracks deaths
of immigration detainees, who are often housed in county jails around the
country alongside criminal detainees, or in one of numerous immigration
detention facilities managed by private prison companies. Past OIG reports to
Congress have contained only vague and sporadic references to investigations
into these deaths, and provide little useful information that would ensure
the public that meaningful investigations are conducted into each death and
that steps are being taken to guarantee that detainees receive necessary
medical services before it is too late. “Unless ICE exhibits full
transparency by releasing all of the information that we have requested, we
are left little choice but to believe that it has something to hide,”
Alexander said. Attorneys on the case include Tom Jawetz
of the ACLU National Prison Project, Judy Rabinovitz
of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, New York-based attorneys Natalie N. Kuehler and Benjamin R. Walker and Washington-based
attorneys Margaret K. Pfeiffer and Lee Ann Anderson McCall. A copy of the
ACLU lawsuit filed today can be found online at:
www.aclu.org/immigrants/detention/35774lgl20080625.html A copy of the
original FOIA request filed by the ACLU can be found online at:
www.aclu.org/immigrants/detention/30260res20070627.html Additional
information about the ACLU National Prison Project can be found online at:
www.aclu.org/prison/index.html
June 5, 2008 San Diego Union-Tribune
A class-action lawsuit alleging chronic overcrowding at an immigration jail
in Otay Mesa was settled yesterday. The lawsuit
said the overcrowding at the facility, run by Corrections Corp. of America
for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, subjected immigration violators
to health and safety risks. It also alleged the conditions violated
due-process rights under the Constitution. Before the suit was filed in
January 2007, the jail was so overcrowded it was “triple celling” hundreds of
detainees, the suit alleged. That involved putting three people into cells
designed for two, with the third sleeping on the cell floor in a plastic
shell or “boat.” The facility housed 1,000 people at one point. After the
suit was filed, federal authorities moved out more than 100 inmates,
according to the American Civil Liberties Union. According to Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, the facility now holds no more than 700 people. The
settlement agreement requires that detainee populations not exceed specified
limits for the next three years. Corrections Corp.of
America will have to show it is within the caps three times between now and
January. If the requirements are met, the suit will be dropped. The
settlement agreement is subject to approval by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw. A spokesman for Corrections Corp.of
America directed requests for comment to the Department of Homeland Security,
the parent agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A spokeswoman for
ICE said the agency has not admitted fault. “The parties agree by settling
the case that there is no admission of wrongdoing, and ICE maintains that the
agency houses its immigration detainee population, including those at the San
Diego CCA facility, in a safe and secure environment that is in compliance
with its national detention standards,” said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for
the agency in San Diego. David Blair-Loy, legal director for the ACLU in San
Diego, said the lawsuit achieved the goal of stopping poor conditions for
immigration detainees. “The population was at a very high level before we
appeared in the case,” Blair-Loy said. “And after we appeared they reduced it
and then maintained that for a year and a half.”
June 1, 2008 Chicago Tribune
Yanira Castaneda weeps at the empty space in her living room where she spent
a year caring for her brother, who died last February at 36, a loss for which
she blames the U.S. government. Francisco Castaneda had been in a federal
immigrant detention center because he was an illegal immigrant with a drug
conviction. During his 10-month stay, his signs of cancer went untreated
until the facility made him a free, but sick, man. He died a year later.
"If they do a crime, they should do their time, but take care of
them," said a tearful Yanira Castaneda, 35, whose family in the Los
Angeles area is continuing her brother's lawsuit against the government.
"I think my brother could have been saved." His death is part of a
growing body count linked to the nation's beefed-up detention system,
alarming lawmakers and emerging as the newest Immigration controversy in a
spate of Capitol hearings and media exposés. Federal Immigration officials
say critics are exaggerating the problems. In the case of Castaneda, who fled
El Salvador's civil war at age 10 with his family, the U.S. government in
April admitted negligence. After federal authorities released him last year
with signs of penile cancer, doctors had to amputate that organ in February
2007. But it was too late. Since 2003, when the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agency was created, 83 deaths reportedly have been linked to
detention sites run by ICE or by private contractors and local governments,
including one detainee with coronary artery disease in a Chicago detention
center and a suicide in McHenry County Jail. ICE said last month that it
counted 71 deaths since 2004, but no public reporting requirements exist.
Infrastructure expanded -- Unable to resolve what to do with the nation's 12
million illegal immigrants, Congress authorized ICE to build a vast detention
infrastructure that now holds more than 300,000 detainees a year. The
expansion, to 32,000 beds from 19,444 in 2004, has been fueled by recent
crackdowns such as the end of the "catch-and-release" of
unauthorized immigrants, experts say. "No bureaucracy can respond
quickly to the sort of dramatic change that the country has seen with
Immigration enforcement and detention over the last decade or so," said
Louis DeSipio, associate professor at the
University of California at Irvine. As the largest investigative arm of the
Department of Homeland Security, ICE "was ramping up quickly and wanted
to show or impress Congress that it was responding rapidly, but it didn't
respond to these other needs" such as medical care, DeSipio
said. Last month, legislation was introduced to mandate health-care standards
— now voluntary—in the more than 300 ICE detention facilities. It also would
require all deaths be reported to Congress. But ICE officials contend that
"detainees' health care is equal to or better than that provided to U.S.
citizens in custody," according to statements in response to news reports.
The death rate for detained immigrants is "dramatically lower" than
that of U.S. prisons and jails, federal officials say. The 2005 rate was 6.8
deaths per 100,000 in ICE facilities compared with 540.5 per 100,000 in U.S.
prisons and jails, according to the agency. Its 2007 death rate dropped to
3.5 per 100,000, officials said. "ICE is committed to providing all
detainees in our care with humane and safe detention environments and
ensuring that adequate medical services are available," said spokesman
Richard Rocha. Last year the government spent almost $100 million on detainee
health care, double the amount from five years ago, and did 184,448 medical
screenings, with many detainees receiving health care for the first time,
Rocha said. But Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), chairwoman of a subcommittee
looking at detention medical care, contended that ICE failed to fix its
health system even after hearings last October. "If [ICE officials] say
they meet these standards, they are not to be relied on. I'm often disappointed
that what they say is true turns out not to be correct," said Lofgren,
who asserted that some detainees died because staffers withheld required
medicine. She said some medical procedures recommended by physicians have to
be reviewed in Washington by "a non-physician who's never seen the
patient." "The policies themselves foster poor medical care,"
she said. "No matter where you are on the spectrum of Immigration
reform, you got people in custody. You can't kill them." Tom Jawetz, an attorney for the ACLU's National Prison
Project, said the ICE figures don't include ill individuals who die after
being deported or released. Lawsuits filed -- In the wake of the detention
buildup, Jawetz began filing class-action lawsuits
against ICE last year, including one alleging overcrowding and another for
deficient health care at the same 800-bed facility in Otay
Mesa, Calif. That center is operated by the private Corrections Corporation
of America, which is seeking a second facility with 3,000 beds there for an
as-yet undisclosed use. In court documents, Francisco Castaneda alleged ICE
released him "presumably" to avoid the cost of cancer treatment.
"I can tell you that Castaneda is a perfect example of why the [death]
numbers are skewed," said Castaneda's lawyer, Conal
Doyle. Human-rights advocate Homer Venters said ICE's figure of one out of
every three detainees having pre-existing chronic conditions shows the agency
needs a model for chronic health care, not just acute care. Detainees'
average stay of 37.5 days makes comparisons to U.S. prisons' death rates
"unduly rosy," according to Venters and Allen Keller, a physician
and the director of New York University's School of Medicine Center for
Health and Human Rights. To improve care, the federal agency has recruited non-governmental
groups and experts to rewrite detention standards, and has hired two firms to
inspect how centers are managed. "While a single death of an ICE
detainee is a serious matter," ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel
said, "we strive to maintain safe, secure and humane detention
conditions and to ensure that all detainees receive quality health
care."
May 11, 2008 Washington Post
At the agency in Washington responsible for foreign detainees' medical
care, internal documents reveal a tendency to conceal the truth by
withholding complete medical records or by offering misleading public
explanations. But e-mail exchanges speak for themselves in the death of
Francisco Castaneda. Castaneda's family had fled the civil war in El Salvador
when he was 10 years old, but his mother died of cancer before she could
obtain legal status for her children. Castaneda began working at 17 and
eventually got involved with drugs. After living for nearly a quarter-century
in Los Angeles, he was being deported after serving a four-month sentence for
drug possession. In March 2006, immigration officers took him into custody.
Medical staff members suspected that Castaneda, then 34, had penile cancer. A
lesion on his penis was bleeding and oozing. The staff sought approval for a
biopsy, but the Division of Immigration Health Services, or DIHS,
headquarters in Washington denied the procedure for 10 months. Along the way,
as he fought deportation, Castaneda filed several grievances. "I am in a
considerable amount of pain and I am in desperate need of medical
attention," he wrote in June. "I feel that I am entitled to a
healthy life." In July, David Lusche, a
physician assistant at the Otay Mesa facility in
California, where Castaneda was being held, realized that his grievances were
still pending and that an audit of the compound's medical files was
approaching. At 2:26 a.m. July 28, he e-mailed a colleague, asking him to
retrieve a handwritten grievance from Castaneda that Lusche
had left in a drawer in an examining room. "We need to write something
different, or make some amendment, on the Grievance for Francisco
Castaneda," Lusche wrote. ". . . Your
response starts, 'Grievance not resolved.' Those words are going to attract
all kinds of attention during an ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]
Jail Standards audit. . . . Could you somehow 'patch up' that Grievance with
an amendment then put it in my box. I just want to avoid problems when the
Auditors show up." Anthony Walker, a physician assistant at Otay Mesa, responded at 10:10 a.m. the next day:
"But it is true, unfortunately, this is a case where his grievance is
correct and I don't blame the detainee." After pressure from the
American Civil Liberties Union, a biopsy was finally scheduled for early
February 2007. But immigration officials suddenly released Castaneda from
custody days before the surgery, sparing the agency the cost. When the DIHS
medical director, Timothy T. Shack, was asked to review the case, he
concluded: "I looked over about 200 pages of medical records for this
case. In my opinion, the care provided to this detainee was, and is, timely
and appropriate." One week later after the review, UCLA doctors gave
Castaneda a diagnosis of invasive squamous cell carcinoma. On Valentine's
Day, surgeons amputated his penis. In October, after rounds of chemotherapy,
he testified before a congressional panel looking into detainee medical care.
"I am a 35-year-old man without a penis with my life on the line,"
he said. "I have a young daughter, Vanessa, who is only 14. She is here
with me today because she wanted to support me -- and because I wanted her to
see her father do something for the greater good, so that she will have that
memory of me. The thought that her pain -- and mine -- could have been
avoided almost makes this too much to bear." On Feb. 16, 2008, Castaneda
died. U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson denied a government request to
dismiss the lawsuit brought on Castaneda's behalf. In his March 11 ruling,
the judge said lawyers had "submitted powerful evidence that Defendants
knew Castaneda needed a biopsy to rule out cancer, falsely stated that his
doctors called the biopsy 'elective,' and let him suffer in extreme pain for
almost one year while telling him to be 'patient' and treating him with
Ibuprofen, antihistamines, and extra pairs of boxer shorts." Pregerson
added: "Defendants' own records bespeak of conduct that transcends
negligence by miles. It bespeaks of conduct that, if true, should be taught
to every law student as conduct for which the moniker 'cruel' is
inadequate."
May 11, 2008 Washington Post
Neil Sampson, who ran the DIHS as interim director most of last year, left
that job with serious questions about the government's commitment. Sampson
said in an interview that ICE treated detainee health care "as an
afterthought," reflecting what he called a failure of leadership and
management at the Homeland Security Department. "They do not have a
clear idea or philosophy of their approach to health care [for
detainees]," he said. "It's a system failure, not a failure of
individuals." A new director for health services arrived six months ago,
following a stretch when the agency was run first by Sampson and then by a
second interim director. The new boss is LaMont W.
Flanagan, who brought with him the credential of having been fired in 2003 by
the state of Maryland for bad management and spending practices supervising
detention and pretrial services. An audit found that Flanagan had signed off
on payments of $145,000 for employee entertainment and other ill-advised
expenditures. His reputation was such that the District of Columbia would not
hire him for a juvenile-justice position. "Another death that needs to
be added to the roster," Diane Aker, the DIHS chief health
administrator, tapped out in an e-mail to a records clerk at headquarters on
Aug. 14, 2007. Juan Guevara-Lorano, 21, was dead.
Guevara, an unemployed legal U.S. resident with a young son, was arrested in
El Paso for driving illegal border-crossers farther into the city. He was
paid $50. An entry-level emergency medical technician, with barely any
training, had done Guevara's intake screening and physical assessment at the
Otero County immigration compound in New Mexico. Under DIHS rules, those
tasks are supposed to be done by a nurse. After two difficult months in
detention, Guevara had decided not to appeal his case. He would go back to
Mexico with his family. But on Aug. 4, he came down with a splitting
headache, what he called a nine on a pain scale of 10, his medical records
show. The rookie medical technician prescribed Tylenol and referred Guevara
to the compound's physician "due to severity of headache ... and
dizziness," according to medical records. But Guevara never saw a
doctor. Eight days after the first incident, he vomited in his cell. The same
junior technician came to help but was unable to insert a nasal airway tube.
Guevara was taken to a hospital, where doctors determined an aneurism in his
brain had burst. His wife, pregnant at the time with their second child,
recalled that she rushed to the hospital but ICE guards would not let her
inside, until the Mexican Consulate interceded. Guevara's mother waited five
hours before they let her in. By then he was brain-dead. "My son is not
coming back," sobbed Ana Celia Lozano months later, sitting in Guevara's
small mobile home as her grandson played on the floor. "I want to know
how he lived and died, nothing more." What appears to be the most
incriminating document in Guevara's case has been partially blacked out.
Still, what is left shows that he did not receive adequate care. "The
detainee was not seen or evaluated by an RN, midlevel or physician. . . . At
the time of the incident on 8/12/2007, the detainee was seen and examined by
EMTs." Each immigration facility is allotted a different number of
positions, and a shortage of doctors and nurses is not unusual at centers
across the country. Records from February show that about 30 percent of all
DIHS positions in the field were unfilled. ICE officials said last week that
the current vacancy rate is 21 percent. Concern about the vacancies is voiced
repeatedly at clinical directors' meetings. "How do we state our
concerns so that we can be heard? . . . this is a CRITICAL condition. . . . We have bitten off more than we can chew," a
physician wrote in the minutes of one meeting last summer. In some prisons,
the staffing shortages are acute. The Willacy County detention center in
South Texas -- the largest compound, with 2,018 detainees -- has no clinical
director, no pharmacist and only a part-time psychiatrist. Nearly 50 percent
of the nursing positions were unfilled at the 1,500-detainee Eloy, Ariz.,
prison in February. At the newly opened 744-bed Jena., La., compound, nurses
run the place. It has no clinical director, no staff physician, no psychiatrist
and no professional dental staff. Last August, Sampson, who was then DIHS
interim director, warned his superiors at ICE that critical personnel
shortages were making it impossible to staff the Jena facility adequately. In
a vociferous e-mail to Gary Mead, the ICE deputy director in charge of
detention centers, he wrote: "With the Jena request we have been
re-examining our capabilities to meet health care needs at a new site when we
are facing critical staffing shortages at most every other DIHS site. While
we developed, executed and achieved major successes in our recruitment
efforts we have been unable to meet the demand." The slow ICE
security-clearance process forced many job applicants to go elsewhere,
Sampson wrote. Of the 312 people who applied for new positions over the past
year, 200 withdrew, he wrote, because they found other jobs during the 250
days it took ICE, on average, to conduct the required background
investigations. Last week, ICE officials said the average wait had decreased
recently to 37 days. These shortages have burdened the remaining staff. In
July 2007, a year after Osman's death in Otay Mesa,
medical director Hui strongly complained to headquarters about workload
stress. "The level of burnout . . . is high and rising," she wrote
in an e-mail. "I know that I have been averaging approximately 2-6 hrs of overtime daily for the past 2 months. I will no
longer be able to sustain this pace and will be decreasing the number of
hours that I work overtime. This being said, more will be left undone because
we simply do NOT have the staff." The overcrowding has created a petri
dish for the spread of diseases. One mission of the Public Health Service is
to detect infectious diseases and contain them before they spread, but last
summer, the gigantic Willacy center was hit by a chicken pox outbreak. The
illness spread because the facility did not have enough available isolation
rooms and its large pods share recycled air, but also because security
officers "lack education about the disease and keep moving around
detainees from different units without taking into consideration if the unit
has been isolated due to heavy exposure," noted the DIHS's top
specialist on infectious diseases, Carlos Duchesne. The staff was forced to
vaccinate the entire population in mid-July. In one 2007 death, memos and
confidential notes show how medical staff missed an infectious disease,
meningitis, in their midst. Victor Alfonso Arellano, 23, a transgender
Mexican detainee with AIDS, died in custody at the San Pedro center. The
first three pages of Duchesne's internal review of the death leave the
impression that Arellano's care was proper. But the last page, under the
heading "Off the record observations and recommendations," takes a
decidedly critical tone: "The clinical staff at all levels fails to
recognize early signs and symptoms of meningitis. . . . Pt was evaluated
multiple times and an effort to rule out those infections was not even
mentioned." Arellano was given a "completely useless" antibiotic,
Duchesne wrote. Lab work that should have been performed immediately took 22
days because San Pedro's clinical director had ordered staff members to
withhold lab work for new detainees until they had been in detention there
"for more than 30 days," a violation of agency rules. "I am
sure that there must be a reason why this was mandated but that practice is
particularly dangerous with chronic care cases and specially is particularly
dangerous with . . . HIV/AIDS patients," Duchesne wrote. "Labs for AIDS
patients . . . must be performed ASAP to know their immune status and where
you are standing in reference to disease control and meds." Given the
frequency with which ICE moves people within the detention network, keeping
track of detainees is critical to stopping the spread of infectious
illnesses. The purchase of an electronic records system named CaseTrakker in 2004 was supposed to help. But according
to internal documents and interviews, CaseTrakker
is so riddled with problems that facilities often revert to handwritten
records. A study at one site found that it took one-third more time to use CaseTrakker than to use paper. Thousands of patient files
are missing. Recorded data often cannot be retrieved. Day-long outages are
common. When detainees are transferred from one facility to another, their
records, if they follow them, are often misleading. Some show medications
with no medical diagnoses, or "lots of diagnoses but no meds,"
according to Elizabeth Fleming, a former clinical director at one compound in
Arizona. After Yusif Osman's death and the
discovery of the problem with his computerized records, the DIHS ordered a
review of all charts at the Otay Mesa center.
During the review, auditors also found that 260 physical exams were never
completed as required. The nurse responsible for the error in Osman's case
was reprimanded, but the computer problem was not fixed. The CaseTrakker system "has failed and must be
replaced," Sampson, the DIHS interim director, wrote to his ICE
supervisors in August. In January 2008, medical director Shack told
colleagues that CaseTrakker "is more of a
liability than the use of paper medical record system," according to the
minutes of a meeting. It "puts patients at risk." ICE officials
said last week that they are not satisfied with CaseTrakker
and are working to replace it. Along with being at the mercy of computer
glitches, detainees suffer from human errors that deny or delay their care.
And with few advocates on the outside, they are left alone to plead their
cases in the most desperate ways, in hand-scribbled notes to doctors they
rarely see. "I need medicine for pain. All my bones hurt. Thank
you," wrote Mexico native Roberto Ledesma Guerrero, 72, three weeks
before he died inside the Otay Mesa compound.
Delays persist throughout the system. In January, the detention center in
Pearsall, Tex., an hour from San Antonio, had a backlog of 2,097
appointments. Luis Dubegel-Paez, a 60-year-old
Cuban, had filled out many sick call requests before he died on March 14.
Detained at the Rolling Plains Detention Facility in the West Texas town of
Haskell, he wrote on New Year's Day: "need to see doctor for Heart
medication; and having chest pains for the past three days. Can't stand
pain." Ten days later he went to the clinic and became upset when he
wasn't seen. He slugged the window, yelled, pointed at his wristwatch. He was
escorted back to his cell. Another of his sick call requests said: "Need
to see a doctor. I have a lot of symptoms of sickness ... as soon as
possible!" The next was more urgent: "I have a emergency to see the doctor about my heart
problems ... for the last couple days and I been getting dizzy a lot."
The next day, Dubegel-Paez collapsed and died. His
medical records do not show that he ever saw a doctor for his chest pains.
August 31, 2007 Government Executive
Federal officials reported this week that they have reviewed contracts
with private security firms hired to guard federal facilities and have made
overdue payments to them. But a lawmaker said she will continue to monitor
the situation. A report released by the Homeland Security Department's
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the bureau paid more than $2.6
million in undisputed claims by Aug. 3, and planned to review another $3.8
million of disputed invoices. But Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said
the House Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and
Emergency Management, which she chairs, will continue to monitor the disputed
claims. Norton said that reforms at ICE -- including appointing an ombudsman
to oversee the bureau's invoicing system and providing training for contract
guard vendors -- will help "eliminate security risks to federal
employees where they work." The report detailed steps the agency had
taken since July to solve problems with its invoicing system. ICE has
appointed additional financial personnel to "provide hands-on
support" to the Federal Protective Service, the agency responsible for
managing contract guards. ICE also sent a memo on July 30 to all its contract
guard vendors on new consolidated invoice procedures and instituted weekly
status reports and conference calls to assess progress on contract guard
payments. The report says the agency would continue to make adjustments
"if needed." Norton requested the ICE report to assess progress on
paying contract guards, some of whom claimed in July that they had gone into
bankruptcy or been forced to borrow money because the government did not pay
them in a timely manner. Some vendors found it difficult to meet their
payroll requirements as a result. "This large amount in overdue,
undisputed claims from FPS endangered security at federal sites because it
carried the risk that guards would fail to show up for work," Norton
said. Norton also has proposed the Federal Protective Service Guard
Contracting Reform Act, which would prohibit the federal government from
contracting with companies owned, controlled or operated by people who have
been convicted of felonies. Norton wrote the bill in response to the
discovery that STARTECH International Security, a private guard vendor, had
received funds from the government but had not paid its employees. STARTECH's
owner had served time in prison for fraud. The bill has passed the
subcommittee and will face full committee review in September.
March 6, 2006 USA Today
The guards have taken their concerns to Congress, describing inadequate
training, failed security tests and slow or confused reactions to bomb and
biological threats. For instance, when an envelope with suspicious powder was
opened last fall at Homeland Security Department headquarters, guards said
they watched in amazement as superiors carried it by the office of Secretary
Michael Chertoff, took it outside and then shook it outside Chertoff's window
without evacuating people nearby. The scare, caused by white powder that
proved to be harmless, "stands as one glaring example" of the
agency's security problems, said Derrick Daniels, one of the first guards to
respond to the incident. "I had never previously been given training ...
describing how to respond to a possible chemical attack," Daniels told
The Associated Press. "I wouldn't feel safe nowhere on this compound as
an officer." Daniels was employed until last fall by Wackenhut Services
Inc., the private security firm that guards Homeland's headquarters in a
residential area of Washington. The company has been criticized previously
for its work at nuclear facilities and transporting nuclear weapons. Homeland
Security officials say they have little control over Wackenhut's training of
guards but plan to improve that with a new contract. The company defends its
performance, saying the suspicious powder incident was overblown because the
mail had already been irradiated. Two senators who fielded complaints from
several Wackenhut employees are asking Homeland's internal watchdog, the
inspector general, to investigate. "If the allegations brought forward
by the whistle-blowers are correct, they represent both a security threat and
a waste of taxpayer dollars," Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan of North
Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote. "It would be ironic, to say the
least, if DHS were unable to secure its own headquarters." Daniels left
Wackenhut and now works security for another company at another federal
building. He is among 14 current and former Wackenhut employees — mostly
guards — who were interviewed by The Associated Press or submitted written
statements to Congress that were obtained by AP. A litany of problems were listed by the guards, whose pay ranges from $15.60 to
$23 an hour based on their position and level of security clearance. Among
their examples of lax security: •They have no training in responding to
attacks with weapons of mass destruction; •Chemical-sniffing dogs have been
replaced with ineffective equipment that falsely indicates the presence of
explosives. •Vehicle entrances to Homeland Security's complex are lightly
guarded; •Guards with radios have trouble hearing each other, or have no
radios, no batons and no pepper spray, leaving them with few options beyond lethal
force with their handguns. Over the last two years, the Energy Department
inspector general concluded that Wackenhut guards had thwarted simulated
terrorist attacks at a nuclear lab only after they were tipped off to the
test; and that guards also had improperly handled the transport of nuclear
and conventional weapons. Homeland Security is based at a gated, former Navy
campus in a college neighborhood — several miles from the heavily trafficked
streets that house the FBI, Capitol, Treasury Department and White House.
Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle said Wackenhut guards are still
operating under a contract signed with the Navy, and the agency has little
control over their training. A soon-to-be-implemented replacement contract
will impose new requirements on security guards, he said. Daniels, the former
guard who responded to the white powder incident, said the area where the
powder was found wasn't evacuated for more than an hour. Available biohazard
face shields went unused. Daniels said that after the envelope was taken
outside, and the order finally given to evacuate the potentially infected
area, employees had already gone to lunch and had to be rounded up and
quarantined. Former guard Bryan Adams recognized his inadequate training one
day last August, when an employee reported a suspicious bag in the parking
lot. "I didn't have a clue about what to do," he said. Adams said
he closed the vehicle checkpoint with a cone, walked over to the bag and
called superiors. Nobody cordoned off the area. Eventually, someone called a
federal bomb squad, which arrived more than an hour after the discovery.
"If the bag had, in fact, contained the explosive device that was
anticipated, the bomb could have detonated several times over in the hour
that the bag sat there," Adams said. The bag, it turned out, contained
gym clothes. Some guards who continue to work at Homeland, who would speak
only on condition of anonymity because of fear of losing their jobs, said
they knew of two instances in which individuals without identification got
into the sensitive complex. Another described how guards flunked a test by
the Secret Service, which sent vehicles into the compound with dummy
government identification tags hanging from inside mirrors. Guards cleared
such vehicles through on two occasions, this guard said, and one officer even
copied down the false information without realizing it was supposed to match
information on the employee's government badge. Marixa
Farrar, a former guard, said two guards always should have been stationed
inside the main building where Chertoff had his office, but she often was on
duty alone. One day last fall a fire alarm rang. As employees walked by
Farrar, they asked if this was a fire or a test. "There were no radios,
so I couldn't figure out if it was a serious alarm," she said. There was
no fire.
Department of Justice
Jul 9, 2021 capradio.org
As California Pushes To Eliminate Immigrant Detention Centers, New Report
Shines Light On Detainee Deaths
Detainees at U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in California and elsewhere
are at risk of preventable deaths due to poor medical care, according to a
new study from the University of Southern California. Advocates say the
problem has gotten worse during the pandemic, and they're pushing to
eliminate private detention facilities in the state. Seventy-one detainees
died while in ICE custody between 2011 and 2018, according to the study. Of
the 55 deaths that the authors could review, they found 78% involved a
violation of national standards for medical care in detention facilities. In
some cases, that meant abnormal vital signs being documented at more than one
medical check-up before the detainee was transferred to a hospital. These
detainees spent an average of 39 days in detention before their deaths. Their
mean age at death was 43 years old. Most did not have serious medical
conditions when they entered the facility. Autumn Gonzalez, an organizer with
advocacy group NorCal Resist, says the findings were not a surprise. "The
lack of human decency in how they treated people was pretty shocking to
me," she said, of working with people recently released from ICE
custody. "I'm constantly hearing stories of people who had really
serious long-term health issues that just went completely ignored the entire
time that they were in detention." ICE did not immediately respond to CapRadio's request for comment. A January study from the
University of California, Los Angeles found that ICE center detainee deaths
between 2019 and 2020 increased sevenfold, even as the average daily population
in the detention facilities decreased by nearly one-third during that time.
Researchers found that about half of the deaths during that period were due
to preventable causes such as influenza, COVID-19 and
suicide. The California Department of Justice also released a report in
January calling out inadequate conditions at ICE facilities. They looked at
the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Southern California, and found that the
facility "is understaffed, offers no meaningful therapy services,
provides delayed care, and fails to adequately handle detainees placed in
suicide watch, among other issues." "This is a longstanding issue,
which during COVID has sort of been exacerbated," said Lisa Knox, legal director
for the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. "We've long
known that detention is unsafe, and that particular the medical and mental
health services that are provided in detention facilities are
inadequate." California lawmakers are trying to improve the situation. A
bill that would require all private detention facility operators to comply
with state and local public health orders is currently moving through the
legislature and would take effect immediately if it's signed by Gov. Gavin
Newsom. Immigration advocates are also seeking to abolish all private prisons
and detention facilities in California. Newsom signed a bill in 2019 to phase
out these facilities. California would be prohibited from housing people in
these centers starting in 2028. But the bill is facing legal opposition from
the federal Department of Justice. California lawmakers wrote a letter to the
department last month asking them to let it stand. "A lot of
organizations are pushing the Biden administration to drop that challenge,
but we'll see," Gonzalez said. "They haven't been the allies that
we were hoping for." Advocates say the state can also reduce the number
of ICE detention deaths by ending the practice of transferring California
prison inmates to federal immigration custody when their sentences end.
District of Columbia
Justice Department to End Federal Contracts With
Private Prisons
In
the 1990s, Joe Biden bragged that his work in the U.S. Senate helped America
win the “War on Crime.” Decades later, one of his first acts as president
will be to undo one of the most potent symbols of that record. Included in a
raft of executive orders designed to address systemic racism in the housing
and criminal justice systems that Biden intends to sign on Tuesday afternoon
is an order ending the Department of Justice’s use of private prisons. Such
facilities, operated across the country, are a billion-dollar industry, paid
for with taxpayer money and often plagued by dehumanizing conditions for
inmates, minimal training of personnel, and work conditions that former
detainees liken to slave labor. “Mass incarceration imposes significant costs
on our society and community, while private prisons profiteer off federal
prisoners and have been found by the Department of Justice’s own inspector
general to be less safe and secure,” a senior administration official told
reporters on a briefing ahead of the announcement of the executive orders’
contents, calling the policy a “first step in his broader criminal justice
agenda.” “President Biden is committed to reducing mass incarceration while
making our communities safer,” the official said. “That starts with ending
the federal government’s reliance on private prisons.” As the architect of
the landmark legislation he once dubbed “The Biden
Crime Bill,” Biden spent much of the Democratic presidential primaries on the
back foot as rivals for the nomination attacked the law as a driving force
behind the modern carceral state. Amid nationwide protests over police
brutality against Black Americans and in favor of wide-scale criminal justice
reform over the summer, Biden expressed regret over some aspects of that
bill, which included funds for the vast expansion of America’s prison system, and vowed to undo the damage if elected. “‘I can’t
breath.’ It’s a wake-up
call for our nation, for all of us,” Biden said in June, quoting the dying
words of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man who was killed as a police
officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. “It’s not the first time
we’ve heard these words—they’re the same words we heard from Eric Garner when
his life was taken six years ago. But it’s time to listen to these words,
understand them, and respond to them with real action.” Under the order,
Biden directs the attorney general—as-yet-unconfirmed Judge Merrick
Garland—to not renew any Department of Justice contracts with privately
operated criminal detention facilities. The administration official said they
did not know exactly how much money would be saved by ending the use of
private prisons, but added cost savings were not
“the motivating factor.” “The motivating factor, however, was the fact that
private prisons, not only, you know, encouraged profiteering off of human
lives but more importantly had been shown by the Department of Justice Inspector
General report to be subpar in terms of safety and security for those
incarcerated and so that is the rationale for ending the contracts with
private private prisons,” the official said. “When
they come up for renewal, they won’t be renewed.” Under the Trump
administration, use of private prisons exploded as private prisons began
serving double duty as immigrant detention centers, where undocumented
immigrants—including those seeking legal asylum—frequently suffered from the
same inhumane conditions as other inmates. Asked by The Daily Beast whether
the order includes private prison facilities operated as immigrant detention
centers, which fall under the Department of Homeland Security’s authority, a
White House spokesperson clarified that the order only applies to the
Department of Justice.” Lobbying expenses and political donations by the
industry skyrocketed over the past four years, an indication that Biden’s
executive order may face stiff opposition from congressional recipients of
the industry’s largesse.
Jun 17, 2017 motherjones.com
Lawsuit Accuses Private Prison Company of Illegally Funding a Trump
Super-PAC
It’s no secret that President Donald Trump has been very good for private
prison executives. After the Justice Department announced earlier this year
that it would continue using private lockups—a reversal of an Obama policy
announced in 2016—prison companies’ stock prices soared. Now, a campaign
finance watchdog is suing to figure out whether one of these prison companies
influenced the Trump administration’s policy reversal by donating large sums
to a pro-Trump super-PAC during the 2016 presidential campaign. In August and
November, GEO Group, the country’s biggest private prison company, donated a
total of $225,000 through a subsidiary to a pro-Trump super-PAC, according to
campaign disclosures. The super-PAC, Rebuilding America Now, had been
heartily endorsed by the Trump team; Mike Pence said contributions to the
group would be “one of the best ways to stop Hillary Clinton and help elect
Donald Trump our next president.” But according to a lawsuit filed Thursday
by the Campaign Legal Center, the prison company’s decision to fund the
super-PAC allegedly violated federal law, which prohibits government
contractors from making political contributions. GEO Corrections Holdings
made a donation of $100,000 on August 19, just one day after the Obama
administration announced that it would phase out its use of private prisons
because of their high rates of violence. In November, before Election Day,
the GEO subsidiary made another donation to Rebuilding America Now. After
Trump’s inauguration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the
Justice Department would continue its relationship with private prisons. The
following month, GEO won a $110 million contract to build a federal immigrant
detention center in Texas. In its lawsuit, the Campaign Legal Center is
asking the Justice Department to turn over documents related to the
administration’s decision to keep working with private prisons. In
particular, the nonprofit watchdog is seeking records that might shed light
on whether the administration’s decision was influenced by GEO contributions
to the pro-Trump super-PAC. The Campaign Legal Center filed a Freedom of
Information Act request for these records more than three months ago. But the
Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has delayed the fulfillment of
the request, according to the lawsuit, which seeks to speed up the disclosure
process. “GEO made illegal contributions to influence the election, and now
DOJ is refusing to release the documents that might show whether the
Administration rewarded GEO for its illegal spending,” Adav
Noti, a senior director at the Campaign Legal
Center and a former associate general counsel for policy at the Federal
Election Commission, said in a statement. GEO Group denies the allegation
that its contributions broke campaign finance laws. “These are absolutely
baseless and meritless allegations. All of our company’s contributions have
been fully compliant with all applicable laws,” the company said in a
statement to Mother Jones. It defended its $110 million contract to build an
immigrant detention facility in Texas. “The contract we were awarded by the
Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Justice, was part of a
competitive procurement process which was initiated by the Obama
Administration in 2015.” It also noted that the Federal Bureau of Prisons has
worked with private prison companies since the 1990s.GEO noted in December
that its subsidiary’s super-PAC donations were legal because its subsidiary
“is a non-contracting legal entity and has no contracts with any federal
agency.” However, a page on USASpending.gov, a government website, suggests
the subsidiary did receive funds from a federal contract in the past. A
spokesman for the GEO Group told Mother Jones that the information on the
USASpending.gov page was incorrect and “GEO Corrections Holdings has never
held any federal contracts.” The Federal Election Commission has yet to weigh
in on the matter.
Apr 27, 2017 themarshallproject.org
Congressman Calls for Probe into Private Prisoner
Transport
A Florida congressman urged his colleagues and the Department of Justice on
Wednesday to investigate deaths and abuses on for-profit prisoner transport
vehicles, renewing calls for scrutiny of the industry first raised on Capitol
Hill last summer. Rep. Ted Deutch (D.-Fla) cited a
recent Marshall Project story of a 29-year-old New York man who died in March
on a bus operated by Prisoner Transportation Services, the nation’s largest
extradition company. It was at least the fifth prisoner death on a PTS
vehicle since 2012. “I am extremely concerned with recent reports describing
horrific conditions and loss of life,” Deutch said
at a general Judiciary Committee oversight hearing of the U.S. Bureau of
Prisons and U.S. Marshals. Deutch has repeatedly
called for a hearing to probe the lack of federal oversight of private
prisoner transport companies. After a Marshall Project investigation on the
industry was published in the New York Times in July, then-U.S. Attorney
General Loretta Lynch promised her office would report back to the committee
on the issue. But there has been little follow-up. After Deutch’s
remarks, the subcommittee moved onto other topics without comment, as is
common at general oversight hearings. It is not clear if a hearing will be
scheduled. Every year, tens of thousands of men and women — many of whom have
not been convicted of a crime — are transported by private extradition companies
to faraway jurisdictions where they have open arrest warrants or pending
criminal cases. Countless state and local law enforcement agencies hire these
companies, paying by the mile. Since 2000, the industry has been responsible
for 16 deaths, 14 alleged sexual assaults, 60 escapes, and more than 50
crashes, The Marshall Project found. Kevin Eli, the Queens man who died last
month, was being transported from Virginia to Florida to face a nine-year-old
burglary charge. Passengers said he begged for medical attention but was
ignored by guards until it was too late. At Wednesday’s hearing, Deutch noted that lawmakers could revisit and strengthen
a 2000 federal law meant to regulate the extradition industry, commonly known
as Jeanna’s Act. The law has been enforced only once. Deutch
then asked the two witnesses at the hearing — Thomas Kane, acting director of
the Bureau of Prisons, and David Harlow, acting director of the U.S. Marshals
— whether the federal government contracts with PTS. Both said no and added
that extradition companies are used mainly by state and local agencies.
Dec
11, 2016 themarshallproject.org
Federal Official Urges Probe of ‘Abuse’ on Private Prisoner Transport
A federal transportation regulator has urged the Justice Department to investigate
accusations of “human rights violations” on privately run vans that carry
tens of thousands of prisoners across long distances every year. Deb Miller,
vice chairman of the Surface Transportation Board, made her comments last
month, echoing calls from lawmakers this summer for a probe of Prisoner
Transportation Services, the nation’s largest private extradition company,
and others in the field. The company was highlighted in a Marshall Project
investigation that revealed a pattern of deaths and abuse in the industry.
“The problems of prisoner abuse, sexual assault, and medical neglect by
Prisoner Transportation Services, LLC… are very concerning,” Miller wrote in
a comment appended to the board’s Nov. 10 decision to grant approval for PTS
to merge with its largest competitor, U.S. Corrections. Attorney General
Loretta Lynch told the House Judiciary Committee in July — shortly after The
Marshall Project story was published — that her office would review apparent
lapses in federal oversight of prisoner transport companies. A spokesman for
the Justice Department said recently the agency is still working on a report.
The merger between PTS and U.S. Corrections had been put on hold on Aug. 9
after the Human Rights Defense Center, a nonprofit prisoner advocacy group,
filed an objection to the deal, arguing that both companies have a history of
prisoner abuse. Those concerns, however, were deemed to be outside of the
Surface Transportation Board’s purview, which is focused narrowly on the
economic impact of a merger. For-profit extradition companies transport
suspects, fugitives, and others with open arrest warrants across state lines
to where they are wanted. Many of these prisoners are first held in a local
jail, sometimes for weeks, before they are picked up for the transport. The
companies are governed by a 2000 federal law commonly known as Jeanna’s Act,
which sets out some broad standards for treatment of prisoners. But the
legislation has only been enforced one time in the 16 years since, despite at
least 60 prisoner escapes, 50 crashes, 14 alleged instances of sexual
assault, and 16 deaths on these vans during that time, The Marshall Project
investigation found. The story prompted some changes at PTS, which is based
in Tennessee and has contracts with state corrections departments and
hundreds of local law enforcement agencies. At least four prisoners have died
aboard PTS vans from alleged abuse or medical neglect since 2012. PTS
officials declined to comment on those deaths. In a recent interview at the
company headquarters, Alan Sielbeck, the chief
owner of PTS, and its new president, Joel Brasfield, said six of their 29
vans have been outfitted with cameras, although the software for recording
and saving footage has not yet been installed. They said they hoped it would
be available soon and the entire fleet would have cameras within 12 months.
When asked how the video will be used, the officials said it would be too
costly to record and preserve all of it for more than a few weeks. Simply
having the devices in the fleet would influence guards and inmates to behave
better, they said. In addition, PTS officials said they have increased their
staffing to 80 guards from about 35 so each of them can have more time off.
Instead of getting only 12 hours to rest in between every 36 hours of
driving, they will now have 24-hour breaks every two days — although that
schedule depends on finding a jail along the way that is willing to take the
inmates overnight. To prevent further deadly emergencies during transit, Sielbeck and Brasfield said they have prioritized the
position of “medical verification” officer to obtain advance information from
jails about medical problems of inmates picked up by PTS. If an inmate has a
severe diagnosis, he or she can be escorted on a commercial flight instead of
a days-long trip in one of the vans. PTS said it does not yet have enough
data to determine whether air transports have become more common. “We’re kind
of a slave to that holding agency,” Brasfield said. He said jails can withhold
medical information either intentionally or unintentionally. Meanwhile,
classroom training for guards has been upped to two weeks from three days,
including lessons on what to do if an inmate is in distress. Seatbelts have
also been installed in six of the vans, although Brasfield acknowledged they
may be removed because “the industry has gone back and forth” about whether
the straps and buckles can be used as weapons or to pick locks. Florida Rep.
Ted Deutch, who questioned Lynch about the federal
government’s role in monitoring prisoner transportation companies, called
PTS’s efforts encouraging but said he plans to continue advocating for
oversight of the industry. “We need to stay on this and make sure things are
carried out effectively,” Deutch said. “We’re going
to share this information with Justice and hope that it spurs action,” he
added, noting that the department’s upcoming report will allow him to
“determine whether additional legislative action is necessary.” Despite
emphasizing the improvements, PTS officials defended their business model. Sielbeck, who described himself as “a self-avowed
capitalist,” said there’s no clear alternative to for-profit prisoner
transport. “The government can do it different but very seldom does the
government do it better,” he said, referring to the U.S. Marshals and local
sheriffs. Asked about claims of abuse and neglect that have been made by
inmates, Sielbeck said, “The transported community
can take stories and embellish them.” Sielbeck and
Brasfield also pointed out that PTS is more compliant with federal
regulations than some of its mom-and-pop competitors, which use minivans not
covered by the same passenger carrier rules. They suggested they might even
advocate more scrutiny of the industry and demand that states put more safety
requirements in their contracts with these companies. But when pressed on
whether PTS would actually demand such higher standards, the officials said
they do not have a large budget for lobbying and would only share their ideas
about how to better regulate the industry if contacted by the government.
They added that they believed chances of that happening under the incoming
Trump administration are slim.
Oct 20, 2016 motherjones.com
Private Prison Company Bankrolls Pro-Trump Super-PAC
It's unusual for a publicly traded corporation to
donate to a super-PAC, but in August, private prison company GEO Group
steered $150,000 to Rebuild America Now, a pro-Donald Trump outfit launched
by the GOP nominee's longtime friend, developer Tom Barrack. The timing of
the GEO Group's contribution is significant. It cut a $100,000 check to the
super-PAC on August 19, the day after the Justice Department announced that
it would phase out the use of private prisons. (The company's political
action committee donated $50,000 to Rebuild America Now a week before the
announcement.) The multibillion-dollar-a-year private prison industry has
been under increasing scrutiny, in part thanks to a groundbreaking
investigation by Mother Jones that revealed a litany of disturbing practices
at a Louisiana prison run by the Corrections Corporation of America. GEO
Group is one of just three companies that operate prisons and detention
centers on behalf of the federal government. It's no surprise the company is
putting its money behind Trump. While Hillary Clinton has sharply criticized
private prisons, Trump has expressed support for expanding their use, and his
policy proposals, including his plan to deport millions of undocumented
immigrants, could be a boon for the industry. In addition to backing Trump,
the company recently brought on three lobbying firms to represent its
interests in Washington. Trump was not the GEO Group's top choice for
president. During the Republican primary campaign, the GEO Group gave
$100,000 to a super-PAC backing Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. The company's
CEO, George Zoley, also donated to Rubio's
presidential campaign. A spokesman for the GEO Group did not respond to a
request for comment.
Oct
14, 2016 washingtonpost.com
Private prison industry fights Justice Department directive to end the use
of contract facilities
The private prison industry is lobbying against a Justice Department
directive to end the use of their facilities, encouraging legislators to
question the policy change and legally protesting one significant contract
reduction. The moves by the GEO Group and others demonstrate the practical
and political hurdles that stand in the way of the Bureau of Prisons actually
ending its use of for-profit facilities to manage federal inmates. The
private prison industry claims that the decision to do so was based on faulty
research and that officials need contractors because of overcrowding in the
federal prison system. “We think the private sector facilities did very well,
that they were comparably secure, and in some important respects, they were
better,” said George Zoley, chairman and chief
executive of the GEO Group, which operates six facilities. The private prison
industry, which generates billions of dollars in revenue, has become a powerful
lobbying force on Capitol Hill, and officials say they have tried since the
Justice Department announcement to rally legislators to their side. Last
month, six Republican representatives from Texas, California and Georgia sent
a letter asking the Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons to “step
back” from the directive until they provided Congress with more information.
“We are concerned that the DOJ’s instructions put politics ahead of policy
when it comes to maintaining flexibility in our prison system, encouraging
vital criminal alien law enforcement and providing the best value for our
taxpayers,” the lawmakers wrote. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chair of the
House Oversight Committee, wrote in a separate missive with two other
Republicans that the Justice Department’s plan would “undermine the
effectiveness of the system’s rehabilitation programs.” The directive by
Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates in August that said the Bureau of
Prisons should end its use of private facilities was greeted with widespread
praise by advocates who have long been calling for the end of for-profit
incarceration. Its effect, though, was limited to the 13 privately run
facilities, housing a little more than 22,000 inmates, in the federal Bureau
of Prisons system. Officials said it was unclear precisely how soon the
contract prisons could be phased out. One of those 13 prisons in New Mexico
has since had its inmates moved out, and the population in the rest stood
just above 21,600 on Friday, according to the Bureau of Prisons website.
Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said in a statement that Yates’s
directive was “in effect and the Bureau of Prisons is committed to
implementing it.” “Since August, the overall prison population has continued
to decline and the Bureau continues to modify its contracts to reflect the
reduced need for bed space in private facilities,” Iverson said. “As private
prison contracts come up for renewal in the coming months and years, BOP will
be terminating or renegotiating those contracts consistent with the
continuing decline in the overall prison population.” Yates has not minced
words in criticizing the privately run facilities. “They simply do not
provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they
do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the
Department’s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level
of safety and security,” she wrote in her directive. That report found, among
a litany of problems, private facilities had higher rates of assaults — both
by inmates on other inmates and by inmates on staff — and had eight times as
many contraband cellphones confiscated each year on average than government
prisons. A cornerstone of Yates’s memo was the revelation that the Bureau of
Prisons would amend a solicitation for a 10,800-bed contract to one for a
maximum 3,600-bed contract. That, Yates wrote, would allow the Bureau of
Prisons over the next year to discontinue housing inmates in at least three private
prisons, and by May 1, 2017, the total private prison population would stand
at less than 14,200 inmates. The GEO Group initially tried to compete for
that modified contract, but earlier this month, it lodged a formal protest
with the Government Accountability Office. The company argued that the
reduced request was an “improper and illogical change” that did not take into
account what the Bureau of Prisons actually needs, given its problems with
overcrowding. It asked the Government Accountability Office to recommend that
the Bureau of Prisons issue a new solicitation for the 10,800 beds initially
sought. “We believe the need is still there, because the Bureau of Prisons is
still overcrowded, and these communities have extended themselves
financially,” Zoley said. The GEO Group is one of
three companies that operate private facilities for the Bureau of Prisons.
The others are Corrections Corporation of America and Management and Training
Corporation. Issa Arnita, a spokesman for Management and Training Corporation,
said while the company had not lodged formal protests, it believed “phasing
out the use of contractors will result in greater overcrowding in public BOP
facilities and an increased cost to the BOP and ultimately taxpayers.”
Jonathan Burns, a Corrections Corporation of America spokesman, said that
company was “aware of and monitoring the issue.” The private industry already
had criticized the inspector general’s report for what it said was an unfair
comparison to public facilities, which hold an eclectic mix of inmates, to
private ones, which hold predominantly “criminal aliens.” The report
acknowledged that investigators did not “know the extent to which demographic
factors” might have played a role in contributing to some problems, and it
said investigators were “unable to compare the overall costs of incarceration
between BOP institutions and contract prisons in part because of the
different nature of the inmate populations and programs offered in those
facilities.” But the inspector general’s report was not the first public
critique of private facilities, and some problems, such as concerns over
medical care, seem to have little to do with inmate population. Justin Long,
a Bureau of Prisons spokesman, said the bureau supported the deputy attorney
general’s directive and believed it could be practically implemented over
time. That is largely because of declining inmate populations. In fiscal
2016, the bureau saw a population decline of more than 13,500 inmates and
sits now at 191,965 — 205 fewer than the year before. Young said the decline
in population has led to a reduction in overall crowding, from 40 percent to
15 percent, as of Oct. 6. He said officials believed the inmate population
would shrink further in 2017. The vast majority of those incarcerated in the
United States are housed in state prisons — rather than federal ones — and
Yates’s memo does not apply to any of those, even the ones that are privately
run. Nor does it apply to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S.
Marshals Service detainees, who are technically in the federal system but not
under the purview of the federal Bureau of Prisons. Advocates have said,
though, that it could serve as a catalyst for broader reform.
Oct 14, 2016 benzinga.com
The 2016 Economics Nobel Prize Winner's Case Against Private Prisons:
Contracts Are The Key
Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström were the two
winners of this year’s Nobel Prize for economics for their “contribution to contract
theory” in the '70s and '80s. Hart, now based at Harvard University, has been
a long-time critic of the private prison system. Twenty years ago, he wrote a
paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research where he suggested that
privatization of prisons created pressure to cut costs and increase profits,
and this translated into under-trained, under-paid, overly-violent guards.
Two decades later, the U.S. Justice Department finally arrived to a similar
conclusion and decided to phase out the use of private prisons, arguing that
these facilities were not run as safe, efficient or effective as
government-run prisons. But the extreme violence and poor living conditions
in these prisons is no coincidence, Hart contended. Taking a page or two from
his previous research, he claimed that the roots of the issue could be traced
to how the contracts between these private companies and the government were
structured. Interestingly, Hart and Holmström
research “has wide implications: Hart's conclusions about privatization, for
example, may extend beyond prisons to decisions about whether education and
even garbage collection should be public or private,” a recent Mic article
pointed out. Some companies that are very likely not big fans of Hart include
private prisons operators The GEO Group Inc
Oct 5, 2016 houstonchronicle.com
Company challenges fed decision to phase out private prisons
One of the nation's largest corrections companies is challenging the
Department of Justice's decision to phase out the use of 14 private prisons
nationwide, saying the department acted "illogically" and
illegally. Florida-based GEO Group, which operates two of the five facilities
facing possible closure in Texas, launched the attack this week in what it
says is the nation's first legal challenge to the recent decision out of
Washington. The official protest, a primary step toward a lawsuit, could
freeze any changes in the procurement process until an administrative judge
can consider the issue, including questions about how private prisons measure
up to those run by the government. Six congressman, including three from
Texas, have entered the fray, asking the Department of Justice and its Bureau
of Prisons to explain the decision to stop using the private prisons, which
primarily hold foreign-born people who have nine years or less left on their
sentences and face deportation upon release. "We are concerned that the
Department of Justice's instructions put politics ahead of policy when it
comes to maintaining flexibility in our prison system," states a recent
letter signed by each of lawmakers, all Republicans. They also questioned the
impact the directive will have on the local communities they represent. Texas
officials say thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in government contracts
could be in jeopardy. "In many of these areas, the contract prison is
one of the largest employers and citizens have few other job
opportunities," states the letter. The Department of Justice did not
respond Tuesday to a request for comment. Three companies - the GEO Group,
Corrections Corporation of America and the Management and Training
Corporation - run private prisons nationwide on behalf of the Department of
Justice. They also have contracts with Homeland Security and other entities.
The five facilities in Texas are centered in West Texas. They include two
side-by-side facilities at the Reeves County Detention Complex in Pecos, west
of Midland; the Big Spring Correctional Facility in Howard County; Eden
Detention Center in Concho County; and the Giles W. Dalby Correctional
Facility in Garza County near Lubbock. The justice department recently
directed the Bureau of Prisons to cut its business with private corporations
as contracts expire over the next five years. Groups including the American Civil
Liberties Union have long questioned the use of for-profit corporations to
house prisoners, and have praised the recent decision. The federal government
has used private prisons since 1997 to relieve crowding, but a recent Office
of Inspector General review noted an array of problems in the privately run
facilities, including what it contends is an abuse of solitary confinement
and more fights and contraband seizures than in facilities run by government.
Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates sent a memo to the Bureau of Prisons in
August that announced the about-face. "Private prisons served an
important role during a difficult period, but time has shown that they
compare poorly to our own bureau facilities," Yates said. Private
facilities don't save substantially on costs, don't provide the same level of
safety and security and are lacking when it comes to educational and job
training programs that reduce the likelihood of a person returning to prison,
she continued. GEO Group, which has 20,500 employees globally and operates
facilities in Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, as well as
facilities abroad, challenges any contention that privately run facilities
perform poorly or cost more than government-run facilities. GEO contends that
even the government's own OIG report concluded that private prisons had fewer
problems than those of the government when it comes to inmate fights,
suicides, sexual misconduct by staff, overall grievances and a host of other
areas. At a minimum, the company says that Yates and other officials must
follow certain procedures when it comes to altering the government contracts
procurement process. Amber Martin, an executive vice president for the GEO
Group, said in the protest filed this week in Washington that in late August
– just two weeks after the Department of Justice announcement – her company's
operation in Georgia was given a "superior" rating by the Bureau of
Prisons and has also been paid a "multi-million-dollar" additional
payment for its performance, including quality of service and lack of
contractual violations. U.S. Rep Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, who was among
those who signed the letter, said he wants to see what specific data was used
in deciding that the federal government should step away from two prisons in
his district. He said he's also concerned about jobs. "From the
perspective of the local communities, the Dalby prison is the largest
employer in Garza County, and the prison in Big Spring has nearly 500
employees," he said. "The local governments also receive tax and
other revenue from the prisons, so a reduction in these contracts will impact
the economy of a largely rural area with few other large employers."
Texas Congressmen Will Hurd, R-Helotes, and K. Michael Conaway, R-Midland,
also signed the letter, along with Congressmen Austin Scott and Earl L.
"Buddy" Carter, both of Georgia, and Kevin McCarthy, of California.
Howard County Judge Kathryn Wiseman said losing the Big Spring prison would
"greatly affect" her county. Commissioners recently passed a
resolution challenging the legality of the Department of Justice decision.
"It would be a double hit," she said of a closure, noting that the
county is already facing trouble from declining mineral values. "Almost
500 jobs, that is a big hit for a small community."
Oct 4, 2016 chicagotribune.com
Municipal prison bonds turn to junk as inmate population falls
The privately run prison in Walnut Grove, Mississippi, was besieged for
years by violence and legal fights over deplorable conditions. Then last
month, with local sentencing reforms keeping fewer behind bars, officials
shut it down, leaving the state on the hook for $121 million of debt left
behind. "The taxpayers are paying for that building and it's just
sitting there," said Chip Jones, an alderman for the 1,600-person town
about 63 miles (101 kilometers) east of Jackson, the state capital. The
closing is part of a shift taking place nationwide among states and local
governments that have sold $30 billion of bonds to build prisons and jails,
some of which were leased to for-profit operators. With officials
re-evaluating tough-on-crime laws that caused inmate populations to soar and
the federal government moving to jettison its use of private prisons, the
reduced need for such facilities is rippling through a niche of the $3.8
trillion municipal-securities market. On Friday, a Texas prison that serves
as a U.S. detention center had its credit rating cut to junk by S&P Global Ratings, joining half a dozen others
that were downgraded below investment grade by the company since federal
officials in August announced plans to phase out for-profit facilities. About
$300 million of tax-exempt debt issued for almost two dozen prisons has
already defaulted, and investors are demanding higher yields on other
securities amid speculation the distress will spread. "At any point
there are only so many prisoners out there to fill the private prison
beds," said Matt Fabian, managing director for Municipal Market
Analytics Inc. "It creates unequal distribution and you have prisons
competing against one another." The number of Americans behind bars has
been on a steady decline. After peaking at 1.62 million in 2009, the state
and federal prison population dropped over the next five years, reducing it by
54,000, or 3 percent, by 2014, the most recent year for which figures are
available, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. It's not
certain that such reductions will continue, said Daniel Hanson, an analyst
who follows the municipal-bond market for Height Securities in Washington.
Even with the decrease, some federal prisons are still over capacity and
states may already have done much of what they can to keep non-violent
offenders out of their penal systems, he said. "The low hanging fruit of
criminal-justice reform is already done," said Hanson. At the federal
level, the impact is poised to trickle down. The Department of Justice on
Aug. 18 said it will cancel or scale back the scope of private prison
contracts after the number of federal inmates fell by about 25,000 over the
past three years. About two weeks later, the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security, which houses immigration detainees in privately run facilities,
said it will review whether to curb their use too. Such a step would jeopardize
the repayment of local-government bonds issued for prisons, which are
typically repaid with revenue from leasing them instead of with taxpayer
money. Since August, S&P has lowered to
junk debt issued by, among others, the Washington Economic Development
Financing Authority, the Garza County Public Facility Corp. in Texas, and the
La Paz County Industrial Development Authority in Arizona. The prices of some
securities have tumbled, pushing up the yields as investors demand higher
compensation for the risk. The yield on bonds issued for the Reeves County
detention center in Pecos, Texas, which mature in 2021 and were among those
downgraded, rose to as much as 6.4 percent last month from 4.6 percent in
early August. Additional closures could spread the impact. In Florence,
Arizona, a 31,000-resident town southeast of Phoenix, the seven prisons --
four of which are privately-run -- are a major employer, said Jess Knudson,
town spokesman. One of them is an immigration facility that could be hit if
Homeland Security follows Justice's lead. "Our ability to influence that
decision doesn't exist," Knudson said. The Mississippi Department of
Corrections closed the Walnut Grove prison because of budget constraints and
the number of inmates, with the annual average population dropping by about
10.5 percent between fiscal 2011 and 2016, bond documents show. The decline
was driven in part by the passage of criminal-justice reform that gave judges
more discretion over sentencing, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, which
partnered with a state task force to push the 2014 law. The measure is
projected to save the state $266 million over 10 years while also
"safely reducing" the number of inmates, the group said. With less
need for prison beds, Mississippi chose to shut down a facility that had a
troubled history under former operator Geo Group. After it was sued by
inmates, the Justice Department faulted it in 2012 for widespread staff
misconduct and deliberate indifference to the welfare of the young offenders
housed there. A federal judge said the description of life inside painted
"a picture of such horror as should be unrealized anywhere in the
civilized world." Mississippi said it has been pleased with Management
and Training Corp., the for profit company that took over Geo Group after the
Justice Department investigation. The prison was closed last month and its
900 inmates were moved to other facilities. Mississippi still owes $121
million of debt for Walnut Grove, which the department of corrections has an "absolute
and unconditional" obligation to pay off, according to bond documents.
There state is considering using the emptied prison for another purpose.
"Anything's better than nothing," said Jones, the local alderman.
"The taxpayers are paying for that building, and it's just sitting
there."
Sep
27, 2016 thedailybeast.com
Hillary Clinton’s Pitch to End Private Prisons Is the Surprise Hit of the
Presidential Debate
An issue that rarely—if ever—gets play during presidential elections
might give Hillary Clinton a surprising leg-up in Pennsylvania. That’s what
was indicated by feedback from a swing-voter focus group that Frank Luntz conducted during the debate. Attendees gave Clinton
sky-high feedback during the debate when she criticized private prisons, and
said afterwards that it’s an important issue in their state. And, of course,
that means the issue could help Clinton excite her supporters there and pick
up some votes. Twenty-seven people participated in the focus group (it would
have been 28, but Luntz kicked one guy out when he
said he planned to vote Trump), and Luntz’s team
tracked their responses to the debate as it progressed. A screen visible to
the handful of reporters observing the focus group showed when participants
felt positively or negatively about what the candidates said. The lines
tracked particularly high for Trump when he bashed the NAFTA trade deal and
promised to renegotiate trade agreements. His numbers dipped, and
dramatically, when he tried to explain his refusal to release his taxes and
his rationale for demanding Obama’s birth certificate. Clinton had her fair
share of ups and downs as well; the Democratic nominee’s favorability among
the completely undecided participants dipped when she went on a lengthy riff
about Trump’s birtherism, and nosed up when she talked about her dad’s small
business. But her numbers among completely undecided voters went high and
higher during her discussion of criminal justice reform. When she pointed out
that crime isn’t nearly as high as Trump suggests and that the criminal
justice system punishes African-American and Hispanic men more harshly than
white men, the favorability number kept going up. And it went even higher
when she praised the Department of Justice’s announcement that it would phase
out Bureau of Prisons contracts to stop doing deals with private prison
companies. And the number went up even more when Clinton reiterated her
position to end all federal contracts with the for-profit corporations. After
the debate wrapped up, focus group participants explained why they liked
Clinton’s answer on private prisons so much: Over the last few years, a
so-called “kids for cash” scandal has rocked Pennsylvania. In 2011, a
Pennsylvania judge got a 28-year sentence for accepting bribes from a private
prison company owner. The owner paid him to send children to his prison,
often violating their rights to have an attorney. Because of the scandal, the
AP reported, Pennsylvania’s state supreme court tossed about four thousand
sentences. The scandal impacted a massive number of people; not just children
wrongfully sentenced in violation of their Constitutional rights, but also
their families, friends, and, well, anyone who reads the news in
Pennsylvania. And even though the judge’s sentencing was several years ago,
the cash-for-kids scandal is still fresh in the minds of swing voters. A
number of Luntz’s focus group attendees said
Clinton’s opposition to private prisons made them think more highly of her.
And none saw it as a negative. Clinton didn’t focus heavily on private
prisons during the debate. But it might help her. Though she has led Trump in
every public poll of Pennsylvania voters since July, her lead has contracted.
The RealClearPolitics average gave her a 6.6-point lead as recently as Sept.
22, but now shows her leading Trump by just 2.4 points. And Trump’s backers
hope that lead will vaporize over the next few weeks. If he picks up the
Keystone State’s 20 electoral votes, it will be tough for Clinton to forge a
path to the White House. But if Clinton keeps bashing the companies that
profit from mass incarceration, it may be a little tougher for him to do
that.
Sep
26, 2016 moodys.com
Cash flows to prison REITs less certain as use of private operators
questioned
New York, September 26, 2016 -- Cash flows from the Bureau of Prisons to
Moody's-rated prison real estate investment trusts (REITs) are less certain
following the announcement by the US Department of Justice that it will phase
out its use of privately operated prisons, the rating agency says in a new
report. Moody's downgraded the senior unsecured ratings of Corrections
Corporation of America and GEO Group, Inc., and revised their rating outlooks
to negative from stable, on August 19, the day after the announcement.
"Our recent rating actions reflect the substantial uncertainty
surrounding the ultimate effects of the Department of Justice's move to stop
using private prison operators," says Moody's analyst, Reed Valutas.
"Private operators might as a result earn less revenue from owning and
actively managing prison facilities, which could impact cash flows to prison
REITs." The active management of prison facilities by private companies
is today a particularly contentious political issue, with politicians, unions
and reform advocates all weighing in, Valutas says in "Justice
Department Plan to Phase Out Use of Private Prisons Is Credit Negative for
Prison REITs." As a result, private prison operators could be eliminated
altogether from management of federal and, potentially, state prisons.
Despite the uncertainties surrounding the effects of the Justice Department's
announcement, private prisons remain a necessity. Currently, many of the
Bureau of Prisons' facilities are running at or above planned capacity and
are also nearing obsolescence. While contracts to privately operate US
prisons facilities are less assured as political pressures mount, the
industry could transform itself by selling or leasing, rather than operating,
some of its facilities, Moody's says. In addition, capacity constraints, aging
prison stock and budgetary concerns could all drive this trend.
Aug 30, 2016 qz.com
Private prison companies in the US lost more than $2
billion in value—and counting
Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice
announced it would move away from using private prison companies for federal
inmates, citing inefficiency and problems with safety and security. On Aug.
29, Jeh Johnson, the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),
announced that the agency would also re-evaluate its cooperation with those
companies, which run immigration detention facilities, too. The first
announcement sent tumbling the stocks of the largest private prison
companies, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group. The latest
news deepened their losses. Together, the two companies have now lost more
than $2.2 billion in value—CCA $1.2 billion in market capitalization and the
GEO Group $917 million. Since the DHS just started its evaluation process,
more bad news for the private prison companies is likely. Privately-run
immigration detention facilities are as notorious for their conditions as
for-profit prisons. Advocates have been exposing problems plaguing the
facilities for years.
Aug 30, 2016 cnbc.com
Private prison stocks keep crumbling
Prison stocks slid again Tuesday, extending Monday's declines after the
federal government said it will examine its use of privately managed
immigration detention facilities. The two major publicly traded prison
stocks, Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group, declined more than
4 percent and more than 7 percent, respectively. With Tuesday's decline, both
stocks were on pace for a weekly loss of more than 8 percent and down more
than 40 percent for the month so far. Department of Homeland Security
Secretary Jeh Johnson announced Monday that the Homeland Security Advisory
Council will create a subcommittee to "review our current policy and
practices concerning the use of private immigration detention and evaluate
whether this practice should be eliminated." Representatives from both
GEO Group and CCA told CNBC Monday that they welcome the review. The
announcement calls for the subcommittee to submit a report by Nov. 30. The
Department of Justice also recently announced that its Bureau of Prisons will
begin phasing out the use of private contractors for federal prisons. After
the DOJ's Aug. 18 announcement, private prison stocks shed 50 percent of
their value before bouncing back. Analysts called the market reaction to that
announcement excessive. Unlike the Department of Justice, the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement does not maintain any of its own facilities.
Aug 18, 2016 washingtonpost.com
Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons
Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates instructed Justice Department
officials Thursday to end its use of private prisons. (Carolyn Kaster/AP) The Justice Department plans to end its use of
private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe
and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the
government. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced the decision on
Thursday in a memo that instructs officials to either decline to renew the
contracts for private prison operators when they expire or “substantially
reduce” the contracts’ scope. The goal, Yates wrote, is “reducing — and
ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons.” “They simply do
not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources;
they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by
the Department’s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same
level of safety and security,” Yates wrote. In an interview, Yates said there
are 13 privately run facilities in the Bureau of Prisons system, and they
will not close overnight. Yates said the Justice Department would not
terminate existing contracts but instead review those that come up for
renewal. She said all the contracts would come up for renewal over the next
five years. The Justice Department’s inspector general last week released a
critical report concluding that privately operated facilities incurred more
safety and security incidents than those run by the federal Bureau of
Prisons. The private facilities, for example, had higher rates of assaults —
both by inmates on other inmates and by inmates on staff — and had eight
times as many contraband cellphones confiscated each year on average,
according to the report. Disturbances in the facilities, the report said, led
in recent years to “extensive property damage, bodily injury, and the death
of a Correctional Officer.” The report listed several examples of mayhem at
private facilities, including a May 2012 riot at the Adams County
Correctional Center in Mississippi in which 20 people were injured and a
correctional officer killed. That incident, according to the report, involved
250 inmates who were upset about low-quality food and medical care. The
Post’s Matt Zapotosky explains why the Justice
Department announced Aug. 18 that it plans to stop contracting private
prisons across the country. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The
Washington Post) “The fact of the matter is that private prisons don’t
compare favorably to Bureau of Prisons facilities in terms of safety or
security or services, and now with the decline in the federal prison
population, we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to do
something about that,” Yates said. The problems at private facilities were
hardly a secret, and Yates said Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons
officials had been talking for months about discontinuing their use. Mother
Jones recently published a 35,000-word exposé detailing a reporter’s
undercover work as a private prison guard in Louisiana — a piece that found
serious deficiencies. The Nation magazine wrote earlier this year about
deaths under questionable circumstances in privately operated facilities. It
is possible the directive could face resistance from those companies that
will be affected. In response to the inspector general’s report, the contractors
running the prisons noted that their inmate populations consist largely of
noncitizens, presenting them with challenges that government-run facilities
do not have. Scott Marquardt, president of Management and Training
Corporation, wrote that comparing Bureau of Prisons facilities to privately
operated ones was “comparing apples and oranges.” He generally disputed the
inspector general’s report. “Any casual reader would come to the conclusion
that contract prisons are not as safe as BOP prisons,” Marquardt wrote. “The
conclusion is wrong and is not supported by the work done by the [Office of
the Inspector General].” Yates, though, noted that the Bureau of Prisons was
“already taking steps” to make her order a reality. Three weeks ago, she
wrote, the bureau declined to renew a contract for 1,200 beds at the Cibola
County Correctional Center in New Mexico. According to a local TV station,
the county sheriff said the facility’s closure would have a negative impact
on the community. Yates wrote that the bureau also would amend a solicitation
for a 10,800-bed contract to one for a maximum 3,600-bed contract. That,
Yates wrote, would allow the Bureau of Prisons over the next year to
discontinue housing inmates in at least three private prisons, and by May 1,
2017, the total private prison population would stand at less than 14,200
inmates. She said it was “hard to know precisely” when all the privately run
facilities would no longer have federal inmates, though she noted that 14,200
was less than half the inmates they held at their apex three years ago, a
figure she said indicated the department was “well on our way to ultimately
eliminating the use of private prisons entirely.” “We have to be realistic
about the time it will take, but that really depends on the continuing
decline of the federal prison population, and that’s really hard to
accurately predict,” Yates said. According to the inspector general’s report,
private prisons housed roughly 22,660 federal inmates as of December 2015.
That represents about 12 percent of the Bureau of Prisons total inmate
population, according to the report. In her memo, Yates wrote that the Bureau
of Prisons began contracting with privately run institutions about a decade
ago in the wake of exploding prison populations, and by 2013, as the federal
prison population reached its peak, nearly 30,000 inmates were housed in
privately operated facilities. But in 2013, Yates wrote, the prison
population began to decline because of efforts to adjust sentencing
guidelines, sometimes retroactively, and to change the way low-level drug
offenders are charged. She said the drop in federal inmates gave officials
the opportunity to reevaluate the use of private prisons. Yates wrote that
private prisons “served an important role during a difficult time period,”
but they had proven less effective than facilities run by the government. The
contract prisons are operated by three private corporations, according to the
inspector general’s report: Corrections Corporation of America, GEO Group and
Management and Training Corporation. The Bureau of Prisons spent $639 million
on private prisons in fiscal year 2014, according to the report. Yates said
it was “really hard to determine whether private prisons are less expensive”
and whether their closure would cause costs to go up, though she said
officials did not anticipate having to hire additional Bureau of Prisons
staff. “Bottom line, I’d also say, you get what you pay for,” Yates said.
Aug 14, 2016 theguardian.com
Private federal prisons more dangerous, damning DoJ investigation reveals
Privately operated government prisons, which mostly
detain migrants convicted of immigration offenses, are drastically more
unsafe and punitive than other prisons in the federal system, a stinging
investigation by the US Department of Justice’s inspector general has found.
Inmates at these 14 contract prisons, the only centers in the federal prison
system that are privately operated, were nine times more likely to be placed
on lockdown than inmates at other federal prisons and were frequently
subjected to arbitrary solitary confinement. In two of the three contract
prisons investigators routinely visited, new inmates were automatically
placed in solitary confinement as a way of combating overcrowding, rather
than for disciplinary issues. The review also found that contract prison
inmates were more likely to complain about medical care, treatment by prison
staff and about the quality of food. Contract prisons almost exclusively
incarcerate low-risk inmates convicted of immigration offenses. These
facilities house around 22,000 individuals, mostly deemed “low risk”, at an
annual cost of $600m. They are operated by three private companies: Geo
Group, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), and Management and Training
Corporation (MTC). Investigators determined that these facilities were also
more dangerous than others in the federal system. For example, the report
found that inmate on inmate assaults were 28% higher in contract prisons, and
confiscation of contraband mobile phones occurred eight times more. At the
Eden detention center in Texas, operated by CCA and one of the three
institutions routinely visited by investigators, the inspector general found
that staff failed to discipline inmates in over 50% of disciplinary incidents.
“This is the latest in a whole series of reports and investigations that have
found very serious issues with Bureau of Prisons shadow systems of private
prisons,” said Carl Takei, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s national private
prison project and one of the authors of the 2014 report Warehoused and
Forgotten: Immigrants Trapped In Our Shadow Private Prison System, which
investigated contract prisons in Texas. “Federal officials should be
reconsidering their alliance on private prisons and developing plans to begin
cancelling these contracts, rather than continuing this experiment.” Among
the most stark of the ACLU’s 2014 findings was the severe medical
understaffing and “extreme cost cutting” that limited inmates access to
healthcare. Elements of these findings are replicated in the inspector
general’s report, which identified serious flaws in the oversight of medical
care in a number of contract prisons. “In one instance,” the report
documents, “when an inmate had trouble breathing, the contract prison medical
staff told him to place a sick call, which would put him on a list of inmates
waiting to be seen by medical personnel instead of being treated immediately.
“However, after he died, the mortality reviews showing this deficiency gave
the onsite monitors no guidance on what steps to take to require corrective
action. As a result, contractor deficiencies went uncorrected and corrective
actions were delayed.” The inspector general recommends that the US justice
department should convene a “working group” to probe the causes of the
disparity in safety standards between contract prisons and publicly operated
facilities, and states that federal government should strengthen oversight
provisions across the board.
Federal Bureau of Prisons
August 30, 2012 Great Falls Tribune
Richard Flor, a former Miles City medical marijuana caregiver sentenced in
April to five years in federal prison on charges that he illegally maintained
drug-related premises, died in federal custody Wednesday. Flor, who suffered
from a lengthy list of serious medical conditions, died in a Las Vegas
hospital a day after suffering two heart attacks while awaiting transport to
a federal medical facility, according to his attorney, Brad Arndorfer of Billings. At Flor’s sentencing last April,
U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell recommended that he “be designated for
incarceration at a federal medical center” where Flor’s “numerous physical
and mental diseases and conditions can be evaluated and treated.” Arndorfer said that never happened, and instead Flor was
for months housed at the Crossroads Correctional Facility in Shelby until a
week ago, when U.S. marshals began the process of transporting him to an
unknown medical facility. Arndorfer said Flor was in Las Vegas as a layover, but he did not know
where his client was being taken. “It’s incredible to me to take a man with
dementia, failing kidneys, severe diabetes and unable to care for himself and
incarcerate him,” Arndorfer said Thursday. “He
required nursing home care, and as far as I can tell he didn’t receive any
care while he was incarcerated in Shelby. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Crossroads spokesman Steven Owen, citing privacy concerns, declined to
comment on the specifics of Flor’s medical conditions or any treatment he
received while at the prison. “Our dedicated, professional corrections and
medical staff at Crossroads are firmly committed to the health and safety of
the inmates entrusted to our care; we meet or exceed the rigorous and
comprehensive standards of our government partners, the U.S. Marshals Service
and the Montana Department of Corrections, as well as those of the
independent American Correctional Association,” Owen said in a written
statement. Flor, along with his wife, Sherry, and their son, Justin, ran a
medical marijuana caregiver business out of their home and from a Billings
dispensary. Richard Flor was also a co-owner of Montana Cannabis, one of the
state’s largest medical marijuana operations and a target in the March 2011
raids by federal agents on marijuana providers across Montana. At the time of
the raids, Montana law allowed for the production of medical marijuana for
use by patients with approved medical conditions. The state’s medical
marijuana industry was booming after a top U.S. Justice Department official
released a memo in 2009 indicating that the Obama administration would not
prosecute people who were in “clear and unambiguous compliance” with state
medical marijuana laws. However, federal law still considers marijuana a
dangerous narcotic in the same class as heroin or methamphetamine. Last
month, Arndorfer filed a motion requesting the
court release Flor pending an appeal of his sentence due to health concerns. Arndorfer’s brief supporting the motion detailed how Flor
suffered from severe osteoporosis and on multiple occasions while in custody,
Flor had fallen out of bed breaking his ribs, his clavicle and his cervical
bones as well as injuring vertebrae in his spine. Flor also suffered from
dementia, diabetes and kidney failure among other ailments, Arndorfer said. “He is in extreme pain and still is not
being given round-the-clock care as is required for someone with his medical
and mental conditions,” Arndorfer wrote in his
brief to the court. “It is anticipated he will not long survive general
population incarceration.” In his Aug. 7 order denying the motion, Lovell
wrote that it was unfortunate the Flor had not yet been transferred to an
appropriate medical facility but that the concerns detailed in the motion
were “not factually or legally significant.” Lovell wrote that the federal
Bureau of Prisons could provide the necessary medical care and that recent
tests found kidney dialysis wasn’t needed, despite the fact that a year
earlier a VA health care provider discussed with Flor the possibility that he
might need dialysis in the future. Lovell wrote that “defendant has no such
present need.” In a statement released by his staff, Lovell said he was sorry
to learn of Flor’s death but that judicial ethics prevented him from
commenting further. Kristin Flor, 36, confirmed her 68-year-old father’s
death early Thursday. Kristin Flor said she was at her father’s bedside when
the decision was made to remove him from life support after he suffered a
serious heart attack, renal failure and kidney failure. Kristin Flor said her
father had complained to her regularly that his kidneys and back were hurting
him and that he wasn’t receiving proper medical treatment while incarcerated
in Shelby. “They didn’t give him any of the medical attention he needed, and
they never took him once to a medical doctor,” Kristin Flor said. “When he
broke his clavicle and shoulder blade it took him two days to get doctors to
look at it.” Arndorfer said he’s “more than
interested” in the possibility of filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Marshals
Service and the Bureau of Prisons for the alleged mistreatment of Flor. “He
had been complaining to his family and to me about kidney pain. They knew
that his VA doctors were considering putting him on dialysis prior to him
being placed in Shelby and they did nothing. They ran a blood test and said
he was fine,” Arndorfer said. “I don’t believe he
was giving any medical care at all at Shelby.” U.S. Marshals Service
spokesman Rod Ostermiller said Flor
was not in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service at the time of his death
and directed calls to the agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters. A call was
not returned as of press time. Arndorfer said his
former client believed he was following all state laws governing the
production of marijuana at the time federal agents raided his home and
business. “These are good people who were doing what they believed were good
works,” Arndorfer said. “ The
political system is out of control with the states saying it’s legal and the
federal government is deciding who they want to prosecute, when or if with no
rhyme or reason.” Kristin Flor said he father suffered what amounted to cruel
and unusual punishment at the hands of the federal justice system. “It’s a
disgrace for a government and a country to treat a man like this,” Flor said.
“He never hurt anybody. Even the crimes they claim he committed, they still
are not to me great enough to justify all the pain and suffering he went
through.”
August 21, 2012 PR Web
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), America’s leader in partnership
corrections, is proud to announce that Kim White has joined the team as the
new managing director of Inmate Programs. With more than 30 years of industry
experience, White will bring fresh and innovative ideas to both the company
and the field of inmate rehabilitation and reentry programming. “Ms. White
has a strong passion for helping inmates build better lives and creating
programs that will contribute to their development,” said Harley G. Lappin,
CCA’s Chief Corrections Officer. “This passion will be reflected in her work
at CCA and we are excited to see her impact on the department.” White will be
overseeing CCA’s Inmate Programming department, which offers
recidivism-reducing programs and helps prepare inmates for a successful life
upon release. The department develops and offers a variety of rehabilitation
programs and resources across CCA's system of more than 60 correctional and
detention facilities nationwide. Programs address the unique needs of the
inmate population, including addictions treatment, education courses,
vocational trades and faith-based programs. White most recently served as
assistant director of the Human Resources Management Division for the Federal
Bureau of Prisons (BOP). She began her career as a correctional officer and
over the years has ascended the ranks including nearly seven years as a
Regional Director. Her interests in the corrections industry stems from a course
she completed in college on correctional institutions, which led to an
internship with the BOP. White also holds a degree from Kent State University
and completed Harvard University’s Executive Education Program for senior
managers in government.
March 12, 2012 Marketwatch
The Council of Prison Locals (CPL) of the American Federation of Government
Employees (AFGE) today denounced a privatization plan by the Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA) that would weaken prison security, jeopardize
community safety and encourage states to take on additional debt. CCA Chief
Corrections Officer and former Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director
Harley Lappin recently sent a letter to officials in 48 states announcing
what the company is calling a "corrections investment initiative,"
in which CCA is offering to purchase and operate state prisons under the
following conditions: The facility to be sold must have at least 1,000 beds,
is filled to at least 90 percent capacity and the state agrees to pay CCA to
operate the facility for a minimum of 20 years. "This is yet another
example of a private prison company looking to bolster its bottom line with
no regard for safety or fiscal responsibility," said CPL President Dale Deshotel. "Instead of investing in privatization
with taxpayer funds, we should be investing in the correctional officers
currently tasked with securing the nation's federal prison system. We're
understaffed, underfunded and our inmate population is spiraling out of
control." AFGE, which joined a coalition headed by the American Civil
Liberties Union in asking state governors to oppose CCA's plan, has long
opposed the privatization of prisons. The union says federal prisons are
safer and more cost-effective than private prisons and maintains that private
prisons have a history of slashing operating costs through the reduction of
prisoner programs, reducing employee benefits and wages, and routinely
operating with low, dangerous staff-to-inmate ratios. "Federal
correctional officers are the most professional, highly-trained correctional
workforce in the world and uniquely equipped to handle the demands of prison
security and operation," AFGE National President John Gage said.
"Taking this responsibility out of their hands puts communities around
the country in grave danger." BOP correctional officers and other staff
members inside federal prisons are unarmed, leaving them vulnerable to
attacks by inmates with homemade weapons. For years, AFGE and CPL have fought
not only for additional staffing and funding at BOP but also for protective
equipment such as stab-resistant vests and pepper spray. The need for
additional resources can be seen with the countless violent outbreaks
occurring at BOP facilities across the country. A correctional officer can be
responsible for supervising as many as 150 inmates at once and is unarmed
inside the facility. Low staffing levels and a more aggressive inmate
population have led to a spike in violence - something AFGE says cannot
continue.
March 7, 2012 USA Today
A private prison management company's proposal to buy government prison
facilities, criticized for requiring states to maintain high occupancy rates,
also is prompting debate about the firm's executive who circulated it. Harley
Lappin, the former director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, made the offer to
48 prison officials across the country in a January letter on behalf of
Corrections Corporation of America, less than a year after retiring from his
federal post. Civil rights advocates, a state lawmaker and the chief of the
federal prison employees union said Lappin's involvement with the firm's
offer, so soon after leaving his high-profile government post, raises ethical
concerns. "He's clearly using his connections (in the public prison
industry) and is now attempting to profit from it," said Texas state
Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat, who has spoken against
high-incarceration rates. David Shapiro, staff attorney for the ACLU's
National Prison Project, said Lappin's role is "part of the continuing revolving
door" between government and private industry. "It is definitely a
concern," he said. Company spokesman Steve Owen said Lappin's
involvement as the firm's corrections director was "very
appropriate," and did not include solicitations of his former agency.
USA TODAY initially sought to speak with Lappin, but questions were referred
to firm's media relations office. Federal law prohibits designated senior
federal government executives from doing business with their former agencies
for at least a year after leaving their posts. Owen said Lappin's letter was
not sent to his former agency. And Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci
Billingsley said the agency has received no such proposal.
October 7, 2011 Forbes
Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director Harley Lappin (55) enjoyed a 25 year career
of distinguished service when he announced that May 7, 2011 would mark the
beginning of his retirement. He had been director for about 8 years. That
announcement also came at around the same time as a revelation that Lappin had
been arrested for driving under the influence near his home in Annapolis, MD.
According to numerous news sources, the BOP has stated that Lappin’s
resignation had nothing to do with the DUI event. Okay, we’ll give him that.
We all make mistakes, some worse than others, but for a man who made a career
of holding inmates accountable for their actions it must have been a serious
blow to Lappin and those that knew him. However, we live in a forgiving
society and, lucky for Lappin, some are more forgiving than others. In his
case, Corrections Corporation of America had an offer to not only forgive
Lappin for his lapse in judgement for driving drunk, but also to bring him
out of retirement. Less than a month after leaving the BOP, Corrections Corp
offered Lappin the role of Chief Correctional Officer (don’t see many of
those positions in corporate America….but maybe we should). Upon accepting
the job, Lappin said, “I look forward to continuing my career in corrections
with a reputable organization like CCA.” Nice touch. On May 25, 2005, while
Lappin was Director, the BOP awarded a $129 million contract to Corrections
Corp. for management of a low-security federal factility
in Youngstown, OH. In April 2009, again while Lappin was Director, the BOP
awarded Corrections Corp a contract to house criminal alien offenders at its
facility in Adams County, Mississippi. In fact, these are just a few of the
awarded contracts to Corrections Corp. from federal agencies, including the
BOP. According to 10-K (SEC Annual Filing for 2010), the federal government
accounts for 43% of the total revenue of the company. Business is booming in
the prison sector these days. According to Market Watch, activist investor
Bill Ackman made a good call on the prison industry back in October 2009
(before the big insider cases) by saying about an investment in Corrections
Corp that, “It’s also a hedge against your hedge fund business, because as
the SEC ramps up….”, prompting laughter at the Value Investing Congress in
New York where he was speaking. He got that call right. Ackman’s real
interest in Corrections Corp was for a play on the real estate it owns….hey,
he’s an investor but it seems a little cold. However, many investors think
it’s a good call. I’m sure Ackman and many other investors in the publicly
traded Corrections Corp. (NYSE: CXW) are looking for a good return on their
investment. There are a lot of pressures to perform and earn a profit. My
hope is that Lappin will be the best Chief Corrections Officer that he can be
without having to call in any favors from his old friends he made at the BOP.
Like I said, I’m HOPING.
September 29, 2011 Los Angles Times
Arrests of federal prison guards soared nearly 90% over the last decade,
possibly because of poor hiring practices during a 25% increase in prison
growth, the Justice Department's inspector general reported. Misconduct
investigations doubled, and more than half of the offenses were committed
during the officers' first two years on the job. The inspector general
recommended that the Federal Bureau of Prisons improve its background
investigation of job applicants and find better ways to assess rookie
officers. But other factors have contributed to the problem, including
private prisons and increasing numbers of female prisoners and young
offenders in federal facilities, the inspector general found. The report did
not specify how many misconduct cases came out of private federal prisons,
which have increased their populations by 120% in the last decade, according
to the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington prison issues think tank.
"Private prisons aren't always held to the same standards as public
ones," said Joe Baumann, a corrections officer at the state California
Rehabilitation Center in Norco. "That's where so much of the stuff I come
across is from, the private contractors."
June 3, 2011 Mother Jones
Less than a month after retiring from his post as Director of the Federal
Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Harley G. Lappin has been hired to a top position at
the nation's largest private, for-profit prison contractor, Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA). In a move that has gone virtually unnoticed by
the press except on the business pages, Lappin, who had run the BOP since
2003, has been named CCA's Executive VP and Chief Corrections Officer.
According to a company press release, his responsibilities will include
"the oversight of facility operations, health services, inmate
rehabilitation programs, [and] purchasing." Lappin announced his
retirement in March, a few days before making public his arrest, the previous
month, on DUI charges in Maryland. In a memo apologizing to BOP employees,
Lappin admitted to a "lapse in my judgment...giving rise to potential
embarrassment to the agency," but he refused to acknowledge a direct link
between his arrest and his retirement. The announcement of his appointment to
a leadership position at CCA came just over three weeks after his effective
retirement date of May 7. Taking advantage of two concurrent 30-year
trends--toward mass incarceration and toward privatization of government
services--CCA has grown to a $1.6 billion company that operates 66 facilities
in 20 states, with approximately 90,000 beds. It has become notorious for its
poor treatment of prisoners, and for numerous preventable injuries and deaths
in its prisons and immigrant detention centers. About 40 percent of CCA's
business comes from the federal government, including Immigration and Customs
Enforcement as well as the Bureau of Prisons. As BOP director, Lappin would
have overseen government contracts with CCA worth tens of millions of
dollars. CCA spends approximately $1 million annually on lobbying on the
federal level alone. A press release from the invaluable Private Corrections
Working Group notes that Lappin's quick trip through the
government-to-industry revolving door is hardly unique in the Bureau of
Prisons' history: "Lappin joins another former BOP director already
employed with CCA, J. Michael Quinlan, who was hired by the company in 1993.
He retired as director of the BOP in 1992, several months after settling a
lawsuit that accused him of sexually harassing a male BOP employee. While
settling the suit, Quinlan denied allegations that he made sexual advances to
the employee in a hotel room." Advertise on MotherJones.com In addition,
there's the case of the recently appointed head of the U.S. Marshals Service,
Stacia Hylton, who until 2010 was the Federal
Detention Trustee. In between serving in these two high-ranking government
positions, Hylton worked as a consultant for the GEO
Group, the nation's second largest private prison contractor. During Hylton's tenure, the Office of the Federal Detention
Trustee gave several contracts to GEO; and the U.S. Marshals Service, like
ICE and the BOP, houses federal detainees in privately owned prisons,
including some run by GEO. "Federal ethics rules do not prohibit former
high-ranking employees such as Lappin and Hylton
from working for private companies, even when those companies contract with
the same federal agencies where those former officials were employed,"
the Private Corrections Working Group points out. "An Executive Order
issued by President Obama restricts appointees from taking official actions
that directly and substantially affect immediate former clients and employers;
however, that ethics rule was not applied to Hylton
and it has been waived for over two dozen other federal officials, according
to a report by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics."
June 1, 2011 Market Wire
CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) (NYSE:CXW - News), America's leader
in partnership corrections, announced that effective June 1, 2011, Harley G.
Lappin, 55, shall serve as Executive Vice President and Chief Corrections
Officer (CCO). In this role, Mr. Lappin will be responsible for the oversight
of facility operations, health services, inmate rehabilitation programs,
purchasing and TransCor, the Company's wholly-owned
transportation subsidiary. He succeeds Richard P. Seiter, who announced his
decision to step down as CCO earlier this year, effective May 31, 2011. Mr.
Lappin, as a career correctional administrator, previously served as the
Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) -- the nation's largest
correctional system, a position he held since 2003, prior to retirement in
May 2011. He served in a variety of roles with the Bureau of Prisons for more
than 25 years, beginning in 1985, including Regional Director, Warden of the
United States Penitentiary in Indiana, and Warden of the Federal Correctional
Institution in North Carolina, among other positions. As Director of the BOP,
Lappin had oversight and management responsibility for 116 federal prisons,
14 large, private contract facilities and more than 250 contracts for
community correction facilities, in total comprising more than 215,000
inmates managed by 38,000 employees, with a $6.4 billion budget.
September 2, 2010 Press Release
A federal judge today rebuked the federal Bureau of Prisons’ refusal to
disclose basic information about immigrant detention centers operated by
private contractors. The ruling arose in a lawsuit brought by recent law
school graduate Stephen Raher, who had requested
documents from the Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) in 2008 pursuant to the Freedom
of Information Act (“FOIA”). The documents, which Raher
requested as part of a law school research project, pertain to a series of
contracts that BOP has issued for privately-operated immigrant detention
facilities. BOP has refused to release the documents, which specify the work
private prison companies must perform and how much the government pays them
in return, citing FOIA’s protections for confidential business information.
In response to the BOP’s argument that it could not disclose how much it pays
the private prison companies, the court concluded that BOP’s “categorical and
conclusory assertions do not provide the particularized explanation necessary
to show that disclosure of a specific document or part of a document would
damage the interest in private competition protected by” FOIA’s commercial
information provision. During the course of the lawsuit, BOP has advanced
many arguments justifying its protection of contractor secrecy. The court
rejected most of the arguments, repeatedly calling the government’s
allegations conclusory and unsupported by the evidence. In response to the
BOP’s claims that some documents contained sensitive security information,
the court agreed that FOIA does protect bona fide security details, but noted
that BOP’s “conclusory statements that a security risk exists categorically
for all information related to staffing, computers, security, and operations
does not provide the specificity needed to satisfy the agency’s burden of
proof under FOIA.” Today’s ruling by Magistrate Judge Janice Stewart gives
the BOP 60 days to provide precise descriptions of the documents and legal
justifications for withholding them. “The case is far from over, but this
ruling is important,” said Raher, who graduated
from Lewis & Clark Law School in May 2009. “Immigrant detention is a
lucrative business that negatively impacts thousands of families, but for too
long BOP has refused to release basic information on the companies that
profit from our nation’s disruptive immigration policy. Today’s ruling
reiterates that the government cannot withhold information simply because private
contractors would rather not be exposed to public scrutiny.”
January 20, 2003
Four former inmates of a halfway house
operated by a private company under contract to the Federal Bureau of Prisons
brought this action to recover for injuries after being sexually abused by a
company employee. Background: In 1998,
Susan Scainetti, Yvette Adorno, Stephanie Womble
and Rosemarie Johnson were federal inmates at a community corrections
facility In New York City, Le Marquis Community Correctional Center. The facility is owned, operated and
maintained by Correctional Services Corporation, under contract with the
BOP. Between Nov. 6 and Dec. 28, 1998,
Miguel Carriera, an inmate counselor And CSC
employee, allegedly lured the individual inmates individually into his office
and sexually assaulted them. The assaults were facilitated by the fact that Carriera's office was at the end of a hallway and was
isolated by double doors though which no sound could be heard. Within two years after the alleged sexual
assaults, the inmates filed claims with the BOP for damages.
When no settlement was offered, Scainetti filed
suit, and CSC moved to dismiss.
Company representatives said the claim was time-barred. Ruling: On its
face, the three-year statue of limitations barred Scainetti's claims, since her complaint was filed three
years and three days after the date of the alleged assault. However, after filing her complaint, Scainetti received BOP records under a Freedom of
Information request that showed she originally complained about The incidents
on Dec. 30, 1998. Scainetti had told investigators
that Carriera had made numerous sexual advances
toward her and others over a period several months. She said the sexual
assaults occurred on at least four occasions, "from
sometime in October through December 1998." Since the alleged assaults continued
through December 1998, at least some - if not all - of the assaults were
within the statute of limitations, the court said. The CSC's motion to dismiss was
denied. Scainetti,
et al., v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, et al., No. Civ. 9970(SHS) (S.D.N.Y.
12/18/02). (Corrections Professional)
January 23, 2003
At a time when tight budgets have forced many states to consider the early
release of hundreds of inmates to cut costs, the federal prison system is
bursting at the seams and ranks as the largest in the nation. The Federal Bureau of Prisons reported a
population of nearly 165,000 this month, making the system larger than
perennial prison giants California and Texas. (Related story: Drugs getting
into federal prisons too easily) At least part of the increase, officials
say, is because of a growing pool of non-citizen offenders who represent
nearly one-third of the federal inmate population. The majority have been convicted of
drug-related crimes, and their numbers jumped from 22% in 1998 to 28% in
2002. (USA Today)
December 26, 2002
FORMER INMATES of a community confinement center operated by a private
company under contract with the federal Bureau of Prisons brought this action
to recover his injuries they suffered when allegedly sexually abused by an
employee of that company. The court rejected defendant Correctional
Services Corp.'s motion to dismiss, holding that a corporation that runs a
correctional center for the federal government cannot invoke the government
contractor defense. The court noted that the Second Circuit found that
the defense "only shields a government contractor from claims arising
out of its actions where the government has exercised its discretion and
judgment in approving precise specifications to which the contractor must
adhere." The instant court added that a contractor can still be
found liable where it exceeded authority given it by the federal government,
or "where the federal government's authority was not validly
conferred." (New York Law Journal)
Federal Elections
Commission
Sep 29, 2017 courthousenews.com
FEC Fines Hillary Clinton PAC Contributor $34,000
WASHINGTON (CN) — The Federal Election Commission on Thursday fined
Suffolk Construction Co. of Massachusetts $34,000 for making two $100,000
contributions to a Hillary Clinton-affiliated super PAC in 2015, in violation
of a ban on federal contractors making political contributions. The Campaign
Legal Center and Democracy 21 sued the construction company in 2016. The
Washington, D.C.-based groups said Thursday they believe this is the first
time the FEC has fined a federal contractor for making a contribution to a
super PAC. “Hopefully this decision by the FEC deters companies with business
before the government from attempting to buy influence in the future,”
Democracy 21 general counsel Donald Simon said in a statement. “We look
forward to the FEC taking action on our outstanding complaint against GEO
Group for violating the contractor contribution ban with its contribution to
a pro-Trump super PAC.” That complaint claims that GEO Group, one of the
country largest operators of private prisons, contributed $225,000 to the
Trump-affiliated super PAC Rebuilding America Now.
Dec
14, 2016 thedailybeast.com
Did Private Prison Contractor Illegally Boost Trump?
In the final days of the presidential campaign, a pro-Trump super PAC may
have taken illegal contributions from a private prison company that stood to
profit handsomely off a Trump win. That’s the argument that the Campaign
Legal Center, a nonpartisan campaign watchdog group, is making about
contributions that a subsidiary of the GEO Group private prison company made
to the Rebuilding America Now super PAC. Federal Election Commission filings
released last week showed the group took $125,000 from the company on Nov. 1
of this year. It is illegal for federal contractors to make campaign
contributions, both to campaigns themselves and to outside super PACs. GEO
Group, one of America’s largest prison companies, contracts with the federal
government to house prisoners, as well as state governments and governments
in Australia, the U.K., and South Africa, according to their annual filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Their business would have
suffered if Hillary Clinton had become president; she promised on the stump
that she would end government contracts with companies like GEO, while Trump
praised the privatization of the prison industry. GEO was one of the
companies to see the biggest stock-price jump after Trump won the presidency
on Nov. 8. So it’s understandable that in people affiliated with the company
would have wanted to help Trump. GEO Group defends the contributions to
Rebuilding America Now, arguing they were made through a company subsidiary
that doesn’t contract with the federal government. “The donation was fully
compliant with all applicable federal election laws; although GEO Corrections
Holdings Inc., the company that made the donation, is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the GEO Group, it is a non-contracting legal entity and has no
contracts with any governmental agency,” said GEO spokesperson Pablo Paez in a statement to The Daily Beast. The Campaign
Legal Center doesn’t buy it. Brendan Fischer, associate counsel for the group,
argues that GEO Correction Holdings, Inc. actually does contract with the
federal government. He points to a filing the subsidiary made with the
National Labor Relations Board in 2013 as evidence of this. That filing, from
a case closed on Dec. 3, 2013, names GEO Corrections Holdings Inc. as the
employer, and refers to it throughout as GEO. “GEO is a large operator of
prisons and other correctional facilities,” the brief says, adding that it
“has contracts with several state and federal agencies” including the Bureau
of Prisons and Department of Homeland Security. At issue in that suit was the
contract for the D. Ray James Detention Facility in Georgia. On Sept. 30 of
this year, GEO Group announced that the federal government extended its
contract with the company for operating that particular prison. Also,
USASpending.gov, the site that lists federal government contracts, has a page
showing that Geo Corrections Holdings Inc. received a $266,666 grant from the
federal government on Feb. 1, 2015. GEO told The Daily Beast that the NLRB
filing was an error. “The D. Ray James facility’s federal contract has never
been with GEO Corrections Holdings; nor have any of our contracts,” said Paez in a statement. That statement described GEO
Corrections Holdings this way: “The entity houses all of our administrative
functions and as a holding company it has no operations. GEO Corrections
Holdings employs all of our corporate employees. GEO Corrections Holdings
does not employ any of our facility employees.” The Campaign Legal Center
argues that this is a distinction without a difference, and that the federal
contractor ban should apply to the company’s subsidiary. “GEO Corrections
Holdings Inc. and its parent company are indistinguishable,” Fischer said.
We’ll see if the Federal Election Commission agrees.
Nov 2, 2016 lawnewz.com
Trump PAC Accused of Illegally Taking Money from Private Prison Company
The Campaign Legal Center, a non partisan
Washington D.C. based group, filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission
alleging that a pro-Donald Trump super PAC, Rebuilding America Now, accepted |
