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Bellamy Creek
Correctional
Ionia, Mi
Jul 16, 2014 Detroit
Free Press
LANSING — In a development a state
government spokesman described as “unprecedented,” four Aramark prison
workers at Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia were fired Wednesday
for having inappropriate sexual contact with inmates inside a walk-in cooler,
a Corrections Department official confirmed. Critics said the latest
development in the 7-month-old Aramark saga should be the last straw for the
Philadelphia-based company, whose performance has been plagued with hundreds
of problems — including food shortages and kitchen maggots — since it
displaced 370 state workers and took over the job of providing three meals a
day to about 43,000 state prisoners. The latest firings also mean more than
80 Aramark workers have now been banned from prison property for various
infractions — through a mechanism the Corrections Department calls stop
orders — since the company took over. State Rep. Sam Singh, D-East Lansing,
joined the chorus Wednesday of those calling for an end to the contract.
“Once again, misconduct by Aramark employees have caused disruption in our
prison system,” Singh said in a news release. “What started out as a few
concerning incidents has grown into to a pattern of continued poor
performance. The result of this failed privatization policy is more than 80
Aramark employees have been banned from correction facilities for their
transgressions,” and “all of this leads to dangerous conditions for our
corrections officers and ultimately the general public.” Aramark spokeswoman
Karen Cutler, who has said the company is working with the state to improve
operations — but also has blamed interest groups who opposed privatization
for what she has described as a “media circus” surrounding the contract — had
no immediate comment. Of the latest incident, Aramark has “zero tolerance for
improper conduct and thank the department for working with us to promptly
handle this situation,” Cutler said. Sara Wurfel,
spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Snyder, said on Wednesday that the governor “has
strong and serious concerns,” and “these things must get addressed and
resolved. “Quality, safety and security are simply imperative,” Wurfel said. Spokesman Russ Marlan
said the corrections department plans to review the status of the Aramark
contract at the end of July, though he wouldn’t rule out the state taking
further action against the contractor sooner than that. “It’s long past time
for the governor to take action,” Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark
Schauer said in a news release calling on Snyder to terminate the three-year,
$145-million deal with Aramark Correctional Services. “Taxpayer dollars
shouldn’t be used to pay for the kind of gross incompetence and dangerous
behavior that Aramark is peddling.” Wednesday’s firings came after prison
officials reviewed recent surveillance video from inside a kitchen cooler
showing female Aramark workers cavorting with male inmates, Marlan said. Two of the kitchen workers were at work
Wednesday and were escorted out. Two others were fired and not allowed into
the prison when they showed up for work, he said. “It’s unprecedented that
four workers at the same facility, in the same day, are placed on stop
order,” Marlan said. “It’s concerning on a number
of levels.” The conduct involved kissing and sexual touching with several
inmates, but no intercourse, Marlan said. “I don’t
believe all four of them were in the cooler at the same time,” he said. The
firings reduce Aramark staff at Bellamy from 14 to 10, meaning help will need
to be brought in from elsewhere, Marlan said. It’s
the latest in a litany of problems since Aramark took over food services from
state workers Dec. 8. Officials have fined Aramark $98,000 over meal
shortages and improper menu substitutions and began strict enforcement of
those portions of the contract on July 1. There have also been problems with
security issues, Aramark workers smuggling in contraband and getting too
friendly with inmates, and with food quality that has led to growing prisoner
unrest. The Free Press detailed such problems on Sunday after receiving
thousands of pages of records related to Aramark’s contract under Michigan’s
Freedom of Information Act. Those records disclosed a range of problems,
including complaints of rotten meat, threats of violence by Aramark workers,
frequent food shortages and an earlier incident in which an Aramark worker
and an inmate were discovered engaged in a sex act in a walk-in cooler at
Carson City Correctional Facility. The state hasn’t yet put Aramark on formal
notice on the fraternization/stop order issue and Mel Grieshaber,
executive director of the Michigan Corrections Organization union
representing corrections officers, said Wednesday he doesn’t understand why.
The high turnover and untrained Aramark workers pose the greatest threat to
prison security and “a potentially volatile situation,” said Grieshaber, who has called on the state to end the
contract. The Aramark workers typically are paid about $11 an hour — roughly
half what the state workers were paid. Officials estimated the contract would
trim $12 million to $16 million from the $2 billion Corrections Department
annual budget. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville,
R-Monroe, said the state should rebid the contract after the Free Press
reported on maggots being discovered in or near food at two Michigan prisons.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re prisoners or who they are, people don’t deserve
that type of treatment,” Richardville said. Marlan
said criminal charges are possible against the Aramark workers in the latest
incident. Federal law treats any sexual contact between prison staff and
inmates as abuse, and officials are investigating, Marlan
said.
Calhoun County Jail
Battle Creek, Michigan
Correctional Medical Services
March 25, 2005 WZZN13
A sneeze changed Linda Peterson's life forever. Peterson, 53, of Battle
Creek, was a licensed practical nurse working in the Calhoun County jail when
a female inmate sneezed during an examination on May 15, 2002. What Peterson
didn't know at the time was that the woman was infected with
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a bacteria
resistant to many antibiotics. Peterson believes it was that sneeze which
infected her. For Peterson, the infection forced amputation of her middle toe
and a portion of her left foot, forced her to stop working, plunged her into
depression and placed her nearly $100,000 in debt because of medical bills
and her inability to work. She can't rid her body of the infection and
can only hope to control it. Peterson was working for Correctional Medical
Services, a St. Louis, Mo., company which contracts with Calhoun County to
provide medical care in the jail. The company provides correctional health
care in 27 states. Peterson and another former registered nurse working for
CMS, Sally Lett of Kalamazoo, and two former inmates, contend CMS and jail
personnel did not do all they could to disinfect jail living areas and
equipment to help prevent the spread of the bacteria. "It wasn't as
clean as it should be," Peterson said. "We didn't always have the
supplies." "The health and safety of the inmates and the employees
was not a consideration," Lett alleged.
Carson City Correctional Facility
Carson
City, MI
Jul
13, 2014 Detroit Free Press
LANSING
— At Carson City Correctional Facility in February, prison officials entered
a walk-in freezer to find the cooling unit shut off and an Aramark kitchen
worker on her knees in front of a male inmate, engaged in a sex act. The
worker didn’t tell prison officials she was coerced. She was wearing a
personal alarm, which wasn’t activated. Officials fired her and banned her
from prison properties. It’s one of dozens of examples of Aramark workers
losing their jobs after getting too friendly with inmates, by exchanging love
letters, kissing them, trying to smuggle them contraband, and even baking one
a special farewell cake to celebrate his release, according to records
obtained by the Free Press under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.
Corrections officers say the conduct of some Aramark workers — who typically
make about $11 an hour and have high turnover — puts them and the safety of
the entire prison system at risk.
■
They say it’s a short and slippery slope from getting friendly or intimate
with inmates to helping them obtain weapons or escape. Aramark officials
stress that keeping a professional distance from inmates is part of employee
training. But records show that training has often been ineffective. “We’re
so fed up,” said Mel Grieshaber, executive director
of the Michigan Corrections Organization union representing correction
officers.
■“They’re
around prisoners who are manipulative,” he said of the Aramark employees. “If
you’re not determined, you end up allowing things to happen.” Former Aramark
employee Christopher Amando Mitchell is a case in
point. Prison reports show the 19-year-old worker at G. Robert Cotton
Correctional Facility in Jackson was already “suspected of
over-familiarity/fraternization with inmates” when a March 19 search as he
entered the prison turned up two bags of marijuana wrapped in duct tape.
Mitchell awaits sentencing after he pleaded guilty June 13 to smuggling
contraband into a prison, a five-year felony. It’s not that over-familiarity
never happened with kitchen workers employed by the state, who were paid
about twice as much and had additional training that allowed them to pat down
prisoners without corrections officers present. But the rate of incidents was
not nearly as high, state and union officials agree.
■
In other instances of over-familiarity involving Aramark workers:
■
At the Charles E. Egeler Reception & Guidance Center in Jackson, “I was
making a round through the kitchen and saw approximately 15 inmates back in
the commissary area eating cake,” Corrections Officer Jason Duncan reported
March 16. He found out an Aramark employee “baked the cake for inmate Harris
196839 and was permitting a group of inmates to eat it because Prisoner (Paul
Dione) Harris was leaving the next day.”
■
At Newberry Correctional Facility, a Feb. 16 search of an Aramark worker
found two love notes in the bill of her cap, which she later admitted were
from an inmate.
■
At Michigan Reformatory, two Aramark workers were fired Jan. 28 after
officials discovered they were receiving phone calls from prisoners and
putting money into the inmates’ accounts.
■
At Lakeland Correctional Facility, a March 20 search of an Aramark worker
turned up a love note to a prisoner hidden in her shoe.
■
On March 18 at Egeler, corrections officers overheard prisoners applauding an
Aramark worker who was telling them the “corrupt” prison officials had “tried
to get me” removed, but failed. The worker, who was later fired, “has decided
to side with the prisoners as friends or co-workers,” prison Sgt. Robert
Grace said in an e-mail.
Cook Nuclear Plant
Bridgman, Michigan
Wackenhut (Group 4)
April 15, 2009 TWSJM AM
The Cook Nuclear Plant is shaking up its security force. The Plant is ending
its contract with Florida-based Wackenhut Corporation and instead offering
all security officers jobs with Indiana Michigan Power. 162 existing
contracts employees will transition into members of the American Electric
Power security team. Cook Senior Vice President Joe Jensen says joining the
American Electric Power team will help the plant's security be more
effective. The plan is expected to give more control over integrated
operations and costs and give more benefits to security employees.
Cotton Correctional Facility
Corizon
October 4, 2017
detroit.cbslocal.com
Family Files $50 Million Lawsuit Over Inmate’s Jail Death
DETROIT (WWJ) – A $50 million lawsuit has been filed by the family of a
Michigan inmate who says the lack of medical attention in the jail caused his
death. John Stein, 37, was serving a 16-month to 5-year sentence at Cotton
Correctional Facility near Jackson for home invasion and subsequently
bringing weapons into the prison. On Sept. 5, as Stein was awaiting release
from the prison, it’s alleged that he complained to guards about chest pains
and requested to see a doctor, but he was returned to his cell — where he
collapsed and died. Attorney Geoffrey Fieger is now bringing a $50 million
lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Corrections and Corizon Health,
claiming they are responsible for Stein’s death. The lawsuit alleges that
despite being alerted to Stein’s ongoing complaints of debilitating chest
pain, the nurses and corrections officers failed to refer him to a physician
or nearby hospital for further evaluation, resulting in his death. Two prison
health care workers were suspended following Stein’s death. The lawsuit
claims these two workers knew Stein had a serious and life threatening
medical condition, yet were deliberately indifferent to his medical needs.
Neither the Department of Corrections nor the prison have commented on the
lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
Sep
16, 2017 freep.com
2 prison nurses suspended over Michigan prisoner's sudden death
LANSING — Two prison health care workers are suspended and the Michigan
State Police have launched an investigation after the sudden death of a
prisoner at a Jackson-area state prison, officials said Thursday. John
Richard Stein, 37, was given cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and rushed to an
area hospital from Cotton Correctional Facility on the morning of Sept. 5,
according to a prison activity blotter obtained by the Free Press. A nurse
employed by the Corrections Department and a nurse practitioner employed by
prison health contractor Corizon Health, Inc., have both received “stop
orders” banning them from prison property pending the outcome of the police
investigation, department spokesman Chris Gautz
said. Two prison sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said Stein was
taken to the prison health care unit after he complained he wasn’t feeling
well, but was returned to his cell a short time later. Soon after that, he
collapsed again and died, the sources said. Martha Harbin, a spokeswoman for
Corizon, declined immediate comment, except to say the company would cooperate
with any police investigation and also undertake an internal investigation.
An officer at the Michigan State Police Jackson post confirmed an
investigation is under way into Stein's death, but declined further comment.
A spokeswoman for the Jackson County medical examiner's office confirmed that
an autopsy was conducted on Stein, but said the cause of death is pending and
it could be two months before a report is prepared. Stein was serving 16
months to five years on a 2012 conviction for a prisoner possessing weapons
in Gratiot County. He was earlier convicted of home invasion and aggravated
stalking in Monroe County, prison records show. A family member of Stein's
could not be reached for comment. The Corrections Department, citing the
police investigation, refused to release critical incident reports or daily
log book entries related to Stein's death after the Free Press requested
those records under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act. The department
said it had no records of any prison discipline involving Stein. Corizon
holds a five-year, $715.7-million contract to provide health care to state
prisoners, according to state records.
Deerfield Correctional Center
Feb 17, 2019 freep.com
Whitmer nixes private immigrant detention center proposed in Ionia
LANSING — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has canceled the sale of a former
state prison in Ionia for construction of a $35-million immigration detention
center — a move drawing both praise and criticism. Whitmer nixed the sale of
the former Deerfield Correctional Center to Immigration Centers of America, a
private detention center operator based in Virginia, because the company
couldn’t guarantee the facility “would not be used to detain adults who had
been separated from their children or other family members,” among other
concerns, said Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown. It's the latest in a series
of moves that Whitmer, a Democrat, has taken to reverse directions taken
under the administration of her predecessor, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.
Rev. Jack Eggleston, a board member of the group Michigan United and pastor
at Unity Lutheran Church in Southgate, said the center would have made it
easier for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to separate families. “We
applaud … Whitmer for standing up for immigrant families today, and standing
against the private prison industry,” Eggleston said in a news release. But
state Rep. Thomas Albert, R-Lowell, called the governor’s action
"heavy-handed," and said it came days before the sale of the land
was to be finalized. Albert said Whitmer was halting the sale as a way of
taking a political swipe at Republican President Donald Trump, who has been
fire for separating parents from children at the U.S.-Mexico border and last
week declared a national emergency in an attempt to secure funding to
construct a border wall. “I would really like to know what the governor’s
plan is to bring 250 well-paying jobs to Ionia and how she plans to clean up
the long-vacant former prison property,” Albert said in a news release. The
Free Press broke the news of the proposed private immigration detention
center in October after the Michigan Land Bank Fast Track Authority called
for bids on the former state prison, which closed in 2009. Immigration
Centers of America (ICA), which operates a similar civil detention facility
in Virginia, was the sole bidder, and Dennis Muchmore, who served as chief of
staff to Snyder from 2011 through early 2016, was acting as a lobbyist for
the detention center company, the Free Press reported. Muchmore or another company
spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. Because it would
involve only adult civil detention, the 166,000-square-foot facility would
house immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who
have not been charged with or convicted of criminal offenses, but instead are
being held pending administrative hearing on issues such as deportation.
Though Muchmore said the development could be "a long way away," a
copy of the company's Oct. 1 proposal, obtained by the Free Press, said that
if the land sale was approved, the facility expected to receive its permit
from the federal government late in 2019 and open 12 months after that. Brown
said that when Whitmer took office in January, she launched "a
thoughtful and deliberative review" of the green light given to the sale
under the Snyder administration late last year. The review included input
from local elected officials, community leaders, civil rights groups, and the
company, she said. "From that due diligence, it was determined that ICA
was unable to agree to terms that guaranteed that this facility would not be
used to detain adults who had been separated from their children or other
family members and could not assure certain other conditions without ICE
approval," Brown said. “The governor believes that building more
detention facilities won’t solve our immigration crisis, and she also
believes that separating families doesn’t reflect our Michigan values, Brown
said. "It's time for President Trump and Congress to work together on a
bipartisan immigration reform plan that keeps communities safe, protects
American jobs, and keeps families together.” But Albert said Whitmer
shouldn't have taken the decision away from city officials in Ionia.
"The sale of this blighted property has been in the works for well over
a year," he said. “It’s obvious the governor’s rejection was about
appeasing her political base and taking a swipe at President Trump," he
said. "Like it or not, people that come into this country illegally are
going to be detained. Ionia has been a correctional community since the
mid-1800s. They deserve to have been involved in this decision.” But Michigan
United, a statewide coalition that works on issues related to immigration,
housing and rights for low-wage workers, said that by law, undocumented
immigrants taken into custody by ICE in Detroit must be held within 150
miles. Ionia is at the far end of that limit, being 143 miles away from
Detroit, the group said. "Not only would a new prison anywhere in Michigan
make it easier for ICE to tear families apart, one so far away would also
make it harder for their lawyers to work with them, harder for their families
to come visit them and much harder for the community to rally in their
support," Michigan United said in the news release. Whitmer issued an
executive order on the environment that among other changes abolished
industry-dominated panels set up under Snyder to review proposed
environmental rules and permits. The Republican-controlled Legislature voted
last week to reject that executive order, and Whitmer's next move in the
dispute is expected early this week. Whitmer has also sought to halt a
proposed Enbridge Line 5 oil pipeline tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac
approved under Snyder and is seeking to block some controversial grants that
were part of a $1.3-billion supplemental spending plan approved by lawmakers
on the last day of the lame-duck session in December and signed into law by
Snyder.
Egeler Reception and Guidance Center
Jackson, Michigan
May 12, 2017 usatoday.com
Prison worker fired, accused of kitchen sex with inmate
LANSING, Mich. — A prison food worker at a Michigan prison was fired
Wednesday after she and an inmate were caught having sex in the kitchen, a
state Department of Corrections spokesman said Thursday. The incident
happened inside a cooler just after dinner at the Charles Egeler Reception
and Guidance Center in Jackson, Mich., where new inmates are sent before they
are assigned to a longer-term prison. “The allegation is that she was
observed having sex with a prisoner” who worked in the kitchen, said Chris Gautz, a department spokesman. The Trinity Services Group
worker was fired for “over-familiarity,” and the Michigan State Police were
notified, he said. “Prisoners have no ability under the law to consent to
sexual contact,” Gautz said. “The Trinity employee
could face charges, but that is up to the (Michigan State Police) and local
prosecutor.” Gautz said such conduct is
"serious and completely unacceptable" because it "jeopardizes
the safety of the prisoner, our staff and the security of the facility."
He said, "The individual was immediately removed from the facility and
will no longer be allowed to work at the prison." The 40-year-old inmate
is serving a five- to 15-year sentence for unarmed robbery, state records
show. This is the latest in a long line of incidents involving
over-familiarity, smuggling and other issues since the Michigan Department of
Corrections privatized its food service as a cost-cutting measure in 2013. Such
instances were rare when prison kitchens were staffed with state employees,
who received higher pay and benefits and prisons experienced far less
turnover. In September, it was reported that a Trinity worker was fired after
she and an inmate were caught kissing inside a kitchen cooler, also at
Egeler. In 2014, four female prison food workers employed by Aramark
Correctional Services at Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia, Mich.,
were fired for having inappropriate sexual contact with male inmates inside a
walk-in cooler, officials said. Aramark of Philadelphia, which replaced about
370 state kitchen workers in December 2013, ended its three-year,
problem-plagued contract early and was replaced by Florida-based Trinity in
2015. Trinity signed a three-year, $158.8-million contract, but is in line
for a $4-million raise, based on inflationary increases and the number of
meals served, officials said in March. Since taking over the contract,
Trinity has been hit with $2.1 million in fines for contract infractions such
as unauthorized meal substitutions, delays in serving meals, inadequate
staffing levels and sanitation issues, among other problems. As of the end of
March, Trinity employees had received 132 stop orders, banning them from
prison property for firing offenses such as smuggling or over-familiarity. At
the same point in its contract, Aramark workers had received 177 stop orders,
officials said.
Jul
10, 2014 wlns.com
LANSING,
MI (WLNS) - The Snyder administration has not made a final decision, but
there are indications that the governor is considering terminating a food
service contract in the state prison system. 6 News Capitol Correspondent Tim
Skubick has an update on this continuing story. The
governor is not happy with the Aramark Company and its handling of food
services behind prison walls. Insects were found on the chow line, 80
employees have been fired, the company has been fined $98,000 and 150 inmates
got sick. Although no one has linked that to maggots and fly larvae in the
kitchen. So is the governor thinking about terminating the contract? He did
not say yes, but he clearly did not say no. “Well there’s been a number of
issues. So I would say we’re approaching those kind
of points, in terms of what needs to be done.” Reporter: “You would consider
canceling the contract?” Governor Snyder: “Well again, I don’t want to start
all kinds of speculation, but the performance hasn’t been acceptable and so
we need to get these things resolved.” The legislature, not the governor
decided to fire 370 state employees who did the food services prior to the
private company coming in. The state prison director even told lawmakers not
to do it. Representative Greg MacMaster chairs the prison budget and he is
warning against moving too quickly to end the contract. He thinks that
organized labor, which lost those jobs, may be trying to exploit this story.
Meanwhile it has been learned that while no final decision has been made, the
governor is considering all options and termination of the contract has not been
ruled out. “They need to fire the company. They need to get rid of them.
We’re having big problems in the institutions out there. Aramark should be
let go,” said Mel Greishaber, union president. Even
though this union leader does not represent the food service workers, he says
his members are worried. “Corrections officers are worried about the safety
and security of the intuitions,” said Greishaber.
For now all eyes are on the governor as he considers his next move.
4
Jul 2, 2014 detroitnews.com
Lansing—
Michigan Department of Corrections officials have put their private prison
food service provider on notice about a second corrections facility maggot
infestation, department spokesman Russ Marlan
confirmed Wednesday. Maggots — reportedly in one or more potatoes — were
discovered by food workers peeling potatoes for a meal to be served later in
the day at Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson, Marlan said. Egeler is the intake center where 1,103 new
inmates are held for up to two weeks awaiting placement in the corrections
system. The infestation was the second in less than a week at a Jackson
prison facility and adds to Corrections Department officials’ worries
regarding their $145-million, three-year contract with service giant Aramark
to run the prison system food service. “It’s another serious issue as
pertains to sanitary conditions of our Corrections system kitchens,” Marlan said. He said Egeler Warden Heidi Washington
ordered Aramark workers to throw out a pallet of raw potatoes that had been
stored in the prison kitchen. He said the kitchen was scrubbed with bleach
and the Corrections Department then ordered an early garbage collection to
get the spoiled potatoes off the prison grounds. An estimated 30 inmates
developed food poisoning symptoms last weekend and Monday, following an
incident last Friday in which maggots were discovered in a crack between
components of a food service apparatus at Parnall
Correctional Facility, also in Jackson. In that case, workers also scrubbed
down a cafeteria with bleach. Aramark signed with the state in December to
run the prison food services at an estimated annual savings of at least $12
million. The arrangement displaced 370 state workers and drew criticism from
the prison officers union, which speculated the private provider would make
mistakes that compromise safety. Corrections officials penalized Aramark
$98,000 in March for problems such as over-familiarity by its workers with
inmates. The department has warned the company it will strictly enforce
contract terms, effective at the start of this month. Gov. Rick Snyder
expressed concerns about the maggot problem during a public appearance
Tuesday.
Genesee County Jail, Flint Michigan
Coriizon
Mar 25, 2017 mlive.com
Man claims lack of jail medical treatment left him with colostomy bag
FLINT, MI -- A Flint man says his appendix burst, he had to have a piece
of his colon removed and now must use a colostomy bag after he was refused
medical care while inside the Genesee County Jail. Raheen Dudley filed a
federal lawsuit against the Genesee County Jail, Dr. Dennis Lloyd, Mona
Cross, Corizon Correctional Healthcare and Prison Health Services, Inc.,
alleging gross negligence and violations of Dudley's civil rights. The case
was filed on behalf of Dudley by the law firm of Geoffrey Fieger. A
representative of the firm could not be reached for comment. The lawsuit
claims his medical problems occurred after being jailed in 2016. On Sept. 14,
Dudley submitted a request for health services at the Genesee County Jail to
see a doctor regarding severe pain in his lower stomach, according to the
lawsuit filed March 13 in Detroit U.S. District Court. The lawsuit claims the
request went unanswered. Dudley submitted a second request on Sept. 16
because of extreme stomach pains, vomiting, headaches and inability to eat or
sleep, the lawsuit said. He was seen by Nurse Mona Cross the same day and it
was documented he had a fever of 100 degrees, but Dr. Dennis Lloyd refused to
treat Dudley and Cross refused to send Dudley for emergency treatment,
according to the lawsuit. The next day, Sept. 17, Dudley sent another request for
health treatment and complained of shortness of breath, terrible pain in his
lower stomach, vomiting for three days, severe headaches, difficulty walking
and sleeping. He also asked to go to the hospital because it felt like a
"life or death situation," the lawsuit alleges. Five days after
Dudley began complaining, on Sept. 19, he was seen by Dr. Lloyd and was given
Tylenol and a urinalysis was performed, the lawsuit alleges. Lloyd diagnosed
Dudley with possible appendicitis and it was recommended he be sent to the
emergency room for evaluation. On Sept. 20, six days after his initial
complaint, Dudley had surgery, according to the lawsuit. "Despite
filling out repeat requests for medical treatment, he was not seen," the
lawsuit claims. "His symptoms progressed and he still was not seen by a
physician. Ultimately, his appendix burst and he had to undergo bowel resection.
A piece of his colon had to be removed and he has to wear a colostomy
bag." The lawsuit claims Lloyd and Cross were working for Corizon
Healthcare and could not be reached for comment. Corizon Correctional
Healthcare is headquartered in Tennessee and has 301 facilities in 22 states.
"Though we cannot comment specifically on any of our patients' medical
histories or when there is active litigation, it is important to emphasize
the existence of a lawsuit is not necessarily indicative of quality of care
or any wrongdoing," Corizon Spokeswoman Martha Harbin said in a
statement. "Our doctors and nurses work every day in extremely difficult
settings to provide the best possible medical care for our patients."
Dudley was in the Genesee County Jail awaiting trial on charges of armed
robbery, one count of assault with intent to rob while armed and felony
firearm for a string of robberies that took place at the Hometown Inn in
Flint Township in 2013. Dudley was eventually found guilty and is currently
serving a 15-year sentence at Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia.
Huron Valley Correctional Facility
Ypsilanti, MI
Corizon
Apr 23, 2021,
mlive.com
Prison medical contractor sued over death of inmate who overdosed on
antipsychotic medication
YPSILANTI TWP., MI –
A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against a healthcare company
contracted by the state’s prison system after a prisoner was given a lethal
dose of antipsychotic medication. Disability Rights Michigan with the Lipton
Law firm filed a federal lawsuit Monday, April 19, in U.S. District Court
seeking $5 million in damages against Corizon Health and several medical
staff members for the wrongful death of Ashley Harris, 31, who died while
incarcerated in the Huron Valley Women’s Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti
Township in 2018. The lawsuit claims Harris, who was being treated for mental
illness while incarcerated, was given a lethal dose of Thorazine over the
course of several days causing her to overdose and die while medical staff
ignored her pleas for help, the lawsuit states. “When Ms. Harris needed the
most help, she was locked in a cell and poisoned by medication prescribed by
those who were supposed to treat her illness,” Lipton Law attorney Kyle Kelly
said. A representative with Corizon Health could not be reached for comment.
Harris was incarcerated in the facility after she pleaded guilty in Kent
County Circuit Court to intentionally starting a fire inside an addiction
recovery home she was staying at in Grand Rapids in
2012. Woman pleads guilty to setting fire to recovery home. Witnesses said
Harris used a bottle of lighter fluid, squirting it on the house, while
threatening to harm herself. She damaged a hose to prevent the fire from
being extinguished, records show. According to a mental health evaluation,
Harris suffered from mental illness, addiction and was “hearing voices
telling her to kill her boyfriend, the president and staff in the hospital.”
In February 2013, Harris was sentenced to serve six to 20 years in prison for
the arson, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. On or about
July 7, 2018, Harris was deemed a suicide risk and placed in an observation
cell in the women’s prison with fellow inmates serving as a Prisoner
Observation Aid which are tasked with observing at-risk prisoners, the
lawsuit states. Harris was evaluated by a doctor who determined Harris was
suffering from auditory and visual hallucinations as well as delusions
leading to her being prescribed Thorazine, the lawsuit states. The doctor
ordered she was to take 600mg at 9 a.m., 600mg at noon and 800mg at bedtime,
reaching a daily total of 2000mg a day, the lawsuit claims. Staff maintained
logs to ensure Harris was given her doses as ordered until Sept. 11 when her
dosage was ordered to be reduced to 1800mg a day, the lawsuit states. Records
obtained by Disability Rights Michigan investigators showed Harris received a
reduced dose of 600mg three times a day plus an additional 800mg dose at
bedtime which should have been canceled with the new order, the lawsuit claims.
Harris’s daily dose of Thorazine was now at 2600mg a day, a lethal quantity,
the lawsuit states. She was given the 2600mg daily dose for several days,
leading to Harris’s physical and mental state to noticeably deteriorate to a
point where she could no longer get out of bed or communicate, the lawsuit
states. On Sept. 13, Harris’s Prisoner Observation Aid told medical staff
Harris was doing poorly, was pale and unsteady on her feet, the lawsuit
claims. The aid requested assistance from a nurse 10 times that day, each
time being refused, the lawsuit claims. Harris began breathing abnormally and
became unresponsive late that night, leading medical staff to call for an
ambulance. She was pronounced dead shortly after the ambulance crew arrived,
the lawsuit states. An autopsy showed Harris died of Thorazine toxicity with
her Thorizine levels measured at 2900ng/mL, the
lawsuit claims. “Our prison system is not where we should house the most
severely mentally ill people in Michigan,” said Kyle Williams, Litigation
Director for Disability Rights Michigan. “We need to reassess how and where
we treat women with severe mental illness in this state.” The case has been
assigned to U.S. District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith. No future court dates have
been assigned as of yet.
Oct 12, 2019 fox47news
State, contractor to
pay $1.25M settlement over care of mentally ill prisoner
A judge has approved
a $1.25 million settlement in a lawsuit over the care of a mentally ill
Michigan prison inmate. Lawyers for Darlene Martin's family said she was
denied food and water at times and forced to sit in her own excrement while
in segregation for 10 days in 2014. Water to her cell was cut off. Martin,
70, died in 2017, more than a year after she was released from the Huron
Valley women's prison where she served a sentence for retail fraud. The state
of Michigan will pay $550,000 and Corizon Health will pay $700,000. Corizon,
a private company, provides health care to prison inmates. A federal judge
approved the settlement last week. An email seeking comment was sent to
Corizon, which is based in Brentwood, Tennessee. The state Corrections
Department referred requests for comment to the attorney general's office,
which represented the agency in the litigation. There were no immediate responses
Wednesday. Corizon tried to have the case dismissed, but U.S. District Judge
David Lawson ruled against the company in September 2018. The Martin family's
lawyers will get $475,000 in fees and expenses from the $1.25 million.
Ionia Correctional Facility
Ionia, MI
Trinity Services
Aug
26, 2017 wzzm13.com
Ex-kitchen worker pleads guilty to trying to smuggle heroin into Ionia
prison
IONIA, MICH. - A former prison food worker faces up to a year behind bars
after he pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle heroin into Ionia
Correctional Facility. Adrian Delgado, 27, of Portland, pleaded guilty Aug.
11 to drug and prison smuggling charges. Ionia County Prosecutor Kyle Butler
said Delgado, who worked for prison food contractor Trinity Services Group,
showed up for work May 19, 2016, with .62 grams of heroin taped to his leg.
"We take these cases seriously," Butler said. "These types of
cases affect the safety of corrections officers and the stablity
of the institution." There have been numerous such incidents since 2013,
when the state switched to private contractors, who use lower-paid employees
with high turnover, to provide prison food services. Previous incidents of
prison food workers caught with drugs include: A Trinity food service worker
at Cotton Correctional Facility near Jackson was fired and turned over to the
Michigan State Police in September 2016, after a search as he reported to
work that day turned up suspected drugs. An Aramark Correctional Services kitchen
worker at Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian was fired and banned
from prison property in October 2014 on suspicion of smuggling marijuana into
the prison. A former Aramark worker pleaded guilty in Jackson County Circuit
Court in March 2014 to attempting to smuggle two packages of marijuana into
the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility near Jackson. In September 2014,
an Aramark worker was fired from St. Louis Correctional Facility, suspected
of smuggling drugs, after five prisoners were found with heroin, marijuana,
cocaine and tobacco. Officials say problems have declined, but have
continued, since Florida-based Trinity replaced Philadelphia-based Aramark in
September 2015. Though data comparing the number of drug smuggling cases
involving prison kitchen workers before and after privatization, the
Corrections Department has not disputed union assertions that such incidents
were comparatively rare when state workers supervised the preparation and
serving of meals by inmates. The department, upon request, has released data
on the number of "stop orders" issued to Trinity and Aramark
employees, banning them from prison property for a range of offenses that can
include smuggling of drugs or other contraband and over-familiarity with
prisoners. Trinity has had 161 of its Michigan prison employees "stop
ordered" — banned from prison property for various violations, since it
took over the contract, Corrections Department spokesman Chris Gautz said Friday. Gautz didn't
have a comparable figure for Aramark, but at the end of March, Trinity
employees had received 132 stop orders. At the same point in its contract,
Aramark workers had received 177 stop orders, he said. Again, there isn't
comparable data from when state workers were employed in the kitchen, because
the department says it didn't track stop orders in the same way at that time.
But Ed Buss, a consultant the state hired to oversee the prison food
contract, said in 2014 the numbers were dramatically lower prior to
privatization, noting the state kitchen worker with the least seniority at
one Michigan prison had been there 15 years when Aramark took over. Delgado,
who was to
stand trial last week, admitted in Ionia County Circuit Court he planned to
deliver the heroin to an inmate, Butler told the Free Press.Delgado
is to be sentenced by Judge Ronald Schafer. A sentencing date has not been
set. Possession of cocaine with intent to deliver it is a 20-year felony, but
Delgado's jail time is capped at 12 months under his plea agreement, Butler
said. Michael Honeywell, an Ionia attorney representing Delgado, declined
comment Friday. A Trinity spokesperson could not be reached for comment
Friday. "The department makes it a priority to search for contraband
entering our facilities whether from visitors or state or contract
employees," Gautz said. "Working inside a
prison can be a dangerous job and that is only magnified when having to deal
with a prisoner who is under the influence of narcotics." Aramark, which replaced about 370 state kitchen
workers in December 2013, ended its three-year, problem-plagued contract
early and was replaced by Florida-based Trinity in 2015. Trinity, which
replaced Aramark in September 2015, signed a three-year, $158.8-million
contract, but is in line for a $4-million raise, based on inflationary
increases and the number of meals served, officials said in March. Gautz said that even with a $4-million increase, the
contract will still be saving the state more than $11 million a year over
what it cost to provide the same service with state employees. Since taking
over the contract, Trinity has been hit with $2.1 million in fines for
contract infractions such as unauthorized meal substitutions, delays in
serving meals, inadequate staffing levels and sanitation issues, among other
problems. Anita Lloyd, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Corrections
Organization, a union representing corrections officers, did not respond to
an e-mail and phone call seeking comment.
Kinross Correctional Facility
Kincheloe,
MI
Trinity Services
Aug 26, 207 usatoday.com
Prison food worker: 'I was fired for refusing to serve
rotten potatoes'
LANSING, Mich. — A prison food worker said he was fired
last week after he refused to serve rotten potatoes to inmates at a Michigan
correctional facility. “It was the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in my
life,” said Steve Pine, 48, of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., who worked for
Trinity Services Group at Kinross Correctional Facility in Kinross, Mich.,
since July 2016. Kinross, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, is about 329 miles
north of Detroit. “They had about 100 bags of rotten potatoes,” Pine said.
“You could smell them,” and “they had black and green mold all over them.” A
corrections officer on duty agreed the potatoes should be thrown out instead
of being used to prepare meals for the next day, but a Trinity supervisor
disagreed, Pine said. When Pine, in front of prisoners who work in the
kitchen preparing and serving meals, refused orders to have the inmates pick
through the potatoes to find ones that could still be served, “they told me I
was trying to start a riot," he said of Trinity supervisors. Pine left
Kinross on Saturday, having lost his job, believing the potatoes were served
to prisoners Sunday. But Corrections Department spokesman Chris Gautz said Thursday that none of the potatoes was
ultimately served. "After inspecting them, it turned out only about a
third of the potatoes needed to be discarded," Gautz
said in an email. "But because the Trinity employee spoke about it in
front of the inmates so loudly, the prisoners had concerns," he said.
"So the next day, when the potatoes were to be used, none were. Even
though all the bad ones had been thrown out, to alleviate prisoner concerns,
a substitute was used, instead." Calls seeking comment to Trinity in
Florida and the offices of a related company in St. Louis were not returned
Thursday. Pine, who said he has more than 20 years of experience in the food
industry and managed a restaurant in Brimley, Mich., said until his firing
Saturday, he had a clean work record with Trinity, except for once receiving
a verbal reprimand for leaving early. Pine said he was not trying to incite a
riot. But he said serving rotten food can lead to the kind of unrest Kinross
witnessed last September, when inmates barricaded themselves in their housing
areas, smashed windows and fixtures and set fires in an incident that cost
the state $900,000. The quality and quantity of prison food was among the reasons
cited for what corrections officers called Michigan's first prison riot since
1981. The administration refused to classify the disturbance as a riot,
noting no prisoners or officers were injured. "They told me I was trying
to start a riot," Pine said. "I said: 'No, you're serving rotten
potatoes. That's going to get to the yard.' " Tom Tylutki,
president of the Michigan Corrections Organization, the union representing
corrections officers, said officers who worked at Kinross in September
"said in no uncertain terms that food quality and quantity was one of
the inmates' complaints" that led to what he considers a riot.
"Poor food quality and quantity puts the safety of everyone inside a
prison at risk, like we saw last year," Tylutki
said in an email. "Everyone deserves healthy, nutritious food prepared
in a sanitary environment, and that goes for inmates, too. This is a moral
issue for all sides." The state privatized its prison food service as a
cost-cutting move in 2013, replacing about 370 state kitchen workers with
contractor Aramark Correctional Services of Philadelphia. That three-year,
$145-millon contract, plagued with problems such as smuggling, sex between
Aramark workers and inmates and unauthorized meal substitutions, ended early
in September 2015, when the state replaced Aramark with Trinity. Since then,
officials say problems have decreased, but they have not ended. Trinity,
awarded a three-year, $158.8-million contract, has had 161 of its Michigan
prison employees "stop ordered" — banned from prison property for
various violations — since it took over the contract, Gautz
said. Trinity has also been hit with $2.1 million in fines for contract
infractions such as unauthorized meal substitutions, delays in serving meals,
inadequate staffing levels and sanitation issues, among other problems.
Trinity provides service to 43 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto
Rico, according to its website.
Macomb County Jail
Macomb County, Michigan
Correctional Medical Services
November 17, 2004 Macomb Daily
Macomb County officials approved a $410 million budget for 2005 on Tuesday
that holds the line on taxes and paints the kind of fiscally sound picture
that contrasts sharply with the red ink plaguing many Michigan cities and
counties. But not all of the news
is good. The cost of medical services for jail inmates has risen 34 percent,
from $3.3 million to $4.5 million over the past year. On Tuesday, the county
Board of Commissioners approved an audit of the medical services, at a cost
of $20,000, to determine why costs are skyrocketing. In the interim, the
board authorized a temporary, 6-month contract extension with the company
that provides the services, Correctional Medical Services. The jail books
26,000 inmates a year.
April 12, 2004 Macomb
Daily
The family of a Macomb County woman left an invalid after she leapt from a
balcony at the Macomb County Jail may have to pay $100,000 to the medical
provider they named in their failed lawsuit at U.S. District Court,
Detroit. Attorneys for Correctional Medical Services Inc., the medical
care provider at the jail, have asked federal Judge Paul Gadola
to sign a court order imposing $100,016.31 in court costs, attorney fees and
other expenses against the family of Patricia Rose House for suing them in
her November 2001 jailhouse injuries. Earlier this year, the county and
the medical carrier both won a motion to have the federal case dismissed.
While the county and its employees basically let the matter end there,
officials and records indicate CMS is going a step further to demand payback
for its trouble thus far. The plaintiffs claimed that officials should
have prevented House from jumping from a second-floor balcony to the first
floor, causing severe injuries which left her a quadriplegic. Court documents
claim she should have been receiving the drug Depakote to treat bipolar
disorder, and mistreatment or neglect by medical personnel caused her to
lapse into a suicidal episode. When she was brought into jail, she was
examined by medical personnel who determined she was not suicidal. Days after
her arrival, she jumped.
Michigan Department of Corrections
Feb 23, 2019 crainsdetroit.com
Corizon fined $1.6 million for violations of Michigan corrections
department health contract
In the 2 1/2 years since Corizon Health Inc. became the sole provider of
physical and mental health care, as well as pharmacy services, for the
Michigan Department of Corrections, the department has withheld $1.6 million
in payments for violations of the contract terms. Corizon's contract with
corrections expires in 2021, at which point the department has the option to
renew the contract for a year. However, Kyle Kaminski of the Department of
Corrections told the House Appropriations Corrections Subcommittee on
Wednesday that it will rebid the deal. That does not mean that the department
intends to find a new provider — it could end up signing a new deal with
Corizon — but the department thinks with a contract as big as this one, it
only makes sense to put it out to bid. The contract is a $715.7 million deal
over five years. Asked at the meeting about the significance of the $1.6
million in fines, Kaminski said, "We think we're holding them
accountable but obviously there's been some things we've had to hold them
accountable for." The fines involve violating requirements regarding the
timeliness of care through routine appointments and chronic care
appointments, Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz
said. Nearly every month, fines also are levied regarding the data integrity
of the claims file Corizon manages. Gautz did not
immediately have additional information about what that entails. Gautz said the issues encountered with Corizon are the
reason Director Heidi Washington established a contract monitoring unit.
"We are making sure that when a contractor is providing services, we are
getting exactly what we paid for," he said. The discussion of the
Corizon fines was part of a department overview for the subcommittee on
prisoner health care. Health care is 16 percent of the department's budget and
24 percent of the prison population is being treated for mental health
issues. There are 172 prisoners in the department's hospice program. More
than half of all prisoners, 51.6 percent, are on at least one medication.
There are 226 oncology patients. Department officials also were questioned
about the scabies outbreak at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility.
They said they were hopeful it will be eradicated within the next few months.
Kaminski also noted the department has 86 vacant nurse positions and 44
vacant licensed practical nurse positions. The department is trying to find
creative ways to compete for the relatively small supply of nurses seeking
jobs, including using bonuses, he said. The concern is that it does not take
many vacancies to prevent a facility from having 24/7 nursing staff, he said.
Feb
8, 2018 detroitnews.com
State set to end private prison food service
Lansing — Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday said the state is moving away
from paying private vendors to prepare state prison food. His budget proposal
unveiled to lawmakers at the Capitol included a proposed $13.7 million in new
money for prison food with the goal of returning the job to state workers
following several years of problems with private prison food vendors Aramark
Correctional Services and Trinity Services Group. The extra money appears
targeted at financing the move back to state food workers. “We’ve worked with
a couple of different private vendors on that process,” Snyder said. “Their
cost structures, a number of issues, I believe it’s appropriate to say the
benefits of continuing on that path don’t outweigh the cost and that we
should transition to doing that back in house.” The Republican-led
Legislature voted to privatize prison food in 2012, a move that was projected
to save the state $16 million a year as contract workers replaced more than
370 state employees. The state canceled an initial three-year, $145 million
contract with Aramark in the summer of 2015 after allegations of sexual
activity between employees and prisoners, unsanitary conditions including
maggots and food problems. Aramark’s contract began in December 2013. Trinity
took over food service in August 2015 after signing a three-year, $158
million contract with the state. It has since been fined more than $2 million
for unplanned meal substitutions, delays, staffing shortages and contract
violations. But this summer, the Michigan Department of Corrections will
return to a state-run food service after agreeing not to renew another
contract with Trinity when the current contract expires — a move that was
called a mutual decision by the state and Trinity. Michigan fined Trinity
$4.5 million in total for contract violations, unplanned meal substitutions,
delays and staffing shortages. The state forbid 197 Trinity contracted
workers from working in state prisons, essentially firing them. Last year,
Trinity asked the state for a 10.3 percent increase -- totaling $5.2 million
-- to help with staffing issues, said Correction spokesman Chris Gautz. Gautz said $6.6 million
of Snyder’s $13.7 million prison spending increase request are “legacy costs”
and would not constitute new funding. The move is being met with mixed
reactions across party lines. Rep. Laura Cox, the Republican and chairwoman
of the House Appropriations Committee, said “there will be some angst with
probably both chambers” because of the increased cost of shifting prison food
services back to the state. “My knee jerk reaction is not supportive of
that,” Cox said. But Democrats such as Rep. Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo, said
the shift was a long time coming. “When you try to privatize services, it
often means you’re getting a lower quality product,” he said. “”This idea
that you can govern with spreadsheets doesn’t work because people are human beings
and we have to make sure we’re putting people first in our budget.” The shift
would bring about 350 state workers back into prison kitchens, according to
the Department of Corrections. “As the contract with Trinity was approaching
its end, we took the opportunity to re-examine our operations,” Corrections
Director Heidi Washington said in a statement. “After discussing options with
Trinity, it was determined it was in the best interest of both parties not to
renew our agreement. We believe the department’s needs would be better met by
returning to state-run food service.” The unionized prison workers had
complained about the privatized food service and called for a return to
state-run prison food service. The state corrections system said that while private
vendors saved money, the savings did not outweigh problems with food
preparation, high employee turnover and other problems. A liberal group that
has called on Snyder to scrap private prison food contracts for years praised
the announcement in a statement Wednesday. “Progress Michigan has been
calling for this cancellation for years and we uncovered many of the problems
with these contracts, which, frankly, should have ended years ago,” said
Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. “The abuses and waste
that has resulted from these contracts have endangered corrections officers,
prison employees and prisoners.” The Michigan Corrections Organization, the
union for corrections officers, is lauding the proposal as helping to boost
prison safety, said Andy Potter, the union’s chief of staff and vice
president. Having bad and meager food “puts the folks that are incarcerated
along with the staff in danger. ... It’s a safety issue, to put it short,”
Potter said.
May 6, 2017 livingstondaily.com
Prison contractors ring up fines for poor service
LANSING — A new unit to monitor prison contractors and assess penalties for
poor performance is beginning to pay dividends and could become a model for
similar units in other state departments, officials say. Since 2016, the
Michigan Department of Corrections contract monitoring unit has assessed $2.1
million in penalties against the prison food contractor, Trinity Services
Group, and just more than $327,000 in penalties against the prison health
care contractor, Corizon Health, according to a recent report prepared for
the Legislature. Early last year, department Director Heidi Washington set up
a 24-person contract monitoring unit, at a personnel cost of $2.8 million, to
standardize and consolidate monitoring of 241 prison contracts with an annual
cost of about $211 million, MDOC spokesman Chris Gautz
said Friday. According to the report, only six of the department's contracts
currently have “service level agreements,” which allow the department to levy
fines when contractors fail to meet certain performance requirements. But
Washington wants such agreements added to all contracts that have a service
element to them — as opposed to contracts, for example, involving only
purchases of commodities — so it's expected many more service level
agreements will be added as contracts come up for renewal, Gautz said. The department, which has a total budget of
about $2 billion, has also recently assessed $8,000 in penalties against
Keefe Commissary Network, which operates the prison stores, and $7,500 in
penalties against a prison consultant, Professional Consulting Service,
according to the report sent to the Legislature. "They're not intended
to penalize," Gautz said of the agreements.
"It's to make sure the contractors are doing what they're supposed to be
doing, and if they're not, they will not receive their whole pay. "We
are not trying to scare our contractors, but we are going to make sure
they're living up to the contracts they signed."Caleb
Buhs, a spokesman for the Department of Technology,
Management and Budget, said the Corrections Department's contract monitoring
units are "somewhat unique" in state government and could serve as
a model for other departments. Service-level agreements are common in contracts
across state government, and DTMB "is in the process of organizing a
team to monitor contract and supplier performance and solidify a process
around ongoing management of active contracts," Buhs
said. "This is one of many ways the state can ensure suppliers are
giving us the value for our tax dollars as promised." In the case of the
controversial prison food contract, among others, unions and other critics of
privatization say the need for costly additional monitoring reduces any
expected savings for the state. Aramark Correctional Services of
Philadelphia, which replaced about 370 state kitchen workers in December
2013, ended its three-year, problem-plagued contract early and was replaced
by Florida-based Trinity in 2015. Trinity signed a three-year, $158.8-million
contract, but is in line for a $4-million raise, based on inflationary
increases and the number of meals served, officials said in March. The $2.1
million in fines levied against Trinity relate to unauthorized meal
substitutions, delays in serving meals, inadequate staffing levels and
sanitation issues, among other problems. Trinity has not responded to
repeated phone calls from the Free Press. The $327,000 in fines levied
against Tennessee-based Corizon, which last year signed a five-year contract
worth $715.7 million to provide both physical and mental health services in
state prisons, is related to delays in providing required services, Gautz said. Corizon spokeswoman Martha Harbin did not
respond to an e-mail from the Free Press on Friday.
Jan 21, 2017 detroitnews.com
Mich. prison contractor fined $2M over service issues
Michigan has fined its new private prison food service contractor more
than $2 million for unplanned meal substitutions, delays, staffing shortages
and other contract violations since late 2015, the state Department of
Corrections confirmed Friday. Florida-based Trinity Food Services signed a
three-year, $158 million contract in July 2015 after the state terminated its
initial deal with Aramark Correctional Services over problems, including
maggots found in kitchen areas and worker sex acts with prisoners. The
Trinity fines include roughly $900,000 for meal substitutions, meaning
Trinity was not able to provide food items it promised and instead served
alternatives. The company was also fined roughly $357,000 for meal service
delays and around $356,000 for staffing vacancies. Trinity is contractually
obligated to provide the state with 350 prison food service workers. As of
Monday, it had 309 employees and 27 others who were set to begin in the near
future, according to the department. Spokesman Chris Gautz
said the Department of Corrections is working with the Department of Talent
and Economic Development for help reaching new candidates for jobs that have
proven difficult to fill. “The department and director feel staffing really
is the key issue,” Gautz told The Detroit News. “If
they had full staffing and had a consistent experienced staff, you would have
fewer fines for staffing. But we think you’d also see far fewer fines for meal
substitutions and delays.” The state has issued “stop orders” prohibiting 114
Trinity employees from working in Michigan prisons, largely due to
“over-familiarity” with prisoners. That’s down from 159 stop orders against
Aramark during the same period, Gautz said. A
Trinity spokesperson did not immediately respond Friday to a request for
comment. Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration had fined Aramark $200,000 before
ending the contract about two years after the Republican-led Legislature
required the state to privatize prison food service in an attempt to save
money. The new deal struck with Trinity includes stricter language requiring
fines for various violations. The state deducts the fines from its monthly
payments to the company. Gautz said contract “accountability
was always key” for Corrections Director Heidi Washington, who took over the
department in May 2015. “This is us holding them accountable, as we do with
all our vendors,” he said. But critics say the Trinity fines are the latest
evidence that contracting out prison food service to private companies has
been a bad deal for Michigan, which laid off state workers in hopes of
cutting costs. “These services never should have been privatized,” said
Lonnie Scott, executive director of liberal advocacy group Progress Michigan,
who also pointed to problems that surfaced last year at a Grand Rapids
veterans home where some residential care aide positions had been privatized.
“To me, it’s just another indictment of the Republican philosophy that
privatization fixes everything.” Prisoners in an Upper Peninsula facility
staged a protest in March that was prompted, in part, by frustrations with
food quality. But Gautz said food was one of
several concerns those prisoners had raised. The department has a solid working
relationship with Trinity and is holding the company to its contract, he
said. “Things ebb and flow, but I think on a trend line they are getting
better,” Gautz said. “Things are improving, and we
want to see them continue to improve. These fines will continue to be
assessed.”
Michigan: Troubling private inmate
transport allegations
The
security guard was a big guy of about 270 pounds, and 5-foot-10. The three
other guards on the prison bus called him Abram. Over the course of a two-day
bus ride through four states last fall, Abram wielded his authority over
handcuffed and shackled prisoners, one prisoner recounted, sexually groping
men. “He rubbed up against me, touched me on my buttocks,” Woodrow Wilson,
58, of Detroit told Bridge Magazine. “I was handcuffed. I felt violated.” The
alleged abuse is outlined in a federal lawsuit Wilson filed in October
against Prisoner Transportation Services of America, LLC, a private,
for-profit company hired by the Michigan Department of Corrections to
transport prisoners across states. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, PTS is one
of the largest private prisoner transportation companies in the nation and
has been the subject of lawsuits, public scrutiny and allegations of
mistreatment of prisoners. At least four people have died nationally in PTS
vehicles since 2012, according to the Marshall Project, a nonprofit,
Pulitzer-Prize-winning news organization that focuses on criminal justice,
which this year investigated for-profit extradition companies in
collaboration with The New York Times. Prisoners in Michigan and elsewhere
have sued for injuries suffered during their transport, while others have
escaped while in the custody of these companies, in some instances causing
harm to the public. A month after the Marshall Project investigation and
several months after Wilson said he was abused, PTS said it had improved
safety measures, including adding cameras and satellite tracking systems to
its vehicles. The company did not respond to questions about its record from
Bridge. In Michigan, contracts with private transport companies contain rules
that address security measures, such as minimum officer training
requirements, and requiring transported prisoners to be handcuffed, wear seat
belts and be given food and medicine on a regular basis. However, the state
leaves other measures to the discretion of vendors, such as the decision to
require cameras or to schedule regular bathroom breaks for the fugitives or
suspects they carry. Because companies are paid per prisoner per mile, they
can make more money by packing inmates tightly into vehicles and stopping
infrequently, putting speed of delivery ahead of safety and security
concerns. In Michigan, it remains unclear what steps, if any, the state takes
to ensure private transport companies follow safety and security rules.
That’s because the Michigan Department of Corrections would not reveal if it
inspects private transport vehicles, or discuss its enforcement protocols,
saying its security measures are “exempt from public disclosure” under the
Michigan Freedom of Information Act, according to state prison spokesman
Chris Gautz. Critics of the private prisoner
transportation industry say PTS and companies like it interact with thousands
of prisoners with little oversight, making it too easy for profit-minded
companies to cut corners on prisoner safety and public security. The federal
law regulating these companies has been used to fine a private business only
once since it was enacted in 2000 despite deaths and dozens of escapes, said
Alex Friedmann, associate director of the Human Rights Defense Center, a
prisoner advocacy group based in Florida. “There are more regulations for
transporting cattle than for transporting prisoners,” Friedmann said. “And
very rarely are those regulations enforced, even on a federal level.” Earlier
this year, PTS announced plans to merge with a rival, a company Michigan had
previously fired. Federal approval was delayed in August after Friedmann’s
group objected to the merger, citing PTS’ history of safety, sanitation and
security problems. Critics argue states like Michigan that outsource prison
transportation should be more vigilant and transparent about the care these
companies take to protect their passengers — many of whom have not been
convicted — as well as the security of the guards and the general public.
Prisoners complain of being packed into speeding vehicles for days with no
seat belts, too little food or water and lax medical care, with passengers
sometimes left to urinate or defecate on themselves. Friedmann’s research
cites two notorious incidents. In 1997, six prisoners were burned alive in a
private company van near Dickson, Tennessee, after parts on the 1995 Ford
E150 broke away and the van caught fire. The vehicle had logged more than 240,000
miles in two years. The company, Federal Extradition Agency, shut down in
1998 and Friedmann reported the case was settled for about $24 million. In
another case, 39 Wisconsin prisoners filed a federal suit in 2000 against the
nation’s largest prison transport company, TransCor
America, claiming that during a 30-hour bus ride to Oklahoma prisoners were
“splashed with waste from the overflowing toilet” and arrived with frostbite
and hypothermia from exposure to the cold. Wilson is one of at least three
Michigan prisoners who have sued PTS. A second prisoner, who did not have a
lawyer, withdrew his case. A third, Jim Henry Redd of Detroit, sued PTS in
2011, alleging he was injured in North Carolina when a PTS van crashed into
another vehicle en route from Michigan to Georgia. Redd claims in the suit he
was not in a seat belt when the driver made a sudden, improper lane change,
causing Redd to be thrown to the back of the van, injuring his neck and back.
A default judgment was entered against PTS after the company did not respond
to the allegations. The cuffs on his hands and the leg irons on his ankles
were proof to Wilson that the full weight of the law had fallen on him as the
PTS bus moved him through the Midwest last year. Wilson was being returned to
Michigan from a jail in Lima, Ohio, in 2011 on a parole violation after his
conviction for car theft. He recalls about 10 prisoners in the van. The first
leg of the trip was relatively short — a three- to four-hour ride to an
overnight layover at a jail in Kentucky. The prisoners were given bottles to
urinate in so the van could avoid stopping during the journey, Wilson told
Bridge. At the Kentucky jail, the PTS security guard known as Abram set his
sights on one prisoner, Wilson said. “What you looking at?” Abram asked the
prisoner, to which the man responded, “I ain’t looking at you.” Wilson said a
few words were exchanged, Abram was angered and soon Tasered the man,
crumpling him to the ground. The following morning, there was more trouble as
the prisoners were loaded back on the vehicle. According to Wilson, Abram was
telling a younger prisoner that if they had met in prison, the guard would
have “made him his bitch.” Wilson said he had had enough. “I said, ‘Why don’t
you leave him alone?’ ” Abram responded that he’d had his eye on Wilson. And
so it began. Over the course of two days as the bus picked up and unloaded
prisoners, Wilson said Abram touched his thigh and buttocks. He also gave
Wilson Pop Tarts and extra sandwiches. “I think he was trying to hook up with
me,” Wilson said. At one point, he said, Abram sat down on Wilson’s lap. “I
tried to push him off, and he put his arm around my neck.” The poor
conditions didn’t stop at sexual abuse, Wilson said. There were no seat belts
on the van that picked him up in Ohio, nor on the bus that he boarded in
Kentucky. And the stench from an on-board lavatory was nauseating to the
point that the guards made a stop to buy a liquid solution to tamp down the
smell. The waste was never emptied over two days. Through it all, Wilson, who
records show suffers from depression, said he was denied some doses of his
twice-daily prescription during the trip. “They would say, ‘We’ll get to
you,’ or ‘We’re busy right now.’ Wilson’s account echoes complaints from
across the nation in the investigation by the Marshall Project and the New
York Times. Reporters reviewed thousands of court documents, interviewed more
than 50 current and former guards to expose rampant abuse that flourishes due
to “almost no oversight” in the industry nationwide. Wilson’s fiancee filed a grievance on his behalf in August with
the state prison system under the Prison Rape Elimination Act and is awaiting
a response. Saying he could not afford to hire an attorney, Wilson filed his
federal lawsuit against PTS in U.S. District Court for the Western District
of Michigan in October. He was released on parole Oct. 18. The company has
yet to file a legal response, court records show. The Michigan Department of
Corrections contracted with PTS in 2008 for $3.7 million to provide
extradition services through 2015. Most prisoners or suspects are wanted for
failure to pay child support or parole violations. Others are federal inmates
sent to Michigan to serve out sentences on state charges. After re-bidding
the contract, MDOC briefly contracted with another private vendor, U.S.
Corrections, in March of this year. However, that company was fired after
less than two months when the state found out the firm was not veteran-owned
as it had claimed, according to Gautz. (The state
gives contract preferences to veteran-owned businesses.) But that was not the
only problem cited by the state. A letter from Michigan prison officials in
April, made public by the Marshall Project, shows MDOC also had concerns
about late prisoner pick-up and drop-offs. MDOC acted to terminate the
contract after U.S. Corrections notified state prison officials that two
prisoners had escaped its custody in Florida. After ending that contract in
April, MDOC re-upped with PTS, signing a three-year, $655,500 contract. Under
the deal, the company receives about $300 per prisoner and 85 cents per mile.
Gautz said the state has outsourced prisoner
transportation since at least 1994, a practice that he said saves taxpayers
money. “Given that these transport runs happen infrequently and often require
travel across the country, it makes much more sense to have someone do this
service for us rather than pay to have several state employees go on a
week-long bus trip to pick up one prisoner,” he said. “This is a much more
cost effective way of doing business, and just makes sense.” In fiscal year
2016, the state spent just over $170,000 on prisoner transport costs, which
he said is low compared with the $200,000 to $400,000 spent in a typical
year. On a federal level, the Interstate Transportation of Dangerous
Criminals Act of 2000, commonly known as Jeanna’s Law, requires companies to
notify police when a prisoner escapes custody. It also establishes minimum
security and training standards for guards — such as a 1-to-6
guard-to-prisoner ratio — along with minimum standards for safety of
prisoners, with a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each violation. The law
is named for Jeanna North, an 11-year-old who was killed in 1993 by her
neighbor, Kyle Bell. He was convicted of her murder in 1999 but escaped from
a private prisoner transport bus in New Mexico. Bell was found three months
later in Texas after a nationwide manhunt that included the television show,
“America’s Most Wanted.” But despite the regulations, there is no evidence
the private companies are held accountable. Asked how MDOC enforces state
regulations or how often vehicles are inspected, that state responded that
such information is exempt from public disclosure. “Per the contract with PTS
the company is required to follow MDOC’s policies, but due to security
concerns, those policies are exempt, so I can’t get into the standards and
how they are enforced and the inspections,” Gautz
wrote Bridge in an email. PTS’
application to merge with U.S. Corrections, one of its competitors, was
delayed after the Human Rights Defense Center filed an objection to the
merger. The merger is under consideration by the Surface Transportation
Board, a federal regulatory agency. Friedmann of HRDC takes a hard line when
it comes to states hiring private companies to take on public services such
as operating prisons and transporting prisoners. Whatever states save in
upfront financial costs must be balanced against the widespread allegations
of rights abuses and the legal consequences that sometimes follow. “If
someone is hyperventilating and (the company) won’t stop at a hospital
because they want to complete the trip … their goal is not to provide a
secure public service, it’s to make money,” Friedmann said. “It’s like UPS and
the prisoner is the package. We want the goal to ensure public safety.”
Friedmann said there are some simple changes states can make to improve
safety: Interview prisoners before and after transport to get information
about transportation conditions; require video cameras on vehicles, require
GPS on vehicles and enforce regulations such as Jeanna’s Law and state
policies requiring seat belts and giving prisoners medication in a timely
manner. Wilson said that after PTS dropped him off at the state prison in
Jackson, he reported the sexual assault incident. Without that complaint, he
said, no one would have known about the security guard’s actions. He agrees
prisoners should be interviewed or given a questionnaire about their
transportation to help ensure accountability. “The standards in place right
now,” he said, “obviously are not sufficient.” The Human Rights Defense
Center, a Florida-based nonprofit prisoner rights advocacy group, the federal
government and states make the following changes when dealing with private
vendors:
■Require companies to
take out higher minimum insurance amounts.
■Restrict the use of certain
vehicles. For instance, banning 15-passenger vans which are linked to more
accidents.
■Establish specific
rules governing maintenance and inspection of prisoner transport vehicles.
■Mandate seat-belt or
other safety restraint requirements.
■Increase civil
penalties for regulatory violations that take into consideration a company’s
size or annual revenue.
■Pass a federal law
requiring that all escapes, accidents and other incidents that endanger
public safety during extraditions be reported to a central government agency,
such as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and made available
to the public.
■Require government
contracts with private companies to incentivize physical safety and security,
with financial penalties for violations.
Apr 13, 2016 scpr.org
Plan would close 2 Michigan prisons, lease another
LANSING — The state of Michigan would close two prisons, then move some
of those inmates into a privately owned prison near Baldwin that the state
would lease and operate, under a Senate subcommittee plan approved Thursday
that is projected to trim $15.4 million from the $2-billion Corrections
Department budget. The subcommittee didn't identify the two prisons slated
for closure in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, and will leave those
decisions up to the department, said Sen. John Proos,
R-St. Joseph, the subcommittee chairman. Projected savings of $47 million
from closing two prisons would be partly offset by $31.6 million to take over
the former youth prison near Baldwin — $5 million to lease the facility from
its owner, the GEO Group, and $26.6 million to staff it with state
corrections officers and other staff.The plan drew
immediate criticism, however, including from a union official who said the
lease proposal looks like a public bailout of a private prison operator.
Michigan's adult male prison population has been gradually dropping and is
now at about 40,000 inmates, down from close to 50,000 in 2007. Though the
number of Michigan prisons has already dropped to 33 since 2007, recent bed
vacancies, combined with department projections, support the closure of two
older prisons that would require significant capital upgrades if they were to
stay open, Proos told the Free Press on Thursday.
"I don't think we should keep open facilities that we don't need," Proos said. The state would then move some of inmates
from the prisons it closes into the much more modern North Lake Correctional
Facility near Baldwin, a former youth facility which was known as Michigan's
"punk prison" when it opened as a privatization experiment under
Republican Gov. John Engler in 1999. Proos said
some of the $15.4 million in savings would be pumped into improving existing
prisons and paying for department programs that are intended to reduce the
number of parolees and probationers returning to prison. So, overall, the
budget his subcommittee recommended Thursday would end up trimming closer to
about $10 million from the corrections budget recommended in February by
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. That GEO-owned prison has a capacity of about
1,700, but GEO currently has a contract with the Vermont Department of
Corrections to house up to 675 Vermont prisoners at the facility, according
to the GEO website. A GEO spokesman could not immediately be reached for
comment. The subcommittee approved the plan in a 3-0 vote, with the lone
Democrat, Sen. Vincent Gregory of Lathrup Village, saying he is generally
supportive because of the need to reduce the size of the corrections budget.
But the plan, which would need to clear several more hurdles before it became
law, does not yet have the support of the Corrections Department, where
officials said they needed time to study the details. "Our efforts at
reducing the state's prison population have been working, while also keeping
our recidivism rate low," Corrections Department Director Heidi
Washington said in a statement. "To reflect that reduction and produce
savings to the state, we have taken several housing units offline this year,
feeling that was the best course currently as we continue to monitor our
population trends. "The plan proposed and adopted by the Senate
subcommittee today takes a different path and is one we will take under
advisement." The Michigan Corrections Organization, the union
representing state corrections officers, has serious reservations about parts
of the plan, which it also still is evaluating, said Andy Potter, the group's
chief of staff and executive vice president. Leasing the GEO facility
"does smack of us trying to take care of another private company,"
Potter said. Closing prisons and relocating staff is very disruptive and has
associated costs the subcommittee likely has not considered, Potter said. He
thinks there are ways to make significant cuts to the Corrections Department
budget and also raise new revenues, but believes lawmakers need to consider
more innovative approaches, which he would not specify. House Republicans are
eyeing one prison closure, said Rep. Al Pscholka,
R-Stevensville, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "That's
pretty aggressive," Pscholka said of the
Senate subcommittee plan. "We'll have to take a look at it."
Michigan's lone women's prison, Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility
near Ypsilanti, is near capacity, amid widespread complaints about overcrowding.
Feb 7, 2016 miningjournal.net
Former prison worker sentenced
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (AP) - A former food supervisor who worked at an
Upper Peninsula prison will serve two years to five years for trying to have
an inmate assaulted. The Michigan Attorney General's office said 27-year-old
Michael Young of Kincheloe was sentenced Thursday in Sault Ste. Marie. He was
convicted in December of solicitation to commit assault with intent to cause
great bodily harm. Young was working for a private company, Aramark, at an
the eastern U.P. prison in 2014 when he asked an inmate to find another
inmate to commit an assault at a different prison. Investigators have said
Young was targeting someone who was involved in the death of a family member.
The attorney general's office said Young had offered tobacco products as
payment for the assault.
Dec 6, 2015 9and10news.com
Aramark Accused of Overcharging State for Prison Food
Auditors say the state is footing a bill for prison food that was never
served. The Michigan Corrections Department paid $3.4 million to Aramark for
that food. Auditors say some meal counts, kept by Aramark, were higher than
the prison's actual population. A company spokesperson says any suggestions
of overcharging is completely false. Aramark was
replaced in September after a billing dispute and a series of incidents
involving prisoners and their employees.
Aug
18, 2015 freep.com
Report: Michigan failed to hold Aramark accountable
LANSING — The administration of Gov. Rick Snyder repeatedly failed to
hold prison food contractor Aramark Correctional Services accountable for
problems, and it’s questionable whether oversight will be any better under
the new prison food vendor, the group Progress Michigan said in a report
released today. “Simply changing the vendor without changing the culture that
allowed such egregious actions will do nothing but cost taxpayers more
money,” said Lonnie Scott, the liberal nonprofit group’s executive director.
The state is replacing Aramark midway through its three-year, $145-million
contract after a series of reports in the Free Press detailed problems with
food shortages, maggots and Aramark workers smuggling drugs and other
contraband and engaging in sex acts with inmates. The state cited billing
concerns in July when it opted to replace Aramark with Trinity Services Group
of Florida, which is now in a transition phase and is to take over the prison
kitchens completely on Sept. 9. As reported by the Free Press, the Trinity
contract contains terms more favorable to the company than the Aramark
contract did and is estimated to be worth $158.8 million over three years.
The report released Tuesday by Progress Michigan is based on more than 25,000
pages of e-mails related to the Aramark contract that the group received from
the state through Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act at a cost of more
than $10,000, Scott said. He said the records show that of 3,707 issues with
the contract identified by the state, 1,791 were persistent or recurring and
not resolved. “This experiment of privatization is certainly a glaring
example of failure to hold them accountable,” he said. Aramark spokeswoman
Karen Cutler said in response to the report: "We know that
public/private partnerships work and are proud to have served the state during
a major groundbreaking shift to privatization that saved Michigan taxpayers
over $20 million." Chris Gautz, a spokesman
for the Corrections Department, said the report is based on old stories about
a company that is on its way out of Michigan prisons. Clearly the department
was doing a good job of overseeing the contract, because problems identified
by the contract monitors form the basis of the Progress Michigan report, Gautz said. A spokesman for the Department of Technology,
Management and Budget, which now oversees the contract, did not immediately
respond to e-mails seeking comment. In August of 2014, Snyder acknowledged
problems with oversight of the contract, announced a $200,000 fine against
Aramark for contract violations and said oversight would be moved away from
the Michigan Department of Corrections. In September, the state hired Ed
Buss, a former corrections department director in Florida, to oversee the
contract for $160,000 a year, reporting to the director of the Department of
Technology, Management and Budget. Buss left in January under circumstances
the state has declined to fully explain. Though the report does not separate
the incidents before and after Snyder acknowledged a problem with contract
oversight, Progress Michigan communications director Hugh Madden said there
was no noticeable change after August and September. The report's
recommendations include an investigation into the Aramark contract and its
monitoring by Attorney General Bill Schuette, as well as a requirement that
the state make all contract monitor reports available on the Internet within
30 days of issuance.
Jul 14, 2015
azdailysun.com
Michigan ends prison food contract year after company fined
LANSING, Mich. (AP) —
Michigan has terminated a three-year, $145 million contract with Aramark
Correctional Services a year after the company hired to feed state prisoners
came under scrutiny for unapproved menu substitutions, worker misconduct and
other issues, state officials announced Monday. Gov. Rick Snyder's
administration said the state and company mutually agreed to end their
relationship 14 ½ months early after being unable to resolve
Aramark-initiated talks about contract revisions related to billing and
menus. Michigan fined Aramark $200,000 last year for unauthorized food
changes, inadequate staffing and employee misconduct such as fraternizing
with inmates and drug smuggling. There also have been maggot problems, though
Aramark was cleared of responsibility for incidents in 2014. An Aramark
kitchen worker was fired for ordering cake that appeared to have been nibbled
by rodents to be served to prisoners. Snyder previously defended sticking
with Philadelphia-based Aramark, saying Michigan was on pace to save $14
million a year through privatization. Trinity Services Group, based in
Oldsmar, Florida, will transition to becoming Michigan's new vendor in the
next two months under a three-year, $158 million contract up for approval by
a state board Tuesday. The company was the only other qualified bidder when
Michigan first privatized prison food services. "Their business is
correctional food service, and they have a proven track record across the
country working in other facilities — some 44 states," state Corrections
Department Director Heidi Washington said. Aramark has food contracts with
schools, colleges, hospitals and stadiums in addition to janitorial and
uniform businesses. Michigan's contract with Aramark was supposed to run
through September 2016. Democrats and a liberal advocacy group, while pleased
with the contract's cancellation, said the state should no longer bid out
prison food services. The 2013 outsourcing led to the loss of 370 unionized
state jobs replaced by lower-paid private workers. "It's plainly obvious
now that cutting corners to save money on prison services not only doesn't
work, but puts prison guards and families living near prisons at risk,"
House Minority Leader Tim Greimel said. Snyder,
however, said Michigan will see "significant" savings — at least
$11.5 million a year — by still having a private firm prepare food in its 33
prisons. In a statement, Aramark said it was disappointed the deal didn't
work out, but was proud to serve Michigan "during a major groundbreaking
shift to privatization and delivering on our commitments to serve 65 million
meals in MDOC facilities and save Michigan taxpayers more than $25
million." Aramark, which on its website says it has retained 97 percent
of its correctional facility business in more than 35 years, said it takes
"full responsibility" for its performance in Michigan prisons
"while operating in a highly charged political environment that included
repeated false claims." The Snyder administration hired Aramark to
prepare food for the Michigan's 43,000 prisoners after initially saying the
move would not save enough money. Once Republican lawmakers objected, the
administration reversed course, saying mistakes were made in evaluating
bidders' proposals. Ohio recently renewed a contract with Aramark to feed
50,000 prison inmates. The company had faced criticism in that state last
year over understaffing, running out of food and a few cases of maggots near
food prep areas.
Jul 5, 2015 detroitnews.com
Audit: Agency misspent $1.7M for inmate care
Lansing — The
“inappropriately paid” $1.7 million for the care of 349 prisoners after they
were released from prison or paroled, according to a state audit released
Thursday. The payments were made between October 2011 and April 2014 after
being authorized by the department’s private health care management
contractor, according to the Auditor General’s report. The audit says the
department lacked policies for ensuring that the health care company didn’t
charge taxpayers for the care of ex-convicts who were no longer imprisoned.
The former inmates apparently got post-incarceration medical treatment after
visiting doctors they saw for treatment while they were imprisoned. “That’s
what we think happened in the majority of these cases,” said Chris Gautz, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.
Tennessee-based Corizon Correctional Healthcare, which administers medical
care for the department outside the walls of its 33 facilities, has recouped
$1.1 million of the payments through a subcontractor, Gautz
said. “They will continue working on that end until all of the money is
recouped,” he said. To prevent future invalid payments, Gautz
said, the agency is giving the company its daily prison census information so
it can cross-check to ensure former prisoners aren’t getting health care paid
for by the Corrections Department. “To keep that from happening, both us and
Corizon have beefed up internal systems so this doesn’t happen in the
future,” Gautz said. The Department of Corrections,
which has a nearly $2 billion annual budget, spent $235.1 million in the 2014
fiscal year on medical, dental and optical care for the state’s 45,000
prisoners. The Auditor General’s Office also found the Department of
Corrections “did not consistently charge required prisoner” co-pays for
medical, dental and vision care. The department’s policies stipulate that
prisoners are to be charged $5 co-pays for each health care visit from their
personal accounts, which they use for purchasing personal items and paying
court-ordered restitution to victims of their crimes. Auditors randomly
sampled 100 prisoners who were incarcerated as of April 30, 2014, and found
57 percent were not charged for co-payments. “We noted a similar condition
related to DOC not consistently charging prisoner co-payments in our prior
audit,” state auditors wrote. The department said it would begin auditing
prisoner medical co-pays on every six months to ensure payments “are
consistently charged.” State auditors also criticized the agency for not
ensuring medical providers conducted timely assessments of about 17,700
inmates with known chronic care conditions. “DOC may have jeopardized its
ability to manage and treat potentially serious medical conditions before
they became more severe and costly,” the auditors wrote. In response, the
department said it agreed with the auditors’ findings and was working to
train staff and contractors to better monitor and track the health care needs
of prisoners with chronic conditions.
May 17, 2015
lansingstatejournal.com
Snyder appoints Heidi
Washington to run corrections department
Gov. Rick Snyder
announced a cabinet change Friday, with Warden Heidi Washington replacing Dan
Heyns as head of the Michigan Department of
Corrections. LANSING Gov. Rick Snyder announced today that Warden Heidi
Washington – a Michigan Department of Corrections veteran who has been an
outspoken critic of the service provided by prison food contractor Aramark –
will replace Dan Heyns as department director on
July 1. Snyder officials said Heyns is stepping
aside by mutual agreement but will continue to work with the Council on Law
Enforcement and Reinvention and help to coordinate criminal justice strategy.
Snyder is to deliver a special message on criminal justice Monday, laying out
new proposals for reform. Washington of East Lansing has been with the
Corrections Department for 17 years, most recently as the head of the Charles
Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson, where new inmates get sent.
She earlier served as warden at the Robert Scott Correctional Facility and as
legislative liaison for MDOC, as well as working as a staffer in both the
state House and Senate. She told the Free Press today that when her time as
warden is completed, she wants people to say that "I helped make a
difference in people's lives." Washington, who holds a law degree from
Cooley Law School, a bachelor's degree from Michigan State University and an
associate's degree from Lansing Community College, will continue to serve as
the corrections liaison to the Michigan Women's Commission. "As the
warden at Egeler, Heidi has demonstrated firm management and a commitment to
understanding why offenders are there, and where they are headed in the
future," Snyder said in a news release. Washington has been an outspoken
critic of food service provided at the Egeler facility by Aramark Correctional
Services, the food vendor that replaced state workers when it began a
three-year, $145-million contract in December of 2013. Many of the e-mails
the Free Press obtained through the Michigan Freedom of Information Act for a
July 2014 special report on the prison food contract featured Washington
expressing disgust at the level of service. "At times I felt like
Lansing thought I was just being too difficult and too demanding because I
was always complaining," Washington told a contract manager in one of the
e-mails, in March of 2014. "However, I think everyone knows that's not
the case. "Bottom line is lay down with dogs, get up with fleas."
Though complaints have died down, the contract early on was marred by
complaints of food shortages, sanitation problems, prisoner unrest, and
instances of Aramark workers smuggling in drugs or other contraband and
engaging in sex acts with prisoners. Washington said Friday "it's no
secret" there's been challenges having Aramark provide the level of
service that is needed. "Every day is a new day," and she intends
to look at how all services are being provided across all prisons in the
system, she said. Snyder said Washington's time "spent within the prison
administration and working directly with corrections officers, as well as on
the public policy of criminal justice issues, will bring great value to this
time of transformation in identifying the policies to be changed and how
those reforms will improve public safety." Heyns,
a former Jackson County sheriff, has served four years as director.
Washington will be paid $155,000 a year, the same amount Heyns
received, officials said. "Dan took on an incredible burden and really
began the overall transformation of our corrections system," Snyder
said. "Because of his leadership, our recidivism rate is lower and we
have identified the factors we need to address to ensure parolees have the
tools they need to reintegrate into society outside the prison walls." Heyns will remain as director until June 30 and will work
with Washington on the transition, the release said. The appointment is
subject to Senate consent. The department faces constant pressure from
lawmakers to reduce its $2 billion budget, which almost all comes from the
state's general fund. "As you know, the budget, what we spend, is a
function of how many people we have to take care of," Washington said.
She said will work with other stakeholders in the justice system to see if
those numbers can be reduced.
Michigan Youth Center Facility (AKA North Lake CF)
Baldwin, Michigan
GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
June
09, 2015 mlive.com
LANSING,
MI — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Tuesday signed a new law paving the way for
one of the nation's largest private prison operators to house out-of-state
inmates in its Baldwin facility. The new law amends the state corrections
code to allow prisoners of any security level to be housed at the former
Michigan Youth Correction Facility, which is owned by the GEO Group of
Florida. Previous law had prohibited the company from housing Level V
high-security inmates at the private prison, which officials said complicated
GEO Group's effort to contract with other states. "By removing this
restriction, the prison would easily become the largest employer in Lake
County, the poorest county in the state of Michigan," sponsoring Rep.
John Bumstead, R-Newaygo, said earlier this year.
"...Let's help the people of Lake County with a hand up, not a hand out." GEO Group announced last month it had
signed contracts with Vermont and Washington state to house up to 1,675
inmates at the Baldwin facility. The five year contracts include renewal
options, according to the company, which said it planned to begin the intake
process this fall. The Washington Department of Corrections has said it does
not have immediate plans to move prisoners to Michigan, calling it a
contingency plan and an option of "last resort." Democrats, along
with a handful of Republicans, opposed the plan during the legislative
process. Several questioned the track-record of the GEO Group, which has
faced problems, and fines, in other states. State Rep. Sam Singh, D-East
Lansing, said the GEO Group has a "spotty track record" and called
the bill "a form of backdoor privatization of state prisons" because
it would also allow the state to house Level V inmates there, if it chooses
to at a later date. There are not currently any other state or private
prisons housing out-of-state inmates, according to the Michigan Department of
Corrections. Some Pennsylvania prisoners were housed in a Muskegon facility
between 2009 and 2011.
May 8, 2015 freep.com
GEO Group officials say allowing the
company to house prisoners from other states with the highest security levels
would give them the flexibility they need to make the prison economically
viable.
LANSING — A bill that's expected to allow Michigan's former "punk
prison" to open as a privately run adult facility housing prisoners from
other states passed the state House in a narrow vote Thursday. House Bill
4467 was approved 57-53, and now moves on to the Senate. The bill removes a
restriction that prevents the Florida-based GEO Group, which wants to reopen
and operate the former private youth prison near Baldwin, from accepting
prisoners with the highest security levels — those above Level 4. GEO
officials say allowing the company to bring Level 5 prisoners from other
states would give them the flexibility they need to make the prison economically
viable. State Rep. Jon Bumstead, R-Newaygo, told
the House that the legislative change would bring about 150 jobs immediately
— and possibly more later — to one of the state's most economically depressed
areas, in Lake County. "Let's help the people of Lake County with a hand
up, not a handout," Bumstead said. Critics say
it's wrong to have private companies and guards securing dangerous inmates,
and the move could be a "foot in the door" to further privatization
of Michigan's prison system, a path they say has so far been paved with
failures. They also say GEO has a spotty record in other states and in
Michigan, where its predecessor prior to a name change, the Wackenhut Corp.,
operated the youth prison near Baldwin. Nick Ciaramitaro,
legislative director for AFSCME Council 25, a state employee union, said a
private facility shouldn't be housing prisoners that are "the most
dangerous and the hardest to deal with and the ones you least want to
escape." All Democrats voted against the bill and were joined by
Republicans John Bizon of Battle Creek, Tom Hooker
of Byron Center, Martin Howrylak of Troy, Holly
Hughes of White River Township, Lisa Posthumus
Lyons of Alto, and Henry Vaupel of Handy Township.
The prison near Baldwin opened as a private youth prison in 1998 under
then-Gov. John Engler, a Republican. Known as the "punk prison," it
closed in 2005, under former Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, amid reports
that it was too costly to run and neglected the health and educational needs
of its young inmates. Later, it briefly housed inmates from California, with
restrictions in place on the security levels of the inmates, but closed in
2011. As proposed, the bill would also allow GEO to take inmates from
Michigan prisons, but the company says that's not part of its plans. A
Michigan Department of Corrections official said that the state has no
interest in sending Michigan inmates to the private prison. Two local
officials, Lake County Commissioner Dan Sloan and Sheriff Robert Hilts,
testified in favor of the bill in committee. "We need the jobs,"
Sloan said. Cloid Shuler, a business development
official with the GEO Group who testified Thursday, said the prison is
secure. The company is in negotiations with two states and hopes to open the
prison as early as mid-July with more than 600 inmates initially, well short
of its capacity of about 1,800. Prisoners would not be allowed out on work
projects, and GEO would return them to their states of origin when their
sentences are completed, not release them in Michigan, he said.
April 30, 2012 Detroit News
A proposal to close an Ionia prison and transfer inmates to a privately owned
facility has sparked a debate within the ranks of Republican lawmakers about
whether only government should be in the incarceration business. At least one
GOP lawmaker believes privately run prisons could be as significant a change
in how prisons are run as charter schools were to public education.
"Everybody sharpens their pencils and looks at a new way of doing things
when they have competition," said Rep. Joe Haveman,
R-Holland. But legislation authorizing the Department of Corrections to
contract with a multinational company to house convicts in its rural west
Michigan correctional facility has been stalled for months because there are
not enough Republican votes in the House to pass the bill, Haveman said. "To give up the entire running of a
prison, I think, is giving up too much control," said Rep. Mike Callton, a Republican from Nashville in Barry County, who
has constituents who work in Ionia's five prisons. To bypass opponents like Callton, Republican budget writers, instead of trying to
get a law passed in the GOP-dominated House, added a provision to the
proposed 2012-13 Department of Corrections budget requiring the department to
close the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia and accept bids for a privately run
prison. The budget plan assumes $7.1 million in net savings to the
department's $2 billion budget under the plan. The department doesn't support
shuttering the 1,300-bed prison and wasn't consulted, spokesman Russ Marlan said. "We feel a closure isn't needed,"
the department's legislative liaison, Jessica Peterson, recently told the
House Appropriations Committee. Following the January closing of Mound
Correctional Facility in Detroit, Corrections Director Dan Heyns had said the agency would not need to close any
more prisons in the near future. Geo Group Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla.,
corrections company, is trying to reopen its 1,740-bed North Lake
Correctional Facility near Baldwin after a plan to house California prisoners
fizzled. The Lake County facility is specifically identified in the two
stalled House bills as a location for a privately run prison. Geo Group's
lobbyist is former House Speaker Rick Johnson, R-Leroy.
September 7, 2011 Ludington Daily News
California’s changing plans for its inmates will cost about 144 jobs in Lake
County as The GEO Group prepares to transport the 270 Californian prisoners
who are currently there back west. Paul Griffith, executive director of
Michigan Works! West Central, said the inmates are Californian prisoners who
were previously housed in Arizona, so he is not sure where they will
ultimately be sent when they leave Michigan. Griffith said about 161 people
are currently working at GEO’s Lake County prison, which is named the North
Lake Correctional Facility and is located near Baldwin in Webber Township.
“They will be keeping 17 key positions on understanding they want to keep a
turnkey operation when they serve a new customer,” he said. That leaves 144
employees who will be laid off Oct. 3.
September 6, 2011 9&10 News
The North Lake Correctional Facility just re-opened in May after lying vacant
for years. Now it is set to close once again. Today, more than 170 employees
were handed their pink slips as the prison's owner, GEO Group, decided not to
renew its contract with North Lake. The 270 inmates will begin to be
relocated before October 2nd when the current contract ends while Baldwin is
left with their hands empty. About 17 employees will be kept on hand for
maintenance in case the prison agrees to a new contract in the next few
months.
April 11, 2011 Michigan Messenger
Budget problems and changing priorities in California threaten to derail
plans to send thousands of inmates to the GEO Group’s private prison in
Baldwin. Last year California’s overcrowded prison system agreed to pay The
GEO Group $60 million a year to house 2,580 inmates at the company’s North
Lake Correctional Facility starting in May. But now California is struggling
to close a $15.4 billion deficit and the new Democratic Governor Jerry Brown
has signed a bill that would reduce the state prison population by
transferring prisoners with short sentences into county jails where they
could gradually reintegrate into their communities. The bill, however, won’t
take effect until a mechanism for funding the program is established and with
budget negotiations stalled in the legislature, it’s unclear how or when that
will happen. “We are in a very volatile situation with the budget and legal
authority to send inmate out of state is in question,” California Dept. of
Corrections and Rehabilitation Undersecretary Scott Hernan said in an
interview Friday. Hernan said that at this point the dept. is still planning
to begin sending 130 inmates a month to Baldwin by plane starting next month,
and hopes to be able to continue plans with GEO. Ryan Sherman is spokesman
for the California Correctional Peace Officer Association, which represents
state corrections officers and opposes plans to ship inmates out of state.
“This is a California state department,” he said. “Should they really be
trying to send taxpayer dollars and jobs to another state in the middle of a
budget crunch?” California is also waiting on delivery of an opinion in a
U.S. Supreme Court case that could influence how the state needs to deal with
overcrowding issues, he said. This Spring the court is expected to announce it’s opinion in Plata v.
Schwarzenegger, a case that examines the legality of a court order that
California reduce its prison population in order to address unconstitutional
conditions (inadequate medical care) in the corrections system. If the
Supreme Court determines that California must reduce its prison population
then outsourcing prisoners might be one way to comply with that mandate,
Sherman said, though it would be an expensive way to do it. No matter the
outcome of the ruling, he said, it may not be wise to begin the process of
moving prisoners when a decision is imminent. In Baldwin, training for employees
at the prison was delayed last week but the GEO Group refused to give details
about the status of plans for the California inmates. The company has said
that the deal with California will lead to 500 jobs at the facility by 2014.
Joe Baumann is correctional officer at the California Rehabilitation Center
in Norco, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles and secretary for the group
Corrections USA. “I believe there is a very high likelihood that [California
inmates] will not go to Michigan,” he said. “A couple county jails — Orange,
LA and Fresno — have sizable units empty for budget reasons,” he said.
“They’ve got units that are there mothballed. It’s not enough to make a
significant dent in prison crowding but it is enough to absorb the inmates
that would have gone to Baldwin. LA County has got about 1500 empty beds.”
“This puts GEO in a situation where they are fighting counties for money.”
The uncertainty around the deal with California is the latest in a series of
problems for The GEO Group’s Michigan property. The North Lake Correctional
Facility was built as a 500 bed maximum security youth facility but was shut
down in 2005 after the state ended its contract with the company amid
lawsuits alleging abuse. In 2009 GEO expanded the prison to 1,725 beds in expectation
of winning a federal contract to house immigrant detainees but those plans
were stopped last year after the federal Bureau of Prisons canceled its
request for more space for criminal aliens.
April 4, 2011 Grand Rapids Press
The GEO Group, the corporation that plans to house California prisoners
in the former “punk” prison, told village officials on Monday that it still
plans to open May 1. The township contacted the company after rumors started
floating around town, Village President Doug Bolles
said. He said Kevin Thiel, the public-works superintendent, contacted GEO
Group and was assured the company had not changed its plans. “He said,
‘Everything’s still a go,’” Bolles said. A man who
was hired to work at the former Michigan Youth Correctional Facility said he
was supposed to attend orientation on Monday. But a GEO representative called
on Friday, and told him not to show up because prisoners would not arrive on
the scheduled date, said the man, who did not want to be identified. He hoped
the delay was just a last-minute glitch because he and others need jobs. The
re-opening of the prison, which closed in 2005, is expected to employ 500
people by 2014. The GEO Group, which owns the facility, signed a
$60-million-a-year contract with California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation to house up to 2,580 inmates from 2011 to 2014. Now known as
the North Lake Correctional Facility, it is undergoing a $60 million
renovation. Bolles said he has monitored
California’s budget problems. He hoped that Jerry Brown’s election as
governor after Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped down would not affect the deal.
GEO Group did not respond to telephone messages or email by The Press seeking
comment.
March 3, 2010 The Grand Rapids Press
A proposal to house illegal immigrants convicted of crimes in a former
state "punk prison" is dead, according to the Florida firm that
owns the North Lake Correctional Facility. The federal Bureau of Prisons has
canceled its solicitation for prison space due to a funding shortfall, according
to a news release issued by the GEO Group. Sandy Crandall, president of the
Lake County Chamber of Commerce and Tourist Center, said she was disappointed
by the news. "I just have to be hopeful that they've got something else
in mind, a Plan B," Crandall said. "We'll certainly support them
any way we can. They've got a huge investment there." GEO has nearly
completed a $60 million project which expanded the facility from 530 beds to
1,225 with an eye toward the federal contract. Last November, federal prison
officials were given the red carpet treatment when they visited Baldwin to
assess its suitability for the contract. Community leaders had hoped GEO
would land the federal contract and bring about 500 jobs to the town, located
85 miles north of Grand Rapids. When it closed in 2005, the prison employed
220. The prison opened in 1998 as a "punk" prison for as many as
480 13- to- 19-year-old boys and young men. GEO officials said they would
continue to market the Baldwin site to federal, state and local detention
facilities around the country.
March 2, 2010 Reuters
Prison operator Geo Group Inc (GEO.N) said it is "disappointed"
by the Federal Bureau of Prisons' decision to cancel a solicitation for a
facility to house illegal aliens convicted of crimes, sending its shares down
as much as 8 percent. Geo blamed a funding shortfall for the BOP withdrawing
its proposal, which the company expected would fill its Baldwin, Michigan
correctional facility. A 1,225-bed expansion of the existing 530-bed facility
is scheduled to be completed in 2010. Robert Wasserman of Dawson James
Securities said, the share falls of Geo and rival Corrections Corp of America
(CXW.N) -- which was trading down 3 percent -- indicated investor fears of
further cuts in federal prison business. "They all do business with the
(BOP) and federal agencies have really been the strongest in the last couple
of years -- better than the states," Wasserman said. But he viewed this
as a short-term setback and said the private prison operators can expect more
federal business next year.
February 22, 2007 Ludington Daily News
Officials in Lake County had hoped to contract with out-of-state agencies to house
prisoners in the Webber Township facility, but that plan may have hit a snag
this week. The California Superior Court ruled Tuesday that Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s shipment of inmates without their permission to out-of-state
prisons was not legal, according to reports in the Sacramento Bee and Los
Angeles Times. The Los Angeles Times reported Ohanesian’s
ruling invalidated the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation’s contracts with GEO and CCA because Schwarzenegger’s
declaration was not valid. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gail Ohanesian ruled Schwarzenegger’s declaration of a prison
overcrowding emergency was “unlawful” after the California corrections
officer union filed a lawsuit challenging the declaration and
Schwarzenegger’s plan to ease overcrowding by sending inmates to out-of-state
prisons. Schwarzenegger proposed shipping inmates out of state to alleviate
overpopulation within the California prison system, which stands at nearly
200 percent of capacity. The GEO Group, the Boca Raton, Fla. based company
who owns the Lake County prison, had contracted with California to house
inmates at one of the company’s facilities in Indiana. California has moved
360 prisoners to private facilities in Tennessee and Arizona owned by the Tennessee-based
Corrections Corporation of America. Officials from California visited Lake
County for a tour of the former Michigan Youth Correctional Facility, but
have not contracted to use the shuttered 450-bed prison.
October 6, 2006 Ludington Daily News
A California prison overcrowding emergency declaration could speed up
that state’s contract negotiations with GEO Group, which owns the Lake County
prison. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman
Bill Sessa said the agency is continuing to talk with three private prison
companies, one of which is GEO, to negotiate contracts to move prisoners to
out-of-state facilities. “We’re going to continue contract negotiations with
three companies and whoever else jumps in,” Sessa said. Officials from GEO
said they are continuing talks with California. “We’re looking forward to
working with the state,” said Pablo Paez, director
of corporate communications at GEO. “We’re working with them and we look
forward to work through the process.” GEO has available beds at three
facilities, including the Lake County site, Paez
said, noting that California officials have visited the facility sites. Paez said he has no specific timeline for contract talks,
but added that the state-of-emergency declaration demonstrates “they have an
immediate need to send up to 5,000 inmates out of state.”
September 27, 2006 Ludington Daily News
Rumors abound in Lake County about a timeline for the GEO Group prison to
reopen. County officials believe it’s only a matter of time before the
company signs a contract, possibly with the state of California, to house
inmates in the closed facility, which closed nearly a year ago when Gov.
Jennifer Granholm vetoed funding the state’s contract with the company. Bill
Cole, of Custer, a maintenance worker at the former youth prison, said he
hasn’t heard anything for sure, but the signs are looking positive. “We are
starting to prepare the facility in the event something should happen,” Cole
said, noting GEO initiated the work. “They called and talked to me and said
we’re not there, we’ve not signed a contract. GEO spokesman Pablo Paez said work at the facility in the last couple of days
is in preparation for an official visit from an undisclosed agency.
September 18, 2006 Ludington Daily News
A bill that allows The GEO Group, the owner of the former Michigan Youth
Correctional Facility in Lake County, to contract with out-of-state or
federal agencies became law today. After a week-long review, Gov. Jennifer
Granholm signed House Bill 5800 late Friday and presented it to the Secretary
of State’s office today. “The governor supports this bill because it’s good
for economic develop and jobs by providing an alternate use for this
facility,” said Heidi Watson of the governor’s communication office.
“Hopefully, this will create jobs, and it allows this facility to be reused,
which is what we hoped would happen.” Rep. Goeff
Hansen, the bill’s sponsor, was hopeful for the future of the community now
that GEO has expanded options in renting beds at the facility. “I’m glad she
did it,” said Hansen, R-Hart, when informed by the Daily News that Granholm
signed the bill. “Hopefully, it’s going to be a good opportunity for Lake
County to get back in stride, to get businesses back in business. I’m pleased
it went through.”
September 11, 2006 LA Times
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was not inspecting the orange crop when he slipped
out of the state for a quick trip to Florida, and he wasn't eyeing a new set
of wheels when he visited with car dealers. Nor was he parched when he
bellied up to liquor dealers in Lake Tahoe, or craving a burger when he
chatted with Jack-in-the-Box owners. Rather, he was gobbling up campaign
money at each stop. As legislators were approving more than 1,000 bills in
August, Schwarzenegger was crossing the state, and the country, soliciting
campaign cash. Now, as he decides whether to sign those bills into law or nix
them with a veto, he will be cashing checks from scores of contributors whose
interests intersect with legislation. In his quest to be reelected,
Schwarzenegger is raising money from all manner of businesses: restaurants,
insurance companies, banks, financial services providers, construction and
real estate interests, farmers, energy producers and car dealers. All have
business before the state. On the last weekend in August, as legislators
prepared for their final sprint before adjourning for the year,
Schwarzenegger traveled to Florida for a fundraiser organized by his
brother-in-law, Anthony Shriver. The event was at the home of a major donor
to Republican candidates and causes, Randal Perkins, and generated about
$500,000. Perkins' firm, Ashbritt Environmental, does cleanup after natural
disasters, including Hurricane Katrina. According to Perkins' lobbyist,
Ronald L. Book, Ashbritt has no state contracts in California. However,
several donors who gave at the fundraiser do have business here. Geo Group, a
Florida firm that operates private prisons, has long sought more business in
California. Geo's Sacramento lobbyists worked to shape the governor's prison
overhaul package, which failed in the Legislature on the final day of its
session. The package might have increased the number of California inmates
housed by private firms.
September 10, 2006 Sacramento Bee
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is conducting an inmate
survey to see how many prisoners might be interested in serving their time
out of state -- and a Florida company that has contributed $90,000 over the
years to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says it would be happy to accommodate
them. Department spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said the agency can administratively
transfer inmates out of state if they volunteer for the move and if the
contracts with out-of-state operators do not exceed a year. Longer term
deals, Hidalgo said, would require legislative approval. "If there's a
willing inmate and a vendor, we can do this on our own right now,"
Hidalgo said. One major private prison company, the GEO Group of Boca Raton,
Fla., formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp., has expressed interest
in housing California inmates at its facilities in Michigan, Indiana and
Louisiana. GEO currently operates four private prisons in California. It also
contributed $22,300 to Schwarzenegger on Aug. 25, in the last week of the legislative
session, when lawmakers declined to act on proposals designed to ease prison
overcrowding in California. One bill would have required inmate approval for
out-of-state transfers. In legislative hearings, GEO expressed support for an
involuntary transfer plan. Altogether, GEO has contributed $90,300 to
Schwarzenegger going back to 2003.
September 7, 2006 Ludington Daily News
A deal that might have supplied California inmates to the former Michigan
Youth Correctional Facility in Lake County could be in jeopardy. Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and the California’s Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) proposed sending inmates to out-of-state facilities —
potentially including the Lake County prison — without getting the inmates’
permission. However, the future of the proposal is unclear. The California
Assembly refused to vote on the measure despite the California Senate passing
a bill allowing the transfers only with the inmate’s permission, which is
current California law. The California legislature, a part-time legislature,
left session for the year Friday without approving Schwarzenegger’s four-bill
package. The bills faced opposition by Republicans in the Assembly as well as
the corrections officer union and garnered only lukewarm support from
Democrats. In addition, Republican Gov. Schwarzenegger also faces a challenge
from Democrat Phil Angelides in the November election. The Baldwin area
facility was mentioned as a possible recipient of California inmates, and
officials from California reportedly visited the site earlier this summer.
Pablo Paez, communications director for GEO Group
which owns the Lake County prison, said he had “nothing new to report” with
regard to any deal to house inmates there. Paez
said GEO has been in contact with California and with U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement regarding possibly renting bed space at the facility a
few miles north of Baldwin. Refusing to name where else GEO is seeking
rentals, Paez said “the company remains active in
marketing our facility.”
August 31, 2006 Daily News
The Lake County community is one step closer to reopening the former
Michigan Youth Correctional Facility thanks to a bill passed Wednesday by the
House of Representatives in a 72-31 vote. The bill heads to the governor’s
desk for approval, and she has said she will sign it. House Bill 5800,
sponsored by Rep. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart, would allow
GEO Group, the prison’s owner, to contract with out-of-state vendors to house
inmates in the Baldwin facility. Current state law mandates the former
Michigan Youth Correctional Facility can only be used to house Michigan youth
offenders. “We are supportive and the governor expects to sign the bill,”
said Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for the governor’s office. “It’s up to lawmakers
how quickly they move it to us.” Once the bill arrives on the governor’s
desk, she will have 14 days to sign it into law. The approved Senate
amendment removed the state from oversight in the facility. “That’s the
craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” said Ken Kopczynski,
executive director of the Private Corrections Institute, a Tallahassee, Fla.,
based not-for-profit watchdog organization that opposes the concept of
for-profit prisons. “I’m sure the citizens of Michigan are proud to know
their Legislature is looking after their public safety. The state is
responsible for inmates in the facility. The courts have ruled on that. You
can’t contract away liability. Michigan has the ultimate responsibility of
regulating prisons and jails in the state. They’re ultimately responsible for
the conditions.” Kopczynski has documented on his
Web site more than 30 pages of lawsuits against GEO. “The whole idea they can
take over a government service and do it cheaper (is false),” Kopczynski said. “They don’t pay wages, they don’t have
the benefits, and they have high turnover which leads to abuse and escapes.
They say they’re in it for public safety — that’s BS. They’re in it for the
money.”
August 30, 2006 Ludington Daily News
The Lake County community is one step closer to reopening the former
Michigan Youth Correctional Facility thanks to a bill passed today by the
House of Representatives. The bill heads to the governor’s desk for approval,
and she has indicated she will sign it. House Bill 5800, sponsored by Rep. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart, would allow GEO Group, the prison’s
owner, to contract with out-of-state vendors to house inmates in the Baldwin
facility. An amendment to the bill — which would have limited the risk level
of inmates that could have been housed in the facility — was voted down
before the bill passed in a concurrence vote. It had already passed both the
house and senate earlier this year, but because the senate added an amendment
to the bill, the house had to issue a concurrence vote.
August 2, 2006 Cadillac News
The fate of Lake County's youth prison could be in the hands of the
California Legislature. California's Department of Corrections is considering
a proposal that would allow the state to export illegal immigrants to the
former Michigan Youth Correctional Facility near Baldwin. A CDC official met
with a representative of the GEO Group and Lake County Sheriff Bob Hilts
Monday in Baldwin to discuss a possible arrangement to fill the 550-bed
maximum-security prison. “It's one proposal we're looking at,” said Terry
Thornton, spokeswoman for CDC. “We have historic levels of overpopulation.”
Thornton reported 16,000 of the state's inmates are housed in alternative
situations, many of those triple-bunked. “If we do nothing, we'll run out of
beds in a year,” she said. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called a
special session of legislature to address overcrowding and other prison
system issues. The session begins Monday. A series of proposals, including
one involving use of the Baldwin facility, will be under consideration by the
state's lawmakers, according to Thornton. California is one of several
entities facility owners the GEO Group is in negotiation with to enable it to
reopen the six-year-old $37 million prison. Gov. Jennifer Granholm closed the
facility last October when she withdrew its funding, Before GEO is able to reopen the prison, it must gain legal rights to
enter into contracts with the State of California, or other states, federal
or local agencies. The State Corrections Code only allows its use as a youth
correctional facility under contract with the State. Michigan legislators
have shown strong bipartisan support for a bill that would permit GEO to
import out-of-state detainees or inmates and contract with other agencies.
The House passed the legislation 83 to 20. The Senate approved the bill 36 to
1, said Peter Wills, spokesperson for State Rep. Goeff
Hansen, R-Hart. While Granholm had vetoed a version of the bill in May that
would have mandated state use of the prison in overcrowding conditions, she
has indicated support for the “concept” of the legislation, Wills said. But
the bill continues to draw opposition. Rep. Kathy Angerer,
D-Dundee, and Rep. Gary McDowell, D-Rudyard, added amendments that would
prevent import of inmates. “It will be taken up on Aug. 9. We're working with
House leadership to work with members who offered the amendments to see if
they would rescind,” Wills said. “We're confident the bill is still a good
one.” Even given the authority for filling the prison with a new inmate population,
GEO's problems won't end. Before closing, the facility employed 200 workers.
“GEO's going to have to do an intensive search for employees,” said Hilts.
The bottom line is that operations must be cost effective “Everybody that has
visited is interested,” Hilts said. “The question is if they can make a deal.
Its always monetary.”
July 26, 2006 AP
A former youth prison in Baldwin would be allowed to house a wide range
of prisoners under legislation passed Wednesday by the state Senate. The bill
would allow the prison to be used for a Michigan prison population, county
prisoners, out-of-state prisoners or federal detainees. The former Michigan
Youth Correctional Facility, located about 65 miles north of Grand Rapids,
was closed last year. The legislation is designed to provide flexibility so
the privately owned prison can house adult offenders and those not just under
the jurisdiction of the state corrections department. The 480-bed prison, run
for six years by GEO Group Inc., closed last October after state officials
decided they could save $18 million by sending the young inmates housed at
the Lake County facility to other prisons and ending the contract with the
company based in Boca Raton, Fla. The legislation passed the Senate by an
36-1 vote and now goes back to the House because the Senate made changes to
it. Before voting, Democrats tried to amend the bill to restrict the type and
number of inmates that could be housed in the facility. But the amendments
failed. When the bill came up for final passage, only Sen. Liz Brater, D-Ann Arbor, voted against it. Sen. Mike Goschka, R-Brant, was absent and did not vote.
July 25, 2006 Ludington Daily News
The Baldwin prison could reopen if the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the owners of the prison, GEO
Group, can reach a deal. “GEO and California (corrections) officials are in
the preliminary stages of exchanging information and determining if there is
mutual interest to continue discussions,” said Peter Wills, legislative assistant
to State Rep. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart. GEO
acknowledged the company is engaged in talks with California about the
Baldwin facility. “We’ve had discussions with California for quite a while,”
said Pablo Paez, director of communications at GEO
Group. “The state has issued a request for information (about available
facilities) to send criminal aliens out of state. We’re responding with the
information that we have approximately 500 beds available in Michigan.” Paez said California was one of a number of agencies the
company has contacted about renting beds at the Baldwin facility, but he
refused to name the agencies, stating that the discussions are ongoing. Bill
must pass for facility to house out-of-state inmates That legislation, House
Bill 5800, would allow GEO to use the facility for uses other than Michigan
prisoners. Currently, state law mandates MYCF can only be used to house
Michigan youth offenders. Hansen’s bill would allow GEO to house detainees or
inmates from other local, state, or federal agencies. HB 5800 passed the
House June 15 and the Senate Judiciary Committee June 22 and could go before
the full Senate Wednesday. “We’re back in session on Wednesday, and we’re
going to try to get it through,” said John Lazet,
chief of staff for Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, the chair of the Senate
Judiciary Committee. “Our goal is Wednesday.” Both Gov. Granholm and the DOC
are supportive of the bill. Sen. Liz Brater, D-Ann
Arbor, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, opposes the bill because
she disagrees with private prison operations and because the bill would allow
other state agencies to ship prisoners out of state. “I don’t agree with (any
state) transporting prisoners over state lines,” Brater
said. “I’m not going to support importing prisoners to Michigan.”
May 26, 2006 TV 7 & 4
The future of the Geo Youth Prison near Baldwin is again an unknown after
hopes to reopen the facility are dashed by the swipe of Governor Granholm's
pen. Granholm vetoed a bill designed to house out of state inmates at the former
prison. The Geo Prison was closed in November as a cost cutting measure by
the state. Operators say they were hopeful of reopening and recouping some of
the money that was invested when the prison was built back in 1990. Last week
a state lawmaker introduced the bill that would allow the prison to house
inmates from outside of the state. The prison was one of Lake County's
largest employers.
May 18, 2006 Cadillac News
Eight months after Gov. Jennifer Granholm closed the Michigan Youth
Correctional Facility, Lake County's largest employer, the community is
struggling to adjust to its losses and move forward. The only privately
managed prison in Michigan, Granholm pulled MYCF's funding last September in
efforts to balance the state's budget. MYCF employed more than 200 full-time
workers. Measuring the full impact of the closure is complex, according to
Jim Truxton, village president, but during the winter the community has seen
businesses close, declining school enrollment and an increase in foreclosures.
Major housing and hotel development projects remain frozen. “We've moved back
15 to 20 years in our economic plan,” Truxton said. Up to now, legislation
has prohibited the $37 million, 550-bed facility from being converted from a
youth prison to other correctional uses. State Representative for the 100th
District Goeff Hansen, R-Hart, introduced
legislation last March that will allow owners, The GEO Group, Inc., to house
inmates from other local, state and federal agencies. “We're trying to open
it up,” he said. Hansen anticipates the legislation to pass through
legislature by early this summer. The impact of the shutdown is more far
reaching than anticipated, according to Hansen. He pointed to infrastructure
installed primarily to support MYCF and paid for with a bond. Without
revenues from the prison, the water/sewer system has financially drained the
township. “Lake County has always been poor,” he said. “Now they're poor and
in debt.”
May 12, 2006 Ludington Daily News
The GEO Group has paid its taxes — more than $921,000 in base taxes — on
the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility for Fiscal Year 2005, as it was
obligated to do, according to Township Supervisor Tony Gagliardo.
GEO also paid more than $15,000 in personal property taxes for the same year.
The taxable value of the facility is listed at more than $18.9 million, while
the true cash value is set at $40,912,283. While GEO’s assessment may change
because the facility is not in use, Gagliardo said
the township will consider that issue if the company requests a reassessment.
“We’ll decide that when the time comes,” Gagliardo
said. In the meantime, the township remains “status quo,” nearly seven months
after the state canceled its contract with the GEO prison, he said. Gagliardo said he’s not had any contact with the company
in about six months, but hopes something will come along to put the facility
back in use and employ people again. Bill Cole, maintenance supervisor at the
GEO facility, has maintained his job at the prison since it closed. He and a
crew of three people are overseeing the physical plant. “We’re trying to keep
everything running,” Cole said, “but there’s no major change. We’re just
maintaining and painting. We’re here to keep vandalism away.” Cole said he’s
not heard anything from the corporate offices about any new contracts, but
state law states only Michigan teen offenders can be housed at the facility.
A bill introduced by State Rep. Goeff Hansen, House
Bill 5800, would allow GEO to pursue contracts to house inmates from federal
and out-of-state agencies. In the meantime, the township is left with a water
system too large for the amount of users it serves. The prison was the
system’s major user until Gov. Jennifer Granholm line-item vetoed funding for
the prison in September. Every day, the township releases water from the
water tank because the current use does not provide sufficient turnover. The
township is looking into installing a new pump better suited to the demand, Gagliardo said. They hoped to get state help with the
cost of the pump — estimated at $40-45,000 — but the Michigan Economic
Development Council said they could not help with that cost, Gagliardo said. MEDC said they might be able to help with
other projects.
March 13, 2006 South Florida Business Journal
The Boca Raton-based correctional and detention management firm said it
lost $807,000, or 8 cents a share, on revenue of $164.87 million for the 13
weeks ended Jan. 1. For the 14 weeks ended Jan. 2, 2005, Geo (NYSE: GGI) said
it earned $5.22 million, or 53 cents a share, on revenue of $161.59 million.
The most recent fourth quarter earnings include an $8.5 million, or
85-cents-a-share, international tax benefit related to certain tax law
changes in Australia and South Africa, as well as a $500,000, or
5-cents-a-share, after-tax gain from discontinued operations including the
sale of Geo's 72-bed Atlantic Shores Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Jan. 1.
These gains were offset by a $12.6 million, or $1.26-a-share, after-tax
non-cash impairment charge related to Geo's 500-bed Michigan Correctional
Facility, which closed Oct. 14; a $200,000, or 2-cents-a-share, after-tax
charge related to one-time costs associated with the reclassification of
certain job positions from exempt to non-exempt employees; and $600,000, or 6
cents a share, in one-time start-up expenses related new contracts with the
Indiana Department of Correction to manage the 2,416-bed New Castle
Correctional Facility in New Castle, Ind., and with the New Mexico Department
of Health to manage the 230-bed Fort Bayard Medical Center in Fort Bayard,
N.M. The Michigan charge was actually smaller than the $21 million charge the
company had predicted it would pay for losing its contract there. The
facility closed, Oct. 14, after the state of Michigan canceled Geo's management
contract. The company has since sued, alleging wrongful termination of the
lease. For the year, Geo said it earned $7 million, or 70 cents a share, on
revenue of $612.9 million. The year before - which included an extra week,
giving it 53 weeks - the company said it earned $16.81 million, or $1.73 a
share, on revenue of $593.99 million.
January 27, 2006 Yahoo
The GEO Group, Inc. (NYSE: GGI - News; "GEO") announced today that
it will incur a non-cash impairment charge of $21.0 million, or $1.27 earnings
per share, during the fourth quarter of 2005 related to GEO's 480-bed
Michigan Correctional Facility (the "Facility"). The Facility was
closed on October 14, 2005 following the cancellation by the State of
Michigan of GEO's management contract. In addition, GEO's facility lease
agreement (the "Lease") was cancelled by the Governor of the State
of Michigan effective December 3, 2005. As previously disclosed, GEO has
filed a lawsuit against the State of Michigan for the wrongful termination of
the Lease. The Village of Baldwin (the "Village") and Webber
Township (the "Township") joined GEO in the lawsuit and petitioned
the court for a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent the State of Michigan
from canceling the Lease and the management contract for the Facility. On
November 21, 2005, the court denied the motion of the Village and Township
for a Temporary Restraining Order. As a result primarily of the court's
denial of the Village and Township's motion for a Temporary Restraining Order
and in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, GEO has
determined that the estimate of the future cash flow for the Facility would
be insufficient to cover the Facility's current book value. The Facility is
currently valued on GEO's balance sheet at $34.0 million. GEO believes that
its lawsuit against the State of Michigan is meritorious and intends to
continue to vigorously assert its rights in the lawsuit.
November 30, 2005 Ludington Daily News
The GEO Group has hit a bump in the road in its lawsuit against the State of
Michigan after the closing of the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility near
Baldwin. Ingham County Circuit Court Judge James Giddings last week denied a
motion by GEO seeking injunctive relief to keep the prison open - and to keep
the state paying the lease - during court proceedings regarding the lawsuit.
The state will have to pay for leasing the facility only through Friday,
saving $5.4 million that would have paid for the lease of a now empty prison.
Judge Giddings rejected GEO's claim that the lease could only be broken by
action of the Legislature, said Russ Marlan,
spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections. "The governor took
out her pen and struck out this appropriation," Giddings was quoted as
saying in a Gongwer News Service report.
"Funds for this use in this lease have been prohibited. I don't see how
the plaintiffs can prevail.
November 20, 2005 South Bend Tribune
Brian Smith is the kind of person who officials in this small northwestern
Michigan town had in mind when they agreed in 1996 to be the home of a new,
high-security prison for young offenders. The 37-year-old corrections officer
had been working in a privately-run Pennsylvania prison when he and his wife
decided to move out of Philadelphia to find a better area to raise their
young children. He took a job at the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility and
bought a home down the road from where he worked. But the 480-bed prison run
by GEO Group Inc. closed last month and Smith now drives 140 miles a day to
and from his new job at a state prison in Muskegon. "I wish I could go
back home now," Smith said as he stood outside the local Michigan Works
office where he was getting information about state aid for his higher
gasoline costs. What state and local officials didn't count on was fewer
violent young offenders than projected. Young inmates who had been in the
Lake County facility were moved to other prisons last month. The state's
prison capacity is just short of 49,000 and isn't expected to hit capacity
until March 2008, according to Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan. Tracy Huling, a
consultant based in upstate New York who has researched the economies of
areas near prisons, said the situation in Baldwin shows short-term thinking
by both state and local officials. She said the two sides should have been
working together to determine whether there were other options for the
prison. "States have been creating penal colonies for years and there
are consequences," she said. "It's understandable to see how folks
get into this situation, but someone has to take the leadership role and say
there's got to be a better way." Local officials met with Gov. Jennifer
Granholm last month to talk about the future of the area. Since then, they
have been working on a list of projects they think would help alleviate the
loss of the prison. Although they want to diversify their economy, their top
recommendation to the governor is reopening the prison. Without it, they said
the area will lose out on hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue and
fees for the area school district, local governments and the water and sewer
systems, which were built to accommodate the large facility. They also said
they may have to shut down the water system and drain the water tower because
there won't be enough flow to keep the water from becoming stagnant or
freezing in the winter. Despite their efforts, reopening the prison appears
unlikely. The state budget remains tight and the state is being sued over its
decision to end its lease with the GEO Group by the Boca Raton, Fla.-based
company, the Village of Baldwin and Webber Township.
November 16, 2005 Ludington Daily News
All but 20 of the corrections officers formerly employed at the Michigan
Youth Correctional Facility - 190 of 220 - have been hired into the state
Department of Corrections operations, according to DOC spokesman Russ Marlan. Lake County residents were given top preference
for jobs at the Pugsley Correctional Facility in Kingsley, the closest
state-run facility to Baldwin, Marlan said. Other
officers went to the Oaks Correctional Facility in Manistee County and to the
Muskegon Correctional Facility in Muskegon. The youth prison was a 480-bed,
privately owned and operated prison filled with Michigan youth offenders in
Lake County's Webber Township. Gov. Jennifer Granholm vetoed funding for the
prison from the state budget this fall, citing what she referred to as
inefficiencies and the desire to save taxpayers money. Opponents have
countered, saying the facility was fulfilling its contract, and that it was
one of the state's most efficient Level V prisons. GEO filed a lawsuit
against the state charging that only the Legislature could cancel the state's
lease on the building. The company is contending that the governor's veto
canceled the contract. GEO's lawsuit said only the Legislature could have
pulled the funding for the building lease. Both the House and Senate
lawmakers found funding for the prison within the DOC budget. The governor
line-item vetoed that funding, and the Legislature signed that budget, which Marlan said constitutes the necessary "legislative
action." William Nowling, spokesman for GEO,
said the company is seeking injunctive relief - in essence a temporary
restraining order - to prevent the state from stopping payment. "It
would be a victory for the community," Nowling
said, "but it doesn't bring the prisoners back." Nowling said an injunction would keep the building open
for other prisoners, either from the state or other entities. "This is
only the first stage of the lawsuit," Nowling
said. "We invested and put up this $40 million facility and signed the
contract so the state couldn't up and run." Webber Township Supervisor
Tony Gagliardo said that the township cannot wait
much longer. "With our water tank, we need to keep it from
freezing," Gagliardo said. "It needs to
turn over every seven days." And with only minimal users, there is not
enough demand for the water to ensure that rate of turnover, Gagliardo said. The prison was the major user of the
water system. Either the township will be forced to shut the water off and
drain the tower or they will have to install a pressure tank and pump and
erect a building to house the pump, according to Gagliardo.
He said adding the new pump would cost upwards of $160,000. The pump and tank
would cost the township $80-100,000, with the building adding approximately
$40-60,000. Plus, the township would also have to heat the building.
"That's not what we wanted to use the (township's) money for," Gagliardo said. Nowling said GEO
is actively looking for a new set of inmates to fill the Baldwin area
facility. "We're marketing it the best we can," Nowling
said. "The problem is the location (in rural Michigan) and that the
facility is a Level V maximum security prison. That has limitations."
GEO thinks there are several options for the building, including: o The state
could renew a contract with GEO to house Level V adult inmates. o GEO could
maintain the building and lease it to the state, who could house and staff
the prison. o GEO could get prisoners from outside of Michigan to fill the
prison. o The state could buy the prison from GEO.
"We'd like to keep it within the Michigan system," Nowling said.
November 8, 2005 Detroit Free Press
Republican state legislators would have a hard time explaining why they stuck
taxpayers with a $5.5-million bill to lease an empty prison. But they may
have to if they fail to amend this year's budget and protect the state
against a lawsuit by the private company that ran the Michigan Youth Correctional
Facility in Baldwin. Geo Group Inc., along with the Village of Baldwin and
Webber Township, sued the state last week for wrongfully terminating its
contract, after Gov. Jennifer Granholm vetoed money to keep the prison open.
By closing an unnecessary and inefficient prison, Granholm saved the state
$18 million a year -- $12.5 million for operating the facility and $5.5
million for the building lease. The Michigan Department of Corrections
already has transferred the inmates at the 480-bed facility, and the
department has found jobs elsewhere in the system for the nearly 200
employees. Even so, Geo claims the state owes it $5.5 million in rent because
its contract says only the Legislature can cancel the agreement. The state is
on solid legal ground, but anything can happen in court. Legislators can make
sure the state prevails by amending the current budget bill, or passing a
separate bill, to prohibit payment of the lease. Unfortunately, Republicans
appear more interested in one-upping the governor than acting in the people's
best interest. "We have no plans to save the governor from
herself," Ari Adler, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, R-Wyoming, said last month. Protecting the state
against a costly lawsuit isn't about saving the governor -- it's about saving
the strapped state and taxpayers millions of dollars. Legislators should not
play politics with this issue and force the state to pay for an empty prison.
November 4, 2005 Psychiatry News
After a watchdog group sues a Michigan private youth prison over inadequate
care for inmates, the prison is closed due to budget reasons. Despite
opposition from Republicans, Michigan's youth prison was closed last month
when Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) announced the first budget bills for the
2005-06 fiscal year. The move helped trim a projected deficit of $770
million. The prison closing was one of the most hotly contested items in the
budget. "This costly facility is not needed and was originally
constructed to house violent young offenders, but the need for this facility
never materialized," the governor said. Her office noted that the
legislative auditor general said less-expensive beds can be used to house the
teen offenders, saving the state $17.8 million a year. Earlier this year the
Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service Inc. filed a lawsuit against State
Department of Corrections Director Patricia Casuso,
Michigan Youth Correction Facility Warden Frank Elo, and the GEO Group Inc.,
a Florida-based, prison-management company that owns and runs the state's
private prison at Baldwin, claiming the prison was mismanaged. After the
state had given the company a 60-day notice that it was terminating the
lease, the GEO Group made a last-minute offer to cut the cost of the state's
$18.8 million four-year contract by at least $2 million a year, an indication
of how profitable private prisons are. Now the state faces a lawsuit over the
lease for the privately built facility, and prison supporters say the fight
is not over. The Michigan Youth Correctional Facility was built in 1999 under
former Gov. John Engler (R), who promised good-paying jobs to residents in
the poverty-stricken Lake County region; it was the state's first privately
run, for-profit prison. Soon after it opened, parents of teenaged boys convicted
as adults alleged that their children had suffered physical, mental, and
sexual abuse at the maximum-security prison. Their allegations were backed up
by a watchdog group. "Even though we anticipated that the facility was
to be closed regardless, we went ahead and filed the suit because [staff]
were not providing the proper services to the kids," Tom Masseau, public policy specialist with the Michigan
Protection and Advocacy Service, told Psychiatric News. The suit accused the
prison of neglecting inmates' physical and mental health and failing to
provide enough trained counselors for those suffering from mental illnesses
and developmental disabilities. Masseau said there
was only one full-time social worker for 483 inmates. He added that low-level
offenders were housed with convicted rapists and murderers. Many inmates were
kept in isolation for days at a time without recreation and as punishment for
minor offenses were limited to a few showers a week. "Sixty-one suicide
attempts were reported between October 2004 and March 2005," Masseau said. "This is a significant increase,
because for all of 2003, there were only 18 suicide attempts," he added.
Masseau attributed the suicide attempts to the lack
of proper treatment for inmates, many of whom suffered from mental illness
and developmental disabilities. "Now that the facility is closed, we
will be monitoring what happens to these kids to make sure that the state
provides the appropriate services for them," he said. The GEO Group said
it will vigorously contest the allegations and questioned the plaintiffs'
motivation and timing. It warned it will pursue and enforce any remedies
under the law against the Michigan Advocacy and Protection Service.
Management and Budget Department spokesperson Bridget Medina had no immediate
comment on the lease issue and what options the state was reviewing. Many
people in the mental health and human service communities agreed that it was
time Michigan dissolved its relationship with the GEO Group, a worldwide
operation that runs prisons in the United States, Canada, South Africa,
Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. "I fully expected Gov.
Granholm to end the contract, and that was sound public policy," Mark Reinstein, Ph.D., CEO, and president of the Mental Health
Association in Michigan, told Psychiatric News. "The mental health and
human service communities had serious concerns about the efficacy and
performance of this facility." Psychiatrist Michele Reid, M.D., medical
director of the Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Agency and a
corresponding member of APA's Council on Member and District Branch
Relations, noted that the Mental Health Commission had received testimony
from many families and deliberated extensively on mental health services to
persons in correctional settings for both juveniles and adults. "We are
elated that the youth prison is closed. It's a scandal that it was ever
opened and continued to be run in such a way that could do so much damage to
so many children," Susan McParland, director of the Michigan Association
for Children With Emotional Disorders, told Psychiatric News. "Our
organization had urged that the Baldwin facility, or so-called `punk prison,'
be closed.... There was no purpose for this facility. As advocates for kids, we
know that detention in general does a lot of harm to children who have
emotional disorders, and this facility was the `belly of the beast' so to
speak." State Sen. Michelle McManus (R), whose Lake Leelanau district
includes the prison, claims the suit sucker-punched residents of a county
that often leads the state in unemployment and poverty. "Just when it
seems things can't get any darker for residents of Lake County, the groups
that are against the prison found one more stunt to pull," she said.
"This suit was clearly timed for maximum political impact."
Republican legislators who favor privatization wanted the funding for the
prison to continue and disputed the claims that adult prisons have enough
beds to accommodate the youthful inmates who were shipped to adult prisons
beginning October 1. Corrections spokesperson Leo Lalonde said 320 prisoners
would be transferred to the Thumb Correctional Facility, with others
scattered throughout the system. Sexual assaults at juvenile prisons occur 10
times more often than at adult prisons, according to information released by
the Bureau of Justice Statistics in July.
November 4, 2005 Cadillac News
The operators of the private youth prison near Baldwin sued the state
Thursday, claiming wrongful termination of the company's lease. The village
of Baldwin and Webber Township joined The GEO Group, Inc. in filing the suit
in Ingham County court against the Michigan Department of Corrections and
Michigan Department of Management and Budget. Inmates at the 480-bed facility
have been transferred to other facilities and the facility's nearly 200
employees have been offered other state jobs. Job loss is only one problem
locals face as a result of the prison closing. A water system built in Webber
Township for MYCF supplies only one other user, a small office building. The
system has become a costly white elephant. "It's bad enough that we're
losing revenues," said Township Supervisor Tony Gagliardo.
"But it's costing us to keep it open." A mechanical failure of a
water pump on Nov. 1 is adding to township expenses, but officials aim to
keep the system operational to support measures to reopen operations. Local
government officials say state officials under former GOP Gov. John Engler
made promises to persuade them to allow the prison in their community,
including a long-term commitment by the state to use the prison after it
opened in 1999.
November 3, 2005 AP
The operators of a private youth prison near Baldwin sued the state Thursday,
claiming wrongful termination of the company's lease. Inmates at the 480-bed
facility about 65 miles north of Grand Rapids already have been transferred
to other facilities and nearly 200 employees have been offered other state
jobs. Gov. Jennifer Granholm vetoed money that would have kept the prison
open in the budget year that started Oct. 1. The veto saved the state $18
million by ending the state's contract with the GEO Group Inc., the private
owners of the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility. GEO, along with the
Village of Baldwin and Webber Township, filed suit in an Ingham County court
against the Michigan Department of Corrections and the Michigan Department of
Management and Budget. The company, based in Boca Raton, Fla., said the state
can't end the lease because there was no specific prohibition against using
appropriated funds to pay the lease in a Department of Corrections budget
recently approved by state lawmakers. But Granholm said the facility costs
too much to run and houses few of the violent young offenders it was meant to
hold. The state sent economic development workers to Baldwin to help local
officials look for other business opportunities for the city and county, one
of the state's poorest.
October 7, 2005 Detroit Free Press
Republicans are charging that Gov. Jennifer Granholm sent the wrong message
by canceling the state's contract for an unneeded, privately run youth prison
in Baldwin. In fact, her message was exactly right. Granholm's budget veto
last week, ending the contract with the for-profit Geo Group, will save taxpayers
$18 million a year. Thanks to new efforts to control the state's inmate
population, Corrections now has room -- roughly 680 spare beds -- to send the
480 teenage boys at Youth Correctional Facility to other prisons. Most will
go to an area separate from adults at Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer.
Instead of supporting this sensible move to save money, Republicans are on
the attack, including a tasteless reference to "Hurricane Jennifer"
by Rep. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart. The GOP has argued
that closing Youth Correctional Facility would cost jobs, as if that were a
reason to keep open a prison. Besides, the state has pledged to transfer all
of the facility's 150 corrections officers into vacant positions at other
prisons -- where they'll make more money and receive better benefits.
Michigan has closed several state-run prisons in the last four years,
including the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia and Western Wayne Correctional
Facility in Plymouth. Granholm was not picking on the privately run Baldwin
prison. Legally, Michigan could cancel its management contract, with 90-days
notice, if the prison is no longer needed. Geo was notified June 30.
Republicans, who talk a lot about government waste, should think twice before
making the governor's veto a political issue. Granholm sent the right message
to businesses, citizens and taxpayers: During a budget crisis, Michigan will
not maintain costly and unnecessary prisons to subsidize jobs or appease
politicians.
October 3, 2005 South Florida Business Journal
The Geo Group said it has lost a contract in Michigan. Accordingly, the
company has shifted its fourth quarter and year-end guidance. Available
previous guidance did not account for Geo's (NYSE: GGI) plan to merge with
Correctional Services Corp., so those numbers are no longer comparable to the
new guidance. The new fourth quarter prediction is revenue of $167 million to
$174 million and earnings per share from 31 cents to 34 cents. For the year,
the new revenue range is $725 million to $745 million and the new earnings
per share forecast is from $1.70 to $1.80. Boca Raton-based Geo had predicted
as early as July it might lose its work with the Michigan Youth Correctional
Facility. The correctional and detention management company said it is in the
process of determining whether an impairment charge related to the closure of
the facility is required and, if so, the appropriate timing. Media sources in
Michigan have indicated the state expects to save $18 million by ending its
contract with Geo and also plans to offer state jobs to the
soon-to-be-shuttered facility's workers.
October 1, 2005 Cadillac News
Gov. Jennifer Granholm's decision Friday to veto funding for the Michigan
Youth Correctional Facility in Lake County is a devastating blow to the
economic future of one of Michigan's poorest counties. The veto ends the
state's 20-year contract with the facility's management firm the GEO Group,
Inc. The State Budget Office defended the governor's move. Closing MYCF is
expected to save about $17.8 million from the Department of Corrections $1.88
billion budget. "We found a significant budget shortfall in Michigan
that forced us to make difficult choices," said Greg Bird, director of
communications for the State Budget Office. "These prisoners can be housed
in alternative facilities at a savings to the taxpayer."
September 29, 2005 Michigan Live
More than 200 workers at the state's only private prison will be given top
priority for state job openings if Gov. Jennifer Granholm, as expected,
vetoes funding for the facility. Russ Marlan,
spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections, said Wednesday that
human resources and civil service workers are planning to meet with Michigan
Youth Correctional Facility employees in Baldwin next week to talk about
state employment. The department also has plans to begin moving some 470
prisoners to state-owned facilities if the $17.8 million for the prison is
vetoed.
September 23, 2005 Ludington Daily News
Gov. Jennifer Granholm still plans to veto funding for the Baldwin prison,
Liz Boyd, a spokeswoman from her office, said this morning. The Department of
Corrections budget — which passed the Legislature with funding for the prison
intact — is expected to reach the governor’s desk soon, at least by the start
of the state’s new fiscal year, Oct. 1. As Lake County residents await
Granholm’s official action regarding the future of the Michigan Youth
Correctional Facility, several of those residents who received a letter from
the governor were left scratching their heads over portions of that letter.
The wording was confusing, acknowledged Russ Marlan,
spokesman for the Department of Corrections, but the result is the same. The
DOC still proposes shutting the facility down to save taxpayers money, Marlan said.
September 22, 2005 Detroit Free Press
Political pressure is mounting on Gov. Jennifer Granholm to back off on
closing the inefficient and unnecessary Youth Correctional Facility in
Baldwin. That's bad news, because standing up to such pressure is not what
Granholm does best. This time, though, she needs to straighten her spine and
do what she knows is best for Michigan: End the $18-mllion-a-year contract
with the private, for-profit Geo Group to operate the so-called punk prison.
For its size, the youth prison is one of Michigan's most costly and
inefficient. Moreover, the maximum-security prison has been criticized for
neglecting health and education needs and for housing mostly lower-security
offenders. Even if those problems could be fixed, the 6-year-old prison is no
longer needed -- and maybe never was. The expected wave of young so-called superpredators never happened. The Department of
Corrections has done a better job of managing its population in recent years.
Michigan was one of the few states to lower its prison population in 2003 and
2004, and Corrections has other initiatives to contain costly prison growth.
The state now has room to transfer the 480 teenage boys to strictly
segregated areas within adult institutions. Republicans have argued that
closing the youth prison would hurt Baldwin's economy, as if prisons are
employment agencies. Like other government programs, prisons exist to provide
necessary services, not subsidize jobs. Corrections' 2005-06 budget includes
funding to run the prison, but Granholm has said she would veto the money.
Unfortunately, Republicans still have reason to hope, because Granholm has
backed down in the past. This time she should not. Michigan can't afford to
keep prisons open simply to provide jobs or appease politicians.
September 14, 2005 AP
Young offenders at a private prison in Lake County are not spending enough
time in school and those who have mental illnesses and developmental
disabilities aren't getting adequate help, according to a federal lawsuit
filed Wednesday. The Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service Inc. filed the
lawsuit against state Department of Corrections Director Patricia Caruso,
Michigan Youth Correctional Facility warden Frank Elo and the GEO Group Inc.,
a Florida-based prison-management company that owns and runs the prison. The
group filed the lawsuit in federal court in Grand Rapids. The group wants the
court to order improvements at the youth prison near Baldwin. Michigan
Protection and Advocacy Service is going ahead with the lawsuit although it
appears the state will end its contract for the prison. Democratic Gov.
Jennifer Granholm likely will veto funding for the prison in the budget for
the fiscal year that begins in a few weeks as a way to balance the budget,
despite Republican support for keeping the funding in place. In the lawsuit,
the advocacy group says young inmates attend class for as little as three
hours a week despite a contract that requires 30 hours of weekly instruction for
inmates with at least an eighth-grade education. Isolated inmates and those
in detention do not receive any instruction, although they are required to
receive some individually, the lawsuit said. Low-level offenders at the youth
prison are housed with inmates convicted of rape and murder because of the
facility's high-security classification, making it more likely they will
"find themselves the victims of prisoner assaults," the group said
in a written statement. The advocacy group also said more trained counselors
are needed at the prison to help many of the young inmates who have
developmental disabilities and mental illnesses, said Stacy Hickox, an
attorney for the group. The prison has one full-time social worker for 480
inmates, the group said.
September 9, 2005 AP
Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Republican legislative leaders have
agreed on the state's spending plan for the fiscal year that begins in less than
a month, a spokesman for the Senate majority leader said Friday. Senate
Majority Leader Ken Sikkema was expected to lay out
the details of the roughly $40 billion budget at an 11 a.m. news conference,
spokesman John Long said. Long said the deal includes funding for the
Newberry Correctional Facility and Camp Manistique in the Upper Peninsula and
a privately run youth prison in Lake County. Granholm and Republicans have
disagreed sharply over the corrections budget. Granholm had proposed ending
the state's contract with the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility in Baldwin
while Republicans had proposed closing the Newberry facility.
September 1, 2005 Ludington Daily News
State Rep. Geoff Hansen, R-Hart, and U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, take
issue with Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s contention that the Michigan Youth
Correctional Facility in Baldwin, operated by GEO Group, Inc., is not
efficient and they are urging her not to cancel the 20-year contract. The
fear is if the contract is canceled, GEO will then close the prison and put
the about 229 full time employees there out of work. The prison’s operating
budget for 2004 was $13.4 million. Granholm, Friday in Ludington, stated the
Michigan Auditor General identified the prison as the least efficient in the
state and said the offenders in the 480 beds there could be absorbed into
Michigan Department of Corrections facilities. Hansen said he understands the
Auditor General report differently. He said if judged against other Level 5
prisons in Michigan, it is the second most efficient prison of that type in
the state. He said the Auditor General was suggesting that the contract be
renegotiated to allow the facility to operate at a lower level, thus reducing
costs. Rep. Hansen was more blunt. “If this should happen
and the state pulls the contract, the state better have a plan for
receivership for Baldwin Schools, Lake County and Webber Township. They’ve
been poor forever. They went out on a limb. They have a lot of debt in the
infrastructure,” he said. The facility pays $1 million in taxes, including
$400,000 to Baldwin schools.
July 12, 2005 Biz Journal
In a development the company said could hurt it financially, Geo Group said
it may lose a contract in Michigan. The Boca Raton-based prison
management firm said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing it
received written notice June 30 from the State of Michigan Department of
Management and Budget stating the state of Michigan intends to cancel Geo's
(NYSE: GGI) management contract to operate the 480-bed Michigan Youth
Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Mich. The cancellation would be effective
Sept. 30. Geo currently operates the Michigan facility via to a
management contract with the Michigan Department of Corrections. The company
did not give dollar amounts associated with the deal. Yet, Geo said as
a result of it efforts and efforts by the locally affected community, the
Michigan House and Senate have approved separate budget bills that include
funding for the Michigan Facility for Michigan's next fiscal year, which
begins Oct. 1. "The two budget bills will now go to a conference
committee for reconciliation and then to the governor for approval or
rejection," Geo said. However, the company cautioned there
can be no assurances the efforts to continue funding for the Michigan
facility beyond Sept. 30 will be successful. "In the event
funding for the Michigan facility ends on Sept. 30, 2005, Geo's financial
condition and results of operations would be materially adversely affected,"
the company warned. Shares closed down 22 cents to $25.45. The
52-week high was $32.70 on Feb. 8. The 52-week low was $17.02 on July 26.
July 7, 2005 Yahoo
On June 30, 2005, The GEO Group, Inc. ("GEO") received written
notice from the State of Michigan Department of Management and Budget that
the State of Michigan intends to cancel GEO's management contract to operate
the 480-bed Michigan Youth Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan (the
"Michigan Facility"), effective September 30, 2005. GEO operates
the Michigan Facility pursuant to a management contract with the Michigan
Department of Corrections (the "DOC"). As a result of efforts
by GEO and the locally affected community, the Michigan House and Senate have
approved separate budget bills that include funding for the Michigan Facility
for Michigan's next fiscal year, which begins on October 1, 2005. The two
budget bills will now go to a conference committee for reconciliation and
then to the Governor for approval or rejection. There can be no assurances
that the efforts to continue funding for the Michigan Facility beyond
September 30, 2005 will be successful. In the event funding for the Michigan
Facility ends on September 30, 2005, GEO's financial condition and results of
operations would be materially adversely affected.
June 26, 2005 Detroit News
LANSING
-- State leaders will mothball a northern Michigan prison this year to save
money, but which facility to vacate has emerged as an issue pitting
Republicans against Democrats and two struggling counties against each other.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm and state Corrections Director Pat Caruso
have targeted a Michigan prison for teen offenders, near Baldwin, between
Traverse City and Grand Rapids. They estimate a savings of $7.5 million next
year by moving its inmates elsewhere. Republican lawmakers,
citing the economic blow the impoverished area would suffer with the loss of
230 corrections officer jobs, have rejected that idea. They want to shutter
an Upper Peninsula prison in a converted state mental hospital at Newberry
and a Manistique prison camp, estimating that would save $12 million.
Budget legislation closing the Upper Peninsula prison and camp "will not
pass my desk," Granholm pledged last week during a rally of U.P.
residents and corrections workers. The governor accused lawmakers of partisan
maneuvering that ignores an analysis showing the privately run Baldwin prison
is too costly. "Republicans want to keep the Baldwin prison
open in defiance of their own auditor general's report," she said. The
state auditor general reported Michigan's contract guarantees the prison
owner, GEO Group, a rate of $75.81 a day per inmate. That is a higher cost
than all but four of the other 37 prisons in the corrections system,
according to the report. But Republican Rep. Jack Brandenburg of
Harrison Township, head of a House panel that debated the issue in April,
said the plan to close the state's only privately operated prison "sends
a terrible message" to firms that want to do business here.
Democrats accuse the Republican majority of voting to protect prison jobs in
Republican territory while sacrificing such jobs in the more-Democratic
central U.P.
June 15, 2005 Detroit Free Press
The fight over which state prisons to close has become ridiculously
political. Members of the state House, against all logic, approved closing
Newberry Correctional Facility and Camp Manistique in the Upper Peninsula and
keeping open the expensive and unnecessary Michigan Youth Correctional
Facility in Baldwin. The state Senate ought to reject this plan. For its
size, the so-called punk prison is one of Michigan's most costly -- and small
wonder. It's run by the private, for-profit GEO Group Inc., whose CEO was
paid $2.2 million last year to run a prison system that's considerably
smaller than Michigan's. The state's corrections director, Patricia Caruso,
earns $130,000 a year. Of more importance, the youth prison, which opened in
1999, is no longer needed -- and maybe never was. The expected wave of
so-called super predators never happened. The maximum-security youth prison,
with gun towers and 16-foot razor wire fences, has been criticized for
neglecting health and educational needs and for housing mostly lower-security
offenders. The state's nonpartisan Office of the Auditor General recommended
reconsidering the state's contract with the prison. Corrections
professionals, in the best position to evaluate prison needs, want to shut it
down. Republicans have argued that closing the youth prison would cost the
Baldwin area, a Republican district, needed jobs. That's hard to deny. But
the argument cuts both ways. Closing Newberry would equally harm that area's
economy. The larger point is that government is not an employment agency. It
exists to provide necessary services. Michigan can and should close a prison.
Politics aside, the best choice for the state Senate is ending the contract
with Michigan Youth Correctional Facility.
June 3, 2005 The Evening News
Though clearly worried, a Luce County official today said the threatened
closing of state prisons in Newberry and Manistique is hauntingly familiar
territory for local people. On Thursday, a State Senate subcommittee voted
3-2 to close the Newberry prison and its subsidiary, Camp Manistique, in a
money saving move. The move stunned state Corrections Department officials,
who earlier recommended closure of a privately operated prison in Baldwin.
Terry Stark, chairman of the Luce County Board, today said the surprise move
would be "devastating" for Luce County, which is still struggling
nearly 20 years after the state mental hospital pulled out of Newberry. The
unexpected prison closure switch followed a well publicized campaign by Lake
County partisans to preserve the much smaller and troubled youth correctional
facility in Baldwin. A recent state audit of prisons ranked that private
prison among the highest cost prisons in the state on a per-prisoner basis.
Much larger than the Baldwin prison, Newberry houses about 1,100 inmates. The
prison and the subsidiary Manistique camp employ 345 people, many of them local.
A critical element in a recent economic revival in chronically depressed Luce
County, the Newberry prison is the county's largest employer. The vote to
switch Newberry for the Baldwin prison followed strict party lines; the three
Republicans on the subcommittee voted for the move and the two Democrats
voted against. The apparent political partisanship that figured in the voting
in Lansing pits two rural counties in similar economic straits against each
other. Baldwin and Lake County are represented by a Republican. Newberry is
represented by first-term State Representative Gary McDowell (D-Rudyard).
State Sen. Mike Prusi (D-Ishpeming) charged the
subcommittee Republicans with playing politics with the prison-closing vote.
"I am disappointed that my Republican colleagues would play politics
with people's jobs and the public's safety," Prusi
said in a statement.
May 27, 2005 AP
A new state audit says prison officials should consider whether to continue
sending young felons to a private prison in northern Michigan because it is
one of the most expensive prisons in the state. The report released Friday by
the Michigan Office of the Auditor General likely will help efforts by Gov.
Jennifer Granholm's administration to close the facility in Lake County's Baldwin
to save money in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The audit said the state
Department of Corrections didn't efficiently use state money by housing
youthful prisons offenders at the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility. The
report covers records from October 2001 to November 2004. State auditors and
the Corrections Department estimate the state will save $7.5 million a year
by canceling the lease with The Geo Group Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla.-based
prison-management company that owns and operates the prison. A portion of
that savings would come from moving inmates between 17 and 19 to other
facilities in the state, auditor said. The state's contract with Geo
guarantees $75.81 a day for each inmate at the prison, the audit said. Only
four of the state's 37 other prisons had a higher per prisoner cost, it said.
The audit also pointed out a number of security concerns. Prison officials
were not making sure employees were randomly searched as they came and went
and cells were checked by officers, both required by the Department of
Corrections, it said.
May 23, 2005 Detroit Free Press
Deep in the scrubby jack pine forests of Lake County, an unlikely battle
is brewing over the state's so-called punk prison. At issue is whether to
close the maximum-security prison for 484 teenage boys convicted as adults.
Most communities might be glad to see it go, but most aren't Lake County.
Perched too far inland to benefit from Lake Michigan's charms, the county
often leads the state in unemployment and poverty. So, in the 1990s, when
then-Gov. John Engler came courting with an offer of well-paying jobs in the
state's first privately run, for-profit prison, many embraced it. Since its
opening in 1999, though, parents of inmates have alleged physical, sexual and
mental abuse at the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility in Baldwin. A
watchdog agency has accused the Florida-based GEO Group Inc., which owns and
operates the prison, of neglecting inmates' health, education and
rehabilitation. One sign of trouble, critics say, is the high number of
suicide attempts from last October through March. Now, Gov. Jennifer Granholm
wants to yank the state's $18.8-million contract with GEO Group to help trim
a projected deficit that could top $770 million. The inmates -- many of whom
are from metro Detroit -- would be shipped to adult prisons by Oct. 1.
Critics of the prison, including parents, back the governor. This month, an
independent inspector hired by the state substantiated eight violations from
myriad complaints made by Michigan Protection & Advocacy about the
prison's educational programs. Among other things, the prison was faulted for
failing to get inmates' prior school records to determine what services they
need. "I really can't comment on that report yet because we're still
formulating our response to what their findings were," Allen Haigh, the
prison's deputy warden for programs, said last week. The contract calls for
providing 30 hours of education a week for those testing at or below an
eighth-grade level. Guidelines aren't set for other inmates. Haigh said
students usually attend classes for 2 1/2 hours. Kristen Whaley, whose
18-year-old son Kevin Waller began serving a 5- to 15-year sentence in July
on invasion, larceny and weapons charges, said he has told her he's in school
only about an hour a day. Critics say the prison has imposed overly harsh
punishments. Michigan Protection & Advocacy attorney Stacy Hickox said a
few prisoners have been kept in administrative segregation -- the equivalent
of solitary confinement -- for hundreds of days. "People have become
suicidal, in a real deep depression," Hickox said. She said one prisoner
with mental-health needs spent 432 days in segregation since December 2003,
and another spent 152 days there in 2003. Segregated inmates are allowed
books and some personal items and are to get an hour of recreation a day,
five days a week. The GEO Group's report to legislators showed 15 suicide
attempts at the prison between July and September 2004, and 61 attempts from
October 2004 to March 2005. Warden Frank Elo said each incident is addressed
seriously. Michigan Protection & Advocacy investigators said they have
verified allegations of beatings and rapes involving inmates, and verbal and
other abuse claims against workers. Experts acknowledge cruelty and violence
are part of any prison culture, and Elo said, "One of the realities is
this occupation is prone to inmates that try to escape, assault each other or
employees." Elo said that in July his facility achieved a near-perfect
rating from the American Correctional Association, a national accreditation
board that reviews Michigan's other prisons. Still, parents like Whaley
complain that their children aren't safe at the prison, where lesser
offenders aren't segregated from inmates convicted of violent crimes.
May 20, 2005 Detroit Free Press
Some Republicans in the state House who consider themselves fiscal
watchdogs are making an ill-advised effort to keep open an expensive prison
that Michigan doesn't need. Keeping the maximum-security prison in Baldwin
running for 480 teenage boys would cost the state $18 million next year. The
state can better serve its taxpayers and young offenders by shutting down the
Michigan Youth Correctional Facility, effective Oct. 1, and transferring the
prisoners to strictly segregated areas within adult institutions with room.
The so-called punk prison, run by a private, for-profit company, opened six
years ago to house the most violent young offenders, convicted as adults. But
the wave of so-called super predators never happened. The maximum-security
youth prison, with gun towers and 16-foot razor wire fences, has come under
fire for neglecting health and educational needs and for housing mostly
lower-security offenders. Some were not even convicted of violent crimes. Most
in the youth prison are adults 18 or 19. They move into adult prisons at 20.
No doubt, ending the state's contract with Geo Group Inc. to operate the
prison, as Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed, will hurt the local economy.
That's unfortunate, but government programs like prisons exist, primarily, to
provide necessary services, not subsidize jobs. If the head of the Detroit
Department of Transportation asked for more state aid to keep bus-driving
jobs and boost Detroit's economy, he'd be run out of Lansing. The Department
of Corrections must manage its prisoner population to control its costs. It
has done so in the last few years, as one of the few states in the nation to
report slight decreases in 2003 and 2004. The department has closed the
Western Wayne Correctional Facility in Plymouth, the State Prison of Southern
Michigan in Jackson and the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia. With 850 open
beds, the state can move the 480 youth prisoners into the state system at no
added cost. To help close a projected $770 million budget hole, the state
ought to shut down its costly and unnecessary youth prison.
April 27, 2005 Michigan Live
Gov. Jennifer Granholm's proposal to shutter the state's only privately
run corrections facility, the so-called punk prison in Baldwin, should be
shelved, say privatization advocates who point to studies showing that
competition from private companies saves the prison system money. But others,
including two former Republican senators who voted for the private prison,
argued at a legislative budget hearing Tuesday that there's no need for the
maximum-security prison for teens because juvenile crime has dropped. At
issue is $18.8 million the state hopes to save next year by ending a contract
with the Geo Group of Boca Raton, Fla., for housing 480 offenders 19 and
younger in the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility in Lake County. The
prison, the state's only private facility, opened in 1999. Granholm has
proposed breaking a lease with the Geo Group and absorbing the inmates into
other state-run facilities. State officials say that juvenile crime has
dropped and predictions about "juvenile predators" never
materialized. Mel Grieshaber, executive director of
the Michigan Corrections Organization, said he was upset that he wasn't
allowed to testify Tuesday, although he was given a short time to testify
last week. Michigan Protection and Advocacy, which monitors inmates with
disabilities, as well as families of two inmates who are upset at programs
and safety at the prison, also were prepared to testify but weren't called
upon. MP&A reported that inmates with special education needs are only
getting three hours a week of instruction, instead of 30 hours a week called
for in the state's contract.
February 27, 2005 Michigan Live
It will cost taxpayers about $40,000 apiece this year to incarcerate 300
minimum security teen-agers at the privately run, maximum security "Punk
Prison" in Baldwin. That's $15,000 more than the cost of out-of-state
undergraduate tuition at the University of Michigan. And $20,000 more than
the cost of incarcerating low-risk inmates at a regular Michigan prison camp.
When it was proposed by then-Gov. John Engler in 1996, Lake County's Michigan
Youth Correctional Facility was billed as serving two purposes. Neither
appears to have been meet. The first was to lock up behind tall fences and
rows of razor wire hundreds of the most dangerous, predatory teen-agers in
the state. As the Michigan Department of Corrections' own numbers suggest,
the estimated number of such vicious predators terrorizing the streets was
wildly inflated. A second point was to establish the principle of
privatization in what had traditionally been a government responsibility to
provide for the public safety. Nearly a decade after it was proposed,
however, the youth lockup remains the Department of Corrections' only
privately operated prison in the state. Given the high cost of operating the
facility, Gov. Jennifer Granholm is proposing to end the state's $19 million
annual contract with its owner and operator, Geo Group Inc. of Boca Raton,
Fla. Not only is it bad prison policy to incarcerate hundreds of minimum
security 18- and 19-year-old adults in a prison designed to house violent
juveniles, it's a bad deal for taxpayers. The annual cost of running a
low-level camp or prison is not $40,000 per inmate, but about $20,000. Since
the state has the bed space to house the Baldwin prisoners in other,
state-run facilities, that $19 million represents net savings.
May 2, 2004
Five years after Michigan opened its only private, for-profit prison -- the
so-called punk prison in Baldwin -- critics charge that taxpayers are getting
soaked for high-security costs when a majority of the young inmates could be
housed in lower-security facilities. The Michigan Youth Correctional Facility
was part of a sweeping juvenile justice reform package approved in 1996 that
promised "adult time for adult crime."The prison was constructed
for maximum security, usually reserved for inmates who try to escape or
commit new crimes while in prison. It comes complete with two manned gun
towers and an armed response vehicle that circles the perimeter 24 hours a
day. But the hordes of violent juvenile offenders expected to fill up
the facility have yet to materialize. Less than one-third of the
inmates there last week were Level 4 and 5, the highest security levels,
while two-thirds were Levels 1 and 2, the lowest security levels. Those
lower-security levels are assigned to inmates committing less serious crimes
or with good behavior over time inside the prison. "It's
incredible that we are operating a system where there's only two ways to
get to maximum security. One is by serious misbehavior in prison, and the
other is by being a kid," said Barbara Levine, executive director of the
Citizens Alliance of Prisons & Public Spending, a Michigan prison
spending watchdog group. Michigan will spend $19.27 million next year
on the 480-bed prison. A study by Levine's group found that most at the
facility weren't even juveniles when they committed their crimes. CAPPS found
that 58 percent of those in the prison in May 2003 were considered adults,
defined as 17 or older, at the time of their offenses. The facility was
originally aimed at juveniles who commit crimes serious enough for judges and
prosecutors to move them to the adult system. The CAPPS report found
seven first-degree murderers, 21 second-degree murderers, 108 armed robbers
and 58 sex offenders in May 2003. It also showed inmates convicted of
nonviolent crimes, including 32 home invasion sentences, 15 breaking and
entering, 19 drug charges and 10 on car theft. The prison is run by the
Boca Raton, Fla.-based Geo Group Inc., formerly Wackenhut Corrections
Corp. Elizabeth Arnovits,
executive director of the Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency, said the
state is simply filling up the prison with other teens when the wave of
"superpredators" predicted in the
mid-1990s didn't happen. "Why are we paying this private provider
for a Level 5 facility, when in fact they are having predominantly minor
offenders who don't need that kind of security?" said Arnovits, whose group advocates for crime-prevention
programs. "The few that are Levels 5 that have committed terrible
crimes need to be in a special place, but it doesn't have to be this hugely
expensive prison." Part of the effort in the 1990s was to move a
portion of hard-core juveniles from expensive treatment beds in the state
social services agencies to more of a punishment-oriented approach. The daily
rate at the state's high-security juvenile facility, Maxey Training School in
Whitmore Lake, is $327, according to the Family Independence Agency.
The wrong kids are going to the youth prison, said Jon Cisky,
a former state senator who worked on the juvenile justice package and is
now a criminal justice professor at Saginaw Valley State University.
"A kid in on a b&e doesn't belong in a
maximum-security prison," said Cisky, who
also works with a company specializing in juvenile rehabilitation.
(Lansing Bureau)
May 2000
After an expose' by the Grand Rapid Press into allegations of abuse and staff
shortages, the state removed 140 inmates from this Wackenhut facility.
Legislative hearings have been called for.
Michigan Department of
Corrections
Prison Health Services (formerly Correctional Medical Services)
Feb 4,
2017 metrotimes.com
Michigan inmates sue doctor over alleged prison clinic sexual assault
It wasn't long ago that that institutional food giant Aramark sat alone
as the undisputed poster child for all that's wrong with privatizing prison functions.
There's not much worse than a company that starves inmates, and — when it
does feed them — sends rotten chicken tacos, rat turds, garbage, and maggots
down the chow line. Except, perhaps, for one that is killing and injuring
them. Corizon, the nation's largest for-profit prison health care provider,
is earning a reputation elsewhere in the nation for its poor service, and a
lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit charges that a Lapeer-based
Corizon doctor, Joseph Burtch, sexually abused at
least four prisoners at the St. Louis Correctional Facility near Saginaw.
According to a complaint filed with the court, Burtch
repeatedly rubbed his crotch against inmates' legs during checkups. He would
get fully aroused, then keep going. A judge recently denied a request from Burtch's attorneys to dismiss the case. The judge in the
motion to dismiss that the doctor's actions were "not objectively
harmful" or "sufficiently serious," and the case is expected
to move forward for a trial this fall. Though Michigan State Police officers
interviewed Burtch in 2014 and didn't file charges,
the Michigan Department of Corrections found enough evidence against the
doctor that it revoked his security clearance. Prisoners who filed the
lawsuit are charging a violation of their Eighth Amendment rights and asking
for monetary damages, says Michigan State University College of Law's Civil
Rights Clinic attorney Dan Manville, who is representing the plaintiffs. He
said Burtch is working for a company that provides
health care to seniors in care facilities, and Corizon offered the doctor a
job at a prison in a different state after the Michigan Department of
Corrections revoked his security clearance here. A prisoner who alleged to
have been sexually assaulted by Burtch in the same
way in 2007 isn't part of the lawsuit, and another prisoner who made
allegations but has since been released didn't partake in the suit. The
complaints leveled against Burtch in 2007 weren't
fully investigated. But when two more prisoners filed the same charges in
2014 — after the passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act in 2003 — the
MDOC and state police investigated. "When you have prisoners who weren't
in the prison at the same time saying this happened, then there could be a
problem," Manville tells Metro Times. The patients, of course, were in a
difficult position, figuratively and literally speaking. Manville said they
were being treated for severe headaches and cancer, and feared that they
wouldn't receive medical treatment were they to file grievances. Physical
self-defense is also a bad option. It's prisoners' word against that of Burtch, and
pushing or threatening him is an assault that would extend prisoners' stay.
Manville says Burtch had prisoners in a nearly
defenseless position, and he knew it. "What do you do?" Manville
says. "If you assault the doctor, then you get more time. One [inmate]
was about to get out and would have lost parole, so he was afraid." In
the complaint, Manville wrote that inmates felt "fear, anger, and confusion"
and "helpless" as the doctor molested them. He charges one inmate,
who was sexually abused as a child, suffered emotional trauma over Burtch's assault, and the parole board denied early
release because the inmate could no longer participate in group therapy. Burtch's attorney didn't respond to a request for
comment, nor did Corizon. Attorneys, prisoners, and advocates have long
contended that private medical companies typically provide substandard care
and put prisoners' health in danger. However, the issues in Michigan lacked
the drama of the food service problems that caught the media's attention, led
to public outrage, and eventually resulted in the state ending its contract
with Aramark. But a look at Corizon's record in other states is alarming, to
put it mildly. Prison Legal News documented the company's problems in a 2014
article, highlighting gross incompetence that killed inmates and put their
health at serious risk. Among the highlights: In 2014, Corizon nurses in
Arizona were accused of contaminating insulin vials, thus exposing dozens of
inmates to HIV and hepatitis. In Florida, inmates successfully sued the
company for refusing to send them to the hospital, which left one inmate
paralyzed in 2007 and another dead in 2009. In Idaho, a 2012 report found
"prisoners who were terminally ill or in long-term care were sometimes
left in soiled linens, given inadequate pain medication, and went for long
periods without food or water," and an inmate with chronic heart disease
died of a heart attack after Corizon failed to treat him. In 2013 in Iowa,
Corizon nurses ignored a pregnant female prisoner who was left to give birth
on the prison floor. Other inmates delivered the baby. And the list goes on.
What's clear is the issue isn't just a Corizon a problem — it's a
privatization problem. Even though the state ended its contract with Aramark,
similar food service problems persist with the new private food provider, and
that's leading to protests and a destabilization of prison yards. Private
companies are brought in to save money, and in health care, there's one way
to do so — dramatically cut the level of care. That appears to include hiring
employees who might have more than a checkup on their minds.
Jan 9,
2016 mlive.com
Prison food worker under investigation for alleged drug smuggling
IONIA, MI -- A former food services worker is under investigation for
allegedly smuggling drugs into an Ionia prison. A Michigan State Police
spokesperson confirmed detectives are investigating allegations that a
Trinity Services Group worker smuggled drugs into Michigan Reformatory, a
Level II and IV prison that houses men. Michigan Department of Corrections
put a stop order on the employee Sept. 11. The Florida-based food services
group later fired the worker. The state police spokesperson declined to
release further details about the case due to the open investigation. Charges
have not been filed. Trinity took control of prison food service in September
after the state cancelled a three-year, $145 million contract with Aramark
following performance marked by controversy. Aramark was accused of employee
misconduct and inappropriate relationships with inmates, maggot-related food
incidents, and inadequate staffing. The contract with Aramark was scheduled
to run until September 2016.
Mar
18, 2015 Detroit Free Press
LANSING—An
Aramark Correctional Services worker was disciplined last year after inmates
were fed cake that rodents had been chewing on, according to e-mails released
today by the liberal group Progress Michigan. The July 2014 incident took
place while Aramark, a Philadelphia-based prison food contractor serving the
Michigan Department of Corrections, was under intense scrutiny as a result of
a series of articles in the Free Press documenting sanitation issues, smuggling
of drugs and other contraband by Aramark workers, and incidents of sex acts
between Ara-mark workers and inmates. The e-mails, which Progress Michigan
obtained under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act, show an exchange
between prison officials about an incident at Central Michigan Correctional
Facility in St. Louis in which an inmate kitchen worker “reported to custody
staff that he was ordered to serve cake that had evidence of rodents eaten
from it.” “The Aramark employee allegedly ordered him to cut the sides off
the cake ... and serve it to the population,” Corrections Department official
Dawn Livermore said in one of the e-mails. “I’m heading into work now to
assess the mood of the population and address any situation concerns.”
“Unbelievable!” Warden Jeffrey Larson replied when told of the incident.
“Thanks for handling the situation.” According to the e-mails and to
Corrections Department spokesman Chris Gautz, an
Aramark employee who told the inmate to serve the cake but “put frosting on
it,” was sent home and fired over the incident, and a pest control firm was
sent to the kitchen. Gautz said the cake was
served, but he’s not aware of any illnesses that resulted. Karen Cutler, an
Aramark spokeswoman, said she was “not going to comment on an allegation from
eight months ago that is one of hundreds of allegations made by
special-interest groups against our company and our hardworking employees in
Michigan.” Cutler said “food safety is a top priority that we take very
seriously,” and “our processes and procedures are industry leading, and if
issues are raised, we fix them quickly.” Lonnie Scott, director of Progress
Michigan, said the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder should “use this
opportunity to come clean about all the problems that they know of related to
Ara-mark because the public has a right to know.” Aramark began its
three-year, $145-million contract in December 2013, eliminating about 370
state jobs. The state has fined the company $200,000 for contract violations
and more than 100 workers have been fired for various infractions and banned
from prison property amid concerns about prison security. But complaints
about the contractor have eased in recent months. “We took this very
seriously,” Gautz said. “We wanted to make sure
nothing like this will ever happen again.”
Mar
22, 2014 mlive.com
JACKSON,
MI – A judge arraigned a food service worker Friday, March 21, on a charge of
bringing contraband into prison for allegedly trying to smuggle two packages
of marijuana into the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility. Christopher Amando Mitchell, 19, appeared late Friday afternoon
before Jackson County District Judge Michael Klaeren.
His alleged crime is punishable by a maximum prison sentence of five years. Klaeren gave him a personal recognizance bond, meaning he
pays nothing to leave the jail as long as he does as ordered by the court. As
a condition of his release, he cannot have any physical contact with any
correctional facility, court records show. Police arrested Mitchell on
Wednesday after a Michigan Department of Corrections officer doing a pat-down
found two packages of marijuana on his body. The packages were wrapped in
duct tape. They were about the size of two baked potatoes and weighed a total
of a little more than 5 ounces, Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Michael
Church said. Mitchell was working as an employee of Aramark Correctional
Services. The arrest is the latest in a series of problems since Gov. Rick
Snyder’s administration opted to eliminate 370 state jobs and pay a contractor
provide prison meals, according to the Detroit Free Press. An Aramark
spokeswoman told the newspaper the company shares the corrections
department’s zero tolerance for inappropriate conduct. “Assuming the facts
are as reported, this incident would violate everything Aramark stands for
and is contrary to our procedures, operations and values.”
Mar
11, 2014 michiganradio.org
The
Michigan Department of Corrections has fined Aramark, the company that
handles food operations in state prisons. The MDOC notified Aramark of the
fines, totaling almost $100,000, by two letters sent in the last two weeks.
The MDOC said Aramark violated its contract by substituting meals, and by
failing to prepare the right number of meals. The fines have been assessed
for 52 unauthorized meal substitutions and 240 instances of improper meal
counts. Russ Marlan is a spokesperson for the MDOC.
He said food service is important to stability in prisons, and it matters
that prisoners receive the meals they've been told they'll get and that there
is consistency among housing units. "They're (Aramark) required to
follow our menu and they're required to serve the same food and the same
portions to the entire prison population," Marlan
said. "And we found some examples after working through that transition
period where that just wasn't occurring." Last month, 200 prisoners at
Kinross Correctional Facility staged a peaceful demonstration over shortages
in scheduled meal items. The demonstration took place two months after
Aramark started handling prison food services. The MDOC also fined Aramark for a dozen instances of company employees being
over-familiar with prisoners. Marlan said the
incidents involved kissing, touching, and carrying notes from prisoners, all
of which are prohibited by MDOC regulations. Marlan
is hopeful these problems will be resolved going forward. Aramark took over
food service for Michigan's prisons in December. Marlan
said the company replaced about 350 state employees. "So we would expect
that there would be some transition issues associated with switching a system
that large overnight to a contractor," he said. "But we're hopeful
that this will continue to improve, and we'll have a good contractual
relationship with Aramark." Marlan said the
MDOC has eight contract monitors who continuously review operations at
Michigan's 31 correctional facilities and regularly meet with Aramark to
ensure contract compliance. In a written statement, Aramark said "we are
commited to resolving any issues as quickly as
possible."
Feb 21, 2014 digital.olivesoftware.com
LANSING — About 200 prisoners at Kinross Correctional
Facility in Kincheloe left their cells and demonstrated Monday over their food
— two months after the Department of Corrections eliminated 370 state jobs
and privatized its food service. Mel Grieshaber,
executive director of the Michigan Corrections Organization union, said he
remains extremely concerned about the way the food service is being handled
under the $145-million, three-year contract awarded to Ara-mark Correctional
Services of Philadelphia. “You don’t screw around with prisoners’ food,” Grieshaber told the Free Press. “They don’t have much
else.” “I hope they get things worked
out, because when it gets warm out ... we’re just fearful something might
kick off.” Corrections Department spokesman Russ Marlan
said the prisoners left their cells and marched in single file into the yard
in what was a 25-minute peaceful demonstration at Kinross, in Chippewa County
in the eastern Upper Peninsula. The department received advance word that the
protest might happen and was able to plan for it, Marlan
said. “I think it was somewhat centered on the meals and changes in some of
the menu items,” and “some shortages in what the scheduled meal item was
supposed to be,” Marlan said. The issue appeared to
be isolated to the Kinross facility and the concerns have already been taken
up with Aramark officials, Marlan said.
An Aramark spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for
comment. The contract is estimated to save the state $12 million
to $16 million a year. It’s likely the ringleaders of the demonstration will
be disciplined if they can be identified, he said. Grieshaber
said there have been “dozens” of stop orders issued against Aramark
employees, barring them from returning to work for a variety of issues,
including over-familiarity with inmates. Marlan
said there have been 29 stop orders issued against Aramark employees since
the company took over food service in December.
06/07/2013 wxyz.com
DETROIT (WXYZ) - An investigation is underway to
determine if Wayne County has been overcharged by millions of dollars for the
meals served inside all of their jails. 7 Action News has learned there
is an audit going on right now of the food service contract. Privatizing
prisoner meals inside Wayne County’s four different detention facilities and
jails was supposed to save money. Back in 2010, Wayne County Executive Robert
Ficano and Sheriff’s Department Director Sue Hall
recommended that Canteen Correctional Services be chosen to provide meals to
the inmates and to 350 jail staff members. Canteen Correctional Services is a
division of Continental Distributors. The qCommission approved their five-year contract – which
totals $26,143,976. But the 7 Investigators have learned that allegations of
suspicious overcharges are part of a massive audit. Sources tell us that
Continental is being scrutinized for allegedly billing the county for more
meals than there are inmates inside the various lock-ups. “Is there any doubt
in your mind that there are overcharges here?” asks 7 Action News
Investigator Heather Catallo of Wayne County
Commissioner Ilona Varga. “No doubt in my mind at
all. No doubt. Numbers don’t lie,” says Varga.
Varga also says a preliminary audit reveals that
the taxpayers may have been overcharged by $6 million to $10 million for the
meals. “It’s a lot of money, she adds. “You could buy a lot of sheriff hours
with that for the jail. So we would not have to pay the overtime – that’s for
sure. And every dollar counts here at the county.” In addition to the
audit, a spokeswoman for CEO Robert Ficano says the
county’s Management and Budget Office started reviewing invoices from Continental/Canteen
Correctional Services after they were “advised of irregularities.” A
spokesman for Continental adamantly denies allegations of any overcharges for
Wayne County. He says the jail supervisors provide them with daily
inmate population counts, which determine how many meals Continental Canteen
serves each day. The spokesman is also offering to allow 7 Action News
to review its internal records, but told us they were not available to do
that until next week. A spokesperson for the Wayne County Sheriff also
disputes that there has been millions of dollars in overcharges for the food
service contract. But Commissioner Varga isn’t
taking their word for it -- she wants to hold a hearing to get to the bottom
of allegations. “If we find anything wrong it will have to be turned over to
the authorities,” she says. “I’m sure with the FBI being in the room already,
at the county, this will be just one more thing they need to look at.” The
FBI Can’t specifically confirm what they’re investigating, but sources tell
me this jail food contract could certainly fall within the scope of high
value contracts in WC that are currently being scrutinized by the feds.
Meanwhile, they issued a statement today about a credit that it is due the
Sheriff's Office regarding the food service contract: “An unexpected credit
is in the works for the Wayne County Sheriff’s office. Officials
recently discovered that food services were being billed at the same rate of
the previous year when the agreement called for a 2.8 cent per meal reduction
starting in the second year of the contract. The change was outlined in
the contract’s appendix, but was never implemented to billing starting in
fiscal year 2011-2012. The discrepancy surfaced this week during an
internal billing review by jail officials.” “While the oversight amounts to a
few cents per meal, as you can see it adds up when you’re serving thousands
of meals a day. Those are resources we can certainly use elsewhere in
our operation,” said Chief of Jails Jeriel Heard in
the statement. Continental issued a similar statement about the credit due to
the Wayne County Sheriff's Office regarding the food service contract: “Under
a five-year contract with Wayne County, Continental Distributors provides
inmate food services at the county’s jail facilities, preparing and
delivering nutritious meals three times a day for the adult and juvenile
inmate population. Early this week, officials auditing outside contracts with
Wayne County notified the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department about invoices it
received for inmate food services that appeared to be inconsistent with our
contract with them. We reviewed the bills and found that a multi-year
discount triggered in the second year of our contract had not been applied –
something that both county supervisors and the company had overlooked.
We will credit the county for $237,000 and have taken steps to avert the
potential of a similar problem recurring. Continental Distributors
appreciates its partnership with Wayne County and its important duty in
delivering the thousands of meals ordered daily by the Sheriff’s Department.
The Sheriff’s Department places its orders for meals based on the daily
census of inmates, juveniles and detainees, as well as other jail staff
requirements, and we fulfill those orders in line with those requests.
Invoices are submitted to the county on a regular basis and pricing is
adjusted to reflect the number of meals the Sheriff’s Department has
validated it has received."
February 21, 2010 Jackson City Patriot
Kenneth Rhinehart has known since he was convicted of first-degree murder
in 1973 that he likely will die in prison. But he always expected to see a
doctor when the time came. Rhinehart, 58, of the G. Robert Cotton
Correctional Facility in Blackman Township, has irreversible liver disease
and probably cancer, too. A prison doctor filed a request in September for a
surgical biopsy, but Rhinehart is still waiting to see a specialist. He has
no official cancer diagnosis, no treatment plan, no pain pills and no explanation
for the delay. "The doctors up north found a mass in my abdominal cavity
the size of a grapefruit. This will not go away," Rhinehart said.
"I'm dying and I am in a lot of pain. I need them to do something."
Treatment for inmates -- Sick inmates like Rhinehart often are transferred to
the Jackson area because Jackson is the center of the prison health-care
system. Medical advantages in Jackson include the state's only secure
hospital unit for treating inmates, located on the seventh floor at Allegiance
Health. Prison Health Services Inc., a national company based in Tennessee,
runs medical services in Michigan prisons under a three-year, $326 million
contract. No one at Prison Health Services would comment on Rhinehart's case,
citing factors including his right to medical confidentiality. The company
responded in writing to more general questions by saying cancer cases
"are treated according to medical necessity and in compliance with
Michigan Department of Corrections policies. Chemotherapy and radiation
treatment may be part of this treatment regimen." PHS, which has had the
Michigan contract less than a year, "is committed to providing quality
health care in an efficient manner throughout the Michigan corrections
system." How much care? -- It's a job filled with difficulties that
begin with a debate over how much medical attention prison inmates deserve.
Michigan cannot afford and does not intend to provide "the gold standard
of care" to prisoners, said Corrections Department spokesman Russ Marlan. But Michigan must provide enough care to meet the
standard of prisons without cruel and unusual punishment. "We try to be
somewhere in the middle," Marlan said.
"We try to provide good-quality care because that keeps the long-term
health-care cost down." Critics often say medical care in prisons falls
short. A study earlier in this decade — well before PHS had the contract —
found more than 30 percent of Michigan inmates with cancer had their
treatment interrupted, said Elizabeth Alexander, a Washington, D.C., lawyer
active in inmate-rights cases. "I don't know why they don't treat
people," Alexander said. "But there is a particularly terrible
history of not treating cancer." Rhinehart has been in prison long
enough to have some idea of how the inmates' view of the medical care has
changed over time. "There were always a lot of complaints, but at least
the guys were being treated," Rhinehart said. "They weren't crazy
about the quality of the care, but they got care."
February 10, 2009 AP
Michigan has awarded a three-year, $326 million contract to a Tennessee
company to treat prisoners with medical problems. A state board approved the
contract Tuesday, which means the company currently overseeing prison health
care will be replaced starting in April. Brentwood, Tenn.-based Prison Health
Services will take over for St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services.
CMS has hired doctors and others to see Michigan prisoners for about a
decade. But a year ago, an independent review found that most doctors, nurse
practitioners and physician assistants were seeing too few prisoners a day.
The review was ordered by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in 2006 after reports of
inmates dying because of inadequate care.
April 4, 2008 Capital News Service
The Department of Corrections (DOC) has left many prisoners without
proper medical care, according to a new report from the Office of the Auditor
General. More than half of prisoners with chronic medical conditions, such as
heart disease, lung disease, and neurological problems, weren't seen for
regularly scheduled visits with health care professionals, according to the
report. The report also noted cases where annual clinic visits and requested
visits had been missed. DOC issued a preliminary response agreeing with the
audit's findings, and saying that it has fixed or will fix the problems it
identified. But DOC also contends that the audit misrepresents the state of
health care in its prisons. For example, it says the report ignored
unscheduled visits to clinics made by prisoners. The study looked at 130
inmates who had asked for medical assistance and found that only four hadn't
been treated, although many visits were late. DOC indicated that a shortage
of employees was partially to blame for its failure to comply with scheduling
policies. The department has dozens of vacancies in its nursing and health
care professional staffs. Sandra Girard, executive director of Prison Legal
Services of Michigan in Jackson, said the report focused too much on
bookkeeping. "It doesn't address the quality of the care provided."
"People with chronic illnesses just do not receive good care,"
Girard said. Girard also said that the delays in medical help noted in the
report are costly in the long run because chronic conditions are likely to
worsen when left untreated. Russ Marlan, public
information officer for DOC, said the recommendations were helpful. He said
large-scale efforts to improve the department's medical services have been
underway for some time and the criticisms raised over health care are being
addressed. Other parts of the report were largely neutral, finding only small
problems with items like the department's management of staffing and of
prisoner medications.
March 11, 2008 The Detroit News
Internet chat room promises of sex with a child brought 27 men hurrying
to an unassuming suburban home this weekend. But it was police who were
waiting instead of the anticipated teen boy or girl the men, including a
doctor from Canton Township, thought they were chatting with online. It was a
highly motivated crowd. Four took taxi cabs. One man rode a bicycle through
the cold from Ypsilanti. Another was dropped off at the undercover decoy
house by his sister. All of them got arrested and Michigan Attorney General
Mike Cox said Monday that the cooperative venture with Wayne County sheriff's
deputies and Van Buren Township police expects to round up many more men who
made explicit plans with undercover police and volunteers from a nonprofit
group that helps law enforcement agencies catch Internet predators. "The
truth is stranger than fiction," Cox said. "One man was stopped by
police on his way to the home on a shredded tire. He still continued to the
house." The men, ranging in ages from 19 to 57 were arrested Friday,
Saturday and Sunday at the home in the Walden Woods subdivision. The
white-sided, two-story house had been unoccupied, but was made to look
inviting enough to cause one man to expose himself to police when he walked
in, said Cox. "The universe of people out there that are pedophiles is
significant," said Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans, indicating that
deputies in his undercover Internet Predator Unit routinely attempt to engage
in Internet conversations with people interested in having sex with children.
All but one of the men is from Michigan, and most are from Metro Detroit. One
man came from New Jersey. The men were to have been arraigned on charges by
Monday that carry up to a 20-year prison sentences. One of those arrested
included Dr. Audberto Cesar Antonini,
who holds a valid medical license according to the Michigan Department of
Community Health Bureau of Health Professionals. Antonini,
51, until recently worked as a contract physician in the Michigan Department
of Prisons system. His contract was terminated several months ago at the
request of prison officials, according to Ken Fields, a spokesman for
Correctional Medical Services, the prison's health care provider. Although Antonini also was listed on documents provided Monday by
police as an employee at W.A. Foote Memorial Hospital in Jackson, Antonini has never been on the hospital staff, said Terry
Christian, the hospital's manager of medical staff services.
February 6, 2008 Grand Rapids Press
As medical director for a Grand Rapids clinic serving low-income
patients, Dr. Jack Walen is no stranger to the
medical problems of former prison inmates. The past year as technical adviser
for a study of health care in Michigan's prisons gave him insight into what
it's like for those still behind bars. The study, released today in Lansing,
is the latest of several criticizing the quality of health care in the
state's prisons. This one, prepared by the American Friends Service Committee
and Prison Legal Services of Michigan -- two non-profit groups that advocate
for prisoner rights -- recommends 32 changes to improve health care in the
prisons. "I think the biggest issue, practically speaking, is most of
these prisoners are not in for life," Walen
said. "They're going to get out." Some come out with infectious
diseases, such as hepatitis C, that often have gone untreated in prison and
can be spread to those on the outside, he said. Some, due to inadequate care
while incarcerated, become a burden to hospitals and other health care
providers in the community. "Either way, the community loses," Walen said. "We, as taxpayers, ought to be outraged
at the amount of money spent without adequate oversight for substandard
care." He emphasized his volunteer work editing the report was separate
from his role as medical director for Catherine's Care Center, a clinic that
serves hundreds of uninsured patients every year. The report noted as
examples Timothy Souders, who died of heat
exhaustion in August 2006 while shackled to a bed at Southern Michigan
Correctional Facility in Jackson; Jeffrey Clark, who died in July 2002 of
dehydration at the Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia after the
water to his cell was shut off; and Anthony McManus, who starved to death in
the Baraga Maximum Security Facility in September 2005. "I think there's
a definite culture within the department to deny problems when they
arise," said one of the study's authors, Natalie Holbrook, of the
American Friends Service Committee. The report recommends reviving the
Legislative Corrections Ombudsman, a position the Legislature eliminated in 2003,
and creating a permanent legislative committee to oversee prison medical care
and mental health care. Some of the 32 recommendations are similar to those
in a study by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC)
released two weeks ago. Gov. Jennifer Granholm ordered that study after
several news reports about health care in the prisons. The Corrections
Department plans to follow virtually all 56 recommendations in the NCCHC
study, spokesman Russ Marlan said, adding he is not
surprised the latest report is highly critical of the department. "With
a title like 'Tolerating Failure,' I figured it probably was not going to be
a ringing endorsement of our program," he said. While placing most of
the blame on the Corrections Department, the report also faults Correctional
Medical Services (CMS), the for-profit company that has been paid nearly $670
million over the past decade to provide medical care in the prisons. A CMS
spokesman released a statement saying: "We are focused on working with
the Department of Corrections to continually strengthen the areas of
Michigan's inmate healthcare system in which we play a role. It is important
to note that no one from the organizations issuing this report even attempted
to get the facts about inmate healthcare from Correctional Medical
Services." Penny Ryder, of the American Friends Service Committee, said
she hopes the growing weight of criticism will prompt corrections officials
to improve health care. "It angers me that it took these people dying
and full embarrassment in the press for this to happen," she said,
adding, "I'm not totally convinced they will do the right thing in the
future."
January 23, 2008 Detroit News
An independent audit released Tuesday said Michigan's $300-million-a-year
prison health care system is fractured and inefficient, leading to
unnecessarily high costs, impeding inmate access and diminishing the quality
of care. The state needs to reorganize prison health care services, retrain
staff, practice more preventive care, fix its electronic medical records
system and hold medical providers more accountable for the services they
provide, said a 131-page report compiled after a year-long review by the
Chicago-based National Commission on Correctional Health Care. "Most of
the problems we identified were attributable to system failures, rather than
to individuals not doing their jobs," the $400,000 report determined.
"We believe the most pressing problem for the Michigan Department of
Corrections is to address the lack of medical service provider coverage and
their generally low productivity. "Until this occurs, access to care,
quality of care and health care staff morale will continue to suffer."
State corrections officials said they agree with the report's findings and
added the department's own health care improvement team is implementing many
of the commission's 56 recommendations. "We have realigned our resources
so we have more oversight," said state Corrections Director Patricia
Caruso. "We do have the information and tools to restructure this
delivery system and get to where we want to go." A federal court case,
media attention and reports of inmates dying because of inadequate care
prompted Gov. Jennifer Granholm to order the review in 2006. A U.S. District
Court ordered the appointment of an independent monitor and called the
state's system "systematically defective" and
"dangerous." The revamping won't include firing Correctional
Medical Services (CMS), an often-criticized private company that has provided
HMO-style managed care in the Michigan prison system for the past 10 years,
Caruso said. In fact, the contract with the company has been extended by a
year, she said. The report, however, says the state should "seriously
reconsider the advantages and disadvantages of continuing to contract out
provider services," adding that if the state isn't paying medical staff
salaries competitive with private industry, it should consider raising them.
The report is critical of CMS, saying there are long patient waiting lists,
and the company lets many medical provider shifts go unfilled. "We were
told that CMS can unilaterally choose to reduce provider staffing from five
days a week to two days a week, if it has trouble recruiting, and that CMS is
not subject to any penalty or disincentive," the report said. Some
staffing cutbacks violated the state contract, according to the report. The
commission found that the department had a monitor for the CMS contract
"but it is not clear what he actually did. This contract has been
running for over 10 years, and we were not provided a single monitoring
report." The report called the health care system
"cumbersome," adding that it "results in duplication of
administration, services and materials." An example: A female inmate attempted
suicide by hanging. After guards got her down, she crawled under a bed and
yelled that she wanted to die. A psychiatrist was called but did not come,
saying he only sees patients after they've been evaluated by a psychologist.
She eventually was evaluated and referred to the psychiatrist, which took
more than 45 minutes. "This is an unacceptable response to an emergency
situation, directly attributable to a faulty organizational structure,"
the report says. Problems with management of prison pharmacies also were cited.
There are delays in receiving same-day medications and a number of drugs
aren't available, the report said. Criticisms also are aimed at Serapis, the
electronic medical record system. The report says it is difficult to search
and loses relevant patient history information, and clinical documentation is
"achingly slow" -- taking time from physician-patient visits. If
the department rectifies inefficiencies in the prison health care system, the
state should save money, according to the report. Caruso acknowledged the
department's responsibility to taxpayers, but added: "Totally aside from
money, it's about human lives." She said the reformed system won't cost
taxpayers more. "We're taking positions that haven't been filled and are
available to be funded and assigning them to health care," she said.
Barbara Levine, executive director of the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and
Public Spending, an inmate advocacy group, said she's wary of any plan that
professes to lower costs and improve health care for the 50,000 state inmates.
"If it saves money while adequately protecting the health of prisoners,
that's good," she said. "But when they went to managed care, that
didn't happen. I'm always cautious about how money will be saved."
July 18, 2007 AP
Michigan will switch to HMOs to provide health care to the state's about
50,000 prisoners, Corrections Director Patricia Caruso says. The plan calls
for up to six health maintenance organizations to supply care for inmates,
Caruso told the Detroit Free Press on Tuesday. The services now are provided
under a statewide managed care contract. The HMO contracts are scheduled for
implementation in March, when current contract expires. The prison system
will pay at least $300 million in health care costs this year, excluding
security and transportation costs for doctor and hospital visits, Caruso
said. "I absolutely think our costs can come down," she said,
declining to estimate what the savings might be under the HMO system. Federal
courts have been overseeing health care at state prisons in Jackson after
inmates sued over what they said was inadequate care. Caruso said she
understands public resentment over free health care for prisoners when many
honest people go uninsured. But, she added, "prisoners are virtually the
only people in our society with a constitutional right to health care."
February 28, 2007 The Grand Rapids Press
Fredrick Heinz needed medical care to save his life. Doing time in
Marquette Branch Prison, he begged prison doctors to treat his hepatitis C,
but was turned down, told it would cost too much, a friend, Jackie Deming,
told a state legislative committee Tuesday. When he was diagnosed with
stomach cancer in November, Heinz asked for pain medication and was given two
Tylenol in the morning and two at night, Deming testified. But when he asked
for something stronger, the doctor took away the Tylenol, she said. He was
scheduled for cancer surgery, but then was transferred to another prison
where the medical personnel said they had no record of his illnesses. "He
will never again be lied to and jerked around like a wounded animal,"
said Deming, of Hudsonville. Heinz died Feb. 5 at age 51. Deming's testimony
came minutes after state Corrections Department officials assured the same
panel -- the Corrections Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee
-- that inmates receive adequate medical care. "We meet the community
standards that are provided in any HMO," Barry Wickman, head of the
Corrections Department's bureau of fiscal management, told the subcommittee.
Tuesday's hearing came as the Corrections Department is under the competing
pressures to cut its budget while improving medical care for prisoners. The
department's contract with Correctional Medical Services, the for-profit
company that has provided medical care in Michigan's prisons for the past
decade, expires May 1, but Wickman said the department may extend it another
year while the National Commission on Correctional Health Care conducts an
investigation ordered by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. William Clancy, a prison
psychologist and union steward, spoke out against what he called "the
hoax perpetuated by the Department of Corrections as far as the quality of
health care in the prisons." Every year, the department files the same
report assuring the Legislature that CMS is providing medically necessary
services to prisoners. "I ask you, if CMS is providing medically
necessary service, then why are prisoners dying unnecessarily?" Clancy
said. He noted the case of Anthony McManus, who died Sept. 8, 2005, in the Baraga
Correctional Facility after CMS doctors repeatedly failed to heed nurses'
requests to examine him. McManus, who was mentally ill, refused to eat, and
his weight dropped from 140 pounds in April 2005 to 75 pounds five months
later, when he died. "The citizens of our great state will be paying off
wrongful death lawsuits for years to come," Clancy warned the
legislators. His remarks were echoed by Gary Peterson, employed to schedule
inmates' medical appointments at Marquette Branch Prison. Before the state
privatized the medical care, the prison had three doctors, each seeing an
average 25 to 30 inmates a day, said Peterson, a steward for the UAW local
representing some prison employees. After CMS took over the care, the prison
was cut back to one doctor seeing an average of eight to 10 patients a day,
he said. The CMS doctors frequently quit, he said, leaving the prison without
a physician. On Monday, a CMS doctor was fired, Peterson said, because he was
not fully licensed to practice medicine in Michigan. "I believe the
attorney general should be asked to look into the handling of this contract,
as well as CMS's failure to honor its obligations," Peterson said.
December 12, 2006 Detroit Free Press
Lloyd Byron Martell lies on a bed in Dearborn's Oakwood Hospital, sets
the disc player above the colostomy bag on his stomach and slides on the
headphones. He shuts his eyes and smiles. For a minute or two, the old-school
sounds of Sade make the world go away. "Smooth operator," he sings,
way off key. "Smoooooooth operator." Then
reality smacks him. He jerks up, coughing, spitting blood and phlegm into a
plastic bowl. Waves of nausea run though him. His chest tightens, stomach
spins, head pounds. Martell's colon cancer has spread to his lungs. His
weight is down from 224 to 180. At 41, he has six months, maybe a year, to
live, says his oncologist, Dr. Parvez Khan. Martell didn't have to go out
like this. In 2004, driving on a suspended license, he fled from Redford
police who tried to pull him over for a broken rear window. He got 1-4 years,
but prison doctors effectively turned that short bit into a death sentence.
Martell, of Detroit, was released in August to die. His cancer could have
been contained had the Michigan Department of Corrections treated it two years
ago. But like hundreds of Michigan inmates, Martell got a double sentence:
one handed down by the court and another executed by a deadly and
dysfunctional prison health care system. So now, once a week, the chemo drips
into a port in Martell's chest and through a main artery, delivering the
chemicals that kill his cells, cancerous and healthy alike, to prolong his
life a few more months. Sometimes he wonders if it's worth it. It would be
easier just to pop OxyContin and ride out his last few months in a haze.
Without chemo, though, the cancer could spread to his liver and brain.
"I don't want it to get any uglier, Dog," he tells me. Still,
"every time I do this chemo, I wonder why. In the end, it's not going to
change anything. I just want some time without throwing up, without pain,
without doctors." The cancer can be slowed, but the beast cannot be
stopped. The only time Martell cries is when he thinks of how things could
have been. "They killed me, with their evil, neglectful ways," he
says. Potentially curable if treated earlier. In December 2004, Martell had
what he believed was a hemorrhoid lanced in prison. Medical records show it
was actually a cancerous polyp. Dr. Jerome Wisneski,
who works for Correctional Medical Services Inc., failed to treat it. By
October of last year, Martell was bleeding from the rectum and unable to
walk. He was sent to Foote Hospital in Jackson, which contracts with CMS for
specialty services. Doctors told him he had terminal cancer. In an oncology
report, they noted that his cancerous polyp was not treated, though CMS
spokesperson Amanda Brown said in an e-mail that Martell "received
prompt care." There are no guarantees with cancer, even with early
intervention. But the earlier it's treated, the better. Martell's cancer was potentially
curable when it was discovered two years ago. Martell's case isn't the first
that Wisneski botched. In 1996, he disregarded a
bile leak in inmate Richard LeMarbe's abdomen,
court records show. Another doctor later found 3 1/2 gallons of bile in LeMarbe's abdomen, causing serious damage that required
several surgeries. In 2001, LeMarbe, now 73, and
his attorney settled for $150,000 in a case that went all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court. They would have gotten a lot more if LeMarbe,
serving 25-50 years for second-degree murder, hadn't been an inmate.
Martell's attorney, Brian McKeen of Detroit, is suing Wisneski,
the Department of Corrections and Correctional Medical Services Inc. for
medical malpractice and constitutional violations. But Martell probably won't
live to see the money. It will go to his mother, father and 6-year-old son,
Loyal, who lives with his mother in Missouri. "I won't be around to take
care of my son," Martell says. "I don't want him to have to worry
about anything." An oasis of hope. Peacemakers International mission
sits on Chene on Detroit's east side, surrounded by
vacant lots, drug houses and empty, burned-out buildings. It's an oasis of
hope, where the homeless, addicted and afflicted come to pick up the pieces
of a broken life. Martell has not come here to die, but to live. He first
came to Peacemakers four years ago. While driving down Gratiot, a stray
.38-caliber hollow-point grazed the back of his head. The car's rear window
and headrest slowed the bullet enough so that it just penetrated the surface
of Martell's skull. Inside the mission, Martell pulled out the bullet and
prayed. The Rev. Steve Upshur -- "Pastor Steve" -- took him in.
After Martell got out of prison in August, he came back to save his life
again. Upshur, 57, a maverick minister and former heroin addict, wears black
denim, flowing gray curls and feathered earrings. His church works with drugs
addicts, prostitutes and anyone who needs hope and love. Upshur figures
that's what Jesus is all about. "Pastor Steve always had the door open,
even when I wasn't right," Martell says. He goes back and forth between
a vacant house on the west side owned by his father and the Jesus House men's
shelter run by Peacemakers International. Martell spent his first few days
out of prison with his mother, Donna Martin, in Dearborn. More than anyone
else, Martin, 60, has been there for Martell when he was in prison and
before. Still, the two fought when Martell was at her home. They agreed it
was best that he stay somewhere else. At the church mission, Martell found
new peace. He had been running all his life, chasing the next high, whether
it came from drugs, fighting or drag racing. Bored with high school, Martell
dropped out in his sophomore year, earned a GED and, at 19, became a diesel
mechanic for the Detroit Department of Transportation. His father, Lloyd
Byron Hill, also worked for DDOT and raced cars semiprofessionally, as did
Martell. Martell was smart and worked hard, often earning more than $1,000 a
week as a mechanic, but he'd blow a lot of it on alcohol and drugs. "I
had problems with alcohol, drugs and my temper," Martell says. "But
I got up and worked every day. My plan was to go back to the dealership and
work as mechanic. "Now all my dreams are shattered." Martell gets
$800 a month in disability from Social Security. Medicaid covers medical
bills. Fresh out of prison, he was almost in a rage, but he has since let
much of that anger go. "I'm ready to die," he says. "I've made
peace. There's no way I can carry all that anger around. That will kill you,
too." Telling his story has helped him heal. I watched him tell it, his
voice raspy and raw, at a weekday service at Peacemakers a month ago. On Nov.
16, he told it again at a Lansing public hearing on prison health care
sponsored by Prison Legal Services of Michigan and the American Friends
Service Committee. He spoke from the heart and, when he finished, 100 people
stood up and applauded. "I'm just trying to save the next man," he
says. Martell's story and those of others like him, along with public
pressure, have made a difference. Gov. Jennifer Granholm has ordered a review
of the prison health care system and a federal judge has also ordered
changes. Martell's body is failing but, somehow, he feels free. He can't save
the world or even his own life, but he's trying to make things better for
others. There's no better way to live or die. JEFF GERRITT is a Free Press
editorial writer.
December 8, 2006 WOOD TV 8
A federal judge on Thursday held the state Department of Corrections in
contempt and threatened $2 million in fines unless it hires more physicians
at Jackson prisons. In a scathing 61-page opinion, U.S. District Judge
Richard Enslen ordered the department to hire extra
doctors within four months. He said inmates' health care is
"systematically defective, dangerous and readily results in preventable
death, illness and suffering due to untreated serious medical
conditions." Enslen also ordered that the
department hire more nurses, file a staffing plan within three months and
create independent monitoring offices at the prisons to handle inmates'
complaints. Health care at the Jackson facilities has been under federal
oversight for years, the result of a long-standing lawsuit by prisoners
represented by the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project. Enslen cited delays causing prisoners to not get proper
treatment until it was too late. He said a prisoner deserves to serve his
sentence and nothing more. "What he does not deserve is a de facto and
unauthorized death penalty at the hands of a callous and dysfunctional health
care system that regularly fails to treat life-threatening illness," Enslen wrote. Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said he couldn't comment specifically on the
ruling because state attorneys were still reviewing it. He said, however,
that it's an "ongoing battle" to recruit and retain health care
workers to work inside prisons. Last month, Enslen
issued a separate decision criticizing the state's care of mentally ill
inmates and halting the use of non-medical, punitive restraints on prisoners.
That decision came after a 21-year-old mentally ill inmate died in August
after spending four days naked inside a hot, isolated cell at the Southern
Michigan Correctional Facility in Jackson. An autopsy determined the inmate,
Timothy Joe Souders, died accidentally of
hyperthermia and dehydration. Elizabeth Alexander, director of the National
Prison Project, said the judge noted in Thursday's ruling that prisoners who
need specialty care face too many delays. Between 30 and 40 percent of
specialty care wasn't provided within the time deemed medically necessary, Enslen said. Of six randomly selected cases, four
involved delays that could have caused unnecessary death or suffering, he
said. It took 40 days to test a patient with blood in his urine. Another
inmate complained of a mole on his back, and despite a doctor saying it
should be removed surgically, there were many delays. Later testing showed
malignant melanoma and that the cancer had spread while the patient was
awaiting treatment. "This is a very significant decision,"
Alexander said. "Our hope is that finally the state will turn the corner
and understand it has to clean up a dysfunctional medical care system."
The ruling covers three of the five prisons in Jackson, Marlan
said. Each prison typically houses about 1,000 inmates. Gov. Jennifer
Granholm in August ordered an independent review of prison health care. The
state earlier this week picked an outside agency, the National Commission on
Correctional Health Care, to conduct the review. "That should give us a
good idea on where we stand," Marlan said. The
case is Hadix v. Caruso, et al.
November 14, 2006 Detroit Free Press
In the end, it took a federal judge to get it right. Michigan's state
bureaucracy, against all available evidence, has been in denial about
Michigan's deadly and dysfunctional prison health care system. Even Gov.
Jennifer Granholm's pledge in August to order an outside review of health
care in Michigan's nearly 50 prisons is beginning to smell like an
election-year ploy. The review was supposed to start in early October but the
state hasn't even decided who is going to do it. The strong wording in the
preliminary injunction he issued Monday shows that U.S. District Judge Richard
Enslen of Kalamzoo had
clearly run out of patience with the state. He told the Department of
Corrections and its private contractor for primary services, Correctional
Medical Services of Missouri, to either treat sick inmates or be held in
contempt of court and jailed. "You are valuable providers of life-saving
services and medicines," Enslen wrote.
"You are not coat racks who collect government paychecks while your work
is taken to the sexton for burial. The days of dead wood in the Department of
Corrections are over, as are the days of CMS intentionally delaying referrals
and care for craven profit motives."
November 14, 2006 Baltimore Sun
A federal judge has ordered prison officials in Michigan to immediately
cease the use of non-medical, punitive restraints following the death of a
mentally ill inmate who died after four days spent naked and shackled in an
isolated cell. U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen's
sharply worded order, issued Monday, directly addressed the case of Timothy
Joe Souders, who was serving up to four years for
resisting arrest, assault and destroying police property. Souders,
21, spent most of his last four days naked inside an isolation cell at the
Southern Michigan Correctional Facility in Jackson, his arms and legs bound
in shackles and sometimes lying in his own urine. He died Aug. 6, two hours
after jail staff removed his restraints. "The court finds that the
defendant's practice constitutes torture and violates the Eighth
Amendment," Enslen wrote in his ruling.
"Its cessation is required immediately to prevent further loss of life,
loss of dignity and damage to both inmates and correctional officers."
His order also requires the state's Department of Corrections to submit a
plan within 45 days for how to improve mental health care for inmates. The
state has contracted with Correctional Medical Services Inc., a St. Louis
company, to provide health care to prisoners. Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said the department was still reviewing the order
and had no comment Monday. Following media reports that examined issues
highlighted by Souders' death in August, Gov.
Jennifer Granholm called for an independent review of health care in the
state's prisons. Souders' family last month filed a
federal lawsuit against CMS. The official cause of Souders'
death has not been announced.
October 26, 2006 Detroit Free Press
Gov. Jennifer Granholm has pledged to do what's necessary to fix the
state's troubled prison health care system. To do that, the governor will
need the truth -- straight with no chaser -- from the independent review she
ordered in August. But getting it won't be easy. The people who really know
what's up -- prison employees and inmates who use the health care system --
won't speak freely. They'll fear retaliation, unless the department offers
them anonymity and protection. So far, state administrators don't seem even
to be aware of the problem, but the people who live and work in the system
are. Inmate Henry Donald Franklin, 43, testified in federal court earlier
this month about the death of 21-year-old mentally ill inmate Timothy Joe Souders. Before testifying, Franklin apparently took some
payback for talking to prisoners' attorneys who were investigating Souders' death. Franklin was locked up near the isolation
cell where Souders died on Aug. 6, after spending
most of his last four days strapped to a steel table in oppressive heat. In a
Kalamazoo courtroom, Franklin said he had heard Souders,
who might have died from dehydration, choking and asking for water. Franklin,
who is legally blind, said he kicked his cell door on several occasions and
yelled for help. Officers told him to shut up and mind his own business, he
said, finally threatening to put him in restraints. I visited Franklin last
week at Southern Michigan Correctional Facility in Jackson, where he's
serving 30-50 years for unarmed assault with intent to steal. After he had
spoken to the attorneys, Franklin said, someone broke his typewriter into
four pieces and pushed in the grill of his radio. He also said pain medication
and eyedrops for his glaucoma had been withheld for about a month. Prison
officials say they have investigated the matter and deny the allegations that
Franklin made to me and under oath in federal court. "No one's given me
any help since I talked," Franklin told me through the glass in a prison
segregation visiting area. "They left me hanging. If I would have known,
I wouldn't have done this (testified)." Even high-level administrators
could face reprisals for bucking the system. Dr. Chris Samy
became regional medical director in Jackson in February. But Samy, a corporation medical director for 10 years, told
me she was forced to resign her Corrections post in June. Her job was to
monitor health care and oversee Missouri-based Correctional Medical Services
Inc., a controversial private contractor delivering primary medical care in
Michigan prisons. Still, Samy said she had no
authority or support to make necessary changes. While at Jackson, Samy said three or four diabetic inmates died because
blood sugar reactions were not properly monitored. "Most medically
necessary procedures were denied or withheld from the inmates, resulting in
long-term illness or death," she said. When Samy
complained, she said prison medical administrators ignored her and finally
made her so uncomfortable that she had to resign. She cited a cozy
relationship between the department and CMS. In fact, even an MDOC consultant
concluded this year that Corrections staff are too protective of CMS.
"No one has the guts to say, 'Do what has to be done,' " said Samy, a suburban Detroit resident in her mid-50s. MDOC
spokesman Russ Marlan said the department is
investigating Samy's allegations. He said she made
no formal complaints while employed by the department. Also troubling is an alleged
"witness promotion plan." A civil service grievance filed against
MDOC last summer alleges that Director Patricia Caruso approved transfers and
promotions for about 10 employees who testified in 2004 on the department's
behalf during a 27-day grievance hearing against former Pine River Warden Jan
Trombley. On the flip side, the 10 or more employees who testified against
the department did not get them. Deputy Director Dennis Straub made it clear
in an earlier meeting that the department would deny opportunities to
employees who went against it, said East Lansing attorney Robert G. Huber,
who represents the employees. Employees called it the "witness promotion
plan." According to one MDOC employee, Straub said "staff who don't
(support the department) can find a home elsewhere." Caruso denies the
allegations and has asked the Michigan State Police to investigate. My
opinion: Caruso has too much integrity to sanction anything that shady. But
the point is, employees undoubtedly will feel pressure to protect the
department during an outside investigation. All these allegations underscore
how hard it will be to get solid information. The no-snitch rule operates not
only on the street, but also inside criminal justice agencies. Granholm
should make sure the people who work and live in Michigan prisons feel safe
enough to tell the truth. Employees and inmates must get anonymity and
immunity, or the governor's so-called independent review will be little more
than a whitewash. JEFF GERRITT is a Free Press editorial writer. Contact him
at gerritt@freepress.com or 313-222-6585.
October 14, 2006 The Grand Rapids Press
The use of four-point restraints as punishment for prison inmates meets
the American Medical Association's definition of torture and should be
discontinued, a doctor appointed by a federal judge to monitor health care in
Michigan's prisons testified Friday. The continued use of restraints is
"likely to result in future deaths," Robert Cohen warned U.S.
District Judge Richard Enslen. He blamed the Aug. 6
death of Timothy Joe Souders, a 21-year-old
mentally ill inmate, on the fact he was shackled atop a steel table in the
Southern Michigan Correctional Facility in Jackson for most of four days
during a heat wave. "While naked in bed, he was found to be lying in his
own urine and feces," Cohen said, adding that Souders'
"condition during a heat wave required constant monitoring ... There
should be no policy for maintaining prisoners in punitive restraints. It was
that policy that led to his death." After Cohen's testimony, attorney
Elizabeth Alexander, representing inmates in the class action lawsuit, asked Enslen to issue an order temporarily barring the state
Corrections Department from using restraints to punish prisoners. Enslen appeared inclined to issue the order, but
Assistant Attorney General Peter Govorchin stepped
outside the courtroom to call state Corrections Director Patricia Caruso
about offering a voluntary moratorium on the use of restraints. Afterward,
the attorneys met with Enslen behind closed doors,
and later would not say whether an agreement had been reached to stop
restraining prisoners as punishment. Cohen's testimony came at the end of a
three-day hearing in a lawsuit aimed at forcing the state to improve the care
of medically and mentally ill prisoners. The allegations include: The
hospital and other medical units in the Jackson prison complex are
understaffed by doctors and nurses. Written requests by inmates for medical
help often are delayed for several days or ignored. Referrals to outside
medical specialists are routinely delayed for weeks and even months while
sick inmates get sicker and, in some case, die. Prescriptions for serious
illnesses often go unfilled for several days. Last May and June, critical
medications for several inmates were not provided while the Jackson prison
complex was in transition from its own staff of pharmacists to a private firm
called Pharmacorp. One inmate testified his
medication for glaucoma and migraine headaches was withheld as punishment
because he talked with attorneys in the case. Only while he was in court and
on the stand Wednesday did a guard hand him his medication. Some of the
responsibility rests with Correctional Medical Services, the for-profit
corporation that provides care for prisoners under a contract with the state,
testified Jerry Walden, an Ann Arbor physician called as an expert witness
for the inmates. "There seems to be an indifference about care,"
Walden said, "and I'm concerned about that."
October 5, 2006 Lansing State Journal
The family of a mentally ill inmate who died after spending most of his
last four days naked inside an isolated prison cell has filed a lawsuit
against a company hired to provide medical care to state prisoners. The
lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit claims that Timothy
Joe Souders, 21, of Adrian, was restrained to a bed
and left to lie naked in his urine and feces without access to food. He died
on Aug. 6, two hours after staff at the Southern Michigan Correctional
Facility in Jackson removed his restraints. Ken Fields, a spokesman for
medical contractor Correctional Medical Services Inc. in St. Louis, Mo., said
the company was reviewing the lawsuit and he couldn't comment on patients.
Russ Marlan, a spokesman for the Michigan
Department of Corrections, told The Detroit News that Souders'
death was under investigation, and he could not comment on the claims in the
lawsuit. Souders was serving 1 to 4 years for
charges including resisting arrest and assault.
September 24, 2006 Grand Rapids Press
In his cell at a Jackson prison, Joseph Griffin was dying, unable to
convince his doctors he needed the care that could save his life. Tests to
diagnose his illness were repeatedly delayed by doctors working for
Correctional Medical Services (CMS), the firm contracted to provide care for
the state's more than 50,000 inmates. After five months of suffering with a
swollen right arm and legs so bloated he no longer could walk, Griffin,
serving time for shoplifting, died May 9, 2005. He wasn't the only Michigan
inmate who died last year due to inadequate medical care. In January, Larry Ervans, a 61-year-old window washer doing time for
selling drugs, bled to death in his cell two days after complaining to the
medical staff about abdominal pain. The prison doctors didn't order a simple
test that could have detected a bleeding ulcer. In February, Hakim Muhammad,
45, convicted on a drug charge, died of non-Hodgkins
lymphoma, untreated for months as a doctor repeatedly ignored requests to
examine him. When he complained of severe pain in his hip and legs, the
doctor canceled his medication and took away his wheelchair. In June, Steven Boals, 52, convicted of armed robbery and auto theft,
died of lung cancer two months after complaining of fatigue, weight loss and
a lump on his chest. During the last two months of his life, he suffered in
pain as a prison doctor repeatedly failed to examine him or order treatment.
Later that month, John McRae, a 70-year-old convicted murderer, died in his
cell after the prison's medical staff failed to follow an outside doctor's
instructions on caring for his many health problems, including heart failure,
diabetes and internal bleeding. In each case, the death certificates list the
cause as "natural," but their deaths could have been avoided, or
their suffering at least alleviated, if they had received proper medical
care, according to an independent doctor who reviewed the cases. Dr. Robert
Cohen, appointed by U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen
to monitor health care in the Jackson prisons, cited numerous examples of
inmates suffering and dying due to understaffing, misdiagnosis and delays in
treatment. Cohen, a nationally recognized expert on prison medical care,
declined to be interviewed for this story, but in his report to Enslen last September, he cited numerous
"significant problems with the care being provided to the sickest
prisoners," particularly at the Duane L. Waters Hospital inside the
Jackson prison complex. "It was routine in Duane Waters Hospital for nurses
to request physicians to examine patients and for physicians not to
come," Cohen wrote. "I have never before heard of physicians
failing to respond to nursing requests to evaluate a patient, but according
to the medical records I reviewed, and according to the nursing staff at DWH,
this is routine." After reading Cohen's report, Enslen
found the health care in the Jackson facilities amounted to cruel and unusual
punishment under the Eighth Amendment, and he ordered the state to come up
with a plan to improve it. State Corrections Department officials said they
are implementing a plan, although they disagreed with Cohen's conclusion that
health care in the prisons is substandard. "We do not necessarily agree
with everything Dr. Cohen said in his characterizations of these cases,"
said Richard Russell, head of the department's bureau of health-care
services. "What you have to understand is, in any health-care system,
there are cases that don't go the way you want them to go." One doctor
repeatedly faulted by Cohen for providing inferior care was forced to resign,
although Russell called the doctor "a qualified physician. I'm saying I
don't believe he needed to be let go." He contended Cohen focused on the
worst cases and "made generalizations that are not typical of our system."
But in August, Gov. Jennifer Granholm ordered an independent review of the
entire prison health-care system following the death of 21-year-old mentally
ill inmate. Timothy Joe Souders, doing one to four
years for assault, resisting arrest and destroying police property, had spent
most of his last four days in an isolation cell, his arms and legs shackled
to a steel bed. Although Souders suffered numerous
physical and mental illnesses and the Corrections Department had issued a
heat advisory, no doctor visited him during those four days. His death
"was a terrible unnecessary tragedy," Cohen wrote in an Aug. 14
letter to Enslen. " ... There are a number of
additional continuing serious deficiencies in the medical program which
require immediate action, some of which may have contributed to the abject
failure to provide Mr. S. with medical care. ... This is an emergency that's
gone on for too long and is having an extremely adverse effect on patient
care." While Cohen's reports covered only the medical facilities inside
the sprawling Jackson prison complex, some inmates' rights advocates contend
the quality of care there is typical of the state's entire penal system.
"It's a nightmare," said David Santacroce,
a University of Michigan law professor whose students have filed lawsuits for
the inmates. "There's an incentive for them (CMS) to keep costs down.
The less they spend on medical care, the higher their profit. It's a mess,
and it shows no signs of getting better here or anywhere else CMS is present."
Patricia Streeter, an attorney in a class action lawsuit against the
Department of Corrections, called health care in the prisons
"appalling." That lawsuit led Enslen to
appoint Cohen to monitor health care in the Jackson prisons two years ago.
Prison health care never was all that great, Streeter said, but in the nine
years since CMS took over, it has deteriorated. "There are a lot of
cases of misdiagnosis," she said. "They don't catch conditions
quickly. Screening tests are ordered with no follow-up." Carla Ringleka's family believes her death Aug. 28 could have
been prevented if doctors at the Robert Scott Correctional Facility had
diagnosed her breast cancer and started treatment earlier. Ringleka, of Stanton, convicted of second-degree murder
in the death of her husband, first complained of a lump in her right breast
in February 2001, but a prison health-care worker dismissed it as "fatty
tissue." Seven months later, a mammogram showed the lump was cancer,
which by then had spread to her lungs, liver and bones. She died awaiting a
decision on her request for a medical commutation. Robert Walsh, chief
psychologist in the Jackson prisons at the time CMS took over, accused the
company of "horrendous neglect." "There's a complete failure
of the bureaucracy in the central office (of the Corrections Department) to
monitor this contract," he said. Walsh, who retired in 1999, is helping
Prison Legal Services, a nonprofit organization based in Jackson, prepare a
report on the quality of prison health care. St. Louis-based CMS provides
health care for some 250,000 inmates in 26 states and 300 facilities. In its
home state of Missouri, inmates accused the company of intentionally delaying
or denying care for life-threatening illnesses. CMS paid $525,000 to avoid
prosecution for manslaughter in the death of a North Carolina inmate. Health
care in Michigan's prisons was provided by state employees until 1997, when
former Gov. John Engler's administration signed a 10-year contract with
United Correctional Managed Care, a for-profit company in Anaheim, Calif. The
following year, CMS bought some of United's assets and took over the
contract. The idea was to stem the rapidly rising cost of health care for the
state's growing prison population. Despite the privatization, the cost of
prison health care continued to rise, from $115 million in 1997 to a
projected $190 million in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The average
annual cost of health care for each inmate rose from $2,573 in 1997 to $3,690
in 2005. Yet the Corrections Department boasts that since 1997, the state has
saved $86 million on prisoner health care. The state pays CMS the actual cost
of health care plus an administrative fee. The contract includes financial
incentives for CMS to hold down costs, but Corrections Department officials
insist the provision does not prompt CMS to deny care. Dr. Jerry Walden, an
Ann Arbor physician and former medical director for a federal prison in
Indiana, disagrees, claiming CMS has a financial incentive to delay and deny
treatment for sick inmates. "I'd like to see them get rid of for-profit
health care," said Walden, hired as an expert witness for the
plaintiffs. A CMS spokesman denied the company delays or denies treatment to
maximize its profits. "To the contrary," CMS spokesman Ken Fields
said, "CMS health-care professionals are trained and encouraged to use
their experience and judgment to decide what treatment is appropriate for a
patient."
September 1, 2006 Detroit Free Press
Timothy Joe Souders died on Aug. 6, after
spending most of his last four days bound naked to a steel bed in four-point
restraints, soaked in his own urine. At 21, Souders'
life was tragically short and, in many ways, just plain tragic. Mentally ill
and unable to get help, Souders ended up alone and
dead in a hot, segregated cell at Southern Michigan Correctional Facility in
Jackson. His parents did not know how he died. Steven Souders
and Theresa Vaughn of Adrian learned the details two weeks later from my Aug.
20 report in the Free Press. A woman who played bingo at the hall where
Timothy Souders worked as a caller brought a copy
of the paper to his memorial service that day. Steven Souders,
41, a journeyman machine repair worker, said the Michigan Department of
Corrections told him his son died in his sleep. MDOC denies that, but Timothy
Souders' death helped push Gov. Jennifer Granholm
to order an overdue independent review of prison health care. His story
touched a nerve in Michigan, which has closed most of its mental health
facilities during the last few decades. Thousands of the state's
mentally ill have ended up on the street or in homeless shelters, jails or
prisons. Geoffrey Fieger's law firm will file a wrongful death lawsuit
against MDOC employees and Correctional Medical Services Inc., attorney Paul Broschay told me this week. CMS is the private,
Missouri-based company under contract for primary care physicians and other
services in Michigan state prisons. Souders was
screaming for help, but no one was listening. He went to prison on Nov. 1,
having received a one- to four-year bit for assault, resisting arrest and
destroying police property. It turned into a death sentence. Prison was no
place for Souders, who had a bipolar disorder. He
took medications for multiple conditions, including manic depression,
psychosis and hypertension. Souders received seven
misconduct reports: four for simply being out of place and another three for
fighting, assaulting a prisoner and destroying property. Roughly 24% of
Michigan's nearly 50,000 inmates have a history of mental illness,
Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said. MDOC must
do a better job of accommodating them, including improving communication
between security and health care staff, and between Corrections and the
Department of Community Health. Mental health staff at the Southern Michigan
Correctional Facility tried to transfer Souders to
Huron Valley Center in Ypsilanti, a psychiatric hospital for prisoners, but a
transfer coordinator working for Community Health failed to move him. The
state Health Department has reassigned that coordinator and is investigating
the incident. Still, someone from Corrections, knowing Souders'
condition, should have had enough sense or sympathy to pick up a phone and
try to get him out of that segregated cell in Jackson. At one point, the heat
index probably reached 106, and medications put Souders
at high risk for heat-related injury or death.
August 28, 2006 Detroit Free Press
Gov. Jennifer Granholm took the right first step in ordering an independent
review of state prison health care last week, following an investigation by
the Free Press editorial page. Now she must make sure the review is done
right. If not, longstanding practices will continue that endanger inmate
health, encourage more lawsuits, invite further federal control of state
prisons, and provide practically no oversight of the $280 million a year
taxpayers spend on prison medical and mental health care. A proper review
must include confidential interviews with current and former prison
employees, as well as with the staff of outside hospitals under contract to
treat inmates. People must feel free to speak their minds without fear of
retaliation. Investigators must also talk confidentially with prisoners, who
are too often discounted by prison medical staff. Prisoner advocacy groups
such as Prison Legal Services of Michigan in Jackson and the American Friends
Service Committee in Ann Arbor can provide valuable insights. They have
worked on prison health care problems for years.
August 22, 2006 Daily Telegram
The parents of a former Adrian man who died this month in a Jackson prison
say they’re angry about the way he was treated while in custody — and that it
took an investigation by the Detroit Free Press for them to find out about
it. Timothy Joe Souders, 21, died Aug. 6 at the
Southern Michigan Correctional Facility, where he was serving a 23-month to
four-year sentence for felonious assault. He had pleaded guilty in June 2005
to stealing paintball equipment from the Adrian Meijer store and threatening
store employees and a police officer with a knife. He was sentenced in
October. The Free Press reported Sunday that Souders
spent most of his last four days shackled to his bed in a hot cell despite
being on medication that left him at high risk for heat-related injury or
death — but the man’s father, Steven Souders of
Adrian, said he was told only that his son had died in his sleep. “The state
of Michigan has been lying to me since the day Timothy died,” Steven Souders said Monday. “They’re trying to cover up their wrongdoing.”
But Russ Marlan, a spokesman for the Michigan
Department of Corrections, said he believes proper procedures were followed
when prison officials placed Souders in segregation
and had him restrained. He said prisoners who are restrained in the manner Souders was held are monitored every 15 minutes and
released every two hours for a bathroom break.
August 22, 2006 Detroit News
Gov. Jennifer Granholm has ordered an independent review of health care in
Michigan prisons as a result of cases that included the Aug. 6 death of an
inmate who had spent four days in an isolation cell. "The governor is
very concerned about the issue of prison health care," said Granholm
press secretary Liz Boyd. "We want to make sure the prisoners are getting
proper care. We also want to make sure taxpayers' dollars are being wisely
spent." The state's Corrections Department has a $70 million-a-year
contract with Correctional Medical Services of Missouri to provide physical
care to inmates and spends about $90 million annually on mental health
services through community-based agencies. Both programs will undergo review.
Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said the state
has had its contract with Correctional Medical Services for 10 years. The
company supplies prison doctors and other health care workers. It also
negotiates contracts with specialized care providers outside the prison
system.
August 21, 2006 Detroit Free Press
Michigan legislators remain blissfully ignorant about a big and growing part
of the state budget, despite widespread evidence of almost criminal
incompetence and negligence in how the money is spent. The state shells out
$190 million a year on prison health care, including more than $70 million to
Correctional Medical Services Inc., a controversial Missouri-based company,
for primary care physicians and other services. But there's ample evidence,
for anyone who cares to look, that the state is not only violating its
constitutional duty to provide adequate medical care to prisoners, but also
spending more on serious medical problems that could have been prevented.
Just in the last week, I reported on a 41-year-old inmate who went home to
die after prison doctors failed to treat his cancer, and another 21-year-old
prisoner who died in Jackson, after spending most of his last four days
strapped to a bed in four-point restraints in a hot cell. Michigan is
inviting further court intervention into how it runs its nearly 50 prisons.
Still, legislators have failed to provide real oversight. Even Senate
Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, R-Wyoming, one of the
state's most capable, experienced and knowledgeable legislators, appeared
clueless when I asked him recently about the issue. Practically the only
information legislators receive on the CMS contract is a one-page summary twice
a year. A July 1 report to the Legislature summed up the quality of prison
health care in one sentence: "Investigation of prisoner grievances,
family complaints and issues brought to the MDOC by legislators have assured
that the quality of services provided by CMS meets MDOC expectations."
That statement mocks the Michigan Department of Corrections' mantra of
"Expecting Excellence Every Day." Court documents, medical records
and interviews with dozens of prisoners and their advocates show that
incompetent and negligent medical care, misdiagnoses, delayed or denied
treatment, withheld pain medication and poor accommodations for people with
disabilities are common in Michigan prisons -- and have been for decades.
MDOC has been under a federal consent decree in a case called Hadix since 1985 to improve medical care and other
conditions at state prisons in Jackson. Even so, medical care has probably
gotten worse since 2000, when CMS took over the contract for primary care.
CMS has maintained it "provides medical care that's evidence-backed and
medically necessary, and those services are provided at the community
standard of care." But there's plenty of evidence of serious, publicly
reported problems with the company's performance in state prison systems
around the country. A report filed this month in U.S. District Court by Dr.
Jerry S. Walden of Ann Arbor, an expert witness in the Hadix
case, concludes that Michigan's problems are getting worse, not better, and
pose a serious health risk. Walden found that delays and disruptions in
patient care were routine, sometimes resulting in death, and even basic
medical records were poorly maintained and organized. Due to a "clerical
error," Walden reports, almost no death certificates were recorded this
spring for inmates who died in the Jackson prisons covered by the Hadix decree. Walden described the system as a
"culture of failure," lacking leadership and unable to prevent
unnecessary suffering and death. "I am convinced that the necessary
leadership will never be in place until CMS is ousted," he concluded.
Contact JEFF GERRITT at jgerritt@freepress.com or 313-222-6585.
August 20, 2006 Detroit Free Press
Timothy Joe Souders lived a hard life and, on Aug.
6, died an even harder death in a segregated prison cell in Jackson. Souders, 21, spent most of his last four days naked,
without physician or psychiatric care, his arms and legs bound to a steel bed
in four-point restraints. He was in a bare, all-steel isolation cell about
the size of a walk-in closet. He went to the cell Aug. 2 because of unruly
behavior. He lay in urine -- "agitated, disoriented, psychotic" --
as the cell felt close to 106 degrees at times, according to a report written
by a federal monitor assigned to scrutinize medical care for Jackson prisons.
Souders was found dead on his bed around 4 p.m.,
two hours after staff had removed his shackles. The death of the severely
mentally ill inmate is a glaring example of a troubled state prison health
care system, riddled with misdiagnoses, delayed or denied treatment and
inadequate accommodations for people with disabilities. The Jackson prison
complex, including the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility where Souders died, has been under federal oversight for more
than 20 years. Corrections officials are investigating the death. Autopsy
results might not be available for two or three weeks. The Michigan Attorney
General's Office, which represents the Department of Corrections, disputed
the account by the federal monitor, whose report this week brought Souders' death to light. "The governor's office is
very concerned about the issue of prisoner health care," Liz Boyd,
spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer Granholm, said Saturday. "We want to make
sure that prisoners are getting appropriate health care and that taxpayer
dollars are being spent wisely. Be assured, the issue of prisoner health care
will be reviewed and, if changes are warranted, changes will be made."
The Corrections Department had issued a heat alert the day Souders went into isolation. Such alerts are issued when
the combined temperature and humidity index reaches 90 degrees. Alerts are
supposed to trigger actions to ensure that inmates have adequate water and
ventilation. Dr. Robert Cohen, the court-appointed monitor, uncovered Souders' death during a visit to the Jackson medical
complex on Aug. 8-10. Disturbed by what he found, he issued a special report
to U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen in Kalamazoo,
who is enforcing federal oversight of the facilities. "Although the
circumstances of Mr. S.' death overwhelmed my visit ... there are a number of
additional continuing serious deficiencies in the medical program which
require immediate attention, some of which may have contributed to the abject
failure to provide Mr. S. with medical care," Cohen wrote. "There
is a critical shortage of medical staff" at the Jackson facilities
"and serious medical staff shortages throughout the medical program.
This is an emergency situation which has gone on for too long and is having
an extremely adverse effect on patient care." Souders'
death was "predictable and preventible,"
Cohen wrote, "a terrible, unnecessary tragedy." Souders
was serving a sentence of 1 to 4 years for resisting arrest, assault and
destroying police property. Because he was taking medications for multiple
medical conditions -- including manic-depression, psychosis and hypertension
-- he was at high risk for heat-related injury or death, Cohen wrote. Still,
a physician did not see him from the time he was restrained until he died. He
was seen and monitored by nurses, however, Department of Corrections
spokesman Russ Marlan said. Mental health staff at
the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility tried to transfer Souders to Huron Valley Center in Ypsilanti, a
psychiatric hospital for prisoners, but he wasn't moved, Marlan
said. At least one person involved in the transfer has been removed, Marlan said. The department is reviewing policies on
prisoner restraint. In June, the Free Press reported on Lloyd Byron Martell,
whose cancerous polyp had gone untreated. Martell, 41, was sent home last
week to die. In response to Souders' death, Cohen
called an emergency meeting Wednesday with prison administrators, resulting
in some of the Department of Corrections review. Cohen's investigation could
take weeks and will include a review of tapes, incident reports and medical
records. Critics say the Legislature, governor and correction officials have
failed to properly oversee the $190 million a year the state spends on prison
medical care, including the state's $70-million contract with Correctional
Medical Services Inc. "Responsibility is so dispersed between state
agencies, a private contractor, line staff and administrators," said
Sandra Bailiff Girard, executive director of Prison Legal Services of Michigan.
"No one is held responsible -- so there's little incentive to follow the
rules." Contact JEFF GERRITT at jgerritt@freepress.com or 313-222-6585.
August 16, 2006 Detroit Free Press
Wearing prison khakis and a white T-shirt, Lloyd Byron Martell limped off
a Greyhound bus in downtown Detroit Tuesday afternoon, looking tired but oh
so happy. Smiling, he pushed a raggedy wheelchair with a cardboard box in the
seat that held his medical supplies, including a month's worth of morphine
and colostomy bags. Free at last, Martell walked into his mother's arms and
stayed there, quietly, for a minute, before reaching over her shoulder and
shaking his stepfather's hand. "Made it," I heard him say. At 41,
Martell has less than a year to live. His colon cancer has spread to his chest
and the relentless beast can't be stopped. Still, his worst fear is over: He
won't die in a state prison in Jackson. He was released Tuesday. Like
hundreds of inmates, Martell got a double sentence: one handed down by the
court, another executed by the lame prison healthcare system. In Martell's
case, a one- to four-year bit in 2004 for fleeing a police officer turned
into a death sentence. Martell, driving with a suspended license, took off
after Redford police tried to pull him over for a broken rear window. It was
a knucklehead move, but he didn't deserve to die for it. I first wrote about
Martell on June 19, revealing that his cancer probably could have been
contained if doctors had treated it 20 months ago. In December 2004, Martell
had what he thought was a hemorrhoid lanced. Medical records show it was
actually a cancerous polyp that doctors ignored. His story became part of a
Free Press investigation into the medical care provided by the Michigan
Department of Corrections and Correctional Medical Services Inc. of Missouri,
a private for-profit company under contract to provide primary care
physicians and other services. In hundreds of cases, diseases have been
misdiagnosed, undiagnosed or treatment is delayed or denied. When I talked to
Martell's mother, Donna Martin, three weeks ago, she thought her son might
die in prison. Martell was scheduled for a parole hearing on July 11, but the
department canceled it because of a clerical error, rescheduling it for Aug.
15. Delaying Martell's release was inexcusable. He's dying, he's a
non-violent offender and he had already served his minimum sentence. With all
the grievances he was filing and the medical care he required, Corrections
should have been happy to let him go. I called Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan, planning to write a column, and the department
moved up the hearing to Aug. 2. He got his parole. Without help, however,
sick and dying inmates have practically no way out. Their families are the
only outside people who know, and they can't even get a return phone call
from prison medical staff. At least Martell will die at home, surrounding by
people who love him. Monday was a good day for Martin, 60, who lives with her
husband, German Martin, in Dearborn. Almost giddy, she told me about the food
she bought for Martell's welcome-home dinner: chicken and dumplings,
chocolate chip cookies. She picked up a toothbrush, deodorant, mouthwash,
shower gel, shampoo, razors, sheets, pillows and a comforter for the bed.
"He's going to get anything he wants today," Martin said. What
Martell wants before he dies is a little peace -- and justice. He's filing a
medical malpractice lawsuit against CMS and the state. He stood in the
Greyhound lobby, filled with joy and rage. "They tried to kill me in there,
but it's not over," Martell told me, losing the smile for a minute.
"It's going to be a short battle but a good one." For the next few
hours, though, he enjoyed the moment: the Whopper his mother bought for him
on the way home, his chicken-and-dumplings dinner, the fresh clean sheets and
pillow he lay on. Today, the work that will fill the rest of his days begins.
He and his mother will need to arrange medical care, as well as Social
Security and Medicaid benefits. They'll shop for new clothes, too, something
without prisoner No. 335246 on it. Martell will never get back his health but
he has regained his freedom. On Tuesday afternoon, that was enough. JEFF
GERRITT is a Free Press editorial writer. Contact him at
gerritt@freepress.com or 313-222-6585.
June 23, 2006 Detroit Free Press
No one fully understands the state of medical care in Michigan prisons,
but snapshots of that system from an investigation by Jeff Gerritt of the Free Press editorial board suggest it's
dangerously dysfunctional. Legislators should not wait until the state's
contract with Correctional Medical Services Inc. ends on March 31. They must
provide more oversight now or invite further court intervention in the prison
system, encourage costly lawsuits and perpetuate a standard of care that is
inhumane and unconstitutional. Medical records, court documents and
interviews with inmates and advocates show longstanding systemic problems
with the medical care delivered to Michigan's 50,000 inmates. These include
misdiagnosis, delayed or denied treatment and inadequate accommodation for
people with disabilities. Legislators can start fixing these problems by
appointing a medical ombudsman to investigate hundreds of inmate complaints
about health care. That office should employ a physician, or at least have
access to consultants who are doctors or medical experts. A medical ombudsman
has become even more necessary since the Legislature closed the general
office of the Corrections ombudsman in 2003. Now, the worst abuses stand
little chance of even getting heard. Second, the state should create a
streamlined grievance process for prisoner medical complaints. General
grievance procedures are lengthy, cumbersome and often ineffective --
definitely not suited for addressing issues that potentially mean life or
death. Finally, lawmakers ought to order a review of prison healthcare to
determine how CMS is performing. They should ensure that Corrections
exercises proper oversight and that state health care administrators wield
the authority to change how CMS operates. Now, the Legislature receives
practically no information about CMS, even though the Missouri-based company
receives roughly $65 million a year from Michigan taxpayers. A prison
sentence rightfully deprives an offender of his freedom. But it ought not
subject prisoners to aggravated health problems,
unnecessary suffering and even death. In one case, an inmate serving a one-
to four-year sentence for fleeing a police officer was diagnosed with cancer
but not treated for nearly a year. He now has only a year to live. A
veritable death sentence for a minor crime is unjust by any standard of
decency, and legislators can no longer claim they don't know. To refuse to
act now is practically criminal.
June 19, 2006 Detroit Free Press
Michigan doesn't have the death penalty, but the state of health care in
its prison system makes you wonder. Prisoners who get lousy health care don't
get much sympathy from politicians or the public, especially when so many
people on the outside are uninsured and struggling to get decent care. Still,
most people would agree that negligent medical care leading to serious health
problems, virtual torture and, yes, even death should not be part of a prison
sentence. It has happened, though, over and over, to hundreds and perhaps
thousands of inmates. More than 95% of the 50,000 people in state prisons
will eventually get out and go back to their hometowns and families. It would
be better for everyone, from relatives to taxpayers, if they returned in
reasonably good health and not, for example, with untreated infectious
diseases such as hepatitis C. Yet the quality of prison health care seems to
have gotten worse since 2000, when the state contracted with Correctional
Medical Services Inc. for primary care physicians and other services. It
should be getting better. The Michigan Department of Corrections has been
under a federal consent decree since 1985 to improve medical care and other
conditions at prisons in Jackson. "The medical neglect seems worse, not
better," Patricia Streeter of Ann Arbor, an attorney for the prisoners
in the Hadix case, told me. "CMS has not
adequately supervised its doctors or made timely specialist referrals, and
MDOC appears unwilling or unable to see that it does." Medical records,
court documents and rulings, and interviews with inmates and advocates show a
pattern of misdiagnosis, delayed or denied treatment, withheld pain
medication and inadequate accommodations for people with disabilities.
"If you read the Hadix findings, any
individual case might be egregious, but it's the systematic failure that's
gut-wrenching -- that really turns your stomach," said Paul Reingold, director of the University of Michigan Clinical
Law Program, which handles prisoner rights cases. Last year, a diabetic
inmate died after suffering at least 15 episodes of hypoglycemia, some so
severe he fell unconscious. "Crisis after crisis occurred, and yet his
caregivers did not implement a coordinated care plan," Dr. Jerry Walden,
the prisoners' medical expert, wrote in a sworn statement in federal court.
Despite the health problems, nurses transferred the inmate back to the
general prison population in early 2005. "Sadly, CMS, MDOC and nursing
can each point a finger and nothing will change," Walden stated.
"There is a system problem and one that ... leadership needs to
address." In examining 16 recent prison deaths, Walden found patients
with life-threatening diseases who were kept in their cells. Others suffered
unnecessary episodes of severe hypoglycemia. One prisoner was taken off his
inhaler despite chronic heart disease and failure, and another suffered an
almost two-year delay in the diagnosis and treatment of bladder cancer.
Corrections administrators say most inmates are healthier and getting better
medical care than they did when they were free. But even the poorest person
outside prison has options that prisoners don't CMS spokesman Ken Fields said
he couldn't comment specifically on individual cases, but said CMS
"provides medical care that's evidence-backed and medically necessary,
and those services are provided at the community standard of care." The
company, founded in 1979 and based in St. Louis, Mo., has prison and jail
health care contracts in 26 states, with 80 employees in Michigan.
Corrections says CMS has performed adequately and saved the state nearly $10
million a year, partly by negotiating cost-effective specialty care contracts
with outside physicians. But sworn statements by experts filed in federal
court in 2002, after reviewing thousands of documents, showed that dozens of
prisoners with urgent and emergency symptoms were not seen for days. Nor did
nurses respond properly to written medical requests, sometimes called kites.
In some cases, treatment denied or delayed meant unnecessary suffering. A
patient with a suspected broken shoulder had an appointment scheduled six
days after his written request. One patient vomiting blood was not seen for
five days. An inmate requesting a four-point cane because he kept falling and
injuring himself did not get an appointment. In other cases, poor medical
care probably led to death. Earlier this month, Dr. Robert Cohen, the
associate monitor on medical issues for Hadix,
informed U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen of
Kalamazoo that many prisoners with chronic medical problems, including
seizure disorders, HIV infection, hypertension and diabetes, had not received
their medications for about five days. You won't hear much about any of these
cases. Screwups and poor quality care are shielded by the secrecy of prison
life in general, the confidentiality of medical records, and the rights to
withhold information that private companies enjoy, even when they get
millions of dollars of taxpayer money. Malpractice suits, which could
discourage poor medical practices, have little effect on prisons.
Unsympathetic juries, hurdles to getting inmates' medical records, and
compensation caps under the Prison Litigation Reform Act discourage attorneys
from taking any but the most serious and clear-cut cases.
April 22, 2004
Hepatitis C infection among Michigan prisoners is less widespread than feared
-- affecting an estimated 13.8 percent of the population -- a new study
finds, but the state still needs millions to treat inmates at risk of
developing liver failure, corrections officials say. "I am highly
skeptical because it's so out of whack with what other states have found, and
there's no good independent reason why Michigan should be any different than
any other state," said David Santacroce, an
assistant professor of law at the University of Michigan who has reviewed 200
records of infected inmates. Santacroce and
other critics charge that Michigan corrections officials and a private
company the state uses for medical care, Correctional Medical Services based
in St. Louis, Missouri, are not treating inmates properly. "There
are hundreds, if not thousands, of people dying of this disease because the
Michigan Department of Corrections and their primary health provider, CMS,
does not want to spend the money," Santacroce
said. (Lansing Bureau)
Michigan Legislature
Jun
26, 2015 freep.com
Maggots prompt call for prison kitchen inspections
LANSING
— Michigan's prison food contractor, Aramark Correctional Services, is
targeted in a bipartisan bill to require food safety inspections of prison kitchens,
following the most recent incident involving maggots in or around food. Reps.
John Kivela, D-Marquette and Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan,
want Aramark to pick up the cost of the inspections by local health
departments. Currently, prison kitchens are exempt from the food safety
inspections that restaurants receive because they are not considered
"food establishments" under the Michigan Food Law. House Bills 4748
and 4749 would change that. "Just in the past few weeks there was yet
another allegation of maggots in food served by Aramark in one of our
prisons, so clearly fining the company and the bad press they've received
over previous incidents hasn't helped get them to run a good food service
operation or clean kitchens," Kivela said in a
news release. Related: Did inmates eat potatoes with maggots in them? McBroom
said, "Our prisons should face the same scrutiny as our schools,
universities and senior centers," and "it seems only reasonable
that those kitchens face the same strict inspections as required by any
kitchen serving the public." Aramark spokeswoman Karen Cutler said
"food safety is our highest priority and we welcome the public
discussion regarding the appropriate roles and responsibilities in the MDOC
(Michigan Department of Corrections) kitchen facilities as it relates to
overall food safety." MDOC spokesman Chris Gautz
said the department has no position on the bill, but is open to discussing
it. He said the kitchens are inspected more frequently now than when they
were staffed by state workers, because state contract monitors do monthly
inspections, a registered sanitarian does an unannounced annual inspection,
and Aramark also employs a company that conducts inspections. The Free Press
reported June 2 that maggots were found that day in potatoes being prepared
for serving at the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility near Jackson. Gautz said though it was possible some contaminated food
was served to prisoners before the meal was stopped, there were no such
reports. On June 11, after obtaining records under Michigan's Freedom of
Information Act, the Free Press reported that the prisoner who discovered the
maggots said an Aramark supervisor told him to keep quiet about the incident.
Cutler said the prisoner's account is hearsay. "We have passed our
recent sanitation audits, while MDOC continues to work with its pest control
provider to manage a persistent pest problem in the kitchen," she said. Gautz said there have been "isolated incidents"
of pests at Cotton, which the department has addressed, but "we don't
have persistent pest problems at the Cotton facility." He agreed the
department is responsible for pest control, while Aramark is responsible for
kitchen sanitation. The discovery of maggots was the latest in a series of
incidents since Philadelphia-based Aramark replaced about 370 state workers
and began a three-year, $145-million contract to serve meals to Michigan's
43,000 prisoners in December 2013. The state fined Aramark $98,000 in March
2014 for food shortages, unauthorized menu substitutions and over-familiarity
between kitchen workers and inmates and $200,000 in August 2014 after
problems persisted. The state later confirmed it quietly waived the March
fine soon after it was imposed, and Aramark never paid it. There were earlier
incidents of maggots found in or around food, though state officials later
said the maggots couldn't be blamed on Aramark so much as issues with how
food was stored. There also have been incidents of Aramark employees arrested
for trying to smuggle drugs into state prisons for inmates and several
instances in which Aramark workers and inmates have been caught engaging in
sex acts. Earlier this month, a former Aramark worker at Kinross Correctional
Facility in the Upper Peninsula was arraigned on criminal charges of trying
to hire an inmate to assault another inmate. On Tuesday, the Associated Press
reported that Ohio renewed a contract with Aramark to feed that state's
50,000 prison inmates, despite similar early problems with that contract
involving understaffing, running out of food and a few cases of maggots near
food preparation areas.
May
28, 2015 detroitnews.com
Senate OKs reopening Mich. prison for Vermont inmates
Lansing — The State Senate voted Wednesday to allow
Vermont inmates at a mothballed private prison as critics labeled the move as
risky profiteering and the first step in a hidden privatization agenda for
Michigan’s corrections facilities. Detroit Sen. Coleman Young charged that
legislation allowing the reopening of the prison near Baldwin “is nothing
more than an opportunity to profit privately off corrections ... off the poor
decisions of others.” Backers of the House-passed bill, who prevailed on a
23-14 vote, said the facility would provide 150 or more jobs in financially
strapped Lake County by taking in prisoners from Vermont and, possibly, from
other states. “I challenge you to go to Lake County,” said Sen. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart. “I challenge you to talk to the
people of Lake County.” The measure, now headed to the desk of Gov. Rick
Snyder, would let Florida’s GEO Group Inc. house high-level Vermont inmates
there. Built in 1999 for young “punk” Michigan prisoners, it was idled in
2005 owing to higher costs than state-run prison, a declining state prison
population and other issues. Vermont, which long has depended on out-of-state
prisons because its own are overflowing, has a contract with GEO to put an
initial 319 inmates at Baldwin’s lock-up. The prison has space for more than
1,700 inmates. Debate on the plan was laced with political suspicions.
Opponents argue it’s a sneaky effort by majority Republicans to reopen the
contracting out of prison space to private firms as an option for Michigan
inmates. Backers see it as a fix for a partisan anti-business decision by the
administration of ex-Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat. The Senate narrowly
defeated a proposed amendment from Democratic Sen. Steve Bieda
of Warren prohibiting Michigan inmates at the prison. Bieda,
an attorney, said the loosely written bill could be read to allow Michigan
inmates, too. Bill supporters said ongoing debate about whether Michigan
should privatize any of its prisons should be separate and not hold up
approval of what’s largely an effort by GEO Group to recoup expenses and make
a profit on its facility. “It’s a private business engaged in a private
contract,” said Sen. John Proos, R-St. Joseph. It
wouldn’t be right “to tie the hands of that facility in the future,” he
argued. Among Republicans voting for the Bieda
amendment, Sen. Tom Casperson of Escanaba urged the Senate “be honest about
the intent” of the legislation. “The conversation (about privatization)
should be had now,” said Casperson, who voted for the legislation despite the
defeat of the amendment. He said lawmakers aren’t being entirely honest “by
not saying what the long-term intent might be.” The state is allowed to house
its prisoners privately. Michigan’s Department of Corrections looked at
reopening the Baldwin prison under a GOP-backed bill passed in 2013, however,
and found it wouldn’t produce the required 5 percent savings. Republicans
defeated several additional Democrat-proposed amendments to limit the types
of prisoners who’d come to Baldwin. Some warned reopening the prison under
private control is asking for trouble and could make Michigan a dumping
ground for other states’ most dangerous prisoners. Part of the Senate debate
sounded like a referendum on corrections policies during Granholm’s eight
years as governor. Hansen charged she based the decision to close the prison
on political expediency and “broke a contract” that was to last 10 years. The
Baldwin area ended up with heavy debt for infrastructure improvements it no
longer can afford, he said. Democratic Sen. Rebekah Warren of Ann Arbor said
the state dumped the contract because the private prison was chronically
understaffed, had more violence than other state prisons and the owners were
guilty of contract violations.
April 30, 2012 Detroit News
A proposal to close an Ionia prison and transfer inmates to a privately owned
facility has sparked a debate within the ranks of Republican lawmakers about
whether only government should be in the incarceration business. At least one
GOP lawmaker believes privately run prisons could be as significant a change
in how prisons are run as charter schools were to public education.
"Everybody sharpens their pencils and looks at a new way of doing things
when they have competition," said Rep. Joe Haveman,
R-Holland. But legislation authorizing the Department of Corrections to
contract with a multinational company to house convicts in its rural west
Michigan correctional facility has been stalled for months because there are
not enough Republican votes in the House to pass the bill, Haveman said. "To give up the entire running of a
prison, I think, is giving up too much control," said Rep. Mike Callton, a Republican from Nashville in Barry County, who
has constituents who work in Ionia's five prisons. To bypass opponents like Callton, Republican budget writers, instead of trying to
get a law passed in the GOP-dominated House, added a provision to the
proposed 2012-13 Department of Corrections budget requiring the department to
close the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia and accept bids for a privately run
prison. The budget plan assumes $7.1 million in net savings to the
department's $2 billion budget under the plan. The department doesn't support
shuttering the 1,300-bed prison and wasn't consulted, spokesman Russ Marlan said. "We feel a closure isn't needed,"
the department's legislative liaison, Jessica Peterson, recently told the
House Appropriations Committee. Following the January closing of Mound
Correctional Facility in Detroit, Corrections Director Dan Heyns had said the agency would not need to close any
more prisons in the near future. Geo Group Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla.,
corrections company, is trying to reopen its 1,740-bed North Lake
Correctional Facility near Baldwin after a plan to house California prisoners
fizzled. The Lake County facility is specifically identified in the two
stalled House bills as a location for a privately run prison. Geo Group's
lobbyist is former House Speaker Rick Johnson, R-Leroy.
February 8, 2012 Detroit News
A law requiring contractors to pay prisoners minimum wage is holding up a
privatization push meant to shave up to $93 million from the state
Corrections budget this year, officials confirmed Tuesday. Requests for
proposals to privatize roughly $400 million in prison services were put on
hold in January after a review by Attorney General Bill Schuette's office
revealed private contractors using prisoners for kitchen, janitorial and
other duties would have to pay Michigan's $7.40 an hour minimum wage — 10
times what unskilled prisoner employees are paid by the state. Prisoner pay
is one of a number of legal issues raised by attorneys after Gov. Rick Snyder
made turning over certain prison services to private companies a priority in
this year's budget. Snyder is to unveil on Thursday his budget for the fiscal
year that begins Oct. 1. He's expected to make public safety and Corrections
one of his priorities, along with education and transportation. State law
also prohibits private contractors from using any state assets — from kitchen
stoves to prison buildings — without compensating the state, according to
Russ Marlan, spokesman for the state Department of
Corrections. "Our (requests for proposals) are all tied up still with
the AG's office, and the fix here is going to require some statutory changes,
so they're going to be tied up for a while," Marlan
said. "By statute, if state prisoners are used for labor, they have to
be paid minimum wage. They can't even use state assets as a private
contractor. We'd have to declare all of that property surplus and sell
it."
North Lake Correctional Facility
Baldwin, MI
Jun 11, 2022 shorelinemedia.net
North Lake
Correctional Facility to close in September
North Lake
Correctional Facility is closing in September, according to a memo to
employees obtained by the Daily News. The facility is a for-profit prison
that houses non-U.S. citizens convicted of federal felonies and detainees, owned and operated by the GEO Group through a
public-private partnership with the Federal Bureau of Prisons since reopening
in 2019. The memo obtained by the Daily News, dated May 26, is titled
"Notice of facility closure," and comes from facility administrator
Michael Breckon. It states that the Federal Bureau of Prisons will end its
contract at the North Lake Correctional Facility on Sept. 30. It attributes
the closure to President Joe Biden's 2021 executive order that contracts not
be renewed with for-profit prisons. "The BOP's decision to close this
facility is not a reflection on the work done by our employees, but rather
the result of President Biden's Jan. 26, 2021, executive order instructing
the attorney general not to renew Department of Justice contracts with
privately operated criminal detention facilities," the memo states.
Following Biden's executive order in 2021, the Daily News filed a federal
Freedom of Information Act request with the BOP seeking information about
possible stipulations in the department's contract with GEO Group that would
make it possible for the prison to close prior to the end of its contract,
originally expected to last until 2029. The Daily News was told in February
2021 to expect a six-week delay in receiving a FOIA response. After multiple
check-ins with the BOP, there has still been no response to the request,
which was confirmed as received shortly after being submitted. In February
2021, the Daily News reported that President Biden's order "could
impact" North Lake's contract, but no definitive confirmation was
received, either from GEO Group or from the BOP. The Daily News reached out
to both GEO Group and the Bureau of Prisons before running this story, but did not hear back by press time. Lake County
Administrator Tobi Lake said the loss of the prison would be a "big
hit," as it's the county's largest employer. Bill Huizenga, U.S.
Representative for the 2nd Congressional District, which currently includes
Baldwin, derided the executive order that resulted in the prison's reported,
impending closure. "This a very real example of how the Biden's
administration's failed policies hurt communities like Baldwin,"
Huizenga, R-Zeeland, wrote in a statement to the Daily News. "North Lake
Correctional Facility helps keep the streets safe, creates good-paying jobs,
and supports the local economy." He added that the decision to halt
Department of Justice contracts with private prisons was "emblematic of
Joe Biden's inability to properly address the crisis along our southern
border." Huizenga did not respond to a request for comment from the
Daily News about what, if anything, his office was doing to urge the BOP and
DOJ to keep North Lake Correctional Facility going. GEO Group is also
contesting the North Lake Correctional Facility's tax value, which would be
an additional blow to the county's economy, according to Lake. "GEO is
in the process right now with the township, county and school district, of
going to the (State of Michigan) Tax Tribunal contesting their tax
value," Lake said. "They're going to try to cut their value in half
at a cost to the county of $200,000 per year." Another document acquired
by the Daily News confirms that GEO Group is petitioning the tribunal to
"reduce the assessed and state equalized value of of
(the facility) from $34,006,500 to $17,500,000 and order a refund with
interest." The Michigan Tax Tribunal document lists GEO Group as the
petitioner and Webber Township as the respondent. It's dated May 29, 2021, and goes on to state that the facility's
"true cash value is excessive and does not reflect market values
indicated by comparable sales." Lake said he believes that, if GEO Group
is successful with the petition, it "might try to reduce (its tax value)
even further." Lake said the loss of the prison will take its toll on
the county, but added, "it's nothing we haven't been through
before," referencing the facility's somewhat fraught history. The prison
originally opened in 1998 and was closed and reopened several times. The
prison operated for seven years housing Michigan's youth prisoners before
being closed in October 2005. GEO Group spent millions of dollars to expand
the facility, which originally cost about $20 million, so it could house up
to 1,580 inmates after the company reached an agreement to house California
prisoners, who started arriving in 2011. GEO Group sought permission to house
Michigan prisoners in 2013, but the state rejected the plan. The state later
approved GEO Group housing prisoners from Vermont and Washington. The first
prisoners from Vermont arrived at the prison in the summer of 2015, but the
facility closed in 2017 when that contract ended, re-opening to protests from
concerned citizens in 2019. There was additional concern about COVID-19 conditions
and the ability of loved ones to reach prisoners housed in the facility.
Jan 29, 2021 michiganradio.org
Lake County
for-profit prison likely to close after Biden executive order
A for-profit prison
in a rural county in Michigan is expected to close when its contract expires
at the end of September, 2022. That's after
President Joe Biden issued an executive order ending federal contracts with
private prison companies. North Lake Correctional Facility near the Village
of Baldwin in Lake County houses about 1,500 non-US citizen inmates convicted
of federal crimes. It's run by the for-profit company GEO Group. President
Biden says his executive order is part of an effort to address the problem of
mass incarceration, and is based on a 2016 Office of
Inspector General report which concluded that privately run prisons are less
safe, less humane, and offer fewer rehabilitation services, than prisons run
by the federal government. Some inmates staged a hunger strike at North Lake
Correctional in April last year, saying the facility was unsafe and there was
inadequate food. Village officials say the facility employs 300 people, and
its closure will be devastating to the local economy. GEO Group says its
facilities are safe, and closing privately run
prisons could cause overcrowding in federally-run prisons.
Sep 28, 2019
detroitnews.com
Private prison
company to house non-U.S. citizens at Michigan facility
A private prison
company in Northern Michigan could begin housing non-U.S. citizens convicted
of federal crimes as early as next week as part of a 10-year contract with
the federal government. The GEO Group
Inc. won the contract to house up to 1,800 adult inmates at its North Lake
Correction Facility in Baldwin from the Federal Bureau of Prisons in May.
Village of Baldwin President Jim Truxton said the facility plans to begin
admitting inmates on Tuesday, but GEO Group would only confirm the site would
be “ready to receive inmates as soon as Tuesday." The inmates housed in
Baldwin through the federal Criminal Alien Requirement Program usually have
90 months or less to serve on sentences that typically involve nonviolent
drug offenses or re-entry to the country after deportation. All face deportation after completing their
sentences in Baldwin. The prison has
hired 234 staff members, including 34 medical staff, and is in the process of
hiring more. Many of the hires are from the county or surrounding area and
will make between $35,000 and $76,000, according to GEO Group. The
Florida-based firm that has other similar facilities in the U.S. expects the
federal contract to generate roughly $37 million a year in incremental
annualized revenues. Inmates will be offered courses that include basic adult
education, introduction to computers, building trades, life skills, religious
services and suicide prevention, according to GEO Group. Truxton has long
been a supporter of the facility and said most of the community is also happy
with the contract for the prison. “A
filled bed is a filled bed; it’s profit for GEO and they’re hiring people,”
Truxton said. “How is it any different than GM building a new plant in the
Detroit area?” The Baldwin facility accounts for roughly half of the taxable
value of the surrounding township and has paid $8 million to upgrade and
expand Baldwin’s waste water treatment plant to
handle the prison’s new federal population, Truxton said. “What a privately
owned facility like North Lake Correctional Facility means to the poorest
county in the state is $1.5 million in ad valorem taxes plus personal property
taxes plus jobs,” he said. The
American Civil Liberties Union has raised concerns about the safety of
private federal prisons in other states but did not immediately respond to a
request for comment regarding the new population at North Lake Correction Facility.
The building was constructed in 1999 and contracted with the Michigan
Department of Corrections through 2005 to house offenders under the age of
20, according to department spokesman Chris Gautz.
The facility later had a brief contract with the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation and a small contract with the Vermont
Department of Corrections in 2016. GEO Group attempted to sell the prison to
the Michigan Department of Corrections a few years ago, but with the group's
last, best offer at $100 million the department declined, Corrections
Department spokesman Chris Gautz said. Privately
owned facilities like the one in Baldwin generally present a lower-cost
option for the housing of low-security federal prisoners. As of April 2017,
the cost to house a low-security inmate at a contracted site such as the
Baldwin prison averaged $68.19 a day, while housing an inmate in a
low-security federal facility averaged $87.41 a day. The Baldwin facility will be one of roughly
a dozen private facilities contracted to house federal non-citizen offenders
for the Bureau of Prisons. Of the 177,300 federal inmates currently housed by
the federal bureau, 33,412 are non-U.S. citizens and nearly 16,000 of those
non-U.S. citizens are housed in privately managed facilities like the one in
Baldwin, according to federal data. Roughly 10,200 inmates being housed
within the Federal Bureau of Prisons are being held on immigration-related
felonies. The correction facility was built in 1999 and provided correctional
services to the Michigan Department of Corrections for several years. Earlier
this year, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer blocked the sale of a separate former state
prison to a different company that wanted to open an immigration detention
center in Ionia because the company — Immigration Centers of America — could
not guarantee the facility would only be used to house single adults who were
not separate from family when they arrived in the U.S. The federal prison
bureau began contracting with private companies in 1997 to decrease
overcrowding and respond to congressional mandates, according to the U.S.
Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Justice. “Many of the
inmates incarcerated in these contract prisons are Mexican nationals with
convictions for immigration offenses who have 90 months or less remaining to
serve on their sentences,” the inspector general said in a 2016 report.
Jun 14, 2016 rutlandherald.com
Prison incident not serious
MONTPELIER — Vermont Defender General Matt Valerio says he’s not too
worried about an incident involving Vermont inmates at a private prison in
Michigan. Two staff members from the prisoners’ rights division of Valerio’s
office traveled to the North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan,
last week to investigate the May 25 fire drill and its aftermath. He says a
handful of inmates acted out by trying to block cell doors with mattresses
and breaking sprinkler heads when a fire drill was called and cells were
searched in a segregation unit. The search turned up a small number of cell
phones. He says on a scale of 1-to-10, with 1 being inmates mouthing off to
guards and 10 being a full-scale riot, the incident was a 3.
Jun 9, 2016 fusion.net
Inmate sues private prison company alleging he was sexually harassed by a
prison nurse
An inmate in Michigan is suing the second-largest largest private prison
company in the country, alleging he was sexually harassed and molested by a
nurse at his prison. In a handwritten lawsuit he filed against the GEO Group
last week, Bernard Carter says a nurse at the North Lake Correctional
Facility forced him to expose himself to her and touched him sexually without
his consent. “She would make sexual comments to me that made me feel
uncomfortable,” he wrote. “Then it got to where she was touching me in ways
that she shouldn’t have and it made me uncomfortable.” It seems highly
unlikely that Carter’s lawsuit will succeed—he has no lawyer, hasn’t paid the
court fee, and didn’t submit the necessary paperwork to exempt himself from the
fee. But his suit is only the latest example of misconduct claims from
Vermont inmates like himself who are sent across the country to the private
facility. Inmates in several states with overcrowded prison systems are sent
thousands of miles away to facilities that tend to face less scrutiny from
officials back home. They end up in private prisons like North Lake, a
1,750-bed prison on the edge of a 540,000-acre national forest. According to
Carter, 46, his harassment began in August 2015, soon after he arrived at the
prison. It started with the nurse talking about his penis and how she wanted
to have sex with him, but soon escalated, even after he told her to stop. “I
was in a high security unit and she would come there and call me out, call me
to medical [three times] a week,” he said. “Many times
she had me expose myself to her, have me rub between her legs.” The nurse in
question, who is also a defendant in the lawsuit, is named Theresa; it’s hard
to make out what her last name might be due to Carter’s messy handwriting.
We’ve been unable to confirm whether anyone by her name works or worked at
North Lake. A spokesperson for the GEO Group—which runs the prison—declined
to comment, and the Vermont Department of Corrections did not respond to a
request for comment. Carter himself is in prison for a sexual assault
conviction. According to court records, in October 1992 he snuck into his
ex-girlfriend’s room in their apartment complex in Newport, Vt., a
picturesque town 15 minutes from the Canadian border. The victim in the
assault said that he threatened her with a knife and then raped her; he
claimed they had consensual sex. A jury convicted Carter of sexual assault in
May 1994, and he’s been in prison ever since, serving a sentence of 45 years
to life. He appears to be eligible for a parole hearing as of last month,
according to the Vermont Department of Corrections inmate database. The
state’s policy of shipping inmates like Carter across the country has been
controversial. There are currently 195 inmates from Vermont who live at North
Lake (at a cost to the state of $61.80 per person per day). In 2014, Vermont
inmates in a private prison in Arizona rioted against being sent out of state
and were subdued with a “chemical agent” before being kept in solitary for
extended periods of time. Last year, after a Vermont inmate died in a private
prison in Kentucky after a brutal beating by a fellow prisoner, state
corrections officials had trouble getting any information about the death. A
former inmate at North Lake told Vermont legislators during a hearing last
year that the private facility lacked jobs and educational opportunities for
inmates. “Men that go out of state become depressed,” he said. In a phone
interview from her home in Vermont, Carter’s 82-year-old mother Ruth Carter
said the distance made it all but impossible for her and her family to visit
him. “I haven’t seen him for two years,” she told me. Carter has been housed
out of state since November 1998, she said, previously in private prisons in
Kentucky and Arizona. Ruth and her husband—who’s now 93—used to travel to see
him regularly, but now the trip is too difficult and expensive. “They really
need to do something to bring these men back to Vermont where they come
from,” Ruth said. “They need their families and their families need them.”
Recently, she said, her son had been kept in solitary confinement—locked up
alone for 23 hours a day—for 90 days straight. During that time, he was “kinda going crazy.” “He would talk to me and it was like
you know he wasn’t quite right—he’d write letters too you could hardly read
them,” she said. Now, he’s out of segregation and “doing better,” she added.
But she didn’t think the sexual harassment allegations were a figment of his
imagination—he had recounted them to her in lucid detail.
Jun 2, 2016 detroitnews.com
Michigan: VT officials to look into GEO prison incident
Montpelier, Vt. — Lawyers from Vermont’s Prisoners’
Rights Office plan to travel to Michigan this weekend to investigate a series
of incidents in a private prison that houses Vermont inmates. Defender
General Matt Valerio, whose office includes the prisoners’ rights unit, said
two staff members from that unit would travel to the North Lake Correctional
Facility in Baldwin on Sunday to investigate the May 25 incidents. “We’ve had
different accounts of an incident that took place allegedly with inmates who
were in segregation,” Valerio said. “We don’t really know what caused it and
we aren’t clear about the nature and extent,” he said, adding it appeared to
have begun when prison staff launched a search for contraband, including
weapons. Valerio said his office is required by state law to investigate any
incidents or issues concerning confinement of Vermont prisoners. Prison staff
had been conducting a “routine emergency drill” that included searching cells
and evacuating part of the facility to simulate a fire drill, GEO Group Inc.,
the private prison firm that owns the facility, said in a statement. “During
the drill, four inmates refused to cooperate with staff, and the situation
was appropriately handled by the facility staff,” the statement says. “The
incident did not involve a facility disturbance, and normal operations
continued throughout the day.” Mike Touchette, the state Corrections
Department’s director of facility operations, said the department is
reviewing reports about the incidents. He said there was no indication from
reviews so far that any prison staff behaved improperly. “We don’t have any
concerns that they violated the terms of our contract, or any policies that
they are required to have” under its terms, Touchette said. Vermont houses
236 inmates at the Michigan facility. When Vermont first moved the prisoners
to Michigan from another private prison in Kentucky a year ago, there were about
280. Under pressure from inmates’ rights groups and some lawmakers, Vermont
corrections officials have been working to reduce the number of prisoners
housed in private, out-of-state facilities.
Oaks Correctional Facility
Eastlake, Michigan
Wexford, Correctional Medical Services
December 1, 2004 Lundington Daily News
A
former Oaks Correctional Facility physician pleaded guilty to four counts of
tax evasion with a total tax liability of $139,794. Dr. Daniel Smalley, 56,
formerly of Wellston now of Ludington, is scheduled for sentencing at 1:30
p.m. Feb. 22, 2005 at the Lansing Federal Building. On June 28, 2004, Smalley was arrested
at the Baltimore Washington International Airport, in Baltimore, Maryland,
after returning from Ghana, West Africa. According to a complaint filed in
June 2004, during the years 1997 through 2002, Smalley was employed at both
the Baraga Correctional Facility, Baraga, and at the Oaks Correctional
Facility, Eastlake, working for several different companies, including Genesys Integrated Group, Wexford Health Services, the
State of Michigan, and Correctional Medical Services.
In 1996 and 1997, Smalley provided Genesys with
what U.S. attorneys are calling a false W-4 form, claiming to be exempt from
all federal income taxes. In 2002, the IRS submitted a notice of levy to
Correctional Medical Services to collect taxes due and owing from his wages.
Each count of conviction carries a maximum penalty of five years’
imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
South Haven
South Haven, Michigan
Wackenhut (now Group 4)
October 1, 2012 AP
The Supreme Court won't let the family of a raped and murdered college girl
sue the employer of her killers for her 1979 death. The high court on Monday
refused to let the parents of Janet Chandler sue Wackenhut Corp., which in
1979 was hired to send security guards to Holland, Mich., to provide security
during a strike.
February 16, 2010 Grand Rapids News
Less than a month after a federal judge rejected James and Glenna Chandler's
bid to punish the security company that employed five men convicted of
killing their daughter in Holland in 1979, the couple has filed an appeal,
pushing their case forward. Janet Chandler's father filed the appeal Tuesday
with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth District in Cincinnati, records
show. The Chandlers have claimed Wackenhut Corp. -- which employed five of
the six people convicted of Janet Chandler's slaying -- did not conduct
sufficient employee background checks, or properly supervise their workers.
They also contended Wackenhut helped hide the employees' involvement in the
murder, which took nearly three decades to solve. The family was seeking cash
damages for the mental pain and suffering inflicted by the death of Janet, a
22-year-old Hope College student. On Jan. 19, U.S. District Judge Janet Neff
dismissed the Chandlers' claims against the Florida security firm, which
hired guards during a strike at a Holland area plant. Neff said the
allegations were filed after a three-year statute of limitations.
July 31, 2009 Grand Rapid Press
The state Court of Appeals has rejected the appeals of four men convicted in
the 1979 killing of Janet Chandler, the 23-year-old Hope College student who
was abducted, raped and slain by Wackenhut Corp. security guards. She worked
as the overnight clerk at the former Blue Mill Inn in Holland when she became
acquainted with the Wackenhut workers who were providing security at a local
plant during a labor strike. She was taken to a guest house where she was
brutalized, her body later dumped near South Haven. The 22-page ruling,
upholding the convictions of James "Bubba" Nelson, 62, Freddie
Parker, 52, Arthur Paiva, 57, and Anthony Robert Eugene Williams, 58, came
this morning, about two weeks after attorneys presented arguments before the
state Court of Appeals. All were convicted of first-degree murder and are
serving life sentences without hope for parole. Two others, Laurie Swank and
Robert Lynch, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified for the
prosecution. They are serving lesser sentences. A cold-case team of Holland
police and state police detectives cracked a code of silence that kept the
case unsolved nearly three decades as the suspects scattered around the
country after the strike ended.
July 14, 2009 WOOD TV
Four men convicted in the rape and murder of Janet Chandler will have
their appeals heard in court Tuesday. James Nelson, Anthony Williams, Freddie
Parker and Arthur "Carl" Paiva each filed appeals for various
reasons. Nelson claims there was insufficient evidence proven to convict him
beyond a reasonable doubt; Williams claims his due process was violated and
he was identified through "impermissibly suggestive" methods. He
also claims he was denied a fair trial by being tried jointly with the
others; Parker claims his counsel was ineffective, and that the court abused
its discretion in denying separate trials.; and Paiva claims his Sixth
Amendment rights to confrontation were denied. Those four, plus Robert Lynch
and Laurie Swank, were convicted late in 2007 of murdering Chandler, a Hope
College student working at the Blue Mill Inn in Holland, in 1979. Chandler
was kidnapped and taken to a guest house where she was repeatedly raped,
tortured, then finally died after being strangled with a belt. Her body was
dumped along I-196 near South Haven. In December 2008, James and Glenna
Chandler, Janet's parents, filed a lawsuit against the Wackenhut Corporation,
the company for which Nelson, Williams, Parker and Paiva worked.
December 18, 2008 Holland Sentinel
The family of Janet Chandler — the 22-year-old woman gang-raped and
murdered in 1979 by a group of security guards — filed a civil lawsuit in
federal court Wednesday, Dec. 17, alleging that the security company did not
properly investigate backgrounds of its employees. In the complaint, the
Chandlers allege that the Wackenhut Corporation’s negligent hiring practices
caused mental pain and suffering for the family. “An appropriate
investigation would have revealed the unsuitability of the involved employees
for the particular duty to be performed or for employment in general,” the
lawsuit states. It also states that Janet Chandler’s murder is a result of
the company’s negligence. The Chandlers asked for at least $75,000 from the
Wackenhut Corporation. Jurors convicted former Wackenhut security supervisor
Arthur Carlton Paiva of first-degree murder for his role in the murder in
November 2007. In addition, Paiva was also found guilty of felony murder
during a kidnapping and felony murder during a criminal sexual assault.
Former guards James Nelson, Freddie Parker and Anthony Williams were each
convicted of second-degree murder, felony murder during criminal sexual
assault and felony murder during a kidnapping. All four men are serving life
terms in prison without parole. Two others — Robert Lynch and Laurie Ann
Swank — pleaded guilty to lesser charges. All had been working at the Blue
Mill Inn on Jan. 31, 1979, the night Janet Chandler, a Hope College student
and desk clerk at the motel, was abducted and taken to a Holland Township
party where the security guards raped, strangled and killed her.
November 2, 2007 Grand Rapid Press
As they sifted though the many details of Janet Chandler's murder, jurors who
convicted four of her attackers Thursday said they found themselves stepping
back and forth in time. Jurors said they rattled off the names of the
suspects in Chandler's 1979 murder, one by one. They looked at statements
made to investigators in the early days of the investigation, then compared
them with information gathered recently by a cold-case team. Sorting through
28 years of faded memories and disturbing images tucked away in the recesses
of witnesses' minds, the jury determined it all pointed to deliberate
planning by Arthur "Carl" Paiva and a band of Wackenhut security
guards who were found guilty of murder for the Hope College student's
strangulation. "All the statements given by the suspects and the others
who were interviewed led back to (Paiva)," said Thomas Foley, a Grand
Haven Township man who was the jury's foreman. "They all connected him
to the planning, to what happened and how it happened." The trial, which
saw its first witness take the stand Oct. 18, wrapped up after a day and a
half of deliberations by the jury. As Foley Thursday night announced guilty
verdicts against Paiva, Anthony Williams, Freddie Parker and James Nelson
that will land them a mandatory life sentence in prison, Janet Chandler's
mother, Glenna Chandler, broke down in tears. Call it years of anguish
coupled with an immense sense of relief, said David Schock,
a Chandler family friend and former Hope College professor credited with
renewing interest in the case. A documentary produced by Schock's
class four years ago prompted the inquiry by a four-person cold case team.
"These (the Chandler family) are strong people who have lived the last
28 years of their lives moment by moment," Schock
said. "It's been a long road for them, and only their faith sustained
them. It sustained all of us who wanted justice for Janet." Glenna
Chandler and her husband, James, left the courthouse without speaking to
reporters. The Muskegon couple sat through two weeks of testimony that
depicted a brutal murder and allegations that their daughter had led a double
life. The 22-year-old aspiring singer and devout Christian also was involved
in sexual relationships and partying with guards working at a Holland
Township industrial strike, according to testimony. Chandler's body was found
the day after her disappearance, nude and half-buried in a snowbank near
South Haven. The guards, who stayed at the Blue Mill Inn, long had been
suspected in the slaying, but what witnesses described as a code of silence
-- sometimes backed by death threats -- stymied investigators. The end of the
strike dispersed those involved, complicating the initial probe into
Chandler's abduction during what appeared to be a robbery at the Blue Mill,
where she worked. Two other people involved in the killing, guard Robert
Lynch and Chandler's co-worker and roommate Laurie Swank, eventually
confessed to the crime and implicated others. Family members of the
defendants, who sat stone-faced upon hearing their guilty verdicts, declined
to comment as they left the courtroom. Paiva was convicted of first-degree
murder while the other defendants were found guilty of felony murder stemming
from the kidnapping and sexual assault. Each carries a life term. Paiva's
relatives embraced and consoled each other, while a sister of Parker briefly needed
medical attention before leaving. Parker's son shouted angrily at a
television crew as he walked to his vehicle. "It's a difficult thing for
anyone to handle," said Joe Legatz, who
defended Nelson. Legatz said the resources
allocated by the state attorney general's office and local investigators
stacked the odds against the four defendants. "It was a significant
challenge, but I'm not going to sit here and whine about it," he said.
"It's my feeling that we raised reasonable doubt and that the prosecution
witnesses just kind of brought (Nelson) into it through 29 years of trying to
forget. "You can't second-guess a juror and what they felt. Whether
there are appellate issues to take up, I guess that's the next step."
Holland Police Chief John Kruithoff said he hopes
the verdict brings "peace and closure to the Janet Chandler
family." Other authorities involved in the case, including prosecutors,
refused to comment until a news conference today. James Fairbanks, the lead
detective on the murder case in January 1979, became emotional at the end of
Thursday's proceedings. Like the Chandlers, he waited years for finality.
"It's about time. I regret we couldn't have done it sooner," said
Fairbanks, now retired. "We finally got them. It was a long, long hard
road. "It's something I never forgot. Janet Chandler was always in my
mind since it happened." Jurors said statements obtained in 1979 by
Fairbanks and other detectives helped when evaluating the veracity of
witnesses' testimony. "There wasn't much hard evidence, but all the
documentation (then) helped show the differences," Foley said.
"There was intent and planning, and Paiva was connected to it more than
anyone else." Schock, the former Hope
professor, expressed a satisfaction at the finding. At the same time, he was
dazed by the covert nature of up to a dozen witnesses to the rape and murder.
"I'm always stunned by evil," he said. "How can you not be
stunned by that?" He said the Chandler family holds no malice toward
Janet's killers. They realize the profound impact this has had on their lives
and how it will take them from their families. "They are gratified by
justice, but there is no joy," he said. A Dateline NBC television crew,
producing a segment on the Chandler investigation, asked Schock
if he ever dreamed of an end to the case. He responded that he had, and he
was inspired by the victim's family's faith. "Faith is the hope for
things unseen," Schock said. "You work
for something that may lead to nothing, but if you don't take the risk, if
you don't believe, you get nothing."
October 23, 2007 Grand Rapids Press
They witnessed Janet Chandler's brutal rape and murder, then kept a
"code of silence" for 27 years to protect themselves. Former
Wackenhut security guards who worked with four men now on trial for
Chandler's 1979 murder could take the stand as early as Tuesday. Harry Keith
and Glenn Johnson have testified at earlier hearings against defendants in
the Chandler murder case and today were in the Ottawa County Prosecutor's
Office to prepare for testimony. In the past, Keith has corroborated other
witness accounts that several guards assaulted Chandler at a house on Lake Macatawa, choking her with a belt until she died.
Specifically, he earlier testified he saw Robert Lynch on top of Chandler,
slapping and hitting her as his knees pinned her shoulders down. He was
pulling up on a belt around Chandler's neck until she went limp, Keith
testified. Lynch already has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was
sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison. Prosecutors say Lynch, Arthur
Paiva, Freddie Parker, James Nelson and Anthony Williams were former
Wackenhut guards, in Holland patrolling a strike at the Chemetron
plant, when they took part in Chandler's slaying. All but Paiva were staying
at the Blue Mill Inn where Chandler, 22, worked as a night desk clerk. Paiva
stayed at a Chemetron guest house on Howard Avenue,
the site of a Jan. 31 party where authorities say the guards and former inn
supervisor Laurie Swank carried out a plan to "teach (Chandler) a
lesson" for her alleged sexual relations with numerous guards. Keith,
Lynch's roommate at the Blue Mill Inn, earlier testified he saw "Bob
standing next to the body, poking and pushing it, making sure if she was
alive or dead." Johnson was a captain with Wackenhut and said he saw
Nelson take Chandler from her job at the inn and put her blindfolded into a
van. Johnson, who uses a wheelchair after two strokes, explained the
"code of silence" among guards at an earlier hearing. He said the
guards stuck together to protect each other after the slaying. In addition to
former guards, maids who once worked at the Blue Mill Inn are expected to
testify this week.
October 18, 2007 Grand Rapids Press
A prosecutor this morning described the Janet Chandler murder as "so
ruthless, so savage, so horrific that I guarantee it will make your skin
crawl" as jurors listened to her opening statement. Assistant Attorney
General Donna Pendergast likened the 22-year-old
woman's murder to a movie, describing what testimony will show as
"terror, torture, and a savage rape and brutal murder. "This trial
will tell the story of a lurid tale of decadent behavior, a tale of rape and
revenge," she told jurors. Four former security guards with the
Wackenhut Security Corp. are on trial for the murder of Chandler on Jan. 31,
1979. Defense attorneys hinted at what their arguments will be in their
opening statements. Floyd Farmer, representing Arthur Paiva, suggested other
witnesses are lying about Paiva's participation in the murder, because he was
disliked by other guards. Farmer also said Lori Swank, who already has
pleaded guilty in the crime, was upset with Paiva and implicated him.
Defendant Freddie Parker's attorney said witnesses will testify Parker was in
West Virginia on Jan. 31, 1979. Attorneys for Anthony Williams also said few
witnesses named their client as being there.
May 21, 2007 Muskegon Chronicle
As the trial date for four suspects in the Janet Chandler "cold
case" murder creeps closer, one is asking for a separate trial to keep
the others from blaming him. At the same time, another suspect tried to
proclaim his innocence in a letter to Ottawa County Circuit Court Judge Ed
Post. The legal wrangling among Freddie Parker, 50; Arthur Paiva, 54; James
"Bubba" Nelson, 59; and Anthony Eugene Williams, 59, may intensify
this summer as the Oct. 16 murder trial approaches. All are accused of raping
and murdering Chandler, a 22-year-old Hope College student who worked as a
night-desk clerk at the Blue Mill Inn in January 1979. Chandler's naked body
was found in a snowbank in the Int. 196 median near Covert. The four men were
Wackenhut Corp. security guards patrolling a strike at two Chemetron facilities in Holland and staying at the inn.
Their biggest obstacle at trial will be trying to discredit eyewitness
testimony from Laurie Swank, 49, a former Blue Mill Inn supervisor who
already has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and awaits sentencing.
Another former guard, Robert Michael Lynch, 67, also has admitted he took
part in the murder and is serving a minimum 25-year prison sentence. Parker,
50, is tentatively asking Post for a separate trial over worries that Paiva,
Nelson and Williams will try to blame him and each other for the murder.
March 29, 2007 Muskegon Chronicle
Freddie Parker, one of six suspects in the 28-year-old murder of Janet
Chandler, long has insisted he was not in Michigan when the Blue Mill Inn
night clerk died. But his former girlfriend testified in court Wednesday that
he took part in the brutal rape, torture and slaying of Chandler, a
22-year-old Hope College student from Muskegon. Diane Marsman,
an inn maid in January 1979, said Parker was one of several Wackenhut
security guards she saw raping Chandler before she died, bound with a belt
around her neck. Later, shortly before Chandler's funeral, Parker and several
guards met at the inn and gloated about the incident. "They were like
bragging and boasting about what they did to Janet," Marsman
said. "What they did to her and how they gave it to her." Parker,
50, who was extradited from West Virginia last month to join five other
suspects charged with killing Chandler, was in the Holland branch of Ottawa
County's 58th District Court for a probable cause hearing Wednesday. Judge
Brad Knoll adjourned the hearing to an April date after Marsman's
testimony because two Michigan State Police troopers and Ottawa County
Medical Examiner Dr. David Start were unavailable to testify. Parker, who
fought extradition, is the last of the suspects still at the district court
level.
February 5, 2007 The Grand Rapids Press
Janet Chandler's former boss and roommate -- a woman who admitted to
instigating the fatal attack on Chandler out of jealousy -- pleaded guilty
today to second-degree murder. Laurie Swank, 49, earlier admitted she was
involved in meetings with Wackenhut Security guards who plotted to "take
care of (Chandler)" because they were angry with the 23-year-old clerk
at the Blue Mill Inn. In a surprise move last month, Swank accepted a plea
deal for a minimum 10-year sentence and provided key testimony against three
other suspects in the Chandler murder. Swank today read a statement before
Ottawa County Circuit Judge Ed Post, who accepted her guilty plea. In a
monotone voice, Swank admitted to being in the room when Chandler died.
"Janet was being raped against her will. There was also a belt around
her neck, and others were applying pressure to it," Swank said.
"For a period of time while I was there I encouraged the participants to
continue while Janet went in and out of consciousness." Swank is one of
six people charged in January 1979 murder, where Chandler was raped, tortured
and eventually strangled to death with a belt. Wackenhut guards, patrolling a
strike at Chemetron Pigments and staying at the
Blue Mill Inn, took her from her night clerk's post at the inn to a guest
house on Chemetron property in Holland Township.
There, she was sexually assaulted and tortured for hours until she died. Her
body was dumped in a snowbank in the Int. 196 median near Covert.
January 22, 2007 The Grand Rapids Press
Robert Michael Lynch, the first suspect charged in the Janet Chandler
murder, was sentenced to 25 to 40 years in prison Monday as Chandler's crying
parents looked on. "You, Mr. Lynch, took her life, but you never took
her soul," said Chandler's mother, Glenna. "God will be your final
judge, not us. May he have mercy." James Chandler, her father, thanked
those who cracked his daughter's 28-year-old murder, including the police
cold-case team and Hope College students who filmed a documentary. "What
can I say to people that have no conscience and no regard to human
life," James Chandler said, weeping before he and his wife left the
Ottawa County Circuit courtroom. Lynch's sentence was predetermined before
today's hearing. Lynch pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in December.
Lynch said little at Monday's sentencing, except to offer a brief apology to
the Chandler family. "I hope the family rests in peace and I also ask
for forgiveness from Janet," he said. When Lynch, 67, was arrested in
February 2006, police described him as a ringleader in the murder. Janet
Chandler, 23, was a night clerk at the Blue Mill Inn at U.S. 31 and 16th
Street when she went missing Jan. 31, 1979, in an apparent abduction and
robbery. A four-person cold-case team assembled in 2004 began tracking leads
involving several security guards staying at the inn and eventually
determined they raped and strangled Chandler. Court documents and earlier
testimony showed the guards were motivated by jealousy and anger toward
Chandler, who allegedly was intimately involved with several guards. The
guards, with Wackenhut Security, were in Holland to patrol a strike at the Chemetron property in Holland Township.
January 19, 2007 The Grand Rapids Press
At the heart of a 27-year murder mystery, the memory of Hope College
student Janet Chandler is overrun by lurid, disturbing testimony of
relationships with suspects in her rape and killing. But her family's memory
of Chandler is locked in time as a beautiful daughter, sister and niece whose
singing once echoed in their church. She is still Dennis Chandler's big
sister. "She was always trying to look out for her younger
brother," the 46-year-old said Thursday, outside Holland District Court.
"I remember her singing at weddings and church, and everything else.
That's the side we all know." Another side aired Thursday as witnesses,
in a probable-cause hearing, described the plot to kill Chandler, 23, then a
night clerk at the former Blue Mill Inn in Holland. She allegedly angered
others by having relationships with out-of-state Wackenhut guards in town to
provide security at the striking Chemetron Corp.
Witnesses said Chandler was handcuffed, led away from the hotel and taken to
a Chemetron guest house in Holland Township. With a
belt around her neck, her wrists and ankles bound and tape covering her mouth
and eyes, she was beaten on the head and repeatedly raped, they said. The
attack took hours before her body finally went limp. Her body turned up the
next day, Feb. 1, 1979, in a snow-covered median on Int. 196 near South
Haven. Although many witnessed or took part in the crime, everyone, a judge
said, "for reasons that this court finds absolutely astounding,"
stayed silent until a team of state police and Holland police detectives
reopened the investigation about three years ago. The first arrested, Robert
Lynch, 67, of Three Oaks, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and awaits
sentencing. A second suspect, Laurie Swank, 48, of Pennsylvania, will plead
guilty to second-degree murder and faces 10 to 20 years in prison. She
testified for the prosecution. James "Bubba" Nelson, 59, of West
Virginia, Anthony Eugene Williams, 55, of Wisconsin, and Arthur
"Carl" Paiva, 54, of Muskegon, were ordered by Holland District
Judge Bradley Knoll to stand trial in Ottawa County Circuit Court. All are
charged with first-degree murder. Freddie Parker, 50, is fighting extradition
in West Virginia. Former hotel maid Diane Marsman
said guards planned a "gangbang" because Chandler was
"sleeping with other guards." She said Nelson led Chandler, her
arms in handcuffs behind her back, from the hotel. She saw men raping her
before Chandler died. "We were told, we were threatened, not to tell
anybody." The code of silence crumbled long after relationships ended.
At the defense table, the suspects showed no apparent ties to one another.
Witnesses, with hazy recollections or "dream-like" memories, used
old photos to identify the suspects. "It's been a long time -- I do not
know these people," Swank testified. She was the hotel manager and
Chandler's roommate. She said Chandler's popularity with the guards,
particularly Paiva, made her jealous. Guards planned a "surprise
party," Swank said. "They were going to be putting her into her
place, so to speak. ... They were going to (rape) her to death." At the Chemetron guest house, used by Paiva, the supervisor, 10
to 15 people were drinking and smoking marijuana. Chandler was bound, with a
belt around her neck. Swank said she watched men beat and rape her. Swank
called her a name. Lynch was pulling the belt when someone said, "She's
dead," she said. Swank said she ran out, and was threatened with harm if
she told police what happened. Lynch, facing 25 years in prison, was waiting
in the wings Thursday, but his testimony was not needed. Defense attorneys
noted witnesses repeatedly lied to police and suggested that detectives
planted ideas or coerced testimony. "Would you agree the evolution of
your story has been, in large part, a product of pressure put on you by
investigating police officers?" attorney Steven Fishman, representing
Williams, asked a witness. According to testimony, others not charged also
had attacked Chandler. Police said the investigation is ongoing but would not
comment on additional suspects. The allegations are difficult for Chandler's
family, including parents James and Glenna. But nothing has been easy since
their daughter died. They relied on their faith. They don't believe
everything said about her. They asked for justice. "The bottom line is,
she was kidnapped, raped and murdered," brother Dennis Chandler said.
"Everybody, you know, they're going to have to face judgment some day.
They have had 27 years to come forward. Nobody did. Obviously, nobody
did."
January 18, 2007 The Grand Rapids Press
Hope College student Janet Chandler died in 1979 of ligature
strangulation consistent with a belt being tightened around her neck, a
medical examiner testified today in Holland District Court. In a hearing of
evidence against the suspects charged in the slaying, Dr. David Start
testified about his review of an autopsy report. His findings were questioned
by one defense attorney, who suggested Chandler may have been accidentally
strangled to death during a voluntary sex act. "I don't know the motives
of those involved. All I know is she died of strangulation," Start said.
Just before testimony was to get underway, the lone woman charged in the case
waived her right to a probable cause hearing. Laurie Swank, 48, Chandler's
work supervisor at the former Blue Mill Inn, entered the courtroom wearing a
blue jail jumpsuit for the brief proceeding. The Pennsylvania woman said
nothing and prosecutors did not disclose any pending plea agreement. Soon
after, testimony got under way after James "Bubba" Nelson, 59, of
West Virginia; Arthur Paiva, 54, of Muskegon; and Anthony Williams, 55, of
Wisconsin; entered the courtroom in jail uniforms. Another suspect, Freddie
Parker of West Virginia, is fighting extradition. The first arrest came with
Robert Michael Lynch, 67, of Three Oaks, in February 2006, followed by five
others in September. Lynch has been convicted of second-degree murder and is
awaiting sentencing Monday. Prosecutors with the state attorney general and
Ottawa County prosecutor's office planned to call multiple witnesses for
today's probable causing hearing, which could last into the evening.
Chandler's parents, James and Glenna Chandler, sat in a front row of the
courtroom while family of the suspects sat in other rows. Although the case has
generated high interest, the courtroom was only about half full. During
testimony, Start said a screen of Chandler's blood showed no evidence of barbituates or alcohol in her bloodstream. Williams'
attorney, Elizabeth Jacobs, asked whether Chandler's body showed any bite
marks, but Start said no. He also said there was no evidence of bruising or
abrasions from an earlier time period. The case attracted national media
attention last fall when police announced the arrests of five suspects who
had lived quietly for 27 years, keeping the murder a secret from friends and
family. Chandler, 23, was working as night desk clerk at the former Blue Mill
Inn when she disappeared Jan. 31, 1979, in what appeared to be an abduction
and robbery. Her nude body was found a day later in the Int. 196 median near
Covert, dumped in a snowbank. Leads faded for detectives investigating the
case, but a cold-case team formed in 2004 eventually found witnesses to
divulge bits and pieces of information that helped them solve the murder.
Details about Chandler's death slowly emerged -- a tale of jealousy and anger
against her by numerous security guards staying at the inn. The Wackenhut
Security guards were in town to patrol a strike by workers at two Chemtron Corp. properties and some became intimately
involved with Chandler.
December 19, 2006 The Grand Rapids Press
For most of Roger Van Liere's 29 years with the
Holland Police Department, the 1979 killing of motel clerk Janet Chandler
went unsolved. All along, Van Liere, a detective
sergeant assigned to the city's most violent crimes, thought it could be
cracked. He jumped at the chance three years ago to join a four-man cold-case
team. "We knew, the day we were assigned to it, we were going to solve
it," Van Liere said recently. On Monday, the
prosecution took a major step with a guilty plea by Robert Lynch, 67, the
first of six suspects -- including five former security guards -- to publicly
lift the veil of secrecy that police say protected the killers so long. Lynch
faces at least 25 years in prison when sentenced next month for second-degree
murder. He has agreed to testify against his co-defendants. Chandler, a
23-year-old Hope College student, was working at the former Blue Mill Inn at
East 16th Street and U.S. 31 when she befriended Wackenhut Security guards
who were staying at the motel and hired to provide protection at the striking
Chemtron Corp. Police say security guards lured
Chandler to a Chemtron house in Holland Township
where she was handcuffed, beaten, raped and strangled during a party. Her
body was found the next day in a highway median in Covert. Lynch admitted he
was involved in Chandler's abduction and held a belt around her neck.
"Well, I was aware of the abduction, and took an active part in the
abduction. And then went to the party and did with intent -- actually tried
sexually assaulting her and was in the room when she was murdered."
Then, he told Ottawa County Circuit Judge Edward Post: "I would like to
say that, once this mess is over, I hope that this brings the Chandler family
some peace, and that's all I have, sir." Lynch likely will spend the
rest of his life in prison.
October 26, 2006 West Virginia Gazette
On Friday or Monday, Fayette County authorities plan to serve a
governor’s warrant from Michigan on a West Virginia murder suspect who has
fought extradition. By Monday, Freddie Bas Parker, 49, of Powellton
should be served with a Michigan warrant and appear before Fayette County
Circuit Judge John Hatcher for arraignment, Sheriff Bill Laird said. Parker and
James Cleophus “Bubba” Nelson, 59, of Rand are two of six people charged this
year in the 1979 death of motel clerk Janet Chandler in Holland, Mich. At
hearings last month, Nelson waived extradition, but Michael Del Giudice, a
lawyer for Parker, said he intended to fight extradition to Michigan because
his client returned to West Virginia before Chandler died. Police believe
Nelson and Parker worked for Wackenhut Corp., providing security during a Chemtron Corp. labor strike, and stayed at the motel where
Chandler worked. Several men at a party took turns raping and strangling
Chandler, police said. But they believe she died at the hands of Robert
Michael Lynch, 66. He was arrested in February and provided police with
information that led to additional arrests.
October 6, 2006 The Grand Rapids Press
For 25 years, James Nelson was considered an "ear" witness to
Janet Chandler's abduction from her night desk job at the Blue Mill Inn. He
told detectives he was in his motel room, talking with Chandler on the phone,
when he heard her tell someone, "Don't take all the money." In
reality, police say, Nelson played an integral role in staging the robbery,
lying to investigators and later killing the 23-year-old Hope College
student. Nelson, 59, was arraigned Thursday in Holland District Court on
three counts -- premeditated murder, kidnapping leading to murder and sexual
assault leading to murder. He is one of six suspects charged in the January
1979 slaying that police say was carried out by several Wackenhut Corp.
security guards, as well as a female manager at the Blue Mill Inn. Nelson was
arrested more than two weeks ago at his Rand, W.Va., home and brought to
Holland late Wednesday after waiving extradition.
September 21, 2006 The Citizens Voice
Laurie Ann Swank watched a group of men rape her college roommate in 1979
and knew they planned to kill her — but instead of helping the defenseless
woman she encouraged the brutality, according to an arrest warrant released
Wednesday, the day the Nescopeck woman was arraigned on murder charges in
Michigan. Not only did Swank know the 23-year-old woman, Janet Chandler,
would be killed, she plotted to lure the Hope College senior to a party and
is accused of “enticing and encouraging the men to do what they did,” Michigan
Attorney General Mike Cox said in announcing five new arrests in the murder
mystery. Swank, 48, has lived in the Luzerne County borough of Nescopeck for
the last five years and was arrested late Monday at her Third Street home.
She was a nursing assistant at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, for more
than 15 years, a hospital spokesman said. Authorities in Michigan say Swank
has conceded knowledge about the brutal sex slaying plot and her role,
admitting she “verbally assaulted Janet as she was being beaten and raped,”
according to the arrest warrant filed in the 27-year-old case. Swank is among
six people charged in the Jan. 31. 1979, murder in Holland, Mich. The five
others were men working as security guards from the Wackenhut Corp. during a
labor strike. All are charged with three counts of murder, including
premeditated murder. At the time of the killing, 21-year-old Swank was the
night shift supervisor at Blue Mill Inn in Holland, where Chandler worked as
a clerk. Four of the male suspects were staying at the hotel, authorities
said. Another suspect lived in a nearby guest home, where the beating, rape
and strangulation of Chandler allegedly occurred. A plot to kill Chandler was
developed out of anger, bitterness and jealously that arose from intimate
relationships guards had with females, including Chandler, at the hotel, the
arrest warrant states. On Jan. 31, 1979, Chandler was told the guards and
Swank were taking her to a surprise party, but then she was handcuffed,
kidnapped, and taken to the guest house where the gruesome crime occurred,
the warrant says. Chandler’s nude body was found the next day along a snowy
highway. Two weeks later, the labor strike ended and the security guards left
town. The case remained a mystery for nearly three decades. About 15 to 20
people were at the home the day Chandler was killed. Apparently, they all
were able to keep the secret until now, as several witnesses have finally
come forward, authorities said. The six females at the home, including Swank,
“were all individually threatened after the incident that if they ever talk,
the same thing that was done to Janet would happen to them,” the arrest
warrant says. The first arrest, of Robert Lynch, 66, Three Oaks, Mich. was
made in February. He has admitted to the crime, the warrant says. Holland
police Chief John A. Kruithoff wouldn’t say if
Lynch pointed out the other suspects, but did say, “He was talking to us.” As
for Swank, at her arraignment Wednesday, she was still wearing her nursing
scrubs uniform. She shook her head and appeared confused and on the verge of
tears as a judge explained the charges, the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press
reported Wednesday. “Where will I stay,” she asked. The judge told her jail,
the paper reported. She then said she wanted to speak with her family. Swank
has local ties, but family members declined comment.
February 10, 2006 The Chronicle
Security guards living in a Holland motel told the friendly desk clerk,
23-year-old Janet Chandler of Muskegon, they were taking her to a surprise
party. Then some of them sexually assaulted her and used a belt to choke her
before she died in a Holland Township house 27 years ago, a court affidavit
shows. The affidavit outlines police testimony given in a closed hearing held
by prosecutors to obtain an arrest warrant for 66-year-old Robert Michael
Lynch of Three Oaks. The affidavit details the brutality of the Hope College
senior's abduction and death Jan. 31, 1979. It also shows she likely did not
see the impending danger when two men, whom she apparently knew, took her to
a home north of the city. Police on Wednesday announced a break in the cold
case with the arrest Lynch. He remains jailed and could face life in prison
if convicted. Other suspects are being sought, police said. While
investigators would not say whether Lynch confessed, testimony from a state
police detective shows he allegedly admitted as much. In January 1979, Lynch
was among a large group of temporary security guards hired by Wackenhut
Security Corp. to patrol the strikebound Chemtron Corp.
in Holland Township. Dozens of guards -- 120 were in Holland at the time --
stayed at the former Blue Mill Inn where Chandler worked as a night desk
clerk. Testimony from Detective David Van Lopik
showed several people, including Wackenhut security guards, planned a party
at a house near Chemtron used by security staff.
"Part of the plans were to take Janet Chandler to this party," Van Lopik testified, according to the affidavit. Lynch and
another guard told Chandler they were going to have a surprise party for her,
then put a blindfold on her and taped her mouth before "escorting"
her to a vehicle, testimony showed. Van Lopik's
statement did not indicate whether Chandler, who was clerking at 2 a.m. on
Jan. 31 when she disappeared, went willingly. When Holland District Judge
Susan Jonas asked Van Lopik where he got his
information, he named Lynch and other former Wackenhut guards and personnel.
Chandler was taken to house on the city's north side and assaulted. The house
has since been torn down. After being held for some time, "different
individuals placed a belt around Janet Chandler's neck and were pulling on
the belt," Van Lopik testified. Detectives
Wednesday said Lynch was the one who killed Chandler, though police would not
say how many others were involved in the abduction and assaults. "Robert
Lynch advised that he also participated and pulled on the belt until Janet
Chandler's body went limp," Van Lopik
testified in the affidavit. Lynch checked for a pulse, found none, then told
other security guards and the strike coordinator that she died, Van Lopik told the judge. "Robert Lynch then, at the
direction of others, assisted in cleaning up and took the body in his vehicle
to the (I-196) median cross-over in Covert Township, where he removed the
body of Janet Chandler from the trunk of the car and placed her underneath a
tree," the detective testified. Michigan State Police Lt. John Slenk, head of the "cold case" investigation
that began nearly two years ago, said Lynch's name emerged as a prime suspect
through tidbits of information obtained from multiple interviews.
"Detectives developed enough discrepancies from enough people to suspect
him," he said. Police interviewed Lynch several times, as well, and
detectives said he has cooperated to a degree. Slenk
said he will not be satisfied until police have enough evidence to arrest
others who participated in the abduction and assault.
October 21, 2004 Herald Palladium
State
police have reopened the investigation into the 1979 abduction and murder of
Janet Chandler, 23, whose body was found along Interstate 196 south of South
Haven. Now they are trying to locate anyone
who might have stayed at the motel in January or February 1979 to gather more
potential helpful clues or information. Police are particularly interested in
speaking to several Wackenhut Corp. security guards who were working for a
local manufacturing company and were staying at the motel at that time.
South
Michigan Correctional Facility
Jackson, Michigan
Correctional Medical Services
July 7, 2008 Daily Telegram
A lawsuit over the death of a mentally ill, 21-year-old Adrian man while
he was shackled inside a prison cell for four days during a heat wave two
years ago has been settled in United States District Court. The parents and
three brothers of Timothy Joe Souders are to share
in a $3.25 million settlement approved in late June by Judge Bernard
Friedman. The lawsuit was completed Wednesday with a dismissal order for
Correctional Medical Services Inc., a private contractor providing medical
care to inmates at the Southern Michigan Correctional Center in Jackson where
Souders died. The state is paying $2.86 million of
the settlement total with a private insurance company contributing the
remainder, said Corrections Department spokesman Russ Marlan.
The law firm of Geoffrey Fieger of Southfield is to receive more than $1
million as its one-third fee for handling the case. Souders’
mother and father are each to receive structured settlements worth nearly
$730,000. His three brothers are to receive structured settlements of
$200,000 each.
October 14, 2006 The Grand Rapids Press
The use of four-point restraints as punishment for prison inmates meets
the American Medical Association's definition of torture and should be
discontinued, a doctor appointed by a federal judge to monitor health care in
Michigan's prisons testified Friday. The continued use of restraints is
"likely to result in future deaths," Robert Cohen warned U.S.
District Judge Richard Enslen. He blamed the Aug. 6
death of Timothy Joe Souders, a 21-year-old
mentally ill inmate, on the fact he was shackled atop a steel table in the
Southern Michigan Correctional Facility in Jackson for most of four days
during a heat wave. "While naked in bed, he was found to be lying in his
own urine and feces," Cohen said, adding that Souders'
"condition during a heat wave required constant monitoring ... There
should be no policy for maintaining prisoners in punitive restraints. It was
that policy that led to his death." After Cohen's testimony, attorney
Elizabeth Alexander, representing inmates in the class action lawsuit, asked Enslen to issue an order temporarily barring the state
Corrections Department from using restraints to punish prisoners. Enslen appeared inclined to issue the order, but Assistant
Attorney General Peter Govorchin stepped outside
the courtroom to call state Corrections Director Patricia Caruso about
offering a voluntary moratorium on the use of restraints. Afterward, the
attorneys met with Enslen behind closed doors, and
later would not say whether an agreement had been reached to stop restraining
prisoners as punishment. Cohen's testimony came at the end of a three-day
hearing in a lawsuit aimed at forcing the state to improve the care of
medically and mentally ill prisoners. The allegations include: The hospital
and other medical units in the Jackson prison complex are understaffed by
doctors and nurses. Written requests by inmates for medical help often are
delayed for several days or ignored. Referrals to outside medical specialists
are routinely delayed for weeks and even months while sick inmates get sicker
and, in some case, die. Prescriptions for serious illnesses often go unfilled
for several days. Last May and June, critical medications for several inmates
were not provided while the Jackson prison complex was in transition from its
own staff of pharmacists to a private firm called Pharmacorp.
One inmate testified his medication for glaucoma and migraine headaches was
withheld as punishment because he talked with attorneys in the case. Only
while he was in court and on the stand Wednesday did a guard hand him his
medication. Some of the responsibility rests with Correctional Medical
Services, the for-profit corporation that provides care for prisoners under a
contract with the state, testified Jerry Walden, an Ann Arbor physician
called as an expert witness for the inmates. "There seems to be an
indifference about care," Walden said, "and I'm concerned about
that."
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