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Albuquerque Police Department
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Cornell
September 7, 2002
Two Fugitives still on the Loose. It has been more than a year since
the drug trafficker Vicente Manuel Tijerina has seen the inside of an
American lockup. On Friday, the former fugitive saw a federal judge in
Albuquerque. Tijerina,31, was extradited this week to New Mexico after
eight months in custody at a jail in Mexico City. U.S. Marshalls and
Mexican federal judicial police recaptured Tijerina on Nov. 10, 2001, in
Sonora state after he and two other inmates escaped from the Santa Fe County
Detention Center on April 7, 2001. The escape was aided by then-guard
Lawrence C. Candelaria, who is now serving a 366-day prison sentence for
smuggling into the jail a cell phone, hacksaw blades, a hammer and a chisel.
Candelaria worked for Houston-based Cornell Corrections Corp., which operated
the jail at the time. Authorities are still looking for Luis Ramon
Lopez, 42, and Rodolfo Ruiz-Godinez, 30. (Albuquerque Journal)
February
24, 2001
The city may sue the company that was transporting Byron Shane Chubbuck when
he escaped to recover the $76,189 the police spent on recapturing him,
Albuquerque City Councilor Tim Kline said Friday. The police spent $49,469
paying officers who would have otherwise been on duty elsewhere. It spent
$20,956 on overtime, and another $5,764 for helicopter use during the search.
Kline said the city deserves assurances from Cornell that it is examining its
security procedures. "My bottom line is to ensure they take a look at security
and do something about it, and this is the way you get their attention,"
he said. The Marshals Service said that the agency itself will transport
prisoners in the future rather than contracting with a private firm.
(Albuquerque Journal)
Bernalillo County Detention
Center
Bernalillo, New Mexico
Cornell, Correctional Medical Services, Correctional Health Management
June 8, 2010 The New Mexico Independent
Bernalillo County officials have destroyed bid-scoring sheets used in
awarding a $23 million jail health services contract, the Albuquerque Journal
reported Monday. The destruction of public records may have violated the
state public records law, New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (FOG)
director Sarah Welsh said. “(They) are certainly something the public would
have an interest in seeing,” Welsh said. “It seems strange to just destroy
that one part of it. The whole point of open government is so the public can
review decisions that officials are making.” Correctional Healthcare
Management won the $12 million a year contract to provide medical care to
inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center. Correctional Medical Services
(CMS) has held the health services contract for seven years. The County is
investigating millions of dollars in suspected overpayments to CMS during
that time.
April
8, 2009 KRQE
A 13-year-old lawsuit over jail conditions that has already cost Bernalillo
County taxpayers millions of dollars may have to start over, a federal judge
has ruled. U.S. District Judge Martha Vasquez has thrown out a 2005
settlement in the case after lawyers for inmates claimed the county misled
them. Prisoners sued Bernalillo County in 1995 over conditions at the jail,
which at that time was located in downtown Albuquerque at 415 Roma NW. The
prisoners cited inhumane conditions which included overcrowding and lack of
access to health and psychiatric care. In 2005, two years after the
Metropolitan Detention Center opened west of Albuquerque, the prisoners and
the county negotiated a settlement. That deal required the county to meet 14
criteria including controlling overcrowding and providing better mental
health and psychiatric care. The county reported it has since met 13 of those
criteria leaving only psychiatric care still to work out. In a court filing
the inmates' attorneys claimed they recently became aware that the county
still plays a major role in the former downtown jail which it still owns.
That jail now houses federal prisons through a contract with Cornell
Corrections, a private company. Under that contract Cornell must provide
monthly reports on jail operations to the county which include population
numbers, inmate grievances and disciplinary action taken against inmates and
staff. In her new ruling the judge ordered the county to provide the inmates'
attorneys access to the downtown lockup. County Manager Thaddeus Lucero said
the county objected at the hearing and will fight the ruling.
December
26, 2005 Albuquerque Journal
Bernalillo County still doesn't have a valid contract with the private company
running the Downtown jail- even though it opened 11/2 years ago. New Mexico
law requires that contracts with private jail companies be approved by the
state Attorney General's Office before taking effect. The office has warned
Bernalillo County, in a series of letters this year and last, that it hasn't
approved the contract yet and still has a few concerns. For one, state
lawyers say, the contract needs to address what would happen if the county
must send local inmates to the Downtown jail. Right now, that lockup handles
only federal and state inmates and is operated by Houston-based Cornell
Companies. County inmates are housed at a new jail on the West Mesa, where
the skyrocketing population has caused overcrowded conditions. The county's
intention is to create a separate agreement if it ever needs to send local
inmates Downtown, but that's "not acceptable," Assistant Attorney
General Zachary Shandler told the county in a
letter last year. "This is the time to work out the terms of the
Management Agreement," Shandler said. The
state had a host of other concerns, such as making it clear in the contract
that the county has "ultimate say" over the jail, not Cornell. Shandler said his last letter to the county was in
February and that he hadn't received a formal response. Shandler
wouldn't discuss what action the state might take if Bernalillo County never
gets the contract approved. Meanwhile, the county could face legal
"exposure" because of the lack of approval, he said. "The
problem generally is that if something went wrong contractually with their
partner or some situation occurred in the inmate population, they would not
have an effective contract ... that protects the state from certain
liabilities," Shandler said.
October
15, 2003
The county refused to put the jail lease out to bid. Instead, it negotiated a
five-year deal after Cornell responded to a request for information.
Although Gov. Bill Richardson expressed reservations about the no-bid
process, Board of Finance Director Mark Valdes said the board did not have
the authority to direct Bernalillo County to put the lease out for
competitive bid. He cited changes made in state procurement law during
the last legislative session. "The board does not have the
authority to not approve the lease and direct the county to do competitive
bids," Valdes said. Board members did not question the role of
Cornell's hired consultants, Albuquerque attorney Edmund "Joe" Lang
and former Democratic Party National Committeeman Art Trujillo. The two
originally were hired to help Cornell get the lease on the Downtown jail.
Lang was to be paid $2 a day per inmate and Trujillo 25 cents a day per
inmate. They potentially stood to make more than $2 million off the
deal combined. Cornell says those agreements are no longer in effect.
The company says Lang's contract is now "dramatically different"
and that Trujillo is no longer working on the project. (ABQ Journal)
October 13, 2003
A private jail operator that has been awarded a controversial no-bid contract
to operate the old Bernalillo County Detention Center at one point agreed to
pay two politically connected consultants big dollars to help secure the
deal. Former state Sen. Edmund "Joe" Lang and former Santa Fe
Mayor and Democratic Party figure Art Trujillo had the potential to receive
nearly $2.5 million combined from Cornell Companies over a five-year period—
an amount that would hinge on how many inmates were housed in the jail.
Cornell says the agreements are no longer in effect. Lang, a Corrales
Democrat and former Sandoval County commissioner, stood to earn the biggest
payday. Cornell, in a memorandum of understanding dated April 15, 2002,
agreed to pay Lang $2 a day per inmate for the "consulting work that you
will perform in conjunction with Cornell's attempt to lease or purchase ...
the Bernalillo County Jail (Downtown Jail facility)." Cornell had
a similar agreement with Trujillo, a former Bernalillo County Democratic
Party chairman who at the time was conducting what turned out to be a
successful campaign for his party's nomination for state Land
Commissioner. Trujillo, however, was only to be paid 25 cents a day per
inmate— a potential payout of about $273,000 over five years. Trujillo
has a history of friction with County Commission Chairman Tom Rutherford.
Lang and Rutherford are longtime friends and colleagues. The
memorandums to both Lang and Trujillo said payments would commence only after
the "complete execution" of a valid contract between Cornell and
the county. Payments would begin "after the first full quarter of a
fully executed contract and be issued quarterly thereafter for the original
term of the contract." Cornell estimated the capacity of the jail
at 540 inmates after renovation. The county's estimate is about 600 inmates.
Assuming the jail was full, that would translate into a potential fee of
$1,080 to $1,200 a day for five years with a possible five-year
renewal. Five years of operation with 600 inmates would have meant a
payment in excess of $2.1 million to Lang. Those estimates are based on a
jail operating at full capacity, 365 days a year. Paul Doucette,
Cornell vice president for development and public affairs, said in a
telephone interview Friday that both documents are out of date.
"Neither is in effect today," he said. Doucette said
Cornell's current agreement with Lang is "dramatically different"
than the one outlined in the April 2002 memorandum. Doucette would not,
however, discuss specifics. "We consider the details of that
agreement proprietary," Doucette said. "We are still in a very
competitive situation on this project, as the sending of these documents to
the Journal illustrates. Someone is trying to manipulate the
process." He said Lang is a "very valuable consultant who
knows New Mexico very well." Doucette said, "We are no longer
working with Art Trujillo on this project." Trujillo believes his
original contract with Cornell is still valid but says he has been cut out of
any negotiations between Cornell and the county. The contracts between
Cornell and the consultants have not been discussed publicly in the talks
leading up to county approval of the pact with Cornell. Cornell's
contract with Bernalillo County to operate the jail still faces the hurdle of
approval by the state Board of Finance, which balked at approving the pact
earlier this month. Members of the Board of Finance, which is chaired
by Gov. Bill Richardson, questioned how they could be sure the county was
getting the best deal, since the contract never went out to bid. The
board asked for more information and is scheduled to take up the contract
again on Tuesday. Cornell negotiated a five-year lease with the county
to renovate and house inmates at the now-vacant jail. The negotiations,
including talks between Lang and then-County Manager Juan Vigil, were based
on Cornell's reply to a Request for Information sent to private jail
contractors. Under the contract approved on a 4-1 vote by the county
commission in January, Cornell would pay the county about $1 million a year
the first two years of operations with a gradual increase over the next three
years. The company originally offered to pay the county $5 a day per
inmate with a ceiling of $1 million a year. In addition, Cornell would spend
roughly $5 million to renovate the old jail Downtown. The county sent
out the request for information in 2001. It never issued a formal request for
proposals that would state what the county wanted and how the proposals would
be judged. Cornell's competitors and one county commissioner criticized
that decision. All of the county commissioners contacted by the Journal
said they were unaware of the terms of the consulting contracts.
"I wouldn't know about that," Rutherford said. "I do know that
he (Lang) did a lot of work on this." Commissioner Steve Gallegos
said, "Wow. I've never been a lobbyist, so I don't know what they
receive. I don't know if that's high. It doesn't sound right to
me." Commissioner Michael Brasher, who has been critical of the
process and was the sole vote against the lease for Cornell, questioned the
arrangement. "I think we need to have full disclosure of
situations like this. The entire deal has been very curious."
Corporate spokesmen from Wackenhut Corrections Corporation and Corrections
Corporation of America declined comment for this story. Commissioner
Alan Armijo said he would like to see the (Cornell-Lang) agreement.
"Without looking at it and knowing all the details, I don't know if it
bothers me or not ...," he said. Commissioner Tim Cummins said, "Sounds
like he's (Lang) a partner. Whatever arrangement they do is none of my
business." Consultant agreements Doucette, Cornell's vice
president for development and public affairs, confirmed that Lang currently
has a contract with Cornell and that Cornell does enter into contingency
agreements like the one obtained by the Journal. "Like everything
else, we factored it into our costs," Doucette said. "Our proposal
to lease and remodel the jail provides an outstanding value to the
county." But he would not discuss specifics of the consultant
agreements. Lang in a telephone interview said he wouldn't comment on
his contract, also saying that it was "proprietary." Doucette
confirmed that Trujillo did work for Cornell on the jail contract early in
the process, although Lang said he was unaware of Trujillo's involvement in
the lease. The body of the memos from Cornell to Lang and Trujillo are
almost identical except for the amount to be paid. They have the same date
and are signed by the same Cornell official. The memoranda state that
they are good for six months and could be renewed. In a telephone
interview, Trujillo said his contract is still valid, but no one the Journal
interviewed in county government recalled Trujillo being involved.
"I told them (Cornell) how to get this project done ... but Lang has cut
me off totally," Trujillo said. Trujillo was defeated in November
by Republican Patrick Lyons in the Land Commissioner race. Lang is
registered as a legislative lobbyist for Cornell and said that work is separate
from his work on the county jail lease. State law prohibits legislative
lobbyists from working on a contingency fee like the one outlined in the
memorandum of understanding. "I haven't talked to any legislators
on Cornell's behalf," he said. There is no state prohibition on
contingency fees for lobbying local governments on jails. Friendship is
separate Lang and Rutherford acknowledge a longtime friendship. They
attended high school together and served in the state Senate at the same
time. They are both lobbyists and sometimes work for the same clients.
Both said their friendship had nothing to do with the Downtown jail
lease. Rutherford said he is also friends with the lobbyists who
represent Cornell's competitors— Corrections Corporation of America and
Wackenhut. Those two companies asked the commission to put out a request for
proposals. There is a small group of people who do lobbying, and they
all know one another. I sat on the Senate committee that approved Ed Mahr
(lobbyist for Corrections Corporation of America) as Corrections secretary
back in the 1970s. I served in the Senate and on the commission with Les
Houston (lobbyist for Wackenhut Inc.) for years," Rutherford said.
"We're all friends," Lang said of his competing lobbyists.
"We (Cornell) gave the only responsive price which the county asked for
in its request," Lang said. "Nobody has ever said they could beat
our price." Both men said the commissioner who pushed the jail
privatization was Steve Gallegos, hoping to use the money generated by the
lease to fund a psychiatric unit at the $90 million Metropolitan Detention
Center on the West Side. "This is simply a mechanism to get the
psychiatric unit built at the new jail," Lang said. That sentiment
was echoed by Rutherford and Cummins, who said the building was essentially
useless sitting empty. Court and police officials have suggested using
part of the facility as a Downtown holding and booking facility— an idea
rejected by the county. Gallegos said he is not a proponent of privatizing
jails but believes the county had to come up with some way to build a
psychiatric unit at the new jail. "I pushed it as a public
facility, and I don't believe in privately run jails," Gallegos said.
"It was really out of frustration that I said let's try the private
sector." "I want that psych unit built," Gallegos said.
"I know that inmates with mental health problems are abused in jail.
I've had personal experience with family members with mental health problems
and I know how important this unit is." "What it really came
down to was Cornell put numbers up and the others didn't," Gallegos
said. "Why didn't the others? Are they serious or not?
"Later, the other guys come back and say we're playing an unfair game.
But I think Cornell played it straight with us." Gallegos said,
"The problem in this state is that everyone's connected. Les Houston
worked for Wackenhut. I know Ed Mahr with CCA very well. He's a friend. I've
known Tom Rutherford for years and years. I don't know Joe Lang that well."
How it all started The county put out its
request for information on renovating and privatizing the Downtown jail in
October 2001. At that time, commissioners expected the jail to be empty
by the following summer when the new West Side jail was supposed to open. The
idea was criticized by the union representing officers at the jail and seemed
to die. In January 2002, Gallegos began pushing the idea of the county
running the Downtown jail as a facility to hold federal inmates. Any profits
would go to building a psychiatric unit at the new jail. Negotiations
with the U.S. Marshals Service hit a stumbling block when federal officials
said they could not guarantee a fixed number of inmates because that would
violate federal policy. In April 2002, Cornell inked separate memorandums of
understanding with Lang and Trujillo to act as consultants on securing a
lease or purchase of the Downtown jail. Talks between the county and
the Marshals Service for federal funds to renovate the old jail broke down
when the county failed to meet a key deadline for filing paperwork for
federal renovation funds. In the fall of 2002, the commission
resurrected its discussion of a private jail operation. The county had
received general letters of interest from Wackenhut and Corrections Corporation
of America. Cornell was more specific. It gave the county a quote of $5
a day per inmate, with a ceiling of $1 million a year. In January 2003,
County Attorney Tito Chavez told commissioners they could negotiate a lease
with Cornell because of its response. He advised that the county was not
required to put out a Request for Proposals— citing a specific state law that
allows local governments to negotiate jail agreements based on a simple
request for information. At the end of November 2002, the commission
authorized Vigil to negotiate with Cornell. The decision was unanimous.
Then-Commissioner Les Houston, whose term expired in December, urged the
county to put out a Request for Proposals but recused himself from voting
because he represented Wackenhut. "We felt there was a time crunch
which in hindsight, because of the delay in opening the new jail, wasn't
valid," said Cummins, who was chairman at the time. "But at
the time there was some feeling of urgency." In January 2003, the
commission approved a lease with Cornell for the old jail. The lease was
amended in June 2003, when Cornell agreed to pay for the renovations.
There have been some technical changes in the lease after it was reviewed by
the Board of Finance. Board members have asked the county for figures from
similar types of jail deals. "Comparisons from jail to jail are
difficult," Brasher said. "That's the argument for going out to a
Request for Proposals. That's how you find out what the value of that jail
Downtown really is." Rutherford said, "The Board of Finance
is doing their duty to review this carefully." (ABQ Journal)
June 11, 2003
Bernalillo County commissioners on Tuesday approved plans for a private
company to renovate the Downtown jail and house federal inmates there. The
commission voted 4-1 in favor of revising its lease agreement with
Houston-based Cornell Companies Inc. The earlier agreement had called for the
federal government to pay for renovations. Under the new
proposal, Cornell would pay for the renovations, which are expected to cost
$5 million. The proposal still must go before the state Board of Finance. The
approval came despite objections by Corrections Corporation of America, which
said the county should allow other companies to compete for the jail.
"Why not open it up and get the best deal you can?" asked Frank C.
Salazar, an attorney for CCA. (ABQ Journal)
June
11, 2003
When Bernalillo County signed a contract with Cornell Cos. in January to
lease the City-County Jail building, it was riding on the hope the federal
government would come up with a big chunk of the nearly $4 million needed to
renovate the lockup. That hope was a dim one, said the head of the U.S.
Marshal's Service in Albuquerque. The county was counting on getting a
Marshal's Service grant to repair the Downtown jail and meet a major
condition of its contract with Cornell, a private corrections company, county
Public Safety Director John Dantis said
Thursday. However, the county missed its chance to receive a $3 million
grant when the money was made available last year, said Gordon Eden, U.S.
marshal for New Mexico. "There is no extra money now," he
said. "It could be several years until the Marshal's Service will be
able to provide them with money for renovations." Each year the
Marshal's Service allocates grants to government agencies to upgrade jails to
meet the agency's standards. Cornell would be contracting with government
agencies to house federal prisoners in the jail. The grant
appropriation has been steeply declining over the past three years, Eden
said. The amount available nationwide was $35 million in fiscal year 2001,
$20 million in 2002 and $5 million in 2003, he said. Now, the county
and Cornell are in negotiations to figure out who will pay for the jail
repairs. A Cornell spokesman said the Houston company is willing to pay
for the renovation but declined to comment on what it expects in
return. In June 2002, the county was made aware it would not receive
the $3 million Marshal's Service grant because it had missed a May deadline
to turn in paperwork, Eden said. Dantis said
the county had asked for an extension before the deadline in order for the
County Commission to approve grant changes made by the Marshal's Service, but
it was denied. "When the Marshal's Service deemed the county
unresponsive, they allocated that money to other government agencies who
needed the money," Eden said. The county contract with Cornell in
January states the county would "use its best efforts" to secure a
Marshal's Service grant. "How can you obligate federal funds you
don't have?" Eden said Thursday in reference to the contract.
County officials said at that time they were planning to apply for the
Marshal's Service grant again. In April, the county asked the Marshal's
Service for funding, but it is not depending on that money, Dantis said. "We're looking at a number of
options to fund the renovations," he said.
Under the contract, the county is responsible for electrical, plumbing,
security and roof repairs and several other categories of renovations to the
building. The county has not looked into paying for the repairs using
its own money, Dantis said, and referred inquiries
to county financial officials. County Manager Juan Vigil was out of
town Thursday, a spokeswoman for the county said, and could not be reached
for comment. Under the terms of the contract, Cornell would pay
$888,888 in rent during the first two years of the lease, with rent
increasing to $1.2 million in the third year. The county planned to use
the revenue from the Cornell lease to add a mental health facility to the new
Metropolitan Detention Center, a 2,100-bed facility on the West Side that is
now in the process of being filled with inmates from the county's three
jails. Repairs to the Downtown jail cannot begin until the county moves
all its inmates to the new lockup. The $86 million building became ready for
occupancy two weeks ago, a year behind schedule. Cornell spokesman
David Monroe said his company needs to wait until the old jail is vacant and
the renovations are complete before it can house its inmates. The company
doesn't have a scheduled move-in date for inmates, he said. "The
county has taken a bit longer than we anticipated," Monroe said.
"We want to do it as soon as possible but with the appropriate
parameters." Cornell already has signed contracts with government
agencies to house inmates in the Albuquerque jail, Monroe said. He declined
to give any details on those contracts. Cornell's system includes about
70 detention facilities nationwide. County Commissioner Michael Brasher
said the county might have to solicit companies that want to use the Downtown
jail and could get it up and running. "If Cornell can't come up
with the money," he said, "Maybe they (county officials) can find
someone who can pay for the renovations." (Albuquerque Journal)
January
15, 2003
Bernalillo County commissioners
approved a proposal to rent the Downtown jail to a private corrections
company Tuesday — despite a potential snag over funding for renovations. Both the county and Houston-based Cornell
Companies Inc. can terminate the lease agreement if funding for the jail
renovations doesn't come through. As
part of the proposal, federal inmates could end up at the Downtown jail.
Commissioners directed county officials to try to work out agreements with
the U.S. Marshals Service. Commission
Chairman Tom Rutherford said the lease is important because it will put the
Downtown jail to "beneficial use" after inmates there are moved to
the new Metropolitan Detention Center. The moving date is uncertain. But Gorden Eden,
U.S. marshal for the district of New Mexico, told the commission that federal
money for the jail renovations isn't available now. He said he would work
with the county to get funding but couldn't promise the money for
renovations. (ABQ Journal)
January
14, 2003
Two former city councilors set
to join the County Commission today will have a chance to make a historic
decision — whether to rent the Downtown jail to a private corrections
company. The proposed lease agreement
would make the jail — for the first time — a privately run detention
center. As part of the proposal, the
county would try to work out an agreement with the U.S. Marshals Service to
house federal inmates there. There are
no plans to house city and county inmates there. The Downtown jail would be
vacant after local inmates are moved to a new lockup on the West Mesa. Bernalillo County didn't seek formal bids
from companies interested in the project. Instead, officials began
negotiating with Cornell after issuing a request-for-information. (ABQ
Journal)
November
27, 2002
Bernalillo County commissioners on Tuesday authorized further negotiations
with a private company interested in running the Downtown jail as a holding
center for federal inmates. The commission's 4-0 vote allows County
Manager Juan Vigil to continue negotiating a lease agreement with Cornell
Companies Inc. The county also will try to work out an agreement with
the U.S. Marshals Service. Anthony Marquez, president of the jail
employees' union, spoke against bringing in a private company. The
country would have more oversight if it hired its own employees to run the
Downtown jail, he said. Private companies "are there to make a
buck," Marquez said. (ABQ journal)
October
9, 2001
Bernalillo County commissioners today are scheduled to consider taking the
first step toward transforming the Downtown jail into a holding center for
federal inmates. The proposal, sponsored by Commission Chairman Steve
Gallegos, would authorize the county to submit an application to the U.S.
Marshals Service to launch the program and remodel the jail to meet federal
standards. Commissioner Les Houston said he is "philosophically
opposed" to having Bernalillo County run a federal holding center. The
county soon will be busy enough operating the 2,100-bed Metropolitan
Detention Center under construction on the West Side, he said. Houston
suggests the county either lease the old jail or sell it. "If we
are going to operate a jail for profit ... then it should be operated by
professionals, such as one of the national private operators," Houston
said. But Gallegos, who opposes having a private company run the
holding center, said Houston should excuse himself from discussion of the
application. Houston is a registered lobbyist for Wackenhut Corrections
Corporation. (Albuquerque Journal)
Camp Sierra Blanca
Ruidoso, New Mexico
CiviGenics (formerly run by AMI)
December 11, 2008 Ruidoso News
A switch to community-based programs for young offenders in New Mexico and a
decision by the Camp Sierra Blanca program management company to exit the
juvenile sector leave the future of the camp northeast of Ruidoso in doubt.
Community Education Centers officials last month confirmed the company that
operates the CSB program would not renew its contract with the state
Children, Youth and Families Department, because the company planned to
terminate its juvenile operations. Kevin Duckworth, CEC Mountain Region
Director, said Thursday the company will end its operations on Jan. 31, by
mutual agreement. The camp staff was notified and relocation opportunities
were offered to other CEC facilities where possible, he said. Last month, a
spokesman for CYF indicated the company would stay on until June 30, the end
date of the current contract. At that time, Bob Tafoya said CYFD officials
were considering options for the best and highest use of the camp, which over
the past few years was updated with modular living units and a renovated
cafeteria. Romaine Serna, public information officer with the CYFD, said
Thursday discussions continue on the future of the camp that over several
decades evolved from a minimal security work prison for adult male offenders,
to adult women and then for juveniles.
February
15, 2006 Albuquerque Journal
Five teenage boys who walked away from a juvenile jail Monday were taken into
custody Tuesday morning, but questions remain about why the facility near
Ruidoso has had two breakouts in two months. The teens, ranging in age from
17 to 19, were at Camp Sierra Blanca as part of their paroles and probations.
They were picked up by State Police and Lincoln County Sheriff's officers
about nine miles from the camp on Highway 380, near Capitan. "We're very
concerned," said Deborah Martinez, spokeswoman for the Children, Youth
and Families Department, which oversees the camp. "We want to understand
what is going on that's causing these boys to walk away, and prevent it from
happening again," she said. A spokesman for CiviGenics,
the Boston company that has run the fenceless, rural facility since June,
said jail security depends on the staff's vigilance and their ability to
maintain relationships with the inmates. "The opportunity to run is so
great," said George Vose, vice president of CiviGenics.
August
11, 2005 KVIA
The state Children, Youth and Families Department has paid 212-thousand-500
dollars to settle a dispute with a company that had run Camp Sierra Blanca.
The Albuquerque Journal reports today that the money has been paid to
Florida-based Associated Marine Institutes. In exchange for the payment,
A-M-I has agreed to withdraw a protest it filed after it lost the contract to
operate Camp Sierra Blanca. The Children, Youth and Families Department
initially had refused to reveal the amount of the payment. The state earlier
this summer transferred the operation of Camp Sierra Blanca to a for-profit
Boston company, CiviGenics. A-M-I lost the contract
to run the juvenile detention facility because of a technical error on its
bid.
May
24, 2005 Albuquerque Journal
Officials from Associated Marine Institutes, the Florida organization that
operates a juvenile detention camp near Ruidoso, say they'll fight the
state's decision to turn the center over to a new contractor. Last Friday, an
attorney for AMI presented the Children, Youth and Families Department with a
notice of protest over the bidding process that began in April. AMI has run
Camp Sierra Blanca since its inception in 1997. The rural, farm-like camp has
been praised by politicians, judges and children's advocates for its success
in rehabilitating teenage boys. Officials from the Children, Youth and
Families Department say they have entered into budget negotiations with CiviGenics of Boston, the only other company that made a
bid to run the camp. The protest alleges that AMI's contract proposal was
disqualified because budget information was put in an appendix of the
proposal instead of in the body of the document— something AMI officials say
they were told was acceptable. The protest contends that CYFD restricted AMI's oral presentation
during the final stage of the procurement process. CYFD also failed to select
a proposal evaluation committee that met procurement standards, according to
the document.
May
13, 2005 Albuquerque Journal
Supporters of Camp Sierra Blanca, a juvenile detention center near Ruidoso,
are questioning the state's decision to disqualify a contract bid from its
operator on what they consider to be a technicality. U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce,
R-N.M.; state Sen. Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces; and U.S. District Judge
William "Chip" Johnson say the state's decision could be a result
of the conflict that arose last summer when the Children, Youth and Families
Department tried to close the facility.
Some Lincoln County residents have established an "advocacy
support fund" to save Camp Sierra Blanca and its current contractors,
American Marine Institute, said Harvey Twite of radio station KEDU. The
station is spearheading the effort. Under AMI's management, Camp Sierra
Blanca has reported a 90 percent success rate in rehabilitating delinquent
boys. AMI, a nonprofit company based in Florida, has managed the camp since
its opening in 1997. A letter sent from CYFD to AMI officials on May 6 said
the disqualification was because of AMI's failure to provide required
information. Camp officials claim data from two columns was put in an
appendix, which they contend CYFD approved. CYFD is currently negotiating
with CiviGenics to run the camp. CiviGenics, a for-profit correctional company from
Boston, was the only other firm to submit a bid.
May
11, 2005 Albuquerque Journal
After a long fight to keep a juvenile detention facility near Ruidoso open,
the organization that has run the center has been informed it is out of a
job. Officials from Associated Marine Institutes, Inc., which has managed
Camp Sierra Blanca since its inception in 1997, say state officials didn't
play fair when they awarded a new contract to CiviGenics,
a for-profit correctional company from Boston. AMI officials said they are
considering challenging the decision. The state's current contract with AMI,
a nonprofit company based in Florida, expires June 30. In a news release
Monday, CYFD said it was entering into contract negotiations with CiviGenics, the only other organization to submit a
proposal. CiviGenics operates adult prisons in 14
states and juvenile facilities in four. "The process has saddened
me," said state District Judge Karen Parsons, a Camp Sierra Blanca board
member. "If we were being dealt with in good faith, they should have told
us there was a technical problem (with the proposal). But the outcome was
predictable in light of the way (CYFD) Secretary (Mary-Dale) Bolson has
treated AMI." Tensions began building last summer when CYFD announced
the camp would close in an effort to incarcerate fewer juveniles and
rehabilitate them in their communities. An outcry from the residents of
Lincoln County and supporters of the juvenile justice system prompted Gov.
Bill Richardson to halt the closure. Supporters pointed to a 90 percent
success rate and heavy community support as reasons to keep the low-security
facility open.
Camino Nuevo Women's Prison
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Formerly run by Corrections Corporation of America
Mar 14, 2016 santafenewmexican.com
SANTA FE, N.M. — The New Mexico Supreme Court says private prison operator
Corrections Corporation of America can be held liable for compensatory
damages to three victims who were raped by a guard. The court affirmed in an
opinion Monday that the company can be held vicariously liable because
private corrections officer Anthony Townes was aided in the sexual assaults
by his job position. Townes is serving a 16-year state prison sentence for
criminal sexual penetration and false imprisonment in connection with
assaults on female inmates at the Camino Nuevo Women's Correctional Facility.
The court says the prison company allowed male corrections officers to escort
female inmates around the facility alone and failed to enforce rules against
physical contact. The court says a warden at the prison also can be found
liable for damages.
February 17, 2012 Albuquerque Journal
A federal jury Thursday ordered over $3 million in damages to three former
inmates raped by a prison guard at Camino Nuevo Women’s Correctional Facility
in 2007. The intertwined state and federal claims, coupled with questions
about who must pay the compensatory and punitive damages, however, are
certain to engender more litigation – probably from both sides. Jurors heard
over a week of testimony before U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson before
they were charged with rendering a verdict late Wednesday. It took the jury a
day to work through the 10-page verdict form with over 30 questions relating
to victims Heather Spurlock, Nina Carrera and Sophia Carrasco, and two sets of
defendants. They included former guard Anthony Townes, who is serving a
16-year state prison sentence for criminal sexual penetration and false
imprisonment, his then-employer Corrections Corporation of America and
Barbara Wagner, the warden of Camino Nuevo at the time. The court had ruled
before trial that Townes was liable for violating the constitutional rights
of the inmates to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. But he left it
to the jury to decide if CCA and Wagner were liable for negligent supervision
– the jury said yes – and whether they also had violated the inmates’ rights
by discouraging inmate complaints – the jury said no. Jurors awarded $100,000
in compensatory damages each to Spurlock and Carrera, and $125,000 to
Carrasco. They ordered CCA to pay $5,000 in punitive damages to Spurlock and
$50,000 in punitive damages to Carrasco.
February
16, 2012 Albuquerque Journal
A federal jury on Thursday returned a verdict awarding compensatory damages
of $100,000 to two victims and $125,000 to a third raped by former
Corrections Corporation of America officer Anthony Townes, now serving a
16-year prison sentence for the criminal sexual penetration of four women.
The jury also awarded each plaintiff in the lawsuit $1 million in punitive
damages against Townes — awards are certain to face additional litigation.
The jury found CCA and Barbara Wagner, the then-warden at the Camino Nuevo
Women’s Correctional Facility, had not violated the constitutional rights of
the women but ordered some punitive damages against them based on other
conduct. The rapes occurred while the women were inmates at the facility in
2007.
February
9, 2012 Albuquerque Journal
Victims of sexual assault by a corrections officer at an Albuquerque contract
prison facility for women told a jury Wednesday that they didn’t report the
incidents because they didn’t think they would be believed. They also said
they thought making waves would inevitably bring retaliation in the form of
lost good time, recreational time or tossed prison cells. Heather Spurlock,
39, now working as a medical receptionist, and Sophia Carrasco, 47, who
cleans rooms at a resort hotel, were inmates at the Corrections Corporation
of America-run Camino Nuevo facility in 2007. In a situation where it was an
inmate’s word against a corrections officer, they said they were confident
they would come out on the losing end. Camino Nuevo, they said, was run with
intense discipline, little tolerance and few rehabilitative programs, even
though it was presumably a minimum-security lockup and a halfway step on
their way to release from incarceration. Both said the women’s prison at
Grants had been congenial and supportive, in contrast to Camino Nuevo, where
they spent hours picking up rocks and demolishing “anything green” during
outdoor work details and frequent periods of lockdown in their cells. The
sexual assaults by Anthony Townes occurred over a six-month period to
Spurlock and once in the early morning hours to Carrasco. Townes is serving
an 18-year criminal sentence for his state conviction in Bernalillo County
for the rapes of four female inmates, three of whom are involved in the civil
lawsuit against him, CCA and its then-warden. The trial began Monday in
Albuquerque before U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson.
February
8, 2012 Albuquerque Journal
A female inmate raped by a prison guard in 2007 testified Tuesday about
conditions at the newly opened Camino Nuevo facility in Albuquerque where she
had been moved from the women’s prison in Grants. Heather Spurlock Jackson,
39, was the first witness at the civil trial in U.S. District Court brought
against the guard, Anthony Townes, now serving an 18-year prison sentence for
raping her and three other women. Other defendants are the prison operator,
Corrections Corporation of America, and then-warden Barbara Wagner. Spurlock,
Sophia Carrasco and Nina Carrera allege federal civil rights violations
because they say inmate complaints were discouraged. They also contend that
CCA and Wagner were negligent in hiring and in supervision of the contract
facility. Spurlock described a setting that was harsher and less organized
than the women’s facility in Grants where she had spent the previous five
years without write-ups. She said Grants was strict but that it had programs
— she had earned two associate’s degrees through a distance learning program
while there — and staff who recognized the humanity of the residents.
Spurlock and the other 200 or so inmates moved to Camino Nuevo hadn’t
volunteered for the transfer but seemed to have been picked at random, she
said. They were loaded onto buses and taken to the old Bernalillo County jail
in Downtown Albuquerque because Camino Nuevo wasn’t ready. They stayed there
for three months before being taken to the new facility, which still seemed
unready to receive them. There were no programs, no handbook and only a
minimal briefing before the women were locked down in their cells. Spurlock
will testify starting today about the rape, but her attorney, Nicole Moss,
said Townes “raped, stalked, threatened and terrorized” inmates at the
facility and that his behavior went unchecked without anyone intervening.
U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson already has determined liability for
Townes. The question for the jury of eight will be the amount of damages
attributable to him and whether and how much damages the company and the
warden should be responsible for. Daniel P. Struck, a Phoenix lawyer
defending CCA and Wagner, told the jury in his opening statement that the
women had numerous opportunities to report the sexual assaults but did not,
including through a tip line that went to the state Corrections Department.
“It wasn’t fear (of retribution) that kept them from reporting,” he said.
Spurlock, serving a 16-year term for embezzling $16,000 from a nonprofit, was
involved in a voluntary relationship with Townes, he said, and there was an
effort to conceal it.
October
11, 2011 Albuquerque Journal
Onetime prison guard Anthony Townes is now about two years into an 18-year
state prison sentence after he admitted raping four women at Camino Nuevo
Women’s Correctional Facility in 2007. The civil lawsuit filed by some of the
women, however, still is months away from being resolved. Trial in the 2009
case filed by Heather Spurlock and two other former inmates at the detention
facility was to have begun this month. Several postponements were requested
by the defendants including Townes, former warden Barbara Wagner and the
Corrections Corporation of America, the private contractor that operated the
prison at the time. Camino Nuevo in 2007 was run as an adult prison and was
taking overflow from the women’s prison in Grants. It is now a juvenile detention
center operated by the state Children, Youth and Families Department. A
primary reason for the latest trial delay was the late disclosure of two
additional women who claimed sexual abuse by Townes but who are not involved
in the civil lawsuit. The defense said it needed more time to interview those
witnesses before trial. Attorneys for the victims said their anticipated
testimony about “the traumatic, invasive and highly personal experience of
sexual assault” is only made worse by having to repeatedly prepare for trial.
CCA was well aware of the additional sexual assault victims, anyway, they
said. U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson, who has now set a firm trial
date of Feb. 6, previously ruled Townes civilly liable for the rapes. He has
dismissed some claims against CCA. Among questions for the jury will be
whether Townes’ assaults can be legally charged to CCA negligence or
deliberate indifference in operating the facility, principally over what the
victims contend was a custom of discouraging inmate complaints against staff.
The women’s lawyers will try to give the jury a picture of what happened
during the incidents, as well as the context in which each assault took place
and how CCA responded. Plaintiffs’ expert Manuel D. Romero said in a report
he believes CCA “did not provide a safe and secure living environment for
(women) in the Camino Nuevo facility.” He said the fact that “such horrific
crimes” could be undetected for several months shows there are “systemic
failures within the facility.” He said in a report there was a “clear lack of
accountability over Mr. Townes and his movement within the prison.”
Plaintiffs’ attorneys may also seek to place Townes’ assaults in the broader
context of underreporting of prison problems. Documents in the court file
include excerpts from testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in
2008 about a former CCA manager-turned-whistleblower who said the company
maintained dual sets of quality assurance reports. The versions sent to
government contracting agencies reportedly failed to include “zero tolerance”
events including riots, escapes, unnatural deaths and sexual assaults at
company-run facilities. CCA has said in court documents that it put Townes on
leave and required him to surrender his badge.
November
20, 2009 KRQE
A judge sentenced a former correction officer who raped four female inmates
to 18 years in prison after emotional pleas from his victims. "I knew
him as a monster, a liar a man who thought because of his position he was
wanted by all but could do as he pleased," one of the victims said.
Anthony Townes pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and false imprisonment.
The rapes occurred between January and August of 2007 at Camino Nuevo, which
is a privately run lockup for female state prison inmates. Despite the guilty
plea, Townes denies hit committed the crimes. He told the judge Friday that
the only reason he pleaded guilty was to avoid a longer prison term. He said
the women are lying. "There is no fear factor. I would never threaten
anyone else's kids. I have a grandmother, mother a girlfriend, a sister and
4-year-old daughter, so therefore I would not do that to any woman because no
woman deserves that," Townes said. Townes faced 36 years in prison if he
was convicted by a jury.
October
12, 2007 The Review
A former Alliance man who is accused of sexually assaulting inmates at the
women's prison that employed him may be facing life in prison. Bond was set
at $500,000, cash only, by Bernalillo County Judge Sandra Engle for Anthony
Shay Townes, 33, of Albuquerque, N.M. Townes, a member of Alliance High
School's 1993 graduating class and a football standout for the Aviators
during his senior year, is charged with four counts of criminal sexual
penetration, a second degree felony; four counts of sexual contact, a
fourth-degree felony; and four counts of kidnapping. According to Bernalillo
County Sheriff's Department Detective Lorraine Montoya, Townes faces up to 33
years in prison (or life) on each second-degree felony charge. According to
the affidavit submitted by investigators, Townes is accused of raping and
sexually assaulting four female inmates at the Camino Nuevo Correctional
Center, a private minimum security prison where he was employed between
February and August. Montoya said investigators are still awaiting tests on
DNA evidence that would link Townes to the attacks in this ongoing
investigation. Victims testified that Townes snuck inmates out of their pods
at night and out of view of security cameras to avoid detection by his supervisors.
October
11, 2007 Albuquerque Journal
Before Anthony Townes started working at Nuevo Camino in July 2006, he went
through a school offered by the Corrections Corporation of America, according
to the company's Web site. He was also trained on where all of the cameras
were positioned. Three CCA prisons are accredited by the American
Correctional Association. Camino Nuevo had yet to receive its accreditation.
The prison is supposed to go through an ACA audit next month. ACA officials
told the Journal on Wednesday that there are no standards regulating where
cameras should be placed and how much of a prison should be monitored. CCA's
spokesman Steve Owen said his company would wait to review camera placement
after the sheriff's office finished its investigation. But "I don't
think there is a correctional facility in the country that has every area of
a prison covered by a camera," he said. "Cameras are one of many
things you utilize to maintain safety and security in a facility."
October
10, 2007 Albuquerque Tribune
A male prison guard is in jail on charges he raped four female inmates in the
privately run Camino Nuevo women's prison in Albuquerque. Corrections Officer
Anthony Shay Townes, 33, was arrested Tuesday by Bernalillo County sheriff's
investigators. According to a criminal complaint: A teacher working in the
women's prison in early August overheard a conversation between inmates about
one of them having DNA evidence to prove some sort of relationship. With more
digging, the teacher and her supervisors learned the inmate was discussing
having had a sexual encounter with a corrections officer. One of the inmates
told the supervisor that the corrections officer was Townes. Townes was
immediately placed in a position without inmate contact, then placed on leave
a day later. He is currently on unpaid leave, prison officials said. Townes
is at the Metropolitan Detention Center with bail set at $500,000 cash-only.
Sheriff's deputies were called to the prison on 4050 Edith Blvd. N.E., the
former maximum security juvenile facility, on Aug. 14 to start an
investigation into the allegations. On Aug. 18, they were called back again,
this time because another inmate told supervisors that Townes had raped her
earlier that week. Two more inmates also told investigators Townes had
attacked them. Their similar reports to detectives include being taken to an
area in the facility out of view of cameras and being assaulted by Townes.
One inmate said she was attacked several times beginning in February. Another
inmate reported being taken out of her cell at 2:30 a.m., an unusual time to
leave her cell but ". . . when a C.O. tells you to do something, you
just do it," she told detectives, according to the complaint. That woman
told detectives she saw Townes sneaking other women out of their cells at
night. Prison spokesman Steve Owen said Townes was hired in October 2006,
shortly after the prison opened. Owen said that as the first of the
allegations surfaced against Townes, he was immediately placed on leave and
authorities were immediately notified.
Central New Mexico CF
Los Lunas, New Mexico
Aramark
July 31, 2012 KOB News 4
There has been a lot of bad press around correctional facilities in New
Mexico over the last six weeks. But Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said it is all part of a culture change. Two
employees of food vendor Aramark have been arrested over the last six weeks
for smuggling contraband into prisons. Candace Holmes was arrested for
smuggling drugs into a correctional facility in Las Cruces in June. Then on
Sunday, Mel Baca admitted to smuggling food into the Central New Mexico
Correctional Facility in Los Lunas. A fellow food vendor suspected Baca of
the smuggling and reported it. Baca admitted to the crime during an interview
with the prison officers, but that just started his contraband list. Officers
searched Baca's lunch box and found a cell phone, something Secretary Marcantel called a "serious violation." Then
officers searched his car, finding alcohol, prescription drugs and
"about a 12-inch long knife," Marcantel
said. The officers were not sure whether Baca planned on smuggling those into
the prison, but the fact he had them in his car is a criminal violation. Baca
was arrested for a fourth-degree felony of smuggling contraband into a
correctional facility.
CCA
Nov
27, 2018 thedailybeast.com
New Mexico: Trans woman beaten to death at Corecivic
prison
A transgender woman who died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody
after being held in a privately operated detention center was likely
physically abused there, according an autopsy report released Monday, and
died after several days of severe, untreated dehydration. Roxsana
Hernández Rodriguez, 33, a transgender woman from Honduras, died on May 25,
nine days after being transferred to a dedicated unit for transgender women
at the Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico, which is operated
under contract by CoreCivic, the second-largest
private prison company in the United States. “There she developed severe
diarrhea and vomiting over the course of several days,” wrote forensic
pathologist Kris Sperry, “and finally was emergently hospitalized, then
transported to Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she
remained critically ill until her death.” One day after arriving at Cibola,
Ms. Hernández Rodriguez was admitted to a local hospital, and was later
transferred to Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, where she died while
in intensive care. The autopsy concluded that Hernández Rodriguez’s cause of
death was most likely “severe complications of dehydration superimposed upon
HIV infection,” which made her susceptible to the physiologic effects of
untreated dehydration. “According to observations of other detainees who were
with Ms. Hernández Rodriguez, the diarrhea and vomiting episodes persisted
over multiple days with no medical evaluation or treatment, until she was
gravely ill,” Sperry wrote. Sperry’s autopsy, the second conducted on Hernández
Rodriguez’s body following her death, also found evidence of physical abuse,
with “deep bruising” on her hands and abdomen, evidence of blunt-force trauma
“indicative of blows, and/or kicks, and possible strikes with blunt object.”
An accompanying diagram illustrated long, thin bruises along Hernández
Rodriguez’s back and sides, as well as extensive hemorrhaging on Hernández
Rodriguez’s right and left wrists, which Dr. Sperry found were “typical of
handcuff injuries.” Andrew Free, an attorney representing her family, told
The Daily Beast that her treatment in ICE custody went far beyond neglectful.
“She journeyed thousands of miles fleeing persecution and torture at home
only to be met with neglect and torture in this country’s for-profit human
cages,” Free said. An ICE spokesperson said the agency disputes the findings
of the report. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cannot speak
to the validity of the private autopsy cited by The Daily Beast; however,
allegations that she was abused in ICE custody are false,” said Danielle
Bennett, a spokesperson for the agency. “A review of Hernandez’s death
conducted by ICE Health Service Corps medical professionals confirmed that
she suffered from a history of untreated HIV. At no time did the medical personnel
treating Ms. Hernandez at Cibola General Hospital or Lovelace Medical Center
raise any issues of suspected physical abuse. “ICE takes very seriously the
health, safety and welfare of those in our care, including those who come
into ICE custody with prior medical conditions or who have never before
received appropriate medical care. Any death that happens in ICE custody is a
cause for concern, and the agency will continue its full review of this case
according to standard protocols.” At the time of her death, ICE stated that
she was admitted to the hospital with “symptoms of pneumonia, dehydration,
and complications associated with HIV,” and that “comprehensive medical care
is provided from the moment detainees arrive and throughout the entirety of their
stay.” In response to similar questions, CoreCivic
director of public affair Amanda Gilchrist told The Daily Beast that “we take
the health and well-being of those entrusted to our care very seriously,” and
are “committed to providing a safe environment for transgender detainees.” CoreCivic, a publicly traded company whose motto is
“Better the Public Good,” operates more than 65 prisons and detention
facilities in the United States. Even before her detention in New Mexico,
Hernández Rodriguez had walked an extremely difficult path on her way to the
United States. In an interview with Buzzfeed News a month before her death,
Hernández Rodriguez said she decided to flee Honduras after she was
gang-raped by four members of the MS-13 gang, resulting in her being infected
with HIV. “Trans people in my neighborhood are killed and chopped into
pieces, then dumped inside potato bags,” Hernández Rodriguez said at the
time. “I didn’t want to come to Mexico—I wanted to stay in Honduras but I
couldn’t… They kill trans people in Honduras. I’m scared of that.” LGBT
people in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are uniquely susceptible to
violence and persecution, as well as during their travels in pursuit of
asylum. The U.S. government has expressed skepticism about the veracity of
these claims, as well as the number of LGBT people traveling in caravans
headed for the border. In a telephone briefing with reporters last week, one
senior DHS official told journalists that caravans pushed LGBT migrants “to
the front of the caravan in an effort to gain sympathetic PR coverage.”
Hernández Rodriguez, known as “Roxy” to her friends, decided to travel more
than 2,000 miles with 1,300 other migrants hoping to claim asylum in the
United States, making a six-week journey across Mexico organized by Pueblo
Sin Fronteras. After arriving at the U.S. border and asking for asylum at the
San Ysidro Port of Entry on the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego, she was
taken into custody on May 9. After being held for five days, she was transferred
to the Cibola facility that houses a dedicated “pod” for transgender women,
which ICE says is run by medical and detention staff trained in “best
practices for the care of transgender individuals.” Less than three weeks
after arriving in the U.S., she was dead. Editor’s Note: This post has been
updated with ICE’s statement and to clarify the timeline of Roxsana Hernández Rodriguez’s treatment.
Nov 15, 2018 santafenewmexican.com
Asylum-seekers sue over wages at prison in New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE — The operator of one of the largest private prison systems
in the United States paid detained immigrants at a Western New Mexico prison
as little as $1 per day as part of “volunteer” work programs, and refused to
pay them minimum wages even though they were not convicted of any crimes, a
new federal class-action lawsuit alleges. Three detained men from the Central
African country of Cameroon who came to the U.S. seeking asylum were paid the
low wages for janitorial and kitchen work at the CoreCivic-run
prison at the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, near Grants,
according to court documents filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in
Maryland. For about six months, Desmond Ndambi,
Mbah Emmanuel Abi and Nkemtoh Moses Awombang were held at the detention center after
surrendering to U.S. officials at the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas in June
2017, said Joseph Sellers, the attorney for the men and a partner at
Washington, D.C., law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll. All three men
are members of a politically persecuted Anglophone minority in Cameroon, and
they came to the U.S. fleeing torture and persecution by police, Sellers
said. But it was while they were awaiting the hearing for asylum that prison
officials offered the men a chance to make money to cover basic necessities
like phone calls, food and toiletries while in detention. The men were
sometimes paid around 50 cents an hour or $15 a week regardless of the number
of hours they worked, in violation of state and federal wage laws, the
lawsuit said. “They had no way of knowing if that was unlawful or not until
they consulted a lawyer,” Sellers said. “They were doing real work like the
rest of us work. They are entitled to be paid overtime. They are entitled to
be paid the prevailing wage. They were paid far below it.” Amanda Gilchrist,
spokeswoman for the Nashville, Tenn.-based CoreCivic,
said she couldn’t speak to the specifics of pending litigation. However,
Gilchrist said all work programs at CoreCivic’s
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities are completely
voluntary and operated in full compliance with ICE standards. “We set and
deliver the same high standard of care — including three daily meals, access
to health care and other everyday living needs — regardless of whether a
detainee participates in a voluntary work program,” Gilchrist said in a
statement. Sellers said the men were not facing criminal charges and are now
U.S. residents living in Maryland and Ohio. The men are seeking an
unspecified amount in back pay and damages. Attorneys said they believe as
many as 1,000 other immigrants held at the Cibola County Correctional Center
might have worked for similarly low wages and could be entitled to relief.
Last year, a federal judge ruled that Washington state could pursue its lawsuit
seeking to force GEO Group — one of the nation’s largest operators of
privately run immigration detention centers — to pay minimum wage for work
done by detainees. The for-profit company runs the Northwest Detention
Center, a 1,575-bed facility in Tacoma, Wash., where detainees are held
pending deportation proceedings.
Jan 6, 2018 usnews.com
Official: Cibola County Facing Prospect of Bankruptcy
GRANTS, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico county is facing the
prospect of bankruptcy in 60 days and the likelihood of having to move
forward with layoffs and liquidate assets, officials said. Cash-strapped
Cibola County is in "crisis mode" after years of overspending and
the recent discovery that it sent a bounced check to the for-profit prison
company CoreCivic, interim County Manager Valerie
Taylor said. The Gallup Independent reports that Taylor has contacted the New
Mexico Department of Finance and Administration Local Government Division
Special Director Michael Steininger to straighten
out the finances. Taylor said in all likelihood the state would bail out
Cibola County with a loan and establish a repayment plan for the county if it
can't pay its debts.
"If we do not make significant changes, I believe
we are going to be insolvent by the end of February," Taylor said at a
county commissioners meeting. The county overspent by $9.5 million from 2013
to 2016 and wrote the $7 million bounced check to CoreCivic
in November. The county has a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement to serve as a pass-through for payments to CoreCivic,
which houses immigrant detainees at a prison in Milan. The county receives
money from ICE and in turn sends payments to CoreCivic
using the federal funds. Taylor said the county had dipped into $5.6 million
of the ICE money and was still in need of another $2.6 million to cover a
shortfall from the November payment. Since the check bounced, a separate
account has been set up to make payments to CoreCivic,
the newspaper reported. The county also is liquidating $3 million from a money
market account with the Bank of New Mexico. Taylor said she plans to
recommend liquidating some county property. "But that's a very slow
process," she said. "It does not help us out in the short-term to
cover a big debt, so we need to be looking at every dime." The financial
outlook in the coming year appears bleak, with tax revenues down and the
county already tapping its reserves. "We just don't have any funds. We
can't keep writing out checks," said Commissioner Martha Garcia, who was
sworn into the post last January. "Many people won't like what's going
to be coming down, but we have to, because if we don't, the county's broke. And what happens after that?"
Aug 15, 2016 thenation.com
The Feds Will Shut Down the Troubled Private Prison in
a ‘Nation’ Investigation
The BOP notified one of the country’s leading private
prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America, on July 29 that a
long-troubled federal prison the company had operated for 16 years will be
closed down. The notice is exceptional in the BOP’s history of overseeing its
privatized prisons—in the last decade, it has ended only three other private
prison contracts before they were set to expire—and it follows reporting by
The Nation and the Investigative Fund that documented poor medical care at
the prison, including at least three questionable deaths. This article was
reported in partnership with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute,
with support from the Puffin Foundation. The minimum-security Cibola County
Correctional Center, in Milan, New Mexico, holds 1,200 prisoners, all
noncitizens convicted of federal crimes, who will be moved to other prisons
before the facility is shuttered at the end of September. Cibola is one of
several facilities that have been the focus of a Nation and Investigative
Fund series that has uncovered dozens of questionable deaths in 11 privatized
federal prisons. Drawing from 30,000 pages of previously unreleased federal
records obtained through an open-records lawsuit, we documented dozens of
premature deaths following shoddy medical care in these federal prisons,
which are used to hold noncitizens. The documents, as well as interviews with
former BOP officials and contractors’ medical staff, reveal the BOP’s own
oversight monitors issuing increasingly stern warnings about medical neglect,
understaffing of medical units, and underperforming internal quality-control
systems. Yet federal administrators repeatedly extended contracts at the same
prisons that the agency’s monitors declared to be in trouble. The standard
contract offers private companies a 10-year agreement to operate the prisons.
Cibola marks only the fourth time in the last decade that the BOP has walked
away from a contract prior to the end of that 10-year period. Each time it
has done so, including with CCA’s Cibola contract, it has ended the contracts
as no-fault terminations. Not once has the BOP terminated a contract for
default, which could negatively affect a company’s ability to acquire a new
federal contract. The last privatized federal prison to lose a contract
before the end of the normal 10-year agreement was the Willacy County
Correctional Center in southern Texas. As I reported in The Nation last year,
Willacy erupted in a major riot in February 2015, after guards responded to a
protest over medical care with tear gas and rubber bullets. The prisoners so
ransacked that facility that the BOP declared it uninhabitable and was forced
to end the contract it had signed with Management & Training Corporation.
As The Nation detailed in June, Cibola has been among the BOP’s most
problem-prone private prisons, accumulating more demerits from BOP monitors
than any other private facility for repeated and systemic violations in the
medical unit. Prison medical staff repeatedly failed to evaluate and treat
patients in accordance with policy, and for months on end the prison operated
without a single medical doctor. CCA’s spokesperson Jonathan Burns told The
Nation in an e-mail that the company is “disappointed with the decision” to
end the Cibola contract, which was not set to expire until 2020. He did not
reply to a question about any attempts by the company to address medical
deficiencies. The Bureau of Prisons did not respond substantively to
questions about whether the decision to close Cibola was related to
documented health-services problems. A BOP spokesperson wrote, “The Bureau
decided it was not in our best interests” to extend the contract. A BOP
spokesperson wrote, “The Bureau decided it was not in our best interests” to
extend the contract. In April 2014, BOP monitors found Cibola’s medical unit
was operating far out of compliance with federal standards, and the agency
warned CCA to correct course. When monitors returned, however, they
discovered that CCA had failed to comply. For the fifth time in a row,
monitors found that the prison hadn’t appropriately treated inmates with TB.
For the third consecutive time, HIV care was also not up to standard. For the
fourth time, inmates were not properly assessed for medical issues. And the
oversight monitors discovered a prisoner had died after a long delay in care
following a heart attack. “The contractor failed to implement corrective
action for the past 5 years,” a BOP official wrote CCA in a 2015 letter I
obtained last week, through my open-records lawsuit. The BOP continued to
warn CCA about the facility, and it even appeared to show some improvement,
according to BOP records. But in March of 2015 another prisoner died: a
39-year-old Mexican man named Jelacio
Martinez-Lopez, whom federal officials had previously flagged as suicidal,
hanged himself after he was left alone and untreated in a cell. Renee
Wilkins, a psychologist, served as Cibola’s mental-health director for a
decade until her retirement shortly after Martinez-Lopez’s suicide. She said
last week that the prison’s health and mental-health departments were
consistently understaffed, and that she lacked necessary resources to treat
seriously mentally ill patients. Despite what Wilkins called “constant
problems with staffing of our medical department,” an issue the BOP has noted
across the federal prison system, BOP administrators have renewed or extended
the agreement with CCA nine times since the Cibola contact was first inked in
2000. “The Bureau of Prisons’ decision to cancel the Cibola private prison
contract is welcome but long overdue,” said Carl Takei of the ACLU, “given
the Corrections Corporation of America’s well-documented, sometimes deadly
history of failing to meet contractually mandated medical standards. But it’s
important to remember that the bureau still contracts with 10 other private
prisons that hold noncitizen prisoners with little transparency, limited
oversight, and similarly grisly records.” The Department of Justice’s
inspector general last week released an investigation of the bureau’s system
of contract prisons and the federal oversight of them. The report found that
on a set of safety measures the private prisons, which at the time of the
study held 22,000 men, performed more poorly than BOP-run facilities. In the
area of medical care, the BOP’s efforts to monitor the prisons were hobbled
by poor communication between various parts of the oversight infrastructure,
and weak evaluation tools. When prisoners died in the contract facilities,
the investigators discovered, the bureau had not set up adequate procedures
“to require corrective action from the contractor.” Echoing our own
investigation, the report said that problems went “uncorrected for extended
periods,” because the BOP had no systems in place to “proactively take action
before a problem becomes acute or systemic.” In the next nine months, 10 more
contracts will be up for renewal or extension. “The bureau should be moving
more quickly to shut down this entire network of shadow prisons,” Takei
added.
Aug 2, 2016 kob.com
Prison in Cibola County to close in October
A New Mexico prison announced Monday it will be closing its doors later this
year. The Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, which is near Grants,
will close for good on Oct. 1, according to the Cibola Beacon. About 300 jobs
will be affected. “Just sad, a lot of broken hearts,” said Amy Degroat, who lives in Milan. “I mean it's just … there
are families where Mom and Dad both work there. It just … it sucks. I'm
trying to be hopeful because the women’s prison across town almost lost their
contract. I'm trying to be hopeful, but it's not looking good. The privately
owned, minimum-security facility has been operated by the Corrections
Corporation of America since 1998. According to statement from the CCA, the
Federal Bureau of Prisons did not renew its contract with the facility. Steve
Owen, managing director of communications for the CCA, said they are
disappointed with the Bureau of Prison’s decision but will continue its
operations until October. “Because we have just learned of the decision, we
are still working through the timing and logistics of the transition process
with the BOP,” Owen said in the statement. “Our top priority now is ensuring
that any staff member who wants to continue his or her career with our
company has the opportunity to do so. For employees unable to transfer, our
team is coordinating efforts to help them find jobs in the local area.” In
the years since the prison opened, it has seen a couple of large inmate protests.
In 2001, more than 600 inmates refused to return to their cells, and were
eventually tear gassed. The protest was over the quality of the food. Then in
2013, around 250 inmates held a peaceful demonstration in the prison yard.
After several hours, they returned to their cells. Prison officials did not
reveal the reason for that protest.
28
Mar 2013 krqe.com
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) -
Inmates at the privately run federal lockup in Cibola County have ended
several hours of protesting. Several hundred prisoners refused to leave the
recreation yard at the Cibola County Correction Center in Milan Wednesday. It
ended peacefully around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. No one's saying what it was all
about. The center, run by Corrections Corporation of America, holds prisoners
awaiting trial on federal charges.
03/27/2013
kob.com
About 250 inmates at
the private Cibola County Correctional Center were reportedly being
"non-compliant" to guard’s orders and gathered in the prison’s
recreation yard for several hours Wednesday. The Cibola County undersheriff
tells KOB the inmates are "being peaceful." The unrest began at
about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday and was continuing at least through 2 p.m.
Wednesday afternoon. Law enforcement called to set up outside the scene
include New Mexico State Police, Grants Police, Milan Police and the Cibola
County Sheriff’s Department, as well as guards from other prisons. The Cibola
County Correctional Center is all-male, minimum-security facility with 1129
beds run by the Corrections Corporation of America. KOB has a crew on the way
– stay with us for details.
ec 30, 2012 cibolabeacon.com
CIBOLA COUNTY – A three-year tax dispute was settled in less than 10 hours,
according to Cibola County Commission Chairman Eddie Michael. Recently,
Chairman Michael, along with an attorney for Risk Management, met with
representatives from the Correction Corporations of America (CCA) in
Albuquerque to settle a three-year-old property tax dispute. CCA is
contracted to manage the Cibola County Corrections Center in Milan and the
New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants. The Milan men’s prison
has nearly 1,500 inmates while the Grants women’s prison has slightly more
than 500. Apparently, CCA was disputing the amount they have been charged in
property taxes since 2010. Their property tax had gone from a taxable value
of $52 million in 2009 to $78 million in 2011, Michael said to the Beacon
last week. CCA was disputing their taxable value for 2010, 2011 and 2012. “In
today’s economy, I don’t know how property tax can be raised so high,”
Michael said in regard to the hike. He did note that in 2010, the state had
mandated the county to raise property taxes 15 percent because they hadn’t
raised taxes in several years. “Besides that, I don’t understand why there
would be such a big increase,” Michael said. After eight hours of
negotiations, Michael and CCA, in a handwritten agreement, settled on a
taxable value increase of $2.4 million, from $52 million to $54.4 million,
for the Milan prison, and, from just more than $26 million to $28 million for
the Grants prison. “Ultimately, CCA and the county felt $54 and $28 million
were fair,” Michael explained. “I asked the rest of the commissioners, in
closed session on Dec. 12, for approval on the deal. On Monday, Dec. 17, they
voted unanimously to support it. Following the settlement, the county will
receive $2.7 million in tax revenue from CCA for years 2010, 2011 and 2012.
“This will hike our cash reserves to approximately $8 million,” said Michael.
“We had been working on this for two years. We finally got the chance to sit
down and get the deal done, and now we move on. “It was my job to work the
deal, ultimately, it is the commissioners’ decision to support it or not.
Thankfully they did.” According to Michael, as of late last week, the deal
was still based on the handwritten agreement. However, Michael said he
expected everything to become official by the end of this week. The Beacon
was unable to reach CCA officials for comment yesterday because their
corporate offices are closed on weekends.
September 19, 2007 AP
The state Court of Appeals has ruled that a private prison company is not
entitled to a refund of taxes for operating prisons that house inmates for
the state and federal governments. Corrections Corporation of America had
sought a refund of state gross receipts taxes, claiming it was allowed a
deduction for the leasing of its prisons under agreements with the Department
of Corrections and the federal Bureau of Prisons. The Court of Appeals
concluded Tuesday there was no lease of real property. "The fact that
CCA had the right to fill up any extra space with inmates from other
jurisdictions coupled with the governmental entities' paying based on the
number of inmates housed, makes these agreements look more like those between
'hotels, motels, rooming houses, and other facilities' and 'lodgers or
occupants' than leases for real property," the court said in an opinion
written by Judge Michael Bustamante. The company built and owns prisons used
by the state and other governments: the New Mexico Women's Correctional
Facility in Grants, the Cibola County Correctional Center near Milan and the
Torrance County Detention Facility at Estancia. In 2002, the company filed
for a refund of nearly $2.5 million for taxes from January 1999 to October
2002. A state district court in Santa Fe ruled against the company in 2005.
September
18, 2007 AP
The state Court of Appeals has ruled that a private prison company isn't
entitled to a refund of taxes for operating prisons that house inmates for
the state and federal governments. Corrections Corporation of America had
sought a refund of state gross receipts taxes. The company claimed a
deduction for the leasing of its prisons under agreements with the Department
of Corrections and the federal Bureau of Prisons. The court ruled today that
there was no lease of real property. In 2002, the company filed for a refund
of nearly $2.5 million for taxes from January 1999 to October 2002. In its
appeal, the company dropped some claims but didn't specify the amount of
refund it was seeking. CCA operates a prison at Grants that houses state
female inmates. It also has a prison in Torrance County and contracts with
the Bureau of Prisons to hold federal inmates near Milan in Cibola County.
August
30, 2007 Cibola Beacon
The Beacon recently received several calls from residents concerned about the
safety of the community because of the staff shortage in the areas prisons.
All three prisons, Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants, Cibola
County Corrections Center (AKA Four C's) in Milan and the New Mexico Women's
Correctional Facility, also in Grants, are currently in need of correctional
officers. Four C's in Milan is the most needful of officers. Currently, it is
38 officers short. The facility has a total of 159 CO positions,
therefore it is now understaffed by 24 percent. “First, there is absolutely
no risk to be concerned about,” Warden Walt Wells said on Wednesday. “We
continually analyze the staff to be sure we have the adequate staff to
protect our inmates, employees and the community. We'll never let it fall to
the level to where there is a risk.” According to Warden Allan Cooper at the
Grants women's facility, Americans Corrections Association says the ratio of
inmate to corrections officer should be about 580 inmates to 76 staff, about
65 of the latter being correctional officers. “The public will never be at
risk,” said Cooper. Cooper's Administrative Assistant, Lisa Riley, said they
have to fill all the posts no matter what. “If it costs us lots of overtime,
that doesn't matter,” Riley said. “We have our requirements that have to met by the state.”
July
4, 2006 Cibola Beacon
Cibola County Undersheriff Johnny Valdez announced Friday that marijuana was
recently found at two local prisons. CCSO Deputy Mike Oelcher
and Deputy Dog Ashe found a small amount of marijuana in an inmate’s bunk at
the Cibola County Detention Center and behind a pay phone typically used by
inmates in the common area of a pod last Tuesday. Burnt residue weighing .2
grams found in an inmate’s bunk will not result in charges, he explained.
Even the district attorney did not want to press charges even though bringing
drugs into a prison, regardless of amount is a third-degree felony, according
to CCSO officials. No one will be charged for the marijuana found behind the
pay phone either. “It’s a common area and they can’t charge any one with it,”
said Undersheriff Valdez. CCSO arrested Corrections Corporation of American
Women’s Correctional Facility inmate Stephanie de Santiago, 22, of Roswell,
for possession of marijuana at the facility a week ago Monday. The drug was
found during a routine search of the inmate after she spent time with a
visitor. The marijuana tested positive with a test kit at the prison, which
allows probable cause for the arrest, said CCSO spokesman Lt. Harry Hall. Lt.
Hall said the street value for the marijuana is not known at this time, but
the district attorney’s office will prosecute Santiago and possible charges
are pending against the visitor who brought the drug into the facility.
February
29, 2004
Some families of inmates housed in the Cibola County Detention Center are
upset at the fees being charged to prisoners. There is a $10 booking
fee, a $5 release fee and various fees for medical costs. The Grants
Police Department is upset about these fees as well, when they apply to city
prisoners being booked at the county jail. "We're being charged a daily
rate of $57 per inmate housed by the county and yet they still charge the
inmates a fee as well," said Chief Marty Vigil. Cibola County
Detention Center Administrator, John Gould sees it as part of doing business.
"We figure it costs about $70-$75 a day per prisoner. And it's not like
we charge them $15 a day. It's a one time
administrative cost whether they're in jail for one day or 300
days." When asked if the daily cost of housing prisoners was $70,
then why was the City only charged $57, Gould replied that it was to
"give the City a break." Gould said, "why should citizens
who haven't committed any crimes pay for those who commit them? These people
think nothing of peddling drugs near our children's schools. They are not
bothered by burglarizing an honest person's home and stealing their hard
earned possessions. But, when the county chooses to establish a fee for being
booked in the detention center, these people call out to the honest and
hardworking citizens of Cibola County, their victims, because they do not
think they should be made to pay for a small portion of their incarceration.
They feel that the community they victimized owes them." Last
fall, the commission voted to approve charging inmates these fees.
(Cibola Beacon)
February
12, 2003
Cibola County residents and doctors are opposing the County Commission 's
efforts to sell the county hospital. Acting County Manager David Ulibarri
said Tuesday the possible sale of the hospital and construction of a county
jail are not linked. He said gross receipts taxes have been dedicated to pay
off the jail. The county currently contracts with a private company,
Corrections Corporation of America , for prisoner
space, but wants to build its own jail to slice the cost, Ulibarri said. The
county built the current CCA-run jail about 1994, intending to house not only
the 40 inmates the county averaged then, but also to house state prisoners
for a fee. However, the Johnson administration later removed state prisoners
from Cibola County . CCA then came in with an offer
for the jail, which it expanded to house federal prisoners, Ulibarri said. In
the years since, he said, the cost of housing county prisoners with CCA has
risen along with the average number of county inmates - now about 80 a month.
Inmate care now runs about $1.3 million a year, Ulibarri said. The county
wants to build a jail because "we can find ways to cut our own costs, we
can control our own destiny," he said. (AP)
July
5, 2002
A teacher at Cibola County Corrections Center has been charged with criminal
sexual penetration for allegedly having sex with an inmate in a prison
office. Ortega, who taught federal inmates at the privately run center
was having sex with an inmate May 20 when the prison's chief of security
walked in on the couple, court documents said. The prison houses
foreign nationals from Mexico and south America who entered the country
illegally and committed nonviolent crimes. The prison is operated by
the Corrections Corporation of America. (The Associated Press)
December
14, 2001
A government watchdog group is satisfied with an agreement by judges in
Cibola County to ensure future court hearings in the county are open to the
public. Robert Johnson, executive director of the New Mexico
Foundation for Open Government, wrote state District Judge Louis McDonald
after the public was kept out of a hearing in the Cibola County Corrections
Center in August. McDonald said it was never a matter of not wanting the
public to attend the hearing, but rather an issue with the location of the
hearing in the private prison. (AP)
August
3, 2001
An Albuquerque man charged with murder after being accused of running down a
state police officer had initial court appearance Thursday out of public view
behind the gates of a private prison. Cibola County Magistrate Jackie
Fisher held the initial appearance before noon for Zacharia Craig, 19, at the
Cibola County Corrections Center, where such proceedings have been held over
the past year because of a crowded courtroom in Grants, six miles away.
The appearances for Craig, his brother Aron Craig and other prisoners
Thursday were closed. The prison says it requires 24 hours' notice to
screen visitors for security reasons. News media who sought access
learned about the hearing Thursday morning. The procedure was
questioned by Albuquerque attorney Marty Esquivel, who handles open records
and open meetings issues. "Regardless of where the courtroom
activity takes place, there is traditionally a right of access to this type
of criminal proceeding and it must be observed," he said. "Preventing
access to judicial proceedings in jail raises a red flag for First Amendment
concerns as well as issues regarding the defendant's right to a fair
trial," Esquivel said. The magistrate court and the correctional
center entered into an agreement about a year ago to hold initial appearances
in the prison. Magistrate Eliseo Alcon of Grants said the pact came
about because he became worried about security at his courtroom. Alcon
said that if people want access to a particular hearing, they must notify the
jail so a different place can be set up for that appearance. First
appearance are the only proceedings held at the prison, Alcon and Don
Russell, executive assistant to the warden, said. Arraignments - in
which defendants enter pleas - are held in Grants, generally in district
court for felonies. (AP)
April
25, 2001
The Cibola County Corrections Center in Milan remained under lockdown Tuesday
as prison officials tried to determine the cause of an inmate protest that
ended the night before with tear gas. Preliminary interviews with
inmates at the privately run prison suggested they protested over food
service or the price and availability of items at the prison commissary, said
Don Russell, executive assistant tot he
warden. Of the prisoner's 818 inmates, 766 are federal prisoners and
the rest are in the custody of Cibola County, Russell said. The federal
inmates all are illegal immigrants who have been convicted in the United
States and are subject to deportation after they serve their prison terms, he
said. Inmates at the same prison staged another nonviolent protest in
December over food portions, menus and the price and selection of items at
the commissary, Russell said. Inmates at the low-level security prison
in Milan receive a diet containing 3,200 calories a day, Russell said.
( Journal Capitol Bureau)
April
24, 2001
An inmate protest at a privately-operated prison was a result of concern
about food and, for some prisoners, taxes, authorities said. The
protest, in which more than 600 inmates refused to leave the exercise yard
and go inside the Cibola County Correctional Facility, lasted about 12 hours
Monday. Inmates were unhappy with food served, and with having to pay
gross-receipts taxes on items purchased in the prison's commissary, state
police Capt. Glenn Thomas said. The jail, operated by Tennessee-based
Corrections Corporation of America, houses mostly federal prisoners from out
of state. (Koat/Daily News)
April
24, 2001
Prison officers interviewed inmates Tuesday a day after lobbing tear gas at
them to end a 655-inmate protest in the institution's recreation yard,
apparently over prison food. "Over the next few days, we will
conduct an in-depth incident debriefing and follow up to determine the cause
and prevent future incidents from occurring," said Steve Owen, director
of marketing for Corrections Corporation of America, which owns and operates
the Cibola County Correctional Center. Inmates spent 12 hours milling
around the recreation yard after refusing to go to education classes or work
assignments. The prison on Tuesday remained under lockdown, meaning
prisoners are confined to their cells. The inmates, housed in Cibola
County under a contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, are criminal
aliens -- people who are not U.S. citizens who have been convicted of
felonies in federal courts across the nation and who are subject to
deportation proceeding once their sentences end, Owen said. A few
inmates in the yard carried signs protesting racism. However, Don
Russell, a spokesperson for the prison, said Monday the protest centered on
complaints about prison food and the prison commissary. He refused to
go into detail. Owen said Tuesday he could not confirm what the protest
was about. (AP)
April
24, 2001
The standoff is finally over -- several hours after inmates refused to leave
the recreation grounds at a private prison near Grants in New Mexico Monday
night. Authorities finally got the situation under control around 9:30
P.M. local time after they were forced to throw tear gas into the recreation
yard of the Cibola County Correctional Center Monday night in an effort to
get the inmates back into the prison. Over 600 inmates had been in the
yard since 8:00 A.M. Monday morning. (KOAT/Albuquerque)
April 24, 2001
Authorities fired tear gas Monday night to break up a daylong protest by
about 700 inmates at a private prison. The prisoners were to be
handcuffed, checked for weapons and returned to their cells, State Police
Capt. Glenn Thomas said. That was expected to take several hours.
"All day long, they were not complying with anything," Thomas said
of the inmates at the Cibola County Correctional Center. "We finally had
to do something." The inmates refused to leave the recreation yard
about 8 a.m. to go to classes or work assignments, Steve Owen, director of
marketing for Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America, said
in a statement. (AP)
Cibola County Correctional Center
Cibola, New Mexico
Jun
15, 2021 santafenewmexican.com
Lawsuit alleges prison failed to protect inmate from attack that caused
brain damage
A new federal lawsuit
accuses private prison operator Core Civic of failing to protect a
19-year-old New Mexico prisoner from other inmates, allowing him to suffer a
beating that caused brain damage. Ruben Romero's complaint alleges Core
Civic, along with the warden and guards the company employed at the Cibola
County Correctional Center in 2018, violated his civil rights. The company,
which failed to implement a system to identify inmates who should be kept away
from one another, placed him in a population with his co-defendant in a
murder case, who participated in a violent attack on him, according to the
complaint. Romero, who stands about 5-foot-4 and weighed around 130 pounds at
the time of the incident, was placed in a pod where he was one of the few
inmates who did not have a red stripe on his uniform indicating he was a
dangerous to the facility, the complaint says. Meanwhile, his co-defendant,
Rudy Valencia, was classified as one of the most dangerous inmates in the
prison and had a history of violence in detention facilities. On the night in
question, the lawsuit says, a guard left Romero's unit, where prisoners had a
shared common area. Three men including Valencia - who were all far larger
than Romero - severely beat him, kicking and punching him in the head and
face. "[He] screamed for help," the complaint says, but other
inmates in the pod continued milling about and looked the other way. Had
anyone been monitoring the unit, even remotely, the complaint says, they
would have seen the three inmates "stomping [Romero] while he lay
motionless on the ground." After the assault, "stumbled down the
stairs with blood pouring out if his face" and "called repeatedly
for help with no response." Meanwhile, the lawsuit says, his attackers
were cleaning his blood from the floor. About 30 minutes later, a guard
noticed Romero standing bloodied by the door to the unit. He was taken to a
hospital with "severe and life threatening
injuries," according to the complaint, and was found to have suffered
brain damage in the attack. Romero's attorneys are seeking an unspecified
amount of compensatory and punitive damages against Core Civic, one of the
largest private prison operations in the nation.
Sep
12, 2020 nmpoliticalreport.com
Private prison
operator CoreCivic is accused of ignoring a
COVID-19 outbreak, putting inmates and the community at risk
In the first week of
July, Freddie Sanchez began to feel a hot and cold tingling sensation in his
neck and back. He had been imprisoned at Cibola County Correctional Center
for two years and lived in a working pod, a unit of about 40 federal inmates
who work in food preparation and other jobs at the prison while awaiting
trial or sentencing. Feeling “sicker than heck,” Sanchez asked a guard about
getting a COVID-19 test. He said the guard told him he was probably just
withdrawing from drugs. “That’s messed up for someone to even say that,” Sanchez said. The next week, he noticed that one of
the other kitchen workers was having trouble breathing. The inmate, who had
asthma, confided that he was afraid to let himself fall asleep at night for
fear he might not wake up. A couple of mornings later, Sanchez said, he
noticed that the man had disappeared. By July 20, the entire kitchen staff was
too sick to work. And that was when, for the first time since the pandemic
erupted in March, the Cibola inmates were tested for the coronavirus. For
months, CoreCivic, the largest private prison
corporation in the nation, had assured state and federal authorities it had
everything under control. On July 26, it reported just five positive cases
among the federal inmates at its Cibola facility, a 1,129-bed prison set in
the little village of Milan, just outside of Grants. The following day, the
number jumped to 175 — an increase that represented New Mexico’s largest
single-day jump of COVID-19 cases. Among the ill were Sanchez and his
cellmate Moises Zepeda, both of whom told Searchlight New Mexico that on July
22 they were sent to a shared cell in the special housing unit known as “the
SHU” — typically an area for disciplinary segregation like solitary
confinement. They remained there for two weeks, family members said. Zepeda
said that their stay in the SHU began after he flipped off a guard. In
separate interviews with these detainees and two other men, an account
emerged of an official response from CoreCivic that
was both punitive and ineffective at preventing the spread of infection. A
prison telephone, occasionally wheeled over to Zepeda and Sanchez’s cell in
the SHU, was their only access to the outside world. That was how they
learned, in calls to their attorneys, that they had both tested positive for
COVID-19. Basic requests for things like Tylenol went unanswered, they said.
A guard they knew only as “Officer Pine” took hours to bring them the toilet
paper they requested. It wasn’t until their 12th day in the SHU, they said,
that they received a towel for the shower. CoreCivic
has denied these allegations. “Detainees with symptoms of COVID-19 were housed
in a medical overflow unit, NOT restrictive housing,” said spokesperson
Amanda Gilchrist in a written statement to Searchlight. She dismissed
reports of denied medical care as “patently false.” Though she confirmed that
the prison population wasn’t tested for COVID-19 until July 20, she described
the testing effort as preventative. “Most of the staff and detainee cases
that have tested positive … were asymptomatic at the time of testing,”
Gilchrist said. As of Sept. 8, the number of COVID-19 cases at Cibola
officially reached 324 — a figure that includes people who have recovered
from the disease and accounts for more than 80 percent of cases in the entire
county. The cases are concentrated among inmates detained by the U.S.
Marshals Service (USMS), which has 492 beds at the prison. In a statement,
USMS spokesperson Lynzey Donahue reiterated CoreCivic’s claim that nearly all inmates were
asymptomatic. “All recovered within 14 days,” she added. An additional 44
staff members have also tested positive, according to CoreCivic.
The outbreak has sparked concern in and around rural Cibola County, where
state lawmakers say it could strain the local hospital’s limited resources. A
New Mexico congressional delegation, made up of Senators Tom Udall and Martin
Heinrich and Representatives Deb Haaland, Ben Ray Luján and Xochitl Torres Small, expressed numerous
concerns about the prison’s handling of COVID-19 in an inquiry on Aug. 14. CoreCivic took troublingly long to realize that it had “a
massive outbreak in its facility endangering the safety of inmates,
detainees, staff and the community,” the delegation wrote in a letter to U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the USMS and CoreCivic
CEO Damon T. Hininger. The letter noted that the
state Department of Health had to direct CoreCivic
to conduct mass testing, a point of concern. The delegation was also
concerned that “correctional officers working at the Cibola facility are not
wearing adequate PPE when escorting COVID-19 positive inmates into the local
hospital,” the letter said. A spokesman for Heinrich said the delegation has
still not received a response from CoreCivic or any
government agency. CoreCivic reported more than
$1.9 billion in revenue in 2019, about half of it derived from federal
contracts with ICE, the USMS and the Bureau of Prisons. But despite its ample
resources, advocates and prisoners alike say the company has neglected to
take basic precautions to prevent COVID-19.
People incarcerated in at least three CoreCivic
prisons, including the facility in Cibola, have staged protests over
conditions since the pandemic began. Several guards have filed lawsuits
against the company, alleging unsafe working conditions at an ICE detention
center in California. And a federal class-action suit charges that CoreCivic detainees in Arizona were denied medical care
and the most basic safeguards. In Cibola County, where 29 percent of
residents live below the poverty line, CoreCivic
reportedly has collected $150 million from the county in exchange for operating
the prison since 2016. Even before COVID, the prison had a reputation for
dismal medical care. “The Cibola facility has long been known to be one of
the most problem-prone prisons in the nation,” the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security wrote in a December 2016 report. Within days of the July 20
testing, the whole prison went into a strict lockdown. Two other inmates who
spoke to Searchlight said they were allowed to leave their cells, in an area
known as Pod 700C, for 20 minutes every other day, leaving them only enough
time for either a shower or a phone call. Like Sanchez and Zepeda, the two
said they didn’t get medical attention for two weeks. Their meals consisted
of oatmeal for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch and dinner. Tensions boiled
over on Aug. 5, when inmates anticipated the
lockdown would end. Instead, they were told it had been extended. That was
when, according to both prison authorities and inmates, the prisoners staged
a protest and refused to go back into their cells. “Staff used less than
lethal force including oleoresin capsicum,” or pepper spray, Gilchrist said
in a statement. The two inmates in 700C said they witnessed guards use some
sort of non-lethal guns to quell the protest and that they shot at one man’s
head dozens of times, requiring him to receive staples to stitch up his head
wounds. “Facility staff successfully restored order, with no serious injuries
occurring as a result of this incident to detainees or staff,” she said. “One
detainee was sent to an outside hospital the following day for treatment and
returned to the facility.” The inmate with asthma, the one who disappeared
without explanation, turned out to have a severe case of COVID-19. He was
transported to Presbyterian Rust Medical Center in Rio Rancho with a collapsed
lung and was placed on a ventilator, according to his daughter Jamie
Rodriguez, a nurse in California. Rodriguez said she asked the USMS to let
her visit her father, Todd Prue, in the hospital’s I.C.U. She even flew to
New Mexico so she could be available on the spot. According to one email, the
USMS told her that his charge nurse had recommended a Zoom-like call, but it
had to be coordinated between the prison and the hospital. That never
happened, Rodriguez said. “He wasn’t always an inmate. He was my father, and
I just would like to be able to be there and say goodbye in a proper way,”
she said. On August 13, Rodriguez received an email that her father’s
condition had improved. He was returned to the prison and kept in the medical
wing, where she finally reached him by phone. He told her he had complained
about his symptoms for two weeks, and that he was accused of being on illicit
drugs — and drug-tested twice — before his hospitalization. Several days had
passed since he was discharged, but he hadn’t yet tested negative for the
disease, she said. Because he was brought back to prison before being
confirmed negative, she worried that the disease would continue to spread
throughout the facility. Todd Hotchkiss, an Albuquerque lawyer who represents
five COVID-infected clients at Cibola, agreed. “I’m very concerned that my
clients are just in a container being moved around with a virus,” Hotchkiss
said. The staff just “shuffles guys around — that’s all they do, it seems.”
And that means COVID-19 can keep recirculating, today and for the foreseeable
future, he said. “I’m not sure how they are going to get this out of that
facility.”
Aug 19, 2020
localsyr.com
Lawmakers want
answers from ICE, contractor regarding COVID-19 outbreak at NM jail
Members of Congress
troubled at reports of Cibola County center guards not wearing PPE when
escorting sick detainees to hospital; company denies that
El Paso Texas Border Report) — Members of New Mexico’s congressional
delegation want to know why a COVID-19 outbreak took place despite warnings
at a privately-run detention center in Cibola County. In a recent letter to
the Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and
other officials, the lawmakers expressed “serious concerns” about a
significant rise in coronavirus infections among inmates and staff at the
Cibola County Corrections Center. The center now accounts for 84% of all
reported COVID-19 cases in the county, with 246 of those being recorded
between July 27 and July 29. The center is run by CoreCivic,
a company contracted by ICE to operate migrant detention facilities in Texas
and other states. “This increase … raises questions on CoreCivic’s
preparation and ability to keep inmates, detainees and staff safe and puts
the county of Cibola, New Mexico … at risk of viral exposure,” the letter
states. The lawmakers are troubled because back in April — after the first
coronavirus infection was reported at the Cibola center — they had been
assured by CoreCivic that it was implementing a
COVID-19 action plan to prevent further infections. “We are concerned that
while CoreCivic stated it implemented (the plan),
ordered test kits and developed contingency plans, it wasn’t until the New
Mexico Department of Health directed Cibola to conduct mass testing with kits
provided by the state that CoreCivic realized it
had a massive viral outbreak in its facilities,” the letter states. The
Democratic lawmakers — U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall, U.S. Reps.
Xochitl Torres Small, Ben Ray Lujan and Deb Haaland
— also allege that correctional officers at Cibola aren’t wearing personal
protective equipment while escorting sick inmates to hospitals, jeopardizing
themselves, medical workers and other patients to COVID-19. And this isn’t
because the company lacks PPE, the lawmakers say. “This is troubling since
two weeks before the outbreak at Cibola (a company official) stated at a
hearing of the Border Security Subcommittee that ‘we’ve got plenty of masks
in inventory and have the flexibility … to relocate masks to other
facilities,'” the letter states. The lawmakers are giving ICE, CoreCivic and the U.S. Marshals Service until Friday to
answer their questions. In an email to Border Report, CoreCivic
said it has responded “appropriately, thoroughly and with care” to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The company also said it requires staff members to wear
face masks inside the facility and during transport of detainees. “We have
received the letter sent to us by the New Mexico congressional delegation and
are working to provide them a formal response. We have also been working in
close partnership with the New Mexico Department of Health, including regular
communication with our contacts there since the facility had its first
positive care in May,” said Ryan Gustin, manager of
public affairs for CoreCivic. The company says all
detainees are now going through daily symptoms and temperature checks and
that staff are conducting regular meetings with detainees on sanitation
protocols, social distancing and the use of PPE, among others.
CiviGenics Drug
and Alcohol Rehabilitative Center
Fort Stanton, New Mexico
CiviGenics
August 26, 2004
Darcy Holmes said she didn’t mind being tested for drug use during a surprise
facility-wide search at the CiviGenics Drug and
Alcohol Rehabilitative Center at Fort Stanton Tuesday. But she was
infuriated that she and other staff were herded into a circle and kept at
gunpoint for hours with offenders on probation and parole during the
search. “I feel they put our lives at risk,” said Holmes, a semi-retiree
who worked the past five months for the Massachusetts-based company that is
under contract with the state Corrections Department. “Someone could have
taken a hostage or if a riot broke out, shooting could have started. I think
they violated our safety. We were surrounded by officers from Carlsbad and
Roswell with semi-automatic weapons and they held guns on us for three
hours.” Tia Bland, public information officer for the corrections
department, said Wednesday that, “We believe the whole operation was handled
professionally. Staff and offenders were rounded up, but weapons were not
pointed at anyone. However, we needed to ensure they remained in one place
while the whole facility was searched.” The department received
information about possible drug use by staff or offenders and decided a
facility-wide search was needed, Bland said. “We were pretty pleased
not to find a whole lot,” she said. “They found a few minor drug
paraphernalia and mushrooms that we are having tested.” This isn’t the
only incident that she says points to a disregard for staff safety, Homes
said. “Our radios don’t work and when a duty officer is doing a head count,
(he or she) has no way to communicate.” Kevin Beckworth,
the regional manager for CiviGenics based in
Colorado, said the fort has three times the number of radios required and
there is no reason they shouldn’t be an adequate number charged and ready to
use at any time. Holmes already had decided to quit her job and today
is her last day at the fort. David Lucero, another employee who has
given notice, said he arrived about 4 p.m. and saw police cars and officers
carrying M-16s. He said the first man handcuffed is Cuban and doesn’t
understand English well. “I don’t think they made it clear they weren’t
supposed to stand,” he said. “They handcuffed him for at least two to
three hours. If he had gotten mad and something started, we couldn’t contain
them. We were in there and if rounds were fired, we were in the
middle.” But Lucero said his big gripe is that after the inmates were
upset by the search, he and a female employee were left to watch them
overnight. That’s about 41 offenders to one guard, he said. The staff
is “run ragged,” he said and more employees are needed. “Over the last
six months, I made more than $4,000 in overtime because they can’t get enough
people to work or to hire, or they don’t last. “We’re working 12 to 16
hour shifts and we’re tired. No one get raises because we’ve burned up all
the overtime because the program director didn’t hire anybody for three or
four months in a row.” The ratio of employees to offenders also is too
small on trips into town, he contended. Beckworth
said two-person staffing is normal for the night shift. “The director
at any time has the authority to bring on more people if the situation
requires it,” he said, noting that several employees live on-grounds for any
quick emergency response. Lucero also criticized the prison-like
atmosphere at the center. “This is a rehab center, not a prison, but
it’s run like a prison,” he said. “We’re in it for the guys to get
rehab.” He said he doesn’t think that’s the same goal at the corporate
level. “When I have voiced my opinion in past, they won’t listen.” Lucero
said he’s worried violence may erupt at the fort someday, damaging property
and possibly resulting in injury to people. According to company
information, CiviGenics, the second largest
privately-held corrections operator and the largest provider of correctional
treatment programs in the United States, was incorporated in 1995 and
operates in 14 states with a staff of more than 1,200. The company took
over from The Amity Foundation about a year ago. (Ruidoso News)
Curry County Jail
Curry County, New Mexico
May 12, 2009 Clovis News Journal
Most counties that hire private companies to run their jails find they have
the same problems, but less control with the same accountability, a team of
three experts told Curry County commissioners on Tuesday. Manny Romero with
the New Mexico Association of Counties shared a “snapshot” of pros and cons
with commissioners at a special meeting. Romero said it has been his
experience that most counties that try privatization end up dissatisfied or
have significant difficulties and retake control of their jails. Romero
conducted an assessment of the Curry County Adult Detention Center in
September, on the heels of the escape of eight inmates on Aug. 24. In his
report, Romero cited “abysmal” structural issues, training, staffing and
outdated policies and procedures as top issues plaguing the facility. When
considering private or county jail management, there are security problems
either way, he said, explaining profit-driven companies often shortstaff and undertrain, don’t pay their people as well
as governments and may cut other corners to save money and increase profit.
“There’s going to be a profit motive, that’s how they work,” he said. And
there are too many factors involved to predict if money will be saved for the
county. But they also have certain freedoms government doesn’t, he said. They
can fire substandard employees quickly with far less due process than
government can, they can make purchases without being bound by laws requiring
bidding procedures, often finding better deals or buying more quickly.
However, under law, jails are not a responsibility that can be delegated away
from the county, explained Steve Kopelman, NMAC risk management director.
“The county will always be named in the lawsuit,” he said. “You can negotiate
your contract really well (but) the buck stops with the Commission anyways.
... You have to do due diligence and do your homework because there are so
many pitfalls.” Currently only one New Mexico county, Lincoln, has a private
company running its jail, Bruce Swingle with NMAC told commissioners. At
least five other counties tried privatization, a concept that gained a lot of
momentum in the 1990s, but returned to running their own jails, often because
of liability claims that arose. Most often, employees of private corrections
companies have prison backgrounds and bring that knowledge with them to
county jails, but that creates a problem because, “what’s allowed in a prison
is not always allowed in a jail. There’s a big difference between the two,”
Swingle said. An example Swingle pointed to was a private company that
engaged in illegal strip searches of Santa Fe County inmates. Essentially
counties found that to reduce their liability exposure, they had to give up
control of the facilities and give private companies authority to manage as
they saw fit. “If you’re going to do it, do it. If you’re not, then stay the
heck out of it,” he said. Swingle said the crux of the problem lies in the
fact that, “If you get involved in it you’re going to be liable. If you stay
out of it, you have no control.”
Doña Ana County Detention Center
Jun 4, 2021 abqjournal.com
Detention center sued over 2019 inmate
death
LAS CRUCES – Unpaid fines amounting to
$242 landed Hector Garcia in the county jail for six days in August 2019. On
day six, he was dead, a federal complaint says. The lawsuit, brought by
Garcia’s son, says Doña Ana County Detention Center staff and employees of
Corizon Health – the contractor providing medical and behavioral services at
the detention center – denied Garcia higher-level care even after he began
exhibiting symptoms of a perforated ulcer, a condition that requires
emergency surgery. The lack of care allegedly continued despite episodes of
collapsing, vomiting blood and severe abdominal pain over several days. “In
any other place (other than a jail or prison) he would have been sent to the
hospital and would have lived,” Garcia’s attorney, Matthew Coyte, wrote in an email. Neither the county nor Corizon
responded to queries for this report. The lawsuit alleges Corizon staff
ignored Garcia’s medical history of peptic ulcers and his worsening symptoms
as he began to die of sepsis, refusing to call 911 or transport him to a
hospital until it was too late. And then, at 1 a.m., the complaint states
that a Corizon nurse practitioner ordered a security van to take him instead
of an ambulance, saving money but delaying transportation as the last chance
to save his life drifted away. “Detention staff have a constitutional
obligation to summon 911 when they see a need for immediate emergency medical
care which cannot be treated in the jail,” the lawsuit argues. Three
detention officers and six staff members of Corizon are accused by Hector
Garcia Jr. of deliberate indifference over his father’s suffering and medical
deterioration. Also named in the lawsuit is Vincent Pokluda,
a former assistant county manager who was, at the time of Garcia’s custody,
the detention center’s acting director. Pokluda
retired from the county at the end of 2019. On top of multiple allegations of
negligent medical care, the complaint says Pokluda
signed off on a policy barring detention center staff from calling 911 unless
instructed to do so by Corizon personnel. That allegation echoes a complaint
in another pending lawsuit against the county and Corizon. Antonio Reali, a former inmate with a history of heart trouble,
claims Corizon and detention center staff ignored his reports of severe chest
pains while he was in custody in 2017, denied him medication and sent him
back to his cell even after two abnormal EKGs. He later suffered a heart attack
and multiorgan failure. Corizon Health, based in Brentwood, Tennessee, faces
lawsuits in several states alleging negligent or delayed medical care. In
2013, the county paid out one of the largest prisoner civil rights
settlements in U.S. history – $15.5 million – for Stephen Slevin,
who was held in solitary confinement for 22 months and denied medical care,
to the point where he extracted his own tooth. Pokluda
was the second consecutive interim director at the detention center following
the 2017 departure of Chris Barela, according to Sun-News reports. Pokluda was named acting director in 2018, overseeing the
jail while still serving as assistant county manager, until Daniel Peters was
named permanent director and Pokluda retired in
2019. The current director, Bryan Baker, assumed the position on an interim
basis in March 2020 and was permanently appointed in September. Garcia’s
lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages plus court costs
for violations of his civil and constitutional rights, under the Civil Rights
Act, New Mexico’s Tort Claims Act and the Wrongful
Death Act.
May 29, 2021
kob.com
Lawsuit: Inmate's in-custody death could have been prevented
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.- A newly-filed
lawsuit claims an inmate died at the Doña Ana County jail because the
facility was too cheap to pay for an ambulance. Hector Garcia was being held
for unpaid fines on Aug. 4, 2019. Video from the jail shows him slump over a
fall to the ground. There is no sound on the video, but the lawsuit states he
told jail guards that his pain was a 10 out of 10, and
begged for help. "It seemed apparent from the video, and certainly
apparent from the medical records that it was a no-brainer, they should have
called 911 mmediately," said attorney Matt Coyte, who is representing Garcia's family. The staff
eventually placed Garcia into a medical unit, but he eventually died.
"If he weren't in jail and anywhere else and looked like this and
collapsed the number of times he had, he would go to an emergency room in an
ambulance," Coyte said. The lawsuit said
Garcia was suffering from a perforated ulcer and the contents of his bowels
were entering his abdominal cavity, which led to sepsis. According to the
lawsuit, perforated ulcers are common inside emergency rooms, and with
routine surgery, the problem can be fixed. Coyte
alleges the Doña Ana County jail and the contracted medical provider, Corizon
Health Inc., wanted to save money by not calling for an ambulance to pick up
Garcia. "He paid with his life because a private corporation was trying
to save money, and we are putting people in jail because they have not paid
small amounts of fines and these things lead to disaster, and they must
stop," Coyte said. KOB 4 reached out to the
Doña Ana County jail about Garcia's death. No response was provided.
Jul 9, 2016 lcsun-news.com
Jail inmate claims wrong diagnosis led to life-threatening condition
LAS CRUCES - A 32-year-old Doña Ana County Detention Center inmate is
claiming two wrong diagnoses by jail medical personnel led to a
life-threatening condition, unnecessary anguish and large medical bills.
Inmate Ezekiel Verdugo is likely to sue the county, the city and medical
personnel over the matter, according to county documents. Verdugo, who's been
in the county-owned facility since October 2015, began feeling "severe
abdominal pains" on March 31 or April 1 of this year, according to a
June 27 tort notice filed with the county. He complained to detention center
personnel. Nursing staff initially diagnosed him has having constipation and
administered a treatment that was "extremely painful," the notice
states. The original pain didn't disappear and instead worsened, according to
the tort notice. "On one occasion, when he could not stand up, he and
another prisoner insisted he needed to see a doctor," states the
document, written by Las Cruces attorney Peter Goodman, also a columnist for
the Sun-News. "At one point Mr. Verdugo fell to the floor, and an
Officer Gonzalez mocked him and told him 'Get up, you're OK.'" Then, on
April 5, medical staff again diagnosed Verdugo — incorrectly — as having
kidney stones, according to the document. 'He was septic' "In fact, Mr.
Verdugo's appendix ruptured," the letter states. "He was
septic." According to the Mayo Clinic's website, appendicitis is an
"inflammation of the appendix, a finger-shaped pouch that projects from
your colon on the lower right side of your abdomen." The role of the
appendix may be to serve as a storage place for healthful bacteria, according
to a March 21 New York Times article. A ruptured appendix can be
life-threatening. A day later, Verdugo was transported by air ambulance to a
hospital, where he underwent an operation. There, a physician told him he'd
likely only survived because of his relative young age and overall health,
according to the notice. He was sent to a rehabilitation center for a stint
of recovery and returned to the jail on May 25. He still had a "gaping
hole in his abdomen" that required his bandages be changed twice a day,
which "was not always done" by jail staff, according to the tort
notice. Verdugo also experiences "severe pain, for which Detention
Center authorities have not given him adequate pain medication," the
document states. Verdugo doesn't know the long-term complications of the
ordeal, but "his body feels very different and appears to have sustained
damage to his left lung," according to the letter. "He believes
that the foregoing facts establish that the Detention Center, its nurses, and
its guards were at least negligent in their diagnosis and treatment of him,
and that, had he seen a doctor sooner, his appendix could have been operated
on in a safe and routine manner, before it ruptured," the claim states.
"He has suffered extensive mental anguish in prison, far beyond the
natural and normal displeasure of being incarcerated." Verdugo received
"extensive" medical bills tied to the incident that are "far
beyond his ability to pay," according to the letter. Verdugo believes
the bills are attributable mostly or fully to the improper care he received
in the jail. Goodman, who notes that he's representing Verdugo "for the
limited purpose of making sure his rights are preserved," wrote that
there's a "substantial likelihood that a lawsuit will be filed ... ." Doña Ana County spokesman Jess Williams
declined to comment because the matter involves threatened or pending
litigation. The county has a contract with Corizon Health, a private company,
to provide medical care to inmates in the detention center. The company isn't
specifically named in Verdugo's tort notice as a possible defendant, but
yet-unidentified nursing staff are listed. "Due to patient privacy, the
claim and the threat of litigation we are going to have to decline
comment," said Martha Harbin, director of external relations for Corizon
Health. Asked to respond to the possible lawsuit, city of Las Cruces
spokesman Udell Vigil said Las Cruces police had
arrested Verdugo. "Mr. Verdugo was stopped by LCPD for a traffic
violation and subsequently arrested after it was learned he had an
outstanding arrest warrant out of Arizona for a parole violation," he
said in an email. "That is the extent of the City’s involvement in this case."The county detention center holds inmates
arrested by several area law enforcement agencies, including the city of Las
Cruces. Court records show Verdugo was initially arrested in early 2015 on an
out-of-state warrant. In May 2015, a Doña Ana County grand jury indicted
Verdugo on four alleged counts of child abuse not resulting in death or great
bodily injury, third-degree felonies. In November 2015, another grand jury
indictment accused Verdugo of forgery involving less than $2,500, a
fourth-degree felony, for an incident that happened in October 2015. In a
third Doña Ana County case from December 2015, Verdugo faces charges of
possessing a controlled substance, a fourth-degree felony, and using or
possessing drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor. He pleaded not guilty to all of
the charges.
Gallup Detoxification Center
Gallup, New Mexico
Na'Nizhoozhi Center Inc.
December 8, 2003
A county commissioner hopes the new Gallup-McKinley County Adult Detention
Center will focus more on helping more inmates change their lives rather than
just making money off their incarceration. Meanwhile, upper management
of the private prison company, Management Training Center, who will soon be
leaving Gallup for good, expressed their thoughts on working in Gallup and
gave advice to the county jail staff. Jail administration went solely to the
city and county at 5 p.m. Monday. McKinley County Commissioner Billy
Moore, who is a member of the city/county Jail Authority Board, said the city
and county government will make errors in the beginning in a trial- and-error
system until they fully learn what they're doing. That's to be expected,
Moore said. "We're going in with a new attitude and a fresh look.
We hope we can do something positive for the jail," Moore said.
Moore has no experience at running a jail, but he said he thinks the county
has been missing out on the profit MTC obviously made. "They're making a
profit, or they wouldn't be there," he said of the private
company. Moore doesn't believe the private prison company's money came
as much from out-of-state inmates because they were only a small percentage
of the jail's overall population. But he said the board might have to look
into taking on out-of-state prisoners if they start losing money. He doubts
that will happen. "They have incentives to keep people in
jail," Moore said of private companies like Management Training Center.
"We have incentives to get them out and get them treatment. Especially
in the cases of DWIs." (Gallup Independent)
April 3, 2002
A lawyer is suing Gallup's detoxification center, alleging it is illegally
detaining people against their will and violating state laws. The lawsuit,
filed by William Stripp of Ramah on behalf of
Lewison Watchman, also contends the Gallup Police Department and the McKinley
County Sheriff's Department put people in Na'Nizhoozhi
Center Inc., known as NCI, when they should not be there. Stripp,
in his filing Monday in state District Court, asked that the lawsuit be
considered a class action. If approved, class action status would let those
put in the center over the past few years become parties to the lawsuit and
possibly get compensation if it is successful. The lawsuit wants anyone who
was illegally detained to be compensated at a rate of $5,000 a day. NCI has
said 18,000 individuals are picked up and placed in the center each year. Stripp said the rate was derived from the settlement of a
lawsuit Watchman filed against the city last year after being placed in NCI
for four days against his will. He settled the lawsuit for $20,000. "The
police should be enforcing the laws against false imprisonment," Stripp said. NCI officials said they could not comment
because the lawsuit is pending. The lawsuit contends NCI does not have proper
certification from the state to operate as a health center and that the city
and county are violating the law by allowing the center to hold people there
against their will. Stripp said he plans to seek an
injunction prohibiting police from taking people to the center until NCI
proves to the court that it has the proper licenses and certifications.
Gallup Police Chief Daniel Kneale said he visited
the center last week to check its certification and found it had the proper
certification to detain people who had alcohol or drug problems. The lawsuit
also alleges the center habitually puts more people in a room than allowed by
state law, that staff members at times threatened people placed there or
"touched or applied force to plaintiffs in a rude, insolent or angry
manner," and that people were put together in locked rooms with no
privacy. The lawsuit also contends police officers and sheriff's deputies
turned over people to NCI without adequately investigating whether the center
was authorized to hold people as a licensed "health care facility."
Some of those picked up don't meet the requirement of having their mental or physical
functioning substantially impaired as a result of alcohol, the lawsuit
alleges. (Albuquerque Journal)
Guadalupe County Correctional Facility
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
Jul
1, 2021 abqjournal.com
New Mexico to take
over prison in Santa Rosa
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -
The State of New Mexico is taking over operations of the Santa Rosa prison
following a historic drop in inmate populations across the state. Spokesman
Eric Harrison said the state Corrections Department has signed a lease
agreement to transition the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility to a
publicly operated facility. It's the second time the state has taken over
operations of a private prison in the past two years. The medium security prison
in Santa Rosa, currently run by the GEO Group, is expected to be turned over
to the state by November. Although Harrison recently told the Journal there
were no plans for the state to take over the facility, he said discussions
between the state and GEO over the past few weeks led to the decision.
"Things just changed by the day," Harrison said, calling the end result the "best possible outcome for the
state and inmate populations." The decision comes amid a large decrease
in prison population levels across New Mexico following a pandemic-related
executive order to decrease inmate numbers by the hundreds. The Guadalupe
County prison had operated at 42% capacity over the past few months, with 252
inmates at a prison that can hold 590. Private prison contractors such as GEO
Group are typically paid based on the number of beds occupied at their
facilities. Harrison said the state's mission "remains the same" in
operating prisons despite the population size, while private prisons operate
for profit. Four of the 11 prisons in New Mexico, including the Guadalupe
County facility, are privately run and hold 42% of the state's inmate
population. The transition is the second in two years. In 2019, the state
took over operations of the Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility in
Clayton, also formerly run by GEO group, after the corporation cited issues
hiring and keeping staff at the rural prison.
Dec 24, 2016
abqjournal.com
Inmate sues prison health care provider over injuries
An inmate at a state prison in Guadalupe County has filed a lawsuit
against two nurses and a prison health care provider alleging they provided
inadequate exams after he was attacked by fellow inmates and suffered a jaw
fracture. The delayed treatment, he says, left him permanently disfigured. Jeffrey
Campbell argues that he was assaulted in November 2013 by other inmates at
the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility and was seen by medical staff
“based on obvious trauma to his head and facial area.” He says in the lawsuit
filed in state court last month that a Corizon Health registered nurse failed
to perform an adequate medical exam, despite the fact that Campbell lost
consciousness and could not remember what happened. He had injuries to his
head and face, including a cut over his right eye, but was returned to his
cell on the same night of the fight. The next day he asked for ice in the
morning and evening, but was never examined for a concussion or a fracture.
The next afternoon, he was given an anti-inflammatory medication and sent to
the local hospital’s emergency room. When he was admitted, according to the
lawsuit, he was unable to open his jaw, had raccoon eyes and a “bleed in the
left ear canal.” “It’s important to recognize that the existence of a lawsuit
is not necessarily indicative of quality of care or any wrongdoing,” Martha Habin, Corizon Health spokeswoman, said in a statement.
“But due to patient privacy and pending litigation, we are unable to provide
information that would provide a balanced perspective of this case.”
According to the company’s website, Corizon Health is the “leading provider
of correctional healthcare services in the United States.” Campbell says a CT
scan revealed fractures of the jaw, and he was transported to the University
of New Mexico Hospital for treatment. “As a result of the delay in treatment,
(Campbell) suffered severe infections and later required a mandible fracture
repair,” according to the lawsuit. That repair included two surgeries and a
bone graft, which left Campbell with “permanent disfigurement.” He is seeking
compensatory damages. Campbell’s attorney did not return requests for
comment. The lawsuit, which does not give his age, says Campbell is currently
an inmate in the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas. It
does not give the reason for his incarceration.
Jun 29, 2016 abqjournal.com
New Mexico: Corizon pays out
$4.6M
The former contract provider
of medical care for state prison inmates has settled claims by inmates for
nearly $4.6 million, according to information released Tuesday by a law firm
representing the provider, Corizon Health.
The claims against
Corizon were filed by 59 inmates at two prisons where a physician allegedly
sexually assaulted some inmates during medical examinations. Responding to an
Inspection of Public Records Act request by the Journal, the law firm of
Chapman and Charlebois, representing Corizon, released a spreadsheet showing
settlement amounts for each of the claims from inmates at the Guadalupe
County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa and the Northeast New Mexico
Detention Facility in Clayton. The settlements ranged from $7,130 to
$192,400. There were 21 settlements of more than $100,000 each. The law firm
said it needed additional time to provide the settlement agreements. The
spreadsheet didn’t specify the nature of the claims made by the inmates,
making it impossible to know whether all the claims were the result of
alleged sexual assaults by Dr. Mark Walden, who reportedly was known among
inmates as Dr. Fingers for his inappropriate rectal and other exams. Corizon,
a national company based in Tennessee, began providing medical care for New
Mexico inmates in 2007 under a contract with the state Corrections
Department. It was recently replaced with Centurion, based in St. Louis.
Under its contract, Corizon – not the state – had responsibility for dealing
with lawsuits alleging improper medical care. More than 75 inmates have
alleged in lawsuits that they were sexually assaulted by Walden, with at
least three others claiming he provided inadequate medical care. Walden,
Corizon and The Geo Group, which operates the Santa Rosa and Clayton prisons,
denied the allegations in their court responses to the lawsuits. Walden,
whose medical license has been suspended by the New Mexico Medical Board, lost
his job after an inmate complained to the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office in
July 2012. Many of the inmate lawsuits alleged Corizon and Geo were
“willfully blind and dumb” to what was occurring or at least should have
known that Walden was abusing his patients. The lawsuits said Walden spent
longer than he should have with inmates in the examination room. He was
accused of performing twice as many digital rectal exams per month as other
doctors and using a privacy screen with nearly every patient. Medical records
allegedly showed that one inmate went to Walden for an eye problem and got a
rectal exam. One 18-year-old inmate was allegedly ordered to have prostate
exams monthly. The lawsuits alleged civil rights violations, medical
malpractice and negligence. Walden said in court records that he never
sexually abused or fondled anyone. Walden worked at the Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility from 2010 to 2012. He transferred to the Northeast New
Mexico Detention Facility, working there from February 2012 to July 2012. The
Geo Group, based in Florida, operates both prisons under a contract with the
state Corrections Department. Prosecutors reportedly have been building a
criminal case against Walden since early 2013.
Jun
26, 2016 santafenewmexican.com
Constitutional rights clash in suits against former Corizon prison doctor
A slow-moving federal investigation into a former prison doctor accused
of sexually abusing dozens of New Mexico inmates is holding up civil lawsuits
filed by prisoners against the doctor and Corizon Correctional Healthcare,
the private company that recently lost its contract to provide medical
services for the state’s prison system, court records show. Allegations
against the doctor, Mark E. Walden, first surfaced in 2011 when a 30-year-old
prisoner at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility complained of Walden
fondling him and giving him unnecessary prostate exams. Since then, some 77
prisoners have filed lawsuits against the doctor and Corizon, the company
that hired him. Many of the cases have been settled out of court under secret
terms, but eight involving at least 13 inmates remain open. None of the cases
has gone to trial. Lawyers representing inmates in one of the open lawsuits
say their cases have been slowed by the criminal investigation. They have
been unable to depose Walden, they say, because Walden has invoked his right
under the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment not to incriminate himself. The
inmates’ lawyers specifically worry that delays in discovery, the pre-trial
phase where lawyers gather evidence, could hinder their ability to win at
trial as time passes and witnesses’ memories fade. U.S. District Court Judge
William P. Lynch in a June 10 ruling found discovery had been improperly
delayed and granted limited discovery into the inmates’ claims while still
shielding Walden from being deposed as the criminal proceedings against him
move forward. Derek Garcia, an Albuquerque attorney representing four inmates
suing Walden over claims of sexual abuse, said Walden’s rights are being
elevated “above the Eighth Amendment and due-process rights of my clients.”
“It’s unfair to allow the Fifth Amendment rights of Dr. Walden to preclude
indefinitely the timely justice of these inmates’ Eighth Amendment rights to
be free indefinitely of cruel and unusual punishment,” Garcia said in an
interview. Lawyers representing Walden, Corizon and GEO Group Inc. — a
private contractor that runs some prisons in New Mexico and also is named as
a co-defendant in some lawsuits against Walden — say they’ve already turned
over thousands of pages of discovery and that a direct deposition of Walden
would deprive him of a defense in any potential criminal actions. “Our
position is very clear,” one of Walden’s attorneys, Nancy Hollander, said in
an interview. “Our client has a Fifth Amendment right, and we will continue
to assert it as long as there continues to be a threat of prosecution.”
Nicole Charlebois, another attorney representing Walden, said in court filings
that Walden received a notification Jan. 31, 2013, saying he was the target
of an FBI probe. She argued in a court filing in March that the judge
shouldn’t allow discovery because a federal grand jury that had convened to
“consider the allegations against Dr. Walden is actively subpoenaing
documents and witnesses associated with the claims at issue in the case.”
Walden, who has denied the allegations, declined through his attorney,
Hollander, to be interviewed for this story. For the inmates who have filed
claims, the delays in the criminal investigation and the civil cases have
added to a process they say was already fraught with complications as they
came forward with allegations. Two of the inmates represented by Garcia spoke
in separate interviews over prison phones about what happened when they
reported the alleged abuse by Walden. One inmate said he feared embarrassment
in a tough prison culture, while the other said prison officials retaliated
against him for filing a complaint against Walden. One of the inmates, named
only by the initials C.G. in the lawsuit, said he went in to see the doctor
about an ankle infection, but the appointment “turned into a full-blown
prostate exam.” “When you have a lot of pain, you’re not going to argue with
the doctor,” said the inmate, who, like the other inmate, asked that his name
not be used because of the nature of the allegations. The inmate filed a
grievance alleging Walden sexually abused him. But the inmate said prison
officials dragged their feet in responding to his complaints. He said he felt
like the whole prison knew Walden abused him after he filed the grievance. “A
lot of this should have been confidential so people don’t have to hear the
little jokes all the time and the little teasing,” the inmate said. He added:
“It’s not funny — not to me, it’s not.” The other inmate, named by the
initials S.W. in the lawsuit, said he first saw Walden for pain in his
abdomen and received a prostate exam. The inmate saw Walden for follow-up
appointments when, the inmate alleges, Walden fondled his genitals. The
inmate filed a formal grievance Aug. 2, 2013. Jerry Roark, director of adult
prisons for the Corrections Department, responded to S.W.’s complaint in a
Nov. 19, 2013, letter that said “the concerns you have noted about the sexual
harassment issues” are being investigated. “Remember these investigations
will take time and you need to be patient,” Roark told S.W. More than two and
a half years later, Garcia said he has not seen any record that shows the
Corrections Department ever completed its investigation. About the time the
inmate filed his grievance, prison officials put him in solitary confinement
and kept him there for seven months, the inmate and Garcia said. The inmate
said prison officials told him they put him in segregation for exposing
himself outside the shower in the presence of a woman. The inmate denies the
claim. “They did that to scare me,” he said. “They did that to break me. And
they did that to show everybody else if you write these grievances, this is
what’s going to happen.” Lucy River, policy and legislative outreach director
for the New Mexico Department of Corrections, said in an email that the
department “is not a party to the litigation you’re asking about.” River
added that “our department doesn’t tolerate retaliation, and we take any
allegations of offender mistreatment, especially sexual assault, extremely
seriously. “We would not punish any offender for claiming rape or sexual
misconduct,” River said in the email. Concerns about Walden first emerged
about a year after Corizon hired him to work in the prison system. In
September 2011, a 30-year-old inmate at the Guadalupe County Correctional
Facility filed a complaint with prison officials accusing Walden of fondling
his genital and anal areas. He also said the doctor gave him repeated
prostate exams when he had only gone into the infirmary for a pain in his
side. The prison responded by placing the inmate in solitary confinement,
according to the report by the Corrections Department’s Office of Special
Investigations and Internal Affairs obtained by The New Mexican. Corizon
officials say the complaint was unsubstantiated, and they transferred Walden
five months later to the Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton
so he could be closer to home. Complaints began to stack up there until
Corizon fired Walden in July 2012 after at least five inmates came forward to
Clayton police. The complaints were referred to New Mexico State Police,
which began investigating as more inmates started coming forward. The FBI
took over the case in November of that year, state police records show. No
criminal charges have been filed in the meantime, and the status of the FBI’s
investigation into Walden has been shrouded in mystery. Elizabeth Martinez, a
spokeswoman for the New Mexico U.S. Attorney’s Office, said in a June 17
email that “as a matter of policy, Justice Department agencies cannot comment
on matters under investigation.” While the criminal investigation into Walden
has dragged on, the New Mexico Medical Board revoked Walden’s license in 2013
after investigating allegations that he gave unwarranted prostate exams to 17
state prison inmates in Clayton and Santa Rosa. The board said he engaged in
conduct “unbecoming in a person licensed to practice” medicine, among other
problems. The board later stayed the revocation and instead suspended
Walden’s license for two years after he completed a series of “physical,
psychological, neurological and competency based” tests, Amanda Quintana, a
Medical Board spokeswoman, said in an email. “Those evaluations were reviewed
and used to determine the proper remedy in this case.” The board said the
suspension on his license could be lifted if Walden completes a full
residency before reapplying for his license. Quintana said, “Dr. Walden has
not notified the Board that he has been accepted into a residency program.”
If Walden does not begin a full residency program by Dec. 1, she said, “the
stay will be lifted and his license will be revoked.” One doctor the board consulted
in the case, Allan Haynes, an expert in urology, determined that the
extensive number of prostate and rectal exams conducted by Walden, many on
younger inmates, often “were not valid medical procedures and were sexual
abuse of the patient,” according to the Medical Board hearing officer’s
report. Haynes issued an opinion for the board that Walden engaged in conduct
“likely to harm the public.” But another doctor the board consulted said
Walden “did not breach the standard of care with regard to treatment of the
patients at issue.” That doctor, Gary Michael Vilke,
was certified in emergency medicine and an expert on correctional health care
but did not have any expertise in urology. What Walden is doing now is
unknown. Not long after Corizon fired him, he was hired by the Central New
Mexico Community College. CNM rescinded the offer after learning of the
allegations against him, according to a Nov. 26, 2014, email from Jon
Cornish, dean of CNM’s School of Math, Science and Engineering, to Walden. “CNM
has chosen to exercise its right to rescind its offer of employment based on
the College’s investigation into concerns regarding your background which
manifested after our offer of employment was made to you,” Cornish wrote to
Walden.
Jan 2, 2016 abqjournal.com
15th suit filed against former prison doctor
A 15th lawsuit has been filed against a former New Mexico prison doctor
accused of sexual assault in performing unnecessary, intrusive rectal exams
on inmates at two state prisons. To date, about 78 inmates have alleged in
lawsuits that they were sexually victimized by Dr. Mark Walden, with three
others claiming he provided inadequate medical care, according to federal
court records. The latest case was filed Dec. 21 by a Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility inmate who contended he didn’t come forward earlier
partly because he was embarrassed and feared retaliation from corrections
officers, medical personnel and other inmates. The prison is near Santa Rosa.
Seven lawsuits filed since 2013 against Walden; the national medical firm
Corizon Inc., which hired him; and private prison operator, The Geo Group
Inc., have settled out of court. Some were settled within months of being
filed; at least two before the defense had formally responded to the
allegations. Walden, whose medical license has been suspended by the New
Mexico Medical Board, lost his job after an inmate complained to local law
enforcement in July 2012. Walden, Corizon and The Geo Group have denied the
lawsuits’ allegations. Albuquerque attorney Frances Carpenter, who filed two
of the earliest lawsuits against in 2013, told the Journal she hopes the
litigation underscores the need for reporting of sexual crimes in prison. “I
think these cases have created an awareness that this happens, and we’re
hoping that other inmates who suffer sexual abuse aren’t afraid to come
forward,” she said. “That’s the only way to ensure things like this don’t
happen again.” She said the amount her clients received is confidential. Many
of the lawsuits allege that Corizon and The Geo Inc. were “willfully blind
and dumb” to what was occurring, or at least should have known that Walden
was “abusing his patients.” “When made aware of possible instances of sexual
abuse and potential violations of inmate rights, companies such as GEO and
Corizon cannot simply maintain the status quo at their facilities, but must
act immediately to put a stop to such misconduct,” Albuquerque attorney Brad
Hall in a lawsuit that settled in May 2014. “Otherwise, as happened here,
over a period of a couple of years, dozens of inmates are victimized, each
being told that rectal and prostrate exams are ‘normal’ and ‘routine’ for
scrapes, allergies, sore shoulders, sprained ankles or any conditions causing
inmates to see the prison doctor,” Hall alleged. The lawsuits contend Walden
spent longer than average time with inmates in the examination room. He
performed twice as many digital rectal exams per month as other doctors who
worked at the prison. And he used a privacy screen with virtually every patient.
There was a “sudden notable increase in volume of digital rectal exams being
performed, unindicated digital rectal exams on young inmates, refusal by
Walden to have a third party present during exams,” according to one lawsuit.
Medical records allegedly showed one inmate went to Walden for an eye problem
and got a rectal exam. Another sought medical treatment for an asthma
condition and was told to drop his pants for a rectal exam. One 18-year-old
inmate was ordered to have prostate exams monthly. Federal court records show
Corizon and The Geo Group denied the allegations when they responded to the
lawsuits, which allege civil rights violations, medical malpractice and
negligence. Walden said in courts records he never sexually abused or fondled
anyone. Walden worked at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility from July
2010 to February 2012. He transferred to the Northeast New Mexico Detention
Facility in Clayton and worked there from February 2012 to July 21, 2012. The
GEO Group, based in Florida, operates both the prisons under a contract with
the state Corrections Department, which also pays Corizon to provide medical
treatment at two facilities. Other lawsuits filed against Walden are on hold
pending a criminal investigation overseen by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors have been building a criminal case against Walden since early
2013. Walden, 57, filed for bankruptcy in 2014. Inmates called Walden “Dr.
Fingers,” according to one lawsuit, which alleges that the physician was
“serially sexually assaulting” inmates at Guadalupe County Correctional
Center, and was “unfit to practice medicine in that environment.” Another
inmate’s lawsuit alleged that Walden’s reputation for sexual misconduct
during exams was “common knowlege” inside the
prison in 2011. Some inmates refused to go back to Walden for medical
treatment after the sexual contact. Another inmate had to continue seeing
Walden because he needed regular treatment for his diabetes. Others refused
to go to follow-up appointments that Walden requested because there was no
medical reason indicated. Several said they feared retaliation. Walden
allegedly told one inmate “he had gotten another inmate sent to segregation
for attempting to report Walden’s conduct, and threatened he would do the same
to B.H. if B.H. ever attempted to report the abuse,” one lawsuit said.
Another plaintiff, identified only as G.M., stopped the “inappropriate
digital exam” and “pulled his pants up,” his lawsuit said. Walden is alleged
to have told G.M. he would not provide further medical treatment and would
report G.M. for drug seeking if he reported the incident. The most recent
case filed by an inmate identified only as “O.F.” alleges he went to Walden
for treatment of diabetes and Walden fondled, and played with his left
testicle and penis, and used his ungloved finger to penetrate the inmate’s
rectum. Nearly two years later, the inmate filed a grievance over the
incident with prison officials. But his lawsuit said he wasn’t told of the
outcome of the internal investigation until this September, when a
Corrections Department notified him the case had been resolved and that he
could “take whatever action you deem appropriate.” The New Mexico Medical
Board investigated the sexual misconduct and other allegations against Walden,
finding in 2013 that he violated five provisions of the state Medical
Practice Act. A competency test later ordered by the board found Walden
deficient in several areas of medicine. The board in November 2014 suspended
Walden’s license but left the door open to eventual reinstatement if he
completes a “full residency” program in medicine, such as a residency at the
University of New Mexico. Court records show Walden is appealing the board’s
decision to state district court.
Nov
2, 2013 abqjournal.com
A former prison
physician accused of fondling multiple inmates during medical exams at two
contract men’s prisons in New Mexico is under criminal investigation by the
U.S. Department of Justice. Dr. Mark Walden has also been suspended from the
practice of medicine and has filed a notice of bankruptcy. The Justice
Department’s notification to Walden that he is the target of an inquiry into
the alleged violation of inmates’ civil rights is revealed in documents filed
in three civil lawsuits now consolidated in U.S. District Court. Documents
say Walden was notified in writing that “he is the target of a criminal
investigation regarding alleged sexual abuse of male inmates at the
Northeastern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Clayton and at the Guadalupe
County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa.” The prisons are privately
operated by Corizon Inc. The civil lawsuits against Walden, Corizon and
others were filed on behalf of about three dozen current or former inmates at
the two prisons by attorneys Katie Curry, Brad Hall and Frances Crockett
Carpenter. Defendants moved the case to federal court. Walden’s attorney in
the civil lawsuit said she does not comment on pending litigation. But in an
answer she filed on behalf of Walden in one of the civil lawsuits, he denied
performing any digital rectal exams that were not medically necessary or that
were inappropriate in length or methodology. He denies sexually abusing
inmates at anytime or that any conduct on his part
was unreasonable, cruel or harmful. Walden also contends that the claims are
barred by the statute of limitations and the Prison Litigation Reform Act and
the New Mexico Tort Claims Act. The inmates have made claims in U.S.
Bankruptcy Court to protect any recovery they may receive in the civil litigation.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Torgerson stayed the civil cases in August until
the bankruptcy is resolved. Walden was entitled to an automatic stay by
virtue of his bankruptcy filing. Torgerson extended the stay to other
defendants, including Walden’s former employer The Geo Group Inc., now called
Corizon, wardens Erasmo Bravo and Timothy Hatch, and the health services
administrator. There are no details on the Justice investigation, which has
apparently been underway since before the civil litigation began in March.
According to a statement from Corizon, the company “is unaware of any
criminal proceedings being filed at this time. We will cooperate fully with
any investigations related to this matter.” The wardens, Geo and Corizon
filed answers in the civil cases in which they have denied allegations of
negligent hiring and supervisions, medical malpractice and civil rights
violations. The inmates have asked the court to permit the litigation to go
forward without revealing the names of the plaintiffs because of the
potential of greater harm and victimization. But one of Walden’s attorneys in
the civil suits has denied sexual abuse allegations contained in the request
and opposed the request for anonymity, saying inmate lawyers are engaged in a
media campaign to “impact the pending litigation.” Walden’s attorney Nicole
Charlebois said in a written filing that the unnamed plaintiffs attacked
Walden in the media before even serving him with the complaint. Plaintiffs’
lawyers, she said in the filing, are “manipulating the underlying litigation,
tainting the public perception and tainting the potential jury pool,” and
that Walden has a right to know his accusers, “especially in light of their
aggressive media tactics.” Suspension: The New Mexico Medical Board suspended
Walden from practice in July, after sending him notice of contemplated action
and getting input from two physicians hired as experts who reviewed available
records. The board ordered Walden to undergo a thorough psychological
evaluation arranged by the New Mexico Monitored Treatment Program, which was
to send its findings and recommendations to the board for review. The
recommendations “must demonstrate to the board’s satisfaction that (Walden)
is fit to safely practice medicine.” The board will then determine his
further licensure status. The board hired as experts a urologist with 33 years experience, including 5½ years participating in a
prison clinic, and an emergency medicine physician described as having
expertise in correctional medicine. The urologist said his review of the
evidence indicated “sexual contact with a patient” by Walden on many
occasions that were not legitimate medical procedures and constituted sexual
abuse. The second physician found that Walden had not breached the standard of
care and that his treatment of inmates was appropriate for the patient
complaints documented in medical records. That doctor questioned the
credibility of the inmates’ statements “because several of them indicated
(Walden) had examined them without gloves, which (he) found very unlikely to
have actually occurred.” Walden invoked his Fifth Amendment right and refused
to testify at the medical board hearing.
Among over 40 pages
of proposed factual findings:
•Walden regularly
performed digital rectal examinations of inmate patients in their 20s and
30s. The Clayton prison offered exams routinely for men over age 50 and for
men under 50 if they had specific complaints warranting such an exam.
•He did twice as many
rectal exams each month as any other doctor at the Clayton facility,
according to a prison nurse.
•A 40-year-old
patient at the prison in Clayton asked a corrections officer as the inmate
left the medical unit in July 2012 “if (Walden) was gay, and expressed
discomfort with the examination he had received.” The officer prepared a
statement based on the inmate’s statements that the doctor had turned him
over and stroked his genitals. That was the only comment about any presumed
sexual orientation of the doctor.
•Another patient
reported on Aug. 5, 2012, that Walden had “played with” his testicles without
gloves.
•A 28-year-old inmate
reported that Walden called him for medical exams for three weeks straight on
a Friday or Saturday, gave him a rectal exam and studied his penis.
•Another inmate filed
a grievance about an Aug. 20, 2012, incident in which he said Walden asked
him to drop his pants, rubbed his genitals and asked if it felt good.
•In patient
statements provided by the facilities in response to a subpoena by the board,
Walden diagnosed a prostate condition not confirmed by an independent
analysis.
•Inmate patients are
generally not referred out because of time, expense and safety issues in
transporting prisoners off site.
•Only one patient at
Santa Rosa filed a grievance with a nurse.
The hearing officer
noted inmates “may be manipulative and will commonly do things for purposes
of secondary gain,” such as getting strong pain medicine, special shoes or
mattresses.
Mar 17, 2013
abqjournal.com
A New Mexico inmate claims he
got an overly long and intrusive rectal exam when he went to the prison
doctor for a torn meniscus in his knee. And his complaint isn’t the only one.
Eighteen inmates in two separate civil lawsuits claim they were fondled or
given intrusive exams – even when they weren’t needed – by Dr. Mark E.
Walden, the prison physician at the time. The claims that Walden used his
position to sexually abuse inmates are being made by men incarcerated at
prisons in Santa Rosa and Clayton. Both prisons are operated under contract
with the state by the Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO group, a firm that operates
detention and re-entry facilities in Australia, Canada, South Africa and
Britain, as well as the U.S. Walden was an employee of Corizon, a private
contractor that provides healthcare services at over 349 correctional
facilities across the country. The company, which is based in Tennessee, has
a four-year, $177.6 million contract to provide prison medical services in
New Mexico at both public and privately run prisons. Katie Curry of the
McGinn Law Firm in Albuquerque, attorney for one group of prisoners suing
Walden, GEO Group Inc., Corizon, prison wardens Erasmo Bravo and Timothy
Hatch, and health administrator Sherry Phillips, said another attorney
represents another 10 or so clients with similar complaints. “That’s who has
come forward, but these guys move around a lot (to other prisons),” Curry
said. “I can imagine there are others who are reluctant to come forward.” The
lawsuit filed by Curry alleges at least 25 known victims. The New Mexico Medical
Board is investigating Walden and, on Feb. 18, issued a notice of
contemplated action. No hearing has been scheduled, but it is likely to take
place in April or May, a board spokeswoman said. “As a matter of standing
company policy, Corizon does not comment on any litigation. However, Corizon
can confirm that Dr. Walden is no longer on staff,” said Courtney Eller of
DVL Public Relations & Advertising in Nashville, which handles media
inquiries for Corizon. GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez
said in an email that the company, as a matter of policy, “cannot comment on
litigation related matters, but we can confirm that Mr. Bravo and Mr. Hatch
are employed by GEO and Dr. Walden is not employed by GEO.” Walden, who is
now working in a medical practice in Raton, did not return a call for
comment. He also allegedly failed to use proper hygiene and disease
prevention techniques by not using gloves when he examined inmates. Prison
administrators and Corizon didn’t ensure that a third person was present to
protect the integrity of the exams, according to at least one of the suits.
The potential for sexual abuse and sexual misconduct toward inmates by prison
employees is well-known institutional problem, the lawsuits say, and
administrators have a duty to protect the inmates. Inmates often view
reporting abuse as futile because of the humiliation and retaliation they
risk and the prospect of losing access to medical services, the complaints
say. Doctors have far greater social status than inmates, further
exacerbating the imbalance, they say. GEO and Corizon should have known about
the abuse through inmate reports and the perceptions of staffers such as
nurses, “or kept themselves willfully blind” to it, according to Curry’s
lawsuit. “Corizon and GEO did not encourage reporting or documentation of
these incidents, and enacted no discipline or retraining of … Walden,” the
lawsuit says. Curry said there was a written complaint about Walden by an
inmate in September 2011, “and apparently nothing happens, so it’s literally
like the Catholic church where they know something and transfer him someplace
else.” She said lawyers know a copy of the complaint went to State Police and
that GEO was made aware of it. Walden initially worked at the Guadalupe
County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa and was later transferred to the
Northeastern New Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton. One of the
consequences of the alleged abuse, Curry said, was that some inmates stopped
going to see Walden, even though they needed medical treatment. The lawsuit
says staff became suspicious after Walden was hired “based on observations
including a sudden notable increase in volume of digital rectal exams being
performed, unindicated digital rectal exams on young inmates (and) refusal by
defendant Walden to have a third party present.” An inmate who went to Walden
for urinary tract issues and had an examination that was “excessive and
inappropriate” and conducted without gloves reported the incident and had a
sexual assault exam performed in Santa Fe, which revealed two anal tears,
according to the lawsuit. “Corizon and GEO did not encourage reporting or
documentation of these incidents, and enacted no discipline or retraining of
… Walden.” - McGINN LAW FIRM: A separate lawsuit
filed by Frances Carpenter of Albuquerque on behalf of nine more inmates says
the abuses began in 2010 and continued through July 2012 during both routine
and “symptom specific” examinations. They included digital anal penetration
and probing and stimulation of the genitals. One inmate who saw Walden with a
request for hemorrhoid cream was told he need to be examined first, the
lawsuit says, and during the exam was penetrated by the doctor’s “entire
ungloved fist.” The inmate, who reported the incidents to prison officials,
continues to have nightmares and anxiety related to the alleged assault. Both
lawsuits, filed in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, allege negligent
hiring and retention, civil rights violations, negligence and breach of
contract. They seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Meanwhile,
the medical board is expected to set a hearing this spring based on
allegations that Walden, during prostate exams on some 17 inmates, “touched
or attempted to touch these inmates in an inappropriate, sexual manner.” The board
notice says Walden was subject to a “corrective action” for incomplete
medical records that led the Union County General Hospital to terminate his
privileges, and he did not report it to the board. The notice also says
Walden’s professional medical liability insurance was canceled and that he
gave incorrect information about it on his license renewal in 2011. Inmates
say routine exams turned into horrific assaultsSee
PRISON on PAGE A9from PAGE A1Prison doctor accused of sex abuse; inmates
claim assaults”Corizon and GEO did not encourage
reporting or documentation of these incidents, and enacted no discipline or
retraining of … Walden.”<quote_attribution>McGINN LAW FIRM
April
25, 2011 The New Mexican
The two for-profit firms that run four of New Mexico's 10 prisons often
struggle to keep correctional officer jobs filled, state records show. One in
five such jobs at a Hobbs facility was vacant for much of the past 15 months,
while the prison in Santa Rosa reported a vacancy rate of around 12.5 percent
over the same period, according to the records. By contract, New Mexico can
penalize The GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, the two firms
that operate the facilities, when staffing vacancies are at 10 percent or
more for 30 consecutive days. It's a threshold that appears to have been
crossed multiple times at all four prisons since January 2010. The vacancy
rate at Hobbs topped the 10-percent threshold in each of the 14 months for
which data was available between January 2010 and March of this year.
Meanwhile, the 10-percent threshold was topped nine times over that period at
Santa Rosa and six times at a Clayton facility. Like the Hobbs facility, both
are run by GEO. A CCA-operated prison in Grants topped the 10 percent rate
four times over the same period. Whether to penalize the out-of-state,
for-profit firms is an issue that has come up before. The question surfaced
last year when state lawmakers were struggling to find ways to close a yawning
state budget gap. At the time, the Legislature's budget arm, the Legislative
Finance Committee, estimated Gov. Bill Richardson's administration had
skipped $18 million in penalties against the two firms. One powerful lawmaker
said Monday the issue is still important and the Legislature shouldn't lose
sight of it. "We'd like to follow up and perhaps do a performance group
review on the private prison operators to see whether they are making
excessive profits," Rep. Luciano "Lucky" Varela, D-Santa Fe,
said of the Legislative Finance Committee. Varela, the committee chairman,
said he can accept a reasonable return for the prison operators, but high
vacancy rates at prisons operated by the firms raise questions about how
state dollars are being spent to operate the facilities. Determining whether
the companies should be penalized for high vacancy rates is an involved
process, a Corrections Department spokesman said. GEO and CCA might have
asked corrections officers already on the job to work overtime to address the
staffing situation. If they did, the department "cannot in good faith
consider that position to be vacant," spokesman Shannon McReynolds wrote
in an email. But the state doesn't know whether that happened. That would
require going through shift rosters at each privately operated facility,
McReynolds said in a follow-up phone interview. "That will take a
decision from the administration," McReynolds said, referring to new
Corrections Secretary Lupe Martinez. "We do not have specifics on
overtime. Every once in awhile we'll hear a
particular facility has spent a lot on overtime." Because of sporadic
record-keeping at the facilities GEO and CCA operate, the state corrections
agency couldn't verify last year how often the two firms violated the
vacancy-rate provision in their contracts, if at all. As a result, the agency
couldn't corroborate or refute the Legislative Finance Committee's estimate
of uncollected penalties. Joe Williams, then-corrections secretary, decided
not to pursue penalizing the two companies, saying GEO and CCA were making a
good-faith effort to keep the facilities staffed. The contracts give the
corrections secretary discretion to waive the penalties. If Lupe Martinez,
the new corrections secretary, decides to collect penalties, it would be only
for January 2011 and onward, McReynolds said. Gov. Susana Martinez took power
in January and soon afterward appointed Lupe Martinez, no relation, as her
corrections secretary. According to state records, of the four privately
operated prisons, Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs has struggled the
most to keep correctional officers on the job. The facility's vacancy rate
hovered above 20 percent for 12 of the 14 months for which there was data
between January 2010 and March of this year. That includes seven consecutive
months — September 2010 through March — when the vacancy rate was 25.24
percent, records show. GEO-run Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in
Santa Rosa reported a 16.93 percent vacancy rate last July, a high point. The
vacancy rate has hovered below 10 percent in five of the last seven months.
Another GEO-run facility, the Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility in
Clayton, showed a similar trend, reporting vacancy rates higher than 10
percent for six of the seven months for which data was available between
January and August 2010. Data for July 2010 was missing. As in Santa Rosa,
the Clayton facility's vacancy rate has dropped in recent months. The state's
fourth privately operated prison, CCA-run New Mexico Women's Correctional
Facility in Grants, reported a vacancy rate above 10 percent four times from
January 2010 to July 2010, with a 16.47 percent vacancy rate reported in
July. The state corrections agency did not have data for August 2010 to March
2011.
September
10, 2010 New Mexico Independent
The state appears to have been within its rights last year to repeatedly
penalize two private prison operators for letting their vacancy rates hover
above a 10 percent trigger in their contracts, state records show. By
contract New Mexico can levy penalties against the two firms – GEO Group and
Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) — when staffing vacancies at the
facilities they manage in Hobbs, Grants, Clayton and Santa Rosa stay at 10
percent or more for 30-consecutive days. Staffing levels at three of the four
privately operated facilities hovered above 10 percent for much of last year,
state records show. As for the fourth facility, the vacancy rate was above
the 10 percent trigger in six of the 13 months the state records covered.
Corrections Secretary Joe Williams, who worked for GEO before Gov. Bill
Richardson tapped him as corrections secretary, told The Independent last
week the state had never penalized GEO or CCA despite vacancy rates
repeatedly topping the 10 percent trigger. He had the discretion to decide
whether to penalize the firms or not, and he had decided against it, Williams
said. The firms were doing a good job of managing the prisons, he added. Some
state lawmakers are wondering why Williams never assessed the penalties. Some
believe the never-assessed penalties could amount to millions of dollars.
State records show that vacancies at GEO-operated Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa were above the 10 percent threshold in 11
of the13 months between July 2009 to July 2010; 10 of the 13 months at the
GEO-run Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs; and nine of the 13 months
at the CCA-operated New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants. The
vacancy rate at the GEO-run Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility
eclipsed the 10 percent rate in six of the 13 months covered by the time
period shown in the records, state records show. The agency on Friday
reiterated Williams’ discretion in deciding whether to penalize the companies
or not. “The contract clauses that deal with vacancy rates gives sole
discretion to NMCD so that they may penalize the private prisons,” read an
e-mail to The Independent after we had sent questions related to the vacancy
rates from July 2009 to July 2010. “The penalties are not mandatory and are
decided by the department,” the e-mail continued. “Secretary Williams will be
presenting the reasons to why he has not penalized the vendors to the
Legislative Finance Committee in an upcoming hearing. The department welcomes
you to attend the committee hearing.”
June 29, 2005 The Santa Fe New Mexican
ALBUQUERQUE -- Lawyers for three prison inmates facing the death penalty in
the 1999 slaying of a New Mexico correctional officer say the state hasn't
provided adequate money for the defense. The state's chief public
defender said this week that the state already is spending close to $2
million on defending the inmates, which he said is more than any other
criminal case in state history. However, six private lawyers retained
by the state to represent Reis Lopez, David Sanchez and Robert Young have
asked a judge to let them drop out of the case. If the judge won't
agree, they want the state to pay more money for the defense or drop the
death-penalty request. The charges stem from the beating and killing of
Officer Ralph Garcia during a 1999 inmate uprising at the Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility near Santa Rosa.The state
Supreme Court ruled last year that New Mexico could seek the death penalty
against the three inmates. Defense lawyers had argued the death penalty
shouldn't apply because the officer worked for private-prison operator
Wackenhut Corrections Corp. However, the court ruled that Garcia had the
status of a "peace officer" under a law that allows the death
penalty for killing lawmen.
June 29, 2005 The Santa Fe New Mexican
ALBUQUERQUE -- Lawyers for three prison inmates facing the death penalty in
the 1999 slaying of a New Mexico correctional officer say the state hasn't
provided adequate money for the defense. The state's chief public
defender said this week that the state already is spending close to $2
million on defending the inmates, which he said is more than any other
criminal case in state history. However, six private lawyers retained
by the state to represent Reis Lopez, David Sanchez and Robert Young have
asked a judge to let them drop out of the case. If the judge won't
agree, they want the state to pay more money for the defense or drop the
death-penalty request. The charges stem from the beating and killing of
Officer Ralph Garcia during a 1999 inmate uprising at the Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility near Santa Rosa.The state
Supreme Court ruled last year that New Mexico could seek the death penalty
against the three inmates. Defense lawyers had argued the death penalty
shouldn't apply because the officer worked for private-prison operator
Wackenhut Corrections Corp. However, the court ruled that Garcia had the
status of a "peace officer" under a law that allows the death
penalty for killing lawmen.
May 3,
2005 AP
Prison guards are blaming a lack of funding for an attack that injured four
correctional officers in the privately run Guadalupe County Correctional
Facility near Santa Rosa. "What happened in Santa Rosa will happen in
Santa Fe," said Sgt. Lee Ortega, a correctional officer at the
Penitentiary of New Mexico near Santa Fe, who was among about two dozen
correctional officers picketing the state Capitol on Monday. Ortega,
president of the northern sublocal chapter of the
correctional officers union, said Corrections Secretary Joe Williams formerly
worked for private prisons - an industry Ortega contends just wants to save
money. Williams formerly worked for Wackenhut Corp., a private prison
operator, which named him warden of the year in 2001. "The reason they
would make someone warden of the year is if that warden saved money," he
said. "That's what he's trying to do with the state prison. He's trying
to save money, but he's making the prisons unsafe." Williams, who
started his corrections career as a guard at the state penitentiary in the
early 1980s, worked for Wackenhut between 1999 and 2003 as warden of the
private prison at Hobbs. Four guards were injured Sunday, and one had to be
hospitalized, after an inmate attacked them with a padlock inside a sock at
the Santa Rosa prison. Bland said officers used tear gas to quell about 120
other inmates who got "rowdy and riled up."
The state Supreme Court has
ruled prosecutors can seek the death penalty for the killing of a guard in a
privately operated prison. The state Supreme Court issued the ruling in
the case of three inmates accused of killing Guadalupe County Correctional
Facility guard Ralph Garcia during a 1999 uprising. (AP, April 22,
2004)
August
21, 2003
Angela Vigil was stunned when officials at the Guadalupe County Correctional
Facility told her she tested positive for heroin traces on her hand at a
recent visit to her son here. "I've only even seen heroin
once," said Vigil, a special education teacher at Highland High in
Albuquerque who said she was humiliated by prison officials who denied her
the time with her son. Vigil wasn't alone; many visitors to the prison
here have tested positive for drug traces and been denied an inmate visit
since a detection machine was installed in May, Warden Mo Bravo said.
Officials say the machine— a recommendation of a panel that looked at how
Wackenhut Corrections Corp. handled a deadly 1999 riot here— hasn't been
without problems. But they say they've fixed it. "There was a very
big issue," Bravo said. During the first month the machine was at
the prison, about 20 of 50 visitors tested positive and were denied visits,
Bravo said. The machine swipes a visitor's hand for trace amounts of drugs,
measured in parts per million. Casual contact with drug users can leave
drug traces on a nonuser's body, said Ed Brown, director of Wackenhut's
Western Region Office. So many positive tests prompted officials at the
prison in July to lower the allowable threshold for granting a visit, Bravo
said. With the new thresholds, which vary by drug type, roughly one to
two visitors a day may be denied, Bravo said. He also said that with the
machine in place, fewer inmates test positive for drug use while
incarcerated. Vigil, angered by her experience at the prison, had
planned to describe her situation to lawmakers at a meeting of the
Corrections Oversight and Justice Committee as it met Wednesday evening.
While Vigil— who denies she had contact with heroin— said she was treated
rudely, Bravo said he couldn't comment on her case. The machine, worth about
$60,000, was one of several improvements the company made after an
independent inquiry into the riot and its aftermath, which left officer Ralph
Garcia dead and sent some inmates to a supermaximum
facility in Wallens Ridge, Va. Wackenhut
president Wayne Calabrese told lawmakers the company has spent more than $3
million in Santa Rosa and Hobbs, where it operates the Lea County
Correctional Facility. The improvements include better security camera
systems, enhanced fences and ceilings as well as programs to keep inmates
busy and teach them skills. The company also sought— and won— from the
state Legislature this year a wage increase for its corrections officers.
Entry-level officers now make $9.64 an hour instead of $9, Calabrese
said. (ABQ Journal)
June 8, 2002
The former assistant warden at
a privately run prison here has pleaded guilty to two felony charges in
connection with the abuse of some inmates. Raymond O'Rourke appeared before
U.S. District Judge M. Christina Armijo on Thursday. He was sentenced to 21
months in prison after pleading guilty to a count of deprivation of rights
under color of law and obstruction of justice by witness tampering. O'Rourke
was accused of ordering two lieutenants to assault former inmates Tommy McManaway and David Gonzales in August 1998 at the
Lincoln County Correctional Facility. He then orchestrated a cover-up of the
incidents, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The two guards, Judson McPeters and Thomas Doyle, have pleaded guilty to similar
charges. They have not been sentenced. The prison is operated by
Florida-based Wackenhut. (The Associated Press)
October 2000
An advisory letter from the state attorney general's office finds the state
Corrections Department exceeded its authority by contracting with Wackenhut
to give a retroactive per diem pay adjustment. (Santa Fe New Mexican, Oct.7,
2000)
September
1, 1999
There was a riot involving 290 inmates. A correctional officer was stabbed
"numerous" times by up to 9 different inmates. The riot was in
response to efforts to lock down the institution following the stabbing of an
inmate.
August
12, 1999
An inmate was murdered with a laundry bag filled with rocks as he watched
television.
Juvenile Justice Rehabilitation Center
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Southwest Key Inc.
June 7, 2003
The state will not leave the Juvenile Justice Rehabilitation Center
under private management, despite pleas of local youth advocates, a
high-ranking official said. The Children, Youth and Families
Department last month announced that it would resume public management of the
48-bed juvenile jail when the contract of Florida-based Associated Marine
Institutes expires June 30. That decision upset several area
state legislators and youth advocates, who argue that CYFD hasn't shown it
can do a better job providing rehabilitative and educational services to
incarcerated youth than AMI. (ABQ Journal)
December 18, 2002
The Children, Youth and
Families Department on Tuesday ended its contract with Southwest
Key Programs Inc. to manage the troubled state juvenile rehabilitation center
west of the city. Starting on Monday,
management of the 48-bed facility will be turned over to a new private
contractor, Florida-based Associated Marine Institute, or AMI, which
currently operates another state juvenile detention center, Camp Sierra
Blanca, near Lincoln. CYFD spokesman Romaine
Serna said the groundwork for the decision to end Southwest Key's contract
with the state was laid by a series of complaints raised by southern New
Mexico legislators over the past year.
Those concerns — including a lack of vocational training and
recreational programs, a high rate of inmates prescribed
psychotropic drugs, gang activity in the facility, staff misconduct and a
high rate of staff turnover — were investigated by the Legislative Finance
Committee and resulted in a corrective action play for Southwest
Key in September. Then late on Dec. 4,
two teens, who were not bedded down for the night, attacked and beat a
25-year-old guard at the facility. The guard suffered skull fractures and
other injuries, and the pair of teens smashed windows in a failed escape
attempt. "It (the incident)
brought the whole operation into question, and at that point we decided it
was in everyone's best interest to end that contractual relationship,"
Serna said. (ABQ Journal)
December 14, 2002
The contract with a private
company that operates the Juvenile Justice Rehabilitation Center for the
state here could soon be terminated, a state senator said. The 48-bed jail is operated by Southwest
Key Program Inc., a Texas-based nonprofit company, under a $2.4
million annual contract with the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families
Department. "It's my
understanding that the state is in the process of terminating the
contract," state Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson, R-Las Cruces, said Thursday. Rawson said the state is considering
terminating the contract as a result of an investigation and the failure
of Southwest Key to meet deadlines that had been set by state
officials. (ABQ Journal)
December
13, 2002
A private contractor that operates the Juvenile Justice Rehabilitation Center
for the state has laid off 13 employees. The action follows last week's
destructive rampage by two inmates who were accused of beating a caregiver
and smashing windows in an attempt to escape. The 48-bed jail is
operated by Southwest Key Program Inc., a Texas-based nonprofit company, under
a $2.4 million annual contract with the New Mexico Children, Youth and
Families Department. State officials and lawmakers held hearings
earlier this year in response to complaints about conditions at the facility
ranging from inmate and staff assaults to drug abuse. (ABQ Journal)
September 26, 2002
Legislators greeted with skepticism a report on problems at the state's
juvenile rehabilitation facility in Las Cruces. Deborah Hartz, secretary of
the Children, Youth and Families Department, told lawmakers that the agency's
investigation found that many of the complaints concerning the juvenile
lockup had been exaggerated, were already corrected or were in the process of
being fixed. "Most of the allegations were found not to be true,"
Hartz said. "Is the facility perfect? No." Lawmakers asked for an
investigation after receiving a litany of complaints ranging from drug
trafficking to staff members being involved in gang activity. The center is
managed by a Texas firm under a contract to CYFD. "I'm still concerned
that it was strictly an inhouse investigation," Sen. Mary Kay Papen,
D-Las Cruces, said after Hartz made her report. "At $139-a-day per
resident, I'm concerned that they're not getting what they need and society
is not getting what it needs," Papen said. Parts of the facility are
still under construction. Exercise areas, for example, are limited. Sen.
Leonard Lee Rawson, R-Las Cruces, said, "I think we need to note the
difference between the allegations and the findings. Sometimes, the truth is
in between them." Rawson said he thought progress was being made and
hoped it would continue. Hartz attributed complaints to "general start up problems" at the year-old lockup. The
investigation found that illegal drug use was not rampant, according to Hartz,
and, in the two confirmed cases, the drugs were traced back to inmate
families and not staff members. The report also found that problems with
safety and education issues were being addressed. Hartz said the
investigation was conducted by top officials at the agency and went beyond
what the committee requested. Hartz acknowledged that one resident was
improperly restrained earlier this year. "The staff members involved
were fired and the case was referred to the State Police," Hartz said. A
more recent allegation of sexual contact between a staff member and juvenile
resident is under investigation. Hartz said the incident was properly handled
by center officials. The rehabilitation center, which houses 48 juvenile
offenders, is managed by Southwest Key Inc., a Texas nonprofit organization,
under a $2.4 million contract. (ABQ journal)
September 26, 2002
Legislators greeted with skepticism a report on problems at the state's
juvenile rehabilitation facility in Las Cruces. Deborah Hartz, secretary of
the Children, Youth and Families Department, told lawmakers that the agency's
investigation found that many of the complaints concerning the juvenile
lockup had been exaggerated, were already corrected or were in the process of
being fixed. "Most of the allegations were found not to be true,"
Hartz said. "Is the facility perfect? No." Lawmakers asked for an
investigation after receiving a litany of complaints ranging from drug
trafficking to staff members being involved in gang activity. The center is
managed by a Texas firm under a contract to CYFD. "I'm still concerned
that it was strictly an inhouse investigation," Sen. Mary Kay Papen,
D-Las Cruces, said after Hartz made her report. "At $139-a-day per
resident, I'm concerned that they're not getting what they need and society
is not getting what it needs," Papen said. Parts of the facility are
still under construction. Exercise areas, for example, are limited. Sen.
Leonard Lee Rawson, R-Las Cruces, said, "I think we need to note the
difference between the allegations and the findings. Sometimes, the truth is
in between them." Rawson said he thought progress was being made and
hoped it would continue. Hartz attributed complaints to "general start up problems" at the year-old lockup. The
investigation found that illegal drug use was not rampant, according to
Hartz, and, in the two confirmed cases, the drugs were traced back to inmate
families and not staff members. The report also found that problems with
safety and education issues were being addressed. Hartz said the
investigation was conducted by top officials at the agency and went beyond
what the committee requested. Hartz acknowledged that one resident was
improperly restrained earlier this year. "The staff members involved
were fired and the case was referred to the State Police," Hartz said. A
more recent allegation of sexual contact between a staff member and juvenile
resident is under investigation. Hartz said the incident was properly handled
by center officials. The rehabilitation center, which houses 48 juvenile
offenders, is managed by Southwest Key Inc., a Texas nonprofit organization,
under a $2.4 million contract. (ABQ journal)
Lea County Correctional Facility
Hobbs, New Mexico
GEO Group (formerly know as Wackenhut Corrections),
Correctional Medical Services (formerly run by Wexford)
State
gets tougher on private prisons - Operators face fine as leniency disappears
under Martinez administration: March 1, 2012, Trip Jennings, The
New Mexican: Damning expose on how former DOC Secretary and former Wackenhut
warden cost state millions of dollars in un-collected fines against
for-profits.
Aug 11, 2018 ladailypost.com
Lea County Correctional Facility Under Lockdown
SANTA FE ― The Lea County Correctional Facility (LCCF) in Hobbs was
placed under a lockdown Wednesday night following a disturbance involving
several inmates in multiple housing units. No correctional officers or
inmates were injured during the disturbance that was brought under control
within an hour. The Hobbs Police Department was notified about the incident
and the New Mexico Corrections Department has initiated an internal
investigation. The Lea County Correctional Facility is operated by the Geo
Group under a contract with the State. It currently houses 1,250 state
inmates. “Those responsible will be held accountable and prosecuted to the
fullest extent of the law,” said David Jablonski, Cabinet Secretary of the
New Mexico Corrections Department. “We will be conducting a thorough audit of
the GEO Group’s policies and practices and we will also hold their leadership
accountable by demanding they take corrective actions in an expedient manner.
We take seriously the safety of all our correctional officers and inmates. We
have zero tolerance for any violence in our prison system.” The disturbance
began around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday when several inmates in four housing units
refused to follow orders to retreat into their cells. Correctional officers
used tear gas to force the inmates into their cells and secured the housing
units. No correctional officer or inmates were injured. The lockdown will
continue until further notice. During the lockdown, family visitations and
other inmate recreational and educational activities will be suspended.
Mar 17, 2018 santafenewmexican.com
Lawsuit claims inmate died as result of medical
negligence
The daughter of a 57-year-old Bernalillo County man who
died in a state prison in 2016 is suing the company that provided inmate
health care at the time, saying her father’s condition was treatable and he’d
still be alive were it not for the negligence of the company’s employees.
Adonica Gravengood also claims in her wrongful
death lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, that Corizon Health
Inc. has a pattern of maximizing profit at the expense of patient care,
including altering or destroying records and failing to provide necessary
medical care to inmates who were nearing release. According to the lawsuit,
Scott Gravengood died April 24, 2016, one day
before he was scheduled to be released from the Lea County Correctional
Facility in Hobbs. The state Corrections Department had a slightly different
release date, saying Gravengood was to be set free
six days later, on April 30. Gravengood had been in
and out of prison since 2002, according to Corrections spokesman S.U. Mahesh.
At the time of Gravengood’s death, he was finishing
a 15-month stint for an aggravated battery conviction, court records show. A
spokesperson for Corizon said the company doesn’t comment on pending
litigation or patient medical history. Gravengood
first complained of stomach pain in March 2016, about two months before his
death, according to the complaint. A nurse gave him over-the-counter antacids
for several weeks and prescribed aspirin, but his condition did not improve,
according to the lawsuit. About six weeks after his initial complaint, Gravengood was seen by doctor who “was alarmed enough” to
send him to the hospital for an ultrasound, according to the lawsuit. But the
procedure did not reveal the source of his pain, the complaint says.
Following the ultrasound, Corizon employee Dr. David A. Birnbaum ordered
bloodwork that would have shown Gravengood was
bleeding internally, the lawsuit says. But “Dr. Birnbaum never reviewed these
results” and never saw Gravengood again before his
death, despite having acknowledged his condition was “urgent,” according to
the lawsuit. “An endoscopy would have revealed that Mr. Gravengood
was suffering from a duodenal ulcer and he could have been treated and his
life saved if this routine procedure had been done,” the complaint says,
adding that the doctor and nurse who first saw him failed to diagnose his
condition and “actually prescribed medications [such as aspirin] that made it
worse.” On the day Gravengood died, he went to the
infirmary in severe pain, according to the complaint, but “was sent back to
his cell after being loaded up with more [non steroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs] rather than being taken to the hospital.” After
falling off his top bunk, he was taken back to the prison infirmary. But
instead of being rushed to the hospital, Gravengood
was left “writhing in pain and bleeding internally until he stopped breathing
and his heart stopped.” Birnbaum could not be reached for comment. The state
of New Mexico decided not to renew its contract with Corizon Health Inc. in
2016 after a story in The New Mexican revealed more than 200 inmates had
filed complaints against the company since it began providing care in state
prisons in 2007. Since May 2016, the state has contracted with Centurion LLC
to provide health care for its prison inmates. The New Mexico claims against
Corizon bore striking similarities to lawsuits filed across the country
against the company. The lawsuit quotes several of those complaints,
including one from Georgia in which a doctor who worked for Corizon said he
was “constantly under pressure … to make certain medical decisions in order
to avoid costs.”
June 13, 2012 The New Mexican
The state Corrections Department could save millions by spending more on
community corrections programs and tweaking some private prison contracts,
the Legislative Finance Committee says. A recent evaluation of the
department, by the committee and the Pew Center on the States, uncovered
problems with contract management, parole planning and programs aimed at
keeping prisoners from returning. A recent committee newsletter said,
"The department could save $2 million a year by amending its contract
with the private company that runs the Hobbs prison, the review says. Even
though staffing level requirements were cut in March, the state is paying the
operator the same amount." The Hobbs prison is operated by the
Florida-based Geo Group, which also runs other prisons in Santa Rosa and
Clayton.
March
17, 2012 Albuquerque Journal
The companies that operate private prisons where New Mexico state inmates
serve their time have racked up nearly $1.6 million in penalties for
understaffing and other contract violations since the Martinez administration
started cracking down last year. Nearly all of that was attributable to
problems at The GEO Group Inc.’s prison in Hobbs, although the company’s
Clayton prison was recently added to the penalty list. The Corrections
Corporation of America, which operates the women’s prison in Grants, also has
been fined during the past couple of months, mostly for having inmates in the
prison after their release dates. Reversing the practice of the previous
administration, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez decided to pursue the
penalties the state is entitled to impose for contract violations. “In
today’s struggling economy, the people of New Mexico deserve to know the
Corrections Department is running in a fiscally responsible manner,”
Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said this
week in a statement. The department recently revived its Office of Inspector
General to keep tabs on contract compliance. Such fines are discretionary,
and former Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration gave private
prisons a pass, irking lawmakers who estimated that upwards of $18 million
could have been collected. Richardson’s corrections chief, Joe Williams – who
claimed that estimate was inflated – said that prisons already were paying
substantial overtime costs, that understaffing was largely due to factors
beyond their control, and that the facilities were safe and secure. Williams
worked at Hobbs for GEO’s predecessor company before Richardson hired him,
and he returned to GEO’s corporate offices in Boca Raton, Fla., at the end of
Richardson’s tenure. After negotiations with the Martinez administration, GEO
in January paid a $1.1 million fine for violations at the Lea County
Correctional Facility in Hobbs for the period from January through October of
2011. GEO also agreed to put another $200,000 into recruitment over the
subsequent year. GEO continued to be penalized: $158,529 for November,
$139,621 for December, $78,710 for January and $84,753 for February,
according to documents provided by the department. The February assessment
isn’t final yet, because the company has until late this month to respond to
it. The fines largely were due to vacancies in the ranks of correctional
officers and in noncustodial positions such as teachers, counselors and
treatment providers. Corrections officials have said it’s difficult for the
men’s medium security lockup at Hobbs to recruit and keep corrections
officers because it’s competing with the oil industry. An assessment of
$2,570 for understaffing in January was proposed for GEO’s Northeastern New
Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton, but the problem had been corrected by
the time the department sent a letter to the prison on Feb. 10, and no
penalty was assessed. In early March, however, the department notified the
Clayton prison that it would be fined $5,373 for February, for vacancies in
mandatory posts and for two inmates imprisoned beyond their release date.
That penalty is pending. GEO did not respond to requests from the Journal for
comment. The Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the New
Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants, was fined $11,779 for
January, and $9,974 for February – still pending – for an academic instructor
vacancy and for inmates held beyond their release dates. Inspector General
Shannon McReynolds said that occurs when the required parole plans aren’t
developed in a timely way.
November
14, 2011 Santa Fe New Mexican
A Florida company will pay New Mexico $1.1 million in penalties for not
adequately staffing a private prison it operates in Hobbs, a state official
said. GEO Group, which manages three of New Mexico's four private prisons,
agreed to pay the settlement last week following a meeting between the corrections
agency and the company's top management, Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said Monday. "They've agreed on it," Marcantel said of GEO. "It's a very fair way of
doing it. They are not completely happy. It needed to be done."
Officials at GEO could not be reached for comment Monday night. GEO will pay
the $1.1 million over several months, the corrections secretary said. In
addition, GEO has agreed to spend $200,000 over the next calendar year to
recruit new correctional officers for the Hobbs facility. By contract, New
Mexico can penalize The GEO Group and Corrections Corp. of America, the two
firms that operate the private facilities, when staffing vacancies are at 10
percent or more for 30 consecutive days. The settlement represents the first time
in years — possibly ever — that New Mexico has penalized the out-of-state,
for-profit companies for not adequately staffing the facilities they operate.
The issue has come up in the past, but state officials said New Mexico had
never levied penalties for understaffing issues. The question surfaced in
2010 when state lawmakers were struggling to find ways to close a yawning
state budget gap. At the time, the Legislature's budget arm, the Legislative
Finance Committee, estimated Gov. Bill Richardson's administration had
skipped $18 million in penalties by not assessing penalties against the two
firms for inadequate prison staffing levels. The $1.1 million covers
understaffing by GEO at the Hobbs facility for only this year and was reached
after the state corrections agency and GEO spent most of the summer disputing
each other's methodology for computing how much GEO should be penalized,
state documents show. Marcantel said he could not
retroactively penalize the companies for previous years, but could only go
back to the first day of Gov. Susana Martinez's tenure, Jan. 1. According to
state records, of the four privately operated prisons, Lea County
Correctional Facility in Hobbs has struggled the most to keep correctional
officers on the job. The facility's vacancy rate hovered above 20 percent for
12 of the 14 months for which there was data — between January 2010 and March
of this year. That includes seven consecutive months — September 2010 through
March 2011 — when the vacancy rate was 25.24 percent, records showed. Going
forward, the state will check monthly to ensure the four privately operated
prisons are adequately staffed, Marcantel said.
"Our new approach, it's not going to be waiting," Marcantel said. "That doesn't motivate" the
companies to keep staffing levels where they need to be, he added. GEO,
headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., recently reported $1.2 billion in earnings
and $58.8 million in profit through the first nine months of this year,
according to a Nov. 2 release by the company.
October
24, 2011 Odessa American
A 52-year-old New Mexico man died Saturday morning following a fight with
another inmate in a prison in Lea County, N.M. A New Mexico Department of
Public Safety news release stated that at about noon Friday, Lea County
Correctional Facility inmate Chris Phillips was airlifted to University of
New Mexico Hospital from the Hobbs, N.M., prison following an altercation
with another inmate. Phillips was pronounced deceased at 3:14 a.m. Saturday.
The circumstances surrounding the death of Chris Phillips were under
investigation by Lea County Correctional Facility Officials with the Hobbs
Police Department serving as the lead criminal investigating agency. In
accordance with departmental policy and standard operational procedure, the
New Mexico Department of Corrections has also initiated a Critical Incident
Review of the matter.
April
25, 2011 The New Mexican
The two for-profit firms that run four of New Mexico's 10 prisons often
struggle to keep correctional officer jobs filled, state records show. One in
five such jobs at a Hobbs facility was vacant for much of the past 15 months,
while the prison in Santa Rosa reported a vacancy rate of around 12.5 percent
over the same period, according to the records. By contract, New Mexico can
penalize The GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, the two firms
that operate the facilities, when staffing vacancies are at 10 percent or
more for 30 consecutive days. It's a threshold that appears to have been
crossed multiple times at all four prisons since January 2010. The vacancy
rate at Hobbs topped the 10-percent threshold in each of the 14 months for
which data was available between January 2010 and March of this year.
Meanwhile, the 10-percent threshold was topped nine times over that period at
Santa Rosa and six times at a Clayton facility. Like the Hobbs facility, both
are run by GEO. A CCA-operated prison in Grants topped the 10 percent rate
four times over the same period. Whether to penalize the out-of-state,
for-profit firms is an issue that has come up before. The question surfaced
last year when state lawmakers were struggling to find ways to close a
yawning state budget gap. At the time, the Legislature's budget arm, the
Legislative Finance Committee, estimated Gov. Bill Richardson's
administration had skipped $18 million in penalties against the two firms.
One powerful lawmaker said Monday the issue is still important and the
Legislature shouldn't lose sight of it. "We'd like to follow up and
perhaps do a performance group review on the private prison operators to see
whether they are making excessive profits," Rep. Luciano
"Lucky" Varela, D-Santa Fe, said of the Legislative Finance
Committee. Varela, the committee chairman, said he can accept a reasonable
return for the prison operators, but high vacancy rates at prisons operated
by the firms raise questions about how state dollars are being spent to
operate the facilities. Determining whether the companies should be penalized
for high vacancy rates is an involved process, a Corrections Department
spokesman said. GEO and CCA might have asked corrections officers already on
the job to work overtime to address the staffing situation. If they did, the
department "cannot in good faith consider that position to be
vacant," spokesman Shannon McReynolds wrote in an email. But the state
doesn't know whether that happened. That would require going through shift
rosters at each privately operated facility, McReynolds said in a follow-up
phone interview. "That will take a decision from the administration,"
McReynolds said, referring to new Corrections Secretary Lupe Martinez.
"We do not have specifics on overtime. Every once in awhile
we'll hear a particular facility has spent a lot on overtime." Because
of sporadic record-keeping at the facilities GEO and CCA operate, the state
corrections agency couldn't verify last year how often the two firms violated
the vacancy-rate provision in their contracts, if at all. As a result, the
agency couldn't corroborate or refute the Legislative Finance Committee's
estimate of uncollected penalties. Joe Williams, then-corrections secretary,
decided not to pursue penalizing the two companies, saying GEO and CCA were
making a good-faith effort to keep the facilities staffed. The contracts give
the corrections secretary discretion to waive the penalties. If Lupe
Martinez, the new corrections secretary, decides to collect penalties, it
would be only for January 2011 and onward, McReynolds said. Gov. Susana
Martinez took power in January and soon afterward appointed Lupe Martinez, no
relation, as her corrections secretary. According to state records, of the
four privately operated prisons, Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs
has struggled the most to keep correctional officers on the job. The
facility's vacancy rate hovered above 20 percent for 12 of the 14 months for
which there was data between January 2010 and March of this year. That
includes seven consecutive months — September 2010 through March — when the
vacancy rate was 25.24 percent, records show. GEO-run Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa reported a 16.93 percent vacancy rate
last July, a high point. The vacancy rate has hovered below 10 percent in
five of the last seven months. Another GEO-run facility, the Northeast New
Mexico Correctional Facility in Clayton, showed a similar trend, reporting
vacancy rates higher than 10 percent for six of the seven months for which
data was available between January and August 2010. Data for July 2010 was
missing. As in Santa Rosa, the Clayton facility's vacancy rate has dropped in
recent months. The state's fourth privately operated prison, CCA-run New
Mexico Women's Correctional Facility in Grants, reported a vacancy rate above
10 percent four times from January 2010 to July 2010, with a 16.47 percent
vacancy rate reported in July. The state corrections agency did not have data
for August 2010 to March 2011.
February
23, 2011 Odessa American
Three men were arrested Wednesday in connection to the Jan. 3 beating death
of 31-year-old Lea County Correctional Facility inmate Paul Lasner. Martin Knief, 30;
Lorenzo Mora, 30; and Christopher Morrisette, 31, were charged with
first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, tampering with
evidence and intimidation of a witness, a news release stated. Bond was set
at $1 million for each defendant, the release stated. The investigation is
ongoing, the release stated. Lasner was sentenced
to life in prison for first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated
battery in 1998 after a drive-by shooting with a shotgun in Clovis, N.M.,
left one dead and two injured in 1997.
January
4, 2011 Clovis News Journal
A 30-year-old Clovis man serving a life sentence in prison for a 1997 murder
was killed Monday at a Hobbs facility. Paul Lasner
was transported from the Lea County Correctional Facility to Lea Regional
Hospital, where police said he was pronounced dead. Hobbs police and medical
personnel were called to the facility for a report of a battery around 1:30
p.m. Monday, according to Mike Stone with the Hobbs Police Department.
Medical responders attempted to resuscitate Lasner
at the prison and continued efforts during transport to the hospital, Stone
said. Lasner was the only person with reported
injuries in the incident, he said. The death is being investigated as a
homicide, police said. Stone said as of Tuesday afternoon there had been no
arrests in connection with the case and would not say if police have any
suspects. He also would not disclose the nature of Lasner’s
injuries. Stone said while Lasner’s death is the
first in at least a year, there have been other homicides at the facility in
recent years.
January
3, 2011 AP
There's been a death at private prison in Hobbs and police say they're
investigating the case as a homicide. Police officers responded to the Lea
County Correctional Facility about 1:30 p.m. Monday in reference to an
assault. They say the victim was transported to Lea Regional Hospital, where
he was pronounced dead. There's no immediate word on whether the victim is an
inmate or a prison guard.
September
10, 2010 New Mexico Independent
The state appears to have been within its rights last year to repeatedly
penalize two private prison operators for letting their vacancy rates hover
above a 10 percent trigger in their contracts, state records show. By
contract New Mexico can levy penalties against the two firms – GEO Group and
Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) — when staffing vacancies at the
facilities they manage in Hobbs, Grants, Clayton and Santa Rosa stay at 10
percent or more for 30-consecutive days. Staffing levels at three of the four
privately operated facilities hovered above 10 percent for much of last year,
state records show. As for the fourth facility, the vacancy rate was above
the 10 percent trigger in six of the 13 months the state records covered.
Corrections Secretary Joe Williams, who worked for GEO before Gov. Bill
Richardson tapped him as corrections secretary, told The Independent last
week the state had never penalized GEO or CCA despite vacancy rates
repeatedly topping the 10 percent trigger. He had the discretion to decide
whether to penalize the firms or not, and he had decided against it, Williams
said. The firms were doing a good job of managing the prisons, he added. Some
state lawmakers are wondering why Williams never assessed the penalties. Some
believe the never-assessed penalties could amount to millions of dollars.
State records show that vacancies at GEO-operated Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa were above the 10 percent threshold in 11
of the13 months between July 2009 to July 2010; 10 of the 13 months at the
GEO-run Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs; and nine of the 13 months
at the CCA-operated New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants. The
vacancy rate at the GEO-run Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility
eclipsed the 10 percent rate in six of the 13 months covered by the time
period shown in the records, state records show. The agency on Friday
reiterated Williams’ discretion in deciding whether to penalize the companies
or not. “The contract clauses that deal with vacancy rates gives sole
discretion to NMCD so that they may penalize the private prisons,” read an
e-mail to The Independent after we had sent questions related to the vacancy
rates from July 2009 to July 2010. “The penalties are not mandatory and are
decided by the department,” the e-mail continued. “Secretary Williams will be
presenting the reasons to why he has not penalized the vendors to the
Legislative Finance Committee in an upcoming hearing. The department welcomes
you to attend the committee hearing.”
September
7, 2010 New Mexico Independent
Think Progress, the blog of the left-leaning Center for American Progress
Action Fund, has picked up on NMI’s story about New Mexico Corrections
Secretary Joe Williams not penalizing two private prison operators despite
repeated contract obligations. But Think Progress added a bit of information
we forgot to mention: that Williams worked for GEO, one of the two firms that
wasn’t penalized, prior to becoming the state’s corrections secretary.
Williams has not been secret about the affiliation. He talks freely on the
corrections department’s website about the years he spent with GEO as warden
of the Lea County Correctional Facility, which the firm operates, before Gov.
Bill Richardson tapped him as corrections secretary. Here’s an excerpt from
Williams biography on the agency’s website. In 1999, four years before
becoming secretary of corrections, Joe accepted one of the more difficult
challenges of his career. The Geo Group, Inc. (formerly known as Wackenhut)
hired Joe as the warden for the Lea County Correctional Facility, and charged
him with turning around the troubled prison in Hobbs, New Mexico. The
facility eventually became a flagship prison. Agreeing to serve as its warden
proved to be the right move, both professionally and personally. In fact, Joe
liked the city of Hobbs so much, he named his beloved basset hound Sir Hobbs.
The question now is whether Williams’ affiliation will be an issue among
state lawmakers who are wondering why the corrections secretary decided
against penalizing the two private prison operators — GEO and Corrections
Corp. of America — possibly costing the state millions of dollars.
September
26, 2007 Santa Fe Reporter
Over the last year, whistle-blowers have come forward, auditors have released
findings, legislative committees have convened. All concluded that Wexford
Health Sources Inc., the private company that secured an exclusive contract
in 2004 to provide health care to New Mexico inmates, cut corners at the cost
of prisoners’ well being. Last year, SFR published
an award-winning 15-part series focusing on health care professionals’
allegations about the care in the prisons [www.sfreporter.com; “The Wexford
files.” ] Although Wexford’s contract expired on
June 30, 2007, inmates are now filing handwritten civil suits leveled at
Wexford, the State of New Mexico and its private-prison contractor, the GEO
Group. Richard Vespender, an inmate in GEO Group’s
Lea County Correctional Facility, filed suit in the First Judicial District
on July 3, 2007, alleging that Wexford denied him treatment for a back injury
he suffered in 2001 when he slipped on a wet floor at another prison
facility. Vespender, who is representing himself,
says doctors had identified two herniated discs in his lower back that
required surgery, but Wexford would only pay for temporary pain-killers. On
Aug, 15, former Western New Mexico Correctional Facility inmate Johnny
Gallegos filed suit claiming that, in the summer of 2005, Wexford employees
ignored his serious urinary condition. The suit alleges that Gallegos was
treated for constipation, despite regular bowel movements and, after more
than a week of complaints, was finally taken to the hospital after the
prison’s warden discovered him waiting in line at the medical clinic with his
shorts covered in blood. While the plaintiffs have yet to respond to
Gallegos’ complaint, GEO Group and the New Mexico Department of Corrections
have denied culpability in Vespender’s case, and
claim, in their legal response, that they are “without sufficient knowledge
or information” to either admit or deny 32 of Vespender’s
allegations. Most conspicuously, the plaintiffs claim they don’t know enough
about Vespender’s 2006 visits to Dr. Don Apodaca,
who at the time was Wexford’s medical director at the Lea County prison.
Apodaca resigned in November 2006 and previously told SFR: “It came to the
point where I felt uncomfortable with the medical and legal position I was
in. There were individuals who needed health care who weren’t getting it.”
Although NMDOC and GEO now deny sufficient knowledge of both Apodaca’s
diagnosis and that of the specialists at an Albuquerque health clinic, both
were cited in an April 4, 2007 memo from NMDOC denying Vespender’s
final administrative appeal, which was included in Vespender’s
case file. Tia Bland, spokesperson for NMDOC, says this is a moot point: As
of July 1, St. Louis, Mo.-based Correctional Medical Services began handling
prison health care. “If there are inmates who felt that they were not
receiving proper treatment when Wexford was there, there is a process for
them to let us know about that, for them to let the current vendor know about
that and we certainly will address whatever their concern is now,” she says.
Solomon Brown, Gallegos’ attorney, says he’s interviewed dozens of upset New
Mexico inmates, and a new vendor may not be enough. “In my estimations,
there’s nothing but dissatisfaction among the inmates,” Brown says. “The
governor needs to appoint a group to formally look at it, or an ombudsman to
go and talk to these inmates like I do and meet with them.”
September
13, 2007 AP
Some Lea County inmates set fires and broke toilets and windows after being
told they would be allowed only one sausage at dinner. Jail officials said
the inmates began yelling and banging on their doors in what they described
in a news release as a "temper tantrum." Officers from the Lea
County Sheriff's and Hobbs Police departments were called in to restore
control, and the jail was locked down after Tuesday night's incident. Some 33
prisoners were involved, Warden Jann Gartman said.
The remaining 300-plus prisoners at the jail accepted the meal without
incident, authorities said. The damage to the jail was light, with some smoke
damage and broken toilets and windows, the warden said.
February
7, 2007 The Santa Fe Reporter
At the behest of the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC), two correctional
health experts have launched an extensive audit of the medical care in New Mexico’s
state prisons. SFR has learned that Dr. Steve Spencer and Dr. B Jaye Anno
were hired late last month by the LFC to evaluate the level of medicine
provided to state inmates. Their work is part of a larger audit the
Legislature is conducting of the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD),
slated for conclusion this spring. “We needed medical expertise in our audit,
because up until now we haven’t had any,” Manu Patel, the LFC’s deputy
director for audits, says. “This way, it’s not just us second-guessing the
Corrections Department. We can actually get a sense of what’s working and
what isn’t.” Patel says the contract with Spencer and Anno is worth
approximately $21,000. The health care component to the Corrections audit
follows a six-month investigation by SFR into Wexford Health Sources, the
private company that administers medical care to state inmates [Cover story,
Aug. 9, 2006: “Hard Cell?”]. The investigation led to a request for the audit
by the state Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee last
October [Outtakes, Oct. 25, 2006: “Medical Test”]. SFR’s series also
compelled Gov. Bill Richardson to terminate the state’s contract with Wexford
in December, a process that will likely take until June, when the prison
medical contract is up for renewal [Outtakes, Dec. 13, 2006: “Wexford Under
Fire”]. Regardless of Wexford’s fate, the LFC is pressing ahead with the
audit. “We are looking at this serving a long-term benefit to the Corrections
Department, so that we can all better evaluate the medical program in the
prisons and its services,” Patel says. Spencer, a former medical director of
NMCD, and Anno, who co-founded the National Commission on Correctional Health
Care, started work on Feb. 5, when they traveled to Lea County Correctional
Facility in Hobbs. “We’re going to look at a number of things when we travel
to the sights,” Spencer says. “We’ll look at the adequacy of staffing, the
appropriateness of care, the timeliness and use of off-site specialists.
We’ll review inmate deaths and whether Corrections is adequately monitoring
the contractor.” Moreover, the medical audit will involve a review of the
contract between Wexford and the Corrections Department, as well as sifting
through tuberculosis, HIV and other medical testing data. Various medical
personnel will also be interviewed throughout the process, Spencer says.
Inadequate tuberculosis testing, chronic staffing shortages and a systemic
failure to send inmates off-site have been among the concerns raised to SFR
by former and current Wexford employees [Outtakes, Oct. 18, 2006:
“Corrections Concerns”]. In an e-mail, Wexford Vice President Elaine Gedman said, in part, that Wexford plans to cooperate
with the audit and is confident its outcome will be positive. She also said
Wexford is cooperating with NMCD for a smooth transition. NMCD spokeswoman
Tia Bland tells SFR that Corrections is still working on a request for
proposal, set to go out in March, that will kick off the agency’s search for
a new medical provider. “We’re providing [the auditors] with whatever they
need, and whatever the results are, we’ll use that information to our
advantage in working with the next vendor,” Bland says. Bland reiterates
NMCD’s contention that Wexford violated the terms of its contract with the
state because of staffing problems. She says Corrections is still analyzing
whether Wexford broke other contractual stipulations. During the mid-1990s,
Spencer and Anno were hired by the Wyoming Department of Corrections to
conduct medical audits of its prisons. Wexford, which administered health
care for the Wyoming DOC, eventually became embroiled in a US Justice
Department investigation regarding prison health care in that state and lost
its contract. Recalls Anno: “There were a number of problems with Wexford’s
operation in Wyoming.”
November
28, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
In the latest setback for Wexford Health Sources, a former employee has
slapped the prison health care company with a civil lawsuit alleging racial
discrimination. The suit, filed Oct. 25 in US District Court in Albuquerque,
alleges that former health services administrator Don Douglas was fired by
Wexford last October because he is black. Moreover, the suit alleges that
sick and injured inmates at Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, where
Douglas worked, received poor treatment and that the facility lacked critical
medical staff. Wexford, which administers health care in New Mexico’s
prisons, has been the subject of a four-month SFR investigation [Cover story,
Aug. 9: “Hard Cell?”]. As a result, the Courts, Corrections and Justice
Committee held a hearing last month, and the Legislative Finance Committee is
slated to audit Wexford and the New Mexico Corrections Department [Outtakes,
Nov. 8: “Prison Audit Ahead”]. The allegations in Douglas’ lawsuit echo many
of the concerns from employees who have talked to SFR. Specifically, it
charges that even though Douglas alerted a Wexford corporate administrator
about medical and staffing problems, the company did not respond. Instead,
according to the lawsuit, Douglas’ job was audited and he was found
negligent, despite no prior problems and a record of exemplary job
evaluations. On Oct. 10, 2005, Douglas was fired and replaced by a white
woman, the lawsuit says. “Wexford did not provide critical health care in a
timely manner, and I called attention to that,” Douglas tells SFR. “Inmates
have a civil right as incarcerated American citizens to be afforded adequate
health care. But that service is not being provided, and Wexford is
neglecting inmates.” Douglas began working at Wexford in July 2004, but also
worked for its predecessor, Addus. Shortly after
his firing, Douglas filed a complaint with the US Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC). A June 5 letter from the EEOC’s Albuquerque
office says the agency found reasonable cause to believe Douglas “was
terminated because of his race.” When queried by SFR, Wexford Vice President
Elaine Gedman wrote in a Nov. 27 e-mail that
Wexford is withholding comment until the forthcoming audit is complete and
referred to 14 prior successful audits of Wexford. Corrections spokeswoman
Tia Bland also would not comment on the lawsuit and noted that NMCD does not
oversee Wexford personnel matters. Says Deshonda
Charles Tackett, Douglas’ lawyer: “This is an important case. Mr. Douglas
should not have to suffer racial discrimination in an effort to provide
inmates with proper health care.”
November
22, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
The medical director of a state prison in Hobbs has stepped down from his
post less than a month after a legislative committee requested an audit of
the corrections health care in the state. Dr. Don Apodaca, medical director
of Lea County Correctional Facility (LCCF), turned in his resignation on Nov.
6 due to concerns that inmates there are not receiving sufficient access to
health care. According to Apodaca, sick inmates are routinely denied off-site
visits to medical specialists and sometimes have to wait months to receive
critical prescription drugs. Apodaca blames the policies of Wexford Health
Sources, the private company that contracts with the state to provide
medicine in New Mexico’s prisons, for these alleged problems. Wexford has
been the subject of a four-month SFR investigation, during which a growing
number of former and current employees have contended that Wexford is more
concerned with saving money than providing adequate health care, and that
inmates suffer as a result. On Oct. 24, the Legislative Finance Committee
(LFC) tentatively approved an audit that will assess Wexford’s contract with
the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) and also evaluate the quality of
health care rendered to inmates [Outtakes, Nov. 8: “Prison Audit Ahead”].
LCCF’s medical director since January 2006, Apodaca is one of the
highest-ranking ex-Wexford employees to come forward thus far. His
allegations of Wexford’s denials of off-site care and the delays in obtaining
prescription drugs echo those raised by other former and current employees
during the course of reporting for this series [Cover story, Aug. 9: “Hard
Cell?”]. Specifically, Apodaca says he personally evaluated inmates who
needed off-site, specialty care, but that Wexford consistently denied his
referrals. Apodaca cites the cases of an inmate who needed an MRI, another
inmate who suffered from a hernia and a third inmate who had a cartilage tear
in his knee as instances in which inmates were denied off-site care for
significant periods of time against his recommendations. When inmates are
actually cleared for off-site care in Albuquerque, they are transported in
full shackles without access to a bathroom for the six- to seven-hour trip,
Apodaca says. “Inmates told me they aren’t allowed to go to the bathroom and
ended up soiling themselves,” he says. “The trip is so bad they end up
refusing to go even when we get the off-site visits approved.” When it comes
to prescription drugs, there also are significant delays, Apodaca says.
Inmates sometimes wait weeks or even months for medicine used for heart and
blood pressure conditions, even though Apodaca says he would write orders for
those medicines repeatedly. “Wexford was not providing timely treatment and
diagnoses of inmates,” he says. “There were tragic cases where patients
slipped through the cracks, were not seen for inordinately long times and
suffered serious or fatal consequences.” Apodaca says he began documenting
the medical problems at the facility in March. After detailing in writing the
cases of 40 to 50 patients whom he felt had not received proper clinical
care, Apodaca says he alerted Dr. Phillip Breen, Wexford’s regional medical
director, and Cliff Phillips, Wexford’s regional health services
administrator, through memos, e-mails and phone calls. In addition, Apodaca
says he alerted Wexford’s corporate office in Pittsburgh. Neither Breen nor
Phillips returned phone messages left by SFR. Apodaca says he also informed
Devendra Singh, NMCD’s quality assurance manager for health services.
According to Apodaca, Singh assured him that he would require Wexford to look
into the matter, but Apodaca says he never heard a final response. “Wexford
was simply not receptive to any of the information I was sending them, and I
became exasperated,” he says. “It came to the point where I felt
uncomfortable with the medical and legal position I was in. There were
individuals who needed health care who weren’t getting it.” Singh referred
all questions to NMCD spokeswoman Tia Bland; Bland responded to SFR in a Nov.
20 e-mail: “If Don Apodaca has information involving specific incidents, we
will be happy to look into the situation. Otherwise, we will wait for the
LFC’s audit results, review them and take it from there.” Wexford Vice
President Elaine Gedman would not comment
specifically on Apodaca’s allegations. In a Nov. 20 e-mail to SFR, she wrote
that Wexford will cooperate with the Legislature’s audit and is confident the
outcome will be similar to the 14 independent audits performed since May 2005
by national correctional organizations. “Wexford is proud of the service we
have provided to the Corrections Department as documented in these
independent audits and looks forward to continuing to provide high quality
health care services in New Mexico,” Gedman writes.
Members of the Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, which
requested the forthcoming audit, toured LCCF on Oct. 19 and were told by both
Wexford and NMCD officials that there were no health care problems at the
facility. On the same tour, however, committee members heard firsthand
accounts from inmates who complained they couldn’t get treatment when they
became sick [Outtakes, Oct. 25: “Medical Test”]. That visit, along with
Apodaca’s accounts, calls into question Wexford’s and NMCD’s accounts, State
Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Bernalillo, says. “We were told on our tour that
nothing was wrong. And now to hear that there is a claim that Wexford and the
Corrections Department might have known about this makes it seem like this
information was knowingly covered up,” McSorley, co-chairman of the
committee, says. “We can’t trust what’s being told to us. The situation may
require independent oversight far beyond what we have. This should be the
biggest story in the state right now.”
November
8, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
The New Mexico State Legislature is one step closer to an audit of Wexford Health
Sources, the private company that administers health care in New Mexico’s
prisons. On Oct. 24, the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) tentatively
approved the audit, which will evaluate Wexford’s contract with the New
Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) and also assess the quality of health
care administered to inmates. The request for a review of Wexford originated
with the state Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, which
voted unanimously on Oct. 20 to recommend the audit after a hearing on prison
health care in Hobbs [Outtakes, Oct. 25: “Medical Test”]. A subsequent Oct.
30 letter sent to the LFC by committee co-chairmen Rep. Joseph Cervantes,
D-Doña Ana, and Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Bernalillo, refers to “serious
complaints raised by present and former employees” of Wexford. The letter
cites this newspaper’s reportage of the situation and notes that on a recent
tour of Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, “committee members heard
numerous concerns from inmates about medical problems not being addressed.”
It also refers to confidential statements Wexford employees provided to the
committee that were then turned over to the LFC. The decision to examine
Wexford and NMCD comes on the coattails of months of reports that state inmates
are suffering behind bars due to inadequate medical services, documented in
an ongoing, investigative series by SFR. Over the past three months, former
and current employees have alleged staffing shortages as well as problems
with the dispensation of prescription drugs and the amount of time sick
inmates are forced to wait before receiving urgent care [Cover story, Aug. 9:
“Hard Cell?”]. The timing, Manu Patel, the LFC’s deputy director for audits,
says, is ideal, because the LFC already planned to initiate a comprehensive
audit of NMCD, the first in recent history. Regarding the medical component
of the audit, Patel says: “We will be looking at how cost-effective Wexford
has been. Also, we will be looking at the quality of care, how long inmates
have to wait to receive care and what [Wexford’s] services are like.” Patel
says the LFC plans to contract with medical professionals to help evaluate
inmates’ care. As per a request from the Courts, Corrections and Justice
Committee, current Wexford employees will be given a chance to participate in
the audit anonymously. The audit’s specifics require final approval from the
LFC in December; the committee will likely take up to six months to generate
a report, according to Patel. In a Nov. 6 e-mail to SFR, Wexford Vice
President Elaine Gedman cites 14 successful,
independent audits performed of Wexford in New Mexico since May 2005.
“Wexford is proud of the service we have provided to the Corrections
Department as documented in these independent audits and looks forward to
continuing high quality health care services in New Mexico,” Gedman writes. NMCD spokeswoman Tia Bland echoes Gedman: “We welcome the audit and plan on cooperating any
way we can,” she says. Meanwhile, former employees continue to come forward.
Kathryn Hamilton, an ex-NMCD mental health counselor, says she worked
alongside Wexford staff at the Pen for two months, shortly after the company
took the reins in New Mexico in July 2004. Hamilton alleges that mentally ill
inmates were cut off psychotropic medicine for cheaper, less effective drugs
and that inmates waited too long to have prescriptions renewed and suffered
severe behavioral withdrawals as a result. Hamilton, who had worked at the
Pen since April 2002, says she encountered the same sorts of problems under Addus, Wexford’s predecessor, but quit shortly after
Wexford’s takeover because the situation wasn’t improving. “They would stop
meds, give inmates the wrong meds or refuse to purchase meds that were not on
their formulary, even if they were prescribed by a doctor,” Hamilton says. “I
felt angry, sometimes helpless, although I always tried to speak with
administrators to help the inmates.” Hamilton married a state inmate by proxy
last month, after continuing a correspondence with him following her tenure
at the Pen. Hamilton says she did not serve as a counselor to the inmate,
Anthony Hamilton, but met him after helping conduct a series of mental health
evaluations. Hamilton has been a licensed master social worker under her
maiden name since 2000 (according to the New Mexico Board of Social Work
Examiners). She emphasizes that her relationship with her husband did not
begin until after she left the Corrections Department. According to Hamilton,
her husband, still incarcerated at the Pen for aggravated assault, recently
contracted methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a serious
staph infection. In a previous story, four current Wexford employees
specifically mentioned MRSA as a concern to SFR because they allege Wexford
does not supply proper protective equipment for staff treating infectious
diseases like MRSA [Outtakes, Oct. 18: “Corrections Concerns”]. Wexford Vice
President Gedman did not address Hamilton’s claims
when queried by SFR. Corrections spokeswoman Bland also says she can’t
comment on Hamilton’s allegations because she had not spoken with Hamilton’s
supervisor at the time of her employment. Says Hamilton: “I initially called
the newspaper as the concerned wife of an inmate, not as a former therapist.
With all the stories the Reporter has done, I wanted to come forward with
what I had seen at the Pen.”
July
22, 2003
The state Supreme Court on Monday affirmed a prison inmate's first-degree
murder conviction for the death of a fellow prisoner at the Lea County
Correctional Facility. The high court rejected Paul Payne's arguments
on appeal that his constitutional rights were violated and there was not
enough evidence to support his convictions.
Payne was convicted in the June 17, 1999, death of Richard Garcia at the
private prison in Hobbs, operated by Wackenhut Corrections Corp. Garcia
was in an isolation cell when a guard opened the door to it, allowing Payne
and another inmate - who were working as porters outside their cells - to
enter. Garcia was stabbed more than 40 times. (AP)
May 4, 2003
A Lea County Detention Center inmate who stood guard outside a cell while
another inmate was killed was convicted of murder Thursday. A court
translator informed Juan Mendez that he was found guilty of murder and
conspiracy to commit murder. Mendez is one of six inmates charged in
the Jan. 13, 1999, stabbing death of Robert Ortega. Authorities said
Ortega was stabbed more than 70 times.
July 22, 2003
The state Supreme Court on Monday affirmed a prison inmate's first-degree
murder conviction for the death of a fellow prisoner at the Lea County
Correctional Facility. The high court rejected Paul Payne's arguments
on appeal that his constitutional rights were violated and there was not
enough evidence to support his convictions.
Payne was convicted in the June 17, 1999, death of Richard Garcia at the
private prison in Hobbs, operated by Wackenhut Corrections Corp. Garcia
was in an isolation cell when a guard opened the door to it, allowing Payne
and another inmate - who were working as porters outside their cells - to
enter. Garcia was stabbed more than 40 times. (AP)
May 4, 2003
A Lea County Detention Center inmate who stood guard outside a cell while
another inmate was killed was convicted of murder Thursday. A court
translator informed Juan Mendez that he was found guilty of murder and
conspiracy to commit murder. Mendez is one of six inmates charged in
the Jan. 13, 1999, stabbing death of Robert Ortega. Authorities said
Ortega was stabbed more than 70 times.
November
18, 2002
Richardson announced Thursday
that Santa Fe lawyer Mark Donatelli and Joe
Williams, warden of the private prison in Hobbs, will co-chair Richardson's
Corrections Transition Team, charged with identifying strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and "major threats" to the department. Williams was a
former warden of the state medium-security prison in Los Lunas until the late
1990s, when he was hired by the Florida-based Wackenhut Corp., which operates
a 1,200-bed private prison in Hobbs. During his campaign, Richardson
frequently said he did not want to spend money to build new prison cells,
often adding variations of the sound bite, "I want to invest in people,
not prisons." Richardson never took a stand on whether the state should
continue using private companies to operate prisons - though he said more
than once that he had toured Wackenhut's Hobbs facility and was favorably
impressed. Donatelli said that one of the first
things the state needs to do is re-evaluate the effectiveness of private
prisons. "There's no credible evidence that private prisons save
money," he said. "The budget keeps going up." (Santa Fe New
Mexican)
November 13, 2002
A Hobbs prison guard who helped beat up two handcuffed inmates on the orders
of an associate warden was sentenced Tuesday to four years
probation. While Senior U.S. District Judge John Edwards Conway
did not sentence ex-lieutenant Thomas Doyle McCoy to prison, as suggested by
one of the inmates, he did take up a suggestion that McCoy make a videotape
to help dissuade other law officers from using excessive force. McCoy
pleaded guilty in March to two counts of conspiracy to obstruct
justice. He admitted that he and fellow lieutenant Judson McPeters beat inmates Tommy McMannaway
and David Gonzales during separate incidents in 1998. Conway said McCoy
had to be as "stupid as they come." "I can't understand
why when an assistant warden asks you to beat up somebody, why you don't say,
"That's not my job," Conway told McCoy. McPeters
pleaded guilty in February to two counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice
and is to be sentenced today in Las Cruces. He has said he participated
in the beatings. The government recommended McPeters
and McCoy get probation because they cooperated with an FBI-based Wackenhut
Corrections Corp. McCoy and McPeters said
they were ordered to beat up prisoners by then-associate warden Raymond
O'Rourke and told to cover up the incident. O'Rourke pleaded guilty in
June to one count of deprivation of an inmate's civil rights and obstruction
of justice. He was sentenced to 21 months in prison and fined
$25,000. Former prison guard Gary Butler was sentenced Thursday to 37
months in prison and fined $7,500 for helping beat up inmate Eric Duran in
1998 and covering it up. Wackenhut, meanwhile
has settled lawsuits brought by Duran and McMannaway.
Lawyer Mark Donatelli, who pushed for an
investigation of the prison and represented McMannaway
and Duran, said the settlements are confidential. (Journal Staff)
November
11, 2002
Bernalillo County officials
have launched talks with private companies about the possibility of them
operating the Downtown jail to house federal or state inmates. Bernalillo
County has built a new 2,100-bed Metropolitan Detention Center on the West
Mesa. The main Downtown jail will be vacated after inmates are moved to the
new lockup, probably later this month and in December. During a city-county
Government Commission meeting Tuesday, jail employees union President Anthony
Marquez spoke against turning the Downtown jail over to a private company.
"Let's not try to make a buck off of it," he said. (Desertnews.com)
July
18, 2002
An inmate accused of acting as
a lookout while another prisoner was killed has been charged with murder.
Juan Mendez, a former inmate at the private Lea County Correctional Facility,
was arraigned Tuesday on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and
tampering with evidence. Bond was set at $250,000. Mendez, 33, is the fifth
person indicted in connection with the Jan. 13, 1999 stabbing death of Robert
Ortega, who was attacked in his cell at the Hobbs prison, owned and operated
by Florida-based Wackenhut Corrections Corp. (The Associated Press State and
Local Wire)
June
21, 2002
A prison inmate has been
sentenced to life plus nine years for the murder of a fellow prisoner who was
stabbed to death in his cell - the victim of 50 wounds. Paul Payne, 28, was
sentenced after being convicted Monday of murdering Richard Garcia in June
1999 at the privately run Lea County Correctional Facility. According to
trial testimony, the killers left Garcia's cell yelling "white
power!" and raising their fists. A guard was removed from his job after
an inquiry determined he had allowed Payne and co-defendant John Price into
Garcia's cell, Assistant District Attorney Melissa Honigmann
said. The Lea County facility is operated by Florida-based Wackenhut
Corrections Corp. (The Associated Press State and Local Wire)
April
12, 2002
Two ex-guards from a privately
run Hobbs prison were convicted Friday of civil rights violations in the 1998
beating of an inmate and of conspiring with a third guard to cover it up. Lt.
Matias Serrata, Lt. William Fuller and Kendall Lipscomb of Wackenhut
Corrections Corp. were all found guilty of obstructing justice with the
cover-up and of conspiring to obstruct justice. Serrata and Fuller also were
convicted of violating the civil rights of inmate Eric Duran, who was kicked
several times in the head. A fourth guard, Gary Butler, who had pleaded
guilty earlier to civil rights and conspiracy charges, testified that he had
hit himself in the face at the suggestion of Fuller, then went to Hobbs
police with a story that the inmate had attacked him. "Those who we
trust to enforce the law have one of the most difficult and important of all
jobs," U.S. Attorney David Iglesias said in a statement released Friday.
"When anyone in such a position violates the rights of others, they not only
injure the individual but they also injure the vast majority of law
enforcement officers who perform their duties with honor." Serrata had
said the incident happened within 30 or 40 seconds while a riot was going on
in an adjoining dining area. The Lea County Correctional Facility, which
holds up to 1,200 inmates, is run Wackenhut. (AP)
March
31, 2002
The same day Hobbs prison inmate Eric Duran was rushed to a hospital
emergency room after losing consciousness, then-guard Gary Butler walked into
a Hobbs police station with bruises to his face and filed a report accusing
the prisoner of battering him. Nearly two years later, Butler admitted that
he punched himself in the face to try to justify an altercation with Duran,
who was kicked unconscious. Butler, 28, also told federal authorities that he
and other guards tried to cover up Duran's beating, concocting a story that
Duran hit himself on the floor, a wall and a windowsill while being
restrained. On Tuesday, a two-week trial begins in Roswell for former prison
lieutenants William Fuller, 37, and Matias Serrata Jr., 29, and former
officer Kendall Lipscomb, 25, who face federal charges in connection with the
Dec. 21, 1998, incident with Duran. Butler is expected to testify against
them. Some unnamed guards who witnessed the incident also are expected to
testify for the Justice Department's Office of Civil Rights, court records
say. Butler pleaded guilty in August 2001 to one count each of deprivation of
rights under color of law and conspiracy to commit a felony. As part of a
plea deal, Butler agreed to cooperate and truthfully tell investigators about
the incident. With his deal, Butler became one of a handful of guards who
admitted heavy-handedness at the Lea County Correctional Facility, which
holds up to 1,200 state inmates under contract with Florida-based Wackenhut
Corrections Corp. The Duran incident is one of three reported inmate beatings
in 1998 that left guards facing criminal charges. They were investigated by
state and local police as well as the FBI. "Gary Butler has agreed with
everything that Eric has said," Donatelli
said. "Eric's account was corroborated by numerous staff there. It's not
just the word of an inmate seeking damages from Wackenhut. It's also the word
of people who worked for Wackenhut." The Justice Department lawyers said
Duran's assault followed an incident when Duran refused to sit at his
assigned seat in the prison dining hall and was involved in an argument with
Lipscomb and another guard. Duran was taken to "P-15 hallway,"
where he "verbally disrespected" Fuller, the brief said. The brief
said Fuller yelled at Duran to face a wall, put his hands on the wall and
made unspecified threats. According to the brief: Duran was ordered to put
his hands behind his back to be handcuffed, but only gave one hand because he
was afraid of being beaten. He asked that the guards videotape the incident,
but the guards refused. Duran finally gave both hands to be handcuffed, and
when he did, Fuller and Butler allegedly slammed him to the floor. The brief
said Duran didn't resist. "As Duran lay face down on the floor,
surrounded by officers and handcuffed behind his back, Lt. Fuller stood up,
stepped to Duran's upper body and delivered a forceful kick to the inmate's
head," the trial brief said. Butler also allegedly kicked Duran in the
head. "Fuller and Butler alternated kicking Duran, as the inmate's head
'flopped' back and forth from one side to the other," the trial brief
said. (Albuquerque Journal)
March 13, 2002
Another former guard at the privately run prison in Hobbs has pleaded guilty
to federal charges related to the 1998 beatings of two inmates and subsequent
cover-ups. Former lieutenant Thomas Doyle McCoy entered guilty pleas Tuesday
in federal court in Albuquerque to two counts of conspiracy to obstruct
justice. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each count.
The charges were filed by the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights
Division following an investigation of the Lea County Correctional Facility
by the FBI. As part of a plea bargain, McCoy admitted he participated in the
beatings of inmates David Gonzales and Tommy McManaway,
who were assaulted separately in August 1998. The beatings, court records
say, were ordered by former high-ranking officials at the prison, which is run
by Florida-based Wackenhut Corrections Corp. Prison warden Joe Williams has
said the administration changed hands in 1999, that none of the people
involved in the incidents works there any longer and that his guards treat
inmates with respect. Attorney Mark Donatelli, who
represents McManaway in a suit against the prison,
said "we appreciate the willingness of Mr. McCoy to accept
responsibility for his actions. "More importantly, we believe the
investigation and prosecution by the Justice Department will send a message
to other corrections officers that will help prevent other inmates from being
victimized like Tommy was." McCoy's plea follows that of former
lieutenant Judson McPeters, who pleaded guilty Feb.
20 to two counts of obstruction of justice which stemmed from the beatings of
Gonzales and McManaway. According to McCoy's plea
agreement, McCoy and McPeters slammed Gonzales to
the ground, where an officer handcuffed him. McCoy "then kicked the
restrained inmate and twisted his ankle until it popped, while other officers
also assaulted the inmate, although there was no legitimate penological
reason for the use of force," the plea agreement said. The plea deal
also said McCoy kicked McManaway in the testicles
while the inmate was lying face down, fully restrained, on the shower room
floor. Another lieutenant kicked McManaway in the
side. The document said guards and supervisors got together to concoct false
stories. For instance, they said the inmates lunged at or tried to strike
guards, requiring the use of force. The reports minimized the guards' use of
force. (Albuquerque Journal)
February
25, 2002
The head of the privately run
prison in Hobbs said the acts of a few former guards or officials accused of
battering inmates in 1998 do not reflect the philosophy of the lockup. Joe
Williams, warden of the Lea County Correctional Facility, said last week that
he and his staff have worked hard to "turn this place around."
Williams and many of his staff are former corrections officers or wardens of
lockups run by the state Department of Corrections. The Hobbs prison is run
by Florida-based Wackenhut Corrections Corp. and houses up to 1,200 inmates
under a contract with the state. Williams made the remarks the day after a
former lieutenant at the prison admitted in court in Albuquerque that he and
other prison guards participated in the August 1998 beatings of two inmates
and subsequent cover-ups at the request of a former associate warden. The
guard pleaded guilty to two federal counts of obstruction of justice. A
lawyer who fights for inmate rights said after Wednesday's hearing that a
similar incident at the prison in December 1998 — in which four former guards
allegedly beat an inmate and covered it up — shows a pattern of abuse there
at the time. The FBI investigated the incidents and charges were filed by the
U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, which alleges that
inmates were falsely blamed at both times by the guards for instigating
incidents that required use of force. The use of force was excessive and
unjustified, according to the Justice Department. The four ex-guards are to
go on trial in April on charges including conspiracy and violation of civil
rights. (ABQ Journal)
February
21, 2002
A former corrections officer at
the privately run prison in Hobbs has confirmed that he and other guards beat
inmates and tried to cover up the incidents at the request of an assistant
warden in 1998. As part of a plea deal, Judson McPeters
of Hobbs, a former lieutenant at the Lea County Correctional Facility,
pleaded guilty Wednesday to two federal charges of obstruction of justice —
one week after the Department of Justice formally charged him. The charges
stem from an investigation of the Wackenhut Corrections Corp. prison — which
houses up to 1,200 state inmates under contract with New Mexico — by the FBI
and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. McPeters,
35, faces a maximum of five years in prison on each count. With the plea
deal, he avoided charges of violating civil rights, which carry stiffer
penalties, his lawyer said. Prosecutors would not say Wednesday whether more
prison guards or officials would be charged. Four former guards at the Hobbs
prison are to go on trial in April on federal charges alleging that they beat
and kicked inmate Eric Duran in December 1998 and covered it up. McPeters — in court — named an assistant warden who
allegedly ordered him and other guards to beat inmates. A prosecutor said the
two cases are not related and involve different people. But Mark Donatelli, an attorney who represents Duran and one of
the inmates reportedly beaten by McPeters, Tommy McManaway, said the two cases show a pattern of abuse, at
least in the late 1990s. Duran and McManaway have
pending federal lawsuits against officials or guards with the state, Lea
County and Wackenhut. Donatelli said he believed
the two investigations represent the first criminal prosecutions under
federal civil rights law in state history. "This was not an isolated
incident," said Donatelli, a longtime inmates'
advocate. "It's part of the same pattern of physical abuse of prisoners
that was taking place for months at the facility." In court documents,
Justice Department trial lawyers Bobbi Bernstein and Alli Jernow
alleged that McPeters was part of a conspiracy.
Bernstein read an account in court, which McPeters
admitted was true, that said the beatings occurred Aug. 11, 1998, and Aug.
13, 1998. The cover-up attempts went on through Aug. 31, 1998, according to
the account. Bernstein said Gonzalez and McManaway
were beaten at separate times, including while they were handcuffed. They
were kicked about the body and McManaway was kicked
"two times in the testicles" by another guard, according to the
account. Bernstein said a supervisor who ordered Gonzalez's beating was present
while the inmate was being struck. She did not name the supervisor, but she
said in the account that McPeters, other guards and
supervisors later met to concoct false stories to give if they were ever
questioned. "It raises some serious questions about the policy that
(Wackenhut) apparently, at least in the past, participated in, condoned or
encouraged — unlawful activities," lawyer Crutchfield said. "I
mean, you shouldn't have this type of stuff going on with an organization of
that size." (ABQ Journal)
December
18, 2001
An inmate at a private prison at Hobbs is alleging his civil rights were
violated when he was repeatedly kicked in the head three years ago in a
beating that resulted in the indictments of four former guards. The
lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Santa Fe against Wackenhut
Corp., which runs the Lea County Correctional Facility; Wackenhut officials;
Lea County; and the state correctional officers, including Corrections
Secretary Rob Perry. The lawsuit alleges Wackenhut officials engaged in
widespread violations of prisoners' civil rights and that Perry and other
state corrections officials were aware of beatings and other uses of excess
force, but took no meaningful steps to stop them. A federal indictment
in May accused the four former guards of beating and kicking inmate Eric
Duran while he was shackled on the floor, then trying to cover it up.
Former guard Gary Butler of Hobbs and former prison Lt. William Fuller of
Floresville, Texas, were accused of kicking Duran repeatedly in the head Dec.
21, 1998. Former Lt. Matias Serrata Jr. of Beeville, Texas, was accused
of doing nothing to stop the attack, while former guard Kendall Lipscomb was
accused of false testimony. Butler also was accused of beating himself
up so he could falsely blame Duran and justify the attack, the U.S.
attorney's office said when the indictments were released. (AP)
August
3, 2001
An inmate charged with first-degree murder in the death of another prisoner
at the private Lea County Correctional Center pleaded guilty to second-degree
murder as a jury was being impaneled for his trial. Last month,
Ortega's family sued prison officials over his death. The civil rights
lawsuit filed in federal court in Albuquerque alleged state prison officials
and Wackenhut Corrections Corp., the Florida-based company that operates the
Lea County prison, knowingly created dangerous conditions that led to
Ortega's death. (AP)
July
17, 2001
The wife and three children of an inmate who was stabbed to death inside a
private prison in Hobbs more than two years ago are suing prison officials
over his killing. Carla Ortega claims in a federal civil rights lawsuit
that state prison officials and Wackenhut Corrections Corp., a Florida-based
company that owns and operates the Lea County Correctional Facility,
knowingly created dangerous conditions that led to the death of her husband,
Robert Ortega. Robert Ortega, 38, was stabbed to death inside his cell
with a home-made knife on Jan. 13, 1999 two days after he was transferred from
the Torrance County Detention Facility to the Hobbs prison, according to the
lawsuit. The suit further alleges that state and Wackenhut prison
officials knew Ortega's life was threatened by members of a prison gang, but
they failed to protect him. Also last month, the family of another
inmate, Richard Garcia, filed a similar lawsuit against Wackenhut and other
state prison officials. Garcia, 47, was in an isolation cell June 17,
1999, when a guard opened the door to his cell in administrative segregation,
allegedly allowing two inmates to enter and stab him 50 times in the back,
chest, head, face and arms, officials said at the time. (Albuquerque
Journal)
June
19, 2001
The family of an Albuquerque man who was killed two years ago inside a
privately run prison in southern New Mexico has filed a lawsuit against state
officials and the company in charge of the lockup. Richard Garcia's
relatives claim prison officials knowingly created dangerous conditions that
led to his death. Garcia, 47, was in an isolation cell in June 1999
when a guard opened the door, allegedly allowing two inmates to enter and
stab Garcia 50 times. Inmates Paul Payne, 27, and John Price, 29, were
charged with capital murder in Garcia's death. (AP)
May
21, 2001
The defendants may be former guards, but the latest case of private-prison
atrocity should put the whole notion of mercenary corrections in the
dock. Four guys in the hire of Wackenhut Corrections Corp. face federal
indictments in the beating and kicking of a Hobbs inmate. For good
measure, they're also charged with trying to cover up their brutality.
What neither corrections secretary, Rob Perry nor Senator Manny Aragon (two
of the masterminds behind New Mexico's foray into prisons for profit) would
admit is this: Even if Wackenhut and other prison companies weren't
committing dangerous, sometimes deadly, errors, they make their money
squeezing a profit margin out of warehoused human beings. By their very
nature, private prisons create a demand for convicts. That demand can
skew criminal-justice proceedings -- against defendants, who, under the
American system are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty.
Handing off prison-running responsibility to the for-profit sector has had
predictable results. The governor, his corrections secretary and the
New Mexico Legislature must it back. ( The Santa Fe New Mexican)
May
19, 2001
A Bernalillo man who works in state prisons is suing
Wackenhut Corrections Corp. over injuries he suffered during a 1999
riot at the private prison in Hobbs. Lawrence Jaramillio,
32, works for the state Correction Department and was a member of the
Penitentiary of New Mexico Security Threat Group Unit in 1999.
Jaramillo was sent to the Lea County Correctional Facility in April 1999 for
a routine investigation of groups or gangs within the prison. Jaramillo
is more like a police detective rather than a jail guard. "At the
time of his work visit on April 6, 1999, (Jaramillo) and other Penitentiary
of New Mexico personnel were assaulted and battered by rioting
inmates...," the lawsuit says in part. The lawsuit alleges the
riot was caused by Wackenhut's negligence. (ABQ Journal)
May
18, 2001
Four former employees of Wackenhut Corrections Corp. have been charged with
crimes in connection with a Dec. 21, 1998, incident at a privately run prison
in Hobbs. Two have been charged with using excessive force against an
inmate and then covering up the incident, according to indictments returned
Thursday by a federal grand jury here. The charges stem from the
incident at the 1,200-bed Lea County Correctional Facility, run by Wackenhut,
in which a guard and a supervisory lieutenant allegedly assaulted inmate Eric
Duran and kicked the inmate repeatedly in the head. Later, the
corrections officers and two other employees met in a conference room and
allegedly agreed on a common cover story that the inmate struck one of the
guards twice in the face with his fist and tried to bite the guard.
Then, according to an allegedly fabricated story, a struggle with the guards
followed and Duran fell and hit the back of his head on a window sill.
(Albuquerque Journal)
April
18, 2001
A Native American is protesting a new corrections policy that does not allow
ceremonies, sweat lodges or smoking. A 36-year-old state-penitentiary
inmate has been on a hunger strike for more than two weeks to protest prison
policies he believes deprive American Indians of religious liberties.
Corrections Department spokesperson Gerges Scott said both the sweat-lodge
ban and the no-smoking policy are justified in the North Facility because the
inmates there are all "disruptive or difficult to manage."
COPA board member Tilda Sosaya said Tuesday Chavez
has been classified as a Discipline problem because of his role as a
"jailhouse lawyer." Scott denied this. "I believe
the reason that he is (at the North) is that he was involved in a disturbance
by Native American inmates in April 1999 at the Hobbs facility."
About 150 inmates participated in the April 6, 1999, riot at the Hobbs
facility, which is operated by the private Wackenhut Corp. The uprising
was led by Native American inmates who claimed their religious rights weren't
being honored. Their complaints included the fact that the prison was
charging sweat-lodge participants for firewood used in the ceremony.
(The Santa Fe New Mexican)
February
17, 2001
Nine American Indian prisoners are claiming illegal interference with their
religious practices in a lawsuit filed against New Mexico corrections
officials. Some of the inmates, admit being involved in an April 1999 melee
that followed similar complaints over religious freedom at the privately run
Lea County Correctional facility in Hobbs. The prisoners, who were allege
racial discrimination, are asking for a jury trail
and punitive damages in excess of $400 million to prevent corrections
officials from practicing similar alleged constitutional violations. The men
allege that after they formed a self-help group in the Hobbs prison in 1998,
Warden Joseph Williams began to dismantle the programs and activities they
had established. They were allowed to participate in sweat lodge ceremonies,
but problems followed, "including outright refusal to provide
firewood," the lawsuit states. The inmates claim they were forced to use
chemically treated wood with toxins that could cause serious medical
problems. The men allege in the lawsuits that their religious ceremonies were
interrupted or stopped on several occasions, and some of their religious
instruments, such as a ceremonial drum and eagle and other feathers, were
confiscated. the inmates' complaints fell on deaf ears, according to the
lawsuit. "Each defendant either ignored the complaints or denied the
requested relief so that the abuses and racial harassment continued
unabated," it states. On April 5, 1999, one of their sacred religious
drums was confiscated, and inmates claim it was desecrated. "This action
was furtherance in a long list of abuses and racially discriminatory actions
by defendant Wackenhut," the lawsuit states. The next day, a disturbance
broke out in the dinning hall and spread to a
corridor. Corrections officials said the riot appeared to have been started
by several Indian inmates upset over religious freedom issues. (Journal
Northern Bureau)
December
14, 2000
It's going to cost New Mexico taxpayers more to house inmates at the
privately run prison in Lea County. Perry told the Legislative Finance
Committee that the new contract with Florida-based Wackenhut Corrections
Corp. calls for an increase from $49.88 a day to $53 a day - 5.7 percent. The
additional cost to the state would be about $1.2 million per year. It would
be Wackenhut's second boost in per diem in a year. In March, some legislators
blasted Perry for previous increase 5 percent per diem for Wackenhut at both
its prisons (Santa Fe New Mexican, Dec. 14, 2000)
October 2000
An advisory letter from the state attorney general's office finds the state
Corrections Department exceeded its authority by contracting with Wackenhut
to give a retroactive per diem pay adjustment. (Santa Fe New Mexican, Oct.7,
2000)
June
18, 1999
An inmate was found stabbed to death in his cell. Two rival gang members were
suspected of the crime. This is the third fatal stabbing at the facility.
April
6, 1999
A group of 150 inmates rioted at this facility, producing minor injuries to
13 staff members. The incident started in the dining hall, but it spread to
other pars of the facility. At issue, in part, were
religious demands of Native American inmates
January
13, 1999
Inmate death An inmate was found stabbed to death at the prison. WCC said the
stabbing appeared to be gang related. This is the eighth stabbing and second
stabbing death since the prison opened 6 months prior to this event.
Lincoln County Detention Center
Carrizozo, New
Mexico
Emerald Corrections (formerly run by Cornell Corporation, formerly
Correctional Systems Inc)
July 28, 2010 Albuquerque Journal
Managers of the Lincoln County Detention Center in Carrizozo have fired an
employee who was injured in a July 12 attack by a prisoner, the Ruidoso News
reported. Walter Beall, the jail's chief security officer, was given his
notice of termination last Friday, the News said. "I didn't get a copy
of the termination," Beall told the News on Monday. "I was so
stunned when they called me in and I saw the word 'termination' across the
top of the paper, that I don't remember much about the details of it."
Beall told the News that he remembered reading on his termination notice that
his firing had to do with having a violent and dangerous inmate unsecured,
endangering staff and violating policy, but jail Warden Marcello Villegas
would not comment. Emerald Companies, which runs the private jail, had not
commented as of the News' press time, but have already listed Beall's
position of chief of security on its website as being open. Beall's attacker,
J. Tyrone Riordan, had just returned to the jail after his removal from a
competency hearing at the district courthouse, which was to determine whether
Riordan was competent to defend himself in his trial for the 2006 murder of
Johnathan Lopez, the News said. Riordan became angry and began yelling at the
judge, using foul language and after ignoring the judge's warnings about his
behavior, was removed from the courtroom and returned to the jail, the paper
reported. After Riordan scuffled with several jail personnel, Beall was taken
to the Lincoln County Medical Center for treatment of a broken nose and
multiple bruises and contusions and was released the same day, according to
the News. Beall said that he had been assisting Riordan since last September
with his case research, documenting as much as 20 hours in a given week,
allowing him access to his computer to view CDs of discovery material, the
News said. Beall also said that during those sessions he would remove
Riordan's cuffs so he could use the phone and work on his files, but would
sit next to him to prohibit any unauthorized access to the Internet, the
paper reported. "I wrote the policy for the Echo Unit (for high-risk
inmates) where Riordan was being housed at the time and I never violated that
policy," Beall said. Beall said that had Riordan been in handcuffs, it
would not have kept the inmate from assaulting him, the News said. "It
would have given him leverage to choke me with the cuffs," said Beall.
"What I did with Riordan was what we had been doing with him for the
past year in assisting him with his pro se cases, prior to and after the new
warden's arrival."
December
23, 2008 Ruidoso Sun
A Lincoln County man has been convicted for his part in a jail riot that
occurred at the Lincoln County Detention Center on Jan. 13, 2008. Jose
Prieto, 25 was convicted Friday of assault on a jail, conspiracy and criminal
damage to property exceeding $1,000. Eighteen prisoners in the Carrizozo
facility's "Delta Pod" were charged with offenses after the riot.
The pod had housed 28 prisoners ranging from accused murderers to petty
misdemeanor probation violations. Since the riots, Emerald Correctional
Management Company has assumed jail management from Cornell Corrections
Company, and this type of prisoner housing has been under study.
June
19, 2008 Ruidoso News
Before Lincoln County commissioners filed over to the county detention center
in Carrizozo for a semi-annual tour and lunch, an official with Emerald
Correctional Management Inc. briefed them on changes since the company took
over May 4. Al Patino, vice president for
governmental affairs for Emerald, said security was "first and
foremost" among plenty of changes. Emerald took over from Cornell
Companies, the firm that absorbed Correctional System Inc., which managed the
jail since it opened in April 2001. But complaints about staffing shortages,
the filing of several lawsuits and an in-mate disturbance in January created
dissatisfaction. Cornell officials in February announced they intended to
execute a 90-day notice to terminate the contract with the county that was to
run until August 2009. Emerald was the only company to respond to a request
for proposals. Patino said they found equipment in
disrepair and other items needing maintenance. They also painted. But major
changes were tied to security, he said. "We found a lot of procedural
issues, such as classification of inmates," Patino
said. "We determined why each inmate was there and his previous history
to decide on the proper housing." A warden from one of their Texas
prisons helped identify problems, he said. For the one juvenile in the jail,
they worked with the district attorney, then requested and received in
writing a court order from the judge for him to stay until sentenced.
Commission Chairman Tom Battin asked if the company
expected to detain juveniles on a regular basis and Patino
said no, this 16-year-old is being sentenced as an adult and is a special
case. Patino thanked County Manager Tom Stewart,
who was instrumental in allowing the company to address issues immediately,
he said.
April
17, 2008 Ruidoso News
A one year contract with four renewal options was approved Tuesday by Lincoln
County commissioners with a new firm to manage the county detention center in
Carrizozo. Emerald Correctional Management LLC, founded in 1996 with
headquarters in Louisiana, was represented by Al Patiño,
director of special projects, and Clay Lee, chief executive officer. They
were in the county seat of Carrizozo Monday beginning the transition of
detention center employees from Cornell Industries to Emerald. In February,
Cornell officials notified the county they intended to terminate the
company's contract with the county "for convenience," with an
effective date of May 4. The contract was to run through August 2009. The
county took aggressive action for the procurement of a new operator and
consideration of careful planning for an orderly transition, said County
Manager Tom Stewart. Emerald was the only responsive submission to a request
for proposals advertised by the county with a March 28 deadline for
submission. After a closed executive session during a special commission
meeting Friday to consider the proposal from Emerald officials, commissioners
awarded the RFP to the company, subject to negotiation of a successful
contract. Following the recommendation of Stewart, and with a few minor
changes proposed by County Attorney Alan Morel from the initial submission,
the contract was approved Tuesday in a unanimous vote by commissioners.
"The firm has begun steps to transition current employees to the new
company to meet the May 4 deadline for assuming operations," Stewart
told commissioners. Hitting the deadline without a management company could
have resulted in the jail being closed temporarily while Stewart attempted to
organize a county-run operation. The changes specified in the approval
included: County prisoners are given first priority to be housed in the
center. A flat fee is charged to the county by Emerald, whether the prisoner
is county or federal. The fee is $51.75 per day per prisoner. More definition
of who will provide transport personnel and under what circumstances. The
county provides the vehicles in all cases. Pre-adjudication, Emerald will
furnish the driver/guard. After adjudication, the County Sheriff's Department
will handle the job. Sheriff Rick Virden detailed some other situations where
his department would be responsible, which included someone who commits an
offense inside the county and is arrested outside New Mexico. No
psychological evaluation is required for employees. Patiño
said in Texas, no correctional officers are required to be evaluated.
Insurance coverage was increased from $1 million to $3 million for
occurrences and limits of liability. A provision for a performance bond was
eliminated. In subsequent option years, the rates will not be increased by
Emerald more than a 2.5 cap on the Consumer Price Index. Stewart said he was
extremely encouraged by the contract and the attitude of company executives.
"The company is forward-looking and they are discussing options for the
future," he said. The center holds 144 prisoners. He based his operating
calculations on 130 inmates, Stewart said, adding, the more beds that can be
leased to federal law enforcement agencies, the better the financial break
for the county. He anticipates a $388,000 increase and an annual operating
budget of $2,760,538, "but that covers more officers and a facility
up-to-par with standards by the American Corrections Association,"
Stewart said. Revenues generated by bed rentals and other sources will offset
about $1,360,000, leaving the cost to the county at $1.4 million. Stewart
said the company's reputation is good and Lee just returned from an operation
they run in Israel. Morel said a quality assurance plan will be brought back
to the commission later that will cover employee training requirements.
January
25, 2008 Ruidoso News
An investigation by a Lincoln County Grand Jury of the county detention
center launched before a riot incident Jan. 13 already is bearing positive
results, said 12th Judicial District Attorney Scot Key. He explained that
during the normal course of reviewing several cases that involved the jail,
including an aggravated assault and escape, grand jury members requested an
investigation of the situation at the jail in the county seat of Carrizozo.
"They wanted a better idea of what was happening," Key said
Thursday. "They completed the review and sent a report to District Judge
Karen Parsons." When a riot subsequently erupted at the jail this month,
"That kind of situation kind of highlighted what the grand jury was
concerned about. "As a result of two or three things and my on-going
concern about the jail, about staffing and (personnel) training and other
issues, we asked the county commission to start looking into it prior to the
uprising, which highlighted the need for commissioners to review their
contract with Cornell Companies. I felt our office had to intervene."
But Key said he's seen positive results. "We've gotten involved. Cornell
and the county have had many discussions and I think the lines of
communication have opened," Key said. "We've studied the issues and
problems, and have a positive plan of action for the
future. "Last week, our office began training all jail staff and Cornell
agreed to strategic planning to provide more training to hire more and more
qualified people from a larger geographic area. Very positive things are
going to happen with Cornell, the county and the jail, and we look forward to
really good service being provided to the citizens of the county." Key
met with commissioners Tuesday in a closed executive session. One of the
incidents sparking the investigation into the jail's operation by Cornell
under contract with the county was an escape last October by an inmate, who
held a guard captive at knifepoint. County Manager Tom Stewart said he could
not discuss specifics, but commented that, "The county is in beneficial
discussions with the district attorney regarding a variety of jail issues in
general."
January
14, 2008 Ruidoso News
Twenty-eight prisoners in the Delta pod at the Lincoln County Detention
Center in Carrizozo were at the center of a riot reported at approximately 7
p.m. Sunday. As per policy, Cornell Companies, which manages the detention
center, immediately contacted local law enforcement to provide rapid
perimeter containment on the outside of the main fence. Responding to the
scene were the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department, New Mexico State Police
and the Carrizozo Police Department. Lincoln County EMS and the Carrizozo
Volunteer Fire Department were also at the scene while a situation assessment
was made. Within an hour, the situation was reported as "contained"
with no serious injuries to inmates, officers or prison personnel.
Reportedly, tear gas was used to bring the riot under control, and emergency
technicians were called to administer aid as a result of the gas. Severe
damage to the Delta pod was reported, including the destruction of
surveillance cameras, broken glass and bathroom fixtures torn from the wall.
Investigators later reported that approximately six of the 28 prisoners were actually
involved in the riot and further interviews would be conducted to determine
the cause of the violence. A number of the prisoners involved have been
transferred to other facilities. Last October, a prisoner escaped the Lincoln
County Detention Center when he held a guard at knifepoint. The escapee was
captured later that day after he was sighted and reported by a county
resident. In March 2002, a "mini" riot at the detention center
ensued when inmates protested the snack policy in the commissary, causing
$3,000 in damage to windows, mattresses and plumbing. The riot was blamed
mostly on federal prisoners transferred to the facility.
January
14, 2008 AP
Tear gas was used to quell an hour-long melee instigated by about one-half
dozen prisoners in a pod at the Lincoln County Detention Center. The
disturbance began about 6:30 p.m. Sunday and was subdued by guards and
Lincoln County sheriff's officers, said Charles Seigel of San Diego, a
spokesman for Cornell Companies, which runs the jail. Investigators were
trying to determine what triggered the uprising, he said. A few prisoners
were treated for minor injuries, Seigel said. None of the guards or sheriff's
officers were injured, he said. A small group of prisoners tried to take over
the dorm-style pod that holds 28 inmates, and four to six prisoners were
continuously involved in the uprising, Seigel said. "There was some
damage to plumbing and toilets, things like that," he said. A
surveillance camera also was damaged, Seigel said. The jail has five pods that
hold a maximum of 32 prisoners each.
October
11, 2007 Ruidoso News
A prisoner who made an armed escape from the Lincoln County Detention Center
a few minutes after midnight Thursday morning was arrested in White Oaks
Thursday afternoon. Fred Berry, 36, was taken into custody by the Lincoln
County Sheriff's Office and a knife measuring between eight and nine inches
was confiscated. In his escape, Berry held prison guard Raymond LaFave with a
knife at his neck and demanded to be released from the prisoner pod and the
detention center. According to the probable cause statement filed in Ruidoso
Magistrate Court, Berry also threatened Lieutenant Randy Lucero with the
knife. Reportedly, Berry told the guards, "If you don't let me out,
we're dying here tonight." Charles Seigel, a public information officer
for Cornell Companies, the detention center's manager, confirmed that it is
against company policy for the prisoner to be released from the jail. "I
can't speak to the particular situation," he said by phone, "but it
is definitely not our policy for the doors to have been opened."
Cornell's local commander Roger Jeffers was unavailable for comment at press
time. In the BOLO (Be On the Look Out) that was issued immediately after the
escape, Berry was described as a white male with blue eyes, 6 feet tall and
230 pounds with long brown hair (in a ponytail when last seen) Berry added
several charges to his list of crimes when he cut the tires on two vehicles
as he departed the detention center. Then he forced LaFave to drive him to
the nearby Allsup's at the intersection of Highways
380 and 54, where, at knife-point, he robbed the store of cigarettes and a
lighter before disappearing on foot into the night.
March 12, 2002 A weekend without candy bars
sparked a mini-riot at the Lincoln County Detention Center that lasted less
than a half-hour. Prisoners in one of the jail's dormitory units tried to
light their mattresses on fire, plugged up their toilets and threw things at
guards who tried to settle them down, according to Lincoln County Manager Tom
Stewart. The reason for the uprising: A woman who sells the prisoners chips,
candy and other snacks did not show up over the weekend. "They didn't
get their candy bars," Stewart said. "They didn't get their snacks."
The jail in Carrizozo, which is less than two years old and is managed by
Correctional Systems Inc., was in the process of switching from a local
vendor for inmate snacks to a larger out-of-state company, Stewart said. He
said the local vendor, who comes to the jail and takes orders for snacks and
then returns to deliver them, stopped coming. That left inmates with no
alternatives to jail food, and that made them mad, he said. (ABQ Journal)
Los
Palomas Apartments
Associated Securities Industries
November 19, 2004 Albuquerque Journal
A Santa Fe woman is suing a local security company because it hired a
guard with a criminal record who wound up attacking her while he was on duty
at Los Palomas Apartments in January, according to the lawsuit. Former Associated Securities Industries
security guard Anthony Sena, 23, of Camino Torcido Loop, pleaded no contest earlier this year to a
charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, to wit, a baton; and a
count of attempted kidnapping, for attacking the woman, Edis
Sorta. According to the civil suit filed Monday in
Santa Fe District Court by attorney Thomas Clark, Sena
"was incompetent to perform the work required as a security guard for
the Defendant ASI (Associated Securities Industries), because ... Sena was predisposed to violence and a person with prior
convictions for felony offenses."
When asked to elaborate, Clark said Sena has
convictions from out of state for cocaine possession, marijuana possession
and illegal firearm possession.
"We believe he has a felony criminal history that would preclude
him from being able to carry a firearm," Clark said in a phone interview
Thursday.
McKinley County Detention
Center/Adult Facility
Gallup, New Mexico
Management and Training Corporation (formerly run by Correctional
Services Corporation)
January 5, 2007 Gallup Independent
It took the jury less than two hours with lunch included to find Brian Orr
not guilty of using his power at the McKinley County Adult Detention Center
to sexually abuse three female prisoners in 2003. The issue in the trial
centered around the fact that jurors had to decide who was telling the truth
the three female prisoners from Wyoming or Orr, who worked at the facility at
the time. The three women told the jury of having girlfriend-boyfriend
relations with Orr, getting gifts and being abused. One woman told of being
handcuffed nude in his office while he took photos of her on his digital
camera. The problem was that was all the jury had to go by the words of the
three women. There was no corroborating evidence and Steve Seeger, Orr's
defense attorney, stressed in his closing arguments the background of the
three women and the reasons why they were in jail in the first place.
Pointing out their crimes, which ranged from forgery and passing bad checks
to distribution of methampthemines, he asked the
jury "would you buy a vehicle" from them? In the end, the jury
apparently decided not to believe anyone and issued a statement after the
verdict about "the poor quality of the investigation" and their
belief that it wasn't done "in a professional and competent
manner."
January
3, 2007 Gallup Independent
Testimony began Tuesday in the Brian Orr case. Orr faces three counts of
criminal penetration stemming from accusations made by three Wyoming women,
who were incarcerated in the McKinley County Adult Detention Center in 2003
and 2004. Two of the three accusers testified Tuesday, claiming that they had
a boyfriend-girlfriend type of relationship with Orr while they were
incarcerated. Orr at the time was a captain at the jail. One of the women
claimed that on one occasion as she was being moved from one area of the jail
to another Orr put a hand down her pants and inserted his finger inside her.
The other woman claimed Orr did the same thing to her once when she was in
his office. Both women claimed that Orr made promises to each of them about a
future after they got out of jail, brought them gifts and gave them favorable
treatment. Orr, who was terminated from his position after the charges were
made, was also sued in civil court by the three women. Also named in the suit
were McKinley County and Management Training Center, the private company that
ran the jail at the time. A settlement was eventually made in the civil suit
and McKinley County officials said that no county money was involved. MTC and
its insurance company agreed to pay the settlement, the terms of which were
kept confidential, although one of the accusers at the trial said she
received $55,000 as her share of the settlement. This civil suit is expected to
play a major role in the criminal case with Steve Seeger, Orr's defense
attorney, asking the accusers how the American Civil Liberties Union, which
filed the suit on behalf of the female inmates, got involved in the case in
the first place. Both women testified that the ACLU contacted them and not
the other way around. This led Mike Calligan, chief
deputy prosecutor for the McKinley County's District Attorney's Office, to
ask permission to call to the stand Wednesday one of the ACLU attorneys to
explain how the organization got involved in the case.
January
28, 2006 Gallup Independent
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police arrested fugitive and former McKinley County
Adult Detention Center supervisor Bryan Orr this week in connection with the
sexual assault of two female inmates. Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Calligan on Friday confirmed Orr's arrest in the Las
Vegas area. Orr was wanted in McKinley County on charges of criminal sexual
contact with an inmate. The charges stem from his tenure as a lieutenant at
the detention center. He resigned from his position with the facility in 2005
and failed to appear for his arraignment on the criminal charges in August.
Sheila Black, 28, and Christine Herden, 23, had
been jailed at the detention center in Gallup in 2003 because there was no
room for them at the Wyoming Women's Center in Lusk. The women claim Orr
sexually assaulted and took nude pictures of them during their stay at the
facility. Orr is also a target of a federal lawsuit filed by The American
Civil Liberties Union that cites "cruel and unusual punishment" on
his behalf. The McKinley County Board of Commissioners and former managing
agent, Management and Training Corporation, were also named in the suit for
failure to properly supervise and train Orr.
January
24, 2006 Casper Star-Tribune
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit against a New
Mexico detention officer, alleging he sexually assaulted two female inmates
from Wyoming at a Gallup, N.M., jail and photographed them in the nude. At
the time of the alleged incidents in 2003, the inmates were housed in New
Mexico because of overcrowding at Wyoming's only female correctional
institution, the Wyoming Women's Center in Lusk. The lawsuit claims sexual
abuse and cruel and unusual punishment by Detention Officer Brian Orr of the
McKinley County (N.M.) Detention Center. The complaint was filed on behalf of
inmates Sheila Black and Christine Herden. The ACLU
alleges that Orr repeatedly sexually assaulted the two women and photographed
them in the nude, causing physical injury and severe psychological and
emotional distress. The complaint also alleges that the jail's acting warden,
Gilbert Lewis, the McKinley County commissioners and the Centerville, Utah,
company that managed the jail, Management and Training Corp., were negligent
for failing to properly train and supervise Orr.
September
4, 2003
McKinley County is terminating its contract with the Utah-based company that
has been operating the county jail, a facility plagued by problems.
Four inmates escaped from the jail, run by Management & Training Corp.,
on July 4, after being left unsupervised in a recreation yard. All four
were later captured or surrendered, but investigators said the escapees had a
three-hour head start because guards at the jail did not miss them until a
head count later that day. MTC also operates the Santa Fe County jail
and that facility too has had problems. Warden Cody Graham, who formerly
headed the Santa Fe County jail, was fired a week after the escape. In Santa
Fe, a nine-member state audit team found the jail needed to improve inmate
classification, grievance procedures, discipline, records and inmate
programs. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
July 11, 2003
The McKinley County jail's warden and the lone corrections officer who was
left in charge of 80 inmates during a Fourth of July jailbreak have been
fired. Management & Training Corporation, which manages the
McKinley County Adult Detention Center on a contract, took the action after a
series of security failures on the Independence Day holiday allowed four
inmates, including three suspected in killings, to escape. (ABQ
Journal)
July 9, 2003
An investigation into the Fourth of July jailbreak at the McKinley County
Adult Detention Center in Gallup has concluded that mistakes in all areas of
security allowed two accused killers and two other inmates to escape. Inadequate
staffing because of the Independence Day holiday also led to a failure to
take a head count, which gave the escaped inmates a three-hour head start,
the investigation found. Manuel Vasquez, previously charged with
child abuse resulting in death, was arrested several hours after the break
when he sought treatment for cuts and a fractured ankle at a Gallup hospital.
Robert Kiro, awaiting trial for killing a Gallup
police officer in a raid on Kiro's trailer home in
2001, was arrested in Chambers, Ariz., several hours later. Two
of the four escaped prisoners remained free Tuesday. Velasquez, Kiro, another accused killer and a fourth inmate being
held for shooting at a house, escaped when they were left unsupervised with
about a dozen other inmates for an hour in the jail's recreation area. "The
facility was understaffed for one thing," said Dee Dee
Gonzales, a McKinley County Sheriffs Department
investigator who was charged with looking into the escape. "They let
people off for the holiday." Jails count on three things to
keep inmates within their walls: supervision, security cameras and
fences. The investigation found failures in all three areas. Gonzales
said her report will be sent to McKinley County officials and to the
Management and Training Corp., which runs the jail on a contract. Warden
Cody Graham did not return telephone calls Tuesday. Gonzales
said one corrections officer was on duty Tuesday in a four-pod unit that held
about 80 prisoners. A second officer would usually be on duty but had been
given the day off because of the holiday, Gonzales said. Additionally,
a security camera failed to cover a spot in the recreation area where the
inmates escaped from. And two sections of fence were not joined, allowing the
escapees to reach the parking lot. Kiro
and the other inmates were let into the recreation area about 9 a.m. Friday
and left there while the officer on duty returned to the other inmates,
Gonzales said. Some of the inmates apparently hoisted Kiro and the others onto their shoulders and allowed them
to climb toward a wire mesh cover. The mesh is in sections and the sections
were not attached, which allowed the inmates to pull two pieces apart and
squeeze through, Gonzales said. Once on the roof, they crawled
over razor wire by draping it with bed sheets and climbed down to a lower
roof and then onto the ground. Police believe they were met by a
car and drove away from the jail about 9:30 a.m. They were not discovered
missing until about 2 p.m. because the officer did not do head counts,
Gonzales said. Gonzales said disciplinary action would be up to
the warden or Management and Training Corp. officials. (ABQ Journal)
July 7, 2003
Two of four inmates who escaped the McKinley County jail Friday remained at
large Saturday evening, as an internal investigation continued into how the
escape was allowed to occur. Robert Kiro,
34, was taken into custody without resistance at 10:15 p.m. Friday at the
Chieftain Motel in Chambers, Ariz., 13 hours after the Gallup jailbreak,
Gallup police Capt. Bobby Silva said. Kiro was
charged with killing a Gallup policeman two years ago. "Gallup
will immediately begin the proceedings to bring (Kiro)
back," Silva said. Others who police said escaped Friday
morning were Eric Leyba, 18, accused of beating a
Gallup man to death in March 2002; Alejandro Balderama,
23, charged with shooting at a dwelling; and Manuel Vasquez, 32, who suffered
a fractured right heel and an arm laceration in his jump to freedom. The
escapees jumped three floors from the jail's roof-top recreation area during
an exercise period, which began at 9 a.m. Vasquez hitched a ride
to a local hospital for treatment of his injuries. Hospital officials
dissatisfied with his explanation summoned police who then learned of the
escape, McKinley County Deputy Sheriff Ron Williams said. That
was more than three hours after the jailbreak, he said. Vasquez
was arrested at the hospital Friday afternoon. Leyba
and Balderama remained at large Saturday. Williams
said the delay in reporting the escape left police and sheriff's officers
"totally disgusted, and it's disheartening." Warden
Cody Graham, who runs the facility for Management Training Corp., a private
jail operator contracted by McKinley County, said, "What happened
(Friday) is unfortunate. We are looking into it, and whatever corrective
measures need to be taken will be taken. Whatever security enhancements we
need to do we will do." Graham said that at any one time,
30 to 40 inmates can be placed into the recreation area, and they can stay in
there for up to an hour. They are counted when they are placed
there and they are supposed to be counted as they come back in, he said.
Asked if that recount occurred, he said, "we're still trying to find
that out." The recreation area should have been monitored,
Graham said. "They were not on that day physically
supervised by guards, but there are two cameras up there that are supposed to
be monitored," he said. (ABQ Journal)
July 7, 2003
Law enforcement officials are investigating why an escape from a privately
run county jail went unreported until one of the four fugitives, injured
jumping from the jail roof, showed up at a hospital a few hours later.
Two of the inmates, including one charged with murder, were still on the run
this morning. "We in law enforcement are totally disgusted, and
it's disheartening," said McKinley County Sheriff's Deputy Ron
Williams. The four escaped by leaping three floors from the jail's
rooftop exercise enclosure during an exercise period that began about 9 a.m.
Friday, authorities said. Law enforcement officials found out about the
escape more than three hours later when one of the inmates, Manuel Vasquez,
32, hitched a ride to a hospital, where doctors became suspicious of his
explanation for his fractured heel and cut arm and called police, Williams
said. Another inmate was captured late Friday. Robert Kiro, 34, who scheduled to face trial Aug. 11 in
connection with the killing of a Gallup police officer, was arrested at a
motel in Chambers, Ariz., Gallup police Capt. Bobby Silva said.
"There obviously was human error," said jail warden Cody Graham,
who runs the facility for Management Training Corp., a private jail operator
under contract with McKinley County. "I need to determine what
exactly did not take place when it comes to our procedures," he
said. Graham said inmates Eric Leyba, 18, and
Alejandro Balderama, 23, were still missing this
morning. Leyba is charged with beating a Gallup man
to death in 2002. Balderama was being held on
charges of shooting at a dwelling. Gallup is about 120 miles northwest
of Albuquerque. (AP)
May 1,
2003
A man who was let go as warden in Santa Fe County returned Wednesday a warden
for the McKinley County Adult Detention Center. Cody Graham had been
warden in Gallup when Ogden, Utah-based Management and Training Corp. took
over the operation of the jail in January 2001. He was transferred to
Santa Fe later that year. Both the McKinley County jail and the Santa
Fe County jail are run by MTC. Santa Fe County officials told the
company about inmates' complaints of being denied toilet paper, clothing and
medical care. An advisory committee on the jail said MTC did not
provide enough case managers, had a high turnover in staff and needed to
improve medical staffing. (AP)
May
19, 2002
The McKinley County jail was locked down Sunday after disgruntled inmates set
a mattress on fire, jail officers reported. Eleven inmates locked themselves
in a section of the jail where the fire started, but the incident was quickly
quelled, said Sandy Aragon, director of communications at the Gallup-McKinley
County 911 center. The inmates came out and the fire was extinguished, Aragon
said. The jail is run by a private company, Management Training Corp.
(Albuquerque Journal)
November
26, 1999
On Friday, November 26, five inmates escaped from the county jail operated by
Correctional Services Corp. This brings the total to nine the number of
inmates who have escaped from the prison in the last three months. CSC’s vice
president blamed the escapes on the facility claiming it is structurally
unsound. The inmates climbed through a skylight. CSC recently lost the
contract to run this prison. (Albuquerque Journal, 11/26/99)
September, 1999
Four inmates escaped from the private jail in New Mexico operated by
Correctional Services Corp. The sheriff’s office was not notified of the
escape until an hour and 15 minutes has passed. They crawled through an air
vent. Two were jailed on parole violation and burglary charges. The other two
escapees were in jail awaiting trial on murder, aggravated battery and
kidnapping charges. (Albuquerque Journal, 9/6-8/99)
Metropolitan
Detention Center
Aramark
May
25, 2015 post-gazette.com
New Mexico: Aramark employee smuggling
drugs
After
a lengthy investigation, detectives say they now know who has been smuggling
drugs into the Metropolitan Detention Center. According to investigators,
23-year-old Nick Perea admitted to bringing in
dozens of Suboxone strips to inmates at the jail. At that time, Perea was working for Aramark services in the laundry
department. Police say most of those strips were delivered to an inmate named
Steven Mertz. Investigators say they strip searched Mertz and found a total
of 15 Suboxone strips. Both men are now facing charges in connection to this
case.
New Mexico Department of Corrections
Aramark, CCA, GEO Group, Wexford
State
gets tougher on private prisons - Operators face fine as leniency disappears
under Martinez administration: March 1, 2012, Trip Jennings, The
New Mexican: Damning expose on how former DOC Secretary and former Wackenhut
warden cost state millions of dollars in un-collected fines against
for-profits.
Jun
11, 2022 santafenewmexican.com
ACLU settles lsuit over New Mexico prison
medical contract records
The New Mexico
Corrections Department has agreed to pay the American Civil Liberties Union
of New Mexico $37,500 to settle a lawsuit over the agency's alleged failure
to release public records related to its multimillion-dollar contract with
the company that provides medical care to prison inmates. The department also
will provide unredacted versions of the records requested, which previously
had been heavily redacted, ACLU-NM staff attorney Lalita Moskowitz said
Thursday. The state agency agreed to settle the case Monday, three days
before it was scheduled to go to trial after two years of litigation. "We
certainly should not have had to go to court to get documents [regarding]
private corporations our state is giving money to, and that's essentially
what happened here," Moskowitz said. "A private corporation was
allowed to decided what constitutes public records
under our public records laws, which flies in the face of everything the
Inspection of Public Records Act is supposed to do." Moskowitz said the
department let the vendor, Pittsburgh-based Wexford Health Sources, decide
what would be redacted and backed the vendor in court at the expense of
taxpayers. A spokeswoman for the Corrections Department wrote in an email
Thursday the agency maintains its records custodian acted reasonably and in
accordance with state law in handling the records request, adding the
requested documents were "protected from public inspection by the
procurement code." "This case was set for trial and an agreement in
principle was reached in advance to resolve plaintiff's outstanding
attorney's fees after the requested unredacted documents were produced under
seal to plaintiffs solely for litigation purposes and without the Court
ruling they were in fact public records," spokeswoman Karen Cann wrote in the email. The settlement resolves a
lawsuit ACLU-NM filed in March 2020, which alleged the department had failed
to comply with the Inspection of Public Records Act in responding to a
request from the civil rights group for records relating to a four-year, $246
million inmate medical care contract the state had awarded to Wexford Health
in 2019. Wexford did not respond to a request for comment on the settlement.
A spokesman for the General Services Department said in an email Friday the
state has spent $12,374 fighting the case "to date" but that more
bills could be outstanding in the recently settled case. The state had fired
Wexford in 2007 and rejected the company's bid for the contract in 2016 after
Wexford faced more than 50 lawsuits from inmates between 2004 and 2007. The
company was awarded a new contract, however, in 2019. Asked why Wexford had
been selected, a Corrections Department spokeswoman
said only that the company had submitted the winning bid. Corizon Health,
contracted to provide inmate medical care between 2007 and 2016, was sued
more than 150 times in those nine years. Centurion LLC, which won the
contract in 2016, was the subject of more than 65 lawsuits. The ACLU-NM suit
was one of many legal filings regarding the lack of transparency surrounding
private prison contractors. In a separate case involving The New Mexican, state
District Judge Raymond Ortiz ruled in 2016 records produced by Corizon Health
were public and must be released. The New Mexico Court of Appeals affirmed
his ruling in September. The state Supreme Court declined to review the
ruling in 2019, resulting in the release of some records. But private prison
operators and medical care providers have continued to insist their records
aren't subject to the state's public records law.When the Corrections Department awarded
Wexford's new contract, it did not include a transparency provision.
According to ACLU lawsuit, the organization had requested copies of all
records related to the state's most recent selection of a health care
provider, and the state provided substantial records related to a bid
submitted by a losing vendor but redacted or withheld the
majority of records related to Wexford's bid. The documents obscured
or not produced included the company's insurance certificates, staffing plan,
job descriptions, employee benefit packages and samples of audit tools that
would be used to measure the quality of services Wexford would provide under
the contract, according to the lawsuit. "In total, more of Wexford's ...
proposal to NMDC had been redacted than produced," the complaint said.
Nov 2, 2021 krqe.com
New Mexico: State
takes back two prisons
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) -
The state has taken control of two privately-owned prisons. The corrections
department has converted the Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center in
Grants and the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa into publicly-operated facilities. The state has lease
agreements at both prisons and also will be
responsible for maintenance. It's part of the state's shift away from private
prisons. Right now, 25% of the state's prison beds are in privately-operated
facilities. According to a press release from the New Mexico Corrections
Department, the conversions become official on November 1 marks the end of
over 30 years of private operation by CoreCivic at
the Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center and 20 years by the GEO Group at
the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility.
Aug 12, 2021 santafenewmexican.com
New Mexico shrinks reliance on for-profit prison operators
New Mexico is on the
cusp of finalizing prison takeovers that will reduce private prison
operations to 25 percent of inmate beds, amid a plunge in prison population
numbers statewide. Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero briefed a panel
of state lawmakers Wednesday on negotiations by her agency to take over
day-to-day prison operations from CoreCivic at the
744-bed Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center in Grants, and from GEO
Group at the 590-bed Guadalupe County Correctional Facility at Santa Rosa in
Southern New Mexico. In November 2019, New Mexico took over a prison in
Clayton at a facility previously run by GEO Group. "Once we complete the
takeover of these next two institutions, we will have reduced New Mexico's
private prison dependency to less than 25 percent," Tafoya Lucero said.
Private operators oversaw nearly 50 percent of available prison beds in early
2019. She said the state takeovers at Grants and Santa Rosa are scheduled for
completion in November, and they will result in increased entry-level
salaries for corrections officers of just over $20 an hour, up from as low as
$15.50 at private facilities. Lease agreements will likely leave private
operators in control of facility ownership and maintenance. The
administration of Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has rebuffed calls
by state legislators for an immediate exit from the for-profit prison
industry, aiming instead to negotiate a gradual withdrawal and avoid
potentially costly disruptions. Democratic state Sen. Linda Lopez of
Albuquerque applauded the shift away from for-profit prison operations. "It's
so encouraging to hear about the state, what I call, reclaiming our
facilities," she said. "This gives hope." In January,
President Joe Biden ordered the Department of Justice to wind down its
reliance on privately run prisons, directing the attorney general not to
renew contracts. At the same time, New Mexico's prison population has
undergone a precipitous decline in numbers since the outset of the
coronavirus pandemic that leaves more than one-fourth of available beds
empty, amid precautions against the spread of the virus at lockups and in the
court system, state corrections officials said at the a
wide ranging hearing on prison initiatives. More than 550 prisoners have been
released since April 2020 under an executive order from the governor to
commute sentences for prisoners who are eligible for early release, with the exception of several serious crimes. Tafoya
Lucero said the state prison population has declined overall to 5,617, from
6,567 at the outset of the pandemic in March 2020. The population exceeded
7,300 as recently as 2017. At Santa Rosa, half the prison building is closed
for lack of inmates and staff. The state has said it can do without at least
one prison at Springer, as economic development officials explore alternative
plans at the site to support local employment. But Tafoya Lucero cautioned
against further prison closures because the state could see a surge in new
inmates as courts resume criminal proceedings that were delayed by the
pandemic. She highlighted the state's obligation to provide adequate prison
cell space for each inmate under a legal settlement in early 2020. "What
will happen when we do start to see additional prosecutions take place - does
that mean that we have more people?" Tafoya Lucero said. "Ultimately
it is very important that we made sure there is enough space for everybody
who is incarcerated."
Jul
11, 2020 santafenewmexican.com
Rights group sues New
Mexico Corrections Department, private prison operators
The Human Rights
Defense Center is accusing the state Corrections Department and two private
prison operators of breaking the law by refusing to provide records regarding
lawsuits against the prison management companies. “They are basically
pointing the finger at each other,” center founder Paul Wright said in a
phone interview Thursday. “The state says they don’t have them, and the
companies are saying they have them but aren’t under any responsibility to
disclose them.” Management and Training Corp., which manages the Otero County
Prison Facility, and GEO Group, which operates the Lea County Correctional
Facility and Guadalupe County Correctional Facility, are the companies the
center says won’t release the records. According to two lawsuits filed
Tuesday in state District Court, the center asked the companies earlier this
year for “all verdicts and settlements related to all claims or lawsuits”
brought against MTC in which payments totaled more than $1,000 for the past
10 years, and “all claims or lawsuits” brought against GEO Group “concerning
any confinement facility operated in New Mexico” for the same time period.
Both companies said they weren’t subject to the state Inspection of Public
Records Act, according to the lawsuits, and the Corrections Department said
the records were in the possession of the private contractors. Wright said
Thursday the lawsuits and their outcomes are important because they shed
light on conditions inside New Mexico prisons, where 25 percent to 30 percent
of state inmates are housed in facilities run by for-profit companies. “Prison
systems rarely exercise much in the way of supervision over these companies,”
Wright said. “Taxpayers are paying tens of millions of dollars for these
services. Lawsuits are a great gauge of how well they are carrying out their
duties. “When you look at these lawsuits, you see cases of prisoners being
killed by guards, beaten and raped by guards, killed by other prisoners, and
dying of abuse and neglect,” Wright said. “If we asked for this information
from New Mexico Corrections Department or jails, they are legally obligated
to give it to us,” he said. “But we’ve got these private companies refusing
to give us information that if it were held by a public company
they would have to give it to us.” Wright said the Corrections Department is
“complicit in concealing this information” because it doesn’t require the
contractors to comply with IPRA. In Florida, where the Human Rights Defense
Center is based, the Department of Corrections includes provisions in
contracts with private prison operators that require the companies to
acknowledge they are subject to open-records laws, Wright said. “In New
Mexico, they aren’t taking that position,” he said. “No one in the Department
of Corrections wants the public to know how bad these private prison
companies are doing. And if they have nothing to hide, then why are they
trying to keep these things under wraps?” New Mexico Corrections Department
spokesman Eric Harrison said in an email Thursday: “It does not appear we
have been served as of today. Regardless, we cannot comment on active
litigation.” GEO Group did not respond to an email requesting comment on the
center’s claims. A spokesman for MTC — which manages a prison facility and an
immigration processing center in Southern New Mexico, both of which have been
overrun with novel coronavirus cases — said in an email: “MTC appropriately
responded to the request it received from Human Rights Defense Center and
will vigorously defend the lawsuit.” Prying public records from private
prison contractors has been an ongoing battle in New Mexico. The Santa Fe New
Mexican, the Albuquerque Journal and the Foundation for Open Government
jointly sued Corizon Health in 2015 after the company, which formerly held a
$37.5 million-per-year contract to provide medical care to state inmates,
refused to release its settlement agreements in response to a request from
The New Mexican. State District Judge Raymond Ortiz ruled in 2016 the records
were public and must be released. The New Mexico Court of Appeals affirmed
his ruling in September. And the state Supreme Court declined to review the
ruling late last year, resulting in some of the records being released.
Wright said the center, which publishes Prison Legal News, also has
successfully litigated the issue against Corizon. But private prison
management and medical care providers have continued to respond to records
requests by saying they aren’t subject to IPRA. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham
and Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero both have said they support
transparency when it comes to settlements. But the Corrections Department
awarded a new inmate medical care contract — worth about $246 million over
the next four years — to Wexford Health Sources in 2019 that maintained the
status quo. Asked at the time why the Corrections Department did not include
a provision in Wexford’s contract regarding transparency, Harrison said the
medical care vendors they’ve dealt with have not been amenable to such a
provision. Lujan Grisham’s office did not respond Thursday to an email asking
why the state does not require contract recipients to comply with IPRA.
Jan 26, 2020 santafenewmexican.com
Ex-prison health
contractor won’t release records despite court rulings
Corizon Health, which
until 2016 held a $37.5 million annual contract to treat New Mexico prison
inmates, is refusing to comply with court rulings requiring it to release
settlements it made with prisoners who sued the company alleging poor care.
“It continues to be Corizon’s position that we are not subject to [the
Inspection of Public Records Act], and we plan to pursue additional court
action to clarify that position,” a Corizon spokeswoman said in an email
earlier this month. This comes despite two court rulings in New Mexico that
say the settlements are public records. The Santa Fe New Mexican, the
Albuquerque Journal and the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government sued
the company over its refusal to release the settlements in 2016, contending
the company and the state Corrections Department couldn’t dodge New Mexico’s
public records law through contract provisions. State District Judge Raymond
Ortiz agreed and ordered the company to release the settlements. Corizon
appealed his ruling to the state Court of Appeals, and when the appellate
court upheld Ortiz’s ruling in October, Corizon asked the state Supreme Court
to review it. The Supreme Court declined, but the company is still refusing
to produce the records. After denying requests The New Mexican sent in
December and January, Corizon spokeswoman Eve Hutcherson said the company is
waiting for the Court of Appeals to issue a mandate in the case — a process
by which the court essentially refers the case back to District Court. She
added the company still does not believe it is subject to the Inspection of
Public Records Act and “plans to seek court review of the fundamental issue.”
Asked what recourse the company still has, Dan Yohalem,
the attorney who represented the newspapers and the Foundation for Open
Government, said Corizon has none because IPRA is a state law. The company,
he added, has already argued its case at every level of New Mexico’s court
system. “They’re done,” Yohalem said. “They lost.
They’ve got to cough up those records.” Following the Court of Appeals ruling
in October, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s spokesman said in an email: “The
public records you seek should be obtainable. ... [The Department of]
Corrections should be able to get that information from the provider and get
it to you.” But the department has repeatedly refused to produce settlements
between inmates and the onetime medical care provider, arguing it is not the
custodian of the records. “I am disappointed that the New Mexico Department
of Corrections has taken no responsibility for its vendor’s lack of
compliance with a court-ordered mandate,” Foundation for Open Government
President Susan Boe said in an email. “Throughout
the history of this case, the Department has hidden behind the statement, ‘We
don’t have possession of the documents.’ Well, why not? The state still is
ultimately responsible for its prisoners and should be fully informed of the
nature of a prisoner’s medical care or abuse.” Court records show the state
filed a motion in December in support of Corizon’s opposition to the lifting
of a stay in another pending case in which the plaintiff seeks the same
records. That case, filed by the Human Rights Defense Center in 2016, has
been stayed for more than three years awaiting the Court of Appeals ruling in
The New Mexican’s case. But when the Human Rights Defense Center filed a
motion in November asking the court to move it forward in light of the
appellate court ruling, Corizon argued the case should be kept on hold while
awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling. The state Department of Corrections
filed a motion Dec. 18 supporting Corizon’s request. The issue was moot by
that point — the Supreme Court had decided two days earlier not to review the
Corizon case — but the state District Court has set a hearing on the motions
for April. The Corrections Department did not respond to questions about why
the agency filed the motion. “The Department of Corrections is obviously in
cahoots with them and abetting them on this,” Human Rights Defense Center
Director Paul Wright said.
Sep 14, 2019 kunm.org
Judge: N.M.
Corrections Department Tried To Hide Report On
Health Care Failures
For years, people
who’d been in New Mexico prisons brought lawsuits and allegations about
dangerously bad medical care, as well as sexual abuse by a prison doctor. According
to The Santa Fe New Mexican, a report just came to light detailing the
Department of Corrections failures—even though the state’s been trying to
hide it. The 2014 report emerged as part of a whistleblower lawsuit. In it,
an independent firm writes that the Corrections Department wasn’t conducting
mandatory audits of Corizon—that’s the private company that handled prison
health care in New Mexico up until three years ago. And that because those
audits weren’t happening, the report states, people who worked in the prisons
knew they could get away with anything they wanted. Secretary Alisha Tafoya
Lucero just took over the Corrections Department. She sat down with KUNM for
an interview last week before news of the report broke. "We are working hard
to increase our monitoring tools, our people that are out there checking up
on the contractors and making sure that they’re complying with whatever the
service provisions are," she said. The judge said the Corrections
Department for the last six months has been willfully concealing evidence. A
department spokesperson attributed the suppression of the report to the past
administration via email but didn’t respond before air-time
to a question about how long Tafoya Lucero had known of the report or this
tactic. He said comprehensive health audits of all New Mexico prisons began
this year and that the department takes oversight seriously.
UPDATE
9/10: Corrections Department spokesperson Eric Harrison said Secretary Tafoya
Lucero became aware of the report in August and wanted it to be made public.
Sep 8, 2018 kunm.org
State Fines Prison Health Care Companies Millions
The state fired the private company in charge of prisoner health care and
gave the contract to another company after a 2016 investigation into dangerously
bad medical care in prisons by the Santa Fe New Mexican. But in the two years
since the change, millions of dollars in fines have been leveled against the
new private health care provider. The state’s Department of Corrections has
fined Centurion—the new private corporation it hired—$2.1 million for
staffing shortages since 2016. Attorneys who represent inmates told lawmakers
last month of an incarcerated man who slipped in the hallway, broke his arm,
and spent more than a week with it bent like a question mark. Local civil
rights lawyer Matthew Coyte said there's a human
cost and a financial cost to taxpayers. "They are in prison. They have
no control over if they can go to an emergency room, for example," he
said. "And if the system is understaffed or underfunded—or dysfunctional
in some way, then the inmates suffer." Another new for-profit company,
MHM, that was contracted to provide behavioral health care, was also fined
almost half a million dollars for not adequately staffing state prisons. New
Mexico’s prisons held more than 7,000 people last month.
Apr 5, 2017 abqjournal.com
Former Corrections official sues department
SANTA FE – The former behavioral health chief of the state Corrections
Department has filed a whistleblower lawsuit saying the department fired her
in retaliation for raising concerns about the medical services company that
was providing care to inmates. Bianca McDermott was placed on administrative
leave by Corrections in May 2015 and was terminated the following November.
In a civil suit filed in state District Court last week, McDermott claims
that she was fired for “various whistleblower activities” related to
Corrections’ contract with Corizon, a medical services provider. She’s asking
a judge to order Corrections to reinstate her to her old position and to pay
her for wages lost since her termination. In 2009, McDermott said she began
raising concerns over Corizon’s contract with her supervisors. “Dr. McDermott
was personally aware that Corizon was not providing all mental health care
required under the contract, which meant that some portion of the ($200
million) NMCD paid to Corizon had not been earned,” the lawsuit says. She
filed a “qui tam” action, which allows a private person to sue for some of
the recovery a state agency might receive, and made several public records
requests. The state Attorney General investigated the matter, according to
the lawsuit. McDermott claims Corrections retaliated against her after that
and placed her on leave for six months before firing her. She said she was
accused of a discriminatory hiring decision, violating medical privacy laws
and of being insubordinate. Corrections did not conduct an investigation into
her misconduct in a timely fashion and did not follow protocol, she claims.
McDermott appealed her termination to the State Personnel Office, which held
a hearing in August, but she says SPO still has not made a decision. An audit
released by state Auditor Tim Keller in late February says Corizon still owes
the department $572,514 in “credits” that he said the state shouldn’t expect
to be paid back. The audit also said there was a conflict of interest in
having Corizon’s physicians help with Corrections’ evaluation of the
company’s medical services, a conflict the audit says continued with the
department’s new medical contractor, Centurion.
Aug 21, 2016 lasvegasoptic.com
New Mexico: Judge orders
release of Corizon suit settlements
SANTA FE — A New Mexico
district court judge has ordered Corizon Health to release settlement
agreements it made with inmates who have filed lawsuits against the company.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that on Tuesday the judge sided with two
newspapers and an advocacy group that the for-profit provider of inmate
medical services was not protected by confidentially agreements made with the
prisoners who had sued.
August 5, 2016
santafenewmexican.com
Corrections Department withholds investigation on former care provider
Corizon
The New Mexico Department of Corrections is refusing to release the
results of an in-depth investigation the department conducted into Corizon
Health, the company that formerly provided health care for most of the
state’s 7,000 inmates. Jim Brewster, general counsel for the department,
acknowledged that the report exists but said it was protected under
attorney-client privilege and exempt from the state Inspection of Public
Records Act because it was prepared in anticipation of litigation. “There is
a report on Corizon, but you can’t see it,” Brewster told The New Mexican.
Brewster said currently there is not any pending litigation related to the
information in the report, “but the statute of limitations in which
litigation could be filed has not expired.” It’s not clear why the
investigation was launched or when it was completed. According to a person
with knowledge of the report but who had not read it, the investigation took
more than a year and resulted in a report of several hundred pages. The
person spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized
to speak about the matter. The Department recently chose not to renew its
contract with Corizon Health after a six-month investigation by The New
Mexican, published in April, revealed deep problems with inmate care provided
by the company, and of the state’s lax oversight of the company. Corizon, the
nation’s largest for-profit provider of inmate care, faced more than 150
lawsuits filed by some 200 inmates in the nine years it had the contract, a
sharp increase in the rate of inmate filings during the 2004-07 tenure of the
previous provider, Wexford Health Sources, which the state fired over
concerns about the quality of its medical care. In reporting that story, The
New Mexican requested all documents related to the department’s monitoring of
the company. The department did not provide the report nor did it indicate it
had withheld any documents that were relevant to the request. When The New
Mexican learned about the report recently and requested to see it, Brewster
acknowledged it existed but said it was subject to attorney-client work
privilege or, in the alternate, was not subject to disclosure under a rule
that protects “work product” or information collected or prepared in
anticipation of litigation. Brewster said the report was compiled by the
department’s Office of Professional Services — a division tasked with
investigating allegations of staff misconduct, identifying trends in
misconduct and recommending training and policy changes. Preparing reports in
anticipation of litigation is not listed as one of the division’s missions on
the department website, but Brewster said when the office does its reports,
“I’m the first person that gets them because they are basically providing
information to me so I can use it to provide legal advice to my client.”
Susan Boe, executive director of the New Mexico
Foundation for Open Government, acknowledged that there is a “broad
exception” under the Inspection of Public Records Act that would allow the the department to withhold the report, but said “we don’t
have enough facts to determine whether the report … falls under the
attorney-client privilege and particularly the work product exemption.”
“Important questions to be asked include whether the report was prepared or
was ordered by an attorney,” Boe said. “Was it
shown to non-attorneys? Was the report itself done by an attorney?” Boe said that if the information is shown to a third
party who is not part of the attorney-client privilege, then the argument can
be made that the attorney-client privilege was waived. “However, look at the
Health and Human Services audit,” Boe added,
referring to a 2013 report that resulted in the shake-up of the state’s
behavioral health provider network that was initially kept from public view
but later released. “That was not prepared in anticipation of litigation
either civil or criminal, but once it was turned over to the Attorney
General, the state claimed at the time that it was protected and no longer a
public document.” At the very least, Boe said, the
Corrections department should have disclosed the existence of the report on
Corizon — if it was completed, when The New Mexican asked the department to
produce evidence of its due diligence in monitoring the company, even if it
didn’t intend to produce the record. “What they are doing is putting the
burden on the requester to specifically identify documents even though [The
New Mexican’s] request would seem to have covered it,” she said. So what’s to
keep an agency from claiming anything its legal department reviews is exempt
from the Inspection of Public Records Act? “That’s the problem, isn’t it?” Boe said.
Jul 23, 2016 santafenewmexican.com
‘New Mexican,’ two other entities file suit against Corizon
The New Mexican, along with the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government
and the Albuquerque Journal, have filed a lawsuit in the First Judicial
District Court against Corizon Correctional Healthcare, the nation’s largest
for-profit provider of inmate medical services, seeking settlement agreements
with prisoners and former prisoners. Corizon contends the state’s Inspection
of Public Records does not compel it to provide the documents and that
confidentiality agreements prohibit disclosure. But attorneys for the
plaintiffs argue that although Corizon is a corporation, for the purposes of
the public-records request, “it stands in the shoes” of the New Mexico
Department of Corrections, “because it was providing all the medical services
for New Mexico state prisoners at 10 facilities in New Mexico under contract
with the state of New Mexico.” Under its contract with the state, Corizon was
paid $37.5 million per year. “During the course of providing medical services
to New Mexico prisoners, Corizon and the DOC were sued many times as a result
of the alleged inadequacy of medical services provided by Corizon to New
Mexico prisoners,” the lawsuit states. “Corizon settled many of these
lawsuits before the courts had adjudicated the plaintiffs’ claims. The
lawsuits that are the basis for the settlements are public records. The
settlements of these lawsuits are public records.” The case was assigned to
District Court Judge Raymond Z. Ortiz.
Jun 5, 2016 santafenewmexican.com
Centurion lands contract after
supplier’s wife helped craft specs
A consultant who helped write the
New Mexico Corrections Department’s request for proposal on a $41 million
health care contract also has ties to a business that sells medical supplies
to Centurion, the company that received the contract. The consultant, Ann
Perham, is married to Jonathan Perham, owner of Axess
Medical LLC, a Middleton, Mass., company that sells medical supplies to
prison health care providers, including to Centurion for its contract in
Massachusetts. She said there was no impropriety in her helping to craft the
proposal soliciting companies to provide health care for 7,200 prisoners in
New Mexico. But one of the phone numbers Axess
lists on its website leads to a voicemail recording by Ann Perham, who is
also the signatory of the company’s records. Perham billed the state 44.75
hours of work at $200 an hour and requested a payment of $8,950 to be sent to
her Massachusetts home. The phone and fax numbers on Perham’s invoice are the
same as her husband’s medical supply company. Axess
incorporated in Massachusetts in 2009 to “provide procurement services to
private companies and institutions for medical supplies, medical equipment
and healthcare products,” according to its website. Ann Perham said she
disclosed to the New Mexico Corrections Department the relationship between
her and her husband’s business. Perham said in a brief telephone interview
that she works with different companies as a consultant. She would not
disclose the names of the companies. “There’s no conflict of interest. It was
a basic RFP,” Ann Perham said, using the acronym for request for proposal.
Ann Perham and Alex Tomlin, a deputy secretary of the Corrections Department,
said in separate interviews that Axess will not
supply Centurion with medical equipment for its New Mexico contract. Neither
could say where Centurion would purchase equipment. Mike Brewer, senior vice
president of corporate development for Centurion, did not respond to
questions emailed to him last week. Tomlin also told The New Mexican she
thought Axess Medical also had a business relationship
with one of the other bidders on the New Mexico medical services contract
that Centurion won. But spokeswomen for the other two bidders on the
contract, Wexford Health Sources and Corizon Correctional Healthcare, said in
emails Friday they have no record of ever doing business with Axess Medical. This would indicate that Jonathan Perham’s
company had a relationship only with the successful bidder of the contract
for which his wife wrote the specifications. Tomlin said the state’s hiring
of Ann Perham was a wise move because Perham is in the prison health care
industry and understands how to write the specifications of how a private
company would care for inmates. “It’s a very small world, medical contract
vending for prisons, and we were trying our damnedest to make the best deal
for taxpayers and not leave anything out,” Tomlin said. “We said, ‘We are not
the expert. Let’s go find the expert to help us write the medical contract.
Tomlin said the department found that expertise in Ann Perham, a former vice
president of Corrections Medical Services Inc., but not before it had already
hired and then rejected a separate consultant. The Corrections Department
gave the job to Perham after it had first hired Jacqueline Moore & Associates,a Colorado-based firm.
The state on Jan. 4 paid Ann Perham $8,950 for helping to write the 190-page
request for proposal, according to a copy of the check turned over by the
Corrections Department. Jacqueline Moore said she was never paid for the time
she spent preparing the RFP. Rather, Moore said, Angela Martinez, the
Corrections Department’s health services administrator, told Moore her
“services were no longer needed.” Martinez told Moore she was in discussions
with potential bidders on the contract, Moore said. State rules on contract
bidding outlaw certain communications between the state and bidders. Such
laws are meant to prevent one company from having an edge over competitors.
“I told her she really shouldn’t be doing that,” Moore said. “There should be
a cone of silence once the RFP process has started, and you should not have
RFP conversations with anyone else. And it was from one of the vendors that
she got the name of the consultant she used. The vendor was Centurion.”
Tomlin says otherwise. “There was not communications with vendors,” she said,
adding that the department did not know what companies would bid on the
contract when the state was writing the request for proposal. Tomlin said the
state entered into a contract with Moore, then rejected her. Tomlin would not
explain why. As for Moore’s allegation that the process was improper, Tomlin
said only one official in the department was authorized to speak to the three
companies that bid on the health care contract that Centurion won. Tomlin
said there was a directive that prohibited state employees other than Lori
Vigil from communicating with the bidders. Vigil is General Services bureau
chief of the Corrections Department. Moore insists that Martinez had
communications with Centurion. Moore said that she called Centurion herself
when she was working on the proposal for bids. She said she requested data
from the company. “The RFP was not released at that time, but she was talking
to vendors,” Moore said of Martinez. “She was talking to Centurion. We were
working on the RFP and when I start to work on a project at that point I
don’t talk to vendors, you know, and neither does anyone else from the …
state. It’s just not ethical. I mean you just don’t give someone else an
unfair advantage.” Moore said the department never paid her for about $8,000
in work. She said she would like to resolve the issue “amicably” rather than
through a lawsuit. The Corrections Department signed a contract with Ann
Perham in November. It called on Perham to “perform technical RFP writing and
due diligence services” for the department for 40 hours at a rate of $200 an
hour. She eventually billed the state for nearly five additional hours. It
specified that Perham would assist the department in preparing performance on
contract-issues that included penalties, sanctions, cost proposal sheets,
Medicaid and staffing requirements. Tomlin said the Corrections Department
was satisfied that Perham had identified her husband as being in the business
of supplying goods to prison health care providers. “As far as NMCD is
concerned, our position was, ‘Yes, she made the disclosure,’ ” Tomlin said in
reference to Perham. “And we were aware.” The request for proposal served as
the basis for bids submitted to the state by three companies in the prison
health care industry. After a six-month competition for the contract, the
Corrections Department this month awarded Centurion both contracts to provide
both medical care and pharmaceutical services that are worth a combined $52
million. Corizon, the state’s former inmate medical care provider whose
contract expired last week, was not selected, despite earning a higher
technical score and offering a lower bid, according to the company’s
spokeswoman. Corizon lost the bid a month after a six-month investigation by
The New Mexican that raised questions about the quality of care the company
provided to inmates.
May 19, 2016 krwg.org
New Mexico Company's Prison Healthcare Contract Not Being Renewed
The company that provides health care services to the
New Mexico Corrections Department says its contract with the state is not
being renewed. Corizon Correctional Healthcare notified employees this week
that the company won't get another four-year contract. State officials
rejected both Corizon and Wexford Health Sources during a six-month bidding
contest for the contract. Corizon replaced Wexford in 2007 and both companies
have come under scrutiny over the quality of health care services they
provided to the state's 7,000 prison inmates. A Corizon spokeswoman says the
company has been honored to provide care for New Mexico's incarcerated for
the last nine years.
Apr 30, 2016 kunm.org
Inmates Sue Over Health Care In N.M. Prisons
The company that handles medical services for prisoners in the
state—Corizon Health—is facing hundreds of lawsuits filed by inmates who say
care is inadequate. A series in the Santa Fe New Mexican investigates whether
state officials have been ignoring warning signs or have done an inadequate
job overseeing Corizon. Phaedra Haywood, one of the reporters who broke the
story, spoke with KUNM about the real impact of poor medical care on inmates
and their families. HAYWOOD: One thing I’d like to mention is while hundreds
of inmates have filed lawsuits, but what I found was that probably more than
hundreds of inmates are receiving poor care. And I think they’re being
affected in some of the ways that were examples in the stories, right? Like,
delayed care sometimes results in conditions getting worse, becoming chronic,
becoming lifetime debilitating. So I think it’s the same impact that it would
have on anyone in the general public if they weren’t getting proper medical
care. KUNM: And in one of the cases that you highlighted in your coverage,
you talked to a mother who’s fighting really hard for her son to get the
appropriate treatment while he’s incarcerated, right? HAYWOOD: Right. Lynn
Otero. Her son has been in and out of institutions for his whole life. And
she doesn’t read and write well, and I think she feels completely helpless to
do anything for him, and truly believes that he should be in a mental
institution and not in prison. KUNM: In the series, you guys also bring up
this particularly disturbing case of a doctor who was accused of sexually
abusing inmates in Santa Rosa, and then he just got transferred to the
Clayton prison, where he was accused of abusing even more inmates. So, how
does that happen? HAYWOOD: As we quoted one person in the story saying, We
would have known about that had they been paying closer attention. It would
have shown up in prisoner grievances, or if auditors had gone and pulled
prisoners out and interviewed them, that would have been caught earlier.
KUNM: I just wonder if part of it is this inclination not to believe people
who are behind bars when they make accusations against institutions. HAYWOOD:
Several people that we spoke to mentioned that. Mr. [Carl] Takei from the
ACLU called them the most voiceless population when it comes to medical care.
And you know obviously, some of these people have killed other people, and people
are not sympathetic to that. Davey Otero, who was our example, who his mother
says a lot of his problems—or legal problems—draw out of behavioral problems,
and these people are very much victims
of the system in the sense that they get caught up in the system, and without advocacy, without money to hire
attorneys, I think it’s very hard for them to stand up to a system that’s
kind of discounting them as bad people from the beginning. Not to say that
some of them are not in need of correction, but I do get a sense of
frustration from these people that no one will listen to them. KUNM: So one
of the things that the series works really hard to highlight is that very
little oversight or penalty in New Mexico when Corizon fails to provide
adequate care or creates dangerous situations for inmates. What are some of
the warning signs that the Department of Corrections or the state should have
been heeding? HAYWOOD: The state Auditor’s Office repeated findings five
years in a row that they were not verifying what Corizon was delivering. I
think one of the quotes from their reports was: If Corizon says there’s three
nurses on the floor, they take their word for it, they don’t go out and
verify that there was three nurses there that day. KUNM: So
there was a really strong editorial in the New Mexican, and it was calling on
the state to really examine whether it should renew this contract with
Corizon. And criticizing the lack of transparency and oversight all around.
Have you gotten any response yet from state officials, from the governor,
from legislators, from the attorney general, from Gregg Marcantel
at the DOC? HAYWOOD: We really haven’t had a rallying cry of public officials
saying, ‘We’re going to do something.’ You know, I’m still hopeful. Perhaps
give them some time to read the whole thing, because it’s long, and think
about what could be done differently.
Nine jurors voted for death, and three voted for life. That means convicted
murderer John Charles McCluskey will receive a life sentence without possibility
of release, rather than death. After a process strung out more than five
months, the federal jury was in court just five minutes Wednesday as the
judge read their verdict form giving a life sentence to McCluskey. A death
sentence requires unanimity among the jurors, and they could not reach that
level of agreement during four days of deliberation. The 30-page special
verdict form asked jurors to look at 160 mitigating factors weighing against
death and seven aggravating factors weighing in favor of death in the Aug. 2,
2010, kidnapping and murder of Gary and Linda Haas. The retired couple had
left Tecumseh, Okla., headed for a Colorado fishing vacation when they were
kidnapped for their travel trailer and pickup at a rest stop on Interstate 40
in eastern New Mexico. They were shot about an hour later at a remote site
north of the interstate by McCluskey, according to trial testimony and the
jury’s verdicts in other phases of the complicated federal death case. McCLUSKEY: Jury deadlocked after four days. McCluskey,
48, had escaped just days earlier from a state prison in Arizona with Tracy
Province, also an inmate, and with the help of McCluskey’s cousin and
girlfriend Casslyn Welch, who provided money,
supplies and reconnaissance of the prison. Both were codefendants in the
federal case charging conspiracy to commit carjacking and murder and
testified for the government in exchange for life sentences. U.S. District
Judge Judith Herrera, who presided over the trial, invited jurors to meet
with her in chambers following the verdict and told them attorneys for the
prosecution and the defense would be anxious to hear about their deliberative
process. “I think that some jurors saw that John’s life has value,” said
Theresa “Teri” Duncan, who was appointed to represent McCluskey within days
of the murders. For example, she said witnesses told about what a great
friend he was when he was young and about his life in prison in Pennsylvania.
McCluskey entered that system in his mid-20s and remained until he was older than
40, during which he was a prized, hard worker and an inmate who counseled
others to avoid the kind of trouble that can erupt in that environment. She
said other witnesses who knew McCluskey in Arizona “talked about how
respectful he was to older people.” Among them was Sissy Honea, who told the
jury about McCluskey sending her a card during the trial to offer his
condolences when her life partner died. “That meant something to her,” Duncan
said. “She brought John’s capacity for kindness up to the present. That was
one of the more compelling things that the evidence showed for the right
juror.” Gary Haas’ younger sister Linda Rook, reached by phone in Oklahoma
following the verdict, said she was in a state of shock after her uncle – one
of several family members who attended trial religiously – called to tell her
about it. “I’m just going to have to learn to accept it some way,” Rook said.
“He (McCluskey) already had a life sentence, so he’s essentially getting
nothing for what he did to my brother and sister-in-law.” Rook brought her
mother, Vivian Haas, to Albuquerque in August to hear testimony in the
guilt-innocence part of the trial. That testimony began with the detailed
escape planning from the northern Arizona privately operated facility; the
escape itself and subsequent hijacking of two truckers in northern Arizona;
the fugitive trio’s acquisition of another vehicle before carjacking the Haases, mostly to get their roomy and air conditioned
travel trailer. Codefendants Province and Welch, who have been promised a
prison version of the witness protection program, testified about what they
called McCluskey’s unexpected, unnecessary and infuriating shooting of the Haases and about their post-escape wanderings to Wyoming
and other parts. In a second phase, prosecutors proved the statutory factors
required for a death verdict. And in a final, “selection” phase, prosecutors
argued that McCluskey was such a danger that he couldn’t be safely housed
even in a federal prison and that he deserved to die for killing a special
couple. The defense brought in mitigation witnesses about McCluskey’s life
and social history. Despite the outcome, Rook said she was appreciative of
the jury’s work and that of prosecutors who’ve spent over two years on the
case. The official word, however, from acting U.S. Attorney Steve Yarbrough
was not disappointment. “The jury decided not to seek death but they found
him guilty of every count charged,” Yarbrough said. “The process played out
the way it was supposed to.” Asked if the millions of dollars spent on a
death penalty prosecution was worth it, Yarbrough said that wasn’t his call.
“It isn’t my decision. Congress passed the law and the president signed it,”
he said. “It’s ultimately the call of the (U.S.) Attorney General, who looks
at it in terms of other cases across the U.S.” in pursuit of uniformity. The
extensive jury verdict form asks each juror to certify that race, color,
religious beliefs, national origin or gender of the defendant or victim was
not a factor involved in reaching their decision. Assistant U.S. Attorneys
Greg Fouratt and Linda Mott and Department of
Justice Attorney Michael Warbel began selecting a
jury in July with Duncan, lead attorney Michael Burt of San Francisco and
Ruidoso attorney Gary Mitchell. All of them were paid for by the government.
The jury, plus four alternates, was drawn from throughout the state and
included some from southern New Mexico, three from northern New Mexico and
others from the Albuquerque and Rio Rancho area. There were three men and
nine women. McCluskey, who is being held at the Torrance County Detention
Facility, is expected to remain there until he is formally sentenced. No date
has been set. Mitchell said the defense team understands how tragic the event
was for the victim’s family, and offered condolences to them. Duncan said she
believes the McCluskey verdict “is consistent with New Mexico attitudes
toward the death penalty. “We’re just a state that values life, and the
verdict shows that we continue to show our commitment to life,” she said.
October 7, 2013 Albuqurque Journal News
A federal jury will
spend at least another month in court after finding John Charles McCluskey
committed crimes with which he was charged after escaping from an Arizona
prison, foremost among them the murders of an Oklahoma couple that could
bring the death penalty. McCluskey, who looks pale, gaunt and older than his
48 years – a far cry from the tall, beefy convict shown in photos at trial –
remained calm as the verdict was read. U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera
read the verdict out loud – guilty of a total of 20 counts – in a courtroom
packed with FBI agents, including the special agent in charge, other law
enforcement officials, news media and the family of the victims. The charges
stem from the Aug. 2, 2010, carjacking of Oklahoma couple Gary and Linda Haas
from a rest stop on Interstate 40 in New Mexico and their subsequent murders
in Guadalupe County. After he and his wife were kidnapped at gunpoint for the
truck and trailer that would allow McCluskey and his co-defendants to
continue on the lam, Gary Haas was forced to drive into a rural area north of
I-40 in Guadalupe County and pull over. The couple was ordered into the
camper/trailer, and both were shot. The trailer was subsequently torched, with
the bodies inside, using liquor the couple had brought for their annual
Colorado camping vacation. McCluskey and co-defendants Casslyn
Welch, his girlfriend and cousin, and Tracy Province, a fellow escapee from
the state contract prison in Kingman, Ariz., were charged with conspiracy to
commit carjacking, carjacking resulting in death, tampering with a witness,
conspiracy to interfere with commerce and gun-related charges. Gary Haas’
younger sister, Linda Rook, said after the verdict that it was “good news for
what we wanted” – the death penalty. “It’s still very emotional,” she said.
The family wrote prosecutors, including U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, in
support of seeking the death penalty. The penalty is to be decided by the
jury in a separate phase of trial that has been projected to last even longer
than the first phase, which began Aug. 19. Rook, her mother, Vivian Haas, and
other family members have occupied the front row of the courtroom throughout
the trial. Since the murders of Gary and Linda, they have endured major
health issues, Oklahoma storms, and other deaths in the family. The jurors,
who were drawn from all over the state, deliberated for a day on Thursday,
took Friday off and resumed deliberations on Monday. By 3 p.m., they had reached
a verdict. On the first day of deliberations, jurors asked to again see the
video interview of Casslyn Welch with an FBI agent
in which she revels in the prison escape that she was instrumental in
planning and carrying out, and in which she refers to the victims as “Ma and
Pa Kettle” and “Okies.” The court refused and instructed them that they had
all the evidence. The upcoming penalty phase could begin next week. During
that phase, which is to be subdivided into two parts, prosecutors will
present aggravating factors under the federal death penalty statute, and the
defense will present mitigating factors weighing against it. Those factors
may include mental health evidence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Fouratt reminded the judge that within 24 hours of
conviction on a death-eligible charge, the defense must file a document
saying whether attorneys plan to use mental health evidence during the
penalty phase. The defense already has given notice of its plans to use such
evidence, but could alter course. The defense team, led by Michael Burt of
San Francisco, gave notice in March of plans to use expert evidence relating
to a mental disease or defect. The notice said a forensic neuropsychologist
had conducted more than two dozen tests on McCluskey and was about to conduct
magnetic resonance imaging and other kinds of electronic imaging tests.
Province and Welch, who entered guilty pleas that avoided a potential death
penalty prosecution for them, and who and testified at McCluskey’s trial in
the guilt/innocence phase, may be recalled for the penalty phase. They face
up to life in prison, but neither has been sentenced. Welch and Province were
the star witnesses in the guilt/innocence phase of the trial, each testifying
for well over a day. Both were firm in insisting it was McCluskey who shot
the Haases, giving no warning of his plans before
shots rang out, despite a defense assault on their credibility. Members of
the Haas family also are expected to testify. “We actually have subpoenas,”
Linda Rook said
Aug 22, 2013 The
Washington Post
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —
The pile of ash and twisted metal looked like what was left of a travel
trailer, but a New Mexico sheriff testified Wednesday he had no idea when he
first saw the crime scene that the case was a homicide that investigators
would later link to two Arizona fugitives and their accomplice. “What was
really bad was within about a 100-foot radius of the burned out frame, the
trees were completely charred, even parts of the corrals,” Guadalupe County
Sheriff Michael Lucero told jurors. “It was a mess.” The sheriff was among
several law enforcement agents who took the stand in the capital murder trial
of John McCluskey, the last of three defendants to be tried on federal
carjacking and murder charges in the 2010 deaths of Gary and Linda Haas of
Tecumseh, Okla. The retired couple, on their way to an annual camping trip in
Colorado, had been targeted for their pickup truck and travel trailer after
they stopped at a rest area near the Texas-New Mexico state line on Aug. 2,
2010. Prosecutors say the couple was forced at gunpoint to drive west along
Interstate 40 before being ordered to pull onto a lonely two-lane road. They
were shot and then the trailer was taken to a remote ranch in eastern New
Mexico, where it was unhitched and burned. Prosecutor Greg Fouratt showed jurors photographs of everything from the
trailer to the dirt road that led to the ranch. He also played clips from
surveillance video taken from a convenience store near a highway exit that
showed the truck and trailer headed toward the ranch that afternoon. Less
than 40 minutes later, the video shows the truck heading back toward the
interstate with no trailer. A ranch hand testified he discovered the trailer
along with three small dogs. Two of the pets were rounded up and their tags
led the sheriff to the Haases’ daughter. Lucero
testified that he thought he was dealing with a kidnapping. The case changed
when James Butterfield, a criminal investigator with New Mexico State Police,
got closer to the wreckage. “When I arrived at the wheels of the trailer, I
started looking down straight in front of me. Through my training and
experience, I recognized a skull and a femur bone,” he testified. Other
agents testified about finding the Haases stolen
truck hours away in Albuquerque. It was unlocked, the keys were in one cup
holder and a bottle of brake fluid was in another. Prosecutors planned to
call more investigators to the stand Wednesday afternoon. McCluskey’s
accomplices — his cousin and fiance Casslyn Welch and fellow inmate Tracy Province — are
expected to testify next week. Both face life sentences after pleading guilty
last year to charges stemming from the Haases’
deaths.
August
6, 2013 chron.com
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
(AP) — Federal prosecutors expect to seat a jury this week in the case of an
Arizona inmate who escaped from prison and is accused of killing a retired
couple who was traveling through New Mexico. Jury selection is in its third
week for John McCluskey. He's the last defendant to face federal carjacking
and murder charges in the 2010 deaths of Gary and Linda Haas of Tecumseh,
Okla. The Haases were headed to Colorado for an
annual camping trip when they were targeted for their truck and travel
trailer. So far, prosecutors and defense attorneys have retained 57
prospective jurors for the panel. They are expected to whittle that pool to
the final 12 jurors Thursday. Opening statements are scheduled for Aug. 19.
Prosecutors have said the trial could last four months.
07/31/2013
connectamarillo.com
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
(AP) - Jury selection is in its second week for an Arizona inmate who escaped
from prison and is accused of killing a retired couple who was traveling
through New Mexico. John McCluskey is the last defendant to face federal
carjacking and murder charges in the deaths of Gary and Linda Haas of
Tecumseh, Okla. The Haases were headed to Colorado
for an annual camping trip when they were targeted for their truck and travel
trailer. Lawyers questioned 60 prospective jurors in the first week and retained
25. Some were dismissed because of their firm views either for or against the
death penalty. Others had hardships that would prevent them from serving in a
trial that could last up to four months. Jury selection is expected to wrap
up by Aug. 9.
Jul
26, 2013 abqjournal.com
An Arizona prison
escapee accused of murdering a vacationing retired couple in 2010 in a crime
that shocked the state and sparked a nationwide manhunt appeared in an
Albuquerque courtroom Monday at the start of his federal capital trial. John
Charles McCluskey is charged with kidnapping Gary and Linda Haas of Tecumseh,
Okla., and murdering them north of Santa Rosa on Aug. 2, 2010. The Haases were en route to a
Colorado vacation and had stopped in their pickup and camper at a rest area
outside Santa Rosa when they were carjacked, according to prosecutors.
Attorneys estimate the trial will take months from start to finish,
concluding just before Thanksgiving. Testifying will be McCluskey’s
girlfriend and cousin, Casslyn Mae Welch, and
fellow escapee Tracy Allen Province. Both Province and Welch, who helped the
two men in their escape, have entered guilty pleas. McCluskey has appeared at
previous hearings in the case shackled and wearing an orange jumpsuit, but at
trial Monday, he wore a dark suit and tie. By late afternoon Monday, there
were five potential jurors, and a long way to go. It will take a pool of 64
qualified, potential jurors from which to pick a jury of 12. Six alternates
are also to be selected before testimony begins in about a month. Prospective
jurors are called in groups of 12 each day for questioning, first as a group
by U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera and attorneys on topics like pre-trial
publicity, then individually in the courtroom to decide if the juror can be
fair to both sides. Each side has about 10 minutes to ask general questions
or to further probe the questionnaire of almost 100 questions the federal
court jury division sent to 1,800 possible jurors statewide six months ago.
That list was winnowed to some 300 after factors like vacations, age,
disability and the like eliminated those unable to spend months hearing the
case. The federal capital trial procedure requires a jury to make a finding
of guilt in the first trial phase. If that occurs, the penalty phase begins.
The prosecution presents aggravating factors that it believes weigh in favor
of a death sentence – prior convictions, for instance – and the jury must
find that those factors also have been proved. Then the defense presents
“mitigating” factors that weigh in favor of life in prison with no
possibility of release. Those may include mercy. A decision to impose the
death penalty must be unanimous. According to prosecutors, the Haases and their three dogs were carjacked and taken to a
remote ranch area near Colonias, and the couple was
shot. Their trailer was burned and McCluskey and two companions allegedly
stole the pickup and a gun, left the dogs behind and traveled to Albuquerque,
where they ditched the truck. Law enforcement officials found the pickup on
North Fourth Street and found fingerpints on the
plastic covering from a roll of paper towels. McCluskey and Welch traveled
east to Arkansas and back west to Arizona before they were arrested in a U.S.
Forest Service campground in eastern Arizona on Aug. 19, 2010, according to
court documents. Prosecutors Michael Warbel of the
U.S. Department of Justice and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Greg Fouratt and Linda Mott, and defense attorneys Michael
Burt of San Francisco, Theresa Duncan of Albuquerque and Gary Mitchell of
Ruidoso took turns asking questions as jury panelists, identified only by a
number so as to preserve their anonymity, were called out one by one. Among
those who could be selected for the final 12 are a woman from a deeply
Christian home in Texas who said she grew up seeing the world in only black
and white and being a staunch believer in the death penalty. But when a youth
whom she and her husband had befriended and considered a son robbed a store
and killed two people, she persuaded him to take a plea offer that guaranteed
life in prison rather than face the death penalty. Another retained juror
said he knew Fouratt casually through service in
the National Guard, and assured questioners he could meaningfully weigh
factors for and against the death penalty, which he generally favors
strongly. The process begins anew today, and is expected to continue for
another three weeks or so before the case is ready for opening statements and
testimony.
June
13, 2012 The New Mexican
The state Corrections Department could save millions by spending more on
community corrections programs and tweaking some private prison contracts,
the Legislative Finance Committee says. A recent evaluation of the
department, by the committee and the Pew Center on the States, uncovered
problems with contract management, parole planning and programs aimed at
keeping prisoners from returning. A recent committee newsletter said,
"The department could save $2 million a year by amending its contract
with the private company that runs the Hobbs prison, the review says. Even
though staffing level requirements were cut in March, the state is paying the
operator the same amount." The Hobbs prison is operated by the
Florida-based Geo Group, which also runs other prisons in Santa Rosa and
Clayton.
March
17, 2012 Albuquerque Journal
The companies that operate private prisons where New Mexico state inmates
serve their time have racked up nearly $1.6 million in penalties for
understaffing and other contract violations since the Martinez administration
started cracking down last year. Nearly all of that was attributable to
problems at The GEO Group Inc.’s prison in Hobbs, although the company’s
Clayton prison was recently added to the penalty list. The Corrections
Corporation of America, which operates the women’s prison in Grants, also has
been fined during the past couple of months, mostly for having inmates in the
prison after their release dates. Reversing the practice of the previous
administration, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez decided to pursue the
penalties the state is entitled to impose for contract violations. “In
today’s struggling economy, the people of New Mexico deserve to know the
Corrections Department is running in a fiscally responsible manner,”
Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said this
week in a statement. The department recently revived its Office of Inspector
General to keep tabs on contract compliance. Such fines are discretionary,
and former Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration gave private
prisons a pass, irking lawmakers who estimated that upwards of $18 million
could have been collected. Richardson’s corrections chief, Joe Williams – who
claimed that estimate was inflated – said that prisons already were paying
substantial overtime costs, that understaffing was largely due to factors
beyond their control, and that the facilities were safe and secure. Williams
worked at Hobbs for GEO’s predecessor company before Richardson hired him,
and he returned to GEO’s corporate offices in Boca Raton, Fla., at the end of
Richardson’s tenure. After negotiations with the Martinez administration, GEO
in January paid a $1.1 million fine for violations at the Lea County
Correctional Facility in Hobbs for the period from January through October of
2011. GEO also agreed to put another $200,000 into recruitment over the
subsequent year. GEO continued to be penalized: $158,529 for November,
$139,621 for December, $78,710 for January and $84,753 for February,
according to documents provided by the department. The February assessment
isn’t final yet, because the company has until late this month to respond to
it. The fines largely were due to vacancies in the ranks of correctional
officers and in noncustodial positions such as teachers, counselors and
treatment providers. Corrections officials have said it’s difficult for the
men’s medium security lockup at Hobbs to recruit and keep corrections
officers because it’s competing with the oil industry. An assessment of
$2,570 for understaffing in January was proposed for GEO’s Northeastern New
Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton, but the problem had been corrected by
the time the department sent a letter to the prison on Feb. 10, and no
penalty was assessed. In early March, however, the department notified the
Clayton prison that it would be fined $5,373 for February, for vacancies in
mandatory posts and for two inmates imprisoned beyond their release date.
That penalty is pending. GEO did not respond to requests from the Journal for
comment. The Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the New
Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants, was fined $11,779 for
January, and $9,974 for February – still pending – for an academic instructor
vacancy and for inmates held beyond their release dates. Inspector General
Shannon McReynolds said that occurs when the required parole plans aren’t
developed in a timely way.
November
20, 2011 Albuquerque Journal
Joe Williams, who was the corrections secretary in the Richardson
administration, is back at work at the Florida-based private prison company
that he spared from paying millions of dollars in penalties for contract
violations. Williams is again employed by The GEO Group Inc., an
international firm he worked for before he was appointed by Gov. Bill
Richardson to head the New Mexico prison system. In New Mexico, GEO operates
prisons in Hobbs, Clayton and Santa Rosa that house inmates under contract
with the state Corrections Department. Williams came under scrutiny from New
Mexico legislators last year for his decision not to fine GEO and another
private prison operator for understaffing. A report by the Legislative
Finance Committee at the time said there were potentially millions of dollars
to be collected. The administration of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, who
took office in January, has decided to collect some penalties for this year.
Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said last
week that GEO has agreed to pay $1.1 million for understaffing at the Hobbs
prison during 2011 and to put another $200,000 into recruitment. The fine
will be deducted from what the state pays the company to run the private
prison. Williams headed the Corrections Department for eight years, through
2010, under Richardson. Before his appointment, he worked for GEO’s
predecessor, Wackenhut Corrections Corp., as warden of the Lea County
Correctional Facility in Hobbs. Wackenhut was renamed The GEO Group in 2003.
GEO was a contributor to Richardson. It reported giving $10,000 in 2004 to
Moving America Forward, a Richardson political committee. The company also
pumped at least $43,750 into Richardson’s 2006 gubernatorial re-election bid,
according to campaign finance data compiled by the National Institute on
Money in State Politics. And GEO officials and employees gave at least
$10,750 in 2007 for Richardson’s 2008 presidential campaign, according to
data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Richardson, a Democrat, has
consistently maintained that there was no connection between contributions to
his political committees and what happened in state government. Williams is
working out of GEO’s Boca Raton, Fla., headquarters, according to a listing
of 2011 associate members of the Association of State Correctional
Administrators. A recent GEO publication identified him as the company’s
director of operations for U.S. corrections. A GEO spokesman last week
refused to confirm Williams’ employment or title or provide other
information. Pablo Paez said in an email that the
company’s policy is to not comment on employment matters. Williams could not
be reached for comment. Private prison contracts include required staffing
patterns and allow for penalties under certain circumstances — for example,
if more than 10 percent of correctional officer positions remain vacant for
more than 30 days. The Corrections Department headed by Williams “has chosen
not (to) enforce financial penalties for staffing patterns at the private
prisons, which is within the secretary’s discretion per the contract,” the
Legislative Finance Committee staff said in a September 2010 memo. Based on
limited monitoring information from the Corrections Department — and assuming
those vacancy trends existed for the previous four budget years — the LFC
staff estimated that about $18.6 million could have been collected “if the
department had chosen to enforce the contract.” Williams defended his
position in a letter to the interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee
two months later. He called the $18.6 million calculation “highly inflated”
and said it didn’t take into account the substantial overtime and other costs
paid by the prisons. He said Corrections Corporation of America, which runs
the women’s prison in Grants, could have been subject to vacancy penalties of
about $530,000 for the previous four years but had paid $2.7 million in
overtime during that period. GEO, he said, could have been subject to $4.3
million in penalties for its three men’s prisons over the four years, but it
paid $3.6 million in overtime to cover vacancies and another $1.5 million on
uncompensated inmate transportation. The Corrections Department “had no
legitimate basis for collecting any staffing penalties from GEO” during the
four-year period, Williams wrote. Williams also said that it was difficult to
recruit employees in the rural areas where the prisons are located and that
the Hobbs facility additionally “has to compete with the oil industry.”
“Because the private prisons are operating safely and securely, I have chosen
to exercise my executive power, as have all secretaries before me, not to
penalize the private prisons for staff vacancies caused by factors largely
beyond their or anyone else’s control,” Williams wrote in the November
letter. Williams had solicited GEO’s help with making his case a few months
earlier, urging company officials in an August letter to give him staffing
data as well as information about how much GEO paid in taxes and inmate
transportation and how much it had contributed to communities and schools.
“This information could help me defend my position” to lawmakers, Williams
wrote. Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, an advisory member of the interim
Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, said it was never clear to him why
Williams didn’t impose penalties. But he criticized the movement of
employees, such as Williams, from the private sector to the public sector,
then back again, as a “built-in conflict of interest” that should be stopped.
“The people who go back and forth come out really well, but the taxpayers are
the ones who aren’t well-served,” McSorley said. Marcantel
said the department plans to look at all vendors, including CCA, to ensure
compliance with contracts.
November
14, 2011 Santa Fe New Mexican
A Florida company will pay New Mexico $1.1 million in penalties for not
adequately staffing a private prison it operates in Hobbs, a state official
said. GEO Group, which manages three of New Mexico's four private prisons,
agreed to pay the settlement last week following a meeting between the
corrections agency and the company's top management, Corrections Secretary
Gregg Marcantel said Monday. "They've agreed
on it," Marcantel said of GEO. "It's a
very fair way of doing it. They are not completely happy. It needed to be
done." Officials at GEO could not be reached for comment Monday night.
GEO will pay the $1.1 million over several months, the corrections secretary
said. In addition, GEO has agreed to spend $200,000 over the next calendar
year to recruit new correctional officers for the Hobbs facility. By
contract, New Mexico can penalize The GEO Group and Corrections Corp. of America,
the two firms that operate the private facilities, when staffing vacancies
are at 10 percent or more for 30 consecutive days. The settlement represents
the first time in years — possibly ever — that New Mexico has penalized the
out-of-state, for-profit companies for not adequately staffing the facilities
they operate. The issue has come up in the past, but state officials said New
Mexico had never levied penalties for understaffing issues. The question
surfaced in 2010 when state lawmakers were struggling to find ways to close a
yawning state budget gap. At the time, the Legislature's budget arm, the
Legislative Finance Committee, estimated Gov. Bill Richardson's
administration had skipped $18 million in penalties by not assessing
penalties against the two firms for inadequate prison staffing levels. The
$1.1 million covers understaffing by GEO at the Hobbs facility for only this
year and was reached after the state corrections agency and GEO spent most of
the summer disputing each other's methodology for computing how much GEO
should be penalized, state documents show. Marcantel
said he could not retroactively penalize the companies for previous years,
but could only go back to the first day of Gov. Susana Martinez's tenure,
Jan. 1. According to state records, of the four privately operated prisons,
Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs has struggled the most to keep
correctional officers on the job. The facility's vacancy rate hovered above
20 percent for 12 of the 14 months for which there was data — between January
2010 and March of this year. That includes seven consecutive months —
September 2010 through March 2011 — when the vacancy rate was 25.24 percent,
records showed. Going forward, the state will check monthly to ensure the
four privately operated prisons are adequately staffed, Marcantel
said. "Our new approach, it's not going to be waiting," Marcantel said. "That doesn't motivate" the
companies to keep staffing levels where they need to be, he added. GEO,
headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., recently reported $1.2 billion in earnings
and $58.8 million in profit through the first nine months of this year,
according to a Nov. 2 release by the company.
April
25, 2011 The New Mexican
The two for-profit firms that run four of New Mexico's 10 prisons often
struggle to keep correctional officer jobs filled, state records show. One in
five such jobs at a Hobbs facility was vacant for much of the past 15 months,
while the prison in Santa Rosa reported a vacancy rate of around 12.5 percent
over the same period, according to the records. By contract, New Mexico can
penalize The GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, the two firms
that operate the facilities, when staffing vacancies are at 10 percent or
more for 30 consecutive days. It's a threshold that appears to have been
crossed multiple times at all four prisons since January 2010. The vacancy
rate at Hobbs topped the 10-percent threshold in each of the 14 months for
which data was available between January 2010 and March of this year. Meanwhile,
the 10-percent threshold was topped nine times over that period at Santa Rosa
and six times at a Clayton facility. Like the Hobbs facility, both are run by
GEO. A CCA-operated prison in Grants topped the 10 percent rate four times
over the same period. Whether to penalize the out-of-state, for-profit firms
is an issue that has come up before. The question surfaced last year when
state lawmakers were struggling to find ways to close a yawning state budget
gap. At the time, the Legislature's budget arm, the Legislative Finance
Committee, estimated Gov. Bill Richardson's administration had skipped $18
million in penalties against the two firms. One powerful lawmaker said Monday
the issue is still important and the Legislature shouldn't lose sight of it.
"We'd like to follow up and perhaps do a performance group review on the
private prison operators to see whether they are making excessive
profits," Rep. Luciano "Lucky" Varela, D-Santa Fe, said of the
Legislative Finance Committee. Varela, the committee chairman, said he can
accept a reasonable return for the prison operators, but high vacancy rates
at prisons operated by the firms raise questions about how state dollars are
being spent to operate the facilities. Determining whether the companies
should be penalized for high vacancy rates is an involved process, a
Corrections Department spokesman said. GEO and CCA might have asked
corrections officers already on the job to work overtime to address the
staffing situation. If they did, the department "cannot in good faith
consider that position to be vacant," spokesman Shannon McReynolds wrote
in an email. But the state doesn't know whether that happened. That would
require going through shift rosters at each privately operated facility,
McReynolds said in a follow-up phone interview. "That will take a
decision from the administration," McReynolds said, referring to new
Corrections Secretary Lupe Martinez. "We do not have specifics on
overtime. Every once in awhile we'll hear a
particular facility has spent a lot on overtime." Because of sporadic
record-keeping at the facilities GEO and CCA operate, the state corrections
agency couldn't verify last year how often the two firms violated the
vacancy-rate provision in their contracts, if at all. As a result, the agency
couldn't corroborate or refute the Legislative Finance Committee's estimate
of uncollected penalties. Joe Williams, then-corrections secretary, decided
not to pursue penalizing the two companies, saying GEO and CCA were making a
good-faith effort to keep the facilities staffed. The contracts give the
corrections secretary discretion to waive the penalties. If Lupe Martinez,
the new corrections secretary, decides to collect penalties, it would be only
for January 2011 and onward, McReynolds said. Gov. Susana Martinez took power
in January and soon afterward appointed Lupe Martinez, no relation, as her
corrections secretary. According to state records, of the four privately
operated prisons, Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs has struggled the
most to keep correctional officers on the job. The facility's vacancy rate
hovered above 20 percent for 12 of the 14 months for which there was data
between January 2010 and March of this year. That includes seven consecutive
months — September 2010 through March — when the vacancy rate was 25.24
percent, records show. GEO-run Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in
Santa Rosa reported a 16.93 percent vacancy rate last July, a high point. The
vacancy rate has hovered below 10 percent in five of the last seven months.
Another GEO-run facility, the Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility in
Clayton, showed a similar trend, reporting vacancy rates higher than 10
percent for six of the seven months for which data was available between
January and August 2010. Data for July 2010 was missing. As in Santa Rosa,
the Clayton facility's vacancy rate has dropped in recent months. The state's
fourth privately operated prison, CCA-run New Mexico Women's Correctional
Facility in Grants, reported a vacancy rate above 10 percent four times from
January 2010 to July 2010, with a 16.47 percent vacancy rate reported in
July. The state corrections agency did not have data for August 2010 to March
2011.
September
21, 2010 New Mexico Independent
Corrections Secretary Joe Williams‘ prior employment
at one of two private prison operators he chose not to fine despite repeated
contract violations casts a cloud over his decision, a powerful state senator
says. For years Williams, who worked as a warden for GEO Group before joining
Gov. Bill Richardson’s cabinet, has not collected penalties against his old
employer and Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) despite increasing evidence
that both firms regularly violated a contract rule requiring certain staffing
levels at the four facilities they operate. Williams told The Independent in
a previous interview that his decision was based on the good job the two
companies had done operating prisons in Hobbs, Grants, Santa Rosa and
Clayton. He added that the firms’ contracts give him discretion to penalize
or not. But Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee, told The Independent on Friday that Williams’ previous employment
with GEO casts suspicion over his decision and creates questions of
appearance. “It’s a real cloud on his career,” Smith said of Williams. “That
type of generosity will make certain that he is hired quickly.” Williams will
likely be out of a job when New Mexico’s new governor takes over in
January—cabinet secretaries are typically replaced when a state’s new chief
executive takes over. Williams acknowledged as much in a recent interview
with The Independent. “They fire guys like me,” Williams quipped. Asked
Friday to respond to Smith’s remarks, a spokeswoman for Williams instead sent
an e-mail saying: “Last week Secretary Williams explained his position to you
regarding this matter. He has not changed his position.” Potential penalties
never assessed -- State records suggest that GEO and CCA might have regularly
triggered staffing-level penalties. By contract, New Mexico can levy
penalties against GEO and CCA when staffing vacancies at their facilities
stay at 10 percent or more for 30-consecutive days. State records show that
staffing levels at three of the four facilities operated by GEO and CCA hovered
above 10 percent for much of the last fiscal year. At the fourth facility,
the vacancy rate was above the 10 percent trigger in six of the 13 months the
state records covered. One estimate by the Legislature’s budget arm, the
Legislative Finance Committee (LFC), has put at $18 million the potential
penalties the state has not collected as a result of Williams’ decision. “If
the facilities’ operational quality is not hampered due to high vacancy
rates, then the department may be paying for staff that isn’t needed,” LFC
staff noted in a 14-page report. Inadequate record-keeping makes dollar
amount elusive -- But a spokeswoman for the New Mexico Corrections Department
said the agency can’t verify how much in potential penalties the state has
given up because of sporadic record-keeping at the four facilities the two
firms operate. “We do not have an estimate of how much in penalties could
have been assessed–because we do not have adequate records to demonstrate how
long some correctional officer positions remained vacant,” corrections
spokeswoman Tia Bland told The Independent. The corrections agency has a
bureau dedicated to making sure the private prison operators meet contractual
obligations, but the inadequate record keeping — and the agency’s inability to
account for such data — suggests that detailed tracking of staffing levels
was not an agency priority. The Legislative Finance Committee has directed
the agency to immediately start collecting such information, which it is
doing, Bland said. Meanwhile the corrections agency has ordered GEO and CCA
to provide past staffing data to get a sense of how often the 10 percent rule
was violated and how much in penalties the state forgave. Some of the data
has come in, Bland said in an e-mail. Williams’ ‘unilateral’ decision angers
state lawmakers -- Some state legislators are angered by the Corrections
Department’s inability to say how much the state never collected in potential
penalties, especially given the state’s dismal financial situation. Leaner
state agencies, cut in previous years, are again imposing cost-saving
measures because state revenues aren’t keeping pace with state spending.
Smith added to that refrain last week. “It’s real bothersome to me that we’re
scratching for money and he unilaterally makes this decision,” Smith said of
Williams. “That is spending taxpayer money recklessly. He is not looking out
for the best interest of New Mexico.”
September
15, 2010 New Mexico Independent
Over the past four years New Mexico has potentially given up more than $18
million in never-assessed penalties despite repeated contractual violations
by two private prison operators, a new legislative report says. By contract
New Mexico can levy penalties against GEO Group and Corrections Corp. of
America (CCA) when staffing vacancies at the facilities they manage in Hobbs,
Grants, Clayton and Santa Rosa stay at 10 percent or more for 30-consecutive
days. That penalty has been triggered regularly, state records show and the
new report by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) confirms. Staffing
levels at three of the four privately operated facilities hovered above 10
percent for much of last year, state records show. And at the fourth
facility, the vacancy rate was above the 10 percent trigger in six of the 13
months the state records covered. The LFC report, issued last week, reached
the $18 million figure after finding that the two firms had triggered $5
million in penalties last year because their facilities had higher vacancy
rates than allowed by contract. The LFC then assumed similar vacancy trends
at three of the facilities for the four years previous, and two years
previous at the fourth facility, which has only been open for two years. The
state’s corrections secretary, Joe Williams, has defended not collecting the
penalties, saying the state’s contracts with the two firms gave him
discretion to fine the two companies and he chose not to. Corrections agency
doesn’t track vacancies at private prisons . But the
11-page LFC report found that Williams’ agency never regularly tracked
vacancy rates at the four facilities, meaning it did not even know how much
the state was forgoing in money by not penalizing the two firms. “NMCD does
not regularly compile vacancy rates, contractor staff pay rates, contractor
vacancy savings or review potential penalty amount in its central office, but
should do so immediately,” the report said. The report also noted that the
state appeared to have been spending “large sums of contract funding on
vacant private prison staff positions.” Williams, who worked for GEO as a
warden prior to becoming the state’s corrections secretary, did not have a
response to the legislative report Monday other than a one-sentence
statement: “We will be reviewing the report and we will present our response
to the LFC.” While the potential penalties to the two firms amounted to more
than $18 million, the savings to the two firms by not fully staffing their
facilities was larger, the LFC report noted. The $18 million in potential
penalties equals the salaries the companies did not pay, the report said. Add
in benefits that also were never paid by the two firms, and the amount saved
is more than $22 million, the LFC report said. Representatives of both firms
could not reached for comment Monday. Williams has
subsequently asked GEO, which manages three of the four facilities, to
“perform this analysis and provide other information to ‘defend my position’
of not enforcing contract penalties,” the report noted. But the LFC report
said Williams and his agency should have performed this task all along “to
assist in decision making” about whether to penalize the companies or, if
not, provide a “rationale for why not to enforce agreed upon contractual
provisions.” Williams’ decision not to collect the penalties from the two firms
has put him on a collision course with state lawmakers, some of whom are
questioning the action. Williams acknowledged to The Independent two weeks
ago that he hadn’t penalized the two companies because, he said, they were
doing an outstanding job managing the four facilities. The issue of the
uncollected penalties comes at a time when state government is scrounging for
every dollar because of hard economic times. The building controversy also
threatens to stir up a long-simmering debate over New Mexico’s decision years
ago to pay private firms to operate several of its correctional facilities.
Critics have long vilified the agreements as a giveaway to private,
out-of-state companies while some state lawmakers have quietly wondered if
the companies are making out-sized profits.
September
10, 2010 New Mexico Independent
The state appears to have been within its rights last year to repeatedly
penalize two private prison operators for letting their vacancy rates hover
above a 10 percent trigger in their contracts, state records show. By
contract New Mexico can levy penalties against the two firms – GEO Group and
Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) — when staffing vacancies at the
facilities they manage in Hobbs, Grants, Clayton and Santa Rosa stay at 10
percent or more for 30-consecutive days. Staffing levels at three of the four
privately operated facilities hovered above 10 percent for much of last year,
state records show. As for the fourth facility, the vacancy rate was above
the 10 percent trigger in six of the 13 months the state records covered.
Corrections Secretary Joe Williams, who worked for GEO before Gov. Bill
Richardson tapped him as corrections secretary, told The Independent last
week the state had never penalized GEO or CCA despite vacancy rates
repeatedly topping the 10 percent trigger. He had the discretion to decide
whether to penalize the firms or not, and he had decided against it, Williams
said. The firms were doing a good job of managing the prisons, he added. Some
state lawmakers are wondering why Williams never assessed the penalties. Some
believe the never-assessed penalties could amount to millions of dollars.
State records show that vacancies at GEO-operated Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa were above the 10 percent threshold in 11
of the13 months between July 2009 to July 2010; 10 of the 13 months at the
GEO-run Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs; and nine of the 13 months
at the CCA-operated New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants. The
vacancy rate at the GEO-run Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility
eclipsed the 10 percent rate in six of the 13 months covered by the time
period shown in the records, state records show. The agency on Friday
reiterated Williams’ discretion in deciding whether to penalize the companies
or not. “The contract clauses that deal with vacancy rates gives sole
discretion to NMCD so that they may penalize the private prisons,” read an
e-mail to The Independent after we had sent questions related to the vacancy
rates from July 2009 to July 2010. “The penalties are not mandatory and are
decided by the department,” the e-mail continued. “Secretary Williams will be
presenting the reasons to why he has not penalized the vendors to the
Legislative Finance Committee in an upcoming hearing. The department welcomes
you to attend the committee hearing.”
September
7, 2010 New Mexico Independent
Think Progress, the blog of the left-leaning Center for American Progress
Action Fund, has picked up on NMI’s story about New Mexico Corrections
Secretary Joe Williams not penalizing two private prison operators despite
repeated contract obligations. But Think Progress added a bit of information
we forgot to mention: that Williams worked for GEO, one of the two firms that
wasn’t penalized, prior to becoming the state’s corrections secretary.
Williams has not been secret about the affiliation. He talks freely on the
corrections department’s website about the years he spent with GEO as warden
of the Lea County Correctional Facility, which the firm operates, before Gov.
Bill Richardson tapped him as corrections secretary. Here’s an excerpt from
Williams biography on the agency’s website. In 1999, four years before
becoming secretary of corrections, Joe accepted one of the more difficult
challenges of his career. The Geo Group, Inc. (formerly known as Wackenhut)
hired Joe as the warden for the Lea County Correctional Facility, and charged
him with turning around the troubled prison in Hobbs, New Mexico. The
facility eventually became a flagship prison. Agreeing to serve as its warden
proved to be the right move, both professionally and personally. In fact, Joe
liked the city of Hobbs so much, he named his beloved basset hound Sir Hobbs.
The question now is whether Williams’ affiliation will be an issue among
state lawmakers who are wondering why the corrections secretary decided
against penalizing the two private prison operators — GEO and Corrections
Corp. of America — possibly costing the state millions of dollars.
September
2, 2010 New Mexico Independent
The New Mexico Corrections Department has not collected penalties from two
private prison operators despite repeated contract violations, costing the
state potentially millions of dollars in uncollected fines, state officials
have told The Independent. That has put New Mexico Corrections Secretary Joe
Williams on a collision course with state lawmakers, some of whom are
questioning Williams’ decision not to collect penalties from GEO Group and
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). The companies have repeatedly
violated a contractual obligation to keep certain staffing levels at the
prisons they operate. The two for-profit businesses operate four correctional
facilities for the state in Hobbs, Grants, Clayton and Santa Rosa. Williams
sees no problems due to vacancy rate -- Williams acknowledged that the
vacancy rates at the prisons GEO and CCA operate often are higher than their
contracts allow, but he decided against punishing the firms because the
prisons they manage “are outstanding,” he said. “They are not having escapes;
there are no substantial problems. If there were a problem I would be down
there penalizing them,” he said. GEO and CCA operate four of the state’s
prisons, while the state of New Mexico operates the remaining six prison
facilities. It is also unclear where the disagreement is headed, and what
action, if any, state lawmakers might take during this upcoming 2011
legislative session. In addition to the quality of the privately operated
prison, Williams said he rejected fining the companies because most of the
prisons they operate are in rural areas or small towns, where recruiting and
retaining correctional officers and other staff is difficult. Working as a
correctional officer is not for everyone and it’s best to only recruit top-notch
people, Williams added. “I would rather run a prison with 10 quality
correctional officers than a bunch of bad apples introducing contraband,”
Williams said. “I would rather they be in a penalty phase than they have to
meet a contractual obligation.” “The contract does not say I shall do it. The
contract says I can do it,” Williams told The Independent on Wednesday,
explaining why he never penalized the two firms for the contract violations.
State lawmakers want to know dollar amounts -- So far, there is no
agreed-upon amount on how much money New Mexico has given up in uncollected
penalties from GEO and CCA. Asked if his agency had an estimate, Williams
said, “We don’t know. That is what we are trying to investigate right now.
I’m sure you’ll have an LFC number, a private prison number and our number.”
The situation has irked some state lawmakers who predict the situation over
the uncollected penalties is finally coming to a head, especially with New
Mexico facing economic difficulties. Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque,
wondered aloud Wednesday “how much money New Mexico taxpayers had lost” due
to Williams’ decision. Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, meanwhile, said a report
from the Legislature’s budget arm, the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC),
due out soon would place an estimated dollar amount of the never-assessed
penalties. “I think we need to see the magnitude of the payments that haven’t
been made,” Wirth said. “If we are talking about millions of dollars, then
absolutely I am concerned about it fiscally and policy-wise. I can assure you
that the private operators wouldn’t stand idly by if the state wasn’t meeting
its contractual obligations.” Wirth added that public safety is a concern
because staffing shortages mean fewer correctional officers to guard inmates.
Representatives of GEO and CCA could not be reached Wednesday. Staffing
shortages trigger penalties -- The issue of the uncollected penalties comes
at a time when state government is scrounging for every dollar because of
hard economic times. The building controversy also threatens to stir up a
long-simmering debate over New Mexico’s decision years ago to pay private
firms to operate several of its correctional facilities. Critics have long
vilified the agreements as a giveaway to private, out-of-state companies
while some state lawmakers have quietly wondered if the companies are making
out-sized profits. Williams defended GEO and CCA on Wednesday, saying they
deserved to make a profit since they’re for-profit businesses. He also
questioned the wisdom of trying “to balance the corrections budget through
penalties.” The corrections department has suffered $10 million in budget
cuts over the past two years. Williams acknowledged that over the years GEO
and CCA each could have faced repeated penalties as called for in their
contracts. The penalties are triggered when staffing vacancies reach 10
percent or more for 30-consecutive days at the prisons GEO and CCA operate in
Hobbs, Grants, Clayton and Santa Rosa, according to the rules. High vacancy
rates at the state’s privately operated prisons are nothing new. As far back
as 2007, state lawmakers were fuming over an LFC report (page 24) that
reported a 37 percent vacancy rate for correctional officers at GEO-operated
Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs. According to agency figures,
during July of this year, correctional officer vacancy rates at all four of
the GEO and CCA managed facilities were higher than the 10 percent allowed by
contract. Of those, the Lea County facility had the largest vacancy rate, at
22 percent. The other privately operated facilities registered vacancy rates
of 17 percent, 14 percent and 13 percent, according to the agency. A
corrections agency spokeswoman said Wednesday it would take days to get
monthly vacancy rates for each of the privately operated prisons over the
past year. Private prisons may be paying extra overtime to compensate --
Williams also speculated that GEO and CCA were addressing the high vacancy
rates at their facilities by giving a lot of overtime to existing employees,
as has occurred at the six state-operated prison facilities. From July 1,
2009 through June 30, 2010, correctional officers at the six state-operated
prison facilities took home $7.2 million in overtime, according to the
agency. It’s unclear how much overtime corrections officers at the four
facilities operated by GEO and CCA earned during the same period. Williams
knows his decision to not assess and collect the penalties had put him on the
hot seat with state lawmakers. He fully expects to hear from legislators in
coming weeks. Asked if he were scheduled to speak before any legislative
committees, Williams replied, “I’m not scheduled to, but I expect to get the
phone call.”
December
17, 2009 The Skanner News
In the wake of a required 60-day background investigation by local officials,
the racial discrimination tort claim by three law enforcement employees
against Clark County Corrections has expanded into a full-on lawsuit seeking
millions in damages. The lawsuit, detailing more than a dozen instances of
racist harassment that allegedly took place throughout the past 20 years, has
been brought against the county by former Clark County Sheriffs
Department Commander Clifford B. Evelyn, 58; former corrections officer Britt
Easterly, 39, now with the U.S. Secret Service in Washington D.C.; and Elzy
P. Edwards, 46, an unsuccessful applicant for Clark County Corrections who is
now working with the Washington Department of Corrections. Evelyn is seeking
$1 million, while Easterly and Edwards are asking $500,000 each in damages. A
20-year veteran of the corrections department who had recently been honored
for his efforts to promote diversity in its ranks, Evelyn was fired in June
after an Internal Affairs investigation found he had violated general orders
regarding “harassment,” “courtesy” and “competency.” In the joint lawsuit
against Clark County, Edwards, who unsuccessfully applied for a job at Clark
County Corrections, alleges that the hiring process was unfair; Easterly, as
well as Evelyn, allege they were subjected to a long-standing atmosphere of
racist incidents and comments. Evelyn also alleges unfair treatment at the
hands of Clark County Corrections Chief Jail Deputy Sheriff Jackie Batties, as well as management and staff of Wexford Health
Solutions, the company contracted to provide health care services at the
jail. Documents obtained by The Skanner News show that a former Wexford
employee, who has since been convicted of stealing cash from a co-worker’s
purse, filed a complaint against Evelyn this year that kicked off a chain of
events resulting in his firing. Evelyn had for the past two years reported on
Wexford Health Sources’ failure to meet the terms of their operations
contract, including submitting a detailed report in writing delivered to his
supervisors at Clark County more than a year before the county’s own
performance audit confirmed his allegations. Elsewhere around the nation, in
July of this year million-dollar lawsuits were filed against Wexford
corporation and New Mexico state corrections officials by incarcerated men
and women alleging similar problems – even deaths -- at Wexford-managed
health programs in the state’s prison system. Also in New Mexico, a Black
dentist won a racial discrimination case against Wexford in November of 2008
when the company was found guilty by a federal jury of paying him a smaller
wage on the basis of his race. Clark County contracted with
Pennsylvania-based Wexford Health Solutions in 2006 after problems cropped up
with their former jailhouse health care provider, Prison Health Services.
Clark County officials signed a three-year, $9 million contract with Wexford
set to expire in 2010. Its May, 2009 report, prepared by the Institute for
Law and Policy Planning, was intended as a performance audit. Several
documents obtained by The Skanner News show that reports Evelyn had filed
with superiors in 2008 about Wexford’s failure to meet the demands of its
contract were validated by Clark County’s performance audit. In a series of
memos to his superiors dated before the release of Clark County’s own report
on Wexford’s performance this past June, Evelyn had outlined specific
examples of the corporation’s failure to follow the terms of its contract
with Clark County, from lack of a written operations manual to untrained
staff, lack of medical supplies onsite and a tendency to “short” the jails’
medical services that forced Clark County to pay out more in resources to
cover the gaps. The chief finding of Clark County’s own investigation into
Wexford was that “the company has systematically failed to comply with the
many complex undertakings included in its contract with the county.” Evelyn,
Easterly and Edwards were unavailable for comment at press time. Clark County
officials are declining media requests while the legal case is pending.
October
28, 2009 The New Mexican
The state of New Mexico would have to shutter two prisons, give early
releases to up to 660 prisoners and lay off and furlough Corrections
Department employees if Gov. Bill Richardson signs budget cuts approved by
the Legislature, his office said Wednesday. Richardson's office raised that
grim possibility as his staff analyzes the impact of $253 million in spending
cuts legislators passed during a special session last week to deal with a revenue
shortfall. His administration on Monday had said other cuts approved by the
Legislature could mean the state Human Services Department would reduce
children's health care, nutrition programs for seniors and programs for the
developmentally disabled, if he were to sign the measures. But lawmakers say
they won't be blamed for decisions that are now up to Richardson. "He
wants it to seem like we're making the decisions," said House Minority
Whip Keith Gardner, R-Roswell. "But he's making the calls where he wants
to cut. He's making that decision." The Corrections Department said that
in order to meet $21 million in budget cuts, it would have to close the
Roswell Correctional Center in Hagerman and the New Mexico Women's
Correctional Facility in Grants. About 270 inmates are incarcerated at the
state-operated Roswell facility, while about 590 are housed in the Grants
facility, which is operated by the Corrections Corporation of America. The
state would have to cancel its contract with the company.
July
17, 2009 New Mexico Independent
A new lawsuit filed in federal court this week accuses a former corrections
department contractor of medial malpractice in its
care for the state’s prisoners, the Albuquerque Journal reports today. The
lawsuit names Wexford Health Sources Inc., Corrections Secretary Joe
Williams, medical professionals and others on behalf of a former Penitentiary
of New Mexico inmate named Martin Valenzuela, 52, who now lives in Texas, the
paper reports. According to the complaint, Valenzuela was serving an
eight-year prison sentence at the Santa Fe prison in 2006 when he developed a
urinary tract problem that led to an emergency hospital admission. The
complaint describes lack of medical attention leading up to a January 2007
surgery, lack of a policy for follow-up care and the subsequent loss of
medical records by the prison and the hospitals, according to the paper. This
is not the only lawsuit against Wexford that alleges improper care. Others
have been filed previously. Here’s an excerpt of the Journal story: Wexford
is also defending against a lawsuit filed by an inmate who claimed he was
essentially lost in the system for purposes of chemotherapy he needed to
treat colon cancer, although he was housed within a few hundred feet of the
Los Lunas prison hospital. Michael Crespin’s medical malpractice lawsuit was
filed in 2008, but he died before his attorneys could persuade a court to
order a videotaped deposition in the case. The lawsuit, now being pursued by
a personal representative on behalf of Crespin’s estate, has been mired in a
fight over what documents must be produced by Wexford. Lawyers for the estate
are demanding documents related to financial contributions, gifts, meals,
entertainment by Wexford company officers between 2001 and 2008 to Gov. Bill
Richardson, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish or any of the
political action committees that might have supported them, including Si Se Puede PAC and Moving America Forward PAC. The Journal
story goes on to list still other lawsuits that allege improper medical care,
including one in which four women allege sexual assaults, batteries and rapes
by former Correctional Medical Services employee. Another has been filed by
the family of a federal detainee who died while awaiting a deportation
hearing in southeastern New Mexico is alleging medical negligence. Wexford
Health Sources was cited often for problems when it held the contract to
provide health care in New Mexico’s prisons. It eventually lost the contract.
A May 2007 audit by the Legislative Finance Committee found gaping holes in
the delivery of care provided by Wexford, including too few physicians,
dentists and optometrists on staff, according to two prison health experts
that visited five facilities in February and March of that year. Wexford also
failed to issue timely reports on 14 inmates who died at correctional
facilities in 2006, the audit found. The Santa Fe Reporter, meanwhile, did
extensive reporting on the health care delivered in New Mexico’s prisons and
first uncovered the lapses.
July
12, 2008 Santa Fe New Mexican
When the doors swing open on the Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility
next month, inmates will file in, new employees will start collecting
paychecks and a tiny corner of the state will become its own small economic
engine. The opening marks another milestone as well. Once Clayton is online,
the number of inmates living in the state's privately run prisons will almost
match the number living in state-run slammers. To be exact: 46.5 percent of
male inmates will be in prisons run by private companies. The other 53.5
percent will be in state-run prisons. One hundred percent of female inmates
will be in private facilities. If the number of criminals behind private bars
seems big, it is: New Mexico has the highest rate of private prison use in
the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Indeed, the prison
near the Rabbit Ear Mountains in Clayton, just shy of the border with
Oklahoma and Texas in northeastern New Mexico, caps a major shift in state
policy over the past three decades of housing an increasing number of
criminals in privately run prisons. Since 1980, the year a deadly prison riot
made awful headlines for the state, the number of inmates has increased 440
percent. Including Clayton, the number of prisons has gone from one to 11, a
figure that doesn't include Camino Nuevo, a privately operated prison that
has opened and closed since then. And questions about whether privatizing was
the best choice have mounted. As the state's inmate population grew, so did
lawmakers' interest in private prisons, seen by proponents as a way to save
money and outsource some of the state's toughest jobs. Ten years ago, the
state had only two privately run prisons — the New Mexico Women's
Correctional Facility in Grants, open since 1989, and the Hobbs prison, which
opened in 1998. Now, when Clayton opens, it will have five, spread out around
the state. The change in inmate-management policy didn't happen overnight,
and hasn't happened without controversy. It also couldn't have happened
without two New Mexico governors, most notably former Gov. Gary Johnson, who
kicked off the privatization push, and Gov. Bill Richardson, who has kept the
trend alive. It was under Johnson's watch that the 1,200-bed lockup in Hobbs
opened in 1998. A year later came the 600-bed Santa Rosa prison. Both are run
by The GEO Group, formerly Wackenhut. Those weren't good times; both
facilities suffered deadly confrontations. Three inmates were killed in Hobbs
and a prison guard was murdered in a riot in Santa Rosa in less than a year.
Before that, an inmate in Santa Rosa died after he was beaten with a laundry
bag full of rocks. New Mexico hadn't seen so much prison violence since the
1980 riot at the state penitentiary, where 33 people died. No new state prisons?
When Richardson ran for office in 2002, he pledged there would be no new
state prisons built on his watch. "The governor said he would not build
new state prisons, and he has not done so," spokesman Gilbert Gallegos
said in a statement to The New Mexican. "All of the capital money that
would have been used for new state prisons has instead been invested in new
schools, modernizing highways and updating infrastructure in communities
across the state." Still, since he's been governor, 240 beds have been
added to the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility near Santa Rosa, run by
The GEO Group. The Camino Nuevo Correctional Center in Albuquerque, operated
by the Corrections Corporation of America, opened in 2006. In 2007 came the
234-bed, minimum-security Springer Correctional Center, which is run by the
state. And then came Clayton. The town of Clayton is paying to build the
facility, which will house 625 inmates, nearly all of them state prisoners.
The town is using $63 million in revenue bonds to finance the project.
Clayton officials have welcomed the prison — and its jobs — as a major source
of economic activity in the outpost of about 2,500. Critics, however, say the
lockup is essentially a state prison. "I guess it's a debate in
semantics, but it's holding state prisoners," said Sen. John Arthur
Smith, a Deming Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
"I guess the governor gets a certain amount of satisfaction in saying
the state didn't build it, but from a functional point of view, the state
might as well have built it," he said. Gallegos said that's not the
case. "Of course it's not a state prison. The town of Clayton and GEO
can house county or federal inmates," he said. "Beds were available
for medium-security inmates, and the Corrections Department chose to take
advantage of the new facility for some of its inmates." Of the 625 beds,
600 will be used for state prisoners. Others suggest Richardson chose to
support the Clayton project to curry favor in the heavily Republican Union County.
"We could have added a wing or pods to other facilities that could have
been expanded," said Senate Minority Whip Leonard Lee Rawson, R-Las
Cruces. Adding on to places such as Santa Rosa or Hobbs would have been
cheaper and quicker than building a new prison, he added. "But the
governor decided he wanted to build in Clayton for political purposes. We can
say it's good economic development, but I don't think it was the best choice
for the public," he said. The Governor's Office denied that, saying
Richardson "already had great relationships with Democrats and
Republicans in Clayton." And, Corrections Department Secretary Joe
Williams said, building the Clayton prison was "absolutely the right
decision." "When we signed those agreements, we were operating at
well over 100 percent capacity," he said. "We were busting at the
seams when we did that." In the past two years, however, the state's
prison population has dropped 6.6 percent, a recent report found. Williams
said even though population projections are now much lower than they were
when talk of Clayton first surfaced, the state still needs the facility,
particularly because it will provide beds for medium-custody, or level 3,
inmates. "That's where we need the bed space, and that's what Clayton
will provide us," he said. Inmates from a variety of facilities will be
moved to Clayton, which is expected to be full within 60 days of opening.
Questions about Clayton -- As it gets ready to open, there are other
questions about the cost of building the new prison. A review done for the
Legislative Finance Committee in 2007 found that the prison's actual cost
will be much higher than the construction costs, which at the time of the
report were estimated to be $61 million. Over twenty years, the state will
pay $132 million in construction and finance charges, but will not own the
building, according to the report. As part of the $95.33 per diem the state
will pay to house inmates in the new prison, $27.81 will go to pay
construction costs. The high cost of building private prisons has left some
lawmakers concerned about whether the state can afford to keep so many
inmates there. Williams said a big part of the reason the building cost was
so high was because construction costs have gone way up. "You look at
the cost of a gallon of gas and then you look at the cost of a new prison
bed, and everything is going to have its increases and it is
inflationary," he said. Williams also pointed out that the cost of labor
has gone up since prisons were built 10 years ago in Hobbs and Santa Rosa.
Other lawmakers have a philosophical opposition to the opening of the Clayton
prison, and to private prisons in general, saying it's the job of the
government, not corporations, to house prisoners. "I don't believe it's
the right way, I don't think they should be for profit," said Senate
Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen. Sanchez said prisons are the
state's responsibility. "Hopefully Clayton will be the last one,"
he said. An inmate drought? It's unclear, however, when the state will need
another new prison. The state was expected to run out of bed space in August
of 2011 for males and in March of 2012 for females, but that's no longer the
case. The most recent projections show the state is expected to run out of
space in 2017 for men and in 2015 for women. The department warns, however,
that those projections are subject to change. "Our projections totally
changed from last year to this year where we were on a spike up, and now
we're growing but at a much smaller pace," Williams said. While it has
dropped off recently, the population is expected to grow by about 1.4 percent
in the coming years. "We're in a great state as far as corrections go
for the first time in many, many years, I think," he said. "I think
we're in a position a lot of states wish they were. We have room and capacity
to grow." So why is the prison population — long on the increase — now
decreasing? A recent report by the New Mexico Sentencing Commission shows the
state's prison population has dropped for several reasons. The study,
released last week, said one reason is a Corrections Department policy that
is increasingly imposing sanctions other than prison for technical parole
violations such as missing a counseling session. The study also said a 2006
state law that allows the department to let nonviolent inmates earn time off
during the first 60 days of their stay is leading to some inmates getting out
of prison sooner. Previously, inmates had to wait to start earning time. It
also said felony drug courts were playing a role. The state now has 31, and
the report says that although the courts are not a diversion option for
prison, they may indirectly keep offenders from being rearrested and going to
prison. The courts provide treatment, mandatory drug testing and judicial
oversight, among other things. But if the projections are now lower than they
have been, that might be a good thing for the Corrections Department. When it
did its report, the LFC found the department wasn't ready for projected
growth. "The department lacks active long-term planning to accommodate
inmate growth, leading to a disjointed approach to acquiring bed space that
proves costly," according to the report. The committee asked the
department to put together a 10-year plan, which it has. But, Williams said,
the plan was outdated almost as soon as it was written. "I didn't like
10-year plans because things are ever-changing in the department,
projections, forecasts," he said. "It's hard enough to predict year
to year or two years." Williams also pointed out that there are
advantages to having some space available in the state's prisons. The state
now has enough room — and the cash — to refurbish some cells at the state
penitentiary and Western New Mexico Correctional Facility, work that has been
a long time coming, he said. In addition, Williams said the state is
considering implementing recent recommendations of a prison reform task force
appointed by Richardson. "The plan is hopefully this prison reform might
change the way we do business forever," he said. "If we are
diverting people into drug courts and mental health courts and our re-entry
initiatives are successful, it could be a while before we see a new
prison."
May
24, 2007 The New Mexican
New Mexico pays significantly more than nearby states to house inmates in
private prisons, according to a report presented Wednesday to state
lawmakers. The 100-page audit by a Legislative Finance Committee review team
says New Mexico's private-prison spending rose 57 percent in the past six
years, while the inmate population increased only 21 percent. "Business
decisions across two administrations may result in New Mexico paying an
estimated $34 million more than it should pay for private prison construction
costs," the report says. But Corrections Secretary Joe Williams defended
the private prisons, saying the higher operating costs are justified. The
major private prison operator in the state is The GEO Group, which operates
facilities in Hobbs and Santa Rosa and will operate a prison being built in
Clayton. GEO, formerly known as Wackenhut, was brought in to manage private
prisons by former Gov. Gary Johnson and has been embraced by Gov. Bill
Richardson. New Mexico pays nearly $69 a day per inmate at the private prison
in Hobbs and more than $70 at the prison in Santa Rosa. In Texas, the cost is
$34.66 a day. Colorado pays $50.28 a day for inmates at private prisons. In
Oklahoma, the rate is $41.23. Other states listed in the study include Idaho,
$42.30, and Montana, $54.58. The LFC recommends New Mexico restructure its
contracts with GEO for the existing facilities.
May
23, 2007 KOAT TV
Target 7 has uncovered a state report that said New Mexico's Corrections
Department costs taxpayers millions more than it should. The investigation
began more than a year ago, Action 7 News reported. Target 7 looked into the
relationship between the state corrections department and the GEO Group, a
private company that runs two state prisons with another one in the works.
The lease to run a third prison is a central part of an audit released on
Wednesday, that said while New Mexico's prisons are doing better than in the
past, the state is paying too much for what it gets. The audit also found the
corrections department is overpaying for private prison costs and for health
care. But the state is in the process of negotiating with a new company for
prison health care. The audit highlights the state's lease agreement to put
inmates in a new prison in Clayton, N.M. The state's lease with GEO Group
pays not just for prisoners but also for the cost to build the prison. The
audit said the department would pay $132 million, nearly twice the cost of
construction. That's because the deal was done last fall, just weeks before
New Mexicans voted to let the state lease with an option to buy. The lease is
just a small part of the audit, but it's a sign the legislature may be
keeping a closer eye on the business of New Mexico's prisons. Secretary Joe
Williams takes issue with the report, but he said there are positive
suggestions in it. The department plans to sit down with some of the private
companies running half of New Mexico's prisons to talk about restructuring
lease agreements.
February
7, 2007 The Santa Fe Reporter
At the behest of the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC), two correctional
health experts have launched an extensive audit of the medical care in New
Mexico’s state prisons. SFR has learned that Dr. Steve Spencer and Dr. B Jaye
Anno were hired late last month by the LFC to evaluate the level of medicine
provided to state inmates. Their work is part of a larger audit the
Legislature is conducting of the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD),
slated for conclusion this spring. “We needed medical expertise in our audit,
because up until now we haven’t had any,” Manu Patel, the LFC’s deputy
director for audits, says. “This way, it’s not just us second-guessing the
Corrections Department. We can actually get a sense of what’s working and
what isn’t.” Patel says the contract with Spencer and Anno is worth
approximately $21,000. The health care component to the Corrections audit
follows a six-month investigation by SFR into Wexford Health Sources, the
private company that administers medical care to state inmates [Cover story,
Aug. 9, 2006: “Hard Cell?”]. The investigation led to a request for the audit
by the state Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee last
October [Outtakes, Oct. 25, 2006: “Medical Test”]. SFR’s series also
compelled Gov. Bill Richardson to terminate the state’s contract with Wexford
in December, a process that will likely take until June, when the prison
medical contract is up for renewal [Outtakes, Dec. 13, 2006: “Wexford Under
Fire”]. Regardless of Wexford’s fate, the LFC is pressing ahead with the
audit. “We are looking at this serving a long-term benefit to the Corrections
Department, so that we can all better evaluate the medical program in the
prisons and its services,” Patel says. Spencer, a former medical director of
NMCD, and Anno, who co-founded the National Commission on Correctional Health
Care, started work on Feb. 5, when they traveled to Lea County Correctional
Facility in Hobbs. “We’re going to look at a number of things when we travel
to the sights,” Spencer says. “We’ll look at the adequacy of staffing, the
appropriateness of care, the timeliness and use of off-site specialists.
We’ll review inmate deaths and whether Corrections is adequately monitoring
the contractor.” Moreover, the medical audit will involve a review of the
contract between Wexford and the Corrections Department, as well as sifting
through tuberculosis, HIV and other medical testing data. Various medical
personnel will also be interviewed throughout the process, Spencer says.
Inadequate tuberculosis testing, chronic staffing shortages and a systemic
failure to send inmates off-site have been among the concerns raised to SFR
by former and current Wexford employees [Outtakes, Oct. 18, 2006:
“Corrections Concerns”]. In an e-mail, Wexford Vice President Elaine Gedman said, in part, that Wexford plans to cooperate
with the audit and is confident its outcome will be positive. She also said
Wexford is cooperating with NMCD for a smooth transition. NMCD spokeswoman
Tia Bland tells SFR that Corrections is still working on a request for
proposal, set to go out in March, that will kick off the agency’s search for
a new medical provider. “We’re providing [the auditors] with whatever they
need, and whatever the results are, we’ll use that information to our
advantage in working with the next vendor,” Bland says. Bland reiterates
NMCD’s contention that Wexford violated the terms of its contract with the
state because of staffing problems. She says Corrections is still analyzing
whether Wexford broke other contractual stipulations. During the mid-1990s,
Spencer and Anno were hired by the Wyoming Department of Corrections to
conduct medical audits of its prisons. Wexford, which administered health
care for the Wyoming DOC, eventually became embroiled in a US Justice
Department investigation regarding prison health care in that state and lost its
contract. Recalls Anno: “There were a number of problems with Wexford’s
operation in Wyoming.”
January
10, 2007 Santa Fe Reporter
For Elizabeth Ocean, the poor medical and psychological care at Southern New
Mexico Correctional Facility (SNMCF) in Las Cruces had become too much to
bear. After three years working as a mental health counselor there, she quit
her job last March. Ocean tells SFR that inmates reported waiting weeks, even
months, for medical and dental appointments and to receive prescription
medications. “The guys came to me constantly about the medical care,” Ocean
says. “They were going and putting in requests and waiting so long to be
seen. A lot of times, they were being told there was nothing wrong with
them.” Wexford Health Sources, a private, Pennsylvania-based company, has
handled health care in New Mexico’s state prisons since July 2004. On the
heels of a six-month SFR investigative series on Wexford, in which many
former and current Wexford employees came forward, Gov. Bill Richardson told
the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) on Dec. 8 to replace Wexford
[Outtakes, Dec. 13: “Wexford Under Fire”]. NMCD spokeswoman Tia Bland says
NMCD is moving ahead with the termination process and that a request for
proposals will be crafted by March. Bland says NMCD has identified at least
one area—staffing shortages—in which Wexford violated the terms of its state
contract. Wexford Vice President Elaine Gedman did
not return phone or e-mail messages. Ocean says the problems in the facility
where she worked were systemic. Earlier this year, she says she wrote letters
to the US Justice Department and the governor’s office, alerting them to the
health care deficiencies. She also wrote of four fellow mental health
counselors whom Ocean alleges were operating without state licenses; Ocean
also filed a complaint last January with the New Mexico Counseling and
Therapy Practice Board. On May 17, Erma Sedillo, NMCD’s deputy secretary of
operations, wrote Ocean on behalf of the governor’s office to inform her that
NMCD was working to obtain the counselors’ temporary licenses. Sedillo did
not return a phone message, but spokeswoman Bland confirms a past “licensure
issue” at NMCD because the department was unaware of a recent change in
existing state regulations that now require mental health professionals
working in prisons to obtain a full state counseling license. “When we
discovered the change, we got all of our counselors to obtain full licenses,”
Bland says. As for Ocean, she is out of the prisons, but still connected.
Ocean is married to an inmate and former patient at SNMCF, who is
incarcerated for murder. She says their relationship started after he was no
longer a patient. Ocean adds: “I saw with my own eyes all the problems, all
the injustices at the prison before I ever married him.”
December
13, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
After two troubled years of administering health care in New Mexico’s
prisons, Wexford Health Sources will lose its multimillion-dollar contract
with the state. Wexford has been the subject of a five-month investigative
series by this paper. Now, SFR has learned that on Dec. 8, Gov. Bill
Richardson ordered the New Mexico Corrections Department (NCMD) to
immediately begin the search for a new health care provider. “The governor
has directed the Corrections Department to develop and implement immediate
and long-term options for improving health care quality at the state’s
correctional facilities,” Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos says. “Those
options are expected to include sanctions and seeking another provider—which
basically means the Corrections Department will be crafting a request for
proposal [RFP] to solicit a new vendor. They’re working out the terms of the
RFP now and will most likely be terminating the contract with Wexford.”
Wexford’s contract expires in June 2007, Gallegos says. SFR has repeatedly
and exclusively published allegations by current and former Wexford employees
regarding inmate care [Cover story, Aug. 9: “Hard Cell?”]. Those accounts
focused on dangerously low medical staffing levels at the nine correctional
facilities where Wexford operates; Wexford’s refusal to grant chronically ill
inmates critical, off-site specialty care; and systemic problems in
administering prescription medicine to inmates. Gallegos says the governor
learned about the problems with Wexford through SFR’s stories. “The governor
had been concerned about the quality of care delivered in the correctional
facilities and directed the Corrections Department to increase oversight of
Wexford,” Gallegos says. “Corrections was doing that, but it appeared that
many of those deficiencies were not being corrected.” Wexford, which also
administers health care in facilities run by the New Mexico Children, Youth
and Families Department (CYFD), will lose those operations as well, Gallegos
says. Wexford began working in New Mexico in July 2004, after signing a $27
million contract with NMCD. The Pittsburgh-based company has also lost
contracts in Wyoming and Florida because of similar concerns over health care.
SFR also learned this week that Dr. Phillip Breen, Wexford’s regional medical
director in New Mexico, has resigned, effective Dec. 31. In addition, a
dentist at a state prison in Hobbs tells SFR that facility is so understaffed
that inmates sometimes wait up to six weeks to receive important dental care.
Dr. Ray Puckett, who has been working as a part-time dentist at Lea County
Correctional Facility (LCCF) in Hobbs for approximately one year, alleges
that some inmates are suffering because the backlog to receive dental
treatment is so massive. “I’ve heard about inmates pulling their own teeth
after months and months. I’ve heard about inmates saying, ‘I just can’t stand
it anymore,’” he says. Puckett says Wexford should have hired a full-time
dentist at LCCF because so many inmates require medical attention to take
care of abscesses, cavities, tooth extractions and other painful dental
problems. Puckett works at the facility only one day a week, during which he
typically sees up to 16 patients. He says that Wexford also has another
dentist who will occasionally work one day a week at the facility. “What we
have now is a poorly run operation. It’s grossly understaffed and
disorganized. And it ends up being unfortunate for the inmates,” Puckett
says. Wexford Vice President Elaine Gedman did not
respond to e-mails and phone calls from SFR. Corrections spokeswoman Tia
Bland says NMCD is not aware of a backlog of dental patients at LCCF, but
will look into it. She adds that Wexford is only required to have a dentist
at LCCF for two days a week. With regard to the governor’s action against
Wexford, Bland says: “It’s a fact. Wexford has not met its contractual
obligations to the Department, and that’s something we can’t ignore. We have
to do something about it. We will be putting a plan in place.” In the coming
year, both Wexford and NMCD are slated for an extensive audit by the
Legislative Finance Committee. The audit was the result of a hearing on
Wexford by the Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee in
October. The hearings also were held in response to reports in this paper
[Outtakes, Oct. 25: “Medical Test”]. It’s now unclear whether the audit will
still take place. As for Puckett, he has considered leaving his post because
of what’s happening at LCCF. A veteran of correctional health care, he also
worked for Wexford’s predecessors, Addus HealthCare
and Correctional Medical Services. In his estimation, both companies, which
operate to make a profit like Wexford, cared more about the inmates’ physical
well-being and were willing to sacrifice dollars to ensure that medical
problems were treated expeditiously. Says Puckett: “It is my sense that
Wexford doesn’t care what sort of facility they run. Everything is run on a
bare-bones budget. They’re in it to make money.” Not anymore. When asked
whether there was any chance at all that Wexford could remain in its current
capacity at NMCD or CYFD, Richardson spokesman Gallegos responded: “They’re
done. The governor’s intention is to replace Wexford with a new company. We
expect to have a new provider in a reasonable amount of time.”
November
28, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
In the latest setback for Wexford Health Sources, a former employee has
slapped the prison health care company with a civil lawsuit alleging racial
discrimination. The suit, filed Oct. 25 in US District Court in Albuquerque,
alleges that former health services administrator Don Douglas was fired by
Wexford last October because he is black. Moreover, the suit alleges that
sick and injured inmates at Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, where
Douglas worked, received poor treatment and that the facility lacked critical
medical staff. Wexford, which administers health care in New Mexico’s
prisons, has been the subject of a four-month SFR investigation [Cover story,
Aug. 9: “Hard Cell?”]. As a result, the Courts, Corrections and Justice
Committee held a hearing last month, and the Legislative Finance Committee is
slated to audit Wexford and the New Mexico Corrections Department [Outtakes,
Nov. 8: “Prison Audit Ahead”]. The allegations in Douglas’ lawsuit echo many
of the concerns from employees who have talked to SFR. Specifically, it
charges that even though Douglas alerted a Wexford corporate administrator
about medical and staffing problems, the company did not respond. Instead,
according to the lawsuit, Douglas’ job was audited and he was found
negligent, despite no prior problems and a record of exemplary job
evaluations. On Oct. 10, 2005, Douglas was fired and replaced by a white
woman, the lawsuit says. “Wexford did not provide critical health care in a
timely manner, and I called attention to that,” Douglas tells SFR. “Inmates
have a civil right as incarcerated American citizens to be afforded adequate
health care. But that service is not being provided, and Wexford is
neglecting inmates.” Douglas began working at Wexford in July 2004, but also
worked for its predecessor, Addus. Shortly after
his firing, Douglas filed a complaint with the US Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC). A June 5 letter from the EEOC’s Albuquerque
office says the agency found reasonable cause to believe Douglas “was
terminated because of his race.” When queried by SFR, Wexford Vice President
Elaine Gedman wrote in a Nov. 27 e-mail that
Wexford is withholding comment until the forthcoming audit is complete and
referred to 14 prior successful audits of Wexford. Corrections spokeswoman
Tia Bland also would not comment on the lawsuit and noted that NMCD does not
oversee Wexford personnel matters. Says Deshonda Charles
Tackett, Douglas’ lawyer: “This is an important case. Mr. Douglas should not
have to suffer racial discrimination in an effort to provide inmates with
proper health care.”
November
22, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
The medical director of a state prison in Hobbs has stepped down from his
post less than a month after a legislative committee requested an audit of
the corrections health care in the state. Dr. Don Apodaca, medical director
of Lea County Correctional Facility (LCCF), turned in his resignation on Nov.
6 due to concerns that inmates there are not receiving sufficient access to
health care. According to Apodaca, sick inmates are routinely denied off-site
visits to medical specialists and sometimes have to wait months to receive
critical prescription drugs. Apodaca blames the policies of Wexford Health
Sources, the private company that contracts with the state to provide
medicine in New Mexico’s prisons, for these alleged problems. Wexford has
been the subject of a four-month SFR investigation, during which a growing
number of former and current employees have contended that Wexford is more
concerned with saving money than providing adequate health care, and that
inmates suffer as a result. On Oct. 24, the Legislative Finance Committee
(LFC) tentatively approved an audit that will assess Wexford’s contract with
the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) and also evaluate the quality of
health care rendered to inmates [Outtakes, Nov. 8: “Prison Audit Ahead”].
LCCF’s medical director since January 2006, Apodaca is one of the
highest-ranking ex-Wexford employees to come forward thus far. His
allegations of Wexford’s denials of off-site care and the delays in obtaining
prescription drugs echo those raised by other former and current employees
during the course of reporting for this series [Cover story, Aug. 9: “Hard
Cell?”]. Specifically, Apodaca says he personally evaluated inmates who
needed off-site, specialty care, but that Wexford consistently denied his
referrals. Apodaca cites the cases of an inmate who needed an MRI, another
inmate who suffered from a hernia and a third inmate who had a cartilage tear
in his knee as instances in which inmates were denied off-site care for
significant periods of time against his recommendations. When inmates are actually
cleared for off-site care in Albuquerque, they are transported in full
shackles without access to a bathroom for the six- to seven-hour trip,
Apodaca says. “Inmates told me they aren’t allowed to go to the bathroom and
ended up soiling themselves,” he says. “The trip is so bad they end up
refusing to go even when we get the off-site visits approved.” When it comes
to prescription drugs, there also are significant delays, Apodaca says.
Inmates sometimes wait weeks or even months for medicine used for heart and
blood pressure conditions, even though Apodaca says he would write orders for
those medicines repeatedly. “Wexford was not providing timely treatment and
diagnoses of inmates,” he says. “There were tragic cases where patients
slipped through the cracks, were not seen for inordinately long times and
suffered serious or fatal consequences.” Apodaca says he began documenting
the medical problems at the facility in March. After detailing in writing the
cases of 40 to 50 patients whom he felt had not received proper clinical
care, Apodaca says he alerted Dr. Phillip Breen, Wexford’s regional medical
director, and Cliff Phillips, Wexford’s regional health services
administrator, through memos, e-mails and phone calls. In addition, Apodaca
says he alerted Wexford’s corporate office in Pittsburgh. Neither Breen nor
Phillips returned phone messages left by SFR. Apodaca says he also informed
Devendra Singh, NMCD’s quality assurance manager for health services.
According to Apodaca, Singh assured him that he would require Wexford to look
into the matter, but Apodaca says he never heard a final response. “Wexford
was simply not receptive to any of the information I was sending them, and I
became exasperated,” he says. “It came to the point where I felt uncomfortable
with the medical and legal position I was in. There were individuals who
needed health care who weren’t getting it.” Singh referred all questions to
NMCD spokeswoman Tia Bland; Bland responded to SFR in a Nov. 20 e-mail: “If
Don Apodaca has information involving specific incidents, we will be happy to
look into the situation. Otherwise, we will wait for the LFC’s audit results,
review them and take it from there.” Wexford Vice President Elaine Gedman would not comment specifically on Apodaca’s
allegations. In a Nov. 20 e-mail to SFR, she wrote that Wexford will
cooperate with the Legislature’s audit and is confident the outcome will be
similar to the 14 independent audits performed since May 2005 by national
correctional organizations. “Wexford is proud of the service we have provided
to the Corrections Department as documented in these independent audits and
looks forward to continuing to provide high quality health care services in
New Mexico,” Gedman writes. Members of the
Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, which requested the
forthcoming audit, toured LCCF on Oct. 19 and were told by both Wexford and
NMCD officials that there were no health care problems at the facility. On
the same tour, however, committee members heard firsthand accounts from
inmates who complained they couldn’t get treatment when they became sick
[Outtakes, Oct. 25: “Medical Test”]. That visit, along with Apodaca’s
accounts, calls into question Wexford’s and NMCD’s accounts, State Sen. Cisco
McSorley, D-Bernalillo, says. “We were told on our tour that nothing was
wrong. And now to hear that there is a claim that Wexford and the Corrections
Department might have known about this makes it seem like this information
was knowingly covered up,” McSorley, co-chairman of the committee, says. “We
can’t trust what’s being told to us. The situation may require independent
oversight far beyond what we have. This should be the biggest story in the
state right now.”
November
8, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
The New Mexico State Legislature is one step closer to an audit of Wexford
Health Sources, the private company that administers health care in New
Mexico’s prisons. On Oct. 24, the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC)
tentatively approved the audit, which will evaluate Wexford’s contract with
the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) and also assess the quality of
health care administered to inmates. The request for a review of Wexford
originated with the state Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice
Committee, which voted unanimously on Oct. 20 to recommend the audit after a
hearing on prison health care in Hobbs [Outtakes, Oct. 25: “Medical Test”]. A
subsequent Oct. 30 letter sent to the LFC by committee co-chairmen Rep.
Joseph Cervantes, D-Doña Ana, and Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Bernalillo, refers
to “serious complaints raised by present and former employees” of Wexford.
The letter cites this newspaper’s reportage of the situation and notes that
on a recent tour of Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, “committee
members heard numerous concerns from inmates about medical problems not being
addressed.” It also refers to confidential statements Wexford employees
provided to the committee that were then turned over to the LFC. The decision
to examine Wexford and NMCD comes on the coattails of months of reports that
state inmates are suffering behind bars due to inadequate medical services,
documented in an ongoing, investigative series by SFR. Over the past three
months, former and current employees have alleged staffing shortages as well
as problems with the dispensation of prescription drugs and the amount of
time sick inmates are forced to wait before receiving urgent care [Cover
story, Aug. 9: “Hard Cell?”]. The timing, Manu Patel, the LFC’s deputy
director for audits, says, is ideal, because the LFC already planned to
initiate a comprehensive audit of NMCD, the first in recent history.
Regarding the medical component of the audit, Patel says: “We will be looking
at how cost-effective Wexford has been. Also, we will be looking at the
quality of care, how long inmates have to wait to receive care and what
[Wexford’s] services are like.” Patel says the LFC plans to contract with
medical professionals to help evaluate inmates’ care. As per a request from
the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, current Wexford employees will
be given a chance to participate in the audit anonymously. The audit’s
specifics require final approval from the LFC in December; the committee will
likely take up to six months to generate a report, according to Patel. In a
Nov. 6 e-mail to SFR, Wexford Vice President Elaine Gedman
cites 14 successful, independent audits performed of Wexford in New Mexico
since May 2005. “Wexford is proud of the service we have provided to the
Corrections Department as documented in these independent audits and looks
forward to continuing high quality health care services in New Mexico,” Gedman writes. NMCD spokeswoman Tia Bland echoes Gedman: “We welcome the audit and plan on cooperating any
way we can,” she says. Meanwhile, former employees continue to come forward.
Kathryn Hamilton, an ex-NMCD mental health counselor, says she worked
alongside Wexford staff at the Pen for two months, shortly after the company
took the reins in New Mexico in July 2004. Hamilton alleges that mentally ill
inmates were cut off psychotropic medicine for cheaper, less effective drugs
and that inmates waited too long to have prescriptions renewed and suffered
severe behavioral withdrawals as a result. Hamilton, who had worked at the
Pen since April 2002, says she encountered the same sorts of problems under Addus, Wexford’s predecessor, but quit shortly after
Wexford’s takeover because the situation wasn’t improving. “They would stop
meds, give inmates the wrong meds or refuse to purchase meds that were not on
their formulary, even if they were prescribed by a doctor,” Hamilton says. “I
felt angry, sometimes helpless, although I always tried to speak with
administrators to help the inmates.” Hamilton married a state inmate by proxy
last month, after continuing a correspondence with him following her tenure
at the Pen. Hamilton says she did not serve as a counselor to the inmate,
Anthony Hamilton, but met him after helping conduct a series of mental health
evaluations. Hamilton has been a licensed master social worker under her
maiden name since 2000 (according to the New Mexico Board of Social Work
Examiners). She emphasizes that her relationship with her husband did not
begin until after she left the Corrections Department. According to Hamilton,
her husband, still incarcerated at the Pen for aggravated assault, recently
contracted methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a serious
staph infection. In a previous story, four current Wexford employees
specifically mentioned MRSA as a concern to SFR because they allege Wexford
does not supply proper protective equipment for staff treating infectious
diseases like MRSA [Outtakes, Oct. 18: “Corrections Concerns”]. Wexford Vice
President Gedman did not address Hamilton’s claims
when queried by SFR. Corrections spokeswoman Bland also says she can’t
comment on Hamilton’s allegations because she had not spoken with Hamilton’s
supervisor at the time of her employment. Says Hamilton: “I initially called
the newspaper as the concerned wife of an inmate, not as a former therapist.
With all the stories the Reporter has done, I wanted to come forward with
what I had seen at the Pen.”
October
25, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
Following months of reports that state inmates are suffering behind bars due
to deficient medical services, a state legislative committee has requested a
special audit of health care in New Mexico’s state prisons. During an Oct. 20
hearing at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, members of the Courts,
Corrections and Justice Committee voted unanimously to ask for the audit,
which will focus on Wexford. Last week’s hearing resulted in a requested
audit of New Mexico’s prison health care. (Photo by Dan Frosch.). Health
Sources, the private company that contracts with the New Mexico Corrections Department
(NMCD). The company’s operation in New Mexico has been the subject of a
three-month investigative series by SFR, during which former and current
Wexford employees have come forward with allegations of problematic health
services for inmates [Cover Story, Aug. 9: “Hard Cell?”]. As a result of the
series, the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee decided to address the
issue during a regularly scheduled hearing in Hobbs [Outtakes, Sept. 13:
“Checkup”]. Norbert Sanchez, a nurse suspended by Wexford in September after
an alleged dispute with health administrators, spoke at the hearing about
problems he witnessed at Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los
Lunas. Sanchez recalled witnessing a wheelchair-bound inmate who sat in his
own feces for hours and a sick inmate who missed critical doses of medicine
for congestive heart failure. Sanchez also expressed concerns that echo those
raised previously to SFR by other former and current Wexford staff: a
systemic lack of medical supplies, failure to properly dole out prescription
drugs and reluctance to send sick inmates off-site for specialized treatment.
Though he was the only former Wexford employee in attendance, Sanchez
referred legislators to a packet he’d disseminated with testimony from current
Wexford employees. Those employees feared retaliation if they came forward,
Sanchez said. ACLU New Mexico staff attorney George Bach testified that his
organization has been hearing similar concerns from Wexford employees and
that many are, indeed, afraid to go public. “These employees are so
passionate about this issue that if you called them to testify, I’m certain
they would do it,” Bach said. Both NMCD and Wexford refuted Sanchez’ and
Bach’s allegations. Devendra Singh, NMCD’s quality assurance manager for
health services, hashed through the nationally approved correctional health
care standards to which he said the Corrections Department adheres. He also
pointed to the strict auditing process he said NMCD uses to monitor Wexford.
“We go for auditing for every inch of every aspect of care,” Singh said.
Wexford President and CEO Mark Hale said his Pennsylvania-based company is
subject to more stringent oversight in New Mexico than in any other state
where it operates. “If inmates need health care, they get it,” Hale, who
categorized the attacks on Wexford as deriving from disgruntled ex-employees,
said. But Singh’s and Hale’s assurances were not enough for the legislators
on hand, who peppered the two with questions. At one point, State Rep. Peter
Wirth, D-Santa Fe, referred to a recent SFR story in which a current Wexford
employee at Central decried treatment of inmates as inhumane and noted that
never before had the employee seen such deficiencies in health care
[Outtakes, Oct. 18: “Corrections Concerns”]. “That’s pretty darn scary to
me,” Wirth said of the allegation. Committee co-chairman and State Rep.
Joseph Cervantes, D-Doña Ana, questioned Singh’s assertion that medical
complaints from inmates are rare and noted that on a tour of Lea County Correctional
Facility the previous night, legislators had heard numerous inmate concerns
about medical problems. Co-chairman Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Bernalillo, said
on the same tour he’d seen an inmate suffering from a visible cystic
infection. The cyst should have easily been identified through only a
“cursory” medical evaluation, McSorley said. Corrections Secretary Joe
Williams said his agency welcomes a special audit of health care in the
prisons. Legislators agreed that such an audit, under the aegis of the
Legislative Finance Committee (LFC), should be conducted by an independent
third party and include accounts from current Wexford employees who could
remain anonymous. LFC Chairman Lucky Varela, D-Santa Fe, says he has not yet
received an official request from the Courts, Corrections and Justice
Committee, but will be keeping an eye out. “We will seriously consider
looking at the Corrections component to see what type of health care and what
type of contracts are being approved by the Corrections Department,” Varela
says. Indeed, for Peter Wirth, the logical next step is an audit that
examines Wexford’s services and NMCD’s oversight and that allows current
employees to speak freely. Says Wirth: “We really need to hear more from
these folks. Obviously, we’ve begun a dialogue here, and we don’t want to
short-change it.”
October
18, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
Current prison health workers say they fear retaliation if they speak out.
Just days before state legislators convene a hearing on correctional health
care in New Mexico, a group of medical employees in the state prison system
have come to SFR with allegations about how inmates are treated. All four
requested anonymity because they say they fear retaliation from Wexford
Health Sources—the private company that administers health care in the
prisons—if their identities are revealed. The employees currently work at
Central New Mexico Correctional Facility. They allege, among other things,
that chronically ill inmates are forced to lie in their own feces for hours,
are taken off vital medicine to save money and often wait months before
receiving treatment for urgent medical conditions. Moreover, the employees
say conditions at the facility are unsanitary. “In my entire career, I’ve
never seen this sort of stuff happening,” one employee says. “These inmates
are not being treated humanely. They don’t live in sanitary conditions. They
live in pain.” Wexford Vice President Elaine Gedman
denies all the employees’ allegations in an e-mail response to SFR.
Corrections spokeswoman Tia Bland says the department is unaware of these
allegations and that “none of these issues have surfaced during our regular
auditing process.” The employees’ allegations come on the heels of a series
of stories by SFR, in which several former Wexford employees have publicly
come forward with similar charges [Cover Story, Aug. 9: “Hard Cell?”]. As a
result of the stories, the state Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice
Committee will hold a hearing on Oct. 20 in Hobbs to discuss the matter
[Outtakes, Sept. 13: “Checkup”]. Wexford and the New Mexico Corrections
Department (NMCD), which oversees the Pennsylvania-based company, have
categorically denied charges that inmates are being denied proper health
care. These latest allegations are the first to come from current employees
of Wexford. The employees describe an environment where medical staff must
purchase their own wipes for incontinent patients because they say Wexford
administrators say there’s no money for supplies. They say there’s a shortage
of oxygen tanks and nebulizer machines (for asthma patients) and also scant
protective equipment for those staff treating infectious diseases. Gedman says, “Wexford is unaware of any shortage in
medical supplies. Extra oxygen bottles and nebulizers are always on hand and
ready for any emergency use. The oxygen bottles are inventoried daily as part
of our emergency response requirement.” The employees also allege that chronically
ill inmates sometimes wait what they say is too long to be taken off-site for
specialty care. Gedman says this also is false and
that Wexford “strongly encourages all of our providers to refer patients for
necessary evaluation and treatment, off-site when necessary, as soon as
problems are identified that need specialty referral.” All four employees say
their complaints to Wexford administrators about the lack of supplies and
treatment of inmates have been ignored, and all believe coming forward publicly
will cost them their jobs. Gedman says this concern
is unfounded because “Wexford encourages an open-door policy for all
employees to bring issues to the attention of management so that they can be
investigated and acted upon as appropriate.” Bland says Corrections staff are
“visible and accessible in the prisons. If any of Wexford’s staff would like
to speak with us concerning these allegations, we welcome the information and
will certainly look into the matter.” As for the legislative hearing, State Rep.
Joseph Cervantes, R-Doña Ana, co-chairman of the Courts, Corrections and
Justice Committee, says he hopes some of these Wexford critics will show up
in Hobbs. And he says further hearings are a possibility. “I hope there is a
full airing of the issues. I would like to learn that the Corrections
Department is working to resolve all of this, but if they haven’t, I expect
to make deadlines for them so we can expect adequate progress,” Cervantes
says. “We’d still like to protect the anonymity and bring to light any
allegations and complaints.” Cervantes also says he wants to introduce
legislation during the next session to protect whistle-blowers. Ken Kopczynski, executive director of the Private Corrections
Institute watchdog group in Florida, says the Legislature must do everything
it can to safeguard current Wexford employees against retaliation. “The
Legislature is the ultimate authority, and they need to put pressure on the
Corrections Department to find out what the hell is going on. They also need
to protect these employees so they can come forward and testify about their
specific experiences,” Kopczynski says. “And if
there are allegations of civil rights abuse, which is what it sounds like,
then the Justice Department needs to come in.”
October
4, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
Medical personnel at a New Mexico state prison don’t have protective gear to
treat inmates with infectious diseases. Nurses at the same prison lack
sanitary wipes for sick inmates who have soiled themselves. Inmates regularly
miss doses of critical medicine because their prescriptions are not renewed
properly. These are just some of the allegations made by Norbert Sanchez, a
nurse for Wexford Health Sources, the private company that administers health
care in New Mexico’s state prisons. Sanchez asserts that Wexford suspended
him on Sept. 6 from his post at the Long Term Care Unit (LTCU) at Central New
Mexico Correctional Facility in retaliation for continually raising concerns
about Wexford’s operations at the facility. But he recently spoke with SFR in
an exclusive interview. His account follows a series of stories by SFR in
which a wide range of former Wexford employees have raised similarly serious
concerns regarding Wexford’s treatment of inmates [Cover Story, Aug. 9: “Hard
Cell?”]. “There were no guidelines, no policies from Wexford. It was unsafe
for the inmates and the employees,” Sanchez, a 20-year veteran nurse, says.
Sanchez says he began to work for Wexford in April and quickly noticed
problems. Incoming nurses received only scant safety training from Wexford
and were immediately thrown into intense treatment settings to plug staffing
shortages, he alleges. More disturbingly, Sanchez says that there weren’t
protective gowns and masks for medical staff who needed to treat inmates with
infectious diseases, dangerous for staff, inmates and the general public.
There also was a shortage of linens and sanitary wipes, which are
particularly critical for chronically ill inmates. Wexford Vice President
Elaine Gedman responded in a lengthy Oct. 2 e-mail
to SFR. She would not comment on the details of Sanchez’s suspension but
denies he was disciplined for complaining. SFR also queried New Mexico
Corrections Department (NMCD) spokeswoman Tia Bland on Sanchez’ allegation of
retaliation and his issues with Wexford’s health care. Bland says NMCD has no
information on Sanchez’ employment status and is unaware of a shortage of
medical supplies or protective gear, as well as prescription drug lapses, but
that the Department is looking into it. As for Sanchez’s assertions about
dirty linens, Bland says: “The linens are our responsibility. We have gotten
a little behind with linen laundry in LTCU because of some electrical
problems. We’ve ordered new linens, and we’re working on fixing the problem.”
Regarding the staffing shortages Sanchez and other ex-Wexford employees have
complained of, Bland says: “We’ve always acknowledged staffing challenges. We
are happy to say the vacancy rate is the lowest it’s been in months. We
applaud Wexford’s efforts and encourage them to keep it up.” Ken Kopczynski, executive director of the Private Corrections
Institute watchdog group in Florida, says that aside from the hearing, NMCD
should consider liquidating damages or fining Wexford if it refuses to live
up to its contractual obligations. NMCD hired Wexford in July 2004; last
fall, a $35,000 agreement was reached between NMCD and Wexford over the
state’s concern that Wexford didn’t provide enough work hours for its
full-time employees, particularly psychiatrists. “You’re only as good as your
contract. And if there are systematic problems here, than the state might
need to hit Wexford where it hurts,” Kopczynski
says. Ultimately, though, Kopczynski maintains that
it is up to the Legislature and Corrections Secretary Joe Williams to ensure
that Wexford upholds humane standards of care. “Somebody needs to be
enforcing that contract. And it should be up to the Legislature to hold the
secretary’s feet to the fire,” he says. “And if the secretary chooses not to,
then they need to get rid of him.” Meanwhile, Sanchez says he plans on
speaking at the forthcoming hearing in Hobbs. “Wexford doesn’t care about its
employees,” he says. “And they don’t care about the inmates.”
September
13, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
Concerns about prison health care reported exclusively by the Santa Fe
Reporter will be discussed by a legislative committee next month. The Courts,
Corrections and Justice Committee will gather in Hobbs on Oct. 19 and 20 for
a regularly scheduled hearing and discuss, among other items, the health care
provided to state inmates by Wexford Health Sources. Wexford, a private,
Pennsylvania-based company, has come under fire from ex-employees who allege
that inmates receive dangerously substandard health care [Cover Story, Aug.
9: “Hard Cell?”]. State Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Doña Ana, co-chairman of the
committee, says those concerns prompted the Legislature to take action. “The
issues [SFR] has raised have not come before our committee recently.
Inevitably, you get a perception that the management wants you to see, but we
want to go beyond that,” Cervantes says. Cervantes expects representatives
from Wexford and the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) to answer
questions at the meetings. He also encouraged all those who have concerns
about Wexford’s health care in the prisons to come forward. “We need these
individuals to not only participate in the public portion of the meetings but
consider presenting evidence and testimony to the committee,” Cervantes says.
State Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Bernalillo, co-chairman of the committee, echoes
his counterpart’s sentiment. “With the increasing outcry of health care in
the prisons, Joe and I decided this was an issue that needs to be discussed,”
McSorley says. Meanwhile, SFR recently obtained an Aug. 29 memo from Wexford
that directs staff not to speak with this paper. The memo is from J Chavez,
identified as director of nursing at Central New Mexico Correctional Facility
in Los Lunas. “It is important that you either contact the Pittsburgh office
or myself if this reporter contacts you,” the memo states. “Please keep in
mind that all of you have read and signed the business code of conduct…” The
memo also cites the company’s media relations policy, which prohibits
employees from speaking with the news media on matters relating to Wexford.
September
4, 2006 Albuquerque Tribune
When I got the no-return-address envelope in the mail, I figured it was
another anonymous tip on someone's opponent. It wasn't. The packet - yes,
sent without a name - outlined a revised ethics policy at the state
Corrections Department. Once I read on, I realized why he or she sent the
information namelessly. "We are told we cannot contact you without
violating this policy and face possible termination even though the only way
of getting information out to change problems is via the media," they
wrote. Nothing gets a reporter's heart pumping like something somebody
doesn't want them to know about. Especially in government. Tia Bland,
Department of Corrections spokeswoman, said the code doesn't prohibit
employees from contacting the media. "I don't think we have anything in
our policy that says if a person is off duty and has a conversation with a
reporter, they are going to be fired." The letter-writer goes on:
"In the policy, it states we cannot tape or video record a person.
(Remember the Joe Williams piece on Channel 7) And if we do we face possible
termination." The mention of Williams, the department's Cabinet
secretary, is a reference to a recent KOAT-Channel 7 news segment that showed
Williams at a party in Clayton, where the GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut)
plans to build a new prison. The report said GEO helped pay the tab for the
gathering in the northern New Mexico town. A grainy video of the event showed
Williams walking out of the Clayton Civic Center, where employees were
dancing to "La Macarena." In terms of videotaping people, the
policy does say: "Applicable personnel are prohibited from tape
recording, video recording or otherwise electronically recording the acts of
others or conversations with or among other personnel while at or on any work
site, unless all persons proposed to be so recorded have consented to being
so recorded."
August
30, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
A Santa Fe dentist and his assistant say they quit their jobs at the
Penitentiary of New Mexico in 2004 because of concerns that state inmates
were not receiving adequate dental care. Dr. Norton Bicoll
and Sharon Daily left their employment at Wexford Health Sources, which
handles health care in nine New Mexico correctional facilities, because the
company ordered them to cut their hours for inmates in half, they say. Bicoll and Daily’s problems with Wexford follow a number
of serious allegations levied by six ex-Wexford employees that also question
the level of health care inmates are receiving [Cover story, Aug. 9: “Hard
Cell?”]. Last week, SFR also reported that two Albuquerque psychiatrists have
sued Lovelace Health Systems for firing them after they refused to
participate in a proposed contract with Wexford. The contract would have
called for the psychiatrists to provide substandard treatment to state
inmates, the lawsuit alleges [Outtakes, Aug. 23: “Unhealthy Proposal”]. These
latest assertions about Wexford appear to be part of a growing chorus of
criticism of the company and its treatment of inmates. Wexford Vice President
Elaine Gedman, who has responded previously to
questions regarding the company, did not respond to repeated requests for
comment for this story. But Bicoll and Daily’s
issues with Wexford relate to the company’s staffing shortages in New Mexico,
one of the company’s most pervasive problems, according to ex-employees.
While both NMCD and Wexford have consistently played down such shortages,
according to Wexford’s own Web site, there are currently 47 vacancies for
medical personnel in New Mexico. That number comprises close to half of the
117 total positions Wexford, the nation’s third largest private correctional
health care company, is currently advertising for. Such vacancies not only
include a range of nursing positions but also critical, high ranking
administrative posts. According to the Web site, Wexford is looking to hire a
director of nursing and medical director at the New Mexico Women’s
Correctional Facility in Grants. The medical director position is also open
at Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Las Cruces and Lea County
Correctional Facility in Hobbs. The Penitentiary of New Mexico needs a
director of nursing. Ken Kopczynski, executive
director of the Private Corrections Institute watchdog group in Florida, says
charges of compromised prison health care in New Mexico warrant federal
involvement. “It would be good to get the Department of Justice involved if
there are allegations of lack of care on behalf of the inmates,” he says.
“The New Mexico Corrections Department and the Legislature can’t hide their
heads in the sand and say they didn’t know about these problems if there’s
ever a lawsuit. The inmates are ultimately the responsibility of the state,
and you can’t contract that away.”
August
25, 2006 The New Mexican
Santa Fe County has interviewed four people who applied to be the new jail
administrator. One high-profile candidate, however, took her name out of the
hat just before interviews were slated to begin Thursday. Ann Casey, a
lobbyist and Illinois jail official embroiled in controversy over her
relationship with state Corrections Secretary Joe Williams, had applied for
the job along with five others. Casey canceled her interview Thursday and
said she no longer wanted to be considered for the job, according to
Assistant County Attorney Carolyn Glick. Casey was in the news in New Mexico
when the state put Williams on unpaid leave and launched an investigation.
Officials looked into his relationship with the woman, including use of his
work cell phone and other expenses after the Albuquerque Journal reported
billing records for his state cell phone showed 644 calls between the two
over five months. Williams returned to work and is on probation following what
a governor's aide called "a lapse in judgment." Illinois officials
also looked into the matter, but Casey remains in her position of assistant
warden of programs at the Centralia Correctional Center, said department
spokesman Derek Schnapp. Casey was not available for comment.
May
31, 2006 New Mexican
A state prison contractor involved in the investigation of a relationship
between Corrections Secretary Joe Williams and a lobbyist contributed $10,000
to Gov. Bill Richardson's re-election campaign. The political-action
committee for Aramark -- a Philadelphia-based company that makes millions of
dollars a year to feed New Mexico inmates -- contributed to Richardson's
campaign in May 2005, according to Richardson's most recent campaign-finance
report. That was about a year after Aramark renewed its contract with the
state Corrections Department. Aramark also has been generous to the state
Democratic Party, contributing $10,000 in 2004, and the Democratic Governors
Association, which Richardson chairs. The company contributed a total of
$15,000 to the DGA in 2004 and another $15,000 in 2005, according to reports
filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Aramark provides food service to
more than 475 correctional institutions in North America. The corporation also
has food-service contracts in colleges, hospitals, convention centers and
stadiums. Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley
referred questions about the campaign donation to Richardson's campaign
manager, Amanda Cooper, who couldn't be reached for comment. The Governor's
Office announced this week that Williams is being put on administrative leave
while the state Personnel Office investigates his relationship with Ann E.
Casey, who registered as a lobbyist for Aramark and Wexford Health Services,
which provides health care to New Mexico inmates. Casey is an assistant
warden at an Illinois prison. A copyrighted story in the Albuquerque Journal
said Williams' state-issued cell-phone records show 644 calls between
Williams and Casey between Sept. 24, 2005, and Feb. 23. According to that
report, Casey was hired as a consultant by Aramark in 2005, but that contract
has since been terminated. Aramark's $5.4 million contract ends in July. The
Secretary of State Office's Lobbyist Index lists Casey as a lobbyist for Wexford,
though the Journal report quotes a Wexford official saying the company never
hired her. In 2004, a $10,000 contribution to a Richardson political
committee from Wexford's parent company caused a stir and later was returned
to the Pittsburgh company. The Bantry Group made the contribution to
Richardson's Moving America Forward PAC in April 2004. This was during a
bidding process just a month after the Corrections Department requested
proposals for a contract to provide health care and psychiatric services to
inmates. That contract potentially is worth more than $100 million, The
Associated Press reported. In August 2004, a Richardson spokesman said the
money would be returned "to avoid even the appearance of
impropriety."
May
30, 2006 AP
Gov. Bill Richardson has put Corrections Secretary Joe Williams on unpaid
leave while the secretary's recent actions are investigated. Richardson said
the review will focus on Williams' use of a state-issued cell phone, a
state-funded trip that included some personal travel and his relationship
with a lobbyist. "Gov. Richardson wants a thorough investigation to
examine the secretary's actions and determine if anything improper
occurred," said James Jimenez, Richardson's chief of staff. "The
governor sets a very high ethical standard for his administration and will
not tolerate any level of abuse of authority or public trust." A
spokeswoman for the Corrections Department said Williams was unavailable for
comment. State Personnel Director Sandra Perez will conduct the investigation
through her office, Jimenez said. Williams will be on unpaid leave until June
9, the day Perez's office is to report to the governor. The Albuquerque
Journal reported Sunday that Williams spent about 91 hours on his
state-issued cell phone talking with Ann Casey, an assistant warden at a
state prison in Centralia, Ill. The calls between the two phones were placed
between Sept. 24, 2005, and Feb. 23, 2006. Casey registered as a lobbyist in
2005 for two companies that have contracts with New Mexico to provide health
care and meals to prisoners. Williams described his relationship with Casey
as a friendship and said he doesn't give preferential treatment to anybody.
Richardson also is questioning a trip Williams took to Nashville on the
state's dollar. In January, Williams attended a conference of the American
Correctional Association. His travel records show he added a St. Louis leg to
the trip, which he said was personal. A 30-mile drive from the St. Louis
airport would land Williams at an address in O'Falcon,
Ill., which Casey listed on lobbyist registration forms. Records show
Williams wrote a check to his department in January for $266, the cost of
adding the St. Louis trip. While on the trip, Williams and Casey accepted a
dinner invitation from a company that operates a state prison in Santa Rosa,
according to Williams' e-mail records. A billing statement for a hotel stay
during the trip also lists two people in his party, but Williams would not
say who the second person was. Richardson appointed Williams, a former warden
at the Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs and former warden at two
state prisons, as corrections secretary in 2003.
July
19, 2005 Albuquerque Journal
Some legislators on Monday said a proposed prison in Clayton would help that
town's economy, while others advocated different ways to add prison space in
New Mexico. Rep. Gail Beam, D-Albuquerque, suggested that lawmakers
consider expanding the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility near Santa Rosa
or the Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs. Both options would be
cheaper than running a 600-bed, medium-security prison in Clayton, according
to initial estimates from the state Corrections Department. The actual
operating cost may be lower, Williams said. Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque,
called on Williams to consider placing more criminals in community-based
corrections programs rather than prison, as allowed under state law.
"We're rushing to try to get people employed at another private prison
when we're not following our own statute," Stewart said at a hearing at
the United World College. Williams said he opposed the early release of
prisoners.
July 9 , 2004
Prison food is not supposed to taste great, but inmates in two
state-correction institutions said this week that their food had taken a turn
for the worse in recent days while inmates in a third facility staged a
widespread boycott of meals earlier this week. Only 44 of the 330
inmates at the minimum-security facility in Los Lunas showed up for
lunch Wednesday because of complaints about the food, Corrections Department
spokeswoman Tia Bland confirmed Thursday. "We've had nothing but
ground turkey for days," an inmate at the state prison in Las Cruces
told a reporter Thursday. "It's terrible. You can't eat some of this
stuff." Meanwhile, an inmate at the state prison in Grants said
his prison kitchen has been serving a soy-meat substitute, which he described
as tasting like cardboard . Under that new
contract, the company receives about 20 cents less for each meal served.
"That does change what is offered," Albert said. (The New
Mexican)
September
9, 2003
A flight from Virginia is set to arrive back in New Mexico late next week.
But its homecoming welcome will include shotguns, shackles and prison
vans. The New Mexico Corrections Department said Monday it plans to
return all but one of what it has labeled troublemaker inmates from
Virginia's super-maximum-security Wallens Ridge
State Prison. The return will end a controversial four-year stint in which
problem prisoners were transferred and housed in the lockup nearly 2,000
miles away. The arrival of the 16 prisoners back in New Mexico is
tentatively set for Sept. 19, state corrections spokeswoman Tia Bland
said. "These inmates are (those) that have gang ties, primarily.
They're instigators. They start trouble," Bland said. "We're
ready for them." Bland said the return of the inmates is favored
by Gov. Bill Richardson, who formed a series of teams earlier this year that
looked at ways of cutting costs across state government. Bland said
bringing the prisoners home is projected to save the state $671,000 over the
next five years. Bland said New Mexico pays $64 a day to house inmates
at Wallens Ridge. It costs about $12 a day more to
house prisoners at the Penitentiary of New Mexico outside of Santa Fe— this
state's version of a "super max" where the troublemakers will be
sent. However, when things such as transporting the prisoners from Virginia
to New Mexico for court dates are eliminated, savings will be achieved. The
prisoners' security classifications also could be lowered over time,
requiring less expense in keeping them locked up. Former corrections
secretary Rob Perry began shuffling inmates to Wallens
Ridge just days after a deadly 1999 prison riot near Santa Rosa. But Perry's
replacement, Joe R. Williams, said Monday the New Mexico system can handle
its own problem prisoners. "At the beginning, it served its
purposes," Williams said of the transfers. But "we're capable of
running our own system. I don't see any cause for alarm or any potential
disruption because they're here." New Mexico sent 109 suspected
prison rioters to Wallens Ridge after the Aug. 31,
1999, riot at the privately run Guadalupe County Correctional Facility near
Santa Rosa. Guard Ralph Garcia was killed in the uprising, and his alleged
killers are now being prosecuted. (ABQ Journal)
January 1, 2003
Santa Fe - Gov. -elect Bill Richardson filled out his cabinet Tuesday,
appointing a veteran prison warden to run the Corrections Department and a
longtime television journalist as head of the Labor Department. Joe
Williams, warden at a privately operated prison in Hobbs, was named
corrections secretary. Williams has been warden since 1999 of the Lea
County Correctional Facility, which is owned and operated by Wackenhut
Corrections Corp. Richardson said he wanted Williams, "someone
with the experience in both the public and private systems, to study
privatization of the corrections system and to give me his best advice on how
best to proceed long-term in corrections. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
November
25, 2002
The secretary of the state Corrections Department had ordered his staff not
to give any information to the transition team of Gov.-elect Bill Richardson
because at least two members of the team are suing the department. The
memo from Secretary Jim Burleson prompted Richardson spokesman to accuse
Burleson of putting up "roadblocks" to the transition
process. "A potential issue had arisen involving the newly appointed
Corrections Transition Team," Burleson's memo said. "As such
it is at this point that I must initiate a legal analysis of potential
conflicts." Santa Fe lawyer Mark Donatelli,
who co-chairs the transition team responsible for evaluating the CP,
represents six inmates suing the department over "cognitive
restructuring," a controversial lock-down program for problem
inmates. One of his team members is Lawrence Barreras, a former prison
warden who was fired by Johnson's administration in 1997. Barreras'
lawsuit against the state was thrown out by a district judge. The state
court of appeals upheld that decision in September. Barreras who more
recently was warden at Santa Fe County jail - told AP in September he would
appeal. (Santa Fe New Mexican.com)
October 7, 2000
The corrections Department exceeded its authority in giving a private prison
company a retroactive pay raise for jailing New Mexico prisoners. Assistant
Attorney General, Zachary Shandler said in an
advisory letter to the Legislative Finance Committee, "The Corrections
Department has contractual authority to provide only for prospective payment
adjustments. It does not have the authority to provide for retroactive
payment adjustments."
New Mexico
Educational Retirement Board
Oct 17, 2020 -news.com
New Mexico retirement
board takes step toward divesting of private prison companies
ALBUQUERQUE
– A panel that oversees a multibillion-dollar pension fund for New Mexico
teachers and other educational retirees took a step Friday toward dropping
investments in private prison companies. The Educational Retirement Board
voted 4-2 with one member abstaining to amend its investment policies to
exclude private prisons from its portfolio. The vote came after more than a
year in which pressure from teachers’ unions and immigration activists fueled
a debate about socially responsible investments. The latest round of public
comment was comprised of what some board members described as impassioned
pleas to stop putting any money into funds that include private prison
companies. Some board members reiterated their concerns Friday, saying
members should be mindful not to run afoul of constitutional mandates and
statutory requirements that guide investment of the retirement fund. Those
who voted against the motion to begin revamping the board’s policies said
activists should be lobbying the state Legislature and municipal officials
who contract with private prison companies to effect more change. Board
member Adan Delgado argued that fellow members don’t have “the luxury of
washing their hands of this issue.” “I don’t think we’re just any pension
fund,” he said. “We’re a pension fund that represents educators and I think
the message that we received from our members has clearly indicated that they
have a very strong distaste for our investment in private prisons.” It’s
uncertain how long it will take staff to prepare new policies. It would then
be up to the board to consider the proposed changes at a subsequent meeting.
Activists had targeted investments in Florida-based GEO Group and Tennessee-based
CoreCivic. The two companies operate county jails
and detention facilities for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New
Mexico and elsewhere. The companies’ stocks have been part of the S&P
400, one of the many funds that are part of the retirement board’s portfolio.
However, the S&P opted to remove CoreCivic from
the index, meaning pension funds were no longer tied to that company as of
mid-August. As for GEO Group, the pension fund owns a fraction of 1% of the
company through its stock holdings. Bob Jacksha,
the retirement board’s chief investment officer, said there would be minimal
costs involved to drop the company from its portfolio and that it would take
a little more time for the staff each month to match the fund’s holdings with
what would otherwise be the S&P 400 minus GEO Group. Board Chairman
Steven Gluckstern said that while current policy
doesn’t allow for the board “pick and choose” individual stocks, revamping
that guidance amounts to a much larger decision than simply divesting a
single stock. Board Member Donald Duszynski said
the board has a responsibility under the state constitution to ensure the
fund is invested for the sole benefit of retirees and other beneficiaries,
that the trust funds shall never be used or diverted for any other purpose
and that investments be prudent and based on the portfolio as a whole and not
on individual assets. He warned that making a statement on private prisons
could lead to a slippery slope in which the board has take
sides on other issues – from fossil fuels to abortion, birth control or
tobacco. “Our divestment signals our disapproval of private prisons,
absolutely it will signal that but it will not stop
their existence or even affect their existence,” he said. “By divesting, I
think we lose leverage that we might have over the process. Divesting is a
passive decision and it’ll have no effect on the GEO Group, none whatsoever.”
New Mexico Legislature
State
gets tougher on private prisons - Operators face fine as leniency disappears
under Martinez administration: March 1, 2012, Trip Jennings, The
New Mexican: Damning expose on how former DOC Secretary and former Wackenhut
warden cost state millions of dollars in un-collected fines against
for-profits.
Oct
13, 2021 santafenewmexican.com
Some New Mexico lawmakers object to private prisons By
Private prisons came
under fire at a Tuesday legislative hearing, with several lawmakers arguing
the profit motive doesn't belong in operations to house, punish and
rehabilitate inmates. The state already aims to take over three of New
Mexico's five private prisons, leaving the contractors with a greatly reduced
role at these facilities. But some members of the Legislative Finance
Committee want all the state's prisons to be entirely in public hands as soon
as possible. The call for the state to eliminate privately run facilities
became more pointed when discussion turned to contracts that required
companies to be paid at a minimum occupancy rate - typically 80 percent -
even as decreasing incarcerations in recent years are causing inmate
populations to drop below that level. State Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque,
said prisons' main goals should be to act as a deterrent for crime, protect
the public from dangerous offenders and rehabilitate inmates whenever
possible - and that private contractors appear to have a different priority.
"I don't think these goals are consistent with the goal of profit,"
Sedillo Lopez said. Sedillo Lopez said the data presented to the committee
focused on how private prisons save dollars, as if that's the only important
policy consideration. But she would like an estimate of intangible costs to a
community in having those prisons paying their employees less and providing
fewer benefits, as well as skimping on rehabilitation programs. Charles Sallee, a committee fiscal analyst, said public and
private prisons would be found lacking in rehabilitation. But private prisons
would inject less money into a community in the form of employee health care
and pension dollars, Sallee said. The state is
scheduled to take over at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa
Rosa and the Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center near Grants on Nov. 1.
In 2019, it took control of the Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility in
Clayton. The trend is a far different than the path New Mexico followed
decades ago, when it began housing inmates at privately operated facilities.
At the time, it was hailed by supporters as a way to
efficiently house inmates and perhaps limit the problems New Mexico
experienced before and after the deadly and horrific riot at the Penitentiary
of New Mexico south of Santa Fe, where 33 died in February 1980. When it
begins overseeing the Santa Rosa and Northwest prisons, only 24.5 percent of
the state's prison beds will be under the auspices of private operators. The
committee's fiscal analysts said private prisons are run more efficiently
than public facilities, partly because their lower staff-to-inmate ratios
enable them to hire fewer people. The transition of three prisons back to
state control alone cost $4.1 million in 2022 and $6.1 million in 2023. After
that, they will tack on $10 million in yearly costs. Margaret Brown Vega of
AVID, a volunteer group that visits immigrant detainees at the Otero County
Processing Center, wants to push it a step further. The state should close
private prisons and then impose a blanket ban on all such prisons, including
those used by federal agencies, Brown Vega said. Private contractors who can
no longer house inmates will instead house immigrant detainees to fill the
void, she said. "The sole concern of these facilities is filling beds,"
Brown Vega said. Sedillo Lopez said she didn't think the state has the
authority to deny federal authorities prison space. Nathan Craig, another
AVID volunteer, said several states, such as Illinois and California, have
instituted across-the-board bans on private prisons that include federal
ones. The federal government might challenge such a ban, Craig said, but
there are precedents for it. State Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero
said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham aims to reduce the state's use of private
prisons. But eliminating them entirely is not practical and could have a
severe effect on communities where people depend on those prison jobs, she
said. "I think the conversation is not as simple as 'Let's just close
the doors,' " Tafoya Lucero said. Rep. Eliseo Alcon, D-Milan, echoed
those sentiments.
Jul 25, 2021 santafenewmexican.com
As New Mexico regains control of some private prisons, questions
New Mexico’s decades
long dalliance with privately operated prisons hasn’t come to an end, but it’s clear things are changing. By the end of the year,
the state Corrections Department is expected to assume control of three of
the five private prisons operating in New Mexico, a shift that began in 2019
during Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration. When the state takes
over at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa and the
Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center near Grants this fall, only 24.5
percent of the state’s prison beds will be under the auspices of private operators.
New Mexico has 11 state prisons. Whether the decision to move away from
private prisons was driven by philosophy or economic reality is up for
debate. Though state officials have said they have been interested in
reclaiming day-to-day operations at some private facilities, a reduction in
the overall prison population, staffing issues and other problems have
reduced revenue for private operators and hastened the transfer of control.
The result? A fundamental shift within the state’s prison system, perhaps the
biggest since New Mexico began contracting with private operators in the
1990s. Eric Harrison, a spokesman for the Corrections Department, said
Cabinet Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero was not available for an interview
last week, but he noted she has been on record as saying the state has been
interested in taking back the day-to-day operations at more of its prisons.
But in a Legislative Finance Committee hearing last week, Tafoya Lucero
expanded on the reasons behind the change, noting chronic staffing shortages
at privately run facilities, plus declining inmate populations. The state’s
prison population, which once hovered around 7,000, has dropped to about
5,600, according to the Corrections Department. The state’s prisons are at 73
percent of capacity. Tafoya Lucero told lawmakers some of the problems had
combined to a create a “terrifying situation” at the Guadalupe County
facility — a 590-bed, 191,400-square-foot prison operated by the GEO Group, a
Florida-based operator that also runs the 1,293-bed Lea County Correctional
Facility near Hobbs. She described a scenario in Santa Rosa in which short
staffing — a 71 percent vacancy rate among correctional staff, with only 28
of 97 correctional staff positions filled — had created conditions that felt
“wrong” and “dangerous.” The situation prompted her to supplement the staff
with state employees and move inmates to other prisons in
an attempt to reduce the population for safety reasons. She told
lawmakers that created a reduction in revenue for the Geo Group, which
threatened to pull out unless its contract was renegotiated. The compromise,
Tafoya Lucero told lawmakers, was for the state to agree to lease the
building from Geo. The cost of the lease has yet to be determined. The state,
she said, will be responsible for the Santa Rosa prison’s operations and
employees. The department plans a similar takeover of the Northwest New
Mexico Correctional Center in Grants, where it would lease the property from CoreCivic, another large national private prison operator.
Harrison said in an email that “fiscal savings along with CoreCivic’s
change in their nationwide business model” were driving concerns at that
facility. Tafoya Lucero said the plan in Grants is to consolidate the men’s
and women’s facilities into one institution, which she said would save the
state money on overhead costs. But Ellen Rabin, the Legislative Finance
Committee’s senior fiscal analyst, told committee members the department’s
planned and in-process takeovers of private prisons would cost the state an
estimated $10 million per year through the 2024 fiscal year. Rabin and LFC
program evaluator Cally Carswell wrote a hearing
brief published ahead of the committee’s meeting Thursday, warning lawmakers
the Corrections Department’s current approach could be ineffective as well as
costly. “While falling populations and classification reforms provide
opportunities for [New Mexico Corrections Department] to realize substantial
cost savings, the agency’s plan to continue to convert private prison facilities
to public operation, rather than reducing unused bed space, will likely lead
to further cost escalation,” the brief says. “While the state pays to
maintain empty beds at its prisons, inmate programming continues to lag
behind the levels necessary to improve New Mexico’s high recidivism rate.”
Tafoya Lucero’s presentation had some lawmakers wondering whether taking over
the private prisons is the best strategy, or if closing them altogether is a
better option. “As I was sitting here this afternoon, I thought to myself,
‘OK we have a declining prison population, and the state is moving into the
business of owning and operating more prisons,” Rep. Phelps Anderson, a
Roswell independent, said Thursday. “Where am I missing the logic of that?”
“I hear that,” Tafoya Lucero responded. But, she said, “We don’t know what
the prison population ultimately will look like. We know there is a lot of
flux right now. It’s really sort of an unknowable thing.” Tafoya Lucero said
the New Mexico Sentencing Commission is forecasting further reductions in
prison populations. She added the state is just now shedding itself from
mandates under the decades-old Duran consent decree — a legal settlement
aimed at addressing problems in the state’s prisons, including overcrowding,
that led to a horrific, deadly riot at the Penitentiary of New Mexico in
1980. Tafoya Lucero said she wants to make sure the state doesn’t downsize
too quickly. “We are down to 73 percent [of capacity] right now … but we
don’t want to end up in a situation where we don’t have enough beds and then
we are overcrowded,” she said. Rep. Moe Maestas, D-Albuquerque, said that
while the riot at the prison just south of Santa Fe happened more than four
decades ago, it has created a culture in which state officials are afraid to
cut or question the Correction Department’s $363 million annual budget. The
department’s budget grew by $35.9 million, or 11 percent, between fiscal year
2017 and fiscal year 2021, according to the Legislative Finance Committee,
even as the inmate population decreased 17.6 percent over the same period.
Critics of the Corrections Department, including some legislators, say the
state has the power to control its own inmate population and should take that
into account when making long-term decisions about operations. “Its not just that we need to eliminate privatization. We
didn’t and don’t need many of those prisons in the first place,” Mark Donatelli, one of the lead attorneys in the Duran case,
wrote in an email. Several lawmakers at last week’s hearing talked about the
need to address a variety of issues at New Mexico’s prisons, including
overall populations, classification, recidivism and
programming. An overarching strategy, some said, is badly needed. But
lawmakers also expressed concerns about the economic impact closing rural
prisons could have on the communities that rely on them for support, noting
that if the state does decide to consolidate inmates and shut down prisons,
it should start with those located near larger cities, which have more
employment opportunities. “If we are going to do that, let’s look at Santa Fe
first before we move to other areas,” Sen. George K. Muñoz, a Gallup Democrat
who is the committee’s vice chairman, said Thursday.
Mar 6, 2021 taosnews.com
Legislative shift
away from private detention centers inches forward
Legislation that aims
to shift New Mexico and its counties away from reliance on private detention
center operators has inched forward, but the outlook for such measures is
unclear as lawmakers head into the final two weeks of the 2021 session. The
House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee voted Thursday to approve House
Bill 352, which would prohibit the state or counties from entering
into any new contract with a private company to run a jail, prison or
juvenile facility. The bill would allow companies operating four privately
run prisons in the state and county jails to continue until the end of their
contracts — at least two of which would last until 2034. The bill also would
increase state oversight of privately run county facilities and would create
a transition task force charged making recommendations for how the state
should respond to private prison closures, especially when it comes to
providing economic and workforce support for communities affected by the
shutdowns. The Consumer and Public Affairs Committee was the first hurdle for
HB 352. A similar moratorium on private prison contracts, House Bill 40, has
cleared two committees and is awaiting a third hearing in the House
Appropriations and Finance Committee before it can advance to the House
floor. On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Senate Bill 291,
a proposal that would allow an independent auditor to inspect New Mexico's
public and private prisons without prior notice. That bill has moved on to
the full Senate for consideration. The
proposals come after President Joe Biden announced in January the U.S.
Department of Justice must end its practice of hiring private companies to
operate federal prisons. That same month, New Mexico Corrections Secretary
Alisha Tafoya Lucero said the state could eventually stop contracting with
private firms, but it needs time to adapt to such a change. Supporters of HB
352 — sponsored by Reps. Linda Serrato, D-Santa Fe, and Angelica Rubio, D-Las
Cruces — told the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee getting rid of
private prisons is a necessary step for prison reform. They told stories of
loved ones suffering behind bars because of weak accountability measures and
of private firms profiting from keeping people incarcerated. "We’re
concerned that private, for-profit prisons create a perverse incentive to
incarcerate more people and keep them in longer," said Bill Jordan, a
lobbyist for the nonprofit New Mexico Voices for Children. A
number of studies, including a Justice Policy Institute report from
2018, say private prisons, which emerged in the mid-1980s to deal with a
growing population of inmates — often cut corners by hiring fewer staff
members and reducing training. A 2016 report by the U.S. Department of
Justice Inspector General said private prisons had a 28 percent higher rate
of inmate-on-inmate assaults than federally operated prisons. That report
also said Federal Bureau of Prisons officials tasked with overseeing private
prisons failed to ensure inmates in those facilities received proper medical
care. Accessing public records for those facilities was difficult as well.
Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, a sponsor of SB 291, told the Senate Judiciary
Committee private prisons need to be held accountable, and unplanned audits
can reveal problems with abuse and neglect of inmates. Senators on the
committee who had taken part in prison visits said when officials knew
inspections were coming, they made sure everything looked "spit shine
and button down," as Sen. Joe Cervantes put it. The Las Cruces Democrat
said he and other visitors would pull prisoners aside for private talks, and
"we would usually get a very different story than that of the
institution." The committee accepted an amendment to the bill that would
extend unplanned audits to public prisons. Another measure — House Bill 191 —
addresses the issue by creating the Office of the Corrections Ombudsman to
monitor the state Department of Corrections and ensure it is complying with
federal, state and local laws while looking into
prison abuse or neglect claims. That bill also is awaiting a hearing in the
House Appropriations and Finance Committee.
Feb 11, 2021 nmpoliticalreport.com
Bill to end private
detention facilities in the state passes House Judiciary but may face uphill
battle
A lively debate in
the House Judiciary Committee around a proposal for New Mexico to stop
renewing contracts with private detention centers ended with one Democrat
voting against the bill, along with all Republicans, but it passed 7 to 5. HB
40, the Private Detention Moratorium Act, would phase out the state’s
reliance on private companies to house its prison population within 3 to 5
years. New Mexico incarcerates more people per capita than any other state
and, disproportionately, the people housed are Black and Latino, advocates
for the bill have said. But House Rep. Eliseo Lee Alcon, a Democrat from Milan and a former magistrate judge, voted against the
bill. He said he used to work in the state prison system
and he questioned whether people housed in public detention centers are
really better off. He said that when he worked in a state-run facility, it
was built to hold 700 inmates but at the time it was holding 1,200 to 1,300
prisoners with no more than 12 correction officers supervising on Friday and
Saturday nights. “I can honestly say we don’t pay our state correctional
officers; they’re paid not that great,” Alcon said. “We haven’t put any money
into our Department of Corrections in the 13 years I’ve been here.” Michael
Eshleman, Otero County Attorney, said his county is in danger of defaulting
on $58 million in bonds if it must end its contract with Management and
Training Corporation (MTC), which runs Otero County Processing Center in
Chaparral. The bill allows current contracts with private detention centers
to continue for 3 to 5 years but counties could not renew a contract under HB
40. Eshleman said Otero County’s contract with MTC ends in June 2021. “Our
sole source of bond revenue is contracts,” Eshleman said. “Without it,
potentially we would have to default.” Defaulting would mean a bad credit
score for the county, Eshelman said. He said another issue is that 90 percent
of Otero County land cannot be taxed because it is owned by the U.S. Department
of Defense, so the loss of revenue would be a “significant blow to the county
budget.” The Torrance County Commission passed a resolution Wednesday morning
opposing the bill, Rep. Angelica Rubio, D-Las Cruces, said. Rubio is the lead
sponsor of the bill. But proponents of the bill said that because of lower
staffing levels at private prisons, those facilities see higher rates of
assault and more contraband weapons, making them less safe for both staff and
the incarcerated. The state Department of Corrections has also spoken against
the bill. A representative said during the public comment period that moving
from private to public facilities takes careful planning and that the time
allowance in the bill was inadequate. Rep. Zachary Cook, a Republican from
Ruidoso, offered to amend the bill which Rubio viewed as a “friendly”
amendment. Rubio said she was “intrigued.” The amendment added language about
creating a fund to help both workers and the communities impacted by the
closure of the private facilities. But Cook’s amendment did not include a
dollar amount. This was the second amendment added to the bill. The first one
came from the sponsor and cleaned up some language within the bill. There was
some discussion at the end of the debate as to whether the bill would make it
through the House Appropriation Committee, given the state’s fiscal crisis
and the second amendment requesting funds to help the workers and communities
affected if the bill is passed. There are five counties – Lee, Guadalupe, Otero,
Cibola and Torrance – that would be impacted, Rubio
said. Rubio said that if the Legislature passed “courageous” prison reform,
the prison population would decrease. That could end the worry about the
state having enough beds for its inmates if the private contracts ceased.
Rep. James Townsend, a Republican from Artesia, argued that the problems
documented in the private prison system were not the fault of the companies
but of the state for not writing stronger contracts and providing better
oversight over the companies. “My point is the failure lies with not
demanding performance in a contract, not the contractor,” Townsend said. Rep.
Micaela Lara Cadena, D-Mesilla, said that she, too, had worked for the
Department of Corrections in the past. She said that she fundamentally
believes there should be “no profit in incarcerated humans.” But, she said that inmates’ constitutional rights were
violated “across the system.” “Sometimes on the public side, sometimes on the
private side. The entire system is underfunded,” Cadena said.
Jan
31, 2021 krwg.org
Small towns say
private prison ban would be their end
LAS CRUCES - A bill
that would phase out private prisons in the state advanced in the New Mexico
House of Representatives on Thursday, Jan. 28, despite dire warnings from
local leaders in Grants and Estancia. House Bill 40, sponsored by Rep.
Angelica Rubio, D-Las Cruces, and others, would make it unlawful to operate a
private detention facility in New Mexico. It would also prohibit the state or
any county, sheriff’s office or other government
entity from entering into a new agreement or renewing an existing agreement.
Detention facilities now operating would be allowed to complete the terms of
existing contracts. During the public comment section, more than 20 people
spoke in favor of the bill, none in opposition. It passed on a 3-2 vote in
the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee, but both Stefani Lord,
R-Sandia Park, and Randall Pettigrew, R-Lovington, made it clear that their
votes against the bill should not be seen as a defense of private prisons.
Lord said she received a phone call from Estancia Mayor Nathan Dial, who told
her the town of about 1,600 people gets about two-thirds of its tax revenue
from the Torrance County Detention Facility, which is owned and operated by CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of
America. The 910-bed facility houses federal prisoners, immigration detainees
and county inmates, according to the town’s website. “If this passes, we can
say goodbye to the town of Estancia. There will be no town,” Lord said. “I
understand the other points of view, but we are going to lose an entire
city.” Rep. Harry Garcia, D-Grants, who is not a committee member and did not
vote, expressed similar concerns for his hometown, where the Northwest New
Mexico Correctional Center is located. The facility, which can hold up to 744
inmates, is also owned and operated by CoreCivic.
He said if the prison were shut down the town would lose 250 jobs. That would
come on top of the recent closure of the Marathon Petroleum refinery in
nearby Gallup, which resulted in more than 200 workers losing their jobs. “I
understand the concerns, and we do need to have a plan, but we are in great
danger of losing everything in that town if this happens,” Garcia said.
Michael Eshleman, county attorney for Otero County, said there should be a
grandfather clause for existing facilities. The Otero County Prison Facility
and the Otero County Processing Center for immigration in Chaparral are both
owned and operated by Management and Training Corporation. Eshleman said the
county has outstanding bonds on the facilities that won’t be paid off until
2028. “Whether or not we should have these facilities, Otero County has
them,” he said, adding that the only revenue they have to
pay off the bonds is from the prison. But former Chaparral resident Uriel
Rosales said the private prisons have worked to limit the opportunities for
residents there. “People in Chaparral have little control over how this
industry is affecting its development,” he said. “My community can’t take any
more years of being forced to work in inhumane jobs, using human suffering as
a business model.” New Mexico has the highest percentage of private
prisons in the nation, according to a 2019 report by The Sentencing Project.
More than half of the prisoners in the state are being held in private
facilities. The national average is just over 8 percent. Many of those
commenting on the bill argued that private prisons routinely have poorer
services and living conditions for inmates and lesser pay and more dangerous
working conditions for staff. They provide an incentive for increased
incarceration and a disincentive for rehabilitation. “Some things I don’t
believe should be for-profit, and corrections is one,” said House Consumer
and Public Affairs Committee Chair Liz Thomson, D-Albuquerque. State
Corrections Secretary Alishia Tafoya Lucero said the administration opposes
the bill “in its current form” because the state would lose 3,000 beds, and doesn’t immediately have the capacity to replace
them. “I want to be very clear, when it is safe and reasonable to convert
from private to public, we will,” she said. “But to do so requires planning.”
The bill now goes to the House Judiciary Committee. A similar bill introduced
by Rubio in 2019 failed to clear that committee. And, given the opposition by
the Corrections Department, it is not certain that the bill would be signed
by the governor this year even if it were to pass. But Rubio made it clear to
leaders in the towns that now house private prisons that they need to start
planning now for whatever will come next. “Private prison will end. That’s my
promise as a legislator. If not this year, it will happen,” she said. “So, we
need to start working on a transition plan for these communities.”
Jan
29, 2021 kob.com
House committee
passes bill that would phase out use of private prisons
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —
State lawmakers are taking up a bill that would discontinue the use of
privately operated prison facilities in New Mexico. This comes a few days
after President Biden issued a similar executive order. House Bill 40 aims to
phase out privately owned facilities when contracts end. There are currently
seven of those contracts in New Mexico—four with the New Mexico Department of
Corrections (NMDC), and three with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“They were accepted here in New Mexico as a tool for economic development and
creating jobs, which has been a waste of taxpayer money as these institutions
pay very little, provide few benefits and result in horrifying conditions,”
said Rep. Angelica Rubio (D-District 35). Rep. Rubio is a cosponsor of the
bill. She said now is the perfect time to begin the transition to state
operate facilities. HB 40 would allow up to five years for that transition.
House committee passes bill that would phase out use of private prisons. “We
know that private prisons are profit motivated, and so we see higher levels of abuse, more neglect—this isn't just
for prisoners or the folks who are detained inside. We also see lack of
accountability and transparency,” said Adriel Orozco, executive director and
attorney at the Immigrant Law Center. The bill was discussed in the House
Consumer and Public Affairs Committee Thursday. Some people expressed
concerns over the fact that NMDC would lose 3,000 beds. “When it is safe and
reasonable to convert a private facility into a public facility, we absolutely
will as we did in Clayton in 2019. But doing so requires significant
planning, staffing and ultimately significant fiscal resources,” said Alisha
Tafoya Lucero, secretary of NMDC. Other representatives raised concerned over
the potential economic devastation of losing a private facility, like the one
in Torrance County. In some rural parts of the state, those facilities are
the entire town and could put hundreds of people out of work. Even with those
concerns, HB 40 passed the committee.
Jan 18, 2021 krwg.org
Rubio bill would
phase out private prisons
LAS CRUCES - New
Mexico, which now leads the nation in the use of private prisons, would be
required to wind down that practice under a bill prefiled
ahead of this year’s legislative session by Rep. Angelica Rubio, D-Las
Cruces. House Bill 40, called the Private Detention Facility Moratorium Act,
would prohibit the state from entering into any new contracts or agreements
for the operation of private detention facilities. It would also allow for
the termination of existing contracts if the inspection report by the
Department of Corrections finds that the facility is out of compliance. It
would prohibit the use of public funds for private prisons in the future, and make the operation of a private detention
facility illegal. The bill would not impact private facilities used for
educational, vocational or medical services. Rubio
introduced a similar bill in 2019. It cleared its first committee but did not
make it out of the Judiciary Committee. A national report in 2019 by The
Sentencing Project found that New Mexico was more reliant on private prison
facilities than any other state in the nation. More than half of those being
detained in our state (53 percent) were being held in private prisons. The
national average is 8 percent. A 2016 report by then-State Rep. Bill McCamley titled “Private Prisons & New Mexico: Why We
Shouldn’t Do This Anymore” found that private prisons had more lockdowns,
guilty findings for inmate discipline and grievances filed by inmates. Guards
were paid less, received less training and had
higher turnover. Private prisons incentivize arrests, as empty cells cost
money. And they don’t save money in the long run, the report said. The bill
is one of several that have been prefiled ahead of
this year’s 60-day session, which will start at noon Tuesday, Jan. 19, in
Santa Fe. Attendance this year will be restricted because of the COVID-19
pandemic, but all floor sessions and committee meetings will be livestreamed
and then archived on the Legislature's website.
Oct 16, 2020 santafenewmexican.com
New Mexico
Corrections pays $1.4 million to settle whistleblower case
The state Corrections
Department spent three years and about $270,000 fighting a whistleblower
lawsuit filed by one of its highest-ranking employees before paying her $1.4
million in March to drop her complaint, according to recently released public
records. “My case is a perfect example of why whistleblowers need to be
protected,” Bianca McDermott said Thursday. “But the biggest tragedy in my
eyes is that nothing really has changed.” McDermott, a clinical psychologist
with a doctorate from Yale, was the Corrections Department’s behavioral
health bureau chief for 13 years before she was fired in 2016 over a
personnel dispute, which she said was retaliation for raising concerns about
the quality of the medical care being provided to prisoners. McDermott said
at the time she had seen firsthand poor care being provided by Corizon
Correctional Health Care, then known as CMS, and she began alerting
corrections officials about the problems as early as 2009 following the
unusually high number of inmate deaths the year before. In early 2017, she
filed a whistleblower lawsuit saying she was fired for reporting the
department was not auditing the performance of the health care provider to
which it paid tens of millions of dollars each year to deliver inmate medical
care. Over the next couple of years, the department paid a private attorney
about $270,000 to fight the case. A judge in September 2019 ruled that not
only had the Corrections Department retaliated against McDermott for
reporting the problem, but the department had willfully and intentionally
concealed evidence in the case, including its own 2014 report that
corroborated her complaints. “Dr. McDermott’s complaints that the audits were
required and were not being conducted were in fact valid complaints,”
according to the report, obtained through a public records request. “The
audits were supposed to be conducted to ensure that inmates were receiving
adequate health care.” “It is a well studied
conclusion that perception of detection is the best and most cost effective way to thwart wrongdoing of all kinds,
including fraud and abuse,” the report said. “In this case, the perception of
detection was zero, and Corizon personnel absolutely knew they were free to
do anything without fear of consequences. “This constitutes a serious failure
by [New Mexico Corrections Department] staff whose job it was to ensure
proper inmate health and psychiatric care through the use of the audits and
other tools, as well as a failure on the part of those who supervised them,”
the report said. Since-retired state District Judge Raymond Ortiz in
September 2019 said the department’s behavior in the case was among the worst
he’d seen in his 30-plus-year career. The department subsequently agreed to
pay McDermott $1.4 million to drop her complaint. The settlement was paid in
March, but the state General Services Department withheld the details until
Oct. 13, citing a since-modified state law that allowed settlements to be
kept confidential for 180 days. The decisions surrounding the lawsuit were
made by the previous administration, Corrections Department spokesman Eric
Harrison said in an email Wednesday. “Our agency does not tolerate
retaliation of any kind, and our leadership understands the importance of
transparency,” he wrote. But records obtained by The New Mexican show that
more than half the roughly $270,000 the state agency spent fighting the case
was expended after Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero took office in May 2019.
The department replaced Corizon with another vendor in 2016 and replaced that
vendor with the current vendor in 2019, citing concerns about the quality of
care delivered. “The Corrections Department just keeps changing vendors,”
McDermott said. “All of the private prison care vendors are for-profit
companies. All of them have lost contracts and been kicked out of states for
poor services. “The only way to improve the quality of medical care for our
prison inmates is to audit the medical vendor, even state law requires it.
Otherwise, all you have is a continuing lack of services for prison inmate
and basically millions of dollars being misspent by the Corrections
Department on vendors that are not following their contractual obligations.”
Harrison said Thursday the department audits the medical care vendor’s
performance once every fiscal year. But a steady stream of lawsuits continues
to be filed in state District Court by inmates alleging denied, delayed or
poor medical care. The department spends about 15 percent of its roughly $360
million annual budget on inmate medical care services, according to a 2019
state auditor’s report. McDermott said Thursday one of her greatest concerns
is that the majority of inmates in the state prison
system are Hispanics and Native Americans, who historically have been
marginalized. “At a time when we are talking so much about systemic racism
and social justice, it’s ironic that this particular population is being ignored,”
she said.
Feb 12, 2019 nmpoliticalreport
New Mexico: Gov to donate GEO $$$ to charity
Prison profits: Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s inaugural committee says it
will give a donation from the private prison company Geo Group to charity.
The Florida-based firm runs several prisons in New Mexico and has contributed
to politicians on both sides of the aisle. According to financial disclosures
Lujan Grisham’s inaugural committee published last week, Geo Group donated
$2,500 to the Democratic governor’s inaugural festivities. Democratic
politicians have faced awkward questions about financial contributions from
the private prison industry amid outrage over the federal government’s
zero-tolerance policy toward undocumented migrants. Companies like Geo Group
have stood to gain from the federal policy. Lujan Grisham, a former leader of
the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, has been an outspoken critic of federal
government’s stand and has said she wants greater oversight of private
prisons in New Mexico. So, when Geo Group was listed among the donors towards
her inaugural events, The New Mexican asked whether the committee would
return the donation. “The governor’s position on private prisons is well
known,” Elizabeth Collins, a spokeswoman for the inaugural committee, said in
an email. “Geo Group, as a company doing business in New Mexico, chose to
make a contribution to the Inaugural Committee and the committee accepted it.
We will be including Geo Group’s contribution in the donations the Inaugural
Committee makes to charities and nonprofits.”
Jun 26, 2018 abqjournal.com
NM Democrats to give up prison firms’ donations
Amid the national debate over immigration policy, several prominent New
Mexico Democrats – including the attorney general and two members of the
state’s congressional delegation – say they will make charitable donations in
the amounts they received as campaign contributions from two private prison
companies. And other elected officials said they’re considering returning
such contributions. The companies are Florida-based GEO Group Inc., and
Tennessee-based CoreCivic, which operate immigrant
detention centers and private correctional facilities across the country. In
New Mexico, GEO Group operates several private prisons and related
facilities, and CoreCivic runs a private prison and
a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Cibola County.
The companies have contributed thousands of dollars to Democratic and
Republican political campaigns here in recent years, as recently reported by
New Mexico In Depth. GEO Group contributed $5,500 in April to the re-election
campaign of Attorney General Hector Balderas, according to reports filed with
the Secretary of State’s Office. Balderas, a Democrat, announced last week
that he is part of a coalition of 21 attorneys general suing President Donald
Trump for his administration’s child separation policy, among other
immigration-related issues. An Attorney General’s Office spokesman said
Monday that “contributions to a political campaign play no impact on
(Balderas’) official decisions” and that the attorney general would donate
the $5,500 to several New Mexico nonprofits focused on children and families.
Asked why the attorney general was making the donation at this time, the
spokesman referenced the lawsuit. Meanwhile, the re-election campaign for
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., told the Journal that it, too, had made a
charitable donation in the amount of the $6,500 it has received from CoreCivic since 2010. Brad Elkins, who manages Heinrich’s
re-election campaign, said in an email that the senator “does not support the
private prison industry” and that the donation would be given to the New
Mexico nonprofit PB&J Family Services. And a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep.
Ben Ray Luján, a fellow Democrat, said Luján donated the $7,000 he received from GEO Group to
New Mexico nonprofit organizations that help immigrant children and their
families, as well as victims of violence. Share prices of both GEO Group and CoreCivic have risen in response to Trump administration
immigration policies. In respective statements, spokesmen for the two
companies said they do not operate facilities for unaccompanied minors, and
that their organizations do not advocate for or against immigration
enforcement or detention policies. “While we applaud charitable giving and
make it a priority for our company, this decision (to donate to other
charities) appears to be rooted in politics,” a CoreCivic
spokesman said in an email. Some state lawmakers – both Republicans and
Democrats – have also received hefty campaign contributions from the private
prison companies in recent years. Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup, said
Monday that she was considering returning a $2,000 donation from GEO Group
that she received in December 2017. She also received a $300 contribution
from the company in 2010, according to campaign filings. “I’ve been kicking
that around,” Lundstrom told the Journal. “I’ll be talking to my (campaign)
treasurer about it.” Lundstrom was appointed as chairwoman of the influential
House Appropriations and Finance Committee at the start of the 2017
legislative session, and she acknowledged some recent campaign contributions
could be seen as an attempt to gain favor. It was unclear Monday whether
Republican politicians in New Mexico had made or were considering making
similar gifts. A spokesman for the Republican gubernatorial nominee, Rep.
Steve Pearce, who represents the border region of New Mexico, said Pearce had
not donated the $1,000 he received from CoreCivic
last year. He also said Pearce does not support the policy of separating
families at the border. Since 2010, the largest campaign contributions from
private prison companies have been made by GEO Group to Gov. Susana Martinez
and political committees that support her. The company gave more than $80,000
– in separate contributions in 2014 and 2016 – to Advance New Mexico, an
independent expenditure committee run by Jay McCleskey, the governor’s
political adviser. The political action committee, also known as a super PAC,
spent more than $3.1 million during the 2014 and 2016 election cycles to help
Republican legislative candidates. GEO Group also gave Martinez a direct
$25,000 donation in 2010, the year she was first elected governor. The
state’s current campaign contribution limits for candidates – of $5,500 for
the primary and general election – took effect after the 2010 election cycle.
Neither McCleskey nor a spokesman for the two-term Republican governor
immediately responded Monday to a request for comment on the issue.
Jan 31, 2017 kob.com
Committee questions millions in New Mexico state agency procurement
While the State of New Mexico is facing a multi-million dollar budget
shortfall, the Legislative Finance Committee and its Program Evaluation Unit
are questioning state spending on contracts that aren’t open to bid. The
Learning Community Charter School made the LFC’s list. The charter school
spent $124,000 over two years on legal services without seeking other
attorneys for a better deal. The LFC accuses nearly half of the state’s
charter schools of keeping outdated purchase orders or not getting competitive
bids for large purchases. The Rio Grande Foundation is a financially
conservative research institute. President Paul Gessing
said state agencies aren’t always frugal. "The incentives of government
are not always the same as you and I have incentives to save money or to buy
the best product,” Gessing said. The LFC discovered
that the Children, Youth and Families Department entered into a $2.75 million
non-competitive contract for the PullTogether.org advertising campaign,
justifying it by citing the advertising exemption in the state’s procurement
code. “Our lawmakers voted to allow this practice years ago, prior to this
administration,” CYFD Communications Director Henry Varela said in an email
to KOB. “It gives us the opportunity to hire local businesses and keep
taxpayer dollars in our state, helping support jobs and our economy. We are proud of the fact that a New Mexico
business created PullTogether.” Rest assured that
our use of the advertising exemption was and is an efficient use of taxpayer
dollars. For PullTogether, we now have an in-state
New Mexico firm who I know does great work and charges a reasonable fee in
comparison to other ad agencies. In 2015, the New Mexico Department of
Corrections justified a $14.5 million contract with the Tennessee-based
private prison company Corrections Corporation of America, admitting that the
request for proposal was not completed, but the Department of Finance has
approved previous contracts. NMCD has, over the past twenty years, entered
into serial source contracts with CCA to house and to provide services to all
its female inmates in the New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants,
New Mexico. DFA has historically approved this contract as a four-year sole
source contract, based on the unique legislative history and background of
that facility. "It can add up to millions of dollars,” Gessing said. The New Mexico Department of Information
Technology, Homeland Security, Miners Colfax Medical Center, The Department
of Public Safety, the Public Education Department and the Livestock Board
were all found to have procurements that exceeded $100,000 without valid
contracts. State Auditor Tim Keller sent KOB the following statement: The LFC
report reinforces our audit sample that showed as much as 40 percent of a $1
billion sample didn't go through the procurement process. We are in process
of a report on the most egregious procurement abuses in the state. Our
procurement code is holding back both job creation and fair and transparent
government in New Mexico.
Feb 10, 2016 krwg.org
For-profit prison group gave thousands to elect New Mexico Republicans
Commentary: New analysis of
campaign finance reports has found that five weeks before Republicans seized
control of New Mexico’s House of Representatives in November 2014, a
Florida-based private prison company – Geo Group Inc. – donated over $30,000
to a Republican Super-PAC which launched a series of high-profile, factually
inaccurate negative ads smearing two incumbent Democratic representatives in
the tightest races that election season. An initial $5,200 contribution from
Geo Group, Inc. came on October 1, 2014 to Advance New Mexico NOW. It was
followed five days later by another donation of $25,000. It was the largest
PAC donation ever from one of the state’s two largest private prison
corporations. Following those donations, finance reports show that Advance
New Mexico NOW, a supposedly ‘independent’ PAC led by former Republican
District Attorney Matt Chandler (who was later appointed to a judgeship by
Governor Martinez) paid for a Republican mail firm to produce and print 13
new attack ads. Two of those ads, against former Representative Liz Thompson
and current Representative Stephanie Garcia Richard, were decried in the
media as wholly false. Those ads helped Republicans win control of the State
House for the first time in 60 years. Since then, Republican legislators have
introduced a record number of bills aimed at adding new penalties and prison
sentences to a variety of crimes. “Private prisons house approximately 40% of
New Mexico’s prison population, but stand to lose hundreds of beds, and the
associated dollars, over the next decade if crime prevention, intervention,
and diversion programs are enacted in New Mexico,” said Alex Curtas of ProgressNow NM. “Republicans in Santa Fe,
however, seem more concerned with passing bills to benefit private prisons
than enacting effective policies to combat drug addiction, poverty, and poor
educational outcomes. The House Republican budget raises corrections spending
by 4% but public school spending by only 1%. You need not look farther than
those two numbers to see that the current Republican all-crime-all-the-time
agenda is a political ploy and not a serious policy solution.” ProgressNow
NM’s report on the connection between Geo Group Inc.’s donations and the
current Republican push for pro-incarceration policies can be found below and
also at this link. REPORT: Ahead of GOP’s ‘more prisons’ agenda, private
prison helped fund negative ads against Dems Private prison corporation gives
big to Republicans ahead of ‘more prisons’ agenda Mega-donation helped fund
attack ads against Democrats 93% of GEO Group Inc. donations go to
Republicans Private prison group says more incarceration is needed to
maintain profits New Mexico Republicans buck national trend and call for more
prison terms Reporting from Santa Fe – Just five weeks before House
Republicans seized control of the lower chamber of the state legislature in
November 2014, a Florida-based private prison company quietly donated $5,200
to a Republican Super-PAC which was set to launch a series of high-profile,
and factually inaccurate, negative ads smearing two female incumbent
Democratic representatives in the tightest races that election season. That
initial $5,200 contribution from Geo Group, Inc. came on October 1. It was
followed five days later by another mega-donation of $25,000. It was the
largest PAC donation ever from one of the state’s two largest private prison
corporations. Since those ads helped Republicans win control of the State
House for the first time in 60 years, Republican legislators have introduced
a record number of bills aimed at adding new penalties and prison sentences
to all sorts of crimes. As the party in power, they’ve fast-tracked those
crime bills by sending them to the Senate with little debate from the House –
many do not even have required fiscal impact reports to show how much these
new proposals will cost taxpayers. And they’ve done it at the expense of
other programs. To increase funding to
prisons in a year with zero budget growth, Republicans used budget tools
called “sweeps” to take money from other departments. Offered the chance to add money to
preventive programs like job creation and intervention through amendments to
the budget, Republicans voted no on a Democratic amendment to provide new
funding for family services in CYFD and rural job training programs. Private
prisons house approximately 40-percent of New Mexico’s prison population, but
stand to lose hundreds of beds, and the associated dollars, over the next
decade if crime prevention, intervention and diversion programs are enacted
in New Mexico as they have been in dozens of states across the country. Want
to know how all this came to be?
Here’s what you need to know. “But Chandler’s group got it wrong.” In
week following those donations, finance reports show that Advance New Mexico
NOW, a supposedly ‘independent’ PAC led by former Republican DA Matt Chandler
(he later received an appointment from Governor Martinez for a judgeship) and
charged with attacking Democrats, paid for a DA-area Republican mail firm to
produce and print 13 new attack ads. Just days after those attack ads hit,
newspapers around the state printed stories saying at least two of those
negative attacks designed to help Republicans were based on facts the group
had made up to support their attacks. Election Ad Watch: Attack mailer lies
about state rep’s vote on expunging criminal records.
October 21, 2014 -- The committee, Advance New Mexico Now, says in its direct-mail ad that
Garcia “voted to hide arrest records from employers like daycare centers and
schools.” “It’s a blatant lie,” Garcia Richard said in an interview. Matt
Chandler, a former district attorney in the Clovis area and the unsuccessful
Republican candidate for state attorney general four years ago, is listed on
the mailer as treasurer of Advance New Mexico Now. As evidence to support his
group’s charge against Garcia Richard, Chandler cited her vote on Senate Bill
294, the proposal to expunge certain criminal records. But Chandler’s group
got it wrong. State legislative records show that Garcia Richard voted
against the expungement bill. Another ad accusing Albuquerque State Rep. Liz
Thomson, a Democrat, was also false. Election Ad Watch: Mailer accuses House Dem of robbing school kids
October 9, 2014 --
Nothing may inflame voters more than a claim that
schoolchildren are being shortchanged to pay for lobbyists. Freshman state
Rep. Liz Thomson is the target of just such an advertisement that is at best
deceptive and at worst a lie. But the attacks kept coming. Within another
week, the same PAC had paid Jay McCleskey’s firm more than $20,000 for media
buys. Though his business was supposed to be operating ‘independent’ from
candidates, McCleskey was providing similar campaign services to Republican
candidates up and down the ballot, including Governor Martinez. It has been
widely reported that McCleskey is now the subject of an FBI inquiry into his
fundraising and campaign tactics. GEO Group: Lowering penalties decreases our
bottom line.
Sourcewatch.org noted these items in GEO Group’s SEC
filings: In its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, GEO
Group cites some of the following as “risk factors” that may affect its
business and future prospects: “[A]ny changes with
respect to the decriminalization of drugs and controlled substances could
affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, sentenced and incarcerated,
thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house
them.”[151] “Reductions in crime rates could lead to reductions in arrests,
convictions and sentences requiring incarceration at correctional
facilities.” To hike up their profits, these for-profit companies now
classify inmates, including those in New Mexico, as “renters” to get the
benefits available to companies that build housing programs. This is so
ridiculous, we’ll just let the Santa Fe New Mexican explain it as they did in
their report from 2013: So you thought that private prison companies were
operating several corrections facilities for the state of New Mexico? Think
again. They are being run by “real estate investment trusts.” And don’t think
of the people living in cells in the private prisons as “inmates.” Under the
new arrangement, at least in the eyes of the federal tax system, they are
“renters” — though New Mexico taxpayers are paying their “rent.” Both the
Florida-based GEO Group, which runs the state prisons in Hobbs, Santa Rosa
and Clayton, and Corrections Corporation of America, a Tennessee company that
operates the state women’s prison in Grants, recently have been reclassified
by the Internal Revenue Service as real estate investment trusts. Why? To
save millions of dollars in taxes… The prisons operated by GEO have a
combined capacity of 2,425 beds. The women’s prison has a capacity of 611.
Private prisons in the state house more than 40 percent of the total number
of those incarcerated in state prisons. While other states embrace
prevention, New Mex. Republicans promise to put more people in prison Those
2014 ads helped Republicans eek out wins in several close districts,
including that Albuquerque district targeted by the GEO Group-funded Super
Pac. Now in the majority, Republicans began setting their agenda. Since
Governor Martinez took office in 2011, 93% of political contributions from
GEO Group have gone to Republican candidates, elected officials and their
PACs. n 2015, a year with no elections, GEO Group continued to give – now
exclusively to Republican legislators and their PACs.
December 5, 2014 -- $3,000 to Don
Tripp Speaker Fund
January 12, 2015
-- $360 to Lea County Republican Party. And even though other states, including deeply conservative Texas, are
closing prisons and embracing intervention and prevention to lower prison
costs, New Mexico’s new Republican leaders are calling for more prisons and
harsher sentences. It all pays off. GEO Group’s investment in attack ads and
Republican candidates has rewarded them with a slew of new prison policies in
one of the only states in the country actually adding prison beds instead of
classrooms, job training or drug intervention programs. From the Jemez Daily
Post in Jemez, NM: There is promise of a boom time for the private prison
industry in our state. The recent push for the Three Strikes and You’re Out
law in New Mexico, while most other states are abandoning it, must be
heartening news for the locally based incarceration corporations. Private
prisons in the state house more than 40 percent of the total number of those
incarcerated in state prisons. For these companies, higher incarceration
rates, longer sentences and lower standards mean higher profits and
multimillion-dollar salaries for their top executives. They spend vast sums
on lobbying efforts and donations to political candidates. They support
politicians who promise to run on platforms of harsher sentencing laws,
reduced parole time, drug criminalization, longer immigration detention and
increased border patrol funding. They also keep their profit margins high by
paying low wages to inexperienced guards, maintaining sub-standard medical
care in filthy conditions and overlooking prevalent sexual abuse.
March 17, 2012 Albuquerque Journal
The companies that operate private prisons where New Mexico state inmates
serve their time have racked up nearly $1.6 million in penalties for
understaffing and other contract violations since the Martinez administration
started cracking down last year. Nearly all of that was attributable to
problems at The GEO Group Inc.’s prison in Hobbs, although the company’s
Clayton prison was recently added to the penalty list. The Corrections
Corporation of America, which operates the women’s prison in Grants, also has
been fined during the past couple of months, mostly for having inmates in the
prison after their release dates. Reversing the practice of the previous
administration, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez decided to pursue the
penalties the state is entitled to impose for contract violations. “In
today’s struggling economy, the people of New Mexico deserve to know the
Corrections Department is running in a fiscally responsible manner,”
Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said this
week in a statement. The department recently revived its Office of Inspector
General to keep tabs on contract compliance. Such fines are discretionary,
and former Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration gave private
prisons a pass, irking lawmakers who estimated that upwards of $18 million
could have been collected. Richardson’s corrections chief, Joe Williams – who
claimed that estimate was inflated – said that prisons already were paying
substantial overtime costs, that understaffing was largely due to factors
beyond their control, and that the facilities were safe and secure. Williams
worked at Hobbs for GEO’s predecessor company before Richardson hired him,
and he returned to GEO’s corporate offices in Boca Raton, Fla., at the end of
Richardson’s tenure. After negotiations with the Martinez administration, GEO
in January paid a $1.1 million fine for violations at the Lea County
Correctional Facility in Hobbs for the period from January through October of
2011. GEO also agreed to put another $200,000 into recruitment over the
subsequent year. GEO continued to be penalized: $158,529 for November,
$139,621 for December, $78,710 for January and $84,753 for February,
according to documents provided by the department. The February assessment
isn’t final yet, because the company has until late this month to respond to
it. The fines largely were due to vacancies in the ranks of correctional
officers and in noncustodial positions such as teachers, counselors and
treatment providers. Corrections officials have said it’s difficult for the
men’s medium security lockup at Hobbs to recruit and keep corrections officers
because it’s competing with the oil industry. An assessment of $2,570 for
understaffing in January was proposed for GEO’s Northeastern New Mexico
Detention Facility in Clayton, but the problem had been corrected by the time
the department sent a letter to the prison on Feb. 10, and no penalty was
assessed. In early March, however, the department notified the Clayton prison
that it would be fined $5,373 for February, for vacancies in mandatory posts
and for two inmates imprisoned beyond their release date. That penalty is
pending. GEO did not respond to requests from the Journal for comment. The
Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the New Mexico Women’s
Correctional Facility in Grants, was fined $11,779 for January, and $9,974
for February – still pending – for an academic instructor vacancy and for
inmates held beyond their release dates. Inspector General Shannon McReynolds
said that occurs when the required parole plans aren’t developed in a timely
way.
November
20, 2011 Albuquerque Journal
Joe Williams, who was the corrections secretary in the Richardson
administration, is back at work at the Florida-based private prison company
that he spared from paying millions of dollars in penalties for contract
violations. Williams is again employed by The GEO Group Inc., an
international firm he worked for before he was appointed by Gov. Bill
Richardson to head the New Mexico prison system. In New Mexico, GEO operates
prisons in Hobbs, Clayton and Santa Rosa that house inmates under contract
with the state Corrections Department. Williams came under scrutiny from New
Mexico legislators last year for his decision not to fine GEO and another
private prison operator for understaffing. A report by the Legislative
Finance Committee at the time said there were potentially millions of dollars
to be collected. The administration of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, who
took office in January, has decided to collect some penalties for this year.
Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said last
week that GEO has agreed to pay $1.1 million for understaffing at the Hobbs
prison during 2011 and to put another $200,000 into recruitment. The fine
will be deducted from what the state pays the company to run the private
prison. Williams headed the Corrections Department for eight years, through
2010, under Richardson. Before his appointment, he worked for GEO’s
predecessor, Wackenhut Corrections Corp., as warden of the Lea County
Correctional Facility in Hobbs. Wackenhut was renamed The GEO Group in 2003.
GEO was a contributor to Richardson. It reported giving $10,000 in 2004 to
Moving America Forward, a Richardson political committee. The company also
pumped at least $43,750 into Richardson’s 2006 gubernatorial re-election bid,
according to campaign finance data compiled by the National Institute on
Money in State Politics. And GEO officials and employees gave at least
$10,750 in 2007 for Richardson’s 2008 presidential campaign, according to
data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Richardson, a Democrat, has
consistently maintained that there was no connection between contributions to
his political committees and what happened in state government. Williams is
working out of GEO’s Boca Raton, Fla., headquarters, according to a listing
of 2011 associate members of the Association of State Correctional
Administrators. A recent GEO publication identified him as the company’s
director of operations for U.S. corrections. A GEO spokesman last week
refused to confirm Williams’ employment or title or provide other
information. Pablo Paez said in an email that the
company’s policy is to not comment on employment matters. Williams could not
be reached for comment. Private prison contracts include required staffing
patterns and allow for penalties under certain circumstances — for example,
if more than 10 percent of correctional officer positions remain vacant for
more than 30 days. The Corrections Department headed by Williams “has chosen
not (to) enforce financial penalties for staffing patterns at the private
prisons, which is within the secretary’s discretion per the contract,” the
Legislative Finance Committee staff said in a September 2010 memo. Based on
limited monitoring information from the Corrections Department — and assuming
those vacancy trends existed for the previous four budget years — the LFC
staff estimated that about $18.6 million could have been collected “if the
department had chosen to enforce the contract.” Williams defended his
position in a letter to the interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee
two months later. He called the $18.6 million calculation “highly inflated”
and said it didn’t take into account the substantial overtime and other costs
paid by the prisons. He said Corrections Corporation of America, which runs
the women’s prison in Grants, could have been subject to vacancy penalties of
about $530,000 for the previous four years but had paid $2.7 million in
overtime during that period. GEO, he said, could have been subject to $4.3
million in penalties for its three men’s prisons over the four years, but it
paid $3.6 million in overtime to cover vacancies and another $1.5 million on
uncompensated inmate transportation. The Corrections Department “had no
legitimate basis for collecting any staffing penalties from GEO” during the
four-year period, Williams wrote. Williams also said that it was difficult to
recruit employees in the rural areas where the prisons are located and that
the Hobbs facility additionally “has to compete with the oil industry.”
“Because the private prisons are operating safely and securely, I have chosen
to exercise my executive power, as have all secretaries before me, not to
penalize the private prisons for staff vacancies caused by factors largely
beyond their or anyone else’s control,” Williams wrote in the November
letter. Williams had solicited GEO’s help with making his case a few months
earlier, urging company officials in an August letter to give him staffing
data as well as information about how much GEO paid in taxes and inmate
transportation and how much it had contributed to communities and schools.
“This information could help me defend my position” to lawmakers, Williams
wrote. Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, an advisory member of the interim
Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, said it was never clear to him why
Williams didn’t impose penalties. But he criticized the movement of
employees, such as Williams, from the private sector to the public sector,
then back again, as a “built-in conflict of interest” that should be stopped.
“The people who go back and forth come out really well, but the taxpayers are
the ones who aren’t well-served,” McSorley said. Marcantel
said the department plans to look at all vendors, including CCA, to ensure
compliance with contracts.
November
14, 2011 Santa Fe New Mexican
A Florida company will pay New Mexico $1.1 million in penalties for not
adequately staffing a private prison it operates in Hobbs, a state official
said. GEO Group, which manages three of New Mexico's four private prisons,
agreed to pay the settlement last week following a meeting between the
corrections agency and the company's top management, Corrections Secretary
Gregg Marcantel said Monday. "They've agreed
on it," Marcantel said of GEO. "It's a
very fair way of doing it. They are not completely happy. It needed to be
done." Officials at GEO could not be reached for comment Monday night.
GEO will pay the $1.1 million over several months, the corrections secretary
said. In addition, GEO has agreed to spend $200,000 over the next calendar
year to recruit new correctional officers for the Hobbs facility. By
contract, New Mexico can penalize The GEO Group and Corrections Corp. of
America, the two firms that operate the private facilities, when staffing
vacancies are at 10 percent or more for 30 consecutive days. The settlement
represents the first time in years — possibly ever — that New Mexico has
penalized the out-of-state, for-profit companies for not adequately staffing
the facilities they operate. The issue has come up in the past, but state
officials said New Mexico had never levied penalties for understaffing
issues. The question surfaced in 2010 when state lawmakers were struggling to
find ways to close a yawning state budget gap. At the time, the Legislature's
budget arm, the Legislative Finance Committee, estimated Gov. Bill
Richardson's administration had skipped $18 million in penalties by not
assessing penalties against the two firms for inadequate prison staffing
levels. The $1.1 million covers understaffing by GEO at the Hobbs facility
for only this year and was reached after the state corrections agency and GEO
spent most of the summer disputing each other's methodology for computing how
much GEO should be penalized, state documents show. Marcantel
said he could not retroactively penalize the companies for previous years,
but could only go back to the first day of Gov. Susana Martinez's tenure,
Jan. 1. According to state records, of the four privately operated prisons,
Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs has struggled the most to keep
correctional officers on the job. The facility's vacancy rate hovered above
20 percent for 12 of the 14 months for which there was data — between January
2010 and March of this year. That includes seven consecutive months —
September 2010 through March 2011 — when the vacancy rate was 25.24 percent,
records showed. Going forward, the state will check monthly to ensure the
four privately operated prisons are adequately staffed, Marcantel
said. "Our new approach, it's not going to be waiting," Marcantel said. "That doesn't motivate" the
companies to keep staffing levels where they need to be, he added. GEO,
headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., recently reported $1.2 billion in earnings
and $58.8 million in profit through the first nine months of this year,
according to a Nov. 2 release by the company.
December
30, 2010 Albuquerque Journal
The family of an inmate who sued the state prison health services provider
and three wardens claiming he failed to get treatment for colon cancer has
settled the lawsuit filed on his behalf. The inmate, Michael Crespin, died in
July 2008 at age 50 while the litigation was pending in U.S. District Court.
The lawsuit continued with a personal representative for the man's estate.
The amount of the settlement is confidential, and neither Crespin's attorneys
nor Wexford Health Sources Inc., a Pittsburgh-based corporation that
describes itself as "the nation's leading innovative correctional health
care company," had any comment on it. A stipulated motion to dismiss the
lawsuit was filed with the court Nov. 29. In court documents, Wexford denied
any wrongdoing, or that any actions by its employees constituted cruel and
unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, as
Crespin had claimed.
October
28, 2009 The New Mexican
The state of New Mexico would have to shutter two prisons, give early
releases to up to 660 prisoners and lay off and furlough Corrections
Department employees if Gov. Bill Richardson signs budget cuts approved by
the Legislature, his office said Wednesday. Richardson's office raised that
grim possibility as his staff analyzes the impact of $253 million in spending
cuts legislators passed during a special session last week to deal with a
revenue shortfall. His administration on Monday had said other cuts approved
by the Legislature could mean the state Human Services Department would
reduce children's health care, nutrition programs for seniors and programs
for the developmentally disabled, if he were to sign the measures. But
lawmakers say they won't be blamed for decisions that are now up to
Richardson. "He wants it to seem like we're making the decisions,"
said House Minority Whip Keith Gardner, R-Roswell. "But he's making the
calls where he wants to cut. He's making that decision." The Corrections
Department said that in order to meet $21 million in budget cuts, it would
have to close the Roswell Correctional Center in Hagerman and the New Mexico
Women's Correctional Facility in Grants. About 270 inmates are incarcerated
at the state-operated Roswell facility, while about 590 are housed in the
Grants facility, which is operated by the Corrections Corporation of America.
The state would have to cancel its contract with the company.
January
19, 2009 Santa Fe New Mexican
A director of a foundation established by Gov. Bill Richardson — which
collected more than $1.7 million from undisclosed contributors — once worked
as a lobbyist for a corporation that manages private prisons for the state.
Joe Velasquez, a former senior adviser for Richardson's presidential campaign,
in 2006 was a registered lobbyist in the state for GEO Care Inc., which at
the time managed the troubled 230-bed Fort Bayard Medical Center east of
Silver City. GEO Care is part of a private prison corporation that runs
several New Mexico prisons and which has contributed tens of thousands of
dollars to Richardson's campaigns and other political activities. GEO
discontinued the Fort Bayard contract last year by mutual agreement with the
state. Velasquez was one of several members of Richardson's political team
listed as a director of the Moving America Forward Foundation, which was
formed as a public charity more than four years ago, about the same time
Richardson started a similarly named political action committee, Moving
America Forward. Both had the stated goal of increasing voter participation
among Hispanics and Native Americans. Word of the foundation's fundraising
efforts comes during an ongoing federal pay-to-play investigation that
derailed Richardson's nomination for U.S. Commerce secretary. His
administration also has been accused by a former state investment official —
described by a Richardson spokesman as a "disgruntled former employee''
— of applying political pressure in investments by the State Investment
Council and the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board. Unlike the Moving
America Forward PAC, the foundation legally does not have to list individual
contributors or expenditures. However, the director of New Mexico Foundation
for Open Government said Monday that it would be wise for the foundation to
disclose its donors. "There's two stories now — what the foundation was
doing and the secrecy story," Leonard DeLayo
Jr. said. In cases like this, the "secrecy story" usually is worse
than the actual facts of who contributed and where the money was spent, he
said. On Monday, the chairman of the state Republican Party called upon
Democrat Richardson to disclose the donors. "Bill Richardson and his
campaign workers are fighting to keep the identity of their donors secret,
and New Mexicans want to know why," Harvey Yates said in a written
statement. "Richardson can't pretend to support ethics reform in the
state legislature while refusing to disclose his own financial contributors.
... At a minimum, Gov. Richardson should disclose any and all donors who have
ever received New Mexico state contracts. That's the biggest question.
Scandal is epidemic in New Mexico politics right now. Sunshine is more
important than ever." Asked whether Richardson thought it would be a
good political move to disclose the contributors, spokesman Gilbert Gallegos
replied in an e-mail, "I am not familiar with details of the Foundation
or its donors as it was not related to state government and it did not do
work in the state of New Mexico." A copyrighted story in The Albuquerque
Journal said Velasquez, when asked about his role in the foundation, said,
"I had nothing to do with the foundation. I ran the MAF (Moving America
Forward) Committee." He couldn't be reached for comment Monday. The GEO
Group contributed $43,750 to Richardson's 2006 re-election campaign. Two
other GEO lobbyists registered in the state contributed a total of $7,500 to
Richardson's 2006 race. And while Richardson was chairman of the Democratic Governor's Association, GEO kicked in $30,000 to that organization
(though it contributed more than $90,000 to the Republican Governor's
Association during those years). GEO and its board chairman George Zoley kicked in another $15,000 for Richardson's 2007
inauguration. The company's political action committee and GEO executives
contributed a total of $16,500 to Richardson's presidential campaign.
Richardson spokesmen have repeatedly denied any link between GEO's
contributions and the company's lucrative business with New Mexico. In 2006,
the contracts were estimated at $38 million. Since then, GEO began managing
the new prison in Clayton. According to the Secretary of State's Office
lobbyist index, GEO has no registered lobbyists in the state.
July
12, 2008 Santa Fe New Mexican
Back in 2002, when Democrat Bill Richardson was running for his first term as
governor, the company then known as Wackenhut, which ran two private prisons
in New Mexico, donated $1,000 to his Republican opponent, John Sanchez — and
nothing to Richardson. Things have changed. According to The Institute of
Money in State Politics, in 2006 The GEO Group, which is the name Wackenhut
now goes by, contributed $43,750 to Richardson's re-election campaign. In
fact, Richardson, by a wide margin, received more money from GEO than any
other politician nationwide running for state office in 2006. In contrast,
Charlie Crist, governor of Florida, where GEO is headquartered, received only
$1,500 from GEO. (Florida, unlike New Mexico, has campaign contribution
limits.) And it dwarfs the money that the company contributed to former Gov.
Gary Johnson, who first brought Wackenhut to the state. Johnson's 1998
re-election campaign received a total of $9,000 from Wackenhut and its chief
executive officer, Wayne Calabrese. But that's not the last of the GEO money
Richardson has received. According to the OpenSecrets.org database, which
tracks contributions to federal races, the corporation's PAC donated $7,000
to Richardson's presidential campaign (which refunded $2,000 in February
after his campaign folded.) Again, Richardson was GEO's favorite candidate.
GEO's PAC gave only $5,000 each to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton, John
McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee. Richardson's presidential campaign
received another $9,500 from GEO executives. The only other candidate to
receive any money from GEO employees is Barack Obama, who has received a
total of $2,000 — all of which came only after Richardson dropped out of the
race. Because New Mexico's disclosure laws don't require that campaign
contributors identify the companies they work for, it's difficult to identify
GEO employees who have contributed to state races. But two GEO lobbyists
registered in the state contributed. Jorge Dominicis
gave $2,500 to the governor's 2006 re-election, while Diane Houston contributed
$5,000 to Richardson's 2006 race. And while Richardson was chairman of the
Democratic Governor's Association, GEO kicked in
$30,000 to that organization (though it contributed more than $90,000 to the
Republican Governor's Association.) Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos
said last week that campaign contributions have nothing to do with GEO's
presence in the state. Asked whether the governor is proud of being the top
recipient of campaign funds from a private prison company, Gallegos said the
question is "ludicrous and not worth addressing." Richardson is not
the only New Mexico politician to get money from GEO. In fact, only one state
received more GEO campaign money than New Mexico in 2006. That's the
company's home state of Florida, where GEO contributed $395,925. All but
about $20,000 of that went to political parties (with Republicans getting
about 85 percent of the contributions). In 2006, GEO gave $66,450 to New
Mexico state candidates other than Richardson. In state races, the company
gave $20,000 to the Democratic primary campaign of attorney general candidate
(and Richardson protégé) Geno Zamora; $10,000 to Gary King, who beat Zamora
in the primary; $2,500 to King's Republican opponent, Jim Bibb; $8,000 to Lt.
Gov. Diane Denish; and $2,500 to State Auditor
Hector Balderas. In New Mexico federal races this year, GEO has given $2,300
to Ben Ray Luján's 3rd Congressional District race
and $1,000 to 2nd Congressional District Democratic candidate Harry Teague.
The company contributed $2,500 to Michelle Lujan Grisham's unsuccessful
congressional campaign in October, but the campaign refunded the contribution
in March. Grisham, a former state Health Department secretary, said last week
that it wasn't GEO's prison contracts that concerned her as much as the
company's $3.5 million contract to run the long-troubled Fort Bayard Medical
Center, a state nursing home near Silver City. GEO terminated the contract
last month. The federal government decertified the facility earlier this year
after inspectors found problems with infection control, food preparation and
response to reports of abuse. In 2006, GEO's PAC gave congressional candidate
Patricia Madrid $10,000 and U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman $1,000. Campaign
contributions aren't the only way the company has helped New Mexico
politicians. In 1998, Wackenhut hired then state Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon as a "consultant." Aragon
ended his Wackenhut employment after receiving intense criticism from both
parties. While GEO is the private prison company that gives the most to New
Mexico candidates, it's not the only one. The PAC for Tennessee-based
Corrections Corporation of America — which runs the New Mexico Women's
Correctional Facility in Grants as well as county jails in Cibola and
Torrance counties — gave $5,000 to Richardson's presidential campaign last
September. He was the only Democrat to get money from the CCA, which also
gave $5,000 each to Republicans McCain and Fred Thompson. Richardson also
received $1,000 from Jimmy Turner, a CCA vice president. CCA also gave
congressional candidate Ben Ray Luján $1,000 in
March. In 2006, CCA gave $1,000 to Heather Wilson's 1st Congressional
District campaign. In 2006, CCA gave New Mexico politicians a total of
$18,700, $5,000 of which went to Richardson. Eighty percent of CCA's New
Mexico contributions went to Democrats. Prison services contractors also
contribute to politicians in the state. Aramark Corp., which has a contract
with the state to provide food for prisons, gave $25,000 for Richardson's
last race for governor and $30,000 for his running mate, Denish.
Last year, the corporation gave Richardson $5,000 for his presidential race.
(Aramark contributed $6,850 to Clinton.) The Bantry Group, the
Pittsburgh-based parent company of Wexford Health Sources, which the state
contracted to deliver prison medical services, contributed $10,000 to
Richardson's gubernatorial race in 2006. Wexford Health CEO Kevin Halloran
gave Richardson another $10,000 in 2005. Ironically, in 2004 Richardson
returned a $10,000 donation from Bantry to his PAC, Moving America Forward,
because, a spokesman said, the contribution was made while Wexford was being
considered for the state contract. The contribution was returned "to
avoid even the appearance of impropriety," the spokesman said. Wexford's
contract was terminated in 2007 after a Legislative Finance Committee audit
found serious problems with its performance delivering health care to
inmates.
November
2, 2007 AP
Democratic presidential candidate and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has
tapped into a pipeline of campaign cash from those who lobby government in
his home state. Critics say the contributions raise questions about whether
Richardson has used his leverage as governor to help fund his presidential
aspirations, and whether his presidential campaign has become another avenue
for state lobbyists to curry favor. Richardson, however, maintains that
campaign contributions don't influence him. "There's no connection
between donations and what happens in state government. That's always been an
established principle," Richardson said at a recent news conference.
Richardson has collected about $167,000 from lobbyists registered in the
state and nearly $403,000 from executives and employees of companies and
organizations represented by lobbyists during the first nine months of the
year, according to a review of campaign finance reports by The Associated
Press. Richardson also received $22,000 from political action committees
affiliated with companies and organizations with lobbyists in New Mexico. The
combined contributions from state lobbyists and their clients account for 3
percent of the $18.5 million in total contributions received by the
Richardson campaign through September. "It clearly has the appearance of
a conflict of interest," said Ben Luce of Santa Fe, a clean energy
advocate who had a falling out with the Richardson administration this year
and has formed a group to fight what he views as undue corporate influence
over policymaking in the state. "There appears to be a pay-to-play
situation occurring because people who do make significant donations seem to
be the ones getting favors, either contracts or favorable legislation."
Another big source of campaign money has been state workers who have
contributed at least $468,000 - more than any other group of individuals when
totaled by their employer. Richardson also has received at least $89,000 from
federal lobbyists and lobbyists from outside of New Mexico, according to the
Center for Responsive Politics. Among the contributions to Richardson: -
About $30,400 from executives and a state lobbyist for the media and
entertainment company, Lionsgate. The state offers tax incentives and
interest-free loans for films shot in New Mexico. Lionsgate has done several
productions in the state and the company is planning a studio near
Albuquerque. - Nearly $25,000 from executives, officers and state lobbyists
for ValueOptions, which has a contract to manage
mental health and substance abuse services for the state. The chairman of the
company, Ron Dozoretz, and his wife, Beth, each
contributed the maximum amount of $4,600 to Richardson and hosted a
fundraiser for him earlier this year. They are friends of Richardson,
according to a campaign spokesman. The Virginia-based company won the state
contract in 2005 after a competitive bidding process. - About $19,700 from
executives, lobbyists and a PAC of the state's largest electric utility,
Public Service Company of New Mexico. Richardson used one of the utility's
lobbyists as an on-loan staffer during this year's legislative session. The
lobbyist didn't receive a state salary and remained on the utility's payroll
while he worked in the governor's office from mid-November until April.
However, the arrangement didn't violate any laws, according to the state's
attorney general. - About $16,000 came from executives, a state lobbyist and
a political action committee affiliated with the GEO Group Inc., which was
paid $41 million by the state last year for housing inmates in its privately
operated prisons in New Mexico. The state started using the Florida-based
company's prisons before Richardson took office. However, another
GEO-operated prison is under construction and the state plans to house
inmates in it. The Richardson administration contracted with the company in
2005 to manage a long-term care and rehabilitation medical center. Several
presidential candidates have blamed the influence of lobbyists and corporate
interests for a lack of progress on health care and other issues in
Washington.
August
24, 2007 AP
The Albuquerque businessman implicated in a courthouse construction scheme
that cost taxpayers more than $4 million has worked on public projects around
New Mexico for years. Michael Murphy, 58, was indicted by a federal grand
jury Thursday on charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering for
his alleged role in a scheme that used inflated contracts and change orders
to skim money from the construction of the $83 million Bernalillo County
Metropolitan Courthouse. The Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright
story published Friday that Murphy had powerful friends, including former
state Sen. Manny Aragon, who is also charged in the courthouse scandal.
Murphy bought a home from Aragon last year. Murphy's work includes the
Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, renovations to the downtown
jail, the Metropolitan Courthouse and a student center at Highlands
University in northern New Mexico. In 2004, Bernalillo County signed another
contract with Murphy's company for "construction administration services
as needed." The deal, which expires in 2008, allows Murphy's Public
Private Projects Inc. to work on a variety of county projects. His company
has been paid about $1.1 million altogether for its work on the county jails
and other county projects. Murphy, who once served on the board of the
Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority, had his beginning in
the 1970s in the homebuilding industry. He went on to work for high profile
clients, including private prison operator Wackenhut Corrections Corp.
May
24, 2007 The New Mexican
New Mexico pays significantly more than nearby states to house inmates in
private prisons, according to a report presented Wednesday to state
lawmakers. The 100-page audit by a Legislative Finance Committee review team
says New Mexico's private-prison spending rose 57 percent in the past six
years, while the inmate population increased only 21 percent. "Business
decisions across two administrations may result in New Mexico paying an
estimated $34 million more than it should pay for private prison construction
costs," the report says. But Corrections Secretary Joe Williams defended
the private prisons, saying the higher operating costs are justified. The
major private prison operator in the state is The GEO Group, which operates
facilities in Hobbs and Santa Rosa and will operate a prison being built in
Clayton. GEO, formerly known as Wackenhut, was brought in to manage private
prisons by former Gov. Gary Johnson and has been embraced by Gov. Bill Richardson.
New Mexico pays nearly $69 a day per inmate at the private prison in Hobbs
and more than $70 at the prison in Santa Rosa. In Texas, the cost is $34.66 a
day. Colorado pays $50.28 a day for inmates at private prisons. In Oklahoma,
the rate is $41.23. Other states listed in the study include Idaho, $42.30,
and Montana, $54.58. The LFC recommends New Mexico restructure its contracts
with GEO for the existing facilities.
May
23, 2007 KOAT TV
Target 7 has uncovered a state report that said New Mexico's Corrections
Department costs taxpayers millions more than it should. The investigation
began more than a year ago, Action 7 News reported. Target 7 looked into the
relationship between the state corrections department and the GEO Group, a
private company that runs two state prisons with another one in the works.
The lease to run a third prison is a central part of an audit released on
Wednesday, that said while New Mexico's prisons are doing better than in the
past, the state is paying too much for what it gets. The audit also found the
corrections department is overpaying for private prison costs and for health
care. But the state is in the process of negotiating with a new company for
prison health care. The audit highlights the state's lease agreement to put
inmates in a new prison in Clayton, N.M. The state's lease with GEO Group
pays not just for prisoners but also for the cost to build the prison. The
audit said the department would pay $132 million, nearly twice the cost of
construction. That's because the deal was done last fall, just weeks before
New Mexicans voted to let the state lease with an option to buy. The lease is
just a small part of the audit, but it's a sign the legislature may be
keeping a closer eye on the business of New Mexico's prisons. Secretary Joe
Williams takes issue with the report, but he said there are positive
suggestions in it. The department plans to sit down with some of the private
companies running half of New Mexico's prisons to talk about restructuring
lease agreements.
March
30, 2007 AP
Manny Aragon ran the Senate for more than a decade as its top leader and the
Albuquerque Democrat reigned as one of the most powerful political figures in
New Mexico. However, his political legacy was clouded Thursday by federal
indictments alleging that he received $700,000 in payoffs as part of a
conspiracy with others to inflate contracts in the construction of an
Albuquerque courthouse that the state helped finance. The payments allegedly
were made to Aragon while he served in the Senate as well as after he
resigned in mid-2004 to become president of New Mexico Highlands University.
Aragon, a lawyer, was charged with 14 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud and
money laundering in the federal investigation of corruption in the
construction of the $83 million Metropolitan court building and a parking
garage. Prosecutors allege that Aragon helped obtain financing for the
project and received payments from contractors. The indictment contends that
Aragon played a role in selecting contractors and subcontractors. Aragon, who
turned 60 last week, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking
comment. The federal charges against the high-profile Democrat were announced
as the Senate was meeting in a special session. Rumors that indictments were
imminent swirled throughout the Capitol in the hours before prosecutors
disclosed the charges against Aragon and three others. In addition, three
people — including a well-known lobbyist and former Albuquerque mayor —
entered guilty pleas in the corruption case. Sen. Tim Jennings, D-Roswell,
who served with Aragon for 25 years, said, "I certainly hope it's not
true, but the indictment looks very damaging." Jennings cautioned that
the indictment represents just "one side" and only the information
supplied by prosecutors. But he said, "It's a sad day, if it happens to
be true." The indictment of Aragon could increase pressure on lawmakers
to revamp New Mexico's ethics laws. The state, for example, requires very
limited disclosures by legislators and other elected officials of their
finances, such as assets and liabilities. Five counts against Aragon involve
transfers of more than $400,000 to a bank and another company. Chris Atencio,
the acting executive director of the Republican Party of New Mexico, said,
"It's tangible evidence that the cancer of public corruption has existed
far too long in New Mexico. As was widely suspected, it involved some elected
officials. Today's actions are long overdue." The indictments on
Thursday represent the second large federal corruption prosecution in two
years. Former state treasurer Robert Vigil was arrested in 2005 and convicted
last year of attempted extortion. His predecessor, Michael Montoya, pleaded
guilty to extortion in a kickback scheme involving state investments. Aragon
served as Senate president pro tem from 1988 until
2001, when he was ousted when three Democrats joined with Republicans to
remove him from the chamber's top leadership post. However, Aragon reclaimed
a leadership job 10 months later when Senate Democrats named him majority
floor leader. He left the Senate in mid-2004 to become president of New
Mexico Highlands University. His tenure at the university — like his years as
Senate leader — were marked by controversy because of his autocratic style. The
school paid Aragon $200,000 to buy out his contract last year. Aragon drew
criticism for his rocky relationship with faculty, his failure to clear major
contracts with the board of regents and a president's fund that allowed
Aragon to spend money at his discretion. In the Senate, Aragon was known for
his extensive knowledge of the state budget — he was a key architect of the
yearly spending blueprint to finance government operations — and his
bare-knuckled leadership style in pushing through favored bills. Former Gov.
Gary Johnson, a Republican who fought with Aragon and other Democrats
throughout his eight years in office, once described Aragon as a tyrant.
Aragon faced ethics questions in the late 1990s when he became a paid
consultant to a private prison company that did business the state. He
resigned from the position in 1999, but maintained he had no conflict of
interest in dealing with prison issues in the Legislature because his work
for the company, then known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp., involved matters
outside of New Mexico.
March
15, 2007 AP
Gov. Bill Richardson signed into law on Thursday a $5.6 billion budget to pay
for public education and general government operations next year, but used
his veto powers to trim some spending. The budget provides for a nearly 11
percent increase in spending in the fiscal year that starts July 1. The
governor trimmed about $57 million in total spending from the bill. Of that,
about $28 million was from the main budget account for ongoing programs and
agency operations and slightly more than $3 million was for one-time spending
projects. Among other vetoes: _$250,000 for salary increases at privately
operating prisons in Hobbs and Santa Rosa used by the state to house male
inmates and a private prison in Grants for women inmates.
January
13, 2007 The New Mexican
New Mexico's use of jails run by companies is the highest in the country --
and rising -- but do they live up to their promises? New Mexico leads the
nation on another list: We're No. 1 in using private prisons to house
inmates. The latest U.S. Justice Department statistics, published in a study
called Prisons in 2005, showed 43 percent of New Mexico prisoners were in
private lockups. That's well ahead of the 6 percent national rate for
privately held state prison inmates. And the percentage in New Mexico is
bound to rise even higher in the near future. Cells built during a spurt of
prison construction under the previous state administration have become
crowded, and the state Corrections Department next year plans to add 240 beds
to the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility near Santa Rosa. By the end of
2008, a planned 600-bed private prison is scheduled to open in Clayton. Most
of the prisoners in that facility will be state inmates, corrections officials
say. The operator for both of these prisons is The GEO Group, formerly known
as Wackenhut. The Camino Nuevo Correctional Center in Albuquerque -- operated
by Correction Corporation of America -- opened in July. The minimum-security
Springer Correctional Center, scheduled to open early this year, will be
operated by the state. It will house up to 220 inmates. This year, the
department is asking the Legislature for an additional $37.2 million,
primarily for inmate population growth, Corrections Department spokeswoman
Tia Bland said. The department's current general fund budget is $240.7
million. While New Mexico leads the pack, it's not alone in the prison
privatization trend. Nationwide in 2005, the percentage of inmates in private
facilities rose by 8.8 percent. Santa Fe lawyer Mark Donatelli,
a longtime opponent of prison privatization, contends not much good has come
from depending on private operators. ``I think of the trail of lawsuits we've
been inundated with -- Wackenhut, Cornell, MGC,'' he said, listing companies
that have done business in the state. Governments, Donatelli
said, were ``lured in with the promise of indemnification.'' While nobody
ever promised an end to lawsuits over prison violence and other alleged
wrongs, Donatelli said, privatization ``was
supposed to get cities and states off the hook. But it hasn't worked out that
way. Insurance companies still end up paying, but government officials still
find themselves spending time at depositions and trials. And the government
is still held accountable in the public eye. Privatization was supposed to
wash the stench of prisons off the government. But the stench is still
there.'' Letting private companies run correctional facilities means the
government ends up with fewer experts qualified to monitor jails and prisons,
Donatelli said. ``Look at how (Santa Fe County) is
struggling,'' Donatelli said. For about 20 years,
the county paid private contractors to operate its jail. In October 2005,
after the last private firm ended its contract, county officials decided not
to seek a new operator. Two months ago, the jail had a management shake-up.
Cost questions. When asked about New Mexico's reliance on private prisons,
Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for Gov. Bill Richardson, noted Richardson
``inherited all of the existing private prisons.'' The state started using
private corrections companies under Richardson's predecessor, Gary Johnson, a
Republican advocate of privatizing government functions. In the mid-1990s,
Wackenhut was contracted to build and run private prisons in Hobbs and Santa
Rosa. Gallegos also said GEO and other current private prison contractors
have done a good job under Richardson's watch, and thus the governor endorsed
the new facility in Clayton -- a GEO project -- as well as expansion of the
Santa Rosa prison. ``The governor would rather spend one-time capital funding
on schools and other priorities,'' Gallegos said. ``Private contracts allow
the state to lease prison space without burdening taxpayers with the upfront
costs of building new prisons.'' But do private prisons actually save the
state money, as advocates insist? That's the subject of an ongoing debate, a
question that hasn't been settled after 12 years. Efforts to reach spokesmen
for GEO were unsuccessful, but the company claims on its Web site that it
saves governments money in prison design and construction. ``The traditional
governmental method of linear and time-consuming contracts for the design and
then the construction of a facility is thrown out in favor of a fast-track,
design-build approach backed by a fully guaranteed, firm, fixed-fee
contract,'' the Web site says. Private prisons, GEO says, also save money by
``designing out staffing redundancies'' and ``elimination of employee sick
time and overtime abuses.'' But analysts at the Legislative Finance Committee
point out an independent board of inquiry that studied private prisons
following the slaying of a prison guard in the Santa Rosa prison was unable
to answer the question of whether private prisons save money. Comparing costs
of private and state-operated prisons is complicated by the fact that all New
Mexico's maximum-security inmates -- who cost more to house because of the
need for constant supervision -- are only in state-run facilities. One
Legislative Finance Committee analyst, who asked not to be named, said
relying too much on private prisons has meant the state has gotten away from
planning to deal with capacity problems. ``When they get overcrowded, the
private companies come along and say, `We'll take care of it for you,' '' the
analyst said. The Legislative Finance Committee recently started an audit of
prisons to see how much, if any, money is being saved. Political cash.
Although Donatelli doesn't like private prisons, he
quipped they have a silver lining: ``There's one group that's really
benefited from private prison, and that's the politicians who've gotten
enormous campaign contributions from the private prison companies.'' Although
the Governor's Office has long insisted no connection exists, GEO, which
still has the lion's share of private prisons in New Mexico, has become a big
player in campaign contributions for New Mexico politicians. In this past
election cycle, the GEO Group contributed about $80,000 to candidates running
for state office in New Mexico. The biggest beneficiary was Gov. Bill
Richardson, who has collected $42,750 from the company since 2005. According
to The Institute of Money in State Politics, Richardson received more money
from GEO than any other politician nationwide running for state office in
2006. GEO even was listed among sponsors in the program of Richardson's
recent inauguration. The company donated between $5,000 and $10,000 for the
event, said Richardson's campaign manager, Amanda Cooper. In addition, GEO
this year donated $30,000 to the Democratic Governors Association, which
until recently Richardson headed -- although the company contributed $95,000
to the Republican Governors Association last year. GEO also has given $8,000
to Richardson's running mate, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish,
in the current election cycle. Denish got $500 from
the company in the 2002 election cycle. The state pays GEO about $38 million
a year -- about $25 million to run the Hobbs prison and $13 million for the
prison in Santa Rosa. The Clayton prison will have about the same number of
beds as the one in Santa Rosa. Also, the state awarded a GEO subsidiary a
contract last year to manage the troubled, 230-bed Fort Bayard Medical Center
east of Silver City and to build a $30 million replacement hospital with the
help of tax-exempt bonds.
December
13, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
After two troubled years of administering health care in New Mexico’s
prisons, Wexford Health Sources will lose its multimillion-dollar contract
with the state. Wexford has been the subject of a five-month investigative
series by this paper. Now, SFR has learned that on Dec. 8, Gov. Bill
Richardson ordered the New Mexico Corrections Department (NCMD) to
immediately begin the search for a new health care provider. “The governor has
directed the Corrections Department to develop and implement immediate and
long-term options for improving health care quality at the state’s
correctional facilities,” Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos says. “Those
options are expected to include sanctions and seeking another provider—which
basically means the Corrections Department will be crafting a request for
proposal [RFP] to solicit a new vendor. They’re working out the terms of the
RFP now and will most likely be terminating the contract with Wexford.”
Wexford’s contract expires in June 2007, Gallegos says. SFR has repeatedly
and exclusively published allegations by current and former Wexford employees
regarding inmate care [Cover story, Aug. 9: “Hard Cell?”]. Those accounts
focused on dangerously low medical staffing levels at the nine correctional
facilities where Wexford operates; Wexford’s refusal to grant chronically ill
inmates critical, off-site specialty care; and systemic problems in
administering prescription medicine to inmates. Gallegos says the governor
learned about the problems with Wexford through SFR’s stories. “The governor
had been concerned about the quality of care delivered in the correctional
facilities and directed the Corrections Department to increase oversight of
Wexford,” Gallegos says. “Corrections was doing that, but it appeared that
many of those deficiencies were not being corrected.” Wexford, which also
administers health care in facilities run by the New Mexico Children, Youth
and Families Department (CYFD), will lose those operations as well, Gallegos
says. Wexford began working in New Mexico in July 2004, after signing a $27
million contract with NMCD. The Pittsburgh-based company has also lost
contracts in Wyoming and Florida because of similar concerns over health
care. SFR also learned this week that Dr. Phillip Breen, Wexford’s regional
medical director in New Mexico, has resigned, effective Dec. 31. In addition,
a dentist at a state prison in Hobbs tells SFR that facility is so
understaffed that inmates sometimes wait up to six weeks to receive important
dental care. Dr. Ray Puckett, who has been working as a part-time dentist at
Lea County Correctional Facility (LCCF) in Hobbs for approximately one year,
alleges that some inmates are suffering because the backlog to receive dental
treatment is so massive. “I’ve heard about inmates pulling their own teeth
after months and months. I’ve heard about inmates saying, ‘I just can’t stand
it anymore,’” he says. Puckett says Wexford should have hired a full-time
dentist at LCCF because so many inmates require medical attention to take
care of abscesses, cavities, tooth extractions and other painful dental
problems. Puckett works at the facility only one day a week, during which he
typically sees up to 16 patients. He says that Wexford also has another
dentist who will occasionally work one day a week at the facility. “What we
have now is a poorly run operation. It’s grossly understaffed and
disorganized. And it ends up being unfortunate for the inmates,” Puckett
says. Wexford Vice President Elaine Gedman did not
respond to e-mails and phone calls from SFR. Corrections spokeswoman Tia
Bland says NMCD is not aware of a backlog of dental patients at LCCF, but
will look into it. She adds that Wexford is only required to have a dentist
at LCCF for two days a week. With regard to the governor’s action against
Wexford, Bland says: “It’s a fact. Wexford has not met its contractual
obligations to the Department, and that’s something we can’t ignore. We have
to do something about it. We will be putting a plan in place.” In the coming
year, both Wexford and NMCD are slated for an extensive audit by the
Legislative Finance Committee. The audit was the result of a hearing on
Wexford by the Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee in
October. The hearings also were held in response to reports in this paper
[Outtakes, Oct. 25: “Medical Test”]. It’s now unclear whether the audit will
still take place. As for Puckett, he has considered leaving his post because
of what’s happening at LCCF. A veteran of correctional health care, he also
worked for Wexford’s predecessors, Addus HealthCare
and Correctional Medical Services. In his estimation, both companies, which
operate to make a profit like Wexford, cared more about the inmates’ physical
well-being and were willing to sacrifice dollars to ensure that medical
problems were treated expeditiously. Says Puckett: “It is my sense that
Wexford doesn’t care what sort of facility they run. Everything is run on a
bare-bones budget. They’re in it to make money.” Not anymore. When asked
whether there was any chance at all that Wexford could remain in its current
capacity at NMCD or CYFD, Richardson spokesman Gallegos responded: “They’re
done. The governor’s intention is to replace Wexford with a new company. We
expect to have a new provider in a reasonable amount of time.”
November
22, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
The medical director of a state prison in Hobbs has stepped down from his
post less than a month after a legislative committee requested an audit of
the corrections health care in the state. Dr. Don Apodaca, medical director
of Lea County Correctional Facility (LCCF), turned in his resignation on Nov.
6 due to concerns that inmates there are not receiving sufficient access to
health care. According to Apodaca, sick inmates are routinely denied off-site
visits to medical specialists and sometimes have to wait months to receive
critical prescription drugs. Apodaca blames the policies of Wexford Health
Sources, the private company that contracts with the state to provide
medicine in New Mexico’s prisons, for these alleged problems. Wexford has
been the subject of a four-month SFR investigation, during which a growing
number of former and current employees have contended that Wexford is more
concerned with saving money than providing adequate health care, and that
inmates suffer as a result. On Oct. 24, the Legislative Finance Committee
(LFC) tentatively approved an audit that will assess Wexford’s contract with
the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) and also evaluate the quality of
health care rendered to inmates [Outtakes, Nov. 8: “Prison Audit Ahead”].
LCCF’s medical director since January 2006, Apodaca is one of the
highest-ranking ex-Wexford employees to come forward thus far. His allegations
of Wexford’s denials of off-site care and the delays in obtaining
prescription drugs echo those raised by other former and current employees
during the course of reporting for this series [Cover story, Aug. 9: “Hard
Cell?”]. Specifically, Apodaca says he personally evaluated inmates who
needed off-site, specialty care, but that Wexford consistently denied his
referrals. Apodaca cites the cases of an inmate who needed an MRI, another
inmate who suffered from a hernia and a third inmate who had a cartilage tear
in his knee as instances in which inmates were denied off-site care for
significant periods of time against his recommendations. When inmates are
actually cleared for off-site care in Albuquerque, they are transported in
full shackles without access to a bathroom for the six- to seven-hour trip,
Apodaca says. “Inmates told me they aren’t allowed to go to the bathroom and
ended up soiling themselves,” he says. “The trip is so bad they end up
refusing to go even when we get the off-site visits approved.” When it comes
to prescription drugs, there also are significant delays, Apodaca says.
Inmates sometimes wait weeks or even months for medicine used for heart and
blood pressure conditions, even though Apodaca says he would write orders for
those medicines repeatedly. “Wexford was not providing timely treatment and
diagnoses of inmates,” he says. “There were tragic cases where patients
slipped through the cracks, were not seen for inordinately long times and
suffered serious or fatal consequences.” Apodaca says he began documenting
the medical problems at the facility in March. After detailing in writing the
cases of 40 to 50 patients whom he felt had not received proper clinical
care, Apodaca says he alerted Dr. Phillip Breen, Wexford’s regional medical director,
and Cliff Phillips, Wexford’s regional health services administrator, through
memos, e-mails and phone calls. In addition, Apodaca says he alerted
Wexford’s corporate office in Pittsburgh. Neither Breen nor Phillips returned
phone messages left by SFR. Apodaca says he also informed Devendra Singh,
NMCD’s quality assurance manager for health services. According to Apodaca,
Singh assured him that he would require Wexford to look into the matter, but
Apodaca says he never heard a final response. “Wexford was simply not
receptive to any of the information I was sending them, and I became
exasperated,” he says. “It came to the point where I felt uncomfortable with
the medical and legal position I was in. There were individuals who needed
health care who weren’t getting it.” Singh referred all questions to NMCD
spokeswoman Tia Bland; Bland responded to SFR in a Nov. 20 e-mail: “If Don
Apodaca has information involving specific incidents, we will be happy to
look into the situation. Otherwise, we will wait for the LFC’s audit results,
review them and take it from there.” Wexford Vice President Elaine Gedman would not comment specifically on Apodaca’s
allegations. In a Nov. 20 e-mail to SFR, she wrote that Wexford will
cooperate with the Legislature’s audit and is confident the outcome will be
similar to the 14 independent audits performed since May 2005 by national
correctional organizations. “Wexford is proud of the service we have provided
to the Corrections Department as documented in these independent audits and
looks forward to continuing to provide high quality health care services in
New Mexico,” Gedman writes. Members of the
Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, which requested the
forthcoming audit, toured LCCF on Oct. 19 and were told by both Wexford and
NMCD officials that there were no health care problems at the facility. On
the same tour, however, committee members heard firsthand accounts from
inmates who complained they couldn’t get treatment when they became sick
[Outtakes, Oct. 25: “Medical Test”]. That visit, along with Apodaca’s
accounts, calls into question Wexford’s and NMCD’s accounts, State Sen. Cisco
McSorley, D-Bernalillo, says. “We were told on our tour that nothing was
wrong. And now to hear that there is a claim that Wexford and the Corrections
Department might have known about this makes it seem like this information
was knowingly covered up,” McSorley, co-chairman of the committee, says. “We
can’t trust what’s being told to us. The situation may require independent
oversight far beyond what we have. This should be the biggest story in the
state right now.”
November
8, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
The New Mexico State Legislature is one step closer to an audit of Wexford
Health Sources, the private company that administers health care in New
Mexico’s prisons. On Oct. 24, the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC)
tentatively approved the audit, which will evaluate Wexford’s contract with
the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) and also assess the quality of
health care administered to inmates. The request for a review of Wexford
originated with the state Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice
Committee, which voted unanimously on Oct. 20 to recommend the audit after a
hearing on prison health care in Hobbs [Outtakes, Oct. 25: “Medical Test”]. A
subsequent Oct. 30 letter sent to the LFC by committee co-chairmen Rep.
Joseph Cervantes, D-Doña Ana, and Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Bernalillo, refers
to “serious complaints raised by present and former employees” of Wexford.
The letter cites this newspaper’s reportage of the situation and notes that
on a recent tour of Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, “committee
members heard numerous concerns from inmates about medical problems not being
addressed.” It also refers to confidential statements Wexford employees
provided to the committee that were then turned over to the LFC. The decision
to examine Wexford and NMCD comes on the coattails of months of reports that
state inmates are suffering behind bars due to inadequate medical services,
documented in an ongoing, investigative series by SFR. Over the past three
months, former and current employees have alleged staffing shortages as well
as problems with the dispensation of prescription drugs and the amount of
time sick inmates are forced to wait before receiving urgent care [Cover
story, Aug. 9: “Hard Cell?”]. The timing, Manu Patel, the LFC’s deputy
director for audits, says, is ideal, because the LFC already planned to
initiate a comprehensive audit of NMCD, the first in recent history.
Regarding the medical component of the audit, Patel says: “We will be looking
at how cost-effective Wexford has been. Also, we will be looking at the
quality of care, how long inmates have to wait to receive care and what
[Wexford’s] services are like.” Patel says the LFC plans to contract with
medical professionals to help evaluate inmates’ care. As per a request from
the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, current Wexford employees will
be given a chance to participate in the audit anonymously. The audit’s
specifics require final approval from the LFC in December; the committee will
likely take up to six months to generate a report, according to Patel. In a
Nov. 6 e-mail to SFR, Wexford Vice President Elaine Gedman
cites 14 successful, independent audits performed of Wexford in New Mexico
since May 2005. “Wexford is proud of the service we have provided to the Corrections
Department as documented in these independent audits and looks forward to
continuing high quality health care services in New Mexico,” Gedman writes. NMCD spokeswoman Tia Bland echoes Gedman: “We welcome the audit and plan on cooperating any
way we can,” she says. Meanwhile, former employees continue to come forward.
Kathryn Hamilton, an ex-NMCD mental health counselor, says she worked
alongside Wexford staff at the Pen for two months, shortly after the company
took the reins in New Mexico in July 2004. Hamilton alleges that mentally ill
inmates were cut off psychotropic medicine for cheaper, less effective drugs
and that inmates waited too long to have prescriptions renewed and suffered
severe behavioral withdrawals as a result. Hamilton, who had worked at the
Pen since April 2002, says she encountered the same sorts of problems under Addus, Wexford’s predecessor, but quit shortly after
Wexford’s takeover because the situation wasn’t improving. “They would stop
meds, give inmates the wrong meds or refuse to purchase meds that were not on
their formulary, even if they were prescribed by a doctor,” Hamilton says. “I
felt angry, sometimes helpless, although I always tried to speak with
administrators to help the inmates.” Hamilton married a state inmate by proxy
last month, after continuing a correspondence with him following her tenure
at the Pen. Hamilton says she did not serve as a counselor to the inmate,
Anthony Hamilton, but met him after helping conduct a series of mental health
evaluations. Hamilton has been a licensed master social worker under her
maiden name since 2000 (according to the New Mexico Board of Social Work
Examiners). She emphasizes that her relationship with her husband did not
begin until after she left the Corrections Department. According to Hamilton,
her husband, still incarcerated at the Pen for aggravated assault, recently
contracted methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a serious
staph infection. In a previous story, four current Wexford employees
specifically mentioned MRSA as a concern to SFR because they allege Wexford
does not supply proper protective equipment for staff treating infectious
diseases like MRSA [Outtakes, Oct. 18: “Corrections Concerns”]. Wexford Vice
President Gedman did not address Hamilton’s claims
when queried by SFR. Corrections spokeswoman Bland also says she can’t
comment on Hamilton’s allegations because she had not spoken with Hamilton’s
supervisor at the time of her employment. Says Hamilton: “I initially called
the newspaper as the concerned wife of an inmate, not as a former therapist.
With all the stories the Reporter has done, I wanted to come forward with
what I had seen at the Pen.”
October
18, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter
Current prison health workers say they fear retaliation if they speak out.
Just days before state legislators convene a hearing on correctional health
care in New Mexico, a group of medical employees in the state prison system
have come to SFR with allegations about how inmates are treated. All four
requested anonymity because they say they fear retaliation from Wexford
Health Sources—the private company that administers health care in the
prisons—if their identities are revealed. The employees currently work at
Central New Mexico Correctional Facility. They allege, among other things,
that chronically ill inmates are forced to lie in their own feces for hours,
are taken off vital medicine to save money and often wait months before
receiving treatment for urgent medical conditions. Moreover, the employees
say conditions at the facility are unsanitary. “In my entire career, I’ve
never seen this sort of stuff happening,” one employee says. “These inmates
are not being treated humanely. They don’t live in sanitary conditions. They
live in pain.” Wexford Vice President Elaine Gedman
denies all the employees’ allegations in an e-mail response to SFR.
Corrections spokeswoman Tia Bland says the department is unaware of these
allegations and that “none of these issues have surfaced during our regular
auditing process.” The employees’ allegations come on the heels of a series
of stories by SFR, in which several former Wexford employees have publicly
come forward with similar charges [Cover Story, Aug. 9: “Hard Cell?”]. As a
result of the stories, the state Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and
Justice Committee will hold a hearing on Oct. 20 in Hobbs to discuss the
matter [Outtakes, Sept. 13: “Checkup”]. Wexford and the New Mexico
Corrections Department (NMCD), which oversees the Pennsylvania-based company,
have categorically denied charges that inmates are being denied proper health
care. These latest allegations are the first to come from current employees
of Wexford. The employees describe an environment where medical staff must
purchase their own wipes for incontinent patients because they say Wexford
administrators say there’s no money for supplies. They say there’s a shortage
of oxygen tanks and nebulizer machines (for asthma patients) and also scant
protective equipment for those staff treating infectious diseases. Gedman says, “Wexford is unaware of any shortage in
medical supplies. Extra oxygen bottles and nebulizers are always on hand and
ready for any emergency use. The oxygen bottles are inventoried daily as part
of our emergency response requirement.” The employees also allege that
chronically ill inmates sometimes wait what they say is too long to be taken
off-site for specialty care. Gedman says this also
is false and that Wexford “strongly encourages all of our providers to refer
patients for necessary evaluation and treatment, off-site when necessary, as
soon as problems are identified that need specialty referral.” All four
employees say their complaints to Wexford administrators about the lack of
supplies and treatment of inmates have been ignored, and all believe coming
forward publicly will cost them their jobs. Gedman
says this concern is unfounded because “Wexford encourages an open-door
policy for all employees to bring issues to the attention of management so
that they can be investigated and acted upon as appropriate.” Bland says
Corrections staff are “visible and accessible in the prisons. If any of
Wexford’s staff would like to speak with us concerning these allegations, we
welcome the information and will certainly look into the matter.” As for the
legislative hearing, State Rep. Joseph Cervantes, R-Doña Ana, co-chairman of
the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, says he hopes some of these
Wexford critics will show up in Hobbs. And he says further hearings are a
possibility. “I hope there is a full airing of the issues. I would like to
learn that the Corrections Department is working to resolve all of this, but
if they haven’t, I expect to make deadlines for them so we can expect
adequate progress,” Cervantes says. “We’d still like to protect the anonymity
and bring to light any allegations and complaints.” Cervantes also says he
wants to introduce legislation during the next session to protect
whistle-blowers. Ken Kopczynski, executive director
of the Private Corrections Institute watchdog group in Florida, says the
Legislature must do everything it can to safeguard current Wexford employees
against retaliation. “The Legislature is the ultimate authority, and they
need to put pressure on the Corrections Department to find out what the hell
is going on. They also need to protect these employees so they can come
forward and testify about their specific experiences,” Kopczynski
says. “And if there are allegations of civil rights abuse, which is what it
sounds like, then the Justice Department needs to come in.”
August
14, 2006 In These Times
While New Mexico’s landscape may make the state the Land of Enchantment, its
rapidly growing rates of incarceration have been utterly disenchanting.
What’s worse, New Mexico is at the top of the nation’s list for privatizing
prisons; nearly one-half of the state’s prisons and jails are run by
corporations. Supposedly, states turn to private companies to cope better
with chronic overcrowding and for low-cost management. However, a closer look
suggests a different rationale. A recent report from the Montana-based
Institute on Money in State Politics reveals that during the 2002 and 2004
election cycles, private prison companies, directors, executives and
lobbyists gave $3.3 million to candidates and state political parties across
44 states. According to Edwin Bender, executive director of the Institute on
Money in State Politics, private prison companies strongly favor giving to
states with the toughest sentencing laws—in essence, the ones that are more
likely to come up with the bodies to fill prison beds. Those states, adds
Bender, are also the ones most likely to have passed “three-strikes” laws.
Those laws, first passed by Washington state voters in 1993 and then
California voters in 1994, quickly swept the nation. They were largely based
on “cookie-cutter legislation” pushed by the American Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC), some of whose members come from the ranks of private prison
companies. Florida leads the pack in terms of private prison dollars, with
its candidates and political parties receiving almost 20 percent of their
total contributions from private prison companies and their affiliates.
Florida already has five privately owned and operated prisons, with a sixth
on the way. It’s also privatized the bulk of its juvenile detention system.
Texas and New Jersey are close behind. But in Florida, some of the influence
peddling finally seems to be backfiring. Florida State Corrections Secretary
James McDonough alarmed private prison companies with a comment during an Aug.
2 morning call-in radio show. “I actually think the state is better at
running the prisons,” McDonough told an interviewer. His comments followed an
internal audit last year by the state’s Department of Management Services,
which demonstrated that Florida overpaid private prison operators by $1.3
million. Things may no longer be quite as sunny as they once were in Florida
for the likes of Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America
(CCA) and the former Wackenhut, now known as the GEO Group of Boca Raton,
Fla. But with a little bit of spiel-tinkering—and a shift of attention to
other states—the prison privatizers are likely to keep going. The key shift,
Bender explains, is that “the prison industry has gone from a
we-can-save-you-money pitch to an economic-development model pitch.” In other
words, says Bender, “you need [their] prisons for jobs.” If political
donations are any measure, economically challenged and poverty-stricken
states like New Mexico are a great target. In this campaign cycle, Democratic
Gov. Bill Richardson has already received more contributions from a private
prison company than any other politician campaigning for state office in the
United States. The Institute of Money in State Politics, which traced the
donations, reported that GEO has contributed $42,750 to Richardson since
2005—and another $8,000 to his running mate, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish. Another $30,000 went from GEO to the
Richardson-headed Democratic Governors Association this past March.
Richardson’s PAC, Moving America Forward, was another prominent recipient of
GEO donations. Now, its former head, prominent state capitol lobbyist Joe
Velasquez, is a registered lobbyist for GEO Care Inc., a healthcare
subsidiary that runs a hospital in New Mexico. But don’t get the idea that
GEO has any particular love for Democrats: $95,000 from the corporation went
to the Republican Governors Association last year alone. What companies like
GEO do love are the millions of dollars rolling in from lucrative New Mexico
contracts to run the Lea County Correctional Facility (operating budget: $25
million/year), and the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility ($13
million/year), among others. CCA also owns and operates the state’s only
women’s facility in Grants ($11 million per year). To make sure that those
dollars keep flowing, GEO and CCA have perfected the art of the “very tight
revolving door,” says Bender, which involves snapping up former corrections
administrators, PAC lobbyists and state officials to serve as consultants to
private prison companies. In fact, the current New Mexico Corrections
Department Secretary Joe Williams was once on GEO’s payroll as their warden
of the Lea County Correctional Facility. Earlier this year, Williams was
placed on unpaid administrative leave after accusations surfaced that he
spent state travel and phone funds to pursue a very close relationship with
Ann Casey. Casey is a registered lobbyist in New Mexico for Wexford Health
Sources, which provides health care for prisoners at Grants, and Aramark,
which provides most of the state’s inmate meals. In her non-lobbying hours,
it turns out that Casey is also an assistant warden at a state prison in
Centralia, Ill. It appears that even for a prison industry enchanted by
public-private partnership, Williams and Casey may have gone too far.
July
18, 2006 New Mexican
A racetrack owner, a private prison company and a chewing-tobacco corporation
-- all on the record for seeking favors from New Mexico politicians -- have
contributed tens of thousands of dollars to a national group headed by Gov.
Bill Richardson. The June 30 report by the Democratic Governors Association
-- which Richardson has chaired since 2004 and which frequently pays for his
out-of-state travel -- lists several contributors familiar to New Mexico
political circles. Among those are: The GEO Group, a Florida-based private
prison corporation that operates in New Mexico and that, in this election
cycle, has contributed more to Richardson than any other single candidate in
the country. The company in June gave a total of $20,000 to the DGA, for a
total of $50,000 this year. Richardson spokesman Pahl
Shipley said Monday that there is "absolutely no connection"
between the contributions and administration policy. The GEO Group, formerly
known as Wackenhut, has increased its New Mexico operations from two to four
since Richardson took office. The company has operated prisons in Santa Rosa
and Hobbs since the 1990s. But last year, it won a contract to operate a
state hospital facility in Fort Bayard. Richardson has endorsed a plan for
GEO to operate a prison to be built in the town of Clayton, which will house
as many as 600 state inmates. Since 2002, GEO has contributed more than
$79,000 to politicians running for state office in New Mexico. The biggest
beneficiary is Richardson, who has received $42,750 from the company since
2005. His running mate, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish,
lists $8,000 in GEO contributions in the current election season. But the DGA
isn't the only governors association to get money from GEO, which operates
about 50 corrections facilities in the U.S. The latest report for the
Republican Governors Association shows two contributions totaling $50,000
from the prison company in May and June. That means GEO has given the DGA and
the RGA the same amount this year.
July
13, 2006 New Mexican
A Florida-based private-prison company that has doled out thousands of
dollars to New Mexico politicians made two $5,000 contributions to Attorney
General Patricia Madrid's congressional campaign less than three weeks after
Madrid's office published a legal opinion that directly benefited the firm. A
spokeswoman for Madrid's campaign, Heather Brewer, on Wednesday denied the
contributions were connected with the legal opinion, which cleared the way
for the city of Clayton to contract with The GEO Group of Boca Raton, Fla.,
to build and operate a prison facility that would house state inmates. A
spokesman for GEO, formerly known as Wackenhut, also denied any connection
between the contributions and the legal opinion. But Enrique Knell, spokesman
for Madrid's Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, said,
"There's a pattern here of pay-to-play politics practiced by Patsy
Madrid." GEO already operates two prisons and a hospital for the state.
Last year, three state legislators concerned about the legality of the
Clayton plan asked Madrid's office for a legal opinion. Rep. Luciano
"Lucky" Varela, D-Santa Fe; Rep. Joe Cervantes, D-Las Cruces; and
Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, asked the attorney general whether a
local government has the authority to build or operate a state prison. The
three also asked whether a local government is exempt from the state
Procurement Code if it contracts with a private company to operate a state
prison. The Procurement Code requires state and local governments to seek
bids from multiple companies to provide services. On Nov. 14, Assistant
Attorney General Zachary Shandler issued an opinion
that said the plan was legal. "While legitimate policy questions may be
raised about the wisdom of allowing private construction and operation of a
second jail in Clayton/Union County, the local public bodies may rely on
existing statutory authority for this project," he wrote. Eighteen days
later, GEO made its contributions to Madrid. The company earmarked $5,000 for
the primary election -- though Madrid had no primary opponent -- and
earmarked the other $5,000 for the general election. This is the limit for
corporate contributions, according to federal campaign-finance law. GEO
receives about $38 million from the state for the two existing prisons it
operates. The contract for the prison in Santa Rosa is worth about $13
million a year. That facility has about the same number of beds as planned
for the Clayton prison. Last year, the state awarded a GEO subsidiary a
contract to manage the troubled 230-bed Fort Bayard Medical Center east of
Silver City and to build a $30 million replacement hospital with the help of
tax-exempt bonds. In the past three elections, the company gave contributions
totaling $2,750 to Wilson. Former state Sen. Les Houston, a New Mexico
lobbyist for GEO, said this week that he expects the company to contribute to
Wilson's campaign as well. Since 2002, GEO has contributed more than $79,000
to politicians running for state office in New Mexico. The biggest
beneficiary is Gov. Bill Richardson, who has collected $42,750 from the
company since 2005. His running mate, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish,
has received $8,000 from the prison company. According to The Institute of
Money in State Politics, Richardson, as of May, had received more money from
GEO than any other politician nationwide running for state office in this
election cycle.
July
11, 2006 New Mexican
A Florida-based private prison company that does tens of millions of dollars worth of business with the state has become a big
player in the world of New Mexico's campaign contributions. The GEO Group,
formerly known as Wackenhut, has dropped since 2002 more than $79,000 on
politicians running for state office here. The biggest beneficiary is Gov.
Bill Richardson, who has collected $42,750 from the company since 2005.
According to The Institute of Money in State Politics, Richardson, as of May,
had received more money from GEO than any other politician nationwide running
for state office in this election cycle. In addition, GEO in March donated
$30,000 to the Democratic Governors Association, which Richardson heads --
although the company contributed $95,000 to the Republican Governors
Association last year. The prison company also has given $8,000 to
Richardson's running mate, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish,
in the current election cycle. Denish got $500 from
the company in the 2002 election cycle. Others who got contributions from GEO
this election cycle are former Richardson chief counsel Geno Zamora, who lost
the Democratic primary for attorney general, and congressional candidate
Patricia Madrid, the current attorney general, whose contribution represents
a switch for GEO. In the past three elections, the company gave to Madrid's
incumbent Republican opponent, Heather Wilson. And in the 2002 state attorney
general's race, GEO donated to Madrid's GOP challenger, Rob Perry, a former
corrections secretary. While mainly Democrats in this state currently are
benefiting from GEO contributions, nationally the firm gives more to
Republicans -- $114,157 for GOP state candidates in this election cycle,
compared to $74,725 for Democrats, according to the most recent figures from
The Institute of Money in State Politics. Asked whether the GEO contributions
affected Richardson's policy pertaining to private prisons, spokesman Pahl Shipley said: "It's outrageous even to imply or
infer a connection and absolutely not true. State contracts are fully
transparent and must follow strict procurement procedures. Governor
Richardson insists that state agencies act in the best interests of New
Mexicans and get the best deal for the state." GEO spokesmen and
lobbyists couldn't be reached for comment Monday. GEO receives about $38
million from the state, approximately $25 million to run the Lea County
prison in Hobbs and $13 million for the prison in Santa Rosa. The company has
contracted with the city of Clayton to operate the planned prison in that
northeastern New Mexico city. That prison will house state inmates. The
Clayton prison will have about 600 beds, close to the number in Santa Rosa.
Also, the state awarded a GEO subsidiary a contract last year to manage the
troubled 230-bed Fort Bayard Medical Center east of Silver City and to build
a $30 million replacement hospital with the help of tax-exempt bonds. A key
Richardson ally is a registered lobbyist in this state for GEO Care Inc.,
which manages the Fort Bayard hospital. Lobbyist Joe Velasquez of Washington,
D.C., was the director of the national Richardson political-action committee
Moving America Forward. Velasquez was President Clinton's deputy political
director and a former AFL/CIO executive. Richardson's campaign manager,
Amanda Cooper, said last week that Velasquez was not the reason for GEO's
generosity toward Richardson. Velasquez couldn't be reached for comment.
Shipley noted that the actual contracts with private prisons are done through
local governments. The state pays to house inmates in the private prisons.
The cost varies for each prison. In the Hobbs facility, the state is charged
an average of $18,889 per inmate annually. GEO first began doing business in
New Mexico as Wackenhut as part of Gov. Gary Johnson's plan to let private
companies manage some of the state's prisons. During the Johnson years,
Wackenhut made headlines when it was revealed it had hired then state Senate
President Pro Tem Manny Aragon as a
"consultant." Aragon resigned from his post at Wackenhut after
receiving severe criticism from both parties. In contrast to Richardson, Johnson
only received $9,330 from GEO for his 1998 re-election campaign. Richardson,
during his 2002 gubernatorial campaign, wouldn't say whether he would
maintain Johnson's prison-privatization program. However, since he took
office, the private prisons have remained, and there has been no serious talk
about getting rid of them. According to numbers provided by The Institute of
Money in State Politics, GEO in the past two years has made more
contributions to New Mexico politicians than any other state, save Florida,
where the company's headquarters are located. GEO dropped $58,500 for
candidates running for state offices in Florida, just $500 more than New
Mexico, according to the institute's latest figures, which don't include
federal offices. However, New Mexico has only two GEO-run prisons (with a
third being built) and a hospital. In comparison, Texas has 17 GEO-operated
facilities. The company only gave $2,200 to state candidates there. According
to a study by the institute, New Mexico ranks ninth for all states in terms
of contributions from the corrections industry, based on numbers from the
2002 and 2004 elections. "The fact that we don't have limits on campaign
contributions makes this state attractive to those companies that want to get
a big bang for their bucks," Matt Brix, executive director of Common
Cause, a group that advocates campaign-finance reform, said Monday. GEO,
which operates about 50 prison and jail operations in this country, also has
contracts in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Australia. The company
manages the "migrant operations program" -- for those detained at
sea by the U.S. Coast Guard -- at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base as a joint
effort with the U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security.
July
7, 2006 New Mexican
The Bill Richardson campaign-money machine kept churning last month. In his
bid for a second term as governor, Democrat Richardson took in more than
$824,000 last month, according to his campaign-finance report filed with the
state Thursday. That brings the total he has raised for re-election to more
than $8 million -- about the same amount he raised for his 2002 campaign.
Richardson's running mate, Diane Denish, raised
nearly $150,000 and spent more than $38,417 last month according to her
report. In New Mexico, governor and lieutenant governor candidates run as a
ticket, not separately, in the general election, though traditionally
lieutenant governor candidates raise their own campaign funds. Denish's biggest contributor was New York
telecommunications mogul Leo Hindery, who gave $25,000. She also got $10,000
contributions from three companies, Eunice Well Servicing Co., ABC Tool
Rental of Hobbs and Controlled Recovery Inc. of Hobbs,.
The GEO Group, formerly known as Wackenhut, which operates private prisons
for the state, gave Denish $5,000, according to her
report.
May
31, 2006 New Mexican
A state prison contractor involved in the investigation of a relationship
between Corrections Secretary Joe Williams and a lobbyist contributed $10,000
to Gov. Bill Richardson's re-election campaign. The political-action
committee for Aramark -- a Philadelphia-based company that makes millions of
dollars a year to feed New Mexico inmates -- contributed to Richardson's
campaign in May 2005, according to Richardson's most recent campaign-finance
report. That was about a year after Aramark renewed its contract with the
state Corrections Department. Aramark also has been generous to the state
Democratic Party, contributing $10,000 in 2004, and the Democratic Governors
Association, which Richardson chairs. The company contributed a total of
$15,000 to the DGA in 2004 and another $15,000 in 2005, according to reports
filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Aramark provides food service to
more than 475 correctional institutions in North America. The corporation
also has food-service contracts in colleges, hospitals, convention centers
and stadiums. Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley
referred questions about the campaign donation to Richardson's campaign
manager, Amanda Cooper, who couldn't be reached for comment. The Governor's
Office announced this week that Williams is being put on administrative leave
while the state Personnel Office investigates his relationship with Ann E.
Casey, who registered as a lobbyist for Aramark and Wexford Health Services,
which provides health care to New Mexico inmates. Casey is an assistant
warden at an Illinois prison. A copyrighted story in the Albuquerque Journal
said Williams' state-issued cell-phone records show 644 calls between
Williams and Casey between Sept. 24, 2005, and Feb. 23. According to that
report, Casey was hired as a consultant by Aramark in 2005, but that contract
has since been terminated. Aramark's $5.4 million contract ends in July. The
Secretary of State Office's Lobbyist Index lists Casey as a lobbyist for
Wexford, though the Journal report quotes a Wexford official saying the
company never hired her. In 2004, a $10,000 contribution to a Richardson
political committee from Wexford's parent company caused a stir and later was
returned to the Pittsburgh company. The Bantry Group made the contribution to
Richardson's Moving America Forward PAC in April 2004. This was during a
bidding process just a month after the Corrections Department requested
proposals for a contract to provide health care and psychiatric services to
inmates. That contract potentially is worth more than $100 million, The
Associated Press reported. In August 2004, a Richardson spokesman said the
money would be returned "to avoid even the appearance of impropriety."
May
30, 2006 New Mexican
Debbie Rodella of Española first won her House of Representatives seat in
1992, and has represented Northern New Mexico's District 41 ever since. This
year, she faces a challenge from Moises Morales Jr., a former Rio Arriba County
commissioner and a political activist of 40 years. The 59-year-old Canjilon rancher and former mechanic-shop owner is
challenging Rodella in the June 6 Democratic primary for the right to
represent a district that consists mostly of Rio Arriba County and parts of
Taos and Sandoval counties. The incumbent legislator is well ahead of her
challenger in drawing endorsements of her candidacy and in raising campaign
funds. According to financial-disclosure statements filed in early May,
Rodella had raised more than $10,000 in the past year, on top of the
$18,000-plus she previously had in her campaign treasury. Many of her
contributions are from out-of-state corporations, including big
pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline); the liquor industry
(Anheuser Busch, The Distilled Spirits Council), big tobacco (UST, which
manufactures smokeless-tobacco brands like Skoal and Copenhagen), private
prisons (Corrections Corporation of New Mexico) and several payday-loan
companies.
May 9,
2006 Albuquerque Journal
Lobbyists and their employers contributed $386,000 to candidates for state,
legislative and other offices during the first four months of the year, with
Gov. Bill Richardson receiving the largest share of the political money.
Richardson, who is running for re-election this year, collected $171,500 in
campaign donations from lobbyists and their clients from January through late
April, according to disclosure reports filed by lobbyists with the Secretary
of State's Office. Other contributors to the governor's re-election: $27,500
from Geo Group Inc., formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp., which
operates private prisons used by the state; $25,000 from Presbyterian Health
Plan, one of the managed care companies under contract with the state to provide
health care through Medicaid; $5,000 from Community Loans of America, a
payday and auto title loan company; and $5,000 from Express Scripts, a
company that manages pharmacy benefits offered through insurance plans,
including for some state retirees.
May 8,
2006 AP
Democratic candidate Geno Zamora was leading the pack in fundraising,
scooping up nearly $468,000 with the help of real estate developers and race
tracks to finance his campaign for attorney general. Other large
contributions to Zamora: $25,000 in money and $2,250 in-kind from Santa Fe
retiree Bernard Logue y Perea; and $10,000 from
private-prison operator Geo Group. Zamora, former chief counsel to Gov. Bill
Richardson, is in a three-way race for the Democratic nomination with
District Attorney Lemuel Martinez of the 13th Judicial District and former
state Rep. Gary King.
January
22, 2006 Albuquerque Journal
Bill Richardson once described his former congressional aide Butch Maki as
"the go-to guy." Since Richardson was elected governor, Maki has
become a "goto" lobbyist for a number of
companies jockeying for state business. A businessman, consultant, Vietnam
veteran, pilot and longtime Richardson loyalist, Maki first registered as a
New Mexico lobbyist in January 2003 - the same month Richardson took office.
By last year, he had compiled an impressive client list, ranging from BNSF
Railway to Corrections Corporation of America to a Japanese company that
manufactures the artificial sweetener aspartame. Corrections Corporation of
America first hired Maki as a lobbyist in 2003 to handle "administrative
matters," said longtime CCA lobbyist Ed Mahr. Mahr said that included
lobbying the executive branch. CCA recently won a state contract through a
competitive bid to manage the 196-bed Camino Nuevo female inmate correctional
facility in Albuquerque.
June
14, 2005 Santa Fe New Mexican
It's a depressing prospect, made more so by the way it's being faced: Gov.
Bill Richardson says he supports Corrections Director Joe Williams' pitch for
a new state prison. The state has run out of cells to hold all the felons too
dangerous to be free on probation, says Williams. Clayton, that pleasant, but
distant, little town out near the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, proposes to
build a 600-bed lockup for the sake of creating jobs. A nice match -- but
Williams doesn't want the bother of running the prison. Like Republican Rod
Perry before him, the Democratic appointee wants Wackenhut to do the dirty
work. Now known as "the Geo Group," Wackenhut Corrections Corp. is
one of the nation's leaders in the prisons-for-profit industry, a trend that
took off during the Reagan years when many governmental functions were handed
over to private contractors. It was on Wackenhut's watch that violence flared
at prisons in Hobbs and Santa Rosa during the late 1990s. Maybe it would have
happened if the state had been running them -- but at least there would have
been a clear line of accountability; one ending at the governor's desk. With
privatization, our politicians smudge the line at will, pleading that
whatever goes wrong is somehow out of their hands. Prison violence, of
course, is good for business: It means extended sentences, at a certain
number of dollars a day. And rehabilitation and early release are bad for
business -- so how anxious are the privateers to get Joe Convict back in
society? That attitude is almost as criminal as what got some inmates behind
bars in the first place. Prisons, after all, are part of the justice system
-- a basic responsibility of government. Put that responsibility in corporate
hands, and its executives immediately look for ways to squeeze profits from
their contract. Hire guards as cheaply as possible, and never mind their
education and experience levels. Make each guard responsible for a few more inmates
-- until it occurs to those inmates that they can overpower the poor devil
... And private prisons create a demand for convicts -- so the early stages
of the justice system are caught up in a subtle pressure to supply them: Bill
of Rights be damned -- our judiciary- and executive-friendly prison companies
need bodies ... All that was lost on Richardson's predecessor: Gov. Gary
Johnson went so far as to fire his first corrections secretary for daring to
mention that the state wouldn't even save much, if any, money with Johnson's
elaborate prison-profiteering scheme. Surely today's governor can do better
by our justice system. If New Mexico's many social crises are unresolved to
the point that we need more prisons, the least he and Joe Williams can do is maintain
responsibility for the latest wave of felons.
May 4,
2005 AP
From tickets to professional sports games to "New Mexico coffee crusted
beef tenderloin," lobbyists served up a full platter for lawmakers and
state officials during the first four months of the year. Lobbyists spent at
least $418,949 for meals, drinks, gifts, entertainment and special events for
legislators, the governor, state agency officials and staff from January
through late April, much of that during the Legislature's 60-day session. In
addition, lobbyists and their clients gave $87,000 in campaign contributions.
Gov. Bill Richardson received about $38,700 of those contributions, including
$10,000 from Geo Group Inc., formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp.,
which operates private prisons used by the state. Richardson is up for
re-election in 2006.
August
16, 2004
A Pittsburgh company's $10,000 contribution to one of Gov. Bill Richardson's
political committees made while a subsidiary was seeking a state contract
will be returned "to avoid even the appearance of impropriety," a
spokesman for the governor said. The Bantry Group made the contribution to
Moving America Forward in April, one month after the Corrections Department
requested proposals for a contract to provide health care and psychiatric
services to the approximately 6,200 state inmates in private and state-run
prisons. Richardson, in a written statement Thursday, announced that Wexford
Health Sources, a Bantry subsidiary, had been picked for the contract --
potentially worth more than $100 million. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
August
16, 2004
A Pittsburgh company contributed $10,000 to one of Gov. Bill Richardson's
political committees while a subsidiary was seeking a contract to provide
health care to prison inmates in New Mexico. The Bantry Group made the
contribution, and a subsidiary, Wexford Health Sources, won the contract,
potentially worth more than $100 million. Wexford, one of three competitors for the contract, has faced
hundreds of allegations in other states of providing inadequate care to
inmates, sometimes leading to death. Richardson announced in a written
statement Thursday that Wexford had been picked to provide health care and
psychiatric services to the approximately 6,200 state inmates in private and
state-run prisons. Wexford's competitors for the contract— Correctional
Medical Services of St. Louis and Prison Health Services of Brentwood, Tenn.—
made no contributions to Richardson. But Wexford, one of the largest
companies of its kind in the country, has faced questions in several other
states about its quality of care. According to published reports: In 2001, a
state board in Florida criticized Wexford for poor medical care that may have
contributed to the deaths of two Miami-Dade County inmates. The state of
Michigan terminated a contract with Wexford after questions arose involving
medical services. A 1998 U.S. Department of Justice report criticized medical
care at the Wyoming State Penitentiary, where Wexford was under contract.
Wexford has been the target of more than 210 lawsuits nationwide by inmates
or others. (ABQ Journal)
May
13, 2003
Gov. Bill Richardson collected $549,333 in contributions from December
through early May, including money raised to help pay for his
inauguration. Attorney General Patricia Madrid, a Democrat, reported
contributions of $15,614, expenditures of $43,890, and a balance of $67,862.
The largest contributions included $2,000 from Wackenhut Corrections and
$2,000 from Qwest's political-action committee. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
April
18, 2003
Gov. Bill Richardson's office has identified dozens of government contracts
that could be reduced or eliminated to save New Mexico about $21 million.
About $15 million of that amount is state money, while nearly $6 million is
federal. The contract actions will range from canceling a $2 million private
prison contract to getting rid of a $30,000-a-year rented copy machine at the
Department of Finance, Richardson said Thursday. The money expected to be
saved this year is just part of the $90 million the governor has said he
wants to save as part of finding more money for the state's $4 billion
budget. "I asked my Cabinet secretaries to scrutinize every penny we are
spending to make sure taxpayers are getting their money's worth," Richardson
said. Examples of savings identified by Richardson include a canceled
contract with Management and Training Corporation to house 140 state
prisoners in McKinley County. Those prisoners will instead be housed in state
facilities around New Mexico, Corrections Department Secretary Joe Williams
said. Including that contract, the department is expected to save $3.1
million. (ABQ Journal)
April
10, 2003
Gov. Bill Richardson earlier this week signed a bill that cuts more than four
years off the amount of time corrections officers must work before they're
eligible to retire, putting them on par with State Police officers The
change also is expected to serve as a hiring incentive that will help fill
the corrections officer ranks at the state level. The state Corrections
Department hasn't been at full strength for decades. But it doesn't
apply to workers at private prisons, where more than 40 percent of the
state's 6,100-plus inmates are now housed. The new plan won't take
effect until July 2004, after corrections officers vote on it, said John LaBombard, director of labor relations for state
corrections. La Bombard said Wednesday he's already getting many calls
from private-prison workers inquiring about jobs. (ABQ Journal)
January 2, 2003
Gov. Bill Richardson's inauguration is estimated to cost about
$420,000. However, taxpayers won't be picking up the tab.
Donations from corporations and sales of tickets to inaugural balls will
cover the expenses. Among those donors were Wackenhut Corrections
Corp., which owns and operates prisons that are used by the state. (ABQ
Journal)
January
7, 2002
Gov. Gary Johnson is asking the Legislature to spend $20 million next year to
expand state prisons to avoid inmate overcrowding in the future. The
governor, in his budget proposals to the Legislature, proposes spending $
13.3 million next year for a 400-bed expansion at a state prison at Las
Cruces and $6.7 million for a 250-bed expansion of a minimum security prison
at Roswell. The money is part of the governor's recommendations for $256
million in capital improvements in the budget year that begins in July.
Corrections Secretary Rob Perry said Monday the Corrections Department also
has recommended a 300-bed expansion of a privately operated prison to provide
more space for medium security inmates. No state monies are needed initially
to pay for the construction at the private prison, but the state would cover
the costs through an increase in future payments for leasing cells for
inmates in the facility. (AP)
June
29, 2001
"Godbey is a dead man!" Harsh words
for a Republican state House of Representatives member to pen about a GOP
colleague. Harsh enough that Rep. Ron Godbey,
R-Aluquerque, was given a State Police escort at
the Capitol after Rep. Dan Foley, R-Roswell, passed the "dead man"
threat note to House Minority Whip Earlene Roberts, R-Lovington. For
his part, Foley said he was merely making a political observation about Godbey when he wrote the note. Godbey
tried unsuccessfully to unseat State Republican Party chairman John Dendahl publicly backed liberalizing New Mexico drug
laws. Godbey is a staunch opponent of liberal
drug laws. "To know that my party is involved in drugs and
gambling is driving me crazy," said Roberts. If Godbey wasn't threatened with actual death, he was
threatened with political execution. Are the issues of the leaders
becoming more important than the issues of the members in the Republican
Party in New Mexico? After all, Republican national committeeman Mickey
Barnett is a lobbyist for a casino-operating Indian tribe and a private
prison operator and he was a lead lobbyist for liberal drug laws during the
last legislative session. (Albuquerque Journal)
New Mexico Supreme Court
Dec 21, 2019
sfchronicle.com
Ex-New Mexico prison
contractor to release public records
New Mexico Supreme
Court has refused to overturn two lower court rulings in a public records
lawsuit forcing a former state prison contractor to release settlement
agreements with prisoners. The original lawsuit filed in 2016 by the
Albuquerque Journal, the Santa Fe New Mexican and the New Mexico Foundation
for Open Government stems from a refusal by contractor Corizon to release
settlement agreements over alleged malpractice and sexual abuse by a
physician, the Albuquerque Journal reported Thursday. Corizon formerly
provided health care to inmates in state prisons under a four-year $37
million-per-year contract with the state Department of Corrections, officials
said. The high court decision upholds a verdict requiring Corizon to release
requested public records and pay legal fees for violating the Public Records
Act, court officials said. The district court ruled that Corizon had to
comply because it was under contract with a state agency to perform a public
function, officials said. Corizon unsuccessfully appealed the decision.
New Mexico Womens Correctional Facility
Grants, New Mexico
CCA
State
gets tougher on private prisons - Operators face fine as leniency disappears
under Martinez administration: March 1, 2012, Trip Jennings, The
New Mexican: Damning expose on how former DOC Secretary and former Wackenhut warden
cost state millions of dollars in un-collected fines against for-profits.
Nov 11, 2016 koat.com
Satanist inmate: prison officials prohibited me from practicing my
religion
A former inmate of the New Mexico prison system is suing a senior
chaplain of the corrections department and other prison officials for not
allowing her to practice Satanism behind bars. In her lawsuit, Monica Lujan
claims that she’s been a Satanist since the age of 13 and was just released
from the New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants. According to court records,
Lujan was serving a three-year sentence for low level drug crimes and
forgery. Lujan says during her stay at the facility, she was denied the right
to have a Satanic bible several times. According to her lawsuit, Lujan claims
that prison officials told her that Satanism was prohibited and that she
faced retaliation for being a believer. The New Mexico ACLU is aiding Lujan
in her legal fight. “This is a case that strikes at the heart of questions of
religious freedom,” ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson said. “The staff
at the facility were disapproving of her religion and were denying her
ability to practice that religion.” The lawsuit continues, saying that almost
all of Lujan’s belongings were taken when officers found photocopies of the
Satanic bible, a prayer book, and a drawing of a pentagram in her bunk. Lujan
claims that seizure left her with just one pair of underwear, that she says
she wore for four months. “We would expect that our client would have been
treated the same as anyone else who practices any other religion,” Simonson
said. “The government doesn’t really have the ability to pick and choose
which religion it’s going to side with, or which religion it’s going to
favor.” Alex Sanchez, the Deputy Secretary of Administrative Support for the
New Mexico Department of Corrections, wouldn’t comment about the case. But
Sanchez did say that inmates in the prison system are allowed to practice
Satanism behind bars, as long as religious items and rituals aren’t a threat
to security. “We recognize multiple religions, that includes holy days,
property inmates are allowed to have, and how they practice that religion,”
Sanchez said. Sanchez also said that records show Lujan never claimed any
property relating to her religion, such as a bible or other religious items.
The Corrections Corporation of America is also listed as a defendant in the
suit. CCA is a private company that helps the state run some of its
facilities.
Oct 8, 2015 krqe.com
Lawsuit settled over
jailed grandma in solitary confinement
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) –
First came the lawsuit and on Wednesday a final settlement was reached after
a 73-year-old grandmother was locked in solitary confinement for more than a
month in a New Mexico prison. The terms of the settlement are private, so we
have no idea how much money this settlement could involve. But one attorney
hopes it could have a far-reaching impact behind prison walls. “I can only
say it’s settled to the mutual benefit of the parties involved,” said civil
rights attorney Matthew Coyte. Coyte
represents Carol Lester. “There is never an acceptable rationale to put a
70-year-old woman in solitary, regardless of Carol’s situation,” he said.
Lester served time for embezzlement at the New Mexico Women’s Correctional
Facility in Grants. It was run by a private company. According to her
lawsuit, officials changed her medication to treat her thyroid cancer, and
they gave her Zantac to treat her stomach problems. The lawsuit states that
Lester ended up with a false positive for meth, although she’s never used
meth, according to her attorney. As a result, Lester was put in segregation
or solitary confinement. “It makes no sense to have these people in solitary.
It’s toxic. It’s inhumane. It’s mental torture,” Coyte
said. While Coyte can’t reveal that settlement, he
is also representing Jerome Gonzales in Otero County. He was arrested for
DWI, placed in solitary confinement, and the lawsuit says his mental health
deteriorated rapidly. Both parties have agreed to settle the case for $2.9
million, according to a notice of settlement obtained by KRQE News 13. The
settlement will require court approval. We asked Coyte
to respond to critics who may say it’s a waste of taxpayer money. “You say
it’s a waste of money to spend $2.9 million. It’s cheaper to treat people
humanely than it is to treat them like animals and then release them to the
street where they are more likely to commit crime, as a result of how they’ve
been treated in prison,” said Coyte. Lester has
served her time and is out of prison. Gonzales’ charges were dropped,
according to court records. Coyte said he did
support a bill last legislative session that would have required private
prison contractors to reveal any settlements, such as this one involving
Lester. However, that bill did not survive.
Dec
3, 2013 thinkprogress.org
"Private Prison
Company Allegedly Put 73-Year-Old Grandmother In Solitary Confinement For 34
Days" Carol Lester, a 73-year-old grandmother serving time in New Mexico
Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants, is suing Corrections Corporation of
America, one of the largest private prison companies in the world, and
Corizon, Inc, a private prison health care company, for denying her medical
care and keeping her in solitary confinement for over a month. Lester’s
lawsuit, filed in late November, charges that the warden deliberately put her
in solitary confinement because she complained to lawmakers and Department of
Corrections officials that she and other women were being denied medical
care. Lester plead guilty to embezzling money from her employer to feed a
gambling addiction in 2010. Soon after beginning her three-year sentence, the
lawsuit charges that the privately run prison stopped giving her the
prescribed medication she had been taking for thyroid cancer and gave her a
new medication that made her sick. Lester started fainting on a regular
basis, and medical staff told her she may have a serious heart condition.
However, they did not send her to a specialist or a hospital, and her health
deteriorated rapidly. According to the complaint, she took up a letter
writing campaign with fellow inmates who were also being denied medical care.
Her letters prompted a delegation of state legislators and the head of health
services for the Department of Corrections to visit the prison to talk with
inmates about their concerns. Soon after these visits, Lester was given a
drug test, and tested positive for methanphetamine.
Though she had no history of drug use, the prison was prescribing her Zantac,
which is known to cause false positives for methanphetamine.
Lester reportedly offered to pay for a blood test to prove she was clean, but
was put in solitary confinement instead. While in solitary, Lester says she
stopped getting medications for either her thyroid cancer or her heart
condition. Though a court has not yet heard Lester’s case, the two prison
companies in question already face a string of allegations that they abuse or
neglect inmates. Because private prison companies must turn a profit, health
care and quality of life are often sacrificed for the bottom line. Corizon is
already handling lawsuits and investigations all over the country charging
that the health care company ignored inmates’ calls for help, left sick
inmates in soiled bedsheets without any food or water, and even let a man die
because calling an ambulance was deemed too expensive. Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA), meanwhile, was recently held in contempt for
understaffing prisons, and a few months earlier paid $600,000 to settle
another lawsuit over inmate abuse. The extremely profitable company has also
been caught overcrowding prisons to the point that many inmates sleep on the
floor, using gangs to police facilities,
Nov
16, 2012 Albuquerque Journal
A federal jury in Albuquerque found that the warden of the private contract
women’s prison in Grants and its former chief of security retaliated against
an inmate who reported sexual abuse by an employee at the facility in
violation of her First Amendment rights. The inmate, Lisa Jaramillo, spent 60
days in segregation for reporting seeing another inmate emerge from a room
with a corrections officer. The jury found no negligence by the private,
for-profit contracting giant Corrections Corporation of America, whose
wardens earn bonuses for keeping down complaints. Plaintiffs Lisa Jaramillo
and Kim Chavez alleged that CCA’s failure to abide by its own policies
requiring an officer to be present when an inmate was in the medical unit led
to sexual abuse of both of them. Both women are still completing criminal
sentences but are no longer at the New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility.
Both were inmates in 2008 when a male nurse employed by Correctional Medical
Services, Roger Bustamante, allegedly assaulted them. He was later escorted
off the premises and fired. Four women sued Bustamante, CMS, CCA and
individual prison officials including Warden Arlene Hickson and former
security chief Robert Ulibarri, who was also discharged from employment
there. The jury on Thursday awarded Jaramillo a total of $6,000 in
compensatory damages against Ulibarri and Hickson and a total of $60,000 in
punitive damages against the two. Because that claim was brought under
federal law, attorneys Mark Fine, and American Civil Liberties Union lawyers
Maureen Sanders and Laura Schauer Ives will be able to claim attorney fees
for bringing the action. “We consider this to be a tremendous victory that
the jury acknowledged that women who report sexual abuse are retaliated
against — and that silence serves to suppress reports,” said Ives, the
managing attorney of the New Mexico ACLU. Daniel Struck, the Phoenix attorney
for CCA, left town before the verdict was returned and wasn’t available for
comment.
Nov 6, 2012 Albuquerque Journal
A woman who was serving a 13-year forgery sentence at the Grants Women’s
Correctional Facility in 2007 told a jury Monday that she was initially
flattered by the flirtations of a male nurse when she went to the medical
unit to strip and wax the floors.
But the first blush of feeling flattered soon turned to disgust, Lisa
Jaramillo testified before U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera. Jaramillo was
the first witness in the trial over the alleged sexual assault of her and
another woman at the prison run by Corrections Corporation of America under a
state contract. CCA, the nation’s largest private, for-profit prison
operator, provided the facility with security, and a separate, unrelated
company, Correctional Medical Services, staffed the medical unit.
Only Jaramillo and Kim Chavez remain as plaintiffs among the four women who
filed the lawsuit in 2009, because settlements were reached with the two
others. The claims include retaliation after reporting the assault, as well
as the assault itself.
Jaramillo, who said she came from a “family of addicts” in Las Cruces, spoke
softly and dabbed at her eyes as she described jerking away when the nurse,
Roger Bustamante, forced her hand down his pants and then yanked down her
pants and assaulted her after the rebuff. Jaramillo had earned a certificate
in cleaning while in prison and was alone in the medical unit without a
corrections officer as a monitor, despite rules calling for an officer to be
present. An assistant warden had asked Jaramillo to teach Chavez how to operate
the buffing and waxing machinery, but both women had to leave the medical
units and return to their cells after three hours when a bell sounded for a
regular count of inmates. Jaramillo came back to the medical unit before
Chavez. As Jaramillo bolted from the room after the assault in tears, she
said she saw a female nurse whom she avoided and then ran into Chavez and
told her what had happened. Attorney Mark Fine, who represents the women
inmates, told jurors in his opening statement that the 2003 Prison Rape
Elimination Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush, sets national
standards to prevent rape in prisons. By the end of trial, he said, it will
become clear that under the act, it’s not OK for a prison official to have
sex with an inmate. Daniel Struck, the Phoenix attorney defending CCA, said
the case was about “hustling.” “Those are not my words,” he said, adding that
they were a term Jaramillo used to refer to herself. He portrayed Jaramillo
as a troublemaker with over 25 disciplinary infractions and suggested she had
embellished the incident in each telling. Jaramillo acknowledged infractions
when she was questioned by Fine and said she’d made many bad decisions in her
life. But she said that when she referred to “hustling,” it meant trying to
get more or better food or tobacco, and was not about selling her body.— This
article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal
July
25, 2012 KRQE
An audit of prison records begun last week has found a
inmate at the women's prison in Grants who was supposed to be released last
November. State Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel
said the statewide audit of the approximately 6,600 inmate records began at
the New Mexico Women's Correctional Facility. "Our standards,
evaluation, and findings must remain transparent if we are to remain aware
what is expected of our service," Marcantel
said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. "This finding
represents our commitment (of) vigorously looking at yourself." The
nearly nine-month delay in releasing of Shera Winings
was blamed on an employee of Corrections Corporation of America, which
operates the prison. Winings, who had been held on
a probation violation since October 2009, was released on Saturday.
March
17, 2012 Albuquerque Journal
The companies that operate private prisons where New Mexico state inmates
serve their time have racked up nearly $1.6 million in penalties for
understaffing and other contract violations since the Martinez administration
started cracking down last year. Nearly all of that was attributable to
problems at The GEO Group Inc.’s prison in Hobbs, although the company’s
Clayton prison was recently added to the penalty list. The Corrections
Corporation of America, which operates the women’s prison in Grants, also has
been fined during the past couple of months, mostly for having inmates in the
prison after their release dates. Reversing the practice of the previous
administration, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez decided to pursue the
penalties the state is entitled to impose for contract violations. “In
today’s struggling economy, the people of New Mexico deserve to know the
Corrections Department is running in a fiscally responsible manner,”
Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said this
week in a statement. The department recently revived its Office of Inspector
General to keep tabs on contract compliance. Such fines are discretionary,
and former Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration gave private
prisons a pass, irking lawmakers who estimated that upwards of $18 million
could have been collected. Richardson’s corrections chief, Joe Williams – who
claimed that estimate was inflated – said that prisons already were paying
substantial overtime costs, that understaffing was largely due to factors
beyond their control, and that the facilities were safe and secure. Williams
worked at Hobbs for GEO’s predecessor company before Richardson hired him,
and he returned to GEO’s corporate offices in Boca Raton, Fla., at the end of
Richardson’s tenure. After negotiations with the Martinez administration, GEO
in January paid a $1.1 million fine for violations at the Lea County
Correctional Facility in Hobbs for the period from January through October of
2011. GEO also agreed to put another $200,000 into recruitment over the
subsequent year. GEO continued to be penalized: $158,529 for November,
$139,621 for December, $78,710 for January and $84,753 for February,
according to documents provided by the department. The February assessment
isn’t final yet, because the company has until late this month to respond to
it. The fines largely were due to vacancies in the ranks of correctional
officers and in noncustodial positions such as teachers, counselors and
treatment providers. Corrections officials have said it’s difficult for the
men’s medium security lockup at Hobbs to recruit and keep corrections
officers because it’s competing with the oil industry. An assessment of
$2,570 for understaffing in January was proposed for GEO’s Northeastern New
Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton, but the problem had been corrected by
the time the department sent a letter to the prison on Feb. 10, and no
penalty was assessed. In early March, however, the department notified the
Clayton prison that it would be fined $5,373 for February, for vacancies in
mandatory posts and for two inmates imprisoned beyond their release date.
That penalty is pending. GEO did not respond to requests from the Journal for
comment. The Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the New
Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants, was fined $11,779 for
January, and $9,974 for February – still pending – for an academic instructor
vacancy and for inmates held beyond their release dates. Inspector General
Shannon McReynolds said that occurs when the required parole plans aren’t
developed in a timely way.
April
25, 2011 The New Mexican
The two for-profit firms that run four of New Mexico's 10 prisons often
struggle to keep correctional officer jobs filled, state records show. One in
five such jobs at a Hobbs facility was vacant for much of the past 15 months,
while the prison in Santa Rosa reported a vacancy rate of around 12.5 percent
over the same period, according to the records. By contract, New Mexico can
penalize The GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, the two firms
that operate the facilities, when staffing vacancies are at 10 percent or
more for 30 consecutive days. It's a threshold that appears to have been
crossed multiple times at all four prisons since January 2010. The vacancy
rate at Hobbs topped the 10-percent threshold in each of the 14 months for
which data was available between January 2010 and March of this year.
Meanwhile, the 10-percent threshold was topped nine times over that period at
Santa Rosa and six times at a Clayton facility. Like the Hobbs facility, both
are run by GEO. A CCA-operated prison in Grants topped the 10 percent rate
four times over the same period. Whether to penalize the out-of-state,
for-profit firms is an issue that has come up before. The question surfaced
last year when state lawmakers were struggling to find ways to close a
yawning state budget gap. At the time, the Legislature's budget arm, the
Legislative Finance Committee, estimated Gov. Bill Richardson's
administration had skipped $18 million in penalties against the two firms.
One powerful lawmaker said Monday the issue is still important and the
Legislature shouldn't lose sight of it. "We'd like to follow up and
perhaps do a performance group review on the private prison operators to see
whether they are making excessive profits," Rep. Luciano
"Lucky" Varela, D-Santa Fe, said of the Legislative Finance
Committee. Varela, the committee chairman, said he can accept a reasonable
return for the prison operators, but high vacancy rates at prisons operated
by the firms raise questions about how state dollars are being spent to
operate the facilities. Determining whether the companies should be penalized
for high vacancy rates is an involved process, a Corrections Department
spokesman said. GEO and CCA might have asked corrections officers already on
the job to work overtime to address the staffing situation. If they did, the
department "cannot in good faith consider that position to be
vacant," spokesman Shannon McReynolds wrote in an email. But the state
doesn't know whether that happened. That would require going through shift
rosters at each privately operated facility, McReynolds said in a follow-up
phone interview. "That will take a decision from the
administration," McReynolds said, referring to new Corrections Secretary
Lupe Martinez. "We do not have specifics on overtime. Every once in awhile we'll hear a particular facility has spent a lot
on overtime." Because of sporadic record-keeping at the facilities GEO
and CCA operate, the state corrections agency couldn't verify last year how
often the two firms violated the vacancy-rate provision in their contracts,
if at all. As a result, the agency couldn't corroborate or refute the
Legislative Finance Committee's estimate of uncollected penalties. Joe
Williams, then-corrections secretary, decided not to pursue penalizing the
two companies, saying GEO and CCA were making a good-faith effort to keep the
facilities staffed. The contracts give the corrections secretary discretion
to waive the penalties. If Lupe Martinez, the new corrections secretary,
decides to collect penalties, it would be only for January 2011 and onward,
McReynolds said. Gov. Susana Martinez took power in January and soon
afterward appointed Lupe Martinez, no relation, as her corrections secretary.
According to state records, of the four privately operated prisons, Lea
County Correctional Facility in Hobbs has struggled the most to keep
correctional officers on the job. The facility's vacancy rate hovered above
20 percent for 12 of the 14 months for which there was data between January
2010 and March of this year. That includes seven consecutive months —
September 2010 through March — when the vacancy rate was 25.24 percent,
records show. GEO-run Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa
reported a 16.93 percent vacancy rate last July, a high point. The vacancy
rate has hovered below 10 percent in five of the last seven months. Another
GEO-run facility, the Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility in Clayton,
showed a similar trend, reporting vacancy rates higher than 10 percent for
six of the seven months for which data was available between January and
August 2010. Data for July 2010 was missing. As in Santa Rosa, the Clayton
facility's vacancy rate has dropped in recent months. The state's fourth
privately operated prison, CCA-run New Mexico Women's Correctional Facility
in Grants, reported a vacancy rate above 10 percent four times from January
2010 to July 2010, with a 16.47 percent vacancy rate reported in July. The
state corrections agency did not have data for August 2010 to March 2011.
September
10, 2010 New Mexico Independent
The state appears to have been within its rights last year to repeatedly
penalize two private prison operators for letting their vacancy rates hover
above a 10 percent trigger in their contracts, state records show. By
contract New Mexico can levy penalties against the two firms – GEO Group and
Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) — when staffing vacancies at the
facilities they manage in Hobbs, Grants, Clayton and Santa Rosa stay at 10
percent or more for 30-consecutive days. Staffing levels at three of the four
privately operated facilities hovered above 10 percent for much of last year,
state records show. As for the fourth facility, the vacancy rate was above
the 10 percent trigger in six of the 13 months the state records covered.
Corrections Secretary Joe Williams, who worked for GEO before Gov. Bill
Richardson tapped him as corrections secretary, told The Independent last
week the state had never penalized GEO or CCA despite vacancy rates
repeatedly topping the 10 percent trigger. He had the discretion to decide
whether to penalize the firms or not, and he had decided against it, Williams
said. The firms were doing a good job of managing the prisons, he added. Some
state lawmakers are wondering why Williams never assessed the penalties. Some
believe the never-assessed penalties could amount to millions of dollars.
State records show that vacancies at GEO-operated Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa were above the 10 percent threshold in 11
of the13 months between July 2009 to July 2010; 10 of the 13 months at the
GEO-run Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs; and nine of the 13 months
at the CCA-operated New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants. The
vacancy rate at the GEO-run Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility
eclipsed the 10 percent rate in six of the 13 months covered by the time
period shown in the records, state records show. The agency on Friday
reiterated Williams’ discretion in deciding whether to penalize the companies
or not. “The contract clauses that deal with vacancy rates gives sole
discretion to NMCD so that they may penalize the private prisons,” read an
e-mail to The Independent after we had sent questions related to the vacancy
rates from July 2009 to July 2010. “The penalties are not mandatory and are
decided by the department,” the e-mail continued. “Secretary Williams will be
presenting the reasons to why he has not penalized the vendors to the
Legislative Finance Committee in an upcoming hearing. The department welcomes
you to attend the committee hearing.”
December
14, 2009 Cibola Beacon
A former education director at the New Mexico Women's Correctional Facility
has been indicted on a second degree felony count of criminal sexual
penetration of an inmate. Charles Buccigrossi, 65,
former education director at the Correctional Corporations of America
facility, made sexual contact with an inmate, according to a Grants Police
Department report. Officers were dispatched to the prison on Aug. 10 in
response to investigate the allegation. According to court documents, the
inmate was cleaning the director's office when she claimed Buccigrossi instructed her to have sex with him.
According to the affidavit and the victim's statement, he told the inmate she
would “stay doing more time” if she refused. The inmate's account of the
incident revealed evidence that was found in Buccigrossi's
office, which was searched for evidence later that day. A DNA lab test showed
Buccigrossi is the only person who could have left
his DNA at the scene of the crime. According to GPD's Detective Kevin Dobbs
and the state's statues; any sexual contact, coerced or forced in considered
criminal when an inmate is confined in a correctional facility or jail and
the perpetrator is in authority over the inmate.
October
28, 2009 The New Mexican
The state of New Mexico would have to shutter two prisons, give early
releases to up to 660 prisoners and lay off and furlough Corrections
Department employees if Gov. Bill Richardson signs budget cuts approved by
the Legislature, his office said Wednesday. Richardson's office raised that
grim possibility as his staff analyzes the impact of $253 million in spending
cuts legislators passed during a special session last week to deal with a
revenue shortfall. His administration on Monday had said other cuts approved
by the Legislature could mean the state Human Services Department would
reduce children's health care, nutrition programs for seniors and programs
for the developmentally disabled, if he were to sign the measures. But
lawmakers say they won't be blamed for decisions that are now up to
Richardson. "He wants it to seem like we're making the decisions,"
said House Minority Whip Keith Gardner, R-Roswell. "But he's making the
calls where he wants to cut. He's making that decision." The Corrections
Department said that in order to meet $21 million in budget cuts, it would
have to close the Roswell Correctional Center in Hagerman and the New Mexico
Women's Correctional Facility in Grants. About 270 inmates are incarcerated
at the state-operated Roswell facility, while about 590 are housed in the
Grants facility, which is operated by the Corrections Corporation of America.
The state would have to cancel its contract with the company.
September
19, 2007 AP
The state Court of Appeals has ruled that a private prison company is not
entitled to a refund of taxes for operating prisons that house inmates for
the state and federal governments. Corrections Corporation of America had
sought a refund of state gross receipts taxes, claiming it was allowed a
deduction for the leasing of its prisons under agreements with the Department
of Corrections and the federal Bureau of Prisons. The Court of Appeals
concluded Tuesday there was no lease of real property. "The fact that
CCA had the right to fill up any extra space with inmates from other
jurisdictions coupled with the governmental entities' paying based on the
number of inmates housed, makes these agreements look more like those between
'hotels, motels, rooming houses, and other facilities' and 'lodgers or
occupants' than leases for real property," the court said in an opinion
written by Judge Michael Bustamante. The company built and owns prisons used
by the state and other governments: the New Mexico Women's Correctional
Facility in Grants, the Cibola County Correctional Center near Milan and the
Torrance County Detention Facility at Estancia. In 2002, the company filed
for a refund of nearly $2.5 million for taxes from January 1999 to October
2002. A state district court in Santa Fe ruled against the company in 2005.
September
18, 2007 AP
The state Court of Appeals has ruled that a private prison company isn't
entitled to a refund of taxes for operating prisons that house inmates for
the state and federal governments. Corrections Corporation of America had
sought a refund of state gross receipts taxes. The company claimed a
deduction for the leasing of its prisons under agreements with the Department
of Corrections and the federal Bureau of Prisons. The court ruled today that
there was no lease of real property. In 2002, the company filed for a refund
of nearly $2.5 million for taxes from January 1999 to October 2002. In its
appeal, the company dropped some claims but didn't specify the amount of
refund it was seeking. CCA operates a prison at Grants that houses state
female inmates. It also has a prison in Torrance County and contracts with
the Bureau of Prisons to hold federal inmates near Milan in Cibola County.
August
30, 2007 Cibola Beacon
The Beacon recently received several calls from residents concerned about the
safety of the community because of the staff shortage in the areas prisons.
All three prisons, Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants, Cibola
County Corrections Center (AKA Four C's) in Milan and the New Mexico Women's
Correctional Facility, also in Grants, are currently in need of correctional
officers. Four C's in Milan is the most needful of officers. Currently, it is
38 officers short. The facility has a total of 159 CO positions,
therefore it is now understaffed by 24 percent. “First, there is absolutely
no risk to be concerned about,” Warden Walt Wells said on Wednesday. “We
continually analyze the staff to be sure we have the adequate staff to
protect our inmates, employees and the community. We'll never let it fall to
the level to where there is a risk.” According to Warden Allan Cooper at the
Grants women's facility, Americans Corrections Association says the ratio of
inmate to corrections officer should be about 580 inmates to 76 staff, about
65 of the latter being correctional officers. “The public will never be at
risk,” said Cooper. Cooper's Administrative Assistant, Lisa Riley, said they
have to fill all the posts no matter what. “If it costs us lots of overtime,
that doesn't matter,” Riley said. “We have our requirements that have to met by the state.”
August
4, 2006 Cibola Beacon
The New Mexico Corrections Department recently announced the settlement of an
ACLU lawsuit against it includes a proviso that the department will not be
releasing inmates early. “This agreement gives us the confidence that
offenders will not be released from prison early, especially since the
department currently has adequate capacity,” said Corrections Department Secretary
Joe R. Williams. After the lawsuit was filed in April, corrections officials
authorized the move of 68 minimum-security female inmates from Grants Women's
Correctional Facility to temporary holding at the Regional Correctional
Center in downtown Albuquerque until Camino Nuevo opened last month. Camino
was the former Children's Youth and Family juvenile detention center in
Albuquerque and will hold up to 192 women. The ACLU contended that the
corrections secretary is mandated by state law to create a Population Control
Commission to address the overpopulation problem within 30 days after a
facility is deemed overcrowded. The commission must convene in 60 days, and
at the 30-day point Williams must provide the commission with a list of
non-violent offenders, who are slated for release within six months. The
Corrections Corporation of America built the Grants facility in 1989 for 200
female convicts, and expanded in 1995 to include 118 more beds and
educational work areas. It houses women inmates from minimum to
maximum-security levels, and its highest capacity is 611. Its current
population is 605 as of Thursday morning.
July
21, 2006 AP
The American Civil Liberties Union dropped a lawsuit Thursday against the
state Corrections Department after Secretary Joe Williams agreed to convene a
special commission to address overcrowding at the women's prison near Grants.
The action ended a dispute that began when the civil-rights organization sued
in April. The ACLU claimed the agency wasn't complying with a 2002 law that
provides for early release of nonviolent prisoners when a prison is over
capacity for two months. Officials subsequently moved 68 women from the New
Mexico Women's Correctional Facility to a privately operated Albuquerque
jail. Corrections officials argued that the shift meant the Grants prison no
longer was over capacity.
June
21, 2006 Gallup Independent
The veteran warden of the New Mexico Women's Correction Facility in Grants
has retired, according to a spokesman for Corrections Corporation of America.
CCA operates the prison on Grants east side under a contract with the state
of New Mexico's Corrections Department. Bill Snodgrass has been succeeded, at
least temporarily, by Barbara Wagner as interim warden. She is the first
warden of the Camino Nuevo Corrections Center in Albuquerque, opened to
relieve overcrowding at the 596-bed female facility. The excess number of
women being held in Grants was reduced by the recent transfers to Camino
Nuevo long after a lawsuit against the state for violating prisoners' civil
rights. Steve Owen of CCA headquarters in Nashville denied that Snodgrass had
been let go, commenting, "When you get a new management team, the
administration often assesses its key management personnel and it is not
uncommon to have some changes made. When you are going with a new management
style, you want to be sure you want to be sure you have the right people in
place." The word going around the community was that in addition to
Snodgrass departing, four others were escorted from the compound on Sakeluras Boulevard. And a week later, another four or
five also were given the boot.
April
14, 2006 Cibola Beacon
New Mexico ACLU executive director Peter Simonson recently announced the
organization filed legal papers to force the New Mexico Department of
Corrections to rectify inmate overcrowding at the New Mexico Women’s
Correctional Facility in Grants. Simonson said the ACLU has told DOC
Secretary Joe Williams it needs to see progress in solving the overcrowding
and other problems at the women’s facility. “He knew … about a month ago
there would be a lawsuit. The ACLU stated that the overcrowding has
contributed to tensions, fighting and even problems for the facility’s
employees. In addition, ACLU contends sewage backups into the living areas
resulted in corrections officers having to wear masks because of the smell.
November
22, 2005 Cibola Beacon
Tia Bland of the New Mexico Corrections Department reported Friday that she
still has not been served with the lawsuit filed by the Freedom From Religion
Foundation. The suit alleges the NMCD, Corrections Corporation of America
(CCA) and other related defendants are violating First Amendment rights by
using taxpayer funds to support religious indoctrination as a component of
the programming provided to prison inmates. Bland said, "The corrections
department pays the CCA to house inmates and how they break that down is a
question for CCA." In a previous Beacon story, CCA claimed that
volunteers provided the faith-based resources.
November
8, 2005 BBS News
A state-funded fundamentalist Christian prison ministry program ("God
pod") in a women's prison in New Mexico is being challenged in federal
court by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a state/church watchdog. The
Foundation filed suit yesterday in the Federal District of New Mexico. The
lawsuit marks the sixth faith-based challenge by the national association of
atheists and agnostics, working to keep state and church separate. The
Foundation has brought and won more legal challenges against the "faith-based
initiative" than any other group. The Foundation, as a plaintiff, is
joined by six taxpaying New Mexico Foundation members: Martin Boyd, M.D.,
Jesse V. Chavez; Ernie and Sabina Hirshman; Peter Viviano, and Paul Weinbaum. Defendants are: New Mexico
Gov. Bill Richardson; Joe R. Williams, Secretary of the New Mexico
Corrections Department; Homer Gonzales, coordinator of faith-based programs
for the New Mexico Corrections department; Bill Snodgrass, warden, New Mexico
Women's Correctional Facility, and the Corrections Corporation of America.
The extent to which "faith-based" programs are being promoted in
New Mexico prisons is indicated by a recent statement by Corrections
Secretary Joe Williams. He told the American Correctional Conference in
Phoenix in January 2005: "Don't forget that Jesus Christ himself was a
prisoner" (The Santa Fe Reporter, March 9. 2005). The State of New
Mexico contracts with the private Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to
provide prison services. CCA, the largest private provider of prison services
in the country, manages the women's prison in Grants, N. M., which offers an
exclusively faith-based segregation pod. Officially, the Grants program is
called the "Life Principles Community/Crossings Program."
December
5, 2002
Tana Morris, a 30-year-old
inmate at the Women's Correctional Facility in Grants, filed a civil
complaint in state district court on Monday against the Department of
Corrections and Bill Snodgrass, the warden of the Grants facility, seeking
compensation for her current and future health problems she claims are the
result of constant exposure to secondhand smoke in the prison. "I have never even smoked even one
cigarette in my life, and this 24-hour exposure to secondhand smoke is of
grave concern to me ...," Morris states in her complaint. "I have
young children who deserve to have a healthy mother. At this point, my health is rapidly
deteriorating due to my living conditions, and the idea of being healthy is
looking to be out of my reach." Department of Corrections spokesman
Gerges Scott said the Grants facility has its own smoking policy because it
is operated privately by Corrections Corporation of America, but a telephone
operator at the Grants facility said the jail follows the state's guidelines. State Sen. Joseph Carraro,
R-Albuquerque, said the department's policy allowing prisoners to smoke was a
lawsuit waiting to happen. Carraro authored a
failed bill this past legislative session that would have banned smoking
in prisons. He claimed the state is already paying millions of dollars a
year in health care for prisoners and might be liable for inmate
health problems that are the result of first- or secondhand smoke.
(Santa Fe New Mexican.com)
Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility
Clayton, New Mexico
GEO Group
Jul
17, 2021 santafenewmexican.com
New Mexico
Corrections Department to take over two privately run prisons
The state Corrections
Department announced plans Friday to take over operations of the Northwest
New Mexico Correctional Center, which houses 440 inmates in Grants, from CoreCivic, a private company that owns and oversees the
lockup. The state will lease the facility from CoreCivic and the transition is expected to be
completed by November, according to a written statement. "We are still
working on lease negotiations with CoreCivic
so I don't have any numbers as far as cost goes," corrections spokesman
Eric Harrison said in an email. The Corrections Department also announced
plans to assume operations of another private prison - the Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa - by November. "At the outset of the
Lujan Grisham administration, 49.58 percent of prison beds in New Mexico were
privately operated facilities," according to the news release.
"After these transitions are completed, the administration will have
reduced that rate by more than half, to 24.5 [percent]."
Nov
25, 2020 krqe.com
New developments in
the dramatic prison riot caught on video
CLAYTON, N.M. (KRQE)
– “We don’t want to ever see something like this happen again,” says
Northeast New Mexico Prison Warden Tim Hatch. He’s referring to a defining
moment at the Clayton, NM prison on September 23, 2017. It was just over
three years ago, at 9:05 p.m., that Cellblock 3 exploded in chaos. A hostage
was taken, inmate cell doors were unlocked as some of the most dangerous
prisoners in New Mexico went on a rampage and took control. A subsequent
investigation of the incident uncovered a host of sloppy and reckless
security blunders. The Clayton Prison riot would be New Mexico’s largest
inmate uprising in the last 20 years. In 2017, the Clayton facility was a
private prison operated by the Florida-based GEO group. The facility is
designed to hold 625 medium-security inmates. Cellblock 3 is a Restrictive
Housing Unit reserved for inmates who pose security threats. On the evening
of September 23, 2017, rookie Correctional Officer Matt Shriner patrolled
Cellblock 3’s upper tier. His activity that night was captured on the
prison’s security cameras. A few minutes after 9:00 p.m., Shriner is seen
pausing at a locked cell. He reaches in the door slot and is handed
contraband. The young guard surreptitiously passes the item to another inmate
in an adjacent cell. As Shriner continues to patrol the cellblock, he stops
at cell 203, where cameras catch him chatting through a locked door with one
of the most dangerous inmates in the entire prison system. Clifton Bloomfield
is a notorious convicted serial killer serving multiple life terms after
murdering five people in Albuquerque. Shriner exchanges a few words with the
convicted killer and then, in blatant disregard of security, unlocks
Bloomfield’s cell door. Moments later, the inmate jumps Shriner and
overpowers him with a sharpened toothbrush fashioned into a homemade weapon.
Shriner is taken, hostage. Bloomfield grabs the guard’s keys and proceeds to
unlock cell doors. Shriner is able to break away. He
dashes down steps to the main level, retrieves his walkie talkie and runs for
help. With keys to the entire 40 man cellblock and
no guards, the inmates take control. Cells doors are unlocked, and the
prisoners go on a brutal rampage. The main entry door is barricaded. Some prisoners
use their newfound freedom to settle scores. One inmate, a suspected
informant, is assaulted in his cell, his throat slashed. Other inmates
disable the prison’s surveillance cameras. They start a fire and trash the
cellblock. The prison’s Riot Response Team floods the cellblock with tear
gas. Gradually, the security force is able to regain
control of the facility. Inmates are rounded up, handcuffed, and escorted one
by one to the prison’s day room. The inmate who was attacked by rioters was
found unconscious in a pool of blood. Rescuers drag him out and call an
ambulance. Ring leader Clifton Bloomfield was
handcuffed, ushered out of the cellblock, and transferred to Maximum Security
at the State Pen in Santa Fe. GEO Group Warden, Mark Bowen, refused public
comment as the Correction’s Department launched an investigation. “It was a
disaster,” says Santa Fe attorney Mark Donatelli. Donatelli led the Public Defender’s Riot Defense Team
following the 1980 Santa Fe prison uprising. “It’s hard to know where to
start. There were so many security failures in the operation of that facility
prior to that night (including) understaffing, the lack of training, the
classification system that led to the placement of high profile violent
offenders at a facility that wasn’t designed to house them,” Donatelli said. Consider Clifton Bloomfield. The
convicted serial killer was known throughout New Mexico’s prison system as a
dangerous and disruptive inmate. One month before the riot, he attacked
prisoner Steven Woods, nearly strangling him to death with a towel. Instead
of transferring Bloomfield to a more secure facility, he was ordered to
undergo counseling in the Predator Behavior Management Program. Eleven days
before the uprising, Warden Mark Bowen notified the prison staff about
potential violence from Clifton Bloomfield. In a September 12, 2017 email
titled ‘Threat from inmate Bloomfield,’ Warden Bowen said, “We received a
(note) this morning stating inmate Bloomfield … wants to harm our staff. All
of us know how dangerous this inmate is. Ensure that all precautions are used
when dealing with this inmate. Ensure that a supervisor and a camera is
present when his food tray slot or cell door is opened.” Days later, in total
disregard for security or staff safety, Bloomfield was let out of his cell,
where he overpowered his guard and orchestrated the prison riot. And then
there’s Matt Shriner. On the evening of the uprising, the 23-year-old Shriner
was the only Correctional Officer on duty in Cellblock 3. When he unlocked Clifton
Bloomfield’s cell door, he carried the keys to every cell in the unit. “An
inexperienced rookie officer with very little training was sent into the most
dangerous, secure part of the facility without backup, without a radio,”
attorney Mark Donatelli says. “The officer was
compromised by a prisoner who was able to take his keys away, opened
everybody’s cell in that unit, and it led to the takeover of that unit,” Donatelli said. In an interview with Correction’s
Department investigators, Shriner admitted passing notes for inmates. He said
he couldn’t remember why he unlocked Bloomfield’s cell. A month after the
riot, Shriner resigned and moved out of state. Perhaps the biggest problem
facing the Northeast New Mexico Private Prison was understaffing. Correctional
Officer vacancies at the GEO Group facility were dangerously inadequate. On
September 23, 2017, 20 guards were required to secure the prison. That night,
however, only nine were present. Over a two and half year
period (May 2017-November 2019), the Department of Corrections fined the GEO
Group’s Clayton facility $2,713,005 for failure to safely staff the prison.
“There was this arrangement between the state where GEO could simply pay a
fine instead of safely staffing the prison that they were commissioned to
operate,” Mark Donatelli said. “They were paying
fines rather than finding staff, training them, and putting them in the
positions that could have run that prison safely,” Donatelli
said. In November last year, the Department of Corrections severed ties with
the Clayton, NM prison operator, GEO Group. The State of New Mexico took over
management of the Northeast New Mexico prison and named Tim Hatch as its new
Warden. “It was very serious,” Warden Hatch says about the 2017 inmate
uprising. “It’s a situation that some people will work an entire career and
never experience,” Warden Hatch said. “We have put together a plan that if
this ever happened again, we would be able to defeat it quickly,” Warden
Hatch says. “If we have an inmate that we would consider threatening the
staff, we would make sure that door is marked, and staff knows do not open
that door without at least two staff members, a supervisor, and a video
camera. We no longer allow keys down into the housing unit. All doors are
opened (remotely) through Master Control,” Hatch said. The 50-year-old
Bloomfield is the subject of a ten count Criminal Information filed by the
Union County District Attorney in January last year. In connection to the
Clayton uprising, Bloomfield is charged with multiple crimes, including
Kidnapping, Conspiracy To Commit Murder, Assault,
Battery On A Peace Officer, Arson, and Criminal Damage To Property. The
convicted serial killer also faces Attempted Murder charges relating to the
assault on inmate Steven Woods prior to the riot. Both cases are pending.
Following the September 2017 incident, former Correctional Officer Matt
Shriner was charged with Unlawful Rescue of Convicted Capital Offender and
Assisting Escape. Earlier this year, the Union County D.A. dismissed the case
saying there was insufficient evidence to prove intent on Shriner’s part. The
former prison guard lives out of state and did not respond to a request for
comment. Last year, inmate Samuel Sanchez, who was seriously injured by other
prisoners during the Clayton riot, filed a negligence lawsuit naming the GEO
Group and the Correction’s Department as defendants. That case is pending.
Sep
18, 2019 correctionsone.com
NM inmate who had
throat slit sues state, company that managed prison
CLAYTON,
NM — An inmate who had his throat slit during a 2017 riot at a state prison
in Clayton is suing the state Corrections Department and the company that
managed the prison, claiming they failed to adequately staff the facility.
Twenty corrections officers were supposed to be on duty at the 625-bed medium
security prison on the evening of Sept. 23, 2017, the night of the uprising,
according to the lawsuit, but only nine guards were actually
working. According to reports from the time, the riot erupted after
convicted serial killer Clifton Bloomfield convinced 22-year-old prison guard
Matthew Shriner to open his cell, then took Shriner’s keys and used them to
open the cells of other inmates. They then took control of the cell block for
more than an hour before they were subdued with tear gas, flooding and flash
grenades. During the melee, two inmates entered Samuel Sanchez’s cell and cut
his throat, nearly killing him. Sanchez, 36, said he was in segregation at
the time and believes prisons guards had identified him as a “snitch,”
according to the complaint. “He was asleep in his cell when his throat was
slit and bled out for well over an hour,” Sanchez’s attorney, Shannon
Kennedy, said in an email Monday. “He is lucky to be alive; however, still
terrified because he is been portrayed in the media as a 'snitch.’ ” Shriner — who is named as a defendant in the complaint
but could not be reached for comment late Tuesday — has been charged in state
District Court with intentionally permitting Bloomfield to escape custody,
unlawful rescue of a convicted capital offender and assisting in an escape.
He has filed his own lawsuit over the incident which, like Sanchez’s, accuses
the state and the private prison management company GEO Group of failing to
properly staff the prison. Florida-based GEO Group ran the Clayton facility
for the past decade but announced this spring it would not renew its contract
with the state and the town of Clayton, citing the difficulty it faced in
keeping the prison adequately staffed. According to Sanchez’s lawsuit, the
state fined GEO Group more than $1.3 million for failure to maintain minimum
staffing levels at the prison between 2017 and 2018. While there are 204
allocated positions at the facility, a spokeswoman for Gov. Michelle Lujan
Grisham said the prison had a staff of only 120 in late June when GEO
announced it was ending its contract. The state plans to take over operations
during a three-month transitional phase, which began in August. Corrections
spokesman Eric Harrison said in an email Monday that he could not comment on
Sanchez’s lawsuit because the department had not been served. He could not
provide updated staffing data Monday. “As for the Clayton staffing numbers,
we are currently reworking the configuration for staffing it as a state-run
facility,” Harrison wrote. Sanchez’s lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of
damages and plus legal costs.
Jul
20, 2019 correctionsone.com
Warning received days before riot at NM
prison. An inmate assaulted a CO, escaped with his keys, freed other prisoners
and then incited a riot in which one inmate was nearly killed and another
alleged he was raped
CLAYTON, N.M. — Mark Bowen, warden of the
Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton, received a note in
September 2017 warning that a convicted serial killer serving a nearly
200-year sentence in the prison was planning to harm his staff, according to
an email he issued to a handful of workers. The email, which surfaced
recently, warned of the potential threat posed by Clifton Bloomfield — who pleaded
guilty more than a decade ago to killing five people in Albuquerque. Bowen
ordered staff to “ensure that all precautions are used when dealing with this
inmate.” That meant a guard must be accompanied by a supervisor, and a
surveillance camera must be operating at the time, the email said. Less than
two weeks later, however, Bloomfield convinced a rookie corrections officer
working alone at night in the inmate’s cellblock to open his cell door.
Reports say Bloomfield assaulted the guard, escaped with his keys, freed
several other prisoners and then incited an hourlong uprising in which one
inmate was nearly killed and another alleged he was raped. State prosecutors
have portrayed the young guard, Matthew Shriner, as both a victim and a
culprit in the Sept. 23, 2017, riot. A criminal case against Bloomfield
accuses the inmate of holding Shriner hostage and assaulting him before
starting the riot. But Shriner also faces felony counts, charging him with
“intentionally” permitting Bloomfield to escape custody, unlawful rescue of a
convicted capital offender and assisting in an escape. Bowen’s email
directing staff to follow strict procedures when tending to Bloomfield raises
questions about why Shriner, an inexperienced guard, was working alone in the
prisoner’s cellblock that night and who should be held culpable for the riot.
Shriner, who was 22 at the time of the riot, has filed a lawsuit accusing the
New Mexico Corrections Department and private prison operator GEO Group of
forcing him to work solo in a cellblock where “the most hardened dangerous
criminals” are held, even though he was “uncertified, not properly trained,
and inexperienced in corrections security.” He also was sick and exhausted
from being overworked at the severely understaffed prison, he said in the
complaint, filed last year in state District Court. According to a KRQE-TV
report, the riot erupted on a night when only nine of what should have been
20 corrections officers were on duty. Shriner’s lawsuit said he was
“scapegoated” for the riot and placed on unpaid leave. He declined to comment
on the case this week, saying his lawyer advised him not to speak about it
because of the criminal charges he’s facing. His attorney, Mark A. Earnest,
also declined to comment, saying he expects the case to go to trial. Eighth
Judicial District Attorney Donald Gallegos — who has announced he’ll retire
at the end of the month with more than a year to go on his term — did not
respond to a request for comment from his office on the charges against
Shriner. In his email issued Sept. 12, 2017, Bowen wrote: “We received a kite
[note] this morning stating that inmate Bloomfield who is housed in
[Restrictive Housing Unit] wants to harm our staff. All of us know how
dangerous this inmate is. … Ensure a supervisor and camera is present when
his food tray slot or cell door is open.” A paper copy of the email was
provided to The New Mexican anonymously, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s
office has confirmed it was authentic and that Bowen sent it to staff that
day. Just 11 days later, Bloomfield “tricked” Shriner to open the door to his
cell, the former guard said in his lawsuit. According to an internal review
of the riot included with the suit, Bloomfield held a weapon fashioned from a
toothbrush against Shriner’s throat and ordered the guard to give him the
keys to neighboring cells. Shriner, “by some miracle, disengaged from the
headlock and grasp of Clifton Bloomfield, jumped over a railing onto a
concrete floor, sustaining severe injuries to his body, escaped and summoned
help,” according to his lawsuit. Bloomfield, meanwhile, proceeded to release
other inmates, who collectively took control of the unit for more than an
hour before corrections officers subdued them with tear gas, flooding and
flash grenades, the internal review said. During the melee, the document
said, one inmate had his throat cut and was airlifted to a nearby hospital;
another inmate reported he was raped during the incident. Tripp Stelnicki, a spokesman for Lujan Grisham, referred
questions about Bowen’s directive on Bloomfield and whether prison officials
could have prevented the riot to either Bowen or his employer, the GEO Group.
But, Stelnicki said in an email, “The state’s
procedure is two-person escorts in and out of restricting housing units,
always. So if what you describe is what happened, we
would be extremely concerned about that as it would represent a violation of
procedure to which state expects its contractors to adhere.” Bowen said
Tuesday he couldn’t comment and referred questions to GEO. GEO spokesman
James Hallinan, in an email Tuesday, blamed the state for the riot. “The
previous administration should have never placed such a high-security inmate
in a medium security facility,” Hallinan said. “… While we value our
partnership with the state, we dispute certain findings within the previous
administration’s New Mexico [Corrections Department] incident report related
to staffing concerns, post assignments, and security measures, as well as
specific findings related to the timeline of the incident.” Hallinan said he
was referring to the administration of former Gov. Susana Martinez, who was
in office at the time of the riot. Florida-based GEO has run the Clayton
detention center for the past decade but announced recently it would not
renew its contract with the state and the town of Clayton, which owns the
facility. The company cited the difficulty it faced in keeping the facility
adequately staffed. While there are 204 allocated positions at the facility,
a spokeswoman for the governor said, the prison had a staff of only 120 in
late June, when GEO announced it was ending its contract. The state plans to
take over operations during a three-month transitional phase beginning Aug.
3. GEO still manages state prisons in Guadalupe and Lea counties. Asked if
Bowen will retain his position as warden at the Clayton prison when the state
takes over management next month, Stelnicki said:
“The current warden is free to apply for the job with the state like anyone
else who is interested in the post.”
Jul
12, 2019 dchieftain.com
New Mexico official
sets private prison transfer timeline
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
(AP) — A plan to transfer operations at a New Mexico lockup from a private
company to the state is expected to begin next month, though final details
and negotiations remain underway, the state’s top prison official told
lawmakers. Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero testified this week
during a legislative hearing that officials have set Aug. 3 as the day when
they and the GEO Group will begin the three-month process of transferring the
Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton to state management. The
prison is owned by the town of Clayton, which has an agreement to receive
payment from the state to house the inmates. The city pays the GEO Group to
manage the medium-security facility. Tafoya Lucero told lawmakers in Santa Fe
at the start of three days of hearings that ended Wednesday that the state is
in negotiations to own the facility. The comment came in response to
questions from Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, amid concerns that the current
contract the state has with Clayton officials could potentially allow them to
lease beds the state does not use to federal agencies and others. “I just
think if the state is going to be involved in running that facility, we
should — quote, unquote — own it,” said Wirth, who is the Senate Majority
Leader. Clayton City Manager Ferron Lucero was out of town and not available
for comment on negotiations, an assistant said. The city has a population of
about 3,000 people, where census data show the per capita income is about
$21,000 per year. A corrections officer working full time for the GEO Group
in Clayton was paid about $15 per hour and would have made about $31,000 in
the past year, not including compensation for overtime, according to a
company document. Corrections officer at state-run prisons make more than $17
per hour. A spokesman for the Florida-based GEO Group said the company made
the decision to end its contract for the prison because of difficulties
recruiting and retaining workers. The corrections secretary also said GEO
Group has struggled to maintain staffing numbers at the prison. The GEO Group
currently operates three of New Mexico’s 11 prisons, and
plans to continue managing the other two. In its decision to leave Clayton,
the company said it had not received increased compensation adjusted for
inflation, and that resulted in minimal wage changes for prison staff,
according to the company. The corporations CoreCivic
and Management & Training Corporation also each operate a prison. GEO
Group’s 2018 annual report shows $2.3 billion in total revenue, with about 2%
coming from the state of New Mexico.
Jun
28, 2019 krqe.com
Clayton prison operations to move under state control
CLAYTON, N.M. (KRQE)
– The state’s Department of Corrections announced plans Thursday to take over
the operations of the Clayton prison.
Officially known as the “Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility,” the
prison has been operated by a private firm called the “Geo Group” for the
last decade. By September, the facility is likely to be under state control.
While both sides say the split is a “mutual agreement,” the Clayton prison
has also seen its fair share of issues centered around staffing. The
operational change comes after KRQE News 13 Investigative Reporter Larry
Barker exposed problems at the prison tied to a low level of staff working at
the facility. In 2017, the prison was home to one of New Mexico’s most
significant inmate uprisings in the past few decades, however, no one knew
about it for several months. The uprising started when an inexperienced
prison guard let convicted serial killer Clifton Bloomfield out of his cell
for an unknown reason. That guard is now facing criminal charges for the
incident, which led to a cell block riot. Larry Barker’s investigative report
exposed how the Clayton prison’s operator, the Geo
Group has struggled for years to hire enough staff to run the facility according
to operational guidelines. The Geo Group now says its staffing shortage is a
prime reason behind the firm handing over the Clayton prison’s facility
operations to the state. “The Clayton facility is very challenging when it
comes to staffing,” said James Hallinan, a spokesman for the Geo Group. The
Geo Group also claims the state hasn’t raised the “per diem” amount of money
it pays out to house each inmate. The private firm claims that money would
have gone toward making more competitive employee salaries. “The most
important thing is making sure we maintain a safe prison that continue to
employee New Mexicans, and the best way to do that at this point is to
transition that over to the state,” said Hallinan. New Mexico Governor
Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Office released a statement Thursday saying the
state is currently in negotiations with the town of Clayton to take over
operations. “The negotiations have been productive and amicable. All parties
share an emphasis on the need to maintain employment in Clayton and ensure
safe conditions for both facility employees and inmates,” said New Mexico
Correction Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero. The Geo Group is expected to
relinquish control of the facility to the state’s Department of Corrections
by September 25. The state’s Department of Corrections says it will keep the
Clayton facility fully operational. They also believe they’ll have better
luck hiring more staff because they’ll be able to pay more. If the transition
happens as expected, it would be the first private prison in New Mexico to be
taken over by the state.
Feb 18, 2019 santafenewmexican.com
Inmate sues private prison operator after alleged attack in New Mexico
A state inmate formerly housed at the Northwest New Mexico Correctional
Center in Grants is suing the company that operates the prison, claiming
officials allowed six other inmates to assault him for more than 10 minutes
without intervening and didn’t provide him care for injuries he received
during the attack for about a week. Leonard Lucero, 44, says in his complaint
filed last week in U.S. District Court that a corrections officer employed by
CoreCivic played a role in the assault — which he
says occurred in October — and that Warden Betty J. Judd observed the
incident. It wasn’t until five days later, Lucero’s lawsuit says, that he
received medical treatment, including the wiring of his broken jaw and X-rays
to check for brain hemorrhage and swelling. Lucero has since been moved to
the Penitentiary of New Mexico near Santa Fe. CoreCivic
Director of Public Affairs Amanda S. Gilchrist said in an email statement
that the company has not yet been served with the complaint, adding “just
because a complaint has been filed does not mean [it contains] facts.” “While
we do not comment on pending litigation, what I can tell you is CoreCivic cares deeply about every person in our care,
and we work hard to ensure those in our facility are treated respectfully and
humanely,” Gilchrist wrote in an email. “We do not tolerate discrimination of
any kind and have a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of excessive use of
force.” Lucero’s complaint also names as a defendant Centurion Managed Care,
the company that provides health care in the state’s 11 prisons. The company
did not respond to an email seeking comment last week. Lucero’s lawsuit is
one of at least a dozen filed in state and federal courts in the past year by
prisoners against CoreCivic, Judd or the state
Corrections Department about treatment they receive at the hands of CoreCivic employees in Grants. The Northwest New Mexico
Correctional facility, which houses up to 744 male inmates at a time, is one
of six privately run prisons in the state, and the only one manged by CoreCivic. The state
Corrections Department directly manages five of the state’s prisons. Several
of the lawsuits allege lack of access to medical care, excessive use of
force, intolerable living conditions and failure to follow established
policies including grievance policies, among other claims. Among the
plaintiffs is James Fitzpatrick a 70-year-old disabled veteran serving 12
years on a second-degree murder conviction. He has filed at least three
lawsuits against the facility, including claims of inadequate medical care,
an assault by a corrections officer and inadequate food. “I have been in 8
facilities in 8½ years,” Fitzpatrick wrote in a letter to The New Mexican in
July. “Core Civic, Grants, is by far the worst facility of them all.” Asked
to address some of the allegations raised in the lawsuits the company said in
an email that it has “a robust grievance process” which includes toll-free
numbers and access to management; is “committed to providing all inmates …
access to high-quality health care …” and provides meals that meet or exceed
nutritional standards. When Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham named former Florida
prisons system leader Julie Jones secretary of the Corrections Department in
January, she said holding private prison contractors accountable for
delivering quality services would be a priority. Jones was not made available
for comment. Deputy Director of Adult Prisons Melanie Martinez said she could
not comment on pending litigation. Martinez said “the governor wanted [Jones]
to come in and do an assessment of the department and interact with
legislators and advocates and figure out the strengths and weaknesses and go
from there.” “She is willing to hold people accountable,” Martinez said of
Jones.
October
27, 2018 santafenewmexican.com
Ex-guard accused of abetting inmate sues New Mexico, jail operator
Matthew Shriner says it wasn’t his fault. While the state accuses the former
prison guard of intentionally helping an inmate get out of his cell before
the prisoner caused havoc at the Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility,
Shriner claims in a lawsuit that he had been forced to work alone in the
prison’s restricted housing unit despite being ill and untrained. Shriner,
who was 22 at the time of the violent September 2017 incident near Clayton,
says in his complaint he was forced to work solo in the cellblock where “the
most hardened dangerous criminals in the facility” are held “when he was
sick, exhausted from overwork, uncertified, not properly trained, and
inexperienced in corrections security.” Shriner says in his complaint he was
“tricked” by Clifton Bloomfield — an inmate convicted of murdering five
people in Albuquerque — into opening Bloomfield’s cell, then Bloomfield
assaulted him. According to a July 2018 report by KRQE News 13, Bloomfield
took Shriner’s keys and used them to open the cells of other inmates who then
took control of the cellblock for more than an hour before they were subdued
with the use of tear gas, flooding and flash grenades. According to video
aired by the TV station, Shriner was able to escape and call for help, but
before order was restored someone slashed the throat of another inmate who
was later found unconscious in a pool of blood on his cell floor. Shriner is
scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Magistrate Court in Clayton on charges of
unlawful rescue and assisting escape that were filed earlier this month.
Bloomfield has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and
aggravated battery. Shriner names as defendants in his lawsuit the state
Corrections Department, Corrections Secretary David Jablonski, Warden Mark
Bowen, Lt. Randall Thomas, and the GEO Group, the Florida-based company that
operates the prison for the state. Shriner, who was working the cellblock
without a weapon or radio, claims the Department of Corrections failed to
monitor the performance of GEO Group and that the private prison contractor
failed to train its employees or comply with the terms of its contract. Both
entities failed, he says, to ensure that dangerous inmates like Bloomfield
were controlled at all times by certified officers and adequate safety equipment.
“GEO covered up the riot, and constructively discharged plaintiff in a
wrongful manner,” the lawsuit asserts, claiming that Shriner’s immediate
supervisor “was not meaningfully disciplined, although his conduct is what
caused the riot.” Shriner, who also accuses the defendants of defamation and
breach of contract, seeks compensatory damages including back pay, medical
expenses and emotional distress, as well as punitive damages against GEO
Group. GEO Group did not respond Friday to an email seeking comment for this
story. Corrections Department spokesman S.U. Mahesh said the department had
not been served with the lawsuit yet and couldn’t comment on the allegations.
Jablonski told KRQE in July there were supposed to be 20 guards on duty the
night the riot, but in reality there were only nine. “I was extremely
outraged that these breaches occurred under our watch,” Jablonski said before
placing the blame on Shriner. “The decision that officer made that evening
really jeopardized the safety of the whole facility and it could have been a
lot worse.”
Aug
1, 2018 krqe.com
Violent prison riot kept secret: shocking surveillance video
CLAYTON, NM (KRQE) - It's September 23, 2017, a quiet, uneventful evening
on Cellblock 3 at the Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility outside
Clayton. But hang on. All hell is about to break loose. Prison video
surveillance cameras capture the entire incident beginning 9:05 p.m. when
Correctional Officer Matt Shriner is seen patrolling along the Cellblock 3
catwalk. Shriner pauses at a locked cell, reaches in the door slot and is
handed a folded note which he then surreptitiously passes to an inmate next
door. Moments later the young security guard stops at cell #203 to chat with
one of the most dangerous inmates in the entire prison system. You probably
know his name. Clifton Bloomfield, a notorious serial killer who was
sentenced to 195 years after he murdered five people in Albuquerque ten years
ago. Correctional Officer Shriner exchanges a few words with Bloomfield through
a slot in the locked cell door. Then, inexplicably, Shriner is seen on
surveillance cameras unlocking Bloomfield's cell door. Why? Shriner later
told investigators he didn't remember allowing the convicted killer out of
his cell. With his cell door now opened, Bloomfield rushes the unarmed guard
and overpowers him. Bloomfield uses a sharpened toothbrush as a shank to take
the prison guard hostage. Bloomfield grabs Shriner's keys and proceeds to
unlock random cell doors. Shriner is able to break away from Bloomfield's
hold and dashes down the catwalk steps to the cellblock's ground level. He
grabs his walkie-talkie and runs for help. With keys to the entire 40 man
cellblock and no security guards, the inmates take control. Cells doors are
unlocked and some of the most dangerous prisoners in the state go on a
rampage. The main entry door to the unit is barricaded. Some prisoners use
their new found freedom to settle scores. One inmate, a suspected informant,
is assaulted in his cell, his throat slashed. Other inmates disable the
cellblock's surveillance cameras. They start a fire, set off the sprinkler
system and trash the cellblock. The prison's Riot Response Team assembles
outside. Tear gas grenades are deployed through ports in the roof in an
effort to regain control of the cellblock. However, the inmates place trash
cans filled with water under the ports. The tear gas canisters fall
harmlessly into the water. Only after the security force is able to knock
over the barrels of water using explosive grenades are they able to
effectively flood the cell block with tear gas. About an hour after the
uprising began the prison's security force, dressed in riot gear, is able to regain control. The entire cell block is
declared a crime scene. Inmates are rounded up, handcuffed and escorted one
by one to the prison's day room. The inmate who was attacked is found in cell
#109 unconscious in a pool of blood. The injured inmate is loaded in an
ambulance and transported to the Union County General Hospital. Ringleader Clifton
Bloomfield is found hiding out in a cell on the Restrictive Housing Unit's
upper level. He is handcuffed and escorted out of the trashed cellblock to
the medical unit. The prison complex is placed on lockdown and a Department
of Corrections investigation is launched. So, what went wrong that night? The
Northeast New Mexico Prison complex, which houses 625 medium-security state
inmates, is operated for the state by a Florida based private company, The
GEO Group. The September 23rd incident occurred in the Restrictive Housing
Unit (Cellblock 3) which is reserved for violent or disruptive inmates who
pose security threats. What occurred that night was explosive and it’s been
kept under wraps for 10 months. A KRQE News 13 investigation finds a host of
sloppy, reckless security blunders at the private prison in Clayton led to
the most dangerous New Mexico inmate uprising in the last 20 years.
"What happened that evening was unacceptable," says New Mexico's
Secretary of Corrections David Jablonski, "There were major security
breaches. It wasn't safe," Secretary Jablonski says. At the top of the
list: Prison understaffing. According to state investigators, Correctional
Officer vacancies at The GEO Group's Clayton facility are "dangerously
inadequate." On September 23rd, 20 Correctional Officers were required
to fully secure the prison. Twelve of those positions were mandatory posts.
That night, however, only nine guards were present. Secretary of Corrections
Jablonski confirms The GEO Group had less than half of the required staffing
at its Clayton Prison on the evening of September 23. "From my tenure as
Secretary I've never seen them fully staff that facility," Jablonski
says. "It's not acceptable. It's a dangerous practice." It’s not
only dangerous, it's expensive. In fact, private prisons in New Mexico are
assessed substantial penalties for failure to maintain minimum staffing. Over
the last year, The GEO Group has paid New Mexico's Corrections Department
more than $1,300,000 in penalties for failing to provide enough security to
keep the Clayton Prison facility safe. On the evening of September 23rd, the
only Correctional Officer on duty in the Restricted Housing Unit was the inexperienced Matt
Shriner. When he unlocked Clifton Bloomfield's cell door Shriner not only
failed to restrain the violent inmate but he also had no backup, no
walkie-talkie, and he carried the keys to every cell in the cellblock.
"How do you allow an untrained, inexperienced rookie officer to go into
the most dangerous portion of your prison without adequate backup, without a
radio, with all the keys to the unit? I don't understand that," says
Santa Fe attorney Mark Donatelli who led the Public
Defender’s Riot Defense Team following the 1980 Santa Fe prison uprising.
"When you're dealing with violent inmates you always have a two-man
escort," says Secretary Jablonski. "This is just proof, based on
this incident, why you want a backup or two-man escort when you're dealing
with these inmates so you don't get overpowered," Jablonski says.
"The decision that officer made that evening really jeopardized the
security of that whole facility and it could have been a lot worse,"
Secretary Jablonski tells News 13. And what was a violent inmate like Clifton
Bloomfield doing in a medium security prison?
"I'm not sure how the Corrections Department decided that a
prisoner with five murder convictions could be housed safely at this
facility. Someone blew it when they decided that someone that dangerous could
be housed at that facility,” attorney Donatelli
says. The day after the uprising, Clifton Bloomfield was transferred to the
State Pen's Maximum Security in Santa Fe. Matt Shriner resigned his job at
the Northeast New Mexico Prison two and a half weeks after the uprising. The
former prison guard has since moved to Texas. Shriner did not respond to a
News 13 request for an interview. The inmate that was brutally attacked in
his cell has now recovered from his injuries and is incarcerated elsewhere.
Northeast Prison Warden Mark Bowen refused to discuss the incident and
referred questions to The GEO Group Corporate Office in Boca Raton, Florida.
A spokeswoman for The Geo Group said she would respond to News 13's
questions. She didn't. The Clayton Police Department conducted a criminal
investigation of the September 2017 incident and turned findings over to the
Union County District Attorney. The case is under review and charges are
expected within the next two months. "It’s totally unacceptable,"
says State Senator Cisco McSorley who serves on the New Mexico Legislature’s
Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee. "I want (The GEO Group) to
fulfill the terms of the contract (with the state). They say that they're in
the business of keeping our prisons safe and secure and they're not doing
it," Senator McSorley says. "It's no way to run a prison if you're
serious about protecting staff, prisoners and the public," Mark Donatelli says.
Jan 20, 2017 santafenewmexican.com
Lawsuit: Inmate’s pleas for medical attention ignored
The father of a man who died in a New Mexico prison in 2015 is suing the
state Corrections Department and others, claiming his son was paralyzed from
the waist down and ultimately died because prison officials ignored his pleas
for medical care while at the same time allowing him to be sexually assaulted
by a prison doctor. Charles Bryant claims in the complaint that his son,
Robert Bryant, filed multiple grievances starting in 2011 after complaining
of being sexually abused by the doctor and later seeking medical attention
for worsening back pain, but his son’s pleas fell on deaf ears. Robert
Bryant, a Tesuque man, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted
in 1999 of raping and murdering an Albuquerque woman, Reymunda
Baca, who was the mother of a young child. He also was suspected in the
disappearances of at least two other women, though he was never charged in
those cases. He was being held in the Northeastern New Mexico Detention
Facility near Clayton. According to the complaint filed earlier this month in
state District Court in Santa Fe, Bryant had ongoing spinal problems, but in
June 2014, he complained of new and worsening pain that made it difficult for
him to walk, stand or sit. The senior Bryant’s lawsuit said his son’s
condition was not properly diagnosed or treated, and by November 2014, he had
become paralyzed from the waist down. That December, he was finally taken to
the emergency room at the University of New Mexico Hospital, according to the
complaint. Doctors discovered lesions on his spine and kidney, a possible old
neck fracture and renal cell cancer that had spread to other parts of his
body. Bryant, 48, died a month later. His father claims in the lawsuit that
both GEO Group Inc., a private firm that operates the prison where Bryant
allegedly was abused by Dr. Mark Walden, and Corizon Health, which previously
contracted with the state to provide medical care to inmates, also were
negligent. Bryant’s lawsuit claims the companies “had a policy of
intentionally ignoring inmates’ medical complaints and routinely dismissed
serious medical needs of inmates without testing or examination, causing
serious injuries and death.” Had timely and proper tests been conducted by
the defendants, the suit says, Robert Bryant “would not have suffered such
debilitating pain and death.” The wrongful death lawsuit names the state
Corrections Department, The GEO Group Inc., Corizon, Walden and several
individual employees of those entities as defendants. The senior Bryant is
asking for an unspecified amount of money in compensatory damages and legal
costs. The lawsuit is one of dozens filed against the state alleging
inadequate care and sexual misconduct by Walden, who later became the subject
of a federal investigation. Corizon has settled numerous lawsuits by other
inmates alleging abuse by Walden. A six-month investigation by The New
Mexican early last year found the number of lawsuits filed against the
state’s then-medical provider had risen sharply over the past several years
while Corrections Department officials and state lawmakers had allowed to
company to operate largely unregulated. Corizon since has been replaced by
another vendor, but inmates who say they suffered under the company’s care
continue to file complaints in state District Court. Charles Bryant did not
respond to a message seeking comment for this story. Nicole Charlebois, the
attorney defending Corizon and Walden against the numerous suits, also did
not return a message seeking comment.
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