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Abraxas I Children's Resource Center
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Aug 27, 2014 pennlive.com
Dauphin County probation officials are
looking into how the 15-year-old charged in the shooting death of Malik
Stern-Jones escaped from authorities' custody Aug. 5. Also looking into the
escape is Abraxas Youth and Family Services, in whose custody Niejea Stern had been Aug. 5 when he escaped while at the
Children's Resource Center in Harrisburg for questioning, said Pablo Paez of the GEO Group of Florida, who responded for
Abraxas. "This was a unique and unfortunate situation which is currently
under investigation. Abraxas has had no other escapes from secure detention
or secure treatment programs," Paez said,
adding the company has had a 38-year partnership with Dauphin County. Amy
Richards Harinath, county spokeswoman, said the
teen was in custody of Abraxas Youth and Family Services personnel, with whom
the county contracts for services. "No county probation officers were
present," she said. Jeffrey Haste, chairman of the county commissioners,
said anytime there is an escape, whether from work release or other custody,
the county reviews procedures and how they occurred. Niejea
Stern, charged Aug. 20 with homicide in the shooting death Aug. 19 of Malik
Stern-Jones in Hall Manor, escaped at the Children's Resource Center, where
he had been taken for an interview on an unrelated matter, District Attorney
Ed Marsico said Tuesday. Stern was serving time in a juvenile detention
center in connection with a robbery charge, Marsico said. Haste said from
what he has been told, detention officers "did mostly everything they
normally do. The kid was a persistent kid." He said Chad Libby, county
probation services director, is looking into the matter. Marsico said Stern's
legs were unshackled, but not his wrists, when he asked to use the bathroom.
He fled, eluding detention guards and police. Haste said the escapes are
among other matters scrutinized when the county's contract with Abraxas comes
up for review annually.
Abraxas I Youth and Family Services Center
Marienville, Pennsylvania
Cornell
August
22, 2014 12:15 AM Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Washington County improperly placed
juvenile offenders, fired employee claims
A
former Washington County juvenile probation officer has sued the county, its
president judge and other officials, saying he was fired after he blew the
whistle about allegedly inappropriate placement of children in detention
facilities. Common Pleas President Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca also is named
in the suit for allegedly recording conversations in the courthouse after
juvenile court officials became suspicious about the number of
recommendations for youths to be placed with Abraxas Youth & Family
Services. According to the lawsuit, David Scrip, of Monongahela, worked for
25 years as a juvenile probation officer before he was fired in February for
disregarding Judge O’Dell Seneca’s orders to halt accusations that his
supervisor, Dan Clements, was having a romantic relationship with Beth
Stutzman, a recruiter for Abraxas. Mr. Scrip alleges that he and other probation
officers were pressured to make recommendations to the court that youths be
placed in an Abraxas facility, regardless of whether it was the best place
for them. When court officials became suspicious of the unexplained increase
in placements in the facility, the officials were illegally recorded through
a security system that had been placed in the courthouse under orders from
Judge O’Dell Seneca, according to the lawsuit. Judge O’Dell Seneca rigged the
recording system to “eavesdrop upon what was being said in the courtrooms of
the Washington County courthouse,” said lawyer Noah Geary in the lawsuit,
filed Monday in the Common Pleas Court and also submitted to the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission and the Pennsylvania Human Rights
Commission. According to county Controller Mike Namie,
payments to Abraxas increased by about 15 percent during the years in
question, rising from $453,029 in 2011 to $520,901 in 2012, then
$595,090 in 2013. Mr. Scrip is claiming he was wrongfully terminated and that
his civil rights were violated. He is seeking unspecified monetary damages. A
woman who answered the phone at the juvenile probation office said Mr.
Clements had no comment and hung up on a reporter. An official from the GEO
Group Inc., the Boca Raton, Fla.-based parent company of Abraxas, said he
couldn’t comment regarding whether Ms. Stutzman was still employed as a
recruiter. The company cited a 2012 investigation by the Administrative
Office of the Pennsylvania Courts, triggered by an anonymous letter from Mr.
Scrip to Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille and other court
officials, detailing his concerns about inappropriate placements in Abraxas.
"Abraxas has been receiving Washington County youth placements since
1981,” said a statement from Pablo E. Paez, GEO
Group vice president of corporate relations. “This alleged conflict of
interest was fully investigated approximately two years ago by the
Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts, and the investigation did
not substantiate these allegations." Mr. Geary said the AOPC
investigation was “a sham” that never sought to establish whether Mr.
Clements and Ms. Stutzman were having a relationship and whether that
presented a conflict. For example, Ms. Stutzman wasn’t interviewed by investigators,
he said. Mr. Geary said the results were manipulated by Judge O’Dell Seneca
and Tom Jess, the director of the county Family Court Center, who was also
named in the lawsuit. Mr. Jess declined to comment. AOPC communications
coordinator Art Heinz said he could not comment about pending litigation and
couldn’t confirm the existence of any past or present investigation. Calls
for comment to Judge O’Dell Seneca were directed to court administrator
Patrick Grimm, who declined comment.
February 22, 2008 The Derrick
Two Philadelphia men were charged for their actions during separate riots
that broke out this week at Cornell Abraxas I in Marienville. State police
said Joseph Clark, 18, and Lenny Scott Cabrera, 18, were involved in both
riots that occurred at the facility Monday and Tuesday. Clark was charged
with one count of aggravated assault and two counts of riot, police said.
They said Cabrera was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and two
counts of riot. Both men were arraigned before District Judge George F.
Gregory in Tionesta. They were placed in the Warren County jail on $25,000
bail. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Tuesday. Police said three
juveniles involved in both riots and five other involved in the Monday riot
will face similar charges.
January
11, 2007 The Courier Express
In a last-ditch effort to forestall a strike, representatives of Abraxas
I and members of PSSU Local 668 have agreed to meet Friday, according to a
press release issued by Abraxas Wednesday. Abraxas I is
planning to operate through any strike with qualified employees from other
facilities and all employees who want to continue to work, according to the
press release. "Any employee who wishes to work may do so at the current
wages, benefits and other terms or conditions of employment," the
release said. "Abraxas I will not implement its final offer until an
agreement is reached." Abraxas I has informed
its client-referring agencies about the strike and the company's plans to
operate in the interim. It has also decided to stop admitting new residents
and plans to accelerate the discharge of residents who are approved for
discharge by the courts, said the press release. On Jan. 3, Abraxas Youth and
Family Services received notification that the members of SEIU Local 668
rejected the company's offer of Dec. 21. Local 668 also issued a 10-day
strike notice, which indicates it plans to strike at 12:01 a.m. Sunday. James
Newsome, program director at Abraxas I, said, "We are very disappointed
that the union and its members rejected this offer. It was a very fair offer
given the economic realities of the Youth and Family Services business.
"Our most recent offer includes wage increases ranging from 8.5 percent
to 12.25 percent over the proposed three-year agreement," he said.
"While we propose increases in employee contributions for medical
benefits, our wage proposal also ensures that all employees would receive a
real wage increase to offset the increased employee medical contribution. Our
request for increased employee medical contributions is consistent with what
many unions and employers have agreed to in the face of rising costs of health
care." Abraxas I proposes maintaining an HMO
medical plan for current employees, but employees hired after ratification
would only be able to participate in a PPO plan. Newsome said the HMO plan is
a very expensive benefit. "The only way we can continue to afford to
provide the HMO is to make it available for current employees only," he
said. "The union recognized the fairness of our economic proposals,
because they told us that if we were willing to agree to a union shop or fair
share - union security - they would recommend ratification. We refused to
agree to a union shop or fair share because we believe employees should have
a right to decide for themselves whether they wish to belong to the union and
pay union dues, not be forced to do so," Newsome said. Abraxas I houses
approximately 274 adolescents and provides drug and alcohol counseling, as
well as operating a private school, for its residents.
Abraxas
Center
Forest, Pennsylvania
Cornell
July 8, 2004
A Tamaqua 16-year-old, who was committed to a juvenile center after being
charged with shooting a friend in the face with a gun he stole from a borough
pawn shop, escaped after attending a funeral Wednesday, police said.
Duane R. Allen II was court-ordered to attend the funeral and told two workers
taking him back to the Cornell Abraxas center in Marienville, Forest County,
that he was sick, state police at Hazleton said. The workers stopped
about 2:30 p.m. at Pilot Truck Stop in Sugarloaf Township, Luzerne County,
where Allen fled from the worker accompanying him to the restroom, police
said. (The Morning Call)
Adams County Jail
Adams County, Pennsylvania
Aramark
March 26, 2009 The Evening Sun
Adams County will soon get into the culinary business - in jail. Starting in
June, the county will be providing its own food service at Adams County
Prison. The current contractor, Aramark Food Services, chose to cancel its
contract with the county effective June 18. County Solicitor John Hartzell
said the contract allowed for Aramark to choose not to renew with 90 days notice. The contractor planned on raising its rates
by 25 cents per meal per prisoner, about a 5 percent increase. The county did
not agree with the rate hike, believing they could do the job cheaper, or at
least at the same cost as the contractor prior to the hike, Commissioner
George Weikert said. Commissioners also said prison
officials were not happy with the quality of the food served by Aramark. Weikert said several factors have been taken into account
in starting a county service, including cost, food quality and nutritional
value. Commissioner Glenn Snyder said some of the cost will be curtailed with
the county in control because the county can use vegetables grown in the
prison's new garden. Vegetables from the garden were used last year, but there
was no reduction in the contractor's cost.
ADAPPT, Reading Pnnylvania
GEO
Dec 20, 2017 readingeagle.com
Overdose deaths spark changes at ADAPPT halfway house in Reading
Following a series of Reading Eagle stories about eight overdose deaths
among residents of the ADAPPT halfway house, the state Department of
Corrections said it was making extensive physical changes and exploring
options for the facility. Separately, the House Judiciary Committee scheduled
a hearing on the issue for Jan. 25 in Berks County. The department on Tuesday
said the ongoing changes include the pending installation of a full-body
scanner, additional urine tests and K-9 searches, and potential changes to
windows and doors. The goal is to reduce the number of overdoses and prevent
contraband from entering the facility. State Rep. Barry Jozwiak,
a member of the Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that the hearing was
triggered by the newspaper stories and would take place at Reading Regional
Airport on Jan. 25 at 10 a.m. Meanwhile, the newspaper received information
from corrections that showed the Florida for-profit company that runs ADAPPT
was paid more than $7.6 million in public money during a 15-month period
ending in October. Seven people died during that time. The money went to GEO
Group, a New York Stock Exchange-listed company whose chairman, George Zoley, made $5.2 million last year. The company declined
to say how much of the $7.6 million was profit. Monica Hook, a GEO vice
president, asked about ADAPPT's profitability, said, “Facility-based
financial information is competitive in nature so we have always considered
it proprietary.” Donna Kleedorfer, whose son died
inside ADAPPT last year, could not believe the size of the payments. “I would
like to see where the money is going,” she said. “What are they doing with
it? Because what my son said about the conditions in there, that's no $7.6
million operation.” A newspaper story published Nov. 12 told of the eight
overdose deaths — the first occurring on May 30, 2016 — among residents of
ADAPPT, described by residents, parents and employees as drug-infested and
loose with security. The newspaper determined ADAPPT had the worst fatal
overdose record among 55 state-supervised halfway houses. Those who died
while living at ADAPPT were Barton Weikel Jr.,
Matthew Kleedorfer, Tracy Ulrich, James Leeroy
Davis, Matthew Santamouris, Matthew Feldbaum and Denise Ziagos. The
newspaper was unable to reach relatives of the eighth victim. He died May 6
after getting a pass to leave the facility and overdosing several blocks
away. Jozwiak said the planned hearing would focus
on the safety of individuals in corrections' halfway houses. Other hearings
in other parts of the state might follow, said Jozwiak,
a Bern Township Republican. “The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections,
along with the Board of Probation and Parole, supervises 55 halfway houses
around the state,” the official announcement of the hearing said. “Oversight
of these facilities has been questioned due to recent reports of individuals
overdosing in and around facilities.” GEO Group claims in press materials to
be the world's leading provider of diversified correctional, detention,
community reentry, and electronic monitoring services to government agencies.
It reported $2.2 billion in revenue in 2016. GEO acquired ADAPPT in April
when it purchased Community Education Centers. GEO assumed a pre-existing
contract between Community Education Centers and the state that dated to July
1, 2013. It covered ADAPPT and other halfway houses. The contract shows GEO
gets $65.87 per day per offender housed in the group home at ADAPPT. It
receives $107.50 per day per offender housed in ADAPPT's specialized drug and
alcohol unit. Total state payments for ADAPPT under the contract escalated
from $3.7 million in fiscal 2014 to nearly $6 million in fiscal 2017. When
the 2017 payments are added to those for the first three months of fiscal
2018 — framing the 15-month period when seven residents died of overdoses —
the total is $7.6 million. “That is outrageous for the job they are doing,”
Christine Ulrich, a former Wernersville resident who lives in Conway, S.C.,
said when she was told the payment level. Her daughter, Tracy Ulrich, was
living at ADAPPT in June when she died of a heroin and fentanyl overdose.
“It's a dump,” Christine Ulrich said. State Sen. Judy Schwank
said she wanted a change in leadership at ADAPPT. She wrote a letter to
Corrections Secretary John Wetzel that said her concerns have grown in the
wake of the articles as she has spoken to ADAPPT administrators, residents
and families. “My biggest concern is how its managed,” she said in an
interview. The director of ADAPPT, Michael Critchosin,
could not be reached for comment. Schwank, a Ruscombmanor Township Democrat, said she expected to meet
with corrections officials in early January. GEO Group has become part of the
conversation as Berks County commissioners ponder the future of the
84-year-old county prison, now run by the county. Commissioners this summer
toured a prison in Delaware County run by GEO, and privatization has been
suggested as one option for the Berks facility. State Rep. Mark Gillen, a
former corrections officer who paid an unannounced visit to ADAPPT shortly
after the first story was published, questioned GEO's priorities. Besides the
$5 million-plus compensation package given to the chairman, Gillen said GEO
has four vice presidents who receive more than $1 million each in
compensation. “If we can find a way to run the country with one vice
president, maybe they can figure out a way to do it at GEO Group,” he said.
“Somehow they are managing to accrue profits that end up in the paychecks of
very wealthy people.”
August
21, 2017 readingeagle.com
Reading halfway house a heroin horror story
As he approaches his 40th birthday, longtime heroin abuser and repeat
criminal offender Ryan Spangler has gained the mental clarity he believes
could launch him into a new and drug-free lifestyle.The
problem, he says, is that people keep overdosing on drugs right where he
lives. Spangler lives at ADAPPT, a halfway house on Walnut Street whose
operation is funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. A 32-year-old Scranton man died of a
suspected drug overdose there early Aug. 12, according to Berks County
Coroner Dennis J. Hess. If toxicology tests confirm it as a drug death, it
would be the third fatal overdose at ADAPPT in eight weeks and the fifth in
15 months. Coroner's records also show a sixth ADAPPT resident died May 6
after he overdosed on fentanyl and morphine at a public library in Reading.
"It angers me," said Spangler. "I don't understand how a
facility that is meant to help people has had so many deaths." He and
other current and former ADAPPT residents told the Reading Eagle drug use is
a regular occurrence at the facility. They said their own attempts to stay
drug-free are compromised by seeing others use drugs at ADAPPT. Another
current ADAPPT resident who did not want to be identified said she recently
shot up heroin in bathrooms there. The father of yet another resident said he
complained repeatedly to ADAPPT managers and to the state about his
daughter's exposure to drug use there. Tammy Lutecki,
who finished a stint at ADAPPT last month, said there was a tumult at the
facility June 26. The noise, Lutecki said, was focused
on a heroin-abusing woman whose syringes had been found in a toilet in ADAPPT
three days earlier. Lutecki said, "We woke up
to some of the workers screaming, 'Oh my God, she's dead!'. ADAPPT is one of
47 halfway houses overseen by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
They allow people coming out of prisons to re-enter society by taking on jobs
and educational courses while living in monitored facilities. Thirty-five of
them, including ADAPPT, are run by contractors hired by the state. "Any
death is one too many, so our fight against this opioid epidemic and our work
to keep our facilities drug free will never end," corrections
spokeswoman Susan McNaughton wrote in an email in response to written
questions. The worsening drug crisis took 4,642 lives in Pennsylvania during
2016, an increase of 37 percent from the previous year. McNaughton said the
department's halfway houses are not exempt from the opioid drug crisis.
Corrections has placed naloxone, a medicine that reverses the effects of an
opioid overdose, in all facilities. It also has a medication-assisted
treatment program underway to help drug abusers, McNaughton said, and it
works to stay up to date on the latest drugs that are being abused in an
effort to educate its staff. "It is through this education that we all
work together to help put a dent in this epidemic," she said. District
Attorney John T. Adams said the deaths at ADAPPT - as well as an increasing
number of drug overdoses at the Wernersville Community Corrections Center in
South Heidelberg Township - are troubling. "It is indicative of a
problem I am seeing in our population that is paroled from state
prisons," he said. "These facilities should be maintaining some
sort of security protocols to prevent drugs in the facility." Until
recently, ADAPPT was owned by New Jersey-based Community Education Centers.
Under its Department of Corrections contract - which involved many CEC
facilities in Pennsylvania, not just ADAPPT - the company was paid more than
$71 million for services provided in fiscal years 2013, 2014 and 2015,
according to data provided by the corrections department. In April, Community
Education Centers was acquired by GEO Group, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based public
company whose shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. McNaughton
said GEO assumed the contract the department had with Community Education
Centers and payment rates remained the same. A spokeswoman at ADAPPT in
Reading referred questions about the deaths there to GEO's headquarters. On
Friday, the company provided a written statement that read: "We are
aware of the opioid crisis and take these disturbing incidents very
seriously, however our facilities are not immune to this reality. Inside
community-based re-entry settings and throughout the community, addiction is
a serious threat for many individuals in our care." Since it acquired
the CEC facilities, the statement read, GEO has worked to evaluate and
enhance security and staff training, and to make sure residents can access
evidence-based rehabilitation programs to treat substance abuse problems. GEO
logged more than $2.1 billion in revenue in 2016. A press release said its
acquisition of CEC would increase revenue by about $250 million a year.
Documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed that
GEO's chairman and founder, George C. Zoley,
received compensation of $5.2 million in 2016. McNaughton said the agency was
working to respond to newspaper requests for data on fatal drug overdoses in
other halfway houses overseen by the state. Dr. David Moylan, Schuylkill
County coroner, said he knew of no fatal overdoses at the two halfway houses
in that county, Conewago Pottsville and Gaudenzia New Destiny. Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim
said none had occurred at Keenan House, a halfway house there. Corresponding
information was not immediately available from the coroner's office in
Chester County, which also has a state-sanctioned halfway houses. Hess, the
Berks coroner, said the ADAPPT overdoses were not surprising because the
population has a lot of criminal offenders with drug problems. Even if the
suspected drug death on Aug. 12 is confirmed by toxicology test results, Hess
said the total of five in a 15-month stretch was not overly large. "I
don't think anybody there is to blame," he said. Dr. Edward Latessa, director and professor at the School of Criminal
Justice at the University of Cincinnati, said halfway house programs
typically do not have high mortality rates. At the same time, he said,
Pennsylvania, like Ohio, has been hard-hit by the opioid drug crisis. The
situation at ADAPPT, he said, sounded terrible for individuals who were
trying to stay drug-free. But he could not say whether the number of fatal
overdoses at ADAPPT was excessive in comparison to other facilities. He said:
"Halfway houses are not secure. People go out during the day."
Spangler's criminal record includes guilty pleas to retail theft, theft by
deception, charges associated with credit card fraud, and drug possession.
"Everything I have stolen was to get high," he said. He turns 40 in
about three weeks. He has been injecting heroin intermittently since he was
17. He has two children. In the last few months, he has started receiving
shots of Vivitrol, a medicine that can negate the cravings for opioid drugs like
heroin. He said his mind has cleared, his judgment has improved and he has
lost the desire to get high. "This shot has completely changed the way I
think," he said. "I have a clear head. I have goals. I have the
motivation to achieve them." Spangler acknowledged he was speaking
publicly about a situation that some would prefer remain private. "I
don't want retribution and to be sent back to prison," he said.
"But I want the truth out."
Allegheny
Academy
Allegheny, Pennsylvania
The Academy System
September 14, 2003
Drastic disciplinary action has been taken at The Academy in the wake of the
car crash death of a 17-year-old boy from York County who died after he
escaped from the juvenile center Sept. 14. Attempts also are being made
to prevent future escapes from the facility, which has experienced a rash of
runaways since April, said Joe Daugerdas, executive
director of The Academy, formerly known as Allegheny Academy. But he
declined to specify actions because the state Department of Welfare is
investigating the Sept. 14 incident in which Troy Lake of Dallastown, York
County, escaped and was killed when he crashed a stolen car on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike in Somerset. Lake was pronounced dead at the
scene at 3:40 a.m., but his absence from The Academy wasn't reported to
police until 6:30 a.m., when staffers found his bed was empty. Daugerdas said he could not say how many employees were
disciplined for the oversight, but on the night Lake and two other teens
escaped, only one staff member was in charge of making required bed checks
every 15 minutes. That policy has been changed to rotate responsibility
for bed checks to everyone working at night, Daugerdas
said. Besides interviewing all eight staff members on duty that night,
investigators also talked with the other two escapees, who were picked up on
the morning of Sept. 14 in McKees Rocks, he said. The pair spent the night of
their escape in the woods behind The Academy and left the area on foot when
the sun came up. Although they shared with investigators details of how
the three got away, Daugerdas said he could not
make that information public. Welfare Department spokeswoman Carey
Miller said the department's investigation could take up to one month and
result in requiring a plan of corrective action or action against its
license. Besides the internal changes, Daugerdas
has signed an agreement brokered by James Rieland,
Allegheny County juvenile court administrator, that calls for The Academy to
call Baldwin Borough police within 10 minutes after a juvenile is discovered
missing from the center. Although that facility is in the Hays section
of Pittsburgh, its property abuts a residential Baldwin Borough
neighborhood. The agreement requires The Academy to provide police with
the name, age, race, physical description and home address of the escapee, as
well as a photo if one is available, and staffers will notify police if and
when escapees are found. The agreement also calls for quarterly
meetings between Academy officials and Baldwin police to discuss issues of
concern. Baldwin Borough Police Chief Chris Kelly said he has been
trying since April to get Academy officials to discuss what they planned to
do about the number of escapes from the facility since that time.
Kelly, who vented some of his frustrations at a Baldwin council meeting the
day after Lake's death, claimed that 12 Academy juveniles have escaped in
seven incidents since April, including the July 24 escape of two girls from a
van driving them to the center. Daugerdas
said eight juveniles have escaped in five incidents and that all except Lake
were found and returned. Kelly has expressed his concerns in recent
months in letters to Daugerdas and officials of the
county's juvenile court system, which orders delinquent nonviolent offenders
to The Academy's day and evening program for rehabilitation. About 170
nonviolent juvenile offenders are in the program now. Anne Edwards, an
Agnew Road neighbor of The Academy, also has complained. She said she
predicted to Daugerdas that nothing would be done
about her concerns until someone got hurt. She was not happy last week when
that prediction came true. "I am saddened that it was a child's
death that will bring attention to The Academy's lack of supervision and
control," she said. Also at last week's council meeting, a
resident of Edward Drive, whose car was stolen by Lake, asked council for
some relief from escapees from the Academy. Kelly said it was the second time
the family had had a car stolen by a youth from The Academy. Council approved
a motion authorizing Kelly to "take whatever action is necessary to curb
the runaways," and to hold The Academy to the promises it originally
made to the borough to contact Baldwin police as soon as a juvenile escapes
from the center. Notification didn't always happen with the escapes
this spring and summer, he said. Some were reported to him by Academy
officials long after the juveniles escaped and others were reported by
residents who spotted the runaways in their bushes and sheds. Most of
the juveniles who have escaped from the facility have been out-of-county
youths held temporarily at The Academy in preparation for entering Summit
Academy, a residential juvenile facility in Butler County. Housing the
juveniles destined for Summit is an expansion of the original program
presented when the facility opened amid much protest in September 1989.
Academy officials stressed at that time that they planned to operate an
after-school, day and evening program for nonviolent offenders. The juveniles
would be brought to the center in vans after school and stay through the
evening, when they would be returned via vans to their homes. But about
five years ago, The Academy started to house juveniles overnight. Now roughly
50 juveniles are at the center each night. Half of them are like Lake,
awaiting a transfer to Summit Academy. The other half of the overnight
population are male juveniles who have broken the rules of the day and
evening program and are required as punishment to stay overnight for a period
of time. Those juveniles used to be housed at Shuman Detention Center
until Shuman became overcrowded, said Rieland, the
county's juvenile court administrator. He called the day and evening
program "a good service provided at a relatively inexpensive cost"
and said he still believes it's a safe program for nonviolent juvenile
offenders from Allegheny County. Rieland said
The Academy has a good track record, since it has operated for about 20 years
-- 14 at the present site -- without a major problem until the recent
incident. If the state takes any action at The Academy, it is likely to
be only against the overnight program and not the day and evening program, he
said. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette)
September
18, 2003
Joyce Lake had just returned home Sunday evening when she got a call from
officials at the Allegheny Academy juvenile detention center asking if she
knew where her 17-year-old son Troy was. "I said, 'Yes, I know
where he is. He's at the morgue,' " said Lake, who learned of her son's
death from state troopers, who visited her home in Dallastown, York County,
at 10 a.m. Sunday. Lake was killed at around 3:40 a.m. Sunday when he
lost control of the stolen car he was driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in
Somerset. He was thrown from the car when it hit an embankment and was
pronounced dead at the scene. At the time of his death, Lake was
supposed to be sleeping at Allegheny Academy in Pittsburgh's Hays section,
where he was sent after violating his parole. Lake had been found guilty of
stealing an all-terrain vehicle, and then violated his parole by getting
caught for underage drinking, his mother said. But staff members at
Allegheny Academy didn't notice his absence until almost three hours after
his death and apparently didn't know that he had been killed in a car crash
until they talked to his mother at around 7 p.m. Sunday. It was at 6:30
a.m. Sunday when an employee of Allegheny Academy called Baldwin Borough
police to report that three teens had escaped. Though it is located in Pittsburgh, Allegheny Academy abuts a
Baldwin residential neighborhood and academy staff are supposed to alert
Baldwin police whenever program participants escape, said Baldwin Police
Chief Chris Kelly. About 15 minutes before academy staff reported the
escape, Baldwin police were notified by state police that a car registered to
a Baldwin resident was involved in a fatal traffic accident on the turnpike.
It turned out to be the car that Lake was driving. The car was stolen from a
resident of Edward Drive, located a short distance from the academy, Kelly
said. Kelly said it appears the escapees left the center Saturday night
but that their absence wasn't discovered until Sunday morning when it was
time for residents to wake up. The other two escapees were picked up in
McKees Rocks Sunday morning. Allegheny Academy Director Joseph Daugerdaus said he is trying to find out why the center's
policy of performing bed checks every 15 minutes was not followed Saturday
night. "It's not just open the door and check. Our policy states
that you go in and you check to see their skin, to make sure they are really
in the bed," Daugerdaus said. "We
have to figure out why the procedure was not followed and why it was not
discovered that they were gone. Whoever did not do what they were supposed to
do will be terminated," he said. Daugerdaus
said he expects an investigation from the state Department of Welfare as
well. All escapes from the center are reported to the department. He said
eight employees were on duty at the time -- a number that exceeds the welfare
department's requirement of one staff per 16 residents. Daugerdaus said it was the first time that any program
participant who escaped was not caught and returned safely. "What
happened is certainly a tragedy and it's definitely an exception and we hope
it never happens again," Daugerdaus
said. Daugerdaus said Lake was sent to
Allegheny Academy in preparation for being assigned to a residential
facility. He was to be transferred to another center within days. Joyce
Lake plans to bury her son today. But after the funeral service she will
start her search for answers in her son's death. "I know he wasn't
a perfect kid and he did have some problems. But I don't think he deserved to
die. I have a court order that says my son was supposed to be under
supervision at all times. That's what they were supposed to be doing for
him." (Post-Gazette.com)
Allegheny County Jail
Allegheny, Pennsylvania
Corizon
Jul 8, 2017 post-gazette.com
Documentary calls for improving or closing Allegheny County Jail
A county that can’t or won’t care for inmates in its jail should work
toward closing its lockup entirely, argues a documentary set to be screened
by an advocacy group Tuesday. The Allegheny County Jail Health Justice
Project will present “No Bars to Healthcare,” a film by James Tedrow, on Tuesday at the Homewood Branch of the Carnegie
Library of Pittsburgh, starting at 5 p.m. The screening of the half-hour film
will be followed by a panel discussion about the health care at the jail, and
whether the facility can ultimately be closed. The film focuses largely on Corizon Health, a Tennessee company that ran the jail’s
infirmary from September 2013 through August 2015. It features the case of
Frank Smart, a 39-year-old man who died in the jail in January 2015. In the
film his mother, Tomi Harris, 60, of Verona, says he did not get his seizure
medication, echoing accusations in a lawsuit filed by Mr. Smart's daughter.
"My son goes in the building -- there was no fire, no flood -- and
didn't come out,” Ms. Harris says, in one of the film’s poignant moments.
"My son begged for his medication for over six hours,” but didn’t get
it, she says, adding that “no one need die of a seizure." “Corizon was bad. That was a mistake from day one,”
Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David Cashman said in an interview
Friday. He now chairs the county’s Jail Oversight Board. He was not on the
board when Corizon was hired. “That was an entity
that was fueled and energized by money, and they didn’t care,” the judge
said. He said the current health care arrangement, in which the county teams
with Allegheny Health Network, is doing better. Corizon
did not respond to a request for comment. County Executive Rich Fitzgerald
hired Corizon, then opted not to retain the company
beyond its initial two-year stint. His office declined comment Friday. The
documentary acknowledges improvement since Corizon
left the jail in 2015, but suggests that problems remain. The film’s closing
moments note that the jail saw two deaths in April, including one suicide.
There has since been another suicide, in June. The ultimate solution, the
documentary contends, is “the elimination of the modern prison system"
and replacement with "a more humane and effective system that addresses
poverty, police brutality, and mental health."
May 6, 2017
post-gazette.com
Mother of inmate who died at Allegheny County Jail sues county, Corizon, officials
The
mother of an inmate who died at the Allegheny County Jail two years ago has
sued the county, the jail’s former health care provider and numerous jail and
medical officers. Andrea Crawford of Homewood, mother of Monty Crawford Jr.,
23, said in a federal complaint that the jail and Corizon
Health ignored her son’s psychiatric conditions and did not give him his
required medications for a month before he died. He was found dead in his
cell on May 21, 2015. His death was one of several at the jail that prompted
the county to terminate its contract with Corizon,
according to the suit. Shelley Leininger, 50, holds a picture of herself and
son Timothy at her home in Ross Township on Friday. Shelley's son, Timothy
Leininger, 27, was pronounced dead Thursday at UPMC Mercy Hospital after
being jailed at Allegheny County Jail. Mr. Crawford was arrested in December
2013 after a teenage girl said he forced her into sex acts over five years.
He was charged with rape of a child and other offenses and was awaiting trial
when he died. Ms. Crawford said her son repeatedly told officials and medical
personnel that he needed his medications and that he heard voices telling him
to kill himself. The suit says the staff was “willfully indifferent” to his
medical needs in not giving him his anti-psychotic medicines. The
wrongful-death suit is asking for unspecified compensatory and punitive
damages. Ms. Crawford’s Philadelphia lawyer, Wayne Ely, could not immediately
be reached.
Dec 24, 2016 post-gazette.com
Daughter of Pittsburgh man who died after jail stay sues county, Corizon in federal court
The daughter of a schizophrenic and severely ill Pittsburgh man who died
in 2014 after 10 days at the
has sued the lockup, its top officials and Corizon
Health, which runs the jail’s infirmary, alleging federal civil rights
violations. Cynthia Jewett Whitlow of Birmingham, Ala. on Friday filed the
10-count suit in U.S. District Court, nearly two years after the death of her
father, Clarence Jewett. The suit claims deprivation of civil rights,
wrongful death, professional negligence and corporate negligence. It asks for
compensatory and punitive damages. Named individually are jail Warden Orlando
Harper and Deputy Warden Latoya Warren. Amie Downs, the county’s spokeswoman,
today declined comment, saying the county does not discuss lawsuits. Martha
Harbin, a spokeswoman for Tennessee-based Corizon,
said today, “Due to the litigation cited and patient privacy laws, we are
unable to provide you with a statement offering our perspective on the merits
of this case.” Pittsburgh police had arrested Mr. Jewett, 62, for screaming
profanity on the street outside his house in the West End. He was taken to
jail Dec. 16, 2014 and died Dec. 26 at UPMC Mercy. He was transported to the
hospital after being found face down in his cell in his own vomit, according
to the suit. But Mr. Jewett should have been seen by doctors for both
physical and mental health problems long before that, both of which were
apparent when he arrived at the jail, claim Ms. Whitlow and her attorney, Steven
M. Barth, of Pittsburgh. “He wasn’t eating, he wasn’t communicating. It looks
like they just put him in a room and said, ‘We’ll look at him.’ That’s it,”
Mr. Barth said today. An autopsy showed that Mr. Jewett died from acute
peritonitis due to esophageal perforation which, in turn, resulted from
severe erosive esophagitis. The county medical examiner’s office ruled that
his death was from natural causes. The suit claims that Mr. Jewett might not
have been seen by any medical personnel at the jail until two days after his
arrival, based on records Mr. Barth obtained. And when Mr. Jewett was seen,
no physical was performed and “no history was acquired,” the suit claims.
Records and the suit say that Mr. Jewett was seen by various medical staff,
including a nurse practitioner, a mental health specialist, a psychiatrist
and a physician assistant. He was given medication and observed. But all that
was not enough, Mr. Barth said. Mr. Jewett did not eat. He sang, cursed and
yelled. He became unresponsive. “He was in a full mental breakdown,” Mr.
Barth said. “This was pretty extreme — a person coming in in this state.” All
that behavior, according to Mr. Barth, clearly indicated psychiatric and
physical problems and should have prompted the jail staff to send him to a
facility where he could be properly evaluated and treated. The defendants
“did not have a policy to deal with mentally incompetent inmates and only
advocated the policy of putting them out of sight,” according to the suit.
For several days, the suit said, Mr. Jewett was under close observation. But
that ended for some reason on Dec. 22 even though Mr. Jewett “still was not
communicating and/or eating or drinking,” the suit said. The suit claims that
the jail and Corizon should have had a wealth of information
about Mr. Jewett, including prior medical conditions and details about being
hospitalized during a prior incarceration in the lockup in 2013. Ms.
Whitlow’s suit called Mr. Jewett’s death “preventable.” It claims that the
defendants had policies to not perform a timely review of an inmate’s medical
history during intake and screening. As well, the suit claims, there was a
contract between the defendants “which promote the policy and procedure to
not send inmates out to outside medical providers...”
Oct 15, 2016 post-gazette.com
Lawsuit alleges jail staff failed to provide tube feedings to inmate
A man whose esophagus was severed from his stomach in a shooting three
years ago is suing the medical staff at the Allegheny County Jail and Corizon Health after he said they failed to provide his
required five daily tube feedings, resulting in his being hospitalized twice
for malnourishment and related health problems, including a heart attack.
Christopher Wallace, 30, of Lincoln-Lemington, was
arrested Feb. 12, 2015, on charges that he robbed two banks two days earlier.
Bret Grote, the attorney representing Wallace in his lawsuit, said his
client’s Medicaid had been discontinued, and he could no longer get the tubes
he needed to receive nutrition. Wallace robbed the banks, Mr. Grote said, to
get money to buy the feeding tubes. At the time of Wallace’s arrest, he was
taken to UPMC Mercy, where hospital records showed that the 6-foot 4-inch man
weighed 77 pounds, the lawsuit said. The complaint, filed in U.S. District
Court, also names as defendants jail Warden Orlando Harper, county Executive
Rich Fitzgerald and Dr. Abimbola Talabi, who was
interim medical director at the jail. The lawsuit says Wallace was released
from UPMC Mercy on Feb. 16, 2015, with instructions to jail medical staff to
provide five tube feedings each day. Mr. Grote contends the nurses and
physicians “acted with deliberate indifference” to Wallace’s medical needs
and failed to feed him properly, providing him with less than half of the required
feedings per day, and on some days, the complaint said, not feeding him at
all. “Mr. Wallace complained to these nurses about his need for tube
feedings. His complaints were ignored and no measures were taken to ensure
that he was provided with his medically prescribed tube feedings,” the
complaint said. On March 2, 2015, Wallace lost consciousness in the jail
infirmary and was rushed back to UPMC Mercy, diagnosed with emphysema, severe
malnutrition, hypoglycemia and hypothermia, among other conditions, the
lawsuit said. “UPMC medical records indicate that Mr. Wallace was suffering
from ‘severe protein-calorie malnutrition [consistent with] starvation,’” Mr.
Grote wrote. “His condition was further described as ‘emaciated.’” A week
later, Wallace was returned to the jail, and, the lawsuit alleges, he was fed
even less. “On some days he was not provided any tube feedings, and on others
he received less than half of what he was prescribed,” according to the
complaint. “There are no records that Mr. Wallace was provided any tube
feedings during this period.” A week later, he was again rushed back to
Mercy, having a heart attack in the ambulance on the way there, Mr. Grote
said. He was kept at Mercy for 19 days and released back to the jail on April
3. According to the complaint, from that date until his release from custody
on May 30, 2015, he received all of his feedings. “In addition to the
deliberate indifference of medical staff, the severe and nearly-fatal
injuries plaintiff suffered were the result of systemic deficiencies in the
provision of medical care at ACJ during this time that were caused by
policies and practices that ACJ, Corizon, and
Allegheny County officials knew were resulting in constitutional violations,”
Mr. Grote said. Mr. Fitzgerald, in 2015, refused to renew the county’s
contract with Tennessee-based Corizon after
repeated problems were reported — including the death of seven inmates in
2014. Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner
issued an audit in 2014, reporting that Corizon
failed to maintain required staffing levels, failed to keep complete and
accurate medical records and was failing to provide appropriate care to
inmates. Because of that audit, Mr. Grote alleges, county officials knew of
the potential danger inmates at the jail faced. “County Executive Fitzgerald
... had been repeatedly contacted about health care issues at ACJ by other
government officials in the months leading up to Mr. Wallace’s incarceration.
He took no action to remedy the situation,” the lawsuit said. “Warden Harper
received reports from staff and inmates constantly about health care
inadequacies. He took no action to remedy the situation either.” A
spokeswoman for Mr. Fitzgerald said she could not comment on pending
litigation. A spokeswoman for Corizon also would
not comment, citing the lawsuit and patient privacy laws. The lawsuit
includes claims for medical malpractice and for due process violations under
the 14th Amendment, including deliberate indifference to serious medical
needs. Wallace is scheduled to plead guilty to the bank robbery charges Nov.
14.
Jul
12, 2015 houstonchronicle.com
Family suing jail, health care provider after inmate's death
PITTSBURGH
(AP) — The family of an inmate who died in a Pittsburgh jail earlier this
year is suing the jail and its health care provider. Tiara Smart, one of the
children of 39-year-old Frank Smart Jr., of Pittsburgh, filed the wrongful
death lawsuit Friday against Allegheny County Jail and Corizon
Health Inc. over Smart's death. The complaint alleges that Smart's requests
for medication were ignored and that he was handcuffed and shackled while
having a seizure. He was taken to UPMC Mercy, where he died shortly after
midnight on Jan. 5. George Kontos, Tiara Smart's
attorney, said the jail failed its duty to provide for Smart's safety. The
county medical examiner ruled this week that Smart died from his seizure
disorder, but that being restrained was a "significant condition"
in his death. The manner of death remains undetermined. A Corizon
spokesman said the Tennessee-based firm hasn't seen the complaint, but stands
by its statement Thursday that Smart's medicines were ordered within 10
minutes of his arrival at a medical intake center and administered properly. Kontos, however, said that Smart's death from the seizure
disorder "certainly belies their contention that he was appropriately
medicated at the appropriate time." Smart's death and others in the past
18 months prompted the county to not renew Corizon's
contract past its Aug. 31 expiration date. Allegheny Health Network, a
Pittsburgh-based hospital chain owned by health insurer Highmark Inc., will
take over Sept. 1. A county spokeswoman declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Jun
7, 2015 post-gazette.com
Allegheny
County controller plans new audit of contract with jail health care provider
As
Allegheny County moves closer to the end of its contract with Corizon Health, the controller’s office will perform a
second audit of the county’s contract with the embattled jail health care
provider. Controller Chelsa Wagner made the
announcement at the jail oversight board meeting Thursday, nearly two weeks
after county officials announced they will not renew the contract with the
Tennessee-based firm that expires at the end of August. The agreement
included three one-year options that could have moved it into 2018. “I think
we need to memorialize exactly where we are as Corizon
is leaving,” said the board’s chairman, Common Pleas Judge Joseph Williams
III, who requested the audit. Fieldwork for the audit, set to begin Wednesday,
will follow the same process as one last year that found continuing problems
with the medical care at the jail. An entrance conference with Corizon is scheduled for June 17. Corizon
oversaw an inmate mortality rate here that was double national norms for
jails last year. Four inmates have died this year. County Executive Rich
Fitzgerald announced May 22 that the county will bring the jail infirmary
operation in-house, but he has yet to name what Judge Williams’ called
Thursday the “medical giants and universities” set to be involved. In May,
the judge said Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, UPMC
and Allegheny Health Network “have agreed that they’ll partner in different
ways to help us get on track as to where we ought to be with respect to
health care” at the jail. Judge Williams told reporters after the meeting
that he wasn’t sure how much the new system would cost but was certain it
would include more doctors and more psychiatrists and some current staff. The
county paid Corizon $11.5 million for its first
year running the infirmary. Also during the meeting, Bret Grote, legal
director for the Abolitionist Law Center and other advocates from the
Allegheny County Jail Health Justice Project, called for the resignation or
firing of jail Warden Orlando Harper. Austin Davis, executive assistant to
Mr. Fitzgerald, said the warden has the “full support of our administration.”
County Councilman John DeFazio said a public hearing on jail health issues is
forthcoming.
May
25, 2015 post-gazette.com
Pennsylvania:
Two more dead, Corizon is out
In
the wake of the deaths of two Allegheny County Jail inmates in one day this
week, county Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced Friday that he will not
renew the contract with jail infirmary manager Corizon
Health, allowing it to expire at the end of August. The contract included
three one-year options that could have taken it into 2018. The county instead
will bring the jail infirmary operation in-house, working with as-yet-unnamed
medical professionals, he said. “We have been working with … some of these
folks in the community in our ‘eds and meds’ environment to put together an
organizational structure that would allow this to happen,” Mr. Fitzgerald
said. “In light of what happened just this week, we think it was important to
make this announcement publicly.” The latest two deaths bring to four the
number of county inmates who have died this year. In 2014, a total of seven
died. The decision not to renew the Corizon
contract, building for months, came one day after the two deaths, one at a
local hospital and the other at the lockup. Neither Timothy James Leininger,
27, nor Monty Crawford Jr., 23, had adult criminal records. Both were
awaiting trial and had documented mental health issues. Autopsies were
pending the results of lab tests. Mr. Leininger was arrested Jan. 9 by
University of Pittsburgh police and charged with terroristic threats. On the
date of his arrest, David Yankura, a psychiatrist
at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, asked Pitt police Officer
Mallory Skrbin “what would happen if an individual
was charged with terroristic threats,” she wrote in a criminal complaint. Dr.
Yankura and a colleague told the officer that Mr.
Leininger was brought to Western Psych that day for an evaluation and became
“agitated,” the complaint says. The worker reported that Mr. Leininger told
him he wouldn’t go to a shelter. “I'm gonna stab
Becky, and I’m gonna smash you,” Mr. Leininger
said, and “jumped up from the couch, clenched his fists and arms, stepped
towards” the worker, the complaint continued. Below: Criminal complaint by
University of Pittsburgh police against Timothy Leininger Later Dr. Yankura told police that Mr. Leininger “needed to be
incarcerated,” according to the complaint. UPMC, which includes Western
Psych, declined to talk Friday about protocols for handling patients who make
threats. Of roughly 100 Pitt police officers, 32 have undergone training in
dealing with mental health crises since 2010, according to the county
Department of Human Services. Pitt Police Chief James K. Loftus wants all of
his officers to eventually get the training, according to a university
spokesman. Mr. Leininger was taken to jail and failed to make bail set at
$10,000. “Why didn’t Western Psych put him in the hospital instead, because
he needed help,” said his mother, Shelley Leininger. “I don’t think he should
have been put in jail for that.” Marc Cherna,
director of the Department of Human Services, noted that the jail has become
a “revolving door” for many mentally ill residents since the 2008 closure of Mayview State Hospital in South Fayette. Court records
show that Mr. Leininger was evaluated by a psychiatrist a month after the
arrest. She cleared him with recommendations, including that he comply with a
treatment plan and live with his mother. Efforts to get him out of jail and
home pending trial culminated in a hearing Thursday at which bond was reduced
to zero. But by that time, Mr. Leininger was at UPMC Mercy. On Tuesday,
detectives told the family that Mr. Leininger had been rushed to the
hospital, unresponsive and in cardiac arrest after a “medical emergency” at
the jail, his grandmother, Barbara Leininger, said. He died Thursday at 3:47
p.m. Ms. Leininger said her grandson had behavioral problems for years and
had made threats before. The family links at least some of his mental health
issues to a benign tumor at the base of his brain that caused him nausea and
headaches as a child and, doctors say, can lead to behavioral and learning
problems. Mr. Leininger had surgery to remove the tumor last year and took
steroid pills after, which his mother said he would have had to take the rest
of his life. He lived most of his life with his mother and grandmother in
Ross. “He’d be here for a while, but when he felt insecure, he would go to
the hospital,” Ms. Leininger said, though she wasn’t sure exactly what led
him to Western Psych in January. She said they last saw him in December. Mr.
Leininger leaves behind an 18-month-old son named Karol, who the family said
is in the foster system in New York. Mr. Crawford was arrested in December
2013, when a 13-year-old girl accused him of repeatedly, over five years,
pushing her into sex acts. He was charged with rape of a child and nine
related charges. In May 2014, the county Behavioral Assessment Unit deemed
him incompetent “and not likely to regain competence,” according to his court
file. An October follow-up report indicated that he “would benefit from
education in the legal process.” By March, the unit found that he regained
competency following a “lengthy stay” at an inpatient facility. His trial was
set for July 13. Andrea Crawford, 46, of Homewood, said that when she last
spoke with her son on Sunday, he did not report anything out of the ordinary.
He died Thursday at 8:20 p.m. The other two inmate deaths this year were
49-year-old Timothy Melvin Haskell, of West View, in April, and Frank Smart,
39, of the Hill District, in January. Warden Orlando Harper said the jail has
drafted a policy for “compassionate release” under which staff would ask
judges for permission to release certain very ill inmates. Tennessee-based Corizon took over the infirmary Sept. 1, 2013, and last
year saw seven inmate deaths — a mortality rate double
the national norms for jails. Corizon shaved about
$1 million from the cost of health care at the jail, bringing it to $11.5
million a year. The jail infirmary had been run by a nonprofit entity tied to
the county Health Department. Contributing to the cost savings were the
dismissals of most of the doctors who had served the jail. Inmates complained
about long waits for appointments and medicine. In a statement, Corizon said the decision to part ways was mutual.
May
9, 2015 post-gazette.com
As
an advocacy group called for replacement of Corizon
Health as medical provider at Allegheny County Jail, the Tennessee-based
company announced Thursday that it has hired a permanent medical director.
The firm, which was hired at the jail in September 2013, has been under fire
for months over the level of care provided at the jail, where the death rate
for inmates is about two times the national average for jails. On Thursday, a
group known as the jail’s Health Justice Project called for replacement of
the for-profit company at a rally and in a letter to members of Allegheny
County Council. “Enough is enough. We’ve been seeing this for years,” said
Julia Johnson of the advocacy group, citing jail deaths as far back as 2010
that she called “appalling.” In particular, the group focused on the Jan. 5
death of Frank Smart, who — according to his mother, Tomi Harris — died at
UPMC Mercy after he failed to receive seizure medication at the jail. Amie
Downs, spokeswoman for county Executive Rich Fitzgerald, said the county
hadn’t received the letter and would have no comment. The group also carried
its concerns to the monthly meeting of the county’s Jail Oversight Board.
There, Judge Joseph Williams, president of the board, said the county is
working to deal with inmates who come to the jail with health issues, a
complex “matrix” that begins with other societal ills like drug addiction and
unemployment. “We don’t have the capacity to deal with this the way we
should,” he said, telling protesters they were “shallow” if they thought the
jail could solve the problems itself. Judge Williams said the county has been
working on a plan to supplement the work of Corizon
with help from area health facilities, but he said that plan isn’t ready yet.
After the meeting, he said the county is moving “as fast as we can” to
address the situation. Warden Orlando Harper told the board the county
recently took one step in that direction, hiring Nora Gillespie to monitor Corizon’s compliance with its contract. Meanwhile, Corizon told the board it has hired a new, permanent
medical director. Since December, Abimbola Talabi
has served as interim director. She told the board that a new medical
director, Donald Stechschulte, will start on a
part-time basis this month and begin full-time duties in August. In a
statement, Corizon said it treated Smart “quickly
and efficiently.” In general, it said, the jail receives inmates with myriad
health problems and “we are committed to doing all we can to restore them to
health.”
April
3, 2015 Post-Gazette.com
A
spokesman for Corizon Health., the Tennessee-based
firm that took over the Allegheny County jail infirmary in 2013, said in a
statement, in part: “We are confident in the care we provide." Up to
four local institutions are exploring a partnership with Allegheny County to
help with its embattled health care system at the county jail. But no one can
say exactly what that could mean for health care there. Common Pleas Judge
Joseph K Williams III, head of the jail oversight board, announced at its
monthly meeting Thursday that Carnegie Mellon University, the University of
Pittsburgh, UPMC and Allegheny Health Network “have agreed that they’ll
partner in different ways to help us get on track as to where we ought to be
with respect to health care” at the jail. He could provide almost no details
about the partnership, though, and the county would say only that it’s
“continuing to have conversations with various stakeholders” about the
matter. Spokeswoman Amie Downs said in a statement, in part, that the hope is
“that we can come to agreement to help facilitate medical services” at the
jail. Allegheny Health Network spokesman Dan Laurent said in an email that
officials there have been discussing a “potential partnership with the County
regarding health services at the jail and that we are working with County
executives to explore how best we can provide assistance.” Representatives
from the other institutions were unable to immediately provide information
without more details. A spokesman for Corizon
Health., the Tennessee-based firm that took over the infirmary on Sept. 1,
2013, said in a statement, in part: “We are confident in the care we provide,
and we welcome the opportunity to work with local universities, medical
systems and Allegheny County on a collaborative approach to medical care.”
It’s been nearly three months since county manager William McKain told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the county
is “considering a number of options, as well as the inclusion and engagement
of additional stakeholders in the conversations about improving the delivery
of medical services” at the jail. Corizon oversaw
an inmate mortality rate that was double national norms for jails last year,
and a scathing audit by county Controller Chelsa
Wagner’s office cited continuing problems with the medical care there.
Mar
28, 2015 triblive.com
Fired
psychiatrist at Allegheny County Jail: Contraband rules unclear A psychiatrist fired
from the Allegheny County Jail says guards put security rules ahead of inmate
welfare. Dr. Charolette Hoffman, the jail's only
full-time psychiatrist, had a week of training and saw patients for a day
when guards caught her bringing in contraband — cigarettes, lighters, matches
and scissors — for a third time. Warden Orlando Harper revoked Hoffman's security
clearance March 4. Hoffman, 68, of Portersville said she wasn't trained
properly on what she could and couldn't bring into the jail. “There were a
lot of rules that you only found out when you screwed up,” Hoffman said
Thursday. “It doesn't have to work that way. Ideally, there would be some
flexibility, especially in an area of such concern. It seems like the
security is a greater concern than the inmates.” Harper said Hoffman received
training about contraband and that he and the deputy warden spoke to her
after her first two violations. The jail's contraband policy follows a
national standard, Harper said. “The Allegheny County Jail takes very
seriously the responsibility to provide health care to inmates, including
psychiatric care. That responsibility also includes ensuring that the safety
and security of the facility is protected and balanced against the other
needs, which is what the contraband policy is intended to do,” Harper said in
a statement. Hoffman said there is a great need for a psychiatrist at the
jail. The few patients she worked with hadn't seen a psychiatrist in months,
she said. Corizon Health, the Tennessee-based
company running health care at the jail, has started a national search to
fill Hoffman's spot. Hoffman said she doesn't want her old job back. She now
works for NHS Human Services in Penn Hills providing in-house psychiatric
care. “It is as wonderful as the jail was terrible,” Hoffman said.
Jun
8, 2014 post-gazette.com
Nurses
tasked with medicating nearly 700 inmates per shift at the infirmary at the
Allegheny County Jail are not sleeping at night due to
"trepidation" over facing their daily workload, their colleagues
testified Thursday before the county's Jail Oversight Board. Board members
said they want to form a subcommittee to examine staffing concerns and
questions about inmate care arising after Corizon
Health Inc. took over management of the infirmary Sept. 1. Common Pleas Judge
Joseph K. Williams III -- presiding over the meeting in the absence of Judge
Donna Jo McDaniel, board president and Common Pleas judge -- said county
officers, board members and Corizon officials could
"put their heads together" and come up with strategies to present
at the board's next meeting, scheduled for September. He said he believes
Judge McDaniel intends to have these discussions over the summer. "This
is the third time I've been here, and I've heard innuendo that care is being
compromised," Judge Williams said. "I'm not interested in Corizon's philosophy of care. I'm interested in dealing
with the reduction in staff and smaller inventory of drugs available."
Two nurses at the infirmary, Teresa Latham and Sister Barbara Finch, said
nurses dispensing medication are responsible for six or seven pods apiece,
each of which includes 100 inmates. Because nurses do not pre-pour the
medication, they said, rounds are considerably arduous and time-consuming. Corizon officials presented board members with a health
services report detailing improvements in intake procedure and pre-screening.
Jail medical director Michael Patterson said doctors are working with the
Allegheny County Health Department to develop more comprehensive screenings
for sexually transmitted infections. Currently the infirmary only screens
based on symptoms presented. That practice may miss a portion of the jail's
"high-risk population," he said. Dr. Patterson added that a
persistent concern is the long waiting list for referral for psychiatric care
at Torrance State Hospital. Close to 20 inmates are currently awaiting mental
health treatment at the state hospital, though that number has recently been
as high as 30 or 40, Corizon officials said. Though
Corizon's mental health director recently resigned,
the Tennessee-based firm is looking for a replacement, officials said. They
also reassured board members that a mental health nurse is available at the
jail even off-shift and during weekends. "Recruitment is not the same as
hiring," Marion Damick, the Pittsburgh
representative of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, said in frustration. Board
member Claire Walker, former executive director of the Pittsburgh Child
Guidance Foundation, thanked Corizon officials for
the report, saying the level of attention and transparency was "so much
better" than when the for-profit firm first took over last fall. No
mention was made at Thursday's meeting of the suspension of five jail guards
following an incident in which an employee entered the jail with a personal
handgun. Ms. Walker said personnel issues are the province of jail
management, not the oversight board.
Mar
15, 2014 triblive.com/news
Allegheny
County restored the security clearance of a union organizer who worked at the
county jail, allowing her to return to her former position, county spokeswoman
Amie Downs confirmed Tuesday. Sister Barbara Finch lost her county security
clearance at the jail in January, a move she interpreted as a firing. Finch
was a lead organizer among employees of Corizon
Correctional Healthcare, a Tennessee-based medical contractor that serves the
jail. Corizon and the United Steelworkers are
expected to begin contract negotiations soon, according to a joint statement
from both organizations. In a prepared statement, Corizon's
interim chief operating officer, Carla Cesario, said the company had no
control over the removal of Finch's security clearance. “We are moving
forward and will remain focused on our mission of providing quality care,”
Cesario said.
Mar
2, 2014 post-gazette.com
Allegheny
County Controller Chelsa Wagner announced today
that she plans to conduct an audit of the contract between the county and Corizon Health Inc., which was hired last year to run the
infirmary at the Allegheny County Jail. Earlier this month, Ms. Wagner sent a
letter to the CEO of Tennessee-based Corizon,
saying she had “grave and serious concerns” about health care and working
conditions at the jail. In a statement from her office today, she said she
remains concerned. “I remain gravely concerned by the credible reports our
office has received regarding substandard care at the jail,” she said in a
statement. “I’ve raised these concerns publicly, including at the Jail
Advisory Board and in writing to Corizon. Yet, the
responses to my questions have likewise been substandard and certainly not
what I would expect from an entity that receives more than $11 million in
taxpayer money annually.”
Corizon, which is a national
prison health care provider, signed a contract with the county last summer
that pays $11.5 million for the first year. Its management of health services
at the jail began Sept. 1. The audit will cover the period from Sept. 1
through today. “We have received the letter indicating the Controller wants
to conduct an audit," said Corizon spokeswoman
Susan Morgenstern. ."It’s important to note that we are working in close
partnership with the county and jail leadership to fulfill our mission. Our
focus remains on supporting our staff who provide quality care to patients in
the jail every day.” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said his
office welcome's the audit. "We welcome audits of any department that
result in recommendations that add value, are measurable and improve our
county operations," county spokeswoman Amie Downs said in a statement.
"This contract just was entered into in September of 2013, so it may be
difficult to measure its compliance with such a short window being available
for review, but we look forward to the results."
Feb
15, 2014 triblive.com
Allegheny
County Controller Chelsa Wagner threatened to
penalize the jail's new health care provider if it does not improve its
performance. Wagner said her office has received complaints that
Tennessee-based Corizon Health Inc. failed to
distribute medication and treat inmates with some mental health problems,
according to a letter she sent to Corizon CEO
Woodrow A. Myers. Corizon started offering care
Sept. 1, but its “period of transition” has expired, Wagner wrote in the
letter dated Monday. “I regard the current situation as intolerable and
outrageous, and I fully expect necessary changes to be urgently implemented,”
Wagner wrote. A Corizon spokeswoman said the
company plans to respond to Wagner's concerns in writing. “We certainly share
her focus on taking good care of patients at the Allegheny County Jail,” spokeswoman
Susan Morgenstern said. Wagner, who is on the county's Jail Oversight Board,
said the county could impose financial penalties outlined in Corizon's contract. Wagner's office could withhold
payments to Corizon and audit its work at the jail,
she said. Corizon's five-year contract could cost
the county more than $62.55 million. Wagner expected a response soon and said
waiting 60 or 90 days would be “stretching it.” Corizon
officials did not attend the board's Feb. 6 meeting. Allegheny Common Pleas
Judge Donna Jo McDaniel, head of the oversight board, met with Corizon Tuesday. McDaniel did not return calls. Corizon employees at the jail are to vote Friday on
whether to unionize under a branch of the United Steelworkers. Wagner said
she supports the efforts of workers to unionize. Aaron Aupperlee
is a staff writer for Trib Total Media.
Feb
8, 2014 Pittsburg Post-Gazette
A
nun who worked for five years as a registered nurse at the Allegheny County
Jail infirmary was fired last week for spearheading unionization efforts, an
organizer for the United Steelworkers union said Monday. Sister Barbara
Finch, a Sister of St. Joseph of Baden, had her security clearances revoked
and was dismissed from her job Thursday after she expressed concerns about
staffing, safety issues and patient care during meetings at the jail, said Randa Ruge, the union
organizer. "It became clear that she was one of the leading activists in
the organizing drive," Ms. Ruge said,
referring to ongoing unionization efforts at the jail. Ms. Ruge described Sister Barbara as a "sacrificial
lamb" and said that the union is "concerned that taxpayer dollars
are being used for union-busting." The Steelworkers union on Friday
filed an unfair labor practice charge against Corizon
Health Inc., the Tennessee-based firm that manages county jail health
services. The charge, sent to the National Labor Relation Board, is that Corizon dismissed her in retaliation for participating in
union activities. "This is a clear case of intimidation and
union-busting at its worst," United Steelworkers International president
Leo W. Gerard said in a statement. "Sister Barbara has been an outspoken
advocate of change for these courageous workers and their patients, and this
kind of illegal and unjust action, unfortunately, is par for the course with Corizon." "It is our policy not to discuss
personnel issues in the news media. I can confirm that we abide by all labor
laws; if there is a question to address with the NLRB, we will do so,"
said Susan Morgenstern, a Corizon spokeswoman. An
Allegheny County spokeswoman also declined comment. Union members, jail
employees and other union advocates held a protest Downtown Monday, bringing
attention to Sister Barbara's complaint and making known their support for
the right of workers to unionize. Corizon took over
management of Allegheny County Jail health services in September, after
signing a contract with Allegheny County last summer for $11.4 million a
year. Steelworkers representatives have said that, since Corizon
took over, they've received reports of bad working conditions. In January, the
union filed a labor petition to unionize about 110 members of the Allegheny
County Jail medical staff. The National Labor Relations Board has scheduled
an election Feb. 14.
December 8, 2013 Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
The company hired to
improve health care and cut costs at the Allegheny County Jail has struggled
with one of its basic functions -- distributing medicine -- due to
difficulties staffing the busy infirmary. Tennessee-based for-profit firm Corizon Health Inc., hired to replace the nonprofit
Allegheny Correctional Health Services, would not discuss the problems last
week, nor its decision to slash physician staffing at the jail to roughly
one-third of its prior level. Emails between county jail staff and Corizon, though, document a string of medication
distribution problems that one jail watcher called "terrifying."
"I was just informed by the Captain on shift, the majority of the jail
has not received medication AT ALL," wrote Deputy Warden Monica Long in
an email to Corizon and jail staff on Nov. 17 at
1:03 p.m. "Staffing is at a crisis." The Post-Gazette obtained the
internal emails and other documents through a request to the county under the
right-to-know law. Asked about the emails on Thursday, following a meeting of
the county Jail Oversight Board, Lee Harrington, Corizon
vice president of operations, claimed no knowledge of any problems.
"We're constantly adjusting our services to make sure that we provide
the services as contracted," he said. He declined to detail the
adjustments. Reading the emails, frequent jail visitor Marion Damick, the Pittsburgh representative of the Pennsylvania
Prison Society, called the problems "abnormal. That never happened under
Allegheny [Correctional], never. "That's terrifying, actually. There is
absolutely no reason that they would ever miss medication," she said,
adding that such shortcomings can only increase costs in the long run. She
added that she is "not hearing bad news" about Corizon
from inmates to date. Corizon took over the jail
infirmary Sept. 1, following a lengthy process meant to pick the successor to
Allegheny Correctional. Allegheny Correctional drew a steady stream of
lawsuits stemming from inmate deaths and injuries, including some related to
alleged failures to give inmates the right medicines. The nonprofit, which
ran the infirmary since 2001, also allowed annual costs to creep up to around
$12.5 million a year. Corizon agreed to take on the
2,500-inmate jail for $11.5 million the first year, with annual increases of
4.25 percent. Corizon said it would do a better job
of staffing the infirmary. In a pre-takeover email dated Aug. 16 explaining
why some Allegheny Correctional employees would soon lose their jobs, another
Corizon vice president of operations, Mary Silva,
wrote that "I ... really feel it is imperative to have adequate staffing
on ALL shifts, not just day shift." After Corizon's
Sept. 1 takeover, though, staffing did not stabilize. That led to disruptions
to the daily "medication passes" to the jail's 35 pods. An Oct. 10
email from Ms. Long to Mr. Harrington and others asked for a "plan for
successful implementation of medication passes" -- the term for the
nursing staff's several-times-daily distribution to pods of medicines in
packets stamped with the names of the receiving inmates. On Oct. 21, Warden
Orlando Harper wrote to Mr. Harrington and others: "We are continuing to
experience issues pertaining to the following: 1. Staffing, 2. Medication
distribution." An email from Ms. Long complained that on Oct. 18 and 19,
medication on Level 3 was passed out "after 11:00 p.m.," and on
Oct. 20, "2 pods did not receive medication at all." She added that
two pregnant inmates were "left in intake 24 hours" because Corizon nurses "did not know what to do" with
them. An inmate on oxygen who "was supposed to be processed
immediately" was left in the intake area for two shifts, she wrote. On
Nov. 16, a jail sergeant wrote that "Level 7 hasn't received Medication"
by almost 2 p.m. "This is on going [sic]
problem." That day the person charged with solving the problem, longtime
jail nursing director Kim Mike-Wilson, quit with no notice, according to the
emails. The next day, Ms. Long characterized the situation as "a
crisis." In a response email, Corizon
assistant health service administrator Michael Barfield blamed the day's
crisis on Ms. Mike-Wilson's departure and a nurse's mid-shift departure due
to illness. The county declined to provide a list of Corizon
staff inside the jail, indicating in a response to a right-to-know request
that such information "is not directly related, or even relevant
to" a contractor's performance of a governmental function. A Nov. 20
meeting of jail and Corizon officials on medication
passes and other issues failed to iron out the problems. Ms. Long wrote to
Mr. Harrington two days later saying she "Just received another call
that [pod] 5E has not received medications thus far." Reached by phone
Friday, Mr. Harper declined to detail his staff's interactions with Corizon. "Right now we're doing everything possible
to make sure that our inmates receive the proper medical care," he said.
In an email response to questions Friday, county manager William D. McKain wrote that Corizon's
leadership has been responsive to concerns. He added that when transitioning
from Allegheny Correctional to Corizon, "we
expected that there will be a period of time in which there are problems and
issues to be addressed.." There are often
disruptions when a jail changes its medical provider, said Mark Stern, former
medical director at the Washington Department of Corrections, now an
assistant affiliate professor at the University of Washington School of
Public Health. "It's not acceptable," said Dr. Stern, who worked
briefly around 2000 for a company that merged into 35-year-old Corizon. "This is not [Corizon's]
first rodeo. These problems are predictable and preventable." Failing to
deliver necessary medicines regularly would be "a serious violation of
the constitutional right of inmates," he said. "There are some
medications where a deviation of a few hours or even a day or so may not make
a difference. There are other medications were the timing is much more
critical. "If we're treating tuberculosis and we don't treat it well in
prison, then when they get out in the community, they're going to spread
it." Mr. Barfield told the Jail Oversight Board Thursday that Corizon had "ramped up the clinic visits." He
said the key was hiring more nurse practitioners. Jail medical director
Michael Patterson highlighted for the board his focus on detecting and
treating diabetes. Dr. Patterson appears to be the lone remaining full-time
physician in the jail under Corizon. The firm's
contract calls for one additional part-time physician, and former jail medical
employees who quit recently said that Eugene Youngue
is filling that role. Both Dr. Patterson and Dr. Youngue
served the jail full time under Allegheny Correctional, along with physicians
Lucille Aiken, Miguel Salomon and part-timer Morris Harper. Dr. Aiken in
September filed a state Human Relations Commission complaint against the
county and Corizon, claiming that she was sent
packing before the firm's takeover as retaliation for her efforts to ensure
quality care for inmates, and because of her gender and status as an
immigrant from Italy. Allegheny Correctional also employed three
psychiatrists and one psychologist. Corizon's
contract requires that it provide one full-time psychiatrist and a part-time
psychologist. Mr. Harrington would not provide a raw number of physicians
working in the jail following the board meeting Thursday, and on Friday
failed to respond to an email and hung up when reached on his cell phone.
"We have a full complement of doctors," he said Thursday.
"That's what we are contracted to provide."
December
8, 2013 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The
company hired to improve health care and cut costs at the Allegheny County
Jail has struggled with one of its basic functions -- distributing medicine
-- due to difficulties staffing the busy infirmary. Tennessee-based
for-profit firm Corizon Health Inc., hired to
replace the nonprofit Allegheny Correctional Health Services, would not
discuss the problems last week, nor its decision to slash physician staffing
at the jail to roughly one-third of its prior level. Emails between county
jail staff and Corizon, though, document a string
of medication distribution problems that one jail watcher called
"terrifying." "I was just informed by the Captain on shift,
the majority of the jail has not received medication AT ALL," wrote
Deputy Warden Monica Long in an email to Corizon
and jail staff on Nov. 17 at 1:03 p.m. "Staffing is at a crisis."
The Post-Gazette obtained the internal emails and other documents through a
request to the county under the right-to-know law. Asked about the emails on
Thursday, following a meeting of the county Jail Oversight Board, Lee
Harrington, Corizon vice president of operations,
claimed no knowledge of any problems. "We're constantly adjusting our
services to make sure that we provide the services as contracted," he
said. He declined to detail the adjustments. Reading the emails, frequent
jail visitor Marion Damick, the Pittsburgh
representative of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, called the problems
"abnormal. That never happened under Allegheny [Correctional], never.
"That's terrifying, actually. There is absolutely no reason that they
would ever miss medication," she said, adding that such shortcomings can
only increase costs in the long run. She added that she is "not hearing
bad news" about Corizon from inmates to date. Corizon took over the jail infirmary Sept. 1, following a
lengthy process meant to pick the successor to Allegheny Correctional.
Allegheny Correctional drew a steady stream of lawsuits stemming from inmate
deaths and injuries, including some related to alleged failures to give
inmates the right medicines. The nonprofit, which ran the infirmary since
2001, also allowed annual costs to creep up to around $12.5 million a year. Corizon agreed to take on the 2,500-inmate jail for $11.5
million the first year, with annual increases of 4.25 percent. Corizon said it would do a better job of staffing the
infirmary. In a pre-takeover email dated Aug. 16 explaining why some
Allegheny Correctional employees would soon lose their jobs, another Corizon vice president of operations, Mary Silva, wrote
that "I ... really feel it is imperative to have adequate staffing on
ALL shifts, not just day shift." After Corizon's
Sept. 1 takeover, though, staffing did not stabilize. That led to disruptions
to the daily "medication passes" to the jail's 35 pods. An Oct. 10
email from Ms. Long to Mr. Harrington and others asked for a "plan for
successful implementation of medication passes" -- the term for the
nursing staff's several-times-daily distribution to pods of medicines in
packets stamped with the names of the receiving inmates. On Oct. 21, Warden
Orlando Harper wrote to Mr. Harrington and others: "We are continuing to
experience issues pertaining to the following: 1. Staffing, 2. Medication
distribution." An email from Ms. Long complained that on Oct. 18 and 19,
medication on Level 3 was passed out "after 11:00 p.m.," and on
Oct. 20, "2 pods did not receive medication at all." She added that
two pregnant inmates were "left in intake 24 hours" because Corizon nurses "did not know what to do" with
them. An inmate on oxygen who "was supposed to be processed
immediately" was left in the intake area for two shifts, she wrote. On
Nov. 16, a jail sergeant wrote that "Level 7 hasn't received
Medication" by almost 2 p.m. "This is on going
[sic] problem." That day the person charged with solving the problem,
longtime jail nursing director Kim Mike-Wilson, quit with no notice,
according to the emails. The next day, Ms. Long characterized the situation
as "a crisis." In a response email, Corizon
assistant health service administrator Michael Barfield blamed the day's
crisis on Ms. Mike-Wilson's departure and a nurse's mid-shift departure due
to illness. The county declined to provide a list of Corizon
staff inside the jail, indicating in a response to a right-to-know request
that such information "is not directly related, or even relevant
to" a contractor's performance of a governmental function. A Nov. 20
meeting of jail and Corizon officials on medication
passes and other issues failed to iron out the problems. Ms. Long wrote to
Mr. Harrington two days later saying she "Just received another call
that [pod] 5E has not received medications thus far." Reached by phone
Friday, Mr. Harper declined to detail his staff's interactions with Corizon. "Right now we're doing everything possible
to make sure that our inmates receive the proper medical care," he said.
In an email response to questions Friday, county manager William D. McKain wrote that Corizon's
leadership has been responsive to concerns. He added that when transitioning
from Allegheny Correctional to Corizon, "we
expected that there will be a period of time in which there are problems and
issues to be addressed.." There are often
disruptions when a jail changes its medical provider, said Mark Stern, former
medical director at the Washington Department of Corrections, now an
assistant affiliate professor at the University of Washington School of
Public Health. "It's not acceptable," said Dr. Stern, who worked
briefly around 2000 for a company that merged into 35-year-old Corizon. "This is not [Corizon's]
first rodeo. These problems are predictable and preventable." Failing to
deliver necessary medicines regularly would be "a serious violation of
the constitutional right of inmates," he said. "There are some
medications where a deviation of a few hours or even a day or so may not make
a difference. There are other medications were the timing is much more
critical. "If we're treating tuberculosis and we don't treat it well in
prison, then when they get out in the community, they're going to spread
it." Mr. Barfield told the Jail Oversight Board Thursday that Corizon had "ramped up the clinic visits." He
said the key was hiring more nurse practitioners. Jail medical director
Michael Patterson highlighted for the board his focus on detecting and
treating diabetes. Dr. Patterson appears to be the lone remaining full-time
physician in the jail under Corizon. The firm's
contract calls for one additional part-time physician, and former jail
medical employees who quit recently said that Eugene Youngue
is filling that role. Both Dr. Patterson and Dr. Youngue
served the jail full time under Allegheny Correctional, along with physicians
Lucille Aiken, Miguel Salomon and part-timer Morris Harper. Dr. Aiken in
September filed a state Human Relations Commission complaint against the
county and Corizon, claiming that she was sent
packing before the firm's takeover as retaliation for her efforts to ensure
quality care for inmates, and because of her gender and status as an
immigrant from Italy. Allegheny Correctional also employed three
psychiatrists and one psychologist. Corizon's
contract requires that it provide one full-time psychiatrist and a part-time
psychologist. Mr. Harrington would not provide a raw number of physicians
working in the jail following the board meeting Thursday, and on Friday
failed to respond to an email and hung up when reached on his cell phone.
"We have a full complement of doctors," he said Thursday.
"That's what we are contracted to provide."
January
24, 2003
On
Oct. 21, 1996, 33-year-old Charles Fine, a heroin addict From Monongahela,
became the first inmate to kill himself in what was then the new Allegheny
County Jail. He rigged a makeshift
noose out of his shoelaces and hung himself from a bunk in his cell. Now, seven years later, the medical company
that used to screen inmates for suicide risk at the jail is on trial in U.S.
District Court, defending itself against a negligence claim. Fine's stepmother, Barbara Mayfield,
represented by local attorney Vincent Coppola, says employees of Correctional
Medical Services Inc. of Missouri should have known Fine was going to kill
himself. Correctional Medical, the
country's largest health-care provider for jails, pulled out of the Allegheny
County Jail in 2000, but the move had nothing to do with the lawsuit. Fine, who worked for a time as a welder,
was jailed on Oct. 20, 1996, pending trial for retail theft and simple
assault. Earlier that year he had also been jailed on drug possession charges
and later released. In both instances,
according to the complaint, a nurse filled out a 10-question form used to
determine if an inmate might be a suicide risk. Coppola said his answers to
questions should have shown the medical staff fine was suffering from heroin
withdrawal and that he was depressed and in "emotional
distress." Coppola has argued
that the staff should have realized Fine might kill himself and placed him in
the Mental Health Unit rather than in the general jail population. He said
the staff should also have removed his shoelaces. (Post-Gazette.com)
Aramark, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
December 14, 2012 Philly.com
AN ARM of the food-services giant Aramark and a local minority-owned business
will pay the city a total of $400,000 to settle a suit that accused the
companies of fudging their numbers to skirt minority-participation
requirements in a Philadelphia prison system contract, the city announced
Thursday. "They really were denying opportunities for legitimate
minority companies that wanted to work," said city Inspector General Amy
Kurland, whose office oversaw the investigation. Aramark Correctional
Services provides three meals a day to prisoners, but it is required to subcontract
out 20 percent to 25 percent of the work to businesses owned by minorities,
women or disabled persons. The suit alleged that Aramark and Strother
Enterprises, a minority-business group in Philadelphia, employed a circular
payment scheme to overstate how much of the business Strother was getting.
Neither company admitted fault in the settlement, which will cost Aramark
$352,000 and Strother $48,000. Both will also have to improve their
compliance codes. Aramark described the problem as a "reporting discrepancy.
"We have corrected the issue and implemented a comprehensive compliance
program," the company said in a statement. Strother did not return a
request for comment. Kurland said that schemes like this one are a "huge
problem." "It's very common," she said. "We've approached
companies that have done this and [they] said, 'Well, isn't this the way
things are done in Philadelphia?'
August 30, 2012 Northwest Arkansas Business Journal
Former University of Central Arkansas president Allen Meadors
is facing a misdemeanor charge stemming from a deal with food vendor Aramark.
The office of Faulkner County Prosecutor Cody Hiland
filed the charge on Wednesday, nearly a year after the UCA board began an
investigation of Meadors. Hiland
was out of the office Thursday morning and unavailable for comment. Meadors and board Chairman Scott Roussel apologized last
year for not revealing that Aramark offered $700,000 for renovating the UCA
president's home if its contract with the school was renewed. Several
trustees have they didn't know the Aramark offer was tied to the renewal of
its contract with UCA. The trustees said they thought the $700,000 was a
gift. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Wednesday that Meadors' charge was solicitation of tampering with a
public record, which "carries a punishment of up to one year in jail and
a $1,000 fine." Meadors "is accused of
urging a vice president to destroy a letter that said the offer would be in
exchange for renewing Aramark's contract," the newspaper said.
April 27,
2012 Log Cabin
University of Central Arkansas Faculty Senate members are calling for a
trustee’s resignation. The group voted Thursday on a resolution requesting
Scott Roussel, a real estate business man of Searcy appointed to the board
for a second term in 2008 by Gov. Mike Beebe, to leave his post. The action
follows the board’s approval of a new deal with Aramark, one that would “wipe
clean” $6.7 million in unamortized funds and interest. Roussel voted to
approve the contract along with other trustees as it was presented, though
governing groups on campus said they believed the trustee should recuse.
Thursday’s resolution states that Roussel “was cognizant of the conditions
described by Aramark in the acceptance of $700,000 in return for a seven-year,
no bid contract for food services on the UCA campus...” It further explains
that Roussel “would or should have been aware” of potential damage to the
university’s reputation when he announced the large “gift” from the
university’s food vendor, and did not disclose, by his account without
purpose, that the pledge was contingent upon the renewal of the company’s
contract. The money would have furthered renovations under way at the UCA
president’s home that was occupied by former president Allen Meadors, who resigned last September after trustees
learned of the stipulation. UCA conducted its own interviews shortly after
the discovery, but then turned the investigation into possible improprieties
by university staff over to Arkansas State Police. State police gave a
“lengthy” case file to Twentieth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland earlier this month. Hiland
said Friday that his office is still reviewing the file to determine if a
criminal act has been committed.
September
7, 2011 Arkansas Times
"There's right and there's wrong and there's UCA." I don't even
know what that means. I doubt that the Conway insider who uttered it to me
Friday afternoon does either. I use it, though, because it conveys the
relevant utter frustration. A few years ago the University of Central
Arkansas was the hottest college in the state. It was located in a booming
suburban college town. It had a politically astute president. Enrollment was
skyrocketing. Television advertising was Landersesque.
Then that politically astute president, Lu Hardin, got caught cutting ethical
corners to gin up some bonus money for himself to pay gambling debts. He will
be going to prison any day now, surely. The UCA Board of Trustees, looking
around for the anti-Lu, found its man in Dr. Allen Meadors,
a campus graduate with experience as a small-college president and a meek
manner. Not long ago I made a crack about Hardin's ethical wasteland in the
presence of a leading UCA staff member. It angered her. She explained that
she loved the school and that it was steadily righting itself and,
essentially, that a smart-aleck press commentator ought to watch his mouth.
But now this: Meadors was revealed this week to
have misrepresented to the UCA board that the campus food vendor, a company
called Aramark, was donating $700,000 to fix up the president's official home
across the street from the campus. The board, initially as blindly obeisant
to administrative happy talk as with Hardin before, said sure, yes, without
delay, we accept this gift for this most urgent academic need and we
authorize preliminary architectural designs and cost estimates. Then came
that pesky reporter for the statewide daily, famous for bedeviling Hardin,
and still wielding the Freedom of Information law like a switchblade. She
asked board members if they had known a little detail: Aramark actually would
donate the money from one hand only if it was guaranteed that it would reel
more money from UCA into the other hand by getting its food service contract
renewed without competitive bidding for a period at least long enough for a
guaranteed realization of enough profit to get back the gift. Why, no, we
didn't know that, said some of these board members, and, by golly, we are
just a little bit ticked. They called themselves to a special meeting. This
was not charity, but amortizing. It was a food service vendor seeking to
escape a new round of competitive bidding by going into the home improvement
lending business on the side. It was an advance on marked-up grub the kids
would eat later in their hostage environment. I'm advised that this kind of
arrangement is not uncommon. But it ought to be. And if it is common, why
conspicuously neglect to mention it? Meadors, going
all-in for damage control, told the board in this second special meeting that
he had erred and that he would recommend that the school not accept the money
as offered. He recommended that the school open the food service contract for
bidding. The board withdrew its previous approval for a housing allowance by
which Meadors and his wife could rent suitable
quarters elsewhere until the presidential home was renovated. Meadors' wife, a stronger personality, has been spending
quite a bit of time with family in North Carolina. Just 24 hours later, on
Friday afternoon, the board met in special session again, this time by phone.
Then the board reconvened in public and bought out Meadors'
contract. The board could have restored Meadors'
authority to live temporarily off campus. But that might simply have kept
matters festering — a la Hardin — and nobody wanted to go through that again.
Meadors may be a bit of a victim, just as UCA. He
clearly erred by not revealing the full nature of the arrangement with the
food vendor. But it is entirely possible that he considered such deals commonplace.
He may have felt some pressure close to home about inadequate living
arrangements, the short-term solution to which got sacrificed in this
fast-roiling controversy. So now UCA will start trying again to right the
ship.
September
1, 2011 AP
A $700,000 gift from Aramark to the University of Central Arkansas came with
a condition that Aramark's food service contract with the university be
renewed. At least five members of UCA's Board of Trustees say they did not
know about the condition. A letter from Aramark district manager to UCA vice
president Diane Newton calls the money an unrestricted grant contingent upon
a seven year extension of Aramark's food service contract. UCA President
Allen Meadors told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
that he takes responsibility for the trustees not knowing the terms of the
gift. Meadors says such conditions are not unusual.
Trustee Rush Harding III told the Log Cabin Democrat agreed the transaction
is common — but said trustees should have been informed.
January
29, 2010 Herald-Leader
State Auditor Crit Luallen said Thursday she
would do an audit of the private company that has a nearly $12 million annual
contract to serve food at the state's 13 prisons. The announcement came a day
after a House committee voted to cancel a contract with Aramark Correctional
Services, which served food at Northpoint Training Center at the time of a
costly riot there. Also Wednesday, the state released its full investigative
report on the Aug. 21 riot, which went into more detail about problems with
food at the Mercer County prison. House Speaker Greg Stumbo and Rep. John
Tilley, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Thursday that they
thought Luallen should look into Aramark's
performance under the contract. "I do think it's appropriate to ask the
state auditor in some fashion to audit the situation," Tilley said
Thursday. Said Luallen: "While there has not
been a formal request yet, there have been enough questions raised by
legislators that we will begin to make plans to do an audit of the
contract." Members of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted
6-4 to cancel Aramark's contract because of concerns about the food. Many on
the committee questioned whether Aramark was skimping on ingredients to serve
more people cheaply. "Aramark stands behind the quality of service we
provide, which has won the accolades of our clients and the national
accreditation agencies who monitor the quality of food service," an
Aramark spokeswoman said Wednesday. An audit conducted of Aramark's
performance for the Florida prison system in 2007 showed the number of
inmates eating meals declined after Aramark took over the food service. But
the company was paid based on the number of inmates, not on the number of
meals served. Aramark also substituted less costly products such as ground
turkey for beef, the audit said. The audit recommended that Florida rebid the
food service or take it over. But Aramark terminated the contract near the
end of 2008, according to published reports. Gov. Steve Beshear
praised prison officials' handling of the riot. He said he was
"confounded" with the legislature's "continued fixation with
the menus for convicted criminals when we're desperately trying to avoid
cutting teachers and state troopers. ... We have more than 10 percent
unemployment and Kentucky families are struggling to put food on the table,
and I am loath to consider millions more dollars for criminals who wish they
could go to Wendy's instead." But Tilley and Stumbo — both Democrats —
defended the House's investigation into the riot, which damaged six buildings
and caused a fiery melee. "The truth is, we had a riot on our hands that
is probably going to cost the taxpayers $10 million," Stumbo said,
referring to money Beshear has requested to rebuild
the prison outside of Danville. "And we need to find out why the hell we
had it." Meanwhile, there are still questions about why key parts of the
original report on the riot were not immediately released in November. It was
only after the House Judiciary Committee repeatedly asked to see the report
that the Department of Corrections agreed to release a redacted version of
the full report at Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee meeting. The report
released Wednesday showed that Northpoint Warden Steve Haney did not want to
implement restrictions that were a primary cause of the riot, but he was
overruled by Deputy Commissioner of Adult Institutions Al Parke and Director
of Operations James Erwin. The report said the handling of restrictions was
"haphazard and poorly planned." The report also revealed other
problems before, during and after the riot, including non-existent radio
communications among agencies, a lack of documentation, failed video cameras
and a considerable delay in the formal investigation. The report said there
was confusion over whether Kentucky State Police or Justice Cabinet
investigators should handle the post-riot investigation. Those details were
not released in a summary Nov. 20. Beshear defended
his administration Thursday, saying he was confident the riot was handled
correctly. "I have full confidence in the Secretary of the Justice
Cabinet J. Michael Brown and his staff and how they handled the Northpoint
riot and its subsequent investigation," Beshear
said. Kerri Richardson, a spokeswoman for Beshear,
said Beshear's office never saw the original
report, but had seen the report summary. Beshear's
staff asked for more explanation in the summary report but did not ask for
anything to be taken out, she said. Jennifer Brislin,
a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, said there was no attempt on the
part of the Justice Cabinet or the Department of Corrections to hide or
minimize some of the problems on the day of the riot. Department of
Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson left out some of those problems in
her Nov. 20 summary because she thought some of those details would
compromise security at the prison, Brislin said.
"During her review, she exempted information that she felt would be a
security risk to staff and inmates, and that included information regarding
how command decisions were made," Brislin
said. House Bill 33 — the bill that would cancel the Aramark contract — now
heads to the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. If the state cancels
the contract, it could add as much as $5.4 million a year to the state's cost
of feeding inmates, according to the Department of Corrections.
January
28, 2010 Herald-Leader
The warden at Northpoint Training Center did not want to implement the prison
yard restrictions that contributed to an August riot that heavily damaged
much of the facility, but he was overruled by Department of Corrections
officials, according to an investigative report released Wednesday. The
investigation also revealed numerous other problems at Northpoint that occurred
before, during and after the riot, including inmate anger about food on the
day of the riot and a crucial delay in the formal investigation of how the
fiery melee occurred. After reviewing the report, the House Judiciary
Committee voted 9-4 to approve a bill that would cancel the state's $12
million annual contract with Aramark Correctional Services to provide meals
at 13 prisons. The investigative report showed that anger over food
contributed to the Aug. 21 riot at the Mercer County prison. The report,
which was withheld from the public by state officials until Wednesday, puts
more emphasis on food as a contributing cause of the riot than the state
Corrections Department's "review" of the investigative report,
which was released Nov. 20. The review concluded that the main cause of the
riot was inmate anger about a lockdown and other restrictions imposed after a
fight at the prison. However, the latest report shows that virtually every
inmate and employee interviewed by investigators said that Aramark food and
its prices at the canteen were among the reasons for the riot. The report
lists those issues as the third and fourth factors, respectively, that
contributed to the riot. "Apparently, there had been complaints for
years about the quality of the food, the portion sizes and the continual
shortage and substitutions for scheduled menu items," the report states.
"Sanitation of the kitchen was also a source of complaints," says
the report. Inmates set fires that destroyed six buildings, including those containing
the kitchen, canteen, visitation center, medical services, sanitation
department and a multipurpose area. Several dorms were heavily damaged, and
eight guards and eight inmates were injured. 'Haphazard' action -- According
to the report, the riot began 15 minutes after details were posted about new
movement restrictions for prisoners in the yard. The restrictions came after
an Aug. 18 fight over canteen items that caused prison officials to institute
a lockdown. The investigation found that Northpoint Warden Steve Haney wanted
to return the prison yard to normal operations as he typically did after a
lockdown, but he was overruled by Al Parke, deputy commissioner of adult
institutions and James Erwin, director of operations. "The implementation
of the controlled movement policy at NTC was haphazard and poorly planned at
best," says the report. The report also says the warden never got word
that inmates had dumped food from their trays on the floor at breakfast and
at lunch on the day of the riot. Aramark officials e-mailed details of the
incident to a deputy warden at Northpoint, but the information apparently was
not passed along, the report said. During the riot, "radio
communications between all agencies involved was virtually non-existent,
causing chaos and a general feeling of disconnect with the various agencies
involved," according to the report. After the riot, there was a
"gross lack of coordination of submitting reports," evidence was
compromised because most video cameras failed the evening of the riot, and
there was a considerable delay in the formal investigation, the report said.
Kentucky State Police immediately tried to begin an investigation to see
which inmates were involved in the riot but was advised by the corrections
department's operations director that the investigation would be conducted
internally. Several days later, the report said, two staff members from the
Justice Cabinet determined that state police should conduct the
investigation. "The criminal investigations should have started
immediately to preserve evidence, testimony and critical information,"
the report says. "After a few days, staff thoughts and observations
became diluted."
July 7,
2010 Evanston-Review
An on-site food services worker is charging that her employers, Evanston
Hospital and Aramark Services, allowed co-workers to repeatedly harass and
discriminate her despite her pleas to management for help. In a lawsuit filed
Tuesday, Yaffa Washington, a member of a Hebrew
Israelite sect who was born in Israel, said she was hired by Evanston
Hospital in 2004 and soon thereafter began working for Aramark Services, on
location at the hospital, 2650 Ridge Ave. Washington, an African-American,
charges in her lawsuit that she was subjected to offensive racist and and anti-Semitic slurs, including references to her as
the “Jew Girl,” soon after after she began working
for Aramark. The lawsuit alleges that soon after informing Aramark officials
that she was contemplating filing an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
charge if the harassment didn't stop – in what her lawsuit describes as
“unlawful retaliation against her for engaging in legally protected activity”
– Washington was fired. Aramark could not be reached for comment Wednesday
afternoon. A spokeswoman for the hospital said Wednesday that the hospital
had not been served notice of such a lawsuit and so could not comment.
March 6,
2010 Philadelphia Enquirer
Saying it is owed $7.3 million, Aramark Corp., the Philadelphia food-services
provider, has sued a New Jersey operator of correctional facilities. In the
suit, Aramark contends Community Education Centers Inc., of West Caldwell,
N.J., has been in default on bills since at least June 2008. Locally, Aramark
services Community Education Centers facilities in Philadelphia, Delaware
County, Reading, and Trenton. Aramark's lawsuit, filed Feb. 18 in U.S.
District Court in Philadelphia, said Community Education Centers was overdue
on $5.2 million of the total, and it requested that a judgment, including
interest, costs, and attorney's fees, be entered in its favor. In an e-mailed
statement yesterday, Community Education Centers said it "does not
comment on pending litigation except to say that the two companies are in
negotiations regarding the matter." Community Education Centers is one
of a number of companies considered likely to bid on a prison privatization
contract in Camden County. Last year, a unit of the company bought options on
land in Camden as a potential site for a new prison, but the site has been
ruled out by county freeholders because of neighborhood protests. The
privately held company, which operates in 19 states, employs 4,500 and
services nearly 30,000 individuals, did not comment specifically on the
proposed privatization of Camden County's prison system. Among Community
Education Centers' investors is Philadelphia private-equity firm LLR
Partners. The firm's investment fund, LLR Equity Partners II L.P., in 2007
bought $53 million worth of preferred stock, according to a regulatory
filing. LLR cofounder Seth Lehr, who is on Community Education Centers' board
of directors, said the firm does not comment on companies in its portfolio.
January
29, 2010 Herald-Leader
State Auditor Crit Luallen said Thursday she
would do an audit of the private company that has a nearly $12 million annual
contract to serve food at the state's 13 prisons. The announcement came a day
after a House committee voted to cancel a contract with Aramark Correctional
Services, which served food at Northpoint Training Center at the time of a
costly riot there. Also Wednesday, the state released its full investigative
report on the Aug. 21 riot, which went into more detail about problems with
food at the Mercer County prison. House Speaker Greg Stumbo and Rep. John
Tilley, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Thursday that they
thought Luallen should look into Aramark's
performance under the contract. "I do think it's appropriate to ask the
state auditor in some fashion to audit the situation," Tilley said
Thursday. Said Luallen: "While there has not
been a formal request yet, there have been enough questions raised by
legislators that we will begin to make plans to do an audit of the
contract." Members of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted
6-4 to cancel Aramark's contract because of concerns about the food. Many on
the committee questioned whether Aramark was skimping on ingredients to serve
more people cheaply. "Aramark stands behind the quality of service we
provide, which has won the accolades of our clients and the national
accreditation agencies who monitor the quality of food service," an
Aramark spokeswoman said Wednesday. An audit conducted of Aramark's
performance for the Florida prison system in 2007 showed the number of
inmates eating meals declined after Aramark took over the food service. But
the company was paid based on the number of inmates, not on the number of
meals served. Aramark also substituted less costly products such as ground
turkey for beef, the audit said. The audit recommended that Florida rebid the
food service or take it over. But Aramark terminated the contract near the
end of 2008, according to published reports. Gov. Steve Beshear
praised prison officials' handling of the riot. He said he was
"confounded" with the legislature's "continued fixation with
the menus for convicted criminals when we're desperately trying to avoid
cutting teachers and state troopers. ... We have more than 10 percent
unemployment and Kentucky families are struggling to put food on the table,
and I am loath to consider millions more dollars for criminals who wish they
could go to Wendy's instead." But Tilley and Stumbo — both Democrats —
defended the House's investigation into the riot, which damaged six buildings
and caused a fiery melee. "The truth is, we had a riot on our hands that
is probably going to cost the taxpayers $10 million," Stumbo said,
referring to money Beshear has requested to rebuild
the prison outside of Danville. "And we need to find out why the hell we
had it." Meanwhile, there are still questions about why key parts of the
original report on the riot were not immediately released in November. It was
only after the House Judiciary Committee repeatedly asked to see the report
that the Department of Corrections agreed to release a redacted version of
the full report at Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee meeting. The report
released Wednesday showed that Northpoint Warden Steve Haney did not want to
implement restrictions that were a primary cause of the riot, but he was
overruled by Deputy Commissioner of Adult Institutions Al Parke and Director
of Operations James Erwin. The report said the handling of restrictions was
"haphazard and poorly planned." The report also revealed other
problems before, during and after the riot, including non-existent radio
communications among agencies, a lack of documentation, failed video cameras
and a considerable delay in the formal investigation. The report said there
was confusion over whether Kentucky State Police or Justice Cabinet
investigators should handle the post-riot investigation. Those details were
not released in a summary Nov. 20. Beshear defended
his administration Thursday, saying he was confident the riot was handled
correctly. "I have full confidence in the Secretary of the Justice
Cabinet J. Michael Brown and his staff and how they handled the Northpoint
riot and its subsequent investigation," Beshear
said. Kerri Richardson, a spokeswoman for Beshear,
said Beshear's office never saw the original
report, but had seen the report summary. Beshear's
staff asked for more explanation in the summary report but did not ask for
anything to be taken out, she said. Jennifer Brislin,
a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, said there was no attempt on the
part of the Justice Cabinet or the Department of Corrections to hide or
minimize some of the problems on the day of the riot. Department of
Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson left out some of those problems in
her Nov. 20 summary because she thought some of those details would
compromise security at the prison, Brislin said.
"During her review, she exempted information that she felt would be a
security risk to staff and inmates, and that included information regarding
how command decisions were made," Brislin
said. House Bill 33 — the bill that would cancel the Aramark contract — now
heads to the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. If the state cancels
the contract, it could add as much as $5.4 million a year to the state's cost
of feeding inmates, according to the Department of Corrections.
January
28, 2010 Herald-Leader
The warden at Northpoint Training Center did not want to implement the prison
yard restrictions that contributed to an August riot that heavily damaged
much of the facility, but he was overruled by Department of Corrections
officials, according to an investigative report released Wednesday. The
investigation also revealed numerous other problems at Northpoint that
occurred before, during and after the riot, including inmate anger about food
on the day of the riot and a crucial delay in the formal investigation of how
the fiery melee occurred. After reviewing the report, the House Judiciary
Committee voted 9-4 to approve a bill that would cancel the state's $12
million annual contract with Aramark Correctional Services to provide meals
at 13 prisons. The investigative report showed that anger over food
contributed to the Aug. 21 riot at the Mercer County prison. The report,
which was withheld from the public by state officials until Wednesday, puts
more emphasis on food as a contributing cause of the riot than the state
Corrections Department's "review" of the investigative report,
which was released Nov. 20. The review concluded that the main cause of the
riot was inmate anger about a lockdown and other restrictions imposed after a
fight at the prison. However, the latest report shows that virtually every
inmate and employee interviewed by investigators said that Aramark food and
its prices at the canteen were among the reasons for the riot. The report
lists those issues as the third and fourth factors, respectively, that
contributed to the riot. "Apparently, there had been complaints for
years about the quality of the food, the portion sizes and the continual
shortage and substitutions for scheduled menu items," the report states.
"Sanitation of the kitchen was also a source of complaints," says
the report. Inmates set fires that destroyed six buildings, including those
containing the kitchen, canteen, visitation center, medical services,
sanitation department and a multipurpose area. Several dorms were heavily
damaged, and eight guards and eight inmates were injured. 'Haphazard' action
-- According to the report, the riot began 15 minutes after details were
posted about new movement restrictions for prisoners in the yard. The restrictions
came after an Aug. 18 fight over canteen items that caused prison officials
to institute a lockdown. The investigation found that Northpoint Warden Steve
Haney wanted to return the prison yard to normal operations as he typically
did after a lockdown, but he was overruled by Al Parke, deputy commissioner
of adult institutions and James Erwin, director of operations. "The
implementation of the controlled movement policy at NTC was haphazard and
poorly planned at best," says the report. The report also says the
warden never got word that inmates had dumped food from their trays on the
floor at breakfast and at lunch on the day of the riot. Aramark officials
e-mailed details of the incident to a deputy warden at Northpoint, but the
information apparently was not passed along, the report said. During the
riot, "radio communications between all agencies involved was virtually
non-existent, causing chaos and a general feeling of disconnect with the
various agencies involved," according to the report. After the riot,
there was a "gross lack of coordination of submitting reports,"
evidence was compromised because most video cameras failed the evening of the
riot, and there was a considerable delay in the formal investigation, the
report said. Kentucky State Police immediately tried to begin an
investigation to see which inmates were involved in the riot but was advised
by the corrections department's operations director that the investigation
would be conducted internally. Several days later, the report said, two staff
members from the Justice Cabinet determined that state police should conduct
the investigation. "The criminal investigations should have started
immediately to preserve evidence, testimony and critical information,"
the report says. "After a few days, staff thoughts and observations
became diluted."
December
3, 2008 Star-Ledger
The family of a young girl paralyzed in a drunk-driving accident nine
years ago received a $25 million settlement from Aramark Corp., the Giants
Stadium beer vendor whose employees continued to serve the intoxicated fan
who caused the crash. The settlement with the family of Antonia Verni, who is now 11, took place last year but was not
disclosed until today, when a state appeals court ruled that sealed documents
in the case must be made public. Antonia, a quadriplegic who requires a
ventilator to breathe, received $23.5 million in the settlement, said the
family's lawyer, David A. Mazie of Roseland. Her mother, Fazila Verni, received $1.5 million for injuries she suffered in
the crash.
February
24, 2008 Naperville Sun
A company hoping to win another contract at the DuPage County Jail has
donated thousands of dollars to elected county officials. Aramark, a
Philadelphia-based company that has provided the jail's food service for 21
years, has poured $14,770 into campaign coffers of State's Attorney Joe
Birkett, Sheriff John Zaruba, County Board Chairman
Bob Schillerstrom and others since 1999, according
to the Illinois State Board of Elections. County Board members Brien Sheahan,
Debra Olson and Mike McMahon have received several hundred dollars each. In a
bidding process fraught with ambiguity and conflict, Aramark has been
fighting for more than a year to continue serving food to jail inmates. When
the bid was redone for the third time in December, the company submitted a
$949,616 bid that was $6,000 lower than that of its competitor,
Minnesota-based A'viands. But after the state's
attorney's office said Aramark submitted a menu that didn't meet
requirements, officials recommended the bid be awarded to A'viands.
Aramark's menu diverged slightly by offering breaded fish patties rather than
the specified fish fillets and 12-ounce instead of 8-ounce oatmeal servings,
Assistant State's Attorney Tom Downing said. Potential savings -- However,
County Board members are giving Aramark another shot at the contract, opting
for a fourth bid instead of awarding the contract to A'viands.
They say the county can save thousands of dollars by changing bidding
requirements. Instead of stipulating a specific menu, board members want to
mandate only certain nutritional requirements, as was done during the second
round of bidding. Allowing bidders to submit their own menu resulted in a bid
from Aramark that was $120,000 less than when it followed a menu mandated by
the county. That cost difference is enough to justify yet another bid, said
Sheahan, calling the whole process "ridiculous." "We're
basically having a $120,000 argument over whether milk and oatmeal will fit
on a tray, and I think we owe it to taxpayers to make sure we are getting the
best value for their money," he said. "We're not interested in
spending extra every year so people at the County Jail can eat fish fillets
instead of fish sticks." Nothing to hide -- Sheahan said a $500 contribution
from Aramark to his primary campaign had nothing to do with his support for a
fourth bid. "I really don't care whether Aramark gets it or not,"
he said. "I want the lowest bid to get it. I think the interest of the
committee is just to get the best value for taxpayers." Saying she
believes Aramark has submitted responsible bids, Olson, of Wheaton, said she
supports a fourth bid to potentially save the $120,000. "This is about
saving taxpayers money," said Olson, who noted that she has supported
extending the temporary contracts to A'viands.
"Any implications that my motivations are other than in the best
interests of taxpayers is insulting." Birkett, who has received $3,600
from Aramark, said the campaign contributions played no role in the opinion
rendered by his office, which ruled Aramark's bid noncompliant. "If I'm
asked for opinion or legal guidance, I give it, free from any political
support I've received," Birkett said. The recipient of $4,500 from
Aramark, Schillerstrom sided with the state's attorney,
saying Aramark failed to meet the menu requirements. "I believe A'viands is the lowest responsible bidder," he said.
"I think it's clear that Aramark did not comply with the bid." Zaruba did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Nutrition requirements -- Disputes about nutrition requirements have plagued
the bidding process, which began last March. After the county declared A'viands the winner of the first bid, Aramark filed a
lawsuit claiming its submitted menus were deficient. Schillerstrom
upheld the protest, finding that both companies failed to meet requirements
and declared a second round of bidding. For the second bid, the county
outlined more specific nutrition standards. But both companies fell short,
saying it was impossible to meet sodium requirements. In the third bid, the
county hired a nutritionist to create a specific menu. While A'viands said the menu gave clear and specific
requirements, Aramark disagreed. "It was crystal clear to us that we
were to submit a menu that exactly met those requirements, and that's what we
did," said Perry Rynders, CEO of A'viands. Rynders expressed
"significant disappointment" at the county's decision to hold
another bid, saying no one had disputed that A'viands
did meet requirements. Temporary contract -- To keep prison inmates fed, the
county has issued a string of temporary contracts to A'viands
since July. But it's difficult to attract and hire good workers at the jail
while the contract remains in limbo, Rynders said.
"It's very difficult for us to find staff to work on a temporary
basis," he said. "Each time this comes up, they're wondering if
their job is on the line. I don't think the County Board understands how
difficult this is on us." Aramark spokesman Tim Elliot said the county
should return to a nutrition-based bid instead of one based on a menu. That
is standard procedure for most of the 700 correctional facilities the company
services worldwide, he said. Aramark is a private company that is the
19th-largest employer on the Fortune 500, employing 240,000 workers in 19
countries. Hospitals, eldercare centers, schools, corporations and sports
stadiums are among the company's clients. Board member Jim Healy of
Naperville agreed with Aramark that the county's "ambiguous" menu
should be thrown out in favor of nutritional requirements. "We don't
care what you serve as long as you meet the nutritional standards," he
said. The county should have stuck with very basic nutritional requirements
as it had done until last year, said board member Jim Zay.
"This is insane ... the more people we get involved, the worse it
gets," Zay said. "This has been costing
us hundreds of thousands more because we've been screwing around with
it."
December
3, 2008 Star-Ledger
The family of a young girl paralyzed in a drunk-driving accident nine
years ago received a $25 million settlement from Aramark Corp., the Giants
Stadium beer vendor whose employees continued to serve the intoxicated fan
who caused the crash. The settlement with the family of Antonia Verni, who is now 11, took place last year but was not
disclosed until today, when a state appeals court ruled that sealed documents
in the case must be made public. Antonia, a quadriplegic who requires a
ventilator to breathe, received $23.5 million in the settlement, said the
family's lawyer, David A. Mazie of Roseland. Her mother, Fazila Verni, received $1.5 million for injuries she suffered in
the crash.
November
7, 2007 Financial Times
Madison Dearborn is preparing a sale of Valitas, a
company that provides medical care to prison populations, three sources told mergermarket. An auction for the company will probably
kick off early next year, and the company is working on putting together a
staple financing package at the moment, according to one of the sources. UBS
has been mandated to run the process, the second source said. Valitas’ EBITDA is around USD 50m, according to an
industry banker. The company’s main subsidiary, Correctional Medical
Services, reached USD 750m in revenues in 2007, according to its website. The
company is likely to draw interest from private equity buyers only, as there
are no natural strategic buyers for the asset, the banker added. Valitas could draw interest from Maximus, a listed
provider of healthcare services to the US government, a second industry
banker said. Madison Dearborn backed a management buyout of the
Missouri-based company in 1997 from Aramark, the company that provides food
service and uniforms to institutions, according to news reports. Under
Aramark the division was called Spectrum Healthcare, and included a business
that provided contract healthcare services to the US military. That business,
however, was sold to Team Health, another Madison Dearborn portfolio holding,
in 2002. Team Health itself was sold to the Blackstone Group, in 2005. The
company is one of the oldest healthcare investments in Madison Dearborn’s
portfolio, the industry banker said. A company spokesperson declined comment,
and a Madison Dearborn official did not return calls.
March
18, 2007 The Oregonian
Federal court statistics show that plaintiffs filed nearly 4,200 cases
under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which governs pay practices, in
fiscal 2006, which ended Sept. 30. That's up from 4,040 cases in fiscal 2005
and 2,751 in 2003. In Portland this month, Richard Bird filed a class-action
lawsuit against his ex-employer, Aramark Correctional Services Inc. He
alleges the nationwide prison-service provider broke Oregon laws by failing
to properly pay him and co-workers when they worked overtime, took rest
periods and put in for their final paychecks. An Aramark spokeswoman said
Friday that the company does not comment on pending litigation. Those claims
surfaced in a state court -- Multnomah County Circuit Court, specifically.
And although Oregon doesn't track civil cases by cause, attorneys say
wage-and-hour claims are numerous in state venues. Why the flood of cases?
It's easy for employers to make a mistake and relatively easy for employees
to make them pay for it, said Nancy Cooper, an attorney with Bullivant Houser Bailey in Portland. Wage-and-hour rules
are complicated and vary across state lines, making national firms such as
Philadelphia-based Aramark vulnerable. Oregon, for instance, requires
employers to provide paid 10-minute breaks, Cooper said. Arizona does not.
February
3, 2007 AP
The first time Joseph Neubauer took Aramark Corp. private in 1984, the deal
was worth $889 million. When he and other managers led a leveraged buyout of
the nation's largest food services company a second time, the price tag
zoomed to $6.24 billion. And the biggest winner among shareholders at
Aramark, which Friday completed its first week as a newly private company?
Neubauer and his family, whose holdings soared in value to almost $1 billion.
That puts Neubauer, 65, who came to the United States from Israel alone at
the age of 14 and said he learned English from John Wayne movies, near the
top of the list of beneficiaries from a wave of leveraged buyouts that has
swept corporate America in the past year.
August
14, 2006 In These Times
While New Mexico’s landscape may make the state the Land of Enchantment,
its rapidly growing rates of incarceration have been utterly disenchanting.
What’s worse, New Mexico is at the top of the nation’s list for privatizing
prisons; nearly one-half of the state’s prisons and jails are run by
corporations. Supposedly, states turn to private companies to cope better
with chronic overcrowding and for low-cost management. However, a closer look
suggests a different rationale. A recent report from the Montana-based
Institute on Money in State Politics reveals that during the 2002 and 2004
election cycles, private prison companies, directors, executives and
lobbyists gave $3.3 million to candidates and state political parties across
44 states. According to Edwin Bender, executive director of the Institute on
Money in State Politics, private prison companies strongly favor giving to
states with the toughest sentencing laws—in essence, the ones that are more
likely to come up with the bodies to fill prison beds. Those states, adds
Bender, are also the ones most likely to have passed “three-strikes” laws.
Those laws, first passed by Washington state voters in 1993 and then
California voters in 1994, quickly swept the nation. They were largely based
on “cookie-cutter legislation” pushed by the American Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC), some of whose members come from the ranks of private prison
companies. Florida leads the pack in terms of private prison dollars, with
its candidates and political parties receiving almost 20 percent of their
total contributions from private prison companies and their affiliates.
Florida already has five privately owned and operated prisons, with a sixth
on the way. It’s also privatized the bulk of its juvenile detention system.
Texas and New Jersey are close behind. But in Florida, some of the influence
peddling finally seems to be backfiring. Florida State Corrections Secretary
James McDonough alarmed private prison companies with a comment during an
Aug. 2 morning call-in radio show. “I actually think the state is better at
running the prisons,” McDonough told an interviewer. His comments followed an
internal audit last year by the state’s Department of Management Services,
which demonstrated that Florida overpaid private prison operators by $1.3
million. Things may no longer be quite as sunny as they once were in Florida
for the likes of Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America
(CCA) and the former Wackenhut, now known as the GEO Group of Boca Raton, Fla.
But with a little bit of spiel-tinkering—and a shift of attention to other
states—the prison privatizers are likely to keep going. The key shift, Bender
explains, is that “the prison industry has gone from a we-can-save-you-money
pitch to an economic-development model pitch.” In other words, says Bender,
“you need [their] prisons for jobs.” If political donations are any measure,
economically challenged and poverty-stricken states like New Mexico are a
great target. In this campaign cycle, Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson has
already received more contributions from a private prison company than any
other politician campaigning for state office in the United States. The
Institute of Money in State Politics, which traced the donations, reported
that GEO has contributed $42,750 to Richardson since 2005—and another $8,000
to his running mate, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish. Another
$30,000 went from GEO to the Richardson-headed Democratic Governors
Association this past March. Richardson’s PAC, Moving America Forward, was
another prominent recipient of GEO donations. Now, its former head, prominent
state capitol lobbyist Joe Velasquez, is a registered lobbyist for GEO Care
Inc., a healthcare subsidiary that runs a hospital in New Mexico. But don’t
get the idea that GEO has any particular love for Democrats: $95,000 from the
corporation went to the Republican Governors Association last year alone.
What companies like GEO do love are the millions of dollars rolling in from
lucrative New Mexico contracts to run the Lea County Correctional Facility
(operating budget: $25 million/year), and the Guadalupe County Correctional
Facility ($13 million/year), among others. CCA also owns and operates the
state’s only women’s facility in Grants ($11 million per year). To make sure that
those dollars keep flowing, GEO and CCA have perfected the art of the “very
tight revolving door,” says Bender, which involves snapping up former
corrections administrators, PAC lobbyists and state officials to serve as
consultants to private prison companies. In fact, the current New Mexico
Corrections Department Secretary Joe Williams was once on GEO’s payroll as
their warden of the Lea County Correctional Facility. Earlier this year,
Williams was placed on unpaid administrative leave after accusations surfaced
that he spent state travel and phone funds to pursue a very close
relationship with Ann Casey. Casey is a registered lobbyist in New Mexico for
Wexford Health Sources, which provides health care for prisoners at Grants,
and Aramark, which provides most of the state’s inmate meals. In her
non-lobbying hours, it turns out that Casey is also an assistant warden at a
state prison in Centralia, Ill. It appears that even for a prison industry
enchanted by public-private partnership, Williams and Casey may have gone too
far.
May 1,
2006 Bloomberg
Aramark Corp., the food-service company that sells hot dogs and beer at Boston's
Fenway Park and Shea Stadium in New York, received a $5.8 billion takeover
offer from a group led by its chairman and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The
group, which also includes JPMorgan Chase & Co., Thomas H. Lee Partners
LP and Warburg Pincus LLC, bid $32 a share, Philadelphia-based Aramark said
today in a statement. That's 14 percent more than its April 28 close.
Aramark's shares surged as high as $34.95 as investors bet the company, which
also runs college and corporate cafeterias, would eventually fetch more from
the buyout group or another acquirer. The company's board formed a committee
of independent directors to review the proposal, Aramark said. ``There exists
for insiders an opportunity to sell the company to a rival bidder or compete
in a bidding war for the company,'' JPMorgan Chase analyst Michael Fox wrote
in a report. Fox has a ``neutral'' rating on Aramark. Private-equity firms
have announced more than $120 billion of takeovers this year, up from $83
billion in the same period of 2005, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Pressure to meet quarterly earnings targets and abide by new accounting and
governance laws have pushed some companies to go private. Leveraged buyout
specialists usually borrow about two- thirds of the purchase price to finance
acquisitions. Their goal is to improve the operating performance of the
companies they purchase, often by cutting costs, and then sell the companies
in two to three years to make a profit.
Beaver County Jail
Beaver County, Pennsylvania
CiviGenics
May 24, 2007 Beaver Times
The Beaver County Commissioners' approval Thursday of a $72,000 payment to
settle claims from the Massachusetts company that almost took over the county
jail last year brings the total spent on trying to outsource the jail to
nearly $1 million. CiviGenics was poised to assume
control of the jail in October, but a ruling by President Judge Robert Kunselman ordering the county to obey an arbitrator's
decision halted the deal. Instead, the county signed a new contract with jail
guards. Commissioners had estimated that the county could have saved as much
as $1.9 million annually by outsourcing the jail to CiviGenics.
During the last week of December, the county paid CiviGenics
$125,000 under the terms of its contract. Thursday's payment will cover
additional expenses such as training and travel costs. "It's fair
compensation," said Commissioners Chairman Joe Spanik
after the board approved the payment. "They showed receipts for what
(expenses) were there." In addition to the payments made to CiviGenics, the county's legal fees have reached nearly
$793,000, said county financial administrator Rob Cyphert.
That figure covers this year, 2006 and 2005, and includes not only work on
privatization, but on contract negotiations with the union and settlement
talks with CiviGenics. Commissioner Charlie Camp
said he didn't regret trying to outsource the jail because "it was well
within our rights to do that." Camp said the savings over the life of
the guards' contract, estimated at $680,000 annually, will surpass the amount
spent on CiviGenics and legal fees so the county
won't really lose any money. "I regret we got two bad judgment calls
from the arbitrator and the county judge," Camp said. Asked if he
regretted pursuing privatization in light of the taxpayer money spent on the
wasted effort, Spanik said outsourcing appeared to
be a "good deal" for the county, and hindsight is always 20/20.
"If I was a prognosticator," he said, "I'd hit the
lottery." Initially, CiviGenics asked for
$329,000 to cover its costs in preparing to manage the Hopewell Township
jail, Cyphert said. Spanik
said the county balked at that figure, though, and officials found some
expenses they didn't think the county should pay. "We scrutinized the
bills they submitted to us," Spanik said. When
the $125,000 payment was made, county Solicitor Myron Sainovich
said the county might consider reimbursing CiviGenics
for additional costs, such as training and travel costs, because the county
was unable to give the company any notice before nixing the contract.
"Quite frankly, we would've been liable for those (expenses) because we
were in breach," Sainovich said Thursday. Sainovich said the $72,000 doesn't compensate CiviGenics for "pain and suffering," but only
for verifiable expenses.
January
10, 2007 Beaver Times
Beaver County has met its contractual obligation and paid $125,000 to the
company that would have taken over the county jail if a court ruling had not
nixed the deal, county solicitor Myron Sainovich
said Wednesday. CiviGenics, a Massachusetts-based
company, was paid in the last week of December, said Rob Cyphert,
the county's financial administrator. Under terms of its contract with CiviGenics, the county was obligated to pay the company
no more than $125,000 "for all reasonable and documented start-up
expenses" if the county decided against outsourcing the Hopewell
Township jail. That's exactly what happened after Beaver County President
Judge Robert Kunselman ruled that the county was
required to abide by an arbitration decision that prohibited privatization
over the life of an arbitration-imposed three-year contract. County
commissioners chose not to appeal Kunselman's
decision. Instead of handing over management duties to CiviGenics
on Oct. 31 as they had planned, commissioners agreed to a new four-year
contract that was estimated to save the county about $600,000 a year.
Commissioners had spent more than two years studying privatization and at
least $500,000 over several months litigating their right to outsource the jail.
They claimed the county would've saved $1.9 million a year by contracting
with CiviGenics. Last month, commissioners raised
county property taxes by 1 mill and laid the blame squarely at Kunselman's feet. The county's tax rate is now 18.7
mills. Sainovich said he hasn't heard of CiviGenics requesting additional money, but the county
might consider paying for other verifiable training and travel costs.
"The county will try and reimburse them for those (expenses) because we
did kind of go up until the last hour," he said.
November
29, 2006 Beaver Times
A county judge believes that even if operations at the Beaver County Jail
had been privatized, county residents would still have to pay higher taxes.
In a written opinion released Tuesday, President Judge Robert E. Kunselman disputed county commissioners main argument:
that turning over operations at the Hopewell Township facility to the CiviGenics company would save enough money that a tax
increase could be avoided next year. Kunselman made
his ruling in late October; Tuesdays opinion explained his reasoning. For
months, commissioners pushed a plan that said that if the Massachusetts-based
private correctional services company took over operations at the jail, the
county could save $1.9 million annually. The changeover from county to
private oversight was halted by Kunselman just a
couple of days before the Oct. 30 switch was to take place. Beaver County
Commissioners Chairman Dan Donatella said Tuesday afternoon that Kunselmans ruling was filled with errors, omissions and
presumptions about the county's budget. He promised a written response to Kunselmans opinion within the next day or two. I am
flabbergasted, Donatella said, adding that he thinks Kunselman
purposely waited until the day after an appeal period had expired so that his
written opinion wouldn't be questioned by a higher court. Earlier, however,
commissioners said Kunselmans order barring
privatization wouldn't be appealed because it was unlikely that a higher
court would overturn the decision. Kunselman
declined to comment on Donatellas remarks. Kunselman became involved in the jail issue when Service
Employees International Union Local 668 sued the county earlier this year,
saying it had to abide by a contract arbitration award. That arbitration included
the prohibition of privatization for three years and requiring jail employees
to make concessions. The arbitration was rendered moot when the county and
jail employees came to an agreement in October on a new four-year contract.
In his October opinion, Kunselman ruled there was
no legal reason for the county to ignore the arbitration and privatize the
jail. Also, Kunselman said in the opinion that
during hearings on the arbitration award, county employees said the county
would have a $140,000 deficit at the end of November and would be in the red
by $3 million at the end of the year, if the arbitration was awarded. Kunselman said there was no direct proof that the
arbitration was the reason for the deficit. He said that while the county
projected a savings of $1.5 million in the first year of privatization, it
also projected a $3 million budget deficit. Thus, we concluded that the
county would have to increase taxes to pay for the CiviGenics
contract anyway, Kunselman said.
November
9, 2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The legal fight over privatizing the Beaver County Jail has cost the county
about $500,000, and that's just the beginning. The county commissioners will
sit down soon with representatives of CiviGenics
Inc., the company they had hired to run the jail, to work out a fair
compensation for the company's troubles. "We have calculated the cost of
preparing to take over the jail," company Chief Operating Officer Peter Argeropulos said, adding that CiviGenics
had put more than 50 people through guard training and had assembled complete
plans for the takeover and management. He declined to say what the calculated
number was. CiviGenics responded to a county
inquiry in the summer of last year, offering a deal that would have saved the
county about $1.9 million a year. When the union representing the
county-employed jail guards couldn't match the savings, the commissioners
announced the switch, dropping the union and hiring CiviGenics
starting Oct. 31. But four days before the takeover, Common Pleas Judge
Robert E. Kunselman ruled that the county had to
abide by an arbitration award that gave the union a new contract. The
commissioners announced Oct. 31 that they had accepted a deal with the union
and would not appeal the judge's ruling. Under the county's contract with CiviGenics, it owes the company $125,000 if the deal gets
scratched "through no fault of the county." Asked if the company's
costs exceeded $125,000, Mr. Argeropulos replied,
"Oh, certainly." But he expressed confidence that a settlement could
be worked out.
October
28, 2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Beaver County Jail will continue to be run by public employees, after a
court ruling yesterday that derailed the county's privatization move. Beaver
County President Judge Robert E. Kunselman upheld a
June arbitration award that gave the county's jail guards a new three-year
contract. The county had set Monday as the date for a Massachusetts firm, CiviGenics Inc., to take over jail operations, a move
that would have left the unionized guards out of work. "It still hasn't
hit home," union steward and jail guard Tom Trkulja
said. "From the beginning we believed the law says what the law says and
everybody has to follow it." The dispute has its roots in a series of
cost-cutting moves made by the county commissioners over the last three
years. Looking to pare the $6 million-plus jail budget, they decided to take
proposals for private management. CiviGenics in the
summer of 2005 made a proposal that would save the county $1.9 million a
year, and with the union contract expiring in December, the commissioners
demanded that the union meet that savings. When the union would not, the
commissioners declared union negotiations at an impasse and signed a contract
with CiviGenics in January. The union contract went
to arbitration, but in June, before the arbitration panel finalized its
ruling, the county enacted its contract with the private firm. CiviGenics has been hiring and training replacements for
the 53 full-time and 17 part-time guards, who are members of Local 668 of the
Service Employees International Union. The union, however, asked the court to
enforce an arbitration award issued in June, which it regarded as binding.
The commissioners argued that since the award would force them to take
legislative action to raise money to pay the guards, state law rendered it
advisory only. In a hearing before Judge Kunselman
on Tuesday, county Financial Administrator Rob Cyphert
testified that the county would run out of cash in about a month under the
union contract, and would likely have to increase its debt load to stay
afloat. The union, however, argued that the county created its own budget
crunch by basing its budget on the CiviGenics deal.
The county "engaged in bad faith bargaining by establishing a budget which
could only be accomplished by the privatization of the prison without the
legal authority to make such an assumption," the union's legal brief
said.
October
27, 2006 The Beaver Times
Beaver County Courthouse workers voted on a contract proposal Thursday
that union officials said was essential to keeping the county jail from being
privatized, but results were unavailable late Thursday. Whether their new
contract and the one approved this past Monday by jail guards actually save
enough money to persuade the county commissioners not to privatize the jail
this coming Monday remains to be seen. Service Employees International Union
Local 668 members were called to a 4:30 p.m. meeting at the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers hall in Vanport
Township to vote on the proposal that SEIU state officials unveiled in a
tense meeting Tuesday. Commissioners Chairman Dan Donatella and Commissioner
Charlie Camp said late Thursday they had yet to be informed of the result of
the union's vote. Commissioner Joe Spanik could not
be reached for comment. The union is under pressure to resolve the situation
because Beaver County President Judge Robert Kunselman
is expected to issue his ruling today on whether the county must abide by an
arbitration decision released earlier this year. If Kunselman
would rule that the decision is not binding, the county would be free to
pursue privatization. At the Tuesday meeting, SEIU leaders told courthouse
workers that their new contract was being tied to the jail guards' contract.
The savings from those two contracts would be combined to try to meet the
financial demands of county commissioners, who want to privatize the jail to
save approximately $1.9 million annually.
October
26, 2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Management of the Beaver County Jail is up for determination tomorrow,
though whether it is by court order or through last-minute labor talks
remains to be seen. County President Judge Robert E. Kunselman
plans to issue a ruling tomorrow on whether the county can turn jail management
over to a private firm Monday morning. Judge Kunselman
held a hearing Tuesday and demanded briefs from union and county attorneys by
this morning. The county commissioners are calling for a decision by tomorrow
on an across-the-board contract offer that would keep the unionized, publicly
employed jail guards in place but would include new contracts with five other
unions representing county workers. The last-ditch deal was ratified by the
jail guards Sunday, but faces an uphill battle with the other unions, which
have been working without contracts for almost two years while rejecting
similar offers. The unions held a tumultuous membership meeting Wednesday,
with no agreement forthcoming. If the unions decline the contract offer and
Judge Kunselman rules in the county's favor, CiviGenics Inc. will take over jail management Monday.
The takeover would culminate a two-year effort by the commissioners to cut
costs at the Hopewell facility.
October
25, 2006 Beaver Times
As the deadline for privatizing the Beaver County Jail looms closer, it
appears the only way for jail guards to avoid losing their jobs is for
courthouse union members to accept concessions, too. But, if an emergency
meeting Tuesday of Service Employees International Union Local 668 members
who work at the courthouse is any indication, those jail guard jobs are as
good as gone. Courthouse workers were summoned to a meeting with state SEIU
officials at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers hall in Vanport Township to hear a last-minute proposal to save
the jobs of their SEIU brethren at the jail. Once there, according to one
employee who attended the meeting but asked not to be identified, union
officials told courthouse workers to accept the contract terms presented or
Massachusetts-based CiviGenics would take over the
jail. Some guards have applied to and been hired by CiviGenics,
but most would be laid off if the company took over. The employee said the
proposal would have workers pay 1 percent toward
health-care insurance costs in 2007 and 2008 and 1.5 percent starting in
2009. Employees would receive raises of 2.5 percent on Jan. 1; 3 percent in
2008 and 3.5 percent in 2009. Courthouse workers have been without a contract
since Jan. 1, 2004, and negotiations have snagged on wages and the county's
demand that employees start contributing to health insurance costs. Other
terms, according to the employee, include a one-week reduction in the maximum
amount of vacation earned (from five to four weeks) and the loss of three
holidays (Flag Day, Dec. 26 and an employee's birthday). The employee said
the raucous meeting ended with frustrated courthouse workers leaving without
taking a vote. Tuesday's meeting followed a vote by jail guards Monday to
accept a contract proposal. Union officials would not publicly discuss the
contract, but one said it was similar to an arbitration decision released
earlier this year. That decision reduced the number of full-time guards,
froze wages for jail guards for three years and implemented a 1 percent
contribution toward health insurance. But it also prohibited the county from
privatizing the jail for three years. County commissioners, though, rejected
the arbitration decision, saying that the purported $450,000 in savings fell
short of the estimated $1.9 million the county could save by having CiviGenics manage the jail in Hopewell Township. CiviGenics is scheduled to take over the jail Monday, so
pressure is mounting on jail guards to do something or face layoffs. Whatever
the guards agreed to apparently still didn't meet the commissioners'
financial demands, so courthouse employees were asked to take concessions in
order to package a cost-saving deal to the county. One flier being circulated
around the courthouse Tuesday perfectly illustrated the feelings over the
proposal. "We are not happy about this and hope that everyone will not
be blackmailed by the commissioners," the flier read. In a related
matter Tuesday, attorneys for the SEIU and the county debated the merits of
the arbitration decision before Beaver County President Judge Robert E. Kunselman. Both sides said they expect Kunselman to issue a decision by Friday. The union wants Kunselman to order the county to abide by the arbitration
decision, while county commissioners argue that the ruling would force them
to raise property taxes to pay for the jail. Before that hearing began,
Claudia Lukert, the SEIU's attorney, withdrew the
union's request for an injunction, but she refused to explain why.
October
17, 2006 Beaver Times
A hearing that could decide the fate of the Beaver County Jail is
expected to be moved up a week, as a final deadline looms. Civigenics is scheduled to take over management of the
jail on Oct. 30, in a move that county commissioners have billed as one that
will save taxpayers money. Within the past few weeks, representatives of
Service Employees International Union Local 668 filed suit against Beaver
County, asking a judge for an injunction that would stop the switchover from
county to private supervision. Under the changeover, dozens of current jail
guards would lose their jobs.
October
12, 2006 Beaver Times
Beaver County President Judge Robert Kunselman
apparently doesn't believe in the old idiom "A day late and a dollar
short." Even though CiviGenics is poised to
take over management of the county jail Oct. 30, Kunselman
has scheduled a hearing on a request for an injunction from the jail guards'
union for Oct. 31. Beaver County Commissioners Chairman Dan Donatella said
the head-scratching decision by Kunselman would not
stop CiviGenics from taking over the jail as
scheduled. "We can't sit around and speculate on what is going to
happen," Donatella said. The judge's decision is bewildering because
county officials have made it clear over the last few weeks in newspaper
articles and letters to jail employees that CiviGenics
would assume control Oct. 30. Kunselman did not
respond to a telephone message left at his courthouse office Wednesday
seeking an explanation for his decision. Dave Ramsey, the jail guards' union
representative with Service Employees International Union Local 668, also did
not return a message left at his office. To win an injunction, county
solicitor Myron Sainovich said the union must prove
to Kunselman that it is likely that it would
prevail in litigation and that irreparable harm would occur if the jail were
privatized. "I don't believe they can show that," Sainovich said. The Pittsburgh law firm of Thorp, Reed
& Armstrong is representing the county in litigation about the jail. In a
one-page order, Kunselman gave both sides until
Oct. 27 to submit briefs "on the question of whether or not injunctive
relief can or should be granted." This is the second recent court
decision on the jail takeover that has raised the eyebrows of county
officials. Six of the seven judges rejected a county request to recuse
themselves from litigation involving the jail to avoid conflicts of interest.
Judge Deborah Kunselman removed herself from any
hearings citing her former position as county solicitor.
October
5, 2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Beaver County labor leaders might soon face a touchy, difficult choice.
They hate seeing the county bringing in a private firm to run the county
jail, and they feel betrayed by Democratic Commissioners Dan Donatella, a
longtime friend of labor, and Joe Spanik, a labor
official elected in 2003. But would they go as far as to shut down all
political activities? Would they punish Mike Veon,
of Beaver, and Vince Biancucci, of Center,
incumbent Democratic state legislators counting on union support for
re-election? Such a request is implied in a Sept. 26 letter from Kathy
Jellison, president of Local 668 of the Service Employees International
Union, to its members who are county employees working at the jail. "It
is no longer acceptable for local party leaders and other elected officials
to remain silent while asking us to help them," the letter says.
"They must stand with us." The letter says Local 668 plans "to
demand an immediate suspension of all electoral activity in Beaver County by
organized labor. ... We are requesting that labor organizations shut down
phone banks, labor walks and all other in-kind contributions. ... We are
requesting that you and/or your family members not take part in any candidate
on the ballot in the county. Cash contributions should be suspended as
well." In a county that is still heavily Democratic and where organized
labor is still a huge political force, the idea has people nervous, waiting
to see if the request is actually made.
October
3, 2006 Beaver Times
In an order signed Monday, only Judge Deborah Kunselman
recused herself from hearing any arguments, citing the fact that she was
county solicitor when the move to privatize the jail began. The county had
asked the judges to remove themselves from any cases concerning litigation
with Service Employees International Union Local 668, which represents the
jail guards. SEIU opposed the county's request, insisting that any arguments
should be heard by a Beaver County judge. The union has asked for an
injunction to halt the county from handing the reins of the jail to CiviGenics on Oct. 30 and it has asked the court to order
the county to abide by an arbitrator's contract decision that prohibited the
county from privatizing the jail. County commissioners have said the decision
was not binding and that they don't have to obey it because doing so would
force them to pass a tax increase to pay for jail operations. "This is a
Beaver County problem," said Dave Ramsey, the jail guards' SEIU representative.
"We're satisfied that this is going to stay before Beaver County
judges." Ramsey said he found it insulting that Beaver County tried to
get the jail litigation "shipped off to another county."
September
28, 2006 Pittsburg Post-Gazette
Barring further legal action, private enterprise will manage the Beaver
County Jail beginning Oct. 30. The county issued a letter Tuesday informing
jail workers -- who are all Beaver County employees -- that Civigenics Inc. would be taking over jail operations. The
Marlborough, Mass., company operates prisons nationwide, including the jail
in Columbiana County, Ohio, which borders Beaver. The announcement was not
unexpected, since the county activated its contract with Civigenics
June 22, and the contract gave the company 120 days to take over operations.
The move has been opposed in court, however, by the local unit of the Service
Employees International Union, representing corrections officers at the jail.
August
3, 2006 Pittsburg Post-Gazette
Lawyers representing Beaver County do not think county judges would be
biased in the case pitting the county against its jail guards' union. But
they do think there is an appearance of the possibility of bias, and are thus
asking that the county's seven judges be recused from the case -- meaning it
would be handled by a retired judge or one from another county. The county's
attorneys -- Joseph Friedman, Kurt Miller and Amy Herne, of Thorp Reed and
Armstrong, Pittsburgh -- made the recusal motion yesterday. "Because the
county has set aside 10 percent of the general fund budget for the jail, any
deviation from that budget will have a direct and material impact on the
other operations funded through the general fund, including the courthouse
and the court of Common Pleas," the argument for recusal reads. The
judge, whoever it eventually is, will play at least a minor role in deciding
the fate of the county jail, whether it will continue as a county-run,
union-worked facility or whether it will be privately run. The county has
signed a contract with a private firm, CiviGenics
Texas Inc., to take over jail operations, looking for a savings of about $1.9
million a year. Meanwhile, the county went through arbitration with the
guards' union over a contract that expired at the end of 2005, and the arbitration
panel signed off on a deal that would keep the union guards in place but
would cost the county more. The union regards the arbitration award as
binding. The county regards it as advisory, arguing that holding to it would
force county commissioners to take legislative action in the form of a tax
hike, and that arbitration can't force a county to take legislative action.
That's an argument the commissioners set in stone last Thursday, passing a
three-page resolution stating the position that the arbitration award is
advisory only and empowering the county's attorneys to fight it. The
resolution states that county funds are already earmarked for other
departments and programs, many of which are mandated by the state or federal
government. Reserves need to be protected in case of cash-flow problems,
meaning the only way to pay for the arbitration award would be to borrow
money, paying it back through higher taxes later. "The commissioners
hereby reject the award as an unconstitutional infringement on the
legislative powers of the commissioners, and deem the award to be advisory
only in nature ..." the resolution reads. The resolution brought a long
pause from Commissioner Joe Spanik, a labor leader
before his 2003 election. "That's a tough one," he said quietly,
before eventually seconding Commissioner Charlie Camp's motion and voting for
the resolution. After the meeting, Mr. Spanik said
he felt the advisory nature of the award to be up to the courts to determine,
though he backed the county's stance. The union, Local 668 of the Service
Employees International Union, has filed a petition asking the court to
enforce the arbitration award, and has also filed a complaint with the
Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.
July 20,
2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Beaver County Commissioners are going full-steam ahead with plans to
privatize the county jail while the union representing the guards is chugging
right back with legal action to stop the move. "We feel we have to go
forward with it," commissioners' chairman Dan Donatella said.
"There is too huge a savings for the taxpayers for us not to."
Meanwhile, the county's contractor, CiviGenics
Inc., is interviewing potential guards. In response, the union: On July 10
filed a petition asking the county Common Pleas Court to uphold a favorable
arbitration award. On July 12 filed a complaint with the state Labor
Relations Board. On Monday filed a motion for an injunction to keep the
county from continuing its move to CiviGenics.
"The county commissioners want to be above the law, to ignore the
arbitration award and do what they want anyway," union steward Tom Trkulja said. The issue has roots going back to late
2004, when the commissioners hired a private firm to manage the county-owned
nursing home and started considering the jail as another candidate for
privatization. The county put out a request for proposals early in 2005, and CiviGenics, based in Marlborough, Mass., offered a plan
in June 2005 that included $1.8 million in annual savings. The county asked
the guards' union to offer similar savings in a new contract -- the old labor
agreement expired Dec. 31 -- but the contract went to arbitration when the
union declined to match the private offer. On June 7, after seeing a
preliminary proposal from the arbitrator, the county told the union it would
go ahead with the CiviGenics deal. It sent an
official letter to that effect June 22, the same day the arbitration award
was announced. The union ratified the arbitrator's proposal, which offered
about $400,000 in savings. The union -- Local 1168 of the Service Employees
International Union -- contends that the arbitration award is legal and
binding. "They can't just ignore it," business agent Dave Ramsey
said. The county contends that while arbitration can determine what a contract
will include, it can't stop the county from simply walking away and going in
a different direction. "If an arbiter has that kind of power" -- to
force a county into a union contract if it has other options -- "then
the contract will run forever, and just keep getting renewed," Mr.
Donatella said. In fact, Mr. Donatella said, the dispute could end up
touching on some important uncharted territory. Depending what happens, the
courts could end up determining whether counties have an automatic right to
subcontract work, or if they only have that right when it is specifically
allowed in their union contracts. "Many, many, many counties are
watching this case," he said. If counties have a general right to employ
subcontractors, it would make privatization a lot easier. Beaver County's old
union contract said nothing about subcontracting work to a private business.
The county contends that since it is not specifically forbidden, it is an
option the county has. "That's a management decision," Mr. Donatella
said. "I can't believe we don't have the right to manage." The
union contends that since the arbitration award does include language on
subcontracting -- the award says the county cannot subcontract work during
the length of the new, arbitrated union contract -- then the county's hands
are tied. "My understanding of the law is that if it isn't in the
contract then you have to bargain for it," Mr. Ramsey said, "and
that's what we did." He said top SEIU officials, like county officials,
are watching the case closely. "They have to decide how they want to use
their resources," he said. "I don't know if we're going to have
purple shirts" -- the union's trademark color -- "marching in
Beaver or not." Meanwhile, CiviGenics has
until early September to take over jail operations, barring an injunction,
and already is interviewing potential jail guards, including some union
members. "Nobody really wants to work for this company," Mr. Trkulja said, "but some of the guys, because of the
way their lives are, are going to have to." He said generally people are
keeping quiet on the issue. There have been some hard feelings and a little
name-calling, but nothing more serious than that, and union leaders are not
asking members whether they are doing interviews. "There are mixed emotions
down there," he said. "A lot of people are at somewhat of a low
point."
July 18,
2006 Beaver Times
The union representing the Beaver County Jail guards filed for an
injunction on Monday to stop the county from contracting with CiviGenics to manage the Hopewell Township jail. Service
Employees International Union Local 668's motion for an injunction filed in
Beaver County Court said allowing the county to contract with the
Massachusetts-based CiviGenics would "cause
immediate and irreparable harm to the employees," who would "suffer
a loss of employment, medical coverage and other benefits ....." SEIU
asked the court to grant an injunction "until (the union) has fully
exhausted the administrative and judicial remedies." One of those
remedies, presumably, is the union's request - filed July 10 - to have the
county court force the county commissioners to honor an arbitration decision
released by a panel last month. A neutral arbitrator and a union
representative on the panel approved the decision, while county Solicitor
Myron Sainovich, the panel's third member, rejected
it. The union insists the arbitration decision is binding, but the county
disagrees. Under the three-year decision, wages would be frozen and the
number of full-time jail guards would be reduced, but the county would also
be prohibited from privatizing the operation of the facility. The county's
attorneys have said the arbitration decision would save the county $450,000
annually for three years, compared to the more than $4 million that would be
saved by contracting with CiviGenics through 2008.
Asked if the request for an injunction would affect the ongoing privatization
process, Sainovich replied, "Not at this point
in time." Claudia Lukert, SEIU's Harrisburg
attorney, didn't return a message left at her office. County financial
administrator Rob Cyphert said the county's
contract with CiviGenics calls for the company to
be reimbursed up to $125,000 for recruiting expenses "if they don't
ultimately end up running the operation at the jail." A temporary halt
to the process would not trigger that clause, Cyphert
said. CiviGenics asked current guards to submit
applications by July 14, and it was scheduled to hold a job fair at Penn
State-Beaver today.
June 29,
2006 Beaver Times
How frayed has the relationship between Beaver County and the union
representing its jail guards become amid contract arbitration and a move to
privatize the jail? So tattered that when Service Employees International
Union Local 668 business agent Dave Ramsey was told Wednesday that the county
commissioners were disappointed in an arbitration decision that saved the
county "only" $450,000 annually, this was his reaction: "Tell
them to go (expletive) themselves, and you can tell them I said that."
Well, then. The relationship won't improve now that an arbitration panel has
issued a decision that would prohibit privatization from happening through
2008 and reduce the number of full-time guards, but would also freeze wages
for three years and implement a 1 percent employee contribution toward health
insurance. That's because county commissioners probably won't accept the
deal, which they say falls far short of the estimated $1.9 million the county
would save if the jail was outsourced to the Massachusetts company CiviGenics. "It is unlikely that this board is going
to accept that," Commissioners Chairman Dan Donatella said of the
decision by arbitrator Marc Winters that was agreed to by SEIU representative
Rick Adams. The decision was issued Thursday, only hours after commissioners
declared negotiations at an impasse and voted to authorize CiviGenics to start the takeover process. "We
dislike just about everything (in the decision), but we're pleased they're
not going to have any (privatization) for the life of the contract," Ramsey
said. County Solicitor Myron Sainovich - who along
with Winters and Adams made up the arbitration panel - rejected the decision.
The arbitration decision would not keep the county from privatization, he
said.
June 23,
2006 Beaver Times
A Massachusetts company could take over operation of the Beaver County
Jail by October after county commissioners on Thursday declared negotiations
with the guards at an impasse and unanimously approved privatizing the
facility. "This," said Commissioner Joe Spanik,
"is the next step forward." County Solicitor Myron Sainovich said officials hope to have CiviGenics
in place no later than Oct. 15. Sainovich, who
represented the county on the three-member arbitration panel in April, said
Butler County arbitrator Marc Winters, the agreed-to neutral party, gave his
proposal in May, but the county rejected it. Sainovich
said the union rejected the proposal as well, although no union
representative would confirm that on Thursday. Rick Adams, a representative
for Service Employees International Union Local 668, argued for the jail
guards in arbitration; he could not be reached at his Erie office. Sainovich would not release Winters' proposal because it
was not a final decision. Winters did not return a telephone message left on
Thursday. But Sainovich said late Thursday
afternoon that Winters was preparing a revised proposal that would be given
to both sides for consideration. Tom Trkulja, the
guards' chief union steward, said he was unaware of the commissioners' vote.
June 23,
2006 Tribune-Review
A private company will take over management and operations of the Beaver
County Jail by Oct. 15, county commissioners said Thursday. Putting CiviGenics Inc. in charge of the 360-bed jail in Hopewell
will save the county $1.9 million in the first year of the deal,
commissioners said in a news release. The county will pay CiviGenics
$14.6 million over three years to run the jail. The union representing 72
county jail guards fought the move, fearing pay cuts and the loss of
benefits, and they questioned private prisons' safety record and officials'
rosy savings projections. "You shouldn't be imprisoning people for
profit," Service Employees International Union Local 668 business agent
Dave Ramsey said.
April
20, 2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The fate of Beaver County's push to privatize the county jail now rests
in the hands of Marc Winters, an arbiter from Butler County. Beaver County
officials and jail guards testified before a three-member arbitration panel
April 12 and last Thursday, making their cases for alternative versions of
how the Beaver County Jail should be run. With one of the three panel members
selected by the county and one by the guards, however, it is essentially up
to the one neutral arbiter, Mr. Winters, to say what should happen. The
county has signed a contract with a Massachusetts firm, CiviGenics
Inc., to take over management of the jail. The county says it can save up to
$1.6 million a year by moving the jail into the private sector. The
corrections officers union, working without a contract since Jan. 1, made a
counterproposal, but it could not match the savings promised by CiviGenics. The union filed for arbitration after the
county signed the CiviGenics contract. Neither
guard nor county representatives would talk in detail about the proceedings,
which were closed to the public. County financial administrator Rob Cyphert and jail Warden Bill Schouppe
were the county's primary witnesses; three corrections officers testified for
the union.
March
27, 2006 Beaver Times
The bitter contract negotiations between Beaver County Jail guards and
the county will go before an arbitration panel next month at the county
courthouse. County solicitor Myron Sainovich said
last week that the county and the jail guards' union will square off April 12
and 13 in closed sessions. A three-member panel will hear arguments, but the
decision essentially boils down to which side can win over the one neutral
arbitrator. Sainovich will sit on the panel as the
county's representative, and Rick Adams, a Service Employees International
Union Local 668 business agent, will represent the guards. Butler County
lawyer Marc Winters was picked as the neutral member by the county and the
union. Sainovich said the two-day hearing will
resemble a trial, with county officials involved in negotiations being called
to testify. Although the county is poised to privatize the jail and allow CiviGenics to take over operations, county commissioners
have said they would keep the jail under county control if they could get the
financial concessions they're looking for. County officials have said the
Massachusetts-based CiviGenics could save Beaver
County $5 million over the next three years, but jail guards have questioned
the validity of those estimates. The county has said the guards have not
offered savings anywhere close to what CiviGenics
is promising. As the arbitration process winds to a conclusion, the county
continues to operate the jail, and guards continue to work under the terms of
the contract that expired at the end of 2005.
February
16, 2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Beaver County commissioners yesterday unanimously passed a 2006 budget
with no tax increase. The county's millage rate will hold at 17.7 mills, the
same as it was in 2005. The projected total budget is roughly $257.5 million
for the county's 29 separate funds and includes no major cuts or additions in
funding or programs. The budget likely will be amended in the near future
depending on the outcome of an arbitrator's decision on a contract between the
county and the Local 668 of the Service Employees International Union, which
represents the county jail's roughly 80 guards. The guards' contract expired
on Dec. 31, and the two sides are at an impasse after the county decided to
contract with a private firm, Civigenics, to run
the jail. The county hopes to save upward of $1.5 million a year by switching
to a private firm; guards are concerned that they might have to face sizable
pay and benefit cuts to retain their jobs with a private company.
January
24, 2006 Beaver Times
Beaver County will pay CiviGenics $14.6 million
over the next three years to manage the county jail, and it retains the right
to cancel the contract at any time without giving a reason. Peter Argeropulos, CiviGenics' chief
operating officer, said the deal is pretty typical of the company's other
contracts. Current jail guards have said that private guards make
considerably less than the $17.33 per hour the county now pays. Argeropulos said the wage scale would range from $10 per
hour for entry-level guards to $14 per hour for guards with seniority. The
benefits package would be a dramatic change for guards, who now pay nothing
for health insurance. Argeropulos said company
employees generally pay about 30 percent of health-insurance costs.
January
19, 2006 Beaver Times
Before the Beaver County Prison Board approved privatizing the Beaver
County Jail, guards offered a plan that would have saved the county $1.6
million this year, the same as a private company has promised, a union
official said Wednesday. "We tried to save (the county) as much money as
we could," said Tom Trkulja, the chief union
steward for the jail guards. Commissioners Chairman Dan Donatella said the
contract with Massachusetts-based CiviGenics was
executed Wednesday. "It's signed, sealed and delivered," he said. Trkulja charged that the county is demanding outrageous
concessions from the guards that no other county unions have been offered. He
said the guards have been asked to accept a 25 percent cut in hourly wages
and pay a 25 percent health insurance premium while other county employees
pay 1 percent. The county also wants to slash the number of full-time guards
from 55 to 49 and part-time guards from 22 to 15, Trkulja
said. Although it doesn't want to hurt other county workers, the union is
exploring what bumping rights guards might have so they could move into other
county jobs if they get displaced by CiviGenics, Trkulja said.
January
18, 2006 Beaver Times
Nearly two years after the Beaver County Commissioners first talked about
privatizing the Beaver County Jail, the county prison board on Tuesday
authorized them to contract with a Massachusetts company to run the Hopewell
Township facility. "It's a contract that is good for the county,"
said Rick Towcimak, prison board member and county
controller. Under the proposed contract with CiviGenics,
the county would save a projected $5 million over the next three years. Most
of the savings would come from the county no longer employing jail guards and
having to pay their salaries and benefits. Tom Trkulja,
the chief union steward for the county's jail guards, said the vote was a
surprise to him and he again insisted that privatization would only create
problems for the county and its residents. "Taxpayers are going to lose
on this," Trkulja said. "We're all going
to lose." Towcimak said he was initially
skeptical about the savings expected from CiviGenics,
but he is now convinced the figures are realistic. Also, he said the public
would not be endangered by having a private company operate the jail,
something the current jail guards have repeatedly warned about. "We've
seen things happen down at the jail now, and it's not private," said Towcimak. Last month, a jail sergeant was fired for
mistakenly releasing an accused child molester, the third time the sergeant
had wrongly released an inmate in 2005. Towcimak
said he had also received assurances from CiviGenics
that the "vast majority" of jail guards would be offered jobs at
comparable wages. Trkulja bristled at those
comments, saying the union has been told that each full-time guard would have
to accept an $18,000 pay cut.
January
1, 2006 AP
Beaver County says it is prepared to hire a private management firm to run
the county jail, which officials say would save the county $5 million over
three years. But the union representing the guards, whose contract expired
Saturday, says it hopes a new proposal will save the county enough money to
fend off privatization and ultimately save most of their jobs. "We're
making every attempt we can to come up with ways to save them money, said Tom
Trkulja, the union steward for the jail's 70
full-time and part-time guards. CiviGenics of
Massachusetts has said it could save the county about $1.6 million a year
over what it pays its guards currently - a projection disputed by the union.
If CiviGenics is hired, the company would have the
option of keeping the existing staff, but Trkulja
said about 80 percent of the guards would probably not take the jobs because
of the lower pay. Although negotiators for two sides are scheduled to meet
Jan. 9, the county approved a budget last week that includes the $1.6 million
annual savings expected if CiviGenics is hired.
December
27, 2005 Beaver Times
Under Beaver County's preliminary 2006 budget that commissioners should
approve on Thursday, there won't be a county property tax increase for a
second consecutive year. Commissioners are prepared to outsource the
management of the jail to the Massachusetts company CiviGenics
for a projected savings of nearly $5 million over the next three years,
including at least $1.6 million in 2006. Savings achieved through no longer
having to pay benefits could push those figures higher. Health coverage
accounts for nearly $760,000, according to the county's 2005 budget, with dental
and vision costing an additional $55,000. Taking all costs into account, the
total savings from outsourcing could easily exceed $2 million annually.
Service Employees International Union Local 668, the union representing
county jail guards, has disputed the numbers contained in CiviGenics'
proposal. And union officials have also been reviewing the contract proposal
in an effort to submit their own proposal. The union's contract expires Dec.
31, and both sides have been negotiating. Donatella said commissioners expect
significant savings from the jail whether they're provided by the union or CiviGenics. "We'll be more than happy to keep (the
jail) in-house as long as the savings are there," Donatella said.
December
15, 2005 Pittsburgh Post Gazette
It is, essentially, a tale of 2 mills. If the Beaver County commissioners get
a Massachusetts firm to run the county jail, or if they strike an equivalent
deal with the union representing jail workers, they expect to pass a budget
with no tax increase. If they keep running the jail under the terms of the
existing union contract, they expect to pass a budget with a tax increase of
about 2 mills. They plan to approve a preliminary budget Dec. 29, including
the projected savings under the contract with CiviGenics,
Inc., and then hunker down to see what happens next. If the union makes an
offer with equivalent savings, they'll pass the preliminary budget
essentially unchanged. If the commissioners sign with CiviGenics,
they expect the union to go to court, seeking an injunction delaying the
contract. If the court grants an injunction, the commissioners would be
forced to continue operating the jail under the terms of the existing union
contract, and would then pass a budget with a tax increase to pay for it.
Dave Ramsey, business agent for Local 668 SEIU of the Pennsylvania Social
Services Union, said the union would be coming up with a counter-offer, but
that it would not match the one from CiviGenics.
"We are going to make a proposal to them that includes enough people to
actually man all the duty stations," he said, labeling the private
proposal a "ghost offer" based on hiring and staffing assumptions
that fly in the face of reality. Mr. Ramsey said the county was having
trouble hiring corrections officers now, leading him to doubt whether CiviGenics can do so at lower wages. "The prospects
of this proposal from CiviGenics being viable are
not very high," he said.
November
6, 2005 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Beaver County is an unlikely place for a conservative revolution. Democrats
hold a two-to-one registration advantage, have dominated county government
for decades, own the state legislative seats. The steel mills are gone, but a
blue collar is still a badge of honor and unions remain a political force.
Inside the offices of the county commissioners, though, the flag of private
enterprise is flying high -- high enough to draw
repeated protests from local union officials. Over the last year, the
commissioners have brought in new management for the county nursing home,
outsourced services like printing, nursing home laundry and lawn care, and
named a private restaurant to run the courthouse lunchroom as a for-profit
entity, not to mention two rounds of layoffs, the first two in county
history. And they're in the process of making two larger moves toward
privatization: They solicited private companies to build and manage a
regional juvenile detention center in the county and they have negotiated a
tentative agreement for a private company to take over the county jail. The
moves have local unions howling. "Our number one concern is for
safety," said Ed Rowan, a correctional officer at the county jail and
safety officer for Local 668 of the Service Employees International Union.
"That's a big issue when it comes to private prisons. They have less
training and lower wages." There is an even larger issue, though, that
has the union's state headquarters on high alert as well. To put it simply,
if this can happen here, it can happen anywhere. Beaver's move toward private
management at the jail would be even more revolutionary, though it's not a
done deal -- the union's contract runs through Dec. 31, and the county cannot
make a change until then. The county does, however, have a basic agreement in
place with CiviGenics Inc., of Marlborough, Mass.
The bottom line is $1.8 million in promised savings annually, with perhaps
another $600,000 in annual pension and benefit savings on top of it. If that
happens, Beaver will be only the second county in Pennsylvania with a
privately run jail -- the other is Delaware County, just south of
Philadelphia. The protests of unions has been backed by a vociferous
anti-private-jail lobby, which has Web sites and publications offering
thousands of pages of horror stories and studies disputing the industry's
claims of safety and savings. And in fact, Delaware has run into some recent
problems, with five deaths in five months, sparking an internal investigation
and one by the county district attorney's office. The county and jail
operator The Geo Group Inc. are named in a $500,000 lawsuit by the family of
a man who died in the jail of a drug overdose in April.
October
14, 2005 Beaver County Times
Beaver County Jail guards picketed the courthouse again on Thursday to
protest the privatization of the jail, and a union official gave the county
commissioners a petition bearing more than 1,400 names opposing the move.
County residents are "beginning to become aware of what's happening, and
they don't like it," said Dave Ramsey, the business agent for Service
Employees International Union Local 668. Ramsey told the commissioners at
their regular meeting that he noticed several resolutions on last month's
agenda that addressed increases in contracts. He warned the commissioners
that they'd be doing the same with CiviGenics if
they outsource the jail to the Massachusetts company. Commissioners Chairman
Dan Donatella didn't appeared swayed by the petition or the 1,472 signatures.
September
29, 2005 Beaver County Times
Beaver County Commissioner Joe Spanik is between
the proverbial rock and a hard place as county officials
inch closer and closer to privatizing the Beaver County Jail.
"Absolutely, there's pressure," said Spanik,
a longtime labor official who was elected in 2003 with the support of unions.
As the move to privatize the jail in Hopewell Township picks up steam, Spanik has become the sounding board for not only jail
guards, but local and state union officials who oppose outsourcing the jail's
management to Massachusetts-based CiviGenics. Spanik found himself in an awkward position recently when
the Beaver County Central Labor Council, on which Spanik
sits, approved a resolution opposing privatization. Spanik
abstained from the vote approving the resolution.
September
23, 2005 Beaver County Times
The debate over privatizing the Beaver County Jail intensified Thursday with
jail guards picketing at the county courthouse and commissioners saying they
might hire a public relations firm to counter union criticism. Prior to the
commissioners' meeting at 10 a.m., about 30 people - mostly guards, their
families and other union colleagues - carried signs and passed out fliers
protesting the possible hiring of CiviGenics, based
in Marlborough, Mass., to manage and staff the jail. Standing with other
protesters along Market Street, Tom Trkulja, the
guards' union steward, reiterated his stance that a purported $5 million in
savings over three years is being exaggerated. Not only would hidden costs ultimately
cost taxpayers more in the long run, but private jail guards are not as dedicated
as public ones, he argues, which would compromise the safety of guards,
inmates and residents. During the commissioners' meeting,
Ramsey presented Commissioners Chairman Dan Donatella with a resolution from
the Beaver County Labor Council opposing privatization and asking that the
county disclose CiviGenics' record, including its
operation of the Penn Pavilion minimum-security jail in New Brighton.
Donatella said the board is considering hiring a public relations firm that
would direct the county's response to the union's attacks on privatization.
"We need to show the taxpayer where we're coming from," he said.
Donatella said a public-relations campaign might include pamphlets, radio
spots and newspaper ads. "We're going to present the facts," he said,
"and we'll let the public decide."
September
22, 2005 Pittsburgh Post Gazette
For nearly a year, the Beaver County commissioners have been talking about
hiring a private firm to run the county jail. In that same time, the union
representing corrections officers at the jail has been making dire
predictions about the impact of such a move. And last night, the Beaver
County Central Labor Council told the commissioners at their meeting that
they too object to the county prison board negotiating a contract with CiviGenics Inc., the Marlborough, Mass. company that
submitted the sole proposal to manage the jail. All three commissioners serve
on the prison board. The labor council said it opposes "any scheme that
risks the health and safety of all [county] residents by contraction with
out-of-state contractors who don't care about Beaver County and whose sole
concern is taking precious taxpayer dollars out of the community." The
council claims CiviGenics' projected savings of
$1.8 million per year in operating costs is vastly overstated, partly because
it's based on a jail budget larded with overtime. The council also said CiviGenics' numbers do not account for increased costs
from a higher number of escapes and assaults they expect from a lower-paid
corrections staff. But the "No. 1 concern is safety," said Ed
Rowan, a corrections officer and safety officer for Local 668 of the Service
Employees International Union. "That's the big issue when it comes to a
private prison," he said. "You have people with less training
making lower wages.
Bedford County Jail
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
PrimeCare
January 6, 2009 AP
A prison health care provider and the family of a western Pennsylvania man who
died in a prison have settled a lawsuit. John Margo claimed his son,
23-year-old James Margo, started to go through heroin withdrawal at the
Bedford County Prison when he was jailed in June 2002. The suit claimed
medical personnel did nothing to help him. He died July 5, 2002. A lawyer for
PrimeCare Medical Inc. says terms of the settlement
can't be released. PrimeCare has denied
responsibility throughout the case. Margo had been in prison for a parole
violation in a drug case.
Berks County Jail
Corecivic
Aug
18, 2017 wfmz.com
Barnhardt: 'I have never advocated for privatizing' jail
READING, Pa. - Since Berks County Commissioner Mark C. Scott proposed the
privatization of the Berks County Jail, many have come forward to express
their concerns. At Thursday morning’s commissioners’ meeting, Morgan Smith of
Muhlenberg Township listed a litany of "some of the more troubling
cases" brought against CoreCivic, formerly
known as CCA, a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention
centers. "I have concerns about our county doing business with a
corporation that has been legally compelled to compensate its employees, who
punish people for asking for appropriate treatment, and who have multiple
allegations of unsafe staffing levels," Smith said. "I'm here to
stand against the privatization of the prison," said another Berks
County resident, who added that she is concerned because such organizations
are already in Berks, citing Abraxas and ADAPPT. "To let them in further
here, is really dangerous." "I want to again state personally on
the record: I have never advocated for privatizing the operation of the
jail," said Commissioner Kevin S. Barnhardt, the prison board's
chairman. "This is the single most important cost driver for this
county. We're going to take our time and do our due diligence to make sure
whatever happens is in keeping with trying to contain costs as well as for
the safety of the inmates and the staff." "All options are on the
table, with the exception of doing nothing. It is crystal clear that we
cannot let the jail go as it is," said Commissioner Christian Y. Leinbach, who responded to some statements he's heard by
adding, "No business that I'm aware of is 'pushing' privatization of the
county of Berks. We are looking at that – at least
I am – as an option. And I’ve made it very clear at the end of the day that
it is not just about money." Leinbach also
said that he didn't feel there was any way the county could agree to the $142
million or the $158 million proposals for remodeling or rebuilding the
prison, presented by the architectural firm L.R. Kimball two weeks ago. Scott
was not in attendance at the meeting.
Chester County Prison
08/15/13 The mercury
PHILADELPHIA — The estate
of a Coatesville man who died in Chester County Prison while awaiting
sentencing on drug charges has sued the prison, as well as the facility’s
private health-care provider, for allegedly mistreating his acute diabetes.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, contends that
medical officials at the prison in Pocopson ignored the fact that Rae-mone Aaron Carter Jr. had a history of diabetes and
neglected to seek hospital care for him until it was too late to prevent his
death. Instead, the suit alleges, Carter was given Pepto-Bismol instead of
insulin for his symptoms. One of the attorneys for Carter’s estate, which
includes his mother, Lisa M. Shelton of Lancaster, and four children, called
the way Carter was treated “a colossal failure.” “Mr. Carter would be alive
today if fundamental standards of professional medical practice were followed
by his caregivers at the Prison,” commented Michael F. Barrett, an attorney
with the law firm of Saltz, Mongeluzzi,
Barrett, & Bendesky, which filed the suit. The
complaint seeks compensatory as well as punitive damages. Carter, 26, was a
member of the large drug ring led by Coatesville resident Phillip Dimatteo, which was broken up by state, federal, and
local police in 2011. Carter pleaded guilty to drug charges connected with
the ring in late 2011, and was scheduled to be sentenced in May 2012. He
passed away on March 16, 2012. In the six-count complaint, his estate alleges
that Carter showed escalating symptoms of diabetic problems over a period of
approximately one week starting March 11, 2012. He died in Chester County
Hospital after being transferred there from the prison. The suit says that various employees of
PrimeCare Medical services, which operates the
health facilities at the prison, ignored the fact that he had a family
history of diabetes and delayed administering routine blood tests or seeking
hospitalization.
Children's Advocacy Center
Erie, Pennsylvania
Cornell
June 12, 2009 Erie Times-News
A Cornell Abraxas mental-health aide was charged with sexually assaulting
a 14-year-old resident at the center. Police said the girl, now 15, told a
counselor at the Children's Advocacy Center that Kito
Dixon, 29, made inappropriate comments to her and touched her breast April 11
as she was getting ready for bed at the residential rehabilitation center for
troubled juveniles, at 429 W. Sixth St. Police said a security video from the
hallway outside the girl's room showed Dixon standing at her doorway for
several minutes. It also showed him entering the room but does not show what
happened inside, according to a criminal complaint. The video was at the same
time as when the girl said the incident occurred. Dixon was charged Tuesday
with institutional sexual assault, indecent assault and corruption of minors.
He has been released from the Erie County Prison on $7,500 bond. Messages
left at Cornell Abraxas were not returned
Thursday.
Coleman Hall
facility
Philadelphia, PA
Nov 22, 2017 morningsidemaryland.com
The Geo Group To Close Philadelphia Facility, Lay Off 51 Employees
The Geo Group, Inc. filed a Workers Adjustment and Retraining
Notification with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry earlier
this month. The notice indicates the Florida-based company will close its
Coleman Hall facility at 3950 D Street and lay off 51 employees. The Geo
Group, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, is the leading
provider of detention, correctional and community reentry services, according
to its website. The company operates 73 facilities worldwide, including 66 in
the United States. Employee separations are expected to taken
place on November 20. The reason for the closure was not cited in the filing.
Columbiana County jail
Pennsyvania GEO
Nov 18, 2017 morningjournalnews.com
Another warden bids county jail adieu
LISBON — Another warden has come and gone at the Columbiana County Jail.
Columbiana County Jail. County Sheriff Ray
Stone confirmed that Bill Cole quit as warden on Nov. 3 and has been replaced
by Mike Curley, who is the sixth warden at the facility in the past 24
months. Cole’s stay was four months, which is about the average since
longtime warden Gary Grimm retired in 2015. Unlike the other four wardens,
Cole lived nearby — just over the border in Bessemer, Pa. — and his wife worked
at the federal prison in Elkton. Cole had recently retired as deputy warden
with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Curley reportedly is a
retired warden from the Michigan Department of Corrections. The GEO Group
operates the jail under contract with county commissioners. Commissioner Mike
Halleck, who serves as the board’s point man on the jail, admitted he was a
bit surprised by the latest departure, but that is the nature of the
business. “It’s not unusual in the corrections field, especially in the
private sector, to have frequent turnover,” he said. Halleck remains
unconcerned by the seemingly endless revolving door of jail wardens since the
fall of 2015, as long as the facility continues to pass state inspections and
is operated safely and within the law. “It’s not the way I would do business,
but that’s not our concern, nor should it be,” he said. “That’s why we have a
contract with them.” The contract with GEO was recently renewed by
commissioners for two years. “I understand some people might be concerned,
but I’m more concerned about the victims,” Halleck said. Halleck also
confirmed that for the first time since the jail was privatized 20 years ago
the cost will exceed $4 million in 2017. The county pays a per day inmate fee
to GEO, so the more inmates housed at the jail, the higher the cost to the
county. Halleck believes the high incarceration rates at the 192-bed jail are
being driven by the record number of drug arrests, and he estimated it has
added $1 million to the cost of operating the jail. “The drug crisis is
bankrupting American in some ways,” Halleck said.
Jul 24, 2017 salemnews.net
New county jail warden introduced, hopes to buck recent trend
LISBON — The Columbiana County jail has a new warden who hopes to stick
around longer than his predecessors. Bill Cole was introduced last week to
county commissioners as the latest warden, becoming the fifth person to hold
that position since late 2015. Cole recently retired after 20 years with the
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, most recently as deputy
superintendent (equivalent of deputy warden) of the 1,803-bed state prison in
Pittsburgh. Cole said the state decided to close the Pittsburgh facility, so
he decided to retire. His wife works at the federal prison in nearby Elkton,
and they live with their children just over the state line in Bessemer, Pa.
Cole, who holds a master’s degree in corrections administration/criminal
justice from Youngstown State University, will draw on his experience to
hopefully bring about changes that will benefit employees and inmates. Cole
also said he intends to stay, which would be a welcome change from the past
20 months. Four other jail wardens have come and gone during that period,
with the most recent departure occurring in late May after only two months on
the job. Commissioner Mike Halleck is also hopeful Cole will stick around for
a while. “We’re very pleased … I think the new guy will bring a lot of
experience and consistency,” he said. Commissioners have been contracting
with a private company to operate the 192-bed jail since 1998. The most
recent company is Community Education Centers, which was sold to the GEO
Group earlier in the year. “There’s been what we call a positive change in
upper management” since GEO took over, Halleck said. Commissioners have some staffing concerns they expect
Cole to address, Halleck said. GEO was also given a list of concerns about
how the jail is being run from county Sheriff Ray Stone and county Prosecutor
Robert Herron, but he declined to get into specifics because they are
security issues. Halleck is confident GEO will address these concerns.
Cornell-Abraxas Erie
Erie County, Pennsylvania
Cornell
April 21, 2010 Erie Times-News
A former Cornell-Abraxas mental-health aide was sentenced this morning in
Erie County Court to serve six to 20 months in the Erie County Prison for
having indecent contact with a 14-year-old resident at the center. Kito Dixon, 30, must also serve also serve six years probation and pay court costs, Judge Ernest J. DiSantis Jr. said. The sentence in Erie County Court came
after Dixon pleaded no contest in March to charges that he had indecent
contact with a female resident at the center in April 2009, and, in a
separate case, pleaded no contest to charges that he drove his car into a
yard toward three people on June 12.
March 6,
2010 Erie Times-News
A former Cornell Abraxas mental-health aide pleaded no contest Friday in Erie
County Court to charges that he had indecent contact with a 14-year-old
resident at the center. Kito Dixon, 30, did not
contest counts of indecent assault and corruption of minors. In exchange for
his plea, the prosecution dropped a third-degree felony charge of
institutional sexual assault. Cornell Abraxas is a licensed residential
facility for children and youth located at 429 W. Sixth St. As a part of the
plea, Dixon agreed to undergo an assessment by the Erie County Adult
Probation sexual offender group. In a separate case, he also pleaded no
contest to three counts of simple assault. He admitted he drove his car into
a yard toward three people on June 12. The charges together carry a maximum
possible penalty of up to 15 years in prison and a $35,000 fine. Erie County
Judge John Garhart set sentencing for April 21.
Police said a girl, now 15, told a counselor at the Children's Advocacy
Center that Dixon made inappropriate comments to her and touched her breast
April 11 as she was getting ready for bed at the residential rehabilitation center
for troubled juveniles. Police said a security video from the hallway outside
the girl's room showed Dixon standing at her doorway for several minutes. It
also showed him entering the room but does not show what happened inside,
according to a criminal complaint. The video was at the same time as when the
girl said the incident occurred.
Cornell-Abraxas Howe
Howe Township, Pennsylvania
Cornell
August 22, 2011 Erie Times-News
State police are searching for two boys who escaped this morning from a Forest
County juvenile detention facility. The boys, a 14-year-old and a
15-year-old, were last seen running into the woods near the Cornell Abraxas
Foundation in Howe Township around 4:30 a.m. They were described as black,
wearing black shirts, light-colored pants and tennis shoes.
July 7,
2008 Erie Times-News
Four 18-year-olds were jailed over the weekend, charged with causing a
riot at a juvenile detention facility in Forest County. State police at
Tionesta, along with units from Ridgway, Kane and Clarion, were called to the
Cornell Abraxas facility in Howe Township on Saturday at about 10:30 p.m.
Police said one juvenile and three staff members were assaulted, although
none was seriously hurt. Three buildings were damaged and windows, desks,
chairs and other furniture were vandalized, with damage totaling about
$5,000, according to police. Derek Barnes, Richard Gale, Rasheed M. Seward,
all of Philadelphia, and Vernon L. High, of Chester, were each charged with
riot, institutional vandalism, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and
corruption of minors, according to police. Police said the four 18-year-olds
incited additional juveniles to participate in the riot. The four were
arraigned and placed in Warren County Jail with bail set at $25,000 each.
June 11,
2006 The Derrick
A boy escaped from the Cornell Abraxas facility Sunday morning but was
captured several hours later, said state police in Tionesta. The 17-year-old
youth fled into nearby woods after leaving the juvenile drug and alcohol
treatment facility in Howe Township, Forest County, police said. He was found
Sunday morning by staff members not far from the facility at 59 Blue Jay
Road, police said.
Cornell-Abraxas
Quincy
Quincy Township, Pennsylvania
November 1, 2004 Public Opinion
A 17-year-old boy allegedly assaulted three Cornell Abraxas staff members at
9 p.m. Thursday at the treatment center in Quincy Township. The boy allegedly
punched, kicked and head-butted Leslie Fitch, 27, Chambersburg, David Black,
46, Chambersburg, and Robert Reed, 31, Gettysburg, after they attempted to
restrain him, according to police. All three staff members suffered minor
injuries, police said.
Correctional Physicians Services
October 14, 2002
State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, the Republican candidate for the
12th District, has accused his Democratic opponent, Howard
Rovner, of lying and misstating facts
during Rovner's press conference last week. Greenleaf was referring to assertions
made both during the debate, hosted by program director
Darryl Berger, and in a written statement issued to the media at
the press conference Wednesday in Norristown. Greenleaf, a
lawyer, did legal work for Correctional Physicians Services
Inc., which was awarded a $49 million contract in 1995 to
provide medical services to inmates at the state's
prisons. The firm paid Greenleaf, who was chair of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, $2,000 every other week for more than two
years as compensation for legal work. In his press release, Rovner said Greenleaf approved the contract
and later accepted a $20,000 campaign contribution from the
company's president. "That's a lie and you
know it," Greenleaf said. "The state legislature
approves no contracts. That's the governor's office."
Plus, Greenleaf added, he had no
connection with the company when the original agreement
was drafted in 1990, and the only legal services he provided
Corrections dealt with the firm's out-of-state clients. Rovner has called for an
immediate investigation into Greenleaf's actions. He said he would like to know exactly
how much the senator received as part of his involvement
with Corrections and as a member of the firm's oversight
committee during the company's sale in 2000. (The
Intelligencer)
Curran-Fromhold Prison
Pennsylvania
Prison Health Services
May 10, 2006 Philadelphia Weekly
A new federal civil rights lawsuit alleges mistreatment of a Curran-Fromhold prison inmate that culminated in a brutal rape.
Attorney Rich Ostriak of the law firm Ostriak Birley filed the suit last week in U.S. District
Court, demanding unspecified damages on behalf of inmate Thomas Moore, who
entered the Philadelphia prison system in January 2005, awaiting trial on
robbery charges, and fought with a pair of inmates over use of the phone on
his first day there. Moore was transferred to restrictive confinement,
otherwise known as "the hole," where his complaints about severe
pain and difficulty breathing were ignored for almost three days before he
was taken to the infirmary. On June 20 he was transferred to Frankford
Hospital to receive coronary angioplasty and an arterial stent. The suit
alleges Prison Health Services failed to deliver his required heart
medications for five days after he returned to jail.
August
16, 2001
Three suicides in a month, mentally ill patients being drugged senseless,
filthy treatment rooms, staffing shortages, management systems unable to
cope. Those are just some of the medical problems two consultants have
found within the city's prison health-care system, according to secret
reports obtained by the Daily News. It is a system operated by a
Tennessee conglomerate that the city pays $25 million a year. The
city's contractor, Prison Health Services, a subsidiary of American Service
Group Inc., freely admits it's losing money in Philadelphia, but insists the
quality of care has not dipped. Though the Street administration
professes to be happy with its contractor, ignorance can be bliss. On
critical issues, administration officials don't appear to be carefully
supervising the private company, in part because they have a minuscule
oversight unit. The city's contract with PHS lacks the precision tools
for tight oversight. Dr. William Patterson, a Washington psychiatrist,
noted that the average mental-health caseload has been running at 1,600
inmates, far above the contract estimate of 1,000 inmates and far beyond the
staffing level PHS set up. Patterson also found that about 1,500 of
1,600 inmates were getting prescribed drugs. But PHS's Newkirk
conceded: "We are treating more people than what we were staffed for.
You see that in Dr. Patterson's report. What was in the contract is
what we have. That's the fact. As a result, we probably are giving more
medications than we would if we had more staff." Among the other
issues raised by the city consultants: * Hygiene - Greifinger
found the medical units at Curran-Fromhold and the
Detention Center were dirty. He found infirmary cells with food scattered
around with bloody bandages. Refrigerators contained both food and medicine.
Biohazardous waste was left uncovered. * Medication - For all the
problems with drugging mental-health patients, Greifinger
found that the half of the doses given to patients at the Detention Center
were undocumented. * Records - One reason the city was so pleased with
the expanded PHS contract was that inmates would be cared for by only one
medical unit rather than the dual system that existed when Hahnemann
University Hospital provided mental-health care. But an integrated
system still doesn't exist more than a year after PHS gained control of the
entire contract. * Testing - Only 22 percent of female inmates were
tested for sexually transmitted diseases, though prison policy and the
contract require all women to be tested. Consultant Patterson closed
with a warning that the next round of class-action lawsuits will be over
improper mental-health care for inmates. (Daily News)
August
16, 2001
When Kyle York, 20, showed up at the Philadelphia prisons, his life was in
utter shambles. After ingesting PCP on New Year's Eve last year, he'd
gone into a hallucinatory rage, shooting his mother, shooting at his father
and inflicting a grazing wound to himself. Less than three months later
he was dead. And Blake Berenbaum, the
attorney hired by York's parents, is trying to learn what happened to the
troubled young man. Was he beaten to death by prison guards? Given too
many injections of sedatives by prison physicians? Was it a combination of
the two? Or did he meet his fate by some unknown means? Prison
spokesman Bob Eskind said York had been under
"four-point restraint," meaning that four guards each took a
limb. Both Eskind and Berenbaum
said a PHS doctor had given York a dose of Ativan, a sedative. Berenbaum identified the physician as Benjamin Caoile. Put into an infirmary bed, York was still
combative, Berenbaum said. At that point Caoile left York and the guards in the room. Berenbaum said records show that the doctor ordered the
nurse to give York "another" injection of Haldol and Benadryl, both
sedatives. To Berenbaum, that suggests there were
earlier and unrecorded doses of those drugs. When Caoile
returned about 15 minutes later, York was in an unresponsive state and
emergency measures were started. York never regained consciousness and died
on March 14. (Daily News)
September
15, 2000
Jose Santiago was arrested on drug charges Sept. 13. While in police custody,
the 28-year old diabetic received three insulin shots. But after he was
transferred to prison custody on Sept. 15, his condition deteriorated and he
died Sept. 16. The medical examiner stated that the death was diabetes
related.
City
Councilman Angel Ortiz wants an investigation to take place. He said,
"Mr. Santiago was totally neglected by health services at Curran-Fromhold. He didn't commit suicide. He was just not given
medical assistance."
Pending
in U.S. district Court is a suit filed by seven diabetics and the American
Diabetes Association against the city. They contend that the police denied
them proper care while in police custody.
Dauphin County Prison
Dauphin, Pennsylvania
Aramark
Oct 8, 2017 abc27.com
Inmate at correctional facility had 11 bags of heroin, police say
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – An inmate at a Dauphin County correctional
facility was charged after he was found in possession of drugs, according to
Pennsylvania State Police in Harrisburg. Mark Anthony Thomas, 53, had 11 bags
of heroin, police said. Thomas, an inmate at Keystone Correctional Services,
Inc. on Allentown Boulevard in West Hanover Township, was charged Friday for
contraband and related counts. A preliminary hearing in Thomas’ case has been
scheduled for Oct. 19.
Aug
27, 2014 pennlive.com
Dauphin
County probation officials are looking into how the 15-year-old charged in
the shooting death of Malik Stern-Jones escaped from authorities' custody
Aug. 5. Also looking into the escape is Abraxas Youth and Family Services, in
whose custody Niejea Stern had been Aug. 5 when he
escaped while at the Children's Resource Center in Harrisburg for
questioning, said Pablo Paez of the GEO Group of
Florida, who responded for Abraxas. "This was a unique and unfortunate
situation which is currently under investigation. Abraxas has had no other
escapes from secure detention or secure treatment programs," Paez said, adding the company has had a 38-year
partnership with Dauphin County. Amy Richards Harinath,
county spokeswoman, said the teen was in custody of Abraxas Youth and Family
Services personnel, with whom the county contracts for services. "No
county probation officers were present," she said. Jeffrey Haste, chairman
of the county commissioners, said anytime there is an escape, whether from
work release or other custody, the county reviews procedures and how they
occurred. Niejea Stern, charged Aug. 20 with
homicide in the shooting death Aug. 19 of Malik Stern-Jones in Hall Manor,
escaped at the Children's Resource Center, where he had been taken for an
interview on an unrelated matter, District Attorney Ed Marsico said Tuesday.
Stern was serving time in a juvenile detention center in connection with a
robbery charge, Marsico said. Haste said from what he has been told,
detention officers "did mostly everything they normally do. The kid was
a persistent kid." He said Chad Libby, county probation services
director, is looking into the matter. Marsico said Stern's legs were
unshackled, but not his wrists, when he asked to use the bathroom. He fled,
eluding detention guards and police. Haste said the escapes are among other
matters scrutinized when the county's contract with Abraxas comes up for
review annually.
September
20, 2005 Patriot News
While Dauphin County Prison's food service vendor has agreed to reimburse the
county $65,000, there was no criminal intent behind the overbilling,
authorities say. The agreement reached between Philadelphia-based Aramark
Corp. and the county district attorney ends a several-month grand jury
investigation started last year into allegations of watered-down food and
overcharging. Aramark did provide adequate food as called for in its contract
with the Swatara Twp. prison, but the investigation showed the county was
billed for meals that were not made, said District Attorney Edward M. Marsico
Jr. The $65,000 is for overbilling that occurred in 2002 and 2003, Marsico
said. The investigation was spurred by repeated inmate complaints. While there
were menu changes under the current contract, Marsico said the investigation
found Aramark was providing the required meal content. Aramark officials
refused to discuss what went wrong on their end or what steps they've taken
to make sure the problem does not reoccur
September
20, 2005 AP
Dauphin County Prison's food service vendor agreed to reimburse the county
$65,000 for overbilling during 2002 and 2003, authorities said. Officials
said there was no criminal intent behind the overbilling, and Philadelphia-based
Aramark Corp. did provide adequate food as called for in its contract with
the prison. "I'm very pleased with the amount of money we
received," District Attorney Edward M. Marsico said. "I believe it
more than covers any loss the county may have had." Masrisco
said much of the overbilling occurred because the company had charged a flat
amount for meals instead of tracking the actual ups and downs of the jail
population, and he said both prison officials and the company would keeping a
more careful eye on how many meals actually are provided. Aramark officials
declined to discuss what went wrong what steps they were taking to prevent a
recurrence. "We fully cooperated with the inquiry and consider the
situation to be resolved," company spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis said.
March
19, 2004
A 16-year old Harrisburg boy escaped from a Dauphin County juvenile detetnion center, using a stock to disable a locked door
and a walkie-talkie to create confusion. The teenager, who then outran
two guards, remains at large following the escape at about 1 a.m. Tuesday
from the Schaffner Youth Center in Steelton. No one was injured,
according to county spokeswoman Jennifer Kocher. The teen, who was
admitted Saturday on unspecified misdemeanor charges, is not considered
dangerous. His name and the nature of the charge was not released because of
his age. Two guards have been suspended without pay pending a review of
the facility, which is managed by Cornell Abraxas and holds about 65 youths,
Kocher said. "We did have several unfortunate breakdowns in
security," she said. (AP)
February
1, 2004
Officials are looking into whether a food service company is cutting back on
the amount of food served to prisoners. Reporter Chris Schaffer has the
exclusive story. When inmates come to the Dauphin County Prison food service
giant Aramark provides the food they eat. A few months ago county officials
began looking into the company's books, as part of a contract renewal
process. They saw documents including years of menus, instructions, and
budgets. Dauphin County Commissioner Jeff Haste: "The numbers
didn't quite match up - it appeared in our minds that we had been over-billed" The county renewed its contract with Aramark.
In early November, the prison went into a partial lock-down because of what
the warden called "heightened tension levels" among inmates. At
that time a corrections officer told WHP-CBS-21 that one factor leading to
the increase in tension was that food portions appeared to be smaller.
Another source now says documents suggest that for years, inmate portions
have been reduced or watered down to save money. Soon the investigation will
go before a grand jury in Dauphin County. A representative from Aramark
would only say quote, "we did receive a request for information from the
Dauphin County District Attorney's Office, and we are cooperating
fully. Commissioner Haste says the discrepancies he noticed could be
accounting errors, but; "If in fact there's criminal intent I'm
going to recommend we prosecute to the extent we can prosecute"
Aramark is a world-wide company, headquartered in Philadelphia. It provides
food for sports stadiums, hospitals and universities in addition to more than
300 correctional facilities. (WHPTV.com)
Delaware County Prison,
Pennsylvania
Jun 21, 2019
delcotimes.com
Private prison operator takes heat at packed session
A raucous crowd, the large majority of them opposing private operations of
the Delaware County prison, packed the County Council Meeting Room Thursday
for a special meeting highlighting the Phoenix report. Last year, the
Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors commissioned Phoenix Management
Services to conduct an evaluation of private versus public operations of
county correctional facilities. From that time, both elected officials and
community members had been calling for a public meeting with the prison
board, county council and Phoenix representatives. "Our mandate,"
Mitchell B. Arden, senior managing director of Phoenix Management Services,
said, "was to put together a side-by-side analysis of the cost structure
that GEO was operating under and to overlay on that cost structure what it
would hypothetically cost for the county to bring the operation of the prison
over to the county." He said they determined that the minimum cost of
transferring the operations from private to public would be between $1.5 and
$2 million. In addition, Arden said, "It was pretty clear from our
standpoint that the facility operates just about as well as any of its peer
facilities in the state of Pennsylvania." County Controller Joanne
Phillips talked about the costs of the project, including the $625-an-hour
and $475-an-hour per person. Phoenix officials said that was their reduced
standard rate. Noting the contract was estimated to be $100,000, Phillips
said, "This contract overran by $30,000 of the estimate and it was also
late." "We need to bring these contracts back into county council
control for vetting and explanation," she said. One of the most charged
exchanges involved Margie McAboy, wife of
Democratic judicial candidate Rick Lowe. "I was at the prison board
meeting on Tuesday and you did not even suggest that this date was a
possibility," she said. "I found that deceptive indeed. I feel
personally insulted that you have misled us repeatedly throughout the process."
"That's wrong," prison board member Thomas Danzi said, "you
know it's wrong." "I'm going to start, 'Liar, liar, pants on
fire," McAboy said to which the crowds erupted
in laughter and applause. To prison board Chairman John Hosier, she said,
"Every time I asked you ... what was the status of the Phoenix study,
you misrepresented. You said to me, 'Oh, we're having difficulty getting
information from other counties. You never once mentioned in more than a year
that GEO was the obstacle." In the 27-page report, Phoenix determined
that its findings were "severely impaired" because of GEO Group
Inc.'s failure to submit information. GEO has said the information is
proprietary. "Meanwhile," McAboy said,
"you had leverage over GEO to get information that (Phoenix)
needed." At the time, the prison board was involved in a request for
proposal process, then negotiations for a firm to run the prison. GEO Group
Inc. was awarded a five-year, $264 million contract, with the potential to
extend it to nine years for a $495 million total. "You wanted to have
something that you can throw out and say the county took seriously the
question of public versus private," she said. "What I care about is
good government, transparent government ... Now that the two Democrats are on
(county council) I see the rigor with which vendors are put through the
ringer to produce information." "You guys have politicized
this," Danzi said. Fellow prison board member Deborah Love said,
"This is not a campaign event today. Today is ... to ask, 'Is this the
right way to go'?" Many in attendance said no. "It's an abomination
to profit from running prisons," Margie Middleton of Swarthmore said.
"It should be illegal to operate a for-profit prison and any government
worth its salt should see that as a moral abomination." Citing the ICE
detainees at the border under GEO's oversight, Hannah Turlish,
a Democratic candidate for Seventh Ward commissioner in Haverford, said,
"I feel that my taxpayer dollars shouldn't be spent to support an
immoral corporation." Antoinette Truehart of Yeadon added, "It
grieves me that you would accept this report ... I have a suggestion. If you
would accept this report ... and say that it is OK with the way that they are
running the system, then I would invite all of you to spend the night there."
Tom Citro of Springfield was one of the few
audience members who spoke in favor of the current model. "County
taxpayers are ... protected from all liability associated with jail
operations," he said. "The county prison is run much more
efficiently than other county prisons." Prison board member Wallace Nunn
asked the crowd to maintain decorum. "Can we be civil?" he asked.
"There's enough of that nonsense in Washington. Up here, we can all talk
to each other, I hope." He explained he spearheaded the move in the
1990s to move the prison to private operations. At the time, he said, the
county was looking to build a new facility and was being told by contractors
that it would cost $90 million. Nunn said he thought of an 80-year-old lady
in Lansdowne who had sent him a letter explaining she received $8,000-a-year
in income and had a $3,000 real estate tax bill. "Every time, we spend
another nickel, I put one more person in danger of losing their
property," he said. "So, what we did was create a hybrid ... It's
not a private prison. We outsourced one more service than prisons in this
commonwealth." In addition, they saved a minimum $30 million on the
construction of the prison building. Nunn also noted that the Pennsylvania
Department of Corrections determined that because the county prison had
received full compliance in its 2018 review, the state was skipping
inspecting it this year. County Council Chairman John McBlain
shared his thoughts on the meeting. "I was a little disappointed that
instead of a substantive policy discussion about the merits of a
private/public partnership or the actual findings of the Phoenix report that
it was made ... political," he said. "No other county in
Pennsylvania, in the country that I'm aware of, has done this type of self analysis in terms of the operation of the
jail."
Nov
15, 2018.delcotimes.com
County council discusses prison issues
MEDIA — Delaware County Council delayed paying more than $200,000 in
legal bills associated with the Delaware County Prison Wednesday and one
councilman said prison officials found more than $500,000 worth of savings
from staffing the 1,800-inmate facility short. For the last few months,
Delaware County Council has been grappling with the issue of legal fees tied
to operations at the county prison, which is operated under a contract with a
private firm, The GEO Group. That contact expires Dec. 31 and council is
being pressured to bring the prison back under county control. The prison is
managed by Florida-based GEO Group and they are overseen by the county Board
of Prison Inspectors, a committee consisting of two County Council appointees
and three members appointed by a county judge. With the contract with GEO
expiring at the end of the year, the prison board has paid Phoenix Management
$100,000 to create an analysis of private operation of the facility versus
the county running it. Simultaneously, the prison board has embarked on a
request for proposals process for the actual operation of the facility.
Related to these, the prison board is using three law firms, DiOrio & Sereni LLP, as
Robert DiOrio is their appointed solicitor; and
specially hired Ronald G. Henry PLLC and Blank, Rome, Cominsky
& McCauley. In the bill-paying section of the regular county council
meeting Wednesday, County Controller Joanne Phillips noted that Blank Rome
had $76,000 worth of bills for August and September and asked for direction
in paying $214,000 for work that was done in March through July. Previously,
Phillips had removed those bills from the payment schedule as there wasn't sufficient funds in the prison budget to pay for
them. However, as of Wednesday, Phillips said that had been remedied.
Councilman Brian Zidek said the money was found through short staffing.
"(GEO is) required to give us a refund or credit of $547,966 for the
first 10 months of this year because they failed to comply with the minimum
staffing plan," he said. "So, the reason we have this money to
spend on this law firm for this RFP that we're not even sure we want to enter
into is because it appears to me that GEO isn't exactly staffing the prison
as they should be. That is adding insult to injury from my perspective."
Prison board Solicitor Robert DiOrio said the
contract with GEO outlines a penalty to be assessed when staffing figures
fall short that is paid out on a monthly basis. "It is not unusual to
have staffing penalties of five figures in a particular month," he said.
Prison Warden David Byrne offered the following response: “Our employee
headcount has been, on average, about 90 percent of our contractual target
due to employee turnover, which can impact all correctional facilities, both
publicly-run and contractor-operated. We make every effort to meet our
staffing goals and have been running two training classes per month, but it
takes time to properly train our staff. At no point did the small number of
employee vacancies compromise the operations of the facility, and we use
overtime assignments as needed.”In addition, Kabeera Weissman of the Delaware County Coalition for
Prison Reform, claimed correctional officers at the facility are being forced
to work double shifts while being among the lowest paid in the state at $12
to $14 an hour. "On most weekends during the first shift, the inmates
are placed on lockdown due to short staff," she said. "That's
terrible for the people who are inside. Why are people being locked down for
23 hours a day on the weekends?" DiOrio said
he was unaware of this and directed the matter to GEO representatives. “Much
like any organization, including publicly operated correctional facilities,
we do face occasional staffing challenges that are beyond our control,"
Warden Byrne said in response to Weissman's allegation. "On the
exceedingly rare occasions where unforeseen events impact our daily staffing
levels, we alter the facility's operations to ensure the safety of not only
the inmates, but of our staff as well. Anyone who suggests these unfortunate
occurrences are common is simply ill-informed.” Regarding the Blank Rome
bills, Phillips said they are being productive. "Blank Rome has done the
work that they were asked to do but they were basically given an open-ended
engagement letter to do whatever they felt was necessary or the prison board
felt was necessary," she said. At least two council members had similar
sentiments regarding the situation. After saying he invited the lawyers to
come before county council to discuss their billing, and that he also
received no response from the prison board Chairman John Hosier, Zidek said
he would appreciate if the prison board would be receptive to council.
"It seems to me they just want us to write them a blank check and I
don't feel that that's what I was elected to do," Zidek said. Councilman
Kevin Madden added, "It sounds as if the prison board is going to find a
way to pay these regardless of whether we approve them or not. They've done
that in the past with these bills.
Dec 1, 2017 delconewsnetwork.com
Family of prison suicide victim asks county for better oversight
The attorney and family of Janene Wallace, who committed suicide at the
Delaware County prison two years ago, implored Delaware County Council on
Wednesday to ensure safety for inmates who are grappling with mental illness.
“My hope is that this doesn’t happen again,” Susanne Wallace, Janene’s mother,
said after the meeting. “My hope is that they oversee the prison so that the
policies and procedures that are in place are actually followed. I mean, they
had some policies and procedures in place but they weren’t followed. That was
the problem.” Janene Wallace was a 35 year old inmate who died at the
facility on May 26, 2015 after being placed in solitary confinement for 52
days. She was there following a probation violation for traveling out of
state. Her initial violation dated to 2013 conviction of terroristic threats
to a woman over the phone. Her family and her lawyer said Wallace struggled
with mental illness from her teenage years, starting with anxiety and
depression that grew into paranoia. Earlier this month, the Wallaces settled a civil suit with Community Education
Centers, the former private for-profit entity that ran the prison when
Wallace was there, for $7 million. This year, CEC was purchased by GEO Group
Inc., the company that now oversees the prison. “Our goal today is to empower
the county and to encourage the county if it continues to choose to outsource
the incarceration at the George Hill Correctional Facility to a for-profit
company to ensure that the private contractor provide a safe and humane
incarceration, particularly for the mentally ill,” David K. Inscho, the attorney representing the Wallace family,
said. He identified three issues that arose over two years of discovery in
the case. “First there was during her two and a half months there, a complete
failure to follow literally dozens of policies and procedures in the handling
of this mentally ill woman,” Inscho said. “Second,
there was apparently little or no oversight of these policy failures by the
supervisors at the prison. “And finally,” he continued, “is that there was a
lack of a full investigation by the contractor.” He recounted parts of
Wallace’s story. He explained Janene suffered from severe mental illness that
began as anxiety and depression in her teens and grew to paranoia in her 20s.
“Her mental illness is what got her in trouble with the law,” Inscho said. “She was convicted of having made
terroristic threats which were driven by her paranoia against a woman she
hardly knew.” He said a county psychiatrist determined she had a severe
mental health issue upon an evaluation completed at the prison in 2013.
“After being released, her paranoia drove her to flee around the country,
fleeing from people she perceived were after her,” Inscho
said. This resulted in the probation violation that sent her back to prison
in 2015. Inscho said the probation department
wanted an updated psychological evaluation on Wallace and she refused once,
which, he said, was the only attempt made to evaluate her in her two and a
half months there. “During that time, her mental health deteriorated,” he
said, “and she was placed in solitary confinement.” There, she lived in her
cell for 23 out of 24 hours during the week and for 24 hours on the weekends,
according to the attorney. “There were numerous policies and procedures that
were supposed to be followed to preserve the safety and security of people
who were in solitary confinement like Janene,” Inscho
said. They included daily medical visits; re-evaluations every 48 hours as to
whether a person should remain in solitary confinement and weekly evaluation
by the supervisor; as well as a psychological evaluation after 30 days. “None
of those basic policies and procedures were followed,” Inscho
said. “Not a single one.” He painted a contrasting environment that Wallace
dealt with up until her death. “We learned through our investigation that
there was a guard on duty that night who told Miss Wallace that she should go
and kill herself,” Inscho said. County Council Charman Mario Civera sighed
loudly in disgust. “Following this we’ll call it an argument with the guard
that Miss Wallace covered the window,” Inscho
continued. “There was a failure to respond to this covered window and in
fact, the guard that had told her to kill herself went to lunch.” More than
an hour later when the cell was opened, Wallace was found having hanged
herself in the cell, he said. He said the prison conducted an investigation
and not once did officials mention that Wallace had been in solitary
confinement for 52 days or that multiple inmates called out to the prison
staff that a guard had told Wallace to kill herself. “That investigation
report leaves out those facts,” he said. Inscho
also pointed out a 2016 letter sent to the prison accrediting authority
American Correctional Association in which prison officials reported there
were two suicides in 2015 and said that they were handled compliant with all
policies and procedures. In addition, Inscho said a
25-year-old mentally ill woman was placed in solitary confinement for two
weeks in 2011 and she also hung herself. “No changes were made in response to
that 2011 event,” he said. “Had appropriate changes been made in 2011 what
happened to Janene wouldn’t have happened.” The attorney asked council for
full disclosure going forward, preferably independent, and oversight. Civera said that request would be taken fully into
consideration. “Sure we’re going to make recommendations, absolutely, because
we don’t want to see another incident like this happen again,” he said. To
the family, the council chairman said, “Your $7 million ... you deserve every
penny of it, but I know it doesn’t replace your daughter. It doesn’t replace
your daughter. We mean that sincerely.” He said county council is not the
only authority in relation to the prison. He mentioned CEC was in charge at
the time and that the Board of Prison Inspectors with two members appointed
by council and three members appointed by the courts. Civera
said a huge catalyst in creating the dynamics that led to this situation was
the 1985 move from the state moving residents of state hospitals into private
or community settings that he said are not adequately funded to care for
these individuals. “It all comes down to dollars and cents and it’s wrong,”
he said. “It’s absolutely wrong. These people need to be cared for, they need to be taken care of.” Inscho
said about 700 of the 1,800 inmates at the county prison suffer with mental
illness. “The county is currently entrusting the care of these hundreds of
individuals to a private, for-profit prison contractor at a great expense to
the county,” he said. “The contract for the prison was budgeted in 2017 at
$49 million.” He said that is greater than 10 percent of the county budget
and is a dime for every taxpayer dollar. In addition, he said $4.1 million a
month will be paid to the prison contractor next year. “This is the only
privately run prison in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Inscho said. “The prison is being run for profit and if
it is going to be done with taxpayer dollars ... there needs to be oversight,
there needs to be accountability.”
DuPont Laboratories
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Wackenhut (Group 4)
April 30, 2008 Philadelphia Daily News
A former postal employee serving a year's probation for stealing bars of
gold from an express-mail package was jailed yesterday for three months for
violating his probation. Edward Henderson, 22, of Dover Street near W. York
Street, ran afoul of the feds after he told his probation officer he had been
fired from his job as a security guard for Wackenhut Security. Todd Schaffer,
the probation officer, testified at a hearing yesterday that Henderson found
a SIM card for a cell phone in a storage locker at DuPont Laboratories and
used it for several months in his own cell phone. A SIM card is a tiny data
card that stores account information. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Burnes
said Henderson used the SIM card between May and August 2007, ringing up
charges of almost $1,750 to call his girlfriend and family members. Henderson
was charged in Common Pleas Court last August with theft by unlawful taking
and with receiving stolen property. Those charges are still pending. A
condition of Henderson's probation was that he not commit
any federal or state crimes. U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Rice was not
pleased. Last May, Rice sentenced Henderson to a year's probation for
stealing 15 bars of .9999 fine gold from an express-mail package, valued by
authorities at about $11,850. Burnes said Rice had given Henderson an
opportunity last year to set himself straight but he blew it. Burnes asked
that the judge jail Henderson for three months. Henderson admitted he had
"done a foolish thing" but said he hadn't deliberately violated his
probation. Defense attorney Maranna Meehan said she
thought three months in jail was a "bit excessive." "I'm
asking for a second opportunity for [him]," she said, adding that
Henderson was supporting his mother and his 3-year-old son. But this time,
Rice was not so understanding. "I had confidence in you, I gave you a
chance," he told Henderson. "You made a promise to me and you broke
it." The judge was just getting warmed up. "You just don't get it.
I think you just thought you could get away with it because you're wearing a
uniform," Rice said, his voice rising a few decibels. Rice also ordered
Henderson to make restitution of $1,750 to DuPont Labs. Rice ordered
Henderson to be taken into custody immediately.
Elizabeth Township
June 22, 2007 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
A former Elizabeth Township district judge is about to embark on a new
venture -- as a blogging federal prisoner. Ernest Marraccini,
62, was sentenced Thursday to 16 months in a yet-to-be-determined federal
prison and ordered to pay a $15,000 fine. Marraccini
pleaded guilty in March to one count of obstructing justice for coaching a
witness to lie to a grand jury. As he left the courtroom of U.S. District
Judge Alan N. Bloch, Marraccini thanked his
supporters and promised to post a diary online from prison -- even if he has
to mail the daily entry to a friend. Federal prisoners are not typically
given access to the Internet. "I've already found someone who's agreed
to do it," said Marraccini, who will remain
free on bond until he is told where to report. Marraccini
obstructed the investigation of former Allegheny County Chief Deputy Sheriff
Dennis Skosnik. Skosnik
was sentenced last year to five years in prison on a variety of charges,
including taking bribes to promote the construction of a private jail
facility at Swiss Alpine Village -- the Route 48 shopping center where Marraccini's office was located. In 2001, Gary McDermott,
of Stowe, paid for a trip to the Bahamas for Marraccini
and a friend. In exchange, Marraccini spoke
favorably about the jail facility at public meetings, prosecutors said. Marraccini later tried to get McDermott -- an FBI
informant -- to tell the grand jury that he was repaid for the trip.
February
1, 2007 Tribune-Review
A former district judge said Wednesday he reluctantly agreed to plead guilty
to obstructing a federal corruption investigation of the Allegheny County
Sheriff's Office. "People who are innocent frequently believe that they
must take the 'percentage play' because they have a lot to lose if the jury
finds them guilty," said Ernest L. Marraccini,
an Elizabeth Township district judge from 1992 until he resigned in December.
Marraccini, 62, was charged Tuesday with
obstruction of justice in connection with an investigation into former Chief
Deputy Sheriff Dennis Skosnik, who pleaded guilty
last year to taking bribes to promote the construction of a private jail in
the shopping center where Marraccini's office was
located. Prosecutors allege Marraccini got an
all-expense-paid trip for two to the Bahamas in 2001 from the person trying
to build the private jail. Investigators said Marraccini
tried to get a witness to lie in 2005 to a federal grand jury looking into
the trip. Marraccini's attorney, Victor H. Pribanic, said that Marraccini
was given the trip by former sheriff's deputy Gary McDermott, of Stowe, and
that it was McDermott his client later tried to influence. McDermott was
identified in 2005 as an informant in the federal probe of the planned
facility at Swiss Alpine Village, a shopping center on Route 48. Skosnik, 55, a friend of McDermott's, pleaded guilty in
June to related bribery, witness tampering and other charges. He is serving a
five-year sentence in a federal prison in West Virginia. Pribanic
said the Bahamas trip "was not a quid-pro-quo thing. I think it was more
like a gift in gratitude for things (Marraccini)
had already done." Marraccini, who said he was
a grocery bagger at his cousin's store in Elizabeth Borough before
successfully running for district judge in 1992, spoke in favor of the
alternative inmate facility at public meetings and elsewhere, Pribanic said. Pribanic claimed
McDermott repeatedly approached Marraccini to get
him to fix cases and accept bribes, but Marraccini
rebuffed him. The attorney said he hoped U.S. District Judge Alan N. Bloch
would consider that at the plea hearing, scheduled for March 15. McDermott
did not return calls for comment. U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan declined
to comment on the case. Reached at home yesterday, Marraccini
said he and a longtime male friend who lives with him went on the trip
together. He suggested that the fact that he is gay might have played a role
in triggering the investigation. "There are some people who have a very
difficult time simply accepting gay people no matter what they do," Marraccini said. The state Court of Judicial Discipline
reprimanded Marraccini in October after he was
accused of calling some defendants "morons" when they hesitated to
leave the court after he summarily dismissed their traffic cases. He resigned
two months later. Marraccini said he was
"sad" to no longer work as a district judge. He joked that he is
thinking of writing his memoirs. "With any luck, I'll get to go on
'Oprah' and cry, I'll get to be on 'The View' and insult somebody famous,
then maybe Jay Leno will call me a name. And with any luck I'll get rich and
become a celebrity ... and turn this lemon into lemonade," he said.
Erie County Jail
Erie, PA
Prison Health Services
July 19, 2005 Red Nova
Erie County must soon come up with another $311,877 to pay 2004 medical
expenses at the Erie County Prison. Warden James Veshecco
said medical costs have been rising partly because the number of inmates has
been increasing. The average population was 705 in 2004, compared with 676 in
2003. The $311,877 will be on top of the regular premium of $1.3
million already paid in 2004, he said. Veshecco
said the prison is receiving more inmates who need mental health treatment
and related prescriptions. There are also more women, some of whom are
pregnant. The county has contracted with Prison Health Services of
Brentwood, Tenn., since 1999 to provide all medical care and pharmaceutical
costs at the prison. Because of the rising costs, the county in recent
years agreed to a contract that set limits on the amount that the insurance
company would pay for inmates who go to hospitals and other facilities and
for pharmaceutical products. The prison must pay any amount above that.
In 2003, the premium was $1.2 million and the county had to pay an additional
$60,000 for exceeding the cap. In 2004, the prison once again exceeded the
caps and had to pay $207,365 more for off-site visits and $104,512 more for
pharmaceutical products, totaling $311,877. The premium to PHS has been
increased to nearly $1.5 million for 2005, exclusive of the money owed if the
caps are exceeded.
Franklin County Jail
Pennsylvania
EMSA/Prison Health Services
EMSA was warned that it -- not taxpayers-- must pay any legal damages that
might be awarded in connection with the death of an inmate last month.
(Columbus Dispatch, Oct.5, 2000) Inmate, Rocky Eickstadt,
dies of complications from diabetes. Jail records show he requested medical
help not knowing he was diabetic, complaining of problems and did not see a
jail nurse for eighteen days. Family is suing. Three lawsuits are pending
against EMSA and one against CMS in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on
other issues. (Columbus Dispatch, Oct.5, 2000) EMSA replaces correctional
medical services after CMS was repeatedly faulted by Franklin County
officials for being short staffed. Commissioners warned EMSA that poor
service would not be tolerated after national media reports linking the
company to suits and improper care. (Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 5, 2000)
George W. Hill Correctional Facility
Thornton, Pennsylvania
Sep
14, 2020 delcotimes
Delaware
County moves forward on prison deprivatization
The
Delaware County Jail Oversight Board took the first steps toward taking back
control of the county prison during a monthly meeting last week. Delaware
County Executive Director Howard Lazarus said during a Zoom meeting Wednesday
that he intends to begin by seeking a “transition manager” and transition
team that can assist the county with the process, as well as fleshing out the
costs associated with such a move that can be included in the 2021 budget.
County Councilman Kevin Madden, who heads the board, said that the county
wants to move expeditiously to bring the prison back under county management,
but does not want to take action until it understands all that such an action
might entail. Common Pleas Court Judge Jack Whelan, who formerly chaired county
council, said he supports the county undertaking that cost analysis. The
George W. Hill Prison in Concord is currently managed by the private,
for-profit company the GEO Group under a five-year, $264 million contract
signed in December 2018. Taking back local control of the prison was a major
campaign promise when Democrats were running for county council last year.
With all five seats now held by Democrats, Madden said council is still
working to effectuate that plan, but has been
stymied by the coronavirus pandemic. The company has come under fire from
corrections officers recently for staffing shortages that they claim create a
dangerous work environment. One guard was brutally beaten there last month
and sent to the hospital with severe injuries. Delaware County Controller
Joanne Phillips reported that the prison is currently staffed at 92%, though
that figure includes those on various types of leave. GEO will pay the county
a penalty of $99,992.64 for the staffing shortfall in August, she said, as required
by the contract. Facility Administrator David Byrne said there is typically
about a 30% turnover rate at the prison, but GEO has been working to bring on
more staff and hopes to hit the 100% staffing numbers required by the
contract within 30 to 60 days. He said the company has brought in three
additional regional human resources personnel to schedule interviews with
potential hires, has eight new employees that have started since Sep.t 1 and
has 15 applicants in the background check phase. “We have 81 applicants who
are on the initial screening phase and will be scheduled for an interview
within the next two weeks,” said Byrne. “We also have an additional 36
applicants in the queue that have not begun the initial screening process. We’re experiencing issues with individuals failing the
background phase. Some don’t show up for their drug screening or they simply
drop out during the on-boarding phase.” Acting Warden Donna Mellon also noted
the prison computers “went down” Aug. 19 and the county information
technology department was called in to help. Madden confirmed the prison
computers had been hit with what he deemed a “national-level ransomware
issue,” but said the prison was not operationally impacted. Corrections
officers reported that a training computer at George W. Hill had been
infiltrated by a hacker or hackers who threatened to release sensitive
information stored on GEO servers unless the company paid a large sum of
money, reportedly in the millions of dollars. One officer said the computer was
overnighted to GEO’s corporate headquarters and there was initially a worry
that guards would not get paid. While paychecks have been issued as usual,
some still worry that their private information including Social Security
numbers and banking information associated with direct deposits may have been
exposed. A GEO spokesman has not responded to numerous requests for comment
on the hack or how the company plans to address any potential fallout for
employees.
Mar
12, 2020 delcotimes.com
GEO
asks to exit prison operations by Dec. 31
MEDIA
— The GEO Group Inc. has asked Delaware County to set Dec. 31 as the date for
the privately run 1,883-inmate George W. Hill Correctional Facility to return
to county-controlled operations. "We understand the desire by this board
to transition the facility to public operations," J. David Donahue,
senior vice president, GEO Secure Services Division, said to the county Jail
Oversight Board on Tuesday. "We understand the desire ... We propose a
Dec. 31, 2020 transition date to assist in the completion of that
exercise." The facility has been under private operation since 1998 and
GEO signed a five-year, $264 million contract with the then-county Board of
Prison Inspectors to run the facility. In January, the Jail Oversight Board
replaced the Board of Prison Inspectors. Private operation of the county
facility has come under increasing scrutiny by public officials and community
members. For example, county Councilman and Jail Oversight Board Chair Kevin
Madden previously stated, "The idea of a private, for-profit prison is a
broken model." With that in mind, Donahue told the board Tuesday about a
transition back to the county, "We want you to understand we will work
cooperatively with the county. We want to do everything we can to ensure a
smooth transition." Madden said he appreciated Donahue's attendance and
understood the company's need for an exit date. "I've heard you loud and
clear about the need for there to be some clear concept around the time
frame," Madden said, "and I do appreciate your desires to be a
constructive partner to ensure a smooth and orderly transition." Board
member and Common Pleas Court Judge John Whelan asked if a study had been
completed about what it would take for the county to regain control,
particularly as that relates to the employees needed there, the county's assumption
of liabilities including the 49 lawsuits filed since the fall of 2019 and
other costs associated with such a transition. "My concern is has the
county looked at what needs to be done in order to take back the prison and
all of the issues associated with taking back the prison," Whelan said,
adding that December would come a lot faster than some may anticipate.
"I'm not so sure this county would be prepared to take back the prison
... and I am optimistic that (GEO) will continue to operate the prison so long
as the county needs you to operate the prison." Madden said the Dec. 31
date was first presented on Tuesday, adding, "That needs to be a two-way
conversation." He said the state Department of Corrections is aware of
the situation and that DOC Secretary John Wentzel is expected to tour the
facility within the next few weeks as Madden agreed work does need to be done
to ensure a safe and smooth transition. County Chief Administrative Officer
Marianne Grace added, "It's very important for the county, and I know
GEO would do this as well, that we do have a good plan in order to be able to
reassume that responsibility." She said the safety of the inmates is
critical, as is the staffing. "There's a lot of things that need to be
looked at in terms of the county bringing the jail back under county
management," Grace added. County Controller and county Oversight Board
member Joanne Phillips agreed. "I would not support a transition unless
we have all these things in place as you're talking about - safety, cost, the
safety of our citizens as well, just the whole transition, the facility, the
state of the facility, what responsibilities are under contract," she
said. "I'm on the same page that this needs to be carefully
considered."
Feb
6, 2020 delcotimes.com
Council
takes first steps to deprivatize prison
MEDIA
— Delaware County Council took the first steps Wednesday evening toward
returning all of the operations of the George W.
Hill Correctional Facility back under the direct auspices of the county.
"The idea of a private, for-profit prison is a broken model,"
County Councilman and Job Oversight Board Chair Kevin Madden said.
"Across the country, people are realizing that. Across Pennsylvania,
people are realizing that. We continue to have the ignominious status as
having the only private, for-profit prison in the state of
Pennsylvania." "The idea of any organization ... maintaining people
incarcerated as being a source of recurring revenues, that doesn't
work," he continued. "That doesn't work for what our interests are,
which is to rehabilitate folks and to work, as a community, to get people
back on their feet ... What you're seeing today, I think, is the first step
in that process." Council unanimously approved directing Chief
Administrative Officer Marianne Grace, in conjunction with the County Jail
Oversight Board and Acting Superintendent Donna Mellon, to prepare a request
for proposals for a consultant to develop a plan to deprivatize
the prison, which has been operated by a for-profit, private firm for more than
two decades. “As a services provider, we work at the request of the county
and this is a decision within their authority," Brian Dries, a spokesman
for GEO, said. "We value our longstanding partnership with the county
and will continue providing high quality services that maintain a safe and
positive environment for our staff and those entrusted to our care at the
facility.” In December 2018, then-county Board of Prison Inspectors
unanimously approved a five-year, $264 million contract with a GEO Group Inc.
subsidiary to run the 1,883-inmate George W. Hill Correctional Facility. The
contract was approved for a five-year initial term with the two 2-year
options that could extend it to a nine-year contract at a cost of $495.9
million. The facility opened in 1998, when operations of the county prison
moved to a private model. It is the only privately run prison facility in the
state. When prisoners were housed at the 1930's-era Broadmeadows facility
across from George W. Hill, Delaware County had been responsible for its
operations. Seeking to reduce costs in the face of needing a new facility,
county officials moved toward privatization.
In 1995, Wackenhut Corrections Corp., a private company from Florida,
was selected as the firm to build a new jail in Concord and manage the
facility. County Council members at the time had been prepared to spend $95
million to build a new prison until county Prison Board Chairman Charles
Sexton and Delaware County Councilman Wallace Nunn advocated for the
cost-saving measures of privatization. The George W. Hill Correctional
Facility, which opened in 1998, was built for $55 million. Its large capacity
allowed the county to import inmates from Chester and Philadelphia counties
for fees. Wackenhut eventually became GEO Group Inc., which ran the prison
until 2009, when Community Education Centers Inc. of West Caldwell, N.J.
assumed operations. In 2017, GEO Group completed an acquisition of CEC and
with it, once again assumed operations of the George W. Hill Correctional
Facility. At a council meeting last month, County Council members expressed
their intent to deprivatize the prison as members
of the public expressed concern about a suicide and five overdoses that
occurred at the prison on Dec. 25. One of the overdoses succumbed as a
result. "I would love if I could snap my fingers and deprivatize
George W. Hill," Madden said. "That would not be responsible. The
reality that we all have to understand that the transition from an outside
manager to being publicly run – that's a big, big transition and we need to
make sure that as we do that, we do that in a responsible manner." He
said the former prison board was absentee and the Jail Oversight Board will
be completely different in this transitional time. "That doesn't mean
that the idea of reforming our prison has ceased," Madden said.
"During the course of the next weeks, months or however much time it
takes, we will be ... taking the words of that organization 'oversight'
really seriously because I don't think that's been the case in Delaware
County." County Council approved the formation of the Jail Oversight
Board to replace the five-member Board of Prison Inspectors last October. The
Jail Oversight Board held its first meeting in December and has been meeting
monthly ever since. Board members of include County Council Chairman Madden,
who is also board chairman; County Executive Director Marianne Grace, who is
board vice chair; County Court of Common Pleas Judges Mary Alice Brennan and
John J. Whelan; Brian Corson, founder/owner of MVP Recovery; Jonathan Rahim
King, re-entry specialist; Deborah Love, former member of the dissolved board
and Crozer Keystone administrator; Donna Mellon, George W. Hill Acting
Warden; Delaware County Controller Joanne Phillips; and Delaware County Sheriff
Jerry L. Sanders Jr. In addition to
the security operations and liability responsibilities, GEO Group Inc. also
administers the GED, Workplace Essential Skills/Computer Literacy, life
skills, parenting, substance abuse intervention, anger management, sex
offender modification, grieving/trauma, transgender, PennDOT flagger
training, HIV prevention education, Vivitrol, mothers and children reading,
library materials for the blind and wellness programs.
Jan
23, 2020 delcotimes.com
Delco
council committed to deprivatizing prison
MEDIA
— Delaware County Council is unanimous in wanting the GEO Group Inc. to leave
the county prison premises. "I want to make it abundantly clear,"
county Councilman Kevin Madden, who is also chairman of the county's Jail
Oversight Board, said, "the urgency and the importance for us to deprivatize the prison has not diminished. We stand
absolutely behind the idea that the profiteering on the incarceration of
individuals is not something that should be happening in Delaware County and
the ignominy of being the only privately run for-profit prison in the state
of Pennsylvania needs to end." The prison is owned by Delaware County
but operated by GEO Group Inc. In December, the former prison board signed a
five-year, $259 million contract with the private firm to continue services
at the facility. That contract includes a 180-day termination clause to
conclude services with the county. "The first step is really to make
sure that we understand the implications of transitioning and that we have
thought through all the steps necessary to safely transition to a publicly
run model," Madden said, adding more information regarding a move to deprivatizing the 1,883-inmate facility will be unveiled
in the next few weeks. "We need to make sure that we have a thoughtful
plan for the transition." "During the time of the transition, that
doesn't take us off the hook from overseeing GEO and that doesn't mean we
can't reform the way in which the prison is run," he said. His
colleagues on county council were in agreement.
County Council Chairman Brian Zidek said, "Private prisons have no place
in Delaware County." "This is one of my highest priorities as it
is, I think, for all five of us," Councilwoman
Elaine Paul Schaefer said. "We are going to proceed as quickly as we can
to make this happen. It's going to take time, though. As someone said, we
can't snap our fingers and make it happen." Councilwoman Christine
Reuther said the county is in the midst of filling
many positions and the need for a new human resources administrator is clear.
"One of the things that's going to have to happen to deprivatize
the prison is to be able to move all of those employees back to the county
payroll," she said, adding that she supports the idea of returning the
prison to county operations. She asked those in favor of that to keep coming
and voicing their support to keep the issue in the forefront
so the public continues to hears the stories of what occurs there. Council
Vice Chairman Monica Taylor asked for the public's patience. "They are
going to be making changes in holding GEO's feet to the fire," she said,
"and making sure that we do our due diligence to figure out what is the
best way and what is the real timeline for bringing it back under county control."
Referencing the Christmas tragedies of one suicide and five overdoses that
ended with a death, a woman who said she does prison ministry at the
correctional facility said, "People are dying in that prison. It's not
just an issue of deprivatizing the prison, there's
lives at stake right now."
Dec 27, 2019 correctionsone.com
Pa.
COs, medics scramble to revive 5 inmates who OD'd on heroin
The
overdoses were reported after guards found the inmates collapsed and
unresponsive in their cells
GLEN
MILLS, Pa. — Five female inmates at Delaware County’s George W. Hill
Correctional Facility spent Christmas night in hospitals after overdosing on
heroin, authorities said Thursday. The overdoses were reported about 10:30
Wednesday night, after guards found the inmates collapsed and unresponsive in
their cells, according to a source at the jail who spoke on condition of
anonymity. The source described the scene as a “disaster,” with medical
personnel and corrections officers scrambling to revive the women. A
spokesperson for the GEO Group, the for-profit prison conglomerate that runs
the county-owned jail in Thornton, said he would look into
the reports and provide information later Thursday. Robert DiOrio, the solicitor for the county’s newly formed Jail
Oversight Board, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Three
of the women were taken to Riddle Hospital in Media, and two were taken to
Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, the source said. Two were discharged
early Thursday, and two were reported in stable condition. One of the women
at Riddle remained in critical condition after suffering cardiac arrest as
medics tried to revive her, sources said. No names were released. It wasn’t
immediately clear how the narcotic was brought into the prison, but guards
suspected that a visitor sneaked it in during holiday visitation hours. The
George W. Hill facility, the only privately operated county jail in
Pennsylvania, has recently faced increased scrutiny. Its longtime warden,
John Reilly Jr., retired in November after an investigation by The Inquirer
and the Caucus uncovered previously undisclosed allegations of racist and
abusive behavior. Reilly’s departure coincided with an overhaul of the county
entity that oversees how the jail is run. Previously, the five-member,
politically appointed Board of Prison Inspectors made financial and
administrative decisions, including the December 2018 renewal of the county’s
$259 million contract with the GEO Group. In October, the Delaware County
Council voted to remake the board amid pressure from activists with the
grassroots Delaware County Coalition for Prison Reform — including district
attorney-elect Jack Stollsteimer, one of the
coalition’s founding members. The new Jail Oversight Board includes the county
controller, the sheriff, two judges, and three members of the public. It held
its first meeting last month, during which it appointed Donna Mellon as
interim superintendent after Reilly’s departure. But the issues with George
W. Hill predated Reilly’s retirement. Over the last two decades, the nearly
1,900-bed jail had numerous inmate suicides, many resulting in sizable
payouts through lawsuits. Most recently, the family of Janene Wallace won $7
million in 2017. Wallace, a mentally ill 35-year-old woman who had been
incarcerated on a probation violation, hanged herself after 52 days in
solitary confinement.
Sep
26, 2019 delcotimes.com
County council moves to disband prison board
Delaware
County Council unanimously approved creating a county Jail Oversight Board to
replace the county Board of Prison Inspectors in the midst
of accusations of madness, insults and spending out of touch with
reality. After two previous attempts - one late last year and another in May,
council approved the establishment of a Jail Oversight Board to be in place
by Nov. 27. Why varies on which political party you ask. Democrats said it's part of the process of eliminating political
appointees with little or no applicable expertise and stopping an unnecessary
flow of money. Republicans said the change is in line with the role of the
county prison expanding beyond short-term detentions to needing expertise in
mental health, addiction and other services. From Democratic county
Councilman Brian Zidek, "My support of this resolution is entirely
indicative of my lack of faith in the current board. They have wasted
millions of taxpayer dollars and continue to do so every day ... Our prison
has been run and this prison board has been run with no oversight and it is
long past due ... We've been dealing with a prison board that was established
in the 19th century." Republican County Council Chairman John McBlain underscored his support of the current prison
board and added, "(The) county jail has been forced to expand its
mission from housing detainees and those serving short sentences and has
become mental health institutions, drug rehabilitation facilities, health
centers, high schools, anger management counselors, parenting
counselors and job training facilities. We saw the value in the proposed
expanded oversight." The Board of Prison Inspectors is comprised of two
members selected by county council and three members selected by the county
Board of Judges. The Jail Oversight Board will include the county executive
director; two county Common Pleas Court judges; the sheriff; the
controller; the Delaware County Council chairman or his designee; and three
citizen members appointed by the executive director with consent of Delaware
County Council. The citizen members are appointed for three-year terms.
Executive Director Marianne Grace is accepting letters of intent with resumes
from interested citizens over the next 30 days. GEO Group Inc., the private
firm that manages the 1,883-bed prison, issued a statement regarding
council's vote Wednesday. "We are a service provider for the county and
welcome the oversight and accountability established by the Delaware County
Jail Oversight Board," it read. "The public-private partnership
already allows the county to oversee our management role on a daily basis and
it ensures the facility is operating at the highest level of services at all
times - a successful model unlike any other county. We look forward to
continuing our partnership with the county and working with any oversight
board that it approves." "My support is not based on any
unhappiness or disappointment within the governance of the current Board of
Prison Inspectors," he said. "To the contrary, I believe the
current board has done an exemplary job to ensure that our county jail has
objectively performed very well and has done so in a financially responsible
manner." He noted the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections' labeling
of the facility as "outstanding," as well as positive reviews from
the American Correctional Association and Phoenix Management. "All speak
well of the job done by the current board," McBlain
said. The chairman claimed that former attempts for an oversight board
contained no consultation with fellow council members and was "a social
media hype stunt meant only to score political points ... What was lacking on
a similar measure that was previously produced was any sort of collaboration
with the stakeholders in the criminal justice system." Zidek disagreed,
saying he reached out to District Attorney Katayoun
Copeland and county Common Pleas Court President Judge Kevin Kelly via email.
Then, he pointed out the amount spent on a request for proposals for a
company to manage the prison last year as GEO Group Inc.'s contract ended in
December. "We spent $650,000 or something like that, to do an RFP,"
Zidek said. "That's madness. We spent $650,000 to do an RFP. We spent
$100,000 to do a study on the wisdom of whether we should be a private prison
or a public prison and the study reports came back six months after the decision
was made to stay as a private prison." In April, the results of a study
conducted by Phoenix Management were released, citing $1.5 million in annual
savings in the current model but noting a credibility issue because of
information gaps from GEO. The prison board approved a five-year, $264
million contract with GEO in December. Zidek also added, "There's bank
accounts with $750,000 in it that have just been wafting around in the ether
for years and years and years. There was a $10,000 donation ... to help some
woman row across the Pacific for some cause that she believed in. That may be
a fine cause and if they want to support that with their own dollars, they
should do so but they don't take tax dollars ... and
support their own charities on our backs." Fellow Democratic county
Councilman Kevin Madden said this structural change will have other impacts.
"We have seen on a number of occasions the same playbook that we've
inherited," he said. "You will see folks added to that board that
are prioritized because of their party loyalty and not because of any
particular expertise or understanding of the particular area of which they're
being appointed to ... That model soon will be gone and today we're seeing
the first step in dismantling that." McBlain
took umbrage with that. "Mr. Madden, I think your comments regarding
those individuals that currently serve are insulting to them and insulting to
our residents," he said. During
the public comment section of the meeting, Mary Austin with Delaware County
Coalition for Prison Reform thanked council for approving the oversight
board. "It's really going to be a more equitable management, I
feel," she said, suggesting that one of the citizen appointees be a
person who had been formerly incarcerated at the facility. "They are a
stakeholder and they do have the experience of knowing what the needs are of
people who are incarcerated."
Sep
5, 2019 delconewsnetwork.com
Guard
says staff put down 'full-blown riot' at Delco prison Monday
CONCORD
— Issues of inmate misbehavior have escalated at George W. Hill Prison, with
a “full-blown riot” taking place Monday afternoon during an air conditioner
malfunction, according to one guard speaking on condition of anonymity. “I’ve
been there almost 20 years and it was the worst experience I’ve ever seen in
my life working at Delaware County prison,” said another guard. “It was
horrible. It was unsafe.” “Two entire blocks refused to lock in,” said one
guard. “One was able to lock in with verbal commands, the other refused with
verbal commands.” A guard said multiple staff members entered Block 7 – where
at least two other violent incidents have occurred in the last month between
inmates and guards – in an effort to show a
willingness to use force if prisoners did not comply. Inmates instead donned
shoes and tore up bed sheets, wrapping them around their heads to protect
themselves from pepper spray, according to the guard. When it became clear
the inmates were prepared for a fight, the guard said staff was removed from
the block and a Correctional Emergency Response Team – or CERT – was
mobilized with pepper ball guns – essentially paintball guns in which the
balls are filled with mace. “We had to shoot multiple inmates,” he said. “A
minimum of 26 inmates were shot with pepper balls.” The guard said batons
were also used to quell the inmates. Use of force lasted approximately 15
minutes before the block was brought under control, he said. All told, the
standoff lasted about an hour. A spokesperson for the Geo Group, the private,
for-profit company managing the prison for the county, said the claims of the
incident were exaggerated and “made by individuals with the intention of
disrupting the safe operational flow of the facility.” “Staff responded to a
small group of disruptive inmates that were repeatedly non-compliant,” the
spokesperson said. “All policies and procedures were implemented to maintain
the safety for the staff and inmates until the issue was resolved.” An
interior report of the incident indicates the call came in at 3 p.m. Monday
that two pods were refusing to lock in. Approximately 20 officers and
sergeants responded. Guards explained there was some maintenance work ongoing
on the roof and one of the pods was locked in without issue, according to the
report. The report says the second pod, consisting of 44 inmates, did not
move when ordered and began displaying aggressive behavior, including “over
talking the Sergeant and making comments of threats of fighting.” The report
indicates the last staff member out of the block dispersed MK-9 pepper spray
to saturate the area, but further attempts to communicate with the inmates in
the block were unsuccessful. The report says there were still 26 inmates
refusing to comply when the CERT team entered and used pepper balls in an effort to regain control. Guards ordered everyone to
lie down on the ground but only half complied, according to the report. “It
just turned into an all-out war,” said one guard who accompanied the CERT
team, coughing and gagging as he fought with inmates. “They were not going
down without a fight. It was unbelievably scary … It was like something you
see out of TV.” The remaining 13 inmates were eventually subdued and
handcuffed, and all prisoners in the block were strategically taken to
medical for examination. A sweep of the pod’s dayroom later uncovered a
makeshift knife, or shiv, according to the report. “I’ve been there so long and I said, ‘It’s not if it’s going to happen, it’s
when,’ because we’re so short staffed,” said one guard. “People blow this off
and we’ve been saying it for years: It’s an unsafe place to work and no one
cares and it’s awful. It’s an awful, scary place.” A sergeant had previously
been beaten with handcuffs and required hospitalization during a routine
morning inspection Aug. 5 on that same block, and several inmates reportedly
used heavy plastic trays to beat another inmate there Aug. 26. The trays were
eventually flung at a nurse and guard, who were trapped on the block for
several minutes while backup was called in, according to one guard. Inmates
on that block had been placed on altered recreation last week, allowing
guards to stagger exercise releases by tier or parts of tiers so they are
easier to control, according to the guard. The block was supposed to remain
on altered recreation until Saturday, he said, but was taken off early. “Then
this happened,” he said. “It’s just getting worse and worse in this place.
It’s just got everything to do with how short-staffed it is in this place and
the inmates are taking over.” Delaware County Council Chairman John McBlain said he had spoken to Superintendent John Reilly
Monday and Tuesday, and it was his understanding that a problem with an air
conditioning compressor led about 20 inmates to refuse to go into their cells
during a count, but the temperatures did not climb above 75 degrees.
“Ultimately the CERT team did go down and ushered everyone back in,” he said.
“As these things go, it went well. You never want to have a situation where
the inmates are not compliant with the rules there, but it sounds like they
did a very good job of moving everybody back in. Every one of the inmates was
taken to medical to be fully examined afterwards and there were no issues.” McBlain said it was his understanding that there had been
issues with drugs on that block over the summer, but he said Warden David
Byrne had met with everyone on the block last week. “They said today that
they were analyzing whatever the reports were, talking to CID about it,” said
McBlain. “I know the superintendent indicated there
was a block representative for the inmates and he met with him yesterday and
today.” One guard said the inmates on Block 7 are inmates that are heading
upstate, and the majority of them have done state
time before. Another said that means they can’t be mixed into other areas of
the prison to relieve tension on the block and the prison is too overcrowded
to accommodate transfers at any rate. Representatives for the Geo Group met
with local prison guards and members of the International Union, Security,
Police and Fire Professionals of America to discuss staffing and training
issues approximately two weeks ago. But one guard reports that corrections
officers are still being forced to work 16-hour shifts every other day as
staffing problems persist, leading to safety issues for both guards and
inmates. An inmate was found unresponsive on the morning of July 31 in an
apparent suicide and two other inmates in the work release unit suffered
non-fatal overdoses over the weekend of Aug. 24. Geo has not released the
name of the suicide victim. “These kinds of incidents happen because there’s
just not enough staff to control the prison,” said one guard. “There are guys
who have hundreds of hours of overtime getting mandated (for double shifts)
every other day. You’re basically a walking zombie.” “And then if you’re a
little bit late, they write you up,” said another guard. McBlain
said the county keeps in constant contact with the superintendent and warden,
and he does not know that staffing has been a particular issue at the facility,
though he added it is always a challenge in the field of corrections. “In
general, it seems it’s been questioned whether the entire atmosphere,
regarding the anti-prison groups and whatnot, encouraging individuals to
create problems because they know all these things will be printed,” he said.
“That seems to be on the uptick.” But two longtime guards said the reality on
the ground is that staff are not being given the resources they require to do
their job safely and they fear someone is going to die. One guard said this
incident “absolutely” could have turned into a hostage situation and he fears
a repeat of the 2017 uprising at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in
Smyrna, Del., that resulted in the death of Officer Steven Floyd. “This was
just the beginning,” he said. “Now they’re prepared. They tested us and now
they’re going to do it again, because they know we’re short staffed. I’ve
been there long enough and I’ve seen enough to know
that will happen. A CO is going to die.”
Aug
28, 2019 delcotimes.com
Two
inmates overdose at county prison
CONCORD
— There were two separate incidents of overdose at the George W. Hill
Correctional Facility in Concord over the weekend, according to a
spokesperson for the Geo Group Inc., the private, for-profit company that
manages the prison for the county. Both occurred in the work release unit, a
separate facility from the main prison that allows inmates to leave for work
and return at a scheduled time. Narcan was administered in both instances and
the inmates were alert prior to emergency medical services arriving,
according to the spokesperson. Both inmates received immediate medical
attention from staff and were transported to a local hospital. The unit was
searched by K9 and staff, but nothing was found, according to the
spokesperson.
Community Education Centers (formerly run by GEO Group, formerly known as
Wackenhut Corrections)
Aug
22, 2019 delcotimes.com
Prison
guard beating prompts meeting between union, Geo reps
Executives
with the private, for-profit company managing the Delaware County prison in
Concord met with local prison guards and members of the International Union,
Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America Tuesday in the wake of a
reportedly severe beating one guard received at the hands of an inmate. “I
thought the meeting was positive,” said Michael Hamre, a sergeant and local
president of the SPFPA union at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility.
“They came, they talked, they addressed issues. They will meet again in a
couple of weeks to see how we feel about the process.” A spokesperson for Geo
Group Inc., which manages the prison for the county, also described the
meeting as productive. “We utilize these meetings as an opportunity to listen
and address any concerns within the facility and most importantly, to ensure
that we continue to work together to provide a safe environment at all times
for our staff, as well as those entrusted in our care,” the spokesperson said
in a statement. Facility Administrator David Byrne said the assault took
place Aug. 5 during a routine morning inspection when an inmate became
hostile and refused to submit to having his cell inspected. A sergeant
responded and ordered the inmate to allow himself to be placed in restraints,
according to Byrne. The inmate did not comply and then assaulted the
sergeant. A second officer immediately called for help and the inmate was
subdued. Hamre said the sergeant was beaten with a pair of handcuffs and
punched several times. He is still recovering from his wounds and is awaiting
word from medical professionals on possible surgery, Hamre said. Another
officer is also still out of work and being treated for a concussion, he
added. “Obviously it’s horrifying to see somebody like (the sergeant), a
hardworking guy who goes to work every day … being taken off the unit on a
stretcher,” said Hamre. “He was covered in blood and didn’t know exactly what
was going on.” Byrne indicated the sergeant was kept at a local hospital
overnight for observation and released the next day, and the other officer
was treated by onsite medical staff for minor injuries. The inmate was also
treated for minor injuries and placed in the Secure Management Unit,
according to Byrne. Hamre said staff at the prison face threats as a daily
reality and assaults against employees happen regularly, though he
characterized the injuries suffered here as unusual. The assault prompted a
meeting with local corrections officers including Hamre, as well as SPFPA
International President Dave Hickey, SPFPA Region 3 Vice President Rick
O’Quinn, Geo Group Eastern Region Vice President Blake R. Davis and Geo’s
executive vice president of human resources, Christopher Ryan. “Our concerns
were about basic safety for the staff at the prison and the things we focused
on were the hiring and training process of new corrections officers,” said
Hamre. “They promised to address those issues and fix them, and to have more
meetings with our union in the future to make sure they’re following up and
doing that.” Hickey also described the meeting as “very positive” and
commended the local officers for doing an excellent job of presenting
members’ concerns. “I hope it hit home,” he said. “I feel like they heard us.
They made some commitment that local officers would be involved in training
on a personal basis. Senior people will work with new people, tell them
what’s expected and required, versus just a trainer.” Hickey said there is
high turnover for corrections officers nationwide and staffing quality people
to do those jobs is difficult. Giving veterans like Hamre, who has worked at
the prison since October 2001, the ability to guide new hires could help keep
retention rates up. “I have great faith the company is going to work with the
local and the international (unions) and make those changes,” said Hickey,
whose membership makes up about 35 percent of GEO’s prison guard population
nationwide. “We have high expectations that GEO will keep their commitments.
I have to say that normally, the corporate people who attended the meeting –
Chris (Ryan) in particular – if they give a commitment, they keep it. “We
don’t want to see anybody get hurt again.”
Nov 1, 2018 philly.com
24-hour toilet outage sparks tension at Delaware County
prison
A cracked sewer pipe cut off the water supply to cells
at Delaware County's prison this weekend, preventing its 1,883 inmates from
flushing their toilets for about 24 hours, prison officials said. The
resulting smell and inconvenience at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility
was debated Wednesday at a County Council meeting amid simmering tensions
among political leaders over the local prison, the only privately run
facility of its kind in Pennsylvania. David Byrne, the facility's warden,
made a rare appearance at the meeting, saying he wanted to dispel what he
called rumors and misinformation that had been circulating about the
incident. During that explanation, Byrne clashed with Kevin Madden, a
Democratic councilman who has been calling for changes in the county's prison
operations. Madden said he toured the facility on Monday and spoke with 10
inmates who described stench and blocked toilets. In one cell he visited, he
said, the toilet bowl was filled with human waste and the three inmates who
shared the space had been wrapping the bowl in cellophane to mitigate the
smell. "I know this isn't Club Med, but there's a certain level of
sanitation that needs to be maintained," Madden said, chastising the
company that operates the prison for not having a contingency plan to handle
this type of outage. "I get that unforeseen accidents can occur. No one
could've known the pipe would crack," he added. "What I don't have
patience for is that no plan for this was in place." Council Chairman John
McBlain, a Republican, sparred with Madden,
accusing the first-term councilman of taking up for anti-prison activists.
"I just want the facts available, not some hysterical story to further a
political agenda," McBlain said. "We
should make decisions based on facts, not political agendas." Byrne
responded that the prison does have contingency plans in place and followed
them. He said an internal audit of the response to the water outage was
underway. "We moved swiftly to protect inmates and the community at
large," Byrne said, later telling Madden that he must "humbly
disagree" with the version reported to the councilman by some of the
inmates. The council discussion was sent against the backdrop of a
long-simmering debate over whether George W. Hill should remain privatized. The
facility is operated by the GEO Group, the second-largest private prison firm
in the world. Delaware County's contract with the Florida-based corporation
expires in December, and the county is in the middle of fielding bids for
running the prison. Simultaneously, a growing contingent of grassroots
activists, some of them former inmates, has become more vocal in recent
months. One group, the Delaware County Coalition for Prison Reform, held a
public forum in September extolling the benefits of making the prison
publicly run. In the meantime, GEO has been beset by rampant reports of
suicide and violence, most of which that have become public through legal
action. Byrne, reading from prepared comments at Wednesday's meeting, said
staff at the prison discovered a crack in the water main leading from the
municipal line to the prison's wastewater treatment plant about 12:30 a.m.
Saturday. Water to the sinks and toilets in the facility was shut down as the
pipe was repaired, with water restored to the sinks later that day, Byrne
said. It took somewhat longer for the toilets to return to normal — a little
less than 24 hours, by his estimate, a delay owed to the fact that each
toilet had to be turned off and on manually. The water was also temporarily
shut off Monday, he said, as a permanent replacement pipe was fitted in place
of the one that cracked. Byrne estimated that the damaged pipe was more than
100 years old, dating back to when the first prison was built on the property
in Thornton. The water outage did not affect medical or meal service, he
said. As for the toilets, he said, buckets of water were made available to
inmates who wanted to manually flush the toilets in their cells. Madden said
the inmates he spoke with were not made aware of the availability of the
water buckets.
Oct
1, 2018 philly.com
Delco residents, pols take aim at private county prison in public hearing
Susanne Wallace's daughter, Janene, was awaiting a probation-violation
hearing when she killed herself inside her cell at the George W. Hill
Correctional Facility in Thornton. Her mental-health issues, including
paranoia, were largely ignored by the staff at the Delaware County prison,
who put her in solitary confinement for 52 days, Wallace said. "Janene
wasn't violent. She was not a threat," Wallace said Sunday, holding back
tears at a hearing Sunday sponsored by the Delaware County Coalition for
Prison Reform. "It is time for outside, independent examination to
determine what's going on in this house of horrors." Wallace's story was
one of many horrific accusations of neglect and incompetence leveled at the
leadership of the correctional facility at a public hearing in nearby Media.
The contract for the prison, the only privately run facility remaining in
Pennsylvania, is up in December. And members of the Delaware County Coalition
for Prison Reform have embarked on a public information campaign to see that
it isn't renewed. "We believe this is a moral issue," said Kabeera Weissman, one of the coalition's founders.
"That no one should benefit from the incarceration of human
beings." Currently, George Hill and its 1,883 beds are managed by the
GEO Group, the second-largest private prison firm in the world. GEO, based in
Boca Raton, Fla., receives $49 million annually from its contract with the
county, and is overseen by a board of prisons inspectors employed by the
county. At the same time, it has been plagued in recent years by rampant
reports of suicide and violence, reports that have become public largely
through legal action. Wallace's family, for instance, settled a lawsuit with
GEO for $7 million. Weissman and other coalition volunteers said Sunday that
their objectives since organizing last year have been twofold: calling on the
Delaware County Council to "stop hiding behind the prison board"
and require its members to report publicly, and deprivatizing the
prison, returning its management to public officials. The coalition invited
members of the County Council and the prison board to attend Sunday's meeting
and address these concerns, but only one, Council Democrat Brian Zidek,
accepted. His fellow Democrat, Kevin Madden, a vocal supporter of prison
reform, could not attend because of a prior commitment, according to the
organizers. "Private prisons have perverse interests," Zidek said.
"Our interest as a community is not to have them make money. Our
interest is to incarcerate people who are a danger to our community and
hopefully rehabilitate them. "And it's certainly not to keep the prisons
full," he added, noting that GEO explicitly mentioned that objective in
its most recent annual report. After pressure from the public, as well as the
recently elected Zidek and Madden, a study was commissioned by the Phoenix
Management Group to determine and compare the costs of running the prison privately
and publicly. That study, which was supposed to be completed by the end of
August, has been delayed at least a month, according to Jack Stollsteimer, the deputy state treasurer for consumer
programs and a member of the coalition. Meanwhile, the county has sought
proposals from prison firms to take over the contract for managing George
Hill. "That's the wrong way to do government work," Stollsteimer said Sunday. "You don't do a [request
for proposals] and at the same time you commission a study that questions the
necessity of an RFP." But financial concerns are far from the only issue
the coalition and its members have with George Hill. Robert Cicchinelli, a member of the Pennsylvania Prison Society,
said Sunday that his organization has received numerous complaints about
health care at the prison, saying that its quality "is a step below what
you'd get if your coverage is through Medicaid." "No one expects a
prison to provide platinum-level health care, but we can and should demand a
lot more of George Hill's medical subcontractor," Cicchinelli
said. "We shouldn't be fielding complaints about rampant flu outbreaks,
poorly treated wounds, untreated preexisting conditions, untreated dental
abscesses, and perhaps most sadly, miscarriages." Cicchinelli,
echoing Wallace's testimony, shared anecdotal reports of a lack of
mental-health care, with some prisoners being withheld medication for days
and others having their issues treated with punitive measures, including
solitary confinement. "The business of George Hill should be
corrections," he said. "And continuing to export our tax dollars to
an out-of-state contractor that is not producing positive, corrective results
does not, ultimately, benefit the community at large."
Nov 10, 2017 delcotimes.com
$7M settlement in suit filed against Delco prison by kin of inmate who
took own life
PHILADELPHIA >> The private company that runs the George W. Hill
Correctional Facility in Delaware County has settled a civil lawsuit by
agreeing to pay $7 million to the family of an Upper Darby woman who
committed suicide in 2015, as well as make vast policy changes at the
institution, attorneys for the family announced Thursday. Janene Wallace, 35,
committed suicide on May 26, 2015, after being placed in solitary confinement
for 52 days at the facility, which at the time was run by the for-profit
Community Education Centers (CEC) Inc., where she had been mistreated by
guards and denied proper medical attention and supervision, said plaintiff’s
attorney David Inscho, of Kline & Specter, PC.
The facility is now operated by GEO Group Inc. Media attorney Scott Kramer,
who represented Wallace before her death, had once called her the “poster
child for mental health rights.” Wallace had been incarcerated for violating
probation on a 2013 conviction of threatening another woman over the phone.
She had a history of mental illness, specifically depression, anxiety, and
paranoia, according to information released Thursday by Inscho.
Despite having no history of violence or documented misbehavior at the
prison, guards put Wallace into solitary confinement for 23 hours daily. She
was denied required daily medical checks, a psychological assessment review
after 30 days and even forced to go without basic necessities such as
blankets, sheets and towels. After a verbal altercation with one guard,
witnesses said the guard demeaned Wallace and taunted her and told her to
kill herself. Wallace, using a bra strap, hung herself in her cell. That
guard and two others were fired and a fourth was suspended. In addition to
the monetary settlement, the George Hill facility, which was operated by CEC
from 2009 until the company was purchased by GEO Group Inc. in 2017, agreed
to revise its Suicide Prevention and Restricted Housing policies. Among the
changes is a requirement that inmates with serious mental illness not be
placed in restrictive housing due to symptoms related to mental illness; and
if such a placement is required for security reasons, the inmate must be
evaluated by a psychologist within 24 hours to guard against an increased
risk of suicide. Also, no prisoner can be placed in restricted housing
without approval of a shift supervisor and without a medical evaluation, with
medical visits three times daily and a written evaluation by a psychologist
within seven days. Such placements must be approved by the warden within 24
hours, reviewed by a committee every seven days and then again be approved by
the warden in writing after 30 days. “This is a significant result for a
family dedicated to obtaining justice for their daughter and seeking to
prevent future mistreatment of the mentally ill at George W. Hill
Correctional Facility,” said Inscho. “The company
that profited from holding Janene in solitary confinement and whose employee
taunted her to kill herself were held responsible. Equally as important, the
new operator has agreed to make substantial changes that will prevent
mentally ill people from being held in these cruel and inhumane conditions.”
“The County of Delaware and The Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors
have been advised that the litigation involving Janene Wallace, which did not
involve the Prison Board or the County of Delaware, has been amicably
resolved by the insurance carrier of the previous provider, CEC,” reads a
statement from the George W. Hill Correctional Facility. “However, this case
does underscore the challenges caused by people with mental health issues
often being funneled into the prison system, due to a lack of available
inpatient treatment options,” the statement continued. “Although the
circumstances involving Ms. Wallace occurred during the term of the previous
provider, CEC, the Prison Board and the current provider, GEO, will continue
their efforts to re-evaluate relevant prison policies and procedures. Since
it began the process of its transition, GEO has initiated a review and
revision of existing policy and procedure concerning inmate confinement,
including medical assessment and intervention.” In an interview with the
Daily Times July 2015, Susanne Wallace said her daughter exhibited signs of a
mental disorder that spiraled out of control, alleging she was “abandoned” in
a small cell in Delaware County’s prison for 10 weeks before her suicide.
According to her mother, Janene spent nearly three months isolated in the
8-by-10-foot cell. She tied her bra around the slats of the vents and was
said to have blocked the only window looking into the cell with her mattress.
The family believes that proper monitoring and treatment could have saved her
life, and said prison personnel lacked the proper training to deal with
mental illnesses. Janene Wallace’s autopsy report, provided by her family,
described her as a thin female at 5 feet, 2 inches tall, weighing 97 pounds.
The report also includes a synopsis of prison guards’ accounts of the
incident. She was last seen alive at 4:30 a.m. on May 26 during “routine
checks.” She was discovered hanging in her cell an hour later, taken down
from the vent and CPR was unsuccessfully performed. One of the two air vents
was covered with feminine napkins, according to the report. Her mother
attributed that to her paranoia, saying Wallace always believed she was being
watched. “I just felt like at George W. Hill she felt she was abandoned,”
Susanne Wallace said at the time. Janene Wallace graduated from Upper Darby
High School in 1998. Her mother recalled a normal childhood that included
Girl Scouts, sports and friends. But Janene was indecisive about a career
path before she enrolled at Bloomsburg University to study design. “She seemed
happy enough in high school,” Susanne Wallace said. But at one point, she
told Janene, “You need to figure out what your role is on this earth.” Janene
never finished at Bloomsburg and after dropping out, she worked part-time
jobs. “From that moment on it was pretty difficult,” Susanne Wallace said,
described her daughter as “resistant” about seeking help. “I think that’s
when the depression started. She couldn’t figure out what she wanted to do.”
According to Susanne, Janene had been taking small doses of antidepressant
and anxiety medication. She believed her daughter had a more serious mental
illness, but she was never diagnosed. Wallace had a criminal history prior to
her June 2013 arrest for terroristic threats. Two arrests occurred in Upper
Darby. She was arrested for DUI on Feb. 20, 2011, and was found to be in
possession of several knives, authorities said. She was arrested again on
Oct. 23, 2012, for threats she made over the phone to the same victim that
would later be the target of her terroristic threats in June, 2013. Wallace’s
second arrest for death threats resulted in charges of simple assault and
terroristic threats. The simple assault charge would later be dismissed.
Before her probation violation in the June 2013 case, Janene Wallace pleaded
guilty to charges of terroristic threats with the intent to terrorize
another. She was released to an outpatient facility, ordered to have no
contact with the victims, and undergo probation supervision and mental
evaluations. “Despite her family’s persistent efforts to attempt to get her
access to the psychological care that she desperately needed, she was left
with no help from the prison authorities,” Inscho
told the Daily Times in 2015. Through her attorney, Susanne Wallace provided
the following statement Thursday evening: Janene was a wonderful woman with a
kind heart. She had an illness and heeded treatment for that illness. By
bringing a lawsuit we were able to uncover the horrible mistreatment she
received at the privately operated prison. We are also pleased that we were
able to obtain policy changes that will help to protect the mentally ill and
prevent this tragedy from occurring again. We hope that the County will work
to closely oversee the private contractor operating the prison going forward
and help treat rather than lock-up people needing mental health care. Less
than two months after Janene Wallace’s suicide, 46-year-old Richard Dandrea hung himself at the prison, using a rope from a
laundry bag. Dandrea, an employee at the Sunoco
Refinery in Marcus Hook, also had a history of psychological issues.
Jul
19, 2015 delcotimes.com
Prison
suicides leave families grieving, seeking answers
CONCORD
>> Two recent suicides at Delaware County’s Prison have the families of
inmates pleading for information about their loved ones deaths and
threatening legal action against the county. On May 26, a 35-year-old woman
with a history of mental illness was found dead in her cell at the Delaware
County prison, hanging by her bra from a vent on the wall. Janene Wallace had
been in the Concord facility for nearly three months on charges she had
violated her probation linked to a 2013 arrest for terroristic threats and
related offenses. On July 5, Richard Dandrea, a
46-year-old employee at the Sunoco refinery in Marcus Hook, hung himself with
a rope from a laundry bag. Dandrea also had a
history of psychological issues. “These events raise serious question as to
the adequacy of the policies, procedures and guidelines that the prison is
utilizing when dealing with inmates with mental health issues,”
Philadelphia-based Kline & Specter attorney David Inscho
said Friday about the two prison suicides. He confirmed Friday he had been
retained by both victims’ families and lawsuits are pending his law firm’s
review of the cases. “A serious investigation is warranted to determine
whether or not those guidelines in place are adequate and the training of
their personnel is adequate.” Prison and county officials were tightlipped
last week because of the potential wrongful death lawsuits. Prison
Superintendent John Reilly did not respond to several requests for comment;
prison board President John Hosier declined comment. “It’s a concern to
county council,” Delaware County Council Chairman Mario Civera
Jr. said last week, before the county released a blanket statement declining
comment on both incidents. “Anytime these types of incidents happen we have
to be concerned about it.” Civera said county
council plans to discuss the incidents with the prison board and Reilly, but
was unclear what type of action might be taken. In the meantime, both
families are desperately searching for answers. “We want to change the
system. We don’t want this to happen again,“ said
Janene’s mother, Susanne. The George W. Hill Correctional Facility, a 1,883-bed
capacity jail, is the only privately run correctional facility in the state.
It has 383 security staffers, 24 administrators, and 83 treatment staff.
Delaware County’s prison is the largest operated by CEC, a West Caldwell,
N.J.-based correctional facility management company that offers re-entry
treatment and educational services for inmates. CEC officially took over the
facility in January 2008 when GEO Inc. suddenly declined to renew its
contract with the county. Delaware County paid CEC $136.3 million from 2012
to 2014 to operate the prison. CEC’s contract was not immediately available
and a Right-to-Know request was submitted to the county on July 7. The county
responded with a letter stating any request made related to the prison must
go through the county’s Prison Board of Inspectors because it’s a “separate
legal entity.” Some say CEC’s contract with the county ends this year. No one
from the county or CEC confirmed the contract’s expiration. In the wake of
the suicides CEC issued a statement saying it took the matter “very
seriously” and “appropriate actions” were talen
after an investigation. It did not elaborate. Records at the Delaware County
medical examiner’s office indicate six suicides on file dating back to 2009.
A record search, according to a representative from the office, showed no
suicides on record from 2005 to 2009. The Daily Times reported a suicide in
2007, making the most recent the seventh at the facility in 10 years. Dandrea, formerly of Aston and previoulsy
of Galeton, Pa., in Potter County, was jailed for failing to pay child
support in June. He was sentenced to serve six months at the facility. It was
his second stint in the Delco prison. His first incarceration was for
violating a protection from abuse order. He underwent a psychological
evaluation in 2014 at the prison and was kept in a single cell in the men’s
unit at George W. Hill. Dandrea had a history of
gambling, alcohol addiction and, according to court records, was in the
process of getting a divorce. “He was a hardworking guy who had a problem and
needed help,” Inscho said, speaking on behalf of Dandrea’s family. “That’s why he was there. He needed
help with addiction issues, not someone who had a criminal record.” He was a
member of Galeton Moose, Galeton Moose VFW, and a member of the American
Legion. He’s survived by his wife, Gwen, sons Richard and Anthony, and was
one of seven siblings. Wallace’s mother, Susanne, recalled her daughter
exhibiting signs of a mental disorder that spiraled out of control, alleging
she was “abandoned” in a small cell in Delaware County’s prison for 10 weeks
before her suicide. Janene Wallace spent nearly three months isolated in the
8-by-10-foot cell. She tied her bra around the slats of the vents and was
said to have blocked the only window looking into the cell with her mattress.
The family believes proper monitoring and treatment could have saved her life
and alleges prison personnel lack the proper training to deal with mental
illnesses. Her autopsy report, provided by the family’s attorney, describes
Janene as a thin female at 5 feet, 2 inches tall, weighing 97 pounds. It
includes a synopsis of prison guards’ accounts of the incident. She was last
seen alive at 4:30 a.m. on May 26 during “routine checks.” She was discovered
hanging in her cell an hour later, taken down from the vent and CPR was
unsuccessfully performed. One of two air vents was covered with feminine
napkins, according to the report. Her mother attributes that to her paranoia,
saying Wallace always believed she was being watched. “I just feel like at
George W. Hill she felt she was abandoned,“ Susanne
Wallace said. Janene Wallace graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1988.
She seemed to have a normal childhood filled with Girl Scouts, sports,
friends, and indecisiveness about a career path before ultimately enrolling
at Bloomsburg University to study graphic design. “She seemed happy enough in
high school,” Susanne said and at one point recalled telling her daughter,
“You need to figure out what your role is on this earth.” Wallace never
finished at Bloomsburg, and after dropping out spent time working part-time
jobs until money got tight. Then she and her boyfriend moved back to thsi area from Allentown before breaking up. “From that
moment on it was pretty difficult,” Susanne said, describing her daughter as
“resistant” about seeking help. “I think that’s when the depression started.
She couldn’t figure out what she wanted to do.” According to Susanne, Janene
Wallace was taking small doses of antidepressant and anxiety medication. She
believed her daughter had a more serious mental illness, but she was never
diagnosed. Susanne said she would come home to find sheets covering
electronics, and Janene would tell her and her husband that the car’s GPS and
computers were bugged. “She thought someone was watching her in every room of
the house,” she said. Wallace had a criminal history prior to her June 2013
arrest for terroristic threats. Two of those arrests occurred in Upper Darby.
According to Upper Darby Police Superintendent Mike Chitwood, she was
arrested for DUI on Feb. 20, 2011, and was found to be in possession of
several knives. She was arrested again on Oct. 23, 2012, for threats she made
over the phone to the same victim that would later be the target of her
terroristic threats in June 2013. Wallace’s second arrest for death threats
resulted in charges of simple assault and terroristic threats. The simple
assault charge would later be dismissed. Before her probation violation, in
the June 2013 case, Wallace pleaded guilty to charges of terroristic threats
with the intent to terrorize another and was released to an outpatient
facility, ordered to have no contact with the victims, and undergo probation
supervision and mental evaluations. “Despite her family’s persistent efforts
to attempt to get her access to the psychological care that she desperately
needed, she was left with no help from the prison authorities,” Inscho said. A sentencing had been set for June 29 in
Common Pleas Judge James Bradley’s court. Her probation monitoring was
terminated and sentencing date cancelled prior to her suicide. “It was a very
sad situation for Janene,” said Media criminal defense attorney Scott Kramer,
who represented Wallace before her death. “She needed a lot of help and the
problem in the prison was they weren’t giving her help whatsoever.” Kramer
called her the “poster child for mental health rights.” According to Inscho, CEC’s insurance company denied copies of video
surveillance outside of Janene’s cell and has failed to respond to other
document requests. CEC declined to comment on those requests. “I can’t say
one way or the other what’s unusual or what is not,” Inscho
said about the prison’s actions. “Do I think the prison owes these family an
explanation about what happened to their daughter? I think they do. I don’t
think they should say to a family, you need to sue us to get answers about
their daughter.” Wallace’s mother is haunted by questions. “We can’t go
backwards, but I hope that it doesn’t repeat itself,” Susanne said. It’s
unknown if Inscho will file any kind of legal
action against the county, prison or CEC. “We’re going to look closely at
everything,” Inscho said.
Jul
17, 2015 delcotimes.com
Public deserves answers about suicides at prison
There
is exactly one privately operated prison in Pennsylvania. It just happens to
be located right here in Delaware County. It’s been 20 years since Delaware
County Council embarked on a new path when it comes to incarceration, hiring
Wackenhut Corrections Corp. to operate the aging Delaware County Prison in
Concord. There’s no question the decision was a financial winner for the
county. Not only did it realize substantial savings in operation of the
facility, the private outfit agreed to build a new prison to replace the decrepit
jail – at a tidy savings of more than $30 million. But from the outset,
complaints about operations at the jail, as well as the care and treatment of
prisoners, have persisted. Wackenhut is long gone, replaced first by the
Wackenhut offshoot Geo Group Inc. in 2008 and then a year later by the New
Jersey firm Community Education Centers Inc. The companies running Delco’s
jail have changed. And the name of the prison also has a new moniker,
formally known as the George W. Hill Correction Facility, in honor of the
longtime warden and Springfield police chief. One thing has remained
constant. Complaints about the prison persist. Those concerns are back in the
headlines as the county investigates two recent inmate suicides at the
prison. Janene Wallace, 35, of Upper Darby, was found hanging by her bra from
a vent in her cell on May 27. On July 4 a 46-year-old Aston man hanged
himself. His identity has not been released. The deaths mark the fifth and
sixth suicides at the prison under CEC’s watch. That’s not a good trend.
Neither is the muted reaction by CEC and county officials in the wake of the
suicides. A statement released by county council confirmed the two suicides,
adding they were being investigated by the District Attorney’s office, the
Medical Examiner’s offices, prison officials and CEC. “It’s a concern to
county council,” said Delaware County Council Chairman Mario Civera. “Anytime these types of incidents happen, we have
to be concerned about it.” No one else is saying much. The prison superintendent
is not responding to requests for comment. The Delaware County Prison Board,
appointed by county council to oversee operations at the prison, declined
comment. Part of that is to be expected in light of the threat of legal
action against the county by the family of Janene Wallace. It is believed
that a corrections officer was terminated in the wake of Wallace’s death, but
no one is willing to confirm that. A spokesman for CEC said that the company
takes “any incident” at their facilities “very seriously.” “We are proud of
our management at George W. Hill and continue to provide the best service to
Delaware County in the operation of its county jail facility.” They should.
Delaware County paid it $136.3 million to run the prison from 2012 to 2014.
That’s a lot of public money. The details of the current contract have not
been made available. The Daily Times has filed a Right-To-Know request with
the county for details on the latest contract with CEC. That’s because the
public has a right to know how their money is being spent. In the case of CEC
and the George W. Hill Correctional Facility, it’s one of the county’s
biggest budget items. Maybe more importantly, the family of Janene Wallace
deserve to know what happened to their loved one. We’d like to think county
officials, the brass at the county prison and CEC agree. At attorney for the
Wallace family isn’t so sure. David Inscho, of the
Philadelphia firm Kline & Specter, indicates CEC’s insurance company has
balked at several requests. Part of that is part and parcel of the legal
wrangling that looms over this case. But Inscho
said something else we found interesting. “Do I think the prison owes this
family an explanation about what happened to their daughter?” Inscho said. “I think they do. I don’t think they should
say to a family you need to sue to get answers about their daughter.” We hope
that information is forthcoming, from all parties involved. The operation of
the 1,883-bed correctional facility, and the actions of its 383 security
staffers, 24 administrators and 83 treatment staff, is a huge public concern
in Delaware County. The public needs to know what kind of results they are
getting for the $136 million it is spending to keep offenders sent there by
the courts. And it shouldn’t have to go to court themselves to find out.
Jan
5, 2014 The Pennsylvania Record
A
former suburban Philadelphia prison inmate who claims she was forced to live
in “inhumane, barbaric conditions,” and suffered daily pain for a period of
months due to a failure to get her proper medical care while behind bars has
filed a federal civil rights complaint against those responsible for her
care. Bridget Simonds, of Secane, Pa., filed suit
Dec. 24 at the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Delaware County,
Correctional Medical Associates Inc., Community Education Centers Inc. and
others over the poor treatment she alleges she received in late 2011. The
plaintiff says she suffered a work related injury while on work release from
the Delaware County Prison on Dec. 28 of that year. At the hospital, doctors
diagnosed Simonds with a comminuted distal radial fracture, after which she
was taken to the George Hill Correctional Facility with instructions to
undergo an orthopedic evaluation in three days. She was never given such an evaluation,
however, but was instead held for two additional months without a further
doctor’s consultation or a cast to stabilize her injury, the lawsuit states.
The plaintiff filed two separate grievances during this time, reminding the
prison of her medical needs, but they were ignored, Simonds claims in her
lawsuit. The defendants instead “continued to deny plaintiff treatment and
failed to transport her to the hospital or an orthopedic surgeon for follow
up care,” the complaint states. “Despite Plaintiff’s continued requests, the
defendants intentionally, maliciously, and/or recklessly failed to provide
plaintiff with the needed medical care during the course of her
incarceration.” As a result of the defendants actions, or rather inactions,
Simonds was “forced to suffer severe and constant pain, and was denied
necessary medical devices and/or treatment, resulting in extreme indignity,
humiliation, emotional distress, as well as severe physical discomfort, and a
serious decline in her medical condition,” the lawsuit states. By the time
Simonds was released from prison in late February 2012, the suit claims, her
bones had improperly set, leading to what the plaintiff says was a severe
exacerbation of her initial injury, causing permanent nerve damage and paralysis
of her right, long finger. On March 7, 2012, Simonds was forced to undergo an
open reduction, internal fixation surgery with median nerve release and
placement of plates and screws, according to the complaint. As a result of
the defendants’ combined negligence, Simonds was forced to spend money on
medical care, she suffered from physical injury and emotional distress, and
she incurred other financial expenses and losses. The additional defendants
named in the complaint are Dr. Phillips, the head of the medical department
at the George Hill Correctional Facility, Corrections Officers Dixon and
Stacey, and a Jane Doe medical staff officer. There is also an additional
John Doe corrections officer named in the complaint. The first names of the
three aforementioned defendants are not known at this time. The complaint
contains counts of inadequate medical care, custom and policy of
unconstitutional conduct, and negligence. The plaintiff seeks unspecified
compensatory damages, plus interest, costs, attorney’s fees and other relief.
Simonds is being represented by Philadelphia attorney Thomas Bruno, II, of
the firm Abramson & Denenberg P.C. The federal
case number is 2:13-cv-07565-TON.
November
27, 2013 correctionsone.com
THORNBURY
— The allegations are vivid: African American inmates placed for hours at a
time in a "dirty cell" strewn with rotten food, human feces, and
urine. White guards "waterboarding" black prisoners with pepper
spray until they vomit. K-9 officers letting "their dogs urinate on the
belongings and bedding" of black inmates. The claims are spelled out in
lawsuits filed by two guards at Delaware County's prison, the George Hill
Correctional Facility in Thornbury. The private
company that runs the prison denies the accusations, and a lawyer for the
county prison board called them "sensational" and noted they had
not been substantiated. But the charges, leveled in complaints filed this
fall, represent the latest criticisms of the 1,883-bed prison and its
operator, Community Education Centers of New Jersey. Concerns over conditions
for inmates and workers sparked a protest in recent weeks. On Friday, a group
of human rights advocates held an open meeting in which they hoped to share
their concerns with county and prison officials. No representative of the
county or the prison attended. "The ultimate goal is to establish a
citizens' advisory committee," said the Rev. Keith Collins, who heads
the group. "Right now, everything is shrouded." Collins, of the
Church of the Overcomer in Chester, said the agenda was to include abuse of
prisoners, overcrowding, lack of effective reentry programs, lack of
opportunity for religious services, and treatment of visitors. Community
Education Center, which the county hired in 2009 to run the jail, declined to
discuss the allegations. "While the company does not comment on pending
litigation or complaints such as these," spokesman Christopher Greeder wrote in an e-mailed statement, "we do
strenuously deny these allegations and are confident these matters will be
dealt with appropriately in due course." This is not the first time the
company has come under fire. In 2010, at least seven inmates were mistakenly
released from the Thornbury jail. In New Jersey,
its halfway houses have drawn scrutiny from state officials. Residents at its
Philadelphia halfway house won a class-action lawsuit after being denied
adequate medical care there. The George Hill guards - Angelina Blocker of
Philadelphia and Silver Black of Lansdowne - are suing for wrongful
termination, breach of contract, harassment, and other related complaints.
Neither Blocker nor Black was available for comment, according to their
lawyer, Stewart C. Crawford Jr. He said he stood behind every allegation in
the lawsuits. "Our investigation has also produced a number of
independent sources to support these allegations," he said. Calls to
prison superintendent John A. Reilly Jr. were referred to Robert DiOrio, solicitor for the Delaware County Board of Prison
Inspectors, which is responsible for administration of the jail. DiOrio said he had not heard of the abuse allegations in
the lawsuits. "They are certainly sensational," DiOrio
said of the allegations. "That doesn't mean they are true."
Marianne Grace, the county's executive director, said during her impromptu
tours of the prison she had not seen any evidence of the claims made in the
lawsuits. The 2013 budget for the prison is $43 million - 13 percent of the
county's overall budget. By contrast, Montgomery County, which has a capacity
of 2,080 beds, budgets $30 million; York County, with a capacity of 2,694,
budgets $41 million. Blocker was fired in June 2012 for allegedly
exaggerating an incident report. In 2007, a racially charged photo of her
with a noose around her head was found in a union mailbox. Blocker is African
American. Silver Black, who is also African American, was fired March 26,
2012, for allegedly being late. During her nearly eight-year tenure at the
prison, Black had been written up three times for lateness - twice while
under the protection of the Federal Family Medical Leave Act, according to
the lawsuit. The two suits charge that African American guards are
discriminated against and held to different standards than their white
coworkers. They cite an alleged 50 percent drop in the number of black correctional
officers at the prison. They also contend that black guards receive a
disproportionate number of write-ups and that black guards who take and pass
tests to become supervisors are disqualified while white officers receive the
questions in advance. Collins said he was outraged at the abuse and
discrimination allegations in the lawsuit and by what he has heard from
prisoners. McClatchy-Tribune News Service "This needs to stop," he
said. "It's a human rights issue."
April
15, 2011 Delco Times
Delaware County Deputy District Attorney James Mattera
could soon be moving to the county owned George W. Hill Correctional Facility
in Thornton, where he would oversee the records department as a first
assistant superintendent. The prison saw a string of embarrassing accidental
releases last year, resulting in public admonishments from elected officials
and the hiring of a prison specialist to help shore up deficiencies. Delaware
County Board of Prison Inspectors Solicitor Bob DiOrio
said Mattera would be an employee of the privately
owned management company that oversees the prison, Community Education
Centers Inc. County council Chairman Jack Whelan said there had been some
technological improvements made at the prison, but having Mattera
as the human element overseeing the operation would also be a benefit. He
added that the move could result in a net savings to the county, as Mattera’s replacement at the district attorney’s office
would likely earn less than his current $83,000 salary.
February
14, 2011 Delco Times
Three Rastafarians who sued the county-owned prison and its management
company in August for gender, racial and religious discrimination recently
filed an amended and more narrow complaint in federal court. “The new
complaint drops some claims and focuses the case where I think the problem
really lies,” said Brian Appel, of the firm Choi and Associates P.C. “I’ve
taken out any kind of sex discrimination or gender discrimination, taken out
any issues of race.” Appel represents Nigel LeBlanc, Eugene Briggs and Zayid Bolds, three professed followers of the Rastafari
movement and former prison guards at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility
in Thornbury. The trio originally alleged in a
filing in Eastern Pennsylvania District Court that religious, sexual and
racial discrimination led to their terminations in early 2009. According to
the suit against the prison and its private, for-profit management company,
Community Education Centers, Rastafarians are prohibited from cutting the
hair on their head, including facial hair. That prohibition conflicted with
the male grooming policy for CEC, which fired all three men shortly after
taking over operations at the prison in January 2009. Christopher Greeder, spokesman for CEC, said he was unable to comment
on ongoing litigation. Community Education Centers’ grooming policy states
male guards must be clean shaven, have neatly combed hair and that hair
length “shall not extend beyond the collar,” though the suit noted the policy
does not specifically say hair must be cut to that length. Female guards with
long hair are instructed to pull it up into a bun. According to the suit,
each of the former guards did put their dreadlocks into buns pulled tight
against the top of their heads, “professionally tied into styles that were
neat and clean.” But the former guards said they were constantly harassed for
their hairstyles and that working conditions quickly eroded after each began
following the Rastafari movement.
December
15, 2010 Philadelphia Inquirer
Two Delaware County jail employees have been suspended after a prisoner
was prematurely released last week when they failed to finish reading the
bail conditions for the inmate, officials said. At least seven inmates at the
George Hill Correctional Facility in Thornbury Township
have been mistakenly released this year through paperwork errors or confusion
over identities. Officials have acknowledged problems with procedures and
paperwork. Christianus Felten,
42, of Upper Darby, is again behind bars after spending a night out. Felten, in jail awaiting trial in an alleged burglary,
was approved for electronic home-monitoring after his bail was reduced at a
preliminary hearing Dec. 7, according to Robert DiOrio,
solicitor for the Delaware County Prison Board. Felten
was freed when two jail employees - an intake clerk and a sergeant - did not
confirm his eligibility for release with the bail office and released Felten before final approval for home-monitoring,
according to officials. "That portion of the paperwork was not read by
the officials on duty," said DiOrio.
December
14, 2010 Delco Times
For the seventh time this year, a prisoner at Delaware County prison was
released prematurely. Alleged burglar Christianus
E. Felten 42, of Upper Darby, was back behind bars
within 15 hours after his untimely release Dec. 7, according to officials.
But the slipup has prison board officials once again looking into intake and
release procedures at the county jail. “I’m certain the prison board will
review this matter, as far as the procedures that were not followed, in an
effort to avoid similar circumstances in the future,” said Prison Board
Solicitor Robert DiOrio. Felten
was arrested Nov. 13 after allegedly breaking into a home on Millbank Road in
Upper Darby. He was arrested again a day later after briefly escaping from a
constable as he was being loaded into a prison van. At his preliminary
hearing Dec. 6, Felten’s bail, originally set at 10
percent of $50,000, was reduced to unsecured bail with the condition the he
be approved for electronic home monitoring before being released. That’s
where officials said the mix-up occurred. The record’s clerk received the
paperwork on Felten’s bail reduction, but missed
the part about the electronic home monitoring. Felten
was released at 9 p.m. Tuesday. The following day, the person with whom Felten was staying called to report that the electronic
home monitoring had not been set up and prison officials realized what had
occurred and Felten was back in jail by 12:30 p.m.,
according to officials. Six other prisoners, including a murder suspect, were
accidentally released in recent months. All have been recaptured.
October
7, 2010 Delco Times
Confusion over a prisoner’s status led to another early release at the George
W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornbury over the
weekend, though it was of a different kind than plagued the prison over the
summer. Cyril Devine, 49, of Downingtown, a former oil company executive
sentenced to prison in August for child pornography, was set free after
serving a weekend at the prison this month. But Devine, who earlier this year
pleaded guilty to six counts of possession of child pornography and one count
of criminal use of a communication facility, was supposed to serve at least
two months. Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Judge James Bradley
sentenced Devine to two to six months imprisonment beginning Oct. 1, plus
seven years probation. But prison Solicitor Robert DiOrio said Devine showed up at the prison Friday, Sept.
10, with a probation and parole form indicating he was supposed to begin
serving weekend sentences. DiOrio said Devine was
admitted as a weekender, despite a lack of any sentencing paperwork at the
prison, and released the following Sunday. He showed up again on Oct. 1 and
was again released the following Sunday. The prison — now in receipt of his
actual paperwork from the courts — discovered the discrepancy and recaptured
him Tuesday, said DiOrio. The sentencing sheet
indicated Devine was to be granted “immediate nonstationary work release,”
but no rules or regulations indicated he was to serve weekend sentences.
September
15, 2010 Delco News
Delaware County Council recently called for a complete investigation into the
unauthorized release of three prisoners from the county prison since June 14.
Two of the inmates are back in custody and federal marshals are looking for
the third. Significant changes in prison release procedures are in place at
the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Concord Township, and additional
safeguards are being formulated as part of an investigation. “Public safety
is county council's top priority and we won't tolerate mistakes when it comes
to our criminal justice system and the safety of our residents,” said County
Council Chair Jack Whelan. “We have asked for a full investigation of the
inmate release procedure. A stricter, more fail-safe policy is already in
place with more changes to come as the investigation continues.” Whelan said
several county employees were involved in the prison incidents. One was fired
and the others disciplined. The George Hill facility, which is the fifth
largest county prison in the state, is operated by Community Education
Centers Inc., a New Jersey-based company that has run the prison since
January 2009. John Reilly, Jr. oversees CEC's operations for the county. He
detailed three procedural changes that have been instituted since June 15 and
said he has also launched a review of the clerical records process to
streamline and strengthen paperwork procedures.
September
3, 2010 Philadelphia Daily News
It's happened again at the Delaware County prison. Yet another inmate was
accidentally released this week from the George W. Hill Correctional Facility,
county officials confirmed yesterday, making for the sixth such incident
there in recent months. Gary Tagland, 21, was
discharged Tuesday from the prison - even though he was supposed to be
transported back to a New Jersey state prison, where he was doing five years
for a robbery in Pennsauken. "I don't know what happened. The prison is
going to have to answer that question," said Deputy District Attorney
Daniel McDevitt. He said a fax sent to the prison last month should have
prevented "this very thing from happening." Tagland,
of Cherry Hill, was released the same day that county officials announced
they were tightening procedures at the privately run prison in Thornton
following the accidental release of five inmates - including an alleged killer
from Germantown - in recent months. "We have asked for a full
investigation of the inmate-release procedure," County Council Chairman
Jack Whelan said in a statement Monday. "A stricter, more fail-safe
policy is already in place with more changes to come as the investigation
continues." The prison, operated for about $43 million a year by New
Jersey-based Community Education Centers, disclosed last week that David
Wilson, who was convicted of a firearms offense, and Ateia
Polk, who is facing robbery and assault charges, had walked out of the prison
due to clerical errors. In June, murder suspect Taaqi
Brown, 22, was released by mistake. He surrendered the next day. Wilson
hasn't been apprehended. The circumstances of the other two recent mistaken
releases were unclear but Prison Superintendent John Reilly Jr., the county
official who monitors CEC's performance, said they are back in custody.
McDevitt said Tagland was brought to Delaware
County from a New Jersey state prison last month to face drug-paraphernalia
and motor-vehicle charges from a Springfield arrest last year. He pleaded
guilty to the drug charge. "At that point, our case is closed and he
should have been returned to New Jersey," he said. Tagland
was apparently re-arrested Wednesday by New Jersey authorities after he
failed to turn himself in, McDevitt said. It was unclear yesterday what led
to the latest error. Reilly said last week that the company has had problems
handling and interpreting incoming documents. But in Tagland's
case, there should have been no doubt about his status, because the D.A.'s
office had faxed a notice to the prison before his arrival, McDevitt said:
"It was supposed to be a fail-safe to let the prison know that the guy
shouldn't be let go." State Rep. Stephen Barrar,
who represents portions of Delaware and Chester counties, said last week he
plans to introduce legislation requiring public notification of escapes and
accidental discharges. CEC said yesterday that it is "reviewing and
rapidly implementing major changes."
September
1, 2010 Delco Times
Delaware County Council Tuesday called for a complete investigation into the
unauthorized release of three prisoners from the county prison since June 14.
Two of the inmates are back in custody and federal marshals are looking for
the third. Significant changes in prison-release procedures are in place at
the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornbury,
and additional safeguards are being formulated as part of an investigation
into the inmate-release process. “Public safety is county council’s top
priority and we won’t tolerate mistakes when it comes to our criminal justice
system and the safety of our residents,” said council Chairman Jack Whelan.
“We have asked for a full investigation of the inmate-release procedure. A stricter,
more fail-safe policy is already in place with more changes to come as the
investigation continues.” Whelan said several county employees were involved
in the incidents. One was fired and the others were disciplined. “And quite
frankly, they should have been,” Whelan said. “I can expect that you are not
going to see anything like this in the future.” The prison, which is the
fifth-largest county prison in the state, is operated by Community Education
Centers Inc., a New Jersey-based company that has run the facility since
January 2009. Prison Superintendent John A. Reilly Jr. detailed three
procedural changes that have been instituted since June 15 and said he has
also launched a review of the clerical-records process to streamline and
strengthen the paperwork procedures at all levels.
August
31, 2010 Philadelphia Inquirer
Kelly DeLuca was talking on the cell-block pay phone after 8 p.m. at the
Delaware County prison when she got unexpected news: She could go home.
"I'm not supposed to go home," DeLuca said she told the guard. It
was May 6, and she had nine days of an 18-day sentence left to serve for
violating probation on a criminal-trespass charge. "Not my . . .
problem," came the response, said the 43-year-old Havertown mother, who
says she was told to hang up, pack up, and get ready to be discharged in time
to catch the 9:40 p.m. SEPTA bus to Chester. She said she was not allowed to
make any calls and was given two bus tokens. An hour later, DeLuca, a
well-educated woman whose life spiraled downward because of alcohol, found
herself standing on a Chester street corner, dressed in sweatpants and blue
fuzzy slippers, with no cash and one token left. DeLuca is at least the
fourth prisoner in recent months to be mistakenly released from the state's only
privately run county prison - the George W. Hill Correctional Facility.
"It is obviously very embarrassing and completely unacceptable,"
County Councilman Andy Lewis said Monday. Until hearing from a reporter about
the DeLuca case, he had been aware only of three others, including a murder
suspect who turned himself in. Two are still at large, one convicted of
firearms violations, the other charged with robbery. "We have to make
sure it does not happen again," Lewis said. Community Education Centers
Inc. of West Caldwell, N.J., which has operated the county prison since
January 2009, has attributed the three previous mistaken releases, all since
June, to paperwork errors. "The company is working very closely with the
county to review its policies and procedures," Christopher Greeder, a spokesman for CEC, said Monday. He said he was
not aware of DeLuca's mistaken release. County Executive Marianne Grace said
Friday that the County Council would conduct an investigation and review all
policies and procedures surrounding prison releases. The Thornbury
Township facility has a budget of $44 million from the county and houses
about 1,800 inmates. The District Attorney's Office said Friday that its
criminal investigation division also would investigate mistaken releases.
DeLuca's attorney, Robert C. Keller of Havertown, confirmed his client was
mistakenly released early.
August
28, 2010 Philadelphia Inquirer
The Delaware County executive vowed Friday to have a "serious
discussion" of ways to improve security at the county prison, from which
three inmates were mistakenly released this summer. Marianne Grace said the
county was calling for a complete investigation and review of all policies
and procedures surrounding prison releases. "Public safety is our number-one
priority," Grace said. She said that on Monday, she would set up a
meeting between prison and county officials to address the issue, but added
that no written report was likely to be made public. Grace called
inmate-release procedures a "multilayer process that is complex"
and involves a number of departments, including the county's Office of
Judicial Support and the company that operates the prison. "The human
errors which are occurring are unacceptable," Grace said. Grace said she
knew of three prisoners' being mistakenly released this year and added that
she was surprised to learn that media reports had documented as many as five.
Grace also said she did not know that, according to a report on the state
Department of Corrections website, two prisoners walked away last year. The
District Attorney's Office said Thursday bench warrants had been issued for Ateia Polk, 32, of the 4500 block of North 11th Street,
and David Jeffrey Wilson, 19, of West 22d Street in Chester. Both were freed
because of paperwork errors. On June 14, murder suspect Taaqi
"Fame" Brown of Germantown was released after he was confused with
another inmate with a similar name. He turned himself in a day later.
Community Education Centers Inc. (CEC) of West Caldwell, N.J., has operated
the country prison since January 2009. Officially known as the George W. Hill
Correctional Facility, the Thornbury Township
prison operates on a budget of $44 million from the county and houses about
1,800 inmates. It is the only privately run county prison in the state. Calls
Friday to John J. Clancy, chief executive officer of CEC, for comment were
not returned. Prison Superintendent John A. Reilly and Warden Frank Green
also did not return calls; nor did John Hosier, chairman of the board of the
Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors, and County Solicitor Robert DiOrio. The District Attorney's Office said Friday that
its criminal investigation division would also investigate the mistaken
releases. Susan Bensinger, a spokeswoman for the
Department of Corrections, said county prisons "set and follow their own
policies and procedures." The state inspects prisons regularly. Delaware
County passed its most recent inspection, in 2008. It is scheduled for
another by the end of the year.
August
27, 2010 Philadelphia Daily News
The privately run George W. Hill Correctional Facility has been struggling
this summer with what you might call a prisoner-retention problem. Delaware
County authorities discovered this month that two inmates had been mistakenly
released from the prison due to clerical errors. Neither has been heard from
since. It's the fifth time that this has happened in recent months, according
to a county official. The prison, operated by New Jersey-based Community
Education Centers for $43 million a year, made headlines in June when accused
killer Taaqi Brown walked out because of a records
snafu. Brown, 22, of Germantown, turned himself in the next day, and the CEC
clerk who let him out was fired. Now, the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task
Force is searching for David Wilson, 19, of Chester, who was convicted in
July of a firearms offense, but was released from the prison Aug. 4, two
weeks before he was to be sentenced. Federal authorities also are looking for
Ateia Polk, 32, of Philadelphia, who is on the lam
after the prison released her last month prior to her trial on robbery,
assault and related offenses. Polk is accused of stealing jewelry from an
Upper Darby beauty parlor and threatening to stab the owner with a hairpin.
"We're not pointing the finger at anybody," said prison
Superintendent John Reilly Jr., who oversees CEC's performance on the
county's behalf. "This is an in-house problem that needs to be resolved
here." Reilly said that Polk was released because a prison employee misinterpreted
a judge's order. The clerk apparently thought that "no bail" meant
that Polk could leave without posting bail. "She just made a colossal
mistake," Reilly said. In Wilson's case, the prison never received a fax
from the county's Office of Judicial Support stating that his bail had been
revoked. But Reilly said that a prison employee should have double-checked
that he was cleared for discharge. "You need to do a more thorough
search," he said. "The bottom line is, you are responsible when you
open the back door." Reilly said that the prison's records department
has been having trouble handling the thousands of documents it receives every
week. He described it as a systemic problem that CEC is working to correct.
"They don't have a process in place to accurately accept all these
documents," Reilly said. "They just come flying in. There's a real
breakdown in their process at that point." In some cases, such as
Polk's, overwhelmed employees are simply misreading the paperwork. "It's
a longstanding problem with the records department being able to process the
volume," Reilly said. CEC took over the operation of the county prison
last year after the GEO Group abandoned its contract due to "financial
underperformance and frequent litigation." Located in Thornton, it is the
only privately run county prison in the state. CEC spokesman Christopher Greeder declined to elaborate on the discharged inmates,
other than to say that "the matter is under review and the company is
working closely with the county." "This is the first crisis of the
CEC era, and we're going to see how good they are," Reilly said.
"They'll have to get through it."
August
2, 2010 AP
A U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia says prison officials can ban employees
from wearing Muslim headscarves out of safety concerns. The judges say the
case is a close call. But they say prison officials have legitimate concerns
the headscarves can hide contraband or be used by an inmate to choke someone.
The 2-1 decision is a defeat for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The commission believes the three Muslim women employed at the Delaware
County Prison in Thornton had to compromise their religious beliefs to keep
their jobs. Monday's ruling upholds a district judge who dismissed the EEOC
lawsuit. The suit was filed against the Geo Group, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based
contractor that operated the prison.
July 31,
2010 Philadelphia Inquirer
Three former prison guards have sued the Delaware County prison, alleging
religious, sexual, and racial discrimination after they were fired for not
cutting their hair, which they say their religion forbids. Nigel LeBlanc,
Eugene Briggs and Zayid Bolds, all of Philadelphia,
are followers of the Rastafarian movement, which prohibits cutting hair on
the head, including facial hair, according to their lawsuit. They were asked
to choose between their jobs and their religion, said Jennifer L. Zegel, attorney for the men. The prison is run by the New
Jersey-based Community Education Centers (CEC), which took over from GEO
Group on Jan. 1, 2009. The men were fired seven days later for failure to
comply with the company's grooming policy.
June 17,
2010 Delco Times
Taaqi Brown’s taste of freedom lasted a little more
than 12 hours. It likely will take a lot longer than that for Delaware County
prison officials to get the bad taste out of their mouth from Brown’s
sojourn. The county was jolted early Tuesday morning with news of an “escape”
from the George W. Hill Correctional Facility. Uh, not exactly. As we learned
a few hours later, Brown did not escape. He walked out the front door. After
he was given his walking papers by prison employees. That’s how a man who
police believe is responsible for opening fire on a crowded playground, in
the process killing an unintended victim, was returned to society. Make no
mistake, Taaqi Brown was not incarcerated for a
minor offense. He is an accused killer. He was confined to 22-hour-a-day
lockup in the Delco jail. He wore the distinctive red jumpsuit that
identifies him as a high-risk inmate. And yet he was still given his walking
papers and allowed to stroll – or perhaps walk as quickly as his legs would
carry him – to his girlfriend’s black SUV, which was waiting for him outside.
That’s because Brown had learned earlier in the day that he was going to be cut
loose. He contacted family members, who made sure Brown had a ride when he
became a free man. Prison officials are now referring to the mistaken release
as a paperwork snafu. A simple human error. You can say that again. For his
part, District Attorney G. Michael Green didn’t sound as if he was totally
convinced. While announcing that Brown’s brief respite had earned him a
felony escape charge, Green insisted, “I want to know everything that
happened here.” He’s not the only one. Here’s what apparently went down. An
inmate named Brown was in fact supposed to be released. But it appears that
it was Tarriq Smith-Brown, Taaqi’s
brother, who had done time on a minor drug charges, who was supposed to be
cut loose. If that sounds a little hard to believe, you’re not the only one
who feels that way. Neither Green nor Prison Superintendent John Reilly,
while indicating that it appeared to be a simple clerical error, were willing
to rule out something else. Something more sinister. And they vowed to get to
the bottom of it, including any possibility that Brown got an assist from
inside the prison. Reilly indicated that the records clerk involved in
Brown’s release apparently failed to double-check the name while preparing
the paperwork that was supposed to free Tarriq
Brown but instead opened the door for Taaqi. It
strains credulity that no one at the prison realized that a suspected killer
who was isolated in the prison as a high-risk inmate was simply going to be
allowed to walk out the front door. At worst it points to a serious security
breach at the facility. But even if it was a simple clerical error, it fuels
public distrust in the operation of the prison, which continues to be run by
a private firm, Community Education Centers. The county has had mixed results
at the prison since privatizing the operation when it built the new jail
several years ago. The prison was first run by Wackenhut, which then was
transformed into GEO, and for the past few years by CEC. Lawsuits, staffing
and other problems have been persistent issues. Reilly, who noted the
facility has had more than 3,000 discharges this year without incident and
9,500 last year, knows all too well that when the prison does things right,
it doesn’t get attention. The mistaken release of a suspected killer does. It
does things like spark a countywide manhunt. It puts citizens on edge. It
fosters distrust in the county’s ability to keep its citizens safe from
criminals. “We need to solve the problem,” Reilly said. He’ll get no argument
here. This can’t happen again. County and prison officials need to make sure
it doesn’t.
June 16,
2010 Philadelphia Daily News
It wasn't "Prison Break" but, rather, prison breakdown in Delaware
County Monday night, when a murder suspect was accidentally set free from the
George W. Hill Correctional Facility. In an equally astonishing move, the
prisoner, Taaqi Brown, who could face life in jail
if convicted of first-degree murder, turned himself in yesterday and
willfully went back to prison less than 24 hours after he was released. Now
detectives are investigating if Brown's release was the result of human error
or, perhaps, the result of careful, human calculation. Upper Darby Police
Superintendent Michael Chitwood, whose department arrested Brown, 21, last
year in the murder of 19-year-old Aaron Kearney, said he got the call about
Brown's release about 10 Monday night. "My first reaction was 'What the
f---!' It's not like he's in for DUI," Chitwood said. "My second
was to ask 'How did this happen?' " Chitwood
said he was later informed that Brown's brother, Taariq
Brown, 23, who also was at the prison, was supposed to be the inmate released
yesterday. When he was released instead, Taaqi
Brown, of Germantown, called his girlfriend, who picked him up, Chitwood
said. Brown's taste of freedom sent officers from numerous agencies on an
all-out manhunt yesterday. But about 11 a.m., Brown's father contacted an
inspector he knew in Philadelphia's Northwest Detectives and said his son
wanted to surrender, according to police. Chitwood said Brown and his father
were worried that he'd be shot to death by cops. "It was the best thing
for me to do," Brown told NBC 10, which rode with him as he surrendered.
"I would hate for police to run up on me and feel as though I'm armed or
I got a weapon on me." Brown maintains his innocence in the video and in
a surreal, media-saturated moment, was recorded listening to a KYW Newsradio broadcast about his "escape." Brown
is charged with shooting Kearney to death in broad daylight on a crowded
Upper Darby playground on May 2, 2009. Delaware County District Attorney G.
Michael Green said Brown would face an additional charge of escape because he
knew that he should not have been released and did not speak up. He
acknowledged that someone should have noticed that Taaqi
Brown was in jail without bail, that he was in 22-hour lockup and that he
wore a different-colored jumpsuit - red - to denote his alleged violent
crime. "There were an obvious number of indicators that should have set
off bells and whistles," Green said. Prison Superintendent John Reilly
Jr. said it was too early to determine whether Brown's release had been an
accident or perhaps an inside job. "We can't rule out that these two
didn't try to orchestrate it," Reilly said. "I can't rule out that
they didn't get the records girl to submit Taaqi
Brown's data as a discharge." County detectives were planning to
interview the 23-year-old records clerk who was hired three months ago, as
well as corrections officers and "anyone in the prison that could have
facilitated the discharge process," Reilly said. Even though the
brothers' names are similar, the records clerk should have noticed that they
had a different inmate number, birth date and court-identification number, he
said. "This could have been a colossal mis-hire," Reilly said.
"If that's what it is, we'll address it." The George W. Hill
Correctional Facility is the only privately run county prison in the state.
Last year, New Jersey-based Community Education Centers (CEC) replaced the
GEO Group as prison operator. The records clerk is an employee of CEC. From
2002 through 2004, three inmates were mistakenly released from the county
prison. In one instance, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound black man named Markish Thomas
was released instead of a Mike Thomas, a 5-foot-10, 165-pound white man with
blond hair and blue eyes.
May 20,
2010 Philadelphia Inquirer
A company that formerly operated the Delaware County Prison has settled a
federal class-action lawsuit involving strip-searches of incoming inmates
charged with minor crimes. The $2.9 million settlement awards up to $400 each
to about 10,000 inmates at six GEO Group facilities. Prisoners at the
Delaware County facility, now operated by Community Education Centers of West
Caldwell, N.J., who were strip-searched between Jan. 30, 2006, and Jan. 30,
2008, may be eligible for settlement awards. The lawsuit named five other GEO
Group prisons, in Texas, New Mexico, and Illinois. "As a direct result
of this litigation, GEO has changed its strip-search
policies in those prisons which it still operates," an attorney for the
plaintiffs, Joseph G. Sauder of Haverford, said in an e-mail. A call seeking
comment from the Florida-based GEO Group, which operated the prison until
December 2008, was not returned. John A. Reilly, superintendent of the
prison, when asked about the current strip-search policy, said, "I have
no idea. See you." He then hung up. "In our view, there is simply
no justification for this kind of invasive body search for those individuals
coming to the institution who pose no security risk to the institution,"
said David Rudovsky, a Philadelphia lawyer who also
represented a plaintiff in the case. Those eligible to apply for settlement
include prisoners who were not accused of drug, weapons, or violent crimes;
those involving probation or parole violations; and those who did not behave
in a manner that would give guards cause to conduct strip searches. According
to court documents, one of the main plaintiffs, Penny Allison of Media, was
arrested in November 2005 for driving under the influence and was placed in a
first-time offenders program. Allison failed to appear for a hearing and a
bench warrant was issued. She was stopped by Springfield police for an
expired registration in July 2006, arrested, and then transferred to the
prison. While being searched, a female corrections officer looked at
Allison's bra and remarked, "Nice bra," according to court
documents. The bra was not returned upon her release eight days later, the
documents said. Allison was arrested in December 2007 and pleaded guilty to a
second DUI, records said. She was sentenced to 15 weekends and strip-searched
upon entering the prison. "During these strip searches, the corrections
officer brings all of the weekend females into a classroom-size room and
strip-searches them one by one in front of all the other females," court
documents said of the Delaware County facility.
March 6,
2010 Philadelphia Enquirer
Saying it is owed $7.3 million, Aramark Corp., the Philadelphia food-services
provider, has sued a New Jersey operator of correctional facilities. In the
suit, Aramark contends Community Education Centers Inc., of West Caldwell,
N.J., has been in default on bills since at least June 2008. Locally, Aramark
services Community Education Centers facilities in Philadelphia, Delaware
County, Reading, and Trenton. Aramark's lawsuit, filed Feb. 18 in U.S.
District Court in Philadelphia, said Community Education Centers was overdue
on $5.2 million of the total, and it requested that a judgment, including interest,
costs, and attorney's fees, be entered in its favor. In an e-mailed statement
yesterday, Community Education Centers said it "does not comment on
pending litigation except to say that the two companies are in negotiations
regarding the matter." Community Education Centers is one of a number of
companies considered likely to bid on a prison privatization contract in
Camden County. Last year, a unit of the company bought options on land in
Camden as a potential site for a new prison, but the site has been ruled out
by county freeholders because of neighborhood protests. The privately held
company, which operates in 19 states, employs 4,500 and services nearly
30,000 individuals, did not comment specifically on the proposed
privatization of Camden County's prison system. Among Community Education
Centers' investors is Philadelphia private-equity firm LLR Partners. The
firm's investment fund, LLR Equity Partners II L.P., in 2007 bought $53
million worth of preferred stock, according to a regulatory filing. LLR
cofounder Seth Lehr, who is on Community Education Centers' board of
directors, said the firm does not comment on companies in its portfolio.
November
19, 2009 Delco Times
A union representing approximately 300 employees at the county-owned
George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Concord recently reached a three-year
contract agreement with the private company the county has hired to run
day-to-day operations at the prison. Members of the Delaware County Prison
Employees Independent Union voted 155-14 Monday to accept the contract, which
offers a 12 percent wage increase over three years, retroactive to June 1.
The contract expires June 2012. Union President Michael Pelleriti
said his members were not happy with the fact that they now have to pay $36
per month for single-coverage health care, but the contract does allow
members to opt out of hospitalization insurance. Overtime and vacation time
will now count as hours worked under the contract, said Pelleriti,
and there is now a disciplinary arbitration procedure in place. “This gives
the members protection against unjust terminations,” he said. “The
negotiations were very difficult and tedious, but we did come away with
something we feel we can live with for the next three years.”
July 18,
2009 Philadelphia Inquirer
Back on the street after a record-setting 14-year jail sentence for contempt,
H. Beatty Chadwick is learning that he needs a quick update on the 21st
century. Like, what's with those cell phones everyone has plugged
to their ears? What's with the Internet? And does he get a PC or a Mac? As
Chadwick, 73, rejoins the "land of the living," he's discovering
all the things that must be done in what has become a "complicated
society." In an interview, he also launched into an unprompted critique
of the 1,800-inmate Delaware County jail. The former Main Line corporate
lawyer was jailed by a Delaware County Court judge in April 1995 for failing
to turn over $2.5 million in alimony to his ex-wife, Barbara
"Bobbie" Applegate. The couple were married for 15 years. Chadwick
contended that he lost the money in a bad overseas investment. The judge
believed Chadwick had hidden the money from his ex-wife and ordered him
jailed until he produced the millions. Court-ordered investigations conducted
since he went to jail have turned up no money. Petitions for release over the
years were denied by numerous judges, who believed he had the money. Last
week, President Judge Joseph P. Cronin Jr. ruled that keeping Chadwick in
jail had lost "coercive effect," even though he thought Chadwick
"had the ability to comply." Standing outside a Lancaster Avenue
cafe in Wayne this week, Chadwick looked at a street he no longer recognized.
The traffic, he said, is worse. He wondered what had happened to a small
grocer he once frequented. Chadwick has e-mail and Internet service to set up
- neither was in wide use when he went to jail - and is busy with mundane
tasks: retrieving belongings from storage, getting the electricity turned on
in his Wilmington apartment . . . and changing all his subscriptions to a new
address. Chadwick was an avid reader in jail, devouring the Wall Street
Journal and the Economist, among others. He was one of about 150 inmates who
held a job at the prison. His first position, assigned a few years after he
arrived, was as the assistant to the official who classified prisoners upon
entry as minimum, medium, or maximum security. For the last six years,
Chadwick worked in the prison library, where he helped inmates with
letter-writing and tutored for GED exams. He also volunteered legal advice.
Chadwick said he was "shocked" how poorly educated some inmates
were. "Writing was one of the hardest things," said Chadwick.
"The idea of writing really flummoxes a lot of people." Some
inmates he encountered dropped out of school in the sixth grade and could
only read on a second-grade level. Others did not know their multiplication
tables. "One thing I missed in jail was not being able to cook,"
said Chadwick, who read Bon Appetit while imprisoned. His first meal on the
outside was a veggie taco from Ruby Tuesday. Next up was a roasted chicken at
home. Cable TV? "I haven't tried [getting] that yet," said
Chadwick, who in jail got by with rabbit ears and a handful of channels. Back
in 1995, a good system had about 50 channels. Pay-per-view was not commonly
used. Chadwick says he was lucky that his son, William, who lives in King of
Prussia, is helping with the transition and providing transportation.
"If I didn't have him, I'd be in great difficulty," he said. The
two grew closer while he was in prison. Chadwick says he has seen other
inmates who have had a difficult transition to post-prison life. When first
released, prisoners without support from family or friends are dumped on a
Chester street corner with "nary a penny" and must fend for
themselves, inmates told him. "They do nothing about trying to get
people jobs, housing, or even their next meal," Chadwick said. At one
point, Chadwick said, the prison dropped former inmates at a mall, but this
was halted after mall managers complained that the former inmates were
stealing from stores, he said. For most of Chadwick's tenure, the county's
George W. Hill Correctional Facility was run by the GEO Group. Community
Education Centers of New Jersey took over the contract in January. Bill
Palatucci, a spokesman for Community Education Centers, said policies,
including release procedures and the maximum jail population, are set by the
county. "We are simply acting as their agent," Palatucci said.
Superintendent John A. Reilly Jr. did not return a call for comment. Linda Cartisano, County Council chair, did not return calls.
Over the years, Chadwick had a number of cellmates. He said one man, unable
to raise $500 bail, spent six months waiting to plead guilty to drug possession.
He said the prison was often overcrowded, with three prisoners sometimes
housed in cells meant for two. He never had more than one cellmate, he said.
June 11,
2009 Delco Times
The daughter of a opiate-addicted man who hanged himself while
incarcerated has filed a lawsuit against the private, for-profit company that
was running the George W. Hill Correctional Facility at the time of his
death. Thomas Bryant, 38, of Lower Chichester, underwent a mental-health
screening and health-services physical examination about 3:15 a.m. Nov. 14,
2007, the day after he was committed to the facility under the management of
Geo Group Inc. It was at that time that Bryant’s “opiate dependency and
narcotics dependence was made known ... but no psychiatric consultation or drug-abuse
treatment was prescribed,” according to the lawsuit, filed June 3 on behalf
of Jessica Bryant at the Media Courthouse and alleging wrongful death. During
his four-day confinement, the lawsuit states, Bryant began to show signs and
symptoms of drug withdrawal — ranging from inability to sleep or eat for
three days, nausea, cold sweats and unbearable pain — but his complaints were
ignored. Alone in his cell on Nov. 16, Bryant hanged himself with linens
provided by the defendants, the suit states. “Had defendants provided Thomas
Bryant with the appropriate medical care for his opiate withdrawal, drug
detoxification, and/or appropriate suicide screening and precautions for
known risks ... Thomas Bryant would have been unable to commit suicide,” the lawsuit
alleges. The GEO Group Inc. is named as a defendant, along with former Warden
Ronald Nardolillo, Classification Counselor Michael
Moore, correctional officers T. Hammett and Connie Danley, Dr. William Purner, and all others responsible for medical care of
Bryant during his confinement from Nov. 13-16. The Geo Group Inc., formerly
Wackenhut Corp., was responsible for day-to-day operations at the 1,900-bed
prison in Concord until January of this year. Nardolillo,
Danley and Purner are no longer with the county
facility, prison Superintendent John Reilly said Wednesday. Though Moore
remains an employee at the prison, the status of the others named in the suit
was not immediately known. Reilly said Wednesday he was unaware of the
lawsuit and had no comment, but was familiar with Bryant. Reilly said
Wednesday he remembered meeting with family and returning belongings the day
after Bryant’s death, which he described as “sad.” Procedure dictates all
lawsuits be forwarded to prison Solicitor Robert D’Orio
on receipt, Reilly said. Neither D’Orio nor anyone
at Geo Group Inc. in Boca Raton, Fla., could be reached for comment after
business hours Wednesday. According to Daily Times archives, Bryant was
remanded to the prison following an arrest in Chester on a probation
violation for drug paraphernalia.
May 14,
2009 Delco Times
Two corrections officers at the county-owned George W. Hill Correctional
Facility in Concord have been suspended pending an investigation into a
fracas May 3, prison officials have confirmed. Details were still vague
Wednesday with an in-house investigation ongoing, but facility Superintendent
John Reilly said there was an allegation that Sgt. Matthew Talley had beaten
an inmate. The district attorney’s Criminal Investigation Division is also investigating,
said spokesman Michael Mattson. A letter to the Daily Times from another
inmate who claimed to have witnessed the event described Talley savagely
beating a handcuffed man until he could no longer stand on his own. Talley’s
attorney, Joe McIntosh, said the man had attacked another officer and his
client’s actions “were defensive as a result of a combative inmate.” “We
cooperated and did an interview with CID and it is our position that any
actions on the part of Mr. Talley were justified by the inmate’s actions,”
said McIntosh. No charges had been filed as of Wednesday. Talley and
Corrections Officer Mark Lombardo have been suspended without pay pending the
investigation. There was no telephone number listed for Lombardo. Bill
Palatucci, spokesman for New Jersey-based Community Education Centers Inc.,
the for-profit company that took over prison operations in January, said the
company is aware of the investigation and will “actively pursue it,” but
could not comment further.
April 1,
2009 Delco Times
A 2008 lawsuit alleging the private, for-profit company that formerly ran the
Delaware County prison routinely violated strip-search prohibitions for minor
offenders will move forward, following a ruling in federal court last week.
The GEO Group Inc., formerly Wackenhut Corp., was responsible for day-to-day
operations at the 1,900-bed George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornton
until January of this year. It is responsible for dozens of jails and similar
facilities nationwide, according to the company’s Web site. Plaintiffs Penny
Allison of Media and Zoran Hocevar of Upper Darby
allege GEO and up to 100 of its employees routinely strip-searched
nonviolent, non-drug offenders entering or transferring into its facilities,
in violation of their Fourth Amendment rights. They are seeking class-action
status and demanding a jury trial. Allison had served 15 weekends at the
facility on a DUI charge, according to the complaint. Each time she entered
the facility, Allison alleges she was strip-searched in front of other female
weekend inmates. Hocevar was arrested for drug
possession in 2005, according to the complaint. This later led to a bench
warrant being issued for Hocevar’s arrest after he
allegedly mistakenly failed to appear for a court date. Hocevar
was arrested on that warrant and transported to county prison, where he was
allegedly strip-searched in front of other detainees. Last year, GEO
successfully petitioned the court to throw out three counts of battery,
intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of
emotional distress. GEO had asked the court to further dismiss three counts
seeking monetary damages for the alleged Fourth Amendment violations, a
demand for declaratory relief regarding those alleged violations, and a demand
for preliminary and permanent injunction for those alleged violations. In his
49-page order, Senior District Judge for the U.S. District Court of the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania Jan E. DuBois went over several standards
set forth by U.S. Supreme Court rulings relative to what privacy, if any,
detainees in a custodial facility could reasonably expect. Chief among them
was a 1984 Supreme Court case relating to the search of prison cells. GEO had
argued that case undermined a 1979 decision that assumed inmates — both
convicted prisoners and pretrial detainees — retained some Fourth Amendment
rights. GEO also argued DuBois should view this suit using a more general
standard of privacy the Supreme Court established in a 1987 ruling, which
would paint the strip-search policy as constitutional, granted it was
“reasonably related to general penological interests.” DuBois rejected both
arguments, however, due to lack of any credible examples the later cases
undermined or overruled the 1979 case. “This court will not disregard
controlling Supreme Court precedent that has not been specifically overruled
by subsequent Supreme Court cases,” wrote DuBois in the order. DuBois also
noted all courts faced with the issue have ruled blanket strip searches of
detainees unreasonable and, therefore, unconstitutional. He noted last week’s
ruling would not prejudice GEO’s ability to argue the constitutionality of
its alleged actions at the summary judgment stage or at trial.
December
22, 2008 Philadelphia Enquirer
AT ONE END of Delaware County's rekindled debate over prison
privatization, you'll find Wally Nunn, a tough-talking fiscal hawk and former
county councilman. At the other, Fay Kallenbach, a
bereaved mother. The George W. Hill Correctional Facility is ground zero. Nunn
led the 1995 effort to privatize the county jail, outsourcing its operation
to the GEO Group, a multinational corrections corporation. He stands by his
decision today, saying the move cut government waste and saved taxpayers
millions of dollars – including the more than $30 million the county saved by
hiring GEO, then called Wackenhut Corrections Corp., to build the current
prison in 1998. "It's a success right there, by definition," Nunn
said. Fay Kallenbach has a different perspective.
She says privatizing the prison has put inmates in the care of a money-hungry
"machine" that cuts corners anywhere it can. Her son, comedian
Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, died in April of
complications from cystic fibrosis while in prison custody. She says he
didn't receive the crucial treatment that had kept him alive for 39 years.
"They definitely killed my son," she said of Florida-based GEO. The
deep philosophical divide between Kallenbach and
Nunn is typical when it comes to prison privatization, a love-it-or-hate-it
concept that pits labor unions against politicians and corporate leaders
against inmate-advocacy groups. Regardless, if Nunn is considered Delaware
County's "father of privatization," his first born remains an only
child in Pennsylvania – and there have been some growing pains lately. In the
12 years since the county handed the jailhouse keys to GEO, no other county
in the state has followed its lead. Now, the company is terminating its
$40-million-a-year contract there, ridden out of town by an onslaught of lawsuits
and inadequate profits. A new firm takes over on New Year's Day. All about
the $$$ -- Prison Superintendent John Reilly Jr. oversees GEO's performance
at the 1,883-bed lockup in Thornton, and he doesn't shy away from discussing
the good, the bad and the ugly. There has been plenty of each, from huge cost
savings and indemnification from civil-rights lawsuits, to filthy showers and
dead inmates. The cost of operating the prison - nearly $45 million when you
factor in the superintendent and his staff – is the single largest
expenditure of county tax dollars in the budget. It is expected to eat up 15
percent of the $303 million budget next year. But GEO has run the prison
cheaper than the county ever could, Reilly said. And outsourcing still saves
the government an estimated $3.2 million a year, according to Delaware County
Executive Director Marianne Grace. By having Reilly and his staff on the
premises, the county's version of privatization is ideal because the
government is able to keep an eye on GEO and implement hefty fines - more
than $700,000 this year - when the jail is understaffed. "Our security,
maintenance and food service is similar to, and in some instances maybe
better, than when the county ran it," Reilly said. Proponents of privatization
say profit-driven companies can eliminate patronage jobs, play hardball with
the labor unions and find new efficiencies without a substantial drop-off in
services. Government officials "tend to hire people that have worked on
their campaigns or political-patronage people," Nunn said.
"Corporations tend to hire people that are competent and capable. They
can manage more effectively than a public entity can." Critics say the
profit incentive is a double-edged sword, and that the industry makes its
money on the backs of inmates and guards by reducing personnel costs and
cutting back on inmate care. "I don't trust them as far as I can throw
them," said Ken Kopczynski, executive director
of the Private Corrections Institute and a lobbyist for the Florida Police Benevolent
Association, a union that represents police and correctional officers.
"All those millions of dollars they are making that are going into
corporate executives' pockets should have been put into inmates
services," he said. Delaware County officials say they are generally
satisfied with GEO's performance here since 1996, with one large caveat: The
medical services in the prison have, at times, fallen woefully short.
Employee turnover in that department has been extremely high in recent years,
Reilly said, and the company has gone through eight health-services
administrators since 2004. As a result, the daily "pill call" for
inmates, for example, is sometimes run by nurses who are incompetent or
overworked, he said, and the backlog of prisoners waiting for medical
attention can exceed 400 cases. "The medical department has
underperformed here," Reilly concedes. GEO has spent an inordinate
amount of time and money fending off federal lawsuits, including
wrongful-death cases. The frequent litigation is one of the main reasons the
company is bailing out on its contract next week. In 2006, the company agreed
to pay $100,000 to the family of Rosalyn Atkinson, a 25-year-old mother of
two who died from a toxic dose of a blood-pressure drug while in prison custody.
In October, GEO agreed to an undisclosed settlement in the case of Cassandra
Morgan, 38, who died in 2006 of complications from an untreated thyroid
condition while jailed on a shoplifting charge. GEO also paid $125,000 in
2005 to the family of a prisoner who hung himself with his bootlaces and
agreed to a $300,000 settlement in 2000 involving another suicide. Fay Kallenbach and her attorney are awaiting more medical
information before deciding whether to move forward with a lawsuit on behalf
of her son, a longtime member of Howard Stern's "Wack
Pack." Prison officials say they are not at fault in his death. While
the Delaware County prison was far from a utopia when it was run by the
county - seven guards were convicted of federal charges stemming from inmate
beatings in 1994 - GEO's correctional officers have compiled a lengthy rap
sheet since the jail was privatized. This year a K-9 officer pleaded guilty
to having sex with an inmate in his pickup truck, and a guard admitted to
sending a forged letter to the state parole board so her boyfriend - a
convicted murderer - could move in with her. In 2006 the jail's former
work-release supervisor, who is now registered under Megan's Law as a sex
offender, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an inmate, and a guard
pleaded guilty in federal court last year to conspiracy to commit bank
robbery. Two other guards were convicted of participating in a 2002 attack on
an inmate who claimed that he was handcuffed and pummeled with a basketball
and that his pants were pulled down. That inmate's attorney, Jon Auritt, has said the incident reminded him of "Abu
Ghraib, except without the dogs." GEO later paid an undisclosed
settlement in that case, though. Prison staff incorrectly released three
inmates between 2002 and 2004, and in 2006, GEO agreed to pay a settlement to
an innocent man who sued the company because he was imprisoned for more than
40 days. It was a case of mistaken identity. GEO officials declined to be
interviewed for this story, as did state Rep. John Perzel,
R-Phila., a paid member of its board of directors. The company did not admit
any wrongdoing in the lawsuits it settled. Pa. counties unreceptive -- In
1998, the state Supreme Court approved the privatization of the Delaware
County prison, ruling against the prison guards' union, which had filed suit
to block the outsourcing. At the time, labor leaders fretted that the ruling
would pave the way for other counties to hire firms to run their own jails.
That never happened. While privatization has taken off in other states,
particularly Texas, the George W. Hill Correctional Facility remains the only
privately-run county prison in Pennsylvania, largely due to strong union
resistance, according to Richard Culp, a prison privatization expert and
professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.
"It's a matter of labor costs, pure and simple," said Culp, who has
worked as a consultant for the Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors.
Beaver County tried to privatize its prison in 2006, but was bombarded by
union opposition. The county lost a ruling by an arbitrator, which was upheld
in Common Pleas Court, according to county Commissioner Charles Camp. Beaver
County officials decided not to appeal the case because the legal bills were
getting so high, he said. "We had everyone coming at us," Camp said
of the unions that fought the privatization proposal. "It would have
saved us a million bucks a year," he said, adding that the county is now
facing a $2 million budget deficit and is planning layoffs. Large corrections
companies increasingly are looking to the federal government for their
profits, and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and other federal
agencies have been expanding their use of private companies in recent years,
Culp said. While Culp recommended that counties and other government agencies
keep a short leash on those firms – as Delaware County does – he said the
industry has become more "professional" since the mid-1990s.
"I think the market has shaken out a lot of the underperformers and poor
performers and people that got into it to make a fast buck," Culp said.
The future is CEC -- Community Education Centers (CEC), a smaller,
privately-held company that specializes in inmate re-entry services, will
replace the GEO Group on Jan. 1 at the Delaware County prison. Based in West
Caldwell, N.J., CEC operates county prisons in Texas, Arizona and Ohio, as
well as treatment centers within publicly-run prisons. In Philadelphia, it
runs Hoffman Hall, a residential re-entry center for city inmates that opened
in July, and Coleman Hall, which runs a work-release program for state
inmates. William Palatucci, a CEC senior vice president, said the Delaware
County prison will become the largest county jail in the company's network.
Most of the existing GEO guards will keep their jobs, and county officials
say that guards that once worked for GEO are interested in coming back now
that the company is leaving. CEC made headlines in 2004 when a Coleman Hall
resident was shot to death in his room, and the company is being sued by the
Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project on behalf of several inmates who said
they were denied adequate medical care there. Palatucci declined to comment
on the litigation, but said the company planned to bring to the Delaware
County prison a "renewed commitment to quality operations." "I
think competition is good for everybody. It keeps the public sector and
private sector on their toes," he said. "At the end of the day,
that's good for the taxpayer." Robert Eskind,
spokesman for the Philadelphia Prison System, said the city is "pleased
so far" with CEC's performance at Hoffman Hall. County officials say CEC
could be a better fit than GEO at their jail, particularly because the
company has experience in reducing recidivism. Overcrowding has long been a
problem there. John Hosier, chairman of the county Board of Prison
Inspectors, is optimistic about the changing of the guard, but warned against
unrealistic expectations. "We can hope for the best," Hosier said,
"but it is a jail."
November
14, 2008 Delco Times
The victim remained shackled Thursday and the defendant was free, but
that will change after an ex-Delaware County prison correctional officer was
sentenced to three to 23 months in jail for having sex with a 25-year-old
female inmate earlier this year. Michael Waters, 38, of 200 block of South
Church Street, Clifton Heights, will report Monday to his former work site —
the Delaware County prison, after Judge William R. Toal
Jr. imposed the sentence. “Frankly, I am appalled at this type of conduct,”
said the judge. “He (Waters) certainly abused his position.” The judge
allowed Waters to remain free until Monday to allow time for him to handle
personal matters, as well as to alert the prison to security concerns and possibly
make arrangements for him to be moved to another facility. Waters, who was
employed with the GEO Group that was running the county prison at the time,
had sexual trysts with the woman while she was on work release off the prison
grounds. As Waters was being sentenced, the dark-haired victim, who was
transported from the prison, sat on one side of the courtroom staring
straight ahead. The defendant’s wife, who is confined to a wheelchair, was on
the other side sobbing. Neither gave a statement in court. Deputy District
Attorney Michael Galantino recommended the jail
stint, calling the sentence “appropriate” considering the charges against
Waters. The defendant pleaded guilty in July to a charge of institutional
sexual abuse. “When somebody is in charge of supervising inmates and takes
advantage of one as he did, it disrupts the entire system,” Galantino said outside the courtroom. Defense attorney
Ronald Smith said that Waters is the father of two sons, one of whom suffers
from epilepsy. He asked the court for leniency, citing the needs of his
family, as well as Waters’ cooperation from the beginning. Waters appeared
remorseful as he looked back at his wife and mother, who were in court
together. “I apologize to everybody I affected — my family and the people at
work,” he said. He lamented he lost his job, is losing his home and said his
family is dependent on him. Outside the courtroom, Galantino
said he sympathized with the family, but maintained that Waters should have
thought about them before he committed the crime. “It’s always amazing when
someone doesn’t consider the family while committing the crime, and then at
the sentencing presents their family’s needs as a reason for leniency,” said Galantino. “It is clear he has hurt more than one
victim.” Galantino said the sentence took into
consideration Waters’ cooperation. “The (state’s recommended) guidelines
could have gone higher,” he said. Smith called the crime an “aberration” on
the part of his client, stating he had a “spotless record.” The defense
attorney sought a probationary term. At the time of the plea, Galantino said there was no allegation of force. The law
provides that a person employed at a correctional institution commits a crime
if there is sexual intercourse with an inmate or detainee. Prison
Superintendent John Reilly Jr. said that Waters had been employed since Nov.
16, 1998, with the GEO Group. He was earning $16 an hour at the time he was
terminated last March, after the charges surfaced. Waters was arrested after
the female inmate told authorities that while she was on work release, she
and Waters would hook up off of the prison grounds. She told investigators
she first met Waters while he was patrolling at the prison and she told him
where she would be working that day. He replied, “Maybe I’ll stop by,”
according to a court document. She said Waters picked her up on at least four
occasions for sex between Feb. 25 and March 20, according to the court
document.
October
28, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
A 44-year-old East Lansdowne man hanged himself Saturday inside his cell
at the Delaware County prison, authorities said. The privatized jail is run
by the GEO Group, which has settled several wrongful-death lawsuits there in
recent years, including one suicide. Citing frequent litigation and other
reasons, the company announced in August that it is ending its agreement to
operate the prison in early January, a year before its contract expires.
October
24, 2008 Philadelphia Daily News
The Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors didn't have much of a
choice yesterday in deciding which company would run the George W. Hill
Correctional Facility next year. Only one firm in the country was willing to
assume the $40 million annual contract left behind by the Florida-based GEO
Group, which is skipping town amid a flurry of costly lawsuits and an
inability to turn a substantial profit at the 1,883-bed county lockup. The
five-member board awarded the contract to Community Education Centers (CEC),
a smaller company that specializes in inmate re-entry programs and, according
to its Web site, "believes in the opportunity for redemption" and
providing "second chances" to ex-offenders. John Reilly, the jail's
acting superintendent, who oversees GEO's performance on the county's behalf,
said that CEC will begin managing the prison on Jan. 5 and is expected to
retain most of the 500 GEO employees. The prison, located in Thornbury, has been operated by GEO, formerly Wackenhut
Corrections Corp., since 1996 and is the state's only privatized county jail.
The cost of running the prison - about $43.8 million this year - is the
single largest expenditure of county tax dollars in Delaware County's $316
million annual budget. But officials say that the public-private partnership
has saved taxpayers millions. After getting word in August that GEO was
bailing out on its contract, which ran through 2009, the prison board asked
11 companies if they wanted to give it a shot.
October
23, 2008 Delco Times
An out-of-court settlement was ironed out Wednesday in the federal civil
suit over the death of Cassandra Morgan, whose family maintained she was
improperly treated for a debilitating mental illness and a hypothyroid
condition while an inmate at Delaware County’s prison leading to her 2006
death. The terms of the settlement reached over the noon recess included a
confidentiality clause, according to attorney James Mundy, who represented
the victim’s family. “We are barred from discussing the outcome,” said Mundy.
All he would say is that the parties were “satisfied.” U.S. District Court
Judge Berle M. Schiller told the jury about 2 p.m.,
following four days of testimony, their services were no longer needed and
“the case has been resolved.” At the start of the proceedings Wednesday,
before the jury was brought in, Schiller indicated the trial could go into
next week because of the unavailability of a witness for the defendant’s
side. He said such an extension would pose a “hardship” on the jurors who
were told the trial would end by Friday. “I don’t think anyone wants to retry
this case,” said Schiller. The judge said that problem could be remedied by
alternatives, including converting the proceedings to a bench trial and
allowing him to make the final ruling. He then advised both sides that
talking to each other could “eliminate” the need for a bench trial. Earlier,
Schiller reportedly dismissed parties originally named in the lawsuit except
for Dr. Grato Paneque, a
psychiatrist employed at the prison, as well as the Delaware County Board of
Prison Inspectors and the GEO group, a Florida company that operated the
prison while Morgan, 38, was an inmate there on a shoplifting offense.
Morgan, who was in jail for six weeks, died at Riddle Memorial Hospital after
suffering a seizure at the prison and lapsing into a coma in her jail cell.
Carolyn Short, the attorney representing the prison board, presented one
witness Wednesday — Dr. Peter Crino, a neurologist
who heads the Epilepsy Center for the University of Pennsylvania. Crino, testifying as an expert, discounted claims the
prison was at fault for failing to properly treat Morgan before her March 29,
2006, death. However, on cross-examination by Mundy, the attorney cast doubt
on some of the records that Crino used in arriving
at his conclusion. Mundy said one of the reports indicated the patient
“walked in” and was “pregnant.” He said Riddle’s computer had mixed the
medical report on Morgan, who was not pregnant and came to the hospital by
ambulance on a stretcher with the record of another patient. Crino was to be re-examined by Short following the
luncheon recess. However, it wasn’t necessary once the settlement was
reached.
October
22, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
A nurse who cared for Cassandra "Sandy" Morgan at the Delaware
County jail told jurors in a federal courtroom yesterday that she wanted to
do more for her but was limited by the law. "I just wanted her so badly
to go to psychiatric hospital," Maureen Hoffman, a nurse at the George
W. Hill Correctional Facility, testified at the civil trial. But each time
Hoffman spoke with the jail staff psychologist, she said, he reminded her:
"We can't. Nobody is going to take her." Morgan, 38, of Aston, died
after she suffered a seizure at the jail on March 25, 2006. Morgan suffered
from paranoid schizophrenia and did not tell jail staff that she had a
thyroid condition and needed medication. She died after five weeks of
incarceration without her medication. Her family has sued the county Board of
Prison Inspectors and the company that operates the jail, arguing that Morgan
should have been sent for outside psychiatric help. Yesterday, Hoffman and
forensic psychiatrist Kenneth Weiss testified that the jail did everything
possible for Morgan within state law.
October
21, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
The Delaware County medical examiner yesterday defended his conclusion
that an easily treatable thyroid condition caused the death of a 38-year-old
Aston woman at the county jail. Cassandra "Sandy" Morgan died in
March 2006 after being held for five weeks at the George W. Hill Correctional
Facility on a shoplifting charge. Morgan had schizophrenia and did not tell
jail staff that she needed a thyroid-replacement hormone. Her family has sued
the jail in U.S. District Court, arguing that its staff should not have
depended on Morgan as the sole historian of her medical past and should have
called 911 more quickly when she suffered a seizure. Lawyers for the Morgan
family wrapped up their presentation of testimony yesterday with Morgan's
younger sister, Erika, and the medical examiner, Frederic Hellman. Hellman,
who performed an autopsy on Morgan, said she suffered a slow decline during
her incarceration because she did not receive the hormone. Without the
medication, her metabolism slowed and her blood pressure and heart rate
dropped, along with her temperature, eventually causing a seizure, he
testified. Soon after jail medical staff transferred Morgan to Riddle
Memorial Hospital, she was severely hypothermic, with a temperature of 82.8
degrees, according to hospital records. But John Gonzales, who represents
jail staffers named in the suit, argued that Morgan did not show the classic
symptoms of hypothroidism: cold, dry skin, loss of
hair, weight, gain and low body temperature. Nurses who checked Morgan's
vital signs during her incarceration found her temperature within normal
range and her skin warm and pink, according to nursing logs.
October
18, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
Cassandra "Sandy" Morgan, who was arrested for stealing from a
Wal-Mart that she believed she owned, should have been taken to a hospital,
not a jail, a psychiatrist testified in federal court yesterday. Morgan, 38,
of Aston, suffered from schizophrenia, and her condition had grown worse when
the police caught her trying to take toys in February 2006. "I think she
was a medical psychiatric emergency from the minute she was taken into that
prison," said Eric Fine, a clinical psychiatrist and associate professor
at Jefferson Medical College. The psychiatric care she received during her
five-week incarceration at the Delaware County jail was "an incompetent
level," Fine testified yesterday. Morgan died of complications from a
thyroid condition for which she did not receive medication while in jail. Her
family has sued the George W. Hill Correctional Facility and the GEO Group, a
Florida-based company that operates the jail. Fine testified as an expert for
the plaintiff. Lawyers for the jail argue that Morgan was appropriately cared
for at the jail: She was visited four times by contracting psychiatrists who
prescribed antipsychotic medication. She was housed in the infirmary, where
nurses monitored her and correctional officers looked in on her every 15
minutes. Morgan did not tell jail staff that she had a thyroid condition, and
although several of her siblings said they talked to a jail counselor about
the medications Morgan needed, the jail contends that it never knew. Defense
lawyers also argue that Morgan did not pose a clear and immediate danger to
herself or others, and therefore could not have been committed to a hospital
because she did not meet the legal standard. Fine disagrees. He faulted the
two psychiatrists who saw her, Grato Paneque and Hani Zaki, for
trusting Morgan to give them an accurate medical and mental health history.
Had they investigated her past, they would have found that she had been
hospitalized 14 times in the three years before her arrest and had been
released from Crozer-Chester Medical Center nine days before her arrest, Fine
testified. With her medical history in hand, Fine added, doctors might have
seen that Morgan's case required more proactive measures than simply
prescribing medication and observing her. "If you don't have the history
in a psychiatric patient, you know virtually nothing," Fine testified.
"Cassandra Morgan was not capable of presenting her history."
Morgan refused to take her psychiatric medication during her incarceration
and became more withdrawn, a sign that she was in acute mental distress, Fine
said. "We're always sensitive when patients change from agitated to
withdrawn," Fine said, adding it's a signal that "thoughts are
going on that are not being shared." The plaintiff's attorneys are
expected to wrap up their case Monday. The defense will present its case next
week.
October
16, 2008 Delco Times
A psychiatrist employed at Delaware County prison testified in federal
court Wednesday that Cassandra Lynn Morgan was “obviously delusional,” but
stated he could not force her to take her medications. Dr. Grato Paneque testified during
day two of the trial in the lawsuit over Cassandra Lynn “Sandy” Morgan’s
death on March 29, 2006. Morgan, who was diagnosed as a paranoid
schizophrenic, died after lapsing into a coma on the floor of her jail cell
at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility about six weeks after being
arrested for shoplifting. Morgan, 38, who was imprisoned for six weeks
without a preliminary hearing, died at Riddle Memorial Hospital. Delaware
County Medical Examiner Fredric N. Hellman ruled Morgan’s death was caused by
complications from a hypothyroid condition, which was not treated during her
incarceration. Morgan’s family filed the civil suit in 2007 against the GEO
Group that operates the county prison, Delaware County Board of Prison
Inspectors and several physicians, among others. The suit alleges her death
was the result of the prison’s failure to treat her thyroid condition.
Morgan’s family is seeking unspecified damages. Paneque
testified that Morgan, who was housed in the prison’s infirmary, told him of
her psychiatric history, but did not say anything about her medical condition.
He said Morgan refused to take her psychiatric medication, not uncommon for
paranoid schizophrenics. “I cannot force medication against their will unless
there is imminent danger to her self or others,”
said Paneque, who was hired by the GEO Group to
provide psychiatric services to inmates. Morgan, he said, did not appear to
be a danger to anyone. Testimony by Paneque and Dr.
John Fraunces, a retired prison psychologist,
painted a very sad picture of a mentally ill woman behind prison bars. Both
said that since most mental hospitals were shuttered years ago, prisons have
become the mental hospital of last resort. “It’s a lot cheaper to house a
person in a prison than a state mental hospital,” said Fraunces.
Dr. William Purner, the current medical director of
the prison, said he was the acting medical director working part time in
March 2006 when Morgan was incarcerated. Purner
testified he never saw Morgan as a patient at the prison. It was only after
she was brought to Riddle, where he was on staff, that he treated her as a
patient. It was then, Purner said, he got Morgan’s
medical history from her family. Purner testified
that as a prison physician, he is not permitted to solicit information about
a prisoner’s medical history. James F. Mundy, attorney for the plaintiffs,
questioned Purner about a two-week period during
which Morgan’s vital signs were not taken. “Was that routine procedure?” he
asked. “That’s not a standard of care of any individual under any condition,”
Purner replied. “No medical doctor ever examined
Cassandra Morgan during the entire six weeks Cassandra Morgan was at the
prison?” Mundy asked. “I found no notes to that effect,” Purner
stated. Mundy also reviewed documents that indicated the prison nursing staff
believed Morgan’s condition was deteriorating. On March 21, eight days before
Morgan died, a nurse wrote in the infirmary log that her body temperature was
92.7 degrees. Purner testified that if he had seen
that temperature, he’d have asked a nurse to take it again. He added that it
is possible the notation was an error. After that entry, there is a 12-hour
gap in the log as the records are missing, something Purner
acknowledged.
October
15, 2008 Philadelphia Daily News
A lawyer for the family of Cassandra "Sandy" Morgan, a mentally ill
woman who died two years ago after having been held for five weeks in the
Delaware County prison, asked a jury yesterday to give Morgan the
"justice she never received from" prison officials and doctors who
worked for the prison. Morgan, 38, died in Riddle Memorial Hospital on March
29, 2006, four days after she lapsed into a coma at the prison. She died as a
result of complications caused by hypothyroidism, a condition in which the
thyroid gland doesn't produce enough of certain important hormones. Morgan's
family filed suit in federal district court in July 2007, alleging that her
death resulted from the prison's failure to give her medication for the
thyroid problem and to follow its own rules. The family is seeking
unspecified damages. The trial is expected to last two weeks.
October
7, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
Sandy Morgan didn't have a receipt when she walked out of the Boothwyn
Wal-Mart with more than $500 worth of dolls, toys and girls' clothes. In her
mind, she didn't need one. She owned Wal-Mart, she
told a manager who tried to stop her. Sandy knew things others didn't. She
knew she owned many stores and she knew the television transmitted demons.
She took care to protect her family: She threatened the demons with knives
and a broken mop handle; she threw away food she was sure was poisoned. It
was a strain, fighting things no one else saw. Once her sisters watched as
Sandy wandered into the street and looked up at the sky. She asked God to
take her. But that February afternoon in 2006, it was the police who took
Sandy. Arrested for shoplifting, the 38-year-old college graduate from Aston
was ordered held on $10,000 bail and taken to the Delaware County jail.
Within the first hours of Sandy's incarceration, a physician's assistant
guessed she might be mentally retarded. Within a day, a doctor diagnosed her
as schizophrenic. Within eight days, a psychiatrist declared her incompetent
to stand trial. While the court waited for a competency report, Sandy waited
in jail. For five weeks, she saw no visitors. She never went outside. She hid
under covers and stared at the walls. She went two weeks without a shower
because the nurses were afraid to go near her. "Time to get out!"
Sandy told a nurse after a week in jail. After two weeks, "Are you here for
Jesus?" After a month, "Is [that] a horse over there?" If a
local hospital hadn't released Sandy from its psychiatric ward weeks earlier,
she might not have been arrested. If she had threatened to kill the Wal-Mart
employees, or herself, the police could have taken her to a hospital. If jail
officials had called Sandy's family, they might have known what was wrong
when she collapsed in her cell, her arms and legs flailing, her body cold.
But Sandy wasn't lucky like that. A grim diagnosis -- Later, Sandy's story
would come out slowly, in dozens of depositions, after her family sued the
jail, the company that runs it, and the hospital that released her weeks
before her arrest. There would be many sides to the tale, a tangle that a
jury is scheduled to work out next week. But it started in 1985, when Sandy
was 17 and heading off to York College. That's when her family noticed
something was wrong. The sixth of seven children, Cassandra "Sandy"
Morgan had been a bright, fearless child with a vivid imagination. She
excelled in school, played field hockey, ran track, and loved writing and
singing contests. She wanted to be a nurse. But the summer after she
graduated from Chester High School, she became afraid. She told her younger
sister, Erika, that someone was trying to break into their house. In her dorm
room, she saw spiders crawling on the walls. Sandy's brother James, seven
years her senior, was a rookie in the York Police Department in 1986 when he
received a call from campus that Sandy had been raped. He rushed to the
hospital. But doctors found no evidence of assault. After prolonged
questioning and numerous tests, they diagnosed Sandy, then 18, with paranoid
schizophrenia. They prescribed Haldol, a psychotropic drug. Sandy tried to go
back to school, but the hallucinations drove her home to her mother and
sisters Erika and Jamie. She wrote poetry about her struggle to hold on to
her dreams that was published in an anthology in 1988. At home, Sandy found
purpose in caring for her diabetic mother, who was bedridden. Willie Mae
Morgan needed insulin shots, which all three sisters helped to administer.
Sandy often bathed her mother and helped prepare her meals. The regular
schedule helped Sandy remember when to take her medications. She stayed
active. She played piano and attended church. She tried to teach herself how
to speak Chinese. Sandy eventually returned to school, attending class part
time until graduating from Neumann College in 1999 with a bachelor's degree
in liberal arts. Her whole family went to her commencement. Erika, three
years her junior, watched Sandy smile for the cameras, "chest pumped out
and posing." A mind unravels -- In March 2003, Sandy's mother died of
pancreatic cancer. Sandy was devastated. She stopped eating. She slept fitfully.
She refused her medications - not just the Haldol, but the Synthroid doctors
had prescribed two years earlier for hypothyroidism. The condition was easily
manageable with drugs, but if untreated, it could lead to coma, even death.
Without her mother to care for, the hours and days fell out of a recognizable
pattern. Without her medication, her hallucinations and delusions flourished.
"God is talking to me," she told Erika and Jamie, who also still
lived in their mother's house on Jennifer Lane. "Come with me to see God
and the angels." She thought the family dog was the devil. Her sisters
caught her choking it. She worried that Satan had taken over her family and
would harm her nephews and nieces. Once she chased Erika down a hallway with
an 8-inch butcher knife, screaming, "Who are you?" Her family sent
her to Crozer-Chester Medical Center 13 times in three years, committing her
against her will to the psychiatric ward. They wanted the old Sandy back, and
they hoped the doctors could persuade her to take her medicine. But five, 20,
even 90 days in the hospital never seemed to be enough. Each time she
returned home, Sandy's interactions with the world in her mind became more
frightening. On Jan. 19, 2006, Sandy's sisters heard a loud crash. They ran
to the kitchen and saw Sandy break a mop handle across her hip. She swung the
broken sections ather sisters, saying, "Demons
get out, demons get out!" Jamie and Erika called the police, who took
Sandy to Crozer-Chester, where orderlies stood by ready to restrain her. A
social worker noted that Sandy was "psychotic, paranoid, refusing
antipsychotic medication, and a danger to herself and others."
Crozer-Chester asked permission to hold Sandy for up to 90 days for
treatment, which the Delaware County court granted. In his reports, Rommel
Rivera, Sandy's attending psychiatrist, said she should be forced to take her
psychotropic medication. On her first day there, she was given an injection
of Geodon. She later agreed to take Risperdal, Klonopin
and injections of Haldol. But that wouldn't last. Rivera suggested that
Sandy's frequent hospitalizations showed she might need more help. He
suggested sending her to Norristown State Hospital. She could be held at the
psychiatric hospital for more than 90 days - long enough, her family hoped,
to get her back on her meds. A social worker met with Sandy and her sisters
on Jan. 26 to discuss Norristown. Sandy, who had become less agitated after
the injections, agreed to go if she could take her keyboard and her Bible.
The three sisters hugged one another tightly. Sandy smiled, something Jamie
and Erika hadn't seen her do in a while. "You are finally going to get
the help that you need," Jamie told her. But four days after the family
meeting, another psychiatrist, Usha Kotihal,
inexplicably took over Sandy's care – a change neither doctor was later able
to explain. Kotihal determined that Sandy's mental
state had improved and that she no longer posed a threat to herself or
others, she later testified in a deposition. She gave Sandy a 100-milligram
injection of Haldol decanoate - a long-acting drug with a half-life of three
weeks - and sent her home on Feb. 7, 2006. Erin King, Sandy's case manager,
later testified that she couldn't believe it. During the car ride home, Sandy
was laughing and talking to the voices in her head. "What's so
funny?" King remembered asking her. "Wanna
let me in on the joke?" "No," Sandy said. Nine days later,
Sandy, convinced she owned Wal-Mart, was arrested. Hospital or jail? More
than 70 percent of the patients in state psychiatric hospitals suffer from
schizophrenia. Mental-health officials often struggle to get patients
adequate treatment, given the national trend away from institutions and
toward residential care. Without medication, schizophrenics relapse within
six weeks, on average, said Amy Brodkey, a
psychiatrist who directed the mental-health court at Eastern Pennsylvania
Psychiatric Institute for six years. "It affects people's thinking, it
affects their emotion, their cognition," Brodkey
said. "The prognosis is still not good." Under state law, a person
must pose a "clear and present danger" of bodily harm to himself,
herself or others within the last 30 days to be committed to a hospital. Many
wind up in jail, as police officers decide what to do with someone who broke
the law but is not necessarily dangerous. A conundrum -- At the police
station, Detective Tom McNichol and another officer asked Sandy to empty her
pockets and sit on a bench outside the station's three cells. As McNichol
called her house, Sandy asked for her Bible back. Later, McNichol testified
that he called Jamie, who told him that Sandy was supposed to be going to the
hospital. She gave him a number to contact Erin King. According to McNichol,
Jamie told him Sandy was no longer welcome at home. "What are we
supposed to do with her?" McNichol said he asked. "I don't care
what you do with her," Jamie said, according to McNichol. Jamie denies
that. In her testimony, she said she didn't know of Sandy's arrest until she
heard a message the police left on her answering machine later that night.
She testified that she did not go to the station to see her sister because it
was late. McNichol called King. Could she pick Sandy up and have her
committed to the hospital? King told him it wasn't possible. Sandy wasn't a
threat to herself or others, so she could not be committed against her will.
"We can't release her to the streets," McNichol recalled thinking.
The police charged Sandy with retail theft, defiant trespass (she'd been
warned previously not to bother employees at the Wal-Mart), and disorderly
conduct. During her video arraignment, Sandy told Judge Stephanie Klein,
"I'm the boss. I'll put you in jail," McNichol said in an
interview. The prosecutor wrote "crazy" on her copy of the charges.
Klein ordered a competency evaluation and set bail at $10,000. Sandy was then
taken to the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornton, southwest of
Media, the state's only privately operated jail. Ten thousand dollars is a
high bail for a retail theft charge for someone with no arrest record,
Montgomery County chief public defender Stephen Heckman said. "If she
had no mental-health issues, she would not have gone to jail. Not for retail
theft," Heckman said. "It's almost doing them a favor . . . it may be
the quickest route to treatment." A question of competence -- The
Delaware County jail, a 1,883-bed facility, is required by contract to adhere
to basic national medical guidelines. Upon arrival, inmates are typically
given a physical and mental-health evaluation and tested for communicable
diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV. When Sandy arrived, she told the
corrections officers she was innocent. When she struggled, two officers
wrestled her to the ground and handcuffed her, according to jail logs. The
officers took Sandy to a physician's assistant, Lisa Black, who asked Sandy
about her medical history. Sandy appeared confused and was combative, she
noted. Black asked Sandy whether she was taking medication or under the care
of a doctor. No, was the answer. Had she ever had high blood pressure,
diabetes or a psychiatric disorder? No. Had she been hospitalized for an
emotional or nervous problem? "None of your business," Sandy said,
according to Black's intake form and testimony. Black decided Sandy was mentally
retarded or mentally ill; she later said she believed Sandy was unable to
tell her what her diagnosis was. Jail medical officials depend almost
exclusively on inmates to tell them about their health. At the Delaware
County jail, the medical staff is not required to check out inmates' medical
histories. Inmates can decline medical care. Whether an inmate is mentally
capable to help manage his or her medical care is for jail staff to decide.
According to the policies of the GEO Group Inc., which ran the jail, mentally
unstable inmates should be transported immediately to a hospital. But finding
beds can be difficult. Not dangerous enough -- Black assigned Sandy to a room
in the infirmary on suicide watch, figuring she was mentally ill, she later
testified. Officers looked in on Sandy every 15 minutes to make sure she
wasn't hurting herself and had not fallen ill. The next day, Sandy admitted
to psychiatrist Grato Paneque
that she had been on medication. When Paneque
visited again four days later, Sandy said she had been hospitalized,
according to Paneque's records. Sandy did not say
she had schizophrenia, but the psychiatrists who visited her during her first
days in jail gathered as much and prescribed Risperdal. Sandy did not mention
her hypothyroidism. The last time she is known to have taken her Synthroid
prescription was on Feb. 2 at Crozer-Chester. Even in the last five days of
her hospital stay, she refused it. None of the psychiatrists or medical staff
who met with Sandy at the jail called her family to determine what
medications she was taking. No one contacted the doctors who had treated her
at Crozer-Chester, where she had been hospitalized more than a dozen times.
The county employs two mental-health liaisons at the jail to help inmates,
yet jail officials say they had no contact with Sandy's caretakers in the
infirmary. Sandy's brother James and three of her sisters said they called
the jail to find out what was happening. Lisa and Jamie Morgan testified that
they told a jail social worker about Sandy's thyroid condition. They hoped
that once Sandy was declared incompetent to stand trial, she would be
transferred to Norristown State Hospital. Sandy's caseworker, Erin King,
indicated in her phone log that on Feb. 23 she spoke with Kirk Benson, a
mental-health liaison at the prison. King said she told him that Sandy had
schizophrenia and suffered from hypothyroidism. Benson testified that he
didn't remember speaking to King. A counselor arranged for James Morgan to
talk to his sister. "I don't belong here," Sandy told him. "I
know," James remembers telling her. "I'm working on it." James
continued to call Sandy's public defender for updates. None of her family
members posted the $1,000 it would have cost to bail Sandy out of jail. James
said he thought he needed the full $10,000. His sisters said they didn't ask
about bail because they did not understand the process. They did not try to
see Sandy, either, because they thought inmates in the infirmary could not
have visitors. A psychiatrist the county hired evaluated Sandy on Feb. 24 and
determined that she was not competent to stand trial. It took several weeks
for the report to be transcribed and sent to her public defender, a delay
that is not uncommon. Meanwhile, Sandy became more withdrawn and hostile. She
hid under blankets in her cell. She fought nurses who tried to take her vital
signs. They wrote "caution" next to her name in infirmary logs. One
nurse said that Sandy was sometimes "wild-looking." During 59
nursing shifts, Sandy's vitals were recorded only 17 times. Nursing notes say
she would ask for showers and was "malodorous," but was denied
because she was too hostile. Records show she showered just four times in
five weeks. On Feb. 26, a nurse wrote in the infirmary log, "needs
302," referring to the state mental-health law that allows for a person
to be hospitalized against his or her will. The next day, and again on March
2, nurses noted "302?" On March 21, a nurse wrote that Sandy was
getting worse and refusing medication. On March 22, a nurse scribbled,
"Wrote in toothpaste, delusional," and "psychotic, poor
impulse control." Two days later, Michael Harper, another public
defender, petitioned the court to have Sandy transferred to Norristown State
Hospital. All things considered, Sandy's case was moving along quickly,
Harper said. "A two-month turnaround is about the best we can do,"
he later testified. But for Sandy, it wasn't fast enough. Unexplained
collapse -- The next day, March 25, Officer Rasheeda Hackett walked past Sandy's
cell about 3:15 a.m. and saw her gripping the sink, her legs shaking. Then
she fell. By the time a nurse reached her, Sandy was convulsing. She bit her
tongue. Her eyes were open, looking to the right. She was incontinent. Sandy
had no history of seizures. When she stopped flailing, she was put on a
stretcher and taken to another room in the medical wing. Black, the
physician's assistant who had placed Sandy in the medical wing five weeks
earlier, administered Dilantin, an antiseizure drug. No one contacted the doctor
on call that night or dialed 911. Instead, medical staff took Sandy's blood
pressure, pulse and heart and respiration rate. Ammonia revived her somewhat,
but she did not respond to pain or to her name. Seizures in an adult not
known to have a history of them should be treated as an emergency, said
Christopher Rees, an attending physician in the emergency department at
Pennsylvania Hospital. The patient should be immediately taken to a hospital
to determine what caused the seizure and whether it stopped, he said. About
4:15 a.m., a nurse noticed that Sandy's pupils were not responding to light,
indicating possible brain death. "It means you're dying or dead,"
Rees said. "That's the end." But the jail medical staff didn't call
911 until 4:42 a.m., an hour and a half after Sandy collapsed. In the
ambulance, Sandy had another seizure. When she arrived at Riddle Memorial
Hospital, her body temperature had dropped to 82.8 degrees. Machines kept her
alive for four days while her family gathered to say goodbye. Before the
hospital disconnected Sandy, before her organs were harvested for transplant,
James sat next to his sister and wept. He hugged her, stroking her hand and
her face. "I'm so sorry," he told her. A long deterioration -- The
autopsy revealed that Sandy died from profound hypothyroidism with probable
myxedema coma, an end stage of hypothyroidism that causes a firm swelling in
body tissues. About half of the people who develop myxedema coma die, said
David Cooper, director of the Johns Hopkins Thyroid Clinic. Hypothyroidism
means the thyroid gland does not produce enough hormone to maintain body
functions at a normal pace. It is one of the most common conditions in
internal medicine, said Stephen Rosen, chief of endocrinology at Pennsylvania
Hospital. The condition usually results when the immune system mistakenly
attacks the thyroid gland. In the days leading to Sandy's death, her heart
rate must have slowed and her blood pressure may have dropped, Cooper said.
She likely started breathing more slowly. Her voice may have lowered or
become hoarse as her larynx became engorged from the swelling. Her
extremities were probably cold to the touch as her body shifted blood flow to
preserve her vital organs, Rosen said. Four days before Sandy collapsed, a
nurse recorded her temperature at 92.7 degrees, according to jail records.
The nurse, Maureen Hoffman, testified that it was a transcription error. But
Cooper, who is not involved in Sandy's case, said hypothyroidism takes a long
time to kill, probably longer even than the five weeks Sandy was in jail. A
check of Sandy's vital signs should have indicated to nurses that something
was wrong. "I can guarantee you her temperature was not normal the day
before," he said. "I can guarantee you it was not normal a week before."
Body temperature that drops to 95 degrees or lower is a red flag, Rosen said.
Suicide-watch logs kept by jail officers who looked in on Sandy every 15
minutes are missing for the final three days she was at the George W. Hill
Correctional Facility. Records listing the drugs Sandy was offered are
missing for March, legal documents show. Wide-reaching suit -- In July 2007,
Sandy Morgan's family filed a lawsuit in federal court against several jail
staff, Delaware County, Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Usha Kotihal, and GEO. In August, GEO announced that, in part
due to the high cost of litigation, it would end its involvement at the jail
at the end of the year. The lawsuit is set to go to trial next week. Harold
Goodman, the lead attorney representing the Morgan family, accuses Kotihal of "abandoning" Sandy, discharging her
without proper prescriptions, a post-treatment plan, or a call to the family
explaining why she was not being sent to the state hospital. Morgan's family
argues that the jail was ill-prepared to care for their sister and should
have sent her to a mental-health facility. Amalia Romanowicz,
a lawyer representing Kotihal and Crozer-Chester,
declined to comment. In her court motions she argued that Kotihal
and the hospital did what was required of them by law: They treated Sandy
until she was no longer a threat to herself and others. Kotihal,
in her deposition, said that although Sandy was still showing signs of
psychosis upon discharge, she had returned to her "base line." In
their court motions, lawyers for the GEO Group and jail staff dispute the
cause of death, saying that Sandy showed no signs of medical distress until
she collapsed. They said it was her and her family's responsibility to inform
them of her thyroid condition. Suicide watch -- Throughout Sandy's 38-day
incarceration, corrections officers looked into her cell every 15 minutes and
noted her activities using codes. On the morning of Feb. 25, Sandy was Code
2, "yelling or screaming." On March 5, she walked around for much of
the afternoon, singing, cursing, and talking to herself. But most times,
officers looked in to see that Sandy, who had only a toothbrush and a Bible
in her cell, wasn't doing anything. During entire eight-hour shifts, officers
noted Sandy was Code 8, standing still, or Code 10 and 11, sitting or lying
quietly in bed. Sandy Morgan, who was dangerous enough to be locked up in
jail on suicide watch but not dangerous enough to be sent to a hospital, died
in front of officers who checked her every 15 minutes of each day.
September
19, 2008 AP
A wrongful-death lawsuit can proceed against doctors and a private prison
where a schizophrenic woman collapsed and later died after weeks in the
infirmary, a federal judge ruled. Meanwhile, the company that runs the nearly
1,900-bed Delaware County Prison near Philadelphia is ending its 12-year
management of the site, citing frequent litigation and higher-than-expected
costs. At least six of the prison's inmates have died of unnatural causes or
questionable circumstances since 2001, according to news accounts. They
include the April death of comedian Kenneth Keith Kallenbach,
a Howard Stern sidekick who died of complications from cystic fibrosis at age
39. The prison is run by the Geo Group Inc., formerly known as Wackenhut
Corrections Corp., which runs about 50 corrections and immigration sites in
the United States. In the latest wrongful-death case, U.S. District Judge Berle M. Shiller ruled this month that a jury could find
the prison's contract doctors, along with a hospital doctor and others,
negligent in the care of Cassandra Morgan. Morgan, 38, had a long history of
schizophrenia and also suffered from a serious thyroid condition. She was
hospitalized at Chester-Crozer Medical Center in early 2006 and was scheduled
to be transferred to a state psychiatric hospital, but was instead discharged
by Dr. Usha Kotihal despite evidence she would not
voluntarily take her medication, the ruling said. In discharge papers, Kotihal noted that Morgan was uncooperative, angry and
delusional, according to the suit. Days later, Morgan was arrested for
shoplifting at a Wal-Mart. "Cassandra was under a delusion that she
owned the Wal-Mart," the suit states. Morgan was brought to the prison
on about Feb. 16 and housed in the infirmary because of her apparent mental
illness. Although she did not acknowledge her medical history or take the
anti-psychotic medication prescribed, prison medical staff failed to
adequately evaluate and treat her, the suit charges. One prison doctor upped
her dosage in the hope that "she would come around," even though
she wasn't taking the lower dose, the suit alleges. The suit also alleges
that family members called repeatedly to try to inform prison officials of
her medical conditions, but were not able to get the information to the
medical staff. On March 25, she collapsed and started seizing. More than 90
minutes later, she was taken to a hospital, where her body temperature was
recorded as 82.8 degrees, the judge found. With thyroid hormones 14 times
normal levels, she was judged to be in a hypothyroid-related coma. She never
regained consciousness and was taken off life support four days later, the
ruling said. "Obviously, we're pleased that after months of discovery,
the judge has cleared the way for us to begin trial," said lawyer Harold
Goodman, who represents the family. The case is set for trial on Oct. 14.
Lawyer Carolyn Short, who represents the Geo Group Inc., declined comment.
Lawyer Amalia V. Romanowicz, who represents Kotihal and the hospital, did not immediately return a
message Thursday. Goodman also represents Kallenbach's
mother, who has blamed her son's death on inadequate prison medical care. Kallenbach had been arrested on a child-luring charge. A
separate pending lawsuit accuses the Geo Group of routinely strip-searching
minor offenders at the Delaware County Prison, in violation of court rulings
that ban the practice unless there is reason to suspect they are hiding
contraband. The Geo Group had 2006 revenues of $860 million.
September
3, 2008 Delco Times
The Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors spent 90 minutes in a
"lively" executive session Tuesday morning "identifying,
assessing and reviewing" options in the wake of the GEO Group Inc.'s
decision to pull up stakes by year's end, said Acting Prison Superintendent
John Reilly. The GEO Group, formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corp., is the
private, for-profit company that has been running the county-owned George W.
Hill Correctional Facility in one form or another since 1995. The company
announced in a release Friday it would cease operations there on Dec. 31.
With the holiday weekend, Tuesday was the first opportunity the board had to
go over its options - essentially whether to engage another private provider,
revert to operating the jail on its own or form some hybrid of the two.
"That is going to be the best-kept secret in Delaware County for awhile," said Reilly. "The board has a
direction and we're going to proceed - at least in the short term - in this
direction, and I don't believe we should be discussing it publicly because it
might impact negotiating strategies." Which at least suggests there is
someone the board could potentially negotiate with, but Reilly was sticking
with the "identified, assessed and reviewed" line. Executive
sessions are not open to the public and little was initially revealed on
Tuesday's extensive discussions. Reilly did say the board hoped the
short-term phase would near completion by its next public meeting Sept. 17,
but isn't setting any rigid timelines. Tuesday's meeting also reportedly
culminated in a conference call with GEO Group Inc. President and Chief
Operating Officer Wayne Calabrese. According to GEO's release Friday, the
Concord facility is the only local county jail the company manages. Though it
generates about $38 million in annual operating revenues, GEO Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer George C. Zoley said his
company would cease management of the 1,883-bed jail "due to financial
underperformance and frequent litigation." Reilly said in its letter to
the county, GEO also cited "higher-than-average workers' compensation
claims" as a reason for pulling out of the local prison market. Reilly
estimated the facility constituted about 70 percent of GEO's corporate
litigation expenses, so it was unexpected it would pull out, but not entirely
surprising. GEO and the prison board signed an $80 million, two-year contract
extension last year that was set to expire Dec. 31, 2009. Prison board
Solicitor Bob Diorio said GEO was able to leave
before that date without penalty because of an escape clause that allows
either party to give 120 days notice.
August
30, 2008 Philadelphia Daily News
Running the George W. Hill Correctional Facility is a tough job. So
tough, in fact, that the GEO Group is walking away from a $40-million-a-year
contract to operate Delaware County's 1,883- bed prison. Buried under a
mountain of lawsuits - with another high-profile wrongful-death suit imminent
- the Florida-based company announced yesterday that it's leaving the county
lockup a year before its contract expires at the end of 2009. "I just
think they're losing money here," said the prison's acting
superintendent, John Reilly Jr., who oversees GEO's performance on the
county's behalf. The company's chief executive, George C. Zoley,
said in a statement yesterday that "financial underperformance and
frequent litigation" drove the decision. Formerly Wackenhut Corrections
Corp., GEO has been running the prison in Thornbury
Township since 1996. State Rep. John Perzel,
R-Phila., is on GEO's board of directors. Reilly said GEO has done a
"better than adequate job," while saving Delaware County taxpayers
millions of dollars. But the company also has been a near-constant source of
negative headlines. A former K-9 officer at the jail pleaded guilty last
month to having sex with an inmate in his pickup truck at a nearby grist
mill, and a corrections officer admitted in court that same week to sending a
fraudulent letter to the state parole board so her boyfriend - a convicted
murderer - could move in with her. Another GEO guard pleaded guilty last year
to conspiracy to commit bank robbery; the prison's former work-release
supervisor is a registered Megan's Law sex offender, and the warden was fired
last winter. The family of comedian Kenneth Keith Kallenbach,
39, the longtime member of Howard Stern's "Wack
Pack" who died in April while in prison custody, is planning to sue GEO,
alleging that prison medical staff failed to treat his cystic fibrosis. The
county prison board will hold an emergency closed-door session Tuesday to
assess its options, which include returning management of the prison to the
county government.
July 30,
2008 Delco Times
A former guard at Delaware County prison pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge
that he had sex with a 25-year-old female inmate while he was employed at the
facility. Michael Waters, 37, of the 200 block of South Church Street,
Clifton Heights, stood beside defense attorney Ronald Smith as he admitted to
a charge of institutional sexual assault. Deputy District Attorney Michael Galantino said the offense carries a maximum of seven
years in jail, but under the state's recommended guidelines, Waters could
receive a probationary sentence up to nine months in prison. "I will be
seeking a sentence of three to 23 months in jail," said Galantino. Waters will remain free on $2,500 bail pending
sentencing set for Oct. 21. Acting Prison Superintendent John Reilly Jr. said
Waters was employed with the GEO group that has managed the prison since Nov.
16, 1998. He was earning $16 an hour at the time he was terminated in March,
after the charges surfaced, said Reilly. Reilly termed the crime "a
horrific lapse in judgment." Waters is the second employee of the GEO
group to enter a plea this week. Nytara Hall, 30,
who also was employed by GEO, pleaded guilty to a forgery charge Tuesday and
lost her prison post. Galantino said the inmate,
who told investigators about her sexual trysts with Waters, is now out of
jail. The prosecutor said she was aware of the terms of the plea when the
defendant waived his preliminary hearing in April and nothing has changed
since then. "There was no allegation of force," said Galantino. The law provides that a person employed at a
correctional institution commits a crime if there is sexual intercourse with
an inmate or detainee. Senior Judge William R. Toal
Jr. delayed sentencing to allow time for Waters to undergo a state-mandated
evaluation to determine if he fits the criteria to be classified as sexually
violent offender. Waters was arrested after the female, who was an inmate at
the time, told authorities she was on work release and she and Waters would
hook up off prison grounds. She told investigators she first met Waters while
he was patrolling at the prison and she told him where she would be working
that day. He replied, "Maybe I'll stop by," according to a court
document. She said Waters picked her up on at least four occasions for sexual
trysts between Feb. 25 and March 20, according to the court document. She
said she and Waters had sex at least four times inside Waters' pickup truck.
Waters told authorities that afterward, he would take her to the SEPTA bus
stop at Cheyney Road and Route 1, where she would take the bus back to the
prison.
July 19,
2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
The comedian Kenneth Keith Kallenbach died of
complications from cystic fibrosis, according to an autopsy report released
yesterday by the Delaware County medical examiner. Kallenbach,
39, was best known as a member of the "Wack
Pack" on Howard Stern's radio show. He suffered from the inherited
disease and died April 24 at Riddle Memorial Hospital after being transferred
from the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornbury,
where he had been held since mid-March. After an autopsy in April, the
medical examiner said further investigation was needed to determine the cause
of death. Yesterday's report indicated the manner of death to be
"natural," brought on by cystic fibrosis with pneumonia and sepsis.
Kallenbach's family has alleged that he did not
receive the proper medical treatment for his condition while in the county
prison and that his health deteriorated dramatically. Kallenbach
was arrested on a charge of attempted child abduction. He denied any
wrongdoing. A call to his mother, Fay Kallenbach,
yesterday was not returned. The family's attorney, Harold I. Goodman of
Philadelphia, said that the report confirmed what family members suspected as
the cause of death and that they are reviewing all records before deciding
whether to proceed with litigation. "Reading this report along with
prison records certainly suggests he did not get the degree of care and
treatment" needed, said Goodman. He said the prison was aware of Kallenbach's condition and "wasn't properly treating
him for it." Kallenbach called home a week
before his death asking his mother to intervene and saying he didn't think he
would "make it" in jail. A message left for John C. Reilly Jr.,
acting superintendent at the prison, was not returned. Since 2005, at least
eight people have died at the Delaware County facility, the state's only
privately run jail. Several of those deaths resulted in lawsuits by family
members who said the facility did not provide adequate medical care or proper
supervision for inmates. GEO Group, which runs the jail, operates prisons
around the country. Its operations in Texas have been criticized over poor
conditions and the treatment of some of its prisoners.
July 2,
2008 Philadelphia Daily News
A WEEK BEFORE Kenneth Keith Kallenbach died, the
Delaware County comedian's health had deteriorated so badly that prison
officials tried to send him home on "compassionate release." Kallenbach, 39, a longtime member of Howard Stern's
"Wack Pack" who suffered from cystic
fibrosis, was rapidly shedding weight while jailed on a parole violation.
Even the Upper Chichester cop who arrested him in March for allegedly trying
to lure a teenage girl into a car was shocked by his gaunt appearance at his
preliminary hearing April 15. "He looked bad," Officer Michael Smalarz recalled last week. "I said, 'Kenny, man,
you're really losing weight.' " He was dying. But despite the mid-April
request that Kallenbach be released - a practice
reserved for seriously ill, nonviolent inmates - the county probation office
insisted that he stay in jail until he could undergo a psychosexual
evaluation, according to John Reilly Jr., acting superintendent at the George
W. Hill Correctional Facility. Delaware County Adult Probation and Parole
Services refused to send Kallenbach home, Reilly
said, even though he was being held on a parole violation from a prior DUI
arrest - not on the attempted- kidnapping charge involving a minor. Kallenbach's mother, Fay, already had posted bail on that
charge. It wasn't until the morning of April 24 that a county judge agreed to
rescind the warrant on the parole violation. Kallenbach
had died a few hours earlier at Riddle Memorial Hospital. "It was just
too late," said Fay Kallenbach, who intends to
sue the prison for failing to treat her son's cystic fibrosis, a chronic
condition in which abnormally thick mucus builds up in the lungs and
digestive system. A painful memory -- He died more than two months ago, but
his mother still has trouble holding back the tears when she recalls her
final moments with her son in the hospital's intensive-care unit. "He
tried to open his eyes, and his eyes rolled back in his head and he never
regained consciousness," she said. "All I saw was skin and bones.
He had lost so much weight, he just looked emaciated. I held his hand for a
while and talked to him. Evidently, his brain was working but his body had
shut down." Reilly declined comment yesterday because of the pending
litigation, but in an interview shortly after the death he defended Kallenbach's treatment. He said that Kallenbach
was seen twice a day by a nurse and had access to "all of his
prescribed" medication and an oxygen machine, but that he had been
refusing treatment. An April 30 autopsy performed by Delaware County Medical
Examiner Frederic Hellman did not immediately reveal a cause of death, and
the tissue-analysis results have not come back. Hellman initially had
declined to conduct an autopsy, accepting the determination by hospital
clinicians that Kallenbach had died from pneumonia
and septic shock due to complications from cystic fibrosis. But he decided to
perform the examination after the family raised concerns about his medical
treatment. At that point, Kallenbach's body already
had been embalmed "We're in America," Fay Kallenbach
said. "He shouldn't be dying in jail from pneumonia when they knew he
had cystic fibrosis." Kallenbach posted $5,000
bail shortly after her son's March 17 arrest on charges of harassment and
attempted luring of a child. He was returned to prison custody a week later,
however, because the arrest, and the fact that he had been driving a car
without a breath- alcohol ignition interlock device, violated his parole on
an old DUI charge, Reilly said. "He called me, and he was so weak I
could hardly understand him," Fay Kallenbach
said. "He said, 'Mom, do whatever you can, please, to get me out of here
because I don't think I'm going to make it.' " She blames the prison for
her son's death, claiming that the medical staff failed to treat his cystic
fibrosis, but says that the probation officials who kept him there are
"equally responsible." She said he had managed the chronic ailment
by taking enzymes to help digest his meals and by using a salt-water
breathing machine at their Boothwyn home. Awaiting information -- The
family's attorney, Harold I. Goodman, said that he is awaiting additional
records before deciding whether to sue the county and the GEO Group, a
Florida-based firm that runs the prison. Goodman said that he has notified
both entities that his firm is investigating the matter. GEO spokesman Pablo Paez declined to comment on the case. Reilly said a
deputy warden called the county probation department around April 17 and
asked if Kallenbach could be released due to
medical reasons while he awaited a hearing on the parole violation. The
prison occasionally contacts judges, prosecutors or probation officers to
request "alternative incarceration" for nonviolent inmates who are
"gravely or seriously ill," Reilly said in April. The practice -
which also saves money because the publicly funded prison is no longer responsible
for expensive medical care - typically is used for inmates such as Kallenbach jailed on a probation or parole violation,
rather than convicts serving time, Reilly said. The request was denied,
according to Reilly. Fay Kallenbach still can't
understand that. If a judge had set bail at 10 percent of $50,000 on the
more-serious criminal charges and determined that Kallenbach
was not a danger to the community, why wouldn't the probation department let
him out on house arrest when he became sick? "The whole system just went
against him," she said. Mark Murray, the deputy director of Delaware
County Adult Probation and Parole Services, who Reilly said had blocked Kallenbach's release, declined to comment on the case. Kallenbach - known for his cheesy rock songs, goofball
antics on "The Howard Stern Show" and the occasional movie cameo -
was a notoriously heavy drinker, but didn't have a history of violent crimes
or sex crimes, Upper Chichester Police Detective John Montgomery said.
"He was picked up a couple times for intoxication and stuff like that,
but he wasn't viewed as a dangerous criminal or anything - not until this
latest incident, which raised eyebrows," Montgomery said. Police say Kallenbach tried to pull a teenage girl into his car on
March 17. At his preliminary hearing, Magisterial District Judge David
Griffin held him for trial on all charges, including attempted kidnapping.
The case never made it to trial. Fay Kallenbach
said that her son was driving to the post office that afternoon and yelled to
a 16-year-old girl, " 'Hi, I'm Kenneth Keith,' because everyone knew him
in Boothwyn from TV commercials and appearances. He was just friendly that
way and would hand out his little business card he had." She says that
county officials treated her son as if he were guilty of a sex crime by
insisting on a psychosexual evaluation while he was dying in jail. "He
was accused of it, but he didn't have his day in court," she said.
"He was never convicted."
June 30,
2008 Delco Times
A former Delaware County prison guard has been charged with forging a
supervisor's signature in an attempt to convince state parole officials to
allow a convicted murderer to move in with her. Nytara
Hall, 29, who was a sergeant at the county prison, has been suspended without
pay pending termination, according to Prison Superintendent John Reilly.
Hall, of the 700 block of South Juniper Street, Philadelphia, asked three
prison officials on May 9 to send a letter on her behalf to the Pennsylvania
Probation and Parole Board, according to the affidavit of probable cause
written by county Detective Thomas Worrilow. Hall
allegedly told the prison officials that George Kidd, her "Muslim
husband," was being released from federal prison. A letter from her
employer, Delaware County prison, was needed if Kidd was to reside with her,
according to the affidavit. The letter was to state that it was not a
conflict and that she does not possess a firearm. The same day she made her
request, however, Hall sent the letter herself, and forged the signature of a
prison official, the affidavit states. Three days later, Deputy Warden Mario
Colucci received a call from a parole agent questioning the authenticity of
the faxed letter. The person whose signature was on the fax denied writing or
signing the letter, the affidavit states. Prison officials questioned Hall
about the letter as well as about her "husband," since she was not
married. Hall allegedly explained that she was not legally married, but
considered Kidd, who had been sentenced to 10-20 years for third-degree
murder, her husband in a religious marriage. On June 24, Worrilow
interviewed Hall, who allegedly admitted she produced the letter and faxed it
to the parole board. She also admitted that the purpose in doing so was to
obtain parole for Kidd. Hall was arraigned on charges of forgery and
tampering with public records. She was released on $35,000 unsecured bail.
April
29, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
An autopsy will be performed tomorrow on Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, a 39-year-old comedian who died Thursday
after contracting pneumonia at the Delaware County jail, where he was
awaiting trial. Since 2005, at least eight people have died at the George W.
Hill Correctional Facility, the state's only privately run jail. Several of
those deaths resulted in lawsuits by family members who say the facility did
not provide adequate medical care or proper supervision for inmates. Kallenbach suffered from cystic fibrosis, an inherited
chronic disease. He had been housed at the jail since mid-March, when he was arrested
on a charge of attempted child abduction. He was taken to Riddle Memorial
Hospital April 21, where he died. Kallenbach's
mother, Fay, said her son called her a week before his death, asking her to
intervene and help him receive better treatment. He said he didn't think he
would "make it" in the jail, she said. "He managed [his
condition] perfectly well at home," she said. "He was only in there
for about a month." The prison had no comment on Kallenbach's
death. GEO Group operates prisons around the country, and its operations in
Texas have been sharply criticized over poor conditions and the treatment of
some of its prisoners. At the Delaware County facility last year, a woman who
suffered from a thyroid condition died at the jail where she had been held
for six weeks. Family members said she did not receive her medication during
her incarceration. "There is an awful lot of deliberate indifference to
the medical needs" in the prison, said Harold I. Goodman, a lawyer
currently suing the company that operates the jail on behalf of the woman's
family. GEO did not comment on this case. In 2005, five inmates died within a
five-month span, drawing scrutiny from Delaware County District Attorney
Michael Green. Two men apparently committed suicide, one died after a fist
fight, another died of a heroin overdose, and another man was found dead in
his bed. No criminal charges were filed, but GEO Group has settled lawsuits
with several families who sued on behalf of their relatives. In 2006, GEO
paid $100,000 to the family of Rosalyn Atkinson, 25, who died in 2002 because
of a fatal overdose of a high-blood pressure drug administered by jail
medical staff. Atkinson had been at the jail for only 18 days. GEO also
agreed in 2005 to pay $125,000 to the family of John Focht,
43, who used his boot strings to hang himself in 2002. Jon Auritt, a Media lawyer who handled both cases, is
reviewing another case of inmate death that occurred in October. David Dewees, who was in his 40s, died from what appeared to be
a seizure from hypoglycemic shock, Auritt said. Dewees suffered from diabetes and had been at the jail
only a few months at the time of his death, he said. "They tried to save
him once he went into this coma," Auritt said
yesterday. "I don't know whether or not there was anything they did or
could have done that could have changed things." A private forensic
pathologist is reviewing an autopsy of Dewees, and Auritt expects to determine by the end of the summer
whether to pursue the matter in court. Angus Love, executive director of the
Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, said the number of deaths in three
years was exceptionally high. "I'm suing Bucks County, and I don't think
they've had any deaths in custody in five years," he said. Love is suing
the GEO Group on behalf of an AIDS-infected inmate who allegedly did not
receive his medications for more than five months. He said a Delaware judge
released the man from prison early, citing the prison's failure to provide
needed medicine. GEO, based in Florida, also has been under fire in Texas,
where it operates more than a dozen correctional facilities. Last fall, the
Texas Youth Commission abruptly canceled its $8 million contract with GEO
after investigators found unsanitary living conditions at its juvenile facility.
Several of the teens said they were sexually assaulted by a guard who was a
convicted sex offender, according to lawsuits. GEO lost its contract at an
adult facility in west Texas last year after an inspector reportedly
characterized the prison as "the worst correctional facility I have ever
visited." The inspection was sparked by an inmate's suicide. Texas
legislators have called for a review of all of GEO's contracts with state and
local agencies. GEO spokesman Pablo Paez did not
respond to requests for comment yesterday. The Delaware County Board of
Prison Inspectors, a group of five people who oversee the contract with the
jail and appoint the superintendent, agreed in May 2006 to renew GEO's
contract for another 19 months. The board members are satisfied with GEO's
performance, said Robert M. DiOrio, a Media lawyer
who acts as spokesman for the board. "The prison board is always
concerned about inmate deaths and very much regrets any death in the
prison," DiOrio said. "Just because a
family member in a distraught state expresses culpability for a death doesn't
necessarily mean at the end of the day that the prison board or GEO is found
to be liable." Fredric Hellman, Delaware County medical examiner, said Kallenbach's death initially did not raise any suspicions.. "The initial information I was provided
with on Thursday indicated that his death was due to natural disease,"
he said. But he decided to perform an autopsy on Kallenbach,
who often appeared on Howard Stern's radio show, when Kallenbach's
mother raised questions about her son's treatment in jail.
April
25, 2008 AP
Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, an actor, comedian
and long-running member of Howard Stern's "Wack
Pack," has died in custody. He was 39. Kallenbach,
who was arrested in March for allegedly trying to lure an underage girl into
his car, contracted pneumonia at a prison outside Philadelphia and died
Thursday morning at a suburban hospital, his mother, Fay Kallenbach,
said Friday. Stern first reported the news on his Sirius Satellite Radio show
Thursday. The long-haired Kallenbach, whose
goofball antics included attempting to blow smoke from his eyes, made dozens
of appearances on Stern's show beginning in 1990. Stern once likened him to
MTV's Beavis and Butt-head and wrote in his 1993 book "Private
Parts" that Kallenbach was the "ultimate
airhead." More recently, Kallenbach, of
Boothwyn, Pa., starred in commercials for ESPN's "Monday Night
Football" and Stride chewing gum. He also appeared on Jay Leno's
"Tonight" show on NBC and had uncredited parts in HBO's "Sex
and the City" and the Tom Cruise film "Jerry Maguire." Kallenbach was arrested in Upper Chichester Township,
Pa., in mid-March on a charge of attempted child abduction. He had denied any
wrongdoing. His mother accused the Delaware County Prison of failing to
provide adequate medical care, saying her son, who had cystic fibrosis,
called her a few days before his death and begged her to intervene.
"They weren't treating him properly for his disease and this is how he
contracted pneumonia," Fay Kallenbach said.
Pneumonia is a complication of cystic fibrosis. Pablo Paez,
spokesman for GEO Group Inc., the Florida-based company that runs the prison,
declined to respond to Fay Kallenbach's allegation,
citing privacy laws. He said Kallenbach had been
housed at the prison since March 27, and was taken to Riddle Memorial
Hospital near Media, Pa., on Monday. "We provide appropriate care for
all the inmates at the facility," Paez said.
March
26, 2008 Philadelphia Daily News
A K-9 officer at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility was charged
yesterday with multiple counts of institutional sexual assault for allegedly
taking an inmate to a nearby grist mill for sex in his pickup truck, Delaware
County authorities said. Michael Waters, 37, an employee of the GEO Group,
the Florida-based company that runs the county prison, admitted to having
oral and vaginal sex with the female work-release inmate, according to the
criminal complaint. The 25-year-old woman told detectives on Friday that
Waters, who became a K-9 officer last year, would pick her up from her job at
McDonald's and take her to the historic Newlin Grist Mill near the prison or
to the parking lot of the Springfield Mall for sex. Such relationships
between guards and inmates are prohibited by law - even if the sex is
consensual. "That is a felony of the third degree," said John
Reilly, the prison's acting superintendent. "It could be wholly
consensual, it could be a product of deep and abiding love, and it is still
the crime of institutional sexual assault." Waters, of Clifton Heights,
was hit with four counts of that crime yesterday and is expected to be
arraigned today in Concord District Court. His wife answered the door
yesterday at their Church Street home but declined comment. "It's a
tragic lapse of judgment," Reilly said of Waters' actions. Other GEO
employees at the Delaware County prison have experienced similar lapses in
recent years. The jail's former work-release supervisor, for instance, is
registered as a Megan's Law sex offender. Joseph Henderson, of the Wissinoming section of Philadelphia, is currently on
probation after pleading guilty in 2006 to sexually assaulting a female
inmate while transporting her back to prison. Former guard Henry Myers
pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to commit bank robbery. Myers, also of
Philadelphia, was indicted in 2005 for casing banks in three armed heists and
was sentenced to three years in prison. In 2004, a GEO lieutenant at the
county prison was fired for beating an inmate "to a pulp," as the
then-warden put it, and two other guards received probationary sentences
after an inmate claimed in 2002 that they handcuffed him, pummeled him with a
basketball and pulled his pants down. Reilly acknowledged that some GEO
employees have previously had trouble staying out of jail themselves, but
said that he could not recall any new incidents over the past couple of years
- aside from Waters'.
January
31, 2008 AP
Court rulings prohibit routine strip searches of minor offenders, but a
privately run prison conducts them on all new inmates, a lawsuit charged. The
potential class-action suit, filed in federal court this week against The Geo
Group, involves a drunk-driving suspect who was strip-searched at a county
prison the firm manages near Philadelphia. "It's humiliating," lead
plaintiff Stephen D. Bussy, 53, said Thursday. Bussy, a home-health worker and college graduate from
Media, said he was strip searched during intake last summer at the Delaware
County Prison. A second full-body search occurred during his four-month stay
— he was unable to post bail — in a shower littered with feces, the lawsuit
states. The Geo Group, previously known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp., does
not comment on pending litigation, spokesman Pablo Paez
said Thursday. The company, with 2006 revenues of $860 million, manages 49
corrections and immigration facilities in the United States, many of them in
Texas and California. The firm, based in Boca Raton, Fla., also operates a
half-dozen sites overseas. Bussy's lawyers are
seeking to have his lawsuit apply to possibly thousands of minor offenders
who were stripped-searched at a Geo Group-run prisons nationwide, but a judge
must first grant class-action status. More than a decade ago, a group of
women protesting a pigeon shoot were arrested and strip-searched in the
Schuylkill County jail. The case led to a precedential ruling in 1993 in
which U.S. District Judge Franklin Van Antwerpen
wrote: "The feelings of humiliation and degradation associated with
being forced to expose one's nude body to strangers for visual inspection is
beyond dispute." Other federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have
issued similar guidelines. Authorities must have reason to think a minor
offender is hiding drugs or other contraband to search them, civil rights
lawyer say. This week's complaint mirrors similar class-action suits filed
around the country against government agencies. Authorities in Camden County,
N.J., last year agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle suit over prison strip
searches conducted between 2003 and 2005, while other suits are pending in
Philadelphia and Lancaster. "The rule appears to be at this point, you
can't have a blanket policy," said David Rudovsky,
a University of Pennsylvania law professor who represents Bussy.
"You would think that prison officials would be aware of it and would be
careful."
January
31, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
A team of lawyers with a record of winning class-action cases across the
country today hit the Delaware County prison and others across the country,
alleging that thousands of people were illegally strip- searched for minor
offenses. The federal lawsuit was filed against the Geo Group Inc., a Florida
company that runs the jail in Delaware County and numerous other states. The
suit listed a single plaintiff: Stephen Dimitri Bussy,
53, a home health-care worker in Media who was strip-searched after a drunken
driving arrest last year. Bussy represents a class
of people nationwide who were allegedly victimized by strip-searches for
minor offenses in Geo Group jails, the suit says. The suit lists damages at
$5 million, but lawyers say that is considered to be a baseline figure for
that type of class-action suit. The Inquirer reported last month that three
guards from Delaware County's George W. Hill Correctional Facility said all
prisoners entering the facility were strip-searched - including people held
for minor violations, such as failing to make child support payments or those
held because they could not pay outstanding traffic tickets. The suit cited
that Inquirer series and mentioned the three guards' statements. Other jails
and police lockups across the state also followed the same strip-search
practices, The Inquirer reported. Since the series, legislators have called
for improved police training and some cities have already changed their
policies. Federal judges across the nation have ruled that blanket
strip-search policies for people arrested for minor crimes violate the U.S.
Constitution's protection from "unreasonable" search and seizure. Bussy, a University of Massachusetts graduate, was
arrested by Media police on July 31, 2001, on charges of drunken driving,
public drunkenness and criminal trespass. The suit says Bussy
could not post the required $500 bail and was taken to the county jail, in
Thornton, where he was strip-searched, the suit said. "In connection
with the strip search, plaintiff was required to completely disrobe and lift
his testicles. Plaintiff's anal cavity was also visually inspected by a
correction officer," it said. Only Geo Group, which operates dozens of
prisons across the nation, was named in the lawsuit, although the suit listed
"John Does 1-100" as possible other people to be include in the
future. Officials from Geo Group could not immediately be reached for comment.
In past interviews, Geo spokesman Pablo Paez has
declined to discuss the corporation's policy on strip-searches. Some of the
lawyers filing the suit have been working with a group of attorneys that won
a $7.5 million settlement from Camden County for allegedly strip-searching
thousands of people illegally in its prison. Two of the lawyers, Christopher
G. Hayes and Daniel C. Levin, also sued the Philadelphia Corrections
Department, seeking $15 million for allegedly conducting more than 20,000
illegal searches. That suit is pending. Two other lawyers involved in the new
suit, Philadelphia's David Rudovsky and Joseph G.
Sauder, of Haverford, currently are involved in a class-action suit against
the Lancaster County prison for allegedly conducting thousands of illegal searches
there. "What's interesting against this one, we are suing Geo
Corporation," Rudovsky said in an interview
after the suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. "We've
defined the class of inmates who are in county or municipal jails. So it's a
national class-action suit that we're seeking." The lawyers are seeking
class-action status for the suit.
December
1, 2007 Philadelphia Daily News
The warden at Delaware County's prison was fired yesterday, but the
multinational corrections company that runs the tax-funded facility won't say
why. Warden Ronald Nardolillo was
"reassigned" from the George W. Hill Correctional Facility and left
the prison grounds at about 11 a.m., according to John Reilly, who, as acting
superintendent, oversees the GEO Group's performance there on behalf of the
county. "My hope is they are doing all that is necessary to determine
what happened and how it can be prevented from happening again," Reilly
said of Nardolillo's dismissal. "He didn't go
gracefully," one prison guard, who asked not to be identified, said of
the outgoing warden. The Daily News reported Wednesday that Nardolillo, who earned about $130,000 a year, had been in
the county's crosshairs for about 18 months amid frequent complaints from
employees about his harsh management style. The relationship between Nardolillo and the county was further strained in recent
weeks with the discovery of a racially charged photograph aimed at the prison
guards' union chief. A photo of Angelina Blocker, who is black, with a noose
around her head was found in a union mailbox, setting off a GEO
investigation. County officials called in detectives following what Reilly
described as Nardolillo's "clumsy"
handling of the situation. "Instead of facing the issue head-on, there's
all kinds of games and machinations and denials," Reilly said Tuesday.
The source of the photograph has not been determined, he said. GEO spokesman
Pablo Paez, citing corporate policy, declined to
discuss the photograph or answer questions about why Nardolillo
was reassigned or where he is going. The Florida-based company has run the
prison since 1995, when county officials decided to privatize the operation
as a cost-saving measure. Its board members include state Rep. John Perzel, R-Phila. The arrangement with GEO, which is
unique among county prisons in Pennsylvania, has saved the county millions in
construction and operating costs and protects the county from most lawsuits
filed by inmates and their families. But anti-privatization advocates condemn
the practice, saying that companies like GEO are ultimately accountable to
their stockholders, not the taxpayers. GEO has had its fair share of mishaps
over the years in Delaware County - including settling wrongful-death
lawsuits, letting inmates walk out because of mis-identification and firing
several guards who committed serious crimes of their own. County officials,
however, say they are largely satisfied with the company's performance and
recently awarded it an $80 million contract extension that runs through 2009.
November
28, 2007 Philadelphia Daily News
The GEO Group, a multinational corrections company, will continue operating Delaware
County's prison through 2009 under the terms of an $80 million contract
extension announced yesterday. But the warden GEO hired in 2004 to run the
tax-funded facility might not make it through the end of the year, according
to prison sources. Warden Ronald Nardolillo's
$130,000-a-year job is in jeopardy amid a spate of complaints from his staff
and county officials who say his dictatorial style is causing frequent
problems, the sources said. The George W. Hill Correctional Facility has been
run by the Florida-based company since 1995, but Delaware County officials
hold the purse strings and have the final say on how it is run. And they want
Nardolillo out. "The issue here is a poor
management climate, and it stems directly from his deficiencies as a
warden," said John Reilly, the acting superintendent and top county
official at the prison. "We don't believe we're getting our money's
worth from that position," he said. "We're not getting $130,000
worth of effort. He doesn't have $130,000 worth of ability." Formerly
Wackenhut Corrections Corp., GEO beat out two rival corrections companies
last year to maintain control of the lockup, one of the largest in its
international network. County officials who oversee the prison have been
dissatisfied with Nardolillo for the past 18 months
and recently have been "keeping him off to the side," dealing
mostly with his staff, Reilly said. "Not one day goes by that a GEO
employee doesn't complain to us about something that was said or done to him
or her, or a friend of his or hers, by the warden. It's constant,"
Reilly said. GEO spokesman Pablo Paez declined to
comment yesterday and Nardolillo did not return
phone calls yesterday or Monday. As Nardolillo, a
former New York City police officer, struggles to hold on to his job, GEO is
trying to determine the source of a racially charged photograph aimed at the the prison guards' union chief. The picture, placed in a
union mailbox several weeks ago, shows a noose drawn around the head of
Angela Blocker, who is black. Reilly said the incident is evidence of
continued mismanagement on Nardolillo's watch.
"It's par for the course. Instead of facing the issue head on, there's
all kinds of games and machinations and denials," Reilly said.
September
28, 2007 AP
Prison officials in Delaware County violated workplace discrimination laws
when they fired a Muslim nurse who insisted on wearing a head scarf on the
job, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charged yesterday. The
agency charged in a lawsuit that the Geo Group Inc., a private company that
operates the county prison in Thornton, refused to make religious
accommodations for Carmen Sharpe-Allen and other female Muslim employees.
Sharpe-Allen, who had a good performance record, was fired in December 2005
after a meeting with warden Ronald Nardolillo, the
suit said. The prison "has forced its Muslim female employees to
compromise their religious beliefs by removing their khimars while on duty or
risk termination," according to the federal suit. The prison instituted
the ban on head scarves in early 2005, the suit said. Calls to the
Florida-based Geo Group and to Nardolillo were not
immediately returned.
September
5, 2007 Daily Times
A nurse at George W. Hill Correctional Facility was recently put on
administrative leave for allegedly violating a prison policy forbidding
association or relationships with prisoners that would be “contrary to the
best interest of GEO (the private firm that runs the prison) or the safety or
security of the facility,” the Daily Times has learned. According to internal
documents, a licensed practical nurse was in contact with at least two
inmates via contraband mobile phones found in their cells. The nurse did not
return calls for comment; the Times is not identifying her because she has
not been charged with any crime. A DVR recording showed the nurse, whose cell
phone number was identified on both phones’ number storage systems as “Baby
Girl,” calling one of the prisoner’s phones from a fax machine with working
voice line located in the prison medical unit, according to the documents. No
one else was observed using the line, and the call time matched that recorded
by the prisoner’s phone, according to the report. The report also notes the
nurse’s personal cell phone number was listed among the stored numbers in the
contraband phones of two inmates. Neither inmate cooperated with the
investigation, according to the report. During the Aug. 10 search of one cell
on a tip, which turned up the first phone, officials also found contraband
allegedly including suspected marijuana, several cigarettes, a phone charger,
lighters and three pictures, two of which were a female later identified as
the nurse. A search of the other cell turned up a phone and charger, plus
three additional pictures “immediately identified as” the nurse. The searches
led Warden Ron Nardolito to authorize the
investigation that day into the possibility of an inappropriate relationship
between the nurse and an inmate, according to prison documents. The nurse was
allegedly contacted by telephone several times by prison officials, but ended
the call before any conversation took place. She was scheduled to work
shortly thereafter, but did not appear and was subsequently sent a letter
informing her she was on administrative leave and not permitted to report to
work without prior authorization from the human relations office. Prison
Solicitor Robert DiOrio confirmed the nurse had
been suspended without pay pending the conclusion of an investigation being
conducted by GEO and the prison supervisor’s office. Another internal
document from the prison indicates U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Agent Trish Pepe notified the prison Aug. 1 that Correctional Officer Saye Gartie had been arrested
for immigration law violations and is currently being held in York County
Prison, pending deportation. Neither Pepe nor GEO prison officials returned
calls seeking details on the arrest or background investigation techniques
for potential prison employees.
August
3, 2007 Delco Times
A guard at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility (Run by Geo Private
Prison) was arrested early Thursday, charged with attempting to lure two
teenage girls into his car, Chief John Finnegan confirmed Thursday night.
Samuel Willis, 32, of Glassboro, N.J., was arraigned on charges of stalking,
luring a child into a motor vehicle, harassment, disorderly conduct and
recklessly endangering another person. Magisterial District Judge Spencer B.
Seaton Jr. set bail at $100,000 cash at a preliminary arraignment. According
to Finnegan, Willis was arrested in the 2400 block of West Ninth Street by
officers Donald Jackson and Victor Heness, members
of the city's newly established curfew unit. Shortly before 1 a.m. Thursday,
the officers observed two young females as they were standing near a yellow
Toyota Matrix with New Jersey tags, according to the arrest affidavit. As the
officers approached the car, the driver flashed a badge and identified
himself as a correction officer. "Due to the age of the girls he was
talking to, the two officers decided to investigate further," police
said. The girls, ages 15 and 16, appeared to be close to tears, officials
said. The girls were unharmed. According to the affidavit, the girls told
police the driver had followed them for about four or five blocks, driving
behind them and asking them to come over to his car. He told the girls he was
a "nice guy." Willis, who was wearing a prison guard uniform,
allegedly told the girls he was a guard and that he was looking for an
escaped convict and he wanted their help. When they continued to walk away
his demeanor changed, authorities said. "When the girls attempted to
leave fearing for their safety, he ordered them to stay and to listen to
him," according to authorities. One of the girls had a cell phone in her
hand and was about to dial 911 when the two officers arrived. According to
officials, Willis had been a guard at the county prison for 10 days. He had
finished his shift 40 minutes before approaching the girls, police said. He
allegedly told police that he was on his way home from work and decided to
pull over to the side of the road to take a nap. Inside of Willis' car,
police found a pair of children's toy handcuffs, an emergency light, several
badges, coloring books, sticker books and stuffed animals.
July 25,
2007 Philadelphia Enquirer
A mentally ill woman died last year after being held for six weeks in
Delaware County Prison without receiving medication for a thyroid condition,
according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. The suit says the family
of 38-year-old Cassandra "Sandy" Morgan of Aston repeatedly
"attempted to contact" the privately operated county prison to
express concern over her mental condition and hypothyroid problem. The
family's lawyer, Harold I. Goodman, said the family had been "virtually
ignored." Morgan died in Riddle Memorial Hospital on March 29, 2006,
four days after lapsing into a coma at the prison. Her death resulted from
complications caused by hypothyroidism. She had been imprisoned after being
charged with shoplifting at the Wal-Mart in Upper Chichester on Feb. 16,
2006. James Morgan, her brother, said that the Public Defender's Office had
not returned his repeated calls for help, and that the prison had made no
attempt to contact them about his sister's medical condition. "At any
point in the system where she could have been saved and treated humanely,
there were lapses," said Goodman, of Philadelphia. The lawyer called the
case an "institutional failure" and a convenient way to get Morgan
off the streets. Michael Joseph Harper, the assistant public defender who
represented Morgan, said he had not heard from her family until she had been
hospitalized in a coma. "I returned those calls." Among defendants
in the lawsuit are the county, the prison, Crozer-Chester Medical Center in
Upland, and the Geo Group Inc., the Florida company that manages the prison.
A call to John Reilly, deputy superintendent of the George W. Hill
Correctional Facility - the county prison - was not returned yesterday.
Robert DiOrio, the lawyer for the prison, said he
was not familiar with the case and would not comment.
December
12, 2006 Delco Times
Delaware County officials say they are closing in on a small group of
crooked prison guards as they implement sweeping policy changes aimed at
ending the contraband trade at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility. The
goal, according to Deputy Superintendent John Reilly, is not just to slow the
influx of drugs, cigarettes and cellular phones, but "eradicate"
the prison’s black market altogether. Last month, the county Board of Prison
Inspectors unanimously voted to ban all tobacco products from the premises --
even within parked cars. While the measure was passed partly to clean up the
prison grounds and prevent employees from leaving their posts for frequent
smoke breaks, it is also designed to counteract what Reilly called a
relatively small group of "corrupt corrections officers" running a
lucrative contraband ring inside the Concord lockup. "We now know who
the players are," Reilly said, citing "phenomenal
intelligence" from inmates, their families and former guards. "It’s
just a question of following them every day, pursuing them every day and
getting rid of them," he said. Employees are currently permitted to
drive off the prison grounds to smoke a cigarette, but starting next month
they will be barred from leaving the facility’s secure perimeter once they
begin their shift -- whether it be a standard eight hours or a 16-hour
double. Exceptions will likely be made for medical conditions. County officials
hope the no-tobacco policy, combined with an increased K-9 presence in the
parking lots and daily shakedowns, will staunch the smuggling of cell phones,
cigarettes and drugs into the prison. Several guards walking to their cars
have turned around upon seeing drug-sniffing dogs, Reilly said. Michael Pelleriti, president of the Delaware County Prison
Employees Independent Union, which represents the guards, said some members
have complained about the smoking policy. But he said the union had little
say because the county owns the property. Reilly said certain corrections
officers are using their female colleagues as "mules" to smuggle
contraband into the jail, usually by hiding it in a body cavity. Without
probable cause, a body cavity search is illegal. He said the GEO Group Inc.,
the Florida-based firm that has managed the publicly funded prison since
1996, is planning to implement a cell phone scanner to prevent such activity.
The company is also considering purchasing a body scanner -- which presents an
image similar to an X-ray -- to detect contraband hidden in body cavities.
"It’s a for-profit business," Reilly said of the prison’s black
market. A pack of cigarettes, for instance, can be sold for between $40 to
$50, according to word of mouth. The going rate for a cell phone is
considerably higher. Cell phones are particularly problematic in jails
because they can be used to intimidate witnesses or order drugs, among other
criminal activities. Some prisoners, including accused killer Lamar Haymes, have attempted to coordinate an escape using an
illegal phone. Prison officials have had trouble stemming the drug trade in
recent years, as evidenced by the case of Brian Sullivan, the 25-year-old
Marple resident who overdosed twice while in prison custody. The second one
killed him in April 2005. "They use these inmates that are given
preferential treatment to run the drugs for them inside the prison,"
said Richard Golomb, the Philadelphia attorney who
sued GEO in October 2005 on behalf of the Sullivan family. The inmates that
move the drugs for the guards are known as "trustees," he said. GEO
settled the Sullivan suit about three months ago for a
"substantial" amount, Golomb said Monday.
The settlement included a confidentiality clause, which he said prevented him
from disclosing the amount. GEO admitted no wrongdoing, as is standard with
such cases. "They have problems in that facility," Golomb said of the drug activity.
December
5, 2006 Philadelphia Enquirer
Higher costs at the state's only privately managed prison are the major
contributor to an $11.3 million, or 3.8 percent, increase in Delaware
County's proposed 2007 general budget. The George W. Hill Correctional
Facility is expected to cost $41.1 million to run in 2007, up $4 million from
this year's $37.1 million. Even so, the county would hold the line on taxes
by using a $8.8 million surplus from the 2006 budget. Revenue this year will
be $7.3 million higher than the $293.4 million budgeted. The jump in prison
expenses results from higher management fees paid to the Geo Group Inc., the
private manager, and an increase in the number of local inmates incarcerated.
That occurred after the prison returned 350 inmates to Philadelphia this year
to relieve overcrowding, thereby giving up rental income that had offset the
prison's costs since it opened in 1998. The prison has a capacity of 1,851
inmates, according to the Geo Group. "Corrections is the budget item
that is straining every budget," said Marianne Grace, the county's
executive director.
June 29,
2006 Philadelphia Inquirer
Guards at the Delaware County jail have extended their labor contract
from June 30 to July 17 as their employer, Geo Group Inc., studies their
latest demands. The county's George W. Hill Correctional Facility is the only
privately operated prison in Pennsylvania. Members of the Delaware County
Prison Employees Independent Union have rejected two earlier company offers
by lopsided margins. In the latest vote, on June 20, the margin was 101
members against ratification to 58 for it. "We expect a positive
response from the company," union president Mike Pelleriti
said. A Geo spokesman declined to comment.
June 21,
2006 Delco Times
Delaware County prison guards voted down a second contract proposal on
Monday and authorized a strike by a nearly 2-1 margin. The new contract
garnered more support than one that was rejected last month, 183-11, but
union members remain dissatisfied with wages, overtime restrictions and
perhaps other issues, said Michael Pelleriti,
president of the Delaware County Prison Employees Independent Union.
"There are some people that feel the wages are not sufficient at this
point," Pelleriti said. The union, which
represents about 300 guards at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in
Concord, voted against the contract 101-58, despite the fact that GEO Group
Inc. had dropped vacation restrictions and reinstated "shift
splitting," in which guards divvy up their mandated overtime. Pelleriti said wages also had been improved over the
first proposal, but declined to specify by how much. The current starting
hourly wage is $11.24, with an increase to $13.40 after 90 days. "Right
now, the wages are still a little low," compared to what other
corrections officers are making nationally and across the tri-state area, Pelleriti said. "Some of the members see that and
they want to catch up to everyone else." In addition to increased wages,
the guards want time-and-a-half for working more than eight hours, instead of
only receiving overtime pay when they work a double shift or more than 40
hours a week. Pelleriti said there could be other
areas of discontent that have not yet been relayed to the union leadership.
"We still have our feelers out and are trying to pinpoint exactly where
the problems are," he said. A vote against the contract was a vote to
authorize a strike -- something the union could not legally do prior to 1996
when the county ran the prison and the guards were government employees. As
GEO employees, the guards have the right to walk out. Last month, GEO secured
a new $58 million county contract to operate the prison through 2007. The
contract will boost GEO’s revenue by at least 10 percent in the first year.
Some union members feel their pay should increase accordingly, according to
one guard who voted against the contract. "They got $58 million,"
said the guard, who declined to be identified. "The personnel that are
part of the union want some of that money." While a strike has been
authorized, Pelleriti said the union intended to
continue talking with the Florida-based company and considers a strike to be
the "last resort." "We’re more than willing to go back to the
table and try to iron out the differences," he said. A GEO spokesman did
not respond Monday to a request for comment and has previously said the
company would have no public comment until an agreement is reached. The
guards are currently working under an extension to the labor contract that
was ratified in 2003 after three votes by the union membership. The new
three-year contract would be retroactive to June 1 and run through May 2009.
The county Board of Prison Inspectors, which contracts with GEO and monitors
its performance at the prison, has remained neutral during the labor
negotiations. If a strike were to occur, however, the prison board
"certainly would support GEO," said board Solicitor Robert DiOrio. "Because they’re employees of a private
company, they would have the right to strike, but then there are public
safety issues that would have to be addressed," DiOrio
said. "The personal rights of the employees would not be able to trump
the public safety, in my opinion."
May 31,
2006 Delco Times
With a staggering vote of 183-11, prison guards at the George W. Hill
Correctional Facility overwhelmingly rejected a labor contract proposed by
GEO Group Inc. Michael Pelleriti, president of the
Delaware County Prison Employees Independent Union, said he wants to return
to the bargaining table to renegotiate wages, vacation restrictions, sick
time and other provisions in the contract. While the union, which represents
nearly 300 guards at the county prison, has not authorized a strike, Pelleriti said he would not rule it out if GEO refuses to
budge. "A strike down the road - if talks break down - is always an option,"
Pelleriti said late Tuesday afternoon after the
votes had been tallied. No date has been set for further negotiations. The
vote came after GEO granted concessions on a health-care provision that union
officials say would have increased premiums for all guards. Under the revised
proposal, the current health-care plan remains in place - single guards
receive full coverage and married guards pay $200 a month for their spouses
and children. The contract would run from June 1, 2006 to Dec. 31, 2010 and raise
wages between 3.5 percent to 8 percent in the first year, 4 percent in the
second and third year and 2 percent in the last seven months. Pelleriti said many guards were satisfied with the
proposed health-care coverage, but the union may push for increased wages or
work rule changes in response to the "excessive mandated overtime"
at the prison. Some guards, he said, are required to work 16-hour shifts
every other day. "If we're going to continue that, they need to be
compensated," he said. A GEO spokesman could not be reached Tuesday and
Warden Ronald Nardolillo declined to comment.
Robert DiOrio, solicitor for the county Board of
Prison Inspectors, said the board does not interfere in labor negotiations.
In 1996, the county outsourced the management of the prison to GEO, formerly
Wackenhut Corrections Corp. "We have never gotten involved in any
employment affairs of Wackenhut or GEO," DiOrio
said. "It's just none of our business." Last week, GEO secured a
$58 million contract to run the prison through 2007. The 19-month contract
will boost the company's revenue there by at least 10 percent in the first
year and another 4 percent in the last seven months of the contract, plus
additional compensation when the prison population exceeds 1,883 inmates. GEO
will not reveal its profit margin at the publicly funded prison. Based in
Boca Raton, Fla., the company operates 61 facilities in four countries that
generate more than $600 million in annual revenue.
May 27,
2006 Philadelphia Inquirer
GEO Group Inc. will continue to manage Delaware County's George W. Hill
Correctional Facility through 2007, despite a rash of incidents there,
including inmate deaths. The Board of Prison Inspectors this week voted to
renew the firm's contract, raising its monthly fee by 10 percent to $3
million when the new 19-month pact begins June 1. The county has increased
its 2006 jail budget by 30 percent to cover higher costs, due to the new
contract and a growing number of local prisoners. "We have never wanted
for customers," said Robert D'Orio, the
board's solicitor. The board has been "generally pleased" with GEO,
which has managed the jail in Thornton since its opening in 1996. "The
other providers out there also have problems," he said. "It is not
an easy operation when you run a jail." A spokesman for GEO, formerly
Wackenhut Corrections Corp., didn't return phone calls. The Delaware county
facility is the only privately run adult jail in Pennsylvania. House Speaker
John M. Perzel (R., Phila.) is on the GEO board of
directors. But D'Orio said, "I'd bet that most
or all of the board had no idea" of Perzel's
ties before recent news articles. GEO recently paid a $100,000 to settle a
lawsuit alleging that the jail failed to diagnose or treat a grave illness
that caused inmate Rosalyn Atkinson's death in 2002. Six inmates have died of
unnatural causes since 2001. C. Scott Shields, a lawyer in Media who has
represented inmates and their families, said GEO has "serious personnel
issues" at the jail. Shields won a undisclosed
settlement for James Johnson, who was held 44 days at the jail by mistake by
GEO employees "who were completely indifferent" to his plight,
Shields said.
May 15,
2006 News of Delaware County
Prison board officials hope to make a decision by the May 17 meeting on
who will run the Delaware County Prison. "We'll continue to talk to
bidders of the next few days," said board president Wallace Nunn.
"Hopefully we'll be able to make a decision." The prison has been
under contract with GEO Group Inc. since August 1995. In June 2003, they
renewed the contract for a three-year base with subsequent terms of three
years until 2009. The contract allows the county to receive bids from other
companies every three years. With the deadline on May 31, Nunn insisted the
board hoped to reach a decision by the May 17 board meeting. The board,
"would have to get an extension at the point," Nunn said if they
did not have a decision by the May meeting. He added that the board would
like to avoid that process. The prison board originally formed a four-member
committee to review the proposals. The members were prison board solicitor
Robert DiOrio, board member George Hill, prison CPA
Chris Reynolds and Richard Culp, the assistant professor at the department of
public management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. On April 19 they
announced three additional members; Blank Rome attorney Lawrence Beaser, the county finance department's James Hayes and
Delaware County Councilman Jack Whelan. "The county said, we'd like to
be at the table," Nunn said of the county members being added. The
committee has narrowed GEO's competition for running the prison to one other
company, Management and Training Corporation (MTC). GEO has run the Delaware
County Prison since it became the first privatize facility in 1993. The
prison accounts for the largest cost for the taxpayers in the county with $37
million budgeted for 2006. With facilities all over the world, GEO has 44
correction and detention centers in the United States. A worldwide
organization, GEO has accumulated almost $613 million in revenue for 2006
including over $72 million in profits, according to the New York Stock
Exchange. The MTC's philosophy to prisons is "rehabilitation through
education," according to communication director Carl Stuart. "We
believe inmates can only succeed when given the opportunity to better
themselves while imprisoned," Stuart wrote in an email. Created in 1981,
MTC operates 12 correctional facilities in the United States and 25 federal
Job Corps centers, according to Stuart. The company earned about $468 million
in revenue for 2005. Nunn removed himself from the selection process last
month because of his employment with CitiGroup.
"One of those (CitiGroup) divisions or another
may or may not have at some point in time dealt with one or more of the
people that are making the proposals," Nunn said. "I don't know
that we've done any business," Nunn said. "But just to be sure
since we're so large."
March
14, 2006 Philadelphia Inquirer
Disoriented and scared, Rosalyn Atkinson awoke crying and asked the nurse
at her bedside a prophetic question: "Am I going to die?" It was
Oct. 18, 2002, and Atkinson was on the 11th day of an 18-day odyssey that
would take her from the Delaware County jail to a local hospital, back to
jail, and then, as she feared, to her death. Officially, Atkinson, 25, died
because of a fatal overdose of a single high-blood-pressure drug administered
by jail infirmary staff, the Delaware County medical examiner determined.
Jail operators admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to a $100,000 settlement.
For Atkinson's two children, it means each will receive $31,782.42 after
legal fees and medical costs, according to a court document filed early this
month. The story of the final weeks of Atkinson's life, however, encompasses
far more than a single error in a prison infirmary. A review of court filings
and medical and hospital records provided by Atkinson's family revealed:
Prison staff did not consistently provide prescribed medication, failed to
monitor her vital signs, and misinterpreted Atkinson's psychotic behavior as
a sign of drug abuse. Atkinson was jailed on a probation violation three days
after she was diagnosed with a severe form of lupus, a potentially fatal
autoimmune disorder that can cause psychotic behavior. She was locked up
because of a shoving match with another woman at Crozer-Chester Medical
Center in which no one was injured. Probation officers ignored numerous pleas
from her mother to give Atkinson house arrest instead of incarceration. When
Atkinson fell seriously ill, the jail transferred her to Riddle Memorial
Hospital, which later sent her back to prison even though, medical records
show, she was still suffering from delusions. Atkinson died about 40 hours
later. Six inmates have died from unnatural causes since 2001 at Delaware
County's George W. Hill Correctional Center in Thornton. Operated by the GEO
Group, it is the only privately run adult jail in the state. In addition to
Atkinson's death, two prisoners committed suicide, another was killed by a fellow
inmate, and the fourth died of an overdose of heroin smuggled into the jail.
A fifth died in 2005 of head and neck injuries after repeatedly throwing
himself against his cell door, county officials said.
February
3, 2006 Philadelphia Inquirer
A Colwyn man who was imprisoned for 44 days last year after Delaware County
jail officials refused to check his repeated, and true, claim that they had
the wrong person has netted a cash settlement, court records show. James J.
Johnson, 28, filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that correctional
officers missed opportunities to verify his identity and threatened to charge
him with additional crimes if he did not stop claiming that he was not Shawn
Carter, the name on the arrest warrant used to jail him. Shawn Carter is also
the real name of rap artist Jay-Z and a common alias in prison, a search of
prison aliases on the state Department of Corrections Web site shows. The
county jail is run by the GEO Group, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections
Corp., of Boca Raton, Fla., and is the only privately run prison in the
state. The company, not the county, is responsible for all settlements and
court awards. The amount of the settlement was not disclosed. Throughout the
intake process, jailers at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility missed
numerous opportunities to correctly identify him, the suit alleged. The
Carter named in the arrest warrant had a dragon tattoo. Johnson did not.
Authorities never compared the two men's fingerprints, the suit said. Also,
the prison failed to compare his physical characteristics to those of the
Carter named in the warrant and ignored the results of an iris scan that
confirmed he was the wrong man, the suit stated.
December
6, 2005 Delco Times
While several Delaware County municipalities are planning to levy a new $52
tax on their workers and increase property taxes for their residents, county
government is eyeing the same slice of your pie. The $293.7 million 2006
budget proposal county council will present this morning holds property taxes
at 4.45 mills for the second year in a row. That translates into $572 for the
average assessed property of $128,500. The county prison, meanwhile, is
expected to absorb an additional $8.7 million in tax dollars. Operated
through a contract with GEO Group Inc., total 2006 spending at the George W.
Hill Correctional Facility is estimated at $37.4 million, an increase of 30
percent over this year's budget. Spending there increased about 19 percent
between 2004 and 2005. The county Board of Prison Inspectors voted in October
to terminate a lucrative Philadelphia inmate housing contract. Overcrowding
has become so severe at the prison that the board was forced to begin sending
350 inmates back to the city and give up between $1 million to $1.5 million
in annual profits.
December
2, 2005 Delco Times
The former Delaware County prison supervisor charged with sexually assaulting
a female inmate waived his preliminary hearing Thursday. Joseph Franklin
Henderson, an employee of GEO Group Inc., is charged with two counts each of
institutional sexual assault, bribery and official oppression. He was in Concordville District Court, accompanied by his attorney
Robert Dixon. Henderson was brought to court from Chester County prison,
where he is being held. Henderson is accused of sexually assaulting the
female inmate twice. Both times, Henderson allegedly picked up the woman from
her work-release job and instead of dropping her off at the prison, drove her
to secluded areas, where sexual activity occurred. The alleged victim told
investigators that on three occasions, Henderson picked her up from her job,
drove to a secluded spot, then threatened to interfere with her upcoming
parole hearing if she didn't perform oral sex, according to the affidavit of
probable cause. She also claimed Henderson used personal information about
her ailing relative, saying she wouldn't be able to visit with the relative
if Henderson went to the parole board about her, the affidavit states.
November
17, 2005 Philadelphia Inquirer
Delaware County's beleaguered jail wants to add 350 beds, even as it begins
returning that number of inmates to Philadelphia. The George W. Hill
Correctional Facility, the only privately run prison in the state, will end
its practice of leasing beds to Philadelphia by late May, said prison board
chairman Charles P. Sexton. The county is getting rid of the city prisoners
because its jail is overcrowded, and expectations are that the local inmate
population will keep growing. The decision to expand comes as the Delaware
County jail has been faced with a spate of deaths and lawsuits in recent
months, including a heroin overdose. A correctional officer was charged with
raping a female inmate last week. Officials also recently announced that they
would be seeking bids on the contract held by GEO. Sexton said that
announcement was not connected to the recent deaths and that GEO would be
considered if it bid. He also said the state would inspect the prison in
2006. The jail had been the only one in the state to take advantage of a
loophole that allowed it to opt out of annual state inspections. Instead, it
has been inspected every three years by a national corrections association.
District Attorney G. Michael Green has been investigating how drugs that
killed inmate Brian Sullivan on April 15 got into the prison. He died of a
heroin overdose. Sullivan's father, who claims he'd warned jail officials
that his son was an addict and needed help, has filed suit against the prison
seeking $500,000. The GEO Group, not the county, would be fiscally
responsible for any award or settlement. As part of that investigation, a
visitor was arrested last week after attempting to smuggle drugs into the
jail in her vagina, a jail official said. Also last week, a guard was charged
with sexually assaulting a female inmate on two separate occasions, most
recently on Nov. 7.
November
10, 2005 Delco Times
The supervisor of the work-release program at George Hill Correctional
Facility was on his way to county lockup late Wednesday, charged with sexually
assaulting a female inmate twice in a prison van. Dropping his head into his
hands, Joseph Franklin Henderson, 47, of the 2100 block of McKinley Street in
Philadelphia, made a plea for unsecured bail -- but Magisterial District
Judge Richard Cappelli was adamantly opposed. Henderson, an employee of GEO
Group Inc., is charged with two counts each of institutional sexual assault,
bribery and official oppression. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov.
17. He's accused of sexually assaulting a female inmate twice, first back in
late September or early October, and again on Monday. Both times, Henderson
picked the woman up from her work-release job and instead of dropping her off
at the prison, drove her to secluded areas. Allegations involve both oral and
vaginal sex. Back at county detective headquarters, Henderson admitted he had
oral sex with the woman two times, according to the affidavit. He said he was
neither threatening nor forceful, and that the woman had been coming on to
him.
November
2, 2005 Delco Times
Lying on his stomach and propped up by his elbows, a middle-aged man stares
through a window with a slightly curious, but otherwise blank, expression.
The window doesn't lead outside, but to a secluded hallway where a prison
guard is staring back. It is the guard's sole responsibility to prevent that
inmate from becoming another Michael Rafferty, the accused triple-murderer
who died in August after slamming himself into a prison wall. The guard, an
employee of the private corrections firm GEO Group Inc., has been assigned to
one-on-one suicide watch, the most intense form of observation practiced at
the George W. Hill Correctional Facility. While this particular inmate is
isolated in a small room, he is one of hundreds of mentally ill inmates living
at the overcrowded county prison on Cheyney Road. Like other prisons around
the country, it has become a repository for some of society's most unstable
citizens. "Prisons are housing more and more mentally ill people because
we have no other place to put them," said Jessica Raymond, a member of
the Pennsylvania Prison Society who monitors conditions at the county prison.
The society advocates for better living conditions for inmates. Last year,
the county prison expanded its medical unit to 53 beds, more than twice the
size of the previous unit. During a recent visit, it was packed with inmates,
some wearing "suicide gowns" that will rip if used as a noose.
Frank Green, an assistant superintendent employed by the county to monitor
GEO's management of the prison, said that volume is not unusual. "It's
double the workload," he said. "It makes everything tougher."
The increasing workload, combined with high turnover and low wages, prompted
15 registered nurses, physician's assistants and nurse practitioners to
unionize in September, voting unanimously to join the Pennsylvania
Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals. In March, about 80
other GEO employees - including all the licensed practical nurses --
unionized through Teamsters Local 312. "If you have substandard salary
and benefits, you simply cannot recruit and retain the kind of quality
professionals you need to do the job," said April Smith, director of
organizing for PASNAP. Nurses at the prison, for example, receive no paid
vacation during their first year on the job, according to Smith. Temple
University Hospital, she said, gives new nurses three weeks paid vacation.
Delaware County's jail is the only privately run county prison in the state.
Reducing labor costs is one of the ways GEO and other private corrections
firms are able to run prisons more cheaply than the government that hires
them. With privatization comes a tradeoff in the level of services, said Ken Kopczynski, executive director of the Private Corrections
Institute, a group that opposes privately run prisons. He said private
corrections companies are prone to "cut corners" - including in the
administration of medical services - in order to maintain their
profitability. "Why is it better for the county to do it? Public
officials are accountable to the public. The board of directors for GEO is
accountable to whom, the public? Hell, no. They're accountable to the
shareholders," Kopczynski said. "And what
are the shareholders interested in? The profit. They have to turn a
profit." "Guess what, that's bad criminal justice policy," he
said.
October
29, 2005 Delco Times
A Delaware County prison guard has been indicted on a federal conspiracy
charge for his role in three armed bank robberies in 2004. Henry Myers, an
employee of GEO Group Inc., is one of five defendants named in the indictment
filed by U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan on Oct. 20. Although Myers is not
charged with robbing the banks, he allegedly played a pivotal role in the
conspiracy. "He cased the banks," said
Vickie Humphreys, an FBI spokeswoman. Myers and four other men allegedly
conspired with Burnie Tindale -- who was charged earlier this year -- to rob
the Artisans Bank in Wilmington, Del., on April 14, the Citizens Bank in
Brookhaven on June 15 and the M & T Bank in Bristol, Bucks County, on
Sept. 27. Myers allegedly "cased" a PNC Bank on Bustleton
Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia and provided bank layout information for the
robbery. That robbery, however, was ultimately not committed, the indictment
states. Myers was also advised of the location of "switch" cars to
be used in the Citizens Bank robbery, in the event the cars had to be
retrieved if the robberies were unsuccessful, according to the indictment.
Switch cars are usually parked about a mile from the robberies and used by
the robbers after they abandon stolen get-away cars.
October
20, 2005 Delco Times
Concerned that overcrowding at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility could
expose Delaware County to future lawsuits, the county is pulling out of a
contract to house hundreds of Philadelphia inmates. The Delaware County Board
of Prison Inspectors voted Wednesday to terminate the contract effective Jan.
15, more than four months before it was scheduled to expire. The move will
free up about 350 beds at the prison but cost the county approximately $1
million a year in profits.
October
20, 2005 Philadelphia Enquirer
The parents of an inmate who died in jail of a heroin overdose are suing the
facility, claiming the drug was easily accessible to prisoners and, in some
cases, smuggled in by guards. Paul and Maureen Sullivan of the Philadelphia
suburb of Broomall filed a federal lawsuit last week seeking more than
$500,000 in damages. Their 26-year-old son, Brian Sullivan, died in Delaware
County's George W. Hill Correctional Facility on April 15 from a heroin
overdose, a medical examiner's report shows. He was in jail for failing to
attend a court-ordered drug treatment program after a DUI arrest. It was the
second time in six months that Sullivan had overdosed on heroin while in the
county prison, despite his parents' pleas with corrections officials to help
their son fight his addiction. The lawsuit accuses the county, Geo Group and
the prison board of allowing Sullivan "to remain in a general prison
population into which heroin was smuggled and easily accessible by
prisoners," even though he had a history of abusing drugs while in
custody. The lawsuit also alleges that some corrections officers were
smuggling drugs into the jail. The suit adds to a growing list of problems at
the state's only privately run county jail, which announced Wednesday that it
would ease overcrowding by returning about 350 Philadelphia inmates to the
city.
September
24, 2005 Delco Times
A convicted murderer who died last month while in custody at the George W.
Hill Correctional Facility gave no indications in the weeks leading up to his
death that he was planning to kill himself, according to a prison report
released Friday. Kevin Parks, who killed his wife with a claw hammer in June
2003, died Aug. 2 at Riddle Memorial Hospital after he was found unresponsive
in his cell. The original prison incident report implied that he might have
committed suicide by overdosing on prescription medication he could have been
hoarding. But a new report by The GEO Group, which manages the publicly
funded prison, suggests otherwise. The prison lieutenant who listened to
several of Parks’ telephone conversations beginning July 1 said the inmate
"sounded upbeat and gave no indications of his contemplating or planning
suicide ..the general topic of these conversations consisted of baseball,
food and letters he had received from various individuals," the report
states. At Wednesday’s prison board meeting, Chairman Charles Sexton Jr.
questioned John Hurley, GEO’s senior vice president of North American
Operations, about the possibility that Parks may have intentionally
overdosed. "How can they hoard medication? Because my understanding is
the way it’s supposed to be done is when medication is given to an inmate,
they are supposed to take the medication in front of the individual that’s
giving it" to ensure that it is swallowed, Sexton said.
September
22, 2005 Delco Times
The multinational corrections corporation that manages the George W. Hill
Correctional Facility was informed Wednesday that it will be forced to
compete with other companies to maintain its $28 million-a-year county
contract that expires May 31. At its monthly meeting Wednesday, the
five-member Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors took the first steps
toward opening the contract to companies other than The GEO Group Inc.,
voting unanimously to compile bidding specifications by Dec. 15. The board's
actions come amid a spate of high-profile deaths at the prison, including
those of accused triple murderer Michael Rafferty, 29, who died Aug. 18 after
jumping from his bed into a wall, and convicted wife-killer Kevin Parks, who
died Aug. 2. A prison incident report suggests that Parks may have committed
suicide by hoarding prescription medication. "Competition is
healthy," Sexton said, adding that he had personally decided six months
ago to put the contract out to bid and had since discussed it with other
board members who "had no problem with it." Nonetheless, two other
recent deaths and a near suicide are not helping GEO's image. Clyde Tyler,
49, a convicted rapist, died March 27 during a fistfight with another inmate.
Brian Sullivan, 25, of Broomall, Marple Township died April 15 of an
overdose.
September
19, 2005 Philadelphia Inquirer
James Johnson can trace his troubles back to rapper Jay-Z's Hard Knock Life.
He spent more than a month and a half in jail in Delaware County charged with
a crime he didn't commit, accused of being a man he wasn't. And prison
officials had to ignore a lot of facts to keep him there. Five years later,
Johnson, now head custodian at the World Cafe Live on Walnut Street in West
Philadelphia, learned that the past has a way of catching up with a man.
Johnson spent 44 days in the George W. Hill Correctional Facility beginning April
6 for crimes committed by a man known as Shawn Carter. During that time, he
told guards, a counselor, a public defender and prosecutors that he was the
wrong man. Nobody listened. Any of these known facts could have sprung
Johnson: He was in jail at the time of Carter's arrest. Johnson's sister and
sister-in-law are Hill Correctional Facility employees. Officials ignored
their pleas that Johnson was not Carter. Carter had a dragon tattoo, which
was described in the arrest warrant. Johnson did not. Authorities never
compared the two men's fingerprints. Officials had photographs of both men.
Carter is 3 inches taller than Johnson. His case adds to pressure against the
appointed county prison board and the GEO Group, the private firm that runs
the jail. A series of recent prison deaths - five in five months - has
brought the scrutiny of the county's top prosecutor and prompted an internal
investigation by the company. And earlier this year, GEO agreed to pay
$125,000 to the family of an inmate who hanged himself by his boot strings in
2002. Now, Johnson is suing the county, the correctional facility, and GEO,
accusing them of violating his civil rights. Because of the lawsuit, county
and company officials refused to comment on the Johnson case. While Johnson was
complaining on the inside that he was wrongly jailed, his fiancée, Shilonda Hargrove, was banging on doors on the outside.
"My fiancée kept calling and calling and saying, 'All you have to do is
look at the fingerprints,' " Johnson said last week. He said GEO also
refused to hear the pleas of his sister and sister-in-law, both correctional
officers at the jail. At the prison, Delaware County District Attorney G.
Michael Green's office has been investigating four deaths - a heroin
overdose, two apparent suicides, and an unexplained fatality. The fifth death
stemmed from a fight, and the killing was ruled self-defense.
September
6, 2005 Philadelphia Inquirer
Delaware County's privately run prison has come under the scrutiny of
county investigators, and the company that runs the facility was scrambling
to examine its policies and identify any missteps after five questionable
inmate deaths in the last five months, officials said. Four deaths - a heroin
overdose, two apparent suicides and an unexplained fatality - are under
review by Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green. The fifth
death, from a fistfight, was investigated earlier this year, but no charges
were filed. William M. DiMascio, executive director
of the Prison Society in Philadelphia, said five questionable deaths in as
many months seemed unusually high. The George W. Hill Correctional Facility
is privately run by GEO Group, formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corp., but
controlled by an appointed board. Prison and county officials have refused to
release incident reports for the deaths. Charles P. Sexton, chairman of the
county Board of Prison Inspectors, was unavailable for comment, said the
board's attorney, Robert M. Diorio. The prison has
room for 1,800 prisoners sleeping two to a cell. Now, the prison averages
2,000 inmates a day and is in some cases sleeping three to a cell. GEO agreed
to pay $125,000 in a settlement earlier this year to the family of an inmate,
John Focht, 43, who used his boot strings to hang
himself in February 2002, court documents show. "It seems awfully
suspicious when somebody is willing to pay out $125,000 in a case where
somebody killed themselves," said the Prison Society's DiMascio. "It just seems pretty obvious that
something has gone awry."
August
25, 2005 Delco Times
What is going on at Delaware County’s prison? Answers were few this week,
even as bodies continue to pile up at the county-owned facility in Concord
Township known as the George W. Hill Correctional Facility. Two high-profile
inmates have died there in the last month, both apparent suicides. Last
Thursday, it was Michael Rafferty, the 29-year-old Drexel Hill man who was
awaiting a court date for stabbing to death his parents and a neighbor and
seriously wounding the neighbor’s wife. On Aug. 2, it was Kevin Parks, the
42-year-old Bethel Township man beginning a life sentence for beating his
wife, Teresa, to death with a hammer. Both men had histories of mental
illness. Parks may have overdosed on medication he stashed away in his cell,
according to preliminary reports. Rafferty died from injuries he sustained
when he leaped from a table and slammed into a prison cell wall. On top of
those deaths, a prisoner named Vincent Burton was found dead in his cell on
Sunday morning; his cause of death remains undetermined. Last month, an
unidentified inmate nearly killed himself by hanging from his bunk;
fortunately, he was found in time to be revived. And last March, a convicted
serial rapist named Clyde Taylor died after a fistfight with another inmate.
Some might argue that these prisoners only got what was coming to them. But
that would be wrong; whatever their crimes, or alleged crimes, none of these
men was sentenced to death. They were, however, in the care and custody of
Delaware County and its agents. But trying to get any answers from county
officials this week was almost impossible. Prison Superintendent George W.
Hill, for whom the jail is named, was unavailable, as was prison board
Chairman Charles Sexton. Members of county council and other prison board
members had little to say. The GEO Group, contracted by the county to run the
1,800-inmate lockup, declined comment on any of the prison’s policies. Only
prison board lawyer Robert DiOrio had anything
substantive to say, and that wasn’t much. "The prison board has nothing
to determine at this time as to whether or not any of these deaths was
preventable," he said. "Sometimes procedures are followed that are
good procedures and valid and recognized procedures throughout the industry
and nevertheless people still find a way to take their lives, unfortunately,
without anyone being culpable except themselves." Here’s a translation:
The board members appointed by the county to oversee the operations of the
prison don’t have any idea what’s going on out there, or whether standard
rules and regulations are in place. That’s simply not good enough --
particularly in the cases of Rafferty and Parks, who were more vulnerable
than other inmates because of their mental illnesses. Why was Parks moved out
of the prison’s medical unit, even after his sentencing judge ordered that he
be carefully monitored? How does a prisoner "hoard" medication in
his cell? What kind of medications were being given to Rafferty and was
anyone watching him a day after he had to be restrained while suffering
demonic delusions? Without
any better explanations from county officials, it seems that oversight is,
minimally, lacking at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility. Taxpayers
need to know that those being remanded to county custody are being monitored
and accounted for. There’s no reason for Delaware County’s prison to become a
branch office of Delaware County’s morgue.
August
23, 2005 Delco Times
An inmate at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility died this weekend of
undetermined causes, following the deaths of two high-profile prisoners this
month, a suicide resuscitation last month and the March beating death of a
convicted serial rapist during a fistfight with another inmate. The Delaware
County District Attorney’s office is reviewing the death of Vincent Burton,
42, who was found dead in his bunk Sunday morning, according to a prison
report released Monday. Burton’s cause of death is pending an autopsy by the
county medical examiner, but the prison report stated that no signs of foul
play were observed. Also under investigation is the death of Michael
Rafferty, the Upper Darby man accused of stabbing his parents and neighbor to
death during a July 23 rampage. Rafferty, who according to a family attorney
had been diagnosed as having depression with psychosis, died last Thursday
after jumping from his bed into a wall. Another inmate, convicted wife killer
Kevin Parks, died Aug. 2 at Riddle Memorial Hospital of undisclosed causes.
Though the medical examiner has not ruled in that case, either, a prison
report suggests that Parks may have overdosed by hoarding prescription
anti-depressant medication. Parks’ defense attorney, Stephen Patrizio, said
Monday that Parks was "absolutely" a known suicide threat.
Convicted of killing his wife Teresa Parks with a hammer, Parks said in
court: "I look forward to the time when we will be united in
heaven." "Judge (Frank) Hazel specifically ordered that he be
monitored very closely and carefully," said Patrizio. "My
understanding is he was in the medical unit, but due to either overcrowding
or some determination made by a doctor there, he was removed from the medical
unit," Patrizio added. That statement could not be verified Monday by
anyone affiliated with the prison.
July 24,
2005 Delco Times
Seventeen health-care professionals at the Delaware County prison have
signed cards indicating they want to unionize, a union official said
Saturday. April Smith, director of organizing for the Pennsylvania
Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, said all but one of the
nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants at the facility signed
union cards over the last two weeks. "We’re delighted that the
professionals at the George W. Hill correctional facility have decided to join
PASNAP," Bill Cruice, the union’s executive
director, said. The Thornbury prison is
managed through the GEO Group Inc., formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corp.,
through a publicly funded contract. Its daily average population last year
was 1,785 residents. Representatives from the GEO Group Inc. were also
unable to be reached Saturday.
In March, non-security employees voted to join Teamsters Local 312 by a more
than 2-1 margin. That union covers about 80 employees such as counselors,
supervisors, clerical workers and some medical personnel. The prison
guards, who number about 280, have been represented by the Delaware County
Prison Employees Independent Union since 1999.
April 16, 2005 Delco Times
A prosecutor said Friday that Sandra Denise Belt has pointed an accusatory
finger at everybody but herself in the theft of more than $26,000 while
working as a clerk for the Wackenhut Corp., which ran Delaware County’s
prison. Belt, 36, of Colmesneil, Texas, who worked in a prison, will now be
part of the inmate population as she was sentenced Friday to 11½ to 23 months
in jail. Assistant District Attorney Gregory Hurchalla said that Belt, whose
husband worked as an assistant warden, has refused to accept any
responsibility "despite overwhelming evidence." A jury convicted
her of theft charges following a trial last month. "She was living a
comfortable lifestyle," said Hurchalla. "There’s no reasonable
explanation as to why she stole the money. She’s willing to point the finger
at everybody but herself."
March 31,
2005 Delco Times
Sandra Denise Belt testified that when she was hired as a clerk handling
inmates’ money for the Wackenhut Corp. that ran Delaware County’s prison, she
told officials that she wasn’t good with numbers. "I told them when I
took this job I transposed numbers real bad," she said. Belt, 36, of
Colmesneil, Texas, whose honey-colored hair cascaded to her waist as she
spoke with a sugary Southern accent, was found guilty Tuesday of charges she
pocketed more than $26,000 while working at the Thornbury-based
facility. Following the verdict, as tears rolled down her face, Belt was
handcuffed and taken off to prison to await sentencing, which Judge George Koudelis tentatively set for Tuesday. The judge raised
her bail from 10 percent of $10,000 to $10,000 cash bail.
December
30, 2004 Newsof DelawareCounty.com
With the prisoner population at Delaware County's George W. Hill
Correctional Facility on the rise, some inmates are complaining about
conditions, including claims of overcrowding, problems accessing attorneys
and counselors, and a lack of maintenance or cleanliness. "Intake
there's three to a cell," said George W. Hill inmate Wanell
Davis. "They got you in like a dog bed. You sleep on a floor." Davis, of
Wilmington, Delaware, had served one year in the facility awaiting sentencing
at the time of the interview. He said overcrowding has caused overfilling of
cells, mostly in receiving areas, but also in other parts of the prison.
Board solicitor Robert DiOrio, however, confirmed
that the facility's population has risen by "several hundred" in
recent years, but said cell capacity is only exceeded in receiving areas, and
only for very brief periods when it is unavoidable. Currently, DiOrio said,
the population is not exceeding capacity. Davis, however, disagrees.
"They're supposed to give out this thing, it's called care bags,"
he said. "We're short on something they're supposed to give us-soap,
toilet paper ... We just got the water fixed. The water was broke for six
months. There's guys that haven't cleaned their cells for six months."
"The people that come in and out, they don't clean the blankets,"
Mark said. "They give you no cleaning materials." DiOrio
confirmed that occasionally water service is interrupted. Other prisoners say
they have trouble speaking with counselors or lawyers. Defense attorney Mike Malloy, who practices in
Media, said he has experienced long waits when going to visit with clients at
the prison. "They seem to be understaffed and they also have a high
(employee) turnover rate," Malloy said. Prisoners also spoke of guards
selling cigarettes for as much as $5 a piece in the smoke-free facility. DiOrio said this was against the rules, but said it was
an employment issue for GEO, the private company that manages the jail. The
county plans to increase its funding for the prison for 2005, with most of
the new money going toward that contract, Delaware County budget director Dan
Fahey said.
The cost of the contract is increasing about $1.29 million, bringing it to
$31.97 million for 2005.
December
11, 2004 Delco Times
Criminal
justice expenditures are set to increase by 10.5 percent in 2005 because of
$4.6 million in new spending at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility,
which is managed by The GEO Group Inc., formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corp.
The 4.45 property-tax millage requirement will remain the same in 2005 if the
proposed budget is adopted at Tuesday’s council meeting, as expected. The
$28.7 million in anticipated spending at the county prison -- an increase of
18.9 percent over 2004 -- is due to an all-time-high prison population that
has recently peaked at 1,870 inmates, according to prison board Chairman
Charles P. Sexton Jr.
November
19, 2004 Delco Times
Delaware
County’s 2005 budget proposal shows a spending increase of $12.4 million but
holds the property tax millage at the 2004 rate. Criminal justice
expenditures would increase 10.5 percent, fueled by $4.6 million in new
spending at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility. Total county spending
at the prison, which is managed by The GEO Group Inc., formerly Wackenhut
Corrections Corp., is expected to reach $28.7 million in 2005 -- a 19 percent
increase over 2004.
June 13,
2004
The GEO Group, formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corp., fired the warden of the
George W. Hill correctional facility Thursday. According to Delaware County
Prison Board Chairman Charles P. Sexton, Jr. and several other high-ranking
county sources, Warden John "Doug" Caulfield was let go for both
budgetary and personal reasons. "I'll confirm that Caulfield's
out," Sexton said. "But I won't comment any further because it's
not a county personnel matter." Sources said the budgetary issues
stemmed from a failure on Caulfield's part to meet staffing levels agreed
upon in the county's contract with the corrections conglomerate. A
clause, fought for by county negotiators, was put in place to penalize GEO
for a failure to meet or maintain staffing standards on a monthly
basis. (Delco Times)
February 9, 2004
A Delaware County prison guard was fired Tuesday after an internal
investigation found that he had assaulted an inmate, the prison warden said.
Lt. Victor Lay was given a letter of termination from the GEO Group Inc. -
formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corp. - after he physically assaulted an
inmate last month, said Warden Douglas Caulfield. "He used
excessive force to control an inmate who was being uncooperative with
(returning to his cell)," said Caulfield. "There are
acceptable ways of handling such an insurgent. We do have a force continuum
in place that calls for light force to be taken. But for some reason, Lay
just snapped on the guy and started beating him to a pulp," he
said. The identity of the inmate was not available. Caulfield
said Lay was immediately suspended from his job pending an internal investigation.
GEO corporate offices gave Caulfield the green light earlier this week.
"We have a zero tolerance policy for this type of behavior,"
Caulfield said. Caulfield, who could not confirm Lay’s residence or
salary, said questions had been raised about Lay’s performance before.
"I know he’s had a history of questionable behavior," Caulfield
said. "We’ve just never able to nail him down until now. We finally had
other officers come forward and tell us about this." Delaware
County Assistant District Attorney Joseph Brielmann
said the case has not been referred to his office for review, although
Caulfield said he expected that such a referral was
"imminent." Since Delaware County privatized its jail
operations in 1996, a series of alleged misconduct and outright crimes by
correctional officers, on and off the job, have been reported. Among
them:- On Aug. 11, 2001, an altercation between since convicted murderer
Kareem Bahiy and Wackenhut correctional officer Thernell Hardy Jr. resulted in criminal charges against
Hardy. Bahiy, 24, of Philadelphia, is serving
a life sentence after killing Springfield CVS manager John DiOstilio in June, 2001. Former district attorney
Patrick Meehan said Hardy, 35, of Chester, stabbed Kareem Bahiy,
24, of Philadelphia in the neck after a conversation Meehan termed
"aggressive." Hardy was charged with aggravated and simple
assault and related offenses and was subsequently fired by Wackenhut.
Hardy, who had worked at the jail since 1999, denied stabbing Bahiy with a knife, claiming the prisoner’s injury was
caused by Hardy’s thumbnail. - On April 18, 2001, off-duty Wackenhut
correctional officer Jermaine Richardson of Philadelphia was arrested for
shooting a man in the city that night. Richardson was charged with attempted
murder and related offenses for allegedly firing at Bruce Cox in the 1000
block of 64th Street. Cox was treated at the Hospital of the University of
Pennsylvania for gunshot wounds to his legs, police said. The case was
dismissed in Philadelphia because an eyewitness refused to testify and
Richardson was allowed to return to work at the prison after a
suspension. - In June 1999, Wackenhut hired as a correctional officer
Michael D. Kemp Carter of Chester. Carter had entered the county’s Accelerated
Rehabilitative Disposition program for first-time offenders earlier that year
after admitting to stealing computers from the Chadds Ford office of
accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, where he had
worked as a security guard. Carter was fired by Wackenhut in December
1999 and later accused of leading a forgery ring. He told prosecutors that he
supplied three co-defendants with numerous fraudulent checks, including some
stolen from Wackenhut and drawn on a company account. In 2001, he
pleaded guilty to a pair of felony theft charges related to $12,200 in bad
checks. - In March 1998, Wackenhut suspended Assistant Warden Richard
Robinson indefinitely after he was accused of improper contact with a female
inmate. A criminal probe into the matter by Delaware County detectives found
no criminal wrongdoing. Robinson no longer works at the jail. - In two
separate incidents in February 1997, officials reported the company fired
five male correctional officers accused of sexually harassing female
colleagues. (Zwire)
December 16, 2002
Unless contraband cigarettes stop flowing through George W. Hill Correctional
Facility in Philadelphia, the warden could be sent to jail, a Deleware County official said in October. Charles
Sexton, chairman of the Deleware County Board of
Prison Inspectors, which oversees the Wackenhut-operated facility, told
Warden John Caulfield he had to eliminate the black market in cigarettes and
narcotics, allegedly aided by correctional officers, or defend himself
against charges that could send him to jail. A June search of one
prison building turned up 117 packs of cigarettes and unauthorized
money. Sexton told Caulfield he would try to have the new warden
arrested if the cigarette and alcohol contraband problem continued to go
unchecked. (Corrections Professional)
November
26, 2002
A
Delaware County corrections officer with a criminal history is jailed in the
prison she guarded on charges that she delivered a death threat to a witness
in a police officer's murder. Police
say Angeline McKellar, while working Wednesday at the Delaware County prison,
told a female inmate who is a state's witness in the October 2001 shooting
death of Chester Police Cpl. Michael Beverly that she would be killed,
according to the affidavit of probable cause.
A review of Delaware County court files shows that McKellar
established a criminal history while working as a guard at the
prison. She was sentenced to one
year's probation in March 1999 for simple assault, stemming from a 1998
Chester bar fight. In September 1999, McKellar was sentenced to one year's
probation after pleading guilty to welfare fraud. In August 2001, she was
sentenced to time served in an in-patient program and community service for
driving under the influence the year before.
A document dated May 25, 2000, says that McKellar was employed as a
guard at the prison, but it is unclear how long she had worked there. She has
been suspended without pay, Robert DiOrio,
solicitor for the county Prison Board, said yesterday. Though the Prison Board is charged with
running the county prison, Diorio said hiring and
oversight of guards are handled by the for-profit Wackenhut Corrections
Corp., a Florida company that has a contract with Delaware County to operate
the prison. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
November
5, 2002
Delaware County executive director Marianne Grace has submitted a $245.8
million proposed county budget for 2003 that calls for a 7.9 percent tax
increase. A substantial increase is proposed in the cost of running the
county prison, which is operated by the for-profit Wackenhut Corrections
Corp. in 2001, Wackenhut said it was losing money on the prison and began
taking steps to end its contract with the county. The county
subsequently renegotiated the contract and gave the company more money.
Wackenhut then decided to stay. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
July 18,
2002
The new warden at Delaware county's prison was put on notice yesterday that
if he does not stop the flow of contraband cigarettes into the facility in
the next month, he could end up in a cell of his own. Charles P.
Sexton, the chairman of the Delaware County Board of Prison inspectors, which
oversees operations at the George W. Hill correctional Facility, told Warden
John D. Caulfield at a board meeting that some "guards are corrupt and
profit off of certain people's misfortune- the inmates who have trouble
getting off (tobacco)." Caulfield had just started his first day
on the job, replacing James Janecka, who had been
assigned by Wackenhut Corrections Corp., the company that has a contract with
Delaware County to operate the prison. John Reilly, the prison's
assistant superintendent, said after the meeting that an investigation in
January concluded that "there was a significant black market in
cigarettes and narcotics" at the prison. A search last month of
one building turned up 117 packs of cigarettes and money in excess of the
amount prisoners are allowed to have, Reilly said. Also, one guard was
fired and two others were disciplined earlier this year for allowing sexual
contact between inmates and visitors and for bringing in food, whiskey and
cigarettes. Turnover and understaffing at the prison are a longstanding
problem that contributes to contraband smuggling, Reilly said. The
prison is 22 guards short, and more than two-thirds of the staff had worked
there for less than four years. (Penna Edition)
March 7,
2002
Life behind bars at the Delaware County Prison wasn't so bad - if you had
a little money and knew the right guard. You could
get sex, booze, food, cigarettes and other comforts, according to
an internal prison investigation. But the gravy train
might be over. The "right guard" has been fired. Delaware
County District Attorney Patricia Holsten said she was investigating
the money-for-sex scheme for "possible criminal activity."
Reports say the guard, who has not been identified, permitted visitors
and inmates to have sex in exchange for cash. Holsten
said prison officials had never told her about the case. She had to
read about it in the Delaware County Daily Times, which reported the
allegations Monday after obtaining the results of an
internal prison investigation. Two other guards were disciplined
following the probe, Prison Board Solicitor Robert DiOrio said. He said the investigation confirmed the
officer had permitted male inmates to have intercourse with
female visitors on several occasions. The prison, the
George W. Hill Corrections Facility in Concord , is run by Wackenhut
Corrections Corp., a private company. (Philadelphia Daily News)
October
9, 2001
Charles P. Sexton Jr. would like to see more prison cells - a lot more prison
cells - built at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility, Delaware County's
prison. It's not that Sexton, the head of the county board that
oversees the prison operation, is expecting a Delaware County crime wave. The
1,634-bed prison, opened in 1998 and operated for the county by Wackenhut
Corrections Corp., has more than enough space for all of the county's
inmates. Instead, he wants to greatly expand the county's current
practice of taking in prisoners from other counties, because that policy
brings in millions of dollars and promises millions more - money that could
help pay the substantial cost of housing Delaware County inmates. (The
Philadelphia Inquirer)
August
16, 2001
A suspended Delaware County prison guard surrendered to authorities yesterday
after a warrant was issued for his arrest in the stabbing of an inmate inside
his cell. Thernell Hardy Jr., 33, of Chester,
voluntarily turned himself in to the district attorney's office in
Media. Delaware County District Judge Richard M. Cappelli arraigned
Hardy on charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly
endangering another person and a weapons offense. Hardy has worked for 22
months as a private guard at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in
Concord Township. He posted 10 percent of $5,000 bail and was released.
The inmate, Kareem Bahiy, 22, who is awaiting trial
in the June 5 slaying of John Ostilio, the night
manager of a CVS pharmacy in Springfield, received four stitches to close a
three-quarters-of-an-inch cut on the right side of his neck Saturday night at
Crozer-Chester Hospital. (Daily News)
August
14, 2001
Delaware County authorities say a prison guard stabbed the accused killer of
a CVS pharmacy night manager inside his prison cell on Saturday night.
But the suspended guard, Thernall Hardy Jr., 33, of
Chester, said he had been struggling with the inmate when his arm slipped and
his right thumbnail left a gash in the prisoner's neck. Delaware County
District Attorney Patrick Meehan said Hardy would be charged with aggravated
assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, and
possession of an instrument of crime. (Daily News)
July 26,
2001
Five
years ago, it was the corrections industry equivalent of a Hollywood
marriage: The Delaware County prison contracted its total
operation - management, medical and food - to Wackenhut. It would be the
second-largest prison to be operated by Wackenhut in the world, and the first
county prison to be privatized in the Northeast. It's all
over now, a marriage of five years that was terminated in a week.
"Nothing is forever," Sexton said last week. "You've got to be
ready when things change, and we were. " What changed is
that Delaware County, borrowing a page from other governments, found a way to
make money at its prison. Wackenhut responded by saying it wasn't
getting a fair share of the proceeds. In 1998, Delaware County began
taking inmates from overflowing prisons in Chester County and the City of Philadelphia
and charged $55 and $57 a day respectively. (The fees have since risen to $58
and $60 a day.) Meanwhile, it was paying Wackenhut about
$35 a day for each prisoner (now up to about $39), regardless of county of
origin. Now, the prison board, which has contracts to take
100 Chester County and 300 Philadelphia inmates, is looking to increase its
import business. It is about to open a 220-bed unit for minor
offenders, including repeat drunken-driving offenders. This will free
up space in the main prison for more outsiders. Sexton says he is interested
in deals with the state, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Meanwhile, Wackenhut said the daily
per-inmate fee of $39 wouldn't cover its increasing costs, especially the
medical and litigation expenses posed by additional prisoners.
So it said it would end its contract to
run the 1,538-bed complex in western Delaware County on Nov. 11, and the
prison board responded by saying it would run the prison - as it
had before. Now cut Wackenhut out of the deal and add the
220 beds created by the opening of the minor-offender unit. At a projected
rate of about $60 a day, that is 620 inmates
times $60 times 365 days. That's $13.6 million at full capacity. Let's figure
the daily average will be only two-thirds of that. Now we're at
about $9 million. But might we also be creating a public
detriment by putting all these financial incentives on filling Delaware
County beds with inmates from elsewhere? Might decisions by the
criminal justice system be based not on what is right and fair for society
and the criminal, but rather on what is financially most
beneficial? "Absolutely not,"
Sexton said. I want to believe that, but
first I want to see how this whole new world of prisons as money makers
shakes itself out. (The Inquirer)
July 19,
2001
Delaware County authorities will take over at least some operations of the county
prison once the private firm running the facility leaves in the fall. The
prison board voted 5-0 in favor of a resolution Wednesday not to seek a
third-party contractor to replace Wackenhut Corrections Corp. of Palm
Gardens, Fla. The company invoked an escape clause in its contract with the
prison board last week and will cede operations Nov. 11. Company officials
said Wackenhut was not making enough money to justify continuing the
arrangement. (AP)
July 11,
2001
Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (NYSE: WHC) today reported that it has
issued a 120-day notice to the Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors,
pursuant to the terms of its contract, to discontinue its operation of the
George W. Hill Correctional Facility, located in Thornton, PA, effective,
midnight November 11, 2001. Mr. George C. Zoley,
Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Wackenhut Corrections, said,
"We are pleased with our accomplishments in Delaware County, including
the development of a new prison facility on time and under budget, saving the
County approximately $30 million over its initial construction cost
estimates. However, we have been unsuccessful in negotiating a proposed
contract amendment with new financial terms we believe are necessary to
satisfactorily address the county's planned intake of additional prisoners
from outside the county and risks of higher medical costs and litigation
associated with such prisoners. "The Delaware County Prison has
been a financially under-performing contract for some time. The discontinuance
of this contract eliminates the negative impact that higher than anticipated
inmate medical and litigation costs have had on our earnings over time.
The Company does not expect the discontinuation of the current management
contract to have any impact on the Company's financial guidance for the
fiscal year 2001," Mr. Zoley concluded.
(PR Newswire)
May 30, 2001
A Delaware County prison guard turned herself in yesterday on charges of
supplying inmates with cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana, authorities
said. Lisa Clark, 27, of Philadelphia, was caught in April with 13
packs of cigarettes, according to an incident report from the George W. Hill
Correctional Facility. She later admitted to Delaware County detectives
that she had been smuggling marijuana, cigarettes and alcohol into the prison
to sell to inmates, authorities said. (The Inquirer)
Hoffman Hall
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Community Education Centers
Jan
28, 2015 pennrecord.com
PHILADELPHIA - After rejecting a $425,000 settlement offer, a Philadelphia
man recently sued a firm that owns a private prison, claiming negligence on
the prison’s part after a fellow inmate allegedly beat him with a pipe.
Austin Walker filed the lawsuit against Community Education Centers, Inc.,
which owns Hoffman Hall in Philadelphia. Walker’s suit alleged the company
had a duty to protect him from other prisoners while he was incarcerated. The
lawsuit was filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on Dec. 4 but was
removed by the defendant to U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania on Jan. 14. In the removal notice, the defendant argues that
because Walker rejected its most recent settlement offer and demanded
$425,000, that the $75,000 threshold for federal jurisdiction has been met.
Walker alleges another prisoner attacked him at approximately 11 p.m. on
March 23, 2013, using a pipe and a small stabbing weapon. He said he was
struck in the head, face and chest. The suit further alleged no precautions
were taken at Hoffman Hall to prevent prisoners from obtaining materials that
could be used as weapons. Walker said he suffered multiple jaw fractures,
facial paresthesia, infections and other injuries that required multiple
surgeries. He is asking for more than $50,000 in damages. He is represented
by Joel J. Kofsky of the Law Offices of Joel J. Kofsky. In its removal notice, Community Education
Centers also argues that it is a Delaware corporation with its principal
place of business in New Jersey, and therefore there is diversity of citizenship.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case number
2:15-cv-00159.
Joseph E. Coleman
Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Community Education Centers
July 12, 2005 Philadelphia Daily News
An inmate at a halfway house in Juniata Park was found shot to death in his
room yesterday morning, police said. Geary Turner, 56, was shot once in the
chest and pronounced dead at the scene at about 8 a.m., said Sgt. John Taylor
of the homicide division. Security is tight at the Joseph E. Coleman Center,
named after the late City Council president. The 300-bed community
corrections center is occupied by ex-state prisoners. Though it is called a
halfway house, it looks like a medium security prison. The facility is
surrounded by high chain-link fences and barbed wire. Inmates may leave the
facility on work passes, but must return by night. The facility, which opened
in November 2001, is operated by a Roseland, N.J., company called Community
Education Centers. Last September, one of CEC's youth facilities - the Wynona
M. Lipman Education and Training Center in Newark - came under fire when a
prison worker severely beat a 17-year-old inmate. Though CEC either fired or
suspended 8 staff members, the facility had admissions suspended by state
officials due to the violence. Last month, the Lipman center was permanently
closed because of financial problems, just three years after it had opened.
Lancaster County
Prison
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Correctional Care, Inc. (formerly run by Armor Correctional Health Services)
Jul
11, 2018 fox43.com
Commission chairman proposes new inmate re-entry coordinator position for
Lancaster County
LANCASTER, Pa. --- The question of what to do with prisoner re-entry
services in Lancaster County moves toward another solution. Previously, the
county Community Action Partnership's request for a proposal (RFP) was
denied. The led to a request for proposal of a county partnership with GEO
Group, a for-profit inmate rehabilitation company. After some residents
expressed concerns and criticism of the plan, the commission is moving to an
"in-house" idea. Commission Chairman Josh Parson proposed creating
a county re-entry program coordinator with funding coming from Lancaster
County Prison commissary funds, which is money spent by inmates within the
prison, instead of taxpayers. "This person would assist in that
transition and set them up for success, whether it be employment or other
issues like that that we know can reduce recidivism so that people are not
coming back into the prison," said Parsons. A spokeswoman with GEO Group
issued the following statement: “We are pleased that Lancaster County
commissioners recognized the quality of our reentry services, and we respect
their decision. We are also proud of our successful track record in Lancaster
and throughout the state of Pennsylvania, and we are committed to continue
providing the best quality reentry services for years to come. It’s
unfortunate that this procurement process impacts Lancaster county residents,
who have earned the right to rebuild their lives. They will not be afforded
the opportunity to receive GEO’s high quality, evidence-based reentry
services and the best opportunity for successfully reentering society.”
Vanessa Philbert, impact team leader with the Lancaster
County Community Action Partnership, or "CAP", said they've been
doing some of this work already through the Re-entry Management Organization
(ROM). She said they've worked on an intensive pilot program, aiding with
services such as getting housing plans for prisoners leaving custody. She
also said they look forward to keeping a public dialogue on the new position
with questions about the job description and funding details. "We have
to keep in front of us the face of those returning citizens and making sure
whatever system we create is one that's equitable and easy to access and has
a level of excellence that continues to precedes Lancaster as a
community," said Philbert. Michelle Hines with
the advocacy group Lancaster Stands Up said they're pleased the county
commission is moving away from a potential GEO Group partnership. She said
they, ideally, want to see resources go to the community groups who invest in
prisoners re-entering society. "Transparency and collaboration with the
community is going to be key to making sure that we can move forward and make
this process work out the best for everybody," said Hines. Commissioner
Parsons said the next step is to put together a position with a job
description. That position will then be presented to the county salary board
next month. Upon approval, he said they'll look for their re-entry
coordinator and put a plan in place for how the program will run.
February 20, 2008 The Times-Tribune
County officials are mum on a report released by the regional chapter of an
international justice advocacy group that calls for a number of reforms to
medical care at Lackawanna County Prison. In a report released to The
Times-Tribune, Pax Christi of Northeastern Pennsylvania alleges existing
conditions such as heart problems and broken ribs were not addressed when
inmates arrived, distribution of medication was deficient and sporadic,
requests for medical care were answered slowly, and prenatal care for
pregnant inmates was almost nonexistent. The report, based on face-to-face
surveys of 16 current or former inmates, also suggests medical care has been
rationed to boost profits for the medical care provider. “We feel there are
very, very serious criticisms that need to be followed up on,” said Father
William Pickard, who serves as chaplain for the county’s prison ministry
program on behalf of the Diocese of Scranton. Father Pickard also is a member
of the regional chapter of Pax Christi, an international Catholic nonprofit
group that advocates peace, justice and human rights. Provider under fire --
Medical care at the prison is provided under contract by Correctional Care
Inc., of Moosic, a company co-owned by the prison’s medical director, Dr.
Edward Zaloga. The report says the relationship is
a potential conflict of interest and suggests that money not spent on medical
care results in higher profits for CCI. “It’s an inference, but it would seem
to be to his (Dr. Zaloga’s) advantage, for example,
not to fill medications,” said Joan Holmes, a member of Pax Christi and
volunteer with the prison ministry program. Attempts to reach Dr. Zaloga were unsuccessful. It is not clear exactly how Dr.
Zaloga would directly benefit from limiting or
denying care. Under its five-year contract that expires Nov. 14, 2009,
Correctional Care Inc. is paid a flat fee of $250,000 a year regardless of
medical expenses and is reimbursed separately for all costs of medical care
inside and outside the prison. The report does say that inmates have “major
consternation” with Dr. Zaloga and says the fact “that
the person best positioned to provide inmates with care was the one they most
disrespected was telling.” In the report — dated Jan. 29 — Pax Christi
recommended that the Prison Board hire an independent party to evaluate the
prison’s medical services. The purpose of the study is not conflict, but
change, said Mrs. Holmes. The idea for a review was triggered by the birth of
a baby in a prison cell on July 10, Father Pickard said. Then-inmate Shakira
Staten, 22, of Chambersburg, accused Lackawanna County Prison officials of
ignoring her repeated pleas to go to the hospital before her daughter dropped
from her womb and to the floor of a cell monitored by a closed-circuit
television camera. Although the Prison Board initially denied the staff did
anything wrong in that incident, county officials later publicly apologized
to Ms. Staten for what happened. According to the report, Ms. Donate denied
Pax Christi access to current inmates. Father Pickard and Mrs. Holmes
conducted interviews during regular visits with prisoners as part of the
prison ministry program. Joseph Rogan, Ed.D., heads the regional chapter of
Pax Christi. Other members of the prison health care review team included
Sister Barbara Craig of the Sisters of Mercy and Ann Marie Crowley. Inmates give
examples -- The report details many complaints registered by the interviewed
inmates. Among them were the claims of two women who were pregnant while
incarcerated. The report says the pregnant inmates received no checkups after
entering the prison, and “received inconsistent prenatal vitamins and
received no prenatal care.” Another inmate reportedly claimed that “medicines
are routinely replaced or unavailable to save the (medical care) firm money.”
Several complaints were reported about a lack of response to inmate requests
to see a doctor or to file grievances about medical care denials. “A few did
get the care they requested ... ,” the report says.
“Most, however, reported that their requests were ignored, or, if addressed
at all, only very slowly. When they did get attention, in many cases no
treatments were prescribed. One (inmate) was told that he was just getting
old.” The report said two interviewed inmates independently confirmed that
when one inmate they knew filed a grievance about medical care, the “entire
unit was locked down while a guard read the details of the inmate’s complete
medical history over the intercom for all to hear.” None of the interview
subjects is identified in the report, and it contains a disclaimer that says
some responses “may have been colored by personal motives.” However, the
document also says that there were underlying themes amid the responses that
triggered the recommendations. “We thought there was enough of a common
thread there to release the report,” Father Pickard said. “I could tell by
(the inmates’) emotions that they were sincere, that they went through a
terrible ordeal. They weren’t play-acting. It was very obvious in the
interaction I had with them.” Prisoners faced possible retribution by
answering the survey questions, Father Pickard said. The committee recorded a
majority of the inmates’ names, and Father Pickard said the committee
verified what inmates told them “as best they could.” However, Mrs. Holmes
admitted they did not have a way to verify all claims. Pax Christi received
38 responses when input was solicited, but was only able to interview 16
people because of time and logistical constraints. Of the 16 people who
responded, 14 were current inmates. The report recommends that the Prison
Board: Review the prison’s inmate intake procedures. Review the prison’s
medical response procedures. Review the possibility that inmates with mental
health issues could be better placed. Review whether inmates who have
substance-abuse problems could be served through treatment and education.
Review the prison’s policies and procedures related to pregnant inmates.
Review the prison’s food-service system to determine whether inmates receive
proper nutrition. Officials not talking -- County communications director Lynne
Shedlock said the study was referred to Prison
Warden Janine Donate, who was not immediately available for comment. “There
is no further comment until the warden has had a chance to review it,” Ms. Shedlock said. “She’ll present a report back to the Prison
Board at the appropriate time.” Majority Commissioner Mike Washo, who chairs the board, was out of town and not
available for comment. Minority Commissioner A.J. Munchak, who served as
Prison Board chair when he was majority commissioner through last year,
deferred questions to Mr. Washo. “Any official
response has to come from the chairman,” Mr. Munchak said. Commissioner Corey
O’Brien, also a member of the Prison Board, declined comment as well. In
addition to the three county commissioners, the Prison Board includes
District Attorney Andy Jarbola, Sheriff John Szymanski , Judge Vito Geroulo
and County Controller Ken McDowell. Mr. McDowell said he read the study and
anticipates the warden will review it and make a report to the Prison Board.
Efforts to reach Mr. Jarbola, Mr. Szymanski and
Judge Geroulo were unsuccessful.
September
22, 2006 Intelligencer Journal
Charges will not be filed against the head of a Florida-based private
medical services company unless new information comes to light, District Attorney
Don Totaro said Thursday. Doyle Moore, CEO of Armor
Correctional Health Services, was being investigated by Totaro’s
office for allegedly falsifying information on an application for a county
contract. Totaro based his decision on an affidavit
Armor submitted in February when it applied for a 5-year, $17-million
contract to provide all medical services to Lancaster County Prison. The
affidavit — one of three submitted by Armor — sought information on “employee
criminal history.” A county detective discovered Moore was convicted in
Massachusetts in 1994 of tax evasion, a felony offense. Moore was sentenced
to 2 years in prison, but he never served jail time, according to an article
in the Boston Globe, because a judge suspended the prison term. Moore also
was fined $68,650 and ordered to pay all legal costs, the paper reported. The
instructions on the “employee criminal history” affidavit required the person
completing it to place his or her initials next to one of two statements: The
first stated no one who would work on “this contract” has ever been convicted
of a misdemeanor or felony or has any criminal action pending. The second
stated some employees have been convicted of crimes and instructs the person
completing the document to list the names of those workers. An “X,” rather
than someone’s initials, was typed on the line next to the first statement.
“This affidavit was the only one of the three that did not include space for
a signature or a notary seal,” Totaro said.
Although Moore signed the two other affidavits, Totaro
said there was no way to prove he completed the third one because it had no
signature and no initials on it. Had Totaro been
able to prove Moore completed the document, Moore could have been charged
with falsifying an official document because of his criminal record. “There
is no way for us to prove who completed this” affidavit of employee criminal
history, Totaro said. “Our burden of proof is
beyond a reasonable doubt, and we cannot meet that burden.” ••• In June,
county prison Warden Vince Guarini told the prison board Armor was the most
qualified firm to provide medical services to the county prison. He has been
pushing for about a year to outsource those services to save money and
because the current in-house program is understaffed and cannot provide
sufficient care to the prison’s 1,200 inmates. With Guarini’s endorsement,
the prison board voted at its June meeting to recommend the county
commissioners negotiate a contract with Armor. But shortly after the
commissioners were charged with that task, Commissioner Molly Henderson has
said, the board received e-mails from the public regarding the track record
of Armor and several of its executives, including Moore. James Laughman, the county’s interim director of human
services, said the e-mails contained newspaper articles that suggested Armor
and its executives had used various forms of influence to procure contracts
to provide prison medical care, primarily in Florida, and that Moore’s former
company, Prison Health Services, had been sued several times for providing
poor service to its customers. Guarini said he received that information,
too, moving him to ask the district attorney’s office to investigate. That is
when the county detective discovered Moore’s 1994 tax evasion conviction.
Guarini has said he knew nothing about Moore’s conviction before the
detective discovered it. ••• Contracting for prison health care is new to
Lancaster County, said Totaro, who sits on the
county’s prison board. Guarini, who said he’s known Moore for more than 30
years (the two worked together in the 1970s when Guarini was deputy warden of
Delaware County’s prison and Moore was a health care professional there), was
responsible for the process of soliciting bids and reviewing contracts. “The
documents the county sent out to potential bidders were provided by the
warden,” Totaro said. “The warden obtained these
documents from Armor.” Guarini deferred all comment on the Armor situation to
Laughman. Laughman said
“there were serious flaws throughout the process.” “It appears going to Armor
(for documents used in the bidding process) was a huge concern,” he said. Laughman also said he found it “alarming” the affidavit
of employee criminal history did not require a notarized signature of the
person who completed it. Totaro concurred with Laughman’s assessment of the process. “It most certainly
was flawed,” he said. Armor’s attorney could not be reached Thursday for
comment. As the county moves forward with its search for a prison health care
provider, Laughman and county solicitor Don LeFever will oversee the process. “We are starting over
again from square one,” Totaro said. He added that
he is “confident” the process has been corrected.
Lackawanna County
Jail
Correctional Care, Inc., National Corrective Group (formerly run by PrimeCare)
January 29, 2010 Courthouse News
Now they're privatizing the justice system. It's not enough that we hire
mercenaries to fight our wars and interrogate our prisoners overseas, and let
private companies imprison our citizens at home, now we're letting private
debt collectors use district attorneys' letterhead to threaten people with
jail - so long as the collectors kick back some money to the district
attorneys. I didn't believe it either, until I read Courthouse News reporter
Erin McCauley's story this week, and read for myself the federal class action
Shouse v. National Corrective Group and Andrew Jarbola III. But there it is, in a federal court filing.
The class claims that "approximately twenty" Pennsylvania counties
have contracts with the National Corrective Group, allowing it to use the
counties' "district attorney brand." Lackawanna County District
Attorney Andrew Jarbola - the only named DA
defendant - "permits NCG to use his office, his official letterhead and
his signature in communicating with individuals who have issued checks which
have been dishonored," according to the complaint. "NCG thereupon
uses the district attorney's identity in threatening prosecution and
imprisonment, stating or implying that criminal charges have been filed and
that court appearances will be required, and stating that payments are due
that far exceed the amount of the dishonored check." The debt collectors
also tell debtors - in violation of Pennsylvania law - that they may not pay
their creditors directly: they have to pay the National Corrective Group,
masquerading as the district attorney, and they have to pay extra, according
to the complaint. The class claims that Jarbola and
other district attorneys have "authorized NCG to use their name,
signature and letterhead to charge individuals numerous incidental fees over
and above an administrative and accountability class fee. These incidental
fees include late payment fees, rescheduling fees, payment/convenience fees
and overpayment/handling fees. "Pursuant to the contract with NCG,
Defendant Jarbola receives 100 percent of the
administrative fees generated by NCG. NCG receives 100 percent of the class
fees and incidental fees." Let us pause for a moment, to let this sink
in. I'm not a lawyer, but I know a constitutional violation when I see one.
I'm not an expert on elephants either, but I'd know it if you dropped a dead
elephant in my living room. After these bogus, private district attorneys
browbeat and effectively extort money from debtors, with threats of jail, I
wonder if they really could send them to prison? They could send them to one
of the dozens of private prisons that incarcerate thousands of people all
over the country. I've worked in private prisons, and I know what the private
contract does - it enables both the government and the private company to
duck liability for what goes on inside the walls. We all know what our
private mercenary armies have done in Iraq. Remember the Blackwater guards
who were charged with murdering 17 people, for no particular reason, in
Baghdad's Nisour Square? Those charges were
dismissed because of government misconduct. That's what a private contract
does, and despite any claims you may hear to the contrary, that's what it is
supposed to do: to let both the government and the mercenaries walk. The U.S.
Navy hires private contractors to scrub and paint ships at its San Diego
base, leaving the sailors free to do - what? Our 535 water boys in Congress
push privatization of government services because it's supposed to be cheaper
and more "efficient." But how is it efficient to pay a private
company to do what sailors would have to do anyway? It's just another way to
curry favor with campaign contributors. We let bankers write our banking regulations;
we let hedge fund sharks write the no-rules for hedge funds; for eight years
we let oil companies write our energy and environmental policies; and now
we've made it possible for U.S. citizens to be threatened with jail by bogus,
private "prosecutors," and sent to private prisons. All that's left
is to let private companies set up private courts to try people - perhaps
corporations could try their own employees, and punish them in their own
private jails. They could charge advertisers for naming rights to the prisons,
like we do with our sports temples ... I mean stadiums. The system going on
today in Pennsylvania resembles in many ways the system of "tax
farming" under Louis XVI. French tax farmers paid off the king and then
got to keep all the taxes they could collect from the people. Do you recall
how that worked out? King Louis ended up a head shorter.
December
15, 2009 Times-Tribune
County commissioners are expected to sign a new contract with the current
Lackawanna County Prison medical care provider today that will ensure the
cost of medical care at the prison, in the future at least, is not kept
secret. But the new contract will be signed despite Correctional Care's
refusal to hand over, or make public, detailed financial records to prove
what the cost of medical care at the prison has been during the last five
years. Meanwhile, the commissioners and county controller's office approved
paying $114,083 to Correctional Care to cover hospital bills, $75,000 of
which was paid without receipts to back up the payment. Not until last month
were county officials given access to the records, and only then under a
confidentiality agreement, which barred discussing or making copies of the
records, or taking notes. Majority Commissioner Mike Washo
said the county prison board, of which the commissioners are a part, made
demands of Correctional Care, and those demands have been met. "We may
not have been fully satisfied with (Correctional Care) not releasing records,
but we have to look at the impact on the county budget. We have to look at
the whole picture. I'm confident we made the right choice," Mr. Washo said. Though a confidentiality agreement is in
place, the county still has a lawsuit, filed in September, to compel
Correctional Care to make public its financial records related to medical
service at the county prison. Part of the suit is to satisfy the state Office
of Open Records, which ruled that financial records related to Correctional
Care's pharmacy must be turned over to the president of the local chapter of
a Catholic human rights advocacy group. The group, Pax Christi, represented
by the ACLU of Pennsylvania and Cozen O'Connor law firm, has joined the suit
on the county's side. While the county had refused to pay Correctional Care
any additional expenses without first seeing receipts for payments - the
exception is a $143,660 monthly bill required by the previous contract - the
commissioners last month approved two payments to the vendor for hospital
bills. One payment, worth $39,083, was made so Correctional Care could settle
a lawsuit filed by Community Medical Center against the prison vendor and the
county for $135,000. The three parties settled the matter out of court, said
county solicitor Larry Moran, and the lawsuit was discontinued. CMC
spokeswoman Jane Gaul declined to comment on the settlement. Efforts to reach
Dr. Edward Zaloga, the prison medical director and
co-owner of Correctional Care, were unsuccessful. A second payment of $75,000
was made to Correctional Care to pay bills at Moses Taylor Hospital. Mr. Washo said there was concern about whether inmates would
be accepted in the future because bills hadn't been paid. Moses Taylor
spokeswoman Meaghan Comerford confirmed Correctional Care made a payment to
the hospital, but declined to comment otherwise. But that second payment to
Correctional Care was not supported by receipts for the expenses, said county
Chief Financial Officer Tom Durkin. Mr. Washo said
the decision to pay $75,000 - without receipts - was made because Mr. Durkin
had reviewed the records for Correctional Care, under the confidentiality
agreement, and determined the county owed at least in excess of that.
"We knew we owed them money. This was an amount we were comfortable
providing them because we saw documentation in excess of that amount,"
he said. The county will not make further payments until Correctional Care
has given the county adequate information, Mr. Washo
said. Mr. Durkin said he doesn't know yet how much the county owes
Correctional Care under the previous contract - no other bills have been
submitted by the vendor in addition to the hospital bills. In a countersuit
to the county's September lawsuit, Correctional Care had indicated $471,931
was still owed by the county. Efforts were unsuccessful to ask Controller Ken
McDowell on Monday why his office approved the payment without backup
documentation. Speaking in general terms on the Correctional Care issue last
week, Mr. McDowell said he would not authorize payment "unless I am
satisfied it is reasonable and that we were provided with satisfactory
evidence of such."
December
2, 2009 The Times-Tribune
A national law firm has agreed to represent the local chapter of a
Catholic human rights advocacy group in its fight to obtain financial records
from the medical care provider for Lackawanna County Prison.
Philadelphia-based Cozen O'Connor and the American Civil Liberties Union of
Pennsylvania filed a motion Monday on behalf of Pax Christi to intervene and
join with Lackawanna County in its lawsuit against its prison health care
vendor, Correctional Care Inc. The county lawsuit asks that Correctional Care
be compelled to release detailed financial records related to pharmaceutical
services, so the county can comply with a state Office of Open Records ruling
that found the records must handed over to Pax Christi. The lawsuit also
requests Correctional Care be compelled to release all financial receipts and
invoices to back up county payments it has received for services. Since the
suit was filed in September, the county and Correctional Care signed a
confidentiality agreement allowing only county Chief Financial Officer Tom
Durkin and county Deputy Controller Reggie Mariani
to view the records. Although a confidentiality agreement is in place,
solicitor John O'Brien said the county is still pursuing release of all
financial records. The motion to intervene taken Monday adds the weight of
Cozen O'Connor and the ACLU to the county's suit. "The more interests,
motivations and legal rights put forward to obtain these documents, the better
chance we have of getting them," said ACLU staff attorney Valerie Burch.
Cozen O'Connor, which recently opened a branch office in Wilkes-Barre, is one
of the largest law firms in the U.S. "Our plan is to cooperate with the
county to get those documents," Cozen O'Connor attorney Micah Knapp
said. Attempts to reach Edward Zaloga, M.D., owner
of Correctional Care, were unsuccessful. Despite the lawsuit, the county and
Correctional Care are in negotiations on a new contract. The current contract
was extended by a month, until Dec. 15, to work out details on a new
contract. Cozen O'Connor and the ACLU are also seeking a special injunction
to ensure records from Correctional Care's current contract are not
destroyed.
November
11, 2009 The Times-Tribune
The Lackawanna County Prison Board unanimously approved a new contract
for its prison health care vendor based on a proposal that did not include
details other bidders were required to submit. Meanwhile, one of the rejected
bidders said his proposal could have been more cost-effective than the one
submitted by Correctional Care Inc., but county officials did not give him an
opportunity to clarify or negotiate costs in the proposal. Correctional Care
provided no cost estimates for the next three years for hospitalization,
pharmaceuticals or any indication of what staffing levels will be under the
new contract, as required by the county's October request for proposals.
Instead, the company made reference to a large packet of financial records
given to prison board members Oct. 26. Correctional Care didn't have to
provide new information on staffing levels or costs because the firm has
already proven itself, said minority Commissioner A.J. Munchak, a prison
board member and longtime friend of Dr. Edward Zaloga,
prison medical director and co-owner of Correctional Care. Asked if he knew
how much it will cost the county to send inmates to hospitals for treatment
under Correctional Care's proposal, Mr. Munchak said, "I'm not going to
do your research for you." Efforts to reach Dr. Zaloga
were unsuccessful. Tom Durkin, the county's chief financial officer,
estimated the county's cost to send inmates to a hospital under the current
contract with Correctional Care has been less than $103,000 per year, based
on records the vendor provided to the prison board. However, he acknowledged
he could not say for sure how much it cost because the records were not
specific. Because Correctional Care provides no breakdown of estimated costs
for services in its proposal, there is no way to determine how much the
company is budgeting for hospitalization in its $6.7 million bid, Mr. Durkin
acknowledged. How much Correctional Care budgets for hospitalization matters
because the county must pay the difference if costs exceed the vendor's
estimate. Prison board members raised this concern in rejecting the proposal
of Health Professionals Limited. The Denver, Colo.-based vendor submitted a
bid with a price significantly lower than Correctional Care. Correctional
Care's new contract will cost $187,237 a month, compared to $143,660 a month
under the previous deal. Health Professionals Limited submitted a proposal
that would have cost $147,050 a month. Health Professionals Limited left out
the cost of hospitalization and underestimated staffing needs and the cost of
pharmaceuticals, Mr. Durkin and prison board members said. For instance,
Health Professionals included funding for a physician/medical director who
would work only 12 hours per week. Dr. Zaloga is at
the prison 40 hours a week, Mr. Munchak said. "They grossly
misrepresented themselves," said District Attorney and prison board
member Andy Jarbola. "They basically tried to
misinform us." Dr. Larry Wolk, chief
operations and medical officer of Health Professionals Limited and a native
of Lackawanna County, denied any misrepresentation and said the company would
have answered the prison board's questions if asked. "We do this for 190
jails in 20 states," Dr. Wolk said. "To
say that we don't know what the cost is, is pretty inaccurate." The
Health Professionals proposal estimated costs for pharmaceuticals at $140,000
a year. Pharmaceuticals have cost an average $253,000 a year since
Correctional Care took over at the prison in November 2004, Mr. Durkin said.
Dr. Wolk said his company can obtain lower prices
for medications because of its size. "By our estimates, Lackawanna
County is spending a lot, lot more than they should be (for
pharmaceuticals)," he said. Majority Commissioner Corey O'Brien said the
prison board had a sense of staffing levels needed at the prison and what the
cost of hospitalization was. With that information, it decided Correctional
Care offered the better deal. He said Health Professionals Limited was not
called because "we did not have questions on their proposal." "(Correctional
Care was) the lowest, most responsible bidder," he said. The prison
board on Friday approved a $6.7 million contract with Correctional Care after
the county agreed to a confidentiality agreement that allowed county
officials to view company records, but forbid them from discussing the
records, making copies or taking notes. The county had to file a lawsuit to
gain access to detailed financial records in September after Correctional
Care refused to turn them over. Dr. Wolk said he
was surprised by an arrangement in which a prison medical care provider would
retain ownership and control of receipts, invoices and other financial
records related to billing. "We may be the vendor that's providing the
health care, but we consider that information to be property of the
county," Dr. Wolk said.
November
10, 2009 The Times-Tribune
A confidentiality agreement between Lackawanna County and its prison health
care vendor is "legally inappropriate" and does not supersede the
state's Right to Know Law, said attorneys with the American Civil Liberties
Union and Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. Lackawanna County entered into
a confidentiality agreement with Correctional Care Inc. last week, clearing
the way for county officials to inspect financial records of the vendor. The
county filed a lawsuit to gain access to the records in September, after
Correctional Care refused to turn them over. The county's suit was filed in
part so it could comply with a state Office of Open Records ruling that the
records be released to Pax Christi, a Catholic human rights advocacy group.
In October, the ACLU filed suit on behalf of Pax Christi. The county's suit
remains active, despite the confidentiality agreement, under which county
officials are forbidden to discuss, make copies or take notes related to the
Correctional Care records. The county's position remains that Correctional
Care must release the records to the public, majority Commissioner Corey
O'Brien said Monday. He said the county agreed to the confidentiality
agreement because it was the only way to obtain quick access to the records
before deciding on a new prison health care contract. Correctional Care's
original contract was set to expire Sunday. The Lackawanna County Prison
Board unanimously approved a new three-year, $6.7 million contract with
Correctional Care on Friday. The contract still must be approved by county
commissioners. "We believe it's public information," Mr. O'Brien
said of the financial records. "(Correctional Care) disagrees. We've not
waived any claims with respect to what is public information." The
courts have repeatedly ruled that confidentiality agreements between a public
agency and a second party are inappropriate and unenforceable, said Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania
Newspaper Association. She questioned the county awarding a new contract to a
vendor that refuses to release documents that by law are public records.
"It's legally inappropriate. ... And I question why an agency would
renew a contract with someone who doesn't comply with the law," she
said. "Any vendor that doesn't want to recognize legal authority
shouldn't be a government contractor anymore." County Solicitor John
O'Brien agreed that a confidentiality agreement is not enforceable if the
records are public - but said it will take a court decision to determine
whether they must be released. In a defining case, Lackawanna County Judge
Terrence R. Nealon ruled in September that records of an agency vendor are
public if the vendor is performing a government function. He ruled that SWB
Yankees, the management group that operates Lackawanna County's minor-league
baseball team and stadium, cannot keep its contracts with concessionaires
secret from taxpayers. The ACLU is reviewing the action taken by the county
and will continue to seek the records on behalf of Pax Christi, said Valerie
Burch, an ACLU staff attorney. "The right to view these financial
records belongs to the people," she said. "The county does not have
the power to contract that right away." Pax Christi's determination to
obtain the records has not diminished, said Joseph Rogan, Ed.D., president of
the local chapter. He said he was surprised the county's one-day review of
Correctional Care's books was adequate to award a new $6.7 million contract.
"If this is the way the county conducts its financial affairs, it's no
wonder that it is in such dire straits," Dr. Rogan said.
October
3, 2009 The Times-Tribune
A proposal by Correctional Care Inc. to provide medical care to
Lackawanna County Prison will cost $1.2 million more per year than the
service the company currently provides, a review of four medical care
provider proposals shows. But even if county officials went with the lowest
bidder, Correctional Telecare Solutions, the cost of medical care would be
$1.1 million more per year. The county made public Thursday the four
proposals submitted for medical care provider at the county prison. Last
week, the Lackawanna County Prison Board voted 5-2 to exclusively negotiate a
contract with Correctional Care and discard the three other proposals. The
vote came two days after a lawsuit was filed raising concerns about the
accountability of Correctional Care, which has refused to release financial
records to reconcile bills submitted to the county. The county filed suit Sept.
28 to compel Correctional Care to release the financial records and
information about its pharmacy vendor, which the company has refused even to
name. County taxpayers pay $1.7 million annually to provide medical care to
the prison under the current contract with Correctional Care. But without
financial invoices to back up the cost from Correctional Care, it is unclear
what the actual cost is. Dr. Patrick Conaboy, who
submitted a proposal through a Scranton startup company Epidarus
Medical Management, said he couldn't be sure how accurate his bid was because
the prison was unable to provide direct financial information on its medical
care. "If they were able to supply better information, I think it would
have changed the pricing totally," Dr. Conaboy
said. Dr. Conaboy, who realized he was a "dark
horse" pick because he was a startup company, said he also offered a
one-year contract in his proposal that could be renegotiated once he
understood what the costs were to provide medical care. In its proposal, Correctional
Care priced the cost per year to provide medical care at between $2,630,287
for 900 inmates and $2,919,619 for 1,000 inmates. Correctional Telecare, the
low bidder, would cost on average per year between $2,591,148 for 900 inmates
and $2,879,053 for 1,000 inmates. The county prison population fluctuates
between 900 and 1,000 inmates. No matter the outcome of the prison board
meeting, majority Commissioners Corey O'Brien and Mike Washo
said there isn't an extra $1 million in the county budget available to pay
for medical care at the prison. "I've said that relentlessly now, we
can't afford these proposals," Mr. Washo said.
He recommended scrapping all the proposals and starting over. "I don't
know where the money would come from, I have no idea, but we're not raising
the taxes." Epidarus Medical Management
submitted a proposal to offer services on an average of $3.1 million a year,
with no mention of an amount per inmate. Harrisburg-based Primecare
Medical, which manages medical care for 31 prisons, submitted a proposal that
would have cost on average $3.8 million a year for 850 inmates. In a letter
to the editor published in The Times-Tribune on Friday, minority Commissioner
A.J. Munchak questioned the county's timing in filing a lawsuit against Correctional
Care two days before proposals were discussed by the prison board. Mr.
Munchak pointed out county solicitor Larry Moran is the brother-in-law of Epidarus owner, Dr. Conaboy. As
chief solicitor of litigation for the county, Mr. Moran handled filing the
lawsuit against Correctional Care. Asked Friday if he was suggesting
impropriety by Mr. Moran or the majority commissioners, Mr. Munchak would say
only "the timing is suspect." Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Washo called any implication of impropriety "ludicrous."
"A.J. must be confusing us with his administration. I'm not going to
dignify that kind of comment with a response," Mr. O'Brien said. Mr. Washo said the timing of the lawsuit was coincidental and
the issues raised in the lawsuit against Correctional Care had been
developing for months. Mr. Moran called Mr. Munchak's comments
"despicable" and said they were made to divert attention from
Correctional Care and its co-owner, Edward Zaloga,
M.D., a longtime friend of Mr. Munchak. "I think his smokescreen bomb is
a dud," Mr. Moran said. "It's a transparent effort to divert
scrutiny from his lifelong friend, a friend who despite a ruling of the
(state) open records office and a lawsuit has refused to account for the
expenditures of millions of dollars over five years." Dr. Conaboy, who also denied any impropriety. "More than
half the city is related to me in someway," he
said. "I will tell you I never had a single discussion with anybody in
the commissioner's office."
September
25, 2009 Scranton Times
A Lackawanna County Prison inmate made half a dozen requests seeking medical
help for a severe skin condition, but was ignored until the American Civil
Liberties Union intervened, an ACLU attorney said Thursday. The inmate's
condition became so severe it shocked Valerie A. Burch, an attorney with the
ACLU of Pennsylvania. "He looked like a burn victim," she said.
"He had severe psoriasis all over his body. His skin was cracked and
bleeding. It was immediately apparent this man was not getting the treatment
he needed." Prison advocacy group Pax Christi and the ACLU of
Pennsylvania brought the case of inmate Cal Burns, 32, to light after a
decision by the Lackawanna County Prison Board to negotiate a new contract
with the current prison medical care provider, Correctional Care Inc. The
decision was made on a 5-2 vote, with majority county Commissioners Corey
O'Brien and Mike Washo voting against negotiating
with Correctional Care and discarding proposals from three other medical care
providers. Board members who voted for retaining the company said they are
satisfied with the medical care provided at the prison. Told of the board's
action, Ms. Burch said she was surprised. The ACLU receives more inmate
complaints about medical care at Lackawanna County Prison than from any other
prison in the state, she said. Complaints are so common, she said, they are
immediately assigned an attorney, bypassing a standard screening process.
"This is one (prison) we've been watching because we do think the medical
care at Lackawanna County Prison is bad," Ms. Burch said. The ACLU and
Pax Christi are each actively investigating complaints at Lackawanna County
Prison, according to officials at both organizations. However, they said it
is difficult to measure exactly how many complaints they receive. Mr. Burns
remains in the prison and could not be interviewed Thursday. He gave Ms.
Burch permission to speak with The Times-Tribune on his behalf. Ms. Burch
said she visited the prison in March to interview Mr. Burns. The inmate's
pain was so intense, he could not sleep, Ms. Burch said. Mr. Burns submitted
six requests for medical treatment over a period of several weeks, she said,
but prison officials failed to respond. "Before jail, he was getting
injections that kept him completely healthy and normal," she said.
"In prison, he wasn't getting the same treatment. They reduced it to a
cream, which was obviously inadequate." Ms. Burch said she sent a letter
to Warden Janine Donate, threatening a cruel and unusual punishment suit if
Mr. Burns did not receive different treatment. Soon after, proper treatment
was given, and Mr. Burns has since recovered, Ms. Burch said. Citing medical
privacy laws, Ms. Donate refused to discuss Mr. Burns' case, or the claim his
requests for treatment went unanswered. She insisted Correctional Care
provides satisfactory medical care to inmates. The state Bureau of
Corrections gave Lackawanna County Prison a 100 percent rating in 2009 for an
inspection that included questions about medical care, she noted. "We've
been inspected on state and federal levels several times since 2004 ... and
we've never had any notable issues," she said. "So
on an objective level, yes, they're doing what they're supposed to be doing
within the standard of a medical provider of the prison." Minority
county Commissioner A.J. Munchak, Judge Vito P. Geroulo,
District Attorney Andy Jarbola, Controller Ken
McDowell and Sheriff John Szymanski - the prison board members who voted for
negotiating a new contract with Correctional Care - said they were unfamiliar
with Mr. Burns' case and stood by their votes Thursday. "There are a
couple of people who are dissatisfied with the care and that's the basis of
(complaints)," Mr. Munchak said. "The bottom line is medical complaints
have decreased substantially." Mr. Jarbola
said claims made by Pax Christi can't be trusted. "I don't give Pax
Christi any credibility whatsoever," he said, declining to elaborate. He
said he is unaware of any ACLU concerns with the prison, but would be open to
hearing about them. Judge Geroulo, who regularly
speaks with inmates, said it is "extremely rare" he receives
complaints about medical care at the prison. "I get hundreds of letters
per year directly from prisoners, I question any prisoner before me that looks
like they need medical attention and I immediately speak with the warden if
there is a problem," the judge said. Judge Geroulo
said he is aware of inmate complaints about the types of medications they
receive. He said Correctional Care told him while some medications may have
different brand names, inmates are receiving the same types and quality of
medicine. The judge said he was unfamiliar with Mr. Burns' experience, and
could not comment. Pax Christi has never been concerned with who is providing
medical care at the prison, said Joseph Rogan, Ed.D., president of the local
chapter. "We've never asked to have anybody replaced," he said.
"What we've asked for is good health care and we believe the county has
a duty to take care of their inmates."
May 7, 2008
The Times-Tribune
The medical care provider at Lackawanna County Prison filed a lawsuit
against the president of a local social justice advocacy group, alleging
defamation, slander and interference with contract because of a report that
blasted prison health care. Correctional Care Inc., of Moosic, filed a
three-count complaint against Joseph Rogan, Ed.D., seeking damages in excess
of $50,000. Mr. Rogan, who heads Pax Christi of Northeastern Pennsylvania,
said he had not seen the lawsuit as of Tuesday afternoon. Pax Christi, an
international nonprofit Catholic organization that advocates peace, justice
and human rights, issued a report calling for major reform of the prison’s
medical care. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges tortious interference with existing
contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective contractual
relations, and defamation, libel and slander. The report suggested prenatal
care was inadequate and requests for medical care were answered slowly, among
other things. The report, based on face-to-face surveys of 16 current or
former inmates, also suggested distribution of medication was deficient. “Mr.
Rogan acted irresponsibly and without sufficient due diligence in issuing his
report, and as a result, has harmed our client,” said attorney James Scanlon,
representing CCI. Pax Christi submitted the report to the Prison Board on
Jan. 29. Warden Janine Donate subsequently issued a response dismissing the
allegations at a Prison Board meeting March 12. Minority Commissioner A.J.
Munchak, who formerly served as Prison Board chairman, had not seen the
lawsuit but said he was surprised one hadn’t been filed sooner.
March
13, 2008 The Times-Tribune
Several members of the Lackawanna County Prison Board on Wednesday railed
against a review of prison health care released last month by the regional
branch of an international social justice group. Pax Christi, a Catholic
nonprofit group that advocates peace, justice and human rights, undertook the
project after the birth of a baby in a prison cell in July. Among a multitude
of Pax Christi’s allegations rebutted by Warden Janine Donate were deficient
distribution of medication, ignored inmate requests for care and almost
nonexistent prenatal care. Ms. Donate assured the Prison Board that pregnant
inmates are given appropriate prenatal care and prenatal vitamins. “As for
the allegation that inmates are ignored and services have significant delays,
it’s simply not accurate,” she said. The survey’s eight recommendations were
based on 16 face-to-face interviews with current and former inmates. Fourteen
were current inmates interviewed by members of the prison ministry program.
However, Pax Christi was denied access to prison inmates when Joseph Rogan,
Ed.D., head of the regional Pax Christi chapter, made the request in
December. Ms. Donate said she denied the request because she’d never met Dr.
Rogan and did not know who the other members of the review team were or what
qualifications they had to conduct a health care survey. District Attorney Andy
Jarbola, a member of the Prison Board, questioned
the qualifications of the review team and the way in which the study was
conducted. “I have a huge problem with this report,” he said. “We have no
idea whether these individuals have done such a survey in any other prison or
institution anywhere in Pennsylvania or the United States.” Compared with the
5,000 inmates incarcerated since Correctional Care Inc., of Moosic, took over
the prison’s medical care, the number of complaints was minuscule, Mr. Jarbola said. “If you’re only talking about 16 complaints
over 5,000, that’s less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the individuals that
were incarcerated,” Mr. Jarbola said. Other members
of the health care review team included the Rev. William Pickard, Joan
Holmes, Sister Barbara Craig, of the Sisters of Mercy, and Ann Marie Crowley.
Members of Pax Christi were not specifically invited to Wednesday’s Prison
Board meeting. The group has not been contacted by county officials and only
knew the warden was reviewing its findings from a Feb. 20 article in The
Times-Tribune. Contacted later by phone, Dr. Rogan said he hopes the
commissioners send a response. “Nothing changes in terms of our views,” Dr.
Rogan said, adding that he expects the group will make a decision about how
to proceed at its next meeting March 26. “I would guess (the group) would be
interested in pursuing it further. It’s not expected that we drop the ball
now.” Minority Commissioner A.J. Munchak, former Prison Board chairman, said
the report should not have been given credence by the board. “All it is, is a
shot at our prison and a shot at the doctor who’s running this,” he said of
Dr. Edward Zaloga, the prison’s medical director
and his longtime friend. “I think it’s absolutely terrible, and if it were up
to me, this wouldn’t have even been addressed here today in public.”
February
20, 2008 The Times-Tribune
County officials are mum on a report released by the regional chapter of
an international justice advocacy group that calls for a number of reforms to
medical care at Lackawanna County Prison. In a report released to The
Times-Tribune, Pax Christi of Northeastern Pennsylvania alleges existing
conditions such as heart problems and broken ribs were not addressed when
inmates arrived, distribution of medication was deficient and sporadic,
requests for medical care were answered slowly, and prenatal care for
pregnant inmates was almost nonexistent. The report, based on face-to-face
surveys of 16 current or former inmates, also suggests medical care has been
rationed to boost profits for the medical care provider. “We feel there are
very, very serious criticisms that need to be followed up on,” said Father
William Pickard, who serves as chaplain for the county’s prison ministry
program on behalf of the Diocese of Scranton. Father Pickard also is a member
of the regional chapter of Pax Christi, an international Catholic nonprofit
group that advocates peace, justice and human rights. Provider under fire --
Medical care at the prison is provided under contract by Correctional Care
Inc., of Moosic, a company co-owned by the prison’s medical director, Dr.
Edward Zaloga. The report says the relationship is
a potential conflict of interest and suggests that money not spent on medical
care results in higher profits for CCI. “It’s an inference, but it would seem
to be to his (Dr. Zaloga’s) advantage, for example,
not to fill medications,” said Joan Holmes, a member of Pax Christi and
volunteer with the prison ministry program. Attempts to reach Dr. Zaloga were unsuccessful. It is not clear exactly how Dr.
Zaloga would directly benefit from limiting or
denying care. Under its five-year contract that expires Nov. 14, 2009,
Correctional Care Inc. is paid a flat fee of $250,000 a year regardless of
medical expenses and is reimbursed separately for all costs of medical care
inside and outside the prison. The report does say that inmates have “major
consternation” with Dr. Zaloga and says the fact
“that the person best positioned to provide inmates with care was the one
they most disrespected was telling.” In the report — dated Jan. 29 — Pax
Christi recommended that the Prison Board hire an independent party to
evaluate the prison’s medical services. The purpose of the study is not
conflict, but change, said Mrs. Holmes. The idea for a review was triggered
by the birth of a baby in a prison cell on July 10, Father Pickard said.
Then-inmate Shakira Staten, 22, of Chambersburg, accused Lackawanna County
Prison officials of ignoring her repeated pleas to go to the hospital before her
daughter dropped from her womb and to the floor of a cell monitored by a
closed-circuit television camera. Although the Prison Board initially denied
the staff did anything wrong in that incident, county officials later
publicly apologized to Ms. Staten for what happened. According to the report,
Ms. Donate denied Pax Christi access to current inmates. Father Pickard and
Mrs. Holmes conducted interviews during regular visits with prisoners as part
of the prison ministry program. Joseph Rogan, Ed.D., heads the regional
chapter of Pax Christi. Other members of the prison health care review team
included Sister Barbara Craig of the Sisters of Mercy and Ann Marie Crowley.
Inmates give examples -- The report details many complaints registered by the
interviewed inmates. Among them were the claims of two women who were
pregnant while incarcerated. The report says the pregnant inmates received no
checkups after entering the prison, and “received inconsistent prenatal
vitamins and received no prenatal care.” Another inmate reportedly claimed
that “medicines are routinely replaced or unavailable to save the (medical
care) firm money.” Several complaints were reported about a lack of response
to inmate requests to see a doctor or to file grievances about medical care denials.
“A few did get the care they requested ... ,” the
report says. “Most, however, reported that their requests were ignored, or,
if addressed at all, only very slowly. When they did get attention, in many
cases no treatments were prescribed. One (inmate) was told that he was just
getting old.” The report said two interviewed inmates independently confirmed
that when one inmate they knew filed a grievance about medical care, the
“entire unit was locked down while a guard read the details of the inmate’s
complete medical history over the intercom for all to hear.” None of the
interview subjects is identified in the report, and it contains a disclaimer
that says some responses “may have been colored by personal motives.”
However, the document also says that there were underlying themes amid the
responses that triggered the recommendations. “We thought there was enough of
a common thread there to release the report,” Father Pickard said. “I could
tell by (the inmates’) emotions that they were sincere, that they went
through a terrible ordeal. They weren’t play-acting. It was very obvious in
the interaction I had with them.” Prisoners faced possible retribution by
answering the survey questions, Father Pickard said. The committee recorded a
majority of the inmates’ names, and Father Pickard said the committee
verified what inmates told them “as best they could.” However, Mrs. Holmes
admitted they did not have a way to verify all claims. Pax Christi received
38 responses when input was solicited, but was only able to interview 16
people because of time and logistical constraints. Of the 16 people who
responded, 14 were current inmates. The report recommends that the Prison
Board: Review the prison’s inmate intake procedures. Review the prison’s
medical response procedures. Review the possibility that inmates with mental
health issues could be better placed. Review whether inmates who have
substance-abuse problems could be served through treatment and education.
Review the prison’s policies and procedures related to pregnant inmates.
Review the prison’s food-service system to determine whether inmates receive
proper nutrition. Officials not talking -- County communications director
Lynne Shedlock said the study was referred to
Prison Warden Janine Donate, who was not immediately available for comment.
“There is no further comment until the warden has had a chance to review it,”
Ms. Shedlock said. “She’ll present a report back to
the Prison Board at the appropriate time.” Majority Commissioner Mike Washo, who chairs the board, was out of town and not
available for comment. Minority Commissioner A.J. Munchak, who served as
Prison Board chair when he was majority commissioner through last year,
deferred questions to Mr. Washo. “Any official
response has to come from the chairman,” Mr. Munchak said. Commissioner Corey
O’Brien, also a member of the Prison Board, declined comment as well. In
addition to the three county commissioners, the Prison Board includes
District Attorney Andy Jarbola, Sheriff John Szymanski , Judge Vito Geroulo
and County Controller Ken McDowell. Mr. McDowell said he read the study and
anticipates the warden will review it and make a report to the Prison Board.
Efforts to reach Mr. Jarbola, Mr. Szymanski and
Judge Geroulo were unsuccessful.
August
18, 2007 Times-Tribune
The Lackawanna County Prison’s medical director was fired from a similar post
at a Pittsburgh-based health care services company in 1999 in an apparent
dispute over a new treatment for hepatitis C in state prisons the company
served. Company officials could not be reached to explain his termination,
but in a lawsuit later filed against the company, Dr. Edward J. Zaloga claimed he was fired because he disagreed with a
plan to begin treating the liver disease with a then-new, unproven drug that
ultimately would be a waste of taxpayer money. The treatment “would waste
more than $7 million of the (state) taxpayers’ money on unnecessary and
unwarranted medical treatment,” he charged in a suit filed against Wexford
Health Sources Inc. in November 1999. He claimed in his suit that his
management practices had created a profit for the company of $4.1 million,
and the company — which at the time was trying to get the state to pay for
the new treatment — feared it might have to pay for treating inmates if the
state found out about its profits. He was fired for raising the concerns, he
alleged. The suit demanded more than $1 million in unpaid wages, expenses,
lawyer’s fees and punitive damages. The company, in its legal responses,
denied earning anywhere near $4 million. It denied his other claims as well.
County judges rejected Dr. Zaloga’s suit in
separate rulings in 2002 and 2004 with one judge writing that Dr. Zaloga failed to establish “a report of wrongdoing ... or
waste.” Wexford in its legal filings acknowledged firing Dr. Zaloga but did not say why. Dr. Zaloga
is now co-owner of a company, Correctional Care Inc., of Moosic, that
provides medical services to county prison inmates, and oversees those
services. A former inmate, Shakira Staten, 22, a federal prisoner who gave
birth at the prison July 10 and has since been transferred to Adams County
Prison to await sentencing, has sued him, the company and the prison in
federal court. She claims she was a victim of cruel and unusual punishment
because her pleas to be taken to the hospital when she went into labor were
ignored and she had the baby alone in a cell. The county Prison Board this
week apologized for the way she treated and blamed a Correctional Care nurse
for “serious errors of judgment” that included failing to properly monitor
her labor and unnecessarily delaying taking her to the hospital. The board
barred the nurse from working in the prison. A secretary in the company’s
office said Dr. Zaloga was not available for
comment and would only reply to written questions. A secretary at Wexford
Health Sources said no company officials would be available to comment until
next week. Dr. Zaloga was Wexford’s regional
medical director for its central Pennsylvania operations from Feb. 1 to Sept.
29, 1999, the day the company’s operations director dismissed him, according
to court records.
November
24, 2004 Scranton Times Tribune
PrimeCare Medical Inc., the Harrisburg company that
lost out last month on a lucrative contract for medical care at the Lackawanna
County Prison, hit the county with a $926,000 lawsuit Tuesday. PrimeCare
President Carl A. Hoffman claims county officials, namely Commissioner Robert
C. Cordaro, breached an oral agreement with him
when they hired another company to take over prison medical services. Earlier
this year, PrimeCare said it would forgive about
$400,000 in outstanding bills in exchange for a new five-year contract,
according to the lawsuit. The county paid PrimeCare
$900,000 instead of the $1.3 million owed and later awarded the health care
contract to a local upstart company, Correctional Care Inc.
October
15, 2004 Scranton Times Tribune
Divided on the issue days ago, Lackawanna County Commissioners voted
unanimously Thursday to award a multimillion-dollar prison health-care
contract to a new, local provider instead of the veteran incumbent company.
Correctional Care Inc., of Moosic, was founded four months ago by Dr. Edward Zaloga and investors Joseph Compagnino,
William Drazdowski and Ronald Halko
for the sole purpose of taking over medical operations at the county jail.
The upstart company beat out PrimeCare Medical services of Harrisburg for the five-year service contract. Having no experience to draw on, the
company was unable to estimate its annual cost, Commissioner A.J. Munchak
said. PrimeCare has been the prison's health-care provider since
2001. It has been working without a contract since January and proposed a
$5.4 million five-year contract. The question of the contract had been hotly
contested since May, when PrimeCare officials
answered the Prison Board about concerns raised in a county grand jury
report. In it, jurors cited "failure to adequately treat inmates for
serious medical conditions" and "failure of medical staff to
report, document or question suspicious injuries."
Luzerne County Correctional
Facility
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Jan
13, 2018 standardspeaker.com
County officials say no easy solutions to inmate suicides
Officials of Luzerne County and its department of corrections are
searching for solutions following the suicide of a female inmate on Tuesday —
the fourth female inmate to die at the county jail in slightly more than
seven months. Hailey Povisil, 21, was found
unresponsive in her cell at Luzerne County Correctional Facility,
Wilkes-Barre, at about 9:15 p.m. Tuesday, according to Mark Rockovich, the county’s director of correctional
services. She was pronounced dead Tuesday night at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.
Following an autopsy Thursday, Povisil’s manner of
death was ruled to be suicide, and the cause of death was asphyxia due to
hanging, according to Luzerne County Deputy Coroner Barney Dobinick. Four female inmates have died at Luzerne County
Correctional Facility since June 8. Three of those deaths were ruled
suicides; one was ruled accidental. Rockovich,
county Manager David Pedri and county council
Chairman Tim McGinley on Thursday said they will do everything they can to
prevent any more inmate suicides. The question remains as to what can be
done. The county already has a protocol for screening incoming inmates for
potential suicide risk, Pedri and Rockovich said in a joint interview Thursday afternoon.
The process starts with a report from the arresting police officer. After
that, all incoming inmates undergo screening for mental health issues,
including suicidal tendencies, Rockovich said.
Inmates are asked a series of 19 questions, such as whether they have thought
about hurting themselves or if they feel hopeless and see no way out,
according to Rockovich. All correctional officers
are trained in the screening protocol, he said. If the screening indicates an
inmate is at risk, he or she is placed under observation — in some cases an
around-the-clock suicide watch — and a mental health professional will be at
the jail within eight hours to provide treatment or counseling, according to Rockovich. But no screening protocol will ever be
perfect, Pedri and Rockovich
conceded. Correctional facility staff intensified the screening process for
incoming inmates following three inmate deaths last June and July, Rockovich said. The staff became “hyper-vigilant,” he
said. Povisil, who was incarcerated Saturday, was
not under suicide watch and did not have a cellmate, Rockovich
said. Povisil faced a misdemeanor charge of
promoting prostitution and a more serious federal firearms charge, but even
if she served the maximum sentence for both charges she would have been out
of jail in a few years, with most of her life ahead of her, Pedri said. “It’s a sad situation when a young woman
decides there’s nothing else in life,” he said. McGinley said he will invite
representatives of Correct Care Solutions, the company that provides mental
health services to the county jail, to attend a county council meeting to
discuss what can be done to prevent future inmate suicides. “That’s back on
the agenda, to get them in to talk to them about what they are doing,
protocols,” McGinley said. “Council will probably have some discussion about
it.” Pedri said he hopes the discussion with
Correct Care Solutions will be on the agenda at council’s next meeting, on
Jan. 23, or in February. Officials need to “leave no stone unturned” to find
answers to the recent spate of inmate deaths, Pedri
said. “Is there another question we can ask?” he said. “Is there something
else that could be done? What are we doing to address these things?” “The
prison situation is very unfortunate,” he said. “They are looking for
answers. I hope we can come up with some.”
Luzerne County Court
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care LLC
Aug 9,
2017 nationallawjournal.com
Ciavarella Wants to Use 'McDonnell' in
Acquittal Bid
Former Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Mark Ciavarella, currently serving a 28-year sentence for his
role in the "kids-for-cash" scandal, is seeking to invoke in his
bid for freedom the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that made it harder
for public officials to be prosecuted for bribery. The decision in McDonnell
v. United States, in which the high court overturned former Virginia Gov.
Robert McDonnell's bribery conviction, was handed down while Ciavarella was in his fifth year of federal
incarceration. The changes that McDonnell brought to prosecuting bribery
cases could affect his case, the ex-Luzerne County judge claimed in court
papers. McDonnell narrowed the definition of an "official act" done
for payment or a favor. Ciavarella was convicted of
accepting $2.8 million in kickbacks, along with fellow Judge Michael Conahan,
from the builder and former co-owner of a private juvenile detention
facility. Ciavarella was sent to prison in 2011. Ciavarella's court-appointed lawyer, Jennifer Wilson, did
not return a call seeking comment. Last month, Ciavarella
sent a letter to U.S. District Chief Judge Christopher C. Conner of the
Middle District of Pennsylvania urging him to convene a hearing on his
request to have his conviction tossed. Conner has scheduled it for Sept. 14
at the Harrisburg federal courthouse. Since the summer of 2016, the McDonnell
decision has become a go-to for public officials accused of quid pro quo.
Former U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pennsylvania, has brought up McDonnell in
his post-conviction defense. McDonnell's case was decided six days after
Fattah was found guilty of racketeering, bribery and conspiracy charges
stemming from multiple schemes aimed at getting him out of his financial
troubles, including using government money to pay back an illegal
million-dollar campaign loan. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., writing for the
court in McDonnell, said the justices were adopting a more "bounded
interpretation" of "official acts" than what prosecutors had
advocated. The court sent the case back to the trial judge to decide whether
there was enough evidence that McDonnell's conduct fell under the new
definition of "official acts." If so, the judge could order a new
trial. If not, the charges will be dismissed. The ex-governor, a Republican,
was sentenced in 2014 to two years in prison on charges he took
"official acts" in exchange for more than $175,000 in gifts and
cash from Virginia businessman Jonnie Williams Sr. McDonnell was accused of
using his office to promote Williams' company. "There is no doubt that
this case is distasteful; it may be worse than that. But our concern is not
with tawdry tales of Ferraris, Rolexes and ball gowns," Roberts wrote.
"It is instead with the broader legal implications of the government's
boundless interpretation of the federal bribery statute." Prosecutors' interpretation
of official acts was overbroad, the court said. "Officials might wonder
whether they could respond to even the most commonplace requests for
assistance, and citizens with legitimate concerns might shrink from
participating in democratic discourse," Roberts wrote.
Jan
13, 2014 philly.com
Years
after he took money to send them to privately run juvenile detention centers,
a former Luzerne County Court judge must now pay former detainees back for
violating their civil rights, a federal judge in Wilkes-Barre has ruled. In
an opinion released Thursday, U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo cleared
the way for about 2,500 plaintiffs to collect damages from Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., one of two former judges convicted in the
"kids for cash" corruption scandal. How much Ciavarella
will owe will be determined later, Caputo said. Ciavarella
was sentenced in 2011 to 28 years in prison for accepting hundreds of
thousands of dollars in bribes from the builder and co-owner of two
Northeastern Pennsylvania private prisons. In exchange, he backed county
contracts with the facilities and increased their inmate counts by imposing
harsh sentences on children, some as young as 10, who came before his court.
The state Supreme Court threw out thousands of his convictions, saying the
justices had no confidence they were decided fairly, given Ciavarella's criminal conduct. Since then, several of the
former detainees have sued him and other members of the conspiracy. In his
ruling Thursday, Caputo ruled that judges "no matter how corrupt"
are protected by judicial immunity for all decisions made from the bench. But
actions Ciavarella took outside court, including
closing the county's government-run detention center and instituting a
zero-tolerance policy believed to have sent hundreds of teens to lockup for
alleged parole violations, left him open to the suits, he decided. Ciavarella, who remains in a federal prison in Illinois,
did not dispute that argument before Caputo's ruling. His attorneys did not
return calls for comment Friday. "We're happy to see that there's some
further closure and that Judge Caputo has found Judge Ciavarella
liable for his actions," said David S. Senoff,
a Philadelphia lawyer representing several of the juvenile plaintiffs. Suits
against other members of the "kids for cash" conspiracy have
largely favored the plaintiffs. The two private detention centers at the
center of the scandal, PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care, recently
agreed to settle for $2.5 million. In 2011, Robert K. Mericle,
their builder, offered to pay $17.75 million to settle claims against him. A
federal court has also found Michael T. Conahan, another Luzerne County judge
serving more than 17 years in prison for his role in the scandal, liable for
yet-to-be-determined damages. Senoff said Friday
his clients would continue to pursue civil claims against Robert Powell, the
former co-owner of the detention facilities.
August
6, 2013 neontommy.com
A
Pennsylvania judge convicted of accepting bribes from owners of private
juvenile detention facilities in exchange for keeping the facility
well-populated has lost an appeal. Judge Mark A. Ciavarella
is set to begin serving his 28-year sentence. Following a federal
investigation, Ciavarella and fellow "Kids for
Cash" Judge Michael Conahan were found to have received $2.6 million
from the owners of two facilities, run by PA Child Care and sister company
Western PA Child Care. Ciavarella's efforts to
ensure that the juvenile facilities remained full included sentencing Hillary
Transue, then a high school sophomore, to three
months in jail for making fun of her school's principal online. Other
instances include a seventh-grader jailed for 48 days for throwing a piece of
steak at his mother's boyfriend and an 11-year-old boy sentenced for calling
the police after being locked out of the house by his mother. According to
BoingBoing: The judges helped the detention centers land a county contract
worth $58 million. Then their alleged scheme was to guarantee the operators a
steady income by detaining juveniles, often on petty stuff...[The Juvenile
Law Center in Philadelphia, PA] cited hundreds of examples where teens
accused of minor mischief were pressured to waive their right to lawyers, and
then shipped to a detention center. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out
hundreds of convictions issued by the two judges after their scheme came to
light.
August
6, 2013 neontommy.com
A
Pennsylvania judge convicted of accepting bribes from owners of private
juvenile detention facilities in exchange for keeping the facility
well-populated has lost an appeal. Judge Mark A. Ciavarella
is set to begin serving his 28-year sentence. Following a federal
investigation, Ciavarella and fellow "Kids for
Cash" Judge Michael Conahan were found to have received $2.6 million
from the owners of two facilities, run by PA Child Care and sister company
Western PA Child Care. Ciavarella's efforts to
ensure that the juvenile facilities remained full included sentencing Hillary
Transue, then a high school sophomore, to three months
in jail for making fun of her school's principal online. Other instances
include a seventh-grader jailed for 48 days for throwing a piece of steak at
his mother's boyfriend and an 11-year-old boy sentenced for calling the
police after being locked out of the house by his mother. According to
BoingBoing: The judges helped the detention centers land a county contract
worth $58 million. Then their alleged scheme was to guarantee the operators a
steady income by detaining juveniles, often on petty stuff...[The Juvenile
Law Center in Philadelphia, PA] cited hundreds of examples where teens
accused of minor mischief were pressured to waive their right to lawyers, and
then shipped to a detention center. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out
hundreds of convictions issued by the two judges after their scheme came to
light.
November
4, 2011 Washington Post
The former owner of two for-profit juvenile detention facilities was
sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison for his role in a kickback scheme
that led the state Supreme Court to vacate the convictions of thousands of
juveniles who appeared before a now-jailed Pennsylvania judge. Robert Powell
pleaded guilty in 2009 to concealing a felony and an accessory charge in the
so-called “kids for cash” scandal. Powell, 52, testified earlier this year
that he was forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to former Luzerne
County Judges Mark Ciavarella Jr. and Michael
Conahan in return for their support of his two private juvenile detention
centers. He said the judges extorted more than $725,000 from him after they
shut down the dilapidated county-run detention center and instead sent
juveniles to his new lockup outside the city of Wilkes-Barre and to a sister
facility in western Pennsylvania.
August
11, 2011 AP
A longtime northeastern Pennsylvania judge has been ordered to spend
nearly three decades in prison for his role in a massive juvenile justice
bribery scandal that prompted the state's high court to toss thousands of
convictions. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella
Jr. was sentenced Thursday to 28 years in federal prison for taking $1
million in bribes from the builder of a pair of juvenile detention centers in
a case that became known as "kids-for-cash." The Pennsylvania
Supreme Court tossed about 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella
between 2003 and 2008, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the
juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to
intelligently enter a plea. Ciavarella, 61, was
tried and convicted of racketeering charges earlier this year. His attorneys
had asked for a "reasonable" sentence in court papers, saying, in
effect, that he's already been punished enough. "The media attention to
this matter has exceeded coverage given to many and almost all capital murders,
and despite protestation, he will forever be unjustly branded as the 'Kids
for Cash' judge," their sentencing memo said. Federal prosecutors
accused Ciavarella and a second judge, Michael
Conahan, of taking more than $2 million in bribes from the builder of the PA
Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centers and extorting hundreds
of thousands of dollars from the facilities' co-owner. Ciavarella,
known for his harsh and autocratic courtroom demeanor, filled the beds of the
private lockups with children as young as 10, many of them first-time
offenders convicted of petty theft and other minor crimes. The judge remained
defiant after his arrest, insisting the payments were legal and denying he
incarcerated youths for money. The jury returned a mixed verdict following a
February trial, convicting him of 12 counts, including racketeering and
conspiracy, and acquitting him of 27 counts, including extortion. The guilty
verdicts related to a payment of $997,600 from the builder. Conahan,
meanwhile, pleaded guilty last year and awaits sentencing.
February
19, 2011 AP
A former Juvenile Court judge was convicted Friday of racketeering in a case
that accused him of sending young offenders to for-profit detention centers
in exchange for millions of dollars in illicit payments from the builder and
owner of the lockups. Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella,
61, left the bench in disgrace two years ago after prosecutors charged him
with engineering one of the biggest courtroom frauds in U.S. history by using
juvenile delinquents as pawns in a plot to get rich. Federal prosecutors
accused Ciavarella and a second judge, Michael
Conahan, of taking more than $2 million in bribes from the builder of the PA
Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centers and extorting hundreds
of thousands of dollars from the facilities' co-owner. Ciavarella
insisted that the payments were legal and denied that he incarcerated youths
for money. A federal jury in Scranton returned a mixed verdict, convicting Ciavarella of 12 counts, including racketeering and
conspiracy, and acquitting him of 27 counts, including extortion. The guilty
verdicts related to nearly $1 million that the builder paid to the judges.
February
15, 2011 AP
A former northeastern Pennsylvania judge admitted Tuesday that he was deep in
debt and living beyond his means when he accepted hundreds of thousands of
dollars from the builder of two privately owned juvenile detention centers,
but he insisted the payments were legal "finder's fees" and not bribes
as the federal government has alleged. Ex-Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella took the witness stand at his federal
racketeering trial and tried to stem the damage from a week of testimony that
he took more than $2 million in illegal kickbacks from the builder of the
juvenile lockups and extorted hundreds of thousands of dollars from the
facilities' co-owner — a scandal known as "kids for cash" that
resulted in the dismissal of thousands of juvenile convictions. At times, he
seemed like a witness for the prosecution. Ciavarella,
61, admitted that he filed false tax returns related to the payments. He also
admitted that he plotted with former Judge Michael Conahan to defraud the
federal government of the taxes they owed — and that he took steps to conceal
the payments because he knew they would look bad to the public. "I made
the wrong decision and I paid dearly for that," Ciavarella
told jurors at the federal courthouse in Scranton. "And that's OK
because I have to suffer the consequences of my decision." Prosecutors
allege the judges shut down the decrepit county-run juvenile detention center
in 2002 and arranged for the construction of the PA Child Care facility
outside Wilkes-Barre. Ciavarella, who presided over
juvenile court, stocked the private jail with young offenders whose crimes
were often minor. Many of the teens had never been in trouble before, and
some were locked up even after probation officers recommended against it. Ciavarella, who has denied any link between the payments
he received and the youths he sent to the facility, said he viewed the money
as legitimate. He said the builder, Robert Mericle,
offered to pay him a "finder's fee" because Ciavarella
had introduced him to Robert Powell, the developer and co-owner of PA Child
Care. He said he took Mericle at his word that the
payment was legal. Ciavarella said he thanked Mericle and considered the payment "manna from
heaven." That's because he needed the money. Assistant U.S. Attorney
William Houser used cross examination to portray Ciavarella
as a man swimming in debt and looking for a way out. When Ciavarella
received a $330,000 payment from Mericle in late
January 2003 — the first of what would be three hefty payments from the
builder related to the construction and expansion of PA Child Care and a
sister facility in the western part of the state — the judge immediately sent
two dozen checks to creditors, primarily credit card companies. Ciavarella also repaid a $150,000 loan from Barbara
Conahan, Judge Conahan's wife. In all, he eliminated $311,000 in debt from
the proceeds of the money he got from Mericle.
"We were living beyond our means," he acknowledged. Houser said the
debt showed Ciavarella had a clear "motive for
the crime." The former judge testified clearly and confidently as he
responded to questions from his own attorneys Tuesday morning, rejecting the
government's allegations that he took bribes from Mericle
and extorted money from Powell, a high-powered attorney. He said Powell
couldn't be touched. "You didn't demand anything from Bobby Powell,"
Ciavarella said. "He had an ego bigger than
this room. . There was absolutely nothing I could do
to hurt Mr. Powell financially." Powell has said that he was forced to
pay $590,000 to a company controlled by the judges and another $143,000 in
cash to Conahan. The judges allegedly disguised the payments as rental income
from a Florida condo owned by their wives. Powell testified that Conahan and Ciavarella pressured him to make payments, going so far
as to request more money even as a federal investigation was under way. Ciavarella called Powell's testimony "ludicrous and
ridiculous." He insisted Powell's payments were rent, and had nothing to
do with the juvenile detention centers. He said Conahan told him that Powell
had agreed to pay $15,000 a month for 60 months for use of the condo — a
total of nearly $1 million. He testified that Conahan made those
arrangements, not him. Houser was incredulous. He asked Ciavarella
why Powell — a wealthy, successful businessman and personal injury lawyer —
would agree to pay nearly $1 million in rent on a condo that the judges'
wives had purchased for only $785,000, and for which Powell would receive no
ownership interest. "That's what Powell wanted," Ciavarella insisted. He said Powell didn't want to own
the condo because his wife would then have a claim on it — a reference to
earlier testimony by a defense witness that Powell was having an affair and
planned to get a divorce. Powell's attorney has denied the allegation. Houser
also pointed out the Pennsylvania Constitution forbids judges from accepting
payment of any kind, other than salary, "for the performance of any
judicial duty." Ciavarella responded that he
wasn't acting in his official capacity as judge when he put Mericle in touch with Powell, but as an elected official
trying to do right by the county's troubled youth. But he said he knew how
the enormous sums he got from Mericle and Powell
would be perceived. "I didn't want the publicity and I didn't want the
scrutiny. That's what I was trying to avoid," he said. "I did the
wrong thing." Houser was merciless, grilling Ciavarella
for more than three hours and getting one damaging admission after another.
Almost as an aside, Ciavarella acknowledged that he
pocketed $15,000 to $20,000 in cash from a golf tournament fundraiser held in
2005 as part of his judicial retention campaign. He said he kept the cash in
the house, used it for personal expenses such as dinners out, and failed to
list it on his campaign finance report. The defense expects to rest its case Wednesday.
Closing arguments will follow. Conahan, the other judge, has pleaded guilty
to racketeering conspiracy and awaits sentencing.
February
9, 2011 CNBC
The builder of two private juvenile detention facilities said Wednesday that
he paid $2.1 million to a judge in northeastern Pennsylvania who steered him
the work, but he viewed the payments as "finder's fees," which are
standard practice in the commercial real estate business. Robert Mericle testified at the trial of former Luzerne County
Judge Mark Ciavarella, who sent juvenile offenders
to a detention center that Mericle built outside of
the city of Wilkes-Barre. Federal prosecutors allege that Ciavarella
took illegal kickbacks from Mericle and extorted
hundreds of thousands of dollars from the facility's developer. Mericle told jurors that he visited Ciavarella
in his courthouse office and said he wouldn't have had the opportunity to
build PA Child Care without the judge, who had referred him to developer
Robert Powell. Mericle, the owner of a commercial
construction company with more than 200 employees, said it's
standard industry practice to pay referral fees to individuals who put deals
together. He said he paid a $1 million referral fee for PA Child Care.
"If anybody deserves it, it's you," Mericle
told Ciavarella. "I agree," Ciavarella said, according to Mericle's
account. Mericle said he paid another $1 million
referral fee after building a second detention center for Powell, this one in
Butler County, in the western part of the state. Under cross-examination, Mericle said he did not consider the money he paid to Ciavarella to be a kickback or bribe. Prosecutors allege
that Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan,
orchestrated a scheme to shut down the dilapidated county-run detention center
and arrange for the construction of the PA Child Care lockup in Luzerne
County. Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile
court, is accused of stocking the private jail with young offenders whose
crimes were often minor. The state Supreme Court threw out thousands of
juvenile convictions issued by Ciavarella, saying
he disregarded the constitutional rights of the defendants. By the fall of
2007, Ciavarella was aware that federal law
enforcement authorities were looking into the payments. But even then he questioned
Mericle about the status of the latest referral fee
he was to supposed to receive — $150,000 for a 24-bed expansion of Western PA
Child Care. Mericle testified that he went to see Ciavarella in his chambers one day. He said he found Ciavarella behind his desk with the lights dimmed. Ciavarella put his fingers to his lips to hush him,
presumably believing his office to be bugged, and wrote a message on a slip
of paper. "Wired? Yes No Circle One," the note said, meaning he
wanted to know whether the finder's fee had been deposited into his bank
account. Mericle circled no. Ciavarella
then motioned for Mericle to go into a courtroom,
where the pair sat at a table and Ciavarella told
him that a grand jury was investigating. He told Mericle
that he could go to jail if authorities found out that he had directed the
referral fees to be funneled to him through Powell. Mericle
testified that he believed Ciavarella wanted him to
alter documents to make it look as if the payments had been made directly to
the judge — not to Powell — in order to give the appearance of legitimacy.
"Rob, I'm not asking you to lie or perjure yourself," Ciavarella said, according to Mericle.
"I'm asking you to go back to your office and look at those records and
recognize I could go to jail." A few days later, Mericle
was about to leave his office to return to Ciavarella's
chambers when the builder was visited by IRS and FBI agents. Mericle initially lied to law enforcement officials and
to a grand jury. He has pleaded guilty to concealing evidence that Ciavarella committed tax fraud, and faces up to three
years in prison when he is sentenced. Mericle said
he initially lied to protect his friend. Ciavarella
was Mericle's attorney until 1996, when he became a
judge, and Mericle said he viewed Ciavarella as an older brother. As Mericle's
construction company grew and prospered, he lavished gifts on the judge. He
said he gave $5,000 cash to Ciavarella each
Christmas. "I did not want to be the person to lay Mark out," he
said.
February
8, 2011 AP
A northeastern Pennsylvania judge accepted kickbacks and extorted money in a
$2.8 million scheme to turn the courthouse into a "cash cow" by
locking up juvenile offenders in privately run detention facilities, a
federal prosecutor said Tuesday as the former judge's trial began. Lawyers
delivered opening statements in the case of one-time Luzerne County Judge
Mark Ciavarella, who has denied authorities'
allegations of a racketeering plot. His attorney on Tuesday called the
government's case "ludicrous" and said that while Ciavarella may have exercised poor judgment, he did not
break the law. In a courtroom scandal known as "kids for cash," the
government has charged Ciavarella and another
judge, Michael Conahan, with orchestrating a scheme to shut down the
county-run detention center and arrange for a private facility to be built
and run by cronies. Ciavarella, who presided over
juvenile court, is accused of stocking the private jail with young offenders
whose crimes were often minor. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod told jurors that Ciavarella
accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from Robert Mericle, a locally prominent construction company owner
and the builder of the PA Child Care detention center outside Wilkes-Barre. Ciavarella also extorted cash from the center's co-owner,
Robert Powell, and threatened to send juvenile delinquents elsewhere if he
didn't get the money, Zubrod said. The judges are
accused of laundering the money through a series of shell companies,
disguising some of the illicit cash as rental payments on a Florida
condominium owned by their wives. Ciavarella
"used his judicial office to enrich himself in direct violation of his
duty and oath as judge," Zubrod said, turning
"the high office of judge into a cash cow, a money-making machine."
He said Powell knew he was being extorted, but he felt he had no choice but
to pay because the detention center carried a $12 million mortgage and he
needed Luzerne County to house its juvenile offenders there. The judges
"had him over a barrel," he said.
February
6, 2011 Standard Speaker
The words poured out of Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. like
sweat on that warm afternoon two Julys ago - fragments of truth and excuses
interspersed with the arrogance and defiance that defined his time as a judge
on the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas. Ciavarella,
subpoenaed to testify about alleged impropriety in a civil case on his
docket, had turned his cross-examination into an exercise of catharsis and
confession. The former judge, eschewing brevity and practicality, transformed
each answer into a point-by-point rebuttal to the charges that ended his
career and irrevocably tarnished his reputation. "I did not consider
what I did to be illegal," Ciavarella said,
matching his recollections and equivocations against the six-month-old
allegations that he and a colleague accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments
to support the development of a pair of for-profit detention centers. Ciavarella's testimony, a tapestry of extraordinary
admissions and denials, came three weeks before U.S. District Judge Edwin M. Kosik rejected the plea agreement that would have
guaranteed him 7½ years in prison. At the time, Ciavarella
had nothing to lose. His words, transmitted in bold, brash strokes as his
attorneys sat in stunned silence, were little more than an attempt at saving
face and rationalizing away the sins that led to his undoing. Now, with Ciavarella set to stand trial Monday on a 39-count
indictment stemming from the same allegations of kickbacks and collusion,
those long-ago words have new significance. They offer a glimpse at Ciavarella's possible defense strategy - a Herculean task
for a man who, in the same line of questioning, admitted being a
"corrupt judge" and confessed that he never paid taxes on any of
the payments he received. And, they bolster a prosecution case that hinges on
allegations Ciavarella and his colleague, Michael
T. Conahan, conspired with the backers of the for-profit facilities to secure
a lucrative county contract, and that Ciavarella
used his power as the juvenile court judge to keep the beds at those
facilities filled. A private facility -- Until the first of the for-profit
juvenile facilities opened in 2003, wayward Luzerne County youths often wound
up at the county-owned detention center - a six-decade-old former women's
prison on North River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Ciavarella,
the juvenile court judge from 1996 to 2008, detested the facility, publicly
criticizing its infrastructure and cleanliness while privately soliciting
proposals from private developers to build a replacement. "The place is
old," Ciavarella decried in April 2000.
"It suffers from leaky pipes that we can't get to because they're buried
behind 2-foot-thick concrete walls and the interior is infested with cockroaches
and rodents." Ciavarella turned to the private
sector after his original plan - to have the county build a replacement
facility - became mired in election-year politics. "I went to the county
commissioners and I asked them to build a new detention center," Ciavarella said during his cross-examination two summers
ago. "They told me they would, but they didn't want to build it and
announce it until after the election." The election passed, but the
commissioners still had not taken action on building a new juvenile detention
center. One commissioner, citing a study that showed the cost of a new
facility between $4 million and $5 million, said he favored building a
replacement or contracting with a private developer. Commissioner Stephen A.
Urban opposed closing the county-owned center and, later, the immense costs
associated with leasing the for-profit center, Pennsylvania Child Care in
Pittston Township. Urban, testifying last year before a state panel probing Ciavarella and Conahan, said repairs and improvements to
the county-owned facility could have been completed for $2 million to $4
million. Ciavarella, disgusted and impatient,
turned to Conahan, his friend and one-time neighbor. "I said, 'If you
know anybody that has the wherewithal to build a facility, tell them to build
one because this place is a dump and it shouldn't be open,'" Ciavarella testified. 'The boss' got it done -- Conahan,
known in courthouse circles as "the boss," had the power, influence
and connections to make the privatization of the county's juvenile detention
a reality. "He was the one that made it all possible," Ciavarella said during his cross-examination two years
ago. "He put the people in the room that came up with the financing to
build the facility." Conahan, the county's president judge from 2002 to
2007, brought in business partners Robert J. Powell and Gregory Zappala to
finance the project and used his power to compel the county commissioners
into contracting with their facility - at a cost far higher than the
projected price of a new county-owned juvenile jail. By the fall of his first
year heading the courts, Conahan made the unilateral decision to stop sending
juveniles to the county-owned detention facility and sent the facility's
operating license back to the state Department of Public Welfare, even though
it had been granted to the Luzerne County government, not the courts. Urban,
the longtime minority commissioner and frequent critic of the insular ways of
county government, saw Conahan's maneuvering as a thinly veiled effort to
ensure a stream of county business for the for-profit facility - a sleight of
hand Urban's colleagues did not seem to notice or mind. "The judge said,
'we're not sending anybody there,'" Urban recalled. "The other two
commissioners then voted for a budget that defunded positions of the
child-care workers (at the county-owned facility). And then they closed the
facility, and the county was then forced to use the detention center that Mr.
Powell and Zappala had built at the cost of about $100 extra per day, per bed
than it was costing us in our own facility." The county paid $9 million
to lodge juveniles at the for-profit facility, Pennsylvania Child Care, in
the two years between the closing of the county-owned facility and the
approval of a 20-year, $58 million lease. Urban, who voted against the lease
agreement, and the county controller at the time, Stephen L. Flood, objected
to the high cost and nature of the agreement. There were no bids and no
negotiations. At first, concerned -- Early in his campaign for a new
detention facility, Ciavarella cast himself as
something of an altruist in a judge's robe - an empathetic father figure
intent on giving mischievous youths housing with better amenities, mental
health services, infrastructure and cleanliness than the county's cavernous
dungeon of a juvenile jail. As Ciavarella became
more involved with the process any notion of altruism drowned in a stream of
cash from Powell, a Drums attorney who argued civil cases before Ciavarella, and Robert K. Mericle,
a prominent developer whose firm built for-profit facilities for Powell and
Zappala in Pittston Township and Butler County. Mericle
met Ciavarella in his chambers in April 2002 and
offered a "finder's fee" - 10 percent of the total cost of the
contract for constructing the facilities. Ciavarella,
recalling the conversation during his cross-examination, said he decided
almost immediately to share the payment with Conahan. "I walked over to
his chambers and told him what had transpired in my chambers," Ciavarella said. "(Conahan) said to me 'that is one
hell of a friend you have.' That was the end of it." Mericle
funneled the "finder's fee" - about $440,000 each according to Ciavarella - through a matrix of transactions, first from
his company to Robert Matta, the former president of Miners Bank, then to
Beverage Marketing, a company owned by Conahan, then to the judges. Powell
rewarded Ciavarella and Conahan with more than
$772,500, including $520,000 disguised as rent payments on a condominium the
former judges owned in Jupiter, Fla., and $182,500 in cash stuffed in FedEx
boxes and hand-delivered, via an emissary, to the judges. Ciavarella
said he paid taxes on the Powell money, but thought Conahan would cover the
taxes on the Mericle payments. He did not declare
either set of payments on his annual state financial disclosure form. "I
did not consider the money that I was receiving to be illegal mob
money," Ciavarella said during his
cross-examination two summers ago. "I was told it was legal money. I was
told it was something that I was entitled to. And for that reason, I did not
have a problem with where that money went or how it came to me." Tricky
tactics -- Ciavarella's tactics in the juvenile
courtroom were admittedly illegal. The former judge, known since childhood as
"Scooch," used a celebrated "zero tolerance" approach to
juvenile crime along with unconstitutional tricks - including habitually
failing to inform defendants of their right to an attorney and jailing them
for the most minor offenses - to keep the private jails full and profitable.
He balked when state officials confronted him about the county's unusually
high juvenile detention rates. "He wasn't pleased at all with being
questioned," Richard J. Gold, the deputy secretary of the state Office
of Children, Youth and Families, said. Ciavarella,
who presided over juvenile court from 1996 to 2008 and served as president
judge from 2007 until his resignation from the bench in January 2009, had
been sending juveniles to detention at a rate more than twice the state
average and the county was exceeding state reimbursement limits by $2 million
per year. "Any way you looked at it, their numbers were out of
sync," Gold said. Ciavarella sat silent,
harboring the true reason for the outsized numbers and costs, as one of the
other officials in the room answered, "We're working on it."
Pennsylvania Child Care sued two Department of Public Welfare auditors and
Flood, the former county controller, in December 2004, after Flood released
documents to the media from an unfinished state audit that called the lease a
"bad deal." The audit found that Pennsylvania Child Care had turned
a 28 percent profit in the first year of the lease, Gold said. The county, he
said, could have built three juvenile detention centers for the cost of what
it paid to lease the for-profit center. Ciavarella,
a defendant in a series of civil lawsuits filed by the juveniles who appeared
in his court, defended his courtroom behavior in a March 2009 interview on
the ABC News program "20/20." Ciavarella,
accosted by reporter Jim Avila and a camera crew outside his Kingston
condominium, objected to the notion he had "sold kids down the
river." "You take a look at their file and you look to see if this
was the first time they had a run-in with the law," Ciavarella
told Avila. "It might have been the first time they're in front of me.
You may be surprised that it's not going to be as clear-cut as they would
like you to think."
May 27,
2010 Billings Gazette
A state panel investigating the "kids for cash" scandal in
northeastern Pennsylvania called Thursday for improved oversight of judges
among dozens of other recommendations meant to strengthen the state's
juvenile justice system. The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice was
created last August by the Legislature and Gov. Ed Rendell to look into the
causes of the judicial scandal at the Luzerne County Courthouse and to
suggest ways to prevent a recurrence there or elsewhere. Former judges
Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella are charged in
federal court with racketeering for allegedly taking millions of dollars in
kickbacks to place youth offenders in for-profit detention centers. Conahan
has agreed to plead guilty for his role in the $2.8 million scheme. Ciavarella awaits trial. The state Supreme Court tossed
thousands of juvenile convictions after federal prosecutors charged the
judges last year. In its report, the interbranch commission said that
corruption in the Luzerne County courthouse "has been deeply ingrained
for many years" and that "many individuals may be seen to have
shared the responsibility" for failures in the juvenile justice system
there, including prosecutors, public defenders and probation officials. The
commission's work also revealed failures in state oversight of the court system.
Its recommendations cover a range of issues, from improving the state
Judicial Conduct Board _ the agency that investigates and prosecutes
misconduct by Pennsylvania judges _ to ensuring that juveniles have access to
legal representation, to reducing or eliminating the use of shackling in
juvenile courtrooms. The commission voted Thursday to approve the report and
recommendations and send them to Rendell, Chief Justice Ronald Castille and
legislative leaders.
January
25, 2010 AP
A northeastern Pennsylvania prosecutor has dropped her effort to retry as
many as 46 youths who appeared before a judge charged in a corruption
scandal, bringing an end to a legal saga that involved an estimated 5,000
tainted juvenile convictions. The agreement between defense lawyers and
Luzerne County District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll means that none of the
thousands of youths who appeared before disgraced former Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. between 2003 and 2008 will face retrial,
and all will have their juvenile records wiped clean. "It's in the
interest of fairness and justice that these cases be reversed, too,"
Carroll said in court Monday, exactly one year after Ciavarella
and another judge were charged with accepting millions in kickbacks to place
juvenile offenders in for-profit detention centers. Anthony Brennan, who
spent more than a year in detention after being caught breaking into an
abandoned building when he was 15, said he was gratified by the decision.
"It's a sense of relief," said Brennan, now 18, of Hazleton.
"I can get on with my life now." The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has
said that Ciavarella ran a kangaroo court in which
he systemically denied youths their constitutional rights, including the
right to counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea. After being
found delinquent, the youths were often shackled and taken to private jails
whose owner was allegedly paying bribes to the judge. Federal prosecutors
have said that Ciavarella and another former
Luzerne County judge, Michael Conahan, took a total of $2.8 million in
payoffs.
December
8, 2009 Philadelphia Inquirer
A special panel investigating judicial corruption in Luzerne County heard
a woman testify last night that her 14-year-old daughter was sent to jail by
former Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. despite her
warnings that the girl was epileptic and subject to seizures under stress.
"Two days later, I got a call at 5 in the morning telling me that she
had had a seizure," she said. "I almost lost her." Mother and
daughter sat side by side in witness chairs before the Interbranch Commission
on Juvenile Justice, which is conducting hearings into judicial corruption
here. For at least five years, young defendants routinely appeared in Ciavarella's courtroom without lawyers for hearings that
lasted just a few minutes. After being found delinquent, the youths were
taken to private jails, often in shackles. Federal prosecutors charge that
the owner of two of the jails paid some $2.8 million in bribes to Ciavarella and former Judge Michael T. Conahan. The
mother said her daughter was released from the detention center, placed under
house arrest, and not allowed to go to school despite being an A student.
After being allowed to resume her schooling, she said, her daughter was very
introverted. "I had to force her to go to her prom. It's taken a lot of
years for her to come out of her shell, and I blame Ciavarella
for that." The girl was accused of defacing public property with a felt
pen, using phrases such as "Vote for Michael Jackson." Her daughter
testified that during her hearing, Ciavarella and
the policeman who arrested her spent most of the time talking about a
previous night's football game. Asked what she had learned from her
experience with the juvenile justice system, she said: "People in power
are not always people we should trust." Seven children and their
parents, most of whom were in tears for at least part of their testimony,
appeared last night. The commission members appeared shaken and angered by
the testimony. A college student told the commission that when she was 16
years old she was arrested for "giving a police officer the
finger." She said a probation officer advised her that she didn't need
an attorney, but Ciavarella sentenced her to two
months in prison even though she had no record. She was placed in shackles
and taken out of the courtroom to detention. She said she was a good high
school student, involved in numerous extracurricular activities, and plans to
go to law school. A 16-year-old girl who was sent away for eight months by Ciavarella when she was 13 for fighting with another girl
in school testified that she had emotional scars from the experience that
made her unable to return to school after she completed her sentence. "I
am unable to deal with large groups of people, and I am now being
homeschooled," she said. Judge John Cleland of the state Superior Court,
chairman of the commission, said the juveniles' testimony would "serve
as a reminder to us that court policies and court procedures have real-life
consequences for people. Good and bad." The child defendants were among
about 6,000 young people whose convictions were overturned in October by the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court on grounds they did not get a fair hearing in Ciavarella's court. Earlier in the day, witnesses painted
a picture of a legal establishment bending to the iron will of Ciavarella. "We trusted the judge," said Thomas
Killino, a former assistant district attorney when
asked why he did not challenge many of Ciavarella's
actions, including illegally obtaining forms from young defendants waiving
their right to a lawyer. Much of the questioning centered on why prosecutors,
probation officers, and public defenders did not challenge Ciavarella's failure to explain to defendants the
consequences of waiving their right to counsel and of pleading guilty. This
process, called a colloquy, is required by state court rules. "Did it
ever bother you that there was no colloquy?" asked George D. Mosee, head of the juvenile division of the Philadelphia
District Attorney's Office. "It was a fast-paced environment," Killino replied. "This was the established practice
of the court. Everyone went along with it." Mosee,
who oversees the prosecution of about 10,000 juveniles a year, added:
"I've never prosecuted a child who didn't have an attorney. How do you
handle it?" Killino said he was told that the
defendants had signed written waivers outside the courtroom and that he believed
those overrode the requirement for a colloquy in open court to determine that
the juveniles understood that they had a right to an attorney. When Killino confirmed estimates that more than half the child
defendants who appeared before Ciavarella did not
have attorneys, Judge Dwayne D. Woodruff asked him if he had ever read the
juvenile law that required them to have counsel. Killino
said he had read parts of the law but not the entire law. Later, Woodruff
said he had heard about 4,000 juvenile cases and every defendant had a
lawyer. Judge John C. Uhler asked Killino if there were instances when defendants without
lawyers were sentenced without ever speaking in their own defense. Killino said there were, and that in those cases Ciavarella would move right on to sentencing in a matter
of minutes. Later, Uhler said that in his 20 years
as a juvenile court judge, no defendant had ever appeared before him without
an attorney. Killino testified that he and other
prosecutors did not have enough information available to them to determine
whether a sentence from Ciavarella was unduly
harsh. "Didn't you want to know?" demanded Jason D. Legg, a
commission member who is a prosecutor from rural Susquehanna County. "It
was not part of our purview," said Killino.
Later, Legg said he prosecutes hundreds of juveniles every year and they
always have legal representation.
November
23, 2009 Claims Journal
Two former county judges accused of taking millions of dollars in
kickbacks to send juveniles to private detention facilities are partially
immune from civil lawsuits, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled Friday. The
decision by U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo could make it harder for
the people suing former Luzerne County judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. to collect damages. Caputo said Ciavarella will avoid civil consequences for "the
vast majority'' of his conduct, because much of it occurred inside a
courtroom, such as determination of delinquency and sentencing. He said
Conahan largely would not be immune, because his alleged actions were more
administrative in nature, such as signing a placement agreement with the
detention centers. The decisions have no bearing on the federal criminal
charges that Ciavarella and Conahan are currently
facing in what has become known as the kids-for-cash scandal. Marsha Levick, a lawyer with the Juvenile Law Center in
Philadelphia, a co-counsel for plaintiffs in the case, said Friday she did
not consider the ruling to be a major setback. There are more than 400 named
plaintiffs in the case, and lawyers are seeking class-action status. "I
think what's important is the judges remained in the litigation,'' Levick said. "Conahan is extremely vulnerable
because most of what Conahan did with respect to the plaintiffs' allegations,
it was all outside the courtroom.''
November
11, 2009 Philadelphia Inquirer
To the frequent frustration and occasional exasperation of a special
panel investigating judicial corruption in Luzerne County, yesterday's
testimony gave off the steady and unmistakable sound of the buck being
passed. Phrases like "I was not aware," "Yes, but," and
"It was not my responsibility" wafted from the witness chair as
officials who oversee the county's courts denied knowing that thousands of
adolescents were being locked away, often for petty offenses, after hearings
in which they had been effectively denied lawyers. When Luzerne County
District Attorney Jacqueline Musto Carroll challenged the 11 members of the
state-appointed Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice to "tell me
what you do when you have a judge who is a crook," she was promptly
interrupted by the questioner-in-chief. "You report him,"
interjected John M. Cleland, the commission chairman and a judge on the state
Superior Court. Cleland and his fellow panelists have until May 31 to
discover how two former judges, Mark A. Ciavarella
Jr. and Michael T. Conahan, managed to get away with what federal prosecutors
say was a five-year, $2.8 million kickback conspiracy, a scheme that one
juvenile-justice advocacy group called "one of the largest and most
serious violations of children's rights in the history of the American legal
system." Musto Carroll said she was unaware that more than half the
teenagers whose cases came before Ciavarella did
not have legal representation. She said the judge's
"zero-tolerance" policy was a result of the 1999 Columbine High
School shootings. "I think Judge Ciavarella
was probably doing what he thought he ought to do," the district
attorney testified. "I have heard in a number of cases, what he did
actually straightened out kids' lives. Some went on to get scholarships and
college educations." That brought an angry response from panel member
Robert L. Listenbee, head of the juvenile unit of
the Defender Association of Philadelphia. "Ms. Carroll, I remind that
you and I as attorneys took an oath to uphold the Constitution. There were
children here whose basic constitutional rights were being violated every
day. Let's keep that in mind." Lawyer Kenneth J. Horoho
Jr., a commissioner from Pittsburgh, offered a litany of questions about
Musto Carroll's having not known or questioned Ciavarella's
methods. Horoho concluded, "The bottom line is
that 'zero tolerance' went unchallenged by your office." "Don't
worry about Luzerne County," Musto Carroll assured the commission.
"As long as I'm here, it's in good hands." Yesterday's first
witness was David W. Lupas, Musto Carroll's
predecessor as district attorney and now a county judge, who said that none
of his assistants ever brought concerns about Ciavarella's
conduct to his attention. Panel member Dwayne D. Woodruff - the head juvenile
judge in Allegheny County, and a former Pittsburgh Steelers safety - noted
that 54 percent of the children brought before Ciavarella
did not have lawyers. "Would you expect your assistant D.A.s to come to
you with that?" Woodruff asked. "No one came to me," Lupas said. Cleland interjected, "I could understand
a case here and a case there. But 6,000 cases? This went on for years, and it
was a massive deprivation of rights. No assistant D.A., no public defender,
no private lawyer ever raised a question? That's hard to believe." Basil
G. Russin, who has been chief public defender in
Luzerne County since 1980, said that even if he had known the extent of Ciavarella's denial of rights to juvenile defendants, he
would not have had many options. "We don't have the time or the money to
look into things very deeply. We just do the best we can," he said.
Besides, Russin said, the judges' get-tough stance
against juvenile misbehavior had wide public support. "Everybody loved
it. The schools loved it because they got rid of every problem kid. The
parents loved it because there were kids they couldn't control. The cops
loved it because it got kids off the streets, and the D.A. loved it because
they were getting convictions." In earlier testimony, Sandra Brulo, a former Luzerne County probation official, said
she had raised concerns about Ciavarella with her
boss, but did not hear back. "Don't you think you should have taken it
further when you didn't get any satisfaction from your supervisor?"
asked Ronald P. Williams, a panel member from nearby Wyoming County, raising
his arms in amazement. "I took it to my boss," Brulo
replied. "That's as far as I thought I should go." She testified
that probation officers, not attorneys, asked young defendants to sign forms
just before they entered Ciavarella's courtroom
that waived their right to a lawyer. Commissioner George D. Mosee, a deputy Philadelphia district attorney, asked Brulo if this was a proper role for probation officers.
"We did what the judge instructed us to do," she said. "Even
when their very liberty was at stake?" Mosee
asked. Brulo did not answer. Joseph Massa, senior
counsel for the state Judicial Conduct Board, which investigates complaints
against judges, told the panel that his agency had acted properly more than
two years ago when it referred allegations it received against Ciavarella and Conahan to federal prosecutors. By not
acting on its own, the board allowed the jurists to stay on the bench until
they resigned this year. The judges stepped down after a federal grand jury
indicted them on racketeering, bribery and fraud charges. "To allege the
[Judicial Conduct Board] members put their heads in the proverbial sand while
juveniles in this county were sent to the hoosegow is a disgrace," Massa
told the panel. Ciavarella is accused of taking
bribes from operators of two for-profit detention centers in return for
sending children to the centers. Conahan is accused of securing lucrative
contracts for the private jails, which the state paid according to the
numbers of inmates they housed. Once the scheme was set up, prosecutors say, Ciavarella guaranteed that the jails were filled with a
steady stream of juvenile offenders. Ciavarella and
Conahan are awaiting trial. They initially pleaded guilty but withdrew their
pleas after a federal judge rejected the terms of their plea agreements.
October
29, 2009 AP
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed thousands of juvenile
convictions issued by a judge charged in a corruption scandal, saying that
none of the young offenders got a fair hearing. The high court on Thursday
threw out more than five years' worth of juvenile cases heard by disgraced
former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, who is
charged with accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks to send youths to
private detention centers. The Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which
represents some of the youths, said the court's order covers as many as 6,500
cases. The justices barred any possibility of retrial in all but a fraction
of them. "This is exactly the relief these kids needed," said
Marsha Levick, the center's legal director.
"It's the most serious judicial corruption scandal in our history and
the court took an extraordinary step in addressing it." Children
routinely appeared in front of Ciavarella without
lawyers for hearings that lasted only a few minutes. Ciavarella
also failed to question young defendants to make sure they fully understood the
consequences of waiving counsel and pleading guilty, showing "complete
disregard for the constitutional rights of the juveniles," the Supreme
Court said. After being found delinquent, the youths were often shackled and
taken to private jails whose owner was paying bribes to the judge. Federal
prosecutors have said that Ciavarella and another
Luzerne County judge, Michael Conahan, took a total of $2.8 million in
payoffs. "Ciavarella's admission that he
received these payments, and that he failed to disclose his financial
interests arising from the development of the juvenile facilities, thoroughly
undermines the integrity of all juvenile proceedings before Ciavarella," the Supreme Court said.
October
28, 2009 The Citizens Voice
Former Judge Mark A. Ciavarella said little during
a hearing today on his request to be dismissed from a series of civil
lawsuits filed in the aftermath of the Luzerne County kids-for-cash scandal. Ciavarella, who is representing himself, declined to make
a formal argument before U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo, instead
deferring to a brief he filed asking for dismissal on grounds of judicial
immunity. Ciavarella's co-defendant, former Judge
Michael T. Conahan, did not attend the hearing, despite previously asking to
be dismissed from the case. Both former judges have said their alleged
conduct in the kids-for-cash scheme, including the closure of a county
juvenile detention facility and the contracting with a private jail, were
within the bounds of their duties as judges and courthouse administrators.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the lawsuits, the hundreds of juveniles
sentenced by Ciavarella between 2003 and May 2008,
argued Ciavarella and Conahan's conduct went beyond
the scope of normal court business. Conahan acted as a political lobbyist
when he forced the closure of the county facility and pressured county
commissioners to approve a lucrative lease with the private facility, the
plaintiffs' attorneys said. Ciavarella acted as a
dictator on the bench, running a "star chamber" that left
juveniles' constitutional rights in tatters, the attorneys said. "Ciavarella made up the rules on his own," Marsha Levick, the legal director of the non-profit Juvenile Law
Center, said. "He may as well have set up the courtroom in his garage
and put on the black robe." Levick
acknowledged the difficulty of clearing the hurdle of judicial immunity,
which was designed to give judges freedom to make rulings without fear of
legal retribution. "There is no question we are testing the bounds of established
legal principles," Levick said. "But we
have never seen anything like this."
October
25, 2009 Philadelphia Enquirer
In October 2005, a 16-year-old boy appeared in Luzerne County Court to answer
charges that he had shot out several windows in a city home with a BB gun.
The boy had never been in trouble with police before, and even the homeowner
asked the judge to be lenient, according to a federal lawsuit. Nevertheless,
Judge Mark A. Ciavarella, after repeatedly
silencing the boy's court-appointed attorney, ignored the homeowner's request
and in a matter of minutes banged his gavel and said, "Adjudicated
delinquent!" The boy was handcuffed, shackled, and taken in a van about
50 miles to a juvenile "boot camp" for the next three months, the
complaint states. The boy's brief hearing in dark-paneled Courtroom 4 was
closed to the public, but it was witnessed by an assistant district attorney,
the public defender, other lawyers, probation officials, bailiffs, clerks,
and other court staff, according to the suit, filed by the Juvenile Law
Center of Philadelphia. Now the monumental task facing a special 11-member
commission investigating what one advocacy group called "one of the
largest and most serious violations of children's rights in the history of
the American legal system" is to determine how something like that could
happen, how it can be prevented - and why no one spoke up. State Superior
Court Judge John M. Cleland, chairman of the Interbranch Commission on
Juvenile Justice, said the goal is to identify "those who knew but
failed to speak" and "those who saw but failed to act." While
it cannot indict or prosecute, the commission is empowered to investigate and
recommend legislation, rules, and other procedural changes. Ciavarella is accused of taking bribes from private
prison operators for every child he sent to two private juvenile detention
centers. Also accused is fellow Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Conahan, who
secured lucrative contracts for the private jails, which were paid by the
state according to their number of inmates. Last month, Conahan and Ciavarella pleaded not guilty to federal racketeering
charges. They had agreed to plead guilty in February to lesser charges that
called for 87-month prison sentences, far below federal guidelines. But a
federal judge rejected the deal and said the two judges had not fully
accepted responsibility. They switched their pleas to not guilty, and
prosecutors secured a 48-count indictment that includes racketeering,
bribery, and extortion charges. Ciavarella presided
over juvenile court in Luzerne County between 2003 and 2007. According to the
Juvenile Law Center, children were summarily dispatched to incarceration
after the briefest of hearings, often without legal representation. Parents
who had accompanied their children to court and expected to return home with
them instead left, stunned and bewildered, without them. The Juvenile Law
Center alleges that something clearly was unusual about Ciavarella's
courtroom. To wit: A 15-year-old boy was sent away for three months for
pushing a classmate into a locker. A 15-year-old girl was jailed for
shoplifting a $4 jar of nutmeg. A 13-year-old girl went before Ciavarella for fighting on a school bus. The judge asked
why she had done it. Rather than answer, the girl started crying. The lawsuit
states that Ciavarella sent her away for three
months for not answering his questions. Records and interviews paint a
picture of a kangaroo court. Yet no one involved, directly or indirectly,
spoke up. Lawyers, elected officials, police, school administrators,
teachers, probation officers, prosecutors, and civil servants charged with
protecting children all remained silent. Ciavarella
guaranteed that the jails were filled with a steady stream of juvenile
offenders. The prosecutors say the two judges received kickbacks totaling
$2.6 million from the former owner of two detention facilities and their
developer. There were bright red flags all over the city well before the
judges were charged in January. The Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader published
articles in 2004 raising serious and disturbing concerns about juvenile
cases. Robert Schwartz, the Juvenile Law Center's executive director, said in
an interview that detention-center workers had been told in advance - before
the hearings in Ciavarella's courtroom - how many
new child inmates to expect at the end of each day. For the commission, which
has the power to subpoena witnesses, there is no shortage of places to look.
The other judges. Judge Chester B. Muroski, who
succeeded Ciavarella as president judge this year,
said he and his colleagues on the bench had been completely shielded from the
proceedings in juvenile court, first by Conahan and later by Ciavarella when they served as president judge. He said
the court seldom met as a unit to discuss court matters. In 2006, when he
began to suspect kickbacks, he contacted the FBI. The court staff. Muroski said Conahan and Ciavarella
had packed the courthouse with relatives. Conahan's cousin was the court
administrator, a brother-in-law was jury management supervisor, and another
brother-in-law was paid $1.1 million in public funds for court-ordered
psychological evaluations. According to Muroski,
other court-related workers knew they were "there at Conahan's
pleasure." "When I bucked them in 2005, they reassigned me,"
he added. "That was a message to everyone: Keep your mouth shut."
According to the Juvenile Law Center, Ciavarella
routinely pressured probation officers to recommend detention even when it
was not appropriate. Often probation officers advised juvenile defendants to
appear before Ciavarella without legal counsel.
Sometimes, the center said, he pressured them to change their more lenient
recommendations to detention. The center cited the case of a 14-year-old boy
arrested for stealing loose change from unlocked cars. Police told his mother
that he would receive probation because it was a minor offense. Just before
entering Ciavarella's courtroom, his mother was
asked to sign a waiver of counsel. She said she wanted her son to have a
lawyer, but could not afford to pay one. He appeared before Ciavarella without counsel - and after a three-minute
hearing was sent to a detention center for a year. The county commissioners.
To further the kickback scheme, the center said, Conahan shut down Luzerne
County's juvenile detention facility in 2002, contending it was unsafe. Then
he persuaded the county commissioners to enter a 20-year, $58 million
agreement with PA Child Care L.L.C. to lease the new private facility. Soon Ciavarella was filling the prison beds with delinquents,
allegedly in exchange for kickbacks. "Conahan had no power to close the
center like that," said Ronald P. Williams, a member of the interbranch
commission and a former commissioner in nearby Wyoming County. "Why did
the commissioners allow him to get away with it?" The schools. Ciavarella's "zero tolerance" policy was warmly
embraced by school administrators, teachers unions, and many teachers, Muroski and Williams said. "Everybody loved
him," said Muroski. "He was putting bad
kids away. That's how it was perceived." Indeed, even six months after
the scandal became public, two administrators at the Wilkes-Barre Area
Vocational Technical School wrote a letter to the editor of the Wilkes-Barre
Times-Leader praising Ciavarella. "His
dedication to working with our students created a bond of trust and
confidence among him, the students and the staff," the administrators
wrote. The state court system. The Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board, which
is charged with investigating and prosecuting complaints of wrongdoing by
judges, received an anonymous complaint about Conahan in 2006. However, the
board has strict confidentiality rules, and it has refused to say whether it
followed up on these allegations. The interbranch commission had hoped to
hear testimony from the board at its first hearing two weeks ago, but the
appearance by a board representative was canceled pending resolution of the
confidentiality issue. Ciavarella's tough stance
with juveniles had widespread public support. In 2006, the Wilkes-Barre
Friendly Sons of St. Patrick named Ciavarella its
man of the year. This prompted U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D., Pa.) to read
a congratulation into the Congressional Record. The commission, which must
complete its work by May 31, plans to hold two days of hearings in
Wilkes-Barre next month. Among the scheduled witnesses is Judge Arthur E.
Grim, a special master appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to review
about 6,000 juvenile cases handled by Ciavarella.
Because of the allegations of wrongdoing, the state Supreme Court has already
overturned hundreds of convictions on the ground that Ciavarella
violated the constitutional rights of the defendants.
October
15, 2009 Philadelphia Inquirer
The question hung over the hearing like a toxic cloud all day long: How
could two judges in Wilkes-Barre conspire over several years to deprive
hundreds of children of their most basic constitutional rights and send them
off in shackles to detention centers in which they had personal financial
interests? "There is no precedent that provides guidance about how to
proceed with anything we are being asked to do," said Judge John M.
Cleland of the state Superior Court, chairman of the Interbranch Commission
on Juvenile Justice. The 11-member commission has been established to
investigate what Cleland called "the breathtaking collapse of the
juvenile justice system in Luzerne County." It includes judges,
prosecutors, defense attorneys, and victims' advocates. They sat grim-faced
and listened to the first day of testimony on the extraordinary case of two
former Luzerne County judges - Mark A. Ciavarella
and Michael T. Conahan - who are accused of taking $2.6 million in bribes
from private prison operators over a period of seven years for sending young
offenders to two private juvenile detention centers. Under the
"cash-for-kids" scheme, prosecutors say, the judges conspired to
deprive young defendants of their right to counsel, ordered them into
detention even when probation officers didn't recommend it, pressured
probation officials to change their recommendations, and institutionalized
them for offenses as minor as fighting with other students in school. The
main witness was Judge Chester B. Muroski, who took
over as president judge in Luzerne County after the scandal broke. Muroski said that in 2005 he was in charge of the court's
juvenile dependency function and complained because his unit was underfunded
by $800,000 while Ciavarella's juvenile delinquency
court was $2 million over budget. He said that a few days later Conahan
transferred him to criminal court even though he had not handled a criminal
case since 1979. But several commission members pressed Muroski
on why he and other Luzerne County Court judges had not done more to stop
Conahan and Ciavarella. "We knew there was
something not right," he said. "But the scheme was so contrived and
had so many labyrinths that at first we didn't know money was involved. Our
main concern was the high incarceration rate." Cleland said the
commission would seek to identify "all of those involved who, whether by
action, inaction, or silence, whether by willful choice or benign ignorance,
engaged in an assault on the fairness and impartiality of our legal
system." In addition to the other judges, the commission wants to know
the roles of prosecutors, public defenders, defense attorneys, police, school
administrators, probation officers, court staff, county commissioners, and
state agencies with responsibilities for juveniles. To these, Muroski added another layer of responsibility - the
public. "A lot of people admired what these judges were doing," he
said. "Many people knew how quick these proceedings were, but they
supported them." Muroski said school
administrators, teachers, and police supported and applauded the judges'
efforts to get disruptive youths out of the classroom and off the streets.
And he said there was nepotism in the courtroom itself that provided a
"protective shield" for Conahan and Ciavarella.
Muroski noted that between 2001 and 2007, Dr. Frank
Vita, Conahan's brother-in-law, was paid $1.1 million in public funds for
court-ordered psychological evaluations - and many of these reports had
evaluation references that were copied and pasted from other reports. Muroski said that he and the other judges were kept in
the dark about juvenile court proceedings by Ciavarella
and Conahan, and that the court seldom met as a unit to discuss problems.
"What you had was a perfect storm for a court gone rogue - no meetings,
no information, and public support." State Rep. Todd Eachus
(D., Luzerne) testified that in 2006, the state Public Welfare Department
informed state legislators from the Wilkes-Barre area that there was an
inordinate amount of incarceration of juveniles in Luzerne County, "but
they said they would handle it." Eachus, a
cosponsor of the bill that created the commission, said Conahan and Ciavarella were responsible for "one of the darkest
chapters in Pennsylvania history." State Sen. Lisa Baker (R., Luzerne),
the bill's other principal sponsor, cited an "atmosphere of intimidation
that permeated the courtroom and the courthouse." Then she asked:
"Do we really want a commonwealth where we rigorously track every dollar
that moves through casinos, but where we casually lose track of the
constitutional rights of thousands of kids?" There was considerable
discussion on whether the State Judicial Conduct Board, which is charged with
investigating and prosecuting complaints against judges, had received complaints
about the two judges. Muroski said he believed a
complaint had been filed in 2005, but he could not confirm this. Muroski said Conahan arbitrarily, without consulting the
other judges, shut down a county juvenile detention center in 2002 on grounds
it was substandard, paving the way for their young offenders to be sent to
the favored private center. This prompted Judge John C. Uhler
of York County, one of the 11 commission members, to ask, "Did you or
your colleagues ever challenge the closing of this center?" "We
were astonished that he did this, but what could we do?" Muroski replied. "The commissioners went along. They
could have stopped it." The expressions on the commission members' faces
went from anger to disbelief to shock as the testimony unfolded. The plan is
to hold as many hearings as necessary, including two days of sessions next
month in Wilkes-Barre. The scandal led the state Supreme Court to overturn
hundreds of convictions on the ground that Ciavarella
violated the constitutional rights of youths who appeared in his courtroom
without lawyers for hearings that lasted just a few minutes. More convictions
are under review. Last month Conahan and Ciavarella
pleaded not guilty to federal racketeering charges growing out of the scheme.
They had agreed to plead guilty in February to lesser charges that called for
87-month prison sentences, far below federal guidelines. But a federal judge
rejected the deal and said the two judges had not fully accepted
responsibility for the crimes. They switched their pleas to not guilty, and
prosecutors secured a 48-count indictment that includes racketeering,
bribery, and extortion charges.
September
10, 2009 Times-Leader
A federal grand jury filed a 48-count indictment Wednesday against Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, charging the former
Luzerne County judges with racketeering, extortion, bribery, money
laundering, fraud and tax violations. The indictment, issued by a grand jury
in Dauphin County, alleges Conahan and Ciavarella
received millions of dollars in illegal payments in connection with improper
actions they took to facilitate the construction and operation of the PA and
Western PA Child Care juvenile detention centers, according to a press
release issued by U.S. Attorney Dennis Pfannenschmidt.
In addition to the charges, prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of at least
$2.8 million they allege is the proceeds of criminal activity, the release
said. Pfannenschmidt issued the press release at
around 5 p.m. Wednesday. The document provided only a vague description of
the charges. It did not provide any further details of the former judges’
conduct. A copy of the indictment could not be obtained Wednesday as it was
not publicly filed with the federal court’s electronic system. Pfannenschmidt did not respond to a request to provide a
paper copy of the indictment. He also declined to comment further on the
case. Speculation that Conahan and Ciavarella would
be indicted has been rampant since a plea deal the men reached with federal
prosecutors fell apart last month. The former judges pleaded guilty in
February to charges of honest services fraud and tax evasion under plea
agreement that called for them to serve 87 months in prison. They withdrew
the plea on Aug. 24 after U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik
rejected terms of the agreement, saying the men had not adequately
demonstrated they accepted responsibility for their conduct. Ciavarella’s attorney, Al Flora, and Conahan’s attorney,
Philip Gelso, declined comment on the indictment.
Flora said he expects Ciavarella and Conahan will
next appear before a federal magistrate judge for arraignment on the charges.
He did not know when that arraignment would take place. The charges contained
in the indictment are far more serious and carry significantly stiffer
sentences than what Conahan and Ciavarella faced
under the plea deal, according to Douglas McNabb, a Washington, D.C., defense
attorney who specializes in federal law. “It is a very serious set of charges
that could bring substantial jail time if they are convicted on all counts,”
McNabb said. For instance, McNabb said the money laundering and fraud charges
alone each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Although the
indictment was not available, information contained in a complaint filed
against Conahan and Ciavarella in January and
documents filed in connection with charges against two other defendants
involved in the scheme provide some insight into the conduct that likely was
the basis of the indictment. The extortion charge likely refers to attorney
Robert Powell, who co-owned the PA and Western PA Child Care Centers. Powell
alleges Ciavarella demanded he pay kickbacks
totaling $772,500 to compensate the judges for decisions they made that
benefited the two juvenile centers. Those decisions included Conahan’s
closure in 2002 of the county-run juvenile facility. Prosecutors allege Ciavarella, the county’s long-time juvenile judge,
ensured a high occupancy rate at the centers by incarcerating youths even
when probation department officials recommended against detention. Powell
pleaded guilty in July to failing to report a felony and being an accessory
after the fact to tax evasion for his role in the scheme. In addition to the
money he paid, prosecutors allege Powell helped funnel approximately $2
million that was paid to the judges by Robert Mericle,
the contractor who built the two centers. That funneling of money is likely
the basis of the money laundering charge contained in the indictment. Money
laundering involves a scheme to disguise the source of illegally obtained
income to make it appear as though the money was legitimately earned.
According to the initial complaint filed against Conahan and Ciavarella, Powell disguised the money he paid the judges
by listing it as rental payments for a Florida condominium owned by the
judges’ wives. Prosecutors also alleged the part of the money Mericle paid was funneled through Vision Holdings, a
company Powell owned. It was not clear Wednesday whether the money Mericle paid could be considered as part of the money
laundering charge. Prosecutors do not contend the payment of the money was
illegal, which is a necessary element of money laundering. Mericle pleaded guilty last week to failing to report a
felony. Prosecutors say Mericle knew that Ciavarella had not reported the money Mericle
paid him on his income tax returns, but failed to disclose that information
to federal authorities. At Mericle’s plea hearing,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod said the $2
million Mericle paid was a “finder’s fee” to reward
Ciavarella for introducing Mericle
to Powell. Zubrod said the payment of the fee
itself is a standard practice in real estate and is not illegal. The
illegality came when Mericle failed to reveal that
information to a grand jury and federal prosecutors when questioned about it.
August
1, 2009 Philadelphia Inquirer
In a major reversal, a federal judge rejected plea agreements yesterday
for two disgraced former Luzerne County Court judges accused of taking
kickbacks for sending juveniles to for-profit detention centers. U.S.
District Judge Edwin M. Kosik issued a five-page
order saying Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T.
Conahan had taken actions or made public statements since their February
guilty pleas that demonstrated that they had not accepted responsibility for
their crimes. The order opened the door for the defendants to withdraw their
guilty pleas and go to trial, renegotiate their plea deals, or throw
themselves on the mercy of the court, said Daniel Richman, a law professor at
Columbia University and a former federal prosecutor. For the third option,
however, "this judge has demonstrated that there might not be that much
mercy involved," Richman said. The agreements, in exchange for pleading
guilty to corruption and tax fraud, had been criticized as too lenient. Both
defendants were facing 87 months - less than 71/2 years - in prison, which
was "well below the sentencing guidelines for the charged
offenses," Kosik wrote. Ciavarella
and Conahan originally faced maximum sentences of 25 years each and
substantial fines, Kosik wrote. The plea deals were
binding, meaning the judge did not have the discretion to impose his own
sentence. "This is a relatively rare instance," Richman said,
"where a judge is given a take-it-or-leave-it choice on sentencing, and
the judge chose to leave it." Ciavarella and
Conahan are accused of collecting a total of $2.6 million over seven years
from a former owner of two for-profit detention centers - one in Luzerne
County and the other in Butler County - and their developer. The ex-judges
are accused of helping the detention centers obtain $58 million in contracts,
suppressing a critical audit of one of the centers, and closing a competing
county-run detention center. "The matter is under review with our client
and in consult with the U.S. Attorney's Office," said Al Flora Jr., Ciavarella's lawyer. Conahan and his lawyer could not be
reached for comment. "We are reviewing the court's order to determine
the appropriate course of action in this case in light of the court's
ruling," Martin C. Carlson, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of
Pennsylvania, said in a statement. Kosik wrote that
in the presentence report, Conahan "refused to discuss the motivation
behind his conduct, attempted to obstruct and impede justice, and failed to
clearly demonstrate affirmative acceptance of responsibility." Ciavarella, Kosik wrote,
"continues to deny what he terms 'quid pro quo,' his receipt of money as
a finder's fee." Kosik said Ciavarella's denials "are self-serving and
abundantly contradicted by the evidence." In a brief interview with the
Wilkes-Barre Citizens Voice on Monday, Ciavarella
took issue with the way the media have described him. "You people said I
took bribes, that I committed extortion, that I traded kids for cash, that I
had a quid pro quo," Ciavarella told the
newspaper. "Where in my guilty plea does it say that?" Marsha Levick, chief counsel for the Juvenile Law Center in
Philadelphia, which is seeking to overturn rulings against juveniles the
ex-judges sent away and who has filed civil-rights lawsuits on the
youngsters' behalf, said she did not anticipate Kosik's
rejection of the plea deals. Levick said the order
reflected Kosik's "concern about the magnitude
of what happened in Luzerne County and the importance of restoring public confidence
in the justice system." As for the defendants, "I think it's pretty
bad news for them," Levick said. In his order,
Kosik paraphrased what has been said about judges,
that "integrity is their lot and proper virtue, the landmark, and he
that removes it corrupts the fountain." "In this case, the fountain
from which the public drinks is confidence in the judicial system, a fountain
which may be corrupted for a time well after this case."
July 28,
2009 American Free Press
Lawyers who argue that thousands of juveniles were sentenced to prison
terms by corrupt judges are petitioning a US federal court in Pennsylvania to
preserve the case record so they can sue for damages. Attorneys are seeking
to stop the destruction of files related to the cases of an unknown number of
juveniles who received prison sentences for minor offenses from two judges
who were later found to have accepted bribes from private prison companies.
The petition before a federal judge in Scranton, Pennsylvania came after the
state's Supreme Court in March agreed to expunge the youths' criminal
records, but also ordered the destruction of their files. Without at least
one copy of the relevant files, attorney Lourdes Rosado told AFP, the
juveniles will be unable to pursue a civil case seeking damages. "The
federal court needs that information in order to decide whether or not that
claim is valuable and whether or not the children are entitled to
relief," said Rosado, associate director of the Juvenile Law Center, a
non-profit group which advocates for children's rights. After months of
procedural battles, the state Supreme Court agreed last week to preserve
under seal a copy of documents related to 400 juveniles who have so far been
identified as victims and have filed lawsuits. But, according to Rosado, the
total number of victims "could be up to 6,500" and attorneys are
now calling for a class action lawsuit to be certified for all the children
who appeared before the judges between 2003 and 2008. Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan of Luzerne County,
Pennsylvania admitted last February to having accepted 2.6 million dollars
from private prisons in exchange for giving juveniles sentences that were
disproportionate to their offenses. Ciavarella and
Conahan have filed a petition seeking the dismissal of lawsuits seeking
damages, citing "the doctrine of judicial immunity." Among those
sentenced by the judges was a young man who received nine months for having
stolen a jar of nutmeg worth four dollars, and another juvenile who was
sentenced to three months for stealing some change from a car.
July 24,
2009 The Morning Call
The sense of putrefaction in everything the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
touches keeps growing. Even if this court did not play a key role in other
scandals -- including the illegal pay grab for judges and other politicians,
and the illegal enactment of slot machine casino legislation -- its actions
in the Luzerne County Court corruption case would illustrate just how
wretched it is. Most recently, we learned that the Supremes connived to help
a fellow robe wearer, former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella,
escape accountability in lawsuits that threaten to put a dent in the millions
of dollars in payoffs he took. (Ciavarella and
another judge pleaded guilty in federal court in a case that involved the
placement of juveniles -- on the flimsiest of evidence and in return for big
payoffs -- in a commercial detention facility run by the son of a former
Supreme.) On Wednesday, the front page had an Associated Press story saying
the current Supremes refused to preserve juvenile records deemed essential
for the lawsuits. That story noted a ''Hobson's choice'' offered by the
court. It would preserve the records of any juvenile who requested it, but
that would mean the juvenile's ''adjudication'' (in essence, a finding of
guilty by Ciavarella the crook) would be
reinstated. We'll let you smart alecks preserve the documents necessary for
you to sue our kindred spirit, the Supreme seemed to be saying, but maybe
we'll throw you back in juvie jail for trying to exercise that right. On
Thursday, a smaller AP story said the Supremes would allow records to be
preserved, but only for juveniles who have already filed lawsuits against Ciavarella. Records showing how Ciavarella
victimized thousands of other juveniles, who might sue if they can get the
documentation to prove their claims, will not be protected. It was not clear
if the Hobson's choice was still in place. Ciavarella
and fellow Judge Michael Cannon began their corrupt jurisprudence in 2003,
taking money to confine juveniles in a private jail owned by Gregory Zappala,
the son of former Supreme Stephen Zappala Sr. By 2007, the Pennsylvania
Juvenile Law Center found a pattern of children being denied their rights in
Luzerne County. In April 2008, the JLC petitioned the Supremes to intercede.
The Supremes trashed the petition without explanation. In this climate,
similar to the one in Mississippi involving civil rights cases a half century
ago, there was no way those two Luzerne judges were going to be held
accountable in any state court. (All state courts are regulated by the
Supremes.) When the two judges were finally prosecuted in federal court in
January, the state Supremes were forced to act. They appointed a master,
retired Berks County Judge Arthur Grim, to investigate. By March, the
Supremes had to accept Grim's recommendation to
vacate the obviously bogus Luzerne County juvenile adjudications. In May, the
Supremes issued a notice saying the juvenile victims could get copies of
their records, but the JLC observed it was ''replete'' with so much legalese
that parents could never understand it, and it also gave them only a few
weeks to act. The JLC asked the Supremes for a clarification the families
could understand. They refused, again with no explanation. A few days later,
however, Master Grim did issue an order to provide for such a clarification.
That move was killed by the Supremes the very next day. When the JLC sought a
federal court order to protect the records, the state Supremes sent a letter
to the federal court opposing it, and kept that letter secret from the JLC or
any of the parents. The feds went along with the Supremes, citing
''federalism'' prerogatives that serve to keep systems independent of each
other. A JLC motion then observed that the Supremes delivered a threat. ''The
Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in denying requests for preservation of a single
copy of juveniles' records for the sole purpose of federal litigation, has
explained that it will not permit juveniles' adjudications to be vacated ...
if they request a copy of their records to prevent their destruction,'' the
JLC motion says. In other words, if you try to preserve the proof so you can
sue our fellow robe wearer for some of the loot he took in illegal payoffs,
we may arrange for you to do it from a cell in a juvenile detention center.
All Pennsylvanians, not just the families of Luzerne County, need to start
looking at what happened here -- and they need to start sniffing at the smell
of putrefaction -- from a very personal viewpoint. If innocent, or relatively
innocent, children in one county can be incarcerated just so a couple of
judges can collect millions, it can happen anywhere. It can happen to your
children, and you can expect no help from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In
fact, you can expect the opposite. I keep wondering what it will take for
people to get angry enough to demand that their elected officials make some
changes.
February
26, 2009 New York Times
More than 70 juveniles and their families filed a class-action lawsuit
Thursday against two former judges who pleaded guilty this month in a scheme
that involved their taking kickbacks to put young offenders in privately run
detention centers. The suit contends that before resigning last year, the
judges “used kids as commodities that could be traded for cash,” placing an
“indelible stain” on the juvenile justice system of Luzerne County in
northeastern Pennsylvania. The suit, filed in the Federal District Court in
Scranton by the Juvenile Law Center, seeks to have all profits that the
detention centers earned from the scheme placed in a fund that would
compensate the youths for their emotional distress. In an earlier filing, the
law center, based in Philadelphia, asked the State Supreme Court to clear the
records of all juveniles who appeared before the judges, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan. The suit brought
Thursday is the third filed on behalf of juvenile offenders. The two others,
one of which also seeks class-action status, were filed by private lawyers.
Mr. Ciavarella and Mr. Conahan pleaded guilty on
Feb. 12 to federal charges of wire and income-tax fraud for having taken more
than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to the two privately
operated centers, run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child
Care. “Judge Ciavarella’s placement of so many
children in juvenile facilities without regard for their underlying charges
suggests a Procrustean scheme that violated one of the core principles of the
juvenile justice system — the right to individualized treatment and
rehabilitation,” Lourdes M. Rosado, associate director of the Juvenile Law
Center, said in a statement. Lawyers for the two former judges declined to
comment on the suit. As for the criminal investigation of court personnel,
two additional people have already been charged, and federal officials say
they may soon charge others involved in the scheme.
February
19, 2009 Standard-Speaker
A witness will testify that one or both of the disgraced Luzerne County
judges who’ve pleaded guilty to accepting millions in kickbacks have “direct
connections” to jailed mobster William “Big Billy” D’Elia,
according to a petition to be filed today in the state Supreme Court by
lawyers for the owners of the Standard-Speaker. The petition asks the court
to vacate a $3.5 million defamation verdict issued by suspended Judge Mark A.
Ciavarella Jr. in June 2006 against The Scranton
Times L.P., a related company called The Times Partners and former Citizens’
Voice reporter Edward Lewis. Following a non-jury trial, Ciavarella
ruled in favor of West Pittston businessman Thomas A. Joseph, who claimed he
was defamed in a series of newspaper stories in 2001 following federal raids
at Joseph’s business and homes owned by Joseph, D’Elia
and others. In its petition, Scranton Times L.P. alleges that then-President
Judge Michael T. Conahan and his first cousin, Court Administrator William T.
Sharkey Sr. “steered” the case into Ciavarella’s
courtroom, ignoring the usual practice in which cases were assigned on a
rotating basis. Ciavarella issued one-sided rulings
and ignored evidence that Joseph and D’Elia were
close associates who were suspected of money laundering, the petition says. D’Elia was arrested on money laundering charges in May 2006,
a month before the trial. Joseph was never charged. In his opinion, Ciavarella wrote “there was no credible evidence
presented at trial linking the two men beyond being social acquaintances.” In
the past week, Conahan and Ciavarella have pleaded
guilty to accepting $2.6 million in kickbacks from a juvenile detention owner
and contractor and Sharkey has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $70,000
from the county. “The unusual handling of judicial assignments in Joseph v.
Scranton Times, the scope and subject of newspaper articles in question, and
a cascade of recent revelations regarding corruption in the Luzerne County
Court of Common Pleas strongly suggest the $3.5 million non-jury verdict was
rigged …” the petition says. “Petitioners have identified a potential witness
who, on reliable information and to Petitioners’ belief, would testify
concerning direct connections between D’Elia and
Judge Conahan and/or Judge Ciavarella.” The
petition asks the court to allow Scranton Times L.P. to gather evidence that
it believes will reveal additional evidence of ties between D’Elia and one or both of the judges. Kevin C. Abbott, an
attorney for Scranton Times L.P., declined comment on the petition or the
identity of the unnamed witness. “We’re going to let it speak for itself,” he
said. Joseph and his attorneys did not immediately return phone messages.
Conahan, Ciavarella and Sharkey could not be
reached for comment. Ciavarella’ attorney, Albert
Flora Jr., said he hadn’t seen the petition and could not comment. Conahan’s
attorney, Philip Gelso, and Sharkey’s attorney,
Bruce Miller, did not immediately return phone messages. D’Elia’s
attorney, James Swetz, did not immediately return a
phone message. D’Elia, 62, the longtime reputed
head of the Bufalino crime family is serving nine
years in federal prison for money laundering and witness tampering. Scranton
Times L.P.’s petition argues that Ciavarella
ignored evidence in federal search warrant affidavits presented during the
trial that stated D’Elia and Joseph were “involved
in and/or have knowledge of various federal criminal violations.” The
affidavits quoted confidential sources who alleged Joseph and D’Elia were involved in money laundering. The petition
also argues that Sharkey and Conahan worked together to ensure the pre-trial
hearings and the actual trial would be assigned to Ciavarella
even though Ciavarella and Conahan had assured
Scranton Times L.P. that the selection of a trial judge would be made at
random by the Court Administrator’s Office. The petition cited a record
recently obtained from the Court Administrator’s Office that notes the case
was assigned by WTS, which are Sharkey’s initials, at the direction of MTC,
which are Conahan’s. Conahan refused a request from Scranton Times L.P. to
have a judge from another county hear the case. Scranton Times L.P.
unsuccessfully appealed the Ciavarella’s verdict in
state Superior Court, which upheld the verdict in September. The petition to
be filed today cites numerous aspects of the corruption investigation that
led to charges against Conahan, Ciavarella and
Sharkey including: A statement from attorneys for Robert J. Powell, a Butler
Township attorney whose company allegedly paid some of the kickbacks to the
two judges, that claimed Conahan and Ciavarella had
extorted payments from him because he was “particularly vulnerable to the
pressures that these Judges could bring to bear on him and his clients.” A
review of the system for appointing neutral arbitrators in certain insurance
cases in Luzerne County Court ordered by President Judge Chester B. Muroski in reaction to media reports of rumors of
case-fixing and the possible manipulation of that process by Conahan and Ciavarella. A column in the legal journal The Legal
Intelligencer citing rumors that “the investigation of the judges was the
result of William D’Elia talking. D’Elia has been in federal custody since October 2006. In
July 2007, he appeared before a Dauphin County grand jury that later
recommended perjury charges against Dunmore landfill magnate Louis A.
DeNaples. DeNaples is accused of hiding his ties to D’Elia
and other crime figures when seeking a state casino license. Joseph appeared
before the same grand jury in August 2007. Federal prosecutors say D’Elia aided the Dauphin County case against DeNaples and
he could win a reduced sentence for continued cooperation. The perjury case
against DeNaples has been stalled by his appeals in state Supreme Court.
Conahan and DeNaples served together on the board of First National Community
Bank in Dunmore, where DeNaples was chairman until federal bank regulators
suspended him in reaction to the perjury charges in January 2008. Conahan
resigned from the board last month after the charges against him were
announced. In the past two weeks the bank has filed legal action to collect
$4.15 million from defaulted loans guaranteed by Conahan, Ciavarella,
bank board member Michael G. Cestone, Powell and
his law partner, Luzerne County Prothonotary Jill A. Moran. The loans were
taken by W-Cat Inc., the company behind a failed townhouse development in
Wright Township.
January
27, 2009 AP
Two Pennsylvania judges agreed Monday to plead guilty to fraud charges
accusing them of taking $2.6 million in kickbacks in return for placing
juvenile offenders into certain detention facilities. The plea agreements for
Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella
(shiv-ah-REL'-lah) and Senior Judge Michael Conahan
(CON'-ah-han) call for sentences of more than seven
years in prison. Both judges have agreed to step down from the bench.
Authorities say the judges took kickbacks between 2003 and 2007 in exchange
for guaranteeing the placement of juvenile offenders into facilities operated
by PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care LLC. In some cases, Ciavarella ordered children into detention even when
juvenile probation officers did not recommend it. "They sold their oaths
of offices to the highest bidders," Deron Roberts, chief of the FBI's
Scranton office, said at a news conference Monday. U.S. Attorney Martin
Carlson stressed the charges were "the first developments in an ongoing
investigation" into public corruption at the courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.
PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care have not been charged with
wrongdoing. Luzerne County District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll said her
office would review cases in which offenders might have been improperly
placed into juvenile detention. The Juvenile Law Center, a Philadelphia-based
advocacy group, complained last year to the state Supreme Court about the
treatment of children in Luzerne County juvenile court, asking for the
nullification of decisions in hundreds of cases. Juveniles were often denied
their constitutional right to lawyers and were disproportionately sentenced
to ill-advised, out-of-home placements, the group said. "We feel that
it's a great day for the young people and the youth of this area to see the
system really does work, the system really isn't rigged against them,"
said Jack Van Reeth, whose daughter was ordered detained in 2007 by Ciavarella. "It's just wonderful to see that the
scheme of jailing for dollars has come to an end." Jessica Van Reeth,
then 16, was sent to a juvenile wilderness camp for three months after
admitting that she had possessed a cigarette lighter and pipe in school. She
told The Associated Press last year that the items were found in a purse she
agreed to hold for a friend. The family, expecting probation, waived her
right to a lawyer, unaware of the potential consequences. Jack Van Reeth said
Monday his daughter is "extremely happy. She said that this is better
than Christmas."
Lycoming
County Reentry Services Center, GEO Group
Aug 16, 2017 sungazette.com
Commissioners vote to end state reentry program
The GEO Group started partnering with Pennsylvania last month to provide
reentry services for state parolees as it does for the county, Lycoming
County commissioners announced at Tuesday’s meeting. Though the program is
new, the commissioners voted 2-1 to halt it completely, citing transparency
issues and lack of information. Without access to the state’s contract with
GEO, Commissioner Rick Mirabito worries the state
may be taking advantage of the taxpayer dollars that fund the county’s
reentry program and connected costs, such as utility bills, despite funding
similar programs less as the years go on — even as it disperses its prison
populations to the counties. “It’s bad enough they don’t fund (mandated
programs like adult probation), but now they’re going to release all these
guys and it falls on the backs of taxpayers,” Mirabito
said. “They oughtta pony up.” The program began
after an informational meeting between the commissioners, GEO officials and
other key folks involved in the decision. Commissioners Jack McKernan and
Tony Mussare gave their blessing for GEO to start
accepting state parolees under the impression that the details would be
worked out publicly in the near-future and that certain conditions would be
met, such as setting an end date of Dec. 31, they said. Mussare
added that both he and McKernan were attending conferences in the upcoming
days, which hindered meetings and would not have allowed a timely decision to
be made publicly. “The public has been wronged here,” Mirabito
said. “Making a mistake is not the end of the world, it’s not some heinous
crime. But we need to correct it.” Solicitor J. David Smith stated that,
while starting the program informally is not best practice, it would be fine
to ratify the decision by approving the details publicly. ” ‘Wronged’ is a
strong word … and it can be fixed,” Smith said. Mirabito
offered another solution by motioning to cancel the program until the
commissioners could gather more information and hold a public vote. Mussare seconded Mirabito’s
motion and voted accordingly. McKernan voted against canceling the program.
Currently, three state parolees are involved and about 29 referrals are
awaiting a decision. The cancellation means the state will have to relocate
those parolees for the time being. “I didn’t think there would be a problem
in letting them move forward,” McKernan said, adding he had expected to “tie
up loose ends” at an upcoming public meeting. The program, if reinstated,
would provide a small revenue to the county as GEO offered to put $5 per
state parolee per day the parolee attends toward the county’s bills. For example,
if 20 state parolees use GEO’s service twice in one week, the county would
receive $200 for that week. One thing the commissioners have been told about
the state’s contract is that the state will only pay for each day that state
parolees show up to GEO, while the county pays daily regardless of
attendance. Mussare said he would assume the state
is charged a higher rate to make up for those instances, but that can’t be
known for sure without seeing the contract. If the state is only paying for
when the parolee shows up and at a similar rate as the county, “we’re getting
a raw deal,” he said. In another matter, Mya Toon, chief procurement officer,
announced the county is requesting bids for the James V. Brown Library
remodeling project, to be funded by a Keystone recreation grant in the amount
of $40,000. Commissioners McKernan, Mirabito and Mussare were in attendance. The next meeting will be held
at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
Moshannon Valley Correctional Center
Clearfield, Pennsylvania
GEO Group (bought Cornell)
Jun
13, 2017 gantdaily.com
BREAKING: Four Inmates Injured in Physical Altercation at Moshannon Valley
Correctional Center
DECATUR TOWNSHIP – A statement was released today detailing a physical
altercation among inmates Saturday at the Moshannon Valley Correctional
Center in Decatur Township. The following statement was received by GANT News
from Pablo E. Paez, vice president, corporate
relations, GEO Group Inc.: “On Saturday, June 10, 2017, an incident involving
a group of inmates occurred at the Moshannon Valley Correctional Center. Specifically, a small group of inmates were
engaged in a physical altercation on the recreation yard. “Four inmates
received injuries requiring outside medical treatment at local community
hospitals; none of the injuries sustained were life-threatening. “The
incident was quickly contained and with no staff injuries noted. The facility will remain on lock down
status as we work towards resuming normal operations. “All inmates are accounted
for and the safety and security of the institution was not impacted and there
was no threat to the local community.”
February 18, 2012 Centre Daily Times
A push by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to cut costs may result in the closing
of the beleaguered Moshannon Valley Correctional Center in Clearfield County.
The 1,495-bed, low-security prison owned by the Florida-based GEO Group,
opened after much controversy in 2006 as the only privately operated prison
in Pennsylvania. Last Tuesday, the prison’s union voted against taking a pay
cut, a move that will may cost the GEO Group its federal contract, according
to Thomas Hearn, vice president of the local chapter of the International
Union of Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America, which represents
145 employees at the Decatur Township facility. “The company had some real
concerns that if they weren’t able to meet the financial package the federal
government wants to see, then they may lose the contract to house the inmates
at that prison,” Hearn said. Stan LaFuria,
president of the Moshannon Valley Economic Development Partnership, confirmed
the GEO Group had asked for concessions from the union. “Our organization has
heard about the situation with the GEO Group and their employees,” he said.
“We are truly hoping that any issues will be resolved. The last thing in the
world we want is for anything to happen to that facility, which is extremely
important to our area.” The prison, which was built at a cost of $54 million,
primarily houses criminal aliens, may be affected by a proposal by President
Barack Obama to drop funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program
from $240 to $70 million, officially announced on Monday. The union did not
take a position on the employees’ decision not to take a pay reduction from
$21.65 per hour to $18.65 per hour, according to Hearn. “The members
determine their own future and the union supports them in their decision,”
Hearn said. “I know you hear a lot about how the union wants you to do this
or that, but the decision is our membership’s to make.” Andy Rebar, a Decatur
Township (Clearfield County) supervisor whose son works at the prison and was
present for the meeting, said the vote was tough for those who took part
because of its potential consequences, but the more important vote was held in
August 2011, when the prison employees voted to unionize. “That may have been
the one that cut off their nose to spite their face,” he said. Rebar said he
couldn’t understand what had happened that had resulted in the prison’s
contract being renegotiated by the federal government. “The contract wasn’t
up until 2016,” he said. “I don’t know what happened or what changed there.”
The facility is competing for a contract with a private prison in northeast
Ohio, according to both Rebar and Hearn.
September 17, 2009 The Tribune-Democrat
Two former guards at a federal prison in Philipsburg pleaded guilty Wednesday
to providing inmates with contraband, including cell phones, cigarettes, MP3
players and muscle enhancers. Bryan Williams II and Ryan J. Spicher were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson
in Johnstown to one year of probation and a $1,000 fine each. They had
pleaded guilty to one count each of providing contraband inside the Moshannon
Valley Correctional Center in Centre County. The prison is a low-security
lockup for male prisoners in the federal system. Assistant U.S. Attorney
Stephanie L. Haines said Williams was involved in the criminal activity from
June 2007 to Dec. 11, 2007. Spicher furnished the
contraband to inmates from January 2007 to Aug. 31 of that same year, Haines
said. The men could have faced prison terms of up to six months and fines of
up to $5,000. Moshannon Valley prison is run by Cornell Cos.
February 11, 2009 The Progress News
At yesterday's Clearfield County commissioners' meeting, Decatur Township
Supervisor Andy Rebar asked the commissioners to correct inequities in
property taxes by performing a countywide property reassessment. According to
Mr. Rebar, county residents are unfairly shouldering too much of the property
tax burden while commercial property owners are getting a break. Mr. Rebar
said the impetus for this occurred when the Cornell private prison opened
several years ago in Decatur Township. He said it was projected to provide
local municipalities and the school district with $1 million a year in tax
revenue, but after the county assessed the property it only ended up paying
roughly half that. Mr. Rebar said he then looked at what other commercial
property owners were paying in real estate taxes and said he discovered that
they were disproportionately low when compared to residential properties.
May 5, 2008 The Progress News
Some 126 local, county and state officials and guests gathered Friday at
Brady Township Community Center for the Clearfield County Association of Township
Officials Spring Convention. There are 30 second class townships in the
county as well as 19 boroughs and one city… Andy Rebar, Decatur Township
supervisor, spoke to the group about the Cornell facility that he said is a
federally funded, federally contracted private prison built in Decatur
Township. He said he was "wholeheartedly" in favor of it and the
annual funding for the township was to be $57,000 to $62,000 but instead only
$15,290 was received. He said the township has hired a legal team and will
fight this. He asked for help from other officials by writing a letter of
support. He said property assessments need to be fair and balanced.
Clearfield County commissioner Mark McCracken said the county is aware of the
situation and is taking action.
September 22, 2007 Altoona Mirror
A federal judge has rejected a request by an inmate at the Moshannon Valley
Correctional Center to stop sending “Latino” inmates to the facility. Rudolph
P. Keszthelyi contended in a lawsuit filed in
federal court in Johnstown that prison authorities are segregating primarily
illegal immigrants at Moshannon Valley, a private prison operated by Cornell
Co. Inc. of Houston, Texas. The prison, located in the Phillipsburg area, has
been open for about a year. In his suit, Keszthelyi
claims that the atmosphere at the prison is volatile because of a large number of Latino inmates, and a minority of black
inmates from Washington, D.C., are being housed there. The prison holds few
whites. Keszthelyi asked for an injunction to bring
about an immediate change so that the inmate population will be more racially
balanced. Federal magistrate Lisa Pupo Lenihan recommended in August that no injunction be
issued because she said Keszthelyi could not show
“irreparable harm” if the request was denied. The inmate filed objections to Lenihan’s report, arguing that segregation of inmates was
illegal and noting that “the atmosphere at Moshannon Valley is oppressive, as
at any time the majority of Latino prisoners can decide to take matters into their
own hands and cause harm to a minority group or one individual.” He said the
situation is causing him “severe emotional distress.” U.S. District Judge Kim
Gibson this week adopted the magistrate’s recommendations and dismissed the
request for an injunction. The magistrate said any request for an injunction
“must always be viewed with great caution because judicial restraint is
especially called for in dealing with the complex and intractable problems of
prison administration.” She said “The federal courts are not overseers of the
day-to-day management of prisons.” Keszthelyi
claims a race riot broke out Feb. 6 at the prison, resulting in a
month-and-a-half lockdown of the facility.
May 1, 2007 Centre Daily Times
A school district and township, set to take in more than $200,000 in annual
property tax revenue from Pennsylvania's first private prison, are now
appealing a county assessment of the $74 million facility in an effort to get
additional funds. The appeals process could take months and discussion at the
first hearing Monday indicated the matter is likely headed to the Clearfield
County Court of Common Pleas. "This is an unusual facility that is going
to take some unusual valuation, conclusions, theories, projections and
assumptions, and I see this case in court," said Anthony R. Thompson, an
Allentown attorney representing Cornell Cos. Inc. -- a Texas firm that built
the Moshannon Valley Correctional Facility. The 1,300-bed prison, owned by
W.B.P. Leasing Inc., is located in Decatur Township, which filed an appeal in
March. Shortly thereafter, the Philipsburg-Osceola Area school board
authorized its solicitor, Winifred Jones-Wenger, to join with the township in
the appeal. She has not yet filed the paperwork to intervene but plans to do
so, she said Monday. But the local solicitors won't be handling the case
themselves. The township and school district have retained a Pittsburgh firm,
Hollinshead, Mendelson, Bresnahan and Nixon.
Clearfield County assessed the prison at about $2.5 million, and its market
value is listed about $10 million. From the time Decatur Township and
Philipsburg-Osceola Area School District received their first tax payments
from the facilities, officials from both entities voiced displeasure, saying
the revenue wasn't what they expected. The facility cost $74 million to
construct. In correspondence dating back to the late 1990s, the prison had
promised almost $1 million annually in combined tax revenues and payments.
The township and school district haven't seen a third of that since the
prison opened a year ago, and they won't, based on the current full
assessment. But Cornell, which was embroiled in a legal battle over whether
state law allows private prisons, has said the scope of the project changed
significantly, resulting in a much smaller facility with less business than
was first proposed seven years ago. At the onset of the hearing Monday, the
county assessment appeals board asked to see an appraisal of the prison.
Attorney William P. Bresnahan, of the Pittsburgh firm, was unable to provide
one because an appraiser had only been retained 10 days ago. He asked the
board for more time. "We thought it would be much more helpful if we
went through this proceeding with the real estate appraiser to give you his
insight," he told the board. In an interview afterward, Bresnahan
explained that finding someone certified in Pennsylvania who could appraise
the prison was a difficult task. But Paul Griffith, of Integra Realty
Resources, was retained, he said. Thompson asked the board not to allow the
hearing to continue. The matter will go to court, he said, and he would like
to see it "resolved sooner rather than later." He also questioned
whether the board had the authority to issue a continuance for the hearing.
The board decided to talk with its solicitor and make a decision sometime
this week.
February 8, 2007 Altoona Mirror
An inmate at the recently opened private prison in Clearfield County
wants more diversity in its population. Rudolph P. Keszthelyi,
serving a 10-year federal sentence, said the prison, Moshannon Valley
Corrections Center, and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons have limited the
population to illegal immigrants who have committed crimes and to inmates
from Washington, D.C., who are almost all black. Keszthelyi
says it’s a violation of the 14th Amendment to segregate inmates. Keszthelyi said in its first five months, the facility
experienced two food strikes and “numerous violent assaults between prisoners
of different ethnic origins.” He was one of two Moshannon Valley inmates
whose lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court clerk’s office in
Johnstown this week. The second inmate, Ervin Leka, serving 18 months for
conspiracy to possess marijuana, complained that the prison is stamping mail
that inmates send to their families outside the U.S. with large red letters,
stating “Inmate Mail.” “My family is in a small village and now is ostracized
because somebody saw the envelope with ‘Inmate Mail’ stamped on it,” Leka
stated in a complaint to prison authorities.
February 7, 2007 WJAC TV
Security has been heightened and the Moshannon Valley Corrections Center
remains on lockdown, after a Tuesday lunch-hour inmate fight. According to
officials, at least one person was hurt and additional personnel had to be
called in to help clear the scene. Prison administrators said things got out
of hand when two groups of inmates began arguing about a basketball game. One
inmate suffered a head injury and a medical helicopter was called to the
scene. Ambulance and other emergency crews were called in, but were held at
the prison perimeter until the scene was secured. There is no word yet on
other possible injuries.
January 15, 2007 Centre Daily Times
The Moshannon Valley Correctional Facility, a $74 million private prison
expected to provide an economic boom to Clearfield County, will not generate
the amount of tax revenues it promised local officials years ago. Cornell
Companies Inc., a Texas-based firm that owns the facility and may soon merge
with Veritas Capital in New York, says the 1,300-bed facility is markedly
smaller than what was initially proposed. And that's why the prison's tax
bill is several hundred thousand dollars less than local officials expected.
"The scale of the project was cut fairly significantly," said
Christine Parker, a Cornell spokeswoman. In correspondence dating back as
early as 1999, Morris and Decatur townships and the Philipsburg-Osceola Area
School District were told that they would see almost $1 million annually in
combined tax revenues and payments. The townships and district haven't seen a
third of that since the prisoners arrived in spring 2006. And they won't ever
see what they expected, now that the facility has been fully assessed.
"I truly hope that this is a mistake and not some sort of favoritism,"
said Andrew Rebar, supervisors chairman of Decatur
Township, where the facility is located. "I won't be able to live with
that." In a letter to the state attorney general in 2001, then-
Superintendent Sam Peterson explained the grave situation facing the Philipsburg-Osceola
school district and how he thought the private prison would help. At the
time, concerns were raised about whether state law would allow a private
prison to be built, and the project was in jeopardy. "I have seen our
district student population drop by 1,000 since the late 1970s,"
Peterson wrote. "This is primarily due to the decline of the coal
industry and the loss of a couple of significant employers." Based on
company-driven estimates, the facility would bring $600,000 annually in
property taxes to the school district, he said. "I have lived in this
area for 26 years and can assure you that nothing of such magnitude has ever
presented itself as a viable economic option to the area's residents,"
he wrote. The attorney general allowed the project to move ahead. But it
wasn't the same project that was originally proposed. In the seven years that
had passed in resolving legal issues, the federal Bureau of Prisons changed
the scope of the project. The prison was supposed to comprise three buildings.
Now it has only one. And Cornell, Parker said, "lost all of the business
that would have come along from it." Private prisons sprung up
elsewhere, and "the needs of the federal Bureau of Prisons
changed," she said. So did the expected tax revenue. Last week,
Philipsburg-Osceola Area school officials said they did not receive any tax
payments from the prison. After digging further through their records, they
realized that they did receive about $51,000, which was based on a partial
assessment of the facility. Now the facility has been fully assessed at $2.5
million. And, at most, the district will receive $232,730 annually from it in
tax payments. "I would love to have it much higher, but I am very
restricted by what I can do," said Mary Ann Wesdock,
director of the Clearfield County Assessment Office. "I have to work
within the structure that we have with regard to our base year and the values
that we are permitted to use." Clearfield County's last reassessment was
in 1989. Rebar said he was sick to his stomach when he realized that the
township would receive only about $15,000 annually in tax revenues. "It
is a drop in the bucket," said Rebar, who expected about $60,000.
"That is our philosophy here." Morris Township, where the prison's
water tower sits, is also not satisfied. Cornell's chief operating officer,
in a 1999 letter to the township, said its general contractor would make a
"one-time only investment in Morris Township of $250,000 upon the
township's endorsement of this facility." The letter also indicated that
the township would get an annual $191,734 payment in lieu of property taxes.
Troy Hill Road, near the prison, also was supposed to be paved by Cornell,
the letter indicated. Township Solicitor F. Cortez Bell III said the township
hasn't received anything. Although a prison building was not constructed in
Morris Township as planned, "there is a water tower." "The
supervisors have authorized me to take whatever action is necessary,"
said Bell, who also is a Clearfield County assistant district attorney.
"We have even talked about eminent domain proceedings." Morris
Township would have received payments, Parker said, if the prison was
constructed as originally planned.
January 10, 2007 Centre Daily Times
Uncertain of what its financial situation is, the Philipsburg-Osceola
Area school board is trying to decide which way to throw the dice as it
develops next year's budget. And the one revenue source the board hoped to
get tax dollars from this year -- the newly constructed private prison --
appears to have slipped between the cracks. The district has not received a
single tax payment from the prison so far, school officials said Tuesday. The
crux of the dilemma facing Philipsburg-Osceola is that the board must have a
preliminary budget drafted by Jan. 25. But school officials, who just stepped
into their positions a few months ago, say they have no clue what all of
their expenses are and don't want to rely on the figures contained in the
previous deficit-laden budget. The board could wait until the end of the year
to draft a complete budget, but then it must vow not to raise taxes above the
state-mandated limit of 4.9 percent. If the district needed additional
revenue, it would have to cut staff and programs in order to pay for its
expenses. "I don't want to do that," said Cathy Hayes, a board
member. On the other hand, if the board decided to increase taxes more than
4.9 percent, its budget would need voter approval by referendum. Several
school officials doubted that they could win the taxpayers' support. Nor are
they sure the community could handle any more tax increases. Last year, the
board increased taxes 27 percent in Clearfield County and 5 percent in Centre
County. "I could not, in my best judgment, ask to go over 4.9 percent.
It would just be devastating," said Mike Conte, the school district's
director of finance. "Whatever we have to do, we have to keep within
that range." The budget constraints, including the tax-increase limit
and early budget schedule, are all the result of the state's latest property
tax law, Act 1. The legislation mandated a series of new budget changes for
almost all school districts across the state. The board was at odds over what
to do by the end of its meeting Tuesday night. It is expected to decide at
its next meeting on Tuesday. Board member Thad Ritter appeared to be
supportive of drafting a preliminary budget by next week. He said if the
district had to raise taxes above 4.9 percent, it would have to sell its case
to the taxpayers and explain what programs would be cut without the
additional revenue. "I think we need to submit the preliminary budget
just in case we need the referendum," he said. The board was hoping to
receive some tax revenues from the Moshannon Valley Correctional Facility.
Earlier reports show that the district expected at least a couple hundred
thousand annually. The prison is up and running, and Conte said the district
has not received any payments to date.
March 25, 2003
Ending a four-year standoff, a Texas corrections firm has won the go-ahead to
build Pennsylvania's first privately owned prison, officials said
Tuesday. The 1,000-bed prison for federal inmates, which will be built
by next year on reclaimed strip mines in Clearfield County, Pa., will be
maintained and operated by Houston-based Cornell Companies, Inc. Cornell owns
eight other prisons nationwide. The company was stalled in Pennsylvania
since 1999 because state law does not allow private firms to house federal
prisoners. But a rare agreement, finalized this week, will let Cornell guards
use deadly force to control prisoners - with authority delegated by the
federal Bureau of Prisons. No other prison in the state will be allowed
to be owned by a private company. (AP)
March
23, 2002
For more than two years, Pennsylvania's Attorney General Mike Fisher has
stood by his objections to Cornell Corrections' plans to build a private
prison in Clearfield County, saying that state law did not allow a
corporation to be a jailer. In an exclusive interview with the
Progress, Mr. Fisher said his office has formulated a plan that might
"satisfy everyone concerned." "What we're trying to do
is federalize the prison," Rep. Lynn Herman said yesterday, "it
will then be legal." Cornell, which would be the contracted
operator of the facility, would also own the property and the structure,
allowing the local tax-base to benefit. Not everyone sees the proposal
as good news, however. "It was Mr. Fisher who said that private
companies cannot own and operate prisons without the General Assembly's
authorization," said state Rep. Camile "Bud" George, D-74 of
Houtzdale, in a statement this week. "I can assure you that
authorization has not been given." He called the proposal a
"deal kept secret from the media, the citizens of Clearfield County and
legislators of all stripes," and said the issues has become "a
political animal rather than a question of what is right for the
people..." (Clearfield Progress)
The
federal government yesterday lifted a moratorium that helped put a two-year
freeze on what would be Pennsylvania's only privately owned prison.
That left developers suggesting that the Clearfield County project could go
to construction by spring. But they still face stiff opposition from
Gov. Tom Ridge and state Attorney General Mike Fisher. "Our position
has remained unchanged, that state law as currently written doesn't allow
incarceration of inmates by private entities," Fisher spokesman Sean
Connolly said yesterday. The federal government froze work in June
1999, when a locally based group, the Citizens Advisory Committee on Private
Prisons, filed a complaint charging that bureau hadn't done environmental
homework on the project. Wednesday, federal Judge D. Brooks Smith in
Johnstown ruled that all was well -- a decision that opponents are deciding
whether to appeal. (Post Gazette)
Monroe
County Correctional Facility
Monroe County, Pennsylvania
Canteen (formerly run by Aramark)
September 10, 2009 Pocono Record
A new company is serving meals to inmates and staff and the Monroe County
Correctional Facility. Canteen Correctional Services, a division of Compass
Group USA, has been doing the cooking since Sept. 1. Canteen was awarded a
three-year contract at $622,388 per year, replacing Aramark, which had been
employed at the Snydersville jail for five years.
Staff members are happy with the new menu and larger portions, says Acting
Warden Donna Asure. "We've gotten great
comments," said Asure, who also is a county commissioner.
"The staff is satisfied with the staff meals." Four Canteen
employees, assisted by inmates who apply for positions, prepare about 1,200
meals daily in the prison kitchen. Inmates eat in the day rooms of their
assigned units. Staff members eat in the employee dining room. Aramark was
the subject of at least a few complaints before losing its bid for a renewed
contract. "We have had several complaints," Asure
said. "We tried to work things out." The county has options to
extend Canteen's contract beyond the current three years, she said.
Montgomery County Jail
Eagleville, Pennsylvania
Correctional Medical Care
October
04, 2013 courthousenews.com
(CN) - Prison medical staff must face claims that they let a detainee die
after ignoring her severe chest pain and bloody vomit so as to avoid paying
for her outside treatment, a federal judge ruled. Dorothy Kenney sued
Montgomery County, Pa.; Correctional Medical Care Inc. (CMC); and seven
prison medical staff members in federal court on behalf of the late Patricia
Pollock. Shortly after Pollock, then 25, allegedly told her mother that she
was severely nauseous on Sept. 22, 2011, Upper Moreland Township police
arrested her, and took her to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility to
await trial the next day. When Pollock told a prison nurse that she was in
pain, could not move her left arm, and had been taking clonazepam, an
anti-anxiety medication, for about two years, the nurse recommended
benzodiazepine-withdrawal treatment, Kenney said. Although another nurse
allegedly saw Pollock later that day "yelling in her cell that she could
not breathe" and "that her chest felt 'like something [was]
pressing all the way down to [her] back,'" Dr. Margaret Carrillo refused
to order outside treatment or testing, for which Correctional Medical Care
would have had to pay, the plaintiff continued. Pollock, having complained
for days, told a nurse that she had been vomiting blood, had rib pain, and
could not breathe, so Dr. Carrillo finally saw her and ordered intravenous
fluids, judging that she was a drug user susceptible to bacterial
endocarditis, Kenney said. A nurse allegedly found Pollock "naked and
wrapped in a sheet for most of the evening shift on the medical unit"
and unable "to drink fluids ... without the assistance of her
cellmate." The next morning, Pollock was sent to the emergency room and
diagnosed with massive organ failure due to bacterial endocarditis, but her
heart stopped during her airlift to another hospital for immediate surgery,
the plaintiff claimed. The complaint asserts claims for state-law negligence,
deliberate indifference, failure to train, incentivizing staff to curb
outside medical referrals and testing, and wrongful death. The defendants
moved to dismiss, and Senior U.S. District Judge Jan DuBois partially denied
the motions last week. "Dr. Carrillo had been aware of Pollock's
shortness of breath, severe chest pain, abnormal echocardiogram, and
deteriorating condition for at least 36 hours before she personally saw
Pollock for a diagnostic," DuBois wrote. "Further, even when
Pollock had deteriorated to the point where 'she had been vomiting blood,
that she was suffering from rib pain and weakness, and that she could not
breathe,' Dr. Carrillo continued the course of benzodiazepine-withdrawal
treatment and did not conduct further diagnostic testing. "It was not
until Sept. 27, 2013, when Pollock was experiencing massive organ failure and
required emergency surgery, that Dr. Carrillo referred her to the emergency
room," DuBois continued. "Plaintiff further alleges that Dr.
Carrillo did not make these decisions with regard to the serious risk to
Pollock's health, but rather because she was financially motivated not to
order diagnostic testing and/or refer patients for outside treatment. "These
allegations are sufficient to state a claim of deliberate indifference
against Dr. Carrillo," the judge ruled. Though the court tossed aside
Nurse Mary Rhinehart's argument that that Dr. Carrillo was solely responsible
for Pollock's care, it dismissed the civil rights claims against Christine
Irvine R.N., whose involvement in Pollock's care is not detailed in the
complaint. Pollock's administratrix may amend her complaint within 20 days,
the ruling states. When Pollock was arrested, she had been unable to pay 10
percent of her $10,000 bail for retail theft, possession of drug
paraphernalia, and DUI charges, a Philadelphia online newspaper, Newsworks, reported.
Jun
5, 2013 nbcphiladelphia.com
Patricia
Pollock lay dying from a heart condition in the Montgomery County prison, so
weak she couldn't drink liquids without help and so distressed she stripped
off all her clothes. But somehow, a private contractor failed to catch or
treat Pollock's illness, which made breathing a struggle, caused her organs
to fail, and eventually took her life. Or at least, that's the claim of
civil-rights attorney Jonathan Feinberg. He is representing Pollock's estate,
which filed a lawsuit against Montgomery County and Correctional Medical
Care, a company hired to provide medical services to the prison. The suit,
filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in May, claims that CMC's care
was so poor that Pollock's constitutional right to be free from cruel and
unusual punishment was violated. This isn't the first time that CMC, based in
Blue Bell, Pa., has been in the news. In April, New York's Attorney General
office said it was investigating the company, which has also operated in that
state. Before then, New York's Commission of Correction found wrongdoing by
the company in the deaths of some inmates. An attorney for CMC said the
company provides quality care. The cause of Pollock's 2011 death, an autopsy
report shows, was a heart condition known as "acute fulminant verrucous
endocarditis." According to the suit, CMC treated Pollock for drug
withdrawal instead, and by the time she was transferred to an outside
hospital and received diagnostic testing, it was too late. Pollock was 25, in
the Montgomery County Correctional Facility awaiting trial because she was
unable to pay 10 percent of her $10,000 bail. She faced charges for alleged
retail theft, possession of drug paraphernalia and a DUI. Feinberg, of the
law firm Kairys, Rudovsky,
Messing & Feinberg, said CMC knew that Pollock had a history of using
intravenous drugs. So it should have been able to diagnose her heart
condition, as it often afflicts such users, he said. "This is a
condition that, if treated properly, should not result in death,"
Feinberg said. "The fact that she ended up dead obviously shows that there
was a very significant breakdown in the way care was provided." Timothy
Myers, an attorney for CMC, said the company's job is difficult because
inmates often come into prison with serious medical problems. And in this
case, Myers said it was even tougher because Pollock initially denied her
drug use. "So it makes it harder to diagnose problems when the patient
is not honest," he said, adding that it's "just not feasible"
to "evaluate and inspect ... every inch of an inmate's body in order to make
some kind of diagnosis preliminarily." CMC was paid about $4 million
annually for its work in Montgomery County. Trouble in New York, too. Critics
of the company say it has a pattern of being at least partially at fault in
the deaths of prisoners. New York's Commission of Correction, which examines
inmates' deaths, found that CMC has sometimes failed to follow its own
regulations and put prisoners in danger over the last few years. A
Correctional Medical Care nurse "clearly left his patient in an emergent
life-threatening status without appropriate medical attention," one
commission report noted. Another report stated that the death of 60-year-old
inmate Joaquin Rodriguez "may have been prevented had he received timely
medical care and received proper supervision" from CMC. The commission
said the Monroe County jail should terminate its contract with the company as
a result. CMC did not respond to several requests for comment on the
commission reports or the New York Attorney General's investigation. The
Attorney General's office would not explain why it is scrutinizing CMC, but
it did request a copy of Pollock's lawsuit. Prisoners' rights advocates say
that private correctional companies, such as CMC, put profits before people.
Feinberg alleges that CMC faced a "powerful financial disincentive"
to conduct diagnostic testing on inmates or send them to an outside medical
provider. "The fact that those two things cost money, that they're
expensive and that those have to be paid for by this private health provider,
do raise serious questions," he said. Myers said that the belief that
CMC has such a disincentive "is utterly and completely false."
Montgomery County spokesman Frank Custer declined to comment on the suit,
explaining that the county's attorneys "would not presume to comment on
the case since we will not be defending it." Dr. Margaret Carrillo,
CMC's medical director at the time of Pollock's death, is also named in the
suit. She, too, took a pass on commenting. New contract, CMC is no longer
providing medical services for the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.
Since 2012, PrimeCare Medical, Inc. has done that
job. Custer would not provide details about the county's decision to switch
contractors. Though CMC is based in Pennsylvania, it does not currently
provide medical services for any prisons or jails in the state, according to
its website. That's not for lack of trying, though. CMC placed a bid to
provide inmate health care in Philadelphia starting this year, but failed.
The company continues to work inside several New York county jails. And some
of CMC's old staff is working for PrimeCare in the
Montgomery County Correctional Facility, including its former medical
director, Dr. Carrillo.
March
20, 2010 Democrat & Chronicle
During the past decade the family that now manages medical care for
Monroe County jails has been entangled in lawsuits with claims ranging from
significant misappropriation of company funds to unusual contentions that
marital infidelity led to a private investigator bugging their house. Emre
Umar, the president of Correctional Medical Care Inc., is now accused in a
local lawsuit of harassing and ultimately firing a jail medical employee,
April D'Amico of Rochester, who alleges she had an affair with Umar. D'Amico
alleges that Umar assured her "that she was a valuable employee; that he
would always take care of her; and, that if she ever tried to use their
relationship against him that he 'would destroy' her." When D'Amico
wanted to end the relationship, Umar proceeded to call her dozens of times, constantly
harassing her before finally firing her, alleges the lawsuit, filed this
month in U.S. District Court in Rochester. Timothy Myers, a
Pennsylvania-based attorney representing Umar and his company, said the
allegations "are baseless." The attorneys are seeking dismissal of
the lawsuit and allege that D'Amico cost Correctional Medical Care
"hundreds of thousands of dollars" through "misconduct."
Despite the legal issues for Correctional Medical Care, there have not been
any concerns raised about the medical care the company provides. In
isolation, D'Amico's federal lawsuit may not raise questions about the
management of CMC. But Umar and his wife, Maria, the company's chief
executive officer, have been involved in another unusual lawsuit, in which
the couple alleged they were harassed by a Chicago businessman and his
contracted private investigator after Maria broke off a seven-year
relationship with the businessman. And Emre Umar and his father, Dr. Kenan
Umar, were embroiled in litigation against each other after the sale of a
previous prison health care provider the two managed and owned, court records
from Pennsylvania show. The father and son accused each other of harming the
company through unauthorized personal use of its revenues. Reached Tuesday at
his office near Philadelphia, Emre Umar declined to comment about his current
or past litigation. He did say the company is providing quality medical care
for Monroe County's two jail facilities. Sheriff's Office spokesman John
Helfer also said CMC is providing good care to inmates. He noted that CMC is
accredited by a national agency. "We have found they either meet or
exceed those (accreditation) standards," Helfer said. Privatized jail
care -- The county privatized jail medical services about a decade ago but
has struggled to settle on a company to provide quality, cost-effective care.
The first company hired was Prison Health Services, but the county stopped
contracting with PHS in 2003 in the aftermath of an inmate death in which the
state was sharply critical of care. The county then contracted with
Correctional Medical Services into 2008. The county is now suing CMS,
alleging that the company did not provide staffing at the jails as
contractually promised. CMS has denied the allegations. In 2008, the county
began its contract with Correctional Medical Care, the Umar-run company. The
County Legislature unanimously approved the CMC contract. The county contends
that CMC was the best choice among five providers that answered a request for
proposal — or RFP. Asked whether any information about past lawsuits
involving Umar came to light during the county's due diligence, county
spokesman Noah Lebowitz responded in an e-mail:
"It doesn't appear so based on the information in the RFP file."
The key issues for county officials were a company's "proposed fees;
understanding of the project; degree of relevant experience; technical
competence; references; capacity and availability to perform the services;
and local office," Lebowitz wrote. County
officials believe that privatized health care, like that provided by CMC, is
"the best way to ensure quality services at a fair cost for
taxpayers," Lebowitz wrote. The Umars have experience managing a major prison health care
provider — Correctional Physician Services Inc., which provided care in
Pennsylvania state prisons and elsewhere. CPS was created in 1989 by Dr.
Kenan Umar, who later employed his son, Emre, and made him a vice president,
court records show. In 1999, Dr. Umar alleged that his son removed all of the
CPS money from a bank account — more than $1 million — without permission.
Emre Umar contended he was entitled to the money, and the two negotiated a
settlement agreement. Not long thereafter, in March 2000, they sold the
company to Prison Health Services for $14 million. At that point, the company
was significantly in debt and much of the sale proceeds were used to pay
major creditors. More father-son lawsuits ensued with various charges and
counter-charges, but the litigation was apparently resolved with settlements,
according to court records and attorneys. More lawsuits -- The Umars opened Correctional Medical Care in 2001,
Pennsylvania corporate records indicate. Between 2000 and 2007, according to
a federal lawsuit, Maria Umar had a "personal relationship" with a
Chicago businessman, Douglas Gray. In his response, Gray called the
relationship "extra-marital." The lawsuit alleges that Gray and his
wife harassed the Umars after the end of the
relationship. In fact, the lawsuit, filed by Correctional Medical Care and
Emre and Maria Umar alleged, Gray hired a private investigator to run a
background check on Emre Umar. The couple alleged that the investigator also
surveilled the Umars, "including eavesdropping
through surreptitious electronic devices that they planted" in the Umars' home. The lawsuit was settled out of court. Court
records show the case was dismissed after settlement in 2008. D'Amico's local
lawsuit against Umar was filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court.
According to her lawsuit, she was hired as health services administrator for
the Monroe County Jail in March 2008. Emre Umar was her supervisor and
constantly pushed her for personal information, she alleges. She acknowledged
an affair beginning in September 2008. When she tried to end the
relationship, she claims, Umar harassed her constantly through phone calls.
D'Amico said she was fired on Feb. 1, 2009. D'Amico "is a disgruntled
employee who was discharged for very good cause," said Umar's attorney,
Myers. In court filings, CMC maintains that D'Amico caused the company
"to be assessed hundreds of thousands of dollars" because of
noncompliance with Monroe County contractual requirements. County officials
say there were "considerable financial penalties" assessed against
the company for not meeting agreed-to staffing levels. D'Amico's attorney,
Christopher Enos, declined to comment.
May 27,
2005 The Morning Call
The Montgomery County district attorney's office is investigating whether the
extension of a $3.15 million contract for inmate medical services at the
county prison in Eagleville was improper. District Attorney Bruce L. Castor
Jr. said Thursday that acting Prison Warden Julio Algarin
asked him to probe a one-year contract extension with Correctional Medical
Care, based in Skippack, but declined to comment on any specific allegations
that prompted the investigation. ''The letter from Mr. Algarin
said there had been allegations raised that the [prison] board engaged in some kind of impropriety surrounding the medical
contract,'' Castor said. ''He asked us to look into whether that was true or
not.'' Richard Winters, the prison board's solicitor, said some members of
the public have raised concerns that the contract was extended because
''someone received something in exchange for that recommendation.''
National Park
Services
Philidelphia, Pennsylvania
Wackenhut (Group 4)
September 13, 2007 AP
Private security guards who have protested what they call poor working conditions
at Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell voted Wednesday to unionize. The
Wackenhut Services Inc. workers voted 31-2 to join the Service Employees
International Union Local 32BJ, district organizing coordinator Jeff Hornstein said. Fifteen guards did not vote. The secret
ballot election was held at a community hall a few blocks from Independence
National Historical Park, which is also protected by the National Park
Service. Wackenhut did not respond to two previous attempts by workers to
gain recognition, Hornstein said. Marc Shapiro,
senior vice president at Florida-based Wackenhut, said in order for the
balloting to be valid, it must follow standards set by the National Labor
Relations Board. "If it is an election that is sanctioned by the NLRB,
we would certainly support it," Shapiro said. The voting followed a
meeting during which two employees spoke of low wages, unpaid sick days, no
health insurance, and spending their own money to winterize their uniforms.
"We have to make sure we stay warm," guard Lamontez
Bentley said. "We simply cannot afford to get sick." The meeting
was attended by U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, D-Pa., who promised to ensure that the
company improves conditions for workers "protecting our national
treasures." "I'm going to put their feet to the fire for
sure," Brady said. Hornstein asked Brady to
work in Congress to withhold contracts from Wackenhut, which the government
has hired to protect sites including nuclear weapons facilities and the
Department of Homeland Security complex. Wackenhut, which has more than
35,000 employees, is owned by U.K.-based G4S.
New Morgan Academy
Morgantown, Pennsylvania
Cornell
June 15, 2010 Reading Eagle
The weekend melee at Abraxas Academy in which five residents attacked eight
counselors was the first major incident at the treatment center for juvenile
offenders in New Morgan since it reopened in October 2006, police said
Monday. Caernarvon Township Police Chief Paul R. Stolz Jr. said the melee
Sunday also was the first in which officers had to remove juveniles from the
facility since his department took over coverage of the borough from state
police on April 1. Information on calls before April 1 was not immediately
available from state police. But Stolz said state police had told him they
had not had a lot of calls to the facility, which originally opened in 2000.
In Sunday's melee, five juveniles from Philadelphia were charged with
assaulting counselors. An 18-year-old was taken to county prison. The other
four are in the county youth center. Some counselors had broken bones and
other injuries, but none of the injuries was life-threatening, police said.
Stolz said his department also handled two assaults at Abraxas in April. In
one, a resident was charged with assaulting a staff member. In the other, a
juvenile was charged with assaulting another juvenile. Both of those accused
remained at the academy while their cases were handled in juvenile court, he
said. The only other call was last week when police helped an ambulance crew
remove a juvenile who was having mental health problems, Stolz said.
July 14,
2009 Reading Eagle
The state Department of Public Welfare has suspended admissions to
Abraxas Academy in New Morgan while it investigates why the boys detention center failed to report suspected abuse in
a timely manner. This marks the third time in 2009 that the state has
temporarily closed admissions to Abraxas, welfare department spokeswoman
Stacey L. Witalec said Monday. Witalec
refused to give specifics about the most recent abuse allegation, citing
confidentiality requirements. "We continue to have concerns about the
facility to maintain health and safety for the kids," Witalec said. "If they continue to correct
deficiencies, then it's planned for admissions to reopen in two weeks."
The juvenile detention center off Interstate 176 is licensed to take as many
as 82 boys ages 12 to 18 years old. The boys have committed offenses that
require a secure lockup, such as aggravated assault or armed robbery. They
usually are not first-time offenders. Admissions to the academy were closed
Feb. 4 to Feb. 25 because the state was concerned about a lack of supervision
at the facility, Witalec said. They were suspended
again April 27 to June 15 over the untimely reporting of suspected abuse. Jon
Swatsburg, senior vice president at Abraxas Youth
and Family Services, said the April suspension and the most recent one, July
7, stemmed from the same incident. He said a teenage boy had broken off a
wooden bed slat and was prepared to use it as a weapon against a staff
member. While the boy was being restrained, he received a minor injury to his
eye, Swatsburg said. The boy was immediately
treated by a nurse, and while the incident went into the boy's medical file,
it wasn't included in a report to the state, Swatsburg
said. Swatsburg called it a communications gap and
said he understands why the welfare department was concerned. Abraxas, a
division of Cornell Cos. of Houston, initially opened in New Morgan in 2000
but relinquished its license two years later after six escapes and several
reports of sexual assaults, most involving employees abusing clients,
according to the state. The facility reopened in 2006 with new management and
staff. "We did a poor job in the initial operations of the
facility," Swatsburg said Monday. "All
eyes are going to be on us, and it's going to take a long time for that to go
away." Witalec said the state has
substantiated five cases of abuse at the facility since it reopened. The
state has stepped up regular and unannounced visits to the center, she added.
November
17, 2006 Reading Eagle
Lawyers for New Morgan borough on Friday asked a federal judge in Reading to
dismiss a suit filed by the owner of New Morgan Academy juvenile treatment
center, claiming the academy is trying to sidestep local zoning ordinances
and state courts. Cornell Cos. Inc., Houston, has sued the borough and its
council members, claiming they violated Cornell's constitutional rights by
interfering with its plans to reopen the academy. The original facility had
closed in October 2002, two years after opening, after a series of escapes
and sexual assaults. In July, the borough adopted a zoning amendment
forbidding the operation of a detention facility. The borough then sent
letters to the state departments of welfare and education alerting them that
Cornell intended to operate what the borough called a detention center. At
the time, Cornell was seeking a state license to reopen. It subsequently got
the license and reopened with 16 beds in October. It is treating two, low-level
sex offenders from Philadelphia. But borough attorney Mark Himsworth told U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel,
who was presiding in The Madison, that Cornell had never sought an occupancy
permit or zoning approval from the borough, and needs to do that first. If
occupancy was denied, he said, the legitimate process would be to challenge
the denial to borough council and possibly in state court before considering
a federal suit. And Thomas P. Hogan, attorney for the council members, said
Cornell had not met federal law by not specifying what the individuals had
done, and that they were given immunity from lawsuits by three separate state
laws. Council members named in the suit are Dena L. Geunes,
Tressie Marroon, Richard Venezia and Robert G.
Williams. Borough Manager Carolyn Williams is also named. Cornell attorney
Antoinette R. Stone told Stengel that Cornell knew it would be denied zoning
and occupancy because of what she called the borough's long history of
unlawful conduct against Cornell. She said the law doesn't require an effort
in futility. Stengel indicated he would rule in early December, but briefly
sparred with Stone over what the academy really is. “It's a juvenile prison,
isn't it?” Stengel asked, noting that for years as a Lancaster County judge
he had sent juvenile offenders to such facilities. Stone said it wasn't, but
it was a secure boarding school operating exactly the same as the previous
facility. Stengel asked whether it has locks. Stone said it does, but said
that under state definitions it's not a detention center. She said Cornell
has never had or sought a license for a detention facility in New Morgan and
has never operated one.
November
17, 2006 Reading Eagle
The Texas-based owner of a New Morgan treatment facility for juvenile
offenders has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the borough of interfering
with the facility's plans to reopen. Cornell Cos. Inc., Houston, initially
opened the 214-bed Cornell Abraxas Academy in October 2000, just north of the
Conestoga landfill in New Morgan. The facility closed Oct. 27, 2002,
following a half-dozen escapes and 14 sexual assaults. But it reopened last
month, with 16 beds available to low-level sex offenders. So far, two sex
offenders from Philadelphia are being housed for treatment, officials said.
Antoinette R. Stone, a Philadelphia lawyer representing Cornell Cos., said
the reopening would not affect the lawsuit. The suit requests a court order
to allow the facility to remain open and the borough to pay unspecified
damages. Lawyers representing the borough and its council members have asked
that the case, before U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel, be dismissed.
Stone charged in the suit that the borough interfered with Cornell's efforts
to obtain a state license to reopen. “Instead of contacting Cornell to
discuss concerns, the defendants continue their interference with Cornell's
efforts to reopen,” Stone wrote. “The defendants' unlawful and unjustified
actions constitute a gross and shocking abuse of government authority
undertaken for the purpose of preventing Cornell from resuming operations at
New Morgan as a lawful secure care facility for juvenile offenders.” In July,
the borough amended its ordinance to forbid a secure detention facility from
operating in New Morgan, according to Stone. Stone said in the suit that the
academy is not a detention facility, but a school for juvenile offenders.
Hogan said Cornell has not even applied to the borough for a use and
occupancy permit as required by law. “Cornell has not even taken the first
step, which is to address the zoning issues,” Hogan said.
November
9, 2006 Reading Eagle
The Cornell Abraxas Academy, a former juvenile-detention center in New Morgan
that closed in October 2002, has reopened with two teenage sex offenders from
Philadelphia County. “We're a secure boarding school for low-level
offenders,” Gregory Swatsburg, assistant facility
director, said Wednesday. Plans call for accepting one youth each week until
all 16 beds for which the state currently licenses it are filled, he said.
“These kids have crossed the line but they're not violent or hard-core sex
offenders,” he said. The 14- to 18-year-olds are being enrolled in a
treatment program that can last nine to 12 months, he said. The 214-bed
facility just north of the Conestoga Landfill opened in October 2000 with an
emphasis on treating and educating the state's worst juvenile offenders. The
center shut down after a half-dozen escapes and 14 sexual assaults on
inmates, most committed by staff members.
January
29, 2006 AP
A private-prison firm hopes to regain its license to run a detention center
for serious juvenile offenders in Berks County. The state closed the New
Morgan Academy in 2002, after just two years of operation, because of a
series of escapes, sexual assaults on residents and other problems. The
Cornell Companies, which calls itself the nation's third-largest private
correctional firm, had said as late as December it wanted to reopen the
campus as a boarding school for emotionally troubled youths. But the Houston-based
company has since decided to apply to run a detention center for the most
serious juvenile offenders from around the country. Some local officials are
disturbed by the company's revised plan, which they said was announced
without their input. "All they had been talking about for all these
years seems to have taken a rather dramatic turn," said state Rep.
Samuel E. Rohrer, a Robeson Township Republican.
November
10, 2005 Reading Eagle
A former juvenile-detention center in New Morgan that was closed in 2002
after escapes and abuse of inmates by staff is expected to reopen late next
year as a school for emotionally troubled young people, officials said
Wednesday. Cornell Cos. Inc., Houston, parent company of Cornell-Abraxis, which owns New Morgan Academy, plans to turn the
facility into a day school and boarding school for emotionally troubled
people up to age 21, Cornell officials said. Cornell would retain ownership
of the 214-bed facility on 55 acres just north of the Conestoga Landfill,
according to Chuck McLister, divisional director
for Cornell. McLister said the firm is in
negotiations with the state and hopes to have an operating permit in time to
open in September. New Morgan Academy opened in October 2000 with an emphasis
on treating and educating the state's worst juvenile offenders. Between July
2001 and April 2002, there were 14 substantiated sexual assaults on inmates,
all but one or two committed by staff members, according to the state
Department of Public Welfare. Two escapes also occurred at the facility,
which was closed in October 2002 and put up for sale with a $25 million price
tag. "At the end of the day we couldn't put a package together that met
everyone's needs," said Paul B. Doucette, a Cornell spokesman. "It
is a very expensive asset and it's just sitting there empty, and that is not
a good thing for a business asset to do." Kathy Brill, whose Chestnut
Hill Road home in Caernarvon Township is about a half-mile from the site,
plans to reserve judgment until details are finalized. "If these are
kids who are allowed to walk freely and go home when they want, then that is
one story," Brill said. "If it is more of the same, then obviously
we are going to be upset. "They have demonstrated they can't keep them
in."
March 7,
2003
Berks and several other counties have interest in turning the vacant New
Morgan Academy into a regional facility for prison inmates with special
needs. Those prisoners could include women or perhaps inmates with mental
problems. The center shut down in October following a series of sexual
and physical assaults of juveniles. The site is owned by Cornell
Abraxas, a subsidiary of Cornell Companies Inc., Houston. Sources
estimate the sale price would be at least $20 million. Paul B.
Doucette, director of public affairs for Cornell, said the company would keep
its options open regarding New Morgan Academy. “We are in talks with a
variety of different prospects, some of whom are interested in buying or
leasing it for different purposes,” Doucette said. “We haven't ruled out
anything.” “We'd like to do something with it as soon as possible,” he
said. “Right now it represents a cost to us, and we aren't producing any
revenue.” Kathy J. Brill, who lives on Chestnut Hill Road about a
half-mile from New Morgan Academy, was shocked to hear of the interest being
shown by Berks and other counties. Brill, a longtime critic of the
juvenile center, thought that the academy would be vacant for a number of
years because of its high asking price. “Right now I am sick to my
stomach,” she said after hearing of the county plan. “This is
ridiculous. Put the knife in and turn it one more time.” (Reading
Eagle)
January
24, 2003
Cornell
Companies Inc. (NYSE:CRN - News), which builds and operates prisons, said on
Friday it was exploring all options for a youth center, which was closed last
year. The closure of the facility, New
Morgan Academy, will result in a 25-cent-per-share charge against the
company's 2002 earnings, it said in a statement. (Yahoo finance)
November
3, 2002
Two
years ago, the privately owned New Morgan Academy, combining high security
and intense therapy, opened its doors as Pennsylvania's newest alternative
for handling delinquent teens with mental illness. But last week, the Berks County center
shut down following the Conviction of two staff members on
criminal charges and what one juvenile justice official called "an
unheard of" number of physical and sexual assault allegations over the
past two years. The problem facing the
counties now is the same one that caused them to send teens to New Morgan in
the first place -- a shortage of residential facilities that will accept
teens who run away, are unpredictably violent and sometimes suicidal. State officials say there were 31 separate
substantiated reports of abuse against teen residents during New Morgan
Academy's two years of operation.
Sixteen cases involved sexual abuse, including the assault of a
15-year-old McKeesport girl in June by a staff member. In some cases, the assaults
included sexual intercourse between an adult staff member and a teenage
resident. New Morgan was run by
Cornell Companies of Houston, which operates private prisons and other
facilities around the nation. While
declining to discuss specifics of individual cases, state officials said none
of the 15 acts of physical abuse resulted in broken bones or a resident's
hospitalization. As they relinquished
New Morgan's license, Cornell officials acknowledged there were too many
abuse incidents. "Those are bad
numbers. We're not backing off from that," said Bill Cammarata,
who is director of operations for Cornell's eastern region. When New Morgan opened, it overestimated
how many qualified workers it could find, and underestimated how much
statewide demand there would be for a program like theirs, said Jack Godlesky, Cornell's eastern region vice president. The financial difficulties stemmed from the
state's reluctance to grant Cornell, or any other center, designation as a
secure residential treatment facility -- a locked facility focused on behavioral
health treatment. State officials at the time said such facilities as New
Morgan were too much like jails and not enough like treatment centers to get
the designation. Without the
designation, counties could not seek Medicaid reimbursement to offset the
$260 to $280 per day cost to house each youth. Because of the cost,
Philadelphia -- which at one point accounted for nearly half the 200
residents there -- stopped sending teens to New Morgan in January. But the larger and ultimately unconquerable
problem proved to be filling out its staff with people who would not end up
abusing residents. The staffing
problems persisted, though, despite raising starting salaries "several
times," Godlesky said. (Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette)
September
29, 2002
Two
Western Pennsylvania girls, one from Murrysville and one from McKeesport,
were sexually molested by staff members while living in group homes.
And both say that earlier in their placements, they
were physically hurt in altercations with staff.
Such injuries in group homes are rare,
according to the State Department of Public Welfare
statistics Ronald Davidson, a clinical psychologist who has
investigated 175 homes in a dozen states in the
past eight years for Illinois, says the figure "doesn't pass
the sniff test. That stinks. Right away my BS meter goes into the red
zone. I would recommend that an
outside organization take a very close look at the agency saying
that." |
