|
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."
Adelanto ICE Processing Center,
Adelanto City, California
Adelanto City, California
GEO Group
Apr 2, 2020
courthousenews.com
Private Immigration Prison Must Face
Forced Labor Class Action
SAN DIEGO (CN) – Private detention company
CoreCivic must face a novel employment class action by immigrants held at
its facilities in California and nationwide, a federal judge ruled
Wednesday in certifying forced labor claims against the private prison
operator. U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino found in a 59-page order
that several classes could pursue their class action labor claims against
CoreCivic. Former detainees Sylvester Owino and Jonathan Gomez sued
CoreCivic – formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America – in 2017,
alleging the private prison operator violated federal and state labor laws
by using detainees “to clean, maintain, and operate” the Otay Mesa
Detention Facility in San Diego while paying detainees between $0.75 and
$1.50 a day for their work. The plaintiffs sought to certify five separate
classes. Sammartino certified three of them Wednesday: the California and
National Forced Labor Classes, as well as the California Labor Law Class on
several causes of action including failure to pay minimum wage or provide
wage statements, failure to pay all wages due upon termination and
imposition of unlawful conditions of employment. The certified classes
include immigrant detainees presently held in CoreCivic facilities. Both
the California and National Forced Labor Classes were certified in their
entirety. In doing so, Sammartino rejected CoreCivic’s argument because
both men were detained in California, they could not represent a nationwide
class. “The court concludes that plaintiffs adequately have established
standardized policies concerning the cleaning of common areas under threat
of discipline across defendant’s non-California facilities,” Sammartino
wrote. But the judge dismissed their claims seeking injunctive or
declaratory relief, finding the two men lack standing because they are
unlikely to again suffer future harms since Owino has been out of custody
for four years while Gomez has been out of ICE custody for six years and
neither has been detained or arrested since. Owino’s detention ended March
9, 2015 while Gomez’s detention ended on Sept. 18, 2013. Sammartino also
rejected certifying the Basic Necessities Classes for detainees who worked
at CoreCivic facilities and were only allowed to spend their $1 a day at
the detention facilities’ commissary stores. On the California Labor Law
Class, Sammartino found the former detainees could certify several claims
challenging their alleged misclassification as “volunteers” rather than
employees. As to claims regarding overtime wages, Sammartino found
CoreCivic’s own “standard policies” and handbooks indicate no overtime was
ever paid because “compensation was $1.00 per day.” She also found the
plaintiffs had established CoreCivic employs common “sanitation and
discipline policies” where detainees are required to clean common living
areas under threat of discipline. “There is no indication from the face of
the policies that these tasks are to be performed only by those
participating in the [Voluntary Work Program], and there exists a dispute
of fact based on the declarations submitted by staff of defendant, who
testified that the sanitation policies did not require detainees to clean
up after others,” Sammartino found. Disciplinary guidelines regarding a
detainee’s refusal to clean common areas “can be found in handbooks from
other of defendant’s facilities, both within and outside of California,”
Sammartino noted. Records of when detainees worked – while incomplete –
appear to show the set schedules for various positions held by participants
in Volunteer Work Program, Sammartino pointed out. “This evidence may allow
the trier of fact to determine which participants in the [Volunteer Work
Program] were paid less than the minimum wage—and by how much— based on the
difference between the payment received and the number of hours per shift
for the position,” Sammartino wrote. Attorneys with Foley & Lardner,
representing the class members, did not immediately respond to an email
request for comment. CoreCivic said in a statement its detainees are not
subject to disciplinary action if they choose not to participate in its
Voluntary Work Program. “All of our ICE detention facilities are operated
in full compliance with ICE standards, including federally established
payment of allowances for those detainees who participate in the voluntary
work program,” CoreCivic said. “Detainees are subject to no disciplinary
action whatsoever if they choose not to participate in the work program,
nor are they forced to participate in the work program or perform the labor
reserved for that program. We have worked in close partnership with ICE for
more than 30 years and will continue to provide a safe and humane
environment to those entrusted to our care.” CoreCivic is represented by
Arizona law firm Struck Love.
Mar 20, 2019 sbsun.com
Immigrant
detainees stage hunger strike at Adelanto facility About 100 people aren't
eating, to raise awareness of mistreatment
Immigrant
detainees at the Adelanto Detention Facility, a privately run center that
has been criticized for providing inadequate care, are staging a hunger
strike to bring attention to conditions there. Their demands: adequate
medical care, an end to what they describe as abusive treatment, and access
to edible, nutritious food. The hunger strike began in the facility’s west
wing on Thursday, March 14, when some 150 men refused to go to the
cafeteria, said Lizbeth Abeln, immigrant detention coordinator for the
Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. That led to a brief lockdown, with
detainees kept in their immediate areas and visits with attorneys and
families cancelled. She said some some detainees still were not being
allowed visitors as of March 19. It was unclear how many are still
participating in the hunger strike, but the number is believed to be at
least 100, Abeln said. “They’re trying to highlight the abuses… The
guards at GEO are not respecting their basic human rights,” Abeln said,
referring to GEO Group, Inc., the company that owns and runs the facility.
The immigrant detainees were particularly upset this week because a young
detainee was beaten up by at least one guard and he did not receive
immediate medical treatment, according to Abeln. A spokeswoman for GEO
referred questions to ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agency. Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for ICE, said she could not reply to the
allegation that a teen detainee was injured by a guard without knowing the
names of the people involved. The strike comes on the heels of reports that
blasted the facility for its care – or lack of care – of people who are in
detention while they await for their cases to be processed in immigration
court. (Detention centers like Adelanto’s house people who crossed into the
United States illegally, and others who arrived legally, many of them
seeking asylum. The Adelanto center, which can house up to 2,000 detainees,
has long faced criticism for how it treats its detainees. Last year,
federal investigators found nooses fashioned from bedsheets in some 20
cells. There was at least one suicide, by hanging, in 2017, and five other
deaths, some due to medical neglect, according to the Inland Coalition for
Immigrant Justice. A report released earlier this month by Disability
Rights California, a non-profit legal watchdog group, found that people
running Adelanto under report the number of suicide attempts at the center,
and that detainees are subject to “punitive, prison-like conditions that
harm people with disabilities.” The report also found that Adelanto
detainees get inadequate medical and mental health care, and that guards
have used pepper spray on some mentally ill detainees. Last month,
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra issued a separate report that
also described detainees getting inadequate access to medical care, legal
counsel and family visits at Adelanto and other centers in California that
house immigrant detainees. Adelanto is the largest such privately run
facility in the state. A former detainee, Carlos Hidalgo, 51, of North
Hollywood, said he was being held at Adelanto when he led a hunger strike
there in 2016. The goal at the time, he said, was to raise awareness about
complaints echoed this week – better medical care, better treatment, decent
food. Immigrant detainees in Adelanto were treated like criminals, even
though they are not criminal detainees, and often didn’t receive prompt medical
treatment, he said. The food, he added, was sometimes beyond gross: “They
gave us ground turkey but we found it infected with maggots.” The outcome
of that three-day hunger strike? Officials locked down the facility and he
was transferred to the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange County, he said.
Hidalgo doesn’t expect much will come out of the current hunger strike
either, except raising awareness. “It ain’t going to get very far. But it’s
a good way to call attention to the situation that everyone turns a blind
eye to.”
Mar 6, 2019 sbsun.com
A nonprofit slams the Adelanto Detention Facility as posing harm to
people with mental health issues and other disabilities.
A Nigerian man held last year at Adelanto Detention Center in San
Bernardino was pepper sprayed twice while in custody – once because he
wouldn’t stand up, and a second time as he attempted to hang himself in his
cell. “If I say I am going to hurt myself, why pepper spray me?” said the
man identified only as Ugo. “Why not try to help me?” His story was part of
a report on the treatment of mentally ill detainees at the Adelanto
facility issued Tuesday by Disability Rights California, a non-profit that
serves as a legal watchdog to protect the rights of people with
disabilities. The 64-page report, “There is no safety here,” is one of a
several recent investigations that have found problems at the Adelanto
Detention Center and other California facilities that hold migrant
detainees. Last month, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra issued a report
that found immigrant detainees – people who typically are held for civil,
not criminal actions – are treated like prisoners, kept in their cells up
to 22 hours a day, and offered inadequate access to medical care and legal
counsel. Other reports, from different groups, have cited the facilities
for failing to provide adequate services. At least one report last year
noted that at Adelanto, which can hold nearly 2,000 people at any one time,
investigators found nooses made by detainees in as many as 20 cells. The
year-long investigation from Disability Rights California includes these
findings: GEO Group Inc., a private contractor that owns and operates the
Adelanto facility, significantly underreports data on the number of suicide
attempts at the facility, using a definition that is too narrow: “serious
self-harm intended to cause death.” Whereas the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention defines it as “a non-fatal self-directed potentially
injurious behavior” with an intent to die. Adelanto detainees are subjected
to “punitive, prison-like conditions that harm people with
disabilities” that may be violating their constitutional rights. The
San Bernardino County facility has an inadequate mental care and medical
care system, which turns to harsh institutional responses, like
solitary-type confinement, to people facing psychiatric crisis instead of
endorsing therapeutic measures. A spokesperson for the Sacramento-based
public relations firm Stutzman Public Affairs, which represents the GEO
Group, said Tuesday that their client already has addressed concerns in the
report. “While we always appreciate the opportunity to improve processes
and procedures, we strongly dispute the claim that suicide attempts were
underreported,” the spokesperson said in an e-mail. “Furthermore, many of
the recommendations outlined in the report were already in place… In all of
the facilities that we manage on behalf of the federal government, we are
deeply committed to delivering high-quality, culturally responsive services
in safe and humane environments.” Those who find themselves in immigration
detention facilities like Adelanto, which can hold nearly 2,000 people, are
somewhere in the immigration process, either awaiting deportation or a
court hearing. Some crossed into the United States illegally. Some
came into the country legally, seeking asylum. They are considered
civil detainees, not criminal inmates. The report said few detainees, even
from third-world countries, are prepared for the conditions they encounter in
the facilities, many of which, like Adelanto, are privately run. “The
punitive, prison-like conditions disproportionately harm people with mental
illness and disabilities.” Since Donald Trump became president, the number
of immigrants detained has increased. And a growing number of those
detainees are asylum seekers, who say they are fleeing violence and
persecution in their homelands: 27 percent of Adelanto’s population was
seeking asylum, according to the report. Among recent detainees there is
growing population of people with mental health needs and disabilities, a
category of asylum seeker that under previous administrations was a lower
priority for detention. The report said that includes detainees like Sofia,
an asylum seeker from Russia who was detained at Adelanto with her husband
in 2017. Visits with her husband were rare, and her requests to speak
with him, or send him a letter, typically were denied, she told Disability
Rights California officials. Although Sofia told investigators she previously
had no history of suicidal thoughts before detention, after four and a half
months at Adelanto she tried to kill herself. “I was tired of being here,
of being detained,” she said. “It was just too stressful.” Meanwhile, her
husband, Aleksei, said he too became so distraught that he also attempted
suicide. But after stints in a suicide watch cell, which he told
investigators were like “torture,” he told the medical staff that
“everything is fine” because he didn’t want to go back there. U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported one suicide attempt in 2016,
three in 2017 and none in 2018, according to the report. But the
nonprofit, “without conducting anything close to a comprehensive review of
all detainees,” found more. There was at least one suicide, by hanging, in
2017, and five other deaths, some due to medical neglect, according to the
Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. The report also found that
detainees at Adelanto who show signs of mental illness, or request such
services, have only “brief” contacts with mental health experts, and that
the treatments they do receive are not individualized. The report added
that individual and group counseling is nearly non-existent, and there is
little opportunity for detainees to engage in activities like reading.
Mario Perez, who lives in San Bernardino County and has lived in the United
States since he was 5, said he experienced some of the issues reflected in
the report. Perez, 31, was at the Adelanto facility for six months last
year, picked up at his home by immigration agents while he was under house
arrest following a conviction for driving under the influence. At the time,
Perez was taking medication for depression. But he went the first week at
Adelanto without his medication, even though he asked for it
repeatedly. Visits with a psychologist and a psychiatrist ran about 5
to 10 minutes each time, once a month. “I was able to advocate for myself,”
said Perez, who now works for the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice,
assisting people who leave the Adelanto facility. “But if you are not
bilingual, and can’t speak up for yourself, that’s a whole different
issue.” While he didn’t see any nooses mentioned in other reports about
Adelanto, Perez said he heard other detainees and inmates talk often about wanting
to throw themselves down the stairs or jump off a second floor inside the
building. “They would comment: ‘I can’t do do this anymore. I can’t be here
for another day.’”
Feb 3, 2019
vvdailypress.com
NPR sues Adelanto over public records access
ADELANTO — In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, National Public Radio alleged
the city failed to obey the state’s public records law. The suit alleges
the city unlawfully denied NPR reporter Tom Dreisbach access to public
records he sought regarding living conditions at the Adelanto Detention
Center. The lawsuit asks the court to order the city to release the
records. In 2010, Geo Group, one of the two largest private prison
corporations in the United States, purchased the prison located on Rancho
Road from the city for $28 million. It expanded in 2012 and today reigns as
the largest immigration detention center in California. Since 2011, the
city has acted as a pass-through agency in an agreement that allows U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold immigration detainees at the
facility. ICE pays Adelanto for the service, then the city pays GEO Group.
The city collects administrative fees for its part. According to the
lawsuit, Dreisbach requested public records from ICE in August 2018. He
sought information about “emergency grievances” made by detainees, along
with the staff’s responses, plus information on the use of force, including
audio and visual records. ICE denied his requests, telling Dreisbach to
contact the detention center directly. In September 2018, Dreisbach asked
for records from Adelanto, the operator of the detention center listed in
the agreement. The request was made under the California Public Records
Act. On Jan. 1, 2018 the Dignity Not Detention Act became law. It demands
any facility detaining “a noncitizen pursuant to a contract with a city,
county, city and county, or a local law enforcement agency is subject to
the California Public Records Act.” The lawsuit argues this law guarantees
Dreisbach access to the records he requested. The city denied Dreisbach’s
request, saying it did not possess “public records responsive to the
request” because it did not have “actual and constructive possession” of
the records, according to the lawsuit. The law firm representing the city
acknowledged NPR was entitled to records under the California Public
Records Act, but from Geo Group, not the city. In the lawsuit, NPR contends
Geo Group possesses the records, and under the agreement between the
parties, the city has “unfettered access to the records of the detention
facility.” The agreement also requires the city to accurately maintain
those records, the lawsuit said. Dreisbach then requested the records
directly from Geo Group, which denied his requests and directed him back to
ICE. “The contracts between ICE, GEO, and the city all permit the city
access to any and all documents related to detainee custody and care,” the
lawsuit said. “The city therefore has, at a minimum, an interest in and
constructive possession of the records sought by NPR.” Adelanto City
Manager Jessie Flores told the Daily Press that “the City previously
provided all documents in its possession in response to a Public Records
Act request received from NPR. The City received the Writ yesterday and the
City Attorney’s office is reviewing it and will be responding.” In a
statement emailed to the Daily Press, Geo Group contended that it is
“obligated to follow contractual requirements, which provide that
information related to the operation of ICE Processing Centers is under the
control of the agency. The public disclosure of this information is
governed by those contractual requirements and applicable federal laws and
regulations. Accordingly, GEO has referred to ICE requests for information
that is under control of the agency.” Lori K. Haley, a U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement spokeswoman, said she is unable to comment on lawsuits.
Dec 24, 2018 newsweek.com
ICE BLOCKS IMMIGRANTS FROM LAWYERS WITH DRACONIAN PHONE RULES IN
CALIFORNIA, ACLU SAYS
An immigration detention center in California has effectively worked to
keep immigrants from contacting lawyers through phone rules, a lawsuit
alleged last week. Advocate groups have said calls for those detained in
the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center
calls are prohibitively expensive. And if a detainee is able to scrounge
together money for call, then they calls are recorded and it is required
that someone answer the phone nearly immediately—voicemails are not an
option. "Legal representation is fundamental to ensuring due process
for immigrants facing removal, but when our detained clients can't
effectively communicate with us, our abilities to be effective advocates
are compromised," said Meeth Soni, co-legal director at the Immigrant
Defenders Law Center, in a statement released by the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California. The lawsuit detailed allegations of how
difficult it can be for a detained immigrant to reach a lawyer. The suit
alleges that an asylum-seeker named Desmond Tenghe has not been allowed to
access funds he brought with and previous earnings from a different
detention center were not transferred to Adelanto. Making just $1 per day
working at Adelanto and denied free calls, the suit alleges, Tenghe has to
spend a week's earnings to make a call and has to hope he reaches a person
immediately. It took him two months to get ahold of his sponsor in
Maryland, the suit alleges. "Over the course of weeks, Plaintiff
Tenghe tried to call at least seven different legal organizations,
including Catholic Charities, El Rescate, and others. Due to Defendants’
“positive acceptance” requirement for telephone calls, the telephone calls
have either disconnected after ringing once or twice or continued to ring
without answer. Plaintiff Tenghe has also attempted to call Catholic
Charities to obtain documents about current country conditions in his
country of origin, but those telephone calls also have not connected
because of Defendants’ “positive acceptance” requirement." The GEO Group,
a large contractor for ICE that runs the Adelanto facility, told the Miami
New Times they are simply following procedures. "As a services
provider to ICE, GEO plays no role in establishing immigration law and we
comply with the performance-based standards set by the government," a
spokesperson told the outlet. "We would refer specific questions about
these policies [be addressed] to ICE." The lawsuit from the ACLU of
Southern California and the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Stanford Law
School further alleges that phone call recording policies at detention
centers hinders conversations about legal strategies and that there are
just 10 private meeting spaces at Adelanto for nearly 2,000 detainees.
"The U.S. government has placed arbitrary barriers between immigrant
detainees and their lawyers which must be eliminated if justice is to be
served," said Ben Johnson, executive director of the American
Immigration Lawyers Association, in the ACLU press release.
Oct 10, 2018 dailycaller.com
PRIVATE IMMIGRATION DETENTION CENTER SAYS IT HAS
ALREADY FIXED PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED IN WATCHDOG REPORT
GEO Group, the operator of an immigration detention
center in California, says it moved to address problems identified in a
surprise government inspection well before they were detailed in a report
released in early October. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of
Inspector General found several deficiencies in its May inspection of the
Adelanto ICE Processing Center, including inadequate medical care and
improper use of restricted housing. In a letter to ICE officials,
Adelanto’s warden said the facility took action as soon as the problems
were noted and had corrected the issues by early September. A privately
owned immigration detention center in California says it had fixed problems
identified in a surprise government inspection by early September, nearly a
month before the results of the inspection were released to the public.
Inspectors with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector
General (DHS-OIG) conducted an unannounced inspection of the Adelanto ICE
Processing Center in May. The OIG’s findings, which included allegations of
inadequate medical care and inappropriate use of solitary confinement, were
published Oct. 2 in a memo that sparked outrage among immigration activists
and civil rights groups. (RELATED: Watchdog Finds Hanging ‘Nooses,’ Lack Of
Medical Care At ICE Detention Facility). But GEO Group, the owner and operator of the Adelanto center, disputed
some of the problems noted by OIG auditors and said it took corrective
action on others as soon as they were identified. “We take the findings
outlined by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector
General (OIG) regarding the Adelanto ICE Processing Center very seriously,”
company spokesman Pablo Paez said in a statement. “While we believe that a
number of the findings lacked appropriate context or were based on
incomplete information, we have already taken steps to remedy areas where
our processes fell short of our commitment to high-quality care.” GEO
Group, one of the country’s largest operators of private prisons and
immigration detention centers, bought the Adelanto facility in 2010 and
began housing ICE detainees there the following year. Today, Adelanto
houses about 1,700 detainees, making it the largest immigration detention
facility in California. DHS-OIG’s surprise inspection of the facility
turned up three issues the watchdog said were “significant threats” to
detainee health and safety. Inspectors discovered braided bed sheets —
referred to as “nooses” by staff — hanging in several inmates’ cells, even
though detainees had previously used similar sheets in suicide attempts.
Additionally, inspectors determined that detainees were being prematurely
placed in disciplinary segregation before they were found guilty of a rule
violation and were not given “timely and adequate” medical care — both
violations of ICE national detention standards. In some cases, detainees
had to wait years for basic dental care, leading to tooth loss and “unnecessary
extractions,” the OIG report stated. Adelanto managers took steps to
correct the problems immediately after the inspection, according to a
letter from warden James Janecka to ICE officials obtained by The Daily
Caller News Foundation. In the letter dated Sept. 6, Janecka noted that
detainees often used the braided bed sheets as privacy barriers between
cell beds and toilets, but added that he had instructed staff to remove
“any improvised curtains or any other visual obstructions.” With respect to
the improper use of disciplinary segregation at Adelanto, Janecka conceded
that detainees had been placed in the center’s restricted housing section
while their cases were still in pending status. He said the mistakes were
the result of delays in putting disciplinary records into detainees’ files,
leading to confusion about whether inmates met the threshold for restricted
housing. Under a corrective action plan implemented in May, “timelines will
be met, and each detainee’s status in the disciplinary process will be
readily discernible,” Janecka wrote. As for concerns about inadequate
medical and dental care, GEO Group says it is conducting a review with its
medical services subcontractor “to ensure all medical and dental care is
provided at the highest quality and in a timely manner, and to hold
accountable those who are not meeting these expectations.”As of Sept. 6,
there was no longer a backlog for dental cleaning at Adelanto, Janecka
said.
Oct
3, 2018 latimes.com
Nooses in cells, rotting teeth — report details harsh conditions at
Adelanto immigration facility
A Nicaraguan man who was detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center
died in March 2017 after he was found hanging in his cell from his
bedsheets. Not long after, two other detainees also used sheets in an
attempt to hang themselves. When federal officials arrived in May of this
year for a surprise inspection of the privately run immigration detention
facility, they found nooses made from bedsheets in 15 of 20 cells. “When we
asked two contract guards who oversaw the housing units why they did not
remove the bedsheets, they echoed it was not a high priority,” officials
with the Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s office wrote
in a scathing report made public Tuesday detailing dangerous conditions
found at the facility during their unannounced visit. The nooses are just
one of many problems posing “significant health and safety risks”
identified by federal inspectors at Adelanto, which can house nearly 2,000
detainees as they await the outcome of their immigration cases Detainees
reported waiting “weeks and months” to see a doctor, and inspectors met
with a dentist who dismissed the necessity of fillings, and suggested that
detainees use string from their socks to floss, the report said. Inspectors
also said they found that detainees were commonly subjected to disciplinary
segregation before being found guilty of violating rules. The report is the
latest from government inspectors to document significant deficiencies at
Adelanto since it opened in 2011. It comes one year after immigrant
advocates raised alarms about conditions at the facility following the
deaths of three detainees in a three-month period in 2017. The Times
reported in August 2017 that there had been at least five attempted
suicides at the facility in less than one year, according to a review of
911 calls. Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, said in a statement that immigration officials take the
findings seriously and have “agreed to conduct a full and immediate review
of the center to ensure compliance with detention standards and expedite
necessary corrective actions.” Tens of thousands of ICE detainees have
passed through the Adelanto facility since it opened seven years ago. It is
owned and operated by the GEO Group, which runs dozens of private prisons
and detention centers around the country. Among those held in the facility
are asylum seekers, people caught in immigration sweeps and those
identified by authorities as potentially deportable after landing in jail.
Some detainees arrive at the facility soon after crossing the border;
others after having lived in the U.S. for decades. They can stay in
detention for months, and in some cases years, as their cases are decided.
Pablo Paez, a spokesman for GEO Group, referred questions about the
inspector general's report to ICE. According to the report, in the months
after Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez-Gadba, 32, of Nicaragua was found hanging
from bedsheets in his cell and later died, ICE compliance reports
documented at least three suicide attempts by hanging at Adelanto, two of
which specifically used bedsheets. Still, when inspectors visited the
facility, they found braided sheets that both staff and detainees referred
to as nooses hanging from the vents in 15 of the approximately 20 male
detainee cells that they visited in four housing units. The guard who
escorted the inspectors began removing the nooses but stopped after
realizing how many there were, the report says. Some detainees said they use
the unfurled sheets for privacy, while others said they used them as
clotheslines. One detainee, however, told inspectors that he had seen “a
few attempted suicides using the braided sheets by the vents.” “The guards
laugh at them and call them ‘suicide failures’ once they are back from
medical,” the detainee told officials. Inspectors also found during their
visit that all 14 detainees who were in disciplinary segregation at the
time were put there before being found guilty of a prohibited act or rule violation.
And though ICE standards require face-to-face medical assessments of all
detainees in segregation at least once a day, inspectors observed two
doctors in the unit stamping their name on detainee records outside their
cells “without having any contact with 10 of the 14 detainees in
disciplinary segregation." The report also notes that some detainees
reported waiting “weeks and months” to see a doctor and said that
appointments were canceled without explanation, with detainees placed back
on the waiting list. From November 2017 to April 2018, detainees filed 80
medical grievances with the facility for not receiving urgent care, not
being seen for months for persistent health conditions and not receiving
prescribed medication, according to the report. Inspectors also highlighted
serious problems with dental care at the facility, saying detainees are
placed on wait lists for months and, sometimes, years to receive basic
care, “resulting in tooth loss and unnecessary extractions in some cases.”
No detainees have received fillings in the last four years, according to
the report. One detainee reported multiple teeth falling out while waiting
more than two years for cavities to be filled. One dentist at the facility
told inspectors he did not have time to complete cleanings or fillings,
according to the report. “The dentist dismissed the necessity of fillings
if patients commit to brushing and flossing,” the report states. “Floss is
only available through detainee commissary accounts, but the dentist suggested
detainees could use string from their socks to floss if they were dedicated
to dental hygiene.” This is not the first time government inspectors have
noted problems — often related to medical care — at the Adelanto facility.
An annual review in November 2011 found that "medical officials were
not conducting detainee health appraisals within 14 days of arrival,” and
nurses were performing health assessments without proper training or
certification. A 2012 report by ICE's Office of Detention Oversight found
that many requests for medical care were delayed. That report also said the
death of detainee Fernando Dominguez Valdivia in March of that year
followed "egregious errors" by medical staff and that a review
found it could have been prevented. A report on the 2015 death of Raul
Ernesto Morales-Ramos, also prepared by the Office of Detention Oversight,
said Adelanto failed to provide Morales-Ramos with timely and comprehensive
medical care, among other lapses. More recently, the Office of Detention
Oversight’s review of Gonzalez-Gadba’s 2017 suicide also faulted Adelanto
for failing to meet national standards. That report said that in the days
before his death, Gonzalez-Gadba reported he had been sexually assaulted at
Adelanto, but medical staff did not conduct a medical assessment in
response to that allegation. It also said that guards failed to check on
Gonzalez-Gadba, who was being held in segregated housing, at least every 30
minutes, as required. He was found hanging in his cell 37 minutes after an
officer’s last logged security round, according to the review. In its
report, the inspector general’s office also noted the medical care
deficiencies that were found at Adelanto following the deaths of detainees
and urged immigration officials to fix the problems. "ICE must take
these continuing violations seriously and address them immediately,"
the report says. Haley, the ICE spokeswoman, said a contracted inspection
firm is scheduled to inspect Adelanto again this month. "Comprehensive
medical care is provided from the moment detainees arrive and throughout
the entirety of their stay," she said. Speaking about the nooses, she
said "ICE recognizes that this can present a dangerous safety
vulnerability and will intensify efforts to address this issue."
Jul 15, 2017 vvdailypress.com
Adelanto Detention Facility barred from expanding for another decade
ADELANTO — The Adelanto Detention Facility will be barred from
expansion for the next decade, thanks to a recent moratorium passed by
state legislators. California’s budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year, which
began July 1, included an action that targets the federal immigration
crackdown by requiring that the state attorney general review each county,
local or private detention facility where noncitizens are being held. The
action also blocks counties and municipalities from signing new contracts
or expanding existing contracts to detain immigrants, according to a report
from the Associated Press. “The bill isn’t shutting down any centers, but
it is preventing the Trump administration from expanding and entrenching
immigration detention centers further,” Community Initiatives for Visiting
Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) co-founder/co-executive director
Christina Fialho said. The Adelanto Detention Facility, privately operated
by the GEO group, contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) to house federal immigration detainees. According to Fialho, the new
bill bars city officials from modifying their contract with ICE and the GEO
group to expand the detention facility for 10 years. The bill also earmarks
$1 million a year for the Attorney General’s office to monitor immigration
detention centers in the state, the first law in the country that gives a
state agency the power to monitor federal immigration facilities, Fialho
said. “Basically, it’s going to ensure that people in immigration detention
are treated humanely,” Fialho said. CIVIC and other advocacy groups have
regularly called upon ICE and GEO officials to make changes at the
facility, citing detainee deaths and poor conditions, according to a
previous Daily Press report. While ICE officials declined to directly
comment on the bill and CIVIC’s statement, they explained that the agency
uses a variety of facilities — including federal, state, local and
contractor-owned facilities — across the country to house detainees in an
effort to curb costs. The new bill would hinder these efforts while failing
to curb immigration detention, they suggested. “Placing limitations on
ICE’s detention options here in California won’t prevent the agency from
detaining immigration violators,” ICE officials said in a statement. “It
will simply mean ICE will have to transfer individuals encountered in
California to detention facilities outside the state, at a greater distance
from their family, friends, and legal representatives.” ICE officials said
the agency seeks to house detainees within the geographical area of their
arrest “whenever possible” to reduce the need for transfers to other
facilities. This, in turn, leads to lower costs and shorter stays for
detainees in ICE custody, they said.
Jul 6, 2017 kqed.org/news
Hunger Strike at California’s Biggest Immigration Detention Center
Activists say that more than 30 people began a hunger strike at the
Adelanto Detention Facility on Tuesday, seeking better medical care and
release pending their immigration court dates. In the last five years, six
people have died while being detained — three of them since March 27 — at
the San Bernardino County facility, the largest immigration detention
center in California. It can hold about 1,900 detainees and was almost at
capacity in March, according to data from Immigration and Customs
Enforcement. Detainees say this is the fourth hunger strike they’ve
conducted at the facility since June 12. During breakfast that morning nine
men, mostly asylum-seekers from El Salvador, linked arms and refused to
return to their cells until they could speak to guards about their
concerns. Guards used pepper spray and physically removed the men to solitary
cells, according to Tristan Call, a spokesman for the detainees, and ICE
spokeswoman Virginia Kice. Then they began the hunger strike. “We are not
anyone’s toys,” said Isaac Lopez Castillo, a 27-year-old from El Salvador,
in a Facebook video about the strike. The men filed a complaint with the
Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil
Liberties alleging that they were beaten and denied medical care and access
to their attorneys. GEO Group, the private prison company that owns and
operates the facility, is investigating the incident, and ICE officials
will review that probe, according to Kice. “The claim the men involved in
this disturbance were beaten is a gross and regrettable exaggeration,”
wrote Kice in an email. On June 14, a group of nearly 30 women refused to
eat for about 24 hours — asking for medical care, “basic respect” from jail
guards, lower bond rates and to be reunited with their families. Call said
that they ended the strike after many of the women received medical care on
June 15. Then, on June 22, eight of the same men from the June 12 action
began a new hunger strike, after one was deported. Call said that detainees
throughout the facility have refused food periodically since they began
striking on June 12. Kice says that the agency will implement hunger strike
protocols, including medical supervision, if detainees refuse food for more
than 72 hours. While the city of Adelanto holds the contract with ICE to
detain immigrants in the facility, the city also has a contract with GEO
Group to run it. Early last year, GEO Group stopped providing its own
medical care and subcontracted with Correct Care Solutions, keeping on many
of the same staff. ICE’s own
investigators found problems at the facility, including health care delays,
poor record keeping and failures to properly report sexual assaults. In a
federal investigation into one of the California deaths, inspectors noted
that the person who died had waited more than a year to see a specialist,
that the high turnover of medical staff led to inadequate care and that a
dearth of laboratory services led to delays in treatment. Independent
medical experts for Human Rights Watch analyzing ICE’s investigation found
that the man probably suffered from symptoms of cancer for two years. Detainees are also requesting to be released on their own recognizance,
on bond or to receive a monitoring device. Immigrant detainees, including
asylum-seekers, can wait weeks, months and even years for their day in
immigration court. There are currently 326 immigration judges nationwide —
and they’re handling nearly 600,000 pending cases, according to the
Department of Justice and data from Syracuse University’s TRAC research
center. Even if the immigration courts didn’t accept a single additional
case, it would take longer than two years to go through the backlog,
according to TRAC. Both ICE and immigration judges can release people. ICE
officers make an initial determination about whether people should be
detained while their immigration cases are pending. “ICE makes such
determinations on an individual basis taking into account all facets of the
person’s situation, including the individual’s immigration history and
criminal record, if applicable. Likewise, the agency also considers an alien’s
family ties, any humanitarian issues that may be involved, and whether the
person is a potential flight risk,” wrote Kice. Detainees who have been
convicted of criminal activity are mandatorily held in detention.
Currently, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to rehear a case that could
require immigration courts to conduct bond hearings every six months. The
named plaintiff in the case, Alejandro Rodriguez, spent three years in ICE
detention without a hearing for his release. Court records analyzed by TRAC
showed that at least half — and in some years upward of two-thirds — of
people are held in ICE detention while the DHS begins court proceedings to
deport them. The median immigration bond was set at $8,000 in fiscal year
2016. About one in five people granted bond stayed in detention, presumably
because they can’t afford it. In a statement during the first hunger
strike, the men wrote that they cannot afford bail: “We are from El
Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. We ask for your attention, because
Adelanto is one of the prisons which exists for those who are seeking
political asylum, and in reality our records are clean, none of us have
prior criminal records. The bail is set impossibly high, and it’s a
humiliating joke because we are poor, we don’t have that kind of money.”
Jun 13, 2017 motherjones.com
Refugees In a Troubled Private Detention Center Are On Hunger Strike
Update (06/12/17, 10:15PM): On Monday morning, guards at the Adelanto Detention
Facility allegedly attacked nine detainees, all members of a refugee
caravan which arrived at the US-Mexico border in May. On Monday morning,
according to two of the caravan organizers, Tristan Call and Alex Mensing,
the group delivered a letter of grievances to prison officials and demanded
a meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). At that point,
say Call and Mensing, who spoke with the refugees after the incident,
guards allegedly beat the men, “drenched” them in pepper spray, handcuffed
them, and placed them in restrictive housing. It was then, ICE claims, that
members of the caravan announced their hunger strike. “They described their
shirts as literally being soaked with [pepper spray] and were forced to
shower in hot water,” which intensifies the pain, says Mensing. “They also
beat them and bashed them against a wall, knocking a dental crown out of
one of the guy’s mouth.” Call adds, “They said the other prisoners shouted
for the guards to stop but weren’t able to do anything.” In a statement
e-mailed to Mother Jones this evening, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said,
“Monday morning nine detainees refused to return to their assigned beds for
the morning count, locked arms, and defied commands to submit to mechanical
restraints. After repeated efforts to avoid confrontation, a supervisory
officer used a one-second burst of pepper spray to subdue the detainees,
who immediately complied and submitted to mechanical restraints. No
officers or detainees were injured.” The facility’s staff has now begun
monitoring the strikers’ food intake. Today, members of a refugee caravan
who are seeking asylum in the United States began a hunger strike at the
Adelanto Detention Facility in Southern California. “We will not eat until
the government responds to our demands and agrees to negotiate,” said Isaac
Lopez Castillo, a 27-year-old from El Salvador who is one of the nine
refugees participating in the hunger strike, in a statement. They are
asking for better food, access to clean water 24 hours a day, and quality
medical care. “None of us have prior criminal records,” they note. Though
the hunger strike reportedly began today at 5:30 in the morning, after
speaking with Adelanto Detention Facility staff, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) spokeswoman Virginia Kice stated that “there are no
detainees at that center who are on a hunger strike.” The members of the
caravan, which arrived at the US-Mexico border in May, are from Guatemala,
Honduras, and El Salvador. They fled their home countries after being
targeted by violent criminal organizations, according to Tristan Call, an
organizer with the Nashville-based immigrant rights group Sureñxs En
Acción. “Most of them have had one or more family members murdered. A lot
of them have had direct physical attacks that they survived themselves, and
they’ve had extensive death threats,” says Call, who accompanied the
caravan in Mexico and is speaking on behalf of the hunger strikers. Under
US and international law, border agents must admit asylum seekers to
evaluate whether they have “credible fear” of returning to their home
country. According to Call, at least seven of the nine hunger strikers have
undergone and passed their “credible fear” interviews, a major hurdle
before they may pursue their asylum cases outside of detention. Yet the
caravan members argue that they are being treated with “humiliation and
discrimination” at Adelanto. In addition to demanding better food and clean
water, they want new uniforms—specifically, underwear that hasn’t been used
by other detainees. The hunger strikers are complaining about unreasonable
bond amounts, which they say have been set at “impossibly high levels.” At
least one detainee’s bail was set at $20,000, says Call. “If you set a
$20,000 bond, and you’re a refugee from El Salvador coming with nothing,
there is zero chance you will be able to do that. It’s essentially similar
to the kind of extortion they were experiencing from the gangs they just
fled from: You flee for your life from a place where you’re being extorted
for tens of thousands of dollars that you can’t pay, and then you have a
similar experience with the US government.” The detainees are also asking
for better access to quality medical care at Adelanto, which is operated by
the GEO Group, the country’s largest private prison company. So far three
immigrants have died at the facility this year. In a July 2015 letter to
ICE and federal inspectors, 29 members of Congress requested an
investigation into health and safety concerns at the facility, writing that
“egregious” medical errors had caused a 2012 death there. Four months after
the letter was sent, 400 detainees began a hunger strike.
Jun 3, 2017
motherjones.com
In 3 Months, 3 Immigrants Have Died at a Private Detention Center in
California
A Honduran immigrant held at a troubled detention center in
California's high desert died Wednesday night while in the custody of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Vincente Caceres-Maradiaga, 46,
was receiving treatment for multiple medical conditions while waiting for
an immigration court to decide whether to deport him, according an ICE
statement. He collapsed as he was playing soccer at the detention facility
and died while en route to a local hospital. Caceres-Maradiaga's death is
the latest in a string of fatalities among detainees held at the Adelanto
Detention Facility, which is operated by the GEO Group, the country's
largest private prison company. Three people held at the facility have died
in the last three months, including Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez-Gadba, a
32-year-old Nicaraguan found hanging in his cell on March 22, and Sergio
Alonso Lopez, a Mexican man who died of internal bleeding on April 13 after
spending more than two months in custody. Since it opened in 2011, Adelanto
has faced accusations of insufficient medical care and poor conditions. In
July 2015, 29 members of Congress sent a letter to ICE and federal
inspectors requesting an investigation into health and safety concerns at
the facility. They cited the 2012 death of Fernando Dominguez at the
facility, saying it was the result of "egregious errors" by the
center's medical staff, who did not give him proper medical examinations or
allow him to receive timely off-site treatment. In November 2015, 400
detainees began a hunger strike, demanding better medical and dental care
along with other reforms. The federal government guarantees GEO that a
minimum of 975 immigrants will be held at the facility and pays $111 per
detainee per day. Yet last year, the city of Adelanto, acting as a middleman
between ICE and GEO, made a deal to extend the company's contract until
2021. The federal government guarantees GEO that a minimum of 975
immigrants will be held at the facility and pays $111 per detainee per day,
according to California state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), who has
fought to curtail private immigration detention. After that point, ICE only
has to pay $50 per detainee per day—an incentive to fill more beds. Of
California's four privately run immigration detention centers, three use
local governments as intermediaries between ICE and private prison
companies. On Tuesday, the California senate voted 26-13 to ban such
contracts, supporting a bill that could potentially close Adelanto when its
contract runs out in 2021. The Dignity Not Detention Act, authored by Lara,
would prevent local governments from signing or extending contracts with
private prison companies to detain immigrants starting in 2019. The bill
would also require all in-state facilities that hold ICE detainees, including
both private detention centers and public jails, to meet national standards
for detention conditions—empowering state prosecutors to hold detention
center operators accountable for poor conditions inside their facilities.
An identical bill passed last year but was vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
"I have been troubled by recent reports detailing unsatisfactory
conditions and limited access to counsel in private immigration detention
facilities," Brown wrote in his veto message last September. But he
deferred to the Department of Homeland Security, which was then reviewing
its use of for-profit immigration detention. In that review, the Homeland
Security Advisory Council rejected the ongoing use of private prison
companies to detain immigrants, citing the "inferiority of the private
prison model." Yet since President Donald Trump took office, the
federal government has moved to expand private immigration detention,
signing a $110 million deal with GEO in April to build the first new
immigration detention center under Trump. Nine people have died in ICE
custody in fiscal year 2017, which began October 1. Meanwhile, private
prison stocks have nearly doubled in value since Election Day.
Apr 13, 2016
scpr.org
California state measure calls for end to profit-making immigrant
detention contracts
A new state bill aims to stop California cities and counties from
contracting with private prison companies that detain immigrants, but the
effort is generating pushback from one locality. The high-desert prison
town of Adelanto, a city of roughly 32,000, is home to two jails and one
immigrant detention center. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
contracts with Adelanto for detention space for up to 1,455 immigrants at
$112.50 per detainee, per day. The city, in turn, contracts with The GEO
Group, a private company that runs both the Adelanto Detention Facility and
one of the city’s jails. Adelanto officials sold the building that houses
the detention center, a former state prison, to GEO in 2010. But the city
holds the contract for its operation, and receives a cut of the amount ICE
pays for the service. With the Adelanto facility's daily population
averaging roughly 1,200 and based on the per-diem rate, ICE pays up to
about $4 million a month — and more if the detention center is filled to
its 1,940-detainee capacity. But a bill sponsored by state Sen. Ricardo
Lara (D-Bell Gardens) could put an end to Adelanto's immigrant detention
contract. "For far too long, our immigration system has promoted
profits over people," Lara told KPCC. "The goal is to prohibit
these for-profit companies from profiting off the backs of
immigrants." Cities like Adelanto depend on detention space revenue.
In Adelanto, which nearly went bankrupt last year, City Council member John
“Bug” Woodard, a self-described Tea Party Republican, said the GEO
contracts are vital to the city's economy. "I think a good 25 percent
of our income comes from those jailhouses," Woodard said. "GEO is
an important part of this community, and any idiot up in Sacramento that
would like us not to do business with them, they’ve got their heads where
the sun don’t shine." Adelanto has been fighting to stave off
bankruptcy in recent years. Last year, Woodard championed a new revenue
source — an ordinance that allows medical marijuana cultivation in the
city. Proponents of Lara's detention bill say it would affect four local
governments in California that work with private detention contractors,
Adelanto included. The bill would only bar local governments from working
with for-profit detention contractors; it would not prohibit them from
contracting detention space directly to ICE, as does the Orange County
Sheriff's Department, for example. Immigration authorities have
increasingly relied on private contractors and local governments for space
to house immigrants awaiting or fighting deportation since the early 2000s,
when the detainee population exploded as a result of tighter immigration
policies. While its scope seems limited, the bill would affect many more
local-government contracts in other ways: a provision of the bill would
make it mandatory for all immigrant detention facilities in California to
comply with federal standards guidelines that are now optional. "Even
if immigrants are in public holding facilities, like say with the sheriff
or a local police station, these rules would have to be adhered to,
regardless of whether they are private or public," Lara said. The bill
would also make it easier for immigrants to sue these detention facilities
if they believe their rights are violated. The threat of lawsuits worries
the California State Sheriffs' Association, which opposes the proposal. So
does the possibility of ICE having to move detainees from private-contract
facilities affected by the bill to those that rent space directly to ICE,
as many local jails do. "Some of that workload could potentially fall
on public facilities that are already fairly overcrowded," said Cory
Salzillo, legislative director with the sheriffs' ssociation. The measure
requires approval by both houses of the California Legislature and the
governor's signature before it could take effect. The Senate Judiciary
Committee is set to hear the bill next week.
Feb 4, 2016 vvdailypress.com
Debate over jail location in Adelanto revived
ADELANTO — A renewed debate over the location of a proposed 1,000-bed
jail could hold up a lucrative deal that one official had trumpeted as
officially erasing the city's deficit. The jail plan by private prison
operator GEO Group Inc. returned to the Planning Commission on Tuesday
night to mull GEO-requested tweaks to the development agreement. But
Planning Commissioner Chris Waggener requested the item be revisited next
month. The terms for the facility were initially approved 3-2 by the City
Council in late October even amid concerns that the jail would be situated
just about 1.5 miles from Adelanto High School. On Tuesday, Mayor Rich Kerr
revived an argument he made three months ago in opposition to the plan.
"I can assure you ... there will not be a prison next to the high school,"
Kerr said. He had mistakenly believed that the agreement OK'd in October
pushed the jail to a location away from the northeast corner of Holly and
Koala roads, which is also only a half-mile from residential housing. He
and Councilman Charley Glasper shot down the plan at the time. The
Commission had recommended the Council deny the plan because of its
proximity to the school, and Commissioner Joy Jeannette on Tuesday stood
firm in that stance. "I would never vote to have the prison near the high
school," she said. Kerr added that he believed the "Council will
not bend" from forcing GEO to build the jail elsewhere, but the
assumption does not harmonize with last October's vote. Mayor Pro Tem
Jermaine Wright, Councilman Ed Camargo and Councilman John "Bug"
Woodard approved the plan back then, shifting the focus away from the
location and instead toward the extra revenue and police presence provided
by the agreement — even if the jail isn't immediately built. Proposed on
22.16 acres of land, the jail came with the condition that GEO immediately
up its yearly payment to the city from $400,000 to $963,000 and fund one
extra San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputy to patrol the streets,
officials said. If the jail is built, the financial implications grow stronger.
The annual payment will jump to $1.33 million and GEO will fund another
deputy. The company was given two years to pull a permit and afforded five
additional years worth of extensions to find a client. If the company were
to back out, the city's revenue stream and GEO-paid deputies revert to
pre-existing levels. In October, Camargo said the deal was "one
way" to increase law enforcement in the city since "nothing
(else) is knocking on the door." Saying that the deal officially erased
the city's deficit, Wright noted that the jail remained at least 3.5 years
from being operational and GEO was agreeable to move it. Yet Waggenger said
Tuesday nothing had been formalized to suggest GEO would switch locations.
The company operates three correctional or immigration complexes in the
city: Desert View, Adelanto East and Adelanto West. Kerr told the
Commission he would fight the jail's venue "tooth and nail."
"I'm not going to put a bunch of cons out there to drool out the
freaking window at our young kids," he said. "It's not going to
happen."
Aug 26, 2015
vvdailypress.com
Immigration detainees denied attorney access, groups say
ADELANTO — Federal immigration officials and
Adelanto Detention Facility contractors over the last two years have
blocked detainee access from attorneys and other visitors who have been
critical of operations there or participated in protests, detainee advocate
groups said Tuesday. The groups made their claims in a letter Monday to
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Florida-based Geo Group Inc.,
which operates the Adelanto Detention Facility. The letter was signed by
representatives of American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern
California on behalf of Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in
Confinement (CIVIC) and the Southern Poverty Law Center, with pro bono
support of law firm Sidley Austin LLP. The letter urges ICE and Geo Group
officials to "stop retaliating against visitors who publicly criticize
the U.S. immigration detention system," or prepare to face legal
action. "Over the last two years, the Geo Group and ICE have
established an unlawful pattern and practice of denying attorney access to
clients detained at the facility in retaliation for the attorneys'
participation in lawful, peaceful protests outside of the facility,"
the letter reads, "in contravention of the First Amendment's guarantee
that 'debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and
wide-open.'" ICE officials rebutted the claims Tuesday, saying the
agency was well aware of the importance of ensuring detainees' access to
legal counsel. "ICE is in frequent communication with attorneys and
other stakeholders regarding the operation of its detention facilities and
is continually making adjustments in response to feedback and any concerns
raised," ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said in a statement.
"Individuals who fail to comply with the visitation standards
applicable to a particular ICE facility may have their visitation
privileges suspended. Likewise, individuals who misrepresent the purpose of
their visit to such facilities may be denied access." An email inquiry
sent to Geo Group officials Tuesday was not immediately answered. On Aug.
6, 2013, attorney and CIVIC co-executive director Christina Fialho was
reportedly denied access to consult with a prospective client after
participating in a peaceful vigil outside the facility, according to
Monday's letter. After a Geo officer asked her whether she took part in the
vigil, she said she had and then was told her visitation request was
denied. After challenging her denial, Fialho was told by the officer that
she was being denied because she did not have on file a G-28, which is a
notice of appearance as an attorney. But ICE regulations allow for attorney
visits with or without a G-28, the letter said. San Bernardino County
sheriff's deputies arrived soon after to question Fialho at the request of
Geo officers. Fialho was informed that the Geo officers requested she be
removed from the facility or arrested, according to the letter. ICE officials
have said, however, that Fialho and members of CIVIC were involved in
activities that violated ICE detention standards designed to safeguard
detainees' privacy. Officials acknowledged that her visitation privileges
were restored shortly afterward once the issue was resolved. But the letter
also details a reported account from May, when Fialho was again denied
access to consult with existing and prospective clients following a vigil,
despite having confirmed with a deputy three times that the deputy had
advised ICE and Geo officials of the purpose of her visit. "As Ms.
Fialho prepared to leave the facility, she encountered other attorneys whom
she knew but who had not participated in the vigil," the letter reads.
"(A)ll of them had been permitted to visit with clients." She was
then told by a Geo staff member that she could enter the facility should
the other CIVIC members and accompanying families leave the scene. Even
after they left, a Geo staff member shut the door and locked it in Fialho's
face after she attempted multiple times to ask the staff member a question
but was met with resistance and "instructed ... to either enter the
building or leave," the letter said. The confrontation was reportedly
caught on camera. The advocacy groups are demanding ICE and Geo officials
confirm in writing by Sept. 24 that they will cease alleged retaliation and
clarify policies to reflect this vow. Advocacy groups have regularly called
upon ICE and Geo officials to make changes at the facility, citing detainee
deaths and poor conditions. But officials have pushed back against
suggestions of sub-par care, touting the amenities and liberties available
to the 1,255 detainees there during a tour earlier this month.
05/19/2015
huffingtonpost.com
GEO Group Whistleblower Exposes First
Amendment Violations, Lack of Officer Training, and Poor Conditions at the
Adelanto Detention Center A former employee of GEO Group - a corporation
that operates the Adelanto Detention Center - claims First Amendment
violations, lack of proper training for GEO Group staff, extreme work
hours, employee intimidation, and overuse of solitary confinement. The
former employee, who asked to remain anonymous, recounted in a recording on
file with CIVIC that two Muslim men were put into solitary confinement for
quietly saying their daily prayers. He attributed these First Amendment
violations to a complete lack of officer training. "They are not
trained for shit," he said. "I had to learn everything on my own.
They put me in a dorm and then they said, 'Alright. Good luck. See you
later.'" He cited overcrowded conditions and a work culture that
required guards to do back-to-back 12- and 16-hour shifts, or risk being
fired. Despite the lack of training and the extreme over-time hours, he
claims that he was responsible for supervising over 100 detainees on his
own. According to him, he was warned, "If you can't handle it, you
will lose your job." He stated that GEO Group is paid a certain amount
of money from the federal government, but then GEO Group is given unbridled
discretion to "do whatever the hell they want." In his view, this
is not fair to the guards or the detainees. The Adelanto Detention Center,
in San Bernardino, California, is owned and operated by GEO Group, which
contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to imprison
1,300 men on any given day. ICE pays GEO Group up to $111 per person
imprisoned at Adelanto each day. GEO Group is one of the largest private
prison corporations in the United States. According to a compilation of
federal figures by CIVIC, GEO Group receives more taxpayer dollars than any
other ICE contractor. GEO Group's revenues climbed from $1.52 billion in
2013 to $1.69 billion in 2014. Last year, GEO Group began operating family
immigration detention facilities that house juveniles. Yet, they
acknowledge in their most recent annual report that they are unsure whether
they can "minimize the risks and difficulties" involved in
operating juvenile correctional facilities while still "yielding an
attractive profit margin." GEO Group has been the subject of hundreds
of lawsuits, ranging from sexual battery to medical neglect to wrongful
death. In 2011, a U.S. citizen died at a GEO-run immigration detention
facility in England. A jury found that his death was in part due to medical
neglect at the Harmondsworth Removal Centre. A report on Harmondsworth by
Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons in January 2014 found
"shocking cases where a sense of humanity was lost." These cases
included long periods of solitary confinement - particularly for Muslims -
and medical mismanagement. The U.K.'s Home Office ended its contract with
GEO Group that September. Back in the United States, another GEO Group
whistleblower won a wrongful termination lawsuit, after he divulged illegal
activities at a California facility, including sexual and physical assault,
fraud, and mishandled incident reports. Numerous questions about oversight
and accountability have been left unanswered by GEO Group. A government
report found that GEO Group's medical mismanagement at Adelanto directly
led to the death of at least one detainee, Fernando Dominguez, in March
2012. There also are significant questions regarding GEO Group's
responsibility in last month's death of Raul Ernesto Morales-Ramos, also at
Adelanto. Last week, the ACLU of Southern California, CIVIC, and eight
other legal service providers and human rights organizations formally
voiced concerns about the poor quality of health care offered at Adelanto.
Our letter, sent directly to ICE Director Sarah Saldaña and other
government officials, describes abhorrent accounts of medical negligence
and reveals that financial costs form a basis for medical decisions. For
example, GEO Group denied a man treatment for his severe hip infection
because "it was too expensive." The infection ultimately
developed into a life-threatening condition that required a 6-week
hospitalization at an outside hospital not affiliated with GEO Group.
Despite GEO Group's embattled reputation, ICE has announced plans to expand
the available bed space at Adelanto by 640 beds, and for the first time may
house women and LGBTQ individuals at the facility. According to their
annual report, GEO Group expects to generate $21 million in additional
annualized revenue from this expansion. Learn more here and join advocates,
faith leaders, people formerly detained at Adelanto, and family members of
people currently detained on Tuesday, May 19, 2015, (starting at 11 a.m.)
for a vigil and press conference outside of the Adelanto Detention Center
(10400 Rancho Rd, Adelanto, CA).
Feb 28, 2014
vvdailypress.com
SAN BERNARDINO • Attorneys for Geo Group Inc.,
which operates an immigration detention center in Adelanto, were no-shows
in court Tuesday as they face a medical malpractice lawsuit brought forth
by the mother of a Mexican national who died in 2012 of complications from
pneumonia. A government report following the man’s death said “egregious
errors” were made by the facility’s medical staff. Geo Group has denied the
claims levied in the suit, court records show. Fernando Dominguez-Valivia,
58, died March 4, 2012, nearly three weeks after he was transferred to
Victor Valley Hospital from Adelanto Detention Facility East for treatment,
according to previous reports. With a criminal record including forgery and
theft, Dominguez-Valivia originally came into ADF custody on Nov. 23, 2011,
after he had been detained on unspecified charges in the Rancho Cucamonga
area, immigration officials previously said. A U.S. Department of Homeland
Security oversight committee noted in its inspection report of the facility
in September 2012 that Dominguez-Valivia’s death was the first for the
facility, but also preventable. “The investigation disclosed several
egregious errors committed by medical staff, including failure to perform
proper physical examinations in response to symptoms and complaints,
failure to pursue any records critical to continuity of care, and failure
to facilitate timely and appropriate access to off-site treatments,” said
the report, referencing a Detainee Death Review conducted sometime after
the man’s death. The committee concluded “the detainee’s death could have
been prevented and that the detainee received an unacceptable level of
medical care while detained at ACF,” the report reads. San Bernardino
County Sheriff-Coroner spokeswoman Sandy Fatland confirmed Tuesday that
Dominguez-Valivia died naturally of multiorgan failure due to pneumonia,
but the committee also listed alcoholic liver disease and sepsis as causes
of death. On Oct. 15, Geo Group was served with the lawsuit, which listed
several plaintiffs including Dominguez-Valivia’s mother, Juana Lopez. An
attempt to reach Lopez’s attorney on Tuesday was not immediately
successful. An email address provided on the Geo Group’s website for media
inquiries could not receive emails. According to court records, the case is
scheduled to be back in court March 27.
Dec 23, 2013 The
Sun
Carlos Hidalgo planned to go Christmas tree shopping
this past weekend with his two youngest children, Lovette, 16, and Andrew,
9. “This year, it will be Andrew’s turn to buy the tree,” Hidalgo said.
Last week, Hidalgo, 46, was bracing himself for not being with his children
this Christmas. Earlier last week he was allowed to post $10,000 bond and
is now living with his parents in North Hollywood. For about eight months,
Hidalgo was an inmate at the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or
ICE, detention facility in Adelanto. In late November, three female
community college students were arrested at the Adelanto facility during a
protest that focused on getting Hidalgo and two other inmates out of the
privately run detention center and back with their families for the
holidays. Neidi Dominguez, program manager at the California Youth
Immigrant Justice Alliance, said the protest “was one of many things that
led to a decision” by an immigration court judge to allow Hidalgo to post
bail. “Everything played out the way it did because so many did something
to help,” she said. The other two men that the protest sought to free
remained in custody as the weekend commenced, authorities said. Hidalgo
came to the United States from El Salvador with his parents at age 11,
graduated from Bell Gardens High School in 1985, attended Cerritos College
in Norwalk for a semester, got married and began working as a loan
processor for a builder and later branched out to doing investigations for
criminal and bankruptcy attorneys. He said his detention in Adelanto was the
result of an arrest for cashing a check from someone who owed him money. As
it turned out, he said, the check he attempted to cash was not from an
account belonging to the man who gave it to him. Life in the Adelanto
detention facility, run by the private company Geo Group for ICE, is
fraught with disease, he said. “Many other prisoners have obvious illnesses
including AIDS, rashes and funguses,” he said. But perhaps the biggest
concern during detention — and one shared by other inmates — is the fear
that he would be awakened in the middle of the night and sent back to El
Salvador, he said. “This has been very hard on the kids,” who also feared
that their father might suddenly be deported, he said. Hidalgo, who did
volunteer work for other Adelanto detainees, said other prisoners were
crying when he left the facility. “I see their families (in my mind). This
has got to stop,” he said. “These are people trying to make a life be
respected for the bread they earn... .America is so compassionate around
the world. Why isn’t it that way here?
Nov 27, 2013
vvdailypress.com
ADELANTO • Three young women were arrested after
they locked themselves to a chain-link fence surrounding the GEO Group Inc.
Adelanto Detention Center during a demonstration on Monday. In May 2011,
the GEO Group contracted with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
through an intergovernmental service agreement with Adelanto to house
federal immigration detainees. San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies
arrested Mitzie Perez, 22, of San Dimas, Silvia Dianey Murillo, 20, of
Riverside and Lizeth Montiel, 20, of Upland on charges of trespassing and
vandalism, sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller said. All three women are part
of the Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Coalition, according to Miller. An estimated
50 to 100 protesters gathered to bring attention to the conditions reported
inside the facility including allegations of abuse of detainees, inadequate
food and poor medical care, according to Fernando Romero, spokesman for the
Justice for Immigrants Coalition of Inland Southern California. “We did
this action three days before Thanksgiving on purpose,” Romero said. “The
people inside the facility won’t be going home for the holidays to spend
Thanksgiving or Christmas with their families like you and I will.” The
women attached themselves to the fence surrounding the detention facility
using U-lock bicycle locks which they placed around their necks. “The fire
department had to cut the fence to remove the women,” Miller said. “That’s
where the vandalism charge came from.” No other demonstraters were
arrested, Warden Neil Clark said. “We asked that they (Perez, Murillo and
Montiel) be removed for trespassing,” Clark said. “Other than the three who
chained themselves to the fence, it was a peaceful protest.” Approximately
25 law enforcement officers monitored the protest and informed the group,
in both English and Spanish, that they were trespassing on private property
and they needed to disperse. All of the demonstrators, with exception of
the three women, complied, Miller said. Romero said Perez and Murillo are
undocumented and knew the risk involved in Monday’s demonstration. “The
women are sacrificing their bodies, their livelihood and exposing
themselves to separation from their families to make a point,” Romero said.
“We want to highlight the injustices ... there are a lot of people who
don’t belong there,” Romero said. “There are other solutions to detention.
We want to stop the unjust deportations.” Perez, Murillo and Montiel were
booked at the West Valley Detention Center, Miller said.
November 26, 2011 The Daily Press
The state has canceled its contract with the privately operated Desert
View Modified Community Correctional Facility, putting about 150 workers
out of a job. Desert View's contract termination officially takes effect
Wednesday, though prison employees told the Daily Press that The Geo Group
Inc. has been preparing to deactivate the prison at Rancho and Aster roads
since May. The 643-bed medium-security prison is shuttering its doors as
part of California’s realignment plan, which responds to federal orders to
reduce state prison overcrowding by shifting responsibility for tens of
thousands of low-level offenders to county governments. To help deal with
the new influx of inmates under local supervision, the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is encouraging counties to
enter into their own contracts with more than a dozen former CCFs. The CCFs
had generally housed inmates with sentences shorter than 18 months, parole
violators and offenders with scheduled release dates — the same types of
nonviolent, non-sexual or non-serious offenders now serving out sentences
in county jails instead of state prisons. “We hope that counties contract
with these facilities to save jobs and ease inmate housing concerns that
many counties may have,” CDCR spokeswoman Dana Toyama said. But San
Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department officials say they’re not planning
to privatize jail beds. The math just doesn’t pencil out, according to Sheriff’s
Department spokeswoman Cindy Bachman. “The issue with taking advantage of
private prisons or private jail facilities has come up over and over again
throughout the years; however, it’s not something that the county is
considering,” Bachman said. “It’s too costly and there’s just not the
funding really even to consider something like that.” The California State
Association of Counties has created a document outlining potential beds at
the former CCFs, but counties statewide have been hesitant to exercise that
option. The Geo Group had operated six of the nine privately run CCFs that
lost their state contracts, according to CSAC. Five other CCFs were run by
local governments. The facilities ranged from around 100 employees to more
than 600, according to Toyama.
October 11, 2011 Daily Press
State water quality control officials unnerved city leaders in January by
calling for a ban on new sewer connections in Adelanto in the name of
protecting public health. State officials had accused the city of violating
orders to bring its treatment plant into compliance, making unauthorized
wastewater discharges and exceeding its storage pond capacity. In March and
again in May, city officials managed to dodge the proposed ban — a move
they say would've halted new development, including a new housing tract by
D.R. Horton, a planned new prison facility by The Geo Group and an
expansion to the county jail. To keep the ban at bay, city officials on
Wednesday will try to convince the Lahontan Region's state water board they've
made significant progress in cleaning up their wastewater act at a meeting
in Victorville. They must prove the Adelanto Public Utilities Authority has
sufficient disposal capacity to handle current and increased wastewater
flows.
July 17, 2010 Daily Press
Some 100 city prison employees will be out of a job for at least the next
several months, since the private operator that bought the city-owned
prison for $28 million has yet to land a government contract. The employees
of the Adelanto Community Correctional Facility were officially laid off
June 4, but city officials agreed to pay them through Aug. 4, in hopes that
private prison operator GEO Group, Inc. would land a state or federal
contract and quickly rehire them. In mid-May the inmates at the 650-bed
correctional facility were transferred out, with GEO Group planning to
close it and complete renovations over the summer. Now it’s estimated the
renovations will take four to six months, Adelanto City Manager Jim Hart
said. It’s also unclear when the Florida-based operator will secure a
contract for the prison, on Rancho Road west of Highway 395. “My entire
intentions and efforts were to have it set up so that the employees would
be able to transition from city employment to GEO employment,” Hart said. “Our
hope that there wouldn’t be a gap between when they’re paid and when they
get picked up, I think, is now dwindling because it doesn’t appear that GEO
will have the renovations done in time to get opened.”
Allen Correctional Center,
Kinder, Louisiana
Aug 15, 2017 nola.com
Nonprofit law firm sues Louisiana prison for info on who's held in
segregated housing
The MacArthur Justice Center is suing a Louisiana prison for records
that show who is being held in segregated housing, the nonprofit law firm
announced Monday (Aug. 14). The suit was filed late last week after Allen
Correctional Center, a privately-run prison that houses inmates from across
the state, allegedly ignored repeated requests for public records,
according to the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center. The
nonprofit firm, which has an office in New Orleans, submitted a
public-records request June 19 for the names and offender ID numbers of
inmates kept in various types of segregated housing at Allen, according to
the lawsuit. The prison received the request, directed to Warden Keith
Cooley, by certified mail June 22, the lawsuit states. Louisiana law allows
five days for information to be provided in response to such an inquiry.
Nearly two months after the original request was submitted, the MacArthur
Justice Center has not received the information -- or a timeline for when
the documents will be made available, prompting the civil lawsuit against
Allen Correctional Center Warden Keith Cooley, the MacArthur center said in
a news release. The lawsuit notes that a follow-up inquiry into the request
was sent July 12, both by fax and certified mail. "All we want to know is who they are
holding in solitary confinement and segregated housing," said Katie
Schwartzmann, co-director of the center's New Orleans office. "The
Warden is illegally obstructing our inquiry and we are now seeking a court
assistance." The MacArthur center requested the information as part of
a joint project looking at the use and conditions of segregated housing units
in prisons across Louisiana, Schwartzmann said. The firm submitted similar
requests for records to prisons throughout the state, but Allen
Correctional Center was the only prison that did not comply, she said. The
lawsuit, filed in Allen Parish, asks a court to order release of the
records and seeks an expedited hearing on the matter. The lawsuit is also
seeking penalties for violation of state public-records law, including
sanctions and attorneys' fees for having to bring the litigation, which the
lawsuit contends should have been resolved without court intervention or
attorney time. "The public's ability to inspect public records is a
critical to holding the government - and its private contractors -
accountable for how they manage public resources," Schwartzmann said.
Allen Correctional Center is run by The GEO Group, a private contractor for
the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. However, the
Florida-based company, which owns or manages prisons across the country,
announced last week that it plans to end its management of Allen at the end
of August. Warden Keith Cooley was not immediately available for comment
Monday evening. An attempt to reach The GEO Group for comment was
unsuccessful. Though Schwartzmann declined to give details on why the
MacArthur Justice Center is seeking the records, she said the center is
"very concerned" about excessive use of segregated housing in
Louisiana prisons. Segregated housing, or specialized areas of prisons used
to house particular prisoners apart from the general population, is used
for various reasons, including both disciplinary and protective. Recent
years have seen a trend away from use of segregated housing, which includes
solitary confinement but can include cellmates in some situations,
Schwartzmann said. Segregated
housing often involves restricted access to services, privileges and
everyday prison routines, such as outdoor exercise, phone use and social
interactions. The practice has been shown to cause "very significant
damage" to prisoners, she said. In July, the MacArthur Justice Center
filed a federal lawsuit against another Louisiana prison, David Wade
Correctional Center in Homer, arguing that the prison "deliberately
impeded an investigation into allegations of serious neglect and abuse of prisoners
with disabilities" by not allowing government-designated advocates to
tour segregated housing for prisoners with disabilities.Lawsuit: Prisoners
may have been forced to bark for food.
Prison officials prevented advocates from interviewing inmates and
staff members, the lawsuit claims. The lawsuit was also brought by the
nonprofit Advocacy Center of Louisiana, which serves as the state's
protection and advocacy system to protect the rights of people with mental
or physical disabilities.The MacArthur Justice Center is the same firm
representing inmates whose lawsuit led to the Orleans Parish Sheriff's
Office federal consent decree over conditions at the jail.
Jun 27, 2017 kplctv.com
GEO Group terminates contract with Allen Correctional Center
GEO, the private managing company of Allen Correctional Center, is
pulling their management contract with the facility beginning Aug. 20. The
relationship the town of Kinder has with the correctional center runs deep,
from employment to partnerships, and many say they're shocked by the sudden
question regarding the facility's future. "We really didn't know what
was going on, we heard rumors but nothing concrete," said Kinder Mayor
Wayland LaFargue. He said he was notified of GEO's plan to end their management
contract with the state-funded facility this past Thursday. In a statement
from the company, GEO cited state budgetary constraints. The center has
been operating as a jail facility for a year, which the company said they
hoped was temporary. “We’re proud to have been able to partner with the
Louisiana Department of Corrections to provide high quality management
services at the state-owned Allen Correctional Center over the last two
decades. Due to state budgetary constraints, over the last year, the Center
has been operating as a jail facility, which we had hoped would be
temporary. Unfortunately, continued state budgetary constraints will not
support returning the Center to a full service correctional facility with
robust rehabilitation programs, and therefore, we have regrettably reached
the decision to discontinue our management contract at the Allen
Correctional Center. We appreciate the partnership and support of the
Louisiana Department of Corrections over the last two decades, and we are
committed to ensuring a smooth transition as our management tenure ends at
the Center at the end of August.”
This still raises major concerns for the parish and the town of
Kinder. "GEO is probably the third largest employer for Allen Parish
and it's going to affect our community dramatically with revenue and
utilities," said LaFargue. "People don't realize the utilities
they use. The employees...where are they going to go? I'm guessing 200 some
have been there 20-plus years, that's devastating to a family."
LaFargue said the correctional center also provides the town with grass
cutting services and help with work on area schools. "They've been
very good to us, but this short notice and hearing this, everybody's
scrambling to find out what lies ahead in the future for us." The
State Department of Corrections says its intentions are to maintain a
facility at Allen Correctional Center, however, nothing is definitive at
this time. "I hope something transpires in the next few months. I hope
someone takes it over. That's the big problem. If we can solve that
problem, it means a lot to Allen Parish and Kinder." The Department of
Public Safety and Corrections says it will meet within a week to review
available options.
Allen Correctional
Center
Feb 20, 2016 nola.com
Louisiana considering closing 2 prisons in budget cuts
The Louisiana Department of Corrections is considering closing two
privately operated prisons as it tries to cut $14.1 million in spending to
help close the state's $940 million budget shortfall. Winn Correctional
Center and Allen Correctional Center, are operated by two separate
companies. The two closures would save an estimated $4.6 million. Another option the Department of
Corrections is floating -- and the one the department most prefers -- is to
temporarily reduce the rate the state pays the two companies that operate
Winn and Allen prisons, for a savings of $2.6 million. But under that
scenario, the Department of Corrections would also need to temporarily
reduce the rate it pays per prisoner to house inmates in jails operated by
sheriffs. There is significant risk in closing the two prisons because many
of the 1,000 prisoners housed there are unable to be transferred to local
facilities because of mental health or debilitating illnesses or because
the prisoner is in a special disciplinary unit. "This is going to
eventually saturate an already saturated staff, especially as it relates to
medical and mental health," Department of Corrections Secretary Jimmy
LeBlanc told House Appropriations members on Friday (Feb. 19). "It
means we'll probably have to let people out of cells that probably should
still be in cells and put them in the general population, which will drive
up inmate assaults and inmate-on-staff assaults." The proposal for the
two private operators of the prisons, LaSalle Southwest Corrections and the
GEO Group, sets up a difficult ultimatum: Either accept the lower
per-prisoner pay rate or face total shutdown. The department currently pays
$31.52 per day; the local rate the department wants to pay is $24.39 per
day. Legislators will need to approve new appropriations to pay the lowered
rate. After the hearing, LeBlanc said that the department has been in
communications about the possibility of lower pay rates, but hasn't
received word back that LaSalle or GEO would accept the new payment
structure. "I've talked to
LaSalle and got a response in writing, and I think it's been
positive," LeBlanc said. "GEO we've not heard a definite
yet." In addition to the budget cuts, LeBlanc said the department is
having difficulty paying for the upkeep of prisons statewide. There are
broken windows that need to be fixed and other maintenance issues, he said,
that will have to be delayed under the current budget cuts. "This is a
business where you're only one phone call away from disaster," LeBlanc
said. "It's going to be a significant strain on our prisons to take that kind
of cut at the end of the year."
Feb 18, 2016
louisianarecord.com
Former Allen Correctional Center inmate sues operators for alleged
denial of medical care
LAFAYETTE – An inmate previously confined at Allen Correctional Center
is taking the center's operator to court after allegedly suffering an
injury when a ceiling tile fell on him. Ben Thompson filed a suit on Feb.
12 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana,
Lafayette Division against The Geo Group, for alleged breach of duties and
violations of his rights. Thompson was formerly at the Allen Correctional
Center, which is operated and owned by The Geo Group. He was allegedly
incarcerated at the facility since April 2012 and until the time of the
incident, and is now currently at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in
Iberville Parish, the suit states. He alleges that many employees and
inmates had complained about the conditions of the Allen facility but
defendant allegedly ignored such complaints. On or about Feb. 12, 2015,
Thompson was acting as a peer-facilitator in a substance abuse class when a
ceiling tile fell 12 feet and struck him on the middle of his neck on the
posterior side, the suit states. Thompson claims to have immediately felt a
shocking sensation and instantaneous pain but was allegedly given only
ibuprofen. Thompson alleges that the pain did not subside on Feb. 15, 2015,
but was again allegedly given only ibuprofen when he sought treatment. On
March 11, 2015, Thompson allegedly was given a CT scan and on March 20, a
doctor at Allen recommended that plaintiff be observed by a neuro or
orthopedic surgeon for appropriate diagnosis. The defendant allegedly
denied such recommendations. The defendant also allegedly denied an
administrative remedy procedure complaint made by the plaintiff on March 8,
2015. Thompson claims that as a result of defendant’s actions and unlawful
disregard to his rights for medical treatment, he continues to suffer
physical injury to his cervical spine and neck. He is now suing for access
to reasonable medical care and treatment for his injuries, compensatory general
and special damages, punitive damages, attorneys' fees, cost of the suit,
and any other relief deemed just. He is represented by Gabe A. Duhon, James
S. Broussard and Wyman E. Bankston from Abbeville. U.S. District Court for
the Western District of Louisiana Case number 6:16-cv-00208
February 9, 2011 The Advocate
The Jindal administration is asking companies to detail how much they would
charge the state to care for inmates in Allen and Winn parishes if two
state prisons are sold to ease budget problems. Responses to the Request
For Information, or RFI, are due Friday as part of a possible move toward
selling the correctional centers. Private companies oversee Winn
Correctional Center in Atlanta, La., and Allen Correctional Center in
Kinder. Winn is managed by Corrections Corporation of America while Global
Expertise in Outsourcing, Inc. operates Allen. Selling the prisons is still
just a possibility at this point. However, a sale would force the state to
pay the new owners for the care of inmates at the medium security centers.
Some elected officials are nervous about how much the state would end up
paying. Michael DiResto, spokesman for the Division of Administration, said
Wednesday that the RFI is “for planning and information gathering
purposes.”
February 3, 2009 The Town Talk
The three men who escaped from the Allen Correctional Center in Kinder
Jan. 26 have been charged with aggravated escape and are back in the
custody of the Department of Corrections. Cecil Stratton, the last of the
three men to be apprehended, went before a judge Tuesday morning for a
brief court appearance before he was released back to the custody of
Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. The other two
escapees – Troy Hargrave and Daniel Reeder – were both charged Friday with
aggravated escape and turned over to state custody.
January 29, 2009 The Town Talk
Fatigue, cold and hunger led one of three Allen Parish prison escapees
to turn himself in Wednesday, authorities said. Law enforcement officers
have two of the three men, who escaped Monday from the Allen Correctional
Center in Kinder, in custody. Federal, state and local law enforcement
agencies say they are turning up the heat on the third escaped convict, who
remains on the loose. "We are working around the clock to locate Cecil
Stratton," Deputy U.S. Marshal Corey Britt said. "And anyone who
assists Cecil will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
Stratton -- who was serving a 25-year sentence for convictions of simple
escape, simple burglary, first-degree robbery, marijuana possession, felony
theft and flight from an officer out of St. Mary Parish -- is the only
escapee who has not been captured. Escapees Daniel Reeder and Troy Hargrave
-- both serving sentences for manslaughter convictions -- are back in
police custody.
January 27, 2009 The Advertiser
A prison guard has been booked with helping three dangerous inmates escape
from the privately run state prison in Kinder, the Allen Parish Sheriff’s
Office said Tuesday. Detective Peggy Kennedy said Jesse Jordan, 19, of
Glenmora was held without bond after being booked Monday night on three
counts of assisting escape and one of malfeasance in office. He had worked
there as a guard since May, Chief Deputy Grant Willis said. “It appears the
motivation on his part was for monetary value,” Willis said. He said Jordan
was cooperating with investigators. Jordan was employed by GEO — Global
Expertise in Outsourcing Inc., the private company that runs the prison,
Kennedy said. A call to the prison was not immediately returned. Daniel
Reeder, 24, of Shreveport, Troy Hargrave, 32, of Crowley, and Cecil
Stratton, 29, of Berwick were missing at the 6 a.m. head count, prison
officials said. They described all three as dangerous and said Reeder and
Hargrave were serving time for manslaughter. Three rows of razor wire on
the ground in front of the fence had been cut through, but neither the
fence nor the razor wire on top of it had been cut, Willis said. “We can’t
say for certain that’s the way they got out, or whether it was a decoy,” he
said.
January 27, 2009 The Town Talk
Three inmates -- two of whom were serving time for manslaughter -- escaped
from a correctional center in Kinder sometime before 6 a.m. Monday, prison
officials reported. Authorities from the Allen Correctional Center in
Kinder said the three men should be considered dangerous. Officials are
asking anyone with information or anyone who sees the escapees to contact
their local authorities or call 911. The three men were discovered missing
when the facility conducted its 6 a.m. count. The escapees were identified
as: Daniel Reeder, a 24-year-old white man, 5 feet, 6 inches tall and 140
pounds with brown hair. He was serving a 30-year sentence for a
manslaughter conviction in Caddo Parish. Troy Hargrave, a 32-year-old white
man, 5 feet, 9 inches tall and 203 pounds with blond hair. He was serving a
40-year sentence for a manslaughter conviction in Calcasieu Parish. Cecil
Stratton, a 29-year-old white man, 6 feet, 1 inch tall and 185 pounds with
balding brown hair. He was serving a 25-year sentence for convictions of
simple escape, simple burglary, first-degree robbery, marijuana possession,
felony theft and flight from an officer out of St. Mary Parish. In addition
to the three offenders, the facility is listing Sidonia Marie Stratton of
Morgan City as a person of interest in the incident. She is the sister of
Cecil Stratton and is thought to be driving a beige 1998 Mercury Sable with
license plate OZK138. The dress code for offenders at Allen Correctional Center
is navy blue scrubs with a white undershirt or blue jeans, a blue-jean
button-up shirt or gray sweatshirt, but it is not confirmed what the men
were wearing when they escaped. Security and K-9 teams from the
correctional center are working with local law enforcement in Allen Parish
and surrounding parishes to track down the three escaped inmates. The local
community has been notified of the escape, as is standard in these
situations, officials said. Allen Parish Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy
Grant Willis said the Sheriff's Office is assisting in the search efforts.
According to a release from the facility, Hargrave may have family in the
Jennings, Kinder and Lake Arthur areas. Jennifer Allemand, programs manager
for the GEO Group facility, said the three men were state Department of
Corrections inmates who were housed in the medium-custody private prison.
March 15, 2007 KPLC TV
It was between two and three in the afternoon Wednesday when Brian Scott
escaped from the Allen Correctional Center by scaling the fence. Scott is
convicted of felony theft and as a fugitive was considered dangerous. The
prison is a medium security state facility but is operated by a private
company, the Geo Group. Warden Terry Terrell says, with the help of
numerous law enforcement agencies, procedures were put in effect to
identify the missing inmate and get a manhunt underway to capture him.
"I don't know that you could get out of a situation any better than
what we did. The inmate was apprehended. Neither he nor anyone in law enforcement
was injured so we are very thankful for that. " In such cases they
notify those who live near the prison, that is if they've signed up to be
notified when there's an escape. "About once a year and sometimes more
frequently we put out flyers to all the local residents that we're aware of
and ask them if they do wish to be contacted in a similar circumstance to
simply fill out the form and name a number so we can put them on the
calling list," says Terrell. But people who live near the prison such
as in this area called Hickory Flat say they need to do a better job of
alerting the public when an inmate escapes. Explains Virgil Richard,
"We're taxpayers. Why can't they burn a little gas and let us know
something. They were supposed to have had a horn, an alarm system and we
don't have that." Neighbor Lloyd Miles agrees. "We've got some
elderly people here and some handicapped people here by themselves and I'm
mostly concerned about them. And we got kids."
October
23, 2002
Few concerned citizens ventured out to Alexandria City Hall Tuesday evening
to speak out on the escape and fatal shooting of an HIV-positive state
inmate. But those who attended were vocal in their questions and
suggestions for the Department of Corrections and the Allen Correctional Center
in Kinder. The committee did not make any recommendations concerning the
escape or policies of the Department of Corrections or Wackenhut Corp.,
which owns Allen Correctional Center in Kinder. Cotton, 43, of Houma,
escaped Aug. 21 from his room at the hospital. Thirty-eight hours later, he
was shot while hiding underneath a home. Cotton snatched a .357-caliber
handgun from the lone female guard assigned to him when she bent down to
unshackle him so he could use the restroom, police said. (Daily Town Talk)
Alutiiq
Security and Technology, Alaska
December 10, 2004 News
& Observer
We commend your excellent Nov. 30
editorial and the fine investigative report on Nov. 28 on the award of
no-bid deals to Alaska Native Corporations such as Alutiiq Security and Technology.
We endorse your call for urgent scrutiny of this system and the back-door
access it affords major defense contractors like Wackenhut Corp. to gain
lucrative federal work by teaming with Alutiiq as a subcontractor. Your
reporters quoted an Army spokesman who said that Alutiiq, with little
experience in security, would have been unlikely to win the contract on its
own. But it gets even worse: Wackenhut was a failed bidder in the second
phase of contracts which were competitively awarded. Only in this perverse
"system within a system" can two losers become a winner. If
companies like Wackenhut can skirt competitive bidding processes, taxpayers
can have little confidence that we are getting value for money -- in this
case up to half a billion dollars Bill Ragen Deputy Director, Building
Services Division, Service Employees International Union Washington.
Arizona Department of Corrections
Mar
29, 2014 azcentral.com
The Republican-crafted state budget now includes $900,000 in additional
funding to pay for private prison beds operated by GEO Group Inc., even
though the state Department of Corrections doesn't think the increase is
needed. Private-prison lobbyists succeeded in getting state lawmakers to
include nearly $1 million in extra funding in the state budget even though
the Arizona Department of Corrections says the money isn't needed. The
eleventh-hour funding was placed into the budget by House Appropriations Chairman
John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, who said GEO Group Inc. lobbyists informed
him the company wasn't making enough money from the emergency beds it
provides Arizona at prisons in Phoenix and Florence. The request came even
though GEO bid for its contracts and had agreed to previously negotiated
rates with the Corrections Department, which guarantees the company nearly
100 percent occupancy at its prisons. House Minority Leader Chad Campbell
of Phoenix was incensed by the additional money for GEO. Related: Arizona
sheriffs assail costs of private prisons Previously: Arizona faces growing
cost of private prisons He voiced disappointment on the House floor late
Thursday during the budget debate and again Friday, telling The Arizona
Republic that the request "came out of nowhere." Some lawmakers,
he said, learned of the addition to the House budget hours before members
began voting on it. Campbell said Kavanagh is responsible for pushing the
proposal through the House with support from all but one Republican: Rep.
Ethan Orr of Tucson. "This is somebody getting a handout,"
Campbell said. "It's unnecessary. This came out of nowhere — I mean
that. No one said a word about it. It wasn't in the Senate budget, it
didn't come as a request from DOC. There's something really shady
here." Doug Nick, a state Corrections spokesman, confirmed his agency
did not seek additional money for GEO. "We did not request it,"
Nick said. "We had nothing to do with it." The state this fiscal
year is projected to pay GEO $45 million to house minimum- and
medium-security inmates in the company's 2,530 beds, according to
Corrections records. Guaranteed rate: Arizona guarantees GEO an occupancy
rate of 95 to 100 percent at those facilities. GEO, based in Boca Raton,
Fla., posted $115 million in profits on $1.52 billion in revenue in 2013.
The company, which is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, is
worth $2.3 billion, and it paid Chairman and Chief Executive George Zoley
$4.62 million in total compensation last year. The additional money for GEO
comes as lawmakers debate a $9.2 billion budget passed by the House late
Thursday night. The $900,000 for GEO was one of many additions made to get
the support of some holdout Republicans. Democratic lawmakers criticized
the spending proposal, saying private prisons are being prioritized over
education. Caroline Isaacs, a watchdog on prison spending and the program
director for the American Friends Service Committee, called the additional
funding "outrageous." "Why this corporation feels it's
entitled to bypass the contract process with a state agency it is serving
and go directly to the money man (Kavanagh) is incredible," Isaacs
said. "This indicates a level of coziness that should make taxpayers
nervous." Isaacs said lawmakers appear more concerned about padding
GEO's bottom line instead of looking out for public education and abused
children who have fallen through the cracks at Child Protective Services.
Kavanagh said GEO had been giving the state a "cut rate" for
emergency beds during the recession and, "now that the economy has
come back, they want to get more money." He said if GEO didn't take
the inmates, it would cost the state more to house them at overcrowded
facilities. GEO, however, is not at full capacity, records show. The company
as of Friday was housing 2,466 inmates in its 2,530 beds. Maricopa County
Sheriff Joe Arpaio and sheriff's offices in Apache, Pinal, Cochise, Navajo
and Santa Cruz counties have said they would be willing to take Department
of Corrections inmates to ease the state's overcrowding burden and make
some additional money. Beds available: The six sheriffs have said they
could provide at least 1,750 beds. Kavanagh declined to identify the
lobbyists who asked him for additional money for GEO. State lobbying records
show that Pivotal Policy Consulting represents GEO. Neither Pivotal Policy
Consulting nor GEO Group could be reached Friday. The state Senate will
hold a hearing on the budget Monday. Senate Appropriations Chairman Don
Shooter, R-Yuma, declined to speculate on whether the additional funding
for GEO will remain. "We can't talk anything about the budget
process,'' Shooter said. "It would be bad form."
Jan 2, 2014 azcentral.com
Facts, not philosophy, should be the foundation
of state policy. Tell the Legislature. Tell Gov. Jan Brewer. After years of
studies showed that private prisons cost more than state prisons,
conservative supporters of privatization repealed a statutory requirement
to compare costs. Convenient for those who like private prisons. Not helpful
to those who want policy based on solid information. Arizona is putting
increasing numbers of inmates into private prisons — even guaranteeing high
occupancy rates at those private facilities. This represents the triumph of
an ideological bent toward privatization. We don’t know whether it
represents the taxpayers’ best interests. Arizona agreed to contracts that
guarantee 90 to 100 percent occupancy to the three private-prison companies
operating in the state, according to reporting by The Arizona Republic’s
Craig Harris. These are Corrections Corporation of America, GEO Group Inc.
and Management & Training Corp. There is more to prison than costs and
profit — or taxpayers’ deep pockets. Society locks up criminals to protect
others, to punish wrongdoing and, if possible, to rehabilitate lawbreakers.
Because most prisoners will return to our streets, the public is best
served when those convicted of crimes emerge from the criminal-justice
system able to abide by the law and function in society. A focus on filling
prison beds discourages alternatives to prison that might be more
cost-effective and more likely to reduce recidivism by achieving real
rehabilitation. A bill passed in 2012 eliminated the statutory requirement
for the Department of Corrections to do a cost comparison between public
and private prisons. It was signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer, who has
long been a supporter of private prisons. It also eliminated the previous
statutory requirement for regular comparisons of the services provided by
private and public prisons, including a hard look at such things as
security, prisoner health and the safety of facilities. This is
particularly odd when you consider how questionable security practices at a
private Kingman prison became painfully obvious after the 2010 escape of
three prisoners, two of whom killed an Oklahoma couple while on the lam.
Statutes still require cost savings and equitable performance. But the
comparisons are not the same. Surveys by Department of Corrections in 2008,
2009 and 2010 found that it was more expensive to incarcerate inmates in
privately run medium-security prisons than it was in similar state
facilities. These studies factored in the differences in inmate costs,
including that private prisons house only healthy inmates, while state
prisons incarcerate those with expensive medical or mental-health problems.
A comparison in fiscal 2013 that did not adjust for these differences found
a lower cost at private prisons. How convenient. It might make sense to
reduce the state’s capital expenses by contracting with private prisons
rather than building new facilities. But we need to consider all the facts
when making that determination. What’s more, guaranteeing occupancy to
private operators creates a profit motive for locking people up that should
be unsettling to all who treasure civil liberties. Arizona needs to take a
harder look at whether private prisons make sense.
March 25, 2013
azcapitoltimes.com
A trial is set for next month in a sexual
harassment lawsuit pitting the state against one of its private prison
contractors in a battle that promises to shine a harsh light on private
prisons and the Arizona Department of Corrections. The Attorney General’s
Civil Rights Division alleges that male workers with GEO Group, which
operates three prisons for the state, sexually harassed female co-workers
for several years while supervisors and managers for the company looked the
other way. Although the state is the plaintiff in the case, the lawsuit has
uncovered information that a civil rights attorney, a lawmaker and critics
of the Department of Corrections say is damning to the Department of
Corrections. The allegations in the lawsuit took place before Charles Ryan
became director of DOC, but the critics say problems have continued under
his leadership. “It’s not just private prisons,” said House Minority Leader
Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, a steadfast opponent of private prisons. “There’s
blatant mismanagement in our public prisons, too.” Campbell said he is
working with community groups to call for Ryan’s firing as high-profile
problems mount. In recent weeks, Ryan disclosed that employees are arrested
at a rate of 11 per month, mostly for drunken driving and domestic
violence. A federal judge gave class status to 33,000 prisoners and all
future prisoners in a lawsuit alleging substandard health care. And a local
television station aired video of inmate Tony Lester’s suicide in which
correctional officers stood around the bleeding man without providing
emergency care. After Ryan took over in 2009, the agency was rocked when a
July 30, 2010, escape from a Kingman private prison led to the deaths of an
Oklahoma couple. The company that won the $349 million contract to provide
health care for prisoners parted ways with the state after just 6 months.
Gov. Jan Brewer’s spokesman, Matt Benson, said she still stands behind
Ryan. “He performs a very difficult job under difficult circumstances,”
Benson said. Prisoner advocate Donna Hamm, of Middle Ground Prison Reform,
also defended Ryan, saying Arizona’s prison system has been dysfunctional
for the 30 years she has been an advocate and Ryan is more responsive to
problems than the other five directors over that time. “He does not ignore
or make excuses,” Hamm said. Bill Lamoreaux, a department spokesman, said
Ryan was out of town and unavailable for comment. Lamoreaux also said the
department has been advised by lawyers not to discuss pending litigation.
History of mistreatment: Court documents in the GEO suit paint a picture of
female correctional officers having to deal with raunchy statements
directed at them and fondling by their male co-workers. Attorney Stephen
Montoya, whose client, Alice Hancock, is a former GEO correctional officer
and an intervener in the case, said the sexual harassment at GEO is an
extension of the DOC culture. In February 2012, DOC agreed to pay a former
female officer $182,000 to settle a sexual harassment complaint brought by
the U.S. Department of Justice. Montoya has won jury awards of $200,000 and
$600,000 for women who used to work for DOC, and he said many of the
correctional officers with GEO worked previously for the department. The
$600,000 award was reduced to $300,000 due to limitations on compensatory
damages. In one of the cases, U.S. District Court Judge Frederick Martone
said DOC was reckless in its management by “allowing bestial people to run
unsupervised throughout the process and employing ineffective and
incompetent supervisory staff that knew about things and failed to do
anything about it in a timely way.” Lamoreaux pointed out, however, that
the allegations in the GEO suit and the actions against DOC occurred before
Ryan took over as an appointee of Brewer in January 2009. Dora Schriro,
appointed by Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, was in charge. Part of the
DOJ settlement required DOC to improve its sexual harassment policies, and
Ryan has said in written statements that the bad behavior wouldn’t be
tolerated under his watch. Hamm said the recent problems plaguing DOC have
existed under every administration she has seen in 30 years, but they are
just getting more exposure today. “Those problems are not unique to Charles
Ryan’s administration,” Hamm said. However, Montoya said Ryan tolerates
women being “treated like trash,” and he points to the promotion of Carson
McWilliams as proof. McWilliams was the warden of the prison where
Montoya’s client, Michelle Barfield, was sexually harassed. Ryan promoted
McWilliams in April 2011 to be the department’s Northern Regional
operations director a little more than a year after the $600,000 verdict.
“In the government workplace, if there is pervasive illegality, it’s
because it is tolerated from the top to the bottom,” Montoya said. A
pattern of problems: The lawsuit is a compilation of suits filed by the Attorney
General’s Civil Rights Division, the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission and Montoya, and when the witnesses begin taking the stand on
April 9, their testimony is sure to become fodder for opponents of private
prisons. Probably the harshest critic of private prisons is the American
Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that generally advocates
for the rights of prisoners. Caroline Isaacs, Friends’ executive director
in Arizona, said the lawsuit is one more damning piece of information that
confirms there is a consistent pattern of problems with private prisons.
Isaacs has spent thousands of hours documenting misconduct in private
prisons. “These problems are found in all for-profit prisons, and you
simply can’t dismiss them as ‘bad apples,’” Isaacs said. The lawsuit
alleges that male workers regularly grabbed their female co-workers’
genitals and breasts and made obscene gestures toward them. The suit says
that in some instances, males exposed themselves to the women. Montoya said
the prisoners showed more respect to the women than the male officers did.
GEO is trying to keep out of the trial evidence that one of the most
prolific alleged perpetrators was fired twice by other private prisons,
once while he was being investigated for sexual harassment before GEO hired
him in 2007. Sherri Haahr, a GEO human resources official, testified in
deposition that the company didn’t know about Robert Kroen’s background
because the contract with DOC doesn’t require employment reference checks.
Haahr testified that DOC does criminal background checks itself and
approves anyone who is hired by GEO. GEO lawyers argue that Kroen’s
employment history isn’t relevant because the decision to hire him was
DOC’s. Pablo Paez, a GEO spokesman, declined comment. “We cannot comment on
litigation related matters. We can however confirm that our company
vigorously disagrees with these allegations and intends to defend its
position,” Paez said. And while DOC has onsite monitors at its private
prisons, their job is to make sure the company maintains appropriate
staffing levels of “qualified personnel” required by contract, Lamoreaux
said. He said the contractors are responsible for their own human resource
systems. Campbell, the state representative who regularly introduces
legislation to regulate private prisons more, said he isn’t surprised there
are no routine reference checks in hiring. “At the end of the day, the buck
stops at DOC,” Campbell said.
May 2,
2004
Groups of Arizona prisoners transferred to a Texas private prison staged
fights and hunger strikes to either improve conditions or earn transfers
back to Arizona. The incident report from Wackenhut Corp.'s Pecos,
Texas, prison officials recommends eight inmates be sent back to Arizona
because they are security problems. The report details a fight
between two groups of prisoners, with at least 14 taking part in the
late-night April 10 fight. The subsequent investigation showed that some
inmates from each group were conspiring to get back to Arizona. The
decision last year by the Arizona Legislature to ship about 2,000 inmates
to out-of-state prisons angered some inmate family members, mainly because
contact with inmates will be limited by the financial ability to travel to
either Texas or another prison in Oklahoma. (Arizona Daily Star)
Aurora INS
Detention Facility
Aurora, Colorado
GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
Dec 1, 2019
westword.com
westword.com Scabies Outbreak at
Immigrant Detention Facility in Aurora
Twenty-five detainees at the immigrant detention
facility in Aurora have been quarantined since December 4 following an
outbreak of scabies. Of the 25, six have scabies, while another 19 have
been exposed, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson
Alethea Smock. "Each ICE detainee receives a medical examination upon
arrival at the facility to check for potential signs of illness. However,
ICE has no way of knowing what diseases or viruses a person may have been
exposed to before they enter the facility," Smock wrote to Westword in
a statement. The facility is run by private prison company GEO Group
through a contract with ICE. Scabies occurs when a human itch mite burrows
into the upper layer of the skin, where it lives and lays its eggs. When a
person is infected with scabies for the first time, they can be contagious,
even while not displaying symptoms for weeks. "The most common
symptoms of scabies are intense itching and a pimple-like skin rash. The
scabies mite usually is spread by direct, prolonged, skin-to-skin contact
with a person who has scabies,” according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC). “Prisons are often sites of scabies
outbreaks," the CDC continued. The detainees will remain under
quarantine until they are treated with a topical ointment, which is
arriving today, December 10. "Once the treatment is administered,
detainees will be removed from cohort," Smock wrote. Westword has
asked ICE why it's taken nearly a week for the ointment to arrive; we'll
add the agency's response if we receive one. The facility has seen
intermittent outbreaks of mumps and chicken pox throughout 2019, leading to
multiple quarantines. In March, more than 350 detainees were quarantined
because of possible exposure to mumps or chicken pox, or both. Following
the spate of outbreaks in the early months of the year, the GEO detention
facility began working with the Tri-County Health Department. All detainees
and staff members were offered the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination,
and the facility now reports infectious disease outbreaks to Tri-County
Health. However staff at the detention facility were not required to notify
the department of the scabies outbreak. “Scabies is not something that is
reportable to the health department, so we are not involved,” Gary Sky, a
spokesperson for the Tri-County Health Department, wrote to Westword in an
email. In July, Congressman Jason Crow announced that his staff would begin
weekly inspections of the facility, which have continued to this day.
Jun 22, 2019
westword.com
Three Escaped Colorado ICE Detainees
Have Been Captured
The three ICE detainees who escaped from the GEO
detention facility in Aurora on June 16 were recaptured on Thursday, June
20. ICE officers found them in three separate locations. Amilcar
Aguilar-Hernandez, 23, Douglas Amaya-Arriaga, 18, and Carlos
Perez-Rodriguez, 18, climbed a fifteen-foot fence at the facility during
their escape just around noon on June 16. The immigration detention
facility is run by private prison company GEO Group through a contract with
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE said in a press release that after
escaping, the three men spent three days at a "safe house" in
Colorado Springs. "Their goal was to earn enough money to leave
Colorado. However, they were forced to split up once they were
recognized," the press release said. ICE officers captured
Aguilar-Hernandez in Colorado Springs. Amaya-Arriaga was found in a
suburban Denver house with another undocumented immigrant, who was arrested
during Amaya-Arriaga's capture. ICE officers found and arrested
Perez-Rodriguez after he left an apartment in a large complex in Denver.
“The investigative techniques and sheer determination of our team shows
that if you run, you won’t be able to hide. We will find you and bring you
to justice," said John Fabbricatore, the acting Denver ICE field
office director, in the press release. The three detainees will now be
prosecuted in federal court in Denver for their escape. Aguilar-Hernandez,
originally from El Salvador, has a criminal conviction for felony
trespassing and is a suspect in a rape case in Fort Carson. The two others,
both from Honduras, had no prior criminal history. ICE is still looking
into the circumstances that led to their escape. Despite the search for
these three detainees coming to a close, ICE officers in Denver are likely
to remain busy in the coming weeks. Multiple news outlets are reporting
that an ICE operation targeting up to 2,000 undocumented immigrant families
in ten cities, including Denver, will begin as early as Sunday, June 23.
Officers will be focusing on individuals that have final orders of
deportation.
Jun 19, 2019 federalnewsnetwork.com
3 men escape from immigrant detention
center in Colorado
AURORA,
Colo. (AP) — Authorities are searching for three men who escaped from an
immigrant detention center in Colorado. The Sentinel reports the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency says the men escaped from the
center in Aurora around noon Sunday. Authorities are searching for
23-year-old Amiclar Aguilar-Hernandez of El Salvador, 18-year-old Douglas
Amaya-Arriaga and 18-year-old Carlos Perez-Rodriguez, both of Honduras. ICE
officials say the men scaled a 15-foot (5 meter), chain-link fence and then
went over a recreation area wall in the city 9 miles (14 kilometers) east
of Denver. ICE says Aguilar-Hernandez has a conviction for felony
trespassing and is a suspect in a rape case at Fort Carson Army Base near
Colorado Springs. GEO Group Inc., the private company that operates the
center, would not comment and referred questions to ICE.
Jun 7, 2019
westword.com
Report: Aurora Immigrant Detention Facility Violates Multiple ICE
Standards
According to a new
federal government report, the immigration detention facility in Aurora violates
multiple government detention standards. "This report by the
Department of Homeland Security Inspector General confirms what we have
been hearing for quite some time: that detainees at ICE's Aurora facility
are not being properly cared for," Congresswoman Diana DeGette said in
a statement. Congressman Jason Crow, whose district includes Aurora,
referred to the report as "deeply disturbing" in a written
statement. On June 3, the Office of Inspector General at the Department of
Homeland Security published its analysis of four detention centers that
house detainees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, including
the facility in Aurora (the other three are located in Louisiana,
California and New Jersey). The report found that the Aurora facility,
which is run by private prison company GEO Group through a contract with
ICE, violates ICE standards for outdoor recreation, in-person visitations
and restraining detainees in solitary confinement. The authors of the
report investigated the facilities "in response to concerns raised by
immigrant rights groups and complaints to the Office of Inspector General
(OIG) Hotline about conditions for detainees held in U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody." Before the investigators visited
the Aurora facility, staff used handcuffs on detainees in solitary
confinement when they were outside their cells. However, according to the
report, that protocol didn't comply with ICE standards, since
"placement in disciplinary segregation alone does not constitute a
valid basis for using restraints." According to ICE, security staff at
the Aurora facility have since received "refresher training"
about when to use handcuffs for detainees in solitary confinement, and a
security officer will now ensure that staffers comply with the protocol by
reviewing security footage daily. The report notes that the Aurora facility
does not provide a true outdoor recreation space for detainees, which
"may reduce detainee mental health and welfare." Detainees have
daily access to a recreation center inside the facility that has an
open-air, albeit caged, roof. Investigators interviewed detainees at the
Aurora facility who said they wanted "true outdoor recreation for the
fresh air, sunshine and exercise, and for playing soccer with their fellow
detainees." ICE argues that the recreation space in the Aurora
facility fully complies with — and actually far exceeds — government
standards. At the time of the inspection, the Aurora facility did not allow
in-person visits for detainees, which the federal government recommends
would help with morale. Noting that in-person visits are only recommended
and not required (except for lawyers), ICE says that staff at the facility
will now review requests for in-person visits on a case-by-case basis. The
report comes nearly a year after ICE finished its own investigation into a
December 2017 death at the Aurora facility that found staffers largely
mishandled the care of Kamyar Samimi, who died after being in custody for
about two weeks. And as of June 4, 152 detainees at the Aurora facility
were under quarantine because of cases of mumps and chicken pox. "The
report points to the fact that this is an extremely oppressive, punitive
environment, where it may take a real toll on an individual detainee’s
mental health," says Liz Jordan, an attorney who advocates on behalf
of detainees through the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center.
Feb 1, 2019
westword.com
There's Been Another Chicken Pox
Outbreak at Immigrant Detention Facility
There has been another
chicken pox outbreak at the immigrant detention center in Aurora, the
second in just three months. A detainee "pod," which is a prison
housing unit consisting of individual cells, was quarantined for weeks
after an outbreak in October. Now two pods have been quarantined for 21
days because of the virus, said GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez in an email.
Paez did not answer additional questions about why a second outbreak had
occurred, or what the facility, which is managed by private-prison company
GEO Group through a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was
doing to prevent future outbreaks. But today, January 31, I met a detainee
at the facility who described what it was like being under quarantine
during last fall's outbreak. From behind a glass partition in the center's
visitor room, Miguel Angel, 34, described how guards one day told his pod,
which housed 77 detainees, that they couldn't leave their housing unit,
offering no explanation. “We had no idea what was going on,” Angel recalls.
"Guards just told us that we had to wait.” They wound up waiting for a
few days, during which they couldn't access the recreation yard, see
visitors, consult face-to-face with lawyers, or even attend their
immigration hearings. About a week in, the detainees finally learned that
they were under a medical quarantine because of a possible chicken pox
outbreak, Angel says. The potentially sick individuals had been removed
from the housing unit before it was locked down. And weeks into the
quarantine, a doctor still had not visited the pod. Exasperated, Angel and
about sixty other detainees wrote letters to ICE and the GEO Group
demanding answers — and to see a doctor. Here's the letter: It has been two
weeks now that we have been in quarantine and not one doctor has been sent
to this pod to offer medical treatment for the chicken pox. The first three
people that were infected have been treated, cured and were switched over
to a different pod, and are now living their normal process. But we have no
visits, deportations, and our court [hearings] are being delayed. They
won't exchange our blankets, give haircuts, and we are prohibited from
having rec time in the yard. We are being exposed to dangerous medical
conditions living like this, causing depression, anxiety, high blood
pressure, and conditions that could be fatal. The most difficult part is
the court dates being rescheduled. Many of us have already had chicken pox
or been vaccinated. Our immigration process is being delayed because this
outbreak wasn't properly handled from the start, and it's not fair. It
feels like medical resources don't want to be used on us because we don't
deserve it. We are all in desperate need of help. Meanwhile, he saw
firsthand how the lock-down put some detainees at greater medical risk
since they didn't have regular access to a medical staff. One young man,
who was complaining of a fever and had lost his appetite, asked guards to
take him to a doctor. The guards stuck the man in his cell, believing that
he had chicken pox, according to Angel. But then he collapsed, and guards
had to rush in and do CPR to resuscitate him. "His heart had stopped
briefly," Angel claims. After CPR, the man was transferred out of the
pod, Angel remembers. Either that episode or the letters finally got GEO
Group's attention. A doctor finally visited the pod, dressed in a full-body
hazmat suit “looking like an astronaut,” says Angel. Some of the
information that Angel provided about October's outbreak (at least the
number of individuals who were quarantined) runs counter to what ICE had
told media outlets, including Westword, at the time. “Of the 77 detainees
who were tested, medical staff diagnosed three detainees with varicella;
seven others had low immunity and therefore possessed increased risk factors
of contracting the disease; all ten were quarantined at the facility,”
spokesman Carl Rusnok said in a statement. “The Aurora medical staff
continues to provide high-level care to all those affected, while at the
same time continuing to serve the medical needs of the entire facility
population.” Multiple requests for comment sent to ICE about the second
outbreak haven't been returned; if and when they are, we'll update this
story. Angel says he feels for fellow detainees who are locked up in the two
affected pods. Asked why he believes this has happened a second time, he
says, “it's because our lives don't matter to them. We could die in here
and there's nothing we can do."
Dec 21, 2017 westword.com
ACLU Investigating Death of Iranian Immigrant at Aurora Detention
Facility
Earlier this morning, the ACLU of Colorado announced that it filed a
Freedom of Information Act request to obtain more information about how a
64-year-old Iranian man, Kamyar Samimi, died while being held at the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Aurora on December
2. ICE issued a statement two days after Samimi died, saying that the
primary cause of death was cardiac arrest and that Samimi had been
transferred to the University of Colorado Medical Center on the morning of
December 2 before he was pronounced dead shortly after 12 p.m. The ACLU of
Colorado wants to know exactly what happened. “Once again, a death in ICE
custody raises serious questions about whether the agency is continuing to
fail in its legal duty to provide necessary and adequate medical care to
detainees in its custody,” says Mark Silverstein, legal director for the
ACLU of Colorado. In 2012, a 46-year-old named Evalin-Ali Mandza died of
cardiac arrest at the same detention center. An investigation of that death
showed that staff at the GEO Group-run facility did not know how to
properly use an EKG machine and stalled in calling an ambulance. The GEO
Group manages private prisons across the U.S. and contracts with ICE to
manage immigrant-detention facilities. The ACLU has looked into deaths at
immigrant-detention facilities nationwide and co-authored a report in 2016
called "Fatal Neglect: How ICE Ignored Deaths in Detention."
Nearly 200 immigrant detainees have died while in custody in ICE facilities
since 2003. Samimi, who came to the United States as a student in 1976 and
was arrested at his home on November 17 by ICE (the agency says he had a
minor drug conviction from 2005), is the latest detainee to die in
Colorado. “Mr. Samimi’s arrest, detention and death in custody display the
inhumanity of our current federal immigration policies,” says ACLU of
Colorado staff attorney Arash Jahanian. “He lived in the U.S. for forty
years. ICE arrested him at his home with the intent to ship him off to a country
he no longer knew. Then they locked him up in a detention facility, where
he died two weeks later. ICE gave very little detail about what happened
but made sure to mention his twelve-year-old drug-possession charge. The
community deserves better, and that starts with ICE explaining what led to
Mr. Samimi’s tragic death.” Silverstein characterizes ICE's detention
facilities as "cloaked in secrecy." "[They] offer little to
no transparency into the way detainees are treated within their walls,” the
legal director says. "We are invoking the Freedom of Information Act
to further the public’s right to know what goes on in these secretive
taxpayer-funded institutions.” Meanwhile, a class action lawsuit is being
tried in federal court over alleged forced labor practices at the Aurora
facility. In September, the ACLU of Colorado found that clients of Iraqi
descent being held at the facility were being harassed by guards and
pressured to self-deport. A GEO Group spokesman told Westword at the time:
"The Aurora, Colorado, facility has a longstanding record of providing
highly rated services in a safe, secure and humane residential environment
while treating all those entrusted to our care with the respect and dignity
they deserve."
Sep 6, 2017 miaminewtimes.com
ACLU Says South Florida Private Prison Giant Is Torturing Immigration
Detainees
Boca Raton's GEO Group is one of the most powerful private-prison
companies in America — and a major player in state and federal politics.
GEO throws campaign money at Florida lawmakers from both parties: Sens.
Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson, Gov. Rick Scott, Reps. Carlos Curbelo and
Mario Diaz-Balart, and the majority of the Florida Legislature have taken
thousands from GEO despite constant complaints from progressives and human-rights
activists who say the company profits from destroying the lives of others.
Well, here's yet another reason Florida politicians should drop GEO Group
like the plague: The American Civil Liberties Union said Friday that the
company is torturing whistleblowers at its private immigration detention
facility in Aurora, Colorado. GEO runs the facility on behalf of U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to the ACLU, ICE agents at
GEO's 1,500-bed Colorado detention center are retaliating against Iraqi
nationals who have joined an ACLU class-action lawsuit to stop the U.S.
from deporting them. The ACLU says employees at the GEO facility are
denying Iraqis food, water, and access to the restroom to intentionally
make their lives a living hell. "GEO, the second largest immigration
detention facility in the country, is a tightly regulated, colorless
institution with bare cement walls, large metal doors that lock at every
threshold, and scores of prisoners in scrubs," the ACLU writes.
"Each of the detainees we interviewed provided accounts of
mistreatment. These accounts were consistent, as was their palpable fear of
death if ultimately deported to Iraq." The ACLU writes today that the
Trump administration agreed to take Iraq off its list of countries covered
under the so-called Muslim ban if Iraq agreed to accept ICE deportees. The
ACLU has since sued, but the organization now says ICE agents at the GEO
facility are trying to make detainees miserable so they choose to get
deported. The ACLU writes: Since the court’s ruling, ICE appears to have
ramped up its efforts to make the lives of Iraqis in custody so unbearable
that they will “voluntarily” sign away their rights to reopen their
immigration cases or pursue asylum. The Iraqis have been singled out and denied
food, water, and access to the restroom. One man, who came to the United
States as a refugee in 1976, reflected that if he goes back to Iraq, he
will be tortured and killed. Still, he feels that his experiences at the
hands of ICE are “a different way of torture.” He has told his wife that he
is considering just signing the form and going back to Iraq. In Arizona and
Colorado, and on the plane traveling between the two locations, ICE guards
referred to the Iraqis as “camel jockey,” “rag head,” and “terrorist.”
Guards at GEO referred to one of our clients as ‘Al Qaeda’ and told him,
“You Iraqis are the worst people in here. We can’t stand you Iraqis.” When
he tried to say that he has rights, he was told that he doesn’t have any
rights because he was “an alien.” ICE guards in Arizona and Colorado have
openly pressured Iraqi nationals to sign away their right to fight their
immigration cases. Some guards told the detainees that their situations
were hopeless and urged them to sign forms agreeing to voluntary
deportation, without counsel present. Some Iraqis apparently succumbed to
the pressure. The brave men we spoke to have decided to stay and fight.
Miami New Times' sister newspaper Phoenix New Times has covered the plight
of Iraqi nationals trapped in an Arizona detention center run by CoreCivic
(formerly known as the Corrections Corporation of America), GEO Group's
main competitor. In July, an Arizona judge blocked the deportation of 1,400
Iraqi Chaldean Catholics on the grounds they could be tortured for their
religious beliefs and ties to the United States. In 2013, the Huffington
Post reported that the CCA/CoreCivic's lobbying firms have donated more
than $20,000 to South Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. In 2011,
Wasserman Schultz threw her support behind a plan to build a private,
CCA-run immigration facility in South Florida. That decision sparked
protests and has cast a shadow over her recent bids for reelection. But of
the two companies, it's Boca's GEO Group that remains the major political power
in Florida. According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics
(NIMSP), GEO has given $7.8 million to 885 candidates across the nation
over the past 17 years. The group rains money in Florida: It is honestly
difficult to find a state politician who has not taken at least a tiny
amount of money from the company in that time period. According to NIMSP
records, the group has sent checks to the majority of the state Legislature
in Tallahassee, Rubio has taken $30,500 from GEO, Curbelo has received
$11,000, and Nelson has accepted $5,000. Other recipients include U.S.
Reps. Ted Deutch, Frederica Wilson, Mario Diaz-Balart, Charlie Crist, and
Governor Scott. GEO is still donating today: The group gave former state
Rep. Jose Feliz "Pepi" Diaz $3,000 in his current race for the
state Senate seat vacated by N-word-dropping ex-lawmaker Frank Artiles.
Last year, the Miami Herald reported that GEO absolutely vomited cash at
state Senate President Joe Negron and his wife Rebecca, who ran for the GOP
nomination for Senate last year before Rubio announced his plans to run for
reelection. The Herald reported that GEO gave the couple a combined
$288,000 in a single election cycle. "It is tragic that these
individuals, who fear persecution in Iraq because of their religion and
connection to America, are now being persecuted by agents of the United
States government," the ACLU wrote last week.
Aug
18, 2017 nationallawjournal
Advocacy Groups Side With Plaintiffs Alleging Unpaid Labor At For-Profit
Prison
Advocacy groups have weighed in on a lawsuit against the nation's
second-largest for-profit prison provider, arguing in recently filed
"friend-of-the-court briefs" that GEO Group Inc.'s alleged
practices of relying on cheap and unpaid labor by detained immigrants
underscores abuses to this vulnerable community. Attorneys who filed the
lawsuit in 2014 are currently fighting to uphold class certification in the
case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The U.S.
District Court for the District of Colorado in Denver originally certified
the class, which could include as many as 60,000 detainees who cycled in
and out of the GEO Group-owned Aurora Processing Detention Center in since
2004. Over the last week, a slew of advocacy organizations, including The
Southern Poverty Law Center, Public Citizen and a group of national
immigrant rights groups, filed briefs that point to the broader
implications of the case — noting issues around human trafficking and the
for-profit prison industry. They also discussed the importance of class
actions for vulnerable immigrant groups. This potential class action
against GEO, a Republican campaign donor, comes at a time when the $3
billion for-profit prison industry is gaining support from the Trump
administration. Earlier this year, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions
rescinded guidance from the Obama administration that would have reduced
the construction of privately owned prisons. A separate complaint has also
been filed at the Federal Election Commission by the Campaign Legal Center
against GEO, claiming the company illegally contributed $225,000 to a
pro-Trump PAC during the 2016 election. And according to reports, the U.S.
Department of Justice under President Donald Trump has awarded the GEO
Group more federal contracts for private prison facilities. "This is
about the excesses of the private prison system and how it almost
invariably led to forced labor and human trafficking," said David
Lopez of Outten & Golden, who represents the plaintiffs in the Aurora case.
"This case illustrates why it's dangerous and they have a built-in
system to keep the costs down. Absent of such class actions, who will hold
them accountable?" Outten & Golden attorneys this year joined
Nashville-based immigration attorney Andrew Free, attorneys for
Denver-based advocacy group Towards Justice and Colorado-based attorneys
for Milstein Law Office and Meyers Law Office in bringing the suit. The
lawsuit claims that GEO amassed enormous profits through "forced
labor" provided to the Aurora prison through a contract with U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The suit takes aim at the company's
"sanitation policy" that required ICE detainees to work as
janitors without pay under the threat of solitary confinement. It also targets
a "voluntary work program" that allegedly paid detainees only $1
a day. Two classes were certified by the Denver federal court that could
include between 40,000 to 60,000 laborers that were detained in Aurora over
the last 10 years. The private prison system, and its profit margin,
appears to depend upon this type of labor, Free said. He said the case in
Colorado is a reflection that such policies and practices affect a wide
array of people in the immigration system. "These policies run
directly counter to protections that people have fought hard to apply to
all immigrants and workers," Free said. "How exactly would these
staffing plans work if companies were not allowed to use free and nearly
free labor of detainees?" In a statement, GEO responded that the
volunteer work program at all of its 143 immigration facilities, as well as
the minimum wage rates and standards, are set by the government. The
company also said that all of its facilities, including the Aurora center,
are "highly rated and provide high-quality services in safe, secure
and humane residential environments pursuant to the federal government's
national standards." "GEO has consistently, strongly refuted the
allegations made in this lawsuit, and we intend to continue to vigorously
defend our company against these claims," the company said in the
statement. The organizations filing briefs supporting plaintiffs in the
suit against GEO, a massive for-profit prison company, include the Southern
Poverty Law Center and the National Employment Law Project.GEO: Facing
legal challenges.
Jul 10, 2015 abcnews.go.com
Lawsuit: Immigrants
Got $1 a Day for Work at Private Prison
Immigrants who were detained at a suburban Denver
facility while they awaited deportation proceedings are suing the private
company that held them, alleging they were paid $1 a day to do janitorial
work, sometimes under threat of solitary confinement. They scrubbed
toilets, mopped and swept floors, did laundry, and prepared and served
meals, among other duties, according to attorneys who filed the lawsuit in
October on behalf of nine current and former detainees. On Monday, U.S.
District Court Judge John L. Kane declined a request from the Florida-based
GEO Group Inc. to dismiss the claims against it, allowing the federal
lawsuit to proceed. GEO is one of the largest contractors with the federal
government for the detention of immigrants suspected of being in the
country illegally or legal permanent residents with criminal records who
face deportation. The company has denied wrongdoing and said in court
documents the work is voluntary and it is abiding by federal guidelines in
paying $1 a day. Attorneys for the immigrants say they'll move to expand
the case by seeking class-action status. They say the judge's ruling clears
the way to gather more information from GEO through discovery proceedings
about how many detainees were put to work. The attorneys said they've heard
from clients for years that immigrants labor for almost nothing at private
detention facilities around the country, but they called the lawsuit filed
in Colorado the first of its kind. "It's their job to run the
facility, and instead they used and abused us to run the facility, and
that's why we're suing," said plaintiff Alejandro Menocal, 53. Menocal
is a legal permanent resident who was detained for three months at GEO's
Aurora facility while facing deportation last fall. GEO responded in a
statement that its facilities "provide high-quality services in safe,
secure and humane residential environments, and our company strongly refutes
allegations to the contrary." The company added attorneys and
immigrant advocates have full access to its facilities that U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts with, and they're routinely
audited and inspected by the government. Anita Sinha, a faculty member at
Washington College of Law, American University who has researched immigrant
labor at private detention centers, said the daily wage was set by Congress
in 1950 and hasn't been adjusted for inflation. She said on a daily basis,
immigrants facing deportation occupy about 34,000 beds nationally in
private and government-run facilities. More than 60 percent of the beds are
in privately held facilities, she said. The company succeeded in getting
the judge to dismiss a claim that it violated Colorado's minimum wage law
because detainees were paid $1 a day instead of $8.23 an hour. In tossing
that claim, Kane said the detainees do not qualify as employees under state
law. But he said the lawsuit could proceed on the allegations that GEO unjustly
profited from the detainees and violated the federal Trafficking Victims
Protection Act, which prohibits forced labor. "Legally, this is a big
step forward," said Hans Meyer, Menocal's attorney. It's common for
inmates at state or privately run prisons to work below minimum wage, in
some cases for the purpose of gaining job training. "The difference
here is that these are civil immigration detainees who are not being held
for any criminal violation," said Brandt Milstein, another attorney in
the lawsuit. Menocal, a Mexican immigrant from Baja California, was
released in September and kept his legal resident status after his attorney
won his case. He said he faced deportation proceedings last year when
authorities learned after a traffic stop that he had a criminal record from
2010 for driving with a suspended license and having his wife's
prescription painkillers in his car. He pleaded guilty and served a year of
probation soon after, but he didn't come to the attention of immigration
authorities at the time. The lawsuit focuses only on the GEO's suburban
Denver facilities, but the American Civil Liberties Union said the claims
are similar to allegations they've heard around the country. "There is
a name for locking people up and forcing them to do work without paying
real wages. It's called slavery," said Carl Takei, staff attorney at
the national prison project of the ACLU. The monetary amount the lawsuit
seeks hasn't been determined.
Jul 9, 2015
westword.com
GEO LAWSUIT ALLEGING FORCED LABOR OF IMMIGRANT DETAINEES MOVES FORWARD
Update below: In a move that could have
resounding consequences for corrections practices and the for-profit prison
industry in particular, a Denver federal judge has refused to dismiss a
lawsuit filed by nine federal immigrant detainees, who allege that a
private prison contractor forced them to perform maintenance and cleaning
jobs for little or no pay. The suit, which is seeking class-action status,
accuses the company of violating federal laws prohibiting human trafficking
and forced labor and seeks millions of dollars in damages. Senior U.S.
District Judge John L. Kane threw out some of the plaintiffs' claims but
allowed the case against The GEO Group, which operates a detention facility
in Aurora under contract with U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE),
to move forward. The decision was hailed as "a tremendous victory for
civil immigrant detainees nationwide" by Nina DiSalvo, the executive
director of Towards Justice, a Denver-based nonprofit that partnered with
several law firms to bring the action. "The judge's decision allows us
to address the systemic problems with GEO's treatment of immigrant workers
throughout the legal system." One of the largest private prison
companies in the world, GEO operates 66 correctional facilities in the
United States, including ICE detention centers in Washington, Florida, and
Colorado. The complaint alleges that Aurora detainees participate in a
"voluntary work program" that includes laundry, kitchen and
cleaning jobs, for which they are paid a dollar a day. Six detainees are
also selected at random each day to clean the living pods without pay;
refusal can result in being placed in solitary confinement. The lawsuit
argued that the arrangement violates Colorado's minimum wage law. Judge
Kane disagreed, since the state's labor laws specifically carve out an
exception for prisoners, who are not considered employees. But Kane found
merit in the claim that GEO's approach to the pod-cleaning assignments — do
it or get thrown in the hole — may be a violation of the federal
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which prohibits involuntary servitude
and coercive methods to demand work "by means of force, threats of
force, physical restraint, or threats of physical restraint." The
judge also allowed a claim involving unjust enrichment to proceed. Most
correctional systems depend on cheap inmate labor to keep costs down.
Kane's denial of GEO's motion to dismiss doesn't signal an end to that
practice. It does, however, raise questions about the ability of a private
contractor to demand that inmates perform basic maintenance or cleaning
tasks under threat of further punishment. "Using forced detainee labor
is an integral tool in maintaining GEO's profitability under its contracts
with ICE," Nashville attorney Andrew Free, a co-counsel in the case,
noted in prepared statement. "The court's decision today represents an
important step forward in ending that morally bankrupt business
model." GEO has not responded to a request for comment on the ruling.
We'll update this post if a response is forthcoming. Update, 1:00 p.m.: The GEO Group
corporate headquarters has provided a statement in response to our request
for comment that reads, in part: "GEO’s facilities, including the
Aurora, Colo., facility, provide high quality services in safe, secure, and
humane residential environments, and our company strongly refutes
allegations to the contrary. The volunteer work program at immigration
facilities as well as the wage rates and standards associated with the program
are set by the federal government. Our facilities adhere to these standards
as well as strict contractual requirements and all standards set by ICE,
and the agency employs several full-time, on-site contract monitors who
have a physical presence at each of GEO’s facilities."
Oct 23, 2014 stateswithoutnations.blogspot.com
GEO Sued for
Minimum Wage and Forced Labor Law Violations, and Unjust Enrichment
Yesterday, Alejandro
Menoca, Marcos Brambila, Grisel Xahuentitla, Hugo Hernandez, Lourdes,
Argueta, Jesus Gaytan, Olga Alexaklina, Dagaberto Vizguerra, and Demetrio
Valerga on their own behalf and others similarly situated filed a complaint
informing a federal judge that their guards were breaking the law. The complaint, filed by an
intrepid team of lawyers who spent extensive time interviewing detainees at
the GEO facility in Aurora, Colorado, states: In the course of their
employment by GEO, Plaintiffs and others scrubbed bathrooms, showers,
toilets, and windows throughout GEO’s Aurora facility. They cleaned and
maintained GEO’s on-site medical facility, cleaned the medical facility’s
toilets, floors and windows, cleaned patient rooms and medical staff
offices, swept, mopped, stripped, and waxed the floors of the medical
facility, did medical facility laundry, swept, mopped, stripped, and waxed
floors throughout the facility, did detainee laundry, prepared and served
detainee meals, assisted in preparing catered meals for law enforcement
events sponsored by GEO, performed clerical work for GEO, prepared clothing
for newly arriving detainees, provided barber services to detainees, ran
the facility’s law library, cleaned the facility’s intake area and solitary
confinement unit, deep cleaned and prepared vacant portions of the facility
for newly arriving detainees, cleaned the facility’s warehouse, and
maintained the exterior and landscaping of the GEO building, inter alia.
The complaint also includes violations of a federal law prohibiting Forced
Labor, 18 U.S.C. § 1589: 5. GEO or its agents also randomly selected
six detainees per pod each day and forced them to clean the pods. In the
handbook that GEO distributed to the detainees, GEO announced a “Housing
Unit Sanitation” policy informing the people held at the facility that
“[e]ach and every detainee must participate in the facility’s sanitation
program.” 6. GEO or its agents forced Plaintiffs and other civil
immigration detainees to clean the facility’s pods for no pay and under
threat of solitary confinement as punishment for any refusal to work. And
the complaint references Colorado Common Law prohibiting Unjust
Enrichment. In precise and riveting language the 21 page brief
brilliantly lays out the legal problems with the private prison industry's
business model. The attorneys who filed this lawsuit are Brandt Milstein,
Boulder, CO; Andrew Turner, Denver, CO; Alexander Hood, Golden, CO; Hans
Meyer, Denver, CO; and Andrew Free, Nashville, TN. I have been filing FOIA
requests on this topic for several years and Andrew Free is currently
representing me in extricating additional material for use in a working
paper that will be revised for publication next year in the Georgetown
Immigration Law Journal. For more research on related violations,
please go here.
February 16, 2009 The
Aurora Sentinel
About 50 people from various advocacy groups gathered near an Aurora
detention facility Monday, Feb. 16, to rally for changes to the nation’s
immigration policies and an end to raids on suspected illegal immigrants.
The vigil, which was organized by local clergy, was one of more than 100
actions across the country aimed at “demonstrating the faith communities’
commitment to inject humanity and compassion into the public dialogue on
immigration,” organizers said in a statement. Jennifer Piper, of the Quaker
organization American Friends Service Committee, said ending raids was one
of the main goals of the vigil. “These raids really tear families and
workers out of our community,” Piper said. The vigil brought out a diverse
crowd with participants ranging from toddlers to senior citizens. The group
clutched candles, said prayers and spoke about their concerns. “All faith
traditions share a common mandate to welcome and care for all members of
our community and love our neighbors as ourselves,” Jeremy Shaver,
executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, said in a
statement. “As people of faith, we must keep that in the forefront of our
minds as we approach the complex issue of immigration.” Organizers said
recent immigration raids have been destructive for immigrants’ families and
they hope the vigils lead to change in Washington. “We call on President
Obama and members of Congress to demonstrate the courage to pass
immigration policies that uphold and protect the dignity and human rights
of all,” Shaver said. The vigil was held just a few blocks from a privately
owned and operated detention facility that houses suspected illegal
immigrants. Florida-based GEO Group, which owns the facility, has plans to
expand it — a proposal that has come under fire from immigrant groups.
January 8, 2008 Colorado
Confidential
A former corrections employee is suing prison contractor The GEO Group, operator
of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility
in Aurora. In a suit filed in Denver District Court, former GEO employee
Celia Ramirez alleges the company failed to follow its own
anti-discrimination policies. According to the suit, filed in December,
Ramirez was employed by GEO as a detention officer at the Aurora ICE lockup
for just over two years before being fired for failing to return lockup
keys to their designated area. However, in the suit Ramirez contends that another
GEO worker, Jennifer Beauman, took the keys and placed them on the
facility's roof to retaliate against the plaintiff for reporting the
employee for inappropriate conduct. According to the suit, Beauman is
reported to have engaged in erratic behavior, such as angrily slamming
doors and flicking lights on and off in the presence of inmates. Attempts
to reach Beauman were unsuccessful. The suit alleges Beauman
"joked" about taking the keys to get back at Ramirez, before the
keys went missing. A maintenance worker is reported to have later found the
keys on the facility's rooftop. The crux of the lawsuit contends that
Ramirez was discriminated against for her gender and Latino ethnicity, and
that GEO failed to enforce written policies of barring gender or race
discrimination as stipulated in the company's employee handbook. Pablo
Paez, a spokesman for the GEO Group, said that it is the company's
corporate policy not to discuss pending litigation. Lisa Sahli, the
attorney who filed the suit, said that Ramirez had obtained another
attorney and that she could not speak further on the case because she is no
longer Ramirez's legal counsel. Attempts to contact Ramirez were also
unsuccessful. The suit comes as GEO is set to expand its Aurora ICE
facility by more than 1000 beds, tripling the current threshold of 400
beds. Ramirez is seeking to bring the case to a jury, according to court
documents.
December 19, 2007 Denver
Post
A private company operating the Colorado immigration detention center in
Aurora plans to sink $72 million into an expansion that will more than
triple the size of the facility based on Senate proposals to expand border
enforcement and bed space for illegal-immigrant detainees. The expansion
would turn the 400-bed facility into a 1,500-bed center, making it second
in size only to the 2,000-bed Raymondville, Texas, site, according to U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Aurora site is in a warehouse area
near East 30th Avenue and Peoria Street. The plan by Florida-based GEO
Group, which owns and operates the facility, has raised concerns among
national and local immigrant- and civil-rights groups and the neighborhood
associations in the area. The expansion is expected to be complete in late
2009. A company spokesman did not return numerous calls, but GEO chairman
and chief executive George Zoley detailed the plan recently in a call with
analysts. GEO estimates the 1,100 new beds will raise an additional $30
million in annual revenue, Zoley said during the call. Opponents of the
plan say their concerns are based partly on the lack of access to internal
audits of the facility and recent government reviews showing inadequacies.
"One of the major issues is that GEO has a really spotty record in
running these sorts of facilities," said Chandra Russo, a community
organizer for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. "Our concern
with a private corporation running a prison is that its profits depend on
more prisoners. What is the benefit for the community?" Neighbors are
also worried about real estate values and environmental impact. ICE denies
any connection with the expansion the private company is planning with its
own money, said ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok. Currently, the ICE contract for
the Aurora facility is for 400 beds, but the deal is up for review each
year for the next four years. "If they expand the facility, unless
they modify the contract, there is nothing to say those additional beds
would be used or contracted by ICE," Rusnok said. Still, national and
local immigrant groups are concerned about the expansion at the facility,
where they say reports and audits have been slow or not publicly released.
Several years ago, the National Immigration Law Center asked the courts to
demand that ICE release internal reviews of contract facilities and won.
But ICE has been lax in providing the most recent two years' worth of
reviews, said Karen Tumlin, attorney with NILC. "Until ICE is willing
to release all of the reviews, we don't want to see these levels of
expansion," she said. In July, the Government Accountability Office
found problems at several of the detention centers from May 2006 to May
2007. The GAO did not find extreme cases but noted issues at 16 of 17 ICE
centers with phone calls to pro bono legal help. In Aurora, the report also
found that hold rooms exceeded capacity and log books were not maintained
to show how long people were in rooms or when they had their last meal. In
October 2006, reviews found the Aurora site in violation for lack of
cleanliness in food service. The report also said the center had portable
beds in aisles because of overcrowding. Rusnok said many of the problems
identified by the GAO have since been rectified and that ICE has no plans
based on the Senate proposal. Zoley, during the call, cited a proposed bill,
which provides for additional funding to increase border-patrol agents and
increase detention bed space by more than 5,000 beds. "We believe that
this increase in bed funding will result in additional opportunities for
the private sector," he said. The Department of Homeland Security
expects the undocumented population, estimated to be around 12 million, to
grow by 400,000 annually. The total number of illegal immigrants in
administrative proceedings who spend some time in detention annually
increased from 95,702 in 2001 to 283,115 in 2006. Detention bed space
increased from 19,702 in 2001 to 27,500 last year. After the first of the
year, NILC plans to ask for a moratorium on expansions of these types of
facilities until ICE can ensure minimum compliance with its standards,
Tumlin said.
July 11, 2007 Government
Executive Magazine
In a recent review of federal facilities used to detain suspected illegal
immigrants, the Government Accountability Office found a lack of telephone
access to be a pervasive problem, potentially preventing detainees from
contacting legal counsel, their countries' consulates or complaint
hotlines. The GAO review included visits to 23 detention centers housing
immigrants awaiting adjudication or deportation. The watchdog agency observed
the centers -- run by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency within
the Homeland Security Department -- for compliance with nonbinding national
detention standards. Of the 23 facilities GAO reviewed, 17 had telephone
systems allowing detainees to make free phone calls seeking assistance. In
16 of these 17 facilities, however, GAO found systemic problems hindering
phone access. Issues ranged from inaccurate or outdated numbers posted by
the phones to technical problems preventing completion of calls, the report
(GAO-07-875) stated. The review found instances where the centers fell
short of standards in other areas, such as medical care, use of force and
food services, but said these instances did not necessarily indicate a
larger pattern of noncompliance. "While it is true that the only
pervasive problem we identified related to the telephone system -- a
problem later confirmed by ICE's testing -- we cannot state that the other
deficiencies we identified in our visits were isolated," said Richard
Stana, director of homeland security and justice issues at GAO, in the
report. GAO recommended that ICE regularly update the posted numbers for
legal services, consulates and reporting violations of detainee treatment
standards and test phone systems to ensure that they are in working order.
In a response to a draft of the report, Steven Pecinovsky, director of the
Homeland Security Department's GAO/Office of the Inspector General Liaison
Office, said ICE concurred with its recommendations and had taken immediate
steps to implement them. In particular, ICE has started random testing to
ensure the phones can access the necessary numbers. While GAO did not find
evidence of widespread disregard for national detention standards, there
have been recent calls for more oversight of immigrant detention facilities
and codification of standards. According to the American Bar Association's
Commission on Immigration, the fact that the standards are not codified
means "their violation does not confer a cause of action in court."
On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union called on Congress to codify
the standards, expressing concern over the causes of death for the 62
immigrants who have died in ICE custody since 2004. GAO's report cited
several instances of noncompliance in the standards for medical care, but
almost all were a failure to complete the routine physical exams required
for all detainees. The only other issue cited was the failure of one
detention center to have a first aid kit available. The ACLU argued there
are far more serious medical failures occurring in immigrant detention
centers. "Inadequate medical care has led to unnecessary suffering and
death," the ACLU said in a statement. "In addition, there is no
mechanism in place for reporting deaths in immigration detention to any
oversight body, including the [Office of the Inspector General] and,
therefore, there are no routine investigations into deaths in ICE
custody."
September 27, 2002
Security guards at the Wackenhut INS detention facility in Aurora quelled a
disturbance Thursday. The disruption was caused by several detainees during
the lunch hour, said Nina Pruneda- Muniz, Denver District spokeswoman for
the Immigration and Naturalization Service. "It got handled in a very
timely manner," Pruneda-Muniz said. "We were able to defuse any
situation from going any further." Agents were determining how many
prisoners were involved and why the confrontation erupted, she said. (Rocky
Mountain News)
Arthur
Gorrie Correctional Centre, Arthur Gorrie, Queensland
Sep 16, 2018 dailymail.co.uk
Prisoner, 21, dies in shared jail cell after being found unconscious by
security guards
A 21-year-old prisoner has died in his Brisbane jail cell after being
found unconscious. The inmate was found by guards in a shared cell at
around 11.30 pm on Saturday at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre.
Prison officers administered CPR but he was declared dead when paramedics
arrived around midnight, a Queensland Corrective Services spokeswoman said
on Sunday. Queensland Police have been notified of the man's death and are
being assisted in their inquiries by Queensland Corrective Services. The
prisoner's death in the shared cell comes after it was revealed in a 2017
report there were around 315 'double-up' cells at the Brisbane prison and
prison population had increased by 35 per cent since 2012. The report also
revealed a 500 per cent increase in serious assault as well as a 700 per
cent spike in sexual assault between 2013 and 2016. One former inmate, who
left the jail in April, said the facility was 'one of the most nastiest and
corrupt prisons I've ever been in,' according to ABC News. In an 18 month
period leading up to September 2017, 37 inmates had attempted suicide -
compared to just two in 2012. A prison officer
at the jail said under the cover of anonymity that overcrowding was a major
reason behind a rise in violence and attempted suicide. They said: 'It's
drastically overcrowded. It seems calm as anything then all of a sudden,
it'll kick-off and some are huge incidents with multiple people involved.
Arthur Gorrie is one of two private prisons in Queensland, managed by GEO
Group Australia.
Mar 23, 2018 4bc.com.au
Handcuff key missing for three days in notorious jail
An investigation is underway after a handcuff key went missing from
Queensland’s Arthur Gorrie jail. Ray Hadley received a tip on Thursday that
the key had been lost on March 15 and wasn’t found until three days later.
It’s the second time in a week the prison’s operator GEO Group has come
under fire. An extendable baton was stolen from guards at Parklea
Correctional Centre last week and still hasn’t been found. Queensland
Corrective Services has released a statement following the incident: “At
about 5pm on March 15, a custodial officer at Arthur Gorrie Correctional
Centre reported a handcuff key missing. A range of searches were conducted
throughout the facility before the key was located on March 18. An
investigation is underway, and, as it is considered a major security
incident, GEO is required to provide a report into the incident to
Queensland Correctional Services.” GEO Group has a history of dismal
administration at the Parklea facility and their contract has now been
terminated.
Sep 29, 2017 couriermail.com.au
Arthur Gorrie and Southern Queensland correctional centre management
contracts out to tender
QUEENSLAND’S high-security private jails, deemed unsafe by staff, are set
for the biggest shake-up in 10 years as management contracts go out to
tender. Arthur Gorrie and Southern Queensland jails could get new
management after the State Government expressed its desire to have a local
operator. However, there are currently no jail management operators in
Queensland, opening the door for international applications. American-based
GEO group currently runs the high-risk Arthur Gorrie and UK-based SERCO
runs Southern Queensland, near Gatton, however both have been criticised
for their management and treatment of staff. Queensland Minister for Police
and Corrective Services Mark Ryan says a “Backing Queensland Jobs” policy
will apply to prison contracts. Staff claim the prisons have become
dangerous to work in, with not enough guards to patrol overcrowded units.
Strikes took place at Arthur Gorrie earlier this year as tensions reached
breaking point, with claims officers were forced to supervise more than 60
inmates. The number of inmates at the jail was yesterday 1175, or more than
30 per cent over capacity. The two providers were given a six-month
contract extension until mid-2018 but Corrections Minister Mark Ryan said
the tender would have a “Backing Queensland Jobs” policy. Potential
operators could include Core Civic, the largest private company in the US,
which has also been criticised for understaffing and violence. One of its
prisons was dubbed “Gladiator School”. Privately run prisons save the State
Government about $10 million a year. A Queensland audit report last year
found it cost the State Government $175 per prisoner a day, but private
operators were about 20 per cent cheaper. Opposition corrections spokesman
Tim Mander said: “This news only adds to the uncertainty around our prisons
which have been turned into fight clubs under Labor because they have
failed to deal with chronic overcrowding.” It’s unclear if the jails will
be advertised as one contract or if they will be separated.
Jul 8, 2017 dailymail.co.uk
High-security Queensland prison enters second day of lockdown amid
claims of overcrowding, drugs and prisoner violence
A Queensland high security prison remains in lockdown after correctives
officers were refused entry by the facility's state government-employed
operators. Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre in Brisbane's southeast went
into lockdown at 6am on Friday over an industrial relations dispute. The
lockdown started when 40 corrections officers were refused entry to the
establishment after a long-running dispute over work conditions. It comes
amid ongoing enterprise bargaining negotiations between staff and the state
government contracted GEO Group. United Voice spokesman Damien Davie said
GEO Group had formally notified union members the staff lockout would
continue on Saturday, reported Sky News. Mr Davie said prison staff had
called on the company to boost staff numbers to deal with overcrowding.
'There's currently one officer to between 36 and 40 (inmates), and
sometimes as bad as one to 62. There should be two on the floor at all
times.' He said staff shortages had led to assaults on officers, prisoner
violence, drugs in the prison going undetected and prisoner behaviour not
being properly addressed. A spokesman for Queensland Corrective Services
said it would not seek to interfere or influence EBA negotiations. 'In the
event of industrial action, GEO is responsible to ensure the safe and
secure operation of the facility,' said in a statement. Responding to
concerns that staff and inmate safety would be put at greater risk once the
lockdown was lifted, GEO Group spokesman Ken Davis said on Friday they
planned to cool heightened tensions among inmates with icecream. 'I don't know what (the prison manager)
will do when he lifts it ... we can go out and buy them ice creams or
something like that for their dessert,' Mr Davis said. A correctional officer at the centre said
it currently housed around 1200 inmates, despite having a single bed
capacity for 890 men with a maximum security wing for up to 18 inmates. 'In
the last couple of months we've had an officer knocked unconscious,' he
said. The officer told AAP the flow of undetected drugs had also risen, the
most common being Subutex, generally used to treat opioid addiction but
abused by inmates. He also said requests to double staff numbers and
address a culture of bullying had been ignored. 'There is a culture of bullying
from management and it comes down through the supervisors,' he said. 'They
just don't seem to want to hear about it. They, I believe, are more
concerned about their profits.' GEO Group spokesman Ken Davis declined to
provide the current officer to inmate ratio, referred questions about
staffing to the state government and denied bullying claims. He said only
two reports of bullying had been made in the 2016/17 financial year and
that both were found to be unsubstantiated. Mr Davis also denied Mr Davie's
claims staff assaults were under-reported and said additional officers were
brought on when the prison was over-crowded.
Jul 7, 2017 dailymail.co.uk
That should help them chill out! Security says it will give ICECREAM to
angry inmates at locked down high security prison
A company employed by the Queensland government to manage a
high-security prison in lockdown over an industrial relations dispute says
it will cool heightened-tensions among inmates with ice cream. The Arthur
Gorrie Correction Centre in Brisbane's southeast went into lockdown about
6am on Friday when 40 corrections officers were refused entry due to a
long-running dispute over work conditions. It comes amid ongoing enterprise
bargaining negotiations between staff and the state government contracted
GEO Group. Responding to concerns that staff and inmate safety would be put
at greater risk once the lockdown was lifted, GEO Group spokesman Ken Davis
said the prison's general manager would buy prisoners ice cream. 'I don't
know what (the prison manager) will do when he lifts it ... we can go out
and buy them ice creams or something like that for their dessert,' Mr Davis
said. United Voice spokesman Damien Davie said staff had called on the
company to boost staff numbers to deal with overcrowding. 'There's
currently one officer to between 36 and 40 (inmates), and sometimes as bad
as one to 62. There should be two on the floor at all times. 'That is
leading to assaults on our members, it's leading to prisoner violence,
drugs in the prison going undetected, prisoner behaviour not being
corrected, just sheerly due to the lack of boots on the ground.' A
correctional officer at the centre said it currently housed around 1200
inmates, despite having a single bed capacity for 890 men with a maximum security
wing for up to 18 inmates. 'In the last couple of months we've had an
officer knocked unconscious,' he said. The officer told AAP the flow of
undetected drugs had also risen, the most common being Subutex, generally
used to treat opioid addiction but abused by inmates. He also said requests
to double staff numbers and address a culture of bullying had been ignored.
'There is a culture of bullying from management and it comes down through
the supervisors,' he said. 'They just don't seem to want to hear about it.
They, I believe, are more concerned about their profits.' GEO Group
spokesman Ken Davis declined to provide the current officer to inmate
ratio, referred questions about staffing to the state government and denied
bullying claims. He said only two reports of bullying had been made in the
2016/17 financial year and that both were found to be unsubstantiated. Mr
Davis also denied Mr Davie's claims staff assaults were under-reported and
said additional officers were brought on when the prison was over-crowded.
A spokesman for Queensland Corrective Services said it would not seek to
interfere or influence EBA negotiations. 'In the event of industrial
action, GEO is responsible to ensure the safe and secure operation of the
facility,' said in a statement.
Jun 25, 2017 ouriermail.com.au
Raw sewage dumped behind Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre after jail
sewage pump failure
A TRUCK shipped sewage out of a Brisbane jail for weeks after a pump
“mechanical failure” in one of the cell blocks. The Courier-Mail has been
told the truck dumped the waste near railway lines behind Arthur Gorrie
Correctional Centre after the breakdown in “Whiskey Block”. The Department
of Environment and Heritage Protection was notified. “A sewage truck pumped
out tanks every two hours and dumps raw sewage,” a prison source said,
claiming it was at risk of flowing into the nearby creek. “In one of the
prisoner blocks the sewerage system has been broken for months.” The Arthur
Gorrie Correctional centre in Wacol. The waste was reportedly dumped near
the railway line behind the jail. The truck was used to pick up the waste
and dump it for up to 12 hours a day for weeks before a pump was fixed this
month. A Queensland Corrective Services spokeswoman confirmed there was a
mechanical failure of a sewage pump. Questions about costs, how much was
transported and if environmental reports were gathered were not answered.
The jail is run privately by GEO Group but the Department of Public Works
looks after facilities. “The pump was repaired as quickly as possible,” the
QCS spokeswoman said. “For a period of time sewage was transported off
site. We are not aware of any effluent spillage.” The Department of
Environment and Heritage Protection was advised the sewage pump station
overflow released an unknown amount of untreated wastewater to land, a day
after it happened in April. “The Department of Housing and Public Works
reported that the contaminant had been contained on-site and was not
released to the receiving environment,” a spokesman said. “Appropriate
steps were taken to isolate and clean the area.” The jail’s management also
engaged environmental consultants to help with the clean up. “The potential
for environmental harm was low and no further compliance action is required
at this stage,” the spokesman said. It comes as 10-year contracts for
Arthur Gorrie and Southern Queensland jails are about to end. The
Courier-Mail has been told they are likely to get a one-year extension –
without it necessarily being put out to tender. A spokeswoman said
“commercial in-confidence applies to all government contracts”. “QCS
strictly adheres to all guidelines around the conclusion of contracts and
the tendering process.”
Aug 14, 2014
brisbanetimes.com
A prison officer at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre
has been stood down after she publicly raised concerns about resources and
over-crowding at the Wacol prison. United Voice union delegate Kylie Muscat
on Tuesday went public with her concerns following the assault of a fellow
prison officer on Friday morning. She said overcrowding, under-resourcing
and a prisoners' smoking ban had made conditions for prison staff unsafe.
The story was first published by Fairfax Media about 1.30pm on Tuesday.
United Voice prisons co-ordinator Michael Clifford said within a few hours
of that story appearing online Ms Muscat had been suspended on full pay.
“She’s pretty devastated, but she’s also a very courageous union delegate
who knows what she’s doing is the right thing,” he said. Management of the
Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre has been outsourced to the Sydney-based
GEO Group since 1992. A spokesman for GEO said the only comment the company
would make was that Ms Muscat had been “suspended for breaching company
policy”. Mr Clifford said Ms Muscat had been suspended as an act of “pure
intimidation”. “This is an employer who should be addressing the safety
issues that Kylie is raising. Instead of addressing the safety issues,
they’re attacking the person that’s trying to have them addressed,” he
said. “This is just about intimidating people into silence. “There’s a lot
of talk in this country about free speech, but there’s a lot of employers
who think free speech stops the minute you walk inside the workplace, that
you don’t have a right to raise these sorts of issues.” Mr Clifford said Ms
Muscat’s actions were protected under the Fair Work Act section 346, which
protects people involved in industrial activity from “adverse action”. “She
is a union delegate – she can and should raise safety issues and, if
they’re not being addressed, she should do whatever it takes to make sure
they are addressed and that’s what she was doing,” he said. “…Kylie was
fulfilling her role as a union delegate and not talking as an employee of
Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre. “Under the Fair Work Act, union
delegates have rights to pursue the industrial interests of their members
without any adverse action from employers. “So, our union will be writing
to GEO today. They can expect a letter from our lawyers identifying that we
believe they are in breach of those provisions of the act and we’ll be
asking them to cease any action they’re taking against Kylie.” The GEO
spokesman would not comment on United Voice’s claim the move breached the
Fair Work Act. Mr Clifford said the union would back Ms Muscat “100 per
cent of the way”. “It’s not just Kylie,” he said. “All union delegates and
members know that they have the right to speak up about safety issues in
the workplace, particularly when those safety issues are life threatening.”
November 24, 2013
heraldsun.com.au
YEARS in US and Thai jails, a book published
about his drug smuggling exploits - resumes don't come much more colourful
than Phil Sparrowhawk's. Yet when he applied for a job at Brisbane's Arthur
Gorrie Correctional Centre, nobody bothered to ask about his dark
international past. Sparrowhawk, who managed to humiliate prison
authorities by working undetected under their noses for three years,
revealed yesterday just how easily he pulled off the extraordinary security
breach. And in another damning twist, The Sunday Mail can reveal the prison
management's claim on Friday that Sparrowhawk worked only as an
administration clerk and had no prisoner contact was wrong. Yesterday the
red-faced jail was forced to admit Sparrowhawk interviewed incoming
prisoners daily and held roles which allowed him to access all prisoners'
files and records. In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Mail, Philip
Sparrowhawk has revealed how he even worked with prisoners as a corrective
services officer inside the jail. Sparrowhawk, the subject of a Random
House book, Grass, about his former international drug smuggling lifestyle,
says nobody at the jail ever asked him any questions about his past.
Although prison managers GEO on Friday claimed Sparrowhawk only worked as
an administration clerk, with no prisoner contact, it has now confirmed he
had daily contact with prisoners. GEO spokesman Ken Davis said yesterday
Sparrowhawk was an administration clerk, but also worked in sentence
management administration and as a prisoner classification specialist. The
jobs allowed him access to all prisoners' files and computer records and he
interviewed incoming prisoners. Mr Davis said once the prison became aware
of internet stories about him being a drug smuggler and ex-prisoner, checks
revealed no evidence he was involved with drugs in jail. "I do deny I
was a drug smuggler. I was never convicted of anything,'' Sparrowhawk says.
"If you are asked have you ever killed anybody you don't say 'yes I
have', you say 'I've never been convicted of it'.'' Sparrowhawk, who worked
in Arthur Gorrie from March, 2010, was suspended in September and sacked
three weeks ago, says he had nothing to do with drugs inside the jail. When
asked why he wanted to work in a Queensland jail after having been in
overseas prisons he says he just wanted a job and he loved the work.
"I never abused my position at GEO," he said. "I took every
available course and test available … and passed all requirements''
Sparrowhawk says he was arrested in Thailand, held in jails there and then
extradited to the US where he was charged with racketeering as part of a
criminal organisation. After five years of being moved between more than 40
jails, he says the charge was dropped. Sparrowhawk claims there are "a
lot of people working at Arthur Gorrie who are involved with a criminal
organisation''. Speaking about how he got his prison job so easily he said:
"You fill out an application form and I answered it truthfully''.
Sparrowhawk is cagey when questioned about the book, which claims he was a
large-scale cannabis dealer from Thailand who was targeted by the US Drug
Enforcement Agency. He says the book, which has his name on the cover, was
written by others and any money he received he donated to charity. Former
UK drug lord and convicted racketeer Howard Marks, known as Mr Nice, who is
a friend of Sparrowhawk, referred to him on the book cover as "Mr
Big''. Sparrowhawk hints at having been involved with British secret
intelligence service MI6, as does Marks. When asked about it he says:
"I've worked for a lot of people and I've signed a lot of these
official secret acts for a lot of different countries.'' Sparrowhawk says
he has left Australia and is about to take up a consultancy for a security
agency in Vienna.
March 11, 2010 ABC
Queensland's Indigenous community will march on State Parliament today,
enraged over the circumstances surrounding a recent death in custody. An
18-year-old prisoner died late last month and there are claims Brisbane
jail staff denied him adequate medical treatment even though he was too
sick to walk. Today's march coincides with the reopened inquest into the
controversial Palm Island death in custody. Prison chaplain Reverend Alex
Gator says inmates at the Arthur Gorrie correctional centre called her with
news of the latest tragedy last month. "This young youth, only 18
years of age, he had spent five weeks on remand and then the five weeks he
was at Arthur Gorrie he became ill, so he was ill for six days," she
said. "The first time he'd gone to the medical centre he was given
Panadol, other times he'd gone he was told that there was nothing wrong
with him. So he was repeatedly denied medical assistance. "Towards the
end the boys had to carry him, the Murri boys in his unit had to carry him,
because he could hardly walk. "They nearly caused a riot, the Murri
boys. They yelled out to the officer, 'get him to the hospital' because
something was wrong with him. "And one officer made the comment, 'Well
if he can go to the toilet, there's nothing wrong with him'." Reverend
Gator says the teenager was ultimately rushed to hospital and put on life
support. But he died a few days later on February 20. "I conducted a
memorial service. The boys said they only saw him a couple of weeks ago
talking, laughing, joking and next thing they hear this young man is
dead," she said. Reverend Gator says the teenager should never have
been put in jail because he had a serious pre-existing medical condition.
"That is the question we're asking - why? Why was he in prison, not in
hospital? I mean he wasn't a terrorist, a paedophile, rapist or a
murderer," she said. "He was in there for a misdemeanour. And as
far as I'm concerned, it's just racial discrimination towards Aboriginal
people. This is about racial hatred attitudes towards Aboriginal people.
"They're deliberately turned away and told there's nothing wrong with
them. And Corrective Services have failed in their duty of care to provide
a service to this young man." 'Could have been avoided' -- Brisbane
Indigenous community leader Sam Watson says news of the death in custody
has spread like wildfire. "We are very concerned about this because
this appears to be yet another Aboriginal death in custody that could have
been avoided, that should have been avoided," he said. Queensland
Corrective Services has issued a written statement saying "there are
no suspicious causes" in the teenager's death. The statement adds that
all deaths in custody are referred to the coroner and to the chief
inspector of prisons for investigation. But Mr Watson says the Indigenous
community is calling on the Queensland Government to instigate a full
coronial inquest. "There have to be a lot of questions answered. We
want to get to the bottom of this and we want to do it very, very quickly,"
he said.
June 1, 2008 Courier Mail
A CAREER criminal on remand for assault was accidentally released from a
privately run Brisbane jail last week. Three prison staff have been
suspended over the security bungle at the Arthur Gorrie correctional centre
at Wacol in Brisbane's west. Prison sources said the breach occurred when
staff were processing the inmate for release into police custody. Police
had been granted a court order to remove the inmate on Tuesday in relation
to a break-and-enter investigation. However, prison staff discharged the
inmate for release and gave him his property. Police arrived to collect him
from a high-security area at the rear of the jail, which is used for
transferring inmates, but they were directed to the reception area.
Queensland Corrective Services denied the man was wrongfully discharged,
saying the jail's operator, the GEO Group Australia, had reported there had
been a "breach of internal security procedures". She said at no
time was the inmate, who has since been returned to the jail, not in prison
or police custody. She confirmed jail management suspended three staff as a
result of an internal report on the incident and an investigation was under
way. State Opposition prisons spokesman Vaughan Johnson demanded a full
investigation into the incident, saying the jail had mismanaged the
custodial process.
January 19, 2008 ABC
Prison guards who walked off the job at Queensland's biggest remand
centre yesterday are now back at work. Brisbane's Arthur Gorrie
Correctional Centre had been locked down since Friday afternoon, with only
a skeleton management team running the centre and police patrolling the
perimetre. The guards began their strike after being ordered to stop
handcuffing prisonners with their hands behind their backs. The remand
facility operators, Geo, had requested a hearing before the Industrial
Relations Commission this morning, but Geo spokesman Pierre Langford says
Geo and the Miscellaneous Workers Union representing the guards will
instead continue their talks on Monday. "I suppose I would like to say
on behalf of Geo Group Australia that we appreciate the assistance that the
commission has provided us with today," he said. "At this point
in time the parties have agreed to get back together early next week, to
have further discussions and our employees have returned to work today, so
we're pleased with that."
October 25, 2006 Townsville Bulletin
A TENDER for the state's two privately-run prisons is not a criticism of
the current operators, the Queensland Government said today. Corrective
Services Minister Judy Spence said new tenders to run Borallon and Arthur
Gorrie correctional centres, valued at a total of $200 million, would
ensure taxpayers got value for money. "It is not about the performance
of the current operators,'' Ms Spence said. The
has been under fire in recent years
over a number of deaths in custody, security failures and assaults on
prisoners by staff. Borallon made headlines four years ago when a report
showed it had the highest rate of illicit drug use in the state, with
almost one in three prisoners using drugs. Four companies will be invited
to tender: GEO Group Australia Pty Ltd, GSL Australia Pty Ltd, Management
and Training Corporation Pty Ltd and Serco Australia Pty Ltd. GEO currently
operates Arthur Gorrie, and Management and Training Corporation operates
Borallon. Ms Spence said the contracts would be for five years, with an
option for Queensland Corrective Services to extend them for a further five
years. The tenders will be evaluated in the first half of next year with
new contracts to start on January 1, 2008. An independent probity auditor
has been contracted to oversee the entire project.
November 30, 2005 Australian
THE bonus and penalty system on which private prisons in Australia are run
has been accused of encouraging operators to cover up riots and drug abuse
by prisoners. Queensland Prison Officers Association secretary Brian Newman
yesterday accused private prison operators of covering up incidents in
their facilities that could threaten performance bonuses worth up to
$500,000 a year. "Nine years ago I worked at Arthur Gorrie
(Correctional Centre at Wacol, west of Brisbane) and I would make drug
finds but the drugs would be flushed down the toilet in front of me by
senior officials," Mr Newman said. "You were powerless to do
anything about it. "Anecdotal evidence given to me is that it still
goes on today. There is no incentive for privately run prisons to report
incidents." The management contract of Arthur Gorrie operator, the GEO
Group, formerly known as Australasian Correctional Management, with the
Queensland Government provides a $500,000 performance bonus to prevent
crime, drug abuse and riots. The Arthur Gorrie contract, a copy of which
has been obtained by The Australian, says the $500,000 bonus will be
reduced by $100,000 for each escape, "loss of control (riot)" or
death in custody. Penalties of $25,000 are also imposed for a string of
problems such as discharging a prisoner in error, assaults by prisoners
resulting in injury or a case of self-harm or attempted suicide. Other
incidents that incur the $25,000 penalty include serious industrial
injuries, deliberately lit fires, major security breaches such as attempted
escapes or hostage-taking and loss of high-risk restricted articles. If
random urine tests disclose that drug use in the prison is higher than 9
per cent and does not reduce towards the target of 4per cent, the penalty
applicable is also $25,000. The bonuses and penalty provisions are the same
for the contracts the GEO Group, the Australian subsidiary of the
Miami-based Wackenhut, has with the Victorian and NSW governments to run
the Melbourne Custody Centre and the Fulham and Junee prisons. Mr Newman
said his association had asked the Queensland Government to conduct an
inquiry into allegations by staff at Arthur Gorrie that
"incidents" had been covered up "to avoid financial penalty
to breach of contract". GEO Group is paid almost $800 a week for each
of the 710 prisoners housed at Arthur Gorrie. A spokesman for Queensland
Corrective Services Minister Judy Spence yesterday confirmed that contracts
for privately run prisons did provide for performance bonuses.
"However, we are not able to confirm amounts or any details on
payments or deductions regarding the bonuses as these matters are
commercial in confidence," he said. Col Kelaher, GEO Group executive
manager of operations, said he could not comment on the contract with the
Government.
January
26, 2005 South-West News
WORKERS at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre at Wacol staged a strike
from noon Friday to 5pm on Saturday over a wages and conditions dispute.
The Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union accused correctional centre
owners GEO Group of not meeting its obligations under the Queensland
Industrial Relations Act. Union prisons organiser David Pullen said the
centre's 700 prisoners were locked down in cells during the strike. GEO
group managing director Pieter Bezuidenhout said the action ended after an
IRC officer recommended a return to work.
December
24, 2004 Courier Mail
QUEENSLAND'S prisons are overcrowded and urgently require more funding
to stop the growing number of inmate deaths, a report by a state coroner
has found. The findings came at the end of an inquiry
into the suicide of prisoner William Mark Bailey in November 2002 at the
Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre. Deputy state coroner Christine Clements
found no one else was responsible for Bailey's death and recommended no
further action. Arthur
Gorrie, a remand and reception centre that temporarily holds prisoners
awaiting court hearings, can hold up to 800 people. It is managed by GEO
Group Australia but owned by the Queensland Corrective Services department.
"Evidence was given that there are 250 cells at Arthur Gorrie but at
the time of the inquest there were 750 prisoners being held at the
facility," Ms Clements said.
Auckland
Central Remand Prison
September 28, 2009 NZCity
Further doubt is being cast on the claimed efficiency of privately run
prisons. The Green Party's pointing to evidence presented during Selected
Committee hearings on private prisons legislation about the historical cost
of the Auckland Remand Prison when it was in private hands. The Greens say
it shows the cost per prisoner was over $57 thousand a year compared to
around $50 thousand in the public system. The party says it proves there
can be no justification for claims private prisons are cheaper than public
ones. Meanwhile, special monitors are being proposed as part of the
oversight for privately run prisons. Parliament's Law and Order Select
Committee has reported back on the private prisons bill and is recommending
additional checks and balances be put in place. It advises special monitors
employed by the Department of Corrections be given free and unfettered
access to the facilities to ensure proper standards are met. The Committee
also recommends all private prison operators be required to comply with
instructions from the Chief Executive of the Corrections Department.
July 31, 2009 Radio New Zealand
ACT MP David Garrett says he does not believe he intimidated two
submitters to Parliament's law and order select committee, as alleged by
the Labour Party. Labour Party MP Clayton Cosgrove believes Mr Garrett
breached parliamentary privilege when he told two prison guards their
submission would stop them from getting a job in a privately run prison. He
says Mr Garrett's behaviour was shameful, and brought the select committee
process into disrepute. Mr Cosgrove says the guards had experience working
under private prison management and were providing expert opinions.
Corrections Minister Judith Collins has also weighed in, saying the
comments were totally inappropriate. But Mr Garrett says it was never his
intention to intimidate, and he is looking forward to responding to
Labour's complaint. Speaker of the House Lockwood Smith will decide whether
to refer the matter to Parliament's privileges committee.
July 29, 2009 3 News
An MP from government confidence and supply party ACT today told prison
officers who spoke out against private prisons that they had hurt their
future job prospects. David Garrett's remark came hot on the heals of
accusations yesterday that the Government attempted to intimidate and
silence people. Those claims were sparked by Social Development Minister
Paula Bennett releasing benefit details of two women who criticised a
government decision to cut a training allowance. Today a group of prison
officers, representing 30 officers who had previously worked for a
privately run prison, made a submission to Parliament's law and order
select committee which is considering legislation to enable private
operators to run prisons. After Bart Birch, Uaea Leavasa and Satish Prasad
criticised how Auckland Central Remand Prison was run under private
contractor GEO Ltd between 2000 and 2005, Mr Garrett weighed in. "You
say that you don't want to go back to working in this environment - to the
private (sector). You'd be aware that given your submission here, you
wouldn't get offered a job anyway, would you?" Other MPs on the
committee were visibly disturbed by the remark and National's Shane Ardern
was quick to reassure the men they should feel free to speak their minds
before a committee of Parliament. "Can I say from my own party you can
sit here without fear or favour," he said. Acting chairman on the
committee Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove added his support for Mr Ardern's
remark. Corrections Association of New Zealand president Beven Hanlon told
NZPA he thought the remark out of line. The union already had concerns
about Mr Garrett's involvement in the Sensible Sentencing Trust which
advocates for tougher and longer sentencing. "All the things that private
prisons advocate for," he said. "For him to then threaten staff
over (their) future employment is a great concern." Mr Cosgrove
described the comment as "Bennett mark two". "(People)
should be able to come to a select committee without fear or favour to give
their view." Mr Garrett's tone had been badgering and he carried that
style on when other submitters made presentations, Mr Cosgrove said.
"I think he needs to learn that we live in a democracy and in a
democracy ... you're allowed to have a view and we should (give) people the
respect of actually listening. "But he's behaving like a bully and I
guess it is Paula Bennett mark two." Mr Garrett stood by his comment
when questioned by media. "They were quite clearly extremely negative
about the private prison managing company. It would seem to be most
unlikely they would get a job with that company." He agreed the select
committee process should be open and MPs should not stymie free exchange
but did not think he had affected that. "They have the right to say whatever
they like ... I didn't see I was stymying free debate at all." Asked
why he felt compelled to talk about the officers' job prospects rather than
ask questions about the bill, Mr Garrett said their motives were relevant
and he had no regrets. "It was certainly no attempt to stifle the
debate." Mr Garrett walked away when NZPA asked him to comment on the
union view it was a threatening remark. In their submission, the officers
said they had worked both for GEO and the Corrections Department. Under private
management the focus was on protecting the company's reputation. They said
under GEO staff were told to resign rather than have negligence revealed,
an incident where a woman allegedly helped a relative escape was not
investigated, and systems were not robust in areas like drug control and
suicide. Another complaint was that GEO paid less for local workers and
used contractors from Australia to fill gaps who were on salaries as much
as $30,000 higher. Those contractors appeared unaware of cultural issues
for Maori and Pacific inmates. Other casual workers were used and had lower
levels of training and experience than full time staff who were not
familiar with the prison, which raised risk levels.
July 1, 2009 The National Business Review
The State should be responsible for prisoners not private companies, the
Human Rights Commission said today. Chief Human Rights Commissioner Rosslyn
Noonan appeared before Parliament's law and order select committee which is
considering the Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons Amendment)
Bill. Senior managers from private prison company GEO Group were present
and heard groups condemn their business. The firm ran Auckland Central
Remand Prison (ACRP) for five years until Labour won the 1999 election and
refused to renew its contract. Ms Noonan said protecting the rights of
detainees was a key function of government and should not be contracted
out. "The management of prisons involves the exercise of some of the
state's most coercive powers against individuals," the commission's
submission said. "There should be direct accountability for the
exercise of such powers. A government department directly accountable to a
minister provides the clearest accountability." If the bill was to go
ahead the commission wanted its monitoring measures beefed up.
Recommendations included protecting staff from being sacked if they gave
information to monitors and permitting prisoners to complain directly to
monitors. Also prisons should be required to comply with international
conventions around torture. Ms Noonan said early intervention would make
the biggest difference. She called for willingness across parties not to
make political capital out of the issue. Catholic organisation Caritas was
concerned problems in the United States' private prisons -- such as
beatings, rapes, suicides and other deaths in custody -- would be repeated
here. It noted that in the US the same people running private prisons were
also involved in lobbying government for longer sentences. GEO Group
Australia managing director Pieter Bezuidenhout said his company had
managed prisons in Australia for 17 years, operating in Queensland,
Victoria and New South Wales.
July 19, 2006 NewstalkZB
The Government has no plans to privatise prisons. United Future leader
Peter Dunne has asked about the Government's plans for prisons following a
Treasury report revealing each inmate costs $77,000 a year to be cared for.
The report recommends competition for prison services be introduced.
Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor is ruling out privatisation. He says
it is $10,000 a year cheaper to keep inmates in public prisons than the
private Auckland Central Remand Prison.
July 19, 2005 Stuff
An inmate in Auckland's former private prison who stowed away in a shipping
container to depart New Zealand should be sent back here to face rape
charges, says a Fiji court. The Suva Magistrate's Court recommended
that Shumendra Nilesh Chandra, 30, a computer operator, of Auckland be sent
back to New Zealand. Australasian Correctional Management,
which managed Auckland Central Remand Prison until its contract expired
recently, had to pay the Government $50,000 for the escape, under the terms
of its contract. The company said at the time that its investigation
into how Chandra allegedly slipped his handcuffs and fled guards was unable
to find out how he did it.
July 13, 2005 Scoop
The return today of New Zealand's only privately run prison to public
sector management is an opportunity for the Corrections Department to prove
it can deliver a first-class service, Green Party Justice Spokesperson
Nandor Tanczos says. The Department took over management of Auckland
Central Remand Prison from the GEO Group at midnight last night. "The
Green Party welcomes the handover today of the management of the Auckland
Central Remand Prison to the public sector," Nandor says. "I call
on new Corrections Department CEO Barry Matthews to use this as an
opportunity to deliver best prison practice. There is no reason why the
public sector can't provide a better service than the private and now is
the time for Mr Matthews to demonstrate this. "International
experience shows widespread abuse and poor conditions in many privately run
prisons. ACRP was clearly a loss leader designed to be a foot in the door
for the private prison conglomerates. It is extremely unlikely that any
further private prisons here would all be run as well as ACRP was by Mr
Karauria and his team. "But
the principle issue is that prisons must be run by the public sector. As
one of the most tangible manifestations of state power, they must be fully
accountable to the people of New Zealand. A profit-driven service is
ultimately only accountable to its overseas shareholders. "There
have been some clear cases of this lack of accountability in Australia. For
example ACM, the predecessor to Geo, placed a contractual obligation upon
some of their staff to not provide information to the judiciary, which
would have the effect of inhibiting the investigation of abuse and
mismanagement. "It must also be remembered that private prisons can
have a corrupting influence on the political system, in that they create a
profit motive to the lobby for longer custodial sentences. "The Green
Party have taken a number of steps to increase accountability in the public
sector through changes to the Corrections Act and a written commitment to
the establishment of an independent prison inspectorate from the Labour-led
Government," Nandor says.
July 13, 2005 Scoop
The Public Service Association (PSA) is welcoming the return of the
Auckland Central Remand Prison to the public prisons service. The Public
Service Association (PSA) is New Zealand’s largest state sector union, and
has a growing membership at the Department of Corrections. The contract
between the Department and Australasian Correctional Management Limited to
run the remand prison expired overnight. It will now be run by the
Department of Corrections. PSA National Secretary Brenda Pilott said
workers employed by the private prison operator had, in effect, made the
operation profitable since they were employed on poorer terms and
conditions than the rest of the nation’s prison staff. “Imprisoning people
for the crimes they have committed is a core role of the state and it
should never be hived off to a private operator for profit. “The ACRP
experiment proved that the exercise was a simple cost-cutting exercise of
the type imposed across the public sector during the 1990s. “It employed
fewer officers per inmate and paid them less than staff employed by
Corrections at all the other prisons across the country. “At a time when
Corrections is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain
quality staff it beggars belief that National would advocate greater use of
private prison contracts. More private prisons would inevitably drag down
pay and conditions for all prison staff and make recruitment even harder. “National’s advocacy of tougher, longer sentences
for a wider range of offences means it must be planning to employ many more
prison staff. We have to ask who they think is going to staff them?,”
Brenda Pilott said.
July 13, 2005 New Zealand Herald
Prisons run by private companies are not an option, Corrections Minister
Paul Swain says. Opposition parties
have said that ending private participation in the prison system is a
triumph of ideology over commonsense, but Mr Swain said the simple issue
was that private companies should not make profits out of prisoners.
However, Auckland Central Remand Prison (ACRP) was well managed before it
was handed back to the state today. "In the end, we have a public
prison service, a public police force, a public courts system," he
said on National Radio. "This is a role the Government or the public
should be involved in, not the private sector."
July
12, 2005 Scoop
The GEO Group, holders of the private management
contract for the Auckland Central Remand Prison, said today that although
they were extremely disappointed that the contract had come to a close they
would like to thank all of those people who have supported them during
their time in New Zealand. The contract ends at midnight on July 12.
Ault Correctional Facility, Ault, Colorado
May 9, 2007 Greeley Tribune
Plans for a private prison in Ault came to a halt recently when Colorado
Department of Corrections rescinded its offer to GEO Group. Ault Mayor Brad
Bayne said board members haven't discussed the prison for months.
"Until there was some sort of guarantee, we'd just rather not talk
about it," he said. "There is probably some disappointment from
me and a few board members who believe we still could have made it work for
the town." Talk of the 1,500-bed medium-security prison proposed last
spring has bought some uproar in the town of fewer than 1,500 residents. Some
said a prison coming to town would boost the town's economy, but others
said it would be too dangerous because of its proximity to the town. The
plan was to build on 40 acres in the southeast part of town. Last spring,
the GEO Group entered into a tentative agreement with the town -- which
approved the prison in concept only -- so it could secure state approval to
build there. Months later, the town board passed an ordinance requiring
resident approval before any prison could be built. Town officials haven't
heard from a GEO Group representative since September, when GEO hosted a
public forum answering questions from residents, he said. But DOC Executive
Director Ari Zavaras put a stop to all discussions with the private prison
contractor. He sent a letter April 24 to representatives of GEO Group,
stating they would no longer discuss the plans for the Ault prison or GEO's
request for a guaranteed bed count. "We had continued to have a very
open and productive conversations with GEO," said Allison Morgan, spokesperson
for the DOC. "But we did not agree with a bed guarantee." GEO
requested a guarantee on the number of beds that would be filled by
prisoners at any given time, since the state pays private prison
contractors a daily rate per inmate. Phillip Tidwell, a member of the
Citizens Against Ault Prison, said the decision to rescind the DOC offer to
GEO Group made him happy. "We're definitely feeling this is a
responsible act from both parties," Tidwell said. "The contract
should have never been fulfilled by the state because of GEO making the
specifications with the state for a guaranteed bed count." In the
letter to rescind, Zavaras stated that in June 2006, the DOC offered a
contract with GEO Group with the exception to GEO's request for a bed guarantee.
On July 7, the DOC asked for GEO group to sign and complete the proposed
implementation agreement. After a few meetings, GEO Group still requested a
bed guarantee, which the DOC could not grant. The two entities have gone
back and forth on the bed guarantee issue since August. According to the
letter, Zavaras gave GEO a new deadline of April 2 to sign the
Implementation Agreement or provide a reason for not signing in writing to
the DOC no later than that date. "It was apparent the Department and GEO
could not come to an agreement," Morgan said.
April 18, 2007 Colorado For Ethics
The Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) responded to a March 5, 2007,
open records request by Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government (CCEG)
that sought documents relating to a private prison contract awarded by CDOC
to The GEO Group, Inc. The documents obtained by CCEG confirm that former
Director of Prisons Nolin Renfrow began working for The GEO Group while
still on state payroll, a blatant conflict of interest. In an email to
Brian Burnett, the deputy executive director of CDOC, Dave Schouweiler, DOC
Manager of Purchasing, stated that Renfrow was on state payroll until
January 31, 2006 and acknowledged the “impropriety of Mr. Renfrow’s
involvement with the originating procurement.” The CORA request and
responsive documents are available on CCEG’s website at
www.coloradoforethics.org. CCEG is posting these records as part of its
commitment to holding the government responsible for its actions.
March 6, 2007 Greeley Tribune
Saying GEO Group Inc. can't be trusted, a Pueblo lawmaker asked state
officials Monday to rescind a contract with the company to build a private
prison in Ault. Plans for the prison, which would house 1,500 inmates and
would be built east of the railroad tracks along U.S. 85, has stalled on
two fronts. Ault leaders decided they would not approve the facility until
the public voted on it, and GEO wants to change its contract to ensure
payment for its beds. Rep. Liane "Buffie" McFadyen, D-Pueblo
West, a vocal critic of private prisons, said Monday that the proposed
change and other issues regarding GEO's integrity should negate the Ault
contract. “Anybody living in Ault should be concerned that a company that
would bid this way on a contract might have a business in their town,"
she said. Philip Tidwell, spokesman for the town group Coalition Against
Ault Prison, said residents hope no one else bids on the Ault prison if
GEO's contract is rescinded. "We just do not want any private prison,
whether it be GEO or Cornell or anyone else," he said. A spokesman for
GEO did not return calls seeking comment. McFadyen said the company is
attempting to do the same things in Ault that derailed plans for a GEO
facility in Pueblo. In 2003, GEO won a contract for a 1,100-bed, pre-parole
and parole revocation facility in Pueblo, and after almost four years of
delays, the state pulled the contract last fall. The company never broke
ground on the facility. "The state of Colorado was held hostage for
four years waiting for those beds," McFadyen said. The delays included
zoning issues in Pueblo and GEO's attempt to obtain guaranteed payments on
90 percent of its beds, regardless of whether the beds were occupied. That
is something state leaders have opposed and which may even be impossible
because of state laws, McFadyen said. Now, GEO is trying for guaranteed bed
payments in Ault, she said. "You have to question the integrity of the
2006 bid," she said. "If past performance is an indicator, I
suspect we will be in the same place we were in 2003 in Pueblo."
McFadyen said Ari Zavaras, the new director of the Department of
Corrections, told her he is opposed to bed guarantees. Corrections
spokeswoman Alison Morgan told the Associated Press that Zavaras will
review McFadyen's request and decide how to respond. The story of Ault's
possible prison goes back to late 2005, when Nolin Renfrow, former director
of prisons for the Department of Corrections, started working with GEO on a
bid for a private prison. Renfrow is under investigation for using state
sick leave to obtain the Ault contract on behalf of GEO. On Monday,
Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government, a watchdog group, filed an open
records request about the Ault bid. "We do not feel that the public's
interest was put forth in the procurement of this contract," said
Chantelle Taylor, spokeswoman for the watchdog group. A state audit found
Renfrow's business activities "arguably present a conflict of interest
and result in a breach of ... the public trust." That breach, coupled
with GEO's attempt to change its Pueblo contract by adding the bed-payment
guarantee, should have prevented the company from getting the Ault bid in
the first place, McFadyen said. Tidwell agreed. "One thing the state
should recognize is (GEO) did not operate fairly," he said. "They
hired an insider knowing he worked for the state. In my mind, GEO has shown
itself to be not a company that operates fairly in the state of Colorado.
March 5, 2007 Rocky Mountain News
Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, and two reform groups today
formally requested the director of the Department of Corrections and the
governor rescind Geo Group’s bid to build a private prison in Ault. The
reasons cited included the company’s performance on a 2003 bid to build a
private prison in Pueblo. McFadyen said GEO Group lost its contract to
build the Pueblo facility because it delayed the start of construction,
then tried to renegotiate its contract to get a guarantee that it would be
paid for 90 percent occupancy, even if beds were not filled.
"Basically, the state of Colorado was held hostage for four years.
They didn’t even break ground," McFadyen said. In her letter to Ari
Zavaras, executive director of DOC, she said, "It would appear that
the state’s best interests were not served by allowing GEO group to bid any
contract with the state because of its lack of performance on tis 2003
award." Officials with Geo Group could not be reached for comment
Monday afternoon. Alison Morgan, spokeswoman for the DOC, said Zavaras was
aware of the letter being sent by McFadyen, but had not seen it Monday.
"Since he was not with the department during the RFP (request for
proposals) process, it is an issue that he is still studying and is being
briefed on," said Morgan. "Once he has all the information,
including McFadyen’s letter, he would welcome an opportunity to sit down
and talk to her."
December 26, 2006 Greeley Tribune
After the state Department of Corrections pulled its contract with the GEO
Group to build a prison in Pueblo, Ault residents wonder about GEO's
proposed prison plans in their backyard. While some speculate that the
department's decision to pull the contract will halt the company's plans
for Ault, others say it has changed nothing. For Phillip Tidwell, a member
of the Citizens Against Ault Prison, the Department of Correction's
decision in Pueblo was good news for his own fight. "We are elated ...
finally someone will investigate them," he said. "The board is
not calling off anything, but to me, like the DOC, why hasn't Ault pulled
out on our contract with them? They're not truthful, not honest from the
beginning ... Now, we don't feel alone. We will continue our own fight, it
just feels like we're being assisted by the DOC." The contract was
canceled for the Pueblo prison after concern about Geo's lack of progress
on the project. The corrections department said that after four years, the
company failed to respond to inquiries from them and failed to break ground
on the Pueblo facility. In Ault, the state awarded the GEO Group the right to
build a 1,500-bed medium security men's prison on 40 acres in the southeast
part of town. Despite the initial discussions, there still are no final
decisions on the Ault proposal. Ault Mayor Brad Bayne said the department's
decision about the Pueblo facility won't change what's happening in Ault.
"The town hasn't changed its views on this," he said. He said for
the prison to be built in the town, there has to be a guarantee from the
state, a negotiation between the town and the GEO Group that makes sense
and a vote of residents to approve the plans. Town officials haven't heard
from a GEO Group representative since September when GEO hosted a public
forum answering questions from residents, he said. "... We're in a
holding pattern until the state guarantees the matter," he added. The
plan first came to light at the end of May when the GEO Group gave a
proposal to the Ault Town Board. According to meeting minutes,
representatives from GEO said the project would be funded through a local
government bond, where the state pays the local government, which then pays
GEO. They said the facility would house 1,500 beds, but the request for
proposal on the project would allow up to 2,250 beds. To fight the project,
Citizens Against Ault Prison demanded an injunction on the town's code
which will require a vote of residents to decide the fate of the prison.
The injunction, which was signed by 297 voters, was approved by board
members in November.
December 16, 2006 The Gazette
State prison officials have canceled a contract for a new private
prison in Pueblo, a move that casts doubt on how much Colorado will be able
to rely on private prisons while it copes with a crowding crisis. The GEO
Group, which was awarded a contract in 2003 to build the Pueblo pre-release
prison, has also been contracted to build and operate a prison in Ault, in
northeastern Colorado. But the same issue that doomed the Pueblo project —
the company’s insistence it be guaranteed nearly full occupancy — could
derail the latter prison, because GEO is making a similar demand. “If GEO’s
going to demand a bed guarantee, they need to leave the state,” said state
Rep. Buffie McFadyen, a Pueblo Democrat and leading critic of private
prisons. “It is not the job of the Colorado taxpayers to ensure profits for
this corporation.” The Pueblo prison was delayed repeatedly: by zoning
issues, by a legal challenge from a prison-reform group and by several
revisions to the plan by GEO. But the final impasse began this summer, when
the company asked for a 90 percent minimum occupancy guarantee for the
prison, which wasn’t a condition of the original proposal and was opposed
by Department of Corrections officials. Private prisons are paid a daily
rate per inmate by the state, currently $52. Last month, the DOC denied a contract-extension
request, and on Thursday informed the company that it was canceling the
contract. “Ground has not broken, and GEO has given no indication when, or
even if, it plans to commence construction,” DOC executive director Joe
Ortiz wrote. “Our patience cannot be infinite.” The department is facing an
acute crowding problem. Years of canceled prison-construction projects and
steady growth in court caseloads have created a shortage of prison beds.
The DOC this week began shipping 720 inmates out of state, a temporary
solution until new beds become available. With only one state prison under
construction, Colorado State Penitentiary II in Cañon City, the DOC this
year awarded contracts to three companies to build prisons for 3,776
inmates. The GEO Group’s proposed 1,500-bed prison in Ault is a major part
of the plan. Alison Morgan, head of private-prison monitoring for the DOC,
said the department still expects GEO to follow through on its proposal in
Ault. “We are treating the Pueblo facility and the Ault facility
separately. We have from Day 1, and we will continue to do so,” Morgan said
Friday. However, GEO is making the same demand for guaranteed occupancy for
the Ault prison. Asked whether the DOC is still opposed to a guarantee, she
said, “It is a policy decision to be addressed by the new administration
(of Gov.-elect Bill Ritter) and the General Assembly.” The local community
isn’t even sure it wants a prison. Ault’s town board last month passed an
ordinance requiring voter approval for the prison. No election date has
been set. McFadyen said she doesn’t believe GEO ever intended to complete
the Pueblo prison, and she doubts the company’s ability and will to follow
through in Ault. “We’ve been set back three years in our planning,”
McFadyen said. “I think that kind of delay is unacceptable, and we’ll learn
from this experience and not allow another contract to drag on for three
years.” A call to a spokesman in the company’s Boca Raton, Fla.,
headquarters was not returned Friday afternoon. An audit requested by
Mc-Fadyen regarding the bidding process for the Ault prison was released
this week. It showed that a top DOC official set up a consulting business
to help GEO win the bid while he was employed by the state. Because the DOC
is based in Colorado Springs, the office of 4th Judicial District Attorney
John Newsome will receive the results of the investigation and determine
whether any law was broken. Morgan said the DOC will issue a new request
for proposals for a pre-release prison.
December 14, 2006 Pueblo Chieftain
A three-year effort to build a private prison facility at the Pueblo
Memorial Airport Industrial Park appears to be dead after the Colorado
Department of Corrections and the prison company reached an impasse over
guaranteed occupancies. On Tuesday, reports said that the DOC was working
with the attorney general's office to draft a letter to the GEO Group that
essentially kills the company's plans to build a 1,000-bed pre-parole and
parole revocation facility on 36 acres east of the city. GEO officials said
Wednesday they had not received any letter from the DOC, but also didn't
express much confidence a deal could be struck for the facility. "We
have been in negotiations with the Department of Corrections, but we don't
have any contract signed and at this time it does not appear there will be
one," said Pablo Paez, director of communications for the
Florida-based company. Paez confirmed reports from November that the
company was asking for a minimum occupancy guarantee for the facility and
also confirmed that the company was planning to go to the city of Pueblo
for help to build the prison. ± PLEASE SEE PRISON, 2APRISON / continued
from page 1A ± "We needed the guarantee to secure the lowest capital
cost through tax-exempt bonds," Paez said Thursday. "We would get
those through the local municipality." State Rep. Liane
"Buffie" McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, who has been a vocal critic of
the private prison industry, and state Rep. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, wrote a
letter to the city in May warning against using public funds to build the
facility. "I think it's very positive that the city of Pueblo is not
going to risk its credit rating on this project," McFadyen said
Wednesday. Officials from the DOC were not available Wednesday to comment
on whether the letter had to do with the occupancy guarantees, or the
result of an audit suggesting former Director of Prisons Nolin Renfrow may
have broken the law by helping GEO secure DOC approval to build a 1,500-bed
facility in Weld County, prior to his retirement in January. Paez said GEO
had no contact with Renfrow before March. Last month, DOC spokeswoman Kathy
Church told The Pueblo Chieftain that talks between the company and the DOC
over Pueblo's facility had stalled over the minimum occupancy guarantees and
had reached a critical point. "They need to either understand our
position and accept it or back out completely," Church said last
month. Church told The Chieftain that the DOC couldn't make any guarantees
without knowing how much money it had to spend. That money depends on what
the joint budget committee decides. McFadyen wondered Wednesday why those
guarantees weren't part of the original agreement when DOC solicited bids
for the Pueblo project. "If the DOC negotiated additional terms with
GEO, they would be the only private prison company to receive such
treatment and that's wrong," McFadyen said Wednesday. "I think
this goes to the point of how committed they were to coming to Pueblo in
the first place." The plans to build the facility started in 2003 when
GEO, then Wakenhut Corrections Company, proposed building the prison on the
West Side. Those plans eventually shifted to the airport and the city
approved a controversial agreement with GEO to build a 500- to 1,000-bed
facility. A year ago, GEO bought the property at the airport from the city
for $296,800. GEO's original plan was to build a 750-bed facility at the
airport, but got Planning and Zoning Approval in May to expand the facility
to 1,000 beds.
December 14, 2006 Denver Post
Results of an investigation into former Colorado prisons director Nolin
Renfrow's conduct in office will be turned over to a district attorney
early next year, the Department of Corrections' inspector general said
Wednesday. Michael Rulo, who has been the agency's inspector general for
seven years, said his office has been cooperating with state auditors on
the probe. On Tuesday, the auditors announced that a "former senior-
level official" of the Department of Corrections launched a
prison-consulting business in August 2005, five months before he retired
from the department Jan. 31, and helped a private company land a state
prison contract. State Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, who requested
the audit, identified the official as Renfrow. The auditors found that
while still employed by DOC, Renfrow began working to assist prospective
bidders in developing proposals to his department for a private prison.
With his assistance, a company identified as the GEO Group was awarded the
contract for a 1,500-bed private prison at Ault. Auditors noted that state
employees are barred by law from outside employment that creates a conflict
of interest, and from helping people to win a contract with their agency
for a fee. Renfrow couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday. Rulo said the
results of his office's investigation will be turned over to El Paso County
District Attorney John Newsome, probably in January. The Department of
Corrections is based in that county. Rulo said a decision on whether to
file charges will be a "collaborative process" with prosecutors.
Kristen Holtzman, spokeswoman for Colorado Attorney General John Suthers,
said that Renfrow never contacted the attorney general's office to ask
whether his consulting business while still a DOC employee constituted a
conflict of interest.
November 15, 2006 Greeley Tribune
The Ault Town Board eased many residents' minds Tuesday night and gave
them a stronger voice in the prison debate. Town residents have voiced
strong opinions against the proposed GEO correctional facility in Ault
after initial discussions last spring. Tuesday night, the town board voted
5-1 to accept an ordinance that requires a town election about the location
of any prison or similar incarceration facility. An election date has not
been set, but one will be necessary when the GEO Group Inc. returns to the
town to begin negotiating a contract. GEO has proposed building a 1,500-bed
medium security prison on about 40 acres in southeast Ault. The prison
population would double the town's population. Most recently, the GEO group
sought assurances from the state Department of Corrections for a guaranteed
number of prisoners to house at the prison, but DOC representatives said
the state typically didn't provide such guarantees. Residents recently signed
a petition requesting an election about a site before the town approved
permits for such a building. Petitioners needed a minimum of 40 valid
signatures to take the request to the board. They submitted 297. Mary
Schlack, 37, of Ault said she was part of the petition effort after she
went door-to-door and learned more people were opposed to the prison. She
said she expected more than 40 signatures because of her previous questions
to residents.
September 29, 2006 Greeley Tribune
Al Nickel was one of a few passionate people who attended a
question-and-answer session Thursday about a proposed private prison in his
town. He was more concerned about the possible safety risks of having a
prison nearby than the potential for increased revenue. "What are they
going to do for the town?" asked Nickel, a 21-year resident of the
town 11 miles north of Greeley on U.S. 85. "It's not like they can go
downtown and buy 100 gallons of milk or toilet paper. Their business has to
go elsewhere." Representatives from The GEO Group, Place Properties
and Patriot Business Solutions met with about 20 residents Thursday
afternoon at the Ault VFW post to discuss the plans of bringing a prison to
town. The group held a separate meeting Thursday night, drawing about 40
people. Many people were curious about what the prison would look like and
had concerns about Ault being considered a prison town. Ken Fortier, a
spokesman for GEO Group, said he hoped to ease some concerns at the
sessions. "There's a lot of emotions when it comes to a project like
this and the perception of a correctional facility," he said.
"We're not here to debate, but to answer questions."
September 10, 2006 Greeley Tribune
Two months ago, the state awarded the Geo Group the right to build a
1,500-bed medium security men's prison in Ault, but so far, progress has
been slight. A town meeting in July lured about 300 in protest. Opponents
worry about prison breaks, the caliber of employees and the potential for a
prison to attract criminals. Proponents of the prison say their dying town
needs development, and a prison is a clean industry that would bring
commerce and jobs. The prison would be located on roughly 40 acres in the
southeast part of town, east of the railroad tracks parallel to U.S. 85.
Since the initial discussions, however, there are still no decisions. The
Geo Group has not presented the town with a potential contract, and the
town board has yet to decide if a contract with the private prison would
have to be approved by the board or the residents. Those involved, however,
insist there is progress but won't elaborate.
July 22, 2006 Greeley Tribune
It may be a month or more before residents know if the town of Ault
will be home to a 1,500-bed private prison. Ault Mayor James Fladung said
the town board has not decided if it will sign a binding contract with Geo
Group Inc. or if it will allow Ault residents to vote on the proposed
medium-security prison for men. Colorado's Department of Corrections
recently granted Geo the rights to build a prison in Ault in the next two
years. But Geo cannot actually build the facility until it gets approval
from the town. The board is negotiating with Geo over prices and fees on
issues such as water and sewer. A final contract for the prison still needs
to be written. "There is quite a bit of distance to cover yet,"
said Sharon Sullivan, Ault town clerk and treasurer. "It will continue
to be ongoing, but there is a long way to go." Fladung said it could
possibly be a month before any decision is made. The town board has the
authority to approve a contract without a vote from Ault residents because
the land where the prison would be located is zoned industrial, Fladung
said. But the mayor said that because of public sentiment the board will
consider conducting a poll or even allow a public vote on the issue. Nearly
300 people attended a public hearing last Tuesday. The majority of those
people opposed the prison. Fladung said he thought it would be good to hold
more public hearings before any contract is signed. "We must listen to
the people. They were the ones who elected us," Fladung said. In late
June the town board unanimously passed a resolution approving the concept
of a private prison in Ault. Sullivan said that resolution confused many
people and led them to believe that the town board already signed a
contract with Geo. The logistics and time frame of a contract still aren't
clear, but Fladung said he can guarantee that the contract will not raise
any taxes or utility fees for Ault residents. "I'm standing pretty
solid about the people in Ault not paying them a penny more for them to
come in," Fladung said.
July 19, 2006 Greeley Tribune
Debate over whether to allow a men's medium security prison to be built in
Ault has divided the normally quiet community. Almost 300 Ault residents
overwhelmed Tuesday night's town board meeting to discuss the pros and cons
of allowing the Florida-based company Geo Group Inc. to build a 1,500 bed
private prison in Ault. So many people showed up that the meeting had to be
delayed half an hour to move the meeting to the larger VFW building. The
issue pitted neighbor against neighbor with strong opinions and statements
made by nearly 50 people on both sides of the issue. "Geo is like
Wal-Mart. They could care less about this town," said John Jablonski
of Ault. "They want to use us to make money." The majority of the
crowd was strongly against the prison but faced opposition from a vocal
minority of Ault's business owners. They believe the prison will be the
economic boost Ault's dwindling economy needs to survive. Sheila Kelsey,
owner of the House of Bargains, has lived in Ault for 34 years and said
that during all that time little economic growth has occurred. "The
prison would be in my front yard, but we desperately need the
business," Kelsey said. "If we do not get this business, this
town will die. It will be a ghost town." Many of those against the
prison did not like its close proximity to town and called it a safety
hazard, a drain on resources such as water and an overall detriment to the
well-being of Ault. Amber Kauffman, who has lived in the town for five
years, said she is all for growth but not at the expense of having to live
near a prison. "We came here to live in a small town and a small
community," Kauffman said. "A prison would change the dynamics of
this town." Her husband, Ty Kauffman, said that if the prison does go
in, the company wants to run water and sewer lines across his fields which
would hurt his annual hay crop. Ty Kauffman said that if the prison does
come to Ault, he will be out of town in two weeks. "You do so much to
your home to loose it all," he said. "It's a nightmare." Ken
Fortier, a representative from Geo, said the prison would bring jobs and
purchasing power to Ault. He said that Geo is the largest private corrections
facility company in the world and operates high and medium security prisons
on many continents including the world's largest private prison in South
Africa and a facility that is part of the Guantanamo Bay complex in Cuba.
"Step away from the emotions to the notion of what economically 300
jobs mean to the town of Ault," Fortier said. There was still a lot of
questions left in the air on Tuesday. Board members did not tell the crowd
when, or if, they would sign a contract with the company.
July 18, 2006 Greeley Tribune
Controversy is brewing in Ault about the proposed men's prison expected
to be built southeast of town by the Florida-based Geo Group Inc. The
Coalition Against the Ault Prison, comprised of 10 residents, will attend
tonight's Ault town board meeting to oppose the 1,500-bed prison. The
residents have passed out fliers and petitions against Colorado's
Department of Corrections late June decision to grant Geo the rights to
construct the prison there in the next two years. If the town board signs a
contract with the Geo Group, the number of prisoners would more than double
this town of roughly 1,400 people. Tasha Greene, 35, an environmental
health and safety officer in Ault began the opposition group about a week
ago and said the members extensively researched the economic and social
impacts a prison might have on a small town. Greene said she collected 117
signatures of registered Ault voters who are opposed to the prison.
"There are a few people we talked to that want this prison 100 percent,
but the fast majority are dead set against it," Greene said. Though
Ault residents have an hour to present comments at tonight's meeting,
Greene said she is unsure if the board will take her group's concerns to
heart. "We get a sense that they will do what they want to do,"
Greene said. "Who cares about public opinion?" The board in May
passed a resolution agreeing with the prison in concept. The resolution
states that prior to the board executing a contract or any financing
agreements with the Geo Group, "the final forms of such documents
and/or agreement shall be submitted for approval to the town, and if
satisfactory to the town, their execution shall be authorized by resolution
or ordinance ..." If the board ignores their concerns, Greene said she
plans to pursue formal legal action against the prison's construction.
Larry Hosier, another member of the coalition, said he thinks the town
board is completely out of touch with the people of Ault and not smart
enough to properly negotiate with Geo's high-powered executives. "They
don't even know the right questions to ask," Hosier said. The group is
concerned the prison will make the town unsafe, overtax the already low
water supply in the area, create light and air pollution, lower property
values, create a higher unemployment rate, bankrupt small businesses and
ruin the character and aesthetics of Ault. "Ault will no longer be 'A
Unique Little Town," one of the coalition's flyer's proclaims.
"Once a prison town always a prison town." Some residents are so
concerned about the negative effects they claim they will actually move out
of Ault. "I had one guy sign the petition. The next day his home went
up for sale," Hosier said, adding that and his wife may consider doing
the same after living in town for more than 30 years. Greene is equally
convinced that Ault isn't big enough for both her and the prison, and said
she would find a new home for her nine horses. She said she is most
concerned about safety and the possibility that escaped convicts could put
the community in danger. "I'd feel I'll need to put up really tall
fences and buy really big dogs and make myself a private arsenal,"
Greene said.
Aurora INS
Detention Facility, Aurora, Colorado
Aurora INS
Detention Facility
Aurora, Colorado
GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
Jun
7, 2019 westword.com
Report: Aurora Immigrant Detention Facility Violates Multiple ICE
Standards
According to a new federal government report, the immigration detention
facility in Aurora violates multiple government detention standards.
"This report by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General
confirms what we have been hearing for quite some time: that detainees at
ICE's Aurora facility are not being properly cared for," Congresswoman
Diana DeGette said in a statement. Congressman Jason Crow, whose district
includes Aurora, referred to the report as "deeply disturbing" in
a written statement. On June 3, the Office of Inspector General at the
Department of Homeland Security published its analysis of four detention
centers that house detainees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement
custody, including the facility in Aurora (the other three are located in
Louisiana, California and New Jersey). The report found that the Aurora
facility, which is run by private prison company GEO Group through a
contract with ICE, violates ICE standards for outdoor recreation, in-person
visitations and restraining detainees in solitary confinement. The authors
of the report investigated the facilities "in response to concerns raised
by immigrant rights groups and complaints to the Office of Inspector
General (OIG) Hotline about conditions for detainees held in U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody." Before the
investigators visited the Aurora facility, staff used handcuffs on
detainees in solitary confinement when they were outside their cells.
However, according to the report, that protocol didn't comply with ICE
standards, since "placement in disciplinary segregation alone does not
constitute a valid basis for using restraints." According to ICE,
security staff at the Aurora facility have since received "refresher
training" about when to use handcuffs for detainees in solitary
confinement, and a security officer will now ensure that staffers comply with
the protocol by reviewing security footage daily. The report notes that the
Aurora facility does not provide a true outdoor recreation space for
detainees, which "may reduce detainee mental health and welfare."
Detainees have daily access to a recreation center inside the facility that
has an open-air, albeit caged, roof. Investigators interviewed detainees at
the Aurora facility who said they wanted "true outdoor recreation for
the fresh air, sunshine and exercise, and for playing soccer with their
fellow detainees." ICE argues that the recreation space in the Aurora
facility fully complies with — and actually far exceeds — government
standards. At the time of the inspection, the Aurora facility did not allow
in-person visits for detainees, which the federal government recommends
would help with morale. Noting that in-person visits are only recommended
and not required (except for lawyers), ICE says that staff at the facility
will now review requests for in-person visits on a case-by-case basis. The
report comes nearly a year after ICE finished its own investigation into a
December 2017 death at the Aurora facility that found staffers largely
mishandled the care of Kamyar Samimi, who died after being in custody for
about two weeks. And as of June 4, 152 detainees at the Aurora facility
were under quarantine because of cases of mumps and chicken pox. "The
report points to the fact that this is an extremely oppressive, punitive
environment, where it may take a real toll on an individual detainee’s
mental health," says Liz Jordan, an attorney who advocates on behalf
of detainees through the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center.
Feb 1, 2019 westword.com
There's Been Another Chicken Pox Outbreak at Immigrant Detention
Facility
There has been another chicken pox outbreak at the immigrant detention
center in Aurora, the second in just three months. A detainee
"pod," which is a prison housing unit consisting of individual
cells, was quarantined for weeks after an outbreak in October. Now two pods
have been quarantined for 21 days because of the virus, said GEO Group
spokesman Pablo Paez in an email. Paez did not answer additional questions
about why a second outbreak had occurred, or what the facility, which is
managed by private-prison company GEO Group through a contract with
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was doing to prevent future outbreaks.
But today, January 31, I met a detainee at the facility who described what
it was like being under quarantine during last fall's outbreak. From behind
a glass partition in the center's visitor room, Miguel Angel, 34, described
how guards one day told his pod, which housed 77 detainees, that they
couldn't leave their housing unit, offering no explanation. “We had no idea
what was going on,” Angel recalls. "Guards just told us that we had to
wait.” They wound up waiting for a few days, during which they couldn't
access the recreation yard, see visitors, consult face-to-face with
lawyers, or even attend their immigration hearings. About a week in, the
detainees finally learned that they were under a medical quarantine because
of a possible chicken pox outbreak, Angel says. The potentially sick
individuals had been removed from the housing unit before it was locked
down. And weeks into the quarantine, a doctor still had not visited the
pod. Exasperated, Angel and about sixty other detainees wrote letters to
ICE and the GEO Group demanding answers — and to see a doctor. Here's the
letter: It has been two weeks now that we have been in quarantine and not
one doctor has been sent to this pod to offer medical treatment for the
chicken pox. The first three people that were infected have been treated,
cured and were switched over to a different pod, and are now living their
normal process. But we have no visits, deportations, and our court [hearings]
are being delayed. They won't exchange our blankets, give haircuts, and we
are prohibited from having rec time in the yard. We are being exposed to
dangerous medical conditions living like this, causing depression, anxiety,
high blood pressure, and conditions that could be fatal. The most difficult
part is the court dates being rescheduled. Many of us have already had
chicken pox or been vaccinated. Our immigration process is being delayed
because this outbreak wasn't properly handled from the start, and it's not
fair. It feels like medical resources don't want to be used on us because
we don't deserve it. We are all in desperate need of help. Meanwhile, he
saw firsthand how the lock-down put some detainees at greater medical risk
since they didn't have regular access to a medical staff. One young man,
who was complaining of a fever and had lost his appetite, asked guards to
take him to a doctor. The guards stuck the man in his cell, believing that
he had chicken pox, according to Angel. But then he collapsed, and guards
had to rush in and do CPR to resuscitate him. "His heart had stopped
briefly," Angel claims. After CPR, the man was transferred out of the
pod, Angel remembers. Either that episode or the letters finally got GEO
Group's attention. A doctor finally visited the pod, dressed in a full-body
hazmat suit “looking like an astronaut,” says Angel. Some of the
information that Angel provided about October's outbreak (at least the
number of individuals who were quarantined) runs counter to what ICE had
told media outlets, including Westword, at the time. “Of the 77 detainees
who were tested, medical staff diagnosed three detainees with varicella;
seven others had low immunity and therefore possessed increased risk
factors of contracting the disease; all ten were quarantined at the
facility,” spokesman Carl Rusnok said in a statement. “The Aurora medical
staff continues to provide high-level care to all those affected, while at
the same time continuing to serve the medical needs of the entire facility
population.” Multiple requests for comment sent to ICE about the second
outbreak haven't been returned; if and when they are, we'll update this
story. Angel says he feels for fellow detainees who are locked up in the
two affected pods. Asked why he believes this has happened a second time,
he says, “it's because our lives don't matter to them. We could die in here
and there's nothing we can do."
Dec 21, 2017 westword.com
ACLU Investigating Death of Iranian Immigrant at Aurora Detention
Facility
Earlier this morning, the ACLU of Colorado announced that it filed a
Freedom of Information Act request to obtain more information about how a
64-year-old Iranian man, Kamyar Samimi, died while being held at the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Aurora on December
2. ICE issued a statement two days after Samimi died, saying that the
primary cause of death was cardiac arrest and that Samimi had been
transferred to the University of Colorado Medical Center on the morning of
December 2 before he was pronounced dead shortly after 12 p.m. The ACLU of
Colorado wants to know exactly what happened. “Once again, a death in ICE
custody raises serious questions about whether the agency is continuing to
fail in its legal duty to provide necessary and adequate medical care to
detainees in its custody,” says Mark Silverstein, legal director for the
ACLU of Colorado. In 2012, a 46-year-old named Evalin-Ali Mandza died of
cardiac arrest at the same detention center. An investigation of that death
showed that staff at the GEO Group-run facility did not know how to
properly use an EKG machine and stalled in calling an ambulance. The GEO
Group manages private prisons across the U.S. and contracts with ICE to
manage immigrant-detention facilities. The ACLU has looked into deaths at
immigrant-detention facilities nationwide and co-authored a report in 2016
called "Fatal Neglect: How ICE Ignored Deaths in Detention."
Nearly 200 immigrant detainees have died while in custody in ICE facilities
since 2003. Samimi, who came to the United States as a student in 1976 and
was arrested at his home on November 17 by ICE (the agency says he had a
minor drug conviction from 2005), is the latest detainee to die in
Colorado. “Mr. Samimi’s arrest, detention and death in custody display the
inhumanity of our current federal immigration policies,” says ACLU of
Colorado staff attorney Arash Jahanian. “He lived in the U.S. for forty
years. ICE arrested him at his home with the intent to ship him off to a
country he no longer knew. Then they locked him up in a detention facility,
where he died two weeks later. ICE gave very little detail about what
happened but made sure to mention his twelve-year-old drug-possession
charge. The community deserves better, and that starts with ICE explaining
what led to Mr. Samimi’s tragic death.” Silverstein characterizes ICE's
detention facilities as "cloaked in secrecy." "[They] offer
little to no transparency into the way detainees are treated within their
walls,” the legal director says. "We are invoking the Freedom of
Information Act to further the public’s right to know what goes on in these
secretive taxpayer-funded institutions.” Meanwhile, a class action lawsuit
is being tried in federal court over alleged forced labor practices at the
Aurora facility. In September, the ACLU of Colorado found that clients of
Iraqi descent being held at the facility were being harassed by guards and
pressured to self-deport. A GEO Group spokesman told Westword at the time:
"The Aurora, Colorado, facility has a longstanding record of providing
highly rated services in a safe, secure and humane residential environment
while treating all those entrusted to our care with the respect and dignity
they deserve."
Sep 6, 2017 miaminewtimes.com
ACLU Says South Florida Private Prison Giant Is Torturing Immigration
Detainees
Boca Raton's GEO Group is one of the most powerful private-prison
companies in America — and a major player in state and federal politics.
GEO throws campaign money at Florida lawmakers from both parties: Sens.
Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson, Gov. Rick Scott, Reps. Carlos Curbelo and
Mario Diaz-Balart, and the majority of the Florida Legislature have taken
thousands from GEO despite constant complaints from progressives and
human-rights activists who say the company profits from destroying the
lives of others. Well, here's yet another reason Florida politicians should
drop GEO Group like the plague: The American Civil Liberties Union said
Friday that the company is torturing whistleblowers at its private immigration
detention facility in Aurora, Colorado. GEO runs the facility on behalf of
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to the ACLU, ICE agents
at GEO's 1,500-bed Colorado detention center are retaliating against Iraqi
nationals who have joined an ACLU class-action lawsuit to stop the U.S.
from deporting them. The ACLU says employees at the GEO facility are
denying Iraqis food, water, and access to the restroom to intentionally
make their lives a living hell. "GEO, the second largest immigration detention
facility in the country, is a tightly regulated, colorless institution with
bare cement walls, large metal doors that lock at every threshold, and
scores of prisoners in scrubs," the ACLU writes. "Each of the
detainees we interviewed provided accounts of mistreatment. These accounts
were consistent, as was their palpable fear of death if ultimately deported
to Iraq." The ACLU writes today that the Trump administration agreed
to take Iraq off its list of countries covered under the so-called Muslim
ban if Iraq agreed to accept ICE deportees. The ACLU has since sued, but
the organization now says ICE agents at the GEO facility are trying to make
detainees miserable so they choose to get deported. The ACLU writes: Since
the court’s ruling, ICE appears to have ramped up its efforts to make the
lives of Iraqis in custody so unbearable that they will “voluntarily” sign
away their rights to reopen their immigration cases or pursue asylum. The
Iraqis have been singled out and denied food, water, and access to the
restroom. One man, who came to the United States as a refugee in 1976,
reflected that if he goes back to Iraq, he will be tortured and killed.
Still, he feels that his experiences at the hands of ICE are “a different
way of torture.” He has told his wife that he is considering just signing
the form and going back to Iraq. In Arizona and Colorado, and on the plane
traveling between the two locations, ICE guards referred to the Iraqis as
“camel jockey,” “rag head,” and “terrorist.” Guards at GEO referred to one
of our clients as ‘Al Qaeda’ and told him, “You Iraqis are the worst people
in here. We can’t stand you Iraqis.” When he tried to say that he has
rights, he was told that he doesn’t have any rights because he was “an
alien.” ICE guards in Arizona and Colorado have openly pressured Iraqi
nationals to sign away their right to fight their immigration cases. Some
guards told the detainees that their situations were hopeless and urged
them to sign forms agreeing to voluntary deportation, without counsel
present. Some Iraqis apparently succumbed to the pressure. The brave men we
spoke to have decided to stay and fight. Miami New Times' sister newspaper
Phoenix New Times has covered the plight of Iraqi nationals trapped in an
Arizona detention center run by CoreCivic (formerly known as the
Corrections Corporation of America), GEO Group's main competitor. In July,
an Arizona judge blocked the deportation of 1,400 Iraqi Chaldean Catholics
on the grounds they could be tortured for their religious beliefs and ties
to the United States. In 2013, the Huffington Post reported that the
CCA/CoreCivic's lobbying firms have donated more than $20,000 to South
Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. In 2011, Wasserman Schultz threw her
support behind a plan to build a private, CCA-run immigration facility in
South Florida. That decision sparked protests and has cast a shadow over
her recent bids for reelection. But of the two companies, it's Boca's GEO
Group that remains the major political power in Florida. According to the
National Institute on Money in State Politics (NIMSP), GEO has given $7.8
million to 885 candidates across the nation over the past 17 years. The
group rains money in Florida: It is honestly difficult to find a state
politician who has not taken at least a tiny amount of money from the
company in that time period. According to NIMSP records, the group has sent
checks to the majority of the state Legislature in Tallahassee, Rubio has
taken $30,500 from GEO, Curbelo has received $11,000, and Nelson has accepted
$5,000. Other recipients include U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, Frederica Wilson,
Mario Diaz-Balart, Charlie Crist, and Governor Scott. GEO is still donating
today: The group gave former state Rep. Jose Feliz "Pepi" Diaz
$3,000 in his current race for the state Senate seat vacated by
N-word-dropping ex-lawmaker Frank Artiles. Last year, the Miami Herald
reported that GEO absolutely vomited cash at state Senate President Joe
Negron and his wife Rebecca, who ran for the GOP nomination for Senate last
year before Rubio announced his plans to run for reelection. The Herald
reported that GEO gave the couple a combined $288,000 in a single election
cycle. "It is tragic that these individuals, who fear persecution in
Iraq because of their religion and connection to America, are now being
persecuted by agents of the United States government," the ACLU wrote
last week.
Aug 18, 2017
nationallawjournal
Advocacy Groups Side With Plaintiffs Alleging Unpaid Labor At For-Profit
Prison
Advocacy groups have weighed in on a lawsuit against the nation's
second-largest for-profit prison provider, arguing in recently filed
"friend-of-the-court briefs" that GEO Group Inc.'s alleged
practices of relying on cheap and unpaid labor by detained immigrants
underscores abuses to this vulnerable community. Attorneys who filed the
lawsuit in 2014 are currently fighting to uphold class certification in the
case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The U.S.
District Court for the District of Colorado in Denver originally certified
the class, which could include as many as 60,000 detainees who cycled in
and out of the GEO Group-owned Aurora Processing Detention Center in since
2004. Over the last week, a slew of advocacy organizations, including The
Southern Poverty Law Center, Public Citizen and a group of national
immigrant rights groups, filed briefs that point to the broader
implications of the case — noting issues around human trafficking and the
for-profit prison industry. They also discussed the importance of class actions
for vulnerable immigrant groups. This potential class action against GEO, a
Republican campaign donor, comes at a time when the $3 billion for-profit
prison industry is gaining support from the Trump administration. Earlier
this year, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded guidance from the
Obama administration that would have reduced the construction of privately
owned prisons. A separate complaint has also been filed at the Federal
Election Commission by the Campaign Legal Center against GEO, claiming the
company illegally contributed $225,000 to a pro-Trump PAC during the 2016
election. And according to reports, the U.S. Department of Justice under
President Donald Trump has awarded the GEO Group more federal contracts for
private prison facilities. "This is about the excesses of the private
prison system and how it almost invariably led to forced labor and human
trafficking," said David Lopez of Outten & Golden, who represents
the plaintiffs in the Aurora case. "This case illustrates why it's dangerous
and they have a built-in system to keep the costs down. Absent of such
class actions, who will hold them accountable?" Outten & Golden
attorneys this year joined Nashville-based immigration attorney Andrew
Free, attorneys for Denver-based advocacy group Towards Justice and
Colorado-based attorneys for Milstein Law Office and Meyers Law Office in
bringing the suit. The lawsuit claims that GEO amassed enormous profits
through "forced labor" provided to the Aurora prison through a
contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The suit takes aim
at the company's "sanitation policy" that required ICE detainees
to work as janitors without pay under the threat of solitary confinement.
It also targets a "voluntary work program" that allegedly paid detainees
only $1 a day. Two classes were certified by the Denver federal court that
could include between 40,000 to 60,000 laborers that were detained in
Aurora over the last 10 years. The private prison system, and its profit
margin, appears to depend upon this type of labor, Free said. He said the
case in Colorado is a reflection that such policies and practices affect a
wide array of people in the immigration system. "These policies run
directly counter to protections that people have fought hard to apply to
all immigrants and workers," Free said. "How exactly would these
staffing plans work if companies were not allowed to use free and nearly
free labor of detainees?" In a statement, GEO responded that the
volunteer work program at all of its 143 immigration facilities, as well as
the minimum wage rates and standards, are set by the government. The
company also said that all of its facilities, including the Aurora center,
are "highly rated and provide high-quality services in safe, secure
and humane residential environments pursuant to the federal government's
national standards." "GEO has consistently, strongly refuted the
allegations made in this lawsuit, and we intend to continue to vigorously
defend our company against these claims," the company said in the
statement. The organizations filing briefs supporting plaintiffs in the
suit against GEO, a massive for-profit prison company, include the Southern
Poverty Law Center and the National Employment Law Project.GEO: Facing
legal challenges.
Jul 10, 2015 abcnews.go.com
Lawsuit: Immigrants
Got $1 a Day for Work at Private Prison
Immigrants who were detained at a suburban Denver
facility while they awaited deportation proceedings are suing the private
company that held them, alleging they were paid $1 a day to do janitorial
work, sometimes under threat of solitary confinement. They scrubbed
toilets, mopped and swept floors, did laundry, and prepared and served
meals, among other duties, according to attorneys who filed the lawsuit in
October on behalf of nine current and former detainees. On Monday, U.S.
District Court Judge John L. Kane declined a request from the Florida-based
GEO Group Inc. to dismiss the claims against it, allowing the federal
lawsuit to proceed. GEO is one of the largest contractors with the federal
government for the detention of immigrants suspected of being in the
country illegally or legal permanent residents with criminal records who
face deportation. The company has denied wrongdoing and said in court
documents the work is voluntary and it is abiding by federal guidelines in
paying $1 a day. Attorneys for the immigrants say they'll move to expand
the case by seeking class-action status. They say the judge's ruling clears
the way to gather more information from GEO through discovery proceedings
about how many detainees were put to work. The attorneys said they've heard
from clients for years that immigrants labor for almost nothing at private
detention facilities around the country, but they called the lawsuit filed
in Colorado the first of its kind. "It's their job to run the
facility, and instead they used and abused us to run the facility, and
that's why we're suing," said plaintiff Alejandro Menocal, 53. Menocal
is a legal permanent resident who was detained for three months at GEO's
Aurora facility while facing deportation last fall. GEO responded in a
statement that its facilities "provide high-quality services in safe,
secure and humane residential environments, and our company strongly
refutes allegations to the contrary." The company added attorneys and
immigrant advocates have full access to its facilities that U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts with, and they're routinely
audited and inspected by the government. Anita Sinha, a faculty member at
Washington College of Law, American University who has researched immigrant
labor at private detention centers, said the daily wage was set by Congress
in 1950 and hasn't been adjusted for inflation. She said on a daily basis,
immigrants facing deportation occupy about 34,000 beds nationally in
private and government-run facilities. More than 60 percent of the beds are
in privately held facilities, she said. The company succeeded in getting
the judge to dismiss a claim that it violated Colorado's minimum wage law
because detainees were paid $1 a day instead of $8.23 an hour. In tossing
that claim, Kane said the detainees do not qualify as employees under state
law. But he said the lawsuit could proceed on the allegations that GEO
unjustly profited from the detainees and violated the federal Trafficking
Victims Protection Act, which prohibits forced labor. "Legally, this
is a big step forward," said Hans Meyer, Menocal's attorney. It's
common for inmates at state or privately run prisons to work below minimum
wage, in some cases for the purpose of gaining job training. "The
difference here is that these are civil immigration detainees who are not
being held for any criminal violation," said Brandt Milstein, another
attorney in the lawsuit. Menocal, a Mexican immigrant from Baja California,
was released in September and kept his legal resident status after his
attorney won his case. He said he faced deportation proceedings last year
when authorities learned after a traffic stop that he had a criminal record
from 2010 for driving with a suspended license and having his wife's
prescription painkillers in his car. He pleaded guilty and served a year of
probation soon after, but he didn't come to the attention of immigration
authorities at the time. The lawsuit focuses only on the GEO's suburban
Denver facilities, but the American Civil Liberties Union said the claims
are similar to allegations they've heard around the country. "There is
a name for locking people up and forcing them to do work without paying
real wages. It's called slavery," said Carl Takei, staff attorney at
the national prison project of the ACLU. The monetary amount the lawsuit
seeks hasn't been determined.
Jul 9, 2015
westword.com
GEO LAWSUIT ALLEGING FORCED LABOR OF IMMIGRANT DETAINEES MOVES FORWARD
Update below: In a move that could have
resounding consequences for corrections practices and the for-profit prison
industry in particular, a Denver federal judge has refused to dismiss a
lawsuit filed by nine federal immigrant detainees, who allege that a
private prison contractor forced them to perform maintenance and cleaning
jobs for little or no pay. The suit, which is seeking class-action status,
accuses the company of violating federal laws prohibiting human trafficking
and forced labor and seeks millions of dollars in damages. Senior U.S.
District Judge John L. Kane threw out some of the plaintiffs' claims but
allowed the case against The GEO Group, which operates a detention facility
in Aurora under contract with U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE),
to move forward. The decision was hailed as "a tremendous victory for
civil immigrant detainees nationwide" by Nina DiSalvo, the executive
director of Towards Justice, a Denver-based nonprofit that partnered with
several law firms to bring the action. "The judge's decision allows us
to address the systemic problems with GEO's treatment of immigrant workers
throughout the legal system." One of the largest private prison
companies in the world, GEO operates 66 correctional facilities in the
United States, including ICE detention centers in Washington, Florida, and
Colorado. The complaint alleges that Aurora detainees participate in a
"voluntary work program" that includes laundry, kitchen and
cleaning jobs, for which they are paid a dollar a day. Six detainees are
also selected at random each day to clean the living pods without pay;
refusal can result in being placed in solitary confinement. The lawsuit
argued that the arrangement violates Colorado's minimum wage law. Judge
Kane disagreed, since the state's labor laws specifically carve out an
exception for prisoners, who are not considered employees. But Kane found
merit in the claim that GEO's approach to the pod-cleaning assignments — do
it or get thrown in the hole — may be a violation of the federal
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which prohibits involuntary servitude
and coercive methods to demand work "by means of force, threats of
force, physical restraint, or threats of physical restraint." The
judge also allowed a claim involving unjust enrichment to proceed. Most
correctional systems depend on cheap inmate labor to keep costs down.
Kane's denial of GEO's motion to dismiss doesn't signal an end to that
practice. It does, however, raise questions about the ability of a private
contractor to demand that inmates perform basic maintenance or cleaning
tasks under threat of further punishment. "Using forced detainee labor
is an integral tool in maintaining GEO's profitability under its contracts
with ICE," Nashville attorney Andrew Free, a co-counsel in the case,
noted in prepared statement. "The court's decision today represents an
important step forward in ending that morally bankrupt business
model." GEO has not responded to a request for comment on the ruling.
We'll update this post if a response is forthcoming. Update, 1:00 p.m.: The GEO Group
corporate headquarters has provided a statement in response to our request
for comment that reads, in part: "GEO’s facilities, including the
Aurora, Colo., facility, provide high quality services in safe, secure, and
humane residential environments, and our company strongly refutes
allegations to the contrary. The volunteer work program at immigration
facilities as well as the wage rates and standards associated with the
program are set by the federal government. Our facilities adhere to these
standards as well as strict contractual requirements and all standards set
by ICE, and the agency employs several full-time, on-site contract monitors
who have a physical presence at each of GEO’s facilities."
Oct 23, 2014 stateswithoutnations.blogspot.com
GEO Sued for
Minimum Wage and Forced Labor Law Violations, and Unjust Enrichment
Yesterday, Alejandro
Menoca, Marcos Brambila, Grisel Xahuentitla, Hugo Hernandez, Lourdes,
Argueta, Jesus Gaytan, Olga Alexaklina, Dagaberto Vizguerra, and Demetrio
Valerga on their own behalf and others similarly situated filed a complaint
informing a federal judge that their guards were breaking the law. The complaint, filed by an
intrepid team of lawyers who spent extensive time interviewing detainees at
the GEO facility in Aurora, Colorado, states: In the course of their
employment by GEO, Plaintiffs and others scrubbed bathrooms, showers,
toilets, and windows throughout GEO’s Aurora facility. They cleaned and
maintained GEO’s on-site medical facility, cleaned the medical facility’s
toilets, floors and windows, cleaned patient rooms and medical staff
offices, swept, mopped, stripped, and waxed the floors of the medical
facility, did medical facility laundry, swept, mopped, stripped, and waxed
floors throughout the facility, did detainee laundry, prepared and served
detainee meals, assisted in preparing catered meals for law enforcement
events sponsored by GEO, performed clerical work for GEO, prepared clothing
for newly arriving detainees, provided barber services to detainees, ran
the facility’s law library, cleaned the facility’s intake area and solitary
confinement unit, deep cleaned and prepared vacant portions of the facility
for newly arriving detainees, cleaned the facility’s warehouse, and
maintained the exterior and landscaping of the GEO building, inter alia.
The complaint also includes violations of a federal law prohibiting Forced
Labor, 18 U.S.C. § 1589: 5. GEO or its agents also randomly selected
six detainees per pod each day and forced them to clean the pods. In the
handbook that GEO distributed to the detainees, GEO announced a “Housing
Unit Sanitation” policy informing the people held at the facility that
“[e]ach and every detainee must participate in the facility’s sanitation
program.” 6. GEO or its agents forced Plaintiffs and other civil
immigration detainees to clean the facility’s pods for no pay and under
threat of solitary confinement as punishment for any refusal to work. And
the complaint references Colorado Common Law prohibiting Unjust
Enrichment. In precise and riveting language the 21 page brief
brilliantly lays out the legal problems with the private prison industry's
business model. The attorneys who filed this lawsuit are Brandt Milstein,
Boulder, CO; Andrew Turner, Denver, CO; Alexander Hood, Golden, CO; Hans
Meyer, Denver, CO; and Andrew Free, Nashville, TN. I have been filing FOIA
requests on this topic for several years and Andrew Free is currently
representing me in extricating additional material for use in a working
paper that will be revised for publication next year in the Georgetown
Immigration Law Journal. For more research on related violations,
please go here.
February 16, 2009 The Aurora
Sentinel
About 50 people from various advocacy groups gathered near an Aurora
detention facility Monday, Feb. 16, to rally for changes to the nation’s
immigration policies and an end to raids on suspected illegal immigrants.
The vigil, which was organized by local clergy, was one of more than 100
actions across the country aimed at “demonstrating the faith communities’
commitment to inject humanity and compassion into the public dialogue on
immigration,” organizers said in a statement. Jennifer Piper, of the Quaker
organization American Friends Service Committee, said ending raids was one
of the main goals of the vigil. “These raids really tear families and
workers out of our community,” Piper said. The vigil brought out a diverse
crowd with participants ranging from toddlers to senior citizens. The group
clutched candles, said prayers and spoke about their concerns. “All faith
traditions share a common mandate to welcome and care for all members of
our community and love our neighbors as ourselves,” Jeremy Shaver,
executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, said in a
statement. “As people of faith, we must keep that in the forefront of our
minds as we approach the complex issue of immigration.” Organizers said
recent immigration raids have been destructive for immigrants’ families and
they hope the vigils lead to change in Washington. “We call on President
Obama and members of Congress to demonstrate the courage to pass
immigration policies that uphold and protect the dignity and human rights
of all,” Shaver said. The vigil was held just a few blocks from a privately
owned and operated detention facility that houses suspected illegal
immigrants. Florida-based GEO Group, which owns the facility, has plans to
expand it — a proposal that has come under fire from immigrant groups.
January 8, 2008 Colorado
Confidential
A former corrections employee is suing prison contractor The GEO Group,
operator of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention
facility in Aurora. In a suit filed in Denver District Court, former GEO
employee Celia Ramirez alleges the company failed to follow its own
anti-discrimination policies. According to the suit, filed in December,
Ramirez was employed by GEO as a detention officer at the Aurora ICE lockup
for just over two years before being fired for failing to return lockup
keys to their designated area. However, in the suit Ramirez contends that
another GEO worker, Jennifer Beauman, took the keys and placed them on the
facility's roof to retaliate against the plaintiff for reporting the
employee for inappropriate conduct. According to the suit, Beauman is
reported to have engaged in erratic behavior, such as angrily slamming
doors and flicking lights on and off in the presence of inmates. Attempts
to reach Beauman were unsuccessful. The suit alleges Beauman "joked"
about taking the keys to get back at Ramirez, before the keys went missing.
A maintenance worker is reported to have later found the keys on the
facility's rooftop. The crux of the lawsuit contends that Ramirez was
discriminated against for her gender and Latino ethnicity, and that GEO
failed to enforce written policies of barring gender or race discrimination
as stipulated in the company's employee handbook. Pablo Paez, a spokesman
for the GEO Group, said that it is the company's corporate policy not to
discuss pending litigation. Lisa Sahli, the attorney who filed the suit,
said that Ramirez had obtained another attorney and that she could not
speak further on the case because she is no longer Ramirez's legal counsel.
Attempts to contact Ramirez were also unsuccessful. The suit comes as GEO
is set to expand its Aurora ICE facility by more than 1000 beds, tripling
the current threshold of 400 beds. Ramirez is seeking to bring the case to
a jury, according to court documents.
December 19, 2007 Denver Post
A private company operating the Colorado immigration detention center in
Aurora plans to sink $72 million into an expansion that will more than
triple the size of the facility based on Senate proposals to expand border
enforcement and bed space for illegal-immigrant detainees. The expansion
would turn the 400-bed facility into a 1,500-bed center, making it second
in size only to the 2,000-bed Raymondville, Texas, site, according to U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Aurora site is in a warehouse area
near East 30th Avenue and Peoria Street. The plan by Florida-based GEO
Group, which owns and operates the facility, has raised concerns among
national and local immigrant- and civil-rights groups and the neighborhood
associations in the area. The expansion is expected to be complete in late
2009. A company spokesman did not return numerous calls, but GEO chairman
and chief executive George Zoley detailed the plan recently in a call with
analysts. GEO estimates the 1,100 new beds will raise an additional $30
million in annual revenue, Zoley said during the call. Opponents of the
plan say their concerns are based partly on the lack of access to internal
audits of the facility and recent government reviews showing inadequacies.
"One of the major issues is that GEO has a really spotty record in
running these sorts of facilities," said Chandra Russo, a community
organizer for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. "Our concern
with a private corporation running a prison is that its profits depend on
more prisoners. What is the benefit for the community?" Neighbors are
also worried about real estate values and environmental impact. ICE denies
any connection with the expansion the private company is planning with its
own money, said ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok. Currently, the ICE contract for
the Aurora facility is for 400 beds, but the deal is up for review each
year for the next four years. "If they expand the facility, unless
they modify the contract, there is nothing to say those additional beds
would be used or contracted by ICE," Rusnok said. Still, national and
local immigrant groups are concerned about the expansion at the facility,
where they say reports and audits have been slow or not publicly released.
Several years ago, the National Immigration Law Center asked the courts to
demand that ICE release internal reviews of contract facilities and won.
But ICE has been lax in providing the most recent two years' worth of
reviews, said Karen Tumlin, attorney with NILC. "Until ICE is willing
to release all of the reviews, we don't want to see these levels of
expansion," she said. In July, the Government Accountability Office
found problems at several of the detention centers from May 2006 to May
2007. The GAO did not find extreme cases but noted issues at 16 of 17 ICE
centers with phone calls to pro bono legal help. In Aurora, the report also
found that hold rooms exceeded capacity and log books were not maintained
to show how long people were in rooms or when they had their last meal. In
October 2006, reviews found the Aurora site in violation for lack of
cleanliness in food service. The report also said the center had portable
beds in aisles because of overcrowding. Rusnok said many of the problems
identified by the GAO have since been rectified and that ICE has no plans
based on the Senate proposal. Zoley, during the call, cited a proposed
bill, which provides for additional funding to increase border-patrol
agents and increase detention bed space by more than 5,000 beds. "We
believe that this increase in bed funding will result in additional
opportunities for the private sector," he said. The Department of
Homeland Security expects the undocumented population, estimated to be
around 12 million, to grow by 400,000 annually. The total number of illegal
immigrants in administrative proceedings who spend some time in detention
annually increased from 95,702 in 2001 to 283,115 in 2006. Detention bed
space increased from 19,702 in 2001 to 27,500 last year. After the first of
the year, NILC plans to ask for a moratorium on expansions of these types
of facilities until ICE can ensure minimum compliance with its standards,
Tumlin said.
July 11, 2007 Government Executive
Magazine
In a recent review of federal facilities used to detain suspected illegal
immigrants, the Government Accountability Office found a lack of telephone
access to be a pervasive problem, potentially preventing detainees from
contacting legal counsel, their countries' consulates or complaint
hotlines. The GAO review included visits to 23 detention centers housing
immigrants awaiting adjudication or deportation. The watchdog agency
observed the centers -- run by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agency within the Homeland Security Department -- for compliance with
nonbinding national detention standards. Of the 23 facilities GAO reviewed,
17 had telephone systems allowing detainees to make free phone calls
seeking assistance. In 16 of these 17 facilities, however, GAO found
systemic problems hindering phone access. Issues ranged from inaccurate or
outdated numbers posted by the phones to technical problems preventing
completion of calls, the report (GAO-07-875) stated. The review found
instances where the centers fell short of standards in other areas, such as
medical care, use of force and food services, but said these instances did
not necessarily indicate a larger pattern of noncompliance. "While it
is true that the only pervasive problem we identified related to the
telephone system -- a problem later confirmed by ICE's testing -- we cannot
state that the other deficiencies we identified in our visits were
isolated," said Richard Stana, director of homeland security and
justice issues at GAO, in the report. GAO recommended that ICE regularly
update the posted numbers for legal services, consulates and reporting
violations of detainee treatment standards and test phone systems to ensure
that they are in working order. In a response to a draft of the report,
Steven Pecinovsky, director of the Homeland Security Department's
GAO/Office of the Inspector General Liaison Office, said ICE concurred with
its recommendations and had taken immediate steps to implement them. In
particular, ICE has started random testing to ensure the phones can access
the necessary numbers. While GAO did not find evidence of widespread
disregard for national detention standards, there have been recent calls
for more oversight of immigrant detention facilities and codification of
standards. According to the American Bar Association's Commission on
Immigration, the fact that the standards are not codified means "their
violation does not confer a cause of action in court." On Monday, the
American Civil Liberties Union called on Congress to codify the standards,
expressing concern over the causes of death for the 62 immigrants who have
died in ICE custody since 2004. GAO's report cited several instances of
noncompliance in the standards for medical care, but almost all were a
failure to complete the routine physical exams required for all detainees.
The only other issue cited was the failure of one detention center to have
a first aid kit available. The ACLU argued there are far more serious
medical failures occurring in immigrant detention centers. "Inadequate
medical care has led to unnecessary suffering and death," the ACLU
said in a statement. "In addition, there is no mechanism in place for
reporting deaths in immigration detention to any oversight body, including
the [Office of the Inspector General] and, therefore, there are no routine
investigations into deaths in ICE custody."
September 27, 2002
Security guards at the Wackenhut INS detention facility in Aurora quelled a
disturbance Thursday. The disruption was caused by several detainees during
the lunch hour, said Nina Pruneda- Muniz, Denver District spokeswoman for
the Immigration and Naturalization Service. "It got handled in a very
timely manner," Pruneda-Muniz said. "We were able to defuse any
situation from going any further." Agents were determining how many
prisoners were involved and why the confrontation erupted, she said. (Rocky
Mountain News)
Australian Federal Government
October 11, 2011 Canberra Times
The Commonwealth Government is suing its former immigration detention
operators for failing to protect it against lawsuits lodged by people kept
in detention facilities. The case will be heard in the South Australian
Supreme Court on November 21. It is part of a long-running case launched by
former asylum-seeker Abdul Amir Hamidi, who won a confidential settlement
against the Federal Government after almost five years in detention. As The
Canberra Times revealed on Saturday, Mr Hamidi's lawyers predict that the
confidential settlement will spark dozens more claims for damages. In a
case to be heard on November 21, the Commonwealth will claim its former
detention centre operators - GSL and Australasian Correctional Services -
breached their contracts by exposing the Government to the legal action.
The Commonwealth will argue both companies agreed to indemnify it against
damages based on their running of Australian detention centres.
Australasian Correctional Services operated Australia's mainland
immigration detention facilities until early 2004. Group 4 Falck Global
Solutions Pty Ltd (which later changed its name to Global Solutions
Limited, or GSL) commenced management of the centres in late 2003. Both
companies will fight the claim, with ACS arguing it had insufficient time
to respond to the allegations and the terms of its agreement included
dispute resolution measures. GSL says it is not responsible for indemnifying
the Commonwealth for any ''negligent, wilful, reckless or unlawful acts or
omissions of the Commonwealth, its employees, officers or agents''. Between
2000 and March 2010, detainees in Australian immigration detention centres
were paid more than $12.3million in compensation for personal injury or
unlawful detention.
July 9,
2004 Australian
A damning report by the Auditor-General, released two weeks ago, showed
initial detention arrangements with private prison operators Australian
Centre Management to be a farce. Appalling hygiene and frequent escapes
perpetuated by ACM's lackadaisical attitude to detainees was highlighted as
a failure of the immigration department. With a second report by the
Auditor-General expected to detail arrangements with ACM's replacement
Global Systems Management later this year, the department maintains it.
June
19, 2004 Courier Mail
Australasian Correctional Management ran 12 immigration detention centres
on behalf of the Howard Government from early 1998 until early this
year. According to the Australian National Audit Office report, the
Department of Immigration, Indigenous and Multicultural Affairs had no
strategy for detaining asylum seekers, let alone a contract management plan
with ACM. The damning report found: No risk management strategy in
the contract. No contract management training or guidance. No
performance targets and an ad hoc approach to changing numbers. No
contract monitoring or assessment. No financial risk strategy or
asset management plan. "This meant that DIMIA was not able to
assess whether its strategies were actually working in practice," the
report said. During the contract the number of detainees varied from
just a handful in 1998 to 3000 in the year 2000. And the auditors
could find no assurance that the financial aspects of the $500 million
contract "operated as intended". The report also found a
gap in the audit trail. "Invoicing procedures where the audit trail
between the services provided and payments made did not provide senior
managers with assurance that full value for money was being achieved,"
it said. "A systematic approach to risk management, including
the establishment of an appropriate and documented risk management
strategy, should have been an integral part of contract management,"
the auditors said. According to the report a manual for departmental
centre managers was not issued until four years after the contract began
and had not been kept up to date. In its response to the report the
department agreed with the six recommendations made by the auditors.
It defended itself by saying the audit did not "fully reflect and take
account of the complexity of the environment and the nature of the previous
detention contract". "Many aspects of the contract were
intended to be flexibly addressed through negotiation and discussion,"
it said. Opposition immigration spokesman Stephen Smith demanded the
return of immigration detention centres to government management.
"The report is a comprehensive condemnation of the Government's policy
of the privatisation of the management of immigration detention centres and
a comprehensive indictment of DIMIA's administration of it," Mr Smith
said. The auditors found that 38 of the 100 immigration detention
standards issued by the department had no performance measures and another
37 were only partially covered. Immigration Minister Amanda
Vanstone's spokesman did not respond to the report.
Australian Immigration Department
Companies Use Immigration Crackdown to
Turn a Profit: Expose on immigration by Nina Bernstein
at the New York Times, September 28, 2011
July 19, 2005 The Age
The Immigration Department is under fire again for failing to protect a
woman who was sexually abused in front of her daughter in a detention
centre. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has found
that the department failed in its duty of care and breached her human
rights. The woman, an Iranian refugee from a minority religious
group, complained of two violent attacks by other detainees at the Curtin
detention centre in Western Australia. In one incident a man had tried to
rape her, and in another a man punched her in the chest and face, tore her
clothes off and broke her finger. Her young daughter, who came to her aid,
was also punched. In preliminary findings seen by The Age, Human
Rights Commission president John von Doussa slammed the department and the
manager of the Curtin centre, Australasian Correctional Management.
News of his finding follows the damning indictment of the department over
the illegal detention of Cornelia Rau and the mistaken deportation of
Vivian Alvarez Solon. In his report last week, former Federal Police
commissioner Mick Palmer identified "a serious cultural problem"
and called for urgent reform.
Baker Community Correctional Facility, San Bernardino, California
November 26, 2011 The Daily Press
The state has canceled its contract with the privately operated Desert
View Modified Community Correctional Facility, putting about 150 workers
out of a job. Desert View's contract termination officially takes effect
Wednesday, though prison employees told the Daily Press that The Geo Group
Inc. has been preparing to deactivate the prison at Rancho and Aster roads
since May. The 643-bed medium-security prison is shuttering its doors as
part of California’s realignment plan, which responds to federal orders to
reduce state prison overcrowding by shifting responsibility for tens of
thousands of low-level offenders to county governments. To help deal with
the new influx of inmates under local supervision, the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is encouraging counties to
enter into their own contracts with more than a dozen former CCFs. The CCFs
had generally housed inmates with sentences shorter than 18 months, parole
violators and offenders with scheduled release dates — the same types of
nonviolent, non-sexual or non-serious offenders now serving out sentences
in county jails instead of state prisons. “We hope that counties contract
with these facilities to save jobs and ease inmate housing concerns that
many counties may have,” CDCR spokeswoman Dana Toyama said. But San
Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department officials say they’re not planning
to privatize jail beds. The math just doesn’t pencil out, according to
Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Cindy Bachman. “The issue with taking
advantage of private prisons or private jail facilities has come up over
and over again throughout the years; however, it’s not something that the
county is considering,” Bachman said. “It’s too costly and there’s just not
the funding really even to consider something like that.” The California
State Association of Counties has created a document outlining potential
beds at the former CCFs, but counties statewide have been hesitant to
exercise that option. The Geo Group had operated six of the nine privately
run CCFs that lost their state contracts, according to CSAC. Five other
CCFs were run by local governments. The facilities ranged from around 100
employees to more than 600, according to Toyama.
Baxter Immigration Detention
Centre, Australia
September 13, 2008 Sidney Morning Herald
About 10 o'clock one evening in January 2003, Mary Rohde got out of her
four-wheel-drive to lock the gate to the visitor carpark at the Baxter
immigration detention facility near Port Augusta, where she was a detention
officer. She felt a presence but saw no one, and returned to the car to
radio the control room. Suddenly an arm was round her neck, a blade at her
throat. Terror and incomprehension overwhelmed her. Eventually the arm
loosened and she looked round; in the back seat was her boss. It had been a
security drill. "That'll teach her to lock the car door," a
supervisor later remarked. Rhode was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress
disorder and, five years later, has not recovered, despite psychiatric
treatment. Her symptoms are typical. She suffers from nightmares and
insomnia. She cannot manage social situations, cannot sit in a doctor's
waiting room; even visits from her adult children are too much to cope
with. Half an hour after they arrive she finds herself weeping in her
bedroom. "I'm now the shell of the person I was. I drink and take
drugs; for me to cope, that's what I have to do," she says. Rohde is
one of many former officers who developed post-traumatic stress disorder
and other stress-related disorders while working in detention centres
around Australia. Statistics from WorkCover South Australia record 62
claims for post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental disorders made
by guards at Woomera and Baxter. Many are unlikely to work again. We have
been told a lot about the impact of detention on asylum seekers, but not
about the impact on those who worked there. By 1999 leaky vessels were
making their way to Australia carrying mostly asylum seekers from Iraq,
Iran and Afghanistan. Arrival numbers overwhelmed detention centres at Curtin
and Port Hedland, both in northern Western Australia. The overflow shifted
to a makeshift camp near Woomera, South Australia, where they languished in
desert heat until given visas or sent home. Five hundred kilometres from
Adelaide, with access to the detention centre barred to almost all, it was
impossible for outsiders to know what happened within. Woomera's carrying
capacity was 400. By April 2000 it held more than 1400 detainees, and
officers were needed to keep order. Detention services were privatised by
the Howard government in 1997. The successful tenderer was Australasian
Correctional Management, or ACM, a subsidiary of the US giant Wackenhut
corporation, which ran private jails in Australia and overseas. Many ACM
detention centre officers had been jail staff but the company also
advertised for them. With free accommodation and the minimum requirement of
five 12-hour shifts a week, the conditions seemed excellent - about $1200 a
week. For Rohde, recently separated from her husband and experiencing
financial difficulties, the job seemed a godsend. Many officers believed
they were on important duty. In 2000 Australians got the message they were
under siege; that the boatloads surely included terrorists. Still others
thought this was a chance to show kindness. Within weeks, the new recruits
would find themselves kitted up in riot gear and wielding batons,
extinguishing fires, or cutting down would-be suicides. Trevor Robertson
signed up to Woomera in June 2000. He had recently completed training as a
prison officer in Brisbane. His partner, Kendall Jones, expecting their
first child, urged him to apply. As with Rohde, the move would be the
mistake of their lives. An imposing figure, Robertson was respected by
colleagues and soon became a supervisor. When Woomera closed and the
operation transferred to the Baxter centre near Port Augusta, Robertson
went too. One former colleague remembers him as even-tempered, fair and
good in a crisis - "the best operator at Woomera". Robertson has
been unable to work, his marriage teeters in the balance, and he rarely
leaves the loungeroom of his modest Port Augusta home. He does not
socialise, and spends his time bent over the computer, poring over state
and federal law, or on the phone to any bureaucrat or politician who will
talk to him about immigration detention. It is an obsession. He has
reflected long and hard about why it all went so wrong in immigration
detention centres. All the officers interviewed for this story said
training was inadequate. In an intensive four- to six-week course, new
recruits practised restraint and riot drills, became familiar with the
Migration Act, and were encouraged to treat detainees with respect.
Robertson does not think any training could have prepared officers for the
dire daily situations. He told ABC TV's Four Corners program that three
days after training he was at Woomera when 500 detainees attempted to
escape. The job was close to impossible. Detention centres became violent;
chaos reigned. These desert prisons held people who were distressed and
traumatised for months or years on end, waiting for news on their visa
applications. Many eventually became deranged. Riots, hunger strikes,
self-harm and suicide attempts were common. Officers became the focus of
detainee anger and resentment, and threats were made against them and their
families. It angers Robertson that he and colleagues were denied help.
"We were the police; we were the mental health-care workers; we were
the social workers," he recalls bitterly. Detention centres had rules,
and most detainees obeyed them. A core group, however, was troublesome and
the only consequence of their behaviour was incarceration in the
"management unit", a form of solitary confinement where detainees
frequently became so unmanageable it was easier to return them to their
compounds. Troublemakers lit fires, smashed windows, stood over and bullied
others and assaulted officers with relative impunity. Experts argue that
incarceration in detention centres induces mental illness. According to ACM
statistics for October 2001, three psychologists saw 764 residents at
Woomera. A psychiatrist visited every few weeks, but daily care of people
with mental illness was left to untrained officers. Rod Gigney, a kindly
officer, would bribe Anna with fruit, trying to curb her behaviour. The
young woman wandered around naked at Baxter and defecated on the floor. To
officers less sympathetic, Anna was just a heroin-addicted, damned
nuisance. She turned out to be the schizophrenic German-born Australian
Cornelia Rau. Gigney made many reports about Anna to management, without
effect. Carol Wiltshire was deeply concerned about a woman who had not left
her room for 10 months. She was catatonic, covered in bedsores and unable
to tend to her small child. Wiltshire's supervisor suggested she "poke
her with a stick and see if she's still alive". It was another month
before she was transferred to Adelaide's Glenside mental health facility.
Understaffing was significant and chronic. Often an officer as young as 20
would be left alone in a compound where three officers were required,
leaving them vulnerable and insecure. Sean Ferris was alone at Baxter when
a riot broke out. He locked himself in the office, which was pounded with
stones and set alight. Simon Forsyth, then 21, faced a fire on his first
shift at Baxter. He did not know how to use the extinguisher. An October
2005 report recounts the incident that ended Robertson's career. By then,
Baxter detainees were predominantly visa overstayers and criminals awaiting
deportation. There was a fight, Robertson was assaulted and "suddenly
I lost control". "I was really trying to hurt people; I had my
hands around their throats." And that was that. The once solid and
reliable officer, mentor to fellow workers, finally cracked. Battered,
bruised and hysterical, he was driven home. When he said he was fit to
return to work three weeks later, he broke down, was subsequently diagnosed
with an adjustment disorder and has not worked since. Clive Skinn, a Port
Augusta local who worked at Woomera and Baxter, loathes all detainees.
Sitting uncomfortably on the couch in Robertson's lounge room, he is tense
with anger. "My body is full of hatred," Skinn says. He had not
given refugees a thought before he went to Woomera; he knew nothing about
Muslims. On his second day on the job, a detainee head-butted him. Another
spat at him soon after. Wiltshire says Skinn was never the same after
having to cut down a man who attempted to hang himself. Life became
unmanageable. Skinn was quick to anger, could not get on with his children,
could not sleep. He awoke suddenly one morning convinced that there were
Muslims in his house. He seized a chair and trashed the place, smashed
windows and the TV, broke holes in the walls. He was diagnosed with anxiety
and depression and spent 18 months on workers' compensation. While still
profoundly affected, he holds down a job in an underground mine at Roxby
Downs, but the past catches up with him. "I'd like to kill them
all," Skinn says of detainees. "And I feel the same way about the
children. They were as bad as the parents." Gigney's breakdown was a
consequence of concern for detainees. He listened to their despair,
smuggled extra milk rations for children, and watched helplessly as they
suffered physically and mentally. A boy, 12, was among the three would-be
suicides he cut down. Officers who displayed compassion were held in
contempt by many co-workers, and became known as "care bears".
The diminutive and softly spoken Annie Brown (not her real name), 55,
thought working at Baxter would be an opportunity to help the unfortunate.
Each day she would say to herself, "I've got 12 hours to make these
people's lives better." For this she was taunted and ridiculed by
fellow officers; for Annie, the worst part of work at Baxter was the
attitude of many co-workers. Annie's husband is also a former Baxter
officer. "We were people who had normal lives," Annie says
through tears. "We don't have them any more." After being ignored
by superiors, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder,
anxiety, depression and agoraphobia, and for a year could not leave her
house. Many people with post-traumatic stress disorder have to confront the
fact that what was normality is not likely to return. This is Rohde's
reality. "I want my life back," she says. "But the
psychiatrist has said that I will never be the person I was before. I have
to try to learn to live with the person I am now." Three years since
his diagnosis, Robertson shows no sign of improvement. For Kendall, life
with Trevor is close to unbearable. She says he is distant, obnoxious and
arrogant. He gets angry with the children, impatient, distracted. He does
not go to bed until 3am, and rises late. As Jones and Robertson do
seemingly fruitless battle with bureaucrats, they are frustrated that
former detainees can pursue compensation for psychological damage but
former officers cannot. Gigney continues to try to find work. In his home
town of Whyalla the mining boom is in full swing, but being sound of body
is not enough for him to take advantage of it. He has just made his second
attempt to get a truck driver's licence. He would pulled over to answer his
phone when a water truck went past, triggering a flashback to the water
cannon used during riots at Woomera, and an incident involving children. He
sat in the cabin and wept. In the suburban Adelaide pub where she works as
a kitchenhand, Wiltshire shares a drink with another former officer,
Barbara Zillner. The camaraderie among former officers is akin to that
between Vietnam War veterans - no one else comprehends what they went
through. In 2000 Wiltshire, a single mother doing it tough, saw Woomera as
a chance to escape the poverty trap. Like others, she broke down, diagnosed
with an adjustment disorder. Her road to recovery has been hard, but she
now holds down a job and a relationship. Having recovered a measure of
equilibrium in her life, she looks back and wonders at what she went
through. "I was proud to be a detention centre officer, protecting
Australia's borders. Then I changed. I became a monster, a cowboy, like all
the other officers. They were all driven crazy. When I look back, I just
think - what the hell did I do that for? To end up hating people for no
reason."
March 3, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
A DAY of turmoil in the nation's immigration system ended with the
Federal Government backing down on several fronts yesterday. It agreed to
pay damages to a boy traumatised in detention and allowed a deported
Melbourne man to return to Australia on humanitarian grounds. A damning
report released by an independent auditor yesterday also raised questions
about a successful 2003 bid by the immigration detention contractor GSL,
whose contract the Government refused to renew on Wednesday. In Sydney, an
11-year-old Iranian, Shayan Badraie, was offered damages for trauma he
suffered in Woomera and Villawood detention centres. The move comes after a
63-day Supreme Court hearing. While in detention between March 2000 and
August 2001, the boy became severely traumatised after witnessing riots, a
stabbing and a string of other disturbing incidents. He subsequently spent
94 days in hospital, and still requires treatment. Commonwealth lawyers
approached lawyers representing Shayan this week to offer a settlement for
damages. The exact sum will be fixed at a hearing this morning but is
expected to be more than $1 million. Meanwhile, the immigration detention
contractor GSL was found to have been hired even though it was more
expensive and provided inferior services to competitors, the National Audit
Office announced yesterday. GSL's bid was $32.6 million higher than that of
the incumbent detention centre operator, ACM, when the latter's bid
expired. The audit office found the basis on which ACM was paid $5.7
million after it missed out on the contract was "doubtful", since
the department was only required to compensate for matters pertaining to
detention. Immigration could not provide evidence of the criteria under
which the sum was paid. The audit also found the head of the steering committee,
which was heavily involved in the evaluation of the bids, gave a reference
for ACM's bid. An independent probity adviser told the steering committee
seven months later that this should not happen again.
July
29, 2004
Two murals border a grassy patch in the fenced-in adult education compound
of the Baxter immigration detention centre. Goldfish feature in one.
The other, still being painted by detainees yesterday, is an abstract
composition of nine blue eyes and brown faces. For the first time
since the fires in 2002, journalists were allowed in the centre. An Iranian
detainee, who said he had been in detention for about four years, waited
until the Immigration Department official was out of earshot before he
started whispering to the Herald. The mural of the eyes represented
confusion, he explained. "People don't know what they're doing,
they've lost their personality, they don't know what happens to them,"
he said. And the fish? "If you scream underwater, nobody hears
your voice, if you're crying, nobody hears." One area the media
had never seen before was the grim "Management Unit", where
detainees with behavioural issues are put into solitary confinement -
sometimes for more than a month at a time. The Red compound, burnt
during the fires in 2002, is for "problem" detainees who have
come out of the "Management Unit" and are being
"re-integrated" into the general detention centre
population. There were no detainees in the Red compound yesterday
either - just empty non-carpeted rooms with metal furniture bolted to the
floor and a peephole for guards to look through when doing their head
counts each night. (Sidney Morning Mail)
November
20, 2003
A High Court judge has cleared the way for a challenge to Australia's
detention laws that could ultimately result in all children being released
from immigration detention centres. High Court Justice Kenneth Hayne
ruled in Melbourne yesterday that the challenge, launched by refugee
advocate Eric Vadarlis, could proceed to a February hearing before the court's
full bench. The legal action aims to free four child detainees from South
Australia's Baxter Detention Centre on the grounds that the detention of
children for administrative purposes is unconstitutional. (The Age)
July
30, 2003
An Iranian man at the Baxter detention centre has refused to eat for
the past 18 days after his seven-year-old daughter was sent back to
Iran, the Australian Democrats said today. Kate Reynolds,
Democrats' social justice spokeswoman in South Australia's upper house,
called for authorities to provide medical care and grief counseling to
Amin Mastipour (Amin Mastipour), who was on a hunger strike in a Baxter
isolation unit. "I cannot believe that this man's child - who
has been with him for the past five years - has been torn away from him
like this," Ms Reynolds said. (Sidney Morning News)
July
27, 2003
Alamdar Bakhtiyari, who has spent three of his mere 15 years living in
detention, says he never wants to come out. He says he feels safer behind
Baxter detention centre's razor wire. As he sits with The Age,
his angry father at his side, Alamdar is edgy, fearful. His face switches
like a flashing light, now scowling, now smiling. When he does speak,
his words tumble out filled with accusations and disbelief. "It is not
fair you come and talk to us, and then you go home to your family and a
nice house and we stay here. We are not free to leave. You have lovely
homes and families, but all we have is nothing, not even our freedom.
"I am not allowed to enjoy freedom like other boys. It makes me crazy,
I hate it here. I hate Australia. I am not a criminal, I have done nothing
wrong." Then the switch is thrown again. "You know what ACM
stands for?" he says flashing a smile. "Always Changing their
Minds." Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) is the private
company that runs Baxter and decides what Alamdar can and cannot do.
After almost three years of detention, Alamdar, with his younger brother
Montazar (Monty), bears all the signs of someone completely institutionalised.
His fear of the outside world outweighs his fear of incarceration. He says
his life has been torn apart by the competing forces in Australia's
immigration debate: the refugee activists, the lawyers, the media and
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock. Alamdar carries the scars of
detention, some of which are still visible. At the height of the Woomera
turmoil, when riots and hunger strikes were commonplace and teenage
detainees were threatening to kill themselves and drinking shampoo, Alamdar
stitched his lips together. Out of frustration he slashed himself
repeatedly with razor blades, and in a moment of deep despair he gouged the
word "freedom" into his forearm. (The Age)
April
21, 2003
South Australian police have apologized to protestors after a heavily tactical
response squad drove into their camp near the Baxter detention centre
searching for a rifle that had allegedly been aimed at a police
helicopter. The search of the site turned up a camera tripod. A
total of 33 people were arrested during the three-day Easter protest
against mandatory detention of asylum seekers. More than 350 police
were on hand for the protests. But as protesters left, riot police
charged at selected groups to clear them from the area. (The Age)
April
18, 2003
Police clashed with protesters outside the Baxter detention centre today
after demonstrators climbed barricades and tried to march on the
centre. Ignoring police appeals to remain beyond a roadblock erected
to seal access to the centre, hundreds of protesters confronted police in a
tense stand-off this afternoon. Some protesters climbed the
barricades and attempted to make their way on foot to the centre's main
gates, before a second line of police blocked their path and began
confiscating camping equipment. Hundreds of protesters from around
Australia have converged on Port Augusta to rally against the government's
treatment of asylum seekers. Some 300 police officers were redeployed
to Port Augusta this weekend, after last year's Easter rally at the Woomera
detention centre, during which detainees staged several mass escapes with
the help of demonstrators. Refugee Action Collective protest
organiser Fleur Taylor, from Melbourne, said centre manager Australasian
Correctional Management (ACM), authorized by the Department of Immigration
(DIMIA), had increased punishment of Baxter detainees. (The Age)
March
10, 2003
Two men who escaped from the Baxter immigration detention centre last night
spent just hours on the run before being recaptured by South Australian
police early today. Police said the men fled into bushland north of
the Port Augusta facility at 11.18pm (CDT). A search involving local
police and Australian Federal Police was organised, including the use of a
police aircraft. (The Age)
January
3, 2003
It was meant to be the new, friendlier face of
Australia's asylum seeker policy. Although an electrified
fence runs around the outside, and security cameras are everywhere
except in private areas, the rooms are modern.
There is more grass and play area for children than in other
centres. But today part of Baxter lies in ruins, and along
with it any hope of an easy resolution to the fate of
Australia's asylum seekers. Just
after midnight on Friday last week a fire broke out in an empty room in
Red 1, a men's compound at Baxter. Although detainees
cannot possess matches or lighters, arsonists may have made a
lighter from electric wiring or a toaster. They had mattresses
and newspapers - plenty of fuel. Two
nights later, a bigger fire was lit in Red 1. Staff tried to put it out
but did not have enough water. Fire crews arrived,
people were banging on doors to wake those still asleep. Many
detainees were collapsing from smoke inhalation. At
about 3pm that day more fires were lit. Desperate to get out but told not
to, detainees broke down the gate and tried to break
out of the compound. Guards in riot gear confronted them. When
some detainees were asked why they had started the fire they
replied: "We were trying to get away. The centre
is making us crazy." By
Sunday night the fires were spreading, first to Port Hedland detention
centre, later to Woomera, Christmas Island and
Villawood. The "ferocity" of the actions took guards by surprise,
an ACM employee said. On
December 17, newspapers in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne published
the same article. Carrying headlines such as "Five Star
Asylums" and "It's not all mriots at our Club
Fed", it reported that detainees enjoyed luxuries such as
gyms, Foxtel, DVDs and yoga classes. The
article, and a similar one in a Port Hedland newspaper, made some people
in the Port Hedland detention centre "very
angry," says the town's Uniting Church minister, Bev Fabb.
She says most of the article's information was wrong for Port
Hedland. The article also troubled Harry Minas of the Federal
Government's Independent Detention Advisory Group. Neither
Professor Minas nor Ms Fabb suggest a direct link between the article
and the arson but many asylum seeker advocates feel the
article helped to exacerbate what one advocate describes as a
"huge deterioration" in the mood of detainees in the past
month. A shift
is under way in the centres. Numbers are dwindling. No boat has reached
Australia for 14 months. Baxter, Woomera and Port Hedland are
way below capacity. On New Year's Eve the Immigration Department
handed a letter to 488 detainees in Baxter, Port Hedland
and Woomera. The letter said most of them had been rejected as refugees
and had "no right to remain in this country . . . You can
choose to bring your detention to an end at any time by leaving
Australia". According to what an Iranian detainee told asylum
seeker advocate Ian Knowles, a group of men, infuriated
by the letter, marched to the immigration office and demanded to be
deported straight away. Guards in riot gear pushed them back to a
compound. ACM confirmed that tear gas was used. Mr
Minas adds: "People are saying, 'It's their (the detainees') own bloody
fault', and in a way it is. "But
people have to ask what makes this group prefer be in a detention centre
environment rather than to go go home. "They
are not choosing a soft life in Australia." (The Age)
January
3, 2003
Thirteen pairs of scissors, two chisels, home-made weapons, broken glass
panels and lighter fluid have been found after searches in Australia's
seven immigration detention centres. But strip searches of the 132
men detained at Baxter and Woomera in South Australia, conducted this week,
apparently uncovered little. An Immigration Department statement
refers only to two mobile phones and one screwdriver being found. The
five-day spree of violence in five of the seven immigration detention
centres has left a damages bill of $8.4 million. The bill climbed
$400,000 yesterday after the Immigration Department revealed the cost of
fires at Christmas Island four days ago. (The Age)
December
29, 2002
Asylum seekers who caused more than $2 million in
damage by using bedding and furniture to fuel six separate fires at the
three-month-old Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia face jail terms
before being deported. One of the
centre's nine compounds was destroyed after five fires began simultaneously
early yesterday, and 13 people, including two guards, were taken to
hospital. Forty-seven
detainees were evacuated to another compound within the centre, where
another big fire broke out shortly after 3.30pm. Eighty-one rooms were destroyed,
including 17 in the second compound. Two en suite units were destroyed and
a mess hall was damaged. According
to the Department of Immigration website, riots in detention centres have
caused more than $5 million in damage over the past 18 months. More than
three-quarters of this has occurred at Woomera Detention Centre, where six
buildings were destroyed in riots in August 2000 and a further three burnt
during riots in November last year. (Sidney Morning Hearld)
December
27, 2002
Inmates at South Australia's Baxter detention centre used mattresses and
newspapers to light three fires that gutted a complex of four rooms,
Australasian Correctional Management said yesterday. The fires, which
caused an estimated $60,000 damage, have been referred by the Department of
Immigration to Australian Federal Police for investigation. A
spokesman for Australasian Correctional Management, which is contracted to
run the Baxter immigration detention centre, said the fires had been lit in
the single men's complex, which included two bedrooms and two toilet
areas. (The Age)
November
6, 2002
Up to 30 detainees at South Australia's Baxter detention centre were hit by
nearly 50 guards in full riot gear last week and then refused medical
treatment, according to an asylum seeker. Afghan Fahim Shah said
about eight detainees were hurt last Thursday's attack in the mess where
about 30 people were eating dinner. "They threw my plate and
beat me with the stick and pushed me three times with the shield to go
outside from the mess," he said. He said there had been two
other incidents of brutality by Australasian Correctional Management guards
at the centre since it opened about six weeks ago. (The Age)
Ben
Reid Community CF,
Houston, Texas (AKA Southeast Texas Transitional Center)
Aug 21 ,2019
houstonchronicle.com
Lawsuit: Private prison contractor abandoned parolees at flooded halfway
house during Harvey
More than 200 former inmates are suing a private
prison contractor who they say “utterly failed” them during Hurricane
Harvey, allegedly leaving the men in a flooded halfway house in Houston
surrounded by toxic waste and without food, clean water or medical care.
Despite the “barbaric” conditions, according to the lawsuit, the men
couldn’t leave the premises because officials told them it would be a
violation of their parole. “It was a total disaster,” said Henry Thigpen,
one of the roughly 500 parolees who weathered the storm at the Southeast
Texas Transitional Center before officials sent them all back to prison. “They
left us there to fend for ourselves.” Attorneys for GEO Group, the massive
private prison contractor that runs the eastern Harris County facility,
denied the allegations in court filings but declined to offer any
additional comment to the Houston Chronicle. “Plaintiffs no doubt
experienced inconveniences during Hurricane Harvey flooding, just like the
STTC staff and nearly every resident of Harris County and southeast Texas,”
the company’s lawyers wrote. “Like nearly all of Houston, the flooding made
plaintiffs normal routines impossible.” On HoustonChronicle.com: Listen: A
podcast from death row, and the story of Larry Swearingen. But, the lawyers
said, the flooding never reached over calf-height, the staff never
abandoned the facility and there was always adequate food and water on
hand. The parolees who were there begged to differ. “They don’t know,” said
Everett Crawford, a 63-year-old from Bexar County. “They abandoned us.” The
GEO Group-run facility on Beaumont Highway is a former bible college that
contracts with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to house parolees
fresh out of prison as they work to get back on their feet. The men there -
some of whom are sex offenders with ankle monitors - are allowed to have
cellphones and jobs and they don’t have to wear prison uniforms. But
there’s still a gate and they’re not free to come and go as they please
according to the conditions of their parole. After the storm hit Houston on
a Friday - August 25, 2017 - parts of the campus started taking on water.
Most of the staff allegedly abandoned their posts as the flooding rose to
waist-deep in some places, according to the lawsuit. Men began moving their
belongings up to the second floor, retreating from the foul-smelling water.
Some read or listened to the radio, while others sang gospel music or
prayed as they tried to figure out what to do. “There was no clean water,”
said Houston-based attorney Scott Arnold, one of the lawyers who is
representing the men in court. “You’d turn on the faucet and you’d get
brown stuff coming up.” Some of the men raided the kitchen for scraps of
food, he said, while others went hungry. At one point, according to
Thigpen, a few of the guys waded through miles of floodwater to the nearest
store, a process that took hours. In
the end, the men were “nearly starved, were dehydrated and incurred rashes,
infections and other injuries from the toxic flood waters,” the suit
alleges. In part, that’s because the facility sits between a former
superfund site, a landfill and a waste processing plant, “all of which
flooded and subjected Plaintiffs of up to waist-high water filled with the
filth and toxins from the surrounding landfill and toxic waste facility.”
Many of the men had medical and mental health conditions that required
monitoring and medication, “none of which was available,” according to the
lawsuit. Instead, the parolees said they took care of their comrades
themselves. “It still haunts me today,” said Thigpen. “I’d neve been in a
situation like that where I had to take care of mentally ill and
handicapped people. We had to physically hold them down so they wouldn’t go
out there and drown.” GEO Group offered a very different narrative of the
hurricane conditions, writing that the floodwaters peaked at around 18
inches, below the bottom of first-floor bunk beds. “Affected parolees and
their bedding were temporarily moved to the second floor of their dorms,”
the company’s attorneys wrote. “The facility staff stayed on-site around
the clock to mitigate the flooding, to maintain essential functions like
the kitchen and the medication room, and to conduct rounds, roll calls, and
counts.” The halfway house staff was not only “fully present” throughout
the storm and weathering the “exact same conditions” as the parolees,
according to GEO Group’s response filing, but there were actually more
employees there than usual and the claims that they abandoned their posts
is “baseless.” One thing that both sides agree on is that on August 29 -
four days into it - the flood waters subsided enough for prison staff to
come pick up the men. That night, the men said, they were all loaded onto
Texas Department of Criminal Justice buses at gunpoint and shipped to
various state prisons. In the process they were forced to abandon all their
belongings, and some said they found their things missing weeks later when
they returned to the facility. In the nearly two years since the storm,
some of the men - including Thigpen and Crawford - moved out on their own.
They’re both still on parole.
Oct 8, 2012 HoustonPress.com
The rapist of a 16-year-old girl is the latest sexual predator to slip
through the sieve that is the privately run Southeast Texas Transitional
Center. Thomas Lee Elkins, convicted of aggravated kidnapping and sexual
assault in 1991, absconded from the facility, 10950 Old Beaumont Highway,
October 5, according to reports. He's the sixth offender to float away from
Southeast in 24 months. Formerly known as the Ben A. Reid Community
Correctional Facility, Southeast is run by the Florida-based GEO Group,
which, despite its appalling track record in Texas and elsewhere, keeps
getting sweet state contracts. But hey, what's the big deal about losing a
child rapist or two, right? Elkins is 6-3, about 200 lbs., and has a
"Fu Manchu" mustache, which we're totally sure he hasn't shaved.
We're also sure GEO Group won't have to pay any sort of penalty for this
escape. They certainly weren't held accountable when another resident,
Anthony Ray Ferrell, took a stroll in October 2010 and wound up gunning
down a Good Samaritan who tried to stop Ferrell from stealing a woman's
purse at a gas station. Look, clearly the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice has more important things to do -- like monitor employees' Facebook
use -- than make sure its contractors, like, keep the public safe and
stuff. Anyone want to take bets on how long it'll be before another
degenerate escapes?
April
6, 2012 Houston Press Blogs
A high-risk child rapist who hopped over his halfway house's barbed wire
fence Thursday night is the fifth sex offender to abscond from the
privately run Southeast Texas Transitional Center in 18 months. According
to the Houston Chronicle story linked above, authorities say Michael Elbert
Young, who might be "mentally unstable if not taking medication,"
removed his electronic tracking monitor. He was "released from prison
after serving eight years for two aggravated assault convictions. Both were
sex related. He also served a 20-year term for sexual assault of a child
and attempted aggravated sexual assault." Oh, and he has a history of
using knives. Owned and operated by Florida-based GEO Group, the facility
at 10950 Old Beaumont Highway was formerly known as the Ben A. Reid
Community Correctional Facility. Apparently, since GEO can't keep track of
its convicted sexual predators, it just figured changing the name would
solve the problem. After all, it's much cheaper than hiring a competent
staff and improving security. In October 2010, Anthony Ray Ferrell walked
out of Southeast Texas/Ben A. Reid, and was later charged with gunning down
a Good Samaritan who intervened when Ferrell allegedly tried to snatch a
woman's purse inside a gas station convenience store. A week before Ferrell
strolled off the grounds, Bruce McCain, convicted of two sexual assaults in
1986, fled the facility. In December 2010, Arthur William Brown, who had
served 31 years for aggravated sexual assault of two women and a
16-year-old, did the same. A month after that, sex offender Timothy Rosales
Jr. absconded. Although some of these folks were caught, the problem is, as
we wrote earlier, the place is like a freaking sieve, and GEO has a sweet
contract with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice: There's apparently
no repercussion for escapes, and once a resident absconds, it's no longer
GEO's problem. All GEO personnel have to do is pick up a phone and notify
real-life law enforcement officers. Thanks, GEO. We certainly feel safer
with y'all at the wheel. And thanks, TDCJ, for continuing to do business
with them.
January 25, 2011 KTRK
High risk, armed and dangerous are the words being used to describe a sex
offender who absconded from a Houston halfway house on Monday night. It's
been nearly 24 hours since Timothy Rosales, Jr. disappeared from the
halfway house and he is no where to be found. The Texas Department of
Public Safety has since added him to it's Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives
list. Related Content More: Got a story idea? Let us know! Rosales was
doing maintenance work in the lobby of the Reid Center on Beaumont Highway
around 6:15pm Monday when he bolted through the front door, cut off his
electronic monitoring device around his ankle and fled. Rosales then did
not report back to his parole officer and a warrant was issued for his
arrest. Across the street at Melba's Country Kitchen, the owner and her
staff had no idea he'd absconded until today. Melba Barfield says she has
no reservations being this close to a halfway house where offenders can
leave, so long as they have an approved schedule. "I've been here nine
years and I've had absolutely no problems from the guys at the halfway
house. I know that several have walked away but they haven't stopped here
to get my dollar," said Barfield.
January 25, 2011 Houston Press Blogs
Timothy Rosales Jr. is the first rapist of 2011 to escape from the
privately run Ben Reid halfway house, and the second to escape in a little
over a month. The 39-year-old sex offender fled from the Beaumont Highway
facility around 6:15 Monday night, according to the Department of Public
Safety. He's considered armed and dangerous. And, like Arthur William
Brown, the rapist who escaped in late December, he was able to remove his
electronic monitoring ankle bracelet. We wrote about the unsecured Reid
facility, and its parent company, the Florida-based GEO Group, in December.
Two months before the story ran, Anthony Ray Ferrell escaped from Reid and
allegedly shot and killed a 24-year-old good Samaritan who intervened in a
gas station purse-snatching. Another rapist split the Reid facility a few
weeks before Ferrell slipped out. Although the place is like a freaking
sieve, there is nothing in GEO's contract with the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice about a maximum number of vicious sexual predators that
can be let loose on the public in a given amount of time. And once these
monsters step off the Reid premises, they're no longer GEO's problem: It is
up to actual real-life law enforcement officers to apprehend the escapees.
All GEO personnel need to do is pick up the phone and make a few calls once
they realize an offender hasn't returned on time. Needless to say, we're a
little concerned about the kind of people who are standing between the
public and some armed asshole who likes to rape 16-year-old kids. You know
who doesn't need to worry? GEO's top executives. Their salaries and
benefits are secure. They will continue to make money off the Reid
facility. And besides, their families don't live anywhere near the
facility. So what in the world would they have to worry about?
November 16, 2010 Houston Press
The man charged with killing a Good Samaritan during a purse-snatching is
the third person to escape the same state-contracted halfway house in the
last 20 months. Anthony Ray Ferrell had fled a "halfway house in the
10900 block of Beaumont Highway" in October, according to the Houston
Chronicle. The home in that block is the Ben A. Reid Community Correctional
Facility, from which sex offender Bruce McCain escaped in October 2010 and
Richard Williamson Griffin Jr. escaped in February 2009. (McCain was
arrested in the Rio Grande Valley three weeks after his escape). The home
was operated by private prison group Cornell Companies, which was bought by
its main competitor, the Florida-based GEO Group, last April. The facility
"provides temporary housing, monitoring and transitional services for
500 minimum-security adult male offenders," according to Cornell
Companies literature. Its "security measures include 24-hour custodial
supervision, 12-foot perimeter fence, outdoor lighting, close circuit
cameras, secure entrances and frequent census checks." Cornell
Companies/GEO also operate Houston's Leidel Comprehensive Sanctions Center.
In 2005, before GEO bought Cornell, a Leidel resident who got a day-pass
for church and never bothered to return; he fled to Fort Worth, where he
killed three men. Ferrell is accused of murdering Sam Irick at a Meyerland
convenience store last week. Irick tried to intervene as Ferrell allegedly
was robbing a customer.
Big Spring Complex, Big
Spring, Texas
November 9, 2010 NewsWest 9
An accidental shooting on Tuesday at the federal prison in Big Spring put
an inmate in the hospital. The shooting happened right before noon at the
Flight Line Prison, located at the airpark in Big Spring. According to
medics, a Hispanic man was accidentally shot by a gun in the upper arm. The
wound was not serious, but he was taken to Scenic Mountain Medical Center
for a follow up. He was alert and conscious while being transported. We
still don't know how the prisoner was shot. Details are limited at this
time, but we've learned the shooting is under investigation. NewsWest 9 has
contacted the Geo Group, which currently runs the prison, and they have not
commented on the incident. NewsWest 9 will continue to follow this story
and will bring you the very latest information when we get it.
Bill Clayton Detention Center,
Littlefield, Texas
Texas prison boom going bust: by Mitch Mitchell, September 3, 2011, Star-Telegram.
Expose on troubles facing many communities that bought into the private
prison bonding scam.
Wanted: Inmates and Investors Texas
Lockups Go on the Block: July 19, 2011, Bond
Buyer: Private prison bonding not panacea.
September 16, 2011 KCBD
After auctioning off the Bill Clayton Detention Center back in July,
the City of Littlefield thought they were free from the financial strains.
However, the private bidder has backed out of their $6 million offer. The
private buyer made the offer via telephone during the July auction. Thirty
days after the bid, the contract on the property was supposed to close.
However, the City received word that the deal had fallen through. "It
didn't happen and the reason it didn't happen was because the person who
put in the highest bid basically backed out on their bid and kind of put us
in a tailspin," City Manager Danny Davis said. After years of
mismanagement and broken contracts, the $11 million dollar detention center
sat vacant. The city was left to foot the bill, still owing more than $9
million on the property. The city was certain the bid of $6 million would
help close the gap on their debt. The news of the bidder's change of heart
is frustrating for Davis. "With the detention center, nothing has
happened easy. It's been a struggle for us all along, so, in some ways, we
were not that surprised that we've got a continued struggle," Davis
said. It was a struggle that listing agent Jef Conn says he wasn't entirely
surprised by. "We always hope for the best and plan for the worst.
It's never the best when a contract falls out," Conn said. Conn says
he is working with the City of Littlefield to come up with a plan to get
the detention center sold. "There are some interested parties and we
will be working with them and the city of Littlefield to find the best
possible option and have them come in and buy the prison," Conn said.
For Davis, he is hopeful the detention center can be sold quickly to
alleviate concerns all across the board. "I'm retiring in two weeks,
and I was very hopeful that this would be one problem my successor wouldn't
have to deal with," Davis said.
July 28, 2011 Dallas Morning News
A debt-ridden West Texas town auctioned off the empty prison at the source
of its money problems for $6 million Thursday morning. A private prison
company bought the Bill Clayton Detention Center from the city of
Littlefield, whose approximately 5,700 residents had barely been scraping
by to pay the $9 million they still owed on the facility. The company
placed their offer as a confidential bidder and is requesting to remain
that way until the 30-day period for settling the sale is complete,
according to Jef Conn, a real estate specialist for Coldwell Banker
Commercial Rick Canup Realtors. The five-pod facility was built in 2000 by
hopeful city officials wanting to rake in revenue for the small
cotton-growing town. Instead, Littlefield was saddled with more than $9
million in debt once prisoners were pulled out and the private company operating
the center left. After the sale, Littlefield will only owe between $3
million and $4 million on the facility, officials said.
July 27, 2011 American Independent
City officials in Littlefield have big hopes for tomorrow morning’s
auction, where a minimum bid of $5 million could be enough to buy your own
little slice of Panhandle heaven: the 383-bed Bill Clayton Detention
Center. It’s being billed as a “turn-key medium security detention center,”
a 383-bed bargain with slick promotions courtesy the Williams and Williams
Worldwide Real Estate Auction house. The 11-year-old prison was refurbished
in 2005, and looks great in the slideshows and teaser trailers produced for
the auction. (Here’s a longer video tour, but scroll down for a look at the
best one, a “Battlestar Galactica” inspired tour, all quick cuts and
drums.) For the City of Littlefield, though, the prison’s last couple years
haven’t been such a thrill ride. The town paid for the prison with a $10
million bond issue, planning for a bright future with the Texas Youth
Commission. But after TYC pulled pulled its charges from the facility in
2003, Littlefield’s credit rating suffered as the South Florida-based
private prison giant GEO Group shopped around the country for inmates to
fill its beds — first with Wyoming’s, then with Idaho’s Department of
Corrections. Idaho pulled its prisoners in 2008, GEO Group after them, and
the town’s been stuck with the empty prison it hasn’t finished paying for.
Now it’s raising taxes and fees on its 6,500 residents to make room for
bond payments. The empty prison is the driving force behind cuts to the
city budget this year, according to a City Manager’s message in the budget:
The budget for 2010-2011 has presented new challenges for us since the debt
payments for the Bill Clayton Detention Center (BCDC) have been pushed
front and center by the lack of a source of prisoners to provide a revenue
stream for those bond payments. Earlier this week, The Bond Buyer looked at
the Bill Clayton facility and a handful of others now sitting empty around
Texas. While many towns found ways to avoid leaving taxpayers on the hook
if operators left, that didn’t happen here: Like many of the speculative
detention centers built in sparsely populated counties, the Clayton
facility was meant to be an economic stimulus instead of an economic drain.
But Littlefield took the somewhat unusual step of pledging its full faith
and credit to the bonds. City officials were either on vacation or didn’t
reply to interview requests from the Independent. The advocacy group
Grassroots Leadership has made a case study of Bill Clayton, warning of the
hidden dangers private prisons can create for a town, and folks with the
group say Texas’ shrinking prison population doesn’t tell the half of the
Littlefield story. “This was like a soap opera,” said Grassroots Leadership
executive director Donna Red Wing, recalling a 2004 prison break police
said was aided by a pair of guards, and a 2008 suicide that sparked a suit
against GEO Group from the family of the inmate, alleging he’d been left in
solitary for more than a year. “You couldn’t make this stuff up, the
stories are horrible,” Red Wing said. “If you wrote that screenplay, they
wouldn’t take it.” When the Idaho DOC left the Clayton facility in 2008,
state Correction Director Brent Reinke said it was pulling out because of
“an ongoing staffing issue,” the Associated Press reported at the time,
referring to an Idaho audit that found guards had been falsifying reports
of their inmate checks. “Littlefield is a difficult place to have a
facility. It’s a long way from an employment base,” said Grassroots
Leadership’s Bob Libal, who edits the blog Texas Prison Bid’ness. Libal
said the Clayton facility was part of a much greater prison-building rush
around Texas that ended around 2007, followed by national searches for
inmates to fill them. The only growth lately, Libal said, has been in
facilities for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A $35 million prison in
Jones County was built by New Jersey-based Community Education Centers last
summer, and now sits empty, as local TV station KTXS reported, “ready to
bring nearly 200 jobs to the area.” In that case, the county formed a
Public Facility Corporation to help minimize the taxpayers’ liability — but
Libal said it could still mean trouble for the county because its credit
rating is still tied to the prison debt. In January, Littlefield officials
hoped the Texas Department of Criminal Justice would sign off on an
application from Avalon Correctional Services to operate the prison, but
nothing came of it. Now the city just wants it off the books, even at half
of what they paid. NPR featured both the Clayton facility and Jones
County’s new prison back in March, before Littlefield had announced its
auction: “Too many times we’ve seen jails that have got into it and tried
to make it a profitable business to make money off of it and they end up
fallin’ on their face,” says Shannon Herklotz, assistant director of the
[Texas Commission on Jail Standards]. The packages look sweet. A town gets
a new detention center without costing the taxpayers anything. The private
operator finances, constructs and operates an oversized facility. The
contract inmates pay off the debt and generate extra revenue. The economic
model works fine until they can’t find inmates.
July 14, 2011 Willams Auction
This is a unique opportunity to acquire a turn-key medium security
detention center in Littlefield, TX. New owners will benefit from support
from the town that built the facility, the area's low cost of living as
well as a ready local workforce. Conveying with the buildings on auction
day are furniture, linens, computers, kitchen supplies and other equipment
used in the operation of the facility. Located approximately 45 minutes
northwest of Lubbock, it is easily accessible from Highway 84, the
Littlefield Municipal Airport, as well as Preston Smith International
Airport. The Bill Clayton Detention Center was built in 2000 and updated in
2005. Standing on 30+/- acres, the center has 94,437+/- sq ft of space. It
consists of five one-story air-conditioned buildings constructed of
concrete block with a brick veneer and pitch seamed metal roofs. It has a
capacity of 383 inmates in 5 housing pods, complete with dayrooms and other
amenities. The buildings are contained behind a strengthened perimeter of
double fences with an electronic shaker detection system and eight video
surveillance cameras. Approximately 10 acres are contained within the
fence. The facility also has a freestanding gymnasium, maintenance shed,
armory and parking lot. At the opening bid of $5 million, the cost per bed
is approximately $13,055!
May 19, 2011 Bradenton Herald
Fitch Ratings has taken the following action on Littlefield, Texas'
combination tax and revenue certificates of obligation (COs) during the
course of routine surveillance: --$1 million combination tax and revenue
COs, series 1997 affirmed at 'BB+'. -- The Rating Outlook is Negative. --
RATING RATIONALE: --The 'BB+' rating and Negative Outlook reflect the
ongoing financial pressures resulting from Littlefield's challenges in
servicing outstanding debt issued for a now vacant detention center. The
city tapped reserve funds to help make the August 2010 debt service
payments on the series 2000 and 2001 COs (not rated by Fitch); $268,825 was
used from the combined reserves - that money has since been repaid and the
reserves are fully funded. No reserve funds were used to make February 2011
payments. --Despite ongoing efforts to find a new tenant/operator, the
city's detention center remains empty. The city council recently entered
into a contract with an auction company to auction off the facility within
120 days. --Financial resources to make debt service payments have been
aided by the adoption in fall 2010 of a debt service property tax and
transfers from the city's two economic development corporations' sales tax
revenues; transfers from the city's water and wastewater utility fund,
which are secondary pledged revenues for the Series 1997 COs, remain the
main source of debt service support. --General fund finances remain weak,
with limited reserves. -- WHAT COULD TRIGGER A DOWNGRADE A failed auction
would maintain financial pressure on the city, forcing it to continue with
the current practice of cobbling together debt service payment amounts from
various sources; utility system cash levels could decline and additional
reserve fund draws could occur. -- SECURITY: The series 1997 COs are
payable from and secured by a limited ad valorem tax pledge against all
taxable property in the city, plus surplus revenues of the city's
waterworks and sanitary sewer system. -- CREDIT SUMMARY: The city has been
unable to locate a new tenant and/or permanent operator of its detention
facility since the State of Idaho removed its prisoners in January 2009 and
the GEO Group terminated its operating agreement at the same time. With no
facility revenues to service the debt associated with the facility, the
city in subsequent months patched together payments from various city
sources, primarily available revenues of the water and wastewater utility
system. The city was current on its payments until August 2010, when legal
questions surrounding the city's ability to use sales tax revenues from its
4A economic development corporation delayed use of those funds. The city
used nearly $269,000 from the debt service reserves associated with the
series 2000 and 2001 COs issued for the detention center to make the August
2010 payment on these COs. Since then, the legal question regarding use of
economic development corporation sales tax revenues has been resolved
favorably for the city and the debt service reserves were fully
replenished. Also, last fall the city council established a debt service
property tax for the first time, which is expected to generate roughly
$115,000 annually to help meet debt service requirements. Finally,
Littlefield voters last fall approved the creation of a second 4B economic
development corporation (also with sales tax collection authority), and
that corporation's sales tax receipts will supplement the revenue stream.
The combination of sales tax revenues and property tax revenues, a utility
system transfer and a loan of other city funds enabled the city to make the
February 2011 principal and interest payment on the detention center COs
without tapping the reserve funds. Acknowledging the difficulty in securing
new prisoners for the facility, the city recently executed a contract with
a national auction house which will put into motion the process of
auctioning off the detention facility within 120 days. Management reports
that a $5 million reserve (minimum bid) will be included in the bid
specifications. While a sale at this price will not retire the $9.5 million
outstanding in related CO debt, it would enable the city to call a significant
portion of the COs, reduce the annual debt requirement correspondingly, and
relieve the current financial pressure measurably. Conversely, a failed
auction will mean the city continues with its current practice of piecing
together city revenues from various sources to meet debt payments - a
challenging prospect that will keep pressure very high. Financial
flexibility remains limited. The general fund balance is modest, with the
city recording a $17,000 fund balance at fiscal 2010 year-end, or less than
1% of expenditures and transfers out. While the water and sewer fund
maintains healthy liquidity and has historically provided significant
general fund and detention center fund support, available surplus funds are
expected to decline going forward as excess revenues are used to continue
support of the general fund. The new debt service property tax and
additional sales tax revenues help, but do not eliminate the need for
utility system support. Utility debt service support was budgeted at more
than $390,000 for fiscal 2011, or 50% of the $781,000 annual CO debt
requirement. If the auction fails, reliance on utility system transfers
until the COs are retired does not appear feasible; an alternative
permanent solution would need to be devised. Littlefield, with a population
of nearly 6,400, is located approximately 35 miles northwest of Lubbock and
serves as the county seat for Lamb County. The area is primarily rural in
nature, with agriculture services, government, manufacturing, and trade as
key components of the county's economy. County unemployment rates have
risen, with a 7.6% posted for February 2011; however, the rate remains
below the statewide average of 8.2%. While there is moderate taxpayer
concentration among the top 10 taxpayers, there is generally a good mix of
industries within the list.
March 28, 2011 NPR
Private Prison Promises Leave Texas Towns In Trouble by John Burnett The
country with the highest incarceration rate in the world — the United
States — is supporting a $3 billion private prison industry. In Texas,
where free enterprise meets law and order, there are more for-profit
prisons than any other state. But because of a growing inmate shortage,
some private jails cannot fill empty cells, leaving some towns wishing
they'd never gotten in the prison business. It seemed like a good idea at
the time when the west Texas farming town of Littlefield borrowed $10
million and built the Bill Clayton Detention Center in a cotton field south
of town in 2000. The charmless steel-and-cement-block buildings ringed with
razor wire would provide jobs to keep young people from moving to Lubbock
or Dallas. For eight years, the prison was a good employer. Idaho and
Wyoming paid for prisoners to serve time there. But two years ago, Idaho
pulled out all of its contract inmates because of a budget crunch at home.
There was also a scandal surrounding the suicide of an inmate. Shortly
afterward, the for-profit operator, GEO Group, gave notice that it was
leaving, too. One hundred prison jobs disappeared. The facility has been
empty ever since. A Hard Sell "Maybe ... he'll help us to find
somebody," says Littlefield City Manager Danny Davis good-naturedly
when a reporter shows up for a tour. For sale or contract: a 372-bed,
medium-security prison with double security fences, state-of-the-art
control room, gymnasium, law library, classrooms and five living pods.
Davis opens the gray steel door to a barren cell with bunk beds and
stainless-steel furniture. "You can see the facility here. [It's]
pretty austere, but from what I understand from a prison standpoint, it's
better than most," he says, still trying to close the sale. For the
past two years, Littlefield has had to come up with $65,000 a month to pay
the note on the prison. That's $10 per resident of this little city. A
Resident Burden Is the empty prison a big white elephant for the city of
Littlefield? "Is it something we have that we'd rather not have? Well,
today that would probably be the case," Davis says. To avoid
defaulting on the loan, Littlefield has raised property taxes, increased
water and sewer fees, laid off city employees and held off buying a new
police car. Still, the city's bond rating has tanked. The village elders
drinking coffee at the White Kitchen cafe are not happy about the way
things have turned out. "It was never voted on by the citizens of
Littlefield; [it] is stuck in their craw," says Carl Enloe, retired
from Atmos Energy. "They have to pay for it. And the people who's got
it going are all up and gone and they left us... " "...Holdin' the
bag!" says Tommy Kelton, another Atmos retiree, completing the
sentence. The Declining Prison Population The same thing has happened to
communities across Texas. Once upon a time, it seems every small town
wanted to be a prison town. But the 20-year private prison building boom is
over. Some prisons are struggling outside Texas, too. Hardin, Mont.,
defaulted on its bond payments after trying, so far unsuccessfully, to fill
its 464-bed minimum security prison. And a prison in Huerfano County,
Colo., closed after Arizona pulled out its 700 inmates. According to the
Bureau of Justice Statistics, the total correctional population in the
United States is declining for the first time in three decades. Among the
reasons: The crime rate is falling, sentencing alternatives mean fewer
felons doing hard time and states everywhere are slashing budgets. The
Texas legislature, looking for budget cuts, is contemplating shedding 2,000
contract prison beds. Statewide, more than half of all privately operated
county jail beds are empty, according to figures from the Texas Commission
on Jail Standards. "Too many times we've seen jails that have got into
it and tried to make it a profitable business to make money off of it and
they end up fallin' on their face," says Shannon Herklotz, assistant
director of the commission. The packages look sweet. A town gets a new
detention center without costing the taxpayers anything. The private
operator finances, constructs and operates an oversized facility. The
contract inmates pay off the debt and generate extra revenue. The economic
model works fine until they can't find inmates. In Waco, McLennan County
borrowed $49 million to build an 816-bed jail and charge day rates for bunk
space. But today because of the convict shortage, the fortress east of town
remains more than half empty. The sheriff and county judge, once champions
of the new jail, now decline to comment on it. Former McLennan County
Deputy Rick White, who opposed the jail, had this to say about the prison
developers who put the deal together: "They get the corporations
formed, they get the bonds sold, they get the facility built, their money
is front-loaded, they take their money out. And then there's no reason for
them to support the success of the facility." Two of Texas' busiest
private prison consultants — James Parkey and Herb Bristow — declined
repeated requests for interviews. The Inmate Market Private prison
companies insist their future is sunny. A spokesman for the GEO Group
declined to speak about the Littlefield prison, but he sent along a slew of
press releases highlighting the company's new inmate contracts and prison
expansions across the country. Corrections Corporation of America, the
nation's largest private prison operator, says the demand for its
facilities remains strong, particularly for federal immigration detainees.
New Jersey-based Community Education Centers, which has been pulling out of
unprofitable jails across Texas, issued a statement that "the current
(jail) population fluctuation" is cyclical. One of the places where
CEC is cancelling its contract is Falls County, in central Texas, where a
for-profit jail addition is losing money. Now it's up to Falls County Judge
Steve Sharp to hustle up jailbirds: "If somebody is out there charging
$30 a day for an inmate, we need to charge $28. We really don't have a
choice of not filling those beds," he said. Another place where
they're desperate for inmates is Anson, the little town north of Abilene,
Texas, once famous for its no-dancing law. Today, Jones County owns a
brand-new $34 million prison and an $8 million county jail, both of which
sit empty. The prison developers made their money and left. Then the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice reneged on a contract to fill the new prison
with parole violators. The county's Public Facility Corporation that
borrowed the money to build the lockups owes $314,000 a month — with no
paying inmates. They've got a year's worth of bond service payments set
aside before county officials start to sweat. "The market has changed
nationwide in the last 18 months or two years. It's certainly a different
picture than when we started this project. And so we're continuing to work
the problem," Jones County Judge Dale Spurgin says. Grayson County,
north of Dallas, said no to privatizing its jail. Two years ago, the county
was all set to build a $30 million, 750-bed behemoth twice as big as was
needed. But the public got queasy and county officials ultimately scuttled
the deal. "When you put the profit motive into a private jail, by design,
in order to increase your dollars, your revenues, your profits, you need
more folks in there and they need to stay longer," says Bill Magers,
mayor of the county seat of Sherman, a leading opponent. When the supply of
prison beds exceeds the demand for prison beds, there are beneficiaries.
The overcrowded Harris County Jail in Houston, the nation's third largest,
farms out about 1,000 prisoners to private jails. Littlefield and most
other under-occupied facilities in Texas have all been in touch with
Houston. "It really is a buyer's market right now, especially a county
our size," says Capt. Robin Kinetsky, who is in charge of inmate
processing for the Harris County Sheriffs Department. "They're really
wanting to get our business. So, we're getting good deals." Nearby,
disheveled and unsmiling men are brought from a holding cell to stand
before a booking officer for their intake interviews. The detainees are
wholly unaware that they may soon become the newest commodities of the
volatile inmate market. Aarti Shahani contributed to this NPR News
investigation and report.
February 3, 2011 KCBD
While the Lubbock County Detention Center is filling up with inmates, other
counties are struggling to find an inmate. Taxpayers of those counties are
now being held prisoners by their own prisons as they're forced to pay the
price of empty facilities. About an hour from Lubbock, the Bill Clayton
Detention Center in Littlefield hasn't had a single inmate in the last two
years. "This was not built to house local inmates; it was built to
house inmates from other parts of the state or other parts of U.S. It was
built to bring economic development to the city of Littlefield," said
Danny Davis, Littlefield city manager. For a while it did bring money into
Littlefield, until the State of Idaho decided to remove its inmates from
the center when the economy tanked back in 2009. "Everybody was
cutting back it seemed, and it was very difficult to find other inmates
from out of state to come in and fill the facility," said Davis.
Nearly 100 people lost their job in the area, and with $9 million left to
pay for the now empty building, residents are stuck paying the price
through increased taxes and fees." Jokingly I've told people when I
took this job I weighed a lot more and had a lot more hair, so that's how I
guess you can say how the frustration level is. It has been a frustrating
situation for the whole community," said Davis. About two hours away
Dickens County faces a similar fate. Their contractor CEC didn't renew their
contract with the Dickens County Correctional Center. In mid-December the
remaining inmates were moved to Lubbock County's new facility, and nearly
120 jobs were lost - huge hit to the small communities of Dickens County.
"It cost money to put people in jail. The state of the economy, the
governments don't have as much money. Our own state is cutting the budget,
and there's one way to save money…that's not to incarcerate them, and so
that's why I believe our inmate population is down," said Lesa Arnold,
Dickens County Judge. So far Dickens County hasn't had to increase taxes to
foot the prison's one million dollar bill each year, but that option might
soon surface. "We need to get this thing going within a year, and
hopefully a whole lot sooner than that before that issue comes up as to
who's going to make those bond payments," said Arnold. So how can
Lubbock County fill its newly built facility while these two and others
around the U.S. are failing? It comes down to why these facilities were
built in the first place. Littlefield and Dickens County didn't have an
inmate population for the large prisons they built; instead they were built
to make a profit for the towns by contracting out the prison cells to other
parts of the state and U.S. Lubbock on the other hand, needed the bigger
facility. All 1,063 inmates currently in the Lubbock County Detention
Center are from Lubbock County, which means their cells will constantly be
filled with a local inmate population. The other facilities are staying
hopeful a new inmate population will come their way. "I can't worry
about why we have it because that's in the past. I can only worry about
what can we do with it now that we have it, and that's what we work on
every day," said Davis.
January 3, 2011 Avalanche-Journal
The city of Littlefield comes into 2011 hoping it will have a new tenant
renting the Bill Clayton Detention Center in a few months. The prison,
which closed in January 2009 after the Idaho Department of Corrections
canceled a contract with private operator GEO Group and moved its prisoners
from Littlefield to Oklahoma. Since then, the city has stretched itself
financially to keep making payments on revenue bonds it issues to build the
facility, which opened in 2000 as a juvenile detention center. The present
ray of hope comes with Avalon Correctional Services, which has applied to
TDCJ to operate an Intermediate Sanction Facility, which is a short-term
facility that houses offenders who violate terms of their community
supervision or paroles. The state issued a request for proposals in June,
but no decisions have been made yet. “It’s been on (TDCJ’s) agenda a couple
of times, but reading between the lines, it’s probably waiting until the
state gets a better handle on its budget,” said Danny Davis, Littlefield’s city
manager.
September 1, 2010 Smart Money
Owners of municipal bonds issued to pay for jails might not get to pass
Go--and could have trouble collecting interest payments as well. These tax
free bonds don't have a monopoly on defaults, but they're well represented
among failures and troubled issues among the more speculative classes of
municipal bonds. Data from Municipal Market Advisors reveals a slew of
tax-free bonds issued to fund construction of privately run prisons and
detention facilities in states from Texas to Rhode Island to Montana. The
most recent example is Littlefield, a West Texas town of about 6,500
people. Located between the New Mexico border and Buddy Holly's hometown of
Lubbock, Littlefield had to dip into reserves to cover payments for about
$1.2 in bonds and other debt used to finance the Bill Clayton Detention
Center. The bonds were issued in 2000, but the expected revenue stream
evaporated when, after a prisoner suicide in 2008, the 310-bed private
prison lost its contract to house out-of-state inmates. In 2009, the Geo
Group (GEO), formerly known as Wackenhut Security, ended its operating
agreement with the detention center, leaving it unoccupied. In April, Fitch
Ratings, which in 2009 lowered the bonds to BB from BBB, affirmed a
negative rating outlook. Littlefield city manager Danny Davis says the city
is scrambling to avoid default on the $780,000 worth of annual payments and
plans to cut police and fire service while dramatically raising property
taxes when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. The property could be sold or
could be taken over by the state, though neither option is certain.
"It's going to be difficult," he says. "In the meantime,
we're just trying to keep our heads above water until we get to a
solution." Bob Libal is the Texas campaign coordinator for Grassroots
Leadership, a lobbying group which opposes for-profit prisons, and the
editor of the blog Texas Prison Bid'ness. He says many small towns agree to
build "speculative prisons" to be run by private contractors
using municipal bond financing but that many of these projects in a
post-Sept. 11 boom have had trouble. Libal criticizes the development
groups that get paid up front for building detention centers thus saddling
the bond-issuers (usually special public facilities corporations created
solely for those projects) with risky debt. "They go after a lot of
towns without a lot of sophistication and resources to do the due
diligence," Libal says. "If they let the bonds go under, it's
very difficult for them to issue any more debt." Matt Fabian, director
of research at Municipal Market Advisors, cites similar bond woes in
Central Falls, R.I.; Hardin, Mont.; and Baker County, Fla., where about
$105 million in total debt has run into trouble because the prison projects
haven't worked out as expected. "The incarceration rates drives
speculation," he says. "There's an idea that you can profit from
this prison trend." Investors in these increasingly-insecure jail
bonds have certainly had to assume more risk, even though they get higher
yields. The $99 million Central Falls Detention Facility bond issue of 2005
entered technical default in 2009 when it drew on its reserves to make
payments. The bonds, issued at par with a yield of 7.25%, last traded at
the end of 2009 at 85.3 cents to the dollar, with a yield of 8.69%.
Municipal revenue bonds issued in 2002 that funded the West Alabama Youth
Services detention facility defaulted in 2005. The bonds last traded in
February at 9 cents to the dollar with a yield of 73.6%. Fabian says some
of the biggest private prison busts are unlikely to have simple
resolutions. A shopping center is easy to repurpose; a detention center is
not. "It's hard to restructure," he says. "Even the land
underneath a prison isn't worth as much as it was." Even with a
resurgent effort by the private prison industry to use their facilities to
detain illegal immigrants and an attempt by the U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement agency to overhaul detention procedures, problems
persist. The Baker Correctional Development Corporation, created to finance
a correctional facility and immigration detention center west of Jacksonville,
Fla., dipped into reserves for its August payment to holders of bonds
issued in 2008. With those bonds trading last at 71.25 cents to the dollar
with a yield of 20.73%, investors looking to lock up their money should
probably seek less risky types of municipal bonds.
June 17, 2010 Courthouse News
A man claims a corrupt private prison company, The GEO Group, bribed the
government to get contracts and then abused inmates, including his father,
who died at the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas, from
"grossly inhumane treatment, abuse, neglect, illegal and malicious
conditions of confinement." Daniel McCullough sued Texas-based GEO
Group and its top executives, all of Florida, and the warden of the jail
where his father, Randall, died on Aug. 18, 2008. In his complaint in Comal
County Court, Daniel McCullough says his father "was found dead after
supposedly being monitored by GEO and its personnel." The complaint
states: "McCullough's death was caused by specific breaches of duty by
the Defendants ... who engaged in grossly inhumane treatment, abuse,
neglect, illegal conditions of confinement, and subsequent coverup of
wrongdoings." McCullough claims that "GEO and its personnel were
found to have fabricated evidence, including practicing 'pencil whipping,'
a policy and practice of GEO to destroy and fabricate log books and other
relevant evidence." He claims that GEO and its officers
"personally engage in efforts to illegally influence public officials
in Austin, Texas and in the Texas counties where the GEO prisons are
located, including Laredo, Webb County, Texas. Their goal is to conceal,
deflect, hide or exculpate themselves and their company from all forms of
personal civil or criminal liability, censure, detriment, or punishment in
order to procure and continue their lucrative contracts at the expense of
the inmates' and their families' suffering. They and their company, GEO,
engage in a pattern and practice of abuse, neglect, public corruption, and
cover up." McCullough claims that GEO and its officers "have a
history of illegally neglecting, manipulating, and abusing inmates, and
then covering up their wrongful and illegal conduct." He claims these
abuses include "making illegal payments to governmental entities in
exchange for contracts and permits; ... destruction of evidence and lying
to state investigators; and misrepresentations to state and governmental
entities regarding conditions inside their facilities." He seeks
damages of $595 million - GEO's net worth - for gross negligence, breach of
duty, wrongful death, and pain and suffering. He is represented by Ronald
Rodriguez of Laredo.
April 14, 2010 Business Wire
Fitch Ratings takes the following rating action on Littlefield, Texas'
(the city) as part of its continuous surveillance effort; --Approximately
$1.2 million in outstanding combination tax and revenue certificates of
obligation (COs), series 1997 rated 'BB.' The Rating Outlook remains
Negative. RATING RATIONALE: --The majority of the city's outstanding debt
is for a detention center (not rated by Fitch), which had been
self-supporting from detention center operations. However, both detention
center prisoners and the private operator left the facility in 2009, and
despite the city's active efforts to locate prisoners or sell the facility,
the detention center remains vacant. --The lack of a debt service tax levy
has resulted in considerable operating pressure. --A fully funded debt
service reserve remains in place, with the February 2010 principal and
interest payment made from available funds, primarily excess water and
sewer system revenues. Officials plan to make the next interest payment in
August 2010 from available funds as well, although there is a possibility
debt service reserve funds may be needed. --General fund reserves are
minimal; however, the water and sewer fund maintained about $800,000 in
unrestricted net assets for the close of fiscal 2009. The city is
considering making future detention center debt service payments from a
combination of budget reductions, available city funds, and the imposition
of an interest and sinking fund tax beginning in fiscal 2011. --The city's
tax base has shown moderate annual growth, and county unemployment rates,
although higher than a year ago, remain below the state and nation. Proximity
to the Lubbock metropolitan area offers additional employment opportunities
for residents.
August 24, 2009 Ad Hoc News
Fitch Ratings has downgraded to 'BB' from 'BBB-' the rating on Littlefield,
TX's (the city) outstanding $1.3 million combination tax and revenue
certificates of obligation (COs), series 1997, and removed the ratings from
Rating Watch Negative. The CO's constitute a general obligation of the
city, payable from ad valorem taxes limited to $2.50 per $100 taxable
assessed valuation (TAV). Additionally, the COs are secured by a pledge of
surplus water and sewer revenues. The Rating Outlook is Negative. The
downgrade reflects events related to the operation of the city's detention
center facility, which accounts for the majority of outstanding debt (which
was not rated by Fitch but is on parity with the series 1997 bonds). To the
surprise of city officials, Idaho announced their plans to leave the
Littlefield facility in January 2009, citing the need to consolidate all of
its out-of-state prisoners into a larger facility in Oklahoma. In addition,
the detention center's private operator, the Geo Group, unexpectedly
announced termination of their agreement to manage the facility effective
January 2009. The move to leave Littlefield by the Geo Group is
significant, given that the established private operator had made sizable
equity investments in the detention center reportedly totaling
approximately $2 million. In the past, the ability of the Geo Group to
quickly replace prisoners with little disruption in operations, as well as
their investment in the Littlefield detention center were cited as credit
strengths. On Dec. 9, 2008, Fitch placed the series 1997 bonds on Rating
Watch Negative, reflecting the city's active pursuit of various alternatives
to remedy the situation and possibly resolve it within the next several
months. Funds to repay debt service on detention center COs through August
2010 had been identified through available city funds as well as a debt
service reserve fund. The city indicated to Fitch in May 2009 that it was
in negotiations with another established jail operator (the operator) to
assume management of the Littlefield facility and that the operator was
attempting to secure an agreement with a federal agency to house prisoners.
Resolution or near resolution of this agreement was expected by August
2009. However, the operator has yet to secure a prisoner agreement and the
timing for resolution remains uncertain. The downgrade to 'BB' reflects the
uncertainty as to when and if the city can secure an operator for the
detention center as well as the city's limited financial resources to repay
the detention center debt. While the city continues to pursue an agreement
with the operator (and other private companies in the event negotiations
with the operator break down), the Negative Outlook reflects the potential
financial hardship placed on the city if a long-term viable solution is not
found. Although the detention center COs are also secured by an ad valorem
tax pledge, the city levies a property tax for operations only. Officials
report that the 2010 proposed budget does not include any property tax levy
for debt service, but the city is investigating funding alternatives for
future detention center debt service. In order to fully support the
detention center COs, the ad valorem tax rate would have to double, which
is not politically feasible.
December 13, 2008 Lubbock On-line
GEO Group Inc. says it has canceled its contract with the city of
Littlefield and plans to terminate 74 employees at the Bill Clayton
Detention Center effective Jan. 5 The Boca Raton-based Fla. company gave
official notice last month, filing a mass layoff Worker Adjustment and
Retraining Act letter with the city in accordance with federal law. The
letter was obtained by The Avalanche-Journal. Under the law, an
organization terminating 50 or more employees must give at least 60 days
notice. GEO's decision was made shortly after it learned its own contract
had been canceled with the Idaho Department of Corrections, which according
to the Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho, cited prisoner safety concerns.
IDOC had contracted with the for-profit corporation to house 300 of its
inmates in the one-time youth detention facility owned by the city. Some of
those inmates, according to the Times-News, will be transferred to the
North Fork Corrections Facility in Sayer, Okla., which is operated by
Corrections Corp. of America. "We understand the gravity of the
situation and the citizens' concerns, but we are working hard toward a
solution," said Danny Davis, Littlefield city manager, who was
informed about GEO's decision on Nov. 7. He said the city has since hired
Woodlands-based Carlisle & Associates, a municipal consultant, which
has been brought on board to sell the 372-bed prison. Littlefield, which
issued revenue bonds to construct the facility as part of an economic
development strategy, still owes $10 million. However, Davis said, the city
had already set aside a year's worth of bond payments as a precautionary
measure when it made the decision to build. "We have enough to make at
least the next three payments," adding the city should not have to tap
those reserve funds until August. Danny Soliz, director of business
services for WorkForce Solutions South Plains - the area's largest job
placement/training organization - said he met with Littlefield prison
guards during 12 hours of informational sessions Wednesday. "We'll be
doing everything we can to help them," he said. Soliz said many of the
workers told him they have no intention of leaving Littlefield, while
others showed interest in applying for jobs at the new Lubbock County Jail
and the Montford Psychiatric Unit operated by the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice. Soliz said WorkForce brought in an expert from Fort Worth
to assist workers in filing for unemployment benefits. Davis said the city
is working on a number of scenarios involving filling the facility with
inmates from other areas on a temporary basis. "We've also talked with
a number of people who are interested in buying it. There are a lot of
entities out there looking for beds, but it takes time for these solutions
to transpire," he said.
December 9, 2008 Yahoo
Fitch Ratings has placed the 'BBB-' rating on Littlefield, TX's (the
city) outstanding $1.4 million combination tax and revenue certificates of
obligation (COs), series 1997 on Rating Watch Negative. The CO's constitute
a general obligation of the city, payable from ad valorem taxes limited to
$2.50 per $100 taxable assessed valuation (TAV). Additionally, the COs are
secured by a pledge of surplus water and sewer revenues. The Negative Watch
reflects recent events related to the operation of the city's detention
center facility, which accounts for the majority of outstanding debt.
Officials are pursuing various alternatives to remedy the situation, with
possible resolution within the next several months. Funds to repay debt
service on detention center COs (which were not rated by Fitch) over the
next one to two years have been identified through available city funds as
well as a debt service reserve fund. However, failure to develop a viable
long-term solution within the near term will have a negative impact on the
rating. Detention center operations support approximately $1.4 million in
outstanding 2000 COs and $9.0 million in outstanding 2001 COs issued for
the construction of the facility. The detention center has a history of
difficulties, beginning with construction delays and the subsequent loss of
Texas Youth Commission (TYC) prisoners in 2003 and State of Wyoming
prisoners in 2006. Detention center operations began to stabilize with the
near immediate replacement of the State of Idaho prisoners in the facility.
The city's contract with Idaho was scheduled to expire in July 2009, with
negotiations for contract renewal planned for January 2009. However, to the
surprise of city officials, Idaho recently announced their plans to leave
the Littlefield facility in January 2009, citing the need to consolidate
all of its out-of-state prisoners into a larger facility in Oklahoma. In
addition, the detention center's private operator, the Geo Group
unexpectedly announced termination of their agreement to manage the
facility effective January 2009. The move to leave Littlefield by the Geo
Group is significant, given that the established private operator had made
sizable equity investments in the detention center reportedly totaling
approximately $2 million. In the past, the ability of the Geo Group to
quickly replace prisoners with little disruption in operations as well as
their investment in the Littlefield detention center were cited as credit
strengths. In response to the sudden loss of both prisoners and operators,
city officials are investigating various options. According to the city, a
number of other jail operators have expressed interest in managing the
Littlefield facility. In addition, officials are considering selling the
facility and retiring the outstanding debt. Officials have expressed the
need to resolve this issue quickly and hope to have additional information
within the next several months. In the interim, officials report that
sufficient funds are on hand to make the Feb. 1 debt service payment, with
the subsequent payments made from other resources, including the water and
sewer fund as well as the debt service reserve fund. Prior to fiscal 2006,
the detention center fund required transfers primarily from the water and
sewer fund to meet operating and debt service needs. Since that time,
detention center net revenues have been sufficient to cover its debt,
providing 1.1 times (x) coverage in fiscal 2007. The water and sewer fund,
which supports the remainder of the city's general obligation debt,
continues to record positive results and for fiscal 2007, net revenues were
$1.4 million, providing more than 3x coverage on water and sewer related CO
debt service. In addition, the series 2000 and 2001 CO sales included
provisions for a fully funded debt service reserve fund. Although the city
utilized the reserve fund to meet debt service requirements in 2001 due to
the delay in opening as well as the moratorium on TYC transfers to the
detention center, officials report that the reserve is currently fully
funded and has not been utilized since 2001 to meet debt service needs. For
fiscal 2007, the restricted reserve stood at $1.1 million compared to
fiscal 2007 debt service of approximately $780,000. Although the detention
COs are also secured by an ad valorem tax pledge, the city levies a
property tax for operations only. Officials report that they are
considering levying a property tax to partially support the detention
center COs. However, in order to fully support the detention center COs,
the tax rate would have to double, which is not feasible given political
realities. Littlefield, with a population of 6,500, is located
approximately 35 miles northwest of Lubbock and serves as the county seat
for Lamb County. The area is primarily rural in nature, with agriculture
services, government, manufacturing, and trade as key components of the
county's economy. The city's population and TAV had been flat until
recently; for fiscal 2008 the city's tax base increased nearly 5% due to
the construction of several commercial projects as well as residential
development. While there is moderate taxpayer concentration among the top
10 taxpayers, there is generally a good mix of industries within the list.
General fund finances have stabilized over the past several years,
benefitting from the recent imposition of a 0.25% increase in the sales tax
rate as well as tax base growth. Debt ratios are very low given the level
of non-property tax support for outstanding COs although payout is slow.
Fitch issued an exposure draft on July 31, 2008 proposing a recalibration
of tax-supported and water/sewer revenue bond ratings which, if adopted,
may result in an upward revision of this rating (see Fitch research
'Exposure Draft: Reassessment of the Municipal Ratings Framework'.) At this
time, Fitch is deferring its final determination on municipal
recalibration. Fitch will continue to monitor market and credit conditions,
and plans to revisit the recalibration in first quarter-2009.
November 14, 2008 Magic Valley Times-News
Families of two Idaho inmates who apparently killed themselves in
lockups run by private prison company GEO Group Inc., pleaded Thursday with
Texas state senators to bar out-of-state prisoners from the Lone Star
State. The Idaho Department of Correction has housed more than 300
prisoners at GEO-run Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas,
but recently announced plans to move them to the private North Fork
Correctional Facility in Sayre, Okla. The move follows allegations that GEO
falsified reports and short-staffed the Texas facility where Idaho inmate
Randall McCullough, 37, died. Families of Idaho inmates spoke Thursday at a
Texas state Senate hearing in Austin, Texas. The hearing, which dealt with
general oversight of the Texas prison system and did not result in specific
action, was webcast live over the Internet. Among those testifying was
lawyer Ronald Rodriguez, who represents McCullough's family as well as that
of Idaho inmate Scott Noble Payne, 43, who killed himself last year at
another GEO-run prison in Dickens, Texas. "Idaho prisoners need to be
in Idaho where they have access to their court - Where they have access to
their families," Rodriguez on Thursday told the Texas Senate Committee
on Criminal Justice. Payne's mother, Shirley Noble, spoke to Texas
lawmakers last year and again on Thursday. "It seems that no lessons
were learned," Noble said. "If changes had been placed - Randall
would not have been so desperate to take his own life, as my son did."
Texas Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate Committee on
Criminal Justice, questioned why the "little" state of Idaho
recently decided to pull its prisoners from Geo-run Bill Clayton.
"Should we be following their lead?" he asked. But a Texas
Department of Criminal Justice official told Whitmire that Texas inmates
aren't held at Bill Clayton, and warned against painting private prisons in
Texas with a broad brush. Inmate McCullough's sister, Laurie Williams, told
Texas senators that they should do a review of all private prisons in their
state - including GEO competitor Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).
Idaho prisoners are to be taken to CCA-run North Fork in Oklahoma, where
another Idaho inmate, David Drashner, was allegedly murdered in June.
IDOC's decision to move prisoners from one privately run lockup to another
out-of-state facility concerns Williams, as well as Drashner's wife, Pam
Drashner, who have said they want Idaho to stop shipping away its inmates.
Idaho doesn't have enough room for all its prisoners, and sending them
out-of-state has been widely unpopular. Williams also wants to talk to
Idaho lawmakers, she said. "We should be addressing the Idaho
Senate," said Williams, after Thursday's hearing in Texas. "This
is Idaho sending its inmates out of state whether it's Texas that takes
them or Oklahoma and that's what we have to have stopped." GEO made
$4.9 million in annual operating revenues off its contract with Idaho to
manage prisoners at Bill Clayton. GEO officials said shareholders won't
lose out from Idaho's withdrawal because of an expanding contract with the
state of Indiana.
November 9, 2008 Magic Valley Times-News
Private prison company GEO Group Inc. isn't lamenting the loss of a
multimillion dollar contract with Idaho to manage more than 300 inmates at
a Texas lock-up owned by the city of Littlefield. Idaho was only 1 percent
of Baca Raton-based GEO's business, according to a 2007 annual report from
the company. "The discontinuation of GEO's contract with the Idaho DOC
will have no material impact on GEO's previously issued pro forma earnings
guidance for the fourth quarter of 2008," according to a GEO press
release Friday. GEO made $4.9 million in annual operating revenues off its
contract with Idaho to manage state inmates in Texas, and the company
announced Friday that revenue won't be lost because it's expanding a
contract with the state of Indiana. "GEO expects the discontinuation
of its contract with the Idaho DOC to be more than offset by the 420-bed
contract expansion with the Indiana DOC," according to the press
release. Idaho Department of Correction officials told the Associated Press
Thursday it was pulling out of the contract with GEO and cited inmate
safety risks at the Bill Clayton Detention Center, which is owned by the
city of Littlefield. GEO, however, claims Idaho pulled out of the contract
for a different reason than inmate safety or staffing levels. GEO officials
said Friday that Idaho ended the contract because the state wants to
consolidate all its out-of-state prisoners into one private facility.
"We understand the decision by the state of Idaho to consolidate its
out-of-state inmate population into one large-scale facility," said
GEO Chief Executive Officer George Zoley in the press release. "The
consolidation effort has led to the discontinuation of our out-of-state
inmate contract with the Idaho Department of Correction at the Bill Clayton
Detention Center." IDOC officials told the Times-News Friday that
staffing at Bill Clayton and consolidation efforts were both factors in its
decision to cancel the contract with GEO. IDOC didn't reply to the
Times-News when asked which factor may have weighed more heavily. The
pull-out announced Thursday by IDOC came after a two-month-old audit showed
GEO guards weren't checking on inmates enough. GEO is also terminating its
contract with the city of Littlefield to run Bill Clayton, which it has operated
since 2005, the company announced Friday. GEO decided not to manage Bill
Clayton anymore in Littlefield, a town populated by about 6,500 people,
"due to financial underperformance and lack of economies of
scale," according to the Friday press release. The first formal IDOC
audit of Bill Clayton dated Sept. 3 followed an apparent suicide of Idaho
inmate Randall McCullough, 37, of Twin Falls in August. IDOC had been
monitoring the facility at least two weeks out of every month since last
fall, an IDOC official said. IDOC's original two-year contract with GEO
signed in 2006 could have ended on July 20, 2008. IDOC extended it a year
until July 20, 2009, but now says all inmates will be out of Texas by
January and moved to the Northfork Correctional Facility in Sayre, Okla. -
run by GEO competitor, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which
holds hundreds of other out-of-state Idaho inmates.
November 7, 2008 The Olympian
Idaho Department of Correction officials still don't know the cause of
death for an inmate who apparently committed suicide in a private Texas
prison in August. But what they do know is disturbing: The prison was so
understaffed that the warden himself was working the midnight shift at the
Bill Clayton Detention Center on Aug. 17, the night Randall McCullough
died. A state investigation found that regularly scheduled checks on
inmates either weren't done or were done incorrectly, and there was no
effective check done on McCullough from the time he turned in his dinner
tray at 5:45 p.m. to the time his body - already cold and stiff - was found
just after midnight. Log books from that night are inaccurate, according to
the investigation, and the videotape from the prison's security system
shows neither the correct date nor the arrival of emergency workers,
prompting Idaho investigators to speculate that it might not be the tape
from that night at all. "You can see where the train wreck is coming,
can't you?" state Department of Correction Chief Investigator Jim
Loucks told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday. Department
officials this week announced they're terminating the state's multimillion
dollar contract with The GEO Group, the for-profit private prison company
that runs the Bill Clayton Detention Center. Within 60 days, the roughly
300 Idaho prisoners there will be transferred to the Correction Corp. of
America-run North Fork Correctional Institution in Sayre, Okla. The inmates
have been housed out of state because of overcrowding in Idaho prisons. As
of Oct. 1, Idaho had nearly 7,300 total inmates. The staff at the Bill
Clayton center - from then-warden Arthur Anderson down to the correctional
officers - didn't follow prison policy or respond properly to McCullough's
death, according to documents obtained by The AP from the Idaho Department
of Correction through public records requests. Pablo Paez, spokesman for
The GEO Group, has not returned repeated phone calls from The AP. The GEO
Group Vice President Amber Martin said she couldn't comment on the
documents or Idaho's decision to end the contract. McCullough was found
dead in his cell by Anderson at about 12:15 a.m., according to the state's
investigation. Two letters were found in his cell as well - one to his
sister, Laurie Williams, and another addressed to Anderson and the Idaho
Department of Correction. "To hom it may concern," the
misspelled, handwritten letter read. "I'v been puting this off for
long anuff. I can't set here and slowly die. Sorry for the
inconvenience." The apparent suicide surprised those who knew McCullough,
according to the investigation. The inmate, who was serving time on a
robbery charge, was within a few months of an expected parole hearing and
apparently believed he would be sent back to Idaho sometime around the end
of the year, pending a cell opening in the state's overcrowded system.
McCullough had been in segregation for several months at the Texas facility
after he was accused of assaulting a staff member. The prison, located in
the tiny town of Littlefield, Texas, competes for employees with nearby oil
fields, which often pay more than residents can make working as a
correctional officer, Loucks said. That contributed to the chronic
understaffing. Around the time McCullough died, prison employees were
working as much as 20 hours of overtime every week, and often resorted to
calling in sick just to get some time off, Loucks said. On the night of
Aug. 17, 2008, five people didn't make it in to work - leaving the prison
with just 10 correctional officers for the 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift, below
the state-mandated minimum of 12, and well below the 15 officers generally
scheduled, according to the report. To deal with the shortage, the shift
supervisor persuaded two dayshift employees to stay until 10 p.m., and got
two employees scheduled for the next day to come in four hours early, at 2
a.m. But that still left the prison short two officers from 10 p.m. on Aug.
17 to 2 a.m. on Aug. 18, Loucks said. That's when Warden Anderson and Chief
of Security Dennis Blevins agreed to come in to work those middle-of-the
night hours. The short-staffing led to a few bad habits at the prison,
according to the report. Officers often committed a practice known as
"pencil-whipping," filling out the log books to show they had
made security checks on the inmates every 20 minutes, even if the checks
hadn't been done. It also meant that the prison was often without a utility
officer, an employee charged with fueling the vehicles, emptying the trash
and doing other non-guard duties. Because the segregation unit had fewer
inmates than other areas, the correctional officer guarding the unit was
generally pulled away from his duties to take care of the utility officer
chores, Loucks said. That happened the night of Aug. 17, he said, and as a
result no one noticed that McCullough was unmoving and unresponsive until
12:18 a.m., when Warden Anderson walked by the cell. Anderson radioed for
help when he noticed McCullough wasn't responding to knocking on the cell
door. Medical personnel came within four minutes, but didn't bring the necessary
equipment to treat an unresponsive patient and so had to go back to another
part of the prison to get it, according to the report. Staffers began CPR,
but didn't move McCullough's body from the bed to the floor, where they
would have had a firmer surface and more effective chest compressions,
investigators found. Prison officials didn't call 911 for 15 minutes,
according to the report, but Anderson reportedly told investigators that
was because he was trying to notify enough other employees so they could
safely unlock McCullough's door and go into the cell. McCullough was dead
and apparently had been for some time - his body was cold to the touch,
according to the report. Prison officials immediately suspected that
McCullough might have overdosed on medication, and his body was sent for
toxicology tests and an autopsy. Those tests have been completed, but the
Texas coroner's report has not yet been finished, so Idaho Department of
Correction officials still don't know just how or why McCullough died. But
one thing is clear: Idaho prisoners will be removed from Bill Clayton.
State Correction Department chief Brent Reinke notes the state prison
system is expanding, with roughly 600 more beds to be added next year.
Reinke hopes that will provide enough room to bring all the out-of-state
prisoners home. "It's a real unfortunate situation - it always
is," Reinke said. "But there's no question that Idaho inmates are
much better to manage in Idaho."
November 6, 2008 AP
The Idaho Department of Correction has terminated its contract with
private prison company The GEO Group and will move the roughly 305 Idaho
inmates currently housed at a GEO-run facility in Texas to a private prison
in Oklahoma. Correction Director Brent Reinke notified GEO officials
Thursday in a letter. Reinke said the company's chronic understaffing at
the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas, put Idaho
offenders' safety at risk. An Idaho Department of Correction audit found
that guards routinely falsified reports to show they were checking on
offenders regularly — even though they were sometimes away from their posts
for hours at a time. "I hope you understand how seriously we're taking
not only the report but the safety of our inmates," Reinke told The
Associated Press on Thursday. "They have an ongoing staffing issue
that doesn't appear to be able to be solved." The contract will end
Jan. 5. Reinke said the department wanted to pull the inmates out
immediately, but state attorneys found there wasn't enough cause to allow
the state to break free of the contract without a 60-day warning period. In
the meantime, Reinke said, Idaho correction officials have been sent to the
Texas prison to help with staffing for the next two months. GEO will be
responsible for transferring the inmates to the North Fork Correctional
Facility in Sayer, Okla., which is run by Corrections Corp. of America. GEO
will cover the cost of the move, Reinke said, but Idaho will have to pay
$58 per day per inmate in Oklahoma, compared to $51 per day at Bill Clayton.
Amber Martin, vice president for The GEO Group, of Florida, said she
couldn't comment on the audit or on Idaho's decision to end the contract.
She referred calls to the company spokesman, Pablo Paez, who could not
immediately be reached by the AP. As of Oct. 1, Idaho had nearly 7,300
total inmates. The Bill Clayton audit describes the latest in a series of
problems that Idaho has had with shipping inmates out of state.
Overcrowding at home forced the state to move hundreds of inmates to a
prison in Minnesota in 2005, but space constraints soon uprooted them
again, this time to a GEO-run facility in Newton, Texas. There, guard abuse
and prisoner unrest forced another move to two new GEO facilities: 125
Idaho inmates went to the Dickens County Correctional Center in Spur,
Texas, while 304 went to Bill Clayton in Littlefield. Conditions at Dickens
were left largely unmonitored by Idaho, at least until inmate Scott Noble
Payne committed suicide after complaining of the filthy conditions there.
Idaho investigators looking into Payne's death detailed the poor conditions
and a lack of inmate treatment programs, and the inmates were moved again.
That's when the Idaho Department of Correction created the Virtual Prisons
Program, designed to improve oversight of Idaho inmates housed in contract
beds both in and out of state. The extent of the Bill Clayton facility
understaffing was discovered after Idaho launched an investigation into the
apparent suicide of inmate Randall McCullough in August. During that
investigation, guards at the prison said they were often pulled away from
their regular posts to handle other duties — including taking out the
garbage, refueling vehicles or checking the perimeter fence — and that it
was common practice to fill out the logs as if the required checks of
inmates were being completed as scheduled, said Jim Loucks, chief
investigator for the Idaho Department of Correction. For instance, Loucks
said, correction officers were supposed to check on inmates in the
administrative segregation unit every 30 minutes. But sometimes they were
away from the unit for hours at a time, he said. The investigation into
McCullough's death is not yet complete, department officials said. The
audit also found several other problems at Bill Clayton. The auditor found
that "the facility entrance is a very relaxed checkpoint,"
prompting concerns that cell phones, marijuana and other contraband could
be smuggled past security. In addition, the prison averages a 30 percent
vacancy rate in security staff jobs, according to the audit. Though it was
still able to meet the one-staffer-for-every-48-prisoners ratio set out by
Texas law, employees were regularly expected to work long hours of overtime
and non-security staffers sometimes were used to provide security supervision,
according to the audit. "Based on a review of payroll reports, there
are significant concerns with security staff working excessive amounts of
overtime for long periods of time," the auditors wrote. "This can
lead to compromised facility security practices and increased safety
issues." When the audit was done, there were 29 security staff
vacancies, according to the report. That meant each security staff person
who was eligible for overtime worked an average of 21 hours of overtime a
week. That extra expense was borne by GEO, not by Idaho taxpayers, said
Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray. The state's contract
with GEO also required that at least half of the eligible inmates be given
jobs with at least 50 hours of work a month. According to the facility's
inmate payroll report, only 35 out of 371 offenders were without jobs. But
closer inspection showed that the prison often had several inmates assigned
to the same job. In one instance, nine inmates were assigned to clean
showers in one unit of the prison — which only had nine shower stalls. So
although each was responsible for cleaning just one shower stall, the nine
inmates were all claiming 7- and 8-hour work days, five days a week. GEO is
responsible for covering the cost of those wages, Ray said. "While the
contract percentage requirement is met, the facility cannot demonstrate the
actual hours claimed by offenders are spent in a meaningful, skill-learning
job activity," the auditors wrote. Auditors also found that too few
inmates were enrolled in high school diploma equivalency and work force
readiness classes.
October 1, 2008 AP
For a decade, Idaho has been shipping some of its prisoners to
out-of-state prisons, dealing with its ever-burgeoning inmate population by
renting beds in faraway facilities. But now some groups of prisoners are
being brought back home. Idaho Department of Correction officials are
crediting declining crime rates, improved oversight during probation,
better community programs and increased communication between correction
officials and the state's parole board. The number of Idaho inmates has
more than doubled since 1996, reaching a high of 7,467 in May. But in the
months since then, the population has declined to 7,293 -- opening up
enough space that 80 inmates housed in the North Fork Correctional Facility
in Sayre, Okla., and at Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield,
Texas, could be bused back to the Idaho State Correctional Institution near
Boise. The inmates arrived Monday night. Idaho Department of Correction
Director Brent Reinke hailed their arrival as one of the benefits the
system was reaping after years of work. "It's more about having the
right inmates at the right place at the right time," Reinke said.
"People are communicating better and we're working together better
than we were in the past."
September 21, 2008 Times-News
Pam Drashner visited her husband every weekend in prison, until she was
turned away one day because he wasn't there. He had been quietly
transferred from Boise to a private prison in Sayre, Okla. She never saw
him again. In July, she went to the Post Office to pick up his ashes,
mailed home in a box. He died of a traumatic brain injury in Oklahoma,
allegedly assaulted by another inmate. David Drashner was one of hundreds
of male inmates Idaho authorities have sent to private prisons in other
states. About 10 percent of Idaho's inmates are now out-of-state. The
Department of Correction say they want to bring them all home, they simply
have no place to put them. Drashner, who was convicted of repeat drunken
driving, is one of three Idaho inmates who have died in the custody of
private lockups in other states since March 2007, and was the first this
year. On Aug. 18, Twin Falls native Randall McCullough, 37, apparently
killed himself at the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas.
McCullough, serving time for robbery, was found dead in his cell. IDOC
officials say he left a note, though autopsy results are pending. His
family says he shouldn't have been in Texas at all. "Idaho should step
up to the plate and bring their prisoners home," said his sister,
Laurie Williams. Out of Idaho -- Idaho has so many prisoners scattered
around the country that the IDOC last year developed the Virtual Prison
Program, assigning 12 officers to monitor the distant prisons. In 2007
Idaho sent 429 inmates to Texas and Oklahoma. This year; more than 700 -
and by one estimate it could soon hit 1,000. But officials say they don't
know exactly how many inmates may hit the road in coming months. The number
may actually fall due to an unexpected drop in total prisoner head-count, a
turnabout attributed to a drop in sentencings, increased paroles and better
success rates for probationers. The state will also have about 1,300 more
beds in Idaho, thanks to additions at existing prisons. State officials say
bringing inmates back is a priority. "If there was any way to not have
inmates out-of-state it would be far, far better," said IDOC Director
Brent Reinke, a former Twin Falls County commissioner, noting higher costs
to the state and inconvenience to inmate families. Still, there's no end in
sight for virtual prisons, which have few fans in state government. "I
do think sending inmates out-of-state is counter-productive," said
Rep. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, a member of the House Judiciary, Rules and
Administration Committee. LeFavour favors treatment facilities over
prisons. "We try to make it (sending inmates out-of-state) a last
resort, but I don't think we're doing enough." Even lawmakers who
favor buying more cells would like to avoid virtual lockups. "It's
more productive to be in-state," said Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo,
chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee, who said he would
support a new Idaho prison modeled after the state-owned but privately run
Idaho Correctional Center (ICC). "We don't want to stay out-of-state
unless we have to ��- It's
undesirable." A decade of movement -- Idaho has shipped inmates
elsewhere for more than a decade, though in some years they were all brought
home when beds became available at four of Idaho's state prisons. The
1,500-bed ICC - a state-owned lockup built and run by CCA (Corrections
Corporation of America) - also opened in 2000. But that wasn't enough:
"It will be years before a substantial increase in prison capacity
will allow IDOC to bring inmates back," the agency said in April. In
2005, former IDOC director Tom Beauclair warned lawmakers that "if we
delay building the next prison, we'll have to remain out-of-state longer
with more inmates," according to an IDOC press release. That year
inmates were taken to a Minnesota prison operated by CCA, where Idaho paid
$5 per inmate, per day more than it costs to keep inmates in its own
prisons. "This move creates burdens for our state fiscally, and can
harden our prison system, but it's what we must do," IDOC said at the
time. "Our ability to stretch the system is over." Attempts to
add to that system have largely failed. Earlier this year Gov. C.L.
"Butch" Otter asked lawmakers for $191 million in bond authority
to buy a new 1,500-bed lockup. The Legislature rejected his request, but
did approve those 1,300 new beds at existing facilities. Reinke said IDOC
won't ask for a new prison when the next Legislative session convenes in
January. With a slow economy and a drop in inmate numbers, it's not the
time to push for a new prison, he said. Still, recent projections for IDOC
show that without more prison beds here, 43 percent of all Idaho inmates
could be sent out-of-state in 2017. "It's a lot of money to go
out-of-state," Darrington said. Different cultures -- One of eight
prisons in Idaho is run by a private company, as are those housing Idaho
inmates in Texas and Oklahoma. The Bill Clayton Detention Center in Texas
is operated by the Geo Group Inc., which is managing or developing 64
lockups in the U.S., Australia and South Africa. The North-Fork
Correctional Facility in Oklahoma is owned and operated by CCA, which also
has the contract to run the Idaho Correction Center. CCA houses almost
75,000 inmates and detainees in 66 facilities under various state and
federal contracts. Critics of private prisons say the operators boost
profits by skimping on programs, staff, and services. Idaho authorities
acknowledge the prisons make money, but consider them well-run.
"Private prisons are just that - business run," Idaho Virtual
Prison Program Warden Randy Blades told the Times-News. "It doesn't
mean out-of-sight, or out-of-mind." Yet even Reinke added that "I
think there's a difference. Do we want there to be? No." The
Association of Private Correctional and Treatment Organizations (APCTO)
says on its Web site that its members "deliver reduced costs, high
quality, and enhanced accountability." Falling short? Thomas Aragon, a
convicted thief from Nampa, was shipped to three different Texas prisons in
two years. He said prisons there did little to rehabilitate him, though
he's up for parole next year. "I'm a five-time felon, all grand theft
and possession of stolen property," said Aragon, by telephone from the
ICC. "Apparently I have a problem and need to find out why I steal.
The judge said I needed counseling and that I'd get it, and I have yet to
get any." State officials said virtual prisons have a different
culture, but are adapting to Idaho standards. "We're taking the
footprint of Idaho and putting it into facilities out-of-state,"
Blades said. Aragon, 39, says more programs are available in Idaho compared
to the Texas facilities where he was. Like Aragon, almost 70 percent of
Idaho inmates sent to prison in 2006 and 2007 were recidivists - repeat
IDOC offenders - according agency annual reports. GEO and CCA referred
questions about recidivism to APCTO, which says only that its members
reduce the rate of growth of public spending. Aragon said there weren't enough
case-workers, teachers, programs, recreational activities and jobs in
Texas. Comparisons between public and private prisons are made difficult
because private companies didn't readily offer numbers for profits,
recidivism, salaries and inmate-officer ratios. During recent visits to the
Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas - where about 371 Idaho
inmates are now held - state inspectors found there wasn't a legal aid
staffer to give inmates access to courts, as required by the state contract.
Virtual Prison monitors also agreed with Aragon's assessment: "No
programs are offered at the facility," a state official wrote in a
recently redacted Idaho Virtual Prison report obtained by the Times-News.
"Most jobs have to do with keeping the facility clean and appear to be
less meaningful. This creates a shortage of productive time with the
inmates. "Overall, recreational activities are very sparse within the
facility ��- Informal
attempts have been made to encourage the facility to increase offender activities
that would in the long run ease some of the boredom that IDOC inmates are
experiencing," according to a Virtual Prison report. The prison has
since made improvements, the state said. Only one inmate case manager
worked at Bill Clayton during a recent state visit, but the facility did
increase recreation time and implemented in-cell hobby craft programs,
Virtual Prison reports show. Other inmate complaints have grown from the
way they have been sent to the prisons. Inmates describe a horrific bus ride
from Idaho to Oklahoma in April in complaints collected by the American
Civil Liberties Union in Boise. The inmates say they endured painful and
injurious wrist and ankle shackling, dangerous driving, infrequent access
to an unsanitary restroom and dehydration during the almost 30-hour trip.
"We're still receiving a lot of complaints, some of them are based on
retaliatory transfers," said ACLU lawyer Lea Cooper. IDOC officials
acknowledge that they have also received complaints about access to
restrooms during the long bus rides, but they maintain that most of the
inmates want to go out-of-state. Many are sex offenders who prefer the
anonymity associated with being out-of-state, they said. Unanswered
questions -- Three deaths of Idaho interstate inmates in 18 months have
left families concerned that even more prisoners will come home in ashes.
"We're very disturbed about...the rate of Idaho prisoner deaths for
out-of-state inmates," Cooper said. It was the razor-blade suicide of
sex-offender Scott Noble Payne, 43, in March 2007 at a Geo lockup in
Dickens, Texas that caught the attention of state officials. Noble's death
prompted Idaho to pull all its inmates from the Geo prison. State officials
found the facility was in terrible condition, but they continue to work
with Geo, which houses 371 Idaho inmates in Littlefield, Texas, where
McCullough apparently killed himself. Noble allegedly escaped before he was
caught and killed himself. Inmate Aragon said he as there, and that Noble
was hog-tied and groaned in pain while guards warned other inmates they
would face the same if they tried to escape. Private prison operators don't
have to tell governments everything about the deaths at facilities they
run. The state isn't allowed access to Geo's mortality and morbidity
reports under terms of a contract. Idaho sent additional inmates to the
Corrections Corporation of America-run Oklahoma prison after Drashner's
husband died in June. IDOC officials said an Idaho official was inspecting
the facility when he was found. IDOC has offered few details about the
death. "The murder happened in Oklahoma," said IDOC spokesman
Jeff Ray, adding it will be up to Oklahoma authorities to charge. Drashner
said her husband had a pending civil case in Idaho and shouldn't have been
shipped out-of-state. She says Idaho and Oklahoma authorities told her
David was assaulted by another inmate after he verbally defended an officer
at the Oklahoma prison. Officers realized something was wrong when he
didn't stand up for a count, Drashner said. "He was healthy. He
wouldn't have been killed over here," she said.
August 28, 2008 Times-News
An Idaho prison inmate held at a private facility in Texas through the
state's Virtual Prison Program was in solitary confinement for more than a
year when he apparently killed himself, authorities have confirmed. Idaho
Department of Correction is still investigating the cause and manner of
death for the inmate, Randall McCullough, 37, who was found unresponsive
Aug. 18 in his cell, which measured 7.5 feet, by 12 feet, by 8 feet, said
Idaho Department of Correction Spokesman Jeff Ray. McCullough had been
segregated from other inmates since Dec. 13, 2007, after he allegedly
assaulted a staff member at the Bill Clayton Detention Center run by Geo
Group Inc., said Ray. He apparently wasn't criminally charged for that
alleged assault in Texas. "It's our understanding that the prosecutor
in Texas had not made a decision on whether or not to file charges,"
said Ray. "The staff assault occurred in Texas and would be considered
a Texas crime. IDOC would not have a direct connection to it."
Authorities at Geo Group's Bill Clayton Detention Center directed all
questions from the Times-News on Wednesday back to the Idaho Department of
Corrections. McCullough was in prison for a 2001 Twin Falls County robbery
conviction. He had a criminal record involving charges of escape, forgery,
controlled substance possession, grand theft, burglary, resisting arrest,
and driving violations, according to court records. Imposing inmate segregation
for one to two years as a result of an assault on a guard would not be
uncommon, and wardens at out-of-state facilities holding Idaho inmates can
decide if an inmate is put in segregation, said Ray. Inmates in segregation
eat meals in their cells and can shower once every 72 hours. Toilets are in
cells and McCullough had a television, said Ray. Lights at the Texas
facility are on 24 hours a day, Ray said, adding that some facilities in
Idaho dim lights at sleeping times.
August 21, 2008 The Times News
The state's Virtual Prison Program is only a year old and the Monday
death of inmate Randall McCullough, 37, could be the second suicide
involving the initiative outside of Idaho. Idaho prison officials said
Wednesday they're still investigating if McCullough committed suicide at a
private contracted facility in Texas - Bill Clayton Detention Center run by
the GEO Group Inc. - which is holding 371 inmates each at $51 per day under
a contract that expires in July 2009. The Virtual Prison Program started in
July 2007, but the state started putting inmates in non-state owned
facilities in October 2005, said Idaho Department of Correction Spokesman
Jeff Ray. Six state inmates have committed suicide since July 2006, not
including McCullough, Ray said.
December 11, 2007 AP
Inmates from Idaho housed at a private West Texas detention facility could
face new charges following an attack on a female guard. The woman was
attacked about 7:30 p.m. Monday after she apparently tried to take tobacco
away from at least two of the inmates at the Bill Clayton Detention Center,
Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray said. The woman suffered
non-life threatening injuries, he said. Afterward, as many as 15 inmates
refused to return to their cells and additional officers were called in to
help, Ray said. The inmates then agreed to return to their cells, he said.
Officials with the Littlefield police department, which is investigating
the incident, did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday. A deputy
warden with the Idaho agency is on his way to Littlefield to investigate, a
release from that department said. Those involved in the attack could face
charges, and inmates who refused to return to their cells will likely face
disciplinary sanctions, the release said. The prison is operated by The GEO
Group Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla.-based company that owns or operates 68
facilities worldwide. "We will be working cooperatively with the Idaho
Department of Correction as they conduct their investigation," said
Pablo Paez, a GEO spokesman. A lack of space in Idaho prisons brought
hundreds of inmates to Texas in early 2006. They were first housed here at
a GEO facility in Newton in East Texas. They were moved to Littlefield in
August 2006 after allegations of abuse by guards prompted an investigation.
Three employees at Newton's facility were disciplined as a result of the
investigation.
July 31, 2007 Idaho Statesman
Idaho's Department of Correction has created a new position to manage
Idaho's roughly 2,400 inmates in private, out-of-state prisons and county
jail beds. Randy Blades, who has been the warden at the Idaho State
Correctional Institution south of Boise, will monitor the 500-plus inmates,
now in three Texas prisons managed by the Geo Group Inc. of Boca Raton,
Fla. He will also monitor the 240 inmates soon to be transferred from Idaho
to a private prison in Oklahoma, and the inmates in county jail beds across
the state. Correction Director Brent Reinke created the position after
disclosing that conditions at one of those prisons were so bad that inmates
will be moved elsewhere. Inmates at the Dickens County Correctional Center
are being moved to the Bill Clayton Detention Center after an inmate
suicide at Dickens revealed filthy living conditions and poorly trained and
unprofessional staff. “Times have changed and we simply need to get in
front on this issue,” Reinke said in a statement. “We must be proactive. We
need to make sure inmates are being treated adequately and taxpayers are
getting what they are paying for.”
October 24, 2006 Yahoo.com
Fitch downgrades the rating on Littlefield, TX's (the city) outstanding
$1.6 million combination tax and revenue certificates of obligation (COs),
series 1997 to 'BB+' from 'BBB+.' The Rating Outlook is Stable. The
downgrade primarily reflects the city's significantly weakened financial
position. The general fund balance has been at minimal levels for the past
several years, while the detention center fund, which supports the bulk of
the city's general obligation debt, is in a deficit unrestricted net asset
position, created by the pull-out of Texas Youth Commission (TYC) prisoners
in 2003. Some signs of financial improvement are evident, and projected
fiscal 2006 results are expected to show a moderate increase in general
fund reserve levels as well as a small operating surplus in the detention
center fund. Further, the detention center is now fully occupied.
Nevertheless, financial stabilization has not been achieved, and the city
remains highly dependent on housing outside prisoners to meet operational
and debt service requirements of the detention center. Detention center
operations, which experienced problems at the onset primarily due to
construction delays, were again negatively impacted by the loss of all TYC
prisoners in 2003. While TYC offenders were subsequently replaced with
state of Wyoming prisoners, the impact on finances was severe and continued
through fiscal 2005, evidenced by a $351,000 unrestricted net asset deficit
recorded in the detention center fund. In addition, the detention center
fund had to rely on support from other funds, most notably a sizable
transfer from the water and sewer fund in fiscal 2004, to meet operational
and debt service needs. The contract to house Wyoming prisoners was
terminated in 2006, and subsequently a new contract with the state of Idaho
was implemented. For 2006, officials report that no outside financial
support was required and that a $30,000 operating surplus is expected.
However, the large deficit will likely remain for sometime and the
historical movement of prisoners in and out of the Littlefield facility
demonstrates the difficulty of maintaining long-term prisoner contracts. If
the city had to levy an interest and sinking fund tax to meet detention
center related debt obligations, officials estimate that the overall tax
rate would have to double over the current operations and maintenance tax
rate, which Fitch believes would be extremely difficult to impose.
Blackwater Correctional
Facility, Milton, Florida
FBI issues subpoenas apparently linked to
Florida Geo Group investigation, June 16, 2011. As previously reported by
DBA Press (“Legacy of Corruption,” February, 2011), the Federal Bureau of
Investigation has been quietly investigating the circumstances which led to
the appropriation and construction of Florida’s largest private prison,
Blackwater River Correctional Facility (Blackwater CF), operated by
Florida-based private prison operator, Geo Group. By Beau Hodai DBA
Press
New private prison in Milton shows
Florida cost-savings challenge, April 25, 2011,
Steve Bousquet, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau. Excellent piece
exposing the cherry-picking going on in this GEO for-profit prison.
DBA
Press Investigative Report: Legacy of Corruption January 22, 2011 U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s
unsettling history of extremely close ties to private prison operator Geo
Group and the possible federal investigation into Florida’s private prison
giveaway of more than $120 million. By Beau Hodai
Mar 20, 2019 pnj.com
Santa Rosa County inmate indicted for the murder of fellow inmate
An inmate at
Blackwater Correctional Institution in Milton was indicted by a Santa Rosa
County grand jury for first-degree premeditated murder. Thomas H. Fletcher
was indicted for allegedly killing fellow inmate Kenneth J. Davis, State
Attorney Bill Eddins announced Tuesday morning, adding that the state has
filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in its case. The
indictment comes nearly six months after Davis was found unresponsive at
the private prison around 3 p.m. on Sept. 22, 2018. At 3:33 p.m., EMS
confirmed Davis' death. Davis, 33, was serving 25 years for attempted
first-degree murder in Walton County. Fletcher was serving a sentence for
convictions in Broward County for murder, robbery and trafficking cocaine
in 1994. Fletcher is next scheduled to appear in court on March 28 in Santa
Rosa County.
Sep 28, 2018 pnj.com
Authorities investigating inmate death at Blackwater River Correctional
Authorities are investigating an inmate death at Blackwater River Correctional
Institution. Inmate Kenneth Davis died at the private prison Saturday,
though Blackwater CI officials were not available for comment Monday
afternoon. Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman Jeremy Burns
confirmed the agency is involved in the investigation but could not comment
further, citing the active nature of the case. Florida Department of
Corrections records show Davis, 33, was serving 25 years for attempted
first-degree murder in Walton County.
Jan 12, 2018 nwfdailynews.com
Corrections officer stabbed at private prison
MILTON — A corrections officer at Blackwater River Correctional
Facility was stabbed by an inmate Tuesday morning. “She’s going to be
fine,” said state Sen. Doug Broxson, whose district houses the prison. The
assault occurred at 8:40 a.m. during a “routine post assignment,” according
to a statement released Thursday by The Geo Group, the private organization
that runs the Blackwater River prison east of Milton. “The officer received
immediate medical attention and was transported to an area medical
facility. The incident was referred to law enforcement and remains under
ongoing investigation,” the release said. Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob
Johnson said his agency had not been contacted to investigate the stabbing.
Dexter McWhite, 56, who is serving a life sentence for aggravated assault,
robbery and armed robbery, attacked the officer, according to The GEO
Group. The GEO Group did not release the identity of the victim, whose
injury was not life-threatening. The prison has been on lockdown since
Tuesday, an inmate’s family member said. It remained locked down Thursday
evening, according to the prison staff. Questions about the stabbing were
deflected by the Florida Department of Corrections to the state Department
of Management Services. The DOC said Managment Services has oversight of
private prisons. In a late afternoon email, a Management Services
spokeswoman said The GEO Group would respond to all questions about the
stabbing. Blackwater River administrators also directed questions to The
GEO Group. Broxson finally stepped in late in the day to break the
gridlock. He said he had communicated to officials at the state agencies
and Blackwater the need for future transparency. “I encouraged the
departments to be more open in the process,” he said.
December 1, 2011 The Daily News
Santa Rosa County Commissioner Bob Cole said Thursday that FBI agents had
asked him Wednesday about a private land sale in 2009 and the county’s sale
of land to build the Blackwater River Correctional Facility in Milton. “It
was all the same things over again,” Cole said during a brief telephone
conversation about the search of his home and business. “They threw so much
out there I didn’t know what they were focused on.” FBI and IRS agents searched
Cole’s home in East Milton and his Pensacola business, Bob Cole’s
Automotive. No arrests were made and the agents declined to say what they
were seeking. Cole, who has been a commissioner since 2002, has maintained
his innocence of any wrongdoing. Although his County Commission offices
were not searched Wednesday, Cole focused his comments on his actions as an
elected official. “No vote was bought and I did not better myself because
of a vote,” he said Wednesday. “I am comfortable in my votes of the past on
issues and no one twisted my arm. Everything I have done is on the record
and I feel good to go.” Cole confirmed Thursday that agents asked
specifically about his sale of land to a business known as Beannacht
Properties LLC. On April 17, 2009, Cole sold 9 percent of a five-acre
parcel on Welcome Church Road to Beannacht Properties for about $50,000.
Beannacht Properties is managed by Nina Roche Cobb and her husband, Donald
Cobb. Nina Roche Cobb is the daughter of John and Deborah Roche, Gulf
Breeze residents who own Lifeguard Ambulance Service, which holds a
contract with Santa Rosa County to provide emergency services. A federal
warrant was issued in August for documents pertaining to several Santa Rosa
County land transactions and material related to discussions regarding the
county’s Lifeguard Ambulance contract. It is not clear whether the records
request in August and Wednesday’s search of Cole’s home and business are
related. Calls to Beannacht Properties have not been returned. Cole also
acknowledged Thursday that the FBI has also asked him about the county’s
$2.65 million sale of land to a south Florida company known as the GEO
Group. The GEO Group bought the property so that it could build a $120
million private prison in Milton.
September 25, 2011 Pensacola News Journal
Two Santa Rosa County officials are due at Pensacola's federal courthouse
on Tuesday — with volumes of records — to answer four federal subpoenas
served in August. Cindy Anderson, executive director of the TEAM Santa Rosa
Economic Development Council, and Santa Rosa County Attorney Angela Jones
will present thousands of pages of documents as well as numerous digital
files to the federal grand jury. TEAM and the county each received two
subpoenas in August demanding records involving contracts, developments,
land purchases, travel and other interactions among TEAM, the county and
numerous private parties. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office won't say
why they want the information. The subpoenas sought information about a
wide range of topics: » Santa Rosa County's purchase of an industrial park
from Navarre developer Bill Pullum in 2009. » Any County Commission or TEAM
staff member's travel to Pullum's private island in Honduras. » Any County
Commission or TEAM staff member's travel to Washington, D.C. » Any county
business with Pullum, developer Garrett Walton, architect and former state
Sen. Charlie Clary, and Okaloosa County businessman William McElvy. » The
sale of any property between the county and James "Jim" Young
and/or KWY Investments, the company that sold the property where the
private Blackwater River Correctional Institute came to be built in East
Milton. » The county's ambulance service contract. Subpoenas issued to
other offices center around how Blackwater River Correctional Institute
came to be built by the Boca Raton-based GEO Group and the nature of former
state Rep. Ray Sansom's relationship to the project.
September 1, 2011 Gulf Breeze News
A Grand Jury will meet in Pensacola on Sept. 27 to start reviewing numerous
boxes of documents from Santa Rosa County’s economic development deals
dating back to 2002. Subpoenas from the Federal Bureau of Investigation
were served on the County Commissioners and on the county’s economic
development arm, TEAM Santa Rosa, last Tuesday, Aug. 23. Commission
chairman Lane Lynchard and TEAM Santa Rosa Director Cindy Anderson each
said they are looking at this as an opportunity to clear the record – and
the air – on these projects once and for all. “Anytime you receive a
federal subpoena of any kind, it puts the county in a negative light. There
is no doubt about that,” said Lynchard, an attorney from Gulf Breeze. “But
it is my understanding this is the first federal subpoena of any kind that
has been received by Santa Rosa County, and I really look at this as an
opportunity to set the record straight on any questions concerning our
economic development dealings. “The records they wanted go back as far as
2002 from the County Commission. I know there were a lot of questions
surrounding the purchase of the property in 2009 for the industrial park
off Interstate 10 and U.S. Highway 90. Maybe this can out those questions
to rest once and for all.” Anderson said most of the records subpoenaed
already have been looked at and found to have no problems by the State
Attorney’s Office as well as the Ethics Committee. “This really all started
back when the ID Group of Gulf Breeze got funding from some grants back in
2004,” Anderson said. “There has been a group of individuals who have had
questions on several projects since then, and I really hope this latest
review of all those records can put all the questions to rest. “The
investigation in March when records were subpoenaed was concerning only the
private GEO prison project. Now this latest request has to do with any and
all of our records going all the way back to at least 2004. That is boxes
and boxes of records.” The owner of the ID Group was a former member of the
TEAM Santa Rosa Board, and when TEAM received a $170,000 Defense grant, the
TEAM board hired the ID Group to do the work required by the grant. Former
State Rep. Ray Sansom was tied to the GEO group from Boca Raton that built
the private Blackwater River Correctional Institute in East Milton last
year. Questions have centered on Sansom’s involvement with the GEO group in
Boca Raton since 2008, when the group purchased the property for the Milton
prison. Subpoenas in March requested any and all records concerning that
prison project.
August 24, 2011 Pensacola News-Journal
A federal grand jury in Pensacola is investigating the building and funding
of a privately owned correctional facility that opened last year in East
Milton, including the role of former state Rep. Ray Sansom. On Tuesday, the
FBI seized a computer used by Santa Rosa County Commissioner Jim Melvin and
his predecessor, Gordon Goodin. Melvin, who took office last year, said FBI
agents told him the investigation was not focused on him but did not
disclose what they were interested in. Goodin, who served for eight years,
said he was confident the investigation didn't involve him. During the past
five months, the grand jury, working with the FBI, has issued three other
subpoenas. The first subpoena on March 29 requested that TEAM Santa Rosa,
the county's economic development agency, deliver all records pertaining to
Project Justice, the code name for the ultimately successful effort to
bring a private prison operated by the Boca Raton-based Geo Group to the
county. The Blackwater River Correctional Institute, owned by Geo under a
contract with the state, opened last year. It is designed for 2,200
high-security prisoners. The March subpoena ordered Team Santa Rosa to
produce all records related to "the projection, planning, design,
funding, appropriation, construction and/or operation of any privately
owned correctional facility located in Santa Rosa County." The second
subpoena to Florida's Office of Legislative Services, dated May 27,
requested travel vouchers since January 2004 for Sansom and several of his
aides. The third subpoena, with the same date, was addressed to former
Sansom aide Samantha Sullivan of Mary Esther. It ordered records
"pertaining to any function performed as a legislative aide to state
Rep. Ray Sansom" since Jan. 1, 2002. On March 27, 2008, Sansom
traveled to Boca Raton on what he described in a travel voucher as
"personal business after Session 2008." On April 4, Sansom
inserted a provision into the 2008-09 general appropriation bill for $110
million for an addition to the Graceville Correctional Institute, owned by
Geo, in Jackson County. That appropriation was removed. Then, on April 8,
Sansom substituted an appropriation of $110 million into the 2008-09 state
budget for a private prison to be built anywhere in the state, with no
reference to Graceville. That money went to the East Milton facility, which
ended up costing $140 million. In February 2010, Sansom, while serving as
speaker of the House, resigned amid criminal allegations that he inserted a
$6 million appropriation into the state budget for construction of an
aircraft hangar in Destin for a prominent Florida Republican Party
contributor, Jay Odom. The state dropped its case against Sansom in March
after a Tallahassee judge blocked key prosecution testimony. Santa Rosa
officials reached Tuesday said they didn't know the reason for the seizure
of the commission computer. Commissioner Lane Lynchard said he learned of
the seizure from Santa Rosa County Attorney Angela Jones but didn't know
what the FBI's interest was. He said the county was served with two federal
grand jury subpoenas, but he didn't know what the other one involved. Jones
was not in her office Tuesday afternoon, and county spokeswoman Joy
Tsubooka said copies of the subpoenas would not be available until today.
Melvin said the federal agents appeared in his office with two subpoenas at
about 10 a.m. "They explained that they had no problems with me, but
that they needed records from the computer in my office," Melvin said.
"They wanted to know whether I would demand a court order. I told them
I was not the custodian of those records. They met with the county
attorney, and then came and removed the computer from my office."
Melvin said he did not know the nature of the records sought. Goodin, who
was recently cleared of an ethics complaint involving a 2005 trip he and
his wife took to Central America, said he had "no idea" what
interest the FBI would have in the computer. "I'm not worried about
any more investigations," he said. "They can investigate whatever
they want." A message left at the FBI office in Pensacola was not
returned Tuesday.
June 17, 2011 WEAR TV
"This is the $120 million Blackwater River Correctional Facility. It's
been a pretty quiet addition to East Santa Rosa County, bringing hundreds
of new jobs here. But... the Federal Government is continuing wide-scale
investigation into what led to the construction of this prison." The
project has been under fire ever since it became public knowledge. The GEO
Group... The company that now runs the prison... Has documented ties to several
state lawmakers who help approve the 120 million dollar project. Jerry
Couey is one of many people around the state that's been closely following
the development of this prison for years. "Any citizen or private
business owner would love to have the same deal. I don't understand how
they got the deal and I've become very curious about how that
occurred." Jerry is not alone. The FBI obtained this subpoena in
federal court back at the end of march. In it... The US District Court for
the Northern District of Florida demands team Santa Rosa turn over all it's
paperwork related to the GEO group and the state lawmakers who backed the
privatized prison project in the legislature. , "I wish them well in
their search. I think they're on to something that certainly needs to be
looked at, in a time in the state of Florida where dollars are so precious,
how did this happen." "It would make sense for them to come to
us, because they know we have to keep track of all of this and it would be
packaged all together all in one place." "The FBI is very good at
what they do, and I don't know what's going to come of it. My gut gives me
concern about how it occurred."
August 16, 2010 Sunshine State News
Former Rep. Loranne Ausley, the Democratic nominee to be the next state CFO,
attacked a program backed by her Republican rival, Senate President Jeff
Atwater of North Palm Beach, that slashed 71 prison work squads, which she
insisted saved Florida taxpayers more than $35 million, and created a new
private prison. Labeling the Blackwater River Correctional Institution the
“prison to nowhere,” Ausley noted that the project had already cost the
state more than $110 million and that Atwater was ignoring recommendations
made by the Florida Department of Corrections. She also compared the
project to a new courthouse in Tallahassee which she labeled the
“Tallahassee Taj Mahal.” “Senate President Jeff Atwater’s ‘prison to
nowhere’ is yet another product of the broken system in Tallahassee, and
once again Florida taxpayers are stuck with the bill,” said Ausley.
“Floridians are fed up with politicians who play by their own rules with
our money. Whether it’s the ‘Tallahassee Taj Mahal,’ the ‘Prison to
Nowhere’ or an airport hanger for a political contributor, politicians in
Tallahassee need to be held accountable.”
August 10, 2010 WCTV
Prison work squads are as old prisons themselves. But the state has slashed
the number of work squads since the new budget took effect in July. Motorist
Toby Edwards doesn’t think that’s good for roadways or the prisoners. “They
eat good and the state takes care of them but that’s coming from the
taxpayers,” Edwards said. “So they should be the ones out there picking up
the trash.” Another motorist, Steve Bedosky thinks the work should be
contracted to private companies. “I’ve never really been in favor of taking
those jobs away from the private sector and putting prisoners out there at
a lower price,” Bedosky said. But local governments don’t have the
resources, which means the work will often go undone. 71 crews like this
one are being cut. That’s going to mean taller grass, more trash on the
road, and costs being shifted. The Department of Corrections was forced by
lawmakers to spend 24 million dollars opening a private prison orchestrated
by disgraced former speaker Ray Sansom. The private prison took money from
the work squads, even though new projections show the 2200 private prison
beds weren’t needed. The union representing correctional officers
understands the need to keep staffing up inside prison fences, but it
objects to the work squad cuts on moral grounds. “It’s just sad that the
public has to pay for the legislature’s irresponsibility,” Al Shopp with
the Police Benevolent Association said. But unless funding improves,
prisoners will be spending more time behind bars and less time cleaning up
roadsides. The state is cutting 71 of 180 work squads across the state.
June 8, 2010 St Petersburg Times
On the heels of its endorsement of Alex Sink for governor, the Police
Benevolent Association has now announced it will support Loranne Ausley in
her bid to be chief financial officer. Sink's endorsement was news because
the PBA hadn't endorsed a Democrat for governor since Lawton Chiles' first
run in 1990. Now, with its endorsement of an underfunded Ausley over Senate
President Jeff Atwater, the group seems to have gotten religion on
Democrats. Unsure about why the group is making the shift, but it could
have something to do with the opening of a new private prison in North
Florida and lingering unease over potential cuts to prison workers'
pensions. Matt Puckett, the deputy executive director for the PBA, says the
group likes people "that wanted to take care of law enforcement
officers and public employees." He also noted that "it didn't
help matters" that the new private prison opened up on Atwater's
watch.
May 28, 2010 St Petersburg Times
Gov. Charlie Crist often laments "this culture of corruption in South
Florida," but increasingly it's Tallahassee that looks like a central
focus of multiple criminal investigations swirling about Florida. In recent
weeks, prominent legislators have hired criminal defense lawyers, while
high-ranking and low-ranking GOP staffers have been summoned to grand
juries meeting across the state. Among them: Crist's former top
money-raiser, Meredith O'Rourke; former state GOP executive director Jim
Rimes; and indicted ex-House Speaker Ray Sansom's former fundraising aide,
Melanie Phister, who at age 25 charged nearly $1.3 million on her state
party credit card. Veteran observers of the state's political process can't
remember a time when so many officials have been caught up in criminal
investigations. "I don't think we've ever had it at this level,'' said
longtime lobbyist Ron Book. Amid the most tumultuous and unpredictable
election year Florida has seen in decades, the names of at least a dozen
political figures have popped up in five major federal investigations
probing the pay-to-play culture of corruption in Florida: • Alan
Mendelsohn, 52, a Fort Lauderdale eye doctor and GOP campaign fundraiser,
is indicted on federal fraud and influence peddling charges. • Scott
Rothstein, 47, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer and campaign donor at the center of
a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme, pled guilty in January to multiple federal
charges of racketeering, money laundering, fraud. • Sansom, 47, charged
with grand theft in state court for secretly putting $6 million in the
budget, is being looked at by federal officials in North Florida for his use
of a GOP credit card and his role in creating a $113 million private
prison.
May 4, 2010 Tallahassee Democrat
An influential state senator who is running for governor called for an
explanation Tuesday of how the Blackwater River prison privatization project
was handled in the state budget. Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, wrote to
the Department of Corrections and Department of Management Services
regarding the Santa Rosa County prison. She said the Legislature
appropriated $87 million for it as a 2,000-bed privately operated prison in
2008, intending that it house medium- to close-security inmates. In the
closing days of the session that adjourned last week, the budget adopted by
the House and Senate added 224 prisoners to the institution's capacity -- potentially
worth $2 million a year, or more, for GEO Group, the company negotiating
with DMS to run the prison. The appropriation was also changed to specify
that the prison will "primarily house special-needs inmates,"
such as those with mental or physical health problems, and that it would be
in Santa Rosa County, she said. Dockery, who chairs the Senate criminal
justice committee, asked DOC and DMS if either department had requested the
appropriation. She also asked for a summary of responses from companies
competing for the state's business, what other locations were considered
for the institution and why it was designated for "inmates who require
chronic medical and mental health treatment." "She's asking all
the right questions," said Ken Kopczynski, a lobbyist for the Police
Benevolent Association, which represents security officers in state-run
prisons. The PBA opposes prison privatization, which has been a highly
controversial endeavor at six corporate-run prisons in Florida. Spokeswomen
for DMS and DOC said the agencies are gathering information to respond to
Dockery later this week or next week.
May 4, 2010 St Petersburg Times
Sen. Paula Dockery, a Lakeland Republican running for governor, has
written DOC Secretary Walt McNeil and DMS Secretary Linda South to find out
more about the private prison Blackwater deal (more here on the
background). The letter is here: Dear Secretary McNeil and Secretary South:
As chair of the Florida Senate’s Committee on Criminal Justice, I am
interested in the background of the Blackwater River Correctional Facility
(Blackwater) in Santa Rosa County. I am aware that an appropriation of
approximately $87,000,000 was made in 2008 to contract for a 2,000 bed
private correctional facility to house medium and close custody inmates.
The appropriation did not specify a location for the facility or that the
facility would primarily house special needs inmates. I request
clarification about the history of the facility, including, but not limited
to, the following issues: • Whether the appropriation was requested by
either the Department of Corrections or the Department of Management
Services and, if so, the basis for the request. • A summary of the
responses to ITN #DMS 08/09-026 (including vendor, proposed location,
proposed cost, and any distinguishing features of the proposal). • The
origin of consideration of Santa Rosa County as a location for the facility
and identification of other sites that were considered. • The origin of the
decision that the majority of the inmates in the facility would be special
needs inmates who require chronic medical and mental health treatment, and
whether that decision affected the costs of construction. I would
appreciate a timely response to this request. It is not intended to be
burdensome and you should contact me or my staff if there are difficulties
with responding in a timely fashion. Warm regards, Sen. Paula Dockery
April 25, 2010 Tampa Tribune
House and Senate budget chiefs agreed Saturday to open a private prison and
pour $61 million into the University of South Florida's Lakeland campus,
but remained at odds over a variety of cuts and competing proposals. The
Legislature, in its 2008 budget, approved the construction of the private
Blackwater River Correctional Institution, responding to predictions that
the state's prison population would jump more sharply than it has. The
state-of-the-art facility now stands empty. Saturday, the House agreed to
Senate budget chief JD Alexander's plan to cut state prison beds and
eliminate more than 300 positions, mostly vacant, in the state Department
of Corrections to fill 2,224 Blackwater prison beds. That's 224 more beds
than the facility was designed to hold, raising concerns about crowding.
Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said the state can avoid that problem by
"double-bunking" dormitory space. Ken Kopczynski, political
affairs assistant for the Florida Police Benevolent Association, questioned
whether it is ethical to turn incarceration of prisoners into a
profit-making industry. With 4,000 beds or more available in the state's
public prisons, Kopczynski said, there's no reason to open a private one.
Alexander disagreed. "I just couldn't, in all conscience, sit there
with a brand-new, $120 million facility and not find a way to use it; it
just doesn't make sense to me. I think this is a reasonable
compromise."
April 24, 2010 Tampa Tribune
House and Senate budget chiefs agreed Friday on money for Florida Forever
and a range of other issues, but will spend the weekend haggling over items
ranging from crisis pregnancy counseling to trading state-run prison beds
for private ones. The popular-but-pricey Florida Forever program won $15
million Friday after losing in budget negotiations last year. When the
House refused in 2009 to provide new money for the land conservation
program, its line item, to the alarm of environmentalists, vanished from
the budget. This year, the House initially left the program out of its
budget plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Janet Bowman of the
Nature Conservancy said environmentalists are grateful for the $15 million
"bridge" funding. The proposed cash infusion, she said, will pay
for land appraisals and allow the state to negotiate with land owners.
Other issues on which Senate and House budget chiefs agreed during the past
several days: •Spending $10 million on Everglades restoration. •Repealing a
shoreline fishing fee lawmakers passed in 2009. •Cutting state payment
rates to nursing homes by 7 percent. •Spending $200,000 on a new Innocence
Commission to study why innocent people have wound up in prison and prevent
future cases. •Spending $11.7 million on aid to libraries, less than the
full $21 million funding the Senate proposed earlier. All decisions on the
budget remain unofficial until the end of conferencing. The nursing home
rate reduction is among a handful of recent agreements considered
tentative, given concerns in both chambers about potential harm to nursing
home residents. House and Senate budget chiefs will likely wrap up their
negotiations on Sunday, at which point they forward any remaining sticking
points to House Speaker Larry Cretul and Senate President Jeff Atwater for
final decisions. Public versus private -- Among the issues still at play
this weekend: How to handle the opening of Blackwater River Corrections
Institution, a private prison in Santa Rosa County. The Legislature
authorized construction of the low-cost, highly efficient prison in
response to predictions that the prison population would jump more sharply
than it has. The Senate is proposing to shutter less efficient state
facilities and eliminate more than 300 vacant positions in the Department
of Corrections to open 2,224 beds at Blackwater. That is 224 more beds than
facility was designed to hold. Carter Goble Lee, the Atlanta-based firm
contracted as Blackwater's project manager, warned the state Department of
Management Services in an April 2 letter that the extra beds would place
the state at risk of litigation by violating an industry standard of
"25 square feet of unencumbered space per inmate." Senate budget
chief JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said Friday the state can avoid
overcrowding by "double-bunking" dormitory space for lower-risk
inmates. "It's typical of the kind of structure that we have in our
publicly operated prisons, so we felt like that was a good, efficient move
to contain costs." The Senate proposes more than $24 million in cuts
to the state corrections budget to offset the cost of opening Blackwater.
Meanwhile, the state has 4,000 to 5,000 vacant beds available in the existing
state system, said Ken Kopczynski, political affairs assistant for the
Florida Police Benevolent Association. "There's no need for this
prison," Kopczynski said. "They should let it sit until they need
it." Alexander said that's not acceptable. "I believe it will
save us money," he said. "It's unconscionable to me to have a
$120 million facility sitting empty - the newest, most state-of-the-art
facility. I don't know how I would tell the taxpayers that that's OK."
The House has agreed to the corresponding reduction in prison staff
vacancies, but not the extra 224 beds.
April 23, 2010 WEAR TV
It cost taxpayers over 120 million bucks and one state agency says it's not
needed. Now the deal to build a new prison in Milton is attracting the
attention of federal investigators. Dan Thomas/dthomas@weartv.com:
"Take a look we're out here at the site of the new state prison in
Milton and construction is full speed ahead out here today. It's 120
million taxpayer dollars being spent to build it out here. It could mean up
to 400 jobs here to the local economy. One major problem with the project
though? The State Department of Corrections says they don't need any of
this. It's a situation that one report out of Tallahassee says has piqued
the interest of the FBI." An unnamed source close to the
investigation, says the FBI is curious about the prison deal. One of many
dealings of former house speaker Ray Sansom currently under scrutiny. We
know the FBI has spoken to at least one person locally about the matter.
County Commissioner Don Salter says Federal agents have not talked to him
but he expects the whole thing to blow over soon. Don Salter/Santa Rosa
Commissioner: "Hopefully everything is going to workout, I suspect
after august after the primary election and in November it'll probably calm
down and everything will go forward." The state senate wants the
Blackwater prison open with prisoners shipped in from existing facilities.
Meanwhile the house didn't allocate any money to run it. Salter says the
state may have no choice but to open the prison. Don Salter/Santa Rosa
Commissioner: "It's my understanding that GEO bonded this project. The
state guaranteed those bonds. So one way or the other the taxpayers of
Florida will pay for this facility." Dan Thomas/dthomas@weartv.com:
"And just what the legislature decides to do with this facility and
those 400 jobs is expected to be decided next week." No matter what
the legislature decides, construction is expected to be complete in July.
If the facility is opened. They could start taking prisoners by November.
April 23, 2010 Florida News Network
The FBI is asking question about former House Speaker Ray Sansom’s
involvement with a legislative deal to build a private prison. The news
comes as the feds investigate Sansom, Marco Rubio, and former GOP Chairman
Jim Greer for spending millions on Republican Party of Florida credit
cards. As Whitney Ray tells us, the trouble for the GOP keeps growing. A
legislative plan to close as many as five state prisons and ship inmates to
a private prison run by GEO Group was scaled back last month by public out
cry. Former House Speaker Ray Sansom originated the deal with an amendment
in the 2008 state budget. On March 30th, a concerned citizen filed a
complaint with the US Attorney’s Office calling for an investigation. A
source familiar with the complaint says the FBI has been asking questions.
A GEO Group Lobbyist says the feds haven’t questioned him. “I never heard
anything like that at all,” said Smith. According to our source the feds
may be searching to see if Sansom received any kickbacks from the company.
GEO Group, formally known as Wackenhut, gave Sansom’s campaign 500 hundred
dollars for his 2007 campaign. The company gave 145-thousand dollars to the
Republican Party of Florida in 2008, and another 130-thousand in 2009.
Neither Sansom’s lawyer nor the FBI returned our requests for interviews.
Plans to house 22-hundred inmates in the private prison are moving forward
in this year’s budget negotiations. The Police Benevolent Association says
lawmakers should halt the prison plan. “The legislature would be smart to
the taxpayers if they stopped this deal and took another look at it,” said
Puckett. Earlier this week news broke of an FBI investigation into spending
by Sansom, and several other high ranking Republicans on party issued
credit cards. Questions about the prison deal may have spawned from their
current investigation.
April 2, 2010 WEAR TV
A prison nurse in Santa Rosa County wants a federal and state investigation
into the deal to bring the private Blackwater prison to Milton. Elva McCaig
has compiled a lengthy and detailed account of the legislative moves former
state representative Ray Sansom made in the 2008 budget to make the deal
happen. She points out that the state bought the property for the prison
from the Geo Group for $1.6 million. The state also awarded Geo the
contract to build the facility for $110 million. She goes on to allege a
number of other "back-room" transactions. McCaig is a nurse at
the state-run jail next door to the site of the new facility, and she
strongly opposes privatization of prisons.
March 31, 2010 Tampa Tribune
GOP leaders in the Florida Senate appeared Tuesday night to back off on a
controversial budget proposal that would force the closure of two state prisons
in order to open a cheaper private one. Senate Minority Leader Al Lawson,
D-Tallahassee, said Senate budget chief JD Alexander and Senate President
Jeff Atwater have agreed not to require the state to shutter two as-yet
unnamed prisons and privatize one to fill the private Blackwater River
Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa County. That privatization plan, from
Senate Ways and Means Chairman Alexander, appears in the proposed 2010-11
budget that the full Senate will begin considering today. Lawson, who filed
an amendment late Monday that would strip the Blackwater plan from the
budget entirely, said Tuesday night that he will file another that will
leave it up to the state Department of Corrections how best to fill the
private facility. Alexander and Senate President Jeff Atwater indicated
Tuesday evening that they would accept such an amendment, said Lawson,
R-Tallahassee. Lawson's district includes at least one small town fearing
the loss of a local prison rumored to be a target of closure under Alexander's
plan. "This will remove the panic," Lawson said. Blackwater still
would open this year, he said, but without an estimated cut to prison
budgets of $20 million. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said Tuesday that he still
needs to see the language of Lawson's amendment but that they mostly have
agreed on a different approach. The Legislature authorized construction of
the low-cost highly efficient Blackwater facility in 2008, responding to
predictions that the prison population would jump more sharply than it has.
There is no version of the privatization proposal in the House. The two
chambers will have to negotiate a final budget before the end of the
session.
March 30, 2010 WJHG
More than 400 people showed up at a rally in Sneads this afternoon to
protest a Senate budget-cutting proposal. The plan would supposedly save
$68 million dollars by closing two state prisons and privatize a third. But
some of the money would go to pay a private company to operate the new 2200
bed Blackwater Correctional Institute in Santa Rosa County. Folks in
Jackson County are worried Apalachee Correctional Institute will become a
victim of what they're now calling the 'Blackwater Bailout.' More than 400
people showed up at a rally in Sneads this afternoon to protest a Senate
budget-cutting proposal. The plan would supposedly save $68 million dollars
by closing two state prisons and privatize a third. But some of the money
would go to pay a private company to operate the new 2200 bed Blackwater
Correctional Institute in Santa Rosa County. Folks in Jackson County are
worried Apalachee Correctional Institute will become a victim of what
they're now calling the 'Blackwater Bailout.' Jackson County Commission
Chairman Jeremy Branch didn't sugar-coat his feelings about Blackwater
Correctional Institution. "Let me tell you what I hope it does: I hope
it stays there and I hope it turns into a tombstone for privatization, I
hope it's a monument to help symbolize the death of privatization in the
state of Florida." The new prison in Santa Rosa County is 90%
complete. The state owns it, but is planning to let a private company
operate it. Branch and others, including the top State Corrections
official, hope Blackwater never opens its doors. DOC Secretary Walter
McNeil says, "I will not stand idly by. We're gonna fight until our
little fingers are down to the bone to make sure that this does not come to
fruition." Former State Representative Loranne Ausley asks, "when
our communities are experiencing the worst employment, foreclosure rate,
our budget is the worst it has been, how is it you can find 160-million
dollars to build a prison that you don't need?!" If the state taps ACI
as one of the two prisons that will close, community leaders say it will
mean 640 workers will lose their jobs and the Sneads economy will be
devastated. James Baiardi of the Police Benevolent Association, says
"this is wrong, it's nothing more than a corporate bailout, that's all
it is. They made the mistake and they want you to pay, your community to
pay and they want the Correctional officers to pay for their mistake."
74-year-old Reverend Willis Raines Sr. has lived in Sneads his whole life.
He raised 17 kids and knows firsthand ACI's impact on the local economy.
"It creates communities where people get their jobs and support their
families in our communities which is very, very important." Others are
concerned the state could close as many as 5 prisons and will begin the
early-release of inmates to compensate for the lack of prison beds. But
former State Representative Curtis Richardson says, "we're here to say
not 'NO' but 'HELL NO!' We will not take it anymore. They can keep this
deal in Tallahassee. We're not gonna have it." Richardson went on to
blame former House Speaker Ray Sansom for the situation. Sansom filed the 2008
budget amendment that issued state bonds to build Blackwater and hire a
private company to operate it. Richardson said there's no question this can
be tied to the kind of back room, smoke filled room, dirty deals Ray Sansom
has become associated with.
March 30, 2010 Palm Beach Post
Once again, a Tallahassee lawmaker is playing hide and don't seek with
Florida's budget. This time, the perpetrator is Senate budget chief J.D.
Alexander. Last week, the Lake Wales Republican bypassed standard
procedures to amend the proposed spending bill to close at least two
state-run prisons, open a new private prison and privatize others. Sen.
Alexander claims moving prisoners from state-run facilities to private ones
will save $42 million a year. Why, then, didn't he bother to notify the
Department of Corrections? Surely, the DOC should know about such a drastic
change. Sen. Alexander's last-minute move would benefit Boca Raton-based
GEO Group, the company likely to run one of the facilities. Sen.
Alexander's amendment continues budget sleight-of-hand begun by former
House Speaker Ray Sansom. That Santa Rosa County Republican slipped into
the 2008 budget a $110 million appropriation the state used to pay GEO
Group to build the private prison in his home county. That's the prison
that Sen. Alexander now hopes to open. Mr. Sansom resigned last year as
speaker and this year left the House after indictment on charges related to
another deal he tucked into that budget — $6 million to build an airplane
hangar for a major contributor to himself and the Republican Party. The GEO
Group, which runs the South Bay Correctional Institution, has had a number
of inmate deaths and riots at its prisons. Last year, a Texas appeals court
upheld a 2006 $40 million wrongful death judgment concerning an inmate
fatally beaten in 2001. Unless other prisons close, there aren't enough
inmates to fill the 2,224-bed prison near the Blackwater River in Santa
Rosa County. Also, the company, which contributed $158,000 to Florida
Republicans and $17,000 to Democrats during the 2008 election cycle, saw
its stock price drop as much as 8 percent earlier this month when the
Federal Bureau of Prisons canceled plans to house illegal aliens convicted
of crimes. GEO Group expected those inmates to fill a facility it operates
in Michigan. An analyst pointed out at the time that all was not bad for
GEO Group because the company's earnings from the Blackwater facility had
not been included in its 2010 forecast. Sen. Alexander, whose amendment
would help Blackwater's profits, also did not include the impact it would
have on prison overcrowding when he forecast the savings privatization
would bring to the state. Secretary of Corrections Walt McNeil estimates
the amendment would shutter five prisons and force the department to
release about 2,500 inmates early. "Everybody," Mr. McNeil said,
"should be concerned about it." Everybody also should be
concerned when legislators conduct state business under the cover of
darkness. Obviously lawmakers should discuss prison projections and clear
up serious disagreements about the numbers before acting. Last year, the
grand jury that indicted former Rep. Sansom condemned the Legislature's
clandestine budgeting process that lets a select few lawmakers make
decisions behind closed doors. Sen. Alexander should read that grand jury
report and take notes.
March 27, 2010 Palm Beach Post
After repeatedly emphasizing his commitment to "open and
transparent" government during a committee meeting Thursday evening,
Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander attached a last-minute
prison-privatization amendment to the state's spending bill without any
warning to anyone it would affect, including the Department of Corrections.
Alexander's proposal to open a privately run prison near the Blackwater
River in the Panhandle would shutter at least two state-run prisons and put
639 prison guards out of work, the Lakeland Republican told the committee.
His plan also would privatize an unidentified existing 1,350-bed prison,
bringing the number of guards who would get pink slips up to 1,400,
according to the amendment. Alexander says that shutting down prisons to
fill a 2,224-bed facility to be run by Boca Raton-based Geo Group would
save the state about $20 million a year. And it would put into use the
state-of-the-art, energy-efficient Blackwater prison the state paid Geo
$110 million to build near Milton in a deal slipped into the 2008 budget by
state Rep. Ray Sansom before he became House speaker. Sansom later stepped
down from that position in disgrace. But corrections officials object to
the plan and say Alexander overestimates the state's potential savings by
going private. Geo is now negotiating with the Department of Management
Services to run Blackwater, but with a major hitch: The state doesn't have
enough inmates to fill it without closing other prisons. That's because the
state overestimated how many inmates would be incarcerated and the prison
population is declining despite historically high unemployment. Alexander
based his estimate on a $65-a-day rate for inmates in state-run prisons and
$41 a day that Geo says it can charge for Blackwater, a savings of $24 a
day for each of the 2,224 inmates who would be housed at the facility. But
corrections officials say the savings would be about $9 million — less than
half Alexander's $20 million estimate — because their average daily rate is
$52 while the private prison's costs would depend on what kind of inmates
were locked up at Blackwater. "We don't believe this is the right way
to open Blackwater," said DOC spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger. Blackwater
was originally supposed to house mentally ill and seriously sick inmates
who cost more to care for, but documents show that the state is now
negotiating with Geo to care for inmates who are the cheapest and easiest to
supervise. "As discussed earlier today, we wanted to provide you with
a revised pricing for the Blackwater Facility if it were to house 2,224
M-1/M-2/S-1 inmates," an unidentified Geo official wrote on March 19
to Michael Weber, chief of private prison monitoring at the Department of
Management Services. M-1, M-2 and S-1 inmates are relatively healthy and
have no mental health issues. The $41-a-day price goes up to $45 if the
2,224-bed facility does not run at full capacity, according to the e-mail.
But DMS spokeswoman Linda McDonald declined to say who would run Blackwater
because negotiations aren't finished. And she would not say what type of
inmates would be housed there. "That is not a decision that DMS makes.
Ultimately it could be the legislature, but DOC is certainly involved,
too," McDonald said. Plessinger said it is unlikely that all the
inmates from one prison could be transferred to Blackwater because most
prisons have a mix of classes of prisoners. She also said corrections
officials have no idea which prisons will be shut down. Deal 'sneaky,' some
say -- Alexander's late-filed amendment is the latest twist in a deal
worked out in secrecy for at least two years since Sansom set it into
motion. Sansom resigned his speakership in 2009 after being indicted on
charges including grand theft related to a deal he tucked into the 2008
budget. He is facing trial on charges of steering tax money to build a jet
hangar for developer Jay Odom, who donated nearly $1 million to Sansom and
the state Republican Party, at a Panhandle college that hired him the day
he became speaker. In the same budget, the Santa Rosa County Republican
also slipped in a $110 million appropriation to build a private prison in
his home county. Alexander's privatization plan was never discussed during
the Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee meetings
where prison spending is usually decided. The committee chairman, Victor
Crist, voted against the amendment Thursday. He said the potential savings
by privatizing the prisons could not only put people out of work but also
devastate the rural communities in which the prisons are based. "They
generally are the primary if not the only employer there. If you shut it
down, you could be shutting down a town. All of a sudden, everyone there
could be out of work," said Crist, R-Tampa. "How do they sell
their homes? How do they relocate even if they got a job with a private
prison 300 miles away?" And, Crist said, the laid-off prison guards —
whose annual salaries average between $30,000 and $35,000 — could wind up
costing the state more if they sign up for state services for the
unemployed. "Sometimes a dollar saved upfront could cost you two
dollars behind," he said. Alexander said he introduced the amendment
because Crist refused to do so and as Senate budget chairman he wants to
save money on prisons to help close a $3.2 billion spending gap. "Many
states have reduced their incarceration costs by using privatization,"
said Alexander, R-Lake Wales. He estimated Florida could save up to $700
million a year by privatizing each of its 62 prisons. But Police Benevolent
Association President Jim Baiardi said Alexander kept his plan quiet to
avoid public debate on the controversial issue. "It's been sneaky.
Very sneaky. It's almost like it's been done in the dead of the night. So
much for open government," Baiardi said, calling it a giveaway for
Geo. "I don't understand how they can say that," Alexander said.
"The reality is we've got a brand-new prison that the state directed
and used taxpayers' monies to build. I think putting that prison online,
saving the money, saving the maintenance costs, is something that only
makes good financial sense for the people of Florida."
September 10, 2009 Northwest Florida Daily
News
The Santa Rosa County Sheriff's office arrested eight undocumented
workers and charged six of them with fraud on Tuesday. Deputies conducted a
traffic stop near the area of a construction site on Jeff Ates Road in
Milton. Crews there are working to build a new private prison and the
Sheriff's Office had received word that some of the crew members weren't in
the United States legally. During the traffic stop on Sept. 8, a Special
Operations investigator determined the four people in the vehicle did not
have proper paperwork and documentation. The men said they were employed at
the construction site as masons. Lawmen contacted the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement Agency and reported the arrest of two of the men in the
car. Abelino Oviedo-Salinas, 25, was arrested for traffic violation and
Sergio Mata-Oviedo, 18, was arrested for resisting an officer. The job
foreman at the construction site was cooperative and reported the men were
hired by a subcontractor at the site. The subcontractor said the men were
sent to him through Robles Masonry in Alabama. After investigating the
claims, six more men were arrested for providing false identification
information to fill out their tax forms. Margaro Elias, 48, Jaime Condeles,
37, Mariano Sanchez-Ramiez, 21, Amado Landaverde-Vizcaya, 27, Jaime
Flores-Aguilar, 32, and Bernardo Mata, 25, were charged with fraud. ICE was
notified of the six arrests and bond was withheld for all the men arrested,
pending their first appearance. There were no local addresses, local ties
or valid information they could provide. Authorities report showed two of
the men had fingerprints that matched prior arrests under different names
in other parts of the country. Several of the other men, including the
driver from the traffic stop, have prior arrests for illegal entry into the
United States.
July 24, 2009 Santa Rosa Press-Gazette
It doesn’t appear that some tensions have died down since Monday’s
meeting of the Santa Rosa County Commissioners where Chairman Don Salter
entered into the minutes he “as chairman feared for the safety of certain
individuals involved with economic development” based on the comments he
quoted of Alan Isaacson. Since then, the feelings are still there. “I have
a right to petition my government and asked them to take action based on
the contract I drafted with them,” said Isaacson. “Then to have someone who
accuses you of potential murder. “I was hurt, but I was also concerned
about the fact that in the past two months I found 11 instances of items
being withheld by TEAM. And that violates the agreement with the county
according to paragraph 14.” Paragraph 14 section b in the Funding Program
Agreement between TEAM and the Santa Rosa County Commission states, “TEAM
shall, subject to and comply with the provisions of Chapter 119, Florida
Statutes, and other relevant laws, permit public access to all documents or
other materials prepared, developed or received by it in connection with
the performance of its obligations or the exercise of its rights under this
Agreement, unless exempted or confidential by law. This Agreement may be
terminated by (the) County pursuant to paragraph 17 if TEAM fails to allow
such public access.” Isaacson, who is now a witness into the State
Attorney’s investigation into matters involving TEAM and government
entities, is wondering why the contract is not being followed. “In 2007 the
state attorney’s office told us TEAM was crystal clear on the regulations,
but in Oct. of 2008 they form a committee to study what they need to do to
be in compliance with the Sunshine Law,” said Isaacson. “Then in Jan. of
2009 they are still studying it and are basically forced to follow the
law.” Most of the recent contention to arise this past week focused on an
e-mail that came to light when John Myslak, who is a TEAM Board Member,
addressed charges against him to members of the Santa Rosa County
Commission as Myslak was awarded a contract involving the GEO Prison
Project in East Milton. Other names were noted in the e-mail included TEAM
members John Griffing, Pete Gandy, and Dick Hohorst may have or are all
being paid by taxpayer funds even through the meetings leading up to these
payouts which were held outside of the sunshine. He also questioned the
$70,000 grant/contract Jeff Helms, with PBS&J, just finished with the
Whiting Aviation Park. Since the e-mail was sent it has been learned Helms
was awarded the contract prior to joining the board of TEAM Santa Rosa.
Helms pointed out the contract he was awarded was based on a request for
proposals and we went through a process and was fortunate enough to get
part of the work. But questions involving the board and recent action still
remain. Ken Kopczynski, with the Florida Police Benevolent Association, has
been going through a battle to get documents involving an open records
request since Sept. 2008 as they were looking into the matter with GEO
Prisons. “We have had a long dialogue between the PBA and the County,” said
Kopczynski. “One of our guys heard about this private prison on the agenda
one Monday and they vote on the letter of support the following Thursday.
“Our member raised questions on how this prison came about.” When the
association sent their letter, TEAM replied their records were exempt. “We
also asked for correspondence between Management Training Corporation and
John Vanyur,” said Kopczynski. “They told us there was no documents
regarding MTC. “Yet we learn about an e-mail dated in April 2008 from
Vanyur to TEAM Santa Rosa.” Since this time the Florida PBA, one of the
state’s largest unions, contacted Roy Andrews who on July 14 stated he was
not the custodian of the public records for TEAM, but that he has “given
the staff my opinion that all their records are public with the exception
of those exemptions specifically set forth in Florida Statute 288.075 for
the applicable time periods.” This is causing a great deal of concern to
those like Isaacson, who have been championing open records and meetings
for a long time. “If one of the largest unions in the state can’t get the
information, what makes you think an individual like me can,” said
Isaacson. When asked about if he has ever taken the time to talk to
Isaacson about these questions and concerns Salter stated they had talked
some six months ago. “I talked to Alan about six months ago for three hours
to explain my position on economic development and base protection and we
agreed to disagree,” said Salter. “My big point is for two years they have
been saying their allegations on local radio and everywhere they can that
we are guilty and the allegations they have. “If you have a problem and
feel something is wrong then file the proper complaint and let the legal
system work through it; don’t convict in the media.” “I want to say just as
a reminder when you do stuff like this personalities do arise,” said
Isaacson. “But I do not apologize for what I am doing because these items
need to be done out in the open. “I have a fiduciary responsibility to
check on what is questionable and in my opinion in Oct. of last year your
own attorney agreed.”
Bridgeport Correctional Center,
Bridgeport, Texas
June 27, 2010 Wise County Messenger
A new management company will take over the Bridgeport Correctional
Center beginning Aug. 31. The 520-bed facility has been managed by GEO
Group Inc., since the center opened in August 1989. GEO was reawarded a
three-year contract from Sept. 1, 2005, and also had two, one-year
renewals. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice conducted a competitive
bid process, and Management & Training Corp. won the seven-year bid.
"There's a technical review of the bid and a financial review of the
bid," said Jason Clark, public information officer for the TDCJ. Clark
said that the reviews are done separately by different committees.
"They score those reviews and compile the scores and a recommendation
is made to the TDCJ."
June 7,
2005 Wise County Messenger
The Rev. Gil Pansza and an official with The Catholic Diocese of Fort
Worth met with officials of the Bridgeport Correctional Center Wednesday to
discuss Pansza’s dismissal as a volunteer from the men’s division of the
center, but Pansza said he remains barred from the facility. “They didn’t
invite me back,” said Pansza, pastor of St. John’s Catholic Church in
Bridgeport and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Decatur. Pansza and
Ralph McCloud, division director of the Social Justice Ministry of the
diocese, said they met with senior warden Priscella Miles, assistant warden
Bobby Thompson and chaplain Phillip Yoder at the center. Pansza said Yoder
told him a couple of weeks ago that his services were no longer necessary
at the center, which Pansza had been visiting since February. Miles said in
a previous story that Pansza was barred because of his demeanor and because
the prison feared a security issue could occur with Catholic prisoners. On
Wednesday, Pansza said the entire group met for almost an hour, and then
Miles and McCloud met privately for a half-hour. “Warden Miles was
interested in better understanding what our concerns were, and I think she
was pretty patient in listening to what I had to say,” Pansza said. “She
gave an opportunity for the chaplain to say what his views were and then to
warden Thompson as to what his views were. Her concern is that there’s an
allegation of discrimination. I pointed out that that allegation was not by
the church. And she mentioned that the allegation really came from the
community. On prison officials’ concerns about security issues, Pansza said
Thompson mentioned that he was concerned about “offender manipulation.”
Pansza said officials were concerned that he would tell the offenders that
the institution was not giving him access to prisoners, and that “the
offenders would be quite upset about that and maybe that would become a
security issue.” “I guess I can understand that,” Pansza said. “That’s
certainly not something I would want to do. But I can understand his
concern.” Yet Pansza said Thursday that he’s confused about Thompson’s
justification on the matter of security concerns. On the day Thompson told
Pansza that he supported Yoder’s decision to bar Pansza from the prison,
the subject of security concerns was never broached, Pansza said. Pansza
said he thinks that issue emerged after the fact. Pansza said one offender
in segregation asked to see his priest but was denied access. Pansza said
Yoder told him that the warden said the prison was ready to transfer him to
another unit.
June 28, 2005 Wise
County Messenger
The Office of the Inspector General will investigate the death of an inmate
who was housed at the Corrections Corporation of America in
Bridgeport. Julia Martinez, 29,
collapsed Wednesday afternoon and was pronounced dead a short time later at
Wise Regional Health System. Warden
Gwen Bowers said Martinez reportedly collapsed in the facility’s outdoor
exercise area. Paramedics were called and transported Martinez to WRHS.
June 2,
2005 Wise County Messenger
A Wise County priest says he has been barred from performing church
services or visiting with offenders at the men’s division of the Bridgeport
Correctional Center. The Rev. Gil Pansza, pastor of St. John’s Catholic
Church in Bridgeport and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Decatur,
said he doesn’t know why he has been prevented from celebrating Mass or
talking with prisoners. Priscella Miles, senior warden at the prison, said
Tuesday that Pansza has been barred from the prison, but that she is open
to talking with him. She said she talked with him last week and hopes to
hear from him again this week. Pansza said problems emerged three weeks
ago, after he saw another church service advertised on flyers on two
bulletin boards at the facility. He asked Chaplain Phillip Yoder whether
Catholic Masses could be advertised on flyers on 12 bulletin boards at the
prison. He said he also asked whether Thursday Mass could be placed on the
monthly religious service calendar. The Mass was later advertised on a
corrected calendar, Pansza said. Pansza said he and Yoder discussed church
postings on bulletin boards. Yoder agreed to allow the posting of the
Catholic service flyers. About a week later, before Pansza’s next Mass,
Pansza said he visited with Yoder, who was upset about their previous
meeting and said he thought Pansza had questioned his integrity. After some
discussion on the bulletin boards and prisoner visitation – Pansza said he
apologized to Yoder if he offended him and that he was just trying to
ensure Catholic Masses receive the same treatment as others – Yoder told
Pansza that he was a guest in the facility and that he was under his supervision.
Pansza said understood prison rules but told him that he would not
“tolerate disparate treatment” from Yoder’s office or anyone else, meaning
that he didn’t accept what he thought was Yoder’s office promoting one
church service over another. “I guess he didn’t like that,” Pansza said.
Pansza said Yoder then told him that his services were no longer necessary
at the prison, Pansza said. Miles said The GEO Group Inc. – which
contracts with the state to manage the Bridgeport unit – and the Bridgeport
Correctional Center support all religions.
Broward
Transition Center, Pompano Beach, Florida
Oct 17, 2017 sun-sentinel.com
Government contractors took bribes to remove immigrants' electronic
monitors, feds say
Two government contractors and a relative who posed as an immigration
official are facing federal charges they took bribes in exchange for
illegally removing electronic monitors from immigrants who faced
deportation. Investigators say the trio requested and collected bribes of
between $1,850 and $5,000 per person from several immigrants in Broward and
Miami-Dade counties from November 2010 to April 2014. Elisa Pelaez, 54, of
Miami Shores, and Miami cousins Ginou Baptiste, 48, and Fritz Cyriaque, 50,
are all charged with conspiring to commit bribery. Cyriaque, a
self-employed car salesman, is also charged with impersonating a federal
officer. Pelaez and Baptiste worked for Behavioral Intervention Inc, a Geo
Group company, which had a contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security to supervise immigrants who were released from detention while
deportation and immigration proceedings were pending against them. Company
workers were supposed to supervise immigrants released under the Intensive
Supervision Appearance Program. Many of the released immigrants were
required to wear electronic or GPS monitors. Immigration attorneys said the
program is designed to reduce costs and the number of people in detention.
It is designed for immigrants who are not considered a threat to public
safety or national security, but are considered to be at risk of committing
criminal acts or failing to appear at immigration hearings. Pelaez and
Baptiste, who have both been fired from their jobs, abused their positions
to approach immigrants they were supervising and offer to have their
electronic monitors removed in exchange for cash payments, prosecutor
Francis Viamontes said. The women targeted people they thought had enough
money and referred them to Cyriaque, who pretended to be an Immigration and
Customs Enforcement official. After the victims handed over the money,
Pelaez and Baptiste instructed their co-workers to remove the monitors.
Investigators said all three of the suspects used intimidation to
discourage the victims from reporting what happened. Cyriaque, a convicted
felon with prior arrests for grand theft and possession of a firearm, acted
as the “security” or “muscle” for the group, Viamontes said in court. She
said he threatened the victims with deportation: “He would tell them things
like ‘I can bury you.’” Cyriaque is a Haitian citizen who has been a legal
permanent resident of the U.S. for 32 years and has eight children, his
attorney said in court. Baptiste and Cyriaque have pleaded not guilty and
are jailed, for now, in Broward County. Pelaez is due in court in the next
several days. Authorities ask anyone with information to call Agent Erik
Gonzalez at the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of
Homeland Security at 954-538-7555
April 29, 2013
palmbeachpost.com
Miami-based Americans for Immigrant Justice has
issued a report strongly criticizing the treatment of non-criminal
immigrants at the Broward Transitional Center (BTC), which is operated by
and GEO Group of Boca Raton, under the direction of the the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. “The BTC report features the
cases of numerous detainees with no criminal or minimal criminal history
needlessly subjected to abuse,” says the immigration advocacy group.
According to the report, one female detainee told a BTC deportation officer
she was scared to return to her homeland. “She should have been given an
interview to determine whether she could apply for asylum,” says the
report. “Instead, she was quickly deported.” A male detainee was diagnosed
with a painful hernia but ICE “declined to pay for the surgery, yet
detained him for six months while he suffered much pain,” according to the
authors of the report. The report also documents three cases of alleged
sexual assault. “As Congress works to reform an outdated immigration system,
members would be wise to reform abusive detention facilities, including the
Broward Transitional Center,” said Susana Barciela, spokesperson for AIJ.
“Further, it makes no sense to detain immigrants who pose no danger.
Alternatives to detention are effective and far cheaper.” Under the Obama
administration, immigration authorities have said they are focused on
deporting dangerous criminal aliens, not those with only immigration
offenses, but immigration advocates have said many non-criminal immigrants
are still being detained and deported. “If ICE truly focused on detaining
and deporting dangerous criminals, it would save more than a billion
dollars annually,” Barciela said. “These savings would help relieve the
nation’s fiscal concerns.”
January 5, 2013 By Megan O'Matz, Sun Sentinel
DEERFIELD BEACH Hundreds of men and women who have committed minor
offenses, such as driving without a license, or no apparent crime at all,
are locked up for weeks and months in a little-known central Broward County
facility run by a private company. They are immigrants, accused of entering
the country without legal authorization or staying longer than permitted.
Their treatment — at the hands of the federal government and the Boca
Raton-based firm hired to keep them at the 700-bed Broward Transitional
Center — has become a growing controversy since July, when a detainee went
on hunger strike and activists staged protests demanding a halt to the
confinement and deportation of foreigners with no serious criminal
histories. In a daring move, two young adults, both illegal immigrants
brought by their families to the United States as children, turned
themselves in to gain access to the center and expose what they claimed
were human rights abuses and policy violations by federal authorities. Once
inside, they said they found people unjustly arrested and subjected to
lengthy and unnecessary confinement, and reported incidents of substandard
or callous medical care, including a woman taken for ovarian surgery and
returned the same day, still bleeding, to her cell, and a man who urinated
blood for days but wasn't taken to see a doctor. ICE denies any
mistreatment. In a recent interview with the Sun Sentinel, the agency's
Miami Field Office Director Marc J. Moore said conditions at the facility
are excellent and that the "staff here treats people with
respect." But the young activists' claims captured the attention of 26
members of Congress, who wrote to the nation's chief immigration official
demanding a review of all detainees locked up at the Broward facility and
an investigation into the quality of medical care there. "Some of the
reports coming out of the center are horrifying," lawmakers, including
South Florida Democrats Ted Deutch, Frederica Wilson and Alcee Hastings, wrote
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton. ICE has yet
to reply to the letter, written in September. Last week, Deutch sent a
second letter, chastising ICE for its "excessive delay" and
demanding it respond immediately to lawmakers' concerns. "It's
certainly time for us to hear back, and it's well past time that these
serious issues be addressed," Deutch, of Boca Raton, told the Sun
Sentinel on Friday. If legislators continue to encounter silence from ICE,
Deutch said they will investigate what actions can be taken to ensure that
a review of the center is made and "these human rights abuses are
stopped."
August 25, 2012 Palm Beach Post
For Nicaraguan immigrant Serafin Solorzano, being jailed for overstaying
his visa was bad enough. Even worse: Solorzano said he was denied access to
his asthma inhaler for part of a two-week stay at an immigration detention
center in Deerfield Beach. Without access to his medicine, he felt as
though he was suffocating. Solorzano, now 54, recovered from the asthma attack.
But the experience two years ago led him to join the growing list of
critics of GEO Group, the Boca Raton-based prison operator that owns the
700-bed Broward Transition Center where Solorzano was held. “This is
something that has violated my human rights,” Solorzano told reporters in
May as he and other critics protested outside the GEO Group’s annual
meeting at The Breakers in Palm Beach. Solorzano’s gripes have been echoed
by inmates, by civil libertarians and by state and federal regulators who have
scrutinized GEO Group’s operations. They argue that GEO Group pads its
profits by cutting worker wages, skimping on inmate health care and
ignoring safety and sanitation. Despite the complaints, GEO Group (NYSE:
GEO) continues to grow, thanks to rising prison populations and the federal
government’s move to privatize detention of immigrants. GEO Group is on
track to book $1.7 billion in revenues in 2012, its biggest year on record
and a hundredfold increase from 1994, the prison operator’s first year as a
publicly traded company. GEO Group launched as Wackenhut Corrections and
was based in Coral Gables. After a move to Palm Beach Gardens in the 1990s,
GEO Group landed in Boca Raton. Governments pay GEO Group to run nearly
80,000 beds in prisons and hospitals worldwide. Among the institutions
operated by GEO Group are South Bay Correctional Facility, a 1,862-bed
state prison in western Palm Beach County; the 700-bed Broward Transition
Center, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility; and the Treasure
Coast Forensic Treatment Center, a 223-bed state hospital in Stuart. GEO
Group’s revenue — which has risen every year for nearly 20 years — and
steady profits make it a financial success story. It’s the second-largest
operator of private prisons, trailing only Corrections Corp. of America
(NYSE: CXW) of Nashville. But investors clearly prefer CCA. While GEO
Group’s revenue is similar to CCA’s, CCA is twice as profitable, and CCA’s
market capitalization is twice GEO Group’s. A $10,000 investment five years
ago in GEO Group would have dwindled to $8,667, while the same amount
invested in CCA would have grown to $13,237. Meanwhile, GEO Group has been
dogged for years by reports of sloppy — and sometimes gruesome — practices.
One recent black eye: In June, the federal Occupational Safety and Health
Administration proposed fines totaling $104,100 for violations at a GEO
Group prison in Meridian, Miss. Federal inspectors visited the prison in
December and found too few guards on duty and broken cell locks. OSHA said
GEO Group guards were stabbed, bitten, punched and kicked by inmates, and
that the company did little to protect them. In one of the prison’s housing
units, only three guards were on duty. GEO Group’s staffing plan called for
eight officers to be on guard. Understaffing meant guards were more likely
to be attacked by prisoners, OSHA said. What’s more, inmates tampered with
cell doors so that they could be opened by prisoners from the inside but
not by guards from the outside. “This employer knowingly put workers at
risk of injury or death by failing to implement well recognized measures
that would protect employees from physical assaults by inmates,” Clyde
Payne, OSHA’s director in Jackson, Miss., said in a statement. GEO Group
has contested OSHA’s findings. GEO Group has been on the receiving end of a
laundry list of regulatory actions and lawsuits. Among them: •In 2011, an
Oklahoma jury ordered GEO to pay $6.5 million to the family of Ronald
Sites, an inmate who was strangled to death by his cellmate in 2005. •In
2011, Florida Department of Corrections investigators visited GEO Group’s
prison in South Bay for a drug sweep and couldn’t get in. No one was
stationed at the front gate, and no one responded when state employees
pushed the alert button and shined flashlights at the prison surveillance
cameras. •Also last year, the Florida Department of Children and Families
said GEO Group’s neglect contributed to the death of a South Florida State
Hospital patient. The man was being escorted by GEO Group employees to an
appointment at Jackson Memorial Hospital when he hurled himself from the
eighth story of a parking garage, the Miami Herald reported. A GEO Group
employee should have stayed with the man at the first-story hospital
entrance while the driver retrieved the van, DCF said. •In 2010, the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued GEO Group for allowing sexual
harassment of female employees at two prisons in Florence, Ariz. In one
incident, a male GEO Group manager “grabbed and pinched the breasts and
crotch of a female correctional officer,” the EEOC said. In another
instance, a “female employee was forced onto a desk, where a male GEO
employee shoved apart her legs and kissed her,” the agency claimed. •In
2009, a Texas appeals court upheld a $42.5 million verdict after a prisoner
at a GEO Group facility was beaten to death four days before his release. •
In 2007, Texas canceled an $8 million contract with GEO and closed the Coke
County Juvenile Justice Center. Inspectors found feces on floors and walls,
padlocked emergency exits and overuse of pepper spray on young inmates. A
GEO Group spokesman didn’t comment on the regulatory findings and jury
verdicts, but its defenders chalk up the litany of gripes to the nature of
its business. GEO Group operates in what might be the messiest niche in
American capitalism, an industry where shankings, riots and suicide
attempts are routine. “We’re not talking about members of Congress or Boy
Scouts here,” Robert Wasserman, an analyst at Dawson James in Boca Raton,
said of the stream of complaints. “I think their goal is to operate these
facilities as cleanly as they can.” Critics take a less charitable view of
the company. Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership in
Austin, Texas, said he’s astounded that state and federal officials still
do business with GEO Group. “In Texas, GEO Group had an absolute string of
horror stories that resulted in having multiple contracts canceled,” Libal
said. “They’re a very troubled corporation that exemplifies many of the
problems with the for-profit prison industry. It’s mindboggling that
companies like GEO continue to win contracts.” Proponents of private
prisons say for-profit institutions operate more efficiently than public
prisons. “Private prisons are providing quality services—while remaining
cost-efficient and providing significant cost savings,” wrote Geoffrey
Segal, a former adviser to then-Gov. Jeb Bush’s Center for Efficient
Government, in a 2005 report. But some who have studied private prison finances
say the savings are elusive. Florida law says that private prison contracts
must yield savings of 7 percent compared to what the state would have paid
to operate the facility. In a 2008 report, the Florida Office of Program
Policy Analysis & Government Accountability looked at the state’s
private prisons and concluded that operators save money by taking on fewer
“special needs” prisoners with medical problems and mental health issues
that make them expensive to house. “As special needs inmates are more expensive
to serve than other inmates, the difference in the populations of public
and private prisons results in the state shouldering a greater proportion
of the cost of housing these inmates,” the report said. “As a result, the
requirement that the private prisons operate a 7 percent lower cost than
state facilities is undermined.”
March 17, 2009 Sun-Sentinel
A doctor says they need medicine to stop the palpitations, shortness of breath
and the cries of drowning shipmates they hear in their nightmares. But in a
federal lawsuit that echoes the complaints of immigrants detained across
the country, two Brazilian migrants held at the Broward Transitional Center
say they're not getting their prescribed medication. "We meet with
detainees across Florida in jails and detention centers and the number-one
complaint is the lack of medical care," said Cheryl Little, executive
director of the Florida Immigration Advocacy Center. Across the country, 90
detainees have died in custody in the past four years. One was the Rev.
Joseph Danticat, who died at the Krome Detention Center near Miami in 2004
when officials took away prescribed medication for high blood pressure. In
a congressional hearing last week, the special adviser to the Secretary of
Homeland Security said the medical care provided to many of those who died
didn't appear to meet Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
standards.
March 5, 2009 AP
Two Brazilian migrants have sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
saying they've been denied mental health care for post-traumatic stress
disorder in a South Florida detention facility since their boat ran aground
last fall. Jaime Miranda and Daniel Padilha were diagnosed with the disorder
by a private physician in December but have not been given prescribed
medications or treatments while being held at the Broward Transition Center
in Pompano Beach, according to lawsuits filed Wednesday in Miami federal
court. Their confinement without medical care has aggravated their mental
health problems, violates their Fifth Amendment rights and mirrors
persecution in Brazil that they sought to escape, the lawsuits state.
"It would be inappropriate for ICE to comment on matters pending litigation,"
spokeswoman Nicole Navas said Thursday. Miranda and Padilha were both
aboard a rusty 40-foot boat that ran aground Oct. 31 near Virginia Key, a
small island east of downtown Miami. The boat had departed days before from
the Dominican Republic, where Miranda and Padilha say traffickers held them
for two months against their will, ordered them to work for the boat driver
and forced them aboard a vessel that wasn't seaworthy. Both men had arrived
in the Dominican Republic after fleeing mistreatment in Brazil; Padilha is
gay, and Miranda's father was murdered. At least six people died after the
boat hit a sandbar. Miranda and Padilha were among five Brazilians and 22
Dominicans detained by ICE. About 10 others were reported missing, but it
was unclear if they drowned or made it ashore and fled. The man who
allegedly piloted the boat faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of
federal human smuggling charges. Miranda, 27, and Padilha, 24, persistently
relive the accident and have nightmares in which the dead passengers ask
them for food and water, according to the lawsuits. A doctor hired by their
families diagnosed them and prescribed several medications to treat each
man's insomnia, depression, anxiety and psychotic episodes. However, an
officer at the center told Miranda and Padilha's attorney that the men had
not been given the drugs and would need to be moved to another facility to
receive treatment, the lawsuits state. Miranda and Padilha are seeking
release or transfer to a facility that can provide mental health treatment,
in addition to damages for pain and suffering. Each also seeks asylum to
escape torture and persecution in Brazil, where they say they would not
have access to psychological services if deported. Both men say they are
eligible for a special visa granted to victims of certain crimes who
cooperate with investigators because they provided U.S. law enforcement
with names and details about the trafficking operation that brought them
from the Dominican Republic to Florida. "The government has further
victimized Miranda and Padilha by keeping them in custody without medical
treatment despite repeated requests that they be released to obtain proper
medical care and treatment," their Boston-based attorney, Jeff Ross,
said Thursday in an e-mail. "The decision to keep Miranda and Padilha
detained has been a discretionary decision and they should have been
released by the government since they were cooperating witnesses in a
federal case in Miami." The lawsuit also names the center's warden and
the company that manages its operations, The GEO Group, as defendants. The
GEO Group, which provides detention management services at the Broward
Transition Center under contract with ICE, does not comment on litigation
matters, company spokesman Pablo Paez said Thursday in an e-mail.
Broward Work Release Center, Broward County,
Florida
April 18, 2001
A Broward Sheriff's detention deputy at the county's work-release center
was suspended and a Wackenhut employee from the same facility was arrested
after detectives said she went shopping with someone else's debit card. The
deputy gave the card to Gail Forrest, a job-verification specialist at the
work-release center in Pompano Beach, because she didn't want to get in
trouble. Forrest, 34, then drove to Linens and things in Lighthouse Point
where she bought a comforter for $190.79. She signed the receipt, and left
the store. She also tried buying $211 worth of merchandise at a Boca Raton
Wal-Mart. When the card was denied; she left the store. Forrest, who a Wackenhut
spokesperson said had worked at the center since February 2000, was charged
with the fraudulent use of a credit card, possession of a lost or stolen
credit card and uttering a forged instrument. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Calipatria, California
December 30, 2005 Imperial Valley Press
The prospect of placing a privately owned and operated prison here has
stirred some local unions and created controversy in the community. Though
no official steps have been taken, a Calipatria City Council public hearing
on the subject sparked vivid discussion Tuesday night. The Geo Group, Inc.
- a private company based in Boca Raton, Fla., that operates more than 50
private correctional facilities nationally - may propose a new prison in
Calipatria, pending a request for proposals from the state Department of
Corrections. The request is expected to come because of a need for more
prisons in California. "State prisons are overcrowded," said Ken
Fortier, a representative from Geo. In an information packet presented to
the City Council, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association
cites several instances where the Geo Group had problems with operation of
its facilities. "What they do is lower the standards of the
corrections profession," said CCPOA representative Ryan Sherman.
"They are responsible to their corporations while state facilities are
responsible to the public." Sherman said employees of private prisons
do not receive proper training to deal with serious felons. Another issue
raised is how the availability of more jobs will affect the community. With
an already high unemployment rate in the county and the need for increased
revenue and property taxes, the private prison could prove a valuable
financial resource. Sherman said Calipatria State Prison has a shortage of
people to fill its positions and a new prison would cut into the pool of
much-needed employees. "We have a couple hundred vacancies, and triple
the pay," he said. "I don't see where Geo is going to get the
people they need." On the flip side, training to become a guard at the
private facility would involve less time than at the state prison, which
would be of benefit to those seeking more immediate position. Yet some
think less training creates a more dangerous situation of unprepared
employees.
Campsfield
Immigration Removal Centre, Oxford, England
Feb 6, 2015
OurKingdom
New report from HM Inspectorate of Prisons on Campsfield House, run by
outsourcer Mitie, reveals:
• 16 year old detained ‘by mistake’
• Torture victims held in defiance of Home Office
rules
• Dirty, overcrowded accommodation
Still from Standoff Films: Campsfield House: An
Immigration Removal Centre' When
prisons inspectors paid a surprise visit to Campsfield House immigration
lock-up last August they found asylum seekers living in dirty, overcrowded
conditions and torture survivors locked up in violation of Home Office
rules. And they discovered that a child had been wrongfully imprisoned for
62 days.
Still, their report on Campsfield, which is run
by the outsourcer Mitie, concludes that “overall this was a very positive
inspection”, giving some indication of the standards expected of the Home
Office’s commercial contractors. In their report, published this week, the
inspectors noted that three children were held at Campsfield between 2012
and 2013 in contravention of government policy. One boy was assessed by
social services as being an adult and held for 62 days. He was released
only after he obtained legal representation and his solicitor threatened
the social services department with a judicial review. Social workers then
made a second assessment and concluded that the boy was 16 years old. The
inspectors said that he “was held by mistake and should never have been
detained”. They said Mitie’s policy on safeguarding children was “up to
date and comprehensive”, but there was no named member of staff who took
the lead on safeguarding children. Mitie told the inspectors that some
staff had “taken an e-learning package” in child safeguarding, but the
company was “unable to provide exact figures”. The inspectors noted: “A
member of staff was to attend training with Oxfordshire’s local
safeguarding children board after our inspection.” Overcrowding was a
problem. “Too many detainees lived in cramped conditions, with four sharing
accommodation designed for two,” the inspectors wrote. What’s more: “The
dining area was not big enough for the number of detainees using it and
hygiene in the kitchen required improvement … The laundry was not big enough
for the population. During our inspection two washing machines did not work
and detainees said this was a regular occurrence.” Ironically, given that
Mitie is best known as a cleaning company, the report recommended: “Toilets
and showers in all residential units should be deep cleaned … some toilets
and showers were very dirty and needed maintenance ... bed linen was in
poor condition and we saw soiled pillows and mattresses.” Perhaps these
problems arose in part from the fact that Mitie is paying the detainees
just £1 per hour to do these jobs. The inspectors found 24 detainees worked
in the dirty kitchen, and in total “Seventy-four job roles, totalling 1265
hours of paid work per week, were offered ... Opportunities included
cleaning, kitchen and laundry work”. The inspectors found that
asylum-seekers who had suffered torture were being locked up at Campsfield,
in defiance of Home Office rules. Rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules (a
statutory instrument) requires doctors working in detention centres to inform
the detaining authority of persons who may have been victims of torture. On
receipt of such evidence (in what’s known as a Rule 35 report), the
responsible official is required to consider this information and release
the person. But at Campsfield the screening process “failed adequately to
safeguard the most vulnerable detainees, including those who had been
tortured.” The inspectors found that doctors’ reports were incomplete, and
“did not provide adequate clinical judgements to inform caseworkers’
decisions”. “In two separate cases,
a doctor stated that a detainee might have been the victim of torture but
caseworkers maintained they should remain in detention stating that this
would not impact on the detainee’s health; the impact on their health was
irrelevant as Home Office policy is not to detain torture survivors. In
another case, a caseworker maintained that a person should remain in
detention because he ‘did not mention being tortured during your screening
interview ….” Healthcare at Campsfield is provided by The Practice, a
private medical company that last year agreed a “significant financial
settlement” with the mother of Brian Dalrymple, an American tourist with
mental health problems who had claimed asylum after landing in Britain. An
inquest jury found that “medical neglect” had contributed to his death. The
inspectors found evidence of short-staffing at Campsfield: “Only one member
of staff was available at night which was not compliant with current
healthcare guidelines”, said the inspectors. And some staff cut corners.
“Nurses had labelled items supplied from stock inadequately, which could
have posed a risk to patients,” the inspectors said. “A nurse was observed
giving a detainee a dose of ibuprofen without referring to his notes for contraindications,
which was potentially unsafe.” None of the Mitie custody staff had been
trained to use the defibrillator, a life-saving piece of equipment if
detainees have heart attacks, which happens from time to time on the
‘detention estate’. The inspectors reported that legal support for
detainees in Campsfield was insufficient: “Too many detainees who required
an immigration lawyer did not have one.” The half-hour legal aid sessions
were “oversubscribed”, and there was not enough advice about bail. Perhaps
inevitably then, inspectors found: “Some detainees were detained for
unreasonable periods of time. Home Office caseworkers sometimes failed to
act with reasonable diligence and expedition.” It took the Home Office more
than seven months before they even interviewed one detainee about his
asylum claim. One undocumented Iranian man had been held for almost ten
months, although the Home Office had no clear plans to obtain the paperwork
needed to deport him to Tehran. The inspectors concluded: “There was little
prospect of this case being resolved within a reasonable period and ongoing
detention therefore appeared illegitimate.” For all that, Nick Hardwick,
the chief inspector, concluded: “Overall, this was a very positive
inspection. Staff and managers at Campsfield House should be congratulated
in dealing professionally and sensitively with detainees who were going
through what, for many, was a difficult and unhappy time.” Among problems
the report neglects to mention are the fire at Campsfield in October 2013
that spread thanks to an absence of sprinklers causing 180 people to be
evacuated. The mass hunger-strikes by detainees, most recently in May 2014,
just months before the inspection, are also absent. The inspectors did not
attribute blame to Mitie, focusing instead on reforms needed at the
national level by the Home Office.
October 5, 2011 Oxford Mail
EFFORTS to improve conditions for detainees at Campsfield House
immigration removal centre have stalled, according to inspectors. Chief
Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick said not enough had been done to deal
with problems – particularly in healthcare and education – raised by his
predecessor Dame Anne Owers after an inspection of the UK Borders Agency
centre in Kidlington two years ago. His officials made an unannounced
three-day inspection in May, shortly before operation of the centre – which
houses about 200 people – passed from Geo Group to Mitie on May 30. The
inspectors praised the way newly-arrived detainees were supported, said
detainees felt safe and there was little bullying or use of force, noted
relationships between staff and detainees were satisfactory, work placement
arrangements had improved and access to phones and email was good. But they
said there were “significant weaknesses in healthcare services”, education
provision had not improved, decisions to place detainees in the separation
unit were not always properly authorised and better interpreting services
were needed, along with more notices in foreign languages.
August 5, 2011 The Guardian
Separate investigations into three deaths in immigration removal centres
(IRC) in the past month have been launched by the police, amid growing
concern about the treatment of detainees. The spate of deaths has caused
alarm among critics of the government's detention policy, who warn that the
system is at "breaking point" with poor healthcare putting
people's lives at risk. Two men died from suspected heart attacks at
Colnbrook near Heathrow airport and the third killed himself at the Campsfield
House detention centre in Oxfordshire on Tuesday. John McDonnell, Labour MP
for Hayes and Harlington, who has two detention centres including Colnbrook
in his constituency, said he feared there would be more deaths as the
system struggled to cope with the number of people being detained.
"The government is now detaining people on such a scale that the
existing services are swamped," he said. "It is inevitable if we
put the services under such relentless strain that there will be more
deaths as a result … we are dealing with people who are extremely stressed
and extremely vulnerable and the services are not able to cope and not able
to guarantee their safety." The first man who died was Muhammad
Shukat, 47, a Pakistani immigration detainee who collapsed at around 6am on
2 July. His roommate Abdul Khan says that in the hours before he died
Shukat was groaning in agony, had very bad chest pains and was sweating
profusely. Khan, 19, from Afghanistan, said he began raising the alarm
around 6am and pressed the emergency button in the room 10 times in a
frantic effort to get help. Khan claimed that on three occasions members of
the centre's nursing team entered the room and found Shukat on the floor
where he had collapsed. Khan said they put him back into bed, took his temperature
and some medicine was administered, but did not call emergency assistance
immediately. According to Khan, the nurses initially said that Shukat could
go to see the centre's doctor at 8am. According to the London Ambulance
Service, Colnbrook staff called an ambulance just before 7.20am. Attempts
were made to resuscitate Shukat, but he was pronounced dead on arrival at
Hillingdon Hospital. A postmortem found the provisional cause of death to
be coronary heart disease. Shukat's body has been returned to Pakistan and
his family are understood to have no concerns about the medical treatment
he received. The second man to die at Colnbrook has not yet been named.
According to the Metropolitan police he was 35 and was found dead in his
cell at 10.30am last Sunday. London Ambulance Service officials pronounced
him dead at the scene. "A postmortem held on 1 August found the cause
of death to be a ruptured aorta. The death is being treated as
unexplained," said a police spokesman. Colnbrook IRC is managed by Serco.
In a statement to detainees about Shukat's death, deputy director at
Colnbrook, Jenni Halliday, described her "deep regret" and
extended her condolences. In a statement to detainees about the second
Colnbrook death, Serco's contract manager, Michael Guy, informed detainees
that a resident in the short-term holding facility had died and that the
death was thought to be from natural causes. On Tuesday, a 35-year-old man
hanged himself in the toilet block at Campsfield House detention centre in
Oxfordshire. A fellow detainee, who refused to give his name, said the man
had been hours away from being deported and had become very anxious.
"He was normally a very quiet person … but the pressure is too much
for people in here." It is understood the man had only been at the
centre for a few days before he died. The Home Office refused to give any
more details saying his extended family had yet to be informed. Emma Ginn,
from the campaign group Medical Justice, said the deaths had heightened
concern about the poor healthcare on offer to those being kept in UK
detention centres. "Based on medical evidence from many hundreds of
detainees, Medical Justice has documented the disturbingly inadequate
healthcare provision that often vulnerable immigration detainees are subjected
to in Colnbrook and other immigration removal centres... [this] combined
with the perilous and frightening conditions of detention, is a lethal
cocktail, a disaster waiting to happen." The UK Border Agency declined
to comment on the specific circumstances of each case. It said the police
and the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman always investigated deaths in
immigration detention centres and it would be inappropriate to comment
until these were complete. David Wood, director of criminality and detention
at the UK Border Agency, said all detainees at immigration removal centres
have access to health services seven days a week. "All detainees are
seen by a nurse within two hours of arrival and are given an opportunity to
see a GP within 24 hours," he added. "The health of all detainees
is monitored closely, and the healthcare professionals are required to
report cases where it is considered that a person's health is being
affected by continued detention. "The UK takes its responsibilities seriously,
which is why we consider every case on its individual merits and will
continue to offer protection to those who need it. However, detention is an
essential part of our controls on immigration in the UK." A
groundbreaking ruling -- A man with severe mental illness was unlawfully
locked up in a UK detention centre for five months and subjected to inhuman
or degrading treatment, according to a high court ruling. The man, a
34-year-old Indian national, was detained in Harmondsworth immigration
removal centre between April and September last year. On Friday a judge
ruled that his treatment amounted to a breach of article 3 of the European
convention human rights. The man's lawyer said the ruling – thought to be
the first of its kind – raised wider questions about how the government
treats people with mental illnesses in the immigration and detention
system. "The court's decision that my client suffered inhuman or
degrading treatment at a UK detention facility sends a very loud and clear
message to the authorities," said. "We would urge the minister to
conduct a fundamental review into how people suffering from mental illness
are treated in the immigration detention estate." The man, referred to
as "S" in the ruling, had a history of serious ill treatment and
abuse before arriving in the UK. He served time in prison for wounding and
assault before being transferred to a secure psychiatric hospital until his
discharge in April 2010. Following his release the UK Border Agency said
there was "no evidence" he was mentally ill and he was detained
in Harmondsworth where his health deteriorated and he began to have
psychotic episodes and self harm. The high court intervened and he was
released on bail. His lawyers said he had been living with his family since
then and had fully complied with the conditions of bail set by the court.
In the ruling judge David Elvin said: "S's pre-existing mental
condition was both triggered and exacerbated by detention and that involved
both a debasement and humiliation of S since it showed a serious lack of
respect for his human dignity. It created a state in S's mind of real
anguish and fear, through his hallucinations, which led him to self-harm
frequently and to behave in a manner which was humiliating…" A UK
Border Agency spokesperson said: "We regularly review our detention
policies and will look at the findings in this case to ensure lessons are
learned. Detention is an essential part of our immigration control but we
recognise the importance of ensuring it remains appropriate on a case by case
basis."
August 3, 2011 BBC
A man has died whilst being held at the Campsfield House Immigration
Removal Centre in Oxfordshire. The BBC received a call from a fellow
detainee claiming an Asian man had hanged himself in the showers on 2
August. A spokesperson from the UK Border Agency confirmed a man had died
at the privately run centre and was in the process of contacting his
family. The Police and Prisons and Probation Ombudsman are investigating
the death.
August 3, 2010 Daily Mail Reporter
More than 100 men being held at an immigration centre are on hunger strike
today. The detainees last night refused their evening meal at the
Campsfield House immigration removal centre in Kidlington, Oxfordshire.
Officials at the UK Border Agency confirmed they were 'monitoring' the
situation. Jonathan Sedgwick, UKBA deputy chief executive, said: 'We can
confirm 108 detainees have refused prepared meals from staff yesterday
evening. 'However they still have access to food from the on-site shop and
vending machines. 'Staff are monitoring the situation closely and listening
to the detainees' concerns. 'All detainees have access to legal
representation and 24-hour medical care.' Earlier this year a report by HM
Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers found that the average lengths of
stay for detainees at Campsfield appeared to be increasing. It also found
that some detainees were effectively being held indefinitely because there
was little prospect of removal, while education provision was poor,
particularly for the significant numbers of long-stay detainees and those
with little English. Campsfield is 'a long-term centre where detainees are
accommodated, pending their case resolutions and subsequent removal from
the United Kingdom.' The site has 216 beds for male detainees and is run by
contractor The GEO Group Ltd.
March 10, 2010 BBC
Some detainees held at Campsfield House immigration centre in
Oxfordshire are being detained for "excessive periods", according
to an inspector's report. Dame Anne Owers, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
(HMCIP), said the centre near Kidlington was making progress. But the
inspector expressed concern that average lengths of stay appeared to be
increasing and a lack of data obscured the scale of the problem. The UK
Borders Agency (UKBA) said it reviewed detention frequently. Campsfield
House, run by GEO Group Ltd, has had an unsettled recent history, with a
number of high-profile incidents and escapes.
May 18, 2009 Oxford Mail
DISTURBANCES at Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre could be
reduced if detainees were given more to do, an independent body has
claimed. Campsfield’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) has just published
its 2008 annual report on the controversial Kidlington centre, which has a
history of escape attempts and violent incidents. IMB chairman Lieutenant
Colonel Freddie Cantrell said: “We believe that activities and education
should be increased to fully occupy the detainees. “There is nothing worse
than boredom with a detainee who really doesn’t know what his future is going
to be. “This can cause stress, and stress can lead to trouble and
disturbances.” Lt Col Cantrell — one of 10 IMB volunteers who check on
treatment of inmates at the centre — said detainees currently had 30 hours
of formal education a week, including lessons in English, art and
computing, which was insufficient.] He recommended the UK Border Agency
review its contract for education provision at the centre, which holds up
to 216 detainees. The 61-page report also shed new light on two major
incidents which occured within days of each other in June last year. On
June 16, friends of a Jamaican man who was due to be deported started fires
in an education block, detainees’ rooms and in a fitness suite. The
education block was destroyed and a shop was looted. Three days later,
seven detainees escaped through a ground-floor window. Three of those who
went on the run are still at large. Referring to the escape, Lt Col
Cantrell said: “Of course it shouldn’t happen. “It means there is a
weakness in the security. Of course that has been rectified.” But he added:
I don’t think any establishment in the world is completely secure.” Other
findings included a plan to put televisions in each detainee’s room within
months, and the fact that paid work for inmates had doubled since the 2007
report was published. The report said force was used by staff 34 times in
2008, up from 31 in 2007, but the occupancy was higher and as such there
was a reduction in the proportion of incidents where force was used.
Handcuffs were used 11 times in 2008, the lowest level at the centre since
2005. The IMB also recommended ensuring detainees’ property travelled with
them when they were transferred from police custody to the centre, and
reviewing the way racial complaints were investigated. A UK Border Agency
spokesman said detainees had access to a range of activities, and added the
agency awaited recommendations from a review of education provision. No-one
at GEO Group UK Ltd, which runs the centre, was available for comment.
December 3, 2008 Oxford Mail
Failed asylum seekers at Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre
used the Internet to access “inappropriate content” on the web, it has
emerged. A report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) revealed
the centre’s 200 plus detainees were accessing the worldwide web for up to
an hour a day, but “despite controls, arrangements to block access to
inappropriate content were not always effective”. Last night, a spokesman
for HMIP could not detail the nature of the inappropriate content, and
chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers was unavailable for interview.
However, Ms Owers released a statement which read: “Email and Internet
access is an important, and cheap, way for detainees to keep in contact
with the outside world and relatives overseas. It is, however, important to
ensure that access is controlled. “The point of the comment in the report
is that there was a system of visual and spot checks at Campsfield, but the
most effective way of ensuring that access is consistently controlled, which
we have observed in other centres, is either to have a filtering system, or
for staff to have a monitoring screen on which they can see exactly what
all detainees are accessing.” Detainees first began surfing the web in
December last year and there were plans to create an Internet cafe, HMIP
revealed. Inspectors compiled the report after an unannounced four-day
inspection of Campsfield House, near Kidlington, in May this year. The
centre had “returned to normal” following a series of “major disturbances”
in 2007, which included two riots and a breakout by 26 detainees, the
report said. However, the inspection took place a month before another
outbreak of violence and the escape of seven more detainees, and those
incidents were not mentioned. Inspectors also found detainees were given
pay-as-you go mobile phones on arrival at the centre, which the Home Office
said were returned whenever a detainee was removed. The report found there
was little evidence of bullying. The report also showed that the average length
of detention had more than tripled, from 14 days in December 2006 to 46
days. Bill McKeith, of the Campaign to Close Campsfield, said: “The overall
flavour of the report is quite critical. The Government claim it is a
removal centre. A removal centre is a place where people are placed briefly
before they are removed — and 46 days is not a brief stay.” A spokesman for
the UK Border Agency would not be drawn on Mr McKeith’s claims, and did not
issue a reaction to the report. Nobody was available for comment at GEO
Group UK Ltd, which runs the centre. The inspectors also recommended an
investigation as to why there had been a 37 per cent turnover of custody
officers in 12 months. The report also gave a detailed breakdown of the
nationalities and ages of the 202 detainees.
August 14, 2008 BBC
Thirteen Iraqi Kurds began fasting on Saturday in protest against
deportation and reports an Iraqi man killed himself after being deported
from the UK. The Home Office said the situation was "under
control" and no-one had collapsed from lack of food. The BBC has
learned about 46 people refused their evening meal on Wednesday. Some of
the hunger-strikers are also protesting against conditions at the centre.
Earlier, Algerian detainee and Aston University student, Redouane
Messaoudi, 32, told BBC News he would starve for as long as it took. He
said he came to the UK nearly 10 years ago and is married to a British
woman, and lives with her and two young children in Birmingham. "I am
at university, I've paid so much money, I have been working so hard to
manage my life between the family and studies," he said. Dashty Jamal,
general secretary of the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, said
the detainees were "victims of war and violence" in Iraq. "They
are not a criminal, they are civilians," he said. "They arrived
in this country because they didn't have any other choice." Campsfield
House, which holds some 200 asylum seekers and foreign prisoners, has been
the subject of a campaign to close it. The Campaign to Close Campsfield
group said other detainees joined the strike in protest over conditions at
the centre, where they said they were being "treated like
animals". The GEO Group, which runs the site for the government,
declined to comment.
June 19, 2008 Telegraph
Four detainees are on the run after escaping from a controversial
immigration centre that has been the scene of much unrest. Seven people
initially broke out of the facility although three were recaptured by
police shortly after the alarm was raised at 4 am. The break-out happened
just five days after a fire at the Campsfield immigration detention centre
in Oxfordshire. The blaze was in a communal room at the centre on Saturday
afternoon and around 20 detainees staged a rooftop protest. At the time,
detainees said tensions began simmering among Jamaican inmates at the
215-man detention centre when staff brought dogs into their accommodation.
In August last year 26 detainees escaped from the centre in a mass
break-out. A Thames Valley police spokesman said that officers remained on
the scene supporting the Home Office in their efforts to bring the
situation under control. Superintendent Howard Stone said police were also
working with the GEO Group UK Ltd, which controls the privately run centre
on behalf of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. "We are
working with GEO as well as the UK Border Agency to ensure everything is
done to locate the missing detainees as quickly as possible," he said.
"However, I would ask that if members of the public see anyone acting
suspiciously and believes they may have been involved in this incident to
contact the police immediately." GEO signed a three year contract with
the Home Office to run the centre in March 2006 with an option to extend it
until 2011. A GEO spokesman said: "Yes, it is correct there has been
another outbreak at the detention centre. We know who the escaped detainees
are and the police are now working to recapture them."
June 14, 2008 Daily Mail
A special prison service riot unit known as the Tornado Team was sent into
a controversial detention centre yesterday to quell a violent stand-off
between staff and illegal immigrants awaiting deportation. The 50 elite
officers – dressed in Robocop-style black boiler suits and helmets and
carrying batons and shields – marched into the Campsfield centre near
Kidlington, Oxfordshire, after an initial disturbance when several fires
were started. Crews from 15 fire engines tackled the blazes which caused
thick black smoke to billow from one of the detention buildings. The
Tornado Team was supported by about 50 police officers – some, equipped
with riot gear and dogs, entered the camp while others secured the
perimeter as a police helicopter hovered overhead. All the 200 inmates were
herded into the camp’s exercise yard while fire crews took two hours to put
out the blazes and make the area safe. But the detainees, all men, then
refused to return to their buildings – creating another stand-off. At one
point the illegal immigrants could be heard violently hammering on the 25ft
high steel fence that surrounds the yard. A senior prison officer said
outside: ‘No one in there is going anywhere.’ The Home Office said last
night: ‘The UK Border Agency asked police for assistance and officers have
secured the perimeter, which has not been breached. 'Specially trained
prison officers known as a Tornado Team have been sent to the site in riot
gear.’ Last August, 26 detainees escaped from Campsfield after a fire was
started. But last night all the men were believed to have been accounted
for. Tornado Team members are picked from serving prison officers and
undergo four months of specialist training. Their boiler suits are
fire-resistant, as are their padded gloves and steel-capped Army-style
boots. Extra protection comes from plastic protectors on their forearms and
shins. Every officer carries an American-style PR-24 sidearms baton. It can
be used for defence, held along the forearm, or to attack by using a
protruding metal attachment which can be spun round in confined spaces such
as cells or corridors to keep assailants at bay. As an additional
precaution, squad members wear face protectors to stop flames spreading
under their protective suit. They use personal radios to contact their head
at the scene, who is known as Silver Commander. He in turn takes orders
from a Gold Commander, in charge of the overall operation and based at the
Prison Service headquarters in London. Campsfield has been dogged with
controversy since it was converted from a youth detention centre to handle
illegal immigrants in 1993. Last year alone, there were two other
disturbances not including the breakout. It is run by the UK subsidiary of
American company the GEO Group, which signed a five-year contract in March,
2006. The Home Office said all the detainees were being escorted back to
their accommodation blocks by 7.30pm. A spokesman added: ‘The situation has
calmed down. There has been no resistance from the detainees to going back
to their rooms. The operation is being wound down at the site.’ A GEO spokesman
was unavailable for comment last night.
June 14, 2008 The Times
Inmate disturbances and fires broke out this afternoon at a troubled
immigrant detention centre that has previously suffered riots, blazes and
escapes. Two plumes of smoke rose from the centre in Kidlington,
Oxfordshire. The problems at Campsfield House detention centre, which holds
more than 200 foreign criminals and illegal immigrants, have prompted calls
for its closure. Thames Valley police were called in this afternoon to help
the security teams at the privately-run centre. A police helicopter hovered
above the centre, and the riot squad was put on standby. More than a dozen
fire engines have been attending the fire, and one detainee is said to have
been hospitalised with smoke inhalation. There have been no other injuries
reported at this stage. Campsfield House is managed by the Reading-based
GEO Group UK Ltd, on behalf of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.
It has been beset with problems since it opened, and detainees rioted twice
last year. In March, fires were started and CCTV cameras smashed, after a
detainee was removed for deportation. Seven staff and two inmates were
injured. A fire in August allowed 26 inmates to escape - eight of them were
still at large at last report. All the escapees were foreign criminals,
awaiting deportation. In December, staff were forced to evacuate a block,
again after a detainee was removed. Other inmates wrongly believed that the
man, Davis Osagie from Benin in West Africa, had been murdered by prison
officers. Authorities moved 128 inmates to other detention centres after
December’s riot. David Pitman, who lives down the street from Campsfield,
said he saw smoke coming from the detention centre and heard the inmates
shouting. “This seems to happen more and more often,” he said. “Last time
there was trouble and the police hadn’t arrived on the scene so I had to
chase one of the escapees with a torch. “I have a young daughter and I
worry for her safety with these criminals running around free. Something
needs to be done about the security in there.” The centre’s independent
monitoring board criticised GEO for failing to prevent the rioting, despite
being warned after the first clash that the rioting could happen again. An
audit report this year, commissioned by the Border and Immigration Agency,
disclosed racism and tension in some of the country’s 10 immigration
detention centres. It found that officers at several centres had taunted
detainees - describing them as “black bastards” in one case - and found
“turbulent” atmosphere in some units. At Campsfield, it said, there was a
“tense” environment atmosphere where staff were afraid of detainees. One
member of staff said: “If this was white British people in here we would be
a lot stricter, it is because they are black people that we are afraid.”
November 26, 2007 Oxford Mail
Detainees at an immigration detention centre near Oxford have warned
the atmosphere is on a knife-edge as campaigners marked its 14th
anniversary. While protesters rallied outside Campsfield House, detainees
spoke of a tense atmosphere and warned of a new riot. Speaking to the
Oxford Mail from inside the centre in Kidlington, detainee Michael Sinclair
said: "People are not getting any justice in here. They have been
talking about a riot. "People have been plotting. I am frightened
because you never know what will happen - it is very dangerous."
Father-of-five Mr Sinclair, whose mother lives in Blackbird Leys, came to
Oxford from Jamaica in 1999. He met his wife, who lives in East Oxford with
three of his children, in 2003 but was unsuccessful in securing a spouse's
visa and returned to Jamaica to re-apply. His visa was refused again, and
desperate to see his wife and children, he returned to Britain on a false
passport but was caught and jailed in March. The 41-year-old has been
detained in Campsfield House since October and is currently facing
deportation. Fellow detainee Rohan Walker, 27, said: "People are not
getting any justice." When asked if he thought another riot was
likely, he said: "People have been talking about that. You never know
when it could happen." Around 50 demonstrators from the Campaign to
Close Campsfield staged a two hour protest outside the centre on Saturday
afternoon. The group chanted and listened to speeches. Member Bob Hughes,
60, said the centre was on the verge of serious unrest. The university
lecturer, from St Clements, Oxford, said: "It is continuously on the
boil. As far as we know the conditions are dreadful." Mr Hughes said
the anniversary of the centre, which opened on November 23, 1993, made the
current situation particularly troubling. Neither The GEO Group UK, which
runs the centre, or the Home Office, were available for comment.
August 7, 2007 The Times
Ministers were warned less than two weeks ago that an immigration centre
from which 14 men are on the run was unsuitable for holding them. They were
also told that the policy of putting foreign prisoners in immigration
centres “bursting at the seams” presented a high risk that could trigger
disorder. Fourteen foreign prisoners are on the run after fleeing from
Campsfield House immigration removal centre during the second outbreak of
rioting on the premises in five months. The convicted prisoners, who were
among 26 who escaped from the centre run by GEO Group UK, had served
sentences in jails but were being held in the centre near Oxford while
awaiting deportation. It emerged yesterday that officials from the Home
Office had met detainees at the centre last Wednesday and Friday to discuss
their grievances, including overcrowded and squalid conditions, a high
rejection rate for bail applications and delays in repatriating migrants
who wish to go home. But at 10.30pm on Saturday a fire broke out in a
portable building at the centre where food is prepared. The detainees took
advantage of the disorder to break out of the centre but 12 were recaptured
soon afterwards, including a Bangladeshi who approached the home of a
prison officer and asked to be hidden. Explaining that the search for the
missing men has been scaled down, a Thames Valley Police spokesman said:
“We have not got large numbers of officers on the ground searching for them
any more. [But] we are still looking for them and their identities have
been circulated to all forces.” A report into the earlier disturbance at
the centre highlighted the risk that the Home Office was running by placing
prisoners in immigration centres, which have much lower security than
prisons. “The impact of foreign national prisoners is the biggest external
issue affecting Campsfield House. It is putting the centre under great
strain,” the report by Bob Whalley, a former Home Office senior civil
servant, said. At the end of May more than 50 per cent of the 198 detainees
in the centre were foreign prisoners. The inquiry report cautioned: “The
fabric is not suitable for foreign national prisoners. It has none of the
strength of a prison, nor does it offer any flexibility for dealing with
difficult incidents or detainees.” Staff had complained of the large influx
of foreign prisoners, “many with serious criminal backgrounds and
‘streetwise’ in their experience of prison”, the report said. It added that
little was known about many foreign prisoners who arrived at immigration
centres. After serving time in jail many of the prisoners found the more
relaxed regime at Campsfield House disorientating. The report said that
some became manipulative or bullying. It cautioned: “Some will find the
dual pressure of further time in custody and uncertain date of release
frustrating, to the extent that, ‘with nothing to lose’, the temptation to
join in gratuitous disorder may prove too much. A concentration of
discontented detainees may prove so volatile that an otherwise innocuous
event may prove a trigger point for concerted disturbance.” The report
said: “There are several groups of foreign national prisoners presenting
high risk in terms of potential for disorder. There is little to inhibit
them if an opportunity to engage in wanton disorder presents itself. The
greater their frustration at the position, the greater the risk of
disorder.” Damian Green, the Tory immigration spokesman, attacked the
Government for putting foreign prisoners who were awaiting deportation into
immigration removal centres. “We need immigration detention centres as part
of the process of removing people who have no right to be here, but what we
shouldn’t be doing is mixing up immigration offenders with other criminals,
and that’s where the big failure lies.” Lin Homer, chief executive of the
Border and Immigration Agency, said: “We have recently looked at the regime
in Campsfield and we are putting in place a number of improvements with the
centre operator.” Troublespot -- 1993 Campsfield centre opens
1997 50 detainees
take part in disturbance
2001 90 go on hunger
strike
2002 David
Blunkett, then Home Secretary, announces its closure
2003 Decision
reversed after riot at another detention centre
2004 Local
council rejects plans to expand Campsfield to hold 300
2006 GEO Group
wins five-year contract to run Campsfield
March 2007
Disturbance as staff try to remove Algerian for deportation. Sixty
detainees transferred out because of the damage
August 2007
Disturbances and 26 detainees flee. Twelve recaptured and 14 still on the
run Source: Times database
August 3, 2007 BBC
Detainees at an Oxfordshire detention centre are suspending their ongoing
hunger strike while they wait for a response from the Home Office. More
than 150 detainees at Campsfield House Immigration Centre near Kidlington
in Oxford have been refusing to eat since Tuesday night. They have
complained to officials about the overcrowded conditions and claimed they
are being held illegally. The Home Office said it would respond to concerns
by Friday afternoon. Campsfield was rife with scabies, but only staff were
issued with gloves. Campaign to Close Campsfield -- In a statement, the
Campaign to Close Campsfield also said the centre "is a health hazard
with 70% of people infected with flu". "Paracetamol is the only
medicine made available and two weeks ago even this ran out.
"Campsfield was rife with scabies, but only staff were issued with
gloves. "Although detainees are held as civil detainees, not convicted
prisoners or prisoners on remand, food, toilets and showers are a lot worse
than in prisons." It said some detainees were being held even though
they had won appeals against deportation or had agreed to go back to their
countries of origin. Troubled history -- On Wednesday, the Home Office
promised it would respond to the concerns within 48 hours. Formerly a Young
Offenders Institute, Campsfield was converted into an immigration detention
centre in 1993 amid a storm of protest from local residents. Run by the
American company GEO, which specialises in operating detention facilities,
Campsfield holds up to 200 male asylum seekers at a time. Within six months
of opening the centre experienced a major problem when six asylum seekers
escaped following a rooftop protest. A number of low-level disturbances
inside the centre and regular public protests outside its gates has since
occurred at Campsfield.
March 16, 2007 Oxford Mail
Staff are counting up the costs at Campsfield House immigration detention
centre after detainees ran riot and started a fire. About 60 detainees were
moved to other detention centres, including Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire, on
Wednesday night. Anti-Campsfield campaigners claim the revolt at the
centre, in Kidlington, was sparked when an Algerian detainee was removed
from his room for deportation. Police are investigating the fire as
suspected arson. A former member of staff, in his 20s, who asked not to be
named, praised former colleagues who he said tried to tackle the fire at
the centre at 6.30am on Wednesday, before firefighters arrived. He said:
"They kicked windows out and tried to tackle the fire themselves.
"I spoke to one of the seven members of staff who needed hospital
treatment and he told me that there has been serious damage to blue block
and yellow block and the library has been destroyed. "Only about 30
detainees kicked off, but it will cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to
put the damage right. "The ironic thing is that the GEO group that
runs the site has been getting detainees to paint internal areas and blue
block has only just been painted." The former worker claimed that more
than 190 detainees were housed in an area which mean for 130 and that it
was not 'fit for purpose'. Oxford West and Abingdon MP Evan Harris said:
"There will need to be an investigation of why there has been yet
another serious disturbance at Campsfield House, which has been a subject
of a number of critical reports by successive chief inspectors of
prisons." Dr Harris, a member of the House of Commons select committee
on human rights, added: "My select committee is already conducting an
inquiry into detention of failed asylum seekers, following concerns about
physical abuse during removals. "The Home Secretary himself a few
years ago declared that Campsfield House was not appropriate for the 21st
century, but then of course the Government decided to keep it open anyway.
They will need to look at that question again."
March 14, 2007 BBC
Seven staff and two inmates have been injured in a fire after a riot
broke out at an immigration removal centre. Emergency services were called
to deal with the incident at Campsfield removal centre near Kidlington, in
Oxfordshire, early on Wednesday. A BBC reporter saw a dozen riot officers
carrying shields enter the centre to join about 35 police officers who were
dealing with the incident. The nine injured people are thought to be
suffering from smoke inhalation. The seven immigration staff at the centre
and two detainees have been taken to hospital. A Home Office spokesman said
the riot teams were working to get the centre completely under control as
soon as possible. "The perimeter of Campsfield has not been breached
and all detainees have been accounted for," he added. They used force to
drag the person from the bed and after that everything kicked off.
Campsfield detainee: In a statement Thames Valley Police said: "The
detainees were evacuated and nine people have been taken to hospital
suffering from smoke inhalation. No serious injuries have been reported.
"The fire has now been extinguished. Five fire engines and 30
firefighters attended the incident. The fire was relatively small and
mainly generated a lot of smoke." 'Fighting stopped': A detainee, who
did not want to be named, told BBC News 24: "This place is falling
apart - computers are getting smashed. "They've stopped fighting now
but they're destroying every bit of equipment they can find - computers
getting smashed, shops are getting broken into, they're stealing
everything." "They used force to drag the person from the bed and
after that everything kicked off," he said. Sarah Cutler from Bail for
Immigration Detainees, which provides workshops at Campsfield offering
legal advice to detainees, said she was not surprised by the disturbance.
"There are big problems at the moment," she said, adding that
many people were being held for months. Riot gear: Those included
"people who want to go back to their country of origin, have told the
Home Office they want to go back, but are still detained because they can't
get it together to remove them". A Home Office spokeswoman said the
continuing incident began at 0630 GMT. BBC reporter Rajesh Mirchandani,
speaking outside the centre, said he had seen members of a prison service
fast response team enter the site. "They're riot trained and they went
in carrying riot gear." He said he could see a helicopter hovering
overhead and police dog units and mounted police were now patrolling the
perimeter of the centre. The Home Office spokeswoman said: "Police, fire
and ambulance teams are on the scene and a number of Tornado units from the
Prison Service have been deployed to the centre." Campsfield can hold
196 adult male detainees, but it is not known how many are currently being
held there.
July 22, 2006 The Independent
A Kurdish teenager killed himself after spending more than four months
in an immigration detention centre, an inquest has heard. Ramazan Kumluca,
18, is the youngest asylum-seeker to have committed suicide while facing
deportation from Britain. Campaign groups yesterday called for the closure
of all detention centres, comparing them to Victorian workhouses. Mr
Kumluca is one of more than 30 asylum-seekers who have killed themselves in
the past five years after being told their applications had failed. He had
travelled from his home in Turkey to Italy and then on to Britain where he
claimed asylum last year, saying that his life was in danger over a £20,000
debt owed by his father. He also claimed that if he was sent back to Italy
(under rules that asylum must be claimed in the first safe country reached)
he was at risk of exploitation. Mr Kumluca was refused asylum and denied
bail because there were fears he would not report back for deportation. He
was sent to Campsfield House in Oxfordshire, an immigration removal centre
that holds around 100 men at any time. The average stay for detainees at
the centre is 14 days, but because the teenager was fighting his
deportation order he was held for four and a half months. An inquest at
Oxford Old Assizes heard he had been plunged into despair during his
incarceration and had complained of insomnia, headaches and anxiety. A
fellow inmate, Abdulwase Kamali, told the court Mr Kumluca had appeared
"sad" the day before he killed himself. He said: "Ramazan
said he had been told by immigration he would be sent back to Italy, and he
said if he was sent back to Italy he would be used in sex films. He said he
would slash himself or hang himself." On 27 June last year, Mr Kamali
and other Muslim detainees alerted warders after calling Mr Kumluca for
morning prayers and finding his door would not open. He was found hanging
from the door closing mechanism. After investigating his death, a Prison
and Probation ombudsman cleared staff of any wrongdoing. The jury returned
a verdict of suicide. Outside the court, Bob Hughes, of the pressure group
Campaign to Close Campsfield, said: "Here we have an institution full
of people being driven deliberately to despair by government policy."
"He added: "We believe these people should be allowed to get on
with their own lives. Centres like Campsfield are a huge national scandal
and shame. Campsfield House has been a removal centre since 1993 and is
privately run by the company Global Solutions Limited. In 2002, the then
Home Secretary David Blunkett pledged that the centre would be closed, but
a year later it was decided to keep it open and expand the number of
places. Since 2000, at least 25 asylum-seekers have killed themselves while
living in the community after being told they would be deported. Mr Kumluca
was the seventh to have committed suicide in a detention centre. More than
2,600 adults and children are being held in detention centres prior to
deportation. In January this year another asylum-seeker Bereket Yohannes,
from Eritrea, was found hanging at Harmondsworth Removal Centre. An inquest
will be held into his death.
June 17, 2006 Indy Media
On Monday 12th of this week a Somalian man went onto a roof at
Campsfield; he had been detained for four months (probably illegally, since
the government cannot deport people to Somalia) and took a rope and a
plastic bag with him. GEO, the new management at Campsfield, asked the
police to leave and said they would deal with the matter themselves; we do
not know whether they used violence against the Somalian detainee; he has
been removed from Campsfield, no doubt to somewhere even worse as is usual
in these cases. There have been 12 suicides in immigration detention, and
several hundred attempted suicides and cases of self harm requiring medical
treatment. GSL lost the contract to run Campsfield to GEO (Global Expertise
on Outsourcing), presumably on cost grounds. GEO took over at the beginning
of the month. They have changed their name from Wackenhut, and have a
discreditable history of running penal institutions in the USA and
Australia. GSL's manager, Andy Clark, who had been more willing than his
predecessors to allow volunteers and education classes in Campsfield,
decided he could not work with GEO; at least two of the people who ran education
classes and workshops have been sacked or left, and GEO apparently intends
to provide much reduced hours of education (as required under the
contract), run by its own officers. But of course the most serious problem
is not the conditions inside the centre, but the fact that people are
detained there who have committed no crime, been charged or suspected of no
crime, with no judicial process and no time limit, often with no access to
lawyers, and always with great uncertainty about what is happening to them
or about to happen to them.
Casper
Re-Entry Center, Wyoming
Jan 12, 2019 macon.com
‘Dangerous’ fugitives dressed in camouflage captured near pond in Monroe
County
An escaped inmate from Wyoming and his alleged accomplice were found
dressed in full camouflage and lying face down on the bank of a pond near
Johnsonville Road in Monroe County. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office
reports Richard Fountaine and Kimberly Belcher were taken into custody at
just before 1 p.m.. Friday on Ga. 42 near the Logwall Church area.
Investigators received information from confidential informants of
Fountaine and Belcher’s whereabouts. Earlier in the day sheriff’s
investigators were trying to determine whether the couple took a Ford
Explorer from 543 Spear Road in the south part of the county. However,
investigators determined that was not the case. Belcher’s SUV in which the
two fled from Wyoming in was found Wednesday and investigators learned that
Belcher was a suspect in Fountaine’s escape. Thursday, the sheriff’s office
issued a lookout for Fountaine and Belcher who were last seen near Logwall
Church Road off of Ga. 42 on Wednesday afternoon. Fountaine, 29, and
Belcher, 25, are accused of breaking into a building in that area, the
release stated. Fountaine was serving a sentence for burglary escaped from
a lock-down unit of a halfway house in Casper, Wyoming. He was discovered
missing Dec. 28, having climbed a wall and a chain-linked fence to escape
in a waiting sports utility vehicle, according to the Sidney Herald
newspaper in Montana and the Casper Star-Tribune newspaper in Wyoming. The
halfway house is run by a private prison company that contracts with the
Wyoming Department of Corrections. Belcher was a staff member who allegedly
helped him escape. Multiple agencies assisted in locating Fountaine and
Belcher. A GSP helicopter was also used in the manhunt.
Jan 11, 2019 sidneyherald.com
Sheriff's office: Staff member helped Wyoming inmate escape
A man who in December broke out of a lock-down facility in Casper did
so with the assistance of a staff member, court documents allege. Staff at
Casper Re-Entry Center discovered Dec. 28 that Richard T. Fountaine II had
gone missing from a secure unit of the facility. Fountaine was serving a
sentence in the facility after being convicted of burglary. Certain inmates
at the facility are allowed out for parts of the day to go to work. Those
inmates will sometimes fail to return to the facility when they are
expected back. Fountaine, however, did not simply fail to return. According
to a search warrant request filed by law enforcement Dec. 29 in Natrona
County Circuit Court, Fountaine climbed a wall and chain-link fence before
getting into an SUV and leaving the area. Law enforcement believe Kimberly
Belcher, who worked at the facility, helped Fountaine escape. The search
warrant request states that Belcher gave Fountaine a cellphone while he was
in the facility. The warrant request did not include any explanation for
Belcher’s actions. After Fountaine made his escape, his brother told law
enforcement that Belcher and Fountaine were traveling to Texas together,
the warrant request states. As of Wednesday, Fountaine and Belcher were
still missing. The Casper Re-Entry Center is a privately owned and operated
facility that houses inmates completing prison stints. It sometimes serves
as an enhancement to probationary sentences. The Wyoming Department of
Corrections contracts with the GEO Group, a private prison company, to
house inmates in the facility. In recent years, other workers at the
facility have made news after prosecutors accused them of having sexual
encounters with inmates.
Central Arizona Correctional Facility, Florence, Arizona
Mar 16, 2016 bna.com
GEO Group Fails With Challenge to EEOC Conciliation
March 14 — The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a related
Arizona agency followed proper procedure in suing a prison operator for
unlawful sex discrimination on behalf of a class of female correctional
officers, the Ninth Circuit held March 14. Reversing a lower court, the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that the civil rights
enforcement agencies adequately conciliated with the GEO Group Inc. before
suing the company, as required by federal and state laws. The agencies
described how a class of female prison guards were subjected to
discrimination, harassment and retaliation, and they engaged with the
company in a formal mediation session in an attempt to resolve their claims.
That is all that's required under recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the
appeals court said. It also ruled that the EEOC and the Arizona Civil
Rights Division both satisfy their pre-suit conciliation requirements in
class action litigation when they try to conciliate “on behalf of an
identified class of individuals,” as they did here. The agencies don't need
to attempt to conciliate the claim of each class member, the court said.
All potential class members who allege they were subjected to bias on or
after 300 days before the original charging party filed with the EEOC may
participate in the lawsuit, the court added. It further held that any
individual employee isn't required to have filed a new charge if her
allegations are “already encompassed within” the ACRD's investigative
finding, or if it's “like or reasonably related to” the allegations in the
original charge. The decision reaffirms the U.S. Supreme Court's holding in
Mach Mining, LLC v. EEOC, 135 S. Ct. 1645, 126 FEP Cases 1521 (2016), that
although EEOC conciliation efforts are subject to court review, such review
is limited.
In addition, the Ninth Circuit joins three other
federal appeals courts in holding that the EEOC isn't required to
conciliate each prospective class member's individual claim on an
individual basis prior to filing a class action lawsuit. In a statement to Bloomberg BNA March 14,
EEOC General Counsel P. David Lopez said the commission is “very pleased
with the Ninth Circuit's decision.” He said the ruling “allows the EEOC to
proceed with its claims that twenty female corrections officers experienced
sexual harassment and retaliation while they worked at two prisons operated
by the Geo Group. This ruling means that the victims, who were brave enough
to step forward and participate in the EEOC's lawsuit, will now have their
day in court.” GEO Group declined to comment March 14 when contacted by Bloomberg BNA.
The original charge in the case was filed by Alice Hancock, a correctional
officer at the Arizona State Prison, Florence West Facility. She alleged
that Sgt. Robert Kroen grabbed her crotch and pinched her vagina and that
GEO Group failed to remedy the harassment after she filed an incident
report. Hancock further alleged that in retaliation, three of her
co-workers complained that she made an offensive comment, causing her to be
suspended without pay for 15 days. She ultimately was fired three months
after filing her discrimination charge. The ACRD investigated Hancock’s
charge and found evidence substantiating her allegations. It also found
evidence that male supervisors had “created an offensive and hostile work
environment based on gender that adversely affected Hancock and a class of
female employees working at the facility,” and that GEO Group didn't take
reasonable measures to prevent and correct the harassment. The state agency
sued in Arizona state court, and the case was later removed to federal
court. The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona granted summary
judgment in favor of GEO Group, and the EEOC and the ACRD appealed. Judge
Consuelo Maria Callahan said the agencies raised four issues on appeal,
including the proper scope of agency conciliation under Title VII of the
1964 Civil Rights Act and the Arizona Civil Rights Act. Also at issue, she
said, were when Title VII’s 300-day limitations period starts to run in an
EEOC class action; whether an aggrieved employee in an EEOC class action is
required to file a new charge of discrimination for acts that occur after
the agency's reasonable cause determination has been issued; and whether
one of the aggrieved employees on whose behalf the agencies sued presented
triable issues of hostile work environment harassment. Finding in favor of
the agencies on all four questions, the Ninth Circuit revived their claims.
On the issue of the proper scope of conciliation, it cited Mach Mining in
finding the agencies' pre-suit efforts were adequate. The EEOC and the ACRD
in the reasonable cause determination sent to the company made reference to
a “class” of female employees who were subjected to discrimination,
harassment and retaliation at the Florence West and another GEO facility.
They also invited GEO Group to conciliate, and during a formal mediation
session, they proposed a settlement that included damages, injunctive
relief and a class fund for unnamed class members, Callahan found. The
appeals court also found support in Mach Mining for its holding that the
EEOC and state agencies satisfy their pre-suit conciliation obligations in
class actions when they try to conciliate on behalf of an identified class
of individuals prior to suing, rather than attempt to conciliate each class
member's claim individually. In Mach Mining, it said, the Supreme Court
ruled that the EEOC is only required to identify what the employer did that
was illegal and which employees or what class of employees were
discriminated against. That conclusion is consistent with the EEOC's broad
enforcement powers as well as prior holdings by the Third, Fourth and Sixth
circuits, Callahan added. The appeals court said the lower court also erred
in finding that the date of the ACRD's reasonable cause determination,
rather than the date of Hancock's charge, was the proper date for measuring
the timeliness of each individual class member's claims. As in class
actions brought by private plaintiffs, the starting date of a class action
is the date the original charging party filed her charge, the Ninth Circuit
ruled. “Nothing in the text of the statute supports the district court’s
imputation of the employee’s time limit into the EEOC’s duty to notify the
employer of the results of its investigation,” Callahan wrote. Judges
Stephen Reinhardt and A. Wallace Tashima joined the opinion.
Mar 14, 2016
courthousenews.com
9th Circ. Revives Prison Sex-Harassment Claims
PHOENIX (CN) - Sexual harassment claims against a private prison company
brought on behalf of female employees by Arizona's attorney general and a
federal agency should be reinstated, the Ninth Circuit ruled Monday. The
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Arizona Law
Department's Civil Rights Division sued the Florida-based Geo Group in 2010
on behalf of a number of its female employees at the Arizona State
Prison-Florence West facility, including Alice Hancock. Hancock, a corrections
officer, claimed she had been subjected to discrimination, harassment and
retaliation by male co-workers who would comment that they wanted to
"ram [them] from behind" and asking them to "suck [the
alleged harasser's] dick." In
2012, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton ruled for Geo, finding the
EEOC and Arizona failed to properly conciliate with Geo. The judge
dismissed several employees who had not committed alleged acts within 300
days of a reasonable cause determination issued by the Arizona Civil Rights
Division, and dismissed the hostile work environment claim of employee
Sofia Hines because the conduct was not sufficiently severe or pervasive.
On Monday, Ninth Circuit Judge Consuelo Callahan wrote for a three-judge
panel that EEOC and the civil rights division properly attempted to resolve
their claims with Geo. "The EEOC and the division invited Geo to
conciliate the matter in their reasonable cause determinations,"
Callahan wrote. "Additionally, the EEOC and the division conveyed a
conciliation letter to Geo that outlined a proposal to settle Alice
Hancock's charge of discrimination and the claims of other aggrieved
employees of Geo." Even if the EEOC and the Arizona's Civil Rights
Division did not conciliate, Bolton's dismissal of employee claims was not
proper, the Ninth Circuit ruled. "[T]he appropriate remedy would be a
stay of proceedings to permit an attempt at conciliation, not the dismissal
of the aggrieved employees' claims," Callahan wrote. Callahan also
found that Bolton improperly dismissed the claims of employees who had not
alleged discriminatory acts within 300 days of a reasonable cause
determination by the civil rights division. The proper starting date is 300
days before Hancock's charge, not the reasonable cause determination, she
ruled. "This is evident from the plain language of Title VII that
requires a 'charge' be filed 'within 300 days after the alleged unlawful
employment practice occurred,'" Callahan wrote. According to Callahan,
Bolton's dismissal of Hines' hostile work environment was also incorrect.
Callahan wrote that, while Hines' claims that a male employee of Geo
"made unwanted physical contact with her by 'spank[ing]' her butt in
front of inmates and a cadet" and repeatedly talked dirty to her might
not "in itself be sufficient to support a hostile work environment
claim, their cumulative effect is sufficient to raise material issues of
fact as to whether the conduct was so severe or pervasive to alter the
conditions of the workplace." Callahan ordered Bolton to reinstate the
EEOC and the Arizona Civil Rights Division's dismissed claims. Pablo Paez,
vice president of corporate relations for the Geo Group, declined to
comment on Monday's ruling. A spokeswoman for the Arizona Attorney
General's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment
Monday.
Sep 25, 2015
trivalleycentral.com
Florence prison firm sued again for
sex harassment
FLORENCE — A company that operates a prison in
Florence has been sued for the second time regarding allegations of sexual
harassment and retaliation. The GEO Group, which runs Central Arizona
Correctional Facility, allegedly violated federal law by allowing sexual
harassment of a female correctional officer and retaliating against her for
being involved in a previous lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission against the company for alleged systemic sexual
harassment, according to a news release from the EEOC. The lawsuit, which
was filed today, claims GEO allowed Roberta Jones to be sexually harassed by
its employees and managers since 2007. The EEOC alleges that some male
superior officers and co-workers frequently bragged about sexual exploits
around Jones and that a minimum of two superior officers touched her in an
unwanted manner. Another superior officer is claimed to have frequently
referred to his penis as “Little Jeffie” in her presence. EEOC also alleges
retaliation against Jones tied to a prior lawsuit. That lawsuit, which is
under appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, claims GEO subjected
Jones to a “coercive investigative interview” and to multiple disciplinary
actions, including termination. The lawsuit seeks back pay and other
monetary damages and compensation for emotional distress and punitive
damages. “Sexual harassment and sexual advances upon women interferes with
their ability to perform their jobs and violates federal civil rights
laws,” EEOC Phoenix regional attorney Mary Jo O’Neill said in a statement.
“Title VII’s proscription against retaliation is one of its most important
protections.” EEOC Phoenix District Director Rayford Irvin said in a
statement that retaliation is the most common claim received by EEOC,
accounting for about 45 percent of total claims. “This seems to be a
growing problem that our federal agency takes very seriously,” he said.
“Workers absolutely have the right to report harassment at work without
negative consequences, and EEOC is here to help.”
Apr 29, 2013
ktar.com
PHOENIX -- Federal authorities said a prison
management group has agreed to pay $140,000 to settle a sexual harassment
lawsuit in Arizona. The Arizona Civil Rights Division and U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission announced the settlement Monday involving
the GEO Group Inc. The EEOC and ACRD claimed that male managers at a
GEO-managed private prison facility in Florence sexually harassed numerous
female employees and fostered an atmosphere of sexual intimidation and
harassment. They claimed that one prison supervisor at Florence West
routinely made crude, obscene and suggestive sexual remarks to female
employees, often in front of other management officials who didn't stop the
harassment. Florida-based GEO runs more than 100 private prison facilities
across the country. A call to GEO officials for comment on the settlement wasn't
immediately returned Monday afternoon.
October 4, 2010 Arizona Republic
A federal agency filed a lawsuit last week alleging a private company that
operates prisons in Florence sexually harassed and retaliated against
female employees. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's
lawsuit against GEO Group Inc. alleged the company and some male managers
supervising correctional officers fostered a "sexual and sex-based
hostile work environment" at two Florence prisons that allowed harassment
and retaliation against female employees. GEO Group, which operates
and Central Arizona Correctional
Facility in Florence, declined to comment on the EEOC lawsuit. The EEOC
alleges GEO Group was aware but failed to take measures to prevent the
harassment. The EEOC case stems from a harassment complaint that a female
employee filed in June 2009 with the Arizona Civil Rights Division and the
EEOC. The lawsuit alleged the prison operator retaliated against her after
she filed her complaint. The EEOC said the male employees engaged in verbal
and physical harassment of female employees. A male manager grabbed and
pinched a female employee, and a female employee was forced on a desk and
kissed and touched by a male employee, the lawsuit says. The federal agency
reportedly attempted to reach a voluntary settlement with the GEO Group
before filing the lawsuit. The Arizona Attorney General's Office previously
filed suit and investigated complaints against the prison operator. The
EEOC is authorized under federal law to collect compensatory and punitive
damages, which are not available under Arizona law. It was the fourth
discrimination lawsuit announced last week by the EEOC against Arizona
employers. The federal agency also filed lawsuits against a Peoria car
dealership, a Bullhead City Mexican eatery and a Phoenix restaurant. Mary
Jo O'Neill, regional attorney for the EEOC's Phoenix office, said the
agency filed a batch of lawsuits last week due to work-flow issues. Agency
attorneys focused on new cases after they finished other duties such as
trials and filing motions in existing cases.
Central Texas Detention Facility, San Antonio, TX
Jan 16, 2019 ksat.com
Bexar County to Federal Government: County jail doesn't have room for
federal detainees
SAN ANTONIO - Hundreds of detainees are housed at the Central Detention
Facility in downtown San Antonio. A sign in front may say GEO Group but
that's not who owns the building. The county does. GEO is a private company
that runs the jail in the 200 block of Laredo Street for the federal
government. The county says the arrangement doesn't make financial sense
anymore. "This was going to be problematic for Bexar County
taxpayers," Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said. It's why County
Commissioners passed a resolution Tuesday to start the process of ending
that contract with GEO. The county has been working to ensure that the
University of Texas in San Antonio has the room to expand in the downtown
area. Another resolution passed in October of 2018 shows just that. But the
detention facility is in the way. Sheriff Salazar said a deal was made
several years ago, saying that when this transition began, those federal
detainees would be moved into the county jail. That deal was made when the
county jail had more room but now Salazar said they are maxed out at an
average of 4200 inmates. "In doing the math and knowing 'OK, that was
done when the jail population was down' (but) here now that it is up, here
what is it going to cost me now? I'm going to lose bed space," Salazar
said. Had the detainees been moved to the county jail, Sheriff Salazar said
some of the current county inmates would have needed to be sent to other
jails outside the county and the building itself would have needed to be
reconstructed. "It would've been about $10 million for construction
cost plus about $10 million a year to house out those inmates
elsewhere," Salazar said. The question now remains. Where will the
federal detainees be held? "I don't mind helping find the solution, I
can't be the solution though," Salazar said. The federal government
said it is working to find placement for the detainees. It is still unclear
when the contract between the county and GEO expires but the county says it
has time to figure it all out.
Sep
29, 2018 expressnews.com
Ex-jail employee gets 40 months for trying to smuggle drugs inside
A former employee of a San Antonio jail that houses federal pretrial
inmates has been sentenced to 40 months in prison for trying to smuggle
drugs to prisoners. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery handed the sentence on
Thursday to Ray Alexander Barr, 30, who worked in the kitchen of the
600-bed Central Texas Detention Facility, which is run by Florida-based The
GEO Group. Barr pleaded guilty last year to attempting to provide
contraband to prisoners. He admitted that on Dec. 27, 2016, he agreed to
smuggle alcohol and crystal methampetamine into the jail in exchange for
money. FBI agents arrested Barr immediately after he accepted payment but
before he could smuggle in the contraband. “This was out of character for
Mr. Barr,” said his lawyer, Derek Hilley. “After his arrest, Mr. Barr took
the bull by the horns and pursued every opportunity to better himself. He
obtained a great job where he could provide for his children and contribute
to society. ... He looks forward to putting this behind him.” The FBI and
U.S. Marshals Service conducted a joint investigation of Barr and other
guards at the jail who also have since pleaded guilty for similar
contraband crimes. “The men and women in law enforcement and detention are
held to a higher standard in our judicial system and our community,” said
U.S. Marshal Susan Pamerleau. The “sentence sends a strong message that
this violation of trust will not be tolerated.” Christopher Combs, special
agent in charge of the FBI in San Antonio, added: “The FBI is committed to
working with our law enforcement partners to ensure employees of
correctional facilities who abuse their authority and violate their
positions of trust for their own personal benefit are held accountable.”
Sep 20, 2018
ksat.com
Ex-GEO guard, boyfriend sentenced to federal prison in drug sting
SAN ANTONIO - A former guard of a private federal detention facility was
sentenced Wednesday to 57 months in federal prison for agreeing to provide
crystal methamphetamine to an inmate, federal officials said. Abigail
Jolynn Abrego, 28, was also sentenced to supervised release for three years
after completing her prison term. Abrego's 55–year–old boyfriend, Leonard
Belmares, was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison followed by three
years of supervised release. The two pleaded guilty earlier this year to
one count of attempting to provide contraband in prison. Federal officials
said the pair met with an undercover agent on November 2017 and agreed to
smuggle methamphetamine into the Central Texas Detention Facility, run by
the private prison company GEO, and give it to an inmate in exchange for
$1,500. The defendants also admitted to working together on at least three
previous occasions to smuggle drugs and/or contraband into the facility in
exchange for money, federal officials said. Abrego and Belmares were
ordered by a federal judge to surrender on or before Nov. 30 to begin
serving their prison terms.
Sep 19, 2018
ksat.com
Guards illegally used disability placards, plates to park in front of
detention facility
SAN ANTONIO - An undercover investigation by the KSAT 12 Defenders
showed corrections officers at a downtown detention facility used
disability placards and disabled veteran license plates belonging to other
people to park as close to the building as possible. The investigation also
showed that while guards parked in spots directly in front of the Central
Texas Detention Facility, located in the 200 block of South Laredo Street,
people on oxygen and people using canes and other mobility devices were
forced to park in lots farther west of downtown. The facility, which holds
inmates in federal custody and is run by a private corrections company
called the GEO Group, is located between Public Safety Headquarters and the
Bexar County Justice Center. "It's a severe lack of consideration for
fellow human beings," Melanie Cawthon, executive director of
disABILITYsa, said after reviewing the footage. Cawthon said her nonprofit
tries to educate, advance and engage individuals with disabilities.
"By parking in accessible parking, it protects them from being hit by
another vehicle, from having a heart attack because they are not supposed
to walk far or even just the exhaustion of having a physical or mobility
disability," said Cawthon, who added that accessible parking is a
safety issue, not a convenience issue. One GEO guard, identified through
public records as JoAnn Campa, was repeatedly seen parking a Camaro with
disabled veteran license plates in metered spots for up to 10 hours per
day. The Camaro was left August 29 in a front-row metered spot as Campa
traveled off-site. She was later dropped off by a sport utility vehicle
registered to her husband, and the vehicle followed Campa as she left for
the day. Days later, during an unplanned interview, Campa admitted the
plates belong to her husband. "If we would just have common decency
and common courtesy," said Cawthon. State law allows vehicles with
disabled veterans plates to park in accessible spots for an unlimited period
as long as the vehicle is driven by the veteran or the veteran is being
transported in it. The use of the plates extends to the spouse of the
veteran only after the veteran has passed away and as long as the spouse
remains unmarried. An Austin-based disability advocate said via email that
despite this law, Texas courts have traditionally extended the parking
privileges to family members. "There are laws in place, but they are
not enforced," said Cawthon. A second guard, identified through public
records as Mario Castillo and coincidentally also driving a late-model
Camaro, was captured on camera in August and September repeatedly using a
disability placard to park in front of the detention facility. On days when
no metered spots were available at the start of his afternoon shift,
Castillo was seen parking in the nearby Bexar County parking garage, then
walking without issues while carrying an equipment belt and backpack.
Castillo, when approached for an unplanned interview, admitted the placard
belongs to his mother-in-law. "On those days, I was assisting my
mother-in-law," said Castillo, who added that he dropped her off
before driving to work. When asked if it was fair that people with
disabilities were forced to park farther away while Castillo took a spot up
front, he apologized. "Courtesy-wise, there's no reason for him to
take up an accessible parking spot," said Cawthon. "Our community
needs to work together and solve this issue for our fellow citizens who
have disabilities." "Our company believes that parking laws and
regulations should be observed and complied with. The parking spaces in
question are public and are not within our company's control or
monitoring," GEO Group Executive Vice President Pablo Paez said via
email this month. Paez declined a request for an on-camera interview and
did not respond to a follow-up email asking if Campa and Castillo would be
disciplined. Center City Development and Operations Department Director
John Jacks, whose department handles parking enforcement, released the
following statement: Our Parking Enforcement Officers do not have the
authority to question whether or not an individual is disabled. According
to City ordinance, individuals who have been issued a disabled permit,
placard or plate by the state may park in City-owned parking facilities or
on-street parking meters without paying a fee. A Bexar County information
technology employee was also seen using a disability placard to park in
front of the detention facility. The employee expressed remorse and said he
improperly used the placard because of a lack of parking downtown,
according to a county spokeswoman. The employee is now using a park and
ride bus service to commute to work, the spokeswoman said. Cawthon
encouraged anyone wanting to raise awareness about accessibility parking
issues to download the Parking Mobility app. The app allows users to report
disabled parking abuse. Cawthon said while Bexar County remains in the
data-gathering stage, other communities like Hays County and Travis County
have gotten on board with the app and more than 50,000 citations have been
issued since the app was launched. Two bills that would have made it more
difficult for drivers to use specialty license plates and accessible
parking placards as illegal instruments failed to get passed during the
last legislative session.
Jun 14, 2017
ksat.com
Former prison guard sentenced for inmate sex
SAN ANTONIO - A former prison guard was sentenced Tuesday for having
sex with an inmate at a private prison in downtown San Antonio. Barbara
Jean Goodwin, 35, was sentenced to five months imprisonment to be followed
by five months home confinement. She also was ordered to serve a two-year
supervised-release term and register as a sex offender, federal officials
said in a news release. Goodwin pleaded guilty in March to one count of
sexual abuse of a ward. Goodwin admitted that from February 2016 to August
2016, she engaged in sexual acts with a federal prisoner who at the time
was under her custodial, supervisory or disciplinary authority at the
Central Texas Detention Facility–G.E.O., officials said. She was ordered to
surrender in July to start her prison term.
Apr 21, 2015
mysanantonio.com
SAN ANTONIO -- A stabbing between two inmates Monday afternoon at a private
prison facility in San Antonio has left one person with life-threatening
injuries, authorities said. A spokesman with the Bexar County Sheriff's
Office said Monday that one inmate stabbed another around 3:45 p.m. Monday
at the jail, located in the 200 block of S. Laredo St., and that the victim
was taken to San Antonio Military Medical Center with life-threatening
injuries. No further information was immediately available. The Central
Texas Detention Facility is a private jail run by The Geo Group. According
to its website, the facility has a capacity for 688 people, and houses male
and female U.S. Marshal Service prisoners and U.S. Immigration &
Customs Enforcement detainees.
June 11, 2012 San Antonio Express-News
Relatives of an inmate who hanged himself at the privately run Central
Texas Detention Facility have sued Florida-based The GEO Group and its
warden, alleging the federal prisoner was able to kill himself because he
was wrongly taken off suicide watch in December 2011. The lawsuit claims
warden James Coapland was negligent in watching over Darrell Clayton
Delany, 31, and that The GEO Group is liable for the acts of its employees.
The operators of the jail, located in downtown San Antonio, deny the
allegations of the suit, which seeks unspecified damages. Delany was sent to
the jail by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons because he had been unable to meet
the conditions required of him to serve his sentence on drug smuggling
charges at a halfway house, said a court affidavit from Brett Bement, who
preceded Coapland as warden at the jail. Bement's affidavit said that, on
the morning of Dec. 29, 2011 — the day Delany was to be released from the
lockup — he was found hanging in his cell by bed linens and was later
pronounced dead at a San Antonio hospital. He had been on suicide watch before
the incident but had signed a “no-self-harm” agreement and was removed from
suicide watch two days before his suicide, Bement's affidavit said. The
affidavit, filed by lawyers for Coapland, tries to deflect blame from
Coapland, who was the jail's assistant warden at the time. The affidavit
said Coapland did not have the authority to remove inmates from suicide
watch, but does not specify who authorized Delany's removal from suicide
watch. Inmates have frequently complained to federal judges about conditions
at the lockup. And the suit comes as police in Atascosa County arrested
Jack Shane McNeal, a former guard at that lockup, on Thursday on theft
charges unrelated to the Delany incident. McNeal was out on bond, facing
federal charges that he helped members of the Texas Mexican Mafia smuggle
cell phones and heroin and marijuana into the jail.
February 10, 2012 San Antonio Express-News
Two members of the Texas Mexican Mafia pleaded guilty Thursday to charges
that they got cellphones and drugs smuggled into a federal jail with help
from a guard. Paul “Polo” Hernandez and Jesse C. “Chuy” Guerra also pleaded
guilty to an extortion and drug-possession charge for their roles in the
gang's enforcement of a 10-percent “street tax” on other drug dealers in
San Antonio. Guerra's cousin Fernando “Klan” Delgado also pleaded guilty
Thursday to a heroin-possession charge. The three were among 12 snared in
November 2010 by the San Antonio Police Department and the U.S. Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Three of the 12 pleaded guilty
last year and were sentenced to prison. Hernandez's plea deal said he made
several phone calls while awaiting trial on drug-related charges at the
Central Texas Detention Facility, a federal jail in San Antonio run by
Florida-based The GEO Group. In the calls, Hernandez directed his wife to
find heroin and a gun he had hidden on his property that police missed when
they raided the couple's home, the plea deal said. Hernandez also asked his
wife to contact another Texas Mexican Mafia member to let him know that
Hernandez had identified three “snitches” who cooperated with police, the
plea deal said. One of the three was later found murdered, the deal said.
Hernandez and Guerra also admitted that they had four cell phones — three
were found on Guerra and one on Hernandez — and small amounts of marijuana
and heroin in the lockup, according to deputy U.S. Marshal Eric De Los
Santos. Three people were charged in the smuggling and await trial,
including former GEO employee Jack Shane McNeal, inmate Antonio
Molina-Ortega and Marisol Reyna Mermella, records show.
March 21, 2011 San Antonio Express-News
The parents of an inmate who died last year from a heroin overdose at a
privately run federal jail in downtown San Antonio have sued the operator,
alleging guards may have smuggled the drugs in and provided them to the
prisoner. The suit filed by Albert and Sandra Gomez, which was moved from
state court to federal court last week, states that their son, Albert Gomez
Jr., died May 19 from a heroin overdose while he was held at one of the
more secure parts of the Central Texas Detention Facility. The 685-bed
facility is owned by Bexar County, but has been managed for years by the
Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO Group Inc., which has a contract with the county
and the U.S. Marshals Service to house federal pretrial inmates there. The
suit names GEO and a female guard, listed as “Jane Doe 1,” as defendants.
The suit alleges guards are improperly trained to handle people with drug
addictions and can freely participate in “black market sale of drugs to
prisoners.” One of the Gomez couple's lawyers, Matt Wymer, said he has been
informed that a criminal investigation has been launched, but the Marshals
Service declined comment because the matter is in litigation. The GEO Group
did not respond to a request for comment, but denied the allegations in a
court-filed response.
May 21, 2010 KENS 5
A federal inmate has died while in custody. Guards found the 25-year-old
dead in his cell early Wednesday morning. His family wants to know what
went wrong. Federal authorities arrested Albert Martin Gomez Jr. On January
20. He was accused of making and passing fake $100 bills. He and a
co-defendant were charged in a counterfeit-money ring. Gomez was released,
but was back at a federal holding facility in March, awaiting sentencing.
Around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday guards found Gomez unresponsive. Sources say
Gomez died from an apparent drug overdose, but nobody is talking.
Meanwhile, toxicology reports are pending. Bexar County records show Gomez
was also arrested in 2005 on an assault charge. The autopsy was completed,
but details aren't being released. The central Texas detention facility
where Gomez was being held is operated by the GEO Group, Inc. A
spokesperson had no comment on the death, only to say it is under
investigation.
November 23, 2007 American-Statesman
Sam Kambo can now hold his 4-year-old son, Seth, something he couldn't do
for a year while he was in a San Antonio prison waiting for the legal
system to sort out whether he should be deported. 'The worst thing you can
do to a useful person is to make him useless,' Kambo said On Thursday, the
Austin resident celebrated the first Thanksgiving since being released a
month ago from a federal prison in San Antonio. There he had waited for the
legal system to sort out whether he should be deported on government
charges that he was involved in mass murder in Sierra Leone, the West
African country in which he grew up and helped lead a bloodless coup in
1992 against the ruling party. After Kambo spent nearly a year awaiting his
day in court — while federal officials ignored two orders to release him on
bail — an immigration judge rejected the government's allegation that Kambo
had participated in mass murder. The judge ordered his release, but
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents did not comply for five months,
until another federal judge ordered him set free. Kambo's wife, Hanaan,
cared for their four children during that year, coordinated with the lawyer
handling her husband's case and survived on the charity of family and
friends. "We appreciate every day now. I appreciate every time I have
a day," Sam Kambo said Thursday, slicing a long slender eggplant for a
salad in the kitchen of his North Austin home. "I really cherish this
moment." Later, his brother, David, and mother, Susan, stopped by,
both of them having been granted status as legal residents after they
followed Sam to Austin. They did not talk about his fight with the federal
government. Six children played in a side room and occasionally ran through
the kitchen, where the adults moved about and chatted lightly, spooning
plates of food from the table in an informal pot luck style. The first
course was skewered beef cooked in peanut sauce and onions. Later came a
jambalaya-like dish of rice mixed with bits of beef, shrimp, carrots and
peas, accompanied by a salad, talapia fish and sweet blue African potatoes.
Hanaan Kambo did most of the cooking, but her husband rarely left the
kitchen. Sometimes, she says, when he is out of sight, she feels a wave of
anxiety come over her. "Maybe I'll be in the kitchen, and I just have
a moment, as if I'm reliving the time he was taken from us," she said.
Kambo was arrested in October 2006 at a hearing that he thought would
determine whether he became a permanent resident of the United States.
Instead, he was arrested and locked up in the GEO Group private detention
facility in San Antonio, where he shared a cell the size of his kitchen
with five other men and drank tap water from a basin attached to the cell's
group toilet.
September
2, 2005 San Antonio Express-News
Eight local residents, including two former jail guards, pleaded guilty
Thursday to participating in a bank-fraud conspiracy that netted between
$90,000 and $160,000. The scheme stretched from July 2003 to October 2004
and involved opening 52 accounts at Bank of America branches and depositing
checks from a closed account or empty envelopes and quickly withdrawing
cash before bank officials caught on, court records noted. The case
ensnared 12 defendants and is among the first brought to federal court by a
U.S. Secret Service-led task force formed in October 2004 to target
identity-theft rings and other organized financial crime rackets. Court
documents allege Santos Lopez III, 27, his girlfriend, Estella Ramirez, and
Bruno Alejandro Jr., 40, devised the scheme and managed the operation.
Court records said the recruits were given startup money by the organizers
to open the accounts. The recruits would then hand over personal
identification numbers and ATM cards to Lopez or Ramirez. Checks from a
closed bank account would then be deposited through automated tellers, and
cash withdrawals would be made almost immediately, according to the court
documents. The court record showed recruits would be given part of the
proceeds, and Lopez and others spent much of the proceeds on cocaine. Also
pleading guilty Thursday were: Alejandro Regino, Manuel Riojas, Jessica
Guevara, Belinda Contreras, Angelica Guerra and Lopez's ex-girlfriend,
Sophia Martinez, whom Lopez started a relationship with while she was a
guard and he was incarcerated in San Antonio. Officials said both Martinez
and Guerra worked at the jail, operated by the Florida-based GEO Group
Inc., during the conspiracy. Both were terminated.
February
16, 2005 Express-News
A former guard who admitted trying to smuggle methamphetamine into a
private downtown jail that holds federal inmates was sentenced Tuesday to 2
1/2 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez allowed Lou Cindy
Ford, 39, to turn herself in to federal prison officials by June 3. Ford,
who worked at the old Central Texas Parole Violators Facility across the
street from the main police station, pleaded guilty last year to intending
to distribute 50 grams to 500 grams of the drug. Ford
's plea agreement said she was caught trying to deliver four ounces to an
inmate in exchange for $800 during an undercover sting July 27, 2003. Ford
was arrested later that day after she drove back to the jail, which is run
by Florida-based GEO Group Inc.
February
2, 2005 KSAT
A 19-year-old guard at the GEO Central Texas Detention Facility in San
Antonio has been placed on unpaid leave following his arrest on drug and alcohol
charges. According to a San Antonio Police Department report, Manuel
Castillo was arrested early Tuesday after he allegedly smuggled drugs and
alcohol into the federal facility.
During Castillo's midnight break, he left in his vehicle and later
returned to the facility at 218 South Laredo carrying a clear bottle filled
with vodka, the report said. Police also found some cocaine concealed in a
sock and some tobacco tucked inside his belt line. Castillo, who was hired
in July 2004, is the fourth detention officer arrested for allegedly
bringing contraband into the facility in the past 2 ½ years.
December
20, 2004 Express-News
Two San Antonio women have admitted they helped deliver a car and money for
a jailbreak attempt by several inmates, including alleged members of the
Texas Mexican Mafia. Estella Soto, 27, and Paula Soto, 23, have
struck plea deals in which they've agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in
an escape attempt from a privately run jail downtown. Inside the lockup,
which is run by The Geo Group Inc. of Florida, Soto was to escape through a
window along with alleged Mexican Mafia general Jimmy Zavala, 35, reputed Mexican
Mafia member Gerardo Sanchez, 31, and David A. Straughn, 31.
November
5, 2004 Express-News
A guard at a privately run jail that holds federal prisoners was released
on bond Thursday after pleading not guilty to planning to smuggle heroin
into the lockup. A federal grand jury indicted Juan Roberto
Ortiz, 40, on Wednesday. Ortiz had worked at the jail since November 2003
and has been placed on unpaid leave, said Pablo Paez, spokesman for
Florida-based GEO Group Inc., which runs the jail.
November
1, 2004 Express-News
A guard at a privately run jail for federal inmates made his first court
appearance today on charges that he tried to smuggle heroin and cocaine
into the lockup. During an initial hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge John
Primomo ordered Juan Roberto Ortiz held pending a bail hearing on Thursday.
Before his arrest this weekend, Ortiz, 40,
had worked at the Central Texas Parole Violators Facility since November
2003, according to Pablo Paez, spokesman for The Geo Group, the
Florida-based company that runs the jail. Ortiz's arrest was the latest for guards
who worked at the jail. In the past year, Jessica Lee Piña, 24, and David
C. Higginbotham, 42, have gone to prison for trying to smuggle drugs into
the lockup. Lou Cindy Ford, 39, pleaded guilty in March to intending to
distribute 4 ounces of methamphetamine at the jail. She awaits sentencing.
January 5, 2004
A former guard at the privately run Wackenhut jail downtown was sentenced
to more than eight years in prison Thursday for trying to smuggle heroin
into the lockup. The 97 months U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia
gave David Higginbotham was the lower end of the sentence recommendation,
which ranged up to 121 months. A federal jury convicted Higginbotham
Aug. 7 of attempting to possess with intent to distribute heroin. The
charge stemmed from an undercover sting in which an inmate arranged to have
Higginbotham smuggle contraband to him. The contraband was to be given to
Higginbotham by an undercover San Antonio police officer. At trial,
Higginbotham claimed the officer forced him to accept the package, which
had 150 grams, or a little more than 5 ounces, of brown sugar.
According to testimony, Higginbotham refused to accept the package when he
was told it was heroin. But the officer also gave Higginbotham $500, and he
took the delivery. (My Sanatonio)
March 16, 2004
A former jail guard accused of trying to smuggle
methamphetamine into the Wackenhut detention facility downtown has struck a
plea deal. Lou Cindy Ford, 39, is scheduled to finalize the agreement by
pleading guilty today in federal court to intending to distribute between
50 grams to 500 grams of meth. She faces five to 40 years in prison. (San
Antonio Express-News)
August
7, 2002
A jail
guard who crashed a van carrying six prisoners into a downtown lamppost
earlier this week does not have a driver's license, state officials said
Tuesday. The van, operated by the private security firm Wackenhut Corp.,
had just exited the feral courthouse parking lot shortly before 5 p.m.
Monday when the vehicle swerved toward the curb. Three inmates were treated
for "bruises and soreness" and sent back to their cells at the
privately operated Laredo Street lockup. (San Antonio Expre |
