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Brush Correctional Facility
Brush, Colorado
GRW
July 18, 2009 Honolulu Advertiser
An investigation into sex assaults involving Hawai'i and other female
inmates at a private Kentucky prison has widened and now includes 19 alleged
attacks over the past three years. Honolulu attorney Myles Breiner is
representing three Hawai'i women who allege they were sexually assaulted at
Otter Creek Correctional Center within the past 12 to 18 months. The most
recent sex assault was reported June 23 and allegedly involved a male
corrections officer. Meanwhile, Kentucky officials say they have launched an
investigation into 16 alleged sex assaults at Otter Creek involving Kentucky
women. Some of the allegations date back to 2006. Breiner said he expects
more allegations of sex assault involving Hawai'i women to surface during
investigations under way by the Hawai'i Department of Public Safety, which
sent a team to Otter Creek last week to speak to female inmates from the
Islands and look into the allegations. The developments are spurring new
discussions about whether the state should end its contract with Otter Creek
and bring the 165 Hawai'i women at the privately operated prison back to
Hawai'i. State Senate Public Safety Committee Chairman Will Espero, D-20th
('Ewa Beach, Waipahu), said he will hold a public hearing in August on the assault
allegations, during which he plans to call on state officials to halt the
practice of shipping Hawai'i female inmates to the Mainland. "This might
be a good opportunity for (Public Safety Director) Clayton Frank to show some
leadership and ... bring the women home," Espero said, adding that he
also believes more assault allegations will come to light in the coming
months. "We might have heard ... the tip of the iceberg." Tommy
Johnson, deputy director of DPS, would not say how many allegations the state
is investigating because the cases are ongoing. But he said he was at Otter
Creek all last week to speak to Hawai'i women in groups and to talk to some
in one-on-one sessions. He also toured the facility and looked at its
"operational security." He would not discuss what the Hawai'i
female inmates told him in the sessions, saying that "it would be
premature and inappropriate to do so." Otter Creek, in Wheelwright, Ky.,
is operated by Corrections Corporation of America. A spokesman for the company
said it is conducting its own investigation into the assault allegations.
Hawai'i has had a contract to house female inmates at Otter Creek since
October 2005. Breiner said the three Hawai'i women at the prison whom he
represents allege they were sexually assaulted within the past 18 months. The
most recent assault was reported on June 23, and is under investigation by
Kentucky state police, who said it involved a male corrections officer.
Kentucky state police spokesman Mike Goble said a detective investigating the
June 23 sex assault was also informed of other assault allegations. It's
unclear whether those assaults involved Hawai'i women, and Goble said police
have not yet decided how to proceed on those allegations. Meanwhile, the
Kentucky Department of Corrections said Thursday that it is investigating
allegations that 16 Kentucky women were sexually assaulted at Otter Creek as
far back as 2006. Spokeswoman Lisa Lamb said the allegations relate to
incidents over the past three years. In a statement, she said some of the
allegations were previously reported but are being reinvestigated. She also
said the department is sharing information with Hawai'i officials and the
CCA. Allegations of sexual misconduct involving corrections workers and
Hawai'i inmates have surfaced before at Otter Creek and in other private
prisons, including in Oklahoma in 2000 and Colorado in 2005. In 2007, a
Hawai'i inmate at Otter Creek alleged a corrections officer came to her room
and demanded she perform sex acts. The officer was convicted on a
misdemeanor. Following the incident, Otter Creek prison officials said they
would change their procedures to require that a female correctional officer
be paired with a male officer in housing units. Breiner, the Honolulu
attorney, said that from his discussions with Hawai'i inmates it doesn't
appear that's happening at Otter Creek. He said there are not enough female
corrections officers at Otter Creek. He also said that in the wake of the
publicity following the allegations, some Hawai'i inmates have expressed
concerns about retaliation and he said he's worried about the safety of his
clients. The cost of exporting Hawai'i inmates is cheaper than building new
facilities or expanding existing ones, but advocates have long criticized the
practice because of its impact on families. They point out that many female
inmates have kids who suffer during the separation.
January
8, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
A lawsuit filed on behalf of two Hawai'i female prison inmates who claimed
they were sexually assaulted by a corrections officer in a privately run
prison in Colorado has been settled for an undisclosed amount of money.
Honolulu lawyer Myles Breiner, who sued on behalf of the inmates, said the
settlement was for a "significant amount of money," but said he
cannot be more specific. "This a private
settlement among private parties, and I'm obliged not to disclose the dollar
amount," Breiner said. "The parties are satisfied with the agreed
upon settlement, and the plaintiffs have been sufficiently compensated. ...
It was the right thing to do to take responsibility and acknowledge the
injuries of these two jail inmates." Out-of court settlements where the
state is required to make payment become public record because public money
is involved, but that won't happen in this case. Breiner said the state won't
have to pay any share of the settlement because Hawai'i was indemnified
against inmate lawsuits under its contract with GRW Corp. to hold the women
inmates at the Brush Correctional Facility in Colorado. The inmates, 38 and
26, reported they were assaulted in the Brush Correctional Facility law
library the evening of Jan. 8, 2005. The inmates claimed corrections officer
Russell E. Rollison pushed one of them against a wall and threatened to write
up both inmates for misconduct if they did not perform a sex act for him. One
of the inmates saved semen from the encounter that was later turned over to
investigators with the Colorado Department of Corrections. Rollison resigned
and was charged with two counts of felony sexual contact with an inmate in a
penal institution, but pleaded guilty in 2006 to a reduced charge of menacing
with a real or simulated weapon, which is also a felony. He was sentenced to
two years' probation and 60 hours of community service, according to Colorado
court records. Gil Walker, chief executive officer of Tennessee-based GRW,
did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment on the settlement. Brush
prison officials have said the sex was consensual and that the inmates
planned the encounter as a way to get transferred back to Hawai'i, and as the
basis for a lawsuit. The allegations of the two Hawai'i inmates became public
when Colorado authorities launched an investigation into charges of sexual
misconduct involving prison staff and a total of eight inmates from Colorado,
Wyoming and Hawai'i. Another former Brush guard, Fredrick Woller, pleaded
guilty to misdemeanor harassment of a Wyoming inmate and was fined $200; and
former Brush Warden Rick Soares resigned and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor
false-reporting charge in connection with Woller's case. All Hawai'i inmates
at Brush were moved to the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright,
Ky., which is operated by Corrections Corp. of America. The two female
inmates are now serving sentences at the Women's Community Correctional
Center in Kailua, Breiner said. Hawai'i now pays more than $50 million a year
to house more than 2,000 men and women inmates on the Mainland because there
is no room for them in prisons in Hawai'i.
July
14, 2006 Honolulu Advertiser
Two Hawai'i women convicts who allege they were sexually assaulted in a
private women's prison in Colorado last year have sued Hawai'i prison
officials, the company that runs the prison and a former corrections officer.
The suit filed by Honolulu lawyer Myles Breiner in federal District Court in
Denver alleges the state of Hawai'i should have known conditions were unsafe
for the Hawai'i women inmates at Brush Correctional Facility, and was
negligent for failing to prevent the assaults. Inmates Jacqueline Overturf,
36, and Christina Riley, 25, reported they were assaulted in the Brush
Correctional Facility law library on the evening of Jan. 8, 2005. The inmates
claim guard Russell E. Rollison, an employee of prison operator GRW Corp., pushed
one of the women against a wall and threatened to write up both inmates for
misconduct if they did not perform a sex act for him. Breiner said one of the
inmates saved semen from the encounter that was later turned over to
investigators with the Colorado Department of Corrections. Rollison resigned
and was charged with two counts of felony sexual contact with an inmate in a
penal institution, but pleaded guilty earlier this year to a reduced charge
of menacing with a real or simulated weapon, which is also a felony. He was
sentenced last month to two years' probation and 60 hours of community
service, according to Colorado court records. Deputy Attorney General Diane
Taira declined comment because lawyers for the state have not yet seen the
lawsuit. Gil Walker, chief executive officer of the Tennessee-based GRW, also
declined comment on the lawsuit yesterday because he had not seen it. GRW
operates prisons in Colorado, Missouri and Kansas. Brush prison officials
have said the sex was consensual and that the inmates were using the incident
to get transferred back to Hawai'i and as the basis for a lawsuit. Walker
said yesterday the prison's inquiry into the case revealed that Rollison was
"a willing participant, but we know that (the inmates) perpetrated it,
that it was planned." Breiner denied the inmates were involved in any
"enticement" of the corrections officer. "This was a
deliberate criminal conduct by a senior correctional officer against my
clients. They were raped, and it makes no difference whether they were
inmates or not, they were raped and abused," he said. The suit also
alleges women who complained they had been sexually assaulted at the prison
were punished, including Overturf and Riley. The two Hawai'i inmates were
locked in solitary confinement for 37 days, according to the suit. The
allegations of the two Hawai'i inmates became public when Colorado
authorities launched an investigation into charges of sexual misconduct
involving prison staff and a total of eight inmates from Colorado, Wyoming
and Hawai'i. Another former Brush guard, Fredrick Woller, pleaded guilty in
February to misdemeanor harassment of a Wyoming inmate and was fined $200;
and former Brush Warden Rick Soares resigned and pleaded guilty in August to
a misdemeanor false reporting charge in connection with Woller's case. The
Hawai'i inmates were moved last year from the Colorado prison to the Otter
Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., which is operated by
Corrections Corp. of America. Overturf was returned to Hawai'i, where she is
serving a sentence at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua for
drug offenses. Riley has been released on parole after serving prison time
for theft, forgery, burglary and fraudulent use of a credit card. Both are
undergoing counseling for the assault, Breiner said. The lawsuit does not
specify how much in monetary damages the women are seeking, but does say the
amount sought is larger than $150,000.
October
13, 2005 Pueblo Chieftain
The Colorado Department of Corrections has dramatically improved its
oversight of private prisons in the state, prisons officials told lawmakers
last week. In giving the Legislative Audit Committee an update on changes it
has made in how it manages the state's five private prisons, DOC director of
prison operations Nolin Renfrow told lawmakers that all is well. That audit
he was referring to was a scathing report released in June that criticized
the department for being lax in its oversight of private prisons and ignoring
problems with them for years. Prompted by a riot at the Crowley County
Correction Facility in Olney Springs last year, the audit said DOC knew or
should have known about numerous problems concerning the operations of the
prisons but did little to nothing to correct them. The state audit said the
department diverted DOC workers whose job was to monitor private prisons to
other duties, and failed to enforce operations rules and regulations. And in
those instances when the department's private prison monitoring units did
discover problems, the department failed to follow up to ensure that
corrections were made, the audit said. Four of those facilities are operated
by the same Nashville-based company, Corrections Corporation of American. In
additional to the Crowley County facility, CCA also operates private prisons
in Bent, Huerfano and Kit Carson counties. A fifth private facility that
houses female inmates is located in Brush. It is owned by the Brentwood,
Tenn.-based GRW Corporation.
October
7, 2005 The Gazette
Private prisons in Colorado could face cash penalties for failing to meet
minimum safety standards under new contracts negotiated by the Department of
Corrections in the wake of a stinging audit. In June, an audit of Colorado's
private prisons, which house about 2,800 of Colorado's 18,000 prisoners,
found numerous problems, including inadequate staffing levels, unlicensed
medical clinics, employees with criminal backgrounds and poor food services.
Thursday, corrections officials gave state lawmakers an update on their
response to the audit. For instance, private prisons will be fined if
staffing levels do not meet minimum standards or if the meals they feed
prisoners are not up to par. "I'm not sure the liquidated damages have
enough hammer to them," said Rep. Fran Coleman, D-Denver. Corrections
officials said they need time to see if the new penalty system works.
October
2, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
A decade ago, Hawai'i began exporting inmates to Mainland prisons in what was
supposed to be a temporary measure to save money and relieve overcrowding in
state prisons. Now, the state doesn't seem to be able to stop. With little
public debate or study, the practice of sending prisoners away has become a
predominant feature of Hawai'i's corrections policy, with nearly half of the
state's prison population - 1,828 inmates - held in privately operated
facilities in Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arizona and Kentucky at a cost of $36
million this year. Hawai'i already leads all other states in holding the
highest percentage of its prison population in out-of-state correctional
centers, and if Hawai'i policymakers continue on their present course, by the
end of 2006 there likely will be more inmates housed in Mainland prisons than
at home. Although public safety officials say the private companies that house
Hawai'i inmates have generally done a good job, the history of Mainland
prison placements is pockmarked with reports of contract violations, riots,
drug smuggling, and allegations of sexual assaults of women inmates. Former
prisons chief Keith Kaneshiro says years in Mainland prisons have instilled a
dangerous gang culture in Hawai'i inmates that has spread back to the Islands
and will present problems for local corrections officials for years to come.
There is also concern that inmates who are incarcerated on the Mainland lose
touch with their families, increasing the likelihood they will return to
crime once they are released. Robert Perkinson, a University of Hawai'i
assistant professor of American studies, called the state's prison policy
"completely backward." "None of this makes sense if your goal
is to make the citizens of Hawai'i safer and use your tax dollars as
effectively as you can to make the streets safer, based on the best available
research that we have," said Perkinson, who is writing a book on the
Texas prison system. Marilyn Brown, assistant professor of sociology at
UH-Hilo, said Hawai'i's out-of-state inmate transfers are a strange throwback
to corrections policies of two or three centuries ago, when felons were
banished to penal colonies in Australia or the New World. Most of the $36
million being spent this year on out-of-state prison accommodations will go
to Corrections Corp. of America, a pioneer in the private corrections
industry. The company holds about 62,000 inmates nationwide, including about
1,750 men from Hawai'i in prisons in Oklahoma, Arizona and Mississippi. Last
week the state transferred 80 Hawai'i women inmates from a prison in Brush,
Colo., owned by GRW Corp. to Otter Creek Correctional Center, a CCA prison in
Wheelwright, Ky. Those selected for Mainland transfers generally are felons
with at least several years left on their sentences who
have no major health problems or pending court cases that would require their
presence in Hawai'i. Private prison contractors have the final say, and can
reject troublesome inmates with a history of misconduct. Ted Sakai, who ran
the state prison system from 1998 to 2002, said it will always be cheaper to
house inmates on the Mainland because of labor costs, which are considerably
lower in the rural communities where many prisons are. But there are benefits
to keeping prison jobs here, he said. In 2000, state House Republican leaders
scolded then-Gov. Ben Cayetano for proposing to lease more prison beds on the
Mainland. House Minority Leader Galen Fox said doing so would be bad for the
state's economy and the inmates' families. An Advertiser poll of Democrats
and Republicans before the start of the Legislature's 2003 session found a
majority of state lawmakers opposed the practice. Republican Gov. Linda
Lingle also has said she is opposed to sending more prisoners away. Yet
spending on Mainland prisons has steadily increased over the past 10 years,
and politicians have failed to take action on alternatives. The Cayetano
administration explored several options for privately built or privately
operated facilities on the Big Island and O'ahu, but each proposal was
thwarted by political resistance or opposition from communities near
suggested prison sites. Lingle campaigned in 2002 on a promise to build two
500-bed secure "treatment facilities," but three years later, no
specifics have been provided on when or where the projects might be built. As
Hawai'i's policy of out-of-state incarceration becomes more entrenched, other
states are moving in the opposite direction. Connecticut and Wisconsin both
recently brought home almost all of their inmates who had been housed
elsewhere, and Indiana returned 600 convicts from out-of-state prisons.
Alabama, meanwhile, doubled the number of convicts on parole to allow inmates
to return from a Corrections Corp. of America-run prison in Tutwiler, Miss.,
last year. The vacancies at Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility were
filled by more than 700 Hawai'i inmates. Wyoming plans to open a new prison
in 2007 that would allow the state to bring back 550 inmates now held out of
state, and lawmakers in Alaska last year authorized planning for a new prison
of their own.
September
29, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
About 80 Hawai'i women prison inmates boarded an airplane in Colorado
yesterday for a trip to the small rural town of Wheelwright, Ky., where they
will be housed in a prison run by Corrections Corporation of America. The
women had been held for the past 14 months in the Brush Correctional Facility
in Brush, Colo., a private prison run by GRW Corp. that was plagued by
problems including allegations of sexual misconduct between staff at the
prison and eight inmates from three states, including Hawai'i. The inmates
are among 1,828 Hawai'i convicts who are housed at privately run prisons on
the Mainland because there is no room for them in Hawai'i prisons. Colorado
Department of Corrections officials launched investigations into Brush
Correctional Facility earlier this year that resulted in a number of criminal
charges against staff and inmates in Colorado. Two prison employees were
indicted on charges of alleged sexual misconduct with inmates, and two more
prison workers were charged along with five inmates in connection with an
alleged cigarette-smuggling ring. Brush Warden Rick Soares resigned in
February, and was later indicted as an alleged accomplice in one of the
sexual misconduct cases. In March the Colorado Department of Corrections
revealed that five convicted felons were allowed to work at the prison because
background checks on some staff members had never been completed. Colorado
authorities later released an audit that was highly critical of the prison,
and contract monitors from Hawai'i reported the prison failed to comply with
its contract with the state in a number of areas.
July
28, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
They're out of sight, but must not be out of mind. Hawai'i's overflow inmate
population, housed at private prisons on the Mainland, remain our
responsibility. And making sure they are treated humanely while serving their
time must be our concern. That's why state officials are right to demand an
investigation into the sudden opening of cell doors in the predawn hours of
July 17 at Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility that resulted in a riot.
More than 700 Hawai'i inmates have been housed since last year at the
Mississippi prison, owned by Corrections Corp. of America. Two inmates were
injured in the fight. Kane'ohe resident Sandra Cooper, the mother of one
inmate, has her doubts that an internal probe will be enough to bring out the
truth about how the cell doors opened. She called on the FBI to do a thorough
inquiry, and that indeed would be the ideal way to proceed here. There's
precedent for the FBI to take jurisdiction in a case where inmates are
brought across state lines. At the very least, an independent authority
should drive the investigation, rather than the prison's private owners. And
state officials here must continue to ride herd to see that the investigation
proceeds to a satisfactory conclusion. In a separate prison issue, it's a
relief to see that the state has decided to pull the plug on its contract
with the troubled Brush Correctional Facility, a northeastern Colorado prison
housing 80 women inmates from Hawai'i. Because of ongoing investigations into
alleged sexual misconduct between staff and prisoners, it's imperative that
the move be made as soon as possible, while allowing for careful scrutiny of
the prisoners' next destination. The end-of-September target date for the
move seems reasonable, assuming that the state maintain its careful
monitoring of Brush in the meantime. These painful episodes clearly
illustrate that housing inmates on the Mainland is merely a short-term
response to our critical prison shortage here, and creates its own additional
problems. Hawai'i must continue to: work toward expanded prison capacity in
the Islands, where we can retain better control of conditions; strengthen the
probation system to keep some first-time offenders out of prison; and work on
preventive strategies aimed at stemming the tide in drug abuse, which fuels
so much of the state's crime problem. Sending inmates to the Mainland is just
a stopgap solution.
July
27, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
Hawai'i plans to move 80 women inmates out of a troubled private prison in
Colorado by the end of September but is unsure where they will go, prison
officials said. Hawai'i prison spokesman Michael Gaede confirmed the
state is requesting bids from facilities to house the Hawai'i inmates and
that the request in effect requires they be moved out of the Brush
Correctional Facility, a 250-bed prison in northeastern Colorado. The
Brush prison has been under close scrutiny since Colorado authorities
disclosed in February they were investigating allegations of sexual
misconduct between staff at the prison and eight inmates from three states,
including Hawai'i. Brush Warden Rick Soares resigned in February, and
was later indicted as an alleged accomplice in one of the sexual misconduct
cases. Two other prison employees also were indicted on charges of
alleged sexual misconduct with inmates, and two more prison workers were
indicted along with five inmates in connection with an alleged cigarette
smuggling ring. Those disclosures were followed by reports in March
that five convicted felons were allowed to work at the prison because
background checks on some staff members had never been completed. Since then
Hawai'i monitors have filed reports noting that the prison failed to comply
with its contract with the state in a number of areas, and Colorado
authorities released an audit that was highly critical of the prison.
Contract monitors and other reports this year cited a litany of concerns
about the prison, including: GRW for many months used inmates to
teach required rehabilitation classes to other inmates. Colorado corrections
officials repeatedly complained about the practice, and Hawai'i contract
monitors in February warned the practice was a "serious concern"
for Hawai'i as well. After the sexual misconduct allegations were made
public at Brush, virtually all inmate rehabilitative
and educational programming was shut down from January to early June, prison
officials acknowledged. That violates the state's contract requirement that
those services be offered to inmates. Inmates and state monitors have
repeatedly complained the Brush prison was providing inadequate dental and
medical care. Brush prison officials reported in May that the facility
was visited by a doctor only once a month, and a
Hawai'i contract monitor's report in May called that staffing
inadequate. Hawai'i contract monitors also warned the facility in
February that it was obliged by contract to give inmates better access to
dental care, and monitors again cited the same problem in a follow-up inspection
in May. Hawai'i monitors complained last year the Brush prison was not
conducting drug testing of inmates that is required by contract, and once
again criticized the prison in May for not doing the required testing.
A Colorado audit released in June found the Brush prison clinic was not
licensed as required under Colorado law, a lapse that also violated the
prison's contract with Hawai'i.
June 21, 2005 Rocky Mountain News
Three states could pull their inmates from Colorado's private prisons by the
end of the summer, spooked by a recent sexual
misconduct scandal and squeezed by Colorado's own rising prisoner population.
The state's five private facilities house about 2,700 Colorado inmates. They
also contract with three other states - Hawaii, Washington and Wyoming - to
hold prisoners those states can't, due to overcrowding. The private prisons
have lost or stand to lose nearly 400 out-of-state inmates, which would be an
approximately $20,000 per-day hit spread between two Tennessee firms who run
them. State officials say they can fill the gap with 400 Colorado inmates
waiting for prison beds - contradicting warnings the private firms sounded
earlier this year - and suggest that facilities filled only with Colorado
prisoners could prove easier to control. Corrections officials say it's
easier to manage prisoners from one state, because they are all used to the
same rules. Some states, for example allow cigarette smoking or conjugal
visits, which Colorado does not. "It is always easier to manage a single
jurisdiction population," said Alison Morgan, a corrections department
spokeswoman. Later, she said the loss of out-of-state inmates "is not a
bad thing." Officials also have said out-of- state inmates may
have fueled or contributed to two riots in the past decade, including one at
the Crowley County Correctional Facility last July. Washington once sent more
than 200 prisoners to Colorado. The state has moved all but a few to other
states, a Washington corrections official said Monday. Wyoming will move its
54 male inmates - already down from a high of 300 - from Colorado by summer's
end, a corrections spokeswoman there said. Wyoming has already moved 38
female inmates from a private prison in Brush, in part because of alleged
sexual misconduct between prison guards and inmates that surfaced in
February. Hawaiian officials are rebidding their contract to house 80 women
who are in Brush. Twenty- one state lawmakers urged their governor in April
to move those inmates "immediately," the Honolulu Advertiser
reported.
April 17, 2005 AP
Lawmakers are petitioning Gov. Linda Lingle to move dozens of female
Hawaii inmates out of a Colorado prison where staffers were allegedly
involved in sexual misconduct with prisoners. Twenty-one members of the
Women's Legislative Caucus want Lingle to increase state monitoring of the
Brush Correctional Facility in Colorado and ultimately move the 80 Hawaii
inmates to another facility. House Judiciary Chairwoman Sylvia Luke,
D-Pacific Heights-Punchbowl, said she is concerned about reports that prison
staff may be retaliating against Hawaii inmates following allegations that
guards were involved in sexual misconduct earlier this year with inmates from
Hawaii, Colorado and Wyoming. Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community
Alliance on Prisons, said Hawaii inmates have faced unfair administrative
punishments and had legal records confiscated. The inmates believe these are
examples of retaliatory acts, Brady said. GRW chief executive officer Gil
Walker has said he expects Colorado to increase its number of inmates in
Brush, so the company won't take a financial hit when Wyoming removes it's inmates. "I don't think it will hurt us at
all," Walker said.
April
14, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
Wyoming will remove its women inmates from a privately run Mainland prison
that also houses Hawai'i women inmates, the same prison where staff members
were accused of sexual misconduct involving Hawai'i, Wyoming and Colorado
inmates. Melinda Brazzale, spokeswoman for the Wyoming Department of
Corrections, cited a recent series of problems at the prison in the decision
to remove the Wyoming inmates from the Brush Correctional Facility in
Colorado. Those problems included criminal charges filed against staff
members and the former warden in connection with the sexual misconduct
allegations, and revelations that the prison allowed five convicted felons to
work there because their background checks had not been completed.
Investigations by Colorado state prison officials concluded prison staff had
been involved in alleged sexual misconduct with two Hawai'i inmates, two
Colorado inmates and four Wyoming inmates. Two other members of the prison
staff were charged in an alleged cigarette smuggling ring.
March
24, 2005 AP
Colorado prison officials are reviewing background checks for employees at
five private prisons run by Tennessee companies after discovering that some
employees at one of them had criminal records. State Corrections Department spokeswoman
Alison Morgan said Thursday that five convicted criminals and three people
whose backgrounds "merited further investigation" had been hired at
the Brush Correctional Facility, a privately run women's prison where several
guards face charges of having consensual sex with inmates and smuggling
tobacco into the facility. Morgan said a former warden for GRW Corp., a
Brentwood, Tenn.-based company that has held a state contract to run the
prison for 18 months, failed to complete background checks for some
employees. The failure was first reported by KCNC-TV of Denver. She said it
appears that fingerprints for the guards that were sent to the Colorado
Bureau of Investigation were smudged or otherwise unreadable. The prints were
sent back to the prison, which did not follow up, Morgan said. Morgan said
the Corrections Department's Private Prisons Monitoring Unit does not have
the staff or funding to regularly conduct its own background checks of
private-prison employees.
March
23, 2005 Rocky Mountain News
People with criminal records were hired to work at a Brush prison where
several employees are facing charges for allegedly having sex with inmates,
according to a CBS 4 News investigation. The Brush Correctional Facility is a
medium-security prison that holds 250 women. GRW Corp., a private company
headquartered in Tennessee, runs the prison and hired several employees with
criminal records to watch over the inmates, according to CBS 4 News. The
company has fired six employees with criminal histories so far. Four guards
have resigned from the prison, and one has been put on administrative leave.
The warden, Rick Soares, resigned Feb. 18, a month after the Department of
Corrections first received reports of sexual misconduct. Three prison guards
are facing criminal charges for allegedly having sex with seven inmates. Two
other guards and an inmate are accused of smuggling contraband cigarettes
into the facility. The list of the prison employees with questionable
backgrounds includes 28-year-old Angela Gallegos, CBS 4 News said. A prison
guard, she was arrested on a felony charge three years ago and pleaded guilty
to misdemeanor harassment. Heather Henry, 24, was also hired as a guard. Her
record includes arrests for harassment, domestic violence-assault, violating
protective orders and child abuse. Richard Fairchild, 42, was convicted of
domestic violence and violating a restraining order. Gil Walker, president of
GRW, said these are the last people who should be working in a prison and
should have never been hired. "We don't hire questionable people, and
that's the embarrassing part," Walker told CBS 4 News. Walker said the
company never finished its background checks on potential employees and
didn't know their full histories.
March
10, 2005 Fort Morgan Times
Morgan County District Attorney Bob Watson filed additional charges Wednesday
in connection with the prison sexual misconduct scandal in Brush. The new
indictments include a charge of unlawful sexual conduct in a penal
institution lodged against a second guard, charges of being an accessory to a
crime against the former warden and charges against another nine current or
former prison employees related to introducing contraband cigarettes into the
prison and conspiracy to commit introduction of contraband. According to
Watson, the new charges are not necessarily all that will result from his
office's ongoing investigation of the GRW-owned private prison. According to
case filings made Wednesday in Morgan County District Court, corrections officer
Fredrick Henry Woller, 32, of Brush is charged with unlawful sexual conduct
in a penal institution, a class five felony. Specifically, Woller is alleged
to have engaged in sexual conduct with prisoner Cristie Maez. Also charged
Wednesday was former Warden Richard "Rick" Soares Jr., 57, of
Sterling, who was allegedly an accessory to the crime of unlawful sexual
conduct in a penal institution, also a class five felony. He is accused of
hindering the investigation. The pair joins corrections officer Russell
Rollison, 31, of Brush, who was charged last week with unlawful sexual
conduct in a penal institution. Other charges resulting from the criminal
probe to date regard prison food service and other prison employees allegedly
conspiring with inmates to bring cigarettes into the prison. Cigarettes have
been banned from Colorado penal institutions since 1999. Those charged with
introducing contraband in the second degree, a class six felony, and
conspiracy to commit introduction of contraband, also a class six felony,
are: Pania Akopian, 31, Pisa Tuvale, 35, Annette Cummings, 38, Janice
Crockett, 47, and Jeannette Dillon, 38, all of whom have the Brush
Correctional Facility listed as their address; Gail Guerrero, no age listed,
and Maria Ramirez, 46, both of Brush; Charmayne Kalama, 28, of Kapolei,
Hawaii, and Stannie T. Muramoto, 46, of Honolulu, Hawaii. According to Gil
Walker, CEO of Tennessee-based GRW, which owns the 250-bed private prison, an
internal investigation uncovered only consensual sex between the guards and
prisoners. Alison Morgan, a state corrections department spokeswoman, said
the DOC investigation revealed at least some of the sex as having been
initiated by inmates. She said inmates from both Hawaii and Wyoming admitted
to initiating the encounters either so they could be returned home or in an
effort to sue the prison. However, a Hawaii attorney representing two of the
inmates has alleged his clients were raped. The case was referred to DA
Watson's office by the state corrections department's inspector general's
office. The Brush prison, which became the first private prison for women in
Colorado, opened in August, 2003. It houses 80 inmates from Hawaii, 73 from
Colorado and 45 from Wyoming. Colorado pays $50 a day to GRW to house its prisoners.
March
10, 2005 The Denver Channel
The former warden and 10 other people at the privately run Brush Correctional
Facility for Women face felony charges for conduct ranging from having sex
with inmates to smuggling tobacco into the prison. Filings released by
District Attorney Robert Watson show 32-year-old Fredrick Henry Woller faces
a felony charge for allegedly having sex with an inmate. Former warden Rick
Soares, 57, faces charges of being an accessory for allegedly hindering the
discovery of Woller's conduct. Earlier this month, two correctional officers
and seven female inmates were charged with several offenses, including
introducing contraband in the form of tobacco. Watson said other
investigations are pending. Soares last month resigned from Tennessee-based
GRW, which owns the 250-bed prison in Morgan County, after a month-long
investigation implicated several officers. The department's inspector
general's staff reported to Watson last month that three officers had sex
with four inmates from Wyoming, two from Colorado and two from Hawaii. Some
of the women alleged they were raped, but investigators concluded the sex was
consensual. Having sex with an inmate is a felony for guards. The facility
became the first private prison for women in Colorado in August 2003.
March
4, 2005 Star Bulletin
Female inmates from Hawaii will remain at a privately run women's prison in
Colorado where five officers face sexual misconduct and contraband charges,
Hawaii officials said yesterday. A visit to the prison by state monitors last
month shows Hawaii does not need to transfer its inmates to an alternate
facility, said Richard Bissen, interim director of Hawaii's Department of
Public Safety. "Incidents like this happen at facilities," Bissen
said. "But that place is being more closely monitored than ever, and the
women themselves say they are safe." Three prison officers had sex with
a total of four Hawaii inmates, two Colorado inmates and one Wyoming inmate,
according to Alison Morgan, a spokesperson for the Colorado corrections
department. Two of the officers have resigned, and a third is on
administrative leave. Investigations show the sex was consensual, said Gil
Walker, founder and chief executive of Tennessee-based GRW, which owns the
Brush Correctional Facility for Women, located in Colorado. One case involved
two Hawaii inmates and a guard, who admitted to engaging in sexual activity
in January in the prison library. Some civil rights advocates argue that
there is no such thing as consensual sex between an inmate and an authority
figure. "We have a law that says it's a felony. It's not consensual when
someone is in custody," said Kat Brady, an advocate with the American
Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii. Myles Breiner, a Honolulu lawyer who is
representing the Hawaii inmates, has said the women were forced to perform a
sex act for Rollison. Morgan said some Hawaii and Wyoming inmates admitted
they believed having sex with the guards would help them get transferred to
their home states, where they would be closer to relatives.
February
25, 2005 Denver Post
The warden resigned and five correctional officers at the privately run Brush
Correctional Facility for women face sexual misconduct and contraband charges
in the wake of a criminal probe. Warden Rick Soares resigned from
Tennessee-based GRW, which owns the 250-bed prison in Brush, on Feb. 18 after
a month-long investigation implicated the five officers, said Alison Morgan,
state Department of Corrections spokeswoman. The
warden was not implicated in the wrongdoing. The department's inspector
general's office referred contraband allegations involving two staff members
and one inmate and sexual misconduct allegations involving three staff
members to District Attorney Robert Watson on Thursday. Three officers who were
not named had sex with four Hawaiian inmates, two Colorado inmates and one
Wyoming inmate, Morgan said. Two of the officers resigned, and a third is on
administrative leave pending the outcome of the criminal case. Some of the
women alleged they were raped, but investigators concluded the sex was
consensual, sometimes initiated by inmates, Morgan said. It's still a felony
offense for correctional officers, she said. She said some Hawaiian and
Wyoming inmates acknowledged they had sex with correctional officers because
they believed they would be returned home, where they would be closer to
relatives. Others hoped to file lawsuits against the prison. Two officers and
an inmate were caught sneaking tobacco into the prison, Morgan said.
Diamondback CF
Watonga, Oklahoma
CCA
July
18, 2009 Honolulu Advertiser
An investigation into sex assaults involving Hawai'i and other female
inmates at a private Kentucky prison has widened and now includes 19 alleged
attacks over the past three years. Honolulu attorney Myles Breiner is
representing three Hawai'i women who allege they were sexually assaulted at
Otter Creek Correctional Center within the past 12 to 18 months. The most
recent sex assault was reported June 23 and allegedly involved a male
corrections officer. Meanwhile, Kentucky officials say they have launched an
investigation into 16 alleged sex assaults at Otter Creek involving Kentucky
women. Some of the allegations date back to 2006. Breiner said he expects
more allegations of sex assault involving Hawai'i women to surface during
investigations under way by the Hawai'i Department of Public Safety, which
sent a team to Otter Creek last week to speak to female inmates from the
Islands and look into the allegations. The developments are spurring new
discussions about whether the state should end its contract with Otter Creek
and bring the 165 Hawai'i women at the privately operated prison back to
Hawai'i. State Senate Public Safety Committee Chairman Will Espero, D-20th
('Ewa Beach, Waipahu), said he will hold a public hearing in August on the
assault allegations, during which he plans to call on state officials to halt
the practice of shipping Hawai'i female inmates to the Mainland. "This
might be a good opportunity for (Public Safety Director) Clayton Frank to
show some leadership and ... bring the women home," Espero said, adding
that he also believes more assault allegations will come to light in the
coming months. "We might have heard ... the tip of the iceberg."
Tommy Johnson, deputy director of DPS, would not say how many allegations the
state is investigating because the cases are ongoing. But he said he was at
Otter Creek all last week to speak to Hawai'i women in groups and to talk to
some in one-on-one sessions. He also toured the facility and looked at its
"operational security." He would not discuss what the Hawai'i
female inmates told him in the sessions, saying that "it would be
premature and inappropriate to do so." Otter Creek, in Wheelwright, Ky.,
is operated by Corrections Corporation of America. A spokesman for the
company said it is conducting its own investigation into the assault
allegations. Hawai'i has had a contract to house female inmates at Otter
Creek since October 2005. Breiner said the three Hawai'i women at the prison
whom he represents allege they were sexually assaulted within the past 18
months. The most recent assault was reported on June 23, and is under
investigation by Kentucky state police, who said it involved a male
corrections officer. Kentucky state police spokesman Mike Goble said a
detective investigating the June 23 sex assault was also informed of other
assault allegations. It's unclear whether those assaults involved Hawai'i
women, and Goble said police have not yet decided how to proceed on those
allegations. Meanwhile, the Kentucky Department of Corrections said Thursday
that it is investigating allegations that 16 Kentucky women were sexually
assaulted at Otter Creek as far back as 2006. Spokeswoman Lisa Lamb said the
allegations relate to incidents over the past three years. In a statement,
she said some of the allegations were previously reported but are being
reinvestigated. She also said the department is sharing information with
Hawai'i officials and the CCA. Allegations of sexual misconduct involving
corrections workers and Hawai'i inmates have surfaced before at Otter Creek
and in other private prisons, including in Oklahoma in 2000 and Colorado in
2005. In 2007, a Hawai'i inmate at Otter Creek alleged a corrections officer
came to her room and demanded she perform sex acts. The officer was convicted
on a misdemeanor. Following the incident, Otter Creek prison officials said
they would change their procedures to require that a female correctional
officer be paired with a male officer in housing units. Breiner, the Honolulu
attorney, said that from his discussions with Hawai'i inmates it doesn't
appear that's happening at Otter Creek. He said there are not enough female
corrections officers at Otter Creek. He also said that in the wake of the
publicity following the allegations, some Hawai'i inmates have expressed
concerns about retaliation and he said he's worried about the safety of his
clients. The cost of exporting Hawai'i inmates is cheaper than building new
facilities or expanding existing ones, but advocates have long criticized the
practice because of its impact on families. They point out that many female
inmates have kids who suffer during the separation.
September
17, 2007 KITV 4
Another lawsuit has been filed against the mainland prison corporation
that houses thousands of Hawaii inmates. This lawsuit claimed the company
knowingly hired sexual predators as guards to torment inmates. Convicted car
thief Nelson Abiley said he was subjected to repeated homosexual sexual
harassment and battery at the Diamondback Prison in Oklahoma. He said
Corrections Corp. of America did not respond to his complaints. CCA had a
history of hiring predatory homosexuals in order to control inmates,
according to the lawsuit. The company has been sued in several cases recently
in which inmates beat other inmates.
March
6, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
Monitoring reports by state prison officials describe gang violence, drug
dealing and other problems at the Diamondback Correctional Facility in
Oklahoma where hundreds of Hawai'i inmates are being held. The situation was
so bad that Department of Public Safety officials who visited the privately
run prison in September recommended that nearly 800 Hawai'i convicts be
removed unless conditions improve. State officials and representatives of
prison operator Corrections Corp. of America said last week the situation at
Diamondback has improved in recent months, but the critical monitoring
reports provide further evidence of troubles with Hawai'i's practice of
shipping inmates to Mainland facilities. Just last week, the head of the GRW
Corp., which owns the Brush Correctional Facility near Denver, Colo.,
appeared in Honolulu at the request of state officials to explain sexual
misconduct allegations made against prison staff by two Hawai'i women and six
other female inmates. The two Hawai'i inmates have been returned to the
Islands, and a corrections officers in Colorado has
been charged with a felony in the case. In Oklahoma, state monitors' reports
from 2003 and 2004 indicate increasing concern about conditions at the
Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, including drug dealing by
gangs, inmate attacks on corrections officers and other inmates, and rising
tensions in the prison. The portions of the reports that were released
describe inexperienced line staff and supervisors struggling to cope with
gang members, including some whom the monitors' believed should have been
transferred to prisons designated for more dangerous inmates. The monitors
also criticized prolonged use of administrative segregation. The state's
contract with CCA requires that disciplinary segregation not exceed 60 days,
but Shimoda said some inmates were left in administrative segregation for a
year or more. CCA spokesman Steve Owen said the company did not receive
copies of the Oct. 22 monitors' report until mid-December. He said the
company provided a written response to state officials on Jan. 20 that
outlined what it is doing about the problems. Owen declined to release the
details of the CCA response, saying that information should come from Hawai'i
prison officials. The Department of Public Safety did not answer an
Advertiser request last week for a copy of the company's Jan. 20 response.
The monitors' reports from 2003 and 2004 show that Hawai'i officials were
alarmed about operations at the Oklahoma prison for at least 18 months.
Problems cited included alarm that female corrections officers were
"falling in love" with Hawai'i inmates, and smuggling drugs into
the prison for them. The chief of security at Diamondback told Hawai'i
monitors in June 2003 that prison staff believed 2 ounces of crystal
methamphetamine were being smuggled into the prison each week. In April 2003,
more than one out of every four inmates who underwent drug testing came up
positive for drug use, according to the Oct. 17, 2003, report. That same
report said six corrections workers had been fired for "inappropriate
relationships" with inmates and activity related to drug use within the
prison. Monitors' reports also indicated 30 to 40 Hawai'i inmates were
involved in a disturbance in one of the prison modules on July 20, 2003. A
far more serious disturbance broke out last May 14 when 500 inmates from
Arizona rioted for several hours, demolishing fences and battling one another
with construction equipment and other improvised weapons. About 100 inmates
were injured. An investigation by Arizona corrections officials found that
inadequate staffing at Diamondback made it difficult to prevent the
disturbance, and Arizona reduced the number of its inmates there from about
1,200 to about 750.
February
9, 2005 KOTV
Hawaii inmates at an Oklahoma prison plan will get to celebrate an ancient
Hawaiian festival this weekend. About 100 men at the Diamondback Correctional
Facility in Watonga plan to mark Makahiki with chanting, hula, a cleansing
ritual and a feast with laulau, fish and poi. Makahiki was an annual period
of peace celebrated in ancient Hawaii with sports and religious activities.
The festival also honors Lono, the Hawaiian god of agriculture, peace and fertility.The
Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the Oklahoma prison,
refused to allow the inmates to hold the event two years ago, but a 2003
lawsuit challenged that decision. Attorneys for all sides have met to discuss
a possible settlement.
Florence
Correctional Center
Florence,
Arizona
CCA
September 3, 2011 ABC 15
Officials say two correctional officers at a Florence prison were injured
when they were assaulted by two inmates Friday afternoon. The incident
happened at the Florence Correctional Center as the officers were escorting
two State of Hawaii inmates back to their cells from the segregation
recreation yard. Staff responded immediately and ended the assault quickly,
according to officials. The facility was placed on lockdown as a precaution
and law enforcement and Hawaii Department of Public Safety authorities were
notified. The officers were taken to a local hospital for treatment of
non-life-threatening injuries.
January
28, 2011 Star-Advertiser
The Abercrombie administration is starting to make good on the governor's
promise to bring all state prison inmates incarcerated on the mainland back
to Hawaii. The state returned 243 inmates from Arizona last week and sent
back just 96 to take their place. Of the 243 returning inmates, 54 are getting
paroled, 28 are about to complete their prison terms and three are back for
court hearings. When Gov. Neil Abercrombie promised swift action last month
to bring back all Hawaii inmates serving time in mainland prisons, state
Senate Public Safety Chairman Will Espero was not expecting action so soon.
"I was pleasantly surprised," he said. Espero said he learned of
the returning inmates yesterday from state Public Safety Director Jodie
Maesaka-Hirata. He said the state conducts prison transfers quarterly, but it
usually sends at least the same number of prisoners to the mainland as it
returns. He applauded Abercrombie's plan to bring back all Hawaii inmates.
"If we're going to spend $60 million a year to house inmates, I'd rather
spend it here in Hawaii than on the mainland," Espero said. The state
returned 152 inmates to Hawaii on Jan. 19, sent 96 to Arizona on Jan. 20 and
returned an additional 91 last Friday. The transfers leave 1,759 Hawaii
inmates in Arizona: 1,705 in Saguaro Correctional Center, 51 in Red Rock
Correctional Center, two in Florence State Prison
and one in Central Arizona Detention Center. Central Arizona, in Florence,
and Saguaro and Red Rock, both in Eloy, are private
prisons operated by Corrections Corp. of America, which houses Hawaii inmates
under contract with the state. Abercrombie made his promise after 18 Hawaii
inmates at Saguaro sued CCA, the state and the state's contract monitor. The inmates claim they were beaten and assaulted and their
families threatened by prison guards. The Public Safety Department sent a
team to examine practices at Saguaro last year after two Hawaii inmates died
in February and June. The state returned all but one of the 169 women serving
time in a CCA prison in Kentucky in 2009 after the inmates reported
widespread sexual abuse by guards and prison employees. The Abercrombie
administration is starting to make good on the governor's promise to bring
all state prison inmates incarcerated on the mainland back to Hawaii.
December
29, 2010 AP
State Auditor Marion Higa on Wednesday blasted the Hawaii Department of
Public Safety's management of a contract to house prisoners in privately
owned Arizona prisons. In a 77-page report, Higa also criticized the
financial data about the arrangement the department has provided legislators
and the public for using a flawed methodology and containing inaccurate or
insufficient figures. "Without clarified guidance by policymakers, the
department has no incentive to perform better and will continue to evade
accountability by providing unreliable and inaccurate reporting of
incarceration costs," Higa wrote in the audit's conclusion. "In
addition, the department has misused its procurement authority to circumvent
the process designed with safeguards to protect the state's interests,"
she added. There was no immediate response to a request for comment from
department officials or Gov. Neil Abercrombie's office. Much of the audit's
findings are critical of actions taken by the administration of Abercrombie's
predecessor, Linda Lingle. Abercrombie has said he wants to stop exporting
inmates to other states but hasn't spelled out whether that would mean
building more prisons in Hawaii or releasing less-dangerous inmates to free
up existing beds. According to the audit, about 2,000 male Hawaii prisoners
currently are housed in the Florence, Red Rock and Saguaro correctional
centers owned by the Corrections Corporation of America. The state in 2006
signed an "intergovernmental agreement" with Eloy, Ariz., where the
facilities are located, but deals almost exclusively with CCA, the report
contended. The arrangement allowed agency officials to circumvent and
manipulate the state's competitive procurement process to steer business to
CCA, the audit found. The department also treated CCA as a government agent
instead of a private vendor operating for a profit, it contended. The CCA
contract is set to expire on June 30. But the report concluded the state as
of early October had no plan to address that looming deadline. Without such a
plan, "the department is shirking its responsibility to provide for the
safety of the public through correctional management, and leaves the
operational staff ill-prepared to contract for private prison beds and
services," the audit stated. The report also aimed fire at the
department's reporting to the Legislature. It asserted that agency officials
reported "artificial cost figures" that were derived from a
calculation that itself was "based on a flawed methodology."
"Because funding is virtually guaranteed, management is indifferent to
the needs of policymakers and the public for accurate and reliable cost
information," the audit said. "As a result, true costs are
unknown." In addition to improving its financial and program data, and
its monitoring of operations at the CCA prisons, the auditor called on the
state's chief procurement officer to suspend the public safety department's
contracting authority for private prisons until its practices and policies
are changed and staff have been better trained.
July
11, 2006 Honolulu Advertiser
Hawai'i inmates who worked in the kitchen of an Arizona prison have been
disciplined for allegedly smuggling methamphetamine and marijuana into the
facility. Shari Kimoto, administrator of the Mainland branch of the Hawai'i
Department of Public Safety, said prison operator Corrections Corp. of
America began investigating the alleged drug ring at the Florence
Correctional Center after a number of inmates tested positive for drug use.
The kitchen supervisor and several truck drivers with a food service company
that makes deliveries to the prison in Florence, Ariz., were fired in
connection with the case, and one or two corrections officers also may have
been involved, Kimoto said. She said she expects to learn more when CCA
officials file additional reports about the investigation.
April
17, 2003
The family of a Hawaii inmate who died in an Arizona prison alleges in a
lawsuit that he died after packets of drugs he was smuggling for a prison
gang burst in his stomach. According to the suit filed yesterday in
Circuit Court, Iulai Amani, then 24, died of a heart attack on April 15,
2001, at the Florence Correctional Center in Florence, Ariz. The
lawsuit attributes the heart attack to "a drug overdose, the mechanism
of which was inconsistent with recreational use but consistent with drug
smuggling under the direction" of a Hawaii gang that controlled the
prison. As a result of overcrowding in its prisons, the state
contracted with private mainland prisons to take inmates. Hawaii
contracted with the Florence facility, which is managed by Corrections Corp.
of America, a publicly traded prison company based in Nashville, Tenn.
The Florence prison is a medium-security facility with about 1,600 beds which
houses both men and women. As a private prison, it is not subject to
regulations governing other Arizona prisons. It also takes some of the
toughest and most violent Hawaii prisoners. Last week, another inmate,
Victoriano Ortiz, sued the state and CCA alleging failure to protect him from
being beaten up by USO members in a prison yard fight involving 23
inmates. (Star Bulletin)
April
15, 2003
Victoriano Ortiz was 24 years old when he beat his wife to death in the
abandoned bus the two shared as a home. He broke her jaw and several
ribs before he wrapped her body in a blanket, loaded it into a shopping cart
and dumped it into the stream next to River Street in downtown
Honolulu. Last week, Ortiz sued the state of Hawaii and the owners of
the Arizona prison where he was held, alleging failure to protect him from
being beaten up by a gang of Hawaii inmates that controlled the prison to the
point that guards smuggled drugs to gang members in return for
protection. Ortiz's federal lawsuit and other documents obtained by the
Star-Bulletin give a glimpse into a rough era in the recent history of the
Florence Correctional Center, a privately run prison in Florence, Ariz.,
managed by Corrections Corp. of America, a publicly traded company based in
Nashville, Tenn. Ortiz's suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona,
names members of USO, the state of Hawaii, CCA and others as defendants. He
alleges reckless or gross negligence and "a callous disregard" for
his safety. Ortiz alleges in his complaint that Pablo Sedillo, then
warden of the Florence prison, "told the USOs that they could do
whatever they wanted as long as they don't hurt the guards." Ortiz
alleges that "in doing so Sedillo made the USOs ... managers of the
facility, jeopardizing the safety of all non-USO-affiliated residents."
(Star Bulletin)
April 14, 2003
The state of Hawaii is among the defendants in a lawsuit filed by an inmate
at Florence Correctional Center who claims he was badly beaten by a prison
gang that was given unprecedented privileges by the warden and guards.
In a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Victoriano Ortiz said
correctional officers smuggled drugs to members of the so-called United
Samoan Organization and allowed them to assault nonmembers without
interference. Ortiz, who was convicted of second-degree murder 15 years
ago, claims he was attacked by members of the gang in April 2001. The
Honolulu native alleges that the prison warden told members of the gang
"they could do whatever they wanted as long as they don't hurt the
guards." A spokesman for the Florence Correctional Center couldn't
be reached for comment. Ortiz's lawsuit names Corrections Corporation
of America, which operates the private facility, along with two alleged gang
leaders and the state of Hawaii, which has a contract to send inmates to the
prison. Ortiz requests damages for cruelty, negligence, failure to
protect and other civil rights violations. (AP)
March
21, 2003
A 74-year-old Gold Canyon man was killed yesterday in a one-vehicle accident
on Interstate 10. Layton Mowrey was driving a van for Correctional
Services Corp., eastbound on I-10 about two miles west of the Trico-Marana
Road exit when he lost control at 11:30 a.m., said officer David Kleinman of
the Arizona Department of Public Safety. CSC runs a prison for the state in
Florence. (Tucson Citizen)
September
4, 2001
For years, Hawaii's prisons have been free of the violent gangs that plague
many Mainland facilities, but inmates returning from prisons on the Mainland
are showing more signs of gang involvement, according to the head of the
state prison system. Among the convicts returned to Hawaii to finish
their sentences, prison officials are seeing more gang tattoos, gang
"code words" and inmates who acknowledge other prisoners with gang
affiliation as leaders, said Ted Sakai, director of the state Department of
Public Safety. Prison officials earlier this year demanded that the
Mainland operators of the Florence Correctional Center in Arizona stage a
crackdown on a Hawaii prison gang. One Hawaii investigator said the
gang is "Hawaii's first bona fide prison gang." About 1,200
Hawaii convicts are now held in prisons in Arizona and Oklahoma because there
is no room for them in facilities here. (The Honolulu
Advertiser)
September
3, 2001
In the business of privately operated prisons, some states are exporters, and
some are importers. That is, some states send their convicted criminals out
of state, while others bring them in. And some states, especially those on
the receiving end, are getting squeamish about the transfers. One after
another, states have imposed restrictions on the kinds of out-of-state
inmates that private prison operators can import. And states that don't limit
the types of inmates that can be imported worry that they will become
"dumping grounds" for the worst convicts from other states.
The tighter laws can be an easy sell politically because even some
corrections experts question the wisdom of importing particularly vicious
convicts or sex offenders from other states. As Terry L. Stewart, director of
the ARIZONA Dept. of Corrections put it, "We have our own maximum
custody inmates. They are dangerous inmates. Why in the world would we want
maximum custody inmates from anywhere else?" (State Net Capitol
Journal)
August
7, 2001
About an hour's drive from Tucson sits a ticking time bomb waiting to go off
- a private prison in such chaos it has effectively been taken over by the
criminals. Gang members mixed booze-laced beverages in a five-gallon
pail in the prison kitchen at the Florence Correctional Facility.
Inmates wandered the corridors with little supervision and had sex with
female immigration detainees. One guard said he even resorted to
bringing marijuana to work to give to certain prisoners so that they would
protect him from other prisoners. Yet Arizona's state prison regulators
can do nothing about such problems. Unlike many other states, Arizona's
Legislature has given free reign to corporate operators of private prisons
like the one in Florence, allowing them to set up shop here with almost no
rules in place to monitor their operations. "Right now you can
build a prison anywhere in Arizona, and the only thing you have to meet is
the local building code," said Terry Stewart, director of the Arizona
Department of Corrections. It doesn't take a degree in corrections to
know this is absurd public policy. The Florence facility is run by
Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, the largest private prison firm
in the nation. It's what is known in the industry as a "speculative"
prison - one built outside the purview of the normal regulatory system, with
no guarantee that there will be prisoners available to fill it.
(Arizona Daily Star)
August
5, 2001
The state's prison director wants lawmakers to give him more control over
private prisons following reports that a Hawaii gang had effectively taken
over a Florence prison. Hawaii auditors determined in late April that a
gang called United Samoan Organization was essentially running the Florence
Correctional Facility, which houses 550 of that state's inmates -- 300 of
whom are sex offenders. The prison, operated by the Nashville-based
Corrections Corporation of America -- or CCA -- is about an hour outside both
Tucson and Phoenix. After the deaths of two inmates, six inmate
assaults and a riot that left one officer with six stitches - all of which
happened in April -- Hawaii dispatched four auditors to inspect the prison,
which opened in 2000. Two female auditors were not allowed to tour the
facility because of fears for their safety. Auditors determined that gang
members were having sex with female Immigration and Naturalization Service
inmates. Gang members were using drugs and making an alcoholic drink called
"swipe," which the monitoring team found in a five-gallon bucket in
the kitchen. Staff, who reportedly had been calling the Hawaiians
"beach niggas," were taking cultural
training. If Arizona cracks down, Hawaii officials have few options.
Their inmates were moved out of Texas because of tighter restrictions there.
Oklahoma does not accept sex offenders. California and many other states
don't allow any out-of-state prisoners. Red flags started waving for
Sen. Pete Rios, a Hayden Democrat, on primary election night last September.
While he was awaiting election returns in the Pinal County seat, police
vehicles suddenly blocked the major highways out of Florence. Someone at
CCA's prison had called 911, saying there was a hostage situation, but, when
law enforcement responded, CCA refused to provide information. In the
end, three guards were injured after inmates smashed windows, computers,
televisions and food carts during a 90-minute riot that started in a dispute
over how rice was cooked. (The Arizona Daily Star)
July
29, 2001
Hawaii may be forced to build a new prison because other states are imposing
restrictions on the kinds of out-of-state inmates they will accept, according
to state Public Safety director Ted Sakai. Officials in Arizona are
considering limiting the types of out-of-state inmates Arizona will accept.
They were prompted by escalating violence and gang activity by Hawaii inmates
serving time in one Arizona prison. Hawaii officials who inspected the
Florence prison reported that they found a "facility in turmoil,"
with a gang of Hawaii inmates involved in drug smuggling and assaults against
prisoners and corrections officers. Terry L. Stewart, director of the
Arizona Department of Corrections, said he will ask the Arizona Legislature
for new authority over companies such as Corrections Corporation of America.
(AP)
July
21, 2001
Medical officials in Arizona say a prison inmate from Hawaii died in April
from an accidental overdose of methamphetamine and that another Hawaii inmate
died a few days later of natural causes. (AP)
July
1, 2001
A team sent to check on conditions at an Arizona prison that holds more than
560 Hawaii inmates conducted only a limited inspection because of the
"hostile environment," including the potential for violence,
according to state reports obtained by The Advertiser. The desert prison,
where two Hawaii inmates have died in recent months, was described in the
April 30 report as "a facility in turmoil," and officials described
lax security conditions, reports of widespread drug use and domination by
members of a prison gang. The reports by the monitoring team highlight
problems with an inexperienced prison staff and refer to
"widespread" drug smuggling into the facility by prison
staff. One prison official admitted to the Hawaii inspectors that he
smuggled marijuana into the prison because he was afraid of gang members
incarcerated there, according to the reports. Sgt. Patrick Kawai, a
Hawaii gang intelligence officer who was sent to inspect the Florence
facility, reported in April that "I never once while at FCC observed an
officer frisk search or strip search an inmate. I never once observed
an officer go through any inmate's property, or search anything an inmate was
carrying." That lack of "simple security measures"
allows inmates to move weapons and other contraband, Kawai said in his
report. The Advertiser has been seeking reports about the Florence
inspections for some time but state officials have been reluctant to provide
them. When the April report was first released, most of it was blacked
out by officials citing security concerns. After further requests from
the newspaper and intervention by the governor's office, the reports were
released. The monitoring reports also reveal that a year after the
Hawaii prisoners were sent to Florence, the prison still does not offer educational
and rehabilitation programs to inmates that are required by CCA's contract
with state. When asked if CCA is now providing the programs required by
the contract, Sakai replied: "I don't think so, but again we understand
it's going to take some time. ...For example, they've committed to starting
the substance abuse treatment program. They're going to have to get the
staff together. I don't know if they have it yet, and then it takes
time to build these programs up." Inmates have complained about
the lack of educational, sex offender and drug treatment programs at
Florence, in part because parole often depends on whether inmates complete
required programs. Sakai acknowledged virtually no inmate programs were
available for the 100 inmates who were shipped to Florence about a year
ago. The June report also quotes a Florence prison official as
admitting the prison medical unit is "grossly understand."
(The Honolulu Advertiser)
May
25, 2001
More than three dozen Hawaii inmates have been transferred from an Arizona
prison to one in New Mexico. State Public Safety Director Ted Sakai
said at least some of the inmates who were transferred were part of a prison
gang. Last month the state sent an inspection team to review the
operations of Florence, and state officials expressed concerns about problems
there. CCA replaced the warden at Florence earlier this month, and
asked Hawaii officials if they could temporarily move about 40 disruptive
inmates to a New Mexico prison "to get Florence settled down,"
Sakai said. (AP)
May
11, 2001
The Florence Correctional Center in Arizona, where two Hawaii inmates died
last month and three others were severely beaten, has named a new
warden. Frank Luna, 38, moves over from Corrections Corporation of
America's Huerfano County Correctional Center in Colorado where he had been
warden of the medium-security prison since August 1999. Louise Green,
vice president of marketing and communications for CCA, said the previous
warden at Florence, Pablo Sedillo, is on administrative leave.
(Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
May
9, 2001
Complaints from Hawaii corrections officials have led to the replacement of
the warden at a privately run Arizona prison. The Hawaii officials said
that management problems at the facility were jeopardizing the safety of
Hawaii inmates serving time there. State Public Safety director Ted
Sakai said the warden of Florence Correctional Center was replaced late last
week or early this week. Incidents at Florence include inmate gangs,
serious beatings of several inmates, a riot last September and the death of a
Hawaii inmate on April 16th from what prison officials
suspect was a drug-induced heart attack. CCA now holds about 1,100 male
inmates from Hawaii, including about 550 at Florence. The state will
pay the company about $17 million this year to house the 1,100 prisoners and
provide educational and other programs. (AP)
May
3, 2001
Two deaths in a private prison in Florence led to a lockdown and search for
contraband. In one instance, Steve Owen spokesperson for Corrections
Corporation of America said, Iulai Amani, 23, died April 16 while being taken
to a hospital after he began coughing up blood in his cell at the Florence
Correctional Center. Cause of death had yet to be determined Wednesday,
but officials said he may have overdosed on cocaine or methamphetamine.
Amani's knuckles reportedly were bloody at the time of his death, suggesting
he may have been in a fight. And on April 25, John Kia, an inmate with
a history of health problems died from a bacterial infection, Owen
said. (AP)
April
27, 2001
State corrections officials have sent a team to investigate the recent deaths
of two Hawaii inmates held at a private prison in Florence, Arizona.
"There's no evidence at all that there was any physical altercation that
led to the deaths, so that's been ruled out," Public Safety Director Ted
Sakai said Thursday. Sakai has been told John Kia, 41, died of a heart
attack Wednesday at the Florence Correctional Center, while Iulai Amani, 23,
died of either a heart attack or asphyxiation April 15. "We know
that two inmates died, and we also know that we had several (Hawaii) inmates
who were assaulted by other inmates at the same facility," Sakai
said. "I understand that there were a couple of inmates who were
beaten up pretty bad, bad enough that they had to be rushed to the emergency
room." (AP)
Hawaii
Department of Corrections
Sep 8, 2016 civilbeat.org
The Secrecy Surrounding Hawaii Prisons Has Got To Stop
With each new story about Hawaiis
management of its prison system and oversight of its relationship with
private mainland prisons, we have new and growing concerns over how little we
know about these facilities and how much were prevented from knowing by
the State of Hawaii. In recent weeks, Civil Beats Rui Kaneya has uncovered, among other
things, the involvement of a questionable subcontractor on the planning and
design work for a new Oahu Community Correctional Center. Louis Berger of New
Jersey has a history of shady dealings that in recent years have resulted in
fines totaling more than $90 million over allegations of fraud and bribery.
Architects Hawaii, which brought on Berger, wont comment on the
subcontractor, which stands to earn at least $1.3 million on this job. Kaneya also reported in late August on the shocking level of secrecy
allowed in legal settlements involving the Corrections Corporation of
America, the mainland prison company whose private facilities hold about
1,400 Hawaii prisoners in Arizona at any given time. The state agreed to an
indemnity clause in its deal with CCA that neatly removes the legislative
oversight brought to bear on legal settlements involving Hawaii prisons and
other state offices under the guise that CCA is liable for all litigation
costs and attorney fees. That sort of secrecy and lack of oversight has unfortunately become a
recurring theme for a wing of state government that gets far less attention
and scrutiny than it should. Even in the best of circumstances, voters and taxpayers typically dont
care much about prisons and prisoners. When both are conveniently thousands
of miles away, the phrase out of sight, out of mind is sadly operative and
we certainly see that dynamic at play in the CCA relationship. For years, state lawmakers have deferred any meaningful efforts to muster
the political will let alone the money to replace the decrepit, 100-year-old
OCCC or make any meaningful advances on efforts to community programs or
alternatives that would keep people out of prison. And when things go bad for any of those inmates in Arizona, it can be
difficult if not impossible to find out whats gone wrong and whats being
done to correct any problems. Both CCA and the state Department of Public Safety refuse to release any
data related to lawsuits filed by Hawaii prisoners and their families and CCA
employees even though that information is already shared between the
contractor and DPS with the company calling it proprietary and
confidential. Confidentiality
clauses seem to be the rule rather than the exception with CCA cases.
Plaintiffs attorneys can balk at the secrecy requirements, but as one told
Kaneya, agreeing to confidentiality helps move the cases forward. State lawmakers have deferred any meaningful efforts to muster the
political will leta lone the money to replace the decrepit, 100-year-old
OCCC. That sort of
secrecy gives CCA little incentive to change any practices that may have led
to the complaint or lawsuit and gives taxpayers no information on how its
state government is addressing incarceration issues on its behalf. That
latter point is a particularly big problem, according to Paul Wright,
director of the Vermont-based Human Rights Defense Center, which has
challenged CCAs confidentiality provisions in Texas, Tennessee and other
jurisdictions in recent years. The thing to remember is that every penny these private prison companies
get is taxpayer money, Wright said. They have no private customers. Every
penny is from taxpayers somewhere. And I think the public has the right to
know how its costing us. All of this, of course, is unfolding in an environment in which the U.S.
Justice Department recently decided to end its use of private prisons for
federal inmates. Now, the Department of Homeland Security is evaluating
whether it should follow suit with its immigration detention centers, with a
report expected by the end of November. As we said last month, the Justice Departments action alone should
compel the State of Hawaii to examine whether there is an opening for Hawaii to
bring new accountability to its relationship with CCA, given the issues
raised by Justice uncertainty around cost savings and inferior levels of
safety, security, services, programs and resources. With new information emerging, however, DPS and Gov. David Ige must move
beyond simply re-examining its contract with CCA. First, DPS must bring on independent monitors at the prisons where Hawaii
inmates are incarcerated in Arizona. Those monitors work must be made public
in its entirety, without the extensive redactions that obviate any ability to
hold DPS and CCA accountable. Civil Beat has currently been given records for
only one sample month of that work rather than what we requested the
totality of monthly monitor records that span two years. Unacceptable. Second, state lawmakers must be ready with draft legislation in January
that limits confidentiality in the DPS-CCA relationship and that allows more
to be known regarding both the services CCA is providing Hawaii taxpayers and
any problems Hawaii inmates are encountering in CCA custody. Lastly, the state Department of the Attorney General must look into the
design contract for replacement of the OCCC. Specifically, the AG must look
at whether there are any issues that would prevent Louis Berger from
participating in the OCCC design project, given its troubling track record in
other government jobs. DPS must also make details of its OCCC design project publicly available,
including information on subcontractors, their pay and their performance.
Contractors who dont want to be held accountable for their work should look
elsewhere for business. Were sure that there are others who can provide the
services that Louis Berger has agreed to perform while meeting a level of
accountability that taxpayers have every right to expect.
Apr 29, 2016 civilbeat.com
CCA Submits The Only Bid For Hawaiis Private Prison Contract
After Hawaii sought bids last month for a lucrative new contract to house
hundreds of its prisoners on the mainland, no rivals stepped up to challenge
the states current contractor. The Hawaii Department of Public Safety
announced Thursday that Nashville, Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of
America, the largest for-profit prison company in the country, was the sole
bidder for the contract. The department released the bidder information in
response to Civil Beats request three weeks after we began asking for it.
As we reported Monday, the department initially refused to disclose the names
of any bidders or even how many bids had been submitted saying that the
information was confidential. But the department changed course after Civil
Beat brought to the departments attention a 1994 decision by the Hawaii
Office of Information Practices, which declared that the bidder information
should be made public, once the deadline for submitting bids passed.
According to the departments request for proposals, the deadline for the
pending contract was March 31. In 1998, Hawaii began sending its prisoners to
facilities operated by the Corrections Corporation of America, of Nashville,
Tennessee, the countrys largest for-profit prison company. Under the current
contract, signed in 2011, CCA houses nearly 1,400 Hawaii prisoners about a
quarter of the states overall inmate population at the Saguaro
Correctional Center, a 1,926-bed facility in Eloy, Arizona, about 70 miles
southwest of Phoenix. CCA charges the state a daily rate of $70.49 per prisoner,
for a total of more than $30 million in fiscal year 2015. Toni Schwartz,
public safety spokeswoman, said the department has not yet selected the bid
winner, even though the provider selection was supposed to be made by April
18. Schwartz noted that the schedule in bid documents was tentative, but she
declined to provide more details. We are still in the process of awarding a
contract, so we are not releasing any further information at this time, she
said. CCA spokesman Jonathan Burns declined to comment on the pending
contract. In deference to the process, we reserve comment at this time, he
said.As of April 25, 2016, Corrections Corporation of American was housing
1,389 Hawaii prisoners almost a quarter of the states overall inmate
population at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona.Hawaii has a
longstanding relationship with CCA dating back to 1998, when it first began
sending prisoners to the CCA-run Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton,
Minnesota. The state has gone on to use eight other CCA-run facilities across
six states. For years, the state retained CCAs services through the use of
inter-governmental agreements, a tactic that allowed the Department of Public
Safety to bypass the states competitive bidding requirements in the Hawaii
Public Procurement Code. But, in 2010, the practice came under fire from
Hawaii State Auditor Marion Higa, who accused the department of circumventing
the procurement rules in an attempt to steer a noncompetitive contract to
CCA. The following year, the department decided to turn to a standard
procurement process for the first time since the state began shipping
prisoners to the mainland in 1995. In the end, though, CCA was the sole
bidder and easily secured the 2011 contract. Five years later, the department
appears to be on the same track with the pending contract which takes
effect when the 2011 contract expires at the end of June. Troubles at Saguaro
in recent years have included the murders of three Hawaiian inmates and
several lawsuits over prison conditions. It isnt clear what new conditions,
if any, the department will seek to impose in a new contract, once
negotiations begin after the bid winner is selected. Kat Brady, coordinator
of the Community Alliance on Prisons, finds the process troubling, noting
that the state has no choice but to deal with CCA and CCA knows it. We are
basically being taken hostage, Brady said. CCA knows they are in a great
negotiating position. And, once the contract is signed, they know they can get
away with a lot of stuff because we have no other option. Thats a recipe for
disaster.
Apr 14, 2013 staradvertiser.com
The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii claims the state Department of
Public Safety is illegally withholding public records that attorneys
representing families in wrongful prison death lawsuits have paid thousands
of dollars to receive. The ACLU of Hawaii filed a lawsuit Thursday, saying
that a California law firm has paid more than $5,300 in fees but the state
hasn't released a single document. The firm Rosen, Bien, Galvan &
Grunfeld LLP wants access to documents concerning the state's oversight of
private mainland prisons where inmates from Hawaii are being held because of
a lack of space in aging Hawaii facilities. Among the requested records are
documents concerning gang activity and segregation in the Arizona prison
where two Hawaii men were killed. Clifford Medina was strangled and Bronson
Nunuha was stabbed in 2010 while at Saguaro Correctional Center. Their
families say the deaths would have been prevented if the state didn't ship
prisoners to a mainland facility that neglects them. The families' lawsuits
are in the discovery phase. The ACLU's lawsuit details an attorney for the
families making repeated requests for the documents and allowing for numerous
extensions since September. At one point the state tells the attorney that
lawyers for Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the prison,
instructed the Public Safety Department not to produce any government
records, in violation of state law, according to the complaint. The firm paid
$5,327.50 in fees and costs the department required to produce the requested
records. But instead of releasing any documents, the department has
"responded with empty promises to produce some government records at
some undetermined point in the future, along with vague, unsubstantiated
objections to producing broad categories of government records," the
complaint states. Public Safety spokeswoman Toni Schwartz said in a statement
Friday, "We were served the lawsuit and it is being reviewed. We have
been advised by our deputy attorney general to refrain from commenting on the
case since it is pending litigation." Daniel Gluck, senior staff
attorney for ACLU of Hawaii, said, "Hawaii's open records law is
expansive and clear; agencies have an obligation to respond to requests for records in a thorough and timely manner.
We have done all we can to resolve this matter outside the courts, but when
the state ignores its obligations under the law, we have to step in."
February
20, 2012 Honolulu Civil Beat
Last week the ACLU of Hawaii and human rights advocates filed suit against
the state and Corrections Corporation of America over the death of an inmate
in the Arizona prison operated by CCA. We decided to dig out the December
2010 state audit of the deal between Hawaii and CCA to house prisoners in the
Saguaro facility. You may recall the report by State Auditor Marion Higa was
extremely critical of the Department of Public Safety (under the Lingle
administration) for the way the contract was handled and overseen. But we
were struck by another section. It described how difficult it was for the
state's own auditors to access public information they needed to figure out
whether the taxpayers were paying too much to keep prisoners on the mainland.
We already knew it's difficult for reporters and members of the public to
access "public" information in Hawaii. But for the auditor, the state's own watchdog appointed by the Legislature, to run
into the same kinds of problems. Wow! Here's much of what Higa had to say on
DPS' stonewalling: Our audit was marked by numerous roadblocks to our access
to information. Department officials repeatedly attempted to deny us direct
access to individuals and documents, define our audit scope, and stop us from
conducting an audit at all, among other issues. At the onset of our audit, we
provided our request for information to the department, a standard procedure
during the preliminary planning phase of an audit. Our first request for
documents was made to the department on June 22, 2010. We repeated this
request on July 13, 2010 and July 21, 2010. Documents were provided piecemeal
and oftentimes, had been filtered through management, as opposed to directly
by the responsible individual. For requests specific to Offendertrak, the
departments inmate tracking system, the deputy director of administration
questioned our need for the information, maintaining that it was not
pertinent to the scope of our audit. The management information system
administrator was instructed not to meet with our analyst or provide answers
to questions about Offendertrak. Instead, all inquiries were directed to the
business management officer and the deputy director of administration ...
During the preliminary planning phase of this audit, the department director
and the Mainland/FDC Branch administrator invited members of the audit team
to accompany the contract monitors on their quarterly site visit from June
29 to July 1, 2010 to observe the monitoring practices in place. On the
second day of observation, the Saguaro warden informed us that he would not
allow us to obtain copies of any documents on instructions from the
department director. The director questioned our legal authority to proceed
with the audit because of the governors veto of House Bill No. 415, House
Draft 1, Senate Draft 2, Conference Draft 1 of the
2010 legislative session which had called for a prisons audit that included
the closure of Kūlani Correctional Facility. The director wanted
requests to be routed through his office for review and final release of
documentation. On several occasions, the director screened our requests,
raised questions, and denied access in an attempt to define our scope and
control our workflow, thus causing delays in fieldwork. For example, on July
14, 2010 we sent an email to the director requesting the documents previously
reviewed by the audit team at Saguaro. On July 21 and July 27, 2010 we
followed up on that request, and on July 30, 2010, we received notice that
the director would not provide the documents because he deemed them
confidential and beyond the scope of our audit objectives. We proceeded,
anticipating that the supporting documentation would be included in the final
audit report by the departments own contract monitoring audit team that we
had been invited to join. We again experienced some delays in our fieldwork
because the final audit report was not released until the director authorized
the branch administrator to do so. Lastly, towards the end of our fieldwork,
the Institutions Division administrator issued an advisory email to all
wardens to submit any response to our inquiries to management first for
approval. Higa went on to point out that the auditor has constitutional as
well as statutory authority to obtain "foundational" information
necessary to be a "fearless watchdog of public spending." DPS' efforts
to withhold information caused unnecessary delays, Higa said. Jodie
Maesaka-Hirata, the current director of DPS who as interim director in
December 2010 had to respond to the audit, conceded in a letter to Higa:
"I'm a little perplexed by the lack of cooperation your Team
received." She promised to use the experience with the audit to improve
relations with "your team, the Legislature and more importantly the
community."
Hawaii Legislature
January
28, 2011 Star-Advertiser
The Abercrombie administration is starting to make good on the governor's
promise to bring all state prison inmates incarcerated on the mainland back
to Hawaii.The state returned 243 inmates from Arizona last week and sent back
just 96 to take their place. Of the 243 returning inmates, 54 are getting
paroled, 28 are about to complete their prison terms and three are back for
court hearings. When Gov. Neil Abercrombie promised swift action last month
to bring back all Hawaii inmates serving time in mainland prisons, state
Senate Public Safety Chairman Will Espero was not expecting action so soon.
"I was pleasantly surprised," he said. Espero said he learned of
the returning inmates yesterday from state Public Safety Director Jodie
Maesaka-Hirata. He said the state conducts prison transfers quarterly, but it
usually sends at least the same number of prisoners to the mainland as it
returns. He applauded Abercrombie's plan to bring back all Hawaii inmates.
"If we're going to spend $60 million a year to house inmates, I'd rather
spend it here in Hawaii than on the mainland," Espero said. The state
returned 152 inmates to Hawaii on Jan. 19, sent 96 to Arizona on Jan. 20 and
returned an additional 91 last Friday. The transfers leave 1,759 Hawaii
inmates in Arizona: 1,705 in Saguaro Correctional Center, 51 in Red Rock
Correctional Center, two in Florence State Prison
and one in Central Arizona Detention Center. Central Arizona, in Florence,
and Saguaro and Red Rock, both in Eloy, are private
prisons operated by Corrections Corp. of America, which houses Hawaii inmates
under contract with the state. Abercrombie made his promise after 18 Hawaii
inmates at Saguaro sued CCA, the state and the state's contract monitor. The inmates claim they were beaten and assaulted and their
families threatened by prison guards. The Public Safety Department sent a
team to examine practices at Saguaro last year after two Hawaii inmates died
in February and June. The state returned all but one of the 169 women serving
time in a CCA prison in Kentucky in 2009 after the inmates reported
widespread sexual abuse by guards and prison employees. The Abercrombie
administration is starting to make good on the governor's promise to bring
all state prison inmates incarcerated on the mainland back to Hawaii.
December
29, 2010 AP
State Auditor Marion Higa on Wednesday blasted the Hawaii Department of
Public Safety's management of a contract to house prisoners in privately
owned Arizona prisons. In a 77-page report, Higa also criticized the
financial data about the arrangement the department has provided legislators
and the public for using a flawed methodology and containing inaccurate or
insufficient figures. "Without clarified guidance by policymakers, the
department has no incentive to perform better and will continue to evade
accountability by providing unreliable and inaccurate reporting of
incarceration costs," Higa wrote in the audit's conclusion. "In
addition, the department has misused its procurement authority to circumvent
the process designed with safeguards to protect the state's interests,"
she added. There was no immediate response to a request for comment from
department officials or Gov. Neil Abercrombie's office. Much of the audit's
findings are critical of actions taken by the administration of Abercrombie's
predecessor, Linda Lingle. Abercrombie has said he wants to stop exporting
inmates to other states but hasn't spelled out whether that would mean
building more prisons in Hawaii or releasing less-dangerous inmates to free
up existing beds. According to the audit, about 2,000 male Hawaii prisoners
currently are housed in the Florence, Red Rock and Saguaro correctional
centers owned by the Corrections Corporation of America. The state in 2006
signed an "intergovernmental agreement" with Eloy, Ariz., where the
facilities are located, but deals almost exclusively with CCA, the report
contended. The arrangement allowed agency officials to circumvent and
manipulate the state's competitive procurement process to steer business to
CCA, the audit found. The department also treated CCA as a government agent
instead of a private vendor operating for a profit, it contended. The CCA
contract is set to expire on June 30. But the report concluded the state as
of early October had no plan to address that looming deadline. Without such a
plan, "the department is shirking its responsibility to provide for the
safety of the public through correctional management, and leaves the
operational staff ill-prepared to contract for private prison beds and
services," the audit stated. The report also aimed fire at the
department's reporting to the Legislature. It asserted that agency officials
reported "artificial cost figures" that were derived from a
calculation that itself was "based on a flawed methodology."
"Because funding is virtually guaranteed, management is indifferent to
the needs of policymakers and the public for accurate and reliable cost
information," the audit said. "As a result, true costs are
unknown." In addition to improving its financial and program data, and
its monitoring of operations at the CCA prisons, the auditor called on the
state's chief procurement officer to suspend the public safety department's
contracting authority for private prisons until its practices and policies
are changed and staff have been better trained.
December
16, 2010 Star Advertiser
Gov. Neil Abercrombie promised swift action to bring back all Hawaii
inmates serving sentences in mainland prisons in light of a new lawsuit
alleging their mistreatment by guards at an Arizona facility. "I intend
to work as quickly as I can to bring all prisoners back," Abercrombie
said yesterday at a news conference in his office. "I don't want to send
anybody out of the state." Abercrombie this month named Jodie
Maesaki-Hirata, acting warden of the Waiawa Correctional Facility, as head of
the Department of Public Safety and said yesterday he would need more time to
put together the team to examine the problem. "I will be working with
the Department of Public Safety and with the Judiciary and with the
Legislature to forge a comprehensive and integrated program to deal with the
question of incarceration," he said. Kat Brady, coordinator for the
Community Alliance on Prisons, applauded Abercrombie's plan, saying most of
the state's inmates are nonviolent offenders or qualify for minimum security.
"They should be back in Hawaii preparing to successfully re-enter their
communities," she said. "Nobody can successfully re-enter from
Arizona. "To me, they've got to come back to
Hawaii with a year or two left on their sentences to get in touch with their
families and that kind of thing." The Circuit Court lawsuit was filed
this week on behalf of 18 island inmates at the Saguaro Correctional Center
in Eloy, Ariz., a 1,897-bed prison owned by Corrections Corp. of America.
Saguaro is home to about 1,800 male inmates from Hawaii. About 50 more are at
a separate CCA prison in Arizona. The lawsuit filed this week by Honolulu
attorneys Michael Green and John Rapp alleges inmates were abused and their
families in Hawaii threatened in retaliation for a guard being injured while
trying to break up a fight. Inmates were "beaten and assaulted,
including by having their heads banged on tables while they were stripped of
their underwear and while their hands were handcuffed behind their backs,"
according to the lawsuit. Guards also threatened to harm the inmates'
families, saying they had all of their emergency contact information and knew
where to find them, the complaint states. The lawsuit names CCA, the state of
Hawaii and the state's contract monitor, John Ioane, as defendants. The
Saguaro facility has come under scrutiny before. Earlier this year, the
public safety department sent a team to examine practices at the site after
deaths of two Hawaii inmates in February and June. Three inmates, all from
Hawaii, have been charged in the deaths and could face the death penalty if
convicted in Arizona. The lawsuit alleges the latest mistreatment occurred in
July. Hawaii spends about $61 million a year to house male inmates on the
mainland because there is not enough space for them in prisons here. Last
year, after female inmates from Hawaii alleged widespread sexual abuse by
guards and employees at a CCA facility in Kentucky, the state pulled all 168
of them from the prison and brought them back to the islands to serve their
time. Former Gov. Linda Lingle this year vetoed a bill that called for a
financial and management audit of the state's contract to house prisoners at
Saguaro, saying the measure would force the auditor to go beyond her duties
and make a policy judgment about whether the state should continue to send
prisoners to the mainland. Abercrombie called the policy of sending prisoners
away "dysfunctional." "It costs money. It costs lives. It
costs communities," he said. "It destroys families. It is
dysfunctional all the way around -- socially, economically, politically and
morally. "We want to do a lot more in the way of intervention. We want
to do a lot more in the way of programs."
June
28, 2010 Hawaii Reporter
I am the associate editor of Prison Legal News, a non-profit publication
that reports on criminal justice issues, and I am contacting Hawaii lawmakers
in reference to HB 415, which was recently vetoed by Governor Lingle. HB 415
would, among other provisions, require that the State Auditor conduct an
audit of Hawaiis contract to house over 2,000 prisoners in mainland
facilities operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). I ask that
you vote to override the governors veto, to ensure that an audit is
conducted into the states $60 million annual contract with CCA to house
Hawaii inmates on the mainland. As you are likely aware, last year the State
of Hawaii withdrew its female inmates from CCAs Otter Creek Correctional
Facility in Kentucky following a sex scandal in which at least six CCA
employees were charged with sexual abuse or rape, including the prisons
chaplain. I was quoted in the New York Times concerning that egregious
situation; a copy of the article is enclosed. You are also likely aware that
two Hawaii inmates recently were murdered at the CCA-operated Saguaro
Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona Clifford Medina was strangled to death
on June 8, while Bronson Nunuha was stabbed to death on February 18, 2010.
Two homicides within a four-month period is unusual
in any prison system and is indicative of major problems. Most importantly,
an audit of the States contract with CCA is necessary because CCA can not be
relied upon to assess itself. Although CCA conducts its own internal audits,
according to a March 13, 2008 TIME magazine article based on the reports of a
corporate CCA whistleblower, the company produces two types of internal audit
reports: A general audit report is provided to contracting government
agencies, while an audit with specific comments and notations by the CCA
auditors is retained for in-house use only. A copy of the TIME article is
enclosed. In fact, the companys then-General Counsel Gus Puryear admitted,
in response to questions by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, that CCA
did not make customers aware of these documents, and specifically said CCA
does not share the separate commentary made by auditors. An excerpt from
Mr. Puryears written responses is attached; the full document is too large
to fax but can be accessed at the following web link or I can email you a
copy upon request:
www.privateci.org/private_pics/Puryear%20Sen%20Feinstein%202.pdf Based on the
sex abuse scandal at CCAs Otter Creek facility, in which a number of Hawaii
inmates were sexually abused, as well as the recent murders of two Hawaii
prisoners at CCAs Saguaro facility, and CCAs admission that it does not
share all of its internal audit documents with its customers, I ask that you
vote to override Governor Lingles veto of HB 415. An audit of the States
$60 million contract with CCA is necessary to ensure that Hawaii taxpayers
are getting the value they are paying for when housing inmates in mainland
private prisons. For full disclosure purposes, I also serve as president of
the Private Corrections Institute, which opposes prison privatization, and am a former prisoner who served six years at a
CCA-operated facility in the 1990s. Since my release in 1999 I have
extensively researched private prisons, and have testified before legislative
committees in two states and the U.S. House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism
and Homeland Security in regard to that topic. Thank you for your time and
attention. Alex Friedmann is the Associate Editor of PLN
June
26, 2010 AP
Gov. Linda Lingle has vetoed legislation that called for an audit of a state
contract with a private prison firm that houses Hawaii felons. In a statement
Friday, Lingle said HB 415 would be costly, duplicative and would force the
state auditor to go provide a legal opinion and make a policy judgment
outside the scope of a normal audit. The state's contract with the
Corrections Corp. of America has come under scrutiny lately in part because
of the deaths of two Hawaii prisoners at the firm's Arizona facility. Two
female inmates from Hawaii serving time at the company's Kentucky prison are
suing the company and Hawaii. One of the inmates claims she was raped by two
guards. Hawaii removed its female inmates from that facility last year.
June
22, 2010 KITV
State lawmakers said Tuesday they are seriously considering a veto override
if Gov. Linda Lingle (R) vetoes a bill calling for a cost-benefit audit of a
privately run Arizona prison. The state spends more than $60 million a year
to send nearly 2,000 Hawaii inmates to Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy,
Ariz., because of prison overcrowding in Hawaii. Saguaro is run by the
Corrections Corp. of America. Two Hawaii inmates have died at Saguaro Prison
in Arizona in less than four months. Inmate Clifford Medina's cellmate
admitted to Arizona police he strangled Medina June 8th. Bronson Nunuha died
Feb. 18 after multiple stab wounds to his neck. Two Hawaii inmates have been
indicted in the case on first degree murder and gang related charges. State
Sen. Will Espero (D) said Tuesday, in light of the deaths at Saguaro, it's time for an audit. "If the governor
does veto this bill. I think it would be a big mistake," said Espero.
"I think it would be unwise considering in the last several months there
have been two murders at Saguaro plus the fact that we pay $61 million a year
to CCA to keep our inmates in there." The Corrections Corp. of America
also runs Otter Creek Prison in Kentucky where after allegations of rape and
inmate abuse, all Hawaii's female inmates were returned to Hawaii. Lingle in
her potential veto message said an audit of mainland prison operations is
expensive and unnecessary. But Espero said that's not so. "The governor
said it would be too expensive, but in the bill we do not have an
appropriation so the auditor's office would be using funds it already has,"
said Espero. State Auditor Marion Higa said she is operating under the
assumption Lingle will let the audit bill become law. Higa said next week two
analysts from her office will spend the week at Saguaro working beside
prisons officials from Hawaii as they do their quarterly quality control
inspection. Higa said that will help her analysts begin planning for the
audit Hawaii lawmakers requested. Higa said she expects the prisons audit
will be inexpensive because she will use in-house staff and money that has already
been appropriated for her department. Espero said that if the governor vetoes
the prisons audit bill, he will recommend a veto override. House Public
Safety Chairwoman Faye Hanohano was a prison guard at Hawaii's Kulani Prison
for 25 years. Hanohano said she will also recommend an override if the
governor vetoes the prisons audit bill. Hanohano said more needs to be known
to determine if Hawaii taxpayers are getting their money's worth by sending
prisoners to the mainland instead of incarcerating them in Hawaii.
"There is a lot of missing data that needs to be brought out and
hopefully an audit will flush it out," said Hanohano.
June
16, 2010 Star-Advertiser
Two Hawaii inmates charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of
a fellow Hawaii inmate at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona could
face the death penalty if convicted. The two are the first to face capital
punishment for a crime committed in a private prison on the mainland since
Hawaii started housing inmates out of state in 1995. Because Hawaii has no
death penalty, some legal advocates say the case could be unprecedented in
the nation. Some also argue the situation raises new questions about the
practice of sending inmates out of state to serve their sentences. State
Department of Public Safety officials say they are monitoring the case, but
it doesn't appear they plan to step in to urge Arizona to take the death
penalty off the table. "When you commit a crime in a different state,
it's a crime that is addressed with that state," said DPS Director
Clayton Frank. "We abide by the laws of that respective state." The
two inmates -- Miti Maugaotega Jr., 24, and Micah Kanahele, 29 -- were
indicted on first-degree murder and gang-related charges May 20 in the killing
of Bronson Nunuha, 26, who was found in his cell at Saguaro on Feb. 18 with
multiple stab wounds. Maugaotega was serving a life sentence for first-degree
attempted murder in the June 2003 shooting of Punchbowl resident Eric
Kawamoto. Kanahele was serving two 20-year sentences for the October 2003
shooting deaths of Greg Morishima at his Aiea home and Guylan Nuuhiwa in a
Pearl City parking lot a week later. Nunuha was behind bars for three counts
of second-degree burglary. News that Maugaotega and Kanahele could face the death
penalty comes as the state is investigating a second killing of a Hawaii
inmate at Saguaro. Clifford Medina, 23, was killed June 8 at Saguaro, and his
cellmate, also a Hawaii inmate, is in custody in connection with the case.
Yesterday, Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, the acting governor while
Gov. Linda Lingle is traveling in Asia, said the killings highlight the need
to take a closer look at security at Saguaro and could prompt the state to
move inmates from the facility. But he said he would have to do more research
before weighing in on whether the state should voice opposition on the two
inmates facing the death penalty. Some 1,871 male Hawaii inmates are at
Saguaro, a 1,897-bed prison in Eloy, Ariz., owned by Corrections Corp. of
America. About 50 more are at a separate CCA prison in Arizona. The state
spends about $61 million a year to house male inmates on the mainland because
there is not enough room for them at Hawaii prisons. Last year, allegations
by female Hawaii inmates of widespread sexual abuse by guards and employees
at a CCA facility in Kentucky prompted the state to pull all 168 of its
female inmates from the prison and bring them back to the islands to serve
their time. A spokesman with the Pinal County Attorney's Office, which is
prosecuting the Nunuha case, said the death penalty is within sentencing
guidelines in a first-degree murder case. He declined further comment because
the case is ongoing. Fifteen states, including Hawaii, do not have the death
penalty. State Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Senate Public Safety
Committee, said the Nunuha case could prompt more discussion on the
implications of shipping Hawaii inmates out of state. Espero added he wants
to learn more about the killing before trying to determine whether the state should
stand in the way of a death penalty sentencing. "Quite frankly, it was a
cold-blooded murder," he said. "I'm sure you will find people in
Hawaii that say they deserve (to face) the death penalty." But, he
added, "these cases really do show the need to come up with a plan to
bring home our prisoners one day." Opponents of the death penalty say
the case raises legal questions. In a statement, ACLU Hawaii said it hopes
Arizona will "respect Hawaii's history and tradition of rejecting
capital punishment in their treatment of Hawaii's inmates." ACLU also
said Nunuha's killing is "just one of a morbid series of events showing
the need for independent oversight" of CCA's contract with Hawaii. The
group urged the governor to sign a bill into law that calls for an audit of
the state's contract with CCA.
May
19, 2010 Honolulu Weekly
When Hawaii inmate Bronson Nunuha was stabbed to death in his cell at
Corrections Corporation of Americas Saguaro Correctional Facility in Elroy,
Arizona, on February 18, he had only about eight months left to serve on his
full sentence for three counts of burglary. Normally, at that stage of a
prisoners sentence, he or she would expect to be out on parole or serving in
a minimum security facility and enrolled in programs to help him or her
transition to life in the outside world. But Nunuha was in a high-security
program that placed him under lockdown for all but two hours of each day.
Nunuha was among about 1900 Hawaii inmates kept at CCA facilitiesmost at
Saguaro, but about 50 at nearby Red Rock Correctional Center and one woman
still at CCAs Otter Creek facility in Kentucky (most Hawaii women inmates
were transferred back to the islands after allegations surfaced of rape and
other misconduct at Otter Creek). Nunuhas death, along with the sudden
closure of the Big Islands Kulani Correctional Center last year, have helped
to fuel calls for an independent audit of the states Public Safety
Department and its dealings with CCA. A bill requiring such an audit passed
the Hawaii Legislature in its 2010 session and HB415 is now awaiting Gov.
Linda Lignles signature.. It received support from
the American Civil Liberties Union, the Community Alliance on Prisons, the
Drug Policy Forum, the United Public Workers, the Hawaii Government Employees
Association, and various attorneys and social workers. Among the very few to
testify against: Public Safety Director Clayton Frank. De-paroling for
profit? Private prisons are for-profit corporations, accountable as most of
those businesses are to their shareholders and investors; with profits as
their primary motive. They have a self-serving interest in keeping their
census up to capacity, and their costs low, much like hotels and other
lodging businesses, testified Jean Ohta of the Drug Policy Forum. It is
because of this self-interest on the part of private prisons that an audit
should be conducted. We have received numerous reports suggesting that CCA
is not meeting its most basic of constitutional obligations in housing
inmates. We have also received several reports suggesting that CCA may be
keeping inmates longer than necessary; because Hawaii pays CCA per inmate per
day of incarceration, the longer inmates are held, the more money CCA
receives, testified ACLU attorney Daniel Gluck. Gluck wrote that his
organization had received numerous reports of inmates whod been granted
parole being held for four months or more by CCA (based on vague and
unsubstantiated reasons for ignoring the Paroling Authoritys orders) and of
Saguaro inmates, including those with no previous records of infractions,
being written up for spurious rule infractions shortly before their parole
eligibility dates, disqualifying them for parole. One month of additional
incarceration at CCA can easily cost the State and the taxpayers nearly
$2,000money that is sorely needed for other programs like drug
rehabilitation, mental health care, and educationand the Legislature need
not (and should not) allow these reports to be ignored, he added. Asked
about infractions at CCA, Franks told Honolulu Weekly, I dont believe that
they receive anymore disciplinary writeups than what we have here. At the
legislature, Frank maintained that an independent audit was unnecessary.
These contracts and agreements referenced in this measure are already
audited on a regular basis by an independent auditor, he testified. But when
the Weekly checked the departments records for an audit of the Saguaro
facility, all that turned up was a checklist. Shari Kimoto, who filled out
that checklist, is the Public Safety Departments Mainland Branch Manager,
the state employee in charge of managing the departments relations with CCA.
She is also the wife of Republican Party Chair Jonah Kaauwai, who is himself
a former Public Safety official. CCA has been a heavy contributor to
Republican Party candidates and causes, including Republican Governor Linda
Lingle, who received the maximum legal donation of $6,000 for each of her
gubernatorial campaigns. Kimoto checked the compliant box for every one of
the audit checklists 115 categories, covering everything from the
temperatures of the freezers to the presence of inmate property forms. But
the audit did not appear to monitor whether inmates were being kept overtime.
HW asked Frank about the independent audits he referred to in his
testimony. He said he would check. Later in the interview, he said that CCA
facilities were audited and accredited by the American Correctional
Association. Frank told the legislature that prisoners in CCA facilities cost
the state about half as much to maintain as those at the states own
correctional facilities. He told HW that those figures were based on the
states contracts and included transportation costs to the mainland. But
neither his figures, nor the ACA audits, nor Kimotos, include an examination
of such factors as the length of time inmates served before parole in
different facilities, the costs of lawsuits by inmates or their families, or
the recidivism rates of inmatesfactors that the departments critics want
examined. Services and sentences Frank said prisoners were selected to go to
the mainland based on a series of criteria: They must have sentences of a
minimum of 24 months, they must have no major medical or health care
problems, and They dont have any pending criminal cases here. Apparently,
though, that system doesnt always work. Ive had clients whove been
transferred to AZ who still have cases pending, attorney Daphne Barbee said.
Ive had to have them brought back. One client, she said, didnt get back
in time for his own hearing; he only got his day in court because the judge
granted an extension. Bronson Nunuha was in the 22-hour lockdown, Frank said,
because of disciplinary conduct. How fast an inmate such as Nunuha goes
through the system, he maintained, depends on the inmate what the level of
participation he wants. Sometimes, he said, Rather than participate in the
program they just choose to max out on their sentence. But the departments
critics say that often services just arent available, that the programs at
CCA were sparse, and that the closure of Kulani Prison had aggravated the
problem.
July
12, 2009 Star-Bulletin
State officials are on the mainland to investigate accusations that
female prisoners from Hawaii have been sexually assaulted by guards at a
privately run prison in Kentucky. "It's a very serious issue, a serious
charge," Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday. "We have a very large
contract with this company, and we're going to have to sit with them when we
get the report." The Community Alliance on Prisons, which pushes for
humane treatment of Hawaii prisoners, held a protest at the state Capitol on
Friday, demanding that the state bring back female inmates held in mainland
prisons. They cited the alleged sexual assaults of five women at the Otter
Creek Correctional Facility in Wheelwright, Ky. But Lingle noted the costs
involved in housing the prisoners in Hawaii. "It's a concern because
there's no where to put them," she said. "If there's a desire to
bring prisoners home -- whether they're male or female prisoners -- we're
talking about hundreds of millions of dollars that we don't have right now.
... We don't have a facility right now where we can house them." The
state has spent $3.9 million to transfer and house female inmates in Otter
Creek since October 2005. Otter Creek currently houses 169 women from Hawaii.
The protesters cited a letter from inmate Pania Kalama-Akopian of Kapolei,
who accused guards of sexual assault. "Our fears are that nothing will
change," she wrote. "Nothing has changed. ... The only thing that
changed was the attitude of retaliation against the inmate population. We are
not safe. Where does the nightmare end?" Protesters alleged that five
Hawaii women and 21 Kentucky women have been sexually assaulted at Otter
Creek. Honolulu attorney Myles Breiner said he is representing three women
who were sexually assaulted at Otter Creek, including Kalama-Akopian.
"Hawaii's failed to account for their responsibility to Hawaii's
women," Breiner said. "Women occupy a unique place in the criminal
justice system. They come into the system already having been abused by
either childhood experiences or later on in their developmental years."
At the protest, Regina Dias Tauala, a mother of one of the victims, described
her daughter's ordeal at the prison. Totie Nalani Tauala was serving part of
her 20-year sentence at the prison for manslaughter when she allegedly was
sexually assaulted by a male guard. "It's hard to sleep sometimes,
because I do not know what is going on," Dias Tauala said tearfully.
"Yes, my daughter has to pay for being in prison. However, taking them
out of the state and so far away is inhumane, because they're cutting the
hearts of us mothers; we cannot see or touch our children." Otter Creek
officials declined to comment on the alleged attacks. But Hawaii Public
Safety Director Clayton Frank said a team of four investigators, including
deputy director Tommy Johnson, was sent July 5 to investigate the
allegations. Frank said investigators are working with the Wheelwright Police
Department and the Corrections Corporation of America, the prison's operator.
"The Department of Public Safety treats these kind
of incidents very seriously," Frank said.
April
3, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
State lawmakers have tentatively approved a bill to audit a privately run
Arizona prison that holds more than 1,800 Hawai'i convicts. House Finance
Chairman Marcus Oshiro said state Auditor Marion Higa likely would need to
contract with a Mainland auditing firm to conduct the performance audit of
Saguaro Correctional Center, a new 1,896-bed prison in Eloy, Ariz., that
houses only male prisoners from Hawai'i. The audit is expected to cost
$150,000 or more, but Oshiro said it will be "money well spent" to scrutinize
the Saguaro operation and the state contract with Corrections Corporation of
America. Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50 million a year to house more than
2,000 male and female convicts from Hawai'i in private prisons in Arizona and
Kentucky. Hawai'i first began sending prisoners to the Mainland in 1995 as a
temporary measure to relieve in-state prison overcrowding. About half of the
state's prison population is now held in out-of-state facilities. According
to Senate Bill 2342, "there has never been an audit of the private
Mainland prisons that Hawai'i has contracted with to house the state's
inmates, despite the fact that deaths and serious injuries have occurred at
several of the contract prisons on the Mainland." Oshiro said, "I
think it's prudent to spend some monies for the audit and review to make sure
that we're getting the best services for our money." The bill goes to
the full House for a floor vote, and if approved will be sent to a
House-Senate conference committee to iron out differences between the House
and Senate versions of the bill. The Senate proposed auditing both Saguaro
and the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Kentucky, where about 175 Hawai'i
inmates are being held. However, Oshiro said supporters of the bill told him
the Saguaro audit was more important because more inmates are there, so the
audit of Otter Creek was dropped from the House draft of the bill. Clayton
Frank, director of the state Department of Public Safety, has opposed the
bill because state prison officials already conduct quarterly audits of the
Mainland prisons that check up on programs, food service, medical service and
security, among other areas. "The department already has the expertise
in place and is currently providing a thorough and ongoing auditing process to
ensure contract compliance is being met," the department said in a
written statement Monday. For situations that require immediate attention,
"we have dispatched appropriate senior staff and Internal Affairs
investigators to the facilities," the statement said. The bill for an
audit is advancing after recent Mainland media reports cited a former CCA
manager who said he was required to produce misleading reports about
incidents in CCA prisons. Time magazine interviewed former CCA senior quality
assurance manager Ronald T. Jones, who said CCA General Counsel Gus Puryear
IV ordered staff to classify sometimes violent incidents such as inmate
disturbances or escapes as if they were less serious events to make the
company performance appear to be better than it was. Jones alleged more
detailed reports about the prison incidents were prepared for internal CCA
use, and were not released to clients. CCA denied the allegations, which Time
published as Puryear is being considered for a post as a federal judge.
Oshiro said he is aware of those reports. "There's questions being
raised right now, given what you read about nationally about the CCA
organization maybe having two sets of books, and I think it causes some
concerns, especially since we don't get to observe and watch or communicate
with our inmates being that they are way out there in the Mainland,"
Oshiro said. The statement Monday from Department of Public Safety noted that
the department "does not solely rely on CCA reports or internal audits.
As the customer, we feel it's not only our right, but also our responsibility
to Hawai'i offenders housed in CCA facilities, to send our own staff to the
Arizona and Kentucky facilities."
March
31, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
State lawmakers today will consider ordering an audit of two Corrections
Corporation of America facilities in the wake of national media accounts
alleging that the huge private prison company misrepresented statistical data
to make it appear that CCA facilities had fewer violent acts and other
problems than was actually the case. Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50 million a
year to house more than 2,000 men and women convicts in CCA prisons in
Arizona and Kentucky. Senate Bill 2342 calls for the State Auditor to conduct
performance audits of two of the three Mainland prisons that house Hawai'i
inmates, including reviews of the food, medical, drug treatment, vocational
and other services provided to Hawai'i inmates. The audit also would
scrutinize the way the state Department of Public Safety oversees the private
prisons and enforces the terms of the state's contracts with CCA. According
to the bill, "there has never been an audit of the private Mainland
prisons that Hawai'i has contracted with to house the state's inmates,
despite the fact that deaths and serious injuries have occurred at several of
the contract prisons on the Mainland." Clayton Frank, director of the
state Department of Public Safety, testified against the proposed audits in
Senate hearings last month, calling the audits "unnecessary and repetitive"
because his department already conducts quarterly audits to make sure CCA is
complying with its contracts with the state. Frank also suggested his
department was being singled out, arguing that if lawmakers want performance
audits to provide more accountability and transparency to the public,
"then it should apply to all state contracts and not be limited to just
the Department of Public Safety." Critics of the Mainland prison
contracts contend the audits are needed because the private prisons are
for-profit ventures designed to keep costs as low as possible. During the
decade that Hawai'i has housed inmates on the Mainland, the state itself has
criticized private prison operators when the companies failed to provide
Hawai'i inmates with programs that were required under the contract. Now,
supporters of the audit bill say an independent review is necessary to
scrutinize what is one of the state's largest ongoing contracts of any kind
with a private vendor. "Are we getting what we pay for? We'd like to know,"
testified Jeanne Y. Ohta, executive director of the Drug Policy Forum of
Hawai'i. The audit would cover the 1,896-bed Saguaro Correctional Center in
Eloy, Ariz., which houses only male prisoners from Hawai'i, and the 656-bed
Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., which holds about 175
Hawai'i women inmates. The House Finance Committee hearing on the bill today
comes in the wake of Mainland media reports citing a former CCA manager who
said he was required to produce misleading reports about incidents in CCA
prisons. The company operates about 65 prisons with about 75,000 inmates.
Time magazine interviewed former CCA senior quality assurance manager Ronald
T. Jones, who said CCA General Counsel Gus Puryear IV ordered staff to
classify sometimes violent incidents such as inmate disturbances, escapes and
sexual assaults as if they were less serious events to make the company
performance appear to be better than it was. Jones said more detailed reports
about the prison incidents were prepared for internal CCA use, and were not
released to clients. CCA denied the allegations, which Time published as
Puryear is being considered for a post as a federal judge. The Private
Corrections Institute Inc., an organization opposed to private prisons, wrote
to Hawai'i prison officials urging them to investigate CCA's reporting
procedures in the wake of the Time report. Alex Friedmann, vice president of
the institute, said most state monitors who are overseeing CCA prisons
"largely rely on information and data provided by CCA; further, the
accuracy of incident reports is entirely dependent on whether those incidents
are documented by the company's employees." Hawai'i Public Safety
officials did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations in the
Time article.
October
17, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
State prison officials say it's possible all of Hawai'i's women inmates on
the Mainland 175 convicts now held in a private prison in Kentucky could
be brought back and housed at the Federal Detention Center on O'ahu. Tommy
Johnson, deputy director for corrections of the state Department of Public
Safety, said negotiations could begin with the federal Bureau of Prisons to
house the women at the federal center near the Honolulu airport, provided
state lawmakers approve extra money for their care. Housing the women in
Hawai'i would double the cost of holding them in Kentucky, Johnson said.
There is no room at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua for
the Mainland inmates, but the detention center may have room for all 175
inmates, he said. The decision to house women inmates out of state has been
sharply criticized by lawmakers and prison reform advocates who say most of
the women were convicted of nonviolent crimes, and some are single mothers.
Some of the women convicts were the sole caregivers for their children before
they were sent to prison, and lawmakers and others have questioned the impact
that long separations without visits may have on the children and families
back in Hawai'i. Both the House Public Safety and Military Affairs Committee
and the Senate Public Safety Committee passed bills this year instructing the
Department of Public Safety to draft plans to return the women inmates to
Hawai'i. The bills were not approved by the full Legislature, but state
lawmakers are expected to revisit the subject in the 2008 session. Senate
Public Safety Committee Chairman Will Espero said he has heard the state may
rent an entire floor of the Federal Detention Center to house 120 of the
women now on the Mainland. "If that's the case, then great. We'll be
very supportive of it, but of course we have to provide them the programming
and other services that the inmates will need," Espero said. NO ROOM IN
HAWAI'I Hawai'i holds a larger percentage of its prison population outside
the state than any other state in the nation. As of last week the state was
holding 2,027 convicted felons in private prisons operated by Corrections
Corporation of America in Arizona and Kentucky, which is more than half the
total state prison population. Prison officials have said they would prefer
to house those inmates in Hawai'i correctional facilities, but there is no
room here because Hawai'i has not built a new prison in the past 20 years.
State prison officials had planned to move the women prisoners on the
Mainland from the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., to the
new Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., this year, but that plan has
been delayed, Johnson said. Now, Hawai'i prison officials are negotiating a
one-year extension of the Otter Creek contract, and are considering moving
the women to the federal lockup as "one option," Johnson said. The
state now pays about $54 per day per inmate to house the women at Otter
Creek, and that is expected to increase to about $56 per day under the new
contract being negotiated with CCA. The state pays $80.54 per inmate per day
to house about 150 prisoners in rented beds at the Federal Detention Center,
and Johnson said he expects the detention center would house the women for a
similar rate. However, the state would also have to put up money to provide
rehabilitative programming for the women that is now available at Otter
Creek, such as drug treatment and parenting classes. Those programs would not
be provided under a federal contract, which means the state would have to
establish those services at the detention center. 'IT'S ABSURD' Kat Brady,
coordinator of the Community Alliance on Prisons, said many of the women now
in prison do not need to be held in secure settings such as Otter Creek, the
Federal Detention Center or the Women's Community Correctional Center. Brady
cited Department of Public Safety statistics that show 40 percent of
Hawai'i's sentenced women inmates in 2006 were classified as community
custody, meaning they were eligible for work furlough, extended furlough or
residential transitional living centers outside of the prison system.
Additionally, about 21 percent of the women inmates were classified as
minimum custody inmates. According to the Department Public Safety, minimum
security prisoners can be placed in less restrictive minimum security prison
settings, or can be supervised in the community. "Instead of extending
the contract for that coal pit, why don't they instead get more transition beds
in the community, and let those women out who are community custody, who the
department itself says can be in the community with no supervision?"
Brady said. "It's absurd that we keep using the most expensive sanction
to deal with people who are community custody. It's absurd, it's immoral,
it's expensive and it doesn't help anybody."
February
10, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
House and Senate lawmakers who say it's time to rethink the state's
practice of sending Hawai'i inmates to the Mainland are advancing a bill
aimed at bringing 175 Hawai'i women prison inmates back from a privately run
Kentucky prison. The Senate Public Safety Committee approved a bill last week
instructing state corrections officials to develop a plan for returning the
inmates by July 1, 2009. The House Public Safety and Military Affairs
Committee approved an identical bill late last month. The proposal rekindles
a debate about how best to house Hawai'i's inmate population, with the chairs
of both the Senate and House public safety committees saying the Mainland
option needs reviewing. "I feel that looking at the re-entry and the
reintegration of prisoners eventually into our society, we need to have them
close to their families here in Hawai'i, where I think that they'd be better
served," said Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Public Safety Committee.
House Public Safety Chairwoman Cindy Evans said some of the women were the
sole caregivers for their children before they were sent to prison, and it is
important for the women to maintain their family ties. "By removing her,
that removes her access to the family, and we don't think that's a good
idea," Evans said. "We're also finding that most female prisoners
are not the real violent ... types; they're in there maybe for drug abuse,
and the types of crimes they committed were to feed their habits."
"These women are going to go back into our community and go back home,
and we feel it's better to have them here instead of on the Mainland,"
she said.
July
6, 2006 Honolulu Advertiser
The state is expected to spend more than $50 million annually to house prison
inmates on the Mainland, and will have an entire Arizona prison dedicated to
Hawai'i convicts under newly signed contracts with the Corrections Corp. of
America. The state has been paying $40 million annually for CCA to confine
about 1,900 convicts on the Mainland because there is no room for them in
Hawai'i prisons. State lawmakers this year authorized corrections officials
to boost that total to more than 2,500 inmates. When the additional prisoners
are sent to the Mainland, Hawai'i will have more convicted felons serving
their sentences on the Mainland than in prisons here. Hawai'i already holds
almost half of its prison population out of state, a larger percentage than
any other state. Shari Kimoto, administrator of the Mainland Branch of the
state Department of Public Safety, said the 1,896-bed Saguaro Correctional
Center under construction in Eloy, Ariz., will house all of the women and
most of the men Hawai'i holds in other CCA prisons on the Mainland. Saguaro
will be a "treatment-intensive" prison with an array of drug
treatment and other rehabilitation programs that exceed anything available in
Hawai'i prisons, Kimoto said. The state also plans to rent nearly 500 beds in
the new Red Rock Correctional Center next to the Saguaro site. That will
consolidate Hawai'i prisoners serving sentences in Arizona, Kentucky,
Mississippi and Oklahoma. Kat Brady, coordinator for the Community Alliance
on Prisons, said inmates have a better chance if they maintain ties with
families, and those bonds suffer when convicts are thousands of miles away.
"It's those kinds of connections and the connections with the community
... that's going to keep people out of prison," she said. "The more
we banish people, the worse it gets."
October
13, 2005 Star Bulletin
HAWAII'S surging economy is resulting in a state budget surplus even larger
than expected, setting the scene for a tug-of-war among competing interests
in the next Legislature. Education and the prison system are most in need of
increased funding, but the budget is large enough to accommodate significant
tax relief. The state has experienced a shortage of prison space for years
and now pays for incarceration of more than 2,000 inmates in private mainland
prisons. Ninety percent of inmates held in those facilities go on to commit
more crimes, compared with a recidivism rate of 47 percent to 57 percent for
those held in island prisons. The budget surplus provides an opportunity to
fight crime by building new prisons in Hawaii.
October
3, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
This tiny town has a slow feel to it. Some of that is a testament to southern
graciousness, when people make time for one another. Some of it is due to a
menacing apathy that festers when people are out on the street with nowhere
to go. This community in the North Delta region, described in federal reports
as one of the most depressed areas of the country, is where the Corrections
Corp. of America built the 1,104-bed Tallahatchie County Correctional
Facility in 2000. The prison holds more than 850 Hawai'i inmates. The 325
jobs at the prison offer the best-paying work around, said chief of security
Danny Dodd. CCA's starting pay in Tutwiler is about $8.40 an hour,
considerably less than the $13.20 an hour for new corrections officers in
Hawai'i, but Dodd said there is no shortage of applicants. There is
significant staff turnover, which means the prison is often short-handed.
Tutwiler resident Mary Meeks said her husband pulls double shifts at the
prison as often as twice a week because people quit or don't show up for
work. Some residents said they were led to believe the Tallahatchie County
Correctional Facility would hold only Mississippi lawbreakers, and were
alarmed to learn the company was importing prisoners. Contract monitors last
year described the Mississippi staff as young and inexperienced, and said
most had never worked in a prison before. CCA requires five weeks of
training, compared with eight weeks for Hawai'i corrections officers.
According to monitoring reports, in the first six months after the Hawai'i
inmates arrived, several employees were fired for smuggling cigarettes into
the prison and having inappropriate relationships with inmates - a problem
that has arisen at other Mainland prisons where Hawai'i prisoners have been
held. Inmates complain about the medical and dental services at Tallahatchie,
gripes that were confirmed last year when Hawai'i prison monitors warned CCA
the prison was failing to meet National Commission on Correctional Health
Care Standards because a doctor was there only eight hours a week to care for
almost 1,000 convicts. In May, the monitors warned that dental services were
insufficient because a dentist was available only eight hours a week, but the
backlog of inmates waiting for dental care had been somewhat reduced when
inspectors returned last month. CCA does not attempt to separate
gang-affiliated prisoners, and inmates said keeping rival gang members in the
same unit can be dangerous when things go wrong. There has already been one
disturbance in a unit that houses gang members at Tallahatchie. On July 17,
20 cell doors in a SHIP unit popped open unexpectedly at around 2:45 a.m.,
freeing inmates. Ronnie J. Lonoaea, 32, of Hawai'i was severely beaten in his
cell before guards released tear gas and restored order about 90 minutes
later. Scott Lee of Hawai'i, who suffered a broken jaw in the incident,
recalled how some prisoners in the unit frantically tried to close their
jammed cell doors because they feared an attack by fellow inmates. A CCA
investigation concluded the cell doors probably opened because a corrections
sergeant hit the wrong control button. Komori said the sergeant and a captain
who supervised the unit no longer work at the prison.
October
3, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
Monitoring reports and inmate accounts from the years Hawai'i has been
sending inmates to Mainland prisons reveal a long and continuing history of
riots, assaults, gang activity, drug trafficking and repeated contract
violations for failing to provide adequate healthcare and rehabilitative
programs. Fires and disturbances at the privately run prisons have caused
substantial damage, injuries and even death. Wardens have been fired or
replaced, and federal civil rights investigations launched. Inmates have been
transferred from one prison to another because of poor service. Kat Brady,
coordinator of the Hawai'i-based Community Alliance on Prisons, contends the
state did not properly research the privately run prisons before sending
inmates to the facilities and doesn't adequately monitor the operations.
"I think it's outrageous, and the thing that really concerns me is the
state sends our people to places where they've done no due diligence,"
said Brady, who is probably the most outspoken critic of the Mainland
placements. "They just seem to say, 'Well, it's cheap, so let's turn our
inmates over to the lowest bidder.' It seems that in Hawai'i when we send our
people away, it's almost 'out of sight, out of mind.' "
Nearly 1,830 Hawai'i inmates are being held in facilities run by the
Corrections Corporation of America. CCA is holding approximately 1,750 men
from Hawai'i in prisons in Oklahoma, Arizona and Mississippi, and about 80
Hawai'i women in a facility in Wheelwright, Ky. The company is the state's
sole provider of Mainland prison beds, with contracts worth about $36 million
a year. Since the first batch of 300 prisoners was shipped to two
correctional centers in Texas in 1995, there have been at least 11 riots
involving Hawai'i inmates at Mainland facilities. By contrast, veteran prison
workers said they cannot recall a single riot at Halawa Correctional
Facility, the largest state-run prison, during the past 10 years. One
national study found that privately operated prisons had 49 percent more inmate-on-staff
assaults and 65 percent more inmate-on-inmate assaults than government-run
facilities. CCA argues on its Web site it is a "myth" that private
companies experience higher rates of assaults and escapes, saying that
"historical, statistical data for related incidents actually reveal that
public and private sector performances are comparable." Howard Komori,
supervisor of the Department of Public Safety contract monitors who oversee
conditions in the private prisons, said there may have been a greater number
of disturbances at the Mainland facilities because of their more relaxed
"campus atmosphere," and that Mainland corrections officers often
are less experienced than prison workers in Hawai'i. Former prisons chief
Keith Kaneshiro believes years in Mainland prisons have instilled a dangerous
gang culture in Hawai'i inmates that will present problems for corrections
officials for years to come. Kaneshiro, a former Honolulu prosecutor who has
no interest in coddling convicts, exported hundreds of inmates to the
Mainland to relieve crowding when he was public safety director from 1996 to
1998, but he is now counted among critics of the arrangement. He said the
inmates were supposed to be returned to Hawai'i as soon as a new prison
opened, but a new prison was never built. When the inmates realized they
would be serving long stretches out of state, they banded together to protect
themselves from rival gangs from other states, he said. State reports
describe activity by the Hawai'i gangs at CCA's Diamondback Correctional
Facility in Watonga, Okla., and at Florence Correctional Center in Arizona.
Suspected gang members also are housed in special disciplinary units at
Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Miss. Department of
Public Safety officials say the Mainland prison companies generally respond
quickly when concerns are raised about their operations, but the state has
often had to prod them to deliver on educational, job-training or
drug-treatment programs that are required by contract. This has been a
particular problem for women inmates. The state transferred its first group
of female inmates to the Mainland in May 1997, when 64 prisoners were sent to
Crystal City Correctional Center near San Antonio, operated by the Bobby Ross
Group. Concerns about sanitation and the contractor's failure to deliver
mental-health and other treatment programs led the state in 1998 to move the
women from Texas to the Central Oklahoma Correctional Facility, operated by
the Correctional Services Corp., based in Sarasota, Fla. The prison was taken
over by Dominion Correctional Services and sold in 2003 to the state of
Oklahoma. When the Oklahoma prison failed to provide required drug treatment
and work opportunities, Hawai'i moved its women inmates in 2004 to GRW
Corp.'s 250-bed facility in Brush, Colo. Then, early this year, Colorado
authorities announced a criminal investigation into allegations that prison
staff had sexual contact with eight inmates, including two women from
Hawai'i. Two corrections officers were charged with felony sexual misconduct
with inmates. The warden resigned, and was later indicted as an alleged
accomplice in one of the cases. All three men are awaiting trial. When the
sexual misconduct allegations surfaced in January, virtually all rehabilitative
and educational programs were shut down until early June, prison officials
acknowledged, violating a contract requirement that those services be
provided. Gil Walker, president of GRW Corp., said the prison needed all of
its resources to cope with security problems and the sexual misconduct
scandal, and didn't have staff to spare for programs. The programs resumed
when new staff was hired. But there were other problems with contract
compliance at Brush. For a period of months, inmates taught required
rehabilitation classes to other inmates. Colorado corrections officials who
regulate private prison operations repeatedly complained about the practice,
and Hawai'i contract monitors warned in February that it was a "serious
concern." Inmates and state monitors complained repeatedly that adequate
dental and medical care was lacking at Brush. GRW officials reported in May
the facility was visited by a doctor only once a month,
and a contract monitor's report called the staffing inadequate. Monitors warned
the company in February and again in May it was obliged to provide better
access to dental care. A Colorado audit released in June found the clinic at
Brush was not licensed as required under Colorado law, a lapse that also
violated the Hawai'i contract. Hawai'i monitors complained last year that the
prison was not conducting required drug testing of inmates, and complained of
the same deficiency in a May report. Colorado authorities also discovered
that background checks were never completed on a number of Brush employees,
including five convicted felons who worked there and two others who had
arrest records. Failure to complete background checks was a breach of the
Hawai'i contract. Last week, the women inmates were moved from Brush to the
656-bed Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky. Hawai'i monitors
also have noted problems with delivery of required programs to male inmates.
Their reports show that a year after the first Hawai'i inmates were placed at
the CCA's Florence prison in Arizona, the facility still was not offering
educational and rehabilitation programs required by its contract. An October
2004 audit of the Lifeline substance-abuse treatment program at Diamondback
Correctional Facility in Oklahoma rated it as "unsatisfactory," in
part because there was no program director, and counselor caseloads were
triple the recommended levels. At the company's Tallahatchie County
Correctional Facility, monitors concluded in May that
dental services for the inmates were insufficient, with a dentist or
dental assistant on site for only eight hours a week to serve the 700-plus
Hawai'i inmates who were there at the time. Tallahatchie also was not
providing a cognitive skills rehabilitation program required by the Hawai'i
contract.
October
3, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
Starting pay for a corrections officer at CCA's Tallahatchie County
Correctional Facility in Mississippi is about $8.40 an hour, compared with
$13.20 in Hawai'i. The company operates prisons in high- unemployment areas
that need jobs, which helps reduce labor costs. Corrections Corp. of America,
a pioneer in the private prison industry, has control over nearly half of
Hawai'i's prison population in what may be the state's biggest venture into
privatization. The company is expected to collect $36 million from Island
taxpayers in mostly nonbid contracts this year. All but one of the prison
contracts were awarded without formal competitive bidding because,
technically, they are government-to-government agreements, which are exempt
from state procurement rules. The contracts are with governmental entities
such as Pinal County in Arizona, the Watonga Economic Development Authority
in Oklahoma and the Tallahatchie County Correctional Authority in
Mississippi, which subcontract the work to CCA. The company has been dogged
by controversy over its financial stability and management, labor practices,
and safety problems that led to escapes and deadly violence. Some critics
argue it is wrong for a business to profit from the imprisonment of human beings.
The company's most notorious incidents occurred at Northeast Ohio
Correctional Center in Youngstown, which opened in 1997. During the first
year of operation, when the prison held 1,500 inmates from the District of
Columbia, there were 13 stabbings, including two fatalities. The prison was
supposed to hold only medium-security inmates, but more than 100 had to be
moved after it was discovered they actually had higher security
classifications. The deaths of several inmates while under prison medical care
brought additional scrutiny, and when a group of five murderers and another
inmate escaped, Ohio Gov. George Voinovich wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney
General Janet Reno in July 1998 saying he wanted the prison closed. A lawsuit
filed by inmates alleging unsafe conditions at the Ohio prison resulted in a
$1.65 million settlement with CCA. The prison closed in 2001 when the
District of Columbia withdrew its inmates, but CCA reopened the facility last
year to accommodate federal detainees. More recent CCA troubles include a
five-hour riot involving inmates from Washington, Colorado and Wyoming at
Crowley County Correctional Facility in Colorado in July 2004. Nineteen
inmates were injured in that melee. A Colorado Department of Corrections
report found prison staff were inexperienced, undertrained and spread too
thin to control the inmates. The night of the riot, fewer than 35 corrections
officers were on duty for more than 1,100 prisoners. There also have been
problems at CCA prisons holding Hawai'i inmates, including violence, drug
smuggling and contract violations. Still, state prison officials say CCA has
generally done a good job and has been quick to make changes when
deficiencies are pointed out. CCA's formula for success includes buying or
building prisons in rural or depressed communities such as Tutwiler, Miss.,
and Wheelwright, Ky., providing needed jobs in areas with high unemployment.
That strategy helps CCA keep its wages relatively low, which is critical
because labor is the primary cost in operating a prison. The starting pay for
a CCA corrections officer at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in
Tutwiler is about $8.40 an hour, compared with $13.20 for a new guard in
Hawai'i. Since CCA relies on government contracts, it has not shied away from
playing politics. The company last year contributed $100,000 to the DeLay
Foundation for Kids, a charity established by U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay. DeLay
resigned as Republican majority leader last week after he was indicted in
connection with a Texas political fundraising scandal. In Montana, which is a
CCA client, the company donated $10,000 to help finance an inauguration ball
for Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer. In the state of Washington, another
client, CCA has made political contributions to Republican and Democratic
organizations and candidates. Hawai'i Gov. Linda Lingle accepted a $6,000
corporate contribution from CCA in 2002, the maximum allowed in a four-year
campaign cycle, and an identical sum in February of
this year for her 2006 re-election race.
October
2, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
A decade ago, Hawai'i began exporting inmates to Mainland prisons in what was
supposed to be a temporary measure to save money and relieve overcrowding in
state prisons. Now, the state doesn't seem to be able to stop. With little
public debate or study, the practice of sending prisoners away has become a
predominant feature of Hawai'i's corrections policy, with nearly half of the
state's prison population - 1,828 inmates - held in privately operated
facilities in Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arizona and Kentucky at a cost of $36
million this year. Hawai'i already leads all other states in holding the
highest percentage of its prison population in out-of-state correctional
centers, and if Hawai'i policymakers continue on their present course, by the
end of 2006 there likely will be more inmates housed in Mainland prisons than
at home. Although public safety officials say the private companies that
house Hawai'i inmates have generally done a good job, the history of Mainland
prison placements is pockmarked with reports of contract violations, riots,
drug smuggling, and allegations of sexual assaults of women inmates. Former
prisons chief Keith Kaneshiro says years in Mainland prisons have instilled a
dangerous gang culture in Hawai'i inmates that has spread back to the Islands
and will present problems for local corrections officials for years to come.
There is also concern that inmates who are incarcerated on the Mainland lose
touch with their families, increasing the likelihood they will return to
crime once they are released. Robert Perkinson, a University of Hawai'i
assistant professor of American studies, called the state's prison policy
"completely backward." "None of this makes sense if your goal
is to make the citizens of Hawai'i safer and use your tax dollars as
effectively as you can to make the streets safer, based on the best available
research that we have," said Perkinson, who is writing a book on the
Texas prison system. Marilyn Brown, assistant professor of sociology at
UH-Hilo, said Hawai'i's out-of-state inmate transfers are a strange throwback
to corrections policies of two or three centuries ago, when felons were
banished to penal colonies in Australia or the New World. Most of the $36
million being spent this year on out-of-state prison accommodations will go
to Corrections Corp. of America, a pioneer in the private corrections
industry. The company holds about 62,000 inmates nationwide, including about
1,750 men from Hawai'i in prisons in Oklahoma, Arizona and Mississippi. Last
week the state transferred 80 Hawai'i women inmates from a prison in Brush,
Colo., owned by GRW Corp. to Otter Creek Correctional Center, a CCA prison in
Wheelwright, Ky. Those selected for Mainland transfers generally are felons with
at least several years left on their sentences who
have no major health problems or pending court cases that would require their
presence in Hawai'i. Private prison contractors have the final say, and can
reject troublesome inmates with a history of misconduct. Ted Sakai, who ran
the state prison system from 1998 to 2002, said it will always be cheaper to
house inmates on the Mainland because of labor costs, which are considerably
lower in the rural communities where many prisons are. But there are benefits
to keeping prison jobs here, he said. In 2000, state House Republican leaders
scolded then-Gov. Ben Cayetano for proposing to lease more prison beds on the
Mainland. House Minority Leader Galen Fox said doing so would be bad for the
state's economy and the inmates' families. An Advertiser poll of Democrats
and Republicans before the start of the Legislature's 2003 session found a
majority of state lawmakers opposed the practice. Republican Gov. Linda
Lingle also has said she is opposed to sending more prisoners away. Yet
spending on Mainland prisons has steadily increased over the past 10 years,
and politicians have failed to take action on alternatives. The Cayetano
administration explored several options for privately built or privately
operated facilities on the Big Island and O'ahu, but each proposal was
thwarted by political resistance or opposition from communities near
suggested prison sites. Lingle campaigned in 2002 on a promise to build two
500-bed secure "treatment facilities," but three years later, no
specifics have been provided on when or where the projects might be built. As
Hawai'i's policy of out-of-state incarceration becomes more entrenched, other
states are moving in the opposite direction. Connecticut and Wisconsin both
recently brought home almost all of their inmates who had been housed
elsewhere, and Indiana returned 600 convicts from out-of-state prisons.
Alabama, meanwhile, doubled the number of convicts on parole to allow inmates
to return from a Corrections Corp. of America-run prison in Tutwiler, Miss.,
last year. The vacancies at Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility were
filled by more than 700 Hawai'i inmates. Wyoming plans to open a new prison
in 2007 that would allow the state to bring back 550 inmates now held out of state,
and lawmakers in Alaska last year authorized planning for a new prison of
their own.
June
25, 2003
Legislators passed bills this session directing
Gov. Linda Lingle to begin talks for a new correctional facility at Halawa
and study the possibility of a fixed-rail transit system on O'ahu.
But Lingle doesn't want lawmakers tying her hands
on either of the issues, vetoing both bills. House Bill 298 would have directed the administration to
develop a replacement facility for O'ahu Community Correctional Center on a
vacant portion of Halawa Correctional Facility. "This bill is objectionable because it prevents the
consideration of alternative, possibly more appropriate sites and because it
requires expensive soil testing and a feasibility and planning study without
appropriating funds to do so," Lingle wrote in her veto message last
week. If the Halawa site is later
determined to be the best site for an OCCC replacement, Lingle said,
"existing laws already allow the administration to take steps necessary to
pursue that option." Former Gov.
Ben Cayetano had begun negotiations with an unnamed contractor for an OCCC
replacement at Halawa, but, after failing to complete a deal before Lingle
took office in December, left it up to his successor to deal with the issue.
The administration has said it is looking at
various options for correctional facilities, including a treatment center on
the Big Island. (Honolulu Advertiser.com)
May
28, 2003
Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle wants to build three new correctional facilities in
an effort to kill a plan for a new private prison in Hawaii, which she
opposed during her recent campaign. Interim Public Safety Director
James Propotnick said the administration plans to build a secured treatment
facility, a detention center to replace Oahu Community Correctional Center,
and a transition center for inmates leaving the prison system. He urged
legislators to stall action on a bill that requires the administration to
negotiate a privately-built prison in Halawa. The outgoing governor had
tried to secure the private project before leaving office. (Corrections
Professional)
May 20, 2003
The cost of running the state's correctional system
and sending inmates to Mainland prisons is steadily rising as officials work
on long-range plans that will likely involve building new facilities.
In the meantime, a nascent policy shift to
emphasize drug and alcohol abuse treatment programs is slowly building
momentum, despite limited financial support. There are more than 5,000 inmates in Hawai'i's
correctional system, including about 1,350 in private Mainland prisons. All
the state's jails and prisons are at or over capacity. The state has been spending more than $25 million per
year on the Mainland prisoners alone, including transportation and medical
expenses. And those costs will almost
certainly rise this year because state contracts with the Corrections
Corporation of America will soon expire. The department's budget for the
coming year includes $28.3 million for Mainland prisoner transfers.
Former Gov. Ben Cayetano had considered a plan to
replace OCCC by leasing space in a new jail that private developers would
build beside the Halawa prison. But
the plan stalled after the proposal exceeded the state's $130 million
estimate. Gov. Linda Lingle also asked that the plan be shelved so her
administration could weigh more comprehensive and long-term plans for the
entire correctional system. (Honolulu Advertiser)
February
2, 2003
Plans for three separate new prisons are under way at the state Department of
Public Safety, but it is too early to say when, where or how these facilities
will be built. Lt. Gov. James
"Duke" Aiona is spearheading a public-private prison deal to help Hawaii
inmates on the mainland who need substance-abuse treatment rather
than incarceration. But that is just
one of the three new facilities envisioned by state Public Safety Director
James Propotnick: a new secure drug treatment facility, a transition center
for inmates nearing scheduled release and a prison to replace the Oahu
Community Correctional
Center . Lawmakers also questioned Propotnick about
the 90 percent recidivism rate of Hawaii parolees
who served their time in mainland prisons. He said most of those parolees
returned to jail for technical violations, such as testing positive on drug
tests that are part of their probation. He believes these inmates would have
a better chance if there were treatment facilities locally to help them with
their substance abuse problems. (Star Bulletin)
January
22, 2003
Most of the Hawaii inmates serving time
at mainland prisons have violated parole and are now back in custody, says
interim state Public Safety Director James Propotnick. As a result, there is a 90 percent
recidivism rate for Hawaii parolees from mainland prisons, compared with a
rate of between 47 percent and 57 percent for Hawaii parolees incarcerated
locally. (Star Bulletin)
January
13, 2003
A majority of legislators oppose sending
more Hawai'i inmates to Mainland prison facilities, and favor
instead building a prison here and expanding community-based
drug treatment programs to help reduce prison crowding. But it remains to be seen whether hurdles
that continue to block movement on the prison issue such as cost and
location can be overcome in this year's Legislature, which opens on
Wednesday. The issue of what to do
about Hawai'i's crowded prisons has been hotly debated since the state began
paying to board inmates in Mainland facilities in 1995. The Legislature authorized
the governor several years ago to negotiate with developers directly for a
new correctional facility, but former Gov. Ben Cayetano abandoned
negotiations on a jail days before his term ended in December. Gov. Linda Lingle, who opposes sending inmates
to the Mainland, promised voters during the campaign that she would build two
privately financed, 500-bed drug treatment
correctional facilities in Hawai'i.
Many lawmakers most of them Democrats declined to indicate whether
they supported such a proposal. (The Honolulu Advertiser.com)
November
26, 2002
Gov. Ben Cayetano's efforts to cut a deal for construction of a new 1,100-bed
jail in Halawa before he leaves office next week are going down the
drain-literally. An unexpected $7 million to $8 million added cost to
upgrade the sewage system at the proposed Halawa prison complex has hindered
closing the deal with the unidentified developer, Cayetano told reported
Monday. "I told Governor (Linda) Lingle I'm handing it off to
her," Cayetano said after meeting with the governor-elect Monday
evening. "I gave her our perspective and I think that in the end
it'll be up to the new administration as to what is to be done. Two
weeks ago, Lingle said a proposed private prison on Hawaiian Homes land on
the Big Island prompted her to ask Cayetano to discontinue negotiations for
the Halawa facility. (AP)
November
25, 2002
Politics, little money and a "not in my backyard" attitude stopped
efforts to build a new correctional facility in Hawai'i despite years of
debate and an inmate population that nearly doubled in the past eight
years. Gov. Ben Cayetano said the argument is over cost, location and
what type of facility have managed to kill proposals during his tenure.
"Nobody wanted it in their backyard. And we had a tough time with
the unions because they oppose privatization." Gov.-elect Linda
Lingle has asked Cayetano to drop negotiations and wants to explore
options. Until a new facility is built, Cayetano said he believes the
only solution is to continue shipping inmates to Mainland prisons, a
situation which Lingle said she is opposed to. The state began dealing
with prison crowding in 1995 by paying to board inmates in Mainland
prisons. There are 1,294 Hawai'i inmates in three correctional
facilities in Oklahoma and Arizona. (The Honolulu Advertiser.com)
November
13, 2002
A proposal for a new private prison on
Hawaiian Home Lands prompted Gov.-elect Linda Lingle to ask the
Cayetano administration to halt prison facilities on other
islands also should be considered, she said. continue negotiations with a private vendor despite her objections.
Earlier this week, Lingle and Lt.
Gov.-elect James Aiona publicly asked Cayetano and Attorney
General Earl Anzai to refrain from committing the state to
a multimillion dollar prison construction contract before he leaves
office.
Lingle said she wants her administration
to be able to consider other options. Both she and Aiona support
rehabilitation programs for offenders. Lingle said she supports the idea of a privately operated
prison, but said any new facility should work in
conjunction with the planned University of Hawaii medical school
to rehabilitate offenders and provide drug and alcohol treatment
where needed. (AP)
November 13, 2002
Governor-elect Linda Lingle is asking
Gov. Ben Cayetano not to sign a multimillion-dollar contract
to build a new prison before he leaves office. "If the contract you are considering is a good one, it will
also be a good one three weeks from now when our
administration will have an opportunity to review it," Lingle
said in a letter faxed yesterday to Cayetano and state Attorney
General Earl Anzai. Cayetano
has been negotiating with a private developer over a $100 million
contract to build a 1,100-bed prison in Halawa Valley. The governor said he will not issue a formal response to Lingle's
letter until he sees it, said spokesman Cedric Yamanaka.
"He also says we've come a long way up to this point and will continue to
negotiate," Yamanaka said. Lingle also questioned why there was only one bid for the
project and after the initial bid was rejected, why
the project was not put out to bid again. "No information has
been released about whether the Office of the Governor is
negotiating with only one entity or more than one, what the
financing arrangement is or whether the new prison includes substance
abuse treatment," Lingle wrote. "We want the opportunity to make the final decision in
light of what envision for the corrections
system," said lieutenant governor-elect James Aiona, who said
he has been asked to oversee prisons, the state's drug problem
and other crime-related issues in the Lingle administration.
At a news conference yesterday, Aiona
said it would be a tragedy to build another prison without
providing facilities for substance abuse treatment. "We have real people with real problems who need real
solutions," he said. Aiona is a former Family Court and Circuit Court judge who set
up the state's Drug Court program. Aiona and Lingle learned of the governor's plans for the new
prison from the media. "We haven't had direct
contact from him," Aiona said. He also said he wants to split up the law enforcement and the
corrections functions of the Public Safety Department.
The corrections department deals more
directly with inmates and rehabilitation, and the sheriffs
are more concerned with law enforcement, such as issuing bench warrants
and protecting judges, according to Aiona. "The head of public safety has to wear two hats and has
conflicting interests," he said. (Star-bulletin)
September 3, 2002
Police have arrested one of 10 girls who escaped on Saturday from the Hawaii
youth Correctional Facility in Kailua. Meanwhile, the search continues
for the other nine girls who escaped overpowering two workers at the Hoopipa
Makai cottage. Private and state employees plan to meet this week to
"find out what needs to be done to avoid this from happening
again," said Bert Matsuoka, executive director of the state Office of
Youth Services. "Obviously, there are some glitches. There
are some bumps that need to be worked out," Matsuoka said.
According to Sgt. Wong, one of the girls notified a female residential
specialist that another girl was feeling ill and needed medication. The
residential specialist and a man, who was on his first day of training as a
staff member, were overpowered by the girls who escaped from the
cottage. (Star Bulletin)
September
2, 2002
One of the ten teenage girls who escaped from the Hawai'i Youth Correctional
Facility in Kailua Saturday was apprehended yesterday, police said. The
other nine remained at large last night. Officials said the girl
escaped at 12:33 p.m. Saturday after overpowering two guards and stealing an
unmarked white 1998 Ford Windstar van with license number GXT 744. (The
Honolulu Advertiser)
August
19, 2002
State public safety director Ted Sakai said he has strong reservations about
allowing a private company to operate a new jail planned for Halawa Valley,
but that the facility is sorely needed to replace the O'ahu Community Correctional
Center in Kalihi. Many mainland prisons are privately operated, but few
jails are because the inmate population is very different and requires
different skills to manage, he said. The new jail would be designed
more securely, be several stories tall, and less expensive to operate because
fewer guards would be needed, Sakia said. But the project's cost
remains a sticking point. The state on Monday rejected a proposal from
a development group led by Durrant-Media Five because the price was significantly
more than the $130 million officials had estimated. Some GOP
legislators yesterday said they are concerned that only one group bid on the
project, and they questioned that state's plan to finance the jail with
certificates of participation rather than lest costly bonds. The method
would increase the cost of bank rolling the project by $1.6 million for every
$100 million that's needed, and the cost would be spread over 30 years, he
said. But Tax Foundation of Hawai'i president Lowell Kalapa said the estimate
appears low and that the actual cost would depend
interest rates and the health of the economy. (The Honolulu Advertiser)
August
14, 2002
The Cayetano administration should known within a month whether it can reach
agreement with a contractor over a new state prison to replace the
overcrowded Oahu Community Correctional Center. House republicans,
however, want more information about it before the deal is done. Gov.
Ben Cayetano said yesterday he hopes a deal will be struck with Durrant-Media
Five within the four months he has left as governor. Durrant is a
design firm with Hawaii offices and the only bidder on the project. The
contract, Cayetano said, would be to build and possibly operate a new
1,100-bed prison in Halawa Valley. He said the state is negotiating the
cost per inmate, the kind of programs the facility would offer and other
details. In January, Durrant had proposed building a $116 million,
10-story, 1,1000-bed replacement for OCCC in return
for $4.8 million in annual lease payments from the state, with an option to
buy after 30 years. And the fact that there was only one bidder does
not trouble him, considering there are few companies nationwide that do this
kind of specialized work, he said. "Every time we try to find a
prison and put it someplace, there's nothing but opposition," Cayetano
said. "And this is an opportunity for us to do something.
That's why we're looking at it seriously. It's not a done deal yet
because the terms are subject to negotiation." House Republicans
said they have questions about the Durrant plan, in part because there has
not been a lot of public information about it. House Minority Leader
Galen Fox (R, Waikiki) said yesterday Halawa is as good a place as any to built a much-needed new prison. But he said others
have concerns because the negotiations over the contract are being done
outside the public arena. And there are concerns because only one
company submitted bids for it, he said. Charles Djou (R,Kaneohe), House minority floor leader, said he is
concerned about how the state will finance the plan. According to Djou,
the state proposal calls for Durrant to build the prison and the state to pay
a set fee for 20 years. If at any time the state government fails to
make a payment, the prison ownership would divert to Durrant, he said.
Theoretically, if that happens, Djou said the company would be able to import
prisoners to Hawaii from other states. (The Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
August
10, 2003
The state is moving rapidly to relieve crowded jails by building a new
facility, but the project is expensive and relies on a financing method that
is more costly than conventional schemes. The interest rate for such
borrowing is higher than that of general obligation bonds, which are more
commonly used to raise cash for government projects, so it will cost tax
payers more to pay off the debt. The financing plan would create a
trust entity to own the facility, sell the certificates of participation to
investors and pay off the debt with state lease payments over 30 years.
With annual lease payments of $8.4 million for 30 years, the total cost would
be $252 million, according to an outline of the plan. The group is
headed by the Hawai'i branch of Durrant, an architectural and construction management
firm with offices in 10 states. The company has worked on jail and
prison projects in Arizona, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Texas and
Wisconsin. Alvin Bronstein, director emeritus of the ACLU's National
Prison Project, said building a new jail would waste money and fail to
alleviate capacity problems. "No state and no country have ever
built their way out of an overcrowding problem," he said.
"Courts, prosecutors and police don't look for less costly alternatives
when they've got prison beds. This new building will be a Bain-Aid that
will be overcrowded the moment it opens." A better approach would
be to invest in serious drug abuse treatment programs, an expanded probation
system and community half-way houses and job-training programs, he said.
Lowell Kalapa, head of the independent Hawai'i Tax Foundation, questioned why
officials had not sought bond financing from lawmakers this year if the
project was so vital. "Is this in the best interest financially
for the taxpayer, or are they trying to skirt legislative debate?" he
said. "I don't think this is accountable, because the people have
not voted on it through their representatives in the Legislature."
Miyahira said that although the project itself would not require legislative
approval, the lease payments to retire the debt would be part of future
operating budgets that go before lawmakers. Gov. Ben Cayetano felt
certificates of deposit would be a good way to finance the jail because the
Legislature has been reluctant to approve bonds for other projects, including
schools, his press secretary said. Certificates of deposit have become
a popular vehicle to pay for government projects in jurisdictions where the
debt capacity is limited by law or voter approval is needed for bonds,
financial experts say. And the approach is especially popular for
prison construction. Cayetano would prefer that a private company run
the new facility instead of the state, but that issue has yet to be
decided. (The Advertiser)
Halawa
Correctional Center
Durrant-Media Five, Municipal
Capital Markets Group Inc., Foresite Capital Facilities Corp. and Group M, LLC.
April
2, 2002
Fearing continued prison overcrowding,
state officials are exploring building a new 1,100-bed prison
in Halawa Valley next to the existing 1,200-bed correctional institution.
The move comes after a private group
pitched a plan in January to build a prison without cost to
the state and lease it to the state. Yesterday, the state called for proposals to design and build a
prison at Halawa. "What we are doing is
asking for developers to front the money with the state coming
in later to pay it off," Sakai said. (Honolulu
Star-Bulletin)
January
17, 2002
The state is reviewing
"promising" proposals from private companies wanting
to build and run prisons on Oahu and the Big Island, Gov. Ben Cayetano
said Thursday. "They don't require any money up front," he said.
"They require perhaps (state) land, and it's possible we
may be able to do in two years if there's an agreement
struck." A development and
investment team headed by Honolulu architectural firm Durrant-Media
Five has proposed building a $116 million 10-story, 1,100-bed prison
adjacent to the Halawa Correctional Center to replace the Oahu Community
Correctional Center in Kalihi, according to an outline given state
lawmakers. (AP)
Hilo Rehabilitation Facility
Maranatha Corrections
January 17, 2002
A privately run Hilo rehabilitation facility for up to 1,000
inmates is one of a handful of prison proposals the state
is considering, Public Safety Director Ted Sakai said.
Gov. Ben Cayetano has stopped pushing a traditional prison and now favors
a rehabilitation center in the hope of reducing the number of
repeat offenders, Sakai said. "If we build anything, we want it to be treatment -
oriented," he said. Sakai noted a Big Island site is attractive due to the availability
of land and because it would allow local offenders to stay here.
Maranatha Corrections of Bakersfield,
Calif., wants to build a 250,000 - square - foot facility on
about 30 acres of Hawaiian home lands near Hilo International Airport.
In its proposed contract, Maranatha states it could use force
against inmates, provided the level does not exceed
federal and state laws, under a policy requiring state approval.
(Hawaii Tribune Herald)
Kahului Airport
Maui, Hawai'i
Wackenhut (Group 4)
June
17, 2008 Maui News
A federal grand jury in Honolulu has indicted Robert Butchie Tam Ho, a
former Wackenhut supervisor, for tampering with a witness to an arrest and
alleged assault by Tam Ho at Kahului Airport in 2005. Tam Ho has pleaded not
guilty to the two felony counts, which carry penalties of up to 10 years in
prison. He could not be reached for comment. The former assistant police
chief already was being sued in a civil action in 2nd Circuit Court over the
same events. Phil Lo-wenthal the Maui lawyer who, with his lawyer son, Ben,
is representing the plaintiffs said Monday, We didnt even know about the
tampering until the indictment was handed up earlier this month. However, he
said, the grand jury account tracked closely with the narrative given by his
clients: Greg Kahlstorf, president of Pacific Wings; Kahlstorfs business
partner, Frank Ford; William Goshorn, then a pilot for the airline; and Kahealani
Reinhardt, then also an airline employee. The name of the witness is given in
the indictment as J.W., a Wackenhut employee. On Oct. 20, 2005, Kahlstorf
had demanded a meeting with Airports Division and Wackenhut managers after
one of his pilots was cited and detained by Wackenhut for being in a
restricted operating area an offense Kahlstorf denied. The airline and the
guard company had had uneasy relations since at least February 2004, when
Wackenhut guards apparently pressured Pacific Wings to board a passenger who
had been turned back by airline security because she did not have acceptable
identification. The grand jury reported that Tam Ho left the meeting after a
shouting exchange with Kahlstorf. When he returned with two other Wackenhut
employees, they made a citizens arrest and tried to handcuff Kahlstorf for
harassment. Kahlstorf did not cooperate, and he and the two other guards fell
to the floor. Tam Ho ordered the other Pacific Wings employees out. They
left, but one, identified as W.G. (Goshorn, who related his story to
reporters in 2005), came back to witness what was happening to his boss. Tam
Ho adopted an aggressive fighting stance and struck W.G. about the head and
shoulders several times with his fists, according to the grand jury report.
Goshorn did not fight back, and others (not identified) pulled Tam Ho off
Goshorn. Maui police arrived, and Tam Ho, a former assistant police chief,
demanded that they arrest Goshorn. After an investigation that included an
interview with J.W., they did. Meanwhile, the private guards moved Kahlstorf
and Goshorn to the Wackenhut offices, which provides
the basis for the civil suits allegations of kidnapping. According to the
grand jury, J.W. also went to the offices, where Tam Ho told her she should
simply say she was heading home for the day . . . and that she didnt see
what happened. Although that was not so, that is what J.W. told police. The
second count refers to the following day, when, the grand jury said, Tam Ho dictated a written statement to J.W., who
entered it into a Wackenhut computer. The jurors said Tam Ho falsely had her
write that Goshorn had stopped the door and did not comply with Tam Hos
request; and that J.W. could not see what was happening but had observed Tam
Ho and him in a scuffle. The Airports Division investigated the incident and
concluded that there was no evidence that the actions taken by its airport
security contractor . . . were inappropriate. Tam Ho tried to get county
prosecutors to charge Kahlstorf and Goshorn with resisting arrest or assault,
but the prosecutors declined. They also dropped the initial complaint against
the pilot for entering a restricted area. The next month, a Wackenhut guard
confronted a Pacific Wings pilot about a parking spot and in a lengthy,
videotaped incident spat on and threatened the pilot. That guard was barred
from state facilities, and Wackenhut was ordered to train its employees about
conduct. The feud did not end there. In another confrontation, Pacific Wings
called Maui police, who declined to intervene in what they determined was a
civil matter. This is what the feds are supposed to do when local police
and prosecutors are involved so closely in a dispute, Lowenthal said of the
tampering indictment. The civil suit alleges that Tam Ho and other Wackenhut
employees assaulted, battered, kidnapped, unlawfully restrained and
intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the four Pacific Wings people.
In April, Tam Ho and Wackenhut separately denied those claims and asserted that
the airline group contributed to the incident themselves. Wackenhut could not
be reached for comment, but the company has demanded a jury trial. Lowenthal
later also asked for a jury trial, but he said Monday his suit will have to
hold until the criminal trial is settled, because of the Fifth Amendment
implications if Tam Ho were to be deposed for his clients. Tam Ho is free on
$10,000 unsecured bail.
June 13, 2008 KITV
The former head of security for Wackenhut at Kahului Airport pleaded not
guilty to federal charges on Friday. Authorities charged Robert Tam Ho with
two counts of witness tampering. Tam Ho told a subordinate to lie and file a
false report about an altercation between Tam Ho and an executive of Pacific
Wings, prosecutors said. Tam Ho joined Wackenhut after leaving the Maui
Police Department, where he was assistant chief. If convicted, he faces up to
10 years in prison.
June
8, 2008 Star Bulletin
A former Wackenhut of Hawaii security officer is facing federal charges
in connection with an altercation between Wackenhut employees and Pacific
Wings airline employees at Kahului Airport in 2005. A federal grand jury
returned an indictment yesterday charging Robert Tam Ho with two counts of
witness tampering. Tam Ho instructed a subordinate Wackenhut employee to tell
Maui police that she did not see Tam Ho assault Pacific Wings security
coordinator William Goshorn in an airport conference room on Oct. 20, 2005,
when in fact she did, according to the indictment. Tam Ho also directed the
worker to write a false statement about the assault, the indictment says.
Maui police arrested Goshorn on third-degree assault charges and Pacific
Wings President James Greg Kahlstorf for alleged harassment and resisting
arrest based on statements from Tam Ho and other Wackenhut employees. Less
than a month later, Maui police arrested Wackenhut security officer Eric
Brown for allegedly threatening another Pacific Wings employee at Kahului
Airport. Wackenhut suspended Brown, and the state Department of
Transportation banned him from working on any state property or facility.
November
24, 2005 The Maui News
The Maui County prosecutors office is continuing an
investigation into allegations of assault, harassment and violations of
airport security rules by personnel with Pacific Wings, a county official
said Wednesday. Prosecutors have not "dropped" the case, which
involves conflicting claims by the Pacific Wings staff and airport security
guards with Wackenhut Corp. "On the contrary, the prosecutor is still in
the process of gathering all the reports," the county statement said.
"The prosecutor intends to fully investigate both sides of the
controversy, to talk to various state personnel who may have knowledge of the
case or some particulars thereof."
November
15, 2005 KGMB 9
A Wackenhut security guard was arrested Sunday after threatening to kill a
pilot at the Kahului Airport. Pacific Wings pilot Gabriel Kimbrell caught the
incident on videotape. "Don't take picture of me!",
yelled guard Eric Brown as he lunged toward Kimbrell, and then spit at the
camera. "I'm going to kill this (expletive). I don't care," said
Brown. "Give me your (expletive) gun. I'm going to shoot this
(expletive) in the head." Maui police arrested Brown for second degree
terroristic threatening. "The only thing I could think of was to keep filming," said Kimbrell. "I was
pretty traumatized." Because of an ongoing beef with the guards,
Kimbrell had been ordered by his company's lawyer to videotape any
encounters. Sunday's incident stemmed from a parking ticket Kimbrell got when
he left his silver truck in this loading-zone at the Kahului airport. KGMB
called Wackenhut officials five times today. They did not return our calls.
But the Department of Transportation says Kimbrell had been ticketed in that
same spot last month. And this time, according to the DOT, as the guard was
about to write the ticket, Kimbrell could have just moved his truck but he
went to get his video camera instead. "We believe that at this point
Wackenhutt has followed proper security procedures and we think they've done
the job in checking on any security violations," said Scott Ishikawa,
spokesperson for the DOT. While the state's Airports Division investigates
the case, the Maui Police Department has about 45-minutes of this tape. The
Pacific Wings airline only gave the media less than three minutes worth. The
airline's president says the rest of it shows a pattern of harassment. The
airline's president refers specifically to a meeting last month in which he
says security guards attacked him and handcuffed him. In the end, the
airline's president was charged with harassment and resisting arrest.
Complaints were filed, investigations launched, and there's still no sign of
a resolution.
Otter Creek
Correctional Center
Wheelwright, Kentucky
CCA
April
15, 2010 AP
Gov. Steve Beshear signed legislation Thursday allowing prison guards to be
charged with felony rape for having sex with inmates The action came four
months after Beshear ordered 400 women removed from the privately run Otter
Creek Correctional Complex in Floyd County, where allegations of sexual
misconduct were widespread. The inherent power disparity between
correctional officers and inmates precludes there from ever being a
consensual sexual relationship between the two, Beshear said in signing
Senate Bill 17. This legislation offers greater protection for inmates in
our custody, and helps eliminate circumstances that can create security risks
in our prisons.
March
21, 2010 AP
Prison guards could face charges of felony rape for having consensual sex
with inmates under legislation that received final approval Monday, some
three months after Kentucky ordered 400 women removed from a lockup where
allegations of sexual misconduct had become widespread. Gov. Steve Beshear
said he intends to quickly sign the measure into law. "This legislation
offers greater protections for inmates in our custody, and helps eliminate
activities that can create security risks in our prisons," Beshear said.
"Additionally, this measure, which has been a priority for my
administration since I took office, further bolsters
our commitment to ensure the safety of female inmates." Earlier this
year, Beshear ordered all the female inmates removed from the corporate-run
Otter Creek Correctional Complex in eastern Kentucky after allegations of
sexual misconduct were made against the predominantly male corps of
corrections officers. State Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, said the
Kentucky Department of Corrections sought unsuccessfully to get the
legislation passed last year. With the Otter Creek controversy fresh on
lawmakers' minds, the measure passed both the Senate and House unanimously.
Denton said Otter Creek "underscored the problem and showed that we
really do need some additional weapons in the arsenal to deter this."
When the law takes effect later this year, prison guards, jailers and other
staffers who oversee inmates could be charged with felony rape and sodomy for
having consensual sex with prisoners. Under current law, corrections officers
face only misdemeanor charges for consensual sex with inmates. Beshear
ordered the women moved from Otter Creek, which is operated by
Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, to the state-run Western
Kentucky Correctional Complex. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Jennifer
Brislin said the inmate transfer is expected to be complete by September. The
transfer came four months after the Department of Corrections called for
security improvements at Otter Creek in a report that detailed 18 alleged
cases of sexual misconduct by prison guards there. The report called for
Corrections Corporation of America to take action to protect women inmates at
Otter Creek by making basic changes, like assigning female guards to
supervise sleeping quarters, hiring a female security chief, and shuffling
staffing so that at least 40 percent of the work force is female. Beshear
said finding enough women willing to work as corrections officers at Otter
Creek had been difficult. Perched on a mountainside above Wheelwright, the Otter
Creek prison came under public scrutiny when female inmates from Hawaii
complained that they had been subjected to sexual assaults by their male
guards. Corrections officials in Hawaii removed 165 inmates from Otter Creek
last year, citing safety concerns. Corrections Corporation of America
spokesman Steve Owen previously said that his company had taken steps to
prevent sexual assaults in the prison. Those steps, he said, included
installing video cameras to deter sexual misconduct and to help investigators
determine the validity of future allegations. Owen had said "the rogue
actions of a few bad apples" led to an unfair
characterizations of Otter Creek prison guards.
October
18, 2009 Honolulu Advertiser
A female inmate who was housed at the Otter Creek Women's Prison in Kentucky
has filed a lawsuit against the state of Hawaii and the company that operates
the prison, alleging she was sexually assaulted by a guard while
incarcerated. Pania Kalama, 35, alleges in her Circuit Court lawsuit that the
state and Corrections Corporation of America knew about improper behavior by
corrections staff at Otter Creek, but took no actions to ensure the safety of
inmates. Kalama said she was sexually assaulted on June 13 by corrections
officer Charlie Prater, according to the lawsuit. Last month, Prater, 54, was
indicted in Kentucky on a charge of first-degree rape. Hawaii corrections
officials sent 165 women inmates to Otter Creek, a private prison operated by
Corrections Corporation of America. State officials removed the inmates from
the facility following allegations of sexual assaults of inmates by staff.
The lawsuit, which was filed by attorney Myles Breiner, seeks an undetermined
amount in damages.
October
13, 2009 KGMB 9
All of the Hawaii inmates in a troubled Kentucky women's prison have been
brought home, except for one. That prisoner, Totie Tauala, happens to be a
whistleblower who helped expose sex assaults by the
guards. Her family wonders if she is being punished for speaking out, but a
state official said she was left behind for misbehaving in prison. "I
don't know what's going on. She's far away. If she was here in Hawaii at
least I could comfort her," said Tauala's mother, Regina Dias Tauala.
Tauala was convicted of manslaughter for killing Hayward Julio in 2002. She
is serving a 20-year sentence. While at the Otter Creek Women's Correctional
Facility in Kentucky in 2007, Tauala was sexually assaulted by a guard who
was later convicted of the crime. After investigating similar complaints from
other inmates, state officials decided to bring the women home. Out of 168
inmates, Tauala was the only one who didn't return last month. She was moved
to Colorado. "It had nothing to do with her being a whistleblower or
anything that she did regarding the incidents that took place. It had to do
with her classification," said Clayton Frank, director of the Department
of Public Safety. Frank said Tauala was the only one classified as maximum
custody because of her misconduct while in prison in Hawaii and Kentucky. "You
may have individuals that may have committed the same crime as Ms. Tauala,
but their custody and classification may be medium so they would be eligible
to return," explained Frank. Tauala just filed a lawsuit against the
state and the Corrections Corporation of America for failing to protect the
Otter Creek inmates. "They're using my daughter as a scapegoat. Why are
they punishing? She's the only one. Why they single that out?" said Dias
Tauala
October
6, 2009 Star-Bulletin
A female inmate from Hawaii who says she was sexually assaulted by a male
guard while incarcerated in a privately run prison in Kentucky is suing the
state and the prison operator, Corrections Corp. of America. Totie Tauala,
35, who is serving a 20-year state prison sentence for manslaughter, filed
the lawsuit in Circuit Court yesterday. The lawsuit identifies the prison
guard but does not name him as a defendant. Tauala claims the guard sexually
assaulted her on Oct. 17, 2007, while she was incarcerated at Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky. The state returned all 128 female
inmates it housed at Otter Creek last month following the indictments of six
prison employees for first-degree rape. The state moved its female inmates to
Kentucky in 2005 after a similar scandal at a privately run prison in
Colorado.
September
14, 2009 Courier-Journal
Authorities at a troubled private womens prison in Eastern Kentucky failed
to investigate seven alleged incidents of sexual contact between workers and
inmates dating to 2007, according to a Department of Corrections report
released Monday. In four of the cases, the workers were fired. But while the
state report found there was sufficient evidence to have warranted an
investigation under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act,
that was not done. Nevertheless, department officials have finalized a
one-year contract extension with the prison's owner and operator, Corrections
Corp. of America, or CCA. Justice Cabinet spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin said
the Nashville-based CCA agreed to conditions aimed at curbing the number of
sexual incidents between staff and inmates at the prison, the Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Floyd County. She said the department decided to
extend the contract for one year, instead of the normal two, to make sure problems
at the prison are resolved. The extension does not increase the $53.77 daily
rate per inmate a total of more than $8 million last year that the state
pays to house some 425 prisoners at the Wheelwright facility. The report,
which was based on allegations made in July, included 14 recommendations. CCA
spokesman Steve Owen said in a statement that the company has implemented or
is in the process of implementing the recommendations made in the report.
Many of those recommendations also are conditions for the contract renewal. A
recent Courier-Journal review of a state monitors monthly reports found that
the prison, which has been plagued by allegations of sexual assaults by
officers, has also been chronically understaffed and has suffered from poor employee
morale and security concerns. The report released Monday was obtained by The
Courier-Journal under the state's open records laws. All names of individuals
were removed. As part of its review, the department examined internal
investigative files from Otter Creek and found the four incidents in which it
found sufficient evidence to warrant an investigation under the Prison Rape
Elimination Act. During interviews and subsequent reviews, the department
found three more incidents that should have been investigated by prison
officials, according to the report. Incidents that should've been
investigated as possible violations include: *The firing of a worker for
violations of inappropriate correspondence. A review of the prison's
investigative file revealed that the worker made sexual comments toward an
inmate. *The firing of a worker for misconduct/destruction of property. The
worker was seen kissing an inmate, according to the department's review of
documents. *The firing of a worker for inappropriate contact with a former
resident. *The firing of a worker for bringing an inmate cigarettes and
frequently talking to her. *A witness account of a worker trying to get an
inmate into the staff bathroom. *An inmate's report that a worker made sexual
remarks to her and touched another inmate's breast. *A witness account of a
worker and inmate kissing. The report does not determine whether the
incidents in question actually occurred only that prison officials failed
to investigate the allegations. Such an investigation would lead to a finding
that the allegations were either substantiated,
unsubstantiated or unfounded. Brislin said it will now be CCA's
responsibility to investigate the alleged incidents and report to the state.
The conditions that the state has established for renewing the contract
include: *Providing female staff and officers for direct supervision of
inmates in any housing and medical units. *Maintaining a security staff that
is at least 40 percent female. *Conducting a security assessment of areas in
the prison where assaults have been reported and submitting and implementing
a plan to increase the use of cameras and other measures to enhance security.
*Instituting uniform reporting of all sexual contact to the department.
*Providing therapy for inmates who have had traumatic experiences. Owen said
CCA is united with our government partners in a commitment to zero-tolerance
policy for sexual victimization of any kind.
September
10, 2009 AP
House Speaker Greg Stumbo is calling for the Kentucky Justice Cabinet to
consider a proposal to lease a private women's prison and operate it with
state corrections officers. Stumbo sent a letter to Justice Secretary J.
Michael Brown on Thursday proposing the arrangement at Otter Creek
Correctional Complex, which is the focus of investigations into alleged sex
crimes against inmates. Six workers at the prison have been accused of sex
crimes in the last three years at the prison that houses about 420 women.
Stumbo said the state could lease the prison from Corrections Corporation of
America and use it exclusively to house Kentucky inmates. Brown has already
said the state won't renew its contract with the Nashville, Tenn.-based
company unless it hires a female security chief and maintains a security
staff that is at least 40% female.
September
7, 2009 Herald-Leader
A privately run prison in Eastern Kentucky plagued with allegations of
sexual improprieties involving guards and inmates did not report all sexual
abuse incidents to the state. A Herald-Leader review of sexual-incident
reports dating to 2006 showed that at least one alleged assault involving
Otter Creek Correctional Center staff and a Kentucky inmate was not reported
to the state by Corrections Corporation of America. Also, state correction
officials said, Otter Creek hasn't followed the same reporting standards for
sexual assaults as the state's 13 state-run prisons. State prison officials
confirmed that they never received a report from CCA about Randy Hagans, the
prison's former chaplain. Hagans was charged with third-degree sexual abuse
for alleged contact with an Kentucky inmate. He has
pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 21, court records
show. Steve Owen, a spokesman for the Nashville-based prison company, did not
answer questions about what happened to the report on Hagans. Over the past
three years, about a half-dozen corrections officers at Otter Creek have
faced sex-related charges for inappropriate contact with female inmates. On
Tuesday, Charles Prater, 54, a former corrections officer at Otter Creek, was
charged by a Floyd County grand jury with first-degree rape, a felony. Otter
Creek's reporting requirements for sexual assaults are more lax than the
state's 13 state-run prisons, which must report all sexual assaults including
assaults among inmates to the state Department of Corrections. CCA has been
required only to report incidents involving Kentucky inmates and officers,
said Jennifer Brislin, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Justice and Public
Safety Cabinet. The company's policy must change or Kentucky probably will
not agree to continue its contract with CCA, state Department
of Corrections officials said last week. CCA had contracts with both
Kentucky and Hawaii to house female inmates, but reports about sexual abuse involving
Hawaii inmates were not submitted to Kentucky. Therefore, it was difficult
for Kentucky authorities to get a count of how many inmates were alleging
sexual abuse at the hands of prison workers, Brislin said. Prater, for
example, was charged with raping a Hawaii inmate. "We wanted to see the
bigger picture and how they were handling these situations," Brislin
said. "We want to know that we are getting all the details. This is
going to give us more complete information." Both Kentucky and Hawaii
launched investigations in July into improprieties at Otter Creek. Hawaii
ultimately removed 128 prisoners from the facility. Kentucky is expected to
complete its investigation sometime this week. Still, Kentucky authorities
said they probably won't move the state's female inmates, noting that CCA is
working to make changes at the prison. "We are continuing to work with
our customers so that they are comfortable not only that they are getting
full reporting of incidents but also that their inmates are in the safest
environment possible," said Owen, the spokesman for CCA. Clayton Frank,
director of the Hawaii Department of Public Safety, said Friday that he had
no problem with Kentucky having access to incident reports involving Hawaii
inmates. Hawaii has removed all of its prisoners from the prison in
Wheelwright, Frank said. The state was at the end of its contract with CCA at
the time it removed its prisoners, he said. "We just felt that it was in
the best interest of everyone to bring them home," Frank said. Improving
reporting requirements is just one of many conditions that CCA must meet if
it wants its contract with Kentucky renewed, corrections officials said last
week. CCA has had a contract to house Kentucky prisoners since 2005. The
state and the company are negotiating another contract. In a letter to House
Speaker Greg Stumbo, Justice and Public Safety Secretary J. Michael Brown
outlined some of the conditions CCA must meet. The company must increase the
number of female guards at the prison, hire a woman as chief of security,
conduct a security assessment and increase some of its treatment programs.
"These conditions are non-negotiable," Brislin said. "We
believe that Corrections Corp. will agree to these conditions because it's in
their best interest to do so." Stumbo and eight other house members had
sent Gov. Steve Beshear a letter asking that the state assume operation of
Otter Creek. Corrections officials have said that it's not possible to
transfer the more than 400 women at Otter Creek because the Kentucky
Correctional Institute for Women the only other state-run prison for women
is at capacity. Otter Creek was built and is owned by CCA, so it would not
be possible for the state to take it over, Brislin said. Owen said he would
not elaborate on whether CCA is likely to agree to the conditions. However,
the company has agreed to increase the number of female correction officers
there. Owen said the negative publicity generated by the "rogue
actions" of individual employees is overshadowing "OCCS staff's
dedication and professionalism every single day in keeping the public safe
and treating the inmates entrusted to our care with dignity and
respect." Brian Wilkerson, a spokesman for Stumbo, said Stumbo is
researching the matter and might have a response to Brown's letter sometime
this week. Meanwhile, at least one Kentucky inmate has filed a lawsuit
against CCA and the state after she was sexually assaulted by Kevin Younce,
who was convicted in absentia of second-degree sexual abuse. There is an outstanding
warrant for his arrest. CCA has asked that the case be dismissed. Lawyers who
represent both Kentucky and Hawaii inmates said they plan to file other suits
in coming weeks.
September
6, 2009 Courier-Journal
An inmate with severe mental illness died last year at a troubled private
women's prison in Eastern Kentucky after being allowed to refuse medical
treatment. Beverly Ford Murphy, 54, of Louisville, was serving an eight-year
sentence for second-degree manslaughter in the 2005 stabbing death of her
youngest daughter when she died, on June 18, 2008, at the Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Floyd County. Her death certificate lists her cause of
death as heart disease, with Hepatitis C and diabetes noted as underlying
causes. Federal health privacy laws bar the department and the prisons owner
and operator, Corrections Corp. of America, from disclosing Murphy's medical
records and its unclear whether her refusal of treatment contributed to
her death. But a state investigative report, which The Courier-Journal
obtained through the states open records law, found that Murphy refused
medication for diabetes. The case raises questions about the circumstances
under which an inmate with serious medical conditions should be compelled to
receive treatment. While the corrections department fined CCA $5,000 last
year for failing to report Murphy's death to the state in a timely manner, it
did not impose fines relating to the circumstances surrounding her death. In
fact, department officials defend the prison's handling of the case, saying
Murphy had the right to refuse treatment because she had not been declared
incompetent by a judge. I can evaluate them, and I can feel that they may
not have sufficient capacity to make informed decisions, said Dr. Scott Haas,
medical director for the department. I may feel they have diminished
capacity due to various mental illnesses or various states of mind caused by
a medical condition, but that does not make them incompetent. But Elizabeth
Alexander, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison
Project, which litigates on behalf of inmates, said prison and state
officials can't allow prisoners to refuse treatment just because they haven't
been declared incompetent. She said officials have the responsibility to
determine whether inmates are refusing medication for rational reasons or for
reasons connected to their mental health. If in fact those reasons stem from
her mental health issues, then it was the responsibility of the facility to
consider getting a treatment order, she said. CCA spokesman Steve Owen
declined to comment on the specifics of Murphy's case, citing federal health
privacy laws. CCA's health care professionals continue to provide a wide
range of services to the inmates entrusted to our care, he said in a
statement. We will continue to work closely with (department) officials to
ensure that all inmates have appropriate access to care. According to
Murphys autopsy report, she had Prozac and two other antidepressants in her
blood, as well as anti-seizure medication. She had a history of seizures, the
report said. The states investigative report says that Murphy, who was
becoming less cooperative and more withdrawn, was taken from the medical
area five days before her death and placed in segregation, where she missed a
substantial number of insulin dosages. The report also found: *A
significant lack of communication among mental health and medical workers
and security staff. *Inconsistent diabetic monitoring. *A failure by nurses
to notify clinicians of abnormal glucose levels. *The inconsistent use of
forms to document testing and treatment refusal. *A lack of intervention
techniques in response to her refusal of insulin. *Failure to put medical and
mental health documentation into Murphy's file in a timely manner. According
to the report, a comprehensive mental health contact dated June 18, 2008, was
not entered into the record until after her death. Signed by four department
officials, the report notes that such issues create a perception that it was
acceptable to permit a patient to refuse medical treatment despite diagnosed
mental health concerns and impaired reasoning brought about by a worsening
medical condition. The department recommended that inmates with serious active
mental health and/or medical issues no longer be placed at Otter Creek until
reforms suggested the company were made. By that time, however, the company
had made the changes, and such inmates continued to be sent to Otter Creek.
Murphy's oldest daughter, Tiffany Ford, 34, of Louisville, said in a recent
interview that her mother was bipolar and had anger issues. She also was
addicted to alcohol and crack cocaine, she said. My mother was very sick,
even before she went to prison, she said. Ford said officials sent her the
autopsy report and told her that her mother refused her medication. She said
she doesn't understand much of what is documented in the report and didn't
have the time or emotional energy to follow up after losing her sister and
mother in a three-year period. It was just so much, she said. A host of
problems at Otter Creek have surfaced in recent months, including numerous
allegations of sexual abuse by workers and chronic understaffing that has led
to low worker morale and security concerns. Six workers there have been
charged in the past three years for inappropriate sexual contact with
inmates, including one corrections officer who was indicted last week on a
felony rape charge. The prison houses roughly 420 Kentucky inmates and until
recently held 168 inmates from Hawaii. That state, however, announced last
month that it was removing its inmates from Otter Creek. Murphy is one of
four inmates at Otter Creek who have died since 2005. The family of a
Hawaiian inmate who died in late 2005 recently settled a lawsuit against the
prison and state of Hawaii. CCA's Owen said the terms of the settlement are
confidential. According to The Honolulu Advertiser, Sarah Ah Mau's family
sued because the prison failed to treat Mau, who had been complaining of
severe abdominal pain and respiratory problems. The two other inmates, who
died in 2007 and 2008, were from Kentucky. But department officials did not
investigate the circumstances surrounding those deaths. Department officials
said they review all deaths but only conduct in-depth investigations when
questions arise during the initial reviews. Officials said they could not
recall what triggered their investigation into Murphy's death.
September
3, 2009 Courier-Journal
Justice Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown said Thursday that the state won't
renew its contract to house female inmates at a troubled private prison in
Eastern Kentucky unless the operator agrees to several new conditions. Brown
outlined the conditions in a letter to House Speaker Greg Stumbo,
D-Prestonsburg, who asked Gov. Steve Beshear last week not to renew the
state's contract with Corrections Corp. of America. The state has about 420
inmates at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright. A former
corrections officer at the prison was indicted Tuesday on one count of
first-degree rape the sixth worker there in the last three years to be
accused of a sex-related crime involving an inmate but the first to be
charged with a felony. Kentucky State Police plan to present another case to
a Floyd County grand jury the next time it meets. The Department of
Corrections is wrapping up its own investigation into sex abuse allegations
at the prison and expects to release its findings next week. Brown said in
his letter that the state won't sign a two-year extension with the
Nashville-based CCA unless it agrees to the new conditions. I share your
deep concern, Brown wrote in his letter to Stumbo. Let me be clear such
conduct is inexcusable and will not be tolerated by the Department of
Corrections, the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet or the Beshear
administration. Brown said any contract extension will require CCA to: *Hire
a female security chief at Otter Creek. *Provide female staff and officers
for direct supervision of inmates in any housing and medical units. *Maintain
a security staff that is at least 40 percent female. *Conduct a security
assessment of areas in the prison where assaults have been reported and
submit and implement a plan to increase the use of cameras and other measures
to enhance security. *Institute uniform reporting of all sexual contact to
the department. *Provide therapy for inmates who have had traumatic
experiences. Brown said the department also would work with CCA to strengthen
staff training, repair the facilities, improve recruitment and retention and
remove barriers to effective monitoring of the facility by the department. He
also said that its not feasible to send the Otter Creek inmates to local
jails or out-of-state facilities, and that the only state-run prison for
women, the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Shelby County, does
not have enough space to accommodate them. The best course is to correct
these issues, mitigate their re-occurrence and move forward constructively,
Brown said.
September
3, 2009 Star-Bulletin
After allegations of sexual assaults on 23 women by staff at a Kentucky
prison, 128 Hawaii women returned to Oahu Tuesday night. Among the 128 were
two women who alleged they were sexually assaulted at the Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., said
Department of Public Safety Deputy Director Tommy Johnson. The move came on
the same day as the indictment of a sixth worker at the private women's
prison on charges of first-degree rape. The indictment alleges that
ex-corrections officer Charles Prater, 54, raped an inmate from Hawaii on
June 13. That inmate says that Prater planned the rape, bursting into her
cell in the Medical Segregation Unit, and savagely attacking her while the
medical staff was dispensing medication. Another inmate, who also reported
being sexually assaulted and whose sentence was up, returned Aug. 17 with a
group of 40 inmates. Hawaii had sent 168 women to be housed at Otter Creek to
cut costs. The cost to house an inmate at Hawaii's Women's Community
Correctional Center is $86 a day compared with $58.46 a day in Kentucky.
Female inmates from Hawaii have been housed at Otter Creek since 2005. The
Kentucky prison is owned and operated by the Corrections Corp. of America,
which is based in Tennessee. A task force from Hawaii visited the prison in
July to investigate the allegations.
August
28, 2009 Courier-Journal
House Speaker Greg Stumbo and eight other legislators sent letters Friday
to Gov. Steve Beshear asking him to end the state's contract at a private
women's prison in Eastern Kentucky that has been plagued by allegations of
sexual assaults by corrections officers. But Beshear spokesman Jay Blanton
rebuffed the request, saying the state has no other place to house the 425
inmates at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright.
We are
confronted with the reality that the commonwealth does not have enough space
in facilities it owns to meet the existing and growing population of
inmates, he said in a statement. ...That is a simple and inarguable fact.
The only state-run women's prison, the Kentucky Correctional Institution for
Women in Shelby County, was operating at 100.6 percent capacity Friday. In
the past three years at least four workers at Otter Creek have been convicted,
and another a former chaplain has been charged with having sex with
inmates. Kentucky State Police are expected to present another case to a
Floyd County grand jury soon. The state of Hawaii announced earlier this
month that, for safety reasons, it was pulling out all of the 168 inmates
that it houses at the facility. Forty have been sent back to Hawaii, and the
rest are expected to be relocated by the end of September, according to
Hawaii Department of Public Safety spokesman Tommy Johnson. In addition to
the sexual assault allegations, other issues at the prison have emerged. The
Courier-Journal recently reviewed monthly reports dating to 2005 and found
chronic understaffing, leading to poor employee morale and security concerns.
And Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson last month told the Nashville,
Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America, which operates Otter Creek,
that the state would not grant its request for a rate increase because of the
sex-abuse allegations, inmate fights, improper reporting of an inmate death
and other problems. The state is negotiating a two-year contract extension
with the company. CCA spokesman Steve Owen said in a statement Friday that
the company would be willing to meet with legislators to address their
concerns. CCA has been working very closely with (department) officials
regarding (Otter Creek) to ensure that the facility is performing at the
level expected by the (department) and CCA, he said. Stumbo, a Prestonsburg
Democrat whose district includes the Floyd County prison, was inspired by
Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, to write the letter, his spokesman Brian
Wilkerson said. The documented cases of sexual assault and allegations of
rape taking place at Otter Creek have cast Kentucky in a poor light
nationwide, Stumbo said in his letter. I cannot condone continued
association with the private contractor running this prison. Marzian and
seven other Democratic legislators wrote a separate letter to Beshear Friday,
calling for the state to not renew its contract for Otter Creek. There have
been eight sex-abuse incidents at the facility since 2007, compared to one at
the state-run Kentucky Correctional Institutional for Women in Shelby County,
and they want a raise! the letter said. To continue this private company
arrangement seems unconscionable. The state has two other contracts with CCA
to house prisoners at the Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary and the Lee
Adjustment Center in Beattyville. Last week, the state moved 200 inmates to Marion
from the Northpoint Training Center after a riot badly damaged that state-run
facility. The state paid CCA nearly $20million to house inmates
at all three private prisons last year. The other House members who signed
the letter were Jim Wayne and Darryl Owens, both of Louisville; Joni Jenkins
of Shively; Susan Westrom and Ruth Ann Palumbo, both of Lexington; Linda
Belcher of Shepherdsville; and Jody Richards of Bowling Green. Marzian said
she intends to file a bill during the next session to make it a felony for
corrections workers to have sexual contact with inmates. Kentucky is one of
just three states in which the offense is a misdemeanor. A similar bill,
filed last session by state Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, failed to pass.
Blanton said a contract extension with CCA must contain an explicit list of
enforcement measures and requirements that further ensure the safety of
everyone involved with the facility and help prevent future occurrences. We
will not sign a contract unless we have such assurances in writing in the
strongest possible terms. However, the state's current contract with CCA
contains provisions for fines and even allows the state to cancel the
contract if the company doesn't meet its requirements. Since 2005, the state
has fined the company only once: $5,000 for conducting an investigation into
an inmate's death without the department's participation. Despite contract
provisions that require CCA to maintain certain staffing levels, state
monitors at the prison have repeatedly noted in monthly reports to department
administrators since 2005 that the prison is understaffed. Most reports,
however, do not detail exactly how many positions are vacant or whether they
have been vacant for longer than 60 days which would be another contract
violation. The state pays CCA $53.77 a day for each inmate at Otter Creek.
August
25, 2009 New York Times
Hawaii prison officials said Tuesday that all of the states 168 female
inmates at a privately run Kentucky prison will be removed by the end of
September because of charges of sexual abuse by guards. Forty inmates were
returned to Hawaii on Aug. 17. This month, officials from the Hawaii
Department of Public Safety traveled to Kentucky to investigate accusations
that inmates at the prison, the Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright, including seven from Hawaii, had been sexually assaulted by the
prison staff. Otter Creek is run by the Corrections Corporation of America
and is one of a spate of private, for-profit prisons, mainly in the South,
that have been the focus of investigations over issues like abusive
conditions and wrongful deaths. Because Eastern Kentucky is one of the
poorest rural regions in the country, the prison was welcomed by local
residents desperate for jobs. Hawaii sent inmates to Kentucky to save money.
Housing an inmate at the Womens Community Correctional Center in Kailua,
Hawaii, costs $86 a day, compared with $58.46 a day at the Kentucky prison,
not including air travel. Hawaii investigators found that at least five corrections
officials at the prison, including a chaplain, had been charged with having
sex with inmates in the last three years, and four were convicted. Three rape
cases involving guards and Hawaii inmates were recently turned over to law
enforcement authorities. The Kentucky State Police said another sexual
assault case would go to a grand jury soon. Kentucky is one of only a handful
of states where it is a misdemeanor rather than a felony for a prison guard
to have sex with an inmate, according to the National Institute of
Corrections, a policy arm of the Justice Department. A bill to increase the
penalties for such sexual misconduct failed to pass in the Kentucky
legislature this year. The private prison industry has generated extensive
controversy, with critics arguing that incarceration should not be contracted
to for-profit companies. Several reports have found contract violations at
private prisons, safety and security concerns, questionable cost savings and
higher rates of inmate recidivism. Privately operated prisons appear to have
systemic problems in maintaining secure facilities, a 2001 study by the
Federal Bureau of Prisons concluded. Those views are shared by Alex
Friedmann, associate editor of Prison Legal News, a nonprofit group based in Seattle
that has a monthly magazine and does litigation on behalf of inmates rights.
Private prisons such as Otter Creek raise serious concerns about
transparency and public accountability, and there have been incidents of
sexual misconduct at that facility for many years, Mr. Friedmann said. But
proponents say privately run prisons provide needed beds at lower cost. About
8 percent of state and federal inmates are held in such prisons, according to
the Justice Department. We are reviewing every allegation, regardless of the
disposition, said Lisa Lamb, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of
Corrections, which she said was investigating 23
accusations of sexual assault at Otter Creek going back to 2006. The move by
Hawaii authorities is just the latest problem for Kentucky prison officials.
On Saturday, a riot at another Kentucky prison, the Northpoint Training
Center at Burgin, forced officials to move about 700 prisoners out of the
facility, which is 30 miles south of Lexington. State investigators said
Tuesday that they were questioning prisoners and staff members and reviewing
security cameras at the Burgin prison to see whether racial tensions may have
led to the riot that injured 16 people and left the lockup in ruins. A
lockdown after a fight between white and Hispanic inmates had been eased to
allow inmates access to the prison yard on Friday, the day before the riot.
Prisoners started fires in trash cans that spread. Several buildings were
badly damaged. While the riot was an unusual event the last one at a
Kentucky state prison was in 1983 reports of sexual abuse at Otter Creek
are not new. The number of reported sexual assaults at Otter Creek in 2007
was four times higher than at the state-run Kentucky Correctional Institution
for Women, Mr. Friedmann said. In July, Gov. Linda Lingle of Hawaii, a
Republican, said that bringing prisoners home would cost hundreds of millions
of dollars that the state did not have, but that she was willing to do so
because of the security concerns. Prison overcrowding led to federal
oversight in Hawaii from 1985 to 1999. The state now houses one-third of its
prison population in mainland facilities. The pay at the Otter Creek prison
is low, even by local standards. A federal prison in Kentucky pays workers with
no experience at least $18 an hour, nearby state-run prisons pay $11.22 and
Otter Creek pays $8.25. Mr. Friedmann said lower wages at private prisons
lead to higher employee turnover and less experienced staff. Tommy Johnson,
deputy director of the Hawaii Department of Public Safety, said he found that
81 percent of the Otter Creek workers were men and 19 percent were women, the
reverse of what he said the ratio should be for a womens prison. Mr. Johnson
asked the company to hire more women, and it began a bonus program in June to
do so.
August
19, 2009 Honolulu Advertiser
Women inmates from Hawai'i will be removed from a Kentucky prison for
safety reasons after allegations that some were sexually abused by prison guards,
the state Department of Public Safety announced yesterday. Clayton Frank, the
department's director, said 40 women inmates were transferred back to the
Islands on Monday and most of the 128 women remaining at Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright will return within a month. Several women
serving lengthy sentences will be moved to other Mainland prisons, according
to the department. Frank said many inmates wanted to stay at Otter Creek
because they believe they are benefiting from its prison services. "The
decision to bring them back was not an easy one, because not only cost, but
also what these inmates would also be losing," Frank told a joint
briefing of the state Senate Public Safety and Military Affairs Committee and
the House Public Safety Committee. "They will be coming back but they
are not going to get everything what was provided for them at Otter
Creek." State lawmakers who have been calling for the department to
return the women inmates praised Frank's decision. "It's good news. The
Legislature has been pushing for this for a few years now," said state
Sen. Will Espero, D-20th ('Ewa Beach, Waipahu), chairman of the Senate Public
Safety and Military Affairs Committee. "The women will be in our
prisons, in our jurisdiction, where we'll have much better control over the
whole situation. Of course, in terms of rehabilitation and re-entry, it's
better when the families are close together where they can assist each
other." Overcrowding at state prisons has led the state to spend $50
million a year to house about 2,000 Hawai'i inmates at Mainland prisons
operated by the private Corrections Corporation of America. The state spends
$3.6 million a year to house the women inmates at Otter Creek. Frank said it
costs $58 a day to keep a woman inmate at Otter Creek, compared with $86 a
day in Hawai'i. Abuse allegations -- Authorities have looked into nearly two
dozen claims of sexual abuse at Otter Creek over the past few years,
including seven involving Hawai'i inmates. One Hawai'i inmate's sexual abuse
claim was substantiated in 2007 and the prison guard was fired and convicted
of a misdemeanor. Department investigators who visited the prison in July
said the claims of three other Hawai'i inmates are under investigation by
Kentucky authorities; one has been dismissed as unfounded; and two inmates
denied they had been abused. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported this
month that at least five prison workers have been charged with having sex
with inmates at Otter Creek over the past three years. Frank said bringing
the female inmates back to Hawai'i will put the state system at near
capacity. The women will be housed at the Women's Community Correctional
Center in Kailua and the Federal Detention Center near Honolulu International
Airport. Women from the Neighbor Islands who are close to completing their
sentences may be sent to facilities near their homes. Louise Grant, vice
president of marketing and communications for the Corrections Corporation of
America in Nashville, Tenn., said she had not yet heard of the state's
decision to remove the women from Otter Creek. "We've been proud of the
relationship we've had with Hawai'i for more than a decade and have been
proud of our services for the women in our care," she said. Frank said
the department will likely continue to send female inmates to the Mainland
but will look for prisons on the West Coast. Prison problems -- Previous
problems involving female inmates, including questions about prison
conditions, adequate treatment services and sexual abuse, have led the state
to move women from prisons in Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado. Lawmakers urged
Frank to thoroughly examine prison conditions and state laws covering sexual
assault before sending more female inmates to the Mainland. Under questioning
from state Sen. Brickwood Galuteria, D-12th (Waikiki, Ala Moana, Downtown),
Frank acknowledged the department was unaware that sexual assault against an
inmate was a misdemeanor in Kentucky. "I don't think there's any doubt
that we like our inmates to pay their debt to society, but it's our
responsibility to provide them with a safe environment to do that,"
Galuteria said.
August
18, 2009 Courier-Journal
The Department of Corrections has rejected a private prison company's
request for a rate increase at a women's prison in Eastern Kentucky, citing
allegations of sex abuse by corrections officers, inmate fights, improper
reporting of an inmate death and other problems. Commissioner LaDonna
Thompson said in a July 24 letter to the Corrections Corp. of America that the
state intends to renew its contract for the Otter Creek Correctional Center
but at the current rate of $51.17 a day for each inmate, excluding
extraordinary medical costs. The company had requested a 3.8 percent
increase, to $53.11. Otter Creek has not performed to a level that warrants
a rate increase, she said in the letter, a copy of which The Courier-Journal
obtained under the state's open records law. The state has agreed to extend
for 60 days its current contract with CCA to house up to 476 inmates at the
facility while it negotiates a new two-year agreement. Thompson said in a
written statement Monday that although the company's performance doesn't
warrant a rate increase, a review of its performance does not indicate that
the inmates are in any imminent danger. At least five corrections officers
at the Wheelwright facility have been charged with having sex with inmates in
the past three years. Four were convicted, one case is pending and Kentucky
State Police are expected to present another to a Floyd County grand jury
later this month. A Courier-Journal review of monthly reports by a state
monitor also found the prison is chronically understaffed, leading to poor
employee morale and security concerns. Thompson said the department is
working with the Nashville-based company to resolve the problems. CCA
spokesman Steve Owen said in a statement Monday that the company shares a
goal of safe, secure operations with (the department) and (has) been working
very closely with our customer to ensure that we address any concerns they
have to that end. In her letter, Thompson lists six issues that she cites as
evidence of unacceptable operational performance. She said the number of
sex abuse incidents involving corrections officers and inmate fights has been
consistently higher at Otter Creek than at the state-run Kentucky
Correctional Institution for Women in Shelby County. Thompson includes data
from both prisons dating to 2007 that show eight sex-abuse incidents at Otter
Creek, compared to one at the state prison. She also states that there have
been 72 violent incidents involving Kentucky inmates at Otter Creek in that
time period, compared to 31 at the facility in Shelby County. As of Monday,
there were 429 Kentucky inmates at Otter Creek and 690 at the Shelby County
prison. (Incidents) occurring at OCCC annually are
well above the number of incidents occurring at (KCIW) and are of great
concern to the department, she said in the letter. She notes that the
department is investigating additional sex abuse incidents that were recently
alleged and may pursue further actions, pending our investigation's
results. Thompson also states that the department fined CCA $5,000 last year
for improperly reporting the death of inmate Beverly Murphy on June 18, 2008.
She said in her statement that the fine was levied because CCA conducted its
investigation without first notifying the department, as required by Kentucky
Corrections Policies and Procedures. In the department's follow-up
investigation, it was determined that Murphy, 54, of Jefferson County, died
of complications from chronic diabetes. Murphy was serving an eight-year
sentence for second-degree manslaughter. Thompson's letter also references
the suicide of an Otter Creek worker at the prison in January 2008. The
individual successfully circumvented the institution's security and smuggled
an unauthorized weapon into the facility, a critical breach of security, she
said. The letter also outlines three areas in which CCA is not in compliance
with its contract with the state and has been ordered to submit to the
department its plans to correct the issues. They include: Failure to maintain
the appropriate number of special responders for emergencies, such as riots.
Failure to maintain bathrooms, creating sanitary and hygienic deficiencies
that violate the state's environmental health codes. Failure to maintain
consistent records for inmates' property when they are placed in segregation.
Thompson concludes in her letter to CCA that the department is very concerned
about the number of recurring incidents. When viewed holistically, the number
of incidents indicates broader facility security and operational weaknesses.
August
17, 2009 WKYT
New jobs for women are now available at Otter Creek Prison in Floyd County.
Officials with the private correctional facility say they want more officers
to help ease some of the problems at the prison for women. Officials say
there is a staff shortage there, and this comes after police say several
women inmates made sexual or physical abuse allegations against some of the
men who work there. Officials believe hiring women can help. State Police
have worked several cases at Otter Creek Correctional Facility in Wheelwright
ever since the private prison started taking in all women inmates four years
ago. Not only sexual abuse or physical abuse but death investigations also,
so they vary. The different cases and situations, they vary, Trooper Mike
Goble said. We are very committed to making sure we're operating a safe and
secure institution and we take any of those allegations seriously, Prison
Spokesperson Steve Owen said.
August
16, 2009 Courier-Journal
A private women's prison in Eastern Kentucky that has been plagued by allegations
of sexual assaults by corrections officers is chronically understaffed,
leading to poor employee morale and security concerns, according to a state
monitor's reports. The monthly reports provide a glimpse into life inside the
Otter Creek Correctional Center, where at least five workers have been
charged with having sex with inmates in the past three years. Kentucky State
Police are expected to present another case to a Floyd County grand jury this
month. The facility continues to experience staff shortage(s), and
(officers) have struggled, state monitor Darrell Neace said in July's
report. Overtime is substantial for the facility and very difficult for
staff. Despite the recurring problems outlined in the reports, the state has
not imposed staffing-level sanctions as allowed under its contract with
Corrections Corporation of America, a for-profit, Nashville, Tenn.-based
company. The state can fine the company up to $5,000 a day for violating
terms of the contract, which include maintaining certain staffing levels and
filling vacant positions within 60 days. In fact despite the sexual assault
investigation the state has agreed to extend for 60 days its contract with
CCA to house up to 476 inmates at the facility while it negotiates a new two-year
agreement. Otter Creek housed 429 Kentucky inmates as of Friday. In response
to questions about staffing at the prison, state Corrections Commissioner
LaDonna Thompson noted that staff turnover is an issue at all prisons.
Corrections is a difficult and stressful
profession, she said an e-mailed statement. CCA spokesman Steve Owen said it
takes recruiting and retaining staff very seriously and noted that turnover
costs money. Anyone who contends that the facility operates with vacancies
by design (for cost savings or profit) does not understand sound business
practice, he said in an e-mail. Reports cite staffing -- It is unclear how
many workers the prison is required to have. The state has been unable to
produce a written staffing-level document, despite a request by The
Courier-Journal under the state open records law. However, in 11 of the last
19 monthly monitoring reports obtained by the newspaper, staffing has been
cited as a problem. Of particular concern is the number of people trained to
handle emergencies at the prison. Neace, in a report dated July 8, cited a
major concern about inadequate security staffing in June, adding, OCCC is on
12-hour shifts and (workers) are struggling. He wrote that the facility was
operating with 168 workers and had 28 vacancies at the end of the month. Five
of those positions had been open for more than 60 days, which is a violation
of the state's contract with CCA. Many previous monthly reports do not
specify how many positions were vacant, or for how long. Thus, it is
impossible for the department to know how severe the staffing problem is at a
given time and whether the company is in violation of the contract. Many
reports, however, include vague references to understaffing and low staff
morale because of forced double shifts. They (officers) are exhausted, and
several have expressed their concern to me, former state monitor Deborah
Patrick said in the August 2008 report. Other prisons pay more -- The reports
reflect a pattern in which a flurry of hiring is typically followed several
months later by a drop in staffing, indicating retention problems. Owen, the
CCA spokesman, said many people hired in prisons soon realize it isn't the
type of work they want to do. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lamb
said recently that her agency has begun sending inspectors to the prison
without giving CCA advance notice and has sent two corrections experts there
to help the state's on-site monitor. The state's only other women's prison
the state-run Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Shelby County
is nearly full most of the time. Our assessment is that it is more
effective to rectify the situation there at Otter Creek than find alternative
forms of incarceration for our inmate population housed there, Lamb said.
She partly blamed problems with attracting and retaining staff on the fact
that a federal prison employing roughly 400 people in nearby Inez pays more.
Starting pay there is $18.18 an hour for workers with no corrections
experience, and $19.17 an hour for those with experience. Starting pay at
Otter Creek is $8.25 an hour. In addition, the state pays corrections workers
at two nearby state-run prisons $2.97 more an hour than Otter Creek employees
receive. The state's contract with CCA for Otter Creek does not specify
minimum pay, because, Thompson said, such internal business decisions could
affect the company's competitiveness. Owen said CCA raised starting pay at
Otter Creek by 5 percent last year and we will continue to monitor their situation
as we do with all our other facilities. Kentucky pays CCA $53.77 a day to
house each inmate, a total of more than $8million last year. Most employees
are male -- Tommy Johnson, a spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Public
Safety, which contracts with Otter Creek to house 175 inmates from that
state, said CCA might need to consider paying more to attract and retain
workers at Otter Creek, particularly female officers. He said a recent review
found 81 percent of the workers were male, and 19 percent were female. The
ratio really should be almost the opposite, he said. Johnson said his
department has asked CCA to hire more women and consider making certain jobs
at the prison female-only. Owen said the company instituted a bonus referral
and retention program in June in an effort to hire more female employees.
Neace also noted in his May report that the facility had only 24 staff
members trained and certified to respond to incidents such as riots. The
contract requires Otter Creek to have 30 workers with that training. By June,
Otter Creek was down to 22 so-called special responders, with no new
applicants, according to that month's report. The facility also lacked proper
special response equipment, it said. But by last month, Otter Creek had two
more special responders than required, Neace said. Owen said CCA has launched
a companywide campaign to get workers at its prisons to undergo special
response training. Lamb said special response teams from the privately run
Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville and state-run Eastern Kentucky
Correctional Complex in West Liberty could get to Otter Creek quickly if
there was an emergency. We do not believe this issue compromises the safety
and security of the inmate population housed at Otter Creek, Lamb said. But
both prisons are roughly two hours from Otter Creek. Disturbances reported --
Incident reports show corrections officers occasionally have to deal with
disturbances at the women's facility, although no deaths or serious injuries
have been reported as a result. In 2006, six inmates surrounded a female
corrections officer and refused to return to their dorm. These inmates were
aggressive and made threatening remarks toward the officer, the report said.
A special response team was dispatched to assist during that incident. Also
that year, special responders had to lock down the prison because inmates
were planning to have a sit-down protest when it was time to clear the yard.
The treatment of inmates by corrections officers also has been an issue at
the prison in recent months, according to the reports. Neace said in his June
report that residents being placed in segregation which are not a threat to
security, staff, visitors or themselves has been an issue that (the
department) has been concerned with. He said proper documentation for
segregation was missing and that the number of grievances filed by inmates
was high, with up to 27 having been filed that month. In his May report,
Neace said inmates continue to complain about staff cursing, threatening segregation.
Lamb said a change in the number of grievances and the inmate morale could
be attributed to a change in administration. Thompson said in her statement
that she couldn't comment on any leadership issues at Otter Creek until the
sex abuse investigations are complete. Warden Jeff Little referred questions
to CCA. Owen said staff turnover at Otter Creek has decreased since Little
took the helm in March 2008.
August
11, 2009 Lexington Herald-Leader
State corrections officials have hired a veteran Kentucky warden to
monitor a private prison in Wheelwright where several sexual assaults of
inmates by prison staff have been reported. Gary M. Beckstrom, the former
warden at Little Sandy Correctional Complex in Elliot County, will be an
on-site monitor for Otter Creek Correctional Complex. The action "is a
result of the recent allegations of sexual incidents at the facility,"
said Jennifer Brislin, a spokeswoman for the Justice and Public Safety
Cabinet. Beckstrom also will review the operational procedures at Otter
Creek, Brislin said. The $42,000 contract runs from July 30 to Jan. 30, 2010.
Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the prison, has agreed to
reimburse the state. Otter Creek is at the center of investigations by
Kentucky and Hawaii into allegations of repeated sexual assaults by prison
staff. CCA has contracts with both states to house prisoners at Wheelwright.
The allegations include the reported rape of a Hawaiian woman at the prison
in June. Additionally, a former prison guard was convicted last year in Floyd
County of second-degree sexual abuse, a misdemeanor, for a July 3, 2008,
sexual assault of an inmate from Kentucky.
August
2, 2009 Courier-Journal
At least five workers at the private women's prison in Eastern Kentucky
have been charged with having sex with inmates in the past three years, and
investigations into more alleged assaults are under way. Despite that, the
state has agreed to extend for 60 days its contract with Corrections Corp. of
America to house up to 476 inmates at Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright. The state is continuing to negotiate a two-year extension of the
contract it has had with CCA since 2005, according to Finance Cabinet
officials. The 60-day extension does not increase the $53.77 CCA is paid per
day to house each inmate. Last year the state paid CCA more than $8 million
for its Otter Creek operation. Our assessment is that it is more effective
to rectify the situation there at Otter Creek than find alternative forms of
incarceration for our inmate population housed there, Kentucky Department of
Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lamb said in a statement. The prison housed 427
Kentucky inmates as of Friday. The department has begun sending inspectors to
the prison without giving CCA advance notice and has sent two corrections
experts there to help the state's on-site monitor. The occurrence of staff
and inmate sexual involvement is one of the most unfortunate aspects of
prison life, Lamb said. It is, however, a fact that it happens both in the private
institutions and in ours. Kentucky State Police are expected to present one
sexual abuse case to a Floyd County grand jury this month and begin
investigating another complaint this week, spokesman Mike Goble said. We
have investigated more than one or two sexual abuse cases of some fashion or
another by multiple (corrections) officers, Goble said. And there are
investigations continuing. Is there a problem at Otter Creek right now?
Definitely so. CCA officials did not return calls seeking comment. The
Department of Corrections and the Hawaii Department of Public Safety both are
investigating sexual abuse allegations by as many as 19 inmates 16 from
Kentucky and three from Hawaii. That state has a $3.6 million contract to
house up to 175 inmates at Otter Creek. Hawaii department spokesman Tommy
Johnson said the state has confirmed one case from 2007, in which a
corrections officer was found guilty of misdemeanor sexual abuse for
subjecting an inmate to sexual contact. Darren Green, 41, of Hi Hat, was
fired from Otter Creek and ordered to serve 120 days of home incarceration.
Johnson said investigators are examining the case that will be sent to the
grand jury and one other possible assault. He said four other alleged
assaults either have not been substantiated or the inmates deny they
occurred. Earlier this month, a former Otter Creek inmate filed a federal
lawsuit against CCA and the state for failing to prevent a corrections
officer from raping her in July 2008. The former corrections officer, Kevin
Younce, was charged with misdemeanor sexual abuse in the second degree and
sentenced to a year in jail and a $500 fine, according to Floyd County
Circuit Court records. He was tried in absentia, and a bench warrant has been
issued for his arrest. According to the lawsuit, Younce woke the inmate in
her cell on July 3, 2008, forced her to an area outside the cell and demanded
sex. He threatened and coerced her and ultimately dragged her into a staff
bathroom and raped her, the suit says. CCA has asked a federal judge to
dismiss the suit, saying the inmate failed to file a formal grievance as
required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The law requires
inmates to exhaust administrative remedies before bringing an action in
court. Younce and Green are two of at least five workers at Otter Creek who
have been charged with having sexual contact with inmates in the past three
years, according to records provided by Floyd County Circuit Court and the
Department of Corrections. In 2006, corrections officer Elden Tackett pleaded
guilty to sexual abuse and was sentenced to 12 months' probation. Documents
state Tackett received oral sex from an inmate and later confessed to the
incident. In 2007, maintenance worker George Hale pleaded guilty to sexual
abuse and was sentenced to 60 days of home incarceration and two years of
probation. Documents state Hale had sex with an inmate 12 times in exchange
for tobacco, which is prohibited at the facility. Last year employee Randy
Hagan was charged with sexual abuse for allegedly subjecting an inmate to
sexual contact without her consent between Feb. 14 and Aug. 4. Hagan pleaded
not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial Sept. 10.
July
31, 2009 Lexington Herald-Leader
A private prison company has asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit
of a Kentucky woman who says she was raped while a prisoner at Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright. The facility, run by Corrections
Corporation of America, is at the center of investigations by Kentucky and
Hawaii into allegations of repeated sexual assaults. The inquiries were
prompted in part by the reported rape of a Hawaiian woman at the prison in
June. CCA has contracts with both states to house prisoners at Wheelwright.
In documents filed this week in federal court in Pikeville, CCA says the
Kentucky woman never filed a formal grievance about the rape and therefore
the civil lawsuit she filed July 2 should be dismissed. The Herald-Leader
does not generally identify people who allege sexual abuse. The woman is
suing the company, several of its officials and the Kentucky Department of
Corrections for failing to prevent the rape. Kevin Younce, a former prison
guard, was convicted of second-degree sexual abuse, a misdemeanor, for the
July 3, 2008 sexual assault of the woman in Floyd County. A bench warrant is
outstanding for his arrest, according to court records. He moved to North
Carolina before he was convicted. The case of the woman from Hawaii is
scheduled to be presented to the Floyd County grand jury next month, said Kentucky
State Police Trooper Mike Goble. Kentucky prison officials are investigating
alleged sexual assaults at Otter Creek going back to 2006, said Lisa Lamb, a
spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Corrections. "These include
allegations or incidents that were previously reported," she said.
"We are reviewing every allegation regardless of the disposition."
Otter Creek houses 430 Kentucky inmates, according to the Kentucky Department
of Corrections. Lamb said she could not comment on the lawsuit brought by the
Kentucky woman because the department has not seen it yet. CCA said in a
statement Thursday that it is cooperating with the investigations. "CCA
has a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate contact between staff and
inmates and takes any such allegations seriously," said Steve Owen, a
spokesman for the company, which is headquartered in Nashville. "We will
support full prosecution under the law for any criminal activity
detected." The Kentucky woman, who has been moved to another facility,
is suing for unspecified damages. She said that Younce woke her up, pulled
her out of her cell and demanded sex. He took her into a staff bathroom where
the assault occurred, court documents say. She was later taken to the
Pikeville Medical Center, where she was examined for evidence of rape, and
Kentucky State Police were called. Younce was convicted in absentia on Oct.
7, 2008, fined $500 and sentenced to one year in jail. The federal lawsuit
alleges that CCA knew of repeated sexual assault or harassment by prison
staff at Wheelwright but did not do anything about it. Floyd County court
records show that other prison guards have been charged with sexual assault
of prisoners, including the former chaplain. In court documents filed this
week, CCA argues that the Kentucky woman never reported the sexual assault to
the prison. After the July 3 rape, she filed nine grievances, but none of
them involved sexual assault or Younce, the company's lawyers say. The
lawsuit should be dismissed, the company says, because, under the Prison
Litigation Reform Act of 1995, prisoners have to exhaust all administrative
remedies before filing a claim in federal court.
July
26, 2009 Courier-Journal
Kentucky is one of just three states that consider sexual contact between
prison guards and inmates a misdemeanor rather than a felony offense. The
Department of Corrections has tried in recent years to push a bill through
the legislature that would increase the penalty from a maximum of 12 months
in jail to a maximum of five years. We strongly believe there is no such
thing as consensual sex (between guards and inmates), spokeswoman Lisa Lamb
said. Other than Kentucky, only Iowa and Maryland consider custodial sexual
contact a misdemeanor, according to a survey by the National Institute of
Corrections and American University's Washington College of Law. Sen. Julie
Denton, R-Louisville, said the department's bill, which she sponsored, had
support in both the House and Senate during this year's regular session but
time ran out before changes made by the House could be examined in the
Senate. She said she doesn't remember there being much, if any, opposition.
We need to not lag behind (other states), but take a lead and catch up, she
said. The department is currently investigating sexual-abuse allegations
involving as many as 16 Kentucky women housed at the privately run Otter
Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright. Kentucky State Police also are
investigating allegations, reported June 23, that a
Hawaiian inmate was sexually assaulted by a corrections officer at the
women's-only facility in Floyd County. A Floyd County grand jury is expected
to hear that case next month, state police spokesman Mike Goble said. In
addition, the Hawaiian Department of Public Safety is investigating two alleged
incidents at the prison. The 656-bed facility is owned and operated by
Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America. The company has
contracts with Kentucky and Hawaii; 433 women from Kentucky and 165 from
Hawaii are housed at Otter Creek. A corrections officer at the facility was
found guilty of misdemeanor sexual abuse for subjecting an inmate to sexual
contact in September 2007, according to court records. Darren Green, 41, of
Hi Hat, was fired from Otter Creek and ordered to serve 120 days of home
incarceration. No further details regarding the incident were included in the
records. The department was not immediately able to say how many corrections
officers have been charged with inappropriate sexual contact in recent years.
July
24, 2009 WZTV
Hawaii's public safety director says 23 female inmates, including seven
from Hawaii, are alleging they were sexually assaulted at a private prison in
Kentucky. Clayton Frank said Friday that one Hawaii case, from 2007, resulted
in the conviction and termination of a corrections officer at Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky. Frank says the other cases are still
being investigated so he can't elaborate on them. The state this month sent
the Department of Public Safety's deputy director, Tommy Johnson, and two
other officials to Kentucky to probe the allegations.
July
18, 2009 Honolulu Advertiser
An investigation into sex assaults involving Hawai'i and other female
inmates at a private Kentucky prison has widened and now includes 19 alleged
attacks over the past three years. Honolulu attorney Myles Breiner is
representing three Hawai'i women who allege they were sexually assaulted at
Otter Creek Correctional Center within the past 12 to 18 months. The most
recent sex assault was reported June 23 and allegedly involved a male
corrections officer. Meanwhile, Kentucky officials say they have launched an
investigation into 16 alleged sex assaults at Otter Creek involving Kentucky
women. Some of the allegations date back to 2006. Breiner said he expects
more allegations of sex assault involving Hawai'i women to surface during
investigations under way by the Hawai'i Department of Public Safety, which
sent a team to Otter Creek last week to speak to female inmates from the
Islands and look into the allegations. The developments are spurring new
discussions about whether the state should end its contract with Otter Creek
and bring the 165 Hawai'i women at the privately operated prison back to
Hawai'i. State Senate Public Safety Committee Chairman Will Espero, D-20th
('Ewa Beach, Waipahu), said he will hold a public hearing in August on the
assault allegations, during which he plans to call on state officials to halt
the practice of shipping Hawai'i female inmates to the Mainland. "This
might be a good opportunity for (Public Safety Director) Clayton Frank to
show some leadership and ... bring the women home," Espero said, adding
that he also believes more assault allegations will come to light in the
coming months. "We might have heard ... the tip of the iceberg."
Tommy Johnson, deputy director of DPS, would not say how many allegations the
state is investigating because the cases are ongoing. But he said he was at
Otter Creek all last week to speak to Hawai'i women in groups and to talk to
some in one-on-one sessions. He also toured the facility and looked at its
"operational security." He would not discuss what the Hawai'i
female inmates told him in the sessions, saying that "it would be
premature and inappropriate to do so." Otter Creek, in Wheelwright, Ky.,
is operated by Corrections Corporation of America. A spokesman for the
company said it is conducting its own investigation into the assault
allegations. Hawai'i has had a contract to house female inmates at Otter
Creek since October 2005. Breiner said the three Hawai'i women at the prison
whom he represents allege they were sexually assaulted within the past 18
months. The most recent assault was reported on June 23, and is under
investigation by Kentucky state police, who said it involved a male corrections
officer. Kentucky state police spokesman Mike Goble said a detective
investigating the June 23 sex assault was also informed of other assault
allegations. It's unclear whether those assaults involved Hawai'i women, and
Goble said police have not yet decided how to proceed on those allegations.
Meanwhile, the Kentucky Department of Corrections said Thursday that it is
investigating allegations that 16 Kentucky women were sexually assaulted at
Otter Creek as far back as 2006. Spokeswoman Lisa Lamb said the allegations
relate to incidents over the past three years. In a statement, she said some
of the allegations were previously reported but are being reinvestigated. She
also said the department is sharing information with Hawai'i officials and
the CCA. Allegations of sexual misconduct involving corrections workers and
Hawai'i inmates have surfaced before at Otter Creek and in other private
prisons, including in Oklahoma in 2000 and Colorado in 2005. In 2007, a
Hawai'i inmate at Otter Creek alleged a corrections officer came to her room
and demanded she perform sex acts. The officer was convicted on a
misdemeanor. Following the incident, Otter Creek prison officials said they
would change their procedures to require that a female correctional officer be
paired with a male officer in housing units. Breiner, the Honolulu attorney,
said that from his discussions with Hawai'i inmates it doesn't appear that's
happening at Otter Creek. He said there are not enough female corrections
officers at Otter Creek. He also said that in the wake of the publicity
following the allegations, some Hawai'i inmates have expressed concerns about
retaliation and he said he's worried about the safety of his clients. The
cost of exporting Hawai'i inmates is cheaper than building new facilities or
expanding existing ones, but advocates have long criticized the practice
because of its impact on families. They point out that many female inmates
have kids who suffer during the separation.
July
16, 2009 Courier-Journal
The state Department of Corrections is investigating allegations of
sexual abuse against as many as 16 Kentucky women housed at the privately run
Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright. Kentucky State Police also
are investigating allegations, reported June 23, that
a Hawaiian inmate was sexually assaulted by a corrections officer at the
women's-only, Floyd County facility. State police expect to present that case
to a Floyd County grand jury in the next several weeks, spokesman Mike Goble
said, adding that detectives also are looking into allegations made by
inmates since the June 23 report. In addition, the Hawaiian Department of
Public Safety is investigating two alleged incidents at the prison, according
to The Honolulu Advertiser. The 656-bed facility is owned and operated by
Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America. The company has contracts with
Kentucky and Hawaii; 433 women from Kentucky and 165 from Hawaii are housed
there. Lisa Lamb, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said in a
statement that officials traveled to the prison last week and returned this
week to investigate allegations of "inappropriate sexual contact or
assault involving Kentucky inmates." Lamb said officials are reviewing
reports dating to 2006, including incidents that were previously
investigated. "We are re-investigating every allegation regardless of
the disposition," she said. "In some instances this requires
interviewing inmates who have been released." Lamb said Kentucky
officials are sharing information with Hawaii officials. Officials in Hawaii
could not be reached for comment Thursday. Otter Creek Warden Jeff Little
referred questions to Corrections Corp. spokesman Steve Owen. Owen said the
company, which has owned the facility since 1998, is
cooperating with Kentucky and Hawaii officials and is conducting its own
investigation. "We certainly have been in very close communication and
constant communication with officials at the (Kentucky) Department of
Corrections," he said. "We are obviously going to continue to fully
support and cooperate with their investigation." Owen said the company
is reviewing an anonymous list of allegations sent to Hawaii officials to
determine whether they are new or are allegations that already have been
reviewed. An October 2007 report of a sexual assault of a Hawaiian inmate led
to the firing of a corrections officer. He was subsequently charged with a
misdemeanor sex offense.
July
12, 2009 Star-Bulletin
State officials are on the mainland to investigate accusations that
female prisoners from Hawaii have been sexually assaulted by guards at a
privately run prison in Kentucky. "It's a very serious issue, a serious
charge," Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday. "We have a very large
contract with this company, and we're going to have to sit with them when we
get the report." The Community Alliance on Prisons, which pushes for
humane treatment of Hawaii prisoners, held a protest at the state Capitol on
Friday, demanding that the state bring back female inmates held in mainland
prisons. They cited the alleged sexual assaults of five women at the Otter
Creek Correctional Facility in Wheelwright, Ky. But Lingle noted the costs
involved in housing the prisoners in Hawaii. "It's a concern because
there's no where to put them," she said. "If there's a desire to
bring prisoners home -- whether they're male or female prisoners -- we're
talking about hundreds of millions of dollars that we don't have right now.
... We don't have a facility right now where we can house them." The
state has spent $3.9 million to transfer and house female inmates in Otter
Creek since October 2005. Otter Creek currently houses 169 women from Hawaii.
The protesters cited a letter from inmate Pania Kalama-Akopian of Kapolei,
who accused guards of sexual assault. "Our fears are that nothing will
change," she wrote. "Nothing has changed. ... The only thing that
changed was the attitude of retaliation against the inmate population. We are
not safe. Where does the nightmare end?" Protesters alleged that five
Hawaii women and 21 Kentucky women have been sexually assaulted at Otter
Creek. Honolulu attorney Myles Breiner said he is representing three women
who were sexually assaulted at Otter Creek, including Kalama-Akopian.
"Hawaii's failed to account for their responsibility to Hawaii's women,"
Breiner said. "Women occupy a unique place in the criminal justice
system. They come into the system already having been abused by either
childhood experiences or later on in their developmental years." At the
protest, Regina Dias Tauala, a mother of one of the victims, described her
daughter's ordeal at the prison. Totie Nalani Tauala was serving part of her
20-year sentence at the prison for manslaughter when she allegedly was
sexually assaulted by a male guard. "It's hard to sleep sometimes, because
I do not know what is going on," Dias Tauala said tearfully. "Yes,
my daughter has to pay for being in prison. However, taking them out of the
state and so far away is inhumane, because they're cutting the hearts of us
mothers; we cannot see or touch our children." Otter Creek officials
declined to comment on the alleged attacks. But Hawaii Public Safety Director
Clayton Frank said a team of four investigators, including deputy director
Tommy Johnson, was sent July 5 to investigate the allegations. Frank said
investigators are working with the Wheelwright Police Department and the
Corrections Corporation of America, the prison's operator. "The
Department of Public Safety treats these kind of
incidents very seriously," Frank said.
July
5, 2009 Honolulu Advertiser
Two female inmates from Hawai'i allege they were sexually assaulted by
one or more corrections officers at a Kentucky prison, and police are
investigating one of the incidents. Honolulu attorney Myles Breiner said he
is representing the two women, who allege the sexual assaults occurred while
they were in isolation in a medical unit at the Otter Creek Correctional
Center in Wheelwright, Ky. One of the assaults was reported June 23 and
allegedly involved a male corrections officer, Kentucky police said. The
other incident, earlier this year, also allegedly involved a male corrections
officer at the same prison, Breiner said. Kentucky state police spokesman
Mike Goble said last week that no arrests have been made in the June 23 case.
He added that forensic tests have been conducted and that other evidence has
been collected. An October 2007 report of another sexual assault of a Hawai'i
female inmate at Otter Creek by a corrections officer led to his firing.
There are 165 Hawai'i women at Otter Creek, a private prison operated by
Corrections Corporation of America. In an e-mailed statement, spokesman
Steven Owen said, "CCA has a zero-tolerance policy for any form of
sexual misconduct and takes any such allegations very seriously." He
said the company is "in the process of thoroughly reviewing" the
allegations, adding that "any public discussion" of the allegations
before the completion of an investigation "would be premature and
inappropriate." Tommy Johnson, deputy director of the state Department
of Public Safety, said investigations are under way at the prison in two
separate incidents. He would not say whether those incidents are sex
assaults, but confirmed that one stems from something that was reported June
23. "At this point, they're just allegations," Johnson said. Other
incidents -- The investigations come more than a year after Otter Creek
officials said they would change their procedures following a sex assault
case involving a Hawai'i inmate and corrections officer. In the October 2007
incident, the inmate alleged the corrections officer came to her room and
demanded she perform sex acts. The officer was fired, and subsequently
convicted of a misdemeanor sex offense. Johnson told that inmate's relatives
in a September 2008 letter that after the incident Corrections Corporation of
America immediately changed its operating procedures at Otter Creek to
require "whenever possible, a female correctional officer is paired with
a male correctional officer in the housing dorms/units." The state
renewed its $3.6 million annual contract to house Hawai'i inmates at Otter
Creek in November. Johnson said the contract is set to expire in October.
Allegations of sexual misconduct involving corrections workers and Hawai'i
inmates have surfaced before in other private prisons, including in Oklahoma
in 2000 and Colorado in 2005. Those allegations were followed by the felony
conviction of a corrections officer in Colorado and inmate lawsuits in both
states. Otter Creek Correctional Center, a 656-bed prison that houses
minimum- and medium-security men and women, was also under scrutiny last year
after a secretary got a .22-caliber pistol through the facility's security
system, including a metal detector, and then committed suicide in the
warden's office.
October
2, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
A male corrections officer has been fired and a privately run Kentucky
prison has changed some of its housing unit procedures after a Hawai'i female
prison inmate accused the officer of sexually assaulting her in her cell last
fall. According to a written statement by the 34-year-old inmate that was
provided by a family member, the inmate alleges the corrections officer came
to her room in the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky.,
between 4:15 and 4:45 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2007, and demanded that she perform
sex acts. The inmate alleged she saved evidence from the encounter and turned
it over to prison officials the same day. In a letter to the family, Tommy
Johnson, deputy director of the Hawai'i Department of Public Safety, said the
Kentucky State Police investigated the incident and referred the case to
prosecutors. The corrections officer was "immediately terminated,"
and is scheduled to go on trial in Floyd County District Court on a
misdemeanor sex offense, Johnson said in the Sept. 16, 2008, letter to the
inmate's family. The Advertiser does not identify victims of alleged sexual
assaults, and is also withholding the name of the family member to protect
the privacy of the inmate. Johnson said in a written statement that prison
operator Corrections Corporation of America immediately changed its
operational procedures at Otter Creek to require that "whenever
possible, a female correctional officer is paired with a male correctional
officer in the housing dorms /units." "In addition, the Department
of Public Safety has reviewed the changes and approved them with further
modifications that are specifically designed to ensure that at least two
correctional officers (preferably females) are always posted in the housing
dorms/units," Johnson wrote. Previous incidents -- Allegations of sexual
misconduct involving corrections workers and Hawai'i inmates have surfaced
before in private prisons in Oklahoma in 2000 and Colorado in 2005, and were
followed by a felony conviction of a corrections officer in Colorado and
inmate lawsuits in both states. Prison officials transferred some of the
inmates who made sexual misconduct allegations against prison staff in the
past back to Hawai'i, but that didn't happen in this case. "Since the
officer was the only staff person implicated by (the inmate) and given the
fact that he was immediately removed from the facility, CCA quickly addressed
her security and took corrective action," Johnson said in his written
statement. "Her safety was not in question, nor was there a need to
relocate (the inmate) to another facility. Further, (the inmate) did not
request protective custody and therefore, the department determined that
moving her was not warranted." The inmate's aunt disagreed, and the
female prisoner who allegedly was assaulted has been placed in lockdown for
about 50 days since she reported the sexual assault. The aunt contends the
lockdown punishment was retaliation against the inmate for reporting the
alleged assault. Concerns arise -- However, Johnson wrote in his letter to
the family that the inmate was placed in lockdown because of a confrontation
with another prisoner. Johnson said the allegation of a confrontation between
the inmates was later dismissed, and the female inmate was released back into
the general population. The aunt also questioned the misdemeanor charge
against the former corrections officer, pointing out that even consensual
sexual contact between a corrections worker and an inmate would be a felony
in Hawai'i. State Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Senate Public Safety
Committee, said he is also concerned that the case is being treated as a
misdemeanor offense. "Obviously, whether he was enticed or lured or not,
we've got a major breakdown in training with the staff at Otter Creek, and a
problem with accountability up there of guards if a person can go in there
and commit this type of act against one of our inmates," Espero said.
State prison officials are considering moving at least some of the 150
Hawai'i female convicts housed at Otter Creek back to Hawai'i and putting
them at the Federal Detention Center near Honolulu International Airport.
April
3, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
State lawmakers have tentatively approved a bill to audit a privately run
Arizona prison that holds more than 1,800 Hawai'i convicts. House Finance
Chairman Marcus Oshiro said state Auditor Marion Higa likely would need to
contract with a Mainland auditing firm to conduct the performance audit of
Saguaro Correctional Center, a new 1,896-bed prison in Eloy, Ariz., that
houses only male prisoners from Hawai'i. The audit is expected to cost
$150,000 or more, but Oshiro said it will be "money well spent" to
scrutinize the Saguaro operation and the state contract with Corrections
Corporation of America. Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50 million a year to
house more than 2,000 male and female convicts from Hawai'i in private
prisons in Arizona and Kentucky. Hawai'i first began sending prisoners to the
Mainland in 1995 as a temporary measure to relieve in-state prison
overcrowding. About half of the state's prison population is now held in
out-of-state facilities. According to Senate Bill 2342, "there has never
been an audit of the private Mainland prisons that Hawai'i has contracted
with to house the state's inmates, despite the fact that deaths and serious
injuries have occurred at several of the contract prisons on the
Mainland." Oshiro said, "I think it's prudent to spend some monies
for the audit and review to make sure that we're getting the best services
for our money." The bill goes to the full House for a floor vote, and if
approved will be sent to a House-Senate conference committee to iron out
differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The Senate
proposed auditing both Saguaro and the Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Kentucky, where about 175 Hawai'i inmates are being held. However, Oshiro
said supporters of the bill told him the Saguaro audit was more important
because more inmates are there, so the audit of Otter Creek was dropped from the
House draft of the bill. Clayton Frank, director of the state Department of
Public Safety, has opposed the bill because state prison officials already
conduct quarterly audits of the Mainland prisons that check up on programs,
food service, medical service and security, among other areas. "The
department already has the expertise in place and is currently providing a
thorough and ongoing auditing process to ensure contract compliance is being
met," the department said in a written statement Monday. For situations
that require immediate attention, "we have dispatched appropriate senior
staff and Internal Affairs investigators to the facilities," the
statement said. The bill for an audit is advancing after recent Mainland
media reports cited a former CCA manager who said he was required to produce
misleading reports about incidents in CCA prisons. Time magazine interviewed
former CCA senior quality assurance manager Ronald T. Jones, who said CCA
General Counsel Gus Puryear IV ordered staff to classify sometimes violent
incidents such as inmate disturbances or escapes as if they were less serious
events to make the company performance appear to be better than it was. Jones
alleged more detailed reports about the prison incidents were prepared for
internal CCA use, and were not released to clients. CCA denied the
allegations, which Time published as Puryear is being considered for a post
as a federal judge. Oshiro said he is aware of those reports. "There's
questions being raised right now, given what you read about nationally about
the CCA organization maybe having two sets of books, and I think it causes
some concerns, especially since we don't get to observe and watch or
communicate with our inmates being that they are way out there in the
Mainland," Oshiro said. The statement Monday from Department of Public
Safety noted that the department "does not solely rely on CCA reports or
internal audits. As the customer, we feel it's not only our right, but also
our responsibility to Hawai'i offenders housed in CCA facilities, to send our
own staff to the Arizona and Kentucky facilities."
March
31, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
State lawmakers today will consider ordering an audit of two Corrections
Corporation of America facilities in the wake of national media accounts alleging
that the huge private prison company misrepresented statistical data to make
it appear that CCA facilities had fewer violent acts and other problems than
was actually the case. Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50 million a year to house
more than 2,000 men and women convicts in CCA prisons in Arizona and
Kentucky. Senate Bill 2342 calls for the State Auditor to conduct performance
audits of two of the three Mainland prisons that house Hawai'i inmates,
including reviews of the food, medical, drug treatment, vocational and other
services provided to Hawai'i inmates. The audit also would scrutinize the way
the state Department of Public Safety oversees the private prisons and
enforces the terms of the state's contracts with CCA. According to the bill, "there
has never been an audit of the private Mainland prisons that Hawai'i has
contracted with to house the state's inmates, despite the fact that deaths
and serious injuries have occurred at several of the contract prisons on the
Mainland." Clayton Frank, director of the state Department of Public
Safety, testified against the proposed audits in Senate hearings last month,
calling the audits "unnecessary and repetitive" because his
department already conducts quarterly audits to make sure CCA is complying
with its contracts with the state. Frank also suggested his department was
being singled out, arguing that if lawmakers want performance audits to
provide more accountability and transparency to the public, "then it
should apply to all state contracts and not be limited to just the Department
of Public Safety." Critics of the Mainland prison contracts contend the
audits are needed because the private prisons are for-profit ventures
designed to keep costs as low as possible. During the decade that Hawai'i has
housed inmates on the Mainland, the state itself has criticized private
prison operators when the companies failed to provide Hawai'i inmates with
programs that were required under the contract. Now, supporters of the audit
bill say an independent review is necessary to scrutinize what is one of the
state's largest ongoing contracts of any kind with a private vendor.
"Are we getting what we pay for? We'd like to know," testified
Jeanne Y. Ohta, executive director of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i. The
audit would cover the 1,896-bed Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz.,
which houses only male prisoners from Hawai'i, and the 656-bed Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., which holds about 175 Hawai'i women
inmates. The House Finance Committee hearing on the bill today comes in the
wake of Mainland media reports citing a former CCA manager who said he was
required to produce misleading reports about incidents in CCA prisons. The
company operates about 65 prisons with about 75,000 inmates. Time magazine
interviewed former CCA senior quality assurance manager Ronald T. Jones, who
said CCA General Counsel Gus Puryear IV ordered staff to classify sometimes
violent incidents such as inmate disturbances, escapes and sexual assaults as
if they were less serious events to make the company performance appear to be
better than it was. Jones said more detailed reports about the prison
incidents were prepared for internal CCA use, and were not released to
clients. CCA denied the allegations, which Time published as Puryear is being
considered for a post as a federal judge. The Private Corrections Institute
Inc., an organization opposed to private prisons, wrote to Hawai'i prison
officials urging them to investigate CCA's reporting procedures in the wake of
the Time report. Alex Friedmann, vice president of the institute, said most
state monitors who are overseeing CCA prisons "largely rely on
information and data provided by CCA; further, the accuracy of incident
reports is entirely dependent on whether those incidents are documented by
the company's employees." Hawai'i Public Safety officials did not
respond to requests for comment on the allegations in the Time article.
January
26, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
A secretary at a privately run Kentucky prison where Hawai'i women
inmates are housed apparently smuggled a handgun into the facility Tuesday
and shot herself in the warden's office, according to the investigator
handling the case. The apparent suicide of Carla J. Meade, 43, represents a
major security breach at the Otter Creek Correctional Center, and Kentucky
state police detective Mike Goble said prison owner Corrections Corp. of
America is investigating how Meade got the .22-caliber pistol through the
facility's security screening system. Clayton Frank, director of the Hawai'i
Department of Public Safety, said the shooting took place away from the
portions of the prison where the 175 Hawai'i women prisoners are housed at
Otter Creek, but that it does raise concerns about the CCA operation.
"What I emphasized to them is what occurred is a security breach,"
he said. "Once I got word of the suicide and how it occurred, my initial
reaction was, how did a gun get in there?" A statement by CCA said the
656-bed prison in Wheelwright, Ky., was locked down in the wake of the
apparent suicide at about 9 a.m., and said the company is cooperating with
Kentucky State Police investigators. CCA spokesman Steve Owen declined to
comment further on the case or the company response to the shooting until the
police investigation is complete. Goble said Meade got a small pistol past
the facility metal detector, and that company officials are examining the
screening equipment to determine if it is functioning properly. Company
security protocol includes checks of hand-carried clothing and random
pat-downs of employees, and all workers must pass
through a metal detector each day, he said. "Evidently when she went
through the metal detector, it didn't go off, or she got it past the guard
that searched her clothing items," Goble said. Meade shot herself in
front of Warden Joyce Arnold, possibly because of a personnel change at the
facility, Goble said. "There was some internal movement going on there,
and I don't think she (Meade) was satisfied with it," he said. Hawai'i Senate
Public Safety Committee chairman Will Espero said the incident raises
concerns about the prison. "I'm not hearing good things about it,"
he said. "It makes one wonder about the facility and the staffing and
the training and the ability of someone to bring a dangerous weapon within
the secured area." The state pays more than $50 million a year to CCA to
house more than 2,000 men and women inmates in private prisons on the
Mainland because there isn't enough room for them in Hawai'i prisons, but the
practice of exporting women inmates has been criticized in recent years. Many
of the women inmates have young children, and prisoner advocates and some
lawmakers are concerned that long separations without family visits may
negatively affect the children and families back in Hawai'i.
January
22, 2008 WKYT
A employee at the Otter Creek Correctional Facility is dead after an
apparent suicide. This release was issued earlier today from Corrections
Corporation of America. Wheelwright, KY, January 22, 2008 It is with great sadness
that Corrections Corporation of Americas Otter Creek Correctional Facility
reports the death of an employee at the facility earlier this morning. At
approximately 9:00 a.m. eastern standard time, an employee died from a
self-inflicted injury in an apparent suicide. The name and title of the
employee along with further details regarding the circumstances of the
incident are not being released at this time pending proper notifications of
relatives and an ongoing investigation by Kentucky State Police. Currently,
the facility is on lockdown status, which means that inmate movement is
restricted to their housing areas. Facility management is cooperating fully
with KSP investigators. Additionally, CCA management has deployed a Critical
Incident Stress Management (CISM) team to provide any needed counseling and
support to facility staff. We are very saddened by what has occurred this
morning, stated CCAs Division Managing Director of Operations Kevin Myers.
Our condolences go out to the family, friends and coworkers of this
employee. We will continue to work closely with investigators and our
customers while also ensuring that we provide the needed support to our
employees. Questions regarding the investigation should be directed to the
Kentucky State Police. The Otter Creek Correctional Facility is a 656-bed
female prison owned and operated by CCA. Through management contracts, the
facility houses adult female inmates for the state corrections systems of
Kentucky and Hawaii.
January
2, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
The family of a Hawai'i woman prison inmate who died at a privately run
prison on the Mainland in late 2005 has sued the state and the prison
operator, alleging the facility failed to give their relative proper medical
treatment in the month before she died. Sarah Ah Mau, 43, had been
complaining of severe abdominal pain and respiratory problems probably
caused by a heart condition that caused fluid to accumulate in her lungs and
resulted in a condition called passive congestion of the liver, said lawyer
Michael Green, who is representing the family. The suit alleges the prison
showed "deliberate indifference" to Ah Mau's health problems, and
Ah Mau filed an inmate grievance complaining about the poor care. Instead of
helping her, prison officials "ignored her, insisted she was faking and
threatened to put her in segregation if she continued to complain,"
according to the suit. In November 2005, and in the weeks before Ah Mau died,
the prison medical staff at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright,
Ky., gave her antihistamine, cough syrup, castor oil, stool softener and
antibiotics, but prison medical workers officials "continued to ignore
the serious medical problems" that were causing Ah Mau's severe
abdominal pain, according to the suit. "The evidence is that Miss Ah Mau
was having progressive heart failure with classical clinical signs that had
been documented in the progress notes," Green said. "Our expert
told me that they could have saved this woman." Ah Mau was rushed to a
local hospital on Dec. 29, 2005 after the prison medical staff was unable to
get a blood pressure reading. She died at the Hazard Appalachian Regional
Healthcare Hospital on Dec. 31. The prison is owned by Corrections
Corporation of America, which has been the subject of a number of inmate
complaints alleging substandard medical care. After Ah Mau died, Hawai'i
prison officials sent a team to assess the medical treatment being given to
inmates at Otter Creek. They never publicly released the results of that inquiry.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Darryl K. Ah Mau, who was Sarah Ah Mau's
husband, and Sarah Ah Mau's father, Bartholomew Yadao, against the state of
Hawai'i, Corrections Corporation of America and CCA nurse Iris Prater. A
spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety said the department has
not received a copy of the lawsuit, and therefore could not comment on it.
CCA has said that its own review of Ah Mau's medical records found she
received prompt and appropriate care.
October
17, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
State prison officials say it's possible all of Hawai'i's women inmates on
the Mainland 175 convicts now held in a private prison in Kentucky could
be brought back and housed at the Federal Detention Center on O'ahu. Tommy
Johnson, deputy director for corrections of the state Department of Public
Safety, said negotiations could begin with the federal Bureau of Prisons to
house the women at the federal center near the Honolulu airport, provided
state lawmakers approve extra money for their care. Housing the women in
Hawai'i would double the cost of holding them in Kentucky, Johnson said.
There is no room at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua for
the Mainland inmates, but the detention center may have room for all 175 inmates,
he said. The decision to house women inmates out of state has been sharply
criticized by lawmakers and prison reform advocates who say most of the women
were convicted of nonviolent crimes, and some are single mothers. Some of the
women convicts were the sole caregivers for their children before they were
sent to prison, and lawmakers and others have questioned the impact that long
separations without visits may have on the children and families back in
Hawai'i. Both the House Public Safety and Military Affairs Committee and the
Senate Public Safety Committee passed bills this year instructing the
Department of Public Safety to draft plans to return the women inmates to
Hawai'i. The bills were not approved by the full Legislature, but state
lawmakers are expected to revisit the subject in the 2008 session. Senate
Public Safety Committee Chairman Will Espero said he has heard the state may
rent an entire floor of the Federal Detention Center to house 120 of the
women now on the Mainland. "If that's the case, then great. We'll be
very supportive of it, but of course we have to provide them the programming
and other services that the inmates will need," Espero said. NO ROOM IN
HAWAI'I Hawai'i holds a larger percentage of its prison population outside the
state than any other state in the nation. As of last week the state was
holding 2,027 convicted felons in private prisons operated by Corrections
Corporation of America in Arizona and Kentucky, which is more than half the
total state prison population. Prison officials have said they would prefer
to house those inmates in Hawai'i correctional facilities, but there is no
room here because Hawai'i has not built a new prison in the past 20 years.
State prison officials had planned to move the women prisoners on the
Mainland from the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., to the
new Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., this year, but that plan has
been delayed, Johnson said. Now, Hawai'i prison officials are negotiating a
one-year extension of the Otter Creek contract, and are considering moving
the women to the federal lockup as "one option," Johnson said. The
state now pays about $54 per day per inmate to house the women at Otter
Creek, and that is expected to increase to about $56 per day under the new
contract being negotiated with CCA. The state pays $80.54 per inmate per day
to house about 150 prisoners in rented beds at the Federal Detention Center,
and Johnson said he expects the detention center would house the women for a
similar rate. However, the state would also have to put up money to provide
rehabilitative programming for the women that is now available at Otter
Creek, such as drug treatment and parenting classes. Those programs would not
be provided under a federal contract, which means the state would have to
establish those services at the detention center. 'IT'S ABSURD' Kat Brady,
coordinator of the Community Alliance on Prisons, said many of the women now
in prison do not need to be held in secure settings such as Otter Creek, the
Federal Detention Center or the Women's Community Correctional Center. Brady
cited Department of Public Safety statistics that show 40 percent of
Hawai'i's sentenced women inmates in 2006 were classified as community
custody, meaning they were eligible for work furlough, extended furlough or
residential transitional living centers outside of the prison system.
Additionally, about 21 percent of the women inmates were classified as
minimum custody inmates. According to the Department Public Safety, minimum security
prisoners can be placed in less restrictive minimum security prison settings,
or can be supervised in the community. "Instead of extending the
contract for that coal pit, why don't they instead get more transition beds
in the community, and let those women out who are community custody, who the
department itself says can be in the community with no supervision?"
Brady said. "It's absurd that we keep using the most expensive sanction
to deal with people who are community custody. It's absurd, it's immoral,
it's expensive and it doesn't help anybody."
May
10, 2006 In These Times
It has been an arduous, surreal journey for eight Hawaiian female
prisoners sent to do their time on the mainland. The plight of this group of
women housed, most recently, in a prison in the small eastern Kentucky town
of Wheelwright, would have escaped unnoticed, had it not been for the death
of 43-year-old Sarah Ah Mau, on New Year's Eve 2005. Mau, serving a life
sentence for second-degree murder, had been incarcerated since 1993 and had a
shot at parole eligibility in August 2008. She never got that chance. Instead
she died of as-yet-unexplained "natural causes" after two days in
critical condition--and a month after first complaining of severe
gastrointestinal distress. Family members and fellow prisoners say that Ah
Mau's pleas for medical care were ridiculed, downplayed or ignored by prison
employees. As her stomach distended--and other body parts began to swell
visibly--prisoners say that Ah Mau was fed castor oil and told to stop
complaining unless she wanted to face disciplinary action. What was Hawaiian
resident Ah Mau doing in Kentucky in the first place? She was a commodity in
an increasingly common practice: interstate prison transfers. Prison
transfers, while not unusual, have a profound effect on inmates and family
members alike. Children and spouses of "shipped" prisoners have
little, if any, opportunity to see their loved ones. And due to special
contracts with phone companies, telephone calls are prohibitively expensive.
Prisoners themselves are sent to culturally unfamiliar facilities where they
are supposed to be treated according to the laws and regulations granted by
their home states--but rarely are. Home state law and prison regulation books
are rarely available, making the prisoners' appeals or grievance requests
even more difficult to file. Most of the prisoners transferred out of their
home states (which include but are not limited to Alabama, Colorado, North
Dakota, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming) end up in privately run facilities
in rural communities. Many of the guards hired for such prisons are
under-trained, ill-prepared for their stressful work environments, and are
paid "fast-food restaurant wages," according to Ken Kopczynski,
executive director of Private Corrections Institute (PCI), a prison watchdog
group. "This is a major issue," says Kopczynski. "The private
prison companies have found a real niche for themselves." (click here for complete article)
April
8, 2006 Lexington Herald-Leader
A guard at Otter Creek Correctional Center has been charged with sexual
abuse after he allegedly gave food and candy to a female inmate for oral sex,
Kentucky State Police say. Eldon Tackett, 43, of Melvin, who no longer works
at the prison, was arrested Monday and released from the Floyd County jail
that night after posting a $1,000 bond, a deputy jailer said. Detective Byron
Hansford said in a March 28 criminal complaint that the alleged offenses
occurred on Jan. 22 and Feb. 10. Otter Creek is a privately owned prison
operated by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America. It was
converted last year into a women's facility. Warden Joyce Arnold could not be
reached for comment. Tackett is scheduled for arraignment in Floyd District Court
on April 26.
February
19, 2006 Courier-Journal
It harkens back to centuries past, when felons were banished to penal
colonies on distant continents. One hundred and nineteen Hawaiians -- all
women -- are locked behind razor-wire fences at an isolated private prison in
the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, 4,500 miles from their homes and families.
Most will never get a visitor, no matter how long they're incarcerated.
"The cost per bed may be cheaper, but not when you include the cost of
broken families," said Kat Brady, coordinator for the Community Alliance
on Prisons in Honolulu. "It is hard for a woman to come home after three
or five or 10 years and say, 'I'm your mom,' when her child has never been
able to visit her." The Hawaiians have been held at Otter Creek since
September, when CCA reopened it as a women's prison; 399 Kentucky women also
are held in the facility, which once housed about 600 men from Indiana and
also was the scene of a nine-hour riot in July 2001. But the Hawaiians went
unnoticed outside of Wheelwright, a former coal camp, until Sarah Ah Mau, 43,
died mysteriously Dec. 31 after complaining for a month of a stomachache. The
cause of her death is still under investigation. Hawaiian news organizations
reported that she'd told family members before her death that her pleas for
medical attention went ignored. CCA said in a statement that her care was
appropriate. A Courier-Journal reporter was allowed to interview 10 of the
Hawaiians but barred from asking any questions about Ah Mau's death; Warden
Joyce Arnold also insisted that the prison's security director monitor the
interviews. Otter Creek is the fourth stop for many of the Hawaiian women.
They were removed from prisons in Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado after other
private companies allegedly violated contracts by refusing to provide
promised vocational training and drug treatment. In Colorado, two of the
inmates allegedly were sexually assaulted, and inmates had to teach their own
vocational classes.
January
15, 2006 Courier-Journal
The state of Hawaii is sending a medical team to Kentucky to investigate the
Dec. 31 death of a Hawaiian woman who became ill at a private prison in Floyd
County, where she was being held. Hawaii, which suffers from severe prison
overcrowding, houses more than 2,000 inmates on the mainland, including 119
women at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky. The private
prison, run by Corrections Corp. of America, also houses 399 Kentucky
inmates. Sarah Ah Mau, 43, was taken to the Appalachian Regional Healthcare
Hospital at McDowell on Dec. 30 and transferred that night to the ARH Medical
Center in Hazard, where she died the next morning, Deputy Perry Coroner
Clayton Brown said. A spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Public Safety,
Michael Gaede, said an autopsy found she died of natural causes. Dr. Tracey
Corey, a state medical examiner, said in an interview that her death had no
public health implications for other inmates. Hawaiian news organizations
reported last week that before her death Ah Mau had told relatives in Hawaii
that her pleas for medical attention were ignored. Gaede said medical records
show Ah Mau complained twice between Thanksgiving and Christmas of stomach
pain and was treated with castor oil for constipation. He said Hawaii's
investigators would be coming to Kentucky on Jan. 23. Otter Creek, which
previously housed male inmates from Indiana, was converted into a women's
prison last fall. In 2001, Hoosier inmates being
held there staged a nine-hour uprising.
January
4, 2006 Honolulu Advertiser
State prison officials plan to send medical staff to Kentucky soon to
investigate the death of a Hawai'i inmate confined at the Otter Creek
Correctional Center. Inmate Sarah Ah Mau, 43, was taken early Friday from the
prison to a local clinic after suffering what officials believe was a
"serious heart attack," said Hawai'i Department of Public Safety
spokesman Michael Gaede. The woman was having trouble breathing and had an
irregular heart rhythm, he said. "The key for us is the medical treatment
received, that's what we're looking into," Lopez said. "First of
all, we have to find out what kind of treatment she did receive, and who she
received her treatment from." Kat Brady, coordinator for the Community
Alliance on Prisons, yesterday called for an independent inquiry into the
medical care being provided to inmates at the Otter Creek prison. Although
Brady has not visited the facility, she said inmates there told her that Ah
Mau had been complaining about stomach pain for four weeks, and that prison
medical staff gave her laxatives and other medications. Brady said inmates
told her that Ah Mau tried to convince Otter Creek officials that she was
seriously ill, but that the woman was threatened with confinement in
isolation if she continued to complain. Brady said she is aware of at least
two other cases in which women with serious medical problems allegedly were
misdiagnosed by prison staff. One had pneumonia and another had a heart
condition, and both eventually were hospitalized, she said. Otter Creek
records provided to Hawai'i officials yesterday show only that Ah Mau was
treated with castor oil for constipation, but there is no record of her
returning for follow-up treatment, Gaede said. Hawai'i officials are
concerned about communications with the Kentucky prison, Gaede said. Otter
Creek staff notified Hawai'i officials that Ah Mau had been hospitalized, and
later that she had been placed on life support, but Hawai'i officials didn't
know she died until hearing the news from her sister, he said. "There's
some sort of chink in the communications there," Gaede said.
January
3, 2006 Honolulu Star Bulletin
State public safety officials say they are planning to investigate Saturday's
death of a Hawaii inmate at a prison in Kentucky. Relatives of Sarah Ah Mau,
43, allege that her pleas for medical attention were ignored by officials at
the Otter Creek facility. Frank Lopez, interim state director of public
safety, said he was told by prison officials that Mau's death resulted from a
heart attack. Lopez said state officials could fly to Kentucky this week to
investigate Mau's death. Mau's sister, Julie Frierson, said Mau had been
complaining of severe stomach pains for more than a month. A prison doctor
called it "constipation" and gave her castor oil, her relatives
said. They said Mau had told an inmate on Friday that she could not catch her
breath. She was hospitalized but died on Saturday, according to family
members.
November
3, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
Hawai'i prison officials signed a new contract with a private prison operator
this week that for the first time allows the state to financially penalize
the company if the prison operator fails to deliver on promised drug
treatment or other programs for inmates held on the Mainland. Frank Lopez,
acting director of the state Department of Public Safety, said the financial
sanctions included in the new contract with Corrections Corp. of America were
prompted by problems the state had in Oklahoma, when required drug treatment
services for Hawai'i women inmates abruptly ended after the prison was sold
in 2003. Inmate programs were interrupted again for more than four months
this year at another privately operated women's prison in Brush, Colo., after
allegations of sexual misconduct by the staff surfaced, triggering staff
resignations, firings and an investigation by the Colorado Department of
Corrections. Lopez said that interruption in programs at Brush might have
triggered financial penalties if the new contract provisions had been in
place at the time. "Our problem before was that we weren't able to
address the (contractors') failure to deliver certain services in the
past," Lopez said. "It wasn't specific enough. Our contract wasn't
tight enough." Neither the Oklahoma nor the Colorado women's prison was
operated by CCA, but state monitors have complained in the past that CCA also
failed to provide inmate programs that were required by contract. The state
prison system on Tuesday transferred another 53 women inmates from the
Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua to CCA's Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., bringing the number of women inmates
on the Mainland to 120, said Shari Kimoto, the department's Mainland branch
administrator. In all, Hawai'i houses about 1,850 men and women inmates in
private prisons in Arizona, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Kentucky because there
is no room for them in state-run prisons in Hawai'i. About half of the
state's prison population is housed on the Mainland. The new contract covers
only the 120 women inmates at Otter Creek, but Lopez said he sees it as a
model for new contracts the state will negotiate with CCA next year covering
male inmates held out of state.
October
28, 2005 Lexington Herald-Leader
Angry Wheelwright residents are calling it a sign of things to come in
the winter of 2005-06 -- a record leap in natural gas prices that should send
shivers across Kentucky. For one day this month, a Pittsburgh-based gas
company shut off service to the entire city -- including a private prison for
women -- because the city was behind on its bills. Then, despite protests and
now a lawsuit, city commissioners in this old Floyd County coal camp approved
a natural gas rate increase that will nearly triple rates from about $7 per
thousand-cubic-feet a year ago to $20 per mcf starting Wednesday.
Wheelwright, built in a narrow hollow along Otter Creek at the base of Abner
Mountain, was once perhaps the state's most
prosperous and modern coal camp, but today it has only 1,042 residents. Many
are on fixed income, except for those who work at a private women's prison
with 480 inmates from Hawaii. The vote this week came after Equitable Gas Co.
shut off service to the community and prison for a day on Oct. 17 after it
said city officials gave "inadequate" responses to several shut-off
warnings, citing a $96,000 debt from last year. The shut-off forced Otter
Creek Correctional Center to prepare inmates' food on an electric grill.
Prestonsburg attorney Ned Pillersdorf, who has sued to halt the rate
increase, was both bemused and angered. "These Hawaiian women apparently
have to be kept warm," he said ruefully. "Meanwhile, we have one of
the poorest communities in the state being forced to pay one the highest
utility rates in the state."
October
2, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
A decade ago, Hawai'i began exporting inmates to Mainland prisons in what was
supposed to be a temporary measure to save money and relieve overcrowding in
state prisons. Now, the state doesn't seem to be able to stop. With little
public debate or study, the practice of sending prisoners away has become a
predominant feature of Hawai'i's corrections policy, with nearly half of the
state's prison population - 1,828 inmates - held in privately operated
facilities in Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arizona and Kentucky at a cost of $36
million this year. Hawai'i already leads all other states in holding the
highest percentage of its prison population in out-of-state correctional
centers, and if Hawai'i policymakers continue on their present course, by the
end of 2006 there likely will be more inmates housed in Mainland prisons than
at home. Although public safety officials say the private companies that
house Hawai'i inmates have generally done a good job, the history of Mainland
prison placements is pockmarked with reports of contract violations, riots,
drug smuggling, and allegations of sexual assaults of women inmates. Former
prisons chief Keith Kaneshiro says years in Mainland prisons have instilled a
dangerous gang culture in Hawai'i inmates that has spread back to the Islands
and will present problems for local corrections officials for years to come.
There is also concern that inmates who are incarcerated on the Mainland lose
touch with their families, increasing the likelihood they will return to
crime once they are released. Robert Perkinson, a University of Hawai'i
assistant professor of American studies, called the state's prison policy
"completely backward." "None of this makes sense if your goal
is to make the citizens of Hawai'i safer and use your tax dollars as
effectively as you can to make the streets safer, based on the best available
research that we have," said Perkinson, who is writing a book on the
Texas prison system. Marilyn Brown, assistant professor of sociology at
UH-Hilo, said Hawai'i's out-of-state inmate transfers are a strange throwback
to corrections policies of two or three centuries ago, when felons were
banished to penal colonies in Australia or the New World. Most of the $36
million being spent this year on out-of-state prison accommodations will go
to Corrections Corp. of America, a pioneer in the private corrections
industry. The company holds about 62,000 inmates nationwide, including about
1,750 men from Hawai'i in prisons in Oklahoma, Arizona and Mississippi. Last
week the state transferred 80 Hawai'i women inmates from a prison in Brush,
Colo., owned by GRW Corp. to Otter Creek Correctional Center, a CCA prison in
Wheelwright, Ky. Those selected for Mainland transfers generally are felons
with at least several years left on their sentences who
have no major health problems or pending court cases that would require their
presence in Hawai'i. Private prison contractors have the final say, and can
reject troublesome inmates with a history of misconduct. Ted Sakai, who ran
the state prison system from 1998 to 2002, said it will always be cheaper to
house inmates on the Mainland because of labor costs, which are considerably
lower in the rural communities where many prisons are. But there are benefits
to keeping prison jobs here, he said. In 2000, state House Republican leaders
scolded then-Gov. Ben Cayetano for proposing to lease more prison beds on the
Mainland. House Minority Leader Galen Fox said doing so would be bad for the
state's economy and the inmates' families. An Advertiser poll of Democrats
and Republicans before the start of the Legislature's 2003 session found a
majority of state lawmakers opposed the practice. Republican Gov. Linda
Lingle also has said she is opposed to sending more prisoners away. Yet
spending on Mainland prisons has steadily increased over the past 10 years,
and politicians have failed to take action on alternatives. The Cayetano
administration explored several options for privately built or privately
operated facilities on the Big Island and O'ahu, but each proposal was
thwarted by political resistance or opposition from communities near
suggested prison sites. Lingle campaigned in 2002 on a promise to build two
500-bed secure "treatment facilities," but three years later, no
specifics have been provided on when or where the projects might be built. As
Hawai'i's policy of out-of-state incarceration becomes more entrenched, other
states are moving in the opposite direction. Connecticut and Wisconsin both
recently brought home almost all of their inmates who had been housed
elsewhere, and Indiana returned 600 convicts from out-of-state prisons.
Alabama, meanwhile, doubled the number of convicts on parole to allow inmates
to return from a Corrections Corp. of America-run prison in Tutwiler, Miss., last
year. The vacancies at Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility were filled
by more than 700 Hawai'i inmates. Wyoming plans to open a new prison in 2007
that would allow the state to bring back 550 inmates now held out of state,
and lawmakers in Alaska last year authorized planning for a new prison of
their own.
September
29, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
About 80 Hawai'i women prison inmates boarded an airplane in Colorado
yesterday for a trip to the small rural town of Wheelwright, Ky., where they
will be housed in a prison run by Corrections Corporation of America. The
women had been held for the past 14 months in the Brush Correctional Facility
in Brush, Colo., a private prison run by GRW Corp. that was plagued by
problems including allegations of sexual misconduct between staff at the
prison and eight inmates from three states, including Hawai'i. The inmates
are among 1,828 Hawai'i convicts who are housed at privately run prisons on
the Mainland because there is no room for them in Hawai'i prisons. Colorado
Department of Corrections officials launched investigations into Brush
Correctional Facility earlier this year that resulted in a number of criminal
charges against staff and inmates in Colorado. Two prison employees were
indicted on charges of alleged sexual misconduct with inmates, and two more
prison workers were charged along with five inmates in connection with an
alleged cigarette-smuggling ring. Brush Warden Rick Soares resigned in
February, and was later indicted as an alleged accomplice in one of the
sexual misconduct cases. In March the Colorado Department of Corrections
revealed that five convicted felons were allowed to work at the prison
because background checks on some staff members had never been completed.
Colorado authorities later released an audit that was highly critical of the
prison, and contract monitors from Hawai'i reported the prison failed to
comply with its contract with the state in a number of areas.
August
16, 2005 WYMT
The Otter Creek Correctional Facility is officially open again. The Kentucky
Department of Corrections started sending female inmates to the prison
Tuesday. Many people have bee anticipating this day. After a couple of months
of being empty, Otter Creek Correctional Facility now has 42 female Kentucky
inmates. Many people were glad to see them here. After weeks of preparing and
waiting, Otter Creek employees and officials finally got what they had been
waiting for, inmates. The female inmates are a first at Otter Creek because
it used to hold men. That means some things will be different, but employees
say just having inmates again means things can get back to normal. The new
inmates mean more than just opening the prison again, they mean a lot for the
local economy. So officials agree they are glad to see the new inmates at
Otter Creek. The 42 female inmates are just the first ones to arrive.
Officials say more will arrive in the next five weeks and there will be 400.
Otter Creek officials are still waiting to see if they will be getting more
female inmates from Hawaii.
Red Rock
Correctional Facility
Eloy, Arizona
CCA
August
10, 2011 Arizona Republic
Corrections Corp. of America is proposing to use two of its existing prisons
in Eloy to provide new private-prison beds for Arizona. Nashville-based CCA,
the country's largest operator of private prisons, would empty its Red Rock
and La Palma facilities of the inmates from Hawaii and California they now
house to create space for 4,500 Arizona inmates. CCA is one of four companies
bidding to contract with Arizona's Department of Corrections for up to 5,000
private prison beds. It provided details of its plans at a standing-room-only
meeting Tuesday evening in Eloy. Under the proposal, CCA wouldn't expand
either private prison; rather, the Hawaiian and Californian inmates would
move to one of the more than 60 other prisons elsewhere in the CCA system,
likely in other states.
January
28, 2011 Star-Advertiser
The Abercrombie administration is starting to make good on the governor's
promise to bring all state prison inmates incarcerated on the mainland back
to Hawaii.The state returned 243 inmates from Arizona last week and sent back
just 96 to take their place. Of the 243 returning inmates, 54 are getting
paroled, 28 are about to complete their prison terms and three are back for
court hearings. When Gov. Neil Abercrombie promised swift action last month
to bring back all Hawaii inmates serving time in mainland prisons, state
Senate Public Safety Chairman Will Espero was not expecting action so soon.
"I was pleasantly surprised," he said. Espero said he learned of
the returning inmates yesterday from state Public Safety Director Jodie
Maesaka-Hirata. He said the state conducts prison transfers quarterly, but it
usually sends at least the same number of prisoners to the mainland as it
returns. He applauded Abercrombie's plan to bring back all Hawaii inmates.
"If we're going to spend $60 million a year to house inmates, I'd rather
spend it here in Hawaii than on the mainland," Espero said. The state
returned 152 inmates to Hawaii on Jan. 19, sent 96 to Arizona on Jan. 20 and
returned an additional 91 last Friday. The transfers leave 1,759 Hawaii
inmates in Arizona: 1,705 in Saguaro Correctional Center, 51 in Red Rock
Correctional Center, two in Florence State Prison
and one in Central Arizona Detention Center. Central Arizona, in Florence,
and Saguaro and Red Rock, both in Eloy, are private
prisons operated by Corrections Corp. of America, which houses Hawaii inmates
under contract with the state. Abercrombie made his promise after 18 Hawaii
inmates at Saguaro sued CCA, the state and the state's contract monitor. The inmates claim they were beaten and assaulted and their
families threatened by prison guards. The Public Safety Department sent a
team to examine practices at Saguaro last year after two Hawaii inmates died
in February and June. The state returned all but one of the 169 women serving
time in a CCA prison in Kentucky in 2009 after the inmates reported
widespread sexual abuse by guards and prison employees. The Abercrombie
administration is starting to make good on the governor's promise to bring
all state prison inmates incarcerated on the mainland back to Hawaii.
December
29, 2010 AP
State Auditor Marion Higa on Wednesday blasted the Hawaii Department of
Public Safety's management of a contract to house prisoners in privately
owned Arizona prisons. In a 77-page report, Higa also criticized the
financial data about the arrangement the department has provided legislators
and the public for using a flawed methodology and containing inaccurate or
insufficient figures. "Without clarified guidance by policymakers, the
department has no incentive to perform better and will continue to evade
accountability by providing unreliable and inaccurate reporting of
incarceration costs," Higa wrote in the audit's conclusion. "In
addition, the department has misused its procurement authority to circumvent
the process designed with safeguards to protect the state's interests,"
she added. There was no immediate response to a request for comment from
department officials or Gov. Neil Abercrombie's office. Much of the audit's
findings are critical of actions taken by the administration of Abercrombie's
predecessor, Linda Lingle. Abercrombie has said he wants to stop exporting
inmates to other states but hasn't spelled out whether that would mean
building more prisons in Hawaii or releasing less-dangerous inmates to free
up existing beds. According to the audit, about 2,000 male Hawaii prisoners
currently are housed in the Florence, Red Rock and Saguaro correctional
centers owned by the Corrections Corporation of America. The state in 2006
signed an "intergovernmental agreement" with Eloy, Ariz., where the
facilities are located, but deals almost exclusively with CCA, the report
contended. The arrangement allowed agency officials to circumvent and
manipulate the state's competitive procurement process to steer business to
CCA, the audit found. The department also treated CCA as a government agent
instead of a private vendor operating for a profit, it contended. The CCA
contract is set to expire on June 30. But the report concluded the state as
of early October had no plan to address that looming deadline. Without such a
plan, "the department is shirking its responsibility to provide for the
safety of the public through correctional management, and leaves the
operational staff ill-prepared to contract for private prison beds and
services," the audit stated. The report also aimed fire at the
department's reporting to the Legislature. It asserted that agency officials
reported "artificial cost figures" that were derived from a
calculation that itself was "based on a flawed methodology."
"Because funding is virtually guaranteed, management is indifferent to
the needs of policymakers and the public for accurate and reliable cost
information," the audit said. "As a result, true costs are
unknown." In addition to improving its financial and program data, and
its monitoring of operations at the CCA prisons, the auditor called on the
state's chief procurement officer to suspend the public safety department's
contracting authority for private prisons until its practices and policies
are changed and staff have been better trained.
February
22, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
Hawai'i inmates at the Red Rock Correctional Center in Arizona have been
locked down for 10 days during a top-to-bottom shakedown of the prison
prompted by two recent drug overdoses of Alaska inmates, according to the
Hawai'i Department of Public Safety. About 65 Hawai'i inmates are housed at
the private prison, but are kept separate from the Alaska prisoners, said
Public Safety Deputy Director Tommy Johnson. Teams provided by prison owner
Corrections Corporation of America used drug dogs as part of the search of
all staff, program, recreational, medical, kitchen and living areas.
Investigators discovered three grams of black tar heroin and a list detailing
prices within the prison for cigarettes, marijuana and other drugs, Johnson
said. The drugs were found in a part of the prison occupied by Alaska prisoners,
and no Hawaii inmates were involved in any illegal drug activity, he said.
Three Alaska inmates were placed in disciplinary segregation for introducing
contraband. Johnson said CCA investigators suspect the drugs were being
smuggled into the 1,596-bed prison via the mail, and have tightened up on
mail room procedures. The prison is expected to return to normal operations
Monday.
July
22, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
The private prison company that holds Hawai'i convicts on the Mainland
acknowledged that multiple cell doors accidentally opened on four occasions
at one of the company's new Arizona prisons, including one incident where
alleged prison gang members used the opportunity to attack a Hawai'i inmate.
The state's highest prison official said he's troubled that Corrections
Corporation of America did not immediately notify the state about the
incidents. The statement released by CCA announced that "appropriate
disciplinary action was taken on officers in regard to four separate
inadvertent cell door openings" at the Red Rock Correctional Center. The
statement did not offer any specifics, and a company spokeswoman said in an
e-mail that CCA would not provide additional details. Hawai'i Department of
Public Safety interim director Clayton Frank said CCA did not tell Hawai'i
prison authorities about some of the incidents until Wednesday night, after
The Advertiser published complaints from inmates about repeated cases where
doors opened unexpectedly and improperly, leaving protective custody
prisoners vulnerable to attacks by prison gangs. Frank said he is
"troubled" that CCA did not tell Hawai'i about some of the
incidents. The company explained it did not immediately report some cases
where doors opened because those incidents did not involve attacks on Hawai'i
inmates, Frank said. "Right now, I have some serious concerns and doubt
of whether they are providing us with everything," he said. "If it
involves our inmates, I want to make sure that what they're giving us is true
and accurate. "I want something to go directly
to corporate office up there that says you guys have got to be candid when we
ask questions." The state pays about $50 million a year to house 2,100
convicts in Mainland CCA prisons because there is no room for them in Hawai'i
facilities. INMATE STABBED In the most serious of the incidents at Red Rock,
Hawai'i inmate John Kupa was stabbed with a homemade knife on June 26 after
more than half of the cell doors abruptly opened in his housing unit. That
incident is being blamed on an error by a corrections officer. Protective
custody inmates are housed in that prison pod along with general population
inmates. That mix requires that prisoners there be separated constantly, and
the doors there are never supposed to open simultaneously, prison officials
said. Hawai'i Public Safety officials say that when the doors opened, Kupa
and a 44-year-old inmate allegedly attacked Hawai'i convict Sidney Tafokitau.
During the struggle, prison officials say Tafokitau allegedly stabbed Kupa.
Tafokitau, a protective custody inmate, has said he acted in self-defense,
and said he got the knife by taking it away from one of his attackers. Kupa,
36, was stabbed in the lower left back, and was treated and released from an
Arizona hospital. The Red Rock stabbing marks the second time in two years a
Hawai'i inmate has been injured when cell doors unexpectedly opened in a CCA
prison living unit where inmates were supposed to be locked down. In the
earlier case, 20 cell doors in a disciplinary unit of the Tallahatchie County
Correctional Facility in Mississippi suddenly opened at 2:48 a.m. on July 17,
2005, releasing about three dozen Hawai'i convicts from their cells. Inmates
then attacked Hawai'i inmate Ronnie Lonoaea, who was beaten so badly he
suffered brain damage, and is now confined to a wheelchair. Hawai'i prison
officials this week revealed the doors opened in Mississippi in that 2005
disturbance because a corrections officer had been "compromised" by
a prison gang. Lawyer Myles Breiner, who is suing the state and CCA on behalf
of Lonoaea and his family, said Lonoaea will need extensive medical care for
the rest of his life, care that is expected to "easily" cost $10
million to $11 million. Breiner said he is also gathering information about
attacks triggered by doors that improperly opened at Red Rock, and is
considering filing suit on behalf of inmates that were attacked or injured in
those cases. DELIBERATE ERROR? "Their doors are opening, and the only
people responsible for the management and security is CCA," Breiner
said. He said some of the lapses at Red Rock seem to be caused by human error
or problems with the equipment, while the inmates suspect some of the other
incidents have been deliberate. "Whether it's corruption or
construction, CCA is still responsible," Breiner said. The statement
from CCA said the company has taken corrective measures. "We stand by
our reputation as a provider of quality corrections management services, and
will continue to assess our operational activities to further refine and
improve our safety processes," the company said.
July
18, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
For the second time in two years, improper actions by a corrections
worker caused cell doors to unexpectedly open in a Mainland prison where
Hawai'i inmates were supposed to be kept separated, triggering violence that
injured a Hawai'i convict, prison officials said. In the first incident at a
Mississippi prison in 2005, Hawai'i convict Ronnie Lonoaea, 34, was beaten so
severely that he suffered brain damage and is now confined to a wheelchair.
Lonoaea's family sued the Hawai'i prison system and Corrections Corp. of
America last week in connection with the case. In a second incident last
month at Red Rock Correctional Center in Arizona, an error by a prison
staffer caused cell doors to abruptly open, prison officials said. Hawai'i
inmate John Kupa, 36, was stabbed in the left lower back, according to a
police report. The two incidents raise concerns about the treatment of
Hawai'i inmates in Mainland prisons run by a private company, said an expert
on prisons and a state legislator. In the Arizona case, cell doors abruptly
opened on June 26 in a prison pod where protective custody inmates are housed
in some cells and general population inmates including gang members are held
in other cells. Kupa was stabbed with a homemade knife after the doors opened
at about 6 p.m., according to a report from the Eloy, Ariz., police department. The injured inmate was treated and
released at a local hospital, according to a prison spokeswoman. In the Mississippi
prison incident, 20 cell doors suddenly opened at 2:48 a.m. on July 17, 2005.
About three dozen Hawai'i inmates were released from their cells when the
doors opened, touching off a melee that lasted for 90 minutes in a
disciplinary pod in the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility.
Corrections officers finally used tear gas grenades to regain control of the
pod. Hawai'i Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy said an
internal investigation of the Mississippi case found the doors opened because
a corrections sergeant had been "compromised" by prison gang
members. Corrections Corp. of America, which owns both the Mississippi and
the Arizona prison, terminated the sergeant, McCoy said in a written response
to questions. Steve Owen, director of marketing for CCA, declined to discuss
the specifics of the June 26 incident and also declined comment on the
lawsuit over the Tallahatchie incident. PRIVATE VS. PUBLIC Byron E. Price,
assistant professor of public policy and administration at Rutgers University
and author of a book on the private prison industry, said Hawai'i has reason
to be concerned about the incidents at Tallahatchie and Red Rock. Private
prison operators make money by holding down costs, which is often
accomplished by reducing labor costs, said Price. The companies tend to rely
heavily on technology as a way to keep the officer-to-inmate ratios down,
Price said. Private prison staff members are typically inexperienced, he
added. "By cutting labor costs, you get a less qualified individual, and
there's high turnover rate in the private prisons, and they conduct less
training for their corrections officers" compared with publicly run
prisons, said Price, who is author of "Merchandizing Prisoners: Who
Really Pays for Prison Privatization?" Corrections Yearbook statistics
show the staff turnover at private prisons averages 52 percent a year, while
the turnover at public prisons is about 16 percent, he said. Hawai'i spends
more than $50 million a year to house inmates in CCA prisons on the Mainland,
and Senate Public Safety Committee Chairman Will Espero said he is concerned
about reports of security problems "that appear to be similar, and that
haven't been resolved." "Considering the millions of dollars that
we are spending on the Mainland, we would expect to get excellent service,
excellent facilities, and ... I would expect that with their experience, they
should be able to minimize any problems," he said of CCA. LIFETIME CARE
NEEDED When the cell doors opened in Mississippi, prisoners attacked Lonoaea.
His attackers tore or cut off his lips and broke bones in his face, said
Honolulu lawyer Michael Green, who is suing CCA and the Hawai'i prison system
on behalf of Lonoaea's family. Green said Lonoaea, who is approaching the end
of his prison sentence, will need intensive healthcare for the rest of his
life that will likely cost $10 million to $11 million. The lawsuit alleges
Hawai'i prison officials were negligent for failing to properly oversee the
prison, and alleges CCA failed to properly train or supervise TCCF staff.
Inmates at Red Rock who were interviewed by The Advertiser complain that
multiple cell doors there have repeatedly opened without warning at times
when prisoners are supposed to be locked down, leaving protective custody
inmates open to danger. Officials at the privately owned Red Rock facility
have disarmed the fuses in the electrical systems that operate the doors to
some cells in the facility since the June 26 incident, and corrections
officers at Red Rock have been manually opening the doors with keys, said
McCoy of the Hawai'i Department of Public Safety. In a written response to
questions, McCoy confirmed inmate accounts of the attack in Echo-Delta pod, a
housing unit where inmates are supposed to remain separated from each other
at all times. After the doors opened, Kupa and a 44-year-old inmate allegedly
attacked Sidney Tafokitau, 28. During the fight that followed, Tafokitau
allegedly stabbed Kupa with a homemade knife. Tafokitau said in a telephone
interview this is the second time his cell door at Red Rock has opened
without warning. Tafokitau said he acted in self-defense on June 26 and said
he obtained the homemade knife by seizing it from one of his attackers during
the fight. Tafokitau also alleged that corrections officers initially fled
from the fight instead of intervening to break it up and only returned later
with pepper spray after Tafokitau's attackers had thrown him to the ground
and were beating him. "I telling you, this ... place is sloppy, cuz,"
said Tafokitau, who is serving a life sentence for robbery. "They make
so much mistakes ... it's just a matter of time before another mistake. I
telling you right now, somebody gonna get killed, brah." Tafokitau said
he was in the pod because he was involuntarily placed in protective custody
after he clashed with a prison gang. EARLIER INCIDENTS Hawai'i inmates at Red
Rock claim multiple cell doors have opened simultaneously and unexpectedly
before. Inmate Chris Wilmer, 29, recounted an incident on Feb. 2 when all of
the doors in Echo-Delta unit again opened, releasing general population
inmates into a dayroom occupied by protective custody inmates. Wilmer, who
also said he was involuntarily placed in protective custody because of
conflicts with gang members, said he immediately became involved in a fight
with two alleged members of a prison gang who were released into the dayroom.
Wilmer said a Hawai'i prison official was notified of that incident and spoke
to Wilmer about it. Wilmer said he also witnessed a similar incident where
the doors opened in Echo-Bravo pod at about 6:30 p.m. on April 7, and Wilmer
and another inmate both alleged there was another example of doors opening
unexpectedly between June 21 and June 23 in the Echo-Bravo pod. The growing
sense of insecurity in the pods encourages inmates to try to obtain weapons,
and Hawai'i needs to pressure CCA to fix the problem, said Wilmer, who is
serving prison terms for robbery, attempted murder and other offenses.
"For here and now, something needs to be said and done," he said.
"They don't have room for that kind of mistakes." The officer who
erred in the June 26 incident meant to open doors in another pod used by
Alaska inmates and instead opened the doors to Hawai'i inmates' cells, McCoy
said. She said the officer has been disciplined. A female corrections officer
who made a similar mistake by opening multiple doors in a living unit
elsewhere in the prison earlier this year also was disciplined, McCoy said.
McCoy could not immediately confirm the other inmate reports of other cases
where multiple cell doors opened unexpectedly in February, April and June.
RE-EVALUATING UNIT Part of the problem on June 26 was that the pod involved
was not designed to operate with "serious violent offenders" who
are locked in their cells for 23 hours each day, but those kinds of offenders
ended up there because they couldn't be held in Oklahoma or Mississippi,
McCoy said. Those inmates are now awaiting transfer to the newly opened
Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona, which has a segregation unit designed
to house them, she said. CCA responded to the June 26 incident by
re-evaluating the staffing patterns for the unit that included the pod, and
adding more experienced officers, McCoy said. The prison operator also had
the door system manufacturer update the control panel software to add an
extra safeguard to the system and is providing more intensive training for
all staff assigned to the units, McCoy said. Hawai'i was holding more than
600 inmates last month at Red Rock, which opened last year. In all, the state
houses more than 2,100 men and women convicts in CCA prisons on the Mainland
because there is no room for them in prisons in Hawai'i.
June
29, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
A Hawai'i inmate at the Red Rock Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz. was
stabbed in an altercation Tuesday, according to a corrections spokeswoman.
Three Hawai'i inmates were involved in the incident, which is still under
investigation, said Louise Kim McCoy, spokeswoman for the state Department of
Public Safety. McCoy said the inmates were separated after the incident, and
the injured inmate was treated and released at a local hospital. McCoy would
not say what sort of weapon was involved, how the inmates came into contact
with each other, or where in the prison the assault occurred.
April
5, 2007 Eloy Enterprise
Justin Michael Borden, 28, was arrested for possession of 1.8 grams of
marijuana and promoting prison contraband as an employee at the Corrections
Corporations of America (CCA) Red Rock Facility located at 1750 E. Arica
Road. There was still an outstanding valid warrant for Borden out of Tucson
for failure to appear for arraignment.
Saguaro Correctional
Center
Eloy, Arizona
CCA
Jun 20, 2016 civilbeat.org
Hawaii Doesnt Know If Inmates Sent To Mainland Are Likelier To Reoffend
Hawaii Doesnt Know If Inmates Sent To Mainland Are Likelier To Reoffend.
Heres the harsh truth about the roughly 900 prisoners released each year in
Hawaii: The odds are, more than half of them will end up back in trouble.
According to the states latest study, 47 percent of parolees released in
2012 recidivated either rearrested or in violation of parole conditions
within three years of their release. Those who had served maximum terms fared
even worse: Nearly 62 percent were rearrested by 2015. The grim statistics
were compiled by the Interagency Council on Intermediate Sanctions, a state
agency created in 2002 with the ambitious goal of reducing the recidivism
rates by 30 percent. The interagency council published the study in May as
part of a series of research papers, which analyze recidivism rates based on
an array of variables such as offender demographics, the type of offenses
and how much time elapsed before they reoffended. But the council hasnt
studied one question: Whats the effect of housing prisoners on the mainland,
thousands of miles away from their family and friends? In 2014, 67 percent of
inmate visitations at the Oahu Community Correctional Center were canceled.
In 2015, no visitation was canceled because of staffing shortages. At the
Oahu Community Correctional Center, visitations are allowed two days a week.
National studies have shown that inmates who maintain close ties to family
and friends are more likely to stay out of trouble once they are released.
Thats something that advocates have long been asking; its a salient
question, they say, given that many of the states prisoners are housed by
the mainland contractor, Corrections Corporation of America. At the end of
May, CCA housed about 1,400 Hawaii inmates more than 40 percent of the
states prisoners at the Saguaro Correctional Center, a 1,926-bed facility
in Eloy, Arizona. Some point to a cause for concern: A number of studies have
shown that prisoners who dont maintain close ties to family and friends are
more likely to commit a new crime. Were actually spending millions of
dollars to send our guys to Saguaro, and we dont know how its working out.
Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community Alliance on Prisons If you look at
all the social-science research, one of the major factors that can determine
how well people do when they are released is family unity and having that
support system, said Caroline Isaacs, program director of the American
Friends Service Committee in Tucson, Arizona. Everybody from Hawaii is
automatically denied that when they are sent to the mainland. But the Hawaii
Department of Public Safety, which plays an integral role in the interagency
council, hasnt shown much interest in studying the issue on a regular basis.
Instead, it punts the task to the interagency council, saying that recidivism
research is its domain. The department is responsible for the safe housing
of criminal offenders
(and it) tracks inmates rehabilitation progress
while they are in the system. (But its) not responsible for the tracking of
inmates once they leave our jurisdiction, said Toni Schwartz, public safety
spokeswoman. Tammy Mori, spokeswoman for the Hawaii State Judiciary, where
the interagency councils coordinator is administratively housed, said the
agency is open to suggestions for new areas of research, but shes not aware
of any requests
to specifically track recidivism rates targeting inmates at
specific corrections facilities. Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community
Alliance on Prisons, said all this shows that the state isnt serious about
evaluating its own performance. Its a problem, because were actually
spending millions of dollars to send our guys to Saguaro and we dont know
how its working out, Brady said. The lack of accountability is a huge
problem. The community ends up paying for this. A 2011 study found that
Hawaii prisoners housed at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona,
arent any more likely to reoffend once released than those kept in Hawaii.
But the studys authors noted that more research was needed. Hawaii began
taking a hard look at recidivism rates in 2002, when the Hawaii State
Judiciary took the lead in gathering the stakeholders judges, prosecutors,
public defenders, and representatives from public safety and health
departments to create the interagency council. At the time, the three-year
recidivism rates among probationers and parolees topped 63.3 percent, a
situation that the interagency council set out to reduce to about 44
percent within 10 years. To achieve the goal, the interagency council went on
to adopt several national best practices, including an assessment tool
called LSI-R the Level of Service Inventory-Revised. LSI-R is used to
assess each offenders risk of recidivism based on 54 different factors
such as criminal history, education, and family and marital status so that
appropriate levels of treatment and supervision can be determined. By 2015, the
new practices appear to have led to a 16 percentage-point drop in recidivism
among probationers and parolees to 47.3 percent meaning that overall
recidivism declined by 25.3 percent from the 2002 level. The decline was due
in large part to a precipitous drop in parolees recidivism rate, which went
from 72.9 percent in 2002 to 47.1 percent in 2015. The recidivism rate among
probationers, meanwhile, fell much less to 47.4 percent in 2015, only 6.3
percentage points lower than in 2002. Among prisoners who maxed out of
their sentence, the recidivism rate remained far higher: 61.9 percent, even
though the rate declined from 80.6 percent when the interagency council began
tracking it in 2005. Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community Alliance on
Prisons, says tracking the recidivism rate for mainland prisoners should be
the routine work of the Hawaii Department of Public Safety. Over the course
of its 14-year history, the interagency council hasnt directed its attention
specifically to recidivism among mainland prisoners. But, in 2011, the Hawaii
Attorney Generals Office stepped in to fill the knowledge gap by sponsoring
a study that compared the recidivism rates of parolees who had served their
sentence on the mainland and those who had not. The main takeaway: Among 660
parolees released in 2006, the study found no significant difference in the
recidivism rates between the two groups. Among the 168 parolees who had
served their sentence on the mainland, the study found that 53 percent were
rearrested or in violation of parole conditions within three years of their
release, compared with 56.1 percent of those who had never spent time at
mainland prisons. In the end, the study concluded that the difference wasnt
statistically significant. In response to Civil Beats inquiries, the
Department of Public Safety also looked into recidivism outcomes for maxed
out prisoners and parolees released in 2012 the same group analyzed for
the interagency councils May study and came up with similar findings. The
department found that the recidivism rates for the 139 maxed out prisoners
and the 106 parolees who had spent time at Saguaro were 57 percent and 42
percent, respectively. Both rates were slightly lower than the overall
recidivism rates 61.9 percent for all maxed out prisoners and 47.1
percent for all parolees released in 2012. Halawa prison visitor area on tour
of prison. 17 dec 2015. photograph Cory Lum/Civil
Beat. A 2008 study
in Florida found that prison visitation reduced recidivism by as much as 31 percent.
But there are several reasons why these findings shouldnt be taken at face
value. For one thing, prisoners sent to the mainland differ markedly from
those who are kept in Hawaii. According to Schwartz, before sending them to
the mainland, the Department of Public Safety screens prisoners to make sure
that they are in good health and dont pose management problems. Critics call
this cream-skimming a process that essentially weeds out troublesome
prisoners who are more likely to reoffend once released. Indeed, the 2011
study found that the parolees who had spent time on the mainland had
significantly lower LSI-R scores, meaning that they were considered to be
at lower risk of recidivism. In some ways, were trying to compare apples to
oranges, because were keeping our worse offenders here, said Janet
Davidson, the co-author of the study. To improve the system, all of our
decisions should be evidence-based. Thats just a no-brainer. And, for that,
we need to know more. Janet Davidson, assistant professor, Chaminade
University. Its also
difficult to tease out the effect of being housed at mainland prisons, since
very few prisoners serve the entirety of their sentence on the mainland. The
2011 study found that, out of the 168 parolees who had spent time at mainland
prisons, only 22 percent served more than three-quarters of their sentence on
the mainland. Schwartz said that partly explains
why her department doesnt regularly track the recidivism rate for Saguaro
prisoners. Recidivism is not solely attributable to having been at
Saguaro, Schwartz said. The pathway to parole can, and usually does, run
through many facilities and programs in Hawaii. But Davidson, an assistant
professor of criminology and criminal justice at Chaminade University, said
the situation calls for more research, not less. To improve the system, all
of our decisions should be evidence-based. Thats just a no-brainer,
Davidson said. And, for that, we need to know more. To state Sen. Will
Espero, vice chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, the lack of
recidivism research shows that the department isnt focusing enough on
developing strong re-entry programs. The fact that they dont have the
recidivism number for Saguaro inmates I mean, really? That speaks volumes,
Espero said. They havent had the leadership, expertise and knowledge to
develop and establish these programs that inmates need. And thats where we
need to improve. Brady said the departments mindset needs to change before
that can happen. This department is all about incarceration, and thats what
they see their role as, Brady said. But thats not their only role. Their
role is to rehabilitate people, so that they can come back into the
community. They really need to remember that.
May 25, 2016 civilbeat.com
Is Hawaii Saving Millions By Using A Mainland Prison?
To hear the states prison officials tell it, Hawaii is saving millions
of dollars by sending hundreds of its excess prisoners to the mainland. At
first glance, the numbers seem to bear out the claim: The states for-profit
contractor, Corrections Corporation of America, houses about 1,400 prisoners
in Arizona for roughly half of what it would cost in Hawaii.Civil Beat is
examining how the state manages its troubled, overcrowded prison system,
which includes four prisons and four jails in Hawaii, and a contract private
prison in Arizona. This story looks in more detail at the cost of sending
Hawaii prisoners to Arizona. Under the current contract, the state pays CCA a
per-diem rate of $70.49 per prisoner an arrangement that amounted to just
under $31 million in fiscal year 2015. By contrast, it costs an average of
$137 a day to house an inmate at the Halawa Correctional Facility, the
states medium-security prison, which has an inmate population comparable to
that of CCAs Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona. But a closer
inspection shows that the deal isnt as much of a bargain as it seems. Thats
because, on top of the per-diem payments to CCA, the state has to spend millions
more on an array of other expenses including the costs of transporting the
prisoners and conducting site inspections 3,000 miles away.It costs an
average of $137 a day to house an inmate at Halawa Correctional Facility, a
medium-security prison on Oahu. By contrast, Corrections Corporation of
America charges the state $70.49 a day for housing each of about 1,400 Hawaii
prisoners at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona. But those numbers
dont tell the whole story.So, whats the true cost of the states mainland
prison operation? The truth is, no one including the Hawaii Department of
Public Safety even compiles a comprehensive list of all the specific extra
expense items, let alone tallies how much they all cost. The closest thing to
a tally is in the states budget bill, which sets aside about $50 million for
non-state facilities a line item intended to cover, at a minimum, the $30
million payments to CCA. But the bill, which is awaiting the governors
signature, doesnt specify what other expenses should be covered by the fund.
Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community Alliance on Prisons, says the dearth
of information should be troubling to lawmakers. What they need and the
public needs access to is real numbers. Its when you start really
calculating all the costs that you see how entangled we have become in the
corporate web, Brady said. Good public policy is based on sound data and
research that is thoughtfully, openly and inclusively debated. It is time to
rethink what we are doing. Hawaii prisoners are transported to the Saguaro
Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona, on chartered flights from Honolulu. The
state pays for the cost of the flights. Until a few years ago, the Department
of Public Safety presented the Legislature with a far more detailed financial
description of the states mainland prison operation including a breakdown
of some of the extra expenses on an annual basis. But the department hasnt
compiled the information since 2008, when the Legislature stopped adopting a
resolution or inserting a budget proviso requesting it. Civil Beat filed a
public-records request last week for updated information, but the department
hadnt provide the records by Tuesday evening; under the states Uniform
Information Practices Act, it has 10 business days to respond. Still, the
2008 report to the Legislature is instructive; it teased out two primary
sources of extra expenses:One is the operating costs
of the Mainland and Federal Detention Center Branch, which oversees the states
contract with CCA. According to the report, the mainland branchs
expenditures exceeded $660,000 in fiscal year 2007 including an annual
payroll of nearly $300,000 for its eight employees. Litigation costs would
have the biggest impact on per-capita costs for housing inmates in
out-of-state facilities. Hawaii State Auditor Jan Yamane The tally also
included more than $186,000 in expenses for conducting quarterly inspections
at four CCA-run prisons across four states Arizona, Kentucky, Oklahoma and
Mississippi where about 2,000 Hawaii prisoners were housed at the time. The
remainder about $178,000 was used for administrative costs, such as bills
for phones and office supplies, as well as other costs, including funeral
expenses. According to Toni Schwartz, public safety spokeswoman, the mainland
branchs payroll topped $400,000 for fiscal year 2015. The department paid an
additional $66,267 to a contractor who serves as the states on-site monitor
at Saguaro. Civil Beats request for an up-to-date tally of other mainland
branch expenses is pending. The 2008 report also broke down the costs of
providing an array of services to the mainland prisoners that, under the
terms of the contract with CCA, the state is responsible for covering. For one,
the state must pay for any medical services not considered routine such
as emergency care and hospitalizations. For fiscal year 2007, such
non-routine medical expenses for the 2,000 prisoners at Saguaro added up to
nearly $3.5 million. According to Schwartz, the amount was much lower about
$1.36 million for fiscal year 2015, but it has reached $2.2 million so far
in fiscal year 2016, which ends June 30. The CCA contract also specifies that
the wages for the prisoners workline assignments such as jobs in the
commissary or laundry facilities are to be paid for by the state. Such
wages amounted to nearly $765,000 in fiscal year 2007. According to a monthly
report by Warden Joseph Taylor, more than 970 Hawaii prisoners held various
workline assignments at Saguaro in January 2016 but the report didnt
specify how much the prisoners were paid for their work. Finally, the cost of
transporting the prisoners to and from the mainland on chartered flights also
goes on the states tab. For fiscal year 2007, the cost amounted to more than
$1.6 million; Civil Beats request for an up-to-date tally for fiscal year
2015 is pending. Hawaii has about 1,400 prisoners housed at the Saguaro
Correctional Center in Arizona. Under the definition of the U.S. Census
Bureau, they are counted as Arizona residents. The Department of Public
Safetys reports to the Legislature didnt address other hidden expenses for
the state: in 2013, then-acting Hawaii State Auditor Jan Yamane identified
one such expense in her report: The cost of litigation. Yamanes report,
which was a follow-up to a scathing audit published three years earlier,
didnt tally the legal expenses incurred by the state or CCA, but she noted:
According to the department, these costs, if included, would have the
biggest impact on per-capita costs for housing inmates in out-of-state
facilities, since the biggest lawsuits involve these facilities. At Saguaro,
three Hawaii prisoners have been murdered since the facility opened in 2007.
Those killings have so far led to two wrongful-death lawsuits, against the
state and CCA, seeking compensatory and punitive damages. Both cases were
eventually settled, but the terms of the settlements have not been
disclosed.Through a public-records request, Civil Beat sought a copy of a
compilation of CCAs litigation history, which the company submitted in 2011
as part of its bid for the current contract with the state. While it released
the bid documents, the department redacted CCAs litigation history entirely,
saying its disclosure would constitute the frustration of a legitimate
government function. Because of outdated designs, more correctional officers
are required to run Hawaiis prisons than newer mainland prisons. The Halawa
Correctional Facility is guarded by 410 correctional officers. By contract,
297 full-time employees work at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona.
Hawaii is also losing out on a big chunk of federal funds by having prisoners
housed on the mainland. Thats because the U.S. Census Bureau determines
peoples residence based on where a person lives and sleeps most of the
time and counts prisoners in the state where they are incarcerated. The
intent behind sending our inmates to the mainland was not to save money. If
that were the simple reason, we close up Halawa and send everybody there.
state Rep. Gregg Takayama The bureaus practice has a significant financial
impact for states like Hawaii that send their prisoners out of state since
the decennial population counts help determine each states share of more
than $400 billion in available annual federal funds, such as Medicaid and
highway subsidies. According to a study by the Brookings Institution, based
on fiscal year 2008 figures, states lost an average of more than $1,450 a
year for each person not counted though the actual amounts varied widely by
state. Momi Fernandez, director of the Census Information Center/Data and
Information at the Native Hawaiian advocacy group Papa Ola Lokahi, says an
estimate for Hawaiis per-capita loss in federal funds could be as high as
$2,500 a year. That means the amount of lost federal funds, based on Census
2010, could be up to $5 million a year, given that about 2,000 prisoners were
housed in mainland prisons that year. I think this shows that state officials
really need to come up with solutions to the problem of (prison)
overcrowding, Fernandez said. Critics also point out that the debate over
which prison type private or public is cheaper often gets skewed because
the comparisons usually arent done on a level playing field since
for-profit prisons typically accept only low-risk, easy-to-handle inmates.
According to Schwartz, Hawaii prisoners are sent to the mainland only after
theyre screened to make sure that they are in good health and not prone to
management problems. Private prisons cherry-pick. They take the cheapest
people to house to begin with, said Caroline Isaacs, program director of the
American Friends Service Committee in Tucson, Arizona. So youre stuck with
the sickest, most needy, most troubled people. All of those costs get pushed
back on the state. In Arizona, a 2009 report found that, when controlled for
the different variables, it was cheaper on average to house medium-custody
inmates in state-operated facilities than in private ones $48.13 vs.
$55.89. The privatized prisons that Arizona has contracts with theres no
evidence of cost savings, and theres no evidence that theyre doing as good
or better a job than the state Department of Corrections, Isaacs said. In
the end, though, the per-capita cost of incarceration at Saguaro still seems
likely to come out less than what it would cost to house the prisoners in
Hawaii even if all the extra expenses were added up. Thats largely because
payroll and other operating costs are so high at the states four prisons. At
Halawa, for instance, such costs amounted to $93 out of the $137 daily rate
for housing each prisoner a far cry from the per-diem rate
of $70.49 that CCA charges. The main reason is down to the prisons outdated
design, which requires more correctional officers to manage the facilities
than at Saguaro. Halawa, which holds about 1,100 prisoners, is managed by 410
correctional officers. By contrast, Saguaro only has 297 full-time employees.
Senator Will Espero during a Hawaii Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force
meeting at the Hawaii State Capitol on September 9, 2014. State Sen. Will
Espero says the state should focus on bringing back the prisoners from
Arizona regardless of savings. But state Rep. Gregg Takayama, chair of the
House Public Safety Committee, said that, when considering the states
mainland prison operation, any discussion on the cost effectiveness of
for-profit prisons misses the point. The intent behind sending our inmates to
the mainland was not to save money. If that were the simple reason, we close
up Halawa and send everybody there, Takayama said. The intent was to buy us
the time to build a new prison here in Hawaii. But that fell by the wayside
under Gov. Cayetano, Gov. Lingle, and subsequent administrations. Both for
inmates and their families, as Civil Beat has reported, being housed
thousands of miles away imposes heavy burdens, financially and
psychologically, and can make it harder for prisoners to re-enter society
successfully. State Sen. Will Espero, vice chair of the Senate Public Safety
Committee, said the state should be focusing on finding ways to bring the
prisoners back regardless of how much savings could be made by keeping them
on the mainland. The bottom line is, were still
exporting $30 million to $40 million, which should be spent here in Hawaii.
If were going to spend that much, Id rather have that in our economy,
circulating among our workers, versus theirs, Espero said. The only way we
can do that is by being creative: Look at whats going on around the country,
then come up with some serious alternatives to incarceration.
May 19, 2016 civilbeat.com
Hawaii Keeps Secret What Happens In Its Private Prison
It was Aug. 7, and the department had learned that a 21-year-old prisoner
from Maui turned up dead in his cell at the Saguaro Correctional Center, an
Arizona prison where about 1,400 Hawaii inmates are housed. In a brief
statement, the department passed on some scant details: The prisoner, Jonathan
Namauleg, was found unconscious and face-down on the floor by his cellmate.
Rushed to a nearby hospital, he was pronounced dead shortly after his
arrival. It seemed a sure bet that more news would be forthcoming after
all, Arizona authorities had launched an investigation, and the department
was about to dispatch its own team of investigators to the scene. Indeed, a
week later, local medical examiners declared Namaulegs death a homicide,
concluding that he had been strangled. And, in February, prosecutors indicted
Jason McCormick, Namaulegs cellmate, on a first-degree murder charge. But
the department has yet to even acknowledge any of the developments. In fact,
for more than nine months, it hasnt released a single follow-up statement
or the results of its investigation into Namaulegs death. In many ways, the
episode is a perfect illustration of the departments attitude toward
transparency: When it comes to troubling news out of Saguaro, it prefers to
stay tight-lipped. The Hawaii Department of Public Safety has a nine-person
unit overseeing the states contracts with Corrections Corporation of
America, which houses about 1,400 Hawaii prisoners in Arizona. Five years
before Naumalegs death, the murders of two other Hawaii inmates at Saguaro sparked
concerted efforts to improve oversight and bring transparency to the states
mainland prison operation. But no one in a position to impose accountability,
then or now, has meaningfully done so not the governor, not legislators,
not the Department of Public Safety. Critics say the continuing lack of
transparency makes it virtually impossible to assess how well the department
monitors the performance of the states contractor, Corrections Corporation
of America, despite a long history of problems. Theyre
loving this arrangement, because they know they dont really have
anybody looking over their shoulders. Kat Brady, coordinator of the
Community Alliance on Prisons.
They can control what information comes out of there; as long as they
can do that, theres never going to be true oversight, said Carrie Ann
Shirota, a Maui lawyer who has examined the for-profit prison industry as a
fellow at the Open Society Foundations. When youre out of sight, out of
mind. Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community Alliance on Prisons, says the
arrangement ultimately lets CCA off the hook. Theyre
loving this arrangement, because they know they dont really have
anybody looking over their shoulders, Brady said. Howard Komori, acting
administrator of the Mainland and Federal Detention Center Branch, which
oversees the states contracts with CCA, declined to comment for this story.
For his part, state Sen. Will Espero, vice chair of the Senate Public Safety
Committee, says he sees little choice but to keep faith with the departments
monitoring efforts unless, he says, someone tells me theres a massive
cover-up and corruption in the mainland branch. The reality is that theres
a plethora of things for us to be looking into. So, unless we hear otherwise,
we have to trust as lawmakers that the people we pay to do the job are doing
their jobs, Espero said. If theyre not, give us the evidence and let us
look into it. Thats the best we can do. The Hawaii Department of Public
Safety blacked out most of this monthly report by its on-site monitor at the
Saguaro Correctional Center. The department cited concerns over privacy and
the frustration of a legitimate government function. The Department of
Public Safety first established the mainland branch as a special program in
2004, at a time when Hawaii had become increasingly dependent on for-profit
prisons on the mainland to serve as a release valve for the states
dangerously overcrowded prisons. The nine-person unit has since become a
regular fixture within the department, with an annual payroll of more than
$400,000. All along, the mainland branch has operated under little public
scrutiny shielded by the departments insistence that most of its work must
be kept confidential because of privacy and security concerns. But, in April
2013, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii challenged the
departments lack of transparency in a lawsuit filed in the state court. The
case stemmed from wrongful-death lawsuits brought a year earlier by a San
Francisco law firm representing the families of two Hawaii prisoners murdered
at Saguaro in 2010. The firm, Rosen Bien Galvan and Grunfeld, had filed
public-records requests for 31 different categories of documents later
narrowed down to 28 to establish a pattern of negligence and mismanagement
by CCA, such as the practice of grossly short-staffing prisons and cutting
corners in every way possible to make its private prisons profitable. Hawaii
has about 1,400 prisoners housed at the Saguaro Correctional Center, which sits
in the Arizona desert about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix. In 2007,
Corrections Corporation of America opened the Saguaro Correctional Center, a
1,896-bed facility in Eloy, Arizona, to house Hawaii inmates. But the firm
was given the runaround by the department for nearly seven months even
after it paid more than $5,300 in fees and expenses for the documents. The
ACLU of Hawaii stepped in and sued the department, arguing that its actions
violated the states Uniform Information Practices Act. The defendant has
responded with empty promises to produce some government records at some
undetermined point in the future, along with vague, unsubstantiated
objections to producing broad categories of government records, Daniel
Gluck, legal director of the ACLU of Hawaii, wrote in the complaint. These
are public agencies, and the public has the right to know whats going on in
them. Michele Deitch, senior lecturer at the University of Texas. After five
months of litigation, a judge gave the plaintiffs a partial win, ordering the
department to start producing seven out of the 28 categories of documents.
But the judge also allowed the department at least for the time being to
continue withholding many of the key documents, such as the findings of the
investigations into the two prisoners deaths, as well as records on
gang-related violence at Saguaro. That isnt to say that all of the released
documents were trivial. Among the released documents were monthly reports
submitted by wardens at Saguaro and seven other CCA-run prisons that
previously housed Hawaii prisoners a valuable tool for getting a
statistical overview of each facility on a wide range of topics, from inmate
population and programming to grievance and medical care. The reports for
Saguaro also tally the number of incidents in more than 100 subcategories
such as escape (under CCA supervision), use of deadly force and fight
with weapon requiring admission to hospital, inmate on inmate. But the
reports are devoid of any detailed descriptions of individual incidents
effectively preventing any independent effort to examine them in-depth. In
2010, then-Hawaii State Auditor Marion Higa also had to fight an
uncooperative bureaucracy to get necessary information for her report on the
states mainland prison operation. In her report, Higa detailed numerous
roadblocks that her team had encountered: Department officials repeatedly
attempted to deny us direct access to individuals and documents, define our
audit scope, and stop us from conducting an audit at all, among other
issues. That came as a surprise even to Jodie Maesaka-Hirata, who had to
respond to Higas findings as the newly appointed director of the Department
of Public Safety. Im a little perplexed by the lack of cooperation your
team received, she wrote. Kat Brady testifies on prison issues during House
judiciary hearing.
Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community Alliance on Prisons, says the
states lack of transparency ends up harming prisoners. Higa also found a
number of other problems with the departments
monitoring efforts, noting in particular the absence of any formal policies
dictating how to properly evaluate CCAs performance. The lack of such
policies, Higa noted, led the mainland branch to accept CCAs statements at
face value. We observed the contract monitoring team take the testimony of
(CCAs) staff without verifying their statements against documentary
evidence, Higa wrote. The audit team would benefit from having specific
guidance as to what to test or how to validate, such as an independent sample
of items to substantiate testimony, to show greater evidence of compliance.
It appears that, six years after Higas report, the department hasnt fixed
the problem. According to Toni Schwartz, public safety spokeswoman, the
department bases all of its monitoring efforts on a policy called,
Management Control and Assessment System. But the policy, which was created
two years before Higas report, only spells out what the department is
responsible for monitoring not how it should go about doing that
monitoring, as Higa advised. This is the policy and procedure all of our
corrections branches and divisions follow when it comes to performance
evaluations, reporting, monitoring and planning, Schwartz said. In August
2014, the department ramped up its monitoring efforts by hiring a contractor,
Jennifer Bechler, to be its on-site monitor at Saguaro. Before Bechlers
hiring, the position had been vacant since January 2010. Bechler, a
former contract monitor at the Arizona Department of Corrections, is
responsible for conducting a daily review of Saguaros operations, as well as
responding to grievances and incidents involving Hawaii prisoners. Bechler
declined to comment for this story. But, in response to Civil Beats ongoing
public-records requests, the department provided a sample copy of Bechlers
monthly report from January 2016. It contains aggregate statistical
information similar to the wardens reports on topics ranging from
disciplinary charges to staffing level. Civil Beat has requested, but not yet
received, all of the reports Bechler has produced during her tenure.
Bechlers report differs from the wardens reports in one significant way:
Under one category, Reportable Incidents, it provides narratives of
problems encountered by Hawaii prisoners. But Civil Beat couldnt assess the
reports utility because the department blacked out the narrative portion
of the report entirely, saying that it must remain confidential to protect
privacy and to avoid the frustration of a legitimate government function.
Michele Deitch, senior lecturer at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public
Affairs at the University of Texas, says the hiring of an on-site monitor is
a step in the right direction, but its no match for having independent
monitors. The goal, Deitch says, should be to bring both transparency and
accountability. These are public agencies, and the public has the right to
know whats going on in them. So youd want some entity
that write reports that are publicly available, said Deitch, a
national expert on prison oversight. Citizens can then find out whats going
on at these facilities, and families of inmates can find out whats going on
when they are hearing about medical care at the facility being really
problematic or use-of-force incidents being on the rise. Nolan Espinda,
the director of the Hawaii Department of Public Safety at the Capitol. Nolan
Espinda, the director of the Hawaii Department of Public Safety, says hes
open to considering an idea of bringing in outside auditors to monitor the
Saguaro Correctional Center. In one sense, such system already exists within
Hawaiis prison system. Every year, the Department of Public Safety brings in
auditors from other states to get at least a third of the states prisons and
jails audited for compliance with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act
so that all facilities could be certified once every three years, as mandated
under the law. Hawaii, in turn, sends its certified auditors to other states to
assist in their auditing process. Nolan Espinda, the director of public
safety, says hes open to applying a similar system to monitoring Saguaro.
That might be a good idea. We contract with someone else kind of an
exchange process. Our guys go to theirs, and they come to Saguaro, Espinda
said. Thats something worth exploring, absolutely. Brady says shed love
it if Espinda followed through on the idea. I would find that to be
interesting. I hope hes serious, Brady said. But what would actually come
to pass? I dont know. All I can say is that Im hopeful.
May 3, 2016 civilbeat.com
Hawaii: CCA has state over a barrel
Hawaiis dependency on for-profit prisons on the mainland shows no signs
of waning. Within weeks, if not days, the Hawaii Department of Public Safety
is expected to award a new contract to continue housing hundreds of the
states excess prisoners on the mainland for up to five more years. By all
accounts, the department is now down to a final step in the process:
hammering out the terms of the contract with Nashville, Tennessee-based
Corrections Corporation of America the sole bidder. Civil Beat is examining
how Hawaii manages its troubled, overcrowded prison system, which includes
four prisons and four jails in Hawaii, and a contract private prison in
Arizona. This story looks in more detail at the existing contract with
Corrections Corporation of America and how it could be improved. Hawaii has
little choice but to ink the contract with CCA, despite a history of problems
at the companys Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona including the
murders of three Hawaii prisoners and other legal troubles. But some experts
caution against rushing into the deal. Instead, they say, the state should
take this golden opportunity to negotiate for new conditions not only to
better guard against contract violations, but also to guarantee the safety of
prisoners. Shahrzad Habibi, research and policy director at In the Public
Interest, a Washington, D.C., think tank, said having a strong contract is
crucial when dealing with for-profit prison companies. When you introduce
private interests and profit motives into a public service that directly
deals with peoples lives, youre opening a door to neglect, abuse, companies
cutting corners to reduce their cost, Habibi said. So, when you have a weak
contract, youre leaving yourself completely vulnerable to all of that.
Michele Deitch, senior lecturer at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public
Affairs at the University of Texas, concurred. The bottom line is that, if
its not in the contract, they are free to do whatever they want, said
Deitch, a national expert on prison oversight. Caroline Isaacs, program
director of the American Friends Service Committee in Tucson, Arizona, said the
stakes are even higher for Hawaii, given its dependence on mainland prisons.
This gets to the heart of one of the problems you have in Hawaii: They have
nowhere else to go, said Isaacs, who has long opposed prison privatization
in Arizona. If you want to incarcerate people at the same rate that you have
been, youre stuck. So you get in this very dependent relationship with these
corporations. Thats a very dangerous place to be. Marc Yamamoto, the
Department of Public Safetys point man for the bidding process, declined to
comment for this story. Hawaii has about 1,400 prisoners housed at the
Saguaro Correctional Center, which sits in the middle of an Arizona desert
about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix. To be sure, the states current
contract, signed in 2011, isnt entirely toothless. For one thing, the state
managed to avoid one common misstep: agreeing to have occupancy guarantees
built into the contract in the form of either a minimum quota of prisoners
or a payment of monetary penalties for empty prison cells. This means that
the state only pays CCA a per-diem rate currently at $70.49 for each of
about 1,400 prisoners who are actually housed at Saguaro, instead of covering
for 80 percent or more of the prisons cell space, as commonly dictated under
occupancy guarantees. The contract also follows best practices by spelling
out the scope of services that CCA is required to provide, including the
following: Provide prisoners with access to legal material, including the
Hawaii Revised Statutes, as well as teleconferencing equipment for remote
court hearings. CCA also has to accommodate parole hearings at Saguaro.
Establish a procedure to allow prisoners to file grievances, have them
considered by an impartial party, and provide avenues for appeal. Abide by
CCAs own use-of-force policy, which is referenced but not attached to the
contract. (The Department of Public Safety has denied Civil Beats request
for a copy of the policy.) Offer educational programming, such as classes on
basic literary skills, GED and anger management, as well as vocational
courses and training Provide a range of routine medical, mental health and
dental services that are detailed in six pages of the contract, as well as
personnel required to meet the National Commission on Correctional Health
Care Standards Make available non-routine medical services, including
emergency care and those requiring hospitalizations at the states expense
Offer both outpatient and residential substance abuse treatment programs,
with a staff-to-participant ratio not exceeding 1 to 30 Provide guards and
other personnel according to the approved staffing pattern. (The Department
of Public Safety has denied Civil Beats request for the copy of the staffing
pattern.) CCA also has to give each guard 160 hours of basic training within
three months of employment and perform criminal background checks and random
drug testing. Caroline Isaacs, program director of the American Friends
Service Committee in Tucson, Arizona, said having a strong contract is one
way to prevent for-profit prison companies from cutting corners. But it is
clear from Civil Beats interviews with a number of experts, as well as
prison-reform advocates, that the contract has plenty of room for
improvement. One area in particular was singled out by many: Its important
to have a strong provision for liquidated damages that lays out monetary
penalties, should CCA fail to abide by the contract. Isaacs said the
provision comes in handy in deterring understaffing something that for-profit
prison companies are prone to do, she said. When you have a weak contract,
youre leaving yourself completely vulnerable. Shahrzad Habibi, research
and policy director at In the Public Interest These companies are
responsible for care and feeding of thousands of people everyday. Its a
small city that you have to maintain; thats not cheap. And they have to make
a profit on top of that, after they promised to do it for less than the
state, Isaacs said. So the main place they cut corners is staffing. As it
happens, Hawaiis current contract does contain a liquidated damages
provision, which is triggered when CCA fails to man the mandatory posts; it
penalizes the company for a prorated amount equal to the salary and benefits
of missing employees. But Justin Jones, a former director of the Oklahoma
Department of Corrections, said the provision would be much stronger if it
were applied to an array of other situations such as security breaches and
prisoners injuries or deaths. Jones added that Oklahomas contracts, which
served as the model for Hawaiis in 2011, also have a matrix of liquidated
damages that increases the damages based on repeated cases of noncompliance.
Deitch said liquidated damages can serve as the main source of leverage for
states like Hawaii, where contract cancellation isnt a realistic option. If
the only thing thats in there is the nuclear option of pulling out the
inmate altogether, CCA knows youre not going to do that because you have
nowhere to put them, Deitch said. Carrie Ann Shirota, a Maui lawyer who has
examined Hawaiis mainland prison operation as a fellow at the Open Society
Foundations, said none of this is of any use unless the state has a robust
system of monitoring in place. You can make the contracts more stringent,
but the issue always comes back to who will enforce it, Shirota said. The
history over the past two decades has shown that, even when people are
murdered, it hasnt changed the conditions that led to it. Shirota said the
state can ramp up the system by allowing unannounced inspections to take
place. The states current contract doesnt explicitly call for such
inspections; it only notes that the Department of Public Safety can inspect
Saguaro at all reasonable times, and provides it with an option to place an
onsite monitor. Hawaiis current contract with Corrections Corporation of
America doesnt explicitly call for unannounced inspections at the Saguaro
Correctional Center.Jones said the system could be further improved by
getting an independent monitor to conduct additional inspections. Monitoring
is critical, and it behooves Hawaii to look at some kind of ombudsman or an
independent auditor to compliment what the state is already doing, Jones
said. In Ohio, such a system has been in place since 1977, when a legislative
oversight body called the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee was
created. Made up of a bipartisan group of seven legislators and six full-time
staffers, the committee is technically part of the Ohio Legislature, tasked
to be the public eye into the states correctional facilities. By statute,
the committee is authorized to conduct unannounced inspections at all 27
adult prisons including those owned or operated by for-profit companies
as well as three juvenile facilities. And its mandated to visit to each
facility at least once every fiscal biennium and post the findings from each
inspection on its website. Monitoring is critical, and it behooves Hawaii to
look at some kind of ombudsman or an independent auditor to compliment what
the state is already doing. Justin Jones, a former director of the
Oklahoma Department of Corrections. The committee also puts together a biannual report for
the Legislature that rates each facility in areas such as security, health,
rehabilitation and fair treatment of inmates using a four-grade system:
exceptional, good, acceptable and in need of improvement. In the latest
report, many facilities received the in need of improvement rating for one
or more of the inspection areas. Daniel Gluck, legal director of the American
Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, said a similar system should be installed in
Hawaii. We definitely support having an additional independent audit,
whether it by the state auditor or outside agency, Gluck said. I dont
think the Legislature now has all the information it needs to make accurate
decisions about how to best manage our criminal justice system. In 2010,
Hawaii came close to adopting such system under House Bill 415, which
directed then-Hawaii State Auditor Marion Higa to play the role of an
independent monitor. The Legislature passed the bill, but it was vetoed by
then-Gov. Linda Lingle. Since then, no similar bill has been introduced at
the Legislature. But state Rep. Gregg Takayama, chair of the House public
safety committee, said hes open to considering such bill. I do know its
difficult to monitor even the facilities here in Hawaii, much less a facility
thousands miles away. So Im interested in looking at a bill like that, said
Takayama, who was first elected in 2012. But it hasnt surfaced in the time
Ive been here. I should do a better job of keeping an eye out for it. It
falls on me as the chairman on the House side. Ultimately, Deitch said, the
Department of Public Safety is also likely to see upsides from extra
oversight; the goal, after all, isnt about embarrassing the agency or
playing the game of gotcha, as she puts it. A lot of times, they are the
ones asking the Legislature for more money for more staff, for a new roof
that doesnt leak or more money for programs and the Legislature doesnt
necessarily listen to them, Deitch said. But, if youve got an independent
entity that is saying the same thing, it gives more credibility to those
requests. So a lot of agencies come to realize the benefit that comes with
oversight.
Mar 7, 2016 civilbeat.com
Prison Operator Wants Native Hawaiian Inmates Suit Wrapped Up
Corrections Corporation of America is asking the federal court to force a
final settlement in a class-action lawsuit over religious rights of Native
Hawaiian inmates in Arizona. The lawsuit was filed in 2011 by eight inmates
at the Saguaro Correctional Center, a CCA-run prison in Eloy, Arizona, that,
at the end of January, housed nearly a quarter of Hawaiis 5,936 inmates. The
inmates alleged that CCA officials prevented them from gathering for daily
outdoor worship and confiscated objects they said were vital to their
religion. The Hawaii Department of Public Safety is also a defendant in the
case. The case was supposed to be all but settled in May, when the two sides
agreed to the basic terms of a settlement, with the details to be hammered
out by October, according to court records. According to CCA and the state,
what remained was a mere technicality committing the settlement terms to
writing. Nine months later, no written agreement has yet to materialize a
situation that CCA attorney Rachel Love argues is caused by the plaintiffs
attorney, Sharla Manley. 2015 Makahiki ceremony at the Saguaro Correctional
Center in Eloy, Arizona. After the federal class-action lawsuit was filed in
2011, the officials at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona,
began allowing Native Hawaiian inmates to celebrate Makahiki twice a year.
Love is accusing Monley of embark(ing) on a nine-month trek of delay and
additional unreasonable settlement demands that exceed the scope of what was
already agreed to. Last week, Love filed a motion asking the court to grant
preliminary approval of the terms of the May settlement. In essence, the
motion argues that the terms were fair, reasonable and adequate and address
all of the plaintiffs claims. Specifically, the motion says, registered
Native Hawaiian inmate practitioners in Saguaro would be allowed to: observe
the annual season of Makahiki a four-month period dedicated to the Hawaiian
god Lono twice a year; participate in 90-minute outdoor worship classes six
times a year; keep Native Hawaiian garments, sea salts, written religious
materials and ti leaf in their cells; participate in weekly group gatherings,
as well as classes to make Native Hawaiian garments; loan out bamboo nose
flute; purchase coconut oil and one amulet per inmate for religious use; have
access to a spiritual advisor, as well as communal religious items stored in
the chapel. Manley, staff attorney at the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation,
declined to comment, saying settlement negotiations are ongoing. Her reply to
Loves motion is due to be filed before the next hearing, which is scheduled
for April 11.
October
23rd, 2012 Hawaii Reporter
CCA Prison Guards Listen to Prisoners Privileged Conversations: ACLU Files
Amicus Brief on Attorney-Client Confidentiality: REPORT FROM THE ACLU: The
American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii Foundation (ACLU) has filed an
amicus curiae brief (also known as a friend of the court brief) in United
States District Court supporting the Constitutional rights of attorneys and
their clients to speak privately, without monitoring and eavesdropping by
prison personnel. The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is a
for-profit company that has a Hawaii government contract worth roughly $60
million a year to house approximately 1,600 Hawaii prisoners on the mainland.
CCA maintains a practice of having a guard stand right next to a prisoner
when he speaks on the phone with his attorney(s) a practice which violates
the prison industry's own standards. CCA says that this practice does
not violate attorney-client privilege because in their own words [a]ny conversation
overheard is one-sided and only the inmates part of the conversation, not
the attorney-client communications. In other words, because CCA personnel
only listen to one side of the conversation, CCA claims to have not
interfered with the attorney-client privilege. CCAs other proposed
option is for prisoners to make their confidential attorney calls with other
prisoners listening to the calls. This practice poses constitutional
concerns as well, and further violates American Bar Association guidelines
concerning privacy in phone calls. The ACLU contends the practice of
requiring prisoners to reveal confidential information to other prisoners (or
to prison staff) is both unconstitutional and a threat to public safety. CCA
is under fire for its onerous cost, geographical isolation and its numerous
civil rights violations. The new ACLU amicus brief comes in the context of a
lawsuit by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC) against CCA for
CCAs interference with prisoners Hawaiian religious practices. NHLC
was forced to make a formal request to the court to prohibit CCA from
monitoring their phone calls; a hearing on that motion is scheduled for
November 8, 2012. Senior Staff Attorney Daniel Gluck said: "Due process
includes the right to privacy in communications with legal counsel. Simply
put, government officials are not allowed to eavesdrop on private
conversations with your lawyer. When I personally visited the Saguaro
facility in 2009 to meet with prisoners, a CCA lawyer expected to sit four
feet away from my interview table and monitor my conversations. Hawaii
officials, aware of the phone-monitoring practice, tried to justify it rather
than correct it. CCAs and the State of Hawaiis disregard for this
fundamental right is unacceptable." The amicus
brief is offered in the case of Davis (et al.) v. Abercrombie (et al.), the
brief and supporting documents can be found at:
http://acluhi.org/2011/09/30/aclu-of-hawaii-speakers-bureau/ The American
Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii (ACLU) has been the states guardian of
liberty for 47 years, working daily in the courts, legislatures and
communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties
equally guaranteed to all by the Constitutions and laws of the United States
and Hawaii. The ACLU works to ensure that the government does not violate our
constitutional rights, including, but not limited to, freedom of speech,
association and assembly, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, fair and
equal treatment, and privacy. The ACLU network of volunteers and staff works
throughout the islands to defend these rights, often advocating on behalf of
minority groups that are the target of government discrimination. If the
rights of societys most vulnerable members are denied, everyones rights are
imperiled.
May 23, 2012 Hawaii
Reporter
The family of another Hawaii prison inmate murdered in his has sued the state
and private prison operator Corrections Corporation of America. Clifford Medina,
23, was strangled in 2010 by cellmate Mahinauli Silva in a segregation cell
at Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona. The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU and
a Mainland lawfirm in state court, accused the state Department of Public
Safety and CCA of deliberate indifference and gross negligence in their
oversight and operation of the Saguaro facility. CCA is under contract to
house more than 1,000 male Hawaii prison inmates at Saguaro in Eloy, Arizona.
Steve Owen, spokesman for CCA, said the company had not yet seen the lawsuit.
CCAs top priority is the safety and security of our facilities, employees
and the inmates entrusted to our care. We take all allegations seriously and
act swiftly if our standards have not been met, Owen said in an emailed statement.
Toni Schwartz, public information officer at the Department of Public Safety,
said, We have been advised not to speak about pending litigation until the
Deputy Attorney General assigned to the case has had some time to look it
over. The lawsuit said Medina lived a short and troubled life. Diagnosed
as mildly mentally retarded and developmentally disabled, Medina spent his
teenage years in foster care and various institutions for the mentally
disabled, the suit said. He was easily influenced by others and lacked
social awareness needed to escape from trouble created by poorly chosen
companions, the familys lawsuit said. Court and law enforcement records
show that Medina committed a series of felony and misdemeanor offenses,
including burglary, shoplifting, trespassing and bail jumping, on the Big
Island from 2006 to 2008. While on probation in 2009, Medina was convicted in
Honolulu Circuit Court of assaulting a law enforcement officer. His probation
was revoked and he was sentenced to a five-year prison term. In prison, the
lawsuit said, Medina was the victim of systematic failures to protect
prisoners with developmental disabilities. Inmates with mental retardation
are vulnerable to being manipulated and victimized by other inmates and are
preyed upon by prison gangs, the suit said. CCA records allege that at the
time of his death Medina was considered a 'recruit' for the dominant gang at
SCC, the suit said. Medina was housed in a special section of Saguaro that
segregated inmates from the general population, sharing a cell with Mahinauli
Silva, described in the suit as a reluctant member of the dominant Hawaii
prison gang. Silva "told CCA officials
that they should move Medina
to another cell because he would instigate a fight and beat up Medina if he
remained in their shared cell, the plaintiffs alleged in the suit. On the
morning of June 8, 2010, Silva and Medina argued, then
engaged in a physical altercation which ended when Silva killed Medina with a
guillotine choke hold, the plaintiffs charged. Four months before Medinas
death, another Hawaii inmate at Saguaro, Bronson Nunuha, was murdered in
another incident of gang violence there. Nunuha's family filed their own
lawsuit against the state and CCA earlier this year. That suit is pending in
federal court. Two Hawaii inmates, Miti Maugaotega Jr. and Micah Kanahele,
were convicted of first-degree murder in Nunuha's death and are facing the
death penalty in Arizona. Silva pleaded guilty to second-degree murder of
Medina and prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in his case.
February
20, 2012 Honolulu Civil Beat
Last week the ACLU of Hawaii and human rights advocates filed suit
against the state and Corrections Corporation of America over the death of an
inmate in the Arizona prison operated by CCA. We decided to dig out the
December 2010 state audit of the deal between Hawaii and CCA to house
prisoners in the Saguaro facility. You may recall the report by State Auditor
Marion Higa was extremely critical of the Department of Public Safety (under
the Lingle administration) for the way the contract was handled and overseen.
But we were struck by another section. It described how difficult it was for
the state's own auditors to access public information they needed to figure
out whether the taxpayers were paying too much to keep prisoners on the
mainland. We already knew it's difficult for reporters and members of the
public to access "public" information in Hawaii. But for the
auditor, the state's own watchdog appointed by the
Legislature, to run into the same kinds of problems. Wow! Here's much of what
Higa had to say on DPS' stonewalling: Our audit was marked by numerous
roadblocks to our access to information. Department officials repeatedly
attempted to deny us direct access to individuals and documents, define our
audit scope, and stop us from conducting an audit at all, among other issues.
At the onset of our audit, we provided our request for information to the
department, a standard procedure during the preliminary planning phase of an
audit. Our first request for documents was made to the department on June 22,
2010. We repeated this request on July 13, 2010 and July 21, 2010. Documents
were provided piecemeal and oftentimes, had been filtered through management,
as opposed to directly by the responsible individual. For requests specific
to Offendertrak, the departments inmate tracking system, the deputy director
of administration questioned our need for the information, maintaining that
it was not pertinent to the scope of our audit. The management information
system administrator was instructed not to meet with our analyst or provide
answers to questions about Offendertrak. Instead, all inquiries were directed
to the business management officer and the deputy director of administration
... During the preliminary planning phase of this audit, the department
director and the Mainland/FDC Branch administrator invited members of the
audit team to accompany the contract monitors on their quarterly site visit
from June 29 to July 1, 2010 to observe the monitoring practices in place.
On the second day of observation, the Saguaro warden informed us that he
would not allow us to obtain copies of any documents on instructions from the
department director. The director questioned our legal authority to proceed
with the audit because of the governors veto of House Bill No. 415, House
Draft 1, Senate Draft 2, Conference Draft 1 of the
2010 legislative session which had called for a prisons audit that included
the closure of Kūlani Correctional Facility. The director wanted
requests to be routed through his office for review and final release of
documentation. On several occasions, the director screened our requests,
raised questions, and denied access in an attempt to define our scope and
control our workflow, thus causing delays in fieldwork. For example, on July
14, 2010 we sent an email to the director requesting the documents previously
reviewed by the audit team at Saguaro. On July 21 and July 27, 2010 we
followed up on that request, and on July 30, 2010, we received notice that
the director would not provide the documents because he deemed them
confidential and beyond the scope of our audit objectives. We proceeded,
anticipating that the supporting documentation would be included in the final
audit report by the departments own contract monitoring audit team that we
had been invited to join. We again experienced some delays in our fieldwork
because the final audit report was not released until the director authorized
the branch administrator to do so. Lastly, towards the end of our fieldwork,
the Institutions Division administrator issued an advisory email to all
wardens to submit any response to our inquiries to management first for
approval. Higa went on to point out that the auditor has constitutional as
well as statutory authority to obtain "foundational" information
necessary to be a "fearless watchdog of public spending." DPS'
efforts to withhold information caused unnecessary delays, Higa said. Jodie
Maesaka-Hirata, the current director of DPS who as interim director in
December 2010 had to respond to the audit, conceded in a letter to Higa:
"I'm a little perplexed by the lack of cooperation your Team
received." She promised to use the experience with the audit to improve
relations with "your team, the Legislature and more importantly the
community."
February
15, 2012 Hawaii Reporter
The family of a Hawaii prison inmate who was savagely attacked and murdered
in his Arizona prison cell in 2010 have filed suit against the state and
private prison operator Corrections Corp. of America. The suit, filed just
days before the second anniversary of Bronson Nunuhas death, alleges that
CCA understaffed and inadequately trained workers at the Saguaro Correctional
Center. The deficiencies show CCAs indifference to inmate safety and
display the companys unchecked hunger for profits, said the suit, filed by
the ACLU of Hawaii and a Mainland law firm. CCA houses some 1,800 Hawaii
prison inmates in its Arizona prisons under a $10 million per-year contract
with the Hawaii Department of Public Safety. CCA public affairs director
Steve Owen said the company cannot comment on the specifics of this lawsuit
but added that Saguaro is staffed by well-trained, dedicated professionals
who operate at the highest standards of the industry. The complaint, filed
in state Circuit Court, also accuses the Public Safety Department and
numerous state officials and CCA employees of liability in Nunuhas death.
Public Safety Department director Jodi Maesaka-Hirata said, We cannot
comment on the lawsuit until we have had time to look it over with the Deputy
Attorney General assigned to it. We are saddened by the tragic situation that
happened at Saguaro and we are working on ways to improve the prison system.
Nunuha, 26, was serving time for burglary and criminal property damage and
had previously been threatened and attacked by prison gang members in
Arizona, the suit alleged. The morning of February 18, 2010, two prisoners
punched, kicked and stomped on Bronson.They stabbed him more than 140 times
with two different weapons and carved the name of their gang into his
chest," the lawsuit charged. One of the inmates, Miti Maugaotega Jr.,
has a long history of violence both in and out of prison. Maugaotega had assaulted
Nunuha earlier at Saguaro and was implicated in a 2005 brutal assault of
another Hawaii inmate at a CCA facility in Mississippi, according to the
suit. Maugaotega was a shot caller in a dominant, violent prison gang at
SCF, said the suit. "A shot caller is a high-ranking gang member who
directs the activities of other gang members, and authorizes the use of
violence, said the suit. Nunuha was held in a special housing area of
Sauguaro that improperly mixed violent and non-violent inmates, the suit
alleged. The fatal attack occurred during morning day room hours when
prison cells were unlocked, the complaint alleged. While the sole CCA
employee on duty at the time was distracted by a group of prisoners, the
suit alleged, Nunuha was fatally assaulted in his cell. As he lay dying,
other prisoners mopped up the bloody footprints leading away from his cell
and the killers showered, changed clothes, and re-mingled with the other
prisoners, said the suit. Another Hawaii inmate, Clifford Medina, was
murdered inside Saguaro several months after Nunuhas death. Nunuhas mother,
Davina Waialae, said at a news conference today that her son had less than a
year left on his sentence and was looking forward to his release. He wanted
to do the best that he could, get a job, get back into the community and try
to make things right with his chld. Nunuhas seven-year-old son lives with
his mother on Maui. Waialae and the lawyers representing her said Nunuha
should have been transferred back to Hawaii months before he was killed
because he had less than year remaining on his sentence. Governor Neil
Abercrombie has been critical of the states use of private prison facilities
on the Mainland, saying one of the top priorities of his administraton is to
bring home as many of the 6,000 1,800 Mainland inmates as possible.
July
27, 2011 Courthouse News
Guards for Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's biggest private
prison company, continue to abuse prisoners who sought a protective
injunction after CCA guards stripped, beat, kicked and threatened to kill
them, and "the warden himself" threatened their families, according
to a new complaint in Federal Court. Five Hawaiian inmates serving their
sentences on the mainland say the co-defendant Hawaii Department of Public
Safety is failing to protect Hawaiian prisoners from brutal private prison
guards. The five inmates at CCA's Saguaro prison in Eloy, Ariz., say they
have suffered continuing retaliation and physical abuse from CCA guards,
after the July 2010 prison fight that led to the original lawsuit. Eighteen
Hawaiian inmates sued CCA in December 2010, seeking a protective injunction;
the five inmates who sued this week have asked one too. The new complaints
echo the complaints made in the first lawsuit, involving a fight in which
"a lieutenant or other employee of CCA was injured." CCA gives its
workers military-style ranks and titles. The plaintiffs claim that guards
stripped, beat, kicked and threatened to kill them, banged their heads on tables
while they were handcuffed. The original complaint claimed that "the
warden himself" threatened inmates' families. The new complaint adds
that "Inmates were told that if they did not provide written statements,
their beatings would continue. Beatings, in fact, continued for those who
refused to provide statements." The men say CCA "deliberately
destroyed and failed to preserve evidence of their wrongdoing, including
videotapes ... intercepted mail, delayed mail, denied mail and interfered
with phone calls to family and attorneys" and "deliberately
falsified reports." They say that Saguaro's Warden Todd Thomas
participated in the abuses, Hawaii's on-site Public Safety monitor, John
Ioane, did nothing to stop it. According to the new complaint: "Plaintiffs
were stripped of nearly all of their clothing while being beaten, questioned,
and humiliated. "Plaintiffs were threatened
with harm to themselves and their families, including through such statements
as: "a. 'We have your emergency contact information;' "b. 'We know who
your family is and where they live and we are going to harm them;' "c.
'We are going to kill you;' "d. 'We will continue to beat you and the
only way to stop that is to commit suicide;' "e. 'We will send you to
hell;' "f. 'We will stick something up your ass.' "g. 'We will
smash all the bones in your face.'" To conceal the abuses, CCA violated
its own policy by refusing to videotape the acts, the complaint states.
"Inmates were told that if they told anyone what had happened, they
would be killed or beaten further. "CCA
personnel, including the warden himself, threatened parents of some inmates,
including with longer incarceration. ... "Inmates were required to get
on their knees with their hands handcuffed behind their back, whereupon they
were beaten by multiple officers employed by defendants.
"Inmates were kicked while on the ground. ... "Inmates were
denied prompt medical treatment for their injuries in an effort to conceal
what had happened. "Inmates were told that if
they did not provide written statements, their beatings would continue.
"Beatings in fact continued for those who refused to provide
statements." In January this year, a Hawaiian inmate sued CCA in
Honolulu, claiming CCA prison guard Richard Ketland forced the inmate to give
Ketland a blow job in his cell at the Saguaro prison in Arizona. Ketland, 64,
was charged with felony unlawful sexual contact, pleaded guilty to a lesser
charge and was sentenced to probation.
February
12, 2011 Star-Advertiser
Six Hawaii inmates in private prisons in Arizona are suing the state of
Hawaii and the prison operator for allegedly violating their constitutional
rights by denying them free exercise of their native Hawaiian religious
practices. Inmates Richard Kapela Davis, Michael Hughes, Damien Kaahu, Robert
A. Holbron, James Kane III and Ellington Keawe say the staffs at Saguaro and
Red Rock correctional centers, both in Eloy, Ariz.,
have consistently denied written requests to practice their religion, to
establish a sacred place in the prison yard and to have access to a spiritual
adviser and sacred items. The operator of both facilities, Corrections Corp.
of America, houses the inmates in two facilities in Arizona under contract
with the state of Hawaii. One of the practices the inmates say they have been
denied is a daily gathering outdoors with other native Hawaiian inmates at
sunrise for chanting, dancing and prayer. CCA says it puts a lot of effort
into accommodating the cultural and religious needs of Hawaii inmates
"within the parameters of the safety and security of the inmates, prison
staff and the public," said Steve Owen, CCA public affairs director.
Saguaro Warden Todd Thomas said, "We're in full compliance with federal
law." Owen said the state periodically sends native Hawaiian religious
and cultural practitioners to Arizona to provide guidance. Andrew Sprenger, a
lawyer with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., which filed the lawsuit on
behalf of the six inmates, said the person whom the state approved to visit
the Arizona prisons does so infrequently and does not provide the inmates
spiritual guidance. CCA said some inmates participate in a Hawaiian spiritual
and cultural group and in opening and closing ceremonies for makahiki. The
Arizona inmates say in their lawsuit that the closing ceremony for this past
makahiki season was conducted six weeks early. They also allege that prison
staff authorizes only certain inmates to supervise, lead, control and teach
educational classes concerning Hawaiian culture, language and history. In
Hawaii, inmates at Halawa Correctional Center are allowed to celebrate
makahiki and to construct an outdoor altar for the ceremonies, said Michael
Hoffman, Institutions Division director of the state Department of Public
Safety. Sprenger said no inmates in Hawaii prisons have complained about not
being able to observe religious practices.
January
28, 2011 Star-Advertiser
The Abercrombie administration is starting to make good on the governor's
promise to bring all state prison inmates incarcerated on the mainland back
to Hawaii.The state returned 243 inmates from Arizona last week and sent back
just 96 to take their place. Of the 243 returning inmates, 54 are getting
paroled, 28 are about to complete their prison terms and three are back for
court hearings. When Gov. Neil Abercrombie promised swift action last month
to bring back all Hawaii inmates serving time in mainland prisons, state
Senate Public Safety Chairman Will Espero was not expecting action so soon.
"I was pleasantly surprised," he said. Espero said he learned of the
returning inmates yesterday from state Public Safety Director Jodie
Maesaka-Hirata. He said the state conducts prison transfers quarterly, but it
usually sends at least the same number of prisoners to the mainland as it
returns. He applauded Abercrombie's plan to bring back all Hawaii inmates.
"If we're going to spend $60 million a year to house inmates, I'd rather
spend it here in Hawaii than on the mainland," Espero said. The state
returned 152 inmates to Hawaii on Jan. 19, sent 96 to Arizona on Jan. 20 and
returned an additional 91 last Friday. The transfers leave 1,759 Hawaii
inmates in Arizona: 1,705 in Saguaro Correctional Center, 51 in Red Rock
Correctional Center, two in Florence State Prison
and one in Central Arizona Detention Center. Central Arizona, in Florence,
and Saguaro and Red Rock, both in Eloy, are private
prisons operated by Corrections Corp. of America, which houses Hawaii inmates
under contract with the state. Abercrombie made his promise after 18 Hawaii
inmates at Saguaro sued CCA, the state and the state's contract monitor. The inmates claim they were beaten and assaulted and their
families threatened by prison guards. The Public Safety Department sent a
team to examine practices at Saguaro last year after two Hawaii inmates died
in February and June. The state returned all but one of the 169 women serving
time in a CCA prison in Kentucky in 2009 after the inmates reported
widespread sexual abuse by guards and prison employees. The Abercrombie
administration is starting to make good on the governor's promise to bring
all state prison inmates incarcerated on the mainland back to Hawaii.
January
14, 2011 Star Advertiser
A Hawaii prison inmate is suing the state and private prison operator
Corrections Corp. of America over a sexual assault he allegedly suffered at
the hands of a prison guard in Arizona. His lawyers filed the lawsuit
Wednesday in state court. The inmate, serving a five-year prison term for
drug and drug paraphernalia possession at the Saguaro Correctional Center,
said a prison guard sexually assaulted him in his cell on Oct. 27, 2009. An
Arizona grand jury indicted the prison guard, Richard Ketland, last February
for felony unlawful sexual conduct involving a person incarcerated in a state
or private prison. Ketland, 64, pleaded guilty in July to a lesser charge in
a plea agreement with the prosecutor and was sentenced the following month to
probation.
December
29, 2010 AP
State Auditor Marion Higa on Wednesday blasted the Hawaii Department of
Public Safety's management of a contract to house prisoners in privately
owned Arizona prisons. In a 77-page report, Higa also criticized the
financial data about the arrangement the department has provided legislators
and the public for using a flawed methodology and containing inaccurate or
insufficient figures. "Without clarified guidance by policymakers, the
department has no incentive to perform better and will continue to evade
accountability by providing unreliable and inaccurate reporting of
incarceration costs," Higa wrote in the audit's conclusion. "In
addition, the department has misused its procurement authority to circumvent
the process designed with safeguards to protect the state's interests,"
she added. There was no immediate response to a request for comment from
department officials or Gov. Neil Abercrombie's office. Much of the audit's
findings are critical of actions taken by the administration of Abercrombie's
predecessor, Linda Lingle. Abercrombie has said he wants to stop exporting
inmates to other states but hasn't spelled out whether that would mean
building more prisons in Hawaii or releasing less-dangerous inmates to free
up existing beds. According to the audit, about 2,000 male Hawaii prisoners
currently are housed in the Florence, Red Rock and Saguaro correctional
centers owned by the Corrections Corporation of America. The state in 2006
signed an "intergovernmental agreement" with Eloy, Ariz., where the
facilities are located, but deals almost exclusively with CCA, the report
contended. The arrangement allowed agency officials to circumvent and
manipulate the state's competitive procurement process to steer business to
CCA, the audit found. The department also treated CCA as a government agent
instead of a private vendor operating for a profit, it contended. The CCA
contract is set to expire on June 30. But the report concluded the state as
of early October had no plan to address that looming deadline. Without such a
plan, "the department is shirking its responsibility to provide for the
safety of the public through correctional management, and leaves the
operational staff ill-prepared to contract for private prison beds and
services," the audit stated. The report also aimed fire at the
department's reporting to the Legislature. It asserted that agency officials
reported "artificial cost figures" that were derived from a
calculation that itself was "based on a flawed methodology."
"Because funding is virtually guaranteed, management is indifferent to
the needs of policymakers and the public for accurate and reliable cost
information," the audit said. "As a result, true costs are
unknown." In addition to improving its financial and program data, and
its monitoring of operations at the CCA prisons, the auditor called on the
state's chief procurement officer to suspend the public safety department's
contracting authority for private prisons until its practices and policies
are changed and staff have been better trained.
December
16, 2010 Star Advertiser
Gov. Neil Abercrombie promised swift action to bring back all Hawaii
inmates serving sentences in mainland prisons in light of a new lawsuit
alleging their mistreatment by guards at an Arizona facility. "I intend
to work as quickly as I can to bring all prisoners back," Abercrombie
said yesterday at a news conference in his office. "I don't want to send
anybody out of the state." Abercrombie this month named Jodie
Maesaki-Hirata, acting warden of the Waiawa Correctional Facility, as head of
the Department of Public Safety and said yesterday he would need more time to
put together the team to examine the problem. "I will be working with
the Department of Public Safety and with the Judiciary and with the
Legislature to forge a comprehensive and integrated program to deal with the
question of incarceration," he said. Kat Brady, coordinator for the
Community Alliance on Prisons, applauded Abercrombie's plan, saying most of
the state's inmates are nonviolent offenders or qualify for minimum security.
"They should be back in Hawaii preparing to successfully re-enter their
communities," she said. "Nobody can successfully re-enter from
Arizona. "To me, they've got to come back to
Hawaii with a year or two left on their sentences to get in touch with their
families and that kind of thing." The Circuit Court lawsuit was filed
this week on behalf of 18 island inmates at the Saguaro Correctional Center
in Eloy, Ariz., a 1,897-bed prison owned by Corrections Corp. of America.
Saguaro is home to about 1,800 male inmates from Hawaii. About 50 more are at
a separate CCA prison in Arizona. The lawsuit filed this week by Honolulu
attorneys Michael Green and John Rapp alleges inmates were abused and their
families in Hawaii threatened in retaliation for a guard being injured while
trying to break up a fight. Inmates were "beaten and assaulted, including
by having their heads banged on tables while they were stripped of their
underwear and while their hands were handcuffed behind their backs,"
according to the lawsuit. Guards also threatened to harm the inmates'
families, saying they had all of their emergency contact information and knew
where to find them, the complaint states. The lawsuit names CCA, the state of
Hawaii and the state's contract monitor, John Ioane, as defendants. The
Saguaro facility has come under scrutiny before. Earlier this year, the
public safety department sent a team to examine practices at the site after
deaths of two Hawaii inmates in February and June. Three inmates, all from
Hawaii, have been charged in the deaths and could face the death penalty if
convicted in Arizona. The lawsuit alleges the latest mistreatment occurred in
July. Hawaii spends about $61 million a year to house male inmates on the
mainland because there is not enough space for them in prisons here. Last
year, after female inmates from Hawaii alleged widespread sexual abuse by
guards and employees at a CCA facility in Kentucky, the state pulled all 168
of them from the prison and brought them back to the islands to serve their
time. Former Gov. Linda Lingle this year vetoed a bill that called for a
financial and management audit of the state's contract to house prisoners at
Saguaro, saying the measure would force the auditor to go beyond her duties
and make a policy judgment about whether the state should continue to send
prisoners to the mainland. Abercrombie called the policy of sending prisoners
away "dysfunctional." "It costs money. It costs lives. It
costs communities," he said. "It destroys families. It is
dysfunctional all the way around -- socially, economically, politically and
morally. "We want to do a lot more in the way of intervention. We want
to do a lot more in the way of programs."
December
15, 2010 Courthouse News
Guards at a privately run prison in Arizona stripped, beat and kicked
inmates and threatened to kill them, banged their heads on tables while they
were handcuffed, and "the warden himself" joined in threatening
their families, 18 inmates say in state court. Then the Corrections
Corporation of America and its employees, who run the prison,
"deliberately destroyed and failed to preserve evidence of their
wrongdoing, including videotapes," and "deliberately falsified
reports," according to the complaint. The beatings and death threats
came at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., to which Hawaii sent
its prisoners to be held by CCA, the nation's largest private prison company.
The inmates say CCA guards beat them to retaliate for a July 26 fight or
"disturbance" in which "a lieutenant or other employee of CCA
was injured." The guards beat the plaintiffs to coerce
"statements" from them, and "when plaintiffs wrote brief
statements, defendants demanded that plaintiffs disclose more, and then
engaged in the acts alleged herein [in] an effort to coerce further
statements," the complaint states. "Plaintiffs were beaten and
assaulted, including by having their heads banged on tables while they were
stripped to their underwear and while their hands were handcuffed behind
their backs. "Plaintiffs were stripped of
nearly all of their clothing while being beaten, questioned, and humiliated.
"Plaintiffs were threatened with harm to themselves and their families,
including through such statements as: "a. 'We have your emergency
contact information;' "b. 'We know who your family is and where they
live and we are going to harm them;' "c. 'We are going to kill you;'
"d. 'We will continue to beat you and the only way to stop that is to
commit suicide;' "e. 'We will send you to hell;' "f. 'We will stick
something up your ass.' "Inmates were required to get on their knees
with their hands handcuffed behind their back, whereupon they were beaten by
multiple officers employed by defendants. "Inmates
were kicked while on the ground. ... "Inmates were denied prompt medical
treatment for their injuries in an effort to conceal what had happened. "Inmates were told that if they did not provide
written statements, their beatings would continue. "Beatings in fact
continued for those who refused to provide statements.
"In an effort to conceal what was happening,
defendants violated their own policy that a handheld camera would be used to
film inmates whenever they were being handled by the SORT team. "As a
result [of] duress, force, and threats of force, some of the plaintiffs
provide statements in the hope of ending their beatings.
"Inmates were told that if they told anyone what had happened,
they would be killed or beaten further. "CCA personnel, including the
warden himself, threatened parents of some inmates, including with longer
incarceration." The inmates also sued Hawaii, which sent them to the
prison. They say: "During many of the occurrences alleged above,
defendant State of Hawaii had on site its contract monitor, John Ioane, who
had actual knowledge and personally was aware of some of the above
occurrences, and yet acquiesced in and permitted them to continue." The
inmates demand a protective injunction and punitive damages from CCA, Hawaii
and Ioane, for assault and battery, cruel and unusual punishment, coercion
and retaliation. They are represented by Michael Jay Green and John Rapp of
Honolulu.
September
4, 2010 Star Advertiser
A third Hawaii inmate serving time in an Arizona prison faces the death
penalty after allegedly killing a fellow inmate during an argument in June.
Mahina Uli Silva, 21, was indicted by a Pinal County grand jury yesterday for
allegedly strangling his cellmate from Hawaii, Clifford Medina, 23, on June
8. Medina was found unresponsive in the cell he shared with Silva at Saguarao
Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz. Clayton Frank, director of the state
Department of Public Safety, said his office was informed of the indictment
yesterday. Frank said Silva was sent to prison in 2006 after being convicted
for burglary, theft and robbery. He is eligible for parole in October 2011.
Silva is the third inmate from Hawaii facing capital crime charges. The other
two are Miti Maugaotega Jr., 24, who is serving a life sentence for
first-degree attempted murder for the June 2003 shooting of Punchbowl
resident Eric Kawamoto; and Micah Kanahele, 29, who is serving two 20-year
sentences for the October 2003 shooting deaths of Greg Morishima at his Aiea
home and Guylan Nuuhiwa in a Pearl City parking lot a week later. Maugaotega
and Kanahele were indicted earlier this year for the stabbing death of fellow
inmate Bronson Nunuha, 26, who died Feb. 18. Frank said the two are expected
to stand trial in Arizona this month. The three are the first to face capital
punishment for a crime committed in a private prison on the mainland since
Hawaii started housing inmates out of state in 1995. Hawaii, which abolished
capital punishment in 1957, is one of 11 states and the District of Columbia
that do not have the death penalty. Maugaotega, Kanahele and Silva are among
the 1,871 male Hawaii inmates at Saguaro, a 1,897-bed prison owned by
Corrections Corp. of America.
July
30, 2010 KITV
An Arizona prison that is housing about 1,884 Hawaii inmates, remains in
lockdown -- five days after a big brawl. The Saguaro Correctional Center in
Eloy, Arizona, houses Hawaii inmates only. The state hired Corrections Corporation
of America to house the inmates at the Arizona facility because of prison
over crowding in Hawaii. Public Safety director Clayton Frank said 30 inmates
from the high security unit were involved in the scuffle over an Xbox owned
by one inmate. When prison staff members intervened to stop the brawl,
Clayton said 13 inmates turned on the facility's gang intelligence officer
and severely beat him. Public Safetys mainland branch administrator, Shari
Kimoto, said the prison employee suffered a broken nose, broken cheekbones
and eye socket damage. He has since been released from the hospital. Prisons
officials tell KITV4 the ongoing investigation found gang members were taxing
or charging prisoners a fee to use the Xbox. Investigators are also working to
positively identify the 13 prisoners who beat the employee. If identified,
the inmates could be charged with assault of a prison staff member. Saguaro
Correctional Facility has seen its share of violence this year. There have
been two murders involving Hawaii prisoners. In June, 23 year old Clifford
Medina was found dead in his cell. Arizona police said Medina's cellmate
admitted he strangled Medina. In February, another Hawaii inmate died after
he was assaulted, just 8 months before his release. It is unclear how long
the prison will be in lockdown. Frank said gang involvement and the injury of
a staff member have led to fears the violence could bleed into the general
prison population.
June
22, 2010 KITV
State lawmakers said Tuesday they are seriously considering a veto override
if Gov. Linda Lingle (R) vetoes a bill calling for a cost-benefit audit of a
privately run Arizona prison. The state spends more than $60 million a year
to send nearly 2,000 Hawaii inmates to Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz.,
because of prison overcrowding in Hawaii. Saguaro is run by the Corrections
Corp. of America. Two Hawaii inmates have died at Saguaro Prison in Arizona
in less than four months. Inmate Clifford Medina's cellmate admitted to
Arizona police he strangled Medina June 8th. Bronson Nunuha died Feb. 18
after multiple stab wounds to his neck. Two Hawaii inmates have been indicted
in the case on first degree murder and gang related charges. State Sen. Will
Espero (D) said Tuesday, in light of the deaths at Saguaro,
it's time for an audit. "If the governor does veto this bill. I think it
would be a big mistake," said Espero. "I think it would be unwise
considering in the last several months there have been two murders at Saguaro
plus the fact that we pay $61 million a year to CCA to keep our inmates in
there." The Corrections Corp. of America also runs Otter Creek Prison in
Kentucky where after allegations of rape and inmate abuse, all Hawaii's
female inmates were returned to Hawaii. Lingle in her potential veto message
said an audit of mainland prison operations is expensive and unnecessary. But
Espero said that's not so. "The governor said it would be too expensive,
but in the bill we do not have an appropriation so the auditor's office would
be using funds it already has," said Espero. State Auditor Marion Higa
said she is operating under the assumption Lingle will let the audit bill
become law. Higa said next week two analysts from her office will spend the
week at Saguaro working beside prisons officials from Hawaii as they do their
quarterly quality control inspection. Higa said that will help her analysts
begin planning for the audit Hawaii lawmakers requested. Higa said she
expects the prisons audit will be inexpensive because she will use in-house
staff and money that has already been appropriated for her department. Espero
said that if the governor vetoes the prisons audit bill, he will recommend a
veto override. House Public Safety Chairwoman Faye Hanohano was a prison
guard at Hawaii's Kulani Prison for 25 years. Hanohano said she will also
recommend an override if the governor vetoes the prisons audit bill. Hanohano
said more needs to be known to determine if Hawaii taxpayers are getting
their money's worth by sending prisoners to the mainland instead of
incarcerating them in Hawaii. "There is a lot of missing data that needs
to be brought out and hopefully an audit will flush it out," said
Hanohano.
June
17, 2010 KGMB/KHNL
Two Hawaii inmates were murdered in the last four months at a prison in
Arizona and tonight we're hearing more complaints about safety. Miti
Maugaotega and Micah Kanahele were indicted on first degree murder charges.
They're accused of stabbing fellow Hawaii inmate Bronson Nunuha several times
in February. Investigators believe it was a gang murder. Nunuha was set to be
released in October. Both suspects were already serving lengthy prison terms.
Kanahele was serving 25 years for shooting and killing a man in an Aiea
carport, then killing another man in the parking lot of the Longs Drugs in
Pearl City. Maugaotega was described as a "walking crime wave" by a
judge. He is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for
shooting a man in the chest during a home invasion in Punchbowl. Maugaotega
was 17 at the time and had a lengthy criminal record. Arizona prosecutors
should decide in the next few days if they will pursue the death penalty
option, even though Hawaii does not have capital punishment. Earlier this
month a second Hawaii inmate was killed. Mahinauli Silva is accused of strangling
his cell mate Clifford Medina. Among the complaints from inmates is that
there aren't enough guards and they are denied "comfort moves,"
meaning if cell mates have problems with each other they are not moved until
there's an assault or worse. Just today State Senator Will Espero received a
letter from an inmate at Saguaro Correctional Facility in Arizona complaining
about housing conditions and their safety. "If you get this letter I
guess it's an I told you so," Espero read from
the letter. "Help before it gets worse and more people die or get hurt.
There's a lot to this death that you don't know and may never know."
He's got a drawer full of these types of letters. "Inmates are human
beings too and have needs and must be dealt with properly or else if you
treat them like animals they'll act like animals," said Espero. It's not
just letters. We spoke with an inmate by phone who wanted to remain anonymous
for his safety. "This facility (Saguaro) is greatly understaffed
pursuant to the contract," he said. He also said he's worried about his
safety, not necessarily from other inmates but from the prison staff. Nearly
1,900 Hawaii inmates are incarcerated at Saguaro Prison in Arizona. The state
says it pays Corrections Corporation of American $60 million a year to lock
them up. That's about $43 million a year cheaper than keeping them here in
Hawaii. But some feel the savings isn't worth the cost. Meaning with a
private company making money the public gets no accountability. "I think
the system was broken in the first place. The problem is we contract with a
facility or a company that has no incentive to provide rehabilitative
services. It's a for profit operation," said Myles Breiner, Attorney.
"No one is saying let's coddle these people but you have to balance out.
The reality is every single individual, the vast majority
are going to return to Hawaii so we have every reason in the world to
treat these people in a way where they can come back into the community and
not be a risk and we're not doing that. We're closing our eyes. I want
accountability." "You know if they really want to complain about it
don't do the crime," said Peter Carlisle, Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney.
June
16, 2010 Star-Advertiser
Two Hawaii inmates charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of
a fellow Hawaii inmate at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona could
face the death penalty if convicted. The two are the first to face capital
punishment for a crime committed in a private prison on the mainland since
Hawaii started housing inmates out of state in 1995. Because Hawaii has no
death penalty, some legal advocates say the case could be unprecedented in
the nation. Some also argue the situation raises new questions about the
practice of sending inmates out of state to serve their sentences. State
Department of Public Safety officials say they are monitoring the case, but
it doesn't appear they plan to step in to urge Arizona to take the death
penalty off the table. "When you commit a crime in a different state,
it's a crime that is addressed with that state," said DPS Director
Clayton Frank. "We abide by the laws of that respective state." The
two inmates -- Miti Maugaotega Jr., 24, and Micah Kanahele, 29 -- were
indicted on first-degree murder and gang-related charges May 20 in the
killing of Bronson Nunuha, 26, who was found in his cell at Saguaro on Feb.
18 with multiple stab wounds. Maugaotega was serving a life sentence for
first-degree attempted murder in the June 2003 shooting of Punchbowl resident
Eric Kawamoto. Kanahele was serving two 20-year sentences for the October
2003 shooting deaths of Greg Morishima at his Aiea home and Guylan Nuuhiwa in
a Pearl City parking lot a week later. Nunuha was behind bars for three
counts of second-degree burglary. News that Maugaotega and Kanahele could
face the death penalty comes as the state is investigating a second killing
of a Hawaii inmate at Saguaro. Clifford Medina, 23, was killed June 8 at
Saguaro, and his cellmate, also a Hawaii inmate, is in custody in connection
with the case. Yesterday, Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, the acting
governor while Gov. Linda Lingle is traveling in Asia, said the killings
highlight the need to take a closer look at security at Saguaro and could
prompt the state to move inmates from the facility. But he said he would have
to do more research before weighing in on whether the state should voice
opposition on the two inmates facing the death penalty. Some 1,871 male
Hawaii inmates are at Saguaro, a 1,897-bed prison in Eloy, Ariz., owned by Corrections
Corp. of America. About 50 more are at a separate CCA prison in Arizona. The
state spends about $61 million a year to house male inmates on the mainland
because there is not enough room for them at Hawaii prisons. Last year,
allegations by female Hawaii inmates of widespread sexual abuse by guards and
employees at a CCA facility in Kentucky prompted the state to pull all 168 of
its female inmates from the prison and bring them back to the islands to
serve their time. A spokesman with the Pinal County Attorney's Office, which
is prosecuting the Nunuha case, said the death penalty is within sentencing
guidelines in a first-degree murder case. He declined further comment because
the case is ongoing. Fifteen states, including Hawaii, do not have the death
penalty. State Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Senate Public Safety
Committee, said the Nunuha case could prompt more discussion on the
implications of shipping Hawaii inmates out of state. Espero added he wants
to learn more about the killing before trying to determine whether the state
should stand in the way of a death penalty sentencing. "Quite frankly,
it was a cold-blooded murder," he said. "I'm sure you will find
people in Hawaii that say they deserve (to face) the death penalty."
But, he added, "these cases really do show the need to come up with a
plan to bring home our prisoners one day." Opponents of the death
penalty say the case raises legal questions. In a statement, ACLU Hawaii said
it hopes Arizona will "respect Hawaii's history and tradition of
rejecting capital punishment in their treatment of Hawaii's inmates."
ACLU also said Nunuha's killing is "just one of a morbid series of
events showing the need for independent oversight" of CCA's contract
with Hawaii. The group urged the governor to sign a bill into law that calls
for an audit of the state's contract with CCA.
June
15, 2010 Star-Advertiser
Amid growing scrutiny of the state's practice of shipping inmates to the
mainland, a state Department of Public Safety team left for Arizona yesterday
to investigate the killing of a 23-year-old Hawaii inmate at Saguaro
Correctional Center. Arizona authorities expect to charge a 21-year-old
Hawaii inmate in connection with the killing at Saguaro, a private prison in
Arizona where nearly 1,900 Hawaii inmates are housed. Eloy, Ariz., police
said Mahinauli Silva strangled his cellmate, Clifford Medina, while the
prison was in lockdown on last Tuesday. The killing is the second of a Hawaii
inmate on the mainland this year and is prompting calls for new attention to
the out-of-state prison population. State Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the
Senate Public Safety Committee, said the two inmate deaths raise serious
questions about the state's policy of shipping out inmates and will
undoubtedly raise the prominence of the discussion in the 2011 legislative
session. "Maybe this could give us a reason to pause," he said,
adding that the Hawaii team in Arizona to investigate Medina's death needs to
answer this question: "Is this prison unsafe, and are there some major
security breaches?" Meanwhile, Medina's family said they are not getting
any details on the killing from the state Department of Public Safety and
plan to travel to Arizona to look into the death themselves.
"It's so frustrating," said Loke Medeiros, Medina's aunt. "No
one from Public Safety talks to us." Medeiros said that Medina had
cognitive disabilities and attention deficit disorder and had recently been
placed in isolation. As a result, he could call his family only once a month.
"The day of his death was the day he was supposed to call home,"
said Medeiros, of Puna. "He had told us he was in what they call the
hole." DPS Director Clayton Frank said he had not gotten official word
yesterday on Medina's cause of death and so could not comment on the case.
But he did say the DPS team would be working with Eloy police and with prison
officials to investigate what happened and evaluate security at the facility.
Some 1,871 male Hawaii inmates are at Saguaro, a 1,897-bed prison owned by
Corrections Corp. of America. About 50 more are at a separate CCA prison in
Arizona. The state spends about $61 million a year to house male inmates on
the mainland because there is not enough room for them at Hawaii prisons.
Last year, allegations by female Hawaii inmates of widespread sexual abuse by
guards and employees at a CCA facility in Kentucky prompted the state to pull
all 168 of its female inmates from the prison and bring them back to the
islands to serve their time. Silva, the suspect in the killing last week,
remains in custody at the Saguaro Correctional Center and is expected to be
charged today or tomorrow, said Sgt. Michelle Tarango, of the Eloy Police
Department. Police did not provide information yesterday on a motive in the
killing and could not say why the prison was in lockdown. Tarango said Silva
confessed in police custody to strangling his cellmate, then waiting a
"short while" before pushing an emergency button to call for
guards. Medina was sent to Arizona about six months ago and was serving time
for first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer, two counts of
second-degree burglary, second-degree theft and bail jumping. He would have
been eligible for parole in 2012. Silva was serving time for burglary and
theft. Saguaro was also the site of the stabbing death of Bronson Nunuha on
Feb. 18. Two Hawaii inmates -- Micah Kanahele and Miti Maugaotega Jr. have
been indicted on first-degree murder charges in the case. Nunuha was the
first Hawaii inmate killed in a private prison on the mainland since the
state started housing inmates out of state in 1995, though others have been
seriously assaulted. Officials have said Nunuha's death appeared to be
gang-related. There are no indications Medina's death was linked to gangs.
June
11, 2010 Star Advertiser
The second death this year of a Hawaii inmate in an Arizona prison is
setting off alarm bells with the state Department of Public Safety and
lawmakers who want to scrutinize the arrangement of outsourcing local felons
to privately operated mainland lockups. Two investigators from the Public
Safety Department will leave next week for Eloy, Ariz., where about 1,900
Hawaii prisoners are held at Saguaro Correctional Center. No cause of death
has been released yet for Clifford Medina, 23, who was found unresponsive in
his cell Tuesday morning. An emergency medical services team tried
unsuccessfully to revive him, according to a brief statement from the
Corrections Corp. of America, which operates Saguaro. "It is critical
for us to find out what the autopsy says," said Public Safety Director
Clayton Frank. "If this was something where we knew a person had a
health-related reason, it would be one thing. But this is out of the ordinary
because of his age. ... From what we got from the facility, the cellmate called
officials indicating (Medina) was unresponsive." State investigators
also went to Arizona after Bronson Nunuha, 26, was found dead from multiple
stab wounds in his cell Feb. 18. He was the first Hawaii inmate killed in a
private mainland prison since 1995, when the state began shipping prisoners
away. "What we found that time was the facility did whatever it could
have done," Frank said. "I think they responded appropriately under
the circumstances." Two Hawaii inmates were indicted three weeks ago on
capital murder charges for Nunuha's death. They are Miti Maugaotega Jr., 24,
serving a life sentence for first-degree attempted murder in the June 2003
shooting of Punchbowl resident Eric Kawamoto, and Micah Kanahele, 29, serving
two 20-year sentences for the October 2003 shooting deaths of Greg Morishima
at his Aiea home and Guylan Nuuhiwa in a Pearl City parking lot a week later.
The judge originally gave Maugaotega 11 life sentences for several charges
stemming from the Punchbowl break-in and an earlier burglary in which he
sexually assaulted and beat a 55-year-old woman. The state Legislature sent
to Gov. Linda Lingle for review a bill calling for an independent audit of
the state's contract with Corrections Corp. "We need to re-evaluate the
security and safety of Saguaro and our inmates and see if this is the best
place and time to house our inmates," said Sen. Will Espero, chairman of
the Senate Public Safety Committee.
June
9, 2010 KITV
State public safety investigators are heading to Arizona to look into the
death of a Hawaii inmate at a private prison. Clifford Medina, 23, is the
second Hawaii inmate to die at the Saguaro Correctional Facility in Eloy,
Ariz., in five months. Public safety director Clayton Frank said Medina was
found unresponsive in his cell at about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. His cause of death
has not yet been determined. Medina was serving time for multiple offenses
including assault against a law enforcement officer, second-degree theft,
second-degree burglary and third-degree assault. On Feb. 18, Bronson Nunuha,
of Maui, was killed at the prison. Two other Hawaii inmates have been charged
with murder in Nunuha's death.
May
26, 2010 Honolulu Weekly
Kulani Correctional Facility (KCF) on the Big Island, which was closed last
year for financial reasons, specialized in just the sort of rehabilitative
services that Bronson Nunuha and others werent receiving at Arizonas
Saguaro Prison. Saguaro, a private prison run by Correctional Corporation of
America (CCA) in Elroy, Ariz., was contracted to house Hawaii inmates, and it
was there that Nunuha was stabbed to death on Feb 18. He only had about eight
months left to serve on his full sentence for three counts of burglary. Among
other services, Kulani operated the states largest program for sexual offenders,
whose graduates had a recidivism rate of only 5 percent: the best in the
nation. The hasty closure of KCF has had serious impacts to our clients, and
huge subsidiary financial impact to the State, said James Tabe, supervisor
for the State Office of the Public Defender Appeals Division, at a recent
hearing on HB145, an audit of the states Public Safety Department (PSD).
Any inmate classified as a sex offender is required to complete the rigorous
18-month SOTP [Sexual Offender Treatment program] prior to parole. The vast
majority of such inmates completed their SOTP at KCF. After SOTP is
completed, the inmate must complete any other rehabilitative programs, such
as work furlough and substance abuse programmingwhich can take another one
to three years to complete. Kulani inmates, he said, now face the prospect
of having to complete the entire program again, delaying their entry into
their post-SOTP programming for substance abuse or work furlough, thus
delaying their parole eligibility for another two years. The delay, he
wrote, was not only emotionally painful for our clients, but they are
extremely expensive for taxpayers, with skyrocketing incarceration costs at
over $50,000 per inmate, per year. Public Safety Director Clayton Frank told
Honolulu Weekly that after some delays, sexual offender treatment programs
had been started up at Halawa Correctional Facility and at the Federal
Detention Center in Honolulu, where many former Kulani inmates are now
housed. Parents of Saguaro inmates have reported that the drug rehab program
there has such a long waiting list that many inmates gave up on getting into
it. One mother of a Saguaro inmate had hoped to get her son, a non-violent
offender convicted on drug charges, into Kulani; she said he had been
transferred to other prisons six times in three years, including two stints
at Saguaro, making it virtually impossible to get the drug rehab programs and
educational courses hed requested. Hed just gotten a job at Halawa, she
recalled. He was finally doing something to make the days go faster, and
then they sent him back. A culture of intimidation? The inmates mother
requested that her name be withheld for fear that officials in Arizona might
retaliate against her son. She wasnt the only one. At least seven other
peoplerelatives of inmates, state employees, lawyers, social workerseither
declined to talk with us or asked to remain anonymous, citing fear of
retaliation by PSD officials or CCA employees. Some said theyd already
suffered consequences for speaking up in the past. CCA is required to offer
inmates an impartial grievance procedure and access to a law library, but
critics say inmates who dare to exercise those options suffer consequences.
Public defender Karen Tooko Nakasone testified that one Saguaro inmate had
suffered massive retaliation after complaining. After a herculean effort
to obtain records from Saguaro, she said, she finally won a parole case. But
she added, I learned during my representation of this client [that] a number
of other inmates apparently are experiencing similar treatment, namely with
the prison not following its own regulations, or selectively/arbitrarily
applying these regulations. Daphne Barbee, an attorney representing
prisoners transferred to Arizona, adds flatly,When
inmates complain, theyre retaliated against. Theyre ridiculed by the guards, their legal mail is opened
. In Saguaro, she
says, theres a rule that if one inmate helps another to file a grievance,
They will be written up and put in the hole. They detest inmates who are
articulate, who know the law. They retaliate against people who write
grievances
. Barbee, Nakasone and others also complained that inmates in
Arizona were denied the right to complain to the state ombudsman, as they
would be able to if housed in a PSD-run prison. Frank says CCA-housed
prisoners still have a number of avenues to lodge complaints: If theres an
issue that they feel is not being addressed, they can write to any elected
official, they can write to myself
Liability
Nunuha was the first Hawaii inmate to die violently at Saguaro, but he was
not the first to die. Ken Akinaka of Hepatitus Support Network testified, We
have lost several inmates since we started moving them to the mainland to
serve time, and in all of those cases, questionable practices were
involved. Serious problems were also reported with the health system at CCAs
Otter Creek facility when Hawaiian women were housed there. Such problems, as
well as other allegations of misconduct and abuse, have created another
financial problem for the state: liability. Shouldnt we be including the
cost of lawsuits for the sexual assaults and other civil rights violations at
private prisons into the audit considerations? Kat Brady, of the Community
Alliance on Prisons, asked legislators. Frank told HW that CCA already had an
indemnity clause in its contract and was paying some of the damages in inmate
lawsuits. An audit, however, might uncover another client with a damage claim
against the company: the state itself. Last year, the State of Oklahoma
withheld nearly $600,000 from CCA because CCA was not complying with its
contractual obligations, noted ACLU attorney Daniel Gluck. These payments
were only withheld after the Oklahoma Legislaturerequested a performance
audit of the prisons.
May
19, 2010 Honolulu Weekly
When Hawaii inmate Bronson Nunuha was stabbed to death in his cell at
Corrections Corporation of Americas Saguaro Correctional Facility in Elroy,
Arizona, on February 18, he had only about eight months left to serve on his
full sentence for three counts of burglary. Normally, at that stage of a
prisoners sentence, he or she would expect to be out on parole or serving in
a minimum security facility and enrolled in programs to help him or her transition
to life in the outside world. But Nunuha was in a high-security program that
placed him under lockdown for all but two hours of each day. Nunuha was among
about 1900 Hawaii inmates kept at CCA facilitiesmost at Saguaro, but about
50 at nearby Red Rock Correctional Center and one woman still at CCAs Otter
Creek facility in Kentucky (most Hawaii women inmates were transferred back
to the islands after allegations surfaced of rape and other misconduct at
Otter Creek). Nunuhas death, along with the sudden closure of the Big
Islands Kulani Correctional Center last year, have helped to fuel calls for
an independent audit of the states Public Safety Department and its dealings
with CCA. A bill requiring such an audit passed the Hawaii Legislature in its
2010 session and HB415 is now awaiting Gov. Linda Lignles signature.. It received support from the American Civil Liberties
Union, the Community Alliance on Prisons, the Drug Policy Forum, the United
Public Workers, the Hawaii Government Employees Association, and various
attorneys and social workers. Among the very few to testify against: Public
Safety Director Clayton Frank. De-paroling for profit? Private prisons are
for-profit corporations, accountable as most of those businesses are to their
shareholders and investors; with profits as their primary motive. They have a
self-serving interest in keeping their census up to capacity, and their costs
low, much like hotels and other lodging businesses, testified Jean Ohta of
the Drug Policy Forum. It is because of this self-interest on the part of
private prisons that an audit should be conducted. We have received
numerous reports suggesting that CCA is not meeting its most basic of
constitutional obligations in housing inmates. We have also received several
reports suggesting that CCA may be keeping inmates longer than necessary;
because Hawaii pays CCA per inmate per day of incarceration, the longer
inmates are held, the more money CCA receives, testified ACLU attorney
Daniel Gluck. Gluck wrote that his organization had received numerous
reports of inmates whod been granted parole being held for four months or
more by CCA (based on vague and unsubstantiated reasons for ignoring the
Paroling Authoritys orders) and of Saguaro inmates, including those with no
previous records of infractions, being written up for spurious rule
infractions shortly before their parole eligibility dates, disqualifying
them for parole. One month of additional incarceration at CCA can easily
cost the State and the taxpayers nearly $2,000money that is sorely needed
for other programs like drug rehabilitation, mental health care, and
educationand the Legislature need not (and should not) allow these reports
to be ignored, he added. Asked about infractions at CCA, Franks told
Honolulu Weekly, I dont believe that they receive anymore disciplinary
writeups than what we have here. At the legislature, Frank maintained that
an independent audit was unnecessary. These contracts and agreements
referenced in this measure are already audited on a regular basis by an
independent auditor, he testified. But when the Weekly checked the
departments records for an audit of the Saguaro facility, all that turned up
was a checklist. Shari Kimoto, who filled out that checklist, is the Public
Safety Departments Mainland Branch Manager, the state employee in charge of
managing the departments relations with CCA. She is also the wife of
Republican Party Chair Jonah Kaauwai, who is himself a former Public Safety
official. CCA has been a heavy contributor to Republican Party candidates and
causes, including Republican Governor Linda Lingle, who received the maximum
legal donation of $6,000 for each of her gubernatorial campaigns. Kimoto
checked the compliant box for every one of the audit checklists 115
categories, covering everything from the temperatures of the freezers to the
presence of inmate property forms. But the audit did not appear to monitor
whether inmates were being kept overtime. HW asked Frank about the
independent audits he referred to in his testimony. He said he would check.
Later in the interview, he said that CCA facilities were audited and
accredited by the American Correctional Association. Frank told the
legislature that prisoners in CCA facilities cost the state about half as
much to maintain as those at the states own correctional facilities. He told
HW that those figures were based on the states contracts and included
transportation costs to the mainland. But neither his figures, nor the ACA
audits, nor Kimotos, include an examination of such factors as the length of
time inmates served before parole in different facilities, the costs of
lawsuits by inmates or their families, or the recidivism rates of
inmatesfactors that the departments critics want examined. Services and
sentences Frank said prisoners were selected to go to the mainland based on a
series of criteria: They must have sentences of a minimum of 24 months,
they must have no major medical or health care problems, and They dont
have any pending criminal cases here. Apparently, though, that system
doesnt always work. Ive had clients whove been transferred to AZ who
still have cases pending, attorney Daphne Barbee said. Ive had to have
them brought back. One client, she said, didnt get back in time for his own
hearing; he only got his day in court because the judge granted an extension.
Bronson Nunuha was in the 22-hour lockdown, Frank said, because of
disciplinary conduct. How fast an inmate such as Nunuha goes through the
system, he maintained, depends on the inmate what the level of participation
he wants. Sometimes, he said, Rather than participate in the program they
just choose to max out on their sentence. But the departments critics say
that often services just arent available, that the programs at CCA were
sparse, and that the closure of Kulani Prison had aggravated the problem.
February
25, 2010 Honolulu Advertiser
Arizona police say they are close to making an arrest in the killing of a
26-year-old Hawai'i inmate at Saguaro Correctional Center, a private prison
in Arizona where nearly 1,900 Hawai'i inmates are housed. The prison remains
in lockdown following the death Feb. 18. Arizona police said Bronson Nunuha,
who was incarcerated for three counts of second-degree burglary, died from
multiple stab wounds. He was assaulted in his cell sometime before 9:30 a.m.
Feb. 18, when prison staff found him. He was pronounced dead about 9:57 a.m.
Local police in Eloy, Ariz., where the prison is located, said yesterday they
expect to make an arrest soon in connection with the killing, but did not
release further details, citing the ongoing investigation. A Hawai'i team
from the Department of Public Safety is also investigating the death. Clayton
Frank, Public Safety Department director, said the team arrived Saturday and
will likely remain in Arizona through the week. "There's
still a lot of things that need to be untangled," Frank said. He
declined to say what the team had found so far. The team could make security
recommendations for the 1,897-bed prison, which is owned by Corrections
Corporation of America. Some 1,871 male Hawai'i inmates are at Saguaro, and
about 50 more are at a separate CCA prison in Arizona. The state spends about
$61 million a year to house inmates on the Mainland because there's not
enough space for them in Hawai'i facilities. Nunuha had been behind bars for
about four years. He was scheduled to return to the Islands in a few months
to prepare for his release Oct. 31. Nunuha is the first Hawai'i inmate killed
in a private prison on the Mainland since the state began shipping its
inmates out of state 15 years ago. Officials have said his killing may have
been gang-related.
February
19, 2010 Honolulu Advertiser
Authorities have started an investigation into the killing yesterday of a
Hawaii inmate at Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona, where about 1,900
Hawaii inmates are currently housed. Clayton Frank, state Department of
Public Safety director, identified the inmate who was killed as Bronson
Nunuha, 26. He was incarcerated on three counts of burglary in the second
degree, and was going to be maxing out on his sentence on Oct. 31, 2010,
Frank said. Frank said Nunuha had been at the facility for about four years.
He said a DPS team will leave for Arizona tomorrow to investigate the death.
He also said Corrections Corporation of America, which owns the private
prison, has taken steps to increase safety following the death. Frank
declined to comment further on the killing, citing the ongoing investigation.
September
3, 2009 Arizona Daily Sun
A lawsuit filed Wednesday accuses the Corrections Corporation of America and
an Arizona prison of denying inmates some books. Prison Legal News, a
nonprofit criminal-justice publication, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court
against the Nashville, Tenn., company and various officials at the Saguaro
Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. The
Seattle-based publication also publishes, sells and distributes books to
about 7,000 prisoners around the world. The nonprofit accuses prison
officials of prohibiting at least six Saguaro prisoners from receiving books
in the last two years. Calls to Saguaro warden Todd Thomas and Corrections
Corporation of America were not returned Wednesday. When refusing Prison
Legal books to inmates, prison officials gave them notices saying that the
company was not an approved vendor and that their books would "create a
serious danger to the security of the facility," according to the
lawsuit. The lawsuit says that the prison only allowed inmates to get their
books from Barnes & Noble, and when that company didn't have a certain
publication, they could use amazon.com. Prison Legal gives inmates books for
free if they can't afford them. The lawsuit says Corrections Corporation of
America and prison officials are violating Prison Legal's First and 14th
Amendment rights. The publisher wants the prison to be ordered to pay
unspecified damages and allow inmates to get Prison Legal books.\
July
22, 2009 Arizona Daily Star
A 27-year-old man who died during an apparent home invasion last Friday was a
corrections officer, his employer confirmed Tuesday. Danny Torres had worked
at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy for about two years, said Louise
Grant, a spokeswoman for Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the
private medium-security facility. Torres was found wounded outside a home in
the 4400 block of East Benson Highway by Pima County Sheriffs deputies, who
were responding to a 911 call from a neighbor who said armed gunmen had
entered a nearby house, spokeswoman Deputy Dawn Barkman said. Torres, who was
pronounced dead after being taken to University Medical Center, was shot by
the neighbors son after the gunmen fired at the neighbor, Barkman said.
Torres was one of three men involved in the attack, Barkman said. He and two
other men arrived in a dark-colored van, entered the house and pistol-whipped
a man who lived there while his wife and child were in the home, Barkman
said. He was involved. He was a suspect. I dont care if he was a
corrections officer, Barkman said. Two others 19-year-old Manuel Nathan
Moreno and 18-year-old Alejandro Salazar Romero were stopped near South
Country Club and East Irvington roads and were later booked into the Pima County
Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder. Arizona law allows those involved
in the commission of certain felonies that results
in the death of another person, including other felons, to be held
responsible for the death.
April
3, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
State lawmakers have tentatively approved a bill to audit a privately run
Arizona prison that holds more than 1,800 Hawai'i convicts. House Finance
Chairman Marcus Oshiro said state Auditor Marion Higa likely would need to
contract with a Mainland auditing firm to conduct the performance audit of
Saguaro Correctional Center, a new 1,896-bed prison in Eloy, Ariz., that
houses only male prisoners from Hawai'i. The audit is expected to cost
$150,000 or more, but Oshiro said it will be "money well spent" to
scrutinize the Saguaro operation and the state contract with Corrections
Corporation of America. Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50 million a year to
house more than 2,000 male and female convicts from Hawai'i in private
prisons in Arizona and Kentucky. Hawai'i first began sending prisoners to the
Mainland in 1995 as a temporary measure to relieve in-state prison
overcrowding. About half of the state's prison population is now held in
out-of-state facilities. According to Senate Bill 2342, "there has never
been an audit of the private Mainland prisons that Hawai'i has contracted
with to house the state's inmates, despite the fact that deaths and serious
injuries have occurred at several of the contract prisons on the
Mainland." Oshiro said, "I think it's prudent to spend some monies
for the audit and review to make sure that we're getting the best services
for our money." The bill goes to the full House for a floor vote, and if
approved will be sent to a House-Senate conference committee to iron out
differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The Senate
proposed auditing both Saguaro and the Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Kentucky, where about 175 Hawai'i inmates are being held. However, Oshiro
said supporters of the bill told him the Saguaro audit was more important
because more inmates are there, so the audit of Otter Creek was dropped from
the House draft of the bill. Clayton Frank, director of the state Department
of Public Safety, has opposed the bill because state prison officials already
conduct quarterly audits of the Mainland prisons that check up on programs,
food service, medical service and security, among other areas. "The
department already has the expertise in place and is currently providing a
thorough and ongoing auditing process to ensure contract compliance is being
met," the department said in a written statement Monday. For situations
that require immediate attention, "we have dispatched appropriate senior
staff and Internal Affairs investigators to the facilities," the statement
said. The bill for an audit is advancing after recent Mainland media reports
cited a former CCA manager who said he was required to produce misleading
reports about incidents in CCA prisons. Time magazine interviewed former CCA
senior quality assurance manager Ronald T. Jones, who said CCA General
Counsel Gus Puryear IV ordered staff to classify sometimes violent incidents
such as inmate disturbances or escapes as if they were less serious events to
make the company performance appear to be better than it was. Jones alleged
more detailed reports about the prison incidents were prepared for internal
CCA use, and were not released to clients. CCA denied the allegations, which
Time published as Puryear is being considered for a post as a federal judge.
Oshiro said he is aware of those reports. "There's questions being
raised right now, given what you read about nationally about the CCA
organization maybe having two sets of books, and I think it causes some
concerns, especially since we don't get to observe and watch or communicate
with our inmates being that they are way out there in the Mainland,"
Oshiro said. The statement Monday from Department of Public Safety noted that
the department "does not solely rely on CCA reports or internal audits. As
the customer, we feel it's not only our right, but also our responsibility to
Hawai'i offenders housed in CCA facilities, to send our own staff to the
Arizona and Kentucky facilities."
March
31, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
State lawmakers today will consider ordering an audit of two Corrections
Corporation of America facilities in the wake of national media accounts
alleging that the huge private prison company misrepresented statistical data
to make it appear that CCA facilities had fewer violent acts and other problems
than was actually the case. Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50 million a year to
house more than 2,000 men and women convicts in CCA prisons in Arizona and
Kentucky. Senate Bill 2342 calls for the State Auditor to conduct performance
audits of two of the three Mainland prisons that house Hawai'i inmates,
including reviews of the food, medical, drug treatment, vocational and other
services provided to Hawai'i inmates. The audit also would scrutinize the way
the state Department of Public Safety oversees the private prisons and
enforces the terms of the state's contracts with CCA. According to the bill,
"there has never been an audit of the private Mainland prisons that
Hawai'i has contracted with to house the state's inmates, despite the fact
that deaths and serious injuries have occurred at several of the contract
prisons on the Mainland." Clayton Frank, director of the state
Department of Public Safety, testified against the proposed audits in Senate
hearings last month, calling the audits "unnecessary and repetitive"
because his department already conducts quarterly audits to make sure CCA is
complying with its contracts with the state. Frank also suggested his
department was being singled out, arguing that if lawmakers want performance
audits to provide more accountability and transparency to the public,
"then it should apply to all state contracts and not be limited to just
the Department of Public Safety." Critics of the Mainland prison
contracts contend the audits are needed because the private prisons are
for-profit ventures designed to keep costs as low as possible. During the
decade that Hawai'i has housed inmates on the Mainland, the state itself has
criticized private prison operators when the companies failed to provide
Hawai'i inmates with programs that were required under the contract. Now,
supporters of the audit bill say an independent review is necessary to
scrutinize what is one of the state's largest ongoing contracts of any kind
with a private vendor. "Are we getting what we pay for? We'd like to
know," testified Jeanne Y. Ohta, executive director of the Drug Policy
Forum of Hawai'i. The audit would cover the 1,896-bed Saguaro Correctional
Center in Eloy, Ariz., which houses only male prisoners from Hawai'i, and the
656-bed Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., which holds
about 175 Hawai'i women inmates. The House Finance Committee hearing on the
bill today comes in the wake of Mainland media reports citing a former CCA
manager who said he was required to produce misleading reports about
incidents in CCA prisons. The company operates about 65 prisons with about
75,000 inmates. Time magazine interviewed former CCA senior quality assurance
manager Ronald T. Jones, who said CCA General Counsel Gus Puryear IV ordered
staff to classify sometimes violent incidents such as inmate disturbances,
escapes and sexual assaults as if they were less serious events to make the
company performance appear to be better than it was. Jones said more detailed
reports about the prison incidents were prepared for internal CCA use, and
were not released to clients. CCA denied the allegations, which Time
published as Puryear is being considered for a post as a federal judge. The
Private Corrections Institute Inc., an organization opposed to private
prisons, wrote to Hawai'i prison officials urging them to investigate CCA's
reporting procedures in the wake of the Time report. Alex Friedmann, vice
president of the institute, said most state monitors who are overseeing CCA
prisons "largely rely on information and data provided by CCA; further,
the accuracy of incident reports is entirely dependent on whether those
incidents are documented by the company's employees." Hawai'i Public
Safety officials did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations in
the Time article.
August
12, 2007 Star Bulletin
The heads of the education and addiction-treatment programs at a private
Arizona prison holding Hawaii inmates abruptly quit their jobs complaining of
poor management, inadequate facilities and lack of staffing. Their
resignations came just days before an Aug. 3 incident in which the staff at
Saguaro Correctional Facility inadvertently opened security doors, releasing
Hawaii inmates from their cells. Seven inmates left their cells when the
doors opened, one was injured in a fight with another inmate and a third
inmate had to be subdued for refusing to return to his cell, Hawaii
Department of Public Safety officials said. Rich Stokes was the principal at
Saguaro Correctional Facility in Eloy. Michael VanSlyke was the facility's
addiction treatment manager. "They essentially walked out," said
Steve Owen, spokesman for the Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of
America, which runs the Saguaro facility. "Their leaving was not
expected." Stokes and VanSlyke did not explain their departures to CCA
officials but instead sent e-mails to Shari Kimoto, state Department of
Public Safety mainland branch administrator. In the e-mails, Stokes said
upper management at the facility spies on staff, controls all communication
with the outside, and devalues and degrades inmates and programs for them. He
said water runs into cells when inmates take showers because the drains are
higher than the surrounding floors, the air-conditioning system experiences
frequent failure and staff are often locked in or
out of their units because doors cannot be opened. Gates and doors are opened
when they should be closed and closed when they should be open because there
are not enough correctional officers, Stokes said, adding that the officers
who are there are overworked and undertrained. VanSlyke's e-mail said Saguaro
does not have adequate facilities to treat inmates and will never qualify for
inpatient licensing as required by CCA's contract with Hawaii. He also said
the qualifications required of counselors made it impossible for him to hire
an adequately sized staff in time to start an addiction treatment program.
Owen said Saguaro already has over half the staff it needs to run the
education and addiction treatment programs and expects to have them running
by Oct. 1. Owen said Stokes and VanSlyke filed no formal complaints about
conditions before resigning. CCA hires people with no prior experience
working in corrections, like Stokes and VanSlyke, for their subject-area
expertise, Owen said. "Its just one of those things where it didn't work
out," he said. Hawaii's Department of Public Safety is sending an
inspection team to Saguaro following the Aug. 3 incident. An audit team was
already scheduled to be in Arizona last week, said Louise Kim McCoy, state
Public Safety spokeswoman. Deputy Director for Corrections Tommy Johnson is
also in Arizona for the audit team's visit, she said. McCoy said Johnson will
be checking the programs at Saguaro, employee training records, staffing and
security features of the facility.
January
25, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
Eloy Mayor Byron Jackson's employment at CCA as a prison guard has
sparked the interest of the Hawaiian Attorney General's Office. The office is
looking into whether Jackson's signature on some of the contracts between the
city of Eloy and the state of Hawaii might damage their validity. Their
government-to-government contracts allow no-bid contracts, in this case with
the private prison operator, Corrections Corporation of America. "It
doesn't certainly, present well," Hawaii Deputy Attorney General Diane
Taira said to the Honolulu Advertiser in a Jan. 21 article. "At worst -
and I'm not saying it is at the worst because our inquiry is ongoing - at the
worst, perhaps it is a voidable contract, but it does not necessarily make
the contract automatically void." Because Hawaii procurement law does
not seem to cover this circumstance, the issue may come down to whether
Jackson violated Arizona ethics law, Taira told the Advertiser. In a Jan. 11
Eloy Enterprise article about possible conflicts of interest Jackson said the
conflict had been discussed and discounted by the city attorney as having any
bearing. Jackson said then that he does not receive any financial interest,
and the city's attorney looked into the matter. However, the mayor stepped
back from recent closed-door discussions on an issue the city has with CCA
not paying construction sales tax city officials think the city is due.
January
21, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
An Arizona mayor who signed off on part of a multi-million dollar
government contract to house Hawai'i inmates in prisons on the Mainland also
is an employee of Corrections Corp. of America, the company that holds
Hawai'i inmates at the privately owned Arizona prisons. The contract was not
let out for bid because it was a government-to-government transaction between
the state of Hawai'i and Eloy, Ariz., that is exempt from competitive
bidding. Hawai'i officials say the "highly unusual" situation
involving Eloy Mayor Byron K. Jackson isn't covered by the Hawai'i state
procurement law, but does raise questions about the contract. "I think
on the surface, the appearance is poor," said Hawai'i Chief Procurement
Officer Aaron Fujioka. Jackson works as a corrections officer at the Red Rock
Correctional Center, where the Hawai'i inmates are housed. He said he
discussed his employment with the Eloy city attorney, who concluded Jackson
has no conflict of interest because Jackson does not gain anything personally
through the government-to-government contract.
December
21, 2006 Casa Grande Dispatch
City officials are unhappy with the amount of money they are getting for
the prisons being built. Corrections Corporation of America is about halfway
done with the 1,896-bed Saguaro Correctional Center, the third of its prisons
inside a square mile, and the second to be built within the last two years in
Eloy. The point of contention is construction sales tax. CCA, just before it
started Saguaro, agreed to the city's 3 percent sales tax on construction.
City Manager Jim McFellin said the company also agreed to any future rate
changes the city put forward. That change occurred in October 2005 when the
rate went up from 3 to 4.5 percent. The city thinks CCA was trying to be too
clever at the last possible moment in order to avoid the extra tax levied.
"CCA instigated a 'change order' to facilitate construction of a new
prison (Saguaro) on Sept. 29, 2005," McFellin wrote in an e-mail.
"We feel that a change order from an existing contract does not ensure
the benefit of the 3 percent. The contract to build a new prison is not a
change order or an existing contract. The contractor owes us the 4.5
percent." The general contractor for both Red Rock and Saguaro is Moss
& Associates of Florida. The architect of record for Saguaro is DLR Group
of Nebraska. McFellin, speaking at a recent City Council meeting, said the
city should be prepared for a lawsuit if it comes to that. At least $4.5
million is expected in sales tax for an expected $100 million construction
cost. Therefore the difference in percentage from 4.5 down to 3 percent
represents about a $1.5 million loss for the city. However, going to court is
not the first option, McFellin said, and the matter is still being discussed.
Company spokesman Steve Owen confirmed a problem but said Nashville-based CCA
prefers to work through issues like this outside media scrutiny. "It's
productive to discuss it directly with the party involved," Owen said.
"In this case, city officials." He said the company is treating the
matter seriously and is looking at the timeline of what happened. Red Rock
Correctional Center opened in mid-July after a rapid construction schedule
that saw a few delays. Construction for RRCC began in February 2005 and was
completed in June this year. Saguaro is expected to be finished about July of
2007. The city, knowing Red Rock and Saguaro were going to be built,
anticipated a steady income from construction sales tax. Red Rock cost $83
million to build, to house 1,596 inmates, which yielded about $3.7 million in
tax revenue for the city over the completion time. In October, city Finance
Director Brian Wright said construction tax from Saguaro and Robson Ranch
homes totaled about $150,000 a month. At the same council meeting the
discussion of a possible fourth prison was revealed, with Mayor Byron Jackson
saying the likelihood of one seemed more remote. Since soon after it opened,
Jackson has been employed at Red Rock as a corrections officer by CCA. Owen
would not confirm that CCA was looking at a fourth prison in Eloy. He said to
refer to previous company news releases. "CCA is a publicly traded
company (CXW) so there are issues of how and when things are announced,"
Owen said.
September
29, 2006 Honolulu Advertiser
Hawai'i prison inmates have been moved into a new prison in Eloy, Ariz.,
as part of an effort to consolidate nearly 2,000 Hawai'i convicts now held in
four Mainland states. The state plans to eventually place almost all of the
Hawai'i inmates housed on the Mainland in three privately run Arizona
prisons. On Sept. 16, corrections officials moved the first 157 Hawai'i
prisoners from the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler,
Miss., and the Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, Okla., to the
newly opened Red Rock Correctional Center in Eloy. Another 30 Hawai'i inmates
were transferred to Red Rock from the Florence Correctional Center in
Florence, Ariz. The state has agreed to rent 450 beds in Red Rock from prison
operator Corrections Corporation of America, and Hawai'i Department of Public
Safety spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy said more Hawai'i inmates will be moved
into those Red Rock beds over the next year. The $82.5 million Red Rock
prison opened in June, and can hold up to 1,596 inmates. Alaska officials
have a contract to house about 1,000 convicts there. CCA began construction
in May on the 1,896-bed Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, which will house
both men and women inmates from Hawai'i when Saguaro opens next year. When
those transfers are complete, almost all of the Hawai'i inmates housed on the
Mainland will be held at Red Rock, Saguaro and Florence. The state now pays
about $40 million a year to hold about 1,950 convicted Hawai'i felons in CCA
prisons in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arizona and Kentucky because there is no
room to hold the inmates in prisons here. State lawmakers this year set aside
an additional $12 million to transfer 676 more inmates to the Mainland. When
those transfers are complete, the state will have more inmates serving their
sentences on the Mainland than in Hawai'i prisons.
Tallahatchie
Correctional Facility
Tutwiler, Mississippi
CCA
July
22, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
The private prison company that holds Hawai'i convicts on the Mainland
acknowledged that multiple cell doors accidentally opened on four occasions
at one of the company's new Arizona prisons, including one incident where
alleged prison gang members used the opportunity to attack a Hawai'i inmate.
The state's highest prison official said he's troubled that Corrections
Corporation of America did not immediately notify the state about the
incidents. The statement released by CCA announced that "appropriate
disciplinary action was taken on officers in regard to four separate
inadvertent cell door openings" at the Red Rock Correctional Center. The
statement did not offer any specifics, and a company spokeswoman said in an
e-mail that CCA would not provide additional details. Hawai'i Department of
Public Safety interim director Clayton Frank said CCA did not tell Hawai'i
prison authorities about some of the incidents until Wednesday night, after
The Advertiser published complaints from inmates about repeated cases where
doors opened unexpectedly and improperly, leaving protective custody
prisoners vulnerable to attacks by prison gangs. Frank said he is
"troubled" that CCA did not tell Hawai'i about some of the
incidents. The company explained it did not immediately report some cases
where doors opened because those incidents did not involve attacks on Hawai'i
inmates, Frank said. "Right now, I have some serious concerns and doubt
of whether they are providing us with everything," he said. "If it
involves our inmates, I want to make sure that what they're giving us is true
and accurate. "I want something to go directly
to corporate office up there that says you guys have got to be candid when we
ask questions." The state pays about $50 million a year to house 2,100
convicts in Mainland CCA prisons because there is no room for them in Hawai'i
facilities. INMATE STABBED In the most serious of the incidents at Red Rock,
Hawai'i inmate John Kupa was stabbed with a homemade knife on June 26 after
more than half of the cell doors abruptly opened in his housing unit. That
incident is being blamed on an error by a corrections officer. Protective
custody inmates are housed in that prison pod along with general population
inmates. That mix requires that prisoners there be separated constantly, and
the doors there are never supposed to open simultaneously, prison officials
said. Hawai'i Public Safety officials say that when the doors opened, Kupa
and a 44-year-old inmate allegedly attacked Hawai'i convict Sidney Tafokitau.
During the struggle, prison officials say Tafokitau allegedly stabbed Kupa.
Tafokitau, a protective custody inmate, has said he acted in self-defense,
and said he got the knife by taking it away from one of his attackers. Kupa,
36, was stabbed in the lower left back, and was treated and released from an
Arizona hospital. The Red Rock stabbing marks the second time in two years a
Hawai'i inmate has been injured when cell doors unexpectedly opened in a CCA
prison living unit where inmates were supposed to be locked down. In the
earlier case, 20 cell doors in a disciplinary unit of the Tallahatchie County
Correctional Facility in Mississippi suddenly opened at 2:48 a.m. on July 17,
2005, releasing about three dozen Hawai'i convicts from their cells. Inmates
then attacked Hawai'i inmate Ronnie Lonoaea, who was beaten so badly he
suffered brain damage, and is now confined to a wheelchair. Hawai'i prison
officials this week revealed the doors opened in Mississippi in that 2005
disturbance because a corrections officer had been "compromised" by
a prison gang. Lawyer Myles Breiner, who is suing the state and CCA on behalf
of Lonoaea and his family, said Lonoaea will need extensive medical care for
the rest of his life, care that is expected to "easily" cost $10
million to $11 million. Breiner said he is also gathering information about
attacks triggered by doors that improperly opened at Red Rock, and is considering
filing suit on behalf of inmates that were attacked or injured in those
cases. DELIBERATE ERROR? "Their doors are opening, and the only people
responsible for the management and security is CCA," Breiner said. He
said some of the lapses at Red Rock seem to be caused by human error or
problems with the equipment, while the inmates suspect some of the other
incidents have been deliberate. "Whether it's corruption or
construction, CCA is still responsible," Breiner said. The statement from
CCA said the company has taken corrective measures. "We stand by our
reputation as a provider of quality corrections management services, and will
continue to assess our operational activities to further refine and improve
our safety processes," the company said.
July
18, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
For the second time in two years, improper actions by a corrections
worker caused cell doors to unexpectedly open in a Mainland prison where
Hawai'i inmates were supposed to be kept separated, triggering violence that
injured a Hawai'i convict, prison officials said. In the first incident at a
Mississippi prison in 2005, Hawai'i convict Ronnie Lonoaea, 34, was beaten so
severely that he suffered brain damage and is now confined to a wheelchair.
Lonoaea's family sued the Hawai'i prison system and Corrections Corp. of
America last week in connection with the case. In a second incident last
month at Red Rock Correctional Center in Arizona, an error by a prison
staffer caused cell doors to abruptly open, prison officials said. Hawai'i
inmate John Kupa, 36, was stabbed in the left lower back, according to a
police report. The two incidents raise concerns about the treatment of
Hawai'i inmates in Mainland prisons run by a private company, said an expert
on prisons and a state legislator. In the Arizona case, cell doors abruptly
opened on June 26 in a prison pod where protective custody inmates are housed
in some cells and general population inmates including gang members are held
in other cells. Kupa was stabbed with a homemade knife after the doors opened
at about 6 p.m., according to a report from the Eloy, Ariz., police department. The injured inmate was treated and
released at a local hospital, according to a prison spokeswoman. In the
Mississippi prison incident, 20 cell doors suddenly opened at 2:48 a.m. on
July 17, 2005. About three dozen Hawai'i inmates were released from their
cells when the doors opened, touching off a melee that lasted for 90 minutes
in a disciplinary pod in the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility. Corrections
officers finally used tear gas grenades to regain control of the pod. Hawai'i
Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy said an internal
investigation of the Mississippi case found the doors opened because a
corrections sergeant had been "compromised" by prison gang members.
Corrections Corp. of America, which owns both the Mississippi and the Arizona
prison, terminated the sergeant, McCoy said in a written response to
questions. Steve Owen, director of marketing for CCA, declined to discuss the
specifics of the June 26 incident and also declined comment on the lawsuit
over the Tallahatchie incident. PRIVATE VS. PUBLIC Byron E. Price, assistant
professor of public policy and administration at Rutgers University and
author of a book on the private prison industry, said Hawai'i has reason to
be concerned about the incidents at Tallahatchie and Red Rock. Private prison
operators make money by holding down costs, which is often accomplished by
reducing labor costs, said Price. The companies tend to rely heavily on
technology as a way to keep the officer-to-inmate ratios down, Price said.
Private prison staff members are typically inexperienced, he added. "By
cutting labor costs, you get a less qualified individual, and there's high turnover
rate in the private prisons, and they conduct less training for their
corrections officers" compared with publicly run prisons, said Price,
who is author of "Merchandizing Prisoners: Who Really Pays for Prison
Privatization?" Corrections Yearbook statistics show the staff turnover
at private prisons averages 52 percent a year, while the turnover at public
prisons is about 16 percent, he said. Hawai'i spends more than $50 million a
year to house inmates in CCA prisons on the Mainland, and Senate Public Safety
Committee Chairman Will Espero said he is concerned about reports of security
problems "that appear to be similar, and that haven't been
resolved." "Considering the millions of dollars that we are
spending on the Mainland, we would expect to get excellent service, excellent
facilities, and ... I would expect that with their experience, they should be
able to minimize any problems," he said of CCA. LIFETIME CARE NEEDED
When the cell doors opened in Mississippi, prisoners attacked Lonoaea. His
attackers tore or cut off his lips and broke bones in his face, said Honolulu
lawyer Michael Green, who is suing CCA and the Hawai'i prison system on
behalf of Lonoaea's family. Green said Lonoaea, who is approaching the end of
his prison sentence, will need intensive healthcare for the rest of his life
that will likely cost $10 million to $11 million. The lawsuit alleges Hawai'i
prison officials were negligent for failing to properly oversee the prison,
and alleges CCA failed to properly train or supervise TCCF staff. Inmates at
Red Rock who were interviewed by The Advertiser complain that multiple cell
doors there have repeatedly opened without warning at times when prisoners
are supposed to be locked down, leaving protective custody inmates open to
danger. Officials at the privately owned Red Rock facility have disarmed the
fuses in the electrical systems that operate the doors to some cells in the
facility since the June 26 incident, and corrections officers at Red Rock
have been manually opening the doors with keys, said McCoy of the Hawai'i
Department of Public Safety. In a written response to questions, McCoy
confirmed inmate accounts of the attack in Echo-Delta pod, a housing unit
where inmates are supposed to remain separated from each other at all times.
After the doors opened, Kupa and a 44-year-old inmate allegedly attacked
Sidney Tafokitau, 28. During the fight that followed, Tafokitau allegedly
stabbed Kupa with a homemade knife. Tafokitau said in a telephone interview
this is the second time his cell door at Red Rock has opened without warning.
Tafokitau said he acted in self-defense on June 26 and said he obtained the
homemade knife by seizing it from one of his attackers during the fight.
Tafokitau also alleged that corrections officers initially fled from the
fight instead of intervening to break it up and only returned later with
pepper spray after Tafokitau's attackers had thrown him to the ground and
were beating him. "I telling you, this ... place is sloppy, cuz,"
said Tafokitau, who is serving a life sentence for robbery. "They make
so much mistakes ... it's just a matter of time before another mistake. I
telling you right now, somebody gonna get killed, brah." Tafokitau said
he was in the pod because he was involuntarily placed in protective custody after
he clashed with a prison gang. EARLIER INCIDENTS Hawai'i inmates at Red Rock
claim multiple cell doors have opened simultaneously and unexpectedly before.
Inmate Chris Wilmer, 29, recounted an incident on Feb. 2 when all of the
doors in Echo-Delta unit again opened, releasing general population inmates
into a dayroom occupied by protective custody inmates. Wilmer, who also said
he was involuntarily placed in protective custody because of conflicts with
gang members, said he immediately became involved in a fight with two alleged
members of a prison gang who were released into the dayroom. Wilmer said a
Hawai'i prison official was notified of that incident and spoke to Wilmer
about it. Wilmer said he also witnessed a similar incident where the doors opened
in Echo-Bravo pod at about 6:30 p.m. on April 7, and Wilmer and another
inmate both alleged there was another example of doors opening unexpectedly
between June 21 and June 23 in the Echo-Bravo pod. The growing sense of
insecurity in the pods encourages inmates to try to obtain weapons, and
Hawai'i needs to pressure CCA to fix the problem, said Wilmer, who is serving
prison terms for robbery, attempted murder and other offenses. "For here
and now, something needs to be said and done," he said. "They don't
have room for that kind of mistakes." The officer who erred in the June
26 incident meant to open doors in another pod used by Alaska inmates and
instead opened the doors to Hawai'i inmates' cells, McCoy said. She said the
officer has been disciplined. A female corrections officer who made a similar
mistake by opening multiple doors in a living unit elsewhere in the prison
earlier this year also was disciplined, McCoy said. McCoy could not
immediately confirm the other inmate reports of other cases where multiple
cell doors opened unexpectedly in February, April and June. RE-EVALUATING
UNIT Part of the problem on June 26 was that the pod involved was not
designed to operate with "serious violent offenders" who are locked
in their cells for 23 hours each day, but those kinds of offenders ended up
there because they couldn't be held in Oklahoma or Mississippi, McCoy said.
Those inmates are now awaiting transfer to the newly opened Saguaro
Correctional Center in Arizona, which has a segregation unit designed to
house them, she said. CCA responded to the June 26 incident by re-evaluating
the staffing patterns for the unit that included the pod, and adding more
experienced officers, McCoy said. The prison operator also had the door
system manufacturer update the control panel software to add an extra
safeguard to the system and is providing more intensive training for all
staff assigned to the units, McCoy said. Hawai'i was holding more than 600
inmates last month at Red Rock, which opened last year. In all, the state
houses more than 2,100 men and women convicts in CCA prisons on the Mainland
because there is no room for them in prisons in Hawai'i.
April
6, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
An investigation into whether a Hawai'i inmate had obtained a firearm in
a Mississippi prison prompted a lockdown and search of the facility, and led
to the firings of five private prison employees, according to Hawai'i prison
officials and the Corrections Corporation of America. No gun was found during
the search of the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, but the incident
uncovered unspecified prison contraband that triggered state and federal
criminal investigations at the prison, according to Hawai'i and CCA prison
officials. Victoria Holly, human resource manager and public information
officer for the prison, said the 1,104-bed facility was locked down on Feb.
21, and did not return to normal operations until March 15. She said the five
prison staff members were fired between March 7 and March 13, but declined to
say if the workers were corrections officers or employees in other
occupations. Holly declined to say what sort of contraband was turned up in
the search of the prison, and did not know which agencies were involved in
the criminal investigations. A spokeswoman for the FBI's office in Jackson,
Miss., said the agency will not confirm if it is involved in an ongoing
investigation. The Mississippi state attorney general's office did not return
a call requesting comment.
May
10, 2006 WAPT
About 860 Hawaii inmates at a Mississippi prison were locked down in
their cells for a week following a gang-related fight. Hawaii public safety
officials said the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility went into
lockdown after a dozen inmates from several gangs got into a fight April 30.
One of the inmates was armed with a bat. Louise Kim McCoy, a spokeswoman for
the Hawaii Department of Public Safety, said the inmates were only allowed
out of their cells for meals and a modified recreation time while
investigators searched the facility for contraband. The lockdown started
immediately after the fight and was lifted Monday. The private company that
operates the prison for Hawaii inmates, Corrections Corporation of America,
kept all the inmates confined because the incident involved gang activity.
There were no serious injuries from the fight. Last year, prison officials
moved about 40 Hawaii inmates who were believed to be active gang members
from the Diamondback Correctional Facility in Oklahoma to the Tallahatchie
location. Hawaii pays Corrections Corporation of America $40 million a year
to house more than 1,800 convicts in prisons in Mississippi, Oklahoma,
Arizona and Kentucky.
April
2, 2006 Honolulu Advertiser
Two captains and a sergeant at a privately run Mississippi prison were fired after
they were allegedly videotaped beating an inmate from Hawai'i, according to
the Hawai'i Department of Public Safety. The three were part of a Special
Operations Response Team established at the Tallahatchie County Correctional
Facility to quell disturbances and control unruly prisoners. The trouble
began when general-population inmate Harry K. Hoopii, 55, allegedly assaulted
two corrections officers at the prison at 6 p.m. Feb. 23, said Shari Kimoto,
administrator of Public Safety's branch on the Mainland. Kimoto said that
Hoopii was then escorted to a disciplinary holding cell in another part of
the prison at about 7:50 p.m. and that the incident involving the SORT team
occurred in his cell later in the evening. It is regular procedure for the
SORT team to use force in responding to a violent inmate, but when the
assistant warden and chief of security at the prison reviewed the videotape
of what took place in the cell, they "realized that excessive force had
been used," Kimoto said. The three were fired for violating the policies
of prison owner Corrections Corporation of America, she said. The other
members of the SORT team, including the team member who was operating the
hand-held video camera, were suspended, she said. Kimoto said the inmate was
taken to the hospital with injuries that included multiple facial bruises and
swelling and a cut lip. He was later returned to the prison, where he was
being held in a disciplinary unit, she said. Concerns arose last year in
connection with the Tallahatchie facility after two inmates were injured in a
violent disturbance touched off when 20 cell doors in a prison disciplinary
unit suddenly opened at 2:48 a.m. July 17. In the melee that followed,
Hawai'i inmate Ronnie Lonoaea was attacked and severely beaten in his cell by
other prisoners, and the prison staff had to use tear gas to regain control
of the unit. CCA said the doors opened because a prison sergeant accidentally
pushed the wrong button. The Hawai'i state attorney general's office asked
state prison officials to investigate the July 17 incident. Prison officials
have said they wanted to look into the possibility of gang involvement and
whether prison staff might have cooperated with the inmates in the incident.
December
26, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
Acting Public Safety Director Frank Lopez has ordered a prison system
internal affairs investigation into a violent disturbance in a Mississippi
prison earlier this year that resulted in injuries to two Hawai'i inmates.
The incident at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Center began when 20
cell doors in a prison disciplinary unit abruptly opened at 2:48 a.m. on July
17, releasing about three dozen Hawai'i inmates from their cells. The unit
was reserved for particularly unruly convicts or prison gang members, and
some of the inmates who emerged from their cells immediately attacked
prisoner Ronnie Lonoaea in his cell, prison officials have said. Lonoaea was
hospitalized after the attack with head and other injuries, and inmate Scott
Lee, 25, suffered a broken jaw in the disturbance. Inmates used a telephone
cord to tie shut the entrance to the Special Housing Incentive Program unit
to keep corrections officers out, and Tallahatchie prison staff had to drop
tear gas grenades from the roof to regain control of the unit about 90
minutes later. Hawai'i Department of Public Safety officials demanded a
"high level" investigation of the incident, and Lopez said prison
owner Corrections Corporation of America submitted a letter to the state
outlining the company's findings. Lopez said the summary of the CCA findings
suggested the doors opened because an officer accidentally pushed the wrong
button. Prison officials have said a relief sergeant pushed the button that
released the inmates, and both the sergeant and the captain responsible for
overseeing the unit no longer work at the prison.
October
3, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
This tiny town has a slow feel to it. Some of that is a testament to southern
graciousness, when people make time for one another. Some of it is due to a
menacing apathy that festers when people are out on the street with nowhere
to go. This community in the North Delta region, described in federal reports
as one of the most depressed areas of the country, is where the Corrections
Corp. of America built the 1,104-bed Tallahatchie County Correctional
Facility in 2000. The prison holds more than 850 Hawai'i inmates. The 325
jobs at the prison offer the best-paying work around, said chief of security
Danny Dodd. CCA's starting pay in Tutwiler is about $8.40 an hour,
considerably less than the $13.20 an hour for new corrections officers in
Hawai'i, but Dodd said there is no shortage of applicants. There is
significant staff turnover, which means the prison is often short-handed.
Tutwiler resident Mary Meeks said her husband pulls double shifts at the
prison as often as twice a week because people quit or don't show up for
work. Some residents said they were led to believe the Tallahatchie County
Correctional Facility would hold only Mississippi lawbreakers, and were
alarmed to learn the company was importing prisoners. Contract monitors last
year described the Mississippi staff as young and inexperienced, and said
most had never worked in a prison before. CCA requires five weeks of
training, compared with eight weeks for Hawai'i corrections officers.
According to monitoring reports, in the first six months after the Hawai'i
inmates arrived, several employees were fired for smuggling cigarettes into
the prison and having inappropriate relationships with inmates - a problem
that has arisen at other Mainland prisons where Hawai'i prisoners have been
held. Inmates complain about the medical and dental services at Tallahatchie,
gripes that were confirmed last year when Hawai'i prison monitors warned CCA
the prison was failing to meet National Commission on Correctional Health
Care Standards because a doctor was there only eight hours a week to care for
almost 1,000 convicts. In May, the monitors warned that dental services were
insufficient because a dentist was available only eight hours a week, but the
backlog of inmates waiting for dental care had been somewhat reduced when
inspectors returned last month. CCA does not attempt to separate
gang-affiliated prisoners, and inmates said keeping rival gang members in the
same unit can be dangerous when things go wrong. There has already been one
disturbance in a unit that houses gang members at Tallahatchie. On July 17,
20 cell doors in a SHIP unit popped open unexpectedly at around 2:45 a.m.,
freeing inmates. Ronnie J. Lonoaea, 32, of Hawai'i was severely beaten in his
cell before guards released tear gas and restored order about 90 minutes
later. Scott Lee of Hawai'i, who suffered a broken jaw in the incident,
recalled how some prisoners in the unit frantically tried to close their
jammed cell doors because they feared an attack by fellow inmates. A CCA
investigation concluded the cell doors probably opened because a corrections
sergeant hit the wrong control button. Komori said the sergeant and a captain
who supervised the unit no longer work at the prison.
August
23, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
A prison sergeant who hit the wrong button probably is to blame for abruptly
opening 20 cell doors in a Mississippi prison disciplinary unit last month,
releasing about three dozen Hawai'i inmates and triggering a violent
disturbance, prison officials said yesterday. Two prisoners in the
Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility unit were hospitalized after other
inmates attacked them when the cell doors opened at 2:48 a.m. on July 17. One
of the inmates, Ronnie Lonoaea, remains in a Mississippi rehabilitative
hospital with head injuries. After the doors opened, two inmates immediately
began fighting and eight others rushed into a single cell to attack Lonoaea,
prison officials have said. Other inmates used a telephone cord to tie shut
the door leading into the unit in a makeshift barricade to keep prison
officials out, according to a report on the incident. The Tallahatchie prison
staff dropped tear gas grenades from the roof into the Special Housing
Incentive Program, or SHIP unit, and regained control of the unit about 90
minutes after the cell doors opened, according to the report.
July
28, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
They're out of sight, but must not be out of mind. Hawai'i's overflow inmate
population, housed at private prisons on the Mainland, remain our
responsibility. And making sure they are treated humanely while serving their
time must be our concern. That's why state officials are right to demand an
investigation into the sudden opening of cell doors in the predawn hours of
July 17 at Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility that resulted in a riot.
More than 700 Hawai'i inmates have been housed since last year at the
Mississippi prison, owned by Corrections Corp. of America. Two inmates were
injured in the fight. Kane'ohe resident Sandra Cooper, the mother of one
inmate, has her doubts that an internal probe will be enough to bring out the
truth about how the cell doors opened. She called on the FBI to do a thorough
inquiry, and that indeed would be the ideal way to proceed here. There's
precedent for the FBI to take jurisdiction in a case where inmates are
brought across state lines. At the very least, an independent authority
should drive the investigation, rather than the prison's private owners. And
state officials here must continue to ride herd to see that the investigation
proceeds to a satisfactory conclusion. In a separate prison issue, it's a
relief to see that the state has decided to pull the plug on its contract
with the troubled Brush Correctional Facility, a northeastern Colorado prison
housing 80 women inmates from Hawai'i. Because of ongoing investigations into
alleged sexual misconduct between staff and prisoners, it's imperative that
the move be made as soon as possible, while allowing for careful scrutiny of
the prisoners' next destination. The end-of-September target date for the
move seems reasonable, assuming that the state maintain its careful
monitoring of Brush in the meantime. These painful episodes clearly
illustrate that housing inmates on the Mainland is merely a short-term
response to our critical prison shortage here, and creates its own additional
problems. Hawai'i must continue to: work toward expanded prison capacity in
the Islands, where we can retain better control of conditions; strengthen the
probation system to keep some first-time offenders out of prison; and work on
preventive strategies aimed at stemming the tide in drug abuse, which fuels
so much of the state's crime problem. Sending inmates to the Mainland is just
a stopgap solution.
July
27, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
State prison officials said yesterday they are concerned about a security
breach at a Mississippi prison that led to a disturbance among Hawai'i
inmates and landed two men in the hospital with broken jaws. The
incident began when 20 cell doors in a unit at the Tallahatchie County
Correctional Facility used to confine inmates with suspected gang affiliations
popped open unexpectedly at about 2:30 a.m. July 17. About 35 of the 40
inmates in the unit left their cells and two of the prisoners began fighting,
said Hawai'i Department of Public Safety spokesman Michael Gaede.
While corrections officers were preoccupied with the brawl, eight inmates
rushed into a cell to attack another prisoner, Gaede said.
June 3, 2005 Pueblo Chieftain
The 120 Colorado inmates who are serving sentences in Mississippi are being
treated inhumanely, according to one inmate. Officials at the Colorado
Department of Corrections, however, say they are treated no different than
inmates at the Colorado State Penitentiary. According to Colorado inmate
Clark Flood, 40, who has been convicted of burglary,
criminal trespass and escape charges, the inmates in Mississippi are being
held in lockdown in what he described as "inhumane conditions."
"They are not giving us property or nothing. It's just solid lockdown
and it is ridiculous," Flood said.
February
5, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
A Hawai'i prisoner at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in
Tutwiler, Miss., was returned to the prison yesterday after a suicide
attempt. Convicted murderer Paul Ah Sing, 41, was rushed to the hospital
Thursday after he apparently attempted to hang himself in his cell with a
homemade rope. The state has a contract with the Corrections Corporation of
America to hold about 700 inmates at the Tallahatchie prison because there is
no room for them in Hawai'i prisons.
August
13, 2004
Officials at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility have promised to
keep residents better informed about disturbances at the prison in the wake
of last month's uprising by Colorado inmates. Residents near the prison
complained they weren't told about what was happening at the jail during the
July 21 riot when prisoners torched mattresses, clothing and a portable
toilet. (Sun Herald)
August
2, 2004
Tutwiler prison officials say they will be adding more staff this week and
will host a community meeting following a recent disturbance by unruly
Colorado inmates at the private facility. There are no plans to send
the trouble-making inmates back to Colorado, as some residents have asked,
said Louise Chickering, a spokeswoman for Nashville-based Corrections Corp.
of America, which operates the prison. She said the company also won't
go along with a request by residents to create an alert system to warn them
of future disturbances. The first major disruption at the Tallahatchie
County Correctional Facility will be discussed at an Aug. 12 meeting between
Tutwiler's community relations advisory council and Warden James
Cooke. Cooke said the additional staff is not a direct result of the
disturbance. "We will be getting more (inmates) from Hawaii,''
Cooke said. The facility now houses about 850 inmates, with a capacity of a
little more than 1,000 inmates. There are about 120 inmates from Colorado,
690 from Hawaii and 40 from Tallahatchie County. (Clarion Ledger)
July 25, 2004
Coahoma and Tallahatchie counties will pay local expenses involved in
dispatching law officers to the uprising at the privately-run prison in
Tutwiler. Coahoma County Sheriff Andrew Thompson Jr. said his
department alone spent about $400 on gasoline and overtime July 21.
Officers were called from the Coahoma and Tallahatchie sheriff's departments,
Tutwiler and Glendora police departments, the Tutwiler and Tallahatchie
County fire departments, the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the State
Penitentiary at Parchman. Steve Owen, a spokesman for Corrections
Corporation of America the Nashville, Tenn.-based company that runs the
prison called the disturbance in which no one was injured "relatively
small." Owen said his company does reimburse local agencies that
respond to prison riots "if the agency feels its resources have been
severely tapped." Finally, as the largest employer in the county,
CCA pays its 260 employees most of whom reside in Tallahatchie and
surrounding counties roughly $3.5 million combined annually. (Clarion
Ledger)
May 23, 2004
The Colorado Department of Corrections violated a state statute by sending 36
of its most dangerous inmates to the Delta, said a prisoner-advocate group
that might challenge the move in an attempt to bring the men home.
According to the statute, Colorado cannot permanently place maximum-security
inmates in a private prison. But the three dozen men shipped to the privately
run Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility near Tutwiler last week are
classified as maximum-security, said Stephen Raher, co-director of the Colorado
Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, calling the move illegal. Colorado
officials countered that assertion, saying the men - many of whom are serving
sentences for murder, rape and escape - are not maximum-security prisoners;
they are "special management" inmates. "We have yet to
find one of these organizations or individuals who can substantiate any of
these claims, except maybe for an isolated incident that may have occurred
years ago," Owen said. "I would challenge them to prove any of
these allegations." (Z Wire)
January
7, 2004
Mississippi's corrections commissioner said he hopes the state can house
inmates at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility after 1,424 inmates
return to Alabama. On Tuesday, Alabama Corrections Commissioner Donal
Campbell said the inmates should be moved within 90 days. Meanwhile,
Chris Epps, Mississippi corrections commissioner, said he started talking to
officials last week to find a way to use the facility and keep about 250 jobs
there. "We're going to work with them any way we can," he
said. Tallahatchie County has a poverty rate of nearly 27 percent and a
12.5 percent unemployment rate. "We've started looking at the law
to see what we have to do to be able to use it," Epps said. "I
started talking to (Corrections Corporation of America)."
Nashville-based CCA owns the facility in Tutwiler. Epps said he's also
spoken to Gov. Haley Barbour and legislators "to see how we can do
business up there." In 2001, facility employees lost their jobs
after Wisconsin inmates were moved to Minnesota. The facility hired 250
people last summer when Alabama sent prisoners there. (Clarion Ledger)
September
15, 2003
Elizabeth Martin can thank 1,423 Alabama prison inmates for her job.
Since the inmates landed in the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in
June, the economy of the county gained 250 jobs at the facility in a Delta
county with a 26.8 percent poverty rate with unemployment at 12.5 percent.
The annual payroll: $6 million. Alabama's decision to pay $27.50 a day
per inmate to reduce crowding in its underfunded corrections system led to
re-employment for Martin, of Tutwiler. Martin, who lost her job when
Wisconsin inmates were moved from Tutwiler to Minnesota in 2001, went from a
retired corrections officer to an administrative clerk at age 33.
"I had taken courses in computers at Coahoma Community College, not
knowing if Tallahatchie would ever re-open," Martin said. "Now I
have a better job where I make more money and I can spend more time with my
husband and four children. "I am working in a nice place with good
people, something that is hard to find in Tallahatchie County."
Richard Lias, 33, of Clarksdale left a job with a casino in Tunica County,
nearly 50 miles away, to work closer to home at Tallahatchie County
Correctional Facility, about 20 miles from home. "I am saving a
lot of money on transportation," said Lias, a safety specialist. "I
felt there was more opportunity for advancement. "I have had
excellent training and a lot of doors opened for the future."
Money is also finding its way into the business community with purchases made
by the prison and employees. "Over 80 percent of the employees
live in Tallahatchie County and spend money here," said Tallahatchie
County administrator Marvin Doss. "We lost Rosewood, an apparel
manufacturer (in Charleston) since the 1950s and 134 jobs." Donna
Surholt, owner of Moore Paper and Janitorial Supply Inc. in Clarksdale, has
seen the prison dollars trickle through the Delta. "The prison
officials have purchased a vehicle, a steel building and other supplies
locally when they can't get them from their vendor," said Surholt, who
is also president of the Clarksdale-Coahoma Chamber of Commerce. "They
have bought items from my business. They have come in here ready to contribute
to our community and have joined our chamber." Dianna Melton,
manager of the State Bank and Trust in nearby Webb, has seen an increase in
business. "I have seen a number of the workers from the
prison," Melton said. "When you employ 200 people who didn't have
jobs, you will see an increase in business in the county." The
boost should continue for some time because the inmates won't leave
soon. Alabama taxpayers defeated a tax-increase referendum Tuesday that
would have helped its education and corrections systems, said Brian Corbett,
spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections. Alabama met a
court order to reduce state inmates in county jails by sending 300 females to
Louisiana and the inmates to Tallahatchie County. "We still have a
total population of 28,100, twice our capacity of 13,500,"
Corbett said. "Taxpayers said no, so no help is on the way, and we will
just have to keep plugging away." Warden Jim Cook, who has seen
Tallahatchie go from 30 county inmates to 1,463 with 276 employees, knows the
reason Alabama sent the inmates. He was once a warden with the Alabama
correctional system before going to work in 1995 for Correctional Corporation
of America. The private prison company based in Nashville owns Tallahatchie
County Correctional Facility. Alabama has no private prisons. "You
can't ask a corrections department with a growing population to operate on
the same funds," Cook said. "This is a high-stress job at best, but
you can't work people like they are without employee burnout. Your facilities
will also deteriorate." Cook says Alabama inmates like being in
Mississippi. "It is less crowded, facilities are better and they
like the food," Cook said. (The Clarion Ledger)
June 27, 2003
Many workers who lost their jobs at two Mississippi private prisons are going
back to work, thanks to a neighboring state. Alabama, faced with prison
overcrowding, is sending 1,400 medium-security male inmates to the
Tallahatchie Correctional Facility in Tutwiler at a cost of $27.50 a day per inmate.
Tallahatchie, built to hold 1,100, held 322 inmates from Wisconsin and
employed 208 people before those inmates were moved to Minnesota in 2001,
forcing layoffs. It has since held 30-40 Tallahatchie County inmates.
Delta Correctional Facility in Greenwood, closed by the state in October
2002, held 800 state inmates and employed 200 workers with a $5 million
annual payroll. "It is good for the economy of the state,"
said Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps, who said CCA's contract
with Alabama is for three years. Alabama, which has no private prisons,
is under two court orders to end overcrowding. Steve Owens, spokesman
for Corrections Corporation of America, said his company will help
Alabama. "We are always happy to step up and serve states when
they need our help," Owens said. "I always knew we would find
someone who could use the Tallahatchie facility." (The Clarion
Ledger)
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