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A. B. S. R. A. Kid's Boot Camp
Maricopa,
Arizona
America's Buffalo Soldiers Re-Enactors Association
October 11,
2007 Arizona Republic
A Phoenix man and other parents whose children died at boot camps for
troubled youths gave wrenching testimony before Congress on Wednesday, urging
other families to avoid enrolling teens in such programs until there is more
oversight of them. Bob Bacon of Phoenix recounted how his 16-year-old son,
Aaron, died at a wilderness camp in Utah in the 1990s. "We were conned
by their (the camp's) fraudulent claims and will go to our graves regretting
our gullibility," Bacon told members of a House committee. The
Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, also
announced it has identified thousands of allegations of abuse, some involving
death, at boot camps since the early 1990s. It cataloged 1,619 incidents of
abuse in 33 states in 2005. "Buyer, beware," said Greg Kutz, who led the GAO investigation. "You really
don't know what you're getting." Kutz said the
GAO closely examined 10 closed cases where juveniles died at residential
treatment camps. In half of those cases, the teens died of dehydration or
heat exhaustion. Other factors were untrained staff, inadequate food or
reckless operations, the GAO said. Five of the 10 camps are still operating,
some in different locations or under new names. "Ineffective program
management played a key role in most of these deaths," Kutz testified before the House Education and Labor
Committee. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who chairs the committee and
requested the investigation, has sponsored a bill designed to encourage
states to enact regulations. "This nightmare has remained an open secret
for years," Miller said in a statement. "Congress must act, and it
must act swiftly." The death of Bacon's son was one of the 10 cases
studied by the GAO, but not the only one with an Arizona connection. The
sample cases did not include names, but some were identifiable through news
reports. One was the death of Anthony Haynes, 14, at the American Buffalo
Soldiers boot camp in Arizona in 2001. One of the state's most high-profile
camp deaths was that of Nicholas Contreraz, a
16-year-old Sacramento youth who died in 1998 while being subjected to
discipline at the Arizona Boys Ranch near Queen Creek. Bob Bacon's account
was among those Wednesday that outraged House committee members. Bacon said
Aaron was sent to the camp because of minor drug use and poor grades. The
father said he was fooled by the owners of the Utah facility into believing
his son would be well cared for. Instead, Aaron was forced to hike eight to
10 miles a day with inadequate nutrition and was not given protective gear to
withstand freezing temperatures, Bacon said. When Aaron complained of severe
stomach pains and asked for a doctor, his pleas were ignored even though he
had dramatically lost weight and suffered from other serious symptoms, Bacon
testified. According to court documents, the boy's condition was ignored for
20 days, until he collapsed. The autopsy showed he died of an acute infection
related to a perforated ulcer. Five camp employees pleaded guilty to
negligent homicide, and another was convicted of child abuse. All were
sentenced to probation and community service. Kutz
testified that camp employees studied by the GAO were often poorly trained.
He said kids weren't properly fed and were exposed to dangerous conditions,
their cries for medical assistance ignored. He said that in only one of the
10 sample cases was anyone found criminally liable and sentenced to prison.
The residential programs, designed to instill discipline and character, can
be privately run or state-sponsored programs and sometimes include an
educational or school-like component. They are loosely regulated by states.
There are no federal laws that define and regulate them. The programs are
marketed to parents who are at a loss as to how to help emotionally troubled
teens, Kutz said. Jan Moss, executive director of
the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs, a trade group,
said many kids have been helped by the treatment programs. She said the
industry is taking steps to improve, but she added, "Clearly we still
have a very long way to go." Kutz said there
is no comprehensive nationwide data on deaths and injuries in residential
treatment programs. Auditors found thousands of allegations in lawsuits, Web
sites and state records. "Examples of abuse include youth being forced
to eat their own vomit, denied adequate food, being forced to lie in urine or
feces, being kicked, beaten and thrown to the ground," Kutz said, adding that one teen was reportedly
"forced to use a toothbrush to clean a toilet, then forced to use that
toothbrush on their own teeth." At the boot camp where Anthony Haynes
died, children were fed an apple for breakfast, a carrot for lunch and a bowl
of beans for dinner, the GAO said. Haynes became dehydrated in 113-degree
heat and vomited dirt, according to witnesses. The program closed, and the
director, Charles Long, was sentenced in 2005 to six years in prison for
manslaughter. The autopsy on Nicholas Contreraz
showed that after Boys Ranch staffers punished and humiliated the teen for
days, he suffered from a severe infection in the lining of his lungs. Five
employees were charged criminally, but all counts were dropped. The ranch now
operates under the name Canyon State Academy. Julie Vega, Contreraz's
mother, recently told The Arizona Republic, "I feel like he was
sacrificed, and some good things changed for the better because of him. But
nobody really paid a price for his death."
May 24, 2005 AP
The director of a boot camp where a teenage boy died in 2001 was
sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison. Charles Long, director of the
America's Buffalo Soldiers Re-enactors Association boot camp, could have been
sentenced to up to 27 years in prison, but Maricopa County Superior Court
Judge Ronald Reinstein sentenced him to six years.
During the hearing Tuesday, Long apologized to the family members of Anthony
Haynes, the youth who died at the "tough love" camp in July 2001.
Prosecutors accused Long of abusing his power.
January 4, 2005 Arizona Republic
Charles Long, who operated a tough-love boot camp in the desert near
Buckeye, was convicted Monday of reckless manslaughter in the 2001 death of a
14-year-old camper. Long also was found guilty of aggravated assault for
threatening another youth with a knife. The jury deadlocked on eight counts
of child abuse related to other campers who were reportedly forced to sit in
the sun without adequate water as discipline. Melanie Hudson, the mother of
Anthony Haynes, who died while in Long's care at the camp, broke down in
tears when the verdicts were read. Afterward, Hudson said she was pleased
with the jury's verdict. "It's a difficult thing to do," she said.
"It won't bring Tony back." Long wore the military-style uniform of
the organization he founded, America's Buffalo Soldiers Re-Enactors
Association, as he anxiously awaited the verdict in the hallway of Maricopa
County Superior Court. "There was never any doubt as to the guilt on
count one," said Myrna Lee, the only juror who would comment. "It
was the level of guilt." The jury believed testimony that Long held a
knife to the chest of a camper named Nicholas Conner and threatened to
"gut him like a fish."
November 5, 2004 Arizona Republic
A distraught mother told a Maricopa County Superior Court jury Thursday how
her son's emotional problems drove her to seek help from a tough-love boot
camp where he later died. Melanie Hudson testified in the trial of Charles
Long, who is charged with second-degree murder in the 2001 death of Hudson's
14-year-old son, Anthony Haynes. "With the medicines he was taking, he
needed water," Hudson said, "lots of water."
October 20, 2004 Arizona Republic
An adult who attended the tough-love boot camp where a teen died in 2001,
painted a grim picture of the boy's death for the jury in the murder trial of
Charles Long. Long, 59, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of
Anthony Haynes, 14, a camper attending Long's America's Buffalo Soldiers
Re-Enactor's Association "summer endurance camp" near Buckeye in
June and July 2001. Troy
Hutty pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in
Haynes' death, and was promised a sentence of probation if he testified in
Long's trial. On July 1, 2001, Hutty
said, Haynes began acting erratic while sitting in the sun in a "drop on
request" or DOR line, because he wanted to leave the camp. Hutty claimed that Haynes ate dirt and refused to drink
or wash out his mouth with water. "He had dirt in his mouth and dirt in
his teeth," Hutty said. "I tried to give
him water to rinse it out." Then Haynes ran around the campsite
"screaming and making a bunch of crazy sounds" and doing what Hutty called "Three Stooges antics," striking
others, hitting himself in the face and smearing dirt on himself. When Haynes later
appeared to go into convulsions, Hutty claimed he
went to put a pen in the child's mouth to keep him from swallowing his
tongue. According to Hutty,
Long then told Hutty to take Haynes and four other
boys to a nearby hotel to shower. They carried Haynes to a pickup truck and
placed him in the bed, then carried him up to the room. He was now
unresponsive and started vomiting dirt and stones in the room. Hutty and the boys undressed him and placed him in the
shower. When Hutty checked on him, the shower drain
had clogged with the vomit, though he claimed that Haynes' face was above
water. Then he said he used his foot to put pressure on the boy's stomach to
force out more dirt and stones. Hutty said that he didn't
call police because, as a Black man from Philadelphia, he didn't trust them. Instead he called Long, who told him to bring the
boy back to camp. When
he got there, Haynes' pupils were dilated, and Hutty
and Long began performing CPR, but Haynes died.
October 9, 2004 Arizona Republic
For breakfast, campers got an apple. For lunch, a carrot, and for dinner,
a bowl of beans. In between, they were put through "physical
training" in the desert scrub southwest of Buckeye. On the fifth day,
some - those who wanted to leave - were forced to sit in the sun, maybe for
hours. Did I mention it was July? Did I mention that they were wearing black
sweat suits? Did I mention that these campers were kids and that
one of them died? What went on at the summer endurance camp run by Chuck Long
during the summer of 2001 was an outrage. It's shocking that Long had those
kids out there in the desert in July - and that parents allowed it. It's a
full-out tragedy that a 14-year-old boy died. But was it really murder? Anthony Haynes had
troubles, as kids sometimes do. His
mother was looking for help. Unfortunately, she found Chuck Long. The ex-Marine
ran boot camps. On July 1, nine kids, kids who wanted out, were forced to sit
in the sun. Anthony was one of them. No one really knows how long they
endured it. There were reports that Anthony was denied water. Eventually, he collapsed and was taken to a motel
to cool off, at Long's direction. The staffer who drove him, caring soul that
he was, dumped the boy in the tub and proceeded to watch TV. By the time he
checked on Anthony, the boy was drowning. The staffer, Troy Hutty, called Long to complain that Anthony was faking
and Long ordered them to return. By the time they arrived, Anthony Haynes was
dead. Now, Long is on trial, charged with second-degree murder and child
abuse. And who wouldn't want to see this guy punished? Maybe even dressed in
black sweats and dumped out there in the desert. But I've got to ask: Was it
really murder? Negligence, sure. Manslaughter, maybe. But murder? Hutty - the man who put the boy in a tub and left him -
was allowed to plead guilty to negligent homicide in exchange for testifying
against Long. As a reward, he'll get probation.
October 8, 2004 Arizona Republic
Charles Long went on trial Thursday in the 2001 death of a 14-year-old
boy at the tough-love boot camp he ran in the desert west of Buckeye. Long,
who said he has been to court 47 times over the case to date, said during a
break in the trial that "my bottom line right now is I'm ready for the
truth to be told." Long, 59, was charged with second-degree murder in
the death of Anthony Haynes. He also faces eight counts of child abuse and
one count of aggravated assault stemming from the weeklong, military-style
boot camp run by Long's America's Buffalo Soldiers Re-enactors Association.
Deputy County Attorney Mark Barry detailed the events of July 1, 2001. Haynes
was among several kids who stood on a "Drop on Request" line in
112-degree heat to get permission to leave the program. Barry could not say
how long they were in the line - 30 minutes or several hours. According to
Barry, Long had said, "Kids who slash their mothers' tires don't deserve
any water," a reference to some of the trouble the youth had gotten into
before being placed in Long's care. Haynes, who weighed 205 pounds,
reportedly started acting erratically, eating dirt, refusing to drink water
and eventually collapsing in convulsions. According to Barry's account, Long
ordered that the boy be taken to a nearby hotel, where he had rented a room
so that the campers could bathe. Troy Hutty, the
father of two campers who also was acting as a camp staff member, took Haynes
and other youths to the hotel. They carried Haynes to the second floor,
allowing his head to strike the steps, undressed him, placed him in the
bathtub, turned on the shower and left him there unsupervised, Barry said. Some
time
later, they discovered the boy facedown in the
water; the tub drain was plugged with dirt or other debris. They then took
the lifeless boy back to camp and called 911.
March 27, 2002
Lawmakers
are moving closer to a crackdown on unregulated boot camps
that dish out "tough-love" discipline to wayward teens.
The House Judiciary Committee
unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that would force
boot camp owners to get state certification. Calls for regulation started
last summer after 14-year-old Tony Haynes died while
participating in an unregulated boot camp run by the America's
Buffalo Soldiers Re-enactors Association. Rep. Deb Gullett, who sponsored House
Bill 2610, said boot camps and wilderness programs
have become a multibillion-dollar industry around the
nation, with quality and price varying wildly. "Some of these programs are
wonderful," said Gullett, R-Phoenix. "But many
are outright frauds. We want to make sure our state doesn't
become a haven for unscrupulous operators who are preying on
desperate parents." Gullett said one camp that has been
kicked out of Ohio and California has relocated to
Arizona and charges $25,000 to treat a troubled teen. (The
Arizona Republic)
February 23, 2002
An
innocent plea was entered Friday in Maricopa County Superior
Court for the director of a tough-love boot camp who is charged
with second-degree murder in the death of a 14-year-old boy.
Charles Long, who was arrested last
week and also is accused of child abuse and
aggravated assault, said he couldn't afford a lawyer and requested
a public defender. The request was granted. Tony Haynes died July 1 at a Buffalo
Soldiers summer camp after being forced to stand
for hours in 111-degree heat in the desert camp near Buckeye
and nearly drowning in a motel bathtub 10 miles away, according
to Maricopa County sheriff's detectives. Two other supervisors at the same camp
were arrested and accused of abusing children. One
has pleaded guilty. (azcentral)
February 21, 2002
A
former corporal at a tough-love boot camp pleaded guilty
Wednesday to a charge of negligent homicide in the death of a
14-year-old Phoenix boy last summer. Troy A. Hutty,
29, also agreed to cooperate with authorities in the prosecution
of other camp leaders, including Charles Long II, the director
of the Buffalo Soldiers Re-Enactors Association. Long was arrested last week on second-degree
murder and other charges relating to his administration of
the boot-camp program. (azcentral)
July 15, 2001
The boot camp near Buckeye where 14-year-old Anthony Haynes died July 1 is
Arizona's fourth such program to be shut down in three years, the second following
the death of a child. Across the country, at least 18 children in such
programs have died. Five of those deaths occurred in Arizona.
Boot camps in at least eight other states have been closed or overhauled
after allegations of abuse. Oregon lawmakers have ordered regulations
for youth programs, following the death last year of Eddie Lee, 15, at a
privately run boot camp. The boot camp where Anthony Haynes ate dirt
and stood in the sun for hours was not licensed by the state. The Arizona
Department of Economic Security, which regulates some rehabilitation programs
for children, does not license boot camps or any program that uses corporal
punishment. Anthony was in a program run by Charles Long of the
America's Buffalo Soldiers Re-Enactors Association. Its handout calls
the boot camp "A NO NON-SENSE - IN YOUR FACE - TOUGH LOVE
operation." The California Department of Corrections closed its
boot camp in 1997. Georgia overhauled its boot camp after a 1998
investigation found it overcrowded and dangerous. In December 1999,
Maryland closed two boot camps after reports of staff members punching
teens. Also in 1999, Alabama briefly closed a boot camp after reports
of abuse. In Arizona, the boot camp where Haynes died has been closed,
through perhaps only temporarily. The Arizona Boys Ranch in Oracle was
closed in 1998 after Nicholaus Contreraz,
16, died of a lung infection there after being forced to exercise.
Another boy drowned while trying to escape in 1994. "If you don't
monitor them closely, it is easy for an abusive situation to occur,"
said Steve Meissner, spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Juvenile
Corrections. In 1998, after two years, his agency shut its boot camp at
the Black Canyon Detention Center north of Phoenix. (The Arizona
Republic)
Aire Filter Products, Arizona
Aramark
September 1, 2004
Federal agents arrested nine Mexican nationals Tuesday and accused them of
working illegally at a Mesa plant that manufactures military
helicopters. The workers, whose names were not released, were contract
employees of Aramark and Aire Filter Products, subcontractors at the Boeing
plant. (The Arizona Republic)
Arizona
Department of Corrections
Cell-Out
Arizona Exclusive: Documents Show Arizona Officials Knew Private Prisons
Weren’t Saving Money: Cell-Out, July 24, 2012. Must read on how
corrupt the system is. Documents recently obtained by the American Friends
Service Committee (AFSC) show that the state of Arizona deliberately
circumvented and ultimately repealed a state law requiring private for-profit
prison corporations to demonstrate cost savings in their bids on new prison
contracts.
Arizona's
Private Prisons: A Bad Bargain: April 4, 2012, Sasha Abramsky.
This article appeared in the April 23, 2012 edition of The Nation. Expose on
the cost games played by the state.
Arizona
prisons in health-care quandary: February 16, 2012, Bob Ortega, The
Arizona Republic. Expose on for-profit health providers
Top Ten Industry Lies: Cell
Out Arizona, August 22, 2011
2010 escape
at Kingman an issue for MTC’s bid: August 11, 2011, Bob Ortega, The
Arizona Republic. Expose on MTC
La. firm
says prison escapes led to changes: August 10, 2011, Bob Ortega, The
Arizona Republic. Expose on LaSalle
Prison firm
optimistic about Arizona bid despite incidents: August 8, 2011,
Bob Ortega, The Arizona Republic. Exposé on CCA
Nov
5, 2013 The American Friends Service Committee
Jan 11, 2022 azcentral.com
Private prison operators go ka-CHING while catastrophe awaits Arizona's
schools Opinion: The private prison industry has wined and dined and
contributed to Republican legislators. Now, it's paying multimillion-dollar
dividends. Sadly, Arizona's public schools can't do the same.
CoreCivic will not only get
more money than the state-run prison average to house inmates, but its
private prison in Eloy also will have a minimum 90% occupancy rate. Two years
ago in his State of the State speech, Gov. Doug Ducey announced he'd be closing the prison in Florence in
order to save the state money. Last week, The Arizona Republic's Jimmy
Jenkins reported that the state is transferring more than 2,700 Florence
inmates to a private prison in Eloy, at an increased cost to taxpayers. This,
while Arizona has more than 4,000 empty beds that could house those moderate-
and high-risk inmates in existing state-run prisons. It seems all those free
drinks and the record-high campaign contributions the private prison industry
has doled out to Arizona's Republican leaders have paid off. CoreCivic will get more cash per inmate. Not only will
the state pay CoreCivic $85.12 per inmate per day
over the next five years - an increase from the average $71 to house an
inmate in a state-run prison - it'll also guarantee the company's private
prison in Eloy will have a minimum 90% occupancy rate, according to the
contract. Jenkins reports the five-year contract, signed last month, is worth
more than $420 million, with CoreCivic raking in
more than $6 million in profits in the first year alone. And, oh by the way,
the company "may be eligible to receive consideration for an annual cost
adjustment ... subject to approval of funding and authorization." May
be? With a huge surplus in the state treasury, expect to see CoreCivic and other private prison operators bellying up
to the taxpayer trough. And expect to see legislators, always eager for
another campaign handout, ready, willing and able to
overserve them. Last year alone, Republican legislators, on a partyline vote, approved a $43 million boost to private
prisons. Company has not been shy with donations. This, after (because?) the
industry spent the previous few years doling out a record amount of campaign
cash and plenty of free food and drinks to Republican legislators. According
to an Arizona Republic/KJZZ investigation last summer, CoreCivic
and GEO Group, the state's two biggest private prison contractors, spent
$23,910 feeding and watering legislators since 2016. They, along with select
employees, spread around another $60,918 in campaign contributions, much of
it in 2019 and 2020. And in 2021: that completely coincidental $43 million
boost in spending on private prisons. To absolutely no one's amazement, a
spokesman for CoreCivic last summer strenuously
denied that the company's spending on lobbying or campaign contributions
resulted in any special treatment. "CoreCivic's
political activities are transparently reported and consistent with all
relevant laws," Ryan Gustin, public affairs
manager for CoreCivic, told reporters. "The
influence over the procurement process suggested ... is illegal, and we
consider any statement along those lines false and defamatory." Says the
spokesman for the company that just scored a $420 million five-year contract
- which, by the way, CoreCivic will have the
opportunity to extend for another five years. Can students get that kind of
help? Meanwhile, Arizona's public schools remain some of the most underfunded
in the nation. And now, they're now facing the prospect of catastrophic cuts
by April 1 unless the Legislature lifts a 40-year-old spending limit so they
can spend the money they do have. A
spending limit they are loathe to lift because doing so would allow a
voter-approved income tax on the rich to take effect. This, to better fund
schools. If only our kids could pool their allowance to wine and dine our
esteemed leaders.
Nov 1, 2021 abqjournal.com
Trial to begin over health care for 27K Arizona prisoners
PHOENIX - A lawsuit challenging
the quality of health care for more than 27,000 people incarcerated in
Arizona's prisons is headed to trial Monday after a 6-year-old settlement
resolving the case was thrown out by a judge who concluded the state showed
little interest in making many of the improvements it promised under the
deal. The decision in mid-July came after the state had already been hit with
a total of $2.5 million in contempt of court fines for noncompliance. Judge
Roslyn Silver had concluded the fines weren't motivating Arizona to comply,
faulted the state for making erroneous excuses and baseless legal arguments
and said the failure to provide adequate care for prisoners led to suffering
and preventable deaths. Lawyers for the prisoners are asking the judge to take
over health care operations in state-run prisons, appoint an official to run
medical and mental health services there, ensure prisons have enough health
care workers and reduce the use of isolation cells, including banning their
use for prisoners under age 18 or those with serious mental illnesses. In
court papers this week, the attorneys said Arizona's prison health care
operations are understaffed and poorly supervised, routinely deny access to
some necessary medications, fail to provide adequate pain management for
end-stage cancer patients and others, and don't meet the minimum standards
for mental health care. "So much of the death and suffering that our
experts found was completely preventable," said Corene
Kendrick, one of the attorneys for the prisoners. "And if there had been
interventions earlier, we wouldn't have people suffering permanent injury and
death - including death by suicide and death by medical conditions that were
ignored for all too long. But by the time the person got the care or treatment
they needed, it was too late. It's an all too common story." The Arizona Department of
Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry declined a request to comment on the
trial. In court records, the agency has denied allegations that it was
providing inadequate care, delayed or issued
outright denials of care and failed to give necessary medications. The case
will be decided by Silver, not a jury. When questioned in the past about the
court's actions against the state for noncompliance in the case, Gov. Doug Ducey has said he wants state agency directors - not
judges - running state agencies. A court-appointed expert has concluded that
understaffing, inadequate funding and privatization
of health care services are significant barriers in improving health care in
Arizona's prisons. The case was settled in 2014 just days before it was
headed to trial. Another settlement isn't expected. The lawsuit alleges the
state didn't meet the basic requirements for providing adequate medical and
mental health care for prisoners. Some prisoners complained that their cancer
went undetected or that they were told to pray to be cured after begging for
treatment, the lawsuit said. It also said the failure of the medical staff at
one prison to diagnose a prisoner's metastasized cancer resulted in his liver
enlarging so much that his stomach swelled to the size of a pregnant woman at
full term. Another prisoner who had a history of prostate cancer had to wait
more than two years for a biopsy. The case challenges health care in state-run
prisons, not in the private prisons where the state houses 7,500 other
people. In the nine years since it was filed, the lawsuit has cost the state
$20 million, including $10 million for attorneys defending prison officials
and $8.1 million for lawyers who pressed the case on behalf of prisoners,
according to records.
Jul 17, 2021 fronterasdesk.org
Federal Judge Rescinds Arizona Prison Health Care Settlement, Orders New
Trial
Citing
"pervasive material breaches" of Arizona's prison health care class
action settlement, U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver rescinded the
settlement and ordered the Department of Corrections and prisoner attorneys
to prepare for a trial in an order issued on Friday. The Parsons v. Ryan
settlement was certified more than 6 years ago in 2015. The state agreed to a
set of performance benchmarks that were created to raise the standard of
health care in the 10 state-run prisons. On Friday, Judge Silver issued an
order setting that agreement aside, saying the Department of Corrections and
its private health care contractors had repeatedly failed to meet the
settlement conditions. "Over the past six years, Defendants have
consistently failed to meet many of the Stipulation's critical
benchmarks," Silver wrote. "Beyond these failures, Defendants have
in the past six years proffered erroneous and unreliable excuses for
non-performance, asserted baseless legal arguments, and in essence resisted
complying with the obligations they contractually knowingly and voluntarily
assumed." Judge Silver noted that both she and Magistrate Judge David
Duncan, who previously presided over the settlement, had attempted to use the
powers granted to them by the settlement to improve the state's compliance,
with no success. "The remedies and tolerance by the Court have proven
ineffective," Silver wrote. " The present situation must end."
The scathing, 37-page order outlines years of failures by the Department of
Corrections and its health care contractors to deliver adequate care to people
in state prisons. In a detailed history of the case, Judge Silver cited
several examples showing the Department could no longer be trusted, including
the testimony of a Department of Corrections psychologist who admitted in
court they weren't providing accurate monitoring numbers related to the
settlement. Judge Silver pointed to the history of consistent understaffing
by the private prison health care contractors hired by the state, and the
failures of court-ordered expert analysis to improve the staffing problems. Silver
cited extensively from a February 2018 evidentiary hearing that was prompted
by exclusive KJZZ reporting. The judge quoted whistleblower testimony by Dr.
Jan Watson and emails KJZZ published showing Corizon Health officials were
purposefully evading the court monitoring process. Judge Silver chastised
former Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan for being a poor
steward of taxpayer money, questioning his reasoning that putting a cap on
performance sanctions against its prison health care contractor was a
"smart business decision." The order also describes previous
testimony from mental health clinician Angela Fischer and Corizon Health
administrator Cecelia Edwards. Both women testified in federal court about
improper health care conditions and questionable administrative procedures
despite fearing for their safety and the well-being of their families. Judge
Silver said despite two massive sanctions totaling $2.5 million levied
against DOC by the courts, monetary fines seemed to have no effect on
compliance with the settlement. And Silver called attention to the mounting
legal expenses associated with the ongoing litigation, which total more than
$21 million. "Defendants' longstanding refusal to acknowledge their
shortcomings and identify plausible paths to compliance evidences their
pattern of conduct will not change," Silver wrote, ordering a new trial.
ACLU National Prison Project attorney Corene
Kendrick represents Arizona prisoners in the case. She says a trial could
lead to several different outcomes from Judge Silver. "She could order
the state to stop using these private, for-profit contractors to deliver
health care," Kendrick said. "She could order the state to hire
more doctors and nurses to staff the prisons. And the judge could also take
the prison health care system into receivership." While Silver
previously expressed reluctance to bring the state prison health care system
under the control of the court, Kendrick says it remains a possibility.
"She doesn't want to be micromanaging the prisons," Kendrick said,
"but the courts have an obligation to protect the constitutional rights
of the incarcerated people in this case." Silver ordered the attorneys
to confer and discuss a schedule for the trial, which is to start no later
than November 1st, 2021. The Arizona Department of Corrections did not
respond to a request to respond to the order. "Defendants' failures have
led to preventable deaths, possibly including suicides," Silver wrote.
"Defendants' failures have also led to untold suffering by individuals
unable to obtain medical treatment ... It is impossible to quantify,
monetarily, the harm suffered by prisoners."
Mar 12, 2021 kjzz.org
Judge Dismisses
Complaints In Private Prison Lawsuit
A federal judge has
thrown out a lawsuit that claimed private prisons used by the state violate constitutional protections
including a prohibition against slavery. Judge Douglas Rayes
rejected arguments made by attorneys for the NAACP that because the private
prisons benefit financially from their contracts with the state
they are getting the "fruits of prisoners' economic value and
labor." The lawyers argued that those contracts have effectively
transformed the prisoners into property. Judge Rayes
also dismissed complaints regarding Eighth Amendment violations of unusual
punishment as well as claims that the inmates are being denied equal
protection. Attorney John Dacey said he will almost certainly file an amended
complaint on behalf of the plaintiffs within the next 30 days. There are
nearly 7,000 inmates in state custody incarcerated in private prisons in
Arizona.
Mar 12, 2021 apnews.com
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona plans to ask a company that previously provided health
care to its prisoners for reimbursement of a $1.1 million contempt of court
fine that the state just paid for failing to comply with a legal settlement
requiring improvements to inmate care. Such a request would mark the second
time the state has tried to pass along the financial burden for a contempt
fine for noncompliance with the 6-year-old settlement to Corizon Health Inc.,
the state’s prison health care contractor for five years until another
company took over in mid-2019. The Arizona Department of Corrections,
Rehabilitation and Reentry confirmed Wednesday it was planning to seek reimbursement
from Corizon, which covered the costs of a $1.4 million contempt fine that
the state paid in 2018 for failing to follow through on its promises in the
settlement. A third round of contempt fines threatened by a judge in the case
would cover violations in the last 10 months of 2020 and could reach as high
as $17 million. Corizon didn’t respond to a request for comment about the
prospect of being asked to pay another contempt fine against the state. The
$1.1 million fine, which was handed down two weeks ago and paid by the state
on Wednesday, covers violations in June 2019. When the first fine was imposed
in 2018, attorneys for inmates argued the state shouldn’t be able to pass
along the costs to and blame its vendor for problems for which it is responsible.
Corene Kendrick, an attorney representing prisoners
in the case, said the state’s contract with Corizon called for the company to
pick up the costs of legal fees and fines. The state faces a March 26
deadline for saying why it shouldn’t face a third round of fines. A week ago,
U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver warned the state against offering any past
excuses for why it hasn’t complied with the settlement, which emerged out of
a class-action lawsuit that challenged the quality of health care in state-run
prisons. To avoid future fines, Silver said the state must point to
conditions that officials didn’t or couldn’t have anticipated during the
previous six years of the settlement.
Mar 5, 2021 stateofreform.com
Deprivatization — not continual fines
— is the solution to health care incompetency in Arizona prisons
Eli Kirshbaum | Mar
2, 2021
In 2018, Arizona’s
private prison health care contractor Centurion received $1.4 million in
additional funding from the state to improve inmate health care. By 2020,
that number had risen to $30 million. Yet just last week, the Arizona
Department of Corrections (ADC) was fined — for the second time in three
years — for refusing to comply with agreed-upon standards of health care for
its inmates. In last week’s decision, U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver
fined ADC $1.1 million, finding the state guilty of noncompliance with
performance measures including neglecting to promptly notify inmates of their
medical results, providing them with needed medications and other violations.
Arizona faced a similar charge in 2018, when it was fined $1.4 million after
hearings showed a failure to improve prison health care. In this instance,
prisoners reported nurses withholding medicine from inmates, prison guards
sleeping on the job and inmates with cancer being left untreated. These
charges stem from a 2012 class action lawsuit brought against ADC by the
American Civil Liberties Union, filing suit on behalf of a group of Arizona
prison inmates. In Parsons v. Ryan, the plaintiffs alleged that state prisons
failed to deliver adequate medical care, dental care, mental health care and
more to its inmate population. The two parties eventually reached a deal in
2015 in which ADC — while nonetheless claiming its innocence of the plaintiffs’
claims — agreed to increase its funding for prison health initiatives and
comply with multiple standards of care for inmates. Reports have shown the
devastating impact COVID-19 has had on prisoners, who live in a confined
space and often lack adequate preventive care. However, according to Rebecca Fealk, policy program coordinator for the American
Friends Service Committee of Arizona (AFSC-AZ), the issue of low quality health care in Arizona prisons started long
before the arrival of COVID-19. The foundation of this issue is Arizona’s
shift from a public to a private prison system, she said. Per their 2013
report on Arizona’s correctional health care system, AFSC-AZ says the ongoing
transfer of power over Arizona prisons between contracted prison health care
companies has perpetuated this issue. Following the removal of a statute
provision that restricted over-priced privatization of state services like
the prison system in 2011, correctional health care company Wexford assumed
control of the state’s prison systems. Wexford was replaced with Corizon in
2013, and Centurion replaced Corizon in 2018. According to Fealk, Wexford’s departure offered an opportunity for the
state to address the ineffectiveness of its privatized system. Instead,
Arizona chose to replace one private contractor with another. “As opposed to
Wexford being held accountable, they just shifted to a different provider,
completely ignoring that Corizon had the same history.” Fealk
said the decision to privatize Arizona’s prison system was detrimental to the
health of inmates because, through a privatized system, health care costs are
an additional expense for private contractors. These companies have the ability to increasingly augment their budget
while refusing to act in the best interest of prisoners by spending money on
additional health services. “They’re fine with paying fines and fees because
that doesn’t mess with their profit margin. But if they actually
provide health care, it costs more. So it’s
this extremely damaging choice the state made to privatize these health care
companies. It’s not like [these are] people who have health care and can
choose a different provider — they have no choice. People are dying because
of it.” Fealk also explained that the harmful
effects of prison privatization are not unique to Arizona; Mississippi,
Idaho, Alabama and other states have also had this “pattern of
privatization.” She explained how the pandemic has only exacerbated the
issue, saying COVID-19 outbreaks in prisons affect their surrounding
communities as well as their inmates. “It does not just stop in the prison
walls. The communities that house the prisons, often more rural and low income communities, have been affected due to the
staff who work in the prisons going in and out on a daily basis. Outbreaks in
Yuma and Florence have been reported, where 5 of the 16 state prisons are
located.” When asked if she thought making the prisons fully public was the
solution, Fealk said that while the issue is
perhaps not that black and white, deprivatizing
Arizona’s prisons and restoring accountability is a key start to solving the
problem. “We would definitely say that there is less harm done when the state
is running it, and there’s evidence for that. That is one step. The solution
is to actually ensure that people are being provided adequate health care
inside, and the only way we’re going to allow that is that there has to be a
certain transparency around that.” Fealk said that
Arizona must increase the transparency in its prison health care, but must do so without violating the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) by publicizing the
medical information of prisoners. Inmates in need of mental health care have
reportedly only been able to meet with a mental health professional for
appointments lasting several minutes. After asking to see a provider for
severe body pains, one inmate killed herself while her request remained
unanswered ten days later. State prisons have also refused to provide needed
cancer treatments to inmates. “People in prison are some of the most
vulnerable because of the ostracization we’ve done as a society, but also
because it’s often people who are low income, people of color, who are most
warehoused in our prisons due to all these other systemic issues.”
Feb 25, 2021 kjzz.org
Federal Judge Fines
Arizona Department Of Corrections $1.1 Million Over
Continued Health Care Failures
A federal judge has
once again held the Arizona Department of Corrections in contempt for
providing poor health care in state prisons. In a ruling issued Wednesday,
U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver fined the Arizona Department of
Corrections $1.1 million for failing to meet prison health care benchmarks
the state agreed to years ago. In a 2015 settlement, the Department of
Corrections agreed to a set of health care standards called performance
measures that were meant to increase the quality of care in state prisons.
But six years later, the department has failed to meet those standards. The
department contracts with private prison health care provider Centurion of
Arizona to address the medical needs of the more than 30,000 inmates in
state-run prisons. The state attempted to blame a transition from the
previous provider, Corizon Health, as a reason for ongoing problems, but
Silver did not buy the excuse. "There is no explanation why defendants,
with advance notice, did not inform the court of their difficulties,” Silver
wrote. “Nor do defendants point to evidence establishing sufficient efforts
were made to secure alternative outside health care providers." Corene Kendrick is the ACLU National Prison Project
deputy director. She represents inmates in Arizona prisons in the Parsons
versus Shinn prison health care settlement. “The benchmarks that ADC failed
cover a wide range of requirements regarding timely access to medical care at
multiple prisons,” she said. Kendrick says the fines were from a review of
just one month in 2019. In her order, Judge Silver raised the possibility of
millions of dollars in additional fines, should the Department fail to bring
other performance measures into compliance. This is the second instance in
less three years of a federal judge finding the Department of Corrections to
be in contempt and levying a fine against it of more than $1 million. In
2018, Magistrate Judge David Duncan fined the Department $1.4 million for
similar performance measure failures. In that instance, the Department’s
former health care contract, Corizon Health, paid the fine. Judge Silver said
the money from both fines would be used for “a system-wide staffing analysis
performed and implemented as soon as possible.” “Funds paid as sanctions will
be ordered to complete a systemic analysis of the adequacy of the health care
provided to class members,” Silver wrote. “The parties shall agree upon an
expert to complete the analysis or each submit two proposed experts. The
Court will then appoint an expert from the parties’ submissions or appoint
another person the Court deems qualified.” Judge Silver’s order also touched
on several other long-standing issues in the Parsons lawsuit, including what
plaintiffs have referred to as "drive by mental health encounters.”
Attorneys for the inmates previously filed records to the court showing
mental health care encounters for some patients lasted only a few minutes.
“To ensure that visits shorter than the minimum duration are appropriate, the
Court will adopt the regime proposed by Plaintiffs,” Silver wrote. “That
regime will require a psychiatrist make the determination whether a mental health
encounter shorter than the required minimum duration was ‘meaningful and
appropriate in the context of the patient’s overall care.’” A spokesperson
for the Department of Corrections said its attorneys were reviewing the
ruling.
Jun 16, 2020 fronterasdesk.org
A group of
incarcerated people have filed a complaint in federal court alleging their
confinement in private, for-profit prisons is unconstitutional.
Attorneys for those five Arizona prisoners, as well as the Arizona State
Conference of the NAACP, argue that the state has delegated its “sovereign
power of incarceration” to prison corporations that in turn treat prisoners
as “economic assets.” “The prisoners themselves become commodities and
commerce. They become property,” said John Dacey, an attorney and executive
director of the nonprofit Abolish Private Prisons. “And in our view, that is
the kind of slavery that violates the Constitution.” “Let me be real clear about one thing: We’re not saying that prison
privatization is like slavery. We’re saying it is slavery, and that it
violates the 13th Amendment,” he added. The complaint, filed in the U.S.
District Court in the District of Arizona, seeks class-action status for
prisoners of the state Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry
— any inmate who is currently in a private prison, or may be transferred to
one. It names department Director David Shinn as the sole defendant. A
spokesman for the department declined to comment. Plaintiffs Larry Hilgendorf, Terry Brownell, Joseph Bulen
and Brian Boudreax are incarcerated in Arizona
State Prison - Florence West. Plaintiff Jeffrey Nielsen is incarcerated in
Arizona State Prison - Phoenix West. Both facilities are operated by the GEO
Group. If successful, Dacey said Arizona’s contracts with private prisons
would be invalid. “We are asking the federal court to declare state laws and
state contracts with private prison vendors to be violations of the United
States Constitution, and to prohibit them going forward,” Dacey said. For
that to occur, the courts will have to address the meaning of slavery. “The
(United States) Supreme Court has never defined slavery. So
this will be new ground we’re breaking,” Dacey said. Dacey said slavery is
typically associated with cruel, involuntary labor. But he said it also
includes ownership of another human being, or a property interest in that
human. For example, Dacey pointed to the value of private prison corporations
traded on the New York Stock Exchange, CoreCivic
and The GEO Group. In 2016, their stock plummeted when the U.S. Justice
Department announced they would no longer utilize private prisons. After
President Trump’s election in 2018, the Justice Department reversed course,
and so, too, did the fate of those corporations’ stock. “So
what was affecting the value of the stock shares was projections of the
number of people that would be incarcerated in private prisons,” Dacey said.
“The auction of human beings, if you will, through what we call public
procurement and the government sector ties the value of an individual in a
prison cell to the value of the stock shares of the corporations.” Dacey said
the relationship between profits and prisoners can have a “perverse” effect
on one of the stated goals of the Department of Corrections: To rehabilitate prisoners
and prepare them for reentry into society. The lawsuit in Arizona may just be
the first step. Dacey said his organization could file similar lawsuits in
other states. “It is our intention to get this issue before the United States
Supreme Court,” he said. “And we think it’s important to do that sooner
rather than later, before the government becomes overly dependent on private
prison vendors.”
Aug 24, 2019 phoenixnewtimes.com
Facing $1.2 Million
Fine, ADC Blames Corizon-Centurion Handoff for Its Failures
A new, $1.2 million
fine is hanging over the Arizona Department of Corrections for its years-long
failure to provide inmates with decent medical care. In court documents filed
Friday in the class-action prison health care case Parsons v. Ryan, which was
settled in 2014, Assistant Arizona Attorney General Michael Gottfried and
four private attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver not to
penalize the Department of Corrections.
They claimed that the transition in June and July from one private
for-profit prison health care provider, Corizon Health Inc., to another,
Centurion Managed Care, has been rocky. That was why ADC has yet to meet some
two dozen court-ordered standards for adequate
medical care, they tried to explain. "As a result of this transition,
there were several delays and interferences with Defendants' ability to
monitor compliance with the [performance measures]," they wrote. Their
claims seemed to ignore the fact that these performance measures, of which
there are more than 100, date back to the settlement of Parsons v. Ryan.
"The case was settled five years ago, and they’re still not
compliant," Corene Kendrick, an attorney with
the Prison Law Office who is co-counsel on the case, told Phoenix New Times.
Last year, the state was fined $1.4 million for failing to meet these
standards, which were supposed to force the department to ensure that people
incarcerated in Arizona receive adequate medical care. ADC has
to report to the court its progress on tasks like monitoring inmates
with chronic conditions or getting inmates to see nurses within a day of
requesting care. Despite its history of missing the mark, the department is
blaming its ongoing failure to comply with 24 of these standards on a host of
hiccups related to this year's handoff: delays in scanning medical
documentation, the misplacement of inventory logs, staffing challenges, and
the loss of outside specialists. "Both Defendants and their healthcare
contractors took all reasonable steps to comply with the Order, but the
pending transition of healthcare presented unexpected and atypical
difficulties," the state's lawyers argued. "As a result, the Court
should find that the Defendants took all reasonable steps to comply with the
Order and should not impose the proposed contempt sanction." The
potential sanctions come at a high price: $50,000 per performance measure.
Multiple that by 24 performance measures, and the department could be out
$1.2 million as it struggles to get its act together. Its director, Chuck
Ryan, announced his sudden retirement on August 9, a few days before the
governor's office released a damning report that partially blamed Ryan's
leadership for widespread problems and scandals. Judge Silver has given
lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Prison Law Office,
who represent the plaintiffs, until September 6 to file a response, and the
state until September 20 to file its reply. Only after that will she decide
what kind of fine, if any, to impose. “It’s totally up to the judge in terms
of when and how much," Kendrick said. The judge could also order a
hearing, she added. In a declaration accompanying Friday's filing, William Carr, the vice president of operations for Corizon,
detailed some of the problems that the company had faced in handing its
responsibilities to Centurion. In order to comply with a performance measure
on emergency medical response bags, for example, a Corizon employee is
required to scan an inventory log to submit to the state. "During the
transition, the inventory logs for June were inadvertently misplaced," Carr's declaration said. Corizon also struggled to find
and keep employees because of the pending handover, he added. Medical
specialists outside the prison also cut ties with Corizon because of the
switch in companies, so "there were less available providers for
specialty consults, which affected the compliance scores." On Friday,
the same day that the department begged the judge not fine it, ADC
spokesperson Andrew Wilder told New Times via email that "the transition
of services has been successful." He did not respond to a follow-up
query asking for an explanation as to why he told the public that the handoff
was a success, when lawyers for ADC were simultaneously telling a judge that
the messy transition was to blame for "delays and interferences."
In June 2018, a judge fined the Arizona Department of Corrections $1.4
million for failing to comply with the court-ordered standards — $1,000 for
1,445 violations. In his order, the judge wrote, "The inescapable conclusion
is that defendants are missing the mark after four years of trying to get it
right. Their repeated failed attempts, and too-late efforts, to take their
obligation seriously demonstrate a half-hearted commitment that must be
braced."
Jun 27, 2019 azfamily.com
Female corrections
officer at Eloy prison accused of sexual conduct with inmate
ELOY, AZ (3TV/CBS5)
-- A female corrections officer at a prison in Eloy has been arrested for alleged
sexual conduct with an inmate. Eloy police believe 44-year-old Christina
Lopez of Tucson, engaged in unlawful sexual conduct with the inmate on June 8
at the Saguaro Correctional Center. The investigation began when staffers at
the private prison notified authorities about the allegations. Eloy police
responded, conducting interviews with Lopez and with prison staff. Lopez was
booked into the Pinal County Jail on one charge of unlawful sexual conduct.
The inmate, who has not been identified, remains in custody at the Saguaro
Correctional Center. The prison is operated by the company CoreCivic, which released this statement to Arizona's
Family on Wednesday: “CoreCivic is committed to the
safety of every inmate in our care, and we have a zero-tolerance policy for
all forms of sexual abuse. As soon as we became aware of this issue, we
reported it to local law enforcement and our government partners, and we are
cooperating fully with the investigation.”
Eloy is located in Pinal County, about 65 miles southeast of
Phoenix.
May 19, 2019 njherald.com
Prison health care provider resolves
disabilities lawsuit
PHOENIX (AP) — Two
companies that provide health care in jails and prisons across the United
States have agreed to pay $950,000 to resolve a lawsuit that alleged it
discriminated against employees with disabilities by failing to accommodate
them, requiring them to be fully healed before they can return to work, and
firing them. A consent-decree agreement signed by a judge on Wednesday
requires Corizon Health Inc. and Corizon LLC to provide annual training to
employees who qualify under the Americans With Disabilities Act, review its
policies and, if necessary, make changes to ensure equal employment
opportunities are available to all employees and job applicants with
disabilities. The lawsuit was filed last summer in Arizona, but the agreement
applies to all Corizon facilities in the United States. The two companies
provide health care to jail and prison inmates in more than 20 states,
including Arizona, California, New York, New Mexico, Michigan, Colorado and
Tennessee. Corizon has served as Arizona's prison health care provider for
the last six years, though another company will take over those duties in
July. The companies have agreed to hire an outsider with experience in
employment-discrimination law to monitor their compliance with the agreement
and designate at least three employees to oversee accommodation requests by
employees with disabilities and assist human-resource and supervisory
employees with their ADA responsibilities. The companies didn't acknowledge
any violations of the ADA by entering into the agreement. The $950,000 in
proceeds will be split among 23 former Corizon employees from across the
United States. The lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission alleged that the companies refused to accommodate employees with
disabilities who had exhausted their leave under Corizon's 30-day medical
leave policy or the Family and Medical Leave Act. It also alleged the companies
had a policy of requiring employees with a disability to be 100% healed or to
be without medical restrictions before they could return to work. Corizon had
denied the allegations in the lawsuit.
May 11, 2019 mohavedailynews.com
PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Department of Corrections has asked an appeals
court to throw out a contempt-of-court ruling against its director and a $1.4
million fine against the state for failing to adequately improve health care
for the 33,000 inmates in state-run prisons. The appeal made on behalf of
Corrections Director Charles Ryan and his agency was filed Wednesday — two
days after a judge threatened another round of fines for the state’s failure
to comply with a 4-year-old settlement over the quality of inmate care. In
the appeal, lawyers for the Department of Corrections said U.S. Magistrate
Judge David Duncan didn’t have the power to make the civil contempt ruling
and impose the fine because the settlement was a private agreement, not a
court order. While the contempt ruling was deemed to be civil in nature and
aimed at encouraging compliance with the settlement, lawyers for the state
said it was really a criminal contempt decision that was aimed at punishing
the Department of Corrections and deprived Ryan and another corrections
official of their due-process rights, attorneys representing the state said.
The lawyers pointed out critical comments that Duncan, who has since retired
from the bench for medical reasons, made about the truthfulness of people
working at the Department of Corrections. They said Duncan’s “exasperation
with ADC does not furnish it any legal support for the sanctions order.”
Earlier this week, another federal judge overseeing the settlement said the
state hasn’t fully complied with 21 performance measures within the
settlement, such as ensuring newly prescribed medications be provided to
inmates within two days and making medical providers tell inmates about the
results of pathology reports and other diagnostic studies within five days of
receiving such records. U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver threatened to
impose as much as $1.7 million in additional contempt-of-court fines against
the state for its noncompliance. She set a July 1 deadline for reaching
compliance. Silver has said the state remains noncompliant on some of the
very performance measures that led to last summer’s contempt-of-court ruling
against Ryan. Corene Kendrick, an attorney
representing the prisoners, said the appeal is an attempt to prevent the
agency from being held accountable for repeatedly dragging its feet in
complying with the settlement. She said the judges have the power to hold
parties in litigation in contempt of court. “They are saying that the
stipulation is unenforceable because the court never ordered it, which just
isn’t true,” Kendrick said. The lawsuit alleged that Arizona’s prisons didn’t
meet the basic requirements for providing adequate medical and mental health
care. It said some prisoners complained that their cancer went undetected or
that they were told to pray to be cured after begging for treatment. It also
alleged that the failure of the medical staff at one prison to diagnose an
inmate’s metastasized cancer resulted in his liver enlarging so much that his
stomach swelled to the size of a pregnant woman at full term. Another inmate
who had a history of prostate cancer had to wait more than two years for a
biopsy. The state denied allegations that it was providing inadequate care,
and the lawsuit was settled without the state acknowledging any wrongdoing.
Late last year, Silver raised the possibility of throwing out the settlement
and resuming litigation, saying the state’s insistence on defending its
noncompliance was ill-advised. She also said if a constitutional violation
were found at trial, she could consider a number of
remedies, such as appointing a special master who, on behalf of the court,
would oversee improvements to inmate care. The state paid the $1.4 million
fine issued and was later fully reimbursed by Corizon Health Care, which has
provided health care in Arizona’s prisons for more than five years. Another
company, Centurion of Arizona, will take over as the state’s prison health
care provider on July 1. Gov. Doug Ducey, who is
Ryan’s boss, has expressed confidence in his corrections director after he
was found to be in contempt of court last summer. The governor has said he
wants state agency directors, not judges, running their departments.
Oct 6, 2018 ktar.com
Lawyers in Arizona prison health care suit seek $1.6M more in legal fees
PHOENIX – Lawyers who filed a lawsuit challenging the quality of health
care in Arizona’s prisons are seeking $1.6 million in additional legal fees
and other costs in enforcing a 2014 settlement that they say the state has
repeatedly resisted. The request filed Friday comes after attorneys
representing the 34,000 inmates in state prisons have already been awarded
$6.1 million in litigation costs since they filed the lawsuit in March 2012.
The state paid $4.9 million to the prisoners’ lawyers after settling the
lawsuit in October 2014 and agreeing to improve inmate care. They were
awarded another $1.2 million for their efforts through July 2017 in enforcing
the terms of the settlement after Corrections Director Charles Ryan was found
to be in civil contempt of court and the state was fined for failing to
adequately improve care for prisoners. Though a magistrate judge ordered the
state in June to pay the $1.2 million, attorneys for the prisoners haven’t
yet received that money. The state is appealing the decision to cover the
costs. Lawyers for the prisoners say the latest request covers their
enforcement efforts for the one-year period ending on June 30. The attorneys
say they rightfully earned such fees because they had to repeatedly complain
in court that the state wasn’t complying with some of the changes to inmate
care that it promised to make when it agreed to the settlement. “All of
plaintiffs’ time and expenses during the 2017-18 enforcement period were
directed toward demonstrating defendants’ noncompliance with the stipulation
(settlement) and obtaining the contempt findings and associated remedies,”
the prisoners’ lawyers said in court records. Andrew Wilder, a spokesman for
the Arizona Department of Corrections, declined to comment on the latest fee
request. The lawsuit alleged that Arizona’s 10 state-run prisons didn’t meet
the basic requirements for providing adequate medical and mental health care.
It said some prisoners complained that their cancer went undetected or that
they were told to pray to be cured after begging for treatment. It also
alleged that the failure of the medical staff at one prison to diagnose an
inmate’s metastasized cancer resulted in his liver enlarging so much that his
stomach swelled to the size of a pregnant woman at full term. Another inmate
who had a history of prostate cancer had to wait more than two years for a
biopsy. The state denied allegations that it was providing inadequate care.
The lawsuit was settled in 2014 without the state acknowledging any
wrongdoing. When finding Ryan in contempt of court this summer, then-U.S.
Magistrate Judge David Duncan also imposed a $1.4 million fine against the
state based on its acknowledgment that it had more than 1,400 instances in
December, January and February during which it failed to make the
improvements they promised to make when settling the case. In addition to
agreeing to pay $4.9 million in the 2014 settlement, the agreement also said
the state would cover attorney fees and other costs – which would be
determined by a judge – if the prisoners’ lawyers asked a judge to enforce
any aspect of the settlement and they prevailed in such disputes. The latest
fee request seeks to compensate two legal advocacy groups representing
inmates, the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project and the
Prison Law Office.
Sep 25, 2018 kjzz.org
Phoenix EEOC Files Discrimination Lawsuit Against Corizon Health
The Phoenix Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit
in federal court against Arizona’s prison health care contractor, Corizon
Health, alleging discrimination against individuals with disabilities. The
federal agency monitors civil rights violations in the workplace. The Phoenix
District EEOC office filed the lawsuit against Corizon on Sept. 18 in the U.
S. District Court of Arizona on behalf of five named plaintiffs “and other
similarly situated qualified aggrieved individuals who were adversely
affected by Corizon’s unlawful actions.” "Employers must work with
qualified individuals with disabilities to find available and effective
reasonable accommodations so that employees can keep their jobs,” Mary Jo
O'Neill, the agency’s regional attorney in Phoenix, said in a statement.
“Employers who ignore the duty to accommodate their employees with
disabilities violate the law — and they lose valuable contributors in their
workplaces." The lawsuit alleges Corizon discriminated against the five
former employees, who were all fired, by “failing to provide them with
reasonable accommodations.” The plaintiffs also allege Corizon “discriminated
against qualified persons with disabilities nationwide ... subjected some
employees to a hostile work environment based on disability, failed to
promote qualified individuals because of their disabilities, and retaliated
against some of the charging parties.” Plaintiffs
attorneys are seeking a jury trial to “correct Corizon’s nationwide unlawful
employment policies and practices that discriminate on the basis of
disability.” The EEOC is seeking relief for the plaintiffs based allegations
dating back to April 1, 2012, that Corizon violated the Americans with
Disabilities Act. The lawsuit takes issue with the way Corizon handles
employees on medical leave. “As a matter of policy or practice, Corizon would
not approve modified job duties, allow more than twelve weeks of leave
permitted by the FMLA, allow extended leave past an unpaid 30-day medical
leave, or allow employees to return to work without being fully healed” the
attorneys wrote. Elizabeth McCrehin worked as a
nurse for the Arizona Department of Corrections, when prison health care was
run by the state, as well as Wexford and finally Corizon as the contract
moved through two different private companies. Working as a nurse supervisor
for Corizon in 2013, McCrehin suffered a foot
surgery that kept her out longer than the 30-day medical leave provided by
Corizon’s policy. The lawsuit alleges McCrehin was
fired despite a doctor’s orders that she was unable to return to work. The
lawsuit alleges that Nicole Moore, a registered nurse working at the Perryville
prison, was passed over for a promotion and ultimately fired for having a
medical condition. Moore alleges her superior told her she was in strong
contention for the supervisor position “but he had to take her medical
condition into consideration when making his decision and he believed a
supervisory position would be very stressful.” Moore alleges she called
Corizon’s corporate office to complain, only have her boss order her escorted
out of the building. In the complaint, attorneys say Moore was allowed back
into the prison property but face retaliation from her colleagues and
supervisors. “Mr. Coleman and Ms. Miller would not speak to her and ignored
her even when she was in the same group as other employees with whom they
spoke. . . Ms. Moore was always worried that she would be called into another
meeting related to her attendance, she felt like she was walking on
eggshells, and she was constantly worried that she would be fired,” the
lawsuit alleges. The EEOC is seeking several orders from the District Court
to compel Corizon to cease what it calls “unlawful employment practices. In
the complaint, the commission also calls for a more flexible leave policy and
for Corizon to discontinue what it calls a “100 percent healed or no medical
restrictions policy.” The EEOC says this policy “has the effect of
discriminating on the basis of disability by denying qualified individuals
with disabilities reasonable accommodations, and instead terminating their
employment.” The lawsuit also seeks back pay and lost benefits for the
plaintiffs and the reinstatement of the terminated employees. In at statement, Corizon Health denied the EEOC’s
allegations regarding its treatment of employees with disabilities.
"Corizon Health policies prohibit illegal discrimination and mandate
compliance with all state and federal laws, including the Americans with
Disabilities Act," said Corizon spokesperson Martha Harbin. "We
value the contribution of every employee and we are committed to protecting
their safety while properly providing for the needs and safety of our
patients. We strongly believe our policies and actions pertaining to our
employees are in full compliance with the law and will vigorously defend
against this unmerited lawsuit."
Jul 28, 2018 kjzz.org
Arizona Department Of Corrections Appeals Federal Sanction To 9th Circuit
Court
On Saturday, attorneys for the state filed a notice of appeal in the
Parsons vs Ryan prison health care settlement, indicating they would
challenge Magistrate Judge David Duncan’s contempt order, sanction and
additional oversight measures. The 9th Circuit court of appeals set a
calendar for the appeal process Monday afternoon. Before leaving the bench in
June, Judge Duncan fined the state $1.4 million for failing to meet agreed
upon health care standard in Arizona prisons. The Arizona Department of
Corrections said Tuesday that Corizon Health has reimbursed the state for the
entire amount of the fine. Addressing the legislature in February, Ryan said
if the fines are enforced, Corizon Health would pay. “I’ve already made it
clear to the the vendor that they’re on the hook,”
the director said. Lawyers for Department of Corrections Chief Charles Ryan
will have until late October to file their briefs on the case. Attorneys for
the inmates filed a brief describing how they would like the money to be
spent. “The Court should use 90 percent of the funds to pay for one or more
independent medical experts to investigate and resolve concerns about the
medical care of individual class members,” Prison Law Office attorney Corene Kendrick wrote. In an interview, Kendrick said the
position could function as point person for inmates facing serious lapses in
treatment. “Concerns regarding medical care may be brought to the expert’s
attention by counsel for Plaintiffs, class members and/or their
families/friends, and/or by current or former health care or custody staff.
The expert shall investigate all allegations of inadequate care within seven
days of receipt of the complaint,” Kendrick wrote in the filing. Plaintiff
attorneys recommended giving the rest of the money to the inmates that were
affected by the poor health care in Arizona prisons. “A sum of $100 for each
instance of noncompliance should be deposited in each listed class member’s
prison trust account,” Kendrick wrote. Kendrick says contempt fines can be
“coercive, compensatory or both. These people have suffered harm that’s been
clearly documented. We’re saying the court should consider the court should
give 10% of fine to affected individuals.” That decision will be up to Judge
Roslyn Silver, who was appointed to the case after Duncan’s retirement.
Apr 1, 2018 azcapitoltimes.com
DOC director blames private provider for health care failures
With potential sanctions for his agency’s failure to meet court-ordered
prison health care standards looming, Arizona Department of Corrections
Director Charles Ryan laid the blame largely at the feet of private
contractor Corizon Correctional Healthcare. Ryan testified before U.S.
Magistrate Judge David Duncan on Tuesday in the Parsons v. Ryan prison health
care case. The case was settled in 2014 but slogs on in court as DOC and its
contractor continue to miss the mark on more than 100 health care standard.
Both Ryan and Assistant Director Richard Pratt, who is responsible for
overseeing prisoners’ care, face civil contempt charges if they cannot show
they’ve taken all reasonable steps toward improvement. They testified for two
days about the lackluster response from Corizon to their verbal and written
demands. Ryan said he made numerous attempts to get Corizon to make changes
during regular meetings with Corizon leadership and in writing. For example,
he said he has pushed Corizon to increase the stock of medications on site at
DOC facilities, rather than relying so heavily on an out-of-state pharmacy,
and to fly Corizon personnel to Arizona facilities to compensate for vacant
positions, which are largely blamed for the provider’s deficiencies. But
according to his testimony, Corizon has not done much to comply with Ryan’s
requests or demands. Ryan did say communication between his department and
the contractor has improved since “CEO number seven,” Steve Rector, was
appointed, but still, “they’re not perfect.” Duncan said Ryan’s testimony
showed he had been approaching Corizon “aggressively” in his attempts to
compel compliance to an extent the judge had not been made aware of. But
questioning by plaintiffs’ counsel David Fathi of
the ACLU’s National Prison Project indicated Ryan could have done more.
Corizon originally won a three-year contract with the opportunity for two
one-year extensions under state law. Ryan acknowledged Corizon did receive
the two extensions and two rate increases of 4-percent per prisoner per day
since 2015 despite Ryan’s admitted displeasure with Corizon’s performance.
Each extension and raise came after Ryan and Pratt sent letters expressing a
need for Corizon to do better. “Corizon must demonstrate immediate
improvement in the performance measure scores,” Ryan read to the court from a
letter sent in July 2016, a month after granting a 4-percent rate increase.
“ADC will not tolerate perpetuation of the status quo.” “Corizon cannot
continue to conduct business as usual,” the letter went on, suggesting the
contractor determined sanctions imposed by the department were merely the
cost of doing business and that Corizon’s behavior would force court
monitoring on the system for years to come. The department itself fined
Corizon at $5,000 per instance of noncompliance, but in May 2015, the contract
was amended to cap monthly sanctions at $90,000. Plaintiffs
counsel pointed out that amounted to less than a quarter of the company’s
daily gross income of more than $400,000. Under questioning about that
choice, Ryan said it was a “negotiated business decision.” The cap has since
been removed, but $3.5 million in incentives taken from available health care
funds has vastly outweighed sanctions. The dollars were available because of
a lower than anticipated prisoner population and Medicaid savings, according
to a document filed by the department on Wednesday. Between October and
January, Corizon racked up $675,000 in fines for noncompliance, but received
$2.55 million in incentives for overall compliance. Ryan did say no further
incentives will be offered once the $3.5 million on the table is exhausted.
However, Corizon’s current contract worth more than $140 million will expire
on June 30. The company has entered a bid for a new contract, and Ryan said
Corizon CEO Rector has already asked about the potential for additional
incentives, which Ryan said he has denied. In an emailed statement to
reporters, Corizon spokesman Kurt Davis said Ryan’s testimony provided a
“factual look at the high level of healthcare Arizona inmates are receiving.”
“The ACLU lawyers have attempted to push a calamitous narrative, but the
expert witnesses and the testimony of Director Ryan clearly demonstrated the
opposite,” Davis wrote. While it’s true both Ryan and Duncan acknowledged the
improvements made over the years, each made it clear Corizon’s performance
has not been entirely satisfactory. As Davis pointed out in his statement,
Corizon has reached 94 percent overall compliance with the more than one
hundred performance measures as of January. “One hundred percent would be a perfect
world, but I don’t know that 100 percent is realistic in terms of
achievement,” Ryan told Duncan. “I’m not aware of any corrections that
achieves that type of threshold. That’s not to say we should not continue to
strive for that, but that’s a pretty lofty goal. Perfection is not
achievable.” However, Duncan admonished Ryan for referring to overall
performance on the stand, saying the stipulation did not direct the court to
consider overall compliance but rather compliance with each individual measure.
And to suggest overall compliance is more important than any single measure
found to be substantially noncompliant is not in keeping with the settlement.
That, Duncan said, continues to represent an “abject failure” in Arizona’s
prison health care. For months now, Duncan has threatened fines of his own
against the state of up to $1,000 for each instance of noncompliance with 11
specific performance measures tracked in each of 10 state prisons. Those
measures include requiring providers to discuss the results of diagnostic
reports with their patients within five days of receiving them and ensuring
that medications be transferred along with prisoners who are moved to another
facility. The last two days of testimony were intended to resolve whether the
fines would be imposed at last. But Ryan and the state will have to wait a
bit longer. The court ran out of time Tuesday to hear all necessary
testimony, and so, the parties will reconvene on the issue April 10.
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that the $3.5 million
in incentives the Arizona Department of Corrections made available to private
contractor Corizon came from savings from vacant DOC positions and the
department’s operating budget. DOC Director
Charles Ryan issued a written statement on March 28 to correct his testimony
on the source of the incentive pay.
Mar 28, 2018 azcentral.com
Director Charles Ryan grilled on costs, performance of prison health care
firm
Charles Ryan, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, took the
witness stand in U.S. District Court in Phoenix on Tuesday during a hearing
to determine whether he and his department should be held in contempt of
court over monitoring prison health care. The gist of his testimony, as one
of his medical directors testified the day before, was that the
health-management company retained by his department to manage inmate health
care has been the root of the problem. Over two days of testimony, Ryan and
Richard Pratt, the person responsible for monitoring health care, told how
they have sanctioned the health care management company, offered incentives
and demanded that they remain in compliance with court-ordered performance
measures. But attorneys for the plaintiffs fired back with numbers, noting
that for 20 months, the management company, Corizon Correctional Healthcare,
was only required to pay $90,000 per month instead of the full cost of
sanctions. And that $90,000 amounted to less than one quarter of one day's
gross earnings of $440,000 for providing health care for 35,000 Arizona
prison inmates. "Does that strike you as a smart business
decision?" asked David Fahti, an attorney for
the American Civil Liberties Union. "It was a negotiated business
decision," Ryan answered. The class-action suit, Parsons vs. Ryan, was
brought in 2012 by the Arizona Center for Disability Law on behalf of 13
inmates in Arizona Department of Corrections prisons, alleging that the
department was providing inadequate health care. It has been led by attorneys
for the ACLU and a California-based specialty practice called the Prison Law
Office. The case settled in 2014, but U.S. Magistrate Judge David K. Duncan
stayed on to monitor compliance with the settlement. By June 2017, Duncan was
becoming increasingly upset that the DOC and Corizon were not complying with the terms of
the settlement, and his court pronouncements became ever more angry. In
October, he issued an order to show cause why the DOC should not be held in
contempt of court and, by November 2017, he was threatening to fine the DOC
and Corizon $1,000 for each instance of non-compliance. Since then the case
has slogged forward with hearings every month. Ryan gave a history of his
department's business with Corizon when he took the stand Tuesday. The
company's contract dates to March 2013, after the Arizona legislature
mandated that prison health care be privatized and another health-management
company pulled out after just eight months. Corizon is paid a per diem of
$12.54 for each of roughly 35,000 inmates in the state's prisons. (Another
7,000 inmates placed in private prisons are not part of the deal.) That comes
to nearly $450,000 per day in gross income just from Arizona alone. Ryan
built controls into the contract. “The skin in the game for them was, if you
do not meet performance measures, if you do not cooperate, (there) would be
sanctions," he said. Specifically, there are 103 different performance
measures Corizon is supposed to meet, and ten prisons. Not all of the
performance measures apply to every prison, so in total, Corizon has 849
marks they are supposed to hit consistently. They are supposed to be fined
$5,000 a month for each "fail point." But Corizon negotiated a
$90,000 per month cap on sanctions and then consistently exceeded the limit.
“The skin in the game for them was, if you do not meet performance measures,
if you do not cooperate, (there) would be sanctions.” According to figures
tabulated by Fahti and Corene
Kendrick of the Prison Law Office, for 20 consecutive months ending November
2017, Corizon racked up sanctions of $8.61 million, for which they only paid
$1.8 million because of the cap. That means the company was forgiven $6.81
million in sanctions. Attorneys for both sides read letters Ryan and Pratt
wrote to Corizon executives complaining of the failure to meet standards. At
one point, they demanded that Corizon fly in medical personnel from other
states to meet staffing needs. But they also made available another $3.5
million in incentives for Corizon, easily making up for the $1.8 million
withheld as sanctions. "Corizon Health has worked tirelessly and in a
strong partnership with the Arizona Department of Corrections to provide
healthcare to Arizona inmates since March of 2013," Corizon spokesman
Kurt Davis said in a prepared statement. "The ACLU lawyers have
attempted to push a calamitous narrative, but the expert witnesses and the
testimony of Director Ryan clearly demonstrated the opposite." Davis
claims that Corizon exceeds the standards set by the settlement. "The
terms of the stipulation require the monitoring of the performance measures … must be
maintained for a minimum of four years," Davis said. "The parties
had no expectation that there would be full compliance with the performance
measures until a minimum of four years had passed. It is premature,
misleading and inappropriate for the plaintiffs' ACLU lawyers to claim that
Corizon Health has failed, when in fact, at the three-year mark, Corizon
Health complies with 94 percent of the performance measures." Duncan has
not yet imposed any sanctions of his own. As has happened frequently, the
attorneys were unable to get through all of the witness testimony. Duncan
scheduled the next hearing for April 10. But the attorneys for the DOC have
filed motions to have Duncan removed from the case because of what they
perceive as bias. Indeed, Duncan, at times, has angrily orated from the
bench, especially after reading an article written by a KJZZ reporter
suggesting that Corizon and ADC were possibly gaming the system. On Tuesday,
when Ryan mistakenly addressed him as "Magistrate Duncan" instead
of "Magistrate Judge Duncan," Duncan immediately interrupted him
and spent several minutes lecturing on his actual title.
Mar 24, 2018 kjzz.org
Corizon Health Keeps Falling Short On Performance, Hiring Benchmarks For
Arizona Prisons
At a hearing in federal court on Monday, Arizona Department of
Corrections Assistant Director Richard Pratt updated the court on the Parsons
v. Ryan prison health-care settlement. Pratt told the court Corizon Health
continues to fail to meet performance measures agreed to in the settlement as
well as hiring benchmarks outlined in a contract with the state. The state
pays Corizon Health $12.56 per inmate per day to provide health care in
Arizona prisons. According to Pratt, Corizon owed $200,000 and $210,000 for
failing to meet performance measures in November and December 2017. Corizon
also paid more than $150,000 for understaffing during those same months. The
fines and staffing offsets are applied to payments made by the state to Corizon.
In addition, Magistrate Judge David Duncan has threatened to impose $1,000 in
fines for specific performance measures the state is missing, which
plaintiff’s attorneys believe could cost millions of dollars per month.
Attorneys for the state said Arizona is still deciding whether to renew
Corizon’s contract for another five years.
Mar 17, 2018 kjzz.org
Special Hearing Investigating Corizon Health Continues In Federal Court
A special hearing investigating the state’s private correctional health
care provider continued in federal court Wednesday in Phoenix. Dr. Rodney
Stewart faced a full day on the stand, responding to allegations made in an
article published by KJZZ on prison health care conditions in Arizona.
Stewart is the medical director for the Eyman
prison in Florence, Arizona, where Dr. Jan Watson alleged she witnessed
several instances of improper medical care. Questioned by an attorney for the
state, Rachel Love, Stewart painted a different picture of the conditions at Eyman. Stewart confirmed Watson’s allegations that the
health care provider, Corizon, was behind on chronic care with many of the
patients at the prison. “It was very difficult,” Stewart said of the shortage
of doctors at the prison. “Catching up with the chronic-care issue was nearly
impossible – we were really struggling.” Stewart described the workload as
“crushing” and said Watson’s responsibility, the Cook yard at Eyman, was an “especially tough yard.” Stewart confirmed
previous testimony about a Corizon program called “Operation Backlog,” which
sought to decrease a backlog of chronic care patients that totaled more than
800. Stewart also stated that these operations, also referred to internally
as a “blitz,” occurred several times during 2017. Stewart testified he
believed the backlog had been eliminated by January 2018. While Stewart
admitted Watson was “famously popular” among the inmates she treated at Eyman, he said she did not get along with her colleagues.
Throughout the day, Stewart portrayed Watson as the reason for the chronic
care backlogs and medicine shortages she alleged were the fault of Corizon.
“You’re cheating the next guy,” Stewart said in regard to what he said was
Watson’s habit of spending too much time with her patients. Stewart said
Watson was only seeing eight patients a day, while Watson testified
previously she would treat 20 to 30 patients in a day. Stewart told the judge
that Watson was rude and took offense when Corizon employees attempted to
help her fill out her paperwork. But Stewart testified that Watson was not
the only provider struggling to keep up. “There was a problem, but the
problem was systemwide,” he said. “It wasn’t really specific to her, but her
performance wasn’t helping.” Stewart testified that Watson “did surgical
procedures well” but had been cited for leaving out sharp objects after
operating on an inmate, against DOC policy. Watson previously testified that
she had received only two of the five mandatory days of DOC training when she
arrived at Eyman, because of the provider shortage.
Stewart testified that Watson had made several errors in diagnoses as well as
requests for consultations, which Watson claimed were repeatedly denied. “We
don’t deny,” Stewart said. “We offer alternatives.” Stewart went through
several scenarios where he said Watson’s requests for specialty consultations
were either unnecessary or improperly submitted. He denied, as Watson had
alleged, that any consultations were ever cancelled to save Corizon money.
Stewart also denied Watson’s allegations that he had ordered her to let a
patient die. “That’s not me,” Stewart said. He told the judge he was hurt by
the suggestion that he would allow an inmate to die, explaining that he
believed there was no other course of action to take to treat the patient’s
extensive cardiac disease. “We allow inmates to pass – not infrequently,”
Stewart said. “Patients who have a terminal illness often request to die and
pass.” While Stewart said the inmate accepted the treatment plan he had
offered, Watson testified that the inmate was not given all of the
information provided by a specialist about his condition. She told the court
previously that Stewart’s explanation of the inmate’s condition did not match
what she read in his chart. Stewart flatly denied ever having used or heard
the phrase “beat the monitor,” which Watson said an ADC monitoring official
told a group of providers at a meeting. Watson interpreted the language as a
way to cheat the monitoring system. Stewart will next face cross-examination
by attorneys representing the inmates at a yet-to-be-determined date. During
the hearing, the court heard an update from a private consultant brought in
by the judge at the state’s expense to determine why Corizon cannot reach
employment benchmarks agreed to in its contract. B.J. Millar of the Advisory
Board Company said his team has been reviewing information provided by
Corizon for calendar year 2017. Millar said the overall staffing at the
Perryville women’s prison did not reach budget levels for the entire year.
For a 25-week period in 2017, Millar said, Perryville had no medical
director. Millar said physician staffing never reached budget levels either,
noting there was not a single week in 2017 that reached the budgeted level
for medical staff. With the approval of Magistrate Judge David Duncan,
attorneys for the state and attorneys for the inmates, Millar said he would
expand the evaluation to all 10 state-run prisons. Millar said that analysis
would be ready for the court in April.
Jan 13, 2018 newsweek.com
INMATE CHEWS OWN FINGERS OFF AFTER PRIVATE PRISON HEALTH CARE LEFT HIM IN
UNBEARABLE PAIN, COURT PAPERS SAY
A paralyzed man held inside an Arizona prison chewed off three fingers on
his left hand in a desperate attempt to receive treatment for “excruciating
pain” from previous injuries, according to new court papers filed in a legal
fight over private prison health care. “He reported that the terrible pain he
felt makes everything else seem insignificant,” stated a letter from a lawyer
representing inmates in the state’s prisons. “He chewed off part of the
fingers on his left hand because the pain was so unbearable.” The man, who
uses a wheelchair and is not identified in the court papers filed Friday,
told prison medical workers they weren’t giving him the right pain medications
and that he would rather kill himself than live in such extreme agony,
according to his medical records. The extreme example of a man mutilating his
own body is part of an ongoing battle over inmate health care in Arizona, as
well as the broader national issue of how budget-minded states use private
companies to care for its prisoners. A group of inmates sued the state in
2012 over prison conditions and the two sides reached a settlement in 2015
that required Arizona to reform medical care in its prisons, which is now
provided by for-profit company Corizon Correctional Healthcare. But both the
state and Corizon have shown “pervasive and intractable failures to comply”
with the settlement and provide better care, the federal court judge
overseeing the agreement wrote in an October order. During a hearing in the
case last month, Judge David Duncan asked Richard Pratt, the health director
for Arizona prisons, whether he had trouble sleeping at night because inmates
with cancer weren’t getting treatment. Pratt answered that he relies on
Corizon to provide that care. The filing Friday revealed other disturbing
examples of apparently substandard care in Arizona prisons. One woman
complained of a mass in her breast—and a family history of breast cancer that
killed her sister—but Corizon workers denied her a mammogram because she was
only 37 years old. Her treatment was delayed for months and once she began
chemotherapy, Corizon only provided her with Alleve
to manage the pain, according to the filing. A major problem with private
companies providing health care in prisons is that the company has an
incentive to provide as little expensive care as possible in order to boost
their profits, prisoner advocates say. But Corizon spokeswoman Martha Harbin
has disputed that argument, claiming that their workers aren’t paid based on
the company’s financial performance. “We bring services inside the walls and
help states and counties meet their constitutional requirement to provide a
community standard of care to those incarcerated within limited public
budgets,” Harbin said in an email last month. A spokesman for the Arizona
Department of Corrections declined to comment on ongoing litigation last
month, but told Newsweek in an email the department expects Corizon to provide
all inmates with the “constitutionally-mandated health care” to which they’re
entitled. The man who gnawed off his own fingers told the lawyer from the
Prison Law Project who interviewed him in December that he tries to keep the
pain inside him, but “the tears fall inside.” In a letter to the state, the
lawyer wrote, “He keeps a photograph of his daughter posted above his bed to
remind him that he needs to get out of prison for her.”
Dec 30, 2017 azcentral.com
Judge calls for hearing after KJZZ report on Arizona prison health care
Jimmy Jenkins is a senior field correspondent for KJZZ. This story is
published as part of a collaboration between KJZZ and The Arizona Republic.
The Arizona Department of Corrections contracts with privately owned,
correctional health care company Corizon Health to oversee all medical, mental and dental care at 10 state prisons. But that care
has come under scrutiny in federal court. In 2015, inmates settled a lawsuit
with the state over poor health care conditions in state prisons. More than
two years later, ADC and Corizon have failed to meet the more than 100
stipulations agreed to in the settlement. Inmates have testified in the
settlement process to long wait times for medicine, delayed chronic disease
care and a lack of access to specialists. In an interview with KJZZ, a former
prison doctor confirms those allegations and describes the chaos of the state
prison health care system. After Dr. Jan Watson’s allegations were published
along with internal emails from Corizon Health, Magistrate Judge David Duncan
ordered a special hearing. On Feb. 9, 2017, witnesses and evidence will be
presented in federal court to investigate the claims and to see if the
internal monitoring numbers Corizon is reporting can be trusted. Watson is
expected to take the stand. She has seen a lot in her career. She’s worked on
trauma teams in emergency rooms, practiced internal and occupational
medicine, and for most of her career she was an OBGYN. Birth, death and
everything in between. After more than 30 years in health care, Watson
thought she had seen it all. But then she took a job at an Arizona state
prison. “And I had never seen anything like that in my life.”
31
Oct 15, 2017 reason.com
Judge Threatens Arizona Prison Officials With Contempt For ‘Pervasive and
Intractable Failures’
A federal judge said Tuesday he is considering holding Arizona prison
officials in contempt of court for their "pervasive and intractable
failures" to abide by a 2014 agreement to improve care of inmates in the
state prison system. Three years ago, the Arizona Department of Corrections
agreed to settle a federal class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) and several other law firms by taking steps to improve
medical care inside its prisons. The lawsuit, filed in 2012, followed media
investigations and persistent allegations of fatally inadequate medical care
by the department's medical provider, Corizon. Prison officials have been
accused of defying court orders and intimidating inmate witnesses as they
resisted complying with the settlement. An increasingly exasperated U.S.
Magistrate Judge David K. Duncan issued an order Tuesday calling on the
department to show why it should not be held in civil contempt for failing to
meet the guidelines and benchmarks in the agreement. Duncan's order came
after he hauled Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan into
his court in August to address allegations that guards were retaliating
against inmates who testified about poor conditions inside the state's
prisons. When Duncan ordered the department to stop any such retaliation,
Ryan sent an email to his staff saying the ruling was
"disappointing," and that they "deserved better." In
another court filing in September, an ACLU lawyer says she overheard an
Arizona correctional officer say to several fellow officers, "Those
fucking ACLU lawyers. Who the fuck do they think they are telling us what we
can and cannot do to inmates? I can do whatever I want, whenever I
want." "All of this disrespect for the rule of law," Duncan
fired back, "is something I have never experienced or seen in nearly 30
years of being a lawyer, or in 16 years as a judge." If Ryan is held in
civil contempt, he would join the company of former Maricopa County sheriff
Joe Arpaio, a fellow Arizonan and one of America's most anachronistic and
cruelest lawmen. President Trump pardoned Arpaio this summer after he was
found guilty of both criminal and civil contempt of court. Andrew Wilder, a
spokesperson for the department, says in a statement to Reason that it is
"firmly committed to holding its current contracted health care
provider, Corizon, accountable for its contractual responsibility to provide
inmates the constitutionally-mandated health care to which they are
entitled." "Moreover, ADC already has taken significant and
concrete actions to encourage Corizon to meet the specific performance
measures under the Parsons Stipulation," Wilder continues. However, in
2016, when the ACLU and other lawyers for the plaintiffs filed complaints
that the Arizona Department of Corrections had failed to comply with the
settlement, local media outlet 12 News reported that it was still being
"inundated with emails and phone calls from families of prisoners
alleging their loved ones are not getting the treatment they need." The
news outlet 12 News published an investigation in 2014 revealing that,
despite Corizon's $125 million annual contract with the state, Arizona
inmates faced disastrous delays in physical and mental health treatment.
Separate reports by doctors touring Arizona prisons also found
stomach-churning conditions and neglect. Courthouse News, summarizing the
reports, described it as "an understaffed system in which an inmate died
with infected lesions swarmed by flies, a man who ate his own feces was never
seen by a psychiatrist, and a woman swallowed razor blades while allegedly
under constant watch." One of the doctors described a 30-year-old inmate
who was given less than a year to live after extreme delays in detection and
treatment of testicular cancer led to the disease spreading to his internal
organs. Corene Kendrick of the Prison Law Office in
Berkeley, California, told the Phoenix New Times this week that her office is
still getting "dozens of letters each week" from prisoners
suffering from serious medical conditions. "This spring, four people
committed suicide in three weeks, and our mental health expert's report
indicated the suicides were tied to inadequate or nonexistent mental health
care," she wrote. In a press statement, director of the ACLU National
Prison Project David Fathi says the Arizona prison
system remains out of control. "It was three years ago this week that
the Arizona Department of Corrections signed the settlement agreement in this
case over prison health care so inadequate that it leads to needless
suffering and even death," Fathi said.
"The fact that the Department of Corrections is still grossly out of
compliance with the settlement is proof that the department is profoundly
broken, leaving the thousands of prisoners under its control with scant
access to medical care."
Sep 16, 2017 kjzz.org
Prison Health Care Contract Amendment Could Lead To Financial Windfall For
Corizon
Arizona contracts out prison health care services to a private company
called Corizon Health. The Arizona Department of Corrections awarded Corizon
a five year contract in March of 2013. The company gets a per diem for each
inmate held in Arizona prisons, amounting to more than $140 million a year.
But Corizon hasn’t been keeping up their end of the bargain. After amending
the contract to only require 90 percent staffing levels, the company can’t
meet that benchmark. The state fines Corizon every month based on the failure
to meet performance measures, but until recently that fine was capped at
$90,000 a month. Now ADC and Corizon have come to an agreement for another
amendment. Starting in November, the state will lift the cap on fines,
exposing Corizon to potentially millions of dollars in sanctions each month.
Attorneys for ADC discussed the amendment at a status update in the Parsons v
Ryan prison health care settlement on Tuesday. ADC Assistant Director Richard
Pratt said Corizon was failing 268-278 performance measures each month at all
Arizona prisons combined. Under the new arrangement, each failure would be
sanctioned $5,000, which means the total bill Corizon could face each month
might be more than $1 million. Daniel Struck is serving as outside counsel
for ADC in the settlement. He said the amendment would give the state a
bigger stick in enforcing health care performance measures. "We view it
as very positive movement toward getting Corizon, our contractor, to comply
with the contract as promised," Struck said. But the amendment includes
incentives as well. "In addition," Struck said, "the
Department agreed to provide some carrots to Corizon with respect to positive
performance." For each month that Corizon meets 90 percent attainment of
the performance measures outlined in the settlement, the company would earn a
cash bonus. But the 90 percent attainment would be calculated statewide. If
some performance measures lapsed, but overall compliance was still 90
percent, Corizon would still get paid. Judge David Duncan is overseeing the
settlement. He said if Corizon maintained current performance levels they
stood to earn the full $3.5 million in incentives. Corene
Kendrick is an attorney for the inmate plaintiff class in the settlement. She
said while lifting the cap on fines was a good move, offering financial
incentives goes too far. “They are paying them to do what they had already
contracted to do," Kendrick said of the state's potential financial
award to Corizon. Struck said the state would gladly pay the extra $3.5
million "and not seek any penalties if Corizon could just comply with
the contract - that's the goal." The amendment was signed Sept. 7 and
will remain in effect until the end of Corizon's contract in June of 2018.
The state is currently accepting bids for the next five year contract.
Jul 29, 2017 phoenixnewtimes.com
DOC May Face $2.1 Million in Fines as Inmates Bake Waiting for Medical
Care
The Arizona Department of Corrections could be facing over $2.1 million
in fines for failing to meet the minimum standards for prisoner health care
required by the settlement agreement from the Parsons v. Ryan lawsuit. In
addition, the recent switch to an “open clinic” model at state prisons —
intended to make it easier for prisoners to get medical treatment — seems to
be making matters worse. At a court hearing on Friday, inmates testified that
they regularly spend hours waiting outside in the sun in order to see a nurse
or get their medication. “If you leave the area, you risk losing your place
in line,” explained Mark Blocksom, who’s housed in
the state prison in Florence. “You’re waiting outside in the heat — in the
winter it’s different, but in the summer, that can be pretty brutal.” Blocksom is HIV-positive and also has hepatitis C, high
blood pressure, diabetes, and chronic pain issues. He said that he’s waited
in the sun for more than three hours to see a nurse. Other inmates have faced
waits of up to seven hours. Sometimes, inmates give up on taking necessary
medications because they don’t want to stand in line outside in the heat, he
said. “They see that the line is long and they just say, ‘I don’t want to
deal with it.’” Prisoners, he added, “are not being treated as human beings
when it comes to medical care.” When the Department of Corrections agreed to
settle the Parsons v. Ryan lawsuit in 2014, it promised to meet certain basic
standards for medical care. But the department has repeatedly failed to meet
those standards — so much so that in June, Judge David K. Duncan decided that
he’d had enough. Future violations would carry a $1,000 fine each, he warned.
However, many of these benchmarks still aren’t being met. Representatives for
the Department of Corrections reported last week that the department had
fallen short on certain key measures, such as making sure that inmates’ medication
gets transferred with them when they’re moved from one location to another.
That only happened 21 percent of the time during June and July, which Judge
Duncan called “really shocking.” The DOC attorney, Timothy Bojanowksi, was unable to provide an explanation for the
discrepancy, but said that he was taking “an extremely aggressive approach”
to try and get staff to address the issue. If Judge Duncan decides to
sanction the Department of Corrections for each individual violation, the
total would add up to well over $2 million. That money wouldn’t go to
attorneys from the ACLU, the Prison Law Office, and other groups that
represent inmates in the lawsuit, David Fathi of
the ACLU said. Instead, it could potentially be used to compensate inmates
who have been wrongly denied medical care, or redirected into a fund that
would be used to improve the quality of medical care in Arizona prisons.
Exactly how much the state owes in fines will be determined in a future
hearing. Meanwhile, the summer heat is creating additional health hazards for
inmates, especially those with existing medical conditions. Dominique Keys
has a collapsed spine and rarely leaves her cell at the state prison in
Perryville because of the difficulty of maneuvering her wheelchair. She said
that correctional officers had measured temperatures of up to 102 degrees
inside her cell. Her cell is outfitted with a swamp cooler, but it’s not
effective when the temperature gets higher than 100 degrees, Keys said. “It
feels like being trapped inside a bottle with a cork on it — I can hardly
breathe.” A few weeks ago, the heat was so intense that her cellmate had a
seizure and collapsed, she added. Ronald Oyenik, an
inmate at the state prison in Florence, testified that he’d seen inmates pass
out while waiting in line to get their medication. In some cases, diabetics
have given up on getting their insulin shots because it’s too hot to stand
outside, he said. Similar complaints came up during a recent visit to the
Lewis prison complex in Buckeye, attorney Kristin Eidenbach
said. But getting inmates to come to court and testify about the conditions
that they experience has been a challenge. Many of the inmates who she spoke
to feared being placed into solitary confinement, having their belongings
confiscated while they were gone, or experiencing harassment. “We are
severely limited in our ability to present testimony to this court — because
people are too afraid,” she explained to the judge on Friday. Each of the
four inmates who testified about the long waits they’d experienced while
trying to get medical care said that they worried about facing retribution
when they returned to prison. Several mentioned that other inmates who had
filed grievances or engaged in litigation had been disciplined as a result. Nonetheless,
their concerns about the quality of the treatment that they’re receiving from
Corizon — the privately run company that currently contracts with the
Department of Corrections to provide medical services — won out. “It scares
the heck out of me to know that for the next seven years, my life is in their
hands and I’m dependent on them to see freedom again,” Blocksom
said.
Jul 24, 2016 azcentral.com
Private-prison deal cuts $1.5M from Mohave County, schools as operator
gets $2.5M state subsidy
Ducey-brokered private prison deal results in
subsidy for operator, but $1.5 mil in property tax cuts for Mohave County,
Kingman schools, fire and library districts; tax shift likely to residents.
Kingman schools and Mohave County will lose $1.5 million under a private
prison refinancing plan. GEO Group to get a $2.5 million subsidy from Ducey Administration under deal. A private-prison
refinancing deal that will give the operator a taxpayer-funded subsidy may
not save the state quite as much as expected this year. After The Arizona
Republic noted the agreement would cut this year's property-tax revenues
flowing to Mohave County government and the Kingman Unified School District
by $1.5 million, the state reversed course and agreed the county and school
district would be paid so they do not face an immediate budget crisis. The
$1.5 million would have affected revenues for various northwest Arizona
taxing districts — for example, a library and fire department — in addition
to general county government and the school district. The deal nonetheless
will affect those budgets in future years. It was brokered by Gov. Doug Ducey's office and private-prison operator GEO Group. The
plan calls for the state to buy the private-prison complex in Golden Valley,
about 20 miles from Kingman, for $137.4 million from Mohave Prison LLC. That
entity is owned by Tucson-based Community Finance Corp., a private foundation
that financed the prison's construction. The purchase will allow the state to
refinance the building debt at a lower interest rate, saving it money over
the next nine years. Corrections had been making debt payments on the prison
through a per diem on each inmate housed by GEO. The per diem also covered
the property taxes. After the refinancing, the state will lower its per diem
to GEO to $40.37 per inmate, a decrease of about 32 percent. The prison
houses 3,347 minimum- and medium-security inmates. Putting the building under
the state's control also takes the complex off the Mohave County property tax
rolls, thereby contributing to the annual savings. Total annual savings —
including debt restructuring and tax abatement — have been estimated at
roughly $8.7 million, or about $80 million over nine years. The Ducey administration plans to send more than a quarter of
the savings back to GEO Group so the company can increase wages for its
correctional officers and cover increased food and inmate health-care costs
in Kingman. GEO Group, which took over operation of the prison last year from
another private-prison operator, contributed heavily to Ducey's
gubernatorial campaign. Though property-tax savings were calculated into the
overall savings plan, the state retooled its plan Friday after The Republic
began asking questions about how the plan would affect Kingman schools. The
school district stood to lose $874,000 in tax revenues in the current budget
year from the prison refinance deal. To cope, the district had planned to
raise its tax rate, pushing the tax burden onto Mohave County residents to
recover the loss. An inmate reads inside the Arizona State Prison-Kingman on
June 24, 2016. A private-prison financing plan calls for the state to buy the
private-prison complex in Golden Valley, about 20 miles from Kingman, for
$137.4 million from Mohave Prison LLC. (Photo: Tom Tingle/The Republic) Megan
Rose, a Department of Administration spokeswoman, said if the property taxes
need to be paid to close the deal Nov. 1, then they will be paid. She did not
indicate who would be responsible for that payment. Public records obtained by
The Republic show the state had no intention of paying the property taxes
this year. It had included those savings in Department of Corrections
documents profiling the deal that was given to state lawmakers. The
refinancing is the latest example of a close relationship between private
prisons and key Republican lawmakers, who have awarded multimillion-dollar
contracts to the firms to house inmates. On July 19, additional Arizona
inmates began arriving at a private prison in Eloy to ease overcrowding in state-run
facilities. Heather Shaw-Burton, Kingman school district's finance director,
said the district planned to change its tax rate next month to recoup the
anticipated loss in property taxes. Mohave County planned to make cuts if it
had lost more than a quarter-million dollars in property taxes. Those
decisions on whether to raise taxes or cut budgets will be put off for a
year. GEO and the Ducey administration forged the
refinancing deal, while the Department of Corrections in June received
approval to put it in place from the Arizona Legislature's Joint Committee on
Capital Review. Pay GEO $2.5 million a year to cover some operating costs and
pay increases for guards. That will raise correctional officer pay in Kingman
by nearly $2 an hour, lifting the average pay to $33,300. "This will
allow the state to invest in education, health care and public safety,
including the Community Corrections center in Maricopa County created to
reduce recidivism and growth in our prison system," Ducey's
office said in a statement. "These savings will also result in raises
for correctional officers at the Kingman facility, an important component in
recruiting and retaining quality law enforcement and maintaining order in the
prison." The statement also said property taxes from the prison would
eventually have ceased in 2025, when the property was scheduled to be turned
over to the state under a separate contract. The Governor's Office said it is
likely additional state money would be provided to Kingman schools if they
suffer losses. Florida-based GEO Group, which reported a profit of $139.4
million last year, contributed financially to help Ducey
get elected in 2014. The company also gave its chief executive a $2.3 million
raise last year. House Democratic Leader Eric Meyer, D-Paradise Valley,
characterized the refinancing deal as bad public policy because Mohave County
governments are losing money while a "special interest giveaway"
goes to GEO. "We negotiated a deal to save money, but we are giving a
quarter that we saved back to the company. It makes no sense to me,"
Meyer said. Pablo Paez, a GEO spokesman, said the
company has invested in the Kingman-area prison since winning a bid last year
to take over the once-troubled facility. A riot last summer, when the prison
was operated by a different company, caused major damage to the complex. Paez declined to disclose specific figures on GEO's
investment in Kingman. "We are proud of what we have accomplished in
Kingman," Paez said.
Jul
9, 2016 abc15.com
Inmate files $1.5 million claim against Arizona prison over medical care
FLORENCE, AZ - An Arizona prison is accused of failing to provide basic
medical care to an inmate injured in a prison job accident. Eric Carlson, who
is serving time for aggravated DUI, filed a legal claim for $1.5 million this
week against the Arizona Department of Corrections and medical provider,
Corizon Health Services. His wrist was crushed in April 19 while he was
working at his prison job in a recycling center, according to the claim. “He
went down in pain screaming because he had broken the bones in his hand,”
Carlson’s lawyer, Scott Zwillinger, said. Instead
of a trip to the emergency room that day, Carlson was returned to Florence
prison complex. The inmate’s wife, Elfi Blair
Carlson, is outraged about the medical treatment he received. “I saw him on Saturday [April 23] for
visitation,” said Blair Carlson. “His hand was swollen like three times the
size, bruised and black.” According to Carlson's legal claim, he was treated
with “callous and deliberate indifference.” Prison documents show he didn’t
see a medical provider until 6 days after his injury, although he did have
x-rays in the prison clinic showing broken bones. The claim also says he
received insufficient pain medication and a makeshift splint. “Instead of
getting what anybody would get going to a school nurses office, at the
hospital every emergency room, he receives a piece of cardboard,” Zwillinger said. Zwillinger
said the piece of cardboard was fished out of a trash can. He also said the
prison clinic had regular medical splints on hand, which Carlson did not
receive until he made additional complaints. “Because it [wrist] was not set
properly, because it wasn't taken care of right away like it should've been,
the bones in his hands died,” said Zwillinger.
“He’s going to be permanently impaired in his right hand, and he's
right-handed.” Corizon told ABC15 it’s a “one of the greatest misconceptions”
that the company has anything to gain from withholding care. “What makes the
most clinical and business sense is responding early to prevent injuries or
illnesses from escalating into conditions requiring more expensive
interventions and potentially generating claims against our company,” A
Corizon spokeswoman said in an email. The full statement is at the bottom of
this story. After more complaints, Carlson had surgery to remove three bones
last week, more than two months after his original injury. In a direct
response to Carlson's grievances, a DOC official wrote the allegations were
unsubstantiated and "all actions taken have been appropriate with your
care." Carlson is due for release in 2017. Before his sentence, he worked in
construction and landscaping. “I don't know what we're going to do,” Blair
Carlson said. “Simply because he went to prison, made mistakes in his life,
doesn't mean he's not entitled to have basic medical care,” said Zwillinger. “There they are not animals, they are human
beings,” said Blair Carlson. Full statement from Corizon: Although we cannot
comment on this specific case due to patient privacy laws and the notice of
claim, we can tell you that one of the greatest misconceptions about our
company – and indeed our entire industry – is that we profit by withholding
care. On the contrary, what makes the most clinical and business sense is
responding early to prevent injuries or illnesses from escalating into
conditions requiring more expensive interventions and potentially generating
claims against our company. Corizon Health doctors and nurses work on a daily
basis in one of the most challenging environments to deliver care to
Arizona’s 34,000 inmates, many of whom suffer from chronic disease, substance
abuse, mental illness, and a lack of preventive care at much higher rates
than the general public. Our clinicians interact with a constantly changing
patient population hundreds of thousands of time every year ranging from
routine physicals to emergency responses and are equipped with the supplies,
tools and resources they need to properly do their job. No clinician is compensated
based upon financial performance. As with any event that results in a
grievance or a bad clinical outcome, doctors and nurses from elsewhere in the
company conduct a thorough chart review and inquiry and we take action based
on the outcome of that investigation.
Jul
3, 2016 PCWG watch
Measles outbreak grows to 22 infected in Pinal County
The Arizona Department of Health Services reported two additional cases
of measles Saturday, bringing to 22 the number of cases in a Pinal County
outbreak that began May 26 at a private prison near Eloy. The state agency
released an updated list of times and locations where the public may have
been exposed. The locations are in Mesa, Gilbert, Coolidge, Eloy and Casa
Grande. The Eloy Detention Center houses immigrants awaiting the outcome of
deportation cases, as well as asylum seekers and legal immigrants convicted
of crimes that make them eligible for removal from the United States.
Corrections Corporation of America runs the facility under contract with
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to the DHS, individuals at
these locations during these times may have been exposed to the disease:
June 26
8:30 a.m.-noon Circle K, 495 S. Arizona Blvd., Coolidge.
12:30-3:30 p.m. Walmart, 1695 N. Arizona Blvd., Coolidge.
1-4 p.m. Dollar Tree, 1455 N. Arizona Blvd., Coolidge.
June 25
7:30-11 a.m. Circle K, 495 S. Arizona Blvd., Coolidge.
10 a.m.-1 p.m. Walmart, 1695 N. Arizona Blvd., Coolidge.
June 23
10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Safeway, 1449 N. Arizona Blvd., Coolidge.
June 22
8-11 a.m. Circle K, 495 S. Arizona Blvd., Coolidge.
June 21
10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Walgreens, 2785 N. Pinal Ave., Casa Grande.
June 20
9 a.m.-noon Walgreens, 1514 E. Florence Blvd., Casa Grande.
June 19
7-10:30 p.m. Dollar General, 412 S. Sunshine Blvd., Eloy.
Noon-3:30 p.m. Boston's, 804 N. Cacheris Court,
Casa Grande.
1-4:30 p.m. Walmart, 1741 E. Florence Blvd., Casa Grande.
2-6 p.m. Sam's Club, 2425 E. Florence Blvd., Casa Grande.
June 18
9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Earnhardt Toyota Scion, 6136 E. Auto Loop Ave., Mesa.
12:30-4:30 p.m. American Furniture Warehouse, 4700 S. Power Road, Gilbert.
3:30-7 p.m. Dillard's, 1117 N. Promenade Parkway, Casa Grande.
4-7:30 p.m. Kohl's, 976 N. Mission Parkway, Casa Grande.
5-10 p.m. Harkins Theatres, 1341 N. Promenade Parkway, Casa Grande.
June 17
7-10:30 a.m. Circle K, 817 N. Main St., Eloy.
8-11:30 a.m. Sam's Club, 2425 E. Florence Blvd., Casa Grande.
9 a.m.-noon Vantage West Credit Union, 2008 E. Florence Blvd., Casa Grande.
9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Food City, 1162 E. Florence Blvd., Casa Grande.
10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Mercado Y Carniceria El Pima, 116
N. Casa Grande Ave., Casa Grande.
Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Department of Health Services, has said all
detainees have been immunized with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR)
vaccine. State health officials have worked with ICE and the facility
operator to encourage all center employees to be immunized. However, state
officials cannot mandate vaccines. "They don’t have a workplace policy
where they have to be vaccinated," Christ has said. "We are
working with them to encourage them to get vaccinated. The facility has been
very cooperative in terms of taking that recommendation." Arizona
public-health officials expect measles outbreak to grow. Individuals are
immune to measles if they have received two MMR vaccines or were born before
1957 and received one MMR vaccine. Measles is spread through the air via
coughing or sneezing, as well as by contact with mucus or saliva of an
infected person. A person with measles is considered contagious from the date
of initial symptoms until four days after the rash appears. Initial symptoms
include fever above 101 degrees; red, watery eyes; coughing; and a runny nose.
Later, a red, blotchy rash develops, typically beginning on the head at the
hairline and moving down the body, and lasts five to six days. Symptoms
typically appear seven to 12 days after exposure but can take up to 21 days.
State and county health officials urge anyone who has a rash and a fever to
contact their health provider by phone to arrange a checkup at a time when
others will not be exposed. In 2015, seven cases of measles were reported in
Arizona; three cases were registered in 2014.
Dec 18, 2015 azcentral.com
Arizona awards 20-year private-prison contract to only bidder
The state will guarantee Corrections Corporation of America nearly $22
million a year to house up to 1,000 medium-security inmates in Eloy, with a
90 percent prisoner occupancy promise. The Arizona Department of Corrections
awarded a private-prison contract on Wednesday to Tennessee-based Corrections
Corporation of America, the only bidder for the 20-year deal. The state has
agreed to a 90 percent occupancy rate for CCA, which will house up to 1,000
additional medium-security prisoners at its Red Rock facility in Eloy. The
contract is expected to guarantee CCA an operating profit by paying the
company $66.35 a day per inmate. That translates to at least $21.8 million
annually, with the 90 percent occupancy promise. Inmates will start filling
the new beds Sept. 1, according to the state. The Department of Corrections
said the deal would save taxpayers money because it's less costly to house
inmates in a private facility, according to state-run cost comparisons.
Although Corrections said it was less costly to house inmates at a private
facility, it acknowledged the "adjusted price" that does not
include capital construction to house an inmate in a state-run
medium-security prison is $64.30 a day — less than what CCA will receive
under the new contract. Yet, Corrections also estimated that an
"adjusted price" for CCA, which excludes capital cost and DOC
overhead, would be $58.06 per inmate. The contract also is paying CCA more
than the $65.43 the company currently receives per day for housing 1,000
medium-custody inmates at Red Rock in Eloy. Corrections said it negotiated a
lower per diem price from the original $68.75 bid submitted by CCA. The
agency indicated some savings are anticipated because CCA would absorb the
construction cost for the prison beds. Corrections indicated it could cost
$40 million to build a new prison. But the Red Rock facility already is built
and only needs an expansion. A state Corrections spokesman said CCA would
need to expand its facility for 376 additional inmates for newly funded beds.
There are 624 existing (empty) beds at the facility that need some upgrades.
The Arizona Legislature provided funding for the new beds, which Corrections
officials say are needed to ease some overcrowding in the state prison
system. The state has increased its reliance on private prisons, even after
an inmate riot during the summer that destroyed a private facility outside
Kingman, and a federal sexual-discrimination case against an operator in
Florence. Private-prison companies, such as CCA, have made campaign
contributions to Gov. Doug Ducey and other
Republicans who control the Legislature. The prison companies also have hired
some of the best-connected lobbyists at the Capitol. Residents in Eloy at a
public hearing last month said they welcomed a private-prison expansion,
noting it would add more jobs and that CCA has been a good corporate partner.
Dec 14, 2015 ktar.com
Are private prisons good or bad for Arizona?
PHOENIX — The state of Arizona is now taking bids for another 2,000
prison beds, allowing the state’s prison population to get closer to a 45,000
inmate capacity — it’s at over 42,000 now. With the state’s capacity close to
being reached, the question must be asked: Are private prisons good or bad
for Arizona? “They are not good, [well] at least they are not providing the
things that they have promised to the state of Arizona,” Caroline Isaacs with
the American Friends Service Committee said. “There’s no evidence that
they’re saving us money, there’s no evidence that they are performing their
duties, and rehabilitating people and making our communities safer,” Isaacs
said. Leonard Gilroy director of government reform with the Reason Foundation
said private prisons are neither good nor bad, they are a tool. “Basically
governments hire the private prison companies to replicate what is the public
sector,” Gilroy said. “Operate a prison just like we do, just do it at a
lower cost.” But the profit motive, Isaacs said, is fundamentally at odds
with what most of believe is the purpose of corrections — correcting
behavior. “Taking folks from a life of crime and making them into law-abiding
citizens, reducing recividism, reducing future
crime, and preventing more victims from happening,” Isaacs said is what the
Department of Corrections is supposed to be doing. “Unfortunately their
bottom line is enhanced by people coming back.” That means recidivism is good
for business, she said. However, government run prisons, said Gilroy, have
economic incentives just like private prisons. “The argument of economic
incentives is one that I think that you flip on its head by literally
changing the incentive in the contract,” Gilroy said. “Instead of making
contracts dependent on how many people are in beds, how many people are we
not bringing back to fill those beds.” Private prisons aren’t the problem,
said Gilroy. The real question is how can we get better results out of our
prison system overall, specifically with recidivism. This could present an
opportunity for private prisons in the future, he said. “How can we put the
private sector to work in the business of serving the public interest,”
Gilroy suggests, “with regard to successfully reintegrating people and
reducing recidivism?” They both agree that overall we’re putting too many
people in prison, and we’re not doing enough while they’re there, to keep
them from coming back. Not building any more prisons, is a good first step,
Isaacs suggests. Unfortunately for the 2,000 new prison beds seemingly
imminent for Arizona, Isaacs said the public has no vote. “No, no the public
does not get a say in this at all, accept for not electing these guys that
keep building prisons,” Isaacs said. “But other than if all of those people
call their representatives and say ‘don’t you dare fund this,’ there’s no
vote on this,” she said.
Sheriffs
say bids favor private prisons
Posted: Tuesday, July
14, 2015 4:24 am
PHOENIX (AP) — An
Arizona sheriffs’ group says private prisons have the advantage when it comes
to bidding for inmate housing contracts. The complaint from all 15 elected
sheriffs comes ahead of the state’s July 22 opening of an application process
to house 1,000 medium-security inmates, the Arizona Republic reported. The
beds are needed to handle anticipated growth in the overall prison
population. Plans to house another 1,000 next year require legislative
approval. Gov. Doug Ducey started letting counties
compete for these contracts in March. Ducey
spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said the governor is considering
the issues raised by the association, and that the state would like to be
accommodating. He said the state isn’t trying to exclude counties from the
bidding process. In a letter to the governor’s office, the Arizona Sheriffs
Association said the application process favors private prisons by asking
counties to shoulder unreasonable financial risks, like medical costs for
inmates. Private prisons take healthier inmates, while counties can possibly
house prisoners with mental health conditions and chronic illnesses. Navajo
County Sheriff K.C. Clark said the application sets counties up for failure,
and yet many of the requirements in the 179-page form are waived when inmates
need emergency housing. The association asked that the state continue waiving
these kinds of requirements when awarding contracts to counties. Counties are
also being asked to allow the Department of Corrections to have a say in
hiring leadership roles at the jails, which the letter calls “an infringement
of the authority of the counties and the elected sheriff.” Pinal County
Sheriff Paul Babeu’s jail accepted 380 inmates from
the state-authorized private prison near Kingman after a riot early this
month. As the association’s vice president, he co-signed the letter. He said
the counties want a fair opportunity to compete, but that it doesn’t look
like that will happen. “We are the first people they are calling, and we are
happy to help,” Babeu said. “We are certainly good
enough in a state of emergency.”
Mar
14, 2015 reviewjournal.com
KINGMAN, Ariz. — A
woman who aided in a northwest Arizona prison break that led to the 2010
slaying of a vacationing couple in New Mexico said Monday she was too scared
at the time to have stopped the violence. But the escape from Arizona State
Prison in Golden Valley didn’t go the way she was promised, 48-year-old Casslyn Welch said. She never dreamed the plot to free
her fiance, who is also her cousin, and two
convicted killers would bring bloodshed. “What happened was never, ever, ever
supposed to have happened,” Welch said in a phone interview from the
jail in Kingman. “There was not supposed to be any harm or any tragedy to any
human being whatsoever. “We were supposed to go off into the wild, wild West
and disappear,” Welch said. “We would be gone and off the grid and never
surface again.” Welch is serving a 40-year federal prison term for her New
Mexico convictions on weapons, conspiracy and interference with commerce
offenses. She is scheduled to receive a concurrent 20-year sentence Wednesday
for her Arizona convictions. Her fiancee, Charlie
McCluskey, first spoke of the plan about a month before the getaway, Welch
said. On July 30, 2010, she parked away from the prison perimeter to avoid
detection before approaching the facility on foot and delivering wire cutters
that were used to snip through a fence. McCluskey was serving a
15-year-sentence for attempted murder and other crimes when he and convicted
killers Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick fled the prison into the desert
darkness. After splitting from the others Renwick ended up locating the 1996
Chrysler Concorde that Welch had stocked with weapons, cash, changes of
clothes and other provisions. Renwick drove off alone, only to be captured
following a shootout with officers in Colorado some 28 hours after the
escape. McCluskey, Province and Welch forced truck drivers they abducted on a
highway outside the prison to drive them to Flagstaff where the drivers were
turned loose. U.S. Marshalls said McCluskey’s ex-wife picked up the group
there and drove them to Payson, Ariz., about 115 miles south of Flagstaff.
McCluskey’s mother then drove the trio to Phoenix before they left Arizona.
In New Mexico they abducted Gary and Linda Haas, both 61, who were sleeping
at an Interstate 40 rest area. McCluskey is serving a life sentence for
shooting and killing the retirees, who had been on their annual vacation from
Tecumseh, Okla. Their charred remains were found Aug. 4, 2010, in their
camper trailer that McCluskey torched after they were killed. “Oh God, and
how he put them through torture and terror was unexcusable,”
Welch said. “If I would have been brave enough to stand up to Charlie and
tell him ‘no,’ it would have been a million times different. They would have
had their families and the truck drivers would never have been terrified.”
But Welch said her cousin’s demeanor changed noticeably moments before the
killings. “I looked at Charlie’s face and he was not the kid that I grew up
with,” Welch said. From New Mexico the odyssey headed north to Wyoming where
Province was dropped off about a mile outside Yellowstone National Park.
After his Aug. 9, 2010, arrest Province told authorities he had intended to
ingest heroin then head into the wilderness to be eaten by a bear. Welch and
McCluskey were taken into custody at an eastern Arizona campground 10 days
later. Just six weeks before the escape, Welch had been caught smuggling
drugs into the Golden Valley prison that the Centerville, Utah-based
Management & Training Corporation operates through a private contract
with Arizona. Welch admitted bringing heroin into the facility three times
and that she had agreed to work as an informant before returning to
facilitate the escape. Only through escape-related publicity did the general
public and local law enforcement authorities learn that 117 convicted killers
were incarcerated at the Golden Valley facility originally constructed to
house DUI offenders. Embracing spending the rest of her life behind bars,
Welch said the state of Arizona shoulders some blame for the Haas murders by
tempting killers confined by inadequate security. “Now I’m a lifer. I
understand the philosophy now,” Welch said. “You have to keep killing the
(inmate’s) hope. You can’t let us have any hope. And when they took those
guys and put them over in that little playpen…that gave them hope.”
3/11/2015
kdminer.com
KINGMAN - A tearful Casslyn Mae Welch was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in
prison for her key role in the 2010 escape of three men from Arizona State
Prison-Kingman that led to the murder of an Oklahoma couple. Welch was the
last of four people to be sentenced and Wednesday's hearing closed the book
on a tragic case that began more than four and a half years ago. "I
deeply apologize to all of my victims," said Welch in a soft voice, when
Judge Steven Conn gave her the opportunity to speak. Welch began to cry and
paused for a moment before she added, "Nothing was supposed to go wrong
or bad." But bad things did happen in the days following the July 30,
2010 escape of John McCluskey, her cousin and significant other who was
serving a 15-year term for attempted murder and other convictions. With him
were Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick, both convicted killers who were
serving a life sentence and 44 years, respectively. The term Welch received
in Mohave County Superior Court was likely academic, as it's possible she
will never set foot in an Arizona prison. Convicted last summer for her role
in the shooting deaths of Gary and Linda Haas in New Mexico shortly after the
escape, Welch was sentenced to a 40-year-term in federal prison. While Conn
technically sentenced the 48-year-old woman to a total of more than 40 years
- two 20-year terms for armed robbery and a 30-month term for escape, her
actual sentence is two decades, because Conn honored the plea agreement Welch
signed in 2011. The deal called for her Mohave County sentences to run
concurrent with one another, and that also they run concurrent to her federal
sentence. According to the federal Bureau of Prisons, Welch is due to be
released in 2045. "I wish I stopped it before I even started it,"
she said. On the night of July 30, 2010, Welch donned camouflage clothing and
walked across the desert to the prison fence. She had guns and cutting tools,
which she threw over to McCluskey and Province, who spent months plotting the
escape. Renwick, who was unaware of the plan, made himself part of it when he
saw what was happening. Renwick got to the getaway car Welch parked near the
prison and took off before the other three arrived. Left afoot, Welch,
McCluskey and Province walked several miles across the desert before they
reached Interstate 40, where they hijacked two men resting in a parked
tractor-trailer and forced them to drive to Flagstaff. The men were released
unharmed. Welch pleaded guilty to two counts of armed robbery for the crime,
one for each victim. While that was a serious offense, Welch's fate was truly
sealed when the trio kidnapped the Haas couple, who were pulling an RV as
they headed from Oklahoma to Colorado for their annual vacation. McCluskey
was convicted of killing the couple and burning their RV with their bodies
inside. Welch and Province testified against McCluskey in his federal trial,
but prosecutors took little mercy on either of them once they pleaded guilty:
Province received a life term and Welch was given four decades. McCluskey
avoided the death penalty and was sentenced to life plus more than 230 years.
Renwick was captured in Colorado less than two days after the escape
following a shootout with law enforcement officers. He is serving more than
60 years. Conn, also per an agreement with attorneys on both sides of the
case, gave Welch credit for more than 1,650 days she has spent in custody.
Feb
14, 2015 azcentral.com
Arizona
Department of Corrections criminal investigators are treating an inmate death
last month at a private prison in Kingman as a homicide. A DOC statement
Friday said Neil Early, 23, was injured during an altercation with another
inmate in January. He was taken by ambulance to a Las Vegas hospital, where
he was pronounced dead, officials said. The death occurred at a
medium-security prison operated by Management & Training Corporation,
based in Centerville, Utah. The company declined comment. Three inmates
escaped from the same prison in 2010. Two of those escapees later were tied
to the murder of a couple in New Mexico following the escape. Early was held
in a medium-security area where he was housed with other inmates, according
to DOC spokesman Bill Lamoreaux. The area where Early was housed was a
"dormitory style" housing area meant for non-violent criminals,
which according to Lamoreaux "complicates things" in the
investigation. Early was serving sentences for organized retail theft and
drug paraphernalia violations. DOC is working with the Mohave County
Attorney's Office in the ongoing investigation, according to Lamoreaux.
"The safety of the staff and inmates at all Arizona prisons is ADC's
first priority, and criminal assaults are absolutely intolerable,"
Corrections Director Charles Ryan said. "Every inmate death, no matter
the apparent cause, is investigated by the department's Criminal
Investigations Unit. Upon review, it is apparent that this inmate likely died
as the result of injuries he received in a physical altercation with at least
one fellow inmate, which would qualify this incident as a suspected
homicide," Ryan said. Gov. Doug Ducey and Ryan
are asking the Arizona Legislature to approve $100 million in funding for the
next three years for a new medium-custody, 3,000-bed private prison to deal
with overcrowding.
Jan
29, 2015 azcentral.com
An
inmate's death Monday at a private prison near Kingman has prompted an
investigation from the Arizona Department of Corrections, according to a
statement from the agency. Neil Early, 23, was serving a sentence for two
counts of organized retail theft and drug paraphernalia charges from 2011 in
Maricopa County. Early was sentenced to a 5-year prison term in May 2012
after having previously served less than a year in 2010 for for theft charges.
Jun
4, 2014 kjzz.org
An inmate who escaped
an Arizona prison and murdered a couple from Oklahoma was sentenced to prison
Tuesday. Two of his accomplices were also sentenced this week. John
McCluskey, 49, and two others escaped from a private prison near Kingman in
2010. McCluskey was charged by federal prosecutors in the carjacking and
murder of Gary and Linda Haas in New Mexico after his escape. A U.S. District
Judge in Albuquerque sentenced McCluskey to life in prison plus a consecutive
term of 235 years. On Monday, fellow escapee Tracy Province was given five
consecutive life terms without a chance for release. Casslyn
Welch, 44, McCluskey’s girlfriend and cousin, was charged with aiding in the
escape. She was sentenced to 40 years behind bars, though local news media
report her lawyers say she deserves a shorter term because she pleaded
guilty.
Jun
4, 2014 abqjournal.com
Cassie Welch’s
testimony for the government didn’t earn her much real world benefit when she
was sentenced Monday for her role in the carjacking and murder of the
vacationing Oklahoma couple Gary and Linda Haas on Aug. 2, 2010. Despite a
defense request for a 20-year sentence and a prosecution acknowledgement that
she had provided “substantial assistance” against co-defendants in the case,
U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera found a sentence of 40 years to be
appropriate. Herrera calculated that Welch, 48 years old next month, would
have faced life plus 85 years in prison had she not provided assistance. But
Mark Fleming, the San Diego attorney for Welch in what began as a death
penalty case against three defendants, told the court that 40 years was a de
facto life sentence for his client. He said it amounted to the same as the
life sentence for John Charles McCluskey, the explosive prison escapee who
was calling the shots when the Haases were abducted
from a rest stop in eastern New Mexico, and the one who shot them and burned
their bodies. Welch’s de facto sentence was also the same as Tracy Province,
who had a prior murder conviction from Arizona. Province was sentenced on
Monday to a life sentence, as expected. Prosecutors had sought the death
penalty against McCluskey at trial, but when jurors were unable to reach
unanimity on the punishment, his sentence automatically became life in prison.
His sentence is to be imposed officially today. At Welch’s hearing,
statements were made by the victims’ families, including Linda Haas’ sister
Sandra Morgan, who sat through most of the three-month trial. Morgan said
although Welch may not have pulled the trigger on her sister and
brother-in-law, she is as responsible as the others by arranging for the
prison escape of McCluskey and Province, and taking other actions related to
the carjacking. “She is evil. It’s plain and simple,” Morgan said. Linda Rook,
Gary Haas’ sister, called Welch “the enabler” whose actions helped cause the
tragedy and who, soon after her arrest, made mocking comments about the
murdered couple. But Casslyn Mae Choat Welch came from generations of alcoholism and
domestic violence, according to testimony from defense mitigation specialist
Laurie Knight and forensic psychologist Eliot Rapoport. Welch was sexually
abused by a stepfather when she was in the eighth grade, raped by another
family friend and constantly endured isolation, domination or physical abuse.
Rapoport diagnosed her with “abandoned person syndrome,” formerly called
Stockholm syndrome, in which the abused person comes to identify with his or
her tormentor. Welch’s attorneys also played squirm-inducing recorded phone
calls from McCluskey in prison to Welch, working for minimum wage at his
mother’s store, to underscore the point that he was manipulating, berating
and threatening her even while behind bars – and making her apologize for
perceived transgressions. McCluskey apparently put out a contract to have the
small trailer she lived in next to his mother’s store burned. PROVINCE:
Sentenced to life, as expected: Province was sentenced minutes after Welch’s
hearing ended to five consecutive life sentences – to be served in a witness
protection program for federal prisoners – for his role in the slayings. “I’d
like to apologize to the friends and family of the Haases
for all the pain I put them through, that’s all I have to say,” Province said
in remarks similar to those offered by Welch. In his plea agreement, Province
waived his right to apply for compassionate release, so he is guaranteed to
spend the rest of his life in prison, said Richard Winterbottom, Province’s
attorney. Journal staff writer Ryan Boetel
contributed to this report.
May
13, 2014 Caroline Isaacs
Tucson, AZ: In early 2012,
several Tucson-based student, immigrant rights, advocacy, and criminal
justice groups came together to form the FUERZA! coalition, targeting
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) with a campaign to build public
opposition to private prisons by pressuring former U.S. Senator Dennis
DeConcini to resign from the CCA Board of Directors. At that time, Senator
DeConcini was not only on the Board of Directors of the Corrections Corporation
of America (CCA), but was also a member of the Arizona Board of Regents
(ABOR), and his law firm represented the Tucson Unified School District.
Today he does none of these things, following a campaign to expose his
affiliation with the private prison industry. On April 3, 2014, CCA filed a
notification with the Securities Exchange Commission indicating that
DeConcini is not on the company’s slate of nominees for Board of Directors
for the coming year. The Board meets this Thursday, May 15th. On
December 9, 2013, Tucson Unified School District announced it was parting
ways with the DeConcini McDonald Yetwin & Lacy
law firm despite a 39 year-relationship. And earlier this year, the Board of
Regents replaced DeConcini with a new Regent. The private prison industry is
one of the driving forces behind the criminalization of migrants in this
country. With its voracious appetite for profits, the private prison industry
maximizes its profits by increasing the number of detainees while lowering
costs, i.e., spending on detention—cheaper food, less highly skilled staff,
fewer services. The private prison industry heavily lobbies federal and state
decision-makers. A 2012 Associated
Press investigation found that the three major private prison corporations
spent roughly $45 million over the past decade to influence state and federal
government.
This money buys them not only contracts, but influence over policy at the
state and national levels. CCA was closely linked to the passage of
anti-immigrant legislation SB 1070 in Arizona. In addition, the for-profit
prison industry operates a “revolving door” between the public and private
sectors, hiring former legislators as lobbyists (or, in the case of
DeConcini, board members) and placing its lobbyists (current or former) in
positions of power in state and federal government. Until the launch of the
FUERZA! campaign, DeConcini’s involvement with the private prison industry
was relatively unknown. Since then, his name has frequently been linked with
news coverage and discussion of the private prison industry. The FUERZA!
Coalition used a range of creative tactics to expose Senator DeConcini’s role
in the industry behind criminalizing migrant families. Community members
attended meetings of the Board of Regents, drawing attention to the heavy
influence of the private prison sector on Arizona’s system of public
universities. They utilized traditional and social media, public protests,
and even a flashmob. FUERZA! members and parents
attended a meeting of the Tucson Unified School District and called upon them
to investigate the potential conflict caused by the DeConcini, Yetwin & Lacy law firm representing TUSD for over
twenty years. Since funds for incarceration directly compete with funds for
k-12 education from both the state and federal government, schools
essentially have to “compete” with private prison companies for public
dollars. The NAACP of Maricopa County filed an ethics complaint against the
former Senator alleging a conflict of interest between his profiteering on incarceration
and his representation of the interests of Arizona’s students as a member of
ABOR. Over 1,000 community members and neighbors of Senator DeConcini mailed
postcards asking him to resign. Senator DeConcini’s stepping down from the
CCA Board remains a largely symbolic win, since he retains 17,105 shares
valued at approximately $545,000, ensuring he continues to profit from the
incarceration of family members from our community. Yet the message to
elected officials and other community leaders is clear: affiliation with the
for-profit prison and immigrant detention industry is deeply unpopular with
the public and will not go unchallenged. This is particularly salient point
for DeConcini, a Democrat who claims a track record on support for human rights
and immigration reform. The community was particularly outraged to see a
politician who would testify in congress against SB1070 one day and cash in
on dividends generated by immigrant detention the next. DeConcini became the
posterchild for politicians cashing in on this destructive industry. By
highlighting his hypocrisy, FUERZA! exposed the crass profiteering on human
misery that is the business model of not just CCA, but a host of other
corporations, large and small. It revealed a local connection to a global
industry, allowing immigrants and the community at large to connect the dots
and see how their lives are directly impacted by the political and economic
decisions being made and influenced by these companies and their political
supporters.
Mar
29, 2014 azcentral.com
The
Republican-crafted state budget now includes $900,000 in additional funding
to pay for private prison beds operated by GEO Group Inc., even though the
state Department of Corrections doesn't think the increase is needed.
Private-prison lobbyists succeeded in getting state lawmakers to include
nearly $1 million in extra funding in the state budget even though the
Arizona Department of Corrections says the money isn't needed. The
eleventh-hour funding was placed into the budget by House Appropriations
Chairman John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, who said GEO Group Inc. lobbyists
informed him the company wasn't making enough money from the emergency beds
it provides Arizona at prisons in Phoenix and Florence. The request came even
though GEO bid for its contracts and had agreed to previously negotiated
rates with the Corrections Department, which guarantees the company nearly
100 percent occupancy at its prisons. House Minority Leader Chad Campbell of
Phoenix was incensed by the additional money for GEO. Related: Arizona
sheriffs assail costs of private prisons Previously: Arizona faces growing
cost of private prisons He voiced disappointment on the House floor late
Thursday during the budget debate and again Friday, telling The Arizona Republic
that the request "came out of nowhere." Some lawmakers, he said,
learned of the addition to the House budget hours before members began voting
on it. Campbell said Kavanagh is responsible for pushing the proposal through
the House with support from all but one Republican: Rep. Ethan Orr of Tucson.
"This is somebody getting a handout," Campbell said. "It's
unnecessary. This came out of nowhere — I mean that. No one said a word about
it. It wasn't in the Senate budget, it didn't come
as a request from DOC. There's something really shady here." Doug Nick,
a state Corrections spokesman, confirmed his agency did not seek additional
money for GEO. "We did not request it," Nick said. "We had
nothing to do with it." The state this fiscal year is projected to pay
GEO $45 million to house minimum- and medium-security inmates in the
company's 2,530 beds, according to Corrections records. Guaranteed rate:
Arizona guarantees GEO an occupancy rate of 95 to 100 percent at those
facilities. GEO, based in Boca Raton, Fla., posted $115 million in profits on
$1.52 billion in revenue in 2013. The company, which is publicly traded on
the New York Stock Exchange, is worth $2.3 billion, and it paid Chairman and
Chief Executive George Zoley $4.62 million in total
compensation last year. The additional money for GEO comes as lawmakers
debate a $9.2 billion budget passed by the House late Thursday night. The
$900,000 for GEO was one of many additions made to get the support of some
holdout Republicans. Democratic lawmakers criticized the spending proposal,
saying private prisons are being prioritized over education. Caroline Isaacs,
a watchdog on prison spending and the program director for the American
Friends Service Committee, called the additional funding "outrageous."
"Why this corporation feels it's entitled to bypass the contract process
with a state agency it is serving and go directly to the money man (Kavanagh)
is incredible," Isaacs said. "This indicates a level of coziness
that should make taxpayers nervous." Isaacs said lawmakers appear more
concerned about padding GEO's bottom line instead of looking out for public
education and abused children who have fallen through the cracks at Child
Protective Services. Kavanagh said GEO had been giving the state a "cut
rate" for emergency beds during the recession and, "now that the
economy has come back, they want to get more money." He said if GEO
didn't take the inmates, it would cost the state more to house them at
overcrowded facilities. GEO, however, is not at full capacity, records show.
The company as of Friday was housing 2,466 inmates in its 2,530 beds.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and sheriff's offices in Apache, Pinal,
Cochise, Navajo and Santa Cruz counties have said they would be willing to
take Department of Corrections inmates to ease the state's overcrowding
burden and make some additional money. Beds available: The six sheriffs have
said they could provide at least 1,750 beds. Kavanagh declined to identify
the lobbyists who asked him for additional money for GEO. State lobbying
records show that Pivotal Policy Consulting represents GEO. Neither Pivotal
Policy Consulting nor GEO Group could be reached Friday. The state Senate
will hold a hearing on the budget Monday. Senate Appropriations Chairman Don
Shooter, R-Yuma, declined to speculate on whether the additional funding for
GEO will remain. "We can't talk anything about the budget process,''
Shooter said. "It would be bad form."
Jan
19, 2014 azcentral.com
A spate of articles
and opinions in The Arizona Republic has revived the debate over whether
private, for-profit prisons are saving Arizona taxpayers money. In a recent
opinion, Rep. John Kavanagh argues that the biannual cost comparison study
that he helped to remove from statute is unnecessary due to new figures from
the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (“Private prisons are keeping money in
taxpayers’ pockets,” Viewpoints Saturday). Building upon this new
information, we would like to invite Rep. Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, and his
fiscally conservative colleagues to draft and support new legislation
requiring an independent and objective cost and quality comparison review.
Building upon the Department of Corrections cost comparison formula, this new
bill would include all the specific factors that the representatives believes
make private prisons cheaper —construction costs and pensions for guards. It
would also factor in the costs that are absorbed by the state — medical care
for prisoners, monitoring and enforcement of the contracts, and costs
associated with defending against and settling lawsuits for mistreatment.
Finally, it would look at the total costs over the life of the contract, in
many cases lasting 20 years. These reviews should take place regularly —at
least every two years— since the private prison contracts allow them to raise
their per diem rates annually. If all the stakeholders are able to ensure
that their concerns are addressed and the comparison is conducted by an
independent third party, then lawmakers would have factual data on which to
base their policy decisions and Arizona taxpayers would be assured that their
money is well spent.
— Tom Jenney, Phoenix
— Dianne Post,
Phoenix
— Caroline Isaacs,
Tucson
Tom Jenney is Arizona
director of Americans for Prosperity. Dianne Post is legal redress chair of
the Maricopa County chapter of the NAACP. Caroline Isaacs is program director
of the American Friends Service Committee in Arizona.
Jan
9, 2014 The Republic
An inexperienced nurse
for Corizon Inc., the private health-care provider for the Arizona Department
of Corrections, is being blamed for a hepatitis scare at three of the seven
units at the Lewis Prison Complex near Buckeye. “Every indication is that the
incident is the result of the failure by one individual nurse to follow
specific, standard and well-established nursing protocols when dispensing
injected insulin to 24 inmates,” Corrections Director Charles Ryan said in a
statement released Thursday. Ryan said that Corizon, which has repeatedly
declined to answer questions about the incident, suspended the nurse and
access to any Corrections facility was revoked. The State Board of Nursing
said a complaint was filed Thursday against the nurse, who was identified as
Patricia Talboy of Surprise. The licensing agency
said she is under investigation. Efforts to reach her were unsuccessful. A
Corrections spokesman told The Arizona Republic that Talboy
became a licensed practical nurse in August 2012 and a registered nurse in
June. Corizon hired her in September. Nurses with limited experience
typically are paid less than veteran nurses. Corizon, like other companies,
can contain expenses and increase profits by hiring employees at a lower
hourly rate. Doug Nick, a Corrections spokesman, said an investigation will
determine whether the state will fine or take disciplinary action against the
company, which last year was awarded a three-year, $372 million contract to
provide inmate health care. Corizon spokeswoman Susan Morgenstern would not
answer questions, but the company issued a statement with the Department of
Corrections that provided more details on the incident. The company said the
nurse used a needle to stick the fingers of inmate patients and check
blood-sugar levels at the Eagle Point unit, a minimum-security facility.
Corizon said that after the nurse cleaned the needle with alcohol, she used
the same needle to draw insulin from the vials to administer the medicine.
That potentially contaminated the remaining insulin. Each patient was treated
with a new needle, which was then discarded. The company said the nurse
committed the same protocol error with five patients Sunday night at Eagle
Point and then put the vials in the main medical hub. On Monday, the nursing
staff used the same potentially contaminated insulin vials on inmates in the
Morey and Rast units, which house close-custody, or
violent, prisoners. As a result, 24 inmates were potentially exposed to
“blood borne pathogens that may include hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV,”
the company said. However, Corizon said that “there is no indication that
anyone was definitely exposed to the pathogens.” The company said that on
Monday, a different nurse who was making insulin rounds at Eagle Point,
learned about the breach from an inmate. The company removed all previously
opened vials and notified the Department of Corrections and state Department
of Health Services. A Department of Health Services official on Wednesday
first disclosed to The Arizona Republic that inmates were exposed to
hepatitis B and C, after Corizon and Corrections refused to provide specific
details of the incident or disclose the seriousness. Following public
criticism, Corrections and Corizon provided new details Thursday and a full
account of what occurred. The company said it has “moved as quickly as
possible to share the facts as they are confirmed with all concerned.” This
incident is similar to one that occurred in August 2012, when a nurse with a
different private health-care provider, Wexford Health Sources Inc.,
contaminated the insulin supply at the same prison. Corrections, in
Thursday’s statement, said none of the 112 inmates potentially exposed 17
months ago tested positive for any blood-borne pathogens. That figure
includes 10 inmates who also were exposed this week. It may take up to six
months to determine if those exposed this week test positive. Ryan also said
that Corizon has been directed to develop a comprehensive plan that will
provide training and competency testing, nurse-peer reporting education and
awareness education on injection protocols.
Jan
9, 2014 azcentral.com
A nurse working for
Corizon Inc., the private health care provider for Arizona’s Department of
Corrections, improperly injected and exposed at least 24 inmates to a “blood-born
pathogen.” The company and the state have declined to provide specific
details about the incident. Corizon disclosed Wednesday morning in a press
release that one if its nurses on Sunday evening was involved in “inproper procedures for injections” for at least two
dozen inmates at three units at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis in
Buckeye. This is the second time in about 18 months that a private prison
contractor has improperly injected inmates at Buckeye. A nurse for Wexford
Health Sources Inc., the prior health care provider, caused a hepatitis C
scare in August 2012 by contaminating the prison's insulin supply. Susan
Morgenstern, a Corizon spokeswoman, declined to say why the company waited
three days to notify the public. Doug Nick, a Department of Corrections
spokesman, also declined to answer questions about the incident, referring
questions to Corizon. “It’s a medical issue. They are the doctors and
nurses,” Nick said. “We are not aware of any correctional officers at risk.”
Blood-borne pathogens are infectious microorganisms in human blood that can
cause disease in humans. These pathogens include, but are not limited to,
hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), according to
the U.S. Occupational Health & Safety Administration’s website.
Corrections last year hired Corizon after it agreed to terminate the
medical-services contract to provide health care for inmates statewide with
Wexford. That decision came amid accusations that Wexford improperly
dispensed medicine to inmates and wasted state resources. To replace Wexford,
the state agreed to a more expensive contract with Corizon of Brentwood,
Tenn., to become the health-care provider at all Arizona-run prisons.
Corizon, the country's largest provider of correctional medical care, took
over March 4. Corizon, like Wexford, has a history of problems providing
health care in other states. The three-year deal with Corizon cost taxpayers
at least $372million, but Corizon has the option to seek additional funds in
the final year. That contract is at least 6 percent higher than Wexford's
$349 million, three-year deal.
Jan 2, 2014
azcentral.com
Facts, not
philosophy, should be the foundation of state policy. Tell the Legislature.
Tell Gov. Jan Brewer. After years of studies showed that private prisons cost
more than state prisons, conservative supporters of privatization repealed a
statutory requirement to compare costs. Convenient for those who like private
prisons. Not helpful to those who want policy based on solid information.
Arizona is putting increasing numbers of inmates into private prisons — even
guaranteeing high occupancy rates at those private facilities. This
represents the triumph of an ideological bent toward privatization. We don’t
know whether it represents the taxpayers’ best interests. Arizona agreed to
contracts that guarantee 90 to 100 percent occupancy to the three
private-prison companies operating in the state, according to reporting by
The Arizona Republic’s Craig Harris. These are Corrections Corporation of
America, GEO Group Inc. and Management & Training Corp. There is more to
prison than costs and profit — or taxpayers’ deep pockets. Society locks up
criminals to protect others, to punish wrongdoing and, if possible, to
rehabilitate lawbreakers. Because most prisoners will return to our streets,
the public is best served when those convicted of crimes emerge from the
criminal-justice system able to abide by the law and function in society. A
focus on filling prison beds discourages alternatives to prison that might be
more cost-effective and more likely to reduce recidivism by achieving real
rehabilitation. A bill passed in 2012 eliminated the statutory requirement
for the Department of Corrections to do a cost comparison between public and
private prisons. It was signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer, who has long been
a supporter of private prisons. It also eliminated the previous statutory
requirement for regular comparisons of the services provided by private and
public prisons, including a hard look at such things as security, prisoner
health and the safety of facilities. This is particularly odd when you
consider how questionable security practices at a private Kingman prison
became painfully obvious after the 2010 escape of three prisoners, two of whom
killed an Oklahoma couple while on the lam. Statutes still require cost
savings and equitable performance. But the comparisons are not the same.
Surveys by Department of Corrections in 2008, 2009 and 2010 found that it was
more expensive to incarcerate inmates in privately run medium-security
prisons than it was in similar state facilities. These studies factored in
the differences in inmate costs, including that private prisons house only
healthy inmates, while state prisons incarcerate those with expensive medical
or mental-health problems. A comparison in fiscal 2013 that did not adjust
for these differences found a lower cost at private prisons. How convenient.
It might make sense to reduce the state’s capital expenses by contracting
with private prisons rather than building new facilities. But we need to
consider all the facts when making that determination. What’s more,
guaranteeing occupancy to private operators creates a profit motive for
locking people up that should be unsettling to all who treasure civil
liberties. Arizona needs to take a harder look at whether private prisons
make sense.
tucsoncitizen.com
Nov 15, 2013
AFSC has just learned
that one of the prisoners profiled in our recently released report on
correctional medical care in Arizona has died. The Department of Corrections
has not yet publicly reported on his death. Benny Joe Roseland, who was 59
years old, wrote to a prisoner advocate about the failure of prison medical
providers to properly diagnose what turned out to be terminal cancer. He had
been experiencing chest pain for over a year and was told by a doctor that he
was scheduled for an EKG, which he never received. In a letter, Mr. Roseland
recounted the rest of the story: Two weeks later I started throwing up… the
guards took me up to the main medical center on complex. They put me on an
EKG, told me that my heart was good for someone my age, but that I had acid
reflux and that’s why my chest was hurting… I continued to throw up and the
pain got worse… the following Wednesday after breakfast, I returned to the
housing unit and threw up six times… They sent me to the outside hospital.
The first thing they did was take blood from me. They came back in less than
an hour and said they had bad news for me. I had a tumor (softball sized) in
my left upper chest. After more x-rays and a CAT scan, they took a biopsy…
They told me I have terminal cancer, with 2-6 months to live.” Benny Joe
Roseland died sometime last night or the night before, according to his
family. Many thanks to Peggy Plews at Arizona
Prison Watch for notifying us. The report, Death Yards: Continuing Problems
with Arizona’s Correctional Health Care, cited 50 deaths in Arizona’s prisons
in the first eight months of 2013. However, there were thirteen more deaths
in the month of October and five so far in November, including Mr. Roseland.
That brings the total to 68 as of this writing.
Nov 5, 2013 The
American Friends Service Committee
PHOENIX, ARIZONA — On Wednesday, November 6th, the American Friends Service
Committee (AFSCAZ) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLUAZ) will hold a
press conference in front of the Arizona Department of Corrections Building
to coincide with the release of a new report which documents that the same
problems—delays and denials of care, lack of timely emergency treatment,
failure to provide medication and medical devices, low staffing levels,
failure to provide care and protection from infectious disease, denial of
specialty care and referrals, and insufficient mental health treatment—have continued
and, arguably, worsened under the current for-profit healthcare contractor,
Corizon. WHO: Caroline Isaacs (Report Author, AFSC Director), Daniel
Pochoda (Legal Director, ACLUAZ), Eleanor Grant (wife of an Arizona prisoner
with chronic health issues) WHAT: Press Conference and Report Release -
Prison Healthcare in AZ Worsens Under Corizon.
WHEN: Wednesday, November 6th. 11:30am LOCAL TIME WHERE:
Arizona Department of Corrections Building. 1601 W Jefferson St,
Phoenix, AZ The American Friends
Service Committee (AFSCAZ) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLUAZ) are
decrying the continued deterioration of the quality of medical care in the
Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC). In March of 2012, the ACLU filed a
class action lawsuit against ADC, charging that prisoners in the custody of
the Arizona Department of Corrections receive such grossly inadequate
medical, mental health and dental care that they are in grave danger of
suffering serious and preventable injury, amputation, disfigurement and even
death. AFSC reports that there have been 50 deaths in Arizona Department of
Corrections custody in just the first eight months of 2013. That is a
dramatic increase from previous years. The Arizona Republic reported 37
deaths in 2011 and 2012 combined. The report charges that the deficiencies in
quality of care are not isolated to one or two locations or individual “bad
actors,” but clearly represent system-wide dysfunction. The report contains
14 specific case studies to illustrate these issues, as well as extensive
documentation of the administrative, organizational, economic and political
factors that are contributing to the problem. This includes the process of
privatization of medical care. Delays and a reissue of the Request for
Proposals (RFP) made the privatization process drag out for over two years.
In the meantime, medical staffing levels plummeted and health care spending
in prisons dropped by nearly $30 million. The departure of Wexford, followed
by the award of the contract to Corizon created additional upheaval, delays,
and changes in staff, procedures, and medications. The report concludes that
contracting out the medical care at ADC has resulted in more bureaucracy,
less communication, and increased healthcare risks for prisoners. “The
Arizona Department of Corrections needs to get its own house in order,” says
report author Caroline Isaacs. “Arizona needs to stop wasting millions of
taxpayers’ dollars on cancelled contracts and wrongful death lawsuits and
take responsibility for correcting these problems.” For more information, or
for a copy of the report in advance, please contact Caroline Isaacs at
520.623.9141 or by email at cisaacs@afsc.org.
Aug
22, 2013 The Washington Post
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —
The pile of ash and twisted metal looked like what was left of a travel
trailer, but a New Mexico sheriff testified Wednesday he had no idea when he
first saw the crime scene that the case was a homicide that investigators
would later link to two Arizona fugitives and their accomplice. “What was
really bad was within about a 100-foot radius of the burned out frame, the
trees were completely charred, even parts of the corrals,” Guadalupe County
Sheriff Michael Lucero told jurors. “It was a mess.” The sheriff was among
several law enforcement agents who took the stand in the capital murder trial
of John McCluskey, the last of three defendants to be tried on federal
carjacking and murder charges in the 2010 deaths of Gary and Linda Haas of
Tecumseh, Okla. The retired couple, on their way to an annual camping trip in
Colorado, had been targeted for their pickup truck and travel trailer after
they stopped at a rest area near the Texas-New Mexico state line on Aug. 2,
2010. Prosecutors say the couple was forced at gunpoint to drive west along
Interstate 40 before being ordered to pull onto a lonely two-lane road. They
were shot and then the trailer was taken to a remote ranch in eastern New
Mexico, where it was unhitched and burned. Prosecutor Greg Fouratt showed jurors photographs of everything from the
trailer to the dirt road that led to the ranch. He also played clips from
surveillance video taken from a convenience store near a highway exit that
showed the truck and trailer headed toward the ranch that afternoon. Less
than 40 minutes later, the video shows the truck heading back toward the
interstate with no trailer. A ranch hand testified he discovered the trailer
along with three small dogs. Two of the pets were rounded up and their tags
led the sheriff to the Haases’ daughter. Lucero
testified that he thought he was dealing with a kidnapping. The case changed
when James Butterfield, a criminal investigator with New Mexico State Police,
got closer to the wreckage. “When I arrived at the wheels of the trailer, I
started looking down straight in front of me. Through my training and
experience, I recognized a skull and a femur bone,” he testified. Other
agents testified about finding the Haases stolen
truck hours away in Albuquerque. It was unlocked, the keys were in one cup
holder and a bottle of brake fluid was in another. Prosecutors planned to
call more investigators to the stand Wednesday afternoon. McCluskey’s
accomplices — his cousin and fiance Casslyn Welch and fellow inmate Tracy Province — are
expected to testify next week. Both face life sentences after pleading guilty
last year to charges stemming from the Haases’
deaths.
Jul
24, 2013 tucsonweekly.com
Yesterday, House
Minority Leader Chad Campbell called for the immediate resignation of Arizona
Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan. Today, the American Friends
Service Committee has asked Gov. Jan Brewer to create an oversight committee
over the ADOC. The Phoenix Democrat has been a vocal advocate for prison
reform and private prison issues alongside AFSC. His call for Ryan's
resignation follows a recent Buckeye prison inmate death. “Director Ryan has
exhibited a pattern of mismanagement and a lack of leadership resulting in an
unsafe corrections system in our state,” Campbell said in a press release.
“Under his direction, our corrections system has wasted tax dollars,
jeopardized people’s lives and damaged the state’s credibility.” Campbell
said he's seen reports that Arizona's prison suicide rate was 60 percent
higher than the national average between the years of 2010 and 2012. “In
addition to this, the attempt to cover up what happened to an inmate allowed
to bleed to death in front of prison guards is a gruesome consequence of
Ryan’s negligence," Campbell said, adding that he believes Ryan has
failed to properly supervise private prison contracts, such as a private
facility in Kingman, where three inmates escaped in 2010 and committed murder
and armed robbery. “Following this incident, Ryan admitted that the DOC
didn’t properly monitor this facility. This is a community safety
issue." Campbell also said that private prisons cost more than state-run
prisons and the DOC has failed to hold the private prison companies
accountable for the terms of their contracts with the state. He complained
that the state awards contracts in a manner that is not transparent and seems
indicative of cronyism. An example of this occurred earlier this year, when
the DOC terminated a contract with Wexford Health Sources, a private company
that provided healthcare for inmates statewide. “The (DOC) contracted with a
company that has a controversial record of service. In fact, one of Wexford’s
employees exposed more than 100 people to hepatitis C in a prison in
Buckeye,” Campbell said. “The DOC terminates that contract and replaces
Wexford with Corizon, another company surrounded by controversy that also
happens to have ties to people who are close to the governor. This situation
reeks of patronage.” And Campbell used the taxpayer argument—specifically,
that for-profit, private prisons are misusing taxpayer money. According to
Campbell, last year, Republicans repealed a state law in the budget requiring
a comparison of state and private prisons every two years to ensure that private
prisons were providing the same quality of services as state prisons at a
lower cost. DOC Per Capita Cost Reports compiled over five years consistently
show that the state is losing money on private prisons, and security audits
show serious safety flaws in all of Arizona’s for-profit prisons, including
malfunctioning cameras and alarm systems. In a letter to Brewer, the AFSC
asked the governor that the oversight committee they are asking for be
meaningful and independent. “Such an oversight committee would allow for
better institutional transparency and substantial responses to grievances of
inadequate medical and mental health care within the ADC facilities,” says
AFSC Program Director Caroline Isaacs. AFSC also asked that Brewer
investigate the charges against Ryan and determine whether he is fit to
serve. Isaacs points out that while it is important to hold ADC Directors
accountable for the gross failings of their tenure, “putting a new Director
into an old and failed system won’t change the outcome.” She added, “Ryan’s
failures reveal a total lack of public oversight over our prisons.” The
oversight committee that AFSC Arizona proposes in the letter to Brewer must
have the ability to hold the ADC accountable in a meaningful way, and must
include individuals outside of the framework of political influence. In the
letter, AFSC cites overuse of solitary confinement in maximum-security units,
a reliance on private for-profit prison companies, and lack of adequate
medical and mental health care as prime examples of the need for such
oversight. It reads, “[T]he numerous issues raised in Rep. Campbell’s letter
are extremely serious, costing taxpayers millions of dollars and undermining
public safety as well as the safety and health of prisoners and corrections
staff.”
July 23, 2013,
azcentral.com
A key lawmaker is
calling on the state’s prison chief to resign, citing a high prison suicide
rate, security failures, inadequate medical care and inappropriate ties to
the private-prison industry. House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix,
a longtime critic of the Department of Corrections and private prisons, said
his call for director Charles Ryan’s resignation was prompted by the
suspected homicide last month of an inmate at the Lewis state prison complex
in Buckeye. “Director Ryan has exhibited a pattern of mismanagement and a
lack of leadership resulting in an unsafe corrections system in our state,”
Campbell said in a statement. “Under his direction, our corrections system
has wasted tax dollars, jeopardized people’s lives and damaged the state’s
credibility.” Campbell, who is considering a run for governor in 2014, said
Ryan has failed to plug holes in prison security, stem criminal behavior by
corrections employees, properly manage private-prison contracts and ensure
adequate health care for inmates. Bill Lamoreaux, a spokesman for the
corrections department, said Ryan and other agency officials have responded
to Campbell’s concerns and provided “detailed information on ADC’s
operations.” “Earlier this year he was even invited to tour ADC correctional
facilities so that he could gain a firsthand understanding of the Department,
its employees and operations,” Lamoreaux said in a statement. “Unfortunately,
Representative Campbell did not respond to ADC’s offer.” Gov. Jan Brewer’s
office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Brewer appointed
Ryan to lead the agency in 2009. Under his tenure, the state has privatized
inmate health care and now faces a class-action lawsuit alleging that the
department provides inadequate medical, dental and mental-health care to
inmates. Also under Ryan, two murderers escaped from a private prison near
Kingman in 2010, leading to a nationwide manhunt and the deaths of two
people. An internal investigation blamed human error and lax monitoring of
the private-prison contract.
Apr 07, 2013 kpho.com
New questions are
being raised about a contract state officials signed with a private company
to provide healthcare to Arizona inmates. Corizon was recently awarded a
three-year, $369 million deal to provide healthcare to Arizona prison
inmates. CBS 5 News has learned one of the men on Corizon's payroll is former
Arizona ADC Director Terry Stewart, who's been doing consulting work for
Corizon since 2010. Current director Charles Ryan used to work for Stewart,
raising questions about a possible conflict of interest. "With money of
this sort and the amount of responsibility over people's lives, it should be
looked into," said ACLU attorney Dan Pochoda. CBS 5 News asked Ryan
directly if there was any conflict with the contract they signed with
Corizon. "Of course there was not. Our process has been above
board," Ryan said. "Terry Stewart had nothing to do with the RFP
process. He was not involved, period." Ryan said that Wexford, the
company the state hired last year to provide health services to inmates,
suddenly wanted out of the deal, leaving the state with few options. Ryan
said they could either start the request for bid process over again, which
could take six to 12 months, or use one of the other two companies that
submitted bids last year. Corizon was one of the other companies. "Of
the two remaining vendors, they had the most reasonable proposal to
consider," said Ryan. "The bottom line is that we had to maintain
the continuity of inmate healthcare." Ryan also told CBS 5 News that the
other company bidding for the contract made an offer far beyond what the
state had allocated, leaving Corizon as the only realistic option. "It
is a process that was endorsed and reviewed by the attorney general's office
and state procurement office," said Ryan. "We followed the law to
the letter." Another problem facing the ADC is a class action lawsuit
filed on behalf of inmates, claiming they are not receiving adequate healthcare.
A spokesperson for Corizon said that state officials were in no position to
delay getting a company in to provide inmates with health services.
March
25, 2013 azcapitoltimes.com
A trial is set for
next month in a sexual harassment lawsuit pitting the state against one of
its private prison contractors in a battle that promises to shine a harsh
light on private prisons and the Arizona Department of Corrections. The
Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division alleges that male workers with GEO
Group, which operates three prisons for the state, sexually harassed female
co-workers for several years while supervisors and managers for the company
looked the other way. Although the state is the plaintiff in the case, the
lawsuit has uncovered information that a civil rights attorney, a lawmaker
and critics of the Department of Corrections say is damning to the Department
of Corrections. The allegations in the lawsuit took place before Charles Ryan
became director of DOC, but the critics say problems have continued under his
leadership. “It’s not just private prisons,” said House Minority Leader Chad
Campbell, D-Phoenix, a steadfast opponent of private prisons. “There’s
blatant mismanagement in our public prisons, too.” Campbell said he is
working with community groups to call for Ryan’s firing as high-profile
problems mount. In recent weeks, Ryan disclosed that employees are arrested
at a rate of 11 per month, mostly for drunken driving and domestic violence.
A federal judge gave class status to 33,000 prisoners and all future prisoners
in a lawsuit alleging substandard health care. And a local television station
aired video of inmate Tony Lester’s suicide in which correctional officers
stood around the bleeding man without providing emergency care. After Ryan
took over in 2009, the agency was rocked when a July 30, 2010, escape from a
Kingman private prison led to the deaths of an Oklahoma couple. The company
that won the $349 million contract to provide health care for prisoners
parted ways with the state after just 6 months. Gov. Jan Brewer’s spokesman,
Matt Benson, said she still stands behind Ryan. “He performs a very difficult
job under difficult circumstances,” Benson said. Prisoner advocate Donna
Hamm, of Middle Ground Prison Reform, also defended Ryan, saying Arizona’s
prison system has been dysfunctional for the 30 years she has been an
advocate and Ryan is more responsive to problems than the other five
directors over that time. “He does not ignore or make excuses,” Hamm said.
Bill Lamoreaux, a department spokesman, said Ryan was out of town and
unavailable for comment. Lamoreaux also said the department has been advised
by lawyers not to discuss pending litigation. History of mistreatment: Court
documents in the GEO suit paint a picture of female correctional officers
having to deal with raunchy statements directed at them and fondling by their
male co-workers. Attorney Stephen Montoya, whose client, Alice Hancock, is a
former GEO correctional officer and an intervener in the case, said the
sexual harassment at GEO is an extension of the DOC culture. In February
2012, DOC agreed to pay a former female officer $182,000 to settle a sexual
harassment complaint brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. Montoya has
won jury awards of $200,000 and $600,000 for women who used to work for DOC,
and he said many of the correctional officers with GEO worked previously for
the department. The $600,000 award was reduced to $300,000 due to limitations
on compensatory damages. In one of the cases, U.S. District Court Judge
Frederick Martone said DOC was reckless in its management by “allowing
bestial people to run unsupervised throughout the process and employing
ineffective and incompetent supervisory staff that knew about things and
failed to do anything about it in a timely way.” Lamoreaux pointed out,
however, that the allegations in the GEO suit and the actions against DOC
occurred before Ryan took over as an appointee of Brewer in January 2009.
Dora Schriro, appointed by Democratic Gov. Janet
Napolitano, was in charge. Part of the DOJ settlement required DOC to improve
its sexual harassment policies, and Ryan has said in written statements that
the bad behavior wouldn’t be tolerated under his watch. Hamm said the recent
problems plaguing DOC have existed under every administration she has seen in
30 years, but they are just getting more exposure today. “Those problems are
not unique to Charles Ryan’s administration,” Hamm said. However, Montoya
said Ryan tolerates women being “treated like trash,” and he points to the
promotion of Carson McWilliams as proof. McWilliams was the warden of the
prison where Montoya’s client, Michelle Barfield, was sexually harassed. Ryan
promoted McWilliams in April 2011 to be the department’s Northern Regional
operations director a little more than a year after the $600,000 verdict. “In
the government workplace, if there is pervasive illegality, it’s because it
is tolerated from the top to the bottom,” Montoya said. A pattern of
problems: The lawsuit is a compilation of suits filed by the Attorney
General’s Civil Rights Division, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
and Montoya, and when the witnesses begin taking the stand on April 9, their
testimony is sure to become fodder for opponents of private prisons. Probably
the harshest critic of private prisons is the American Friends Service
Committee, a Quaker organization that generally advocates for the rights of
prisoners. Caroline Isaacs, Friends’ executive director in Arizona, said the
lawsuit is one more damning piece of information that confirms there is a
consistent pattern of problems with private prisons. Isaacs has spent
thousands of hours documenting misconduct in private prisons. “These problems
are found in all for-profit prisons, and you simply can’t dismiss them as
‘bad apples,’” Isaacs said. The lawsuit alleges that male workers regularly
grabbed their female co-workers’ genitals and breasts and made obscene
gestures toward them. The suit says that in some instances, males exposed
themselves to the women. Montoya said the prisoners showed more respect to
the women than the male officers did. GEO is trying to keep out of the trial
evidence that one of the most prolific alleged perpetrators was fired twice
by other private prisons, once while he was being investigated for sexual
harassment before GEO hired him in 2007. Sherri Haahr, a GEO human resources
official, testified in deposition that the company didn’t know about Robert Kroen’s background because the contract with DOC doesn’t
require employment reference checks. Haahr testified that DOC does criminal
background checks itself and approves anyone who is hired by GEO. GEO lawyers
argue that Kroen’s employment history isn’t
relevant because the decision to hire him was DOC’s. Pablo Paez, a GEO spokesman, declined comment. “We cannot
comment on litigation related matters. We can however confirm that our
company vigorously disagrees with these allegations and intends to defend its
position,” Paez said. And while DOC has onsite
monitors at its private prisons, their job is to make sure the company maintains
appropriate staffing levels of “qualified personnel” required by contract,
Lamoreaux said. He said the contractors are responsible for their own human
resource systems. Campbell, the state representative who regularly introduces
legislation to regulate private prisons more, said he isn’t surprised there
are no routine reference checks in hiring. “At the end of the day, the buck
stops at DOC,” Campbell said.
February 01, 2013
Courthouse News
PHOENIX (CN) - The Arizona
Department of Corrections said it will replace its for-profit prison health
care company with another profit-seeking firm, after a federal class action
that claimed the state provides "grossly inadequate" medical care
to prisoners. Corizon Inc., of Brentwood, Tenn., "will be responsible
for the provision of health care to inmates at the Arizona Department of
Corrections' ('ADC') state-run facilities" beginning March 4, according
to a filing in the pending court case. Corizon will replace Pittsburgh-based
Wexford Health Sources. The ACLU, which filed the class action nearly a year
ago, was not impressed. "Merely replacing one for-profit prison
contractor with another will only prolong the crisis in Arizona's prisons.
There is no reason to think that anything will change under Corizon
Inc.," ACLU of Arizona Legal Director Dan Pochoda said in a statement.
The ACLU of Arizona filed the class action with the Prison Law Office of
Berkeley, Calif., attorneys with Perkins Coie of
Phoenix and Jones Day of San Francisco, and Jennifer Alewelt,
with the Arizona Center for Disability Law. According to the lawsuit:
"For years, the health care provided by defendants in Arizona's prisons
has fallen short of minimum constitutional requirements and failed to meet
prisoners' basic health needs." Named as defendants were Arizona
Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan and the state's Interim
Director of Health Services Richard Pratt. "Critically ill prisoners
have begged prison officials for treatment, only to be told 'be patient,'
'it's all in your head,' or 'pray' to be cured," the complaint stated.
"Despite warnings from their own employees, prisoners and their family
members, and advocates about the risk of serious injury and death to
prisoners, defendants are deliberately indifferent to the substantial risk of
pain and suffering to prisoners, including deaths, which occur due to
defendants' failure to provide minimally adequate health care, in violation
of the Eighth Amendment."
Dec 19, 2012 KPHO
CASA
GRANDE, AZ (CBS5) - Drug sweeps on high school campuses happen, but a recent
sweep in the halls of a Casa Grande High School has some people concerned -
all because of who was called in to help out. Employees with a
for-profit private prison company that runs several prisons right here in
Arizona went with police on this sweep. They're not peace officer certified,
which is where some take issue. "I think there are liability issues, I
think there are safety concerns," said Caroline Isaacs with the American
Friends Service Committee. Rewind to October, when the principal of Vista
Grande High School in Casa Grande said the school was in lockdown for one
hour while dogs searched the classrooms one by one. The people handling those
dogs were employees of the Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, a
for-profit prison company. "Your company's profits are based on putting
more and more people in prison, it creates a perverse incentive to continue
to expand that market," Isaacs said. She believes there's a conflict of
interest with the non-peace officer certified CCA employees assisting
officers with peace officer work. The principal of Vista Grande tells us:
"I don't know anything about CCA or who they are. When I asked
Casa Grande Police about this situation I was informed they used a variety of
agencies from across Pinal County." And a spokesman from CCA sent us a
statement said: "Local CCA staff provided specially trained dogs in
response to a specific request from local law enforcement officials. These dogs
were accompanied by their trained handlers for the sole purpose of ensuring
they behaved appropriately. These handlers did not perform peace officer
duties, so POST is not applicable. We encourage you to contact the POST
executive director for further clarification. "Our company strives to be
a good community partner, and it was in that spirit that local staff
responded to the request. Decisions like this are usually made at the
facility level. CCA has since reviewed this practice and decided that
facilities can no longer provide this type of assistance, for reasons such as
liability. Unfortunately, many of the communities where we operate lack these
types of resources, but we think this is the appropriate corporate level
policy. We'll continue to support our communities in many other ways."
After the sweep, three kids were arrested; two students had marijuana with
them and one had it in her car. A parent we talked to said if the sweeps get
drugs off campus, it doesn't matter to her who's conducting them. "I
think if you're not supposed to do something, you're not supposed to do it,
and if you're doing it, it doesn't matter who catches you," said Penny
Casey. We reached out to the school district as well as Casa Grande police
but have yet to hear back from them.
September
28, 2012 Arizona Republic
The
Arizona Department of Corrections has levied a $10,000 fine against Wexford
Health Sources Inc., a new private medical-care provider for inmates that is
accused of improperly dispensing medicine and wasting state resources. The
DOC called on Wexford to fix staffing problems, properly distribute and
document medication for inmates, show a sense of urgency and communicate
better with the state when problems occur. Wexford was fined over the actions
of a nurse who caused a hepatitis C scare in August at the Arizona State
Prison Complex-Lewis in Buckeye, and for failing to properly report the
problem to authorities. Corrections Director Charles Ryan in a statement said
the state's demands, called a cure notification, give the state and Wexford
an opportunity to "improve communications and ensure the health care
needs of the inmates incarcerated by the State of Arizona are being
met." Ryan was not available to answer questions. Bill Lamoreaux, a DOC
spokesman, declined to answer specific questions about the matter. Wexford
was hired after the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature pushed to
privatize inmate health care to save money. The DOC in strongly worded
letters to Wexford alleges the company forced the state to use public
employees to fix its deficiencies. The amount of wasted tax dollars was not
disclosed. Arizona houses close to 40,000 inmates. Lamoreaux declined to
answer if taxpayers were still saving money with Wexford's services.
September 4, 2012 Arizona Republic
A nurse for the new medical provider for Arizona prisons may have exposed 103
inmates at the Buckeye state prison to hepatitis C by contaminating the
prison's insulin supply, and state and local health officials were not
alerted for more than a week. Officials with the state and Maricopa County
health departments, who confirmed to The Arizona Republic on Tuesday that
they had not been informed by Wexford Health Sources Inc. of the problem,
said they will launch investigations into the incident. Official notification
of the Aug. 27 error only came late Tuesday afternoon, hours after an
inmate's family member had told 12 News of the potential health risk. State
rules require health-care providers and correctional facilities to notify
health departments within five business days of a hepatitis C diagnosis,
treatment or detection. Wexford said it suspended the nurse on Aug. 27,
immediately after learning the person "had violated basic
infection-control protocols while administering medication that day."
"In talking with the Department of Health Services, they believe it
should have been reported first to the county," Corrections Director
Charles Ryan said late Tuesday. "That is a question we will have of
Wexford -- as to the lack of notification or an explanation as to why that
did not occur. "The department has concerns about this issue, and we
will be having further discussions with Wexford in terms of this requirement
and some other issues as well." Ryan said the incident occurred when a
diabetic inmate who also has hepatitis C was administered a routine dose of
insulin by the nurse on Aug. 27. The needle used on that inmate was inserted
into another vial to draw more insulin for the same inmate. Ryan said the
contaminated needle was inserted into a vial which was then put back among
other vials in the prison's medication refrigerator. It got mixed up with
other vials used throughout that day to administer insulin injections to more
than 100 other diabetic inmates. Later that day, Ryan said, officials
realized that the vial that potentially had been tainted with hepatitis C may
have been used to dose other inmates. At that point, the nurse in question
was suspended and prison officials sought to determine how many inmates may
have been exposed. All the vials of medicine were destroyed after the
discovery. Wexford spokesman Larry Pike on Tuesday minimized the potential
exposure of other inmates. He said that the company acted
"expeditiously" to identify those who were potentially affected and
that the company believes the potential for their exposure was small. Though
corrections officials and Wexford declined to name the nurse, the Arizona
State Board of Nursing identified her as Nwadiuto
Jane Nwaohia. She has been under state
investigation since June 2012 for unsafe practice or substandard care, but
the board would not provide additional information on the nature of the
previous problem. Corrections officials first acknowledged the matter Tuesday
morning after 12 News asked about the incident at the Arizona State Prison
Complex-Lewis, which houses 5,382 inmates in minimum- to maximum-security
facilities. Hepatitis C is the leading cause of liver transplants and causes
liver cancer. Seventy-five to 85 percent of people with hepatitis C develop a
chronic infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. Shoana Anderson, head of the state
Office of Infectious Disease Services, said one of the biggest dangers for
those infected with hepatitis C is "it sits in the liver quietly, and 20
years later, a person can develop severe liver disease." Anderson and
Jeanene Fowler, a spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Department of Public
Health, said Wexford should have notified them of the issue. "It's
extremely disturbing that something like this could happen. It calls for a
thorough investigation to determine all of the surrounding causes of the
mistake or the negligence," said Don Specter of the Prison Law Office, a
prison watchdog group based in Berkeley, Calif. Ken Kopczynski,
executive director of the Private Corrections Working Group in Tallahassee,
Fla., called the incident "scary" and said it shows a lack of
oversight by corrections officials. "This is a problem with
privatization," Kopczynski said. "They
are just accepting who Wexford will hire." Wexford, which has previously
lost contracts for poor service in other jurisdictions, this spring won a
$349 million, three-year contract to provide health care for Arizona inmates.
The company began providing services for nearly 40,000 Arizona inmates on July
1. In a written statement, the Pittsburgh-based company said it suspended the
nurse immediately upon learning she "may have compromised a vial of
medication by placing it in contact with a previously used syringe."
Wexford, in its statement, said a local staffing agency assigned the nurse to
the prison complex. The company said that at no time was the same syringe and
needle used on more than one patient and that no staff members were exposed.
Wexford said it reported the nurse to the state nursing board for
investigation, but that did not occur until late Tuesday afternoon, after the
news had been reported. The company also banned the nurse from working under
any of its contracts in the future. Wexford provides health-care services
nationwide to roughly 124,000 inmates and other residents at more than 100
institutions. The state said inmates exposed were notified and are being
screened for infectious diseases. An independent laboratory under contract
with Wexford will provide continuing medical monitoring and testing of the
potentially exposed inmates over the next several months, the state said. All
patients will be informed of their results, though Ryan noted that some
inmates may previously have been exposed to hepatitis C.
August 31, 2012 Arizona Republic
The state Department of Corrections on Friday evening awarded a
multimillion-dollar private-prison contract to Corrections Corporation of
America, which has employed lobbyists close to Gov Jan. Brewer in its effort
to win the bid. CCA, of Nashville, will operate a 1,000-bed medium-security
private prison in Eloy, with the option to run another 1,000 beds if the
inmate population for serious offenders increases. CCA, a publicly held
company that reported $162.5million in profits last year, was one of five
bidders for the contract. The firm is politically connected to Brewer, who
has pushed for the prison expansion. Until mid-July, CCA employed Chuck
Coughlin, an influential lobbyist who is a close friend and an adviser to
Brewer. And, state lobbying records show CCA also employs Policy Development
Group, a lobbying firm that includes Paul Senseman,
Brewer's former spokesman. "If you place two of your lobbyists at the
right and left hand of the governor of the state and she has the final say
and oversight of the Department of Corrections, I would say that's a pretty
smart business strategy," said Caroline Isaacs of the American Friends
Service Committee, a Quaker group and opponent of Arizona's private-prison
expansion. Steve Owen, a CCA spokesman, said the company won the bid through
a rigorous procurement process, and he credited the support of Eloy and
others in Pinal County for helping CCA win.
August 28, 2012 Arizona Republic
In a last-ditch effort, private-prison opponents called on Gov. Jan Brewer on
Tuesday to scuttle a contract that is expected to be awarded Friday for 1,000
medium-security beds for men. A coalition of elected officials, educators and
faith leaders sent an open letter to Brewer, saying the beds are costly and
unnecessary. They also contend the five out-of-state companies bidding to run
a new prison facility have histories of questionable management practices and
safety problems. "We know this is an uphill battle, but it's still well
worth fighting," said Caroline Isaacs, program director for the American
Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group and watchdog organization. "I
know we are the underdog." Brewer, who was at the Republican National
Convention in Tampa, could not be reached for comment. But Matthew Benson,
her spokesman, said sufficient correctional facilities are a critical
component of public safety. "Gov. Brewer supported these additional
prison facilities because she recognizes the state faces a shortage of
medium- and high-security beds in the near-term, a situation that would place
the safety of both inmates and correctional staff in jeopardy," Benson
wrote in an e-mail to The Arizona Republic. At the end of this week, the
Arizona Department of Corrections is slated to award the bid. The contract
calls for up to 2,000 medium-security beds if the prison population
increases. The first 500 beds would come online in 2014, while 500 more would
be added the following year. There's no timetable for the potential 1,000
remaining beds. Sites being considered are in Coolidge, Eloy, Florence, San
Luis and Winslow. The contract comes even though the state's overall prison
population is expected to remain flat the next two years and increase only
slightly thereafter. State records also show it's more costly for taxpayers
to have private businesses run prisons. State Corrections Director Charles
Ryan has acknowledged that the state has an overall surplus of roughly 2,000
beds. But he also has said that Arizona has a shortage of permanent
medium-security beds and that the problem is expected to get worse in 2016.
The Department of Corrections on Tuesday declined to comment on the letter.
The letter sent to Brewer has more than 50 signatures, including current and
former state legislators as well as a Pima County supervisor, Tucson's mayor and
a few Tucson City Council members. Nearly all the officials are Democrats.
Other private-prison opponents include the Arizona Civil Liberties Union,
clergy and religious groups. In addition to questioning the cost of new
private-prison beds, the letter says state records show all five of Arizona's
privately managed facilities had higher staff turnover and lower scores for
guards on core competency tests compared with public-prison correctional
officers. "There is ample evidence to suggest that for-profit
corporations are not accountable to the citizens and taxpayers of
Arizona," the letter states. "As private companies, they are not
subject to the same transparency requirements or checks and balances as the
Department of Corrections, despite the fact that they are performing the same
functions and are paid with taxpayer dollars."
August 9, 2012 KPHO
Arizona's House minority leader is calling on Attorney General Tom Horne to
investigate for-profit, private prison operators for possible legal and
contract violations. Chad Campbell said there's evidence that for-profit,
private prisons are not saving the state money. "If that is the case,
then there is no reason the Republicans should be funding private prison
expansion," Campbell said in a statement. "It shows a lack of
judgment, especially when they are financing the expansions by doing things
like raiding $50 million from the mortgage settlement fund, which was
supposed to help people save their homes from foreclosure." Campbell
sent a letter to the Arizona Attorney General's Office last month calling for
an investigation and the immediate suspension of the Arizona Department of
Corrections' solicitation for up to 2,000 new private prison beds. Campbell
said he is renewing his call for the investigation, as the state is poised to
sign a contract with a for-profit, private prison operator by Sept. 1. In the
letter, Campbell cites alleged violations of: •State law and individual
contract provisions requiring proposed private prisons to demonstrate cost
savings to the state. •State law requiring private prisons to provide the
same or better quality than state prisons. •Contract provisions requiring
private prisons to maintain safety standards and rehabilitate prisoners.
•State uniform contract provisions requiring private prisons to provide
adequate staffing levels. There is enough money set aside in the 2013 budget
for 1,000 new private prison beds, but the state has the option to add
another 1,000 beds, for a total of 2,000 new beds in the next few years, Campbell
said. The American Friends Service Committee issued a report indicating that
if Arizona were to add the 2,000 private prison beds, the state could be
losing more than $10 million a year, he said.
August 3, 2012 Cell-Out
In Part I, we revealed that state officials have known for some time that
proposed for-profit prisons will not save the state money. We referred to a
state law, now partially repealed, that requires for-profit prison
corporations to demonstrate cost savings during the competitive bidding
process before a contract is awarded. But once they’re built, the law does
not provide any penalty for failure to actually save the state money. So in
essence, the for-profit prison corporations can promise us the moon, but
there’s nothing to ensure that they will deliver on those promises. And
indeed, they haven’t. Cost comparison studies have consistently shown that
Arizona is losing money on private prisons—an average of $3.5 million per
year, according to an AFSC analysis. The cost of a private prison contract is
calculated through the “per-diem payment.” This is the amount that Arizona
agrees to pay the corporation to house one prisoner for one day. But
contracts with for-profit prison operators are renegotiated or amended
regularly, often annually. And those per-diem rates invariably increase. An
analysis of the state’s three oldest private prison contracts, (1) With GEO
Group for Florence West, (2) With GEO Group for Phoenix West, and (3) with
Management and Training Corporation (MTC) for Marana Community Correctional
Treatment Facility, shows that the per diem rates for regular (non-emergency)
beds in these facilities increased an average of 13.9% since the contracts
were awarded, as demonstrated in the chart below. Facility/Unit Initial Per
Diem Current Per Diem Increase, in Dollars Percent Increase Phoenix West
$43.77 $49.28 $7.49 17.9% Florence West, DUI $49.55 $55.79 $6.24 12.6%
Florence West, RTC $39.95 $44.98 $5.03 12.5% Marana $43.54 $49.03 $5.49 12.6%
AVERAGE INCREASE $6.06 13.9% These records, obtained through a public records
request, also show that these contracts were more recently amended to promise
100% occupancy of these private prisons. Beginning in 2008 with Phoenix West,
the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) began working out new agreements
in which the corporations agreed to a lower per-diem payment for ‘emergency
beds’ (intended to temporarily absorb system overflow), from an average of
$30.46 to $10.00 for Florence West and Phoenix West and from $25.10 to $12.60
for Marana. In exchange for this concession, Arizona agreed to a guaranteed
100% occupancy for all the beds in all three facilities, including the much
more expensive “rated beds.” The average per diem rate for these beds is
$49.07. In the cases of the two GEO prisons (Phoenix and Florence West), a
2010 amendment later lowered the guaranteed occupancy for the emergency beds
to 95%, but left in place the 100% occupancy rate for the more expensive
rated beds. Amendment 14 for Marana (signed on June 6, 2011) has an additional,
more interesting provision. The documents refer to a “dispute” between the
Department of Corrections and for-profit operator MTC as to whether or not
the 5-year contract renewal was done in a timely manner (ADC says yes, MTC
apparently said no). The negotiated settlement of this dispute consolidates
450 rated beds with 50 emergency beds into a total of 500 rated beds. These
500 beds will carry a guaranteed occupancy of 100% at a rate of $49.03 per
prisoner, per day. What’s more, this agreement was applied retroactively to
October 6, 2010, effectively erasing all but three months of the reduced
emergency bed per diem in the previous amendment (from July 2010). It also
guaranteed that Arizona would continue to pay about three times as much for
the emergency beds. In essence, ADC is handing over four years’ worth of
extra money to keep MTC happy. How much money? In the July 2010 contract
amendment for the facility, the state had bargained the emergency beds down
to a $12.60 per diem. Now they will be paying $49.03 per diem for the same
beds. Which means that MTC is raking in an extra $36.43 per prisoner, per
day. Multiply by 50 such beds, and MTC will make additional profits of
$664,847.50 per year– a total of $2,659,390 through the remainder of the
contract, which expires in October of 2013. Not bad! Allow us to pause here
to remember that MTC is the corporation whose negligence led to the horrific
escapes from the Kingman prison in the summer of 2010, resulting in the
murder of a couple vacationing in New Mexico. Yeah, that MTC. Perhaps
unsurprisingly, it appears that Arizona is looking to cut MTC loose, at least
from managing the Marana prison (they still manage two units at Kingman, for
which they have a guaranteed occupancy rate of 97%). The final component of
this contract amendment is an agreement that Arizona will buy the Marana
prison back from MTC in October of 2013 for the tidy sum of $150,000. You can
insert your own jokes about ‘short sales’ here.
June 5, 2012 AZPM
Arizona’s 2012 state budget directs $50 million in the next two years toward
construction of 1,000 private prison beds and 500 new state-run
maximum-security beds. But there is disagreement over the need to spend the
money, especially in private prisons. Caroline Isaacs, program director of
the American Friends Service Committee Arizona Office, contends the funding
is unnecessary because statistics indicate crime is down. Gov. Jan Brewer and
other state officials have argued that while overall crime is down and the
number of state prisoners has fallen, the number of those needing
maximum-security housing has gone up. That, they have said, defines the need
for the funding and the construction, which they have said will be for
maximum-security inmates. “Our prison population is declining,” Isaacs says.
“We have had negative growth, and we have actually had a decrease in the
number of people that are in our state prisons.” Isaacs points to statistics
provided by the Department of Corrections and the governor’s budget report
that indicate crime is down and at an “all-time low.” State officials say
private prisons cost less, something Isaacs disputes. The Department of
Corrections itself reports that there is no savings from privatization. “The
DOC has been doing these cost assessments since 2005,” Isaacs says. “We
looked at their numbers and basically calculated that from 2008 to 2010 we
overspent by $10 million on the private prisons that we have in this state.”
Isaacs questions whether corporations that are operating for-profit should
operate the penal system. “The profit motive is basically at odds with what
we think of as the purpose of a correctional institution, which is to correct
behavior – ‘correct’ meaning correct crime, reduce recidivism and ensure that
people do not return.”
May 12, 2012 KPHO
It's supposed to save taxpayers money and reduce the likelihood of lawsuits.
However, there is growing concern that when a private company takes over the
inmate health care program for Arizona's Department of Corrections this
summer, there could be a new set of problems. The Corrections Department is
already under fire for how it treats inmates, based on an ongoing lawsuit
that accuses the state of widespread abuse and mistreatment of thousands of
inmates. The lawsuit calls the current prison health system "grossly
inadequate." The Corrections Department is about to a change, bringing
in an out-of state company to privatize health care
for prison inmates. Daniel Pochoda is legal director of the ACLU of Phoenix
one of the groups that filed the complaint against the state. He's told CBS 5
News that the company coming in, Wexford Health, will do nothing to improve
the treatment of inmates, and actually cost taxpayers more money. "It's
profit motive when you talk about private companies," Pochoda said.
"The bottom line is making a buck and if that means reducing their costs
and not having sufficient number of doctors or specialists, it occurs all too
frequently. CBS 5 News checked into Wexford Health and found a number of past
problems. In 2009, Clark County, NV, declined to renew a contract with
Wexford at its county jail after complaints that Wexford wasn't dispensing
medication to inmates in a timely fashion. In 2007, New Mexico terminated a
statewide contract after an audit found shortages of physicians and dentists.
Wexford was also tied to a payoff scandal in Illinois, where the state
director of corrections, Donald Snyder, served two years in federal prison
after accepting a $30,000 bribe from a Wexford lobbyist. No Wexford officials
were charged in the case.
March 6, 2012 The Republic
A Tucson prison-watchdog group and the NAACP have filed a formal protest with
Arizona's State Procurement Office seeking to block the Department of
Corrections from contracting for 2,000 new private-prison beds. Next Tuesday
is the deadline for bids on the contract. A Corrections spokesman said the
department is reviewing the protest letter and will respond to it in
accordance with the requirements in the state procurement code. Neither
Corrections nor the State Procurement Office commented on whether the bid
award would be delayed. The NAACP and the American Friends Service Committee,
a Quaker group advocating criminal-justice reform, are asking the State
Procurement Office to cancel the bidding, and, at a minimum, halt the process
while it considers the protest. Among other claims, the groups argue that the
state doesn't need additional beds because the prison population is declining
and that existing contracts violate state laws that require private prisons
to cost less and provide the same or better level of services as state
prisons. The Friends committee has been critical of Corrections' efforts to
expand private prisons. Last year, when officials were considering bids for
up to 5,000 private-prison beds, The Republic reported that Corrections had
failed to conduct biennial quality comparisons of private and state-run
prisons, as required by state law. The committee filed suit in state court to
block any contract until the state completed such a study.
February 15, 2012 Arizona Republic
Arizona's private prisons are not cost-effective for taxpayers and are more
difficult to monitor than state prisons, according to a new report by a
prison watchdog group that is calling for a moratorium on any new private
prisons in the state. The report examined the five prisons that have
contracts to house Arizona prisoners and six private prisons that house
federal detainees or inmates from other states, including California and
Hawaii. Based on public-information requests and other data, the report by
the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group that works on
criminal-justice reform, concluded that: Arizona paid $10 million more for
private prison beds between 2008 and 2010 than it would have for equivalent
state beds. Arizona's pending plan to contract for another 2,000
private-prison beds would cost taxpayers at least $38.7 million a year, at
least $6 million a year more than incarcerating those inmates in state
prisons. Plans to add 500 more maximum-security beds in state prisons would
add almost $10 million a year to the bill. The report questioned whether
those beds are needed, since the state's prison population has declined over
the past two years by more than 900 inmates, to 39,854 as of Wednesday. In
the past three years, private prisons in Arizona have experienced at least 28
riots and more than 200 other "disturbances" involving as many as
50 prisoners. Many of these incidents had not previously been reported to the
public. State law doesn't require the six private prisons that hold federal
detainees and prisoners from other states to inform state or local
authorities in the event of an escape, a riot or other disturbance, or a
death in custody. The American Friends Service Committee called for requiring
all private prisons to disclose the same information as state prisons. The
report criticized a recent biennial study by the Arizona Department of
Corrections that found that the quality and cost of private prisons compared
favorably with those of state prisons. The committee noted that the
Corrections Department study didn't include data about scores of security
flaws found at some prisons after three inmates escaped in 2010 from the
private Kingman prison; that the study didn't look at recidivism rates,
deaths in custody, suicides or homicides; and that it downplayed the fact
that private prisons had consistently higher turnover and staff vacancy rates
and higher levels of inmate disciplinary reports. Corrections officials
previously had said inexperienced staff may have been a factor in the escapes
from Kingman and in the inability of staff there to control the prison yard
during a riot in May 2010. Dante Gordon, a former inmate at Kingman, said
that guards there stood by and did nothing as more than 80 White inmates
attacked and beat 25 Black inmates during that riot. The report pointed out
that reports every year since 2005 by the Corrections Department, along with
others by the state's auditor general, concluded that private-prison beds on
average have been more expensive; but that the most recent Corrections
Department study changed the way it calculated expenses to include a
"range" that it termed comparable. The report also noted that
lawmakers exempted two private prisons -- the Central Arizona Correctional Facility,
run by GEO Group Inc., and the Cerbat unit at the
Kingman prison, operated by Management and Training Corp. -- from state laws
requiring private prisons to provide an equivalent or higher level of quality
than the state. "The state has deliberately obscured information that
would cast private prisons in a negative light," wrote Caroline Isaacs,
the author of the report and the Friends Committee program director in
Tucson. Corrections Department spokesman Bill Lamoreaux said the director,
Charles Ryan, had not had sufficient time to review the report to reply to
the issues raised. "This is stale information peddled by familiar
critics," said Steve Owen, spokesman for Corrections Corp. of America,
which operates the six private prisons that are not under state jurisdiction.
Many of the riots and disturbances took place at those six prisons, according
to data the Friends Committee reported it had been provided by correctional
officials from California, Washington and Hawaii. The committee also gleaned
information from lawsuits filed against CCA by Hawaiian inmates. Without
responding to specific issues raised by the report, Owen said, "the
safety and security of our facilities is of critical importance to us, and we
take seriously the lives of the inmates and detainees entrusted to our
care." In response to questions during a press conference at the state
Capitol on Wednesday, Isaacs said it had been difficult to obtain information
about prison operations. "The fact that this information is so difficult
to obtain should give Arizona taxpayers pause about the lack of transparency
and lack of accountability of private prisons," she said. Her group is
calling for legislation to require stricter state oversight and reporting
requirements for private prisons operating in Arizona. House Minority Leader
Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, said he has introduced six bills calling for
better oversight and reporting, though he doesn't expect any of his bills to
get a hearing.
December 23, 2011 Arizona Daily Sun
Saying crime rates are dropping, the state Department of Corrections on
Thursday cancelled plans to contract for 5,000 new private prison beds.
Agency director Charles Ryan said the plans, first approved in 2009, came at
a time when the number of people being locked up was increasing. Based on
that, he said, the department came up with some projections of what it would
need long term. But the big increase never materialized. In fact, during the
12 months ending on June 30, 2010, the total prison population increased by
just 65. And in the last budget year, the tally actually slipped by 296. Ryan
said that made it "prudent to reassess" the plans and its forecast
that it would need 8,500 new beds by 2017. But Ryan said his agency still
believes more beds will be necessary. So it is now asking private companies
to submit bids for just 2,000 minimum and medium security beds, to be
completed something before the middle of 2014. And the department will ask
the Legislature for permission to build a new maximum security unit, to be
operated by the state beginning the following year, which can house up to 500
inmates. The decision to start a new bid process also likely undercuts any
new legal effort to block the state from awarding a contract to a private
firm to house inmates. In a lawsuit filed earlier this year, the American
Friends Service Committee said a 1987 state law requires that agency to first
conduct a study to determine if a private firm can provide at least the same
quality as the state at a lower cost. Factors that must be studied range from
security and inmate programs to health services and food services. The state
had never completed such a study. But a trial judge refused to block the
state from awarding a contract to the five firms which had previously
submitted bids. Now, with that study completed just this week and those
original bids discarded, the state is free to start the bidding process all
over again without that legal impediment.
December 15, 2011 In These Times
The Arizona Bureau of Planning, Budget and Research notes a whopping savings
of three cents per head among the relatively low-maintenance minimum security
crowd held in private pens: $46.56 per diem for a private bed, versus $46.59
at state-run institutions. The recent dismissal of a lawsuit filed against both
Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) Director Charles Ryan and Arizona
Governor Jan Brewer (R) is the latest step in the state’s hell-bent plan to
roughly double its number of privately managed prison “beds.” The suit, filed
in an Arizona Superior Court by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
on September 12, sought an injunction against ADC and the governor’s pending
award of 5,000 new prison beds to be operated by a for-profit vendor. The
state currently contracts out more than 6,500 minimum- and medium-security
beds at seven facilities with Geo Group, the nation’s second largest private
prison operator, and Management and Training Corporation (MTC). AFSC argued
that ADC is negligent in its statutorily required duty to conduct biennial cost
and quality assessments of the state’s private prisons. The purpose of these
assessments is to determine whether the state is receiving the same quality
of service from private prison operators as provided by public facilities.
Nevertheless, ADC has not completed a single survey. While the law defines a
clear list of specific items to be assessed (such as security standards and
personnel training), and a set time frame for assessments to be performed
(every two years), it does not say that these assessments are the sole bar
that must be used to measure standards of private penitentiaries. Without the
existence of these biennial reports, it’s anyone’s guess what cost comparison
model is used by ADC, the legislature and the governor’s office. When asked
what criteria the department uses to determine if the private correctional
beds managed in Arizona are operating with the same level of security and
care as state-run facilities, and whether those facilities are providing any
savings to the public, ADC spokesman Barrett Marson directed In These Times
to the ADC’s “Fiscal Year 2010 Operating Per Capita Cost Report.” The most
recent FY 2010 per capita report available–published by the Arizona Bureau of
Planning, Budget and Research on April 13, 2011–offers nothing to suggest the
state should continue its rush toward the privatization of correctional
services. The report states that the total adjusted per diem (per prisoner,
per day) cost for state-run medium security facilities was $48.42. The per
diem for medium security prisoners held by private contractors amounted to
$53.02. The bureau did note a whopping savings of three cents per head among
the relatively low-maintenance minimum security crowd held in private pens–at
$46.56 per diem for a private bed, versus $46.59 at state-run institutions.
But the report goes on to quickly deflate the standing of that $0.03 margin,
stating: “[There are several] inmate management functions that are provided
and paid for by the state but are not provided by the private contractors.
This inequity increases the state per capita cost which, in comparison,
artificially lowers the private bed cost.” Nevertheless, AFSC’s suit was
dismissed on October 27 by Arizona Superior Court Judge Arthur Anderson. The
basis for the dismissal, however, was not based on the merits of the suit,
but rather in Anderson’s concurrence with Assistant Attorney General Rex Nowlan. Nowlan had argued that
AFSC and other plaintiffs did not have standing to seek relief for a
violation of the law requiring assessment. AFSC is appealing the dismissal.
“We will vigorously fight the state’s effort to dismiss the case on
procedural standing grounds,” said Vince Rabago, a
former state prosecutor who is representing AFSC in the case. “Given the
obvious public safety issues and impact on taxpayers, the parties should have
a hearing on the merits of the state violating its own laws for more than two
decades.”
December 1, 2011 AP
Arizona Corrections Director Charles Ryan says the state won't act on
proposals for additional private prisons until his department completes a
report comparing private prisons and publicly operated ones. Ryan told a
legislative oversight committee recently that the report is nearly complete
and will be submitted to the Legislature before January The comparison study
has long been required by state law but has never been done before. Several
private prison companies have submitted proposals for 5,000 additional beds
authorized under a 2009 state law. The project was delayed and revamped after
security at a privately-operated state prison near Kingman was found to be
deficient following an escape.
November 19, 2011 Arizona Republic
The Arizona Department of Correction's long-delayed plans to contract for
5,000 additional private-prison beds are again under fire. A Quaker
prison-watchdog group, whose lawsuit seeking to block any contract was
dismissed in Maricopa County Superior Court last month, Friday filed an
appeal and a fresh request for an injunction. That injunction would block any
contract until Corrections completes required studies comparing the
performance of its existing private-prison contracts to state prisons. Judge
Arthur Anderson dismissed the initial suit on the ground that the Tucson
office of the American Friends Service Committee lacked standing to sue the
state. The committee noted the dismissal didn't address substantive issues
raised by the suit, which alleges that the state is in violation of its own
laws, which require that any private-prison contracts save the state money
and that the state conduct biannual studies comparing the operations of
private and state prisons. The department has never conducted these studies,
which are supposed to analyze costs, the security and safety of each prison,
how inmates are managed, inmate discipline, programs, staff training,
administration, and other factors. The suit and the appeal charge that
without these studies, the state can't say whether private prisons are more
cost-effective than state facilities. The department didn't immediately reply
to requests for comment. Bids on contracts were halted last year to beef up
security requirements after three inmates escaped from a private prison in
Kingman. The department had expected to award contracts as early as Sept. 12,
but that process has been repeatedly delayed. This week, the department asked
the four bidders to extend their bids to Dec. 22.
October 28, 2011 AP
A judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by a Quaker group that had been a
potential roadblock to the state's plan to add 5,000 more private prison
beds. Judge Arthur Anderson of Maricopa County Superior Court said the
American Friends Service Committee lacked a legal right to request an
injunction to block the state from awarding new private prison contracts
before the state satisfies a long-ignored law requiring periodic studies
comparing costs and services of private and publicly run prisons. The Quaker
group cited a 2010 escape from a privately operated state prison near
Kingman, and concerns about public safety and tax dollars, in its lawsuit.
The state requested dismissal of the suit and is now conducting a comparison
study while reviewing proposals for new or expanded private prisons in
communities around the state. The proposals under evaluation are from four
finalists chosen from companies that responded to the Department of
Corrections under a 2009 law. Caroline Issacs, Arizona program director for
the Quaker group, noted that Anderson's ruling was based only on the issue of
legal standing. The group remains concerned about the safety and
effectiveness of private prisons and is considering the possibility of an
appeal or other legal action, she said. Arizona's use of private prisons and
its 2009 decision to increase that reliance have come under increased
scrutiny because of a 2010 escape from the Kingman prison, a facility later
found to have been plagued by security flaws. Two of the three inmates who
escaped have been charged with murdering an Oklahoma couple in New Mexico.
Arizona now uses private prisons to house about 6,000 of its 40,000 inmates.
An attorney for the Quaker group argued that the comparison study would
provide the state with "a baseline set of knowledge" needed to help
protect the public's safety and tax dollars. If the state had done the
studies in the past, the Kingman escape might not have happened and the
public might have questioned whether private prisons have provided cost
savings for the state, the attorney told Anderson during an Oct. 7 hearing. A
lawyer for the state said the state's ongoing evaluation of the four
companies' contract proposals involves comparing costs and that the proposals
are scored on whether they meet the state's performance standards.
October 14, 2011 East Valley Tribune
A Quaker group asked a judge on Friday to block the state from putting more
inmates in private prisons, saying the Department of Corrections has never
shown it is safe or even cost effective. Vince Rabago,
representing the American Friends Service Committee, told Maricopa County
Superior Court Judge Arthur Anderson that the law requires the state to make
a comparison every two years between the services and safety of state-run
facilities and those operated by private companies. But there has never been
such a study even though that law has been on the books for more than 20
years. Without the study, Rabago argued, there is
no basis to know whether it makes sense for the state to go ahead with its
plans to contract for another 5,000 private prison beds. So he wants Anderson
to block that contract from being awarded until the first study, which the
Department of Corrections is finally doing this year, is completed. “The
state has an obligation to follow its laws,” Rabago
told the judge. The 1987 law dealing with awarding of contracts for private
prisons requires the director of the Department of Corrections to look at the
job contractors are doing every two years, considering everything from the
programs and services offered to inmates to food service and security. Rabago told Anderson the state needs the study as a
baseline to compare to what bidders for the new contract are offering.
Assistant Attorney General Rex Nowlan conceded that
the state never had performed the study. But he said that is legally
irrelevant, arguing that the Department of Corrections is effectively looking
at all those issues. He also pointed out that same law already prohibits the
state from contracting for private prison beds “unless the proposal offers
cost savings to this state.” Anyway, Nowlan
questioned how the Quaker group — or the other plaintiffs who are the parents
of an adult inmate in a private prison — has any right to sue simply because
the Department of Corrections has not complied with the law requiring a
study. He said the only people who would have a right to complain are the
lawmakers who are supposed to get the report. Rabago
disagreed. “Taxpayers have a right to prevent the illegal expenditure of
taxpayer monies,” he told the judge. Nowlan
responded that the Legislature specifically directed the Department of
Corrections to contract for another 5,000 beds at privately run prisons. That
is on top of the 6,400 inmates already housed in private facilities. With
that direction, Nowlan said, what the agency is
doing cannot be called illegal. Rabago said this is
more than a question of a missing report. “Maybe had the state done its job,
maybe had it been doing these studies properly ... maybe we would not be in a
position where we would have had Kingman (private prison) escapees murdering
innocent people,” he said. “Maybe we wouldn’t have riots and unsafe
conditions which we know exist.” That murder reference is to an incident last
year when three violent criminals escaped from a private prison run by
Management and Training Corp. after an accomplice threw a wire cutter over
the fence. All eventually were recaptured, but not before an Oklahoma couple,
kidnapped at a New Mexico rest area, was murdered; several of those involved
have been charged in that incident. A study following that incident found
various failures with the operation of the facility, including a perimeter
alarm system that malfunctioned so often that corrections officers routinely
ignored it. The study also concluded the state itself had done a poor job of
oversight. State officials have not said when they will finally award the new
contract. But Barrett Marson, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections,
said his agency asked all the bidders to extend the expiration date on their
offers until Nov. 22 to provide more time to review the proposals. Anderson
gave no indication of when he will rule.
October 12, 2011 Coolidge Examiner
D-Day has been extended. The “D” stands for decision as in whether a prison is
built in Coolidge. Regardless of what side Coolidge citizens are on they want
an answer. The answer to whether Coolidge gets a private prison apparently
will come later rather than sooner. A decision that could have come as early
as Sept. 16 has now been extended to Nov. 22, according to the Arizona
Department of Corrections. The DOC has apparently asked Management and
Training Corporation (MTC) and the other companies that bid on a private
prison “to extend its bid through November 22, 2011, while they continue to
evaluate the proposals.” Though no DOC officials were available for comment,
Coolidge Mayor Tom Shope has a few ideas of the
hold up. “There is a lot of political play about the need for prisons,” Shope said. “With the question about jail time that has
been raised as well as the private vs. state debate, there is a lot going on.
That is probably what is responsible more than anything for holding this up.”
What Shope referred to was an expose that appeared
in the Sunday Arizona Republic that examined how Arizona has some of the
harshest sentences of any state in the country and the huge price tag
incurred. Also, there is the ongoing battle between the private and federal
prison advocates. Shope said he had hoped a
decision would have been made by now, but that he understands that there are
external factors at work as well. “Obviously, I was hoping for a decision
sooner,” Shope said. “This just prolongs the wait
process. I am not losing sleep over it. It’s not the end of the world. Every
company that made a bid has to wait. Every city has to wait. We’re all in the
same boat. And I don’t have any hint of who is in the lead.” There has been
some talk that Eloy is in the lead because it would be most cost effective.
One undocumented report said that beds are already being cleared in one of
the city’s facilities. But Eloy Mayor Byron Jackson said he hasn’t heard
anything either from Corrections Corporation of America or the DOC. Jackson
still believes his city would make the most sense because it is most cost-effective.
“It only makes sense,” Jackson said. “It’s not like they would have to build
a new prison. They would just move people (from California) out and move new
people in. It’s not that big of a deal. We already have or could provide the
bed space. I haven’t heard that a final decision has been made.”
September 24, 2011 Arizona Republic
Arizona's Department of Corrections needs to do more to improve security at
private-contract and state-run prisons, a report released Friday by the
state's auditor general concludes. The report credits the department with
making many significant improvements since the July 2010 escapes of three
prisoners from the Kingman prison. These improvements include revamping the
state's monitoring and inspection programs, which had failed to detect
obvious security flaws at Kingman before the escapes; new, tougher annual
audits of each prison; better security and reporting requirements in new
contracts; and stiffer requirements and better training for state monitors
who oversee private prisons.The audit called for
further steps to address ongoing security problems.
September 15, 2011 Arizona Daily Sun
A judge refused Wednesday to block the state from awarding new contracts to
put inmates in private prisons. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Arthur
Anderson said members of the Quaker organization who filed suit earlier this
week had not shown their interests would be "irreparably harmed" if
he refused to issue an emergency order. That made the challengers legally ineligible
for immediate relief. But the ruling does not end the dispute. Anderson
scheduled a hearing for next week when he wants to hear from both the
American Friends Service Committee as well as the Department of Corrections.
He could at that time, after hearing evidence, then bar the state from
proceeding with the additional private prisons. That presumes, however, it is
not too late. The law directing the Department of Corrections to contract out
for 5,000 private prison beds allows the agency to award the bid as early as
this Friday. And agency spokesman Barrett Marson would not commit to holding
off until after next week's hearing. About 6,500 of the state's approximately
40,000 inmates already are in private prisons. The lawsuit is based on the
contention by the group that privately run prisons are both more costly and
less secure than those operated by the state. What gives the group ammunition
is that a 1987 state law requires a study to determine whether private
companies can not only do the job at a lower cost but that the private
companies meet the same standards on everything from security to food. That
law was ignored until Gov. Jan Brewer directed a study be done. That study,
however, will not be completed before the end of the year. The group wants
Anderson to preclude new contracts until that happens. Anderson, however,
said he cannot act now -- before the Department of Corrections gets a chance
to respond -- absent some showing of irreparable harm. Carolyn Isaacs, the
group's Arizona program manager, said there is such proof. "Certainly,
the taxpayers are harmed by wasting $650 million," she said. Isaacs also
noted that other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include a couple whose son in
locked up in a private prison in Kingman. They allege that guards in that facility
have allowed attacks to occur on African-American inmates. "There is
irreparable harm happening daily in these facilities, or at least the
potential for it," Isaacs said. She also pointed to the review done by
the state of the operation of that Kingman facility after three dangerous
inmates escaped last year. One of the escapees and an accomplice have been
charged in connection with the murder of an Oklahoma couple. "At any
minute, another Kingman (incident) could possibly happen," Isaacs said.
September 15, 2011 Arizona Republic
A prison watchdog group's effort to block state plans for more private-prison
beds fell short Wednesday. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Arthur
Anderson denied a request by the American Friends Service Committee for a
temporary restraining order against the Department of Corrections, pending a
hearing Tuesday on an injunction filed by the committee. That injunction
seeks to block Corrections from contracting for more private-prison beds
until the department completes a comprehensive cost-benefit study of private
vs. state-run prisons, due to be completed by January. Corrections officials
have said they may announce as early as Friday the award of one or more
contracts for up to 5,000 new private-prison beds. The committee had
requested the restraining order to stop Corrections from awarding any
contracts before its injunction is considered. The committee's Arizona
program director, Caroline Isaacs, called on Corrections to voluntarily hold
off on any award until after the hearing. Corrections declined to comment on
the injunction.
September 13, 2011 Arizona Republic
A group opposed to privatizing prisons filed suit Monday seeking to block, at
least temporarily, state plans to contract for 5,000 new private-prison beds
as early as Friday. The state "should not be allowed to hand over
another cent of taxpayers' money until the Department (of Corrections) can
prove to us that these prisons are safe, that the corporations are doing the
job we're paying them to do, and that the state is capable of holding them
accountable," said Caroline Isaacs, director of the Tucson office of the
American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group that monitors prisons.
Besides requesting a temporary restraining order, the suit filed in Maricopa
County Superior Court accuses Arizona's Department of Corrections of failing
to follow two state statutes: - State law requires that any private-prison
contract either save money or provide better services for the same cost as
state-run prisons. Cost comparisons done by Corrections every year since 2005
consistently show that private prisons are more expensive, the suit noted. -
Corrections has failed for decades to carry out biannual studies, required by
law, comparing the performance of private vs. state prisons on security,
safety, how inmates are managed, programs and services, and many other
issues. The Corrections Department declined to comment on the suit.
Corrections officials previously have admitted that the biannual studies have
not been done. Corrections Director Charles Ryan has said the department
expects to complete its first such study by January. The department had said
it would announce the award of one or more contracts on or after Friday. Four
companies are finalists to build or provide prisons at five possible sites.
The committee was joined in the suit by Oralee and Joyce Clayton, parents of
an inmate at the privately run Kingman state prison who say they're concerned
for their son's safety. The group asked the court to issue a temporary
restraining order stopping Corrections from awarding any contract, at least
until it completes its first biannual cost-benefit comparison study. The suit
also asks the court to force the department to disclose the details of all of
its current contracts with private-prison operators.
September 12, 2011 Blog for Arizona
The state of Arizona is poised to award a lucrative private prison contract
on September 16, despite the Department of Corrections failure to comply with
Arizona law. (Arizona law requires the department to conduct a cost-benefit
analysis comparing state and private prisons every two years, which has never
been done). The American Friends Service Committee is going to do something
about it. Quakers threaten lawsuit over private prisons - Arizona Capitol
Times (subscription required): A Quaker organization and a West Valley
advocacy group are making last-minute efforts to stop the state from building
private prisons. American Friends Service Committee, a social action arm of
the Quaker faith, notified the Attorney General’s Office today it intends to
sue to keep the Department of Corrections from awarding contracts to build
private prisons to house 5,000 inmates. The contract award is scheduled for
Sept. 16. Four companies have bid to build prisons at five possible sites.
Stacy Scheff, a Tucson attorney representing the
group, said she is going to ask a Maricopa County Superior Court judge to
prevent the state from awarding the contracts until the completion of a
required cost-benefit analysis comparing state and private prisons.
[Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan said the department is
working on the study and it should be complete no later than January.] The
group has scheduled a press conference for Monday at 1:30 p.m. in the House
of Representatives.
August 17, 2011 ABC 15
Family members of a couple allegedly murdered by two Arizona prison escapees
are speaking out against a proposed prison. The Haas family is on a mission
that they never wanted, but feel they need pursue. “It’s something you think
about everyday,” said Linda Haas Rook. Rook’s
brother Gary Haas and his wife Linda were murdered last year. Investigators
believe the killers are two men who escaped from a prison in Kingman just
days earlier. The Kingman prison is operated by the Management and Training
Corporation, which now has hopes to build prisons in San Luis and Coolidge.
The Haas family hopes to prevent the company from doing so. Linda Rook
planned to travel more than 1,400 miles with her husband and her mother to
the public hearing Tuesday night in San Luis to voice her concerns. “[MTC]
needs to right their wrongs,” she told ABC15 from her stopover in Scottsdale.
MTC has made several security upgrades to their facility in Kingman, and a
spokesperson said the company has a great track record with the state. If MTC
is approved to build the new prison, the company stated it plans to bring
about 500 jobs to the San Luis area.
August 17, 2011 Arizona Republic
Rep. Chad Campbell, the Arizona House minority leader, asked Gov. Jan Brewer
on Tuesday to temporarily halt a proposed 5,000-bed expansion of private
prisons in Arizona. Public hearings on the expansion continue this week, with
one held Tuesday in San Luis. It is among five communities where four
companies are bidding to provide the beds. The Arizona Department of
Corrections is expected to issue one or more contracts in late September.
But, as The Arizona Republic recently reported, the department has never
completed the biannual, cost-benefit analyses required by law to compare
private and public prisons. Corrections Director Charles Ryan said he expects
the first such analysis to be completed in January. In a letter to Brewer,
Campbell, a Phoenix Democrat, asked her to hold off on any new contract until
the analysis is ready and "after enhanced security, training and
monitoring policies are in place and shown to be effective at all existing
private facilities." Brewer could not immediately be reached. At
Tuesday's public hearing, the two companies bidding to build prisons near San
Luis - Management and Training Corp. and Geo Group Inc. - tried to fight back
against criticism of their records in Arizona and elsewhere. MTC, in
particular, was criticized for the escapes of three prisoners from its
Kingman prison last year. Two of those prisoners are accused of kidnapping
and murdering an Oklahoma couple, Gary and Linda Haas. Vivian Haas, Gary's
mother, has said little in public in the year since the murders. But at the
San Luis hearing, she spoke out. "I've been through a lot of painful
times in 81 years, even surviving the terrible tornado that hit Joplin
recently. But nothing compares to the pain of having my kids brutally
murdered because MTC couldn't do its job of keeping criminals locked
up," Haas said. MTC Vice President Mike Murphy, who spoke before Haas,
emphasized the 500 jobs and the tax benefits he said the proposed prison
would bring, and promised good security. Geo Group similarly focused on jobs
and security in its presentation.
August 11, 2011 Arizona Republic
Geo Group Inc.’s proposal to build a 2,000- to 5,000-bed private prison in
Goodyear ran into fierce public opposition Wednesday, with much of the anger
at a public hearing coming from residents who said the state has broken a
promise made at the time the nearby Perryville state prison was built. Geo
tried to head off criticism, saying its prison would be built to far higher
security standards than the state requires, with several extra layers of
fencing and security devices and with more staff. Company CEO George Zoley also stressed the economic benefits of adding up to
1,000 construction jobs and up to 1,100 permanent jobs if the largest
alternative were selected. But despite giving a far more detailed
presentation than rival bidder Corrections Corp. of America provided at a
hearing in Eloy one night before, Geo Group ran into a buzz saw. Litchfield
Park Mayor Thomas Schoaf, in a statement read by
City Manager Darryl Crossman, called the proposal “a slap in the face to our
residents,” a direct threat to the public safety of the area “and a threat to
the public welfare of our communities.” Schoaf, in
an argument echoed by others, said that when the state built the Perryville
prison in 1980, the Legislature overcame local opposition by promising to
limit the facility to 1,400 minimum-security women prisoners. But by 1989,
the state began sending male, higher-security inmates there. Perryville now
houses just under 3,500 inmates. Schoaf called a
further prison expansion preposterous. “I’m the guy who founded this company
in 1984 . . . and I’m accountable to you,” Zoley
promised at the hearing. But when he declined to answer a question about the
ratio of correctional officers to prisoners, Dianne Post, the NAACP’s
Maricopa County representative, argued, “He says, ‘I’m accountable to you.’
How? He won’t tell us his staff ratio. They’re not accountable.” Other
speakers alternated between those in construction – “We all need jobs, we
need jobs in this area,” said John Coffman – and those peppering the company
with questions, criticizing its record and political donations, or arguing,
as Goodyear resident Barb Julien said, “If this area had a Scottsdale ZIP
code, we wouldn’t be holding this meeting tonight.”
August 10, 2011 Arizona Republic
Private prisons are already a familiar sight in Eloy. Residents, many of them
employees of Corrections Corporation of America, expressed their support for
the company at a public hearing Tuesday night. "This is what CCA does to
the community," said Eloy resident and CCA employee Lt. Charlie Payne in
front of the crowd. "We become winners." "We truly, truly need
this," said resident Linda Gibson, also a CCA employee, when it was her
turn to speak. Residents at the hearing wanted the state to award CCA an
agreement to manage 4500 Arizona inmates. The inmates would be housed at Red
Rock and La Palma correctional facilities. "We're certainly very proud
of the fact we already employ 2700 people in Pinal County alone and to the
extent that the state needs to additional services, the scope of the services
will determine how many more jobs that might entail," said Steven Owen,
director of public affairs for CCA. "You can see that there are a lot of
folks here that currently work in these facilities," said American
Friends Service Committee program director Caroline Isaacs as she stood
outside of the public hearing at Curiel Annex School. "I think the jobs
argument is one they've been selling to small, economically-strapped rural
towns for decades." Opponents ranging from American Friends Service
Committee to the American Civil Liberties Union said that private prisons
don't really offer savings and are not accountable to taxpayers like the
state department of corrections. They questioned whether the new contract
would bring more jobs since current facilities will be used and suggested
that if current inmates are transported from state facilities to private
ones, state corrections jobs could be at stake. "Which current Arizona
facilities will be affected?" asked private prison critic Susan Maurer
as she stood in front of the hearing audience. "Will there be closures
there and how many jobs from those facilities would be lost?" "I
cannot discuss informational content in relationship to a vendor's proposal
until we complete the public hearing process at five sites," answered
Charles Ryan, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections.
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.
May 18, 2011 New York Times
The conviction that private prisons save money helped drive more than 30
states to turn to them for housing inmates. But Arizona shows that popular
wisdom might be wrong: Data there suggest that privately operated prisons can
cost more to operate than state-run prisons — even though they often steer
clear of the sickest, costliest inmates. The state’s experience has
particular relevance now, as many politicians have promised to ease budget
problems by trimming state agencies. Florida and Ohio are planning major
shifts toward private prisons, and Arizona is expected to sign deals doubling
its private-inmate population. The measures would be a shot in the arm for an
industry that has struggled, in some places, to fill prison beds as the
number of inmates nationwide has leveled off. But hopes of big taxpayer
benefits might end in disappointment, independent experts say. “There’s a
perception that the private sector is always going to do it more efficiently
and less costly,” said Russ Van Vleet, a former
co-director of the University of Utah Criminal Justice Center. “But there
really isn’t much out there that says that’s correct.” Such has been the case
lately in Arizona. Despite a state law stipulating that private prisons must
create “cost savings,” the state’s own data indicate that inmates in private
prisons can cost as much as $1,600 more per year, while many cost about the
same as they do in state-run prisons. The research, by the Arizona Department
of Corrections, also reveals a murky aspect of private prisons that helps
them appear less expensive: They often house only relatively healthy inmates.
“It’s cherry-picking,” said State Representative Chad Campbell, leader of the
House Democrats. “They leave the most expensive prisoners with taxpayers and
take the easy prisoners.” In the 1980s, soaring violent crime, tougher
sentencing and overcrowding led lawmakers to use private prisons to expand.
Then, as now, privatization advocates argued that corporations were more
efficient. Over time, most states signed contracts, one of the largest
transfers of state functions to private industry. Nationally, the number of
state inmates in private prisons grew by a third over the past decade to more
than 90,000, but it has stagnated, and some states have reduced total prison
populations — shifting nonviolent offenders to treatment programs while
bolstering probation. Now, Ohio lawmakers want to privatize prisons with
6,000 inmates, and Florida will transfer institutions with 15,000 inmates to
private management. The Arizona plan would add 5,000 private prison beds.
Matthew Benson, spokesman for Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona, a Republican, did
not dispute the state research. But he said officials had a “pretty wide
lens” to interpret the cost-savings mandate, like taking into account the
ability of private companies to recoup hundreds of millions in construction costs
over the life of contracts. “It is a significant advantage to have a private
firm be able to come in and front the costs,” he said. Privatization
advocates play down the data. Leonard Gilroy, director of government reform
for the Reason Foundation, a libertarian research organization, questioned
whether all costs were included and said the figures were too narrowly drawn,
particularly on medium-security prisons, to prompt conclusions. “It is
looking at a limited slice,” Mr. Gilroy said. Competing studies — some
financed by the prison industry — have argued over claims of savings. But
when a University of Utah team including Mr. Van Vleet
reviewed years of research, it concluded in 2007 that “cost savings from
privatizing prisons are not guaranteed and appear minimal.” Steve Owen,
spokesman for the largest operator, Corrections Corporation of America, said:
“There is a mixed bag of research out there. It’s not as black and white and
cut and dried as we would like.” A number of states mandate that contracts
save money. But Arizona is one of the few — if not only — places to measure
the outcome so rigorously. While private prisons collect a daily rate per
inmate, some expenses disproportionately borne by states are not counted. The
most significant are terms limiting sicker inmates. Five of eight private
prisons serving Arizona did not accept inmates with “limited physical
capacity and stamina” or severe physical illness or chronic conditions,
according to the state’s analysis, issued last month. None took inmates with
“high need” mental health conditions. Some inmates who became sick were
“returned to state prisons due to an increase of their medical scores that
exceeds contractual exclusions.” “Unlike the private contractors,” the
analysis said, the state “is required to provide medical and mental health
services to inmates regardless of the severity of their condition.” Medical
costs averaged up to $2.44 a day more for state inmates, a third higher than
private prisons. That gap can be wider. In Florida, officials found that two
private prisons spent only about half as much on health care per inmate as
comparable state prisons, a difference of $9 million over two years. Florida
officials say that the new plan will better balance costs, and that private
prisons comply with a 7-percent-savings law. But skeptics like State Senator
Mike Fasano, a Republican, fear cherry-picking may be the only way they can
do that. In Arizona, minimum-security state inmates cost 2.6 percent — or
$1.39 per day — more than those in private prisons, before accounting for
extra costs borne by the state. But after eliminating these, state prisoners
cost only three cents more per day, the analysis found. And state
medium-security inmates cost 4.4 percent less before adjustments and 8.7 percent
less afterward. That is more than $2 million annually at one prison, or
$1,679 per inmate. Using 2009 corrections data, state auditors calculated the
difference at up to $2,834 per inmate. Charles L. Ryan, the Arizona
corrections director, said private prisons “often negotiate restrictions on
the type of inmates” and limit “inmates with medical conditions to a specific
cost level.” The new contracts seek to reduce this practice. Mr. Owen did not
dispute the Arizona research, but said the industry saved money. He pointed
to a study — partly financed by the industry — that found states with private
prisons had lower growth in public prison costs. “We do provide value to our
government partners,” he said. However, Mr. Owen acknowledged that most
contracts had cost caps, and that terms barring the sickest prisoners were
not unusual. He said his company never voiced a preference for such terms.
“The myth is that we are somehow hand-selecting” inmates. According to
Arizona officials, the data account for costs as varied as guards’ pensions
and inmate food. They track past results publicized in the state, but those
have not prompted any privatization rethinking: contracts on the state’s
expansion could be awarded by the summer.
November 9, 2010 Arizona Republic
A criminal-justice watchdog group has called on state leaders to cancel a
contract for 5,000 private-prison beds and launch an investigation into the
private-prison industry's "lack of accountability" and influence on
state politics. The Arizona office of the American Friends Service Committee,
a national Quaker non-profit group that focuses on human rights, held a news
conference Monday announcing their concerns. The group said it wants the
Attorney General's Office and Secretary of State's Office to investigate
issues including the private-prison industry's campaign contributions to
state legislators, lobbyists' efforts to push legislation that boosts
incarceration rates, and the need for private prisons in Arizona. "We're
just asking for basic transparencies in an industry that has a stake in
making money off incarcerating people," said Caroline Isaacs, a
committee spokeswoman.
November 3, 2010 KPHO
A state audit of the Arizona Department of Corrections found private prisons
cost taxpayers more money per inmate. The audit report says housing a
medium-custody inmate at a private prison costs $55.89 per day. The daily
cost of housing the same inmate at a state facility was calculated at $48.13
a day. State auditor Dale Chapman said there more extensive research is
needed on the costs of private prisons. Chapman has examined Arizona's
Department of Corrections budget and recommended state lawmakers invest money
examining private prisons' price tag. "We think there would be a value
in determining and spending time and resources on determining the costs of
housing an inmate in a state facility versus a private facility," said
Chapman.
September 27, 2010 Havasu News-Herald
A Golden Valley prison will get a new prison administrator within a few
weeks, the facility’s officials said Monday. Management & Training Corp.
staff members were informed Friday via e-mail that Jerry Sternes
would be appointed as complex administrator, and Neil Turner as warden at the
Hualapai unit. Al Murphy, MTC’s corrections vice-president, sent the e-mail. Sternes has more than 25 years
experience in corrections and recently retired as complex
administrator at the Arizona State Prison in Yuma, which is a 5,000-bed
prison, according to the e-mail. Turner is a returning MTC employee who worked
at a correctional facility in Grafton, Ohio. He has 20 years
experience, according to the e-mail. Turner will replace former unit
warden Lori Lieder, who resigned following the escape of three prisoners,
Daniel Renwick, John McCluskey and Tracy Province, from the prison July 30.
Carl Stuart, MTC communication director, wrote Monday in an e-mail that Darla
Elliott, former MTC/Arizona State Prison — Kingman complex administrator,
“was placed on administrative leave by MTC sometime in mid-August … Ms. Elliot
remains an employee with MTC. She has not yet been reassigned. She will not
be returning to the Kingman facility.” Sternes will
take her position. Charles Ryan, Arizona Department of Corrections director,
presented Mohave County Supervisors with an overview of it internal
investigation into the prison break Sept. 20 in Kingman. Although the
investigation continues, it has exposed factors contributing to the escape
including human error, a faulty perimeter security system and opportunistic
inmates, according to earlier reports. After the escape, an investigation
showed that prison officials neglected to inform state legislators, Mohave
County Board of Supervisors and Mohave County Sheriff’s Office about facility
changes. This neglect violated state law and the prison’s contract. In 2005,
the prison failed to notify authorities when it changed status from a
minimum-custody DUI prison to a minimum/medium-custody prison, which means it
could house more dangerous criminals. MTC failed to notify authorities again
in 2006 and in 2008 about prisoner movement and contract status amendments
linked to the prison’s addition of a 2,000-bed complex. In 2007, the first
murderers were transferred to the prison near Kingman, according to earlier
reports. Local authorities did not know. “It was almost unbelievable these
people (murderers) had been out there,” said Mohave County Sheriff Sheahan
recently. “I was surprised at the amount of high-risk criminals.” Tracy
Province is currently in custody at the county jail in Kingman, Sheahan said.
“(Province’s) comments were something to the effect that he was somewhat
surprised he was transferred to this type of prison,” Sheahan said. Province
came to ADC in January 1993, and was serving a life sentence for murder and
robbery in Pima County at the time of his escape, according to earlier
reports. On the night of the escape, by the time prison officials had
reported the incident to law enforcement authorities the prisoners were “long
gone,” Sheahan said. According to ADC information, MTC determined the three
inmates missing around 9 p.m. but didn’t alert MCSO until 10:19 p.m. “At that
time, (MCSO) dispatchers were trying to fill out the information for
statewide and national dispatch,” Sheahan said. “(MTC) didn’t event know (the inmates’) names after the individuals had
been missing an hour-and-a-half.” When dispatchers asked MTC officials to
describe the escaped prisoners, all MTC conveyed was that they were wearing
orange. The prison also gave sheriff’s deputies photographs of the escapees
that were nearly 20 years out of day, Sheahan said, adding this added to his
agency’s frustration with the facility.
September 21, 2010 The Arizona Republic
The Arizona Department of Corrections employee assigned to ensure a privately
run prison near Kingman was operated according to state standards was
overwhelmed by paperwork and admitted he screwed up, according to an internal
review released Monday of a prison escape that led to a nationwide manhunt.
David Lee, who was associate deputy warden at the facility when the escape
took place July 30, told the state's internal investigators that he had not
read the contract between the state and prison operator Management &
Training Corp. in his 14 months on the job and that he was unaware of the
persistent issues with false alarms that plagued the complex. A lieutenant
told investigators that the alarm system could go off 200 or 300 times a
shift. The report also indicates that the alarm system hadn't been serviced
in two years after a contract expired with a maintenance provider. Neither
Lee nor any of his superiors knew anything about the alarm problems,
according to the report. Lee was fired and his supervisor resigned following
the escape. Daniel Renwick, 36, Tracy Province, 43, and John McCluskey, 45, broke
out of the prison July 30 after McCluskey's fiancée, Casslyn
Welch, 44, allegedly threw cutting tools and weapons into the prison yard. An
officer initially said the perimeter was clear after the escape and
authorities worked under the assumption that the inmates were still inside
the compound until the officer returned a second time and noticed a hole in
the perimeter fence.
September 15, 2010 Arizona Silver Belt
The Arizona Department of Corrections has made it official. Four bids to
build new private prison complexes in the state for up to 5,000 beds for DOC
inmates, including a 1,000 inmate prison in Globe, all have been formally
rejected. The state agency has been sitting on the proposals for a 20-year
contract from these prison operators since the May 28 deadline for
submission. However, after some three months and two weeks of deliberations,
and coping with a major July prison escape at Kingman, the Arizona Department
of Corrections made its decision last Friday and sent separate letters to the
four firms. They were Emerald Correctional Management, Management and
Training Corporation, GEO Group Corrections and Corrections Corporation of
America. Denel Pickering, Chief Procurement Officer for the Arizona
Department of Corrections told the firms the state agency had decided to
cancel the solicitation for building the private prisons in its entirely and
no contracts would be awarded. According to Pickering, the corrections
department cancelled the solicitation for bids, all which had been opened, because
it was determined the requirements for new prisons have changed
. The state official indicated a new request for proposals for
building private correctional centers in the state would be made again and
when that happens each of these firms would be sent a copy. In the meantime,
DOC said the current solicitation file will remain closed and not open for
public review until a new contract is secured.
September 3, 2010 Arizona Republic
The first legal action in the Arizona prison breakout that led to the killing
of two campers has been filed against the state and the operator of the
private prison. Vivian Haas, the mother of murder victim Gary Haas, filed a
$10 million claim against Arizona and a wrongful death lawsuit against
Management Training Corp., the company that operates the private prison near
Kingman where three fugitives escaped on July 30. The notice of claim is a
required precursor to a lawsuit. Police believe one of those escaped inmates,
John McCluskey, murdered Gary Haas and his wife, Linda, near Santa Rosa, N.M.
in the days following the escape as the fugitives grew weary of traveling in
a car and targeted the Haas' for their camping trailer. The escape led to a
nationwide manhunt that stretched from Arizona to the Canada border. The
claim against Arizona notes the state's failure to maintain custody of the
inmates, to properly train and supervise personnel at the prison and to
promptly notify law enforcement officials in the area after the escape.
"I have conveyed my condolences to the Haas family and friends, however,
I cannot comment on pending litigation," Department of Corrections
Director Charles Ryan said in a statement. Management Training Corp. could
not be immediately reached for comment. Reviews of the July 30 incident have
painted the picture of a prison where detention officers became lackadaisical
and predictable in their movements and where equipment failures- including
false alarms- were so common that they were frequently ignored. Detention
officers failed to check an alarm that sounded when McCluskey, Tracy Province
and Daniel Renwick cut through one of two security fences ringing the
privately run prison near Kingman. Investigators have said McCluskey's
fiancée, Casslyn Welch, threw cutting tools over
the fence to the men who snipped through chain link and barbed wire to flee
into the desert. It was more than two hours before staff at the private
prison notified the state corrections officials of the escape. By then,
Renwick was making his way north to Colorado while McCluskey, Province and
Welch were on their way to hijacking a truck near Kingman and forced the
drivers to take them to Flagstaff. Renwick was captured two days after the
escape after he exchanged gunfire with police in Colorado. After allegedly
receiving help from relatives in Arizona, McCluskey, Province and Welch made
their way east, ultimately ending up at a rest stop in New Mexico where,
according to statements Province gave investigators, they saw 61-year-old
Gary and Linda Haas, an Oklahoma couple taking an annual camping trip. After
days on the road in a cramped sedan, the fugitives decided to target
travelers with a camping trailer and the Haas' fit the bill. Province told
investigators that he and McCluskey forced the couple into their truck at
gunpoint while Welch followed behind. They all ended up in a remote area near
Santa Rosa where McCluskey shot the Haas' in their trailer, according to
court documents. The fugitives set fire to the trailer in an effort to hide
the evidence. A rancher discovered the burned trailer on Aug. 4.
August 25, 2010 Private Corrections Working
Group
Today, the Private Corrections Working Group (PCWG), a not-for-profit
organization that exposes the problems of and educates the public about
for-profit private corrections, called for overhaul of the Arizona Department
of Corrections’ (ADOC) oversight of the for-profit prison industry,
including: • An immediate halt to all bidding processes involving private
prison operators and a moratorium on new private prison beds • Hold public hearings
during the special session to address the problems with for-profit prisons in
Arizona • Enact other cost-cutting measures that not only save money but
enhance public safety, like earned release credits, amending truth in
sentencing, and restoring judicial discretion. This action came about after
the ADOC released a security audit on August 19th concerning the July 30
escape of three dangerous prisoners from a private prison in Kingman operated
by Management and Training Corp. (MTC) (Coincidentally, that same day the
last escapee and an accomplice, John McCluskey and Casslyn
Mae Welch, were captured without incident at a campground in eastern Arizona.
The other two escaped prisoners, Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick, had been
caught previously in Wyoming and Colorado). Ken Kopczynski,
executive director of PCWG, condemned MTC for the numerous security failures
that led to the July 30 escape. “If MTC had properly staffed the facility,
properly trained their employees and properly maintained security at the
Kingman prison, this escape would not have occurred. But because MTC is a
private company that needs to generate profit, and therefore cut costs
related to staffing, training and security, three dangerous inmates were able
to escape and at least two innocent victims are dead as a result,” Kopczynski observed. “That is part of the cost of prison
privatization that MTC and other private prison firms don’t want to talk
about.” The murders of an Oklahoma couple, Gary and Linda Hass, whose burned
bodies were found in New Mexico on August 4, were tied to McCluskey, Welch
and Province. While MTC said it took responsibility for the escape,
vice-president Odie Washington acknowledged the company could not prevent
future escapes. “Escapes occur at both public and private” prisons, he
stated, ignoring the fact that most secure facilities do not experience any
escapes – particularly escapes as preventable as the one at MTC’s Kingman
prison. According to the ADOC security audit, the prison’s perimeter fence
registered 89 alarms over a 16-hour period on the day the escape occurred,
most of them false. MTC staff failed to promptly check the alarms – sometimes
taking over an hour to respond – and light bulbs on a control panel that
showed the status of the perimeter fence were burned out. “The system was not
maintained or calibrated,” said ADOC Director Charles Ryan. Further, a
perimeter patrol post was not staffed by MTC, and according to a news report
from the Arizona Daily Star, “a door to a dormitory that was supposed to be
locked had been propped open with a rock, helping the inmates escape.”
Additionally, MTC officials did not promptly notify state corrections
officials following the escape and high staff turnover at the facility had
resulted in inexperienced employees who were ill-equipped to detect and
prevent the break-out. According to MTC warden Lori Lieder, 80 percent of
staff at the Kingman prison were new or newly promoted. Although the ADOC was
supposed to be monitoring its contract with MTC to house state prisoners, the
security flaws cited in the audit went undetected for years. Ryan faulted
human error and “serious security lapses” at the private prison. Arizona
corrections officials removed 148 state prisoners from the MTC facility after
the escape due to security concerns. “I lacked confidence in this company’s
ability,” said ADOC Director Ryan. Although it’s a small corporation, since
1995 over a dozen prisoners have escaped from MTC facilities in Utah,
Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Eagle Mountain, California –where two inmates
were murdered during a riot in 2003.
August 23, 2010 Arizona Republic
After three violent criminals escaped from a private prison last month in
Kingman, state officials began asking why they had been assigned to a
medium-security facility. John McCluskey, Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick
escaped July 30 after an embarrassing series of security lapses at the
prison, operated by Utah-based Management and Training Corp. All three have
been captured, but their escape is likely to spur further discussion on how
to classify inmates' security risks and decide where to house them. Both
public and private prisons use the state's classification system, but the
Arizona Department of Corrections already has pulled some inmates from the
Kingman facility as it rethinks how it assigns risk. Arizona assigns inmates
a number from one to five, with five representing the highest risk, based on
their crimes. Depending on their score, inmates are assigned to one of four
custody levels: minimum, medium, close and maximum. Over time, an inmate's
classification can be adjusted up or down based on the inmate's behavior in
custody. The system works when used properly, said Tom Rosazza,
a consultant and former state corrections director. But the system can also mean
that more violent offenders can wind up in less-secure facilities depending
on their behavior. Although they were in a medium-security facility at a
private prison, McCluskey, Province and Renwick qualified as dangerous
offenders. Renwick was a convicted murderer. Province killed a man in 1991 by
stabbing him 51 times. McCluskey was sentenced in Arizona for attempted
murder and had a previous armed-robbery conviction in Pennsylvania. "My
first thought was, 'What the hell were those guys doing at that (Kingman)
place?' " Rosazza said. Their cases are not
unique. There are more than 1,400 inmates serving time for murder in
medium-security settings in Arizona, including 796 with life sentences. More
than 100 were housed at the prison near Kingman, the only private facility in
Arizona to house murderers. Province entered the prison system with a maximum
"five" rating when he reported to serve his life sentence in 1993
but was moved down to a "three," or medium security, by 1997.
Renwick followed a similar path through the system, while McCluskey entered
custody as a medium-security inmate for firing a shotgun into a Mesa home in
2009. Authorities allege the trio escaped with help from Casslyn
Welch, McCluskey's cousin and fiancee. The escapees
are believed to have cut their way through a fence. Alarms were ignored
because, according to state officials, prison guards thought they were false.
Renwick was recaptured Aug. 1 in Colorado after a shootout with police.
Province was caught Aug. 9 in Wyoming. McCluskey and Welch were caught
Thursday evening in Apache County and are suspected along with Province of
being involved in the murder of an elderly couple in New Mexico shortly after
the escape. Because of the three inmates' possible post-escape crimes, the
classification issue likely will come up in any future lawsuits against the
state or a prison operator, Rosazza said.
"That would be the first thing I'd look at," he said. Arizona
officials control what factors are used in determining prisoner
classifications and, based on those classifications, decide which facilities
prisoners are held in. Although the former fugitives escaped from a private
facility, the state will bear some liability in any court action because it
is responsible for prisoners sentenced in Arizona. "The state doesn't
contract away its responsibility," Rosazza
said.
August 22, 2010 Arizona Republic
Arizona puts more of its inmates into privately run prisons every year, even
though the prisons may not be as secure as state-run facilities and may not
save taxpayers money. Lawmakers began using private prisons to ease
overcrowding and have supported their use so aggressively that today, one in
five Arizona inmates is housed in a private facility. Many inmates from other
states also are housed in private prisons in Arizona, but the state has
little information about who they are and limited oversight of how they are
secured. The state has 11 privately operated prisons. A high-profile escape
of three Arizona inmates last month from a Kingman-area private prison, which
spurred a nationwide manhunt and is believed to have resulted in two murders,
raises questions about the industry's growth and the degree of state
oversight. The last fugitives in that escape were caught Thursday, and the
state's prison director has promised changes to the private sites that house
Arizona inmates. State leaders in recent years have pushed for more
privatization and have blocked efforts to regulate the industry, which has
invested heavily in local lobbying and contributed to political campaigns.
Last year, officials approved a plan to hand over the operation of nearly
every state prison to private companies. The plan was repealed only after no
credible bidder came forward. This year, lawmakers approved 5,000 new
private-prison beds for Arizona prisoners. Data suggest that the facilities
are less cost-effective than they claim to be. A cost study by the Arizona
Department of Corrections this year found that it can often be more expensive
to house inmates in private prisons than in their state-run counterparts. A
growing industry -- Arizona's use of private prisons dates back to the early
1990s, when lawmakers, grappling with overcrowding in state facilities,
authorized the construction of a 450-bed minimum-security prison in Marana to
house drug and alcohol abusers. The prison is owned and operated by
Management & Training Corp., the Utah-based company that also operates
the Kingman facility where the three inmates escaped. Since then, Arizona has
increasingly relied on for-profit operators to manage its own inmates. It
also has allowed private companies to import prisoners from other states.
Rapid growth began in 2003 and the years immediately following, when Arizona
was again wrestling with prison overcrowding. To ease the shortage,
Republican lawmakers agreed to build 2,000 new prison beds, compromising with
a reluctant Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, to make half of them private.
Around the same time, nearly a dozen other states grappling with the same
issues began shipping their inmates to private facilities elsewhere in the
country. Arizona, with cheap land and a receptive political climate, became a
go-to destination for private-prison operators, who began accepting inmates
from as far as Washington and Hawaii. Today, Arizona houses 20.1 percent of
its prisoners in private facilities, according to state data from July.
Exactly how many inmates are here from other states is unclear. Last year,
lawmakers took the unprecedented step of exploring the privatization of
almost the entire Arizona correctional system, passing a bill that would have
turned over the state's prisons to private operators for an up-front payment
of $100 million. The payment would have helped the state close a
billion-dollar budget gap. The bill, which also included a host of changes
related to the state's budget, was signed by Gov. Jan Brewer, but the
language relating to prison privatization was repealed in a later special
session. The state now has an open contract for the construction and
operation of 5,000 new private-prison beds. Arizona's reliance on private
facilities coincides with operators' increasing national political activity
in hiring lobbyists and donating to political campaigns. The ties between the
companies and Arizona elected officials - which go back nearly a decade -
have become a campaign issue in this year's gubernatorial race.
Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest
operator of private prisons, runs six in Arizona, three of which house
inmates for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Brewer's critics have
suggested that she signed Senate Bill 1070, and has advocated for
privatization of some prisons, in part to benefit CCA's bottom line.
Democrats have called on Brewer, a Republican, to fire "aides"
associated with the prison company. That includes HighGround,
a Phoenix consulting and lobbying firm managing Brewer's gubernatorial
campaign. The firm counts CCA among its clients. Brewer's official spokesman,
Paul Senseman, also used to lobby for CCA. Campaign
finance reports filed earlier this year show that eight executives with CCA
contributed $1,080 of the $51,193 in seed money Brewer received for her
gubernatorial campaign. CCA also gave $10,000 to the "Yes on 100"
campaign, which backed a temporary, 1-cent-on-the-dollar increase in the
state's sales tax. Brewer was the chief advocate for the tax, which was
approved by voters in May. In an interview with The Arizona Republic, Brewer
said those connections have not influenced her policy decisions. She said she
never felt pressured by any of her advisers. "It's absolutely political
posturing and rhetoric," Brewer said. "I find it very
disappointing. We have a bed shortage here in Arizona, and we have to come up
with some way to incarcerate (criminals). The best way, the least expensive
way, is to do it with private prisons." The industry's political
connections have extended to other Arizona politicians. According to a 2006
report from the National Institute on Money in State Politics, the private-prison
industry gave to the campaigns of 29 of 42 Arizona lawmakers who heard a 2003
proposal to increase state private-prison beds. Between 2001 and 2004, the
industry contributed $77,267 to Arizona's legislative and gubernatorial
candidates, the vast majority through lobbyists paid to represent their
interests at the Legislature. In most cases, donations ranged from a couple
of hundred dollars to as much as $2,500. Lax oversight -- The state
Department of Corrections has varying levels of oversight of Arizona's
private-prison network. Some prisons house criminals convicted in Arizona.
The Corrections Department regulates those facilities, though private-prison
critics question whether those facilities maintain the same safety standards
as their state-run counterparts. Other private prisons house inmates from
other states or on behalf of the federal government. Arizona does not dictate
what kinds of inmates they may accept, nor the manner in which they are
secured. In those situations, private-prison operators work with their
outside-government partners on training specifications and other operational
details. They report to Arizona only the names, security classifications and
number of inmates housed at their facilities. State stat- utes
do not require private operators to provide Arizona officials details about
the crimes the prisoners committed or escape data. In 2007, two convicted
killers sent from another state stole ladders from a maintenance building and
climbed onto a roof at a private prison outside Florence. Brandishing a fake
gun, they climbed over the prison walls and escaped to freedom. One was
caught within hours, but it was almost a month before the other was caught
hundreds of miles away in his home state of Washington. As with the Kingman
breakout, the 2007 escape drew attention to the largely unregulated growth of
private prisons in the state, particularly prisons that house other states'
inmates. To address security concerns, a bipartisan bill drafted by
Napolitano's office in 2008 and introduced by Republican state Sen. Robert Blendu would have required private prisons to be built to
the state's construction standards. The proposal also would have ended the
practice of private prisons importing murderers, rapists and other dangerous
felons to Arizona. And it would have required the companies to share security
and inmate information with state officials. After an initial flurry of
activity, the bill died. "The private-prison industry lobbied heavily
against that bill, and they were successful," said Michael Haener,
Napolitano's lobbyist at the time. Blendu later
left the Legislature, and the bill was not reintroduced. What little
regulation private prisons have in Arizona stems from a series of escapes in
the late 1990s. In response, the Legislature passed a law requiring the
reimbursement of law-enforcement costs from private-prison operators in the
event of an escape. Arizona laws also require companies to carry insurance to
cover law-enforcement costs in cases of escape, to notify state officials when
they bring new prisoners into the state and to return out-of-state prisoners
to their home states to be released. But there are no penalties if the
companies don't comply. Costs questioned -- Notwithstanding lawmakers'
concerns about security, private prisons gained favor in part because of the
promised savings they could deliver to a cash-strapped and overcrowded prison
system. Yet studies have questioned whether those savings are real. In making
their pitches, private-prison companies played on the desire of many
lawmakers to shift more state services to the private sector. Direct cost
comparisons between for-profit and public prisons can be difficult, however.
According to the National Institute of Justice, private prisons tend to make
much lower estimates of their overhead costs to the state for oversight,
inmate health care and staff background checks. Officials at public prisons
often argue that the state winds up paying a higher cost for those services
than is advertised, mitigating savings that private prisons are built to
deliver. A study this year by the Arizona Department of Corrections found
that when various costs are factored in, it can be more expensive to house an
inmate in a private prison than it is to house one in a state-run prison. The
cost of housing a medium-security inmate is $3 to $8 more per day in a
private prison, depending on what assumptions are made about overhead costs
to the state, the study found. Travis Pratt, a professor of criminology and
criminal justice at Arizona State University, said there is no evidence that
private prisons save government agencies money, even though they typically
promise up-front savings. To maintain profit margins, Pratt said, companies
often cut back on staff training, wages and inmate services. "Cost
savings like that don't come without consequences," Pratt said.
"And that can present a security risk that's elevated." Odie
Washington, a senior vice president at Management & Training Corp.,
acknowledged Thursday that the Kingman prison employed an inexperienced
staff. "We have a lot of very young staff that have not integrated into
very strong security practices," Washington said. Private-prison
operators disagree with Pratt's assessment, contending that they can deliver
services efficiently and safely. "That's one of the more frustrating
misconceptions out there for us that we have to repeatedly respond to,"
said Steve Owen, director of public affairs for Corrections Corporation of
America. Owen said it is CCA's "general experience" that private prisons
can save states and the federal government 5 to 15 percent on operational
costs. The company also can build facilities more cheaply, he said. CCA is
contractually required to meet or exceed training requirements that states
they work for set for themselves, Owen said. In addition, the company has
made sure its prisons in Arizona comply with accreditation standards put in
place by the American Correctional Association, a Virginia-based trade group.
Many communities, meanwhile, eagerly welcome private prisons because the
facilities generate jobs and economic activity. CCA prisons in Florence and
Eloy, for example, employ 2,700 people. Last year, the company paid $26
million in property taxes, Owen said. What's next -- Lawmakers from both
parties have called for hearings into what went wrong in Kingman. Presumptive
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry Goddard has said he would push to
bring back the 2008 private-prison bill. Goddard also is calling for an
immediate re-evaluation of the system used to classify and place inmates in
facilities. The five-tiered system, which allows some violent criminals to
migrate to lower-security facilities for good behavior, met with bipartisan
criticism in the wake of the escapes. Two of the three inmates who escaped from
the medium-security Kingman prison had been convicted of murder. Goddard said
the three recent escapees never should have been in a medium-security prison.
Charles Ryan, director of the Department of Corrections, announced Thursday
that the state would slow its bidding process for the 5,000 new
private-prison beds pending additional review. Brewer has said little
publicly about the escape but told The Republic last week that she is
committed to holding prison operators responsible for mistakes they made. She
said she has ordered Ryan to conduct a "complete review to make sure
that inmates are appropriately secured and in the right kinds of
facilities." While Brewer remains confident that private prisons are
well suited to house less-violent offenders, she said: "What has
happened is unacceptable, and I am absolutely pushing for more
accountability."
August 18, 2010 AP
Past audits of the Arizona state prison where three inmates escaped last
month gave the facility high marks and revealed few issues with security or
staff training, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. The
escape on July 30 has put corrections officials and the operator of the
privately run prison under intense scrutiny in recent weeks. But if there was
an indication of any widespread security problems at the facility that houses
minimum- and medium-security inmates, it doesn't show in the internal audits.
On security issues, the audits showed overall compliance rates of 98.8
percent in 2007, 99.9 percent in 2009 and 99.5 percent in 2010. Nearly 2,870
areas of security were audited over the three years and 37 were marked as
noncompliant. One security issue was tagged in 2006. No audits were done in
2005 or 2008 because of fiscal constraints, said Arizona Department of Corrections
spokesman Barrett Marson. No independent audits of the Kingman prison have
been done. The audits instead are conducted by a team of about 15 made up of
staff at the corrections department and the prison who are considered subject
matter experts. The audit team evaluates areas of the prison that include
security, training, medical, food service and business for compliance with
the state contract and other orders. A yearly schedule of audits is available
in July, giving prisons advance notice, Marson said. Ken Kopczynski,
executive director of the Private Corrections Working Group, said it's
difficult to tell whether the audits are a true reflection of the operations
at the prison without attached documentation to support the findings. The
group advocates against private prisons he said typically overwork, underpay
and don't properly train the staff. "Audits are used a lot of times to
make things look like they're OK," he said. "Maybe they are OK. I
doubt it." Corrections Director Charles Ryan has said the prison
operator would correct the security deficiencies that contributed to the
escape of John McCluskey, Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick. Criminal and
administrative investigations into the escape are ongoing. McCluskey's fiancee and cousin, Casslyn Welch,
is accused of throwing wire cutters over a perimeter fence that the men used
to slice their way out and flee. Welch's visitation privileges at the prison
were terminated after a random search in June during a visit to McCluskey
turned up what was believed to be heroin. Welch told investigators that she
was paid by members or associates of a white supremacist group to smuggle the
drug into the prison but didn't say who it was intended for. State
legislators have urged corrections officials and Gov. Jan Brewer's office to
release the results of a security review done following the escape.
Corrections officials said the report still is being written and should be
released this week.
June 30, 2010 Arizona Silver Belt
Members of the Southern Gila County Economic Development Corporation
(SGCEDC) hosted an invitation-only luncheon banquet at the Dream Manor Inn on
Thursday, June 24, to further promote and rally support in favor of having a
1,000-bed prison built on state land out by the County Fair Grounds within
Globe City limits. The luncheon cast the prison project in a very positive
light, stressing the economic impact it will have for the communities of
Southern Gila County. Opponents of the prison were not invited to attend,
however. The press was also excluded, but was given admittance at the door
with the request that no pictures be taken and no questions be asked. Special
guests included Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen and Arizona State
Representative Bill Konopnicki, Gila Community
College Senior Dean Dr. Stephen Cullen and Dean Patricia Burke, Globe
Vice-Mayor Thea Wilshire, City Manager Kane Graves, county supervisors Mike
Pastor and Shirley Dawson, County Manager Don McDaniel, Sheriff John Armer,
and Emerald Companies Director of Business Development Mike Moore, F.C. Cuny Corporation President Chris Cuny,
and Corplan Corrections President James Parkey. The meeting reiterated many of the same points
made in previous presentations at Globe City Council. The main objective this
time was to ask Allen and Konopnicki to make their
support of a private prison to be built in Southern Gila County known at the
state level. Allen was very receptive of the proposal after watching a DVD
put together by the EDC and hearing from the EDC board members and city and
county officials. Konopnicki was eager to hear how
the project would benefit the local economy and said he supported the state
building the prisons in rural areas throughout the state of Arizona. He did
ask for more information about qualified workforce numbers as well as the
exact per diem number. Konopnicki further requested
more information on the expansion possibility that was touched on, with the
option of increasing the facilities from a 1,000 to a 2,000-bed prison. He
asked to have information sent to him in a summary form. Thea Wilshire gave a
presentation about the need to diversify the local economy. Pastor commented
on the need for expanded services to the region. Finally, Mickie Nye spoke of
how the prison will benefit local families and businesses. Melissa Woodall
concluded the presentation part of the luncheon saying “We are only asking
for 1,000 beds, only 20 percent of the total amount. That is not too much.”
The three gentlemen from the companies who build and operate the private
prison ended with a plea “Is there anything our team can do to help this
project? Is that a fair question?” On June 29, 2010, the Arizona Department
of Corrections media relations office reported that the decision regarding
the private prisons is still pending legal review and review of the technical
logistics suggested in each proposal. There is currently no set date for the
announcement.
June 9, 2010 Arizona Silver Belt
At two consecutive city council meetings in April, the Globe council
members heard from a group of men representing three corporations: Emerald
Correctional Management, Corplan and Cuny Corporation. These men addressed the council
regarding their desire to put in a bid with the Arizona Department of
Corrections to construct a private, 1,000-bed prison in the City of Globe.
The men presented estimates of economic growth that sounded almost too good
to be true. According to Mike Moore of Emerald Corrections, “the city could
get a monthly revenue check per inmate per month but it would depend on the
monthly per diem that the state pays. It does pay and it’s a sizable number.”
The group of business men went on to say the entire project would be $60 to
$100 million in construction, and the goal would be to hire local workforce
for 70 percent of the construction. They also promised to help the city with
expansion of the sewer infrastructure. The city council took two hours to
reach a decision, but in the end, a 4-2 vote in favor of supporting Emerald
Corrections’ bid to build the prison was approved. A deal too good to be
true? Well, there might be more than meets the eye. Case Study: Hardin, Mon.
In 2004, Mr. James Parkey of Corplan
- the same James Parkey who spoke to the Globe city
council - proposed the construction of a private prison in Hardin, Mon., a small
rural city suffering from economic stalemate. A team of experts spoke to the
city officials, selling them hope of economic prosperity through the private
prison business. The 450-bed prison was supposed to generate 150 secure jobs
and at least $100,000 in annual per-prisoner revenue. The companies involved,
Corplan as the developer, Cuny
Corporation as the civil engineer of the project, and Civigenics
as the prison operators, promised to realize the project from start to
finish. To pay for the prison, the city of Hardin would have to conduct a
bond sale. Prior to the construction, Parkey
promised the city officials an economic feasibility study, which was carried
out by Howard Geisler, a consultant specializing in prisons, and who had
worked together with Parkey in a number of other
cities. The study presented facts and figures that a Montana state auditor
later described as providing “little methodology” and lacking “historical
data to support anticipated prisoner counts.” The auditor went on the say the
report made “a number of assumptions made related to financial viability that
appear to be unfounded.” The prison was built, and the three companies
involved received their payments and Hardin prepared itself for its first
prisoners. In this case, however, they built it, but no one came. Hardin
became so desperate to get prisoners in their prison, that they requested
taking sex-offenders and later even Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Since the
prison had been built for less high profile inmates, with 24-bed cells,
Hardin’s requests were turned down. Hardin’s detention center never received
the expected prisoners and the city has been in bond default for the last two
years. A post on the detention center’s website reads, “any person or parties
interested in operating or leasing space in the Hardin Detention Facility
should contact...” “Do a lot of research” -- The pain is still throbbing in
Hardin, Mon. After contacting the executive director of economic development
and the mayor, the only comment given was “do a lot of research.” Hardin,
Mon. is one of the most prominent cases, where Corplan
and its partners have left a city with an empty prison. Corplan’s
website lists a number of sample prisons that they have built that are
surviving. However, it does not list Hardin. Neither are a number of other
cases, where things ‘went wrong,’ including facilities in LaSalle County,
Texas, Pioche, Nev., Lindsay, Okla., McLennan County, Texas, Las Cruses,
N.M., and St. Luis, Ariz. In Willacy County, three county commissioners who
were working very closely together with Corplan
were indicted on bribery charges. Parkey’s and Corplan’s actions have caught attention in the media. Dan
Rather reported on a few cases, especially the prison in LaSalle, Texas.
Frank Smith, of the non-profit organization Private Corrections Working
Group, has been following Parkey and Corplan over the years. Smith warned that the economic
feasibility report must be read very closely and to expect that there may be
exaggerations or left out aspects. The economic feasibility study “sells” the
project more than examines it in some cases. When asked why nothing has been
done legally against Corplan, Smith named a number of small factors that may be reasons why is some
cases nothing was done. In Globe’s case, Corplan,
Emerald Corrections, and Cuny Corporation have
asked for support for a bid in response to a request for proposals put out by
the Arizona DOC. In Hardin, the three partner corporations told the city that
the prison operator, Civigenics, would provide the
service of having prisoners housed in the facility. This could be a major
difference in the success or failure of the proposed Globe project. The
Arizona DOC will be awarding the contracts for the prisons by June 30, 2010.
March 7, 2010 Pueblo Chieftain
With the closure of the town's second-largest employer approaching, town
officials are preparing to deal with the loss of almost 200 jobs in an
already struggling economy. Corrections Corporation of America, which owns
and operates the Huerfano County Correctional Center, announced in January
that it will close the prison in April. Officials at the private prison
company said this week that the prison officially will close April 2. The
upcoming closure has cast a pall over the town. Citizens in this community of
more than 4,000 already are feeling the pain. The impending prison closure
and a prior budget shortfall have forced the town to lay off 10 people with
another four layoffs possibly to come. "The prison closing and the (loss
of) revenue derived from it has added to the burden of an already stressed
budget," said Mayor Bruce Quintana. "All departments have been
affected. I believe that this (town) council is acting to right the ship.
It's a difficult job, laying off people in a small community, because many of
these people are our friends," Quintana said. City Administrator Alan
Hein said the town could lose between $250,000 and $300,000 from lost utility
sales to the prison, concessions and sales taxes. Hein said the budget
already was short $300,000 before the closure was announced. "We have to
restructure our operations to try and accommodate this loss. It's pretty
serious when you drop that much on your revenue side in a budget the size
that we have," Hein said. Hein said he hopes the layoffs will help take
care of the original shortfall. "I am just not sure. There are a lot of
variables here. "The worst-case scenario is that we would have to lay
off four more people," Hein said. Hein said there will be minimal cuts
to the police department. "We are actually restructuring the whole
department and trying to make it more efficient. We are reevaluating the way
the department does business and trying to save money," Hein said. The
town had been in discussions to merge the police department with the Huerfano
County Sheriff's Department, but the issue was tabled by the town council
last month, Hein said. "The council has decided not to discard the
proposal, but to put it on the back burner and see if we can do some
adjustments within our organization," Hein said. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer
and other state officials are phasing out all out-of-state beds, including
the use of the Huerfano County prison, where 700 Arizona inmates are housed.
The contract with CCA is set to expire Tuesday. Allan Cramer, a spokesman for
the Huerfano County prison, said inmates will begin leaving Colorado next
week by bus and plane. "The last ones will be gone by March 22,"
Cramer said. Cramer said CCA is continuing to actively seek a new client for
the prison, but that as of Thursday, none had come forward. The Walsenburg
prison employs 188. Approximately 75 of the employees commute from Pueblo. Of
the remaining workers, about 90 reside in Walsenburg and Huerfano County,
with others commuting from Trinidad and Colorado City. Cramer said several
employees are transferring to CCA’s other prisons in Colorado, and some are
obtaining employment in other areas. "The mood here is pretty upbeat and
optimistic. Everyone wants to give it their usual 100-percent effort until
the last inmates are gone," Cramer said. The sluggish economy also is
having an impact on Main Street here. The historic Fox Theater, 715 Main St.,
will take a direct hit from the prison closure. Huerfano County Administrator
John Galusha said the county has been paying for utilities
for the theater out of what is called the Prison Authority Fund. "The
county contracted with the correctional center when it opened to form this
fund. In that agreement, the county receives 50 cents per prisoner per day
which goes directly into the Prison Authority Fund," Galusha
said. Galusha said the revenue generated from the
fund is about $130,000 a year. "Without that revenue coming in, some of
the things from the prison authority will take a hit next year," Galusha said. The prison fund also helps pay for new
sheriff's department vehicles and youth programs. Galusha
said the Fox was receiving about $400 a month to pay for utilities. "The
county will use the reserves from the prison to fund the Fox Theater through
the end of the year. If CCA doesn't have a new contract, then we are going to
have to evaluate if we can help the theater through other funds or if we are
going to have to ask them to become self-sufficient," Galusha said. The county has budgeted $7,500 this year
for the theater.
March 4, 2010 Enid News and Eagle
Diamondback Correction Facility in Watonga is closing within the next 60
days, due to Arizona ending its private prison contract. Corrections
Corporation of America, owner of Diamondback, issued 60-day termination
notices to all employees at Diamondback this week in anticipation of closing
the facility, which is timed with the departure of the Arizona inmates housed
there. Diamondback has more than 300 employees. The payroll of the facility
is around $11 million annually. The facility has a capacity of 2,160. The
contract is set to expire April 30. Diamondback has been operating in Watonga
since November 1998.
November 7, 2009 AP
Arizona’s plan to turn over its prisons to private companies in exchange
for a $100 million upfront payment is having trouble getting off the drawing
board, with the plan behind schedule and private prison operators showing
little, if any, interest. The privatization effort is required under a law
enacted last summer as lawmakers struggled to close a huge budget shortfall.
It directs the state to award a contract to one or more private companies to
run an unspecified number of prisons for $100 million. It emerged as
Republican lawmakers cast about for alternatives to Republican Gov. Jan
Brewer’s proposal to increase the sales tax to avoid deep cuts to state
program. An official who worked on the law told The Associated Press that the
$100 million figure was based on hope, not certainty. The prison concession
provision doesn’t specify which or how many of the state’s 10 prison
complexes would be included, what would happen to current state employees or
the length of a contract. An early version specified a term of 50 years and
identified three prisons with approximately 11,000 beds. The Yuma prison
complex was excluded from the law at the insistence of a Yuma legislator.
State officials were supposed to provide an initial batch of information to
potential bidders on Oct. 1, but missed the deadline. But even without that,
there appears to be little interest among private-prison companies.
Corrections Corp. of America, the nation’s largest private prison company,
“is not focused on that,” said Louise Grant, a CCA vice president. Grant said
CCA is interested in pursuing traditional private-prison deals with states and
would review any Arizona request. However, “it’s very questionable whether or
not we would participate,” she said. Another operator, Boca Raton, Fla.-based
GEO Group, declined to comment, citing corporate policy. A third, Management
& Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah, issued a noncommittal response.
Arizona is among many states that contract with private companies to house
state inmates, but officials and industry observers say the large upfront
payment request may be unprecedented. “That is such a new idea. The model
hasn’t been done,” said Leonard Gilroy, a Reason Foundation official who
champions privatization of government services. Gilroy questioned whether
Arizona’s plan would be attractive enough for potential bidders in the
industry. “It’s sort of like ’we want you to do an operational contract and
loan us $100 million,”’ Gilroy said. “I don’t know if there’s enough there to
sweeten the pot for the private sector.” Democratic legislators have
questioned whether the state should turn control of violent maximum-security
offenders, including murderers on death row, to private operators. Little is
known about how the plan would be implemented, including whether it would
include the Eyman prison complex in Florence that
includes death row. Citing procurement confidentiality, state officials
declined to release a draft of the document they plan to send to bidders.
Corrections Director Chuck Ryan declined multiple requests for an interview
in recent weeks. But he told legislators during a May hearing that it was
“very concerning” to consider privatizing a major prison complex that houses
nearly all death row inmates and 1,000 other dangerous inmates. Privatizing
death row involves taking a chance, Ryan said. “It won’t stand the headline
test in my opinion.” A leader of a union representing prison guards
criticized the plan and suggested that public safety could be at risk.
“They’re trying to replace us with lower-paid guards, to handle sex
offenders, murders, rapists, inmates with very volatile gang connections,”
said J. “J-Rod” Rodriguez, vice president of the Arizona Correctional Peace
Officers Association. Senate Appropriations Chairman Russell Pearce, R-Mesa,
said during the May hearing that the prisons concession had been proposed by
House Republicans during budget negotiations and was based on “very good
numbers” from an investment firm. However, a top House Republican aide said
lawmakers and legislative aides came up with the idea as a way “to monetize
state assets,” such as Indiana and Chicago have done with toll highways.
“Well, Arizona doesn’t have toll roads and there aren’t a lot of assets that
can be monetized. That was sort of the genesis of the idea,” said Grant Nulle, House director of fiscal policy. There was no
research by an investment firm or anybody else, Nulle
said. And the $100 million payment appears unlikely. “Based on preliminary
feedback, we may find it difficult to generate an upfront payment of this
magnitude,” legislative budget director Richard Stavneak
wrote in an Oct. 22 memo. Even if the state does receive good bids, it will
take most of the fiscal year to try to implement the idea, so lawmakers
shouldn’t count on getting the money in time to help close the current
budget’s shortfall, Stavneak said in a recent
interview.
October 23, 2009 New York Times
One of the newest residents on Arizona’s death row, a convicted serial killer
named Dale Hausner, poked his head up from his
television to look at several visitors strolling by, each of whom wore face
masks and vests to protect against the sharp homemade objects that often are
propelled from the cells of the condemned. It is a dangerous place to patrol,
and Arizona spends $4.7 million each year to house inmates like Mr. Hausner in a super-maximum-security prison. But in a
first in the criminal justice world, the state’s death row inmates could
become the responsibility of a private company. State officials will soon
seek bids from private companies for 9 of the state’s 10 prison complexes
that house roughly 40,000 inmates, including the 127 here on death row. It is
the first effort by a state to put its entire prison system under private
control. The privatization effort, both in its breadth and its financial
goals, demonstrates what states around the country — broke, desperate and often
overburdened with prisoners and their associated costs — are willing to do to
balance the books. Arizona officials hope the effort will put a $100 million
dent in the state’s roughly $2 billion budget shortfall. “Let’s not kid
ourselves,” said State Representative Andy Biggs, a Republican who supports
private prisons. “If we were not in this economic environment, I don’t think
we’d be talking about this with the same sense of urgency.” Private prison
companies generally build facilities for a state, then charge them per
prisoner to run them. But under the Arizona legislation, a vendor would pay
$100 million up front to operate one or more prison complexes. Assuming the
company could operate the prisons more cheaply or efficiently than the state,
any savings would be equally divided between the state and the private firm.
The privatization move has raised questions — including among some people who
work for private prison companies — about the private sector’s ability to
handle the state’s most hardened criminals. While executions would still be
performed by the state, officials said, the Department of Corrections would
relinquish all other day-to-day operations to the private operator and pay a
per-diem fee for each prisoner. “I would not want to be the warden of death
row,” said Todd Thomas, the warden of a prison in Eloy, Ariz., run by the
Corrections Corporation of America. The company, the country’s largest
private prison operator, has six prisons in Arizona with inmates from other
states. “That’s not to say we couldn’t,” Mr. Thomas said. “But the liability
is too great. I don’t think any private entity would ever want to do that.”
James Austin, a co-author of a Department of Justice study in 2001 on prison
privatization and president of the JFA Institute, a corrections consulting
firm, said private companies tended to oversee minimum- and medium-security
inmates and had little experience with the most dangerous prisoners. “As for
death row,” Mr. Austin said, “it is a very visible entity, and if something
bad happens there, you will have a pretty big news story for the Legislature
and governor to explain.” Arizona is no stranger to private prisons or, for
that matter, aggressive privatization efforts (recently, the state put up for
sale several government buildings housing executive branch offices in
Phoenix). Nearly 30 percent of the state’s prisoners are being held in
prisons operated by private companies outside the state’s 10 complexes. In
addition, other states, including Alaska and Hawaii, have contracts with
private companies like Corrections Corporation of America to house their
prisoners in Arizona. For advocates of prison privatization, the push here
breathes a bit of life into a movement that has been on the decline across
the country as cost savings from prison privatizations have often failed to
materialize, corrections officers unions have resisted the efforts and
high-profile problems in privately run facilities have drawn unwanted
publicity. “We have private prisons in Arizona already, and we are very happy
with the performance and the savings we get from them,” said Representative
John Kavanagh, a Republican who is chairman of the House Appropriations
Committee and an architect of the new legislation authorizing the
privatization. “I think that they are the future of corrections in Arizona.”
Under the legislation, any bidder would have to take an entire complex — many
of them mazes of multiple levels of security risks and complexity — and would
not be permitted to pick off the cheapest or easiest buildings and inmates.
The state also wants to privatize prisoners’ medical care. Louise Grant, a
spokeswoman for Corrections Corporation of America, said the high-security
prisoners would be well within the company’s management capabilities. “We expect
we will be there to make a proposal to the state” for at least some of its
complexes up for bid, Ms. Grant said. In pure financial terms, it is not
clear how well the state would make out with the privatization. The 2001
study for the Department of Justice found that private prisons saved most
states little money (there has been no equivalent study since). Indeed, many
states, struggling to keep up with the cost of corrections, have closed
prisons when possible, and sought changes in sentencing to reduce crowding in
the last two years. As tough sentencing laws and the ensuing increase in
prisoners began to press on state resources in the 1980s, private prison
companies attracted some states with promises of lower costs. The private
prison boom lasted into the 1990s. Throughout the years, there have been
high-profile riots, escapes and other violent incidents. The companies also
do not generally provide the same wages and benefits as states, which has
resulted in resistance from unions and concerns that the private prisons
attract less-qualified workers. Then the federal government stepped in, with
a surge of new immigrant prisoners, and began to contract with the private
companies. The number of federal prisoners in private prisons in the United
States has more than doubled, to 32,712 in 2008 from 15,524 in 2000. The
number of state prisoners in privately run prisons has increased to 93,500
from 75,000 in that time. With bad economic times again driving many
decisions about state resources, other states are sure to watch Arizona’s
experiment closely. “There simply isn’t the money to keep these people
incarcerated, and the alternative is to free many of them or lower cost,”
said Ron Utt, a senior research fellow for the
Heritage Foundation, a conservative group whose work for privatization was
cited by one Arizona lawmaker.
August 21, 2007 Indianapolis Star
One-third of the Arizona inmates transferred to serve their sentences in an
Indiana prison are violent criminals, including 25 who were convicted of
murder, according to new data from state prison officials. Prison officials
said inmates were chosen based on their behavior in prison, not their
criminal records. But an advocate for prisoners' rights was surprised by the
news, saying officials had left the impression with the public that violent
offenders would not be included among those moved to the New Castle
Correctional Facility, which is managed by Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO Group.
"That's not what they said they were going to send," said Celia
Sweet, former president of the Indiana chapter of Citizens United for
Rehabilitation of Errants. "You know, live up
to your word. Don't go trying to hoodwink the public just to make some money
off the backs of these prisoners. That's not right. It's immoral." The
state never misled anyone, said Department of Correction Commissioner J.
David Donahue. Indiana's deal with Arizona allows medium-security prisoners
and bans only sex offenders, prisoners with discipline problems and
recognized gang members, he said. Medium security, Donahue said, does not
preclude those convicted of violent crimes. The majority of inmates in
Indiana prisons are housed in medium-security areas, he said. In all, 203 of
the 611 Arizona inmates are serving terms for violent crimes, including men convicted
of assault, kidnapping and attempted homicide.
March 16, 2007 Business Week
Efforts to relieve Arizona's shortage of prison space were dealt a
setback when procurement officials canceled a competition between the state
Department of Corrections and three private prison companies to provide up to
3,000 new beds. None of the proposals met a requirement to open 1,000 of the
beds by April, 2008, the State Procurement Office said in a formal notice
canceling the state's request for proposals. The notice was obtained by The
Associated Press on Friday. The three companies submitting proposals were GEO
Group Inc., based in Boca Raton, Fla.; Management & Training Corp. of
Centerville, Utah, and Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of
America. It's now up to the Legislature to decide what to do about the 2006
law that directed the Department of Administration to seek proposals and set
the deadline for opening 1,000 beds, department spokesman Alan Ecker said.
Corrections Department spokeswoman Katie Decker said the prison agency was
beginning to consider its options. "We're regrouping," she said.
Decker also said the Corrections Department was prepared to meet the required
timeline. "I don't know if there was confusion ... but our understanding
was that we would have been able to do that."
July 15, 2005 Tucson Citizen
Arizona legislators have made their philosophical point. And it is costing
you $11,000 a day. It was in 2003, when Arizona prisons were badly
crowded, that the Legislature decided to act. Called into a special
session to appropriate money for building cells for 4,200 inmates, the
Legislature said it would do so only if at least 1,000 of the new beds were
in private prisons. Gov. Janet Napolitano and Corrections Director Dora
Schriro objected, saying there was no proof it
would be cheaper to send inmates to private facilities. But state Sen.
Bob Burns, R-Peoria and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee,
couldn't resist the private prison siren song: "To pass up the
opportunity of the private upfront money for construction to me is not
responsible fiscal management," he said back in 2003. Well, now
it's 2005 and that siren song has gone flat. Under legislative mandate,
the Department of Corrections contracted with Correctional Services Corp. to
build a 1,000-bed prison in Florence for sex offenders. But here's the
kicker: CSC will charge the state $61 a day to house each inmate. The state
could do it for $50 a day in a state facility. The CSC bill works out to an
extra $11,000 a day for Arizona taxpayers - and an extra $4.1 million a year.
So where is the "responsible fiscal management" of which
legislators boasted? CSC explains its higher cost by saying it will have an
"innovative rehabilitation program." We'll see. Because the
vast majority of inmates eventually are released back into society,
rehabilitation is an important part of operating a prison. Paying more for
effective rehabilitation may be worth it in the long run. But sex offenders
are among the most challenging inmates to rehabilitate. So CSC faces a
substantial challenge. Protecting the public from harm is one of the
major responsibilities of government. But have legislators done that when
they turn over the responsibility of incarcerating dangerous inmates to a private,
profit-driven company? Private prisons make money by hiring fewer
correctional officers and paying lower wages. Private prisons also can fail
to adequately meet inmates' needs, setting the stage for escapes or
disturbances inside prisons, while leaving the state with little authority to
correct mismanagement. At a CSC facility in Texas, inmates rioted in January
2003 because, they said, they were underfed. Arizona has a
responsibility not only to its law-abiding citizens, but also to its inmates
to ensure they are properly, safely and humanely cared for. And it has a
responsibility to do so at the most reasonable price. Instead of
dictating the use of private prisons, legislators should leave those
decisions to the corrections professionals.
July 8, 2005 The Arizona Republic
The state Department of Corrections will contract with Correctional Services
Corp. to build a 1,000-bed private prison facility for sex offenders in
Florence. But instead of saving taxpayers money, officials say, the new
facility actually will cost about $11,000 per day more to operate. In
CSC's winning bid, the company said it could operate the new prison for $61 a
day per inmate, said Bart Graves, spokesman for the Corrections Department.
The average cost to house an Arizona sex offender in a state-run prison is
about $50 a day. Even though Corrections Director Dora Schriro repeatedly warned the Legislature that the per
diem rates of both bidders were "excessively high," her hands were
tied by legislation, passed during a special session in 2003, that required
the state to contract out 1,000 new prison beds to ease overcrowding, Graves
said. Bids could be considered from only the three private prison companies
already operating in Arizona, and the Legislature waived a state law
requiring corrections officials to pick the lowest bidder. Private
prisons have been hotly contested in Arizona, with supporters saying they
save money and detractors arguing that state-run prisons are more reliable
and cost-effective. Many private prison firms have faced allegations about
problems in their facilities, including abuses of inmates and improper care.
In January 2003, inmates at CSC's Newton facility rioted because they said
they were underfed. Nearly 4,400 Arizona inmates are housed in seven
private prisons in Arizona and out-of-state, according to the Department of
Corrections. When the new facility is opened in late 2006, CSC will be able
to house 2,800 Arizona inmates. The contract with CSC is for 20 years,
which includes an initial base period of 10 years, with two five-year renewal
options. CSC officials estimate the contract will generate about $22 million
in revenues during its first year of operation. The new prison will
provide specialized programs for medium-risk male sex offenders, including
treatment, behavioral modification, education and institutional work
programs.
October 27, 2004 KTOK
The
company which runs a private prison in Watonga is slapped with more than a
dozen lawsuits stemming from a riot at the prison earlier this year.
May 26, 2004
Despite several large fights and riots at two out-of-state private prisons in
the last several weeks, state officials say they have no plans to reverse
course and bring home any of the 2,000 inmates in Texas and Oklahoma. On
Saturday, more than 40 inmates in a Pecos, Texas, prison owned by the Geo
Group created a disturbance, damaging the prison. Earlier this month, about
70 inmates were injured in a fracas at Corrections Corporation of America's
Watonga, Okla., prison. The two recent events are in addition to a
hunger strike and large fight in the Pecos prison and problems in 2002
at another private Texas prison, which included several inmate escapes while
a state review found an unacceptable quality of service from the
company. About 240 inmates participated in a fight in the Watonga
prison yard, with at least 70 suffering injuries. (AP)
May 2, 2004
Groups of Arizona prisoners transferred to a Texas private prison staged
fights and hunger strikes to either improve conditions or earn transfers back
to Arizona. The incident report from Wackenhut Corp.'s Pecos, Texas,
prison officials recommends eight inmates be sent back to Arizona because
they are security problems. The report details a fight between two
groups of prisoners, with at least 14 taking part in the late-night April 10
fight. The subsequent investigation showed that some inmates from each group
were conspiring to get back to Arizona. The decision last year by the
Arizona Legislature to ship about 2,000 inmates to out-of-state prisons
angered some inmate family members, mainly because contact with inmates will
be limited by the financial ability to travel to either Texas or another
prison in Oklahoma. (Arizona Daily Star)
April 29, 2004
A Corrections employee lost his job last week, more than a month after he
sent 8,000 e-mails to prison officials around the country
eliciting support for Terry Stewart's bid to lead a private, national
correctional organization. Stewart, who led the state prison system
from 1995 to 2002, is running for president-elect of the American
Correctional Association. (Arizona Daily Star)
December 8, 2003
Key elements of the new prison proposal include: -- Providing $12.8 million
of federal and state dollars for 2,100 new temporary beds, probably at
private prisons outside Arizona, for the rest of the current fiscal year.
Arizona already houses approximately 600 inmates in a Texas private prison
and about 1,700 inmates in three private prisons in Arizona. -- Having the
administration try to negotiate a new deal with a private prison company
previously picked to build and operate a 1,400-bed facility near Kingman in Mohave
County. That project stalled because of financing problems and, according to
legislators, stalling by the administration. -- Providing $5 million to
maintain recruitment and retention bonuses for correction officers at prisons
in Perryville and Florence. -- Requiring that an existing legislative
oversight committee review both the state's request for proposals for new or
expanded prisons - public or private - and the competing proposals that come
back. However, a decision on which proposal to accept would still be made by
the executive branch, though by the Department of Administration instead of
the Corrections Department. (Zwire)
November 26, 2003
NEWTON, Texas - Cleveland Palmer, 54, formerly of Casa Grande, who died Nov.
19 in a private prison, had entered a plea with his wife in the killing of a
child they were adopting. No cause of death has been released pending
an investigation, said Jim Robideau, a spokesman
for the Arizona Department of Corrections. Palmer had been sent to the
private prison under contract with DOC to "adjust the prison population
in Arizona." DOC has been short of prison space. (Casa Grande
Dispatch)
November 20, 2003
A private Mainland prison company that houses hundreds of Hawai'i inmates has
proposed to build and operate a new prison for Hawai'i in Arizona, Gov. Linda
Lingle's staff confirmed yesterday. The facility
would be constructed in Eloy, a community of about 10,000 residents in Pinal
County where Corrections Corporation of America runs a 1,500-bed prison that
houses federal prisoners and immigration detainees. Such a deal could
also guarantee CCA a steady income stream and alleviate the risk that Hawai'i
will build space for all its inmates and stop sending them to the Mainland.
But Hawai'i prisoner advocates have opposed using Mainland facilities because
inmates are cut off from their families and exposed to the Mainland prison
gang culture. (Advertiser)
October 21, 2003
Kingman's state legislator predicted Friday that a private prison 17 miles
southwest of the city will not be finished. Republican Rep. Joe Hart
said he bases his belief upon what he and other legislators were told by Dora
Schriro, the new director of the state Department
of Corrections, during a recent meeting at the Capitol. "The new
director flat said there will be no new contracts awarded" for prisons,
Hart said. Jim Hunter, executive vice president of Dominion Venture
Group L.L.C. of Oklahoma, which owns the land upon which the prison is being
built, recently told the Miner that four of 10 planned buildings at the
company's 200-acre site are nearly complete. The original plan was for
the prison to house 450 DUI prisoners after the first phase of is complete.
Dominion would then have another eight months in which to build an additional
six buildings to serve an additional 950 inmates, for a total inmate
population of 1,400. The prison would then be managed by a Utah company
under contract with the Department of Corrections. "I don't think
this prison is going to fly," Hart said. "I think there's going to
be lawsuits. The state will just say, 'Sue us.' They don’t care.
"If they (Dominion) want to build on speculation, that's their
business," said Hart, who added that he's no fan of privatizing the
state's prisons. "The governor wants to do away with private
prisons unless the contract has already been signed," he said. Hart said
he's "sort of read between the lines" and believes Napolitano is
"bowing to labor unions." (Kingman Daily Miner)
October 8, 2003
Gov. Janet Napolitano's call for a special session of the Arizona Legislature
Oct. 20 to address the state's prison crisis will have significant
implications for the Marana area, where the Arizona Department of Corrections
was considering placing the nation's largest privatized women's prison.
Proponents of building the 3,200-bed prison pointed to the more than 500 jobs
the project could potentially bring to the Marana area and the millions of
dollars that would be pumped into the local economy. Opponents called
the scheme dangerous, profit-driven and beneficial only to whichever of the
three private prison contractors prevailed in the bidding for the prison,
which was expected to cost more than $150 million to build and operate.
Napolitano's opposition to further privatization of
the state's prison system as a remedy to overcrowding has left the future of
the project uncertain and may also cause complications for Marana's only
existing prison. The special session is expected to consider sentencing
reforms proposed by a group of 10 legislators which could affect the existing
private prison in Marana, which houses only DUI and low-level drug
offenders. Members of the governor's staff and corrections officials
say the privately operated women's prison is a dead issue, but some legislators
and representatives of the companies looking to build the facility say plans
for the prison may still prevail in the political give and take expected
during the session. "The private women's prison is pretty much
dead," said Pati Urias, a spokeswoman for the governor. "It's a
situation where the governor would be the one to move the project forward in
terms of funding and direction" for issuing the bid for the prison. The
governor is instead proposing to expand existing facilities and programs.
In calling for the special session during a speech Oct. 1, Napolitano
proposed spending $700 million, primarily funded by public bond sales, to add
9,134 beds to seven existing state prisons. The governor's plan would
expand the existing women's prison in Perryville by 1,500 beds rather than
create a new private prison for the state's female offenders.
Corrections officials say they have a shortage of 4,150 beds statewide. The
overcrowding is expected to mushroom and the prison system could be as much
as 11,661 beds short by 2007 if nothing is done. Jim Robideau, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of
Corrections, also said the prison which was to be placed in either two
locations north of Marana or at a site south of Phoenix, more than likely
will not be built. "In light of the governor's statements, yes, it
seems to be a dead issue," Robideau
said. The Department of Corrections was expected to announce last month
which of the three companies had won the bid to construct the prison.
Contacted by the Northwest EXPLORER last month, Robideau
said the department had asked for changes in the bids by the three companies
hoping to operate the private prison - Utah-based Management & Training
Corporation, Correctional Services Corporation, which is headquartered in
Sarasota, Fla., and Cornell Companies of Houston. Robideau
declined to detail the changes in the bid, but a spokesman for Cornell said
last week the private sector prison contractors had been asked to guarantee
their prices for the project until late November when the special session is
expected to wrap up. "They asked us to confirm the costs submitted
on the bid until Thanksgiving, so there may still be some hope that things
get worked out in the Legislature. The Legislature has been very supportive
of the 3,200-bed prison and we and our competitors have already spent a
significant amount of money and time on the proposal," said Paul
Doucette, communications director for Cornell. Carl Stuart, a spokesman
for Management & Training which operates the 450-bed Marana Community
Correctional Treatment Facility, 12610 W. Silverbell Road, said his company
was also pinning its hopes on the special session. "We already
operate a prison in Marana and we're very proud of our reputation there, so
we hope that there is some way that we can continue to serve the state. But
after the governor's statements, we're kind of in a reassessment of our
position," Stuart said. "We hope it may still move forward in the
legislative process." Representatives from Correctional Services Corporation
did not return calls seeking comment. Rep. Jennifer Burns, a Republican
whose District 25 includes Marana, said she was unsure if the women's prison
would survive the special session. She also expressed concern that
Napolitano, who said during the regular session that all options would be
considered to try and balance the state's budget, now seemed reluctant to
look at privatization as a viable approach to controlling the state's
spending. "It's interesting that when the governor discussed the
budget she said everything was on the table, but now that we're dealing with
prisons, prisons are off the table. I think we need to look at all options
and not just throw more money at the problem. There may be some potential
that a private prison could save money," Burns said. Rep. Ted
Downing, a Democrat from Tucson and one of the most vocal critics of the
women's prison, said he believed the privatization issue will be raised
during the special session, but doubted it would get far. "By the
governor not having it as a priority, it certainly makes it a great deal more
difficult to pass it in the Legislature. My hope is that it's finished. My
feeling is that it wasn't bringing the kind of high paying jobs to Marana and
Tucson as was being represented," said Downing, who is advocating
sentencing reform as a way to reduce the prison population. During a
public hearing held in Marana in July, Management and Training estimated the
prison would generate 500 to 600 corrections jobs that would on average pay a
starting wage of more than $24,000 a year plus benefits. Some
legislators and lobbyists said they expected the privatization issue to
become a political dog fight during the special session, but asked for
anonymity out of fear of angering the governor or the house leadership.
"The Legislature may still try and compel the governor to do a private
prison," said one Phoenix insider familiar with the debate over
privatization. "They could refuse to fund any other beds in any other
manner. While they can't force her to do it, they can put her in a position
that makes it hard for her not to do it. But then the question becomes - who
loses the most politically if they try that kind of strong arm tactic?"
House Majority Leader Eddie Farnsworth of Gilbert, a proponent of
privatization who will more than likely lead the Republicans who favor the
3,200 bed prison, did not return calls seeking comment. A sentencing
reform proposal being pushed by 10 members of the House could also
reverberate in Marana, where the private minimum security prison is required
by agreements with the state to house only DUIs and low risk drug
offenders. Rep. Bill Konopnicki, a Republican
from Safford who chairs the sentencing reform group, said changes such as
replacing jail time with higher fines for DUI convictions, changing felony
classifications for some crimes deemed to be victimless and revising the
state's mandatory sentencing would help reduce the prison population.
"What's driving the proposal is the alarmingly increasing rate of incarceration
in Arizona. We're incarcerating 513 people per 100,000 of our population, the
highest rate in the western United States. We have to
look at what's causing the problem, we have to look at sentencing.
"I know that, economically, it's a significant thing to Marana, and I
wish I could say absolutely that it would affect the population of the
prison, but the fact of the matter is, we haven't been able to put even a
dent in the number of DUIs or drug offenses so far. We're just trying to find
a way to slow them down," Konopnicki
said. Gil Lewis, warden of the Marana facility, said only a small
percent of the inmates in Marana are serving time for DUIs, and it's unclear
how the proposed sentencing reform would affect the other minimum security
inmates in his prison or the future of his company's contract with the
state. "We've been here a long time and are proud of our role in
Marana. I believe any change in classifications or sentence structure would
hurt the Marana community," Lewis said. Napolitano, who served as
the state's attorney general before becoming governor, may also oppose some
of the sentencing reform being proposed by Konopnicki's
group. "I just don't believe you balance the budget by changing
your criminal code. Should sentencing be examined from time to time?
Absolutely, but it should be in the context of what's the right thing to do,
not balancing your budget," Napolitano said in an interview with the
Associated Press on Oct. 1. Marana Town Manager Mike Reuwsaat said the town is taking a "wait and see
attitude" and did not plan to lobby the Legislature - either for or
against the women's prison. "Our position throughout has been to
just sit back and see what shakes out, and that's the same thing we'll do
during the special session," Reuwsaat
said. Caroline Isaacs, a spokeswoman for the Tucson Chapter of the
American Friends Service Committee which has been at the forefront of
grassroots opposition to the women's prison, said she doubts the private
facility will make much headway in the special session. "I think
the prison is dead," Isaacs said. "Nothing is a done deal, but I
think the governor's statements certainly indicated that she was not in favor
of privatization and that the state can do it better. There's going to be
some support for the prison in the Legislature among the die-hards, but the
very vocal public opposition makes it such a political hot potato that I
can't really seeing anyone taking it too far." (Northwest
Explorer)
August 14, 2003
Petite and soft-spoken, Dora Schriro brings a
thoughtful approach to the crisis in Arizona prisons. Now, she faces an even
bigger challenge: dealing with the prisons in Arizona, where the shortage of
beds grows every month, where costs rise by the millions each year, and where
hundreds of inmates have been shipped off to Texas to avoid even more
overcrowding. Arizona has 4,130 more prisoners than it has prison
beds. In a move of last resort, Arizona sent 624 inmates to a private
county jail in Texas. That initially backfired after underfed inmates
rioted in January, flooding dormitories, tearing up mattresses and breaking
windows. Corrections officials gave the jail a clean bill of health in
June. But just last week, two prisoners briefly escaped from the
jail. The overcrowding has thrown Schriro
another curveball. She will have to decide whether to build the largest
private women's prison in the nation. The 3,200-bed facility, which
would probably be built in Pima County, has stirred protests because the
three bidders have less-than-stellar track records, critics say. (AZ
Central)
July 25, 2003
An Oklahoma company is going ahead with construction of a 1,400-bed prison in
Arizona even though that state's Department of Corrections has not given its
official approval. Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman Mike Arra said the lack of a formal "notice to
proceed" is because Dora Schriro has only
recently been appointed to head the department. Schriro
has been traveling across Arizona to see the prisons she is to manage, he said.
"She just has not gotten around to signing the notice to proceed
yet," Arra said. "At this point it does
not mean that anything (being built) was stopped." Although the
notice may be a paperwork issue, it is preventing companies involved in the
project from issuing about $60 million in bonds to pay for construction, said
Jim Hunter, a vice president with The Dominion. Dominion Correctional
Services LLC is building the jail. Its parent company is The Dominion, of
Edmond. Despite the financial complication, Hunter said construction is
going forward and the prison should be ready to accept the first group of
inmates in November. The prison is being built on 196 acres near
Interstate 40. Once finished, it will be managed by Management and Training
Corp. of Centerville, Utah. It will eventually house about 1,400 male
inmates convicted of felony driving under the influence. (AP)
June 5, 2003
Missouri is considering but has no immediate plans to accept prisoners from
Arizona to relieve prison crowding there, a Missouri Corrections Department
official said. Last week, an adviser for Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano
suggested that Missouri is one of the states being considered for a potential
prisoner transfer. Arizona has 30,700 prisoners - about 4,000 more than the
prison system's capacity. Dennis Burke, a senior adviser to Napolitano
who mentioned Missouri as possible destination for Arizona prisoners, agreed
that the plans were preliminary. "Our governor would rather have
inmates in a public facility as opposed to a private prison," Burke
said. "We said Missouri looks like an option. That's how preliminary it
is." (AP)
May 31, 2003
Arizona may try to house more prisoners in other states, using both public
and private facilities, to cope with the burgeoning inmate population, a
state official said. At least two other states, Missouri and Michigan,
reportedly have 1,000 or more beds available in their prisons that Arizona
might be able to use, said Dennis Burke, Gov. Janet Napolitano's chief of staff
for policy. While some legislators have been pushing to increase the
state's use of private prisons, Napolitano has said she would prefer to house
prisoners in public facilities. Arizona will get 1,400 new beds in the
next year as a private facility for male DUI offenders in Mohave County south
of Kingman. The state also is seeking proposals for a 3,200-bed private
prison in Pinal County for female inmates. (AP)
May 29, 2003
The operator of a county jail in Texas housing 600 Arizona inmates said
Wednesday that his privately run company eventually will save the state
nearly $800,000. But Arizona prison officials disputed that figure and
called the strategy of sending inmates to Texas a "troubled
experiment." Jim Slattery, president of the Florida-based Correctional
Services Corp., conceded that putting Arizona inmates in a Texas jail has
been challenging. But he said CSC has made "extraordinary efforts"
to help ease prison overcrowding in Arizona by housing those prisoners.
On Tuesday, George Weisz, a special assistant for corrections to Gov. Janet
Napolitano, had called the Texas experiment "a financial disaster."
State Department of Corrections documents pointed to a number of problems at
the Texas facility, including a prison disturbance in January. DOC officials
said the Newton County Jail has improved only after constant prodding. And
they maintain that the experiment has ended up costing the state money
because of soaring costs for monitoring. "There is a list of about
20 things that they are still fixing," Weisz said. "It's not what
we expected. It took constant prodding from our monitors to get things done.
Why did we have to complain about all this to get it done?" (The
Arizona Republic)
May 29, 2003
A move to ease prison overcrowding in Arizona by sending hundreds of inmates
to a private county jail in Texas has backfired, angering Department of
Corrections officials and adding to the state's budget crisis. The
state had counted on saving $400,000 by shipping inmates to the Newton County
Jail in eastern Texas. But the potential savings evaporated when costs
soared. Meanwhile, underfed inmates rioted in January, flooding
dormitories, tearing up mattresses and breaking windows, according to
documents from the DOC. "This proved to be a financial disaster,"
said George Weisz, a special assistant for corrections to Arizona Gov. Janet
Napolitano. The Texas facility houses about 600 Arizona prisoners. In a
letter to Arizona prison officials, administrators at the Newton County Jail
said they have fixed problems at the facility. The letter lists 17 areas of
concern that have been addressed, including repairs to a broken fence and
disciplinary actions for negligent staff members. The state had thought
it would save money by going with a private contractor, which promised to
house and feed inmates at a lower cost than a public facility. But
corrections officials said that additional monitoring costs and other
inefficiencies ended up costing more money. (Tucson Citizen)
May 9, 2003
A cost-overrun in sending prisoners out of state has Arizona leaders
wondering whether contracting with private operations will save the state
money and solve prison overcrowding. A jail uprising by Arizona
prisoners at Texas' Newton County Corrections Center earlier this year delayed
busing of additional inmates and cost taxpayers $415,939, according to an
analysis of state records by The East Valley Tribune. It has also
raised red flags among state leaders, who question whether the push toward
privatization will solve the worst prison-bed shortage in state history, said
George Weisz, Gov. Janet Napolitano's special assistant for
corrections. "That (contract in Newton County) has been a
financial disaster. It's tough, and the governor has definite concerns about
privatization," Weisz told the paper for Thursday's editions.
Arizona prisons now exceed their capacity by 4,200 inmates and some lawmakers
say hiring private companies will solve the problem. "We have some
alternatives with private prisons. They are successful," said Rep.
Russell Pearce, R-Mesa and chairman of the House Appropriations
Committee. Members of the Arizona Department of Corrections
investigated the Jan. 2 jail uprising which happened less than a month after
the first 96 prisoners arrived in Texas. Investigators said that the
jail and its staff were ill-prepared to accept the new arrivals and gave the
company a month to correct problems. The deadline resulted in a terse
response from its leaders, in correspondence obtained by the Tribune. "We
have gone over and above compliance for this short-term, seven-month
contract," wrote Thomas Rapone, the company's
executive vice president and chief operating officer. Attempts to reach
company officials on Wednesday were unsuccessful. Although busing
resumed in February, Arizona prisoners continued to rebel. Incidents
included escapes, peaceful protests, group demonstrations and hunger
strikes. A state monitor wrote to his supervisor that the inmates
wanted to return to Arizona so their families could visit them. More
than 600 Arizona prisoners are now at the Texas jail. On June 30, the state
will determine whether to renew its contract with Correctional Services
Corp. Officials said the deficiencies found by monitors are a concern,
but with prison space likely to run out this fall, the state may be forced to
renew it. "The problem is our back is against the wall,"
Weisz said. "Whether it's private or public, we just have to find places
to put these inmates." (AP)
April 11, 2003
The state spends too much money to send Hispanics to prison and not enough to
help them get a college diploma, according to a study released Wednesday by
an education advocacy group. "Borrowing Against the Future: The
Impact of Prison Expansion on Arizona Families, Schools and Communities"
argues against two proposed state prisons the group says could cost the state
up to $100 million a year. Funding for prisons has continued to
increase in the past two decades, while the percentage of the state budget
spent on higher education is going down. "Arizona now spends more
money to incarcerate its Latino population than it does to educate
them," Foster said. The state has put out a request for proposals
for two private prisons, one that would house 1,400 males and another for
3,200 females, said Department of Corrections spokesman Jim Robideau. (Tribune)
January 5, 2003
The Arizona Department of corrections has suspended transfers of inmates to a
Texas private prison after 82 prisoners already transferred were involved in
a disturbance last week. Prison staff fired pepper gas into the
dormitories to quell the disturbance Thursday night at the Newton County
Correctional Facility, but no inmates were injured, the department
said. The inmates flooded dormitories, tore up mattresses, destroyed
television sets and broken windows and light textures, with damage estimated
at $10,000 to $15,000, the department said. Transfers will be halted
until the completion of an investigation by the department and Correctional
Services Corp., the Sarasota, Fla.-based company which runs the facility,
into the cause of the disturbance, the department said. The department
had transferred 346 inmates since November under a contract to house 636
inmates at the Newton County Facility. (AP)
December 19, 2002
A legislative oversight committee on Thursday gave the Department of
Corrections the go-ahead to add more space by seeking a private prison to
house nearly all of the state's female inmates. Under the plan endorsed
by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, the state is seeking proposals for
a new prison that would be privately built and operated. (AP)
September 25, 2002
If the Arizona Department of Corrections awards a contract to Dominion
Correctional Facilities, Inc., Mohave County could have a prison near Kingman
by next year. According to Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC)
Public Information Officer Jim Robideau, requests
for proposals are currently open for four new private prisons in the state
with a filing deadline of Sept. 30. To have their ducks in a row,
should they get a nod from ADC, Dominion sought and received support from the
Mohave County's Industrial Department Authority (IDA) Tuesday in the way of a
"preliminary resolution" for $60 million in bonds to finance the
project. "Mohave County holds no liability for this project
whether it goes or not," said IDA Chairman Dan Hargrove.
"This gives them (Dominion) the opportunity to go forward."
With IDA approval, the Oklahoma-based developer can now have their tax-free
municipal bonds rated and prepared for sale. Hargrove said. If ADC
accepts their proposal, the next step will be a "final resolution"
from IDA which must then be approved by the Mohave County Board of
Supervisors. "They will have people standing by ready to buy the
bonds," he said. The prison will be managed by Management and
Training Corporation (MTC) and offer 230 jobs, Hunter said, ranging from
entry-level correctional facility officers, for which training would be
provided by MTC, and teaching and counseling positions requiring college
degrees. The financial impact on local law enforcement, in the event
they are called out to the facility to assist prison staff with hostile
inmates or an escape, Hunter said, should be minimal as they would be
"fully reimbursed by the state" for their services. Dominion
had sought a contract for a federal facility, he said, but that project was
later canceled. "If we don't get this one, we'll keep
trying," Hunter said. (Tri-State Online)
Arizona Legislature
Cell-Out
Arizona Exclusive: Documents Show Arizona Officials Knew Private Prisons
Weren’t Saving Money: Cell-Out, July 24, 2012. Must read on how
corrupt the system is. Documents recently obtained by the American Friends
Service Committee (AFSC) show that the state of Arizona deliberately
circumvented and ultimately repealed a state law requiring private for-profit
prison corporations to demonstrate cost savings in their bids on new prison
contracts.
Arizona's
Private Prisons: A Bad Bargain: April 4, 2012, Sasha Abramsky.
This article appeared in the April 23, 2012 edition of The Nation. Expose on
the cost games played by the state.
Arizona
prison businesses are big political contributors: Bob Ortega -
September 4, 2011, The Arizona Republic. Ortega connects the dots
between the for-profits, the money, and legislators.
Top Ten Industry Lies: Cell
Out Arizona, August 22, 2011
2010
escape at Kingman an issue for MTC’s bid: August 11, 2011, Bob
Ortega, The Arizona Republic. Expose on MTC
La.
firm says prison escapes led to changes: August 10, 2011, Bob
Ortega, The Arizona Republic. Expose on LaSalle
Record
an issue for company bidding on Ariz. prisons contract:
August 9, 2011, Bob Ortega, Arizona Republic. Expose on GEO Group
Prison firm optimistic about Arizona bid despite
incidents: August 8, 2011, Bob Ortega, The Arizona Republic.
Exposé on CCA
Arizona
prison oversight lacking for private facilities: August 7, 2011,
by Bob Ortega, Arizona Republic
Part 2: NPR expose on for-profits and immigration law Shaping State Laws With Little
Scrutiny
Part 1: NPR expose on for-profits and immigration law Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law
More from Rachel Maddow http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#38965161
Rachel Maddow stay on it http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#38700092
Rachel Maddow kicks butt http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/38685023#38685023
AZ Gov Brewer avoids questions about CCA and her
administration: July 23, 2010, 5:01
min: Very funny watching
Dec
10, 2019 kjzz.org
Arizona Lawmaker
Introduces Bill To Repeal Private Prison Health Care
Mandate
Arizona state Rep.
Diego Rodriguez says privatized health care for inmates in state prisons is a
failed experiment whose time has come to an end. Rodriguez has authored a new
bill that he says will undo the privatization that was mandated by the state
Legislature 10 years ago. “We all know that the normal sales pitch for
privatization of a public function is that it’s supposed to be more efficient
and save money,” he said. But Rodriguez says a recent report commissioned by
a federal judge in the Parsons v. Ryan prison health care settlement,
combined with testimony he’s heard in the House Judiciary Committee and ad
hoc committee on earned credits, has convinced him the promises of privatization
have been broken. “We’re actually paying for the health care several times
now,” Rodriguez said. “You have the attorneys fees
and the sanctions that are being paid by the state because of the failure of
the third party vendors to meet minimum standards.
And then the state is double-paying for administrative costs.” Rodriguez says
the report on the Department of Corrections by Dr. Marc Stern shows “[t]here
are mirror positions in the private vendors’ corporate structure in terms of
how the medical system is managed. For example, there’s a medical director
for the private vendor and there’s a medical director for the Department of
Corrections and then they have staff that branches out underneath them.”
Rodriguez says it was his understanding that when privatization was mandated
10 years ago, it was done with the hopes of eliminating redundancies. “It has
been exactly the opposite effect,” he said. Rodriguez says he’s heard
countless stories from his constituents over the years of inadequate care leading
to deaths and disfigurements and permanent disabilities. “The quality of the
care is far below where it should be,” Rodriguez said, “especially for
patients suffering from mental health issues. I’ve heard from families of
people who committed suicide in ADC who may have passed away due to
inadequate emergency response,” he said. Rodriguez says his bill will prevent
the state from entering into any more third-party ontracts to provide health care at state-owned prison
facilities. If adopted in this legislative session, that means health care in
the Department of Corrections would be shifted back into the control of the
state after the current contract with Centurion expires. Rodriguez says he
has full confidence that the Department of Corrections can run the health
care system on its own again. “In my time at the Legislature, I’ve met with
representatives from the Department of Corrections, and they’re all good
people that are dedicated to their jobs. I have no doubt, if they’re given
the opportunity to go back and fix these issues, they will get the job done.”
Representative Rodriguez, a practicing criminal defense attorney, says he
believes including a profit motive on the back end of the criminal justice
system jeopardizes the integrity of the system. “If the state is going to be
responsible for incarcerating or punishing its citizens, then the state also
should carry the responsibility for administering them through that process,”
he said. Rodriguez also cites the revolving door of contractors that the state
has employed as further evidence that privatization isn’t working. “It’s a
failure rate of 66% at this point,” he said. “We’ve had contracts with three
vendors now and two of them have been complete failures.” While acknowledging
the bill will need bipartisan support to pass, Rodriguez said he believes the
legislature has a mandate from the people to pursue bold criminal justice
reform in the next session. “The hue and cry from our constituents and the
people of Arizona is too clear and too loud to ignore,” Rodriguez said.
“Improving health care for incarcerated people is just one part of a
comprehensive criminal justice reform package that we intend to put forward.”
Feb 17, 2018 kjzz.org
$1 Million And Counting: Fines Mounting For Arizona Department Of
Corrections
The latest court filings in an ongoing federal court case show Arizona
could now be facing more than a million dollars in fines — just for the month
of December. On Wednesday, attorneys representing the Arizona Department of
Corrections filed the latest results from the monitoring process in the
Parsons v. Ryan prison health care settlement. In 2015, the state agreed to
meet more than 100 performance measures outlined in the settlement to provide
better health care to inmates in Arizona prisons. But Arizona and its private
contractor Corizon Health are failing to meet several of those benchmarks. In
October of 2017, Magistrate Judge David Duncan issued an order stating,
“because of pervasive and intractable failures to comply with the Stipulation,
the court is considering the exercise of its civil contempt authority.” If
Duncan uses his authority, the state could face $1,000 fine for every
violation of the stipulation. Duncan ordered the defendants to immediately
comply with 11 health care performance measures. The state previously
disclosed more than 650 violations at six state prisons. The latest filing
reveals more than 400 additional violations at the Eyman
state prison for failing to meet a performance measure that guarantees
“chronic disease inmates will be seen by the provider as specified in the
inmate’s treatment plan, no less than every 180 days.” Attorneys for the
state have told the judge in recent hearings that Corizon Health is having
trouble finding specialty care doctors to work with the contactor. The new
violations would bring the total fines for the month of December to more than
a million dollars. During a budget proposal at the statehouse on Tuesday
lawmakers asked Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan about the impending
fines. Ryan said if the fines are enforced, Corizon Health would pay. “I’ve
already made it clear to the the vendor that
they’re on the hook,” Ryan said. Duncan could address the fines at a status
hearing on Feb. 28.
Nov 7, 2013 abc15
A 32-page report
released by the American Friends Service Committee in Arizona, claims that
the current private prison healthcare system is inadequate. “This includes
delays in denials of care, lack of timely and emergency treatment and failure
to provide medication,” said Caroline Isaacs, the author of the report."
In addition, there's a case study of someone who was diagnosed with cancer,
with completely no follow-up. The report points to the company in charge of
the state’s private prison healthcare system, Corizon. Since March of 2012,
the report claims that six of the fourteen inmate deaths that they
investigated could have been prevented if given correct treatment.
Eleanor Grant’s
70-year-old husband is currently serving five-life sentences in Tucson for
armed robbery. She claims the prison will not provide him with adequate
treatment, even though he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in July.
"Why would they want to continue to supply him with leg bags and
catheters and fight infections when all they have to give him is one pill so
he can urinate on his own again?" said Grant. Rep. John Kavanaugh, an
Arizona representative who helped pass the bill to privatize prison
healthcare, says it’s unfair to blame Corizon for these findings since
they’ve only been in charge of it since the start of the year. Corizon issued
the following statement to ABC15 Wednesday afternoon: On any given day,
Corizon provides for the healthcare needs of more than 410,000 inmate
patients across 500 facilities nationwide. As with any large healthcare
provider, litigation does arise from time to time. However, the vast majority of lawsuits filed against Corizon are
without merit and are dismissed or settled with no findings of
wrongdoing. AFSCAZ is now calling for
the Arizona Auditor General to look into the report’s findings.
August 31, 2012 Arizona Republic
The state Department of Corrections on Friday evening awarded a
multimillion-dollar private-prison contract to Corrections Corporation of
America, which has employed lobbyists close to Gov Jan. Brewer in its effort
to win the bid. CCA, of Nashville, will operate a 1,000-bed medium-security
private prison in Eloy, with the option to run another 1,000 beds if the
inmate population for serious offenders increases. CCA, a publicly held
company that reported $162.5million in profits last year, was one of five
bidders for the contract. The firm is politically connected to Brewer, who
has pushed for the prison expansion. Until mid-July, CCA employed Chuck
Coughlin, an influential lobbyist who is a close friend and an adviser to
Brewer. And, state lobbying records show CCA also employs Policy Development
Group, a lobbying firm that includes Paul Senseman,
Brewer's former spokesman. "If you place two of your lobbyists at the
right and left hand of the governor of the state and she has the final say
and oversight of the Department of Corrections, I would say that's a pretty
smart business strategy," said Caroline Isaacs of the American Friends
Service Committee, a Quaker group and opponent of Arizona's private-prison
expansion. Steve Owen, a CCA spokesman, said the company won the bid through
a rigorous procurement process, and he credited the support of Eloy and
others in Pinal County for helping CCA win.
August 28, 2012 Arizona Republic
In a last-ditch effort, private-prison opponents called on Gov. Jan Brewer on
Tuesday to scuttle a contract that is expected to be awarded Friday for 1,000
medium-security beds for men. A coalition of elected officials, educators and
faith leaders sent an open letter to Brewer, saying the beds are costly and
unnecessary. They also contend the five out-of-state companies bidding to run
a new prison facility have histories of questionable management practices and
safety problems. "We know this is an uphill battle, but it's still well
worth fighting," said Caroline Isaacs, program director for the American
Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group and watchdog organization. "I
know we are the underdog." Brewer, who was at the Republican National
Convention in Tampa, could not be reached for comment. But Matthew Benson,
her spokesman, said sufficient correctional facilities are a critical
component of public safety. "Gov. Brewer supported these additional
prison facilities because she recognizes the state faces a shortage of medium-
and high-security beds in the near-term, a situation that would place the
safety of both inmates and correctional staff in jeopardy," Benson wrote
in an e-mail to The Arizona Republic. At the end of this week, the Arizona
Department of Corrections is slated to award the bid. The contract calls for
up to 2,000 medium-security beds if the prison population increases. The
first 500 beds would come online in 2014, while 500 more would be added the
following year. There's no timetable for the potential 1,000 remaining beds.
Sites being considered are in Coolidge, Eloy, Florence, San Luis and Winslow.
The contract comes even though the state's overall prison population is
expected to remain flat the next two years and increase only slightly
thereafter. State records also show it's more costly for taxpayers to have
private businesses run prisons. State Corrections Director Charles Ryan has
acknowledged that the state has an overall surplus of roughly 2,000 beds. But
he also has said that Arizona has a shortage of permanent medium-security
beds and that the problem is expected to get worse in 2016. The Department of
Corrections on Tuesday declined to comment on the letter. The letter sent to
Brewer has more than 50 signatures, including current and former state legislators
as well as a Pima County supervisor, Tucson's mayor and a few Tucson City
Council members. Nearly all the officials are Democrats. Other private-prison
opponents include the Arizona Civil Liberties Union, clergy and religious
groups. In addition to questioning the cost of new private-prison beds, the
letter says state records show all five of Arizona's privately managed
facilities had higher staff turnover and lower scores for guards on core
competency tests compared with public-prison correctional officers.
"There is ample evidence to suggest that for-profit corporations are not
accountable to the citizens and taxpayers of Arizona," the letter
states. "As private companies, they are not subject to the same
transparency requirements or checks and balances as the Department of
Corrections, despite the fact that they are performing the same functions and
are paid with taxpayer dollars."
August 9, 2012 KPHO
Arizona's House minority leader is calling on Attorney General Tom Horne to
investigate for-profit, private prison operators for possible legal and
contract violations. Chad Campbell said there's evidence that for-profit,
private prisons are not saving the state money. "If that is the case,
then there is no reason the Republicans should be funding private prison
expansion," Campbell said in a statement. "It shows a lack of
judgment, especially when they are financing the expansions by doing things
like raiding $50 million from the mortgage settlement fund, which was
supposed to help people save their homes from foreclosure." Campbell
sent a letter to the Arizona Attorney General's Office last month calling for
an investigation and the immediate suspension of the Arizona Department of
Corrections' solicitation for up to 2,000 new private prison beds. Campbell
said he is renewing his call for the investigation, as the state is poised to
sign a contract with a for-profit, private prison operator by Sept. 1. In the
letter, Campbell cites alleged violations of: •State law and individual
contract provisions requiring proposed private prisons to demonstrate cost
savings to the state. •State law requiring private prisons to provide the
same or better quality than state prisons. •Contract provisions requiring
private prisons to maintain safety standards and rehabilitate prisoners.
•State uniform contract provisions requiring private prisons to provide
adequate staffing levels. There is enough money set aside in the 2013 budget
for 1,000 new private prison beds, but the state has the option to add
another 1,000 beds, for a total of 2,000 new beds in the next few years,
Campbell said. The American Friends Service Committee issued a report
indicating that if Arizona were to add the 2,000 private prison beds, the
state could be losing more than $10 million a year, he said.
August 3, 2012 Cell-Out
In Part I, we revealed that state officials have known for some time that
proposed for-profit prisons will not save the state money. We referred to a
state law, now partially repealed, that requires for-profit prison
corporations to demonstrate cost savings during the competitive bidding
process before a contract is awarded. But once they’re built, the law does
not provide any penalty for failure to actually save the state money. So in
essence, the for-profit prison corporations can promise us the moon, but
there’s nothing to ensure that they will deliver on those promises. And
indeed, they haven’t. Cost comparison studies have consistently shown that
Arizona is losing money on private prisons—an average of $3.5 million per
year, according to an AFSC analysis. The cost of a private prison contract is
calculated through the “per-diem payment.” This is the amount that Arizona
agrees to pay the corporation to house one prisoner for one day. But
contracts with for-profit prison operators are renegotiated or amended
regularly, often annually. And those per-diem rates invariably increase. An
analysis of the state’s three oldest private prison contracts, (1) With GEO
Group for Florence West, (2) With GEO Group for Phoenix West, and (3) with
Management and Training Corporation (MTC) for Marana Community Correctional
Treatment Facility, shows that the per diem rates for regular (non-emergency)
beds in these facilities increased an average of 13.9% since the contracts
were awarded, as demonstrated in the chart below. Facility/Unit Initial Per
Diem Current Per Diem Increase, in Dollars Percent Increase Phoenix West
$43.77 $49.28 $7.49 17.9% Florence West, DUI $49.55 $55.79 $6.24 12.6%
Florence West, RTC $39.95 $44.98 $5.03 12.5% Marana $43.54 $49.03 $5.49 12.6%
AVERAGE INCREASE $6.06 13.9% These records, obtained through a public records
request, also show that these contracts were more recently amended to promise
100% occupancy of these private prisons. Beginning in 2008 with Phoenix West,
the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) began working out new agreements
in which the corporations agreed to a lower per-diem payment for ‘emergency
beds’ (intended to temporarily absorb system overflow), from an average of
$30.46 to $10.00 for Florence West and Phoenix West and from $25.10 to $12.60
for Marana. In exchange for this concession, Arizona agreed to a guaranteed
100% occupancy for all the beds in all three facilities, including the much
more expensive “rated beds.” The average per diem rate for these beds is
$49.07. In the cases of the two GEO prisons (Phoenix and Florence West), a
2010 amendment later lowered the guaranteed occupancy for the emergency beds
to 95%, but left in place the 100% occupancy rate for the more expensive
rated beds. Amendment 14 for Marana (signed on June 6, 2011) has an
additional, more interesting provision. The documents refer to a “dispute”
between the Department of Corrections and for-profit operator MTC as to
whether or not the 5-year contract renewal was done in a timely manner (ADC
says yes, MTC apparently said no). The negotiated settlement of this dispute
consolidates 450 rated beds with 50 emergency beds into a total of 500 rated
beds. These 500 beds will carry a guaranteed occupancy of 100% at a rate of
$49.03 per prisoner, per day. What’s more, this agreement was applied
retroactively to October 6, 2010, effectively erasing all but three months of
the reduced emergency bed per diem in the previous amendment (from July
2010). It also guaranteed that Arizona would continue to pay about three
times as much for the emergency beds. In essence, ADC is handing over four
years’ worth of extra money to keep MTC happy. How much money? In the July
2010 contract amendment for the facility, the state had bargained the emergency
beds down to a $12.60 per diem. Now they will be paying $49.03 per diem for
the same beds. Which means that MTC is raking in an extra $36.43 per
prisoner, per day. Multiply by 50 such beds, and MTC will make additional
profits of $664,847.50 per year– a total of $2,659,390 through the remainder
of the contract, which expires in October of 2013. Not bad! Allow us to pause
here to remember that MTC is the corporation whose negligence led to the
horrific escapes from the Kingman prison in the summer of 2010, resulting in
the murder of a couple vacationing in New Mexico. Yeah, that MTC. Perhaps
unsurprisingly, it appears that Arizona is looking to cut MTC loose, at least
from managing the Marana prison (they still manage two units at Kingman, for
which they have a guaranteed occupancy rate of 97%). The final component of
this contract amendment is an agreement that Arizona will buy the Marana
prison back from MTC in October of 2013 for the tidy sum of $150,000. You can
insert your own jokes about ‘short sales’ here.
June 5, 2012 AZPM
Arizona’s 2012 state budget directs $50 million in the next two years toward construction
of 1,000 private prison beds and 500 new state-run maximum-security beds. But
there is disagreement over the need to spend the money, especially in private
prisons. Caroline Isaacs, program director of the American Friends Service
Committee Arizona Office, contends the funding is unnecessary because
statistics indicate crime is down. Gov. Jan Brewer and other state officials
have argued that while overall crime is down and the number of state
prisoners has fallen, the number of those needing maximum-security housing
has gone up. That, they have said, defines the need for the funding and the
construction, which they have said will be for maximum-security inmates. “Our
prison population is declining,” Isaacs says. “We have had negative growth, and
we have actually had a decrease in the number of people that are in our state
prisons.” Isaacs points to statistics provided by the Department of
Corrections and the governor’s budget report that indicate crime is down and
at an “all-time low.” State officials say private prisons cost less,
something Isaacs disputes. The Department of Corrections itself reports that
there is no savings from privatization. “The DOC has been doing these cost
assessments since 2005,” Isaacs says. “We looked at their numbers and
basically calculated that from 2008 to 2010 we overspent by $10 million on
the private prisons that we have in this state.” Isaacs questions whether
corporations that are operating for-profit should operate the penal system.
“The profit motive is basically at odds with what we think of as the purpose
of a correctional institution, which is to correct behavior – ‘correct’
meaning correct crime, reduce recidivism and ensure that people do not
return.”
May 4, 2012 KPHO
It was a prison break that made national news. Two convicted killers and a
third dangerous criminal broke out of a medium security private prison
facility in Kingman Arizona in July 2010. The escapees were eventually caught
after a nationwide manhunt, but not before an Oklahoma couple was killed. The
escape and murders that followed raised some serious questions about private
prison safety standards and whether new policies should be put in place to
prevent prison breaks from happening again. Two years later, Arizona
lawmakers have decided to go in a different direction. Buried in the $8.6
billion budget proposal passed at the state Capitol this week is a plan to
"eliminate the requirement for a quality and cost review of private
prison contracts." It means there would no longer be an annual review of
how private prisons operate. House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix,
voted against the new provision. "It's insanity, that's the only way to
describe this, removing the ability for the state to do a cost and quality
analysis of the private prison contracts that are being funded by taxpayer
dollars makes absolutely no sense whatever," said Campbell. Arizona
currently has about a dozen privately operated prisons. State Rep. John
Kavanaugh, R- Fountain Hills, is the lawmaker who proposed the plan to remove
the review process. CBS5 asked Kavanaugh why the change is good for Arizona.
"Because it's a study that was bias from the beginning and never
used," said Kavanaugh."So rather than
have a report that is biased and nobody listens to and costs money to
produce. We simply eliminated it." According to Kavanaugh, the recent
reports on private prisons have been put together by state prison officials,
skewing the data.
March 6, 2012 The Republic
A Tucson prison-watchdog group and the NAACP have filed a formal protest with
Arizona's State Procurement Office seeking to block the Department of
Corrections from contracting for 2,000 new private-prison beds. Next Tuesday
is the deadline for bids on the contract. A Corrections spokesman said the
department is reviewing the protest letter and will respond to it in
accordance with the requirements in the state procurement code. Neither
Corrections nor the State Procurement Office commented on whether the bid
award would be delayed. The NAACP and the American Friends Service Committee,
a Quaker group advocating criminal-justice reform, are asking the State
Procurement Office to cancel the bidding, and, at a minimum, halt the process
while it considers the protest. Among other claims, the groups argue that the
state doesn't need additional beds because the prison population is declining
and that existing contracts violate state laws that require private prisons
to cost less and provide the same or better level of services as state
prisons. The Friends committee has been critical of Corrections' efforts to
expand private prisons. Last year, when officials were considering bids for
up to 5,000 private-prison beds, The Republic reported that Corrections had
failed to conduct biennial quality comparisons of private and state-run
prisons, as required by state law. The committee filed suit in state court to
block any contract until the state completed such a study.
February 15, 2012 Arizona Republic
Arizona's private prisons are not cost-effective for taxpayers and are more difficult
to monitor than state prisons, according to a new report by a prison watchdog
group that is calling for a moratorium on any new private prisons in the
state. The report examined the five prisons that have contracts to house
Arizona prisoners and six private prisons that house federal detainees or
inmates from other states, including California and Hawaii. Based on
public-information requests and other data, the report by the American
Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group that works on criminal-justice
reform, concluded that: Arizona paid $10 million more for private prison beds
between 2008 and 2010 than it would have for equivalent state beds. Arizona's
pending plan to contract for another 2,000 private-prison beds would cost
taxpayers at least $38.7 million a year, at least $6 million a year more than
incarcerating those inmates in state prisons. Plans to add 500 more
maximum-security beds in state prisons would add almost $10 million a year to
the bill. The report questioned whether those beds are needed, since the
state's prison population has declined over the past two years by more than
900 inmates, to 39,854 as of Wednesday. In the past three years, private
prisons in Arizona have experienced at least 28 riots and more than 200 other
"disturbances" involving as many as 50 prisoners. Many of these
incidents had not previously been reported to the public. State law doesn't
require the six private prisons that hold federal detainees and prisoners
from other states to inform state or local authorities in the event of an
escape, a riot or other disturbance, or a death in custody. The American
Friends Service Committee called for requiring all private prisons to
disclose the same information as state prisons. The report criticized a
recent biennial study by the Arizona Department of Corrections that found
that the quality and cost of private prisons compared favorably with those of
state prisons. The committee noted that the Corrections Department study
didn't include data about scores of security flaws found at some prisons
after three inmates escaped in 2010 from the private Kingman prison; that the
study didn't look at recidivism rates, deaths in custody, suicides or
homicides; and that it downplayed the fact that private prisons had
consistently higher turnover and staff vacancy rates and higher levels of
inmate disciplinary reports. Corrections officials previously had said
inexperienced staff may have been a factor in the escapes from Kingman and in
the inability of staff there to control the prison yard during a riot in May
2010. Dante Gordon, a former inmate at Kingman, said that guards there stood
by and did nothing as more than 80 White inmates attacked and beat 25 Black
inmates during that riot. The report pointed out that reports every year
since 2005 by the Corrections Department, along with others by the state's
auditor general, concluded that private-prison beds on average have been more
expensive; but that the most recent Corrections Department study changed the
way it calculated expenses to include a "range" that it termed
comparable. The report also noted that lawmakers exempted two private prisons
-- the Central Arizona Correctional Facility, run by GEO Group Inc., and the Cerbat unit at the Kingman prison, operated by Management
and Training Corp. -- from state laws requiring private prisons to provide an
equivalent or higher level of quality than the state. "The state has
deliberately obscured information that would cast private prisons in a
negative light," wrote Caroline Isaacs, the author of the report and the
Friends Committee program director in Tucson. Corrections Department
spokesman Bill Lamoreaux said the director, Charles Ryan, had not had
sufficient time to review the report to reply to the issues raised.
"This is stale information peddled by familiar critics," said Steve
Owen, spokesman for Corrections Corp. of America, which operates the six
private prisons that are not under state jurisdiction. Many of the riots and
disturbances took place at those six prisons, according to data the Friends
Committee reported it had been provided by correctional officials from
California, Washington and Hawaii. The committee also gleaned information
from lawsuits filed against CCA by Hawaiian inmates. Without responding to
specific issues raised by the report, Owen said, "the safety and
security of our facilities is of critical importance to us, and we take
seriously the lives of the inmates and detainees entrusted to our care."
In response to questions during a press conference at the state Capitol on
Wednesday, Isaacs said it had been difficult to obtain information about
prison operations. "The fact that this information is so difficult to
obtain should give Arizona taxpayers pause about the lack of transparency and
lack of accountability of private prisons," she said. Her group is
calling for legislation to require stricter state oversight and reporting
requirements for private prisons operating in Arizona. House Minority Leader
Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, said he has introduced six bills calling for
better oversight and reporting, though he doesn't expect any of his bills to
get a hearing.
December 23, 2011 Arizona Daily Sun
Saying crime rates are dropping, the state Department of Corrections on
Thursday cancelled plans to contract for 5,000 new private prison beds.
Agency director Charles Ryan said the plans, first approved in 2009, came at
a time when the number of people being locked up was increasing. Based on
that, he said, the department came up with some projections of what it would
need long term. But the big increase never materialized. In fact, during the
12 months ending on June 30, 2010, the total prison population increased by
just 65. And in the last budget year, the tally actually slipped by 296. Ryan
said that made it "prudent to reassess" the plans and its forecast
that it would need 8,500 new beds by 2017. But Ryan said his agency still
believes more beds will be necessary. So it is now asking private companies
to submit bids for just 2,000 minimum and medium security beds, to be
completed something before the middle of 2014. And the department will ask
the Legislature for permission to build a new maximum security unit, to be
operated by the state beginning the following year, which can house up to 500
inmates. The decision to start a new bid process also likely undercuts any
new legal effort to block the state from awarding a contract to a private
firm to house inmates. In a lawsuit filed earlier this year, the American
Friends Service Committee said a 1987 state law requires that agency to first
conduct a study to determine if a private firm can provide at least the same
quality as the state at a lower cost. Factors that must be studied range from
security and inmate programs to health services and food services. The state
had never completed such a study. But a trial judge refused to block the
state from awarding a contract to the five firms which had previously
submitted bids. Now, with that study completed just this week and those
original bids discarded, the state is free to start the bidding process all
over again without that legal impediment.
December 15, 2011 In These Times
The Arizona Bureau of Planning, Budget and Research notes a whopping savings
of three cents per head among the relatively low-maintenance minimum security
crowd held in private pens: $46.56 per diem for a private bed, versus $46.59
at state-run institutions. The recent dismissal of a lawsuit filed against
both Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) Director Charles Ryan and
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) is the latest step in the state’s hell-bent
plan to roughly double its number of privately managed prison “beds.” The
suit, filed in an Arizona Superior Court by the American Friends Service
Committee (AFSC) on September 12, sought an injunction against ADC and the
governor’s pending award of 5,000 new prison beds to be operated by a
for-profit vendor. The state currently contracts out more than 6,500 minimum-
and medium-security beds at seven facilities with Geo Group, the nation’s
second largest private prison operator, and Management and Training
Corporation (MTC). AFSC argued that ADC is negligent in its statutorily
required duty to conduct biennial cost and quality assessments of the state’s
private prisons. The purpose of these assessments is to determine whether the
state is receiving the same quality of service from private prison operators
as provided by public facilities. Nevertheless, ADC has not completed a
single survey. While the law defines a clear list of specific items to be
assessed (such as security standards and personnel training), and a set time
frame for assessments to be performed (every two years), it does not say that
these assessments are the sole bar that must be used to measure standards of
private penitentiaries. Without the existence of these biennial reports, it’s
anyone’s guess what cost comparison model is used by ADC, the legislature and
the governor’s office. When asked what criteria the department uses to
determine if the private correctional beds managed in Arizona are operating
with the same level of security and care as state-run facilities, and whether
those facilities are providing any savings to the public, ADC spokesman
Barrett Marson directed In These Times to the ADC’s “Fiscal Year 2010
Operating Per Capita Cost Report.” The most recent FY 2010 per capita report
available–published by the Arizona Bureau of Planning, Budget and Research on
April 13, 2011–offers nothing to suggest the state should continue its rush
toward the privatization of correctional services. The report states that the
total adjusted per diem (per prisoner, per day) cost for state-run medium
security facilities was $48.42. The per diem for medium security prisoners
held by private contractors amounted to $53.02. The bureau did note a whopping
savings of three cents per head among the relatively low-maintenance minimum
security crowd held in private pens–at $46.56 per diem for a private bed,
versus $46.59 at state-run institutions. But the report goes on to quickly
deflate the standing of that $0.03 margin, stating: “[There are several]
inmate management functions that are provided and paid for by the state but
are not provided by the private contractors. This inequity increases the
state per capita cost which, in comparison, artificially lowers the private
bed cost.” Nevertheless, AFSC’s suit was dismissed on October 27 by Arizona
Superior Court Judge Arthur Anderson. The basis for the dismissal, however,
was not based on the merits of the suit, but rather in Anderson’s concurrence
with Assistant Attorney General Rex Nowlan. Nowlan had argued that AFSC and other plaintiffs did not
have standing to seek relief for a violation of the law requiring assessment.
AFSC is appealing the dismissal. “We will vigorously fight the state’s effort
to dismiss the case on procedural standing grounds,” said Vince Rabago, a former state prosecutor who is representing
AFSC in the case. “Given the obvious public safety issues and impact on
taxpayers, the parties should have a hearing on the merits of the state violating
its own laws for more than two decades.”
December 1, 2011 AP
Arizona Corrections Director Charles Ryan says the state won't act on proposals
for additional private prisons until his department completes a report
comparing private prisons and publicly operated ones. Ryan told a legislative
oversight committee recently that the report is nearly complete and will be
submitted to the Legislature before January The comparison study has long
been required by state law but has never been done before. Several private
prison companies have submitted proposals for 5,000 additional beds
authorized under a 2009 state law. The project was delayed and revamped after
security at a privately-operated state prison near Kingman was found to be
deficient following an escape.
November 28, 2011 Arizona Republic
Arizona's state lawmakers are especially receptive to corporate money and
influence, according to a new report from two liberal-leaning advocacy
groups. The 100-page report strives to show how the American Legislative
Exchange Council uses "its resources to shepherd legislation from the
corporate boardroom to the governor's desk," said Marge Baker, executive
vice president at the Washington D.C,-based People for the American Way
Foundation. ALEC describes itself as a nonpartisan national association of
state legislators. Critics, however, say it is a conservative-based partisan
organization that brings together about 300 large corporations and 2,000
predominately Republican legislators on task forces to produce model bills.
Lawmakers then take those bills back to their state legislatures in hopes of
passing them into law. The groups released the report, "ALEC in Arizona:
The Voice of Corporate Special Interests in the Halls of Arizona's
Legislature," as ALEC prepares to hold its "States and Nation
Policy Summit" in Scottsdale, beginning Wednesday. More than 50 Arizona
lawmakers are members of the group. Arizona corporations that provide
financial support to ALEC include the Salt River Project, Taser
International, and Pinnacle West Capital Corp., the parent company of Arizona
Public Services Co., the state's largest utility company. "There's no
way ordinary citizens can match the level of access and influence that ALEC
provides to these corporations," Baker said. "So Arizonans are
subjected to laws that serve the interests of the rich and powerful."
But Kaitlyn Buss, an ALEC spokeswoman, said the organization is merely a
"resource" for lawmakers. "Our main goal and focus is to
promote free market, limited government and federalism (ideals)," Buss
said. "We do have model legislation. It's a main part of what we do, but
that doesn't give it priority over anything else that might be introduced at
the Legislature." The report includes side-by-side comparisons of dozens
of "model bills" generated at ALEC conferences, and those
introduced at the Arizona Legislature. In Arizona, lawmakers passed 19 of the
36 model bills introduced in 2010, ALEC officials said. Typically, ALEC model
legislation -- including those highlighted in the report -- focus on
anti-immigration, anti-union, and anti-federal health-care reform
initiatives.
November 19, 2011 Arizona Republic
The Arizona Department of Correction's long-delayed plans to contract for
5,000 additional private-prison beds are again under fire. A Quaker
prison-watchdog group, whose lawsuit seeking to block any contract was
dismissed in Maricopa County Superior Court last month, Friday filed an
appeal and a fresh request for an injunction. That injunction would block any
contract until Corrections completes required studies comparing the
performance of its existing private-prison contracts to state prisons. Judge
Arthur Anderson dismissed the initial suit on the ground that the Tucson
office of the American Friends Service Committee lacked standing to sue the
state. The committee noted the dismissal didn't address substantive issues
raised by the suit, which alleges that the state is in violation of its own
laws, which require that any private-prison contracts save the state money
and that the state conduct biannual studies comparing the operations of
private and state prisons. The department has never conducted these studies,
which are supposed to analyze costs, the security and safety of each prison,
how inmates are managed, inmate discipline, programs, staff training,
administration, and other factors. The suit and the appeal charge that
without these studies, the state can't say whether private prisons are more
cost-effective than state facilities. The department didn't immediately reply
to requests for comment. Bids on contracts were halted last year to beef up
security requirements after three inmates escaped from a private prison in
Kingman. The department had expected to award contracts as early as Sept. 12,
but that process has been repeatedly delayed. This week, the department asked
the four bidders to extend their bids to Dec. 22.
November 9, 2011 Colorado Independent
The times they are a changin’. It seems like only
yesterday, Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce was considered the most
powerful politician in Arizona and a man whose counsel was sought by
legislators in Colorado and around the country. The author of Arizona’s
anti-immigration law, SB-1070, Pearce was considered the father of
state-level immigration reform. Tuesday, he became the first Arizona
legislator ever to lose a recall election, the first state senate president
in the country to ever face such a fate. He conceded late last night on his
way to a 53-45 defeat to fellow conservative Republican Jerry Lewis. “This is
huge,” said DeeDee Garcia Blase, national president
of the Tequila Party and immediate past president of Somos
Republicans. She likened the successful recall to the civil rights movement
of the 60s and said it may mark a turning point in the American debate over
immigration. “This is like a miracle,” she said. She said Arizona’s passage
of SB-1070 was a watershed event in that it awakened Latino voters in America
to the fact that they had to get involved. “I’m an American citizen. I’m a
veteran, but with this law people could ask for my papers based on how I
look. Latinos came out to vote after 1070 passed.” She said is still working
with Somos Republicans, but is shifting her efforts
to the non-partisan Tequila Party because the Republican Party does not seem
open to Latino concerns. “The GOP better wake up, but I am not doing their
dirty work anymore,” she said. Victor Jerry Lewis, a conservative Republican
and a Mormon, who agreed with Pearce on almost every issue except
immigration, where he said all parties needed to work together to find
solutions without demonizing large groups of people. Garcia Blase was the first person to initiate the recall of Sen.
Russell Pearce but later joined with other groups working toward the same
end. She said enlisting the Mormon community was huge and that as Mormons in
Mesa became more familiar with The Utah Compact and efforts by Mormons in
Utah to craft humane immigration policies, the tide began to turn. “Last
night’s win consisted of the LDS community, conservatives, libertarians,
independents and Democrats uniting and ousting one of the most
anti-immigrant, anti-Latino politicians in American history,” Garcia Blase said. “The defeat of Russell Pearce means the tide
is turning back toward the United States maintaining its reputation as that
Shining City on a Hill. The nation is now set to reverse the evil deeds of
anti-immigrant crusaders John Tanton, Kris Kobach,
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, NumbersUSA, the Federation for
American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, and so forth,” she said. Pearce’s ties
to the private prison industry, which worked with him to craft a law that
would benefit private prisons by providing a steady stream of new inmates,
has been widely documented.
October 28, 2011 AP
A judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by a Quaker group that had been a
potential roadblock to the state's plan to add 5,000 more private prison
beds. Judge Arthur Anderson of Maricopa County Superior Court said the
American Friends Service Committee lacked a legal right to request an
injunction to block the state from awarding new private prison contracts
before the state satisfies a long-ignored law requiring periodic studies
comparing costs and services of private and publicly run prisons. The Quaker
group cited a 2010 escape from a privately operated state prison near
Kingman, and concerns about public safety and tax dollars, in its lawsuit.
The state requested dismissal of the suit and is now conducting a comparison
study while reviewing proposals for new or expanded private prisons in
communities around the state. The proposals under evaluation are from four
finalists chosen from companies that responded to the Department of
Corrections under a 2009 law. Caroline Issacs, Arizona program director for
the Quaker group, noted that Anderson's ruling was based only on the issue of
legal standing. The group remains concerned about the safety and
effectiveness of private prisons and is considering the possibility of an
appeal or other legal action, she said. Arizona's use of private prisons and
its 2009 decision to increase that reliance have come under increased
scrutiny because of a 2010 escape from the Kingman prison, a facility later
found to have been plagued by security flaws. Two of the three inmates who
escaped have been charged with murdering an Oklahoma couple in New Mexico.
Arizona now uses private prisons to house about 6,000 of its 40,000 inmates.
An attorney for the Quaker group argued that the comparison study would
provide the state with "a baseline set of knowledge" needed to help
protect the public's safety and tax dollars. If the state had done the
studies in the past, the Kingman escape might not have happened and the
public might have questioned whether private prisons have provided cost
savings for the state, the attorney told Anderson during an Oct. 7 hearing. A
lawyer for the state said the state's ongoing evaluation of the four
companies' contract proposals involves comparing costs and that the proposals
are scored on whether they meet the state's performance standards.
October 14, 2011 East Valley Tribune
A Quaker group asked a judge on Friday to block the state from putting more
inmates in private prisons, saying the Department of Corrections has never
shown it is safe or even cost effective. Vince Rabago,
representing the American Friends Service Committee, told Maricopa County
Superior Court Judge Arthur Anderson that the law requires the state to make
a comparison every two years between the services and safety of state-run
facilities and those operated by private companies. But there has never been
such a study even though that law has been on the books for more than 20
years. Without the study, Rabago argued, there is
no basis to know whether it makes sense for the state to go ahead with its
plans to contract for another 5,000 private prison beds. So he wants Anderson
to block that contract from being awarded until the first study, which the
Department of Corrections is finally doing this year, is completed. “The
state has an obligation to follow its laws,” Rabago
told the judge. The 1987 law dealing with awarding of contracts for private
prisons requires the director of the Department of Corrections to look at the
job contractors are doing every two years, considering everything from the
programs and services offered to inmates to food service and security. Rabago told Anderson the state needs the study as a
baseline to compare to what bidders for the new contract are offering.
Assistant Attorney General Rex Nowlan conceded that
the state never had performed the study. But he said that is legally
irrelevant, arguing that the Department of Corrections is effectively looking
at all those issues. He also pointed out that same law already prohibits the
state from contracting for private prison beds “unless the proposal offers
cost savings to this state.” Anyway, Nowlan
questioned how the Quaker group — or the other plaintiffs who are the parents
of an adult inmate in a private prison — has any right to sue simply because
the Department of Corrections has not complied with the law requiring a
study. He said the only people who would have a right to complain are the
lawmakers who are supposed to get the report. Rabago
disagreed. “Taxpayers have a right to prevent the illegal expenditure of
taxpayer monies,” he told the judge. Nowlan
responded that the Legislature specifically directed the Department of
Corrections to contract for another 5,000 beds at privately run prisons. That
is on top of the 6,400 inmates already housed in private facilities. With
that direction, Nowlan said, what the agency is
doing cannot be called illegal. Rabago said this is
more than a question of a missing report. “Maybe had the state done its job,
maybe had it been doing these studies properly ... maybe we would not be in a
position where we would have had Kingman (private prison) escapees murdering
innocent people,” he said. “Maybe we wouldn’t have riots and unsafe
conditions which we know exist.” That murder reference is to an incident last
year when three violent criminals escaped from a private prison run by
Management and Training Corp. after an accomplice threw a wire cutter over
the fence. All eventually were recaptured, but not before an Oklahoma couple,
kidnapped at a New Mexico rest area, was murdered; several of those involved
have been charged in that incident. A study following that incident found
various failures with the operation of the facility, including a perimeter
alarm system that malfunctioned so often that corrections officers routinely
ignored it. The study also concluded the state itself had done a poor job of
oversight. State officials have not said when they will finally award the new
contract. But Barrett Marson, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections,
said his agency asked all the bidders to extend the expiration date on their
offers until Nov. 22 to provide more time to review the proposals. Anderson
gave no indication of when he will rule.
October 12, 2011 Coolidge Examiner
D-Day has been extended. The “D” stands for decision as in whether a prison
is built in Coolidge. Regardless of what side Coolidge citizens are on they
want an answer. The answer to whether Coolidge gets a private prison
apparently will come later rather than sooner. A decision that could have
come as early as Sept. 16 has now been extended to Nov. 22, according to the
Arizona Department of Corrections. The DOC has apparently asked Management
and Training Corporation (MTC) and the other companies that bid on a private
prison “to extend its bid through November 22, 2011, while they continue to
evaluate the proposals.” Though no DOC officials were available for comment,
Coolidge Mayor Tom Shope has a few ideas of the
hold up. “There is a lot of political play about the need for prisons,” Shope said. “With the question about jail time that has
been raised as well as the private vs. state debate, there is a lot going on.
That is probably what is responsible more than anything for holding this up.”
What Shope referred to was an expose that appeared
in the Sunday Arizona Republic that examined how Arizona has some of the
harshest sentences of any state in the country and the huge price tag
incurred. Also, there is the ongoing battle between the private and federal
prison advocates. Shope said he had hoped a
decision would have been made by now, but that he understands that there are
external factors at work as well. “Obviously, I was hoping for a decision
sooner,” Shope said. “This just prolongs the wait
process. I am not losing sleep over it. It’s not the end of the world. Every
company that made a bid has to wait. Every city has to wait. We’re all in the
same boat. And I don’t have any hint of who is in the lead.” There has been
some talk that Eloy is in the lead because it would be most cost effective.
One undocumented report said that beds are already being cleared in one of
the city’s facilities. But Eloy Mayor Byron Jackson said he hasn’t heard
anything either from Corrections Corporation of America or the DOC. Jackson
still believes his city would make the most sense because it is most
cost-effective. “It only makes sense,” Jackson said. “It’s not like they
would have to build a new prison. They would just move people (from
California) out and move new people in. It’s not that big of a deal. We
already have or could provide the bed space. I haven’t heard that a final
decision has been made.”
September 24, 2011 Arizona Republic
Arizona's Department of Corrections needs to do more to improve security at
private-contract and state-run prisons, a report released Friday by the
state's auditor general concludes. The report credits the department with
making many significant improvements since the July 2010 escapes of three
prisoners from the Kingman prison. These improvements include revamping the
state's monitoring and inspection programs, which had failed to detect
obvious security flaws at Kingman before the escapes; new, tougher annual
audits of each prison; better security and reporting requirements in new
contracts; and stiffer requirements and better training for state monitors
who oversee private prisons.The audit called for
further steps to address ongoing security problems.
September 15, 2011 Arizona Daily Sun
A judge refused Wednesday to block the state from awarding new contracts to
put inmates in private prisons. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Arthur
Anderson said members of the Quaker organization who filed suit earlier this
week had not shown their interests would be "irreparably harmed" if
he refused to issue an emergency order. That made the challengers legally
ineligible for immediate relief. But the ruling does not end the dispute.
Anderson scheduled a hearing for next week when he wants to hear from both
the American Friends Service Committee as well as the Department of
Corrections. He could at that time, after hearing evidence, then bar the
state from proceeding with the additional private prisons. That presumes,
however, it is not too late. The law directing the Department of Corrections
to contract out for 5,000 private prison beds allows the agency to award the
bid as early as this Friday. And agency spokesman Barrett Marson would not
commit to holding off until after next week's hearing. About 6,500 of the
state's approximately 40,000 inmates already are in private prisons. The
lawsuit is based on the contention by the group that privately run prisons
are both more costly and less secure than those operated by the state. What
gives the group ammunition is that a 1987 state law requires a study to
determine whether private companies can not only do the job at a lower cost
but that the private companies meet the same standards on everything from
security to food. That law was ignored until Gov. Jan Brewer directed a study
be done. That study, however, will not be completed before the end of the
year. The group wants Anderson to preclude new contracts until that happens.
Anderson, however, said he cannot act now -- before the Department of
Corrections gets a chance to respond -- absent some showing of irreparable
harm. Carolyn Isaacs, the group's Arizona program manager, said there is such
proof. "Certainly, the taxpayers are harmed by wasting $650
million," she said. Isaacs also noted that other plaintiffs in the
lawsuit include a couple whose son in locked up in a private prison in
Kingman. They allege that guards in that facility have allowed attacks to
occur on African-American inmates. "There is irreparable harm happening
daily in these facilities, or at least the potential for it," Isaacs
said. She also pointed to the review done by the state of the operation of
that Kingman facility after three dangerous inmates escaped last year. One of
the escapees and an accomplice have been charged in connection with the
murder of an Oklahoma couple. "At any minute, another Kingman (incident)
could possibly happen," Isaacs said.
September 15, 2011 Arizona Republic
A prison watchdog group's effort to block state plans for more private-prison
beds fell short Wednesday. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Arthur
Anderson denied a request by the American Friends Service Committee for a
temporary restraining order against the Department of Corrections, pending a
hearing Tuesday on an injunction filed by the committee. That injunction
seeks to block Corrections from contracting for more private-prison beds
until the department completes a comprehensive cost-benefit study of private
vs. state-run prisons, due to be completed by January. Corrections officials
have said they may announce as early as Friday the award of one or more
contracts for up to 5,000 new private-prison beds. The committee had
requested the restraining order to stop Corrections from awarding any
contracts before its injunction is considered. The committee's Arizona
program director, Caroline Isaacs, called on Corrections to voluntarily hold
off on any award until after the hearing. Corrections declined to comment on
the injunction.
September 13, 2011 Arizona Republic
A group opposed to privatizing prisons filed suit Monday seeking to block, at
least temporarily, state plans to contract for 5,000 new private-prison beds
as early as Friday. The state "should not be allowed to hand over
another cent of taxpayers' money until the Department (of Corrections) can
prove to us that these prisons are safe, that the corporations are doing the
job we're paying them to do, and that the state is capable of holding them
accountable," said Caroline Isaacs, director of the Tucson office of the
American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group that monitors prisons.
Besides requesting a temporary restraining order, the suit filed in Maricopa
County Superior Court accuses Arizona's Department of Corrections of failing
to follow two state statutes: - State law requires that any private-prison
contract either save money or provide better services for the same cost as
state-run prisons. Cost comparisons done by Corrections every year since 2005
consistently show that private prisons are more expensive, the suit noted. -
Corrections has failed for decades to carry out biannual studies, required by
law, comparing the performance of private vs. state prisons on security,
safety, how inmates are managed, programs and services, and many other
issues. The Corrections Department declined to comment on the suit. Corrections
officials previously have admitted that the biannual studies have not been
done. Corrections Director Charles Ryan has said the department expects to
complete its first such study by January. The department had said it would
announce the award of one or more contracts on or after Friday. Four
companies are finalists to build or provide prisons at five possible sites.
The committee was joined in the suit by Oralee and Joyce Clayton, parents of
an inmate at the privately run Kingman state prison who say they're concerned
for their son's safety. The group asked the court to issue a temporary
restraining order stopping Corrections from awarding any contract, at least
until it completes its first biannual cost-benefit comparison study. The suit
also asks the court to force the department to disclose the details of all of
its current contracts with private-prison operators.
September 12, 2011 Blog for Arizona
The state of Arizona is poised to award a lucrative private prison contract
on September 16, despite the Department of Corrections failure to comply with
Arizona law. (Arizona law requires the department to conduct a cost-benefit
analysis comparing state and private prisons every two years, which has never
been done). The American Friends Service Committee is going to do something
about it. Quakers threaten lawsuit over private prisons - Arizona Capitol
Times (subscription required): A Quaker organization and a West Valley
advocacy group are making last-minute efforts to stop the state from building
private prisons. American Friends Service Committee, a social action arm of
the Quaker faith, notified the Attorney General’s Office today it intends to
sue to keep the Department of Corrections from awarding contracts to build
private prisons to house 5,000 inmates. The contract award is scheduled for
Sept. 16. Four companies have bid to build prisons at five possible sites.
Stacy Scheff, a Tucson attorney representing the
group, said she is going to ask a Maricopa County Superior Court judge to
prevent the state from awarding the contracts until the completion of a
required cost-benefit analysis comparing state and private prisons.
[Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan said the department is
working on the study and it should be complete no later than January.] The
group has scheduled a press conference for Monday at 1:30 p.m. in the House
of Representatives.
August 17, 2011 ABC 15
Family members of a couple allegedly murdered by two Arizona prison escapees
are speaking out against a proposed prison. The Haas family is on a mission
that they never wanted, but feel they need pursue. “It’s something you think
about everyday,” said Linda Haas Rook. Rook’s
brother Gary Haas and his wife Linda were murdered last year. Investigators
believe the killers are two men who escaped from a prison in Kingman just
days earlier. The Kingman prison is operated by the Management and Training
Corporation, which now has hopes to build prisons in San Luis and Coolidge.
The Haas family hopes to prevent the company from doing so. Linda Rook
planned to travel more than 1,400 miles with her husband and her mother to
the public hearing Tuesday night in San Luis to voice her concerns. “[MTC]
needs to right their wrongs,” she told ABC15 from her stopover in Scottsdale.
MTC has made several security upgrades to their facility in Kingman, and a
spokesperson said the company has a great track record with the state. If MTC
is approved to build the new prison, the company stated it plans to bring
about 500 jobs to the San Luis area.
August 17, 2011 Arizona Republic
Rep. Chad Campbell, the Arizona House minority leader, asked Gov. Jan Brewer
on Tuesday to temporarily halt a proposed 5,000-bed expansion of private
prisons in Arizona. Public hearings on the expansion continue this week, with
one held Tuesday in San Luis. It is among five communities where four
companies are bidding to provide the beds. The Arizona Department of
Corrections is expected to issue one or more contracts in late September.
But, as The Arizona Republic recently reported, the department has never
completed the biannual, cost-benefit analyses required by law to compare
private and public prisons. Corrections Director Charles Ryan said he expects
the first such analysis to be completed in January. In a letter to Brewer,
Campbell, a Phoenix Democrat, asked her to hold off on any new contract until
the analysis is ready and "after enhanced security, training and
monitoring policies are in place and shown to be effective at all existing
private facilities." Brewer could not immediately be reached. At
Tuesday's public hearing, the two companies bidding to build prisons near San
Luis - Management and Training Corp. and Geo Group Inc. - tried to fight back
against criticism of their records in Arizona and elsewhere. MTC, in particular,
was criticized for the escapes of three prisoners from its Kingman prison
last year. Two of those prisoners are accused of kidnapping and murdering an
Oklahoma couple, Gary and Linda Haas. Vivian Haas, Gary's mother, has said
little in public in the year since the murders. But at the San Luis hearing,
she spoke out. "I've been through a lot of painful times in 81 years,
even surviving the terrible tornado that hit Joplin recently. But nothing
compares to the pain of having my kids brutally murdered because MTC couldn't
do its job of keeping criminals locked up," Haas said. MTC Vice
President Mike Murphy, who spoke before Haas, emphasized the 500 jobs and the
tax benefits he said the proposed prison would bring, and promised good
security. Geo Group similarly focused on jobs and security in its
presentation.
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.
July 20, 2011 Tucson Citizen
Much has been made of Governor Brewer’s intimate ties to Corrections
Corporation of America. Her Chief of Staff, Paul Senseman,
is a former CCA lobbyist, and his wife is currently a lobbyist for the
company. Brewer’s campaign manager and senior policy advisor, Chuck Coughlin,
runs a consulting firm that also lobbies for CCA in Arizona. Brewer accepted
a total of $60,000 in contributions from people associated with CCA for her
campaign and the tax increase initiative that she was pushing last year. The
scandal made waves after the passage of SB1070, raising questions about CCA’s
role in drafting legislation that would potentially provide the company with
millions more in contracts for immigrant detention facilities in Arizona. But
Brewer is hardly the only powerful politician in Arizona with ties to this
influential industry. A Cell-Out Arizona investigation has revealed that John
Kavanagh (R-8), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, has accepted
numerous campaign contributions from lobbyists and others associated with Geo
Group, the nation’s second largest private prison company and one of the
bidders for a contract to build and manage 5,000 new prison beds in Arizona.
Now we know why Kavanagh is such a staunch supporter of private prisons. He
appeared last week on Phoenix Channel 8’s public affairs program, Horizon,
debating the issue with Rep. Cecil Ash. In the 2010 election cycle, Kavanagh
accepted at least 6 donations from lobbyists associated with Geo Group.
According to Beau Hodai’s investigation for In
These Times, “Geo Group employs consulting firm Public Policy Partners…While
Public Policy Partners (PPP), an Arizona-based firm, has more than 30 Arizona
clients, it only has two clients at the federal level: Geo Group (based in
Florida) and Ron Sachs Communications, a Florida-based public-relations firm
that, promotes prison privatization. PPP, as a firm, also appears to be an
advocate for expanded use of private prisons. Federal lobbying records show
PPP owner, John Kaites, lobbying on behalf of the
firm on issues of “private correctional detention management.” Kavanagh’s
campaign finance reports show that he accepted money from John Kaites as well as Ann Peralta Kaites,
John’s lovely wife. He received his-and-hers matching donations from another
husband and wife team, Ken and Laurie Quartermain. Ken is a lobbyist for
Public Policy Partners. Several other donations came from lobbyists with PPP.
It’s a shrewd move for Geo Group. Since CCA has bought the Governor’s office,
the best way to get those lucrative contracts is to buy off the guy in charge
of releasing the money for them—the Chair of Appropriations and outgoing
Chair of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
February 15, 2011 Arizona Republic
Despite a bipartisan outcry last summer after three inmates escaped from a
private prison near Kingman, bills to increase state oversight of for-profit
corrections companies can't get a legislative hearing. Democrats have
introduced 10 bills, including measures that would bring six private-prison
complexes in Eloy and Florence under state standards. Those facilities, run
by the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, house federal
prisoners and detainees, as well as inmates from Hawaii, Washington and
California, and are unregulated by the state. Democrats also are concerned
that, while the Kingman prison still isn't accepting new inmates because
reforms aren't complete, another 5,000 private beds have gone out for bid.
"There's no legitimate reason why our private prisons shouldn't be held
to the same standards as public prisons," said House Minority Leader
Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, who is sponsoring five bills. In the weeks after
the Kingman inmates scaled a fence, led a cross-country chase and were tied
to the death of a couple in New Mexico, the Department of Corrections issued
a searing report that found "a culture of laxness among the staff,"
including false alarms so frequent they were routinely ignored. Department
Director Charles Ryan replaced top administrators and added state employees,
while the contractor, Utah-based Management and Training Corp., installed a
new alarm system and beefed up staff training. Republicans who called for
hearings into the breakout now say they're generally satisfied with Ryan's
response. Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, said the five Senate bills
won't get a hearing in his Judiciary Committee because he doesn't believe
they're necessary. The key reform, he said, is to ensure the state employee
charged with monitoring each of the five private prisons overseen by the
state has experience running a prison unit. That wasn't the case in Kingman,
he said.
Governor Brewer running away from hard questions
regarding her staff's relationships with CCA.
November 9, 2010 Arizona Republic
A criminal-justice watchdog group has called on state leaders to cancel a
contract for 5,000 private-prison beds and launch an investigation into the
private-prison industry's "lack of accountability" and influence on
state politics. The Arizona office of the American Friends Service Committee,
a national Quaker non-profit group that focuses on human rights, held a news
conference Monday announcing their concerns. The group said it wants the
Attorney General's Office and Secretary of State's Office to investigate
issues including the private-prison industry's campaign contributions to
state legislators, lobbyists' efforts to push legislation that boosts
incarceration rates, and the need for private prisons in Arizona. "We're
just asking for basic transparencies in an industry that has a stake in
making money off incarcerating people," said Caroline Isaacs, a
committee spokeswoman.
November 3, 2010 KPHO
A state audit of the Arizona Department of Corrections found private prisons
cost taxpayers more money per inmate. The audit report says housing a
medium-custody inmate at a private prison costs $55.89 per day. The daily
cost of housing the same inmate at a state facility was calculated at $48.13
a day. State auditor Dale Chapman said there more extensive research is
needed on the costs of private prisons. Chapman has examined Arizona's
Department of Corrections budget and recommended state lawmakers invest money
examining private prisons' price tag. "We think there would be a value
in determining and spending time and resources on determining the costs of
housing an inmate in a state facility versus a private facility," said
Chapman.
October 31, 2010 Joplin Globe Sun
A Joplin woman is among the relatives of an Oklahoma couple, allegedly slain
by two escaped prisoners from Arizona and an accomplice, who are seeking $40
million in damages, according to notice of claim letters the family’s
attorneys have mailed to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and other officials in that
state. Letters sent last week by attorneys for the relatives of Gary and
Linda Haas, of Tecumseh, Okla., allege that their Aug. 2 deaths in New Mexico
were the result of “a long series of egregious errors and omissions of gross
negligence” by the Arizona Department of Corrections and officials at the
Arizona State Prison at Kingman, where the inmates escaped July 30. The Haases, who grew up in McDonald County, had been planning
to return to Southwest City, where they had property, after losing their jobs
in Oklahoma when a GM plant shut down, Linda Rook told the Globe after their
deaths. Rook, of Joplin, is a surviving sister of Gary Haas. In August, the
couple were heading out west on a camping trip when they were abducted and
killed. ‘Slipshod security’ -- The attorneys’ letters allege that Arizona
corrections officials and the prison’s private operator, Utah-based
Management and Training Corp., “set the stage for and permitted the careless
and slipshod security environment” at the prison that allowed the inmates to
escape and allegedly kidnap and kill the victims. MTC is liable for punitive
damages in the case, according to notice of claim letters sent to company
officials. The notice of claim letters were mailed
on behalf of the Haases’ daughter, Cathy Byus, and the mother, sister and two brothers of Linda
Haas. Their attorney, Jacob Diesselhorst, said
Thursday that the claim letters are required before a wrongful-death lawsuit
can be filed against the state. Diesselhorst said
Arizona officials have 60 days to respond. Contacted over the weekend, Rook
declined to comment and referred questions to a Joplin lawyer, John Dolence, who is representing her in the matter. The
Globe’s efforts to reach Dolence on Sunday
afternoon were unsuccessful. A spokesman for Gov. Brewer, Paul Senseman, did not immediately return a call seeking
comment. A spokesman for MTC, Carl Stuart, said the company does not comment
on pending litigation.
September 1, 2010 Phoenix New Times
Last night's report from KPHO's Morgan Loew on the ties between private
prison behemoth Corrections Corporation of America and Governor Jan Brewer
has drawn some serious plasma from Brewer's camp. Specifically, the
hemorrhage is from Brewer's top political advisor Chuck Coughlin, president
of HighGround Public Affairs, which also represents
CCA. Seems Coughlin's squealing like a skewered javelina over Loew's latest.
In response, HighGround today published a nasty,
unsigned screed about Loew and KPHO on HighGround's
Web site. Most of this whiny jeremiad is just blather. But the most
interesting part has to do with an ad buy with KPHO that HighGround
dropped. At the end of last night's segment, Loew mentioned that Coughlin's
company canceled the governor's campaign advertising with the station. This,
after KPHO began following the Brewer-CCA connection, which has scored
national coverage with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show. HighGround's
online reply states that, "The fact is that the Governor Brewer 2010
campaign never made a buy on CBS 5 for its current commercial. There was
nothing to cancel." Um, okay. Then why does CBS 5 have on file documents
signed by the Carlton Media Group's Fran Parker, who is listed on HighGround's Web site as working with the company? The
docs, which are public record, show that Parker was the contact for an ad
purchase in the gross amount of $13,775 that was to run in the weeks before
the primary. (You can see the docs, here.) According to KPHO general manager
Ed Munson, Brewer's camp canceled the buy before the ads began running.
Confronted with this info, Coughlin e-mailed me that, "The ad buy he is
referring to was in August and was never placed. We were considering buys all
over the State. We choose [sic] not to air on Channel 5 at that time."
Coughlin didn't get back to me on a question asking if this decision was
because of Loew's reporting. I asked Munson the same question. He answered
that it was "hard to say," but maintained that the lost dollars
would not affect KPHO's coverage of the CCA-Brewer connection. HighGround's online temper-tantrum is telling. First, it
attacks Loew ad hominem, calling him "maniacal," saying he has to "make things up," and that Loew is
interested in advancement to a bigger gig, maybe in New York or someplace. On
the first and the third charges, if so, so what? On the second, when it gets
down to the nitty-gritty, HighGround doesn't really
offer anything that Loew made up. That's because Loew didn't make anything
up. The kvetches in the post are pretty petty, and reflect Coughlin's biased,
self-centered worldview. One of them involves Caroline Isaacs of the American
Friends Service Committee, a CCA critic whom Loew interviews for his piece. HighGround quotes verbatim from Loew's report, which
plainly states who Isaacs is, then the post goes on to claim that Loew never
did this. "Moreover, Loew never establishes who Caroline Isaacs
is," the screed reads. "Apparently she is in Philadelphia and
according to AFSC's own website, 'AFSC is a Quaker organization devoted to
service, development, and peace programs throughout the world. Our work is
based on the belief in the worth of every person, and faith in the power of
love to overcome violence and injustice.' Sounds like a group with a definite
political ax to grind." Like HighGround
doesn't have a political ax to grind? Give me a freakin'
break! Also, Isaacs is out of the AFSC's Tucson office. If whoever wrote this
garbage bothered to look more than six seconds at AFSC's Web site, they could
see under "Where we work" a list of AFSC's offices, including the
Tucson one. And talk about a smear on Quakers. If AFSC happened to be a
Mormon organization devoted to service, love and peace programs, would
Coughlin's organization be so quick to slam it? As for Coughlin's Mount
McKinley-sized conflict of interest, I've written about this at length in a
previous Bird column. Coughlin denies that there's a conflict of interest,
when there clearly is. Even by his own admission, he spoke with the governor
about whether or not to sign SB 1070, Arizona's "breathing while brown
law," while he already had CCA as a client. CCA stands to benefit from
SB 1070 because CCA has contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to
detain people for immigration-related crimes. And as ICE spokesman Vinnie
Picard confirms in Loew's piece, individuals picked up by local law
enforcement do end up in ICE-CCA custody. Indeed, Picard recently related to
me that for just one CCA prison, the Central Arizona Detention Facility in
Florence, ICE paid CCA a staggering $49.5 million for the period between
7/1/09 and 6/30/2010. Not all of that is inmate-related. I'm working on
getting a breakdown. But it does give you an idea how much money is involved.
Loew's piece from Tuesday followed up on a series of reports he's done for
KPHO, pointing out what was first published by the magazine In These Times:
That Coughlin lobbies for CCA, that Brewer's communications director Paul Senseman used to lobby for CCA, and that Senseman's wife Kathy still lobbies for CCA. In the past,
Coughlin has insisted to me that HighGround has
"no position on 1070" and did not lobby Brewer on 1070. Of course,
CCA lobbyists and execs did contribute to Brewer's seed money, and donated
substantially to the Prop 100 campaign, which was Brewer's baby. What is
this, some Benny Hill segment where Coughlin talks to CCA out of one side of
his mouth, then changes hats and talks to Brewer with the other? Just how
dumb does Coughlin think the Arizona public is? On second thought, I guess
he's got them pretty dead to rights.
August 31, 2010 KPHO
A July prison break in Kingman, Ariz., brought a local and national attention
to the state's private prisons. But a CBS 5 News investigation discovered
records of inmates in the for-profit facilities of which state Department of
Corrections are unaware. In the early morning of Sept. 17, 2007, two inmates
overpowered a guard and used ladders to climb out of a prison in Florence.
Both were convicted murderers, including one who killed a man with a machete,
according to prison records. "I just think they took the opportunity
because it was there," said former guard Robert McDonald. McDonald, who
worked at the Florence prison, attributed part of the problem to the fact the
facility is a private, for-profit prison. "Night shift was always the
weakest scheduled shift because of staffing," McDonald said. The
surprising fact isn't that the prison break involved the machete murderer,
but that neither the Department of Corrections nor any other law enforcement
agency in Arizona was aware he was there. The escapees committed their crimes
in Washington state but were sent to a privately-run prison in Arizona that
houses out-of-state inmates. There are at least three of these prisons
operating in Arizona, and not even the director of the Arizona Department of
Corrections knows who is locked up in them. The CBS 5 investigation found
inmates such as Byran Uyesugi,
who was convicted of murdering seven people in Hawaii in 1999, the worst mass
murder in the state's history. He is an inmate at a private prison in Eloy.
There is no Arizona law that requires private prisons to report who they
hold. Bill Brotherton was an Arizona state senator in 2006 and sponsored two
bills that would have reined in some of the freedom private prisons enjoy.
"One of the pieces of legislation was just to say nobody can import
murderers or sexual offenders to the state of Arizona," he said.
"You keep your people. We've got enough of our own. We don't want any
more." Neither bill passed, Brotherton said. "I had a hearing on
one in committee. Couldn't get a hearing on the other one. They died,"
he said. Brotherton found himself against a brick wall the private prison
industry has created at the state Capitol. Records show that from 2001 to 2004
the companies that run private prisons and their lobbyists contributed
$77,000 to powerful state lawmakers, and have contributed even more since
then. "These companies have been buying influence in the Legislature for
decades, really," said social justice advocate Caroline Isaacs, whose
job includes monitoring the industry for the American Friends Service
Committee. She said big state contracts and loose regulations combine to make
Arizona the "promised land" of private prisons. Prison companies
are exploring new locations in Globe, Benson, Prescott Valley, Florence,
Tucson and the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation. "They've been very
busy running around the state talking to these various town councils and
county zoning commissions getting land rezoned for correctional usage,"
Isaacs said. A prison break in Kingman in July that drew national attention
and a nationwide manhunt for three escaped convicts and an accomplice put a
temporary stop to those prison expansion plans. Even some of the
Legislature's top supporters of private prisons now say it's time to enact
"some" regulation of prisons that house out-of-state inmates. State
Rep. John Kavanagh said, "I think the major requirement is that we get
to ensure that the custody level of the prison matches the custody level of
the prisoner." Kavanagh stopped short of saying there should be limits
on who these prisons house in Arizona, which means convicts like the machete
murderer from Washington and the mass murderer from Hawaii will continue to
call Arizona home. Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the private
prisons that hold inmates from other states, issued a statement that reads,
in part: "We cannot support regulations that would result in the closing
of facilities and the loss of hundreds of jobs in Arizona."
August 25, 2010 Private Corrections Working
Group
Today, the Private Corrections Working Group (PCWG), a not-for-profit organization
that exposes the problems of and educates the public about for-profit private
corrections, called for overhaul of the Arizona Department of Corrections’
(ADOC) oversight of the for-profit prison industry, including: • An immediate
halt to all bidding processes involving private prison operators and a
moratorium on new private prison beds • Hold public hearings during the
special session to address the problems with for-profit prisons in Arizona •
Enact other cost-cutting measures that not only save money but enhance public
safety, like earned release credits, amending truth in sentencing, and
restoring judicial discretion. This action came about after the ADOC released
a security audit on August 19th concerning the July 30 escape of three dangerous
prisoners from a private prison in Kingman operated by Management and
Training Corp. (MTC) (Coincidentally, that same day the last escapee and an
accomplice, John McCluskey and Casslyn Mae Welch,
were captured without incident at a campground in eastern Arizona. The other
two escaped prisoners, Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick, had been caught
previously in Wyoming and Colorado). Ken Kopczynski,
executive director of PCWG, condemned MTC for the numerous security failures
that led to the July 30 escape. “If MTC had properly staffed the facility,
properly trained their employees and properly maintained security at the
Kingman prison, this escape would not have occurred. But because MTC is a
private company that needs to generate profit, and therefore cut costs
related to staffing, training and security, three dangerous inmates were able
to escape and at least two innocent victims are dead as a result,” Kopczynski observed. “That is part of the cost of prison
privatization that MTC and other private prison firms don’t want to talk
about.” The murders of an Oklahoma couple, Gary and Linda Hass, whose burned
bodies were found in New Mexico on August 4, were tied to McCluskey, Welch
and Province. While MTC said it took responsibility for the escape, vice-president
Odie Washington acknowledged the company could not prevent future escapes.
“Escapes occur at both public and private” prisons, he stated, ignoring the
fact that most secure facilities do not experience any escapes – particularly
escapes as preventable as the one at MTC’s Kingman prison. According to the
ADOC security audit, the prison’s perimeter fence registered 89 alarms over a
16-hour period on the day the escape occurred, most of them false. MTC staff
failed to promptly check the alarms – sometimes taking over an hour to
respond – and light bulbs on a control panel that showed the status of the
perimeter fence were burned out. “The system was not maintained or
calibrated,” said ADOC Director Charles Ryan. Further, a perimeter patrol
post was not staffed by MTC, and according to a news report from the Arizona
Daily Star, “a door to a dormitory that was supposed to be locked had been
propped open with a rock, helping the inmates escape.” Additionally, MTC
officials did not promptly notify state corrections officials following the
escape and high staff turnover at the facility had resulted in inexperienced
employees who were ill-equipped to detect and prevent the break-out.
According to MTC warden Lori Lieder, 80 percent of staff at the Kingman
prison were new or newly promoted. Although the ADOC was supposed to be
monitoring its contract with MTC to house state prisoners, the security flaws
cited in the audit went undetected for years. Ryan faulted human error and
“serious security lapses” at the private prison. Arizona corrections
officials removed 148 state prisoners from the MTC facility after the escape
due to security concerns. “I lacked confidence in this company’s ability,”
said ADOC Director Ryan. Although it’s a small corporation, since 1995 over a
dozen prisoners have escaped from MTC facilities in Utah, Arizona, Texas, New
Mexico and Eagle Mountain, California –where two inmates were murdered during
a riot in 2003.
August 22, 2010 Arizona Republic
Arizona puts more of its inmates into privately run prisons every year, even
though the prisons may not be as secure as state-run facilities and may not
save taxpayers money. Lawmakers began using private prisons to ease
overcrowding and have supported their use so aggressively that today, one in
five Arizona inmates is housed in a private facility. Many inmates from other
states also are housed in private prisons in Arizona, but the state has
little information about who they are and limited oversight of how they are
secured. The state has 11 privately operated prisons. A high-profile escape
of three Arizona inmates last month from a Kingman-area private prison, which
spurred a nationwide manhunt and is believed to have resulted in two murders,
raises questions about the industry's growth and the degree of state
oversight. The last fugitives in that escape were caught Thursday, and the
state's prison director has promised changes to the private sites that house
Arizona inmates. State leaders in recent years have pushed for more
privatization and have blocked efforts to regulate the industry, which has
invested heavily in local lobbying and contributed to political campaigns.
Last year, officials approved a plan to hand over the operation of nearly
every state prison to private companies. The plan was repealed only after no
credible bidder came forward. This year, lawmakers approved 5,000 new
private-prison beds for Arizona prisoners. Data suggest that the facilities
are less cost-effective than they claim to be. A cost study by the Arizona
Department of Corrections this year found that it can often be more expensive
to house inmates in private prisons than in their state-run counterparts. A
growing industry -- Arizona's use of private prisons dates back to the early
1990s, when lawmakers, grappling with overcrowding in state facilities,
authorized the construction of a 450-bed minimum-security prison in Marana to
house drug and alcohol abusers. The prison is owned and operated by
Management & Training Corp., the Utah-based company that also operates
the Kingman facility where the three inmates escaped. Since then, Arizona has
increasingly relied on for-profit operators to manage its own inmates. It
also has allowed private companies to import prisoners from other states.
Rapid growth began in 2003 and the years immediately following, when Arizona
was again wrestling with prison overcrowding. To ease the shortage,
Republican lawmakers agreed to build 2,000 new prison beds, compromising with
a reluctant Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, to make half of them private.
Around the same time, nearly a dozen other states grappling with the same
issues began shipping their inmates to private facilities elsewhere in the
country. Arizona, with cheap land and a receptive political climate, became a
go-to destination for private-prison operators, who began accepting inmates
from as far as Washington and Hawaii. Today, Arizona houses 20.1 percent of
its prisoners in private facilities, according to state data from July.
Exactly how many inmates are here from other states is unclear. Last year,
lawmakers took the unprecedented step of exploring the privatization of
almost the entire Arizona correctional system, passing a bill that would have
turned over the state's prisons to private operators for an up-front payment
of $100 million. The payment would have helped the state close a
billion-dollar budget gap. The bill, which also included a host of changes
related to the state's budget, was signed by Gov. Jan Brewer, but the
language relating to prison privatization was repealed in a later special
session. The state now has an open contract for the construction and
operation of 5,000 new private-prison beds. Arizona's reliance on private
facilities coincides with operators' increasing national political activity
in hiring lobbyists and donating to political campaigns. The ties between the
companies and Arizona elected officials - which go back nearly a decade -
have become a campaign issue in this year's gubernatorial race.
Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest
operator of private prisons, runs six in Arizona, three of which house
inmates for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Brewer's critics have
suggested that she signed Senate Bill 1070, and has advocated for
privatization of some prisons, in part to benefit CCA's bottom line.
Democrats have called on Brewer, a Republican, to fire "aides"
associated with the prison company. That includes HighGround,
a Phoenix consulting and lobbying firm managing Brewer's gubernatorial
campaign. The firm counts CCA among its clients. Brewer's official spokesman,
Paul Senseman, also used to lobby for CCA. Campaign
finance reports filed earlier this year show that eight executives with CCA
contributed $1,080 of the $51,193 in seed money Brewer received for her
gubernatorial campaign. CCA also gave $10,000 to the "Yes on 100"
campaign, which backed a temporary, 1-cent-on-the-dollar increase in the
state's sales tax. Brewer was the chief advocate for the tax, which was
approved by voters in May. In an interview with The Arizona Republic, Brewer
said those connections have not influenced her policy decisions. She said she
never felt pressured by any of her advisers. "It's absolutely political
posturing and rhetoric," Brewer said. "I find it very disappointing.
We have a bed shortage here in Arizona, and we have to come up with some way
to incarcerate (criminals). The best way, the least expensive way, is to do
it with private prisons." The industry's political connections have
extended to other Arizona politicians. According to a 2006 report from the
National Institute on Money in State Politics, the private-prison industry
gave to the campaigns of 29 of 42 Arizona lawmakers who heard a 2003 proposal
to increase state private-prison beds. Between 2001 and 2004, the industry
contributed $77,267 to Arizona's legislative and gubernatorial candidates,
the vast majority through lobbyists paid to represent their interests at the
Legislature. In most cases, donations ranged from a couple of hundred dollars
to as much as $2,500. Lax oversight -- The state Department of Corrections
has varying levels of oversight of Arizona's private-prison network. Some
prisons house criminals convicted in Arizona. The Corrections Department
regulates those facilities, though private-prison critics question whether
those facilities maintain the same safety standards as their state-run
counterparts. Other private prisons house inmates from other states or on
behalf of the federal government. Arizona does not dictate what kinds of
inmates they may accept, nor the manner in which they are secured. In those
situations, private-prison operators work with their outside-government
partners on training specifications and other operational details. They
report to Arizona only the names, security classifications and number of
inmates housed at their facilities. State stat- utes
do not require private operators to provide Arizona officials details about
the crimes the prisoners committed or escape data. In 2007, two convicted
killers sent from another state stole ladders from a maintenance building and
climbed onto a roof at a private prison outside Florence. Brandishing a fake
gun, they climbed over the prison walls and escaped to freedom. One was
caught within hours, but it was almost a month before the other was caught
hundreds of miles away in his home state of Washington. As with the Kingman
breakout, the 2007 escape drew attention to the largely unregulated growth of
private prisons in the state, particularly prisons that house other states'
inmates. To address security concerns, a bipartisan bill drafted by
Napolitano's office in 2008 and introduced by Republican state Sen. Robert Blendu would have required private prisons to be built to
the state's construction standards. The proposal also would have ended the
practice of private prisons importing murderers, rapists and other dangerous
felons to Arizona. And it would have required the companies to share security
and inmate information with state officials. After an initial flurry of
activity, the bill died. "The private-prison industry lobbied heavily
against that bill, and they were successful," said Michael Haener,
Napolitano's lobbyist at the time. Blendu later
left the Legislature, and the bill was not reintroduced. What little
regulation private prisons have in Arizona stems from a series of escapes in
the late 1990s. In response, the Legislature passed a law requiring the
reimbursement of law-enforcement costs from private-prison operators in the
event of an escape. Arizona laws also require companies to carry insurance to
cover law-enforcement costs in cases of escape, to notify state officials
when they bring new prisoners into the state and to return out-of-state
prisoners to their home states to be released. But there are no penalties if
the companies don't comply. Costs questioned -- Notwithstanding lawmakers'
concerns about security, private prisons gained favor in part because of the
promised savings they could deliver to a cash-strapped and overcrowded prison
system. Yet studies have questioned whether those savings are real. In making
their pitches, private-prison companies played on the desire of many
lawmakers to shift more state services to the private sector. Direct cost
comparisons between for-profit and public prisons can be difficult, however.
According to the National Institute of Justice, private prisons tend to make
much lower estimates of their overhead costs to the state for oversight,
inmate health care and staff background checks. Officials at public prisons
often argue that the state winds up paying a higher cost for those services
than is advertised, mitigating savings that private prisons are built to
deliver. A study this year by the Arizona Department of Corrections found
that when various costs are factored in, it can be more expensive to house an
inmate in a private prison than it is to house one in a state-run prison. The
cost of housing a medium-security inmate is $3 to $8 more per day in a
private prison, depending on what assumptions are made about overhead costs
to the state, the study found. Travis Pratt, a professor of criminology and
criminal justice at Arizona State University, said there is no evidence that
private prisons save government agencies money, even though they typically
promise up-front savings. To maintain profit margins, Pratt said, companies
often cut back on staff training, wages and inmate services. "Cost
savings like that don't come without consequences," Pratt said.
"And that can present a security risk that's elevated." Odie Washington,
a senior vice president at Management & Training Corp., acknowledged
Thursday that the Kingman prison employed an inexperienced staff. "We
have a lot of very young staff that have not integrated into very strong
security practices," Washington said. Private-prison operators disagree
with Pratt's assessment, contending that they can deliver services
efficiently and safely. "That's one of the more frustrating
misconceptions out there for us that we have to repeatedly respond to,"
said Steve Owen, director of public affairs for Corrections Corporation of
America. Owen said it is CCA's "general experience" that private
prisons can save states and the federal government 5 to 15 percent on
operational costs. The company also can build facilities more cheaply, he said.
CCA is contractually required to meet or exceed training requirements that
states they work for set for themselves, Owen said. In addition, the company
has made sure its prisons in Arizona comply with accreditation standards put
in place by the American Correctional Association, a Virginia-based trade
group. Many communities, meanwhile, eagerly welcome private prisons because
the facilities generate jobs and economic activity. CCA prisons in Florence
and Eloy, for example, employ 2,700 people. Last year, the company paid $26
million in property taxes, Owen said. What's next -- Lawmakers from both
parties have called for hearings into what went wrong in Kingman. Presumptive
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry Goddard has said he would push to
bring back the 2008 private-prison bill. Goddard also is calling for an
immediate re-evaluation of the system used to classify and place inmates in
facilities. The five-tiered system, which allows some violent criminals to
migrate to lower-security facilities for good behavior, met with bipartisan
criticism in the wake of the escapes. Two of the three inmates who escaped
from the medium-security Kingman prison had been convicted of murder. Goddard
said the three recent escapees never should have been in a medium-security
prison. Charles Ryan, director of the Department of Corrections, announced
Thursday that the state would slow its bidding process for the 5,000 new
private-prison beds pending additional review. Brewer has said little
publicly about the escape but told The Republic last week that she is
committed to holding prison operators responsible for mistakes they made. She
said she has ordered Ryan to conduct a "complete review to make sure
that inmates are appropriately secured and in the right kinds of facilities."
While Brewer remains confident that private prisons are well suited to house
less-violent offenders, she said: "What has happened is unacceptable,
and I am absolutely pushing for more accountability."
August 20, 2010 Arizona Star
An executive with the firm that runs the private prison from which three
dangerous inmates escaped promised Thursday to beef up security but said
that's no guarantee it won't happen again. "Escapes occur at both public
and private," Odie Washington, a vice president of Management and Training
Corp., said while noting it's incumbent on the company and state to do
whatever is necessary to close those security gaps prisoners can take
advantage of. But a security review of the MTC-run prison near Kingman,
released Thursday, reveals that what Washington referred to as
"gaps" were more like chasms. As a result, State Corrections
Director Charles Ryan has ordered 150 of the highest-risk prisoners removed.
The report shows the prison perimeter-alarm system was essentially useless.
Bulbs showing the status of the fence were burned out on a control panel.
Guards were not patrolling the fence. And a door to a dormitory that was
supposed to be locked had been propped open with a rock, helping the inmates
escape. Washington, however, said that's not the fault of the corporation. He
said company employees at Kingman never told anyone at the corporate
headquarters about the problems. Ryan admitted his own audit team, which had
been to the prison before the July 30 escape, "didn't see or didn't report"
the shortcomings. All that is significant because the three inmates escaped
when an accomplice tossed them wire cutters and they made a 30-by-22-inch
hole that went undetected for hours. Of particular concern to Ryan is the
fence. "What was found were excessive false alarms," Ryan
disclosed, noting over 16 hours on July 30 there were 89 alarms. "The
system was not maintained or calibrated." The result, he said, was
employees were "desensitized" to the alarms going off, and it took
11 to 73 minutes for staffers to check out problems and reset the alarms.
"That is absolutely unacceptable," he said. The last of the three
inmates, a convicted murderer, along with an accomplice, was recaptured
Thursday night. The other two were recaptured, but not before they were linked
to the deaths of an Oklahoma couple who were in New Mexico. "This is a
terrible tragedy, and the department and the contractor have a lot of work to
do," Ryan said. The findings prompted Ryan to put limits on what kind of
criminals can be housed at the facility. Until now, the 1,508-bed
medium-security section has included people convicted of murder. His order
removes, at least from Kingman, anyone convicted of first-degree murder,
anyone who attempted escape in the last decade and anyone with more than 20
years left on a sentence. All told, 148 inmates were taken from the facility.
But Ryan would not rule out allowing murderers back in the prison after he is
satisfied that security has been upgraded. He defended the classification
system that allows convicted murders - and even lifers - to serve their time
in medium-security prisons. Gov. Jan Brewer sidestepped questions about the
system, saying it was in place long before she became governor in January
2009. "It is something that maybe should be reviewed," the governor
said Thursday, but added, "That classification is used across
America." Ryan said he remains convinced there is a role for private
prisons. About 6,400 of the more than 40,000 people behind bars in Arizona
are in private prisons. Another 1,760 Arizona prisoners are at an
out-of-state facility. The Republican-controlled Legislature remains very
much in favor of private prisons, as does Brewer. That support hasn't wavered
because of the escape. Brewer said the report from Ryan underscores her
belief the escape was caused by human error, and nothing inherent in private
prisons. "It's very obvious those alarms should have been responded
to," the governor said. But the problems that Ryan sketched out go
beyond the actions - or inactions - of guards. Washington admitted there are
"significant construction issues" with the perimeter fence and the
alarm system that will have to be handled. And Ryan found flaws with the
entire way MTC allowed the facility to be operated. For example, he said no
one was making regular checks along the fence to look for breaches. And Ryan
said guards were "not effectively controlling inmate movements"
within the prison system. Other flaws included inmates not wearing required
ID badges, grooming requirements being ignored and proper searches of people
going into the facility not being done. Casslyn
Welch, the woman accused of providing the wire cutters and a vehicle, was
banned from the prison after she was caught trying to bring in drugs. But
Ryan said prison officials still allowed her to talk to inmates on the phone,
making it possible for her to help plan the breakout. Welch and John
McCluskey, her fiancée and cousin, were caught Thursday night in northeastern
Arizona. Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick have been recaptured. Another
problem is that the design of the prison allows anyone to drive up close to
the facility. Corrections officials want traffic routed away from the fence.
August 18, 2010 AP
Past audits of the Arizona state prison where three inmates escaped last
month gave the facility high marks and revealed few issues with security or
staff training, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. The
escape on July 30 has put corrections officials and the operator of the
privately run prison under intense scrutiny in recent weeks. But if there was
an indication of any widespread security problems at the facility that houses
minimum- and medium-security inmates, it doesn't show in the internal audits.
On security issues, the audits showed overall compliance rates of 98.8
percent in 2007, 99.9 percent in 2009 and 99.5 percent in 2010. Nearly 2,870
areas of security were audited over the three years and 37 were marked as
noncompliant. One security issue was tagged in 2006. No audits were done in
2005 or 2008 because of fiscal constraints, said Arizona Department of
Corrections spokesman Barrett Marson. No independent audits of the Kingman
prison have been done. The audits instead are conducted by a team of about 15
made up of staff at the corrections department and the prison who are
considered subject matter experts. The audit team evaluates areas of the
prison that include security, training, medical, food service and business
for compliance with the state contract and other orders. A yearly schedule of
audits is available in July, giving prisons advance notice, Marson said. Ken Kopczynski, executive director of the Private Corrections
Working Group, said it's difficult to tell whether the audits are a true
reflection of the operations at the prison without attached documentation to
support the findings. The group advocates against private prisons he said
typically overwork, underpay and don't properly train the staff. "Audits
are used a lot of times to make things look like they're OK," he said.
"Maybe they are OK. I doubt it." Corrections Director Charles Ryan
has said the prison operator would correct the security deficiencies that
contributed to the escape of John McCluskey, Tracy Province and Daniel
Renwick. Criminal and administrative investigations into the escape are
ongoing. McCluskey's fiancee and cousin, Casslyn Welch, is accused of throwing wire cutters over a
perimeter fence that the men used to slice their way out and flee. Welch's
visitation privileges at the prison were terminated after a random search in
June during a visit to McCluskey turned up what was believed to be heroin.
Welch told investigators that she was paid by members or associates of a
white supremacist group to smuggle the drug into the prison but didn't say
who it was intended for. State legislators have urged corrections officials
and Gov. Jan Brewer's office to release the results of a security review done
following the escape. Corrections officials said the report still is being
written and should be released this week.
August 9, 2010 FOX
Questions surround the escape of three violent convicts from a prison in
Kingman, casting a shadow on Arizona's relationship with the private prison
industry. Officials are reviewing security measures at private prison
facilities, and are looking into the future of private prisons in our state.
"My concern about this has been the manner in which the facility was
operated. I do not believe that the physical plant itself from which these
inmates escaped was the issue, it is the performance of the staff that
concerned me," says Chuck Ryan, Arizona Department of Corrections
Director. State Attorney General Terry Goddard is calling for a break in new
contracts with private prison companies, until security issues can be ironed
out and a review of their relationship with the DOC is undertaken. "We
have basically turned a very significant direction in our state towards more
and more private prison operations without looking at the consequences. I'm
afraid those consequences have been put in very stark relief by the escape of
three violent prisoners," says Goddard. Ryan told us he's in the process
of reviewing his team's findings at the facility but offered no further
comment on what the future may hold for the state of Arizona and its relationship
with MTC. "Until we review their findings and their recommendations it
would be premature to comment further about that," says Ryan. Guards at
private prisons do not carry weapons and are not trained law enforcement
officers. The three convicts escaped on July 30 -- one alarm never sounded
and it remains to be seen whether prison guards went to check the second
alarm. Prison staff didn't realize they were missing until a 9 p.m. head
count, which was five hours after they were last accounted for. The local sheriff's
office wasn't alerted until more than an hour later, and state corrections
officials found out about the escape at 11:37 p.m. House Democrats are
calling for a special session to address security issues with private
prisons. The governor's office has not yet sent a comment.
August 3, 2010 AFSC
The escape of three prisoners from the Kingman prison on Friday July 30,
2010, highlights continuing concerns about the management of state prison
facilities by for-profit corporations, according to the American Friends
Service Committee (AFSC). The Kingman facility is run by Management and
Training Corporation of Ogden, Utah. MTC also runs the Marana Community
Correctional Center, and is one of four prison corporations that have
submitted bids to the Arizona Department of Corrections to build and operate
up to 5,000 new state prison beds. This incident comes on the heels of a riot
at the Kingman facility in June in which eight prisoners were injured. The
escapes are being blamed on lax security and a failure to follow proper
protocol. The prisoners reportedly were able to sneak out of their dormitory
and cut through a perimeter fence without being detected. "You get what
you pay for," said Caroline Isaacs, Director of the AFSC's Arizona
office. "These for-profit prison corporations are primarily concerned
about the bottom line and making money for their CEO's and
shareholders." Isaacs charges that the companies cut corners everywhere
they can, but primarily on staff pay and training. The result is a facility
with high turnover rates, where the staff is inexperienced and the prisoners
have nothing productive to do. Such a prison is unsafe for the inmates, the
guards, and the surrounding community. This is not the only Arizona private
prison scandal to make headlines recently. A prison run by Corrections
Corporation of America in Eloy was recently on lockdown after prisoners from
Hawaii rioted over an Xbox video game. When a staff member attempted to
intervene, he was severely beaten, suffering a broken nose, broken cheekbones
and damage to his eye sockets. The incident was the latest episode in a
history of violence that has plagued the facility. Two prisoners are facing a
possible death sentence in the fatal beating of another inmate there last
February. These types of incidents are "alarmingly common" in
privately operated prisons, Isaacs says, citing patterns of mismanagement,
financial impropriety, abuse, and medical negligence. Further privatization
of Arizona's prisons will be a financial boondoggle for a cash-strapped state
and a nightmare for the host communities, she warns. "Arizona's
legislature needs to take a good look at the track record of these companies
before they spend any more of the taxpayers' money on this failed
experiment."
July 29, 2010 Phoenix New Times
In May, I reported in my Feathered Bastard blog that executives and lobbyists
for the giant, Tennessee-based prison company Corrections Corporation of
America had donated $1,780 in "seed money" for Governor Jan
Brewer's Clean Elections campaign. Such early contributions are limited to
$140 per person. But if that seems like chump change, consider that CCA also
contributed a whopping $10,000 to the campaign for Prop 100, the state
sales-tax initiative, the success of which was considered key to Brewer's bid
to be more than an "accidental" governor. The proposition was
approved overwhelmingly by voters in May. What's the big deal with the CCA
contributions? CCA operates six prisons in Arizona, three of which house
detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As this column goes
to press, SB 1070, Arizona's "breathing-while-brown" law, awaits
the decision of U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton on whether she will grant
an injunction of all or part of the statute. The various enforcement provisions
of 1070 practically ensure that more undocumented folks will be turned over
to ICE. CCA probably will end up holding some of these individuals as they
wait for removal proceedings or if they are convicted of federal
immigration-related crimes. So CCA stands to profit from SB 1070, and as
recent reports from the investigative magazine In These Times and Phoenix's
CBS 5 (KPHO) indicate, Brewer's relationship to CCA runs far deeper than just
the political contributions mentioned above. In These Times' July issue
featured a story by Beau Hodai that revealed that
Brewer's top flack, Paul Senseman, worked for
Arizona's Policy Development Group, which lists CCA as a client. Senseman's wife, Kathy, is listed with the firm as a
lobbyist for CCA. Hodai also reported that the CCA
employs Highground Public Affairs Consultants to
represent its interests in Arizona. Highground's
president is Chuck Coughlin, Brewer's top political adviser and the man
running her gubernatorial campaign. Though In These Times was the first to
publish this information, CBS 5's investigative unit was the first to run
with it locally. During a recent newscast, reporter Morgan Loew revealed that
CCA gets $11 million a month for inmates in the company's Arizona facilities.
Loew got that figure from the U.S. Marshal's Office. Marshal David Gonzales
confirmed the figure to me. But he said that's just what he pays CCA for
holding his prisoners, many of whom have been convicted on
immigration-related offenses. So that $11 million doesn't include whatever
ICE pays CCA for the same services. I've asked ICE for that number, but it
hasn't gotten back to me. Loew sandbagged Brewer at an event, but Brewer
refused to answer questions about her advisers' ties to CCA. Brewer's boy was
willing to chat it up with me about his big-dollar, private prison client,
however. Clearly miffed by the CBS 5 report, Coughlin referred to it as
"drive-by" journalism, and claimed that CCA "doesn't house any
Arizona prisoners." "They don't house those types of inmates,"
insisted Coughlin regarding CCA and immigration-related collars. "[The
CBS 5 report] is . . . a total piece of made-up journalism." When I told
him that I'd been to the federal courthouse in Tucson myself, and witnessed
CCA buses carting people convicted of immigration crimes, he backpedaled —
but not by much. "That may be a federal contract," he said.
"It has nothing to do with the state." But it will have something
to do with the state if 1070 takes effect, as 1070 is all about local police
enforcing federal immigration law to the fullest extent possible. Indeed, law
enforcement agencies that do not enforce 1070 can be sued by Arizona citizens
under one of the law's provisions. The law makes "attrition through
enforcement" the policy of Arizona, and one provision requires that all
those arrested have their immigration status checked before they are
released. If CCA ends up holding some of these individuals, then 1070 will
benefit CCA directly. "If that happens, if it were the case, if ICE
does," scoffed Coughlin. "You have a lot of ifs down the road
that's not a matter of fact right now. We're not working on speculative
ventures here. We had no position on 1070. We did not lobby on 1070."
Didn't lobby on 1070? That's one hard-to-swallow lump of coal. I asked Coughlin
if he was telling me he'd never talked to Brewer about 1070 or advised her to
sign the bill, as many presume he did. "I talk with her about a lot of
stuff," he admitted. "Of course, we talked about 1070. We run her
campaign. Absolutely." Coughlin also admitted that his firm began
representing CCA "over a year ago." So he was representing CCA at
the same time he was advising Brewer on whether to sign the law. If that's
not a conflict of interest big enough to drive a semi through, I don't know
what is. Neither Brewer's flack Senseman nor CCA
responded to requests for comment for this column. But when I wrote about CCA
and Brewer in May, CCA spokeswoman Louise Grant was not shy about gabbing.
Grant maintained that CCA has no position on 1070. She denied that the law
would be good for her employer or that CCA had any influence over the
drafting of the law. "CCA has had no involvement whatsoever with this
legislation," she told me at the time. "And we will not have any
involvement with it." Well, not until local cops start handing over
people to ICE. After that, despite Grant's disavowals, CCA will be involved.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not positing a conspiracy theory. In my view, the
odious ideology of nativism was the driving force behind the passage of SB 1070.
But Coughlin clearly is making bank off CCA. And the company knows where its
croissant is buttered. Everybody can smell the links between Brewer and CCA.
They stink like one of Brewer's headless bodies in the desert. Or they would,
if those bodies were real.
July 28, 2010 Daily Kos
Bigotry may not be the only motive behind Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's
rabidly xenophobic new immigration law. Another factor may be that timeless
Republican standard: greed. Zaid Jilani of Think Progress explains: Yet a new
investigation by local Arizona TV news station CBS 5 finds that the Brewer
administration may have ulterior motives for its strong support of the new
law. The station has found that "two of Brewer’s top advisers have
connections" to private prison giant Corrections Corporation of America
(CCA). Paul Senseman, Brewer’s deputy chief of
staff, is a former lobbyist for CCA. His wife continues to lobby for the
company. Meanwhile Chuck Coughlin, who leads her re-election campaign,
chaired her transition into the governorship, and is one of the governor’s
policy advisors, is president of HighGround Public
Affairs Consultants, which lobbies for CCA. The best of all possible
Republican worlds: codify racism, and make money while doing so? From the CBS
5 website: The private prison industry houses illegal immigrant detainees for
the federal government. Those companies could gain contracts with state and
local agencies to house illegal immigrants arrested for state violations.
Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, holds the federal contract to
house detainees in Arizona. The company bills $11 million per month. CCA
insists it had nothing to do with the creation of the new law, has no state
or local contracts to house detainees, and doesn't propose to house those
detained because of the new Arizona law. In other words, it will be purely
coincidental if those swept up by the new law end up being held by the same
private contractor the federal government pays to hold detainees in Arizona.
It will be purely coincidental if those swept up by the new law end up being
held by the same private contractor that once employed Brewer's deputy chief
of staff as a lobbyist, still employs his wife as a lobbyist, and pays a
company run by Brewer's re-election chief, transition chair, and policy
advisor to lobby. In the spirit of innocent-until-proven-guilty--something
the new law's supporters might not understand--someone should ask the Brewer
team how, exactly, they do propose to house those swept up by their new law,
and who, exactly, will be paid to house them. There can't be many options,
but who can imagine that it might somehow coincidentally end up being CCA?
June 21, 2010 In These Times
Over the past several years private-prison companies Corrections Corporation
of America (CCA) and the Geo Group, through their work as members of the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and through their ties to the
Arizona Legislature and the office of Gov. Jan Brewer, have had ample
opportunity--and obvious intent--to ensure the passage of S.B. 1070.
According to Sen. Russell Pearce and Brewer's spokesman Paul Senseman, the S.B. 1070 went through a lengthy edit and
review process that took place predominantly within the Arizona Legislature
and the offices of the Maricopa County Attorney and Gov. Brewer. A little
over a week after Pearce introduced S.B. 1070 on the floor of the Arizona
Senate, CCA enlisted Highground Consulting, one of
the most influential lobbying firms in Phoenix, to represent its interests in
the state. Lobby disclosure forms filed with the Arizona Secretary of State
indicate that Maricopa County also employed Highground
during the time of the bill's formation. Highground's
owner and principal, Charles "Chuck" Coughlin, is a top advisor and
the current campaign manager of Gov. Brewer. State lobby reports show that
Brewer's current spokesman, Senseman, previously
worked as CCA's chief lobbyist in Arizona as an employee of Policy
Development Group, another influential Phoenix consulting firm. His wife,
Kathryn Senseman, is still employed by Policy
Development Group and still lobbies the legislature on behalf of CCA. In
other words, in 2005 and 2006, as Arizona legislators--many of them ALEC
members--were drafting provisions of what would eventually become the
"Breathing While Brown" law, Brewer's director of communications, Senseman, was lobbying them on behalf of CCA. Brewer's
"chief policy advisor," Richard Bark--a man Senseman
and Pearce both say was directly involved in the drafting of S.B.
1070--remains listed with the Office of the Secretary of State as an active
lobbyist for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI). CCA is a
"board level" member of the ACCI and is the top employer in Pinal
County, located just south of Maricopa County, where it operates five
detention facilities for both state prisoners and immigrant detainees. Geo
Group employs consulting firm Public Policy Partners, which, like Highground, also provides consultation and lobbying
services to Maricopa County. While Public Policy Partners (PPP), an
Arizona-based firm, has more than 30 Arizona clients, it only has two clients
at the federal level: Geo Group (based in Florida) and Ron Sachs
Communications, a Florida-based public-relations firm that, promotes prison
privatization. PPP, as a firm, also appears to be an advocate for expanded
use of private prisons. Federal lobbying records show PPP owner, John Kaites, lobbying on behalf of the firm on issues of
"private correctional detention management." CCA has also shown
special interest in Arizona through recent hiring decisions. In 2007, CCA
hired on Brad Regens as "Vice President of State Partnership
Relations" for the purpose of cultivating new contracts in Arizona and
California. In the two years immediately prior to his employment at CCA,
Regens had worked in the Arizona House as director of fiscal policy. Before
his appointment as director of fiscal policy, Regens had spent nine years
working in the state legislature in various roles, including assistant
director of the Arizona Joint Legislative Budget Committee. Following its
hiring of Regens, CCA elected former U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) to
its board of directors.
May 18, 2010 Phoenix New Times
Governor Brewer's CCA connection: Conflict of interest over SB 1070? Several
months before signing SB 1070, Governor Jan Brewer accepted hundreds of
dollars in "seed money" for her clean elections campaign from
corporate executives and others with a possible stake in Arizona's
"papers please" legislation becoming law. In all, seven executives
with the Tennessee-based private prisons giant Corrections Corporation of
America contributed $980 for the governor's start-up fund with Arizona's
clean elections system. A warden for one of CCA's Arizona prisons gave $100.
A CCA shareholder gave $140. Lobbyists listed with the state of Arizona as
having CCA as a client gave another $560, for a total of $1,780. In addition,
CCA has contributed a whopping $10,000 to the campaign for Prop 100, the one
cent sales tax heavily promoted by Brewer, which is up for approval by voters
today. The success of Prop 100 is considered by many to be the linchpin for a
Brewer victory in November. How does CCA stand to gain from SB 1070? CCA,
which houses 75,000 offenders and detainees in more than 60 facilities nationwide,
operates six prisons in Arizona, three of which list U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement as a client: Florence, Eloy, and the Central Arizona
Detention Center. If SB 1070 is not stopped by a federal court injunction
before it goes into effect late July, as a recently filed ACLU lawsuit aims
to accomplish, all Arizona law enforcement will be required to check the
immigration status of those they have "reasonable suspicion" of
being in the country illegally. This, during any lawful stop, detention, or
arrest. So the law could potentially mean a boon in warm bodies for CCA
prisons, as those aliens turned over to ICE might find themselves in CCA
facilities, even if for a short stay. "The more folks that get pulled
over and detained, the more money CCA makes," said Monica Sandschafer, executive director of the Phoenix immigrant
rights group LUCHA, which stands for Living United for Change in Arizona.
"It's a pretty disturbing connection between Brewer and this
company." But Brewer campaign flack Doug Cole scoffed at the suggestion
that there was anything nefarious about the connection between Brewer and
CCA, referring to CCA as a "good corporate citizen" and denying
that CCA's contributions to Brewer in any way affected her decision to sign
the controversial law. "People contribute to political campaigns, in my
experience, because they want to be part of the process," said Cole,
speaking in general. "Oh, so we're talking a thousand dollars here
now," he harrumphed at one point. Asked if the money might have
influenced Brewer to sign SB 1070, he stated emphatically, "Absolutely
not." Todd Lang, executive director of Arizona's Citizens Clean
Elections Commission contended that Brewer had violated no rules in taking
the money from CCA, even if CCA stood to benefit from Brewer's actions as
governor. "Anyone can give to anyone," said Lang of the so-called
"seed money," which is limited to a $51,250 cap. "The
restriction Clean Elections puts in place is how little money those guys can
give. The theory is that this restricts their influence." Clean
Elections holds contributors to the initial seed money fund to a $140 per
person limit. Participating gubernatorial candidates must also raise
thousands of $5 individual contributions. If they obey these dictates, they
are rewarded with public funds: $707,447 for the primary campaign, and
$1,061,171 for the general election. However, Sandschafer
pointed out that each of the CCA executives and lobbyists in question gave
the maximum amount allowed, save for the warden of the Eloy Detention Center
Charles DeRosa, who gave $100. "These are the people who stand to profit
from this horrible racist legislation," Sandschafer
asserted. CCA execs contributing to Brewer include the company's top brass:
Damon Hininger, CCA President and CEO; "senior
administrator" Anthony Grande; Gustavus Puryear, at one time CCA's
general counsel; Todd Mullenger, executive VP and
chief financial officer; and so on. Louise Grant, a CCA spokeswoman based in
Tennessee, claimed that the contributions to Brewer, which were made in
November of 2009, were not intended to influence public policy, and that the
$10K contribution to the Yes on 100 fund, dated April 5, 2010, was made
because CCA wanted what was best for its employees in Arizona. Grant also
stated that under Brewer, CCA had lost two contracts with a total of 3,000
prisoners involved. She said that the main facility they use for ICE
detainees is Eloy, the warden for which gave $100 to Brewer's start up fund.
She denied SB 1070 would be a good thing for CCA, or that CCA had any
influence over the law itself. "CCA has had no involvement whatsoever
with this legislation, SB 1070," she said. "And we will not have
any involvement with it."
May 7, 2010 AP
One side has big donations paying for television commercials and glossy
mailers sent to voters' homes. The other is a shoestring effort based on
e-mail chains and homemade signs. It's a picture of stark contrasts when it
comes to campaigning for or against Proposition 100, the temporary sales tax
increase on Arizona's May 18 special election ballot. If voters approve the
measure, the state sales tax would rise to 6.6 cents on the dollar from the
current 5.6 cents to raise a projected $1 billion annually. The increase
would begin June 1 and would last three years. The Legislature narrowly sent
the issue to the ballot in February. That was 11 months after Republican Gov.
Jan Brewer first proposed a sales take hike to help close the state's big
budget deficits, along with spending cuts, federal stimulus dollars and
borrowing. But it didn't take long for Proposition 100 supporters to begin
writing checks in the tens of thousands of dollars -- or amounts even larger
-- to committees backing the measure. Those included over $81,000 from the
Arizona and Phoenix chambers of commerce, $250,000 from the University of
Arizona Foundation and $80,000 from the Arizona Education Association and its
parent union. Other major contributors include hospital companies, a
firefighters' union, manufacturers, arts backers, a private prison company,
economic development groups and the Arizona School Boards Association. Their
backing has paid for television ads endorsing the ballot measure, and
full-mailers plastered with testimonials from teachers, public safety
officials and Brewer. "Our state's future is tied to the success of this
measure," one mailer has Brewer saying.
April 27, 2010 Mercury News
How's this for border insecurity? In another swipe at Arizona and its strict
new anti-immigration rules, California Senate leader Darrell Steinberg on
Tuesday asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to "deliver an unequivocal
message" of disgust by tearing up the state's contracts with Arizona
businesses and government agencies. Arizona's new law, which allows police to
demand identification from anyone reasonably believed to be an undocumented
immigrant, has spawned a maelstrom of emotions since its approval last week —
from quiet applause from those who support the crackdown to protests and
boycott shouts, including San Francisco's move Tuesday to ban city workers
from traveling to the state on official business. Steinberg, in a withering
letter to the governor, called the new rules "unconscionable" and a
recipe for "racial profiling." Noting energy agreements with
Arizona as well as deals to send the state California's overflow prisoners,
he urged Schwarzenegger to take action. "The state of California should
not be using taxpayer dollars to support such a policy," the Sacramento
Democrat wrote. The move may largely wind up symbolic. Severing many of the
contracts may not be legally possible, although Steinberg also has called for
a ban on new contracts. In a quick compilation provided Tuesday, the
Department of General Services found deals with 73 Arizona entities worth
$10.3 million. But officials said that doesn't include all contracts,
including those held by Caltrans, state universities or the prison system, so
the real number may be much larger. The state has a $700 million contract
with a private prison firm that houses California inmates in several
out-of-state prisons, including three in Arizona.
April 11, 2010 Arizona Republic
Businesses and business groups are lining up on both sides of the
proposed statewide 1-cent-per-dollar sales-tax increase. Some say it will
hurt them by reducing consumer spending and hiking costs. Others say the tax
is needed to support the overall state economy. Businesses generally oppose
tax increases on themselves or their customers, but a number of high-profile
groups are supporting Proposition 100 in the May 18 election because they
consider it necessary to improve the state's fiscal picture and prospects for
economic development. "You generally don't see business organizations
supporting tax increases," said Glenn Hamer, president and CEO of the
Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "But I think in this case, the
near-term budget situation is deemed serious enough that some sort of
temporary revenue enhancement was needed to prevent further (budget)
cuts." As the election approaches, both factions can point to reports
that support their points of view on the proposed tax increase. A study
commissioned by the Goldwater Institute and conducted by the Beacon Hill
Institute in Boston says passage of Proposition 100 would cost the state
about 14,400 private-sector jobs because it would reduce the consumer
spending that supports retail jobs. A conflicting study by the Economic and
Business Research Center at the University of Arizona says passage would save
more than 13,000 jobs and preserve more than $442 million in federal matching
funds because much of the estimated $918 million in increased revenues the
state would receive would be spent on products and services provided by
private companies. Hamer said the Arizona chamber supports the tax as part of
a comprehensive package that includes the state Jobs Recovery Act, which
would give tax breaks to businesses in hopes of encouraging them to increase
hiring. The chamber and Greater Phoenix Leadership, a business coalition,
have each contributed $50,000 to the Yes on 100 Committee, according to the
Secretary of State's Office. Arizona Public Service Co., Magellan Health
Services, Scottsdale Healthcare and Tucson Medical Center have each given
$25,000. Other companies making large contributions include Honeywell
International PAC, which gave $15,000, and Sundt Companies Inc., Resolution
Copper Mining and Corrections Corp. of America, each $10,000.
February 26, 2010 AP
Cornell Cos. Inc.'s sales and profit will decline if the state of Arizona
removes inmates from the company's Oklahoma prison, an analyst said as he
downgraded the prison operator's shares. First Analysis Securities analyst
Todd Van Fleet downgraded the Houston company to "equal weight"
from "overweight." The January budget proposals from Arizona's
governor and legislature would phase out the use of private out-of-state
beds. Arizona is struggling to close budget shortfalls. Van Fleet said there
was less than a 25 percent chance that Cornell would be able to persuade
legislators to keep Arizona inmates in the company's Oklahoma prison. The
loss of the Arizona prisoners which could cut into Cornell's annual earnings
by 35 cents to 45 cents per share. Van Fleet cut his estimate for 2010 profit
to $1.09 per share from $1.69 per share, and his 2010 sales estimate to $398
million from $440.6 million. On Wednesday, when it released fourth-quarter
earnings, Cornell predicted it would make $1.31 to $1.41 per share in 2010.
The guidance assumed that Cornell would continue to keep all its Arizona
inmates for the rest of the year. The contract for the Arizona prisoners ends
in mid-September, Van Fleet said. Cornell shares slipped 13 cents to $18.61
in midday trading. They have dropped about 25 percent since Arizona proposed
its budget in mid-January.
January 22, 2010 Pueblo Chieftain
State lawmakers had mixed reactions to Thursday's announcement that Arizona
is pulling its inmates out of a private prison in Walsenburg, dragging almost
200 jobs out with them. Last year, Colorado inmates were relocated from the
Huerfano County Correctional Facility, owned by Corrections Corporation of
America, to make room for 800 Arizona inmates. "I'm not surprised that
Arizona would be pulling back its inmates," Rep. Buffie McFadyen,
D-Pueblo West. "That state is in a terrible budget crunch. Its whole
prison system is up for sale." Conversely, Joint Budget Committee member
Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, said Thursday afternoon, "This is the first
I've heard of it. I work with CCA as part of the budget process." In
2008, CCA sought a 5-percent increase in the fee paid to it by the state of
Colorado per inmate, per day from $52.69 to $55.32. At the time, McFadyen
characterized CCA's demands as the Legislature being "held hostage"
by threats that CCA would end acceptance of Colorado's inmates if the pay hike
wasn't approved. "We took their threat seriously," McFadyen said
Thursday. "It's relevant to this discussion. We got our inmates out of
there because CCA was going to throw them out." She said CCA officials
shouldn't have been surprised by the potential problems it faced from
shrinking government budgets and prison populations. "CCA came in as
speculative investors, banking on the booming prison populations of a decade
ago," McFadyen said. "Economic development through growing the prison
industry is not good public policy." Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, was
reluctant to blame the situation on CCA's absence of foresight. "They
simply need to find some new customers," McKinley said. "The reason
we have prisons is the market's out there. If we didn't need them, we
wouldn't have them.
January 21, 2010 Corrections Corporation of
America
CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) (NYSE: CXW), the nation's
largest partnership corrections provider to government agencies, announced
today that the proposed budgets by the Arizona Governor and Legislature,
released on January 15, 2010, would phase out the utilization of private
out-of-state beds. CCA currently has management contracts with Arizona at its
752-bed Huerfano County Correctional Center in Walsenburg, Colorado and at
its 2,160-bed Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, Oklahoma. The
proposed phase-out of utilizing out-of-state beds is based on Arizona's
budget crisis and its desire to utilize additional in-state capacity that
will come on-line in 2010. As a result of the budget proposals, there is a
significant risk that CCA will lose the opportunity to house offenders from
Arizona at its Huerfano and Diamondback facilities during 2010. Our contract
with Arizona at Huerfano expires on March 8, 2010, and our contract at
Diamondback expires on May 1, 2010. In the event that Arizona should not
renew one or both of these contracts, CCA will work with Arizona officials
related to the timing of any phase-out of Arizona inmate populations. We
would anticipate that such populations would be transferred out within 30 to
60 days following expiration of each management contract. If Arizona removes
its offender populations housed at these facilities, CCA will likely close
both facilities. During 2009, CCA generated approximately $56.5 million in
revenues from both of these contracts.
December 10, 2009 Truthout
Caroline Isaacs -- You know you’re in trouble when "The Daily Show"
sends a “fake correspondent” to your state capitol. Perhaps it was inevitable
- who could resist the irony of a state literally selling its capitol to the highest bidder? The comedy in the footage
of the aforementioned correspondent standing on Rep. Kyrsten Sinema’s desk to
test the quality of the drop ceiling in her office was eclipsed only by the
tragedy of Rep. Linda Lopez's complete inability to answer the question that
should have been first on the mind of every elected official in Arizona:
"After you sell these buildings and have to pay rent on them, how will
you balance the budget next year?" But the "Daily Show"
segment was only the beginning. What’s got the cable “fake news” programs and
incredulous audiences worldwide rolling in the aisles now is even more
far-fetched: Arizona’s gonna privatize death row. State leaders want to give
out lucrative, long-term contracts to private, for-profit corporations to run
entire state prison complexes, essentially putting rent-a-cops in charge of
women inmates, sex offenders and supermax lockdown units. Brilliant! How come
nobody ever thought of this before? Because it’s a terrible idea. In 30-plus
years of America’s experiment with prison privatization, never has a private
company run entire state prison complexes with multiple security levels. Only
one, Corrections Corporation of America, manages high-security prisoners, and
only in very small numbers. Even Tennessee, home of CCA, wisely passed on the
company’s offer to run the whole state system. Private prison companies
prefer to cherry-pick the prisoners that are already cheapest to house -
low-security with no medical, disciplinary or mental health problems. That
way, they can skimp on paying or training their staff and make a nice tidy
profit. So why would any of these corporations even think of putting up $100
million to get some crumbling old prison buildings and contracts to manage
prisoners from minimum to death row? Because their campaign contributions and
armies of lobbyists have convinced Arizona lawmakers to sweeten the deal. The
bill actually requires the state to split the savings generated through
privatization 50/50 with the private operator. That’s right - we have to give
them half the money back. But wait! There’s more! The deal allows the prison
companies to raise their per-diem rate (the amount the state pays them per
prisoner, per day) every year for the length of the contract. With no upper
limit. And what’s a measly $100 million compared to the combined guaranteed
income of 20-year lease payments and those sweet per diems over the length of
the contracts? Now, a story like that is a comedy gold mine! The New York
Times, first nationally to report on the story, attempted to hide its smirk
behind reassuring quotes from Rep. John Kavanagh, a backer of the proposal
who just happens to be chair of Arizona's Joint Legislative Budget Committee,
which happens to oversee the Department of Administration, which will be
managing the contracts. But there was no restraining Stephen Colbert, who
took the Twainian opportunity to take this ridiculous idea to its most
extreme conclusion: Let’s just privatize the entire criminal justice system
and pay cops a commission for every arrest. Surely the profit motive will
result in more efficient "justice." How could there be anything
wrong with the idea of profiting from depriving other human beings of their freedom?
Ha! Ha! And now the joke is going global. On November 23, the Guardian UK
featured a story whose incredulous author referred to the Arizona proposals
as "bizarre" and "kooky." Resisting the urge to outright
mock us, Mr. Abramsky did, however, soberly note that the joke is really on
the people of Arizona. Citing the dismal track records of abuse, escapes and
riots that have plagued the private prison industry for its entire existence,
he warned that this "wacky" scheme could have dire consequences. So,
laugh it up, everybody. Arizona taxpayers appear only too happy to foot the
bill for your amusement. And be sure to tune in for the next installment,
chronicling a state in even deeper debt, on the hook for 20-year contract
obligations it can’t afford, fending off lawsuits over shoddy prison medical
care and prisoner abuse scandals and frantically searching for the next
brilliant short-term scheme to get us out of this mess.
November 7, 2009 AP
Arizona’s plan to turn over its prisons to private companies in exchange
for a $100 million upfront payment is having trouble getting off the drawing
board, with the plan behind schedule and private prison operators showing
little, if any, interest. The privatization effort is required under a law
enacted last summer as lawmakers struggled to close a huge budget shortfall.
It directs the state to award a contract to one or more private companies to
run an unspecified number of prisons for $100 million. It emerged as
Republican lawmakers cast about for alternatives to Republican Gov. Jan
Brewer’s proposal to increase the sales tax to avoid deep cuts to state
program. An official who worked on the law told The Associated Press that the
$100 million figure was based on hope, not certainty. The prison concession
provision doesn’t specify which or how many of the state’s 10 prison
complexes would be included, what would happen to current state employees or
the length of a contract. An early version specified a term of 50 years and
identified three prisons with approximately 11,000 beds. The Yuma prison
complex was excluded from the law at the insistence of a Yuma legislator.
State officials were supposed to provide an initial batch of information to
potential bidders on Oct. 1, but missed the deadline. But even without that,
there appears to be little interest among private-prison companies.
Corrections Corp. of America, the nation’s largest private prison company,
“is not focused on that,” said Louise Grant, a CCA vice president. Grant said
CCA is interested in pursuing traditional private-prison deals with states
and would review any Arizona request. However, “it’s very questionable
whether or not we would participate,” she said. Another operator, Boca Raton,
Fla.-based GEO Group, declined to comment, citing corporate policy. A third,
Management & Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah, issued a noncommittal
response. Arizona is among many states that contract with private companies
to house state inmates, but officials and industry observers say the large
upfront payment request may be unprecedented. “That is such a new idea. The
model hasn’t been done,” said Leonard Gilroy, a Reason Foundation official
who champions privatization of government services. Gilroy questioned whether
Arizona’s plan would be attractive enough for potential bidders in the
industry. “It’s sort of like ’we want you to do an operational contract and
loan us $100 million,”’ Gilroy said. “I don’t know if there’s enough there to
sweeten the pot for the private sector.” Democratic legislators have questioned
whether the state should turn control of violent maximum-security offenders,
including murderers on death row, to private operators. Little is known about
how the plan would be implemented, including whether it would include the Eyman prison complex in Florence that includes death row.
Citing procurement confidentiality, state officials declined to release a
draft of the document they plan to send to bidders. Corrections Director
Chuck Ryan declined multiple requests for an interview in recent weeks. But he
told legislators during a May hearing that it was “very concerning” to
consider privatizing a major prison complex that houses nearly all death row
inmates and 1,000 other dangerous inmates. Privatizing death row involves
taking a chance, Ryan said. “It won’t stand the headline test in my opinion.”
A leader of a union representing prison guards criticized the plan and
suggested that public safety could be at risk. “They’re trying to replace us
with lower-paid guards, to handle sex offenders, murders, rapists, inmates
with very volatile gang connections,” said J. “J-Rod” Rodriguez, vice
president of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association. Senate
Appropriations Chairman Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said during the May hearing
that the prisons concession had been proposed by House Republicans during
budget negotiations and was based on “very good numbers” from an investment
firm. However, a top House Republican aide said lawmakers and legislative
aides came up with the idea as a way “to monetize state assets,” such as
Indiana and Chicago have done with toll highways. “Well, Arizona doesn’t have
toll roads and there aren’t a lot of assets that can be monetized. That was
sort of the genesis of the idea,” said Grant Nulle,
House director of fiscal policy. There was no research by an investment firm
or anybody else, Nulle said. And the $100 million
payment appears unlikely. “Based on preliminary feedback, we may find it
difficult to generate an upfront payment of this magnitude,” legislative
budget director Richard Stavneak wrote in an Oct.
22 memo. Even if the state does receive good bids, it will take most of the
fiscal year to try to implement the idea, so lawmakers shouldn’t count on
getting the money in time to help close the current budget’s shortfall, Stavneak said in a recent interview.
October 23, 2009 New York Times
One of the newest residents on Arizona’s death row, a convicted serial killer
named Dale Hausner, poked his head up from his
television to look at several visitors strolling by, each of whom wore face
masks and vests to protect against the sharp homemade objects that often are
propelled from the cells of the condemned. It is a dangerous place to patrol,
and Arizona spends $4.7 million each year to house inmates like Mr. Hausner in a super-maximum-security prison. But in a
first in the criminal justice world, the state’s death row inmates could
become the responsibility of a private company. State officials will soon
seek bids from private companies for 9 of the state’s 10 prison complexes that
house roughly 40,000 inmates, including the 127 here on death row. It is the
first effort by a state to put its entire prison system under private
control. The privatization effort, both in its breadth and its financial
goals, demonstrates what states around the country — broke, desperate and
often overburdened with prisoners and their associated costs — are willing to
do to balance the books. Arizona officials hope the effort will put a $100
million dent in the state’s roughly $2 billion budget shortfall. “Let’s not
kid ourselves,” said State Representative Andy Biggs, a Republican who
supports private prisons. “If we were not in this economic environment, I
don’t think we’d be talking about this with the same sense of urgency.”
Private prison companies generally build facilities for a state, then charge
them per prisoner to run them. But under the Arizona legislation, a vendor
would pay $100 million up front to operate one or more prison complexes.
Assuming the company could operate the prisons more cheaply or efficiently
than the state, any savings would be equally divided between the state and
the private firm. The privatization move has raised questions — including
among some people who work for private prison companies — about the private
sector’s ability to handle the state’s most hardened criminals. While
executions would still be performed by the state, officials said, the
Department of Corrections would relinquish all other day-to-day operations to
the private operator and pay a per-diem fee for each prisoner. “I would not
want to be the warden of death row,” said Todd Thomas, the warden of a prison
in Eloy, Ariz., run by the Corrections Corporation of America. The company,
the country’s largest private prison operator, has six prisons in Arizona with
inmates from other states. “That’s not to say we couldn’t,” Mr. Thomas said.
“But the liability is too great. I don’t think any private entity would ever
want to do that.” James Austin, a co-author of a Department of Justice study
in 2001 on prison privatization and president of the JFA Institute, a
corrections consulting firm, said private companies tended to oversee
minimum- and medium-security inmates and had little experience with the most
dangerous prisoners. “As for death row,” Mr. Austin said, “it is a very
visible entity, and if something bad happens there, you will have a pretty
big news story for the Legislature and governor to explain.” Arizona is no
stranger to private prisons or, for that matter, aggressive privatization
efforts (recently, the state put up for sale several government buildings
housing executive branch offices in Phoenix). Nearly 30 percent of the
state’s prisoners are being held in prisons operated by private companies
outside the state’s 10 complexes. In addition, other states, including Alaska
and Hawaii, have contracts with private companies like Corrections
Corporation of America to house their prisoners in Arizona. For advocates of
prison privatization, the push here breathes a bit of life into a movement
that has been on the decline across the country as cost savings from prison
privatizations have often failed to materialize, corrections officers unions
have resisted the efforts and high-profile problems in privately run
facilities have drawn unwanted publicity. “We have private prisons in Arizona
already, and we are very happy with the performance and the savings we get
from them,” said Representative John Kavanagh, a Republican who is chairman
of the House Appropriations Committee and an architect of the new legislation
authorizing the privatization. “I think that they are the future of
corrections in Arizona.” Under the legislation, any bidder would have to take
an entire complex — many of them mazes of multiple levels of security risks
and complexity — and would not be permitted to pick off the cheapest or
easiest buildings and inmates. The state also wants to privatize prisoners’
medical care. Louise Grant, a spokeswoman for Corrections Corporation of
America, said the high-security prisoners would be well within the company’s
management capabilities. “We expect we will be there to make a proposal to
the state” for at least some of its complexes up for bid, Ms. Grant said. In
pure financial terms, it is not clear how well the state would make out with
the privatization. The 2001 study for the Department of Justice found that
private prisons saved most states little money (there has been no equivalent
study since). Indeed, many states, struggling to keep up with the cost of
corrections, have closed prisons when possible, and sought changes in
sentencing to reduce crowding in the last two years. As tough sentencing laws
and the ensuing increase in prisoners began to press on state resources in
the 1980s, private prison companies attracted some states with promises of
lower costs. The private prison boom lasted into the 1990s. Throughout the
years, there have been high-profile riots, escapes and other violent
incidents. The companies also do not generally provide the same wages and
benefits as states, which has resulted in resistance from unions and concerns
that the private prisons attract less-qualified workers. Then the federal
government stepped in, with a surge of new immigrant prisoners, and began to
contract with the private companies. The number of federal prisoners in
private prisons in the United States has more than doubled, to 32,712 in 2008
from 15,524 in 2000. The number of state prisoners in privately run prisons
has increased to 93,500 from 75,000 in that time. With bad economic times
again driving many decisions about state resources, other states are sure to
watch Arizona’s experiment closely. “There simply isn’t the money to keep
these people incarcerated, and the alternative is to free many of them or
lower cost,” said Ron Utt, a senior research fellow
for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative group whose work for
privatization was cited by one Arizona lawmaker.
June 14, 2009 Arizona Republic
The prospect of Arizona selling off its state prisons for a cash influx might
bode well for the budget, but it comes with "grave concerns" from
the director of the Department of Corrections, according to a letter Charles
Ryan sent to Gov. Jan Brewer earlier this month. The legislation, sponsored
by Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, was part of the budget plan approved last week.
Lawmakers have yet to send the bills to Brewer. Senate Bill 1028 would allow
private vendors to operate one or more of the Arizona State Prison complexes,
with a 50-year contract to run the prisons and an upfront payment of $100
million. Ryan asks Brewer to veto the legislation - if and when it gets to
her desk. Brewer's budget plan also includes sale-leaseback deals on prisons.
In the letter, Ryan cites concerns with the plan, including the ability of
for-profit prison companies to properly control some of the volatile inmates
in the state's maximum-security units. He also raises concerns about the
proposal's impact on plans to expand prisons, contracts the prisons have with
vendors and on prison employees. "Undoubtedly, a private company would pay
its employees significantly lower wages and provide them lesser training to
realize cost savings. This would lead to higher staff turnover, low morale
and place public safety at risk," the letter states. In a presentation
Ryan gave to the Brewer last week , he also expressed some logistical
concerns about the ability to privatize bits and pieces of the state's large
prison complexes, which are designed to handle a variety of inmates with a
centralized control-and-operations center. "Privatizing maximum-security
beds would be unprecedented in the United States," according to Ryan's
presentation. "Who would be responsible for execution of inmates?"
There are six privately run prisons in Arizona that house more than 7,000
minimum- and medium-security inmates, about 20 percent of the state's prison
population. Another 5,000 inmates are housed in private facilities outside of
Arizona, leaving more than 19,000 in state custody. In an e-mail sent to
corrections' employees on Friday, Ryan reiterated that the legislation was
still up for debate. "Continue to be professional and perform your
public safety duty," Ryan told the employees.
February 1, 2008 Arizona Republic
Brandishing a fake gun and using ladders stolen from a maintenance building,
two convicted killers climbed onto the roof and over the walls of a private
prison in Florence in September. They navigated through several lines of
razor wire and outmaneuvered security patrols, escaping to freedom, an
investigative report on the incident says. One was caught within hours. It
was nearly a month before the other was caught, hundreds of miles away in his
home state of Washington. Now, in response, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano
wants to tighten up rules for the state's growing private-prison industry,
which is virtually unregulated by the state. A legislative proposal drafted
by the Governor's Office and introduced by Republican Sen. Robert Blendu of Litchfield Park would bar private prisons from
importing murderers, rapists and some other dangerous or seriously ill felons
to Arizona. It would also require the companies to share security and inmate
information with state officials. "It is a matter of public
safety," said Dennis Burke, Napolitano's chief of staff. "(Other
states) are exporting their worst criminals to Arizona, and we can't even
know what they are doing and what steps they are taking to protect
Arizonans." But private-prison officials and other industry supporters
say the bill could threaten the industry, which is the largest employer in
Pinal County. "We were welcomed to the state 15 years ago. We answered
the call to help with economic development in Pinal County," said Tony
Grande, a senior vice president for Corrections Corp. of America, the largest
private-prison firm in the nation. The firm runs five Arizona prisons,
including the one in Florence where the escape took place in September. He
said the company has a good track record and doesn't do business in states
with tight restrictions. "If you change the rules of the game midstream,
we are going to resist it because we invested based on the current
rules," he said. No current restrictions -- The private-prison industry
has grown rapidly in Arizona since the first such prison opened here in 1994,
bringing jobs and thousands of out-of-state inmates to Pinal County. Now,
more than 9,000 felons from Alaska, Hawaii, Washington and other states and
the federal government are housed in six of 11 privately run prisons in
Arizona. Most of the out-of-state inmates are in CCA facilities in Pinal
County, according to information collected by the Arizona Department of
Corrections. But unlike other states, Arizona has no restrictions on the kind
of out-of-state inmates that can be brought here. And private-prison
companies in Arizona are not required to share detailed information on
inmates, staffing and security measures or have their facility designs
approved by state officials. Such requirements are in place in other states
with significant private prisons. Some states ban private prisons altogether
or, like California, don't allow them to house prisoners from out of state.
Of the 15 states that expressly authorize private prisons, Arizona is one of
the least restrictive, said Dora Schriro, director
of the state prison system. Arizona laws require companies to carry insurance
to cover law-enforcement costs in cases of escape, notify state officials
when they bring new prisoners into the state and return prisoners to their
home states to be released. But, Schriro notes,
there are no penalties if the companies don't comply and no way to check on
releases. That's a concern shared by Attorney General Terry Goddard. Goddard
said he was surprised after talking to attorneys general in other states that
Arizona's laws lagged so far behind. "I really think it is about time we
had some record keeping ... and Arizona takes a stand on what kind of
prisoners from other states we are willing to accept," Goddard said.
Sending felons home -- Blendu's bill would bring
together several restrictions found in other states and give the state the
ability to assess fines if the private companies don't comply. To Blendu, who has been a private-prison supporter, a key
piece of the bill is strengthening requirements to send the felons back home.
He said he supports private prisons, but he also worries that Arizona's laws
have not kept up. "We cannot become the private-prison attraction for
the child molesters of our country," he said. His proposal is not the
first time the state has attempted to pass more restrictions on private prisons.
Escapes and other major incidents have been rare, supporters say. But the
escape of three murderers and three other inmates from a private prison in
1996 and another escape of a murderer and a sex offender in 1997 led
lawmakers to pass the current law requiring the reimbursement of
law-enforcement costs.
April 26, 2007 KTAR
Tuesday's riot by Arizona inmates at an Indiana private prison prompts a
caution from Democrat Ed Ableser. "We need to be very careful about a
private industry that actually makes money off of the amount of criminals we
produce in this society," he said. But, Republican Russell Pearce said
the riot wasn't caused by private prisons, but by a non-cooperative
department of corrections which won't spend available money. "They
refuse to build or provide access to 3,000 beds in this state," said
Pearce. The philosophical dispute has left the state thousands of prison beds
short.
March 19, 2006 Arizona Star
The Arizona Legislature, which has never been shy about enacting laws
that enlarge the prison population, should provide adequate funding this year
to ensure the safety of the officers and inmates in those institutions. The
inmate population, which stands at 33,887, declined slightly last spring but
has risen steadily since the summer. As the prison population increased, the
number of correctional officers decreased. More prisoners and fewer officers equals danger. Arizona Department of Corrections
Director Dora Schriro notes that on some overnight
shifts, there is only one officer for 150 inmates. That should be a matter of
concern for everyone. Two legislators crucial to solving the corrections
problems are Sen. Robert "Bob" Burns, R-Peoria, and Rep. Russell
Pearce, R-Mesa, chairmen, respectively, of the Senate and House
Appropriations Committees. Both lawmakers believe the state can save money by
moving more inmates into private prisons, a belief disproved by a report
issued last month by MAXIMUS Inc., a national consulting firm. The
consultants compared costs of operating low- and medium-security private
prisons with the same level of state prisons and found that the state's costs
were 8.5 percent to 13.5 percent less than those of the private prisons.
Lawmakers should not allow pre-conceived ideas about privatization to cloud
their judgment when examining these numbers. More importantly, they should
not turn the debate over privatization into an excuse to ignore the serious
pay problems within the Corrections Department.
March 1, 2006 Arizona Daily Sun
Gov. Janet Napolitano wants Congress to fund a federal regional prison
where Arizona and other Western states can send inmates who are in this
country illegally. The governor said Wednesday she has asked for funding in
the budget for Federal Bureau of Prisons to build and operate a facility to
house people convicted of state crimes but who also are illegal immigrants.
Construction of a federal facility also would help blunt calls by some
Republican legislators to construct a private prison in Mexico to house state
inmates who are not legal residents of this country.
February 23, 2006 Arizona Daily Star
State senators voted Wednesday to ask voters to approve a referendum that
would prevent their cities and counties from accepting Mexican consular
identification cards. And the House Appropriations Committee voted 9-4 to
construct a private prison in Mexico to house criminals convicted of
violating Arizona laws who are not citizens of this country. Backers of HB
2761 argue that it is cheaper to house foreign nationals outside the country
and that many would prefer to be closer to relatives.
November 28, 2005 Arizona Capitol Times
The labor union that represents the state's corrections officers is meeting
individually with lawmakers to push its legislative plan for next session,
which includes higher wages, higher retirement contributions from the state
and scrutinizing private prisons. The one-on-one meetings are being conducted
to educate legislators about what exactly corrections officers do for a
living and the role they play in keeping Arizona citizens safe. So far, says
the future head of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association,
results have been positive. Several lawmakers who have historically been
opposed to increased spending on corrections have responded favorably to the
meetings. "A lot of times, the reason they say 'no' to things is because
they have no knowledge," said Tixoc Munoz,
executive-president-elect of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers
Association. Chuck Foy, a representative of the Arizona Conference of Police
and Sheriffs (AZCOPS), a sort of "mother union" that oversees
dozens of public safety organizations and represents more than 6,300 officers
statewide, said getting lawmakers as much information as possible is key. The
unions are also setting their sights on the private prison industry. Arizona
law allows the state to contract with private penitentiaries - both in- and out-of state - to house the state's criminals. The unions
have long opposed the notion of private prisons, saying they are not as
cost-effective as the state-run corrections system. Mr. Foy said seeing just
how cost-ineffective the prisons are, though, is extremely difficult because
the companies have no obligation under the state's public records law to divulge
any information beyond what is included on the company's yearly financial
report. The groups will push for legislation that would open the financial
records of these for-profit prisons. "Let's level the playing field and
see where the chips fall," he said. "If the corporates don't want
to open the books, what are they hiding?" Opening the books, he says,
will allow a clear comparison of the private industry with its state-run
brethren. "We believe that once everybody has all of the information,
the best decision will be made for the taxpayers," Mr. Foy said.
February
11, 2004
If legislative leaders are looking for a scapegoat in
the wake of the nation's longest prison hostage siege, any mirror would be a
logical starting point. But some lawmakers
seem determined to score political points by blaming the hostage crisis on
the state prisons director, who has been on the job barely six months.
Blaming her would be unfair and wrong. Arizona is notorious for falling short when it comes to
meeting all kinds of state needs - and prisons are no exception.
Although few details have been released about last
month's 15-day hostage incident at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis
near Buckeye, it appears that inexperienced staff was a contributing factor,
if not a key element. The breakdown in
security that allowed two inmates to get into the prison watchtower will be a
key focus of an investigation into the incident. The fact that the hostages and inmates were released alive is
a testament to the skills of negotiators and prison officials who kept the
tension under control. Corrections officers were
inexperienced One potential problem already is
apparent: Each of the two corrections officers who were taken hostage by two
inmates had been on the job less than six months. Sgt. Joe Masella, president of the
Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association, estimates that 70 percent of
state correctional officers have been on the job 18 months or less.
He cites low pay as the cause of high turnover that
leaves the state with inexperienced staff. Since the Legislature sets the
Department of Corrections budget, lawmakers should own up to their own role
in setting the stage for the hostage siege. Instead, some seem more intent on finding a scapegoat.
Legislative leaders plan to delay Senate confirmation of state prison
Director Dora Schriro until a probe is completed
into her handling of the incident. Schriro was hired in
June. It is likely some of the problems that led to the hostage crisis
predated her. Legislators also would be
wise to scrutinize the motives of ex-state prison chief Terry Stewart, who,
according to the Arizona Republic, called Senate leaders to "express
concerns" about Schriro's handling of the
crisis. Stewart has a conflict of
interest. He runs a private prison firm at a time when legislators have been
pushing to privatize more of Arizona's prisons. Lawmakers must ask whether
undermining Schriro is one of Stewart's business
strategies. More focus on rehab needed here Schriro devised a
successful rehabilitation program in Missouri that earned her a reputation as
one of the top corrections directors in the nation. It's no surprise her progressive ideas are eyed with
suspicion here. Nor would it be surprising if conservative Republican
lawmakers were to use the hostage crisis as an excuse to oust the Democratic
governor's nominee. If that's how the hostage drama plays out politically, it
would be a loss for the entire state. Arizona's
prison population is growing at an alarming rate. A key strategy to reducing
it is rehabilitation. Schriro has the skills to do
that in a system that now does little more than warehouse criminals.
A complete and thorough investigation of the hostage
crisis must be conducted to determine what went wrong and how it can be
prevented in the future. But it would be patently unfair to make Schriro a scapegoat in a political struggle. (Tuscon Citizen)
December
4, 2003
Paul Senseman, who has served on the House majority
staff under three speakers, announced he will resign at the end of the
current special session to become principle lobbyist for Policy Development
Group, a government/public relations firm. Most recently, he has been
chief of staff for House Speaker Jake Flake and has also served as director
of communications, press secretary and special assistant to the majority. I
have seen that one of Policy Development Group’s clients is Corrections Corp.
of America, a private prison company. We seem to have an on-going debate on
the value of private prisons versus public or state-run prisons. It appears
that you’re going to be thrust into that. It’s possible. Right now, I’ve
taken myself out of it. Two or three weeks ago, I put a letter to the speaker
and Norm Moore, the chief clerk, removing myself from that issue. When I became
aware of the fact that with my future employer I would be involved in that, I
took myself completely out of the corrections issue so there would be no
questions about it. (Arizona Capitol Times)
December
3, 2003
A bipartisan Senate agreement could pave the way for a major step forward in
the lengthy legislative special session. Republican and Democratic
leaders promoted a compromise agreement Monday that would send 2,100 Arizona
inmates to temporary cells out of state while allowing the Department of
Corrections to bid against private companies to build new prisons. The
bill also would raise drunken driving fines by $500 for a first offense,
$1,250 for a second offense and $1,500 for a subsequent conviction. Minor
driving scofflaws, for instance those driving on a suspended license, would
face a $250 additional fine. The money would be used to relieve
crowding in the state's prison system. The fines could produce about $15
million a year. The state would send about 140 inmates to county jails
at a cost of $2.1 million. "It looks promising," said Sen.
Gabrielle Giffords, D-Tucson. Dealing with prison crowding and
reforming Child Protective Services are the two primary subjects of the
special session. However, during the first six weeks there has been little
agreement on either issue. Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, is
expected to decide today whether to give her blessing to the prisons
agreement. One of the hang-ups is the creation of an independent
committee to design and assess requests for new prisons. The final decision
would remain with the executive branch. The committee, with appointees from
the Senate president, the House speaker and the governor, would create the
requests so that the Department of Corrections, a potential bidder against
private companies, would not have an unfair advantage. (Arizona Daily
Star)
November
25, 2003
The debate over whether the use of private prisons is the answer
to the state’s overcrowding problem will spill over into the regular
session, a senator predicts. Proposed legislation may bring a temporary
solution, but Sen. Bob Burns, R-Dist. 9, chairman of the Senate
Appropriations Committee and a proponent of private prisons, says he thinks
the debate “will go on for a while.” Mr. Burns says Governor
Napolitano’s office is trying to kill privatization and may tarnish the
state’s reputation so badly that private companies will not want to do
business with the state. At the end of a Nov. 18 committee meeting, Mr.
Burns challenged the governor to meet with committee members to show why
private prisons are not a solution. A day earlier, Ms. Napolitano said
during her weekly press briefing that legislators pushing private prisons do
not have the facts. “I know that down at the Legislature every private
prison company in America seems to have a lobbyist or two working the halls,”
she said. “They are providing information that is contrary to the
facts.” The major inaccuracy, she said, was that private prisons “are
cheaper over time. I see no data that suggests that.” (Arizona Capitol
Times)
November 25, 2003
Some Arizona legislators are concerned that a Florida prison company hoping
to land millions of dollars in state contracts paid a $300,000 fine this year
for failing to report numerous gifts to New York lawmakers.
Correctional Services Corp. wants to expand two prisons in Arizona in
exchange for long-term contracts. However, even some backers of private
prisons question the company's gift-giving. "That concerns
me," said House Appropriations Chairman Russell Pearce, R-Mesa. "If
these allegations are true, then I would have a problem." In
February, the company agreed to pay $300,000 to the New York Temporary State
Commission on Lobbying to settle an investigation into the company's
activities. The commission's executive director, David Grandeau, said the company failed to properly account for
gifts given to lawmakers. "This was a pattern of conduct that
existed for a long time," Grandeau said in a
phone interview. "They found it politically helpful to them."
One New York lawmaker pleaded guilty earlier this year to taking bribes in an
unrelated matter but also admitted to accepting free rides from New York City
to the state capital in Albany from the company. The commission's
investigation went back only to 2000, but former Assemblywoman Gloria Davis,
a Bronx Democrat, admitted accepting company rides beginning in 1998.
New York law forbids lawmakers from accepting gifts worth more than $75. The
trips, as well as at least four or five gift baskets, meals and an airplane
ticket given to various lawmakers, exceeded the limit, Grandeau
said. The company signed a settlement agreement in February. It notes
that the company's filing with the commission contained errors and omissions.
Grandeau said the practice began under a company
vice president who was fired for unrelated activities. Grandeau
said his successor, Jack Brown, admitted continuing the gift-giving
practice. Under Arizona law, lobbyists are allowed to buy meals and
offer gifts worth less $10. Expenditure reports for Arizona's current special
legislative session are due to the secretary of state in January. Previous
expenditure reports on meals and gifts show little or no activity from the
Correctional Services Corp. lobbyist. Company Vice President Russell
Rau denied any wrongdoing, saying the troubles were just filing errors.
"It was incorrectly filling out forms," Rau said. "Campaign
reporting laws are very complex. Ask any elected official. A fee was paid
because the mistake was made." Rau said he has not given any gifts to
Arizona lawmakers. Department of Corrections Director Dora Schriro said she is keeping tabs on the company's New
York troubles but is not going to pull any contracts now. In addition to two
Arizona facilities, the firm houses more than 600 inmates in a Texas
facility. "This kind of issue underscores some of the concerns I
have expressed recently about privatizing a core government function," Schriro said. "We will continue to monitor closely
the criminal investigation and anything that ensues from it."
While the original House bill on prisons featured a passage that would have
virtually guaranteed that the company receive more state business, questions
arose both about the constitutionality of the bill and the firm's overall
performance. In the Senate, Sen. Bill Brotherton, D-Phoenix, wants to
ban any contractor that has been found to have offered a bribe from receiving
a private prison contract. "If we are going to be dealing with
private companies doing a law enforcement job, they should be as clean as
possible," Brotherton said. (Arizona Daily Star)
November
19, 2003
Lobbyists descended on the Capitol this month to convince legislators that
private prisons are the best option for a cash-strapped state facing an
inmate overcrowding crisis and are the cheapest deal for taxpayers.
"Just like sharks that smell blood in the water, the lobbyists sense
that there's support in the Legislature for private prisons," said Sen.
Pete Rios, D-Hayden. "That's why they are coming out in full
force." A bill muscling its way through the Legislature calls for
3,000 private beds: 1,600 permanent beds at private facilities and 1,400
temporary beds at an out-of-state private prison. The bill passed the House
overwhelmingly Monday and is expected to go to a vote of the full Senate
today. "Private companies have demonstrated we can save money on
building and operating these facilities," said Russell Rau, vice
president of Correctional Services Corporation, which houses 1,825 Arizona
inmates, including 625 in Texas. "Privatization has been a good partner
for Arizona." Opponents, led by Gov. Janet Napolitano, say they
are not convinced the cost savings exist. Napolitano's proposal called for
expanding some state prisons. (The Arizona Republic)
November 18, 2003
The House on Monday overwhelmingly approved a Republican bill to provide
3,000 new private prison beds, in Arizona and elsewhere, to help relieve
crowding in the corrections system. The GOP-led House's 37-17 vote by
party lines sent the bill (HB2019) to the Senate where similar legislation
already has been endorsed by one committee and awaits action by
another. However, Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano has said she has
"grave concerns" about the bill, which would rely more on private
prisons than she wants and provide a smaller midyear spending increase to the
Department of Corrections. The bill approved by the House would add
1,600 additional permanent beds at private prisons and send 1,400 inmates at least
temporarily to private prisons outside Arizona. It also would impose a
mandatory new $1,000 "assessment" on DUI offenders to help pay for
prison expansion. The state now has approximately 2,315 inmates in
private prisons in Arizona and Texas, or about 7 percent of the total 31,146
prisoners in the state system. The state currently has a shortfall of
approximately 4,000 permanent beds, forcing the Department of Corrections to
take such steps as putting inmates' beds in converted dayrooms. Napolitano proposed
adding 1,600 temporary beds, mostly at private prisons, and 1,200 permanent
beds by expanding state-run prisons in Florence, Perryville and Yuma.
Republicans favor more use of private prisons, contending private facilities
can provide beds at a competitive cost and be available quickly to help solve
the bed shortage. Napolitano administration officials dismiss the
Republicans' plan as providing too few beds and not enough money, committing
the state to expanding private prisons with inadequate sites and tying the
Department of Corrections' hands in dealings with private-prison
operators. Napolitano has been cool toward private prisons, contending
prisons are a core government function. However, she included additional
temporary private beds in her plan for lack of alternatives.
Napolitano's bill would appropriate $26.4 million for the department. The
Republican bill would provide $8.9 million. It also reduces by $3.1 million
the amount the department must pay for employees' health insurance. No
Republicans defended the bill as House Democrats rose to denounce it.
Rep. Tom Prezelski, D-Tucson, said it's a mistake
for the state to rely on money from the new assessments to pay for prison
projects. "I don't know if the money's going to exist to actually fund
this scheme," he said. The bill has too many unanswered questions,
said Rep. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix. "This bill is begging to be
vetoed." (Privateer News)
November
13, 2003
A Republican plan to require the state to contract for more private prison
space is unconstitutional and likely to be vetoed, two top aides to Gov.
Janet Napolitano said Wednesday. Tim Nelson, the governor's legal
counsel, said lawmakers cannot mandate that the state give money to
Correctional Services Corp. to expand its existing private prisons in Phoenix
and Florence. He said the state Constitution specifically prohibits the
Legislature from directing that taxpayer dollars go to a particular
company.
(Arizona Daily Sun)
October
21, 2003
Lawmakers are looking at reviving the idea of sending Mexican nationals
locked up in Arizona prisons south of the border to serve the remainder of
their sentences. And it could come into play as the Legislature goes
into a special session today on prison spending and crowding. Caroline Isaacs,
with the Tucson branch of the prison reform group American Friends Service
Committee, a Quaker organization, said the idea is fraught with problems,
including who is accountable for the prisoners. Former prison chief
Terry Stewart had been shopping an idea for a private prison in Mexico to
house nationals. Stewart could not be reached for comment. Dora Schrirro, head of the Arizona Department of Corrections,
said she will take a look at the proposal. "It's an interesting
idea," Schrirro said. "Everything ought
to be given some consideration. The question is whether there is
authority." Her boss isn't exactly thrilled with the idea,
however. "It's not something the governor is in favor of
pursuing," said Napolitano's spokesman, Paul Allvin.
"These will be wards of the state in Mexico. If they escape or hurt
themselves or commit crimes, there is a huge liability issue for
Arizona." (Arizona Daily Star)
May 5, 2003
Poor planning has fueled an overcrowding crisis in Arizons's
prison system and state leaders are scrambling to find a solution.
"We're trying everything we can," said George Weisz, Gov. Janet
Napolitano's special assistant for corrections. Meanwhile, the
department is coping by building tents at its prison complexes in Goodyear,
Tucson, Douglas and Yuma, and having inmates double-bunk in some units.
Three years ago, the state had a solution, when a $196 million prison was
planned in Tucson that would have added 4,400 beds. Since plans for the
Tucson complex were canceled, lawmakers have focused on privatization to
handle growth. Last November, the department contracted with
Correctional Services Corp. to place up to 645 male inmates in the Newton
County Correctional Center in Texas. (AP)
April 10, 2003
Legislators are being urged to consider a broad array of state properties for
sales or other transactions beyond the handful of sites proposed by Gov.
Janet Napolitano to help balance the budget. Gov. Janet Napolitano has
suggested that the State Compensation Fund buy either the state mental
hospital, the Department of Safety headquarters or the Perryville prison in
exchange for $50 million needed to help balance the current fiscal year's
budget. (Tucson Citizen)
March 8, 2003
State lawmakers on Friday turned down a proposal to build a prison in Mexico
for more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants behind bars in Arizona. On
a 7-6 vote, members of the Senate Appropriations Committee denied allowing
the state to seek a private contractor to build and operate a prison in
Sonora, the Mexican state that borders Arizona. "It would be a
good business for Arizona and Mexico," argued Terry Stewart, former
Arizona corrections director, who now has a consulting firm, Advanced
Correctional Management. "It would solve language and cultural
issues." But some senators questioned the legality of repatriating
undocumented inmates to Mexico without their consent and the state's
responsibility of overseeing a prison in another country. Further,
there is no guarantee that the Mexican government would agree to such a
proposal, said Sen. Pete Rios. (The Arizona Republic)
February 2, 2003
As state leaders search for creative ways to fix a $1.3 billion deficit, they
are turning to the sale of state buildings and equipment and money-making
enterprises to fill the gap. And while the state has buildings with a
replacement value of at least $2.3 billion to offer on the open market,
critics are beginning to question the long-term positive impacts of such
moves. "It's borrowing off the
future. You have an asset that is almost paid for and now it's sold and in
someone else's hand," said Bruce Wheeler, a former Tucson City
Councilman who opposed some similar ideas in the past. "I don't think
it's a responsible way for making up for deficits." " Sale
of assets is not a strategy that has been widely used," said
Tim Blake, an analyst with the credit rating firm Moody's. "What we look
for them to do is to get back through recurring measures, not just through
one-time fixes. Either of the sale of assets and borrowing are one-time
fixes. They just set themselves up for looking for other one-time
fixes." That could hurt the
state's limping credit rating. Blake said Moody's outlook for Arizona
is negative, and more debt would not help the situation. A low credit rating makes borrowing more
expensive as investors seek higher return in exchange for taking on possibly
higher-risk sellers. Republicans
propose an outright sale of buildings and equipment, seeking to raise about
$350 million. The state may rent the buildings back or, in the case of
prisons, contract with private operators that would run them. Dormitories could also be sold and
privatized. Here are the replacement
values for state owned buildings that legislators will consider selling:
Department of Corrections: $774.8 million.
Juvenile Corrections Department: $63.8 million. (Arizona Daily
Star)
January 28, 2003
Republican legislators are proposing to sell state fair
grounds, Arizona Highways magazine and other state property to help
balance the budget while eying a possible private prison in Mexico to house
inmates from that country for future savings. Other assets were no
specified in the package of bills introduced by Senate Appropriations
Chairman Robert Burns. Burns and other lawmakers also introduced a bill
to have the state seek proposals from private prison operators to build and
operate a prison in the neighboring Mexican state of Sonora. The prison
would house some or all of the approximately 3,000 Mexican nationals that now
compromise approximately 10 percent of the state's prison inmates. The
state still would have to have a presence at the prison in Mexico to monitor
conditions and guarantee a standard of care, Burns said. "Arizona
would be in control because there would be our prisoners, our responsibility,"
he said. (AP)
January 26, 2003
A small coalition of University of Arizona faculty and students yesterday
called for Gov. Janet Napolitano an the Legislature
to use money earmarked for private prisons to fund higher education.
The group, Education Not Incarceration Campaign, number four or five faculty
members and about 10 students, said Caroline Issacs, a member of the
group. The state must authorize construction of two private prisons
that would handle a total of 5,400 nonviolent offenders, the group
claimed. It said one prison is for convicted drunken drives and the
other for female inmates. In the past 20 years, Arizona's spending on
education dropped 11 percent while spending on prisons increased 140 percent,
the coalition said. (Tuscon Citizen)
January 22, 2003
A
small coalition of University of Arizona faculty and students called today
for Gov. Janet Napolitano and the Legislature to use money set aside for
private prisons to fund higher education.
The group, Education not Incarceration Campaign, numbers four or five
faculty members and about 10 students, according to member Caroline Isaacs.
The state must authorize construction of two private prisons that would
handle a total of 5,400 nonviolent offenders, the group claimed. One prison
it said is for convicted drunken drivers, the other for female inmates. Coalition members told an audience of about
25 people that if the state put those prisoners in treatment and counseling
programs instead of prison, Arizonan could save the $33.4 million it will pay
in operating costs. In the last 20
years, Arizona's spending on education dropped 11 percent while spending on
prisons increased 140 percent, the coalition said. (Tucson)
January
16, 2003
Arizona's $1.3 billion budget deficit would vanish in a cloud of property
sell-offs accounting maneuvers and relatively small cuts in services under a
plan unveiled Wednesday by Gov. Janet Napolitano. She hopes to succeed
where governors elsewhere have failed: to offset a huge state deficit without
raising taxes or slashing money for schools, children's services and
prisons. Napolitano's top budget aide, George Cunningham, said the team
benefited from consulting with other states. That's where aides learned
that New York and New Jersey had programs where they sold state assets and
leased them back from the private owners. Napolitano's plan includes
the sale and leaseback of $250 million in assets, including several prison
facilities. (The Arizona Republic)
January 13, 2003
The battle begins Monday to solve a budget crisis so ingrained in Arizona
government that firing all state workers wouldn't solve it an
closing all 67 state agencies would fix only half of it. The prisons
budget, nearly $600 million a year and growing, is not technically protected
from cuts and could be a source of trims. One possible solution would
be to sell prisons to private companies that would hire their own workers to
operate the facilities. A second would be to release some prisoners
early. (The Arizona Republic)
November 16, 2002
Some
of Yuma's prison inmates may end up crossing state lines, but
with the government's permission, of course. In an effort to ease crowding in
Arizona prisons, the state Legislature is allowing 645 inmates
statewide to be transferred to a private prison in Newton,
Texas, said Jim Robideau, a spokesman
with the Arizona Department of Corrections. The Newton County Correctional Center,
also called the Fillyaw Correctional
Facility, is a private prison run by Correctional Services Corp.
It is near the Louisiana state line. (Yuma sun.com0
April 10, 2002
Before the House took a vote Monday to rein in tough-love boot camps for
wayward teens, Melanie Hudson was confident that her son did not die in vain.
She was nearly wrong. Hudson, whose 14-year-old son, Tony Haynes, died
after strenuous exercise at a boot camp last summer, sent a message to
lawmakers who assumed the bill would pass. After a close call on
Monday, the House gave new life Tuesday to a bill that would close the
loophole allowing boot camps in Arizona without a license or trained
staff. Behind the strength of several members who were absent Monday,
it passed 33-15. It now moves on to the Senate, which passed a similar
measure last month. (azcentral.com)
Arizona State Prison Complex –
Florence
Feb 9, 2019 phoenixnewtimes.com
Arizona Prisoner Dies After Writing 'I Am Being Killed' in Court Document
An Arizona state inmate died of health complications six weeks after he
filed a court document claiming that he was “being killed” due to inadequate
medical care. Richard Washington died on January 31 in the prison infirmary,
according to a spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Corrections. He
died of complications related to diabetes, hypertension, and hepatitis C,
according to an investigator with the Pinal County Medical Examiner’s office.
Washington, who was being housed at Arizona State Prison Complex - Florence,
was 64. He was serving a 63-year sentence on armed robbery convictions.
Washington is the second case since 2017 in which a Florence inmate filed a
court record raising concerns about imminent death before actually dying.
About six weeks before his death, Washington wrote a court filing titled
"Notice I am being killed." Washington claimed in his filing that
the corrections agency was "actively refusing" to give him
medication for his medical conditions, including "diabetes, liver
conditions, and blood pressure issues." "My greatest fear is that
I'm going to die more sooner than later should this treatment — or lack there of — continues [sic]," Washington wrote in a
document dated December 15, 2018. Washington filed the document in the docket
for Parsons v. Ryan, the federal lawsuit that resulted in a settlement
requiring Arizona prisons to improve healthcare services at facilities and
conditions in solitary confinement units. The Parsons settlement, reached
with the American Civil Liberties Union in 2014, outlines more than 100
health-care standards for the ADOC. In June, a federal judge found the state
prison system in contempt of court for failing to meet Parsons settlement
requirements. U.S. Magistrate Judge David K. Duncan imposed fines of $1.5
million on the prison system. Arizona currently contracts with Corizon, a
private company, to provide its health-care services. Beginning on July 1,
state prisons will switch to a different healthcare provider, Centurion,
following whistleblower reports on KJZZ of shoddy record-keeping by Corizon. Corene Kendrick, a staff attorney with the Prison Law
Office, said she saw Washington's court notice in the Parsons docket on
Wednesday evening, the same day the U.S. District Court of Arizona officially
filed the record. The Prison Law Office serves as co-counsel with the ACLU on
the Parsons case. Kendrick says it's unclear why Washington's notice is dated
six weeks before it was actually filed in the court. She said Washington's
case reminded her of a case in 2017 when an Arizona inmate named Walter
Jordan predicted his death from cancer in a court document in the Parsons
docket titled "Notice of Impending Death." Jordan wrote on August
29, 2017, "ADOC and Corizon delayed treating my cancer. Now because of
there [sic] delay, I may be luckey [sic] to be
alive for 30 days. The delayed treatment they gave me is causing memory loss,
pain." Jordan died on September 7, 2017, from cancer. Three months
later, Todd Wilcox, a medical expert, filed a declaration in the Parsons case
stating, "Mr. Jordan's case was unfortunate and horrific, and he
suffered excruciating needless pain from cancer that was not appropriately
managed in the months prior to his death," Like Washington, Jordan was
housed at Florence.
Arizona
State Prison-Kingman
Kingman, Arizona
GEO Group
2010 escape
at Kingman an issue for MTC’s bid: August 11, 2011, Bob Ortega, The
Arizona Republic. Expose on MTC
Cathy Byus, et al vs. MTC, et al: March 17, 2011, 30 pages: Wrongful death suit
involving the murder of Linda Haas by escapees from MTC's Arizona State
Prison Kingman.
Rachel Maddow stay on it http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#38700092
Rachel Maddow kicks butt http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/38685023#38685023
Jun
12, 2021 kjzz.org
Arizona Budget Proposal Assumes New Private Prison Beds Will Cost More
Than Public Facilities
Zach Perrino was incarcerated in both public and private
prisons throughout Arizona. He says he never felt safe in any of them, but
there was a time during a violent 2015 riot at the Kingman prison when Perrino truly feared for his life: "I remember kind
of making peace with myself," Perrino said.
"You know, this is probably where my story ends." Thirteen people
were hospitalized and more than 1,000 prisoners, including Perrino, were moved to different facilities. He said the
private prison, run by Management and Training Corporation, was short
staffed, and the administrators had been cutting corners and reducing
programming. "They just kept taking stuff away, taking stuff away. And
then they just started locking the yard down," he said. "So we would get locked down for two, three weeks at a time
- controlled movement - and people just got upset and they had enough, you
know." After the riot, the state gave the Kingman prison contract to
another company, the GEO group. Kingman is one of six private prisons Arizona
contracts with to hold people in state custody. In addition to Geo Group and
MTC, which still runs the Marana prison, the state also contracts with CoreCivic. Two decades ago, just a few thousand prisoners
in state custody were housed in private facilities. But that number has
steadily grown over the years. In 2016, there were 6,400 prisoners in the
private prisons, which was 18% of the total population. Five years later,
7,200 prisoners are in private prisons, making up 20% of the total
population. And soon, the state will shift even more incarcerated people into
private facilities. In his 2020 State of the State address, Gov. Doug Ducey announced plans to close the Florence prison, one
of the oldest prisons and home to death row inmates and the execution
chamber. While Ducey claimed shuttering the prison
ultimately will save taxpayers money, the state plans to spend millions of
dollars in the coming years to transition thousands of prisoners from
Florence and into private facilities. At a recent House Democratic Caucus,
members of the state Legislature were trying to figure out exactly how much
money that transition is going to cost. Joint Legislative Budget Committee
Staff member Geoff Paulsen told lawmakers "The actual, literal increase
to the private prison per diem line item as a result of this policy is about
$25.4 million." The increase comes from higher per diem rates, which are
the cost to house one prisoner for one day. While per diem rates vary by
facility and by security level, the most recent average cost estimate from
the Department of Corrections for the public prisons is $71 per day.
According to Paulsen, the JLBC analysis of the new budget found "this
spending plan assumes a $85 per diem for these new private prison beds."
The DOC budget also calls for an additional $16 million for existing private
prison contracts, to pay for staff salary increases and rising costs of
healthcare. At the caucus, Representative Diego Rodriguez asked JLBC staffer
Paulsen where that $16 million figure came from. "Is this simply a
process where the private prison vendors submit their requests and then we
just - grant it?" Rodriguez asked. "Yes," Paulsen responded,
"they do, sort of, reach out with a request for increases to their
contracted rates." Rodriguez said he was concerned that there was no
documentation provided to justify the increase in Department of Corrections
spending on private prison contracts "Because we don't have a good track
record in Arizona of holding the Department accountable for, really, hardly
anything it does." State law used to require the Department of Corrections
to submit a report every two years on the cost comparisons between private
prisons and state prisons. But the Legislature repealed that mandate in 2013.
"I firmly believe it was eliminated because they knew that if the people
of Arizona were actually given the hard numbers, they would see that we are
in fact paying more for private prison beds than what it would cost us to
handle this traditionally governmental duty in house," Rodriguez said.
The contracts between Arizona and the private prisons contain occupancy
guarantees ranging from 90% to 100%. This means, no matter how many people
are actually in the prisons, the state is obligated to pay for a set amount of beds. Rebecca Fealk,
program coordinator for American Friends Service Committee of Arizona, said
private prisons, by their very nature, are more focused on generating profits
than providing safe and secure living conditions for incarcerated people.
"It doesn't make any sense, especially with the recent decline in
Arizona's prison population, to increase the Department of Corrections'
budget or sign onto another problematic private prison contract," Fealk said. A spokesperson for the GEO Group said the new
funding will "help to ensure proper staffing and the continued delivery
of high-quality services." CoreCivic and
Management and Training Corporation declined to comment. Alexandra Wilkes is
a spokesperson for the Day 1 Alliance, a trade association for the private
prison industry. She said private prisons can be flexible partners to the
government system, to relieve overcrowding and help during transition periods
like the closure of Florence. "At the end of the day, it's the
government setting the contract," she said. "And the contractor has
to adhere to the terms of the contract - that's the heart of the
relationship." Zach Perrino said it took him a
long time to realize how that relationship impacted him. "My misery was
profited off of," Perrino said. "My hurt
and my pain - someone cashed a paycheck off that." Perrino
thinks there's a better way to use state resources. "Why don't we invest
in people?" he asked. "If we spent more money treating mental
illness and drug addiction, we wouldn't need public or private prisons."
Jan 25, 2021
mohavedailynews.com
Prison staffers accused of sex with inmates appear in court
KINGMAN — Two women who engaged in sexual activity with inmates at the
state prison in Golden Valley appeared for separate hearings Wednesday in
Mohave County Superior Court. Defense attorney Mike Manusia
asked that Melony Petrovffsky, 50, Golden Valley,
be spared from incarceration for her guilty plea to a charge of unlawful
sexual conduct by a correctional employee. "She’s completely humiliated
and remorseful,” Manusia told Judge Rick Lambert.
"She is sick with grief.” Prosecutor James Schoppmann
urged the Court to send a sentencing message that fortifies the integrity of
the justice system that he said Petrovffsky
stained. "The system itself is humiliated if there’s no consequence,” Schoppmann said, noting there would be greater community
alarm if it was a male employee having sex with a female inmate. "If the
genders were reversed the public would be outraged. That shouldn’t matter.”
Lambert noted that Petrovffsky was instructed to
avoid improper communication and contact with inmates when she was trained
for her job with the GEO Group, the private company that operates the prison
under contract with the state. "The surveillance video captured you in
various sexual acts with an inmate,” Lambert told Petrovffsky.
"You breached your duty as a correctional employee and the Court finds
that probation under these circumstances is inappropriate." Lambert
imposed a six-month prison sentence. Another former GEO employee who also
engaged in sex with one or more inmates while manning the prison commissary
pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual conduct by a correctional employee. Eleven
other counts for the same charge are dismissed in the plea agreement for
Genevieve Belden, 32, Kingman. Prosecutor Phillip Delgado said Belden kissed,
fondled and had sexual intercourse with another inmate on multiple occasions.
Belden is eligible for probation but could get up to 1½ years in prison when
sentenced Feb. 19.
Nov 21, 2020 mohavedailynews.com
Two accused of having sex with prison inmates
KINGMAN — Two area women allegedly had sex with male inmates on multiple
occasions at the prison that the GEO Group operates in Golden Valley under a
contract with the state of Arizona. Genevieve Belden, 32, of Kingman, and
Melony Petrovffsky, 50, of Golden Valley, both
entered not guilty pleas during their arraignment hearings earlier this month
at the Mohave County Courthouse in Kingman. Belden is charged with a dozen
counts of unlawful sexual conduct by a correctional employee while Petrovffsky is charged with three counts of the same
offense. Reports by Arizona Department of Corrections criminal investigator
Monique Bullock indicated that alleged misconduct between Belden and an
inmate identified as C.W. was videotaped and reported on Nov. 15, 2019. Petrovffsky reportedly supervised the prison commissary,
where Belden also worked. Petrovffsky became a
suspect herself after reporting, along with Lt. Steve Romero, that Belden and
C.W. had engaged in sexual intercourse behind shelving racks inside the
prison store. “This criminal act was caught on video surveillance,” Bullock’s
report said. “Belden is facing the wall while C.W. is behind her and he is
seen thrusting back and forth.” C.W., a child abuse convict, denied the
allegations when initially interviewed. He later admitted he and Belden had
been involved for a couple of months and that they would situate the shelving
racks to create a private space for intimacy inside the prison store where
five male inmates enjoyed work privileges. “He said he was not a victim and
said he was perfectly fine,” Bullock’s report said of C.W.’s admissions. “He
said he did not engage in anything he did not want to do and said he was not
forced against his will to engage in the sexual activity with Belden.”
Bullocks’ report noted that another investigator, while reviewing
surveillance video in the Belden case, spotted flirtatious behavior involving
Petrovffsky and another inmate identified as I.P.,
a convicted child molester. Bullock said the video revealed hugging, kissing
and groping. Bullock said her review of the video also showed I.P. and Petrovffsky engaged in sex acts on at least two
occasions. Prison Warden Jeff Wrigley confirmed that neither Belden nor Petrovffsky are still employed by the GEO Group. He
declined further comment. State officials replied to an inquiry by issuing a
statement through media relations. “The Arizona Department of Corrections,
Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCRR) does not tolerate any inappropriate
behavior by its staff or contracted staff and supports prosecution to the
fullest extent of the law," it said. Superior Court Judge Rick Lambert
advised both defendants they face potential prison terms, possibly lengthy,
if convicted as charged. Belden and Petrovffsky
were released on their own recognizance and directed to appear for separate
pretrial conference hearings scheduled Nov. 23.
May 17, 2017 azcentral.com
For the 3rd time in 3
weeks, inmate dies from apparent suicide at Arizona prison
An
inmate at Arizona State Prison's Kingman facility died on Saturday following an
apparent act of self-harm, the Arizona Department of Corrections said Monday.
It was the third such prison death in as many weeks. Dean L. Mills, 61, was
serving a five-year sentence for aggravated assault and was due to be
released Nov. 18, according to records from the department's website.
Mills started his sentence in September 2013, according to the records.
The records said Mills was found guilty of assaulting staff and possessing
drugs or narcotics last Wednesday, which the department considers as major
violations. The department said prison staff found Mills unresponsive on
Saturday and conducted life-saving measures until paramedics arrived.
James Krauss, 42, was
three years into a nine-year sentence for possessing dangerous
drugs with the intent to sell when he was found dead May 4. Jesse J. Arvizo, 27, was about halfway through a 4½-year sentence
for robbery when he died April 23. Both Krauss and Arvizo
were believed to have committed suicide, according to DOC statements. All
inmate deaths are investigated in consultation with the county medical
examiner's office, the department said.
May 16, 2017 reviewjournal.com
Inmate
kills self at private prison in northwest Arizona
An
inmate took his life at the privately operated state prison in the northwest
Arizona community of Golden Valley, the Arizona Department of Corrections
reports. Dean L. Mills died Saturday from an undisclosed “apparent act of self harm,” it said in a news release. Mills, 61, had
been serving a five year prison sentence for an aggravated assault conviction
out of Maricopa County. No further information was released.
Jul 10, 2016 mohavedailynews.com
Four inmates injured in fight at prison: Altercation comes about a year
after severe rioting that prompted change in management contract
GOLDEN VALLEY — Officials at Arizona Department of Corrections Kingman
Complex confirmed Saturday a fight at the Huachuca Unit sent four inmates to
the hospital for treatment of minor injuries. The inmates were transported to
a local hospital for treatment of minor cuts and abrasions, a split lip, and
a shoulder injury, officials said. The names of the injured inmates have not
been released. The fight was a minor incident lasting about three minutes,
said Jeff Wrigley, GEO Corrections & Detention complex warden, on leave
in Indiana. “No weapons were involved and no staff
were injured,” he said. “There was no threat of inmates escaping and no
threat to the public.” The fight reportedly began with a disagreement between
two groups, said Robert Patton, GEO Corrections and Detention acting warden.
The medium-custody unit housing 1,423 inmates was placed on lockdown Saturday
as officials began their investigations. The unit will remain on lockdown for
several days, Patton said. There was no damage to the unit facilities. The
Arizona Department of Corrections webpage about the Kingman prison mentions
nothing about the fight but does inform visitors that the Huachuca Unit is
closed today. “The corrections officers did an outstanding job, it was over
within three minutes,” he said. “No officers were injured. The unit is calm
and secured. It is a very well-trained work force.” GEO Group of Florida was
awarded a contract with the state to run the privately owned facility in
December 2015 after the Arizona Department of Corrections ended its contract
with Management and Training Corporation of Utah following July rioting that
injured nine corrections officers and caused nearly $2 million in damage that
forced the state to move about 1,200 prisoners to other prisons and jails in
Apache, Navajo, Pinal and Santa Cruz counties. Nineteen inmates housed at the prison were
indicted in Mohave County Superior Court on rioting, aggravated assault and
other criminal charges. MTC Corp. had operated the 3,400-bed prison near Kingman
since 2004, and drew criticism and scrutiny after the June 2010 escape of
three inmates. Malfunctioning security alarms, ill-trained correction
officers were factors in the escape, officials said. In the days following
the escape, two of the three inmates murdered an elderly couple in New
Mexico. Violent prisoners were still housed at the prison up until the riots
at the Hualapai and Cerbat units that occurred over
three days in early July 2015. The Huachuca Unit replaced the previous
Hualapai Unit. The cause of Saturday’s altercation is under investigation,
Patton said. “Interviews will begin Saturday afternoon,” he said.
Jun 17, 2016 azcentral.com
State panel approves purchase of private Kingman prison
An Arizona Department of Corrections plan for the state to buy a private
Kingman prison by refinancing the building debt was approved Thursday despite
concerns that the agreement will return roughly $2 million in savings to the
operator. The operator, GEO Group, will be required to use the savings to
increase pay for correctional officers at the Kingman facility. The plan was
given the green light Thursday by the Arizona Legislature's Joint Committee on
Capital Review. It should save the state $8.7 million annually, $1.9 million
of which has not yet been allocated for any specific use. The heart of the
proposal met little opposition, but two legislators complained of giving
state money to a private operator to pay its own correctional officers. GEO
Group in late April reported a profit of $32.4 million for the first quarter
of 2016, a 12.5 percent increase from the year before. “It sounds like
they’ve made a decision to keep their profits instead of pay ... what it
takes to reduce their turnover,” said Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson. “That’s a
business problem for them that we are not under any obligation to solve.
"We're bailing them out and helping to support a corporate strategy to
pay their people peanuts." Rep. Eric Meyer, D-Paradise Valley, also made
a point to mention that GEO Group’s CEO took a $2.3 million pay raise last
year. Corrections representatives said increasing officer wages will reduce
Kingman turnover, which stands at 25 percent. The state Corrections
Department reported its turnover rate at 14 percent. “From a public-safety
standpoint, I think it is a better decision to try and keep as many of those
positions filled and their salaries more competitive rather than operating
with a higher vacancy rate,” said Corrections Director Charles Ryan. The $2
million allocated to GEO Group from the refinancing would increase
correctional officers’ average pay to $33,300. By comparison, state
correctional officers’ average pay is $36,800. The Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported a national average salary of $45,320 for correctional officers and
jailers as of May 2015. Ryan said he has for three years proposed a plan to
use about $22 million to increase state correctional officer wages by 5
percent. The plan has been rejected by the Arizona Legislature. Ryan said he
plans to propose a wage increase for state correctional officers in coming
sessions. Meyer was happy with the refinancing plan, but remained troubled
over spending state money to increase a publicly traded company’s employee
wages. “They’re squeezing profits out of these prisons by understaffing
them,” he said. “Now they’re asking us to step up to the plate so that they
can keep their profits high.”
Jun 13,
2016 azcentral.com
State might refinance Kingman private prison, give staff more pay
Corrections says the deal would result in significant savings; guards at
state-run prisons say they deserve a raise before private guards. The Arizona
Department of Corrections wants the state to buy the troubled private prison
near Kingman by refinancing the building debt and then using some savings to
pay the operator $2 million a year to retain correctional officers with
higher pay. However, total annual payments to GEO Group would significantly
drop with the deal, the agency said. The proposal comes roughly eight months
after GEO won a bid to take over the prison following an inmate riot last
summer that damaged the facility. Florida-based GEO was a major financial
contributor to Gov. Doug Ducey's 2014 election
campaign. The company did not respond to calls or emails. The company posted
$139.4 million in profits last year on $1.8 billion in revenue and gave its
chief executive officer a $2.3 million raise — more than what the state wants
to give the company for prison guard raises. Daniel Scarpinato,
a Ducey spokesman, said the state is realizing
savings through refinancing the debt and spending those dollars on public
safety. The additional money for GEO should prevent problems like last year's
riot and a 2010 escape that resulted in a murder, he added. Those problems
occurred under a different operator. Robert Blackmer, spokesman for the
2,000-member Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association, said the plan
is disappointing to correctional officers at state-run prisons who haven't
seen a raise in nine years. Starting pay for correctional officers is $31,886
and tops out at nearly $40,000, after eight years of experience. "The
money should be going to correctional officers who are long-time employees of
DOC before we worry about whether private prisons can take care of their
staff," Blackmer said. "We have our own retention problems."
The move to use cost savings and shift public funds to GEO comes as
Republican lawmakers and Ducey have pushed to open
additional private prison beds in Arizona, claiming they are more
cost-effective than state-run prisons. Private prison operators, such as GEO,
and their lobbyists have made campaign contributions to the governor and
lawmakers who have passed laws to add more private-prison beds. The state
houses roughly 17 percent of its 42,940 inmates in private prisons. In
mid-July, Corrections will begin moving roughly 50 more inmates per week into
a private prison in Eloy until 1,000 beds are filled by January. Those inmates
going to Eloy will help ease prison crowding. Corrections officials on
Thursday will ask the Joint Committee on Capital Review, a group of lawmakers
from the House and Senate, to approve the refinancing deal. The plan calls
for the state to purchase the Kingman prison from GEO for $137.4 million. The
state would refinance the debt with an estimated interest rate of 2.1 percent
for the next nine years. Currently, the interest rate on the prison is 8.2
percent, according to Corrections records. Corrections already pays the debt
on the building through a per diem on each inmate housed by GEO. At the end
of the contract, the prison is turned over to the state. By refinancing the
debt, and owning the prison, the state would save at least $8 million a
year in interest for the remainder of the nine-year mortgage, for a total of
$77.5 million in savings, according to Corrections. "The state has a
unique opportunity to utilize its superior credit rating and favorable
financial markets to reduce the amount of interest being paid on the Kingman
facility. ADC (the Arizona Department of Corrections) and the Department of
Administration worked with the Governor’s Office and the Legislature to
suggest this idea in order to save Arizona taxpayers a significant amount of
money over the remaining term of the existing vendor’s contract (nine
years)," Corrections spokesman Andrew Wilder said in a statement. GEO in
October was awarded a contract through 2023. At the time, it called for
paying the company $60.10 a day per inmate, the same amount paid to the prior
operator, for up to 3,298 inmates. That's roughly $72.3 million a year. The
new deal would
pay GEO $40.37 a day per inmate, a decrease of approximately 32 percent.
That's roughly $48.6 million. The per diem is lowered even more to house
additional inmates, up to 3,508 prisoners. As of Friday, there were 3,348
inmates at the minimum- and medium-security facility. Along with giving GEO
more money to pay for higher salaries for its correctional officers, the
state would give GEO another $500,000 annually for food price increases and
health-care inflation, records show. The records do not indicate how much GEO
correctional officers make and how much more they would make with the pay increase,
though Corrections stated it would confirm that the salaries are increased.
GEO won the bid last year after Ducey revoked the
contract from Management & Training Corp., following a riot around
Independence Day weekend. That riot severely damaged the facility and forced
the evacuation of roughly 1,200 inmates. A state investigation found MTC
failed to control the riots and had a "culture of disorganization,
disengagement, and disregard" of Corrections policies. MTC responded by
saying state monitoring reports and audits stated the company was largely in
compliance. GEO's CEO now makes $6.6 millionGEO in
late April reported a profit of $32.4 million for the first quarter of 2016,
a 12.5 percent increase from its $28.8 million quarterly profit from the
first quarter of 2015. GEO Chief Executive Officer George Zoley,
whose total compensation last year increased by 53 percent to $6.6 million,
said in April that the "activation of the 3,400-bed Arizona State Prison
in Kingman" was a key reason for the strong quarterly results.
Corrections also plans to use savings from refinancing the Kingman prison to
pay $2.7 million more to its privately contracted health-care vendor for
services at state facilities and to open the Northern Regional Community
Corrections Center, a 100-bed facility for inmates on community supervision.
Corrections officials expect to have at least another $2 million in savings
annually. The state didn't designate how it would use that money. Blackmer,
the union official, said the state using its credit resources to purchase the
GEO prison shoots a huge hole in the argument that private prisons are more
cost-effective than public prisons. "They are admitting that we have
been right all along. They can't do it cheaper than us. It justifies our
argument," Blackmer said. Caroline Isaacs, program director for the
American Friends Service Committee and a critic of private prisons, said she
has no problem with paying more money to correctional officers in Kingman
because that likely will make the facility safer. But the state should also use
the cost savings to increase pay for correctional officers at state-run
prisons, she said. "Clearly, staff pay in corrections across the board
is a fundamental and serious problem," Isaacs said. "We have people
in the leadership of this state who are ideologically wed to privatization,
and they just don't want to be bothered by the facts. This is just one more
piece of evidence on a mountain pile that it's a myth you can save money
through privatizing corrections. You just can't."
Dec 5, 2015
azcapitoltimes.com
Family of man attacked in Arizona prison files lawsuit
PHOENIX (AP) — The family of a man
who died after being attacked inside an Arizona prison in January filed a
multimillion-dollar lawsuit Thursday against the state, a private prison in
Kingman and others. The suit, filed Thursday in Maricopa County Superior
Court, alleges that “the actions and inactions of the prison and medical
staff at Arizona State Prison in Kingman constitute deliberate indifference
to the serious medical needs of and the wanton infliction of pain upon Neil
Early.” Early had been serving a five-year sentence for theft and possession
of drug paraphernalia. He died in a hospital days after being sexually
assaulted and beaten in a minimum security unit at the privately run correctional
facility near Kingman. In May, Early’s parents and young son filed a claim —
a precursor to a lawsuit — seeking $7.5 million in damages from the state.
The suit filed Thursday by a Phoenix law firm representing Early’s estate
seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and “the additional goal
of effecting lasting change in the private prison system.” Early lay unconscious in his bunk Jan. 16,
bleeding with a fractured skull when prison medical staffers were called,
according to the claim and suit. They both state that Early’s injuries
weren’t properly assessed and emergency responders weren’t summoned for
nearly two hours. When he arrived at Kingman Regional Medical Center, doctors
had him airlifted to a trauma hospital in Las Vegas where he died Jan. 19.
The claim and suit also allege that the state failed to protect Early from a
prolonged beating and sexual assault or to care for him properly afterward.
Arizona Department of Corrections officials didn’t immediately reply to a
call Thursday night seeking comment on the suit. But DOC spokesman Andrew
Wilder previously said the department can’t comment because of the pending
claim. In addition to the state, the claim also names prison operator
Management Training Corporation and a private prison health provider.
Oct
7, 2015 mohavedailynews.com
11
charged in Kingman prison rioting
KINGMAN — Eleven
inmates at the Arizona State Prison-Kingman have been indicted on charges
relating to the unrest that occurred July 1 in the Cerbat
Unit of the private prison in Golden Valley, the first of three days of
rioting that heavily damaging the prison. The charges include participating
in a riot, a class 2 felony; destruction of or injury to a public jail, a
class 5 felony; criminal damage, a class 4 felony; and aggravated assault on
corrections officers, class 4 and 5 felonies. The 11, who were not identified
in a news release sent Tuesday afternoon by the Mohave County Attorney’s
Office, will be transported for arraignments in Mohave County Superior Court
in Kingman on Oct. 19 and Oct. 20. Deputy Mohave County Attorney Rod Albright
said that while many more inmates participated in the riots, only those who
could be positively identified were charged. Additional charges will be
filed in connection with the riots on July 2 and July 4 in the Hualapai Unit,
he said. However, fewer inmates in that unit will be charged because the
cameras were broken more quickly than those in the Cerbat
Unit, according to Albright, preventing authorities from positively identifying
many of the participants. Names of inmates charged cannot be released until
they are served with the indictments. The cases were investigated and
submitted by detectives with the Arizona Department of Corrections based in
Winslow and Phoenix. The unrest in the 1,900-inmate Cerbat
Unit, for minimum-security risk prisoners, began when guards attempted to
break up a fight between inmates. The next day, a disturbance began at the
1,300-inmate Hualapai Unit, for medium-security prisoners, and two days of rioting
damaged much of that unit, forced relocation of more than 1,000 prisoners
from the Golden Valley facility to prisons elsewhere and ultimately led to
the Arizona Department of Corrections ending its contract with prison
operator Management and Training Corporation. The prison remains open and the
state has taken bids for a new operator.
Sep
20, 2015 alacrastore.com
SAN FRANCISCO (Standard&Poor's) Aug. 28, 2015--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services has placed its
'BBB+' long-term rating on Mohave County Industrial Development Authority,
Ariz.'s series 2008 tax-exempt correctional facilities contract revenue bonds
on CreditWatch with negative implications. "We placed the rating on
CreditWatch due to a protest at the corrections center that caused damages requiring
the relocation of inmates to other facilities," said Standard&Poor's
credit analyst Jaime Trejo. "Sufficient information is not available at
present to fully assess the effect of these events on our rating," Mr.
Trejo added. Standard&Poor's will follow up
with management within 90 days to determine the event's impact, if any, on
our rating. RELATED CRITERIA AND RESEARCH Related Criteria USPF
Aug
28, abqjournal.com
PHOENIX — A report shows five veteran Arizona Department of Corrections
officials assigned to monitor operations at a private prison were apparently
unaware of brewing discontent among inmates or concerns about guard overtime
and understaffing before riots broke out in July. Corrections Director
Charles Ryan says the department will assess the role its monitors play in
overseeing its six private prisons. But he lays much of the blame for the
riots that led to extensive damage at the state prison in Kingman on the
operator, Management and Training Corp. The Centerville, Utah-based company
disputes many of the findings in a report that led Gov. Doug Ducey to order its contract cancelled. The monitors spent
the majority of their time inspecting the facility, dealing with inmate
classification and discipline and doing required paperwork.
Aug
26, 2015 kdminer.com
Kingman prison contract canceled in wake of unrest; new operator sought
KINGMAN - The state
has canceled its contract with private prison operator Management and
Training Corporation and is moving to find another contractor to take over
Arizona State Prison-Kingman following a riot and other disturbances at the
Golden Valley institution in early July. "I just got off the phone with
Director Ryan ... and the recommendation is to cancel the contract with
MTC," said state Sen. Kelli Ward on Wednesday. Charles Ryan heads the
Arizona Department of Corrections. Ward said the state and MTC came to an
"amicable" agreement to end the contract and that ADOC is expected
to release the results of its investigation of the riots sometime today. Ward
also said the intent is to reassign the contract and all beds at the Cerbat and Hualapai units will remain in place. The
agreement also calls on MTC to finish repairs to the prison, which sustained
severe damage during three days of unrest beginning July 1. "The good
news is the current employees will remain employed. The only thing we don't
know at this point is who will be their new employers," said Ward. On
Tuesday, the American Friends Service Committee, a nonprofit organization,
released its findings regarding the disturbances. The most significant and
persistent problem at the prison, which has been plagued by riots and one
deadly escape for the past several years, is understaffing, according to the
report. Correctional officers and other employees are underpaid,
under-trained, have low morale - and are unwilling or unable to properly
manage a prison, especially during inmate disturbances. More than a dozen
prison employees and inmates were injured in three incidents that were not
related. The group, which was founded by Quakers more than 90 years ago,
focuses on criminal justice reform. The report said members of the
corrections department's Tactical Support Unit were "unnecessarily
violent and disrespectful" to prisoners when they responded to a riot
and two other disturbances in early July. Members of the unit reportedly
injured several prisoners - after the riot was over - and other prisoners did
not injure them. Correctional officers also mistreated inmates by relying on
pepper spray and other heavy-handed approaches to behavior management,
according to the report. "We based our report on letters from inmates,
interviews with family members and former staff members," said Caroline
Isaacs of the Arizona chapter of American Friends Service Committee in
Tucson. Isaacs also said that while officers used overly aggressive tactics
to control inmates and caused high levels of resentment by doing so, the
guards also were accused of bringing in some of the "readily
available" illicit drugs. The
report criticized the department of corrections for failing in its
responsibility to "properly manage its contractor, detect and correct
problems and hold MTC accountable for persistent problems." Those
include a high rate of assaults and frequent lockdowns at the facility.
"We must not be fooled again," said Isaacs. "No new contract
should be signed until a thorough evaluation of Kingman and the five other
privately operated prisons under contract demonstrates that these facilities
are safe, cost-effective, humanely run and accountable to the
public." Ward said she had
somewhat mixed feelings about contracting management of prisons to for-profit
businesses. "There are always pros and cons," she said.
"Privatizing generally is better for taxpayers. The government can't
manage anything. Look at the VA and Obamacare, so I think privatizing is
always better, but only as long as they do it well."
Aug
1, 2015 phoenixnewtimes.com
POOR LIVING CONDITIONS SPARKED KINGMAN PRISON RIOTS
A three-day riot at
an Arizona private prison that sent 13 people to the hospital and led to the
relocation of more than 1,000 inmates earlier this month was driven, in part,
by poor living conditions, according to the prisoner rights organization
Middle Ground Prison Reform. In a letter delivered to Governor Doug Ducey on Friday, the nonprofit outlines complaints
obtained from family members of inmates housed at Arizona State
Prison-Kingman, including allegations of violence and inadequate access to
food and medical care. “Contrary to the belief of many in prison
administration, government, and media, most prison disturbances are not the
result of inmate organization; they are due to administrative
disorganization,” writes Donna Leon Hamm, executive director, and James Hamm,
director of legal services. “When administrative or program staff are not
accessible to inmates, or act as though their attention to the inmate’s
issues or problems is a nuisance … tension builds up.” Issa Arnita, director
of corporate communications for Management & Training Corp., the
Utah-based company that operates the prison, says an initial investigation
into the riot shows "it was caused by a small group of inmates
attempting to harm another offender." "A full investigation is
underway to determine what led up to the unrest," he says. Middle Ground
describes a violent atmosphere rife with drug dealing that is enabled by
staff misconduct and improper security practices. “Some staff are reported to
be regular importers of controlled substances, which are provided to inmates
who subsequently sell them on the yard,” they write. “The introduction of
drugs on any prison yard facilitates the problems associated with drug
dealing, extortion, debt repayment, threats, and assaults.” Fighting among
inmates is “routine” at Kingman, Middle Ground reports, which suggests the
Arizona Department of Corrections system of classifying inmates “is not
working in an acceptable manner.” Private prisons in Arizona are authorized
to house only minimum- and medium-custody inmates, but former and current
department employees tell New Times that more dangerous inmates are
frequently reclassified in order to fill beds the government has contracted
to pay for. “Is the department simply ‘winking’ at its own classification
scheme?” Middle Ground asks. Staff frequently uses pepper spray, not just to
control fighting, but as “acts of cruelty,” and kick inmates when they are
handcuffed on the ground, defenseless, according to the report. In one case,
a Muslim inmate returning from Ramadan prayers was maced
and beaten when he asked for a meal to break his fast. Middle Ground also
alleges that food is of poor quality and is not being delivered in a timely
manner. If inmates have a visitor, they are not served breakfast or lunch,
presumably because family members are expected to purchase them food from a
vending machine in the visitation area. “It is an invalid assumption that all
prison visitors possess the money to purchase vending machine foods for an
inmate, especially at the exorbitant prices charged,” they write. “If an
inmate arrives at visitation at 9 a.m. and leaves at noon, he should be
provided both breakfast and lunch by the prison.” Inmates are also frustrated
about the difficulty of obtaining medical care, according to Middle Ground.
One woman tells New Times, for example, that her husband was prescribed
Oxygen for severe migraines but was not allowed to use it. When he complained
of lockjaw, he was “ignored” and “made to believe that he was being a
hypochondriac." Another family filed a legal claim against the state for
failing to get Neil Early prompt care after he was sexually assaulted and
beaten at Kingman. It allegedly took prison administrators two hours to call
emergency responders. He later died from his injuries. In the letter, Middle
Ground calls on Ducey to examine, not only “What
can we do to punish the perpetrators?” of the riot, but also, “Did we
contribute to the cause of this riot?” and “How can we change things to avoid
another riot in the future?” In particular, the group asks for an
investigation of the Department of Correction’s inmate-classification
process, and the private prison administration’s approach to violence, food,
temperature control, and visitation practices. “Business as usual is
unacceptable now,” they write. “There is strong likelihood that signs of
unrest at the Kingman prison had been brewing long before the July 2015
riots. But if administrators don’t care or aren’t skilled enough to notice, then
something is terribly wrong and needs to be corrected.”
Jul
18, 2015 havasunews.com
Prison guard at center of Kingman riot kills himself
GOLDEN VALLEY - A
corrections officer who was at the center of a riot July 2 at Arizona State
Prison-Kingman committed suicide early Wednesday morning at his home in
Bullhead City. Bullhead City Police spokeswoman Carina Spotts
said officers responded to the 30-year-old man's apartment at about 1:15 a.m.
after his wife called to report he wanted to commit suicide. Officers
reportedly watched the man walk into his home from the balcony when they
arrived at his apartment and then heard a gunshot. The man reportedly used a
30.06-caliber rifle to shoot himself.
Spokesman Issaa Arnita of Management
Training Corp., the Utah company that manages the private prison in Golden
Valley, confirmed the man was in an altercation with an inmate when he used
pepper spray to control the prisoner, an act that may have helped spark the
destructive riot that injured nine correctional officers and four inmates
over four days of unrest at both the Hualapai and Cerbat
units. The most serious incident is the one in which the man was involved.
The riot occurred at the medium security Hualapai Unit, which is closed while
the facility is cleaned and repaired. Inmates virtually destroyed four of
five housing units at the roughly 1,500-bed prison and nearly 1,200 of them
have since been moved to other detention centers in and outside of Arizona.
"The answer is yes," said Arnita, director of corporate
communications, when asked if the man was at the flashpoint of the riot,
which broke out at about 8 p.m. and lasted for several hours. What Arnita
refused to address, for a number of reasons, is the man's motivation to end
his life. Inmates reportedly had a growing list of complaints, including what
one recent employee said was their belief officers were engaging in
"excessive use of Tasers and pepper spray" when less severe means
to respond are available. Her story will be published in Sunday's Daily Miner.
Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman Bill Lamoreaux said the
department was unable to comment on the man's suicide or what might have been
his motive, given the ongoing nature of the investigation. "We don't
know what led to his death," Arnita said. "It's up to the police to
determine that. The state doesn't know because they're still investigating so
it seems people are drawing conclusions based on hearsay." Arnita said in an email that the man's
death was tragic. He also refused to comment on what might have led him to
commit suicide. "We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our
colleague and friend," said Arnita. "Our hearts go out to his
family for their great loss. It is not appropriate for us to speculate
regarding the motive behind his death. We are fully cooperating with police
in their investigation into this tragic situation." The man had been a
corrections officer at the prison since December of 2012, said Arnita.
Jul 14, 2015 kjzz.org
Department Of Corrections Delays Bids For New Medium-Security Beds
The Department of
Corrections is extending the due date for private prison companies to apply
to build more beds. The two-month postponement allows time for the state to
further investigate the disturbances at the Kingman State Prison. The
Department had planned to start accepting bids for 2,000 new male
medium-security private prison beds on July 22. The weekend of July 4,
multiple riots at the Management & Training Corporation facility caused
such severe damage to the Kingman prison that 1,168 inmates have been
temporarily relocated to county jails and other private prisons. The
Department of Corrections said in a statement the due date for bids has been
pushed back to allow for the assessment of the recent incidents to be
completed. Caroline Isaacs is an Arizona Program Director with the American
Friends Service Committee, a justice advocacy group. “This is a time to be
cautious and deliberate and not rush into another contract so that we can
ensure public safety and wise use of taxpayer dollars," she said.
“However, 60 days is simply not enough to truly determine not just what
occurred at Kingman, but whether the other contracts that we currently hold
with private operators might have similar problems.” Isaacs is advocating the
request for bids should be canceled altogether. Management and Training Corp
did not say whether it plans to submit a proposal for the new medium-security
beds. The new due date for proposals is Sept. 22.
Jul 11, 2015 trivalleycentral.com
Inmate sent to Pinal jail found with 31 meth bags
FLORENCE —
Authorities say an inmate recently transferred to the Pinal County jail from
the troubled Kingman state prison has been found with more than 30 small bags
of methamphetamine. Pinal County Sheriff’s officials say new charges will be
filed against 20-year-old Geraldo Beltran-Torres. He’s already serving a
four-year sentence for possession of a dangerous drug. The discovery comes a
day after a 49-year-old female jail inmate, who admitted using meth, died
hours after being arrested. Her name has not been released. Authorities said
that while she was being booked into jail she admitted to using
methamphetamine before her arrest. The Pinal County Sheriff’s Criminal
Investigations Bureau has not determined if her drug use contributed to the
cause of death and no signs of foul play were found. Beltran-Torres was among some 1,100 prison
inmates recently transported from a private prison near Kingman after recent
riots rendered the facilities uninhabitable. The Pinal County jail absorbed
380 of those inmates. The Arizona Department of Corrections announced
Thursday it has moved another 113 prisoners out of the privately run state
prison that was hit with days of unrest and rioting to other county jails.
PCSO authorities say each inmate underwent a strip search during the transfer
process and officials employed drug-sniffing dogs to detect any contraband. A
PCSO detention officer reported seeing Beltran-Torres put something under his
mattress and that led to the discovery of the nearly 17 grams of
methamphetamine in 31 small plastic bags. Corrections spokesman Andrew Wilder
says Wednesday’s transfers bring the number of inmates moved from the Arizona
State Prison-Kingman to 1,168. The additional prisoners were sent to county
jails in Apache, Navajo and Santa Cruz counties, and nine to state prisons.
The unrest began July 1 in a 2,000-prisoner minimum security unit. Prisoners
in the medium security side of the prison holding 1,500 men revolted over the
following three days, trashing four of five housing units. The moves weren’t
unexpected because the prisoners were in temporary quarters. A Department of
Corrections team is investigating the unrest. Just 236 men remain in the
Kingman medium security facility.
Jul
7, 2015 azcentral.com
Pinal County will take 380 inmates after Kingman prison riot
The Pinal County Jail
will absorb 380 state inmates as part of a massive withdrawal of prisoners
from a private correctional facility near Kingman where toilets, sinks and
windows were destroyed in a series of weekend prisoner riots. The Arizona
Department of Corrections on Monday said it had finished transferring 1,055
medium-security inmates from the Management & Training Corp. prison after
its private operator was unable to squelch disturbances that required the
state to send in a heavily armed special tactical support unit to restore
order. The state sent 675 inmates from the Arizona State Prison
Complex-Kingman to other private prisons, including one operated by MTC in
Texas. Pinal County Jail is the lone publicly funded facility taking in
evacuated inmates.
Issa Arnita, an MTC
spokesman, said the Utah-based company would cover the costs of transferring
and housing the evacuated inmates. About 2,500 inmates — both minimum- and
medium-security — will remain in undamaged units at the Kingman prison.
Arnita said MTC still was investigating what caused the riots. He said
air-conditioning units were working properly and all food had been approved
by a dietitian and the state, dismissing speculation by families of inmates
on what may have triggered the disturbances. The rioting was the latest in a
string of problems at the private prison in Golden Valley, about 20 miles
west of Kingman. An inmate was beaten to death earlier this year. Also, three
inmates escaped in 2010 and were recaptured, but two of them were later
sentenced for killing a couple in New Mexico. Records obtained by The Arizona
Republic show the MTC facility had the most inmate assaults and fights among
the state's private prisons every year from fiscal 2010 to 2014. In fiscal
2014, it accounted for 119 of the 161 inmate assaults in Arizona's six
private prisons. The MTC prison also had the most assaults on staff by
inmates among Arizona's private prisons every year from fiscal 2011 to 2014 , records show. In fiscal 2014, it accounted for 38
of the 41 private-prison staff assaults. Gov. Doug Ducey's
office and corrections officials released photos Monday to The Republic
showing extensive damage to sleeping areas, restrooms and showers. The
governor's spokesman said much of the MTC medium-security unit was
uninhabitable, primarily because of destroyed porcelain toilets and sinks. Ducey has called for a full-scale investigation of the
riots. Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said
porcelain toilets and sinks are less costly than the stainless-steel sinks
and toilets his jail uses. "They cost more, but they are designed to
withstand some measure of abuse as well as excessive wear and tear," Babeu said. The Maricopa County Jail also uses stainless steel.
Arnita said the MTC Kingman facility was built in 2005 in accordance with
state corrections standards, adding that "porcelain sinks and toilets
are used in prisons all across the country depending on the age of the
facility and level of security." Porcelain sinks and toilets are common
in state minimum- and medium-security prisons, according to state prison
officials. Babeu and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe
Arpaio have been outspoken critics of the state using private prisons, urging
it to rely on county jails to ease overcrowding. Arpaio said he wasn't asked
to take in any evacuated Kingman inmates. Other critics of private prisons
say the facilities are not adequately staffed and that operators build on the
cheap to increase profits. "This will make the case on its own that
legitimate law-enforcement agencies absolutely can and should be considered
as a viable option to house Department of Corrections prisoners," Babeu said. "There are certain aspects of government
that can be privatized, but most members of the public have sincere
reservations when it comes to privatizing public safety." Babeu said his staff would work overtime to accommodate
the extra prisoners, whom he said could stay in Pinal County for two months.
He said Pinal County Jail typically houses 650 to 740 inmates. Babeu said incidents like the riots that occurred over
the weekend should encourage Ducey and lawmakers to
reconsider whether more private prisons are the answer to overcrowding.
Arpaio agreed. He said his jail of 8,441 inmates hasn't had a major
disturbance in more than 20 years. "Anytime they want to use our
facilities, I will do it as a favor for the governor," Arpaio said. The
state will begin accepting bids July 22 to bring another 1,000 private
medium-security beds into its system in the 2016 fiscal year, which began
July 1, and an additional 1,000 the next year, pending legislative approval.
Daniel Scarpinato, Ducey's
spokesman, said the governor will review the findings of a DOC investigation
into the riots before making any decisions. Andrew Wilder, a DOC spokesman,
said the department has assembled an "assessment team" in Kingman
to determine what caused the riots. The team includes wardens and other
officials. "They will be looking at everything from staffing and training
to leadership. They will interview inmates and staff as they do a thorough
investigation," Wilder said. Wilder said 562 inmates have been shipped
to a private prison in Eloy operated by Corrections Corporation of America.
Another 113 inmates were sent to a Texas private prison operated by MTC.
Problems at the Kingman prison began Wednesday when a small group of inmates
tried to harm another inmate in the adjoining minimum-security Cerbat Unit. The next day, inmates in the medium-security
Hualapai Unit were "non-compliant and caused significant damage" in
two housing areas. On July 4, inmates in the remaining three Hualapai housing
units caused additional disturbances and damage, according to MTC.
Jul 5, 2015 abc15.com
Arizona
prison hit with 3rd disturbance by inmates in 4 days
KINGMAN - A third
disturbance within four days broke out Saturday in a private prison in
Kingman, authorities said. Units with the Arizona Department of Public Safety
and the Mohave County Sheriff's Office were helping the Department of
Corrections with the unrest at Arizona State Prison-Kingman, officials said.
The law enforcement officers are providing security around the perimeter of
the prison. Inmates in the Hualapai dormitory were "again refusing to
comply with directives this afternoon," said Andrew Wilder, spokesman
for the Department of Corrections. By Saturday evening, however, "all
inmates were complying with directives," Wilder said. He said he did not
have information on whether any inmates were injured. Saturday's disturbance
was not a riot, said Wilder, who added that the cause of the disturbance
remains under investigation. Corrections officials on Saturday evening were
screening the inmates and checking the facility to make sure order was
restored, he said. On Friday, about 700 inmates at the prison were moved to
new locations after disturbances on consecutive days left their housing units
uninhabitable. Nine corrections officers suffered minor injuries in the
incidents at the prison, which has had a long history of problems. No inmate
injuries were reported. The first disturbance occurred Wednesday at a
minimum-security unit, followed by what he described as an unrelated riot
Thursday night at a medium-security unit that took several hours to quell,
Wilder said. Saturday's incident "was clearly a significant disturbance,
but it was not on a scale with what occurred (at the prison) Thursday evening
to Friday morning," Wilder said. In 2010, three inmates escaped from the
prison after a woman in a getaway car threw cutting tools over the fence and
they broke out. The inmates went on a violent crime spree that included the
murders of an Oklahoma couple during a camping trip in New Mexico. They were
killed, and their bodies were found burned in their trailer. The inmates were
caught, tried and received new prison sentences. The Management and Training
Corp. continued to operate the prison despite scathing criticism of its lax
security during the escape. An inmate at the prison — and the
minimum-security unit where the disturbance happened this week — was sexually
assaulted and beaten at the facility in January and died at a hospital three
days later, according to a legal claim filed by his family. The legal action
says emergency responders weren't notified for nearly two hours. The inmate,
Neil Early, was serving a five-year sentence for theft and possession of drug
paraphernalia after becoming addicted to heroin and stealing video games.
Arizona houses thousands of inmates in private prisons, and the industry has
come under fire for its large donations to Republican politicians.
Jul 4, 2015
Arizona:
State moving inmates out of damaged MTC prison
|
Friday,
July 3, 2015
ASP-Kingman Requires Relocation of Approximately
700 State Inmates
|
KINGMAN (Friday,
July 3, 2015) – As the result of a riot at the Hualapai Unit at ASP-Kingman,
a private facility operated by Management and Training Corporation (MTC), ADC
Director Charles Ryan, in accordance with state law, has ordered the
relocation of approximately 700 inmates into other correctional facilities.
On the evening of July 1, inmates at the ASP-Kingman private prison
participated in a major disturbance in the minimum-security Cerbat Unit. On the following evening of July 2, inmates
at the medium-security Hualapai Unit engaged in rioting -- unrelated to the
July 1 event -- causing severe property damage. The prison is secure and the
situation is under control. All employees and inmates are safe and accounted
for. However, since two of the five housing units are uninhabitable, inmates
will have to be relocated in accordance with the statute. Pursuant
to A.R.S. Section 41-1609(E)(2), and following notification of Governor Ducey and Attorney General Brnovich, Director Ryan is
exercising the statutory authority to house inmates in either an existing
public or private institution. During the two incidents, a total of eight
prison staff were treated for minor injuries and released from a local
hospital. The private prison at Kingman will remain on lockdown status until
further notice.
Jul 2, 2015 azcentral.com
6 guards assaulted in Kingman prison melee
Emily L. Mahoney,
The Republic| azcentral.com 10:11 p.m. MST July 1, 2015
Inmates assaulted
six prison guards Wednesday night at Arizona State Prison-Kingman and unrest
continued into the night, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Corrections officers received minor injuries when attacked by multiple
inmates just after 6 p.m. Wednesday, said Bill Lamereaux,
spokesman for the department. He stopped short of calling the incident a
prison riot. Five officers were treated at the prison and one was transported
to a local hospital for treatment, Lamereaux said.
The unrest was ongoing as of 9:30 p.m., Lamereaux
said. Officers were working to put the inmates involved "on
lockdown" for the rest of the night. The incident took place in a
minimum-security unit that houses about 2,000 inmates, though there was no
immediate word on how many inmates were involved, Lamereaux
said.
Jul 2, 2015 kdminer.com
Updated: 10 officers injured during Kingman prison altercation
KINGMAN - Ten officers at the state prison complex
in Kingman received minor injuries while quelling a disturbance Wednesday,
according to the Arizona Corrections Department. The officers were injured
Wednesday evening in the 6 p.m. hour while breaking up an altercation in
which a group of inmates chased another inmate at the privately operated
complex's Cerbat minimum-security unit, Department
spokesman Andrew Wilder said. Five injured officers were treated at the
scene, Wilder said. One officer was treated at Kingman Regional Medical
Center, and after inmates were locked down in their housing another four
officers were treated at the hospital. All officers were released Wednesday
night. The circumstances of the altercation and number of participating
inmates weren't immediately known and the department's security staff is
investigating, the spokesman said. Trish Carter from the Mohave County
Sheriff's Office confirmed that MCSO, the Department of Public Safety, the
Department of Transportation and the Kingman Police Department assisted by
establishing an outer perimeter in the event an inmate escaped or assistance
was needed. Deputy Chief Rusty Cooper confirmed that the Kingman Police
Department sent three officers to assist. KPD also doubled its patrol shift
as a preventative measure, but "everything was pretty quiet." Golden
Valley Fire Department personnel responded to provide medical care and as a
"precautionary measure," according to a department statement. The
scene was cleared by MCSO at around 1 a.m. The
unit has approximately 1,900 inmates.
May
29, 2015 azcentral.com
Family of slain Arizona private-prison inmate seeks $7.5M
Story Highlights
• The
family of an inmate slain in private prison near Kingman is seeking millions
in damages.
• Claim
says inmate was sexually assaulted at Management & Training Corporation
private prison.
• Death
occurred at the same private prison where three inmates escaped in 2010.
The family of a
23-year-old inmate killed inside a private prison near Kingman is seeking
$7.5 million from the state and Management & Training Corp., the correctional
facility operator.
The notice of claim —
a precursor to a lawsuit — was filed this month, following Neil Early's death
in January. Arizona Department of Corrections, which was named in the claim,
has ruled Early's death a homicide. The claim said Early was in a
minimum-security unit and was sexually assaulted as part of the attack. It
also says that the attack "appears to have been premeditated by a
well-known criminal gang that engages in illicit activity throughout the ADOC
prison system," and that prison personnel failed to adequately treat
Early for his injuries. Scott Zwillinger, attorney
for the Early family, blamed the attack on a lack of security at the private
prison. "They cut corners at every turn because it's a for-profit
prison," Zwillinger said. "They are more
concerned about the profit margin than doing what they need to do to make
sure safety is in place. The amount of violence and gang activity and drug
use that goes on there suggests a lack of security and misclassification of
inmates." The claim states that Early's tenure at Arizona State
Prison-Kingman was "rife with gang violence," and his goal was
"simply to survive." Zwillinger said his
clients are suing the state because Arizona contracts with Utah-based
Management & Training Corp. to house inmates in the Golden Valley
facility. Issa Arnita, a spokesman for the company, said MTC could not
comment because of potential litigation. Andrew Wilder, a Corrections
spokesman, also declined to comment on the claim. But he added that the
investigation into Early's death is ongoing. Three inmates escaped from the
same prison in 2010. Two of those escapees later were tied to the murder of a
couple in New Mexico following the escape. The Early claim also alleges that
the Department of Corrections has failed to release "internal
investigatory documents and/or findings in connection with the assault and
death of Neil Early." Early was serving a five-year sentence for
organized retail theft and drug paraphernalia violations. He was scheduled to
be released April 1, 2016, the claim said.
Jan 16 2013 The Associated Press
KINGMAN, Ariz. • The Utah company that operates the Arizona state prison at
Kingman says inmates assaulted two corrections officers in a disturbance that
a spokesman says was broken up quickly. Spokesman Issa Arnita of Centerville,
Utah-based Management & Training Corp. says fewer than a dozen inmates
were involved in the incident Saturday. He says the two officers were
released from a hospital after treatment for minor injuries. Arnita says the
inmates involved have been taken out of normal housing and placed in
detention. He says the Arizona Department of Corrections’ criminal
investigations unit will investigate the incident for possible criminal
proceedings. A department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request
for information.
July 25, 2012 Kingman Daily Miner
Around 300 inmates at the Arizona State Prison staged a walkout Saturday over
cleanliness requirements, officials said. The 300 inmates were all from the
same dorm in the Hualapai unit and walked out into the yard all at once,
raising red flags among the guards, said Issa Arnita, information officer for
Management and Training Corporation that operates the private prison. He said
the walkout occurred during the hours that the inmates are able to move
freely between the dorms and the yard The inmates were reportedly upset over
what Arnita called "grooming issues," or the cleanliness standards
inmates are held to as required by the Arizona Department of Corrections.
Arnita said a complex administrator was sent to speak with the inmates, who
were reportedly satisfied with his response and returned to their dorm 30
minutes after the walkout started.
May 4, 2012 KPHO
It was a prison break that made national news. Two convicted killers and a
third dangerous criminal broke out of a medium security private prison
facility in Kingman Arizona in July 2010. The escapees were eventually caught
after a nationwide manhunt, but not before an Oklahoma couple was killed. The
escape and murders that followed raised some serious questions about private
prison safety standards and whether new policies should be put in place to
prevent prison breaks from happening again. Two years later, Arizona
lawmakers have decided to go in a different direction. Buried in the $8.6
billion budget proposal passed at the state Capitol this week is a plan to
"eliminate the requirement for a quality and cost review of private
prison contracts." It means there would no longer be an annual review of
how private prisons operate. House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix,
voted against the new provision. "It's insanity, that's the only way to
describe this, removing the ability for the state to do a cost and quality
analysis of the private prison contracts that are being funded by taxpayer
dollars makes absolutely no sense whatever," said Campbell. Arizona
currently has about a dozen privately operated prisons. State Rep. John
Kavanaugh, R- Fountain Hills, is the lawmaker who proposed the plan to remove
the review process. CBS5 asked Kavanaugh why the change is good for Arizona.
"Because it's a study that was bias from the beginning and never
used," said Kavanaugh."So rather than
have a report that is biased and nobody listens to and costs money to
produce. We simply eliminated it." According to Kavanaugh, the recent
reports on private prisons have been put together by state prison officials,
skewing the data.
January 20, 2012 Arizona Republic
One of the three men who broke out of Arizona’s Kingman prison in 2010, and
an accomplice, pleaded guilty Friday in a New Mexico federal court to a host
of charges in the murder of an Oklahoma couple during the escape. Tracy
Province, 44, took a plea agreement under which he’ll serve five consecutive
life terms without the possibility of parole. He pleaded guilty to nine
charges, including conspiracy, carjacking resulting in death, and three
counts of carrying and using a firearm during the commission of a crime of
violence, among others. Casslyn Welch, 45, pleaded
guilty to eight offenses, including conspiracy, carjacking and three counts
of using a firearm in a crime of violence. She faces a maximum sentence of
life imprisonment. They previously pleaded not guilty to all changes. If they
had been convicted, both could have faced the death penalty. Welch’s cousin
and fiancee, escapee John McCluskey, who allegedly
shot to death Gary and Linda Haas, is scheduled for trial in federal court in
Albuquerque in March 2013. Federal prosecutors said they have not decided
whether to seek the death penalty.
September 24, 2011 Arizona Republic
Arizona's Department of Corrections needs to do more to improve security at
private-contract and state-run prisons, a report released Friday by the
state's auditor general concludes. The report credits the department with
making many significant improvements since the July 2010 escapes of three
prisoners from the Kingman prison. These improvements include revamping the
state's monitoring and inspection programs, which had failed to detect obvious
security flaws at Kingman before the escapes; new, tougher annual audits of
each prison; better security and reporting requirements in new contracts; and
stiffer requirements and better training for state monitors who oversee
private prisons.The audit called for further steps
to address ongoing security problems.
August 17, 2011 ABC 15
Family members of a couple allegedly murdered by two Arizona prison escapees
are speaking out against a proposed prison. The Haas family is on a mission
that they never wanted, but feel they need pursue. “It’s something you think
about everyday,” said Linda Haas Rook. Rook’s
brother Gary Haas and his wife Linda were murdered last year. Investigators
believe the killers are two men who escaped from a prison in Kingman just days
earlier. The Kingman prison is operated by the Management and Training
Corporation, which now has hopes to build prisons in San Luis and Coolidge.
The Haas family hopes to prevent the company from doing so. Linda Rook
planned to travel more than 1,400 miles with her husband and her mother to
the public hearing Tuesday night in San Luis to voice her concerns. “[MTC]
needs to right their wrongs,” she told ABC15 from her stopover in Scottsdale.
MTC has made several security upgrades to their facility in Kingman, and a
spokesperson said the company has a great track record with the state. If MTC
is approved to build the new prison, the company stated it plans to bring
about 500 jobs to the San Luis area.
August 17, 2011 Arizona Republic
Rep. Chad Campbell, the Arizona House minority leader, asked Gov. Jan Brewer
on Tuesday to temporarily halt a proposed 5,000-bed expansion of private
prisons in Arizona. Public hearings on the expansion continue this week, with
one held Tuesday in San Luis. It is among five communities where four
companies are bidding to provide the beds. The Arizona Department of
Corrections is expected to issue one or more contracts in late September.
But, as The Arizona Republic recently reported, the department has never
completed the biannual, cost-benefit analyses required by law to compare
private and public prisons. Corrections Director Charles Ryan said he expects
the first such analysis to be completed in January. In a letter to Brewer,
Campbell, a Phoenix Democrat, asked her to hold off on any new contract until
the analysis is ready and "after enhanced security, training and
monitoring policies are in place and shown to be effective at all existing
private facilities." Brewer could not immediately be reached. At
Tuesday's public hearing, the two companies bidding to build prisons near San
Luis - Management and Training Corp. and Geo Group Inc. - tried to fight back
against criticism of their records in Arizona and elsewhere. MTC, in
particular, was criticized for the escapes of three prisoners from its
Kingman prison last year. Two of those prisoners are accused of kidnapping
and murdering an Oklahoma couple, Gary and Linda Haas. Vivian Haas, Gary's
mother, has said little in public in the year since the murders. But at the
San Luis hearing, she spoke out. "I've been through a lot of painful
times in 81 years, even surviving the terrible tornado that hit Joplin
recently. But nothing compares to the pain of having my kids brutally
murdered because MTC couldn't do its job of keeping criminals locked
up," Haas said. MTC Vice President Mike Murphy, who spoke before Haas,
emphasized the 500 jobs and the tax benefits he said the proposed prison
would bring, and promised good security. Geo Group similarly focused on jobs
and security in its presentation.
June 26, 2011 Arizona Republic
Linda and Gary Haas pulled up at the rest stop on Interstate 40 in eastern
New Mexico to walk their dogs and tidy up. It was a sunny morning, already
hot, on Aug. 2, 2010. Linda was walking back to the pickup truck and camper
when two men came up behind her. One stuck a handgun in her back and warned
her in a low voice to keep quiet. As he ordered her in the passenger side,
the other man came up on the driver’s side and pointed his handgun at her
husband. Gary started to reach beneath his seat. “I wouldn’t do that if I
were you,” the man said roughly. Gary put up both hands. He did have a gun,
he said, but it was in the camper. The two men – escaped convicts John
McCluskey and Tracy Province, who had broken out of Arizona’s Kingman prison
three days earlier – clambered into the back seat of the Chevy crew-cab
pickup, shoving the Haases’ three small Shih Tzu
dogs, Prissy, Roxie and Bear, to one side. FBI affidavits, which record the
later confessions of McCluskey, Province and their companion, Casslyn Welch, detail the story of what befell the Haases that day. “Drive,” ordered McCluskey. Gary and
Linda didn’t know it yet, but they had only minutes to live. Documents show
lapses | DOC faces security issues The most fundamental duty for those who
run prisons is to make sure dangerous criminals stay behind bars. Eleven
months after three convicts escaped from Arizona’s Kingman state prison and
an Oklahoma couple were murdered, both the Arizona Department of Corrections
and Utah-based Management & Training Corp., which manages the prison
under contract, have made sweeping changes meant to prevent another escape.
MTC says it has worked cooperatively with the state to address problems at
Kingman. After the escapes and murders, it took eight months, and a formal
threat by Corrections Director Charles Ryan that he would terminate MTC’s
contract if it didn’t fix the problems within 90 days, before the company
shored up security at Kingman to the department’s satisfaction. Security flaws
of the same types as in the Kingman escape were found across the entire
Arizona prison system, according to records obtained by The Arizona Republic
through Freedom of Information requests. But the department has made some
broad changes, imposing tougher and more thorough standards for its annual
reviews of all state prisons, including those run by private contractors. A
department spokesman says it has improved its security tests, and Ryan now
requires that any Corrections employee appointed to monitor a contract prison
have experience running a prison unit. McCluskey, Province and Daniel Renwick
escaped the Kingman prison on July 30, 2010, with the help of McCluskey’s
cousin and girlfriend, Casslyn Welch, who tossed
over the fence tools that they used to cut their way out. Prison staff
ignored the alarm that sounded when the fence was cut because it had been
malfunctioning for 21/2 years, going off up to 200 times a shift. Gary and
Linda had been on their way to meet relatives for their 11th straight summer campout at Pagosa Springs, Colo. High-school sweethearts,
married for 40 years, they’d spent a lot of time on the road since taking
early retirement in 2007 from the General Motors plant in Oklahoma City. They
were expecting their first grandchild in four months. Now Gary, at gunpoint,
drove west on the interstate. Casslyn Welch
followed them in a gray Nissan Sentra. Maybe, Gary suggested, the two men
could just leave them off the road somewhere and take his truck. They could
unhook the 32-foot Cougar camper, if they wanted. McCluskey said that was
just what they’d do. He told Gary to pull off and drive north a couple of
miles on an old ranch road. Then he had him turn around and pull up by a big
rusty water tank. McCluskey waved them out of the cab with his .40-caliber
semiautomatic. Time to get the guns from the camper. As McCluskey and
Province got out, the three little brown-and-white dogs jumped out, too.
Welch came up from her car. McCluskey ordered Province to round up the dogs
while he and Welch took Gary and Linda into the camper to get Gary’s gun.
Five days after the escape, a Corrections team scoured Kingman to determine
what security flaws led to the escape. Their scathing assessment, described
in an internal Corrections memo, listed the broken alarm, eight burned-out
perimeter lights, other broken security equipment, and a lax, high-turnover
culture in which MTC’s green, undertrained staff and rookie supervisors
ignored alarms, left long gaps between patrols of the perimeter, left doors
leading out of some buildings open and unwatched, didn’t alert the state or
local police until hours after the escape, and failed in all manner of basic
security practices. The state’s monitor assigned to Kingman admitted that in
14 months on the job he’d never read MTC’s contract to see what they were
supposed to do, and that he had no idea the alarm system was so flawed as to
be worthless. Ryan subsequently replaced that monitor, who was fired. Going
forward, Ryan said, only employees with administrative experience running a
prison unit would be given monitoring assignments. The day after the escapes,
Ryan suspended all prisoner transfers to Kingman until it could pass
inspection. Shortly afterward, he also ordered the transfer of 238
medium-security inmates from Kingman to other facilities. In a letter to Ryan
on Aug. 13, 2010, 14 days after the escapes, MTC formally admitted
responsibility and agreed to work with the state to fix the problems. It
replaced the warden, complex administrator and chief of security, all of whom
resigned that week. The first of more-rigorous audits ordered by Ryan was
performed at Kingman in November 2010, three months after MTC’s public
promise to tackle security flaws. MTC had installed new alarms, but they
weren’t working properly and went off so often that staff ignored them,
auditors said. Problems with security lights and the control panels
continued. Inmates still weren’t wearing IDs. Auditors left tracks in the
sand along the perimeter fence to test the staff’s security practices. They
failed to notice them. Doors were left unsecured and unmonitored; searches
still weren’t being conducted properly. Inside the camper, McCluskey ordered
Gary and Linda to sit at the dinette. Gary told them where to find his two
guns, a .38-caliber revolver and a 9 mm handgun. Welch put them in a bag and
took them outside. The day they’d escaped from Kingman, using guns Welch
provided, the trio had kidnapped two truck drivers in a semi to get to
Flagstaff. According to the FBI affidavits, McCluskey had wanted to shoot the
drivers, but Welch and Province voted not to, so they let the men go. Now,
alone with Gary and Linda, McCluskey considered for a moment. Then he raised
his gun and fired a shot through Gary’s temple. He turned and pumped three
bullets into Linda. Province and Welch ran to the trailer. Province opened
the door. He could smell the gunpowder. Blood had splattered everywhere.
McCluskey asked Province to help him drag the bodies, slumped at the table,
away from the window. Bear, Prissy and Roxie came in through the open door,
getting blood on them. For five months following the escapes, the Department
of Corrections and MTC sparred over fixing the problems at Kingman. Finally,
on Dec. 29, Ryan sent a long letter identifying the 31 most serious concerns,
and noting curtly that “a failure to cure all deficiencies” by March 29 would
lead him to terminate MTC’s contract. Ryan’s December letter noted that “from
2005 forward, there were 13 instances of large groups of inmates refusing
directives or chasing MTC staff off the yard.” Twice in October, large groups
of inmates had created “disturbances” over the food. Ryan said this kind of
inmate behavior was unacceptable. He noted that during the October incidents,
MTC staff couldn’t tell Corrections officials who the complex administrator
was, couldn’t find a number for the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office “and
didn’t have the presence of mind to dial 911,” leaving it to a Corrections
monitor on site to contact police. Ryan’s letter noted continuing problems
with MTC officers failing to control inmate movement, with security devices
not being repaired, with MTC failing one security test after another. Ryan
demanded better staff training and “sustained and systemic improvement.” Not
until March 21, eight months after the escapes, did Ryan agree that MTC had
fixed the problems. He also agreed to start sending new inmates there
starting a week later. Asked why it took so long, Odie Washington, a senior
vice president at MTC, replied in writing to The Republic that MTC worked
closely with the department to make improvements at Kingman “and will
continue to actively monitor and assess operations to ensure we provide a
safe and secure facility for the citizens of Arizona.” State auditors also
visited MTC’s Marana prison in March. The Corrections Department hasn’t
released that audit, saying it is not yet complete. Province shoved the three
dogs back into the Chevy truck. McCluskey, who was covered with Gary’s and
Linda’s blood, drove the truck and camper to a gas station in Santa Rosa,
N.M. Province and Welch followed in the Nissan. As Province pumped the gas,
Welch noticed blood dripping from the camper’s back door. The trio drove back
west on I-40, turning onto a dirt road until they were out of sight of the highway,
behind a barn. While Province unloaded the dogs and dumped out food for them,
McCluskey and Welch unhooked the camper and doused the interior, including
Gary and Linda’s bodies, with liquor they’d found inside. Then they torched
it. Two days later, a rancher called state police, who found the blackened
skeletons in the remains of the trailer, and Prissy and Roxie waiting nearby.
Prissy had burns on her paws and back. Bear was never found. Guadalupe County
Sheriff Michael Lucero used the number on Prissy’s
tag to reach Gary and Linda’s only child, the pregnant Cathy Byus, in Oklahoma. She traveled to New Mexico the next
week, to identify and recover their remains. On Dec. 1, Byus
gave birth to a son, James, who will know his maternal grandparents only through
stories and photographs. Daniel Renwick, the third escapee, who’d driven off
in Welch’s car the night of the escape, was arrested after a shootout with
police on Aug. 1, in Colorado. Province was caught in Wyoming on Aug. 8;
McCluskey and Welch were arrested Aug. 19 at a campground in eastern Arizona.
McCluskey was convicted this month in Kingman on escape, kidnapping and
assault charges. He, Province and Welch are expected to go to trial in New
Mexico early next year on charges of murdering the Haases.
On March 17, Byus and several other relatives of
the Haases sued MTC, Arizona, and Dominion Asset
Services, the company that built the Kingman prison, alleging gross
negligence. At Kingman, MTC receives $62.16 per inmate per day from the state
– about $79 million a year at full capacity, or $64 million a year at its
current population of 2,823, which is 80 percent of capacity. Meanwhile, MTC
is bidding to manage another 5,000 contract prison beds in Arizona. The
Department of Corrections expects to make its recommendation on an award next
month.
June 17, 2011 AP
An Arizona inmate whose escape sparked a three-week national manhunt last
summer was sentenced Friday to 43 years behind bars for breaking out of
prison and abducting two truck drivers whose big rig was used as a getaway
vehicle. John McCluskey's sentence came the same day a Mohave County jury
found him guilty of escape, kidnapping, aggravated assault and other charges
in his July 30 break from the medium-security Arizona State Prison in Golden
Valley. Authorities said McCluskey, a second inmate and their accomplice went
on to kill Gary and Linda Haas, of Tecumseh, Okla., who were traveling
through New Mexico on their way to an annual camping trip in Colorado. The
couple's family members watched Friday as McCluskey requested that he be
sentenced sooner rather than later. He was ushered back into the courtroom a
short time later, shackled at the wrists and ankles and wearing a red
jumpsuit. "What we were really pleased with was that he, himself, decided
that today was a good day to be sentenced and get this over with. Personally,
I feel it's the first right thing he has done," Linda Rook, whose
brother was killed, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Prosecutors said McCluskey, 46, and two other inmates escaped with the help
of Casslyn Welch, who threw cutting tools onto the
prison grounds and supplied the men with guns, money and a vehicle.
May 8, 2011 The Daily News
The 2010 escape from a prison near Golden Valley did not have to happen,
Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan told the group assembled at Saturday’s
Colorado River Republican Forum meeting. It happened because security
protocols were not followed and it took longer to catch three escapees and a
woman who helped them because information was slow in getting out to other
parties, including the sheriff’s office, he said. About 15 people were
assembled to hear Sheahan’s description of what happened and what prison
operator Management and Training Corp. has done and is doing to prevent a
repeat. While staff at Arizona State Prison-Kingman knew that Daniel Kelly
Renwick, John Charles McCluskey and Tracy Alan Province were missing at 9
p.m. July 30, Sheahan said, the sheriff’s office wasn’t alerted until 10:30.
When sheriff’s officials asked prison staff for the escapees’ names or even
races, he said, prison officials were unsure. “They were all wearing orange,”
Sheahan recalled being told. The retelling led to chuckles in the Scooter’s
meeting room, but the sheriff said it was far from funny at the time. The
sheriff’s office set up a command post inside the prison to spread
information as it became available, Sheahan said. The inmates’ behavior early
in the escape, as described by Sheahan, seemed to suggest that a quick
response by prison staff and law enforcement could’ve led to a quick capture
of McCluskey, Province and Casslyn Mae Welch, who
allegedly planned the breakout together. Sheahan said Welch left a getaway
vehicle containing clothing, weapons, cash and extra gasoline in the desert.
Renwick, who Sheahan said “just ended up coming along because he felt like
escaping,” found their getaway vehicle and drove off, leaving the others
stranded. Province, McCluskey and Welch then allegedly walked about four
miles to Interstate 40 and kidnapped and assaulted two truckers. They later
allegedly murdered an Oklahoma couple in New Mexico and face the death
penalty in that matter. Sheahan said the inmates used wire cutters thrown by
Welch into the prison to cut a three-foot hole in the fence, which he said
should have been spotted rather quickly, as guards are supposed to drive the
perimeter road every 15 minutes. Inside the prison, Sheahan said, lax
security was well evident. “There were alarms that never worked,” he said.
“There were doors propped open with rocks.” Sheahan said the escapees had no
inside help. “No officers were implicated at all,” he said. “There were just
officers not doing their jobs.” He also thought it unwise to have the inmates
allowed alone outdoors at night to walk dogs. Province and McCluskey were in
a dog training program at the prison. Sheahan said the prison is supposed to
house minimum- and medium-security inmates, but Province and Renwick were
convicted murderers and McCluskey had been convicted of attempted murder. Local
authorities were not notified that such inmates were being housed there, he
said. After the escape, Sheahan said, the state Department of Corrections
nixed the housing of certain types of convicts at the Golden Valley prison,
including not housing inmates convicted of murder, attempted murder or murder
conspiracy.
March 17, 2011 Arizona Republic
Family members of an Oklahoma couple allegedly slain by a trio of escaped
Arizona inmates have filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the state,
as well as the operator of the private prison near Kingman and a company that
helped build the 7-year-old facility. Cathy Byus,
the daughter of Gary and Linda Haas, filed the lawsuit Thursday morning in
Maricopa County Superior Court. The legal move came less than six months
after the Haas' surviving family members filed a $40 million notice of claim
against the state and Management & Training Corp., the Utah-based company
that operated the private prison from which the inmates escaped. Thursday's
lawsuit expands the liability to Dominion Asset Services, because the
family's attorneys claim the company improperly installed a faulty alarm
system at the prison from which the inmates escaped. "The purpose of
this lawsuit is to get justice," said Jacob Diesselhorst,
attorney for the family. "Not just for this family - the whole public is
at risk." The Haas' murders came in the midst of a nationwide manhunt
for the escaped inmates and their accomplice that unfolded over three weeks
in late summer 2010. An Arizona Department of Corrections review of the
facility following the escape found numerous deficiencies with training and
equipment, including an alarm system that issued false alarms so frequently
that staff members began to ignore them. Authorities believe inmates Daniel
Renwick, John McCluskey and Tracy Province escaped from the prison on July 30
after McCluskey's fiancée, Casslyn Welch, threw
cutting tools over the prison's fence, allowing the inmates to snip through
the chain link fence surrounding the facility. It was more than two hours
before prison staff notified state corrections officials of the escape.
January 29, 2011 AP
An inmate who escaped an Arizona prison last summer and allegedly went on a
crime spree was taken to New Mexico on Saturday to face capital murder
charges, the U.S. Marshals Service said. Tracy Province, 42, was flown from
Kingman to Albuquerque. He was sentenced in Kingman on Friday to more than 38
years in prison on charges of escape, kidnapping, armed robbery, aggravated
assault and weapons misconduct stemming from crimes in Arizona after his
escape. The sentencing cleared the way for him to be sent to New Mexico to
face the murder charges in the deaths of Gary and Linda Haas of Tecumseh,
Okla. Authorities say Province, John McCluskey and Daniel Renwick escaped
from a medium-security prison in Kingman on July 30. Authorities say
McCluskey's fiancÃe
and cousin, Casslyn Welch, helped the men by
throwing cutting tools over the prison's perimeter fence, allowing them to
flee into the desert. The escape sparked a nationwide hunt, and all four were
recaptured within three weeks. Province, McCluskey and Welch all face capital
murder and carjacking charges stemming from the Haas' killings.
January 28, 2011 AP
One of three inmates who escaped from the state prison in Kingman last summer
is scheduled to be sentenced Friday. Tracy Province pleaded guilty earlier
this month to state felony charges of escape, kidnapping, armed robbery,
aggravated assault and misconduct with weapons. Province will be sent to New
Mexico after he's sentenced on the Arizona charge. He faces capital murder
and carjacking charges in the deaths of an Oklahoma couple there. Province
was captured without incident in northwestern Wyoming in August after he
dropped by for Sunday services at a church and was recognized by a woman who
chatted with him.
January 7, 2011 Phoenix New Times
The mother of prison escapee John McCluskey's been sentenced to seven months
in prison for helping her son and two other inmates evade authorities after they
escaped from prison last summer. Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner
Steven Lynch could have sentenced Claudia Washburn to 2 1/2 years behind bars
under a sentencing range laid out in a plea agreement reached in November.
Washburn admitted to sending money to her convict son and his two accomplices
after they escaped from a Kingman prison on July 31. That money was used by
the cons to fund what became a multi-state nightmare for authorities, as the
cons crisscrossed the western half of the United States following their
escape. While on the run, McCluskey, his cousin/fiancee
Casslyn Welch, and escaped inmate Tracy Province,
are accused of murdering an Oklahoma couple on vacation in New Mexico.
January 3, 2011 The Daily News
The operators of a privately run prison near Kingman have reimbursed Mohave
County for the capture of three inmates who escaped from the prison in July.
Management and Training Corporation reimbursed the county Nov. 14 about
$23,587 for costs associated with the capture of Tracy Alan Province, John
Charles McCluskey and Casslyn Mae Welch. Province,
McCluskey and Daniel Kelly Renwick escaped from the state prison July 30 with
the help from Welch. MTC will reimburse the county for additional costs once
Renwick’s case in Colorado is resolved and returned to the county, Deputy
County Manager Dana Hlavac said. The cost does not
include the cost to prosecute and defend the inmates along with the cost to
incarcerate the inmates and court costs to try the suspects. Those costs will
not be known until the cases are resolved. Those costs are paid through the
county’s general fund, Hlavac said.
December 30, 2010 AP
Federal prosecutors in New Mexico have begun steps to seek the death penalty
against two Arizona prison escapees and a woman who allegedly helped them
escape. A federal grand jury on Wednesday returned a superseding indictment
against John Charles McCluskey, 45; Tracy Allen Province, 42; and Casslyn Mae Welch, 44, who are accused in the murders of
Gary and Linda Haas, both 61, of Tecumseh, Okla. Their bodies were found in
August with their burned-out recreational trailer near Santa Rosa in eastern
New Mexico. The superseding indictment incorporates the 13 counts of the
original indictment, but adds a notice of special findings under a law that
allows the death penalty after consideration of mitigating and aggravating
factors for people found guilty of a crime eligible for the death penalty.
“It’s part of the procedural steps we have to go through” to preserve the
right to seek the death penalty, Elizabeth Martinez, a spokeswoman for the
U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico, said Thursday.
November 5, 2010 AP
Inmates housed at a privately run prison in Golden Valley in northwestern
Arizona tossed rocks and caused a minor disturbance Thursday night. Mohave
County Sheriff's deputies responded to the prison near Kingman just before 9
p.m. A sergeant at the prison advised the sheriff's office that several
inmates in the yard were causing a disturbance by throwing rocks at prison
staff. Deputies immediately established and maintained a roving perimeter.
Prison staff got the situation under control at 10:30 p.m. This is the same
privately run prison where three dangerous inmates escaped last July.
November 5, 2010 Kingman Daily Miner
Mohave County is holding prison officials to their word that it be reimbursed
for costs related to the July 30 escape of three inmates. The county has sent
its first bill to Management and Training Corporation, the operator of the
private prison located just outside of Kingman, in the amount of $23,587.68.
Deputy County Manager Dana Hlavac said the charges
are primarily for manpower and mileage fees incurred by corrections staff and
the Mohave County Sheriff's Office. Hlavac said the
fees are from the time of the escape to the time of the captures of Tracy
Province on Aug. 9, and John McCluskey and alleged accomplice Casslyn Welch on Aug. 20. Charges incurred by Mohave
County for Daniel Renwick, the third inmate who was caught in Colorado two
days after the escape, will be billed after he is extradited to Arizona once
his Colorado charges are resolved. Renwick continues to be held in the Garfield
County jail on charges of shooting at police and ramming a patrol car with
his SUV before he was caught. His arraignment there has been pushed pack to
Nov. 26. It is not known when he will be returned to Arizona. Calls to
Garfield County about their possible reimbursement were not returned by
deadline. Hlavac said the $23,000 bill to MTC does
also not include legal fees and jail costs for McCluskey, Province and Welch,
who are being held at the Mohave County Jail on various escape-related
charges. The jail, along with the Mohave County Attorney's Office and the
Legal Defenders Office, have all been instructed to keep a running tab for
costs associated with the three. That would include all of the money spent by
the county in housing them. Hlavac added that
reimbursement for those expenses would not be sought until the conclusion of
their cases here. Under terms of the emergency assistance portion of its
contract with the Department of Corrections, MTC is held liable for the cost
of resources associated with escapes. It is not known whether those costs
will be borne by the company directly or by an insurance carrier. MTC
spokesperson Carl Stuart said his company has received the bill and that
payment will be forthcoming. The Department of Corrections is seeking more
than $78,000 from MTC for expenses incurred by its Offender Operations
Division and Inspector General Bureau.
October 31, 2010 Joplin Globe Sun
A Joplin woman is among the relatives of an Oklahoma couple, allegedly slain
by two escaped prisoners from Arizona and an accomplice, who are seeking $40
million in damages, according to notice of claim letters the family’s
attorneys have mailed to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and other officials in that
state. Letters sent last week by attorneys for the relatives of Gary and
Linda Haas, of Tecumseh, Okla., allege that their Aug. 2 deaths in New Mexico
were the result of “a long series of egregious errors and omissions of gross
negligence” by the Arizona Department of Corrections and officials at the
Arizona State Prison at Kingman, where the inmates escaped July 30. The Haases, who grew up in McDonald County, had been planning
to return to Southwest City, where they had property, after losing their jobs
in Oklahoma when a GM plant shut down, Linda Rook told the Globe after their
deaths. Rook, of Joplin, is a surviving sister of Gary Haas. In August, the
couple were heading out west on a camping trip when they were abducted and
killed. ‘Slipshod security’ -- The attorneys’ letters allege that Arizona
corrections officials and the prison’s private operator, Utah-based
Management and Training Corp., “set the stage for and permitted the careless
and slipshod security environment” at the prison that allowed the inmates to
escape and allegedly kidnap and kill the victims. MTC is liable for punitive
damages in the case, according to notice of claim letters sent to company
officials. The notice of claim letters were mailed
on behalf of the Haases’ daughter, Cathy Byus, and the mother, sister and two brothers of Linda
Haas. Their attorney, Jacob Diesselhorst, said
Thursday that the claim letters are required before a wrongful-death lawsuit
can be filed against the state. Diesselhorst said
Arizona officials have 60 days to respond. Contacted over the weekend, Rook
declined to comment and referred questions to a Joplin lawyer, John Dolence, who is representing her in the matter. The
Globe’s efforts to reach Dolence on Sunday
afternoon were unsuccessful. A spokesman for Gov. Brewer, Paul Senseman, did not immediately return a call seeking
comment. A spokesman for MTC, Carl Stuart, said the company does not comment
on pending litigation.
September 27, 2010 Havasu News-Herald
A Golden Valley prison will get a new prison administrator within a few
weeks, the facility’s officials said Monday. Management & Training Corp.
staff members were informed Friday via e-mail that Jerry Sternes
would be appointed as complex administrator, and Neil Turner as warden at the
Hualapai unit. Al Murphy, MTC’s corrections vice-president, sent the e-mail. Sternes has more than 25 years
experience in corrections and recently retired as complex
administrator at the Arizona State Prison in Yuma, which is a 5,000-bed
prison, according to the e-mail. Turner is a returning MTC employee who
worked at a correctional facility in Grafton, Ohio. He has 20 years experience, according to the e-mail. Turner will
replace former unit warden Lori Lieder, who resigned following the escape of
three prisoners, Daniel Renwick, John McCluskey and Tracy Province, from the
prison July 30. Carl Stuart, MTC communication director, wrote Monday in an
e-mail that Darla Elliott, former MTC/Arizona State Prison — Kingman complex
administrator, “was placed on administrative leave by MTC sometime in
mid-August … Ms. Elliot remains an employee with MTC. She has not yet been
reassigned. She will not be returning to the Kingman facility.” Sternes will take her position. Charles Ryan, Arizona
Department of Corrections director, presented Mohave County Supervisors with
an overview of it internal investigation into the prison break Sept. 20 in
Kingman. Although the investigation continues, it has exposed factors
contributing to the escape including human error, a faulty perimeter security
system and opportunistic inmates, according to earlier reports. After the
escape, an investigation showed that prison officials neglected to inform
state legislators, Mohave County Board of Supervisors and Mohave County
Sheriff’s Office about facility changes. This neglect violated state law and
the prison’s contract. In 2005, the prison failed to notify authorities when
it changed status from a minimum-custody DUI prison to a
minimum/medium-custody prison, which means it could house more dangerous
criminals. MTC failed to notify authorities again in 2006 and in 2008 about
prisoner movement and contract status amendments linked to the prison’s
addition of a 2,000-bed complex. In 2007, the first murderers were
transferred to the prison near Kingman, according to earlier reports. Local
authorities did not know. “It was almost unbelievable these people
(murderers) had been out there,” said Mohave County Sheriff Sheahan recently.
“I was surprised at the amount of high-risk criminals.” Tracy Province is
currently in custody at the county jail in Kingman, Sheahan said. “(Province’s)
comments were something to the effect that he was somewhat surprised he was
transferred to this type of prison,” Sheahan said. Province came to ADC in
January 1993, and was serving a life sentence for murder and robbery in Pima
County at the time of his escape, according to earlier reports. On the night
of the escape, by the time prison officials had reported the incident to law
enforcement authorities the prisoners were “long gone,” Sheahan said.
According to ADC information, MTC determined the three inmates missing around
9 p.m. but didn’t alert MCSO until 10:19 p.m. “At that time, (MCSO)
dispatchers were trying to fill out the information for statewide and
national dispatch,” Sheahan said. “(MTC) didn’t event
know (the inmates’) names after the individuals had been missing an
hour-and-a-half.” When dispatchers asked MTC officials to describe the
escaped prisoners, all MTC conveyed was that they were wearing orange. The
prison also gave sheriff’s deputies photographs of the escapees that were nearly
20 years out of day, Sheahan said, adding this added to his agency’s
frustration with the facility.
September 21, 2010 The Arizona Daily Sun
State Corrections Director Charles Ryan said he is instituting an entirely
new system for monitoring private prisons -- one he said should prevent the
kind of escape that resulted in the death of two people. Ryan said Monday the
old system was flawed, with months going by between inspections. And even
when they were done, he said, they didn't necessarily spot problems. He also
said state oversight of private prisons has often been left to inexperienced
personnel. "That was not a good decision," he said. Ryan said that
includes the Kingman facility run by Management and Training Corp., where
David Lee, an associate deputy warden, was the top state official on site.
"The employee has been replaced," Ryan said, with monitoring now
being done by a "seasoned deputy warden." And Wade Woolsey, who was
the department's operations director for private prisons and Lee's supervisor,
has since quit. Ryan also said Monday he is tossing out the bids that already
have been submitted to contract for another 5,000 privately run prison beds.
The director said he wants to start over again, but this time with some new
-- and he said more stringent -- requirements for the private companies that
want state funds to house inmates. Ryan's comments came as his agency
released the results of its own internal investigation on how three violent
criminals, two serving time for murder, managed to break out of the facility
with the help of an accomplice who provided wire cutters. They all were
eventually captured, but not before the murder of a couple at a New Mexico
campground which has been linked to some of those involved. He also said that
several of the 50 deficiencies his staff first found after visiting the
facility following the July 30 escape still exist. He said it is
"certainly a possibility" that the state will cancel its contract
with MTC. "The jury is still out," Ryan said. As expected, the
report finds various failures with the operation of the facility by MTC. Most
of those, including a perimeter alarm system that malfunctioned so often that
corrections officers routinely ignored it, had been detailed in an earlier
review. What is new are the details of how the state's own monitoring of the
1,508-bed facility fell short and allowed the problems to develop. One
central problem, Ryan said, has been having reviews done annually, with
private prisons graded on how well they carried out various policies.
"Frankly, I think that is very misleading," he said. In fact, that
program gave the Kingman facility high marks despite the problems found only
after the escape. Ryan said the new system, still being tested, will allow
for ongoing evaluation rather than an annual review. "We want to know
what's going on daily," he said, and for that information to reach those
in his agency who need to know. That was not happening. According to the
report, Lee told investigators he was unaware of issues with the alarm system
and "never walked the entire perimeter to check if the alarm system was
working correctly." And Lee, who had been in the position for 14 months,
said he wasn't even sure that was part of his job. "I'm telling you
right now, I'm not making excuses," the report quotes Lee as saying.
"I had one day with my predecessor, Deputy Warden Mary Clark, and she
didn't tell me squat." Woolsey, however, said he was
"surprised" Lee did not know there was an issue with the alarms.
The report paraphrases Woolsey as saying "it doesn't take a 20-year
veteran to look out and see all the light turning on, and the lights don't
just turn on unless something sets them off." Woolsey said the sensors,
which detect ground disturbance, could be set off by something other than an
escape, whether an animal, weather conditions or even poor maintenance. Lee,
in his interview, said he never read the contract between the state and MTC.
And when asked how he could determine if MTC was fulfilling its obligations,
he responded, "I guess I can't." He also said in that interview
that, only as a result of the escape, he was required to "walk the
zones" and check the alarm system. Lee also said he never actually tried
to set off the alarms to see how it works, and that if there were "issues"
with the system someone would have mentioned something to him.
September 20, 2010 The Arizona Republic
The Arizona Department of Corrections employee assigned to ensure a privately
run prison near Kingman was operated according to state standards was
overwhelmed by paperwork and admitted he screwed up, according to an internal
review released Monday of a prison escape that led to a nationwide manhunt.
David Lee, who was associate deputy warden at the facility when the escape
took place July 30, told the state's internal investigators that he had not
read the contract between the state and prison operator Management &
Training Corp. in his 14 months on the job and that he was unaware of the
persistent issues with false alarms that plagued the complex. A lieutenant
told investigators that the alarm system could go off 200 or 300 times a
shift. The report also indicates that the alarm system hadn't been serviced
in two years after a contract expired with a maintenance provider. Neither
Lee nor any of his superiors knew anything about the alarm problems,
according to the report. Lee was fired and his supervisor resigned following
the escape. Daniel Renwick, 36, Tracy Province, 43, and John McCluskey, 45,
broke out of the prison July 30 after McCluskey's fiancée, Casslyn Welch, 44, allegedly threw cutting tools and
weapons into the prison yard. An officer initially said the perimeter was
clear after the escape and authorities worked under the assumption that the
inmates were still inside the compound until the officer returned a second
time and noticed a hole in the perimeter fence.
September 15, 2010 Arizona Republic
From start to finish, the three inmates who broke out of a Kingman prison and
the girlfriend accused of helping them really didn't have much of a plan and
often were winging it, with disastrous results. That's the picture that
emerges from a U.S. Marshals Service report on the July 30 breakout and the
extensive manhunt it prompted. Case of escaped Arizona inmates -- The report
details interviews with the first two inmates who were recaptured. The
interviews were conducted in part to help authorities track down the other
two fugitives: John McCluskey and his girlfriend, Casslyn
Welch. McCluskey and Welch were captured at a campground in Arizona. Inmate
Tracy Province was arrested earlier in Wyoming. They are in jail in Kingman.
They face murder charges in the shooting deaths of two tourists in New
Mexico. The other inmate, Daniel Renwick, was arrested after a gunfight with
authorities in Colorado and remains in jail there. The report blacked out the
names of the two suspects who were interviewed and those of the various
investigators who spoke with them. But the dates and locations indicate
investigators were talking with Province and Renwick, partly in an effort to
find the other two. The report said investigators discounted Province's
comments due to inconsistencies. The statements, if true, say there wasn't
much of a plan for what would happen after the escape, set up via a cellphone
borrowed from an imprisoned drug dealer. The problems started almost
immediately after the three inmates cut their way out of the prison with
tools that police say were tossed inside by Welch, who had arrived toting a
rifle. The escapees couldn't find a Chevy Blazer that was filled with food
and clothes - necessities for life on the run. They all split up to search
for the SUV. Renwick found it and headed for Colorado on his own, the report
said. The report said there was "no definitive plan'" of where to
go. Plans to stay at a cabin in Safford fell through immediately when the
owners were home. McCluskey, Welch and Province wound up driving around the
Southwest. At one point, authorities say, they kidnapped the two tourists in
New Mexico. The report said the three decided they would "fight to the
death" or kill one another if confronted by police. Province told
investigators that the three slept in the car but that he would be kicked out
when the other two wanted to "be alone." The report said he eventually
asked to be dropped at Yellowstone National Park, where he planned to get
high and kill himself because he couldn't live outside jail and didn't want
to die inside. The report said he lost his nerve and drifted around until
caught. He was arrested in Wyoming. Renwick said he got into the shootout in
Colorado because he wanted to die but couldn't kill himself due to a promise
he had made to his mother. The report said he looked bewildered when asked
about the carjacking and double killing in New Mexico. He agreed to talk only
about his own role in the escape, the report said, because he feared being
killed in prison if he talked about the others. He tried to find the others
before taking the Blazer, the report said, adding he had no idea where to go
or what to do. The report quoted him as saying the group planned to go to
Arkansas to enjoy its mild winters and "old-fashioned" pawnshops,
which they considered easy to rob. They would "pull a couple jobs'"
there, and split up. He said another fundraising scheme was to steal semitrucks.
They would avoid trucks with GPS trackers and tie up drivers in secluded
parts of truck stops so they could have the rigs longer.
September 14, 2010 Courthouse News
The Arizona prison breakout that led to the killing of two campers was caused
by "lax procedures and incompetent management" of the private
prison operator in Kingman, the mother of one of the victims says. Vivian
Haas, whose son, Gary and his wife were shot to death, claims that Management
and Training Corp. admitted in an Aug. 13 letter its responsibility for the
escapes, and that the circumstances "were shocking and egregious."
Haas claims that one of the escaped inmates, John McCluskey, killed her son and
his wife in New Mexico in the days after the escape. Haas says the private
prison operator "had duties to protect the general public in employing
proper incarceration policies and procedures to assure that violent offenders
stayed locked up and away from the general public." McCluskey was
sentenced to 15 years in 2009 for attempted second-degree murder, aggravated
assault, and discharge of a firearm, and was sent to the private prison,
according to the complaint. His fellow escapee Tracy Province was sentenced
in 2009 for murder and robbery, and escapee Daniel Renwick was sentenced to
two 22-year sentences for second-degree murder, the complaint states. On July
30, McCluskey, Province, and Renwick escaped from the Kingman prison through
a door wedged open by a rock, "climbing one improperly protected fence,
hiding behind an inappropriate building in 'no-man's land,' and cutting
through the wire of a second chain link fence," according to the
complaint. Haas says that Management and Training Corp.'s officers failed to
check an alarm that sounded when the men cut through one of two security
fences surrounding the prison. She says the alarm system set off false alarms
so often that the guards ignored them. Haas adds that the "perimeter
fencing was substandard," and that patrols of the perimeter "were
scattershot at best." Light poles around the prison were routinely
burned out, and "intrusions by outsiders near the fence perimeters were
common." On Aug. 2, McCluskey and Province, allegedly with help from Casslyn M. Welch, "confronted" Gary and Linda
Haas while they were "in or near their pickup truck towing a camping
trailer." Gary and Linda Haas were traveling from Oklahoma to Colorado.
McCluskey and Province ordered Gary and Linda Haas into the truck, and forced
Gary to drive to the west, his mother says. McCluskey directed Gary to leave
the highway and drive to a secluded area, then took the couple into the
camping trailer and "brutally shot them, killing each of them,"
Haas says. McCluskey, Province, and Welch then allegedly drove the camper on
the highway until they noticed blood leaking out of the trailer door. The
escapees and accomplice "drove to a remote location, disconnected the
trailer and intentionally set fire to the trailer with the bodies of Gary and
Linda Haas still inside," according to the complaint. Haas says the
escapees abandoned the stolen truck in Albuquerque. Province was captured on
Aug. 9 in Meeteetse, Wyo. McCluskey and Welch were captured on Aug. 19 in the
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. On March 22,
2004, the Arizona Department of Corrections awarded a contract to Management
and Training Corp. to operate the private prison which was "designed and
constructed for 1,100 minimum security beds and 300 medium security beds to
house DUI inmates," according to the complaint. Haas seeks punitive
damages for negligence and recklessness. She is represented by Christopher Zachar.
September 7, 2010 AP
The woman accused of helping three inmates escape from the state prison in
Kingman has pleaded not guilty to drug charges. Casslyn
Welch entered her plea Tuesday in Mohave County Superior Court. She faces six
counts of narcotics violations for the drugs she's accused of bringing to the
medium-security prison in June. Authorities say a random search of Welch and
her vehicle turned up marijuana, heroin and drug paraphernalia. Welch was
visiting John McCluskey, her cousin and fiancee, at
the time and lost her visitation rights but not her phone privileges.
Authorities say she wasn't immediately jailed because she agreed to become an
informant. She was charged following the July 30 escape of McCluskey and two
other inmates.
September 3, 2010 Arizona Republic
The first legal action in the Arizona prison breakout that led to the killing
of two campers has been filed against the state and the operator of the
private prison. Vivian Haas, the mother of murder victim Gary Haas, filed a
$10 million claim against Arizona and a wrongful death lawsuit against
Management Training Corp., the company that operates the private prison near
Kingman where three fugitives escaped on July 30. The notice of claim is a
required precursor to a lawsuit. Police believe one of those escaped inmates,
John McCluskey, murdered Gary Haas and his wife, Linda, near Santa Rosa, N.M.
in the days following the escape as the fugitives grew weary of traveling in
a car and targeted the Haas' for their camping trailer. The escape led to a
nationwide manhunt that stretched from Arizona to the Canada border. The
claim against Arizona notes the state's failure to maintain custody of the
inmates, to properly train and supervise personnel at the prison and to
promptly notify law enforcement officials in the area after the escape.
"I have conveyed my condolences to the Haas family and friends, however,
I cannot comment on pending litigation," Department of Corrections
Director Charles Ryan said in a statement. Management Training Corp. could
not be immediately reached for comment. Reviews of the July 30 incident have
painted the picture of a prison where detention officers became lackadaisical
and predictable in their movements and where equipment failures- including
false alarms- were so common that they were frequently ignored. Detention
officers failed to check an alarm that sounded when McCluskey, Tracy Province
and Daniel Renwick cut through one of two security fences ringing the
privately run prison near Kingman. Investigators have said McCluskey's
fiancée, Casslyn Welch, threw cutting tools over
the fence to the men who snipped through chain link and barbed wire to flee
into the desert. It was more than two hours before staff at the private
prison notified the state corrections officials of the escape. By then,
Renwick was making his way north to Colorado while McCluskey, Province and
Welch were on their way to hijacking a truck near Kingman and forced the
drivers to take them to Flagstaff. Renwick was captured two days after the
escape after he exchanged gunfire with police in Colorado. After allegedly
receiving help from relatives in Arizona, McCluskey, Province and Welch made
their way east, ultimately ending up at a rest stop in New Mexico where,
according to statements Province gave investigators, they saw 61-year-old
Gary and Linda Haas, an Oklahoma couple taking an annual camping trip. After
days on the road in a cramped sedan, the fugitives decided to target
travelers with a camping trailer and the Haas' fit the bill. Province told
investigators that he and McCluskey forced the couple into their truck at
gunpoint while Welch followed behind. They all ended up in a remote area near
Santa Rosa where McCluskey shot the Haas' in their trailer, according to
court documents. The fugitives set fire to the trailer in an effort to hide
the evidence. A rancher discovered the burned trailer on Aug. 4.
August 27, 2010 Payson Roundup
The would-be Bonnie and Clyde fugitives who’d led police on a wild,
three-week chase began talking soon after their capture in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests last week. When Apache County
Sheriff’s Office deputies took Casslyn Welch’s
silver .38-caliber revolver, Sgt. John Scruggs warned the other officers not
to touch it for fear it was a murder weapon, according to court documents.
John McCluskey “That’s not the murder weapon,” now-captured fugitive John
McCluskey, both Welch’s fiance and cousin, told the
officers. “The murder weapon is in the tent.” After police recaptured the
convicts who escaped from a private prison near Kingman on July 30, allegedly
with Welch’s help, the clues to their escape and crime spree have quickly
emerged. The frightening tale included an easy escape through an unguarded
fence, a lost getaway car, a fateful vote that saved the lives of two
truckers, two aimless and improvised alleged murders and a narrowly averted
gun battle at the end. McCluskey and Welch, along with escaped murderer Tracy
Province, allegedly caused the deaths of Oklahoma couple Gary and Linda Haas
as the couple drove through New Mexico on vacation. The fugitives had grown
tired of sleeping in a sedan and decided to find a camper. Later, while
tracking the bloody trail with Province after his arrest, police eyed
bloodstains from the camper that had seeped onto the asphalt of a Phillips
gas station off Interstate 40 in Santa Rosa, N.M. Police had captured
Province in Wyoming about a week-and-a-half after his escape, as he held a
hitchhiking sign that read, “Casper.” Once in custody, Province helped police
piece together his time on the run, the blood stains, an eerie breadcrumb in
a warped version of Hansel and Gretel. The courtroom drama of McCluskey and
Welch, the two fugitives who evaded capture the longest, has just begun.
McCluskey, Province and Welch have all pleaded not guilty to their lists of
charges. The court has appointed public defenders for the men, and Flagstaff attorney
Stephen Glazer will represent Welch. All three are held on $1 million bail on
Arizona charges including escape in the second degree, kidnapping, armed
robbery and aggravated assault. McCluskey and Province also face charges of
misconduct involving weapons. In New Mexico, the fugitives face charges for
carjacking the Oklahoma couple with the intention of causing their deaths.
McCluskey and Province face other charges connected to the killing, and each
of the three could receive the death penalty. Although Mohave County now has
custody of the fugitives, Tom Henman, a supervisory deputy U.S. Marshal out
of Phoenix, said this week that officials there would have to coordinate with
New Mexico to see “who’s going to get first dibs.” Claudia Washburn, McCluskey’s
mother and owner of the Jakes Corner Store in Tonto Basin where Welch worked,
now sits in Maricopa County Jail on charges of hindering prosecution and
conspiring to commit escape after she allegedly gave the fugitives money or
supplies. Payson attorney Harlan Green will represent Washburn, whose
preliminary hearing was set for Thursday, but no other details were available
by press time. Welch, 44, had been working in Jakes Corner until she
allegedly threw wire cutters over the prison fence to free her beloved and
his two friends, Province and Daniel Renwick on July 30. Authorities captured
Renwick the next day in Colorado. Just the month before, Welch avoided jail
time by agreeing to become an informant after authorities found marijuana,
heroin and drug paraphernalia during a random search of Welch and her
vehicle, the Associated Press reported. Welch reportedly told authorities
that people associated with a white supremacist group were paying her to
smuggle heroin into prison. Henman, the U.S. Marshal, said this week that
McCluskey had ties to the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Four days after
arriving in Mohave County Jail after the escape, McCluskey was taken to
Kingman Regional Medical Medical Center after
cutting his neck and wrists with a Bic razor. The lacerations were serious,
but not life threatening, according to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office.
After receiving treatment, McCluskey returned to his high-security level
single cell in jail. The courtroom drama is just beginning, and the sordid details
of the crime spree are emerging. A complaint filed in the U.S. District Court
of New Mexico outlines how the three prisoners’ escape allegedly led to
car-jacking and murder. Immediately after the escape, Renwick became
separated from the crew while the group tried to find the car that Welch had
parked in the desert. Welch had packed the car with food and clothes, and had
bought two .40-caliber semi-automatic handguns for the escape. But then Welch
couldn’t find it. Instead, they hijacked two men driving an 18-wheeler at
gunpoint and forced them to drive to Flagstaff. In Flagstaff, the trio voted
whether to kill the truckers. McCluskey, just escaped from a 15-year sentence
for attempted second-degree murder voted to kill them while Welch and
Province voted to release them. McCluskey then somehow “secured” a gray
Nissan Sentra and the group stopped in Safford before driving to New Mexico,
according to court documents. In New Mexico, Province noticed that the car
had an expired license plate, and the crew stole another one. By Aug. 2, all
three had tired of driving and sleeping in the sedan. They agreed to find a
camper or trailer to steal. At a rest area, McCluskey and Welch eyed Gary and
Linda Haas, thinking them a good “prospect,” according to the complaint. The Haases were camping near Santa Rosa on their way to
Colorado as they had every year for more than a decade. The couple had
concealed weapons permits, and typically carried at least one gun with them.
But on the morning of Aug. 2, when McCluskey and Province took their places
behind Linda as she walked to her truck, no gun would save her. The fugitives
forced Linda into the truck’s passenger seat as Welch acted as a lookout.
Gary reached down as if to retrieve something from under the seat. Province
saw him, and said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The fugitives ordered
Gary to drive west on I-40, and eventually directed the truck to a secluded
area between Tucumcari, N.M., and Santa Rosa. McCluskey and Welch made Gary
and Linda hand over their two guns, which had been in the camping trailer,
while Province stayed outside. Welch joined Province outside, and several
gunshots rang out with McCluskey still inside. According to the complaint,
McCluskey shot Gary once in the head and then turned the gun on Linda, who he
shot three times. McCluskey told investigators he felt compelled to kill the Haases if the fugitives were to remain free. McCluskey
and Province scooted the bodies down in the trailer so nobody could see them
from outside, and then the fugitives drove the truck and the trailer — dead
bodies inside — back on the highway to the Phillips 66 gas station, where
they would leave that telltale bloodstain. Meanwhile, Province followed
McCluskey in the Sentra with stolen plates. After gassing up, McCluskey found
a spot off the highway and unhitched the trailer. Inexplicably, they quickly
decided to abandon the trailer that they’d allegedly committed two senseless
murders to obtain. With Welch’s help, the two found liquor in the trailer and
poured it on the floor before lighting a fire with matches. Province had
dumped out food for the dogs, and the three left the Haases
as their bodies burned. Later at a shopping center, Province and McCluskey
wiped the truck with paper towels and brake fluid, hoping to remove their
fingerprints. Welch took blankets, Province took a backpack, and the three
drove away in the Sentra. By this time, Province had asked the engaged
cousins to drop him off at Yellowstone Park. Police arrested Province soon
after in Meetetese, Wyo., reportedly the day after
singing “You’re Grace is Enough,” with other churchgoers in the small town
outside Yellowstone. He carried the backpack stolen from Gary and Linda Haas.
McCluskey and Welch would remain free for about another week. News reports
placed the couple anywhere from Canada, where the Royal Mounted Police
searched, to Arkansas, where a beauty salon robbery was briefly and
incorrectly linked to the fugitives. But on Aug. 19, a Forest Service ranger
was patrolling the Gabaldon Campground at the base of Mount Baldy back in
Arizona where their terrible journey had begun. When the ranger spotted the
couple, McCluskey walked behind a tree, trying to hide, according to court
documents. The ranger also noticed bullet holes in a nearby tree. He jotted
down the license plate number, and realized it was stolen. Later, McCluskey
told police he was sorry he hadn’t killed the ranger when he had the chance.
Authorities covertly watched the couple, closing off escape routes, while an
arrest team assembled. Shortly after 7 p.m. on Aug. 19, officers from the
U.S. Forest Service, Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Apache
County Sheriff’s Department apprehended the fugitives and ended the
nationwide manhunt. Welch pulled her silver revolver out from behind her
back, pointing it at police, according to court documents, before realizing
police outnumbered her. McCluskey was lying in a sleeping back outside the
tent where he’d hidden his guns. Later, he told the officers he would have
killed them.
August 25, 2010 Silver Belt
The Arizona Department of Corrections has confirmed that any decisions over
bids submitted by four companies to build private prisons here in our state
have been delayed because of security issues raised about a privately operated
prison in Kingman last month where the breakout of three violent convicts
occurred on July 30. Barrett Marson, Director of Communications for the state
agency, told the Arizona Silver Belt, efforts to add an additional 5,000
private prison beds has been stalled because of concerns which have developed
on how the medium-security private prison was being operated in Kingman. He
said representatives of each of the four companies that submitted proposals
to build and operate private prison complexes housing ADC inmates will be
called in for more questioning about their proposals. When asked, does this
mean these proposals will have to be re advertised and go out for bids again?
Marson said that decision has not been made at this time. The companies
submitting proposals to the Arizona Department of Corrections, which have
been under review since May 28th, were Management and Training Corporation (
which owns and operates the private prison at Kingman along with another
facility in Marana and 24 Job Corps Centers in the U.S), GEO Group
Corrections, Corrections Corporation of American and Emerald Correctional
Management Company. Emerald, in its proposal ,
submitted plans to build a 1,000 bed medium prison in the city of Globe
between the Gila County Fairgrounds and the San Carlos Reservation line. The
controversial Emerald project has been endorsed by the Southern Gila County
Economic Development Corporation but is now actively being opposed by a group
of merchants and local citizens. All top officials of Utah based Management
and Training Corporation who were operating the company’s medium security
prison at Kingman either were terminated or removed to other job assignments
as a result of a report released by the Arizona Department of Corrections on
Thursday citing numerous security flaws at the correctional facility. Among
the flaws was the private prison’s alarm system. Some 89 false alarms
reported at the correctional facility on July 30th, the day the three
convicts walked out. Ryan’s agency claims there was no maintenance on these
prison alarms for the past two years and responding to these alerts was not a
priority with prison workers who had become “desensitized” to false alarms.
Too, turnover of employees at the Kingman private prison had been high
resulting in a lack of training. One official of Management and Training
Corporation indicated she was working with a staff that was basically 80
percent new due to the turnover problems. It was further reported that an
excessive delay occurred in discovering the escape of the three convicts ( two convicted of murder, one a double homicide) and
notifying law enforcement. In addition, it was found that operational
practices at the prison after led to a gap of 15 minutes or longer during
shift changes along the outside perimeter fence.
August 25, 2010 Private Corrections Working
Group
Today, the Private Corrections Working Group (PCWG), a not-for-profit
organization that exposes the problems of and educates the public about
for-profit private corrections, called for overhaul of the Arizona Department
of Corrections’ (ADOC) oversight of the for-profit prison industry,
including: • An immediate halt to all bidding processes involving private
prison operators and a moratorium on new private prison beds • Hold public
hearings during the special session to address the problems with for-profit
prisons in Arizona • Enact other cost-cutting measures that not only save
money but enhance public safety, like earned release credits, amending truth
in sentencing, and restoring judicial discretion. This action came about
after the ADOC released a security audit on August 19th concerning the July
30 escape of three dangerous prisoners from a private prison in Kingman
operated by Management and Training Corp. (MTC) (Coincidentally, that same
day the last escapee and an accomplice, John McCluskey and Casslyn Mae Welch, were captured without incident at a
campground in eastern Arizona. The other two escaped prisoners, Tracy
Province and Daniel Renwick, had been caught previously in Wyoming and
Colorado). Ken Kopczynski, executive director of
PCWG, condemned MTC for the numerous security failures that led to the July
30 escape. “If MTC had properly staffed the facility, properly trained their
employees and properly maintained security at the Kingman prison, this escape
would not have occurred. But because MTC is a private company that needs to
generate profit, and therefore cut costs related to staffing, training and
security, three dangerous inmates were able to escape and at least two innocent
victims are dead as a result,” Kopczynski observed.
“That is part of the cost of prison privatization that MTC and other private
prison firms don’t want to talk about.” The murders of an Oklahoma couple,
Gary and Linda Hass, whose burned bodies were found in New Mexico on August
4, were tied to McCluskey, Welch and Province. While MTC said it took
responsibility for the escape, vice-president Odie Washington acknowledged
the company could not prevent future escapes. “Escapes occur at both public
and private” prisons, he stated, ignoring the fact that most secure
facilities do not experience any escapes – particularly escapes as
preventable as the one at MTC’s Kingman prison. According to the ADOC
security audit, the prison’s perimeter fence registered 89 alarms over a
16-hour period on the day the escape occurred, most of them false. MTC staff
failed to promptly check the alarms – sometimes taking over an hour to
respond – and light bulbs on a control panel that showed the status of the
perimeter fence were burned out. “The system was not maintained or
calibrated,” said ADOC Director Charles Ryan. Further, a perimeter patrol
post was not staffed by MTC, and according to a news report from the Arizona
Daily Star, “a door to a dormitory that was supposed to be locked had been
propped open with a rock, helping the inmates escape.” Additionally, MTC
officials did not promptly notify state corrections officials following the
escape and high staff turnover at the facility had resulted in inexperienced
employees who were ill-equipped to detect and prevent the break-out.
According to MTC warden Lori Lieder, 80 percent of staff at the Kingman
prison were new or newly promoted. Although the ADOC was supposed to be
monitoring its contract with MTC to house state prisoners, the security flaws
cited in the audit went undetected for years. Ryan faulted human error and
“serious security lapses” at the private prison. Arizona corrections
officials removed 148 state prisoners from the MTC facility after the escape
due to security concerns. “I lacked confidence in this company’s ability,”
said ADOC Director Ryan. Although it’s a small corporation, since 1995 over a
dozen prisoners have escaped from MTC facilities in Utah, Arizona, Texas, New
Mexico and Eagle Mountain, California –where two inmates were murdered during
a riot in 2003.
August 23, 2010 Arizona Republic
After three violent criminals escaped from a private prison last month in
Kingman, state officials began asking why they had been assigned to a
medium-security facility. John McCluskey, Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick
escaped July 30 after an embarrassing series of security lapses at the
prison, operated by Utah-based Management and Training Corp. All three have
been captured, but their escape is likely to spur further discussion on how
to classify inmates' security risks and decide where to house them. Both
public and private prisons use the state's classification system, but the
Arizona Department of Corrections already has pulled some inmates from the
Kingman facility as it rethinks how it assigns risk. Arizona assigns inmates
a number from one to five, with five representing the highest risk, based on
their crimes. Depending on their score, inmates are assigned to one of four
custody levels: minimum, medium, close and maximum. Over time, an inmate's
classification can be adjusted up or down based on the inmate's behavior in
custody. The system works when used properly, said Tom Rosazza,
a consultant and former state corrections director. But the system can also
mean that more violent offenders can wind up in less-secure facilities
depending on their behavior. Although they were in a medium-security facility
at a private prison, McCluskey, Province and Renwick qualified as dangerous
offenders. Renwick was a convicted murderer. Province killed a man in 1991 by
stabbing him 51 times. McCluskey was sentenced in Arizona for attempted
murder and had a previous armed-robbery conviction in Pennsylvania. "My
first thought was, 'What the hell were those guys doing at that (Kingman)
place?' " Rosazza said. Their cases are not
unique. There are more than 1,400 inmates serving time for murder in
medium-security settings in Arizona, including 796 with life sentences. More
than 100 were housed at the prison near Kingman, the only private facility in
Arizona to house murderers. Province entered the prison system with a maximum
"five" rating when he reported to serve his life sentence in 1993
but was moved down to a "three," or medium security, by 1997.
Renwick followed a similar path through the system, while McCluskey entered
custody as a medium-security inmate for firing a shotgun into a Mesa home in
2009. Authorities allege the trio escaped with help from Casslyn
Welch, McCluskey's cousin and fiancee. The escapees
are believed to have cut their way through a fence. Alarms were ignored
because, according to state officials, prison guards thought they were false.
Renwick was recaptured Aug. 1 in Colorado after a shootout with police.
Province was caught Aug. 9 in Wyoming. McCluskey and Welch were caught
Thursday evening in Apache County and are suspected along with Province of
being involved in the murder of an elderly couple in New Mexico shortly after
the escape. Because of the three inmates' possible post-escape crimes, the
classification issue likely will come up in any future lawsuits against the
state or a prison operator, Rosazza said.
"That would be the first thing I'd look at," he said. Arizona
officials control what factors are used in determining prisoner
classifications and, based on those classifications, decide which facilities
prisoners are held in. Although the former fugitives escaped from a private
facility, the state will bear some liability in any court action because it
is responsible for prisoners sentenced in Arizona. "The state doesn't
contract away its responsibility," Rosazza
said.
August 22, 2010 Arizona Republic
Arizona puts more of its inmates into privately run prisons every year, even
though the prisons may not be as secure as state-run facilities and may not
save taxpayers money. Lawmakers began using private prisons to ease
overcrowding and have supported their use so aggressively that today, one in
five Arizona inmates is housed in a private facility. Many inmates from other
states also are housed in private prisons in Arizona, but the state has
little information about who they are and limited oversight of how they are
secured. The state has 11 privately operated prisons. A high-profile escape
of three Arizona inmates last month from a Kingman-area private prison, which
spurred a nationwide manhunt and is believed to have resulted in two murders,
raises questions about the industry's growth and the degree of state
oversight. The last fugitives in that escape were caught Thursday, and the
state's prison director has promised changes to the private sites that house
Arizona inmates. State leaders in recent years have pushed for more
privatization and have blocked efforts to regulate the industry, which has
invested heavily in local lobbying and contributed to political campaigns.
Last year, officials approved a plan to hand over the operation of nearly
every state prison to private companies. The plan was repealed only after no
credible bidder came forward. This year, lawmakers approved 5,000 new
private-prison beds for Arizona prisoners. Data suggest that the facilities
are less cost-effective than they claim to be. A cost study by the Arizona
Department of Corrections this year found that it can often be more expensive
to house inmates in private prisons than in their state-run counterparts. A
growing industry -- Arizona's use of private prisons dates back to the early
1990s, when lawmakers, grappling with overcrowding in state facilities,
authorized the construction of a 450-bed minimum-security prison in Marana to
house drug and alcohol abusers. The prison is owned and operated by
Management & Training Corp., the Utah-based company that also operates
the Kingman facility where the three inmates escaped. Since then, Arizona has
increasingly relied on for-profit operators to manage its own inmates. It
also has allowed private companies to import prisoners from other states.
Rapid growth began in 2003 and the years immediately following, when Arizona
was again wrestling with prison overcrowding. To ease the shortage,
Republican lawmakers agreed to build 2,000 new prison beds, compromising with
a reluctant Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, to make half of them private.
Around the same time, nearly a dozen other states grappling with the same
issues began shipping their inmates to private facilities elsewhere in the
country. Arizona, with cheap land and a receptive political climate, became a
go-to destination for private-prison operators, who began accepting inmates
from as far as Washington and Hawaii. Today, Arizona houses 20.1 percent of
its prisoners in private facilities, according to state data from July.
Exactly how many inmates are here from other states is unclear. Last year,
lawmakers took the unprecedented step of exploring the privatization of
almost the entire Arizona correctional system, passing a bill that would have
turned over the state's prisons to private operators for an up-front payment
of $100 million. The payment would have helped the state close a
billion-dollar budget gap. The bill, which also included a host of changes
related to the state's budget, was signed by Gov. Jan Brewer, but the
language relating to prison privatization was repealed in a later special
session. The state now has an open contract for the construction and
operation of 5,000 new private-prison beds. Arizona's reliance on private
facilities coincides with operators' increasing national political activity
in hiring lobbyists and donating to political campaigns. The ties between the
companies and Arizona elected officials - which go back nearly a decade -
have become a campaign issue in this year's gubernatorial race.
Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest
operator of private prisons, runs six in Arizona, three of which house
inmates for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Brewer's critics have
suggested that she signed Senate Bill 1070, and has advocated for
privatization of some prisons, in part to benefit CCA's bottom line.
Democrats have called on Brewer, a Republican, to fire "aides" associated
with the prison company. That includes HighGround,
a Phoenix consulting and lobbying firm managing Brewer's gubernatorial
campaign. The firm counts CCA among its clients. Brewer's official spokesman,
Paul Senseman, also used to lobby for CCA. Campaign
finance reports filed earlier this year show that eight executives with CCA
contributed $1,080 of the $51,193 in seed money Brewer received for her
gubernatorial campaign. CCA also gave $10,000 to the "Yes on 100"
campaign, which backed a temporary, 1-cent-on-the-dollar increase in the
state's sales tax. Brewer was the chief advocate for the tax, which was
approved by voters in May. In an interview with The Arizona Republic, Brewer
said those connections have not influenced her policy decisions. She said she
never felt pressured by any of her advisers. "It's absolutely political
posturing and rhetoric," Brewer said. "I find it very
disappointing. We have a bed shortage here in Arizona, and we have to come up
with some way to incarcerate (criminals). The best way, the least expensive
way, is to do it with private prisons." The industry's political
connections have extended to other Arizona politicians. According to a 2006
report from the National Institute on Money in State Politics, the private-prison
industry gave to the campaigns of 29 of 42 Arizona lawmakers who heard a 2003
proposal to increase state private-prison beds. Between 2001 and 2004, the
industry contributed $77,267 to Arizona's legislative and gubernatorial
candidates, the vast majority through lobbyists paid to represent their
interests at the Legislature. In most cases, donations ranged from a couple
of hundred dollars to as much as $2,500. Lax oversight -- The state
Department of Corrections has varying levels of oversight of Arizona's private-prison
network. Some prisons house criminals convicted in Arizona. The Corrections
Department regulates those facilities, though private-prison critics question
whether those facilities maintain the same safety standards as their
state-run counterparts. Other private prisons house inmates from other states
or on behalf of the federal government. Arizona does not dictate what kinds
of inmates they may accept, nor the manner in which they are secured. In
those situations, private-prison operators work with their outside-government
partners on training specifications and other operational details. They
report to Arizona only the names, security classifications and number of
inmates housed at their facilities. State statutes do not require private
operators to provide Arizona officials details about the crimes the prisoners
committed or escape data. In 2007, two convicted killers sent from another
state stole ladders from a maintenance building and climbed onto a roof at a
private prison outside Florence. Brandishing a fake gun, they climbed over
the prison walls and escaped to freedom. One was caught within hours, but it
was almost a month before the other was caught hundreds of miles away in his
home state of Washington. As with the Kingman breakout, the 2007 escape drew
attention to the largely unregulated growth of private prisons in the state,
particularly prisons that house other states' inmates. To address security
concerns, a bipartisan bill drafted by Napolitano's office in 2008 and
introduced by Republican state Sen. Robert Blendu
would have required private prisons to be built to the state's construction
standards. The proposal also would have ended the practice of private prisons
importing murderers, rapists and other dangerous felons to Arizona. And it
would have required the companies to share security and inmate information
with state officials. After an initial flurry of activity, the bill died.
"The private-prison industry lobbied heavily against that bill, and they
were successful," said Michael Haener, Napolitano's lobbyist at the
time. Blendu later left the Legislature, and the
bill was not reintroduced. What little regulation private prisons have in
Arizona stems from a series of escapes in the late 1990s. In response, the
Legislature passed a law requiring the reimbursement of law-enforcement costs
from private-prison operators in the event of an escape. Arizona laws also
require companies to carry insurance to cover law-enforcement costs in cases
of escape, to notify state officials when they bring new prisoners into the
state and to return out-of-state prisoners to their home states to be
released. But there are no penalties if the companies don't comply. Costs
questioned -- Notwithstanding lawmakers' concerns about security, private prisons
gained favor in part because of the promised savings they could deliver to a
cash-strapped and overcrowded prison system. Yet studies have questioned
whether those savings are real. In making their pitches, private-prison
companies played on the desire of many lawmakers to shift more state services
to the private sector. Direct cost comparisons between for-profit and public
prisons can be difficult, however. According to the National Institute of
Justice, private prisons tend to make much lower estimates of their overhead
costs to the state for oversight, inmate health care and staff background
checks. Officials at public prisons often argue that the state winds up
paying a higher cost for those services than is advertised, mitigating
savings that private prisons are built to deliver. A study this year by the
Arizona Department of Corrections found that when various costs are factored
in, it can be more expensive to house an inmate in a private prison than it
is to house one in a state-run prison. The cost of housing a medium-security
inmate is $3 to $8 more per day in a private prison, depending on what
assumptions are made about overhead costs to the state, the study found.
Travis Pratt, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Arizona
State University, said there is no evidence that private prisons save
government agencies money, even though they typically promise up-front
savings. To maintain profit margins, Pratt said, companies often cut back on
staff training, wages and inmate services. "Cost savings like that don't
come without consequences," Pratt said. "And that can present a
security risk that's elevated." Odie Washington, a senior vice president
at Management & Training Corp., acknowledged Thursday that the Kingman prison
employed an inexperienced staff. "We have a lot of very young staff that
have not integrated into very strong security practices," Washington
said. Private-prison operators disagree with Pratt's assessment, contending
that they can deliver services efficiently and safely. "That's one of
the more frustrating misconceptions out there for us that we have to
repeatedly respond to," said Steve Owen, director of public affairs for
Corrections Corporation of America. Owen said it is CCA's "general
experience" that private prisons can save states and the federal
government 5 to 15 percent on operational costs. The company also can build
facilities more cheaply, he said. CCA is contractually required to meet or
exceed training requirements that states they work for set for themselves,
Owen said. In addition, the company has made sure its prisons in Arizona
comply with accreditation standards put in place by the American Correctional
Association, a Virginia-based trade group. Many communities, meanwhile,
eagerly welcome private prisons because the facilities generate jobs and
economic activity. CCA prisons in Florence and Eloy, for example, employ
2,700 people. Last year, the company paid $26 million in property taxes, Owen
said. What's next -- Lawmakers from both parties have called for hearings
into what went wrong in Kingman. Presumptive Democratic gubernatorial nominee
Terry Goddard has said he would push to bring back the 2008 private-prison
bill. Goddard also is calling for an immediate re-evaluation of the system
used to classify and place inmates in facilities. The five-tiered system,
which allows some violent criminals to migrate to lower-security facilities
for good behavior, met with bipartisan criticism in the wake of the escapes.
Two of the three inmates who escaped from the medium-security Kingman prison
had been convicted of murder. Goddard said the three recent escapees never
should have been in a medium-security prison. Charles Ryan, director of the
Department of Corrections, announced Thursday that the state would slow its
bidding process for the 5,000 new private-prison beds pending additional
review. Brewer has said little publicly about the escape but told The
Republic last week that she is committed to holding prison operators
responsible for mistakes they made. She said she has ordered Ryan to conduct
a "complete review to make sure that inmates are appropriately secured
and in the right kinds of facilities." While Brewer remains confident
that private prisons are well suited to house less-violent offenders, she
said: "What has happened is unacceptable, and I am absolutely pushing
for more accountability."
August 20, 2010 Arizona Star
An executive with the firm that runs the private prison from which three
dangerous inmates escaped promised Thursday to beef up security but said
that's no guarantee it won't happen again. "Escapes occur at both public
and private," Odie Washington, a vice president of Management and
Training Corp., said while noting it's incumbent on the company and state to
do whatever is necessary to close those security gaps prisoners can take
advantage of. But a security review of the MTC-run prison near Kingman,
released Thursday, reveals that what Washington referred to as
"gaps" were more like chasms. As a result, State Corrections Director
Charles Ryan has ordered 150 of the highest-risk prisoners removed. The
report shows the prison perimeter-alarm system was essentially useless. Bulbs
showing the status of the fence were burned out on a control panel. Guards
were not patrolling the fence. And a door to a dormitory that was supposed to
be locked had been propped open with a rock, helping the inmates escape.
Washington, however, said that's not the fault of the corporation. He said
company employees at Kingman never told anyone at the corporate headquarters
about the problems. Ryan admitted his own audit team, which had been to the
prison before the July 30 escape, "didn't see or didn't report" the
shortcomings. All that is significant because the three inmates escaped when
an accomplice tossed them wire cutters and they made a 30-by-22-inch hole
that went undetected for hours. Of particular concern to Ryan is the fence.
"What was found were excessive false alarms," Ryan disclosed,
noting over 16 hours on July 30 there were 89 alarms. "The system was not
maintained or calibrated." The result, he said, was employees were
"desensitized" to the alarms going off, and it took 11 to 73
minutes for staffers to check out problems and reset the alarms. "That
is absolutely unacceptable," he said. The last of the three inmates, a
convicted murderer, along with an accomplice, was recaptured Thursday night.
The other two were recaptured, but not before they were linked to the deaths
of an Oklahoma couple who were in New Mexico. "This is a terrible
tragedy, and the department and the contractor have a lot of work to
do," Ryan said. The findings prompted Ryan to put limits on what kind of
criminals can be housed at the facility. Until now, the 1,508-bed
medium-security section has included people convicted of murder. His order
removes, at least from Kingman, anyone convicted of first-degree murder,
anyone who attempted escape in the last decade and anyone with more than 20
years left on a sentence. All told, 148 inmates were taken from the facility.
But Ryan would not rule out allowing murderers back in the prison after he is
satisfied that security has been upgraded. He defended the classification
system that allows convicted murders - and even lifers - to serve their time
in medium-security prisons. Gov. Jan Brewer sidestepped questions about the
system, saying it was in place long before she became governor in January
2009. "It is something that maybe should be reviewed," the governor
said Thursday, but added, "That classification is used across America."
Ryan said he remains convinced there is a role for private prisons. About
6,400 of the more than 40,000 people behind bars in Arizona are in private
prisons. Another 1,760 Arizona prisoners are at an out-of-state facility. The
Republican-controlled Legislature remains very much in favor of private
prisons, as does Brewer. That support hasn't wavered because of the escape.
Brewer said the report from Ryan underscores her belief the escape was caused
by human error, and nothing inherent in private prisons. "It's very obvious
those alarms should have been responded to," the governor said. But the
problems that Ryan sketched out go beyond the actions - or inactions - of
guards. Washington admitted there are "significant construction
issues" with the perimeter fence and the alarm system that will have to
be handled. And Ryan found flaws with the entire way MTC allowed the facility
to be operated. For example, he said no one was making regular checks along
the fence to look for breaches. And Ryan said guards were "not effectively
controlling inmate movements" within the prison system. Other flaws
included inmates not wearing required ID badges, grooming requirements being
ignored and proper searches of people going into the facility not being done.
Casslyn Welch, the woman accused of providing the
wire cutters and a vehicle, was banned from the prison after she was caught
trying to bring in drugs. But Ryan said prison officials still allowed her to
talk to inmates on the phone, making it possible for her to help plan the
breakout. Welch and John McCluskey, her fiancée and cousin, were caught
Thursday night in northeastern Arizona. Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick
have been recaptured. Another problem is that the design of the prison allows
anyone to drive up close to the facility. Corrections officials want traffic
routed away from the fence.
August 20, 2010 AP
An unattended campfire and a suspicious forest ranger led to the arrest of
two of the most wanted fugitives in the U.S., ending a three-week nationwide
manhunt that drew hundreds of false sightings, authorities said. John
McCluskey fled July 30 with two other inmates from a private prison in
northwest Arizona and evaded authorities in at least six states before being
caught Thursday evening just 300 miles east of the prison. Authorities
arrested McCluskey, 45, and his alleged accomplice Casslyn
Welch, 44, at a campsite in the Apache-Sitgreaves
National Forest in eastern Arizona. Welch, who is McCluskey's fiancee and cousin, reached for a weapon but dropped it
when she realized she was outgunned by a swarming SWAT team, said David
Gonzales, U.S. marshal for Arizona. Officers apprehended McCluskey without
incident after finding him lying in a sleeping bag outside a tent. He told
authorities he had a gun in his tent and would have shot them if he had been
able to reach for it. It was a peaceful close to a manhunt that authorities
had said was likely to end in a bloody shootout between officers and
desperate outlaws who fancied themselves as a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde.
"The nightmare that began July 30 is finally over," Gonzales said.
The fugitives' ruse began to crumble about 4 p.m. Thursday when a U.S. Forest
Service ranger investigated what appeared to be an unattended campfire,
Gonzales said. He found a silver Nissan Sentra backed suspiciously into the
trees as if someone were trying to hide it. The ranger had a brief
conversation with McCluskey, who appeared nervous and fidgety. A SWAT team
and surveillance unit surrounded the campsite and swarmed on the fugitives,
Gonzales said. McCluskey told officers he wishes he would have shot the
forest ranger when he had the opportunity, authorities said.
August 18, 2010 AP
Past audits of the Arizona state prison where three inmates escaped last
month gave the facility high marks and revealed few issues with security or
staff training, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. The
escape on July 30 has put corrections officials and the operator of the
privately run prison under intense scrutiny in recent weeks. But if there was
an indication of any widespread security problems at the facility that houses
minimum- and medium-security inmates, it doesn't show in the internal audits.
On security issues, the audits showed overall compliance rates of 98.8
percent in 2007, 99.9 percent in 2009 and 99.5 percent in 2010. Nearly 2,870
areas of security were audited over the three years and 37 were marked as
noncompliant. One security issue was tagged in 2006. No audits were done in
2005 or 2008 because of fiscal constraints, said Arizona Department of
Corrections spokesman Barrett Marson. No independent audits of the Kingman
prison have been done. The audits instead are conducted by a team of about 15
made up of staff at the corrections department and the prison who are
considered subject matter experts. The audit team evaluates areas of the
prison that include security, training, medical, food service and business
for compliance with the state contract and other orders. A yearly schedule of
audits is available in July, giving prisons advance notice, Marson said. Ken Kopczynski, executive director of the Private Corrections
Working Group, said it's difficult to tell whether the audits are a true
reflection of the operations at the prison without attached documentation to
support the findings. The group advocates against private prisons he said
typically overwork, underpay and don't properly train the staff. "Audits
are used a lot of times to make things look like they're OK," he said.
"Maybe they are OK. I doubt it." Corrections Director Charles Ryan
has said the prison operator would correct the security deficiencies that
contributed to the escape of John McCluskey, Tracy Province and Daniel
Renwick. Criminal and administrative investigations into the escape are
ongoing. McCluskey's fiancee and cousin, Casslyn Welch, is accused of throwing wire cutters over a
perimeter fence that the men used to slice their way out and flee. Welch's
visitation privileges at the prison were terminated after a random search in
June during a visit to McCluskey turned up what was believed to be heroin.
Welch told investigators that she was paid by members or associates of a
white supremacist group to smuggle the drug into the prison but didn't say
who it was intended for. State legislators have urged corrections officials
and Gov. Jan Brewer's office to release the results of a security review done
following the escape. Corrections officials said the report still is being
written and should be released this week.
August 14, 2010 Santa Fe New Mexican
Lost in the Bonnie and Clyde tale of Arizona fugitives on the run for two
weeks is the grisly slaying of an Oklahoma couple whose bodies were found in
a burned-out travel trailer on a remote ranch in Eastern New Mexico. Police
have linked the deaths of Gary and Linda Haas last week to the inmates and
the woman who helped them escape, but they are keeping a tight lid on what
happened as the couple traveled to an annual camping trip with friends in
Colorado. Family and friends say they have no idea how the Haases' paths would have crossed with escaped convicts
John McCluskey and Tracy Province and their accomplice, Casslyn
Welch. Blood inside the couple's pickup — found days later in Albuquerque —
makes the family certain of one thing: The 61-year-olds put up a fight.
"So much of the story has been the bad guys this and the bad guys
that," said Cathy Byus, the Haases' daughter. "That's important too. We want
them out there too, but we don't want people to forget the human side of
this."
August 14, 2010 Las Vegas Review-Journal
Key personnel have resigned their posts at a privately operated state prison
where three dangerous inmates escaped last month. The Management &
Training Corporation, which houses 3,500 minimum- and medium-security inmates
at the Arizona State Prison-Kingman, confirmed the departures Friday.
"MTC accepted the resignation of Warden Lori Lieder and her unit's chief
of security this week," MTC spokesman Carl Stuart said. Lieder and the
security chief were administrators at the Hualapai Unit, the medium security
wing of the complex from which the inmates made their July 30 getaway.
Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan said he has directed
changes and upgrades in security and operations protocols at the prison.
Increased perimeter patrols and increased control and restriction of inmate
movement within the units are among his directives. MTC operates 11 private
prisons, including two in Arizona.
August 13, 2010 USA Today
An Arizona fugitive's accomplice was acting as a drug mule for a white
supremacy group and agreed to become a police informant weeks before she
helped him escape from prison, authorities said Friday. Casslyn
Welch, and her fiance and cousin John McCluskey,
are now considered among the most wanted fugitives in America after authorities
say Welch helped McCluskey and two other men escape from the Arizona State
Prison in Kingman by throwing wire cutters over a fence. Daniel Renwick and
Tracy Province have since been captured. Welch was visiting McCluskey at the
medium-security prison in June when a random search of Welch and her vehicle
turned up marijuana, heroin and drug paraphernalia, Mohave County sheriff's
spokeswoman Trish Carter said. Welch wasn't jailed because she agreed to
become an informant, and she provided information about the suppliers of the
drugs, Carter said. Welch told investigators she was being paid by members or
associates of supremacists to smuggle heroin into the prison as she had
successfully done three times before, but she declined to say who the items
were intended for at the prison. Fidencio Rivera,
chief deputy U.S. marshal for Arizona, said authorities believe Welch and
McCluskey have minimal ties to white supremacy groups in or out of prisons
and "we're not expending much resources on that right now."
Investigative efforts were focused Friday in Arkansas, where Welch has
family, and Montana, where the two were last seen Aug. 6, but Rivera said the
pair could be anywhere. They are financing their getaway by committing crimes
along the way and using their experience as long-haul truck drivers, Rivera
said. "Our stance is they're being very reactionary at this point and
time, playing off the cuff," he said. A reward of up to $35,000 is being
offered for information leading to their arrest. They are believed to be
traveling in a 1997 Nissan Sentra that is gold, gray or tan in color, and
authorities say that the two likely will become more dangerous as the manhunt
continues. Marshals are asking travelers at truck stops along highways and in
campgrounds across the nation to watch out for the couple, who may have dyed
their hair and otherwise changed their appearance. "We know they're out
there and they're committing crimes out there to get money," Rivera
said. "They have limited funds, they're sleeping in their car, they're
staying at rest stops, campsites. They're not using a whole lot of
money." Marshals and border officials in Montana are following up on
what leads they have, but there have been no developments in the past few
days, said Rod Ostermiller, Montana's acting U.S.
marshal. "At this point in time, just because of the time frame we're
working with, we're expanding way beyond Montana," Ostermiller
said Friday afternoon. Welch is facing a growing list of charges since the
July 31 escape, including kidnapping, armed robbery and aggravated assault.
She was charged last week with six counts of narcotics violations for the
drugs she's accused of bringing to the prison. Welch told investigators in
June that the marijuana belonged to her, Carter said, but she picked up what
she was told was heroin packaged in balloons from two men in Phoenix and was
paid $200 each time she smuggled it into the prison, according to police
records. On the night of the escape, Welch had packed a getaway car nearby
with cash, weapons and false identification, Rivera has said. But Renwick,
Province, McCluskey became disoriented and could not find the car after they
cut through the prison fence. The group split up, and Renwick found the
vehicle and drove off, leaving the other three to hijack a tractor-trailer
and head to Flagstaff. Renwick, who was serving time for second-degree
murder, was arrested after a shootout with law enforcement in Rifle, Colo.,
two days after t |
