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Alexander
Youth Services Center
(AKA Arkansas
Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center)
Alexander, Arkansas
Group 4 (formerly run by Cornell)
January 26, 2008 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The state's youth detention center near Alexander has been accredited for the
first time by a national correctional association. But while officials
expressed optimism that the center's beleaguered past was nearing an end, two
days later they were explaining a Jan. 19 incident involving mistreatment of
a teenager that resulted in the firing of three staff members. The private
Virginia-based company, G4S, operates the 140-bed detention center under a
contract with the state Youth Services Division. Officials said Wednesday the
American Correctional Association inspected the quality of life, security,
food service, medical care and educational programs in November at the
Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center, and later accredited the
facility. Center administrator Todd Speight said he viewed accreditation as a
sign that the center was making progress. "I see this as turning a
corner," Speight said. "We've got a long way to go, but we're
making good progress." The previous contractor, Houston-based Cornell
Companies Inc., was fired in late 2006. G4S has run the center for about a
year. Previously known as the Alexander Youth Services Center or the
Alexander Juvenile Correctional Facility, the center is the state's largest
youth residential treatment facility. Two days after announcing the
accreditation, officials said one staff member lost his job for using
inappropriate physical force and two others were fired for trying to protect
him. Speight said a male employee physically restrained a 17-year-old boy in
a dormitory in a manner that was "completely inappropriate." He
said two others were fired for misleading investigators because the original
report attempted to conceal the nature of the scuffle. Speight, who did not
disclose the employees' names, said he was disappointed by the firings, but
stressed that center employees are hard workers who try to do their best.
"These three did something inappropriate and were held
accountable," he said. The Bryant Police Department and the Arkansas
State Police are investigating. Scott Tanner, a state ombudsman for juvenile
justice issues, said the teenager apparently suffered a sore ankle but his
safety was not an issue. "This doesn't seem to be standard operating
procedure, but something out of the ordinary," Tanner said. The center's
history includes incidents of abuse, mismanagement and educational shortfalls.
In 2003, the state and the U.S. Justice Department signed a court agreement
to improve shortcomings in fire prevention, suicide prevention, religious
policies and educational programs.
July 25, 2007 Arkansas News
The state is developing a plan to improve special education programs at
an embattled state lockup for troubled youth, officials told lawmakers
Tuesday. Special education at the Alexander Juvenile Correction Facility were
found lacking in a report last month. "Yes, we intend to fix the
problems out there," former state Rep. Steve Jones, now deputy director
of the state Department of Human Services, told lawmakers at a meeting
Tuesday. DHS oversees the Division of Youth Services, which runs the
Alexander unit and other juvenile facilities in the state. During the
meeting, legislators expressed concern with a June report by the state
Department of Education, which found that DHS is not in compliance with
several state and federal regulations regarding the Individuals with
Disabilities Act. The report found procedures for the evaluation of specific
learning disabilities were lacking at the Alexander facility, which houses
some of the state's most violent youth offenders. Other problem areas
included individualized education programs and, in some cases, children were
advanced a grade even though DYS was not providing an appropriate education
to them. Also, parents of the children were not being informed of their
rights regarding special education programs. "Just because a kid is in
jail doesn't mean they don't deserve a good education," said Sen. Kim
Hendren, R-Gravette, upset with DYS. About 500 children a year stay at the
143-bed facility in Saline County. Marcia Harding, associate director of
special education for the state Department of Education, told lawmakers DYS
is supposed to present a correction action on how it plans to deal with some
of the problem on Aug. 1. A plan to address the rest is due Sept. 15. The
officials addressed a joint meeting of the Senate Committee on Children and
Youth and the House Committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and
Military Affairs. Also during the meeting, Hendren and other lawmakers said
they did not understand why the special-needs education deficiencies
identified in a study two years ago have still not been addressed. "Who
is in charge of getting this mess fixed?" Hendren asked, saying he did
not want to "beat this up time and time again." DHS Director John
Selig agreed the problems should have been addressed, but he said a variety
circumstances, including the firing of the facilities management, Cornell
Cos. Inc., in November, and the hiring of G4S Youth Services in January, were
partially to blame.
June 19, 2007 The Morning News
A new report identifying problems in the special education program at the
former Alexander Youth Services Center -- some of which were previously
identified in a 2005 study -- drew frustrated comments Monday from
legislative panels that oversee the state's youth lockups. "It seems
we're planning ourselves to death but we're not getting anything
accomplished," said state Rep. Bobby Pierce, D-Sheridan, during a joint
meeting of the House and Senate committees on children and youth. In a report
released this month, the state Education Department cites about 50 practices
at the facility, now known as the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment
Center, that don't comply with state and federal regulations under the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The department has directed the
Division of Youth Services to develop a plan of action for correcting the
problems. Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, said that on visits to the
facility in Saline County she has been "extremely unimpressed" with
the educational practices she saw, which she said seemed to consist of youths
playing on a computer. "Do we have any way of determining if they're
really learning something, or if we're just letting a computer baby-sit
them?" she asked. The House chairwoman, Rep. Linda Chesterfield,
D-Little Rock, said a lack of sufficient information gathering is one of the
problems highlighted in the report. Chesterfield said scrutiny is needed for
the educational services the state provides to all youth in custody, not only
those in need of special education. Scott Tanner, ombudsman coordinator for
the state Public Defender Commission, testified that the Division of Youth
Services has had chronic problems with its education system at least since
2000, the year he became an ombudsman. Education services at the facility are
provided by Group 4 Securicor, the private company that took over operation
of the facility in January. The state fired the facility's previous operator,
Cornell Companies, in November after a state investigation found evidence
that psychotropic drugs may have been administered improperly to some youths
as a restraint. The facility also was investigated in 2005, after 17-year-old
Lakeisha Brown died from a blood clot in her lungs two days after complaining
to staff that she felt ill. Cornell was ordered to revamp some of its
policies as a result of that investigation. Madison asked Monday whether it
would be more appropriate for the education of youth in custody to be
undertaken by the state rather than a private company. Education Department
attorney Scott Smith said he did not believe it would. Trying to incorporate
students in custody into the state's public education system would require
compliance with numerous state and federal mandates that currently are
waived, he said. "The reason I ask is, there's something wrong with the
picture in my mind when you have state agencies .....
firmly committed to a free public education, and then we turn around and hire
a private company to deliver that," Madison said. "I just have a
hard time thinking that that's a good idea." Steve Jones, a former state
representative who recently became deputy director of the Department of
Health and Human Services, told the committee the Division of Youth Services
is working on a plan to correct the problems. Rep. Dawn Creekmore, D-Hensley,
noted that the division developed a plan of action previously, after a 2005
report cited problems with the facility's educational system. "It's time
to quit putting plans of action on paper and time to bring something to the
table, take some action, physical action, for improvement. These children are
still here, and we're just letting them down continuously, year after year
after year," she said. "It is children that the state Department of
Education is all about, and it is children that DYS is all about,"
Chesterfield said. "Somewhere the bureaucratic -- we're not going to use
the alliterative -- the bureaucratic stuff, if you will, has got to be
overcome for the children." Jones assured the committees the division
would achieve real results.
April 21, 2007 AP
Two employees at the Alexander Juvenile Correctional Facility have been
fired after allegations that they physically abused a 15-year-old girl, the
lockup's administrator said. Todd Speight, facility administrator, said two
employees were fired because of an incident involving the girl, but
emphasized there are many more employees who are trying hard to be a positive
influence on the youths. "Our philosophy is we will treat kids right. We
truly believe we will turn Alexander around. Not a doubt," Speight said.
"We understand there are going to be some negative things at a program
that large but we are all about correcting those things with oversight and
supervision." The girl, who had been at Alexander for about four months,
called advocacy group Disability Rights Center in early April to report the
abuse. The teen told the group's investigator that on March 25 she lost
consciousness while she was restrained on the floor of her dorm, according to
a report released by the Disability Rights Center. While the group was
investigating, the girl's family called and reported that she had bruises on
her body from another restraint on April 10. This is the fourth incident at
Alexander investigated by the Disability Rights Center, which has released
reports on the allegations of abuse to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
"It's not just one bad thing that we can say, 'It happened but we fixed
it,' and can go on," said Dana McClain, a senior attorney with
Disability Rights Center. "It's an ongoing thing." The center is
run by G4S Youth Services, which took over after the state fired the previous
contractor, Cornell Cos. Inc. Cornell was fired after allegations that nurses
inappropriately gave anti- psychotic medications to calm bad behavior. Julie
Munsell, a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Human Services, said the
agency is closely watching G4S' work at Alexander. "We want to send a
very clear message that change is still going on out at Alexander, very
positive change," Munsell said. "We've seen a change in the
demeanor not only of the staff but also of the campus as a whole."
March 16, 2007 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Advocates investigating a claim of abuse by a teenager at the Alexander
Juvenile Correctional Facility say employees failed to help the boy even as
his screams could be heard behind a closed door in an office without a
surveillance camera, according to a report released to the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette on Thursday. In its eight-page report, the Disability Rights
Center claims the 15- year-old boy was restrained on the ground for too long
during an obscenity-laced encounter with staff members. The advocacy group
released its report to the state and to G4S Youth Services, the company that
runs the facility, and is calling for disciplinary action against some
employees. G4S is investigating the incident with renewed vigor, said John
Morgenthau, the company’s chief operating officer and vice president.
January 18, 2007 KATV
Lawmakers said Thursday they plan to study the future of the Alexander
youth lockup--and whether they should continue using private companies to run
the facility. The Joint Budget Committee reviewed a $4.9 million contract for
G4S Youth Services of Virginia, which will take control of the Alexander
juvenile facility beginning Sunday. John Selig, director of Department of
Health and Human Services, told lawmakers he's confident the company will
provide better management than Cornell Companies, which was fired last year
for inappropriately injecting children with antipsychotic medications. State
Senator Shane Broadway, a Democrat from Bryant, says he wants the Legislature
to have more oversight of the youth facility. Broadway says he hopes there is
further discussion on the future of the lockup.
January 11, 2007 Arkansas News Bureau
The state Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to enter
into a short-term contract with a company to operate the troubled Alexander
Juvenile Correctional Facility in Saline County, agency officials said
Wednesday. The agency has signed a $4.5 million contract with G4S Youth Services
in Richmond, Va., a division of the British-based Group 4 Securicor, for the
company to operate the facility from Jan. 21 through June 30, DHHS
spokeswoman Julie Munsell said. The contract is pending approval by the
Department of Finance and Administration. At the end of the six-month period,
the state will have the option of renewing the contract for an additional
year, Munsell said. Munsell said no bids were taken because the agreement was
reached under emergency procedures. The agency considered the situation an
emergency because of safety and welfare concerns for the 143 youths at the
facility, she said. The state fired Cornell Companies, the Pennsylvania-based
company that previously ran the facility, in November after a state
investigation indicated psychotropic drugs may have been administered
improperly to some youths to restrain them. Munsell said Cornell is still at
the site, but the state has been in charge since Nov. 3.
December 12, 2006 Arkansas News
Discussions are going well with a British-based corporation that may be asked
to take over operation of the problem-plagued Alexander Youth Services Center
in Saline County, officials told legislators Monday. John Selig, director of
the state Department of Health and Human Services, said the agency is in
discussions with Group 4 Securicor, or G4S, about the possibility of assuming
operation of the center. The British first would take over for
Pennsylvania-based Cornell Companies. DHHS terminated its contract with the
Cornell this summer after announcing an investigation discovered that staff
at the center may have administered psychotropic drugs to some youths as a
restraint. Speaking at a joint meeting of the House and Senate Committees on
Public Health, Welfare and Labor, Selig said the agency contacted health
services agencies in other states for advice on replacing Cornell, and G4S'
name came up.
November 5, 2006 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
An advocacy group that has been monitoring Alexander Youth Services Center
for months said Saturday that Arkansas isn’t meeting the mental health,
education and special education needs of the children at the troubled
facility as required by the U. S. Department of Justice and state law.
Problems at the center are systemic, said Dana McClain, a senior attorney
with the Disability Rights Center, a federally funded Little Rock nonprofit
that assists disabled Arkansans. “We don’t think this is rehabilitation, and
state law says it is supposed to be [for youthful offenders
]. I think it’s punishment,” she said. “I feel like these children are
being set up to go to adult prison.” At some point, she said, the youthful
offenders at the lockup will get out, “and you hope when they do they’ve got
a better shot at being productive members of society.” A draft copy of the
group’s lengthy report detailing “failures” at the center in Saline County
was given to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Saturday — a day after the state
unexpectedly ended its contract with Cornell Cos. Inc., a Houston company
that ran the center for the past five years. An internal investigation found
that employees were “inappropriately” drugging youthful offenders with
psychotropic drugs to control bad behavior. The state was paying Cornell
about $ 10 million annually. News about the forced medications, sometimes
given without a doctor’s order, prompted some legislators and others to renew
calls Friday to shut down the state’s largest lockup for youthful offenders.
The Disability Rights Center report, which outlines about 50 problems, is
expected to be released publicly later this week. McClain said her group will
meet with the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday to discuss
the findings. Monitors for Disability Rights have been making unannounced
visits, as allowed by federal statute, to the center at least three times a
month since March. “Under the contract these are things Cornell was
responsible for providing,” McClain said. “I hope [Health and Human Services ] doesn’t just address that one issue [about the
medication ]. This is a good time to do more because they are starting anew.”
The agency has been responsive so far, McClain noted. Cornell, however,
didn’t address some of the major concerns that Mc-Clain
said she repeatedly talked to company employees about. Julie Munsell, Health
and Human Services spokesman, said her agency has received a copy of the
report but she declined to comment about the details until it is published
and officials meet with the group’s representatives. Health and Human
Services is the umbrella agency over the Youth Services Division, which now
operates the youth lockup. In general, Munsell said, the state has made many
strides since entering into a settlement agreement with the Department of
Justice in March 2003 after a federal investigation found civil rights
violations in the delivery of mental-health care, education, fire safety and
freedom of religious expression at the center. Still, more work is needed,
particularly with the center’s education system, she acknowledged. “We do
still struggle with education issues at Alexander, and we’ve been working
with the Department of Education to improve those issues,” she said. “We will
always strive to get to an ideal setting, but it will take us time to get
there.” The Justice Department hasn’t visited the center since January. Over
the years, the youths at the Alexander center have complained that employees
kicked, slapped and even threatened them with death. Others killed
themselves. One boy, known for days to be suicidal, was able to hang himself
a few years ago with a bedsheet. An investigation later found that his guard
didn’t check on him. Another boy hanged himself in the same cell just a few
months later — just as the state hired Cornell to take over the facility and
fix its problems. And last year, a 17-year-old girl at the center died of
blood clots in her lungs. She complained to nurses and supervisors that she
was ill, but they didn’t believe her, even as she lay dying, according to a
subsequent investigation. Munsell said her agency plans to work with the
Disability Rights Center to address the group’s concerns. The Department of
Justice couldn’t be reached for comment Saturday. During visits to the lockup,
McClain said monitors found: Youths watching Harry Potter movies during
science class on more than one occasion. A student sleeping on his keyboard,
even though a teacher was sitting at a desk in the same classroom. No
teacher-led reading program, even though at least 50 percent of the youthful
offenders at the center have difficulties reading, and in some cases, can’t
read at all. (An ombudsman who regularly visits the center said the youths
are supposed to use a computer-based reading program at their own pace, but
he has seen no evidence that such a system has.
November 4, 2006 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas terminated its contract with Cornell Cos. Inc. to run the
troubled Alexander Youth Services Center on Friday after learning that
employees were drugging youths to control unruly behavior — in many cases
without doctors ’ orders, in violation of facility policy and against the
children’s wills. A preliminary investigation found that from Sept. 1 to Oct.
15, nurses at the center gave 63 injections ofanti-psychotic
drugs that have a sedative effect, including Thorazine, to 25 children in the
center’s custody. “There is an appropriate circumstance under which you can
give a chemical restraint,” said Julie Munsell, spokesman for the state
Department of Health and Human Services. “Our concern is that in many of
these cases, they appear not to have been appropriate.” The internal
investigation into the use of chemical restraints triggered a series of
events: The Health and Human Services Department placed three Alexander
employees on administrative leave, the state Board of Nursing was notified,
and Gov. Mike Huckabee ordered a review of Cornell’s policies as well as an
Arkansas State Police investigation into what happened. State police
investigators are working through the weekend so that they can give Huckabee
a preliminary report Monday. Munsell said her agency gave state police its
investigative file, which is a foot thick. “Although we hired a nationally
reputable contractor to provide services, this appears to be a second major
breakdown in the facility’s medical system, and we are no longer confident in
the management at the Alexander campus,” Health and Human Services Director
John Selig said Friday afternoon. Last year, investigators with the Health
and Human Services Department uncovered widespread problems with the medical
system at Alexander after 17-year-old inmate Keisha Brown died from blood
clots to her lungs. Brown had repeatedly complained that she was ill but some
nurses and supervisors at the center did not believe her — even in the last
minutes of her life. “Some of us have had concerns with the contract ever
since the incident of Keisha Brown’s death,” said Sen. Sue Madison,
D-Fayetteville. “We were concerned that her medical care was not what it
should have been.” After Keisha’s death, Sen. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs,
urged the Health and Human Services Department to end its contract with
Cornell and blasted state officials for not better monitoring the for-profit
company. Upon learning about the state’s decision Friday night, Smith said,
“I told you so. “Apparently this company is not on top of things, and the
state employees [who ] are over this are not on top
of things. No one is checking on anybody, and this is what happened. It’s just
terrible.” In a five-page summary, Health and Human Services Department
internal investigators outlined several policy violations and other findings
from the 45-day review: Evidence of “falsifying” doctors’ orders on at least
two occasions to show that the child should receive injections “as needed.”
The original orders did not include that option. Evidence from video
surveillance tapes and interviews with the children that some of the inmates
were given the injections against their will. Policy allows youths to refuse
the injections so long as it is not an emergency situation in which the child
may endanger himself or others. Physician order sheets for some of the
children that did not include orders for the injections. Eleven incidents
during which the doctor gave a verbal order to use the medication but never
signed any documents, which is required. No evidence that orders for use of
“PRN medications,” which means give as needed, were reviewed annually as
required. No evidence that a second physician reviewed orders for forced
injections as required. No evidence that an independent psychiatrist reviewed
the orders for forced injections, as required to ensure the children’s right
to due process. Evidence that employees did not properly document the use of
the injections. The lack of documentation made it harder for investigators to
piece together exactly what happened during those 45 days, Munsell said. Over
the years, the inmates at Alexander have complained that employees kicked,
slapped and even threatened them with death. Others killed themselves while
there. One boy, known for days to be suicidal, was able to hang himself with
a bed sheet because his guard didn’t check on him. Another boy hanged himself
in the same cell just a few months later — just as the state hired Cornell
Cos. Inc. to take over the facility and fix problems there. In 2002, the U.
S. Department of Justice found that dozens of problems remained. Most have
since been resolved. The center also is used as an intake facility for all children
who come into the state detention system.
December 29, 2005 Benton Courier
A report on the escape of two 17-year-old prisoners in the state youth lockup
at Alexander says guards sleeping on the job was one of the reasons the boys
were able to break free. The report also says someone inside the facility may
have known of the escape plans. Four staff members have been fired from the
facility run by the private Cornell Companies. The 12-page report by the
state Division of Youth Services says staff members lied about a head count
and that a number of guards were asleep when the two escaped. In the short
time before Bryant police caught Villegas and Lamberth,
the two allegedly burglarized and vandalized Zion Lutheran Church in the
Avilla community. The teenagers allegedly stole $140 and took off in the
church's van. The report says one of the boys admitted taking a key from the
staff desk and unlocking the door to their dorm a week before the escape. The
report said the boys got over razor wire by putting a bath mat over it. State
Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Julie Munsell said the
agency is addressing the problems outlined in the report. "It does show
them walking past the staff member who was not moving at the time which indicates
perhaps that employee was asleep and, according to interviews with clients,
that's what happened at the time," Munsell said. "We had multiple
system failures; that's what we really want to address," Munsell said.
Munsell said one worker falsified a log "because she did not know how
long the youth had been gone. ... She was nervous about the outcome of
that." "It is very disconcerting. I think that you have employees
exhibiting gross negligence on the job, which is why the expectation is that
you take aggressive action," Munsell said.
December 10, 2005 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Two 17-yearold boys face adult prison time, and a private corrections company
suspended five employees without pay after an early Friday morning escape
from the Alexander Youth Services Center near Bryant. Police said they
tracked Benjamin Lamberth and Rusty Villegas as
they attempted to flee toward Lamberth's home in
Cherokee Village by intercepting cell phone calls, nabbing them about nine
hours later in a stolen church van near Cave City. Lamberth
and Villegas asked to go to the bathroom, then reportedly bolted through an
emergency exit door at Alexander about 1 a. m. They scaled the perimeter
fence, draping a shower mat over the razor wire, said Julie Munsell,
spokesman for the Department of Human Services. The emergency exit door
should have been locked, she said, guessing that the boys had a key.
"This was not something spontaneous. They had been planning this for
several weeks," she said. Apparently, the teenagers opened the doors without
touching a bar that would have triggered a security alarm, she said. Bryant
police were not notified until 4 a. m., when the boys were found missing
during a routine check. The three hours it took for center officials to
realize the boys had escaped will be the subject of an internal
investigation. Several security checks should have been made during that
period, Munsell said. The state reached a legal agreement with the U. S.
Department of Justice in 2003 to eliminate deficits in training and unsafe conditions
at the youth lockup. Some minor education and health record issues remain to
be resolved before the state can be released from federal supervision,
Munsell said Friday. In April 2005, 17-year-old LaKeisha Brown died of blood
clots to her lungs while at the center. State and company investigations
found lapses in care and violations of state and facility policy in her
treatment. A programs supervisor and nursing manager resigned and three
employees were disciplined.
October 26, 2005 Record Times
LaKeisha Brown likely had been suffering from blood clots in her lungs for at
least two days and possibly as long as two weeks before she collapsed at the
Alexander Youth Services Center and then died on April 9, the state medical
examiner said Tuesday. A preliminary autopsy report released soon after
17-year-old "Keisha" died listed the cause of death as blood clots
from her legs that traveled to her lungs. Last week, her mother, Juana
Michelle Brown, gave the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette a copy of the final autopsy
report, which she had just received. Autopsies are not public records in
Arkansas. Dr. Charles Kokes, the state medical
examiner, explained aspects of the final report in an interview Tuesday.
"I think if she somehow had been diagnosed in the days prior to her
death, it's possible she could have survived," Kokes
said, but added that a pulmonary thromboembolism - the medical term for a
blood clot in the lungs - can be difficult to detect. Keisha's medical
records show that both nurses and some facility managers believed she was
faking sickness for attention at the time of her death. An investigation this
summer by the state Board of Nursing found that nurses at Alexander did not
provide the teenage inmate with adequate medical care in the days before her
death and violated facility policy and state nursing laws. Another
investigation by the state Youth Services Division found that senior
management "was negligent" because it did not ensure systems were
in place to provide Keisha the medical care she needed. Because of Keisha's
death, the Youth Services Division of the state Department of Health and
Human Services uncovered widespread problems with the medical system at the
state's largest lockup for youthful offenders, the head of the Youth Services
Division told state legislators this summer. The problems, Kenneth Hales
explained, have been or are being corrected. For one, the state, which has
contracted with the private company Cornell Cos. Inc. to run Alexander, has
begun auditing medical files of youths at the facility to ensure they are
receiving proper care. Before Keisha's death, the state only audited the
company to make sure it was meeting contractual obligations in operating the
facility. This summer, Cornell fired two contract nurses, the center's nurse
manager and its program supervisor, who also is the second-in-command at the
Alexander center, Jane Miller, director of behavioral health services for
Cornell, has said. Three other employees were disciplined, and more than a
dozen quit. Cornell has apologized for Keisha's death but maintains it is not
at fault.
October 22, 2005 Arkansas News
The company that operates Alexander Youth Services Center has revamped many
of its medical policies in response to the death of a teenager at the center
earlier this year, a company representative said Friday. Testifying before
the Arkansas Legislative Council, the employee of Cornell Companies Inc. said
more nurses were hired and "sick call" rules for youth housed at
the facility were changed following the April death of 17-year-old Lakeisha
Brown. A state investigation found nurses at the 349-bed juvenile detention
center may not have immediately responded to Brown's health complaints. The
cause of Brown's death was a blood clot in her lungs. An investigation by
Cornell found no direct link between Brown's death and inaction by Cornell
personnel. Four employees resigned and one was fired after the incident.
According to Cornell's corrective action plan, no nurses employed at
Alexander at the time of Brown's death are still working at the center.
August 11, 2005 AP
The death of a 17-year-old at the Alexander Youth Services Center in April,
and the investigation that resulted, uncovered widespread problems at the
facility, a state official says. Kenneth Hales, director of the Division of
Youth Services in the state Department of Human Services, told state
legislators Wednesday that "systematic weaknesses" turned up when
officials took a close look at the circumstances of LaKeisha Brown's April 7
death, after she had collapsed at the youth lockup from a blood clot in her
lungs. "It was not just LaKeisha," Hales said. Investigations
showed that staff members violated the policies of the facility, operated
under contract by Cornell Companies Inc. of Houston, as well as DHS
regulations and state regulations for nurses. Julie Munsell, a spokesman for
the agency, said DHS had regularly audited the Alexander center to confirm
that Cornell was meeting its contractual obligations. But she said those
auditors were not trained to evaluate the medical procedures and policies
being used by the company. "That is something that we have had to ask
for some additional assistance to evaluate, because our auditors are not
clinicians," Munsell said. "The audit is just not designed to do that."
Hales told the Legislature's Joint Performance Review Committee that a review
of procedures showed that, when an inmate reported being sick, "it was
difficult to tell what the response to that sick call was." "When
the nurses examined a youth, you couldn't tell what they saw or what they
concluded to do following that examination," he said. The
investigations also found that nurses at the facility lacked supervision,
were poorly trained and weren't given good instruction on what their
supervisors expected of them, Hales said.
August 3, 2005 AP
Two top managers lost their jobs at a state youth lockup where a teenager
died and three other employees received reprimands, according to the private
firm that runs the facility. Houston-based Cornell Cos. Inc. also said
Tuesday that, in response to the April death of 17-year-old LaKeisha Brown,
it had put in place an action plan that includes better orientation and
training procedures for all staff and an organizational chart with clearly
defined lines of authority. DHS spokesman Julie Munsell said Tuesday evening
that Cornell officials had informed the agency that program director Joann
McCoy and nurse manager Polly King were no longer employed at the Alexander
center. She said the officials did not say whether the two were fired or
resigned. Additionally, three employees received written reprimands: licensed
practical nurses Holly Clark and Kim Clough and an unnamed member of the
facility's clerical staff, Munsell said. The company found more than a dozen
problems with Brown's care. Among them were: The center's top managers did
not adequately review Brown's care after her death and nurses inadequately
responded to her when she collapsed repeatedly and complained of shortness of
breath and exhaustion in the days and hours before her death.
July 28, 2005 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Disciplinary action expected against some employees at Alexander Youth
Services Center for the way they handled 17-year-old LaKeisha Brown has been
delayed, a spokesman for a private company that runs the youth lockup
facility for the state said Wednesday. Cornell Cos. Inc. spokesman Lisa Tauser had said Tuesday that a team of company employees
were meeting that night to implement personnel changes recommended after the
Houston-based company investigated the April 9 death of "Keisha."
In a report released Tuesday, a team of Cornell employees suggested the
company suspend nurses who responded to or cared for Keisha when she
collapsed repeatedly and complained of shortness of breath and exhaustion in
the last days and hours of her life. A preliminary autopsy report shows that
Keisha died of blood clots to the lungs. The team also said "senior
management" should be held "strictly accountable" for failing
to ensure the necessary systems were in place so that Keisha would receive
the proper medical care. An unidentified clerical employee also should be
"disciplined" and placed under stricter supervision for making a
decision about Keisha's care without calling a doctor or nurse, the report
shows. Cornell's investigation found more than a dozen problems with her
care. The team noted that the facility's top managers did not adequately
review Keisha's care after her death and that nurses "inadequately"
addressed Keisha's medical concerns. Her records show that the nurses did not
believe she was really sick and did not call a doctor until she was
unconscious. Keisha had been at Alexander, the state's largest juvenile
lockup, for nearly two years after being adjudicated for drug possession,
rape and inciting a riot. Last week, the State Board of Nursing released a
report saying that six nurses at the center violated state nursing
regulations in the way they dealt with Keisha. The board now is conducting
additional investigations to determine discipline for each nurse.
July 27, 2005 Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette
Senior management at Alexander Youth Services Center should be "held
accountable" for failing to ensure 17-year-old LaKeisha Brown received
the proper care before she died, and nurses there should be suspended for
inadequately addressing her needs, a private company that runs the facility
for the state has decided. A clerical employee working in the
facility's medical unit also should be "disciplined" and placed
under stricter supervision for making a decision about the care Keisha
received without consulting a doctor or nurse, according to a Cornell Cos.
Inc. report released by the Department of Human Services on Tuesday
evening. Facility Director Bob McCracken, a Cornell employee, did not
return a message for comment Tuesday. The recommendation to dole out
punishment is part of a twopage report detailing
the investigation Cornell conducted last month of its own operations after
Keisha died April 9 of a suspected blood clot to the lungs. Cornell's investigation
comes after critical investigations by the state Division of Youth Services
and the Arkansas State Board of Nursing, both of which found that employees
and nurses broke protocol in the way they handled Keisha. Cornell's
investigation, conducted by a team of employees of the Houston-based company,
found more than a dozen problems with her care. The team noted that the
facility's top managers did not adequately review Keisha's care after her
death. The Cornell investigation also found that nurses at the facility
"inadequately" responded to Keisha's needs when she collapsed
repeatedly and complained of shortness of breath and exhaustion in the days
and hours before her death. Keisha's medical records show that the nurses did
not believe she was really sick and did not call a doctor until she was
unconscious. Keisha had been at Alexander, the state's largest juvenile
lock-up, for nearly two years after being adjudicated for drug possession,
rape and inciting a riot. The report also states that the facility's
ability to handle medical emergencies at the time was "inadequate or
nonexistent," that "senior management" was negligent when it
failed to ensure all systems were in place to provide Keisha with the care
she needed and that nurses were more focused on dealing with Keisha's
complaints internally than evaluating her medical condition. The Nursing
Board investigated the actions of nurses at the facility. Last week, the
board released a report saying that six nurses at the center violated state
nursing regulations in the way they dealt with Keisha. The Nursing
Board is now conducting additional investigations to determine what
discipline each nurse will receive and whether they will be able to keep
their licenses. State legislators also have been critical of the
company. In the past two months, they have called for additional
investigations into Keisha's death, leading to the Nursing Board report.
Other legislators suggested that the state find another company to oversee
the Alexander center, but no such action has been taken.
July 25, 2005 Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette
Now that we know that workers at Alexander Youth Services Center broke the
rules, what are we going to do about it?
Someone in a position of real power and authority ought to be asking this question,
because breaking rules is serious business, you know. Break enough of them,
or at least the wrong ones, and somebody could get hurt or even die.
Which, of course, somebody did. Her name was LaKeisha Brown. She was 17. The
official cause was blood clots in her lungs, but just between us, I believe
she was ignored to death. The state Board of Nursing has completed its
inquiry and found that a state law and several regulations were violated by
some of Keisha's purported caretakers. Altogether, four staff nurses and two
contract nurses were identified as being involved in one or more of the
infractions. In case you missed reporter Amy Upshaw's comprehensive
report, found in Thursday's editions, here are the highlights of the board's
inquiry. No evidence has been found that the registered nurses on duty
when Brown repeatedly collapsed before succumbing were supervising the
licensed practical nurses on the scene. Three of the workers who
assessed Keisha's condition and made decisions about her (lack of) medical
care were LPNs, not RNs as required. Five workers knowingly or
consistently failed to accurately or intelligibly report or document Keisha's
condition. Five staffers failed to notify the designated physician of
Keisha's worsening condition over the course of three days. Now that
this inquiry is over, what's next? According to Upshaw's report, the nursing
board now plans to investigate each nurse's particular involvement in the
case with an eye toward considering whether to take some action against them.
Isn't that special? OK, so due process is the path we follow in these
parts, and it's better to take things one step at a time rather than jump the
gun. But a 17-year-old girl is dead and someone needs to answer for that.
Clearly, state law enforcement officials, who also investigated this
"sudden" death that was several days in coming, have closed the
books on it and no prosecutors have been heard from. Apparently, continued
investigation by the nursing board is the only avenue still open. State
Sen. Shane Broadway, one of the handful of lawmakers who have expressed shock
and outrage at Keisha's death, the details of which were first publicized by
Upshaw, understands that there are two points of concern here. The first,
obviously, is the death of one person. The second is the quality of the care
given to others still in her circumstances, i.e., consigned against their
will to the juvenile detention facility at Alexander. "You're
talking about a lot of children's lives," Broadway said last week. "The
quality of care is very important. It's important that we treat each child
even though they have many difficulties. They're still in state custody, and
they are our responsibility." I suppose technically they are in state
custody. Practically speaking, they are in the custody of people who work for
a private company that operates Alexander under a contract with the state.
And the private company, Cornell Companies Inc., of Houston, Texas, doesn't
seem too exercised about the situation. Oh, they say that they're "very
sorry" about Keisha's death, of course, and that "corrections and
revisions" are being made to policies and procedures, but so far the
company honchos have mad e no decisions concerning personnel. I'm very
sorry Keisha is dead, too. I'm very sorry every time someone confined at
Alexander dies. What I want to know is when someone in authority is going to
do something about it. Apparently there is no such person at this time, so
it's up to us, the voting public, to find someone. It'll take time-the next
election is more than a year away-but if we start with the next
prosecutorial, legislative or gubernatorial candidate we meet, if we ask that
person what he or she intends to do to make Alexander fit for human
habitation, and if we keep asking this of candidates, we'll get it cleaned
up. Frankly, I don't hold out much hope. I've been writing about that
hell hole for almost a quarter-century, so my main consolation today is that
I won't be around long enough to do it for a quarter-century more. But hope
dies hard. There must be someone somewhere who expects more for tackling the
Alexander problem than a cush ride on a fast track
to higher office.
July 21, 2005 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The state Board of Nursing has found that the way six nurses at the state's
largest juvenile lockup handled 17-year-old LaKeisha Brown as she fell ill
and died violated a state nursing law and several regulations, according to a
report released Wednesday afternoon. The Nursing Board, which was asked
by state officials to investigate how the nurses dealt with Brown, now plans
to investigate each nurse's involvement in her care at Alexander Youth
Services Center and could discipline them or revoke their licenses, said
Deborah Jones, assistant director of nursing practices for the state. As of
Wednesday evening, all six nurses still were working at the Alexander center,
said Lisa Tauser, a spokesman for Cornell Cos.
Inc., the Houston-based private company that runs the lockup as a contractor
for the state. The company still is trying to decide whether any of the
nurses or other employees should be punished regarding the April 9
death. Meanwhile, the Arkansas Medical Society, which was asked to
review pediatrician Robert Choate's involvement in Brown's care, said it was
not "possible" to do so because the nurses failed to tell Choate
about her worsening condition on April 7, 8 or 9. Choate could not be reached
Wednesday for comment. Among the Nursing Board's findings: There's no
evidence that the registered nurses on duty when Brown repeatedly collapsed
before her death "supervised" the licensed practical nurses, who
have less training and are required by the Arkansas Nurse Practice Act to
work under RNs, physicians or other more qualified medical professionals.
Five nurses violated facility policy and the Board of Nursing rules and
regulations for "knowingly or consistently failing to accurately or
intelligibly report or document a patient's symptoms, responses, progress,
medications and/or treatment." Five nurses violated center policy
and Nursing Board rules and showed "unprofessional conduct" by
failing to notify Choate of Brown's condition. A Youth Services
Division internal investigation into her death found evidence that facility
employees violated several policies in the days and hours before her death.
On the day Brown died, for example, a supervisor dismissed an employee's
request to call an ambulance, and nurses did not call a doctor until Brown
was unconscious.
July 8, 2005 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
A private company that runs the Alexander Youth Services Center for the state
released details Thursday about how it will address problems found after the
April death of 17-year-old inmate LaKeisha Brown, but the company has yet to
decide whether any employees will be disciplined for how they treated
her. Any disciplinary action or personnel changes will take another
three months, according to a letter and a preliminary corrective-action plan
the company sent the state Youth Services Division on July 1. Some are calling
for a more speedy decision. The plan shows that Houston-based Cornell
Cos. Inc. will provide additional training for employees, require more
extensive documentation about medical complaints and treatments, and conduct
medical emergency drills. The company also will require nurses to
consult a doctor if an inmate complains about the same symptoms twice in a
24-hour period, as "Keisha" did. Though Keisha's mother and
legislators say they are happy that Cornell is learning from what happened,
they believe the company needs to hold someone accountable for the poor
decisions made regarding Keisha's medical care. "I am appalled
about them not reprimanding anyone. How long will it take?" Keisha's
mother, Juana Michelle Brown, said Thursday evening. "You need to go
ahead and do something because you're saying, `It's OK' about what
happened." State Sen. Sue Madison also said Cornell is moving too
slowly. "They should have started that process the minute she
died," Madison, D-Fayetteville, said. A Youth Services Division
internal investigation into her death found evidence that facility employees
violated several policies in the days and hours before her death. On the day
Keisha died, for example, a supervisor dismissed an employee's request to
call Keisha an ambulance, and nurses did not call a doctor until Keisha was
unconscious. As a result of its investigation, the state asked Cornell
to provide a plan within 30 days detailing how they would better train
employees and ensure better documentation is kept regarding medical concerns
and treatment. The corrective action plan released Thursday is in response to
the state's request. The Arkansas State Police also investigated
Keisha's death but found no criminal wrongdoing. When legislators learned
details of the last days of Keisha's life, some called for additional
investigations into her medical treatment and suggested the state find
another company to oversee the Alexander facility. "Somebody needs
to answer for what happened to Keisha," Madison said. "If they were
following proper procedures, then they better change their procedures. If
they weren't, then there ought to be some ramifications there.
"Surely, surely, their proper procedures are better than the way she was
treated," she said.
June 18, 2005 The Associated Press State & Local Wire
A Houston-based company responsible for managing the Alexander Youth Services
Center has apologized for the death of a female teenage inmate who died while
in Arkansas custody. "On behalf of my company and all of the employees
at Alexander, we're sorry," said Jane Miller, director of behavioral
health services for Cornell Cos. Inc. "There's nothing more horrible
than a child dying in our care." LaKeisha Brown, 17, died from a blood
clot that traveled to her lungs on April 9. The girl was to be released May
1. An internal investigation by the Arkansas Department of Human Service's
youth division suggested that medical personnel and others at the center may
not have responded properly to the girl's repeated complaints about her
health condition.
June 16, 2005 AP
The
state fired a prison guard for having sex with an inmate. Now, the man has been
hired by state- and county-run youth lockups. John Berry, 40, monitors
children part-time at the Alexander Youth Services Center, which the state
runs through a private contractor, and full-time at the juvenile detention
center in Pine Bluff, a Jefferson County facility. Berry has denied
allegations from an internal affairs investigation that he had sex with an
inmate at the Tucker maximum security prison. The 16-year Department of
Correction employee rose to the rank of sergeant before he was fired in
October 2002. Alexander Youth Services director Bob McCracken was surprised
when asked Wednesday by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper about Berry's
rehiring Wednesday. He said a criminal background check, a child-molestation
registry check and reference checks were conducted on Berry and turned up
nothing.
June 16, 2005 Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette
State
legislators Wednesday were critical of Alexander Youth Services Center
employees responsible for 17-year-old LaKeisha Brown on the day she died and
said her death should be investigated further. "No one was satisfied
with the results of the investigation so far," Sen. Sue Madison, D-
Fayetteville, said of the Youth Services Division internal investigation into
the case. "I think we are going to be monitoring Alexander a lot more
closely." The Youth Services Division investigation found credible
evidence that employees violated several policies in the days and hours
before "Keisha" died. Specifically, the investigator found that a
supervisor dismissed an employee's request to call an ambulance for Keisha
and that nurses did not call a doctor for Keisha when they should have. But
no one has been disciplined in connection with her death. The private company
that runs the Alexander lockup, Cornell Cos. Inc., has been asked by the
state to better train employees and to ensure that better documentation is
kept in regard to medical concerns and treatment. "Why hasn't someone
been terminated?" Madison asked after a joint meeting of the Senate
Committee on Children and Youth and the House interim Committee on Aging and
Legislative Affairs. "The nurse just turned a deaf ear to this because
she was tired of her." Madison said neither Cornell nor the Youth
Services Division provided her with the internal investigation or detailed
information about Keisha's death. Instead, she found details from reading the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Keisha, who had lived at the lockup for youthful
offenders for nearly two years, collapsed at least three times and complained
of tiredness during the two days before her April 9 death, records show.
However, nurses said nothing was wrong with her. On the day she died, Keisha
could barely walk or get out of bed, according to records. She had lost color
in her lips and complained of being cold, having difficulty breathing and of
being tired. Again, the nurse said everything was fine. A preliminary autopsy
report shows that Keisha died of a blood clot in her lungs. As legislators
peppered Hales and McCracken with questions, Sen. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs,
interrupted the meeting so the two officials could speak to a committee down
the hall that was reviewing Cornell's contract. "From one oil pan to
another," Smith told Hales and McCracken. As he walked to the other
meeting, Smith said he wants to end Cornell's contract with the state because
of the way Keisha was treated. "What happened was totally
unprofessional. They didn't follow their own protocols," he said.
"[Keisha] wasn't sent down there with a death sentence. Madison also
said Scott Tanner, a juvenile-services ombudsman with the state Public
Defender Commission, could have done more to help Keisha. "It seems to
me that your office was created to prevent this kind of incident," she
said. "Something doesn't seem to be working here."
April 16, 2005 Arkansas Democrat Gazette
A day after Lakeisha Brown collapsed at the Alexander Youth Services Center
and died, her mother, Juana, found a white envelope with penciled script on
the dresser at the family’s home in Luxora. The
return address: Keisha Brown, Alexander, Ark. Keisha, as she was known to her
family, had written the letter to her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth
"Granny Pooh" Brown, on Feb. 19. At the time, "Granny
Pooh" clung to life on round-the clock oxygen in a hospital. So Juana
kept the letter but didn’t open it, respecting the bond her mother and
daughter shared. But now she had to know what her only daughter had written.
"Hey Granny Pooh," Keisha begins, drawing a smiley face next to the
salutation. Three lines in, the letter turns somber. "Things are getting
a little shaky for me. I plan on hanging in there though.... I been sick a
lot lately. These nurses suck here. My back hurts a lot. When I breathe a
certain way it hurts in my left rib. They tell me I’m not hurting but I stay
strong anyhow." Forty-nine days later, on April 9, 17-year-old Keisha
Brown died at Southwest Regional Medical Center in Little Rock from a blood
clot that traveled to her lungs, according to a preliminary cause of death
released Friday by Pulaski County Coroner Mark Malcolm. Elizabeth and Juana
Brown wonder whether Keisha received the medical care she needed during her
two-year stint at Alexander, the state’s largest juvenile jail. Scott Tanner,
a juvenile services ombudsman with the state Public Defender Commission, said
Keisha complained to him within the last nine months that she wasn’t
receiving proper treatment for the irregular periods. Nurses monitored
Keisha, Tanner said, but it took two months to get center medical staff to
send her to a gynecologist. The U.S. Department of Justice criticized the
Alexander unit in a November 2002 report for violations of several civil
rights, including the right to religious freedom, mental health treatment,
educational services and a safe environment. State officials signed a
settlement with the Justice Department in March 2003 agreeing to correct
problems found. In addition, the Youth Services Division conducted an
internal review Oct. 4 that found several problems, including a delay in
responding to medical needs. The youth lockup is operated by a private
company called Cornell Cos. Inc.
June 5, 2003
Four teenagers who escaped from the state’s largest youth lockup face from 10
years to life in prison if convicted of felony kidnapping counts filed
against them Wednesday. The four youths — three age 17 and one age 15 —
are accused of locking a worker at the Alexander Youth Services Center inside
a cell during the April 10 escape. On Wednesday facility director Bob
McCracken said some of those improvements already have been made. For
example, security personnel now take the keys of all visitors and personnel
before they enter the facility. Installation of extra lighting and a new
guard building also have been completed, Mc-Cracken
said. The April escape was the second since Cornell took over the
Bryant facility in September 2001. The first happened the evening of March
16, 2002, when authorities said two 16-year-olds broke away from a group of
inmates and ran from the facility. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
June 4, 2003
The last of four juvenile inmates who escaped from the Alexander lockup
nearly two months ago was arrested early Tuesday morning, the state
Department of Human Services said. North Little Rock police caught Tony
Brooks, 17, of Pulaski County after a pursuit. Relatives turned in the other
escapees shortly after the escape. Saline County Prosecuting Attorney
Robert Herzfeld said Tuesday that he planned to file charges today. The four
are expected to be arraigned Thursday on felony counts of escape, criminal mischief,
theft of property and false imprisonment, he said. The group fled the
lockup on April 10 after they overpowered a guard, locked him in a cell and
stole a car, which they crashed through the lockup’s front gates.
Brooks had been held on a charge of carrying a prohibited weapon.
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
April 11, 2003
Four inmates at the state’s largest youth lockup escaped early Thursday
morning after threatening a guard, stealing her car and driving it through
the facility’s front gate, authorities said. Two of the four teenage
boys who escaped from Alexander Youth Services Center were caught several
hours later. Authorities, however, believe the remaining escapees, ages 17
and 15, had a gun and could be dangerous. "There is concern that they
feel desperate enough to do something bad," said Julie Munsell, a
spokesman for the Department of Human Services, which oversees the lockup.
"We hope not. The hope is that they do not hurt or injure anyone Alexander holds about 140 youths, including
the state’s most dangerous juvenile offenders. The lockup is situated at
Bryant in Saline County. "From the initial details, it looks like
it was planned at least to some extent," said Bob McCracken, Alexander’s
director, adding that no employees were injured. McCracken said it is
too early to determine whether the escape represents a shortcoming in
security at Alexander, which is managed by a private corporation — Cornell
Cos. Inc. "It’s not a facility designed to be like Tucker,"
McCracken said, referring to one of the state’s maximum-security prisons in
answer to a question about possible holes in security. "It’s the most
secure juvenile facility in the state. But it’s still a facility designed for
juveniles." Alexander has had a history of problems managing the
state’s youthful offenders. In 2001, two teenagers killed themselves only a
few months apart. Since spring 2002, the U.S. Department of Justice has been
investigating possible violations of inmates’ civil rights at the
lockup. In March the Youth Services Division, Cornell and the Justice
Department agreed to a court settlement that required improvements in
education, mental health care and fire safety. Thursday’s escape was
the second in just over a year. When two 16-year-olds escaped March 16, 2002,
neighbors of the lockup complained they had not been notified. The teenagers
scaled the fence and were found early the next morning. (Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette)
February 14, 2003
Failure to deal properly with allegations of abuse of two teen-age boys at
the state's largest youth lockup have resulted in the dismissal of four
workers. The three life-skills workers and a treatment supervisor at
the Alexander Youth Services Center were fired last month after a Department
of Human Services investigator looked into the matter. The boys, 16 and
17 years old, were reportedly taken from the facility's main campus to the
high risk offender unit Dec. 16 after they had misbehaved. The two boys
said that, once there, they were put in a small room with about seven other
inmates who threatened them, and one of the two reported being hit, though no
marks were found. A report issued this week also said that the boys
said the other youngsters in the high-risk unit threatened to sodomize them
with a broom handle. DHS investigator Gary Staggs found "credible
evidence" that two members of the Alexander center's supervisory staff
failed to report the allegations or failed to ensure that they were
reported. The actions described in the report also violated the
policies of Cornell Companies Inc., the private, Houston-based company that
began running the Alexander center for the state in 2001. The state
pays Cornell about $13 million a year. One state legislator said
Thursday that some "harsh action" should be taken as a result of
the Dec. 16 episode. "That's such a primitive method, you would
expect a private provider that held itself out to be the most professional
and experienced organization... would never let that type of situation
exist. But it has," said state Rep. Jay Bradford, D-White
Hall. One of the terminated employees, Matthew Williams, 41, killed
himself last week after fatally shooting his estranged wife and another man
at a Little Rock residence. (AP)
February 3, 2003
Arkansas State Police are investigating an incident at the Alexander Youth
Services Center involving alleged scare tactics that led to the firing of
three employees. The employees, along with a supervisor who first looked into
the incident, were fired last week after accusations that they used
prohibited scare tactics on two youths on Dec. 16. In a letter to
legislators, state juvenile ombudsman Scott Tanner wrote that a 16- and
17-year-old each was misbehaving and taken to the high-risk offender unit and
the youths were confronted by eight other youths. Internal reports say that
the group of eight was allowed to verbally scare the pair about life in a
unit that houses youths who have committed violent crimes. The entity that
runs the center, Cornell Cos., said neither of the boys was harmed, although
one claims he was hit in the head. Tanner, who visits the facility weekly,
said he informed legislators because he felt the youths were put in peril.
"The General Assembly needs to know about incidents that not only put
juveniles at risk, but put the state at risk," Tanner said. Facility
director Bob McCracken said Cornell prohibits the alleged tactics. "We
really focus on treating the kids with dignity and respect and helping them
get better," McCracken said. Investigations by the Arkansas State Police
and the state Youth Services Division are also ongoing as to why it took
Cornell officials until Dec. 20 to report the incident. Houston-based Cornell
runs the youth lockup under a contract with the Youth Services Division of
the state Department of Human Services. The Alexander lockup has been plagued
by problems. The Justice Department is investigating the center after a
series of problems in recent years, state officials said. In November, a
counselor at the lockup resigned after she was charged with making up
credentials. In October, a state investigation concluded that Cornell failed
to supervise inmates at risk of suicide while the staff conducted a meeting.
A 15-year-old boy hanged himself on Sept. 15, 2001 .
That death came after a 16-year-old died the previous May in the same cell
and by the same method, while a guard was supposed to have been watching him.
In August, a DYS guard was convicted of third-degree battery in a case
involving a juvenile inmate at Alexander. (Go Memphis)
November 23, 2002
A counselor at a youth lockup who resigned after questions arose about her
qualifications has been charged with making up credentials. Carolyn
Skaggs was a counselor at the Alexander Youth Services Center, but resigned
after officials found out she didn't have a counseling license, as she had
claimed. Cornell Companies Inc. of Houston runs the youth lockup under
a contract with the Youth Services Division of the state Department of Human
Services. The Saline County prosecutor's office filed a misdemeanor
charge against Skaggs last week. The Alexander lockup has been plagued
by problems. The Justice Department is investigating the center after a
series of problems in recent years, state officials said. (AP)
October 3, 2002
The Justice Department is investigating the state's Alexander Youth Services
Center after a series of problems at the facility, a state official said
Wednesday. Doyle Herndon, director of the Division of Youth Services of the
state Department of Human Services, told a legislative committee Wednesday
the agency is enacting new policies to quell concerns about the Alexander
facility and to offer incarcerated youth more rehabilitative programs.
Herndon said Justice Department officials began the investigation after
visiting the Alexander facility in June. Justice Department spokesman Casey
Stavropoulos said the investigation would fall under the Civil Rights of
Institutionalized Persons Act and is meant to "see if there's a pattern
or practice of misconduct." In October, a state investigation concluded
that Cornell Companies Inc. of Houston, which runs the Alexander center under
a DYS contract, failed to supervise inmates at risk of suicide while the
staff conducted a meeting. (Go Memphis)
September 30, 2002
Is
the Youth Services Center at Alexander snake-bit or what? Last week, the
chronically troubled facility was back in the news because the folks
contracted to run it for the state hired an unqualified person for a position
of great responsibility, clinical supervisor. According to the state Nursing
Board, the center's personnel director was warned before hiring her that
Carolyn Skaggs' nursing license had been revoked in August 2001 and that she
lacked a master's degree in psychology. The nursing license is not a
prerequisite for the job. The master's degree is. Skaggs was hired anyway,
and before resigning about five weeks later after someone finally questioned
her credentials, she'd already "counseled" 15 youthful offenders
housed at the center and testified at one court hearing. Not as an
"expert" witness, we can only hope. The contractor, Cornell
Companies Inc., took more than a year to fill the post occupied by Skaggs
from July 15 to Aug. 20 of this year. It is understandable, then, that she
was not properly vetted before hiring. Not acceptable, but understandable.
Having a full-time psychologist to oversee behavioral health
services--counseling--at Alexander is one of the requirement's of Cornell's state contract, and
someone must have been getting mighty desperate after a yearlong search. But
despite later claims from Alexander's director, Bob McCracken, that officials
conducted a criminal background check, a child mistreatment registry check
and a reference check and "all that stuff came back fine," no one
thought to check her educational and professional credentials. Had they done
so, they might have discovered sooner rather than later that both the license
and the master's degree she showed them apparently were bogus. The position
Skaggs held is critically important, not only because of the supervisory
responsibilities but because of complexity and severity of the problems that
afflict Alexander's adolescent population. Alexander is what is known in
polite company as a "youth lockup," the largest in Arkansas. Most,
if not all, of the young people there have serious behavioral and emotional
"issues." For many, Alexander is the last stop before prison.
Others stand at least a fighting chance of rehabilitation if they get the
proper treatment. In any case, placing their mental and emotional health in
the wrong hands is tantamount to throwing them to the wolves. There is
absolutely no excuse for the sloppy hiring process that put a
non-credentialed, unqualified person in this key position. According to the
state Nursing Board's decision revoking Skaggs' license last year--she was
then going by the name Carolyn Sue Okrie--she was
found to have altered her licensed practical nurse certificate on two
separate occasions to read "registered nurse" and to have obtained
at least two jobs by claiming to have a master's degree in applied
psychology. Reportedly, she made the same claims to snag the job at
Alexander. By the way, Skaggs' former employers at Cornell told our reporter,
Traci Shurley, last week that since the controversy
erupted, they had been unable to verify her educational background. Shurley was able to verify one thing--the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which Skaggs claimed had issued her master's
degree, has no record of anyone named Carolyn Okrie
or Carolyn Skaggs ever being enrolled there. At this writing, no one from the
Huckabee administration has expressed much concern about the situation.
"I really think this is still an issue between Cornell and their
personnel person," said Julie Munsell, a spokesman for the state
Department of Human Services, which was in charge of screwing things up at
Alexander before passing the buck--more than 13 million bucks a year,
actually--to Cornell last September. That's precisely what some politicians
and bureaucrats like about privatization; when things go wrong, they can
blame someone else. "This is not the normal way that we run Alexander or
any of our other facilities," David Monroe, a spokesman for Cornell,
said last week. I earnestly hope not. The troubled young people housed at
Alexander could use a break. Associate Editor Meredith Oakley is editor of
the Voices page. (The Arkansas Democrat Gazette)
September 25, 2002
A woman hired in July to supervise counseling at the state's largest youth
lockup saw about 15 youths and testified in one court hearing before
officials say they learned her credentials were fake. Carolyn Skaggs resigned
Aug. 20 after an employee at Alexander Youth Services Center questioned
whether she was licensed, as she claimed and even provided a wallet-sized
license card as proof, said Bob McCracken, director of the facility. Her
resignation leaves Cornell Companies Inc., the Houston company that runs the
facility, still searching for a full-time psychologist, a requirement of
Cornell's $13 million annual contract with the state. Cornell hired Skaggs on
July 15 after searching nearly a year for a qualified psychologist to oversee
counseling services for the 130-140 youths housed there each day. Skaggs, who
was stripped of her nursing license in August 2001, never had a counseling
license, and Cornell officials now say they can't even verify her educational
background. State Rep. Jo Ellen Carson, D-Fort Smith, said the situation with
Skaggs is especially disappointing because the state hired Cornell in September
2001 to bring a better level of service to the troubled center. "Given
the history and then the immediate problems Cornell experienced when they
came in, including a suicide, you'd think that every decision they made would
be backed up by double checks," said Carson, a member of the House
Juvenile Justice Subcommittee. Less than a month after Cornell took over, a
16-year-old boy hanged himself in the serious offender unit. The U.S.
Department of Justice also began an investigation earlier this year into mental
health care, safety and education services at the center in Saline County. A
report detailing the investigation's findings is expected within a few
months. Upon learning that Arkansas law requires people calling themselves
counselors to be licensed with the Arkansas Board of Examiners in Counseling,
Cornell officials also changed the titles of four employees previously
referred to as "master's level counselors," McCracken said. He said
those changes arose from an "issue with job titles" and not anyone purposely
misrepresenting himself. Arkansas Code 17-27-104 says anyone "engaged in
the practice of counseling or marriage and family therapy" without a
license may be found guilty of a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a
year in jail and a $ 1,000 fine. After notification of Skaggs' position at
Alexander, the board sent both Alexander and Skaggs a cease-and-desist order.
The board demanded that she stop using the title "counselor," said
Dr. Ann Thomas, executive director of the licensing board. Saline County
Prosecuting Attorney Barbara Webb confirmed Tuesday that a complaint had been
filed with her office. However, she said, a decision on whether to charge
Skaggs has not been made. Faith Fields, director of the Arkansas Nursing
Board, said Skaggs, then using the name Carolyn Sue Okrie,
was a licensed practical nurse until August 2001. The board revoked her
license at that time after determining that she had altered it twice to read
"registered nurse." The final decision in the disciplinary case
also said she had misrepresented her credentials to gain employment with the
Levi Hospital in Hot Springs and Correctional Medical Services in Pine Bluff.
The decision also says Skaggs told officials at Correctional Medical Services
she had a master's degree in applied psychology from the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill. She made the same claim to Cornell, even providing a
copy of a diploma, McCracken said. (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
August 27, 2002
The director at Alexander Youth Services Center recently sat down side by
side on a bunk with a teen-age boy at the serious-offender unit, quietly
talking about the boy's troubles. Less than two years ago, the
Alexander center had been beset with two highly publicized suicides as well
as allegations of abuse and mismanagement. McCracken is part of a team
that began running the lockup last September, as the state turned to a
private company, Cornell Cos. Inc., to bring in reforms and higher
standards. Plenty of other interested parties are following Cornell's
progress, including state legislatures and the U.S. Department of Justice,
which recently began an investigation into the facility's health, safety, and
educational policies. Legislatures have also quizzed company officials
about whether Cornell is meeting the terms of its contract with the
state. Though progress has been made, the company hasn't followed
through on all the improvements they promised, said state Rep. Jay Bradfor, D-Pine Bluff, one of a group of legislatures who
has monitored Cornell's takeover. "On a scale of 1 to 10, they're
at a 6, and they ought to be at a nine," Bradford said, noting that the
education curriculum needs improvement. "The change in the culture
is going to take some time," said Scott Tanner, who as youth ombudsman
coordinator for the state bears responsibility for the state's monitoring of
the Youth Services Division. Just 6 months ago, Tanner warned that
"the current conditions are ripe for tragedy," especially in the
Juvenile Upward Mobility Program, which houses serious youthful
offenders. As Cornell continues to search for a training coordinator,
Tanner worries staff members aren't being schooled in appropriate ways to
deal with every situation. Judging from a list of documents the U.S.
Justice Department recently requested, it's apparently an
area investigators are exploring as well. (The Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette)
May 26, 2002
In the suicide letter he left in a cell at Alexander Youth Services
Center a little more than a year ago, 16-year-old James Baumbach Jr. said one
last time what he felt the staff there refused to hear -- he needed help. The
help didn't arrive in time to prevent him from hanging himself with a bed
sheet tied to an overhead sprinkler cover. Officials acknowledge Baumbach,
who was placed on suicide watch days before he carried out his threats,
wasn't monitored as he should have been. State officials admitted at the time
that the facility's suicide prevention plan hadn't been followed. A guard
responsible for monitoring Baumbach eventually was convicted of falsifying
logbooks and fired. But the admitted bungling did not bring measures to
prevent another suicide, and neither did turning management of the facility
over to a private company, Houston-based Cornell Inc. On Sept. 16, less than a
month after Cornell took over from the Department of Human Services,
15-year-old Kenneth McClain II committed suicide by hanging himself in the
same cell where Baumbach took his own life. Cornell officials still haven't
hired a full-time psychologist, as the company's contract with the state
requires, he said, adding the facility also needs to provide more group and
individual counseling. Since Cornell took over in September, finding
qualified workers has been difficult, company officials say. Cornell officials
still haven't hired a full-time psychologist, as the company's contract with
the state requires, he said, adding the facility also needs to provide more
group and individual counseling. Since Cornell took over in September,
finding qualified workers has been difficult, company officials say.
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
April 19, 2002
A
private company that runs the state's historically troubled Alexander youth
lockup clearly has improved conditions there since it took over late last
year, a watchdog agency official told lawmakers Thursday. Scott Tanner,
coordinator of the state Juvenile Ombudsman Division, noted that Cornell
Companies of Houston still hasn't filled key jobs to train new employees and
supervise delivery of psychological services to inmates. Tom Jenkins,
Cornell's senior vice president and chief operating officer, testified
Thursday before two legislative committees that deal with children's issues.
The Youth Services Division struggled in 1998. There were reports of sexual
and physical abuse of children in the state's care. Three boys have committed
suicide since 1997 at youth lockups, two last year at the Alexander center
and one of those occurred after Cornell was in charge. The state Department
of Education in January threatened to withhold $2 million in education funds
from the division's parent agency, the Department of Human Services, unless
the division showed progress toward meeting federal special-education
regulations. The most recent reported lapse in suicide-prevention procedures
at the Alexander center was Oct. 19, 2001, about a month after Kenneth
McClain, 15, hanged himself using a sheet in his cell. A state investigation
found that while Cornell workers attended a staff meeting Oct. 19, there was
not proper supervision of youths who had been identified as suicide risks.
The previous day, Jenkins assured lawmakers that in the wake of McClain's
suicide, "we have people watching the people watching the people."
Sen. Kevin Smith, D-Helena, on Thursday reminded Jenkins of his assurances.
He asked whether Jenkins could confidently make them now. "That's the
infamous comment that I will never live down, will I?" Jenkins
responded. "We've had some mistakes, and we've had some malfeasance.
Where malfeasance has been there, we've made some immediate steps to remove
people from our employment." Regarding the special-education rules, a
state Department of Education official told legislators that some progress
has been made, although the Alexander center is still not in compliance. In
terms of overall compliance with the federal Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act, Cornell and the division "still have a long, long way to
go," he said. According to a 73-page report presented to lawmakers by
Cornell, noncompliance issues include reporting serious incidents at the
Alexander center to the division within one hour, forwarding a youth's
records once he leaves the facility, and developing plans to help keep youths
from relapsing into previous violent or substance-abuse behaviors. (The Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette)
April 9, 2002
Two
teen-agers accused of escaping from a youth lockup last month will appear in court April 22 for a judge to consider
transferring their cases to juvenile court. Stephen Andrew Menasco of Conway and Bennie David Guy of Marion are
accused of breaking away from a group of
inmates at Alexander Youth Services Center about 7:30 p.m. March 16. They
were apprehended the next morning about 6:30 a.m. in
Bryant. (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
April 3, 2002
A former Alexander Youth Services Center guard set to go to trial today on a
charge he falsified logbooks instead pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and
received a suspended sentence. Eugene Girley, 54, of Pine Bluff was arrested
in July. He was accused of lying in documents to make it appear he monitored
a 16-year-old who committed suicide in his cell at the youth lockup May 13.
Girley was charged with falsifying public records, a class D felony.
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
March 28, 2002
The
Saline County prosecuting attorney's office plans to treat two 16-year-olds
accused of escaping from a youth lockup last week as adults, a spokesman for
the office said Monday. Bennie David Guy and Stephen Andrew Menasco are accused of breaking away from a group of
inmates at Alexander Youth Services Center about 7:30 p.m. March 16. The
department's Youth Services Division oversees Alexander Youth Services
Center. Cornell Companies Inc., a Houston-based company, began running the
facility for the state Sept. 1. Last week, Cornell officials and Youth
Services Division Director Doyle Herndon also met with neighbors of the
facility who complained they weren't contacted soon enough after the escapes.
Some said they weren't contacted at all. (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
March 23, 2002
A Division of Youth Services guard accused of trying to hurl a juvenile
inmate to the ground is charged with third-degree battery and terroristic
threatening. The alleged incident at the Alexander Unit occurred last August,
though Saline County authorities did not bring charges until Tuesday against
Keith Kelley, 34, of North Little Rock. Authorities say a surveillance
videotape shows Kelley lifting a 15-year-old boy over his head and trying to
throw him. Court papers say Kelley administered body and head blows to the
boy, twisted his genitals and told the youth, "I'm going to kill
you." Several months before the Kelley incident, an inmate hanged
himself inside the facility. A short time after Cornell took control, a
second youth committed suicide in the same cell. Last week, two inmates
escaped and were captured the next day. (AP)
March 22, 2002
Lawmakers questioned Thursday whether a company awarded a $ 13 million
contract to run the states Alexander lockup for troubled youths is living up
to the deal, given the company's lack of compliance with federal
special-education regulations. "I think you need to be as mean as a
junkyard dog and go out there and tell Cornell you've got a contract, now
you're going to keep it, starting today", state Rep. Kim Hendren, R-Gravette,
told Herndon. Rep. Tracy Steele, D-North Little Rock, said legislators have
asked the division several times for a copy of the contract but never got it.
Herndon promised Thursday that copies would be provided. The Alexander center
has been out of compliance with the education regulations for more than three
years. Marcia Harding, the state Education Departments associate director for
special education, told lawmakers that she doesn't think Cornell is trying
hard enough. She said the company hasn't posted the jobs on the states employment Web site or advertised out of state.
Harding told the subcommittee last month that the deteriorating quality of
special-education services at the Alexander center put the Department of
Human Services in jeopardy of losing $ 2 million in education funding because
the state ultimately is deemed responsible for providing the services. A Dec.
12-13, 2001, inspection by Department of Education monitors showed that the
Alexander center was out of compliance in eight of nine areas. "Children
were not in classes, there were no textbooks and there was a shortage of
teachers", Harding told lawmakers the day before the most recent
inspection. Crowley, administrator of the special-education monitoring unit,
later told Harding in a memo that the bottom line is Cornell isn't anywhere
close to compliance. "Information provided by Cornell about its efforts
to secure additional qualified staff was far short of compliance with either
the spirit or intent of federal law", Crowley wrote. (The Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette)
March 13, 2002
The private company running Alexander Youth Services Center fired a youth
services employee last week after he was accused of trying to sell drugs to a
guard at the facility, officials there said. Chandler Armstrong, 22, of
Benton was arrested and charged with possessing a controlled substance after
security officers at the center alerted police. Scott Tanner, juvenile
ombudsman coordinator for the Arkansas public defender's office, said Cornell
handled the situation appropriately. However, he was concerned he hadn't
heard about the incident until contacted by a reporter. (The Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette)
February 21, 2002
The state Department of Human Services could lose access to all state and
federal education dollars if the agency does not quickly correct deficiencies
in special education and mental health services for youths in state custody,
legislators heard Thursday. State Department of Education monitors planned to
inspect special education services at the Alexander unit Friday after giving
youth services official 30 days on Jan. 28 to correct educational
shortcomings that included $100,000 in missing textbook and educational
equipment. "When our staff visited, we had children not in classes, no
textbooks and limited numbers of teachers," Marcia Harding, the
Education Department's special education director, told a joint meeting of
legislative Joint Performance Review subcommittees. She said conditions are
worse now than four years ago, when the DHS' Division of Youth Services began
employing private contractors to provide education services at Alexander, the
state's biggest juvenile facility. "It has steadily declined to the
point where we can no longer accept it in any form or tolerate it. It simply
has to change," Harding said. Rep. Jay Bradford, D-White Hall,
questioned whether the private company hired to run the Alexander unit was
fulfilling its contract. Cornell Companies Inc. of Houston, a private
company, began operating the center under state contract Sept. 1. (AP)
February 2, 2002
Two
guards at the Alexander Youth Services Center were suspended Friday pending
an investigation into their conduct during a fight among detainees. Three
boys beat up a fourth Wednesday night in the bathroom of the facility's
serious offender unit -- called the Juvenile Upward Mobility Program -- while
two of the facility's staff stood by, according to police reports. Joe Quinn,
spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, said the allegation
that guards failed to intervene is "a tremendously serious
situation." (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
January 24, 2002
The
state's historically troubled facility for delinquent youth at Alexander
doesn't comply with state and federal rules mandating special education
courses be offered, lawmakers learned Wednesday. Legislators meeting at the
Alexander Youth Services Center also heard from the head of the state's
watchdog agency for children in the care of the Youth Services Division.
Ombudsman Coordinator Scott Tanner said the most serious offenders at the
facility -- such as murderers and rapists -- aren't getting the counseling
and psychiatric treatment they need to adjust to society when they're
released. Alexander's continued lack of compliance in eight of nine areas of
state and federal special education mandates could result in the state
Department of Education cutting off its funding to the center, according to a
Jan. 2 letter from the Education Department. Members of the Joint Performance
Review Committee spent almost two hours Wednesday grilling Doyle Herndon,
director of the Youth Services Division, and Bob McCracken, facility director
at Alexander, on how they plan to address these issues. "To me, there's
a real problem here," said Rep. Jay Bradford, D-White Hall, of Tanner's
concerns about lack of mental health services. "The time bomb is
ticking. The fuse is lit," Bradford said. Cornell Companies Inc. of
Houston, a private, for-profit firm, took over administration of Alexander on
Sept. 1. The lockup previously was operated by the Youth Services Division,
which still decides which youths are placed there for observation and
assessment and possible transfer to other state facilities for delinquent
children. Herndon said he, McCracken and other Cornell employees will meet with
state Education Department officials Monday to address the facility's lack of
special education courses. Additionally, Herndon said he is meeting Friday
with Cornell managers to discuss the need to improve and increase mental
health services at Alexander. The Jan. 2 letter regarding Alexander's
noncompliance with special education rules was presented to the committee by
Sen. Sharon Trusty, R-Russellville. The letter was from Janet Estes, the
Education Department's special education supervisor for state-operated
facilities, to Barbara Marsac, the division's
assistant director of contracts and community programs. Estes wrote that that
Alexander in September 2001 was found to be out of compliance with special
education regulations in seven of nine areas. Similar noncompliance had been
a problem since January 1999, Estes wrote. Division officials on Dec. 4
assured the department in writing that corrective actions had been
implemented, Estes said. However, a Dec. 12-13 inspection by department
monitors showed that Alexander was out of compliance in eight of nine areas.
Bradford suggested that the committee ask Attorney General Mark Pryor to
issue an opinion on whether Cornell is fulfilling all the terms of its
contract with the state to run Alexander. (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
October 31, 2001
A state investigation has concluded that the private firm that runs the
juvenile lockup at Alexander failed to supervise inmates at risk of suicide
while the staff conducted a meeting. A 15-year-old boy had hanged himself on
Sept. 15. That death came after a 16-year-old died last May in the same cell
and by the same method, while a guard was supposed to have been watching him.
On Oct. 19, staff at the facility run by Houston-based Cornell Co. had a
two-hour meeting, and left the at-risk youths without someone watching,
according to a report by the Division of Youth Services, which is an arm of
the state Department of Human Services. "We are tremendously frustrated
that we are once again discussing an issue like this with Cornell," DHS
spokesman Joe Quinn said Tuesday. "There is no excuse at all for
juveniles not being checked in an appropriate time frame." Quinn said
the lapse was "inexcusable." Cornell issued a statement questioning
the findings in the report. Legislators complained that Cornell was not
correcting problems it was hired to fix. Tom Jenkins, the executive director
of Cornell, had promised legislators a day before the most recent lapse that
the company made changes to ensure the safety of the youths. In the DHS
probe, investigator Barbara Ausbrooks reviewed
video surveillance tapes from the day after Jenkins addressed legislators.
She found that the at-risk youths were not watched. Her report also said
dormitories were not adequately staffed. "There were several children on
suicide and close observation," Ausbrooks
wrote. "It was clear that mandatory 15-minute checks were not being
done. The children on suicide precaution were not in constant line of
sight." Cornell's statement said that one inmate at risk of suicide was
moved into a hall and was in view of a staff member. Cornell said it is
reviewing the n report to see whether it needs to make changes or discipline
employees. Jenkins said in a Tuesday news release that the Alexander center
is troubled and it will take time to correct all problems. "There will
be mistakes and difficulties encountered along the way; however, these
mistakes do not mean that positive changes at the facility and in the lives
of our clients are not occurring," he said. Youth Services director
Doyle Herndon said he would review Cornell's corrective plan. State Rep. Jay
Bradford, D-White Hall, said Cornell must improve. "I'm just totally
surprised that someone who is supposedly in this business and has been for
many years and is a national concern would make such basic mistakes,"
Bradford said. State Rep. Jan Judy, D-Fayetteville, defended Cornell, saying
the company is making improvements. "They are working very hard,"
she said. "It wasn't that they didn't have staff on premises. They were
doing an important training session and trying to better their program."
(AP)
October 19, 2001
The private firm that runs the Alexander Youth Services Center has beefed up
its facilities, security and training since a teenager committed suicide
there last month, the company's director said. Cornell Companies Inc.
personnel also have removed bags of contraband from the living quarters of
juveniles assigned to the youth lockup, Tom Jenkins, the company's senior
vice president, said Thursday after presenting a report to legislators.
The report outlined steps the Houston-based company has taken to improve
security and programs since taking over the Alexander unit Sept. 1.
"All the things you're talking about in your report ... don't mean
anything," said Sen. Kevin Smith, D-Stuttgart, "unless you can tell
me, straight-forward and honestly, do you have people observing these kids 24
hours a day who don't have criminal records, who don't fall asleep on the job
and who are being backed up in some way?" Kenneth McClain, 15, was
found hanging in his cell Sept. 15. A report on the apparent suicide stated
the youth was taunted by other inmates but no one looked in on the boy for
more than an hour on the night he died. McClain died in the same cell
in which a 16-year-old hanged himself in May while a guard was supposed to
have been watching him. (AP)
October 4, 2001
It was shocking enough to read about another suicide at the Alexander Youth
Center. This was the third suicide at a state youth center since 1997,
and these deaths are getting no easier to explain. In this case,
according to the report from the private company that now runs the center,
the details are nightmarish: A frenzy of other inmates shouting "Do
it. Do it." Guards who called to the inmate but didn't
bother to look in on him even when he failed to respond. Scheduled
checks that weren't made. A staff new to their jobs and unprepared for
their duties. Any suicide in detention is awful, but this one was worse
than we thought. It was worse than we could have imagined. If its
own report is accurate, the private outfit contracted to operate the youth
center -- Cornell Companies Inc. -- has painted a damning picture of its own
stewardship. What does the Huckabee administration have to say about all
this? "We still are extremely troubled by the suicide," says
Joe Quinn, who's become an expert by now at making apologies for the state's
ironically named Department of Human Services. Anybody would be
troubled by what has happened. The mystifying part of poor Joe Quinn's
statement was the next sentence: "But we still have confidence in
Cornell." Why, for the love of Heaven? No wonder Joe Quinn
draws big bucks. Imagine being called on to express confidence in the
company that presided over this macabre mess. Here's one question not
addressed in Cornell's otherwise admirably candid report and painful
recitation of one terrible mistake after another: Why should the people of
Arkansas have confidence in an administration that contracts with such an outfit
to guard its troubled young people? Confession is good for the soul,
but it shouldn't guarantee a state contract. (Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette)
October 2, 2001
A report on the apparent suicide of a 15-year-old boy at a juvenile lockup
says the youth was taunted by other inmates but no one looked in on the boy
for more than an hour. Kenneth McClain II heard calls of "Do it,
do it," and "Kill yourself, kill yourself," prior to his death
on Sept. 16, according to a report by Cornell Companies Inc. The private
for-profit firm had just taken over management of the facility. The
report says McClain, who had threatened to take his own life, covered his
cell windows. Guards called to him but none looked inside despite policy that
requires checks ever 15 minutes, the report said. (AP)
September 22, 2001
If a fire breaks out at the state's Alexander Youth Services Center, most of
those detained there can't count on sprinklers to douse the flames.
That's because most of the cells at the lockup for troubled youths don't have
sprinklers -- a situation that concerns both the private company hired to run
the facility and state officials responsible for monitoring construction by
state agencies. The four detention buildings at Alexander were built
years ago -- nobody with the state is quite sure when -- well before the fire
code required sprinklers in such facilities. Jerry Evans, the assistant
director of youth services, said installation of sprinklers now will become
part of broader plans to refurbish three of the older detention buildings,
joining efforts already underway to install sprinklers in a newly-constructed
detention unit. The work is expected to cost about $ 379,000, Evans
said. That amount is well below the amount that Cornell Companies Inc.,
the Houston, Texas-based for-profit operator of prison, estimates will be
needed. Cornell took over Alexander from the state on Sept. 1. A
report from John Stephens, the regional facilities manager for Cornell,
estimated the fire-prevention work would cost about $ 610,000, or almost half
of the $ 1.41 million in repairs he says are needed at the Alexander
lockup. (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
September 20, 2001
The father of a 15-year-old boy who was found hanged at a juvenile lockup
said officials refused to let him visit his son on the day the youth
died. Kenneth McClain Sr. said Wednesday that staff at the Alexander
Youth Services Center told him on Sunday that his son had been moved to a
serious offender unit after being involved in an altercation. The visit was
denied. Monday, the father was told his son, Kenneth McClain Jr.,
hanged himself with a bed sheet. "If they would have just let me
visit with my son," McClain said, "I think that would have made all
the difference in the world to him." McClain Jr. wanted to be a
rap star, and his father said he'd bought the youth a karaoke machine and a
keyboard for last Christmas. McClain Jr. had written one song.
"All he wanted to do was write songs," the elder McClain said.
"I wish the world could have heard them." McClain's suicide
was the third at a state youth center since 1997 and the second this year.
State police are investigating McClain's death. Cornell Companies Inc.,
a Houston-based operator of prisons, had assumed control of the lockup a few
weeks ago. Cornell spokesman Paul Doucette said the company is working with
state officials to find out how the boy died. "We are working
cooperatively with the state to make the Alexander Youth Services Center a
model juvenile program," Doucette said. McClain Jr. attended what
is now Fuller Middle School. He was incarcerated after he violated probation
he received for a burglary, McClain Sr. said. McClain Sr. said he divorced
the boy's mother while his son was very young and did not participate in the
boy's early life. McClain Sr. said he had served prison time on an assault
and battery conviction. He said he was stunned when his sister told him
the youth was dead and regrets not having been able to visit the boy on
Sunday. "He probably would have loved to have just seen my
face," McClain Sr. said. "That would have been like the
sunshine after a rainy day." (AP)
September 17, 2001
A 15-year-old boy found hanging in his cell at a Department of Human Services
youth detention facility is the third apparent suicide of a youth inmate in
DHS custody since 1997. DHS spokesman Joe Quinn said Sunday night's
death at the Alexander Youth Services Center is being investigated by the
Arkansas State Police, the DHS Division of Youth Services and Cornell
Companies, which took over management of the youth detention facility on
Sept. 1. "We thought we had made the necessary adjustments after
the suicide earlier this year, but obviously that was not the case,"
Quinn said. "This suicide raises some very serious questions. Basically
everyone here is shocked that this has happened again." (AP)
June 17, 2001
Arkansas' experiment with privatization of an adult prison facility was a
bust. Now the state is going to have another go at it with a juvenile
facility. Responsibility for the snake pit known as the Alexander Unit
is about to be turned over to the third private owner-operator of
correctional facilities in the nation, Cornell Companies Inc. of Houston,
Texas. Under the initial two-year contract, the state will pay Cornell
about $13 million to do a better job, presumably, than the state could do at
almost twice the cost. Although no sound estimate of the projected
cost-savings exists, since the state will continue to pick up the costs for
medical insurance associated with Alexander's young inmates, DHS officials
anticipate a minor windfall that they say they'll use to build still more
juvenile detention facilities. Sen. Kevin Smith of Stuttgart, who has
been in the Legislature since 1993, is one of the skeptics. The thought
that a for-profit company can do much better for much less must boggle his
mind. (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
Arkansas Legislature
Cornell, Correctional Medical Services,
Emerald
Apr
4, 2022 nwaonline.com
A proposed regional jail facility in southeast Arkansas that would be
operated by a private company and would house up to 500 state inmates hasn't
broken ground yet.
In December 2019, Arkansas' Legislative Council signed off on an $8.1
million-a-year contract to house inmates at a future regional jail in either
Bradley or Drew county. The intergovernmental agreement was projected to cost
the state more than $163 million over the 20-year contract. Officials in both
counties had signed a deal in November 2019 with Louisiana-based LaSalle
Corrections that called for the private company to pay for the construction
and operation of the jail. The facility was scheduled to open Jan. 1, 2022,
but the doors aren't open and it appears that won't
change anytime soon. "We don't have a current estimated completion
time," LaSalle Corrections official James McCormick said Wednesday.
McCormick added that the company hadn't decided on a location, either. During
a subcommittee meeting Monday, legislators questioned Arkansas Department of
Corrections Secretary Solomon Graves on whether the proposed jail could be an
answer to the state's prison-overcrowding problems. "Whenever it comes
online, yes, it could help," Graves told committee members. Cindy
Murphy, a spokeswoman with the Department of Corrections, said the department
hasn't received any updates on the status of the regional jail facility. Rep.
Jeff Wardlaw, R-Hermitage, a Bradley County resident
and longtime supporter of the project, said Wednesday that he didn't have a lot
of information on the project but that some things had changed. "Some
stuff happened with [President Joe] Biden's order with private prisons to go
along with the pandemic and other stuff, so that is being worked out at the
moment," Wardlaw said. Concerns about prison overcrowding have been
expressed by legislators and Gov. Asa Hutchinson in recent months after
sheriffs from across the state complained about overcrowding within their
facilities because of the backup of state prisoners who are being held at the
jails. Sheriffs have said the overflow creates an unsafe environment for
county jail employees. Citing a 10-year projection of inmate population
growth, Hutchinson said in February that he wanted to use surplus general
revenue to expand the North Central Unit in Calico Rock by about 498 beds. In
March, the governor said $75 million had been set aside for that expansion.
Wardlaw said the LaSalle facility wouldn't be the answer to the state's
overcrowding problem. "Those people in the county jails usually don't
qualify to be put in the regional jail because of the type of crimes they
have committed," Wardlaw said. "This is a lot more than just moving
500 inmates around. "This will not fix overcrowding problems because
most of the crimes are violent crimes and ones that can't be housed at this
facility." McCormick said LaSalle Corrections still has a plan with
Bradley and Drew counties, but that is all that it is. "It is just a
plan at this point," he said. "This is a project that we would like
to still develop." The facility was expected to be
located in Warren, but McCormick said that is no longer the case.
"We haven't chosen an alternate site yet, but we are in the process of
looking at alternate sites," he said. "So many issues come up with
facilities in the design and development stage. Due to various reasons, the
one in Warren didn't work out. "We still have an agreement with the
county judges." An agreement was reached between LaSalle and the two
counties in 2019. Details of the contract were not available, and multiple
attempts to contact County Judge Klay McKinney of Bradley County and County
Judge Robert Akin of Drew County had not been returned as of Friday
afternoon. McCormick said the estimated bed count in the facility would be similar to the originally proposed 500 beds, but a few
things could change. "We are looking forward to developing in the state
of Arkansas," he said.
February 22, 2009
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Some Arkansas lawmakers traveled to Guatemala, Turkey and Seattle on somebody
else's dime last year. The trips were educational, they said. And sometimes
legislation follows, as in the current Arkansas legislative session....DBH
Management Consultants, which includes lobbyist and former Rep. Bruce Hawkins
of Morrilton, paid for travel and meals for June 24-25 to tour Emerald
Companies' prison in Texas for Rep. George Overbey,
D-Lamar; Nathan George, D-Dardenelle; and Lance
Reynolds, D-Quitman, according to their reports. Overbey,
George and Reynolds each reported the expenses at $1,502.31. Emerald
Companies, a Scott, La., private corrections company, has pitched privatizing
some of Arkansas' prisons to lawmakers. But Beebe has opposed that idea.
Reynolds said he's not sure whether he supports privatizing Arkansas prisons.
September 23, 2008 The Leader
What does it take to bury a bad idea? The Legislative Council last week
undertook a study of turning Arkansas’ prisons over to a private company, an
idea suggested by Rep. Johnny Hoyt of Morrilton. Hoyt was not around, at
least in the legislature, the last time this hare-brained but appealing idea
was raised. The state contracted with a private national company, Wackenhut
Correction Corp., to operate a couple of the state’s penitentiaries.
Arkansas’ prisons already were about the most cheaply run in the country, but
Wackenhut said it could do it even more cheaply, and that was enough to sell
the lawmakers. The prisons’ cost was rising sharply every year, although the
reason was no mystery. The number of inmates climbed every year, and the
state had to pay for new prisons and bigger staffs and it had to reimburse
cities and counties for holding prisoners for whom there was no room in the
penitentiaries. There also was no mystery about how a private contractor
could do it. It calculated the profit that the investors needed, then reduced
the number of employees, salaries and insurance costs and services to a level
that would fit within the state appropriation. That is what Wackenhut did and
in three years the scandal was so electrifying that the state canceled the
contract and every lawmaker swore off privatization. Arkansas prisons are a
fair-sized city, roughly 15,000 inhabitants housed in close proximity and
needing many of the necessities a city needs: food and medical assistance among
others. They didn’t get much medical help. Who, after all, would feel any
compassion for a whining criminal? Arkansas spends far more on corrections
than any civilized society should, and under the existing criminal code it is
going to have to spend tens of millions of dollars more every year. But
privatization is not the answer. Reforming the criminal code to shorten the
sentences of non-violent offenders and resort to alternative sentences for
some victimless crimes would help. It would end the massive glut in the
correctional system and make punishment certain once again. That is the best
deterrent of all, and the cheapest, too.
September 20, 2008 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Prison officials said Friday they oppose a proposal by four legislators to
consider privatizing Arkansas prisons. State Rep. Johnny Hoyt, D Morrilton,
said the proposal is a way “to open up some dialogue.” “Right now, our
prisons are full. They’re sending state prisoners to our county jails. We’ve
got to find another way,” Hoyt said after a meeting of the Legislative
Council in Little Rock. On Friday, 14, 816 inmates were state prisoners,
including 1, 247 that are being housed in county jails around the state until
prison beds become available, said Dina Tyler, spokesman for the Department
of Correction. Tyler said neither Hoyt nor his co-sponsors, Reps. Nathan
George, D-Dardanelle, George Overbey, D-Lamar, and
Lance Reynolds, D-Quitman, had talked to prison officials before filing their
proposal with the council Thursday. The issue didn’t come up for discussion
at the council’s meeting Friday. Hoyt commented on the proposed study when
asked about it by reporters. “That’s OK. We’re happy to participate,” Tyler
said. “I will say our department is not overly eager to step back into privatization.”
Tyler cited the state’s experience with the Wackenhut Corrections Corp.,
which ran the Grimes and McPherson units in Newport from 1998 to 2001. “That
experiment didn’t go well. The state had to assume management of those two
facilities because the company couldn’t do what it said it could do,” Tyler
said. Wackenhut performed poorly in sanitation and maintenance issues, she
said. Tyler also pointed to a U. S. Department of Justice probe into the
McPherson and Grimes units in November 2003 which characterized conditions at
the two prisons as “unconstitutional” because of inadequate medical care and
unsafe living conditions. “That happened right after we stepped back in,”
Tyler said. Hoyt, who is in his first term as a state representative, said
“if I’d been here a hundred years like everyone else, I’d know that. But is
Wackenhut OK now ? Let’s revisit all aspects of
that.” A subsequent agreement between the state and the Justice Department to
remedy conditions at the prisons has been completed, releasing the state from
federal oversight, Tyler said. Wackenhut officials didn’t return a telephone
call for comment on Friday. The two largest private corrections companies in
the United States are Wackenhut, based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and
Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville, Tenn. Corrections
Corporation officials didn’t return a telephone call for comment about any
possible interest in expanding their operations into Arkansas. State law
requires the Board of Corrections to approve the building of any private
state correctional facility, Tyler said. That board is appointed by the
governor. And Gov. Mike Beebe’s main priority in the field of prison issues
remains searching for alternative sentencing programs for nonviolent inmates
to save beds, said Matt DeCample, his spokesman.
And Beebe is mindful of the earlier Wackenhut era. “You learn from
experiences like that,” DeCample said. “But we’re
always open to new proposals and studies.” The “ultimate solution,” DeCample said, is to continue to improve the state’s
schools “to reduce the need for those beds.” Prison growth has spurted this
year, Tyler said, although no one factor adequately explains that growth.
November 18, 2007Arkansas News
Several companies with ties to state legislators have contracts with the
state. The deals involve more than $ 700, 000, most of the contracts were
awarded after competitive bidding, the arrangements are legal, and they were
publicly disclosed in recent reports to lawmakers because of a law the
Legislature enacted this year. Sen. Percy Malone, an Arkadelphia Democrat and
a legislator since 1995, is president and the majority stock owner of W. P.
Malone Inc., which owns Pharmacy Care of Arkansas. That company does business
as Allcare Pharmacy, which has a $ 25, 000-a-year
pharmacy services contract with the Department of Human Services’ Alexander,
Arkadelphia and Jonesboro Human Development Centers, said the state’s
procurement director, Joe Giddis. It was awarded
Jan. 20, 2005. Allcare also has had a contract with
the department for the Arkansas Health Center at Benton since July 2004, said
Julie Munsell, a spokesman for the department. That’s for $ 200, 000 a year, Giddis said. Allcare was paid $
437, 890 from July 2004 to Nov. 8 this year for drugs under the contract,
Munsell said...Malone’s firm also is a subcontractor to the Department of
Correction for inmate medical care, Giddis said.
That arrangement, too, began before he was a legislator, Malone said. The
firm provides prescription drugs and other services through Correctional
Medical Services of St. Louis. He and Correctional Medical Services declined
to say how much business Allcare does each year
with Correctional Medical Services. “It’s proprietary [information
],” Malone said.
July 1, 2005 Miner News
In the closing days of the regular legislative session, Republican Sen. Gene Therriault of North Pole amended an elections bill to
allow big corporate money into Alaska politics. Undeterred by the fact there
had been no public notice or public hearing, Senate Republicans approved the
change. But the state House balked, and the amendment was removed. A triumph
for democracy, right? So what's Therriault
really trying to do? Simple. Alaska law does not allow corporations to make
political contributions to candidates or groups. Therriault
wants to change that because the Republican Party would get more corporate
money than other parties. This is about nothing more than fattening the
Republican Party's bank accounts. Would it? You bet. How do we know? Well, a
court ruling allowed corporate contributions for a brief period in 2001, and
the Republican Party mistakenly reported some of what it got: $25,000 from Veco, $12,000 from Cornell Companies Inc., $10,000 from
Gray Line of Alaska, $8,000 from Philip Morris USA, $7,500 from Holland
America and so on. Selfless giving? Hardly. Veco
and Cornell wanted a private prison; Gray Line and Holland America didn't
want a cruise ship tax; Phillip Morris didn't want higher tobacco taxes. You
get the picture. Alaskans don't want big money in their state's politics.
They've said so at the polls. But Gene Therriault
doesn't care about that. He wants the dough for his own partisan purposes.
Better keep an eye on him.
Arkansas Nuclear One
Wackenhut (Group 4)
May 16, 2005 Courier News
After Friday’s negotiations between Arkansas Nuclear One security force
representatives and Wackenhut Corp., there’s a good chance no strike will
occur at the plant. According to Darrell Williams, president of the United
Government Security Officers of America Local 23, the second meeting between
the two parties was more productive than the first. However, the final
decision on whether Friday’s revised contract will be accepted is up to the
79 unionized security guards. That decision will be made later this week when
Williams and his negotiations committee present the new information. “I
really think the new contract will be accepted,” Williams said. “We’ve done
all we can do without going to even more drastic measures, so hopefully we
will have a contract by the end of (this) week.” After the guards’ threat of
a strike in mid-April with claims of low wages and poor benefits, Wackenhut,
who has contracted with Entergy since 1991 to guard Arkansas’ only nuclear
power plant, brought some new contract plans to the table.
Bi-State Jail
Texarkana
May 26, 2017 rawstory.com
Shocking video shows how guards at for-profit prison left sick prisoner to
die despite pleas for help
A shocking new video shows guards at a for-profit Arkansas prison roughed
up a prisoner who tried to warn them about his assorted medical conditions —
and then left him to die in his cell despite his repeated pleas for their
help. The prisoner in question, an Arkansas father of four named Michael Sabbie, was first taken into custody in July 2015 on a
misdemeanor assault charge. According to the New York Times, Sabbie warned officials at the jail that he suffered from
heart disease, high blood pressure and asthma — but guards nonetheless
accused him of faking illnesses when he regularly collapsed in his cell
because he had difficulty breathing. The video obtained by the Times begins
with Sabbie standing in the hallway in the prison,
leaning against the wall trying to catch his breath. A guard then comes and
confronts Sabbie, who then tries to walk away down
the hall. At this point, several guards tackle him and bring him to the
nurse’s station for treatment. “The video shows Mr. Sabbie
breathing heavily over the next nine minutes as corrections officers drag him
to the nurse’s station and then into a shower,” the Times notes. “After he
collapses in the shower, guards pick him up and pull him into his cell as his
orange pants fall below his waist. Mr. Sabbie can
be seen rolling on the floor and wiping his face with his shirt before the
recording stops.” Sabbie regularly shouted out “I
can’t breathe” as the guards took him back to his cell. He was found dead in
his cell the next morning. Sabbie’s family filed a
wrongful death lawsuit against the for-profit prison where Sabbie was being held, as it accused at least a dozen
employees at the jail of being responsible for his death.
Bowie County Jail
Sep 28, 2019 ky3.com
Arkansas
panel approves 20-year contract for private jail
PINE
BLUFF, Ark. (AP) — A state panel has approved a 20-year contract to house as
many as 500 state inmates at a privately run jail facility in southeast
Arkansas. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the state Board of
Corrections on Thursday approved the plan to contract with Drew and Bradley
to house inmates at the facility, which will be operated by Louisiana-based
LaSalle Corrections. The board's chairman presented the contract as an
opportunity to move more than 300 state inmates at a privately run jail in
Texas back to Arkansas, while also relieving some bed space at state prisons.
The counties will contract with LaSalle. The counties have sought to contract
with a private provider to find space to house local offenders awaiting
trial. No private adult lockups have operated in Arkansas since 2001.
Craighead County Jail
Craighead County, Arkansas
Correctional Medical Services
September 27, 2008 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
An inmate at the Craighead County jail died after medical officers ignored
his urgent requests for attention to a painful blood clot in his left leg, a
federal lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit, filed this week in federal court in
Pine Bluff, says that Kevin Lakes, 24, of Jonesboro died on Sept. 27, 2006,
of what an autopsy later determined was a pulmonary embolism caused by a
deep-vein thrombosis, or a blood clot, in his left leg. “The doctor could
have put him on drugs, or easily done something that would have saved his
life, but instead he fell through the cracks,” said Little Rock attorney John
M. Hardy, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Lakes ’ younger sister Dominique
King, 23, of Jacksonville. Lakes was taken to the Craighead County jail on
Aug. 7, 2006, to await transfer to the Correction Department to serve time
for a cocaine-possession conviction, Hardy said. On Aug. 12, Lakes submitted
a medical request form. “I have acquired a blot clot in my left calf area and
it’s unbearable,” he wrote. “It’s constant pain whether I’m lying down,
sitting, or standing. And it’s swelling up very badly. I need immediate
medical attention.” A medical officer didn’t respond for two days, at which
point Lakes thought he was improving, and no tests or examination were
performed, the lawsuit states. But two days later, on Aug. 16, Lakes
submitted another medical request saying the leg was still swollen and was
causing “extreme pain.” Two days later, a “medical officer” without any
formal medical training saw Lakes, the suit states. “Even though a blood clot
in the leg is a potentially deadly condition and should be treated as an
emergency, [the medical officer ] treated the blood clot with an ankle wrap
and Naproxen and failed to inform a physician of Kevin’s condition or to
transport Kevin to a physician or hospital,” the suit states. The defendants
in the lawsuit are the medical officer, Benny Ford, and the jail’s medical
administrator, Steve Metcalf, who, according to the lawsuit, is a licensed
paramedic but not a doctor. The lawsuit also names Craighead County officials
and Correctional Medical Services Inc., which contracted with the state to
provide medical services in the prison system, including the Diagnostic Unit
in Pine Bluff where Lakes was taken on Sept. 22, 2006. A day earlier, Lakes
had fainted while playing basketball in a jail yard and reported that his
heart rate was abnormal, his chest burned and that he was dizzy, the suit
says. Jail personnel refused to take him to a hospital or allow him to see a
doctor, the suit says. At the Diagnostic Unit, Lakes didn’t receive a
required initial health-care screening, the suit alleges. Although Lakes
informed medical personnel that he had a serious health problem and needed to
see a doctor, he “was told he would have to wait until his scheduled ‘health
assessment, ’” the suit says. But he never made it. On Sept. 27, Lakes
suddenly collapsed, and he went by ambulance to Jefferson Regional Medical
Center in Pine Bluff, where he was pronounced dead. The lawsuit alleges that
inmate medical personnel were deliberately indifferent to Lakes’
constitutional rights. It alleges various “constitutional deficiencies” at
the jail, including: a lack of medical intake screening; a requirement that
inmates pay for all medical services or go without; absence of staff nurses;
no contract with a doctor; and an inadequately trained medical administrator.
Cummins Unit
Lincoln County, Arkansas
Correctional Medical Services
September 8, 2005 Northwest Arkansas News
An inmate died last year after a prison doctor neglected to effectively
treat an ailment that caused his lungs to fill with infected pus, according
to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Jefferson County Circuit Court. Willliam Jobes died at
Jefferson Regional Medical Center after being transferred from the Cummins
Unit in Lincoln County on Feb. 9, 2004. About two months later, he received a
posthumous pardon by Gov. Mike Huckabee. Five days before he died, Jobes, 50, had been admitted to the Cummins infirmary
after complaining of pain in his left side and back for three weeks. Dr.
Olabode Olumofin ordered a chest X-ray, which
showed a buildup of fluids in Jobes’ chest. Olumofin tried to drain the fluid, but it would not flow
through a catheter. The lawsuit contends that the lab reports "were
blatantly and willfully disregarded" by Olumofin,
who "wholly failed to take any action in response to save Bill Jobes’ life." Olumofin
works for Correctional Medical Services Inc., a St. Louis-based company that
provides medical care for Arkansas’ 13,000 inmates under a $38 million
contract. The company has contracts for prison and jail health in 26 other
states and is responsible for 212,000 prisoners nationwide. According to
federal court records, Correctional Medical Services has been named as a
party in about 200 suits in the Eastern District of Arkansas. A suit filed
Aug. 16 in Little Rock against the company contends that incompetent medical
care provided by Dr. Craig Bardell at the McPherson
Unit in Newport led to the Oct. 23, 2004, death of 47-year-old Virginia
Morris. Morris, the mother of two grown sons, was seven months into a 10-year
sentence on drug charges when she died after months of neglect by Bardell, who resigned in late July 2005, according to the
suit. The Morris suit alleges that the company "has a history and
reputation of customarily cutting corners in prisoner health care to maintain
high profits" and trains its personnel "to be deliberately
indifferent" to prisoners’ health needs.
Hot Spring County
Hot Springs, Arkansas
Correctional Medical Services
April
20, 2002 A wistfulness hung over a tour Friday of the modern state prison
unit under construction. When completed in October, the 948-bed
medium-security unit will be the first in Arkansas' prison system to house
inmates entirely in cellblocks, not the barracks-style housing that inmates
and prison staff dislike. But with mounting expenses and a new round of
budget cuts, prison officials said Friday, the facility will remain empty
until they can figure out a way to come up with the money needed to operate
it. Rising medical expenses loom as well. The prison system's medical
contractor has asked for a 23 percent increase to renew its contract with the
state, prompting a call from prison officials to review alternatives. The
prison system is now being charged $179.58 per inmate each month to pay for
health services. That figure will rise to $184.52 under the final year of the
contract, which begins July 1. Under the proposed contract for the next
fiscal year, the cost per inmate per month would rise to $227 per inmate, or
23 percent. The prison system contracts health care with Correctional Medical
Services of St. Louis. The current agreement expires in June 2003. More than
a dozen other providers expressed interest in taking over, but in the end,
only Correctional Medical Services offered a bid. Correctional Medical counted
on holding downs costs, but the company couldn't save enough to overcome
rising medical expenses, which ranged from 4.5 percent to more than 5
percent, Max Mobley, prison system deputy director, said. While praising
Correctional Medical, board Chairman Mary Parker directed two other board
members to lead a special committee to study alternatives for delivering
health care to the system's 12,400 prison inmates and the nearly 1,000
residents of the community corrections centers. Saying the board owed it to
taxpayers, Parker said no idea should be left off the table, including the
"drastic" measure of the prison system operating its own
health-care system. Mobley and other prison officials had met Thursday with
the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences chancellor to discuss a
possible partnership. (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
McPherson Prison
Newport, Arkansas
Correctional Medical Services (formerly run by Wackenhut Corrections)
September 23, 2008 The Leader
What does it take to bury a bad idea? The Legislative Council last week
undertook a study of turning Arkansas’ prisons over to a private company, an
idea suggested by Rep. Johnny Hoyt of Morrilton. Hoyt was not around, at
least in the legislature, the last time this hare-brained but appealing idea
was raised. The state contracted with a private national company, Wackenhut
Correction Corp., to operate a couple of the state’s penitentiaries.
Arkansas’ prisons already were about the most cheaply run in the country, but
Wackenhut said it could do it even more cheaply, and that was enough to sell
the lawmakers. The prisons’ cost was rising sharply every year, although the
reason was no mystery. The number of inmates climbed every year, and the
state had to pay for new prisons and bigger staffs and it had to reimburse
cities and counties for holding prisoners for whom there was no room in the
penitentiaries. There also was no mystery about how a private contractor
could do it. It calculated the profit that the investors needed, then reduced
the number of employees, salaries and insurance costs and services to a level
that would fit within the state appropriation. That is what Wackenhut did and
in three years the scandal was so electrifying that the state canceled the
contract and every lawmaker swore off privatization. Arkansas prisons are a
fair-sized city, roughly 15,000 inhabitants housed in close proximity and
needing many of the necessities a city needs: food and medical assistance
among others. They didn’t get much medical help. Who, after all, would feel
any compassion for a whining criminal? Arkansas spends far more on
corrections than any civilized society should, and under the existing
criminal code it is going to have to spend tens of millions of dollars more
every year. But privatization is not the answer. Reforming the criminal code
to shorten the sentences of non-violent offenders and resort to alternative
sentences for some victimless crimes would help. It would end the massive
glut in the correctional system and make punishment certain once again. That
is the best deterrent of all, and the cheapest, too.
September 20, 2008 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Prison officials said Friday they oppose a proposal by four legislators to
consider privatizing Arkansas prisons. State Rep. Johnny Hoyt, D Morrilton,
said the proposal is a way “to open up some dialogue.” “Right now, our
prisons are full. They’re sending state prisoners to our county jails. We’ve
got to find another way,” Hoyt said after a meeting of the Legislative
Council in Little Rock. On Friday, 14, 816 inmates were state prisoners,
including 1, 247 that are being housed in county jails around the state until
prison beds become available, said Dina Tyler, spokesman for the Department
of Correction. Tyler said neither Hoyt nor his co-sponsors, Reps. Nathan
George, D-Dardanelle, George Overbey, D-Lamar, and
Lance Reynolds, D-Quitman, had talked to prison officials before filing their
proposal with the council Thursday. The issue didn’t come up for discussion
at the council’s meeting Friday. Hoyt commented on the proposed study when
asked about it by reporters. “That’s OK. We’re happy to participate,” Tyler
said. “I will say our department is not overly eager to step back into
privatization.” Tyler cited the state’s experience with the Wackenhut Corrections
Corp., which ran the Grimes and McPherson units in Newport from 1998 to 2001.
“That experiment didn’t go well. The state had to assume management of those
two facilities because the company couldn’t do what it said it could do,”
Tyler said. Wackenhut performed poorly in sanitation and maintenance issues,
she said. Tyler also pointed to a U. S. Department of Justice probe into the
McPherson and Grimes units in November 2003 which characterized conditions at
the two prisons as “unconstitutional” because of inadequate medical care and
unsafe living conditions. “That happened right after we stepped back in,”
Tyler said. Hoyt, who is in his first term as a state representative, said
“if I’d been here a hundred years like everyone else, I’d know that. But is
Wackenhut OK now ? Let’s revisit all aspects of
that.” A subsequent agreement between the state and the Justice Department to
remedy conditions at the prisons has been completed, releasing the state from
federal oversight, Tyler said. Wackenhut officials didn’t return a telephone
call for comment on Friday. The two largest private corrections companies in
the United States are Wackenhut, based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and
Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville, Tenn. Corrections
Corporation officials didn’t return a telephone call for comment about any
possible interest in expanding their operations into Arkansas. State law
requires the Board of Corrections to approve the building of any private
state correctional facility, Tyler said. That board is appointed by the
governor. And Gov. Mike Beebe’s main priority in the field of prison issues
remains searching for alternative sentencing programs for nonviolent inmates
to save beds, said Matt DeCample, his spokesman.
And Beebe is mindful of the earlier Wackenhut era. “You learn from
experiences like that,” DeCample said. “But we’re
always open to new proposals and studies.” The “ultimate solution,” DeCample said, is to continue to improve the state’s
schools “to reduce the need for those beds.” Prison growth has spurted this
year, Tyler said, although no one factor adequately explains that growth.
March 2, 2006 New York Times
Shawanna Nelson, a prisoner at the McPherson Unit in Newport, Ark., had been
in labor for more than 12 hours when she arrived at Newport Hospital on Sept.
20, 2003. Ms. Nelson, whose legs were shackled together and who had been
given nothing stronger than Tylenol all day, begged, according to court
papers, to have the shackles removed. Though her doctor and two nurses joined
in the request, her lawsuit says, the guard in charge of her refused.
"She was shackled all through labor," said Ms. Nelson's lawyer,
Cathleen V. Compton. "The doctor who was delivering the baby made them
remove the shackles for the actual delivery at the very end. The experience
of giving birth without anesthesia while largely immobilized has left her
with lasting back pain and damage to her sciatic nerve, according to her
lawsuit against prison officials and a private company, Correctional Medical
Services.
January 13, 2006 Arkansas News
A legislative committee Thursday questioned the state Department of
Correction's use of $8 million in salary savings from open positions for
other needs within the prison system. Prison officials went before lawmakers
seeking permission to take the money from the agency's regular salaries
account. Prison Director Larry Norris said about $5.5 million of the money
would be placed in the system's medical assistance account. Rep. Horace
Hardwick, R-Bentonville, asked Norris if he would consider privatization.
Norris said he did not want to consider privatization because it has not
worked in the state in the past. Two prison units in Newport, the Grimes Unit
and McPherson Unit, were managed by the Wackenhut Corrections Corp. of Coral
Gables for several years, but management problems forced the state to retake
control, the prison director said. "We've tried it and it did not
work," Norris said. "In my opinion, they can't do it better for
less."
August 21, 2005 Arkansas Gazette
A doctor who recently left his job as medical director at the state’s prison
for women in Newport was so incompetent and indifferent to patients’ needs
that he caused an inmate’s death last year, according to a federal lawsuit.
In the negligence lawsuit filed last week in Little Rock, Larry Morris Sr. of
Rosston in Nevada County blames Dr. Craig Bardell, 54, for the Oct. 23, 2004, death of his
47-yearold wife, Virginia Morris. The mother of two grown sons died seven
months into a 10-year sentence for a conviction of possessing and selling
crack cocaine. The suit also names as defendants a registered nurse, Cheryl
Pigg, who worked under Bardell at McPherson Unit in
Jackson County; and Correctional Medical Services, the St. Louis-based
company that employed Bardell and that has been the
target of numerous lawsuits across the country alleging improper inmate care.
At least 199 cases have been filed against the company in the Eastern
District of Arkansas, according to federal court records. One lawsuit,
settled in November 1997, involved the July 29, 1995, death of a diabetic
inmate at the Pulaski County jail, where the company then provided medical
care. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette filed a successful lawsuit in 1995
against the sheriff’s office to get access to the company’s medical
guidelines. The company currently provides medical services to more than
13,000 Arkansas inmates under a $38 million contract. With contracts in 26
other states, the company is responsible for the health care of more than
212,000 prisoners nationwide, according to the lawsuit filed last week. Bardell previously worked as medical director of a
women’s prison in Pennsylvania where, according to a lawsuit settled in May
for $2.15 million, a 26-year-old woman died in 2002 from an asthma attack after
he withheld her medication. Court records show that, after Bardell pleaded guilty in 2001 to federal Medicare fraud
charges, the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine eventually suspended his
medical license for five years, retroactive to Nov. 6, 2002, with the
suspension stayed in favor of five years’ probation.
December 8, 2003
Inmates at two Arkansas prisons "experienced deliberate indifference
towards their serious medical needs" and had "inadequate
protection" from physical harm and sexual misconduct, the U.S.
Department of Justice concluded after an 18 month investigation. In a
report released Wednesday, federal authorities described inadequate health
care and safety precautions at the McPherson and Grimes units in Newport that
amount to "unconstitutional conditions." Inmates lived in
unsanitary and unsafe conditions, the department concluded. Federal
investigators described several examples of what they consider inferior care
at the McPherson unit, the state’s only women’s prison, and at Grimes, which
houses young men. After complaining of chest pains, one inmate who had
recently undergone open-heart surgery was given Tylenol and sent back to his
unit. Another inmate who was sick with symptoms of appendicitis was not
referred to a doctor. A number of inmates also complained that they
were disciplined because their symptoms diminished between the time they
requested medical attention and the time they saw a nurse. The Justice
Department suggested several remedies, including increasing staff and
developing new policies and procedures. Larry Norris, director of the state
Department of Correction, denied that conditions at the two prisons were as
egregious as federal officials contend. He did acknowledge some failings by
previous management of the prisons. Wackenhut Corrections Corp., a private
company, operated the Grimes and McPherson units from 1998 until July 2001.
"We know that we had some problems up there, and we were working on them
when [investigators] were up there, and we have continued to work on them
since," Norris said. "Some of [the report] we agree with. Some of
it we don’t." Norris declined to discuss specific aspects of the
report. St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services began providing
for Grimes and McPherson in July 2001. Spokesman Ken Fields said the Justice
Department report does not reflect the care the company provides. "It’s
an initial report, and it’s based on a few visits to the prisons conducted as
far back as 18 months ago," he said. "Based on our initial review, it
contains a number of inaccuracies and does not reflect fairly the medical
care being provided each day to inmates." INADEQUATE CARE The
state pays Correctional Medical Services $32 million per year to care for its
13,000 inmates in Arkansas’ 18 correctional units. That contract also
includes the care of inmates in centers run by the state Department of
Community Correction. McPherson and Grimes are about a quarter mile apart.
McPherson was designed to house about 600 women, but during the Justice Department’s
inspection, the facility held about 700 women. The Grimes unit houses about
600 young men ages 16 to 24. The Justice Department inspected the two
facilities during three- and four-day visits in July, August and September of
2002. Investigators interviewed administrators, security staff, medical and
mental health care providers, and inmates. When asked what prompted the
investigation, Justice Department spokesman Jorge Martinez referred the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to the report, which is written in the form of a
letter to Gov. Mike Huckabee. The letter, dated Nov. 25, makes no mention of
the Justice Department’s motivation. The 35-page letter focuses
primarily on the inmate health care that federal investigators found lacking.
Some of those include: Inmates not receiving proper referral and follow-up
services. For example, an inmate at McPherson never saw a doctor even though
she sought care for asthma-related breathing problems three times in less
than 10 days. Inmates with critical diseases not getting proper care,
including those with diabetes, HIV and seizure disorders. Specifically, the
investigators found that neither facility regularly tested diabetic inmates ’ blood or urine. They also found that staff did
not adequately communicate results to inmates who had been tested for
diseases like HIV. Inmates with acute medical needs were not seen quickly
enough. Federal authorities said nurses at the prison admitted many patients
were not seen within 24 hours. Inmates at the McPherson Unit, especially,
were subject to mental health care that was unconstitutional. Investigators
said prison staff didn’t attempt to identify women in need of mental health
care. The Justice Department said problems in the two units mostly stem
from inadequate staffing, lack of supervision and the failure to consistently
implement medical policies and protocols. Norris said he "feels pretty
good" about the medical care that inmates in the state’s prisons
receive. When asked if he doubted the validity of some examples in the
report, Norris said: "I’m not saying that... We don’t know yet."
I’m just not going to sit here and tell you we were wrong on these things
until I get into it. " ACCREDITED
FACILITIES Norris pointed out that the American Correctional Association has
recently accredited both prisons and almost 40 staff positions have been
added at the prisons since 2001. The American Correctional Association has
conducted a comprehensive review of both prisons, including health-care
services, CMS’s Fields said." As a result of that evaluation the
accrediting organization gave both facilities high marks on key issues such
as staffing and other medical measures, "Fields said, though he could
not provide the Democrat-Gazette a copy of the review late Wednesday. CMS
recently added a second physician to the prisons ’
staff and has made other improvements, including eliminating the backlog of
inmates waiting for mammograms and pap smears. In addition to medical
concerns, the Justice Department investigators found that both prisons had
problems detecting contraband like homemade knives and tobacco. The report
also said the Grimes Unit failed to prevent inmate-on-inmate violence. Both
units, the investigators said, had" serious problems" in their
investigation and monitoring of sexual misconduct and privacy
violations. The state plans to respond to the Justice Department’s
letter and its recommendations. Justice Department officials then will meet
with state prison administrators to determine the best course of action, Martinez
said. Though it’s possible the federal government could sue the state to
force improvements, Martinez said such an action is a last resort. Rita
Sklar, head of the Arkansas chapter of the American
Civil Liberties Union, was pleased to hear that the Justice Department was
calling attention to the quality of care at the two prisons. Sklar said Wednesday that she’s not surprised by the
findings with regard to medical care. "This is an ongoing problem. I’ve
got a file cabinet full of complaints." (NWA news)
June 30, 2001
Two prisons here managed by a private company under contract to the state
were scheduled to become state operations early Sunday. Wackenhut
Correction Corp. announced in February that it had opted not to renew the
contract under which it had operated the Grimes Unit for men and the
McPherson Unit for women since they opened on Jan. 15, 1998.
Wackenhut's management of the prisons had drawn fire from the state since
late last year over issues that included inmate idleness and the facilities'
cleanliness, and from employees who accused Wackenhut of inmate abuse and
security breaches. (AP)
February 16, 2001
The private company operating two state prisons for the Arkansas Department
of Corrections said Thursday it wouldn't do so anymore, citing the high cost
of medical care and higher wage demands. the state Board of Correction and
Community Punishment already was scheduled to discuss Wackenhut Correction
Corp.'s performance, but Wackenhut's decision not to renew its contract
eliminated that need. Instead, the board placed the two Newport-area prisons
under the Correction Department. As part of regular meeting, the board was to
discuss sanitation problems and allegations of inmate idleness at the two
facilities. He citied growing medical care costs for
female prisoners and increased staff wages as reasons for not renewing the
Arkansas contracts. (Postnet - News &
Commentary)
February 14, 2001
The Board of Correction and Community Punishment will decide today whether
private prisons in Arkansas stay or go. The decision culminates a 90-day
probation period during which the community that manages two of the state's
lockups was ordered to make drastic improvements to the prisons -- or else.
Among the concerns cited by the board last fall were dangerous staffing
shortages, unsanitary living conditions, poor maintenance and lack of work
and educational programs. These worries -- combined with request for more
money by Wackenhut Corrections Corp., the company that manages the state's
private prisons -- have prompted board members to contemplate taking control
of the two units. Chairman Mary Parker said, "I'm just not sure Arkansas
is the place for long-term private prisons." But last year state prison
officials questioning how the units were managed. Their inquiries began when
a litany of complaints from inmates proved credible after surprise visits to
the two prisons. When Wackenhut's president, Wayne Calabrese, arrived at
board meeting on Oct. 21, 2000, to discuss renewing the company's contract at
a higher cost to the state, board members were somewhat irate. Offering up a
lengthy list of problems at both units, they request for more money but also
they weren't sure the state should even renew the contract, which expires
June 30. Calabrese told the board he was unaware such problems existed.
Inmates at grimes and McPherson don't ever seem to work. Instead they loiter
around unclean barracks in equality dirty clothes. The "inmate
idleness" at the Newport prisons stems from a serious staff shortage, said
Larry Norris, director of the department. Because there aren't enough guards
to supervise work crews, inmates spend most of there
time in living areas, making them not only unproductive but more likely to
get bored and into trouble, Norris said. "You have got to get them out
of there." Max Mobely, the department's deputy
director for health and correctional programs, told board members that
substance-abuse programs at the Newport units were lacking and devoid of
security measures. He first became worried about McPherson's female inmates
two years ago, when he learned that 70 percent of the women there were taking
some type of psychotropic medication, drugs designed for those with mental
problems or conditions. By comparison, when the state was housing women at
the Tucker Unit, only 7 to 9 percent were ever on these types of medication
at any time. Charles Allen, head of the prison system's school district, said
his teachers and principals were often afraid because of lack of security.
There just aren't enough guards, he added. This is a good example of how
Wackenhut seems to typically handle difficulties, she said, offering reasons
but failing to fix things. The same was true for the eletronic
panel at one of the units, she said. When the portion that unlocks and opens
gates broke, it took much longer then it should have to get the control board
repaired, Parker said. The problem, Parker says, is that private companies
cuts costs to make a profit, which means they don't always meet state
standards. Wackenhut salaries start at 8dollars an hour. By comparison,
guards working for the state are making minimum of $10.11 and they get
hazardous-duty pay and better benefits. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
October 21, 2000
Prison officials unleashed a barrage of complaints about the way the Newport
prison is being run. Serious staffing shortages, unsanitary living
conditions, poor maintenance, and a lack of educational and substance-abuse
programs for inmates were among the concerns brought up by the Board of
Correction and Community Punishment. The near-constant staffing crisis at the
unit means prisoners aren't participating in work crews. Instead, they remain
in their living quarters at all times. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
August 2, 2000
A former prison guard for the private company that runs the state prison for
women has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an inmate. Marcus King who
worked for Wackenhut Correctional Corp. in Newport admitted he had sexual
contact with the woman. At a meeting last week, prison board members discussed
staffing shortages at the prison, unsanitary living conditions, poor
maintenance, and a lack of educational and substance-abuse programs for the
inmates. (The Associated Press, Oct. 24, 2000)
Prisoner
Transport
Oct
20, 2021, inquirer.com
Delco
prison correctional officer accused of attempting to smuggle drugs to inmates
Chloe Vadel, 24, is the third correctional officer
in recent months to be charged in connection with drug smuggling at the
George W. Hill Correctional Facility.
A
24-year-old correctional officer has been charged with attempting to smuggle
drugs into the Delaware County prison, authorities said Tuesday. Chloe Vadel, who works at the George W. Hill Correctional
Facility, is the third correctional officer at the prison in recent months to
be arrested in connection with drug smuggling. Vadel
was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver
and related offenses. Her bail was set at 10 percent of $100,000, which was
posted on Tuesday, online court records show. A preliminary hearing was set
for Nov. 2. No lawyer was listed for Vadel in court
records and she could not be reached for comment.
When she arrived for work on Saturday, Vadel was
confronted by investigators who had been tipped off that a drug delivery was
planned for that day, authorities said. Vadel
allegedly acknowledged that she had the drug Suboxone in her vehicle,
authorities said, and consented to a vehicle search, which yielded the
Suboxone, and possible synthetic marijuana, and possible marijuana. Under
medical supervision, Suboxone is taken by patients withdrawing from opioid
use. Suboxone produces effects similar to opioids
when taken. The prison has been run by the for-profit company Geo Group, but
the Delaware County Council earlier this month voted unanimously to end the
contract and take over operations next spring. District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said in a statement: "The fact that
this dangerous and unlawful conduct has continued despite the previous
arrests only highlights the breakdown in the management of the County
facility. As I have stated previously, my office fully supports the recent
decision by County Council to return management of the facility to County
control. While there is no way to guarantee that County management can fully
protect inmates and staff against this type of unlawful conduct, I am
confident that the issue will get the attention it so obviously
deserves." Stollsteimer added: "The
majority of the staff at George W. Hill do their duty every day in what can be a very trying and dangerous environment. I applaud
the hard work they do every day, and I want them to know that we will
continue to investigate and prosecute instances such as this which threaten
the health and safety of everyone at George W. Hill."
North Atlantic Extradition Service, US Extradition Services
June 29, 2010 AP
The parents of a Utah inmate killed in a southern Arkansas van rollover in
2008 have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a private company that
contracts with law enforcement to transport prisoners across the country.
Court papers filed in Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court Friday claimed
U.S. Extradition Services of Stockton, Calif., was negligent in the June 27,
2008, accident that killed Shawn Robert Talbot. The lawsuit filed by Robert
and Linda Talbot contended the driver fell asleep at the wheel before the van
drifted into oncoming traffic on U.S. 167. Another employee grabbed the wheel
of the van and overcorrected. The van then hit a culvert and went airborne
before rolling twice and coming to a stop, an Arkansas State Police officer
told a newspaper at the time. Court papers said Talbot, 29, was handcuffed
and shackled, but not wearing a seat belt. He died at the scene. Seven
inmates and two guards were in the van, which was headed to Little Rock, the
state police said. One other inmate was killed, and four were injured. A
telephone message left at U.S. Extradition's corporate office was not
immediately returned Tuesday. David Morgan, a Utah attorney for Talbot's
parents, told The Associated Press he believes U.S. Extradition employees
were not properly trained. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. Named as
defendants in the lawsuit are company President and Operations Director
Gordon Brooks and employee Gregory Reed. A company website said U.S.
Extradition has offices nationwide, including Arizona, California,
Connecticut, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas.
January 21, 2010 TMJ4
Waukesha County's DA has told Today's TMJ-4 the county is ending its relationship
with North Atlantic Extradition. The county's contract expires within days
and it will not be renewed. Guards for North Atlantic were transporting
accused hitman Justin Welch from California to Wisconsin when Welch escaped
earlier this month. Welch has been charged with killing a woman from
Oconomowoc in her home last year. He was caught a day after his escape and
has since been returned to Wisconsin. He is behind bars awaiting trial. North
Atlantic staffers apologized and told Waukesha County the escape was a
mistake and it happened because company policies were not followed. The
county's law enforcement officials say they're planning to review what
happened in depth once a complete investigation is done but for now they do
not intend to renew the prisoner transportation contract with North Atlantic.
January 14, 2010 Press Argus-Courier
A Wisconsin homicide suspect who escaped Wednesday from a transport van in
Dora was recaptured shortly after noon Thursday in Sallisaw. Justin Welch
hitched a ride with a trucker Thursday, and the way he was acting made the
driver "suspicious," Van Buren Lt. Brent Grill said Thursday
afternoon. He said the trucker either called or texted a family member to
express concerns, and the family member alerted Sallisaw police, leading to
Welch's capture. Grill said Welch was currently being held at the Sallisaw
Police Department, and he was not sure if he would be booked into the
Sequoyah County Jail or taken elsewhere. Grill said he was still gathering
details, including where Welch spent Wednesday night after reportedly being
seen headed east in a private prison transport van Wednesday. Grill said the
van has not been located yet. Welch was one of five prisoners being
transported by North Atlantic Extraditon Service, a
private transport company from Mississippi. The van stopped at the I-40 rest
stop in Dora so Welch and the other four prisoners could use the restroom.
Grill said Welch stabbed and beat one of the guards, taking his gun and
fleeing to the van, where he struggled with the other, unarmed guard, firing
a shot at him but missing.
January 13, 2010 Press Argus-Courier
A manhunt is on for a California man accused of murder who escaped Wednesday
morning from a private prison transport van at a rest stop in Dora on Interstate
40. According to the Van Buren Police Department, Justin Welch was being
transported along with four other prisoners when the driver stopped at the
I-40 rest area in Dora around 2:45 a.m. The five prisoners were in the
bathroom when Welch is believed to have stabbed the guard in the hand and
started beating him in the head area. Van Buren Lt. Brent Grill said Welch
then took the handgun from the guard and fled from the bathroom to the van,
where he confronted the second, unarmed guard, firing a shot at him in the
struggle. Welch then left the area in the transport van, possibly heading
east on the interstate. The van is a white 2007 Dodge, marked on both sides
with the letters NAES, as well as the words "North Atlantic Extradition
Service" Since the transport company is out of Columbus, Miss., the van
has Mississippi license plates LTC537. The guard who was stabbed was taken to
Summit Medical Center, where he was treated and released. The other guard was
not injured.
Pulaski County Jail
Pulaski County, Arkansas
July 3, 2006 Arkansas Leader
Although Pulaski County can’t afford to add more beds to its jail, the
county is willing to spend $100,000 for a special election for a sales tax to
almost double the number of beds at the county jail. On Tuesday, the Pulaski
County Quorum Court threw out the idea of a private jail, and on Wednesday a
task force opted to push for a quarter-cent sales tax. The Pulaski County
Jail task force believes the sales tax would give the county enough money to
quickly build or reopen space to house 1,618 inmates. Currently the jail can
only house 880 prisoners. On Tuesday, the quorum court said no to the idea of
a privately-operated detention facility after the presenter failed to answer
numerous questions and told the task force that they had no plans to take in
felons. “We don’t accept felons,” said Greg Caldwell, a marketing
representative for the Central Arkansas Regional Detention Facility, which is
being built in Lonoke County. “Well, everyone at our county lockup is a felon,”
said Justice of the Peace Charles Roberson. “Why are we even having this
discussion, and why didn’t any of us know this before now?” Caldwell’s
presentation offering a “private solution to a public problem” – the county
jail crisis — came as a special request by the court and took place before
new business on the agenda, resulting in a court apology for time wasted.
Caldwell held the interest of the standing-room-only audience and court
members with a barrage of pie charts and bar graphs. His slide presentation
comparing operational expenses between CARDC and the overflowing county jail
in Little Rock painted a convincing portrait, with estimates of daily costs
per bed, total cost per day-per inmate and projected savings by the county of
$4.5 million a year. Caldwell essentially claimed That CARDC could reduce the
county’s $52,000 annual cost per inmate to $39,600. But he was stymied once
the floor was opened for discussion. Questions regarding previous clients,
job opportunities, county contract fees based upon specific criminal charges,
bed reservations, financial stability and verification of the company’s
performance record dealt a staggering blow to Caldwell’s momentum. He refused
to disclose any financial numbers and said privately held companies have no
obligation to do so. Caldwell’s routine replies of, “I’ll have to re-fer you
to my supervisors and operations manager David Hamilton,” prompted Justice of
the Peace Phil Stowers to ask for the job titles and roles of the CARDC
office-management team and said he would be contacting them soon. “Why isn’t
Hamilton here then, if he has all the answers?,”
Stowers asked. When asked simple questions, such as how long had his
employers been in business, Caldwell replied, “We have over 75 years of
management experience,” and fell quiet when a court member asked, “Managing
what?” The final salvo to Caldwell resulted when asked how contract fees were
rated according to levels of charges against inmates, such as how much more
it would cost to reserve a certain number of misdemeanor or felony beds.
Ouachita River Unit
Malvern, Arkansas
Correctional Medical Services
September 5, 2005 Northwest Arkansas News
Over the past five months, at least eight staff members have resigned or been
dismissed from their jobs at the Ouachita River Unit in Malvern over
allegations of improper relationships with inmates, smuggling contraband or
personal drug use. In late April, two nursing assistants were ordered off
prison grounds, also for becoming "too friendly" with inmates. Both
women worked for Correctional Medical Services, a St. Louis company that
provides health care to more than 13,000 inmates under a $38 million
contract. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette obtained a copy of a disciplinary
report that cites a sexual relationship between an inmate and one of the
nursing assistants. The report said that a sergeant found letters printed on
an infirmary computer by the nursing assistant that were intended for the
inmate and that provided evidence of a sexual relationship. Department
officials referred all questions about the nursing assistants to the St.
Louis-based company that employed them. Company officials declined to comment
about why the women were barred from prison grounds.
Scott Grimes Correctional Facility
Diaz, Arkansas
Wackenhut
September 23, 2008 The Leader
What does it take to bury a bad idea? The Legislative Council last week
undertook a study of turning Arkansas’ prisons over to a private company, an
idea suggested by Rep. Johnny Hoyt of Morrilton. Hoyt was not around, at
least in the legislature, the last time this hare-brained but appealing idea
was raised. The state contracted with a private national company, Wackenhut
Correction Corp., to operate a couple of the state’s penitentiaries.
Arkansas’ prisons already were about the most cheaply run in the country, but
Wackenhut said it could do it even more cheaply, and that was enough to sell
the lawmakers. The prisons’ cost was rising sharply every year, although the
reason was no mystery. The number of inmates climbed every year, and the
state had to pay for new prisons and bigger staffs and it had to reimburse
cities and counties for holding prisoners for whom there was no room in the
penitentiaries. There also was no mystery about how a private contractor
could do it. It calculated the profit that the investors needed, then reduced
the number of employees, salaries and insurance costs and services to a level
that would fit within the state appropriation. That is what Wackenhut did and
in three years the scandal was so electrifying that the state canceled the
contract and every lawmaker swore off privatization. Arkansas prisons are a
fair-sized city, roughly 15,000 inhabitants housed in close proximity and
needing many of the necessities a city needs: food and medical assistance
among others. They didn’t get much medical help. Who, after all, would feel
any compassion for a whining criminal? Arkansas spends far more on
corrections than any civilized society should, and under the existing
criminal code it is going to have to spend tens of millions of dollars more
every year. But privatization is not the answer. Reforming the criminal code
to shorten the sentences of non-violent offenders and resort to alternative
sentences for some victimless crimes would help. It would end the massive
glut in the correctional system and make punishment certain once again. That
is the best deterrent of all, and the cheapest, too.
September 20, 2008 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Prison officials said Friday they oppose a proposal by four legislators to
consider privatizing Arkansas prisons. State Rep. Johnny Hoyt, D Morrilton,
said the proposal is a way “to open up some dialogue.” “Right now, our
prisons are full. They’re sending state prisoners to our county jails. We’ve
got to find another way,” Hoyt said after a meeting of the Legislative
Council in Little Rock. On Friday, 14, 816 inmates were state prisoners,
including 1, 247 that are being housed in county jails around the state until
prison beds become available, said Dina Tyler, spokesman for the Department
of Correction. Tyler said neither Hoyt nor his co-sponsors, Reps. Nathan
George, D-Dardanelle, George Overbey, D-Lamar, and
Lance Reynolds, D-Quitman, had talked to prison officials before filing their
proposal with the council Thursday. The issue didn’t come up for discussion
at the council’s meeting Friday. Hoyt commented on the proposed study when
asked about it by reporters. “That’s OK. We’re happy to participate,” Tyler
said. “I will say our department is not overly eager to step back into
privatization.” Tyler cited the state’s experience with the Wackenhut
Corrections Corp., which ran the Grimes and McPherson units in Newport from
1998 to 2001. “That experiment didn’t go well. The state had to assume
management of those two facilities because the company couldn’t do what it
said it could do,” Tyler said. Wackenhut performed poorly in sanitation and
maintenance issues, she said. Tyler also pointed to a U. S. Department of
Justice probe into the McPherson and Grimes units in November 2003 which
characterized conditions at the two prisons as “unconstitutional” because of
inadequate medical care and unsafe living conditions. “That happened right
after we stepped back in,” Tyler said. Hoyt, who is in his first term as a
state representative, said “if I’d been here a hundred years like everyone
else, I’d know that. But is Wackenhut OK now ? Let’s
revisit all aspects of that.” A subsequent agreement between the state and
the Justice Department to remedy conditions at the prisons has been completed,
releasing the state from federal oversight, Tyler said. Wackenhut officials
didn’t return a telephone call for comment on Friday. The two largest private
corrections companies in the United States are Wackenhut, based in Palm Beach
Gardens, Fla., and Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville, Tenn.
Corrections Corporation officials didn’t return a telephone call for comment
about any possible interest in expanding their operations into Arkansas.
State law requires the Board of Corrections to approve the building of any
private state correctional facility, Tyler said. That board is appointed by
the governor. And Gov. Mike Beebe’s main priority in the field of prison
issues remains searching for alternative sentencing programs for nonviolent
inmates to save beds, said Matt DeCample, his
spokesman. And Beebe is mindful of the earlier Wackenhut era. “You learn from
experiences like that,” DeCample said. “But we’re
always open to new proposals and studies.” The “ultimate solution,” DeCample said, is to continue to improve the state’s
schools “to reduce the need for those beds.” Prison growth has spurted this
year, Tyler said, although no one factor adequately explains that growth.
January 13, 2006 Arkansas News
A legislative committee Thursday questioned the state Department of
Correction's use of $8 million in salary savings from open positions for
other needs within the prison system. Prison officials went before lawmakers
seeking permission to take the money from the agency's regular salaries
account. Prison Director Larry Norris said about $5.5 million of the money
would be placed in the system's medical assistance account. Rep. Horace
Hardwick, R-Bentonville, asked Norris if he would consider privatization.
Norris said he did not want to consider privatization because it has not
worked in the state in the past. Two prison units in Newport, the Grimes Unit
and McPherson Unit, were managed by the Wackenhut Corrections Corp. of Coral
Gables for several years, but management problems forced the state to retake
control, the prison director said. "We've tried it and it did not
work," Norris said. "In my opinion, they can't do it better for
less."
December 8, 2003
Inmates at two Arkansas prisons "experienced deliberate indifference
towards their serious medical needs" and had "inadequate
protection" from physical harm and sexual misconduct, the U.S.
Department of Justice concluded after an 18 month investigation. In a
report released Wednesday, federal authorities described inadequate health
care and safety precautions at the McPherson and Grimes units in Newport that
amount to "unconstitutional conditions." Inmates lived in
unsanitary and unsafe conditions, the department concluded. Federal
investigators described several examples of what they consider inferior care
at the McPherson unit, the state’s only women’s prison, and at Grimes, which
houses young men. After complaining of chest pains, one inmate who had
recently undergone open-heart surgery was given Tylenol and sent back to his
unit. Another inmate who was sick with symptoms of appendicitis was not
referred to a doctor. A number of inmates also complained that they
were disciplined because their symptoms diminished between the time they
requested medical attention and the time they saw a nurse. The Justice
Department suggested several remedies, including increasing staff and
developing new policies and procedures. Larry Norris, director of the state
Department of Correction, denied that conditions at the two prisons were as
egregious as federal officials contend. He did acknowledge some failings by
previous management of the prisons. Wackenhut Corrections Corp., a private
company, operated the Grimes and McPherson units from 1998 until July 2001.
"We know that we had some problems up there, and we were working on them
when [investigators] were up there, and we have continued to work on them
since," Norris said. "Some of [the report] we agree with. Some of
it we don’t." Norris declined to discuss specific aspects of the
report. St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services began providing
for Grimes and McPherson in July 2001. Spokesman Ken Fields said the Justice
Department report does not reflect the care the company provides. "It’s
an initial report, and it’s based on a few visits to the prisons conducted as
far back as 18 months ago," he said. "Based on our initial review,
it contains a number of inaccuracies and does not reflect fairly the medical
care being provided each day to inmates." INADEQUATE CARE The
state pays Correctional Medical Services $32 million per year to care for its
13,000 inmates in Arkansas’ 18 correctional units. That contract also
includes the care of inmates in centers run by the state Department of
Community Correction. McPherson and Grimes are about a quarter mile apart. McPherson
was designed to house about 600 women, but during the Justice Department’s
inspection, the facility held about 700 women. The Grimes unit houses about
600 young men ages 16 to 24. The Justice Department inspected the two
facilities during three- and four-day visits in July, August and September of
2002. Investigators interviewed administrators, security staff, medical and
mental health care providers, and inmates. When asked what prompted the
investigation, Justice Department spokesman Jorge Martinez referred the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to the report, which is written in the form of a
letter to Gov. Mike Huckabee. The letter, dated Nov. 25, makes no mention of
the Justice Department’s motivation. The 35-page letter focuses
primarily on the inmate health care that federal investigators found lacking.
Some of those include: Inmates not receiving proper referral and follow-up
services. For example, an inmate at McPherson never saw a doctor even though
she sought care for asthma-related breathing problems three times in less
than 10 days. Inmates with critical diseases not getting proper care,
including those with diabetes, HIV and seizure disorders. Specifically, the
investigators found that neither facility regularly tested diabetic inmates ’ blood or urine. They also found that staff did
not adequately communicate results to inmates who had been tested for
diseases like HIV. Inmates with acute medical needs were not seen quickly
enough. Federal authorities said nurses at the prison admitted many patients
were not seen within 24 hours. Inmates at the McPherson Unit,
especially, were subject to mental health care that was unconstitutional.
Investigators said prison staff didn’t attempt to identify women in need of
mental health care. The Justice Department said problems in the two
units mostly stem from inadequate staffing, lack of supervision and the
failure to consistently implement medical policies and protocols. Norris said
he "feels pretty good" about the medical care that inmates in the
state’s prisons receive. When asked if he doubted the validity of some
examples in the report, Norris said: "I’m not saying that... We don’t
know yet." I’m just not going to sit here and tell you we were wrong on
these things until I get into it. " ACCREDITED
FACILITIES Norris pointed out that the American Correctional Association has
recently accredited both prisons and almost 40 staff positions have been
added at the prisons since 2001. The American Correctional Association has
conducted a comprehensive review of both prisons, including health-care
services, CMS’s Fields said." As a result of that evaluation the
accrediting organization gave both facilities high marks on key issues such
as staffing and other medical measures, "Fields said, though he could
not provide the Democrat-Gazette a copy of the review late Wednesday.
CMS recently added a second physician to the prisons ’
staff and has made other improvements, including eliminating the backlog of
inmates waiting for mammograms and pap smears. In addition to medical
concerns, the Justice Department investigators found that both prisons had
problems detecting contraband like homemade knives and tobacco. The report
also said the Grimes Unit failed to prevent inmate-on-inmate violence. Both
units, the investigators said, had" serious problems" in their
investigation and monitoring of sexual misconduct and privacy
violations. The state plans to respond to the Justice Department’s
letter and its recommendations. Justice Department officials then will meet
with state prison administrators to determine the best course of action,
Martinez said. Though it’s possible the federal government could sue the
state to force improvements, Martinez said such an action is a last
resort. Rita Sklar, head of the Arkansas
chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, was pleased to hear that the
Justice Department was calling attention to the quality of care at the two
prisons. Sklar said Wednesday that she’s not
surprised by the findings with regard to medical care. "This is an
ongoing problem. I’ve got a file cabinet full of complaints." (NWA
news)
June 30, 2001
Two prisons here managed by a private company under contract to the state
were scheduled to become state operations early Sunday. Wackenhut
Correction Corp. announced in February that it had opted not to renew the
contract under which it had operated the Grimes Unit for men and the
McPherson Unit for women since they opened on Jan. 15, 1998.
Wackenhut's management of the prisons had drawn fire from the state since late
last year over issues that included inmate idleness and the facilities'
cleanliness, and from employees who accused Wackenhut of inmate abuse and
security breaches. (AP)
February 16, 2001
The private company operating two state prisons for the Arkansas Department
of Corrections said Thursday it wouldn't do so anymore, citing the high cost
of medical care and higher wage demands. the state Board of Correction and
Community Punishment already was scheduled to discuss Wackenhut Correction
Corp.'s performance, but Wackenhut's decision not to renew its contract
eliminated that need. Instead, the board placed the two Newport-area prisons
under the Correction Department. As part of regular meeting, the board was to
discuss sanitation problems and allegations of inmate idleness at the two
facilities. He citied growing medical care costs
for female prisoners and increased staff wages as reasons for not renewing
the Arkansas contracts. (Postnet - News &
Commentary)
February 14, 2001
The Board of Correction and Community Punishment will decide today whether
private prisons in Arkansas stay or go. The decision culminates a 90-day
probation period during which the community that manages two of the state's
lockups was ordered to make drastic improvements to the prisons -- or else.
Among the concerns cited by the board last fall were dangerous staffing
shortages, unsanitary living conditions, poor maintenance and lack of work
and educational programs. These worries -- combined with request for more
money by Wackenhut Corrections Corp., the company that manages the state's
private prisons -- have prompted board members to contemplate taking control
of the two units. Chairman Mary Parker said, "I'm just not sure Arkansas
is the place for long-term private prisons." But last year state prison
officials questioning how the units were managed. Their inquiries began when
a litany of complaints from inmates proved credible after surprise visits to
the two prisons. When Wackenhut's president, Wayne Calabrese, arrived at
board meeting on Oct. 21, 2000, to discuss renewing the company's contract at
a higher cost to the state, board members were somewhat irate. Offering up a
lengthy list of problems at both units, they request for more money but also
they weren't sure the state should even renew the contract, which expires
June 30. Calabrese told the board he was unaware such problems existed.
Inmates at grimes and McPherson don't ever seem to work. Instead they loiter
around unclean barracks in equality dirty clothes. The "inmate idleness"
at the Newport prisons stems from a serious staff shortage, said Larry
Norris, director of the department. Because there aren't enough guards to
supervise work crews, inmates spend most of there
time in living areas, making them not only unproductive but more likely to
get bored and into trouble, Norris said. "You have got to get them out
of there." Max Mobely, the department's deputy
director for health and correctional programs, told board members that
substance-abuse programs at the Newport units were lacking and devoid of
security measures. He first became worried about McPherson's female inmates
two years ago, when he learned that 70 percent of the women there were taking
some type of psychotropic medication, drugs designed for those with mental problems
or conditions. By comparison, when the state was housing women at the Tucker
Unit, only 7 to 9 percent were ever on these types of medication at any time.
Charles Allen, head of the prison system's school district, said his teachers
and principals were often afraid because of lack of security. There just
aren't enough guards, he added. This is a good example of how Wackenhut seems
to typically handle difficulties, she said, offering reasons but failing to
fix things. The same was true for the eletronic
panel at one of the units, she said. When the portion that unlocks and opens
gates broke, it took much longer then it should have to get the control board
repaired, Parker said. The problem, Parker says, is that private companies
cuts costs to make a profit, which means they don't always meet state
standards. Wackenhut salaries start at 8dollars an hour. By comparison,
guards working for the state are making minimum of $10.11 and they get
hazardous-duty pay and better benefits. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
December 1, 2000
The FBI is reportedly taking a look at allegations of brutality against
inmates in this privately operated unit of the State Correction Department.
Current and former guards and employees and inmates alleged that beatings of
prisoners were a regular occurrence, especially at the Scott Grimes
Correctional Facility which houses about 600 young men between the ages of
16-24. The Ronald McPherson Correctional Facility houses about 600 women
inmates of all ages in a nearly identical facility. Wackenhut Senior Warden
John Maples said FBI agents have been to the facility recently, but he said
he didn't know what they were investigating. The Times first learned of the
allegations in letters from inmates who contend that Wackenhut guards brought
in temporarily guards form Louisiana were terrorizing inmates with what they
called "Swamp Beatings." Prisoners were often handcuffed for minor
infractions, sprayed with chemical agents and then punched, kicked and rammed
into doors, the inmates said. One officer, Joe Tagliaboschi,
62, of Diaz said he believed other officers falsified documents to cover up
the beatings. The guards also complained that Wackenhut frequently ran both
units with a skeleton staff far below the "critical post" limits
required by the company's contract with the state. Guards and inmates also
complained Wackenhut did not feed the inmates adequate rations and hid
deficiencies from the state. Officials gave Wackenhut until February 2001 to
correct deficiencies at the two prisons. (Arkansas Times, Dec. 1, 2000)
Transport Services
Oct 23, 2021 newsweek.com
Prison Transport
Officer Will Spend Life Behind Bars After Sexually Assaulting Convicts
A former prisoner
transport officer will now spend life in prison himself after sexually
assaulting two women that had been in his custody, the U.S. Department of
Justice (DOJ) said Thursday. A federal judge in Little Rock, Arkansas
sentenced Eric Scott Kindlay, 53, to life in prison
plus five years. Kindlay had previously been found
guilty in March 2020 of two counts of sexual assault and possession of a
firearm. Kindlay had previously run his own private
prison transport company, signing contracts with local jails and correctional
facilities. He would reportedly drive throughout the country transporting
people who had been arrested on out-of-state warrants. The two assaults tied
to the indictment both occurred in Arkansas in 2014 and 2017, respectively,
according to the DOJ. The woman in the 2017 case testified that Kindlay was driving her from Alabama to Arizona, and the
assault occurred when he pulled over on a deserted stretch of road to allow
the woman to relieve herself. At this point, Kindlay
sexually assaulted her while she was handcuffed, and also
threatened her with his firearm, allegedly telling her that nobody would
believe her since she was a prisoner. The woman assaulted in 2014 testified
that Kindlay similarly pulled his van over in a
deserted area after telling her that he had gotten lost. Kindlay
then forced the woman to perform sexual acts on him, also while threatening
her and also while she was handcuffed. While only
two charges of sexual assault were listed on the indictment, a total of six
women testified in court that Kindlay had
threatened and assaulted them. All of the women had been
handcuffed and sometimes were alone in the van with Kindlay
for hundreds of miles, according to the DOJ. He "threatened to kill them
and made sexually explicit comments that escalated in intensity and
depravity," the DOJ continued. The acts ranged from forcing a woman to
engage in sex in a park bathroom to assaulting women in his van on desolate
hiking trails and in the middle of a snowstorm. The individual women did not
apparently know that the others existed until the trial. An FBI case was
opened in January 2017 when two women in an Arizona jail reported that Kindlay had assaulted them. Eventually, the investigation
uncovered a total of 16 women who Kindlay had
either harassed or assaulted from 2012 to 2017. Eleven of these women
submitted victim impact statements that were read during the sentencing.
"I'm wary of government officials because of what Eric Kindley had said and [did] during my transport...The
offender, in this case, used his so-called 'position of power' to cause [me]
to endure undue stress, grief, and loss of self-worth," said one victim.
Additionally, the DOJ praised the women for coming forward to reveal the
assaults despite feeling threatened. "Those who act under color of law
and commit sexual assault cannot rely on their position of power or their
victims' vulnerabilities to escape accountability," said Assistant
Attorney General Kristen Clarke. "We thank the survivors of these sexual
assaults for having the courage to come forward despite the defendant's
repeated attempts to silence them," Clarke continued. Newsweek reached
out to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for comment.
Tucker Maximum Security Unit
Tucker, Arkansas
Correctional Medical Services
June 18, 2008 AP
Authorities say they’ve arrested the director of nursing at the Tucker
Maximum Security Unit on suspicion of smuggling bags of tobacco into the
prison. Police say 33-year-old Rolanda Barron was arrested June 9 after a
routine search at the prison turned up seven bags of loose tobacco concealed
in her umbrella. Prison spokeswoman Dina Tyler says the umbrella also
contained a cell phone, charger and four D cell batteries — all of which are
considered contraband. Arkansas State Police arrested Barron on suspicion of
furnishing prohibited articles, a felony. Barron has been released from the
Jefferson County jail on a $2,500 bond. Barron worked for Correctional
Medical Services, which provides medical services to state prisons under a
$44 million contract. A spokesman for the company declined to comment.
University of Central Arkansas
Conway, Arkansas
Aramark
August 30, 2012 Northwest Arkansas Business Journal
Former University of Central Arkansas president Allen Meadors
is facing a misdemeanor charge stemming from a deal with food vendor Aramark.
The office of Faulkner County Prosecutor Cody Hiland
filed the charge on Wednesday, nearly a year after the UCA board began an
investigation of Meadors. Hiland
was out of the office Thursday morning and unavailable for comment. Meadors and board Chairman Scott Roussel apologized last
year for not revealing that Aramark offered $700,000 for renovating the UCA
president's home if its contract with the school was renewed. Several
trustees have they didn't know the Aramark offer was tied to the renewal of
its contract with UCA. The trustees said they thought the $700,000 was a
gift. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Wednesday that Meadors' charge was solicitation of tampering with a
public record, which "carries a punishment of up to one year in jail and
a $1,000 fine." Meadors "is accused of
urging a vice president to destroy a letter that said the offer would be in
exchange for renewing Aramark's contract," the newspaper said.
June 19, 2012 AP
University of Central Arkansas officials are saying little about the
resignation of chief of staff Jack Gillean. Gillean has not returned messages left on his cell phone
and a UCA spokesman told the Log Cabin Democrat on Monday only that Friday’s
resignation is not related to an investigation into money given UCA by food
vendor Aramark. Former UCA President Allen Meadors
and board President Scott Rousell each resigned
following revelations that $700,000 given by Aramark last August to renovate
the president’s home was dependent upon Aramark’s contract being renewed for
seven years. UCA spokesman Jeff Pitchford said Gillean’s
duties included overseeing the campus police department and the affirmative
action program. Pitchford said interim UCA President Tom Courtway
was not available for comment.
April 27, 2012 Log Cabin
University of Central Arkansas Faculty Senate members are calling for a
trustee’s resignation. The group voted Thursday on a resolution requesting
Scott Roussel, a real estate business man of Searcy appointed to the board
for a second term in 2008 by Gov. Mike Beebe, to leave his post. The action
follows the board’s approval of a new deal with Aramark, one that would “wipe
clean” $6.7 million in unamortized funds and interest. Roussel voted to
approve the contract along with other trustees as it was presented, though
governing groups on campus said they believed the trustee should recuse.
Thursday’s resolution states that Roussel “was cognizant of the conditions
described by Aramark in the acceptance of $700,000 in return for a
seven-year, no bid contract for food services on the UCA campus...” It
further explains that Roussel “would or should have been aware” of potential
damage to the university’s reputation when he announced the large “gift” from
the university’s food vendor, and did not disclose, by his account without
purpose, that the pledge was contingent upon the renewal of the company’s
contract. The money would have furthered renovations under way at the UCA
president’s home that was occupied by former president Allen Meadors, who resigned last September after trustees learned
of the stipulation. UCA conducted its own interviews shortly after the
discovery, but then turned the investigation into possible improprieties by
university staff over to Arkansas State Police. State police gave a “lengthy”
case file to Twentieth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland earlier this month. Hiland
said Friday that his office is still reviewing the file to determine if a
criminal act has been committed.
September 23, 2011 Booneville Democrat
A prosecutor Thursday asked Arkansas State Police to investigate the
University of Central Arkansas’ contract with a food vendor that hastened
university president’s departure from the school. The contract with Aramark
included a $700,000 donation for renovations of the president’s residence
contingent upon UCA retaining Aramark as the university’s food service
vendor. The UCA board of Trustees earlier this month voted to buy out the
rest of UCA President Allen Meadors’ contract after
board members apparently felt he misrepresented the offer to them as a gift.
State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said Thursday that Faulkner County
Prosecutor Cody Hiland asked the state police to
investigate the contract. “The request transmitted to us by was to
investigate the contract between the University of Central Arkansas and
Aramark,” Sadler said. “Once the agent is assigned ... his first assignment
will be to meet with the prosecutor and receive some more specific
information.” Hiland did not immediately return a
call seeking comment Thursday. A committee created by the UCA board to look
into the contract issue voted to ask the university’s internal audit office
to review the arrangement.
September 7, 2011 Arkansas Times
"There's right and there's wrong and there's UCA." I don't even
know what that means. I doubt that the Conway insider who uttered it to me
Friday afternoon does either. I use it, though, because it conveys the
relevant utter frustration. A few years ago the University of Central
Arkansas was the hottest college in the state. It was located in a booming
suburban college town. It had a politically astute president. Enrollment was
skyrocketing. Television advertising was Landersesque.
Then that politically astute president, Lu Hardin, got caught cutting ethical
corners to gin up some bonus money for himself to pay gambling debts. He will
be going to prison any day now, surely. The UCA Board of Trustees, looking
around for the anti-Lu, found its man in Dr. Allen Meadors,
a campus graduate with experience as a small-college president and a meek
manner. Not long ago I made a crack about Hardin's ethical wasteland in the
presence of a leading UCA staff member. It angered her. She explained that
she loved the school and that it was steadily righting itself and,
essentially, that a smart-aleck press commentator ought to watch his mouth.
But now this: Meadors was revealed this week to
have misrepresented to the UCA board that the campus food vendor, a company
called Aramark, was donating $700,000 to fix up the president's official home
across the street from the campus. The board, initially as blindly obeisant
to administrative happy talk as with Hardin before, said sure, yes, without
delay, we accept this gift for this most urgent academic need and we
authorize preliminary architectural designs and cost estimates. Then came
that pesky reporter for the statewide daily, famous for bedeviling Hardin,
and still wielding the Freedom of Information law like a switchblade. She
asked board members if they had known a little detail: Aramark actually would
donate the money from one hand only if it was guaranteed that it would reel
more money from UCA into the other hand by getting its food service contract
renewed without competitive bidding for a period at least long enough for a
guaranteed realization of enough profit to get back the gift. Why, no, we
didn't know that, said some of these board members, and, by golly, we are
just a little bit ticked. They called themselves to a special meeting. This
was not charity, but amortizing. It was a food service vendor seeking to
escape a new round of competitive bidding by going into the home improvement
lending business on the side. It was an advance on marked-up grub the kids
would eat later in their hostage environment. I'm advised that this kind of
arrangement is not uncommon. But it ought to be. And if it is common, why
conspicuously neglect to mention it? Meadors, going
all-in for damage control, told the board in this second special meeting that
he had erred and that he would recommend that the school not accept the money
as offered. He recommended that the school open the food service contract for
bidding. The board withdrew its previous approval for a housing allowance by
which Meadors and his wife could rent suitable
quarters elsewhere until the presidential home was renovated. Meadors' wife, a stronger personality, has been spending
quite a bit of time with family in North Carolina. Just 24 hours later, on
Friday afternoon, the board met in special session again, this time by phone.
Then the board reconvened in public and bought out Meadors'
contract. The board could have restored Meadors'
authority to live temporarily off campus. But that might simply have kept
matters festering — a la Hardin — and nobody wanted to go through that again.
Meadors may be a bit of a victim, just as UCA. He
clearly erred by not revealing the full nature of the arrangement with the
food vendor. But it is entirely possible that he considered such deals
commonplace. He may have felt some pressure close to home about inadequate
living arrangements, the short-term solution to which got sacrificed in this
fast-roiling controversy. So now UCA will start trying again to right the
ship.
September 1, 2011 AP
A $700,000 gift from Aramark to the University of Central Arkansas came with
a condition that Aramark's food service contract with the university be
renewed. At least five members of UCA's Board of Trustees say they did not
know about the condition. A letter from Aramark district manager to UCA vice
president Diane Newton calls the money an unrestricted grant contingent upon
a seven year extension of Aramark's food service contract. UCA President
Allen Meadors told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
that he takes responsibility for the trustees not knowing the terms of the
gift. Meadors says such conditions are not unusual.
Trustee Rush Harding III told the Log Cabin Democrat agreed the transaction
is common — but said trustees should have been informed.
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