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Bracken
County Jail
Bracken County, Kentucky
TransCor
October 12, 2005 Maysville Ledger Independent
With a $94,000 good news report, Augusta-Brooksville-Bracken County
Industrial Authority Chairman Tom Stephenson appeared before Bracken County
Fiscal Court Wednesday. Change is what Jailer Gary Riggs wanted when a bill
for was taken out of his budget for costs to retrieve two prisoners from
Louisiana. "I have no say over what the sheriff's office does, yet they
take the funds out of my budget," said Riggs. In July, Anthony Silvey and Ashley Luman were
caught by Louisiana authorities after an auto theft arrest in Bracken County.
The pair allegedly served some jail time in Louisiana and were returned to
Kentucky at the request of Bracken County Sheriff Mike Nelson who used the
services of Transcor to bring them back. Following
what Riggs and magistrates felt was a costly trip, the criminal charges
against the pair were reduced and time served, including in Louisiana, was
assessed, plus probation and court costs. "They got a free ride home is
what it amounts to, though Luman is facing charges
in Mason County," said Riggs. Magistrates agreed to pay the bill the
county received for $843.21 from Transcor and look
into the retrieval cost situation.
Bullitt County MacDonalds
Mount Washington, Kentucky
CCA
November 15, 2008 Courier-Journal
A judge has ordered McDonald's Corp. to pay $2.4 million in attorney fees and
costs to Louise Ogborn, the Bullitt County woman
who last year won a $6.1 million verdict in her strip-search hoax lawsuit
against the company. Citing Ogborn's lawyers'
"incredible success," Senior Judge Tom McDonald approved fees of
$934,325 for the lead trial lawyer, Ann Oldfather,
and $311,250 to Kirsten Daniel, her co-counsel, as well as $25,000 in
sanctions against McDonald's for misconduct in the litigation. Daniel said
yesterday that she and Oldfather were ecstatic
about the award. "We got everything we asked for," she said.
Margaret Keane, a partner at Greenebaum Doll &
McDonald, which defended the restaurant company, declined to comment, and a
spokesman for McDonald's didn't respond to a request for comment. The fees
were awarded to Ogborn on top of the October 2007
verdict, under a provision of the Kentucky Civil Rights Act designed to
promote vigorous advocacy for plaintiffs. She now can use that money to
satisfy all or some of what she owes to her lawyers under their employment
contracts. Specifics about those contracts have not been made public.
McDonald's had vigorously protested the fee request, saying Ogborn's lawyers couldn't have possibly worked the hours
they claimed. But Judge McDonald, who oversaw the trial in Bullitt Circuit
Court, said that if the plaintiff's lawyers worked long hours, it was because
the company forced them to, by fiercely contesting every motion and delving
so deeply into Ogborn's private life.
"McDonald's should not be heard to complain now that the plaintiff's
counsel worked too hard, when, to a large degree, those decisions were driven
by McDonald's," the judge said. Oldfather has
said that McDonald's disclosed that it spent about $3.6 million on fees
defending itself. The judge also rejected the company's motion to stipulate
that a portion of the fees and costs be paid by the person who made the hoax
calls, noting that the jury did not return a verdict against him. Ogborn, a teenager who worked for $6.35 an hour at
McDonald's Mount Washington store, was detained, stripped and sexually
assaulted on April 9, 2004, at the behest of a caller who pretended he was a
police officer and accused her of stealing a customer's purse. She sued the
company, saying it failed to protect her, though company officials knew of
dozens of similar episodes at its stores and other fast-food restaurants.
After a four-week trial, a Bullitt Circuit Court jury returned a verdict that
included $5 million in punitive damages. McDonald's has appealed, and the
case is pending at the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Keane argued for the
company that Ogborn's lawyers achieved only limited
success at trial because they had asked the jury for $100 million in damages.
But Judge McDonald said "the jury placed the blame squarely at
McDonald's corporate feet," and that the $1 million awarded to Ogborn in compensatory damages was five times higher than
a Bullitt County jury had ever returned in a similar case. The judge also
said that if Oldfather hadn't asked for $100
million, "who can say that without that large an amount the jury may not
have ended up where it did?" The court's order included $212,000 to two
lawyers who formerly worked with Oldfather -- Lea
Player and Doug Morris -- and $173,000 to Bill Boone and Steve Yater, two lawyers who originally filed the suit but were
later fired by Ogborn. McDonald also ordered the
fast-food company to reimburse Ogborn's lawyers for
$495,000 in expenses. The sensational hoax case captured national attention.
Stripped of her clothes and able to cover herself only with a store apron, Ogborn was forced to spend hours in the restaurant
office, as a security camera recorded her humiliation. Ogborn
was detained by an assistant manager, Donna Jean Summers, who said a man
claiming to be a police officer had called and accused an employee resembling
Ogborn of theft. Summers subsequently called her
then-fiancé, Walter Wes Nix Jr., who sexually abused Ogborn
at the caller's direction. McDonald's claimed it bore no responsibility for
what happened to Ogborn and that the blame lay with
others, including the caller, Nix, Summers and Ogborn
herself. She was one of dozens of victims of a hoax caller who over more than
a decade duped managers at as many as 160 fast-food restaurants and other
stores into strip-searching and sexually humiliating employees. Many of those
workers sued their employers, but Ogborn's suit was
the first whose case went to trial. Nix was later convicted of sexual abuse
and other crimes and sentenced to five years in prison. Summers entered an
Alford plea to misdemeanor unlawful imprisonment, meaning she asserted her
innocence while acknowledging there was enough evidence to convict her. She
was placed on probation. Summers joined in Ogborn's
suit against McDonald's, saying she was tarnished with a criminal conviction
because the company had failed to warn her and other employees about the hoax
calls. The jury awarded Summers $1.1 million. The caller was never brought to
justice. A Bullitt County jury in 2006 acquitted David R. Stewart, a former
private prison guard from the Florida panhandle, in the case. He'd been
charged with impersonating an officer and soliciting sexual abuse for calling
the Mount Washington store. Law enforcement officers said at the time that
they suspected him of making the other calls as well.
November 1, 2006 AP
Prosecutors couldn’t convince a central Kentucky jury to convict a Bay County
man accused of making a hoax phone call that lasted 3½ hours and ended in a
bizarre sexual assault of a teenage McDonald’s worker. The jury on Tuesday
acquitted David R. Stewart, 38, of Fountain, on charges of impersonating a
police officer, soliciting sodomy and soliciting sexual abuse relating to a
phone call made to the Mount Washington, Ky., restaurant in which former
employees testified that the caller told them to conduct a strip-search of a
worker in April 2004. Steve Romines, Stewart’s
lawyer, said the jury’s verdict showed the weakness of the prosecution’s
case. “There are a lot of questions unanswered in this case,” he said. “The
only thing I knew for sure was my client didn’t do it.”
October 31, 2006 Courier-Journal
Bullitt County Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Mann implored jurors Tuesday
to “follow the evidence” and convict a Florida man charged with being the
mastermind behind an elaborate hoax that led to a McDonald’s worker being
strip-searched and sexually humiliated. “It’s so obvious,” Mann told jurors
in his closing arguments this morning. “There is more than enough evidence to
find the defendant guilty.” An hour earlier, defense attorney Steve Romines said his client, David R. Stewart, was the “fall
guy” for a botched police investigation. “They came to a conclusion then went
about looking for facts to support it,” said Romines,
who also told jurors that there was more evidence that this hoax was itself a
“scam.” “There’s not even proof beyond a reasonable doubt that this is real,”
he said. Stewart is accused of calling the restaurant on April 9, 2004, and directing
an assistant manager to search and detain Louise Ogborn,
who the caller said was accused of stealing a purse. During a 3½ ordeal after
that, Ogborn was sexually abused by the manager’s
then-fiancé, who later pled guilty but said he’d been acting on the orders of
a caller posing as an officer. Stewart, charged with impersonating a police
officer and soliciting sodomy, faces up to 15 years in prison on the two
felony charges.
October 22, 2006 News Herald
The 19-year-old woman stripped naked in front of her boss in the manager’s
room at the Winn-Dixie on 23rd Street more than three years ago because a
voice on the phone said so. The teenager posed. She exposed. She did jumping
jacks nude. For nearly two hours, a man who said he was a police officer orchestrated
her humiliation over the phone. The voice told the girl’s boss, assistant
manager James Marvin Pate, that she stole a purse. Police believe the man on
the phone was David R. Stewart, of Fountain, said Sgt. Kevin Miller, of the
Panama City Police Department. Authorities said Stewart, 39, made dozens of
calls like this across the country for several years. The phone hoaxes
sparked lawsuits against restaurant franchisees and chains like McDonald’s,
Burger King and Applebee’s. Stewart’s first trial is scheduled to begin
Tuesday in Mount Washington, Ky. In the Kentucky case, Stewart is accused of
calling a McDonald’s on April 9, 2004, and posing as a police officer. Police
said he told McDonald’s assistant manager Donna Summers a story similar to
what the voice told the manager at the Panama City Winn-Dixie: He said a
teenage female employee, Louise Ogborn, had stolen
a purse and that she needed to be strip-searched. Summers and her
ex-boyfriend, Walter Nix Jr., strip-searched Ogborn
for about four hours, police said. Nix also had Ogborn
perform sexual acts on him — all at the request of the caller. Mount
Washington authorities charged Stewart with three counts of solicitation to
commit sexual abuse, first degree; solicitation to commit sodomy, first degree;
impersonating a police officer; and solicitation unlawful imprisonment,
second degree. Incidents since the ’90s: Authorities said Stewart has
peppered the country with calls dating back to the mid-1990s, mostly to chain
restaurants. Usually, the man calls, identifies himself as a police officer,
and says a female employee has drugs or has stolen something and must be
strip-searched. In Panama City, the nightmare for a 19-year-old cashier began
on July 12, 2003, at Winn-Dixie, when a fellow employee told her to report to
the manager’s office, according to a PCPD incident report. According to the
police report, which blacked out the name of the victim, what happened next
lasted nearly two hours: Assistant manager Pate, 39, was waiting and handed
her the phone. On the line was a man who said he was Officer Tim Peterson
with the Panama City Police Department. The voice said she stole a purse and
gave her two choices: Either strip naked in front of Pate or be brought down
to the jail, where she’d be strip-searched in front of a lot more people. The
voice also said Pate had the authority to keep her there and strip-search
her, while the voice verified everything over the phone. The cashier agreed.
Pate told her what to take off, and she complied out of fear of being taken
to jail. She placed each item of clothing in a plastic bag. Pate described
the cashier’s naked body in intimate detail to the voice on the phone,
according to the police report. The voice commanded the cashier to pose in
various positions that exposed her breasts, anal and vaginal areas to Pate.
Toward the end of the woman’s ordeal, grocery manager Thomas Moton, 49, entered the office looking for a a key to unload a truck at the store’s rear dock. When he
entered, the cashier was doing jumping jacks, and Pate had the receiver to
his ear. “Pate said the boss is on the phone,” Moton
said. “I thought the store manager was on the phone.” Moton
said he thought something wasn’t right. He wanted to get the other assistant
manager, but Pate said the voice on the phone told him to stay. The cashier
went through several poses, Moton said. “She was
bending over, sitting in a chair and doing jumping jacks,” he said. When the
woman finally was allowed to leave, she put her clothes on and rushed out the
door. Moton mentioned to Pate that “if this ain’t what it’s supposed to be, then you are out of
here.” A short time later, police tore into the parking lot and hauled off
Pate in handcuffs. Police charged Pate with lewd and lascivious behavior and
false imprisonment. The charges eventually were dropped, Miller said. Moton said he never saw the cashier again after that
night. “I didn’t even want to look her in face,” he said. “It was so
embarrassing.” Police track the caller: The caller contacted several Wendy’s
restaurants on Feb. 20, 2004, in the West Bridgewater, Mass., area, said
Detective Sgt. Victor Flaherty of the West Bridgewater Police Department.
West Bridge water is a suburb of Boston. “We had four incidents in one
night,” Flaherty said. “Some conversations lasted more than an hour and a
half.” Like the others, calls involved strip-searches of female employees,
Flaherty said. By this time, however, the trail was leading back to Stewart,
authorities said. After a story appeared in a restaurant industry magazine
about what happened in West Bridgewater, Flaherty was flooded with calls from
police agencies across the country. Detective Buddy Stump of the Mount
Washington Police Department called Flaherty. Stump was looking for help
tracing the call to the McDonald’s where Ogborn was
strip-searched. Flaherty traced the calls made to West Bridgewater back to
the Panama City area. He called the Panama City Police Department and asked
for help, Miller said. Andrea McKenzie, a former detective with the PCPD and
now an investigator with the state attorney’s office, helped link Stewart to
the calls. McKenzie said she fielded calls from police agencies all over the
country. “It was kind of shocking,” she said. “People said the phone number
was coming from the Panama City area.” When the investigation uncovered that
some of the calls were made using a phone card, authorities got the break
they needed. “Nothing in this world is untraceable, if you put the time into
it,” Flaherty said. McKenzie tracked the date and time of when the phone
cards were bought to the Wal-Mart on 23rd Street. She pulled security video.
On the video was a man wearing a uniform from the local jail run by
Corrections Corporation of America, McKenzie said. Stewart was identified as
the jail guard shown on the video, authorities said, and police brought him
to the PCPD to be interrogated by Flaherty, who flew in from Massachusetts.
When police arrested Stewart, they found numerous police magazines and
applications to police departments, Miller said. “This guy wanted to be a cop
in the worst way,” Flaherty said. Stewart’s attorney, Steve Romines, said there is no way his client could have been
the voice on the phone. “To talk someone into this — it is someone more
eloquent than David (Stewart),” Romines said. “He’s
not dumb, but this was very sophisticated.” Flaherty disagreed with Romines’ assessment. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years,
and there is no doubt in my mind” that Stewart did it, Flaherty said.
Authorities eventually extradited Stewart in the fall 2004 from Bay County to
Mount Washington to stand trial. Panama City police didn’t go after Stewart
because they couldn’t link him to the call to the Winn-Dixie, Miller said.
Other states, meanwhile, are awaiting the outcome of the Kentucky trial before
pursuing legal action against Stewart, Flaherty said. “Oregon is still
interested in him,” Flaherty said. “In Massachusetts, I consider it a rape by
him.”
August 25, 2006 The Courier-Journal
Nearly half of Bullitt County residents think that David Stewart is
guilty of masterminding the telephone hoax at the Mount Washington McDonald’s
in which a teenage employee was strip-searched and sexually humiliated in
April 2004, according to survey conducted to support Stewart’s motion to move
his trial. But Bullitt Circuit Judge Thomas Waller indicated Friday he will
deny the motion and try to empanel an impartial jury on Oct. 24, when the
case is set for trial. Stewart is charged with impersonating a police officer
and soliciting sodomy for allegedly calling the restaurant and pretending to
be a police officer investigating a theft. As a result of the call, employee
Louise Ogborn, then 18, was forced to take off her
clothes and sodomize a man that Stewart allegedly asked to watch her.
Stewart’s lawyer, Steve Romines, asked for a change
of venue, citing numerous newspaper and TV stories that have mentioned
Stewart is suspected of making calls to as many as 70 other restaurants and
stores in 30 states. He hasn’t been charged in any of those incidents, and Romines said evidence concerning them would be
inadmissible at Stewart’s trial. Stewart, a former corrections officer at a
private prison near Panama City, Fla., attended a hearing before Waller
yesterday but did not speak in court. Romines
declined to let him answer questions from reporters.
June 17, 2006 AP
Detective Buddy Stump couldn't believe the story being told. A teenage worker
at the local McDonald's had been strip-searched and sexually assaulted by
co-workers. The co-workers said a policeman called the restaurant, described
the girl and directed them about what to do. "I'm thinking, 'They told
you to do what?'" said Stump, one of 16 police officers in Mount
Washington and the department's only detective. The investigation that grew
from that night would lead to a plea by a former employee of McDonald's, and
the arrest of a Florida man on charges of impersonating a police officer and
soliciting sodomy. The trial of David R. Stewart, 38, of Florida, was
previously scheduled to begin this week but has been postponed to Sept. 5. In
handwritten court filings, Stewart denies being the hoax caller. He is free
on $50,000 cash bond. Mailings to the Bullitt Circuit Court indicate he is
still living in Florida. "I had nothing to do with any of this,"
Stewart said. "I did not do this." A judge has ordered the
attorneys involved in the case not to discuss it publicly before the trial.
Stump and other investigators in states from Maine to Wyoming to Arizona say
they believe their investigation stopped a cruel and bizarre series of
hoaxes. Private investigator R.A. Dawson of Rapid City, S.D., who
investigated a similar incident, said he had found 70 other cases resembling
the one in Kentucky. "The M-O's were all similar," Dawson said.
"And, they seemed to get increasingly worse." In court filings,
McDonald's has denied any wrongdoing, but has declined to comment on the
case, citing a pending civil case.
February 22, 2006 Courier-Journal
The assistant manager who led the April 2004 strip-search of a teenager at a
Bullitt County McDonald's received probation yesterday after the victim said
she thought the manager was duped and was herself a victim. Over the
prosecutor's objection, Donna Jean Summers was placed on one year's probation
by Bullitt District Court Judge Rebecca Ward. The county attorney's office
had asked that Summers be jailed for a year. Summers entered an Alford plea
to misdemeanor unlawful imprisonment, meaning she maintained her innocence
while acknowledging there was enough evidence to convict her. Ward said a
jury, which was scheduled to hear the case today, probably would have
convicted Summers and recommended that she be incarcerated. But the judge
said she accepted victim Louise Ogborn's
recommendation for leniency to spare Ogborn from
testifying, saying "she's already gone though
a lot." Summers detained Ogborn, then 18, and
took away her clothes after a man pretending to be a police officer called
the Mount Washington fast-food restaurant and said an employee resembling Ogborn had taken a customer's purse. Despite the
disposition, Summers left the courthouse in tears, saying she still holds
McDonald's responsible for failing to warn employees of strip-search hoaxes
at its other restaurants. She has said she never would have detained Ogborn had she known of previous hoaxes. Ward said she
was imposing probation in part because Ogborn still
must testify against the man charged with making the phone call, David N.
Stewart, a former private prison guard from Fountain, Fla. Stewart is
scheduled to be tried April 18 in Bullitt County on charges of impersonating
a police officer and soliciting sodomy. Law-enforcement officials have said
they suspect Stewart was behind at least 69 other hoaxes at businesses in 32
states from 1995 through 2004. He has been charged only in Bullitt County and
has pleaded not guilty. Ogborn was detained for
nearly four hours and was slapped on the buttocks, humiliated and forced to
sodomize Summers' then-fiancé, Walter Nix Jr. Nix pleaded guilty Feb. 2 to
sexual abuse, sexual misconduct and unlawful imprisonment and agreed to a
five-year prison sentence. Summers called off their engagement after she
reviewed a store surveillance video showing what Nix did to Ogborn. Nix also said he was following the orders of a
man he thought was a police officer.
February 2, 2006 Courier-Journal
The Bullitt County man who claimed he thought he was following a police
officer’s orders when he sexually humiliated a teenaged McDonald’s worker in
April 2004 pleaded guilty this morning to sexual abuse, sexual misconduct and
unlawful imprisonment. A charge of sodomy, which could have sent Walter W.
Nix Jr., to prison for 20 years, was dropped as part of a plea bargain to
which he agreed to a five-year prison term. Nix, who will be formally
sentenced on March 15, agreed not to seek probation at sentencing, and
Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Mann agreed to take no position on shock
probation, which could be granted later. Nix is the first person to be
convicted in the 2004 hoax at the Mount Washington McDonald’s in which Louise
Ogborn, a $6.35 hour counter worker, was
strip-searched and sexually humiliated for nearly four hours after a man
pretending to be a police officer called the store and said he was
investigating the theft of a purse from a customer. Nix, 43, was scheduled to
be tried today before Bullitt Circuit Judge Tom Waller. The judge asked Ogborn if she supported the plea bargain and if so why.
She said she did because it will require Nix to serve time in prison, to
register as a sex offender and to testify against David N. Stewart, the
alleged perpetrator of the hoax. Stewart, a former private prison guard from
Fountain, Fla., is scheduled to be tried April 18 on charges of impersonating
a police officer and soliciting sodomy for allegedly making the hoax call. Law
enforcement officials have said they suspect Stewart was behind at least 69
other hoaxes at businesses in 32 states from 1995 through 2004. He has been
charged only in Bullitt County, and has pleaded not guilty.
December 7, 2005 Courier-Journal
The trials of the three people charged in connection with the sexual
humiliation of a teenage McDonald's employee in Bullitt County during a hoax
last year have been postponed: David N. Stewart, 38, of Fountain, Fla., who
was scheduled to stand trial Dec. 13 in Bullitt Circuit Court on charges of
impersonating a police officer and soliciting sodomy, now will be tried on
April 18. Walter W. Nix, 43, who also was scheduled for trial Dec. 13 on
charges of sodomy and assault, has been rescheduled for trial Feb. 1. Donna
Jean Summers, 51, who is charged with unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor,
and was to be tried today, is set for trial Feb. 22. All three have pleaded
not guilty. Stewart is accused of calling the Mount Washington restaurant on
April 9, 2004, and, while pretending to be a police officer investigating a
theft, inducing Summers, a McDonald's assistant manager, to strip-search
Louise Ogborn, then 18. Summers later called Nix,
her fiance at the time, to the store to watch Ogborn. Nix has admitted in court that he forced Ogborn to sodomize him and engage in humiliating
exercises, but he has said he was following the orders of the caller, who he
thought was a police officer. Summers, who was fired, also has said that she
was following orders, and that McDonald's is at fault for having failed to
alert employees about similar hoaxes at stores. Stewart, a former private
prison guard, is suspected by law enforcement officers of pulling similar
hoaxes at 69 other businesses from 1995 through last year, but so far he has
been charged only in Bullitt County.
November 3, 2005 Courier-Journal
The Bullitt County man who claimed a hoax caller duped him into sexually
humiliating a teenage McDonald's employee at the restaurant last year
apologized to his victim yesterday and said he was ashamed of what he did.
"I had no intention of hurting anyone," Walter W. Nix Jr., 43, said
in Bullitt Circuit Court to Louise Ogborn, whom he
forced to sodomize him in April 2004. Nix has said he was following the
orders of the caller, who he thought was a police officer. But Judge Tom
Waller refused to accept a deal in which Nix had offered to plead guilty to a
reduced charge of sexual misconduct and unlawful imprisonment in exchange for
a sentence of one year's probation. Waller let Nix withdraw his plea and set
his trial on charges of sodomy and assault for Dec. 13. That's the same day
that David N. Stewart, a former private prison guard from Fountain, Fla., is
scheduled to stand trial on charges of impersonating a police officer and
soliciting sodomy for allegedly perpetrating the hoax during a call to the
Mount Washington restaurant. Law enforcement officials have said they suspect
Stewart was behind at least 69 other hoaxes pulled off at other businesses in
32 states from 1995 through last year. He has been charged only in Bullitt
County and pleaded not guilty there.
November 2, 2005 Courier-Journal
Bullitt Circuit Judge Tom Waller this morning rejected a plea agreement for a
man who admitted sexually humiliating a teenager who was strip-searched last
year at the Mount Washington McDonald's where she worked. Walter Nix Jr., 43,
pleaded guilty last month to unlawful imprisonment and sexual misconduct as
part of a plea bargain that would have given him one year probation. The deal
fell through after Louise Ogborn, 19, who was
forced to sodomize Nix as part of telephone hoax at the store on April 9,
2004, objected to portions that allowed Nix to deny wrongdoing and to avoid
registering as a sex offender. Judge Waller set Nix's case for Dec. 13. Ogborn was detained for nearly four hours in the hoax,
which was one of 70 perpetrated in 32 states from 1995 through last year. A
private prison guard, David N. Stewart, of Fountain, Fla., was charged in
July 2004 with impersonating a police officer and soliciting sodomy in the
Mount Washington case. He has pleaded not guilty and is set for trial Dec.
13.
November 2, 2005 Courier-Journal
A teenager who was strip-searched in April 2004 at the Mount Washington
McDonald's where she worked is objecting to terms of the plea bargain struck
for the man who admitted sexually humiliating her. As part of the agreement,
Walter Nix Jr., 43, pleaded guilty last month to unlawful imprisonment and
sexual misconduct, and was to be sentenced today in Bullitt Circuit Court to one
year's probation under those charges. But Louise Ogborn,
19, who was forced to sodomize Nix as part of telephone hoax at the store on
April 9, 2004, objects to portions of the deal that allowed him to deny
wrongdoing and to avoid registering as a sex offender, according to lawyers
for both sides. "The deal will not go through," said William C.
Boone Jr., Ogborn's co-counsel. Nix's lawyer,
Kathleen Schmidt, said she will ask Judge Tom Waller to enforce the plea
agreement today. If he doesn't, Nix will have the option of withdrawing his
plea and going to trial, or accepting an agreement with harsher terms. Nix
had been charged with sodomy and assault, which carry penalties of up to 20
years in prison. Nix has claimed he was duped into humiliating Ogborn by a man who called the McDonald's pretending to
be a police officer investigating a theft. Nix was engaged at the time to the
store's assistant manager, Donna Jean Summers, who, at the behest of the
caller, had taken away Ogborn's clothes before
calling Nix in to help watch the teen. Nix has said the man on the phone
ordered him to direct Ogborn to do exercises in the
nude and perform oral sex on him. He said he also slapped her several times
on the buttocks at the direction of the caller. Ogborn
was detained for nearly four hours in the hoax, which was one of 70
perpetrated in 32 states from 1995 through last year. A private prison guard,
David N. Stewart, of Fountain, Fla., was charged in July 2004 with
impersonating a police officer and soliciting sodomy in the Mount Washington
case. He has pleaded not guilty and is set for trial Dec. 13. ABC Primetime
is scheduled to broadcast a segment Nov. 10 about the Mount Washington case,
according to Yater, who said Ogborn
was interviewed for it last week by a producer and reporter John Quinones.
October 11, 2005 Courier-Journal
A Bullitt County man who claimed he was duped into sexually humiliating a
teenage McDonald's worker last year by a man impersonating a police officer
pleaded guilty yesterday to a felony charge of unlawful imprisonment. In a
plea bargain approved by his victim, Walter Nix Jr., 43, will get probation
after agreeing to a one-year term for the felony and for sexual misconduct, a
misdemeanor. He originally was charged with sodomy and assault, for which he
could have been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Bullitt Circuit Judge Tom
Waller tentatively accepted the plea pending formal approval of it by victim
Louise Ogborn at Nix's sentencing, set for Nov. 2.
Nix was engaged at the time to the store's assistant manager, Donna Jean
Summers, who asked him to come watch Ogborn. A man
who phoned the store pretending to be a police officer accused Ogborn of theft and ordered her strip-searched. According
to police and court records, Nix said he thought he was following an
officer's orders when he directed Ogborn, who was
detained four hours in the restaurant's office, to do exercises in the nude
and perform oral sex on him. He also slapped her several times on her
buttocks, at the direction of the caller, the records show. The incident was
the focus of a Courier-Journal story Sunday that noted that the strip-search
was among at least 70 performed at fast-food restaurants and other businesses
from 1995 through 2004 at the direction of a caller who claimed he was investigating
crimes. Ogborn agreed to be identified by name in
the newspaper. A private prison guard, David N. Stewart, of Fountain, Fla.,
was charged in July 2004 with impersonating a police officer and soliciting
sodomy in the Mount Washington case. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial
is set for Dec. 13. Summers is charged with unlawful imprisonment, a
misdemeanor, and her trial is scheduled for Dec. 7. She also has pleaded not
guilty. Ogborn's co-counsel, William C. Boone Jr.,
said his client approved the deal because "she wants somebody to say
they are sorry and for somebody to say she did nothing wrong," both of
which he said Nix has promised to say at sentencing. "She is tired of
McDonald's blaming her for what happened," Boone said. In a lawsuit, Ogborn has alleged that the company failed to warn
employees at the Mount Washington store about prior strip-search hoaxes at
other restaurants around the country. McDonald's has said in court papers and
through its lawyer that Ogborn was in part responsible
because she failed to realize the caller wasn't a real officer. Nix and
Summers were among at least 13 people across the United States charged with
crimes for executing searches for the caller. Seven have been convicted of
various crimes. Stewart so far has only been charged in the Bullitt County
incident.
CCA/US Corrections Corp
Louisville, Kentucky
Aug
14, 2014 courier-journal.com
The
largest private prison company in America paid $260,000 to a group of shift
supervisors in Kentucky to settle claims that they were denied overtime,
according to an agreement unsealed Wednesday. Corrections Corporation of
America, based in Nashville, Tenn., paid the money in November to end a
lawsuit brought by 25 employees of the now-shuttered Marion Adjustment Center
in St. Mary’s, Ky. The former employees took $129,000 of the settlement.
Plaintiff’s attorneys received $131,000. The group claimed in a 2012 lawsuit
that CCA denied them overtime after forcing them to work extra hours. CCA has
denied the allegations. Of the 25 people receiving payouts from the
settlement, two got $10,300 checks, one got $10,800 and the rest amounts
ranging from $1,200 to $9,100. As part of the settlement, CCA denied any
wrongdoing. The attorneys involved billed their clients amounts ranging from
$100 up to $3,600 for a variety of meetings, phone calls, court filings and
emails during the 18 months the litigation made its way through the federal
court system. The settlement was originally sealed, but the nonprofit Prison
Legal News, a publication that primarily reports on criminal justice issues
and prison and jail-related civil litigation, mainly in the United States,
sought to have it unsealed. Prison Legal News Editor Paul Wright said CCA
operates largely on public funds obtained through government contracts,
making the settlement a legitimate concern of the public. CCA called the
settlement a private resolution and said there was no legal reason to unseal
the records. U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn in Louisville granted the
publication’s request, saying court records are presumed open to the public.
“Moreover, defendant has not convinced the court precisely why confidentiality
was so material,” Heyburn wrote in a six-page decision. CCA reached a larger
deal with employees in 2009, ending claims of unpaid overtime over a
four-year period. CCA agreed to payments worth up to $7 million in back pay
and attorney fees for more than 30,000 guards and other employees. The
agreement in federal court in Kansas was immediately sealed. But U.S.
District Judge John Lungstrum opened the records
later that year at the behest of Prison Legal News. Kentucky stepped out of
the private prison business after three decades when it declined to renew a
contract with Corrections Corporation of America for an 826-bed facility in
the central part of the state. The decision required almost 800 state inmates
at the Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary in Marion County to be
transferred to other state prisons, county jails or halfway houses. Kentucky
officials estimated the state saved $1.5 million to $2.5 million per year by
not renewing the contract. The move was among a series of similar decisions since
2008. At that point, Kentucky had inmates in three prisons run by CCA. The
state in 2010 pulled out of Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville, an 800-bed
facility that houses inmates from Vermont, and in 2012 from Otter Creek
Correctional Center, a 600-bed facility in Wheelwright in far eastern
Kentucky that’s currently vacant. Kentucky currently has 12 adult prisons
spread out across the state.
Feb
11, 2014 IULIA FILIP
LOUISVILLE
(CN) - Prison Legal News asked a federal judge to unseal documents supporting
a settlement Corrections Corporation of America reached with employees in a
lawsuit accusing it of labor laws violations. The nonprofit, which publishes
a monthly newspaper, claims it needs the documents to report on the ongoing
political dialogue about whether private prison operators hide legal
settlement expenses and minimize their costs to get prison contracts.
Employees at two prison facilities CCA ran in
Kentucky sued the company in May 2012, alleging it violated Kentucky and
federal labor laws by misclassifying them and withholding overtime
compensation. CCA denied the allegations, but after more former and
then-current employees joined the class action, the parties reached a
tentative settlement in November 2013. A federal judge approved the
settlement on Nov. 27 and granted the parties' request to seal exhibits
supporting the agreement. The sealed documents contained information about
the amount to be paid to each plaintiff and attorneys' fees and costs.
Although the $131,000 award of attorneys' fees and costs was disclosed, the
record provided no details about their allocation, according to court
filings. Prison Legal News last week asked the court to unseal the exhibits,
claiming they were crucial to its reporting on issues related to private
prison operators' expenses. Prison Legal News, a project of the Human Rights
Defense Center, publishes reviews and analyses of prisoners' rights issues
and other prison-related news. It has devoted extensive coverage to the
private prison industry, including issues related to CCA, according to its
motion in Federal Court. The nonprofit recently moved to Florida
from its longtime home in Brattleboro, Vermont. "Specifically, PLN seeks
to review the settlement amounts paid to the plaintiffs in this case to
determine the actual financial costs incurred by CCA for its Kentucky
operations," Prison Legal News wrote in its motion to intervene.
"These amounts are particularly newsworthy because providers of private
prison services, including CCA, tout their purported ability to house inmates
for a lower per-inmate cost than the state in order to secure valuable state
prison contracts. Given that approximately 80 percent of prison operation expenses
are due to staffing costs (e.g., salaries, benefits, training, etc.), private
prison firms seek to minimize those costs in order to maximize profits. The
fact that, here, CCA incurred settlement expenses for what plaintiffs claimed
were systemic violations of the FLSA [Fair Labor Standards Act] is relevant
(as is the amount of those expenses) to the ongoing political dialogue about
whether private prison operators seek to minimize their costs improperly and
whether their claimed operational costs adequately reflect their resolution
of legal claims." (Parentheses, but not brackets, in original). Prison
Legal News claims its request to intervene, which came less than 10 weeks
after the court approved the settlement, is timely and cannot prejudice the original
parties. The court has closed the case, and Prison Legal News does not
challenge the underlying claims or the settlement. Prison Legal News says the
sealed records are relevant to public debate on the private prison industry,
which is a matter of public concern. It claims the original parties to the
lawsuit have not justified their request to restrict public access to the
judicial record. Prison Legal News is represented by William Sharp with the
ACLU of Kentucky. "CCA has been sued a number of times by its own
employees for failure to comply with federal labor laws," Prison Legal
News editor Alex Friedmann told Courthouse News in an email. "We
successfully intervened in another case in Kansas several years ago to have
the settlement in that lawsuit unsealed. "Such cases demonstrate the
business model of private prison companies in terms of cutting costs,
including what they pay their employees, as well as the additional costs of
prison privatization - such as settlements in these lawsuits (the Kansas
settlement was capped at $7 million)." Attorneys for CCA and the
plaintiffs did not respond to requests for comment. Nashville-based CCA is
the largest private corrections company in the United States, with more than
60 prisons across the nation. The company will pay Idaho $1 million for
understaffing that state's largest prison in violation of contract, according
to a settlement agreement announced last week. CCA acknowledged last year
that its employees falsified staffing records it gave the state, making it
look as though thousands of hours of mandatory guard posts were filled when
they were left vacant for months. The vacant posts and phony records violated
the company's $29-million annual contract to run the Idaho Correctional
Center and a federal settlement agreement reached with inmates who sued
claiming the understaffing led to rampant violence.
May 7, 2005 Lexington Herald Leader
The former owners of U.S. Corrections Corp., and its former lawyers,
accountants and insurance company have agreed to pay former employees of the
company a $13.4 million settlement, ending years of litigation over the value
of the company's stock price. More than 750 past employees of U.S.
Corrections Corp will get a share of the settlement. The majority of the
employees worked at four Kentucky prisons operated by the Louisville company,
which was later acquired by Corrections Corp. of America in 1998. In January,
U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer Coffman ordered Robert B. McQueen and
Milton Thompson, the trustees of the employee stock- option plan, to pay
$20.7 million in damages. In 2002, Coffman found that Thompson and McQueen
failed to investigate the purchase price of the stock in 1993, when they used
an employee stock-ownership plan to gain control of the company. McQueen and
Thompson purchased securities with plan funds, but failed to determine the
stock's fair market value. When U.S. Corrections Corp. was sold in 1998 for
$225 million, Thompson and McQueen may have made more than $70 million,
Richards has said.
January 5, 2005 Lexington Herald Leader
More than 750 former employees of U.S. Corrections Corp. will share in a
$20.7 million damage award because they paid too much for company stock, a
federal judge said this week. A majority of the employees worked at four Kentucky
prisons operated by the Louisville company, which was later acquired by
Corrections Corp. of America in 1998. U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer
Coffman entered the order Monday against the trustees of the employee stock
option plan -- Robert B. McQueen and Milton Thompson. In 2002, Coffman found
that Thompson and McQueen, who were minority stockholders of U.S. Corrections
Corp., failed to investigate the purchase price of stock in 1994, when they
used a stock employee program to gain control of the company. A
court-appointed expert said in February 2004 that the two paid $9.9 million
too much for 66 percent of the company's stock. They paid $34.4 million for
stock worth $24.5 million. The employee-owned company stock was used in 1995
by McQueen and Thompson to buy out former company president J. Clifford Todd,
Snyder said. Todd was sentenced to 15 months in jail in 1996 for paying
nearly $200,000 in bribes to then-Jefferson County Corrections Chief Richard
Frey to get and keep a contract to house prisoners in Jefferson County.
February 18, 2004
About 777 former employees of U.S. Corrections Corp. could share in a $9.9
million damage award, plus interest, if a federal judge accepts the report of
a court-appointed expert that was filed Friday. More than 400 of the
employees worked at four Kentucky prisons operated by the Louisville company
until it was acquired by Corrections Corporation of America in 1998.
After 10 years of interest is added, "the plaintiffs estimate that the
final amount of the judgment could be as much as $25 million," said
Douglas Richards, a Lexington attorney for the former employees. That
estimate was challenged by defense attorney Stephen Pitt of Louisville, who
said the interest was more likely to be about $5 million if U.S. District
Judge Jennifer B. Coffman accepts the report by University of Kentucky law
professor Douglas C. Michael. Coffman will determine the interest rate
after a hearing on Michael's report. After a six-month analysis,
Michael concluded that the trustees of the U.S. Corrections Corp.'s employee
stock-purchase plan -- Robert B. McQueen and Milton Thompson -- paid $9.9
million too much in 1994 for about 66 percent of the company's stock.
They paid $34.4 million for stock worth $24.5 million. Both sides may
challenge Michael's findings in the 52-page report, and Coffman's eventual
ruling can be appealed to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati,
Richards said, so it could be a while before the former employees receive any
money. Pitt said he had not received the report and could not comment
in detail on Michael's conclusions. However, he said $9.9 million in damages
was too much. "We feel that would be too high and we would ask
Judge Coffman to reject it," he said. Coffman ruled in 2002 that
McQueen and Thompson had paid too much for the stock, and she appointed
Michael to determine a fair price. The former employees, who filed suit
in 1998 after U.S. Corrections Corp. was sold for $225 million, estimated the
overpayment at that time at $14.8 million. Coffman concluded that the
trustees were entangled in a conflict of interest that caused them to act in
the best interests of the company instead of the employees, whom they were
supposed to protect. The trustees made as much as $80 million when the company
was sold in 1998, Richards said yesterday. U.S. Corrections' Kentucky
prisons were the Marion County Adjustment Center in St. Mary; Lee County
Adjustment Center in Beattyville; Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright; and River City Correctional Center in Louisville. The
company also operated prisons in Quincy, Fla., and Diboll, Texas.
(Kentucky.com)
Court Services, Inc.
Paducah, Kentucky
November 18, 2009 AP A Kentucky man working for a private company that
transports prisoners has been indicted on a charge of traveling in interstate
commerce to engage in sex with an inmate. Prosecutors say that in January,
50-year-old Albert Preston Long of Florence allegedly carried one female
prisoner and three male prisoners from Murfreesboro, Tenn., to Hopkinsville,
where he lodged the three males in the Christian County jail but checked into
a motel with the 22-year-old woman. Prosecutors cite a Federal Bureau of
Investigation affidavit alleging Long, who was wearing a gun, forced the
inmate to have sex. The U.S. attorney's office says in a statement that the
same thing happened again after Long and the inmates went on to Paducah.
Prosecutors say Long is also charged with deprivation of rights under color
of law, being a felon in possession of a firearm, using the firearm in the
course of a crime and forfeiture. Arraignment is scheduled for Dec. 22 in
Paducah.
Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex
West Liberty, Kentucky
Aramark
June 3, 2011 Herald-Leader
An inmate at Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex at West Liberty found a
dead mouse in his soup May 1, leading to an investigation by corrections
officials, according to state prison incident reports. State Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, characterized the incident as the
latest problem with Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services, which
has a $12 million contract with the state to provide prison food. "It
indicates what I call malpractice of their job," Yonts
said. But Aramark spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis said the company provides good
service to the state. "We have strong quality-assurance processes that
ensure the high quality and safety of the meals we serve, and this has been
consistently verified by the high scores we receive on independent county and
industry health inspections," Jarvis said in a statement. Those
inspection scores average close to 100 percent, she said. The incident
occurred about 11 a.m. May 1, according to prison reports. In a written
grievance, inmate Christopher Branum said that
after eating some of his soup, he saw "what appeared to be a mouse
leg." "I touched it with my spork (a combination spoon and fork),
and it was a cooked mouse," Branum said in the
grievance. Corrections officer Ronald Cantrell wrote in a report that Branum called for him and showed him the mouse 30 to 45
seconds after Cantrell served Branum lunch in his
cell. "The mouse was saturated as though it had been in the soup for
some time or cooked in it. The soup was still lukewarm," Corrections
Capt. Paul Fugate wrote in a report. Branum, who is
serving a 10-year sentence for first-degree robbery, received the prison
incident documents through an open records request, said Wade McNabb, a
paralegal for Spedding Law Office in Lexington. Branum gave McNabb permission to share the documents with
the Herald-Leader. The prison report on the incident included a photograph of
the mouse. All of the soup made that day was thrown out, and the inmates were
served other food, according to the incident report compiled by Fugate.
Aramark food service director Jody Sammons, in a May 12 memo, said Sammons
had conducted an investigation, and "it appears the mouse was isolated
to the bowl of soup in which it was found." "It was not likely that
a mouse was cooked in that batch of soup," Sammons' memo said. Some
inmates were immediately concerned that they would be sick after eating the
soup, and they were seen by medical personnel, an incident report said.
Prison medical officials also contacted a Department of Corrections physician
within an hour. The physician said "the mouse would not make them sick
this soon," according to the incident report. Jennifer Brislin, a spokeswoman for the Justice & Public
Safety Cabinet said the staff addressed the problem immediately. "The
product was pulled and discarded, and an alternative served. Medical services
were made available to all inmates. After those initial actions, Warden
(Gary) Beckstrom took steps to increase pest
control and monitor sanitation to ensure there is no reoccurrence of this
event," Brislin said. Yonts
said he would be contacting corrections officials Friday to see what action
they have taken. In January, Yonts asked Attorney
General Jack Conway to investigate possible Aramark violations of its
contract. Yonts, D-Greenville, said Aramark
violated the contract last year by refusing to provide cost-related records
to state auditors conducting an investigation of Aramark's contract to
provide food service to inmates at Kentucky's 13 prisons. In a Feb. 10 letter
to Yonts, obtained by the Herald-Leader through the
state's Open Records Law, Conway said that the Finance and Administration
Cabinet found that Aramark was not in breach of the contract and that Conway
saw no need for a separate investigation. But Conway and state Auditor Crit Luallen want a state
regulation changed to clarify that state officials — not the contractor —
should determine which records are pertinent, Allison Martin, a spokeswoman
for Conway, said Thursday.
Eastern Kentucky University
Richmond, Kentucky
Aramark
April 9, 2009 Register News
A Madison County grand jury reinstated an arson charge Thursday against a
former Eastern Kentucky University food service worker accused of starting a
January fire in the Powell Building. James Reynolds, 26, of Richmond, had
initially been charged with third-degree arson, first-degree wanton
endangerment and first-degree criminal mischief for allegedly starting a fire
Jan. 22 in a trash storage room near the loading dock of the building on the
university’s campus. Madison County Attorney Marc Robbins dismissed the arson
charge prior to Reynolds waiving a preliminary hearing March 4 on the other
felony charges, but the grand jury chose to indict Reynolds on a single
charge of first-degree arson. Robbins said the dismissal was because the
facts of the case were “just as consistent” with the endangerment and
mischief charges as the arson charge. The first-degree arson charge is a
Class A felony punishable by 20 to 50 years in prison if convicted. Reynolds
originally had faced at total of up to 10 years on the endangerment and mischief
charges. Reynolds, who was employed by Aramark, is accused of starting a fire
in a storage room that ignited a large stack of cardboard boxes, filling the
building with heavy smoke and damaging the loading dock. He is not suspected
in a string of October fires on campus that remain unsolved, according to
university officials.
March 5, 2009 Register News
An arson charge was dropped Wednesday against a Richmond man who was arrested
in connection with a fire at Eastern Kentucky University. James Reynolds, 25,
waived his right to a preliminary hearing, sending first-degree wanton
endangerment and first-degree criminal mischief charges to a Madison County
grand jury for possible indictment. Reynolds and his attorney, Jimmy Dale
Williams, appeared briefly before Senior Judge David Hayse,
who was on the bench for Madison District Judge Brandy O. Brown, to waive the
hearing. Reynolds was arrested Feb. 2 and charged with starting a fire Jan.
22 in a trash storage area in the Powell Building that ignited a large stack
of cardboard boxes, filling the building with heavy smoke and damaging
portions of the loading dock. Firefighters searched the building, which was
not damaged, to ensure it was empty after the fire. Reynolds was working for
Aramark, a company which provides food service to the university, at the time
of the fire. Madison County Attorney Marc Robbins dismissed the arson charge,
saying the facts of the case were “just as consistent” with endangerment and
mischief charges as the arson charge.
February 12, 2009 Register News
Madison District Judge Brandy O. Brown continued a preliminary hearing
Wednesday in the case of a man charged with arson for a fire at Eastern
Kentucky University. The continuance was requested by Madison County Attorney
Marc Robbins to allow investigators to complete their reports before James
Reynolds’s case is heard. Reynolds is charged with third-degree arson,
first-degree wanton endangerment and first-degree criminal mischief for
allegedly setting a Jan. 22 fire at the Powell Building on EKU’s campus. The
fire, in a trash storage area near the building’s loading dock, filled the
building with smoke and caused damage to the loading dock, but no one was
injured. Investigators believe the blaze started when cardboard boxes in the
room caught fire. Richmond Fire Department crews were able to extinguish the
blaze within minutes of arriving on scene. Reynolds was an employee of
Aramark, which provides food-service and other services to the university.
Marc Whitt, associate vice president of public relations and marketing for
the university, said he was unsure if Reynolds was still employed by Aramark
because they were a contractor for the school. Several suspicious fires on
EKU’s campus last October went unsolved, but Whitt said after Reynolds’s
arrest that EKU police do not believe he was connected to those fires. “This
appears to be an isolated incident,” Whitt said earlier this month.
February 5, 2009 Richmond Register
An employee of Aramark, the food service company that serves Eastern
Kentucky University, was arraigned Wednesday in Madison District Court on
several charges relating to a fire last month on the university’s campus.
James Reynolds, 25, of Richmond, who was arrested Monday, was arraigned on
third-degree arson, first-degree wanton endangerment and first-degree
criminal mischief charges in connection with a Jan. 22 fire in the Powell
Building, said Marc Whitt, EKU associate vice president of public relations
and marketing. The fire started in a trash storage area near the building’s
loading dock. According to Richmond Fire Department public information
officer Corey Lewis, cardboard boxes stored in the room caught fire, filling
the building with heavy black smoke and causing damage to parts of the
loading dock area. Investigators with the state fire marshal’s office worked
with Richmond firefighters to determine the cause of the fire, and
interviewed several people who were near the building at the time of the fire
for more information. Whitt said that an investigation by EKU police does not
indicate Reynolds was involved in a series of unsolved arsons in October on
the university’s campus.
Fayette
County Detention Center
Lexington, Kentucky
Aramark, Corizon (formerly Correctional Medical
Services)
August 2, 2011 Herald-Leader
Nineteen hours before he was found with no pulse in a cell at the Fayette
County Detention Center in June, Anthony Dwayne Davis requested to go to the
jail's medical unit and was denied, jail records show. The Herald-Leader has
obtained the information under the Kentucky Open Records Law as police
continue to investigate Davis' death. A nurse and a mental health specialist
evaluated Davis at 1:41 a.m. June 25, and the mental health specialist told a
correction's officer that Davis, 26, was probably "manipulating the
system," according to the records. Instead of being placed in the
medical unit, Davis was moved from the general population to a segregated
unit for refusing to follow directions. It would be nearly 17 hours, at 6:30
p.m., before Davis was moved to the medical unit and assessed again by a
nurse. Two hours after arriving at the medical unit, Davis was found without
a pulse. At that point, Davis was rushed to University of Kentucky Chandler
Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the records. Fayette
County Deputy Coroner Shea Willis said Monday that she is awaiting results
from autopsy reports before releasing a cause of death. Urban County Public
Safety Commissioner Clay Mason said Monday that the case remains under
review, but "we haven't found any fault with anybody at the jail."
"We are not anticipating any kind of reprimands or any kind of
discipline. My review of it looks like the jail personnel and medical
personnel did what they were supposed to do," Mason said. "This is
a very complex medical situation in terms of, this guy had a very long
history." Susan Straub, a spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Gray, said Monday
that a police investigation into the case is continuing and that detectives
said they've found no signs of foul play. "Police are waiting for the
medical examiner's report in this investigation," Straub said. Officials
at Corizon, the company that contracts with the
jail to provide medical services, did not return a phone call seeking comment
on Monday.
March 30, 2011 AP
Two nurses who were working at the Fayette County jail last year when an
inmate died of a pulmonary embolism have been placed on limited/probated
status for three years following an investigation by the Kentucky Board of
Nursing. Board Executive Director Charlotte Beason says the board entered
into an agreed order with licensed practical nurses Karen Hodge and Stephanie
Travis on Monday. Beason says the order suspended the women's licenses for
three years, but the suspensions were stayed. Beason says if they work as
nurses, Hodge and Travis will be under rigid supervision by their employer
and monitored by the board. At the time of the death, Hodge and Travis were
employed by Correctional Medical Services Inc., which contracts with the jail
for medical services. Their status with the company could not be determined
Wednesday. CMS spokesman Ken Fields said in an email to The Associated Press
the company could not provide information regarding specific personnel
matters. "All staff providing health care at the corrections facility
are appropriately licensed to provide healthcare services," he wrote.
The case stems from the death of 54-year-old Dean Ferguson of Lexington, who
died last year after complaining of leg pain and shortness of breath.
October 2, 2010 Lexington
Herald-Leader
Jonathan Bowen's tenure as Fayette County jail medical director ended two
days after the state nursing board subpoenaed the jail for information
regarding an inmate's death, according to e-mail between jail officials
obtained through an open-records request. Officials have not given a reason
for Bowen's departure last month from his job as a health service
administrator. According to an e-mail sent to jail personnel from Assistant
Jail Director Edye Dabney, Bowen was no longer
employed as of Aug. 19. For more than a week, officials have declined to
explain why the Fayette County Detention Center's medical administrator is no
longer employed at the facility. Jail spokeswoman Jennifer Taylor said she
could not say whether health service administrator Jonathan Bowen resigned or
was fired. His employment ended the week of Aug. 16, Taylor said. The jail
contracts with a private company, St. Louis-based Correctional Medical
Services Inc., for inmate medical care, she said. Taylor said any further comment
would come from that company. The Kentucky Board of Nursing is investigating
two nurses at the Fayette County jail who denied medical assessment to an
inmate who later died, according to jail documents. The inmate, Dean
Ferguson, 54, of Lexington, died of a pulmonary embolism after complaining of
leg pain and shortness of breath all night at the jail. Ferguson's family
filed complaints against nurses Karen Hodge and Stephanie Travis in August. A
Fayette County Detention Center inmate who died while serving a a weekend sentence had been denied medical assessment
from jail nurses who said his vitals had been checked already, according to
reports and memos obtained from the jail. Dean Ferguson, 54, of Lexington was
serving time on weekends after being convicted of driving under the
influence. He checked into the jail at 7 p.m. July 9. He was not taken to the
hospital for medical problems until after 9 a.m. July 10. He was pronounced
dead from a pulmonary embolism at 10:13 a.m. July 10 at University of Kentucky
Chandler Hospital, according to a report from the Fayette County coroner. A
sentence of weekends in the Fayette County Detention Center for drunken
driving shouldn't carry a death penalty. But that appears to be what happened
to a 54-year-old Lexington man who slowly died of a pulmonary embolism while
two jail nurses refused to assess his condition, despite his complaints and
obvious physical distress. The nurses said he was faking. Bowen was employed
by Correctional Medical Services Inc., a company contracted to provide
medical services to inmates at the jail. On Aug. 17, the Kentucky Board of
Nursing issued a subpoena for "copies of any facility investigation
regarding the death of inmate Dean Ferguson on July 10." Ferguson, an
inmate serving a weekend sentence for drunk driving and driving without a
license, died of a pulmonary embolism after complaining of chest pain,
shortness of breath and difficulty walking. Two CMS nurses at the jail, Karen
Hodge and Stephanie Travis, denied Ferguson medical assessment for around
eight hours, saying his vital signs had already been checked and were at
normal levels, according to incident reports. Generally speaking, health
service administrators such as Bowen "deal with some of the
administrative tasks such as staffing or providing care," CMS spokesman
Ken Fields has said. Hodge and Travis are still employed at the detention
center, jail spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Taylor said Thursday. Bowen could not
be reached for comment. Two open records requests to CMS — one for Bowen's
personnel file and one for any memos or reports regarding the termination of
his employment — were denied because "there is no legitimate public
interest in the requested records," according to a statement from Sean
Ragland, an attorney for CMS. "It is our position that records which the
Herald-Leader seeks contain information of a personal nature and public
disclosure of the same would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
privacy," the response said. Employees of CMS are not considered city
employees, although the city government pays the organization $223,129
monthly for medical services at the jail. That figure comes from the most
recent copy of the CMS contract provided by the jail. According to Kentucky
Revised Statutes, a company is considered a public agency when it
"derives at least twenty-five percent of its funds expended by it in the
Commonwealth of Kentucky from state or local authority funds." In his
response to records requests, Ragland said that definition was ruled
unconstitutional by a Jefferson Circuit Court judge in 2009.
September 4, 2010 Lexington Herald
Leader
For more than a week, officials have declined to explain why the Fayette
County Detention Center's medical administrator is no longer employed at the
facility. Jail spokeswoman Jennifer Taylor said she could not say whether
health service administrator Jonathan Bowen resigned or was fired. His
employment ended the week of Aug. 16, Taylor said. The jail contracts with a
private company, St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services Inc., for
inmate medical care, she said. Taylor said any further comment would come
from that company. Susan Straub, spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Newberry, said CMS
has not given city officials a reason for Bowen's resignation or dismissal. Bowen
worked for CMS, not the city. Open records requests sent to the detention
center for a jail-maintained personnel file for Bowen and any internal memos
regarding his termination of employment were declined because no documents
matched that description, according to a letter from James Kammer, assistant jail director. Several more requests
were pending Friday. Bowen could not immediately be reached for comment. Ken
Fields, a spokesman for CMS, issued a statement that said it was against
company policy to comment on specific personnel matters. Generally speaking,
he said, the job of a health service administrator is to "deal with some
of the administrative tasks such as staffing or providing care." Fields
said CMS regularly evaluates its staff and the needs of inmate patients, many
of whom never receive health care until becoming incarcerated. "As part
of that, certainly, we always look to see if there are areas where services
can be optimized and adjustments made," Fields said. Two CMS employees
at the Fayette County jail are the subject of an investigation by the state
board of nursing after the death of an inmate, Dean Ferguson. Ferguson's
sister Lisa Day filed complaints against nurses Karen Hodge and Stephanie
Travis after Ferguson died of a pulmonary embolism July 10. The complaints
say that during a 12-hour period on jail surveillance video, starting July 9,
Ferguson is seen breathing heavily and collapsing. The complaint says
"both nurses observed his condition and refused to provide medical care."
September 1, 2010 Lexington
Herald-Leader
The Kentucky Board of Nursing is investigating two nurses at the Fayette
County jail who denied medical assessment to an inmate who later died,
according to jail documents. The inmate, Dean Ferguson, 54, of Lexington,
died of a pulmonary embolism after complaining of leg pain and shortness of
breath all night at the jail. Ferguson's family filed complaints against
nurses Karen Hodge and Stephanie Travis in August. The complaints say that
during a 12-hour period on jail surveillance video, Dean is seen breathing
heavily and collapsing many times. "Both nurses observed his condition
and refused to provide medical care," the complaints say. A spokesman
for the nursing board said Tuesday that the complaints had been reviewed and
would be investigated. Travis could not immediately be reached for comment
Tuesday. Hodge did not return phone messages left with a family member at her
home. According to documents obtained from the jail through an open records
request, Ferguson's vital signs were normal when he checked in at 9:40 p.m.
July 9. When Ferguson collapsed five minutes later, Hodge told a jail
lieutenant that "they had just seen him five minutes ago and that they
were not going to see him again," records said. At 2:45 a.m. July 10,
after Ferguson complained that he was unable to walk, the nurses again
advised that Ferguson's "vitals were normal, that he was 'faking' the
issues and that they would not be assessing him again." Travis did
assess Ferguson at 5:40 a.m. and found "no indication of an acute
condition or a change in his current status," records said. At 8:55
a.m., Ferguson was "discovered laboring in his breathing." He was
transferred to the medical facility in the jail where another nurse, Pattie
Hatton, and guards attempted CPR but were unable to revive him. Ferguson was
taken to University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital, where he was pronounced
dead at 10:13 a.m. Nathan Goldman, general counsel at the state board of
nursing, said that if guilt on the part of the nurses is determined,
consequences could range from a reprimand to suspension of their nursing
licenses. Goldman said he did not know how long the investigation might take.
Meanwhile, the jail's internal investigation into the death has ended after
an autopsy attributed the death to natural causes, Sgt. Jennifer Taylor, a
jail spokeswoman, said. Todd Henson, spokesman for the state Department of
Corrections, said that the Fayette County jail had reported the death to the
department but that investigations into jail deaths are handled by local
police. Sherelle Roberts, spokeswoman for the
Lexington police department, said police were not investigating the death
because it was attributed to natural causes. Nurses Hodge and Travis are
employed by Correctional Medical Services Inc., a company that contracts with
the jail for medical service. Ken Fields, spokesman for CMS, said: "We
are unable to provide the news media with information regarding the care
provided to specific patients. On an ongoing basis, we do evaluate the
performance of our staff, making adjustments and changes when
appropriate." Ferguson was serving a weekend sentence July 9 through 11
after being charged with driving under the influence and driving on a
suspended license in May. Ferguson's sister Lisa Day, who filed the
complaint, said her brother complained of feeling ill before checking into
the jail, but he refused her request to take him to a hospital. Day said her
brother insisted that jail personnel would do a full evaluation when he arrived.
"He said, 'Believe me, if there's anything wrong, they will get you
help,'" she said.
October 5, 2007 Lexington
Herald-Leader
An Aramark employee who works at the Fayette County Detention Center is
suspected of illegally bringing drugs and cigarettes into the jail. Melda
Janae Coffman, 32, was charged yesterday with promoting contraband in the
first and second degree, said Capt. Darin Kelly, jail spokesman. The
first-degree charge was for illegally bringing in drugs. It is a Class D
felony offense that can carry a sentence of at least one year in jail. The
second-degree charge for illegally bringing in cigarettes is a class A
misdemeanor with a minimum sentence of 90 days in jail. After her arrest,
Coffman was fired, said Sarah Jarvis, Aramark spokeswoman. Coffman, who
oversaw food preparation at the jail's kitchen, began working there on July
19. Kelly said additional charges could be coming.
March 29, 2006 Herald-Leader
Lexington jailers, a nurse, police and medics were grossly negligent by
denying medical care to a deteriorating Gerald Cornett, who died in August
from injuries suffered in jail, a Fayette Circuit Court lawsuit alleges. The
lawsuit was filed last week by Cornett's estate, which is administered by his
stepfather, Bob Arnold of Lexington. It seeks unspecified punitive damages,
medical and funeral expenses, and lost wages. It names as defendants the
Urban County Government; Correctional Medical Services, a Missouri firm
contracted to provide jail health care; jail director Ron Bishop; a nurse; and
detention officers, medics and the police officer who arrested Cornett, who
was 45. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants did not provide for Cornett's
physical well-being and safety, exercise reasonable care when assessing
whether he should go to jail or a hospital, or obtain appropriate medical
care. The suit states their actions were intentional and reckless, exceeding
standards of decency, morality and constituting "conduct which is
utterly intolerable in our civilized society."
June
25 2005 Lexington Herald Leader
The estate of a murder suspect who hanged himself in the Fayette County jail
and later died has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city.
Dong Zhang, a University of Kentucky doctoral student, suspended himself with
a telephone cord on June 22, 2004, hours after he was told he would be
extradited to Illinois on murder charges. Zhang was thought to have fatally
strangled his former girlfriend Yan Gu in Chicago. The lawsuit, filed
Tuesday, claims that jailers had known that Zhang was suicidal and were
negligent leaving him alone in a recreation room, which had a shower,
television and telephone. The suit was filed by Jianquiang
Zhang, the administrator of Dong Zhang's estate. The suit lists as defendants
the Urban County Government; Ronald Bishop, director of community
corrections; the Bluegrass Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board Inc.,
which operates a mental health unit at the jail; and Correctional Medical
Services, Inc., which provided medical services to inmates.
March 1, 2002
When death came, Tim Jackson was strapped face down on a bed in a cell by
himself. The mattress was hard and vinyl and bare. He lay pinioned for two
full days in the old Fayette County Detention Center -- his bony wrists and
ankles locked into leather bindings, his body held firmly in place by a long
piece of white fabric sometimes called a ''safety net.'' Resembling a blanket
with straps, it was lashed tightly to the sides of the bed. For his own good,
they said. A large, raw wound grew on the back of his neck, where he strained
against the ''net'' that held him down. In plain terms, Dr. Gregory J. Davis
said, Jackson resisted and resisted until he burned himself up inside. ''This
guy was dying, and they apparently did not know it,'' he said. Jackson also
was ''emaciated,'' according to Davis ' autopsy report. With only 109 pounds
on his 5-foot, 4-inch frame, his body had begun feeding on its muscle, Davis
said. He also was seriously dehydrated. And, not incidentally, Timothy Wayne
Jackson, age 29, also was a paranoid schizophrenic. A paranoid schizophrenic
who had been in the jail for more than a month. A paranoid schizophrenic who,
during that month, had received no psychiatric medication. A paranoid
schizophrenic who, during that month, had not been seen by a psychiatrist
until just hours before his death. ''This shouldn't be occurring in jails,
because this is a person who didn't know right from wrong,'' said Raymond J.
Sabbatine, who was the director of the Fayette County jail at the time
Jackson died. ''He shouldn't be there in the first place.'' Two Kentucky
psychiatrists who reviewed Jackson 's medical records said it appeared that
he had been in a serious mental and physical decline for three days, and needed hospitalization. In addition, Davis , the medical examiner, said the question of why
Jackson was not sent to a hospital for evaluation of his physical needs
remains a major, unanswered issue. And in fact, Dr. Teresa Oropilla-Kiefer, the psychiatrist who actually saw
Jackson about nine hours before his death, wrote in his medical records that
he would ''do best'' in a hospital, and she said in recent interviews that
she thought he needed to be in a hospital. But he wasn't sent to one. The
reasons are complicated and have much to do with the fact that there are two
health-care contractors at the Lexington jail -- one providing only mental
health care and one general medical care. A CMS nurse concluded that Jackson
exhibited potential mental problems and referred him to Bluegrass
, the medical records show. A Bluegrass social worker concluded that
Jackson ''appears stable'' and recommended that he be placed in the jail's
''general population,'' the records show. On at least seven occasions over
the previous nine months, doctors at both the jail and community clinics had
prescribed psychiatric medications for Jackson ,
including Prolixin, an antipsychotic drug, his
records show. Yet now, viewed as stable, Jackson received no medications. In
the jail at the time -- which has since been replaced by a new jail away from
downtown -- inmates in four-point restraints were placed in the infirmary,
where the CMS staff was stationed. The jail's policy requires that an inmate
in such restraints be constantly observed by a jail officer, checked every
two hours for any harmful effects of the restraints, and released for 15
minutes every four hours. That means Jackson was not seen by a mental-health
worker until 12 hours after being put into four-point restraints. By
contrast, in a hospital, federal rules require that any patient put into
restraint be assessed within an hour by a doctor, and that restraint be
discontinued when the patient becomes calm, according to Butler , one of the
Louisville psychiatrists who reviewed Jackson 's records at the newspaper's
request. But because this was a Monday, there was no psychiatrist there. At
the time, Oropilla-Kiefer, the Bluegrass staff
psychiatrist, ordinarily was at the jail only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So
again Jackson would wait for a mental-health professional -- this time for 24
hours. Jackson 's deterioration also was reflected in a lengthy note entered
that day by Judy Rhodus, a licensed clinical social
worker and coordinator of the Bluegrass mental-health service at the jail.
CMS was asked to begin monitoring Jackson 's food and liquid intake,
according to a note Rhodus entered in the medical
record at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday. Oropilla-Kiefer, the
psychiatrist, also wrote orders in Jackson 's chart to resume two of his
usual psychiatric medications -- including an injection of the antipsychotic
drug Prolixin ''stat,'' meaning at once. Rhodus also wrote of special efforts by Bluegrass --
which were unsuccessful -- to locate the injectable Prolixin
that Oropilla-Kiefer wanted Jackson to have. Rhodus wrote: ''Repeated efforts made by ( Bluegrass ) . . . to obtain Prolixin
via community mental health system.'' The note indicated that neither the
pharmacy at Eastern State Hospital nor a Bluegrass clinic had any amount of
the drug that it could spare. In addition, Maria Wilson, a nurse for CMS,
made a notation at 1:45 p.m. July 11 saying that, after speaking with Oropilla-Kiefer about Jackson 's ''deteriorating
orientation of unknown etiology,'' she called a CMS physician and obtained an
order to draw blood from him, a first step toward assessing his physical
condition. However, results of the blood work would not be available for at
least a day -- and, as it turned out, Jackson did not have a day to wait.
Wilson 's entry was the last in Jackson 's medical chart until after the
discovery at 8:18 p.m. -- 6 1/2 hours later -- that he was no longer
breathing. The critical question -- why Jackson was not sent to a hospital,
even though the psychiatrist, Oropilla-Kiefer,
believed he needed to be in one -- has no simple answer. One source of
information about Jackson 's actual condition would be the records of the
vital-sign checks done by nurses every shift. But CMS spokesman Ken Fields in
St. Louis said that the company could not locate any records of such checks
for any of the 48 hours Jackson was in the infirmary. Fields, who works for a
public-relations firm representing CMS, said he did not know why the records
could not be found. CMS referred reporters to Fields. Wilson, a registered
nurse and a supervisor on the CMS staff at the time, said she is sure the
record existed on July 11, 2000 , because she read
it. Wilson said Jackson 's blood pressure, pulse, respiration and possibly
his temperature readings were on the record, and she thinks they were ''all
within normal limits.'' In the series of decisions about Jackson 's care, one
critical moment occurred around 1 p.m. on July 11, in a conversation between Oropilla-Kiefer and Wilson . Oropilla-Kiefer had just written in Jackson 's chart that
he would ''do best'' in a hospital, and that she would ''recommend this to
staff'' -- meaning, she said, CMS staff. ''My intention was that they (CMS)
need to manage it,'' Oropilla-Kiefer said. ''We
couldn't get medications, and again, he wasn't responding the way I wanted
him to.'' Bluegrass officials also said, in a series of three interviews with
the newspaper, that under its contract with the jail, Bluegrass is only a
consultant on mental health. As a result, '' Bluegrass employees do not have
the authority at the jail to hospitalize,'' Michael R. Moloney, attorney for
the agency, said. That authority, Bluegrass officials said, rests entirely
with CMS, which contracts to provide medical care, including emergency
services. However, two registered nurses who were on the CMS staff at the
time -- including Shirley Lutfi, who was then the top CMS official at the
jail -- disagreed. Wilson , for example, said:
''They ( Bluegrass ) could have sent him to the hospital. They did not need
us to do that.'' Lutfi, who was administrator of jail's medical department
then and who now lives in Maryland , described the
working arrangement between CMS and Bluegrass in similar terms. (The
Courier-Journal)
Kentucky Department of Corrections
Behind
the Bars | Kentucky had gaps in monitoring troubled Otter Creek prison July
5, 2010
Behind
the Bars | Experts question benefits of private prisons July 5, 2010
Behind
the Bars | Prison faced regular complaints about medical care July 5, 2010
Behind
the Bars | Secretary Carla Meade's suicide raised questions July 5, 2010
Jan
28, 2014 vtdigger.org
The
warden of the Kentucky prison where 205 Vermont inmates have been on lockdown
since Jan. 15 resigned Saturday, cCommissioner Andy
Pallito said Monday. Warden David Frye resigned for
“personal as well as health reasons,” according to an email he sent from his
iPhone to his bosses at Corrections Corp. of America, the for-profit company
that contracts with the state. Pallito said Frye’s
decision had nothing to do with the lockdown. “I would say that our
relationship with him was always favorable, so I don’t have any reason to
believe that it’s necessarily related to this particular lockdown or
whatnot,” Pallito said. Frye took over operations
at Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville, Ky., in October 2012, according to a
news release from the time. CCA spokesman Steven Owen confirmed that Frye
resigned for personal reasons. In an email, he said that assistant warden Dan
Akers, who has been with CCA since 1994, will “lead the facility in the
interim until a new warden is named.” Frye’s resignation email said he spent several
weeks considering his decision and discussing it with his family. The
resignation was effective Monday. “At this point in my life, I think it
necessary to do something different after 20+ years working in corrections,”
Frye’s resignation email said. Meanwhile, one wing of the prison is still on
lockdown, but it has been eased twice to allow inmates to move more freely
and have recreation time, Pallito said. This
particular lockdown has stretched longer than usual, he said. It is a result
of violence between inmates that began with an assault over the summer, DOC
officials have said. “This is not just about the lockdown it’s about a rise
in the temperature in the facility,” Pallito said.
Inmates have hit and punched each other, Pallito
said last week. One person slashed another, he said. The violence might be
gang- or debt-related, officials have said. Department of Corrections staff
will travel to Kentucky to monitor the situation over the next four weeks, Pallito said. Ideally, two or three staffers will travel
there, he said, to interview inmates and understand how they are doing. Pallito said he has already received some letters from
inmates complaining about the temperature of the food and the lack of
observation. “It’s hard for me to ferret out whether or not they’re using
this as an opportunity to give us general complaints,” Pallito
said. The state’s contract allows Vermont to house up to 700 prisoners out of
state. The arrangement saves the state money and cuts down on overcrowding in
Vermont jails. There are 460 prisoners in Kentucky and 39 in Florence, Ariz.,
according to DOC. Only one wing of the Kentucky facility is on lockdown. Pallito has said lockdowns are routine in Vermont and out
of state, often used when something is reported missing or when a weapon is
rumored to be circulating. Staff from CCA, the prison contractor, traveled to
Vermont the week before the lockdown to talk with DOC about the violence, Pallito said Monday. They offered to come back to Vermont
this week, he said, but he told them it wasn’t necessary. Meanwhile, CCA has
developed a new long-term plan to watch inmates more carefully, Pallito said. He said he is optimistic the company will
follow through. “I have a fair amount of faith that they’re taking this
seriously and they’re implementing some changes. We’ll know better in three
or four months,” Pallito said. Although DOC isn’t
allowed to choose the next warden, CCA usually shares information about
finalists, he said. “They’ve always been pretty open with us about who they’re
bringing in,” Pallito said. CCA’s contract is for
$61 million over four years. It is set to expire in June 2015 and the bidding
process will begin soon, Pallito said. He stopped
short of saying the threat of losing the contract will spur CCA into action.
Sep 4, 2013 courier-journal.com
The
Tennessee company that’s provided medical treatment to inmates at Metro
Corrections for most of the past two decades is ending its ties with city
government following the death of seven sick jail prisoners last year and
subsequent lawsuits over the company’s care. Metro Corrections officials, who
have been reviewing two of the deaths for several months, said they did not
pressure Corizon to let its $5.5 million annual
contract lapse by missing a July 30 deadline to seek a renewal. Courtney
Eller, a spokeswoman for Corizon, declined to
answer questions about its decision, saying only that the company would help
ensure a successful transition to the next provider. Metro Corrections
Director Mark Bolton said he was surprised by Corizon’s
decision, as it had indicated it would offer a proposal but, without
explanation, chose not to do. Bolton, who had criticized Corizon
staff’s handling of previous cases, said last week that the company had “put
a completely new management team in place over the last year ... and I have
been very, very happy with them.” A new provider would be chosen in the next
15 days or so from six companies that made proposals, he said. Corizon’s decision comes as three more lawsuits have been
filed in recent months over deaths of sick inmates. The lawsuits contain
claims that Corizon staff dismissed inmates’
complaints and were slow to put physicians on the case or take inmates to a
hospital. The most recent lawsuit, filed in August in Jefferson Circuit
Court, claims Samantha George was moved from the Bullitt County jail to Metro
Corrections last August on a charge of buying a stolen computer. George told
a Corizon nurse at the jail that she was a severe
diabetic, needed insulin, and was feverish and in pain from an MRSA
infection, according to the suit, filed on behalf of George’s mother. George
said she could not even keep water down and a nurse asked an on-call jail
physician whether George should be taken to the emergency room, according to
jail records that were part of a police investigation. The doctor said he
would see the prisoner the next day and that she should be monitored,
according to the records. But there was a mistake with the paperwork for
corrections staff to make regular observational checks, according to the
police investigation. George’s condition worsened and she was refused medical
treatment, the suit claims. The Corizon jail doctor
never saw her despite promises he would check on her, according to the
lawsuit, which names Corizon and Bolton as
defendants. Theresa George, Samantha George’s mother, said she called had
Metro Corrections and told them how serious her daughter’s condition was and
that she had to have a shot every hour. “They said, ‘I’m looking at her right
now and she’s fine,’” Theresa George said. “Four hours later, she was dead.”
Samantha George was found unresponsive on Aug. 8, 2012, and she was
pronounced dead a short time later at University of Louisville Hospital. An
autopsy concluded she died of complications from a severe form of diabetes,
compounded by heart disease. Problems with Corizon’s
work came to light when Metro Corrections announced in December that six
unidentified Corizon workers resigned amid an
investigation by the jail that found that the workers “may” have contributed
to last year’s deaths of George and inmate Savannah Sparks. The
investigations of those deaths by the jail and prosecutors are ongoing, and
Metro Corrections officials would not talk about specific details. Corizon officials also would not talk about specific
cases. Just weeks after George died, Kenneth Cross arrived at Metro
Corrections. An unidentified friend had been taking him to the hospital when
he was pulled over by police, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this year
on behalf of Cross’ estate. The suit claims officers believed Cross, who was
arrested on a warrant for a drug possession charge, was faking an overdose
and would get any help he needed at Metro Corrections. A nurse at Metro
Corrections documented that Cross had “slurred speech” and fell asleep
“several times during his interview,” according to jail records. Cross told
the nurse he had only one beer that day and was fine. He was found
unconscious hours later, according to jail records in the suit. Cross was
pronounced dead a short time later. “Nodding off ... clearly should raise a
red flag in the case of someone who was arrested for drug possession,” said
Gregory Belzley, who represents Cross’ family.
“Either hospitalize him or put him under very careful observation in which he
is not allowed to go to sleep.” Cross, 43, died of a drug overdose, according
to a state medical examiner. Bolton said there was no investigation into
Cross’ death because there was “no suspicion of foul play” or other red
flags. He declined to comment further on the Cross case. The commonwealth’s
attorney’s office reviewed the case and sent it back to Louisville police.
Dwight Mitchell, a police spokesman, said no charges were filed in the Cross
case. In an email to his staff in December about the deaths, Bolton said,
“Mistakes were made by Corizon personnel and their
corporation has acknowledged such missteps” in terms of the deaths, according
to records in the George lawsuit. Investigations by police and jail officials
into the deaths of George and Sparks, who died from opiate abuse and
withdrawal six days after arriving at Metro Corrections in April 2012, are
still ongoing, Bolton said. Previously he had said he believed that Corizon medical staff took too long to have a company
doctor look at Sparks and George. A wrongful-death lawsuit was filed in April
of this year on behalf of Sparks’ grandmother, Karen May. Filed in Jefferson
Circuit Court, it claims Corizon Inc. and dozens of
Metro Corrections employees were negligent in treating Sparks, 27, while she
was in jail on a theft charge. Her attorney, Brian Cook, declined to comment.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine, whose office reviewed six of the deaths,
said the jail has made many improvements caring for ill inmates. A recent
audit by a correction health consultant and accreditation report by the
National Commission on Correctional Health Care both indicated improvements,
including in the handling of inmates who are detoxing or diabetic. The new
detoxification process, which includes a heightened awareness in monitoring
inmates, is a “model program which should be presented at conferences and
seminars,” according to the audit. Theresa George said she hopes her
daughter’s death and the subsequent lawsuit will spur change. “That could be
your child,” she said. “If we can change the way they treat people when they
go to jail, that’s what I hope for.”
Jul 8, 2013 kentucky.com
ST.
MARY, Ky. — Stacy Mattingly is facing the daunting prospect of setting up the
Ham Days festival in Lebanon for an estimated 40,000 visitors without the
help of many of her free assistants. Mattingly has traditionally relied on
inmate work crews from the nearby Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary to
assist with the September extravaganza. Those inmates may not be available this
year because Kentucky is pulling prisoners from the private prison and moving
them to state facilities in a money-saving move over the next four months.
The closure is creating the opposite of a "not in my backyard"
affect - locals want the facility, related jobs and inmates to stay. CCA
doesn't have another client lined up yet to fill the soon-to-be empty beds.
"I'm not sure what I'll do," said Mattingly, executive director of
the Marion County Chamber of Commerce and organizer of several festivals in the
area. "It's going to be a pretty significant loss to all of us."
The state announced last month it would not renew its contract for the nearly
800-bed prison owned by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of
America. Instead, state officials cited a projected $1.5 million to $2.5
million per year savings by putting the inmates in existing state facilities,
jails and halfway houses. Prison and local officials are pushing the state to
change its mind. "I would love to see jobs retained there," Marion
County Judge-Executive John G. Mattingly said. "Whether that happens,
that remains to be seen." Marion Adjustment Center was Kentucky's last
private prison venture. The state pulled inmates from two other CCA-owned
prisons, Otter Creek Correctional Complex in Wheelwright and Lee Adjustment
Center in Beattyville, over the last five years. Otter Creek is vacant and
Lee Adjustment Center currently houses inmates from Vermont. The moves have
come as the state's prison population shrinks. Policy changes enacted in the
2011 legislative session included reduced prison time for low-risk,
nonviolent drug criminals caught with small amounts of drugs. Once the 800
inmates are transferred from the Marion Adjustment Center, 166 corrections
officers, making between $27,000 and $29,000 annually, and other staff
members at the prison will be out of work. The surrounding county of roughly
18,000 people is marked by corn fields, small towns and the occasional
bourbon distillery 90 minutes southeast of Louisville. The median income for
households in Marion County is just over $30,000 a year, and about 18.6
percent of the population lives in poverty. CCA spokesman Steve Owen said
that each year the prison spends $1.7 million on local goods and services,
$814,000 in utilities and fees and more than $170,000 in property taxes.
"It's a major impact," Mattingly said. "It's going to have a
ripple effect." State Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, who owns Higdon's
Appliance Center in nearby Lebanon, said the closure means 166 people
"will suffer financially and emotionally from losing their jobs."
"Many of these folks have been with MAC since the beginning,"
Higdon said. For a while at least, they'll get some help from the state in
finding future employment. Justice Cabinet spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin said the state will aid CCA employees in filing
out applications and hunting for open positions. Department of Corrections
spokeswoman Lisa Lamb said the state's merit system doesn't permit any
preference for open positions unless a CCA employee has previously worked for
the state and left in good standing. Lamb said CCA employees "will be
very well experienced" and qualified should spots come open at state
facilities. Other communities have felt the pain of a prison closing. After
the shutdown of Otter Creek, people lost their steady income and stopped
spending money in the area, Wheelwright Mayor Andy Akers said. "It hurt
the grocery stores, the restaurants - just everything where the guards used
to spend their money," Akers said. As for the inmates, MAC offered
rehabilitation programs and faith-based initiatives as well as education
courses. During a recent visit to the prison, reporters weren't allowed to
speak with the inmates or any corrections officers about the pending
transfers. Owen said the programs at MAC were considered to be the best in
the state and he's unsure how the adjustment to the programs in the state
facilities will go for the inmates. Chief Unit Manager Ralph Clifton said the
rehabilitation programs, along with the work the inmates do for the county
provides a benefit that can't necessarily be measured. Also, Clifton said,
the inmates who take part in those programs are about 25 percent less likely
to reoffend after release. "That's significant when you're talking about
tax dollars to rehabilitation somebody," Clifton said. "This place
has some of the best programs Kentucky has to offer." Owen said
Kentucky's decision to let the contract expire came as a surprise and the
company doesn't have another client lined up. Mattingly is hoping for a quick
turnaround for the prison. "I guess if it gets down to dollars and
sense, if the price is right, some other state might want to get corrections
farmed out to MAC," Mattingly said. "They could maybe fill those
beds and retain those jobs."
Jun 26, 2013 wpsdlocal6.com
HICKMAN
COUNTY, Ky. - County jailers across Kentucky are celebrating Governor Steve Beshear's decision to terminate the state's contract with
Nashville-based prison company Corrections Corporation of America and send
inmates to county jails. County leaders are also learning this could
mean they'll have more money for critical services, like emergency management
and fire. A communications director with the state's Justice and Public
Safety Cabinet says because the state is now more focused on rehab and less
focused on incarceration, there are fewer inmates. So it was no longer
efficient to contract with the private company that charged up to $16 more
per inmate each night. Hickman County Jailer Chad Frizzell says the decision
will certainly send more inmates his way and generate up to $150,000 more
each year. For smaller counties, the economic impacts are even better.
"One of the officials in those days said 'you get that jail open and you
call us let us know, the bus will be full and we'll head your way'."
That was the year 2000. Now, lots of beds are empty and that's money
the jail could be making if they were filled. Frizzell said he has 80 beds
and 52 inmates. "We'd love to see those beds filled. You could say in
the jail business, crime pays. That's what we depend on to pay our staff
members, pay salary, to pay for things we need in the jail," Frizzell
said. Judge Executive Greg Pruitt said the state's decision to send inmates
to private prisons was disturbing. "It's not fair to local counties who
have gone out on a limb, gone into debt, and incurred a lot of expenses to
take care of state prisoners for the state now to back up and not provide
those prisoners," Pruitt said. As of Sunday, that will change.
"From a department standpoint, this was the most efficient use of
resources. Conservative estimates are an annual savings of $1.5 million to
$2.5 million," communications director for Kentucky's Justice and Public
Safety Cabinet, Jennifer Brislin, said. This year
the Hickman County Fiscal Court allotted $500,000 county tax dollars to
supplement the jail, but now the jail might not need all that money. "In
this county, immediately it'll be used to deal with ambulance problems, how
we fund ambulance service in the future," Pruitt said. McCracken and
Hickman Counties are not alone in this. The Marshall County jailer told Local
6 he too considers this great news and it will mean more money coming in to
his county. The president of the Kentucky Jailer's Association was very
grateful and thanked the governor for this decision. The nearly 800 inmates
at that private prison will be scattered across the state. There's no formula
for who goes where, but a state spokesperson said inmates in substance abuse
programs will be sent to jails or half way houses with similar programs. The
contract with the Nashville-based company Corrections Corporation of America
officially expires Sunday. The state will have 120 days to move all the
inmates to other facilities.
Jun 25, 2013 businessweek.com
LOUISVILLE,
Ky. (AP) — Kentucky is not renewing a contract with private prison giant
Corrections Corporation of America for a facility in the central part of the
state, closing the door for the first time in three decades on outside
companies incarcerating inmates for the state. The decision announced Tuesday
means almost 800 state inmates at the Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary
will be moved to other state prisons, county jails or halfway houses. The
contract with the Nashville, Tenn.-based company expires Sunday. The state
will have 120 days to move all inmates to other facilities. The move is the
latest in a series since 2008. At that point, Kentucky had inmates in three
prisons run by CCA. The state pulled out of Lee Adjustment Center in 2010 and
Otter Creek Correctional Center in 2012.
October 18, 2011 Evansville Courier
& Press
Henderson Fiscal Court heard the opening salvo Tuesday of a campaign jailers
plan to use to sway the General Assembly next year. "You are our maiden
voyage," said Mike Simpson, president of Kentucky Jailers Association.
"We're going to hopefully take this across the state." In a
nutshell, Kentucky jailers maintain that House Bill 463 -- a recently enacted
major overhaul of the criminal justice system -- is going to have a negative
impact on the jails across the state. The way around that problem, they say,
is allowing the state's current contracts to expire next year with
Corrections Corporation of America, which has prisons in Marion and Floyd
counties. The inmates in the Marion Adjustment Center and the Otter Creek
Correctional Center would then be transferred to county jails. It's a simple
matter of economics, according to Patrick Crowley, a public relations
consultant from northern Kentucky who has been hired to head the blitz.
County jails are paid $31.34 per day to house state inmates. The Marion
Adjustment Center charges the state $37.99 a day for minimum security
inmates, and $47.98 per day for medium security inmates. Otter Creek,
meanwhile, charges the state $53.77 per day to house inmates. "It's a
disgrace for the private prisons to be getting the per diem they're
getting," said Henderson County Jailer Ron Herrington. Based on the
capacity of the two private prisons, Crowley said, the state would save more
than $8 million a year by housing the inmates in county jails -- and boost
the bottom line of county governments while doing it. "Both the state
and the counties could save money by eliminating the private prisons
contracts," Crowley said. "There are some good things" in HB
463, Simpson said, but "this is our window of opportunity to go through
this thing." "It's about 150 pages and all but about five or 10
were just fine," said County Attorney Steve Gold. Magistrate Charles
Alexander at one point asked how the state can avoid destroying jobs by what
the jailers propose. "They have prisons all over the United
States," Simpson replied. "They're not just in Kentucky." If
the firm loses Kentucky inmates, he said, it will fill its prisons with
inmates from other states. "They have brought prisoners in from Hawaii.
There is no shortage of inmates in this country."
June 3, 2011 Herald-Leader
An inmate at Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex at West Liberty found a
dead mouse in his soup May 1, leading to an investigation by corrections
officials, according to state prison incident reports. State Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, characterized the incident as the
latest problem with Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services, which
has a $12 million contract with the state to provide prison food. "It
indicates what I call malpractice of their job," Yonts
said. But Aramark spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis said the company provides good
service to the state. "We have strong quality-assurance processes that
ensure the high quality and safety of the meals we serve, and this has been
consistently verified by the high scores we receive on independent county and
industry health inspections," Jarvis said in a statement. Those
inspection scores average close to 100 percent, she said. The incident
occurred about 11 a.m. May 1, according to prison reports. In a written
grievance, inmate Christopher Branum said that
after eating some of his soup, he saw "what appeared to be a mouse
leg." "I touched it with my spork (a combination spoon and fork),
and it was a cooked mouse," Branum said in the
grievance. Corrections officer Ronald Cantrell wrote in a report that Branum called for him and showed him the mouse 30 to 45 seconds
after Cantrell served Branum lunch in his cell.
"The mouse was saturated as though it had been in the soup for some time
or cooked in it. The soup was still lukewarm," Corrections Capt. Paul
Fugate wrote in a report. Branum, who is serving a
10-year sentence for first-degree robbery, received the prison incident
documents through an open records request, said Wade McNabb, a paralegal for Spedding Law Office in Lexington. Branum
gave McNabb permission to share the documents with the Herald-Leader. The
prison report on the incident included a photograph of the mouse. All of the
soup made that day was thrown out, and the inmates were served other food,
according to the incident report compiled by Fugate. Aramark food service
director Jody Sammons, in a May 12 memo, said Sammons had conducted an
investigation, and "it appears the mouse was isolated to the bowl of
soup in which it was found." "It was not likely that a mouse was
cooked in that batch of soup," Sammons' memo said. Some inmates were
immediately concerned that they would be sick after eating the soup, and they
were seen by medical personnel, an incident report said. Prison medical
officials also contacted a Department of Corrections physician within an
hour. The physician said "the mouse would not make them sick this
soon," according to the incident report. Jennifer Brislin,
a spokeswoman for the Justice & Public Safety Cabinet said the staff
addressed the problem immediately. "The product was pulled and
discarded, and an alternative served. Medical services were made available to
all inmates. After those initial actions, Warden (Gary) Beckstrom
took steps to increase pest control and monitor sanitation to ensure there is
no reoccurrence of this event," Brislin said. Yonts said he would be contacting corrections officials
Friday to see what action they have taken. In January, Yonts
asked Attorney General Jack Conway to investigate possible Aramark violations
of its contract. Yonts, D-Greenville, said Aramark
violated the contract last year by refusing to provide cost-related records
to state auditors conducting an investigation of Aramark's contract to
provide food service to inmates at Kentucky's 13 prisons. In a Feb. 10 letter
to Yonts, obtained by the Herald-Leader through the
state's Open Records Law, Conway said that the Finance and Administration
Cabinet found that Aramark was not in breach of the contract and that Conway
saw no need for a separate investigation. But Conway and state Auditor Crit Luallen want a state
regulation changed to clarify that state officials — not the contractor —
should determine which records are pertinent, Allison Martin, a spokeswoman
for Conway, said Thursday.
April 7, 2011 Lexington
Herald-Leader
It's atrocious that Dismas Charities, a non-profit
that runs on millions of tax dollars, refuses a full public accounting while
spending lavishly on entertainment, sports events and executive salaries. If
the Louisville-based corporation, which provides transitional housing and
outpatient drug treatment for inmates, could afford a luxury suite (which it
gave up once exposed) and some of the highest executive salaries in its
industry, maybe, just maybe, Kentucky is overpaying for its services. But,
hey, who knows? As state Auditor Crit Luallen said in releasing a special examination of Dismas Charities, "Because the detailed information
we requested wasn't provided to our office, we could not determine if state
and federal funds were spent appropriately and the extent of other excessive
or unusual expenditures." This has become something of a recurring
theme. Earlier, Luallen was unable to get
information requested of Aramark, the contractor that Kentucky pays $12
million a year to feed prison inmates. The Beshear
administration should quickly adopt Luallen's
recommendation that contracts, including no-bid contracts, contain specific
language allowing the state auditor and other agencies access to pertinent
records — and, this is important, the determination of what's pertinent will
be made by the state, not the contractor. As Luallen
said again in releasing the Dismas report, if
government is going to privatize its responsibilities, the private
contractors who are being paid tax dollars to provide government services
should be held to the same standards of accountability and transparency as
the government. If this administration or future administrations fail to
impose reasonable standards of accountability and transparency on government
contractors, the legislature should insist on it. Let's be clear: We're not
talking about a private company that does a little government work. Dismas Charities is 97 percent funded by state and
federal tax dollars. Dismas received more than $27
million in federal funds in 2009 and receives more than $7 million a year
from Kentucky. It operates 28 halfway houses in 11 states. Kentucky usually
inserts standard language in contracts requiring vendors and other
contractors to allow state auditors access to pertinent records. (Aramark
refused on the grounds that what Luallen requested
was not pertinent, which is why future contracts must make clear that the
state decides what is pertinent.) The Department of Corrections' excuse for
excluding that standard requirement from its agreement with Dismas is that the contract was not competitively bid.
Not a very reassuring explanation.
January 22, 2011 Herald-Leader
The state has appointed an acting medical director for Kentucky prisons who
will continue to work for and be paid by the private company that provides
the state prison system's health care. Dr. Ron Everson was named by the state
to coordinate and oversee the work of CorrectCare
Integrated Health, the company where he is regional medical director for four
Eastern Kentucky prison facilities. CorrectCare
provides medical care for Kentucky prisons. It works for the University of
Kentucky in a public-private partnership that essentially provides prisoners
with an HMO for medical care. The university has a two-year, $104 million
contract with the Department of Corrections. In his state role, Everson checks
credentials and supervises medical providers and nurse administrators for
Kentucky's Department of Corrections. He is also in charge of quality
assurance, said corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lamb. Lamb said there is no
conflict in Everson serving in both roles. CorrectCare
is paying Everson's salary and the state is providing no additional
compensation to him, she said. Linda Goins, president of CorrectCare,
which is based in Lexington, referred questions about Everson back to the
state. Richard Beliles, the chairman of the
watchdog group Common Cause Kentucky, said Thursday that such an arrangement
is not good government. "It would not be good if a lot of private
companies could suddenly just be paying the salaries of state
officials," said Beliles. "It's a push
for privatization, which is probably not in the general best interest of the
public." The agreement between UK and the state does not prohibit a CorrectCare physician from serving as acting medical
director during the absence of the state corrections department's medical
director, Lamb said. The corrections department sought the advice of the
Justice Cabinet, whose staff then contacted the state Personnel Cabinet's
General Counsel's office, Lamb said. "We were assured there was no
conflict of interest in Dr. Everson filling this role on a temporary
basis," she said.
January 10, 2011 Lexington
Herald-Leader
A state lawmaker wants Attorney General Jack Conway to investigate possible
violations of Aramark Correctional Services' $12 million food service contract
with the Kentucky Corrections Department. Rep. Brent Yonts,
D-Greenville, said Aramark broke the terms of the deal last year by refusing
to provide cost-related records to state auditors who were conducting their
own investigation of food served to inmates at Kentucky's 13 prisons. In a
Jan. 4 letter to Conway, Yonts also listed other
"examples of contract breach" identified in state Auditor Crit Luallen's final report,
including Aramark overbilling the state and serving old food to inmates that
was not stored properly. "I believe it is obvious that the contract has
not been complied with and that Aramark is in substantial breach of it,"
Yonts wrote. Conway spokeswoman Allison Martin on
Friday said the attorney general's office is reviewing Yonts'
request. Aramark spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis defended her company in a brief
prepared statement but did not respond to Yonts'
individual allegations. "We provide excellent service that has saved the
commonwealth more than $30 million to date," Jarvis said.
October 7, 2010 Lexington
Herald-Leader
An audit of the state Department of Corrections' $12 million food service
contract with Aramark Correctional Services has found that the state is
overpaying the company thousands of dollars a year and is not ensuring that
Aramark serves the proper quantities of required ingredients or meets its
obligations. State Auditor Crit Luallen
released the report Thursday. The Philadelphia-based company provides food
service three times a day at Kentucky's 13 state prisons. The report said: ■
Aramark declined the auditors' requests for certain cost records. ■ The
audit identified more than $36,000 in overpayments to Aramark due to billing
errors and non-compliance with contract provisions and said the total
overpayments could exceed $130,000. It found that in most cases, billing
errors and food-production problems favored Aramark rather than the state. ■
Due to poor documentation, auditors were unable to verify that Aramark
consistently followed approved recipes, used the proper quantities of
ingredients and met safety standards for food temperatures or use of
leftovers. ■ Aramark received almost $148,000 in inmate-grown food for
nearly no cost, which is not compliant with the contract. ■ The
Department of Corrections does not appear to have a comprehensive
contract-monitoring process. "There's a pattern of non-compliance that's
raised some questions of whether or not taxpayers are getting their money's
worth," Luallen said. "We can privatize
services, but we can't contract out responsibility. Our recommendations will
ensure the vendor is held accountable." Luallen
is asking the Department of Corrections and the Finance and Administration
Cabinet to determine whether Aramark is in breach of the contract for failing
to submit financial documents for the audit. The auditor made 30
recommendations to the Department of Corrections for strengthening its
oversight of the Aramark contract. Luallen's office
was unable to review food costs, personnel costs, bonuses to vendor managers
and other critical data because Aramark declined a request for direct cost
information. In her response to the audit, Department of Corrections
Commissioner LaDonna Thompson agreed to determine whether Aramark was in
breach of the contract, agreed that billing errors had occurred and agreed
that monitoring efforts should be increased. Gov. Steve Beshear
and Justice and Public Safety Secretary J. Michael Brown said the Justice
Cabinet would strengthen its monitoring process. But Beshear
and Brown stood by the Aramark contract.
February 1, 2010 KY Post
Legislation has passed a House committee that would eliminate privatized food
service for inmates at Kentucky’s prisons. The House Judiciary Committee
approved House Bill 33, sponsored by Rep. Brent Yonts,
D-Greenville, which would require inmate food service at the state’s prisons
be turned over to the Department of Corrections at a cost of an additional
$5.4 million per year. The state currently pays around $12 million a year for
prison food service through Aramark. HB 33 now goes to the full House for
consideration. A recent Corrections report indicates that the quality and
quantity of Aramark’s food service—provided to the state at a cost of $2.63
per inmate per day—was an underlying factor in last fall’s riot at Northpoint
Training Center, a state prison in Burgin. State prisons officials at last
week’s meeting said restricted inmate movement at Northpoint was the main
trigger of the riot.
January 29, 2010 Herald-Leader
State Auditor Crit Luallen
said Thursday she would do an audit of the private company that has a nearly
$12 million annual contract to serve food at the state's 13 prisons. The
announcement came a day after a House committee voted to cancel a contract
with Aramark Correctional Services, which served food at Northpoint Training
Center at the time of a costly riot there. Also Wednesday, the state released
its full investigative report on the Aug. 21 riot, which went into more
detail about problems with food at the Mercer County prison. House Speaker
Greg Stumbo and Rep. John Tilley, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee,
said Thursday that they thought Luallen should look
into Aramark's performance under the contract. "I do think it's
appropriate to ask the state auditor in some fashion to audit the
situation," Tilley said Thursday. Said Luallen:
"While there has not been a formal request yet, there have been enough
questions raised by legislators that we will begin to make plans to do an
audit of the contract." Members of the House Judiciary Committee on
Wednesday voted 6-4 to cancel Aramark's contract because of concerns about
the food. Many on the committee questioned whether Aramark was skimping on
ingredients to serve more people cheaply. "Aramark stands behind the
quality of service we provide, which has won the accolades of our clients and
the national accreditation agencies who monitor the quality of food service,"
an Aramark spokeswoman said Wednesday. An audit conducted of Aramark's
performance for the Florida prison system in 2007 showed the number of
inmates eating meals declined after Aramark took over the food service. But
the company was paid based on the number of inmates, not on the number of
meals served. Aramark also substituted less costly products such as ground
turkey for beef, the audit said. The audit recommended that Florida rebid the
food service or take it over. But Aramark terminated the contract near the
end of 2008, according to published reports. Gov. Steve Beshear
praised prison officials' handling of the riot. He said he was
"confounded" with the legislature's "continued fixation with
the menus for convicted criminals when we're desperately trying to avoid
cutting teachers and state troopers. ... We have more than 10 percent
unemployment and Kentucky families are struggling to put food on the table,
and I am loath to consider millions more dollars for criminals who wish they
could go to Wendy's instead." But Tilley and Stumbo — both Democrats —
defended the House's investigation into the riot, which damaged six buildings
and caused a fiery melee. "The truth is, we had a riot on our hands that
is probably going to cost the taxpayers $10 million," Stumbo said,
referring to money Beshear has requested to rebuild
the prison outside of Danville. "And we need to find out why the hell we
had it." Meanwhile, there are still questions about why key parts of the
original report on the riot were not immediately released in November. It was
only after the House Judiciary Committee repeatedly asked to see the report
that the Department of Corrections agreed to release a redacted version of
the full report at Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee meeting. The report
released Wednesday showed that Northpoint Warden Steve Haney did not want to
implement restrictions that were a primary cause of the riot, but he was
overruled by Deputy Commissioner of Adult Institutions Al Parke and Director
of Operations James Erwin. The report said the handling of restrictions was
"haphazard and poorly planned." The report also revealed other
problems before, during and after the riot, including non-existent radio
communications among agencies, a lack of documentation, failed video cameras
and a considerable delay in the formal investigation. The report said there
was confusion over whether Kentucky State Police or Justice Cabinet
investigators should handle the post-riot investigation. Those details were
not released in a summary Nov. 20. Beshear defended
his administration Thursday, saying he was confident the riot was handled
correctly. "I have full confidence in the Secretary of the Justice
Cabinet J. Michael Brown and his staff and how they handled the Northpoint
riot and its subsequent investigation," Beshear
said. Kerri Richardson, a spokeswoman for Beshear,
said Beshear's office never saw the original
report, but had seen the report summary. Beshear's
staff asked for more explanation in the summary report but did not ask for
anything to be taken out, she said. Jennifer Brislin,
a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, said there was no attempt on the
part of the Justice Cabinet or the Department of Corrections to hide or
minimize some of the problems on the day of the riot. Department of
Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson left out some of those problems in
her Nov. 20 summary because she thought some of those details would
compromise security at the prison, Brislin said.
"During her review, she exempted information that she felt would be a
security risk to staff and inmates, and that included information regarding
how command decisions were made," Brislin
said. House Bill 33 — the bill that would cancel the Aramark contract — now
heads to the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. If the state cancels
the contract, it could add as much as $5.4 million a year to the state's cost
of feeding inmates, according to the Department of Corrections.
January 28, 2010 Herald-Leader
The warden at Northpoint Training Center did not want to implement the prison
yard restrictions that contributed to an August riot that heavily damaged
much of the facility, but he was overruled by Department of Corrections
officials, according to an investigative report released Wednesday. The
investigation also revealed numerous other problems at Northpoint that
occurred before, during and after the riot, including inmate anger about food
on the day of the riot and a crucial delay in the formal investigation of how
the fiery melee occurred. After reviewing the report, the House Judiciary
Committee voted 9-4 to approve a bill that would cancel the state's $12
million annual contract with Aramark Correctional Services to provide meals
at 13 prisons. The investigative report showed that anger over food
contributed to the Aug. 21 riot at the Mercer County prison. The report,
which was withheld from the public by state officials until Wednesday, puts
more emphasis on food as a contributing cause of the riot than the state
Corrections Department's "review" of the investigative report,
which was released Nov. 20. The review concluded that the main cause of the
riot was inmate anger about a lockdown and other restrictions imposed after a
fight at the prison. However, the latest report shows that virtually every
inmate and employee interviewed by investigators said that Aramark food and
its prices at the canteen were among the reasons for the riot. The report
lists those issues as the third and fourth factors, respectively, that
contributed to the riot. "Apparently, there had been complaints for
years about the quality of the food, the portion sizes and the continual
shortage and substitutions for scheduled menu items," the report states.
"Sanitation of the kitchen was also a source of complaints," says
the report. Inmates set fires that destroyed six buildings, including those
containing the kitchen, canteen, visitation center, medical services,
sanitation department and a multipurpose area. Several dorms were heavily
damaged, and eight guards and eight inmates were injured. 'Haphazard' action
-- According to the report, the riot began 15 minutes after details were
posted about new movement restrictions for prisoners in the yard. The
restrictions came after an Aug. 18 fight over canteen items that caused prison
officials to institute a lockdown. The investigation found that Northpoint
Warden Steve Haney wanted to return the prison yard to normal operations as
he typically did after a lockdown, but he was overruled by Al Parke, deputy
commissioner of adult institutions and James Erwin, director of operations.
"The implementation of the controlled movement policy at NTC was
haphazard and poorly planned at best," says the report. The report also
says the warden never got word that inmates had dumped food from their trays
on the floor at breakfast and at lunch on the day of the riot. Aramark
officials e-mailed details of the incident to a deputy warden at Northpoint,
but the information apparently was not passed along, the report said. During
the riot, "radio communications between all agencies involved was
virtually non-existent, causing chaos and a general feeling of disconnect
with the various agencies involved," according to the report. After the
riot, there was a "gross lack of coordination of submitting reports,"
evidence was compromised because most video cameras failed the evening of the
riot, and there was a considerable delay in the formal investigation, the
report said. Kentucky State Police immediately tried to begin an
investigation to see which inmates were involved in the riot but was advised
by the corrections department's operations director that the investigation
would be conducted internally. Several days later, the report said, two staff
members from the Justice Cabinet determined that state police should conduct
the investigation. "The criminal investigations should have started
immediately to preserve evidence, testimony and critical information,"
the report says. "After a few days, staff thoughts and observations
became diluted."
January 21, 2010 Lexington
Herald-Leader
The state agreed on Wednesday to turn over its original report on the
August riot at Northpoint Training Center after nearly two weeks of denying
requests for the document by lawmakers. The Department of Corrections
released an investigative report of the fiery melee on Nov. 20, but not
before it was edited to allegedly address security concerns. At the time,
officials did not disclose that they had altered the investigative report.
Legislators are hoping the original report will help them determine if food
provided by a private contractor was partly to blame for the Aug. 21 riot
that destroyed several buildings at the prison outside of Danville. Part of
that report can be redacted for security reasons, the two sides agreed at a meeting
of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. It should be ready by next
week, they agreed. The report released in November showed that the main cause
of the riot was inmate anger over a lockdown and other restrictions imposed
following a fight at the prison. Inmates set fires that destroyed six
buildings, including those containing the kitchen, canteen, visitation
center, medical services, sanitation department and a multipurpose area.
Several dorms were heavily damaged, and eight guards and eight inmates were
injured. Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, said
Wednesday that he had heard in early January that there was another version
of the report and asked the department for the original. Yonts
said he had been told that the original report gave more weight to the
concerns about food than the version that was released to the public. Yonts has filed a proposal -- House Bill 33 -- that would
cancel the state's $12 million-a-year contract with Aramark to provide meals
at 13 prisons. Aramark Correctional Services has had the state contract since
2005. It was renewed in 2009 and expires at the end of this year. Yonts has also asked State Auditor Crit
Luallen to do a performance audit of the Aramark
contract, but Terry Sebastian, a spokesman for Luallen,
said the auditor is still waiting for a formal request from the House
Judiciary Committee. Yonts said Wednesday that he
expects the committee to make that request. Democratic Rep. John Tilley,
chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he also had requested the
original investigative report from the Department of Corrections. Corrections
Commissioner LaDonna Thompson said the department didn't release the original
report because it contained sensitive details about security at Northpoint.
She also said the report that was released provided more details about the
incident than the original report. Some members of the committee said they
found the department's concerns about security unfounded. "I'm not in
the habit of disclosing that information (to prisoners)," said Rep.
Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow. Thompson said they were worried the information might
make its way into newspapers, which prisoners read. Thompson said she was not
aware that Tilley had also asked for the original information, but Tilley
said that wasn't true. Tilley said he verbally requested the information from
the Department of Corrections at a meeting last Friday. Thompson said she
must have misunderstood Tilley's request. Yonts
also complained that he has asked since this fall for grievances that inmates
have filed concerning the food that Aramark provided. That request has been
denied to protect the identity of the inmates, department officials said. At
the hearing on Wednesday, Thompson and representatives from Aramark
acknowledged that there have been complaints about food at the state's
prisons but said they were generally satisfied with the quality of food that
the company has provided. The contract has saved the state $5.4 million a
year, Thompson said. Yonts said there have been
widespread complaints about the food, including: food-borne illnesses at
Western Kentucky Correctional Facility, worms being found in food and food
being watered down. He said corrections officers are concerned that unrest
over food quality is jeopardizing their safety. Although there have been
three incidents of widespread illness at Western Kentucky Correctional
Facility since 2005, Thompson said there was no conclusive evidence that any
of the three incidents was caused by the food. Thompson confirmed there was
one grub worm found in soup at Green River Correctional Complex. It was found
before it was served to inmates, she said. "There have been other
institutions that have found bugs in their food," Thompson said. Part of
the problem, she said, was that produce grown at the prisons hasn't always
been properly cleaned. Officials are working to correct that problem, she
said. Inmate menu surveys have shown a decline in satisfaction with the food,
but the percentage of food being served to inmates has increased by 10 percent,
Thompson said. Tim Campbell, president of Aramark Correctional Services, told
the committee that the company does solid work. "We stand by the quality
of services that we provide the commonwealth," he said. Still, some
legislators said there is a disconnect between the testimony they heard from
officials on Wednesday and remarks made by corrections officers during a
committee meeting in November. Those corrections officers said the food was
barely edible and that they were concerned that discontent with the food was
making the prisons unsafe. Rep. Darryl Owens, D-Louisville, said he didn't
believe that those officers would lie to a legislative committee. The
committee did not vote on Yonts' bill on Wednesday.
October 22, 2009 AP
Surveys of Kentucky's prison inmates indicate they are less pleased with
the food they're served than they were a few years ago. The state outsourced
the work in 2005 to a private company, Philadelphia-based Aramark
Correctional Services. An Aramark spokeswoman says the inmates may have
"self-interested motivations" for criticizing the food. The level
of satisfaction was lower at Northpoint Training Center in Boyle County than
among prisoners statewide. Prisoners rioted and burned much of the Northpoint
complex on Aug. 21, and state Rep. Brent Yonts said
corrections officers, other lawmakers and inmates have all told him that
unrest "over food" figured into the riot. But Aramark officials
have said there's no evidence that anything but gang violence and anger over
prison yard restrictions played a role in the riot. They said their food was
not a factor. The Lexington Herald-Leader obtained the survey results under
the Open Records Act and reported Tuesday that early this year, state inmates
rated the food 3.24 on a scale of 1 to 10, down from 5.84 in 2003. At
Northpoint, the rating this year was 2.66, compared with 6.13 in 2003. Yonts, D-Greenville, has filed legislation that would
cancel Aramark's $12 million annual contract with the state. State officials
haven't said yet what led to the Northpoint incident. Eight guards and eight
inmates suffered minor injuries. Small portions, cleanliness and food
shortages were among the issues inmates often addressed in the survey.
"Get rid of Aramark, bring back the state," an inmate at Roederer Correctional Complex in La Grange wrote in the
anonymous 2009 survey. At the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex, an
inmate wrote, "I would like not to be hungry all the time."
Jennifer Brislin, a state Justice Cabinet
spokeswoman, said Tuesday that Aramark's food "meets all recommended
daily allowances and dietary requirements."
September 3, 2009 Courier-Journal
Justice Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown said Thursday that the state won't
renew its contract to house female inmates at a troubled private prison in
Eastern Kentucky unless the operator agrees to several new conditions. Brown
outlined the conditions in a letter to House Speaker Greg Stumbo,
D-Prestonsburg, who asked Gov. Steve Beshear last
week not to renew the state's contract with Corrections Corp. of America. The
state has about 420 inmates at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright. A former corrections officer at the prison was indicted Tuesday
on one count of first-degree rape — the sixth worker there in the last three
years to be accused of a sex-related crime involving an inmate but the first
to be charged with a felony. Kentucky State Police plan to present another
case to a Floyd County grand jury the next time it meets. The Department of
Corrections is wrapping up its own investigation into sex abuse allegations
at the prison and expects to release its findings next week. Brown said in
his letter that the state won't sign a two-year extension with the
Nashville-based CCA unless it agrees to the new conditions. “I share your
deep concern,” Brown wrote in his letter to Stumbo. “Let me be clear — such
conduct is inexcusable and will not be tolerated by the Department of
Corrections, the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet or the Beshear
administration.” Brown said any contract extension will require CCA to: *Hire
a female security chief at Otter Creek. *Provide female staff and officers
for direct supervision of inmates in any housing and medical units. *Maintain
a security staff that is at least 40 percent female. *Conduct a security
assessment of areas in the prison where assaults have been reported and
submit and implement a plan to increase the use of cameras and other measures
to enhance security. *Institute uniform reporting of all sexual contact to
the department. *Provide therapy for inmates who have had traumatic
experiences. Brown said the department also would work with CCA to strengthen
staff training, repair the facilities, improve recruitment and retention and
remove barriers to effective monitoring of the facility by the department. He
also said that it’s not feasible to send the Otter Creek inmates to local
jails or out-of-state facilities, and that the only state-run prison for
women, the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Shelby County, does
not have enough space to accommodate them. “The best course is to correct
these issues, mitigate their re-occurrence and move forward constructively,”
Brown said.
October 20, 2006 Herald-Tribune
The state's top auditor is calling for an overhaul of the state's contracting
laws that exempt more than $1 billion of government contracts from strict
oversight. The money spent at the Communities at Oakwood, the state's
troubled home for the mentally handicapped, shows the need for reform, the
report released yesterday concluded. State Auditor Crit
Luallen, in the third and final report on the
state's contracting laws, says the 1998 law regarding privatization of
government services is ineffective. Under the law, agencies have to provide a
cost-benefit analysis to show that a private vendor could deliver services
cheaper than the state, before the deal is signed. Larger contracts must be
annually reviewed, the law says. However, almost all contracts to private
vendors are exempt from the law because of various loopholes, the audit said.
The Department of Corrections pays Corrections Corp. of America about $18.2
million to operate three private prisons. Auditors found that the Department
of Corrections used an average cost of three public prisons to determine
whether the company could run the Marion Adjustment Center at 10 percent less
than the state. But the cost for only one state-run prison was used to do the
same calculations for the contract with Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville.
Auditors recommended a standardized methodology to determine the 10 percent
threshold. They are also recommending that a third party analyze those
numbers. "Some of the things that they have recommend make sense,"
said John Rees, corrections commissioner. He said he is not opposed to
creating a standardized methodology, as long as someone familiar with
corrections is developing those standards. Rees said corrections is realizing
a more than 10 percent savings on the three private prison contracts. In the
case of Otter Creek, the privately run women's prison, the savings is almost
15 percent, he said.
October 30, 2004 Courier-Journal
Kentucky has not fined the company that operates two prisons in the state for
repeated contract violations, including the use of inmate labor, according to
records obtained by The Courier-Journal. Lawmakers responsible for overseeing
state prisons, including those run by Corrections Corp. of America, or CCA,
said they were unaware of the violations and the lack of fines, conceding
that they have not thoroughly reviewed inspection reports. "In the past we
may not have scrutinized it as closely as we maybe ought to have," said
Rep. Jesse Crenshaw, D-Lexington, chairman of the House corrections budget
subcommittee. "But we're going to pay closer scrutiny as the state moves
toward more privatization." State
evaluations of the minimum-security Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary show
that since 1999, CCA has: Improperly used inmate labor to renovate
facilities. Searched inmates' belongings without their presence. Mishandled
inmate discipline and grievances. Also at Marion, the state found CCA
violated the same contract provisions in consecutive years. And the Lee
Adjustment Center in Beattyville, where inmates rioted last month, had
ongoing trouble calculating prisoner sentences. A prisoner released
in 2000 should have been transferred to an out-of-state agency, and a
prisoner was set free 18 days early in 2002, records show. Critics say the fact that Kentucky corrections
officials found problems at the private prisons but never sought financial
penalties is not a surprise. "Contracting for private prisons is a
political choice for states more than anything else. There's a lot of
rhetoric about saving money, but by and large it's a political choice,"
said Judy Greene, director of Justice Strategies, a New York-based nonprofit
criminal justice research group. "That same environment may result in
corrections managers that realize vigorous fines may upset the apple cart and
in turn will affect their own budgets."
Kentucky's contract with CCA allows it to levy $5,000 fines for each
violation. Under the contract, state prison officials would recommend a fine
to the Finance and Administration Cabinet, which would set the fine amount
after a state hearing officer reviews the matter. The department has
never penalized CCA for a violation "due to the limited nature of each
deficiency and the good-faith effort in implementing corrective action,"
according to the evaluations. But other states
have imposed penalties on private prison operators. In North Carolina, the
state withheld thousands of dollars from CCA for not establishing a jobs
program at two medium-security prisons. "They failed to provide the
services they promised in the contract," said Danny Thompson, director
of auxiliary services for the North Carolina Division of Prisons. After three
years, North Carolina and CCA dissolved the contract, Thompson said. In Texas, the
Department of Criminal Justice deducted $890,739 of the $184.2 million it
paid to private facility operators last year, department spokesman Mike Viesca said. In
2000, the Marion prison failed to process inmate grievances in accordance
with state policy — grievances not settled informally must be resolved within
10 days of a hearing. Despite the violation, the state found the same problem
in 2001 and 2003 but didn't issue fines. "This was not something that
happened on a recurring basis," Lamb said. Between 2000 and
2002, Marion also improperly used inmate labor at the prison, the records
show, including at least once after the state directly forbid it from doing
so.
February 25, 2004
Corrections Commissioner John Rees said private businesses could run food
services at state prisons as early as this year. The move could save
enough money at Kentucky's 12 adult institutions to raise the salaries of
guards, which ranks 49th in the country, Rees said. Rees, a former vice
president of Corrections Corporation of America, No bids for food services
would be sought unless it is concluded a private company can do the job as well,
but cheaper, Rees said. "It's going to cost $10 million to $11
million to bring them up to the average salary of other states," Rees
told the Lexington Herald-Leader in an interview. The proposal drew the
ire of prison workers and House Democrats. "What kind of employees
do you think you're going to get for close to minimum wage and no
benefits?" asked Esther Jones, a foodservice worker at the Eastern
Kentucky Correctional Complex in West Liberty. A corporation trying to
maximize its profit in prison kitchens might cut back on the nutrition and
caloric content of inmate meals, said Rep. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, a member of
the House budget subcommittee for the justice system. Kentucky pays
about $3.30 a day for each inmate's meals, including the cost of personnel
and supplies, Rees said. The department might not decide on privatization
until after July 1, which is when the next state budget begins, he
said.
Kentucky Legislature
Mar 27, 2018 kentucky.com
Kentucky budget negotiators say ‘no’ to private prisons, grumble about
broadband plan
Kentucky House and Senate budget negotiators decided Monday not to fund
private prisons and wrestled over a problem-filled program to bring high
speed-internet to the state that one legislator said reminded him of Tony
Soprano. In the second day of their negotiations to try to reach an agreement
on a two-year spending plan for the state, House and Senate conferees agreed
not to pursue private prisons as the state faces a shortage of inmate beds.
Justice Secretary John Tilley recently warned that the state’s prison system
probably would run of out space by May 2019 if changes aren’t made. Last
November, state officials signed a contract with Tennessee-based CoreCivic to house about 800 inmates at the Lee
Adjustment Center in Beattyville as the state’s prison population surged to
more than 24,600. The House earlier this month approved a budget that would
give the state permission to allocate money for two more private prisons, but
the Senate stripped the funding. Christian County Jailer Brad Boyd, president
of the Kentucky Jailers’ Association, told the budget conference Monday that
he opposed privatization and that housing inmates in county jails is cheaper
than housing them in private prison. The state pays about $58 a day to house
an inmate in a private prison, while the cost to house an inmate in a local
jail is $31.34. Local jails are overcrowded, but Boyd said at least six
counties have opened or plan to open new jails or expand existing ones in the
next few years to increase capacity by more than 1,700 beds. He also said the
state has 495 empty beds at various restrictive custody centers, which house
low-level inmates that often work in the community. A few hours after Boyd’s
presentation, the budget conference committee voted not to pursue additional
private prisons. No decision was made on what to do about state funding for KentuckyWired, a plan initiated in 2015 by former
Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and Republican U.S.
Rep. Hal Rogers of Somerset to build a publicly owned broadband network to
bring high-speed internet to Kentucky, especially to its poorest areas. It
was supposed to take a year to finish but only about 700 miles of the
3,000-mile network of fiber optic cables have been built, according to Gov.
Matt Bevin’s Cabinet Secretary, Scott Brinkman, and Phillip Brown, executive
director of the Kentucky Communications Network Authority. Brown said
construction has been hampered by delays ranging from weather to getting
permission to hang cables onto existing telephone poles. Several legislators
Monday raised questions about the program, which is seeking $66 million in
the budget plan to meet its contractual obligations and $110 million in
bonding authority to reimburse companies for their losses during the project
delays. State officials say ending the project might result in a loss of $500
million for the state. Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown,
asked if the state should be in the business of doing something the private
sector should be doing. He called it “a mess from the previous
administration” and said, “We could use the money to fill holes in a lot of
other areas.” Rep. Kevin Bratcher, R-Louisville, said the problems with KentuckyWired reminded him of the problems TV mobster
Tony Soprano encountered in the hit TV show, “The Sopranos.” Senate Minority
Leader Ray Jones, D-Pikeville, said the state cannot now afford not to finish
the project, which he called “a bipartisan effort.” Rep. John “Bam” Carney,
R-Campbellsville, said he, too, thinks the project should move forward.
Another weighty topic Monday for the budget conference committee was the
state employees’ health insurance plan, but no decision was made on it. The
House proposed taking $481 million from the plan while the Senate proposed
taking $310 million. Lawmakers hope to come up with an agreement on the state
spending plan in time so as not to lose their ability to override any vetoes
from the governor. They are to continue their budget negotiations Tuesday
upon adjournment of the House and Senate.
Mar 24, 2018 usnews.com
Kentucky Lawmakers Rethinking Future of Private Prisons
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Lawmakers in Kentucky are
rethinking the state's recent return to private prisons at a time when
Republican Gov. Matt Bevin's administration warns the state is about a year
away from running out of space to hold inmates. Kentucky closed its last
private prison in 2013 after years of problems, including allegations of
sexual abuse and a prison riot in 2004. The decision was made easier by criminal
justice reforms that caused the state's prison population to dip below
20,000. But in November, with a prison population topping more than 24,600,
state officials reluctantly signed a contract with Tennessee-based CoreCivic to house about 800 inmates at the Lee
Adjustment Center in Beattyville, Kentucky. Justice Secretary John Tilley
called it a short-term solution. A better fix, he said, would be to update
the state's criminal code to lock up fewer people convicted of nonviolent
crimes. He warned the state's prison system would likely run out of space by
May of next year without changes. Acting House Speaker David Osborne told
reporters this week there is "no possibility" lawmakers would
change the state's criminal code. Instead, the House approved a budget that
would give the state permission to open up to two other private prisons, if
needed. But the state Senate removed that permission. Instead, they'd like to
see more inmates housed at county jails because it's cheaper. The state pays
just under $58 per day to house an inmate in a private prison, but just
$31.34 per day to hold an inmate in a local jail. Local jails are
overcrowded, too, at a combined 119 percent of capacity. But at least six
counties have opened or plan to open new jails or expansions of existing
jails in the next few years. Last April, state officials said they expected
the additions to increase capacity by more than 1,700 beds. "Utilizing
private prisons dramatically increases the cost," said Republican Sen.
Chris McDaniel, chairman of the Senate's budget committee. "We need to
utilize all the slots available to us first." It was one of multiple
issues state lawmakers were discussing Friday as negotiations began between
House and Senate leaders over how to spend more than $70 billion of state and
federal tax dollars over the next two years. Lawmakers hope to come up with
an agreement on the state spending plan by early next week. If they don't,
they could lose their ability to override any vetoes from the governor. Brad
Boyd, president of the Kentucky Jailers' Association, said space at county
jails is tight but the state had several options to alleviate that problem.
He noted the state has 495 empty beds at various restrictive custody centers,
which house low-level inmates that often work in the community. Boyd said
jails can only house inmates classified as low-risk. The state has about
2,900 inmates that have not been classified yet and are ineligible for the
restrictive custody centers. "(The Senate) may be correct that there are
enough beds," acting House Speaker David Osborne told reporters earlier
this week. "If they've got information that shows that the correction
system can in fact handle that, then I think it's something that we would
look at." Boyd says one solution to the overcrowding problem is to
increase how much the state pays local jails to house inmates as an incentive
for them to build more capacity. The Kentucky Jailers' Association asked for
a $1 increase per inmate this year, which would be about $4 million. "I'm
just simply not for privatization. Incarcerating individuals is not something
you should be privatizing, period," Boyd said.
Apr
27, 2016 wfpl.org
Bevin Vetoes 7 More Bills, Including Parts Of State Budget
Gov. Matt Bevin has issued seven more vetoes, delaying a free community
college scholarship program, cutting out parts of the state budget and
killing a new driver’s license bill. Bevin has now vetoed all or part of 14
bills in the wake of his first legislative session as governor. “Today’s
action will create economic opportunity and provide benefits to generations
for years to come,” Bevin said in a statement. In line-item vetoes of the
state budget, Bevin eliminated funding for the first year of the “Work Ready”
free community college tuition program. He also eliminated a bill that
contained operating language for the program and other education initiatives,
saying they were “hastily written.” “Developing and implementing a properly
functioning Work Ready Scholarship program will take a great deal of time and
effort,” Bevin said. Work Ready was a major ambition of Democrats, who fought
to include it in the final compromise budget. Republicans fought for
performance funding, which was included in the separate operating bill. Since
language for the initiatives is still included in the state budget bill,
Bevin said the programs would be able to continue. House Speaker Greg Stumbo,
a Democrat from Prestonsburg, was upset by the decision, saying it would
“impact every high school student across Kentucky.” “Students would have been
able to attend college beginning this fall, tuition-free, and be ready to
work upon graduation,” Stumbo said in a statement. “No forward-thinking
governor would’ve acted in this way. It is a sad and unfortunate day for all
of Kentucky.” Bevin also vetoed a provision that would have expanded
eligibility requirements for children attending pre-school programs to up to
200 percent of the federal poverty line. “Mandated expansion of eligibility,
however desirable, is not prudent in tight fiscal times,” he said. Bevin vetoed parts of a bill that would
have replenished lottery money used for the Work Ready program and a
dual-credit program, saying lottery funds were appropriately used. He also
eliminated budget language that would have allowed the state to reopen three
private prisons in case of overcrowding, saying that the state “shouldn’t
limit its options in dealing with any potential state prison population
challenges.” Another line-item veto in the budget eliminated a $400,000 appropriation
to ARC of Kentucky, which advocates for disabled people. “While their work
should be applauded, nonprofits are strongest when they are not dependent on
tax dollars for operations,” Bevin said. “We encourage ARC of Kentucky to
continue to move forward with their passionate advocacy and focus their
fundraising efforts on private sector and foundation support.” Bevin also
vetoed bills that would have extended unemployment benefits to workers who
leave a job to follow a spouse in the military, as well as the “Real ID”
bill, which would have brought Kentucky’s driver’s licenses into compliance
with federal law. Bevin previously supported the Real ID bill but said
“tremendous opposition and misunderstanding” of it calls for more discussion.
“We also owe the voters of Kentucky the ability to see what effect, if any,
the next presidential administration will have on the issue,” Bevin wrote.
Bevin made several line-item vetoes to the Transportation Cabinet budget and
eliminated some reporting requirements in the six-year road plan that he
called “over-burdensome and redundant.” Although lawmakers normally have an
opportunity to override any vetoes the governor makes with majority votes in
both chambers, they ran out of time in the legislative session this year.
Apr
27, 2016 wfpl.org
County Officials, Jailers Ask Bevin To Veto Private Prisons Provision
County officials have asked Gov. Matt Bevin to veto language in the state
budget bill that would allow three private prisons to reopen in Kentucky. The
budget language would allow the state to recommission private prison
contracts in Floyd, Marion and Lee counties if those counties’ jails become
overpopulated. The state already pays county jails to incarcerate some
inmates who would otherwise go to state penitentiaries. Renee Craddock,
executive director of the Kentucky Jailers Association, said the private
prison policy would shift that money away from counties. "They are
pulling revenue from counties at a time when counties don’t have a lot of
revenue to spare,” she said. Representatives from the Kentucky Jailers
Association, the Kentucky Association of Counties, the Kentucky
Judge/Executives Association and the Kentucky Association of Magistrates and
Commissioners sent a joint letter to Bevin recently asking him to use his
line-item veto power to excise the provision from the final budget bill. The
group estimates that it currently costs the state about $35 per day to house
inmates in county jails versus $55 per day in private institutions. The three
prisons proposed to reopen are owned by Corrections Corporation of America,
with which the state phased out contracts between 2010 and 2013 amid
allegations of mismanagement at the institutions. Otter Creek Correctional
Center, located in Wheelwright (in Floyd County) and owned by CCA, closed
after widespread reports of sexual abuse forced the state to transfer female
inmates out of the institution. In the letter, the associations say private
prisons have already been given a chance to operate in Kentucky “and they failed
to operate safely and in a fiscally sound manner.” Craddock said the current
budget language “ties the state’s hands” from bidding out a private prison
contract to other companies. “It is a contract to one company, and it doesn’t
allow them to competitively bid the contract,” she said. The private prison
language was added in the state House of Representatives’ proposed version of
the budget. In an email Tuesday, House Speaker Greg Stumbo defended the
provision. “We added this language in the House to give the state another
option to avoid overcrowding issues that could lead to court action,” he
said. Stumbo also argued for protecting a plan in the budget that would
parole infirm or aging state inmates and put them into long-term care
facilities. “I believe this language should remain as-is in the budget,
because it is important that our corrections system have this added
flexibility,” he said. Kentucky typically houses Class C and Class D felons
in county jails around the state. According to the state’s most recent weekly
jail population report, 62 of the state’s 128 county jails are overcrowded,
ranging from with 237 beds needed at the Jefferson County Detention Center to
145 beds in Laurel County and 135 beds in Pulaski County. Kentucky has 120
counties, and more than 40 of them do not have jails despite having elected
jailers, according to a report by WFPL’s Kentucky Center for Investigative
Reporting. The 128 reported by the state also include ancillary facilities,
and some counties report more than one facility. State inmates account for
only a portion of those occupying county jails. Also included are those in
“controlled intake” — offenders en route to prison
or to local programs — and those convicted of misdemeanors. Louisville Metro
Corrections Director Mark Bolton said he supports increasing the state’s
prison capacity, even if it means turning to the private prison industry.
Earlier this week, Bolton announced the Louisville jail was overcrowded, and
that he had been forced to house inmates in an aging facility that does not
meet fire suppression standards. “Those beds are full, there’s just nowhere
to send them, that’s what’s creating this bottleneck,” Bolton said. “It’s all
about there’s not enough capacity in the state to handle the load. However
the state can assist in adding capacity, that’s what I’m supporting.” The
deadline for Bevin to veto part or all of the state budget is Wednesday.
October 18, 2011 Evansville Courier
& Press
Henderson Fiscal Court heard the opening salvo Tuesday of a campaign jailers
plan to use to sway the General Assembly next year. "You are our maiden
voyage," said Mike Simpson, president of Kentucky Jailers Association.
"We're going to hopefully take this across the state." In a
nutshell, Kentucky jailers maintain that House Bill 463 -- a recently enacted
major overhaul of the criminal justice system -- is going to have a negative
impact on the jails across the state. The way around that problem, they say,
is allowing the state's current contracts to expire next year with
Corrections Corporation of America, which has prisons in Marion and Floyd
counties. The inmates in the Marion Adjustment Center and the Otter Creek
Correctional Center would then be transferred to county jails. It's a simple
matter of economics, according to Patrick Crowley, a public relations
consultant from northern Kentucky who has been hired to head the blitz.
County jails are paid $31.34 per day to house state inmates. The Marion
Adjustment Center charges the state $37.99 a day for minimum security
inmates, and $47.98 per day for medium security inmates. Otter Creek,
meanwhile, charges the state $53.77 per day to house inmates. "It's a
disgrace for the private prisons to be getting the per diem they're
getting," said Henderson County Jailer Ron Herrington. Based on the
capacity of the two private prisons, Crowley said, the state would save more
than $8 million a year by housing the inmates in county jails -- and boost
the bottom line of county governments while doing it. "Both the state
and the counties could save money by eliminating the private prisons
contracts," Crowley said. "There are some good things" in HB
463, Simpson said, but "this is our window of opportunity to go through
this thing." "It's about 150 pages and all but about five or 10 were
just fine," said County Attorney Steve Gold. Magistrate Charles
Alexander at one point asked how the state can avoid destroying jobs by what
the jailers propose. "They have prisons all over the United
States," Simpson replied. "They're not just in Kentucky." If
the firm loses Kentucky inmates, he said, it will fill its prisons with
inmates from other states. "They have brought prisoners in from Hawaii.
There is no shortage of inmates in this country."
June 3, 2011 Herald-Leader
An inmate at Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex at West Liberty found a
dead mouse in his soup May 1, leading to an investigation by corrections
officials, according to state prison incident reports. State Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, characterized the incident as the
latest problem with Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services, which
has a $12 million contract with the state to provide prison food. "It
indicates what I call malpractice of their job," Yonts
said. But Aramark spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis said the company provides good
service to the state. "We have strong quality-assurance processes that
ensure the high quality and safety of the meals we serve, and this has been
consistently verified by the high scores we receive on independent county and
industry health inspections," Jarvis said in a statement. Those
inspection scores average close to 100 percent, she said. The incident
occurred about 11 a.m. May 1, according to prison reports. In a written
grievance, inmate Christopher Branum said that
after eating some of his soup, he saw "what appeared to be a mouse
leg." "I touched it with my spork (a combination spoon and fork),
and it was a cooked mouse," Branum said in the
grievance. Corrections officer Ronald Cantrell wrote in a report that Branum called for him and showed him the mouse 30 to 45
seconds after Cantrell served Branum lunch in his
cell. "The mouse was saturated as though it had been in the soup for
some time or cooked in it. The soup was still lukewarm," Corrections
Capt. Paul Fugate wrote in a report. Branum, who is
serving a 10-year sentence for first-degree robbery, received the prison
incident documents through an open records request, said Wade McNabb, a
paralegal for Spedding Law Office in Lexington. Branum gave McNabb permission to share the documents with
the Herald-Leader. The prison report on the incident included a photograph of
the mouse. All of the soup made that day was thrown out, and the inmates were
served other food, according to the incident report compiled by Fugate.
Aramark food service director Jody Sammons, in a May 12 memo, said Sammons
had conducted an investigation, and "it appears the mouse was isolated
to the bowl of soup in which it was found." "It was not likely that
a mouse was cooked in that batch of soup," Sammons' memo said. Some
inmates were immediately concerned that they would be sick after eating the
soup, and they were seen by medical personnel, an incident report said.
Prison medical officials also contacted a Department of Corrections physician
within an hour. The physician said "the mouse would not make them sick
this soon," according to the incident report. Jennifer Brislin, a spokeswoman for the Justice & Public
Safety Cabinet said the staff addressed the problem immediately. "The
product was pulled and discarded, and an alternative served. Medical services
were made available to all inmates. After those initial actions, Warden
(Gary) Beckstrom took steps to increase pest
control and monitor sanitation to ensure there is no reoccurrence of this
event," Brislin said. Yonts
said he would be contacting corrections officials Friday to see what action
they have taken. In January, Yonts asked Attorney
General Jack Conway to investigate possible Aramark violations of its
contract. Yonts, D-Greenville, said Aramark
violated the contract last year by refusing to provide cost-related records
to state auditors conducting an investigation of Aramark's contract to
provide food service to inmates at Kentucky's 13 prisons. In a Feb. 10 letter
to Yonts, obtained by the Herald-Leader through the
state's Open Records Law, Conway said that the Finance and Administration
Cabinet found that Aramark was not in breach of the contract and that Conway
saw no need for a separate investigation. But Conway and state Auditor Crit Luallen want a state
regulation changed to clarify that state officials — not the contractor —
should determine which records are pertinent, Allison Martin, a spokeswoman
for Conway, said Thursday.
January 10, 2011 Lexington
Herald-Leader
A state lawmaker wants Attorney General Jack Conway to investigate possible
violations of Aramark Correctional Services' $12 million food service
contract with the Kentucky Corrections Department. Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, said Aramark broke the terms of the
deal last year by refusing to provide cost-related records to state auditors
who were conducting their own investigation of food served to inmates at
Kentucky's 13 prisons. In a Jan. 4 letter to Conway, Yonts
also listed other "examples of contract breach" identified in state
Auditor Crit Luallen's
final report, including Aramark overbilling the state and serving old food to
inmates that was not stored properly. "I believe it is obvious that the
contract has not been complied with and that Aramark is in substantial breach
of it," Yonts wrote. Conway spokeswoman
Allison Martin on Friday said the attorney general's office is reviewing Yonts' request. Aramark spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis defended
her company in a brief prepared statement but did not respond to Yonts' individual allegations. "We provide excellent
service that has saved the commonwealth more than $30 million to date,"
Jarvis said.
April 15, 2010 AP
Gov. Steve Beshear signed legislation Thursday
allowing prison guards to be charged with felony rape for having sex with
inmates The action came four months after Beshear
ordered 400 women removed from the privately run Otter Creek Correctional
Complex in Floyd County, where allegations of sexual misconduct were
widespread. “The inherent power disparity between correctional officers and
inmates precludes there from ever being a consensual sexual relationship
between the two,” Beshear said in signing Senate
Bill 17. “This legislation offers greater protection for inmates in our
custody, and helps eliminate circumstances that can create security risks in
our prisons.”
March 21, 2010 AP
Prison guards could face charges of felony rape for having consensual sex
with inmates under legislation that received final approval Monday, some
three months after Kentucky ordered 400 women removed from a lockup where
allegations of sexual misconduct had become widespread. Gov. Steve Beshear said he intends to quickly sign the measure into
law. "This legislation offers greater protections for inmates in our
custody, and helps eliminate activities that can create security risks in our
prisons," Beshear said. "Additionally,
this measure, which has been a priority for my administration since I took
office, further bolsters our commitment to ensure the safety of female
inmates." Earlier this year, Beshear ordered
all the female inmates removed from the corporate-run Otter Creek
Correctional Complex in eastern Kentucky after allegations of sexual
misconduct were made against the predominantly male corps of corrections
officers. State Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, said the Kentucky Department
of Corrections sought unsuccessfully to get the legislation passed last year.
With the Otter Creek controversy fresh on lawmakers' minds, the measure
passed both the Senate and House unanimously. Denton said Otter Creek "underscored
the problem and showed that we really do need some additional weapons in the
arsenal to deter this." When the law takes effect later this year,
prison guards, jailers and other staffers who oversee inmates could be
charged with felony rape and sodomy for having consensual sex with prisoners.
Under current law, corrections officers face only misdemeanor charges for
consensual sex with inmates. Beshear ordered the
women moved from Otter Creek, which is operated by Nashville-based
Corrections Corporation of America, to the state-run Western Kentucky
Correctional Complex. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin said the inmate transfer is expected to be
complete by September. The transfer came four months after the Department of
Corrections called for security improvements at Otter Creek in a report that
detailed 18 alleged cases of sexual misconduct by prison guards there. The
report called for Corrections Corporation of America to take action to
protect women inmates at Otter Creek by making basic changes, like assigning
female guards to supervise sleeping quarters, hiring a female security chief,
and shuffling staffing so that at least 40 percent of the work force is
female. Beshear said finding enough women willing
to work as corrections officers at Otter Creek had been difficult. Perched on
a mountainside above Wheelwright, the Otter Creek prison came under public
scrutiny when female inmates from Hawaii complained that they had been
subjected to sexual assaults by their male guards. Corrections officials in
Hawaii removed 165 inmates from Otter Creek last year, citing safety
concerns. Corrections Corporation of America spokesman Steve Owen previously
said that his company had taken steps to prevent sexual assaults in the
prison. Those steps, he said, included installing video cameras to deter
sexual misconduct and to help investigators determine the validity of future
allegations. Owen had said "the rogue actions of a few bad apples"
led to an unfair characterizations of Otter Creek prison guards.
February 1, 2010 KY Post
Legislation has passed a House committee that would eliminate privatized food
service for inmates at Kentucky’s prisons. The House Judiciary Committee
approved House Bill 33, sponsored by Rep. Brent Yonts,
D-Greenville, which would require inmate food service at the state’s prisons
be turned over to the Department of Corrections at a cost of an additional
$5.4 million per year. The state currently pays around $12 million a year for
prison food service through Aramark. HB 33 now goes to the full House for
consideration. A recent Corrections report indicates that the quality and
quantity of Aramark’s food service—provided to the state at a cost of $2.63
per inmate per day—was an underlying factor in last fall’s riot at Northpoint
Training Center, a state prison in Burgin. State prisons officials at last
week’s meeting said restricted inmate movement at Northpoint was the main
trigger of the riot.
January 29, 2010 Herald-Leader
State Auditor Crit Luallen
said Thursday she would do an audit of the private company that has a nearly
$12 million annual contract to serve food at the state's 13 prisons. The
announcement came a day after a House committee voted to cancel a contract
with Aramark Correctional Services, which served food at Northpoint Training
Center at the time of a costly riot there. Also Wednesday, the state released
its full investigative report on the Aug. 21 riot, which went into more
detail about problems with food at the Mercer County prison. House Speaker
Greg Stumbo and Rep. John Tilley, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee,
said Thursday that they thought Luallen should look
into Aramark's performance under the contract. "I do think it's
appropriate to ask the state auditor in some fashion to audit the
situation," Tilley said Thursday. Said Luallen:
"While there has not been a formal request yet, there have been enough
questions raised by legislators that we will begin to make plans to do an
audit of the contract." Members of the House Judiciary Committee on
Wednesday voted 6-4 to cancel Aramark's contract because of concerns about
the food. Many on the committee questioned whether Aramark was skimping on
ingredients to serve more people cheaply. "Aramark stands behind the
quality of service we provide, which has won the accolades of our clients and
the national accreditation agencies who monitor the quality of food
service," an Aramark spokeswoman said Wednesday. An audit conducted of
Aramark's performance for the Florida prison system in 2007 showed the number
of inmates eating meals declined after Aramark took over the food service.
But the company was paid based on the number of inmates, not on the number of
meals served. Aramark also substituted less costly products such as ground turkey
for beef, the audit said. The audit recommended that Florida rebid the food
service or take it over. But Aramark terminated the contract near the end of
2008, according to published reports. Gov. Steve Beshear
praised prison officials' handling of the riot. He said he was
"confounded" with the legislature's "continued fixation with
the menus for convicted criminals when we're desperately trying to avoid
cutting teachers and state troopers. ... We have more than 10 percent
unemployment and Kentucky families are struggling to put food on the table,
and I am loath to consider millions more dollars for criminals who wish they
could go to Wendy's instead." But Tilley and Stumbo — both Democrats —
defended the House's investigation into the riot, which damaged six buildings
and caused a fiery melee. "The truth is, we had a riot on our hands that
is probably going to cost the taxpayers $10 million," Stumbo said,
referring to money Beshear has requested to rebuild
the prison outside of Danville. "And we need to find out why the hell we
had it." Meanwhile, there are still questions about why key parts of the
original report on the riot were not immediately released in November. It was
only after the House Judiciary Committee repeatedly asked to see the report
that the Department of Corrections agreed to release a redacted version of
the full report at Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee meeting. The report
released Wednesday showed that Northpoint Warden Steve Haney did not want to
implement restrictions that were a primary cause of the riot, but he was
overruled by Deputy Commissioner of Adult Institutions Al Parke and Director
of Operations James Erwin. The report said the handling of restrictions was
"haphazard and poorly planned." The report also revealed other
problems before, during and after the riot, including non-existent radio
communications among agencies, a lack of documentation, failed video cameras
and a considerable delay in the formal investigation. The report said there
was confusion over whether Kentucky State Police or Justice Cabinet
investigators should handle the post-riot investigation. Those details were
not released in a summary Nov. 20. Beshear defended
his administration Thursday, saying he was confident the riot was handled
correctly. "I have full confidence in the Secretary of the Justice
Cabinet J. Michael Brown and his staff and how they handled the Northpoint
riot and its subsequent investigation," Beshear
said. Kerri Richardson, a spokeswoman for Beshear,
said Beshear's office never saw the original
report, but had seen the report summary. Beshear's
staff asked for more explanation in the summary report but did not ask for
anything to be taken out, she said. Jennifer Brislin,
a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, said there was no attempt on the
part of the Justice Cabinet or the Department of Corrections to hide or
minimize some of the problems on the day of the riot. Department of
Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson left out some of those problems in
her Nov. 20 summary because she thought some of those details would
compromise security at the prison, Brislin said.
"During her review, she exempted information that she felt would be a
security risk to staff and inmates, and that included information regarding
how command decisions were made," Brislin
said. House Bill 33 — the bill that would cancel the Aramark contract — now
heads to the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. If the state cancels
the contract, it could add as much as $5.4 million a year to the state's cost
of feeding inmates, according to the Department of Corrections.
January 28, 2010 Herald-Leader
The warden at Northpoint Training Center did not want to implement the prison
yard restrictions that contributed to an August riot that heavily damaged
much of the facility, but he was overruled by Department of Corrections
officials, according to an investigative report released Wednesday. The
investigation also revealed numerous other problems at Northpoint that
occurred before, during and after the riot, including inmate anger about food
on the day of the riot and a crucial delay in the formal investigation of how
the fiery melee occurred. After reviewing the report, the House Judiciary
Committee voted 9-4 to approve a bill that would cancel the state's $12 million
annual contract with Aramark Correctional Services to provide meals at 13
prisons. The investigative report showed that anger over food contributed to
the Aug. 21 riot at the Mercer County prison. The report, which was withheld
from the public by state officials until Wednesday, puts more emphasis on
food as a contributing cause of the riot than the state Corrections
Department's "review" of the investigative report, which was
released Nov. 20. The review concluded that the main cause of the riot was
inmate anger about a lockdown and other restrictions imposed after a fight at
the prison. However, the latest report shows that virtually every inmate and
employee interviewed by investigators said that Aramark food and its prices
at the canteen were among the reasons for the riot. The report lists those
issues as the third and fourth factors, respectively, that contributed to the
riot. "Apparently, there had been complaints for years about the quality
of the food, the portion sizes and the continual shortage and substitutions
for scheduled menu items," the report states. "Sanitation of the
kitchen was also a source of complaints," says the report. Inmates set
fires that destroyed six buildings, including those containing the kitchen,
canteen, visitation center, medical services, sanitation department and a
multipurpose area. Several dorms were heavily damaged, and eight guards and
eight inmates were injured. 'Haphazard' action -- According to the report,
the riot began 15 minutes after details were posted about new movement
restrictions for prisoners in the yard. The restrictions came after an Aug.
18 fight over canteen items that caused prison officials to institute a
lockdown. The investigation found that Northpoint Warden Steve Haney wanted
to return the prison yard to normal operations as he typically did after a
lockdown, but he was overruled by Al Parke, deputy commissioner of adult
institutions and James Erwin, director of operations. "The
implementation of the controlled movement policy at NTC was haphazard and
poorly planned at best," says the report. The report also says the
warden never got word that inmates had dumped food from their trays on the
floor at breakfast and at lunch on the day of the riot. Aramark officials
e-mailed details of the incident to a deputy warden at Northpoint, but the
information apparently was not passed along, the report said. During the
riot, "radio communications between all agencies involved was virtually
non-existent, causing chaos and a general feeling of disconnect with the
various agencies involved," according to the report. After the riot,
there was a "gross lack of coordination of submitting reports,"
evidence was compromised because most video cameras failed the evening of the
riot, and there was a considerable delay in the formal investigation, the
report said. Kentucky State Police immediately tried to begin an
investigation to see which inmates were involved in the riot but was advised
by the corrections department's operations director that the investigation would
be conducted internally. Several days later, the report said, two staff
members from the Justice Cabinet determined that state police should conduct
the investigation. "The criminal investigations should have started
immediately to preserve evidence, testimony and critical information,"
the report says. "After a few days, staff thoughts and observations
became diluted."
January 21, 2010 Lexington
Herald-Leader
The state agreed on Wednesday to turn over its original report on the
August riot at Northpoint Training Center after nearly two weeks of denying
requests for the document by lawmakers. The Department of Corrections
released an investigative report of the fiery melee on Nov. 20, but not
before it was edited to allegedly address security concerns. At the time,
officials did not disclose that they had altered the investigative report.
Legislators are hoping the original report will help them determine if food
provided by a private contractor was partly to blame for the Aug. 21 riot
that destroyed several buildings at the prison outside of Danville. Part of
that report can be redacted for security reasons, the two sides agreed at a
meeting of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. It should be ready by
next week, they agreed. The report released in November showed that the main
cause of the riot was inmate anger over a lockdown and other restrictions
imposed following a fight at the prison. Inmates set fires that destroyed six
buildings, including those containing the kitchen, canteen, visitation center,
medical services, sanitation department and a multipurpose area. Several
dorms were heavily damaged, and eight guards and eight inmates were injured.
Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, said Wednesday that
he had heard in early January that there was another version of the report
and asked the department for the original. Yonts
said he had been told that the original report gave more weight to the
concerns about food than the version that was released to the public. Yonts has filed a proposal -- House Bill 33 -- that would
cancel the state's $12 million-a-year contract with Aramark to provide meals
at 13 prisons. Aramark Correctional Services has had the state contract since
2005. It was renewed in 2009 and expires at the end of this year. Yonts has also asked State Auditor Crit
Luallen to do a performance audit of the Aramark
contract, but Terry Sebastian, a spokesman for Luallen,
said the auditor is still waiting for a formal request from the House
Judiciary Committee. Yonts said Wednesday that he
expects the committee to make that request. Democratic Rep. John Tilley,
chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he also had requested the
original investigative report from the Department of Corrections. Corrections
Commissioner LaDonna Thompson said the department didn't release the original
report because it contained sensitive details about security at Northpoint.
She also said the report that was released provided more details about the
incident than the original report. Some members of the committee said they
found the department's concerns about security unfounded. "I'm not in
the habit of disclosing that information (to prisoners)," said Rep.
Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow. Thompson said they were worried the information might
make its way into newspapers, which prisoners read. Thompson said she was not
aware that Tilley had also asked for the original information, but Tilley
said that wasn't true. Tilley said he verbally requested the information from
the Department of Corrections at a meeting last Friday. Thompson said she
must have misunderstood Tilley's request. Yonts
also complained that he has asked since this fall for grievances that inmates
have filed concerning the food that Aramark provided. That request has been
denied to protect the identity of the inmates, department officials said. At
the hearing on Wednesday, Thompson and representatives from Aramark
acknowledged that there have been complaints about food at the state's
prisons but said they were generally satisfied with the quality of food that
the company has provided. The contract has saved the state $5.4 million a
year, Thompson said. Yonts said there have been
widespread complaints about the food, including: food-borne illnesses at
Western Kentucky Correctional Facility, worms being found in food and food
being watered down. He said corrections officers are concerned that unrest
over food quality is jeopardizing their safety. Although there have been
three incidents of widespread illness at Western Kentucky Correctional
Facility since 2005, Thompson said there was no conclusive evidence that any
of the three incidents was caused by the food. Thompson confirmed there was
one grub worm found in soup at Green River Correctional Complex. It was found
before it was served to inmates, she said. "There have been other
institutions that have found bugs in their food," Thompson said. Part of
the problem, she said, was that produce grown at the prisons hasn't always
been properly cleaned. Officials are working to correct that problem, she
said. Inmate menu surveys have shown a decline in satisfaction with the food,
but the percentage of food being served to inmates has increased by 10
percent, Thompson said. Tim Campbell, president of Aramark Correctional
Services, told the committee that the company does solid work. "We stand
by the quality of services that we provide the commonwealth," he said.
Still, some legislators said there is a disconnect between the testimony they
heard from officials on Wednesday and remarks made by corrections officers
during a committee meeting in November. Those corrections officers said the
food was barely edible and that they were concerned that discontent with the
food was making the prisons unsafe. Rep. Darryl Owens, D-Louisville, said he
didn't believe that those officers would lie to a legislative committee. The
committee did not vote on Yonts' bill on Wednesday.
November 7, 2009 Herald-Leader
A corrections officer at Northpoint Training Center told lawmakers Friday
that an August riot at the prison near Danville was caused by inmate anger
over bad food and was planned. "It's over the food," corrections
officer Matt Hughes told the Interim Judiciary Committee. "The food was
slop." State corrections officials did not speak at Friday's meeting but
have said that as early as next week they will issue a report based on a
Kentucky State Police investigation. State Rep. Kelly Flood, D-Lexington,
said that corrections officers at Northpoint said they doubt officials will
admit it in the official report but that "it was about the food."
State Rep. Brent Yonts — who has filed a bill that
would cancel the $12 million annual contract of Philadelphia-based Aramark
Correctional Services, food provider for Kentucky prisons — said the General
Assembly should launch its own investigation. He wants lawmakers to go to
Northpoint to interview inmates. Yonts,
D-Greenville, said the problems exist at state prisons all over Kentucky. He
told the committee of lawmakers that a corrections officer at Green River
Correctional Complex in Central City told him about "a very large body
of worms that boiled to the top of a pot of soup" that had to be removed
from a serving line. Yonts said human feces was
found in a burrito at the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville and just
this week he received information that an Aramark supervisor allowed inmates
at Blackburn Correctional Complex in Lexington to eat brownies containing human
feces. Citing numbers showing the state might not be getting its money's
worth in the contract from Aramark because fewer inmates were eating in
prison cafeterias, Yonts said that the state needed
to take back food service operations. "It's not working," Yonts said. Aramark spokeswoman Kristine Grow said Friday
that the company "had received no official complaints regarding our food
before the riot occurred" and had no "absolute proof" of the
allegations that Yonts made. "We stand by the
quality of our service and our food, and we look forward to the state's
official report," Grow said. Aramark officials have previously said that
there's no evidence that anything but gang violence and anger over yard
restrictions caused the riot. Hughes, however, told lawmakers that the
explanation about yard restrictions was "bogus." He said that
inmates were betting over high-priced packaged food from the Northpoint
canteen because they couldn't eat the cafeteria food. Hughes also said the
gambling was leading to fights and security problems for corrections
officers. In the riot at Northpoint on Aug. 21, inmates burned and damaged
buildings, several of which were a total loss. Eight guards and eight inmates
suffered minor injuries. Hughes was one of three corrections officers from
various prisons who appeared at Friday's meeting. All said they were members
of the union American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Union officials also attended. Yonts acknowledged
he is supportive of unions and of labor, but he said "that has nothing
to do with the validity of this bill." If the bill is passed by the
Kentucky General Assembly in 2010, food service to inmates at state prisons
could be provided only by state employees, inmates or volunteers. That was
the case until January 2005, when the state contracted with Aramark. The
contract was renewed in January 2009 and expires in 2011. State corrections
officials have said that with the savings from the Aramark contract, they
were able to give corrections officers a nearly 7 percent raise in 2005.
Jennifer Brislin, a spokeswoman for the state
Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, said that in October 2005, corrections
officers' hours were increased from 37.5 to 40 hours a week, resulting in a
6.67 percent increase. Meanwhile, lawmakers who heard the testimony said they
wanted a special meeting with Department of Corrections officials and
representatives of Aramark to find out the truth. "It's only one
side," state Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, said of the allegations raised
Friday. He said that lawmakers could have a "direct impact" on
fixing the situation if the complaints were valid.
October 22, 2009 AP
Surveys of Kentucky's prison inmates indicate they are less pleased with
the food they're served than they were a few years ago. The state outsourced
the work in 2005 to a private company, Philadelphia-based Aramark
Correctional Services. An Aramark spokeswoman says the inmates may have
"self-interested motivations" for criticizing the food. The level
of satisfaction was lower at Northpoint Training Center in Boyle County than
among prisoners statewide. Prisoners rioted and burned much of the Northpoint
complex on Aug. 21, and state Rep. Brent Yonts said
corrections officers, other lawmakers and inmates have all told him that
unrest "over food" figured into the riot. But Aramark officials
have said there's no evidence that anything but gang violence and anger over
prison yard restrictions played a role in the riot. They said their food was
not a factor. The Lexington Herald-Leader obtained the survey results under
the Open Records Act and reported Tuesday that early this year, state inmates
rated the food 3.24 on a scale of 1 to 10, down from 5.84 in 2003. At
Northpoint, the rating this year was 2.66, compared with 6.13 in 2003. Yonts, D-Greenville, has filed legislation that would
cancel Aramark's $12 million annual contract with the state. State officials
haven't said yet what led to the Northpoint incident. Eight guards and eight
inmates suffered minor injuries. Small portions, cleanliness and food
shortages were among the issues inmates often addressed in the survey.
"Get rid of Aramark, bring back the state," an inmate at Roederer Correctional Complex in La Grange wrote in the
anonymous 2009 survey. At the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex, an
inmate wrote, "I would like not to be hungry all the time."
Jennifer Brislin, a state Justice Cabinet
spokeswoman, said Tuesday that Aramark's food "meets all recommended
daily allowances and dietary requirements."
September 10, 2009 AP
House Speaker Greg Stumbo is calling for the Kentucky Justice Cabinet to
consider a proposal to lease a private women's prison and operate it with
state corrections officers. Stumbo sent a letter to Justice Secretary J.
Michael Brown on Thursday proposing the arrangement at Otter Creek
Correctional Complex, which is the focus of investigations into alleged sex
crimes against inmates. Six workers at the prison have been accused of sex
crimes in the last three years at the prison that houses about 420 women.
Stumbo said the state could lease the prison from Corrections Corporation of
America and use it exclusively to house Kentucky inmates. Brown has already
said the state won't renew its contract with the Nashville, Tenn.-based
company unless it hires a female security chief and maintains a security
staff that is at least 40% female.
September 9, 2009 Herald-Leader
Complaints about the quality and quantity of food that a private company
provides to Kentucky state prisons has led a state lawmaker to file a bill
that would cancel the $12 million annual contract. Northpoint Training
Center, where there was a riot last month, is one of several state prisons
where inmates and corrections officers have complained about the food
provided by Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services, said state Rep.
Brent Yonts, D-Greenville. Yonts
said he also is concerned that the illness of as many as 300 inmates at a
Western Kentucky prison might have been caused by food. "There's no
reason for people to be treated inhumanely," Yonts
said. "I don't think the system is recognizing the problem with Aramark.
I'm hoping the administration will ... cancel the contract." If the bill
is passed by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2010, food service to inmates
at state prisons could be provided only by state employees, inmates or
volunteers. That was the case until January 2005, when the state contracted
with Aramark. The contract was renewed in January 2009 and expires in 2011. Yonts said he received many complaints from across the
state about food quality, shortages and even "crawling creatures in the
food" in the past year. Inmates at Boyle County's Northpoint staged a
sit-in in 2007 over the quality of food and prices of snacks in the prison
canteen, according to the American Correctional Association. In a riot at
Northpoint on Aug. 21, inmates burned and damaged buildings, several of which
were a total loss. Eight guards and eight inmates suffered minor injuries. Yonts said that he sent a questionnaire about the food to
corrections officers. The replies said that food problems have caused
"control" problems with inmates. Sarah Jarvis, a spokeswoman for
Aramark, said Tuesday that the company "has an excellent track
record" and has received many accolades. "We reduce the costs to
taxpayers of feeding inmates, while providing nutritious meals in close
consultation with dietitians and nutritionists," she said. In January,
Aramark stopped serving meals at Florida prisons, citing rapid rises in food
costs and a poor working relationship with the state. In 2008 alone, the
company was fined $241,499 by Florida for problems with the food and service,
according to news reports. Saving millions -- State corrections officials say
the contract with Aramark saves $5 million each year and allowed them to give
corrections officers a nearly 7 percent raise in 2008. Northpoint inmates and
family members have told the Herald-Leader that the quality and price of food
and canteen items continues to be a source of unrest at the prison and might
have figured in the August riots. Jarvis said there is no evidence that the
riots "were the result of anything other than gang-related activity and
yard restrictions. Some of the facts in this story seem to be based on
anecdotes, half-truths and suspicious complaints by inmates and others who
... ignore official reports and contradictory facts." Incidents that led
to the riot and fire are under investigation by the state Department of
Corrections and State Police. Source of illnesses unknown -- At the Western Kentucky
Correctional Complex at Fredonia, James Tolley, the public health director at
Pennyrile District Health Department, said his
staff has investigated three cases in 2009 in which inmates had
gastrointestinal distress. In one instance in the spring, Tolley said, as
many as 300 inmates fell ill there. State Corrections Department spokeswoman
Cheryl Million said a foodborne illness was suspected, but it could not be
verified in lab tests. Tolley said that even though lab results did not
confirm that food was the problem, his staff advised food service employees
on safe food handling. Yonts said he is looking
into those cases. "Inmates do complain about Aramark," Million
said. However, she said, there were similar complaints before Aramark took
over food service. The Department of Corrections receives, on average, 21
food grievances among 13 institutions each month, she said. The state pays
Aramark $2.63 for each inmate each day, Million said. Yonts
said he also has received complaints about the food at Blackburn Correctional
Complex in Fayette County. Yonts' legislation
barring private companies would not apply to canteens where inmates at state
prisons can buy food, to local jails or to food provided to inmates being
transferred from one prison to another.
September 3, 2009 Courier-Journal
Justice Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown said Thursday that the state won't
renew its contract to house female inmates at a troubled private prison in
Eastern Kentucky unless the operator agrees to several new conditions. Brown
outlined the conditions in a letter to House Speaker Greg Stumbo,
D-Prestonsburg, who asked Gov. Steve Beshear last
week not to renew the state's contract with Corrections Corp. of America. The
state has about 420 inmates at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright. A former corrections officer at the prison was indicted Tuesday
on one count of first-degree rape — the sixth worker there in the last three
years to be accused of a sex-related crime involving an inmate but the first
to be charged with a felony. Kentucky State Police plan to present another
case to a Floyd County grand jury the next time it meets. The Department of
Corrections is wrapping up its own investigation into sex abuse allegations
at the prison and expects to release its findings next week. Brown said in
his letter that the state won't sign a two-year extension with the
Nashville-based CCA unless it agrees to the new conditions. “I share your
deep concern,” Brown wrote in his letter to Stumbo. “Let me be clear — such conduct
is inexcusable and will not be tolerated by the Department of Corrections,
the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet or the Beshear
administration.” Brown said any contract extension will require CCA to: *Hire
a female security chief at Otter Creek. *Provide female staff and officers
for direct supervision of inmates in any housing and medical units. *Maintain
a security staff that is at least 40 percent female. *Conduct a security
assessment of areas in the prison where assaults have been reported and submit
and implement a plan to increase the use of cameras and other measures to
enhance security. *Institute uniform reporting of all sexual contact to the
department. *Provide therapy for inmates who have had traumatic experiences.
Brown said the department also would work with CCA to strengthen staff
training, repair the facilities, improve recruitment and retention and remove
barriers to effective monitoring of the facility by the department. He also
said that it’s not feasible to send the Otter Creek inmates to local jails or
out-of-state facilities, and that the only state-run prison for women, the
Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Shelby County, does not have
enough space to accommodate them. “The best course is to correct these
issues, mitigate their re-occurrence and move forward constructively,” Brown
said.
March 29, 2008 Herald-Leader
A key lawmaker says plans to build a new $129 million Eastern State Hospital
in Lexington are still alive despite an e-mail warning to the contrary sent Thursday
by the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Lexington. In a lengthy e-mail
to Gov. Steve Beshear and many legislators, NAMI
accused Rep. Jimmie Lee -- who engineered the complex deal that involves
several land swaps -- of calling the group this week and angrily threatening
to kill the new mental health hospital over the question of who would run it.
NAMI wants the non-profit Bluegrass Regional Mental Health-Mental Retardation
Board, which runs the hospital, to be guaranteed the management contract at
the new facility. The Senate budget bill includes such language. Lee wants
the contract to be open to competition. The House budget bill reflects that.
"WE should not have to choose between a new hospital and the care we
trust!!! ... PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ... help us and don't let this absolutely
righteous project be ruined," NAMI Executive Director Kelly Gunning
wrote in her e-mail. "We have basically been threatened with 'no
hospital.'" That's untrue, Lee said Friday. "I have every intention
of building a new Eastern State Hospital, because it's important to the
residents of the old facility and to their families," said Lee, who
oversees House budget planning for health and welfare. However, Lee
acknowledged meeting with a for-profit company, The GEO Group of Boca Raton,
Fla., interested in running the hospital. Several companies are watching the
Eastern State plan with an eye on bidding for the management contract if the
legislature allows. "We would be very excited to submit a
proposal," said Jorge Dominicis, president of
GEO Care, a GEO subsidiary that runs four civil psychiatric facilities for
the state of Florida. Overall, the company specializes in private prison and
jail management. While Bluegrass may be doing a fine job now, Dominicis asked, "why wouldn't you want to find out
what other people could offer you, what they could achieve for you?"
GEO's political action committee gave $1,000 last year to elect Democratic
Gov. Steve Beshear and $10,000 in 2005 to U.S. Rep.
Hal Rogers, R-Somerset. Lee, D-Elizabethtown, said he's uncomfortable writing
into state law a guarantee that anyone must get a state contract without
competition. "I have nothing against Bluegrass," Lee said. "I
think Bluegrass has done a marvelous job. I hope they do a marvelous job in
the new hospital. But I am not prepared to mandate that by statute."
However, this isn't a deal-breaker, Lee said. By the end of the ongoing
House-Senate budget talks, he wants a new hospital, regardless of what
compromises are reached, he said. On Friday, Gunning said she stood by the
accuracy of her e-mail. If Lee now says he's willing to compromise, that's
good, but that hasn't been his attitude recently, she said. Bluegrass Chief
Executive Officer Joe Toy called NAMI's public criticism of Lee "unfortunate."
But he said advocates are understandably worried that his non-profit might
lose the new hospital to a for-profit company that puts revenue ahead of
patient care. "Philosophically, I have a serious issue with privatizing
safety-net care for individuals," Toy said. "If a person needs 10
or 15 more days in the hospital, but you're tight financially and you have to
get them out right now, it's hard to see how you balance that. We're not
making cars or widgets here; we're providing care for people who have no
other options."
January 19, 2007 KY State Auditor
State Auditor Crit Luallen
today released a performance audit of Kentucky’s method of privatizing
government functions. The audit, the third and final in a series on state
contracting, shows that Kentucky needs a process that will ensure stronger
oversight and accountability of the Commonwealth’s privatization contracting.
The audit found that Kentucky’s main privatization statute is ineffective.
The statute requires contracts in which a private vendor provides services
“similar to, and in lieu of, a service provided” by at least ten state
employees to go through a more stringent procurement process. The statute
requires a detailed cost – benefit analysis and an annual performance
evaluation for larger contracts. However, the statute exempts fifteen
different types of contracts. Because of the defined criteria and exemptions
found in the statutes, every contract for privatizing state services is
eligible to be excluded from the statutory oversight scheme. In fact,
according to the Finance and Administration Cabinet, only one contract has
been implemented under this privatization statute since it became effective
in 1998. In addition to the general privatization law, another law applies to
private prisons. That law requires private prisons show a 10% savings over
state run facilities. The audit found that these savings determinations are
inconsistent and need increased accountability and independent review. State
Auditor Crit Luallen
said, “In the past, I have been a proponent of privatization as a useful tool
to deliver services and increase government efficiency. However, as we see an
increased effort to privatize government services, Kentucky must demand that
our contracting processes ensure adequate oversight and accountability. No
better example exists of this need than the experience the state has had at
Oakwood.”
October 25, 2005 Lexington
Herald-Leader
First Lady Glenna Fletcher is having difficulty raising money to renovate the
Governor's Mansion, one of her pet projects. The Governor's Mansion
Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit group created in March, has canceled a
fundraising event at the mansion Thursday because fewer than 80 of the 1,077
invitations drew an RSVP from people who planned to attend. The foundation's
struggle is similar to that of Kentuckians for Justice, a legal defense fund
organized by Republicans for members of Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration
hit with legal bills because of the state hiring scandal. A few weeks ago, defense
fund officials complained that donations were barely trickling in. And the
scandal -- which has led to the indictment of 13 gubernatorial aides and
advisers -- is probably the obstacle in both cases, because Ernie Fletcher is
now perceived as damaged goods, said Donald Gross, a political scientist at
the University of Kentucky. Special interests are willing to write checks at
the request of politicians, but only if the politicians can be useful, Gross
said. "You give money strategically. If there's a perception that
(Fletcher) is seriously hurt, then you're just throwing your money
away," Gross said. "And he just seems to be floundering up
there." Other top donors include firms that have business relationships
with the Fletcher administration. Donations of $10,000 each came from state
contractors Corrections Corporation of America and HMB Professional
Engineers, and from regulated utilities Cinergy and American Electric Power.
May 13, 2005 Courier-Journal
A former Kentucky governor and two men who sought the office were among major
donors to the private fund created to pay for repairs to the Governor's
Mansion. The list of 261 donors was released yesterday by first lady Glenna
Fletcher's office. According to the office, the foundation has received pledges
of $792,404 and actual donations of $534,904. Fletcher said she hoped to
raise $5 million for repairs to the inside and outside of the mansion, which
was completed in 1914. Among the contributors: Corrections Corporation of
America, which operates private prisons under contract with the state, gave
$10,000.
January 2, 2005 News Enquirer
For years, Northern Kentucky's county governments have been trying to be
heard. They want more money from Frankfort to house state prisoners in county
jails. They think it is strange that prisoners can wait, sometimes for years,
for sentences in their jails - receiving time served against those sentences
- and still, the state gives no compensation to the county. Now, county
leaders are offering support to pass a bill in the state legislature to
remedy the problem. The Kentucky Association of Counties, the
judge-executives group, the Kentucky Association of Magistrates and
Commissioners and the Kentucky Jailers Association have combined to support
the bill. It asks for state money to pay for prisoners who have had to stay
in county jails; a raise in the county jail per diem equal to that paid to
private prisons by the state; an allotment from the state to cover jail
expenses, and an increase in state medical payments. Since 1984, county jails
have been paid $26.51 for every day a prisoner stays in the jail after that
person is sentenced. Private prisons receive anywhere from $30.49 to $44.19 a
day. "We want an increase here," said Kenton County jailer Terry
Carl. "We want to be paid as much as the private jails."
September 16, 2004 Herald Leader
The riot Tuesday that scorched a private prison in Lee County didn't burn the
state Corrections Department's desire to privatize its new prison in Elliott
County, officials said yesterday. Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration still
expects to solicit bids from companies interested in managing the 961-bed
Little Sandy Correctional Complex, set to open in January, said corrections
spokeswoman Lisa Lamb. And Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of
America, which owns and operates the damaged Lee County prison, still expects
to submit a bid. Rather than hurting CCA's chances during the bidding, the
riot actually could be a plus, Lamb said. The Corrections Department -- led
by John Rees, a former CCA vice president -- is impressed by the company's
swift reaction to the violence, she said. "To say they're pleased with
how CCA responded is a little odd when most of the responders were local and
state police, who quickly took control of the situation," said House
Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook. Adkins and other lawmakers have
urged the Republican administration to open the $92 million prison under
state control. Nationally, critics of CCA and other prison companies say the
firms suffer from higher employee turnover rates than public prisons because
of chronic understaffing and lower wages. That results in an inexperienced
work force, they maintain. Also, to maximize profits, prison companies often
skimp on food, health care and educational programs, which can lead to inmate
unrest, critics say.
March 10, 2004
Language aimed at keeping the new Little Sandy Correctional Complex state run
remained in the House budget plan Tuesday as legislators there passed the
nearly $15 billion spending bill on to the Senate. Contracting out the
facility's operation has never been an option, said Rep. Rocky Adkins,
D-Sandy Hook, majority floor leader who fought the prison's
privatization. "Today, the House overwhelmingly showed their agreement,"
Adkins said late Tuesday afternoon, after the chamber's 64-36 vote. The
budget plan provides an additional $9.45 million over the biennium from
within the state corrections budget to ensure the facility is fully-funded
and state-run, Adkins said. Its language requires "that no action
be taken to privatize any service that is currently being performed at or for
an entire adult correctional facility," his office said. The
budget now moves on to the Senate, but could be revised there. "We
are hopeful that the Senate will agree that the changes made by the House are
in the best interests of the people we serve," Adkins said, vowing to
continue the fight. Elliott County leaders — as well as residents
hoping for jobs at the 895-bed $90 million state prison being built on the
outskirts of Sandy Hook — also remain watchful of the situation in
Frankfort. "It definitely should stay state run and it should be
employees from the area who run it," said Julian Fyffe, Elliott County
Chamber of Commerce president. People will likely watch the
privatization issue, and their legislators' actions, closely until the budget's fully passed by House, Senate and governor, Fyffe
said. The prison, expected to open in June, was billed as an economic
booster for the job-poor area when construction began under Gov. Paul
Patton's administration. The call to privatize it, in other words
contract its operation to an outside vendor, first came from within Gov.
Ernie Fletcher's administration earlier this winter. Officials said they
were eying all options to cut state costs in a time of budgetary crisis, and
couldn't let the prison system drive the state's economy. Adkins and
other northeast Kentucky legislators fired back in January with criticism
that future workers could lose out financially under privatization. It's bad
public policy to turn the keys of a public construction project over to a
private company, Adkins said. The administration stressed employees
would still be needed, and probably would be hired locally, whether run by a
private company or by the state. Elliott County Judge-Executive Charles
Pennington said then that the county was eagerly awaiting an estimated 350
state jobs and a $17 million payroll. Pennington was in Frankfort
Tuesday, and could not be reached for comment. The people still care a
great deal about those jobs, as state jobs, Fyffe said. "Elliott
County should get the better part of the jobs," he said. "There's
plenty of people around here who can do it." Fyffe said he's
retired, and not looking for a job now, but those who are looking worry that
there might not be as many local jobs at a privately-run prison and some
worry that the pay might not be as good. "And I don't think they
should go in there and tear up something somebody else started," he said.
"They should try to build on it." As it moved toward
committee passage Friday, and onto the floor this week, the House budget bill
did not escape the political quarreling. House Democrats issued a
summary of it Monday, claiming to have restored "time-tested education
programs that were slashed by Gov. Fletcher in his budget proposal for the
next two years." Hours before Tuesday's vote, the Fletcher
administration aimed fresh criticism at Democrats who drastically rewrote his
budget bill. Spokesmen called the substitute budget irresponsible, mainly for
the amount of construction debt it implied. Fletcher said the budget he
presented was focused on economic development. It earmarked money for
university research facilities and for technical training centers. The
House committee decided to put more money into education and state government
salaries. State Budget Director Brad Cowgill called the committee's
bill "a prescription for going back to the very same conditions that got
us to where we are — a condition that says buy now, pay later."
The wrangling even drew in the new Elliott County prison as a sort of
political playing card. Gearing up for the House battle Tuesday,
Minority Leader Jeff Hoover of Jamestown filed floor amendments calculated to
put House Democratic leaders on the defensive. One would take $2.5
million away from the prison in Adkins' home turf and apply it toward a
business technical center at Eastern Kentucky University. The appropriations
committee chairman, Rep. Harry Moberly of Richmond, works for the
university. (Daily independent)
February 3, 2004
Members of a House budget subcommittee raised objections yesterday to
plans by the Fletcher administration to contract for private management of a
new $93.million state prison in Elliott County. "If we take a
brand new facility and we turn it over to a private company, we are basically
giving a private company millions and millions and millions of dollars of
free taxpayer money," said Rep. Jesse Crenshaw, D-Lexington and chairman
of the Subcommittee on Justice and Judiciary. But John Rees, the
administration's Corrections commissioner and a former official of
Corrections Corp. of America, a private prison firm, said putting operation
of the prison out to bid was the best option - particularly with a lean state
budget. As a former warden of state-operated and privately operated
prisons, Rees said privately run prisons save money in the long run. "I
do believe competition works," he said. And although prisons are
expensive to build, Rees said, "The real cost of a prison is its
operational cost over time." Funding for the 961-inmate prison was
approved under the Patton administration. But the budget that Gov. Ernie
Fletcher proposed last week anticipates that the prison will be operated by a
private contractor and have just 500 inmates. Rees said his department plans
to take bids from private prison companies this spring. Rep. Robin
Webb, D-Grayson, said she was not sure private operation would save much
money. She also raised questions about what the state gives up when it hands
control of a prison to private vendors. "From what I've seen, our
experience with two private prisons we now have shows
that it's not really more efficient," Webb said in an interview after
the subcommittee meeting. "The pay and benefits for workers is lower.
But the main point is that you lose accountability and flexibility when you
enter into a contract over years. And there's a question of the financial
health and viability of the company that wins the contract." The
state currently contracts with Corrections Corp. of America to operate two of
its 14 prisons: the Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville and the Marion
Adjustment Center in St. Mary. Webb, whose district is near the new
prison, and Rees disagreed over the cost to operate the Elliott prison under
a private contractor. Webb said it costs the state about $44 per day, per
inmate at the Lee Adjustment Center. But Rees said he was confident
that his estimate of $35 per day at the Elliott prison under a private
contractor was conservative. Rees said the estimate was based on costs at
similar privately operated prisons in other states. Webb also pressed
Rees on his background with a major player in the private prison
business. Rees said he began with the Kentucky Department of
Corrections in 1969 and stayed with the state through 1976, then worked for
Oklahoma's prison system before returning to Kentucky in 1980 as warden of
the Kentucky State Reformatory. In 1986 he left to begin a 13-year career
with Corrections Corporation of America, where he retired in 1998 as vice
president of business development. Since then he has done private consulting
in the corrections field, he said. He said he owned less than $10,000
of Corrections Corporation stock, which he sold late last year before taking
the job as corrections commissioner. Webb said later that she raised
the issue of Rees' background "only because I believe in full disclosure
and that's a matter which we needed to hear." Rees told reporters
after the meeting that he's not trying to help his former employer. He said
he expects three to five competitive bids from prison companies.
"The process will be fully transparent," he said. The
subcommittee will continue its deliberations through the rest of this month
before making recommendations to the full House budget committee.
(Courier-Journal)
Lee Adjustment Center
Beattyville, Kentucky
CCA
Nov 17, 2017 kentucky.com
Kentucky returning inmates to for-profit prison four years after dumping
company
Kentucky plans to resume using private prisons by moving 800 inmates from
the aging, overcrowded Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange to a prison in
Lee County that has been shuttered for several years. Private, for-profit
prisons have been plagued by controversy in Kentucky and elsewhere around the
country, including a costly riot at the Lee County prison and sexual assaults
of female inmates at a Floyd County prison owned by the same company,
Nashville-based CoreCivic. Critics have accused CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of
America, of cutting corners on staffing to boost profits, not providing good
medical care and failing to properly protect inmates. A recent audit in
Tennessee found understaffing at a prison the company runs and a lack of
adequate state oversight. Kentucky Justice Secretary John C. Tilley said
Thursday that state officials are well aware of those issues and have taken
pains to craft a contract with CoreCivic designed
to ward off problems and provide the same level of inmate services and public
safety as at state-owned prisons. CoreCivic will
have to maintain the same staffing levels that the state uses in its prisons,
and the state will do the background checks on prospective CoreCivic employees. The company’s employees must have
the same qualifications as employees at state prisons, and the state will be
able to get rid of employees if needed, Tilley said. Other terms include that
CoreCivic will have to provide the same level of
education, health care and other programs available in state prisons and must
use the same vendors as the state. The state also will have access to a
full-time video feed of all areas of the prison covered by cameras. The
company can be fined $5,000 per day, per inmate for violations, and Tilley said
he’s determined to collect if necessary. “We intend to provide more oversight
than they’ve seen in any facility that they manage in the country, or
anywhere else,” Tilley said Thursday. State Sen. Robin Webb, who is on the
legislature’s budget subcommittee on justice and the judiciary, said she
remains wary of using private prisons for state inmates. Her concerns include
the potential for high turnover among employees and less supervision of
inmates. “There’s a reason we quit doing it,” Webb, D-Grayson, said of using
private prisons. “These people that we incarcerate are people. They deserve a
standard of care.” The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky also issued
a caution on the decision. “We’re moving back to a system of private
corrections that didn’t work in the commonwealth because inmates were abused
and resources mismanaged,” ACLU official Kate Miller said in a statement.
Jonathan Burns, spokesman for CoreCivic, said the
company provides a critical service for prison systems such as Kentucky’s
that are overcrowded, “which can create dangerous conditions for staff,
inmates and communities.” “CoreCivic is subject to
robust oversight and accountability measures by our government partners” and
is committed to providing services to help inmates successfully transition to
society, Burns said. The legislature directed state corrections officials to
explore resuming the use of private prisons. There are only three in
Kentucky, all owned by CoreCivic, in Lee, Floyd
County and Marion counties. Tilley said the state had no choice but to resume
the use of private prisons because state prisons and dozens of county jails
the state uses to house its prisoners are at capacity or badly overcrowded.
Some county jails are more than 200 percent over capacity, with prisoners
sleeping on mats on the floor. Tilley, a former state representative, was a
key force behind a measure lawmakers approved in 2011 to try to reduce the
state’s prison population and save money. The changes included reduced
penalties for some drug-possession crimes, greater emphasis on getting people
into drug treatment and more use of parole supervision to get inmates out of
prison a little earlier. The state’s prison population dipped below 20,000 in
2013 with the reforms, but has since gone back up, in part because of the
state’s epidemic of abuse of opioids. Tilley said another factor is that
local court officials are not using diversion and pretrial release programs
as much as supporters of the reform measure hoped they would. That means more
low-risk inmates charged with crimes such as drug possession stay in local
jails, driving up costs, Tilley said. The state’s prison population climbed
to 22,089 in November 2015 and hit 24,367 this week. The state will move the
800 general-population inmates from the Kentucky State Reformatory in the
next four months and mothball dorms there. Corrections Commissioner Jim Erwin
said the rest of the facility will remain open for inmates with medical and
mental-health needs. Tilley said it is expensive to maintain the prison
because it is 80 years old. In addition, unemployment is so low in the Oldham
County area that it has been hard for the state to hire corrections officers
for the four state prisons there. That has forced the Department of
Corrections to bring in workers from elsewhere in the state, resulting in
added costs for overtime pay, travel and lodging. The state spent $13 million
in fiscal year 2016 on overtime and other additional costs to staff the
Oldham County facilities, said Brad Holajter, executive
director of the cabinet. The cost of paying CoreCivic
to house the 800 inmates will be a wash for the state because of the savings
on maintenance and overtime costs at the reformatory in LaGrange, Tilley
said. The state will pay
CoreCivic $57.68 a day for each inmate at the Lee
Adjustment Center. The state’s cost at a comparable state prison, the Green
River Correctional Complex, is $64.09 a day, Holajter
said. State law requires a 10 percent savings to use a private prison. The
contract with CoreCivic, finalized Thursday, runs
through June 30, 2019. It includes two potential renewals of a year each.
Kentucky once housed prisoners in all three of CoreCivics
prisons here, but pulled out of Lee County in 2010, Floyd County in 2012 and
Marion County in 2013. Former Gov. Steve Beshear
ordered all of Kentucky’s female inmates moved from CoreCivic’s
Floyd County facility, then called the Otter Creek Correctional Center,
because of charges that guards had sexually abused inmates. Inmates at the
Lee County prison, many of them from Vermont, rioted in 2004, burning the
administration building and severely damaging a housing unit. A Vermont
corrections official later said the inmates had complained about limited
recreational time, smaller portions and less variety of food, and a
disciplinary crackdown that the staff didn’t explain. If the state doesn’t
reduce its inmate population, Kentucky will have to move inmates back to the CoreCivic prisons in Floyd and Marion counties, renovate
its own prison space to comply with standards or build new state prisons,
officials said. Tilley said it would be far better for the state to undertake
further reforms aimed at cutting its incarceration rate, which remains among
the top 5 per capita in the nation. One possible change would be to raise the
amount of a theft that qualifies as a felony from $500. The threshold in
South Carolina is $2,000 and Texas uses $2,500, Tilley said. The state also
needs to look at revising the bail system so that low-level, non-violent
offenders don’t spend months in jail awaiting trial, Tilley said. “There are
just ways that we know that are smart on crime, that will control corrections
costs, still hold offenders accountable, and do so in a way that we can save
taxpayer dollars, precious resources, to fund education, to fund pensions, to
fund greater infrastructure, to fund law enforcement,” Tilley said.
Aug
15, 2015 washingtontimes.com
Vermont
official: Ky. prison monitored inmates before fight
MONTPELIER,
Vt. (AP) - Vermont’s top advocate for prison inmates said Wednesday the staff
at a private Kentucky prison did all it could to monitor two inmates before
they got into a fight that landed one in the hospital in the weeks before his
death. Vermont Defender General Matt Valerio said that if there was any blame
to be attributed to the staff of the Beattyville prison run by the
Corrections Corporation of America it is that they should have known about
ongoing tensions between the two inmates, one of whom, James Nicholson, died
six weeks after the April 2 altercation. Valerio, whose office investigates
all deaths of Vermont inmates, told the lawmakers of the Justice Oversight
Committee that it appeared that Nicholson started the fight that lasted one
minute out of sight of security cameras. “It sounded like a fist fight where
an individual ended up hitting his head on a sink,” said Valerio who also
noted there was no evidence Nicholson was assaulted with a lock in a sock as
had been reported previously. Nicholson spent a week in intensive care
recovering from the head and other injuries he suffered in the fight. He died
in his sleep on May 18. An autopsy determined Nicholson died of heart
problems, but the autopsy was unable to determine if Nicholson’s death was
related to the injuries he suffered in the fight. “The autopsy report puts a
cloud over this that we can’t really resolve,” Valerio said. “If I’m going to
make a conclusion and point fingers at people I have to have evidence and
unfortunately the autopsy report doesn’t give any evidence that the cause of
death was attributable to something somebody did or didn’t do.” The 280
Vermont prison inmates who had been held at the Corrections Corporation of
America prison in Kentucky have since been moved to a private prison in
Michigan run by another company, a move that was planned long before
Nicholson’s death. A Kentucky State Police official said earlier that the
agency had begun an investigation into the fight that injured Nicholson, but
they learned of his death after being asked about it by The Associated Press.
At Wednesday’s hearing Vermont Corrections Department officials told members
of the committee that Corrections Corporation officials had informed the
Kentucky State Police that Nicholson had died. After the hearing, Dominic Damato, the out-of-state manager for Vermont Corrections,
said Vermont officials were told June 2 by Corrections Corporation that the
Kentucky State Police had been informed of Nicholson’s death, but he could
not say when that notification was made. On Wednesday Kentucky State Police
Trooper Robert Purdy confirmed that his agency wasn’t notified about
Nicholson’s death until asked by the AP. Corrections Corporation officials
were asked repeatedly by the AP about why they hadn’t notified police of
Nicholson’s death and they never answered specific questions about the
notification. Jonathan Burns, a spokesman for Corrections Corporation of
America, on Wednesday referred any additional questions to the Vermont
Department of Corrections or Kentucky State Police.
Aug
9, 2015 foxnews.com
Vermont
probes its inmate's death in a private Kentucky prison; police weren't told
he'd died
LOUISVILLE,
Ky. – The Vermont Legislature is investigating the death of a Vermont
inmate who was beaten at a private prison in Kentucky and died six weeks later.
The cause of his death remains unclear. An autopsy completed last month
revealed 66-year-old sex offender James Nicholson died of a combination of
heart disease and diabetes. But the autopsy lists his manner of death as
undetermined because the medical examiner could not determine whether the
assault played a part. Nicholson's skull was fractured in the April attack
and his brain bruised. He died May 18. The Legislature's Justice Oversight
Committee will hold a hearing next week to look into his death at the Lee
Adjustment Center in Kentucky, run by the for-profit Corrections Corporation
of America.
October 18, 2011 Evansville Courier
& Press
Henderson Fiscal Court heard the opening salvo Tuesday of a campaign jailers
plan to use to sway the General Assembly next year. "You are our maiden
voyage," said Mike Simpson, president of Kentucky Jailers Association.
"We're going to hopefully take this across the state." In a
nutshell, Kentucky jailers maintain that House Bill 463 -- a recently enacted
major overhaul of the criminal justice system -- is going to have a negative
impact on the jails across the state. The way around that problem, they say,
is allowing the state's current contracts to expire next year with
Corrections Corporation of America, which has prisons in Marion and Floyd
counties. The inmates in the Marion Adjustment Center and the Otter Creek
Correctional Center would then be transferred to county jails. It's a simple
matter of economics, according to Patrick Crowley, a public relations consultant
from northern Kentucky who has been hired to head the blitz. County jails are
paid $31.34 per day to house state inmates. The Marion Adjustment Center
charges the state $37.99 a day for minimum security inmates, and $47.98 per
day for medium security inmates. Otter Creek, meanwhile, charges the state
$53.77 per day to house inmates. "It's a disgrace for the private
prisons to be getting the per diem they're getting," said Henderson
County Jailer Ron Herrington. Based on the capacity of the two private
prisons, Crowley said, the state would save more than $8 million a year by
housing the inmates in county jails -- and boost the bottom line of county
governments while doing it. "Both the state and the counties could save
money by eliminating the private prisons contracts," Crowley said.
"There are some good things" in HB 463, Simpson said, but
"this is our window of opportunity to go through this thing."
"It's about 150 pages and all but about five or 10 were just fine,"
said County Attorney Steve Gold. Magistrate Charles Alexander at one point
asked how the state can avoid destroying jobs by what the jailers propose.
"They have prisons all over the United States," Simpson replied.
"They're not just in Kentucky." If the firm loses Kentucky inmates,
he said, it will fill its prisons with inmates from other states. "They
have brought prisoners in from Hawaii. There is no shortage of inmates in
this country."
July 28, 2011 Burlington Free Press
It's well-established in law that most government records are public, but
what about the records of contractors who do government's business? If a
private company is housing state prisoners, how much of that company's
records are available to state residents? Those are among the questions that
a special panel of lawmakers mulled Wednesday as they met for the first time
to try to tackle public-records issues left undone during the legislative
session that ended in May. The summer study committee also plans to study
exemptions to the state public-records laws -- numbering 239 -- and determine
if they are needed. The six-member committee plans to delve more deeply into
the exemptions at its next meeting in September, but Wednesday the panel
wrestled with what to do about private contractors that essentially are
fulfilling the function of government. Lawmakers left the issue out of
legislation passed this year after running into complications. Those
complications haven't disappeared, as the panel received conflicting advice.
Conor Casey, legislative director for the Vermont State Employees
Association, said private contractors sometimes do the exact same work as
state employees. They should be subject to the same public scrutiny, he said.
Casey noted that the state contracts with Corrections Corporation of America
to house Vermont inmates at several private, out-of-state prisons. Vermont
residents should be able to make inquiries about the services CCA provides,
even if the state Corrections Department hasn't asked those same questions,
he said. Legislative counsel Michael O'Grady warned the committee that the
state might be vulnerable to a lawsuit. "If you do nothing, I think
there will be a court case," he said. "I think people will expect
or assume they'll be able to get records." O'Grady outlined laws in
other states, some of which address the issue, but said it was unclear how
some of those are implemented. One question Vermont lawmakers need to
consider, he said, is where the records request should go: to the private
contractor or the state agency overseeing the contract.
June 22, 2010 AP
Kentucky has pulled its inmates out of a privately run prison in the eastern
part of the state because of what state officials describe as budget
concerns, leaving only out-of-state inmates at the facility. The last
Kentucky inmates at the Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville left the
facility June 14, said Lisa Lamb, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department
of Corrections. "It's part of our effort to reduce our financial
burden," Lamb said. The prison, owned and
operated by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corp. of America, houses about
560 inmates on contract for Vermont, which uses out-of-state prisons to
alleviate overcrowding. The decision to remove inmates from the Beattyville
prison saves Kentucky $43.62 per inmate per day. The facility has held up to
up to 540 Kentucky inmates at one time, but the figure has fluctuated. In
May, Kentucky lawmakers passed a $17.3 billion, two-year budget, overcoming a
projected $1.5 billion shortfall caused by the severe economic slowdown that
has reduced state tax receipts. Under the plan, most state agencies face cuts
of 3 1/2 percent in the first year and 4 1/2 percent in the second year.
Heather Simons, a spokeswoman for the Vermont Department of Corrections, said
that state's contract with CCA runs through June 30, 2011, and pays the
company $61.50 per inmate per day. "We currently don't have any plans to
move them," Simons said of the inmates.
November 1, 2006 AP
A former supervisor at a private minimum security prison in eastern Kentucky
was arrested Wednesday and charged with smuggling marijuana to inmates.
Rodney Trowbridge, 47, turned himself in at the Beattyville Police Department
early Wednesday morning. He was charged with four counts of first-degree
promoting contraband stemming from incidents dating back to last November at
the Lee Adjustment Center. Jeffrey Todd Tomblin, one of the inmates who
allegedly received the shipments, was also charged. Tomblin was moved to the
Green River Correctional Complex in May. "We have zero tolerance for this
type of activity at the Lee Adjustment Center," said Warden Randy
Stovall.
November 15, 2005 WCAX
Vermont's prisons are already full and now there's word they're about to be
swamped. Corrections officials project Vermont's prison population will
skyrocket at least 20% within five years, and that's sparking a debate over
where to put all these convicts. But state lawmakers have rejected building
new prisons in Vermont, so the Corrections Commissioner says the primary
solution to overcrowding will be to send more inmates to do time in prisons
located in Kentucky and Tennessee. State leaders will be looking at a number
of options to out-of-state placement during the legislative session next
year. However, the out-of-state placements have one additional factor that is
very appealing to many: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA )-- a private, for-profit prison company -- charges
Vermont $20,000 per inmate, per year to jail them in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Meanwhile, the cost of jailing convicts in Vermont is $40,000 per year per
inmate, 100% more. The difference is that CCA provides no counseling
educational, or rehabilitation programs. The cost-per-inmate in Vermont
includes many services and counseling, plus probation, parole, furlough, and
other early release programs.
December 9, 2004 Beattyville
Enterprise
On Sept. 14, inmates at the Lee
Adjustment Center
rioted. If there is another disturbance, it may not be the
inmates. It may be the employees.
Problems at the prison seem to be increasing. Especially when it comes to
attracting and keeping correctional officers. The Beattyville Enterprise has
learned that the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has brought
employees from Minnesota to the Lee
Center to fill
positions it cannot fill with local hires. Part of the reason the company is
having trouble keeping employees is the presence of the people from Minnesota . Kentucky
correctional officers are paid $7.81 at the Lee
Center .
The Enterprise has learned that the Minnesota
officers are being paid $14 an hour plus $60 a week for
food. Also, CCA is paying for their
housing in a local motel. Another problem that some of the officers are
having is 12-hour shifts. They only
get one 30-minute break and this is to eat.
November 30, 2004 Lexington Herald Leader
Shortly after a riot erupted at a Lee County private prison in September, the
state's top corrections official praised Corrections Corporation of America
for its quick response to restoring order at the facility. Now, though,
Corrections Commissioner John D. Rees, a former CCA vice president, has
recommended that the state fine his old employer $10,000 for failing to have
a sufficient number of trained officers to respond to the disturbance. On the
night the riot broke out, just seven such officers were available instead of
the 20 that were needed. That was just one of numerous problems at the Lee
Adjustment Center described in a state report released last week. These
included the failure of containment fences, restricted recreation time,
restricted access to the inmate canteen, the suspension of such programs as
Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, lack of educational programs,
mass punishments for minor offenses, the state's failure to monitor the
prison and the seemingly ever-present lack of communication (in this instance
attributed to the "strict management style" of former Warden Randy
Eckman). All things considered, a $10,000 fine seems a bit small, which may
be why a CCA spokeswoman quickly said that the company would pay it. But what
puzzles us even more than the amount of the recommended fine is that the riot
itself and the report on the problems that caused it apparently have not
dampened one bit the zeal within Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration for
privatizing the operation of a $91 million prison the state just finished
building. The contracting process for that 961-bed Elliott County facility is
moving right along as if the Sept. 14 riot that cost a warden his job and
resulted in indictments against 23 inmates had never occurred and the
problems that led to the violence and destruction at the private prison never
existed. Go figure.
November 24, 2004 Courier-Journal
The company that owns the Beattyville prison where inmates rioted Sept.
14 should be fined $10,000 for failing to have enough properly trained
officers to respond to the uprising, state officials said in a letter
released yesterday. A state report also released yesterday said the riot grew
larger than most inmates had intended and "was created by a lack of
communication up and down the chain of command and too many changes within a
short period of time." It's the first time the state has sought to fine
a private prison operator, including the Corrections Corporation of America,
which owns and runs the 800-inmate Lee Adjustment Center. In a Nov. 22
letter, state Corrections Commissioner John D. Rees asked Finance Secretary
Robbie Rudolph to fine CCA for failing to adequately organize, equip, train
and maintain 20 response team members. Only seven were available that evening,
the report said. The department did not release CCA's response to the Oct. 4
report. Chickering refused to provide it yesterday, saying CCA believes the
response should come from Kentucky officials. She also said the company would
not immediately comment on the state's findings. The report found 16 problems
at the prison, including: CCA built fences to control prisoner movement after
an influx of Vermont prisoners. But inmates could "peel up" the
bottom of the fences and sneak under them. There were mass punishments,
including removal of pool tables after inmates allegedly gambled at them.
Some Vermont inmates should have been in maximum custody prisons. Staff
members were not prepared for the many others who are sex offenders, have a
history of behavior problems and are on psychotropic drugs. Several programs were
suspended, including Parenting, Anger Management, Alcoholics and Narcotics
Anonymous. The report confirms many of the concerns previously cited by
inmates, prisoner advocates and Kentucky and Vermont prison officials.
November 23, 2004 Courier-Journal
The first visible sign of a recent riot at the Lee Adjustment Center was when
inmates targeted the wooden guard tower, using large concrete ashtrays to
break its legs. With a guard still inside, inmates began pulling the tower
apart, using the wood to batter the maintenance building, where ladders, wire
cutters and axes were stored, according to inmate interviews and an official
account of the Sept. 14 riot. The six-page Sept. 27 report, obtained by The
Courier-Journal under the state's open-records law, does not conclude what
caused the riot or make recommendations, but it confirms much of what inmates
said about the riot in interviews with the newspaper. The Corrections
Corporation of America, which owns and runs the prison, and Kentucky and
Vermont prison officials are investigating the riot. A Kentucky official said
the findings are expected to be released this week. According to the report,
prepared by a Lee shift supervisor, CCA guards quelled the 7:25 p.m. uprising
in a little more than two hours. By then, inmates had burned the
administration building, ripped out electrical wiring, raided the commissary
and caused other damage to the 800-inmate prison. "The inmates literally
had control of this place, the inner compound," Adam Corliss, an inmate
imprisoned for murder, said in an interview. He said he ran to the window of
his housing unit when he heard the commotion. "There was no staff visible
anywhere, and that's what surprised me the most, and I'd say a lot of other
residents here," said Corliss, 30, of Springfield, Vt. "CCA is in a
business to maximize profit," said inmate Tim Wells, 25, of Louisville,
who is serving time for robbery. "Inmates are learning about this, and they're
furious." Meanwhile, inside the maintenance building, prisoners Matthew
Bennett and James Davis said their goal was protecting their civilian
supervisor, Kris Goldey. Bennett and Davis decided
to protect Goldey and the prison's equipment
stockpile by closing the door to the equipment room and arming themselves
with lead pipes, they said. The report confirmed that Goldey
was in the room. Twenty riot squad members were
supposed to have been on call under state policy, Rees has said. But that night, Lee
spokesman Ron King said, only nine were available immediately, with three on
duty and six others showing up at various times.
November 20, 2004 Courier-Journal
Twenty-three inmates, including seven from Kentucky, were indicted by a grand
jury yesterday on charges of taking part in a riot that extensively damaged a
privately operated prison in Lee County. The inmates at the Lee Adjustment
Center were charged with first-degree riot and being a persistent felony
offender. Sixteen of the inmates who were indicted are from Vermont. During
the Sept. 14 riot, inmates burned the administration building and severely
damaged a housing unit by ripping out electrical wires and plumbing,
officials said. The company has not said how much the damage cost to repair. The riot occurred after an influx of Vermont
inmates at the Lee prison. Vermont Corrections Commissioner Steve Gold has
said that Vermont inmates had complained about limited recreational time,
smaller portions and less variety of food, and a disciplinary crackdown that
wasn't adequately explained to staff or inmates. But the Kentucky and
Vermont departments didn't have on-site monitors at the prison to listen to
inmate grievances and to observe prison conditions. After the riot, CCA
replaced the warden, Randy Eckman, and the company later fired him.
November 2, 2004 Times Argus
A Vermont inmate being housed in Kentucky received minor injuries when a
fight broke out early Friday morning among 10 prisoners, including four from
Vermont. The prisoner, whose name was not released by Vermont officials
or the company that runs the prison, was taken to an area hospital and had
stitches put in his face and was returned to prison. An inmate from
Kentucky was struck in the head with a fire extinguisher and had stitches put
in his head at an area hospital and was released.
October 28, 2004 Times Argus
For the first time since last month's prison riot, Vermont inmates being
housed in a private facility in Kentucky on Wednesday gave their home state
lawmakers first-hand accounts of conditions that led to the uprising. "I
find it very difficult to live in the dorm situation. Bathrooms are set up
inhumanely with no privacy. I can't sleep, the floor shakes,'' said Dennis
Chandler, one of four prisoners who addressed the Corrections Oversight Committee
by telephone from the Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville, Ky.
"Different corrections officers have different rules. Officers make up
the rules as they please,'' said Scott Amidon, another inmate. Corrections
Commissioner Steven Gold and Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, the committee
chairman, said they will continue to work to improve conditions at the
prison, including making sure that prison officials are more responsive and
inmates have better education opportunities. The riot began around 7:15 p.m. on
Sept. 14 when some of the inmates in the recreation yard tore down the guard
tower and used the wood to break into the commissary. At Wednesday's hearing in Montpelier, inmate David
Rivers said officials at the Kentucky prison frequently bring up false charges
against inmates as a way of punishing prisoners they think are troublesome.
The charges often result in the inmates being placed in solitary confinement
for extended periods. "This was one of the many straws that broke the
camel's back before the riot. Improvements are slow in coming,'' he said. He added that
"… the education offered is poor and classes are sometimes turned over
to the smartest inmate and the teachers do not teach.''
October 27, 2004 WKYT
A Lee County grand jury is expected to consider criminal charges today
against 26 inmates accused of starting a riot at a private prison last month.
The
grand jury is to hear evidence on charges of arson, criminal mischief,
inciting to riot, and assault. Of the 26 inmates facing charges, 15 are from
Vermont and eleven are from Kentucky.
October 12, 2004 WCAX
A
Kentucky grand jury will consider criminal charges against 15 Vermont inmates
believed to have helped start a prison riot last month. Police say some of
the charges will be misdemeanors and some will be felonies. The September
14th riot involved more than 100 inmates and resulted in extensive damage to
the Lee Adjustment Center run by Corrections Corporation of America in
Beattyville, Kentucky.
October 1, 2004 Times Argus
As many as 15 Vermont inmates could be indicted by a Kentucky grand jury
later this month for crimes relating to their involvement in instigating a
riot at their prison. Corrections
Commissioner Steven Gold said employees of his department who are in Kentucky
have worked to ensure that there is no retaliation against the Vermont
inmates by CCA employees. Gold has said any Vermont prisoners convicted of
instigating the riot would be moved to a more secure CCA facility in Arizona.
September 29, 2004 Courier Journal
Kentucky and Vermont did not have inspectors on site at the Lee Adjustment
Center in the months before inmates rioted at the privately run prison. While
it is not required by law, Kentucky Corrections Commissioner John D. Rees said
the state wants an inspector to work at the prison to make sure the
Corrections Corporation of America runs it properly. "For a month it
wasn't addressed. Should it have been? Probably yes," said Rees, adding
that an inspector has since been reassigned there. House Majority Leader
Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, who is fighting a state plan to privatize a new
Elliott County prison, said the Corrections Department didn't follow the law
by not immediately replacing Glenn Hance.
"That is a very, very serious oversight by the Corrections
Department," Adkins said. Steve Gold, Vermont's corrections
commissioner, said his state was sending inspectors to Lee every month.
"We clearly have to pay closer attention on an ongoing basis and have
someone there who is monitoring the contract and serving as an ombudsman, if
you will, or caseworker, for the inmates," Gold said. "There just is
no substitute for having a monitor on staff every day, walking around with a
clipboard, noticing what's happening and what's not happening, listening to
the staff, listening to the prisoners," said Judy Greene, who runs
Justice Strategies, a New York-based nonprofit criminal justice research
group. "With private contracts, the key is oversight and monitoring. You
have to hold their feet to the fire," said Doug Sapp, the former
Kentucky corrections commissioner who signed the original contract with CCA
in 1999 and retired a year later.
September 25, 2004 Times Argus
At least one state employee will be assigned to the prison in Kentucky to ensure
that Vermont's prisoners there are treated properly and to avoid a repeat of
conditions that prompted last week's riot, Corrections Commissioner Steven
Gold told lawmakers on Friday. "The people in Kentucky were not always
responsive to the complaints raised by our inmates before the riot." He
told lawmakers that prisoner complaints centered on smaller and lower-quality
food portions, lack of access to recreational activities and inadequate
visiting hours. Committee members also received a copy of a letter in which
Vermont inmate Scott Bressette described conditions
that drove the inmates to violence. "They ain't
feeding us hardly anything. I'm starving so bad that my stomach's starting to
eat away at my backbone," Bressette wrote to
his fiancée Katherine Jenkins two days after the riot. He described the riot
as "one of the most insane things I've ever witnessed in my entire life!
Inmates chasing guards with 2X4s breaking everything in sight…It was so
hostile that the S.W.A.T. team of guards came in, launching tear gas, armed
with shotguns." Gold added that prison conditions before the riot were
largely the result of policies implemented by the former warden of the
facility, Randy Eckman, who was removed from the position last Saturday and
had not yet been reassigned. Gold said Eckman often punished inmates
excessively for minor infractions and did not communicate effectively with
inmates and prison employees. Sen. James Leddy, D-Chittenden, said the riot
shows what can happen when there is a "rogue warden whose actions are
only known about after the riot."
September 25, 2004 WCAX
Vermont Corrections Department officials are continuing to work on a plan to
build a second prison work camp to help ease prison overcrowding. Corrections
Commissioner Steve Gold says Governor James Douglas is interested in hearing
the options for adding a work camp. And Gold says his department is planning
to conduct a full investigation into a September 14th riot at a private
Kentucky prison that houses about 400 Vermonters. Gold says he wants to have
an employee stationed at the Kentucky jail and that the jail's operator,
Corrections Corporation of America, is willing to pay most of the cost.
September 23, 2004 Snitch
As a lawyer for the Alliance for Prison Justice in Vermont, Barry Kade is
quite interested in last week's fracas at the Lee Adjustment Center, a
privately run prison in Beattyville, Ky. About nine inmates could face criminal
charges for instigating the Sept. 14 "disturbance," according to a
statement from the Corrections Corp. of America, which runs Lee. Kade has a
different opinion of what transpired. "Let's call it an uprising,"
he said, "not a disturbance." Kade is
assisting another Vermont lawyer, Thomas Costello, in a lawsuit against the
Marion Adjustment Center, a minimum-security facility in St. Mary, Ky. The
suit alleges that a security guard sexually assaulted inmates during a strip
search. And while he hasn't decided whether he'll sue CCA, Kade indicated
that the thought has crossed his mind, based on complaints he's received from
Vermont prisoners about poor treatment. CCA has come under fire from prisoner
rights groups in past years for unfair treatment of inmates, inadequate
training of its guards and for mixing inmates who require different levels of
supervision. When asked to describe CCA's response to inmate concerns, Kade
said, "I haven't seen any response other than stonewalling."
September 24, 2004 WCAX
Vermont Corrections Commissioner Steve Gold says he recommended that the
warden at a private Kentucky prison be removed from his job. Former warden
Randy Eckman, who has not been blamed for the incident, has been transferred
to another job. He says inmates were angry over policies instituted by the
prison warden.
September 21, 2004 Lexington Herald
Leader
Folks at the state Corrections Department subscribe to a strange logic about
what constitutes good performance by a private prison company. After inmates
rioted last week at Corrections Corporation of America's Lee Adjustment
Center in Beattyville, department officials suggested that the incident might
be a plus for CCA when Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration gets around to
choosing a company to run a new prison. It seems CCA's swift response to the
riot impressed department officials. We're not surprised that the department
would adopt a positive view of CCA response to the riot, during which several
buildings burned. After all, the agency now is run by John Rees, a former CCA
vice president, who might be more inclined than most to cut his former company
some slack. But even when you take those friendly ties into consideration,
the notion that a riot can somehow become a plus for CCA is absurd. By even
suggesting such an idea, cabinet officials sent a message to CCA and other
private prison operators: "Get a few inmates to start a riot, quash it
quickly and decisively, and we'll give you another prison to run." That
logic is outlandish even by Fletcher administration standards. Rather than
earning CCA some kind of bonus points, last week's riot, viewed in the
context of the company's recent history in Kentucky and elsewhere, should
give the administration and the General Assembly reason to question the
wisdom of privatizing prison operations. In July, prisoners rioted at CCA
facilities in Colorado and Mississippi. That same month, a female prisoner
died of a skull fracture after a confrontation with a guard at a CCA prison
in Nashville. Here in Kentucky, CCA's record includes a 2001 riot at its
Otter Creek Correctional Center in Floyd County. And some of the
approximately 400 Vermont prisoners now housed at the Beattyville facility
were moved there from CCA's Marion Adjustment Center after an incident in
which a guard was fired for improper sexual contact with two inmates from
Vermont. A performance record of that nature doesn't justify the positive
spin the Corrections Department tried to put on last week's riot. On the
contrary, it begs for an investigation into why CCA facilities seem
particularly prone to riots and other negative incidents involving guards and
inmates.
September 21, 2004 Rutland Herald
The warden of a private Kentucky prison that was the scene of a riot last
week was replaced Monday, the latest fallout from an uprising in which nearly
two dozen Vermont inmates took part. According to Vermont Corrections
Commissioner Steven Gold, the number of inmates involved in last Tuesday's
riot could be 23, about six times more than originally thought. He said that
"a much larger group has been identified" by the jail's operator,
Corrections Corp. of America, which last week said only four Vermont inmates
were involved in the riot. Randy Stovall, who until last week was warden at
one of the company's other prisons, took over for Randy Eckman, who had been
warden at Lee for about a year, according to CCA spokeswoman Louise
Chickering. Eckman's management style apparently contributed to unrest among
some of the 400 Vermont inmates who are housed in the rural prison in eastern
Kentucky, according to Matthew Valerio, the Vermont defender general.
"The apparent cause of the riot was a somewhat arbitrary and restrictive
change in the rules and privileges at the facility," Valerio said
Monday. "These included changes in and reductions in use of the
commissary, changes in food quality and increased punishment for minor
infractions. That really ratcheted up the tension at the facility."
"As of right now, these people have been in a lockdown state for almost
a week, haven't had a hot meal in about a week, and, if that doesn't get
resolved very quickly, we will ask that changes be made."
September 21, 2004 WCAX
The prison in Kentucky where a riot involving Vermont inmates took place has
a new warden. Corrections Corporation of America says it has replaced the
warden who was in charge during the uprising. Randy Stovall will take over as top
official at the prison immediately. Prison officials say the riot followed a
dramatic increase in inmates and cutbacks in privileges such as free time
outdoors.
September 17, 2004 AP
A doubling of the population with prisoners from 1,000 miles away, cuts in
privileges and reduced time to visit with friends and family are some of the
reasons observers cite for a riot at the privately run Lee Adjustment Center
this week. Barry Kade, a Vermont lawyer and a member of the Alliance for Prison
Justice, an advocacy group that works to improve conditions for Vermont
inmates, said he has received an increasing number of complaints from Vermont
inmates sent to Kentucky this year to relieve prison crowding in Vermont. Of
the nine inmates who officials said started the fires, five were from
Kentucky and four from Vermont. "Usually when there's a prison riot it
occurs after months or years of intolerable conditions," Kade said. Ray Flum, director of inmate classification for the Vermont
Department of Corrections, said the state has been sending prisoners to
publicly run prisons out of state for a number of years. But its contract
with Corrections Corporation is its first with a private corporation.
"Are we surprised that something like this happened and we're involved
in it? Yes we are," Flum said. "In the
six or seven years we've been doing business like this out of state it's the
first time this has happened."
Corrections Corporation also experienced riots in July at prisons it
runs in Colorado and Mississippi - both of which house out-of-state inmates.
Chickering said the company doesn't believe adding prisoners from another
state was the cause of the uprisings. "I think this latest uprising fits
into this general pattern of unhappiness by prisoners who have been
transported out of state," said Paul Wright, editor of Prison Legal
News, a Vermont-based magazine about the prison industry. Vermont inmates at
Beattyville complained to Kade that visits from friends and family - who must
drive about 1,000 miles to Kentucky - were cut to two hours a week. Free time
on the yard was cut and some inmates alleged they were mistreated through
physical abuse or by being put into isolation without having committed any
violation, he said.
September 17, 2004 Times Argus
Four Vermont inmates helped to instigate an uprising and set a fire that
toppled a guard tower and caused extensive damage to a private prison in
Kentucky, officials said Wednesday. Some of the 25 to 150 inmates in the
recreation yard tore down the guard tower and used the wood to break into the
commissary. Officials said they then threw food and tobacco to other
prisoners and set fires that damaged one of the housing units and the
building where the kitchen is located. Earlier this year, at the request of
Vermont officials, CCA moved 195 Vermont prisoners from the Marion Adjustment
Center in Kentucky to the Lee facility because inmates complained about
inadequate about inadequate library, dining and recreational facilities. The
Marion prison had also come under scrutiny when two Vermont inmates were
returned to the state after accusing a guard there of sexually assaulting
them. The guard has since been fired and no Vermont inmates remain in that
facility.
September 16, 2004 AP
A privately operated prison in eastern Kentucky was under a security clamp
and inmates were doubled up in cells, a day after prisoners torched three
buildings during an uprising. The medium-security Lee Adjustment Center at
Beattyville was on "lockdown" Wednesday following a disturbance
that erupted as inmates milled around a recreation yard Tuesday night. Ken Kopczynski of Private Corrections Institute Inc., a group
opposed to private prisons, said such prisons are understaffed and have high
turnover, leading to inexperienced guards. "What that does is it leads
to more abuse and more safety-related issues because they don't know what's
going on," Kopczynski said. He said locking up
people hundreds of miles from families - such as the Vermont inmates -
"doesn't help the situation." Vermont inmates have been housed at
the Kentucky prison since this year to help ease overcrowding in Vermont
facilities.
September 16, 2004 Herald-Leader
It started when nine prisoners tried to tear down a wooden guard tower in the
outside recreation yard of the Lee Adjustment Center, officials said
yesterday. What followed Tuesday night was a three-hour riot in which inmates
set fires and threw rocks before being subdued by special prison response
teams armed with nightsticks, plastic handcuffs and pepper spray. By the time
the smoke cleared and the sun rose yesterday, the medium-security private
prison was left with a heavily damaged administration building and a housing
unit where no one will be able to live for a while at least. But Barry Kade
of the Vermont Alliance for Prison Justice said he had been receiving e-mails
and phone calls for several weeks from prisoners complaining of mistreatment.
Kade said he has been getting complaints about unprofessional conduct by
guards, bullying, and inmates being put in isolation without being charged
with an infraction. Steve Gold, commissioner of the Vermont Department of
Corrections, said a team from his state will interview inmates about security
and conditions at the prison. Gold, the Vermont corrections official, said
his agency had concerns, including lack of space, when prisoners were held at
CCA's Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary's. He said there was also an
incident there in which a prison officer was fired after alleged improper
sexual contact with two Vermont inmates.
September 15, 2004 Herald-Leader
Inmates took partial control of a prison in Beattyville last night, starting
fires and claiming that they had taken at least one hostage before state
police regained control. "There was a period of time that a small group
of guards was separated from other folks inside. Ultimately, it turned out it
was not a hostage situation," Miller said. The Lee Adjustment Center is
owned by Corrections Corporation of America. It is a minimum security prison
with 800 inmates. About half from Kentucky and half from Vermont. Beattyville
police Chief Steve Mays was at the prison while inmates still had partial
control. "This was quite a sight when we got here," Mays said about
midnight. "Smoke was rolling, people were yelling, prisoners were
throwing big rocks over the fence. But it has quieted down now." Fires
set to two housing units had been extinguished by 10:50 p.m., but the
administration building was still smoldering, Lamb said. Mays said that the
guard shack and the administration building were heavily damaged by the fire,
and that the cafeteria was also damaged.
September 14, 2004 WKYT
Order is back after hundreds of inmates created a disturbance at an Eastern
Kentucky prison. Officials say the prisoners started a number of fires that
took hours to get under control. About
8:00PM Tuesday, inmates got out of control and set the administration
building on fire.
Police responded by the dozens on ground and in the air to keep prisoners
from escaping. After nearly four hours, the fire was put out and the inmates
were contained in the facility's recreation yard.
August 4, 2004
A Vermont inmate sent out of state to serve his sentence was hospitalized
with pneumonia three weeks ago without anyone from the state or the prison
telling the inmate's family that he was sick, officials
acknowledge. Francis Joseph, an inmate at the Lee Adjustment Center in
Kentucky, was admitted to the hospital several weeks ago suffering from
pneumonia. Lillian Joseph, the inmate's ex-wife, said the
hospital called her three weeks ago to tell her about Joseph's condition. The
news was a shock because her family wasn't aware that he was sick. Corrections
Corp. Of America, a private company, runs the Lee Adjustment Center.
According to a policy between the Vermont Corrections Department and CCA, the
Josephs should have been notified by the prison about the illness. (The
Champlain Channel)
January 22, 2004
A 3-year-old Owsley County girl was in critical
condition last night with a fractured skull, and her father and a woman who
lives with him were arrested on charges of first-degree criminal abuse.
Michael J. Riley, 28, and Dorothy C. Birch, 25, of
Boone-ville, were ordered held on $50,000 cash
bonds each in Three Forks Regional Jail in Beattyville. Alexis Riley, was described by neighbors yesterday as a "teeny,
tiny" blond-haired child. Alexis
suffered cuts and bruises "over her entire body," a Kentucky State
Police report said. She was listed in critical condition last night at the
University of Kentucky Children's Hospital. "She's fighting for her life," Betty
Brandenburg, the child's grandmother, told WKYT-TV. In Owsley County, where Alexis lived in her father's brick
home in Chestnut Gap on Ky. 28, about 3 miles from Booneville, neighbors said
they were shocked. "Everyone is
upset and just torn all to pieces," said Phyllis Johnson, who lives near
Riley's home. She said Riley received
sole custody of Alexis more than a year ago when he was divorced from the
child's mother. He had been living for about a year with Birch, a former
nursing home employee who recently went to work for a physical therapist,
Johnson said. She said Riley recently began
working at the Lee Adjustment Center, a private prison in Beattyville, and he
had helped tend her husband's tobacco crop. (Eastern Kentucky Buraeu)
June 8, 2001
Two former prison guards left disabled by injuries, then fired for being
unable to meet all the job's demands, lost again Friday in the Kentucky Court
of Appeals. Ferman Heaton and Gary Evans sued
Corrections Corporation of America, charging disability discrimination under
the Kentucky Civil Rights Act and Kentucky Equal Opportunities Act. The
company has operated Lee Adjustment Center, a prison in Beattyville, on
contract for the state since 1998. Prior to that, the prison was owned
by U.S. Corrections Corp. When Corrections Corporation of America took
over, a new job description for correctional officers listed strenuous
activities, including breaking up fights and restraining inmates by force, as
"essential functions." It also said officers "must be
able to work any post assignment on any shift." Heaton and Evans
conceded they could not perform the essential functions, and they were
terminated. They sued in Lee Circuit Court in August 1998, contending
they should have been allowed to keep working at the gate, regardless of the
job description. Siding with company, Lee Circuit Judge William W. Trude Jr. said Heaton and Evans "cannot 'tack' their
employment from USCC to that of CCA." The appeals court
agreed. (AP)
Little Sandy Correctional Complex
Sandy Hook, Kentucky
CCA
March 12, 2005 Daily Independent
Flanked by a group of local legislators and public officials - many of whom
had battled him for nearly a year - Gov. Ernie Fletcher on Thursday publicly
addressed a group of citizens gathered at the Little Sandy Correctional
Complex to discuss the future of the $92 million facility. The governor made
the statement many had been expecting to hear: The prison will be state run.
The state's top official, who had once directed the state seek bids from
private contractors for possible operation of the 961-bed facility, said
bidding has been closed. "Once it became pretty clear the state could
operate as efficiently, I asked them to close down (bidding) and operate as a
state facility," Fletcher told reporters following a press conference. A
longtime advocate of keeping the facility state-operated, Rep. Rocky Adkins,
D-Sandy Hook, praised the governor's decision. He said he understood
Fletcher, who inherited a $300 million state deficit when he took office,
faced a tough decision as the administration studied the most cost-effective
measure for operating the prison.
February 3, 2005 Herald Leader
Kentucky's $92 million new prison, originally scheduled to open eight months
ago, may sit empty in Elliott County for considerably longer, according to
state officials. But for just how long, why, who is at fault and what's
being done about it are still mostly mysteries. Officials in Gov. Ernie
Fletcher's administration yesterday said the 961-bed Little Sandy
Correctional Complex cannot be occupied any time soon because of
"serious construction defects." They refused to say more. There are
no serious defects in the prison, and it's ready for use, said Tim Robbins,
vice president of Ray Bell Construction Co. in Brentwood, Tenn. "I don't
think the governor's office knows what it's talking about," Robbins said.
Legislators who have toured the prison agreed. They theorize that Fletcher's
agenda to privatize state government is the real reason for the delay.
"This is a ruse," said Rep. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, who lives near
the prison. Last year, the Finance Cabinet accepted bids from companies
interested in managing the prison and using some of its beds to hold
profitable out-of-state inmates. Democratic legislators have opposed that
idea, arguing for the state's Corrections Department to run the facility instead.
One of the bidders, Corrections Corp. of America, is a heavy donor to
Republican politics, including Fletcher's gubernatorial campaign. Fletcher
hired a former CCA executive as his prisons chief. "What we're hearing
in the legislature is that Fletcher is stalling for time because all the bids
came in way too high," Webb said. "They're stuck. Now they can't
make the argument that privatization is cheaper." House Majority Leader
Rocky Adkins, whose district includes the prison, expressed surprise
yesterday about the administration's allegations. "If there is something
seriously wrong with the place, I've never seen it or heard it," said
Adkins, D-Sandy Hook.
December 10, 2004 Herald Leader
Missing a step; Fletcher should have known law on prisons. One of these days,
Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration may come to understand that there's more
than one kind of waste in state government. The surface waste -- the kind
Kentuckians have seen from most every recent governor, including Fletcher --
includes such things as paying cronies highly to do little or nothing,
awarding no-bid contracts to political contributors, having a pastry chef on
the Governor's Mansion staff or even installing hidden doors in the Capitol.
But there's a less obvious kind of waste, too. It's the waste of resources
involved when you don't look before you leap, and later find that you leaped
the wrong way. Take the administration's plan for privatizing the $92 million
prison the state just built in Elliott County, for instance. It turns out that
all the time Fletcher's folks spent discussing this idea, all the effort they
put into drafting a request for bids from private companies and all the hours
spent evaluating those bids have been a complete waste of state money. Why?
Because privatizing this particular prison would be illegal. Had
administration officials bothered to check the law, they could have avoided
all that waste because they would have found the same restrictions on the
location of privatized prisons that Deputy Attorney General Pierce Whites
found. What Whites found when his office was asked for an opinion on the
subject was KRS 197.505, which governs privatization of prisons. One
provision of that statute says, "Any adult correctional facility
contracted for pursuant to this section shall be constructed only in a county
with an established Kentucky State Police post or in a county in which at
least two (2) state police officers reside as a result of a duty assignment
or in a county with a full-time police department." Elliott County has
none of the above. Therefore, state law prohibits privatization of the new
prison located there. Whites also said KRS 197.505 allows for privatization
of prisons only in cases where the contract builds its own facility. That
part of his opinion may be open to a bit of debate, since it hinges on what
lawmakers intended the word "establish" to mean. But the provision
restricting the location of private prisons is abundantly clear. So, we
assume Fletcher and his staff were ignorant of these restrictions because
they didn't bother to check the law. We must assume that because the
alternative is that they knew about the law and intentionally were going to
violate it. Surely that can't be the case because Gov. Ernie "Waste,
Fraud and Abuse" Fletcher would never want to get a reputation as a
willful lawbreaker.
December 8, 2004 Courier-Journal
Gov. Ernie Fletcher would break Kentucky law by allowing a company to operate
a $92million prison that the state is building in Elliott County, the
attorney general said yesterday. A prison built with state money cannot be
privatized, and private prisons are restricted to counties with a strong
police presence, which Elliott County lacks, according to the opinion from
Attorney General Greg Stumbo's office. The opinion, written by Deputy
Attorney General Pierce Whites, was issued as state officials were reviewing
bids from companies that want to operate the 961-bed prison. The
administration had planned to issue a contract by the end of the month, but a
Fletcher spokesman said they have not decided whether to honor the opinion
but will continue to review bids. Senate President David Williams,
R-Burkesville, said the state should privatize the prison and disregard the
opinion.
"It has no weight of law whatsoever," said Williams, an attorney. The opinion said state law prohibits the government
from contracting with a company to run a prison if taxpayers paid for the
facility. By law, the state can contract with companies to "establish,
operate, and manage adult correctional facilities," the opinion says.
Under the law, the state can contract with a private prison company only if
the company has built the prison that would house Kentucky inmates, according
to the opinion. Corrections Commissioner John D. Rees, a former executive at
Corrections Corporation of America, did not return a call seeking comment.
December 7, 2004 AP
Kentucky law prohibits the state from privatizing a new prison in Elliott
County, the attorney general's office said in an opinion Tuesday. State
government may contract with private companies for the "establishment,
operation and management" of adult prisons. But because taxpayers paid
for the Elliott County prison's construction, a private company may not be
paid to operate and manage it, according to the opinion. "The adult
correctional facility in Elliott County, not having been established by
private provider, may therefore not be operated by a private provider,"
Deputy Attorney General Pierce Whites wrote in the opinion. House Majority
Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, asked Attorney General Greg Stumbo for a
decision on the matter in October. Stumbo, a Democrat, was Adkins' immediate
predecessor as House majority leader. Elliott County is restricted from
having a privately run prison because, among other things, it lacks some of
the security outlined in state law, according to the opinion. The county does
not have an established Kentucky State Police post, nor does it have a
full-time police force. "The wisdom of this statutory directive is
underscored by the recent riot at the privately run Lee Adjustment
Center," White wrote. "To hand over the keys to a private,
for-profit company is wrong," Adkins said. "It's bad public
policy."
October 8, 2004 Courier Journal
A House Democratic leader says state law prohibits Gov. Ernie Fletcher's
administration from privatizing a new Elliott County prison built with
taxpayer money. Majority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, yesterday
asked Attorney General Greg Stumbo for an opinion on whether the Department of
Corrections can contract with a private company to operate and maintain the
$92million, 961-bed prison. Adkins also criticized the department for
soliciting bids to run the prison just three days after a riot at the
privately run Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville. In a recent interview,
state Corrections Commissioner John Rees said bidding by private companies to
run the Elliott County prison will continue despite the riot by more than 800
Kentucky and Vermont prisoners at the Lee prison last month. In asking for the opinion, Adkins said that he
believes that the state cannot contract with a private company to run the
Elliott County prison because state law requires all privately run prisons to
be built by private companies. He said the Elliott County facility should be
run by the state. Taxpayers will pay $8million in debt service annually on
the project, Adkins said.
October 8, 2004 Herald Leader
House Floor Leader Rocky Adkins has asked the state attorney general's office
whether state law allows the Fletcher administration to place the state's new
$92 million Elliott County prison in private hands. Before leaving Frankfort
yesterday to attend a raucous anti-privatization rally at the Little Sandy
Correctional Complex near his home, Adkins said he thinks state law requires
a private-prison operator to "establish" the facility as well as
manage and operate it. The new prison was authorized by former Gov. Paul
Patton, a Democrat, but when Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican, took office
this year, officials said it was not needed and said they would consider
allowing a private company to operate it. Corrections officials moved ahead
with that plan yesterday. While protesters with picket signs gathered outside
the double coils of razor wire along Ky. 7, state corrections officials met
inside with representatives of half a dozen private-prison companies. State
Sen. Walter Blevins, D-Sandy Hook, one of several Democrat legislators who
attended the rally, stood near a cardboard sign that said, "New Nest for
Birdwhistle," a reference to former CHA Health
chief Mark Birdwhistell who helped Fletcher draft a
controversial insurance plan for state employees that gave two exclusive
contracts to the company. Blevins noted that state corrections chief John
Rees is a former vice president of Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of
America, which owns all three private prisons in Kentucky and had four
representatives at yesterday's "vendor's conference" in Elliott
County.
"He (Fletcher) has got an insider in corrections now, too," Blevins
said. "Seems like all of his people are lobbyists for corporations that
are trying to privatize state functions," Blevins said. Larry Bland, president of the Fraternal Order of
Police lodge at the state prison in Eddyville, was not so sure.
"Fletcher was elected to clear up this mess," he said, "but
what he's done is make the mess worse. It's no longer the 'good-old-boy
system,' it's the 'good-old-corporation system.'"
February 3, 2004
A nationwide prison management company is interested in operating the new
Elliott County state prison, if Kentucky leaders opt for privatizing the
895-bed facility. "We would certainly have a strong interest in
partnering with the state should they make that decision," said Steve
Owen, spokesman for Corrections Corp. of America of Nashville. The
company was not approached by the state, but has made its interest known as
it does routinely in areas of the country where it has clients, Owen
said. Corrections Corp. operates 64 private prisons in 21 states. It owns
and operates three in Kentucky, including the Otter Creek Correctional Center
in Wheelwright. The state owns the new Little Sandy Correctional
Complex near Sandy Hook, and expects to finish its construction in
June. Plans of instead contracting out the prison to a private company
to manage it stirred up recent debate when Lt. Gov. Steve Pence, also
Kentucky's Justice Cabinet secretary, called it an option for Kentucky's
cash-strapped budget. Pence said the state's studying how much it would
cost to let someone else handle operations, someone that could do it more
effectively and efficiently. In his budget address last week, Gov.
Ernie Fletcher also mentioned the possibility of privatization — an option a
cabinet leader later in the week, during an interview with The Independent's
editorial board, called one of two he heard being considered in meetings:
privatize it, or mothball it. Opponents, including local
judge-executives and legislators who see the new prison as an economic boost
for a job-poor northeast Kentucky, dismiss the idea of privatization.
"It's not the right call, because the investment has already been made
there by the state," said state Rep. Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, who
serves as House Majority Leader. And Adkins said he's not surprised a
private company is watching the issue. "As a for-profit company,
I'm sure they're interested when $90 million of taxpayer money has already
been invested to build the facility," he said, adding such companies
usually build their own. "Every study I have looked at shows the
state runs them efficiently and just as cheap as privates can," Adkins
said. "There are two areas where they might do it cheaper; they can
build one cheaper, possibly, and the other has to be in benefits to workers."
Those benefits, especially good health care coverage, and better wages lie at
the core of opponents' arguments, local officials say. A job listing
for a corrections officer on the Department of Corrections Web site gave a
minimum salary of $1,654.58 a month, or just over $10 an hour. Some
who've already applied haven't been secretive about another reason — the
state's good-paying retirement plan. As an example of the private
corrections industry it says it started in 1983, Corrections Corp. works on a
contract basis with the governmental agencies who are its customers,
according to the company's Web site. The site also lists several ways a
private-run prison is more efficient, including non-bureaucratic purchasing
procedures, controlling overtime and economies of scale — as a system it
"can command reduced prices." On salaries and benefits, Owen
said a number of factors drive what's offered to its 15,000 employees
nationwide. "What is competitive or the prevailing wage for that
community, because that's where we're going to be competing for the labor
pool," he said. At Otter Creek in Wheelwright, for example,
starting salary for a corrections officer is $7.67 an hour, one of the
highest area wages, Owen said. "Also, obviously from contract
standpoint, what level of services they want would impact salaries," he
said. In some instances, those contracts may contain salary
requirements, he added. And with a federal government facility, salaries fall
under federal wage acts. "We feel confident that we are competitive
in the areas we operate," Owen said. "We certainly have a good
benefits package that's ... well received." The company prides
itself on a 401k retirement package, into which it contributes a percentage,
and if an employee chooses to contribute then the company matches dollar for
dollar, he said. Corrections Corp. also voluntarily adheres to
accreditation standards of the American Correctional Association, generally
accepted as the highest standards, Owen said. Rep. Adkins said it's
still early in the process in Frankfort, but there is a lot of support in the
House to keep the commitment to keep the Elliott County prison state
maintained. "I think we'll do some things within the budget to try
to ensure the state operates and maintains it, both in the budget language
and in trying to find more revenue (for) the facility," he said.
"There will be continued debate throughout this (General Assembly)
session, but I have made my position very clear." The state
running its own state prison is the right way to go, he said. (The
Independent)
Louisville Metro Corrections
Louisville, Kentucky
Prison Health Services
Dec 27, 2015 wdrb.com
Metro Government to pay $50,000 to family of inmate whose death could have
been prevented
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The city has agreed to pay $50,000 to the
family of a 27-year-old inmate whose 2012 death at Louisville Metro
Corrections could have been prevented with better medical care. Samantha
George, one of seven inmates who died in Metro Corrections in 2012, was found
unresponsive in her cell on August 8, 2012. Her death "would have been
prevented had she received timely and appropriate medical care," an
investigation concluded in 2013. George's family sued Metro Corrections and Corizon, the jail’s healthcare company at the time. Corizon provided "negligent" care and failed to
follow procedures for treating inmates undergoing narcotics withdrawal, Dr.
William Smock found in reviewing George's death. "There is compelling
evidence of a significant deviation from the standard of care and medical
negligence on the part of the medical providers," Smock, a medical
examiner and police consultant, wrote in his report. On Nov. 25, Metro
Government agreed to pay George’s estate $50,000 with the stipulation that
the city and Metro Corrections Director Mark Bolton doesn't admit it was at
fault, according to the settlement, obtained under the Kentucky Open Records
Act. Jessie Halladay, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Attorney's
Office, which represented the city in the lawsuit, said the settlement
"speaks for itself." It is unclear if George's family has also
settled with Corizon. Because the company is
private, any settlement would not be available under the open records law. A
call to the family's attorney, Chad McCoy, was not immediately returned.
George was one of three 2012 Metro Corrections deaths that investigations
found could have been prevented with better care, according to records
obtained by WDRB. Arrested on a felony theft charge, George spent one night
at a Bullitt County jail before being taken to Metro Corrections shortly
before 7 p.m. on August 7, 2012, according to police and prosecutors' reports
on the events leading up to George's death. George was booked at Metro
Corrections at 6:40 p.m. and screened by a nurse shortly before 9 p.m. George
was found to be a diabetic with an antibiotic-resistant MRSA infection. The
nurse "failed to place an observation form to Inmate George which would
have required her to be monitored at more frequent times," according to
a summary of the police investigation into George's death. Alone in her jail
cell, George was vomiting and nauseated when nurse Kristen Laws checked on
her around 3 a.m. George received an insulin shot to help lower her
blood-sugar levels, which Laws said were "high." George was also
being monitored for detoxification. At 6 a.m., Laws called a physician who
ordered Phenergan, a medicine meant to ease George's nausea. Medical staff
gave George the Phenergan and ice chips at around 6:20 a.m. Laws told police
investigators that she asked the doctor, whom she doesn't identify, if he
wanted to send George to an emergency room. The doctor told her that he would
see George later that day, Laws said. "I think another nurse saw her and
checked her again before she went to court, so I don't think the doctor ever
saw her that day," Laws said in a police interview. George's condition
was "slightly better" when she was checked around 8 a.m., according
to the Commonwealth's Attorney's summary of the police investigation. But
medical examiner Smock, in his review of jail cameras, noted that George
bumped against an elevator door frame and was holding her stomach when
walking into an elevator shortly before 8:30 a.m. After sitting down in
arraignment court around 8:45 a.m., George twice put a trash bag to her mouth
and bent over, and three times she leaned on or bent over a desk, Smock
observed. Jail workers, nurses and corrections officers looked into George's
cell 11 times starting at 10:35 a.m., but no one entered the cell until 4:08 p.m.,
about five minutes after a corrections officer knocked on the cell door and
noticed George naked from the waist down and unresponsive, according to
Smock's report and a police interview with the officer. Medical staff and
emergency personnel responded to George's cell and attempted to revive her,
but she was taken to University Hospital and pronounced dead at 7:19 p.m.,
according to a summary of the police investigation. Smock concluded that the Corizon staff failed to start the appropriate detox monitoring
and follow the correct procedures for someone detoxing from narcotics. But
Smock found no indication that the staff of Brentwood, Tenn.-based Corizon acted maliciously or willfully in denying care to
George. Based on those conclusions, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Mark L.
Miller notified police that his office won't prosecute the case or present it
to a grand jury.
Mar
9, 2014 wdrb.com
LOUISVILLE,
Ky., (WDRB) -- The family of a former Metro Corrections inmate has filed a
wrongful death lawsuit against jail employees and its former medical
provider, among others, claiming negligence was a "substantial
factor" in her 2012 death. The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson Circuit Court
Tuesday on behalf of LaKenya Porter, claims Corizon, the private company that provided the jail's
medical care at the time, and Metro Corrections director Mark Bolton failed
to properly train and supervise staff, who provided Porter with inappropriate
medical care. The lawsuit comes weeks after the Louisville Metro Police's
Public Integrity Unit completed its investigation into Porter's July 24,
2012, death, with prosecutors finding no criminal conduct but criticizing
both Corizon and Metro Corrections for their care.
While the lawsuit comes after the one-year statute of limitations on filing
civil action, Brandon Lawrence, who is representing Porter's estate, said the
family didn't know about the myriad problems with Porter's care until the
police investigation was released in January. "The jail gave them
no information" on Porter's death, he said in an
interview. Bolton has said only that Porter, 33, died of natural
causes, and neither jail officials nor Corizon have
commented further on Porter's death because of the potential of litigation. A
request for comment from Corizon on Thursday was
not immediately returned. Bill Patteson, a
spokesperson for the county attorney's office, which will represent Metro
Corrections, said he could not comment on the pending litigation. The
lawsuit is seeking compensatory and punitive damages as well as a jury
trial. In total, seven inmates died in Metro Corrections in 2012.
Criminal investigations have concluded in each of those cases, with no
charges being filed. Last year, Tennessee-based Corizon
decided not to rebid for its $5.5 million annual contract, though it had been
the medical provider at Metro Corrections for most of the past two decades.
According to the police investigation and conclusions from the Jefferson
Commonwealth's Attorney's office, Corizon medical
staff recommended not booking Porter into jail on July 21, 2012, because of
her health. She had arrived from Jewish Hospital on a stretcher, so weak she
could not stand and her legs were seeping a yellowish fluid. But Metro
Corrections Deputy Director Dwayne Clark overruled the medical staff and
ordered Porter to be booked. Clark later told investigators he was not aware
of how serious Porter's condition was. Porter died later at University
Hospital following a "negligent" lack of care during her 27 hours
at Metro Corrections, according to the records released records from Metro
police. Porter, who had been diagnosed with liver failure and congestive
heart failure, never should have been taken into jail in the first place,
investigators concluded. Officials with Corizon
said Porter needed more care than the jail could provide. And during her
incarceration, Porter was never given her medications. Dr. William Smock, a
forensic examiner who acted as a consultant for Louisville Metro Police
in the investigation, concluded that Metro Corrections' decision to overrule
three medical providers, including the jail doctor, and admit Porter to jail,
"directly compromised (Porter's) health and welfare." And he said
the failure of medical staff to provide Porter any of her prescribed
medication or have a jail physician evaluate her also "contributed to
her death." At 2 a.m. on July 22, the charge nurse at Metro Corrections
"again" called the jail's doctor, identified only as Dr. Kad, about taking Porter to the hospital emergency room,
according to police records. The charge nurse noted Porter "was not an
appropriate fit for level of care at the jail," according to the police
investigation. But the jail doctor "refused," saying Porter
"would not be admitted" to the hospital. In fact, it wasn't until
the power went out in the jail 20 hours later -- about 10 p.m. -- that Porter
was taken to University Hospital. She died there on July 24.
Feb. 3, 2013 The
Courier-Journal
Karen May talked
almost daily by phone with her granddaughter, Savannah Sparks, as the
27-year-old was detoxing from a heroin addiction while being held on a theft
charge at Metro Corrections in Louisville, Ky., last April. “I thought she
would get the care she needed,” May, 67, said in a recent interview. “I
thought they would help her.” But on April 12, six days after arriving at the
jail facility, Sparks died at University Hospital in Louisville from opiate
abuse and withdrawal, according to the Jefferson County coroner’s office.
Sparks’ death is one of five under investigation — along with a handful of
cases in court — at least some of which involve allegations of inadequate
inmate health care by employees of Corizon Inc.,
the Brentwood-based company that bills itself as the leading provider of
correctional health care services in the country. After seven deaths in the
jail last year and one in 2011, Metro Corrections is reviewing the practices
of Corizon, whose $5.5 million annual contract is
up for renewal at the end of this month. The company, which has jail
contracts in 29 states, is facing other lawsuits in Kentucky from inmates and
has come under harsh criticism elsewhere for providing inadequate medical
care, allegations the company has denied. In December, Louisville Metro
Corrections announced that six unidentified Corizon
workers resigned amid an investigation by Metro Corrections that found they
“may” have contributed to the deaths of Sparks and Samantha George, who died
Aug. 8 of complications from a severe form of diabetes, compounded by heart
disease. The investigations of those deaths by the jail and police are
ongoing, and Metro Corrections officials would not talk about specific
details. But Metro Corrections Director Mark Bolton said he believes that Corizon medical staff took too long to have a company
doctor look at Sparks and George. Bolton said in an interview that if Corizon doctors had evaluated the inmates sooner, they
may have been taken to the hospital more quickly. Jail staff sifted through
medical records and found that there were delays in delivering medication and
getting inmates to see a nurse and doctor. “The more we looked into it, the
more disturbed I was getting as to some of the service delivery gaps in the
health care of those individuals,” Bolton said. Officials with Corizon, which has started louisvillejailnews.com to
address questions about its care in Louisville, said patients who need
hospitalization receive it. “We have no incentive not to provide the hospital
trip,” said Levin Jones, vice president of operations for Corizon.
“There is no financial incentive to avoid it. None. ... The financial
responsibility for all off-site care falls to the county.” However, when the
company was renegotiating its contract in 2010, Corizon,
then called Correctional Medical Services, touted its track record of saving
the city money by minimizing inmate trips to a hospital. The company included
a graph in its proposal showing that it had reduced inmate days in the
hospital from 38 in 2007 to 20 as of late 2010. It reduced emergency room
runs by nearly half. And it added that in 2008, 135 people arrested were
diverted to the hospital emergency room before being admitted to the jail,
which Corizon said prompted the fire department and
EMS to request a review, as each trip is costly — an average of $855 per trip
— time-intensive and often unnecessary. By 2009, after the medical staff was
challenged to reduce emergency room visits, Corizon
said, the number of calls for EMS to take inmates to the emergency room instead
of being booked into the jail had dropped nearly 20 percent.
January 8, 2013 WHAS11.com
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- Changes have arrived at Louisville's Metro
Corrections in the last several months and more will come in 2013 after the
jail saw an unprecedented increase in deaths there. Seven inmates died while
in custody in just seven months last year. WHAS11 first broke the story last
fall and our I-Team investigation continues as families of two of those
deceased inmates--Savannah Sparks, who died in April, and Kenneth Cross, who
died in August--have hired attorneys. Sparks' family attorney, Seth Gladstein, said they have not filed a lawsuit but are
considering one. Sparks' grandmother, Karen May, spoke exclusively to
WHAS11's Bryan Baker about trying to find the answers surrounding her
granddaughter's death, five days after she was arrested for shoplifting.
Sparks was a 27-year-old mother of three boys and was addicted to heroin. May
hoped the April arrest would help turn Sparks' life around. "She was going
to check into the hospital again, and so when she called me and she said that
she had been arrested, I thought, well, this will help her," May cried.
"She'll be ok. (Five) days later they called me that she was dead, and
they couldn't give me any answers." In Sparks' case
-- jail leaders told us it began with a "medical triggering
event" in her cell. She died later at the hospital. The cause of death
according to the death certificate WHAS11 obtained is "Complications of
Chronic Substance Abuse with Withdrawal" even though she had been off
the streets and supposed to be under supervision for almost a week. The man
tasked with overseeing everything that happens inside the walls at Metro
Corrections is director Mark Bolton. The seven deaths are the most in one
year since he took over late in 2008. In some of those deaths Bolton tells
WHAS11 drugs are factor even though the jail has an extensive inmate
detoxification program funded by your taxpayer dollars. "How do
people die in the jail if they are under detox?" asked WHAS11's Bryan
Baker of Bolton. "Bad things happen in jail, Bryan. We've got 2,000
inmates in here, most of whom don't take care of themselves," Bolton
said. "Unfortunately we had some folks die in the hospital and there are
folks that die in the jail. That's something that I don't like, that's
something that we are trying to improve upon." WHAS11 dug deeper and
found that medical attention Sparks and other inmates need is provided not by
Metro Corrections but by a contractor. Metro Louisville pays Corizon Correctional Healthcare $5.3 million dollars --
paid for by you, the taxpayer. Corizon is a
Tennessee company, providing health care to inmates in more than 400 jails in
31 states, according to its website. We also found multiple wrongful death
lawsuits filed against Corizon in the past two
years, including one after an inmate's death in the Lexington-Fayette County
jail in 2012, according to court records and media reports. Five Corizon employees resigned from their post at Louisville
Metro Corrections from the top-down including supervisors, an on-site jail
administrator and nurses after, according to a Metro Corrections release,
their actions "may have may have contributed" to the deaths of
Sparks in April and Samantha George in August. "There were some health
care issues with these two inmates where there were some delays in being seen
by the doctor, I think there were some delays in having some vital signs
checked, and I think that these delays were more than what I would like to
see regarding a reasonable level of healthcare in a corrections
facility," Bolton said. According to the jail's own policy obtained by
WHAS11 through public court records, if there are signs of withdrawal the
inmate is supposed to be examined and transferred to the jail's medical unit.
Severe or life-threatening symptoms shall send the inmate to the hospital. We
asked director Bolton if those procedures were followed in the case of
Savannah Sparks. He said he could not talk about open investigations but told
us care for inmates is much more complicated. "They may report it,"
Bolton said. "They may not. Many times we don't even know what kind of
drugs they're on or what their detox issues are. We deal with those folks everyday. What we are doing -- we are upping the ante. We
are increasing our knowledge base, our resource base, and we're trying to
prevent similar issues from occurring at the rate that they have been."
After Bolton hired a consultant to review Metro Corrections Policy Corizon, a full-time detox nurse is on staff for the
first time at the jail -- Bolton says at his request. He also wants a
healthcare compliance monitor. Corizon declined
an interview and would not specifically address the inmate deaths but
sent WHAS11 this statement: "At Corizon we are
committed to providing quality health care services and we welcome the
opportunity to work with an independent contract monitor who will assist
Louisville Metro Corrections and Corizon in our
ongoing efforts to continuously improve the delivery of health care services
to our patients."
Dec 13, 2012 Courier Journal
Six people who provided medical care at Jefferson County’s jail have resigned
after an internal investigation found they “may” have contributed to the
deaths of two inmates earlier this year, Louisville Metro Corrections said.
The six, whose names were not released, include nurses, supervisors and an
on-site administrator. They worked for Corizon
Inc., a private company in Tennessee that has a $5.5 million contract to
provide medical care at the jail. Corizon bills
itself as the nation’s leading provider of medical care for jails and prisons
and serves about 400,000 inmates in 31 states, according to its website. It
has come under harsh criticism in other states, however, for providing
inadequate medical care to inmates, allegations the company has denied. Not
much is publicly known about the circumstances of the two inmates who died in
Jefferson County. Savannah Sparks, 27, died April 12 from opiate abuse and
withdrawal, according to the Jefferson County coroner’s office. Samantha
George, 27, died of complications from a severe form of diabetes, compounded
by heart disease, the office said. They were among seven Metro Corrections
inmates who have died in custody this year after only one such death in 2011.
Corrections Director Mark Bolton said Wednesday that the health care of the
seven who died — and all other inmates — is handled by Corizon
employees, not Louisville Metro Corrections employees. He said jail employees
may notify medical staff if they see a problem, but don’t oversee or direct
any medical decisions. Bolton said routine investigations shortly after the
deaths of the two inmates by the Louisville Metro Police were taking longer
than usual and prompted him to open his own internal investigations. He said
he looked at records and “concluded there were some delays relative to
medical protocols.” “I felt it took too long to get these people in to see a
doctor,” Bolton said. Louisville Metro Police spokesman Dwight Mitchell said
the department could not comment on its ongoing investigation. Bolton said he
believes that, if the inmates had seen a doctor sooner, they may have been
taken to the hospital more quickly, but he didn’t know if that would have
saved their lives. “That’s a tough question,” he said. “I have no way of
knowing that.”
August 3, 2007 Courier-Journal
The family of a man who committed suicide at Metro Corrections in June 2006
filed a lawsuit today against the director of the jail and its health
services provider, claiming they were negligent in preventing the
48-year-old’s death .The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson Circuit Court on behalf
of William Whitworth, claims the jail allowed Whitworth to be alone in a cell
without any security or observation despite the fact that he was suicidal.
The suit names as defendants the jail, as represented by Director Tom
Campbell, and Prison Health Services Inc. Pam Windsor, a spokeswoman for the
jail, declined to comment because the litigation is ongoing. A spokesperson
with Prison Health Services, whose main office is in Brentwood, Tenn., also
said the company does not comment on pending litigation. The suit claims
Whitworth had attempted to commit suicide in a Metro Corrections holding sell
after being arrested for public intoxication in February 2006 by hanging
himself with his shirt, but survived. Four months later, on June 7, Whitworth
was arrested for allegedly driving drunk and was again admitted to Metro
Corrections, according to the suit. Whitworth had a history of attempting
suicide and complained of being depressed while in Metro Corrections, yet was
evaluated as stable and put in an regular cell alone
and not monitored, the suit claims. Whitworth died June 14, 2006, after he
was found hanging from a bed sheet in his cell during a routine check. The
lawsuit requests unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Claims made
in filing a lawsuit give only one side of the case.
Marion
Adjustment Center
St Mary, Kentucky
CCA
Nov
30, 2013 kentucky.com
LOUISVILLE
— A group of former employees and Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of
America have settled a lawsuit involving allegations that the company refused
to pay overtime to former shift supervisors at a private prison in Kentucky.
Terms of the agreement between at least 25 people who worked at the Marion
Adjustment Center in St. Mary's and the company were not disclosed. The group
claimed that CCA forced them to work extra hours and denied them overtime.
CCA has denied the allegations. A trial had been set for June 18 after
settlement talks failed at the end of October. U.S. District Judge John G.
Heyburn II in Louisville approved the agreement Wednesday. Kentucky removed
the last of its 800 inmates from the prison earlier this year.
Nov
6, 2013 lex18.com
LOUISVILLE
(AP) - A federal judge has set a June trial date for a lawsuit seeking to
force Corrections Corporation of America to pay overtime to former shift
supervisors at a private prison in Kentucky. The case involves at least 25
people who worked at the Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary's. The group
claims Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA forced them to work extra hours and denied
them overtime. CCA has denied the allegations. U.S. District Judge John G.
Heyburn II set aside 10 days for the trial, which is scheduled to begin June
18 after settlement talks failed at the end of October. The employees accused
the private prison giant of requiring employees to attend training sessions
without pay. Kentucky removed the last of its 800 inmates from the facility
earlier this year.
May 14, 2012 The Town Talk
A group of shift supervisors at a private prison in central Kentucky has sued
Corrections Corporation of America, alleging the company forced them to work
extra hours and denied them overtime. The six current and former CCA
employees at the Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary's who filed suit also
said the Nashville, Tenn.-based private prison giant denied them meal and
rest breaks, and required employees to attend training sessions without pay.
Attorney Tom Miller of Lexington told The Associated Press that the lawsuit
may also affect employees of two other CCA prisons in Kentucky — the Lee
Adjustment Center in Beattyville and Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright. "This is a for-profit company," Miller said. "The
way you maximize profits is to reduce expenses." The group is seeking
unspecified damages and a temporary injunction forcing CCA to compensate
employees who work more than 40 hours a week. Miller said any damages could
cover employees dating back to 2007. "We believe the statute of
limitations extends five years," Miller said. CCA spokesman Mike Machak said Monday that the company had not seen the
lawsuit and couldn't address the specific allegations. "Overall, we are
committed to ensuring that our employees are fairly compensated, and we
strive to provide lasting career opportunities for those professionals who
chose to work with our company," Machak said.
The shift supervisors and assistant supervisors claim they do uncompensated
work before and after regular shift hours, including traveling between
minimum- and medium-security units at the 825-inmate prison in central
Kentucky, staying on post while waiting for a replacement officer to arrive
and attending training sessions on regular days off. CCA classifies the shift
supervisors and assistant supervisors as "exempt" from overtime pay
under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The act has rules covering which
employees qualify for overtime, based in part on salary, how many people the
supervisor oversees and the duties included in the supervisor's job
description and whether management duties are part of the job. Miller said
CCA has misclassified the employees as exempt from overtime rules and wants a
judge to restore the meal and rest periods required by law. The lawsuit is
similar to a suit filed in federal court in Kansas that sought to certify a
class of assistant shift supervisors at CCA's 65 facilities in 19 states. In
that case, assistant shift supervisors alleged that CCA misclassified them as
exempt from overtime pay. The two sides have filed a notice of settlement in
court, but the details of the agreement are not due to a judge until Friday.
CCA and a group of collections officers, case managers and clerks also
settled a suit concerning overtime in 2009, also in federal court in Kansas.
In that case, CCA agreed to pay a maximum of $7 million, but did not
acknowledge fault in the case.
March 10, 2012 Herald-Leader
State police are searching for an inmate who escaped from a private prison in
Marion County on Friday. Phillip Houston McBride, 23, was last seen at the
Marion Adjustment Center at 4:19 p.m. He was wearing khaki pants, and is 6
feet, 1 inch tall, with brown hair and brown eyes, state police said. McBride
also has multiple tattoos on his head, neck, chest, back and arms, state
police said. McBride was being held for making methamphetamine and other
charges. He was convicted in Clay County. Anyone with information on
McBride's whereabouts is asked to call state police or local authorities.
October 18, 2011 Evansville Courier
& Press
Henderson Fiscal Court heard the opening salvo Tuesday of a campaign jailers
plan to use to sway the General Assembly next year. "You are our maiden
voyage," said Mike Simpson, president of Kentucky Jailers Association.
"We're going to hopefully take this across the state." In a
nutshell, Kentucky jailers maintain that House Bill 463 -- a recently enacted
major overhaul of the criminal justice system -- is going to have a negative
impact on the jails across the state. The way around that problem, they say,
is allowing the state's current contracts to expire next year with
Corrections Corporation of America, which has prisons in Marion and Floyd
counties. The inmates in the Marion Adjustment Center and the Otter Creek Correctional
Center would then be transferred to county jails. It's a simple matter of
economics, according to Patrick Crowley, a public relations consultant from
northern Kentucky who has been hired to head the blitz. County jails are paid
$31.34 per day to house state inmates. The Marion Adjustment Center charges
the state $37.99 a day for minimum security inmates, and $47.98 per day for
medium security inmates. Otter Creek, meanwhile, charges the state $53.77 per
day to house inmates. "It's a disgrace for the private prisons to be
getting the per diem they're getting," said Henderson County Jailer Ron
Herrington. Based on the capacity of the two private prisons, Crowley said,
the state would save more than $8 million a year by housing the inmates in county
jails -- and boost the bottom line of county governments while doing it.
"Both the state and the counties could save money by eliminating the
private prisons contracts," Crowley said. "There are some good
things" in HB 463, Simpson said, but "this is our window of
opportunity to go through this thing." "It's about 150 pages and
all but about five or 10 were just fine," said County Attorney Steve
Gold. Magistrate Charles Alexander at one point asked how the state can avoid
destroying jobs by what the jailers propose. "They have prisons all over
the United States," Simpson replied. "They're not just in
Kentucky." If the firm loses Kentucky inmates, he said, it will fill its
prisons with inmates from other states. "They have brought prisoners in
from Hawaii. There is no shortage of inmates in this country."
July 28, 2011 Burlington Free Press
It's well-established in law that most government records are public, but
what about the records of contractors who do government's business? If a
private company is housing state prisoners, how much of that company's
records are available to state residents? Those are among the questions that
a special panel of lawmakers mulled Wednesday as they met for the first time
to try to tackle public-records issues left undone during the legislative
session that ended in May. The summer study committee also plans to study
exemptions to the state public-records laws -- numbering 239 -- and determine
if they are needed. The six-member committee plans to delve more deeply into
the exemptions at its next meeting in September, but Wednesday the panel
wrestled with what to do about private contractors that essentially are
fulfilling the function of government. Lawmakers left the issue out of
legislation passed this year after running into complications. Those
complications haven't disappeared, as the panel received conflicting advice.
Conor Casey, legislative director for the Vermont State Employees
Association, said private contractors sometimes do the exact same work as
state employees. They should be subject to the same public scrutiny, he said.
Casey noted that the state contracts with Corrections Corporation of America
to house Vermont inmates at several private, out-of-state prisons. Vermont
residents should be able to make inquiries about the services CCA provides,
even if the state Corrections Department hasn't asked those same questions,
he said. Legislative counsel Michael O'Grady warned the committee that the
state might be vulnerable to a lawsuit. "If you do nothing, I think
there will be a court case," he said. "I think people will expect
or assume they'll be able to get records." O'Grady outlined laws in
other states, some of which address the issue, but said it was unclear how
some of those are implemented. One question Vermont lawmakers need to
consider, he said, is where the records request should go: to the private
contractor or the state agency overseeing the contract.
September 5, 2007 Lebanon Enterprise
Gilbert Jones walked away from the Marion Adjustment Center Aug. 26. He was
at large for nearly a week before he was apprehended Sunday, Sept. 2. Jones
was captured in Laurel County at 12:30 a.m. Sunday by the Kentucky State
Police. Jones, who is a native of Laurel County, was serving a 15-year
sentence for his third persistent felony offender conviction. He was also
convicted of second-degree burglary. He had previously been convicted of
receiving stolen property over $100, first-degree assault and second-degree
escape. Jones would have been eligible for parole in July of 2008, and his
sentence was set to expire March 26, 2019.
August 7, 2006 AP
State police were looking for three men who escaped from a private prison
in Marion County early yesterday. Thomas Woodrow Cherry, 42, of Bowling
Green, Randall Fraley, 34, of Mount Sterling, and David Wayne Johnson, 27, of
Diamond, Ohio, were being held at the Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary, a
minimum-security facility. State police said Cherry was being held on theft
and burglary charges; Fraley on charges of receiving stolen property and
fleeing/evading police; and Johnson on charges of assault, wanton
endangerment, criminal mischief, resisting arrest and being a persistent
felony offender.
July 20, 2006 Central Kentucky
News-Journal
An escaped convict is back behind bars after leading police on a chase
through three counties Sunday. At approximately 4:30 a.m. Sunday, Gregory
Dewayne Edmonds, 37, escaped from the Marion Adjustment Center by crawling
through a window. "He apparently told his mother about a month ago that
he was going to escape the first chance he got and that he wasn't going
back," Campbellsville Police Officer Bart Gilpin said. At around 10:30
a.m., Edmonds allegedly stole a van at knifepoint from a customer at a
Lebanon store. He is also accused of robbing and sexually assaulting an
attendant at the same store. Lebanon Police are investigated the robbery and
sexual assault incident. According to a joint press release, officials from
Corrections Corporation of America (which owns MAC) and the Kentucky
Department of Corrections are investigating the circumstances of Edmonds'
escape.
July 19, 2006 Lebanon Enterprise
After being on the loose for seven hours, an escapee from the Marion
Adjustment Center was captured at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 16, when the
stolen vehicle he was driving was forced off the road by the Kentucky State
Police. Since the Marion County grand jury was in session on Monday, the
escapee, Gregory Dewayne Edmonds, 37, has already been indicted on numerous
counts including first-degree rape, second-degree escape and two counts of
first-degree robbery. Edmonds escaped from MAC around 4:30 on Sunday morning,
according to the Kentucky State Police. He was allegedly involved in an armed
robbery at a Lebanon store, where he is further accused of robbing and
sexually assaulting an attendant at knifepoint, during the time he was at
large. Lebanon Police Chief Shelton Young said cooperation, good
communication and good information led law enforcement officers to capture
Edmonds. "They got a very dangerous individual back where he
belongs," Young said. Following the alleged assault and robbery, Edmonds
stole a Pontiac van from the scene, the state police reported. According to a
joint press release, officials from Corrections Corporation of America (which
owns MAC) and the Kentucky Department of Corrections are investigating the
circumstances of Edmonds' escape. He is the second MAC escapee recaptured in
the past two weeks and the third escapee to be relocated. On July 9, Jeffrey
James Hinkle assaulted two guards and then fled from MAC. He was recaptured
on July 10. Also on July 10, MAC officials learned that Frederick Purcell,
41, who walked away from the prison on March 15, was at the Marion County
Detention Center.
July 9, 2006 Courier-Journal
An inmate escaped from the Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary, Ky., about 4
p.m. yesterday after assaulting three guards, Kentucky State Police said.
Police were looking last night for Jeffrey James Hinkle, 36. He was described
as a black man who is 5-feet-6 and weighs 130 pounds. He has brown eyes;
long, partially braided black hair; a tattoo of a panther on his chest; and
two small scars on his forehead, police said. He was last seen wearing gray
shorts and a white, sleeveless T-shirt with numbers on the back in blue
lettering. Police said Hinkle has a history of burglary, robbery, theft and
other property crimes. He was at the private prison serving a sentence from
Jefferson County for burglary, receiving stolen property and being a
persistent felony offender.
November 15, 2005 WCAX
Vermont's prisons are already full and now there's word they're about to be
swamped. Corrections officials project Vermont's prison population will
skyrocket at least 20% within five years, and that's sparking a debate over
where to put all these convicts. But state lawmakers have rejected building
new prisons in Vermont, so the Corrections Commissioner says the primary
solution to overcrowding will be to send more inmates to do time in prisons
located in Kentucky and Tennessee. State leaders will be looking at a number
of options to out-of-state placement during the legislative session next
year. However, the out-of-state placements have one additional factor that is
very appealing to many: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA )-- a private, for-profit prison company -- charges
Vermont $20,000 per inmate, per year to jail them in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Meanwhile, the cost of jailing convicts in Vermont is $40,000 per year per
inmate, 100% more. The difference is that CCA provides no counseling
educational, or rehabilitation programs. The cost-per-inmate in Vermont
includes many services and counseling, plus probation, parole, furlough, and
other early release programs.
February 17, 2005 Lebanon Enterprise
A settlement has been made between Corrections Corporation of America and a
Vermont man who claims a former Marion Adjustment Center guard sexually
assaulted him during incarceration there. A separate lawsuit against
Corrections Corporation of America was filed recently by another Vermont
inmate that was being housed at MAC. A third inmate from Vermont who spent
time at MAC is expected to file a similar suit against CCA. The man who
struck the recent CCA settlement was transferred to Marion Adjustment Center
because of overcrowding in Vermont prisons. He received a confidential sum of
money as part of the out-of-court settlement, his attorney Thomas Costello,
of Brattleboro, Vt. said. The guard, Joe Becks, was arrested on charges of
sexual abuse and official misconduct recently. He was fired from the prison
in May 2004. In a complaint Costello submitted to the U.S. District Court
prior to the settlement, the attorney named CCA and two of its supervisory
employees - Marion Adjustment Center Warden Caroline Mudd and Unit Manager
Ralph Clifton - as defendants. Costello argued that CCA was culpable because
it knew that Becks was "a sexual predator" before Becks allegedly
abused a 20-year-old inmate on April 12. According to Costello's complaint,
Mudd and Clifton's response to official inmate complaints made before April
12 were insufficient. Another inmate complained in late March that Becks was
targeting him for sex, court documents state. On May, 4, 2004, a report filed
by independent Quality Assurance Manager Mitchell Brandenburg, who was brought
in to investigate Becks, raised more questions about CCA's management.
Brandenburg stated that in an interview, Mudd told him that she suspected
Becks was involved in passing underwear to an inmate and said that in March,
Becks failed to report an incident of two inmates having sex. The second
lawsuit on behalf of a Vermont inmate transferred to Kentucky was filed
against CCA last month in Addison County Superior Court by Attorney Devin
McLaughlin of Middlebury. McLaughlin said his case alleges that CCA enabled
Becks to assault his client. Costello said he is finalizing a complaint for a
separate case against CCA on behalf of a third Vermont inmate who was
allegedly assaulted by Becks April 12 and 29.
February 10, 2005 Reformer
A settlement has been made between a Kentucky prison manager and a Vermont
man who claims a guard sexually assaulted him during incarceration there. A
separate lawsuit against prison manager, Corrections Corporation of America
(CCA), was filed recently by another Vermont inmate from the same prison,
Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary's, Ky. A third inmate from Vermont who
spent time at Marion is expected to file similar suit against CCA. The man
who struck the recent CCA settlement was transferred to Kentucky because of
overcrowding in Vermont prisons. He received a confidential sum of money as
part of the out-of-court settlement, his attorney Thomas Costello, of
Brattleboro, said. The
guard, Joe Becks was arrested on charges of sexual abuse and official
misconduct last week, according to the Nelson County Sheriff's Department. In a complaint Costello submitted to the U.S.
District Court prior to the settlement, the attorney named CCA and two of its
supervisory employees -- Marion Adjustment Center Warden Caroline Mudd, and
Unit Manager Ralph Clifton -- as defendants. Costello argued that CCA was
culpable because it knew that Becks was "a sexual predator" before
Becks allegedly abused a 20-year-old inmate on April 12, 2004. According to
Costello's complaint, Mudd and Clifton's response to official inmate
complaints made before April 12 were insufficient. One inmate grievance form,
dated March 30, 2004, states, "I'm fearing for my life and for my safety
here knowing that (Officer Becks) can open my cell, handcuff me and rape me."
The statement goes on to allege that Becks had been groping inmates and
making them walk around in the nude. Another inmate complained in late March
that Becks was targeting him for sex, court documents state. The second
lawsuit on behalf of a Vermont inmate transferred to Kentucky was filed
against CCA last month in Addison County Superior Court by Attorney Devin
McLaughlin of Middlebury. McLaughlin said his case alleges that CCA enabled
Becks to assault his client. Costello said he is finalizing a complaint for a
separate case against CCA on behalf of a third Vermont inmate who was
allegedly assaulted by Becks on April 12 and 29. According to a sworn
deposition that Costello took from a Kentucky state trooper, Becks admitted
to police that he had sexual contact with Costello's second client on two
occasions.
February 10, 2005 AP
A murder convict who escaped from a Kentucky prison and had eluded police
since 1990 was caught in Texas. Ralph Robert Annis
was arrested Wednesday in Corpus Christi weeks after the Lexington
Herald-Leader began questioning state officials about their failure to close
the case, the paper reported. Annis was convicted in
1979 of strangling his girlfriend's 10-month-old baby, Melanie Kaye Gifford,
in Cynthiana. Two months before a scheduled parole hearing, he fled while on
a furlough from the Marion Adjustment Center.
February 8, 2005 AP
A former guard at a private prison in Kentucky has been arrested on charges
that he sexually abused two inmates transferred from Vermont. Joel Becks, who
was formerly an officer at the Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary's, Ky.,
was arrested on charges of sexual abuse and official misconduct on Jan. 26,
according to the Nelson County Sheriff's Department. A civil lawsuit against
the prison manager, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), was filed by
one of the alleged victims in June 2004. Because of overcrowding in Vermont
prisons, the Department of Corrections has a contract with the CCA to send
approximately 700 prisoners to Kentucky and Arizona. Brattleboro-based
Attorney Thomas Costello, who represents the plaintiff, alleges his client
was assaulted by Becks on April 12 and April 29. The fact that Becks was
arrested on criminal charges bodes well for the pending civil case, Costello
said. "I
wouldn't say it's a state thing," Costello said. "These kids
weren't abused because they're (from) out of state. It comes down to improper
supervision for ... Becks."
October 28, 2004 Lebanon Enterprise
Corrections Corporation of America denies claims that it discriminated
against former Marion Adjustment Center employee Desmond O. Spalding who
filed a lawsuit against the corporation in September. Spalding, an
African-American male, claims that during his employment as a recreational
coordinator at MAC, he was subjected to derogatory comments regarding his
race from supervisory employees and fellow personnel. According to the
lawsuit, Spalding has suffered a loss of earnings, emotional distress and
continues to incur expenses for the cost of the lawsuit and attorney fees. He
is demanding compensatory damages, punitive damages, incidental and
consequential damages, attorney fees and a trial by jury.
September 22, 2004 Lebanon
Enterprise
A former Marion Adjustment Center employee has filed a lawsuit against the
prison's owner and operator, Corrections Corporation of America, claiming
that he was discriminated against because of his race. Desmond O. Spalding,
an African-American male, claims that, during his employment as a
recreational coordinator at MAC, he was subjected to derogatory comments
regarding his race from supervisory employees and fellow personnel. The
lawsuit, which was filed in the Marion Circuit Clerk's office Thursday,
states that he was employed from Nov. 15, 2002 to Sept. 16, 2003. According
to the lawsuit, on or about Sept. 16, 2003, the car that Spalding borrowed to
drive to work was the subject of a random search. During the search, a fifth
of Heaven Hill whiskey, a knife and approximately 25 rounds of ammunition
were found in the trunk and the glove compartment. As a result of the
discovery of the items, Spalding was forced to resign from his position or be
fired, the lawsuit states. Following his resignation, CCA
"maliciously" swore out a warrant against him accusing him of
knowingly introducing contraband into MAC, according to the lawsuit. Although
CCA has a policy that prohibits the possession of those items, Spalding is
claiming that CCA selectively enforced this policy in a racially
discriminatory manner. He claims that several white employees had violated
the same policy in the past and were not asked to resign and were not fired.
According to the lawsuit, CCA's alleged reason for discharging him was
"merely a pretext to cover the actual discrimination against him."
As a result of CCA obtaining a warrant for his arrest, Spalding was indicted.
According to the lawsuit, the indictment was dismissed in court and Spalding
claims that CCA should have known that there was lack of probable cause for
the proceeding. Because of the proceeding, he has suffered damage to his
reputation and his ability to get a job, the lawsuit states.
June 11, 2004
One of two inmates who accused a prison guard of sexually assaulting him in a
Kentucky prison is suing the nation's largest private prison
corporation. Attorney Thomas W. Costello filed suit Thursday on behalf
of a 19-year-old Brattleboro-area man in U.S. District Court against the
Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville, Tenn. Costello said
the man, who asked to remain anonymous, is seeking $75,000 in damages for
psychological injury he suffered from the alleged abuse. The suit
also alleges that the man's constitutional right against cruel and unusual
punishment had been violated. "We filed this lawsuit to redress an
assault on our client and to ensure that this kind of thing never happens
again," Costello said Thursday. The suit alleges that Joel Beck -
a CCA corrections officer at the Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary's, Ky.
- ordered the man to strip and then performed sex acts on him in April. During
the assault, Beck allegedly ordered the man's cellmate to keep watch for
other guards. "Throughout all of this, our client did everything
he could to stop this assault," Costello said. (AP)
May 26, 2004
Corrections Commissioner Steve Gold said Tuesday he's satisfied with an
investigation into allegations of sexual assault by two Vermont inmates at a
private Kentucky prison, and said the state will continue to house prisoners
there. Since the investigation, Corrections Corporation of America has
added a guard to the segregation unit where the alleged assault took place so
that more than one guard is on duty at a time, the report by the company
said. The investigation was launched after one Vermont inmate reported
that he had been sexually assaulted by prison guard Joel Becks, who was
fired May 3 by Corrections Corporation of America. The initial
investigation turned up another Vermont inmate who said he was sexually
assaulted by the same guard, Gold said. An investigation showed that
the guard entered the first inmate's cell on April 29. About four hours
later, the inmate told prison officials that he had been sexually assaulted,
the report said. (AP)
May 13, 2004
Two Vermont inmates who said they were sexually assaulted by a guard at a
Kentucky prison are being returned home. Vermont Corrections
Commissioner Steven Gold says the inmates could be back as early as next
week. One of the prisoners reported that he had been sexually assaulted
by the guard on April 29th. An investigation into that incident
revealed that another inmate from Vermont said he'd been assaulted by the
same guard. (WRGB.com)
May 6, 2004
Additional sexual assault claims have surfaced against a guard in the private
Kentucky prison that is holding 233 Vermont inmates, officials said.
Kentucky authorities are now investigating allegations that a guard suspected
of sexually assaulting one Vermont inmate was involved in sexual acts with
inmates earlier this year. "We have received allegations that
additional things happened that preceded the incident that occurred last
Thursday," Vermont Corrections Commissioner Steven Gold said Wednesday.
"This information has been turned over to authorities down
there." Gold said that Ray Flum, an aide
he dispatched to the Marion Adjustment Facility in St. Mary, Ky., over the
weekend, interviewed two alleged victims of sexual assault, one of whom was
involved in both last week's incident and the earlier one. The guard
was fired Monday by the prison's operator, Corrections
Corporation of America . Corrections
Corporation of America spokesman Steve Owen would not comment on the new
allegation pending the outcome of his company's investigation into the
guard's conduct. "Our investigation is ongoing," Owen said.
"We're not in a position to elaborate on what our findings and
conclusions might be. We need to wait for that process to complete
itself." The Kentucky State Police are conducting a criminal
investigation of the incidents. Gold said he chose not to disclose his
knowledge of the earlier alleged assaults earlier because, unlike last week's
incident, the assault went unreported for several weeks and therefore did not
seem as credible. (Boston.com)
May 5, 2004
A guard involved in the alleged sexual assault of a Vermont inmate in his
cell at a Kentucky prison has been fired, said an official for the privately
operated prison. (AP)
May 4, 2004
A guard involved in the alleged sexual assault of a Vermont inmate in his
cell at a Kentucky prison has been fired, said an official for the privately
operated prison. "The employee was terminated for a policy
violation," Steve Owen of Corrections Corporation of America said
Monday. Owen said a second guard placed on administrative leave after
the incident Thursday night was allowed to return to work Monday after it was
determined he had not violated any prison rules. Vermont Corrections
Commissioner Stephen Gold said Monday that the inmate was inside a segregated
detention unit at the Marion, Ky., facility when a video surveillance camera
recorded a guard entering the man's cell and leaving 10 minutes later.
Gold also acknowledged his department has been discussing conditions at the
Marion jail with the Corrections Corporation of America. Inmates and
advocates have complained the 233 Vermont prisoners at Marion are bunched in
too small a space, with meals served in hallways and little room for
exercise. (Boston.com)
May 1, 2004
A Vermont inmate reported that he was sexually assaulted by an officer at a
Kentucky prison this week, the Corrections Department said yesterday.
The man is at the Marion Facility, Commissioner Steve Gold said. Ray Flum, a director at the Vermont Corrections Department,
was to travel to Kentucky this weekend to meet with the inmate and with
police and corrections officials in that state. If the situation calls for
it, the inmate will be returned to Vermont, Gold said. The company
that runs the prison, Corrections Corporation of America, investigated the
complaint and then put two officers on leave, Gold said. Kentucky State
Police were also investigating, he said. Vermont has more than 350
inmates housed in prisons in other states because its prisons are full.
Almost all of them are in Kentucky; 233 of them are at the Marion facility,
Gold said. (AP)
Northpoint Training Center
Boyle County, Kentucky
Aramark
February 1, 2010 KY Post
Legislation has passed a House committee that would eliminate privatized food
service for inmates at Kentucky’s prisons. The House Judiciary Committee
approved House Bill 33, sponsored by Rep. Brent Yonts,
D-Greenville, which would require inmate food service at the state’s prisons
be turned over to the Department of Corrections at a cost of an additional
$5.4 million per year. The state currently pays around $12 million a year for
prison food service through Aramark. HB 33 now goes to the full House for
consideration. A recent Corrections report indicates that the quality and
quantity of Aramark’s food service—provided to the state at a cost of $2.63
per inmate per day—was an underlying factor in last fall’s riot at Northpoint
Training Center, a state prison in Burgin. State prisons officials at last
week’s meeting said restricted inmate movement at Northpoint was the main
trigger of the riot.
January 29, 2010 Herald-Leader
State Auditor Crit Luallen
said Thursday she would do an audit of the private company that has a nearly
$12 million annual contract to serve food at the state's 13 prisons. The
announcement came a day after a House committee voted to cancel a contract
with Aramark Correctional Services, which served food at Northpoint Training
Center at the time of a costly riot there. Also Wednesday, the state released
its full investigative report on the Aug. 21 riot, which went into more
detail about problems with food at the Mercer County prison. House Speaker
Greg Stumbo and Rep. John Tilley, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee,
said Thursday that they thought Luallen should look
into Aramark's performance under the contract. "I do think it's
appropriate to ask the state auditor in some fashion to audit the
situation," Tilley said Thursday. Said Luallen:
"While there has not been a formal request yet, there have been enough
questions raised by legislators that we will begin to make plans to do an
audit of the contract." Members of the House Judiciary Committee on
Wednesday voted 6-4 to cancel Aramark's contract because of concerns about
the food. Many on the committee questioned whether Aramark was skimping on
ingredients to serve more people cheaply. "Aramark stands behind the
quality of service we provide, which has won the accolades of our clients and
the national accreditation agencies who monitor the quality of food
service," an Aramark spokeswoman said Wednesday. An audit conducted of
Aramark's performance for the Florida prison system in 2007 showed the number
of inmates eating meals declined after Aramark took over the food service.
But the company was paid based on the number of inmates, not on the number of
meals served. Aramark also substituted less costly products such as ground
turkey for beef, the audit said. The audit recommended that Florida rebid the
food service or take it over. But Aramark terminated the contract near the
end of 2008, according to published reports. Gov. Steve Beshear
praised prison officials' handling of the riot. He said he was
"confounded" with the legislature's "continued fixation with
the menus for convicted criminals when we're desperately trying to avoid
cutting teachers and state troopers. ... We have more than 10 percent
unemployment and Kentucky families are struggling to put food on the table,
and I am loath to consider millions more dollars for criminals who wish they
could go to Wendy's instead." But Tilley and Stumbo — both Democrats —
defended the House's investigation into the riot, which damaged six buildings
and caused a fiery melee. "The truth is, we had a riot on our hands that
is probably going to cost the taxpayers $10 million," Stumbo said,
referring to money Beshear has requested to rebuild
the prison outside of Danville. "And we need to find out why the hell we
had it." Meanwhile, there are still questions about why key parts of the
original report on the riot were not immediately released in November. It was
only after the House Judiciary Committee repeatedly asked to see the report
that the Department of Corrections agreed to release a redacted version of
the full report at Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee meeting. The report
released Wednesday showed that Northpoint Warden Steve Haney did not want to
implement restrictions that were a primary cause of the riot, but he was
overruled by Deputy Commissioner of Adult Institutions Al Parke and Director
of Operations James Erwin. The report said the handling of restrictions was
"haphazard and poorly planned." The report also revealed other problems
before, during and after the riot, including non-existent radio
communications among agencies, a lack of documentation, failed video cameras
and a considerable delay in the formal investigation. The report said there
was confusion over whether Kentucky State Police or Justice Cabinet
investigators should handle the post-riot investigation. Those details were
not released in a summary Nov. 20. Beshear defended
his administration Thursday, saying he was confident the riot was handled
correctly. "I have full confidence in the Secretary of the Justice
Cabinet J. Michael Brown and his staff and how they handled the Northpoint
riot and its subsequent investigation," Beshear
said. Kerri Richardson, a spokeswoman for Beshear,
said Beshear's office never saw the original
report, but had seen the report summary. Beshear's
staff asked for more explanation in the summary report but did not ask for
anything to be taken out, she said. Jennifer Brislin,
a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, said there was no attempt on the
part of the Justice Cabinet or the Department of Corrections to hide or
minimize some of the problems on the day of the riot. Department of
Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson left out some of those problems in
her Nov. 20 summary because she thought some of those details would
compromise security at the prison, Brislin said.
"During her review, she exempted information that she felt would be a
security risk to staff and inmates, and that included information regarding
how command decisions were made," Brislin
said. House Bill 33 — the bill that would cancel the Aramark contract — now
heads to the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. If the state cancels
the contract, it could add as much as $5.4 million a year to the state's cost
of feeding inmates, according to the Department of Corrections.
January 28, 2010 Herald-Leader
The warden at Northpoint Training Center did not want to implement the prison
yard restrictions that contributed to an August riot that heavily damaged
much of the facility, but he was overruled by Department of Corrections
officials, according to an investigative report released Wednesday. The
investigation also revealed numerous other problems at Northpoint that
occurred before, during and after the riot, including inmate anger about food
on the day of the riot and a crucial delay in the formal investigation of how
the fiery melee occurred. After reviewing the report, the House Judiciary
Committee voted 9-4 to approve a bill that would cancel the state's $12
million annual contract with Aramark Correctional Services to provide meals
at 13 prisons. The investigative report showed that anger over food
contributed to the Aug. 21 riot at the Mercer County prison. The report,
which was withheld from the public by state officials until Wednesday, puts
more emphasis on food as a contributing cause of the riot than the state
Corrections Department's "review" of the investigative report, which
was released Nov. 20. The review concluded that the main cause of the riot
was inmate anger about a lockdown and other restrictions imposed after a
fight at the prison. However, the latest report shows that virtually every
inmate and employee interviewed by investigators said that Aramark food and
its prices at the canteen were among the reasons for the riot. The report
lists those issues as the third and fourth factors, respectively, that
contributed to the riot. "Apparently, there had been complaints for
years about the quality of the food, the portion sizes and the continual
shortage and substitutions for scheduled menu items," the report states.
"Sanitation of the kitchen was also a source of complaints," says
the report. Inmates set fires that destroyed six buildings, including those
containing the kitchen, canteen, visitation center, medical services,
sanitation department and a multipurpose area. Several dorms were heavily
damaged, and eight guards and eight inmates were injured. 'Haphazard' action
-- According to the report, the riot began 15 minutes after details were
posted about new movement restrictions for prisoners in the yard. The
restrictions came after an Aug. 18 fight over canteen items that caused
prison officials to institute a lockdown. The investigation found that
Northpoint Warden Steve Haney wanted to return the prison yard to normal
operations as he typically did after a lockdown, but he was overruled by Al
Parke, deputy commissioner of adult institutions and James Erwin, director of
operations. "The implementation of the controlled movement policy at NTC
was haphazard and poorly planned at best," says the report. The report
also says the warden never got word that inmates had dumped food from their
trays on the floor at breakfast and at lunch on the day of the riot. Aramark
officials e-mailed details of the incident to a deputy warden at Northpoint,
but the information apparently was not passed along, the report said. During
the riot, "radio communications between all agencies involved was
virtually non-existent, causing chaos and a general feeling of disconnect
with the various agencies involved," according to the report. After the
riot, there was a "gross lack of coordination of submitting
reports," evidence was compromised because most video cameras failed the
evening of the riot, and there was a considerable delay in the formal
investigation, the report said. Kentucky State Police immediately tried to
begin an investigation to see which inmates were involved in the riot but was
advised by the corrections department's operations director that the
investigation would be conducted internally. Several days later, the report
said, two staff members from the Justice Cabinet determined that state police
should conduct the investigation. "The criminal investigations should
have started immediately to preserve evidence, testimony and critical
information," the report says. "After a few days, staff thoughts
and observations became diluted."
January 21, 2010 Lexington
Herald-Leader
The state agreed on Wednesday to turn over its original report on the
August riot at Northpoint Training Center after nearly two weeks of denying
requests for the document by lawmakers. The Department of Corrections
released an investigative report of the fiery melee on Nov. 20, but not
before it was edited to allegedly address security concerns. At the time,
officials did not disclose that they had altered the investigative report.
Legislators are hoping the original report will help them determine if food
provided by a private contractor was partly to blame for the Aug. 21 riot
that destroyed several buildings at the prison outside of Danville. Part of
that report can be redacted for security reasons, the two sides agreed at a
meeting of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. It should be ready by
next week, they agreed. The report released in November showed that the main
cause of the riot was inmate anger over a lockdown and other restrictions
imposed following a fight at the prison. Inmates set fires that destroyed six
buildings, including those containing the kitchen, canteen, visitation
center, medical services, sanitation department and a multipurpose area.
Several dorms were heavily damaged, and eight guards and eight inmates were
injured. Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, said
Wednesday that he had heard in early January that there was another version
of the report and asked the department for the original. Yonts
said he had been told that the original report gave more weight to the
concerns about food than the version that was released to the public. Yonts has filed a proposal -- House Bill 33 -- that would
cancel the state's $12 million-a-year contract with Aramark to provide meals
at 13 prisons. Aramark Correctional Services has had the state contract since
2005. It was renewed in 2009 and expires at the end of this year. Yonts has also asked State Auditor Crit
Luallen to do a performance audit of the Aramark
contract, but Terry Sebastian, a spokesman for Luallen,
said the auditor is still waiting for a formal request from the House
Judiciary Committee. Yonts said Wednesday that he
expects the committee to make that request. Democratic Rep. John Tilley,
chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he also had requested the
original investigative report from the Department of Corrections. Corrections
Commissioner LaDonna Thompson said the department didn't release the original
report because it contained sensitive details about security at Northpoint.
She also said the report that was released provided more details about the
incident than the original report. Some members of the committee said they
found the department's concerns about security unfounded. "I'm not in
the habit of disclosing that information (to prisoners)," said Rep.
Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow. Thompson said they were worried the information might
make its way into newspapers, which prisoners read. Thompson said she was not
aware that Tilley had also asked for the original information, but Tilley
said that wasn't true. Tilley said he verbally requested the information from
the Department of Corrections at a meeting last Friday. Thompson said she
must have misunderstood Tilley's request. Yonts
also complained that he has asked since this fall for grievances that inmates
have filed concerning the food that Aramark provided. That request has been
denied to protect the identity of the inmates, department officials said. At
the hearing on Wednesday, Thompson and representatives from Aramark
acknowledged that there have been complaints about food at the state's
prisons but said they were generally satisfied with the quality of food that
the company has provided. The contract has saved the state $5.4 million a
year, Thompson said. Yonts said there have been
widespread complaints about the food, including: food-borne illnesses at
Western Kentucky Correctional Facility, worms being found in food and food
being watered down. He said corrections officers are concerned that unrest
over food quality is jeopardizing their safety. Although there have been
three incidents of widespread illness at Western Kentucky Correctional
Facility since 2005, Thompson said there was no conclusive evidence that any
of the three incidents was caused by the food. Thompson confirmed there was
one grub worm found in soup at Green River Correctional Complex. It was found
before it was served to inmates, she said. "There have been other
institutions that have found bugs in their food," Thompson said. Part of
the problem, she said, was that produce grown at the prisons hasn't always
been properly cleaned. Officials are working to correct that problem, she
said. Inmate menu surveys have shown a decline in satisfaction with the food,
but the percentage of food being served to inmates has increased by 10
percent, Thompson said. Tim Campbell, president of Aramark Correctional
Services, told the committee that the company does solid work. "We stand
by the quality of services that we provide the commonwealth," he said.
Still, some legislators said there is a disconnect between the testimony they
heard from officials on Wednesday and remarks made by corrections officers
during a committee meeting in November. Those corrections officers said the
food was barely edible and that they were concerned that discontent with the
food was making the prisons unsafe. Rep. Darryl Owens, D-Louisville, said he
didn't believe that those officers would lie to a legislative committee. The
committee did not vote on Yonts' bill on Wednesday.
November 19, 2009 News-Star
Inmates at Northpoint Training Center rioted in August because the warden had
put the prison on lockdown four days earlier and implemented a new schedule
that restricted inmates’ time in the yard, recreation areas and library,
according to a report released today by the Department of Corrections. Staff
and inmates told investigators that the quality of food was not a primary
factor, the report states. Six buildings, including the kitchen, were burned
and eight inmates and eight corrections officers suffered minor injuries
after prisoners began setting fires and trashing buildings Aug. 21 at the
facility near Burgin.
November 7, 2009 Herald-Leader
A corrections officer at Northpoint Training Center told lawmakers Friday
that an August riot at the prison near Danville was caused by inmate anger
over bad food and was planned. "It's over the food," corrections
officer Matt Hughes told the Interim Judiciary Committee. "The food was
slop." State corrections officials did not speak at Friday's meeting but
have said that as early as next week they will issue a report based on a
Kentucky State Police investigation. State Rep. Kelly Flood, D-Lexington,
said that corrections officers at Northpoint said they doubt officials will
admit it in the official report but that "it was about the food."
State Rep. Brent Yonts — who has filed a bill that
would cancel the $12 million annual contract of Philadelphia-based Aramark
Correctional Services, food provider for Kentucky prisons — said the General
Assembly should launch its own investigation. He wants lawmakers to go to
Northpoint to interview inmates. Yonts,
D-Greenville, said the problems exist at state prisons all over Kentucky. He
told the committee of lawmakers that a corrections officer at Green River
Correctional Complex in Central City told him about "a very large body
of worms that boiled to the top of a pot of soup" that had to be removed
from a serving line. Yonts said human feces was
found in a burrito at the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville and just
this week he received information that an Aramark supervisor allowed inmates
at Blackburn Correctional Complex in Lexington to eat brownies containing
human feces. Citing numbers showing the state might not be getting its
money's worth in the contract from Aramark because fewer inmates were eating
in prison cafeterias, Yonts said that the state
needed to take back food service operations. "It's not working," Yonts said. Aramark spokeswoman Kristine Grow said Friday
that the company "had received no official complaints regarding our food
before the riot occurred" and had no "absolute proof" of the
allegations that Yonts made. "We stand by the
quality of our service and our food, and we look forward to the state's
official report," Grow said. Aramark officials have previously said that
there's no evidence that anything but gang violence and anger over yard
restrictions caused the riot. Hughes, however, told lawmakers that the
explanation about yard restrictions was "bogus." He said that
inmates were betting over high-priced packaged food from the Northpoint canteen
because they couldn't eat the cafeteria food. Hughes also said the gambling
was leading to fights and security problems for corrections officers. In the
riot at Northpoint on Aug. 21, inmates burned and damaged buildings, several
of which were a total loss. Eight guards and eight inmates suffered minor
injuries. Hughes was one of three corrections officers from various prisons
who appeared at Friday's meeting. All said they were members of the union
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Union officials
also attended. Yonts acknowledged he is supportive
of unions and of labor, but he said "that has nothing to do with the
validity of this bill." If the bill is passed by the Kentucky General
Assembly in 2010, food service to inmates at state prisons could be provided
only by state employees, inmates or volunteers. That was the case until
January 2005, when the state contracted with Aramark. The contract was
renewed in January 2009 and expires in 2011. State corrections officials have
said that with the savings from the Aramark contract, they were able to give
corrections officers a nearly 7 percent raise in 2005. Jennifer Brislin, a spokeswoman for the state Justice and Public
Safety Cabinet, said that in October 2005, corrections officers' hours were
increased from 37.5 to 40 hours a week, resulting in a 6.67 percent increase.
Meanwhile, lawmakers who heard the testimony said they wanted a special
meeting with Department of Corrections officials and representatives of
Aramark to find out the truth. "It's only one side," state Rep.
Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, said of the allegations raised Friday. He said
that lawmakers could have a "direct impact" on fixing the situation
if the complaints were valid.
October 22, 2009 AP
Surveys of Kentucky's prison inmates indicate they are less pleased with
the food they're served than they were a few years ago. The state outsourced
the work in 2005 to a private company, Philadelphia-based Aramark
Correctional Services. An Aramark spokeswoman says the inmates may have
"self-interested motivations" for criticizing the food. The level
of satisfaction was lower at Northpoint Training Center in Boyle County than
among prisoners statewide. Prisoners rioted and burned much of the Northpoint
complex on Aug. 21, and state Rep. Brent Yonts said
corrections officers, other lawmakers and inmates have all told him that
unrest "over food" figured into the riot. But Aramark officials
have said there's no evidence that anything but gang violence and anger over
prison yard restrictions played a role in the riot. They said their food was
not a factor. The Lexington Herald-Leader obtained the survey results under
the Open Records Act and reported Tuesday that early this year, state inmates
rated the food 3.24 on a scale of 1 to 10, down from 5.84 in 2003. At
Northpoint, the rating this year was 2.66, compared with 6.13 in 2003. Yonts, D-Greenville, has filed legislation that would
cancel Aramark's $12 million annual contract with the state. State officials
haven't said yet what led to the Northpoint incident. Eight guards and eight
inmates suffered minor injuries. Small portions, cleanliness and food
shortages were among the issues inmates often addressed in the survey.
"Get rid of Aramark, bring back the state," an inmate at Roederer Correctional Complex in La Grange wrote in the
anonymous 2009 survey. At the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex, an
inmate wrote, "I would like not to be hungry all the time."
Jennifer Brislin, a state Justice Cabinet
spokeswoman, said Tuesday that Aramark's food "meets all recommended
daily allowances and dietary requirements."
October 19, 2009 Courier-Journal
Workers at the Northpoint Training Center will begin serving food out of a
makeshift kitchen Monday, nearly two months after the worst inmate riot in
modern Kentucky history. The portable, tent-style building will be fully
functional and seat 200, Justice Cabinet spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin said. The department is paying $195,447 to rent
the facility for six months. It could extend the rental if work on a new
kitchen isn't completed by then. The facility has been approved by the state
fire marshal and local health department, she said. Until now, food has been
delivered daily to Northpoint from another state prison. Six buildings,
including the kitchen, were burned and eight inmates and eight corrections
officers suffered minor injuries after inmates began setting fires and
trashing buildings at the prison near Burgin on Aug. 21. The state moved
roughly 700 prisoners to other facilities the day after the riot. As of
Friday, the prison, which is about 30 miles southwest of Lexington, held 468
inmates. It's operating at less than 40 percent capacity. Limited visitation
for inmates resumed recently, Brislin said. A
Department of Corrections investigation into the cause of the disturbance is
expected to be completed later this month, she said. There is still no cost
estimate for the damage. Prison officials are working to remove debris from
three dormitories that were damaged. An architectural firm is working on
renderings of facilities that would contain a medical area, kitchen, library
and inmate canteen — all of which appeared gutted in photographs provided by
the Justice Cabinet. Brislin said that, while six
buildings were burned, it's unclear whether six new buildings will be built
or whether the department would build fewer structures that would be more
efficient. Justice and corrections officials are expected to give a
legislative committee an update on Thursday. One legislator, Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, has questioned whether inmate
dissatisfaction with food provided by a private vendor caused problems at
Northpoint and other prisons in the state. Yonts
has prefiled a bill that would cancel the
Department of Corrections' $12million contract with Pennsylvania-based
Aramark Services and prohibit privatization of inmate food service in
Kentucky's state-operated prisons. He said families of inmates, prison
employees and inmates have complained that inmates don't receive enough food
during meals and can't afford the food that is sold in prison canteens.
“About 20 percent of prisoners or more do not receive money from their
families to buy canteen food, which some say is high-priced,” he said in a
recent news release. Aramark has disputed the claim that its food service
might have contributed to the August riot.
September 9, 2009 Herald-Leader
Complaints about the quality and quantity of food that a private company
provides to Kentucky state prisons has led a state lawmaker to file a bill
that would cancel the $12 million annual contract. Northpoint Training
Center, where there was a riot last month, is one of several state prisons
where inmates and corrections officers have complained about the food
provided by Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services, said state Rep.
Brent Yonts, D-Greenville. Yonts
said he also is concerned that the illness of as many as 300 inmates at a
Western Kentucky prison might have been caused by food. "There's no
reason for people to be treated inhumanely," Yonts
said. "I don't think the system is recognizing the problem with Aramark.
I'm hoping the administration will ... cancel the contract." If the bill
is passed by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2010, food service to inmates
at state prisons could be provided only by state employees, inmates or
volunteers. That was the case until January 2005, when the state contracted
with Aramark. The contract was renewed in January 2009 and expires in 2011. Yonts said he received many complaints from across the
state about food quality, shortages and even "crawling creatures in the
food" in the past year. Inmates at Boyle County's Northpoint staged a
sit-in in 2007 over the quality of food and prices of snacks in the prison
canteen, according to the American Correctional Association. In a riot at
Northpoint on Aug. 21, inmates burned and damaged buildings, several of which
were a total loss. Eight guards and eight inmates suffered minor injuries. Yonts said that he sent a questionnaire about the food to
corrections officers. The replies said that food problems have caused
"control" problems with inmates. Sarah Jarvis, a spokeswoman for
Aramark, said Tuesday that the company "has an excellent track
record" and has received many accolades. "We reduce the costs to
taxpayers of feeding inmates, while providing nutritious meals in close
consultation with dietitians and nutritionists," she said. In January,
Aramark stopped serving meals at Florida prisons, citing rapid rises in food
costs and a poor working relationship with the state. In 2008 alone, the
company was fined $241,499 by Florida for problems with the food and service,
according to news reports. Saving millions -- State corrections officials say
the contract with Aramark saves $5 million each year and allowed them to give
corrections officers a nearly 7 percent raise in 2008. Northpoint inmates and
family members have told the Herald-Leader that the quality and price of food
and canteen items continues to be a source of unrest at the prison and might
have figured in the August riots. Jarvis said there is no evidence that the
riots "were the result of anything other than gang-related activity and
yard restrictions. Some of the facts in this story seem to be based on
anecdotes, half-truths and suspicious complaints by inmates and others who
... ignore official reports and contradictory facts." Incidents that led
to the riot and fire are under investigation by the state Department of
Corrections and State Police. Source of illnesses unknown -- At the Western
Kentucky Correctional Complex at Fredonia, James Tolley, the public health
director at Pennyrile District Health Department,
said his staff has investigated three cases in 2009 in which inmates had
gastrointestinal distress. In one instance in the spring, Tolley said, as
many as 300 inmates fell ill there. State Corrections Department spokeswoman
Cheryl Million said a foodborne illness was suspected, but it could not be
verified in lab tests. Tolley said that even though lab results did not
confirm that food was the problem, his staff advised food service employees
on safe food handling. Yonts said he is looking
into those cases. "Inmates do complain about Aramark," Million
said. However, she said, there were similar complaints before Aramark took
over food service. The Department of Corrections receives, on average, 21
food grievances among 13 institutions each month, she said. The state pays
Aramark $2.63 for each inmate each day, Million said. Yonts
said he also has received complaints about the food at Blackburn Correctional
Complex in Fayette County. Yonts' legislation
barring private companies would not apply to canteens where inmates at state
prisons can buy food, to local jails or to food provided to inmates being
transferred from one prison to another.
September 2, 2009 Herald-Leader
Last month's riot at Northpoint Training Center was at least the second
inmate protest at the medium security prison in the past two years. The other
disturbance occurred in October 2007, when 60 to 70 inmates staged a sit-in
inside the prison yard to complain about prison food and canteen prices,
according to an accreditation report completed in February by the American
Correctional Association. In the Aug. 21 riot, inmates burned and damaged
buildings at the Boyle County facility. Several were a total loss. Eight
guards and eight inmates received minor injuries. Since then, some prisoners
and their families have contacted the Herald-Leader alleging that the quality
and price of prison food and canteen items continues to be a source of unrest
at the prison and may have played a role in the riot. However, Justice
Cabinet Spokesperson Jennifer Brislin said a
Northpoint official responsible for handling inmate grievances told Brislin she had received no information from inmates that
indicate concerns over food service or the canteen led to last month's
disturbance. At Northpoint, "there are nutritional standards and calorie
levels that must be met, and there is a certified dietitian who reviews the
menus, so inmates are being offered nutritionally balanced meals," Brislin said. A spokeswoman for Aramark Correctional
Services, the private company that operates the prison's food services and
canteen, said the company had “no indication” that inmate concerns about food
service or high canteen prices had anything to do with the Aug. 21 riot. “We
serve meals that are healthy and nutritious,” said Sarah Jarvis, the
spokeswoman. She said the food meets all state and federal standards and that
canteen prices have to meet the approval of prison administration. Incidents
that led up to the riot and fire are still under investigation by the state
Department of Corrections and State Police. A report on the cause of the riot
may not be complete for weeks, said Brislin,
because 700 inmates were transferred to other facilities throughout Kentucky,
making conducting interviews difficult, she said. About 500 of the prison's
1,200 inmates are now living in two dorms. During the 2007 disturbance, the
prison's accreditation report said protesting inmates "quickly dispersed"
when security staff "assembled with video cameras" to document who
was involved. Two inmates filed grievances concerning food service and the
canteen after the 2007 incident, the report said.
Otter Creek Correctional Center
Wheelwright, Kentucky
CCA
Behind the Bars | Kentucky
had gaps in monitoring troubled Otter Creek prison July 5, 2010
Behind the Bars | Experts
question benefits of private prisons July 5, 2010
Behind the Bars |
Prison faced regular complaints about medical care July 5, 2010
Behind the Bars | Secretary Carla
Meade's suicide raised questions July 5, 2010
June 12, 2012 WKYT
One small eastern Kentucky town is bracing for a prison shutdown that will
put a huge portion of its population out of work. As we reported in April,
the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright is closing, and as the
last day approaches city officials are still wondering what will happen to
their town. It is a small mountain town with a small population of about 700,
but in a few weeks nearly a quarter of those people will be jobless.
"It's going to affect everybody," said Wheelwright Mayor Andy
Akers. Otter Creek Correctional Center is closing, leaving almost 170 people
wondering what will happen next.
May 14, 2012 The Town Talk
A group of shift supervisors at a private prison in central Kentucky has sued
Corrections Corporation of America, alleging the company forced them to work
extra hours and denied them overtime. The six current and former CCA
employees at the Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary's who filed suit also said
the Nashville, Tenn.-based private prison giant denied them meal and rest
breaks, and required employees to attend training sessions without pay.
Attorney Tom Miller of Lexington told The Associated Press that the lawsuit
may also affect employees of two other CCA prisons in Kentucky — the Lee
Adjustment Center in Beattyville and Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright. "This is a for-profit company," Miller said. "The
way you maximize profits is to reduce expenses." The group is seeking
unspecified damages and a temporary injunction forcing CCA to compensate
employees who work more than 40 hours a week. Miller said any damages could
cover employees dating back to 2007. "We believe the statute of
limitations extends five years," Miller said. CCA spokesman Mike Machak said Monday that the company had not seen the
lawsuit and couldn't address the specific allegations. "Overall, we are
committed to ensuring that our employees are fairly compensated, and we
strive to provide lasting career opportunities for those professionals who
chose to work with our company," Machak said.
The shift supervisors and assistant supervisors claim they do uncompensated
work before and after regular shift hours, including traveling between
minimum- and medium-security units at the 825-inmate prison in central
Kentucky, staying on post while waiting for a replacement officer to arrive
and attending training sessions on regular days off. CCA classifies the shift
supervisors and assistant supervisors as "exempt" from overtime pay
under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The act has rules covering which
employees qualify for overtime, based in part on salary, how many people the
supervisor oversees and the duties included in the supervisor's job
description and whether management duties are part of the job. Miller said
CCA has misclassified the employees as exempt from overtime rules and wants a
judge to restore the meal and rest periods required by law. The lawsuit is
similar to a suit filed in federal court in Kansas that sought to certify a
class of assistant shift supervisors at CCA's 65 facilities in 19 states. In
that case, assistant shift supervisors alleged that CCA misclassified them as
exempt from overtime pay. The two sides have filed a notice of settlement in
court, but the details of the agreement are not due to a judge until Friday.
CCA and a group of collections officers, case managers and clerks also
settled a suit concerning overtime in 2009, also in federal court in Kansas.
In that case, CCA agreed to pay a maximum of $7 million, but did not
acknowledge fault in the case.
April 24, 2012 AP
After a sex scandal at a privately run prison in rural Kentucky, the state
cut off the institution's funding and now it's shutting down — and that
worries town officials in an impoverished Appalachian community where
incarceration meant jobs and economic survival. With Otter Creek Correctional
Center set to close in the coming months, Mike Goeing,
who runs Family Drugs of Wheelwright, sees pain ahead for his store and the
other few remaining businesses in the town of about 1,200. "It's
definitely going to hurt," he said. The prison, run by Nashville,
Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America, is set to close by this
summer as Kentucky pulls its inmates out of the facility that was at the
center of a sex scandal. It broke in 2009 when inmates accused prison staff
of forcing them to trade sexual favors for privileges. The prison became a
casualty of budget cuts and a renewed effort by the state to push more
non-violent drug offenders into rehabilitation instead of incarceration.
Kentucky paid CCA $21 million in fiscal 2010 to operate Otter Creek, along
with the Marion Adjustment Center, which has roughly 800 Kentucky inmates and
Lee Adjustment Center, which no longer houses Kentucky inmates. Kentucky
opted not to renew its contract with CCA as part of an ambitious plan to cut
costs, reduce the number of small-time, non-violent drug offenders in prison
and refocus efforts on rehabilitation. The men currently held at Otter Creek
are being moved to Northpoint Training Center in Burgin. People in
Wheelwright are hoping for word that another state will step in with a new
batch of inmates, reopen the facility and rehire the employees. "There
aren't a large number of businesses here anyway," Goeing
told The Associated Press. Initially, the local jobs came from coal. Elk Horn
Coal Company founded the city in 1916 about 150 miles southeast of Lexington
near the Kentucky-Virginia border, and named it for the company's
then-president, Jere H. Wheelwright. As coal production slowed, the area's
economy went with it. Businesses closed or struggled to stay open. The prison
brought nearly 200 jobs to one of the poorest regions in the South when it
opened in 1981. CCA paid employees $8.25 an hour — low pay by prison
standards but welcome cash for the area. "It helped the few businesses
that remain here," said Goeing, who used to
deliver medications to the prison. Without the prison jobs, Wheelwright Mayor
Andy Akers says people will lose their steady income and stop spending money
in the area. "It's going to hurt the grocery stores, the restaurants —
just everything where they guards are used to spending their money,"
Akers said. The prison once housed women from Hawaii and Kentucky. In January
2010, after the scandal broke, Gov. Steve Beshear
ordered the women removed from Otter Creek. The state transferred 400 female
inmates to Western Kentucky Correctional Complex in Fredonia and moved men
into Otter Creek. Hawaii removed 168 female inmates in 2009, sending them to
a prison in Arizona. Multiple lawsuits were filed over the sex accusations.
Most were dismissed. None of that slowed CCA down. In the last five years,
the company announced contracts to build new private prisons or expand
existing state and federal facilities in more than a half-dozen places
ranging from Mississippi to Nevada. CCA spokesman Steve Owen said the
company, through Otter Creek and other private prisons, "drives economic
growth in any community where it operates." Alex Friedmann, a convicted
armed robber turned inmate advocate, spent six of his 10 years in prison at
CCA facilities. He said the closing of Otter Creek is part of a shift by some
states to lower incarceration rates and save money on prison costs. Friedmann
noted that CCA recently closed a facility in Appleton, Minn., and hasn't
found a new client for it. He said they also stopped building a prison in
Tennessee for want of a client. "The only thing interesting to CCA is
can they generate a profit because they are a for-profit company," said
Friedmann, who now lives in Old Hickory, Tenn. "There's a social cost
... when you have communities dependent on incarceration as a business model.
That's a very dangerous thing."
April 13, 2012 WKYT
Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright will be shutting its doors
at the end of June. Officials say with capacity being added at other
facilities in Kentucky, the state did not feel the need to continue using
Otter Creek and did not renew its contract with the Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA). "The department did not have a need for the continuation
of that contract beyond its current term," said CCA spokesperson Steve
Owen. More than 170 people from the Wheelwright area work there, but after
June 30 they will no longer have jobs. "A lot of them live within the
city and a lot of them live in the community, you know. We're a tight knit
community around here," said Wheelwright Mayor Andy Akers. "We are
preparing our employees for the fact that at the end of June we will not have
a population in that facility, and so we want to work very closely to take
care of them," said Owen. He said if those employees are willing CCA
will try to help them relocate to other facilities in the state and across
the country.
February 1, 2012 Floyd County Times
The company that owns Otter Creek Correctional Center was sued this week in
Floyd Circuit court for damages caused by an escaped inmate. According to the
lawsuit, filed by attorney Ned Pillersdorf, on
behalf of Linda and Dennis Holbrook, Corrections Corporation of America, the
company which owns Otter Creek, was negligent in its handling of an escape by
Larry Crump in September. Pillersdorf says his
clients are deeply concerned with the ease at which prisoners seem to be
escaping from Otter Creek. “It’s a public safety issue,” said Pillersdorf, adding that Crumb was an escape threat,
having escaped twice before from other facilities. In the complaint, the
plaintiffs state that when Crump escaped, outside authorities were not
notified for over an hour after prison guards noted him missing. The Holbrooks state that Crump came to their home, which is
located less than a mile from the prison after breaking out, rifled through
their medicine cabinet and “drank a soft drink” before stealing the couple’s
2005 Cadillac CTS automobile. During the apprehension of Crump, court
documents allege that he crashed the vehicle. “Larry Crump then attempted to
elude the police while driving the Plaintiffs’ vehicle and caused it to crash
and be demolished.” The Holbrooks are seeking
punitive damages for the “grossly negligent and reckless conduct” of CCA, and
they additionally seek damages for trespass and violations that the alleged
negligent acts caused. The Holbrooks have brought
the litigation to try to force CCA to change its behavior, Pillersdorf said, adding that hitting a company in the
wallet is sometimes the best way to get its attention.
January 6, 2011 AP
A German woman has filed a lawsuit against a private company that ran a
Kentucky prison and some of its employees, saying she was forced to trade sex
to call her ill mother. The suit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in
Louisville is the latest in a series of cases alleging sexual assault at the
Otter Creek Correctional Complex in Wheelwright. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear ordered all the female prisoners removed from the
facility a year ago when a scandal involving corrections officers and inmates
reached its height. The lawsuit says the inmate, a 38-year-old German
citizen, is serving five years for theft and other charges. Although the
lawsuit names the inmate, the Associated Press does not generally identify
those who say they have been sexually assaulted. The lawsuit accuses Dwight
Crowell, an internal affairs officer at the prison, of sexual assault. It also
names several of his superiors - former Otter Creek Warden Jeff Little,
currently the security chief at another CCA prison, Lee Adjustment Center,
John Ferguson, chairman of CCA's board of directors and Tony Grande, an
executive vice president of CCA - and says they didn't stop the wrongdoing.
Louise Graham, a spokeswoman for CCA in Nashville, Tenn., declined to address
the specifics of the inmate's allegations. "I can confirm that the
Kentucky State Police have an ongoing investigation into this matter,"
Graham said. No listing for Crowell could be found in the area surrounding
the prison. Graham declined to provide any contact information for him.
Kentucky State Police did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Kentucky pulled female inmates from Otter Creek Correctional Complex after a
sex scandal involving prisoners and guards at the Corrections Corporation of
America-owned prison. Several hundred women were relocated 377 miles away to
the state-run Western Kentucky Correctional Complex in Fredonia. Other
inmates, including the one who filed suit Wednesday night, were moved to the
Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Pewee Valley. In the lawsuit,
the inmate alleged that sexual abuse took place starting in July 2008 and
kept up over an 18 month period before the state moved the female inmates.
Crowell threatened to harm the inmate's chances at parole and have her
deported away from her children if she reported the sexual abuse, according
to the lawsuit. The inmate said the prison's internal grievance system was
useless because all complaints were routed through Crowell and that anonymous
phone lines given to inmates didn't protect their identities. The phone
required inmates to give their identifications numbers to make the calls, the
inmate said. Graham wouldn't specifically discuss that allegation, but said
CCA offers multiple ways for inmates to report sexual abuse, including
telephone hotlines. "Additionally, all CCA employees are provided
training, and inmates are oriented on ways in which to report - both
anonymously and otherwise - claims of this nature," Graham said. The
inmate's lawyers, Larry Simon and Christina Norris, said prison
administrators and CCA officials were aware of sexual abuse allegations at
the prison, but didn't adequately investigate them or train staff. At least
two other federal lawsuits have been pursued by former inmates at Otter
Creek. CCA was dismissed from both. Former Otter Creek inmates have told The
Associated Press that rules at Otter Creek weren't strictly enforced and
that, in some cases, inmates traded sex for favors from the guards.
"There was an agenda behind it, not that it was OK for a staff member to
do that," said 40-year-old Stephanie Spitser,
who is serving life in prison for murder and kidnapping. Kentucky changed its
law concerning sex between prison staff and inmates. Under a provision passed
in 2010, prison guards, jailers and other staffers who oversee inmates could
be charged with felony rape and sodomy for having consensual sex with prisoners.
Under current law, corrections officers face only misdemeanor charges for
consensual sex with inmates.
April 15, 2010 AP
Gov. Steve Beshear signed legislation Thursday
allowing prison guards to be charged with felony rape for having sex with inmates
The action came four months after Beshear ordered
400 women removed from the privately run Otter Creek Correctional Complex in
Floyd County, where allegations of sexual misconduct were widespread. “The
inherent power disparity between correctional officers and inmates precludes
there from ever being a consensual sexual relationship between the two,” Beshear said in signing Senate Bill 17. “This legislation
offers greater protection for inmates in our custody, and helps eliminate
circumstances that can create security risks in our prisons.”
March 21, 2010 AP
Prison guards could face charges of felony rape for having consensual sex
with inmates under legislation that received final approval Monday, some
three months after Kentucky ordered 400 women removed from a lockup where
allegations of sexual misconduct had become widespread. Gov. Steve Beshear said he intends to quickly sign the measure into
law. "This legislation offers greater protections for inmates in our
custody, and helps eliminate activities that can create security risks in our
prisons," Beshear said. "Additionally,
this measure, which has been a priority for my administration since I took
office, further bolsters our commitment to ensure the safety of female
inmates." Earlier this year, Beshear ordered
all the female inmates removed from the corporate-run Otter Creek
Correctional Complex in eastern Kentucky after allegations of sexual
misconduct were made against the predominantly male corps of corrections
officers. State Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, said the Kentucky Department
of Corrections sought unsuccessfully to get the legislation passed last year.
With the Otter Creek controversy fresh on lawmakers' minds, the measure
passed both the Senate and House unanimously. Denton said Otter Creek
"underscored the problem and showed that we really do need some
additional weapons in the arsenal to deter this." When the law takes
effect later this year, prison guards, jailers and other staffers who oversee
inmates could be charged with felony rape and sodomy for having consensual
sex with prisoners. Under current law, corrections officers face only
misdemeanor charges for consensual sex with inmates. Beshear
ordered the women moved from Otter Creek, which is operated by
Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, to the state-run Western
Kentucky Correctional Complex. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Jennifer
Brislin said the inmate transfer is expected to be
complete by September. The transfer came four months after the Department of Corrections
called for security improvements at Otter Creek in a report that detailed 18
alleged cases of sexual misconduct by prison guards there. The report called
for Corrections Corporation of America to take action to protect women
inmates at Otter Creek by making basic changes, like assigning female guards
to supervise sleeping quarters, hiring a female security chief, and shuffling
staffing so that at least 40 percent of the work force is female. Beshear said finding enough women willing to work as corrections
officers at Otter Creek had been difficult. Perched on a mountainside above
Wheelwright, the Otter Creek prison came under public scrutiny when female
inmates from Hawaii complained that they had been subjected to sexual
assaults by their male guards. Corrections officials in Hawaii removed 165
inmates from Otter Creek last year, citing safety concerns. Corrections
Corporation of America spokesman Steve Owen previously said that his company
had taken steps to prevent sexual assaults in the prison. Those steps, he
said, included installing video cameras to deter sexual misconduct and to
help investigators determine the validity of future allegations. Owen had
said "the rogue actions of a few bad apples" led to an unfair
characterizations of Otter Creek prison guards.
February 25, 2010 Courier-Journal
A former inmate at the beleaguered private women’s prison in Eastern
Kentucky has filed a lawsuit alleging that she was repeatedly raped by a
prison employee in 2007. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Pikeville,
alleges that the employee at the Otter Creek Correctional Center forced her
to engage in non-consensual sexual acts between March and October 2007 and
threatened to block her parole if she reported him to authorities. The
alleged victim also names Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America,
which operates the prison under contract with the state, and the Department
of Corrections as defendants. It alleges that they failed to properly screen,
train and supervise the employee. CCA spokesman Steve Owen said in an e-mail
Thursday that the employee was terminated last March. Owen said CCA has not
yet received a copy of the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday, and could not
comment further at this time. Department of Corrections Commission LaDonna
Thompson said Thursday that she had not yet seen the suit and could not
comment. It could not be determined whether the employee is facing criminal
charges relating to the allegations. A Kentucky State Police spokesman
familiar with cases against former Otter Creek workers could not be reached
for comment Thursday. At least six workers at Otter Creek have been charged
with sex-related crimes involving inmates at the facility. Gov. Steve Beshear announced last month that the state will move
more than 400 women prisoners out of Otter Creek given the allegations of
sexual misconduct by male workers there. The women prisoners will be
transferred to the state-run Western Kentucky Correctional Complex in
Fredonia this summer, and the nearly 700 male inmates now there will be moved
to Otter Creek, which has more than 650 beds, and other prisons in the state.
CCA has been under fire since last summer after multiple inmates at Otter
Creek made allegations that they were sexually assaulted by corrections officers
and other workers there. A Department of Corrections investigation found that
prison authorities failed to investigate seven alleged incidents of sexual
contact between workers and inmates since 2007. In four of those cases, the
workers involved were fired. But investigations required under the federal
Prison Rape Elimination Act were not conducted. The suit filed this week
states that the alleged victim originally denied that she had been raped
because “she was so afraid of (the employee’s) threats regarding her parole.”
It says she told investigators last July that the incidents had occurred. The
suit says that the alleged victim was released on parole in September 2008
under the condition that she remain free of any parole violations for six
years.
January 8, 2010 Courier-Journal
Gov. Steve Beshear announced Friday that the
state will move more than 400 women prisoners out of the privately run Otter
Creek Correctional Center, amid allegations of sexual misconduct by male
workers there. The women prisoners will be transferred to the state-run
Western Kentucky Correctional Complex in Fredonia this summer — and the
nearly 700 male inmates there will be moved to Otter Creek in Eastern
Kentucky, which has 656 beds, and other prisons in the state, he said. At
least six workers at Otter Creek have been criminally charged with
sex-related crimes involving inmates at the facility, run by Nashville-based
Corrections Corp. of America. Kentucky State Police spokesman Mike Goble said
Friday that state police expect to present another case to a Floyd County
grand jury next month. “There is no place for this kind of behavior in our
system,” Beshear said Friday. He said the move
would save taxpayers “millions of dollars” a year because the state would pay
CCA less per day for males than females. But Justice Cabinet Secretary J.
Michael Brown acknowledged the private company that operates Otter Creek
could end up making more money off the deal, because the state would likely
house more male prisoners at Otter Creek than it had female prisoners. Ken Kopczynski, executive director of the Private Corrections
Institute, a Florida-based anti-privatization group, said he believes the
deal rewards Otter Creek for failing to protect female inmates from alleged
sexual abuse. He said the state should've sanctioned Corrections Corp. of
America for not being able to meet the terms of the contract struck last
fall, which included minimum staffing levels and female worker ratios. The
state's contract with CCA allows the state to fine the company up to $5,000 a
day, but it has never imposed any staffing-level sanctions. “It's an
abdication of the state's responsibility first off to hold the vendors to the
contract and then to reward them for bad performance,” Kopczynski
said. Corrections Corp. of America has been under fire since last summer
after multiple inmates at Otter Creek made allegations that they were sexual
assaulted by corrections officers and other workers there. A Department of
Corrections investigation found that authorities at the prison failed to
investigate seven alleged incidents of sexual contact between workers and
inmates since 2007. In four of those cases, the workers involved were fired.
But investigations, required under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act,
were not conducted. The state of Hawaii moved its nearly 200 women prisoners
out of Otter Creek, in part because of the incidents. Kentucky officials,
however, extended its contract with CCA for one year last fall. Brown said
officials are in the process of renegotiating its contract under the new
arrangement. He said he hopes to have the contract in place by July 1, the
start of next fiscal year. Beshear attributed some
of the problems at Otter Creek to the lack of female corrections officers and
said that because the state pays more than CCA, it would have an easier time
recruiting female corrections officers to work at the Western Kentucky
prison. However Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson said she doesn't
expect to hire additional officers and would instead transfer female workers
from nearby prisons if necessary. “We think this change will pay off in
better management for inmates,” Beshear said. When
the state extended the Otter Creek contract with CCA in the fall, it said it
was requiring CCA to raise its ratio of female workers. Brown did not answer
when asked whether CCA was having difficulty meeting the new requirement.
“All I can say is we presented CCA what our intent was and asked them to
partner with us,” he said. “They are very much on board in that effort, I can
tell you that.” CCA issued a statement Friday applauding the new arrangement.
“CCA welcomes the opportunity to continue meeting Kentucky's correctional
needs at Otter Creek,” said Steve Conry, a vice
president of operations.
October 18, 2009 Honolulu Advertiser
A female inmate who was housed at the Otter Creek Women's Prison in Kentucky
has filed a lawsuit against the state of Hawaii and the company that operates
the prison, alleging she was sexually assaulted by a guard while incarcerated.
Pania Kalama, 35, alleges in her Circuit Court
lawsuit that the state and Corrections Corporation of America knew about
improper behavior by corrections staff at Otter Creek, but took no actions to
ensure the safety of inmates. Kalama said she was sexually assaulted on June
13 by corrections officer Charlie Prater, according to the lawsuit. Last
month, Prater, 54, was indicted in Kentucky on a charge of first-degree rape.
Hawaii corrections officials sent 165 women inmates to Otter Creek, a private
prison operated by Corrections Corporation of America. State officials
removed the inmates from the facility following allegations of sexual
assaults of inmates by staff. The lawsuit, which was filed by attorney Myles Breiner, seeks an undetermined amount in damages.
October 13, 2009 KGMB 9
All of the Hawaii inmates in a troubled Kentucky women's prison have been
brought home, except for one. That prisoner, Totie Tauala, happens to be a whistleblower who helped expose
sex assaults by the guards. Her family wonders if she is being punished for
speaking out, but a state official said she was left behind for misbehaving
in prison. "I don't know what's going on. She's far away. If she was
here in Hawaii at least I could comfort her," said Tauala's
mother, Regina Dias Tauala. Tauala
was convicted of manslaughter for killing Hayward Julio in 2002. She is
serving a 20-year sentence. While at the Otter Creek Women's Correctional
Facility in Kentucky in 2007, Tauala was sexually
assaulted by a guard who was later convicted of the crime. After
investigating similar complaints from other inmates, state officials decided
to bring the women home. Out of 168 inmates, Tauala
was the only one who didn't return last month. She was moved to Colorado.
"It had nothing to do with her being a whistleblower or anything that
she did regarding the incidents that took place. It had to do with her
classification," said Clayton Frank, director of the Department of
Public Safety. Frank said Tauala was the only one
classified as maximum custody because of her misconduct while in prison in
Hawaii and Kentucky. "You may have individuals that may have committed
the same crime as Ms. Tauala, but their custody and
classification may be medium so they would be eligible to return,"
explained Frank. Tauala just filed a lawsuit
against the state and the Corrections Corporation of America for failing to
protect the Otter Creek inmates. "They're using my daughter as a
scapegoat. Why are they punishing? She's the only one. Why they single that
out?" said Dias Tauala
October 6, 2009 Star-Bulletin
A female inmate from Hawaii who says she was sexually assaulted by a male
guard while incarcerated in a privately run prison in Kentucky is suing the
state and the prison operator, Corrections Corp. of America. Totie Tauala, 35, who is
serving a 20-year state prison sentence for manslaughter, filed the lawsuit
in Circuit Court yesterday. The lawsuit identifies the prison guard but does
not name him as a defendant. Tauala claims the
guard sexually assaulted her on Oct. 17, 2007, while she was incarcerated at
Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky. The state returned all
128 female inmates it housed at Otter Creek last month following the
indictments of six prison employees for first-degree rape. The state moved
its female inmates to Kentucky in 2005 after a similar scandal at a privately
run prison in Colorado.
September 14, 2009 Courier-Journal
Authorities at a troubled private women’s prison in Eastern Kentucky failed
to investigate seven alleged incidents of sexual contact between workers and
inmates dating to 2007, according to a Department of Corrections report
released Monday. In four of the cases, the workers were fired. But while the
state report found there was sufficient evidence to have warranted an investigation
under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, that was not done.
Nevertheless, department officials have finalized a one-year contract
extension with the prison's owner and operator, Corrections Corp. of America,
or CCA. Justice Cabinet spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin
said the Nashville-based CCA agreed to conditions aimed at curbing the number
of sexual incidents between staff and inmates at the prison, the Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Floyd County. She said the department decided to
extend the contract for one year, instead of the normal two, to make sure
problems at the prison are resolved. The extension does not increase the
$53.77 daily rate per inmate — a total of more than $8 million last year —
that the state pays to house some 425 prisoners at the Wheelwright facility.
The report, which was based on allegations made in July, included 14
recommendations. CCA spokesman Steve Owen said in a statement that the
company has implemented or is in the process of implementing the recommendations
made in the report. Many of those recommendations also are conditions for the
contract renewal. A recent Courier-Journal review of a state monitor’s
monthly reports found that the prison, which has been plagued by allegations
of sexual assaults by officers, has also been chronically understaffed and
has suffered from poor employee morale and security concerns. The report
released Monday was obtained by The Courier-Journal under the state's open
records laws. All names of individuals were removed. As part of its review,
the department examined internal investigative files from Otter Creek and
found the four incidents in which it found sufficient evidence to warrant an
investigation under the Prison Rape Elimination Act. During interviews and
subsequent reviews, the department found three more incidents that should
have been investigated by prison officials, according to the report.
Incidents that should've been investigated as possible violations include:
*The firing of a worker for violations of inappropriate correspondence. A
review of the prison's investigative file revealed that the worker made
sexual comments toward an inmate. *The firing of a worker for
misconduct/destruction of property. The worker was seen kissing an inmate,
according to the department's review of documents. *The firing of a worker
for inappropriate contact with a former resident. *The firing of a worker for
bringing an inmate cigarettes and frequently talking to her. *A witness
account of a worker trying to get an inmate into the staff bathroom. *An
inmate's report that a worker made sexual remarks to her and touched another
inmate's breast. *A witness account of a worker and inmate kissing. The
report does not determine whether the incidents in question actually occurred
— only that prison officials failed to investigate the allegations. Such an
investigation would lead to a finding that the allegations were either
substantiated, unsubstantiated or unfounded. Brislin
said it will now be CCA's responsibility to investigate the alleged incidents
and report to the state. The conditions that the state has established for
renewing the contract include: *Providing female staff and officers for
direct supervision of inmates in any housing and medical units. *Maintaining
a security staff that is at least 40 percent female. *Conducting a security
assessment of areas in the prison where assaults have been reported and
submitting and implementing a plan to increase the use of cameras and other
measures to enhance security. *Instituting uniform reporting of all sexual
contact to the department. *Providing therapy for inmates who have had
traumatic experiences. Owen said CCA is “united with our government partners
in a commitment to zero-tolerance policy for sexual victimization of any
kind.”
September 10, 2009 AP
House Speaker Greg Stumbo is calling for the Kentucky Justice Cabinet to
consider a proposal to lease a private women's prison and operate it with
state corrections officers. Stumbo sent a letter to Justice Secretary J.
Michael Brown on Thursday proposing the arrangement at Otter Creek
Correctional Complex, which is the focus of investigations into alleged sex
crimes against inmates. Six workers at the prison have been accused of sex
crimes in the last three years at the prison that houses about 420 women.
Stumbo said the state could lease the prison from Corrections Corporation of
America and use it exclusively to house Kentucky inmates. Brown has already
said the state won't renew its contract with the Nashville, Tenn.-based
company unless it hires a female security chief and maintains a security
staff that is at least 40% female.
September 7, 2009 Herald-Leader
A privately run prison in Eastern Kentucky plagued with allegations of
sexual improprieties involving guards and inmates did not report all sexual
abuse incidents to the state. A Herald-Leader review of sexual-incident
reports dating to 2006 showed that at least one alleged assault involving
Otter Creek Correctional Center staff and a Kentucky inmate was not reported
to the state by Corrections Corporation of America. Also, state correction
officials said, Otter Creek hasn't followed the same reporting standards for
sexual assaults as the state's 13 state-run prisons. State prison officials
confirmed that they never received a report from CCA about Randy Hagans, the
prison's former chaplain. Hagans was charged with third-degree sexual abuse
for alleged contact with an Kentucky inmate. He has
pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 21, court records
show. Steve Owen, a spokesman for the Nashville-based prison company, did not
answer questions about what happened to the report on Hagans. Over the past
three years, about a half-dozen corrections officers at Otter Creek have
faced sex-related charges for inappropriate contact with female inmates. On
Tuesday, Charles Prater, 54, a former corrections officer at Otter Creek, was
charged by a Floyd County grand jury with first-degree rape, a felony. Otter
Creek's reporting requirements for sexual assaults are more lax than the state's
13 state-run prisons, which must report all sexual assaults — including
assaults among inmates — to the state Department of Corrections. CCA has been
required only to report incidents involving Kentucky inmates and officers,
said Jennifer Brislin, a spokeswoman for the
Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet. The company's policy must change or Kentucky probably will not agree to continue its
contract with CCA, state Department of Corrections officials said last week.
CCA had contracts with both Kentucky and Hawaii to house female inmates, but
reports about sexual abuse involving Hawaii inmates were not submitted to
Kentucky. Therefore, it was difficult for Kentucky authorities to get a count
of how many inmates were alleging sexual abuse at the hands of prison
workers, Brislin said. Prater, for example, was
charged with raping a Hawaii inmate. "We wanted to see the bigger
picture and how they were handling these situations," Brislin said. "We want to know that we are getting
all the details. This is going to give us more complete information."
Both Kentucky and Hawaii launched investigations in July into improprieties
at Otter Creek. Hawaii ultimately removed 128 prisoners from the facility.
Kentucky is expected to complete its investigation sometime this week. Still,
Kentucky authorities said they probably won't move the state's female
inmates, noting that CCA is working to make changes at the prison. "We
are continuing to work with our customers so that they are comfortable not
only that they are getting full reporting of incidents but also that their
inmates are in the safest environment possible," said Owen, the
spokesman for CCA. Clayton Frank, director of the Hawaii Department of Public
Safety, said Friday that he had no problem with Kentucky having access to
incident reports involving Hawaii inmates. Hawaii has removed all of its
prisoners from the prison in Wheelwright, Frank said. The state was at the
end of its contract with CCA at the time it removed its prisoners, he said.
"We just felt that it was in the best interest of everyone to bring them
home," Frank said. Improving reporting requirements is just one of many
conditions that CCA must meet if it wants its contract with Kentucky renewed,
corrections officials said last week. CCA has had a contract to house
Kentucky prisoners since 2005. The state and the company are negotiating
another contract. In a letter to House Speaker Greg Stumbo, Justice and
Public Safety Secretary J. Michael Brown outlined some of the conditions CCA
must meet. The company must increase the number of female guards at the
prison, hire a woman as chief of security, conduct a security assessment and
increase some of its treatment programs. "These conditions are
non-negotiable," Brislin said. "We
believe that Corrections Corp. will agree to these conditions because it's in
their best interest to do so." Stumbo and eight other house members had
sent Gov. Steve Beshear a letter asking that the
state assume operation of Otter Creek. Corrections officials have said that
it's not possible to transfer the more than 400 women at Otter Creek because
the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women — the only other state-run
prison for women — is at capacity. Otter Creek was built and is owned by CCA,
so it would not be possible for the state to take it over, Brislin said. Owen said he would not elaborate on whether
CCA is likely to agree to the conditions. However, the company has agreed to
increase the number of female correction officers there. Owen said the
negative publicity generated by the "rogue actions" of individual
employees is overshadowing "OCCS staff's dedication and professionalism
every single day in keeping the public safe and treating the inmates
entrusted to our care with dignity and respect." Brian Wilkerson, a
spokesman for Stumbo, said Stumbo is researching the matter and might have a
response to Brown's letter sometime this week. Meanwhile, at least one
Kentucky inmate has filed a lawsuit against CCA and the state after she was
sexually assaulted by Kevin Younce, who was
convicted in absentia of second-degree sexual abuse. There is an outstanding
warrant for his arrest. CCA has asked that the case be dismissed. Lawyers who
represent both Kentucky and Hawaii inmates said they plan to file other suits
in coming weeks.
September 6, 2009 Courier-Journal
An inmate with severe mental illness died last year at a troubled private
women's prison in Eastern Kentucky after being allowed to refuse medical
treatment. Beverly Ford Murphy, 54, of Louisville, was serving an eight-year
sentence for second-degree manslaughter in the 2005 stabbing death of her
youngest daughter when she died, on June 18, 2008, at the Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Floyd County. Her death certificate lists her cause of
death as heart disease, with Hepatitis C and diabetes noted as underlying
causes. Federal health privacy laws bar the department and the prison’s owner
and operator, Corrections Corp. of America, from disclosing Murphy's medical
records — and it’s unclear whether her refusal of treatment contributed to
her death. But a state investigative report, which The Courier-Journal
obtained through the state’s open records law, found that Murphy refused
medication for diabetes. The case raises questions about the circumstances
under which an inmate with serious medical conditions should be compelled to
receive treatment. While the corrections department fined CCA $5,000 last
year for failing to report Murphy's death to the state in a timely manner, it
did not impose fines relating to the circumstances surrounding her death. In
fact, department officials defend the prison's handling of the case, saying
Murphy had the right to refuse treatment because she had not been declared
incompetent by a judge. “I can evaluate them, and I can feel that they may not
have sufficient capacity to make informed decisions,” said Dr. Scott Haas,
medical director for the department. “I may feel they have diminished
capacity due to various mental illnesses or various states of mind caused by
a medical condition, but that does not make them incompetent.” But Elizabeth
Alexander, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison
Project, which litigates on behalf of inmates, said prison and state
officials can't allow prisoners to refuse treatment just because they haven't
been declared incompetent. She said officials have the responsibility to
determine whether inmates are refusing medication for rational reasons or for
reasons connected to their mental health. “If in fact those reasons stem from
her mental health issues, then it was the responsibility of the facility to
consider getting a treatment order,” she said. CCA spokesman Steve Owen
declined to comment on the specifics of Murphy's case, citing federal health
privacy laws. “CCA's health care professionals continue to provide a wide
range of services to the inmates entrusted to our care,” he said in a
statement. “We will continue to work closely with (department) officials to
ensure that all inmates have appropriate access to care.” According to
Murphy’s autopsy report, she had Prozac and two other antidepressants in her
blood, as well as anti-seizure medication. She had a history of seizures, the
report said. The state’s investigative report says that Murphy, who was
becoming less cooperative and more “withdrawn,” was taken from the medical
area five days before her death and placed in segregation, where she missed a
“substantial number” of insulin dosages. The report also found: *A
“significant lack of communication” among mental health and medical workers
and security staff. *Inconsistent diabetic monitoring. *A failure by nurses
to notify clinicians of abnormal glucose levels. *The inconsistent use of
forms to document testing and treatment refusal. *A lack of intervention
techniques in response to her refusal of insulin. *Failure to put medical and
mental health documentation into Murphy's file in a timely manner. According
to the report, a comprehensive mental health contact dated June 18, 2008, was
not entered into the record until after her death. Signed by four department
officials, the report notes that such issues create “a perception that it was
acceptable to permit a patient to refuse medical treatment despite diagnosed
mental health concerns and impaired reasoning brought about by a worsening medical
condition.” The department recommended that “inmates with serious active
mental health and/or medical issues” no longer be placed at Otter Creek until
reforms suggested the company were made. By that time, however, the company
had made the changes, and such inmates continued to be sent to Otter Creek.
Murphy's oldest daughter, Tiffany Ford, 34, of Louisville, said in a recent
interview that her mother was bipolar and had anger issues. She also was
addicted to alcohol and crack cocaine, she said. “My mother was very sick,
even before she went to prison,” she said. Ford said officials sent her the
autopsy report and told her that her mother refused her medication. She said
she doesn't understand much of what is documented in the report and didn't
have the time or emotional energy to follow up after losing her sister and
mother in a three-year period. “It was just so much,” she said. A host of
problems at Otter Creek have surfaced in recent months, including numerous
allegations of sexual abuse by workers and chronic understaffing that has led
to low worker morale and security concerns. Six workers there have been
charged in the past three years for inappropriate sexual contact with
inmates, including one corrections officer who was indicted last week on a felony
rape charge. The prison houses roughly 420 Kentucky inmates and until
recently held 168 inmates from Hawaii. That state, however, announced last
month that it was removing its inmates from Otter Creek. Murphy is one of
four inmates at Otter Creek who have died since 2005. The family of a
Hawaiian inmate who died in late 2005 recently settled a lawsuit against the
prison and state of Hawaii. CCA's Owen said the terms of the settlement are
confidential. According to The Honolulu Advertiser, Sarah Ah Mau's family
sued because the prison failed to treat Mau, who had been complaining of
severe abdominal pain and respiratory problems. The two other inmates, who
died in 2007 and 2008, were from Kentucky. But department officials did not
investigate the circumstances surrounding those deaths. Department officials
said they review all deaths but only conduct in-depth investigations when
questions arise during the initial reviews. Officials said they could not
recall what triggered their investigation into Murphy's death.
September 3, 2009 Courier-Journal
Justice Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown said Thursday that the state won't
renew its contract to house female inmates at a troubled private prison in
Eastern Kentucky unless the operator agrees to several new conditions. Brown
outlined the conditions in a letter to House Speaker Greg Stumbo,
D-Prestonsburg, who asked Gov. Steve Beshear last
week not to renew the state's contract with Corrections Corp. of America. The
state has about 420 inmates at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright. A former corrections officer at the prison was indicted Tuesday
on one count of first-degree rape — the sixth worker there in the last three
years to be accused of a sex-related crime involving an inmate but the first to
be charged with a felony. Kentucky State Police plan to present another case
to a Floyd County grand jury the next time it meets. The Department of
Corrections is wrapping up its own investigation into sex abuse allegations
at the prison and expects to release its findings next week. Brown said in
his letter that the state won't sign a two-year extension with the
Nashville-based CCA unless it agrees to the new conditions. “I share your
deep concern,” Brown wrote in his letter to Stumbo. “Let me be clear — such
conduct is inexcusable and will not be tolerated by the Department of
Corrections, the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet or the Beshear
administration.” Brown said any contract extension will require CCA to: *Hire
a female security chief at Otter Creek. *Provide female staff and officers
for direct supervision of inmates in any housing and medical units. *Maintain
a security staff that is at least 40 percent female. *Conduct a security
assessment of areas in the prison where assaults have been reported and
submit and implement a plan to increase the use of cameras and other measures
to enhance security. *Institute uniform reporting of all sexual contact to
the department. *Provide therapy for inmates who have had traumatic
experiences. Brown said the department also would work with CCA to strengthen
staff training, repair the facilities, improve recruitment and retention and
remove barriers to effective monitoring of the facility by the department. He
also said that it’s not feasible to send the Otter Creek inmates to local
jails or out-of-state facilities, and that the only state-run prison for
women, the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Shelby County, does
not have enough space to accommodate them. “The best course is to correct
these issues, mitigate their re-occurrence and move forward constructively,”
Brown said.
September 3, 2009 Star-Bulletin
After allegations of sexual assaults on 23 women by staff at a Kentucky
prison, 128 Hawaii women returned to Oahu Tuesday night. Among the 128 were
two women who alleged they were sexually assaulted at the Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., said Department of Public Safety
Deputy Director Tommy Johnson. The move came on the same day as the
indictment of a sixth worker at the private women's prison on charges of
first-degree rape. The indictment alleges that ex-corrections officer Charles
Prater, 54, raped an inmate from Hawaii on June 13. That inmate says that
Prater planned the rape, bursting into her cell in the Medical Segregation
Unit, and savagely attacking her while the medical staff was dispensing
medication. Another inmate, who also reported being sexually assaulted and
whose sentence was up, returned Aug. 17 with a group of 40 inmates. Hawaii
had sent 168 women to be housed at Otter Creek to cut costs. The cost to
house an inmate at Hawaii's Women's Community Correctional Center is $86 a
day compared with $58.46 a day in Kentucky. Female inmates from Hawaii have
been housed at Otter Creek since 2005. The Kentucky prison is owned and
operated by the Corrections Corp. of America, which is based in Tennessee. A
task force from Hawaii visited the prison in July to investigate the
allegations.
September 1, 2009 Courier-Journal
A corrections officer at the troubled private women's prison in Eastern
Kentucky was indicted Tuesday on one count of first-degree rape involving an
inmate. Charles Prater, 54, of Hueysville, is the
sixth worker at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Floyd County charged
with a sex-related crime against an inmate in the past three years. But the
indictment, returned by a Floyd County grand jury, marks the first case in
which the charge is a felony. The other cases involve misdemeanor sexual
abuse charges. Four of those defendants were convicted, and one — a former
chaplain — is expected to go to trial later this month. Kentucky State Police
plan to present another case to the grand jury the next time it meets,
spokesman Mike Goble said Tuesday. According to the indictment, Prater
forcibly raped an inmate on June 13. It provided no additional details.
Prater will be sent a court order to appear for his arraignment in the next
day or so, according to a clerk for the Floyd County commonwealth's attorney.
A warrant won't be issued for his arrest. If convicted, Prater could be
sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. The prison is owned and operated by
Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America. Kentucky has a contract to
house up to 476 inmates at the Wheelwright facility. As of Tuesday, 425
inmates were incarcerated there. In addition to the sexual assault
allegations, other issues at the prison have emerged. The Courier-Journal
recently reviewed monthly reports dating to 2005 and found chronic
understaffing, leading to poor employee morale and security concerns.
Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson told CCA last month that the state
would not grant its request for a rate increase because of the sex-abuse
allegations, inmate fights, improper reporting of an inmate death and other
problems. The state is negotiating a two-year contract extension with the
company.
August 28, 2009 Courier-Journal
House Speaker Greg Stumbo and eight other legislators sent letters Friday
to Gov. Steve Beshear asking him to end the state's
contract at a private women's prison in Eastern Kentucky that has been
plagued by allegations of sexual assaults by corrections officers. But Beshear spokesman Jay Blanton rebuffed the request,
saying the state has no other place to house the 425 inmates at the Otter
Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright. “…We are confronted with the
reality that the commonwealth does not have enough space in facilities it
owns to meet the existing — and growing — population of inmates,” he said in
a statement. “...That is a simple and inarguable fact.” The only state-run
women's prison, the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Shelby
County, was operating at 100.6 percent capacity Friday. In the past three
years at least four workers at Otter Creek have been convicted, and another —
a former chaplain — has been charged with having sex with inmates. Kentucky
State Police are expected to present another case to a Floyd County grand
jury soon. The state of Hawaii announced earlier this month that, for safety
reasons, it was pulling out all of the 168 inmates that it houses at the
facility. Forty have been sent back to Hawaii, and the rest are expected to
be relocated by the end of September, according to Hawaii Department of
Public Safety spokesman Tommy Johnson. In addition to the sexual assault
allegations, other issues at the prison have emerged. The Courier-Journal
recently reviewed monthly reports dating to 2005 and found chronic
understaffing, leading to poor employee morale and security concerns. And
Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson last month told the Nashville,
Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America, which operates Otter Creek,
that the state would not grant its request for a rate increase because of the
sex-abuse allegations, inmate fights, improper reporting of an inmate death
and other problems. The state is negotiating a two-year contract extension
with the company. CCA spokesman Steve Owen said in a statement Friday that
the company would be willing to meet with legislators to address their
concerns. “CCA has been working very closely with (department) officials
regarding (Otter Creek) to ensure that the facility is performing at the
level expected by the (department) and CCA,” he said. Stumbo, a Prestonsburg
Democrat whose district includes the Floyd County prison, was inspired by
Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, to write the
letter, his spokesman Brian Wilkerson said. “The documented cases of sexual
assault and allegations of rape taking place at Otter Creek have cast
Kentucky in a poor light nationwide,” Stumbo said in his letter. “I cannot
condone continued association with the private contractor running this
prison.” Marzian and seven other Democratic
legislators wrote a separate letter to Beshear
Friday, calling for the state to not renew its contract for Otter Creek.
“There have been eight sex-abuse incidents at the facility since 2007,
compared to one at the state-run Kentucky Correctional Institutional for
Women in Shelby County, and they want a raise!” the letter said. “To continue
this private company arrangement seems unconscionable.” The state has two
other contracts with CCA — to house prisoners at the Marion Adjustment Center
in St. Mary and the Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville. Last week, the
state moved 200 inmates to Marion from the Northpoint Training Center after a
riot badly damaged that state-run facility. The state paid CCA nearly
$20million to house inmates at all three private prisons last year. The other
House members who signed the letter were Jim Wayne and Darryl Owens, both of
Louisville; Joni Jenkins of Shively; Susan Westrom
and Ruth Ann Palumbo, both of Lexington; Linda Belcher of Shepherdsville; and
Jody Richards of Bowling Green. Marzian said she
intends to file a bill during the next session to make it a felony for
corrections workers to have sexual contact with inmates. Kentucky is one of
just three states in which the offense is a misdemeanor. A similar bill,
filed last session by state Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, failed to pass.
Blanton said a contract extension with CCA must “contain an explicit list of
enforcement measures and requirements that further ensure the safety of
everyone involved with the facility and help prevent future occurrences. We
will not sign a contract unless we have such assurances in writing in the
strongest possible terms.” However, the state's current contract with CCA
contains provisions for fines — and even allows the state to cancel the
contract if the company doesn't meet its requirements. Since 2005, the state
has fined the company only once: $5,000 for conducting an investigation into
an inmate's death without the department's participation. Despite contract
provisions that require CCA to maintain certain staffing levels, state
monitors at the prison have repeatedly noted in monthly reports to department
administrators since 2005 that the prison is understaffed. Most reports,
however, do not detail exactly how many positions are vacant or whether they
have been vacant for longer than 60 days — which would be another contract
violation. The state pays CCA $53.77 a day for each inmate at Otter Creek.
August 25, 2009 New York Times
Hawaii prison officials said Tuesday that all of the state’s 168 female inmates
at a privately run Kentucky prison will be removed by the end of September
because of charges of sexual abuse by guards. Forty inmates were returned to
Hawaii on Aug. 17. This month, officials from the Hawaii Department of Public
Safety traveled to Kentucky to investigate accusations that inmates at the
prison, the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, including seven
from Hawaii, had been sexually assaulted by the prison staff. Otter Creek is
run by the Corrections Corporation of America and is one of a spate of
private, for-profit prisons, mainly in the South, that have been the focus of
investigations over issues like abusive conditions and wrongful deaths.
Because Eastern Kentucky is one of the poorest rural regions in the country,
the prison was welcomed by local residents desperate for jobs. Hawaii sent
inmates to Kentucky to save money. Housing an inmate at the Women’s Community
Correctional Center in Kailua, Hawaii, costs $86 a day, compared with $58.46
a day at the Kentucky prison, not including air travel. Hawaii investigators
found that at least five corrections officials at the prison, including a
chaplain, had been charged with having sex with inmates in the last three
years, and four were convicted. Three rape cases involving guards and Hawaii
inmates were recently turned over to law enforcement authorities. The
Kentucky State Police said another sexual assault case would go to a grand
jury soon. Kentucky is one of only a handful of states where it is a
misdemeanor rather than a felony for a prison guard to have sex with an
inmate, according to the National Institute of Corrections, a policy arm of
the Justice Department. A bill to increase the penalties for such sexual
misconduct failed to pass in the Kentucky legislature this year. The private
prison industry has generated extensive controversy, with critics arguing
that incarceration should not be contracted to for-profit companies. Several
reports have found contract violations at private prisons, safety and
security concerns, questionable cost savings and higher rates of inmate
recidivism. “Privately operated prisons appear to have systemic problems in
maintaining secure facilities,” a 2001 study by the Federal Bureau of Prisons
concluded. Those views are shared by Alex Friedmann, associate editor of
Prison Legal News, a nonprofit group based in Seattle that has a monthly
magazine and does litigation on behalf of inmates’ rights. “Private prisons
such as Otter Creek raise serious concerns about transparency and public
accountability, and there have been incidents of sexual misconduct at that
facility for many years,” Mr. Friedmann said. But proponents say privately
run prisons provide needed beds at lower cost. About 8 percent of state and
federal inmates are held in such prisons, according to the Justice
Department. “We are reviewing every allegation, regardless of the
disposition,” said Lisa Lamb, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of
Corrections, which she said was investigating 23 accusations of sexual
assault at Otter Creek going back to 2006. The move by Hawaii authorities is
just the latest problem for Kentucky prison officials. On Saturday, a riot at
another Kentucky prison, the Northpoint Training Center at Burgin, forced
officials to move about 700 prisoners out of the facility, which is 30 miles
south of Lexington. State investigators said Tuesday that they were
questioning prisoners and staff members and reviewing security cameras at the
Burgin prison to see whether racial tensions may have led to the riot that injured
16 people and left the lockup in ruins. A lockdown after a fight between
white and Hispanic inmates had been eased to allow inmates access to the
prison yard on Friday, the day before the riot. Prisoners started fires in
trash cans that spread. Several buildings were badly damaged. While the riot
was an unusual event — the last one at a Kentucky state prison was in 1983 —
reports of sexual abuse at Otter Creek are not new. “The number of reported
sexual assaults at Otter Creek in 2007 was four times higher than at the
state-run Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women,” Mr. Friedmann said.
In July, Gov. Linda Lingle of Hawaii, a Republican,
said that bringing prisoners home would cost hundreds of millions of dollars
that the state did not have, but that she was willing to do so because of the
security concerns. Prison overcrowding led to federal oversight in Hawaii
from 1985 to 1999. The state now houses one-third of its prison population in
mainland facilities. The pay at the Otter Creek prison is low, even by local
standards. A federal prison in Kentucky pays workers with no experience at
least $18 an hour, nearby state-run prisons pay $11.22 and Otter Creek pays
$8.25. Mr. Friedmann said lower wages at private prisons lead to higher
employee turnover and less experienced staff. Tommy Johnson, deputy director
of the Hawaii Department of Public Safety, said he found that 81 percent of
the Otter Creek workers were men and 19 percent were women, the reverse of
what he said the ratio should be for a women’s prison. Mr. Johnson asked the
company to hire more women, and it began a bonus program in June to do so.
August 19, 2009 Honolulu Advertiser
Women inmates from Hawai'i will be removed from a Kentucky prison for
safety reasons after allegations that some were sexually abused by prison
guards, the state Department of Public Safety announced yesterday. Clayton
Frank, the department's director, said 40 women inmates were transferred back
to the Islands on Monday and most of the 128 women remaining at Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright will return within a month. Several women
serving lengthy sentences will be moved to other Mainland prisons, according
to the department. Frank said many inmates wanted to stay at Otter Creek
because they believe they are benefiting from its prison services. "The
decision to bring them back was not an easy one, because not only cost, but
also what these inmates would also be losing," Frank told a joint
briefing of the state Senate Public Safety and Military Affairs Committee and
the House Public Safety Committee. "They will be coming back but they
are not going to get everything what was provided for them at Otter
Creek." State lawmakers who have been calling for the department to
return the women inmates praised Frank's decision. "It's good news. The
Legislature has been pushing for this for a few years now," said state
Sen. Will Espero, D-20th ('Ewa
Beach, Waipahu), chairman of the Senate Public Safety and Military Affairs
Committee. "The women will be in our prisons, in our jurisdiction, where
we'll have much better control over the whole situation. Of course, in terms
of rehabilitation and re-entry, it's better when the families are close
together where they can assist each other." Overcrowding at state
prisons has led the state to spend $50 million a year to house about 2,000
Hawai'i inmates at Mainland prisons operated by the private Corrections Corporation
of America. The state spends $3.6 million a year to house the women inmates
at Otter Creek. Frank said it costs $58 a day to keep a woman inmate at Otter
Creek, compared with $86 a day in Hawai'i. Abuse allegations -- Authorities
have looked into nearly two dozen claims of sexual abuse at Otter Creek over
the past few years, including seven involving Hawai'i inmates. One Hawai'i
inmate's sexual abuse claim was substantiated in 2007 and the prison guard
was fired and convicted of a misdemeanor. Department investigators who
visited the prison in July said the claims of three other Hawai'i inmates are
under investigation by Kentucky authorities; one has been dismissed as
unfounded; and two inmates denied they had been abused. The Louisville
Courier-Journal reported this month that at least five prison workers have
been charged with having sex with inmates at Otter Creek over the past three
years. Frank said bringing the female inmates back to Hawai'i will put the
state system at near capacity. The women will be housed at the Women's
Community Correctional Center in Kailua and the Federal Detention Center near
Honolulu International Airport. Women from the Neighbor Islands who are close
to completing their sentences may be sent to facilities near their homes. Louise
Grant, vice president of marketing and communications for the Corrections
Corporation of America in Nashville, Tenn., said she had not yet heard of the
state's decision to remove the women from Otter Creek. "We've been proud
of the relationship we've had with Hawai'i for more than a decade and have
been proud of our services for the women in our care," she said. Frank
said the department will likely continue to send female inmates to the
Mainland but will look for prisons on the West Coast. Prison problems --
Previous problems involving female inmates, including questions about prison
conditions, adequate treatment services and sexual abuse, have led the state
to move women from prisons in Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado. Lawmakers urged
Frank to thoroughly examine prison conditions and state laws covering sexual
assault before sending more female inmates to the Mainland. Under questioning
from state Sen. Brickwood Galuteria, D-12th
(Waikiki, Ala Moana, Downtown), Frank acknowledged the department was unaware
that sexual assault against an inmate was a misdemeanor in Kentucky. "I
don't think there's any doubt that we like our inmates to pay their debt to
society, but it's our responsibility to provide them with a safe environment
to do that," Galuteria said.
August 18, 2009 Courier-Journal
The Department of Corrections has rejected a private prison company's
request for a rate increase at a women's prison in Eastern Kentucky, citing
allegations of sex abuse by corrections officers, inmate fights, improper reporting
of an inmate death and other problems. Commissioner LaDonna Thompson said in
a July 24 letter to the Corrections Corp. of America that the state intends
to renew its contract for the Otter Creek Correctional Center — but at the
current rate of $51.17 a day for each inmate, excluding extraordinary medical
costs. The company had requested a 3.8 percent increase, to $53.11. Otter
Creek “has not performed to a level that warrants a rate increase,” she said
in the letter, a copy of which The Courier-Journal obtained under the state's
open records law. The state has agreed to extend for 60 days its current
contract with CCA to house up to 476 inmates at the facility while it
negotiates a new two-year agreement. Thompson said in a written statement
Monday that although the company's performance doesn't warrant a rate
increase, “a review of its performance does not indicate that the inmates are
in any imminent danger.” At least five corrections officers at the
Wheelwright facility have been charged with having sex with inmates in the
past three years. Four were convicted, one case is pending and Kentucky State
Police are expected to present another to a Floyd County grand jury later
this month. A Courier-Journal review of monthly reports by a state monitor also
found the prison is chronically understaffed, leading to poor employee morale
and security concerns. Thompson said the department is working with the
Nashville-based company to resolve the problems. CCA spokesman Steve Owen
said in a statement Monday that the company shares a “goal of safe, secure
operations with (the department) and (has) been working very closely with our
customer to ensure that we address any concerns they have to that end.” In
her letter, Thompson lists six issues that she cites as “evidence of
unacceptable operational performance.” She said the number of sex abuse
incidents involving corrections officers and inmate fights has been
consistently higher at Otter Creek than at the state-run Kentucky
Correctional Institution for Women in Shelby County. Thompson includes data
from both prisons dating to 2007 that show eight sex-abuse incidents at Otter
Creek, compared to one at the state prison. She also states that there have
been 72 violent incidents involving Kentucky inmates at Otter Creek in that
time period, compared to 31 at the facility in Shelby County. As of Monday,
there were 429 Kentucky inmates at Otter Creek and 690 at the Shelby County
prison. “(Incidents) occurring at OCCC annually are well above the number of
incidents occurring at (KCIW) and are of great concern to the department,”
she said in the letter. She notes that the department is investigating
additional sex abuse incidents that were recently alleged and may “pursue
further actions, pending our investigation's results.” Thompson also states
that the department fined CCA $5,000 last year for improperly reporting the
death of inmate Beverly Murphy on June 18, 2008. She said in her statement
that the fine was levied because CCA conducted its investigation without
first notifying the department, as required by Kentucky Corrections Policies
and Procedures. In the department's follow-up investigation, it was
determined that Murphy, 54, of Jefferson County, died of complications from
chronic diabetes. Murphy was serving an eight-year sentence for second-degree
manslaughter. Thompson's letter also references the suicide of an Otter Creek
worker at the prison in January 2008. “The individual successfully
circumvented the institution's security and smuggled an unauthorized weapon into
the facility, a critical breach of security,” she said. The letter also
outlines three areas in which CCA is not in compliance with its contract with
the state and has been ordered to submit to the department its plans to
correct the issues. They include: Failure to maintain the appropriate number
of special responders for emergencies, such as riots. Failure to maintain
bathrooms, creating sanitary and hygienic deficiencies that violate the
state's environmental health codes. Failure to maintain consistent records
for inmates' property when they are placed in segregation. Thompson concludes
in her letter to CCA that the department is “very concerned about the number
of recurring incidents. When viewed holistically, the number of incidents
indicates broader facility security and operational weaknesses.”
August 17, 2009 WKYT
New jobs for women are now available at Otter Creek Prison in Floyd County.
Officials with the private correctional facility say they want more officers
to help ease some of the problems at the prison for women. Officials say
there is a staff shortage there, and this comes after police say several
women inmates made sexual or physical abuse allegations against some of the
men who work there. Officials believe hiring women can help. State Police
have worked several cases at Otter Creek Correctional Facility in Wheelwright
ever since the private prison started taking in all women inmates four years
ago. “Not only sexual abuse or physical abuse but death investigations also,
so they vary. The different cases and situations, they vary,” Trooper Mike
Goble said. “We are very committed to making sure we're operating a safe and
secure institution and we take any of those allegations seriously,” Prison
Spokesperson Steve Owen said.
August 16, 2009 Courier-Journal
A private women's prison in Eastern Kentucky that has been plagued by
allegations of sexual assaults by corrections officers is chronically
understaffed, leading to poor employee morale and security concerns,
according to a state monitor's reports. The monthly reports provide a glimpse
into life inside the Otter Creek Correctional Center, where at least five
workers have been charged with having sex with inmates in the past three
years. Kentucky State Police are expected to present another case to a Floyd
County grand jury this month. “The facility continues to experience staff
shortage(s), and (officers) have struggled,” state monitor Darrell Neace said
in July's report. “Overtime is substantial for the facility and very
difficult for staff.” Despite the recurring problems outlined in the reports,
the state has not imposed staffing-level sanctions as allowed under its
contract with Corrections Corporation of America, a for-profit, Nashville,
Tenn.-based company. The state can fine the company up to $5,000 a day for
violating terms of the contract, which include maintaining certain staffing
levels and filling vacant positions within 60 days. In fact — despite the
sexual assault investigation — the state has agreed to extend for 60 days its
contract with CCA to house up to 476 inmates at the facility while it
negotiates a new two-year agreement. Otter Creek housed 429 Kentucky inmates
as of Friday. In response to questions about staffing at the prison, state
Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson noted that staff turnover is an
issue at all prisons. “Corrections is a difficult and stressful profession,”
she said an e-mailed statement. CCA spokesman Steve Owen said it takes
recruiting and retaining staff very seriously and noted that turnover costs
money. “Anyone who contends that the facility operates with vacancies by
design (for cost savings or profit) does not understand sound business
practice,” he said in an e-mail. Reports cite staffing -- It is unclear how
many workers the prison is required to have. The state has been unable to
produce a written staffing-level document, despite a request by The
Courier-Journal under the state open records law. However, in 11 of the last
19 monthly monitoring reports obtained by the newspaper, staffing has been
cited as a problem. Of particular concern is the number of people trained to
handle emergencies at the prison. Neace, in a report dated July 8, cited a
major concern about inadequate security staffing in June, adding, “OCCC is on
12-hour shifts and (workers) are struggling.” He wrote that the facility was
operating with 168 workers and had 28 vacancies at the end of the month. Five
of those positions had been open for more than 60 days, which is a violation
of the state's contract with CCA. Many previous monthly reports do not
specify how many positions were vacant, or for how long. Thus, it is
impossible for the department to know how severe the staffing problem is at a
given time and whether the company is in violation of the contract. Many
reports, however, include vague references to understaffing and low staff
morale because of forced double shifts. “They (officers) are exhausted, and
several have expressed their concern to me,” former state monitor Deborah
Patrick said in the August 2008 report. Other prisons pay more -- The reports
reflect a pattern in which a flurry of hiring is typically followed several
months later by a drop in staffing, indicating retention problems. Owen, the
CCA spokesman, said many people hired in prisons soon realize it isn't the
type of work they want to do. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lamb
said recently that her agency has begun sending inspectors to the prison
without giving CCA advance notice and has sent two corrections experts there
to help the state's on-site monitor. The state's only other women's prison —
the state-run Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Shelby County —
— is nearly full most of the time. “Our assessment is that it is more
effective to rectify the situation there at Otter Creek than find alternative
forms of incarceration for our inmate population housed there,” Lamb said.
She partly blamed problems with attracting and retaining staff on the fact
that a federal prison employing roughly 400 people in nearby Inez pays more.
Starting pay there is $18.18 an hour for workers with no corrections
experience, and $19.17 an hour for those with experience. Starting pay at
Otter Creek is $8.25 an hour. In addition, the state pays corrections workers
at two nearby state-run prisons $2.97 more an hour than Otter Creek employees
receive. The state's contract with CCA for Otter Creek does not specify
minimum pay, because, Thompson said, such internal business decisions could
affect the company's competitiveness. Owen said CCA raised starting pay at
Otter Creek by 5 percent last year and “we will continue to monitor their
situation as we do with all our other facilities.” Kentucky pays CCA $53.77 a
day to house each inmate, a total of more than $8million last year. Most
employees are male -- Tommy Johnson, a spokesman for the Hawaii Department of
Public Safety, which contracts with Otter Creek to house 175 inmates from
that state, said CCA might need to consider paying more to attract and retain
workers at Otter Creek, particularly female officers. He said a recent review
found 81 percent of the workers were male, and 19 percent were female. “The
ratio really should be almost the opposite,” he said. Johnson said his
department has asked CCA to hire more women and consider making certain jobs at
the prison female-only. Owen said the company instituted a bonus referral and
retention program in June in an effort to hire more female employees. Neace
also noted in his May report that the facility had only 24 staff members
trained and certified to respond to incidents such as riots. The contract
requires Otter Creek to have 30 workers with that training. By June, Otter
Creek was down to 22 so-called special responders, with no new applicants,
according to that month's report. The facility also lacked proper special
response equipment, it said. But by last month, Otter Creek had two more
special responders than required, Neace said. Owen said CCA has launched a
companywide campaign to get workers at its prisons to undergo special
response training. Lamb said special response teams from the privately run
Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville and state-run Eastern Kentucky
Correctional Complex in West Liberty could get to Otter Creek quickly if
there was an emergency. “We do not believe this issue compromises the safety
and security of the inmate population housed at Otter Creek,” Lamb said. But
both prisons are roughly two hours from Otter Creek. Disturbances reported --
Incident reports show corrections officers occasionally have to deal with
disturbances at the women's facility, although no deaths or serious injuries
have been reported as a result. In 2006, six inmates surrounded a female
corrections officer and refused to return to their dorm. “These inmates were
aggressive and made threatening remarks toward the officer,” the report said.
A special response team was dispatched to assist during that incident. Also
that year, special responders had to lock down the prison because inmates
were planning to have a sit-down protest when it was time to clear the yard.
The treatment of inmates by corrections officers also has been an issue at
the prison in recent months, according to the reports. Neace said in his June
report that “residents being placed in segregation which are not a threat to
security, staff, visitors or themselves has been an issue that (the
department) has been concerned with.” He said proper documentation for
segregation was missing and that the number of grievances filed by inmates
was high, with up to 27 having been filed that month. In his May report,
Neace said inmates “continue to complain about staff cursing, threatening
segregation.” Lamb said “a change in the number of grievances and the inmate
morale could be attributed to a change in administration.” Thompson said in
her statement that she couldn't comment on any leadership issues at Otter
Creek until the sex abuse investigations are complete. Warden Jeff Little
referred questions to CCA. Owen said staff turnover at Otter Creek has
decreased since Little took the helm in March 2008.
August 11, 2009 Lexington
Herald-Leader
State corrections officials have hired a veteran Kentucky warden to
monitor a private prison in Wheelwright where several sexual assaults of
inmates by prison staff have been reported. Gary M. Beckstrom,
the former warden at Little Sandy Correctional Complex in Elliot County, will
be an on-site monitor for Otter Creek Correctional Complex. The action
"is a result of the recent allegations of sexual incidents at the
facility," said Jennifer Brislin, a
spokeswoman for the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet. Beckstrom
also will review the operational procedures at Otter Creek, Brislin said. The $42,000 contract runs from July 30 to
Jan. 30, 2010. Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the prison, has
agreed to reimburse the state. Otter Creek is at the center of investigations
by Kentucky and Hawaii into allegations of repeated sexual assaults by prison
staff. CCA has contracts with both states to house prisoners at Wheelwright.
The allegations include the reported rape of a Hawaiian woman at the prison
in June. Additionally, a former prison guard was convicted last year in Floyd
County of second-degree sexual abuse, a misdemeanor, for a July 3, 2008,
sexual assault of an inmate from Kentucky.
August 2, 2009 Courier-Journal
At least five workers at the private women's prison in Eastern Kentucky
have been charged with having sex with inmates in the past three years, and
investigations into more alleged assaults are under way. Despite that, the
state has agreed to extend for 60 days its contract with Corrections Corp. of
America to house up to 476 inmates at Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright. The state is continuing to negotiate a two-year extension of the
contract it has had with CCA since 2005, according to Finance Cabinet
officials. The 60-day extension does not increase the $53.77 CCA is paid per
day to house each inmate. Last year the state paid CCA more than $8 million
for its Otter Creek operation. “Our assessment is that it is more effective
to rectify the situation there at Otter Creek than find alternative forms of
incarceration for our inmate population housed there,” Kentucky Department of
Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lamb said in a statement. The prison housed 427
Kentucky inmates as of Friday. The department has begun sending inspectors to
the prison without giving CCA advance notice and has sent two corrections
experts there to help the state's on-site monitor. “The occurrence of staff
and inmate sexual involvement is one of the most unfortunate aspects of
prison life,” Lamb said. “It is, however, a fact that it happens both in the
private institutions and in ours.” Kentucky State Police are expected to
present one sexual abuse case to a Floyd County grand jury this month and
begin investigating another complaint this week, spokesman Mike Goble said.
“We have investigated more than one or two sexual abuse cases of some fashion
or another by multiple (corrections) officers,” Goble said. “And there are
investigations continuing. Is there a problem at Otter Creek right now?
Definitely so.” CCA officials did not return calls seeking comment. The
Department of Corrections and the Hawaii Department of Public Safety both are
investigating sexual abuse allegations by as many as 19 inmates — 16 from
Kentucky and three from Hawaii. That state has a $3.6 million contract to
house up to 175 inmates at Otter Creek. Hawaii department spokesman Tommy
Johnson said the state has confirmed one case from 2007, in which a
corrections officer was found guilty of misdemeanor sexual abuse for
subjecting an inmate to sexual contact. Darren Green, 41, of Hi Hat, was
fired from Otter Creek and ordered to serve 120 days of home incarceration.
Johnson said investigators are examining the case that will be sent to the
grand jury and one other possible assault. He said four other alleged
assaults either have not been substantiated or the inmates deny they
occurred. Earlier this month, a former Otter Creek inmate filed a federal
lawsuit against CCA and the state for failing to prevent a corrections
officer from raping her in July 2008. The former corrections officer, Kevin Younce, was charged with misdemeanor sexual abuse in the
second degree and sentenced to a year in jail and a $500 fine, according to
Floyd County Circuit Court records. He was tried in absentia, and a bench
warrant has been issued for his arrest. According to the lawsuit, Younce woke the inmate in her cell on July 3, 2008,
forced her to an area outside the cell and demanded sex. He threatened and
coerced her and ultimately dragged her into a staff bathroom and raped her,
the suit says. CCA has asked a federal judge to dismiss the suit, saying the
inmate failed to file a formal grievance as required by the Prison Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. The law requires inmates to exhaust administrative
remedies before bringing an action in court. Younce
and Green are two of at least five workers at Otter Creek who have been
charged with having sexual contact with inmates in the past three years,
according to records provided by Floyd County Circuit Court and the
Department of Corrections. In 2006, corrections officer Elden Tackett pleaded
guilty to sexual abuse and was sentenced to 12 months' probation. Documents
state Tackett received oral sex from an inmate and later confessed to the
incident. In 2007, maintenance worker George Hale pleaded guilty to sexual
abuse and was sentenced to 60 days of home incarceration and two years of
probation. Documents state Hale had sex with an inmate 12 times in exchange
for tobacco, which is prohibited at the facility. Last year employee Randy
Hagan was charged with sexual abuse for allegedly subjecting an inmate to
sexual contact without her consent between Feb. 14 and Aug. 4. Hagan pleaded
not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial Sept. 10.
July 31, 2009 Lexington
Herald-Leader
A private prison company has asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit
of a Kentucky woman who says she was raped while a prisoner at Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright. The facility, run by Corrections Corporation
of America, is at the center of investigations by Kentucky and Hawaii into
allegations of repeated sexual assaults. The inquiries were prompted in part
by the reported rape of a Hawaiian woman at the prison in June. CCA has
contracts with both states to house prisoners at Wheelwright. In documents
filed this week in federal court in Pikeville, CCA says the Kentucky woman
never filed a formal grievance about the rape and therefore the civil lawsuit
she filed July 2 should be dismissed. The Herald-Leader does not generally
identify people who allege sexual abuse. The woman is suing the company,
several of its officials and the Kentucky Department of Corrections for
failing to prevent the rape. Kevin Younce, a former
prison guard, was convicted of second-degree sexual abuse, a misdemeanor, for
the July 3, 2008 sexual assault of the woman in Floyd County. A bench warrant
is outstanding for his arrest, according to court records. He moved to North
Carolina before he was convicted. The case of the woman from Hawaii is
scheduled to be presented to the Floyd County grand jury next month, said
Kentucky State Police Trooper Mike Goble. Kentucky prison officials are
investigating alleged sexual assaults at Otter Creek going back to 2006, said
Lisa Lamb, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Corrections.
"These include allegations or incidents that were previously
reported," she said. "We are reviewing every allegation regardless
of the disposition." Otter Creek houses 430 Kentucky inmates, according
to the Kentucky Department of Corrections. Lamb said she could not comment on
the lawsuit brought by the Kentucky woman because the department has not seen
it yet. CCA said in a statement Thursday that it is cooperating with the
investigations. "CCA has a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate
contact between staff and inmates and takes any such allegations
seriously," said Steve Owen, a spokesman for the company, which is
headquartered in Nashville. "We will support full prosecution under the
law for any criminal activity detected." The Kentucky woman, who has
been moved to another facility, is suing for unspecified damages. She said
that Younce woke her up, pulled her out of her cell
and demanded sex. He took her into a staff bathroom where the assault
occurred, court documents say. She was later taken to the Pikeville Medical
Center, where she was examined for evidence of rape, and Kentucky State
Police were called. Younce was convicted in
absentia on Oct. 7, 2008, fined $500 and sentenced to one year in jail. The
federal lawsuit alleges that CCA knew of repeated sexual assault or
harassment by prison staff at Wheelwright but did not do anything about it.
Floyd County court records show that other prison guards have been charged
with sexual assault of prisoners, including the former chaplain. In court
documents filed this week, CCA argues that the Kentucky woman never reported
the sexual assault to the prison. After the July 3 rape, she filed nine
grievances, but none of them involved sexual assault or Younce,
the company's lawyers say. The lawsuit should be dismissed, the company says,
because, under the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, prisoners have to
exhaust all administrative remedies before filing a claim in federal court.
July 26, 2009 Courier-Journal
Kentucky is one of just three states that consider sexual contact between
prison guards and inmates a misdemeanor rather than a felony offense. The
Department of Corrections has tried in recent years to push a bill through
the legislature that would increase the penalty from a maximum of 12 months
in jail to a maximum of five years. “We strongly believe there is no such
thing as consensual sex (between guards and inmates),” spokeswoman Lisa Lamb
said. Other than Kentucky, only Iowa and Maryland consider custodial sexual
contact a misdemeanor, according to a survey by the National Institute of
Corrections and American University's Washington College of Law. Sen. Julie
Denton, R-Louisville, said the department's bill, which she sponsored, had
support in both the House and Senate during this year's regular session but
time ran out before changes made by the House could be examined in the
Senate. She said she doesn't remember there being much, if any, opposition.
“We need to not lag behind (other states), but take a lead and catch up,” she
said. The department is currently investigating sexual-abuse allegations
involving as many as 16 Kentucky women housed at the privately run Otter
Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright. Kentucky State Police also are
investigating allegations, reported June 23, that a Hawaiian inmate was
sexually assaulted by a corrections officer at the women's-only facility in
Floyd County. A Floyd County grand jury is expected to hear that case next
month, state police spokesman Mike Goble said. In addition, the Hawaiian
Department of Public Safety is investigating two alleged incidents at the
prison. The 656-bed facility is owned and operated by Nashville, Tenn.-based
Corrections Corporation of America. The company has contracts with Kentucky
and Hawaii; 433 women from Kentucky and 165 from Hawaii are housed at Otter
Creek. A corrections officer at the facility was found guilty of misdemeanor
sexual abuse for subjecting an inmate to sexual contact in September 2007,
according to court records. Darren Green, 41, of Hi Hat, was fired from Otter
Creek and ordered to serve 120 days of home incarceration. No further details
regarding the incident were included in the records. The department was not
immediately able to say how many corrections officers have been charged with
inappropriate sexual contact in recent years.
July 24, 2009 WZTV
Hawaii's public safety director says 23 female inmates, including seven
from Hawaii, are alleging they were sexually assaulted at a private prison in
Kentucky. Clayton Frank said Friday that one Hawaii case, from 2007, resulted
in the conviction and termination of a corrections officer at Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky. Frank says the other cases are still
being investigated so he can't elaborate on them. The state this month sent
the Department of Public Safety's deputy director, Tommy Johnson, and two
other officials to Kentucky to probe the allegations.
July 18, 2009 Honolulu Advertiser
An investigation into sex assaults involving Hawai'i and other female
inmates at a private Kentucky prison has widened and now includes 19 alleged
attacks over the past three years. Honolulu attorney Myles Breiner is representing three Hawai'i women who allege
they were sexually assaulted at Otter Creek Correctional Center within the
past 12 to 18 months. The most recent sex assault was reported June 23 and
allegedly involved a male corrections officer. Meanwhile, Kentucky officials
say they have launched an investigation into 16 alleged sex assaults at Otter
Creek involving Kentucky women. Some of the allegations date back to 2006. Breiner said he expects more allegations of sex assault
involving Hawai'i women to surface during investigations under way by the
Hawai'i Department of Public Safety, which sent a team to Otter Creek last
week to speak to female inmates from the Islands and look into the
allegations. The developments are spurring new discussions about whether the
state should end its contract with Otter Creek and bring the 165 Hawai'i
women at the privately operated prison back to Hawai'i. State Senate Public
Safety Committee Chairman Will Espero, D-20th ('Ewa Beach, Waipahu), said he will hold a public hearing
in August on the assault allegations, during which he plans to call on state
officials to halt the practice of shipping Hawai'i female inmates to the
Mainland. "This might be a good opportunity for (Public Safety Director)
Clayton Frank to show some leadership and ... bring the women home," Espero said, adding that he also believes more assault
allegations will come to light in the coming months. "We might have
heard ... the tip of the iceberg." Tommy Johnson, deputy director of
DPS, would not say how many allegations the state is investigating because
the cases are ongoing. But he said he was at Otter Creek all last week to
speak to Hawai'i women in groups and to talk to some in one-on-one sessions.
He also toured the facility and looked at its "operational
security." He would not discuss what the Hawai'i female inmates told him
in the sessions, saying that "it would be premature and inappropriate to
do so." Otter Creek, in Wheelwright, Ky., is operated by Corrections
Corporation of America. A spokesman for the company said it is conducting its
own investigation into the assault allegations. Hawai'i has had a contract to
house female inmates at Otter Creek since October 2005. Breiner
said the three Hawai'i women at the prison whom he represents allege they
were sexually assaulted within the past 18 months. The most recent assault
was reported on June 23, and is under investigation by Kentucky state police,
who said it involved a male corrections officer. Kentucky state police
spokesman Mike Goble said a detective investigating the June 23 sex assault
was also informed of other assault allegations. It's unclear whether those
assaults involved Hawai'i women, and Goble said police have not yet decided
how to proceed on those allegations. Meanwhile, the Kentucky Department of
Corrections said Thursday that it is investigating allegations that 16
Kentucky women were sexually assaulted at Otter Creek as far back as 2006.
Spokeswoman Lisa Lamb said the allegations relate to incidents over the past
three years. In a statement, she said some of the allegations were previously
reported but are being reinvestigated. She also said the department is
sharing information with Hawai'i officials and the CCA. Allegations of sexual
misconduct involving corrections workers and Hawai'i inmates have surfaced
before at Otter Creek and in other private prisons, including in Oklahoma in
2000 and Colorado in 2005. In 2007, a Hawai'i inmate at Otter Creek alleged a
corrections officer came to her room and demanded she perform sex acts. The
officer was convicted on a misdemeanor. Following the incident, Otter Creek
prison officials said they would change their procedures to require that a
female correctional officer be paired with a male officer in housing units. Breiner, the Honolulu attorney, said that from his
discussions with Hawai'i inmates it doesn't appear that's happening at Otter
Creek. He said there are not enough female corrections officers at Otter
Creek. He also said that in the wake of the publicity following the
allegations, some Hawai'i inmates have expressed concerns about retaliation
and he said he's worried about the safety of his clients. The cost of
exporting Hawai'i inmates is cheaper than building new facilities or
expanding existing ones, but advocates have long criticized the practice
because of its impact on families. They point out that many female inmates have
kids who suffer during the separation.
July 16, 2009 Courier-Journal
The state Department of Corrections is investigating allegations of
sexual abuse against as many as 16 Kentucky women housed at the privately run
Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright. Kentucky State Police also
are investigating allegations, reported June 23, that a Hawaiian inmate was
sexually assaulted by a corrections officer at the women's-only, Floyd County
facility. State police expect to present that case to a Floyd County grand
jury in the next several weeks, spokesman Mike Goble said, adding that
detectives also are looking into allegations made by inmates since the June
23 report. In addition, the Hawaiian Department of Public Safety is
investigating two alleged incidents at the prison, according to The Honolulu
Advertiser. The 656-bed facility is owned and operated by Nashville-based
Corrections Corp. of America. The company has contracts with Kentucky and
Hawaii; 433 women from Kentucky and 165 from Hawaii are housed there. Lisa
Lamb, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said in a statement
that officials traveled to the prison last week and returned this week to
investigate allegations of "inappropriate sexual contact or assault
involving Kentucky inmates." Lamb said officials are reviewing reports
dating to 2006, including incidents that were previously investigated.
"We are re-investigating every allegation regardless of the
disposition," she said. "In some instances this requires interviewing
inmates who have been released." Lamb said Kentucky officials are
sharing information with Hawaii officials. Officials in Hawaii could not be
reached for comment Thursday. Otter Creek Warden Jeff Little referred
questions to Corrections Corp. spokesman Steve Owen. Owen said the company,
which has owned the facility since 1998, is cooperating with Kentucky and
Hawaii officials and is conducting its own investigation. "We certainly
have been in very close communication and constant communication with
officials at the (Kentucky) Department of Corrections," he said.
"We are obviously going to continue to fully support and cooperate with
their investigation." Owen said the company is reviewing an anonymous
list of allegations sent to Hawaii officials to determine whether they are
new or are allegations that already have been reviewed. An October 2007
report of a sexual assault of a Hawaiian inmate led to the firing of a
corrections officer. He was subsequently charged with a misdemeanor sex
offense.
July 12, 2009 Star-Bulletin
State officials are on the mainland to investigate accusations that
female prisoners from Hawaii have been sexually assaulted by guards at a
privately run prison in Kentucky. "It's a very serious issue, a serious
charge," Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday.
"We have a very large contract with this company, and we're going to
have to sit with them when we get the report." The Community Alliance on
Prisons, which pushes for humane treatment of Hawaii prisoners, held a
protest at the state Capitol on Friday, demanding that the state bring back
female inmates held in mainland prisons. They cited the alleged sexual
assaults of five women at the Otter Creek Correctional Facility in
Wheelwright, Ky. But Lingle noted the costs
involved in housing the prisoners in Hawaii. "It's a concern because
there's no where to put them," she said.
"If there's a desire to bring prisoners home -- whether they're male or
female prisoners -- we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars that
we don't have right now. ... We don't have a facility right now where we can
house them." The state has spent $3.9 million to transfer and house
female inmates in Otter Creek since October 2005. Otter Creek currently
houses 169 women from Hawaii. The protesters cited a letter from inmate Pania Kalama-Akopian of
Kapolei, who accused guards of sexual assault. "Our fears are that
nothing will change," she wrote. "Nothing has changed. ... The only
thing that changed was the attitude of retaliation against the inmate
population. We are not safe. Where does the nightmare end?" Protesters
alleged that five Hawaii women and 21 Kentucky women have been sexually
assaulted at Otter Creek. Honolulu attorney Myles Breiner
said he is representing three women who were sexually assaulted at Otter
Creek, including Kalama-Akopian. "Hawaii's
failed to account for their responsibility to Hawaii's women," Breiner said. "Women occupy a unique place in the
criminal justice system. They come into the system already having been abused
by either childhood experiences or later on in their developmental
years." At the protest, Regina Dias Tauala, a
mother of one of the victims, described her daughter's ordeal at the prison. Totie Nalani Tauala was serving part of her 20-year sentence at the
prison for manslaughter when she allegedly was sexually assaulted by a male
guard. "It's hard to sleep sometimes, because I do not know what is
going on," Dias Tauala said tearfully.
"Yes, my daughter has to pay for being in prison. However, taking them
out of the state and so far away is inhumane, because they're cutting the
hearts of us mothers; we cannot see or touch our children." Otter Creek
officials declined to comment on the alleged attacks. But Hawaii Public
Safety Director Clayton Frank said a team of four investigators, including
deputy director Tommy Johnson, was sent July 5 to investigate the
allegations. Frank said investigators are working with the Wheelwright Police
Department and the Corrections Corporation of America, the prison's operator.
"The Department of Public Safety treats these kind of
incidents very seriously," Frank said.
July 5, 2009 Honolulu Advertiser
Two female inmates from Hawai'i allege they were sexually assaulted by
one or more corrections officers at a Kentucky prison, and police are
investigating one of the incidents. Honolulu attorney Myles Breiner said he is representing the two women, who allege
the sexual assaults occurred while they were in isolation in a medical unit
at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky. One of the
assaults was reported June 23 and allegedly involved a male corrections
officer, Kentucky police said. The other incident, earlier this year, also
allegedly involved a male corrections officer at the same prison, Breiner said. Kentucky state police spokesman Mike Goble
said last week that no arrests have been made in the June 23 case. He added
that forensic tests have been conducted and that other evidence has been
collected. An October 2007 report of another sexual assault of a Hawai'i
female inmate at Otter Creek by a corrections officer led to his firing.
There are 165 Hawai'i women at Otter Creek, a private prison operated by
Corrections Corporation of America. In an e-mailed statement, spokesman
Steven Owen said, "CCA has a zero-tolerance policy for any form of sexual
misconduct and takes any such allegations very seriously." He said the
company is "in the process of thoroughly reviewing" the
allegations, adding that "any public discussion" of the allegations
before the completion of an investigation "would be premature and
inappropriate." Tommy Johnson, deputy director of the state Department
of Public Safety, said investigations are under way at the prison in two
separate incidents. He would not say whether those incidents are sex
assaults, but confirmed that one stems from something that was reported June
23. "At this point, they're just allegations," Johnson said. Other
incidents -- The investigations come more than a year after Otter Creek
officials said they would change their procedures following a sex assault
case involving a Hawai'i inmate and corrections officer. In the October 2007
incident, the inmate alleged the corrections officer came to her room and
demanded she perform sex acts. The officer was fired, and subsequently
convicted of a misdemeanor sex offense. Johnson told that inmate's relatives
in a September 2008 letter that after the incident Corrections Corporation of
America immediately changed its operating procedures at Otter Creek to
require "whenever possible, a female correctional officer is paired with
a male correctional officer in the housing dorms/units." The state
renewed its $3.6 million annual contract to house Hawai'i inmates at Otter
Creek in November. Johnson said the contract is set to expire in October.
Allegations of sexual misconduct involving corrections workers and Hawai'i
inmates have surfaced before in other private prisons, including in Oklahoma
in 2000 and Colorado in 2005. Those allegations were followed by the felony
conviction of a corrections officer in Colorado and inmate lawsuits in both
states. Otter Creek Correctional Center, a 656-bed prison that houses
minimum- and medium-security men and women, was also under scrutiny last year
after a secretary got a .22-caliber pistol through the facility's security
system, including a metal detector, and then committed suicide in the
warden's office.
October 2, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
A male corrections officer has been fired and a privately run Kentucky
prison has changed some of its housing unit procedures after a Hawai'i female
prison inmate accused the officer of sexually assaulting her in her cell last
fall. According to a written statement by the 34-year-old inmate that was
provided by a family member, the inmate alleges the corrections officer came
to her room in the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky.,
between 4:15 and 4:45 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2007, and demanded that she perform
sex acts. The inmate alleged she saved evidence from the encounter and turned
it over to prison officials the same day. In a letter to the family, Tommy
Johnson, deputy director of the Hawai'i Department of Public Safety, said the
Kentucky State Police investigated the incident and referred the case to
prosecutors. The corrections officer was "immediately terminated,"
and is scheduled to go on trial in Floyd County District Court on a
misdemeanor sex offense, Johnson said in the Sept. 16, 2008, letter to the
inmate's family. The Advertiser does not identify victims of alleged sexual
assaults, and is also withholding the name of the family member to protect
the privacy of the inmate. Johnson said in a written statement that prison
operator Corrections Corporation of America immediately changed its
operational procedures at Otter Creek to require that "whenever
possible, a female correctional officer is paired with a male correctional
officer in the housing dorms /units." "In addition, the Department
of Public Safety has reviewed the changes and approved them with further
modifications that are specifically designed to ensure that at least two
correctional officers (preferably females) are always posted in the housing
dorms/units," Johnson wrote. Previous incidents -- Allegations of sexual
misconduct involving corrections workers and Hawai'i inmates have surfaced
before in private prisons in Oklahoma in 2000 and Colorado in 2005, and were
followed by a felony conviction of a corrections officer in Colorado and
inmate lawsuits in both states. Prison officials transferred some of the
inmates who made sexual misconduct allegations against prison staff in the
past back to Hawai'i, but that didn't happen in this case. "Since the
officer was the only staff person implicated by (the inmate) and given the
fact that he was immediately removed from the facility, CCA quickly addressed
her security and took corrective action," Johnson said in his written
statement. "Her safety was not in question, nor was there a need to
relocate (the inmate) to another facility. Further, (the inmate) did not
request protective custody and therefore, the department determined that
moving her was not warranted." The inmate's aunt disagreed, and the
female prisoner who allegedly was assaulted has been placed in lockdown for
about 50 days since she reported the sexual assault. The aunt contends the
lockdown punishment was retaliation against the inmate for reporting the
alleged assault. Concerns arise -- However, Johnson wrote in his letter to
the family that the inmate was placed in lockdown because of a confrontation
with another prisoner. Johnson said the allegation of a confrontation between
the inmates was later dismissed, and the female inmate was released back into
the general population. The aunt also questioned the misdemeanor charge
against the former corrections officer, pointing out that even consensual
sexual contact between a corrections worker and an inmate would be a felony
in Hawai'i. State Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the
Senate Public Safety Committee, said he is also concerned that the case is
being treated as a misdemeanor offense. "Obviously, whether he was enticed
or lured or not, we've got a major breakdown in training with the staff at
Otter Creek, and a problem with accountability up there of guards if a person
can go in there and commit this type of act against one of our inmates,"
Espero said. State prison officials are considering
moving at least some of the 150 Hawai'i female convicts housed at Otter Creek
back to Hawai'i and putting them at the Federal Detention Center near
Honolulu International Airport.
April 3, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
State lawmakers have tentatively approved a bill to audit a privately run
Arizona prison that holds more than 1,800 Hawai'i convicts. House Finance
Chairman Marcus Oshiro said state Auditor Marion Higa
likely would need to contract with a Mainland auditing firm to conduct the
performance audit of Saguaro Correctional Center, a new 1,896-bed prison in
Eloy, Ariz., that houses only male prisoners from Hawai'i. The audit is
expected to cost $150,000 or more, but Oshiro said it will be "money
well spent" to scrutinize the Saguaro operation and the state contract
with Corrections Corporation of America. Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50
million a year to house more than 2,000 male and female convicts from Hawai'i
in private prisons in Arizona and Kentucky. Hawai'i first began sending
prisoners to the Mainland in 1995 as a temporary measure to relieve in-state
prison overcrowding. About half of the state's prison population is now held
in out-of-state facilities. According to Senate Bill 2342, "there has
never been an audit of the private Mainland prisons that Hawai'i has
contracted with to house the state's inmates, despite the fact that deaths
and serious injuries have occurred at several of the contract prisons on the
Mainland." Oshiro said, "I think it's prudent to spend some monies
for the audit and review to make sure that we're getting the best services
for our money." The bill goes to the full House for a floor vote, and if
approved will be sent to a House-Senate conference committee to iron out
differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The Senate
proposed auditing both Saguaro and the Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Kentucky, where about 175 Hawai'i inmates are being held. However, Oshiro
said supporters of the bill told him the Saguaro audit was more important
because more inmates are there, so the audit of Otter Creek was dropped from
the House draft of the bill. Clayton Frank, director of the state Department
of Public Safety, has opposed the bill because state prison officials already
conduct quarterly audits of the Mainland prisons that check up on programs,
food service, medical service and security, among other areas. "The
department already has the expertise in place and is currently providing a
thorough and ongoing auditing process to ensure contract compliance is being
met," the department said in a written statement Monday. For situations
that require immediate attention, "we have dispatched appropriate senior
staff and Internal Affairs investigators to the facilities," the statement
said. The bill for an audit is advancing after recent Mainland media reports
cited a former CCA manager who said he was required to produce misleading
reports about incidents in CCA prisons. Time magazine interviewed former CCA
senior quality assurance manager Ronald T. Jones, who said CCA General
Counsel Gus Puryear IV ordered staff to classify sometimes violent incidents
such as inmate disturbances or escapes as if they were less serious events to
make the company performance appear to be better than it was. Jones alleged
more detailed reports about the prison incidents were prepared for internal
CCA use, and were not released to clients. CCA denied the allegations, which
Time published as Puryear is being considered for a post as a federal judge.
Oshiro said he is aware of those reports. "There's questions being
raised right now, given what you read about nationally about the CCA
organization maybe having two sets of books, and I think it causes some
concerns, especially since we don't get to observe and watch or communicate
with our inmates being that they are way out there in the Mainland,"
Oshiro said. The statement Monday from Department of Public Safety noted that
the department "does not solely rely on CCA reports or internal audits.
As the customer, we feel it's not only our right, but also our responsibility
to Hawai'i offenders housed in CCA facilities, to send our own staff to the
Arizona and Kentucky facilities."
March 31, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
State lawmakers today will consider ordering an audit of two Corrections
Corporation of America facilities in the wake of national media accounts
alleging that the huge private prison company misrepresented statistical data
to make it appear that CCA facilities had fewer violent acts and other
problems than was actually the case. Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50 million a
year to house more than 2,000 men and women convicts in CCA prisons in
Arizona and Kentucky. Senate Bill 2342 calls for the State Auditor to conduct
performance audits of two of the three Mainland prisons that house Hawai'i
inmates, including reviews of the food, medical, drug treatment, vocational
and other services provided to Hawai'i inmates. The audit also would
scrutinize the way the state Department of Public Safety oversees the private
prisons and enforces the terms of the state's contracts with CCA. According
to the bill, "there has never been an audit of the private Mainland
prisons that Hawai'i has contracted with to house the state's inmates,
despite the fact that deaths and serious injuries have occurred at several of
the contract prisons on the Mainland." Clayton Frank, director of the
state Department of Public Safety, testified against the proposed audits in
Senate hearings last month, calling the audits "unnecessary and repetitive"
because his department already conducts quarterly audits to make sure CCA is
complying with its contracts with the state. Frank also suggested his
department was being singled out, arguing that if lawmakers want performance
audits to provide more accountability and transparency to the public,
"then it should apply to all state contracts and not be limited to just
the Department of Public Safety." Critics of the Mainland prison
contracts contend the audits are needed because the private prisons are for-profit
ventures designed to keep costs as low as possible. During the decade that
Hawai'i has housed inmates on the Mainland, the state itself has criticized
private prison operators when the companies failed to provide Hawai'i inmates
with programs that were required under the contract. Now, supporters of the
audit bill say an independent review is necessary to scrutinize what is one
of the state's largest ongoing contracts of any kind with a private vendor.
"Are we getting what we pay for? We'd like to know," testified
Jeanne Y. Ohta, executive director of the Drug
Policy Forum of Hawai'i. The audit would cover the 1,896-bed Saguaro
Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., which houses only male prisoners from
Hawai'i, and the 656-bed Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky.,
which holds about 175 Hawai'i women inmates. The House Finance Committee
hearing on the bill today comes in the wake of Mainland media reports citing
a former CCA manager who said he was required to produce misleading reports
about incidents in CCA prisons. The company operates about 65 prisons with
about 75,000 inmates. Time magazine interviewed former CCA senior quality
assurance manager Ronald T. Jones, who said CCA General Counsel Gus Puryear
IV ordered staff to classify sometimes violent incidents such as inmate
disturbances, escapes and sexual assaults as if they were less serious events
to make the company performance appear to be better than it was. Jones said
more detailed reports about the prison incidents were prepared for internal
CCA use, and were not released to clients. CCA denied the allegations, which
Time published as Puryear is being considered for a post as a federal judge.
The Private Corrections Institute Inc., an organization opposed to private
prisons, wrote to Hawai'i prison officials urging them to investigate CCA's
reporting procedures in the wake of the Time report. Alex Friedmann, vice
president of the institute, said most state monitors who are overseeing CCA
prisons "largely rely on information and data provided by CCA; further,
the accuracy of incident reports is entirely dependent on whether those
incidents are documented by the company's employees." Hawai'i Public
Safety officials did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations
in the Time article.
January 26, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
A secretary at a privately run Kentucky prison where Hawai'i women
inmates are housed apparently smuggled a handgun into the facility Tuesday
and shot herself in the warden's office, according to the investigator
handling the case. The apparent suicide of Carla J. Meade, 43, represents a
major security breach at the Otter Creek Correctional Center, and Kentucky
state police detective Mike Goble said prison owner Corrections Corp. of
America is investigating how Meade got the .22-caliber pistol through the
facility's security screening system. Clayton Frank, director of the Hawai'i
Department of Public Safety, said the shooting took place away from the
portions of the prison where the 175 Hawai'i women prisoners are housed at
Otter Creek, but that it does raise concerns about the CCA operation.
"What I emphasized to them is what occurred is a security breach,"
he said. "Once I got word of the suicide and how it occurred, my initial
reaction was, how did a gun get in there?" A statement by CCA said the
656-bed prison in Wheelwright, Ky., was locked down in the wake of the
apparent suicide at about 9 a.m., and said the company is cooperating with
Kentucky State Police investigators. CCA spokesman Steve Owen declined to
comment further on the case or the company response to the shooting until the
police investigation is complete. Goble said Meade got a small pistol past
the facility metal detector, and that company officials are examining the
screening equipment to determine if it is functioning properly. Company
security protocol includes checks of hand-carried clothing and random
pat-downs of employees, and all workers must pass through a metal detector
each day, he said. "Evidently when she went through the metal detector,
it didn't go off, or she got it past the guard that searched her clothing
items," Goble said. Meade shot herself in front of Warden Joyce Arnold,
possibly because of a personnel change at the facility, Goble said.
"There was some internal movement going on there, and I don't think she
(Meade) was satisfied with it," he said. Hawai'i Senate Public Safety
Committee chairman Will Espero said the incident
raises concerns about the prison. "I'm not hearing good things about
it," he said. "It makes one wonder about the facility and the
staffing and the training and the ability of someone to bring a dangerous
weapon within the secured area." The state pays more than $50 million a
year to CCA to house more than 2,000 men and women inmates in private prisons
on the Mainland because there isn't enough room for them in Hawai'i prisons,
but the practice of exporting women inmates has been criticized in recent
years. Many of the women inmates have young children, and prisoner advocates
and some lawmakers are concerned that long separations without family visits
may negatively affect the children and families back in Hawai'i.
January 22, 2008 WKYT
A employee at the Otter Creek Correctional Facility is dead after an
apparent suicide. This release was issued earlier today from Corrections
Corporation of America. Wheelwright, KY, January 22, 2008 – It is with great
sadness that Corrections Corporation of America’s Otter Creek Correctional
Facility reports the death of an employee at the facility earlier this
morning. At approximately 9:00 a.m. eastern standard time, an employee died
from a self-inflicted injury in an apparent suicide. The name and title of
the employee along with further details regarding the circumstances of the
incident are not being released at this time pending proper notifications of
relatives and an ongoing investigation by Kentucky State Police. Currently,
the facility is on lockdown status, which means that inmate movement is
restricted to their housing areas. Facility management is cooperating fully
with KSP investigators. Additionally, CCA management has deployed a Critical
Incident Stress Management (CISM) team to provide any needed counseling and
support to facility staff. “We are very saddened by what has occurred this
morning,” stated CCA’s Division Managing Director of Operations Kevin Myers.
“Our condolences go out to the family, friends and coworkers of this
employee. We will continue to work closely with investigators and our
customers while also ensuring that we provide the needed support to our employees.”
Questions regarding the investigation should be directed to the Kentucky
State Police. The Otter Creek Correctional Facility is a 656-bed female
prison owned and operated by CCA. Through management contracts, the facility
houses adult female inmates for the state corrections systems of Kentucky and
Hawaii.
January 2, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
The family of a Hawai'i woman prison inmate who died at a privately run
prison on the Mainland in late 2005 has sued the state and the prison
operator, alleging the facility failed to give their relative proper medical
treatment in the month before she died. Sarah Ah Mau, 43, had been
complaining of severe abdominal pain and respiratory problems — probably
caused by a heart condition that caused fluid to accumulate in her lungs and
resulted in a condition called passive congestion of the liver, said lawyer
Michael Green, who is representing the family. The suit alleges the prison
showed "deliberate indifference" to Ah Mau's health problems, and
Ah Mau filed an inmate grievance complaining about the poor care. Instead of
helping her, prison officials "ignored her, insisted she was faking and
threatened to put her in segregation if she continued to complain,"
according to the suit. In November 2005, and in the weeks before Ah Mau died,
the prison medical staff at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright, Ky., gave her antihistamine, cough syrup, castor oil, stool
softener and antibiotics, but prison medical workers officials
"continued to ignore the serious medical problems" that were
causing Ah Mau's severe abdominal pain, according to the suit. "The
evidence is that Miss Ah Mau was having progressive heart failure with
classical clinical signs that had been documented in the progress notes,"
Green said. "Our expert told me that they could have saved this
woman." Ah Mau was rushed to a local hospital on Dec. 29, 2005 after the
prison medical staff was unable to get a blood pressure reading. She died at
the Hazard Appalachian Regional Healthcare Hospital on Dec. 31. The prison is
owned by Corrections Corporation of America, which has been the subject of a
number of inmate complaints alleging substandard medical care. After Ah Mau
died, Hawai'i prison officials sent a team to assess the medical treatment
being given to inmates at Otter Creek. They never publicly released the
results of that inquiry. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Darryl K. Ah Mau,
who was Sarah Ah Mau's husband, and Sarah Ah Mau's father, Bartholomew Yadao,
against the state of Hawai'i, Corrections Corporation of America and CCA
nurse Iris Prater. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety
said the department has not received a copy of the lawsuit, and therefore
could not comment on it. CCA has said that its own review of Ah Mau's medical
records found she received prompt and appropriate care.
October 17, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
State prison officials say it's possible all of Hawai'i's women inmates on
the Mainland — 175 convicts now held in a private prison in Kentucky — could
be brought back and housed at the Federal Detention Center on O'ahu. Tommy Johnson, deputy director for corrections of
the state Department of Public Safety, said negotiations could begin with the
federal Bureau of Prisons to house the women at the federal center near the
Honolulu airport, provided state lawmakers approve extra money for their
care. Housing the women in Hawai'i would double the cost of holding them in
Kentucky, Johnson said. There is no room at the Women's Community
Correctional Center in Kailua for the Mainland inmates, but the detention
center may have room for all 175 inmates, he said. The decision to house
women inmates out of state has been sharply criticized by lawmakers and
prison reform advocates who say most of the women were convicted of
nonviolent crimes, and some are single mothers. Some of the women convicts
were the sole caregivers for their children before they were sent to prison,
and lawmakers and others have questioned the impact that long separations
without visits may have on the children and families back in Hawai'i. Both
the House Public Safety and Military Affairs Committee and the Senate Public
Safety Committee passed bills this year instructing the Department of Public
Safety to draft plans to return the women inmates to Hawai'i. The bills were
not approved by the full Legislature, but state lawmakers are expected to
revisit the subject in the 2008 session. Senate Public Safety Committee
Chairman Will Espero said he has heard the state
may rent an entire floor of the Federal Detention Center to house 120 of the
women now on the Mainland. "If that's the case, then great. We'll be
very supportive of it, but of course we have to provide them the programming
and other services that the inmates will need," Espero
said. NO ROOM IN HAWAI'I Hawai'i holds a larger
percentage of its prison population outside the state than any other state in
the nation. As of last week the state was holding 2,027 convicted felons in
private prisons operated by Corrections Corporation of America in Arizona and
Kentucky, which is more than half the total state prison population. Prison
officials have said they would prefer to house those inmates in Hawai'i
correctional facilities, but there is no room here because Hawai'i has not
built a new prison in the past 20 years. State prison officials had planned
to move the women prisoners on the Mainland from the Otter Creek Correctional
Center in Wheelwright, Ky., to the new Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy,
Ariz., this year, but that plan has been delayed, Johnson said. Now, Hawai'i
prison officials are negotiating a one-year extension of the Otter Creek
contract, and are considering moving the women to the federal lockup as
"one option," Johnson said. The state now pays about $54 per day
per inmate to house the women at Otter Creek, and that is expected to
increase to about $56 per day under the new contract being negotiated with
CCA. The state pays $80.54 per inmate per day to house about 150 prisoners in
rented beds at the Federal Detention Center, and Johnson said he expects the
detention center would house the women for a similar rate. However, the state
would also have to put up money to provide rehabilitative programming for the
women that is now available at Otter Creek, such as drug treatment and parenting
classes. Those programs would not be provided under a federal contract, which
means the state would have to establish those services at the detention
center. 'IT'S ABSURD' Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community Alliance on
Prisons, said many of the women now in prison do not need to be held in
secure settings such as Otter Creek, the Federal Detention Center or the
Women's Community Correctional Center. Brady cited Department of Public
Safety statistics that show 40 percent of Hawai'i's sentenced women inmates
in 2006 were classified as community custody, meaning they were eligible for
work furlough, extended furlough or residential transitional living centers
outside of the prison system. Additionally, about 21 percent of the women
inmates were classified as minimum custody inmates. According to the
Department Public Safety, minimum security prisoners can be placed in less
restrictive minimum security prison settings, or can be supervised in the
community. "Instead of extending the contract for that coal pit, why
don't they instead get more transition beds in the community, and let those
women out who are community custody, who the department itself says can be in
the community with no supervision?" Brady said. "It's absurd that
we keep using the most expensive sanction to deal with people who are
community custody. It's absurd, it's immoral, it's expensive and it doesn't
help anybody."
February 10, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
House and Senate lawmakers who say it's time to rethink the state's
practice of sending Hawai'i inmates to the Mainland are advancing a bill
aimed at bringing 175 Hawai'i women prison inmates back from a privately run
Kentucky prison. The Senate Public Safety Committee approved a bill last week
instructing state corrections officials to develop a plan for returning the
inmates by July 1, 2009. The House Public Safety and Military Affairs
Committee approved an identical bill late last month. The proposal rekindles
a debate about how best to house Hawai'i's inmate population, with the chairs
of both the Senate and House public safety committees saying the Mainland
option needs reviewing. "I feel that looking at the re-entry and the
reintegration of prisoners eventually into our society, we need to have them
close to their families here in Hawai'i, where I think that they'd be better
served," said Sen. Will Espero, chairman of
the Public Safety Committee. House Public Safety Chairwoman Cindy Evans said
some of the women were the sole caregivers for their children before they
were sent to prison, and it is important for the women to maintain their
family ties. "By removing her, that removes her access to the family,
and we don't think that's a good idea," Evans said. "We're also
finding that most female prisoners are not the real violent ... types;
they're in there maybe for drug abuse, and the types of crimes they committed
were to feed their habits." "These women are going to go back into
our community and go back home, and we feel it's better to have them here
instead of on the Mainland," she said.
October 20, 2006 Herald-Tribune
The state's top auditor is calling for an overhaul of the state's contracting
laws that exempt more than $1 billion of government contracts from strict
oversight. The money spent at the Communities at Oakwood, the state's
troubled home for the mentally handicapped, shows the need for reform, the
report released yesterday concluded. State Auditor Crit
Luallen, in the third and final report on the
state's contracting laws, says the 1998 law regarding privatization of
government services is ineffective. Under the law, agencies have to provide a
cost-benefit analysis to show that a private vendor could deliver services
cheaper than the state, before the deal is signed. Larger contracts must be
annually reviewed, the law says. However, almost all contracts to private
vendors are exempt from the law because of various loopholes, the audit said.
The Department of Corrections pays Corrections Corp. of America about $18.2
million to operate three private prisons. Auditors found that the Department
of Corrections used an average cost of three public prisons to determine
whether the company could run the Marion Adjustment Center at 10 percent less
than the state. But the cost for only one state-run prison was used to do the
same calculations for the contract with Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville.
Auditors recommended a standardized methodology to determine the 10 percent
threshold. They are also recommending that a third party analyze those
numbers. "Some of the things that they have recommend make sense,"
said John Rees, corrections commissioner. He said he is not opposed to
creating a standardized methodology, as long as someone familiar with
corrections is developing those standards. Rees said corrections is realizing
a more than 10 percent savings on the three private prison contracts. In the
case of Otter Creek, the privately run women's prison, the savings is almost
15 percent, he said.
May 10, 2006 In These Times
It has been an arduous, surreal journey for eight Hawaiian female
prisoners sent to do their time on the mainland. The plight of this group of
women housed, most recently, in a prison in the small eastern Kentucky town
of Wheelwright, would have escaped unnoticed, had it not been for the death
of 43-year-old Sarah Ah Mau, on New Year's Eve 2005. Mau, serving a life
sentence for second-degree murder, had been incarcerated since 1993 and had a
shot at parole eligibility in August 2008. She never got that chance. Instead
she died of as-yet-unexplained "natural causes" after two days in
critical condition--and a month after first complaining of severe
gastrointestinal distress. Family members and fellow prisoners say that Ah
Mau's pleas for medical care were ridiculed, downplayed or ignored by prison
employees. As her stomach distended--and other body parts began to swell
visibly--prisoners say that Ah Mau was fed castor oil and told to stop
complaining unless she wanted to face disciplinary action. What was Hawaiian
resident Ah Mau doing in Kentucky in the first place? She was a commodity in
an increasingly common practice: interstate prison transfers. Prison
transfers, while not unusual, have a profound effect on inmates and family
members alike. Children and spouses of "shipped" prisoners have
little, if any, opportunity to see their loved ones. And due to special
contracts with phone companies, telephone calls are prohibitively expensive.
Prisoners themselves are sent to culturally unfamiliar facilities where they
are supposed to be treated according to the laws and regulations granted by
their home states--but rarely are. Home state law and prison regulation books
are rarely available, making the prisoners' appeals or grievance requests
even more difficult to file. Most of the prisoners transferred out of their
home states (which include but are not limited to Alabama, Colorado, North
Dakota, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming) end up in privately run facilities
in rural communities. Many of the guards hired for such prisons are
under-trained, ill-prepared for their stressful work environments, and are
paid "fast-food restaurant wages," according to Ken Kopczynski, executive director of Private Corrections
Institute (PCI), a prison watchdog group. "This is a major issue,"
says Kopczynski. "The private prison companies
have found a real niche for themselves." (click here
for complete article)
April 12, 2006 Floyd County Times
Criminal activity continued to plague Otter Creek Correctional Center
this week with the arrest of their drug counselor on charges of drug
trafficking. Tanya J. Crum, 32, of Martin, was arraigned in circuit court
Monday after being served with an indictment warrant that morning at Otter
Creek. The indictment alleges that Crum sold methadone on March 29 and also
charges her with complicity to commit trafficking on the same day alongside
Kimberly Goble, 34, of Langley. Commonwealth's Attorney Brent Turner noted
that investigators in the case were grateful to the aid of Otter Creek Warden
Joyce Arnold, who cooperated fully with the investigation. Arnold also saw a
guard from her facility arrested last week and charged with sexual abuse for
allegedly inducing an inmate to perform oral sex on him in exchange for food
and candy. Joint investigations conducted by the Floyd County Drug Task Force
and the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation saw a total of five individuals
arrested on drug trafficking charges this week.
April 8, 2006 Lexington
Herald-Leader
A guard at Otter Creek Correctional Center has been charged with sexual
abuse after he allegedly gave food and candy to a female inmate for oral sex,
Kentucky State Police say. Eldon Tackett, 43, of Melvin, who no longer works
at the prison, was arrested Monday and released from the Floyd County jail
that night after posting a $1,000 bond, a deputy jailer said. Detective Byron
Hansford said in a March 28 criminal complaint that the alleged offenses
occurred on Jan. 22 and Feb. 10. Otter Creek is a privately owned prison
operated by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America. It was converted
last year into a women's facility. Warden Joyce Arnold could not be reached
for comment. Tackett is scheduled for arraignment in Floyd District Court on
April 26.
February 19, 2006 Courier-Journal
It harkens back to centuries past, when felons were banished to penal
colonies on distant continents. One hundred and nineteen Hawaiians -- all
women -- are locked behind razor-wire fences at an isolated private prison in
the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, 4,500 miles from their homes and families.
Most will never get a visitor, no matter how long they're incarcerated.
"The cost per bed may be cheaper, but not when you include the cost of
broken families," said Kat Brady, coordinator for the Community Alliance
on Prisons in Honolulu. "It is hard for a woman to come home after three
or five or 10 years and say, 'I'm your mom,' when her child has never been
able to visit her." The Hawaiians have been held at Otter Creek since
September, when CCA reopened it as a women's prison; 399 Kentucky women also
are held in the facility, which once housed about 600 men from Indiana and
also was the scene of a nine-hour riot in July 2001. But the Hawaiians went
unnoticed outside of Wheelwright, a former coal camp, until Sarah Ah Mau, 43,
died mysteriously Dec. 31 after complaining for a month of a stomachache. The
cause of her death is still under investigation. Hawaiian news organizations
reported that she'd told family members before her death that her pleas for
medical attention went ignored. CCA said in a statement that her care was
appropriate. A Courier-Journal reporter was allowed to interview 10 of the
Hawaiians but barred from asking any questions about Ah Mau's death; Warden
Joyce Arnold also insisted that the prison's security director monitor the
interviews. Otter Creek is the fourth stop for many of the Hawaiian women.
They were removed from prisons in Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado after other
private companies allegedly violated contracts by refusing to provide
promised vocational training and drug treatment. In Colorado, two of the
inmates allegedly were sexually assaulted, and inmates had to teach their own
vocational classes.
January 15, 2006 Courier-Journal
The state of Hawaii is sending a medical team to Kentucky to investigate the
Dec. 31 death of a Hawaiian woman who became ill at a private prison in Floyd
County, where she was being held. Hawaii, which suffers from severe prison
overcrowding, houses more than 2,000 inmates on the mainland, including 119
women at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky. The private
prison, run by Corrections Corp. of America, also houses 399 Kentucky
inmates. Sarah Ah Mau, 43, was taken to the Appalachian Regional Healthcare
Hospital at McDowell on Dec. 30 and transferred that night to the ARH Medical
Center in Hazard, where she died the next morning, Deputy Perry Coroner
Clayton Brown said. A spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Public Safety,
Michael Gaede, said an autopsy found she died of natural causes. Dr. Tracey
Corey, a state medical examiner, said in an interview that her death had no
public health implications for other inmates. Hawaiian news organizations
reported last week that before her death Ah Mau had told relatives in Hawaii
that her pleas for medical attention were ignored. Gaede said medical records
show Ah Mau complained twice between Thanksgiving and Christmas of stomach
pain and was treated with castor oil for constipation. He said Hawaii's
investigators would be coming to Kentucky on Jan. 23. Otter Creek, which
previously housed male inmates from Indiana, was converted into a women's
prison last fall. In 2001, Hoosier inmates being held there staged a
nine-hour uprising.
January 4, 2006 Honolulu Advertiser
State prison officials plan to send medical staff to Kentucky soon to
investigate the death of a Hawai'i inmate confined at the Otter Creek
Correctional Center. Inmate Sarah Ah Mau, 43, was taken early Friday from the
prison to a local clinic after suffering what officials believe was a
"serious heart attack," said Hawai'i Department of Public Safety
spokesman Michael Gaede. The woman was having trouble breathing and had an
irregular heart rhythm, he said. "The key for us is the medical
treatment received, that's what we're looking into," Lopez said.
"First of all, we have to find out what kind of treatment she did
receive, and who she received her treatment from." Kat Brady,
coordinator for the Community Alliance on Prisons, yesterday called for an
independent inquiry into the medical care being provided to inmates at the
Otter Creek prison. Although Brady has not visited the facility, she said
inmates there told her that Ah Mau had been complaining about stomach pain
for four weeks, and that prison medical staff gave her laxatives and other
medications. Brady said inmates told her that Ah Mau tried to convince Otter
Creek officials that she was seriously ill, but that the woman was threatened
with confinement in isolation if she continued to complain. Brady said she is
aware of at least two other cases in which women with serious medical problems
allegedly were misdiagnosed by prison staff. One had pneumonia and another
had a heart condition, and both eventually were hospitalized, she said. Otter
Creek records provided to Hawai'i officials yesterday show only that Ah Mau
was treated with castor oil for constipation, but there is no record of her
returning for follow-up treatment, Gaede said. Hawai'i officials are
concerned about communications with the Kentucky prison, Gaede said. Otter
Creek staff notified Hawai'i officials that Ah Mau had been hospitalized, and
later that she had been placed on life support, but Hawai'i officials didn't
know she died until hearing the news from her sister, he said. "There's
some sort of chink in the communications there," Gaede said.
January 3, 2006 Honolulu Star
Bulletin
State public safety officials say they are planning to investigate Saturday's
death of a Hawaii inmate at a prison in Kentucky. Relatives of Sarah Ah Mau,
43, allege that her pleas for medical attention were ignored by officials at
the Otter Creek facility. Frank Lopez, interim state director of public
safety, said he was told by prison officials that Mau's death resulted from a
heart attack. Lopez said state officials could fly to Kentucky this week to
investigate Mau's death. Mau's sister, Julie Frierson, said Mau had been
complaining of severe stomach pains for more than a month. A prison doctor
called it "constipation" and gave her castor oil, her relatives
said. They said Mau had told an inmate on Friday that she could not catch her
breath. She was hospitalized but died on Saturday, according to family
members.
November 3, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
Hawai'i prison officials signed a new contract with a private prison operator
this week that for the first time allows the state to financially penalize
the company if the prison operator fails to deliver on promised drug
treatment or other programs for inmates held on the Mainland. Frank Lopez,
acting director of the state Department of Public Safety, said the financial
sanctions included in the new contract with Corrections Corp. of America were
prompted by problems the state had in Oklahoma, when required drug treatment
services for Hawai'i women inmates abruptly ended after the prison was sold
in 2003. Inmate programs were interrupted again for more than four months
this year at another privately operated women's prison in Brush, Colo., after
allegations of sexual misconduct by the staff surfaced, triggering staff
resignations, firings and an investigation by the Colorado Department of
Corrections. Lopez said that interruption in programs at Brush might have
triggered financial penalties if the new contract provisions had been in
place at the time. "Our problem before was that we weren't able to
address the (contractors') failure to deliver certain services in the
past," Lopez said. "It wasn't specific enough. Our contract wasn't
tight enough." Neither the Oklahoma nor the Colorado women's prison was
operated by CCA, but state monitors have complained in the past that CCA also
failed to provide inmate programs that were required by contract. The state
prison system on Tuesday transferred another 53 women inmates from the
Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua to CCA's Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., bringing the number of women inmates
on the Mainland to 120, said Shari Kimoto, the department's Mainland branch
administrator. In all, Hawai'i houses about 1,850 men and women inmates in
private prisons in Arizona, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Kentucky because there
is no room for them in state-run prisons in Hawai'i. About half of the
state's prison population is housed on the Mainland. The new contract covers
only the 120 women inmates at Otter Creek, but Lopez said he sees it as a
model for new contracts the state will negotiate with CCA next year covering
male inmates held out of state.
October 28, 2005 Lexington
Herald-Leader
Angry Wheelwright residents are calling it a sign of things to come in
the winter of 2005-06 -- a record leap in natural gas prices that should send
shivers across Kentucky. For one day this month, a Pittsburgh-based gas
company shut off service to the entire city -- including a private prison for
women -- because the city was behind on its bills. Then, despite protests and
now a lawsuit, city commissioners in this old Floyd County coal camp approved
a natural gas rate increase that will nearly triple rates from about $7 per
thousand-cubic-feet a year ago to $20 per mcf starting Wednesday.
Wheelwright, built in a narrow hollow along Otter Creek at the base of Abner
Mountain, was once perhaps the state's most prosperous and modern coal camp,
but today it has only 1,042 residents. Many are on fixed income, except for
those who work at a private women's prison with 480 inmates from Hawaii. The
vote this week came after Equitable Gas Co. shut off service to the community
and prison for a day on Oct. 17 after it said city officials gave
"inadequate" responses to several shut-off warnings, citing a
$96,000 debt from last year. The shut-off forced Otter Creek Correctional
Center to prepare inmates' food on an electric grill. Prestonsburg attorney
Ned Pillersdorf, who has sued to halt the rate
increase, was both bemused and angered. "These Hawaiian women apparently
have to be kept warm," he said ruefully. "Meanwhile, we have one of
the poorest communities in the state being forced to pay one the highest utility
rates in the state."
October 2, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
A decade ago, Hawai'i began exporting inmates to Mainland prisons in what was
supposed to be a temporary measure to save money and relieve overcrowding in
state prisons. Now, the state doesn't seem to be able to stop. With little
public debate or study, the practice of sending prisoners away has become a
predominant feature of Hawai'i's corrections policy, with nearly half of the
state's prison population - 1,828 inmates - held in privately operated
facilities in Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arizona and Kentucky at a cost of $36
million this year. Hawai'i already leads all other states in holding the
highest percentage of its prison population in out-of-state correctional
centers, and if Hawai'i policymakers continue on their present course, by the
end of 2006 there likely will be more inmates housed in Mainland prisons than
at home. Although public safety officials say the private companies that
house Hawai'i inmates have generally done a good job, the history of Mainland
prison placements is pockmarked with reports of contract violations, riots,
drug smuggling, and allegations of sexual assaults of women inmates. Former
prisons chief Keith Kaneshiro says years in Mainland prisons have instilled a
dangerous gang culture in Hawai'i inmates that has spread back to the Islands
and will present problems for local corrections officials for years to come.
There is also concern that inmates who are incarcerated on the Mainland lose
touch with their families, increasing the likelihood they will return to
crime once they are released. Robert Perkinson, a
University of Hawai'i assistant professor of American studies, called the
state's prison policy "completely backward." "None of this
makes sense if your goal is to make the citizens of Hawai'i safer and use
your tax dollars as effectively as you can to make the streets safer, based
on the best available research that we have," said Perkinson,
who is writing a book on the Texas prison system. Marilyn Brown, assistant
professor of sociology at UH-Hilo, said Hawai'i's out-of-state inmate
transfers are a strange throwback to corrections policies of two or three
centuries ago, when felons were banished to penal colonies in Australia or
the New World. Most of the $36 million being spent this year on out-of-state
prison accommodations will go to Corrections Corp. of America, a pioneer in
the private corrections industry. The company holds about 62,000 inmates
nationwide, including about 1,750 men from Hawai'i in prisons in Oklahoma,
Arizona and Mississippi. Last week the state transferred 80 Hawai'i women
inmates from a prison in Brush, Colo., owned by GRW Corp. to Otter Creek
Correctional Center, a CCA prison in Wheelwright, Ky. Those selected for
Mainland transfers generally are felons with at least several years left on
their sentences who have no major health problems or pending court cases that
would require their presence in Hawai'i. Private prison contractors have the
final say, and can reject troublesome inmates with a history of misconduct.
Ted Sakai, who ran the state prison system from 1998 to 2002, said it will
always be cheaper to house inmates on the Mainland because of labor costs,
which are considerably lower in the rural communities where many prisons are.
But there are benefits to keeping prison jobs here, he said. In 2000, state
House Republican leaders scolded then-Gov. Ben Cayetano for proposing to
lease more prison beds on the Mainland. House Minority Leader Galen Fox said
doing so would be bad for the state's economy and the inmates' families. An
Advertiser poll of Democrats and Republicans before the start of the
Legislature's 2003 session found a majority of state lawmakers opposed the
practice. Republican Gov. Linda Lingle also has
said she is opposed to sending more prisoners away. Yet spending on Mainland
prisons has steadily increased over the past 10 years, and politicians have
failed to take action on alternatives. The Cayetano administration explored
several options for privately built or privately operated facilities on the
Big Island and O'ahu, but each proposal was
thwarted by political resistance or opposition from communities near
suggested prison sites. Lingle campaigned in 2002
on a promise to build two 500-bed secure "treatment facilities,"
but three years later, no specifics have been provided on when or where the
projects might be built. As Hawai'i's policy of out-of-state incarceration
becomes more entrenched, other states are moving in the opposite direction.
Connecticut and Wisconsin both recently brought home almost all of their
inmates who had been housed elsewhere, and Indiana returned 600 convicts from
out-of-state prisons. Alabama, meanwhile, doubled the number of convicts on
parole to allow inmates to return from a Corrections Corp. of America-run prison
in Tutwiler, Miss., last year. The vacancies at Tallahatchie County
Correctional Facility were filled by more than 700 Hawai'i inmates. Wyoming
plans to open a new prison in 2007 that would allow the state to bring back
550 inmates now held out of state, and lawmakers in Alaska last year
authorized planning for a new prison of their own.
September 29, 2005 Honolulu
Advertiser
About 80 Hawai'i women prison inmates boarded an airplane in Colorado
yesterday for a trip to the small rural town of Wheelwright, Ky., where they
will be housed in a prison run by Corrections Corporation of America. The
women had been held for the past 14 months in the Brush Correctional Facility
in Brush, Colo., a private prison run by GRW Corp. that was plagued by
problems including allegations of sexual misconduct between staff at the
prison and eight inmates from three states, including Hawai'i. The inmates
are among 1,828 Hawai'i convicts who are housed at privately run prisons on
the Mainland because there is no room for them in Hawai'i prisons. Colorado
Department of Corrections officials launched investigations into Brush
Correctional Facility earlier this year that resulted in a number of criminal
charges against staff and inmates in Colorado. Two prison employees were indicted
on charges of alleged sexual misconduct with inmates, and two more prison
workers were charged along with five inmates in connection with an alleged
cigarette-smuggling ring. Brush Warden Rick Soares resigned in February, and
was later indicted as an alleged accomplice in one of the sexual misconduct
cases. In March the Colorado Department of Corrections revealed that five
convicted felons were allowed to work at the prison because background checks
on some staff members had never been completed. Colorado authorities later
released an audit that was highly critical of the prison, and contract
monitors from Hawai'i reported the prison failed to comply with its contract
with the state in a number of areas.
September 12, 2005 AP
A financially strapped eastern Kentucky town is threatening to file a lawsuit
against Otter Creek Correctional Center, the private prison that briefly
closed this year. At issue is a $10,000-a month payment that Otter Creek's
parent company, Corrections Corporation of America, had been paying to the
city. Otter Creek, which was holding inmates from Indiana under a contract
with that state, stopped making the payments earlier this year. The prison
fell on hard times and closed for a month after Indiana recalled the inmates.
In July, the Kentucky Department of Corrections signed a contract with the
prison and moved 450 female prisoners into the facility, but the prison did
not resume the monthly payments to the city. City Clerk Mary Ann Slone said
Wheelwright's general fund annual budget of $196,455 is strained without the
payments from the prison. She said she expected at least $64,800 this year.
That would have been about a third of the overall general fund budget. In
year's past, the payments amounted to $120,000, she said. Mayor David Sammons
said the city is considering a lawsuit against Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA,
because he said the company had agreed to pay Wheelwright 50 cents a day per
inmate. "Now, they refuse to pay us ... , he
said. Wheelwright is one of the state's smallest towns, and has just one
police officer. It has a population of about 1,000, including the inmates at
the prison. Chelli R. Jones, an attorney for CCA,
said the payments the company had made to Wheelwright in the past were simply
a "goodwill gesture." Jones said CCA began making the monthly
payments in 1999. "Then, as now, CCA wanted to maintain a positive
relationship with the community," Jones said. Sammons said the city is
considering assuming ownership of the prison. He contends that a deed allows
the city to assume ownership of the prison if it stops operating as a
minimum-security facility. The prison began operating as a medium-security
lockup in 1999. The deed, Jones said in a letter, clearly states that the
city cannot take the property unless the prison ceases operation for two
years and if the prison failed to keep enough prisoners to employ at least 30
people. Floyd County Judge-Executive Paul Hunt Thompson has said that the
county would lose about $100,000 a year because of CCA's decision to stop making
the incentive payment.
August 16, 2005 WYMT
The Otter Creek Correctional Facility is officially open again. The Kentucky
Department of Corrections started sending female inmates to the prison
Tuesday. Many people have bee anticipating this
day. After a couple of months of being empty, Otter Creek Correctional
Facility now has 42 female Kentucky inmates. Many people were glad to see
them here. After weeks of preparing and waiting, Otter Creek employees and
officials finally got what they had been waiting for, inmates. The female
inmates are a first at Otter Creek because it used to hold men. That means
some things will be different, but employees say just having inmates again
means things can get back to normal. The new inmates mean more than just opening
the prison again, they mean a lot for the local economy. So officials agree
they are glad to see the new inmates at Otter Creek. The 42 female inmates
are just the first ones to arrive. Officials say more will arrive in the next
five weeks and there will be 400. Otter Creek officials are still waiting to
see if they will be getting more female inmates from Hawaii.
July
14, 2005 Kentucky Herald
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) (NYSE:CXW), the nation's largest
provider of corrections management services to government agencies, announced
today that it has entered into a new agreement with the state of Kentucky to
house some of that state's female inmates at the Company's owned and operated
Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Kentucky. CCA presently
manages nearly 1,200 male inmates for Kentucky at two CCA facilities located
in Kentucky. Under the agreement between CCA and the Kentucky Department of
Corrections, CCA will manage up to 400 female inmates at the 656-bed,
recently-vacant Otter Creek facility. This facility previously housed Indiana
inmates until May of 2005, when the inmate population was returned to the
state. The Company expects to begin receiving prisoners at the facility on or
before September 1, 2005. The terms of the contract include an initial
two-year period, with four (4) two-year renewal options. and operated T. Don
Hutto Correctional Center located in Taylor, Texas, effective early September
2005. The decision was based on the Company's assessment of near-term customer
demand, primarily the United States Marshals Service (USMS). The facility
currently houses approximately 100 USMS inmates, some of which will be
transferred to other CCA facilities. CCA will work closely with the USMS to
facilitate a smooth transfer of the inmates to other facilities. CCA will
immediately begin pursuing opportunities to fill the vacant space.
July 12, 2005 Kentucky Herald
FRANKFORT - State prison officials said they expect to sign a deal Wednesday that
will pay Corrections Corp. of America to house 400 female inmates in Floyd
County. The private company, based in Nashville, already owns and
operates two prisons in Kentucky for male inmates. With the addition of this
third facility, a now-vacant prison, it would hold 1,616 felons, or 12
percent of the state inmate population The contract could be worth an
estimated $7.9 million a year, although the Corrections Department -- run by
Commissioner John Rees, a former CCA vice president -- declined yesterday to
disclose the terms, saying they are under final review. State officials
also would not say whether CCA was the sole bidder. CCA is one of the
region's biggest political contributors, having given more than $200,000 on
the state and federal levels in recent years, including donations to Gov.
Ernie Fletcher, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and U.S. Reps. Hal Rogers and Anne
Northup, all Republicans. The Fletcher administration previously tried
to award a management contract to CCA for the 961-bed state prison in Elliott
County that opened last week. But Democratic state legislators from the area
blocked that move, arguing that taxpayers built the prison and should not
give it away. Some of those same legislators yesterday said they had
been unaware of plans to award the Floyd County contract to CCA, and they
called for public scrutiny. "I'm always concerned about putting a
prison population in the hands of a for-profit corporation, when you start
thinking about the inmates' food, health care and safety," said Rep.
Robin Webb, D-Grayson, a member of the House budget subcommittee that funds
the prison system. "With CCA, you have to look especially because
of its political ties," Webb said. "Privatization is payback, it's
political patronage, let's face it, and that troubles me." b The state asked for a prison for 400 medium-security,
female inmates by Sept. 1, with a two-year contract that can be renewed. The
state agreed to keep most seriously ill inmates, whose health care can be
costly, in its own custody. And despite the potential vulnerability of female
inmates, it said that both male and female guards would be acceptable in
routine and emergency situations.
May 20, 2005 Fort Wayne Journal
Gazette
A private prison in eastern Kentucky is facing closure after losing its
contract to hold 650 inmates from Indiana, but a possible deal with the
Kentucky Department of Corrections could keep it open. Inmates at Otter Creek
Correctional Center are being returned to Indiana prisons, said Steve Owen,
spokesman for the Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the
medium-security prison at Wheelwright in Floyd County. “Most are already
gone,” Owen said. “Within a matter of days that institution will be
completely empty of inmates.” Unless CCA quickly lands a contract to hold
inmates, about 150 employees could join the already long unemployment rolls
in eastern Kentucky. They already have been notified that layoffs are coming.
The Indiana Department of Correction notified CCA in February of its intent
to house the inmates in Indiana prisons. Since then, Owen said, CCA has been
attempting to land a contract with another state to house prisoners. Indiana
no longer needed to make out-of-state placement of prisoners because two new
prisons had opened in the state, creating about 1,800 new beds. Some Indiana
legislators questioned the contract with Otter Creek, saying those inmates
should be kept in Indiana. When the contract expired in January, Indiana
corrections officials didn’t renew it.
May 19, 2005 WYMT
More than 100 jobs may be in jeopardy at one correctional facility in our
region. Otter Creek in Floyd County employs around 175 people. The facility
lost nearly 600 of their inmates after they were transferred back to Indiana.
Some employees are worried about their futures if the center can't fill
vacant space. For the last five years inmates from Indiana have occupied the
Otter Creek Correctional Facility in Floyd County, but on Friday the
remaining 24 will be moving back to Indiana. When officials at Otter Creek
found out Indiana had room for the inmates that had been housed in their
facility, they started notifying employees about what could happen.
February 28, 2005 Yahoo
Corrections Corporation of America (NYSE: CXW - News) announced today that it
has received notification from the Indiana Department of Corrections of its
intent to return to Indiana approximately 620 male Indiana inmates currently
housed at the Company's Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright,
Kentucky. The Company is working with Indiana corrections officials on plans
to return the inmates to the Indiana corrections system by the end of May
2005. CCA is pursuing opportunities with a number of potential customers,
including the Kentucky Department of Corrections, to fill the vacant space.
However, if the Company is unable to obtain a new agreement it intends to
implement a phased closure of the Otter Creek facility that will coincide
with the return of Indiana inmates. The Company estimates the impact,
resulting from the loss of the Indiana inmates, will be approximately $0.05
per diluted share for 2005.
October 29, 2004 Indy Star
Tucked deep within the
hills of Appalachia in southeastern Kentucky, the Otter Creek Correctional
Center is home to 654 Hoosier inmates, even as the state of Indiana has more
than 2,000 prison beds sitting empty. But with two prisons -- the Miami Correctional Facility and New
Castle Correctional Facility -- capable of holding more inmates, spending
millions of dollars on an out-of-state private company has become a hot issue
in the governor's race. When the Indiana General Assembly passed its budget
bill in the spring of 2003, lawmakers said the two prison facilities -- the
state's newest -- would fill the same number of beds in 2004 that they did in
2003. That meant the state couldn't fill new space available at both Indiana
prisons, which have undergone nearly $200 million worth of work over the past
four years. The legislative action forced the state to renew
its contract with Corrections Corporation of America, a Tennessee-based
company that owns the Otter Creek Correctional Center. Phase II of the Miami Correctional
facility, which has room for about 1,600 prison beds, was finished in the
fall of 2002 at a cost of more than $67 million, and it sits half empty. The
prison currently holds 2,125 inmates. The New Castle Correctional Facility,
at a cost of more than $118 million, was finished in the fall of 2001, and
has room for 1,296 prisoners. It now holds 375 prisoners.
June 26, 2003 Courier-Journal
State corrections officials are preparing to sign a contract to
house hundreds of inmates in a private Kentucky prison — even as more than
1,800 new beds sit unused in Indiana prisons. Some members of the
General Assembly are questioning those out-of-state placements and the
contract, saying the prisoners should be kept in Indiana since beds are
available. But the budget that lawmakers passed in April discourages
it, and Indiana correction s officials say their hands are tied.
"It's incomprehensible," said Rep. Dennis Avery, D-Evansville.
"To open up those prisons so the prisoners can stay in the state of
Indiana — to me it makes sense. Otherwise, it was a waste of tax dollars for
construction." Indiana currently houses 650 medium-security
prisoners at the Otter Creek Correctional Facility in Wheelwright, Ky., under
the terms of a contract that expired in January. The state pays the
prison — owned by the Tennessee-based Corrections Corp. of America — $45 a
day per inmate, compared to the nearly $50 average cost for Indiana's own
prisons. Indiana Department of Correction officials told the State
Budget Committee last week that they intend to sign a new four-year deal soon
for the same per-day rate. That contract calls for as many as 1,000
placements at Otter Creek and other Corrections Corp. facilities. The
Otter Creek facility is one of three private prisons in Kentucky that the compa ny bought in 1998 from
U.S. Corrections Corp. of Louisville. The prison opened in 1993 as a
minimum-security facility for Kentucky inmates but began taking
medium-security prisoners from Indiana in January 2000. CURRENTLY, Kentucky
houses 553 prisoners at the medium-security Marion Adjustment Center in St.
Mary and 501 inmates at the minimum-security Lee Adjustment Center in
Beattyville, the other two Corrections Corp. facilities in the state.
Lisa Lamb, director of communications for the Kentucky Department of
Corrections, said the state is not looking to contract for any additional
private-prison beds and is currently building a prison in Elliott
County. Otter Creek Warden Randy Stovall said most of the Indiana
prisoners — who make up the entire inmate population there — have sentences
that range from 12 months to 10 years. He said about 20 prisoners come and go
each month and all have access to programs that include vocational training,
drug counseling, parenting skills, anger-management classes and education
intended to help inmates get a GED. Avery said he's convinced it could
be cheaper to house the inmates in Indiana. That's because the Otter Creek
prisoners are the so-called cream of the inmate crop, the cheapest to serve,
he said. Senate Budget Subcommittee Chairman Bob Meeks, R-LaGrange,
said he hopes the correction s department will evaluate whether those inmates
could be housed in Indiana prisons at a comparable cost. "It seems
ridiculous to me to send 600-and-some prisoners out of state when we have
1,800-and-some slots open here, especially if we can house them at the same
dollar value," he said. But Gov. Frank O'Bannon 's administration
said the state budget — as written by the legislature — provides no authority
or money for the correction s department to use the empty beds at the Miami
and New Castle prisons. IN FACT, the two-year budget put $20.6
million — the same amount that was in the last budget — in a fund used to pay
for out-of-state placements of male inmates. At the same time, the budget did
not increase total funding for the Miami and New Castle prisons to
accommodate additional inmates or to open new units. The State Budget
Agency's deputy director, Mike Landwer, said
transfers among prison funds are common and could likely be done in this case
if the agency wanted to move prisoners back to Indiana. But he said the
General Assembly's intentions were clear. "They do not want us to
increase the number of beds being used," Landwer
said. "If that means double-bunking, so be it. If that means continuing
to use contract beds, that's the preferred approach." In fact, the
budget says explicitly that the prisons' appropriations "do not include
money to increase bed capacity beyond what was in use on June 30, 2003."
Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsville, said that was intentional. "WE
WANTED to make the Department of Correction very much aware of the fact
that we want a focus on community corrections and alternative sentences"
that keep convicted criminals out of prisons, she said. But other
lawmakers say the budget was meant only to keep the department from further
expanding the state's prison population, not to force the agency to continue
sending current inmates out of state. The conflict is a symptom of a
larger debate among lawmakers and the O'Bannon administration about how to
keep criminals off the streets without breaking the bank. For years —
when the state's fiscal picture was far rosier — Indiana lawmakers approved
the construction of thousands of new prison beds. But as the state's finances
have tightened, the attitude among lawmakers has changed, Simpson said.
"We learned a lesson from other states: You can't build yourself out of
a corrections problem," she said. "For a while, we took the advice
of the DOC and built many more beds. But at this point in time, we're saying:
`We want to put pressure on you — the department — to do as much as you can to
build community resources and alternative sentences and rehabilitate people
so we don't have this continuous growth in prison population and continuous
recidivism.' " THE RESULT is that newly built units at the
two prisons remain unoccupied, although Simpson acknowledged they eventually
will be needed. The O'Bannon administration believes the beds are
needed now. The governor asked the legislature for $26 million to use about
1,600 beds in the new units during the next two years. That would have
relieved the state's existing crowded conditions and housed the additional
1,200 inmates the courts are expected to send the correction s department
through June 30, 2005. But lawmakers — dealing with the state's worst
budget crisis in decades — said they didn't have enough money to open the
units and essentially provided no increase in funding for prisons. Pam Pattison , a corrections department spokeswoman, said the
agency is working on a plan to live within that budget. To do that, she said,
the "department must use private beds." Even if the
legislature had provided money to open the units, she said, the correction
department still would need to place prisoners at Otter Creek. But
Avery said Indiana should move its prisoners into its own facilities.
"It's almost scandalous to build a prison like that and not open it up,
yet we ship people outside the state of Indiana and house them in older
facilities," he said. "There needs to be more discussion about
these issues."
August 19, 2002
As
many as 700 former corrections workers could receive a share of $14 million
or more in damages, following a federal judge's ruling last week that
two executives of U.S. Corrections Corp. violated their duty to
safeguard the company's pension plan. Until 1998, U.S. Corrections operated private
prisons in Kentucky. U.S. District Judge
Jennifer B. Coffman ruled July 29 in Louisville that Robert
McQueen and Milton Thompson created an employee stock ownership plan, or
ESOP, to maintain control of the company and purchased securities with
plan funds without determining their fair market value. Coffman declined to assess damages,
leaving it to an independent expert to review the
value of U.S. Corrections stock that McQueen and Thompson authorized
the plan to buy in 1993. Plaintiffs alleged the two men - who also
served as plan trustees - paid too much for the stock, costing
the plan $14.8 million plus interest. The "special master'' has six
months to determine the amount of any damages. McQueen and Thompson were officers of
U.S. Corrections in 1993 when they established the plan to buy
out J. Clifford Todd, the company's cofounder. The ESOP borrowed $34.4
million to repurchase two-thirds of the company's outstanding
shares. Todd later went to prison after
admitting he paid nearly $200,000 in bribes to the
former head of the Jefferson County Jail. In a 49-page opinion,
Coffman wrote that McQueen and Thompson "were unable to
transcend their corporate mindset and act solely and exclusively for
those participants.'' Corrections Corp. of America, a
Nashville private prison operator, acquired U.S.
Corrections in 1998. It reached a separate settlement with the plaintiffs
for $575,000 before the trial. (The Courier-Journal)
August
18, 2001
A nine-hour riot by Indiana inmates being held at an eastern Kentucky prison
last month caused $14,000 in damage, prison officials say. The new
warden at Otter Creek Correctional Center at Wheelwright said the facility's
former supervisors failed to adjust to a tougher classification of inmates in
January 2000 when the prison, which had been a minimum-security facility for
Kentucky inmates, began taking medium-security prisoners from Indiana.
"As far as I can tell, and I'm at the mercy of my staff, things just
never changed," Warden Randy Stovall
said. "There were no new rules or procedures put into
place." (AP)
August 16, 2001
The Indiana Department of Correction has an obligation to keep the public
informed about big news that breaks behind prison walls, especially when it
involves inmates assigned to unfamiliar facilities in other states.
That did not happen when a riot broke out last month at a private prison in
Wheelwright, Ky., run by Corrections Corp. of America, where more than 550 Indiana
inmates are housed. During a nine-hour rampage beginning the evening of
July 5, more than 400 Indiana prisoners took over several buildings, threw
rocks at officials, smashed glass, tossed commodes, sinks and television sets
out windows and burned clothes. The melee at the Otter Creek
Correctional Facility in southeastern Kentucky wasn't brought under control
until 3:30 a.m. the next day when officers fired shots and threatened to put
down the insurrection with deadly force. Nearly 100 state police and deputy
sheriffs were called in as backup. There were no major injuries, but there
was extensive property damage which will cost hundreds of thousands of
dollars to fix. (The Indianapolis Star)
July 18, 2001
The warden and his top assistant were fired at a privately operated prison
where inmates rioted two weeks ago. William Wolford was fired last week
as warden at Otter Creek Correctional Complex in Floyd County because of
policy violations, said Steve Owen, a spokesperson for Corrections Corp. of
America. Wolford's top assistant, David Carroll, was fired a couple of
days later for the same reasons, Owen said. (AP)
July 9, 2001
Special response teams were preparing to move in when inmates surrendered
control of four dormitories at the medium-security Otter Creek Correctional
Center in Floyd County early Friday morning, officials said. Some
inmates hurled rocks and other objects at guards during the nine-hour
uprising that started in the recreation yard, said Don Burke, spokesperson
for the private prison owned by Corrections Corp. of America in Nashville,
Tenn. "They destroyed everything they could get their hands on,
but no one was seriously injured," Burke said. (Evansville Courier
& Press)
July 7, 2001
Rioting inmates surrendered Friday morning after taking control of four
dormitories Thursday evening at the medium-security Otter Creek Correctional
Center in Floyd County. "They destroyed everything they could get
their hands on, but no one was seriously injured," said Don Burke, spokesperson
for the private prison owned by Corrections Corp. of America in Nashville,
Tenn. Burke said negotiators were able to convince the inmates to give
up peaceably after about nine hours. The prison, originally designated
for minimum security inmates, switched to medium security last year.
Kentucky State Police said troopers were sent from Pikeville, Morehead and
Hazard to surround the outside of the prison to help guard against
escapes. (AP)
River City Correctional Center
Jefferson County, Kentucky
Community Corrections Corporation of America
August 19, 2002
A woman who alleges a private corrections company was to blame for a 1999
assault on her by one of its inmates has settled a civil lawsuit against the
company for $500,000. Libby Doom filed her suit against River City
Correctional Center, which is now defunct, and its owner, Community
Corrections Corp. of America, in 2000. She alleged that her former
boyfriend, William Hayden, assaulted her in December 1999 after an employee
at River City told Hayden that he'd been indicted on new charges of
sodomizing Doom and burglarizing her home. At the time, Hayden was
serving a one-year sentence at River City on a 1997 rape conviction, but was
allowed out during the day on work release. One day after the
indictment, a River City employee called Hayden and told him that he faced
new charges and a $50,000 bond, according to the court records. Hayden
fled, and two days later abducted Doom in a Southern Indiana hotel parking
lot and then assaulted and threatened her, according to the lawsuit.
She later persuaded him to release her. (The Courier-Journal)
Southeast
Kentucky Correctional Center
May
29, 2020 wchstv.com
Beshear: Kentucky to open,
operate state prison in Floyd County
Kentucky
Gov. Andy Beshear announced plans Thursday for the
state to reopen and operate a privately-owned prison in Floyd County. The
governor said in a news release that opening the Southeast State Correctional
Complex will ease overcrowding issues in county jails. “The 656-bed prison is
located in Wheelwright, and its opening will reduce the number of state
inmates in county jails,” Beshear said in the news
release. “The state commits to safely and effectively running this state
prison, while being able to bring new job opportunities to Floyd County and
its surrounding counties.” The Kentucky Department of Corrections will lease
the building from CoreCivic, but it will operate
the facility as a state prison. The hiring process will begin immediately
with those who previously applied for positions at the facility, according to
the news release. The prison will eventually employ over 200 staff. Officials
said inmates will be transferred to the prison as soon as staff training is
completed during the summer and health precautions will be taken to try to
prevent a coronavirus outbreak. “The cabinet along with the Department of
Corrections’ commitment to hold offenders to the highest standards of personal
accountability and responsibility will remain unchanged as we open and
operate this facility in Floyd County,” Justice and Public Safety Cabinet
Secretary Mary Noble said in the news release. “Proactive measures taken at
the other state prisons to aid in the fight against the novel coronavirus
will be enforced at this prison beginning day one.” The prison was built in
1993 and last held inmates in 2012.
Dec
26, 2019 wymt.com
Bypassing committee, former Gov. Bevin signed $41 million lease for Floyd
Co. Prison
FLOYD
COUNTY, Ky. (WYMT) - Lawmakers learned Thursday former Gov. Matt Bevin signed
a $41 million emergency lease for a private prison in Floyd County, according
to the Courier Journal. Bevin signed the 10-year contract with CoreCivic on his last day in office. Back in October,
Bevin announced the reopening of the prison in Wheelwright. The prison has
more than 650 beds and would hold medium-security inmates. He said it would
bring nearly 200 state jobs to the area, those jobs would begin at least
$30,000. According to the Courier Journal, the lease bypassed the legislative
committee in charge of approving those types of contracts.
Wackenhut Extradition
Simpsonville, Kentucky
November 8, 2004 Shelby Sentinel-News
State police released the name of the man who was captured Thursday evening
near Simpsonville after he escaped from a unit transporting him to jail in
Lexington. Sean Leigh Miller, 27, of Lexington, was charged with first-degree
escape and third-degree assault after he broke out of handcuffs, waist belt
and ankle shackles when Wackenhut Extradition officers made a routine stop at
the Pilot gas station. Miller is accused of assaulting a transport officer
and escaping on foot.
Warren County Jail
Warren, Kentucky
Aramark
September 24, 2009 WBKO
A Bowling Green woman was put behind bars and two inmates remain there, after
local authorities break up a drug smuggling ring at the Warren County
Regional Jail. Following a joint investigation by Warren County Jailer Jackie
Strode and the Bowling Green/Warren County Drug Task Force, indictments were
returned charging Aramark employee Georgia Mueller with trafficking in
cocaine and promoting contraband. Two inmates were also charged with
complicity to traffic in a controlled substance and complicity to promote
contraband. Tracie Reeder was arrested September 18, and Scottie Thomas was
arrested September 21 in a halfway house in Lexington by Kentucky State
Police. The investigation revealed cash was being paid to smuggle cocaine,
marijuana and tobacco into the jail and then distribute it to inmates.
February 25, 2004
Warren County Regional Jail is not alone in the problems it faces.
Issues like budget deficits, rising medical costs, and inadequate staffing
are shared by jails across the state, as discovered in a meeting with jailers
and county representatives Tuesday at the Sloan Convention Center.
Warren County Jailer Jackie Strode, accompanied by District 2 Magistrate
Cedric Burnam and District 1 Magistrate James “Doc”
Kaelin, expressed his hope that the meeting would
provide further education about jail issues. Kaelin
said the facility’s budget situation is impaired by the state government’s
decision to house more state inmates in private jails. That costs the state
about $39 per inmate per day. County facilities will house a state inmate for
only $26.51 per day, down from $27.51 per day last year. “Hopefully,
under the new administration in Frankfort, we can remedy that issue,” Kaelin said. “We have the room for them, yet they are
still sending inmates to private jails and we are sitting there with empty
beds. We could be getting that much more money per day to help run the
jail.” (BG daily news)
January 26, 2003
The state's budget crisis already has cut into the amount of free work Warren
County gets from its inmates, Jailer Jackie Strode told Warren County Fiscal
Court on Friday. Kentucky has a contract with the for-profit
Corrections Corporation of America to house inmates in two of its
facilities. Out of its 16,600 prisoners, the state currently lodges
about 1,100 in the two private prisons. County jailers will be asking
the General Assembly to break that contract, sending more inmates back to
county jails, Strode said. "We were told by the Department of
Corrections that they couldn't cancel the contract," he said.
"Well, I don't believe it." (Bowling Green Daily News)
January 16, 2003
Warren County will release 13 more inmates Friday as part of Gov. Paul
Patton's early release program. A total of 328 inmates had been
approved for release. Jailers say the releases are a burden on county
budgets and could be a problem for society when those released commit more
crimes and are sent back to jail. This latest move will cost Warren
County about $60,000 in the short term, ultimately costing much more in terms
of anticipated revenues, according to Warren County Jailer Jackie
Strode. Strode said the Kentucky Jailers' Association, of which he is
sergeant-at-arms, has sent a resolution to lawmakers and the governor urging
the state to first cancel contracts with private prisons. State Rep.
Roger Thomas, D-Smiths Grove, said the state has included some of those
private prison inmates in the last release. (Bowling Green Daily News)
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