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Cumberland County Jail
Cumberland County, Maine
Correctional Medical Services
February 26,
2008 Portland Press Herald
Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion said today that the county has begun its
own internal investigation to determine whether a man who is HIV-positive was
denied medication when he arrived at the jail on a misdemeanor charge of
failing to pay a fine. Dion said he is assessing how much time elapsed
between when Charles Wynott arrived at the end of
January and when he was provided medication prior to his release about a week
later. The jail typically does not store a wide range of expensive HIV
medicines but Dion said he will assess whether there was an unacceptably long
delay in determining the medical care Wynott needed
and then obtaining medicine and providing it to Wynott.
Inmates are not allowed to bring their own medication into the jail. Wynott, who is representing himself, filed a federal
lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Portland against Correctional
Medical Services, which manages medical care in the jail, saying delays in getting
him his medicine may have allowed the virus in his system to mutate, making
it more resistant to medicine. Dion said CMS would not have had a financial
motive to deny the medicine. CMS does not pay for the medicines it
prescribes, but is instead paid a management fee by the county and then
passes the cost of medicine and hospitalizations on to the county. Medicine
costs alone were almost $400,000 last year.
February 26, 2008 WMTW
A Westbrook man is suing the company that provides health care services at
the Cumberland County Jail, saying it took the jail five days to give him his
HIV medication. Charlie Wynott spent about a week
at the jail last month after being arrested for driving with a suspended
license. Wynott, 44, filed a lawsuit in federal
court last week against Correctional Medical Services. He said he wants to
see policies changed. He told News 8, "It's not about the money to me.
It's about taking care of the inmates in the jail. It shouldn't take five
days for them to get the meds to you." Cumberland County Sheriff Mark
Dion said the jail tries to provide the best care possible. "I've looked
at the timeline. There was a lag,” he admitted. “The reason for the delays is
it wasn't available in the pharmacy. It's pretty costly, and we don't normally
keep it on the shelf. Once we did get it, he received it." While Dion
said he would like to see the lawsuit open up a conversation on the issue, Wynott said he just wants to make a difference. Another
man filed a similar suit against the jail’s former medical provider about 10
years ago. David McNally settled out of court.
Maine Correctional Center
Windham, Maine
CMS
February 16 Kennebec Journal
A Gardiner nurse will get to tell a jury why she feels
she was a victim of retaliation when she was escorted from her job at the
Maine State Prison on Oct. 17, 2008, and ultimately fired. Katherine Kelley
sued Correctional Medical Services, Inc., of St. Louis, Mo., about her
firing, claiming it was a violation of her rights under the Americans with
Disabilities and the Maine Human Rights acts. A three-judge panel of the U.S.
First Circuit Court of the Appeals ruled recently that the case should go to
trial. However, that ruling is still subject to appeal. "I am very
ecstatic because someone believed me," Kelley said. The circuit court
panel overturned a U.S. district court judge's decision dismissing the
lawsuit in favor of Correctional Medical Services at the summary judgment
stage. "We have to have a trial of the facts," said Kelley's attorney,
Guy Loranger. Kelley's lawsuit was filed in federal court Nov. 1, 2010. It
was originally filed in Knox County Superior Court. Loranger said he expects
the case to go on the trial calendar this spring, depending on whether
Correctional Medical Services appeals the three-judge decision to the full
U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals. "She was ecstatic, and rightfully
so," Loranger said. "She went through a lot. It was very difficult
to hear the court say she had no case." Attorney Matthew J. LaMourie, who argued on behalf of Correctional Medical
Services, Inc., said he could not comment on the decision because the case is
still "active litigation." Kelley, a licensed practical nurse,
started working for Correctional Medical Services at the prison in spring
2007, and court documents show she was earning almost $49,000 annually. She
shattered her pelvis in July 2007, and when she returned to work using first
crutches and then a cane to get around, she sought an accommodation for her
medical disability. The decision, authored by Circuit Judge Kermit Lipez, outlined a series of encounters between Kelley and
a supervisor, Teresa Kesteloot, who required Kelley
to bring a doctor's note about her need for a cane and work-hour limitations.
On Oct. 17, 2008, Kelley, who was on vacation, agreed to cover a shift in an
emergency. She was placed in the main clinic, where she would be required to
respond to emergencies and carry equipment, including a stretcher, something
she said she would find difficult. After several attempts to shuffle jobs
among several nurses, Kelley told the supervisor she "did not feel
'comfortable with the physical responsibilities,'" and mentioned leaving
work. She also refused to do a narcotics count, saying two other nurses
already had done it. Two security officers escorted her out of the prison at
midnight at Kesteloot's direction. "Under
these circumstances, a reasonable fact-finder could conclude that Kelley's
refusal to obey an instruction of Kesteloot served
as a convenient pretext for eliminating an employee who had engaged in
ADA-protected conduct one too many times," Lipez
wrote. After being fired as a prison nurse, Kelley said she worked only part
time. Now 52, she has been disabled and unable to work since July 2009. Part
of the reason, Kelley said, is that she had to delay a second surgery when
she lost her medical insurance along with her job. "I've always been a
real workaholic. I literally worked until my leg gave out," Kelley said.
Before working for Correctional Medical Services, she had worked at the
Veterans Administration Medical and Regional Office Center at Togus and for agencies in the Portland area.
March 13, 2008 Sun Journal
A medical technician doing contract work at the Maine Correctional Center
in Windham was arrested Sunday night after allegedly being found in
possession of cocaine. Jeanne-Marie L. Brett, 31, of 277 Fore St., Oxford,
was charged with possession of a schedule W drug, a Class D misdemeanor. She
was released on $500 unsecured bail shortly after being admitted to the
Oxford County Jail. According to jail booking sheets, Brett has been employed
as a medical technician for three years. An official at the Maine
Correctional Center said Brett is not a state employee, because medical
services are contracted through the privately owned Correctional Medical
Services. Norway Police Chief Robert Federico said Brett was a passenger in a
2002 Honda Accord stopped by Officer Ron Cole on Beal Street. "The focus
of the stop was the driver, who was suspended," Federico said. Federico
said an off-duty police officer reported the car after he recognized the
driver, 39-year-old Michael A. Pulsifer of 52 Skeetfield Road in Oxford. Pulsifer
was arrested and charged with operating after suspension and violation of
bail conditions. He remained in jail Wednesday evening. According to
Federico, a search of the vehicle turned up a bag of white powder that tested
positive for cocaine. Cole also saw open cans of beer in the vehicle, two
bags containing a usable amount of marijuana, a pipe, a tin and film
container with marijuana residue, and several unidentified pills. Federico
said Brett claimed she was holding the cocaine for a friend so she wouldn't
get in trouble. He said Brett did not appear to have a criminal history.
Brett declined to comment Wednesday on the matter.
August 13, 2004
The U.S. attorney for Maine released a Westbrook doctor Thursday without
filing criminal charges, a day after federal drug agents raided his medical
office and arrested him. The arrest of Dr. Juan Carlos Lazaro led to his
dismissal as medical director of the Maine Correctional Center in Windham,
and caused his lawyer to question the actions of federal agents who detained
the 57-year-old doctor. Before learning of his release, state corrections
officials banned Lazaro from the prison, citing security reasons. The ban led
Lazaro's employer, Correctional Medical Services Inc., to dismiss him as the
prison's medical director. The firm, based in St. Louis, Mo., holds a state
contract to provide medical services at the prison. (Portland Press Herald)
July 22, 2004
A South Paris woman who had been a counselor at the Maine Correctional Center
was arrested Tuesday, along with another former prison employee, four days
after she allegedly had sexual relations with a male inmate, prison officials
said. Bethany Bondenheim, 30, of 5 Porter St.
was charged with one count of gross sexual assault. She allegedly engaged in
a sexual act with a prisoner Friday, according to prison Superintendent Scott
Burnheimer. She was arrested at her home by Paris
police, who had a warrant issued by Portland District Court, an Oxford County
Jail spokesman said. She was booked at the jail in Paris. April Archer,
37, was a medical technician at the facility, Burnheimer
said. She allegedly engaged in sexual acts with a male prisoner on five
separate occasions in July. The trafficking charges were "concerning
medications," Burnheimer said. In both
instances, prisoners were called from their dorms to report to the areas
where the women worked, he said. The alleged sexual conduct of both
prison employees was reported by other workers, Burnheimer
said. Bondenheim and Archer were contract
employees. Many specialty services at prisons are contracted through large
companies, Burnheimer said. Bondenheim came to the prison through a company called
Spectrum Behavioral Services, Burnheimer said. He
was not sure where the company is based. Archer was contracted through
Correctional Medical Services of St. Louis, he said. (Sun Journal)
April 28, 2003
The state's prison system has a new health care provider, the same one used
by the Cumberland County Jail. Correctional Medical Services Inc. of
St. Louis was selected early this month, officials announced Friday.
The state will pay the company $11 million to provide 15 months of medical
and dental care to Maine's approximately 2,100 adult and juvenile residents
at eight facilities. With options for renewal, the contract could
extend through 2008. The contract ends a search for a new health care
provider that began in December, after an adult showed the provider at the
time, Prison Health Services, was falling short of its requirements and was
losing money at the same time. In March, the company lost a verdict in
a case of an inmate death. The family of the inmate, who hanged himself
in the Lake County Jail in Waukegan, Ill., won a $1.75 million verdict.
(Press Herald)
Maine Department of Corrections
Oct 27, 2017 sunjournal.com
Our View: Humiliation, abuse and profit
Quinn, who has more than a decade of petty convictions and trouble
controlling her behavior, was charged with forgery in 2011. She stole $1,800
from her mother by writing checks on Mom’s account. Had she abided by the
terms of a plea agreement, the charge would eventually have been dropped. But
Quinn drank alcohol and that deal was rescinded. Her sentence was three
months in jail, followed by two years of probation. That probation also had
standard restrictions against using alcohol, which Quinn ignored by having a
drink. And she violated other terms, such as failing to check in with her
probation officer. So, a bench warrant was issued. When she was located in
Florida last fall, Androscoggin County hired a for-profit company to
transport her home. Cost? $1,500. Quinn’s extradition is not unusual. It’s a
routine process across this country to locate, collect and return defendants
to answer charges. It’s also a process that needs far greater scrutiny than
it gets. When extradited, a person is in official government custody and all
the rights and protections the law affords prisoners must be observed. When
the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office assigns its deputies to this task,
these rights are carefully preserved. But, when Quinn was transported from
Florida to Maine last November, her rights were ignored. Her dignity was
ignored. Her basic humanness was utterly ignored. This woman — who deserves
the punishment handed down to her by the court for her violations — absolutely
did not deserve to be physically, emotionally, sexually and psychologically
violated as she was by an agent of the government. Quinn was transported to
Maine by U.S Prisoner Transport, a subsidiary of Nashville-based Prisoner
Transportation Services. The trip took five days, during which she was denied
timely access to a bathroom and was forced to defecate in a used fast-food
wrapper in a moving van while a group of male transports watched. Some hooted
and hollered as she had her pants down. When Quinn got her period, the
transport company refused to provide her sanitary supplies, so she sat curled
in her own blood, and other bodily fluids. That trip was Thanksgiving week.
Two weeks earlier, Surface Transportation Board Vice Chairman Deb Miller had
called on the Justice Department to investigate Prisoner Transportation
Services for human rights violations, citing the company’s track history of
disregard for passengers. Had someone taken that seriously, Quinn’s treatment
may have been quite different. OK. Got it. These companies transport
criminals. The accommodations and travel conditions don’t have to be
luxurious. They do have to be humane.
In August, according to Business Insider, a merger
between Prisoner Transportation Services — which is the nation’s largest
prisoner transportation company — and U.S. Corrections was stalled after the
Human Rights Defense Center objected to that merger. In November, the merger
was allowed to move forward when the Surface Transportation Board found it to
be “consistent with the public interest.” In July, then-U.S. Attorney General
Loretta Lynch told the House Judiciary Committee her office was reviewing
“apparent lapses in federal oversight of prisoner transport companies,”
according to Business Insider. These lapses were highlighted in a report
published by The Marshall Project that examined outrageous treatment of
prisoners under the care of transport companies. Lynch — an Obama appointee —
left office in January, and her acting replacement was in place less than two
weeks before she was replaced by Jeff Sessions. So, who knows where that
review stands. The merger of PTS and U.S.
Corrections will create the nation’s largest transportation company, one that
controls the market with virtually no oversight. It would be easy to look
away. These are prisoners after all. They deserve whatever they get, right?
Wrong. According to The Marshall Project, in the 16 years since Jeanna’s Act
— lightly regulating these transport companies — was enacted, 16 prisoners
have died while in custody. Since 2012, four of them died from alleged abuse
or neglect inside the transport vans. None of these prisoners was sentenced
to death, but that’s what they got. In response to findings of The Marshall
Project, PTS President Joel Brasfield said the company outfitted some of its
vans with cameras and changed its regulations to provide longer and more
regular breaks for its driver-guards. The van Quinn was on did not have a
camera. And, despite Brasfield’s claim to provide 24-hour breaks for guards every
two days, the two guards who transported Quinn and her fellow passengers did
not get these breaks. The guards were the same for five consecutive days,
catching rest in the passenger seat while the second guard drove. Brasfield
has ignored the Sun Journal’s repeated requests for information, including
access to public records that the company is required to provide under
Maine’s Freedom of Access Act and Florida’s Sunshine Law, so his desire to
confront this issue does not seem sincere. The situation is this: The Justice
Department is long aware of the problem. The problem is being studied and
reviewed. Promises have been made to provide better oversight. And, still a
34-year-old woman can be loaded into a van in Florida and neglected for five
days travel to Maine. Quinn and her fellow passengers were treated like
animals. If society continues to ignore that treatment, we are the animals.
Apr
18, 2017 sunjournal.com
Prison transport company denies mistreatment; DAs seek alternatives
LEWISTON — A private prisoner transport company used for years by Maine
prosecutors to extradite prisoners back to this state has denied it
mistreated a Lewiston inmate during a five-day trip from Florida to Maine in
November. Maine's district attorneys are seeking alternative sources for
those extraditions. In a letter (see related story) from Prisoner Transport
Services to the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn, an internal affairs
investigator at the company addressed allegations of the neglect and
mistreatment of Meghan Quinn, 34, that were featured in a Sun Journal special
investigative report published March 26. "Based on the allegations in
this complaint there (are) no findings that U.S. Prisoner Transport personnel
violated policy and procedures and/or any U.S.P.T. standard operating
procedures," Lt. Christopher M. Snow, investigator for internal affairs
at the company, summarized in his four-page report. "Although the
conditions during transport may have been unpleasant, they did not amount to
deprivation and is only the opinion of offender Quinn and that U.S.P.T
personnel acted in good faith." The company's president and general
counsel, Joel Brasfield, told the Sun Journal by phone Friday that he
considers the matter closed. "We stand by our findings," he said.
Brasfield declined to comment on the Sun Journal's reporting, including a
harrowing account of Quinn and another inmate, except to say he had not been
aware of a problem until the Sun Journal's story was published. The Sun
Journal also had reported that district attorneys in Southern and Central
Maine had halted their use of that transport company after learning of the
allegations by Quinn and David Bowden, 45, of Bangor as chronicled by the Sun
Journal. In January, the newspaper filed a request for records from the
company regarding Quinn's transport. Brasfield said he "had two lawyers
look at it and they do not believe we are required to give a response — at
all." The Sun Journal filed its request citing Maine and Florida
right-to-know laws that mandate private companies comply with those laws if
they are acting as agents of a public entity by performing a service that
would otherwise be performed by a public agency. Not responding within five
days of a freedom of information request is a clear violation of the law.
Brasfield said: "We're not prepared to share any of our documents with
you at this point." Androscoggin County District Attorney Andrew
Robinson, whose office had contracted with U.S. Prisoner Transport for
Quinn's extradition, said Friday the company's letter fails to answer all of
the questions his office has about Quinn's transport. The company's letter
has been shared with five other Maine district attorneys whose offices had
used the services of U.S. Prisoner Transport for extraditions, he said. Two
district attorneys in Maine said they don't use private prisoner transport
services. "At this point," Robinson said, "We're not
scheduling any new transports with them until we're satisfied that
(allegations made by Quinn and Bowden) did not occur." The six county
prosecutors who had used the transport company are planning to meet to
discuss other options for extraditing those prisoners whom they would in the
past have had transported by the Florida-based company, Robinson said.
Instead of each county going it alone, Robinson said, discussion is likely to
include: "Is there a way we can coordinate our resources to make it
easier on all of us, but we haven't had that meeting, so I don't have the
answer to that yet. I have some ideas." None of the prosecutors have
decided to continue to use or resume using U.S. Prisoner Transport's services
after viewing the company's internal affairs letter, Robinson said. He
declined to comment on the contents of the company's investigation and its
conclusions, saying he preferred to wait until he and fellow prosecutors had
a chance to meet and discuss the four-page letter. "If we can find a
legitimate alternative and we all decide that we're not satisfied with the
report, we'll proceed with the alternative," Robinson said. "If,
after looking at the report and speaking as a group we decide we have
questions and want to meet with the president of the company, then we should
do that also." Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson,
whose office contracted with U.S. Prisoner Transport to perform 21 of that
county's 40 extraditions last year, suspended all future contracts with the
company after reading the Sun Journal report on March 26. Anderson said in an
email Friday that she had reviewed the company's recent letter. "We are
looking into two other companies and will give one of those a try for an
extradition from North Carolina that will be coming up in a couple of
weeks," she wrote. Matthew Forster, district attorney for Hancock and
Washington counties, wrote in an email to the Sun Journal that, after
reviewing the company's letter, he concluded that, "with the information
I have, I am not comfortable using (U.S.) Prisoner Transport." Foster
noted a "dearth of information" contained in the letter. "It
has not changed my decision about the use of their services," he wrote,
though that decision could change if more information were to "come to
light." He said his office hasn't identified any alternative transport
services to take the place of the private contractor, other than the U.S.
Marshals Service. Christopher Almy, district
attorney for Penobscot and Piscataquis counties, said he, also, had read the
company's letter from its internal investigation of Quinn's account of her
five-day trip. "The incident was disconcerting as reported," he
wrote in an email. "We have not yet had to hire PTS since that time. The
company has responded to the allegations. We are still deliberating on
whether to use PTS again." Geoffrey Rushlau, district attorney for Knox,
Lincoln, Sagadahoc and Waldo counties, said his office had used U.S. Prisoner
Transport for extraditions for "quite a number of years," but had
considered looking elsewhere largely due to price increases, even before he
learned of the Sun Journal's report on Quinn's transport experience. He said
the company's service "had gotten more impersonal." The Florida
company had, for years, gained a reputation for being "very responsive.
They provided good service and they were reasonably priced." He said he
hadn't been made aware of any complaints about prisoner conditions during
transport with them. But more recently, his office's experience with the
company, since it had been acquired by Prisoner Transportation Services LLC
of Tennessee, "had not been as positive. We were trying to figure out if
that was something we could work with and make it more positive. But we're
prepared to look elsewhere if there were other options. We're not sure if
there are other options that are particularly good," Rushlau said. He
pointed to the U.S. Marshals Service as an option his office has used before.
"That's a good way to go, sometimes" he said. For extraditions
closer to home, he said, his office will tap local law enforcement agencies
as long as the transport isn't too distant. If the extraditions would require
a trip farther than upstate New York, they wouldn't be as cost-efficient to
hire local agencies, he said. "We will continue to look at other options
if any of them look reasonable to use," he said. Asked whether he would
use U.S. Prisoner Transport again if an alternative can't be found, Rushlau
said: "I don't know. A lot of it will depend upon timing and cost."
Prisoner conditions during transport is one of several elements his office
would consider in choosing who should be entrusted with extraditions, Rushlau
said. Other factors include security, training and qualifications of
personnel and safety. "That's what we've always looked for," he
said.
March
18, 2013 bangordailynews
MACHIAS, Maine — A decision to outsource meal preparation at the Washington
County Jail has been reversed after it was discovered that cost savings were
grossly overstated by a former jail administrator, according to the sheriff.
“We were misled,” Sheriff Donnie Smith told the county commissioners last
week. Although the commissioners originally felt the move could save money
and approved hiring the food service company Aramark to provide jail meals,
Smith said the figures provided last December by then-Capt. Robert Gross,
were incorrect. He said Gross’s figures were questioned by a former cook
before a contract was signed with Aramark. Gross, 62, of East Machias
resigned in January, one day before the commissioners were to act on his
termination following a mismanagement scandal involving inmate funds. A
second employee, former jail clerk Karina Richardson, 50, of East Machias
also was accused of mismanaging inmate funds and was terminated. She is
currently appealing that decision and the Maine attorney general’s office is
conducting an ongoing investigation into the scope of the mismanagement. At a
Dec. 13 meeting, Gross told the commissioners that the current cost per meal
was $4.68 and that Aramark provide meals for $3.99 per meal. Gross estimated
the cost savings would have been $30,000 a year. Smith told the commissioners
last week, however, that it appears jail meals are being prepared for only
$1.16 per meal. Smith said he has launched a full audit of meal costs so a
final determination can be made. He said that since the cost discrepancy was
first discovered, the County Manager Betsy Fitzgerald had notified Aramark
that the contract would not be signed. “We are putting this on hold at the
very least until we can get a handle on the actual food costs,” Smith said.
January 6, 2012 MPBN
The president of the Maine chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said
a state agency review of a company that provides medical services to Maine
prison inmates documented problems that rise to "a systemic
constitutional dimension." John Patterson, of the Maine ACLU, said a
report by the Legislature's Office of Program Evaluation and Accountability
concludes that the Corizon's medical services corporation maintained poor
medical records and were not fulfilling contractual obligations. One key
state lawmaker said Corizon's contract should not be considered for renewal.
Last year's review of the state's contract with Corizon produced some of the
most dramatic findings ever identified by the agency. The company that
oversees the delivery of medical services at most Maine prison facilities was
found to have failed to adequately fulfill many of its contractual
obligations. The report concluded that 50% of Corizon's medication records
were in error and that records could not even be found for nearly 10% of the
prisoners treated. Staff training was insufficient according to the OPEGA
report which said many of the prisoners never received their annual physical
exams. Now, after an eight-year relationship with the state, Corizon's $12
million annual contract may be in jeopardy and for the first time, the
company will have to compete with other firms for the state's business.
"My question to you is in light of this history, why should the state
seriously be considering any proposal your company might make to get this
contract back again?" asked state Senator Roger Katz (R-Augusta). He
posed some pointed questions to Larry Amberger, the
regional vice-president for Corizon who spent an uncomfortable part of the
morning being grilled by panelists from the Office of Program Evaluation and
Accountability. Amberger insisted that even the
OPEGA report indicated that Corizon was providing "more than adequate
care" for Maine's prisoners. And although Amberger
acknowledged there were areas of concern he questioned the methodology used
by OPEGA investigators who found so many errors. Amberger
said that if one of the company reports failed to have every checkbox cell
filled out on the form, it was dismissed by the investigators as erroneous.
"So based on one blank potentially, in a form that might nevcessarily require 300 of these cells to be completed,
they then said there wasn't a documentation," Amberger
said. Judy Garvey, co-coordinator with Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition,
said her agency has received dozens of complaints from state prisoners complaining
of inadequate medical treatment -- including one man with a long-standing
serious medical history. "For the past 18 months, he has been
experiencing sharp pains in his left kidney," Garvey said. "He is
told by Corizon that there are other inmates with higher needs than his...to
be patient. How many men or their wives and partners in this room would be
content with so little hope of receiving treatment or attention if diagnosed
with a prostrate problem of this magnitude?" "Prisoners have a
constitutional legal right under the eighth amendment to receive timely and
adequate mental health care," said John Patterson of the Maine Chapter
of the American Civil Liberties Union. "The Eighth Amendment prohibits
the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment on convicted prisoners which
has been interpreted to include deliberate indifference to basic human needs,
such as medical care." John Patterson is president of the Maine ACLU. He
said the state is denying prisoners their constitutional rights to medical care
based on the findings of the OPEGA report. Severin Belliveau, a Hallowell
lawyer and State House lobbyist representing Corizon said patient
confidentiality prevented his client from addressing some of the specific
prisoner concerns that were detailed at the public hearing. "Some of the
cases that our people heard about this morning, the medical director said
he's very familiar with them, can't talk about it and I think they're
misrepresented in many ways as to what the true treatment was," Belliveau
said. After years of receiving a non-competitive state contract, Corizon will
now have to bid against other companies to provide medical services to
prisoners as the result of action taken by Governor Paul LePage (R). Senator
Katz said he personally would be disappointed if Corizon won the bid based on
the company's performance.
February 15, 2011 Kennebec Journal
The Maine Senate today voted 34-0 to confirm Joseph Ponte to become the new
commissioner of the Department of Corrections. Ponte, 64, has spent more than
40 years in corrections, including 21 years with the Massachusetts Department
of Corrections and the last eight in private corrections with the Corrections
Corp. of America.
February 15, 2011 Maine Today
A legislative committee voted 10-2 Monday to endorse Gov. Paul LePage's
nominee to lead the state Department of Corrections. Joseph Ponte, 64, of
Pahrump, Nev., has worked in prison systems for 33 years. Most recently, he
worked for the private Corrections Corp. of America as a prison warden in
Nevada. The Massachusetts native told Criminal Justice and Public Safety
Committee members that he wants to return to New England to be nearer to his
family. Democrats said they were concerned that Ponte owns stock shares in
the Corrections Corp., the country's largest private-sector corrections
company. The company, which is represented by lobbyist and former Maine House
Minority Leader Josh Tardy, has said it might be interested in opening a
facility in Milo. The corporation also donated money to the Republican Governors
Association, which transferred the money to its Maine political action
committee. The PAC supported LePage. Ponte said Monday that if confirmed by
the Maine Senate, he will sell his shares in the company. "If confirmed,
I will divest myself of any stock holdings in CCA," he said. He also
assured the committee that neither he nor LePage has any interest in
privatizing state jail or prison facilities. He emphasized that the bulk of
his career has been spent in public systems – including 21 years in Massachusetts
– and that he has been employed by CCA for only the past eight years.
January 25, 2011 Maine Public Broadcasting Network
The governor's choice to run the state Department of Corrections is also
under scrutiny in Augusta. Veteran members of the Legislature's Criminal
Justice and Public Safety Committee have met privately with Joseph Ponte and
are expressing concerns over his ties to a private corporation that runs
prisons across the country. State Sen. Stan Gerzovsky
and Rep. Anne Haskell also take issue with some of the governor's sweeping
characterizations of Maine's corrections system. After accepting $25,000
dollars in contributions to his gubernatorial campaign from the Corrections
Corporation of America, Gov. Paul LePage relied on an interesting choice of
words as he described his professed goals for the state corrections
department: "I'm looking to take the politics out of our prisons,"
LePage said. In presenting Joseph Ponte as his choice to become the next
state corrections commissioner, LePage insisted there was no quid pro quo
from a corporation that donated to his campaign, and his nominee, who has
spent the last four years working as a warden with CCA, a company that has
defended its reputation against investigations into prisoner abuses and, in
some instances, prisoner deaths. State Rep. Anne Haskell, a Portland
Democrat, says Maine's corrections department has been remarkably unpolitical
-- until now. "The only political part of this has been the part where
CCA is a very politically active organization, and so I think the governor is
bringing it in--instead of removing it," Haskell says. LePage says the
politics he's referring to are rooted in the the
high turnover and burn-out rate among new corrections officers at the Maine
State Prison who are assigned the most difficult prisoners and undesirable
shifts as the result of policies negotiated with the officers' collective
bargaining units. "Those who have been there the longest get the sweet
shifts, and so we need someone that can go in there and take a look at
it," he says. "We've got to make it more equitable and fair for
everyone, and I think we'll have a better chance of keeping our
personnel." But state Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, a Brunswick Democrat, says
the same employment policies that the governor used when he managed the Mardens' chain of salvage stores would likely apply to
the state prison system as well. "I would think that seniority--whether
you're working for the Maine State Prison System or Mardens--gives
a better choice on shifts and jobs that you're going to hold," Gerzofsky
says. The governor has also drawn attention for other comments about the
state correctional system. "You know, prisons should not be a country
club," he said yesterday. "I don't believe that we should have a
system where people look forward to going to." Gov. LePage says he
doesn't really know whether the Maine State Prison is a country club, but he
says that Maine's per capita expenses on its corrections system are among the
highest in the nation and that's a statistic he wants to change. State Rep.
Anne Haskell, a former chair of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety
Committee, says the per capita costs are driven by Maine's small population
and that as a percentage of its total budget, Maine ranks about 47th in the
nation on corrections spending. "I think it really reflects the fact
that the governor is early in his administration, without an opportunity to
having gone to the prisons and had a chance to talk with them, meet with them
and learn something about the finances there," Haskell says. Haskell
says she also has concerns about the fact that Joseph Ponte continues to hold
stock in his former employer, Corrections Corporation of America, and because
LePage has expressed interest in locating a private prison in Maine to hold
out-of-state inmates. Although LePage insists he has no interest in
privatizing the state's system, Haskell says there's a potential conflict due
to Ponte's investment holdings. "It stretches the imagination to think
that if we had a private facility here that the governor wouldn't be making
recommendations about whether or not this was a better model," Haskell
says. Haskell and Gerzofsky say they would be happier if Ponte agreed to
divest himself of CCA stock that he currently holds as part of his pension
package--an option that, for the moment, the nominee has stated he will not
consider. Haskell says the potential for conflicts for Ponte would be
significant should CCA locate in Maine.
Maine
Legislature
Jun
12, 2021 mainepublic.org
Maine
Senate Passes Bill To Divest State Retirement System
From Fossil Fuels
The
Maine Senate has given final approval to legislation that would require the
Maine Public Employees Retirement system to divest its holdings in fossil
fuel companies, and privately owned prisons. Lawmakers rejected arguments
that the move would be unconstitutional. One measure would require the
retirement system to divest itself of interest in companies that own or
manage fossil fuels, like oil and natural gas. The second measure would
require the system to divest itself of any interest in companies that own or
operate private prisons. Republican Sen. Rick Bennett of Oxford argued that
the retirement system is constitutionally barred from taking direction on
investments from the legislature. "I have heard like many of you from a
large number of constituents and stakeholders who have been led to believe
these bills do something that they do not do," Bennett says. Bennet says
the state constitution requires the retirement system to invest only on the basis of what provides the greatest return.
Supporters of the bills argue it is good policy to get out of fossil fuel
investments, and private prisons. They say the bills are crafted so they do
not violate the constitution. "Do LD's 99 and 319 if enacted in their
current form as engrossed, requires Maine PERS to divest of any asset? The
answer, under the Maine Constitution, she writes, Maine PERS cannot be
required to divest," says Bennett, citing the letter from MePERS Executive Director Sand Matheson.
January 9, 2012 AP
A bill to allow a privately run prison in Maine, carried over from last
year's session, appears headed to the dead files. The bill last year won
support from some lawmakers in the Milo area, but not enough to pass. But it
was carried over to this year's session to address the issue of Maine's aging
prison population. Democratic Sen. Stanley Gerzofsky of Brunswick saw the
bill as a way to authorize a private prison company to open a facility that
cares for Maine's increasing number of aging long-term prisoners who need
special care. Gerzofsky says the state prisons aren't designed to be
long-term nursing care facilities. On Monday, Gerzofsky said no companies are
interested in providing that special service, so he's prepared to ask that
the bill be killed.
May 4, 2011 New Maine Times
The lobbyist for Corrections Corporation of America chose his words carefully
when he described what CCA wants from the state if it is to build a new
prison in the beleaguered Piscataquis County town of Milo. While it has been
generally acknowledged that CCA backed off its interest in building a Milo
facility because current Maine law forbids the state’s prisoners to be sent
to private prisons, like those run by CCA, lobbyist James Mitchell of
Mitchell Tardy assured a legislative panel Friday there had been no quid pro
quo. “The company has not indicated that it is a necessity for Maine to do
business with the company in order for them to consider Maine as a potential
site,” said Mitchell. But he quickly added that CCA had said in previous
meetings with state officials that it “would potentially be useful for the
state to build a business relationship with CCA as part of a means to
encourage them to potentially locate in Maine.” The assertion that there was
no quid pro quo contradicted the statements of legislators and Milo town officials,
who recounted how the town’s lengthy courtship of the Tennessee-based
corporation stalled after the Legislature last session failed to enact a bill
from Gov. John Baldacci that would have facilitated Maine prisoner transfers
to private facilities. “Part of the reason that CCA didn’t want to come is
Maine had no prisoners going to them,” said Rep. Paul Davis, R-Sangerville.
Milo Town Manager Jeff Gahagan also stressed that CCA had backed off its plan
to build the prison because of Maine’s present policy barring transfer to
private prisons. CCA, the largest operator of private prisons in the United
States, has backed its interest in Maine with a $25,000 campaign contribution
to the Republican Governors’ Association in support of Paul LePage. In
December, as governor-elect, LePage met with CCA officials to indicate his
continued support of the prison plan. The discussion about CCA came at a
hearing Friday in front of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public
Safety Committee on a bill that would authorize the transfer of prisoners to
private facilities, removing what its sponsor described as a barrier to the
potential new prison in Milo. “This bill is about jobs for a town that
desperately needs them,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Douglas Thomas, R-Somerset,
who recited a litany of lost jobs in the paper, railroad, and shoe industries
in the hard-hit town. Thomas told committee members that Milo, which also
suffered a devastating downtown fire in 2008 and has an 11 percent
unemployment rate, desperately needs the jobs that the prison would provide.
“I get excited about $18-an-hour jobs in that area,” said Thomas. But Will
Towers, an official with the Maine correctional officers union, cautioned
that salaries at a Milo prison would likely start at much less than $18 an
hour. He said CCA prisons in Tennessee are paying $9 an hour. Activists,
religious leaders question prisons for profit The concept of private prisons,
and the record of CCA and other private prison companies, drew fire from
several speakers, including Marc Mutty,
representing the Roman Catholic bishop of Maine. “Prisoners do not lose their
humanity when they enter custody,” said Mutty.
“Private prisons create a moral question, and we are troubled that private
prisons in other states have cut staff to increase profits. There is an
incentive to incarcerate people for longer periods of time.”
February 15, 2011 Kennebec Journal
The Maine Senate today voted 34-0 to confirm Joseph Ponte to become the new
commissioner of the Department of Corrections. Ponte, 64, has spent more than
40 years in corrections, including 21 years with the Massachusetts Department
of Corrections and the last eight in private corrections with the Corrections
Corp. of America.
February 15, 2011 Maine Today
A legislative committee voted 10-2 Monday to endorse Gov. Paul LePage's
nominee to lead the state Department of Corrections. Joseph Ponte, 64, of
Pahrump, Nev., has worked in prison systems for 33 years. Most recently, he
worked for the private Corrections Corp. of America as a prison warden in
Nevada. The Massachusetts native told Criminal Justice and Public Safety
Committee members that he wants to return to New England to be nearer to his
family. Democrats said they were concerned that Ponte owns stock shares in
the Corrections Corp., the country's largest private-sector corrections
company. The company, which is represented by lobbyist and former Maine House
Minority Leader Josh Tardy, has said it might be interested in opening a
facility in Milo. The corporation also donated money to the Republican
Governors Association, which transferred the money to its Maine political
action committee. The PAC supported LePage. Ponte said Monday that if
confirmed by the Maine Senate, he will sell his shares in the company.
"If confirmed, I will divest myself of any stock holdings in CCA,"
he said. He also assured the committee that neither he nor LePage has any
interest in privatizing state jail or prison facilities. He emphasized that
the bulk of his career has been spent in public systems – including 21 years
in Massachusetts – and that he has been employed by CCA for only the past
eight years.
January 25, 2011 Maine Public Broadcasting Network
The governor's choice to run the state Department of Corrections is also
under scrutiny in Augusta. Veteran members of the Legislature's Criminal
Justice and Public Safety Committee have met privately with Joseph Ponte and
are expressing concerns over his ties to a private corporation that runs
prisons across the country. State Sen. Stan Gerzovsky
and Rep. Anne Haskell also take issue with some of the governor's sweeping
characterizations of Maine's corrections system. After accepting $25,000
dollars in contributions to his gubernatorial campaign from the Corrections
Corporation of America, Gov. Paul LePage relied on an interesting choice of
words as he described his professed goals for the state corrections
department: "I'm looking to take the politics out of our prisons,"
LePage said. In presenting Joseph Ponte as his choice to become the next state
corrections commissioner, LePage insisted there was no quid pro quo from a
corporation that donated to his campaign, and his nominee, who has spent the
last four years working as a warden with CCA, a company that has defended its
reputation against investigations into prisoner abuses and, in some
instances, prisoner deaths. State Rep. Anne Haskell, a Portland Democrat,
says Maine's corrections department has been remarkably unpolitical -- until
now. "The only political part of this has been the part where CCA is a
very politically active organization, and so I think the governor is bringing
it in--instead of removing it," Haskell says. LePage says the politics
he's referring to are rooted in the the high
turnover and burn-out rate among new corrections officers at the Maine State
Prison who are assigned the most difficult prisoners and undesirable shifts
as the result of policies negotiated with the officers' collective bargaining
units. "Those who have been there the longest get the sweet shifts, and
so we need someone that can go in there and take a look at it," he says.
"We've got to make it more equitable and fair for everyone, and I think
we'll have a better chance of keeping our personnel." But state Sen.
Stan Gerzofsky, a Brunswick Democrat, says the same employment policies that
the governor used when he managed the Mardens'
chain of salvage stores would likely apply to the state prison system as
well. "I would think that seniority--whether you're working for the
Maine State Prison System or Mardens--gives a
better choice on shifts and jobs that you're going to hold," Gerzofsky
says. The governor has also drawn attention for other comments about the
state correctional system. "You know, prisons should not be a country
club," he said yesterday. "I don't believe that we should have a
system where people look forward to going to." Gov. LePage says he
doesn't really know whether the Maine State Prison is a country club, but he
says that Maine's per capita expenses on its corrections system are among the
highest in the nation and that's a statistic he wants to change. State Rep.
Anne Haskell, a former chair of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety
Committee, says the per capita costs are driven by Maine's small population
and that as a percentage of its total budget, Maine ranks about 47th in the
nation on corrections spending. "I think it really reflects the fact
that the governor is early in his administration, without an opportunity to
having gone to the prisons and had a chance to talk with them, meet with them
and learn something about the finances there," Haskell says. Haskell
says she also has concerns about the fact that Joseph Ponte continues to hold
stock in his former employer, Corrections Corporation of America, and because
LePage has expressed interest in locating a private prison in Maine to hold
out-of-state inmates. Although LePage insists he has no interest in
privatizing the state's system, Haskell says there's a potential conflict due
to Ponte's investment holdings. "It stretches the imagination to think
that if we had a private facility here that the governor wouldn't be making
recommendations about whether or not this was a better model," Haskell
says. Haskell and Gerzofsky say they would be happier if Ponte agreed to
divest himself of CCA stock that he currently holds as part of his pension
package--an option that, for the moment, the nominee has stated he will not
consider. Haskell says the potential for conflicts for Ponte would be
significant should CCA locate in Maine.
December 15, 2010 Portland Phoenix
In the gubernatorial campaign the controversial Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA), the nation's largest for-profit prison operator, spent $25,000
on behalf of Republican candidate Paul LePage, now the governor-elect. The
money was given to the Republican Governors Association's Maine political
action committee, which spent heavily on LePage. No other Maine gubernatorial
candidate benefited from CCA money, campaign-finance reports reveal. Although
his transition office denies a link with the contribution, LePage has already
met in Augusta with CCA representatives — weeks before becoming governor. The
meeting breathed new life into the town of Milo's effort to lure CCA into
building a giant prison in that remote, impoverished Piscataquis County
community. Milo officials also met with LePage. The town manager, Jeff
Gahagan, says CCA officials have talked about a prison housing 2000 to 2400
inmates with 200 to 300 employees. If true, that would be an extraordinarily
small number of staff for such a large number of prisoners. The Maine State
Prison has just over 400 workers — most of them guards — to deal with just
over 900 prisoners. (CCA didn't respond by deadline to the Phoenix's
inquiries.) LePage also is looking into boarding Maine inmates in CCA prisons
out of state.
Maine Medical Center
Cumberland County, Maine
Correctional Medical Services
January 6, 2011 Portland Press Herald
A Buxton woman whose son died in the Cumberland County Jail two years ago has
filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the jail, its medical services
contractor and Maine Medical Center. Paul Victor Galambos III, 26, died on
Dec. 12, 2008, in a cell in the jail's medical unit. The lawsuit, filed by
Katherine Cady in federal court, alleges that the jail's medical staff failed
to properly treat Galambos for psychosis, and failed to protect him as he
battered himself against the floor, walls and toilet
in his cell over the course of three days. When Galambos was taken to Maine
Med on Dec. 10, 2008, he had a spinal fracture, rib fractures, bruises, head
injuries and excessive fluid around his right lung, according to the lawsuit.
He was returned to the jail the next day to await transportation to the state
psychiatric hospital in Augusta. He collapsed and died in his cell, from
blood clots that had developed in his legs as a result of
his injuries. The state Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death a suicide.
Over the next two years, Cady and her sister, attorney Linda Cady of
Yarmouth, gathered records and notes from Maine Med, the jail and
Correctional Medical Services Inc., the St. Louis-based contractor that has
provided health services at the jail since 2001. Based on those records, the
family contends that Galambos' death was foreseeable and preventable.
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